meadowblythe Posted September 17, 2016 Share Posted September 17, 2016 I would love to study mathematical history in depth. My children became quite adept at the years at spotting days out that involved indulging this particular eccentricity. I have, however, possibly outfoxed them by mentioning a holiday in Spain next year. They think I am offering beaches and sun, I am actually plotting a trip to the Alhambra Palace. Oh, and as this is fantasy, I would like an ivory tower to study in! 6 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Ellie Posted September 17, 2016 Author Share Posted September 17, 2016 I would love to study mathematical history in depth. My children became quite adept at the years at spotting days out that involved indulging this particular eccentricity. I have, however, possibly outfoxed them by mentioning a holiday in Spain next year. They think I am offering beaches and sun, I am actually plotting a trip to the Alhambra Palace. Oh, and as this is fantasy, I would like an ivory tower to study in! I have always been awful at maths, and mathematical history sounds like something that would give me nightmares...However (as a lover of history, but non mathematical ) I'd love to visit the Alhambra Palace. Sorry for my ignorance, but is there a particular link between the Palace and...maths ? Good luck for the ivory tower .x 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Fiz Posted September 17, 2016 Share Posted September 17, 2016 Ditto, Ellie. I was the first person at my grammar school not to do O level maths or even CSE. I will always be grateful to my maths master who supported me in petitioning my head mistress to drop it. I truly found it tortuous. 2 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
MAB Posted September 17, 2016 Share Posted September 17, 2016 I totally recommend a visit to the Alhambra, it does need a bit of planning though as entry is strictly timed and booking in advance is essential, however you can spend as much time as you want in the beautiful gardens. 2 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Lisa O`Brien Posted September 17, 2016 Share Posted September 17, 2016 I'd quite like to become the Chief Executive at Cadbury's - I'd get to work reversing all the rotten changes they've made over the last few years, and start making PROPER chocolate again. My Aunty Rita, my late mum's only sister, worked at Cadbury's all her life. She's been retired over 20 years now. Started off on the production line; where for the first two weeks you are [or were then] allowed to each as much chocolate as you want, the idea being that after said fortnight of stuffing your face gratis you are so sick of the sight of it that you rarely, if ever, touch it again. Anyway she worked her way up to be head Statistician. I was one of only a handful of people in the country who had access to Creme Eggs [when they were still nice] all year round. They MAKE them all year round, then store them in a vast warehouse in anticipation for Easter. Because they are no longer available all the time like they used to be years ago, Cadbury make more money out of that Easter period with their Creme Eggs than when they were on sale all the time. People go mad for them because they know their time on sale is limited. Rita told me they make a fortune in those few weeks in the lead up to Easter, simply because they are not accessible all year. Very clever. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Ellie Posted September 17, 2016 Author Share Posted September 17, 2016 My Aunty Rita, my late mum's only sister, worked at Cadbury's all her life. She's been retired over 20 years now. Started off on the production line; where for the first two weeks you are [or were then] allowed to each as much chocolate as you want, the idea being that after said fortnight of stuffing your face gratis you are so sick of the sight of it that you rarely, if ever, touch it again. Anyway she worked her way up to be head Statistician. I was one of only a handful of people in the country who had access to Creme Eggs [when they were still nice] all year round. They MAKE them all year round, then store them in a vast warehouse in anticipation for Easter. Because they are no longer available all the time like they used to be years ago, Cadbury make more money out of that Easter period with their Creme Eggs than when they were on sale all the time. People go mad for them because they know their time on sale is limited. Rita told me they make a fortune in those few weeks in the lead up to Easter, simply because they are not accessible all year. Very clever. I used to love Cadburys Creme Eggs , but as has been acknowledged they are not quite what they used to be :/ I also used to work with a former employee of Nestle who informed me that they (many years ago) used to place bets on who could spit most accurately on the chocolate before it was wrapped....I'm sure that health and safety is much tighter nowadays... Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
meadowblythe Posted September 18, 2016 Share Posted September 18, 2016 Not trying to induce trauma in anyone, but this ... http://www.ugr.es/~fmartin/dvi/Alhambra1.pdf I am not the worlds greatest mathematician, but I find the history side fascinating. If map making hadn't developed in Tudor times at the same time that education was becoming more widely available, and printing, especially in English rather than Latin, gaining accessibility, the world may be so different ... The social history of Turing is another particular interest. Such a brilliant man who could have done so much to further the development of Artificial Intelligence, such a sad ending. 4 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
taxi4ballet Posted September 19, 2016 Share Posted September 19, 2016 I would love to study mathematical history in depth. My children became quite adept at the years at spotting days out that involved indulging this particular eccentricity. I have, however, possibly outfoxed them by mentioning a holiday in Spain next year. They think I am offering beaches and sun, I am actually plotting a trip to the Alhambra Palace. Oh, and as this is fantasy, I would like an ivory tower to study in! Have you been to Bletchley Park? 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
