Jamie123

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  1. Like
    Jamie123 got a reaction from NeuroTypical in Basic Math   
  2. Like
    Jamie123 got a reaction from zil2 in Basic Math   
  3. Like
    Jamie123 reacted to zil2 in Basic Math   
    Strangely enough, as a Latter-day Saint, this diagram makes perfect sense.
  4. Like
    Jamie123 got a reaction from mordorbund in Basic Math   
    I had high hopes for this video, but it doesn't really get to the nub of the problem: it only nitpicks (quite validly) at one of the intermediate steps, but proves the answer us numnuts arrived at by dumb luck happens to be correct.
    The major issue for me is that if i^i is 0.20787958 and also 0.000388203 (and a whole bunch of other numbers) then by the foundational axiom that if A=B and B=C then A=C we must conclude that 0.20787958=0.000388203, which is as wrong as saying that 1=-1, which was Presh Talwalkar's objection to our "numnut" approach.
    Now that always reminds me of...

    ...though no one pretends that the Trinity is anything but a mystery.
    The only solution I can think of is that "equality" in the statement x=i^i does not identify an equivalency, but a kind of "predicate" which applies not only to x but to other numbers as well. We use this sort of language in "big O" notation anyway for example:

    does not imply that f(x)=g(x). It is merely a statement about how fast the functions grow. (I've always thought big O notation was very sloppy, and I hardly ever use it.)
    We could define the answer as an infinite set

     
  5. Haha
    Jamie123 reacted to Carborendum in Basic Math   
    Where is @mordorbund when you need him?
    I didn't say the answer was really 5.
    I said the answer was really 5!
    I can't believe no one got that.
  6. Like
    Jamie123 reacted to mikbone in Basic Math   
  7. Like
    Jamie123 reacted to Vort in Basic Math   
  8. Haha
    Jamie123 reacted to zil2 in Basic Math   
    This is clearly a sin.  Jesus commanded that our i be single.
  9. Okay
    Jamie123 got a reaction from NeuroTypical in The Hobby Thread   
    I am very interested in philosophy, though I'm not as involved with it anything like enough to call it a "hobby". When my daughter was little I used to talk about it with her. Sometimes I would read to her from Plato's Republic to see what she made of it. As she got older though, she started studying philosophy as a subject at school, and our conversations became something like this:
    Me: So you've been learning about Kant? Didn't he believe in dualism?
    Daughter: No, that was Descartes.
    Me: Kant believed in dualism too. The noumenal world and the phenomenal world?
    Wife: If you're going to disagree with her, why ask her in the first place?
    Me: I'm sorry, I may not know much about Kant, but I do know for a fact that Kantian dualism is a thing. I have read about it.
    Wife: Why do you have to argue all the time?
    Me: We're not arguing, we're having a conversation.
  10. Like
    Jamie123 got a reaction from NeuroTypical in Basic Math   
    Was it Snagglepuss who used to say "ridicalicalicalous"? I cannot find a single YouTube video of him saying it. (Plenty of him saying "Heavens to Murgatroyd".)
    I would love to be able to do a Snagglepuss voice, but it never comes out right.
  11. Like
    Jamie123 got a reaction from NeuroTypical in Basic Math   
    There used to be a TV game show called "Are You Smarter than an Eight Year Old?" where adult contestants tried to answer questions that would typically be given to eight year old kids.
    In one episode the contestant was given something like 20-10×0. The answer he gave was wrong anyway, but the show host told him the true answer was zero because "anything multiplied by zero gives zero".
    The show producers were bombarded with complaints from mathematicians, who said the answer was 20 because the multiplication should be performed first.
    The producers consulted the question setter - a teacher of eight- year-olds, who defended her answer by saying "eight-year-olds are taught to do their sums left to right" and the TV producers stuck to that.
    Which would have been fine if the show had been named "Do You Do Your Sums the Same Way as an Eight Year Old?"
  12. Haha
    Jamie123 got a reaction from zil2 in Basic Math   
    Was it Snagglepuss who used to say "ridicalicalicalous"? I cannot find a single YouTube video of him saying it. (Plenty of him saying "Heavens to Murgatroyd".)
    I would love to be able to do a Snagglepuss voice, but it never comes out right.
