@BenjaLim That is not really mentioned in the game, but the main cities we have to connect are Perth, Brisbane, Sydney, and Melbourne

ah ok

the biggest city is sydney

hi fellas

I think in the US it's new york

@AlexanderAmenta Comrad vat u do herre

@AlexanderAmenta Vat iz za time in mother country

@BenjaLim At least the densest. LA is big, but spread out, and maybe not all in the city but the county

physicsforums is not able to convert equation between dollars into math mode. Any idea how to deal with it there?

@BenjaLim 5pm. taking a break from sightseeing, thought i'd see what was going on here

@robjohn speaking about LA have you seen the TV series with kiefer sutherland $\textit{24}$?

@RajeshD suggest using the "render MathJax" bookmarklet

@AlexanderAmenta Ahhhh

@BenjaLim nope

went to geelong that day

@robjohn not working

@AlexanderAmenta then went shopping the next day in melbourne with your dad :D

@robjohn OMG OMG OMG

@BenjaLim i heard, buy anything good?

@AlexanderAmenta yeah

I got this really rad jumper for only 30 in justjeans

now looking like a skater :D

@BenjaLim I take it you two have known each other a while :-)

@AlexanderAmenta when are you back in australia?

you'll have to do some skating to complete the look

@robjohn He's my tutor at uni :D

@AlexanderAmenta where is ma sai when we need her

@BenjaLim Ah!

in aus on the 28th, canberra on 31st or so

@robjohn I have a friend. She's from china, does PDEs and skates :D

@AlexanderAmenta ping around the same time then?

@BenjaLim ping is flying back tomorrow

@robjohn Isn't really funny that people on math.se you know in real life too?

@AlexanderAmenta ok

@AlexanderAmenta did she receive the email from vigleik?

@AlexanderAmenta you should tell isaev you went to moscow state

@robjohn yeah a little while. doesn't take too long for ben to get to know people

oh are you tutoring algebra 1

@BenjaLim she did. i don't know what i'm tutoring, probably 1116

ok

algebra 3 I suppose is still not confirmed?

@BenjaLim I don't think I know anyone from math se. I know some people from mo.

@robjohn oh wow....

i know less about algebra 3 than you

@AlexanderAmenta I hope to see chris in AT!!

@robjohn I know met at least 3 people from math.se in real life

@BenjaLim he should be around

I often meet ragib when i'm in sydney

@AlexanderAmenta analysis I is officially the worse course I've taken

@BenjaLim unless there are some people who have secret identities

@BenjaLim not my fault! i got back student evaluations and only 5 responded...

ahahaha

were they good?

only one good one

oh somehow I had to evaluate junnan....

@AlexanderAmenta Are you joking?

If you're alright to say it here, what did some people criticise?

nah, the ones who were replied were the few who were clearly dissatisfied

there were comments like 'i submitted responses similar to tutorial answers and did not get marks'

ah these sort of people I know immediately what they are like :D

'tutorial questions ranged from easy to impossible' as an issue

OMG I DID NOT GET THE MARKS BAD TUTOR.

yeah pretty much

whereas the rest of the class didn't submit responses

OMG EVEN THOUGH MY PROOF IS WRONG I WANT FULL MARKS.

@AlexanderAmenta Somehow my tutor was junnan.....

no idea how that happened

Wow, there are 414 users who have given their location as in CA

@robjohn caligornia?

CA = computer associates? oops dumb question

commutative algebra...

@AlexanderAmenta on arxiv that is classical analysis and odes

@BenjaLim my bad

it is AC on arxiv

@BenjaLim California

@HenryT.Horton remember my name is Benja$\varinjlim$

@BenjaLim I wonder who pronounces like that?

@RajeshD It's actually Ca-li-for-nigh-ay

@AlexanderAmenta my holiday was pretty goood

I think you had a good time too

now you should start a personal webpage

@BenjaLim yep it's been good. still not over yet...

complicated. I'd just say "Cali"

@AlexanderAmenta your dad said he's a little worried that you went all the way to russia

in china at least no problem

@BenjaLim i'll leave the website for when i've actually started work

@BenjaLim understandable, russia's quite far

@BenjaLim who? is yitao doing it?

no

I think there is an attitude at our institution

i don't know many people who have done that

actually i don't know any who have

people tend more to do easy ones to get high marks...

who have..?

who've taken advanced courses to show off

honestly that's more work than it's worth anyway

huh?

if you can do advanced courses and handle them, you should be doing advanced courses

if this guy can't handle it then he's shot himself in the foot anyway

definition of "handle them" is very different between you and me :D

my definition is being able to prove every proposition in the book

i know, but even going by my definition my point stands

@RagibZaman hey

sup guys

@AlexanderAmenta yes

@RagibZaman do geometry and topology

I plan to.

