Comments on: Other People’s Responses to the fact that I am a Computer Science Major

By: carlos spicey wiener

carlos spicey wiener — Sat, 23 Apr 2011 03:15:47 +0000

everyone above me is a virgin

By: MTastatnhgew

MTastatnhgew — Wed, 26 Jan 2011 04:38:08 +0000

I know I’m one and a third years late, but he never said “I worked in computers”.

Also, “TL;DR”? Do you realize that your comment was longer?
Your contradictory comment was contradictory.

By: Gretgor

Gretgor — Mon, 26 Jul 2010 01:35:54 +0000

Why is it that mostly nobody ever thinks about academia in CS major courses?

By: Gretgor

Gretgor — Mon, 26 Jul 2010 01:32:13 +0000

Wrong.

There’s linguistics, phonetical study and so many other things…

By: Gretgor

Gretgor — Sat, 10 Jul 2010 01:49:31 +0000

You probably confused familiarly-sounding names. Algorithms are processes that transform and represent information, that’s the area of study of computer science. But, consequently, since computer science branched out from mathematics, algorithms are also known to be studied among the mathematical guild, except less in-depth.

By: Ron B

Ron B — Fri, 15 Jan 2010 05:22:02 +0000

Wow..at lease one that admits they program not repair..if only I could get our HR manager, IT manager,union rep to understand that CS majors are not techs..yet mininum requirement for a tech in our organization is CS

By: Shadowbane509

Shadowbane509 — Mon, 21 Dec 2009 02:32:31 +0000

I’m working on getting a PhD in either math or Paleontology, haven’t decided yet… But aren’t algorethisims in algebra?

By: GuyThatAgrees

GuyThatAgrees — Mon, 21 Dec 2009 02:31:18 +0000

Actually the lowest you would have to get as a REAL computer scientist is pseudocode. See Dijkstra.

By: GuyThatAgrees

GuyThatAgrees — Mon, 21 Dec 2009 02:29:40 +0000

Which is sad D:

By: GuyThatAgrees

GuyThatAgrees — Mon, 21 Dec 2009 02:28:15 +0000

I agree whole heartedly!

RIP Dijkstra.

By: GuyThatExplains

GuyThatExplains — Mon, 21 Dec 2009 02:27:32 +0000

There’s much more to computing science than just computers… Yeah, I have a lot of CS teachers that have no idea how to actually get things done with a real computer, all they know of is algorithms and data structures and more algorithms and more data structures and so on.

By: IgnoranceHurtsALOT

IgnoranceHurtsALOT — Mon, 21 Dec 2009 02:19:58 +0000

That was an extremely ignorant comment. What you’d rather do, not doing a major course at all? Many people are interested on it, and you’ll only actually end up on tech support if your university sucks.

There’s also the research area… You’re just a retard, probably the sort of idiot who goes around listening to Rap.

By: GuyThatAgrees

GuyThatAgrees — Sun, 20 Dec 2009 18:41:12 +0000

This is true. People think CS is the same as IT, they’re just DUMB.

Computer science is actual science, ellaborating and researching solutions to problems, studying the efficiency of algorithms and the computability of problems.

It’s really hard to actually make people understand the concept of computing as a science, I think we both should give up on that D:.

By: GuyThatAgrees

GuyThatAgrees — Sun, 20 Dec 2009 18:36:38 +0000

I agree.

By: Nis Jørgensen

Nis Jørgensen — Fri, 16 Oct 2009 09:03:06 +0000

For certain values of “real world”

By: Joshua

Joshua — Sat, 03 Oct 2009 17:59:28 +0000

If I had a nickle…

I get this all the time too, I’m not even a Computer major, I just spend a lot of time around them and happen to know more than everyone else in my family, so everyone always assumes I can fix it for them lol.

By: SoftwarePilot

SoftwarePilot — Tue, 29 Sep 2009 21:55:38 +0000

There are only 10 types of people, those who understand binary and those who don’t.

By: Acies

Acies — Mon, 28 Sep 2009 14:24:05 +0000

This doesn’t just happen to comp sci~ I’m a neurosci major..

i basically just get 10% “wow, that sounds hard” and 90% “so you’re a doctor? can you diagnose me?”