  13. Sad
    Jamie123 got a reaction from zil2 in The Hobby Thread   
    I am very interested in philosophy, though I'm not as involved with it anything like enough to call it a "hobby". When my daughter was little I used to talk about it with her. Sometimes I would read to her from Plato's Republic to see what she made of it. As she got older though, she started studying philosophy as a subject at school, and our conversations became something like this:
    Me: So you've been learning about Kant? Didn't he believe in dualism?
    Daughter: No, that was Descartes.
    Me: Kant believed in dualism too. The noumenal world and the phenomenal world?
    Wife: If you're going to disagree with her, why ask her in the first place?
    Me: I'm sorry, I may not know much about Kant, but I do know for a fact that Kantian dualism is a thing. I have read about it.
    Wife: Why do you have to argue all the time?
    Me: We're not arguing, we're having a conversation.
  14. Like
    Jamie123 got a reaction from zil2 in Post Office (again)   
    This is still going on with no sign of abating. The latest "thing" is that Justin Welby, the Archbishop of Canterbury, should resign because he supported Paula Vennells' application to become Bishop of London. (Paula Vennells, as well as being CEO of the Post Office, was also a part-time minister in the Church of England.)
    https://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-12967021/Calls-Archbishop-Canterbury-Justin-Welby-resign-links-disgraced-Post-Office-boss-Paula-Vennells-supported-Bishop-London-despite-Horizon-scandal.html
    It's an absolute media circus - not because anything has changed, but because someone made a TV drama about it. Not that I'm complaining - for years I've thought it deserved a lot more publicity than it was getting.
  15. Like
    Jamie123 reacted to askandanswer in Strange Dream   
    This seems to have some similarities with 1 Nephi 8. It might be worth re-reading that chapter and then pondering on if/how it might aid in interpreting/understanding your dream. 
  16. Thanks
    Jamie123 reacted to zil2 in Strange Dream   
    Wow.  That was some dream.  And it really does sound like your brain trying to process and resolve what's going on in your life.  I'm sorry for all the trials you're having with your family.  I cannot imagine how painful it must be.  Jesus Christ is the answer, not Moloch (symbolic or otherwise).  I can't guess at the details of how Christ is the answer in this case, but stay true to him and let him guide you.  E-hugs, Jamie.
  17. Sad
    Jamie123 reacted to askandanswer in Post Office (again)   
    What a disaster! Its so sad that it takes years of work, high personal risk and lots of dollars to overcome injustice.
    Here in Australia. we're developing a good history of class actions being effectively used by large combinations of little people to successfully hold large and powerful organisations to account. The scary thing is that in the early/middle parts of last year, a number of politicians began talking about the evils of class actions and how there needed to be new legislation controlling/limiting the conditions under which a class action could be run. I haven't heard much more since then, but I find it worrying that politicians who are supposed to be the people's representatives have been talking about finding ways to limit one of the very few means that people have to have their voices effectively heard and to lessen the power imbalance. 
  18. Like
    Jamie123 got a reaction from askandanswer in Fujitsu, Horizon and the Post Office   
    Like I say, we don't know that it's true, but I can well imagine a narrative in which it might be true.
    The Post Office puts out its invitation to tender, and several companies, including Fujitsu UK, decide to respond
    Now there's a very high-up and ultra-ambitious "suit" in Fujitsu UK who I'll call Mr. Big Suit. (Maybe its a Ms. Big Suit, but I've a gut feeling it was a Mr.) Mr. Big Suit got promoted to where he is not by being particularly clever or competent (which he isn't) but because of a ruthless determination to get things done. He's a "mover and a shaker", and as such has often come in useful to his superiors.
    Mr. Big Suit is determined to get the contact, and he will get the contact whatever it takes! 
    He knows that with a brand name like Fujitsu behind him, he doesn't have to prove he can deliver the goods. But he does need to undercut the competition. So he instructs his underlings - his department heads - (with a variety of threats and promises) to quote the lowest price possible for each aspect of the project. He tells them that the quote needs to be low, and if he loses this contract because it's too high, he will not be pleased. At all. 
    So Mr. Big Suit's underlings give him what he wants and Fujitsu wins the contract. They now need to deliver. They soon find that with the budget they have for this project, they can't afford to employ their best developers on it. So they put together a rag-tag team of assorted people whose salaries they can afford to pay. This rag-tag team does its best, and after a year or so has created a sort-of system which sort-of does the job, and sort-of doesn't. Mr. Big Suit now fears he's heading for a train wreck, so to cut his losses he finally does send in some of his top developers.
