Fuddland
My debit card expired quite a while back but I didn’t fancy the new one being mailed all the way to China, and since I don’t really need to withdraw money from the associated account [the primary reason being there’s bugger-all in it], I asked my bank to put a hold on sending me a replacement until I’m back in the country.
As this terribly exciting event is fast approaching, I contacted them and asked for the new card to be issued. While I was at it, I enquired about the possibility of changing the title on the card from Mr to Dr, being prepared to send them a copy of my PhD certificate as proof.
But apparently these things are just taken on faith! Their reply simply said they’ve changed the title and issued the card as requested. Why doesn’t everyone do it? And why stop at being a lowly doctor? Next time a new card is due, I might mention that I’ve since been elevated to a professorship, received a knighthood and married into a royal family in a little-known Eastern European nation — His Royal Highness Professor Sir David has a nice ring to it, don’t you think?
In: Fudd Work
2007 / 07 / 13 – 16:21 | Comment [2] | Top
As I mentioned, on Friday I successfully defended my PhD thesis during a two-and-a-half-hour-long viva. During the lead-up to this occasion, besides being asked if I was feeling ready [no] or if I was nervous [yes], the most common query from friends and family was: what the hell is a viva?
Before my own, I was only able to give the dictionary-definition answer: a viva — short for viva voce, a Latin phrase literally translating as “by living voice” which has come to mean “by word of mouth” — is an oral examination, conducted by two examiners [one from the student’s university, one from another institute, both somewhat expert in the relevant field], in order to ascertain just how well the student understands the body of work that they have researched and submitted in their thesis. It lasts for as long as the examiners decree and focusses on whichever aspects of the student’s work that they decide are important. Those last two points are why it was hard to say precisely what occurs during the viva, because I really didn’t know exactly what I was going to be asked, and every one must by its very nature be different, but now I’ve been through it myself, I can provide a little more detail on my own experience.
In: Fudd Work
2005 / 12 / 19 – 20:22 | Comment [1] | Top
Ooh look, I’ve passed my PhD.
In: Fudd Work
2005 / 12 / 16 – 14:43 | Comment [15] | Trackback [1] | Top
I could try and use this weekend’s unexpected loss [and subsequent full retrieval from backup] of my weblog database as some sort of backwards justification for not writing anything for nearly three weeks — if I’d written anything recently, the backup might not have been current enough to restore everything — but I fear that wouldn’t wash with anyone [least of all me], so I suppose it’ll have to be the boring old: I just haven’t felt like it. No real reason beyond that.
I started to write about the things I’d been doing over the last few weeks, but it all seemed rather pointless: I already know, and why should anyone else care? I find myself being less and less interested in writing weblog entries which are little more than reportage [such as, erm, this very entry]. But then commenting on, or having an opinion about, current affairs requires actually reading the news from time to time, something which I’ve also become rather lax about of late; I still skim the headlines of the BBC’s various RSS feeds, but rarely click through to the main article.
Instead, I’ve been lending a helping-hand to friends in a spot of bother [involving, amongst other things, a weekend of painting and decorating which was the most fun I’d had in ages]; forging new friendships; rekindling old ones; and of course, doing a bit here and there towards completing my PhD. The pressure’s really on but the end remains frustrating, tantilisingly just out of reach.
I decided recently that I needed to listen to some really authentic blues, and after a tip-off from a scene in E.R. of all things, I went right back to near the beginning of recorded music and got hold of Robert Johnson’s Complete Recordings, the fruits of just two recording sessions in which he laid down his repertoire of songs, classic blues that are still being covered by today’s artists.
In: Fudd Work & Local News & Music & Site News
2005 / 03 / 09 – 08:31 | Comment [6] | Top
The three-body problem is a classic question in mathematics, usually posed in an astronomical setting, with its solution describing the motion of three masses of various size [a star, a planet and a satellite of the planet, for example]. Unfortunately it’s generally not possible to solve the problem precisely, so one needs to use numerical methods [that is, use a big computer] to work out approximate solutions. The fact that there is not a quick and easy solution has profound repercussions on everyday life, as I recently found out.
2004 / 12 / 11 – 09:28 | Comment [2] | Top
We’re having the server room next door to our office kitted out, after it’s been sitting empty for over a year. This task apparently involves lots of banging, crashing, shouting, singing tunelessly along to the radio, and more banging. Obviously this in no way affects me because it’s not like I need a nice quiet environment in which to work and think. I just like to spend my day composing sarcastic emails, like the one I just sent to all the lecurers who sit, insulated from the outside world, in their cosy offices on the floors above the postgraduate room.
Idea for a new “reality TV” show
Office Swap: the Applied Maths professors and the postgraduates from a Midlands University Mathematics Department swap offices for a week, during which time extensive work is being carried out in the room next to the postgraduate office.
The professors will be tested to their very limits as they attempt to undertake their work with the office being used as a public thoroughfare. The first task will be to come up with a reason why the corridor that runs just alongside the office cannot be used as, you know, a corridor.
