On Thu, 03 Feb 2011 09:37:28 +0000, Invisible wrote:

> On 02/02/2011 06:42 PM, Jim Henderson wrote:
> 
>> When I was working in IT on a daily basis, I would call my wife and try
>> to explain a problem I was seeing to her - not that she could help with
>> technical advice, but because if I framed it so she could understand
>> it, the answer would frequently appear before me.
> 
> It's a well known cliché in popular story telling. ;-)

Yes, but it's also true - and it works specifically because when you try 
to forumlate a problem to explain to someone, you think more 
comprehensively about it. :-)

>> Well, I know plenty of people who do just that when they're preparing
>> for a presentation as well.  I know several instructors who practice in
>> front of a mirror, too.
> 
> ...which is different from /actually/ not having any human interaction
> in your life. Fortunately, that's one problem I have somehow managed to
> fix.

Well, we're human out here, too - but I do know what you mean.  There is 
an element in giving presentations where you do need to get practice in 
front of an audience.

It also helps to video record yourself - it can be hard to watch at 
first, but there's nothing that will teach you more about what you're 
doing than watching it yourself.  The presentation/public speaking 
classes I took did that as a matter of course, and I learned a lot about 
the things I was doing wrong - and learned as well that there was a lot I 
was doing *right*, too (which is as important to know).

>> So it's time to move from small documents to slightly larger documents,
>> rather than to a 300 page book.  So, how do you define a "smaller
>> document"?
> 
> If it fits in one newsgroup post, it's a "small document". ;-)

So a few pages. :-)

>>> I think Ode to Joy was about the summit of my violin skills.
>>
>> Well, that's included in the 9th Symphony (as I'm sure you know). :)
> 
> Hell, I can't even remember who *wrote* it! It was a long time ago...

Well, I think the tune is "traditional", and Beethoven used it.  That 
wasn't entirely uncommon for many composers.  For example, in Berliz' 
Symphonie Fantastique, he makes heavy use of the Dies Irae, especially in 
the final movement.  Mozart used it as well in his last Mass IIRC.

>> Then you need to address that as well - instead of starting out with
>> despair and the expectation that there's nothing available on the topic
>> (after all, if there were nothing useful available on the topic, then
>> nobody would get involved in whatever field it is, but as people are
>> involved, they must've learned from somewhere, right?), start out with
>> no feeling one way or the other.
> 
> Oh, I'm sure there are real hard-copy books on the subject. But I doubt
> there's anything useful that's freely available on the Internet.

Then off to the library with you.  But seriously, you might find more 
information online as well, even though you see to think there's not a 
lot available freely on the 'net on the subject.  I'd be willing to bet 
there is.

> And even then, I rather suspect that any hard-copy publications would
> assume that you're already an expert in signal processing...

Depends on what you look for.  If you look for something published by the 
professional society for signal processors, yes.  That's kind like saying 
"well, I could find some information on creating 3D graphics, but ACM 
won't have anything introductory".  Which of course they wouldn't, 
because that's not their audience.

When looking for materials, it's important to look for resources that are 
targeted at your level.  That's part of the filtering that you have to do 
when searching for information on a topic.

Jim

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