I just heard on a different podcast that Paul Chapman, sometimes known as the almighty Gooberzilla, is supposedly 48 years old. I find that hard to believe as I'm under the impression he was around 30 years old. Anybody know how old Paul really is?
On the bonus Ponyocalpyse episode he points out that he is 29.
I just heard on a different podcast that Paul Chapman, sometimes known as the almighty Gooberzilla, is supposedly 48 years old. I find that hard to believe as I'm under the impression he was around 30 years old. Anybody know how old Paul really is?
On the bonus Ponyocalpyse episode he points out that he is 29.
Also, in The Black Hole Podcast, he says that he The Black Hole (1979) came out before he did. If he was 48, he would have to be born in 1963.
Don't make fun of me. I've always sucked at math,I never went beyond algebra II, and I haven't done anything more complicated than long division in about 14 years.
How do you figure out how many different pairs you can form from a list of things without just counting it up? (And, for the hell of it, how many trios, quartets, etc.)
How do you figure out how many different pairs you can form from a list of things without just counting it up? (And, for the hell of it, how many trios, quartets, etc.)
I'm assuming that by this you mean, for example, you have 3 objects and you want to see how many combinations of 2 objects you can create (which is 3 combos). If so, you'll want to take a gander at binomial coefficients. If you have a smart enough calculator you can use built-in functions to do it, but if you don't, the quickest method, IMO, is using the factorial equation.
My math is bad enough that I'm having a hard time reading those equations. Do I have this right?
So, say I want to find out how many different pairs of people I can make out of 6 people. Since I'm looking for groups of 2, I count 2 down from 6 -- so just 6, 5, and multiply them together -- 30. Then I divide that by (2 x 1), for 15. Is that how that works?
My math is bad enough that I'm having a hard time reading those equations. Do I have this right?
So, say I want to find out how many different pairs of people I can make out of 6 people. Since it's pairs (2), I count 2 down from 6 -- so just 6, 5, and multiply them together -- 30. Then I divide that by (2 x 1), for 15. Is that how that works?
Pretty much; Think of it this way. The number of ordered sets is given by the number of items, multiplied down by the number of items you want to select. N * (N-1) * (N-2) ... Then, to factor for that being an ordered set, you divide out by the number of orderings, which is the number of items, again multiplied down.
N! / ((N- Number of items to select)! * (Number of items to select)! )
Couldn't you just use the combination formula instead? I don't know for sure though, I'm bad at math as well..
Of course, if the order is important you need the permutation formula. For example, if I wanted to find out how many different four digit numbers there are, the combination "1234" would be different than "4321." So I'd use the permutation formula.
Couldn't you just use the combination formula instead? I don't know for sure though, I'm bad at math as well..
Of course, if the order is important you need the permutation formula. For example, if I wanted to find out how many different four digit numbers there are, the combination "1234" would be different than "4321." So I'd use the permutation formula.
A poor example, actually. Something like 1111 is also a valid four-digit number, so you can't use the permutation formula. It would be more applicable if you were only looking at numbers with distinct digits, but the naive approach fails in that case, because the first digit can't be zero, but all other digits can be.
What do you do when out of the blue your boss starts having a freak-out and stomping around the office, shouting, "Do you hear that? I'm not as good as Jason. I'm dumb. I'm terrible. I'm technologically incompetent!" and then proceeds to treat you with disdain for several hours.
I mean, I was just sitting here getting a shit-ton of work done.
What do you do when out of the blue your boss starts having a freak-out and stomping around the office, shouting, "Do you hear that? I'm not as good as Jason. I'm dumb. I'm terrible. I'm technologically incompetent!" and then proceeds to treat you with disdain for several hours.
I mean, I was just sitting here getting a shit-ton of work done.
Ok I am watching Blade 2. Let me set the scene. They are walking in the dark and Whistler turns on a flashlight and the vamps complain that he turned on the light. Whistler says, "Some of us can't see in the dark". A vamp tosses him some infared goggles. He uses them and looks at the vamps. The vamps show up red and white. Shouldnt they be blue?
I would have to say yes, but it's movies, they ain't gotta explain shit.
I'm enjoying a nice cup of Austin, TX coffee. That is the name of the flavor, "Taste of Austin." It has "nutty flavor and is accented with a hint of cinnamon." There's also San Antonio, Houston, Dallas, El Paso, and a bunch of others at the grocery store. Does your city have a flavor of coffee, or is that just here?
