Package

[egon]

Jazz; I have finally decided that as I am now a fully fledged Senior Citizen living with the mind of a ten year old in a very worn out old body that my package needs opening! [img]/forums/images/icons/blush.gif[/img] [img]/forums/images/icons/blush.gif[/img]

Can you tell me where I put it?? [img]/forums/images/icons/grin.gif[/img] [img]/forums/images/icons/grin.gif[/img] Or why I should open it?? [img]/forums/images/icons/grin.gif[/img] [img]/forums/images/icons/grin.gif[/img]

Egon [img]/forums/images/icons/grin.gif[/img]

[JazzDad]

Is this a subtle hint that it's time to change my signature line? As Jimmy Durante used to say, "I got a million of 'em".
Although you and Pat are retired, here's one that he probably has in his favourite quotes stack: I love deadlines - I love the whooshing noise they make as they go by. - Douglas Adams

[Pat]

Jazz, All I need to say is, 42!

Pat (P.S. I miss Douglass Adams)

[jml755]

42 (base 13) = 54 base 10 (6x9?????)

Speaking of numbers, I remember learning about "number bases" in elementary school, thinking "why would anyone need that?". Lo and behold I becaume a computer programmer. The light bulb went on!

Anyway, being proficient in binary, octal and hexadecimal, I used to enjoy converting numbers in my head and irritating my wife, family, etc. Some of my combo locks had numbers of significance (converted to another base). I've since quit doing that because my head hurts to try.

About 5 years after moving into my first house, a computer geek friend pointed out that the last 4 digits of my phone number were 2048. Since 2k is a common binary number found in the computer world, it depressed me for weeks knowing that I had gone so long without recognizing that simple fact! Still bugs me to this day.

[egon]

If that package just includes numbers it will not be of much use to me. Anything up to ten is easy but after that it get's more difficult. [img]/forums/images/icons/frown.gif[/img]

I was hopin the package had that number understandin bit in it?? [img]/forums/images/icons/confused.gif[/img] [img]/forums/images/icons/confused.gif[/img]

Egon [img]/forums/images/icons/frown.gif[/img]

[Pat]

Egon, Better innumerate than unwashed and so much more socially acceptable.

Hint: Innumerate is the numerical equivalent of illiterate.


JML, You may be nearly as messed up as I am.

Just this morning at breakfast my wife and I were discussing the parallel between degreed I.T. professionals from my alma mater and USAF navigators back in my time in the USAF (after Sputnik but before man on the moon.) The parallel being there was no recruitment program. In the case of the navigator, you just had to fail no more than the allowable amount during pilot training and for the I.T. degree program, one way to get in was to fail the entrance exam for the computer science program. When I took that test there were people there taking it for the 5th or 6th time hoping a miracle would happen. Had they fully appreciated the difference in the math requirements they might have not been so eager to get into the CS program.

I actually worked as and had a job title of computer programmer/computer specialist working full time at it for a couple years, mostly while getting a Masters in Software Engineering degree in evening classes. I led a small team of people developing Pascal and Ada programs that were courseware authoring systems for training scenarios on embedded computers on shipboard Navy war fighting systems.

Every coordinate system I saw was different from all the rest. MSB and LSB were not the same between the development system (VAX 11-785 super mini-computer) and the "beasts used shipboard." The whole thing was a guaranteed headache. Some of the stuff I did, I could only understand before lunch when I was fresh as it was too complicated if I was not at full capacity.

At times having Zaphod's dual brain advantage would have certainly helped.

OK numerologists here is a little gem I originated to express certain emotions... A digital salute, 00100 often offered to the folks who qualified to have there ID number be ID ten T (ID10T a close approximation to IDIOT)

Further explanation of the digital salute by PM on an as requested basis only.

