What is the newest installment of 'Random Thoughts' on Physics Forums?

[Keith_McClary]

Montreal Expos

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Washington_Nationals

 

[WWGD]

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Washington_Nationals

Thanks. I thought you were our designated Canadian.

 

[Astronuc]

Do one's homework before investing!

The IPO of crypto exchange Coinbase on Wednesday has captivated fans of digital currency and investors as they speculate on the potential for a $100 billion valuation on the company.

But

"I think it's [Coinbase] worth closer to $5 billion or $10 billion as opposed to $100 billion," New Constructs CEO David Trainer tells Yahoo Finance.

https://finance.yahoo.com/news/coin...ion-not-100-billion-strategist-155726412.html
Besides the discrepancy in valuation, why is this a big deal.

Well, Coinbase is one of many companies incubated by IdeaLabs (and Bill Gross).
https://www.idealab.com/ (look under Our Companies), or
https://www.idealab.com/all_companies.php

Some have been very successful, others not so much.

I knew one of the VPs at eSolar (since left the company and now retired). They had a large project for concentrated solar power, Sierra SunTower. It didn't perform as expected and has been shutdown.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/ESolar#Sierra_SunTower

A critic - http://guntherportfolio.com/2013/04...f-concentrating-solar-power-underperformance/

It's interesting that IdeaLabs (with Prime Movers Lab) has been supporting another solar power company, Heliogen, which would seem to be using similar, if not the same, technology.
https://heliogen.com/
https://www.primemoverslab.com/portfolio/

Both IdeaLabs and PrimeMovers Lab are supporting interesting companies.

 

[WWGD]

Not made up. This lady Jennifer Weir from Mad Tv married a guy with ladt name Dasz. They set up a company " Weir-Dasz Productions".

 

[Borg]

That seems strange.

 

[WWGD]

That seems strange.

Weir(d as ) anything I've heard.

 

[WWGD]

If my brother's daughter is called Denisse, should his upcoming son be called Denefew?*

*Denisse : The niece,
Denefew: The Nephew.

 

[fresh_42]

I'm rarely proud of my country or any other. Too many things that do not go well - anywhere. But today was one of these rare moments as I checked the law that prioritizes SARS2-Covid-19 vaccinations. They really tried to adjust the list to vulnerability and besides the oldest, there were e.g. people with trisomy or BMI above 40 in the top-level group.

 

[WWGD]

I'm rarely proud of my country or any other. Too many things that do not go well - anywhere. But today was one of these rare moments as I checked the law that prioritizes SARS2-Covid-19 vaccinations. They really tried to adjust the list to vulnerability and besides the oldest, there were e.g. people with trisomy or BMI above 40 in the top-level group.

Well, average person today lives much better by most standards than at any point in time: Life expectancy, Education, Fewer wars, less violence. Still a lot to do , but maybe a self-pat in the back would not be such a bad idea.

 

[WWGD]

Is there a reasonable way of changing the color of the cursor so that it contrasts with the screen colors; maybe dynamically? I mean, how much time have I spent looking for the cursor each session?

 

[Keith_McClary]

changing the color of the cursor

There are browser extensions and Windows (or other OS) apps that can change the color and shape.

 

[WWGD]

There are browser extensions and Windows (or other OS) apps that can change the color and shape.

Thank you. Dynamically, i.e., depending on the setup of the page being browsed? Edit: Meaning, e.g., a cursor will be colored black for a page with a white background and viceversa?

 

[hmmm27]

Reverse-colour arrow is one of the standard cursors : did they remove it for Win 10 ? ControlPanel>Mouse>Pointer.

There's also an option that if you type <Ctrl> on your keyboard a circle temporarily appears around the cursor. ControlPanel>Mouse>PointerOptions.

 

[WWGD]

Was it intentional that one of the membets of the Star Trek cast ( Tng, I think) looks like Mad's Alfred E Neumann?

 

[fresh_42]

I like the new world. My MS email account thinks I'm Swedish after years taking me for Spanish, my AOL account thinks I'm a republican living in Iowa, FB thinks I'm an American abroad, and probably has denounced me already at the IRS, and only Google leaves me alone. Isn't that funny? Google? They only try to figure out which music I like most, desperately and in vain. If you can't convince them, confuse them.

 

[WWGD]

I like the new world. My MS email account thinks I'm Swedish after years taking me for Spanish, my AOL account thinks I'm a republican living in Iowa, FB thinks I'm an American abroad, and probably has denounced me already at the IRS, and only Google leaves me alone. Isn't that funny? Google? They only try to figure out which music I like most, desperately and in vain. If you can't convince them, confuse them.

I keep getting ED promos, tooth decay repair and offers to help me finish my high school degree.

 

[WWGD]

My confusion is of a different nature: what's an app? You need an app ( a nap), you want an app with your meal ( an appetizer), or the standard , application. If my doctor asks me if I want an app, I will assume he means an appendectomy. I am saying no to that.

 

[fresh_42]

I keep getting ED promos, tooth decay repair and offers to help me finish my high school degree.

I haven't checked what they advertise. Especially the Swedish ads are a bit wild. AOL is easy to explain. It all started with the Obama campaign when I clicked through a few emails (from either side) just to see how they run their campaigns. Senator Ernst is doing her best to keep me republican ever since (Rep. Duckworth (D) has given up on me). I once signed in on a dating site (more than 20 years ago) and I still get "offers" from them and surprisingly some other clearly dubious sites.