    The top developers take one look at what the rag-tag team have created and throw up their hands in dismay. "This needs to be rewritten from scratch" they say.
    "We haven't the time nor the money for that," says Mr. Big Suit. "What do you think I pay you for? Make it work. Or else!"
    So the top developers do their best, but the deadline is looming and new bugs are still popping up like weeds. Their complaints to Mr. Big Suit fall on deaf ears. He has a deadline to meet, and if he doesn't meet it then some Mr. Even Bigger Suit at Head Office will have his hide.
    So the top developers battle on. The discovery of bugs slows down, but as the clock strikes twelve no one really believes that they have all been found, but...
    "Hey, we don't know that there are any more bugs. Maybe the one we found and corrected earlier this morning was the last!"
    The system is delivered on time. Mr. Big Suit gets his bonus. Phew.
    Then the problems start.
    Postmasters across the country are reporting accounting errors. Fujitsu is consulted.
    The news comes to Mr. Big Suit as he sits on the shaded balcony of his office overlooking an ornamental garden. For some months he's experienced a deeply-suppressed dread of this moment, and now it's finally come. But what can he do? Admit that he's made a complete dog's dinner of the entire project? What will that do for the Fujitsu brand name? Share prices will plummet! Thousands of jobs will be put at risk! It will be ALL his fault, and Mr. Even Bigger Suit will skin him alive!
    He puts down his Martini (which no longer tastes so good) and thinks hard.
    "Well, I did employ my best people," he says. "Only at the end mind you, but there's no need to stress that too much. And what were they doing for those last six months? They were testing! They were looking for bugs!" (Mr. Big Suit isn't exactly sure what a "bug" is, though he has vague a mental image of a beetle crawling around inside a computer chip, eating bits of wire here and there.) "That's what I'll tell them!"
    Presently Mr. Big Suit (Fujitsu) sends his reply to Mr. Big Suit (Post Office). "Horizon has been subjected to six months of intensive testing by Fujitsu's top engineers, and we are confident in the product we have supplied." The first statement is 100% true, and the second is only a white lie. After all, who knows if the problems the Post Office is having are any fault of Fujitsu? Perhaps people aren't using it correctly. Perhaps...oh, perhaps anything! We really don't know. Let's play another game of golf and try not to think about it too much.
    Meanwhile Mr. Big Suit (Post Office) is at a total loss. The figures are right in front of him in black and white. Money has gone missing. Fujitsu has assured him that they are not to blame. And they are Fujitsu after all. If its anything to do with computers they should know!
    So what else could be the explanation? The famous words of Sherlock Holmes drift across his mind...
    "Once you have eliminated the impossible, whatever remains, however unlikely, must be the truth!"
    The rest is history.
  19. Surprised
    Jamie123 got a reaction from askandanswer in Fujitsu, Horizon and the Post Office   
    (I just posted this as a round-robin e-mail at work, but some of you guys may be interested too)
    This article is actually over a month old, but I only read it yesterday after web-searching about this week’s news of the Post Office/Fujitsu/Horizon appeals.
    https://www.computerweekly.com/news/252496560/Fujitsu-bosses-knew-about-Post-Office-Horizon-IT-flaws-says-insider
    (Just in case you’re unfamiliar with the story, about 20 years ago Fujitsu was commissioned to develop an IT system for the British Post Office. This was called “Horizon”. Shortly after it was installed, money started disappearing from branch accounts. Fujitsu insisted there was nothing wrong with their system, so the Post Office concluded that its own employees were stealing. Almost 1,000 were sacked, made bankrupt by repaying the money, or even sent to prison. Now it turns out the system was full of bugs, convictions are being overturned, and the Post Office is asking for a government bail-out to pay all the compensation that’s going to be claimed. Furthermore, Fujitsu executives who testified of the infallibility of their system are now likely to be prosecuted for perjury.) 
    The “insider information” in this article could be the disgruntled ramblings of an angry ex-employee, so hopefully the government inquiry will get to the real truth of the matter. Nevertheless, I think there are some important lessons here that we should pass on to students:
    The importance of formal methods in the high-level planning of a project, particularly a large project involving a large number of coders. Each developer should know exactly what his/her component of the system should do, and what it should not be allowed to do. The importance of robust testing. Make sure each component of a system works correctly in isolation before connecting it to other components written by other developers. (This is what I was taught as a 1st year undergraduate learning Pascal. We always had to show evidence that each sub-program we wrote had been tested individually.) The importance of continued vigilance. Even with the best formal methods and the best testing, there WILL still be bugs. It is NOT more likely that 900 previously honest postal employees suddenly turned criminal, than that there may be a bug in a system someone has told you is infallible. (And this applies even if that "someone" represents a big-brand name like Fujitsu.) Happy Easter.
