Lessons from Comp 4

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I recently finished up teaching Comp 4, the computer literacy course here at UNC, during a compressed summer session. Comp 4 is an introductory class that assumes NO knowledge of computers among its students, and believe me when I say that this was often the case. The class was great fun to teach, and one of the facets that made it interesting (day-in and day-out) was the wealth of new knowledge that the students imparted to me on tests and examinations. I thought that I'd share some of these nuggets with you. My comments are in the standard C delimiters (/* and */). *Your* comments are encouraged. Here goes: Bacchus invented FORTRAN. /* I knew FORTRAN was old, and that it may have been designed under the influence of alcohol, but... */ There are three kinds of program statements: sequence, repetition, and seduction. There are two types of graphics: vector and rascal. /* Otay... */ Programming languages have specifictions. /* Obviously this student has dealt with a few standards. */ Macs are compatible with each other. /* Imagine the alternative: "What's your Mac's serial number? We'll go back to the warehouse and get your software." */ Doctors use computers to create a three demential picture of a person's brain. /* Is this classic, or what? */ One kind of a hostile computer program is a Trojan. C is a logical programming language. /* */ Heuristics (from the French heure, "hour") limit the amount of time spent executing something. [When using heuristics] it shouldn't take longer than an hour to do something. /* An absolutely terrific "false cognate". */ Having the computer automatically fill in images for animation is called "spleening". /* Derivation: most likely "splines" + "tweening". */ One method of computer security is a phone line. /* She qualified it later by adding, "You have to know the number." */ Video games are examples of fault-tolerant systems.On one test, I gave the students some abbreviations and asked them to tell me what they stood for. You won't believe the creativity of a student in a test situation. For example, one of the abbreviations was "fax", which *really* stands for "facsimile". However, various Comp 4'ers said it stood for: Fiber-optic Aided Xeroxing Frequency Automatic X-rays/* and my favorite... */ Fast A** Xeroxing The students also had to hand in term papers, and these were rife with interesting tidbits. I've clipped a few, quoted verbatim: "The worst thing the Mac has to offer, is that cooperative multitasking is not available to be used." "... footnotes present an interesting problem, which may be solvable by Hypercad." /* I assume the last term is the newest rage -- a free-form database for designers. */ "...Linda, a blind girl, was able to attend public school due to the aid of a speaking computer that taught her the basic fundmamentals [sic] of grammar and spelling." /* Linda may want to lend her computer out... */ "The program is manufactured by Quantel, a Silicon Valley company located in Clearwater, Florida." /* A *long* valley, as my roommate put it. */ "At the beginning of each season [Edwin] Moses teats himself on computerized weight machines..." /* Ouch! */




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