While I agree that what you say might apply to professional sports and records, technology I think in general, has improved things for the average Joe.
I know when I started playing tennis, when I was around 12 or 13, the first racquet I picked up was an old wooden one my dad had from when he was younger. Let me tell you, it was a struggle, and about a week later, my dad had got me a racquent (one of those cheap $20 kid's racquets) and at that point tennis turned from a game of frustration, to more of a new challenge that I wanted to overcome.
Golf is simliar as well - I know some people complain that their golf buddies are buying their scores by spending thousands on clubs, but as an amateur golfer, I don't see anything wrong with someone improving the 4 hours or so it takes them to play a round of golf. Again, it changes it from a game of frustration, to a game that you might go out and enjoy.
One might argue then that the problem is that people are too competitive, that they should be satisified with the limits of their ability, but in my mind, the benefits good equipment can bring, which then result in improved happiness and enjoyment of the sport, are worth it.
Professional tennis already has a similar device, called Cyclops, that's used to detect faults on serves.
Much simpler than what would be needed for strike detection as it only detects whether a serve is short or long. The point though is the human element remains, and that the chair ump can over-rule the Cyclops. (Like all electronic devices, it mis-reads occasionally.)
A lot of people who endorse the use of a laptop seem to assume that the principal use for a laptop would be note taking. I think those who are against a laptop are dead on when they say paper-and-pencil are a better solution (faster, non-linear, easier-to-make-footnotes, doodling, figures, complex-notation, etc etc).
But I think people are missing out on the best reason to get a laptop. Having all your data with you, and your programs, and your system configured the way you like it is uber-convenient. Granted, I went to a school that had decent labs, and I could always connect remotely to my desktop, but being primarily a Windows user, having my laptop with me was a huge plus. I had all the little helper applications I use, Office configured the way I liked it. And group work . . . being able to take my laptop to group meetings and things to work on a project was a lifesaver too.
And there are the perks, like wireless when you need to look something up, or you have dead time between classes and want to surf the web, chat, or email.
So, I'd wholeheartedly reccomend a laptop. Personally, I'd get an ultra-portable (I use an Inspiron 2100, similiar in form factor to an iBook) because then you're more likely to actually use it as a laptop, rather than as a desktop replacement.
Oh, and I have a Palm pilot too, but I rarely use it . . . it's more of a backup for me since I still sync it regularly, but 9 times out of 10, I rely on my memory instead of the Palm (though I did use the address book feature heavily before I got a cell phone)
Rand addressed this before, stating that if it is rape, "then it is rape by engraved invitation." It's a decent discussion questions as to whether the scene was rape, or did Dominique invite Roark, and the "forced sex" symbollic of the Objectivist philosophy.
hmm . . . with topcoder being a timed contest, where points are awarded dependent on speed, and the coding phase being 75 minutes for three questions, that quick and dirty serves a need? We're not talking large scale projects here . ..
I had a competitor comment to me once that while lots of others don't mess with objects, he does, just because he likes the structure and makes his debugging easier, even for tournaments . . . most others skip them because it's a level of conceptualization that can be skipped . . . modular code doesn't serve much benefit in 75 minutes . . . (well, unless you're referring to STL . . . )
hmm, I spent some time with him at the top coder thing, and "perfectly sociable" isn't quite how I'd describe . . . not socially inept, but there are just a bunch of little things (weird laugh, some odd comments, very techie, etc) that make him stand out a bit . . . take that how you may . ..
Arguably though, we all have those little things that someone doesn't like about us, so perhaps David and I were just slightly opposed . . .
Argh, I'm an idiot and forgot to use the preview button the first time . . .
I took a course like this in my undergrad entitled Science and Society. Pretty cool as it was a discussion oriented class that met once a week for 3 hours at a time, and we'd focus on a new topic each week. It was a neat class since it was an "Honors" course and had diverse students (engineering, design, arts and sciences, musical performance majors, etc). We also tried to look at each case from various perspectives, using the IPCO model where one identifies the Issues, the Parties involved, the Consequences, and the Obligations of the Parties.
I've tried to include relevant links as necessary or those that I could find. Topics we touched upon:
Diane Archer case - Should Archer report plagiarism, and destroy a student's promising career? Was the student's mistake honest or a sign of a lack of integrity? (This link is from a UCSB course website entitled Ethics in Acadmeic and Industrial Research which also provides a lot of material.
