Out where a friend is a friend

[austin_dern]

I recently called local colleges when finding ``To Be Announced'' scheduled for some of their math classes to ask if they need adjuncts. The head of mathematics for one community college called and asked if I could come in Friday for a brief interview. Of course I could. My only challenge was finding parking.

It was not a hard interview: we talked about what I was doing now, and what my teaching experience was like. I explained how I had been part of a cross-disciplinary department and so had taught math and computer science and even numerical quantum chemistry, and he was impressed. He asked me to get to Human Resources and tell them, he wanted to hire me as soon as possible --- they have an eight-week accelerated term starting just after Columbus Day --- so what documents do I need to turn over so they can extend the offer?

Human Resources was cagey about admitting just what I needed, but when I made clear that yes, whatever he did say, I wasn't actually extended a job until a letter from them arrived, I got it established. They need official transcripts and letters of recommendation. This is in process now. I e-mailed the department head to confirm this, and he --- who's also acting Dean of the Science faculty --- said he would find a course for me in math, or physics, or computer science.

So that's why I tweeted ``Recalled To Life!''. I used more words explaining this here, but that gets my feeling at returning to teaching across better.

Trivia: Early wireless radio sets required three distinct battery sets: a low-volate, heavy-current wet battery (to keep vacuum tubes warm); a high-voltage, low-current battery (for current through the tubes); and a low-current battery for the triode grids. Source: How The World Was One: Beyond The Global Village, Arthur C Clarke.

Currently Reading: Puzzles of the Black Widowers, Isaac Asimov. I'd picked the book up arbitrarily, I thought, but apparently I just can't do things arbitrarily: the book contains ``Sunset On The Water'', a puzzle-mystery which introduced me to the Historian's History Of The World, a 1907/27 history made of excerpting and fitting together great historians into a roughly continuous whole. Ten years ago this week I was the midst of reading its first volume. I remember being staggered by its mention how Egyptian archaeology was (in 1927) uncertain enough that the dating of some dynasties could be off by three thousand years and imagine losing that much time in the historical record, as I was reading that while hearing a Singaporean news radio anchor fumbling the attempt to pronounce ``Giuliani'' (she started with a hard G and never recovered, but made seven syllables out of it), while I waited to meet porsupah in his round-the-world trip.

Comments

[gafennec.livejournal.com]

Congratulations! *HUG*

[austin-dern.livejournal.com]

Thank you!

[gafennec.livejournal.com]

Oh btw, while looking at my spam box for something else, I found an e-mail from you. :( I wasn't ignoring it. I just never saw it till today.

[austin-dern.livejournal.com]

I understand and it's quite all right. Don't worry.

[orv.livejournal.com]

Early wireless radio sets required three distinct battery sets: a low-volate, heavy-current wet battery (to keep vacuum tubes warm); a high-voltage, low-current battery (for current through the tubes); and a low-current battery for the triode grids.

You probably already know this, but it may interest you to know that these were generally referred to as the "A", "B", and "C" batteries, respectively. To this day the plate voltage in tube circuits is referred to on schematics as "B+". (Separate grid supplies were quickly made obsolete by revised circuit designs.)

[austin-dern.livejournal.com]

I did not know that, and you're right, it does interest me. Particularly that the B+ is still part of the schematics when tube circuits do get diagrammed. I'm quite interested in fossil notations like that.

[orv.livejournal.com]

The cheap AC/DC tube sets from the 1940s and 1950s took a particularly interesting approach to getting the three voltages needed. To save money, they didn't have power transformers, which ruled out having separate A, B, and C power supply circuits. Instead, 120V AC power was taken directly and rectified and filtered to provide a roughly 150 volt B+ supply. The filaments were all wired in series across the AC line, like a string of Christmas lights; the filament voltages of the various tubes were selected so they added up to 120V, or a large power resistor was added to dissipate the extra voltage. To get around the need for a negative supply for the grids, a resistor was placed in the cathode circuit, lifting it a couple volts above ground, and the grids were grounded.

These are called AC/DC sets because the lack of a power transformer meant that if you had DC service to your house, the radio would still work -- provided the plug was oriented correctly.

This design was basically all compromises and never used two parts where one would do, but most of them actually worked pretty well.

[austin-dern.livejournal.com]

Oh, now, I encountered a part of that in connection with another of Clarke's books. He mentioned in one about owning around 1950 a United States-made radio which was adapted to the British power supply by the simple expedient of having an even larger power resistor into which to dump the excess. Besides the latest news it provided warmth and light as the resistor started to glow ...

I'm amazed by the ingenuity of working out power like that. I'd never figure out that sort of scheme.

[orv.livejournal.com]

An even cheaper scheme was to make the power cord out of resistance wire, and just dissipate the extra power as heat along the length of the cord. This worked pretty well, but woe unto the person who decided to put a rug over it, or who shortened the cord to put a different plug on it.

[austin-dern.livejournal.com]

And that scheme sounds more like madness, although there's a certain simple charm to it as well. I guess it works if you expect to put furniture down and never ever move it while you still live.

[chefmongoose.livejournal.com]

Congratulations, glad to hear you're getting back into teaching. I assume this is not-quite-full-time work that will be negotiable around your other job, or will you be leaving the other employ?

[austin-dern.livejournal.com]

Thank you. No, this is as far from full-time work as possible, and it'll squeeze entirely into the time around my day job.

[bunny-hugger.livejournal.com]

I'm happy for you, but worried, too. I think it may in fact squeeze into the entirety of your time around your day job. I can't remember, have you taught community college before?

[austin-dern.livejournal.com]

I'm worried about that as well. I have taught adjunct classes before, but not for community college. I've also taught a short course for an adult high school education, but I doubt much of that experience transfers over.

[bunny-hugger.livejournal.com]

Community college teaching is kind of its own world. My experiences involved having to deal with students very unclear on the concept of college level work, which adds extra work.

[austin-dern.livejournal.com]

I am going to need to call on your experience (and that of anyone else I can rely on) to get ready for this.

[moxie_man]

WOOT! Congrats, even if it's only one class, it's a start in the right direction.

[austin-dern.livejournal.com]

Thank you! And yeah, it might just be one class, but it is a step towards better things, which is to say bunny_hugger.