Well dumbed down, but what do you expect ?


--
geoff

On 24/01/2013 21:07, geoff wrote:


Well dumbed down, but what do you expect ?


Exactly what I expected. I have too much else to watch!

Andy

In article , geoff
wrote:

Well dumbed down, but what do you expect ?

That's why I never watch such programmes these days: I really do not
have the time to sit there and be talked down to tediously for an hour,
usually with stupid gimmicks thrown in, when they could have told me
what I wanted to know in 15 minutes! I think they call it infotainment.

J.

Better, we are not all morons, indeed even morons are not all dim at
everything.

I was amazed that nobody in the street on a radio interview seemed to
understand square roots any more.

Brian

--
Brian Gaff....Note, this account does not accept Bcc: email.
graphics are great, but the blind can't hear them
Email:
__________________________________________________ __________________________________________________ __________


"geoff" wrote in message
...


Well dumbed down, but what do you expect ?


--
geoff

Brian Gaff wrote:

I was amazed that nobody in the street on a radio interview seemed to
understand square roots any more.

I gave a lecture at "a leading engineering company" a few years ago, the
division I was visiting was concerned with building network kit. I
mentioned that the network addressing for the systems they would be
building used octal. There was some confusion for a moment then someone
asked me what octal was. They also did not understand binary. Eventually
one of them worked out that his calculator would do the conversions so
they stopped worrying.

--
Burn Hollywood burn, burn down to the ground

On Friday, January 25, 2013 1:33:34 AM UTC, Steve Firth wrote:
There was some confusion for a moment then someone
asked me what octal was.

I still use octal.

It's a web-related use that is pretty common, and makes some kind of sense that they chose it, but it still surprises me that octal is used for it.

Andy Dingley writes:

On Friday, January 25, 2013 1:33:34 AM UTC, Steve Firth wrote:
There was some confusion for a moment then someone
asked me what octal was.

I still use octal.

It's a web-related use that is pretty common, and makes some kind of sense that they chose it, but it still surprises me that octal is used for it.

I like it. When my short-term memory was better I used to be able to
*multiply* in octal, for small numbers, but calculating the carries
etc. needs a good memory.

--
Windmill, Use t m i l l
J.R.R. Tolkien:- @ O n e t e l . c o m
All that is gold does not glister / Not all who wander are lost

On Friday 25 January 2013 07:59 Huge wrote in uk.d-i-y:

On 2013-01-25, Steve Firth wrote:
Brian Gaff wrote:

I was amazed that nobody in the street on a radio interview seemed to
understand square roots any more.

I gave a lecture at "a leading engineering company" a few years ago, the
division I was visiting was concerned with building network kit. I
mentioned that the network addressing for the systems they would be
building used octal. There was some confusion for a moment then someone
asked me what octal was. They also did not understand binary. Eventually
one of them worked out that his calculator would do the conversions so
they stopped worrying.

Some years ago, I had to explain hexadecimal to a Windows NT Admin.

Why does that not surprise me :-o

Last week, I had to explain binary and 'exclusive or' to someone who works
in the same team as me.

Meeble...

Both of these people should have known these things in order to do their
jobs.



--
Tim Watts Personal Blog: http://www.dionic.net/tim/

If you are reading this from a web interface eg DIY Banter,
DIY Forum or Google Groups, please be aware this is NOT a forum, and
you are merely using a web portal to a USENET group. Many people block
posters coming from web portals due to perceived SPAM or inaneness.
For a better method of access, please see:

http://wiki.diyfaq.org.uk/index.php?title=Usenet

"It would be better to live under robber barons than under omnipotent
moral busybodies."

On Friday 25 January 2013 09:57 Tim Watts wrote in uk.d-i-y:

On Friday 25 January 2013 07:59 Huge wrote in uk.d-i-y:

Last week, I had to explain binary and 'exclusive or' to someone who
works in the same team as me.

Meeble...

Both of these people should have known these things in order to do their
jobs.

The thing that worries me is that I consider myself to be mostly
competant[1] over a fairly wide domain of linux and networking related
skills but I can stand next to people, eg at a Google interview[2] and feel
completely and utterly stupid - even covering the same domain of subject
matter.

[1] It seems I am destined to be good at grasping enough stuff quickly and
sufficiently well to get sysadmin work done. But am equally doomed to be a
specialist at almost nothing...

[2] No I did not get it. But it was strangly gratifying to at least make it
past the phone interviews and actually stand inside the building at
Victoria. And they are indeed a very smart bunch of *******s ;-

And the workplace is like something out of Star Trek!

