22 Oct
1998
22 Oct
'98
1:26 a.m.
> A lot of discussion here on college educations, my
0.02.
> 1) I don't expect New College Grads (NCG's) to know a lot, I expect them to
> know how to find something out that they don't know and how to power
> through bull s**t type work. I also expect them to know the basic theory
Please note that the 2 people I was moaning about
earlier (one wanted a
362.83 Ohm resistor for his LED, the other couldn't grasp '5V across
4.7kOhms is a little more than a milliamp') were EEs.
Thats bad - he should at least have taken a class about
resistor networks to build his needed one in a 3D configuration :)
> 2) I don't expect CS majors to be taught
assembly, per se. In case you
Oh, IMHO all CS students should have some idea as to
what the 'computer'
they are writing programs for actually is. And that means having some
idea of digital electronics and assembly language. I find using tools
that you don't fully understand is a darn good way to produce poor code
(or whatever).
So, you're just talking about the usual way , and why languages
like C++ are so popular ...
> A fun exercise (in a nerdly sort of way) is to
presume you've been dumped
> onto some raw continent with nothing but your brains and underpants, now
> build a PDP-8. (You can assume that you will have food and shelter.)
Hmm... I'd rather build a relay logic machine.
Drawing the copper wire
for the coils would be painful but possible. Similarly making soft iron
cores and armatures. A lot easier than trying to make transistors, anyway.
In fact, I think I would try to go for a more mechanical
device - so I don't have the problem to create a power
source and _stable_ voltage wich again includes semiconductors
or other kinds of very delicate equipment like mercury rectifiers.
> One of the things that struck me about a
'dead' PC I was attempting to fix
> was that the BIOS flash had been zorched and a) Not only was their no way
> to recover the bios but b) the chipset used was both non-standard and made
> by a now non-existent company who left behind no records. Talk about
Thankfully the BIOS on this PC is in OTP EPROMs, and I
have the official
source listings anyway. Ditto schematics of everything but the hard disk.
This machine can be repaired.
But independent of the chipset, one should be able to build a
minimal start up BIOS to launch a real mode DOS and then
a reprogramming is just some steps away.
> and get it working again, when the engine computer
on your car breaks, your
> out of luck.
Why do you think that when I get a car I am _not_
having any electronics
anywhere enar the engine :-). Mechanical stuff I can understand and
repair. Electronics I can understand, but there's no way I could make a
custom chip at home.
Thats why I still drive a 1988 Skoda Rapid - no electronics.
Just imagine the finger print sensor of your new Mercedes
S-class care goes wild ... (But on the other hand, a CX25 TRI,
maybe as a 6 wheeler, is still a dream car ...)
Gruss
H.
--
Ich denke, also bin ich, also gut
HRK