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  #26  
Old 10-20-2009, 06:01 AM
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Approve Re: The "This is what I've learned today." Thread

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Originally Posted by curses View Post
Today I learned that I'm better at algebra than I thought I was ;)

Oh and we discussed the rule of thirds and how to do basic photo composition.
I've been learning recently that some people think algebra is hard. Then again, my classes pretty much assume a working knowledge of basic calculus, and the profs toss about phrases such as, "... and then the rest is just algebra," or, "I won't bore you with the algebra here ...".

Anyway, today I learned about how to map the s-plane into the z-plane. Where s is a complex number of the form <sigma> + jOmega, where <sigma> is the real part, and Omega is the imaginary part. Yes, Fourier and z-transforms, for filter design.
If you have time. Can you elaborate?
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  #27  
Old 10-20-2009, 06:22 AM
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Default Re: The "This is what I've learned today." Thread

Reading a recent article by Elinor Ostrom (abstract). She's recent co-winner of the Nobel economics prize, and seems to have done some interesting work on the factors that encourage people to organise amongst themselves to sustainably use common resources. Interestingly she only identifies one governance-related factor as important in avoiding tragedies-of-the-commons, and it's to do with users being in control: "When users... have full autonomy at the collective-choice level to craft and enforce some of their own rules, they face lower transaction costs as well as lower costs in defending a resource against invasion by others."

In the examples given, "users" seems to refer to individuals or small groups in local communities, so in these cases defending resources would seem to include keeping businesses from outside the area from accessing the resources unless they conform to the locally-made rules. This would be backed up by the fact that such businesses don't share with locals various user attributes that Ostrom identifies as important, such as common ethical standards and attitudes on the importance of the resource. I'm sure I'm going way beyond what Ostrom might say, but the idea that if you get both government and corporations out of the way people are more likely to sort out their own resource issues in a sustainable way holds a lot of appeal.
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  #28  
Old 10-21-2009, 04:34 AM
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Default Re: The "This is what I've learned today." Thread

I don't have much time, Ohm, but the wiki on the Z-transform is pretty thorough and does a good job of explaining it. It also discusses its relation to the Laplace and Fourier transforms. These are all useful tools for solving certain types of problems.

At the heart of such things, is a very important concept known as convolution. The animations there speak volumes to explain the mathematics behind it. They show some relatively simple cases, but I think it's enough to get the general idea of the concept. Once you have this idea down, it's easier to move on to the transforms. As the first link I posted mentions, they deal with seeing how functions in the time domain react in the frequency domain, and vice-versa. Convolution is a messy process. Not terribly difficult (necessarily), but tedious. Using transforms allows one to use easier operators, such as straight multiplication, rather than convolution.
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  #29  
Old 10-21-2009, 05:54 PM
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Default Re: The "This is what I've learned today." Thread

Today I learned about primates in the oligicene, that even millions of years ago,there were some primates that were like modern prosimians and other primates that were like modern antrhopoids.


I also leaned that primates came to south america from africe, and rats too.
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  #30  
Old 10-21-2009, 05:55 PM
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Default Re: The "This is what I've learned today." Thread

Who told you that? Some sciencey-type, I bet.
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  #31  
Old 10-21-2009, 06:51 PM
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Default Re: The "This is what I've learned today." Thread

I hear Africe is beautiful this time of year.
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  #32  
Old 10-21-2009, 07:07 PM
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Default Re: The "This is what I've learned today." Thread

And those ant rhopoids are something else over there.
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  #33  
Old 11-05-2009, 03:26 AM
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Default Re: The "This is what I've learned today." Thread

Been teaching myself matrix algebra.
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  #34  
Old 11-05-2009, 03:32 AM
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Default Re: The "This is what I've learned today." Thread

Bleah. I hated linear algebra. It always gave me fits.

Today, we learned how to do convolutions of periodic signals. Very similar to the above process, but with a slight twist. Still not too difficult once you get the hang of it.
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  #35  
Old 11-05-2009, 04:29 AM
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Default Re: The "This is what I've learned today." Thread

Today I learned about conversational past participles in my German class. As one might imagine, this rocked my world. :8D
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  #36  
Old 11-10-2009, 04:39 AM
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Default Re: The "This is what I've learned today." Thread

This class (digital signal processing) has also provided some good real world stuff. The professor was good to relate concepts to say CD recordings, like why your audio CD is made up from 44,000 samples per second of whatever music you're listening to. Your CD player has to know that rate in order to accurately reproduce the music.

