Consider this (gee, I wish writing math on webpage is prettier and more convenient, the square root is a pain):
What's the answer? Well it is i × i and of course the answer is -1.
But wait, √(xy) = √x√y, so subsitute both x and y as -1, we have: √(-1 × -1), which is √(1), which is...+1.
Oh no, I just proved 1 = -1! I show this to the bank and all the debt I owe becomes my money, woohoo.
What's wrong here? (to be continued...)
Do I have any reader out there wanting to comment?
Now we are talking about a Harvard student... theoretically the dumbest of those is probably smarter than the smartest person you know. Yet he did something so stupid...to cry wolf.
Look folks, bombs can actually strike. Remember Boston?
Now to get out of a final exam (I wish to know which subject was it)... all you have to do is not show up, pretend to be sick, or crash your bike into a light pole. You get to stay in school that way. I am sure the school will expel him and he would have a miserable future.
Ok, even if he didn't get caught for bomb hoax and successfully avoided the final exam. Does he not think that the final will get rescheduled? What to do then? another threat? I expect Harvard students about to answer some what-if before carrying out a scheme.
Oh my, I am impressed. This is a far cry from little bouncing ball java applet that I did. The world has such big spectrum of smart people, average people, and the lowly, um, not-so-smart people. The people who is able to do this are definitely from the top band. While I actually don't have good ideas what to do with this library... but I suppose someone can use this for a game or something...
Calculator you say? Yes it is helpful but kids still need to know this table.... because it is faster! Don't believe me? Does your calculator has a common-denominator button if you are to show steps to add two fractions? It is clumsy if you need a calculator every step of the way. I am sure you can probably find an app or two to do this (hey I wrote one). But it is still clumsy to use anything other than your head to do this fairly simple task.
Here we go: the original multiplication table.
| × | 1 | 2 | 3 | 4 | 5 | 6 | 7 | 8 | 9 |
| 1 | 1 | 2 | 3 | 4 | 5 | 6 | 7 | 8 | 9 |
| 2 | 2 | 4 | 6 | 8 | 10 | 12 | 14 | 16 | 18 |
| 3 | 3 | 6 | 9 | 12 | 15 | 18 | 21 | 24 | 27 |
| 4 | 4 | 8 | 12 | 16 | 20 | 24 | 28 | 32 | 36 |
| 5 | 5 | 10 | 15 | 20 | 25 | 30 | 35 | 40 | 45 |
| 6 | 6 | 12 | 18 | 24 | 30 | 36 | 42 | 48 | 54 |
| 7 | 7 | 14 | 21 | 28 | 35 | 42 | 49 | 56 | 63 |
| 8 | 8 | 16 | 24 | 32 | 40 | 48 | 56 | 64 | 72 |
| 9 | 9 | 18 | 27 | 36 | 45 | 54 | 63 | 72 | 81 |
I got good news for you. I know how to simplify it. Let me remind you of the 2 properties that you have heard of but thought it was completely useless of-course statements...
1. Multiplicative Identity Property: 1 × anything = anything.
2. Associative Property of Multiplication: a × b = b × a.
Look, the first property boom-boom trimmed one row and column involving the ones. You already know this part of the table. Look, the second property cut away a big triangular chunk. You DON'T need to remember what's 9 × 2, if you already remember 2 × 9. There is only ONE item to remember for the 9's, and that is 9 × 9=81. (Note: a × b is not always b × a. For regular numbers, yes. But this doesn't apply for other math entities such as the matrix.) You just boiled down the table from 81 entries to just 36 entries. Come on kids, you can remember this (by 2nd grade or so).
| × | 1 | 2 | 3 | 4 | 5 | 6 | 7 | 8 | 9 |
| 1 | |||||||||
| 2 | 4 | ||||||||
| 3 | 6 | 9 | |||||||
| 4 | 8 | 12 | 16 | ||||||
| 5 | 10 | 15 | 20 | 25 | |||||
| 6 | 12 | 18 | 24 | 30 | 36 | ||||
| 7 | 14 | 21 | 28 | 35 | 42 | 49 | |||
| 8 | 16 | 24 | 32 | 40 | 48 | 56 | 64 | ||
| 9 | 18 | 27 | 36 | 45 | 54 | 63 | 72 | 81 |
I rarely ever play video games these days... not because I don't like them just not have time now. I never liked the XBOX... I have seen a previous reincarnation. It seems big and bulky... especially its joystick. I prefer the PS. I also love the Wii's fun controllers. Well yes, Kinect is cool... it makes you move.
So I am never a XBOX player... why is it selling so well? What's the game that get people buy this? Gee I don't even know what games are popular now... Is it still the call-of-duty violent military games and evil themed grand-theft stuff that still rule? I don't even know.
Why is the Surface selling so poorly and XBox doing so well? If Microsoft can apply the winning formula in XBOX into the Surface perhaps it will win... How about making the Surface able to play XBOX games? An XBOX is basically a PC with some very advanced graphics card is it? Combine them and you got a winning machine. (But can you streamline that joystick please)
This is cheap dirty tactic to bash your competitors.
Look, do you have a better phone than Google?
Look, do your Surface (1,2,combined) sell better than Chromebooks?
Instead of bashing competitor can you build better working products? I am sure you won't sell that many Google bashing T-shirts.
The tablet (mainly the iPad) has been wildly successful and it is amazing that computers can be that thin. Yes excellent to just tap and slide on it... until you need to get work done you need a keyboard. People are very creative in doing this... some are wireless bluetooth. Prefer tablet and keyboard in one piece? There are (strong) magnetic attraction like the Microsoft Surface and there are other twist-and-turn and even swing like approaches forming the 2-in-1 devices.
Oh, these are known as "Ultrabooks" now. See here
These are all pretty but non-Apple products. I am sure these all work well but they probably won't sell well.
Now come none of these twist-and-turn yoga models catch on? Have you actually seen people using one? (I have not)
That's because that's bells-and-whistle that people don't need. A regular open-it-up laptop do JUST FINE. I don't want/need to twist-and-turn.
The real problem is: they run Windows 8.
These excellent products are all competing against each other in the shrinking PC market where these are stuck with the horrible Metro interface.
To save the PC business... PC Makers should probably give people an option to get Windows 8, or a Linux distribution already installed...
Did Microsoft compare themselves with Coke Classic? Coke Classic completely whack the ill-fated Coke II formula. To follow the success of Coke Classic, I think Microsoft should completely dump the Metro for a better desktop than Windows 7. Keep the faster boot time. Keep the anti-virus pre-installed. Bring back the not-as-boring title bar, Bring back an improved Chess Titan! Add Soduku!
Go ahead, read about her. For example in wiki.
Wow, she can calculate the cube root of 188,132,517 faster than a computer and can do other amazing feats. I don't even have a clue how to calculate a cube root without a calculator. (Yes but I DO know how to calculate square root by hand... and I have yet to write a little proof of that method of that doubling-and-pull-down method).
How can she do this so fast? Is there some secret methods to follow (like those mental math little books). Or she is just incredibly fast?
