Elliott C. Back: Internet & Technology

Michael pointed out this very interesting, funny, anecdote. Scoble hasn’t hit a bug in his Tablet PC because he reboots it every evening, for productivity! Check out the quote:

Why haven’t I hit it? I shut down my Tablet PC most evenings and start it up from a fresh boot. Why do I do that? Because I’ve been using computers for 20 years and have learned that’s the best way to work.

For me, the best way to work is the always-on-until-it-dies-or-I-need-to-move-it-somewhere policy…

There is a new theory that President Bush’s native language is Latin:

Something interesting: ‘nuclear’ is the adjectival form of ‘nucleus’, which comes from the Latin ‘nuculeus’, from ‘nucula’ the diminutive of ‘nux’, meaning ‘nut’. So the at some point the ‘u’ between the ‘c’ and ‘l’ was dropped (and at that point would have probably been considered a mispronunciation).

My theory – it’s Bush’s comprehensive knowledge of and fluency in Latin that leads to his pronunciation.

Take a look at the following conversation I had after doing some CS 412 homework:

(20:30:53) Elliott:Can you take a look at my DFA?
(20:32:38) Kelly: sure
(20:32:49) Elliott: let me upload the png
(20:33:04) Elliott: It’s supposed to match /* .*? */
(20:33:21) Elliott: It’s easy…but I just wanna double check
(20:33:24) Elliott: I’ve never done it…
(20:33:47) Kelly: is that regex?
(20:34:01) Elliott: Yeah
(20:34:06) Elliott: It should match c-comments
(20:35:39) Kelly: very cute
(20:35:45) Kelly: 2,3 forms a unhappy face
(20:35:57) Elliott: Sure, but does it work
(20:36:03) Kelly: and 5, 4 forms a happy face
(20:36:09) Kelly: with a big cheek
(20:36:17) Elliott: -_-…..
(20:36:19) Kelly: 6, 5 forms a happy face with a nose
(20:36:22) Kelly: and a black eye
(20:36:27) Kelly: perhaps got beaten up?
(20:36:44) Elliott: Arrrrrrrrrghhhhhh!
(20:36:50) Elliott: I want you to double check my DFA!
(20:36:53) Elliott: Not get creative!
(20:36:53) Elliott: lol
(20:36:59) Kelly: sorry…..i can’t look at ur cute DFA without amusing myself
(20:37:18) Kelly: 2,3 got shot in the forehead..that’s y it’s not happy
(20:37:20) Kelly:
(20:37:21) Kelly: poor thing
(20:37:30) Elliott: It’s a discrete finite automaton…it’s not cute!
(20:37:38) Kelly: yeah it is
(20:37:49) Elliott: *explodes*
(20:37:50) Kelly: you should tell your groupmates my interpretation of your DFA
(20:37:55) Kelly: =D
(20:38:02) Elliott: You should tell me if it looks ok
(20:38:12) Kelly: letmme see
(20:39:18) Kelly: alright…
(20:39:21) Kelly: hmm…
(20:39:25) Kelly: sounds good
(20:39:29) Kelly: it opens and closes

The funny thing is that Kelly is a CS major, knows what Deterministic Finite Automata are, and can answer the question. But today, she’s apparently in an out-of-this world mood. The best word to describe her reaction to my question is whimsical. Or even quixotic! So cute…