Brown Case - It appears I didn't save the scenario for this one and I can't find it online, but looking at my feedback for the week, it appears the case dealt with a researcher who uses his son as a subject for a study on hemophilia, and what results should he report. It also touched on publish vs. perish, as the article's been submitted and approved, but he's discovered new data that seems to be a special case or contradicts the submitted article
Baltimore/Imanishi-Kari - A google search on those two will turn up a lot on the case. Issues raised are good research practice and who should make sure the scientific community maintains it's ethics/morals? Should the government serve a role?
Wilson vs. Smith - Again, can't find a specific paper, but this one dealt with after Wilson published in a journal, Smith wanted the experimental data and procedure in detail to repeat the experiment and build upon it, but Wilson refused, afraid of beind "scooped" on future research. This is against the publishing policy of most tech journals, but is common practice as many researchers are fiercely protective of their work so that they can maintain funding, obtain patents, and the like. In other words, we looked at the ideals of academia (open, shared knowledge) vs. the reality.
Genetic screening - privacy implications of testing for genetic predispositions. The particular example was whether it'd be okay for the parents to let a pharmaceutical company test their children to do research into a hereditary form of cancer. Issues examined were would finding the "trigger" for the disease in the children's DNA be fair to them? (i.e. would the be happier to be ignorant of the future?) If the trigger is found, how would insurance companies use the data? Is it fair for parents to make a decision for the children that could have such lasting implications? If they don't contribute to the study, how will science advance?
Genetically modified food - what are the implications of this? People's health? the environment? businesses? This was a fun session, as we role played a corporation trying to get permission to use genetically modified crops in a small town. Some of us represented the corporation, another group represented the town council, and another group represented the population of the town.
Nature vs. Nuture - We read some chapters out of Ridley's Genome and then discussed nature vs. nurture. A specific example was a court room casae where the defense's argument was that the defendant had a genetic predisposition towards violence, and therefore he wasn't responsible f
I took a course like this in my undergrad entitled Science and Society. Pretty cool as it was a discussion oriented class that met once a week for 3 hours at a time, and we'd focus on a new topic each week. It was a neat class since it was an "Honors" course and had diverse students (engineering, design, arts and sciences, musical performance majors, etc). We also tried to look at each case from various perspectives, using the IPCO model where one identifies the Issues, the Parties involved, the Consequences, and the Obligations of the Parties.
I've tried to include relevant links as necessary or those that I could find. Topics we touched upon:
Diane Archer case - Should Archer report plagiarism, and destroy a student's promising career? Was the student's mistake honest or a sign of a lack of integrity? (This link is from a UCSB course website entitled Ethics in Acadmeic and Industrial Research which also provides a lot of material.
Brown Case - It appears I didn't save the scenario for this one and I can't find it online, but looking at my feedback for the week, it appears the case dealt with a researcher who uses his son as a subject for a study on hemophilia, and what results should he report. It also touched on publish vs. perish, as the article's been submitted and approved, but he's discovered new data that seems to be a special case or contradicts the submitted article
Wilson vs. Smith - Again, can't find a specific paper, but this one dealt with after Wilson published in a journal, Smith wanted the experimental data and procedure in detail to repeat the experiment and build upon it, but Wilson refused, afraid of beind "scooped" on future research. This is against the publishing policy of most tech journals, but is common practice as many researchers are fiercely protective of their work so that they can maintain funding, obtain patents, and the like. In other words, we looked at the ideals of academia (open, shared knowledge) vs. the reality.
Genetic screening - privacy implications of testing for genetic predispositions. The particular example was whether it'd be okay for the parents to let a pharmaceutical company test their children to do research into a hereditary form of cancer. Issues examined were would finding the "trigger" for the disease in the children's DNA be fair to them? (i.e. would the be happier to be ignorant of the future?) If the trigger is found, how would insurance companies use the data? Is it fair for parents to make a decision for the children that could have such lasting implications? If they don't contribute to the study, how will science advance?
Genetically modified food - what are the implications of this? People's health? the environment? businesses? This was a fun session, as we role played a corporation trying to get permission to use genetically modified crops in a small town. Some of us represented the corporation, another group represented the town council, and another group represented the population of the town.
