Can we continue this discussion in the Social list now please, I would set the reply to header but pine is being a POS today (another reason to go back to mutt)

I am not an authority on this either and could someone please correct me if I am wrong but I think people should only be using the main@lists.alug.org.uk address as the uea one is no longer supported?

Anyway on with my reply :)

On Sat, 15 Sep 2001, Mills wrote:

Hiring English or Philosophy graduates instead of CS is wrong, and disgusting. CS students are interested in computers and therefore their work. They also have more knowledge about computers and have a personality profile that is better for doing programming. It sounds as

No, you don't choose who you employ just because they have a degree in that subject, you employ the best person for the job. I have met people who can do things with computers far better than most of those with a CS degree, just having a degree does not necessarily make you the best person for the job, getting a degree in CS obviously helps though if you want to work in computing.

skills. Mr Mankin attacks universities but uses Linux, a clone of UNIX which is an OS made popular by it's use in universities. Linus was a CS student himself. So what happens to CS students who have worked at zero pay for several years including weeks of 50+ hours, they are, in your view, supposed to accept the dole queue.

Universities are great places for people to go and study and learn, I am sure Mr Mankin does accept that universities can be good for learning.

Also your comment about Linus and Linux shows you know very little about the early days of Linux. Linus had many arguments with his course teacher about OS design and also had a flame war (resolved a long time ago) with Andrew Tanenbaum (if you don't know who he is then google is your friend) which shows that elements of the academic community were actually against Linux at one point, indeed many parts of the academic world of OS design are still against the Linux approach to doing things.

I also know of people who have gone to university who are really good programmers etc. but they have gone there to study subjects such as art or law or some unrelated discipline. The reasoning being that if they already know the subject really well then they would be better off becoming multi-talented.

I know that if i was to go to university in the future (a distinct probability) that there would be no way I would consider studying computing, I already know enough about computing I would want to learn something different that I could put my computing knowledge into to enhance.

Please apologize or action may be taken.

?

Adam