skybytch 273 #1 May 9, 2006 I've just completed composing, revising and editing two research papers for school - 14 pages on illegal immigration for English and 9 pages on the People's Crusade for History. The last time I completed a research paper was in the early 1980's and it was produced with a (manual) typewriter and lots of Liquid Paper. Man, the students of today got it good! The internet makes doing research SO much easier than it used to be. Pick a topic, google it and with a little work find extensive bibliographies. Plug that info into your local libraries website and a big chunk of the work is basically done for you. And writing, revising and editing a long paper on a typewriter compared to writing, revising and editing a paper using a word processor is like the difference between a horse and carriage and a car! Honestly, how did we do it back then? If I'd had to do these papers on a typewriter, I'd be typing until it was time to go to class tommorow and turn them in. In a way, after doing these papers I'm happy I waited all those years to go back to college. Quote Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
WILDBILLAQR 0 #2 May 9, 2006 Remember sitting at the "micro fish" serching for that one pharagraph needed My kids have it way to easy these days!---------------------------------------------- "Thats not smoke, thats BUCKEYE!!" AQR#3,CWR#49 Quote Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
Icon134 0 #3 May 9, 2006 I have no idea I've used a word processer since I was in elementary school in 1985... albiet it was with an old school Apple IIe. But My pops was always on top of the "technology" curve...Livin' on the Edge... sleeping with my rigger's wife... Quote Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
popsjumper 2 #4 May 10, 2006 I was a math nut-case....do you know what a slide rule is?My reality and yours are quite different. I think we're all Bozos on this bus. Falcon5232, SCS8170, SCSA353, POPS9398, DS239 Quote Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
skybytch 273 #5 May 10, 2006 Quotedo you know what a slide rule is? LMAO!! I know what it is, but technology had advanced enough by the time I needed one that I got to use a "scientific calculator" instead. Quote Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
Icon134 0 #6 May 10, 2006 QuoteI was a math nut-case....do you know what a slide rule is? Yes... in fact I even learned how to use one when a kid... My dad and grandfather each owned one... Livin' on the Edge... sleeping with my rigger's wife... Quote Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
popsjumper 2 #7 May 10, 2006 You know how you carry your cell phone on your hip now? We had slide rule holsters hangin' on our belts.My reality and yours are quite different. I think we're all Bozos on this bus. Falcon5232, SCS8170, SCSA353, POPS9398, DS239 Quote Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
Icon134 0 #8 May 10, 2006 QuoteYou know how you carry your cell phone on your hip now? We had slide rule holsters hangin' on our belts. only cool people carry their cell phones on their hip... kind of like carrying the slide rule back then... Me... I keep my cell phone in my pocket... btw: my dad has one of the hip holsters Livin' on the Edge... sleeping with my rigger's wife... Quote Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
popsjumper 2 #9 May 10, 2006 if that's what you are trying to say...NO I'm NOT old enough to be your father. My reality and yours are quite different. I think we're all Bozos on this bus. Falcon5232, SCS8170, SCSA353, POPS9398, DS239 Quote Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
Icon134 0 #10 May 10, 2006 Quoteif that's what you are trying to say...NO I'm NOT old enough to be your father. I wasn't saying that.... my dad's actually old... (he's almost 70...) you only look old... j/k dude...Livin' on the Edge... sleeping with my rigger's wife... Quote Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
warpedskydiver 0 #11 May 10, 2006 at least you didn't have to write it on a cave wall with a bloody chunk of animal Quote Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
Broke 0 #12 May 10, 2006 BURN!!!Divot your source for all things Hillbilly. Anvil Brother 84 SCR 14192 Quote Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
Nightingale 0 #13 May 10, 2006 LOL. At my first real job, I had to ask someone how to use the typewriter. I'd never seen one before. Quote Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
popsjumper 2 #14 May 10, 2006 Oh yeah??? Well ....well...... Ok...you got me.My reality and yours are quite different. I think we're all Bozos on this bus. Falcon5232, SCS8170, SCSA353, POPS9398, DS239 Quote Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
