Today a colleague of ours forwarded an email to us. Another engineer asked him in the email for the algorithm to convert dBm to Watts and Watts to dBm. This is the third or fourth time my friend has been asked about dBm.
I admire his tolerance for idiots. I would've gone ballistic at the idiot the second time he/she asked me the same simple question. If you Google for the keywords "dBm", "Watt" and "conversion", you'd get PLENTY of resources about this well known conversion.
A bunch of us were laughing at how stupid this person is. The friend who is dead (see eulogy written last month in this blog), commented that "Damn, this is just log conversion! They teach that in high school. Don't everyone know how to do log?"
Ah hah, so I challenged him. I said, "If I gave you a calculator that only has log10 and ln, and I want you to calculate log2(5) (read: log base 2 of 5), how would you do it?"
He went..."Uh....I don't remember."
That's why he's dead. That's why the eulogy was written.
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5 comments:
For log_m(k), you can convert it using log_n(k)/log_n(m), where k >= 1; n, m > 1. So you only need to give him a calculator with either log_10 or ln. :P
Actually, I also forgot. :P
On a first reply, I'd say that I forgot, gotta look it up.
My approach would be axiomatic, since log2(5) is defined by the relationship 2^log2(5) = 5.
ln x^y = y * ln x
ln 2^log2(5) = ln 5
log2(5) * ln 2 = ln 5
log2(5) = ln 5 / ln
That said, I don't think it shameful to have forgotten. There are many 'simple' things that I have forgotten along the way too.
It's pride and hubris that would make a degree-holding engineer feel 'shameful' for not knowing 'simple' stuff.
If forgotten, then look it up lah, what's them big deal?
Who knows, one day, people might wonder why you have forgotten wtf is Bayes' Rule in probability?
HA, what's Bayes' Rule? Tell me NOW, ya forgotten? Wa ha ha ha ... you degree-holding engineer, no know Bayes' Rule?
Sounds insane, right?
Well, the point is that the dead friend commented on how stupid the person is, hence showing off himself as being superior. So it was required that he was brought back to reality.
Also, knowing Bayes Rule is on a different level than knowing logarithms. One is taught in university, one is taught in high school :)
Two wrongs ain't make a right :P
To connect with the dead, you have to use the ways of the dead.
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