vmilner

7 ms·

61.
by vmilner 1y ago
I noticed watching the recent 4K release of The Terminator that the garage attendant in the final scene has a piece of paper in his top pocket with "There's a storm coming“ written upside down on it.
62.
by vmilner 1y ago
Certainly with maths you’re marked almost totally on written exams, but even if that weren’t true you’re also required to go over example sheets (hard homework questions that don’t form part of the final mark) with a tutor in two-student se
63.
by vmilner 1y ago
We should get them to play Diplomacy.
64.
by vmilner 2y ago
However, the widely used tariff exemptions available to US steel consumers who could claim difficulties sourcing cheap steel are now being closed.
65.
by vmilner 2y ago
It’s hard to see tariffs on steel (say) not raising wider domestic prices. Any domestic industry using steel (car making, house building etc) presumably now has to pay more for its steel which feeds through to consumer prices. You might inc
66.
by vmilner 2y ago
Richard Dawkins claims later editions of Darwin’s Origin of Species got worse because of trying to appease critics.
67.
by vmilner 2y ago
Ah worth knowing thanks.
68.
by vmilner 2y ago
Less the weight than the increased size for me. Admittedly I don’t use it for very long periods so the smaller screen is less of an issue. I think for my needs it just lets me stick it in a small backpack and forget it, and I prefer the key
69.
by vmilner 2y ago
I don’t know why they stopped making 11inch MacBook Airs - the 1kg size makes them easy to carry around. I’ve recently picked up an old final 2015 8GB 256GB edition and it works fine with Linux on it.
70.
by vmilner 2y ago
This is so good. It reminded me of the foreword to Simon Jenkins’ “A short history of England” when he says that breadth of knowledge should come before depth (ie knowing about the details of Henry VIII or Charles I beheading fits better af
71.
by vmilner 2y ago
Only thing that annoyed me was that the “combat ratio” involved addition and subtraction rather than dividing! Otherwise great :-)
72.
by vmilner 2y ago
Someone wrote some excellent software to play the books based on this open material, though it’s fiddly to get running - but worth it if you’re a fan. https://projectaon.org/staff/david/
73.
by vmilner 2y ago
As he says, his fighting fantasy books were often sniffed at by adults, but they got boys to read and do sums.
74.
by vmilner 2y ago
“This steady increase does not necessarily mean that the asteroid is actually more likely to hit Earth” I’m struggling to understand the alleged difference between “odds increasing” and “being more likely”. Isn’t that exactly what it means?
75.
by vmilner 2y ago
A few of the librivox Hugh Lofting Dr Dolittle readings arent picked up (post office, zoo)
76.
by vmilner 2y ago
https://www.facewatch.co.uk/
77.
by vmilner 2y ago
The Uk joined the EEC in 1973 and Euro coins and notes came into circulation in 2002.
78.
by vmilner 2y ago
Though it’s flagged for some reason that’s unclear to me.
79.
by vmilner 2y ago
Paul Nahins books are so good. See also The Science of Radio And the Mathematical Radio (Similar content but one more focussed at elec eng people and one more at math(s) people)
80.
by vmilner 2y ago
Distrowatch seems to be under heavy load (probably because of this news story)
81.
by vmilner 2y ago
I sometimes struggle with Harris’s recent books but I agree these are great.
82.
by vmilner 2y ago
I can never praise A Wizard of Earthsea enough - although it’s highly regarded I never think it quite receives the level of praise it should as a book that will move children (and adults). I first heard it read by Edward Fox on BBCs Jackano
83.
by vmilner 2y ago
Can it be tried without creating a login?
84.
by vmilner 2y ago
I always liked the hardback editions of children’s books in UK libraries in the 70s and 80s , and have sought them out secondhand since. Favourites were the US Danny Dunn science story series - almost all of which were amazingly available i
85.
by vmilner 2y ago
I remember porting code from 32-bit address spaces to 64-bit ones in the 90s and thinking 2^64 was “Kind of infinite” - but this machine does 2^64 operations in 8 seconds…
86.
by vmilner 2y ago
I just found it by chance somehow when trying to review gaps in my maths education - it’s excellent for reviewing complex analysis (say) if you did it years ago - or less obviously - doing a quick pass over a topic before you learn it for t
87.
by vmilner 2y ago
Thanks - sounds like Western Europe and the US arent that different from England. Anyone with experience from an Asian country or Eastern Europe (eg Poland Hungary)
88.
by vmilner 2y ago
I’ve been surprised recently to discover that matrices are not now taught in English schools unless “extra” qualifications (GCSE further maths at 16, A level further maths at 18) are taken, whereas when I did maths in the mid-80s they were
89.
by vmilner 2y ago
He wrote my favourite maths book. https://www.cambridge.org/core/books/all-the-math-you-missed... https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=ur0UGCL6RWc
90.
by vmilner 2y ago
The power button in the top left corner was so prone to being hit by ones knee in its underdesk location almost all of them in my office had little polo/lifesaver shaped guards jerryrigged to stop it…

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