@RagibZaman do the other math things too

This semester is going to be my hardest yet

lol Ben is talking about a specific course

@RagibZaman well it kinda has to be doesn't it?

@BenjaLim I take it back, there is some one on Math SE that I know from when I worked at Apple, but I have not seen him here. I just found him.

@AlexanderAmenta it's a course at usyd

I guess so, but I dont want it to be!!

@robjohn ahh !!

@BenjaLim @RagibZaman i know. that's the joke

@AlexanderAmenta well if you take four hard and pass

for me that's like trivial

even getting 99 in a course for me is trivial

it's not so bad though

depends what ur goals are

@BenjaLim He was last on Math.SE on April 14,

one can get a lot out of doing too much

too long ago

@AlexanderAmenta I have to change the way I read maths

My approach now is too time consuming

and I can't cover a lot of material

exactly

takes up too much time

you need to skim more

cast a wide net, see where the fish are, come back later when you need them

the details fill up in your head automatically when you review

@RagibZaman when I can't prove something I get stuck

takes up a lot of time

damn. alex just said what I said far more poetically.

depends what and how much you cant prove

not the best analogy, since fish move

@RagibZaman are you going to IWOTA?

you if cant do 60% of the exercises, then there is a problem

if you cant understand some steps in proofs of theorems from the book, thats fine

if you can understand all the proofs, your bar is too low

?

oh wow

if you're in a position where you can prove everything in the book, you shouldn't be wasting your time doing so

alex is from australia

Where abouts are you?

@RagibZaman he's my tutor :D

lol nice

chat transcripts dude

the honours thesis topic and intended phd topics are quite different

any reason for the change?

casting a wide net. seeing where the fish are

fair enough

@AlexanderAmenta mathoverflow.net/users/21278/benjalim

thats what I'm doing at the moment as well

how's USYD

I take the good with the bad

Shall I complain about the bad first?

hahaahahahahahahhahahahhaahahahahahaha

@AlexanderAmenta well for a start they don't have a number theory research group anymore

yep sure

I have no opportunity to learn number theory here

@BenjaLim why the duplicate page

@RagibZaman don't complain in ANU atm we only have ONE number theorist.

not even at the research level for an honours thesis

but you at least have COURSES

@AlexanderAmenta duplicate page?

honours thesis isn't research level

@RagibZaman aahahahahhahah

that's laughable

sorry, I know it isnt exactly but its not exactly coursework

we don't even have a number theory course for mathematicians here

@RagibZaman you don't need courses

you can study algebraic and analytic number theory at ANU no?

algebraic number theory - algebra 3

oh actually we used to

i learn it on my own

its harder

@RagibZaman you can study algebraic/analytic number theory anywhere with a library

The chat is telling me I am sending messages too frequently

I know, that is currently what I do and how I maintain my interest

anyway my point is, we have courses but that doesn't mean they're good

but I would like to have done my honours thesis on something related

then transfer for honours!

I kind of "need" to stay at USYD

"need"?

for a decent enough chance to win some award that'll help my chance of getting into a good phd school

I want to win the University Medal.

hmm

@AlexanderAmenta that's why he's in a limbo over whether or not to take geometry and topology

i wouldn't recommend winning the uni medal

it's counterproductive

because even though its an interesting subject, its "normal" stream and not "advanced" so the mark isnt scaled as high and looks worse on my transcript

its counterproductive in the short term, I'd agree, I'd study my own interests rather than suck up to whatever they tell me to do

having to ace all the set courses and what not

@RagibZaman I think this scaling bullshit is a false positive

if you're unable to transfer elsewhere and win a medal anyway, you wouldn't get into the best schools

if you can't transfer to ANU and get a medal, a medal from sydney won't get you there

oh I need to stay in sydney

ANU, yes

macquire, probably not

i'm not necessarily advocating transferring to improve your results

but my point is that the medal itself is irrelevant

@RagibZaman I don't think alex won a university medal, half of his phd will be in paris XI

Ngo bau chau, to name among the few came from there

holy crap

yes

damnnnn

to get a medal you need to do a lot of irrelevant stuff

you don't need a university medal is the point

acing courses etc

which isn't going to affect your research

I know

@RagibZaman Also my algebra tutor has no medal and is going to princeton to do analytic number theory

but I can't see how else I would get into my desired grad schools

research drive~

ok we are taking the "medal" part too seriously

jump into difficult things

learn a bunch of stuff

cast a wide net (as i love saying)

and talk to lots of people while you do it so they know you exist

then networking takes you the rest of the way

like procrastinating on chat right now

In attaining the medal, I'll have to do very well in a bunch of courses and show potential research ability in my thesis etc, things I need to do anyway.

