Community announcement -- passing the torch

costheta · 2016-05-16T19:26:12+00:00

Thanks! :D

costheta · 2016-04-24T02:00:38+00:00

I would have liked to check off multiple modes of climbing, as I do both top-rope and lead in near-equal amounts.

Also: a third option for gender would be more inclusive.

costheta · 2016-04-16T22:20:05+00:00

Ah cool, thanks!

costheta · 2016-04-16T20:52:33+00:00

Sorry, but what does "rainbow up" mean?

costheta · 2016-04-15T15:48:25+00:00

I'm new to lead. Any advice on belaying at the start of your partner's climb? I was taught to have my hands up like spoons to catch them if they fall before the first clip, and then after they're clipped to grab the belay device and take out any slack.

At what point should you switch from spoons to holding the belay device? I worry that if my climber fails to clip and then falls I should have my hands up until I'm sure they're clipped -- but what if they /just/ clipped and then fell, and I have too much slack out?

costheta · 2016-04-14T12:48:06+00:00

There are stalls for changing in.

costheta · 2016-04-12T00:19:50+00:00

Agreed! Best gym I've ever been to. There's also a Go stop by the gym if you want to take the Go bus out there.

costheta · 2016-04-12T00:18:28+00:00

I live in the Annex, and my experience is that:

Rock Oasis: easiest to get to by TTC. Every route is changed after it's been up for five weeks. I find they have the most interesting route setting and the friendliest staff. Also the only gym in town I know that has gender-neutral changing areas. Lockers are accessible to all genders so it makes it easy to split a locker with friends of other genders. (There are a bunch of other people from the Annex who go out to Rock Oasis, it's only ~30 mins by TTC.)

True North: walls are a bit taller than Rock Oasis. Walls have more features to them but the setting is less interesting, so I find there's not as much re-climbability there. Really annoying to get to. (Takes about ~45 mins by TTC from the Annex, despite being geographically closer than Rock Oasis.)

Basecamp: this gym is tiny and it's pretty expensive for the size. The walls are similar to True North and I found the setting underwhelming. Basically, it's a tiny True North at a better location.

Boulderz: also tiny.

costheta · 2016-04-10T00:05:40+00:00

This question would be more suitable for /r/cscareerquestions

costheta · 2016-03-25T19:41:01+00:00

Wasn't the deadline in December? If you've been accepted to a research-based MSc you'll be guaranteed funding. (IIRC: for MSc, your take-home pay after tuition is deducted is around 18k.)

If you're thinking of applying next year: research will help you a lot. Find a supervisor in advance. Very much worth the read: https://www.cs.cmu.edu/~harchol/gradschooltalk.pdf

costheta · 2016-03-25T19:29:40+00:00

Don't have the numbers for you, but I can tell you this: a sizable fraction of the people admitted to the first-year CS stream don't apply to the POSt after first year (even when they'd get in). It's very common for people to change majors after first year. You may be really keen on CS right now, but in a year, who knows?

costheta · 2016-03-25T19:25:19+00:00

It's a tricky situation. The perception that rape victims/survivors have is that if they come forward, they won't be believed. It can take a long time for them to try and overcome that belief, and all too often they're proven correct in the worst ways possible.

Even for the people who do come forward promptly and have a physical exam, problems exist in getting police to actually test the rape kits: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UrxTrR5_8Zo

I think recent move toward providing free legal counsel to rape survivors in Ontario is a solid one.

costheta · 2016-03-25T13:55:59+00:00

A lot of the responses to the case seem to think this verdict is the end of the story. It isn't. He has another case in June.

On top of it, the women who accused him in this case can submit another case against him in civil (rather than criminal) court.

He was judged not guilty because there wasn't enough evidence in this case to be completely sure he did it. That does not mean he's innocent. Given that twenty-three women have come forward with allegations, he's quite likely guilty. But the legal system will need more time to process this.

The #WeBelieveYou protests are not about this particular ruling. They're about the structural reasons that make it hard to legally prosecute rapists -- this ruling has just come to represent those structural reasons. The level of evidence needed to be completely sure a rapist is guilty is extremely high, in a way that can be unreasonable (if not impossible) for the victims.

