• Question: What do you know about computers?

    Asked by to Nick, Jane, Iain, Chris on 13 Mar 2014. This question was also asked by .
    • Photo: Iain Moal

      Iain Moal answered on 13 Mar 2014:

      Well, I need to use them all the time for my work, so I know quite a bit about programming them and getting them to do what I want. However, a lot of the technical stuff is done by dedicated technicians here at the supercomputing center, so I don’t have to worry about upgrading or maintaining them when they go wrong. I can just focus on using them in my research.

    • Photo: Jane Charlesworth

      Jane Charlesworth answered on 13 Mar 2014:

      Same as Iain, really. Although I’ve become interested in computers and how they work as I use them more and so I’ve tried playing around with some very basic electronics.

    • Photo: Chris Cole

      Chris Cole answered on 14 Mar 2014:

      I know how to use one for the benefit of my work by writing programs and I have some understanding behind some of the electronics, but ask me how a tiny piece of silicon (the CPU) can do all the calculations? I’ve no idea.

Comments