[Tutor] (no subject)

[Daniel Yoo]

On Fri, 8 Sep 2000, Mido Lawton wrote:

> well im just looking for a way to madly impress my mates by pulling
> off cool stunts such as going into the schools coputers with out doing
> damage so can you send me ways to get into it or learn the python
> language so I can get in. but like i said i dont want to do any harm.
> email address= midolawton@hotmail.com please write back soon......

Hello Mido,

Sorry, we can't help there; as far as I know, Python's not particularly
useful for getting into a school computer.

An easier way to get some computer access might also be less glamourous at
first: Can you ask them to give you an account to play around with?  It
might be better if you could get a legitimate account on their machines,
so that you can learn Python without getting the adults rilled up.

With Python, you can write cool programs --- to me, that's pretty
impressive, because you're making ideas that actually do things.

For example, have you gotten into trigonometry yet?  There's a theorem
that says that if you keep doing 'cos()' on a number, over and over,
you'll eventually reach a number that doesn't change?  Take a look:

###
>>> import math
>>> number = 1
>>> while math.cos(number) != number: 
...     number = math.cos(number)
... 
>>> print number
0.739085133215
>>> math.cos(number)
0.739085133215
###

It's called the "fixed-point" theorem.  Python lets me test out and play
with ideas.  Again, I sorry, but Python's not meant to be used to break
into systems.  We can't help you with getting access.  Instead, we can
help you learn to use Python as a tool, if you want.