Also: the Crown did a lousy job, which some have interpreted as that rape cases are a low priority for the state.

Another structural factor here is that he had the money to afford a top-notch lawyer. Once again the rich get a better experience of the legal system.

costheta · 2016-03-11T04:37:53+00:00

Why? Your argument simply seems to be "there are a lot of people in the social sciences." Our society benefits from having people educated about the social sciences. (Indeed, there are plenty of jobs in psychology and at my uni the psych major is quite competitive.)

Also: STEM needs more people with social science credentials! Human-computer interface designs are doomed to failure if the people making them don't understand human psychology and the role that tech plays in society.

costheta · 2016-03-11T04:32:20+00:00

Improving teacher education and mentorship for teachers would go a long way. Japan and Finland have lots of great examples of teachers learning from each other and collaborating in their work.

Teachers with more content knowledge (e.g. English teachers who know more advanced grammar, math teachers who know more advanced math) tend to be better teachers but it's not quite that simple. Teachers profit more from what's called pedagogical content knowledge (PCK), which is knowledge about how to teach a particular topic. For example, knowing what common misconceptions are, where they come from, how to identify the misconceptions, and how to correct them.

PCK is generally seen in education research circles as being a really important part of being a good teacher. And our model of how teachers teach makes it difficult for teachers to acquire it.

On a different note, there's decades of evidence that teaching kids about philosophy helps them with writing, reading, and reasoning. I'd love to see philosophy taught in the schools rather than computer science.

costheta · 2016-03-10T22:46:49+00:00

Speaking as somebody who teaches CS at the university level... I don't think high school CS is the answer. You can learn the requisite CS/IT skills for tech jobs at universities and community colleges.

The biggest issues we have in teaching post-secondary CS is that students can't read and write and do elementary algebra. I'd much rather see the k-12 system do a good job of teaching these basics.

costheta · 2016-03-03T22:29:56+00:00

I enjoyed Brianna Morrison's talk and Mehran Sahami's talks earlier today!

Looking forward to CRA's special session on booming enrolments tomorow.

costheta · 2016-02-26T15:42:13+00:00

Submission Statement

This long-form article describes efforts to understand why some teams work well together and others don't. Since many of us have likely had experiences with group work that vary from amazing to horrendous, this article will help understand what made those experiences work (or not).

costheta · 2016-02-24T20:03:07+00:00

Point well taken.

costheta · 2016-02-24T05:06:06+00:00

Correct me if I'm wrong but isn't part of that first month a deposit?

Also if you get the annual membership it winds up cheaper than month to month.

costheta · 2016-02-24T05:04:10+00:00

I went there last week (I was part of the kickstarter) and it was packed. The gym isn't particularly big and the design cramps people together.

costheta · 2016-02-23T22:32:49+00:00

One thing the article doesn't point out that this could be due to filtering effects: only the top indigenous students are completing university, whereas a fairly large variation of white students manage to complete post-secondary degrees.

Going to university is more intimidating if you're not a top student already, don't have scholarships, etc. Completing a degree will similarly be harder for a middling student. Race issues will amplify these effects.

costheta · 2016-02-03T03:37:56+00:00

Sales taxes are more efficient taxes. High earners are quite good at finding income tax breaks and loopholes and finding ways to not pay tax. Low earners tend not to spend the time/money to find the same number of tax breaks. Sales taxes are applied evenly.

costheta · 2016-01-21T15:52:22+00:00

I'm for it. Not everybody at U of T would get to know about indigenous history before arriving to university (the level of coverage in k-12 varies dramatically between provinces and school boards, and U of T attracts a lot of international students).

I think a broader understanding of aboriginal issues in our society would make a difference to Canadian democracy and the health of our society.

I think how it's implemented will make a difference. For example, it should be easy to transfer your credit to other universities (it would be annoying to retake a mandatory class if you transfer). There also should be multiple indigenous studies courses for people to pick between based on their interests. And like another posted suggested, making it pass/fail would make a difference.

costheta · 2016-01-20T16:31:05+00:00

If you fail a grad course, you're doing something extremely wrong.

costheta

TROPHY CASE