you don't have to do well in courses

basically, focus on doing math rather than gaming the system

then I'd have to have a killer thesis?

if you focus your effort on that, you won't need to TRY to do a killer thesis

it'll just happen

@AlexanderAmenta tell ragib what a thesis is :D

@RagibZaman I helped to proof read for errors alex's thesis

@RagibZaman my advice to you is basically to stop worrying about getting into good schools, and just do some math and enjoy it - if you deserve to be at those places, then you'll get there

and if you don't, then it's not the end of the world - if you really do enjoy the math then it won't matter

but if you're at USYD and desiring number theory, it's not really worth fighting against the stream - either move somewhere with number theory or get involved with USYD's interests

@RagibZaman you can work with jim borger who's a number theorist at ANU

his last conference had people like kiran kedlaya there

No doubt, I do quite a lot of math and enjoy most of it (sometimes I have to take a course I don't really care about just to fulfil degree requirements), but I worry about where I go precisely because I enjoy math so much - I want to set myself up to have the best chance of being able to do interesting mathematics for the rest of my life, i.e get paid to research at a good institution where there are other good researchers to collaborate with.

If I don't get into a good phd school then my chances of being employed by a research focused university drops heavily (yes its not a set rule but this is what happens statistically.)

true, but it seems that getting into a good school isn't done by trying to get into good schools

(not that it can't be done that way. but it seems very inefficient, and i've seen a lot of people try and fail)

(good people)

@RagibZaman I think you should first worry about where to do honours given that usyd has no number theory program

@RagibZaman Why don't you go and see gerry?

I'm thinking of doing something in algebra for my honours thesis

he's a number theorist

throw a large net.

yep, that'd be a good move

@RagibZaman exactly. If you can't do number theory then do something close like AG or something

there's a lot of interesting stuff at usyd that you probably don't really know about

USYD is very strong in algebra, and even if I dont end up researching in that area, its still hell useful to know

(people wouldn't be doing it if it weren't very interesting)

but then again I have been told that it is impossible to do honours in AG

@RagibZaman anthony henderson is visiting anu this sem

I may just go deep into commutative algebra with my advisor and try to branch into some algebraic number theory on my own

Yes I know, I think he's managed to write a paper with one of your researchers

i recommend not going too deep this early

Well, 'deep' for me at least, probably not so deep for someone whose strong suit is algebra.

I've had a inclination for analysis and I got a little too focused on that so in the last half year or so I've tried to focus a bit more on algebra.

But I'm still not great.

@AlexanderAmenta look at his top posts on se

LOL DONT

its embarassing

its all pre calc

why focus on anything?

@BenjaLim Whose top posts?

I get 51 votes for showing F(x) = x^3+x is injective, or that central binomial coefficients are even lol.

you'll end up missing out on a lot of things

@Gigili mine.

now's a great time to sample everything that's out there

@RagibZaman I get 45 for showing some arithmetic progression sums to something :D

I need to get relatively 'focused' for my thesis though

overall in my honours year I'll try lots of things, with reading courses and the standard courses and whatever

for the thesis, yes - but still not too focused

The threads that most people can understand just by skimming are the ones that get the most votes

(my honours year was very unfocused)

@RagibZaman from what I heard the honours thesis is artificial

artificial?

@AlexanderAmenta explain

the format at least. you can't work on something for 9 months and then be in a position to write a nice cohesive work, unless you're very lucky

@BenjaLim I asked you a question if you can see.

@Gigili yes sorry i meant ragib.

you end up writing about a small chunk of what you thought about in that year

and then you're judged on that chunk

Someone still got first class honours :D

yeah, the trick is to make sure you have a decent small chunk at least

Hi bros.

I think ideally, your advisor could give you a small toy problem thats not trivial but out of reach and/or already well researched, and the thesis could be on that problem + its related theory.

sup jonas.

jonas is coming to anu next year @RagibZaman

hi jonas

EVERYONE IS GOING TO ANU!

My advisor does not really give me problems. Well... maybe he does but I don't eat them.

No love for USYD :(

SUP JONAS MY MAN

Is @RagibZaman also going to ANU?

excitement flows to regions of lesser excitement

I am also going to UNSW.

I haven't mentioned jarod alper, scott morrison (moderator on MO) and david smyth who are coming

I have been invited by Professor Sukochev.

oh wow

The barren halls of USYD...

you know adam rennie then?

@RagibZaman you need a problem which provokes other problems/fields

@BenjaLim Hmm...? I don't.

ask sukochev

Well, I only know S. :-).

@AlexanderAmenta True, but most fields are too hard for me to be able to get a good feel of what is a "do-able" problem for me. The only field where I might be able to do that is combinatorics but I don't have a passion for that area.