Steve's Programming Challenge: Weights and Measures

[Pete]

(#) Double gets you closer.  

Yeah, 35 years ago I start designing the ledger part of my program and we'd need a whole new set of smileys for me to show you my shocked face. What. I paid $4,500 for a computer that can't do simple math??? Lucky for me I stumbled on figuring out for myself the divide by 100 part. There was no personal internet back in those days, or sites like this one to get wise-ascii answers.

Pete

- I'll take hyperreal numbers for .99999999 Alex.

[bplus]

.1 may be represented in base 2 as .00011 with a bar over the top of last four digits like 1/3 = .3 with a bar over the top in decimal.

[SMcNeill]

.1 may be represented in base 2 as .00011 with a bar over the top of last four digits like 1/3 = .3 with a bar over the top in decimal.

But... Where's that bar key at on my keyboard.  Dang it!

[Dav]

Lol, My wife looks at me and asked me what I'm thinking about.  Weight problem I said.  "Finally!"  She answers.

Edit: Actually this challenge describes things well.

- Dav

[TerryRitchie]

Well hell Steve, your example of 1/3rd in decimal made the light bulb finally go off in my head concerning this issue. It was as simple as relating the issue to a decimal equivalent. Heck, it's so simple now. You missed your calling as a teacher methinks.

[Pete]

Confucius say: "It's easier to reduce a fraction than your caboose."

Pete

[TerryRitchie]

Weight problem I said.

LOL, I would have gotten slapped thinking I was referring to her!

[TerryRitchie]

You know Steve, it's never to late to get into the teaching profession. On more than one occasion on the forums your way of looking at problems from a different perspective has helped me out. You remind me of a 55 year old welding instructor our school hired when I was still in my early 30s. Besides being an awesome welding instructor he could take problems, analyze them, and then come up with unique and brilliant solutions.

Case in point: One day we had cafeteria duty together and I was having a bad day. I was having one hell of time getting students to understand the OSI networking model. He asked me what the general premise of the model was and after a 10 minute quick lesson on the OSI model he said, "yep, that's a tough one"

About 2 days later I get an email from him that said to have each student act as one of the layers of the OSI model. Start the data out as a piece of paper and then pass it from the Application layer down to the Physical layer with each student adding their encapsulated data (software adding port numbers, routers adding IP addresses, switches adding MAC addresses, etc..). Then, get a second group of students doing the same thing in reverse acting as the receiving network. They would decapsulate the data as it moved up the OSI model to the final application.

Perfect! I tried this and light bulbs started going off with the students. Before this I was using programs such as Wireshark to show them data on a screen as it moved around on the network. Glassy eyed stares to say the least. Getting them involved was the key.

Over the years I morphed this into using large colored Lego pieces (Duplo blocks) where the colors represented the encapsulated data and address encoding schemes. Each student would add or subtract their colored Lego blocks to or from each end of the data as it moved through the applications, protocols, routers, switches, hubs, and wiring. I never had a problem again getting students to understand the inner workings of the OSI model all thanks to a very bright welding instructor.

[Pete]

Weight problem I said.

LOL, I would have gotten slapped thinking I was referring to her!

I once told my wife she had a weight problem. The next day, she got rid of an ugly 165lbs.

Pete

[SMcNeill]

Well hell Steve, your example of 1/3rd in decimal made the light bulb finally go off in my head concerning this issue. It was as simple as relating the issue to a decimal equivalent. Heck, it's so simple now. You missed your calling as a teacher methinks.

I've always loved when that light bulb tics for people; you can just see it on their face, and it usually brightens up a room.  I've never been a *paid* teacher, but I've always tried to share and teach all I can freely.  

And, to be honest, I'm grateful I didn't become a teacher.  Back ages ago, I had an invite to work at Virginia Tech as a teacher for QBASIC/VISUAL BASIC.  Was "..." <-- THAT close to taking the job.

Had I taken it, I would've been right there, center stage, in Norris Hall as https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Virginia_Tech_shooting <-- THAT went down.

So I *love* to teach.  I just thank God I never actually became a teacher.  I was ".." close to that dark day!