When asked what his/her preferred language is -
“Um, English, otherwise I would have to use an online translator.”

When told about the software used at the company -
“Linux? Is that some kind of duck?”

When asked whether a scripting or compiled language is best for the Internet -
“Compiled, definitely. There’s always that really exciting time when it’s that one in ten moment and the code actually compiles with just a bunch of warnings.”

When asked about best coding practices -
“I like to avoid whitespace and comments. There’s only so much space on the Internet, you know?”

When asked about his/her preferred editor -
“I don’t know what Vim is, but I don’t use ‘emacs.’ I’m not one of those Apple fanboys.”

When asked what has been the most important, recent change to the Internet -
“MySpace, for sure. It is getting a lot of people interested in quality web design.”

When asked about the difference between PHP4 and PHP5 -
“They finally made is_executable() available for Windows; it was about time!”

When asked about his/her knowledge of Python -
“It’s been around more than fifteen years and it still isn’t really used by anyone important, so it’s probably not very good.”

When asked, “What will you bring to the company?” -
“Well, if I can telecommute, I don’t plan on bringing anything!”

#5 – Flash Circle TD

The major difference between this game and other TD games is that this one does not end after a certain number of enemies go past. Instead, this ends when there are too many “creeps” on the screen (100 or 80, depending on difficulty level). I didn’t feel like tower upgrades were as effective as they should have been. Other TD games usually make it clear that upgrades are more beneficial than a large number of weak towers, but I wasn’t so sure in this game. The sound effects are rather repetitive, so you might want to just mute them and use your own music.

#4 – Desktop Tower Defense 1.5

This one features extremely simple graphics and a slightly different idea. Rather than having a path you must bombard, you need to force the enemy along a path using your towers. Combining cheap towers to fill in the path with strong towers to deal the damage is the best way to approach this. If you just try to put a bunch of towers around randomly, you’ll quickly find the enemy blowing past.

#3 – Bloons Tower Defense

I first reviewed this game back in August. In that review, I basically said this game is addictive, and it is. This is probably one of the simplest ideas for a TD game, but something about that simplicity is just fun. All you have to do is pop the balloons, but soon you’ll encounter massive amounts of extremely fast balloons that pop to reveal more balloons inside. The super monkey is one of the most satisfying towers in any of these games. Like many of the TD games, this one suffers from repetitive sound effects.

#2 – Vector Tower Defense

As you can tell from the screenshot, this TD game has graphics that are quite a bit different from normal. The towers are also a little different from the typical TD layout (e.g., general purpose tower, fast tower, air tower, etc.). Each color is slightly different, but they also do different amounts of damage depending on what color they are attacking. You also have complete control over each wave of enemy units, so you can strategize as much as you want. I did a slightly more detailed review previously.

#1 – Onslaught 2.1

The best tower defense game seems to be Onslaught at this point. It has what is expected in a TD game, but it also has several nice features. The ability to upgrade specific stats on towers is something I’ve wanted in other games for quite some time and Onslaught has that. You can upgrade power, range, and rate individually. It also has combos in which two (or more) towers that are maxed out on power can combine to create a more powerful effect. Combine a missile turret with two gun turrets and you get nukes. Combine missiles and lasers and get (as you can probably guess) missiles that shoot lasers. There are a lot of combos, so it’s a good idea to be aware of them before you start.

Another awesome feature of this game is the sheer number of keyboard commands. You can upgrade with the “q,” “w,” and “e” keys (for power, range, and rate, respectively) and you can combine those with shift to upgrade as much as you can afford. Of course, you don’t have to use the keyboard, but it will definitely make you a much faster player.

The graphics are also good, but the game does quickly become ridiculous as the screen filles with enemies, rockets, bullets, lasers, etc. Chances are, your computer will slow down so you’ll probably have to lower the quality once the screen starts filling up. This is one of the big weaknesses of flash, so you can’t blame it on the game too much.

Other Mentions
Turret Defense – Create turrets on the side of the road to destroy incoming enemies. This one has simple graphics with a semi-C&C theme.
Tower Defence by Roman Sanin – Runs quickly because the graphics are extremely simple. This one is probably only worth it if your computer can’t handle the better TD games.
Toytown Tower Defense – Check this one out if you want a unique experience. The map is large and you also have a “hero” that you can use to help defend. You also have to worry about power rather than just money.
Tower Defense (.org) – If I had found this site earlier, I probably wouldn’t have time to post this because I would be playing the collection of TD games here.

2. Testing for Knowledge
Have you ever had a test that was all about identifying terms? Given this word, can you find the canned definition? These types of tests don’t test the understanding that students have; they only test ability to memorize points. College should be about thinking deeply and connecting complex thoughts, not about rote memorization.

3. Few Tests / Easy-to-Grade Tests
Sometimes classes are filled with far too many people and simple fill-in-the-bubble tests become necessary, but that’s not always the case and a professor shouldn’t rely on that type of test just because it is easy to grade. Having only multiple choice tests does not give a professor a real understanding of a student’s level, because the student can provide no feedback (“I thought X because of Y.”). Similarly, having a course where the only grades are a mid-term test and a final is stupid. Doing poorly on the first test ruins the course for that student. After that point, the focus is on the final and how much one has to score to still pass. The student learning and improving a remarkable amount is then reflected only in an “okay” grade due to the averaging of the tests. Furthermore, minimal tests means that students will be more stressed, making them less likely to perform to their ability levels.

