The Geniuses' Thread

06-05-2010 6:23pm

phlegms wrote: »

My problem with Ancient history is that its too hard to contextualise what information we have. Too much of it is left to guess work and it entirely depends on our interpretation of what little facts we have. Its kinda the same reason why I always hated dinosaurs and shíte like that. Because essentially our knowledge of dinosaurs is pretty much just a really detailed artists impression :pac:

Hopefully I can graduate with a decent enough grade at the end of my degree so I can do some sort of post-grad or masters. That would be absolutely lovely. Would love to lecture in it one day.

To be honest, our picture of dinosaurs is pretty accurate thanks to scientific methods. From a historian's point of view, it's hard to say much about their behaviour and interactions though... we know a lot about the individual types of dinosaurs, just not a lot about how they interacted with each other.

phlegms · 06-05-2010 6:57pm

Deleted User wrote: »

To be honest, our picture of dinosaurs is pretty accurate thanks to scientific methods. From a historian's point of view, it's hard to say much about their behaviour and interactions though... we know a lot about the individual types of dinosaurs, just not a lot about how they interacted with each other.

Not buying it.

Insect Overlord · 06-05-2010 7:45pm

Arcade Panda wrote: »

Dinosaurs rock!

Fossil :pac:

Arcade Panda · 06-05-2010 7:53pm

Insect Overlord wrote: »

Fossil :pac:

I wasn't sure if anyone would get it:D

phlegms · 06-05-2010 11:29pm

07-05-2010 4:10pm

phlegms wrote: »

Not buying it.

Not buying what? Scientific fact doesn't really need to be bought into :pac: We do pretty much know what most dinosaurs looked like. We have the shape and general muscle structure in any case. The rest is just speculation.

sock puppet · 07-05-2010 4:23pm

Deleted User wrote: »

Not buying what? Scientific fact doesn't really need to be bought into :pac: We do pretty much know what most dinosaurs looked like. We have the shape and general muscle structure in any case. The rest is just speculation.

Sure we do. Like anybody actually believes in dinosaurs.

phlegms · 07-05-2010 5:16pm

Deleted User wrote: »

The rest is just speculation.

Nuff said.

Also, I'm creationist.

Pygmalion · 07-05-2010 5:18pm

phlegms wrote: »

Nuff said.

Also, I'm creationist.

Just to save the time:

Pygmalion wrote:

ohyouiztrolling.jpg

phlegms wrote:

iamnottrolling.jpg

Aoibheann wrote:

Oh hey guys, what's up?

D4RK ONION · 07-05-2010 5:36pm

Post of the day

Aoibheann · 07-05-2010 6:01pm

Pygmalion wrote: »

Just to save the time:

Oh hey guys, what's up?

>_>

Also, does anyone else think that analysis is such pretty maths?

KnifeWRENCH · 07-05-2010 6:05pm

Aoibheann wrote: »

Also, does anyone else think that analysis is such pretty maths?

Not particularly. 2nd year analysis was fine but 3rd year analysis is an exam I'm not looking forward too. Like I can read proofs and understand them and know what's going on, but in an exam situation my brain just stops working and I can't remember anything beyond "Let ε > 0".

Which reminds me of a brilliant maths joke:
How do you confuse a maths student?

tell them "Let ε < 0"

Jay P · 08-05-2010 12:29am

KnifeWRENCH wrote: »

Not particularly. 2nd year analysis was fine but 3rd year analysis is an exam I'm not looking forward too. Like I can read proofs and understand them and know what's going on, but in an exam situation my brain just stops working and I can't remember anything beyond "Let ε > 0".

Which reminds me of a brilliant maths joke:
How do you confuse a maths student?
tell them "Let ε < 0"

There's a shorter version of that joke. It's rather aptly titled The Shortest Maths Joke in the World. It just says "Let ε < 0".

LOL!

Jay P · 31-05-2010 1:59am

Several physicists are playing hide and seek. Einstein is counting up to 100 with his eyes closed.
At 100, he turns around and finds Newton sitting in a 1m by 1m chalked square.
“Newton, I've found you!”
Newton says, “No you haven't, you've found 1 Newton per suqare metre, you've found Pascal!”

