The best was when a professor wrote a book you had to buy.

quote:

Originally posted by Georgeair:
Wait - where does beer money come from at end of semester when you turn them back in for 25% of the amount your parents paid for them??!!

Yep, the Friday night of finals week was always financed with book buyback money. You must've had rich parents, though. Mine didn't give me a dime.

quote:

Originally posted by comet24:
The best was when a professor wrote a book you had to buy.

Nope. The best was when the class got to be the professor’s free researchers for the new edition of his textbook.

I had a class in law school on construction law. There was no final exam. Instead, each student’s grade was based on writing a paper on key cases and developments in specific areas of construction law over the last 20 years.

Curiously, these areas neatly aligned with the table of contents of the professor’s textbook on construction law written 20 years ago.

Digital books were just kinda starting to take off halfway through college for me. Actually liked them a lot more and just used an android tablet. Best feature was being able to search a keyword just like on a website and it'd take you right to the page. Also saved a ton since I could rent most of them with Google play and wouldn't rent it till I needed it and then had it instantly.

I recall trying to get a jump start on which of my vet books were the same edition they would be using for the next class, then posting a note (not digital, mind you, I had to actually use my hand and ink to produce it) in the area frequented by the incoming freshmen or sophomore students.

By then I used the money for fun activities like diapers and baby food, but I can recall how much some of those books cost me, and how IF I bought a used one and then resold it for the same or a bit more, I thought I was a great businessman.

Have a friend that taught at one of the local colleges. He was appalled at the scam that textbooks were. The publishers would have expenses paid "junkets" for their sales of texts to the colleges. Places like Vegas, Hawaii, etc.

They had in some integrated work books into the text books, thereby rendering the textbook useless for a sell back as the work books were gone. They would change one or two paragraphs in a text book annually thereby rendering the book obsolete, etc.

He said it was obvious to him they wanted to kill the resale business.

He taking chemistry in person on MW. When I was in school, the lab for the science class was on Friday. His school has no classes on Friday, and the only Chem Lab offered at his campus conflicts with other things, so he is taking it online.

Last night he showed me the online Chem Lab. There’s virtual beakers and shit. You use your mouse to guide virtual hands to do the work. It was really funny on his 55” screen. I told him he needs to try it with his VR headset. Crazy stuff.

^^^^^^^^^^^^^^
Probably good for someone like myself when working with dangerous chemicals. I always wrote the lab report while my partner did the experiment.

Right? I’m looking at it asking him what happens when you do something wrong? Does the screen flash red and a klaxon sound? Does the flesh melt off the virtual hands? Can you blow the lab up by leaving the unlit Bunsen burner going?

I finally got my moneys worth from my differential equations book. I got it in 1969. Found it buried in my house and put it in the bathroom for some light reading. It makes bathrooming go faster. And gets the strangest comments from visitors.