Is it because she can tap more % of her brain more than others so she can do things faster?
Ok folks, what is mathematics? Is able to calculate multiplication, square root, cube root lightning fast... considered mathematics? Can she earn a phD for being super fast? (If so, that $1 calculator in dollar store is fairly close to getting phD?)
My take is this: if a little machine can do, it is not sophisticated mathematics. It is just manual labor.
If you have systematic ways to solve some real-world problems, find some interesting relationships between things... I would call that mathematics.
Disclaimer: I am no mathematician, I am not even a good student. But I won't send kids to do mental math or abacus class.
Oh and there is going to be "Tech surge" where top people will jump in to help?
Some even say the best way to fix it is to start from scratch.
Ok, putting more people at a broken project is probably not going to help... The smart people being put on there would have no idea how things are supposed to work immediately... Yes, perhaps it may be best to tear it down and rebuild. But can someone say just what is broken with it... it is hardware/software not able to handle volume or just incomplete stuff pushed out? I've seen some news reporting about some crash with an error message of "cgi". See here.
I am sorry, CGI?? That's like 1990s! Come on. Thia project is definitely given to the wrong people. /* Common Gateway Interface (CGI) is the first method of handling processing way back in the infant age of the web... it needed to create a new process to handle every request and that is not able going to able large volumes. */ Every software developer should know that CGI is so passe.
If the United States can put people on the moon, have the best military in the world, I'm like "yes we can!" in producing something that works reasonably well. This is classic case of poorly managed bureaucratic project failure.
But before you laugh at it, are you absolutely sure that the projects you work on will work smoothly without issues? There are unknowns... code dumped to you... assumptions you were given that is wrong. You are supposed to know how to use certain products but actually no one told you how to do certain things. There are rare problems that work fine perfectly on your machine/browser but not in other people's machine. Issues can go on and on. Too many people (even smart ones) on a project can actually hurt it as communications get harder... I'll say like just a handful (like 10) great people team can do this... given a good architecture to start with and all requirements clearly established. and it shouldn't cost millions of dollars. Some people charge too much! Make them pay you back.
The Surface Pro 2 look and feel better than the first version. Please ignore the idiot RT (stand for Rotten Trash I suppose) version that runs only Windows Store apps. That RT version should not have existed. If you think Surface Pro 2 as a laptop. This is a great slim laptop. If you think it it is pad, man is it clumsy big compared to the slim-and-pretty iPads and Android pads.
If you can put up with Windows 8's interface, the Surface Pro 2 actually is a reasonable choice. Waita minute, a reasonable working laptop costs may be HALF as much. Is it supposed to have Windows 8.1? Where is that reincarnated Start button? I wanted to verify, wanted to run good old "winver" on the DOS prompt. Boy that's hard. Where the heck is the DOS prompt (cmd)? Windows-R to launch it you say? How do you do this in the tablets (without keyboard attached)? The softkey keyboard... where the heck is the Windows key? (I don't remember able to find it). Finally I found it in c:\windows\system32\cmd.exe. Waita minute it still says Windows 8 (not 8.1). And the version is wha? 6.3.something? This is nuts.
The keyboard is still too expensive. The total cost of the machine + keyboard should be around the price of an iPad to be competitive.
Face it, that Metro/Modern UI is a failure. The ugly tiles just suck. Where is the idiot who says well originally people object to the mouse and people will get used to it later guy? It is hard to find things. How do I explore what programs are on the computer? There is just no good way to do so when inside the desktop now that the Start button is whacked. Even 3.0's Program Manager would be nice to bring back, ok?
In the Start page, I'll have to scroll scroll scroll in the WIDE screen. Why can't you have little folders in to collect your titles? and when you turn it 90 degrees? You still have to scroll scroll scroll to the right in the narrow screen. (That's not how the scrolling work in the Windows phones right?) That aspect ratio is screwed up. When you turn it 90 degree to read a pdf novel it will feel not right.
In the old days... there are UI to wrap around ugliness, such as DOSShell to wrap around DOS.. The Windows 8 desktop is alright but I am not liking its wacky corners and the charm bar and I want Aero back. Someone out there should write a better desktop to run on these machines.. Yes, there is Linux! But can I still deal with C:\Program Files\whatever and not /usr/bin/whatever and able to run existing apps. Ah there is Windows 7, sure. But the merit of Windows 8 that everyone forgets: it is faster to boot now.
---
Additional notes:
Ok, the best way to find a program in the "Desktop" is to do the charm bar. Windows-C, or just slide to the left from the right edge, and then use the search icon. Dude, this is outrageously not obvious. If the right hand side is interact-able, it should have a damn little tab. This is still not a LIST of program for me to choose from, but a full page of irrelevant things on the Metro screen.
Needing to must-jump out of Desktop stinks. Get an email with a PDF attachment? Click on it and boom, it is at your face.
In fighting video games, it is ultimate humiliation if you beat your opponent and destroy his score board and energy bar. Metro is doing this to me.
It must be some intense anger going on inside and the kid cannot control it... alas, the parents didn't put the gun in a safe spot. Do his parents know what's going on with the kid? I want them to come out to the media and apologize (at least for not hiding their gun properly). The teacher may have survived if he brings in a knife or even ninja stars.
It is so unfortunate that this math teacher got shot and killed... What could have prevented this? Every teacher wears a bulletproof vest to work? Is gun control coming back to the spotlight? (I don't think so)
I am supposed to find this in the ugly green tile known as "Store". I don't. How do you search something in the Store? You freaking just type on it without a prompt. and all I get a bunch of probably-crappy Windows 8.1 tutorial apps.
Ok, I am supposed to get all the Windows updates first. There are so many. And for years the softwares are updated behind the scene. Why are there so many holes to plug? Tried that and it is STUCK in the middle. Rebooted and still stuck, says "Installing update 18 of 33"... I was afraid I just busted the less-than-one-year-old machine. Fortunately another reboot and some more waiting gives me my computer back. But is there Windows 8.1 in the Store? No.
Ok, I am NOT GOING TO BOTHER looking for Windows 8.1. This isn't a very pleasant experience you know to not able to find it, you know. Even if you can find it, you may or may not be able to install it.
Apparently I am not the only one having problems. See here for an article on Forbes.
Come on, why are Microsoft things so frustrating. There is supposed to be a lot of talents working in Microsoft?
When you think about it... it is like 2 parents fighting for what's-for-dinner. One want hamburger the other want fried chicken... and when an agreement cannot be made, there is no dinner for the kids who don't get to participate.
But I am glad this is just talks. In the 1860s it was war. But it seems to be even more stupid if a civil war breaks out about healthcare system.
Now for the debt ceiling. If we reach it we raise it. It is completely useless. Why have such (arbitrary) limit? Ok, translate that to real life, if you have $1000 credit line on your credit card and you have reached it. Do you ask the bank to raise your credit line? What would the bank say? Something must be done to pay off such debt right? And I am still not sure if someone is really doing something about this.
The baby must be very saddened to find out about this later.