Richard Cranium · 07-06-2010 11:17pm

I've just had a look at Project Euler for the first time out of curiosity (and was mildly surprised to learn that it is not in fact a formal olympiad-style competition). I'd like to have a go at a couple of the problems for the craic, but the closest I've ever come to programming has been a module in Mathematica during 1st year.

I know a couple of people here have been at it for a while, so I was wondering how you actually go about it. What programming language(s?) do you use, and how would a n00b such as myself go about teaching myself one?

Pygmalion · 07-06-2010 11:23pm

Richard Cranium wrote: »

I know a couple of people here have been at it for a while, so I was wondering how you actually go about it. What programming language(s?) do you use, and how would a n00b such as myself go about teaching myself one?

I use Python for Project Euler because it's easy, I can't really give any good tutorials or anything for it since I learned it AFTER learning other programming languages, which makes it a whole different (easier) ball game.

Jay P · 07-06-2010 11:30pm

Funnily enough, I was thinking about learning a programming language over the summer, and this was the very place I was going to ask for a reccommendation on what to learn.

So Pygmalion, you're pretty much our in-house computer expert. Ideas on a suitable language to start on? Would Python be it?

Richard Cranium · 07-06-2010 11:35pm

Jay P wrote: »

Funnily enough, I was thinking about learning a programming language over the summer, and this was the very place I was going to ask for a reccommendation on what to learn.

So Pygmalion, you're pretty much our in-house computer expert. Ideas on a suitable language to start on? Would Python be it?

Actually, feck Euler. This is exactly what I wanted to ask.:pac:

I was told by a friend who has been programming for a long time that it would be worth my while making a start on C++ over the summer. I've got an introductory module in it next year and it will apparently be the worst thing about the entire year. Regardless, I'd like to make a start on some sort of programming just out of curiosity.

Pygmalion · 07-06-2010 11:41pm

Jay P wrote: »

Funnily enough, I was thinking about learning a programming language over the summer, and this was the very place I was going to ask for a reccommendation on what to learn.

So Pygmalion, you're pretty much our in-house computer expert. Ideas on a suitable language to start on? Would Python be it?

Maybe, I had C++ as my first "real" language, had messed with web stuff before though.

Python is far easier but depends, if you're looking to get into developing large, proper applications I'd recommend C or C++, since most apps and libraries you'll come across (especially on Linux) will be in C, and won't always be that easy/possible to work with in other languages.
Also I actually like these.

If you're looking towards small programs or just an easy language to mess around with python is great.
There's a reason I was doing Project Euler in Python and not C/C++ :P

Richard Cranium · 07-06-2010 11:46pm

I'm not quite sure if this question makes sense, but what do you actually use to programme in (say) C++. Do you have to download/install something no matter what you are doing? I've heard people talk about compilers and the like. Should I get myself one of them?

Jay P · 07-06-2010 11:53pm

Richard Cranium wrote: »

Actually, feck Euler. This is exactly what I wanted to ask.:pac:

I was told by a friend who has been programming for a long time that it would be worth my while making a start on C++ over the summer. I've got an introductory module in it next year and it will apparently be the worst thing about the entire year. Regardless, I'd like to make a start on some sort of programming just out of curiosity.

Apparently it's not quite as bad as Linear II

Pygmalion wrote: »

Maybe, I had C++ as my first "real" language, had messed with web stuff before though.

Python is far easier but depends, if you're looking to get into developing large, proper applications I'd recommend C or C++, since most apps and libraries you'll come across (especially on Linux) will be in C, and won't always be that easy/possible to work with in other languages.
Also I actually like these.

If you're looking towards small programs or just an easy language to mess around with python is great.
There's a reason I was doing Project Euler in Python and not C/C++ :P

I shall proceed with C++ so! As Richard said, we have a C++ module next year, so it'd be helpful to learn some of that. Also, I'm not even sure what I'd like to be programming, so I might as well use a fairly universal language.

Any idea on a program, preferably one that's free, that I could use?

Pygmalion · 08-06-2010 12:12am

Richard Cranium wrote: »

I'm not quite sure if this question makes sense, but what do you actually use to programme in (say) C++. Do you have to download/install something no matter what you are doing? I've heard people talk about compilers and the like. Should I get myself one of them?

Jay P wrote: »

Any idea on a program, preferably one that's free, that I could use?

