4/10    They say that undergrad GPA is harder to maintain than grad GPA.
        How true is that?       -undergrad
        \_ in physics, only an idiot cares about his gpa in grad
           school, although
           A's are easy to get. i guess you probably mean CS though.
        \_ depends on the class.  Tygar is teaching his ecommerce class
           undergrad classes are typically C-centered.
           again next semester.  I took that and wrote 1 paper and got
           4 units of an A (cs 295-7)
        \_ I heard grad classes are typically B-centered while I guess
           undergrad classes are typically C-centered.  - 1337d00d
           \_ True, but I have a friend who went to MIT for ugrad and got in
              for grad. He did well in ugrad, but says he never got an A in
              a grad course because everyone there was too intense. I have a
              friend who says similar things about Berkeley (he only got A's
              in his field of study). These were MS students, not PhD.
              \_ isn't it also true that if you can't pull A's as a grad
                 student they "ask you to leave"?  or is it just that if
                 you're going for a PhD, they ask you to bow out with a
                 MS?            - 1337d00d
                 \_ What you said. They give you the MS and show you the door.
                 \_ This I've never heard. At least at CMU they say you're
                    working too much on classes and not enough on research if
                    you're getting A's. -chialea
                    \_ At Cal, grad students need to maintain a 3.0. A 4.0
                       is not expected. B's are fine. What is not fine is
                       too many C's (even balanced by A's). I suspect most
                       grad students have somewhere around 3.5+ but to say
                       that you *must* pull A's is ridiculous. --dim
                       \_ Cal EECS Ph.D. requires >=3.5 gpa in your "major"
                          area. -alexf
        \_ gpa is for pansies.  You think Einstein obsessed over his gpa?  Or
           any of the other great thinkers and scientists of this century?

4/10    Anyone has a pictre of Trevor?  I am curious to see just how
        desperate Brooke was...
        \_ There's some on dan's page.
           \_ thx
           \_ He is a dork.  Brooke was desperate.  He is not any better
              than any of the nerdy Asian guys.
              \_ why is everyone defending this Brooke? She seems like a
                 total annoying bimbo slut.
        \_ BTW, anyone has a picture of Brooke?
           \_ http://www.playboy.com  Standard big titty playboy type.  Nothing
              special unless you have a plastic fetish.
              \_ not to mention the airbrush look
           \_ http://www.ocf.berkeley.edu/~oso/calpics/sather.jpg
              brooke at sather gate.

4/10    By far the most important component of an application is
        extremely strong recommendation letters from respected
        faculty that rank an applicant in the top 1-5%.

        Again, we are sorry you were not accepted, but this year was a
        particularly difficult one to gain entrance into our program.

        We wish you all the success in the future.
        CS Graduate Admissions
        Stanford University
        \_ That's an interesting point.  Thanks for that.
           I hear this year, getting into grad school (the better ones)
           is much more competitive than before.
        \_ phd or ms?
           \_ I think both, a lot of students graduating this year
              choose higher education over the job market (what job
              market?).

4/10    A '1337 GN00/L1NUX H4X0RZ wet dream of a hard drive:
        http://www.cray.com/news/0204/xfersystem.html
        \_ Does it run Linux??  Imageine a Beowulf Cluster of these!
           \- well short o fthrowing insane amounts of money at a problem,
              the IBM GPFS looks really impressive. It is academically
              interesting too. --psb

4/10    http://www.nypost.com/news/nationalnews/40650.htm
        \_ What working model needs to be a nanny?  Gimme a break.
           \_ did you not see the qualifier "ex-" nanny?
              \_ It doesn't say when she started modelling or quit nannying.
                 \_ So you, of course, picked the most brain-dead assumption
                    out of all possible choices...
           \_ exactly how much do you think a typical model gets paid?
              \_ $200-$300 an hr and most encounters last only 15 mins.
              \_ exactly how much time do you think it takes to be a nanny
                 and how much to be a model?  you ever even met a nanny?
                 or a model?  there's no time to do both for real.

