The Official "rant/bitch/moan" Thread

Lisandro

Baza210 wrote: »

If only.

Well, hypothetically, it should be true. If I'm wrong, it's not my fault!

Sir Ophiuchus

Lisandro wrote: »

Well, hypothetically, it should be true. If I'm wrong, it's not my fault!

Hehe. In theory there's no difference between theory and practice. In practice, there is.

Maybe_Memories

Sir Ophiuchus wrote: »

Hehe. In theory there's no difference between theory and practice. In practice, there is.

Mind = Blown

PurpleFistMixer

Lisandro wrote: »

For the record, everybody hates labs - especially us in Theoretical Physics. The labs are fairly much where we go once a week to bash our heads against a wall incessantly for three hours straight!

Hey, I like labs. (3rd year TP here). It's a nice break from having to think about anything.

Aoibheann

Best thing that can be said about labs!

>_>

<_<

Sadly enough, it does seem to be the reason why so many TPs switch into maths. I only switched because I wanted more maths.. :P

amacachi

Ah, was just drifting off around 1 o'clock for my first proper nighttime sleep in about a month, but no, it couldn't happen, some fcuker had to try to break in. Fcuk.:mad:

Padgeman

Gah. Got up extremely early to be in for my 9:30 exam, only to discover that the exam is actually at 2 this afternoon :mad:

Fringe

Labs are fine in second year. It's really laid back. You go in and have to "print your lab report" for the first half hour. Then you go and sit down at your experiment and talk about stuff until you decide that you want to start and ask someone to start the interview. You can also take it really easy since if you don't finish the first week, you can do it next week. I also made lab reports more enjoyable by trying to fit in really cheesy lines.

I had this by itself on a separate page,
"While this experiment was somewhat tricky at first, of the 10 types of people who understand
logic, we feel that we are the ones who do understand it."

And I guess you learn about some physical phenomena...

Lisandro

PurpleFistMixer, Aoibheann, I find that not having to think about anything makes it frustrating, it means I haven't a clue what's going on! I enjoyed experiments when I had done the background to them (Leslie's Cube was one of my favourites), but a lot of them didn't make sense at the time. Calculating the moment of inertia of a ruler at Christmas is not much fun when you don't learn anything substantial about moments of inertia until after Christmas in Mechanics!

amacachi wrote: »

Ah, was just drifting off around 1 o'clock for my first proper nighttime sleep in about a month, but no, it couldn't happen, some fcuker had to try to break in. Fcuk.:mad:

Someone tried to break in? I'm sorry to hear that, how did it pan out? Did he run away when he heard you coming?

Fringe wrote: »

Labs are fine in second year. It's really laid back. You go in and have to "print your lab report" for the first half hour. Then you go and sit down at your experiment and talk about stuff until you decide that you want to start and ask someone to start the interview. You can also take it really easy since if you don't finish the first week, you can do it next week. I also made lab reports more enjoyable by trying to fit in really cheesy lines.

I had this by itself on a separate page,
"While this experiment was somewhat tricky at first, of the 10 types of people who understand
logic, we feel that we are the ones who do understand it."

And I guess you learn about some physical phenomena...

Ah, that sounds good. Labs weren't too relaxed at first because our instructor in the Michaelmas term tended to want us to do things his way and didn't like people using the debs as their one missed lab. However, we had Möbius for the Hilary term, everybody liked him, he was like a big German teddy bear!

Larianne

Nerds in the fukin library!!

Stop talking about what bloody earphone is the best. Do it outside. And also, stop picking your face. Ew.

Maybe_Memories

Hey Lisandro, do the TPs imagine vlad asking a question on quaternions tomorrow?

Maths people are thinking he'll be like "yeah it's my last year so I'll put them on for the laugh..."

Aoibheann

I honestly still think that Vlad does quaternions for the laugh. ¬_¬

Maybe_Memories

I'm really hoping he does just do it for the laugh

Lisandro

I don't think so, quaternions are a very involved area of linear algebra, I tried to analyse them back in October, but ended it encountering a fair bit of intorductory algebra that had to be overcome before even introducing quaternions! At the very least, it meant that Vladimir's lecture on minors and cofactors wasn't hard to follow because I had encountered them in the library.