She has had medication and mental health evaluation. What else can help her?
Now, can we blame the (unpaid) police officers for firing? Now given the Navy Yard incident... they must act fast! But that woman was unarmed. The article says, "More shots were fired after the vehicle stopped". Now should they LOOK before shooting? I feel sad that the baby has lost mom.
Before the details unfold, I thought it may be some disgruntled government employee lost job wanting to revenge or something.
Glad this is not the line I am taking. Though CTA is probably not the best train system in the world, but I would say it is fairly reliable... incidents like this don't happen often.
But when this happens dozens get sent to hospitals. I hope CTA recheck all its systems. Especially the trains that *I*'m on.
When I first learned about it on a old DOS machine. My reaction: gee this is weird and not so obvious. But then I was told this is weird because it is not to be triggered by mistake to reboot. Back then, some machines typically has the reset switch in the BACK of the machine for the same reason.
But I think a single button to reboot would even a bigger mistake. Triggering that by accident is no fun.
Waita minute, why do machines need to be rebooted? Yes, some programs crashes. Some don't even crash consistently. But I can't accept default out-of-box programs from Microsoft to crash inconsistently and sometimes quietly I don't even get an error message or even BSOD.
Yes it is poor programming.... or just programming is too easy to screw up. Got a while loop but forgot to increment that counter? .. on some environment that don't let you kill the job? (like DOS). Need to reboot. Well loops are easy to track, but often time it is tricky pointers to caused blue screen of death or other things... Modern OS now have Task Manager that lets you kill particular malfunctioning jobs. This is good. But Microsoft things sometimes still require you to reboot machine...
Besides the power switch (which you risk losing unsaved work), there is another way to reboot... the "shutdown" DOS command. But the DOS prompt may not be available. So the 3-finger-salute is the way to go... hope you don't have to salute often. Get a Mac you say? Yes the Mac crashes less, but not entirely crash proof.
Ok, besides rebooting, there is one more use: to get to the Login screen. You have seen "Press Control-Alt-Delete to login". Now this definitely is going to be difficult with one hand (let's say you're eating ice-cream cone in another hand). I've heard the reason is that no other programs can use this key combination... making it difficult to someone to steal your password with a fake login screen.
Why they come to Chicago again for completely unnecessary scenes of CG destruction around the city? Look, it is the FOURTH time around, time to head back to CYBERTRON! If that is not so accessible at least go to another city.
This new movie better give me something brand new... Prime AXED Megatron last time. What else to see? Please have a lot more autobots... and no more annoying little guys following Bumblebee. I want to see the dinobots... the giants such as Menasor and Computron... I want to see a team such as the Protectobots also.
Who is the new girl for this movie? You actually don't even need one. Focus on the never-gets-old good-vs-evil theme would be enough.
Give me a surprise factor. Ooh that Unicorn in 1986 movie... It is a freaking PLANET that can devour a moon. How do you beat that? A blood-boiling duel between Megatron and Prime in 1986. How can you beat that? The 1986 movie yet still find time to insert Starscream's ambition. How can you beat that?
That original movie still remain the best film ever.
This professor's teaching position perhaps should be scrapped instead.
He says, "But it could be that the study of fractions should be delayed until it can be understood, perhaps after a student learns calculus, "
I am sorry, how the heck are you going to talk about the slope of the tangent line... the fundamental concept of calculus without fractions?
Think decimal can do everything? Take this: 1/3.
All the ink in the world cannot write this down completely as a decimal as the 3 repeats forever.
The number 10 is actually not so convenient as denominator... This is why ancient people pick 12 hours in AM and PM, as you can talk about 1/2, 1/3, 1/4, 1/6 of the morning or afternoon. However, decimal has the typographical convenience (unless you got MathML and all those plugins needed or know LaTex). Ok I praise Microsoft Word's equation editor too. It is A LOT easier to author equations and fractions now.
So afraid of long division? That actually is some ingenuous algorithm in action. I am saddened that this professor didn't have a good elementary school teacher. Praise Euclid for the Division Algorithm!. That unique part is the big deal here. Ok there is little merit to calculate square root by hand as you actually don't need to do such calculations often. But all kids must know how to do basic calculations without the calculator.
And people are clueless: not even sure who is the target, how many gunmen, what's the motive.
This line is alarming:
Chicago had more than 500 homicides in 2012 — more than any other city in the nation, and about 80 more than New York, which has three times as many people.
Even at the Navy Yard in DC... someone with mental health issues can go in gun... Go figure. Look something serious, red-line is going on. Yet no one can do anything about this?
I am willing to give up some freedom to see spy cameras on every corner, every park, everywhere, especially those troubled neighborhoods. And send clear messages that everyone is being recorded. That Boston bomber case was solved quickly because of those cameras.
I am staying indoors.
If you already have an IPhone are you tossing yours out and buy a new one? I am afraid not. What's its hottest new feature? Fingerprint! ooh. secure you say? Ok what if you cut your finger while cutting prepping your veggies? You lock your phone too until your fingers are healed? Fingerprint may look very secure but it is very easy to steal. Touch that door knob? You left behind finger print. Touch that cup/mouse/anything someone can copy that with a piece of tape. Stealing finger print is easier than read your mind for that password. But the "s" does not mean "same"... iOS7 seems to be a major update with many UI changes.
So if you don't have a smart phone maybe it is good time to toss that old phone and buy one... but Androids are a lot cheaper. And I am afraid not many is going to consider Microsoft/Nokia even if it has a 100 meg camera.
But if your smartphone is not broken keep it. The new iPhones seem not have some must-have feature to shell out $ to upgrade that working phone. So I am afraid iPhones won't be as hot as years ago... as ooh-must-have features are not so easy to identify and to add to an already powerful phone.
This is an excellent write up of great math topics that programmers should be interested in. (Well I covered much of these in my book and sadly nobody reads mine.) I visited the "Good Math, Bad Math Blog" mentioned in the back of book...hmm, it is intermixed with recipes and some quite-advanced mathematics.
But I object the title: "Geek's Guide". Those who enjoy mathematics shouldn't be labeled as geeks? I hope each section is a bit longer too to cover a bit more depth. Otherwise this is a great book and great gift idea for those who enjoy both math and computing. (Unfortunately nobody buys me gifts)
I've read someone wrote that the number 1 right thing to do to fix Microsoft is to get rid of the "goof ball" Ballmer.
Now to call him a goof-ball may be too harsh. He didn't envision that Metro design didn't he? The guy who envisioned that is definitely a goof ball. But Windows 8 and the Surface... will be forever logged as his failure to get Microsoft back to its glorious days.
His colleagues should plan a go-away gift... ah, the Surface would be a great gift idea. But I hope his colleagues is willing to shell out extra $ for that keyboard.
So Yahoo comes up with 30 new logos... a new one everyday. See here. Oh it has been going for a while? Although I use yahoo mail everyday I didn't even notice.
Why? Because I use my phone's Email program. I only get and need the email itself. I don't even see logos or ads around the mails.
