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Pastimes : Don't Ask Rambi -- Ignore unavailable to you. Want to Upgrade?

To: Ilaine who wrote (46627)	2/8/2000 9:09:00 PM
From: jpmac	Respond to of 71178

Secrets of Lost Empires: A Nova Miniseries ~ Pharaoh's Obelisk Engineers try to re-create the raising of a massive granite obelisk, a feat that ancient Egyptians accomplished. ~~ It's on here right now. Sounds neat but Buffy the Vampire Slayer is on, so I'll have to hope it comes on again sometime.

To: Ilaine who wrote (46627)	2/9/2000 12:08:00 PM
From: Jacques Chitte	Read Replies (1) \| Respond to of 71178

Welllll, I have two thoughts on the subject. The first is that if he wants to learn electronics, as in hardware and how it works, he's out of luck. That takes an EE background, and that is legendary for the density and intensity of like calculus and stuff. No Way can he learn electronic theory and practice without a LOT of math that "sticks to his ribs". But. If it's html and code and object-oriented stuff he wishes to master, that isn't math, it's Language. Other half of brain is engaged. Is he good with language, music, the home computer? If so, his future is bright. IF He Puts his nose to the grindstone and sweats the basic stuff, like Unix and Penix and Linux and the seven Cs and all taht. It will still be Work, if he wants to be Good.

To: Ilaine who wrote (46627)	2/9/2000 4:11:00 PM
From: nihil	Read Replies (1) \| Respond to of 71178

It is a grave mistake to mess up physics with mathematics, and Nick is right to try to learn electronics without confusing the issue with mathematics. I've known several Nobel laureates in physics and their greatest achievements were experimental. Einstein, of course, had to go to work in the Swiss patent office, and he always said that examining patents was where he really learned physics. He was not great in math. Bardeen always said that true physics was gadgetry, although his major contributions were theoretical (2 Nobel (shared) prizes -- the transistor effect and a (incorrect) theory of superconductivity. During the 1970's when various accelerators were being shut down, a friend at UI got his refunded. The Asst Dir of NSF explained it to me -- "he made his graduate students do all the electrical work" and "he soldered incredibly fast." By all means encourage Nick to learn every thing he can about being an electronics technician. He will learn the math he needs in due time. James Watt was a lab artificer (technician) at the University of Edinburgh. No one remembers the names of the natural scientists he worked for. Faraday and Franklin never went to college.