I can't overstate how much I agree with ikkyu2 in regards to this matter. It absolutely disturbs me that drug corps in US advertise direct to the public for this very reason: people do a little bit of research on their own and think they've found the perfect solution to their problem and think they know better than their doctor.

What did your PCP suggest? If he's been this good so far, maybe he knows what he's doing, no?
posted to Ask Metafilter by PuGZ at 12:24 AM on April 2, 2008

Excuse me for being an idiot, but I thought the vectors would only be considered normalised if the squares of their individual constituents add up to 1, rather than just summing all the components as-is?
posted to Ask Metafilter by PuGZ at 11:15 PM on March 8, 2008

I should probably say now that this information was just given in the context of an undergraduate mathematics assignment. For all I know, the choice of using this particular measurement for genetic distance might be completely arbitrary!

That said, the report has to be "completely self-contained", which I take to mean it has to explain why this measurement has been chosen. How very confusing and vague. :-(

grouse:... [more]
posted to Ask Metafilter by PuGZ at 3:14 AM on March 9, 2008

jytsai's answer nails it in my mind, but thanks to everyone who replied so quickly. :-)
posted to Ask Metafilter by PuGZ at 2:50 AM on February 26, 2008

The answers to this question have proven to be surprisingly insightful, I must admit! The links up-thread certainly made for some fascinating reading, in any case!

That said, to clear a few things up (if anyone is actually interested): it wasn't that much paper, I've done this less a handful of times in my entire life and I usually don't make a habit of putting strange things in my mouth so I can [hopefully] rule out pica et al.
posted to Ask Metafilter by PuGZ at 11:24 AM on February 26, 2008

hadjiboy: Usually fiancé refers to a male and fiancée refers to a female. If anything, the fiancé in question is a male!
posted to Ask Metafilter by PuGZ at 7:35 AM on January 26, 2008

donut: Yes, that is what I'm after!

phax: That looks very promising. I'll have a look into it after work today!

breath: What constitutes a high-load situation? Does it depend on the forking method used by Apache?
posted to Ask Metafilter by PuGZ at 11:33 AM on January 24, 2008

Yeah, I suppose you are right. I really know absolutely nothing of C# nor managed code and to hope that everything will just work without doing any research is a bit wishful thinking. Ah well.
posted to Ask Metafilter by PuGZ at 10:21 PM on December 28, 2007

I'm in a bit of a rush to get to the airport, but I can't leave you hanging after you've gone out of your way to help me:

CaveFrog: Sorry for not being clear enough. I am attempting to implement an interface for HFS+ (Mac) formatted disks under Windows. GetFile is a function which takes path as path to a file and returns offset which is the physical offset on-disk to the file and length is the... [more]
posted to Ask Metafilter by PuGZ at 4:12 PM on December 29, 2007

My younger did something similar with compound words (compound terms?) during her earlier years. Pocket money = money pocket, peanut butter = butter peanut, etc. She's grown out of it completely and hopefully your son will too!
posted to Ask Metafilter by PuGZ at 6:43 PM on December 20, 2007

younger sister*
posted to Ask Metafilter by PuGZ at 6:43 PM on December 20, 2007

For what it's worth, Q3A went open-source a while ago and you can now download "OpenArena" which is Q3A with different assets and a price tag of about $0.00.
posted to Ask Metafilter by PuGZ at 11:57 AM on December 13, 2007

In reference to the rugby injuries, it can often be very difficult to tell if the high tackles are indeed intentional. God only knows that I've been penalised for high tackles that were by no means intended. I think the relevant authorities would rather err on the side of caution rather than book every player that happens to clothesline the opposition.
posted to Ask Metafilter by PuGZ at 2:13 AM on November 28, 2007

For what it's worth, it seems most people never grow out of this. Ugh.
posted to Ask Metafilter by PuGZ at 9:43 PM on November 27, 2007

I'd also like to say that I'm quite interested in the responses and if they could be made public, that would be much appreciated!
posted to Ask Metafilter by PuGZ at 2:46 PM on November 9, 2007

I have some Texan cousins sailing around the world and they maintain a website. They do have internet on the boat, but it's 1200 baud - not quite fast enough to broadcast video.

You should have a talk with these guys, they're more likely to be able to help you than anyone else.
posted to Ask Metafilter by PuGZ at 2:19 AM on November 8, 2007

OS X and the switch to Intel made it a much more appealing alternative to Windows. Over the past five years I had been experimenting with Linux on the desktop and it was never quite there, so I was stuck with Windows. Mac OS 9 and earlier were just tragic and on crippled hardware to boot. I bought a MacBook about 18 months ago and haven't looked back!

I think a number of software developers have the same story.
posted to Ask Metafilter by PuGZ at 3:59 PM on November 5, 2007

Thank you very much to both of you. What a wonderful resource!

