Microcontrollers Not Allowed – Trolling a college instructor • Hacker News Board

Re: Microcontrollers Not Allowed – Trolling a college instructor

#51

Post by makomk » Fri, Jan 02, 2015, 1:14 AM UTC

wiml wrote: post #35

TheLoneWolfling wrote: post #14

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Expert mode: Make the discrete-component circuit to do this inside the logic gate. (Especially hard as there are components that physically cannot be made small enough (large caps / inductors, etc))

Intermediate mode: You could program the discrete logic onto a tiny CPLD and probably still hide it inside the 74'193. That way you'd still technically be complying with the "no microcontrollers" constraint.

Sadly, it's probably a little hard to fit a CPLD in that kind of space without wire-bonding equipment. They also tend to lack the infernal clocks that most microcontrollers have these days.

Re: Microcontrollers Not Allowed – Trolling a college instructor

#52

Post by obstinate » Fri, Jan 02, 2015, 1:24 AM UTC

Retric wrote: post #40

obstinate wrote: post #30

Earlier quoted context omitted.

That's an option, but you're going to end up filtering out a lot of the best companies to work for if you go that route. I have personal knowledge that it's a factor at least at Google and Microsoft. As I understand it, Facebook and Twitter use it as well. All depends on what you value. Personally, it seems like getting a high GPA isn't very difficult, so why not do well in school to keep your opportunities as open a…

YMMV but those are all terrible companies to work for. Consider this they collectively employ ~ 100,000 people and have produced basically zero innovation in the last 3 years. PS: Though they also have fairly wide side doors so many of their current employes have not gone thorough their screening process.

OK. But employee surveys consistently show that people working at these companies are highly satisfied. That doesn't mean you'd be satisfied there, but I don't see how you can say that they are not good companies to work for.

Re: Microcontrollers Not Allowed – Trolling a college instructor

#53

Post by chris_wot » Fri, Jan 02, 2015, 1:30 AM UTC

davidgerard wrote: post #7

chris_wot wrote: post #5

At about this point, I feel the urge to explain that basically Tony Abbott (our sledging PM) has basically helped kill off TAFE, but that's ok because his government wants to give students loans at high interest rates for private colleges to give an inferior education. This is the PM whose latest innovation is to setup a ministry for science. Or rather, re setup a ministry for science because he formed the first Aust…

It's OK! He put a climate change denier in charge of it ...

Whoever downvoted David - that is EXACTLY what he did.

Re: Microcontrollers Not Allowed – Trolling a college instructor

#54

Post by emocakes » Fri, Jan 02, 2015, 2:25 AM UTC

chris_wot wrote: post #5

At about this point, I feel the urge to explain that basically Tony Abbott (our sledging PM) has basically helped kill off TAFE, but that's ok because his government wants to give students loans at high interest rates for private colleges to give an inferior education. This is the PM whose latest innovation is to setup a ministry for science. Or rather, re setup a ministry for science because he formed the first Aust…

god, you guys are idiots. would you rather vote for a government that is going to crush business and make it harder for you in the future (but hey, its fine! most labor / greens supporters only think of now).

Re: Microcontrollers Not Allowed – Trolling a college instructor

#55

Post by jzwinck » Fri, Jan 02, 2015, 2:32 AM UTC

ChuckMcM wrote: post #12

Generally if you can pull that off you are way past the course material :-) I had a FORTRAN problem which asked to print the current bowling score given a series of numbers between 0 and 10 (number of pins knocked down) and I had it print out spares as '/' and strikes as 'X' and it didn't print the actual score until you didn't get a strike (as is the custom on bowling.) and the TA complained. (the assignment was to…

I took an exam which presented a drawing of a logic chip and a description of its pins and asked us to implement some functionality using this chip plus the minimum number of external gates.

I managed to implement it using only wires, with no extra gates at all. Apparently this surprised the instructors; the best known solution used two extra gates. They gave full marks to me, but also to the many students who used two gates. Given that the exam was designed to not have anyone answer everything correctly in the time allotted and was graded on a curve, I found this distasteful: I had devoted extra time to finding the optimal solution, at the expense of spending more time on other parts of the exam. The instructors were not sympathetic, and I got a B on the exam despite teaching them something new.

Re: Microcontrollers Not Allowed – Trolling a college instructor

#56

Post by pavel_lishin » Fri, Jan 02, 2015, 2:37 AM UTC

> If you attempt this project, your classmates will think you're a nerd. You'll likely wind up getting your head flushed and/or balls greased.

I'm familiar with the concept of getting a swirlie (head flushed), but what in the world is getting your balls greased?

Re: Microcontrollers Not Allowed – Trolling a college instructor

#57

Post by emocakes » Fri, Jan 02, 2015, 2:37 AM UTC

davidgerard wrote: post #7

chris_wot wrote: post #5

At about this point, I feel the urge to explain that basically Tony Abbott (our sledging PM) has basically helped kill off TAFE, but that's ok because his government wants to give students loans at high interest rates for private colleges to give an inferior education. This is the PM whose latest innovation is to setup a ministry for science. Or rather, re setup a ministry for science because he formed the first Aust…

It's OK! He put a climate change denier in charge of it ...

http://grrrgraphics.files.wordpress.com/2014/03/al_gore_clim...

Re: Microcontrollers Not Allowed – Trolling a college instructor

#58

Post by pavel_lishin » Fri, Jan 02, 2015, 2:41 AM UTC

jacquesm wrote: post #3

In the age of 4.5 V 'flat' batteries we did something similar, put an AC generator and another battery inside. (simple sine wave oscillator coupled to a cheap small transformer salvaged from a transistor radio). Watch the local electronics wizz tear their hair out in bafflement how an empty battery (according to the DC volt meter) can power a lamp. Why resort to 4 letter words if you can mess with the laws of physics…

More magic.

Re: Microcontrollers Not Allowed – Trolling a college instructor

#59

Post by MichaelGG » Fri, Jan 02, 2015, 3:24 AM UTC

GFK_of_xmaspast wrote: post #27

MichaelGG wrote: post #25

Earlier quoted context omitted.

What does GPA matter for? Except special circumstances, like scholarships or visas tied to GPA? I stopped 7th grade and truly dropped out at 10th, so I'm biased. I've just never heard of GPA actually mattering.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dunning–Kruger_effect

I'm familiar with this, but I don't get the relevance. Explain?

Re: Microcontrollers Not Allowed – Trolling a college instructor

#60

Post by baddox » Fri, Jan 02, 2015, 3:32 AM UTC

EvanAnderson wrote: post #28

obstinate wrote: post #26

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Many companies, including the one I work for, use college GPA as a filter. The theory is: you miss some good folks by filtering out people below 3.5, but you save a lot of effort on a group that has a much higher proportion of bad candidates. If there are enough good candidates above 3.5, this can be a worthwhile trade. Of course, there are ways around this (become famous in the industry, work somewhere else first an…

Not caring about your GPA sounds like a great way to filter out companies that use bogus criteria as a way to filter prospective employees.

Not necessarily. obstinate just pointed out that a GPA filter might actually be a reasonable practice for legit companies that would be good to work for.