Pat

[jml755]

Ah, msb's and lsb's. I'd forgotten (or pushed to the far reaches of my brain) MOST SIGNIFICANT BITs, etc. You're right, the non-standardization between manufacturers meant you had to think more in those days. EBCDIC vs ASCII, hex vs octal, etc. I learned on an IBM 360 with 16 registers. My first job out of school was using Data General mini-computers with 4 registers. Egad, I thought, how will I ever write code with only 4 available registers! After a few months, piece of cake. Then I started working on HP mini-computers. Only 2 registers (A & B). Dejavu: Egad, how will I do itwith only 2? No hardware multiply/divide, any higher level math functions had to be written in code. Ah, the good ole days. [img]/forums/images/icons/grin.gif[/img] Plus walking to school barefoot in the snow, uphill both ways. [img]/forums/images/icons/grin.gif[/img] [img]/forums/images/icons/grin.gif[/img]

Actually, the code back then ran better than a lot of the bloatware out there today. It was a lot easier to find a bug in 4k of code instead of 4gb. Same applies to cars/trucks today. Tough to be a shade-tree mechanic nowadays.

Also, I love Jazz-Dad's signature. It rings so true. I've seen a lot of evidence to support that statement. The trick is to make sure that they DO open it. I see a lot of kids meandering through life, enabled by parents to sit and play video games all day long and they lack the motivation or need to "open their package".

I remember calling my dad during my soph year in college and telling him I was thinking of dropping out. He said fine, but I'd better get a job first and a place to live. The message was clear: I wasn't going to go home and sit on my butt. I hung up and was a little PO'ed at first, but I stuck it out.

A friend of my daughters has been out of high school for a few years. She's a good kid but seemed to lack motivation/direction. Anyway, she's in the Marines in boot camp now. From what I've heard, she's liking it a lot while some others have left crying.

Jazz-Dad: I vote that you keep the signature.

[CJDave]

[img]/forums/images/icons/tongue.gif[/img] I would not rush to change a single letter in your signature line JazzDad; it is a VERY good reminder that we need to be looking carefully for those sometimes hidden, "great strengths" in others, especially young people, and COMMENT ON THEM. I have long since quit worrying [well, at least it doesn't keep me up nights] about the things that I CAN'T DO; like the daily word jumble in the newspaper, and the computer stuff that I see Pat and a few others discussing; and instead concentrate on those areas in which I seem to have an advantage. Reeeely good "kid mechanics" (people like teachers and other kid specialists like resource folks at skool) are adept at finding the drawstrings that open the packages that kids are carrying. When Roy Rogers and Dale Evans went to an orphanage in the early fifties to adopt some kids to add to their single kid family, one seven year old boy approached them and said: "Take me Mister, I can hoe corn real good." SOME ONE at SOME TIME had complemented this kid on his ability with a hoe as a means of encouragement, and when the time came to toss his most valuable asset out on the bargaining table, that is what he used. You hear so much about self esteem from the liberal bunch as if it was a label that you can apply. Nope,.... it doesn't work that way, it's an earned quality; and I feel sorry for kids growing up in a society where work is no longer valued and there is no concrete way that kids can make a genuine contribution to the family well being; like the kids who had to feed the pigs every day or those pigs might die and the family would have less to eat. We've lost that vital connection somewhere in the dark corner of a shopping mall arcade. [img]/forums/images/icons/frown.gif[/img]

[jml755]

CJDave,
Amen. Good post.
Especially the comments regarding self-esteem. Self-esteem is developed through a combination of many factors and is a quality that is highly overated IMHO. The coddling that goes on today in the name of avoiding damage to a child's self-esteem is not one of those factors. All of the examples of "failures to launch" or problem kids that I know of have one thing in common: enabling parents who turned a blind eye when tough love was needed and gave the kids everything they wanted.

You are absolutely right about the value of hard work and contribution. Those values get taught early on and reinforced continually through example and consistent behavior. There is also no book that applies to every kid. As you point out, you've got to find the "drawstrings" on each one individually.

[JazzDad]

Hard work...
Self esteem...
Encouragement...
and my favourite:
PROCRASTINATION!

Sorry it took me so long to add this.