Nature vs. Nuture - We read some chapters out of Ridley's Genome and then discussed nature vs. nurture. A specific example was a court room casae where the defense's argument was that the defendant had a genetic predisposition towards violence, and therefore he wasn't responsible for his actions. (similar to an insanity plea, but stressing that genetic
Well, the Cinci meetup went pretty well . . . we didn't have a host, so the initial getting a table/finding other people part was a bit difficult. Our meetup was at a Chili's, about 20 minutes from downtown. We probably had a dozen people over the course of the night, over a pretty broad spectrum. We had IT professionals, a high school student, a med student, a contractor or two, a tech, and me (the materials engineering grad who's looking for a job.)
Discussion was interesting, with there usually being two or three discussions going simultaneously about various topics. These varied from WiFi, to distros, to mutual aquaintances. I'm not the biggest computer geek out there, so there were definitely areas where I was out of my depth, but the conversations were still interesting.
I don't know when the meetup ended, but I left a little after nine because I was heading out to a bar with some non-Slashdot friends of mine (though there was definitely a part of me who would have liked to have stayed and chatted some more). Overall a good time . . .
All right, so a lot of the replies to you thus far have said that reading a book is a good way to do it, but I think for a lot of the higher level stuff, it'll be hard to learn it from a book.
I think programming/development/etc are differenct since you can actually apply those concepts in the real world, but from the sounds of the original poster, the amount of math he'll actually use is minimal . . . sounds like he wants to learn it for the sake of learning, and more power to him for that, but without some sort of application/repetition, it'll be real hard to learn it . . . which is why I think a college classroom is probably the best way for him to go . . . and like many others have posted, community college is a good option . . .
3) Astrononomical. I know that if I had the computing power of fiteen million consumer level CPU's at my disposal, I'd use it to pull the moon into the earth. 'nuff said.
Well, we know that with ~3 million consumer level CPU's, people like to look for aliens
I don't think you have to know Fortran if you're a problem solver either. It's really not that great, and it doesn't seem so different to me as to give completely different approaches to the same problem. So I see no good reason why it should be taught more frequently either.
My college transitioned to teaching C++ as the required language for the freshman engineers my sophomore year. (This was after I got to take my Intro to Comp Language class in Fortran 90.)
Anyway, a lot of the professor still think this is a bad idea because of the fact that the vast majority of engineering code that is out there is in Fortran. Hell, even a lot of the new code out there is written in Fortran because it is the language that engineers know.
From my understanding all of the major finite element packages out there are written in Fortran. with UI's written in various languages.
Admittedly, when I was taking this Fortran class my freshman year, I was thinking it was ridiculous, but looking back, it actually makes sense.
I still got my daily dose of spam on x-mas day, though it appears I had a slight respite in that it appears I only got about 75% of what I usually get . . .
From a November 6th press release it appears that Linksys will have a USB adaptor for the PC-end with an ESP of $149.99, and the router in the story has an ESP of $179.99. Looks like they're going to release a bridge as well for $149.99.
My school (University of Cincinnati) claims to be where co-op was first started in 1908 by Herman Schneider. While that claim is debateable, my school is also one of the few schools that requires students to co-op, though not all colleges within the university require it. The College of Engineering certainly does, and that's one of the main reasons I decided to go to UC even if it doesn't have the reputation of UIUC, Rose-Hulman, or other such name schools. Yes most of those schools allow you to do co-op but you have to jump through hoops to get your classes scheduled approriately.
Students that co-op are required to do at least 4 quarters of coop, with students who stay on schedule completing 6 or 7 quarters of co-op depending on whether you take your first summer off or not. It's a five year program where you take classes for freshman year and then you can start co-op, with most students alternating co-op, school, co-op, school, etc on a quarterly basis. Works out nice since by the end of a quarter, you're often ready either to stop working or get out of classes, and do something else.
I'm currently with my 3rd company on my 6th co-op quarter. Students are required to stay with a company for at least 2 quarters, with a lot of students staying with one employer for the whole time. I decided at the beginning that I wanted to work for as many companies as I could since I had (and still don't) have a clue what exactly I want to do after I graduate.
