I think the curriculum is different depending on the country or university. But in Brazil, most CS students have a discipline on operating systems or computer architecture, even if they don’t get very deep.
However me as a Computer Engineer graduate, I’ve learned a lot about circuit analysis, signal processing, control systems, analog and digital electronics, microcontrollers, FPGAs, electronic chip manufacturing, etc. Most of the stuff which I forgot anyway, since it’s been a while since I started working as a backend software engineer.
So, I am redoing the network at the corporate office. The “networking guru” had ran Cat5e parallel to the power lines.
We were running speed tests on the lines, which were dialup speeds
So their IT team went to lunch, and I used the network cable on the CS major’s computer to test speeds while they were on lunch.
Because it was a pain to get to, and I didn’t know how soon I would need it again, I laid the cable on top of his keyboard.
I used the cable three more times.
So, now I am punching down a keystone when they get back from lunch, and the CS major (god, I watched this in awe) moved the network cable off the keyboard and tried to pull up a site. “THE NETWORK IS DOWN, THE NETWORK IS DOWN!”
The network guru starts to flip and says it is working for him.
By this time, I had gotten up and grabbed the network cable and plugged it back in. “Try again, you should be up.”
“Oh, well, I am more of a software than hardware guy.”
The fucking network cable was on your keyboard.
But this is the same jackass that wrote a program which was very simple but created it with an Installshield wizard and a PDF that just told you to hit next.
It took him a day and a half. By the time we received it, we had already implemented my script. Took me 20 minutes.
Kiddos, this was way before AI.
Separate story; there was a girl who was majoring in CS who was part of a DnD group. She was about to graduate.
She was asking about copper, silver, and gold.
Pretty simple: 100 cp == 1 slv, 100 slv == 1 g
Just orders of magnitude. She just couldn’t wrap her head around it. “That’s too much math.”
Dude, you are in a field based on math.
She disliked me because I said sardonicallu, “you know the difference between a million, a billion, and a trillion? Kind of works like that, with fewer zeros involved.”
I don’t know how these people (specially the girl) would fare in my uni, because the math classes were simply brutal. And the teachers were sadistic to the point that they mocked the people who got grades low enough that they would automatically go to the final tests. It took like a misplace of a plus and a minus signal at the end of a 2 pages answer for them to simply take off 1/3 of the total test grade.
Regarding hardware, I get that some people are simply so focused in one thing that they become incompetent in everything else, and the way people are graded in universities, teachers care more about tests and theory than in practical projects. So I got the number 1 student in class struggling to implement a simple digital circuit (just a bunch of NOT, AND and OR gates and a few LEDs), so she had to rely on her other colleagues to get things done. Not to mention things like networking or troubleshooting. But she knew exactly the algebra for implementing a image filter.
I had the privilege of working on everything (although I was never an expert in anything), such as microelectronics, networking and software development. And I was able to work on three different roles, in embedded software, system administration and web (or distributed) software development. I kept the last role because it paid more and had more opportunities, and also because I hated working as a sysadmin and dealing with all kind of people that you are used to.
Most cs degrees I’ve seen, including my own include an operating systems course.
“How a computer works”
It really depends what you mean, and at what depth; theres a tone of stuff in there. Even then I think your mostly wrong, you just notice/remember the ones who are inept at using their computer.
One dude just got his phD in computer science and admitted to me he cannot even use his phone. Wish I was joking
I mean, computer science is basically the mathematics of computation. It’s not like the people working on knot theory or topology are great with 3d art or knitting
Computer science has many fields and those even differ per country. Theoretical computer science is only one part of it. There are also many specialisations.
But you make a good point about topology and knot theory.
I work in the IT department at a university. Can confirm that many comp sci majors have no idea how a computer works, or even how to install an operating system. They sure know how to write code though.
Computer scientists don’t understand this. This is systems.
Seriously, I have met computer scientists who admit they don’t know how the computer works, but simply is processional math.
One dude just got his phD in computer science and admitted to me he cannot even use his phone. Wish I was joking.
