8 ms·

I got my degree through Email (1997)

35 points by pedrodelfino 6y ago

DavidVoid 6y ago
I wish the prefix cyber- would become popular again. "Cybercourses" sounds much more interesting than "online courses"
- numlock86 6y ago
  The prefix is pretty popular, but has a negative feeling with it, as it usually comes as either "cyber bullying" or "cyber crime" lately.
  - homero 6y ago
    Well there's a cybertruck now
    - numlock86 6y ago
      Yes, and part of the bad initial media responses (not regarding the cracked glass of course) were in regard to that name.
  - tonyarkles 6y ago
    I'm laughing a bit. I agree the the parent that it's a great prefix to make things sound fun and exciting online, but I could do with less talk about "cyber-security". I suspect it has to do with the people who say it the most in meetings are the people who know the least about what it actually means? Kind of like an anti-shibboleth.
- nix23 6y ago
  You should listen to German Politicians, they use it all the time to describe "The Internet", cyber here cyber there :)
- mikorym 6y ago
  On HN, no less, someone told me that a cracker is fireworks. And that a Hacker is a Black Hat. The person sounded nice and law abiding... So my only question at this point is why they read "Hacker" News.
  - mikorym 6y ago
    As an aside, congratulations for finding an actual news article on Forbes in 2020! Looks like that's the part of forbes.com that is useful.
- phreack 6y ago
  Weirdly enough, in many Spanish speaking countries the word that took over 'cyber' was cyber-coffee, as in the place where you'd pay to use a computer for an hour, and is what most people think of if you just say 'the cyber'.
- znpy 6y ago
  C Y B E R
- Frost1x 6y ago
  The problem with 'cyber' is that it's a recycled tech term. It was popular many decades ago and when you start slapping old technology labels/phrases on new technologies, people tend to reject them. With that said, the US government uses cyber for a lot of labels now. Obviously security but outside of security as well.
  - drdeadringer 6y ago
    > the US government uses cyber for a lot of labels now Might that be because, or influenced by, the notion that government is inherently slow in some respects? Government could've just not stopped using "cyber" as a prefix whilst most of the world moved on.
danesparza 6y ago
Strangely, I recently got my degree IN email. I have a bachelors in electronic mail communications. With a minor in instant messaging.
- itsspring 6y ago
  I've never seen that degree program. Where is it offered?
  - deleted 6y ago
    [deleted]
- hanniabu 6y ago
  > With a minor in instant messaging. That's a real thing?
  - deleted 6y ago
    [deleted]
- jolmg 6y ago
  What were the more interesting things that it covered? I have a hard time imagining it going beyond what one can find in RFCs.
  - danesparza 6y ago
    This is a joke, sorry. And apparently a poor one. :-)
    - jolmg 6y ago
      Well, you know, since there's Social Media degrees nowadays, a degree in E-Mail isn't really that outlandish as it would have been some years ago. :P
tyingq 6y ago
I'm a bit sad that the University of Phoenix was used as the example. They just settled for $191 million with the FTC at the end of last year for various scummy practices.
hpoe 6y ago
So I went to Western Governers University it is an all online school that is a nonprofit founded by a consortium of Governers in the late 90's and it is one of the best things ever. The entire school is competency based and self paced so if you can prove you know the material either after 1 week in a class or after 3 months. Boom credit given. This was a good send since I was already working in the IT field. The other huge advantage it gave was that you pay for a 6 month semester and can finish as many courses as you want for a flat rate. And it wasn't just a skills course I was required to do generals and all that as well. Really I will never understand doing it the other way with capricious professors, unending busy work, huge loans, living in a crappy apartment next to campus. The list goes on and on. If more schools modeled themselves after WGU the brick and mortar college would be on life support in a generation.
- dangus 6y ago
  The WGU concept is great, but it also only really works for that intended audience of professionals already in the field, sometimes only getting a degree to satisfy some arbitrary requirement (e.g. I knew two people who went to WGU because they worked somewhere that required a masters degree to be any sort of manager - they were already a shoe-in but needed the piece of paper). In effect, WGU was not there to teach them anything new. All the negatives of four year college that you mentioned (besides the loans) are all positives for someone just leaving high school. The on-campus experience of living in a crappy dorm/apartment with peers is a formative social experience that results in lifelong friendships for many college students. The whole point is to live away from parents in a transitional environment. It’s just plain fun to live in a dilapidated house with 5 friends. On-campus college is a good measure of priceless juvenile fun combined with a lot of intermingling with people who aren’t necessarily just like you compared to more homogeneous high schools and your parents’ own sheltering. I think this is absolutely valuable to expanding your horizons, which also includes studying elective subjects not part of your direct major (for me, that was film history and geology, and I remember those courses more vividly than many of my required engineering courses). Self-learning is irrelevant to someone with no professional experience. I don’t really see how I would have self-learned subjects like differential equations without in-person office hours and lessons with the ability to raise your hand and ask a question. Physical in-person labs in science and electrical engineering were important aspects of my degree, while a liberal arts student might have had an in-person discussion, performance, or live presentation. I also got access to a physical campus library that blew away the local library in my hometown: seven floors of books in endless subjects, more videos than the local Blockbuster. Maybe that’s less relevant in 2020 but the library was also a destination for studying. I was lucky enough to not end up with significant loans after my four year school (about $12,000). But I think I’d have taken on up to $50,000, heck, maybe $75,000 to get that experience, if the alternative would have been sitting in my bedroom on a computer for four years.