I've learned a lot of things from my various co-op experiences, and I've also had some really stupid co-op experiences. My first co-op was with a fiberglass company that made parts mainly for the heavy truck industry (i.e. body panels for Freightliner semi's) and I worked in the lab there. I learned that small companies can be a bit screwy. The lab I worked in wasn't the most organized lab, and it was quite out-dated. Lots of 486's and the likes, with a lot of work being done in DOS based applications. I was stupid back then and didn't understand that a lot of a co-op is what you make of it.
My second co-op was with a DOE lab, where I worked in the ceramics group, which was interesting. I got my first experience with SEM there, but I also came to realize that your supervisor while on co-op makes a huge difference. My advisor didn't really interact with me, and didn't give me much to do, dishing me off to his post-docs. His post-doc's had no idea what to do with me since most of the work they were doing was stuff that they needed to do, and couldn't rely on someone else to do, so I ended up doing a lot of routine sample prep and the like. I also ended up working 4-6 hours a day and getting paid for 8 since all co-ops there are given a weekly stipend. Again, I probably could have got a lot more out of the co-op if I'd taken the initiative, but it would also have helped if the management had a better idea of how to utilize me. Other students were kept busy and productive, doing meaningful work because their advisors had taken the time to plan out what they'd use a co-op student for before they arrived.
Now, my third co-op is with a large computer company, which does more consulting now than hardware. Anyway, I work in a failure analysis lab, analyzing all kinds of things that come from production. This has by far been my best co-op, and I think a lot of that has to do with my getting along with my supervisors. Granted, my first two weeks here weren't the greatest since the guy I was supposed to work for was so busy he didn't really have time to set me up, but I ended up meeting one of the other engineer's in the department, and since then I've had lots of challenging work. I've developed some analysis techniques, refined my SEM and light microscopy techniques, and really learned how to cross-section and polish samples.
So, looking back through my rather long winded post it looks like a good co-op relies on two things. One being your initiative, the other being how well prepared the company is for a student. Rather difficult for companies too. They want to challenge the student, but they don't want to overwhelm and frustrate them either, and they have to do this w/o knowing the student except for a resume and an interview.
My co-op department does point out that your first quarter with most companies will usually be kind of boring, where you're mainly going to learn the ropes, and how things work, and probably won't be given lots of responsibility. The longer you stay with a company, the more responsibility you'll be given. I know I've done my fair share of grunt work on all of my co-ops.
My advice to you would be to find someone you work with who will really act as a mentor for you, and has time/energy to teach you and also pass work on to you. The longer you stick with one or two people, the more trust they'll gain in you (unless you turn out shitty work), and they'll give you better jobs. Yeah, you'll probably still end up doing the stuff no one else wants to do but that's what happens when you're on the bottom of the ladder . . .
Re:Things I don't need
on
OS X on x86?
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Seriously, folks, what is it about Mac OS X that would make you shell out money for it when Linux is free? Do you think it can compete with Windows where Linux can't? Do you think it's genuinely better? I don't get it.
I believe OS X will compete with Windows in a lot of ways. The fact that it's being marketted as a mainstream OS, aimed at a totally different crowd that the standard Linux user seems significant to me. That it'll ship pre-installed on Apple's machines starting this summer also adds significantly to the userbase. And merhaps most importantly, the pretty, easy to use GUI will help it make inroads.
While the quality of the replays wasn't the greatest, I was pretty impressed with how well all the angles actually fit together. They used the rotation thing all over the field, both at the end zones and then center of the field. There was an earlier post on the original story that mentioned the difficulties involved here.
Having done a bit of work with trying to get things to line up in microscopes, the optics part impresses me, where they were able to get zooms and field of views to line up. The ability to do it in realtime is pretty nifty too.
And yes, the resolution was lower, but for a proof of concept, I'd say it went pretty well . . .
He churns out the same book over and over. Does this sound familar. The protagonist is a kid, more often than not with trouble in his life, but sometimes raised by a fine family who doesn't quite understand him. This kids runs into trouble, ranging from aliens to ghosts to the government, but always he is a pawn and doesn't understand what is going on around him. On page 275 he discovers the Matrix, er, I mean the omnipresent controlling influence in his life. By the end of the book he has defeated evil, or is dead but has still been victorious over the evil that he had to give his life to defeat.