You need a compiler indeed.

I just use GCC, but I'm on Linux, so that pretty much comes with every distro and/or is in the package manager.
On Windows I think there's the Visual C++ and also the free Dev-C++, both of which are actually editors/dev-environments, but they come with the compilers needed (the latter uses GCC, former uses Microsoft's own, never used the former)

Richard Cranium · 08-06-2010 12:15am

Apart from "You need a compiler indeed," that all went over my head:o

*goes off to Google the shít out of everything Pygmalion just said*

Jay P · 08-06-2010 12:16am

Pygmalion wrote: »

You need a compiler indeed.

I just use GCC, but I'm on Linux, so that pretty much comes with every distro and/or is in the package manager.
On Windows I think there's the Visual C++ and also the free Dev-C++, both of which are actually editors/dev-environments, but they come with the compilers needed (the latter uses GCC, former uses Microsoft's own, never used the former)

I'll steer clear of Visual I think. I got Visual C# last summer when I made a similar decision to start programming, but lost interest quickly. Removing Visual then became a serious pain. There were loads of little bits and pieces to be uninstalled.
And I think Dev-C++ is the one we'll be using in September... I could be wrong about that, but it sounds kind of familiar.

Cheers for all that!

08-06-2010 12:57am

Jay P wrote: »

I'll steer clear of Visual I think. I got Visual C# last summer when I made a similar decision to start programming, but lost interest quickly. Removing Visual then became a serious pain. There were loads of little bits and pieces to be uninstalled.
And I think Dev-C++ is the one we'll be using in September... I could be wrong about that, but it sounds kind of familiar.

Cheers for all that!

If you want one similar to GCC, and not a big program like the two Pyg mentioned, there's MinGW but it can be annoying to get set up, so you're probably just as well with the others.

Shudders at Visual Studio and using non-standard libraries by default on top of not providing other files included in most compilers. Grr.

Pygmalion · 08-06-2010 1:02am

Deleted User wrote: »

If you want one similar to GCC, and not a big program like the two Pyg mentioned, there's MinGW but it can be annoying to get set up, so you're probably just as well with the others.

Yeah MinGW is what comes with Dev-C++, I assumed it was a port of GCC to Windows.

Maybe not, apart from in the very beginning I've never attempted programming in Windows tbh.

08-06-2010 1:09am

Pygmalion wrote: »

Yeah MinGW is what comes with Dev-C++, I assumed it was a port of GCC to Windows.

Maybe not, apart from in the very beginning I've never attempted programming in Windows tbh.

As far as I'm aware there are some differences, but it's described as a port on the Dev C++ site. The only full port is the one in Cygwin I think.
Unless things have changed. I gave up on it. All paths had to have no spaces, it had to be located in a top-level directory, the amount of conditions to get it working were enormous.

Jay P · 08-06-2010 1:16am

Either I don't understand how it works, or the thing just doesn't work, but Dev-C++ isn't working properly. I downloaded it, and opened the file, but it just opened a program, and my only options are to "Install Package" and "Reload Database". I can't type anything into it.

What am I doing wrong?

08-06-2010 1:25am

Jay P wrote: »

Either I don't understand how it works, or the thing just doesn't work, but Dev-C++ isn't working properly. I downloaded it, and opened the file, but it just opened a program, and my only options are to "Install Package" and "Reload Database". I can't type anything into it.

What am I doing wrong?

Did you make sure to get the download with MinGW? You might have just downloaded the source code for the program itself.

This is the download URL you should have: http://sourceforge.net/projects/dev-cpp/files/Binaries/Dev-C%2B%2B%204.9.9.2/devcpp-4.9.9.2_setup.exe/download

And if that's the one you got and it's going wrong, then I'm not sure what the problem is.

You could also try Code Blocks. http://www.codeblocks.org/
It should be just as good, if not better.

Pygmalion · 08-06-2010 1:43am

Deleted User wrote: »

You could also try Code Blocks. http://www.codeblocks.org/
It should be just as good, if not better.

I think I tried that, it had Tetris built in when I did.

It also appears to support gdb too. Dunno if that'd be a lot of effort to set up.
Also lol that everything except Visual Studio seems to rely entirely on *nix programs ported to Windows.

The Geniuses' Thread

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