Computer science doesn’t mean you know how to a use a computer; astronomers and microbiologists don’t know much about telescopes and microscopes.
And CS students have the dumbest “smart” questions.
I think the curriculum is different depending on the country or university. But in Brazil, most CS students have a discipline on operating systems or computer architecture, even if they don’t get very deep.
However me as a Computer Engineer graduate, I’ve learned a lot about circuit analysis, signal processing, control systems, analog and digital electronics, microcontrollers, FPGAs, electronic chip manufacturing, etc. Most of the stuff which I forgot anyway, since it’s been a while since I started working as a backend software engineer.
I went to school for CIS and minored in CS.
So, I am redoing the network at the corporate office. The “networking guru” had ran Cat5e parallel to the power lines.
We were running speed tests on the lines, which were dialup speeds
So their IT team went to lunch, and I used the network cable on the CS major’s computer to test speeds while they were on lunch.
Because it was a pain to get to, and I didn’t know how soon I would need it again, I laid the cable on top of his keyboard.
I used the cable three more times.
So, now I am punching down a keystone when they get back from lunch, and the CS major (god, I watched this in awe) moved the network cable off the keyboard and tried to pull up a site. “THE NETWORK IS DOWN, THE NETWORK IS DOWN!”
The network guru starts to flip and says it is working for him.
By this time, I had gotten up and grabbed the network cable and plugged it back in. “Try again, you should be up.”
“Oh, well, I am more of a software than hardware guy.”
The fucking network cable was on your keyboard.
But this is the same jackass that wrote a program which was very simple but created it with an Installshield wizard and a PDF that just told you to hit next.
It took him a day and a half. By the time we received it, we had already implemented my script. Took me 20 minutes.
Kiddos, this was way before AI.
Separate story; there was a girl who was majoring in CS who was part of a DnD group. She was about to graduate.
She was asking about copper, silver, and gold.
Pretty simple: 100 cp == 1 slv, 100 slv == 1 g
Just orders of magnitude. She just couldn’t wrap her head around it. “That’s too much math.”
Dude, you are in a field based on math.
She disliked me because I said sardonicallu, “you know the difference between a million, a billion, and a trillion? Kind of works like that, with fewer zeros involved.”
I don’t know how these people (specially the girl) would fare in my uni, because the math classes were simply brutal. And the teachers were sadistic to the point that they mocked the people who got grades low enough that they would automatically go to the final tests. It took like a misplace of a plus and a minus signal at the end of a 2 pages answer for them to simply take off 1/3 of the total test grade.
Regarding hardware, I get that some people are simply so focused in one thing that they become incompetent in everything else, and the way people are graded in universities, teachers care more about tests and theory than in practical projects. So I got the number 1 student in class struggling to implement a simple digital circuit (just a bunch of NOT, AND and OR gates and a few LEDs), so she had to rely on her other colleagues to get things done. Not to mention things like networking or troubleshooting. But she knew exactly the algebra for implementing a image filter.
I had the privilege of working on everything (although I was never an expert in anything), such as microelectronics, networking and software development. And I was able to work on three different roles, in embedded software, system administration and web (or distributed) software development. I kept the last role because it paid more and had more opportunities, and also because I hated working as a sysadmin and dealing with all kind of people that you are used to.
Most cs degrees I’ve seen, including my own include an operating systems course.
“How a computer works”
It really depends what you mean, and at what depth; theres a tone of stuff in there. Even then I think your mostly wrong, you just notice/remember the ones who are inept at using their computer.
If you mean run program x on os y, well then sure
I mean, computer science is basically the mathematics of computation. It’s not like the people working on knot theory or topology are great with 3d art or knitting
Computer science has many fields and those even differ per country. Theoretical computer science is only one part of it. There are also many specialisations.
But you make a good point about topology and knot theory.
Exactly
I work in the IT department at a university. Can confirm that many comp sci majors have no idea how a computer works, or even how to install an operating system. They sure know how to write code though.
Friend’s dad has a phD in computer science thought that iphones have a plasma screen