Wolfdog: Thank you for the extended response. It is something I should have remembered, but had slipped my mind. I imagine that there will indeed be such corner-cases in my exam this coming Monday and I very much appreciate the reminder: I'll be sure not to forget it!
posted to Ask Metafilter by PuGZ at 3:40 AM on November 3, 2007

The incident to which Steven refers involved the MV Tampa.
posted to Ask Metafilter by PuGZ at 3:15 PM on October 31, 2007

I have a book entitled - appropriately enough - Speeches that Changed the World. If you're willing to forego the "document" criterion (though I do doubt most of these speeches were spoken off-the-cuff..), you'll find plenty in that.
posted to Ask Metafilter by PuGZ at 2:53 PM on October 29, 2007

Obligatory Amazon link.
posted to Ask Metafilter by PuGZ at 2:54 PM on October 29, 2007

I've found myself stumbling in spoken and written English nowadays when only a few years ago I had no difficulty in constructing fluent prose. I assume(d) this had something to do with having learned French for six years, which is a truly terrifying discovery. I'm now making a conscientious effort to become more fluent in my native tongue once again and though it may be hard work, I'm getting there.

The worst part is that I'm not even very good at French.
posted to Ask Metafilter by PuGZ at 11:54 PM on October 27, 2007

Ugh, I have no idea what happened there. The preview was fine. My question was:

Why is it that when I solve the inequality 0 ? arccos(x) < ?/4, the answer is cos(0) ? x > cos(?/4)? Why do the operators switch direction?
posted to Ask Metafilter by PuGZ at 10:02 PM on October 19, 2007

..And now my less than or equal to ( =<> ) don't render in that comment.
posted to Ask Metafilter by PuGZ at 10:04 PM on October 19, 2007

Less than or equal to: =<
Pi: 3.14159..
Greater than or equal to: =>

Today is not my day.
posted to Ask Metafilter by PuGZ at 10:05 PM on October 19, 2007

I'm trying to solve this inequality. AskMefi seems to have chewed up the rendering of my question, though.
posted to Ask Metafilter by PuGZ at 11:18 PM on October 19, 2007

So I take it that if the functions in question were sin or tan, the sign needn't be flipped. My (high-school) textbook uses cos as an example and doesn't explain why the sign was flipped.

Thankyou very much for putting it so clearly. :-)
posted to Ask Metafilter by PuGZ at 11:44 PM on October 19, 2007

This is nothing more than blind guessing, but would it depend on the instantaneous rate of change at a given point?

Had the points been 0 and 5/4 * pi rather than 0 and pi/4, would the sign only change for the cos(0)?
posted to Ask Metafilter by PuGZ at 6:54 AM on October 20, 2007

Internet Uses 9.4% of Electricity In the US.

That is the Slashdot discussion that revolved around this link. Note, however, that two thirds of that consumption can be attributed to desktop machines and their monitors.

I assume this is what sethwoodworth was referring to.
posted to Ask Metafilter by PuGZ at 6:43 PM on September 28, 2007

Here, in Victorian schools, we have four English programmes that students can choose from in their final years at high school. One is ESL (English as a Second Language) and the other three are English, English Literature and English Language.

English is by far the most popular option; with 43,000 students completing it each year. This is followed by Literature (5,300), ESL (3,200) and English Language (1,600).

English is the all-encompassing... [more]
posted to Ask Metafilter by PuGZ at 8:25 PM on September 27, 2007

I had this same problem a few years ago with the WZCS. I was hanging every 63 seconds, but as I couldn't find vendor-supplied software I gave up on it. It's good to know now that there exist solutions to the problem, in case I come across it again.
posted to Ask Metafilter by PuGZ at 3:24 AM on August 29, 2007

Haha, Mrs PuGZ pointed out this question to me asking whether I had posted it because it matches me exactly. I'm an 18 year old male who has not been to Singapore before (other than the airport) and I'll be going late December - mid January. Maybe we should become friends and tour Singapore together! =D
posted to Ask Metafilter by PuGZ at 12:58 AM on August 29, 2007

The processing power that your example code would require is so negligible it will not even register on the radar. I would benchmark your code to tell you the precise fraction of CPU time it would consume, but consumer-level PCs do not measure time accurately enough with a small enough granularity.

In other words: don't stress. Shared hosts only kick up a fuss if you're running something on the order of magnitude of vBulletin, PHPbb or the like -- and even then only if... [more]
posted to Ask Metafilter by PuGZ at 11:17 PM on August 24, 2007

I realised I didn't address all your questions. There is no general rule: each host is different. However, with that said, most hosts will not be concerned unless you're consistently over-burdening the server and inconveniencing other users. Unless they are trying to cram on thousands of users onto a single machine, it is unlikely this will ever be a concern for you.

Personally, I calculate the burden of code that I write using a handy little programme named ab - apache... [more]
posted to Ask Metafilter by PuGZ at 11:31 PM on August 24, 2007 marked best answer

543DoublePlay: Would you want to own up to being responsible for a patient dying? Surgery isn't accounting or programming, when mistakes are made, people die.

The immense pressure that is inherent in the profession requires a certain level of detachment: guess who feels most responsible when a patient dies, even if nothing could be done? I think the "attitude" is simply one form of dealing with the high stakes and lack of any room for error. Frankly, I'll give... [more]
posted to Ask Metafilter by PuGZ at 7:36 PM on August 24, 2007 marked best answer

I can't say I have an answer to your question, but I can certainly say it's something that I've long pondered - you're not the only one! (Also, by the looks of the number of favourites, we're not the only two.)

