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Fewer Students Taking 'A' Level ICT as a Subject

tech_guy

By tech_guy
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chrisredfield93

chrisredfield93

Posted
Posted
Still don't get why they are teaching VB6... no one uses it, it's all .net (2005\2008\2010). Ok, similar.

 

Before anyone says about the cost of software, express is free!

 

Well hearing now of people who go there it now VB 2008, not 100% certain but I guess what you pay mircosoft is the support and the MSDN update files on CD, I could be wrong thou no idea, I thought express was only to hobby or students or anyone, but not companies/establishents etc

 

Well prefer VB6 not a lot of additonal coding, since i have had ago on VB 2008, and hated it same with vista,office 2007, well vista slight ok but it not my appoval, look feel etc

 

and for newbies tell them to go to start and they dont have a clue bcos it a windows logo LOL

matt40k

matt40k

Posted
Posted

Not sure about the whole Express full rubbish... [waits for Microsoft Sales Team too appear]

 

Whilst we're waiting, love VB .net over 6... managed to make a whole program using the wizard, thrown in a few lines of my own code. Still that was some rubbish for college.

grumpy_git

grumpy_git

Posted
Posted

Our noble Head of ICT has previously been known to refer to A level ICT as "A level Microsoft Office".

 

I took Computing - which our school offered, until this year. The A2 group who finish this summer will sadly be the last, it seems.

 

I'm a staunch command line user - although far prefer the *nix shell to anything MS-DOS. I think I might stick cygwin on my work desktop, a few times I've come across something which is a bitch to do in Windows but which I'd know how to do almost instantly under linux.

wesleyw

wesleyw

Posted
Posted
We (me and NM) were also reminiscing about BBCs, CP/M, mainframes, reel-to-reel tapes, 386s and the coming of the almighty DX, early pentiums, amiga workbench, monkey island etc yesterday..he looked lost.

 

386s and DX, Not sure about the 386 but the 486DX CPUs that the maths co-pro failed on were demoted to 486sx and 33mhz that weren't up to scratch were labelled as 25mhz I think?

 

 

Wes

powdarrmonkey

powdarrmonkey

Posted
Posted
386s and DX, Not sure about the 386 but the 486DX CPUs that the maths co-pro failed on were demoted to 486sx and 33mhz that weren't up to scratch were labelled as 25mhz I think?

 

You mean the Pentiums that couldn't do long division, or is this a bit of Intel history that I missed?

wesleyw

wesleyw

Posted
Posted (edited)

Nah Pentiums that couldn't do long division were 60,66,90 and I think 100 had two errors but the division in question was very very excessive not many people suffered from that. The 486 problems were from fabrication issues.

 

His idea of "retro windows" is Win2k.. I've a good mind to VM 2.03, 3.0, 3.1, NT4, and OS/2 if I can find that, and say "right. THIS is retro. Now configure me a CDROM driver in DOS."

 

Might also see if I can find a 286/386 and say "build it up, get it running, install DOS and windows 3.x, lets see if you can..". I like the lad, I do, but...for all of his "Xenos academy" training, he seems remarkably lacking in some of the basics. heh.

 

How about DOS 5, 6 (i think, see next parentheses) and 6.2 (Had doublespace which M$ shouldn't have allowed out because of copyright to another company) and then 6.22 (with the renamed drivespace) Ever tried to run Soundblaster pro parrot from a dos session from Win 3.1? A lot of fun as the sound drivers don't work ;)

 

Anyone ever see OS/1? OS/2 and OS/2 Warp I've seen but not the first one I don't believe.

 

Wes

Edited by wesleyw
somabc

somabc

Posted
Posted (edited)

Ever tried using a null modem and DOS to transfer files. Or tried to figure out if you have EGA, CGA or VGA and then getting it wrong? Ever spent ages configuring your conventional memory so that you have enough free memory to play TIE-FIGHTER?

 

MEM /C /P

http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/en/f/f8/Swtiefighter001.png

 

INTERLNK.EXE

Edited by somabc
DMcCoy

DMcCoy

Posted
Posted

 

Might also see if I can find a 286/386 and say "build it up, get it running, install DOS and windows 3.x, lets see if you can..". I like the lad, I do, but...for all of his "Xenos academy" training, he seems remarkably lacking in some of the basics. heh.

 

 

Mind those 240v power buttons! :p

 

 

 

I didn't have any IT related GCSE/A-levels available, so I did Maths, Physics and Chemistry. Computer science degree after that (which appears to simply be mostly maths).

 

COAST anyone? (Someone must know :D)

somabc

somabc

Posted
Posted
The Intel's i486SX was a modified Intel 486DX microprocessor with its floating-point unit (FPU) disconnected. All early 486SX chips were actually i486DX chips with a defective FPU. If testing showed that the central processing unit was working but the FPU was defective, the FPU's power and bus connections were destroyed with a laser and the chip was sold cheaper as an SX; if the FPU worked it was sold as a DX.