--
Tim Watts Personal Blog: http://www.dionic.net/tim/

If you are reading this from a web interface eg DIY Banter,
DIY Forum or Google Groups, please be aware this is NOT a forum, and
you are merely using a web portal to a USENET group. Many people block
posters coming from web portals due to perceived SPAM or inaneness.
For a better method of access, please see:

http://wiki.diyfaq.org.uk/index.php?title=Usenet

"History will be kind to me for I intend to write it."

Tim Watts wrote:
And the workplace is like something out of Star Trek!

I've been quiet this week because - shock horror - somebody's actually
deigned to pay me to work! My workplace is "Moorfoot Building", and
it's like the inside of the Minataur's Maze, the Doctor Who version.
I'm sure the walls move when I'm not looking.

JGH

On Friday, January 25, 2013 10:13:30 AM UTC, Tim Watts wrote:
On Friday 25 January 2013 09:57 Tim Watts wrote in uk.d-i-y:



On Friday 25 January 2013 07:59 Huge wrote in uk.d-i-y:



Last week, I had to explain binary and 'exclusive or' to someone who

works in the same team as me.



Meeble...



Both of these people should have known these things in order to do their

jobs.



The thing that worries me is that I consider myself to be mostly

competant[1] over a fairly wide domain of linux and networking related

skills but I can stand next to people, eg at a Google interview[2] and feel

completely and utterly stupid - even covering the same domain of subject

matter.



[1] It seems I am destined to be good at grasping enough stuff quickly and

sufficiently well to get sysadmin work done. But am equally doomed to be a

specialist at almost nothing...



[2] No I did not get it. But it was strangly gratifying to at least make it

past the phone interviews and actually stand inside the building at

Victoria. And they are indeed a very smart bunch of *******s ;-



And the workplace is like something out of Star Trek!

Sweet, what was the address ;-)

On Friday 25 January 2013 11:14 Huge wrote in uk.d-i-y:

On 2013-01-25, Tim Watts wrote:

The thing that worries me is that I consider myself to be mostly
competant[1] over a fairly wide domain of linux and networking related
skills but I can stand next to people, eg at a Google interview[2] and
feel completely and utterly stupid - even covering the same domain of
subject matter.

[1] It seems I am destined to be good at grasping enough stuff quickly
[and
sufficiently well to get sysadmin work done. But am equally doomed to be
a specialist at almost nothing...

Yep, sounds like yours truly.


Should have double ROT13'd for extra security...

;-


Still it'll **** the DIY****** and GoogleGroup users off

Jung ernyyl erthyneyl cvffrf zr bss ng gur zbzrag vf jura jr trg
n ceboyrz, V qb fbzr erfrnepu gb znxr fher vg vf fbyhoyr, unaq bire zl
abgrf gb gur bvx jub'f npghnyyl tbvat gb qb gur jbex naq trg gur erfcbafr
"Vg qbrfa'g jbex", jura jung gurl npghnyyl zrna vf "V qba'g haqrefgnaq" be
"V qvqa'g sbyybj gur qverpgvbaf". Be zber yvxryl, "Cyrnfr qb guvf sbe zr."

I seem to land a fair few problems that are "my fault" because it worked on
the developer's laptop with a tiny test database. The fact that the fancy
pantsy AJAX autocompletion is causing 500 SQL queries per web page (when the
data set is so small that the application might have well have cached the
interesting parts to RAM) is still my fault.

Except when I tell them to go away and optimise it.

I'm not Mordac though - I do offer to help by showing them how to analyse
the system or where the relevant log files are and how to read them.

And they all get root on their project servers with a quick guide on
"apt-get install". My predecessor apparantly would not let them do
anything...

V'z jbexvat zl jnl qbja gung punva ng gur zbzrag, jvgu n pnyy gung fgnegrq
"Ubj qb jr rapelcg n svyr ba Fbynevf", gb juvpu V ercyvrq "pelcgb vf ohvyg
vagb Fbynevf". Pbzrf gur ercyl "Ubj qb jr qb gung?", fb V ercyl jvgu
gur HEY bs gur qbpb cntr ba gur Benpyr jrofvgr. Pbhcyr bs qnlf cnhfr,
gura pbzrf gur varivgnoyr erfcbafr "Lrf, ohg jung yvoenevrf qb jr arrq
gb hfr, naq ubj qb jr pnyy gurz?" Fb, V ercyl jvgu gur HEY bs gur qbpb
cntr ba gur Benpyr jro fvgr. V njnvg gur arkg dhrfgvba. Gur ynfg gvzr
fbzrguvat yvxr guvf unccrarq ("Ubj qb jr unfu n cnffjbeq jvgu n fnyg va
Wnin?") V raqrq hc cebivqvat gurz jvgu n pbqr favccrg, naq V'z abg rira n
oybbql cebtenzzre (nal zber). Naq jr cnl gurfr crbcyr gb jevgr pbqr sbe
hf.


