On Sun, 1 Mar 2009, vega lew wrote: VL> Dear sir, VL> VL> I apologize for my pool understanding of your mails concerning my problems VL> of convergence for SCF. VL> VL> Because I am not strong enough with the theory background, I am not VL> sensitive with what you said before. Now, you tell me how to overcome the VL> problems so detail. I think I really benefit from your mail this time.
ok. here we go. writing something like that paragraph below is like waving a red in front of a bull (and people that know me in person know that i can do a pretty good impersonation of that when i'm angry). sensitive minds, please hit delete right now. VL> By the way, my understanding on quantum mechanism or quantum chemistry is VL> not good enough. My purpose is to use the code to solve the problem and make VL> better understanding with the materials we focus on. Do you think the theory VL> background is really important for all the users of scientific code, even VL> for researchers in chemical engineering or applied physics? please read this paragraph again, hit yourself on the head three times with a hard item and then answer it yourself. YES!!!!!!!!! if you go to your local do-it-yourself store, you'll see tons of powertools for every purpose. have you seen what these powertools can do in the hand of somebody without sufficient understanding of how they work?? do you know how many accidents (severed fingers, punctured hands, etc.) happen because of that, every year? there _is_ no "just using" of tools. without sufficient knowledge you can get lucky and get it right, but how often? mind you, you don't have to become that much of an expert so you could write your own software or develop new algorithms, but you also have to keep the "garbage-in garbage-out" principle in mind. you have to have at least the ability to tell whether your results are gold or cow dung, and for that - sorry there ain't no escape from the blues - you will have to learn the fundamentals. or to give another example: what good would a pocket calculator be to you, if you don't know the difference between adding and multiplying? ...and for that matter, asking questions on a mailing list is no replacement for working (not reading) through textbooks and building your experience. the mailing list should be used _after_ there is no more help to be found in the textbook, not before. looks like i managed to stay reasonably calm this way. enjoy your "cigar", axel. VL> VL> thank you for your time. VL> VL> vega VL> -- ======================================================================= Axel Kohlmeyer akohlmey at cmm.chem.upenn.edu http://www.cmm.upenn.edu Center for Molecular Modeling -- University of Pennsylvania Department of Chemistry, 231 S.34th Street, Philadelphia, PA 19104-6323 tel: 1-215-898-1582, fax: 1-215-573-6233, office-tel: 1-215-898-5425 ======================================================================= If you make something idiot-proof, the universe creates a better idiot.
