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

[fresh_42]

I used to think a fellowship is one where everyone must call you 'fellow'.

It's hard to be a fellower of either these times ... No time to be anglophile.

 

[WWGD]

It's hard to be a fellower of either these times ... No time to be anglophile.

Komrad/Tovarich then?

 

[fresh_42]

Well, at least the French seemingly don't want to change a winning team! So how about "copain"?

 

[WWGD]

Well, at least the French seemingly don't want to change a winning team! So how about "copain"?

Prijatelj?

 

[fresh_42]

Prijatelj?

Good idea. Apart from American Handegg (Patriots) I like underdogs.

 

[WWGD]

Interesting book on positive emotions and their goal . Good thing they called the book Positivity and nor Positivism.

 

[WWGD]

Good idea. Apart from American Handegg (Patriots) I like underdogs.

I like my dogs with coleslaw.

 

[WWGD]

Croatia makes it!

 

[fresh_42]

Probably better so. I don't think that the Belgians would have had a good chance against Croatia ...

Croatia makes it!

 

[WWGD]

And I won a chocolate bar and water as a result. I am betting on Croatia on the final. Habout you, freshmeister?

 

[WWGD]

I am betting on Croatia for the final. Are you, freshmeister?
PS. My condolences, Ibix. Your autocorrect name is Inbox, it seems.

 

[fresh_42]

I think I keep my strategy: Self-preservation.

We have 3650 Croatians in town but only 215 British.
Well, it's 329 French ...

 

[skyshrimp]

I just mixed Red Bull and orange juice in a pint glass full to the top with ice. I made it sour with a little ascorbic acid.

I'll try it with pineapple juice next.

 

[WWGD]

I just mixed Red Bull and orange juice in a pint glass full to the top with ice. I made it sour with a little ascorbic acid.

View attachment 227995

I'll try it with pineapple juice next.

That's how many drinks are born. Start thinking of a name for it!

 

[Psinter]

It's not the same to call a lion as to see a lion running towards you.

 

[Psinter]

Should I say 'Math' or should I say 'Mathematics'?

 

[WWGD]

Just thought that [Name]'s SAS Tutorials could have been named better...Otherwise, kind of contrived to have a tutorial for it. EDIT: Although no one's name would escape this. Just like the name of the Sushi place " Sushiteria" Just careful how you break the name down: Su -what?.

 

[WWGD]

Should I say 'Math' or should I say 'Mathematics'?

View attachment 228063

British say Maths.

 

[fresh_42]

British say Maths.

I have a hypothesis: If Europe - {UK , IRL} would start to drive on the left, it would take at most a month until UK started to drive on the right. Eventually the only way to change this. I'm not quite sure about Eire. Guess they wouldn't change anything in the first place.

 

[WWGD]

I have a hypothesis: If Europe - {UK , IRL} would start to drive on the left, it would take at most a month until UK started to drive on the right. Eventually the only way to change this. I'm not quite sure about Eire. Guess they wouldn't change anything in the first place.

Why not just drive in reverse all the way?

 

[fresh_42]

Why not just drive in reverse all the way?

I immediately thought of a Dutch DAF 600 such that it would make at least fun. But then I recognized, that probably every electric powered car can run as fast in reverse as in normal. Finally I understood what they're good for!

 

[fresh_42]

Problem with CC is its speed. Meanwhile we have the weather of Madrid but the opening hours of Glasgow.

 

[WWGD]

Weird problem: webpage suddenly stops displaying scrollbar. Navigating that page was like drinking coffee with a fork. Solved it finally. EDIT: And the scrollbar disappeared again.

 

[fresh_42]

Weird problem: webpage suddenly stops displaying scrollbar. Navigating that page was like drinking coffee with a fork. Solved it finally. EDIT: And the scrollbar disappeared again.

I told you Schrödinger.com was a bad idea!

 

[WWGD]

I told you Schrödinger.com was a bad idea!

And back on...Strange thing is that it is only this one webpage.

 

[fresh_42]

And back on...Strange thing is that it is only this one webpage.

I guess that's what programming is about. Everybody can find a bug in a code, but these little, devious sometimes thingies are mean as hell.

 

[WWGD]

I guess that's what programming is about. Everybody can find a bug in a code, but these little, devious sometimes thingies are mean as hell.

Why, what's wrong with these programmers, can't they just consider the [infinitely many] ways in which the program [OS] can be implemented?

 

[fresh_42]

I never forget when I searched for a PL/I error on a big machine. It was driving me mad. I had a few loops by integers around zero. All started well until all of a sudden my small integers became something like -12363 or similar. In the end it turned out to be a compiler error on automatically initialized variables. One could have "declare i integer; 0" or similar, don't remember exactly. The solution was to forget about the implicit init and do it per hand: declare i followed by set i=0. If you're desperate enough you change even seemingly correct code lines.

 

[Tom.G]

Many years ago I knew a gentleman who was a mathematician at one of the large aerospace companies. He was running calculations on satellite orbits, rocket trajectories, etc. These were batch jobs being run on large main-frame computers, often over-night runs.

Trouble was he would sometimes get conflicting results. Much head scratching and debugging ensued; some repeated runs would have different trig calculation results with the same input data. After discussions with the computer department manager, it was realized there were two 'identical' machines the calcs could be run on.

The computer manufacturer field rep eventually discovered that the two machines had different versions of the Floating Point Unit hardware. There had been a redesign to fix a bug, but the upgrade hadn't made it to both machines!

Takeaway: NO two things are identical!

 

[Borg]

And back on...Strange thing is that it is only this one webpage.

Next time it happens, try resizing your browser slightly. It will have to recalculate the window size and the scrollbar should return.

 

[dlgoff]

... batch jobs being run on large main-frame computers, often over-night runs.

Bringing back memories of many sleepless nights waiting for an output.

 

[skyshrimp]

Do the chickens have large talons?

 

[Ibix]

Do the chickens have large talons?

Looks like they do. I mean, did you see the holes they made in @dlgoff's piece of paper? And they bit off one corner too!

 

[Ibix]

Bringing back memories of many sleepless nights waiting for an output.

That reminds me of a story they told at the National Computing Museum. They have a very early relay-based computer there. Apparently the guys who used it wanted to leave it running over Christmas once, but wanted to be able to check it hadn't crashed. But no one wanted to sit in a freezing Nissen hut and miss Christmas dinner if the program hadn't died.

Because the computer was relay based it was noisy, and you could recognise the different noises it made doing different operations. So they rigged an auto-pickup for the lab phone, and dialled it periodically to listen in on how the program was progressing.

I love that story.

 

[dlgoff]

I love that story.

Awesome. Now I've got that story to pass on.