That article about Boston Marriages was fascinating. Even as a straight eighteen year old male, I sympathised with much of the sentiment contained within.

I will be following this thread eagerly.
posted to Ask Metafilter by PuGZ at 3:41 AM on August 21, 2007

While only tangentially related to your question, I've found that OS X makes for a good development platform as I can very easily develop code that will run on both OS X and Linux with a minimum of (if any at all) code changes. Windows is also easy to cross-develop for due to Parallels / Fusion.

That said, as rancidchickn aptly pointed out, Java is cross-platform (as well as its premier IDE - Eclipse) and you're doing a CS programme - what you will be learning... [more]
posted to Ask Metafilter by PuGZ at 9:39 PM on August 4, 2007 marked best answer

I've tried and tried, but to no avail. Perhaps this is a bug within Pages?
posted to Ask Metafilter by PuGZ at 1:15 PM on July 29, 2007

Although I must agree with both of you, the first page suggests that it is not possible but the third page suggests it is. It seems not even Apple can agree on the stated functionality of one of their main productivity apps!
posted to Ask Metafilter by PuGZ at 1:16 PM on July 29, 2007

I will post there and report back my findings for anyone who stumbles across this thread. Thanks!
posted to Ask Metafilter by PuGZ at 2:38 AM on July 30, 2007

For what it's worth, my set-up is as follows:

I use the iCal installation on my Macbook and enter appointments, etc. I sync this every few days or so with my Symbian smartphone (Nokia N73) and any appointments I've entered directly into the phone hence appear in iCal during the same process.

My iCal calendars are published to iCalx.com, which provides a place on the web to publish my iCal files from the program automatically. This is in turn... [more]
posted to Ask Metafilter by PuGZ at 1:32 PM on July 29, 2007

intermod: You can certainly do the same with iCal + iSync. I've no trouble making modifications using both sides of the sync and it works flawlessly.
posted to Ask Metafilter by PuGZ at 2:36 AM on July 30, 2007

I've found that if you are tech-savvy, the Macbook / OS X is actually a brilliant platform to work on. XCode is a great IDE, BBEdit is an incredible text editor and it's fantastic having a POSIX-like system to develop on. I can test my code locally, upload the *.c files to my Linux box and compile them with no changes required. With the help of VMWare / Parallels, cross-development for Windows is now an absolute breeze!

I nth the additional RAM comment. While OS X was... [more]
posted to Ask Metafilter by PuGZ at 12:07 AM on July 25, 2007

I should add that I had been using PCs for thirteen years when I made the switch (and continue to use them) and I had no trouble making the switch. This may or may not have something to do with a few years of *nix experience, though.
posted to Ask Metafilter by PuGZ at 12:09 AM on July 25, 2007

Personally, I use Camino as it seems to be Firefox done right on OS X. Your mileage may vary.
posted to Ask Metafilter by PuGZ at 5:29 AM on July 29, 2007

Libertarian governments around the world succeed where as leftist governments are all without acception failures.

Why is it that people are so insistent that libertarianism and socialism are opposite ends of the one spectrum? Is it true that no libertarian socialists exist in America? (?!) From the
Political compass (I've added emphasis to the part that should be particular relevant to the question asker):

You... [more]
posted to Ask Metafilter by PuGZ at 1:33 PM on July 24, 2007

I love hanging out at Melbourne Central: the bottom food court is usually very crowded (as it is right next to the train station entrance) but the top food court (on the second floor) has a good variety (lots of Asian, typical McDonalds and fastfood and some other reasonable food).
I also quite like walking around the square enclosed by Swanston Street, La Trobe Street, Elizabeth Street and Flinders Street. Sometimes a figure-8 made by passing through Bourke Street Mall is good for... [more]
posted to Ask Metafilter by PuGZ at 3:21 AM on July 18, 2007

If cakes in St Kilda are your thing, Acland Street is the place for that. Absolutely mouth-watering.

Similarly, once you find yourself in St Kilda, the Esplanade and Jacka Boulevard are very nice to hang about upon. Situated right next to the beach, they're where the market stalls are also set up when it's that time. Near the intersection with Acland Street exist a number of trendy cafes too.
posted to Ask Metafilter by PuGZ at 3:31 AM on July 18, 2007

It's - amazingly enough - an account-specific setting. If you look into your account settings, it will be there. I can't help further as I don't use Pidgin, but this is how libpurple organises it.
posted to Ask Metafilter by PuGZ at 1:33 AM on July 15, 2007 marked best answer

Oops, I must specify: the daemon runs remotely, on my server! Thus I can only collect data on users registered with the service and have no way of tracking communication between users. In the future I will offer a download that will feature such functionality, but I won't do so until the site is established and users have reason to trust the site!

With that said, any other suggestions? (I like the ideas given so far!)

I'll post the site to Mefi... [more]
posted to Ask Metafilter by PuGZ at 5:20 AM on July 2, 2007