"crowmolly" (crowmolly)
03/10/2015 at 14:59 • Filed to: None
21
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"crowmolly" (crowmolly)
03/10/2015 at 14:59 • Filed to: None | 21
| 17 |
Well, here is my contribution now.
Dear Professor *****;
On 1/21/15, "Bandit" requested assistance with a C programming assignment in your course. "Bandit" was having issues with a nagging compile-time error that he could not resolve, and according to his comments that day your teaching assistant was also unable to fix said error.
He asked for assistance from the "Oppositelock" online community of which he is a member. I too am a member there, and I hold a bachelor's and masters degree in Computer Science. I also have 3 years of University level teaching assistance (including classroom time) and tutoring under my belt (experience was in introductory programming and logic skills), alongside 10+ years of industry experience in software engineering and information technology.
Upon seeing "Bandit"'s work it immediately became apparent to me that he had made a simple syntax error and was not demonstrating a fundamental misunderstanding of the subject matter, as below:
#include
#define PI: 3.1416 //sets constant pi
Please note the superfluous colon in the #define statement.
As such, I feel that I was not "doing the work for him", I was merely fixing an oversight- something that you know is incredibly common in the programming world. Asking for outside help is also very common- communities such as Experts Exchange and Stack Overflow thrive for this reason. At some point every programmer faces an error that they just can't seem to wrap their head around.
I hope you are able to take all of this into consideration when you are determining a course of action regarding "Bandit"'s use of the Internet for help. He appears to have exercised poor judgement in not following the provided guidelines for assistance, however it also appears that he was out of options fixing a trivial error.
Respectfully,
Oppositelock Member "Crowmolly"
Bandit, if you want me to delete THIS post, I will. I do not wish to fan any flames.
-CM
505Turbeaux
> crowmolly
03/10/2015 at 15:02 |
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This. Lets save our boy
SidewaysOnDirt still misses Bowie
> crowmolly
03/10/2015 at 15:03 |
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Good on you.
area man
> crowmolly
03/10/2015 at 15:06 |
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wtf happened?
Klaus Schmoll
> crowmolly
03/10/2015 at 15:09 |
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Might probably not do much to make him change his mind, but it's still worth a try explaining what the actual help consisted of. I've had presentations which where obviously done by the parents or came directly from wikipedia, this is far from that. Bandit did the legwork, he just had a minor fault in his code which you pointed out to him.
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SidewaysOnDirt still misses Bowie
> area man
03/10/2015 at 15:09 |
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He asked a very specific question about a code that was his homework, someone saw it online, and now he's being accused of cheating.
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505Turbeaux
> SidewaysOnDirt still misses Bowie
03/10/2015 at 15:12 |
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keep it clean in case they are searching. Dont want to fan the flames any more
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crowmolly
> Klaus Schmoll
03/10/2015 at 15:12 |
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Yeah, they may be "following procedure" at this point but I am hoping that MAYBE if I explain the context of the assistance he may be able to avoid the worst of the disciplinary action.
Bandit
> crowmolly
03/10/2015 at 15:14 |
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Sorry I deleted it. I'm meeting the prof tomorrow and wanted to cover my bases. Thank you for this, if everything goes south this (along with the paper initial version of my code I wrote one day at lunch when I didn't have my computer) may help me with an appeal. You're the best, seriously.
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Bandit
> 505Turbeaux
03/10/2015 at 15:14 |
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Aww..
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SidewaysOnDirt still misses Bowie
> Bandit
03/10/2015 at 15:17 |
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Good luck!
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crowmolly
> Bandit
03/10/2015 at 15:18 |
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No apology necessary. I must have taken too long writing that wall of text.
Best of luck. Hopefully they will understand that you were not ripping an assignment off of the 'net, you were stumped and had no other options.
Mr. Ontop, No Strokes, No Smokes...Goes Fast.
> crowmolly
03/10/2015 at 15:19 |
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I still say he should take it up the ladder.
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505Turbeaux
> Bandit
03/10/2015 at 15:20 |
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I would be happy to write a professional letter myself, but I am very remotely in programming. If you need a letter from Director level management (and someone with a degree in education) about how I think you were using your available resources wisely, which is a much more preferable trait than going by the book, you got it.
jariten1781
> crowmolly
03/10/2015 at 15:20 |
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Unless they've had a recent public cheating 'scandal' (in which case he's boned) or the guy is just an asshole stuff like this always helps. Context and a clean-cut, well dressed, polite student will push stuff into 'benefit of the doubt' category.
Good on ya.
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Bandit
> 505Turbeaux
03/10/2015 at 15:22 |
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Thanks man, you as well as everyone here is being super awesome.
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Bandit
> crowmolly
03/10/2015 at 15:25 |
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Seriously, thank you. Likely someone googled and found my post, copied the code, and turned it in as their own. This should help clear up any repercussions of my actions.
Clay Smith's Revenge
> crowmolly
03/10/2015 at 16:01 |
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Well now I know where the big brains reside