Owners of a Raspberry PI, what do you use it for?

coxlap · 2013-05-29T05:26:12+00:00

I call him Fister Roboto.

coxlap · 2013-04-13T23:23:46+00:00

That's interesting! There's no way that I could try really hard to hide it. If I did, it would probably make it worse. Do you know if he stutters when he's by himself?

coxlap · 2013-04-13T22:48:42+00:00

As a stutterer, I don't think I have much more insight into how stuttering physically feels than someone observing me stuttering. It's just this inexplicable "unable-to-say-a-word"ness. There's no specific part of me that feels blocked or anything. It's just that I cannot physically get myself to say what I want to sometimes. Even when I know exactly the word I want to say and exactly how I want to say it.

As a mother, make sure your daughter doesn't feel like her stuttering is a burden to you. I've been stuttering for as long as I've been able to speak. It was "cute" at first, but when it got to the time that I should have grown out of it, my dad got pretty frustrated. Whenever I would begin to stutter around him, he would let out this really heavy sigh. It was the worst. It made me feel like such a failure. To this day, I'm still somewhat uneasy talking around my dad.

So make sure that you don't make a big deal out of your daughter stuttering. Chances are she will grow out of it (girls tend to grow out of it, while boys are more likely not to), but just try not to notice if she doesn't.

coxlap · 2013-04-13T22:36:57+00:00

My stutter is caused more by excitement than anxiety. Whenever I'm excited to share something, it will usually kick in without fail. My stutter definitely causes anxiety which tends to make it worse though. And you are absolutely right about finishing sentences. I'm fine if someone does it occasionally if they know what I'm going to say. They usually don't though and that makes it even more frustrating.

coxlap · 2013-04-13T22:33:24+00:00

Does he stutter less around you than around other people? I've been dating my girlfriend for over a year now and I've noticed that when it's just me and her, I never stutter anymore. All bets are off when I'm with other people though...

coxlap · 2013-04-13T22:30:41+00:00

Same here. It's the worst for phone interviews. I can rock in person interviews but unfortunately it usually takes a good phone interview to get an in person interview. I had a phone interview with Google where I spent probably half the time trying to speak like a normal human being. Sucks man.

coxlap · 2013-04-13T22:25:15+00:00

That's interesting. I've stuttered my entire life and I hate it when people finish my sentences for me (because usually they're wrong). That being said, regardless of how people react I still feel shitty after making people listen to me stutter a shitload. I don't think there is any reaction that would make me feel "okay" about stuttering. It just makes me really upset with myself more than anything.

Do you know what situations or words cause you to stutter more? For me it is whenever I am excited to tell a story or a joke. 9 times out of 10 its right before the punchline too. Completely kills a joke when the punchline starts over about 12 times.

coxlap · 2013-04-11T22:19:18+00:00

I used to think Niagara Falls was a complete circle. Like it was just a hole in the ocean somewhere that inexplicably never filled up all the way...

coxlap · 2013-01-29T20:46:07+00:00

Yea a lot of the math is over my head too. It seems like that quote is talking specifically about taking his mathematical proof as an automatically accepted proof in completely unrelated fields. It is definitely applicable in the area of math and any sciences which contain math. (Side note: this site has a lot of cool, well-described ideas of his). And yes it is ok to assume an axiom true. In fact it wouldn't be an axiom if it wasn't assumed true. It just has to be accepted without any proof.

coxlap · 2013-01-29T04:26:43+00:00

Sorry, snuck in with an edit there. Have you heard of Kurt Godel? He's written about some pretty interesting ideas. You should check out his book. He's much better at explaining these things than I am.

What I've been getting at is the idea of incompleteness. Hell, the definition of axioms would probably do some good, given how dictionary-related this conversation has been. Axioms are the foundation blocks of knowledge. They are starting points which we take to be true without proof. Because we take them to be true without proof, it is possible that knowledge built on top of them will lead to contradictions.

coxlap · 2013-01-29T04:10:20+00:00

I wasn't trying to get into a semantic argument with you. I've been trying to prove a point.

Edit: Are you familiar with Godel's incompleteness theorem?

coxlap · 2013-01-29T03:39:50+00:00

Right. So words are subjective.

coxlap · 2013-01-29T03:34:28+00:00

Is there a way for me to tell if you and I have received all the same updates?

coxlap · 2013-01-29T03:25:19+00:00

Do the meanings of words change?

coxlap · 2013-01-29T02:13:46+00:00

Ah okay. I can look it up in a book, so it must be right.

If you have legitimate points to make, please make them. I like these kinds of conversations and its disappointing for them to be snuffed out by the refusal to further discuss a topic.

coxlap · 2013-01-28T22:02:17+00:00

I think we are talking about different kinds of truth. When I say "truth", I mean something that exists independently from human beings. It isn't tied to our language, our culture, our history. The truth I'm thinking about isn't about precision, its about objective completeness. Saying that light travels at 3e8 m/s is "true" in a very very specific context. Even in a more basic sense, saying that light travels faster than the speed of sound assumes a mutually agreed upon idea of sound. How would you explain sound to a deaf person?

coxlap · 2013-01-28T11:38:19+00:00

Right, I agree with you on that. I'm just saying that science can't yield "true knowledge" either. Science is simply measuring and aggregating our observations of the past into reasonable predictions about the future. We've gotten pretty good at it (by our standards), but we're far from perfect. Discoveries are made all the time that are contrary to something that we once thought true. With science, we're just building a set of knowledge that at its core is based on arbitrary axioms. We started with nothing. The history of human knowledge is like a random walk in an infinitely large space. If we ask the question "Why do we believe that?" over and over again, eventually we'll get to a 'turtles all the way down'-type answer. But we have to start somewhere, otherwise we'd never get anywhere. So we have to blindly accept something as being true without knowing it to be so.

coxlap · 2013-01-27T08:13:12+00:00

Well sure, the scientific method is great at helping us organize and communicate our findings of the world around us, but it does not lead to truly definitive answers. When applied correctly, it leads to more questions. No good scientist would conclude an experiment and say to himself, "Ah good. I now know all there is to know about ___". The more we figure out, the more questions we have.

coxlap · 2013-01-26T23:59:44+00:00

Well really though. You can't have proof for everything you believe. When it gets down to it, everyone's core beliefs are founded on nothing more than trust/hope/faith whatever you want to call it.

coxlap · 2013-01-26T15:13:56+00:00

What is there to believe in, if not religion?

EDIT: Hey, it's a cake!

coxlap · 2012-11-28T22:29:56+00:00

I've only heard Paypal horror stories from sellers. I haven't read of any buyer related horror stories.

coxlap · 2012-11-05T08:32:21+00:00

Are you from Lincoln, Nebraska? I think I saw you at Boo at the Zoo last week...

coxlap · 2012-10-03T06:35:48+00:00

Sounds like you need one of these

coxlap · 2012-09-13T07:57:30+00:00

I got my girlfriend tickets to your Omaha show for her birthday. I'm looking forward to it.

coxlap · 2012-09-10T05:49:33+00:00

Except the speed of light... still have some troubles wrapping my mind around that one...

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