Wednesday, October 07, 2009 12:57 AM,

A student writes:

	 Prof. Patt
	 
	 Late last night someone walked off  with my computer.  This morning I 
	 woke up and wrote the program from scratch on my friends computer but 
	 when I went to submit, it said I was too late.  I'm begging you to let 
	 me turn in the program.  My school work means everything to me and if 
	 I don't make good grades then I won't get funding for college.
	 I have the program saved to a flash drive.  I can either email it to 
	 you or just give you the flash drive itself.
	 
	 Thank you for your consideration. 
	 
	 <<name withheld to protect the student with excuse ranked number 12>>

I don't mean to be annoyingly critical of your explanation, but I have heard 
it before.  In fact, it is ranked number 12 with respect to number of students 
using that explanation in the five times I have taught EE 306.

The program must be submitted on time, although we often do not turn off 
submit switch immediately at midnight.  But turning it in the next day is not 
acceptable.  Not with 445 freshmen in the course.

The good news is that I will give everyone in the class a chance to resubmit 
the first  program, regardless of whether they were previously clueless, or 
someone stole their computer, or some friend's dog ate the notes just before 
they were getting ready to type it in.  It will not be for full credit, but it 
will be recorded in our records that you did get it at the end.

And, frankly, this is not going to kill your grade in EE 306.  This is the 
first program.  There will be four others.  Plus two midterms and a final.
Plus, I will be looking at your progress in the course.  So, trust me: a 0 
(even if you do not resubmit) on the first program will not kill your chances 
for an A in this course.  Please devote some of your energy to doing the work 
of the course.  It will make a difference.

Good luck.
Yale Patt