[Techtalk] Sound card gone missing - OSS/ALSA woes

[Rudy Zijlstra]

On 03/17/2012 11:28 PM, James Sutherland wrote:
> On 17 Mar 2012, at 19:54, Anne Wainwright wrote:
>
>> On Fri, Mar 16, 2012 at 05:11:00PM +1000, Miriam English wrote:
>>> Little Girl wrote:
>>>
>>>> When I got my first computer a relative of mine said that I shouldn't
>>>> be fearful of it, but just go ahead and mess around with it. He told
>>>> me that everybody messes up their computers eventually, that he fully
>>>> expected to be called to repair the damage from time to time, and
>>>> that messing things up is actually a good thing because it's a
>>>> learning process. He was right. I've learned a lot through my
>>>> screw-ups over the years. (:
>>>>
>>> I couldn't agree more. Today we have a growing cultural prejudice
>>> against making mistakes, but in truth is one of our most important ways
>>> of learning. I often tell friends who are impressed with the amount I
>>> know on various computery things that it is largely the result of having
>>> made more mistakes than most people. Heaven knows how many times I've
>>> totally screwed up my computers.
>>> See also the quote in my sig below.
>>>
>>> Cheers,
>>>
>>> 	- Miriam
>> I have done my best learning by breaking things and then having to fix
>> them. You are supposed to fix things in Linux, this is not Windows where
>> a quick reboot can heal all wounds. Keep at it
one of the things i once discussed with a professor, is that the 
incentives on university study are least partially wrong. All research 
you see published is about the good results found. My feeling is that 
all the research that "went nowhere" is just as important. I wish 
someone would have the guts to write about that, and all the things they 
tried and saw which did  not lead to what they were looking for.

As it is, i think a lot of dead ends are researched many times over, as 
they never get public attention. Oh well, at least it leads to learning 
on the part of the researchers... And perchance, because they are 
researched again with better technology, sometimes it does lead to new 
discoveries ;)

cheers


Rudy