renton

Be careful XBL, remember what happened when we tweaked 'The Master's' tail about starting a PHd.....

I have the Ennio Morricone soundtrack to 'The Thing' stuck in my head.

I would largely concur, with repsect to iain M. Banks, you are better starting with Player of Games - it's a good introduction to his main universe, although I enjoyed the Algebraist as well. Philip K. Dick is indeed the absolute master, probably my favourite author of all time. Start either with Do Androids dream of electric sheep (became Blade Runner), or the man in the high castle which is generally felt to be the defining counter factual history story in science fiction. Either way, make sure you read A scanner darkly, an incredibly affecting, dark story. In addition to PF's list as well, I'd recommend: Solaris by stanislaw Lem. Forget the shit Clooney movie adaption, this is a very intelligent, thought provoking tale of first contact between two uncomprehending species, the sense of mystery, doubt, misery and hope combines to make a brilliant first person account. this is Lem's best riff on his own unique, and sceptical analysis of first contact between human and extra terrestrial life. The Forever War by Joe Haldeman. This is the coutner argument to Heinlein's pro military, almost fascist Starship Troopers novel. This book was written by Haldeman and base don his Vietnam experience. Combines the author's own front line experience with realistic physics that depicts a war between humanity and an alien race. Becuase the war is fought at near light speed velocities, time dilation causes the centrla character to become increasingly isolated from the world that he is fighting for, whiel he ages merely ten years, centuries pass on earth. Fantastic story. Ringworld by Larry Niven, the central premise of the expedition to a strange artificial structure is simple enough, and became the inspiration for the worlds seen in Halo. However, it's a very easy read, the characters are all well drawn and the depiction of the alien species seen in the story are all well thought out. It's also part of a much larger 'shared universe'. one more piece of advice - avoid at all costs any novels that are tie ins to tv series, particularly Star trek. these are derivitive shite with zero imagination.

For the first couple of years of my PhD, I did tutorials as well. Obviously, my stuff was pretty much maths based being in Electronics, but I did try to pepper the solutions with the wider applications of the theory, to try and let the kids see the circuits beign discussed in a wider view. For the first couple of terms that worked, while I had the robotics guys who tended to be extras from Big Bang theory. This all came to a halt when I got stuck with a bunch of tailenders of the class one year. The kind of poeple who can work through a problem mechanically but had absolutely no grasp of the actual theory itself, the kind of people who trained for questions and to pass exams and who tended to put knoweldge in little boxes, so that they couldn't see the link between one class and the next. Total nightmares in other words. On one Electromagnetics question they were asked to solve a lifting magnet problem. I finally gave up when these second year students, who apparently had made it through physics at high school and first year uni, took one look at the cross sectional drawing of the magnet and tried to solve the problem as if the magnet had three poles. At that point, my temper went.

In the first instance there was probably no clear answer, in the second you were dead wrong, and that's coming from a guy who actually knows how to do statistical analysis of failure rates. but anyway, semantics is procedural, mechanical, the kind of point of order style of debate that does not lend itself to actually trying to transmit an idea, epsecially in the informal ethos of this forum.

On one thread we spent the better part of two pages arguing over 'periodic' and 'sustained' in terms of historical movements. In another you decided to butcher statistical analysis in the face of three people telling you that you were wrong. In neither case was the argument advanced for either side. I grant you that accuracy and precision in any argument is essential, if you can't say what you mean then you can never mean what you say, and all that. But there is a limit. And I'd simply counter that by not breaking up a post you don't get sucked into that. As I said though, feel free to keep on doing it, it's a free country after all.

Nah, I just retain a healthy sense of uncertainty about the absolutes of any argument, makes it much harder to be a condesending dick about things.

One of the worst things about the fully broken up posts is the tendency for them to descend into minutae and semantics. Thus the particular phrasing of a single sentence can become a battleground that dominates two pages of posts while the number of angels on a pin head are counted and re-counted. Something you in particular are quite dogmatic about, and something I can never resist arguing back. The beauty of answering a whole post rather than bits is the retention of focus onto the ideas and even the details of the argument, rather than diversion into the absurd. Not that I mind, unlike XBL. I'm polite enough to answer any form of argument, just thoguht I'd put forth a counter.