By: evan

evan — Sun, 27 Sep 2009 23:59:52 +0000

Haha we call that an ID: 10-T error otherwise known as IDIOT or IBCAK (Idiot between chair and keyboard) error… Honestly the number of times you ask someone to close the window, and waiting five minutes while they litterally CLOSE all the windows i the house FFS.

Yes i did CS major, and yes i did work IT support but i also programmed on a contract basis and to top it off i went for a MCITP/CCNA/A+ certification so spend most days fixing computers rather than putting the ole CS degree to work.

By: itemguy10

itemguy10 — Sun, 27 Sep 2009 19:05:12 +0000

Lol, That always happens to me.

By: Nate

Nate — Sun, 27 Sep 2009 07:10:58 +0000

Actually, Hexadecimal is much more useful than Binary when it comes to programming (or most computer work, for that matter). Leave binary to the processor, the lowest you should have to go is Assembly (which is just translating machine code, written in hex, into letters).

By: Jcrow

Jcrow — Sun, 27 Sep 2009 02:05:42 +0000

These reactions only include what they say to your face. You should hear what we say once your back is turned.

By: thatperson

thatperson — Sat, 26 Sep 2009 21:40:41 +0000

Yeah, 1s and 0s are obviously beyond me
I guess I’m just of those people that love nerds but know they will never ever understand them

By: that_other_person

that_other_person — Sat, 26 Sep 2009 15:57:34 +0000

10 = 2. Get it now? Guess where you fit in?

By: ethida

ethida — Sat, 26 Sep 2009 14:03:48 +0000

I’m a CS major and I definitely get the “I can’t go on the internet” or “I can’t find my downloaded file” or “I can’t open this file type” and “can you fix it” questions.

Since I’m an undergrad, I’d just refer them to a grad student who lived in the same building.

By: myself

myself — Sat, 26 Sep 2009 09:52:28 +0000

epic, just coughed up my breakfast

By: thatperson

thatperson — Fri, 25 Sep 2009 21:28:23 +0000

I don’t get it.

By: bernerbits

bernerbits — Fri, 25 Sep 2009 15:44:51 +0000

I used to get “welp, that’s where the money is” all the time. Because ya know, I do this for the money, not because I’m passionate about it.

Not so much anymore, though.

By: Muttdog

Muttdog — Fri, 25 Sep 2009 13:38:58 +0000

Heh heh… you think that’s bad…

“Oh, you’re a vet student? Can you fix my ______ ?” No, not only is that illegal as I’m not a registered vet, but I’m a first-year. Would you ask a first year med student to do anything at all to you?

Crazy people.

By: Meowth

Meowth — Fri, 25 Sep 2009 13:07:17 +0000

Duh… We know that, but we have to use what our customers ask for, no matter how many better options there are.

By: IgnoranceHurts

IgnoranceHurts — Fri, 25 Sep 2009 11:55:39 +0000

That’s ignorant on so many levels that I’m not even bothering to give you counter-arguments.

By: Bobnine

Bobnine — Fri, 25 Sep 2009 10:16:48 +0000

My response to people telling me they’re a CS major: “Want to work on a game mod with me?” Their response: “No, im to busy working at a tech support job I hate and not using my skills I learned at university.”

By: zarchasmpgmr

zarchasmpgmr — Fri, 25 Sep 2009 05:07:20 +0000

Any computer? Go try that on a mainframe. Oh, wait, we run Linux there as well.

And we had virtual machines 30 years before VMWare was even a glint in somebody’s brain.

CS and IT folks — learn your computer history. You’ll make some amazing discoveries.

By: lawl

lawl — Fri, 25 Sep 2009 00:14:31 +0000

AHH HA, butthurt loser is butthurt. “I worked in computers” means he had a job where he needed to use Word, Power Point and Excel once in a while and was inept at doing anything else. He was such a problem to the IT staff that they made fun of him, to his face about his stupidity. I’m guessing that you’ve been told you have a pebcak error many times, and believes it has something to do with his computer.

He then declared his eternal hatred for these people on the internet.

