Fake news is not the problem. The filter bubble/echo chamber is.
Posts by Ryan.T.Student
19 publicly visible posts • joined 22 Jul 2016
Facebook Fake News won it for Trump? That's a Zombie theory
Google may just have silently snuffed the tablet computer
Android Studio 2.2 debuts
Want a Windows 10 update? Don't go to Microsoft ... please
Russia is planning to use airships as part of a $240bn transport project
Hello, Barclays? Why hello, John Smith. We meet again
Re: Not impressed with Barclays
Barclays are absolute scum. My local branch replaced all their humans with some absolutely crappy machines. Thing is I'll trust a machine to scan my groceries, or to withdraw cash, but to do anything more complicated? No f*cking way. And if you want to talk to a person to do something instead the staff get really arsey about it. Terrible customer service, terrible bank.
Survey for my MSc Project - app developers help please?

Survey for my MSc Project - app developers help please?
Hi all,
Apologies for what may look like a bit of a spammy thing. I'm a long time lurker, first time poster, and currently completing an MSc in Computer Science. For a project I'm presently working on as part of that MSc, I need to gather some opinions from app developers regarding their experiences with the rating system and supporting users.
There are 20 questions, you're free to answer whichever ones you want, but of course I'd be grateful if you can answer as many as you can. It's not enormously mobile-friendly so I'd recommend doing this at a PC. I've made a point of keeping it very lightweight with only a tiny CSS file, no javascript and no images, so it won't cause any privacy issues nor use unnecessary resources on your machine. It does use a session to carry information from page 1 to page 2, but that's it. That session does of course necessitate use of a cookie.
http://www.koalasoftware.co.uk/msc/
Apologies for the stupid domain, it's the only space I had available to put PHP form on. Thank you very much in advance for any help anyone is willing to offer. I'll be accepting new data up til 7th August 2016.
Ryan
PS apologies if this isn't the best place to post this
UK employers still reluctant to hire recent CompSci grads
Nah it's a 2 year one if full-time, I'm doing it part time as work plus that would be a bit much so 3 years for me. Your description does however do rather a good job of covering my MSc. Lots of breadth, no depth, very little academic rigor, I mean one test I managed to get 97% on for something I'd never studied before (we had 10 topics to choose from and the best 3 scores would count so I figured I'd do the ones I hadn't studied as well, just for the crack). Trust me, I'm not thick but I'm not 97% without studying smart.
Re: skills shortages
I would agree that the skills list in job ads these days is getting fairly ludicrous. I remember the days when knowing your way around PHP, MySQL, HTML, CSS and Javascript was sufficient and you could earn decent money doing that. Not now. I think the barriers to entry for newbies is much higher than it was, given that I got into the business back in 2000 off the back of a few little web projects and a failed HND in computing. [note that I'm now doing somewhat cooler and more advanced stuff]
You're spot on with this.
I'm presently doing an MSc in Computer Science, and you'd think that would be a bit more hard-core. It's really not. Ok I've got 16 years time served in the industry but still, I shouldn't be finding it this easy. If the MSc is this easy how easy is a degree these days?
You're right about the state of education in schools too. I worked as a teaching assistant at a school for a while (long story) and throughout the school there was so much blatant cheating because the school had to hit targets. Other TAs were basically doing the work for the kids when they were perfectly capable but just couldn't be arsed. Of course it didn't help that the curriculum itself bored even me to tears let alone the kids. Every lesson in every subject started "Now listen up because this might be in your exams". Schools are exam factories, doing nothing to light a fire under students, create a passion for learning or for their subject. It's shameful, it really is :(
Free Windows 10 upgrade: Time is running out – should you do it?
Sky / No Mans Sky
Selfie-proof smartmobes will hit stores for Christmas
Forget your RTO*: Real world Disaster Recovery needs garbage bags and bubble wrap
Jeremy Corbyn Brexit and the Chilcot Report
I'm a bit disappointed really, I'm fairly socialist and had considered Corbyn to be a good thing up til recently, I also voted out, and no I'm not a foaming-at-the-mouth-Daily-Mail-reading-racist type. However, I found Corbyn somewhat disingenuous. He claimed to be pro-EU but didn't exactly campaign for it with vigour. For me, while my 'side' 'won', the manner of the victory is tainted by the feeling that perhaps Corbyn sabotaged remain somewhat.
Self Driving cars
As a bit of a petrolhead, sometime trackday enthusiast etc, I can see the value in this because frankly driving on public roads just isn't fun. On the other hand, it does rather spell the end of competitive motor racing (though some could argue that Bernie has already killed it) as we'll have fewer petrolheads as cars become commoditised. That's a bad thing.