Fahey's antics in the play offs inspired an apoplectic near meltdown on my part, the culmination of weeks of less than great play. Yoss,Renton in the run up to the play offs was memorable for his shiteness, his hilarious attempt at a kick out againt Brechin that gave a goal away, his two f**k ups against Berwick etc etc

In a purely biological sense, I suppose it is......

I have Larsen B by British Sea Power going through my head. I have a bad habit of not being able to get songs out of my head and this one has been doing the rounds since about ten this morning. I'm trying to get my thesis written up and all I can think about is that fucker's favourite foremost coastal antartic shelf.....

Regarding the Ross County game tomorrow, there are still three seats on the Fifes Finest bus for anyone looking to go. You can contact either Quinny through his P&B username: BIQFAEKDY or through fantlak where he posts as sonofwallace. Alternatively you can send me a PM and I'll pass on the details.

If you can stand being out of the centre in first year, Heriot Watt has a really good mechanical engineering school.

Just read that, two fucking hours after public transport stops running, the same public transport that carries the majority of students and staff in and out of the place. As you say, a bloody farce.

Heriot Watt is still open, Lothian buses decided to go off around 11.55 am, leaving a lot of people stranded, I managed to get a lift to sighthill and then hoofed it on foot to fountainbridge, the roads are pretty awful, seen a bit of red jumping. I wonder if Lothian buses had any communication with HW prior to shutting the services, as HW have sent no communications regarding what alternative arrangments may have to be put on in place, it's odd considering it's probably more disruptive now than what shut the campus for three days last week.....

If you only have two inches in your other hand then you will have to think of other ways of pleasing women.....

Not quite a tale of two cities is it. More half a city and a hovel in Angus.....

Well you see, unlike you code monkeys, we engineers don't like the idea of just anybody wandering about when we have £100,000s worth of equipment lying around. If it's still shut tomorrow, I'll risk it and see if I can get in - I've only got time limited access to certain software capabilities and really need to get on with measuring some results that I got. What's really fucking me off is the fact that I've done the hard part, the easy part should be straight forward but I'm stuck fighting the machine to get the correct analysis....

HW is out in the middle of nowhere, I believe the rationale was the risk of getting everyone in and out safely -snow was bloody thick out ther eyesterday. Bus is still running, and as a postgrad I have a keycard for getting into the building after hours, but that's no use if the internal doors are shut.

Heriot Watt Edinburgh campus completely shut down today. Slightly fucked off with that.

Easily the best of the big screen Star Trek franchise, it works reasonably well as a stand alone movie i.e. you don't ahve to be big into star trek to actually appreciate it. In many respects 1982 was a great year for science fiction: Not only did you have ST II: The wrath of Khan, but also Tron, ET*, The Thing and the greatest movie ever made, Blade Runner. *which I hate I watched a Bridge Too Far for the umpteenth time last night: I like it a lot, a good all star (for the time) cast, stunning cinematography - the amount of extras and surplus WW2 equipment really giving it the necessary sense of scale of the operation. The soundtrack really is epic and one of my favourite scores of the genre. They are really able to bring home much of the horror of combat. What I do dislike is the fact that it does not follow as a pure historical, and the very obvious pro Patton/US, anti Montgomery/British agenda leaves a sour taste afterwards (it's based on the Cornelius Ryan book of the same name who had a distaste for the British commander). Even allowing for that, it's a good 8/10.

I maintain that Kubrick ruined that story massively. Make sure and read the sequal 2010: Odessey two. There are obvious anachorisms in it (being written in the cold war) but is in many ways superior to the original.

I just can't believe that P&B was where he came for this once he'd exhausted his notes and textbooks. Never heard of wikipedia at the very least?

I have a vision of this wee baldy man in the main stand, flailing his arms, throwing a tantrum, screaming "I want a goal! I want a goal! Waaaahhhhh!".

Well, the manager of the month award curse should be at least partially offset by the fact he's not on the touchline