 

[WWGD]

I haven't checked what they advertise. Especially the Swedish ads are a bit wild. AOL is easy to explain. It all started with the Obama campaign when I clicked through a few emails (from either side) just to see how they run their campaigns. Senator Ernst is doing her best to keep me republican ever since (Rep. Duckworth (D) has given up on me). I once signed in on a dating site (more than 20 years ago) and I still get "offers" from them and surprisingly some other clearly dubious sites.

I make it a point to have non-gmail accounts because it seems google is good at integrating all your online ( and, worse, otherwise) history.

 

[fresh_42]

I make it a point to have non-gmail accounts because it seems google is good at integrating all your online ( and, worse, otherwise) history.

I think it's a Don Quijote fight against windmills. Most immediate is FB in their responses to my surf habits. My gmail account is practically free from any spam. I regularly delete my google history, so it's merely youtube which tries to guess my taste. Well, they offer Springsteen and Chuck Berry, so nothing wrong with it.

 

[mathwonk]

As a student, (at Harvard no less), when asked to show the sum of two irrationals is not nec. irrational, I started from a non - repeating decimal, like .141592653589793..., then created another decimal, also non - repeating, say .858407346410206..., whose decimals added to 9 with each decimal I started with. It finally dawned on me, that starting from an irrational x, I had created the irrational number 1-x. Only afterwards did I think of just using -x. And I was in the "honors" class! So I empathize to some extent with your student on this problem.

 

[WWGD]

As a student, (at Harvard no less), when asked to show the sum of two irrationals is not nec. irrational, I started from a non - repeating decimal, like .141592653589793..., then created another decimal, also non - repeating, say .858407346410206..., whose decimals added to 9 with each decimal I started with. It finally dawned on me, that starting from an irrational x, I had created the irrational number 1-x. Only afterwards did I think of just using -x. And I was in the "honors" class! So I empathize to some extent with your student on this problem.

That's why/how laziness can be helpful. Just use x-x=0.

 

[WWGD]

I think it's a Don Quijote fight against windmills. Most immediate is FB in their responses to my surf habits. My gmail account is practically free from any spam. I regularly delete my google history, so it's merely youtube which tries to guess my taste. Well, they offer Springsteen and Chuck Berry, so nothing wrong with it.

You tube has offered me just about every type of music; a few times even things I liked.

 

[fresh_42]

As a student, (at Harvard no less), when asked to show the sum of two irrationals is not nec. irrational, I started from a non - repeating decimal, like .141592653589793..., then created another decimal, also non - repeating, say .858407346410206..., whose decimals added to 9 with each decimal I started with. It finally dawned on me, that starting from an irrational x, I had created the irrational number 1-x. Only afterwards did I think of just using -x. And I was in the "honors" class! So I empathize to some extent with your student on this problem.

I remember an exam when the student was asked about linear functions. She perfectly repeated the definition, but when asked to give an example, she struggled. I remember that I thought: "0." - "Do you know a nontrivial one?" - "1." However, I wasn't asked.

 

[WWGD]

I remember an exam when the student was asked about linear functions. She perfectly repeated the definition, but when asked to give an example, she struggled. I remember that I thought: "0." - "Do you know a nontrivial one?" - "1." However, I wasn't asked.

Good luck with that. I got so confused ; my students too, trying to explain the difference between a linear and an affine function.

 

[mathwonk]

When I took linear algebra it was all abstract, sort of like in Artin's Geometric algebra, and often in infinite dimensions. When I finally taught it, I was amazed that if you use matrices, in finite dimensions you can actually calculate most of that stuff!

 

[WWGD]

When I took linear algebra it was all abstract, sort of like in Artin's Geometric algebra, and often in infinite dimensions. When I finally taught it, I was amazed that if you use matrices, in finite dimensions you can actually calculate most of that stuff!

Infinite dimensions? Isn't that functional analysis?

 

[mathwonk]

I guess so, it was calculus according to Lynn Loomis, on Banach spaces. We learned that the derivative of f at p is a bounded linear map T such that the map f(x+p)-f(p) - T(x) is "little-oh" in the sense that its norm, divided by the norm of x, goes to zero with x. is that right? most of the class members were freshmen, but not me. the unoffical text was Dieudonne's Foundations of modern analysis.

 

[WWGD]

I guess so, it was calculus according to Lynn Loomis, on Banach spaces. We learned that the derivative of f at p is a bounded linear map T such that the map f(x+p)-f(p) - T(x) is "little-oh" in the sense that its norm, divided by the norm of x, goes to zero with x. is that right? most of the class members were freshmen, but not me. the unoffical text was Dieudonne's Foundations of modern analysis.

I remember seeing the example of a discontinuous( unbounded) linear map.

 

[mathwonk]

me too, maybe if e1,e2,... is an infinite sequence of unit length independent vectors, and T(ej) = j, then although ej/j-->0, T(ej/j) = 1, for all j.

(It seems I still know Banach spaces better than I know trig and one vbl calc.)
My conclusion was that since, given how I was taught, I did not understand anything, if one wants to understand, one should be taught the opposite to how I was. Of course that also may not be sufficient. Maybe it was actually my fault that I did not think and work hard enough, ask questions, look for examples? Nahhh...