So I have been using yahoo for free without ads. sorry. Perhaps I should pay you back some way? I hope your new logos help... For the record, I did provide a yahoo link above. Hoping to drive you more traffic. Alas, poor me. I probably don't get a lot of readers.
Now in this Mighty Feather levels they will move with their little machines... and will steal your eggs. But you have unlimited supplies of Mighty Feather Reds (but only one kind). Of course to get 3 stars you need to use as few as you can... and if you don't get 3 stars you will be explained.
This is a nice new tweak to a well-played game.
Why is it SO successful? Is there someone researching what makes a successful game. Yes, it's got good graphics... but this isn't crazy elaborate like 3D worlds.. sometimes simple is good. Pac man didn't have truly awesome graphics either. Yes Angry Birds got a great music theme and fun sound effects. This helps. Cuteness of characters! That's important... There are plenty of puzzle games out there I like this one because you are not so time pressured... ok, until these Mighty Feather levels...
Yes I played Cut-the-Rope, nice, but just not as fun and addictive... Candy Crush. oh my, my eyes hurt after a few levels.
Regular Angry Bird would be a lot, gosh lot deeper if you can change the order of the birds to launch. So you can use that bomb or accelerating yellow bird first before the wimpy simple Red.
Here is the GRANDDY of Angry Birds: Gorillas throwing banana in DOS.
This article tells you details and list recent accidents.
If you drive around in Chicago, you see there are HUNDREDS of deaths each year on electronic billboards throughout 90/94 as a way to remind you to drive safely. You can be next. (Ok, or me) Should there be balloons now reminding pilots to drive safely? (of course not). You don't see each car accident detailed in news because there are so many. Perhaps soon airline accidents get so frequent that no one bother reporting them.
Ok, given so many flights everyday, I suppose it is still fairly safe to fly.
I flipped through inside... a lot of fascinating things that will take some time to go through... This would be a great book to read if I have some spare time. Irrationals numbers are useless you say? I have to say.... yes there perhaps is not too many practical uses but they are fascinating.
This book cover already listed the most interesting irrational numbers: π e, and the golden ratio φ. There aren't many irrational number given a special name. That spiraling triangle.... continuously make use of the Pythagorean Theorem to construct lengths of the radicals.
And why you cannot count on? That's because irrationals just cannot be represented by countable things such as fractions (there is something not so rational about these radicals).
That Amazon link... talks about Zeta(3). You would not realize how cool is this... perhaps unless you know about Zeta(2)'s jaw-dropping relationship with π.
Ok, Zeta(s) is actually straight forward, the sum of the inverse of integers to the s-th power:
And that it can be proven:
Ok I guess I have to buy the book to see what's up with Zeta(3). Oh, irrationality of e and π... is not for faint of heart. Google search for the proof to see what I mean.
“Anyone who has two shirts should share with the one who has none, and anyone who has food should do the same.”Yes, this is an actual verse. Quiz: Did Jesus or Paul or any of the apostles say this?
Bet you didn't heard of it either. The answer is none of above. It was John. John the Baptist that is. See Luke 3:11.
He was the cousin of Jesus. Just why do we need this John the Baptist to "prepare the way"?... He has always been a good guy, yet he died in terrible death. And Jesus was totally silent for this matter. He got power to resurrect the dead right? He didn't bother nor even talk about John the Baptist after the baptism, I don't think.
I hope you have a helpful heart like John the Baptist too...
Ok, are you going to rush to Staples, Best Buy or the Microsoft Store to buy one? But that keyboard and cover would still cost you a lot of money. Even if those are free. I still don't need one. I rather have a real (even a basic) laptop or an iPad or some Android pad.
The Surface is just too thick too heavy when you compare to any tablet. The flat UI really turns me off (bring back Aero makes me happier but I still won't buy).
If this is $300 I suppose you can sell a few (but that keyboard+cover+Microsoft Office would cost you that much).
What can save Microsoft now? Microsoft Bob? (See here)
Ok I am confused. When do you start counting that 1000 years?
Ok, let's be nicer to this guy. Take away that life sentence, just 1000 years. At the end of the 1000 years are you really going to release him?
Ok, I'll be EVEN nicer to this guy, how does life prison MINUS 1000 years. So I suppose life sentence is already ∞, did I really give him a break? No, because ∞ ± k = ∞ still. Yes, it gets tricky to talk about infinity.
This guy committed crimes as horrible as it can get... Why even let him live? Why go through such lengthy legal process? I am sure inmates will beat them up or the feeling of guilt will eventually consume him... next time you see him in news he may be going onto the 1000 years of prison... elsewhere.
Ok, he has first name, and 2 middle names (?), and a title named "Cambridge". What's his last name? Does he even have one? Whatever it is it probably doesn't matter. And he would probably one day be a king of England. (I probably won't live long enough to see his reign) or even Charles' reign as Elizabeth II seems able to still reign for a very long time.
Ok kids (especially girls). Look at this real prince. Look at his parents (future king and queen). Do they look like those you see in cartoons? You would expect his little car seat to be well decorated with crown symbols for his royal come home? Look pretty regular to me.
Modern queens and kings and princes don't get the real power they used to have. (Why keep them around is actually a good question). So kids, don't bother fantasizing to be prince and princess with your dresses and toys. They are just tricking your parents to buy stuff.
See here for details... so you can break a function into a function and then pass it to an internal (partial) function.
Can someone raise hand: "uh, just how gains do you have by doing this?" Do you really find this useful?
I didn't have a clue what styles make that happen. Glad that wasn't an interview question.
Testing:
Here is how: "focus" and "box-shadow".
<style type="text/css">
input {
border:2px solid #dadada;
border-radius:7px;
font-size:20px;
padding:5px;
}
input:focus {
outline:none;
border-color:#9ecaed;
box-shadow:0 0 10px #9ecaed;
}
</style>
Testing <input type=text size=10>
Ok, what's a good alternative? I tried to look for one and gosh the Permissions on some of these are kinda scary: access to your memory card and everything. Download at your own risk. But there is a news/feeds app right from Google: Google Currents. This has more elaborate UI and works pretty well. (I need to learn how they do this scrolling UI, probably some Ice Cream sandwich feature)
This dwarf planet is just less than 0.24% the mass of Earth (how do they measure that? see here. Kepler's Laws rules) and it attracted 5 moons. Impressive isn't it... So moons are fly-by rocks captured by gravity?
Earth would be much more interesting if we have more than 1 moon. See, ancient Chinese associate the sun with man and the moon with woman. Hard to do such analogy if we have 5 moons.
Pluto's orbital period is 238 years. The entire USA's history is just 237 years as of now. (2013-1776=237). When Pluto and its moons visit the same spot next time around... the USA and Earth would be different, very different, if it is still around.
Do I know C++? Yes, I know some aspects of it. The OOP of C++ is of course much more straightforward than Objective C. Sure, define class like a struct, use ":" to derive subclass. Label your methods public, private, protected, and you don't have to label each method like in Java. Ok, that "virtual" keyword is a bit confusing too. Hey Java can do it without this keyword.
