Computer

Please correct me if I am wrong, but I believe that our young
people are pretty darned ignorant when it comes to computers!
Huh? Where's this coming from?

I have asked many many young people from time to time about
this or that, things that they claim they are learning in
high school or college. In general, there is a dismally low
level of computer knowledge. Of course, there are exceptions,
but the exceptions are not what is needed for the future.
What's needed is a highly educated "mean score" plus one
standard deviation unit.  What we got right now is a tiny
slice two standard deviation units far out to the right. I'm
afraid that the "business of educating" the populace is just
"business as usual."

Take banking.

You go into the branch office on the corner and they are not
overwhelmed with retail customers. Right across the street,
is another competing bank's branch. Same story. They just
stare out across the street at each other. Now along comes a
corporate banking consolidator and through stock transfer,
they close 500 branches. Now 10,000 people are no longer
staring out the window. They are all looking for work.

The demise of retail banking is just as well, those layoffs
notwithstanding.  Those long lines at the bank during lunch
time are quite often populated by some people cashing their
checks.  Those offices are overloaded with the "bounced
checks" garbage, the low returns, and all of the associated
problems.  The future of banking is "business banking." The
future of retail banking is electronic deposit coupled with
ATM transactions.  This is just as well.  Things change.

But what about the 10,000 people? They might want a little
bit of retraining in computers.

To the rescue comes the University of the Arts,
Philadelphia's own university devoted exclusively to
education and professional training in the visual and
performing arts. They offer a Web Design Certificate Program.
You need to take Photoshop, Advanced Multimedia (Macromedia
Director), plus 4 other courses.

Each course costs $790. Each course consists of 12 3-hour
classes. Do the math. You sit in a classroom and hear
lectures and learn computer stuff. It cost you 20 bucks an
hour.  After $5,000.  you got the certificate. You might have
learned something or other too.

There are plenty of other people who know a lot more than you
do. They might even be eating ravioli in the lunchroom today.
They are high school kids.  But unfortunately for them, the
"Certificate" holds lots of sway.  Pretty generally, the
$5,000. splits the world into 2 groups.  Those than can and
those that can't.

You can get some scholarships or loans, but why? Every kid in
the 9th grade or higher should already know this crappola
cold, inside out.  Why let the University teach nothing and
charge something?  If I were the president of the PTA or a
member of the school board, I sure would rattle some cages.

The University of the Arts provides the room and hires a
part-time instructor for $1,500. for the entire course. (Its
12 3-hour sessions - $40. per hour). They jam 10 or 20 people
into the room and that is that.  (They are bringing in $200.
to $400. per hour, depending if it is 10 people or 20
people sitting there.) That, plus paying the heating and
electric bill, providing a computer lab, and the cost of
printing 50,000 brochures to get some customers pretty much
does it.  But this adds lots of cash to their bottom line.
Lots of cash.

These web designers graduate and get a job and they are not
out of the woods just yet. Remember, they got the loan and
now they got a second unstable career. Remember, almost
everyone in the world including my dog Cody already has a web
site.  Let's hope that they can pay off the loan before there
is even more consolidation.

How about learning something useful, like "how computers
work" right in high school. You do not need Al{*filter*}to
announce that the U.S. of A. is wiring every classroom for
"mucho dinardo" for this to happen.

Wiring every classroom helps no one except the "already-fat"
networking companies. I do not care if every kid can surf the
'net in school. I do not care if they have not yet seen the
"Dr. Laura pictures." I do care that no one can query a
database.  I can teach someone how to do that on this 80386,
16MHz computer sitting in front of me.  The one with 1 meg of
ram.  Its street value is $25.

I can write some macros and do programming on this too. How
about your kids? Do they even know what this means?  I'll bet
they do not.

Cheers,

Joel

Joel M. Eichen, D.D.S.

PS- Take this discussion elsewhere? I do not think so!  You
should know that this post addresses the corporate dental
consolidators and the kids (dentists) who walk out of dental
school with $200,000. in debt the day they graduate.

