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

[WWGD]

But he wants me to set up a database without " giving away the secret". I can't drive the point to him on how nonsensical that is.

I assume most here in PF have had to navigate the chasm between the technical and business worlds.

 

[fresh_42]

I assume most here in PF have had to navigate the chasm between the technical and business worlds.

Oh yes. I have more than once been given $\dfrac{a}{b}$ and $\dfrac{c}{d}$ and requested to calculate $\dfrac{a+c}{b+d}$. Of course, it was hidden behind words like bonuses, indexes, or similar. But at its core, it was just that.

 

[Ivan Seeking]

I assume most here in PF have had to navigate the chasm between the technical and business worlds.

Yes, you make money in the business world.

 

[Astronuc]

Tibetan Bridge of Curzútt
This four-hour walk in the hills along the right bank of the Ticino River, in the region facing the Magadino Plain, does not only offer a beautiful scenery, but also boasts several points of interest. The thrill of crossing one of the longest Tibetan bridges in Switzerland (270 metres); the discovery of the Romanesque church of San Bernardo, featuring a number of beautiful frescoes of 14th and 15th century; a visit to the old and beautifully restored housing cluster of Curzútt, testifying to the time when daily life mainly revolved around hillside activities.

https://www.ticinotopten.ch/en/trekking/curztt-tibetan-bridge

And being in the neighborhood - https://www.claviere.it/en/la-stazione/estate/ponte-tibetano-cesana-claviere/

 

[WWGD]

Yes, you make money in the business world.

I guess PMs are part of that bridge between worlds.

 

[Ibix]

Um... no thanks.

The link turns out to take you to an LP called Leprosy by a band called Death (Amazon's top choice for death leprosy, I gather) and a lot of textbooks about leprosy and its history.

 

[fresh_42]

Um... no thanks.

The link turns out to take you to an LP called Leprosy by a band called Death (Amazon's top choice for death leprosy, I gather) and a lot of textbooks about leprosy and its history.

Wait, before you buy. I will first order some calls on pharma stocks.

 

[WWGD]

I remember a while back someone asking if they could buy " Loosies/Lucys" from me; could not make out what they were. I wondered if Lucy was short for LSD ( " Lucy in the sky with diamonds"), but I think it was loosies, as in loose cigarettes.

 

[WWGD]

View attachment 286770
Um... no thanks.

The link turns out to take you to an LP called Leprosy by a band called Death (Amazon's top choice for death leprosy, I gather) and a lot of textbooks about leprosy and its history.

As useful as :

 

[WWGD]

Kind of strange calculator in my phone. It prrsents all partial results when multiplying as I enter the numbers. Example: 120x130 will first show a 120, as 120x1, then will show 1560 as 120x13, then finally the full result 15600.

 

[Keith_McClary]

Kind of strange calculator in my phone. It prrsents all partial results when multiplying as I enter the numbers. Example: 120x130 will first show a 120, as 120x1, then will show 1560 as 120x13, then finally the full result 15600.

Those microchips are always showing off.

 

[Tom.G]

View attachment 286770
Um... no thanks.

The link turns out to take you to an LP called Leprosy by a band called Death (Amazon's top choice for death leprosy, I gather) and a lot of textbooks about leprosy and its history.

I think your device is ill.
https://duckduckgo.com/?t=palemoon&q=leprosy&ia=web

 

[Ibix]

I think your device is ill.
https://duckduckgo.com/?t=palemoon&q=leprosy&ia=web

Adding or removing the "t=palemoon" parameter (which seems to identify your browser - I'm in Firefox) makes the difference. That's... interesting.

 

[WWGD]

What are the t,q, ia and palemoon about? Search parameters?

 

[Ibix]

They're HTTP GET parameters - essentially variables and values that are passed to the search engine that generates the page. The ? signifies the beginning of parameters and the & delimits them.

The q parameter here is obviously the search term. The t parameter is apparently the originating browser (I didn't know of the Palemoon browser, but now I do, and I know that Tom.G uses it, which is why you should be a little careful posting URLs because they can leak information - nothing serious in this case, but still). I can't immediately guess what the ia parameter is.

 

[WWGD]

They're HTTP GET parameters - essentially variables and values that are passed to the search engine that generates the page. The ? signifies the beginning of parameters and the & delimits them.

The q parameter here is obviously the search term. The t parameter is apparently the originating browser (I didn't know of the Palemoon browser, but now I do, and I know that Tom.G uses it, which is why you should be a little careful posting URLs because they can leak information - nothing serious in this case, but still). I can't immediately guess what the ia parameter is.

Thanks. Were the parameters entered by Tom or generated by Palemoon engine ?

 

[Ibix]

Thanks. Were the parameters entered by Tom or generated by Palemoon engine ?

They come from the HTML/Javascript in the previous page. It's one way of passing parameters from things like text boxes, and the Javascript apparently added a browser string and whatever the ia parameter is.

It's useful because you can go straight to the DuckDuckGo results page by entering the URL https://duckduckgo.com/?q=whatever (or generating that string in some application), but it means URLs get very lengthy. There are other ways of doing things if you want to avoid that.

 

[fresh_42]

The q parameter here is obviously the search term. The t parameter is apparently the originating browser (I didn't know of the Palemoon browser, but now I do, and I know that Tom.G uses it, which is why you should be a little careful posting URLs because they can leak information - nothing serious in this case, but still). I can't immediately guess what the ia parameter is.

