Re: Computer programmers' habits in electronics

On Wed, 21 Dec 2005 14:39:20 -0800, Tim Wescott wrote:
> Ignoramus32515 wrote:
>> On Wed, 21 Dec 2005 12:28:17 -0800, Tim Wescott <tim@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx> wrote:
>>>Ignoramus32515 wrote:
>>>>On Wed, 21 Dec 2005 19:31:08 GMT, Rich Grise, but drunk <yahright@xxxxxxxxxxx> wrote:
[will work for drugs, alcohol, and ***...]

>>>For interviewing embedded SW engineers we finally settled on a fairly
>>>basic scaling problem. We started with a little story problem that
>>>required the interviewee to find the ratio of a couple of numbers and
>>>multiply it to a third, then we said "oh, by the way, our floating
>>>point library is too slow -- do it with integers". The question
>>>usually took about 40 minutes to explore fully, with some folks never
>>>getting it and some just glancing at the board and writing down the
>>>correct answer.
....
> It was a display problem, where we had a display of a certain known
> size, and we wanted to plot a line on it that reflected an even-numbered
> (10, 20, 50, 100, etc.) length. We told them that we wanted a procedure
> that took the screen size in real-world coordinates, the desired size in
> real-world coordinates, and the number of pixels in real-world
> coordinates, and that coughed up the line size in pixels. It actually
> came from a real product (sometimes we had system pictures in the
> conference rooms & we could point to the box & say "it's in that there
> box, as a matter of fact").
>
> If they didn't start that way themselves we'd encourage them to "just do
> the math" first, and look for how well they did their 8th grade algebra
> problems.

If at that point I'd started drawing little diagrams of pixels and bytes
and schtuff, what would my chances have been? ;-)

I once came up with a three-line Eratosthenes sieve on the back of an
envelope at a bus stop. I didn't memorize it, but it's almost trivial -
HEY!! I just had a profound revelation! This is where the power of
drawing a picture lies! Dood, it's so simple! I feel like this guy:

------------<begin excerpt from /usr/games/fortunes/fortunes2>-----------
Dr. Oliver Wendell Holmes of Harvard Medical School inhaled ether
at a time when it was popularly supposed to produce such mystical or
"mind-expanding" experiences, much as LSD is supposed to produce such
experiences today. Here is his account of what happened:
"I once inhaled a pretty full dose of ether, with the
determination to put on record, at the earliest moment of regaining
consciousness, the thought I should find uppermost in my mind. The mighty
music of the triumphal march into nothingness reverberated through my
brain, and filled me with a sense of infinite possibilities, which made me
an archangel for a moment. The veil of eternity was lifted. The one great
truth which underlies all human experience and is the key to all the
mysteries that philosophy has sought in vain to solve, flashed upon me in
a sudden revelation. Henceforth all was clear: a few words had lifted my
intelligence to the level of the knowledge of the cherubim. As my natural
condition returned, I remembered my resolution; and, staggering to my
desk, I wrote, in ill-shaped, straggling characters, the all-embracing
truth still glimmering in my consciousness. The words were these (children
may smile; the wise will ponder): `A strong smell of turpentine prevails
throughout.'"
-- The Consumers Union Report: Licit & Illicit Drugs
------------<end excerpt from /usr/games/fortunes/fortunes2>-----------

CHeers!
Rich

.