4/11    I'm curious, the guy who has been posting about details of tjb's
        life.  How did you know that he has been diagnosed with ADD and
        has been in a mental institution, etc.?
        \_ Ah, it's me. I guess I've picked up an arguably-unhealthy
           fascination with his case after having to deal with the fucker
           directly on several fronts. The information I have is from
           informal "correlation studies," if you will, on his posting
           patterns, combined with half a dozen personal channels which run
           through common friends. I try to label data I deem unreliable when
           I post it. Do I have too much time on my hands? Eh, well, it makes
           for good procrastination fodder. <shrug> Think what you will. It's
           largely genuine [pseudo]scientific curiosity more than anything
           else. -alexf
                \_ first of all you have too much time. second of all there
                   is very little veracity based on conjectures. Get a life.
        \_ It's curious isn't it? It seems like it's not just chialea and lila
           who have ended up with motd stalkers.
           \_ I think someone just has too much time on their hands is all.
           \_ No one ever stalks me *snif* -geordan
              \_ You need to make a web site and put up a fuzzy picture of
                 yourself so the stalkers have something to latch onto.  Get
                 with it, man!  No one can stalk you properly if they don't
                 have a fuzzy picture!
                 \_ The funny thing is... I already have. -geordan
                    \_ you need to get the url out there, maybe join the
                       scientologists so you can be a first page google hit.
                    \_ Maybe your stalker is so good you haven't noticed
                       him/her/it yet.
                       \_ Doesn't make for a very good motd stalker though.
                          -geordan

4/11    Pink or Texas?  pick one.
        \_ I'd have to say Pinxas.
        \_ I'd have to say Pink's ass.
        \_ I choose Texink
        \_ Texas for the women.  Pink?  Whatever.

4/10    What is the class to take to understand inner/outer product, vectors,
        norm induced, orthogonality, etc?
        \_ What you need to do is use your drug of choice while studying and
           then use the same drug shortly before the exam so you'll be in the
           the same state of mind and you'll be just fine.
        \_ It was Math 54 in my day.  (That day being the one after Math
           50AB.) -geordan
           \_ Math 50AB is gone... but 54 is still the one this guy's
              looking for.
           \_ Given that the op said "understand", the answer you probably are
              looking for is 110. If you meant "understand well", the 250AB
              series (B in particular) would probably be useful as well. Or
              at least H110. 54, at least as taught by most profs these days,
              is too focused on teaching basic computational skills to give
              people a good feel for the concepts. -alexf
              \_ i did not take 54 at cal, but my observation was that
                 it was taught in some way that just failed to work at all.
                 i asked reasonably smart people if they know what an eigenvec-
                 tor was after that class, and they had no clue.  if you
                 want a lower division introduction to linear algebra or
                 vector calculus, go to a JC where they hire actual
                 teachers instead of mathematicians who are forced
                 to teach.
                 \_ Sorry but I learned what an eigenvector is the first time
                    Kahan explained it in class.  What's wrong with you?
                \_ Geeze.  Eigenvector:  x such that Ax = kx, where k
                   is the eigenvalue....
                   \_ What does it *really* mean, though? That was explained
                      to me first in Math 50B, although I already knew how
                      to compute eigenvalues from Math 50A (and even high
                      school). So, as always, YMMV. --dim
                      \_ What an eigenvector *really* means depends on the
                         matrix it comes from.  I've taken both math 54 and
                         math 110, and true, they don't teach intuition.  But
                         then again intuition is not something that can be
                         taught, but something acquired through application.
                         For a good introduction, which seems to be what
                         the poster is asking for, read "Linear Algebra and
                         its Applications" by Strang.  If you want to see
                         linear algebra in action, take a computer vision
                         course (CS 280) or a course on semidefinite
                         programming/convex optimization (EE 227 I think).
                         Through all these courses, the important thing to
                         keep in mind is that linear algebra is a *framework*.
                         It's a compact way of representing a certain kind of
                         problems.  Because this model is well-designed, there
                         are certain properties that has some meaning in real
                         life.  Eigenvectors are an example.  -- alice

4/10    Random stuff for sale: /csua/tmp/payam/forsale. Some free stuff too.

4/10    Chialea, where are you going for grad school?
        \_ I have it on reliable authority that Lea's going to UCSB.
           \_ You should kick your authority's ass.
              \_ My authority has no ass.
        \_ This is starting to really weird me out.
        \_ Where are you going?  I want to be near you always
           -chialea #1 fan #1 fan
           \_ Hi chialea.
              \_ *bzzzt!* Try again -chialea #1 fan #1 fan
        \_ come on, I already sent in my SIR (statement of intent to register)
           there is no way I can follow you now
           \_ That's what they all say.  And who are you replying to,
              exactly? -geordan

4/11    Hey geordan, boxers or briefs?  --stalker #2
        \_ and when did you lose your virginity?  --stalker #3
        \_ Woohoo!  In order:
               * briefs
               * roughly 9 months before you were born
                 \_ Are you Catholic? - stalker #4
           -geordan