Hmm . . . I'm not sure I agree with the above . . . How much of Card's writing have you actually read? A list of his works is available here. I've read the vast majority of his work from Ender's Game up through Sarah.
Arguably many of his protagonists are youth, but there are also a lot who aren't. Treasure Box, Enchantment, and Sarah, along with the mentioned Postwatch, all have main characters who aren't kids.
Besides that I think it's interesting that Card has been able to write in what I consider 3 universes (Alvin Maker series, Homecoming Saga, and Ender Books) that I consider to be unique.
His more religous sci-fi writings, such as you might find in anthologies, are also quite different.
I surely don't think of Card as a formulaic writer (though I do admit I enjoy Clancy). Yes, the Ender series does appeal to a lot of the/. crowd because many of us can relate, but I think you're selling Card short by making the gross generalization you have.
I don't know if I'd praise Card as a great author, but he is definitely an entertaining and talented writer, able to write convincing novels in many different environments. Are his stories going to be considered classics a hundred years from now? Who knows?
Why are people using incompatible Instant Messangers, when there is IRC? IRCs protocol is open, it has clients for nearly every OS and arch, and only because A uses mIRC and B uses xchat it doesn't mean they can't talk to each other...
There are probably quite a few reasons for this . . . the one that comes to mind first is the fact that instant messengers are somewhat more user-friendly than IRC. Extra features, such as voice or graphical smileys could also be a reason.
Expanding on the user friendly thread, registered screen names/nicks could be an issue as well. Granted there are services on some of the IRC networks but they're not simple point and click deals. You have to learn the commands, which are often beyond the grasp of regular Windows users. And dialup users can forget having a 24/7 connection, or perhaps eggdrops to keep their nicks on networks that don't have nick services.
Yet another reason could be the sheer number of IRC networks. I usually have 2 irc clients open so I can be on two networks simultaneously, to stay in touch with different groups of people. (Admittedly, I know of people who run 2 or more IM clients as well.)
And perhaps the biggest reason is AOL itself. Every subscriber they have is automatically an IM user, and if you want to converse in real time with AOL users, IM is the easiest way to do so. AOL users have no real reason to go and learn IRC, when most of the people they want to chat with have accepted, and use, AOL's defacto standard.
It was an interesting book, if you look at the idea of duping someone into genocide. But the most interesting part of that was glossed over as Ender felt really bad. So he spent a long time talking about dead people and that made it better.
The other books in the original series expand on this concept, dealing with humanity and genocide, and Ender's role. Card admits that Ender's Game and the rest of the series are entirely different tones, one being the kind of book that will appeal to kids, the rest being more serious, deeper works.
I know I first read Ender's Game when I was 14 or so, and I think it appealed to me for the reasons you hypothesized.
I'm reading Crime and Punishment and the contrast in abilities (dostevsky and Card) is brutal. But because of the central , geek friendly, theme Card gets cut a lot of slack. Has anyone else noticed this? Am I wrong? Missing something?
I read it again when I was 21, and I saw it from a totally different point of view. The second time I read it, it was an amusing book, but nothing profound. I'm also of the opinion that not everything I read has to be of the level of the classics (though I really don't like Dostevsky).
As for Card getting cut a lot of slack, most sci-fi writers get cut a lot of slack. I don't read sci-fi expecting everything I read to be dead on realistic. If I want that I'll go read some non-fiction, perhaps a historical work. Ender's Game works for the same reasons that Horatio Alger's works did, because the underdog prevails.
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While I agree that what you say might apply to professional sports and records, technology I think in general, has improved things for the average Joe.
I know when I started playing tennis, when I was around 12 or 13, the first racquet I picked up was an old wooden one my dad had from when he was younger. Let me tell you, it was a struggle, and about a week later, my dad had got me a racquent (one of those cheap $20 kid's racquets) and at that point tennis turned from a game of frustration, to more of a new challenge that I wanted to overcome.
Golf is simliar as well - I know some people complain that their golf buddies are buying their scores by spending thousands on clubs, but as an amateur golfer, I don't see anything wrong with someone improving the 4 hours or so it takes them to play a round of golf. Again, it changes it from a game of frustration, to a game that you might go out and enjoy.
