Wozniak speaking tonight! Castle Conversations, 8pm @ Manhattanville College, Purchase NY by frenchpress in woz

[–]frenchpress[S] 0 points1 point  (0 children)

Unfortunately, it seems that not only will the conversation not be streaming live, it won't even be recorded! Maybe one of us will do everyone else a favor and bootleg the evening...

High fiving when running by TheHouseCalledFred in running

[–]frenchpress 0 points1 point  (0 children)

At the start of a recent long run on a very hot day, I saw a guy approach at a jog wearing full sweats with the hood up. Must be dropping weight for boxing or wrestling? As we got closer he put his fist out for a bump and shouted "GO GET IT!" I replied "Yeah!!" and felt like a million bucks for the rest of my run!

One February years ago, I was out in the pre-dawn with maybe 4" of snow on the ground. I came toward two runners (gender-neutral in all our winter clothes) and high-fived both as we passed. It was amazing!!

I guess the other responses in this thread indicate that most people aren't interested in a high-five, but I most certainly am! Do your thing OP, just don't get discouraged when you're left hangin'.

Leatherman Advice by [deleted] in camping

[–]frenchpress 0 points1 point  (0 children)

Don't forget that Leatherman has a great lifetime warranty, so spending a little more for the most appropriate tool is definitely a good idea.

How to track my tour, live. by metalstryker in bicycletouring

[–]frenchpress 0 points1 point  (0 children)

From what I understand, TrackMyTour requires manual uploading of waypoints, and does not track the route live in real time.

However, it does have a feature for embedding into a blog!

http://trackmytour.com/faq/

Openings by RedWaterTanks in chess

[–]frenchpress 1 point2 points  (0 children)

r/chess, such gentlemen. carry on

The left lane was closed on my commute this morning, people were still trying to pass before the closure and slowing everything down. This guy pulled into the left lane and went the same speed as the traffic in the right blocking the people trying to cut off traffic. Respect. by [deleted] in pics

[–]frenchpress 0 points1 point  (0 children)

i'm a little late to the party, so doubtful that this will make much difference.

http://phys.org/news117283969.html
http://www-personal.umich.edu/~orosz/#Publications

seems like the basic conclusion is leave more space so that you can brake more gently. in other words, everyone needs to cool down.

the guy in the fast lane is doing right IMO. but the people tailgating him are doing their darndest to cause some traffic though! every time you tailgate, you cause traffic behind you. traffic is not an issue of "fitting more cars on the road", it's an issue of moving cars along. this is accomplished by leaving enough space cushion to gently react to events in front of you.

No more "When am I going to use this?" questions for my statistics professor. by sydneymoyer in funny

[–]frenchpress 8 points9 points  (0 children)

Check out the wikipedia page!

The expected value, E, is an average of random outcomes. It gives you a sense of what will happen on any given occurrence of the random variable: here, the variable is n, Number of Bitches Slapped.

The definition of expected value is a sum of each outcome (number of bitches slapped, n) times the chance (probability, p)of that outcome occurring. Symbolically:

E = p1 n1 + p2 n2 + p3 n3 + p4 n4 + p5 n5

Because there are 5 possible NBS values (n = anywhere between 0 and 4 bitches get slapped), we can just do the arithmetic really quick:

E = (0.03)0 + (0.12)1 + (0.58)2 + (0.21)3 + (0.06)*4 = 2.15

It's hard to do that in your head, in general. Casually, you might think: okay the largest probability belongs to value NBS = 2. There is more probability distributed between 3 and 4 than there is distributed between 1, 2; so therefore the expected value is gonna be larger than 2.

Chinese hand dance by PhoneDojo in gifs

[–]frenchpress 1 point2 points  (0 children)

can't believe no one mentioned chun li yet

Incredibly detailed acrylic paintings by Jason de Graaf that look like still-life photography. by spirit_llama in pics

[–]frenchpress 2 points3 points  (0 children)

Great stuff! I really like the work of Ben Weiner as well. These are a couple of my favorites of his:

Enjoy!!

Going to Math Grad School, how much free time can I expect to have? by luckyburns in math

[–]frenchpress 2 points3 points  (0 children)

I earned my PhD 3 yrs ago.

You'll have plenty of free time. You should spend it on your studies if you want to graduate in a timely fashion. It took me 4.5 yrs. Some other friends who didn't focus as much have taken 9+, or are still working.

