The Classroom

4:14 AM

@BenI. Aye, Aye, Captain. Rapid it won't be, and "summarized" might be a misnomer in this case. Nevertheless, something will be posted there for the masses to eat like cake.

2 hours later…

A: What are the core concepts of discrete mathematics within CS?

5:47 AM

OOF! It is finished.

Not sure that it is a summary. Removing vertical white space from the source and from the answer it is 120 lines for the source and 59 lines for the answer. Remove the "Topic" listings from the source, and their line count drops to 55. So I took more to say what they said

In the search for a "core set of concepts that is discrete mathematics as it applies to the study of Computer Science," I kept finding nebulous ideas, without concrete parameters. There seems to be a general consensus that there is the need for a firm foundation in discrete mathematics when study...

8 hours later…

Hark! A question!

1:41 PM

Q: How can we best inform potential students of the nature of CS?

Recent questions deal with the problem of too many applicants to CS programs, both in High School and University. Yes, this is a problem when only a smaller number can be accommodated for reasons of resource availability. One of the easier issues to deal with is whether the student's past perform...

Stir the pot.

skull

what's cookin' doc?

:-)

Pasta with scallops, tonite, I think.

skull

sounds healthy

Yummy too.

skull

2:02 PM

bon appetit

2:29 PM

@GypsySpellweaver You were making my head swell with that answer. That's where I got my undergrad :)

1 hour later…

3:53 PM

@BenI. Then the reputation need no intro to you, and since it's your problem you ought to have a good opportunity to reconnect with your alma mater and get the update on the information for your project.

Q: What ideas you have to increase the number of software developers in a developing country?

4:43 PM

@ItamarG3 Triumphantly returns!

@GypsySpellweaver I hope you didn't mind all that rep. I mean, I know you're well beyond caring about such petty things, but I hope you didn't mind it. ;-)

Hark! A question!

Colombia is a developing country. One of his goals is to became an economy based on services, specially on technological services. If we want to achieve this goal, we need to increase our number of software developers. Do you have any idea? Thanks! :)

best-practice information-technology

I suspect it is off-topic, but it is also categorically different from anything we've ever dealt with before. Does it deserve a meta?

5:01 PM

@BenI. If you wish to open a meta on it, go for it. It may be a good topic to cover, but the post as it stands just seems too far from education.

The posting bot on the main site seems to be a bit sleepy. Updated posts take longer to appear now than I'm used to.

Q: Why is the availbality of SHA-2 not taught ot CS students in their first year?

@BenI. I don't mind the rep - either way. I have enough points to do my part to help the site, so more points serve little purpose. OTOH, I do like votes. My primary purpose is to help people. Votes, more or less, serve as a compass for the "usefulness" of my posts. An "accept" indicates, in my little mind, that at least one user found the post, not only "good", but "helpful."

Hark! A question!

5:16 PM

When discussing Hash Functions and Hash Tables, collisions are brought up and how poor hash functions can lead to many collisions for a large input, and the techniques for resolving them such as linear probing or separate chaining etc. However, they do not mention, at least at the end, that we al...

lesson-ideas

@Hark!Aquestion! Not my world, but an interesting question, if true.

Though, who covers hashing in the first course??

It's not about hashing. It is about SHA-2. Hashing is covered for hash maps but simpler solutions are used. The writer is confusing things.

The OP wants to proselytize, methinks, not ask a question.

5:35 PM

@Buffy I'm not an expert, but I think that if anyone ever does invent a "perfect" (proven collision free) hash function, then that function will have zero value in crypto. If there is a strict 1:1 correlation between input and output, then given the output it's possible to find the input.

@GypsySpellweaver They exist, of course. en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Perfect_hash_function, but are used for constructing hash maps, not crypto.

I haven't studied it, but the inverse of a perfect hash map might be infeasible to compute. What is possible and what is feasible aren't the same. That is the same error that the OP makes here.

In particular, computing the inverse might require knowing the hash of a large fraction of potential keys. That itself is problematic.

It could be infeasible both in time and in space. But like I say, I haven't studied it.

In re the post: I don't like it. One, it asks "why?" Two, it does seem like a soapbox is being built. It's just as useful to ask why Machine Learning and Quantum Computing aren't taught in first-year programming courses.

OP is also not listening or understanding.