One might argue then that the problem is that people are too competitive, that they should be satisified with the limits of their ability, but in my mind, the benefits good equipment can bring, which then result in improved happiness and enjoyment of the sport, are worth it.
Professional tennis already has a similar device, called Cyclops, that's used to detect faults on serves.
Much simpler than what would be needed for strike detection as it only detects whether a serve is short or long. The point though is the human element remains, and that the chair ump can over-rule the Cyclops. (Like all electronic devices, it mis-reads occasionally.)
but you could still use IP Over Carrier Pigeon . . .
A lot of people who endorse the use of a laptop seem to assume that the principal use for a laptop would be note taking. I think those who are against a laptop are dead on when they say paper-and-pencil are a better solution (faster, non-linear, easier-to-make-footnotes, doodling, figures, complex-notation, etc etc).
But I think people are missing out on the best reason to get a laptop. Having all your data with you, and your programs, and your system configured the way you like it is uber-convenient. Granted, I went to a school that had decent labs, and I could always connect remotely to my desktop, but being primarily a Windows user, having my laptop with me was a huge plus. I had all the little helper applications I use, Office configured the way I liked it. And group work . . . being able to take my laptop to group meetings and things to work on a project was a lifesaver too.
And there are the perks, like wireless when you need to look something up, or you have dead time between classes and want to surf the web, chat, or email.
So, I'd wholeheartedly reccomend a laptop. Personally, I'd get an ultra-portable (I use an Inspiron 2100, similiar in form factor to an iBook) because then you're more likely to actually use it as a laptop, rather than as a desktop replacement.
Oh, and I have a Palm pilot too, but I rarely use it . . . it's more of a backup for me since I still sync it regularly, but 9 times out of 10, I rely on my memory instead of the Palm (though I did use the address book feature heavily before I got a cell phone)
Rand addressed this before, stating that if it is rape, "then it is rape by engraved invitation." It's a decent discussion questions as to whether the scene was rape, or did Dominique invite Roark, and the "forced sex" symbollic of the Objectivist philosophy.
hmm . . . with topcoder being a timed contest, where points are awarded dependent on speed, and the coding phase being 75 minutes for three questions, that quick and dirty serves a need? We're not talking large scale projects here . . .
I had a competitor comment to me once that while lots of others don't mess with objects, he does, just because he likes the structure and makes his debugging easier, even for tournaments . . . most others skip them because it's a level of conceptualization that can be skipped . . . modular code doesn't serve much benefit in 75 minutes . . . (well, unless you're referring to STL . . . )
hmm, I spent some time with him at the top coder thing, and "perfectly sociable" isn't quite how I'd describe . . . not socially inept, but there are just a bunch of little things (weird laugh, some odd comments, very techie, etc) that make him stand out a bit . . . take that how you may . . .
Arguably though, we all have those little things that someone doesn't like about us, so perhaps David and I were just slightly opposed . . .
I took a course like this in my undergrad entitled Science and Society. Pretty cool as it was a discussion oriented class that met once a week for 3 hours at a time, and we'd focus on a new topic each week. It was a neat class since it was an "Honors" course and had diverse students (engineering, design, arts and sciences, musical performance majors, etc). We also tried to look at each case from various perspectives, using the IPCO model where one identifies the Issues, the Parties involved, the Consequences, and the Obligations of the Parties.
I've tried to include relevant links as necessary or those that I could find. Topics we touched upon:
I've tried to include relevant links as necessary or those that I could find. Topics we touched upon:
On the exercise bit, check out this school that uses the DDR machines for gym class . . .
For technical questions and suggestions regarding RMP4, please send an email to RMP4@sdesigns.com.
etc
Well, the Cinci meetup went pretty well . . . we didn't have a host, so the initial getting a table/finding other people part was a bit difficult. Our meetup was at a Chili's, about 20 minutes from downtown. We probably had a dozen people over the course of the night, over a pretty broad spectrum. We had IT professionals, a high school student, a med student, a contractor or two, a tech, and me (the materials engineering grad who's looking for a job.)
Discussion was interesting, with there usually being two or three discussions going simultaneously about various topics. These varied from WiFi, to distros, to mutual aquaintances. I'm not the biggest computer geek out there, so there were definitely areas where I was out of my depth, but the conversations were still interesting.
