I’m trying to watch a recorded event for a class. Unfortunately it is provided as a streaming .ram file, which means that RealPlayer is basically my only option for watching it. While I have a high-bandwidth internet connection, RealPlayer was still breaking up from time to time, so I decided that the best [...]

I just bought a new $148 physics textbook, Fundamentals of Physics, Extended, 8th Edition, by Halliday, Resnick, and Walker.  Upon opening the cover, the very first page one sees is an advertisement for the publisher’s product “Wiley Plus”:
The first person to invent a car that runs on water…
… may be sitting right in your classroom!”
Wiley’s [...]

I’ve now got a small stream of revenue coming in, and if I didn’t know some calculus, I could prove that it is sufficient for all my needs:
I received some money yesterday.  It will take me a finite non-zero amount of time to spend it.  By the time I have spent it, some more money [...]

The Pittsburgh Post-Gazette reports that in the Pittsburgh Public Schools, students now get a minimum grade of 50% for assignments and tests, even if their actual percentage score is lower.  District spokeswoman Ebony Pugh said
If a student gets a 20 percent in a class for the first marking period, he or she would need a [...]

I wish I could say that I was surprised at how many female students at Padua Academy were willing to sign a petition to end women’s suffrage. The issue seems to be controversial at UVM.
Personally, I’m in favor of women’s suffrage.

Now that I’ve got an Albert Einstein action figure, it occurs to me that I need some other physicist action figures to keep him company.  Unfortunately there don’t seem to be any action figures of Neils Bohr, Marie Curie, Richard Feynman, Albert Michelson, or Max Planck.  No wonder so few children grow up to [...]

Out of curiousity, I tabulated some of the data from the commencement program. I didn’t double-check my work, so I may have introduced errors.
A total of 518 Associate’s degrees were awarded to 396 students, with 294 students receiving single degrees, 83 students receiving two degrees, 17 students receiving three degrees, and 2 students receiving [...]

Mike, Diane, Dan and I went to Scott’s Seafood in San Jose for dinner. I had a cup of New England style clam chowder, the seared ahi tuna entrée, and the crème brulee. Everything was delicious, and the service was excellent.. The restaurant is on the sixth floor, and has a nice [...]

Only 26 years since I first entered college, I can finally say that I’m a college graduate, though I’ve only earned an Associate’s degree (Associate of Arts in Mathematics).  The graduation ceremony was this afternoon.  The speeches were mercifully short.  Despite their being almost 200 certificate and 400 degree graduates, the whole ceremony took only [...]

I just bought a cap and gown, so I guess I will go to commencement after all.
Herff Jones apparently must make them from some ridiculously cheap fabric, since they say not to wash or dry clean them.  I presume they must use better fabrics for the rental ones so that they can at least be [...]