The Nineteenth Byte

Alex A.

10:01 PM

That's really cool! I studied math.

flawr

So what degree did you get? Cool=)

Alex A.

I got a BSc in math.

flawr

And what did you do after?

Alex A.

Afterward I did work I didn't like. :P Programming in the medical field. Currently I'm doing a master's in applied statistics part-time while working.

flawr

I will getting my bsc at the end of this year, but still have no idea what to do after that. I cannot really get a job with only a bsc but I am also kind of fed up with studying math at the moment....

Alex A.

10:05 PM

You could study statistics :D

flawr

I was able to successfully avoid statistics for three years, why should I stop doing so? 0.o

Alex A.

Yeah by the end of my math degree I was just like, "Alright, f this, I don't want to see math ever again."

Statistics is great! Why have you been avoiding it so far?

flawr

It is way too useful to be fun.

Alex A.

Haha

flawr

I only had one introductory lecture in my first semester.

That was enough=)

Alex A.

10:08 PM

Was it mathematical statistics, probability theory, basic statistics for non-majors, or other?

flawr

Basic statistics for non-majors.

Well our math department is tiny, so that is why^^

Alex A.

See, if you're studying math then you probably enjoy some theory. It might be worth your time to check out mathematical statistics and probability theory.

Math department is tiny--so you aren't at ETH Zurich, I gather? :P

flawr

And because our department is so tiny the only lecture covering this takes place every 2 or 3 years....

Nope, I am studying in basel.

Alex A.

Only 2-3 years???

flawr

Where the Bernoullis and Euler came from=)

Alex A.

10:11 PM

Oh, University of Basel?

I guess that means you'll be the next Bernoulli or Euler. :)

flawr

Yes

Or they already used up all the genious-karma that was available for this place^^

Alex A.

Haha

Possible, but unlikely.

flawr

We just had to move out of the old math building because there was not enough place.

So we left some scribbles on the old wooden beams in the attic=)

Alex A.

:D

flawr

Alex A.

10:17 PM

That was the old math building?

flawr

Yes=)

Alex A.

It looks so quaint :)

flawr

But now some dirty humanity departments are there...

Alex A.

Do you have a bigger space now for the math department?

flawr

Well somewhat, we had to move in together with the CS dept.

Alex A.

10:19 PM

That's too bad. :P

flawr

Alex A.

At my university the CS department was well funded and was in this big, beautiful, modern building with all sorts of amenities, while the math department was in an old, dilapidated building.

That looks very nice! Is that near the new math building or is that just a random picture of the outdoors?

flawr

No that was the garden of the old building!

We've had some nice BBQs there=)

Alex A.

That sounds wonderful :)

flawr

I do not really like the new building, as it feels very crammed. All the assistans/phd students are now in one big cube farm.

The old building was so nice, you basically entered the top floor where the two tiny lecture halls were. Then you could go down about 6 floors until you could exit to the garden/river=)

And the lowest few floors just consisted of the library, and there were rooms where you were guaranteed to be alone, but with a great view=)

Alex A.

10:24 PM

The math assistants and PhD students at my university had to share windowless offices, usually with 2-4 in an office depending on the size. (They were all pretty small.) I think I'd take a cubicle because then I'd have some more private space.

Oh man, your old building sounds like a magical place.

flawr

It surely was=)

Now our 'library' is in the 3rd floor underground, some 'sterile' place where you hear the ac and all the books are imprisoned into those mobile shelvings for archives...

It is such a pitty....

Well it isnt really a cubicle, it is just one big open space with a lot of tables and computer screens...

I do not know how they manage to work there...

Alex A.

That sounds like it would be really distracting.

flawr

The problem at that university is that the whole university is scattered over the whole city.

Alex A.

Oh really? Is there not a central campus?

Zgarb

@flawr Apparently that's something managers and architects are really into now, but everyone else hates it.

flawr

10:29 PM

@Zgarb yes they are the only ones. The architect removed one of our professors favourite chair because it 'did not fit into the colour concept'....

Alex A.

I work in the same building as the Facebook offices. They have concrete floors and just rows of tables with computers. Looks like an elementary school cafeteria but with computers. :/

Zgarb

@flawr :P

flawr

I really do not know what those people think about.

Apart from nothing...

Alex A.

This is the ridiculous building that houses my alma mater's CS department: lazowska.cs.washington.edu/lara.sm

flawr

A friend works somewhere where they do not even have their own work place anymore, just anonymous 'workstations' where you get to be somewhere else every day...

Looks quite fun=)

Alex A.

10:35 PM

I only went in it a handful of times.

It was really nice.

flawr

I visited the Berkeley Campus and the math building there looks sooo ugly. It apparently has the inofficial record of suicides there...

Alex A.

D:

Optimizer

inofficial

flawr

> A series of students at the university have committed suicide at Evans Hall, primarily by jumping off one of the higher floors of the building. This has led some to believe the building is haunted. It has also spawned an untrue rumor that the University has put a "suicide alarm" on the tenth floor of Evans Hall.

Alex A.

Whoa, jeez.

flawr

10:37 PM

Evans Hall (UC Berkeley)

Evans Hall is the statistics, economics, and mathematics building at the University of California, Berkeley. == Computer History importance == Evans Hall also served as the gateway for the entire west coast's ARPAnet access during the early stages of the Internet's existence; at the time, the backbone was a 56kbit/s line to Chicago. Because of its proximity to the engineering school, and the location of both the departments of Computer Science, and Mathematics, Evans Hall was the building in which the original vi text editor was programmed., as well as the birthplace of Berkeley Unix (BSD), and...

Alex A.

Oh it houses their statistics department as well. Good thing I didn't go there for grad school.

flawr

Perhaps it is just because math triggers depression...

Alex A.

Haha while that was probably a joke, I think there is truth to it.

flawr

Thats perhaps why we cannot open the windows in our new building!

Optimizer

M.A.T.H (mental assault till hara-kiri) ?

Alex A.

10:39 PM

Haha

flawr

Yes about like that^^

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Q: The Margin is too Narrow

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Alex A.

@TheNumberOne "Due to Fermat's average writing skills" XD

flawr

Now we have one more apparent reason for writing short code for the meme compendium=)

Alex A.

Yes

Well, actually the average writing skills mean that Fermat couldn't write unprintable characters

Dennis

10:46 PM

@Zgarb Why did you change the input? weeps

Alex A.

comforts Dennis with an uncomfortable hug

Zgarb

@Dennis Sorry, mismatched tags! My intention was to give well-formed XML.

Dennis

Well, I fixed it already. No biggie.

I'm sitting on a 227 and a 123 byte solution. I can already feel the beating I'm going to get from Retina. :P

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