1237cebeedf5
tech



Hello Matt - 

CA>> I'm not saying I'm smarter than they are or that I could
CA>> manually install everything myself. I'm only saying this
CA>> is what we have come to and like it or not by the time you
CA>> could really understand a version of Windows or Linux your
CA>> version would be obsolete by several multiples and you
CA>> would be forced to re-learn and start over again. Not 100%
CA>> but enough that the chase is eternal at this point we can
CA>> only search out just so much information per day and since
CA>> others aren't even trying to find the information don't
CA>> expect a great deal of help either. :-\ 

MM> Your comment is so true that it disturbs me to even think
MM> of the consequences and ramifications. 

MM> Consider a child starting school, looking forward to eight
MM> years of elementry school, and being introduced to
MM> computers somewhere along that path. Then comes four years
MM> of high school. All the computers and software is now
MM> different. If that high school has funds available, they
MM> might even upgrade their systems every two years. The child
MM> then has to learn two more ways to do the same things he
MM> previously learned. Then four or more years of college, and
MM> likely more new computers and software. During all this
MM> re-learning, that child also has to learn to read, write,
MM> spell, history, civics, etc., as well as all the other
MM> stuff we had to learn BEFORE computers. 

MM> Granted, their young brains are supposed to have a great
MM> capacity for learning, but I'm sure glad _I_ didn't have to
MM> go through all that re-learning! 

Depends on what 'track' a child selects when in school. Being
into science and math I did have to go through something
similar. 

I learned to use pencil and paper for math, then was taught
logarithms and use of a slide rule in high school. When I began
my apprenticeship in tech school the math had accelerated (more
homework) and a calculator was required, the slide-rule 2 place
decimal was not acceptable. About mid-way through tech school
the math accelerated again and a scientific calculator was
required. At the time learning to use these calculators was not
an easy thing to do and each was a bit different from the
others. Instructors favored the Hewlett-Packard calculators
with reverse-Polish notation and couldn't help a great deal
with Texas Instruments algebraic entry. It was unpleasant (for
me) when the goal was to learn the math and not how to use a
calculator. Different calculators would give different answers
due to interpolation and rounding errors. Hours wasted in the
classroom proving that your answer was correct based on your
type of calculator versus that of the instructor. :-\ 

At work programmable calculators were the 'thing to have' and I
had to learn to use that as well. I spent a good deal of money
replacing calculators as I went along and time learning to use
them. Still have my TI programmable and it still works too. :-) 

The upside is that many went to 10 place decimals. 

I actually took the time to learn to use all of LOTUS including
write macros to automate the creation of graphs. What a waste
now eh? 

My younger nephews that were in college studying engineering
the past few years have had to have calculators that can
display graphs of functions on a square LCD screen and have
enough buttons to give me an anxiety attack just looking at the
keys. I would hate to even try to go into a college math course
now and deal with that. :-\ 

Meanwhile CAD/CAM was just coming into it's own along with the
home PC. I also learned the APT standard programming language
used for CNC machines. CAD software writes this now, no need
for humans to do that. All of my training up to this point was
using Cartesian Coordinates with 3D space defined within a
cube. Now engineers like to define 3D space within a sphere
using Vectors. Why not? Another radical shift in the thinking
process is required to communicate with the engineers which
becomes necessary as you 'progress' within the skilled trades. 

I had taken an IBM keypunch class at 17 and college was still
offering COBOL and FORTRAN. Fortunately I avoided the computer
classes or I would've wasted more time there. 

My uncle who worked for Bendix Aerospace showed me a 15 foot
long and 4 foot high bookshelf in his baseement filled with
'brochures' intended to keep him uptodate for his work in
electronics. I asked him how he found time to read all of it
and he said he didn't. They gave him paid time off from work to
sit home and read it and he had to throw half of it away
without reading it to make room for the new ones continuously
being fed to him. At that time half of what was learned in
college was obsolete after 10 years in engineering. Last time I
heard it was down to 3 years after college. :-\ 

To really think yourself an uptodate engineer you would have to
attend college forever and never stop. 

Even the atomic chart of elements for chemistry was changing
and adding more new 'discoveries' as I moved along from high
school to college. My second interest, accounting, was going
more and more towards being computerized and I would've been in
the path of the flood if I had chosen that field. 

The reasons for the trouble at NASA become ever more apparent
with their aging management team when you consider the above? 

Those who chose literature, psychology, teaching, or any of the
less scientific math based careers had it much easier than I
did and I suspect they still do? 

>
>        ,                          ,
>      o/      Charles.Angelich      \o       ,
>       __o/
>     / >          USA, MI           < \   __\__
 

___ * ATP/16bit 2.31 * 
... DOS the Ghost in the Machine! http://www.undercoverdesign.com/dosghost/

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