35 points by pedrodelfino 6y ago

DavidVoid 6y ago

I wish the prefix cyber- would become popular again. "Cybercourses" sounds much more interesting than "online courses"

numlock86 6y ago
The prefix is pretty popular, but has a negative feeling with it, as it usually comes as either "cyber bullying" or "cyber crime" lately.
- homero 6y ago
  Well there's a cybertruck now
  - numlock86 6y ago
    Yes, and part of the bad initial media responses (not regarding the cracked glass of course) were in regard to that name.
- tonyarkles 6y ago
  I'm laughing a bit. I agree the the parent that it's a great prefix to make things sound fun and exciting online, but I could do with less talk about "cyber-security". I suspect it has to do with the people who say it the most in meetings are the people who know the least about what it actually means? Kind of like an anti-shibboleth.
nix23 6y ago
You should listen to German Politicians, they use it all the time to describe "The Internet", cyber here cyber there :)
mikorym 6y ago
On HN, no less, someone told me that a cracker is fireworks. And that a Hacker is a Black Hat. The person sounded nice and law abiding... So my only question at this point is why they read "Hacker" News.
- mikorym 6y ago
  As an aside, congratulations for finding an actual news article on Forbes in 2020! Looks like that's the part of forbes.com that is useful.
phreack 6y ago
Weirdly enough, in many Spanish speaking countries the word that took over 'cyber' was cyber-coffee, as in the place where you'd pay to use a computer for an hour, and is what most people think of if you just say 'the cyber'.
znpy 6y ago
C Y B E R
Frost1x 6y ago
The problem with 'cyber' is that it's a recycled tech term. It was popular many decades ago and when you start slapping old technology labels/phrases on new technologies, people tend to reject them. With that said, the US government uses cyber for a lot of labels now. Obviously security but outside of security as well.
- drdeadringer 6y ago
  > the US government uses cyber for a lot of labels now Might that be because, or influenced by, the notion that government is inherently slow in some respects? Government could've just not stopped using "cyber" as a prefix whilst most of the world moved on.

danesparza 6y ago

Strangely, I recently got my degree IN email. I have a bachelors in electronic mail communications. With a minor in instant messaging.

itsspring 6y ago
I've never seen that degree program. Where is it offered?
- deleted 6y ago
  [deleted]
hanniabu 6y ago
> With a minor in instant messaging. That's a real thing?
- deleted 6y ago
  [deleted]
jolmg 6y ago
What were the more interesting things that it covered? I have a hard time imagining it going beyond what one can find in RFCs.
- danesparza 6y ago
  This is a joke, sorry. And apparently a poor one. :-)
  - jolmg 6y ago
    Well, you know, since there's Social Media degrees nowadays, a degree in E-Mail isn't really that outlandish as it would have been some years ago. :P

tyingq 6y ago

I'm a bit sad that the University of Phoenix was used as the example. They just settled for $191 million with the FTC at the end of last year for various scummy practices.

hpoe 6y ago

So I went to Western Governers University it is an all online school that is a nonprofit founded by a consortium of Governers in the late 90's and it is one of the best things ever. The entire school is competency based and self paced so if you can prove you know the material either after 1 week in a class or after 3 months. Boom credit given. This was a good send since I was already working in the IT field. The other huge advantage it gave was that you pay for a 6 month semester and can finish as many courses as you want for a flat rate. And it wasn't just a skills course I was required to do generals and all that as well. Really I will never understand doing it the other way with capricious professors, unending busy work, huge loans, living in a crappy apartment next to campus. The list goes on and on. If more schools modeled themselves after WGU the brick and mortar college would be on life support in a generation.

dangus 6y ago
The WGU concept is great, but it also only really works for that intended audience of professionals already in the field, sometimes only getting a degree to satisfy some arbitrary requirement (e.g. I knew two people who went to WGU because they worked somewhere that required a masters degree to be any sort of manager - they were already a shoe-in but needed the piece of paper). In effect, WGU was not there to teach them anything new. All the negatives of four year college that you mentioned (besides the loans) are all positives for someone just leaving high school. The on-campus experience of living in a crappy dorm/apartment with peers is a formative social experience that results in lifelong friendships for many college students. The whole point is to live away from parents in a transitional environment. It’s just plain fun to live in a dilapidated house with 5 friends. On-campus college is a good measure of priceless juvenile fun combined with a lot of intermingling with people who aren’t necessarily just like you compared to more homogeneous high schools and your parents’ own sheltering. I think this is absolutely valuable to expanding your horizons, which also includes studying elective subjects not part of your direct major (for me, that was film history and geology, and I remember those courses more vividly than many of my required engineering courses). Self-learning is irrelevant to someone with no professional experience. I don’t really see how I would have self-learned subjects like differential equations without in-person office hours and lessons with the ability to raise your hand and ask a question. Physical in-person labs in science and electrical engineering were important aspects of my degree, while a liberal arts student might have had an in-person discussion, performance, or live presentation. I also got access to a physical campus library that blew away the local library in my hometown: seven floors of books in endless subjects, more videos than the local Blockbuster. Maybe that’s less relevant in 2020 but the library was also a destination for studying. I was lucky enough to not end up with significant loans after my four year school (about $12,000). But I think I’d have taken on up to $50,000, heck, maybe $75,000 to get that experience, if the alternative would have been sitting in my bedroom on a computer for four years.