(no subject)

My work project, ill-defined as it may be, has advanced to the point where I can send a URL to my boss & orkers: here, explore, tell me what you think. I choose to mark this as Significant.

Having done that, I'd like to make good on an earlier promise to mix up my workday a bit by reading some online bio-chem-comp journals, and, uhhh... and I'm again reminded how dumb I am with math. Many of the articles require knowledge of linear algebra to grok. There's really no reason for me to not know this... I wonder if I can teach myself, or if taking a course is my only recourse.

Update: An MIT OpenCourseWare Linear Algebra course has everything but the textbook. Well... it has all the reading assignments and homework from a 2002 semester, and RealMedia video of all the lectures from a 1999 semester. I'm watching the first of these now.

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The Diesel access point crapped on me for the third time this month, and I had its suckiness confirmed by a conveniently nearby temvald and his Linux/Dell laptop, so I know it's not just me and my lame Mac. (The past two times, its SSID simply and abruptly vanished from my Mac's list of available networks; today, my signal-strength meter visually flickered from zero to full, back and forth, several times per second. Quite a sight.)

Called up Salicom, the access provider, and talked to a an extremely chipper dude who sounded appropriately mortified and astounded to hear of my problems. By the time I got to the office I saw that he followed up with an email asking me to collect some more information about the immediate wireless land-lay next time I'm in the cafe. This isn't optimal (what, they can't do this themselves?) but it's something, and their request at least makes sense and shows that someone there may have clue, even if they're too lazy (or far away or understaffed) to investigate the matter without deputizing their own customers.

(Realizing that I'm probably abnormally nice in this regard; I think the correct action here is to remind the provider that I'm paying them, and why can't they send someone down to check it out? But I didn't realize this until now, and I doubt I'll bother, for so do I dislike any sort of confrontational attitude. If they become truly lame I'll just drop the service.)

What the...

Poking through my downloads folder, I found this PDF file. It has a date-modified earlier than my ownership of this computer, so no hints there, and Googling on its filename returns no obvious clues as to its origin.

Strange. Anyone?

I should add: If it's from the RPG campaign I'm in and I'm so numb that I have no recollection of how or when I obtained it, either of the GMs may clue-by-four me at their discretion.

(no subject)

Wowie zowie... just "attended" the first video lecture. Very happy; am officially smarter now, ho ho. I like being able to pause the prof so's I can take notes at my leisure. Dur-heee, it's just like Tivo! Well, not really; rewinding isn't really worth the effort unless you missed a crucial point, since resynching with the incoming RealMedia stream takes so long.

Difference between the me of today and the me of a dozen years ago, the last time I took a math course: I often find it easiest to take notes as Perl code. Not all the time, but when I understood how to multiply a matrix by a vector, and wanted to write down my understanding, any attempt to render it into plain english (or even pseudocode) would have been far less effective, to me, than just writing a couple of nested foreach() loops.

Wonder if I can stick with it through the end, maybe averaging one lecture per day...

(no subject)

All this hullaballoo on the state house steps and not a single ALL YOUR MARRIAGE ARE BELONG TO US sign. Well, I guess it doesn't scan very well.

I'm going to march down there with a blank sign. As part of my continual quest to troll Larry Niven.

Heyyyyy, it's Mista Vee!

I have to admit, now that I'm finally well into the midgame, a lot of Vice City is actually a hoot. I couldn't help but love the Kaufman Cab missions, where you take sides in a war beetween two rival taxicab companies who literally battle it out on the streets over fares. It comes to a head with a demolition derby, and then a final showdown with the katana-wielding, tiger-striped cab-driving leader of your competition.

I think I like these bits for the same sorts of reasons that so many sensible button-down movie critics were all gleeful-despite-themselves about Kill Bill. The ultra-violence becomes something weirdly transcendental once it's firmly established that the world is not our own, and the extreme mayhem and dismemberment actively refuses to be taken seriously, even to flinching girly-men like me.