7/6     In arithmetic, repeated "plus" is "times", while repeated "times" is
        "to the power".  Is there an operation that stands for repeated "to
        the power"?  My kid asked me and I have no idea.  Thx.
        \- yes, see "up arrow notation". there is a little field of math
           dealing with "rapidly increaseing sequences". from UCB CS you
           may be familar with the POWER of the ACKERMAN FUNCTION for example.
           you also may be interested in RAMSEY THEORY but that is beyond the
           scope of this motd post. UMESH's ex-student Scott Aaronson has a
           good writeup on the WOB about the constrution large numbers.
           \_ Thanks.  -- OP

7/6     I will attempt to write a desktop application for the masses.
        Should I write it in C++, Java, C#, or Python anticipating
        that "Shed-Skin" will be mature enough to use to turn my
        Python into C++ code.  Comments please ladies and gentlemen.
        \_ What OS do the masses use?
           \_ powershell.
        \_ What is more important, the ability to do lots of calculations,
           or rapid development and the ability to modify and add functionality
           at will?  ARe you interested in cross-platform compatibility?

7/6     Soda is having nfs problems, sorry about the up/downtime.
        I'll be monitoring it and seeing if I can figure out why
        it keeps choking; but NFS is somewhat of a (broken) black
        box... :/  --steven