Very simply, you have to take the highest frequency used (for audio approximately 15 kHz), doubling it, and then adding some extra room to prevent any 'aliasing', which is the addition, or more accurately, some overlapping of the high frequency information.
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  #37  
Old 11-12-2009, 07:40 PM
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Default Re: The "This is what I've learned today." Thread

Yesterday, I learned nothing, it was a holiday, so no school.

Monday however I learned all about Flash buttons. I am having fun designing with Flash. A new creative tool for my tool box. :bliss:

Last edited by Plant Woman; 11-12-2009 at 08:16 PM.
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  #38  
Old 11-13-2009, 07:24 AM
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Default Re: The "This is what I've learned today." Thread

Today I learned what a serious low blood sugar looks like in a diabetic. Then I got to see the various ways (some ineffective) in which one can raise one's blood sugar.
I got to call 911 too.

Scared the shit out of me!
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  #39  
Old 11-13-2009, 06:04 PM
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Default Re: The "This is what I've learned today." Thread

I learned that English is a bastard language with many fathers. Bungalow, a word I've heard several times recently as I've been looking at real estate, is Hindi, meaning low thatched cottage, particularly in Bengal.
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  #40  
Old 11-13-2009, 06:52 PM
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Default Re: The "This is what I've learned today." Thread

We get a lot of our words from Hindi, including pajamas and shampoo. It makes me wonder what kind of naked, unwashed heathens we Euros were before the Indians schooled us.
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  #41  
Old 11-13-2009, 07:01 PM
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Default Re: The "This is what I've learned today." Thread

What are pajamas and shampoo?

I learned that Marianne Moore, the famous modernist poet, idolized Christy Mathewson as a young woman. This is significant in the battle for supremacy between baseball and gridiron football. No woman of quality ever loved a football player.
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  #42  
Old 11-17-2009, 11:12 PM
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Default Re: The "This is what I've learned today." Thread

I learned something today watching The Weakest Link.

Turns out the Channel Islands and the Isle of Man are not part of the UK or of the European Union :nowai:

They are Crown Dependencies.
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  #43  
Old 11-17-2009, 11:35 PM
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Default Re: The "This is what I've learned today." Thread

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Originally Posted by Ensign Steve View Post
We get a lot of our words from Hindi, including pajamas and shampoo. It makes me wonder what kind of naked, unwashed heathens we Euros were before the Indians schooled us.
Without Hindi we would be without a cot or cushion to rest upon, a dinghy to row, gunnysacks for thugs to haul their stolen tom-toms to the jungle, pundits wouldn't be pariahs or juggernauts, we couldn't lacquer our polo mallets, nor would we be able to have a toddy on the veranda just to name a few.
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  #44  
Old 11-17-2009, 11:38 PM
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Default Re: The "This is what I've learned today." Thread

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Originally Posted by Watser? View Post
I learned something today watching The Weakest Link.

Turns out the Channel Islands and the Isle of Man are not part of the UK or of the European Union :nowai:

They are Crown Dependencies.
I knew that :yup: I thought you were going to say that you learned that Ann Robinson is a plastic faced bitch, but I guess you knew that already.
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  #45  
Old 11-17-2009, 11:44 PM
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Default Re: The "This is what I've learned today." Thread

Well, duh :D
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  #46  
Old 11-18-2009, 01:35 PM
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Default Re: The "This is what I've learned today." Thread

Quote:
Originally Posted by Dingfod View Post
Quote:
Originally Posted by Ensign Steve View Post
We get a lot of our words from Hindi, including pajamas and shampoo. It makes me wonder what kind of naked, unwashed heathens we Euros were before the Indians schooled us.
Without Hindi we would be without a cot or cushion to rest upon, a dinghy to row, gunnysacks for thugs to haul their stolen tom-toms to the jungle, pundits wouldn't be pariahs or juggernauts, we couldn't lacquer our polo mallets, nor would we be able to have a toddy on the veranda just to name a few.
Heathens, I tell ya.
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  #47  
Old 11-19-2009, 02:09 PM
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Default Re: The "This is what I've learned today." Thread

The guitar riffs and solo in the Beastie Boys' No Sleep Till Brooklyn were played by Slayer guitarist Kerry King.

:carson:

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  #48  
Old 11-19-2009, 09:44 PM
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Default Re: The "This is what I've learned today." Thread

Offensive non-mutual collateral estoppel! :larrybounce:
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  #49  
Old 11-19-2009, 09:50 PM
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Default Re: The "This is what I've learned today." Thread

Oh shit, he's got Law Student Tourette's.
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  #50  
Old 11-20-2009, 04:37 PM
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Default Re: The "This is what I've learned today." Thread

I learned I need to go on a roadtrip during my break. :eager:

The website is lame but the place looks fantastic!
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