All entries for Wednesday 14 September 2005

Second Last

Okay, today I had decided to that I'd be happy and cheery at work, and until 2pm I was, truly. But after the same customers kept comming and changing notes into coins and then the same coins into notes, my mood changed. Why are people so stupid!
A smile was raised on my face when a boy (12) asked: "can I have pennies?" (No please btw)
I replied: "We don't 'do' pennies, I'm afraid."
"Where can I get pennies then?"
After a brief (but obvious look at my watch), "It's wednesday, go to a bank." I retorted.
Classic. (if a bit mean)

And! Why do people smell so much, I've got through an entire 300ml (standard size) can of air freshner in two days, this one guy, well who knows what he puts in his cigarettes, but I know that it makes me feel physically sick. Another, you could actually smell comming, awful.

Still it's my second-last day, so its not all bad.
A lot of the regulars smile and joke when they come back for more of what they wanted earlier, I wonder if they know that I think they're really sad. There are entire families here, they literally spend 7 days-a-week 'working' the machines, I guess if you want to see where tax-payers money goes, come here for a day.

: 14 Sep 2005 18:36 |  Tags: Work |  Comments (0) |  Close comments |  Report a problem

K750i

So I started playing with my new K750i phone yesterday and I have one thing to say: "It rocks!".
This phone is everything the T610 should have been, and wasn't. The menus are fast and responsive, everything is logically and neatly organised, as you expect from SE. The camera is a two-megapixel affair which seems to be quite reasonable, I've only had chance to take photos of landscapes so far, but the detail on those has been very good indeed. Java on this phone is awesome, its jBenchmark rating as the best SE phone on sale today is well deserved, I can't quite come to terms with how far mobile technology has come since the crappy T20 I used to have. The calendar finally supports recurring appointments, so I don't have to spend about an hour getting my timetable in. I havent really had a chance to look at the video aspects of this phone but I will do shortly, and I'll let you know, but if its as good as the rest of the it'll be awesome.

Still there are a few gripes, the new 'fastport' on the bottom still has the old SE issue of the angle of anything you plug into it, in that sometimes you'll have to pull it up/down to get it to connect.
The supplied headphones are amazingly naff, in truth though, I'm spoiled because I use top-of-the-line Sony headphones for everyday use, I've the W800 comes with similar style headphones (similar to the good ones) so I may get those as the supplied ones only real function is to provide an arial for the built-in FM radio.

I would recommend that you get a case for this phone, my T610 spent a summer in my pocket with a bunch of keys and some loose chnage, needless to say it got scratched no end.

All in all a very good phone with all the features that you wanted when camera phones first came out, and more you didn't!

: 14 Sep 2005 07:30 |  Tags: Mobile Phone |  Comments (3) |  Close comments |  Report a problem

And beyond…

I first read this book half-way through A-Level and understood, at most 25% of the concepts contained within, it was well worth the read though. Having read the book again after completeing my first year at university, I can now say I understand at least 80% of the maths in this book.
The book is not a techincal mathematics book, there are no theorems and associated proofs etc, instead it is a look at the history of some of the most familiar parts of mathematics. Its a very interesting read, as you get more of feel for the history of the bits of mathematics that you use everyday.
The book also paints us a picture of the mathematicians that steer the subject, they are no longer just a name in a theorem, did you know that Galois died in pistol duel over a lady?
From here to infinity covers both classical and modern areas of mathematics, it stresses that mathematical theorems can never be outdated and replaced like scientific theorems (they can be wrong however). Ian Stewart briefly dips into chaos, computability and fractals, just enough to see if you're interested.

I would advise that to get the most from this book you should have at least done some university level mathematics, after all to understand the concept of non-standard analysis, you need to understand standard analysis.

If your a first year, get this book, and read it now, then read again in a year, and impress yourself with how much you've leaned.

: 14 Sep 2005 07:09 |  Tags: Book History Mathematics Review |  Comments (0) |  Close comments |  Report a problem