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Flags, Finding, Fiction, and the Future
Mar. 6th, 2005 05:06 pmSince the last entry, I have been mainly working on that semaphore problem (now to be handed in on Monday), which in turn is requiring me to read up on proof by mathematical induction. It's somewhat annoying that this, one of the 2 or 3 classes (out of about 12) that actually introduce interesting and new material, has been really glossed over in the course of 8 lectures, with no handouts and a large reliance on a textbook that isn't in the library and which I can't afford to buy. Hopefully I will not end up failing this piece of coursework as I did with the last one this guy gave us.
Continuing on the subject of academic brilliance, I've been trying to contact The Other University In Town about a research degree but their website is fucked up and has no decent contact details. The address it tells you to use is actually closed and sends you a reply asking you to contact someone else. I contacted the Someone Else in question and got no reply, so I've just had to send another mail to some generic address and hope it gets forwarded to the appropriate person. To be honest carrying on in academia doesn't sound too thrilling, especially given the problems some of my friends have with it, but on the other hand the job market looks useless too, and![[livejournal.com profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/external/lj-userinfo.gif)
lost_in_moose complaining about his job doesn't encourage me either. ;)
As a note to those of you who enjoy fantasy fiction: don't try reading Terry Brooks after you've just read George R. R. Martin. It's like listening to your favourite band for an hour and then having someone play a Backstreet Boys single at you. (Unless the Backstreet Boys are your favourite band of course. In which case I don't want you reading this. :P ) I knew exactly what the last paragraph of the prologue was going to say before I'd even got to the last page of it, so predictable was the story and the character.
Cool toy: www.answers.com. It's a search engine that gives you the answer, instead of a list of pages with the answer on it. Put in a a technical term, or a band name, or a place, and 9 times out of 10 you get what you need right there. You can add it to your Firefox search bar by going here and clicking the 'Click here to install the Firefox plug-in' link.
The forthcoming week will feature more coursework getting done (presumably the Java messenger server or the C embedded in assembler work... boooring), me trying to find a supervisor for my PgD project (and maybe an actual project to do too), socialising with local rock types on Wednesday with both my metal-inclined housemates DJing, and... other stuff, which may or may not involve me actually being productive with regards to my ever-growing list of personal projects.
Continuing on the subject of academic brilliance, I've been trying to contact The Other University In Town about a research degree but their website is fucked up and has no decent contact details. The address it tells you to use is actually closed and sends you a reply asking you to contact someone else. I contacted the Someone Else in question and got no reply, so I've just had to send another mail to some generic address and hope it gets forwarded to the appropriate person. To be honest carrying on in academia doesn't sound too thrilling, especially given the problems some of my friends have with it, but on the other hand the job market looks useless too, and
lost_in_moose complaining about his job doesn't encourage me either. ;)As a note to those of you who enjoy fantasy fiction: don't try reading Terry Brooks after you've just read George R. R. Martin. It's like listening to your favourite band for an hour and then having someone play a Backstreet Boys single at you. (Unless the Backstreet Boys are your favourite band of course. In which case I don't want you reading this. :P ) I knew exactly what the last paragraph of the prologue was going to say before I'd even got to the last page of it, so predictable was the story and the character.
Cool toy: www.answers.com. It's a search engine that gives you the answer, instead of a list of pages with the answer on it. Put in a a technical term, or a band name, or a place, and 9 times out of 10 you get what you need right there. You can add it to your Firefox search bar by going here and clicking the 'Click here to install the Firefox plug-in' link.
The forthcoming week will feature more coursework getting done (presumably the Java messenger server or the C embedded in assembler work... boooring), me trying to find a supervisor for my PgD project (and maybe an actual project to do too), socialising with local rock types on Wednesday with both my metal-inclined housemates DJing, and... other stuff, which may or may not involve me actually being productive with regards to my ever-growing list of personal projects.