Reread this post and extrapolate what I've said about
computers to dentistry. If you understand one, you understand
both. You'll find that "take this discussion elsewhere" has
no place in any discussion anywhere in America!

You'll also find that I waste plenty of bandwidth by making
liberal use of "new paragraph markers." This is necessary
because reading without white space is very tedious. Even
with white space it is plenty tedious! So forget the "wasted
bandwidth" argument too.  As for the content, our readers
will be the judge of that!

The wiring of the classrooms reflects general trends in US miseducation.
When in doubt, buy hardware, build new buildings, etc. Since those in charge
don't have a clue themsleves (we pride ourselves on ignorance in this
country. That's why we have to import graduate students in mathematics and
the sciences), all that fancy equipment will be wasted.

My experience is pretty much the same. This 50+ year old was playing around
with "micro-computers" in the 70's. I now build and service all of my own.
I've set up my own home network with a few wrinkles you won't find in the
network at the office. I have no certificates, so the office pays big money
to some {*filter*} who forked over about ten grand to Novell (now that's a
racket!) to get a certificate to be a "consultant." He hasn't learned
anything new in about the last eight years, and it shows. He's totally
obsolete, yet these paper qualification happy morons keep providing him an
unearned living. And so it goes.

Where did you say that mindmill was?

Cheers,

JKR

The CMOS on every single one, except the one I bought last year will
explode!

Cheers,

Joel

----------------

Can you really reprogram the EPROM on a computer that I hear is now
worth only $15.?

Those guys were hooted down by the industry.

I guess that the industry figured that computers would become
something like refrigerators (commodity) and they would need something
to get all of the old computers to stop all at once!

Cheers,

Joel

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Of course, some older software for PC's, mostly of the DOS variety may have
used the two digit year shortcut, so there could be problems if you are
using some really old accounting software on your beloved AT. But I should
think that most dentists have upgraded lately, and I doubt that any but the
most antedeluvian Windows software has any Y2K problems.

Let's face it; the Y2K problem is mostly going to affect those 1960's
mainframe monsters--you know, the ones which use enough electricity to light
up a small town--far too many of which can still be found chugging away in
large companies and government agencies. Those systems are going to cost a
mint to reprogram (their original programmers probably have already retired)
or replace. And they can do a lot of damage.

Cheers,

JKR

Like you may be, I am a frustrated engineer. It all began when I took
a watch apart when I was 7 or so, put it back together and had a
couple of little wheels left over.

I do not use any of the "old computers" for production. I use Word97,
Office, Access, FoxPro, etc on a modern computer (which costs under
$1,000. today.) I also run ethernet 10 megabit up and down the various
stories, inside the walls of my house. With NICs costing $30 to $40,
its a great way to save on sneaker {*filter*}.

The old ones are strictly for fun and sentimental value. I recall how
I struggled with some of the primitive computers. Hey! We all did!
However, they afford some understanding of how the computer world
developed.

Cheers,

Joel

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I am so surprised that we do not think beyond money.
Yes , kids of this generation do need latest computers. Yes they also need
access to internet because it is the future.
Having computers in classroom is not about participating in a newsgroup
discussion, it is much more than that to these kids, it is their avenue to
education. What my 7 year old daughter can do , many {*filter*}s can not because
they have never used computers.
At the same time, there are  12/13 year olds who can teach lot of things to
computer pundits such as us.
Every generation has different priorities and different trends in education.
And we all should agree that these machines are here to stay. 10 years ago,
in a dentist office it was a rarity, today 80% of us are wired up. There are
more computers per capita in US than anywhere in the world; may be except
Japan, Taiwan and Korea.
This is not about Networking. I had network running in DOS days in my office
and I was my own Lan manager/administrator. Windows 95 makes it lot more
easier to have networking, that does not make Lan Administrators stupid and
Novell useless. Everything has its own place. Thanks to Novel, Lantastic and
Windows 95, little guys like us can enjoy benefits of computing.
My first PC, in 1982 was an XT which I bought for $2500. Today, you can buy
a very decent computer for less than $1000. Why should not schools equip
themselves, so that our children will learn ? 386/486 are absolute machines.
You could not install or make modern programs fit into puny harddrives that
they carry. It has nothing to do with, can you use a computer ! sure one can
use 286/386/486..'s but you will also be limited with age old programs.
You could not do Live Video Conferencing with oldies, you could not use
latest Shockwave technology.
You know what is happening in Japan/Taiwan ? they teach their students on
their latest pc's, their latest technology. Their technical schools are like
factories equipped with rows of computers connected to internet/audio/video
etc.
Because they know that "It is our Future"

This is teachable. It takes time and talent.

