Hi all,
I'm a lifelong electronics nut, both professional and hobby.

I'm also very keen to see others getting interested in electronics;
for some time 'hands-on' electronics using actual components seems to have been going out of fashion in favor of software and simulations. (Not that I have anything against software, I design, build and program industrial gear).

AAC is mostly great, with a lot of people who have similar interests in learning and sharing information.


The one thing that bugs me is out-of-topic 'homework posts' - people who come up with odd 'projects' then seem to want info on how it should work in theory, rather than how to build it in practice.

I have no objection to people posting requests for help with homework, but misrepresenting it to get a load of other people to do the work for them is no less cheating than copying someone else's answers in an exam.

One point of view may be that if they are dumb enough to want to cheat, it's up to them - but what happens when they eventually get a job based on their qualifications and can't handle it? Helping them cheat is not doing them any favors.

The only way to learn is understand the basic principles and work up from that.


I can't help thinking a more direct and visible 'Homework rules' sticky in the none-homework forums may improve things somewhat, if only that people can then not plead ignorance to the rule.

(I know it's already buried away in the 'Please Read' stickies, but how many bother to read them?)

 

There were undoubtedly apes that took too many banana breaks 100 kyears ago and more, trying to get out of foraging for the flock. I assume there will be lazy bums 1 kyears from now and beyond. Remember the story about some Greek assuring the king "Sire, there is no royal road to geometry". I saw it when I was a student, as no doubt everyone else who went through school.

I pity the people who wind up being harmed by the lazy bozo's incompetence because he or she didn't learn the material properly. At the places I worked at in my career (e.g., Varian and HP), these people would never make it in the door because they wouldn't pass the technical interviews. Thus, I hope the good companies keep using tough technical interviews to get the best candidates. As I mentioned in another post a month or two ago, the grades are irrelevant -- it was always "show me what you know, what you can do, and how you think on your feet" in these interviews.