I don't know when the meetup ended, but I left a little after nine because I was heading out to a bar with some non-Slashdot friends of mine (though there was definitely a part of me who would have liked to have stayed and chatted some more). Overall a good time . . .
All right, so a lot of the replies to you thus far have said that reading a book is a good way to do it, but I think for a lot of the higher level stuff, it'll be hard to learn it from a book.
I think programming/development/etc are differenct since you can actually apply those concepts in the real world, but from the sounds of the original poster, the amount of math he'll actually use is minimal . . . sounds like he wants to learn it for the sake of learning, and more power to him for that, but without some sort of application/repetition, it'll be real hard to learn it . . . which is why I think a college classroom is probably the best way for him to go . . . and like many others have posted, community college is a good option . . .
Well, we know that with ~3 million consumer level CPU's, people like to look for aliens
I still got my daily dose of spam on x-mas day, though it appears I had a slight respite in that it appears I only got about 75% of what I usually get . . .
From a November 6th press release it appears that Linksys will have a USB adaptor for the PC-end with an ESP of $149.99, and the router in the story has an ESP of $179.99. Looks like they're going to release a bridge as well for $149.99.
Dalnet's updated their webpage explaining the joke for those who didn't get it . . .
Students that co-op are required to do at least 4 quarters of coop, with students who stay on schedule completing 6 or 7 quarters of co-op depending on whether you take your first summer off or not. It's a five year program where you take classes for freshman year and then you can start co-op, with most students alternating co-op, school, co-op, school, etc on a quarterly basis. Works out nice since by the end of a quarter, you're often ready either to stop working or get out of classes, and do something else.
I'm currently with my 3rd company on my 6th co-op quarter. Students are required to stay with a company for at least 2 quarters, with a lot of students staying with one employer for the whole time. I decided at the beginning that I wanted to work for as many companies as I could since I had (and still don't) have a clue what exactly I want to do after I graduate.
I've learned a lot of things from my various co-op experiences, and I've also had some really stupid co-op experiences. My first co-op was with a fiberglass company that made parts mainly for the heavy truck industry (i.e. body panels for Freightliner semi's) and I worked in the lab there. I learned that small companies can be a bit screwy. The lab I worked in wasn't the most organized lab, and it was quite out-dated. Lots of 486's and the likes, with a lot of work being done in DOS based applications. I was stupid back then and didn't understand that a lot of a co-op is what you make of it.
My second co-op was with a DOE lab, where I worked in the ceramics group, which was interesting. I got my first experience with SEM there, but I also came to realize that your supervisor while on co-op makes a huge difference. My advisor didn't really interact with me, and didn't give me much to do, dishing me off to his post-docs. His post-doc's had no idea what to do with me since most of the work they were doing was stuff that they needed to do, and couldn't rely on someone else to do, so I ended up doing a lot of routine sample prep and the like. I also ended up working 4-6 hours a day and getting paid for 8 since all co-ops there are given a weekly stipend. Again, I probably could have got a lot more out of the co-op if I'd taken the initiative, but it would also have helped if the management had a better idea of how to utilize me. Other students were kept busy and productive, doing meaningful work because their advisors had taken the time to plan out what they'd use a co-op student for before they arrived.
Now, my third co-op is with a large computer company, which does more consulting now than hardware. Anyway, I work in a failure analysis lab, analyzing all kinds of things that come from production. This has by far been my best co-op, and I think a lot of that has to do with my getting along with my supervisors. Granted, my first two weeks here weren't the greatest since the guy I was supposed to work for was so busy he didn't really have time to set me up, but I ended up meeting one of the other engineer's in the department, and since then I've had lots of challenging work. I've developed some analysis techniques, refined my SEM and light microscopy techniques, and really learned how to cross-section and polish samples.
So, looking back through my rather long winded post it looks like a good co-op relies on two things. One being your initiative, the other being how well prepared the company is for a student. Rather difficult for companies too. They want to challenge the student, but they don't want to overwhelm and frustrate them either, and they have to do this w/o knowing the student except for a resume and an interview.
My co-op department does point out that your first quarter with most companies will usually be kind of boring, where you're mainly going to learn the ropes, and how things work, and probably won't be given lots of responsibility. The longer you stay with a company, the more responsibility you'll be given. I know I've done my fair share of grunt work on all of my co-ops.
