Path: utzoo!utgpu!jarvis.csri.toronto.edu!mailrus!iuvax!watmath!grwalter From: grwalter@watmath.waterloo.edu (Fred Walter) Newsgroups: comp.sys.amiga Subject: Re: University of Waterloo Message-ID: <27593@watmath.waterloo.edu> Date: 10 Jul 89 13:58:31 GMT References: <8907100559.AA11482@jade.berkeley.edu> Reply-To: grwalter@watmath.waterloo.edu (Fred Walter) Organization: U. of Waterloo, Ontario Lines: 56 In article <8907100559.AA11482@jade.berkeley.edu> 451061@UOTTAWA.BITNET (Valentin Pepelea) writes: >Amir Michail in <4584@crash.cts.com> writes >> I have heard that it is impossible to have a modem connection in residence >> (it is not allowed). Is having my own computer useful at all there? > >If Waterloo s residences are like Ottawa s, then a receptionist routes all >calls made to you through an internal phone network. But you should also be >able to have Bell install your own phone line in your room. Let someone who lived there answer the question. Every room in Village One and Two (where Amir will probably be living, unless he got into a Church College residence) has a phone. Phones are NOT jacked, so one has to know what wires go where to connect a phone. Phone lines are party lines - there are two 'rooms' (I'm counting two interconnecting rooms as one 'room') per phone line. Modems to be prohibited for a couple of reasons - people mis-wiring modems (and screwing up or thinking they screwed up the line) and your line-mate picking up the phone when you are using the modem (there is nothing like picking up the phone to call and getting the shriek of a modem - people who don't know what this is call Bell and complain the line is bad). So, get ahold of your party line-mate and mention that if they hear this whine its your modem and not the phone. (And don't get caught :-) Oh ya, Bell does NOT install lines into the rooms, every room is pre-wired. You get a phone whether you want one or not. The line charges are already part of your residence bill; you just have to pay the long distance charges. >In any case, it will be very useful for you to have a own computer in your >room. Most CS assignements you will get will have to be written in Turbo >Pascal. Metacompost Pascal is comes close enough, but using the Transformer >to run Turbo on your Amiga is even better. Try also getting an A1010 (5.25 >drive. I don't know who you've been talking to.... 1st year CS courses (for those wanting to become CS majors) have all assignments done during fixed times in a lab full of (*shudder*) MAC II's. PASCAL is used; so is FORTRAN, MAPLE and who knows what else. This setup has been in place for at least a year or more. Thus don't go out and spend your money on hardware (A1010) or software (Transformer) that you don't need. In the upper years you'll be using alot of C (I know I did); this may change, but not soon. But it is nice to have a computer (and a modem) in your room. You can dialup the main-frames, or play games when you should be working. >Now let me give you a mild warning. Waterloo will first make you a >mathematician, then a Computer Scientist. If you want to become a Computer Scientist you'll need to know a fair amount of math. If you want to become a Computer *Programmer*, save yourself some money (and a couple of years) by going to one of those colleges (DeVry ?). fred