I agree with what you say about high school and heading to college. However, I am about a year or so away from finishing my undergrad in CS, and I have to disagree with the idea that college work is entirely interesting. It is true that most of the classes that directly involve your major are found to be more interesting to the individual. The problem is that colleges will require you to take classes that are not always directly related to your major.
For example, I am currently taking an upper division political science class, but only because it was required.
I have no real interest in this course, but my motivation to do the work is to never have to look at it again. I figure if I can do it, and I can do well, then I will never have to sit in this type of class again.
The other issue with college is professors. I have had interesting subjects with the most uninteresting professors. This definitely makes the subject matter more difficult to find interesting. The opposite, however, is great. If I have a subject that I can't stand, but a professor that is very excited and interested in the subject, it will usually get me really motivated to do the work.
Obviously, these are my opinions, so this will vary from person to person. My motivation for doing uninteresting work in college is to have one less obstacle between me and my future goals. I'm sure this motivation can be applied to many other situations.
I'm a 23 year old student, finishing up my B.S. in Computer Science. I've recently started working on my own startup with a friend (I'll be posting it on HN when I have something to show) and trying to find a balance between that and school.
As for my reason for wanting to see a startup office, I've seen a lot of pictures (thanks for posting those), and as enjoyable as they are to look at, I would like to see the environment for myself. For me, it's about taking a closer look into the culture which interests me. I've wanted to travel to SF for years now, and see the tech culture that everyone speaks so highly of.
There were so many good points made in this post that I'm left speechless. This reminded me of similar experiences I've had with my betta, and all the curiosity I saw in him. I miss that little guy.
However, one thing I would personally change is a small usability issue I noticed on the Courses page. I would like to be able to add a course, and not have to navigate back to Home to be able to add a new assignment. I think it would just really clarify things a bit better.
As far as my experience with uWink goes, I've never seen anyone have so many problems in a single visit. I've been there around 15-20 times total, usually with large groups, and its never been that bad.
It's true, occasionally you'll experience some hiccups, but I've never seen this many in one visit.
This is part of a Dutch viral campaign for some IT school/company. They have put a bunch out now with the same guy.
A quick translation (with Babel Fish) off some dutch site regarding this video:
"viral campaign for itafstuderen.nl but if you ask it me is this nevertheless of the best viral campaign which is ever made."
I've posted before about this, so I apologize to anyone reading this for the second time. I'm currently working on a startup similar to this, based around the groups who were not accepted by ycombinator. A place to demo your startup, get feedback, and find co-founders. Also to find a place to stay if the group is planning on moving to SV, or anywhere for that matter. There are a few other features I'm currently implementing also. Overall, its just a place to keep each other motivated and help one another out. Nothing putting down ycombinator, but just a place to connect and share. I was going to have it up and running this week, however, I've been low on time lately. I should have something within the next week or two though.
When I worked at the Apple Store, I was complaining to a customer that they didn't sell any books when it came to coding (everything had to do with using your ipod and beginners guides to the OS). Turns out this customer was from SV and worked for Apple, although he never mentioned what he really did. He suggested that if I "want to make money" to learn AppleScript. I taught myself by just reading tutorials online, and learned you can do some pretty cool stuff with AppleScript. However, I personally would say one should put more focus on Objective-C and Cocoa. I began doing that (many tutorials online), but soon after got into web apps and put my focus elsewhere.
So, in my opinion, get a feel for AppleScript, then move on to Objective-C and Cocoa.
For example, I am currently taking an upper division political science class, but only because it was required. I have no real interest in this course, but my motivation to do the work is to never have to look at it again. I figure if I can do it, and I can do well, then I will never have to sit in this type of class again.
The other issue with college is professors. I have had interesting subjects with the most uninteresting professors. This definitely makes the subject matter more difficult to find interesting. The opposite, however, is great. If I have a subject that I can't stand, but a professor that is very excited and interested in the subject, it will usually get me really motivated to do the work.
Obviously, these are my opinions, so this will vary from person to person. My motivation for doing uninteresting work in college is to have one less obstacle between me and my future goals. I'm sure this motivation can be applied to many other situations.