h2g2 The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy: Earth Edition

Should really be your catchphrase EE...

Or maybe not, your choice.

Anyway, about your comment: ' I am a great lover of physics, art and philosophy.' If you think about it, it isn't an odd combination at all.

"The elevator is now ascending..."

Throwing the art in there makes it a little odd. The physics and philosophy go hand in hand, as I am currently finding

Nice to see you around, it's been a while Doing okay?

Getting ****ed over by coursework currently. Otherwise alright.

And If you think about it, Art, philosophy, and physics are diferent ways of looking at and considering life, the universe and everything.

Ack, coursework.... Might I ask what shape and variety of coursework it is? I'm also takling some [or at least /pretending/ to takle some] as we speak.

Actually, that's a very good point. I've never really thought of it like that before....

GCSE ICT, and tech coursework

Ack.... ICT coursework is undoubtedly the worse. Always seemed like needless statement and repetition of the obvious to me. I never actualy managed to entirely finish mine I still got an A* on it though, as I recall You end up buried to the waist in paper, though... ewww... Good luck to you, I certainly wouldn't want to be doing that again

Both type of coursework have so much add-on stuff which doesn't need to be there. For example, In tech coursework, you have to justify the need for the product that you are producing, and you have to photograph what you have done. Same sort of thing in IT.

And yet the product that you actually made doesn't get seen by the examiners at all.

So, what's the point in making the stupid thing? For all the examiners know, the tech could be held together by gaffa tape that's hidden from view, or your IT has just been made to look like it works when in fact it doesn't.

Plus, on top of all that, (in tech at least) the thing you acctually make is only worth 1/4 of the total marks! So why are we supposed to spend five or six hours making the folder for free, and then spend 30-50 hours making the actaul thing which we had to pay for the components of?! EH?

If you were particlarly desperate, you could attempt to make it out of lollypop sticks, take a digital photo, and retouch it using a computer program That'd teach 'em...

Seems daft to have to do that. I never did tech, although I quite enjoyed it pre-GCSE, mainly because the workload seemed very silly.

There is no point, really, just an attempt of achieving a grade... That's all anything's about these days.

You have to /pay/ for the components? At my school you only had to pay if you wanted to /keep/ it afterwards That is rather out of order, though. I mean, what if you can't afford to.....?

We only had to pay for the components if the school didn't already have them in stock so I only had to pay 17 quid for my compnenets because I'm doing systems and control. Some of the resistant materials lot had to pay for wood though and that put the bill up to atleast 80 or 100 odd pounds!

But don't worry, my tech story gets even worse.

I have just finished year 10. i.e., I am going to go into year 11 in september. Tech coursework should be done in year 11 to allow for all the theory to be covered.

But my school is run by a complete di**head who decided in december that over the summer holidays the tech department would be overhauled and refurbished so that instead of 3 specialisations (systems, resistant, and graphics) there would just be graphics. This meant that we had to immediately get all the coursework done this year. This meant that only two people in my entire set knew what they were doing, and how to do it, and that was simply because, by chance, me and this other bloke had done electronics as well.

Our course has consequently been completely f***ed up.

And whats worse, when we were choosing our topics for GCSE, we weren't warned. Meaning that we had our courses completely messed up with out any warning that it might happen.

That's surely not fair? I mean, having to pay £100?

What......?!?!?! They can't do that in the middle of a course! They offered it, they haev to follow it through! All changes to be made WHEN THE COURSE IS COMPLETE! Jeeeez, what an arse!
I do hope you've all complained. Ceaselessly. Because that is malpractise.

I have, along with two others of my set, two of the tech teachers including the head of department have resigned. But they're claiming that it's cheaper and that no-one does any technology other than graphics in school now.

I think its simply because designers get paid twice if not thrice as much as engineers now-a-days, which is another of my pet peeves.

That's just not good... Graphics was the only thing offered at my school, but we were only small, and tended to specialise in languages

Well, if it makes you feel better, they're not so keen to train up engineers, so there'll be less competition getting the job!

Yeah but the pay would still suck.

Which is why I intend to get a degree, then go to live in Germany or Canada or even New Zealand.

You've got a way to go yet - you might find the trends have changed by the time you get there...

... But still, I certainly wouldn't mind working in Canada or New Zealand myself... I think that's a decent plan

Canada is actually a really good place to go if your an electronics engineer looking for a job at the momment, the electronic industry is booming.

Germany is a good place because it would pay well, although I don't speak a word of german beyond 'ja' and 'nein'.

And New Zealand just seems like a really nice place

Cool... Canade sounds good

Always time to learn German

New Zealand has always appealed to me... Seems like a nice place, not too many people, lots of pleasant scenery

Yep.

Are you interested in joining the theives guild by any chance?

....I'm having trouble keeping up with the clubs that /I/ run I appreciate the offer.. The FREAK society is happily under your protection, and we do appreciate it

No worries.