However, much of the world wants web applications. Is it even possible to write a C/C++ web app? Java is much more straight forward for that with plenty of library to use. Good bye C++. I said goodbye to C++ for decades.
Ok, people are not going to quiz you basic stuff. Do you know about Run Time Type Information (RTTI) and its related keywords:
static_cast
reinterpret_cast
const_cast
dynamic_cast
No one is opposing loud about same sex marriage now. Do you hear any more opposition? I hear none. Only seeing people waving colorful flags jumping up and down celebrating.
This means: "family" has changed. It is now any combination. One-man-and-one-woman marriage's success rate is so low anyway. Kids biologically born into a family with mom-and-dad are so few that soon they will become extinct. Everybody just have total freedom and no commitment and Plan B pills will be available to anyone, so celebrate. Toss that Bible away. Face it, you don't read it anyway. If you read it you don't respect it anyway and you interpret it anyway you want.
What will future generations be?
To me, this isn't something to celebrate. This is getting too complex.
Look, the original plan that people instinctly do pretty much for thousands of years is this: you are raised by a family of mom-and-dad. You grow up, marry someone of opposite sex, and create another family of mom-and-dad. This is across most (if not all) cultures, across continents, across languages... This is ... human. This is changing because family is no longer mom-and-dad, and in such family at most one of the parents can be biological parent. Perhaps I don't understand the word "equal" but this is to me... isn't "equal".
There is no more debate needed... no one, not a single person is now opposing same sex marriage. They have clearly won.
This basically just a button link that takes you to the Start page. You have to live without the pre-8 Start button (unless you download a third party tool). This is better than the helplessness of not able to find your programs to launch. Hey, *I* tried to create such thing with VBScript that simulates a key sequence. See here for reference. Nope, there isn't a key for the hardware Windows button.
Hardware button is tyranny. I disliked the Apple button on the Mac and the Windows button on Windows. Keyboards is supposed to be standardized I should be able to pull one keyboard from one machine and plug into another. Hey that's the beauty of USB but the tyranny of OS required their button with their brand which I am not so liking.
You should be able to boot to desktop and not see any of those stupid tiles. It is just minor annoyance. I see it for only a split second before I press Windows-D.
I do not predict 8.1 will make Windows 8 sell like hotcake as in Windows 3.1.
Why is no one wanting Aero back and have to put up with flat things like in 3.1?
If you read this news in some sites with readers able to post comments, sometimes you will see people mocking at the gun laws... "Look, Chicago has toughest gun laws around and look!" Ok, so are you suggesting arming every man woman and child in Chicago to reduce the number of crimes?
Just why is there so much conflicts? Is it economy related? If people can find work will they prefer making money instead of killing their enemies?
If I have a database I want to query: what is the success rate of catching killers? Is the penalty big enough to provide any deterrence?
Is there a way to stop this nonsense? More cops. Sure. but no one wants to pay for them. How about surveillance cameras everywhere and someone is going to object intruding their privacy (there is actually plenty of them out there). Education you say? This actually can work. But are there enough people willing to do this?
"Oh my God! Oh my God!" exclaimed one victim's father.
Dear God please help these helpless folks.
Now the first page news headline is scrollable (to the right only of course, due to the idiot narrow-horizontal-long screen design). When you click on a news item you get PAGING only interface. You better be absolutely done reading the page (columns of reading up and down) before going to the next. Come on, paging interface... is it a step backward like the 1980s Hercules apps you see bank workers use?
Fine. I can also live with this.
Boom it likes to CRASH with no error dialog box, no BSOD. just takes you right back to the Start page. And when I try again it usually works.
Speechless.
It is amazing to see king of software heading straight down to oblivion as everyone will soon abandon it if it continues to suck. 8.1 better be much better.
Don't get too happy here Apple! Your Finder stinks. Learn a thing or two from Windows' Explorer.
The book I picked up quoted James Gosling, the father of Java, "If I were to pick a language today other than Java, it would be Scala."
Now that's some endorsement.
Ok, a first look of this reminds me of Pascal! So why are variables are defined Pascal-style in a C-descended language that is supposed to work closely with Java? Oh, and the type is not always needed (like javascript)... The world now prefers dynamic things. There is a lot of syntax to this language.
I found an awesome spin-alot great presentation for Scala in: http://scalacamp.pl/intro/#/start. It is made by the now-that's-impressive impress.js. That makes regular Powerpoint slides feel like dinosaurs (but is simple slides more effective than overly rotating ones?)
Santa Monica. Beautiful sunny place. Bloody mass shooting again by an mentally disturbed man. This time it is not 6 year olds so it seems not getting as much attention as Newtown. Although Obama tried hard to push some sensible gun control but that failed. He is probably not going to do anything about it as there are more scandals/problems/issues to deal with.
This country is hopeless in containing this type of violence. Who cares. Let's just see what Apple can give you next.
And oh, I just learned Vermont and Maine were NOT among the original 13!
See here.
Somebody is going to say, "so what, that's useless! unless you go to Jeopardy or something." What do you say to such naive beings?
I am sorry, is there a monk visiting the animal fair (but why?), and then an elephant sneezed, fell on his knees and crushed him?I went to the animal fair, The birds and the beasts were there, The big baboon by the light of the moon Was combing his auburn hair, The monkey bumped the skunk, And sat on the elephant's trunk; The elephant sneezed and fell to his knees, And that was the end of the monk, |: The monk, the monk, the monk. :|
Why does children song has lyrics like this?
I need a stronger than [Like] button... a [Love] button for this. I'll be impressed if you recognize just some of these equations/reactions. But a college graduate should at least seen some of these.
The good news is: you don't need to know all these to enjoy the world as in the top picture.
Where is the dude who dared to mock me with "tell me one use of calculus"?
Go ahead, enter line-numbered lines right on it (no separate editor and compiler needed).
10 PRINT "HELLO MY FRIEND"Then run it with "RUN".
In early 80s, BASIC dominated the (personal) programming world. Yes, there were C and other "more professional" languages but they aren't so accessible. The Commodore 64 came with BASIC. DOS machines came with it. Some Apple came with it (I think, I never really owned one)... Although each BASIC is a little different but it lets you create something easily. After all, it is the Beginner's All Purpose Symbolic Instruction Code. If you had to fight pointers like in C then it will be too hard for most people. The sensation of able to tell the computer to obey your order is a nice feeling. (Feels even better if you make money for doing that)
Nowadays, given a new computer, although mostly free, you have to download a bunch of things to program something (and not so easily). BASIC lets you play with it right away... I wonder why Microsoft doesn't give you Visual Basic (note, no capital) in Windows... (well there is VBScript, and there is this VBA thing from Office.) Perhaps Microsoft may add a free fun programming tool to Windows Blue so it makes your computer fun again. (Doubtful)
But can excellent apps alone really revolutionize education? It is just part of the process. Parents should step in to help their kids...
Why in the world do you give a deadly gun to a 5 year old as a gift before he even starts first grade? Five-year-olds don't need to go hunting. Nobody really should. Leave the wild animals alone! There are PLENTY of other recreational activities. Give him a NERF gun instead.