4/11    Do you remember how everyone made fun of Al Gore for his
        comments regarding his role in creating the Internet?  I
        just read "Infrastructure for the Global Village" in
        _Scientific_American_ (September 1991, V. 265, N. 3, pp. 150-153)
        by Al Gore, and based on this article I think he deserves a lot
        of credit for encouraging the growth of the Internet.  Back in
        1991 almost nobody new anything about computer, but Gore was
        working on legislation and writing articles about it.  -emin
        \_ back in 1987, i think Al Gore logged onto xtrek, but i
           dooshed him outta da game
        \_ Back in 1987 I was using the internet everyday and it was old then.
           So what?  As an pre-cursor to the Al Gore Internet do I get a blue
           ribbon or something?  Let it go.  He lost.  He isn't coming back.
        \_ Do you mean "Scientific America"?  BTW I was sending internet e-mail
           from my WEB account in 1990, and I wasn't even a hacker type.  (WEB
           in those days officially stood for Workstations at Evans Basement,
           which you probably don't know.)
           \_ I thought magazine names were underlined in references
              (at least according to some sites I found via google
              http://www.pwcs.edu/pwc/schools/lynn/bibfmt.htm
              <DEAD>www.bishops.ntc.nf.ca/lang2101/biblio1.htm<DEAD>  Sure
              some people at one of the world's best CS departments new
              about the Internet, but how many other politicians did?
              I just thought it was interesting that people harrased him
              so much when he legitimately did something useful.  As the
              poster below noted, I guess overstating your achievements
              is a cardinal sin when it comes to public relations.  -emin
              \_ I suspect the politicians who funded the research for it
                 when building arpa net knew about it (before Al Gore had
                 PH#1).  Then again maybe it was a pork line item in some
                 random bill.
              \_ And how man politicians other than Gore knew the
                 difference between "new" and "knew"?
                 \_ Or can spell the word "many".
                 \_ "harassed"
              \_ 1. I was just wondering by "Scientific America_N_" whether you
                 were referring to Scientic America or a different magazine
                 that imitates or is a parody of Scientic America.  I wasn't
                 paying attention to the underlining.  2. How could Gore help
                 create the Internet in 1991 when it already existed?
        \_ I remember back then, there was also something called bitnet.
           \_ And uunet too.
        \_ Yeah, Gore deserves a lot of credit. He just overstated it.
        \_ Most of that was a Republican smear campaign:
           http://commons.somewhere.com/rre/2000/RRE.Al.Gore.and.the.Inte1.html

4/11    So, geordan, do you like your job?  -motd stalker
        \_ It's okay.  Thanks for asking. -geordan

4/11    Q: Has BART ever had a fatal train crash ?

        A: No. The original 23 million mile BART cars which hurtle 90 mph down
        original tracks, over stressed concrete all-elevated structures,
        rusted steel support beams and narrow tunnel 300 feet below mean high
        water in a major earthquake zone has, so far, remained crash-free. Why
        do you ask ?
        \_ If the train derails in a narrow tunnel, how is it going to rescued?

4/11    I love the use of the passive third person through out this whole
        news piece.  As if the rocks just sort of attacked the school bus.
        Not a single mention of _who_ might be throwing rocks.  I guess the
        reporters don't want to 'humiliate' anyone....
        http://story.news.yahoo.com/news?tmpl=story&u=/ap/20020410/ap_wo_en_ge/france_jewish_school_bus_1&printer=1
        \_ The people are identified as "stone throwers".  That the reporter
           didn't identify a group of people may have been because they
           got their information from second hand sources.
           What did you want them to say?  Palestinean supporters?
           You can't just make stuff up if you don't know for sure.
           \_ C-.  Back to e190 and Subject A.  The reporter couldn't find
              one first hand witness with an entire bus load of victims?
              What a total crock.  Also if it was Arabs then why does the
              What a total crock.  Also if it was[n't] Arabs then why does the
              rest of the article talk about "tension" between Jews and Arabs
              in France?

4/12    for alumns; check out the new look of mlk:
        /csua/tmp/mlk1stfloor*

4/11    I WILL BE HEARD!  GEORDAN, I LOVE YOU! --stalker #12
        \_ It brings a tear to my eye. -geordan

4/11    "The president believes that Ariel Sharon is a man of peace."
        -The White House (or is it The Ministry of Truth?)
        \_ This is called "sending a message".  It's telling the Arabs that
           we've had enough.