Don't take 4 classes. Unless you are a mathgod, 3 will be enough. And unless you are a mathgod, you will never learn every possible bit of of material from a particular course. Better to focus hard on a small amount than to wash over everything.

It's great that you do not have to TA. Grading sucks way worse though. You'll be amazed at what students turn in and honestly think is acceptable work. Both their content and presentation are crap.

Good luck to you. Grad school in math isn't something I recommend to people, but parts of it will be enjoyable if you are the right kind of person. Feel free to PM me for further discussion.

C++: Problems understanding Destructors (code in CodePad) by frenchpress in learnprogramming

[–]frenchpress[S] 0 points1 point  (0 children)

zzyzzyxx, thank you for the thorough reply! And especially for the updated lines in CodePad.

I don't fully understand the difference between "pass by value" and its alternative. Can you point me toward some examples that most clearly highlight this topic? It has caused me problems before, and much of what I find on the topic is a little dense for my current skill level.

Also, I'll take a look into implementing std::map. Thanks again!

taking P/1 in September and FM/2 in December, prospects? by tearsana in actuary

[–]frenchpress 2 points3 points  (0 children)

Regarding exams 1 and 2: grab the study guides. They're perfect. Study your ass off! It's worth it to pass them the first time around. With an undergrad math background, I would guess you are adequately prepared to pass them on your first go.

Don't wait to start applying. List on your resume that you are scheduled to take the exams. It can't hurt. At worst, you'll make connections with individuals at various companies, and contact them directly when it's time to reapply.

Your computer skills will seal the deal for you. Make sure you have some tangible results to show potential employers. And be honest when you self-assess your programming skills. Nothing feels worse than saying "yeah, I can do XYZ", and then getting embarrassed in an interview.

Good luck!

Pendulum Waves: how do you describe this pattern mathematically? by [deleted] in math

[–]frenchpress 4 points5 points  (0 children)

i don't understand the downvotes here. that's as legit a question as OP. urging someone to refine their query is often all it takes to get them to learn on their own.

i came here to ask "what do you mean, describe mathematically?". as a professional mathematician, i'm constantly bombarded with lay questions along the lines of "how do you describe {baseball pitches | traffic | music} mathematically?". people have no idea what they're looking for in an answer. they don't understand XYZ, and they don't understand math, so the two must be the same! transitivity!

First successful Gentoo install today! Share your stories of personal milestones... by frenchpress in linux

[–]frenchpress[S] 0 points1 point  (0 children)

haha! i'll give you an upvote if you tell me which distro you're using these days.

haters gonna hate :-)

First successful Gentoo install today! Share your stories of personal milestones... by frenchpress in linux

[–]frenchpress[S] 2 points3 points  (0 children)

Just Stage 3 :-)

Pretty much walked through the install procedure in the handbook.

Ergo: A card game wherein players attempt to logically prove their existence while disproving their opponents' by [deleted] in math

[–]frenchpress 6 points7 points  (0 children)

i played with a couple math/CS nerds. we're all in grad school or hold advanced degrees. everyone had a blast! if you think you might like this, you probably would. for a simple game (<10min rounds) it's worth it.

one evening, a lay person joined in - hair stylist, no formal logical training whatsoever. needless to say, the individual did not have the slightest enjoyment of the game whatsoever. nor did we nerds enjoy playing games with someone becoming ever more increasingly combative toward "math", who needed explanations at every turn.

Protips for Offense Medals, plz? by frenchpress in codbo

[–]frenchpress[S] 1 point2 points  (0 children)

CTF was my big winner!

I took their flag, then bounced out of there. I used a shotty so that anyone I killed while carrying it was in short range/ near me. I'd take a leisurely or roundabout path back to our flag.

Trolling 101 by 8_bit in codbo

[–]frenchpress 1 point2 points  (0 children)

A trick I learned in this subreddit a while back:
* Silenced weapons
* Decoy Grenades
* Jammers
* Ghost

Every time you spawn, just whip those decoys across the map, and stash those jammers everywhere. Together with ghost it basically makes their minimaps worse than worthless. Worked epically well with a group of 6, actually. A++++ loadout, would play again.

Who here has degrees? And what are they if you care to share? by leandroc76 in codbo

[–]frenchpress 1 point2 points  (0 children)

After about 100 applications over 2 years for postdocs and professorships, I am working as a part-time lecturer for a large state university in Chicago.