1. There is no such thing as ground.
2. Digital circuits are made from analog parts.
3. Prototype designs always work.
4. Asserted timing conditions are designed first; unasserted timing conditions are found later.
5. When all but one wire in a group of wires switch, that one will switch also.
6. When all but one gate in a module switches, that one will switch also.
7. Every little picofarad has a nanohenry all its own.
8. Capacitors convert voltage glitches to current glitches (conservation of energy).
9. Interconnecting wires are probably transmission lines.
10. Synchronizing circuits may take forever to make a decision.
11. Worse-case tolerances never add — but when they do, they are found in the best customer’s machine.
12. Diagnostics are highly efficient in finding solved problems.
13. Processing systems are only partially tested since it is impractical to simulate all possible machine states.
14. Murphy’s Laws apply 95 percent of the time. The other 5 percent of the time is a coffee break.

Source: Computer Engineering: A DEC View of Hardware Systems Design, 1978, Digital Press, Chapter 1, “Seven Views of Computer Systems”, by C. Gorgon Bell, J. Craig Mudge, and John E. McNamara, Table 5

Later I found that it had succeeded in buffering the whole event. As soon as I dragged the time slider back to the beginning of the event, RealPlayer forgot that it had anything buffered, and started fetching it again from scratch.

Of course, if I could simply download the file that would solve the problem, but they’ve deliberately designed RealPlayer to make that extremely difficult. It’s defective by design.

The first person to invent a car that runs on water…

… may be sitting right in your classroom!”

Wiley’s web site has a PDF of the page.

Apparently Wiley has also put this in one of their calculus textbooks.

This seems right up there with the “energy makes it go” in a grade school book that Feynman complained about.  Don’t the editors of the textbook look at this stuff?  Or do the marketing people get to insert it after the editors are done?

Bleh.

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 will have arrived.  And by the time I spend that, even more will arrive…

However, since I do know some calculus, that scheme won’t work for me.  I guess I’ll just have to be a Zenophobe.

As my friend Richard pointed out, “A man’s got to know his Limits.”

If a student gets a 20 percent in a class for the first marking period, he or she would need a 100 percent during the second marking period just to squeak through the semester.  [...]  We want to create situations where students can recover and not give up. [...]  It’s not grade inflation.

In other words, instead of giving that hypothetical student with 20% and 100% scores for the two grading periods a cumulative grade of 60% (“D”), the student would get a cumulative grade of 75% (“C”).  How can this possibly be considered not to be grade inflation?  Effectively this devalues the grades of all students in the district; potential employers or college admissions personnel who are familiar with the policy would have to assume that a student given a “C” grade may have actually done substandard work.

Ms. Pugh’s demonstrated level of understanding of mathematics is such that she is not qualified to be an assistant manager in a fast food restaurant, much less an employee of a school district.

[Bensalem School District] Superintendent James Lombardo said he’s in favor of implementing the idea, partly as a fairness issue. He noted that a failing grade carries far more mathematical weight than any other grade if the “E” or “F” has a range of zero to 59 percent.

“I guess I laud the Pittsburgh district for recognizing some of the foibles of our numerical system,”

It is now a “foible” that school work scored below 50% is seriously substandard?

If it is a fairness issue, how is it fair that some “D” students will be given “C” grades instead?

Personally, I’m in favor of women’s suffrage.

The Albert Einstein action figure was the 19th most popular of Accoutrements‘ products in April.  Albert is more popular than the Pig Catapult, but not as popular as the Glow Finger Zombies.

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 four degrees.

8 students had a 4.00 GPA. 24 students had a GPA of 3.80 or higher, but lower than 4.00. 213 students had a GPA of 3.00 or higher, but lower than 3.80.

I tabulated the counts of specific degrees and combinations of degrees:

Total degrees awarded of each type:

• 227 A.A. General Studies
• 44 A.S. Biological Sciences
• 37 A.S. Vocational Nursing
• 35 A.S. Fire Science Technology
• 31 A.A. Business
• 27 A.A. Social Science
• 23 A.S. Accounting
• 17 A.S. Physical Science
• 11 A.S. Engineering
• 10 A.S. Food Services and Restaurant Management
• 9 A.S. Computer Networking/Electronics Technology
• 9 A.S. Early Childhood Education
• 8 A.A. Psychology
• 5 A.A. Art
• 4 A.A. Mathematics
• 3 A.S. Psychiatric Technician
• 4 A.S. Real Estate
• 2 A.A. Anthropology
• 2 A.S. Computer Information Systems
• 2 A.S. Design Drafting – Electro/Mechanical
• 1 A.A. Creative Arts
• 1 A.S. Global Marketing, Management and Business
• 1 A.S. Graphic Arts
• 1 A.S. Graphic Design
• 1 A.S. Management and Supervision
• 1 A.S. Marketing
• 1 A.S. Office Administration
• 1 A.A. Sociology

83 double degrees:

• 13 A.A. General Studies/A.S. Vocational Nursing
• 10 A.A. General Studies/A.S. Accounting
• 10 A.A. General Studies/A.A. Business
• 9 A.A. General Studies/A.S. Biological Sciences
• 8 A.A. General Studies/A.S. Fire Science Technology
• 6 A.A. General Studies/A.S. Physical Science
• 4 A.A. General Studies/A.A. Social Science
• 3 A.A. General Studies/A.S. Engineering
• 3 A.A. General Studies/A.S Food Services and Restaurant Management
• 2 A.A. General Studies/A.S. Early Childhood Education
• 2 A.A. General Studies/A.A. Psychology
• 2 A.S. Biological Sciences/A.S. Vocational Nursing
• 2 A.S. Psychiatric Technician/A.S. Social Science
• 1 A.A. General Studies/A.A. Anthropology
• 1 A.A. General Studies/A.A. Art
• 1 A.A. General Studies/A.S. Computer Information Systems
• 1 A.A. General Studies/A.S. Design Drafting – Electro/Mechanical
• 1 A.A. General Studies/A.S. Real Estate
• 1 A.A. General Studies/A.A. Sociology
• 1 A.S. Biological Sciences/A.S. Physical Sciences
• 1 A.S. Accounting/A.A. Business
• 1 A.S. Engineering/A.S. Physical Science

17 triple Degress:

• 7 A.A. General Studies/A.S. Biological Sciences/A.S. Vocational Nursing
• 3 A,A General Studies/A.S. Engineering/A.S. Physical Science
• 3 A.A. General Studies/A.S. Social Science/A.S. Vocational Nursing
• 2 A.S. Biological Sciences/A.S. Social Sciences/A.S. Vocational Nursing
• 1 A.A. General Studies/A.S. Biological Sciences/A.S. Psychiatric Technician
• 1 A.A. General Studies/A.S. Computer Networking/Electronics Technology/A.S. Early Childhood Education

2 quadruple degrees:

• 2 A.A. General Studies/A.S. Biological Sciences/A.A. Social Science/A.S. Vocational Nursing

It would have been nice if my mother and sisters could have been here today, but I know it wasn’t practical for them to fly out.

What was handed out on stage wasn’t actually a diploma; that will arrive by mail in four to six months.  I’ll be happy when the degree is reflected on my transcript, which should occur in a few weeks.

Mathematics is apparently not a very popular degree program; there were only three other students graduating with an A.A. Mathematics degree.

A surprising number of students earned multiple Associate’s degrees; some earned three degrees and two students earned four degrees!  I think I could have gotten an A.A. General Studies in addition to the A.A. Mathematics, had I really wanted one.