Happy Me Thread

[petrw1]

Originally Posted by Chuck

Great — but it's composite.

http://www.mersenne.ca/exponent.php?...tails=68843609

Aw....."Missed it by that much, Chief"

[rogue]

I just moved into the 21st century by getting a smartphone, an iPhone 5c. One would think that the combination of Apple fan, software engineer, and geek would have prompted me to get one a long time ago. The reason is that I actually don't use my phone very often so it was difficult to justify the cost. Now I'm in a role at work where customers and co-workers will need to contact me on a more random basis. Now if my employer would only pay for it...

[Flatlander]

Originally Posted by kladner

I hope her condition continues to improve.

Thank you.

[Nick]

Originally Posted by rogue

I just moved into the 21st century by getting a smartphone, an iPhone 5c.

Congratulations - you are now the proud owner of an iPhone 5c.

But are you also its superuser/system administrator?

[rogue]

I finally beat Candy Crush level 500. My wife and I had been stuck on it for about eight days.

[NBtarheel_33]

At the stroke of 13:41:26 GMT on 2014-05-11, exactly one billion seconds will have passed since my birth. (Yes, I accounted for leap years *and* 14 leap seconds.) A lovely coincidence that this should happen on Mother's Day.

Ever since I saw a bit on PBS Square One TV where James Earl Jones' booming voice explained the difference in the lengths of time spanned by one million, one billion, and one trillion seconds, I have thought that it is one of the neatest, most accessible ways to teach the difference between these large numbers that our brains simply think of as "enormous" without distinguishing their vast difference in size.

One million seconds passes three times a month (or so). One billion seconds passes three times in your whole life (if you're lucky). One trillion seconds encompasses the entire history of human civilization and a whole lot more.

If you paid the national debt of the USA (roughly $17 trillion) at a dollar a second, it would take over 500,000 years to complete the transaction. Good luck balancing *that* budget.

Now, M48...I think of that as just "enormous"!

[xilman]

Originally Posted by NBtarheel_33

At the stroke of 13:41:26 GMT on 2014-05-11, exactly one billion seconds will have passed since my birth. (Yes, I accounted for leap years *and* 14 leap seconds.) A lovely coincidence that this should happen on Mother's Day.

Ever since I saw a bit on PBS Square One TV where James Earl Jones' booming voice explained the difference in the lengths of time spanned by one million, one billion, and one trillion seconds, I have thought that it is one of the neatest, most accessible ways to teach the difference between these large numbers that our brains simply think of as "enormous" without distinguishing their vast difference in size.

One million seconds passes three times a month (or so). One billion seconds passes three times in your whole life (if you're lucky). One trillion seconds encompasses the entire history of human civilization and a whole lot more.

If you paid the national debt of the USA (roughly $17 trillion) at a dollar a second, it would take over 500,000 years to complete the transaction. Good luck balancing *that* budget.

Now, M48...I think of that as just "enormous"!

I'm impressed that the time of your birth was recorded to a precision of one second, let alone to that accuracy. As human childbirth generally takes rather longer than one second, I'm wondering which event was chosen as the definitive moment. First visible appearance? Delivery of the feet (assuming regular presentation) or of head (if a breech delivery)? First breath? Tying off the umbilical cord? Cutting of the same? If you were delivered by C-section some of those events won't be relevant but others will become so.

[NBtarheel_33]

Originally Posted by xilman

I'm impressed that the time of your birth was recorded to a precision of one second, let alone to that accuracy. As human childbirth generally takes rather longer than one second, I'm wondering which event was chosen as the definitive moment. First visible appearance? Delivery of the feet (assuming regular presentation) or of head (if a breech delivery)? First breath? Tying off the umbilical cord? Cutting of the same? If you were delivered by C-section some of those events won't be relevant but others will become so.

I have been told (not that I remember, which by the sound of it, is a good thing) that my birth (under government-sponsored health care in New South Wales, Australia) resembled one that might have occurred in the unsettled, uncivilized Western or Southern United States circa 1800. Labor was 18 hours, I was breech, with (and thinking of this now still makes me grimace) one foot behind my head, one foot in the exit door, and my bum poking directly up. The attending physicians finally had the brains to call for a C-section, and it is miraculous that *that* debacle didn't kill us both. Hours later, my mother was reportedly queried as to why she wasn't downstairs with the nurses, doing her job to look after her baby!

At least the price tag was right...$400 and change. It's why I'm wary of Obamacare, honestly - Australia had less than 15 million people at the time, but we have over twenty times that in the US. If they had trouble back then, what are we in for?

In any event, my time of birth (and indeed I don't know what the criteria for that was) was recorded as 2155 local time (UTC+10). My mother would always mention what time I was born (and, like you, I was always skeptical of how she got it right down to the minute), but recently, lo and behold, I saw it on my birth certificate.

It's certainly subject to at least 60 seconds of error, and probably as much as 900 or so. But ya gotta have a zero datum point somewhere...

[petrw1]

Originally Posted by rogue

I finally beat Candy Crush level 500. My wife and I had been stuck on it for about eight days.

I'm not worthy....I gave up around level 160.... it was taking too much of my life.
Or you could very well be smarter and see the patterns ahead of time...or you may be one of them that buys extra help......

I'll assume its the former.....

[rogue]

Originally Posted by petrw1

I'm not worthy....I gave up around level 160.... it was taking too much of my life.
Or you could very well be smarter and see the patterns ahead of time...or you may be one of them that buys extra help......

I'll assume its the former.....

Yes it is. I refuse to pay money, but the once a day free boosters have helped me get past some of the more challenging levels. I've probably wasted as many as I've used successfully.

Some levels require a lot of luck. Some require you to see the patterns a move or two ahead, but I do not rely on things more than two moves ahead because unseen combinations tend to destroy what I am trying to do when I do that.

[wblipp]

Originally Posted by wblipp

My kid is now a rocket scientist! A PhD candidate at Stanford Engineering, he's just accepted a summer internship at SpaceX.

I've learned that employees can escort tours through the SpaceX rocket assembly line. I'm going to take advantage of that in few weeks!