I recently finished up teaching Comp 4, the computer literacy course
here at UNC, during a compressed summer session. Comp 4 is an
introductory class that assumes NO knowledge of computers among its
students, and believe me when I say that this was often the case. The
class was great fun to teach, and one of the facets that made it
interesting (day-in and day-out) was the wealth of new knowledge that
the students imparted to me on tests and examinations. I thought that
I'd share some of these nuggets with you. My comments are in the
standard C delimiters (/* and */). *Your* comments are encouraged.
Here goes:

Bacchus invented FORTRAN. /* I knew FORTRAN was old, and that it
may have been designed under the influence of alcohol, but... */

There are three kinds of program statements: sequence,
repetition, and seduction.

There are two types of graphics: vector and rascal. /* Otay...
*/

Programming languages have specifictions. /* Obviously this
student has dealt with a few standards. */

Macs are compatible with each other. /* Imagine the alternative:
"What's your Mac's serial number? We'll go back to the warehouse
and get your software." */

Doctors use computers to create a three demential picture of a
person's brain. /* Is this classic, or what? */

One kind of a hostile computer program is a Trojan.

C is a logical programming language. /* */

Heuristics (from the French heure, "hour") limit the amount of
time spent executing something. [When using heuristics] it
shouldn't take longer than an hour to do something. /* An
absolutely terrific "false cognate". */

Having the computer automatically fill in images for animation is
called "spleening". /* Derivation: most likely "splines" +
"tweening". */

One method of computer security is a phone line. /* She qualified
it later by adding, "You have to know the number." */

Video games are examples of fault-tolerant systems.

On one test, I gave the students some abbreviations and asked them to
tell me what they stood for. You won't believe the creativity of a
student in a test situation. For example, one of the abbreviations was
"fax", which *really* stands for "facsimile". However, various Comp
4'ers said it stood for:
Fiber-optic Aided Xeroxing
Frequency Automatic X-rays

/* and my favorite... */

Fast A** Xeroxing


The students also had to hand in term papers, and these were rife with
interesting tidbits. I've clipped a few, quoted verbatim:

"The worst thing the Mac has to offer, is that cooperative
multitasking is not available to be used."

"... footnotes present an interesting problem, which may be
solvable by Hypercad." /* I assume the last term is the newest
rage -- a free-form database for designers. */

"...Linda, a blind girl, was able to attend public school due to
the aid of a speaking computer that taught her the basic
fundmamentals [sic] of grammar and spelling." /* Linda may want
to lend her computer out... */

"The program is manufactured by Quantel, a Silicon Valley company
located in Clearwater, Florida." /* A *long* valley, as my
roommate put it. */

"At the beginning of each season [Edwin] Moses teats himself on
computerized weight machines..." /* Ouch! */

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