Jim Henderson wrote:
> I should mention as well, though, that Invis didn't use the proper name 
> of Grunthos' poem, either.  It is in fact "Ode to a small lump of green 
> putty I found in my armpit one midsummer's morning" IIRC (don't have my 
> copy of the scripts handy and I should know this from memory anyways, as 
> frequently as I've listened to the original series).

I knew this. However, as I knew you were a hitch-hiker fan (I think 
we've discussed this before at some point) I couldn't let you get away 
with the slip! ;-)

> My brother and I used to fall asleep listening to episodes of the radio 
> series, and we'd quiz each other on the finer details.  Clearly I've lost 
> my touch a little bit. ;-)

Only one thing to do - refresh the memory!

I was too young to listen to them when they were first broadcast over 
here, but my dad taped them so I grew up listening to them over and 
over. He missed the bridging episode, broadcast out of sequence (I 
believe it's fit the first on the second phase), so when I bought the 
tapes years later it was a revelation!

I recently watched the film again, and it's really astounding how badly 
they buggered up Zaphod's character in that version... pretty good apart 
from that though.

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On Sat, 21 Feb 2009 19:03:37 +0000, Bill Pragnell wrote:

> Jim Henderson wrote:
>> I should mention as well, though, that Invis didn't use the proper name
>> of Grunthos' poem, either.  It is in fact "Ode to a small lump of green
>> putty I found in my armpit one midsummer's morning" IIRC (don't have my
>> copy of the scripts handy and I should know this from memory anyways,
>> as frequently as I've listened to the original series).
> 
> I knew this. However, as I knew you were a hitch-hiker fan (I think
> we've discussed this before at some point) I couldn't let you get away
> with the slip! ;-)

Fair enough - and I think you're right, we did talk about this one 
before. :-)

>> My brother and I used to fall asleep listening to episodes of the radio
>> series, and we'd quiz each other on the finer details.  Clearly I've
>> lost my touch a little bit. ;-)
> 
> Only one thing to do - refresh the memory!

Yep, it's coming up on time to start again to be prepared for Towel Day.

> I was too young to listen to them when they were first broadcast over
> here, but my dad taped them so I grew up listening to them over and
> over. He missed the bridging episode, broadcast out of sequence (I
> believe it's fit the first on the second phase), so when I bought the
> tapes years later it was a revelation!

:-)

I had them all on cassette, then a friend of mine in the UK bought me the 
CDs - which have subsequently gone missing, so I've got another set now.

The thing I've been trying to find is a copy of the version that has 
Marvin's bit (when they first land on Magrathea) where he plays "Rock 'n 
Roll Music" after Arthur mentions that "that robot can hum like Pink 
Floyd".  I could swear I heard it in the radio version once upon a time, 
but now I only seem to be able to find it in the LP (I believe, I have 
the LP here somewhere but don't have a turntable).

> I recently watched the film again, and it's really astounding how badly
> they buggered up Zaphod's character in that version... pretty good apart
> from that though.

Yeah, I didn't think Rockwell captured the character well at all.  I also 
didn't think Mos Def made a convincing Ford, it often sounded he was just 
reading the lines.  

I didn't think anyone other than Peter Jones could do the voice of the 
book, but both William Franklyn and Stephen Fry did a very good job with 
it.  Still wish Peter could've done it, though.

Jim

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Stephen wrote:


> to ignore them. Don't look for reasons why you can't do something as you will
> find plenty of them. Just say to yourself, I want it I will do it. Every time
> you have self doubts force your mind away from those thoughts.
> I want you to never, ever post self doubting comments here again. It only
> reinforces your weakness. Try it for a season or two.
> Here endeth the lesson, according to uncle Stevie.

OK, but I still think there's something to be said for knowing what your 
real strengths and weaknesses actually are.

-- 
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http://www.zazzle.com/MathematicalOrchid*

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>> Heh. Actually, a few weeks back I did look at MSRC. But I couldn't
>> figure out what they were talking about. I surmised this probably means
>> I'm too stupid to be there. :-}
> 
> That doesn't mean your stupid [sic].  I'm sure many people in the field couldn't
> understand it because they haven't worked on it.  What's important is whether
> you can learn it, not whether you already know it.

No no - I mean, I couldn't figure out the application process...

>> Much as it would be fun to meet the legendary Simon PJ, I rather doubt
>> they have any PhD openings to do with Haskell right about now.
> 
> Don't doubt it.  Find out, and you might find something else interesting along
> the way.