My advice to you would be to find someone you work with who will really act as a mentor for you, and has time/energy to teach you and also pass work on to you. The longer you stick with one or two people, the more trust they'll gain in you (unless you turn out shitty work), and they'll give you better jobs. Yeah, you'll probably still end up doing the stuff no one else wants to do but that's what happens when you're on the bottom of the ladder . . .
I believe OS X will compete with Windows in a lot of ways. The fact that it's being marketted as a mainstream OS, aimed at a totally different crowd that the standard Linux user seems significant to me. That it'll ship pre-installed on Apple's machines starting this summer also adds significantly to the userbase. And merhaps most importantly, the pretty, easy to use GUI will help it make inroads.
Having done a bit of work with trying to get things to line up in microscopes, the optics part impresses me, where they were able to get zooms and field of views to line up. The ability to do it in realtime is pretty nifty too.
And yes, the resolution was lower, but for a proof of concept, I'd say it went pretty well . . .
Hmm . . . I'm not sure I agree with the above . . . How much of Card's writing have you actually read? A list of his works is available here. I've read the vast majority of his work from Ender's Game up through Sarah.
Arguably many of his protagonists are youth, but there are also a lot who aren't. Treasure Box, Enchantment, and Sarah, along with the mentioned Postwatch, all have main characters who aren't kids.
Besides that I think it's interesting that Card has been able to write in what I consider 3 universes (Alvin Maker series, Homecoming Saga, and Ender Books) that I consider to be unique.
His more religous sci-fi writings, such as you might find in anthologies, are also quite different.
I surely don't think of Card as a formulaic writer (though I do admit I enjoy Clancy). Yes, the Ender series does appeal to a lot of the /. crowd because many of us can relate, but I think you're selling Card short by making the gross generalization you have.
I don't know if I'd praise Card as a great author, but he is definitely an entertaining and talented writer, able to write convincing novels in many different environments. Are his stories going to be considered classics a hundred years from now? Who knows?
There are probably quite a few reasons for this . . . the one that comes to mind first is the fact that instant messengers are somewhat more user-friendly than IRC. Extra features, such as voice or graphical smileys could also be a reason.
Expanding on the user friendly thread, registered screen names/nicks could be an issue as well. Granted there are services on some of the IRC networks but they're not simple point and click deals. You have to learn the commands, which are often beyond the grasp of regular Windows users. And dialup users can forget having a 24/7 connection, or perhaps eggdrops to keep their nicks on networks that don't have nick services.
Yet another reason could be the sheer number of IRC networks. I usually have 2 irc clients open so I can be on two networks simultaneously, to stay in touch with different groups of people. (Admittedly, I know of people who run 2 or more IM clients as well.)
And perhaps the biggest reason is AOL itself. Every subscriber they have is automatically an IM user, and if you want to converse in real time with AOL users, IM is the easiest way to do so. AOL users have no real reason to go and learn IRC, when most of the people they want to chat with have accepted, and use, AOL's defacto standard.
The other books in the original series expand on this concept, dealing with humanity and genocide, and Ender's role. Card admits that Ender's Game and the rest of the series are entirely different tones, one being the kind of book that will appeal to kids, the rest being more serious, deeper works.
I know I first read Ender's Game when I was 14 or so, and I think it appealed to me for the reasons you hypothesized. I'm reading Crime and Punishment and the contrast in abilities (dostevsky and Card) is brutal. But because of the central , geek friendly, theme Card gets cut a lot of slack. Has anyone else noticed this? Am I wrong? Missing something?
I read it again when I was 21, and I saw it from a totally different point of view. The second time I read it, it was an amusing book, but nothing profound. I'm also of the opinion that not everything I read has to be of the level of the classics (though I really don't like Dostevsky). As for Card getting cut a lot of slack, most sci-fi writers get cut a lot of slack. I don't read sci-fi expecting everything I read to be dead on realistic. If I want that I'll go read some non-fiction, perhaps a historical work. Ender's Game works for the same reasons that Horatio Alger's works did, because the underdog prevails.
http://www.delphion.com/details?pn=US05971091__
That patent would seem to suggest you're on the right track . . .