The next task must be deciding which is more annoying: having to continually get up to open the door for the people who have forgotten the code, or leaving the door propped open and enduring the continual yet inexplicable beeping from the so-high-tech-it’s-never-bloody-worked alarm system just outside. The only catch is, if you do prop the door open, you have to leave a few laptops lying around unsupervised.
The afternoon brings a disco theme as the light-switches are turned on and off randomly whilst the new switches are tested, to the tune of whatever pap chart music is pumping from the radio in the next room. You may dislike it at first, but the fumes from the glue-gun or whatever it is will soon send you into a dizzying high and you just won’t care anymore.
Coming soon to a cable channel near you.
In: Fudd Work
2004 / 11 / 05 – 11:08 | Comment [2] | Top
By the end of today, I shall be an expert C++ programmer.
Current level of C++ expertise: zero. That’s a fair old climb.
Update: [Ten-and-a-half hours later] I’ve decided to loosen my definition of “expert” to mean “someone who can write a programme that takes two user-input numbers and tells you which one is the bigger number”. I am thus now an expert.
In: Fudd Work
2004 / 10 / 22 – 10:59 | Comment [5] | Top
Just what the hell is the Laplacian of a monomial? The expression I’ve come up with doesn’t equal the expression I have in a book, and now my expression is somewhere between bewildered and bemused dismay.
If only there was a maths equivalent of RentACoder, from which — believe it or not — some of our Computer Science students have been caught requesting solutions to their coursework. Thankfully one of the coders had some morals and alerted the Department that a few of our students were dirty rotten cheats. I’m not sure what fate awaits them, but I say, if only for the sake of the future employers who might think they’re hiring someone who can actually code: kick ‘em out.
Update: Ha! Book wrong! Me right! Bloody typo wasted my morning. I’m off for a cuppa.
In: Fudd Work
2004 / 05 / 12 – 12:34 | Comment [6] | Top
Well that went pretty well I thought [and, more importantly, so did a few other people, including my supervisors]. There were a couple of the inevitable sticky questions at the end, but also some suggestions as to interesting directions to go with my work.
But obviously the first direction I’m going is pubwards. I leave you with the highlights of my talk.
In: Fudd Work
2004 / 02 / 19 – 16:44 | Comment [9] | Top
2004 / 02 / 19 – 10:43 | Comment [5] | Trackback [1] | Top
2004 / 02 / 12 – 19:18 | Comment [4] | Top
2003 / 12 / 10 – 11:51 | Top
2003 / 12 / 10 – 10:09 | Comment [3] | Top
2003 / 11 / 19 – 12:04 | Comment [6] | Top
2003 / 11 / 19 – 11:28 | Comment [6] | Top
2003 / 10 / 22 – 17:02 | Comment [6] | Top
2003 / 10 / 15 – 16:32 | Comment [1] | Top
2003 / 08 / 29 – 11:02 | Top
2003 / 08 / 19 – 12:26 | Comment [7] | Top
2003 / 07 / 23 – 13:33 | Top
2003 / 07 / 18 – 10:07 | Comment [2] | Top
2003 / 07 / 16 – 10:32 | Top
2003 / 07 / 03 – 14:49 | Comment [1] | Top
2003 / 06 / 30 – 14:51 | Comment [2] | Top
Read the rest of “things my supervisor and i have argued about”…
2003 / 06 / 26 – 15:06 | Comment [4] | Top
2003 / 06 / 25 – 12:39 | Comment [4] | Top
2003 / 06 / 17 – 13:59 | Comment [3] | Top
2003 / 06 / 12 – 15:34 | Comment [3] | Top
Read the rest of “irrationality, transcendentality, and perfection”…
2003 / 06 / 09 – 13:11 | Top
2003 / 06 / 06 – 09:58 | Comment [1] | Top
2003 / 06 / 05 – 13:42 | Comment [1] | Top
2003 / 06 / 04 – 15:43 | Comment [1] | Top
2003 / 05 / 20 – 11:33 | Top
2003 / 05 / 16 – 12:43 | Comment [16] | Top
2003 / 05 / 16 – 10:28 | Top
2003 / 05 / 09 – 18:08 | Top
2003 / 05 / 08 – 16:24 | Comment [3] | Top
2003 / 05 / 02 – 20:53 | Top
2003 / 04 / 14 – 16:04 | Top
2003 / 04 / 14 – 13:28 | Comment [1] | Top
2003 / 04 / 09 – 15:15 | Top
2003 / 04 / 04 – 13:41 | Comment [5] | Top
2003 / 04 / 03 – 18:08 | Comment [1] | Top
2003 / 03 / 26 – 11:34 | Comment [5] | Top
Read the rest of “the tortoise and the (s)hare(d network drive)”…
2003 / 02 / 28 – 14:48 | Comment [2] | Top
2003 / 02 / 26 – 18:13 | Comment [11] | Top
2003 / 02 / 12 – 15:57 | Top
2003 / 01 / 31 – 12:57 | Comment [1] | Top
2003 / 01 / 21 – 17:08 | Top
2003 / 01 / 20 – 12:05 | Comment [3] | Top
2003 / 01 / 17 – 22:34 | Top