 

[ame=http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Intel_80486SX]Intel 80486SX - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia[/ame]

  • Thanks 1
powdarrmonkey

powdarrmonkey

Posted
Posted
Free memory was something to take pride in.

 

I remember that feeling (just)... nowadays, developers just don't care about wasted cycles or wasted memory or wasted HDD space or...

 

Remember having an 'optimisation' bit of a release cycle, squeeeeeezing every last ounce of wastage off a program so it took a hundred less cycles than before? Ah, nostalgia...

Sirbendy

Sirbendy

Posted
Posted (edited)

oh yes. Double/drivespace, laplink cables and interlnk, even TIE fighter..actually, I'm 80% sure I saw the CD for that in the loft...!

 

I was saying yesterday about the 5.25 "beermat" drives..heh. or the Amstrad 3 inch! The council I worked for had an 8 inch (IIRC) drive...looked a bit like a twin-tub, all flashy neons and big yellowed buttons. Very funny to use, used to try and roll across the floor! Banks used that..:eek:

 

The old reel-to-reel tapes were a bank thing too..all feeding data into BACS. What a total lashup it was. Massive line at a time impact printers in acoustic housings.

 

I was an unfortunate owner of a 386/DX25 with a 32 bit problem..if I put Win3.x into 32 bit disk mode, all I got was beeping and fits from it. What about the Cyrix M1/M2/6x86? They were fun..and the Nexgen 5x86, which was a 486/DX4 100 with pentium class overtones, or the original AMD K5..ahhh. those were chips that stick in the memory (or in the case of Cyrix, the bin).

 

AARGH, COAST..oh dear yes. Doing some work for the British Red Cross (mums the accountant for 3 branches), I've run across in the last 3 years, 1 IBM 5150, 8088 CPU, 640k RAM, MDA graphics and greenscreen, and 2x 5.25 full height floppy drives..in active use!

 

I love old technology..

Edited by Sirbendy
tech_guy

tech_guy

Posted
  • Author
Posted
Is that like a router on a stick?

 

 

It was memory used in the 90s:

 

[ame=http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cache_on_a_stick]Cache on a stick - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia[/ame]

  • Thanks 1
apoth0r

apoth0r

Posted
Posted

Well it felt like the coursework was so structured towards using access that there were no further options. Having thought about it a few years later examples of other database driven apps would have been better. Would have given a much greater understanding of the theory behind databases too.

Mind you, our teacher did stand at the front of the class reading from the book we had on our desks in front of us.

Think ICT needs to be much more practical and like projects in Graphics/Product Design need to be a lot more student driven. Teachers need to pick the pace up a bit and get the knowledge across so that students can then explore their own 'ICT' area. Theres too much to cover everything, but why can't teachers be more clued up in a broader area?

tmcd35

tmcd35

Posted
Posted

His idea of "retro windows" is Win2k..:rolleyes: I've a good mind to VM 2.03, 3.0, 3.1, NT4, and OS/2 if I can find that, and say "right. THIS is retro. Now configure me a CDROM driver in DOS."

Too modern. Try CP/M in QEMU?

 

Might also see if I can find a 286/386 and say "build it up, get it running, install DOS and windows 3.x, lets see if you can..".

And that is just plain cruel! 4/5 floppies for DOS followed by around 12 floppies for Windows. Ouch! The hours spent swapping floppies just to install an OS. Show him Win'95 installed from CD and then change the default shell to PROGMAN?

 

Ever tried using a null modem and DOS to transfer files.

 

Even better still - how about getting him to set up an old school BBS? Ahhh - Life before the Internet!

matt40k

matt40k

Posted
Posted
I remember the days when I had to add the cdrom and mouse drivers to your autoexec so it worked in DOS. How when you switched the power button, it was like unplugging it, and when you shutdown windows, it didn't shutdown the computer... those were the days.
shutdownplease

shutdownplease

Posted
Posted

Ofsted says vocational courses dont offer as much challenge?! Rubbish!

 

Im teaching the GCSE OCR spec B and all they have to do is create a webpage and write about it (in fact that's all they do)

 

A vocational course like the iMedia offers far more challenge and its all practical and relevant. I think scripting a computer game is for more challenging and interesting (and relevant - think of where virtual reality may be going in years to come) then a spreadsheet or webpage.

 

Part of the problem is that A level (and GCSE courses) are out of date as soon as they are written - my single year 13 pupil and I came across some notes today for her theory which talked about WAP ... at least that course is now dead after this year.

powdarrmonkey

powdarrmonkey

Posted
Posted
OT: Didn't know he was doing a show in the UK other whys I'd have tried to get tickets :( Then again at over £100 per ticket :eek:

 

Bought them on the day they went on sale, £50 ;)

 

Jean-Michel Jarre in May :D

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