• mazzilius_marsti@lemmy.world
    9·
    4 hours ago

    man i hate those online content that you MUST pay to do homework for the courses. They were over priced and back when i use them, they didnt even grade the homework correctly. E.g. the stupid Mastering series Mastering Physics, Mastering Chemistry and Cengage. I once spent 3 days on a problem because the system didnt like how I wrote the answers. So something like

    • coordinate (3x,space herey)

    instead of what they want:

    • coordinate (3x,y)
  • ExperimentalGuy@programming.dev
    23·
    8 hours ago

    One way to get around that is changing the user agent. I’ve never changed the user agent and had a loss of functionality, it always seems like they have a stupid user agent check just to make sure you’re using windows/chrome.

  • HexesofVexes@lemmy.world
    301·
    20 hours ago

    DRM - the bane of good user experience.

    GOG nailed it - no DRM, low prices, convenience.

    If most book publishers released their texts with new features (e.g. linking references, or adding additional notes to proofs/solutions) they’d get their sales. Instead they just slap DRM on and…

    https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LkWQvzrv6gI

    • Electricd@lemmybefree.net
      62·
      12 hours ago

      Low prices end GOG ? Yea nah, not really. Sorry but their UI is kinda shitty, hasn’t improved in years, they don’t have a client of Linux, they take 30% just like Steam, and from my experience easily 25% of recent games there get updates far later than Steam, if they ever receive them… The Escapists is a good example of that.

      • Jännät@sopuli.xyz
        6·
        6 hours ago

        easily 25% of recent games there get updates far later than Steam, if they ever receive them

        Blame the publishers, not GOG

      • arthurpizza@lemmy.worldEnglish
        9·
        7 hours ago

        I use the Heroic launcher with GOG and it works fantastic. Official apps are less needed if the open source ones are great.

        • MonkeMischief@lemmy.today
          3·
          3 hours ago

          Heroic is so aptly titled. Combined with one of those helper apps to install “Proton GE”, it makes you just about unstoppable.

          I’m finding that Linux has given me better compatibility with my game library as a whole!

          For real legacy stuff, Bottles also works a treat. Never thought I’d get Sims 1 working again with so little hassle.

          It’s a wonderful time.

    • YiddishMcSquidish@lemmy.todayEnglish
      28·
      22 hours ago

      The problem is most courses require a code that costs about ten dollars less than the book. Pearson did this to destroy the used book market.

      • Euphoma@lemmy.mlEnglish
        6·
        6 hours ago

        Pearaon also has homework on their site these days. I’ve only used pearson for physics homework, because I didn’t have the need to read the book. I needed to buy the book for the homework though

      • PKscope@lemmy.world
        8·
        7 hours ago

        The ONLY money I spent during my entire time at uni has been on these stupid Cengage and Connect courses. I blame the teachers, more than anyone, for using these awful services. I also blame the Uni for not advertising that it would be required for the coursework. The teachers are either too lazy or too overworked to make their own materials or teach from an analogue book which doesn’t spoon-feed the lessons and grade things for them. It’s a shit system and nothing made me madder than a required class using these services.

        For a few of them, I just lobbied the department to pay for it saying I wasn’t able to afford it, and they paid for my license or whatever.

        • MonkeMischief@lemmy.today
          2·
          3 hours ago

          I also blame the Uni for not advertising that it would be required for the coursework.

          Just like Steam now says "REQUIRES KERNEL LEVEL ANTICHEAT" like a big ugly Surgeon General’s warning, I think college courses should say stuff like this too.

          Along with “REQUIRES INVASIVE KERNEL LEVEL REMOTE ACCESS MALWARE BROWSER TO TAKE EXAMS”

    • Rolivers@discuss.tchncs.deEnglish
      7·
      9 hours ago

      They did a long time ago. Overpriced books that only changed layouts yearly just so that they can charge you for it again. Like having to keep up with the editions so that you can follow the lessons.

      Yarrrrrr

    • wavebeam@lemmy.world
      27·
      1 day ago

      Pearson, HMH, and all the major for-profit educational resource providers (and much of the not-for-profits, too) are literally actually evil.