I first recognized it when I linked amazon books.

Before edit:
https://www.amazon.com/Linear-Algebraic-Groups-Graduate-Mathematics/dp/0387901086/ref=sr_1_1?dchild=1&keywords=linear+algebraic+groups&qid=1627562832&sr=8-1

After edit:
https://www.amazon.com/Linear-Algebraic-Groups-Graduate-Mathematics/dp/0387901086/

Same page.

 

[WWGD]

I have heard of people who have bought old , unused planes or buses, removed everything in the inside and turned it into their houses. Seems a bus with its windows would be difficult to secure. I can see someone having their homes robbed but not stolen.

 

[Keith_McClary]

I have heard of people who have bought old , unused planes or buses, removed everything in the inside and turned it into their houses. Seems a bus with its windows would be difficult to secure. I can see someone having their homes robbed but not stolen.

Probably all their other possessions are also repurposed items.

 

[WWGD]

Probably all their other possessions are also repurposed items.

Could be. Some claimed to be able to live on $5,000 / year ( after paying for the plane/bus).

 

[Klystron]

I have heard of people who have bought old , unused planes or buses, removed everything in the inside and turned it into their houses. Seems a bus with its windows would be difficult to secure. I can see someone having their homes robbed but not stolen.

Being unused sounds new to me.

Tom Wolfe wrote a journal/novel called "The Electric Kool-Aid Acid Test" about writer Ken Kesey and the Merry Pranksters crossing the US and living in a repurposed school bus styled "Further". I saw the bus at a party in La Honda as a kid and met Neil Cassidy, the bus driver with the 4 lb. sledge hammer. He was planning on driving the bus north to Oregon and installing it on Kesey's ranch to live in as his home.

 

[WWGD]

Being unused sounds new to me.

Tom Wolfe wrote a journal/novel called "The Electric Kool-Aid Acid Test" about writer Ken Kesey and the Merry Pranksters crossing the US and living in a repurposed school bus styled "Further". I saw the bus at a party in La Honda as a kid and met Neil Cassidy, the bus driver with the 4 lb. sledge hammer. He was planning on driving the bus north to Oregon and installing it on Kesey's ranch to live in as his home.

My bad, should be used planes/buses.

 

[WWGD]

I first recognized it when I linked amazon books.

Before edit:
https://www.amazon.com/Linear-Algebraic-Groups-Graduate-Mathematics/dp/0387901086/ref=sr_1_1?dchild=1&keywords=linear+algebraic+groups&qid=1627562832&sr=8-1

After edit:
https://www.amazon.com/Linear-Algebraic-Groups-Graduate-Mathematics/dp/0387901086/

Same page.

I have heard google taylors its searches/search results individually, depending on previous searches it has stored. Can this be gleamed from the search string (or otherwise)?

 

[WWGD]

Wow, just said hi to someone I had not seen in around 2 years, a casual acquaintance and got the coldest reply. Oh, yes, [name], remember we talked about x? Mhuh. Wow, what's the deal with the delta variant? Think we'll need another jab? Mhuh. Guess that's a bye bye, so long farewell.

 

[Klystron]

Wow, just said hi to someone I had not seen in around 2 years, a casual acquaintance and got the coldest reply. Oh, yes, [name], remember we talked about x? Mhuh. Wow, what's the deal with the delta variant? Think we'll need another jab? Mhuh. Guess that's a bye bye, so long farewell.

Were you wearing a mask?

 

[WWGD]

Being unused sounds new to me.

Tom Wolfe wrote a journal/novel called "The Electric Kool-Aid Acid Test" about writer Ken Kesey and the Merry Pranksters crossing the US and living in a repurposed school bus styled "Further". I saw the bus at a party in La Honda as a kid and met Neil Cassidy, the bus driver with the 4 lb. sledge hammer. He was planning on driving the bus north to Oregon and installing it on Kesey's ranch to live in as his home.

And I guess they ended up in the " Cuckoo's Nest"?

 

[Tom.G]

Adding or removing the "t=palemoon" parameter (which seems to identify your browser - I'm in Firefox) makes the difference. That's... interesting.

The browser used was "mypal" which is a fork of a later version of Firefox than I normally use... normally use except when it doesn't recognize the 'New-and-Improved' features on some web pages.

The only reason I switched to 'mypal' for that search was easy access to duckduckgo.com, which was the pre-installed default search engine.

I generally sanitize any URLs I post and that one was deemed safe. By contrast the URL generated by Google is 313 characters long, which I strip down to 41 characters as shown here.
https://www.google.com/search?&q=leprosy

I have heard google taylors its searches/search results individually, depending on previous searches it has stored. Can this be gleamed from the search string (or otherwise)?

Yup. When I clear my Google cookies I got more inclusive responses. Most noticeable was search results showing up from Google Scholar. (scholar.google.com)

Apparently there are some things we mere mortals are not supposed to notice/worry about.

Try this experiment:
on www.Google.com, search for the word: Apparently
then switch to scholar.google.com and search

Cheers,
Tom

 

[WWGD]

Seems

Were you wearing a mask?

No, and neither was he. Nor anyone else around. But, hey, no one's died of being snubbed

 

[Ibix]

But, hey, no one's died of being snubbed

But the consequences can be pretty devastating nonetheless.