I felt intelligent, well maybe not quite intelligent, but I felt capable.
ECE 333 (Digital Systems) lab went ok…turns out I don’t know the difference between positive 5 and negative 5…anyway, that lab worked out, but it took longer than we had hoped.
Then in ECE 300 (Signals and Systems - class I failed winter of last year) lab I was actually capable of doing the lab. Some of the theoretical math things required me to look it up in my previous year’s folder and to ask my lab partner, but I was able to *do* the lab. Which is amazing. In the past I would’ve bumbled around until my lab partner figured it out or until someone took pity and showed us how to do it.
Today, I was actually able to help people use the Agilent spectrum analyzer. It’s not too difficult once you figure out what some of the buttons do…and if you have a basic understanding of the harmonics of your input waveform (which for once I finally figured out what some of that mumbo jumbo means).
Anyway, it was nice being able to provide support for something that probably pushed me over the edge for failing last time. (I totally blew 10% of my grade because I couldn’t properly complete the lab practicle exam.)
Another thing that made me feel good was when we hooked the SA and the oscilloscope to the function generator (SA & O were “T” connected to the FG) the square wave that was supposed to be there was suddenly severaly sloped…it looked like a bunch of C’s across the screen instead of boxes. Anyway, I said it looked like we had a capacitor in the circuit, but that it didn’t make any sense for one to be there…but the Prof. explained that the SA had a capactior in there to protect from high DC voltages. Which makes sense when you take time to think about it.
And I believe that’s it for now. I’ve got an introspective/thoughtful post in the works so if I get time this weekend it’ll be going up.
Oh, and 6 days until Fall Break!!
October 7th, 2004 at 3:04 am
Eagerly awaiting thoughtfulness and introspection…
Bwua-ha-ha.
October 7th, 2004 at 8:34 am
Coolest Mom ever is glad to know you are alive. I did, however, notice the door to Dr. 7 ’s room had closed yesterday, so figured someone must be moving around there.
I got a new computer at work! It’s a Mac, but it is way better than what I was using.
Your entire post lost me. I’m just starting the chapter on storage in my Computer Intro class. I did my Excel homework twice - the first time I lost it while trying to save when it told me I performed an illegal operation. Then I did on D’s laptop again last night and couldn’t save to floppy cause his A: drive broke. Of course, he tried to fix by beating on it, so I’m thinking it might need to be replaced.
Jerm’s learning his lines. This was first full week of practice. Received a letter from Dayton, and would auto receive $6500/yr. for SAT scores. Excited about seeing campus on Oct. 17.
Okay, guess I better do my job. LU