What are you going to do with the 5-year-old? Charge him for murder? The sister died in vain. He will probably be sorry for what he did. I want him to grow up to be an anti-gun advocate.
This "normal way of life" gotta change. When will public opinion ever change to what makes sense? Just how many people has to die?
The 2nd Amendment needs to be REPEALED. If you allow guns why aren't you allowing people making nuclear bomb? Only law enforcement should have access to guns. Even the first baby step toward making sense: a sensible background check faced opposition. The American gun culture is just so very wrong.
If the gentleman do not believe in tablets, why does Blackberry bother to make one (the Playbook) and it failed miserably while iPad's sales soar? Now, everybody likes to make predictions such as the death of the PC... and Windows 8 certainly makes it die faster. (Well it may not, if the Windows 7 interface comes back with some real improvements)
The tablet is great for couch browsing, casual reading, and casual gaming...and is here to stay, more than 5 years. An attachable keyboard turning it to laptop is great idea... unfortunately Windows 8 just didn't do this right.
Android is natively in java, Windows native is in its wacky every changing .NET things, Apple in wacky Objective C. Blackberry is in C++. This is nice foundation.. but what's up with months and months of delay with that new Blackberry phone? I hope you meet Microsoft in getting 3rd place in the phone world.
I promise to buy a Blackberry if Heins's prediction is right. I hope I can find one by then, not in junkyards.
No, it should be integral of v du that you want to see if it is easier.
For the record, I haven't need to do this once after high school.
u-substitution and by-part are the only 2 general methods to evaluate integrals. People came up with all sorts of techniques to integrate expressions for certain patterns... and therefore you got the table of integrals on the back of your calculus book.
omg, now you can do just about everything with calculus on the web. See this powerful Wolfram site: http://www.wolframalpha.com/examples/Calculus.html
Now, should we let kids use calculators on their test? What if they fire up their phones online and cheat that way?
President Obama got one of these. Glad he does not need to open his own letters. See news details here. However, what I don't understand is this. How come no news report tells me what the letters say?
This time it is ricin. There are so many deadly plants and things out there, and people thought about this as chemical weapon. Poison is supposed to be banned in some national treaties that nobody follows anyway. Ok it is harsh to kill with chemical weapons of mass destruction. Is it not harsh to kill somebody with a machine gun?
I hope we soon get to the bottom of the poison letters and to the Boston bombing.
I do believe people will eventually find out who did this.
I frequently check the news lately. Is North Korea actually sending nukes at someone? at its intended location? Alas, there are actually many bombing and killings around the world around this time too. This news is in boldface big font because it is occurring in America. and there is an earthquake killing dozens at the Iran-Pakistan. We cannot prevent natural disasters.. but human disasters... come on, what gain do you get when you kill a few innocent marathon athletes and their supporters? The guy is got to be mad at something... or insane. or want to revenge America for something. That 8 year old and other victims didn't harm you, you hear? Killing the innocents does not solve your problems!
The CTA has this sign all over the place: if you see something say something.
Unfortunately, hundreds of people at the marathon still wasn't able to see something, say something, and prevent such thing. We are so helpless against the next disaster.
See more about Euler here. He is one of the greatest mathematicians ever known. Few people has a number named after him: e. That's right, the base of the natural logarithm. Your calculator has an ex button. You must be dozing in calculus or had a professor who can't speak English if you don't know what's so natural about the natural logarithm. (Yes, d/dx ex = ex) It is invincible for differentiation.
But wait there's more... that Euler formula in the lower-right corner connects e, i, π, and also 0 and 1 together. Such relationship is a beauty in the eyes of the mathematicians. I have a great book on this fabulous formula (I wish I understand all of it).
See that bridge over there in the google image? It is the Seven Bridges of Königsberg problem that opens a new chapter in math: topology.
That V - E + F = 2 is also known as Euler's formula for shapes and stuff.
You may have heard of Rick Warren's famous book "The Purpose Driven Life". Millions of copies sold. I've read this book myself.
This book is well written in clear language, highlighting the cash cow important verse Jeremiah 29:11
"For I know the plans I have for you,” declares the Lord, “plans to prosper you and not to harm you, plans to give you hope and a future."I can see how this book may even transform lives for it supposedly have give the hopeless hopes, and the purposeless with some purpose. I certainly admire people who can sell millions of books...
How many people actually zoom out of the verse and read just the chapter? The LORD is talking to those who were taken exile... not to you.
Yikes, Rick Warren's own son was in depression, despite having a loving family, prayers, and the best medical personnels and counselors available... Matt still can't climb out of the depression. Some depression perhaps can trait back to a cause... such as Miss Right decides to go with a lessor being, friends betray you, couldn't get to the school/job you want, or growing up without loving parents... alas sometimes we can't trace to the source and resolve... I guess depression can be something beyond what current medicines can fix... but yikes how much are the not-so-helpful doctors and counselors charging Warren? That bill can cause someone who don't make as much money right into depression.
Not even faith can help him... now that's depressing.
Read the next verse in Jeremiah, "Then you will call on me and come and pray to me, and I will listen to you. " I am sure they did. How come the LORD doesn't actually step in to help?
Now, here is a another tough theological question... is Matt going to heaven? He has violated "thou shalt not kill (yourself)"
Who understands the pain Matt has to go through? Who understand the pains that some people with horrible diseases who wants to go to Jack Kevorkian-style suicide go through? This is a tough question.
I agree with most of Ebert's reviews. I sometimes need to read Ebert's review after a movie to try to understand what I watched.
Alas, if you go to rogerebert.suntimes.com to dig out an old review, you will get some embarrassing error:
SOSEScript: bossV2Searchjson.php5 failed executing with the following error: Error on line 954 position 1: Invalid argument supplied for foreach()"Powered by Yahoo". This is EMBARRASSING. Fix it!
Alas, cancer stole his jaw.
My dad at one point says, "look, you don't need to excel in all subjects to become a legend, if you do ONE thing well, very well, you can get all the dollars and fame you want" and he pointed to some legendary comic artist. Ebert watch movies and be able to write about and talk about it intelligently and voila become a legend. Others tried and just never quite achieve the status of Ebert.
I suppose those who miss Ebert's reviews would want to search for it. Sun Times better fix it. Come on, how hard is it to do a search in your php?
XE3? I have not even heard of it. I have not even seen Delphi in this millenium. Delphi is like a ball: over the years it has kicked from Borland to Inprise to whatever and now landed in a company known as "Embarcadero". See its history here
Back then, in version 1... it was the best tool around to build Windows apps. Even Windows was kinda new back then. The hardcore C API was hard. This is what I mean. If every program must be written like this there will not be that many programmers out there. Visual Basic was the ground breaking alternative... alas, the language was the toy language Basic? Definitely a wrong choice if you ask me. Delphi was Pascal based, much better choice, and blazing fast. At that time, Java was a new untested baby useful for doing blinking applets. "Enterprise" apps meant CGI little programs. You probably have not seen a sad C compiler including thousands of lines of <windows.h>, among tons of other lines, I have. MFC is hard too. I am glad I don't have to do this for a living.