Cheers,

Joel

-------------------

I will tell you something, above everything we need to have "QUALITY
PARENTING"... to bring the best out of these little guys/gals.

I thought in this discussion we are strictly talking about computers. Best
teachers, best schools , best computers, best written books etc means
NOTHING if there is parental guidance. That is why I believe in ,2 parent
households. It is a lot of work and hats off to those of you , who are
single parents and still manage to educate your kids to their fullest
ability. It does take a special person to a special parent.

Talking about kids, one should do whatever we can to make sure that
generations after us, will have better future than what we have. That is why
I like living in America, because in spite of all the tabloid hoopla, we
care to be better, we care to give, we care to have better environment, we
care and we do, more than any country in the world.

As a leader, as one of the richest country, as one of the most advance
country, we need to start caring that other countries are far behind and
they can not be left so far behind. We need to help them to bridge the gap
in poverty, technology and education. Not just America but all countries
that are doing well such as Germany, Japan, Sweden, Taiwan, Korea etc.

Decay somewhere else will affect everyone eventually because we share the
same resources on this planet. May be not us living and may be not in this
lifetime, but our children and their children for sure.

Cheers,

JKR

I have been watching for increased productivity resulting from
computer applications. It has not been there . . . until a few years
ago.

It possible that the economic advances that we have seen the past few
years is a result of computer-aided design in the aerospace industry,
the automobile industry, and the toaster oven industry, too.

Look at the new models and notice how the bumpers, grills and tail
lights are integrated into the body. Well, except for the toaster
ovens! When design teams get together, instead of creating plywood
mock-ups, they can do it on a 3-D application on a screen.

This was explained to me by a friend in the aerospace industry.
Boeing.

Cheers,

Joel

-------------------

That is true.

Almost any design regard less of type, machine, building, electronic,
highways, plane or computers themselves, are being done in 3D for past
several years.

Windows 95/98 had made it possible for common person to have a computer that
out does a mainframe 20 years ago. How cool can that be ?

Can you think of doing research without one ? keeping stats ? balancing your
checkbook ?

Some of the educational programs for kids are phenomenal as well. Fisher is
a good software brand for kids educational software.

1 month ago, I was contacted while I was online and available for
audio/video conferencing; by a educational institute in Taiwan, for a test
with me. I could actually see their classroom , with 50-60 pc's and student
behind each PC with headphone etc. I do not see such class's in USA.

I was testing myself for video-conferencing. I was able to speak with a
group of general dentists in New Orleans via internet. They could see me on
their projected screen. I have no idea, how good was the image or quality of
sound. But I was in my office, talking to these guys about teeth over
internet and they could see me via attached camera to my PC. It was great.

This is were tech is flowing to and our kids need to be exposed to it. For
me as kid growing up, a ball point pen or a felt tip pen was a novelty. For
my father, a Parker Ink Pen was a novelty and for these kids, they use less
of pen/paper and more of word processor/printer. Printer will be absolute as
well...! because it is all going towards being paperless which includes
projects/papers/exams/homework.....

Folks, I am aiming to go paperless as of 01/01/1999. Do not you want to wish
me luck ? I have few days left to implement my protocol.

No 1: Finland
No 2: U.S.A.
No 3: Sweden

Japan, Taiwan and Korea are not even close!

Hans

PS: Actually computers are surprisingly little in use in Japan as
well as Taiwan and Korea. I do not think the beat any of the
European countries (at least not those in the European Union)
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