Warning: long post.
ouch undefined... while i do see your point:
building PC's and computer science are two distinctly different fields... hardware vs. software, engineering vs. programming, that kind of thing... you dont have to be so harsh about it! haha
my point was merely that... it takes a good deal of knowledge (both hardware AND software) to build and maintain your own computer... and some of the people in these classes dont know the first thing about computers at all... theyre just very adept at cheating (its easy to copy and email a program or assignment thats due)... and i find this unfair... that is all...
- RK
Well, I didn't mean to be harsh. I just wanted to point out becoming a knowledgeable, functional, and intellectual computer science student has no bearing on whether or not the student knows how to assemble a PC.
If you study computer science in college, you'll soon learn that you won't learn any of the material you claimed to be proficient in. And believe it or not, even as an electrical engineer, you will not learn how to choose the proper PSU for your build or choose the right graphics card to maximize your FPS on Crysis. You'll be learning about advanced topics in computer architecture... for example: interfacing components, digital systems design, memory system organization, run-time issues, VLSI design, data control, numerical representation and computation, etc. The list goes on.
Believe it or not, PC building or repair is not in the typical CS or engineering program. You learn about the
specifics and utmost details that prevail in engineering while in college. It is assumed that once you're at that level in your education, you're able to manually keep up with how a computer works, from a birds eye view. The functional low level topics are left for professors and teachers to explore in the classroom.
So, what my point is - your claim that the CS students are unable to build a PC is irrelevant, inappropriate, and unwarranted. Any person I can grab off of the road can be taught to maintain their computer. I know many software engineers and computer scientists that do not know the first thing about troubleshooting PC related problems. Does it mean that they shouldn't be a computer scientist or software engineer? No.
However, I want to also note that your view is based on HS students. Once you are in college, you will see that many students that are computer science or engineering majors have a great deal of exposure in the computer world/industry. The majority of high school students, not all, are immature and only care about the grade they receive. While students copying programs from one another or from a solutions book is wrong, they will soon learn that continuing this approach will serve not only as a detriment to their career, but also to their learning. I must admit, while I took AP Java years and years ago in high school, I did copy a few questions related to programming from a solutions book. I got caught, faced the consequences, and moved on... Am I a bad person? No... but it wasn't right of me to do. But look at me now: I successfully completed many advanced level CS courses in college, without the aid of cheating, even as an electrical engineering major. I even TA'd a few courses to help other students out. I also happen to hold a job as a Radar Engineer with a major defense company. Things turned out fine.
Believe it or not, there are students that I went to school with that do not know how to build a computer at all, but can write you a subroutine on a Motorola microprocessor to take an analog signal and process the signal to perform a certain function. Or students that know how to work directly with memory locations in performing a certain task. Is that hard? Yes. Harder than building a PC? Yes, easily. These people know how to program the inner levels and workings of a PC, but do not know how to build a PC. Who knew such a world existed?