Microsoft hired the guy who created Delphi (and Turbo Pascal)... The .NET framework has shadows of Delphi all over the place.
Forward a couple years, most people don't need to make .EXE for Windows now. And, if you have to develop for Microsoft you use Microsoft Visual Studio... and put up with its new versions every couple years. Other products if there is such a thing would be hard to keep up. It is quite amazing Delphi is still alive after all these years.
The gentleman is as excited as I am about Delphi: See here
This latest XE3 thing even suppose make Windows 8 and iOS apps! (what abou Android)
Ok, Windows 8 is not Windows 3.1. It is not, gosh-I-need-to-get-out-of-DOS-to-go-to-this evolution taking place.
Objective C is so difficult so I welcome a new way to write apps for it... but is HTML5+PhoneGap a better choice?
Just like in late 1990s, I do not see need to write Windows .EXEs, especially I don't need Windows 8 wacky apps.. I think the world would continue to prefer web apps. Look, even Microsoft is doing web apps. Look at that Sky Drive thing. Microsoft Office is there! Who needs to make native Windows apps now?
Visual Studio Express can be downloaded for free. Java/Eclipse download is free. Even XCode is free... I am not sure who will pay for development tools now. Turbo Pascal was a winner because it was powerful (in its days) and cheap. I am afraid not many people will pay for Pascal these days.
Microsoft don't get it. Look! Windows 8 is not selling hot. And there are more of that poor interface coming. Don't listen to your customer = the end is near for YOU. It really is the end of the PC Era as Microsoft is destroying itself. Arise the Mac... people will eventually switch. Face it, people love the IPhone (and not the wacky Microsoft phones, sales numbers says it all). People will eventually get used to the Mac as well (and would soon get over its wackiness like constant one menu outside the app you are running, and put up with the Finder). Arise Linux.. people will find soon embrace vi like their grandfathers than fool around with Metro. Nowadays, it is actually much easier to abandon Windows and install Linux (on your pre Winows 8 machine). Oh and Microsoft dares to make that hard with Windows 8. See here for details.
People will stick with Windows 7 until they can't use it anymore. I do not expect Microsoft's sales will ever go up unless they give desktop users a decent desktop.
Candidates for future election had to make sure they announce now they support same sex marriage. The Republicans party who don't want to lose anymore now has to do whatever it takes to get some votes and start supporting it too. It seems like those who oppose it won't have even a slight chance to win. I do not know of a single candidate who loudly dare to not support it.
Articles upon articles have written to convince people to support it... the themes revolve around "government shouldn't decide who you can marry", and "Get Equal".
Why do people oppose it? They pull out the Bible and point to the few couple pages of the first book. Adam & Eve: one man, one woman. The only possible way to "go forth and multiply". (They do not find brother marry sister bothersome) Now, some people don't believe in the Bible so that argument is not valid. And for those who only turn to the first couple pages of the Bible... I'd like to hear what they say about the biblical but multiple wives of their favorite characters Abraham and Jacob, and others. Ok, if the purpose of marriage is to have kids... are we banning people who past their fruitful age to marry or those who can't have babies marry? Of course not, that's not a valid argument either.
"What if 3 men want to be married" asked Santorum and he got blasted for saying that in comparing marriage and polygamy. He got blasted on othing things too, he didn't win and you will probably never hear from him again.
If "Get Equal" takes place, the answer to Santorum's question is a resounding yes! Use this symbol if you like: ≡ Then why not 4,5,6,...n.
What kind of world do we live in if the family is gone and replaced by whatever-combo-you-like. Now that's liberty alright. Ok, marriage itself is failing. How big percent is the divorce rate now? (ok you can look it up yourself)
Oh let me remind you, same sex couple cannot give children that come from both "parents" even if you use surrogate mother and other methods. That makes it different. I am sorry, but same-sex marriage and opposite-sex marriage is not equal.
So one complaint was that when one of the same-sex couple died, the other one cannot inherit that money. Let's CHANGE that! So that you can leave your $ to anyone. But you don't have to change marriage to make that happen.
Now, it is blazing fast of course, at 3x10^8 meters per second that is. During that sophomore year in high school I asked the teacher... if it is SO fast, how do we know this value? Can't measure speed with simple v = d/t, right? The teacher smiled, "It isn't so easy"... and pointed me to a location of the textbook containing the octagon mirror experiment. See here for some glorious details.
In science, we often give the ending first. Like we tell students speed of light runs at that speed without telling the story of how people originally thought light runs infinitely fast then calculated that value... We tell students the earth weighs 6x10^24 kg, but often don't tell them how to get this value (by calculating gravity with Newton's formula, google it to find out how).
A science book can be written like a journey of discovery... start with what you see: the sun and the moon and the stars, how I wonder what you are... don't give the modern view yet! Then tell how each piece of knowledge is discovered... point out some old wrong theories (and try not to laugh too hard). Unfortunately I know too little science to write this.
For the record, I never wonder what the stars are like the author of "twinkle twinkle little star". I don't get to see them. I live in a city with too much light pollution.
This Metro thing really is an disaster.
I've heard people talk about knockout.js and Angular.js. Going through the tutorials can be an entertaining experience. Basically these libraries let you do Model-View-Controller things all on the client side. Impressive! Of course, there is also the dollar-sign-everywhere jquery that just about everyone uses.
Ok, this can be debugging/programming nightmare if you forgot a $, and {} here and there, and there is some learning curve. Usually I prefer SIMPLE client side code. I prefer to sprinkle logs and invoke the debugger on a real language such as java instead of fighting javascript issues (that may or may not be available on that ancient browser you may be dealing with)... But the javascript libraries and crispy fast because no network trips needed.
See wiki's List of javascript libraries. There are so many out there.
Yikes, it has done poorer than Vista. While you are at it, read the "Metro is awful" link.
Now Microsoft, do you realize that you made some wrong decisions? (Fire the guy who pushed this interface) Are you going to say dude, at first people didn't like the mouse either?
Yikes your Surface isn't selling either. I'd LOVE to see a product that is even better than the IPad or the Android pads, but I didn't find the Surface is it. It is heavy and wacky.
Before you go into depression, let me tell you this: Windows 8 isn't doing well because Windows 7 was good... it got you back on track after the Vista failure. To fix Windows 8, LISTEN to your users, specifically ME:
Sure you can look it up too. Oh my it is based on the Euler Spiral. It is Euler again! Yes the guy who has a constant named after him: e, among many other things. Look, this Euler Spiral is how people build curves for roller coasters and highways. Uh, I admit I am not totally understand everything about the spiral here. (Yikes I feel so uneducated) But you see those integrals? Calculus was here.
To the guy who dare to ask me: "Tell me one use of calculus." On that day I wasn't able to tell right away on top of my head instantly... other than, "it allows you to solve problems not able to solve without". Here you go!
Look at this graphical presentation. I am very impressed.
