The phpBB Podcast

Date: September 25, 2006
Time: at 10:36 pm
Posted in: in open source, phpbb, podcast
Comments: Comments (1)

Today we officially launch the phpBB Podcast featuring, Micheal Cottingham (Techie-Micheal), Brian Rose (Heimidal), David Smith (smithy_dll), and Edward Lang (Anon), and, of course, yours truely, myself, Adam Reyher.

Please NOTE: This podcast is unofficial. It is simply done by phpBB Team Members. It is not officially endorced by The phpBB Group.

The purpose of the podcast is for you to hear directly from us on the phpBB teams and hear news in the phpBB world, discussions about phpBB, support issues, MODs, styles, ect. Pretty much anything in the phpBB world.

So check out the podcast, and spread it around! Let’s make it popular!

Is technology becoming too widespread?

Date: September 12, 2006
Time: at 11:13 pm
Posted in: in future, technology
Comments: Comments (2)

This idea was brought on by some problems that I encountered in my Calculus class. The teacher does the normal in class lecture, gives tons of examples, is very good at explaining concepts and answering any/all questions. Overall, an aboslutly excellent teacher.

But she insists on using a web-based homework system. Basically, you create the account, select your school, class, and teacher, and off you go with premade questions by this third-party mathematics site (which will go unnamed at this point). Not only is this completely moving away from the typical homework that I’m so used to, but it brings up other complications.

For one thing, this paticular website accepts one answer, and one answer only. Basically, everything has to be perfect or you’re out of luck. No accidental typos, no improper forms, nothing. In the past, my teachers graded my homework with common sense. I could make a simple mistake and lose a point or two–half credit or one-forth credit. All my math teachers in the past have accepted square roots in the denominator of a rational. Not this online system.

Now, I don’t have too much of a problem with this since it is proper mathematical notation. However, what about when the server goes offline the night before everything is due? Yes, that is, indeed, what I’m faced with at this very moment. The server is down and I can’t get in to finish some last minute stuff which I otherwise had plenty of time to do.

Regardless, I’m a bit frustrated at this point. But it brought up an interesting point. As you all are probably aware, I’m a major advocate for technology and technological improvements. But is there a point where it hurts more than it helps? That’s the question at hand.

In all honesty, yes. I don’t care how well you program a computer. It still will never be able to use common sense or know for a “fact” what you meant to do. It’s not able to make decisions based on this logic. This doesn’t apply to just homework grading, though, but to every area. Computers in cars making decisions for us? Medical computers? The list goes on and on.

All in all, why can’t we just use old-school techniques which are just efficient that have been used for hundreds of years? I like writing and seeing stuff on paper. Always have, always will.