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View Full Version : If you're gonna be writing a manual, do it properly.



KodiaX987
Nov 26, 2005, 10:29 PM
Right now, I am doing an electrical circuits course (go figure for software engineering...) which is basically the mental equivalent of Vietnam and Bosnia together, with a bit of Kosovo thrown in as an en-cas. With such an amount of raw pain coming up, you can be sure there'll be diarrhea.

I am currently working with a 2004 edition of the course manual.


It's handwritten.

Sorry man, but those types of things weren't even done in the 80s. WE USE TYPED AND PRINTED MANUALS. ALWAYS ALWAYS ALWAYS. Even my college philosophy teacher, who claimed to know shit-all about computers, was able to write a manual of his own. So why can't a university teacher with several doctorates in his hand do it? I almost understand him, as he once sent us a freshly revised lab assignment in PDF format.

Waddya know, it was corrupted.

Oh, and half the students didn't get it. By chance that the copy on the school's web site was working.

The manual is also impossibly cryptic. You know there's a problem when you realize that the exercise book is bigger than the manual.

Here, just tonight, I was trying to find out how to calculate the phase shift out of an equation of frequency. For those non-electrical students here, I'll briefly explain: This equation allows us to figure out the amplification of an electrical signal for any frequency - each circuit has its own equation for that. Either way, I needed the phase shift.

This is what I found in the manual:


"For a certain frequency, there is a certain amplification (or attenuation) and a certain phase."

That's it. There was no more. I had to google my answer up, and go into what I could qualify to be the bayou of the Internet to find out the way to calculate the phase shift. Bra-fucking-vo. The Internet is a better teacher than the teacher himself.

Wannabe teachers, take this as an example. You're gonna be writing a manual? Make it on the computer, with many examples, with computer-drawn diagrams and pictures, and find a better way to hold it together than by using cheap-ass plastic coils. Oh, and make sure it's at least decently understandable and that we'll know where to find what we're looking for. Puh-lease.

My apologies to any of you who were planning to go to university. Looks like I've mistakenly hit you with some cold, hard truth. You thought college and high school sucked? HA, I say!

roygbiv
Nov 26, 2005, 10:32 PM
Hahah... electrical engineering blows...


but this is coming from a physics student's perspective...



(physics also blows... ;o;)

Sayara
Nov 26, 2005, 10:59 PM
Leave it to Shuri. That is all i can say.

You have that amazing luck of having bad luck.

Sharkyland
Nov 27, 2005, 10:17 AM
Hmm for my software engineering course, I had a textbook, but it was very difficult to understand. The teacher was pretty slow in explaning the stuff while he gave us problems that would be like 2 chapters ahead.

integral and derivation substitution is huge part in EE and I usually have trouble doing it, I was kinda leaned away from EE due to the fact that it's no more... 1+2 equals 3... but given x, you solve with y, z, a, b, and c to get something.

navci
Nov 27, 2005, 12:34 PM
What I found is this.
A lot of professors really don't like to teach. They have never taught before. They are only teaching cuz they can stay in the school to do researches. There are some really brilliant people out there that has no idea how to pass on their brilliance to others.

Ya.
But I think Shuri has win the badluck lottery.

Neith
Nov 27, 2005, 01:54 PM
On 2005-11-27 09:34, navinator wrote:
What I found is this.
A lot of professors really don't like to teach.


Truth. I have a lecturer who cuts a 2 hour lecture short to 45 minutes, because he 'can't be arsed teaching us the rest'. Sounds ok, but when we all fail, it won't be funny, so a lot of us are filing complaints.

Also, had a lecture on Thursday, which I shouldn't have bothered going to. Her PDF notes wouldn't load (oops, forgot to install Acrobat Reader!), all the texture maps she showed us were far too dark, so when put on a large screen, they appeared to be black squares.

Yeah, don't expect much at university, the lecturers at mine are only interested in the pay packet. >_>