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User: colinrichardday

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Comments · 4,799

  1. Re:Engineers on Why Students Are Leaving Engineering · · Score: 1

    So the scores were normally distributed, but was the underlying talent normally distributed?

  2. Re:but desktops can deliver something else... on The Decline Of The Desktop · · Score: 1

    Antec sells a laptop cooler. Even if you don't use the fan, it's still a place to put your laptop.

  3. Re:What about OSX and Win32 ? on KOffice Developers Reply to Yates · · Score: 1

    There are Win32 versions of LaTeX. I'm not sure about OSX.

  4. Re:Why even bother with word processors? on KOffice Developers Reply to Yates · · Score: 1

    Multiple OSes? LaTeX is at least as cross-platform as any word processor.

  5. Re:That'll Never Work on Is AOL The Key to Microsoft 'Killing' Google? · · Score: 1

    It may not be completely "free", but people may prefer receiving dividends to having to sell the the stock for capital gains.

  6. Re:the defense of liberty on London Tube Dangerous for Technophiles? · · Score: 1

    It's nice in Columbia, SC. CNN reports that the weather in parts of Texas is not as nice.

  7. Re:the defense of liberty on London Tube Dangerous for Technophiles? · · Score: 1

    As an USian, I ask: Whatever happened to probable cause. Unless a large percentage of Muslims are terrorists, is profiling them constitutional?

  8. Re:Wales on Computer Jargon Too Difficult for Office Workers · · Score: 1

    One can read PDFs in Linux. There's Acrobat, kdpf, xpdf, and maybe more.

  9. Re:the defense of liberty on London Tube Dangerous for Technophiles? · · Score: 1

    Nor did you answer his. Or do you consider being targetted for searches "no misfortune"?

  10. Re:the defense of liberty on London Tube Dangerous for Technophiles? · · Score: 1

    Illegal to fly to the nation, but not the island. Ever hear of Gitmo (an American base on the island of Cuba)? Or do they transport the "vacationers" by boat?

  11. Re:Attacks from whom? on U.S. Deploys Orbital Communications Jammer · · Score: 1

    Yes, I know. But in that novel, the US is part of Oceania, so why would we attack ourselves?

  12. Re:Attacks from whom? on U.S. Deploys Orbital Communications Jammer · · Score: 1

    The US is (part of) Oceania, so why would be at war with it?

  13. Re:That'll Never Work on Is AOL The Key to Microsoft 'Killing' Google? · · Score: 1

    Why would dividends make a stock worthwhile?

    Because people like getting money?

  14. Coercive? on Mozilla Hits Back at Browser Security Claim · · Score: 1

    What is a coercive argument? Is it when Don Corleone claims to have a syllogism that you can't refute?

  15. Re:Boil it down, M$ is just too bloated on Mini-Microsoft Shakes Things Up · · Score: 1

    Wasn't the Ernestine character from Rowan and Martin's Laugh-In? (late 60's-early 70's).

  16. Re:SOHCAHTOA and abstract survery results on Trigonometry Redefined without Sines And Cosines · · Score: 1

    2) How much faster can it be than taking sin(x) on a calculator?

    3) The pictures of "traditional" trigonometry are pretty easy as well.

  17. Re:??Hydrogenous?? Infrastructure. on Computer Security Still Totally Inadequate · · Score: 1

    Well use some urine-resistant cabling!

  18. Re:Mod Parent Down on Trouble With Open Source? · · Score: 1

    But in the case of SourceForge, is it even a problem? Someone else might be able to salvage something useful from your application. Try that with closed-source software.

  19. Re:Mod Parent Down on Trouble With Open Source? · · Score: 1

    And how many Microsoft projects make it to market? What percentage of all of its projects are unmaintained/dead/alpha? Is it much different from SourceForge.

  20. Re:Most of you missing the point. on Trigonometry Redefined without Sines And Cosines · · Score: 1

    And at that point you may as well use sin(theta)=y/r.

  21. Re:SOHCAHTOA and abstract survery results on Trigonometry Redefined without Sines And Cosines · · Score: 1

    And how do you measure the quadrances to calculate the spreads? Or do you have a Platonic ruler?

    And how long does it take to approximate sin and cos on a 2.4 GHz chip?

    Do you believe that you could teach this to high schoolers?

  22. Re:Most of you missing the point. on Trigonometry Redefined without Sines And Cosines · · Score: 1

    How does one construct a right triangle with an angle of 117 degrees?

  23. Re:Well, not exactly on Trigonometry Redefined without Sines And Cosines · · Score: 1

    In coordinate geometry, one can take the equations of the lines in the form a_1x+b_1y+c_1=0 and a_2x+b_2y+c_2=0 and then take the spread to be

    1 - (a_1a_2+b_1b_2)^2 / ((a_1^2+b_1^2)(a_2^2+b_2^2)).

    This gives a value of zero if the lines are parallel.

    This follows from the usual properties of dot product.

  24. Re:Great for eighth grade, but ... on Trigonometry Redefined without Sines And Cosines · · Score: 1

    I'm waiting for how Wildberger will define "point", since he seems to believe that having undefined terms is vague.

    But he said the definition of an angle, not the definition of angle. I suspect he means that one cannot, in general, specify the (exact) numerical value of an angle without calculus. One of his reasons for using spread is that he can (?) specify spreads for a broader range of geometries.

    I am somewhat peeved by his use of "define" for "specify".

    As for you last point, he may just be throwing that in for people who must have the distance.

  25. Re:SOHCAHTOA and abstract survery results on Trigonometry Redefined without Sines And Cosines · · Score: 1

    And what happens in a world of irrational numbers?

    The measurement of an angle requires limits? Damn, how does my protractor do that?

    Classical trigonometry may have been computationally difficult, but being conceptually difficult is a different matter.