Wednesday, February 28, 2007
Supreme Court Gives Gore's Oscar to Bush
Supreme Court Gives Gore's Oscar to Bush
"In a stunning reversal for the former vice president, the Supreme Court ordered that Al Gore’s Academy Award be given to President Bush."
"In a stunning reversal for the former vice president, the Supreme Court ordered that Al Gore’s Academy Award be given to President Bush."
Friday, February 23, 2007
Bush the Scientist
Thursday, February 22, 2007
Depreciation
Out of interest, I browsed Dell to compare the current offerings with my Dimension desktop, purchased for over $2,000 right before I went to Stanford in September 2003. With the same 1 GB memory memory, same 17" monitor, same Microsoft Office, slightly more modern processor and graphics card, and Vista instead of XP, a comparable new Dimension would cost $1,385.
If I were buying my desktop now, not counting the 24" monitor I already have, and going a bit nuts on speed and addons like a TV tuner, it would cost about $2100.
I think this computer's still got plenty of life in it (I resist the temptation to use "her" like a car or ship). I've added the 24" monitor (HUGE improvement), but other than that nothing's changed. I wonder when I'll get Vista though. Will I add memory to this computer or get a new one first? Time will tell.
Edit: I just noticed the unintended pun in the first sentence between "interest" and "depreciation." Groan.
If I were buying my desktop now, not counting the 24" monitor I already have, and going a bit nuts on speed and addons like a TV tuner, it would cost about $2100.
I think this computer's still got plenty of life in it (I resist the temptation to use "her" like a car or ship). I've added the 24" monitor (HUGE improvement), but other than that nothing's changed. I wonder when I'll get Vista though. Will I add memory to this computer or get a new one first? Time will tell.
Edit: I just noticed the unintended pun in the first sentence between "interest" and "depreciation." Groan.
Labels: computers
Wednesday, February 21, 2007
Microsoft!
Made the decision! I'm going to Microsoft! Specifically, I'll be a Software Design Engineer (SDE) Intern in the Windows Live Search group. In Redmond! With hundreds/thousands of interns! And Kat is going to find a job so she can come too! We'll explore Seattle together!
Awesome!!
But first I gotta get through those midterms.
Awesome!!
But first I gotta get through those midterms.
Tuesday, February 20, 2007
ible before able
From the folks who brought you "i before e"...
The suffix "-able" goes on roots that are complete words: fashionable, livable, kissable.
The suffix "-ible" goes on roots that are not complete words: edible, terrible, audible.
You're welcome.
(Of course there are exceptions: accessible, tenable. I'll leave figuring out a more general rule as an exercise for the reader, which is another way of saying that I don't feel like doing it.)
The suffix "-able" goes on roots that are complete words: fashionable, livable, kissable.
The suffix "-ible" goes on roots that are not complete words: edible, terrible, audible.
You're welcome.
(Of course there are exceptions: accessible, tenable. I'll leave figuring out a more general rule as an exercise for the reader, which is another way of saying that I don't feel like doing it.)
Monday, February 12, 2007
QotD: Tetris
The Stanford Daily's weekly inset, Intermission, interviewing their former editor, current humor columnist, Joel Stein:
INT: What was your favorite way to procrastinate when you were here?
JS: We had Tetris.
INT: Did you play on the computer or with the video game?
JS: We had to use actual blocks back then. One guy dropped them.
Wednesday, February 07, 2007
Emotional math
After several pages of matrix multiplications and partial derivatives, I re-discovered my old childhood habit of feeling slightly triumphant when an answer comes out to be positive and a little sad when an answer comes out to be negative (or at least, has that danging minus sign in front of the series of terms). Does anyone else get this? I feel like Ralph Wiggum playing with the mailbox.
Monday, February 05, 2007
One day. One room. Two midterms.
I just realized that I have an 11:00am in-class midterm in 223A (robotics) and then a 2:15pm in-class midterm in 223B (vision). You'd think two classes with a common course number (223) that meet in the same room (Gates B1) wouldn't do that, but, oh well, what's the expression, "when it rains, it pours"? More like, "when it rains, the robot can't recognize any objects, then it slips and falls."
PS: Learning how to ski was awesome. I am still sore though. I jotted some handwritten notes about my lesson, etc. that I might type up and post.
PS: Learning how to ski was awesome. I am still sore though. I jotted some handwritten notes about my lesson, etc. that I might type up and post.
Labels: classes
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