I've had more practice in analytical and exploratory programming in the
last two years than I ever wanted. And then there's always a certain
amount of fear that you're going to program something wrong and burn it
up.
You get over this when you finally do.
Well, I used to blow stuff up at Adtech all the time. But now the price tag
is bigger. The science grid array for nsfcam2 (essentially an infrared ccd,
a chip that's about 1inch x 1 inch) runs at about $400,000. All I have to
do is program the bias voltages wrong, and it *could* burn out the chip
circuitry. Or cool it down/heat it up to and from it's operating temp (37K)
too quickly, in which case it *could* basically shatter into dust. And
we're not sure we can even buy a new one even if we had the money. Wierd.
On the other hand, I've seen the hardware engineer guys break more than a
couple of different arrays, so maybe I shouldn't worry over much ;o)
We should probably take this part off-line. You're where I was when
Hunter was 3-4 years old.
Yeah, I've got a three month old, an almost-two-year old, and four year old.
That is an incredibly scary example. We're not sure how we're going to do
things over here. I'm for Saint Joseph's, but it's $5K/year for one kid (I
think additional children are at a cheaper rate). I know a lot of people
over here homeschool, but I don't think me or my wife have the personality
for that. But we figured we'd see how public school works first, and then
freak out.
-Charles
