In the process of sorting through archives and old stuff, I found a collection of sticky notes that colleagues and I used five years ago to evaluate students at EPITA. These were oral examinations with no computer, only pen and paper or whiteboard. As I am recycling the paper, here is the transcript for archival.

• each page of the Unix User Manual belongs to one of its sections. Give the title of each of the first three sections.
• given two C++ strings s1 and s2 representing two large numbers expressed in base b (each character is a digit), write an algorithm that returns the sum (as a C++ string of digits) expressed also in base b.
• what is the canonical mode for a terminal? Explain.
• SIGKILL and SIGSEGV excluded, give the name of 5 signals, their meaning and their use(s).
• %d, %i and %x excluded, give 5 distinct printf format conversion specifiers.
• give 6 gcc options and explain them. Only the options properly explained are accepted.
• give the library function names and data types involved in reading a Unix directory.
• given a make macro named SRC defined to an arbitrary list of Texinfo file names (e.g. SRC = foo.texi bar.texi ...), write a Makefile which creates PostScript and PDF output for these sources, using commands texi2dvi, texi2pdf and dvips.
• given a 2D character array (dimensions W and H) with each cell set to X or O, representing respectively ground and water (it's a map), write an algorithm which takes the coordinates of two points and which returns true if and only if one can swim from one point to the other.
• write an algorithm which takes two strings as input and returns true/false according to whether the two strings are anagrams of each other (e.g. abc/bca -> true, aab/bba -> false).
• given an array of zeros and ones, write an algorithm that returns the index in the array which maximizes the sum of the number of zeros on the left and the number of ones on the right (e.g. 001101 -> 2).
• given the expression printf(1["foo"]), comment.
• given a sorted integer sequence s and an integer n, write an algorithm which returns the value in s which is closest to n.
• write an algorithm which takes a string representing an arithmetic expression as input and which returns true if and only if parentheses are properly balanced.
• write an algorithm which takes a character string as input and returns the character with the most occurrences.
• given a 2D character array (dimensions W and H) with each cell set to X or O, representing respectively ground and water (it's a map), write an algorithm which returns the sum of the lengths of the coasts. Each cell side counts for 1.
• given a directed graph structure G, an operator V which for a given graph returns the set of nodes, and an operator T which for a given node n returns the set of nodes accessible from n, write an algorithm which takes a graph as input and returns true if and only if the graph contains cycles.
• to establish a connection with a client, a TCP server on Unix must call four library functions; give their name and the call order.

1. surprise, curiousity: “oh, you can speak Dutch? How nice!” Hidden meaning: it's surprising; unusual for foreigners to be interested in our language; but I really can't understand a word of what you're saying.
2. condescension: replying in English. Hidden meaning: ok, you've shown you can make yourself understood, now stop annoying us with your broken grammar and unusual vocabulary, let's switch back to English please!
3. tolerance: “ik vind je franse accent écht mooi!” Hidden meaning: we can communicate well, but remember that you're still a foreigner.

What's next?

... as an annotation in issue #1845 of Irregular WebComic!.

As a fan of Hofstadter I recognize that this explanation work is truly a mastery of pedagogy. It introduces Gödel's theorem and its impact smoothly and clearly, making it understandable to anyone with a basic understanding of science.

Instead of watching Discovery Channel, read the Irregular WebComic!

Only inertia and prejudice, not economics nor the lack of good educational ideas, stand in the way of providing every child in the world with the kind of experience of which we have tried to give you some glimpse.

Seymour Papert (also on wikipedia) & Cynthia Solomon, Twenty things to do with a computer, MIT A.I. memo nr 248, June 1971

Today the read box from irrepressible.info was quoting a paragraph from the Iranian Gay & Lesbian Healthcare Providers Association; this prompted me to discover more about this group, and I read some of their articles.

In one of them the following sentence rung a bell:

My family, like most Iranian families, centered on worrying about people's judgment. I learned from my family that my purpose of life was to earn people's respect by becoming educated and successful. Provoking envy in people meant I was on the right track. — Dr. Payam Ghassemlou

This idea disturbs me, for it describes accurately some of the feelings I have now about the way I was educated — although I have no (known) Iranian origins.

This accurate match does not seem to fit with the idea that the driving line of thought behind my education was socialism, not Islam. So I was told.

Or does it?

There are several ways to describe socialism; the following is relevant:

Socialism as a political system of communal ownership: a political theory or system in which the means of production and distribution are controlled by the people and operated according to equity and fairness rather than market principles — Microsoft Encarta

This raises the question of who decides what is equity and fairness. If I understand correctly, that would be the very same people who decide how to redistribute the wealth. Threfore, assuming that attribution of wealth to a person is decided not based on their innate capabilities but rather by their perception by society as a group, the way to attract (more) wealth to a specific person is to ensure that they are judged positively by society.

There we are. Islamism and socialism as backgrounds for family life have different goals, but some of their effects on the education of the young are the same — namely, preventing the blooming of children when it doesn't lead to "success" as defined by society.

I once thought that all families were doing that. How naive.

Theory: command officers on a war ship often operate from their desk with no visibility on the outside of the ship.

I believe this theory is true. Otherwise I could not explain this:

Theory: people without education are perfect material for dictatorship.

Proof:

It is taking more than fifteen hours to my ears to recover from the trauma they experienced yesterday evening. That is already eight hours more than usual, although I stayed there for only three hours. I spent the whole morning brooding over whether I should attend Trance Energy next month or not, given my increased hearing sensitivity — depending on how I feel tonight, I may also consider taking an appointment with my doctor.

I guess that's what it takes to grow older.

Now, despite my hearing disability, I indulged myself in listening to a nearby conversation from my cubicle a few hours ago. The conversation involved my manager, some colleagues and someone I did not know who paid our office a visit together with his wife and baby. Although it strikes me that the only colleagues actually moving from their cubicle to join the group were those with newly born children (herd behavior?), I will not comment that part and rather focus on the part of the conversation where one participant warns the parents of the future they are facing.

In short, he was describing how his teenage girl (early teens) already asked him if she could sleep over at her boyfriend's; a request that he denied, of course.

The absence of additional comments from his part or any questions from the group left me wondering what was so obvious and commonly agreed that could justify denying the request. Many explanations started to grow in my fertile imagination, and unfortunately they were prematurely aborted. Here are samples:

• he fears that the she would become pregnant. That would be only if he think she's stupid, and if he didn't already take care of explaining to her how to use pills. Quite unlikely.
• he fears that she would have sex. I'm quite sure he's not naive. That couldn't be it.
• he fears that she would lose her virginity. The culture does not match.

That made me wonder what would happen if she asked him if she could sleep over at her girlfriend's instead. Or with clothes on.

The most likely reasons I could find were that:

• he thinks that letting her would be socially unacceptable.
• he wants to control her life.
• he does not like her boyfriend.

I am not sure I like the impression these possible explanations give me of the beliefs and value sytems of the people attending that conversation. I hope I'm wrong and I'm missing something.