tdoggette

That's absurd. Knowing URL structure (or enough about it to figure out what site you're on) is something that is necessary to use the internet. Phishing scams are the obvious reason, but also for things like this where that little bit of knowledge make the difference between success and failure.

CanDo is grading software that tracks competency instead of percentages. Each student has a rating on various skills that the class is supposed to teach, something like "Familiar with basics." The top level is being able to teach the skill to others.

Though that project is now stagnating, there's still a mandate to explore that type of grading software from the state of Virginia.

(Incidentally, paying high schoolers to work on something practical is a great way to get them to learn.)

One example is the fake alert popup. You and I know that it's just an image in a small web browser window that is designed to look like an OS's alert, but that's a pretty sophisticated thing to be able to figure out.

2. Okay.

1) Receive information through web form or email

2) Print it out

3) Scan it in to document management system.

There are whole offices of people whose job it is to do this.

It includes such tidbits as "...people won’t be able to satisfy their computer curiosities. To which I again say: Good! Then they’ll have to satisfy their curiosities about emotional maturity and social interaction..." and that paragraph I cited above about obsessive-compulsive tendencies and an anti-social attitude.

It attacks the stereotypical perception of the nerd (especially the "hacker" type) while discussing the future of open versus closed computer systems. Who did you think your audience was? Furthermore, you end it with, "Only our chance to pontificate endlessly, to people who don’t think you’re as smart as your derogatory t-shirt claims." That's aimed pretty squarely at the group you're criticizing.

I really did enjoy reading it, and it was insightful and interesting. Whether or not it was aimed at the programmer audience, it's on a topic that's of interest largely to that audience, and it certainly seems as though it's designed to elicit a negative reaction. Calling it trolling might be an overstatement, but it makes many of its points through attacking a large portion of the people that are likely to read it.

The fact that he's pretty clearly trolling in the passage above doesn't make it less worth reading, as it does discuss some interesting points about how people use and learn about computers.

You'll be rich.