[Tortious]

(Original post by around)
D:

but a shiny user name is MORE IMPORTANT than real, material goods...

(Original post by alex_hk90)
...

I think there was talk of you being able to request credits instead, but I'm not sure what happened with that...

[alex_hk90]

(Original post by Tortious)
I think there was talk of you being able to request credits instead, but I'm not sure what happened with that...

Yeah, I asked about that but I think they thought it would be too complicated. And the new system is about twice as good in terms of monetary value so not many people wanted to have the option of the old one.

[Craghyrax]

Yeh I forgot we'd switched to Amazon vouchers for a moment there or I'd also recommend PS Helping.
I like the new idea, but unfortunately every time I go into the Social Sciences forum all the statements I'm eligible to review are snapped up


I've moved into my new house in Norwich. Its very nice apart from the lack of furniture, which I'm now hanging around at home for, waiting on deliveries. Some features I particularly enjoy are having a forest behind my back yard that has an old crumbling castle in it , a pretty river across the road with a nice quay to walk along, a pretty pedestrian/cycle bridge over it leading into a huge shopping park with a giant Morrisons and other useful things, which is nevertheless hidden from my sight by several attractive modern high rise flats Its also 7mins walk from the station, and about that to the city centre. Despite nearly 2 weeks warning before my move, Virgin Media aren't installing internet until the 12th of September which is spectacularly shoddy If anything other than cable was available in my area, I'd take it instead.
I'm in a cafe at the moment so might not be online again for awhile.

[alex_hk90]

(Original post by Craghyrax)
Yeh I forgot we'd switched to Amazon vouchers for a moment there or I'd also recommend PS Helping.
I like the new idea, but unfortunately every time I go into the Social Sciences forum all the statements I'm eligible to review are snapped up

That's odd, it seems that every time I go into SocSci there are no pure economics ones but always politics/philosophy/IR/etc. type ones (I guess you can do those?).

(Original post by Craghyrax)
I've moved into my new house in Norwich. Its very nice apart from the lack of furniture, which I'm now hanging around at home for, waiting on deliveries. Some features I particularly enjoy are having a forest behind my back yard that has an old crumbling castle in it , a pretty river across the road with a nice quay to walk along, a pretty pedestrian/cycle bridge over it leading into a huge shopping park with a giant Morrisons and other useful things, which is nevertheless hidden from my sight by several attractive modern high rise flats Its also 7mins walk from the station, and about that to the city centre. Despite nearly 2 weeks warning before my move, Virgin Media aren't installing internet until the 12th of September which is spectacularly shoddy If anything other than cable was available in my area, I'd take it instead.
I'm in a cafe at the moment so might not be online again for awhile.

Your new house sounds good. It's interesting that they can build high-rise flats that look good these days, I wonder if in the 1970s they thought the high-rises they were building were modern and attractive?

[Craghyrax]

(Original post by alex_hk90)
That's odd, it seems that every time I go into SocSci there are no pure economics ones but also politics/philosophy/IR/etc. type ones (I guess you can do those?).

Paddy power always gets there first

Your new house sounds good. It's interesting that they can build high-rise flats that look good these days, I wonder if in the 1970s they thought the high-rises they were building were modern and attractive?

They only look good because they're so shiny and modern, with attractive combinations of wood, stainless steel, glass etc. No doubt in 10 years they'll be hideous

[alex_hk90]

(Original post by Craghyrax)
Paddy power always gets there first

There's one there now (but I guess you're not doing reviews until you get your internet sorted).

(Original post by Craghyrax)
They only look good because they're so shiny and modern, with attractive combinations of wood, stainless steel, glass etc. No doubt in 10 years they'll be hideous

You're probably right. The 1990s ones don't look great.

[Craghyrax]

(Original post by alex_hk90)
There's one there now (but I guess you're not doing reviews until you get your internet sorted).

Gah! Why are there so many products that Ikea doesn't deliver??? I've never lived anywhere near an Ikea, and right now I could really use their super cheap dining room chairs, and another one of these:
http://www.ikea.com/gb/en/catalog/products/90078462

Can you believe they've actually brought the price down further on that chair? I'm very seriously considering waiting till Christmas when I visit family in Bristol and picking one up there and taking it home on the train. It will be a right pain to carry about, despite the flat pack, but with my partner helping me perhaps I'll manage it. Right now I have the one that you got, (which remains the most comfy chair of awesomeness ever) and a second hand sofa I found this week. I just need one more of these and my living room will be complete

[kpatb]

What does everyone think of:
http://www.nchum.com/

[alex_hk90]

(Original post by kpatb)
What does everyone think of:
http://www.nchum.com/

I haven't read that much about it, but it's intriguing and I probably would've applied if it was around back then.

[gethsemane342]

(Original post by kpatb)
What does everyone think of:
http://www.nchum.com/

Is it that thing that's meant to be better than Oxbridge and costs loads to go to? Not really a fan of the idea. And their law course has a course of "Basic elements of the Common Law". You do not need a whole year for that. Most lawyers pick it up within a few weeks. Waste of a module...