  20. Like
    Jamie123 got a reaction from zil2 in Come, Follow Me: Book of Mormon 2024 (January)   
    Yes Zil that sounds good. There is a lot in the Book of Bormon, and my head is still spinning with a lot of it. It would be good to go back to the beginning again.
  21. Like
    Jamie123 reacted to zil2 in Come, Follow Me: Book of Mormon 2024 (January)   
    What do you think, everyone?  Should we repeat the Book of Mormon group reading and discussion, but at a slower pace, following the Come, Follow Me schedule?  Participation would be easier this year, since everyone is reading it for Sunday School (right?  you're reading it?  yes?).   @Jamie123 could be a Book of Mormon pro by the end of the year! His neighbors will be wondering what that strange flag is that he's flying...

     
    (Just teasing, Jamie. No harm meant.)
  22. Like
    Jamie123 got a reaction from zil2 in Post Office (again)   
    I've been aware of this for nearly 3 years now. My first post about it was here:
    Most people in the UK are only learning about it now, thanks to the fact that they made a TV drama about it. Some people are telling me they were in tears watching it.
    It's caused such outrage that the government is now promising to overturn all remaining convictions en masse. (And remember the judicial branch of government are supposed to be independent of the executive branch - we have that in common with the US.) I often think the media has far too much power, but its refreshing to see that power used to champion the underdog for a change.
  23. Haha
  24. Like
    Jamie123 reacted to laronius in Book of Mormon Reading Group: 11 Dec - 17 Dec 2023 (3 Nephi 14 - 4 Nephi 1)   
    One of the guys on YouTube that posts about the last days hypothesized that he will be one of the two prophets to be killed in Jerusalem after holding back the armies in Armageddon. That would seem to meet the criteria. He thought maybe Elijah was the other but was less convincing on that one.
  25. Like
    Jamie123 got a reaction from zil2 in Book of Mormon Reading Group: 25 Dec - 31 Dec 2023 (Ether 8 - Moroni 10)   
    Sorry I've not responded for a while. I mainly wanted to thank everyone who took part in this, especially @zil2 for organizing the schedule. Here are a few general comments - I will no doubt think of more in the days to come:
    Firstly, everyone in the Book of Mormon (with the one exception of the Jaredites, who are not part of the main narrative) is ethnically Jewish. The Gentiles are mentioned often, but no one beyond Nephi's generation would ever have met an actual Gentile. Contrast this with the New Testament, where there was a huge debate about whether followers of Christ needed to become Jews. This is a question we never think about these days, which gives some traction to the argument that the Book of Mormon was written for our current age.
    Secondly, I mentioned before that the Book of Mormon has nothing like the violence of the Old Testament. Of course, I was referring to the portion of the book we had covered up to that point. When you consider the wars in which the Nephites and the Jaredites were exterminated, maybe that is not quite true. But I still think it lacks the sheer bloodyness of (particularly) the book of Joshua where God commands the Israelites to put entire cities to the sword - including children. 
    Thirdly (I daresay some people will want to scorch me for saying this) the Book of Ether links with the account of the Tower of Babel from Genesis. The early parts of Genesis are difficult to take literally in the light of what we now know about anthropology, geology and astronomy. (Though Ken Ham and the "Answers in Genesis" people would claim otherwise.) I have always regarded the Creation, the Fall, the Flood and the Tower of Babel as "myths" - not in the negative sense of being "untrue", but in the sense that they express genuine truths symbolically, and still being inspired by God. The Tower of Babel story is a "myth" to symbolise the way human languages have diverged - and to underline that this has happened in line with God's plan. But I don't necessarily see this as a problem. Perhaps the Jaredite nation did inherit the Babel myth from the same source as the Israelites' ancestors and take it with them to the New World. And if the Bible contains divinely inspired mythology, why not the Book of Mormon too?
    I will no doubt think of more things to add in the days to come. Thanks again to everyone who contributed to this exercise. It has been immensely illuminating for me, and I hope everyone else has gained from it too.