- The January meeting went down pretty well. I wasn't there personally, however, because...
- I'm taking classes! Linear Algebra and Introduction to Numerical Methods. So far, so well. This really deserves a post in and of itself at some point
- I just got back from CO, pictures will be posted on Picasa when I get a chance.
- Sins of a Solar Empire just went gold, and the GalCiv expansion Twighlight of the Arnor is just around the corner. It's a good time for Stardock right now.
- Not that anyone cares, but I think I'm finally kicking the habit for a few webcomics: PvP and Sluggy.
So, what's up with y'all?
10 comments:
Afraid not much new here. Still no substanitive progress on moving on. I did look around some today, but nothing panned out.
I drug out the Hero book for some builds. I've toyed with maybe dragging out my solid-state physics books for a review. Maybe crack Kittel II... But I don't know that I'm that bored.
I think the classes are good choices. Linear algebra is something Tech did too fast, pretty much all I needed was there but I didn't have time to really become friends with it at the time.
I continue to enjoy my time off, although I am waiting in suspense on a couple of good job prospects.
I also trimmed my webcomics reading list recently, and Sluggy was one of the casualties. (I quit PvP a while back as well.)
Tech's standard linear algebra course doesn't get into certain exceedingly important numerical stuff (and theoretical foundations thereof).
I'm not sure I have much more of an update to provide. My current status seems to be spread across multiple blogs. :)
I spent last week in the Bay Area interviewing with Google, VMWare, and Sun. This week is catching up with my sleep, doing some organizing (the floor is covered with papers I'm organizing at the moment), and negotiating offer letters. We're really looking forward to being back on the west coast.
(Frances was out with me for some of last week)
(edit for retarded typo)
Mylanda: Linear Algebra when I was an undergrad was short, combined with something else, and dealt purely with matrices. "Compute the determinant of this 4x4 matrix by hand." The only real linear algebra I picked up was in Quantum, but I didn't use it enough for it to stick (and it was a side-note more than anything else, as well).
Travis: I'd be curious to hear what *did* make the cut. Call me a heretic, but even XKCD has been in a dry spell for a while. There are a couple of comics (such as XKCD) I'm considering putting on hold -- I'll stop reading them, but then I'll have a backlog of mediocre comics to read next time I'm really bored and need desperately to flick on a finely-grained timescale.
Mason: I actually ended up missing most of the important numerical basics by virtue of skipping from 106a straight to 106b. Then again, at this point I've learned a lot of the numerical basics the hard way / in "real life". And no kidding about being spread out.
J/F: I'm still pleased at the news you'll be coming back to CA. Happier for you that it's *Northern* CA, though less selfishly-happy.
Why do I feel compelled to address each and every comment? I dunno! Maybe it's my need to flick atm...
The prac/anal linear algebra split was broken, and that wasn't even the most broken part of that split. I was part of the original group of TAs in the "prac/anal math" part of the "new core." Being a TA in a course being taught in a new way for the first time (after something that had been the same for 40-odd years) was often not fun.
By the way, no word on whether my new frosh will be covering Simpson's rule, but I kind of want to present that proof again just for old times' sake. I guess I'll just have to teach them about QEFD some other way.
My current reading list:
Dinosaur Comics
Scary Go Round
Achewood
Penny Arcade
xkcd
Gunnerkrigg Court
The Adventures of Dr. McNinja
8-Bit Theater
Nobody Scores!
Wondermark
The Non-Adventures of Wonderella
Perry Bible Fellowship
Dresden Codak
VG Cats
I completely agree that xkcd has been weak lately. It, like a few others on my list, usually falls flat but is worth keeping around for the occasional moment of brilliance. I don't laugh much at SGR these days either but I like the art and the characters so I keep reading. (Also I'm still curious if John Allison sent Erin to hell in order to keep the readership in suspense for a while, or to actually retcon her out of the strip entirely. With him it seems like it could be either way.)
I've also been considering that the best way to read Gunnerkrigg Court is not page-by-page but chapter-by-chapter, as with a comic book, which would require that I check it much more rarely.
Meanwhile, Dresden Codak only gets checked to see if he's finished the damn Hob storyline yet.
Yeah, I read Gunnerkrig Court every couple of weeks, and get a few pages at once that way. It requires more continuity than one page at a time.
Another similar one I started reading is Rice Boy. A strange, surreal fable.
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