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Microcontrollers Not Allowed – Trolling a college instructor

ultrakeet.com.au

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Re: Microcontrollers Not Allowed – Trolling a college instructor

#71

Post by MichaelGG »

obstinate wrote: post #30
EvanAnderson wrote: post #28

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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.

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…

Weird. When I interviewed at MS, education never came up at all. Just lots of algorithms questions, from ~9am to 7 in the evening. I was about 24 at the time.

I wouldn't ditch GPA for no reason, but avoiding a bad professor and getting a good one seems far more valuable overall.

Re: Microcontrollers Not Allowed – Trolling a college instructor

#72

Post by jacquesm »

jzwinck wrote: post #55
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 t…

Can you find the original problem? That sounds intriguing!

Re: Microcontrollers Not Allowed – Trolling a college instructor

#73

Post by jacquesm »

noonespecial wrote: post #47
userbinator wrote: post #4

Too bad the font isn't exactly the same as the real part (look at the 6, 7, and 9 near the end of the video), or maybe that was intentional... One thing that still amazes people today is just how tiny a component can be, and yet provide so much functionality. I've been working with electronics for many years and the feeling still doesn't go away. The die of that microcontroller is even smaller than the package, and i…

I work in a printing plant that has a great deal of tech from the 80's and 90's. Nothing amuses me quite so much as pulling out a damaged obsolete board the size of a pizza box and replacing it with a micro-controller board the size of a playing card and a single screen's worth of code.

The same happens a lot in the industrial control arena.

The machines have far outlived their electronics.

Re: Microcontrollers Not Allowed – Trolling a college instructor

#74

Post by jzwinck »

jacquesm wrote: post #72
jzwinck wrote: post #55

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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 t…

Can you find the original problem? That sounds intriguing!

I think it's lost to time, unfortunately.

Re: Microcontrollers Not Allowed – Trolling a college instructor

#75

Post by obstinate »

dunmalg wrote: post #66
obstinate wrote: post #52

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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.

You have to consider what those surveys measure, i.e. people who WORK there, not people who HAVE worked there. Thing to remember about top-tier tech companies is that anyone who CAN get a job with them can also pretty easily get a job somewhere else. This means that people who are unsatisfied don't stay very long.

So would you say that comparatively low attrition combined with high self-reported satisfaction indicates that a company is a good place to work?

Re: Microcontrollers Not Allowed – Trolling a college instructor

#76

Post by jacalata »

MichaelGG wrote: post #71
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…

Weird. When I interviewed at MS, education never came up at all. Just lots of algorithms questions, from ~9am to 7 in the evening. I was about 24 at the time. I wouldn't ditch GPA for no reason, but avoiding a bad professor and getting a good one seems far more valuable overall.

I'm assuming you sent in some kind of paperwork before walking up and interviewing - did that perhaps include a resume with a GPA on it?

Re: Microcontrollers Not Allowed – Trolling a college instructor

#78

Post by jacalata »

pavel_lishin wrote: post #56

> 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?

I was more confused by the implication that being a nerd in a Digital Sub-Systems course would somehow make you stand out.

Re: Microcontrollers Not Allowed – Trolling a college instructor

#79

Post by JoshTriplett »

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…

That's the kind of thing I tend to reference when talking to students and prospective students about what they should get out of college outside of classes. There is a grade above A+: it's "hey, I've got this project you might be interested in".

Re: Microcontrollers Not Allowed – Trolling a college instructor

#80

Post by usbreply »

jacquesm wrote: post #45
letstryagain wrote: post #37

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I really want to know how he did this one https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PC55DPXSpr4 I've been watching this video about once a month since 2013 and I still have no idea what's going on!

Looks deceive, those are no ordinary LEDs and that's not an ordinary switch. I have a good idea of how this was done but I may be off on the details. The switch contains a coil which is shorted using the switch itself which allows you to detect its presence or absence. That can be used to switch power to an RF oscillator which is connected to another coil, setting up a field over the green paper, relatively close to…

I'm on the phone so I won't google, but this is a very old story and if you go to the guy's website, he has a writeup of exactly how he did it. (and yes, the LEDs are hacked, they contain another hidden component)
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