Icon134 0 #15 May 10, 2006 QuoteOh yeah??? Well ....well...... Ok...you got me. damn... dude... I take it back... Livin' on the Edge... sleeping with my rigger's wife... Quote Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
Avion 0 #16 May 10, 2006 Slide rules and logarithms rock. I mean really, do we actually need 10+ digits of precision for any practal purpose. BW Quote Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
Icon134 0 #17 May 10, 2006 QuoteI mean really, do we actually need 10+ digits of precision for any practal purpose. no... but I have had experience with needing 6 digits of precision...Livin' on the Edge... sleeping with my rigger's wife... Quote Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
LisaH 0 #18 May 10, 2006 I paid my brother to do it for me Be yourself! MooOOooOoo Quote Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
Avion 0 #19 May 10, 2006 For any of the electronics or mechanical engineering I deal with usually 4 is plenty. When I delve into sub atomic stuff, binding energies and mass differentials relating to atomic decay and isotopic mutations, then the constants get longer, but even then I have yet to have any practical need for greater accuracy than 1:1000. And, the bonus is after an EMP they'll still work BW Gee, did I just sound like a geek or what? Back to the original topic of this thread, when I first made acquantance with a word processor, that's exactly what I thought, how did anybody ever write without one. It was plain torture. I did a forty page sociology paper on a typewriter, and a mechanical one at that. It took me months, of typing over and over and... arg! Quote Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
Icon134 0 #20 May 10, 2006 I worked with 6 and 7 nines purity material as an undergraduate with electronic materials (thats 99.9999% and 99.99999% pure materials) basically they start with that kind of purity and end up with 4-5 places in the end. but you're right generally its not necessary... of course if you get into nano technology you do need to start worrying about where specific atoms are... and that's another thing all together... Much of those technologies aren't practical yet... but its getting much closer to being practical... Livin' on the Edge... sleeping with my rigger's wife... Quote Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
Avion 0 #21 May 10, 2006 Yea, that beyond anything I've ever done. What was that semiconductor fabrication? I tend to stick more to the theoretical side of things, and what I can do on my own. BW Quote Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
ACMESkydiver 0 #22 May 10, 2006 QuoteIn a way, after doing these papers I'm happy I waited all those years to go back to college. I hear ya sister. I did way better being in my 30's than I ever would have sticking to it in my teens.~Jaye Do not believe that possibly you can escape the reward of your action. Quote Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
Icon134 0 #23 May 10, 2006 QuoteYea, that beyond anything I've ever done. What was that semiconductor fabrication? I tend to stick more to the theoretical side of things, and what I can do in my basement. Essentially, I co-oped in the R&D section of a company that manufactured Sputtering targets... Sputter deposition is a process used to make thin films (talking nanometer scale)... typically I would only see the high purity materials on the Semiconductor side... mostly Aluminum although they were starting to get into Copper interconnects while I was there (this was about 8 years ago...) the last time I was a student Livin' on the Edge... sleeping with my rigger's wife... Quote Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
Avion 0 #24 May 10, 2006 I missed out on getting into the big labs, with the big toys. Maybe, I should go back to college too. Hmm... BW Quote Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
NWFlyer 2 #25 May 10, 2006 My mom worked at a college library. So, how I did it was to call up mom the day before my paper was due... "Hey mom, I need to write a report on [insert topic here]. Can you bring me home some stuff?" Voila. Instant research. But damned if she didn't drag me into that library from time to time and make me learn to do my own research. and learn the Library of Congress card cataloging system. I was over that whole Dewey Decimal thing by the time I was 15. "There is only one basic human right, the right to do as you damn well please. And with it comes the only basic human duty, the duty to take the consequences." -P.J. O'Rourke Quote Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
