| Re: A Programmer's Education [message #51698 is a reply to message #51696] |
Tue, 05 December 2006 12:17   |
Pete Warner
Messages: 14
Registered: July 2006
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Junior Member |
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In my first major electrical circuits lab test our assignment was to
figure out what sort of simple circuit was in a black box. I kept
measuring current values far more than should have been possible and I
my answer was off by a couple orders of magnitude from what I expected.
With 5 minutes left I discovered the oscilloscope did not have the
correct probes attached and I had wasted most of the hour trying to
figure out how my calculations were wrong.
I learned to trust my instincts and that technology is not infallible.
On Dec 5, 12:56 pm, Paul van Delst <Paul.vanDe...@noaa.gov> wrote:
> David Fanning wrote:
>>> Braedley writes:
>
>>>> Why don't I ever see these simple solutions?
>
>>> You are probably University-educated. Not your fault. :-)
>
>> While we are on this topic (and while I wait for SOLARSOFT
>> to finish downloading), what is the most useful class you
>> ever took in school?Easy. Programming in Fortran 251. Not so much for the Fortran stuff (it was taught to us
> physics majors, with drippingly evident disdain, by a CS professor) but because said prof
> failed me on the first assignment because I was the only one in the class that had ordered
> the (correct) results opposite from everyone else. When I confronted him about it
> mentioning that he never specified an order in the assignment, he grudgingly (at least,
> how I remember it) agreed and gave me an appropriate mark. That's when I learned that
> smart people are sometimes just as dumb as the rest of us. No more pedestals for me! :o)
>
>> For me, two come immediately to mind. The typing class
>> I took as a sophomore in high school because I was a shy
>> boy and the girl/boy ratio was 15:1. I use that knowledge
>> every single day of my life. (In, uh, more ways than one.)
>
>> And the freshman English Composition class I took in my
>> first semester of college from a hippie instructor who
>> gently taught a good evangelical Christian boy to question
>> everything.Hmmm...maybe there's a theme here. The important lessons that one remembers are those that
> provide more questions than answers. (Although, nothing earth-shattering there I guess).
>
> paulv
>
> --
> Paul van Delst Ride lots.
> CIMSS @ NOAA/NCEP/EMC Eddy Merckx
> Ph: (301)763-8000 x7748
> Fax:(301)763-8545
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