Is there a comprehensive history of Star Trek conventions somewhere on the internets, or at least a list of the early ones? I've become obsessed with figuring out which one I went to in the late 1970s at the San Francisco Design Center, and can't figure out what year it was at that location. (I might just pick up a copy of this documentary, which I figure has the info embedded somewhere.)
Does your city have a flavor of coffee, or is that just here?
Portland has Stumptown Coffee, which I thought was really great when I went to Portland. Then, a couple months ago I had some Stumptown coffee at a bakery in New York, and it was even better than I remembered. Best coffee I've ever had, hands down.
I'm wondering: Are video games the one nerd/geek hobby that can be considered truly universal? Even a guy like me to whom video games is pretty damn low on the "list of things I like" I'm still expected to go to an anime convention and know and understand why those people are dressed in hoodies/a wedding dress with stage blood on them (I later learned that these were Hunter/Witch cosplayers). If I were to go to a gaming convention, say Quake-con, and dress up as Gendo Ikari from Evangelion would I be accepted just as warmly? Not to say I don't like any video games, but I like them in the same way many people like anime, just sampling. In total, I've played about eight titles total. On a final note, which of these do you think is the least commonly held opinion of geeks/nerds?
"I don't like anime/manga" "I don't like TV" "I don't like comics" "I don't like board games" "I don't like to read very much" "I don't like Role Playing Games" "I don't like video games"
In my experience, geeks love TV. They hate the institution of TV, which they stereotype as networks.
For example, geeks may hate the evening news, Wheel of Fortune, Judge Judy, CSI, and Grey's Anatomy, but they love BSG, Game of Thrones, The Walking Dead, Star Trek, Doctor Who, The X-Files, Buffy, Firefly, Arrested Development, Scrubs, The West Wing, Boston Legal, Futurama... you get the point.
I left a disc burning overnight, and when I opened it in VLC this morning it gave me THIS. That is not how it was when I put it on the disc to burn. ;_; I opened the disc in Media Player and it worked fine, I opened it on another computer (using the Dell player software or whatever) and it also worked fine. But for some reason, opening it in VLC grabs the video by it's arms and PULLS. I have to hand this disc off to a public access guy in a few hours, and I want to be sure that this is a VLC problem and not a disc problem. Even though it worked fine in two other programs, VLC is still pushing this bit of doubt into my head.
So... it's VLC right? My disk is fine, right? Right?
Comments
How do you figure out how many different pairs you can form from a list of things without just counting it up? (And, for the hell of it, how many trios, quartets, etc.)
So, say I want to find out how many different pairs of people I can make out of 6 people. Since I'm looking for groups of 2, I count 2 down from 6 -- so just 6, 5, and multiply them together -- 30. Then I divide that by (2 x 1), for 15. Is that how that works?
N! / ((N- Number of items to select)! * (Number of items to select)! )
I mean, I was just sitting here getting a shit-ton of work done.
I'm enjoying a nice cup of Austin, TX coffee. That is the name of the flavor, "Taste of Austin." It has "nutty flavor and is accented with a hint of cinnamon." There's also San Antonio, Houston, Dallas, El Paso, and a bunch of others at the grocery store. Does your city have a flavor of coffee, or is that just here?
"I don't like anime/manga"
"I don't like TV"
"I don't like comics"
"I don't like board games"
"I don't like to read very much"
"I don't like Role Playing Games"
"I don't like video games"
Then again, I don't have a habit of associating with people who don't like to read.
For example, geeks may hate the evening news, Wheel of Fortune, Judge Judy, CSI, and Grey's Anatomy, but they love BSG, Game of Thrones, The Walking Dead, Star Trek, Doctor Who, The X-Files, Buffy, Firefly, Arrested Development, Scrubs, The West Wing, Boston Legal, Futurama... you get the point.
That is not how it was when I put it on the disc to burn. ;_; I opened the disc in Media Player and it worked fine, I opened it on another computer (using the Dell player software or whatever) and it also worked fine. But for some reason, opening it in VLC grabs the video by it's arms and PULLS. I have to hand this disc off to a public access guy in a few hours, and I want to be sure that this is a VLC problem and not a disc problem. Even though it worked fine in two other programs, VLC is still pushing this bit of doubt into my head.
So... it's VLC right? My disk is fine, right? Right?
The rest of this thread is going to turn into Scott ranting into a froth over VLC so I hope that helps, plusher.