Last night, I went back to school.
The biggest change I noticed was how young most of the kids were, even in the night class at a school with a large population of returning students. Other than that, it didn't seem much different.
I had planned to sign up for Java Programming and Unix Systems Administration, but being low man on the totem pole, both of those classes were completely full by the time I was allowed to register. So I wound up in a Unix Systems Programming class, taught by the same instructor as the other two.
I'm still hoping to get into the other two, but failing that, taking this course will bump me a little higher in the pecking order for next semester's registration process. (Of course, since next semester starts in January or February, the world may have already come to an end and the whole thing will be moot.)
This course requires a knowledge of C, something I wouldn't generally claim to have. But, since it's just another 3GL, and I have worked with it a bit in the past, I'm not worried about that. My main problem with the course is that it is oriented towards systems programming and I'm more of an applications kind of guy.
Nonetheless, it should be interesting.
The professor is not quite a rabid Microsoft-hater, but pretty close. He spent a bit discussing his experiences in the real world with the reliability of Windows and *nix systems. WinNT didn't fair well.
At one point he mentioned that while *nix is a multi-user operating system, Windows NT is not. At this point, a genius in the back row piped up and said that in his experience, everything he's heard leads him to believe that NT is a multi-user OS.
Well, they went back and forth a bit, and the kid managed to mention that he worked for Macromedia (big deal, everyone needs their floors swept, right?) Eventually he shut up and we got on with things. I have to say that know-it-alls like that really annoy me. If he knew so gosh-darned much, why isn't he the one in front of the class?
Some people are convinced they don't need to learn, I guess, and just show up in class to see if they can catch the teacher's errors. Either that, or they're there for the student loans. Me, I hope to be learning 'til the day I die. Perhaps not necessarily in an organized class, but learning nonetheless.
The professor is very excited about Linux, since it has all the power and features of other Unix variations, without the price. It also runs on very low-end equipment, relatively speaking. He mentioned several times that you can download it from the internet for free, but never mentioned LinuxMall.
So, after class I went up to him and asked if he knew about LinuxMall.Com and explained that you can get the latest versions of just about any Linux distribution from them for less than $2. The caveats are, of course, that you get only the base CD (no manuals, no extra CD's) and you have to order completely on-line (no live humans, so it cost's LinuxMall less.) He was stoked.
I figured if he didn't know about LinuxMall, he probably didn't know about Slashdot either, since LinuxMall has been mentioned on Slashdot enough times. He was pretty happy to hear about that too. I think if it were solely up to him, I would be in his other classes for sure, but alas, there are procedures and rules that must be followed. Still, no one ever got a lower grade for being the teacher's pet.
Mind you, I'm not one of those annoying suck-ups that fawns over the instructor solely to get ahead. I merely think that there is no point in an antagonistic relationship with someone you are trying to learn from.
When I was in school, a lot of my friends saw the teacher as the enemy -- someone to be thwarted whenever possible. The professor was the one directly responisble for the students being stuck indoors listening to whatever boring subject the instructor happened to be droning on about.
But Robert Heinlein wrote a book (The Moon is a Harsh Mistress, I believe) wherein the protagonist was getting one-on-one instruction from an older professor. At some point, the student's knowledge and skills matched those of the professor. So he stopped charging and they continued learning together.
This is how I see education -- a partnership wherein one person offers their experience, skills, and knowledge to another. More often than not, I am the other, and I am extremely grateful to my exucational partners who are willing to share (generally for way too little compensation) their expertise with me.
Of course, not every subject was always of interest to me, and I did have some very antagonistic relationships with a few teachers, but most of the time I was willing to learn and was happy that they were willing to teach.
I was thinking about what to use for taking notes -- I hate writing, so pen and paper has never been an option for me. I could use my laptop, but the battery life is not up to three hours, and it's extremely noisy.
That leaves one of my other laptops, of which I do have a few. Probably the best option is the same one I used when I was in school before -- the Radio Shack model 100. Of course, this means I'll actually have to get off my butt and hook up a serial cable for file transfers and maybe even download the software from Club 100 that makes it easy to move files back and forth.
Anyway, here's hoping I make it into the Java and Admin classes!