4. The Doctor Complex
“You must address me as Doctor Blah. I have 47 degrees in blahblah.” Yeah? So what? All my other professors are in the same boat, but they are cool enough to put titles away and get to know their students on a human level. Admit your mistakes and limitations; be human. The paper degree isn’t what makes a person worthy of respect….

5. Not Relating Ideas
Students learn so much more when they can have concrete examples, especially if those examples are relevant. For example, in a previous Educational Psychology course, the professor always used examples of children under 10. For those of us in that class pursuing secondary education, there was nothing to relate to. The professors can typically see students’ majors on the roster and that’s a good starting point. If all of your students are math majors, they probably aren’t interested in the Shakespeare analogy. A good professor will actually learn a little about the students (e.g., hobbies) and tie that in.

6. Hypocritical
There is little in the world more irritating that hypocrisy. One of my professors made a very big deal about having perfect papers with no spelling, grammar, or other errors. Then we received the assignment that we were supposed to respond to and there were several spelling, grammar, and other errors on it. I found it extremely hard to concentrate on the assignment when all the errors were calling out to me. “Look this professor can’t even meet his/her own requirements!”

7. PowerPoint Reading
Do not read your PowerPoint or other presentation to us. That does not make you technologically savvy; it makes you an amateur. The electronic presentation should be an outline, a supplement to your class. If you are just going to read it to students, email them the slides so they don’t have to waste their time coming to your class. Similarly, the course textbook should not be the sole point of learning.

8. No Inter-Student Connection
Typically you go to a new college and find that your first classes are filled with pretty much everyone on the entire planet, you can’t hear or understand what the professor (or assistant in many cases) is saying, and you don’t know anyone. This is a great opportunity for the professor to get you to connect with other students. They don’t even have to use group work, but it can be extremely useful (especially if it is low-stakes and in-class group work). Simply giving the students time to meet the person to their left and to their right is a nice start. If the overall goal is for the students to learn the material, then having someone to study with would help and the time taken from class is minimal.

9. “.DOC” Format
When many professors share their syllabus through the hideous abomination known as Blackboard, they do so in .DOC format. Without getting into it too much, this is a Microsoft format. That means if someone isn’t using Microsoft software, what they are using might not display the document in the same way (especially with tables, in my experience). Fonts can also be different from one computer to the next, which affects the layout of the document. Forcing students to use specific software (that is not provided by the university) is limiting and monopolistic. College is about broadening your perspective, not narrowing it.

10. Lecture, Lecture, and More Lecture
If there is one thing that can make you a terrible professor, it is the excessive use of lecturing. Talking for hours without stop, without interaction, kills the audience. Ask questions and give the students time to respond. Encourage student input. Break it up with a joke, even a bad one helps. Professors don’t need to be extremely entertaining, but they should be better than an audio book.

^*Politicians never really learn this

10: Ability to actually be honest and add someone as “I don’t even know this person.”

9: MySpace: Microsoft-IIS. Facebook: Apache.

8: No giant annoying pictures on your wall

7: Ability to track users by feeds instead of a spam bulletin

6: No “If you repost this with the subject ‘I am an idiot,’ God will personally come down to Earth and give you a hug and 30 pieces of silver” messages/bulletins

5: Custom applications that integrate into profiles nicely

4: Profiles don’t take 30 minutes to load due to six music videos and a dozen songs playing at the same time

3: You don’t have to worry about a friend’s page triggering epileptic seizures

2: Average age > 18; average mental age > 16

And the number one reason: “Sorry! an unexpected error has occurred. This error has been forwarded to MySpace’s technical group.”

• Ugly Geocities pages have become ugly MySpace pages
• Changes at Excite are not as exciting as those at Google
• Annoying animating GIFs have become annoying Flash animations
• Internet rings have been replaced with excessive reciprocal links
• MUD is once again something that gets on your boots
• Went from 1% of developers knowing about W3C Standards to 5%
• Went from 0.2% of developers actually following standards to 1%
• Java applets are dying; robust JavaScript applications are coming alive
• Frontpage is nearly dead
• People who have two phone lines, one dedicated to dialup, were “tech savvy” and are now “behind the times”
• Email costs have stayed the same but US stamps have gone from $0.29 to $0.41
• Email is now spammed more than snail mail
• People who say “AJAX” aloud are now considered knowledgeable about webpages rather than idiots with bad grammar
• The two most popular browsers changed from IE and Netscape to IE and Firefox
• The font tag has died, but word has been slow to get around
• Forums went from mostly useful with some flaming to mostly flaming with some useful posts
• The majority of webpages looked like haphazard pseudo-HTML; now they’re haphazard pseudo-HTML generated by sloppy PHP
• HTML discussions went from talking about the pixel-perfect table layouts to fluid, expanding, and customizable CSS layouts
• Sites were about reading; now sites are about participating
• Sites appeared stagnant; now sites are always evolving
• Dynamic, server-side code was rarely shared; now APIs are practically mandatory
• The question to ask was “Are you connected to the Internet?” and is now “Do you have a blog?”
• The Internet was millions of computers interconnected through mostly copper wiring; now the Internet is a series of tubes