TL;DR: Loser got bullied by nerds, posts QQ reply.

inb4 attempt to counter-troll.

By: RBC

RBC — Thu, 24 Sep 2009 21:24:41 +0000

Men, is really clear that your anger comes from your own frustrated life. You should try to be less transparent…

By: Mina

Mina — Thu, 24 Sep 2009 19:53:46 +0000

Plus dealing with all the user error that everyone swears is an issue with the computer and not them screwing something up.

By: django

django — Thu, 24 Sep 2009 17:32:39 +0000

Yeah, those GeekSquad type services are surprisingly expensive (especially for businesses on contract), so even as a free-lance part-time IT admin you can find businesses that will jump on the chance to employ you at $30-$50+/hr if you can prove to them that you know what you are doing.

This is especially true for very small businesses that don’t think they need a full-time admin, and don’t want to pay $500+/mo to GeekSquad for some HS kid who they will have to explain their entire network/desktop/software/server setup to every time he comes in (because it will be a different kid every time…).

By: vlion

vlion — Thu, 24 Sep 2009 15:56:53 +0000

So true. These days, I quote the minimum price it costs to hire me: $35/hr. That shuts people up.

By: Sirisian

Sirisian — Thu, 24 Sep 2009 14:38:19 +0000

This is so true. I was just asked if I could fix someone’s computer last week. I should just print this on my business card.

By: Confoozled

Confoozled — Thu, 24 Sep 2009 13:51:34 +0000

My dad was a biochemist; when I was in elementary school and asked my mom what Daddy did (for some class project), I thought they were making it up.

By: Meowth

Meowth — Thu, 24 Sep 2009 13:31:12 +0000

But they still don’t fix the problem. I’ve seen bad RAM before. Not often, but it happens. All the live CDs in the world won’t replace a bad stick of RAM.

By: Meowth

Meowth — Thu, 24 Sep 2009 13:29:13 +0000

But is theworld.com not already a domain?

By: Steve

Steve — Thu, 24 Sep 2009 12:58:14 +0000

I am pretty sure there are more than 1 billion Indians already, so they are getting up there.

By: Meisterbrau

Meisterbrau — Thu, 24 Sep 2009 11:37:12 +0000

This graph is truth.
And there is one quote in this context, which should always be quoted:
“Computer Science is no more about computers than astronomy is about telescopes.”
See: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Edsger_W._Dijkstra

By: Starlinguk

Starlinguk — Thu, 24 Sep 2009 11:11:28 +0000

My other half has an MsC in computer science (working on a PhD) and she can NOT fix your computer.

I, on the other hand, have an MA in English Language and CAN fix your computer.

Life works in mysterious ways.

By: Student

Student — Thu, 24 Sep 2009 07:47:26 +0000

Mathematicians solve problems that have “real-world meaning” too. Don’t be so ignorant.

By: Exile

Exile — Thu, 24 Sep 2009 06:50:52 +0000

There’s not much else you can do with dentistry except fix teeth, either. To be fair.

By: Beth

Beth — Thu, 24 Sep 2009 06:00:55 +0000

Oh, what a stupid thing to say. None of us deserve to be pestered by near strangers about fixing their computers simply because of what we chose to study at university. Sure, we expect people to ask, but we don’t deserve that any more than med students would deserve having to perform free medical procedures on everyone they meet.

By: Programmer

Programmer — Thu, 24 Sep 2009 04:04:26 +0000

No, you are wrong. A CS major writes software, at least at entry level positions. There happen to be a few that go into Tech support, just as there are Psych majors that flip burgers.

The reason Indian programmers are contracted is because there is a SHORTAGE of cs graduates. I know this because I graduated with a CS major, and became a programmer, as did 90 % of the other CS graduates I know. Any other fields have those kinds of numbers in a recession?

And people don’t give IT enough respect. Trying to maintain a large network (hundreds of workstations, plenty of severs, routers, firewalls, etc) is not easy.

By: catgal

catgal — Thu, 24 Sep 2009 03:17:14 +0000

Yay, I’m a CS major, too!

I actually haven’t got the “can you fix my computer?” response too much. I’ve heard “Wow, cool. I’m really bad with computers” (or some variation) a lot more.