1 Oct
2011
1 Oct
'11
10:44 a.m.
One question: this is all old stuff, experience is
100% a necessity.
Why a batchelors? What does earning a degree gain you in the field of
vintage computing, particularly this field that you needed to have
been there to have seen it in the first place?
I know plenty of people with degrees in computer science, enmgineering,
etc who I would not let withing 20 feet of a soldering iron or a PDP11. I
also know unqualified people who I would be happy to have work on vintage
machines. And vice versa. There is simply no correlation.
Most computer science degrees, at least over here, have very little
hardware content. That which there is is remarkably non-specific (and one
infamous book, recomended all over the palce is a waste of trees IMHO). I
don't think many CS graduates have ever seen the full scehamtic of any
real processor, and as I discovered (the hard way!), the devil is in the
details. You may well understnad the general principles, but be totally
lost when presented with the pritset for a PDP11/45. And even more lost
when presented with a rack of boards for which no schematics exist.
Similarly Operating Systems. Oh, CS graduates probably know how to write
a scheduler but would be lost if asked to actually write a device driver
that works. And I wonder how many CS courses include assmebly language or
machine code any more -- things that are essential when you're staring at
a logic anaylser trying to work out what the darn procrssor is doing this
time...
-tony