Heh. Now *that* I can do from my desk... ;-)

-- 
http://blog.orphi.me.uk/
http://www.zazzle.com/MathematicalOrchid*

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>> 4. It is *highly* unlikely that having a PhD will make any kind of 
>> positive change to my employment situation. Nobody is impressed by a 
>> BSc, and I doubt a PhD will be any different. Everybody wants 
>> "experience" and/or "people skills".
> 
> Not true. If you're going for a technical position, even if it's 
> unrelated to your field of study, the fact that you are capable of 
> completing a PhD says a lot. It says you stick with the job, have a 
> capacity and interest for learning, have experience in 
> communication/dissemination, etc... and that's ignoring the 
> field-specific skills.

Yes, but... having a BSc already says all those things. I spent 4 years 
of my life studying for it, I learned all sorts of stuff, and in the end 
I did actually get my BSc. And yet, nobody gives a **** about that. How 
is a PhD different?

>>  8. Are you mental?
> 
> I've got the wrong doctorate to answer that question impartially. :-)

LOL! Nice... :-)

> Speculative queries to research groups in fields that sound interesting 
> are well worth it. You don't need to follow the impersonal rules of 
> regular employment - if you find some prof with research interests that 
> look your kind of thing, just email and ask for more information, and 
> say what you're interested in. Worst case is they simply don't reply.

Well, maybe it's worth a giggle. ;-)

-- 
http://blog.orphi.me.uk/
http://www.zazzle.com/MathematicalOrchid*

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>> See, I don't give a **** about solving real-world problems. I only 
>> care about solving "interesting" problems. ;-)
> 
> What's interesting? Compiler optimization? Mathematics?

Anything with a neat algorithm in it? ;-)

Heh, I don't know...

>> I don't think anybody is "working" with Haskell. (As in, getting paid 
>> money to use it.) I could be wrong, but it seems pretty rare.
> 
> The guy writing GHC is getting paid for it, isn't he?

Er, NO. Nobody gets paid to work on GHC, AFAIK. It's a volunteer-led 
open-source project. (Although, as I have mentioned, the few companies 
who are using Haskell in commercial code all seem to employ people who 
are also GHC developers. But they aren't paid to work on GHC, as such.)

> In any case, by the time I graduated, I was pretty sick of the field I 
> was studying. I went to interview at Bellcore, and they talked to me 
> about it, and I said "I'm pretty sick of it, really."  And they asked 
> "What would be more interesting?"  I said "Dunno. Multimedia?"  And 
> that's where I got a job.

Heh, nice.

>> Possibly my sanity? :-} (Did you *see* the links I posted?)
> 
> Yes. And you know what? Those are people who picked a bad advisor. Pick 
> an advisor who is motivated to get you to graduate, and he'll help you 
> do so.

Hmm. Seems to me that trying to set up a PhD is almost as verilous as 
trying to set up a decent job. Except that PhDs are much rarer. :-}

>> Meh. I tried making a list of cool things, and it ended up having 
>> entries like "complex numbers. Because you can calculate stuff with 
>> them!" Pretty retarded, eh?
> 
> Not really. Keep going, is all. Spend some time thinking about it. 
> You're not going to come up with the cool stuff yourself in a couple hours.
> 
> Now when you read stuff for fun, think about "why is this fun? What's 
> cool about it?"  Give it a couple of weeks of gathering cool stuff.

Mmm, OK...

-- 
http://blog.orphi.me.uk/
http://www.zazzle.com/MathematicalOrchid*

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>> See, I don't give a **** about solving real-world problems. I only care
>> about solving "interesting" problems. ;-)
> 
> 	You have PhD written all over you.

Heh. Yeah, that's what the guy at the job interview said. ;-)

-- 
http://blog.orphi.me.uk/
http://www.zazzle.com/MathematicalOrchid*

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>> See, I don't give a **** about solving real-world problems. I only care 
>> about solving "interesting" problems. ;-)
> 
> I've found that when I get paid to do something it mysteriously becomes
> interesting ???

Heh. You clearly get paid very much more than I do. ;-)

-- 
http://blog.orphi.me.uk/
http://www.zazzle.com/MathematicalOrchid*

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>> I wandered into lots of terms like "universal quantification" and got 
>> horribly lost...
> 
> You should look up "universal quantification" and "existential 
> quantification" on wikipedia.

I've already done this several times. I still don't comprehend. (But 
then, Wikipedia is astoundingly bad at explaining certain topics. Do 
look at digital filters, for example.)

> They're really straightforward concepts 
> with big names. It's like one step up from boolean logic.
> 
> I strongly suspect you already know what the words mean, and you just 
> don't know there's a mathematical term for what they name.

Maybe.

-- 
http://blog.orphi.me.uk/
http://www.zazzle.com/MathematicalOrchid*

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Jim Henderson wrote:

> My brother and I used to fall asleep listening to episodes of the radio 
> series, and we'd quiz each other on the finer details.  Clearly I've lost 
> my touch a little bit. ;-)

You think *that* is bad?! I used to be able to sleep properly...

-- 
http://blog.orphi.me.uk/
http://www.zazzle.com/MathematicalOrchid*

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