Richard E. Pattis Associate Teaching Professor   and SCS Freshman Advisor Computer Science Department School of Computer Science Carnegie Mellon University 5000 Forbes Avenue Pittsburgh, PA 15213 pattis@cs.cmu.edu Office: 5122 Wean Hall Phone: (412) 268-8342 Fax:     (412) 268-5573 |
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![]() Freshman, Mathematics Department (1972) |
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![]() (Arm) Wrestling with Problems in AI (1976) |
I have put my collection of
Quotations for Learning and Programing
on the web.
I hope to continue expanding
(and correcting) it.
I always welcome feedback (e.g., corrections, misattributions, other
quotations).
I am starting to index, annotate, and put on the web various Education-Related Video Clips.
Advising Information (SCS Freshmen)
Please note that my office hours are open.
There is no need to schedule an appointment ahead of time.
Just drop by; the wait is never long.
If you want debugging help, ensure that your program is on
your Andrew space, or you have it on a USB
memory drive (or, just bring it loaded on your portable computer).
Time/Day | Monday | Tuesday | Wednesday | Thursday | Friday |
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10:30-11:30 | 15-100 J,T Wean 5419CD |
Office Hours Wean 5122 |
15-100 J,T Wean 5419CD |
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11:30-12:30 | 15-100 K Wean 5419C |
Office Hours Wean 5122 |
15-100 K Wean 5419C |
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12:30 - 1:30 | Office Hours Wean 5122 |
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1:30 - 2:30 | Office Hours Wean 5122 |
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2:30 - 3:30 | Office Hours Wean 5122 |
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3:30 - 4:30 | Office Hours Wean 5122 |
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A new cure for Short Bowel Syndrome
An excerpt from the chapter "He Fixes Radios by Thinking!" from the book "Surely You're Joking, Mr. Feynman!": Adventures of a Curious Character (start at the bottom of page 18: "One day I got a telephone call..." and finish at the bottom of page 20: "...never thought that was possible.") Explains why debugging is best accomplished by thinking, not fiddling.
If Charles Schultz wrote Karel the Robot
Arlo and Janis: The hardest teacher
Doonesbury: Walden's Last B
My Favorite Graph: I show this graph (and its associated article) in class after discussing general graph theory terminology (up to connected components). It is scary and compelling at the same time.
De Millo, Lipton, and Perlis: Social Processes and Proofs of Theorems and Programs Communications of the ACM, May 1979; Volume 22, Number 5, Pages 271-280.
The following dialog is from the transcript of "Between Time and Timbuktu" (a synthesis of the writings of Kurt Vonnegut) For more on Bokononism, from which this passage is inspired, see The Books of Bokonon (from the novel "Cat's Cradle").
Narrator: In the beginning, G-d created the Earth, and he said, "Let there be mud." And there was mud. And G-d said, "Let Us make living creatures out of mud, so the mud can see what We have done." And G-d created every living creature that now moveth, and one was man. Mud-as-man alone could speak. "What is the purpose of all this?" man asked politely. "Everything must have a purpose?" asked G-d. "Certainly," said man. Then I leave it up to you to think of one for all of this," said G-d. And he went away.
Stony Stevenson: I feel very unimportant compared to you [G-d].
Voice of Bokonon: The only way you can feel the least bit important is to think of all the mud that didn't even get to sit up and look around.
SS: I got so much, and most mud got so little.