  • Fenrisulfir@lemmy.ca
    163·
    1 day ago

    They can’t even use proper punctuation in their error messages? Is this that AAAA+ software I keep hearing about?

  • Johanno@feddit.org
    121·
    2 days ago

    Some websites do this.

    Change the user agent to windows and it works.

    Fuxk you piece of shit!

    Amazon does this too. After you bought a movie you can’t watch it in full hd on Linux. User agent doesn’t help.

    However if you tell their api that you are an smart tv running Linux it works…

    • MonkeMischief@lemmy.today
      1·
      3 hours ago

      However if you tell their api that you are an smart tv running Linux it works…

      I wanna figure out how the heck to do this. 1080p doesn’t particularly bother me, but it’s pretty ridiculous getting discriminated against like that.

    • HouseWolf@pawb.socialEnglish
      54·
      1 day ago

      Same goes if you’re running Firefox.

      I once had Hotmail take forever to get past the loading screen, then actually navigating my mail was hellishly slow. Switched my user agent to Edge and “magically” it loaded instantly and everything was snappy…

      Had a few other sites do similar slowdowns but that and Youtube were the most unashamedly blatant.

      • Johanno@feddit.org
        20·
        1 day ago

        Drm was not the issue they just refused to run high quality on Linux.

        Linux Browsers Support drm too.

    • Integrate777@discuss.online
      3·
      13 hours ago

      All my professors taught and programmed in linux, but when it comes to exams, you need windows for the lockdown browser to do your exams. If you only had a linux machine, you won’t be passing your classes!

      At least for assignments, the professors requested pdfs and not docx or smth.

    • Lumelore (She/her)@lemmy.blahaj.zoneEnglish
      28·
      1 day ago

      I used a Windows VM when I was in college. Even if you are pursuing a computer science degree, yes, some professors assume/expect that everyone will be using Windows. Using a VM also has the added benefit of you being easily able to get rid of all the programs they made you install as well once the semester is over.

    • underscores@lemmy.zipEnglish
      22·
      1 day ago

      They can force you to use Windows.

      What you can do is ask if using a virtual machine is fine. or don’t ask at all and have a virtual machine image of windows ready.

      • pogmommy@lemmy.mlEnglish
        27·
        1 day ago

        As someone who’s worked for several years in higher ed IT and used Linux during my studies, this’ll only get you most of the way there. Unfortunately some proctoring software (Respondus Lockdown Browser comes to mind) can be incredibly invasive, and to my knowledge will refuses to run in a VM.

        Instructors also have a tendency of not disclosing during registration whether or not they use these proctoring softwares.

        I’m lucky enough that by the time I was all-in on Linux, I wasn’t taking courses that used that exam model, but it’s why I make sure that the helpdesk at my current institution offers loaner devices to students who either have computers incapable of running the proctoring software, or who simply don’t want that kind of software on their own machine. It’s a pain in the ass to work with, but apparently it’s enshrined in our faculty’s union contract.

        • MangoPenguin@lemmy.blahaj.zoneEnglish
          6·
          1 day ago

          There are some fairly in depth setups to hide the fact that its a VM normally used for testing malware, I winder if those would fool it.

          • pogmommy@lemmy.mlEnglish
            5·
            19 hours ago

            I’ve heard of some methods to bypass it, but unfortunately to test them I’d need to run a real proctored exam, or have our academic technology group set up a “pentesting” one that I can abuse for this software we pay for a license to. Assuming that didn’t land us on Respondus’ bad side and jeapordize our license, it would at best be a waste of time and resources since we couldn’t guarantee students that it wouldn’t get patched or flag them for cheating in the future. The obvious answer is for us as an institution to use better software (or adopt better assessment methods) but software this invasive by nature is generally not going to be open to running on platforms like Linux. And use of proctoring software is unfortunately enshrined in our faculty’s contracts.

            And yeah, on the individual level, students themselves can’t really toy with getting it to run in a VM without risking failing an exam. Shit sucks.

          • pogmommy@lemmy.mlEnglish
            5·
            19 hours ago

            I’m writing a Lemmy comment, not my thesis. Sorry my casual and lazy word choice upset you for not being grammatically correct.