[Leipzig]

*I'm an arts major, please don't mock me*

Does anyone here know anything about Simon Philips Norton? There was a small review of his biography in the Evening Standard which caught my eye. Apparently he scored 50 alphas in his math final (possibly apocrypal).

In any case, the article made reference to The Monster of Group Theory - "Imagine a Sudoko square whose number of rows and columns is 54 digits long, and which exists in 196,883 dimensions..." Do we have any phys. natscis or mathmos here would could explain the conceptual thinking around that at all, or is way too deep to summarise?

[smilepea]

Ok so I'm currently earning just enough money to cover my living expenses, so what do I do? Yes that's right buy a pink ukulele.

Also to note: I have no musical talent.

[Tortious]

(Original post by smilepea)
Ok so I'm currently earning just enough money to cover my living expenses, so what do I do? Yes that's right buy a pink ukulele.

Also to note: I have no musical talent.

Gotta start somewhere - but you'll have to learn fast if you're to earn a living from it! Cambridge is already overrun with buskers.

[kpatb]

(Original post by smilepea)
Ok so I'm currently earning just enough money to cover my living expenses, so what do I do? Yes that's right buy a pink ukulele.

Also to note: I have no musical talent.

That's what one of my friends did as well. The first thing she did after she went to university was buy herself a ukelele. But saying that, she is a musician.

It's okay, Ukelele's have great comic value, so if nothing else, you could earn money by providing everyone with a laugh

[Supermerp]

(Original post by Leipzig)
*I'm an arts major, please don't mock me*

Does anyone here know anything about Simon Philips Norton? There was a small review of his biography in the Evening Standard which caught my eye. Apparently he scored 50 alphas in his math final (possibly apocrypal).

In any case, the article made reference to The Monster of Group Theory - "Imagine a Sudoko square whose number of rows and columns is 54 digits long, and which exists in 196,883 dimensions..." Do we have any phys. natscis or mathmos here would could explain the conceptual thinking around that at all, or is way too deep to summarise?

There are obviously better people here to discuss Group Theory

Spoiler:

Show

Things like the Monster Group are largely the preserve of pure mathematicans, but group theory in general is useful in physics because it is (for a physicist) a mathematical discussion of symmetry, which has been quite important to the classical understanding of phase transitions. I think I have seen some things about the Monster Group being involved in string theory but obviously that doesn't count. But also another fairly esoteric thing from group theory (one of the 'exceptional' groups) does turn up in an extremely special sort of magnet.

but the wikipedia article links to this comic, which is quite relevant to your post

[ukebert]

I like the ukulele

(Original post by ukdragon37)

Spoiler:

Show

The idea is quite simple - very briefly it is to build an interface which would allow Java code to call natively compiled ML code through the JNI.

I understood some of those words

(Original post by Craghyrax)
They only look good because they're so shiny and modern, with attractive combinations of wood, stainless steel, glass etc. No doubt in 10 years they'll be hideous

I dunno, part of the problem is with british weather. Concrete doesn't age well, whereas wood does. I think that if a wood-clad modern building looks OK now it'll probably look OK in 10 years time.

Mostly though, buildings in the 50s and 60s are so hideous because they were designed to be pretty when pristine and white in glorious sunshine. So they now look terrible. Some of them were evidently designed to be as ugly as possible mind.

[Slumpy]

(Original post by ukebert)

I dunno, part of the problem is with british weather. Concrete doesn't age well, whereas wood does. I think that if a wood-clad modern building looks OK now it'll probably look OK in 10 years time.

Mostly though, buildings in the 50s and 60s are so hideous because they were designed to be pretty when pristine and white in glorious sunshine. So they now look terrible. Some of them were evidently designed to be as ugly as possible mind.

It seems to me a lot of wood things are built with now ages very quickly. But I might just be picky.

[ukebert]

(Original post by Slumpy)
It seems to me a lot of wood things are built with now ages very quickly. But I might just be picky.

They age quickly, yes, but they still look attractive In my eyes anyway.

[ukdragon37]

(Original post by ukebert)
I understood some of those words

PRSOM

[Zhen Lin]

(Original post by Leipzig)
*I'm an arts major, please don't mock me*

Does anyone here know anything about Simon Philips Norton? There was a small review of his biography in the Evening Standard which caught my eye. Apparently he scored 50 alphas in his math final (possibly apocrypal).

Given that the meaning of ‘alpha’ has already changed once in the last decade, I think it's best not to try to ascribe much meaning to this factoid.

In any case, the article made reference to The Monster of Group Theory - "Imagine a Sudoko square whose number of rows and columns is 54 digits long, and which exists in 196,883 dimensions..." Do we have any phys. natscis or mathmos here would could explain the conceptual thinking around that at all, or is way too deep to summarise?

It's just some random facts thrown together to make it sound scary and/or exciting to the layperson. And it is literally just thrown together: the sudoku table bit is referring to its multiplication table (the monster group is a finite group of size 80801742479451287588645990496171 0757005754368000000000) and the dimension bit is referring to its irreducible representation. But there are much smaller things which allow us to get a handle on it; its character table, for instance, is only 194×194 in size.

The true points of interest are, unfortunately, almost surely not of interest to non-mathematicians. For example, one would first have to explain the larger programme of classifying finite simple groups in order to put the monster group in context.