I am luckier than you in that respect. My lot are generally a good bunch and
will generally accept their end of any blame (and I accept mine when I cock
up, which does happen). It's usually more a case of not knowing about
something at all, rather than knowing of it but not knowing how to deal with
it.



Fvtu.




--
Tim Watts Personal Blog: http://www.dionic.net/tim/

If you are reading this from a web interface eg DIY Banter,
DIY Forum or Google Groups, please be aware this is NOT a forum, and
you are merely using a web portal to a USENET group. Many people block
posters coming from web portals due to perceived SPAM or inaneness.
For a better method of access, please see:

http://wiki.diyfaq.org.uk/index.php?title=Usenet

"History will be kind to me for I intend to write it."

On 25/01/13 11:14, Huge wrote:

Yep, sounds like yours truly.

Jung ernyyl erthyneyl cvffrf zr bss ng gur zbzrag vf jura jr trg

Jung ernyyl erthyneyl cvffrf zr bss ng gur zbzrag vf svaqvat gung
Guhaqregheq[1] qbrfa'g unir ebg13 (frrzvatyl abg rira nf na nqq-ba)

[1] juvpu V'z hfvat orpnhfr Xhohagh 12.04'f irefvba bs cna vf oebxra vs
lbh hfr vg jvgu arjf.vagreangvbany.arg jurer vg gevrf gb fgber gur
cnffjbeq va fbzr tabzr cnffjbeq znantre guvat gung qbrfa'g rkvfg.

On 25/01/2013 07:59, Huge wrote:
On 2013-01-25, Steve Firth wrote:
Brian Gaff wrote:

I was amazed that nobody in the street on a radio interview seemed to
understand square roots any more.

I gave a lecture at "a leading engineering company" a few years ago, the
division I was visiting was concerned with building network kit. I
mentioned that the network addressing for the systems they would be
building used octal. There was some confusion for a moment then someone
asked me what octal was. They also did not understand binary. Eventually
one of them worked out that his calculator would do the conversions so
they stopped worrying.

Some years ago, I had to explain hexadecimal to a Windows NT Admin.

Last week, I had to explain binary and 'exclusive or' to someone who works
in the same team as me.

Both of these people should have known these things in order to do their
jobs.

Do they know the difference between xor and parity?

On 25/01/13 07:59, Huge wrote:

Some years ago, I had to explain hexadecimal to a Windows NT Admin.

"What are those funny numbers with letters in them?"
http://tinyurl.com/ac4huoa

On Thu, 24 Jan 2013 21:07:21 +0000, geoff wrote:

Well dumbed down, but what do you expect ?

I have no objections to 'dumbed down' as most viewers will be fairly dumb,
but they may have learned something they didn't know before, which is all
you can ask.
True it was 'Blue Peter' style and as an ex physics teacher I wish I had
all that gear to play with.
--
Jim S
Tyneside UK
www.jimscott.co.uk
http://geordiecamii.wordpress.com
http://geordiecam.wordpress.com/

"Jim S" wrote in message
...
On Thu, 24 Jan 2013 21:07:21 +0000, geoff wrote:

Well dumbed down, but what do you expect ?

I have no objections to 'dumbed down' as most viewers will be fairly dumb,
but they may have learned something they didn't know before, which is all
you can ask.

You can also ask for a decent quality of presentation that
doesn't irritate the hell out of the viewers, like Mosley manages.

True it was 'Blue Peter' style and as an ex physics teacher I wish I had
all that gear to play with.

You can also ask for a decent quality of presentation that
doesn't irritate the hell out of the viewers, like Mosley manages.

Oh I'll grant you that, but better him than Brian Cox.

--
Jim S
Tyneside UK
www.jimscott.co.uk
http://geordiecamii.wordpress.com
http://geordiecam.wordpress.com/

Jim S wrote
Rod Speed wrote

You can also ask for a decent quality of presentation that
doesn't irritate the hell out of the viewers, like Mosley manages.

Oh I'll grant you that, but better him than Brian Cox.

True.