If you have a Unix prompt you can go to the "basic calculator" with bc.
I live under a rock... I have heard of "bc" in Unix but not "dc"... the desk calculator. See here for details. Ooh this thing uses Reverse-Polish-Notation! I thought only old HP calculator uses that. I love it.... that's because you solve expression by evaluating as you would by hand... without all that parantheses... The rule is simply arguments first then operation. This "dc" even predates the C programming language. Oh you can do more than just plain old calculations. It gets a bit ugly.
You would think something terrible like this would not happen as there is some higher beings watching over you as you read them in children books. Unfortunately all I can say is... life is so unpredictable.
Careful driving please. Too many lives are lost everyday... and most don't make the news.
To print, you will need to bring the charm bar out (Windows-C) or slide on that finger mouse pad, then click on "Devices" as your printer is one of your devices. Then you can print. (I had to look this up on the web)
I'm like come on, if the Reader app MUST occupy the full screen, at least give print as an option when you right-click on it. File->Print is totally intuitive, it's been like that for decades, where is the menu? Needing the charm bar here is totally unintuitive. Jumping out of the desktop into the full screen Reader app is already not so user friendly.
The article says:
Chicago residents must endure long commutes (31 minutes on average), plummeting home prices (37% the past five years), brutal winters and high foreclosure ratesOk, brutal winter is not Chicago's fault. But it isn't really that bad. 31 minutes commute isn't that bad, come on. Yes, plummeting home price is. What about violent crimes?
The style to use is "border-radius", and there are "moz" and "webkit" versions to make Firefox and mobile browsers play nice:
<style type="text/css">
div.myroundbox {
border: 1px solid #CCCCCC;
background-color: #EEEEEE;
-webkit-border-radius: 15px;
-moz-border-radius: 15px;
border-radius: 15px;
padding: 10px;
}
</style>
<div class="myroundbox">
Here, I am inside a round box
</div>
This is an excellent guide:Now that's one homework problem I want to protest about: It says, "Solve: x^2+2x+1=0" Come on, this is worded wrong, just what are we solving? It should say "Solve for x"
Given this gentleman's age and the nature of these unpractical problems it is very likely he is taking a class known as "College Algebra" or "Pre-Calculus" so he can brag to his friends who didn't attend college he is taking some serious stuff. I want to tell that gentlemen his calculus probably won't involve any complex things.
So that homework involves complex numbers, but in real life problems you rarely ever need to factor ugly polynomials and look for complex solutions, especially when the degree of polynomial > 2. So this is sort of pointless drills.
If teaching that subject I guess the goal is to tell them the beauty of being able to factor a polynomial will yield solutions. Not trial-and-error factoring an ugly polynomial pulled from thin air. Have they seen the glorious beauty of deriving the Cubic and Quartic formulas? and that there are no general solution after that? THAT'S glorious and enjoyable mathematics, the endless drill is not.
Oh and there is nothing "college" about complex numbers. Come on, define i=sqrt(-1) and there you go. High school students can do this. Perhaps Even elementary students. Why not? I propose whack this class completely and jam a bit more information into that first class of Algebra.
Complex numbers open a new important chapter of mathematics... i allows solving problems not solvable before, and its humble beginning is in the quadratic formula.
Now as the Time article says, there are infinitely number of primes out there so this would be a never ending task. Euclid! This important guy wrote the classic geometry text Elements that included this famous proof. That proof-by-contradiction demonstrates the elegant nature of pure logical argument. If you have not seen it you do not have a clue what mathematics is about. People who think math is just calculation drills are extremely shallow.
See here for example, for a write up of Euclid's proof. Got it? (Ok, this is listed in High School category, yikes I didn't learn this until college)
What makes math hard for many folks is that the (formal) language is kinda cryptic... That link above actually says it pretty well. If you still don't get it, let ME try:
Ok, suppose there are finitely many primes. We label them p1, p2,... pn. Now, multiply them all up and add 1 to it.
Is this number a prime? No, because all the primes were used so it can't be prime.
Is this number a composite? No, because none of the n identified primes would divide into it evenly, there is that 1 remainder.
See, we get in to a difficult situation so the original assumption of finitely many primes is wrong and therefore there must be infinitely many primes.
A young talented teen who just performed at the Obama inauguration shot dead... by a bullet not intended for her. And there has been over 40 people shot dead in January alone. If statistics is of any value, and that there were over 500 homicide last year, there will be 450+ people out there breathing right now who will be shot dead by the end of this year. (and you can be one of them)
There will be people who say, "look, Chicago has tougher gun laws and look at those numbers" and then cry gun laws are useless as they embrace gun owner associations. Their reasoning is this: look if bad people have guns, we better have guns.
The talk of gun control is talking about banning high round clips and some semi-automatic weapons... That's a good first step. However, even that is facing challenge after people who lost their loved ones speak out, even Senator who got shot speak up. Waita minute, what kind of gun killed that talented teen and many others? They are probably regular hand guns and no one is talking about restricting them.
I don't feel safe. So do kids I suppose. If kids don't feel safe, how can they grow up correctly and not end up in vicious cycle of gang violence?
In addition to gun control, we need law-and-order restored in our neighborhoods! Are there enough police out there? Are there cameras all over the place to watch over the street corners? We perhaps need propaganda-like posters all over saying: "If you kill, you will be in jail" posters with gruesome pictures all over. A lot more need to be done.
Which one you like better?
The one on the left is version 8. (2.2). It has buttons that looks like buttons (with various gray gradients). The "Toast" also has rounded corners. The one on the right is version 16. (4.1). Ok, the modern UI features FLAT buttons, and RECTANGLE Toasts. Come on it doesn't look as nice. I thought only Windows make things uglier with subsequent releases.
Both the Samsung Galaxy 3 and the Nexus have one problem though: it is BIG to carry around. Why modern phones are so big? Ok so it is easier on the eye you say? But why do you have to watch videos on it? Get a 7-inch or 10-inch device for that. My sole complain is the size.
The Nexus's battery is not detachable! The SIM card is a Micro version and you need to poke it with a staples to open up the fragile tray. Not sure if I like this design.
Pics and videos: sure it can do better than the old phone, but don't expect phones to replace your trusty Canons yet. It even has a flash.
But when you compare head to head with an IPhone... I am sorry to say this Android, but the IPhone does look even better. I am not sure what exactly is missing here.
And I am saddened to find out some of my apps don't work well on large phones... yes, I didn't test on big phones and didn't bother to find bigger icons for bigger layouts. Some of my apps not just look bad but crashed. Ok, let me open up the code, get logcat ready and see what exceptions get thrown... Hey, all I need is re-compile and didn't have to touch the code and it now works?! What's up with backward compatibility at binary level? When I have time I will try to fix the look of some of my apps.. with larger icons and better handling... That layout thing... sometimes is hard to tweak to make it look right.
Not everyone needs modern expensive phone. A lower-end one actually provide most of what you need. Save your $ if your phone is working fine... unless you develop apps too.
Yes, Angry Bird (Star Wars) is more fun on my modern phone.