meadowblythe Posted September 19, 2016 Share Posted September 19, 2016 My old computer is in Bletchley Park! I used to work for Sun Microsystems (now part of Oracle) as the European Beta Test Co-Ordinator, and had one of the first RISC chip computers on my desk. In fact, first of its design off the Scottish production line. This is 20+ years ago. Actually saw it there, and was horrified to feel my previous equipment was now a museum piece - I could tell it was mine by the login prompt .. 6 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Jan McNulty Posted September 19, 2016 Share Posted September 19, 2016 Not that it ended up in a museum but when I joined our IT team we were still pretty dinosaur and used punch cards. We ended up having one machine that was still workable. I was carrying it down the corridor one day and an ICL engineer attending a call out saw me. He burst into hysterical laughter and told me he hadn't seen one of those machines in use for over 20 years!!! 2 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
meadowblythe Posted September 19, 2016 Share Posted September 19, 2016 I have long held the opinion that punch cards will make a return as the ultimate one-time use encryption system. All things seem circular. Also horribly aware that I am reducing this thread to a geek-fest. I'm a school librarian these days, and my nerdy-techy past only comes to light on rare occasions. 4 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Colman Posted September 19, 2016 Share Posted September 19, 2016 (edited) I wonder if they knew they'd covered all possible classes of tile? Those RISC chips were very impressive at the time. My hardware oriented student colleagues were all atwitter when they came out. I fear my watch may outperform them now. I often bemoan the blinkered planning regulations that forbid adding a nice tower study and observatory to a suburban semi-D. Edited to add: good grief, the chip in the Apple Watch would run rings around those work stations. Sometimes I forget just how much faster modern kit is. Edited September 19, 2016 by Colman 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
meadowblythe Posted September 19, 2016 Share Posted September 19, 2016 Ah, but a Chromebook runs with such effortless ease because it's basically a glorified Unix box. From one who had terrapins named Grep and Awk ... 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Colman Posted September 19, 2016 Share Posted September 19, 2016 (edited) Well, so's a MacBook. And that's based on proper Unix, not that SysV contaminated abomination that Sun blessed us with. :-) (or, gods forbid, Linux) Edited September 19, 2016 by Colman Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Jan McNulty Posted September 19, 2016 Share Posted September 19, 2016 I started working in IT on an ICL 1900T operating on George 2+ with a core processor extended to a maximum of 128K! It filled a room the size of my living room!! When we upgraded we moved onto the VME operating system, way more sophisticated than most of the others... Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
meadowblythe Posted September 20, 2016 Share Posted September 20, 2016 Oh my, VME ... anyone for washing machine disk drives? My husband would love this thread - he is of the anything-except-windows school of thought. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
meadowblythe Posted September 20, 2016 Share Posted September 20, 2016 On a (almost) related topic, anyone with family members studying computer science at school may like to have a look at this new-fangled Python language that is all the rage. Looks remarkably like C to me ... Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Pixiewoo Posted September 20, 2016 Share Posted September 20, 2016 i do not understand a single word anyone is saying !!!! 6 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Jan McNulty Posted September 20, 2016 Share Posted September 20, 2016 And please don't start me on the subject of relational databases - so much more inefficient that a well designed hierarchical database such as IDMSX! But, of course, these days efficiency doesn't matter because we can just throw more processor power at it! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Colman Posted September 20, 2016 Share Posted September 20, 2016 Python is old news. If it's not some exotIc Erlang derived thing it's just not cool now. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Colman Posted September 20, 2016 Share Posted September 20, 2016 I do enjoy a thread that makes me feel young for a change. :-) 2 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
meadowblythe Posted September 20, 2016 Share Posted September 20, 2016 bother, just got into Python. Have just ordered a couple of Erlang books for the school library though! 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Colman Posted September 20, 2016 Share Posted September 20, 2016 I believe Elixir may be cool (or is that hot now?) at the moment. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Pixiewoo Posted September 20, 2016 Share Posted September 20, 2016 NOPE, i still don't understand a single word, in fact, i understand even less than i did before! 5 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Huddsballetmum Posted September 22, 2016 Share Posted September 22, 2016 NOPE, i still don't understand a single word, in fact, i understand even less than i did before! I don't understand either. The oldest IT terminology in my world was floppy disc, and try explaining that to a teenager 2 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
2dancersmum Posted September 23, 2016 Share Posted September 23, 2016 Its all beyond me too!! Back to original topic, a job ad popped up on my facebook feed today for 'newborn baby cuddler'. For babies waiting to be adopted or as the paperwork is going through. 2 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Anon2 Posted September 23, 2016 Share Posted September 23, 2016 Its all beyond me too!! Back to original topic, a job ad popped up on my facebook feed today for 'newborn baby cuddler'. For babies waiting to be adopted or as the paperwork is going through. Is this a sneaky way for agencies/social services to find foster caters? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Vonrothbart Posted September 23, 2016 Share Posted September 23, 2016 NOPE, i still don't understand a single word, in fact, i understand even less than i did before! Don't worry Pixiewoo, it's common sense that counts in life. 3 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Recommended Posts
Create an account or sign in to comment
You need to be a member in order to leave a comment
Create an account
Sign up for a new account in our community. It's easy!
Register a new accountSign in
Already have an account? Sign in here.
Sign In Now