If he does set a question on them (which he might well do for a laugh), it probably won't be too difficult. It's a pity he's off to Luxembourg, it means next year's first years won't know what it's like to come into the Maxwell at 1pm and hear the words, "Uhh, I'd like to begin this lecture with a brief note on linear operators..."

Maybe_Memories

Lisandro wrote: »

I don't think so, quaternions are a very involved area of linear algebra, I tried to analyse them back in October, but ended it encountering a fair bit of intorductory algebra that had to be overcome before even introducing quaternions! At the very least, it meant that Vladimir's lecture on minors and cofactors wasn't hard to follow because I had encountered them in the library.

If he does set a question on them (which he might well do for a laugh), it probably won't be too difficult. It's a pity he's off to Luxembourg, it means next year's first years won't know what it's like to come into the Maxwell at 1pm and hear the words, "Uhh, I'd like to begin this lecture with a brief note on linear operators..."

Yeah, a brief note on linear operators.. which lasts for one and a half terms. Oh vlad!

Still, could be worse, at least Pete isn't leaving.

Tears in Rain

Lisandro wrote: »

For the record, everybody hates labs - especially us in Theoretical Physics. The labs are fairly much where we go once a week to bash our heads against a wall incessantly for three hours straight!

I love labs, it's lab reports I hate

amacachi

Iarnroid Eireann have decided to do some extremely noisy work on the railway line tonight and I have to be up in about 5 hours to get to an exam. Fcuksake.:mad:

The Black Oil

Larianne wrote: »

And also, stop picking your face. Ew.

I had to think about what that might look like, yuck.

Tutor is sick.
Mother is now on facebook.

Lisandro

Maybe_Memories wrote: »

Yeah, a brief note on linear operators.. which lasts for one and a half terms. Oh vlad!

Still, could be worse, at least Pete isn't leaving.

Yes, that would not be nice. Or even worse, Stefan Hutzler leaving (School of Physics). Hutzler is fairly much the Pete of the Physics Department.

I would pity next year's first years not knowing what it's like to hear one of Pete's lectures on suprema:

"Now we have our least upper bound, it gets beeegger and beeegger..."

Note: I know Eric Finch is also great, but his impact is different from that of the other two. See below.

Aoibheann

Oh Pete, he's awesome. And will remember you forever!

Maybe_Memories

Lisandro wrote: »

Yes, that would not be nice. Or even worse, Stefan Hutzler leaving (School of Physics). Hutzler is fairly much the Pete of the Physics Department.

I would pity next year's first years not knowing what it's like to hear one of Pete's lectures on suprema:

"Now we have our least upper bound, it gets beeegger and beeegger..."

Ah yes, I was talking to Hutzler actually. Very nice guy.

Hahaha, whenever I'm doing an analysis question I always hear Pete's voice in my head going "so we want to find a least upper bound..."

Maybe_Memories

Aoibheann wrote: »

Oh Pete, he's awesome. And will remember you forever!

I was amazed how he knew the majority of our names on the first lecture.


I personally think Kovacs and Pete are the nicest and friendliest lectures that I've had. Both really go out of your way to help you. A few weeks ago I sent all my lecturers an email explaining why I hadn't been handing up assignments and asking was there any automatic failure policy because of it.

A certain lecture replied with one very blunt and to the point sentence, but Pete and Kovacs replied with long emails, giving advice on what to do etc.


Lisandro, what did you think of today's linear algebra? I was sitting 3 seats to your left

PurpleFistMixer

Lisandro wrote: »

Yes, that would not be nice. Or even worse, Stefan Hutzler leaving (School of Physics). Hutzler is fairly much the Pete of the Physics Department.

Have you not met Finch????

Larianne

Too tired to go out with my class tonight. damnit.

Lisandro

Maybe_Memories wrote: »

I was amazed how he knew the majority of our names on the first lecture.


I personally think Kovacs and Pete are the nicest and friendliest lectures that I've had. Both really go out of your way to help you. A few weeks ago I sent all my lecturers an email explaining why I hadn't been handing up assignments and asking was there any automatic failure policy because of it.

A certain lecture replied with one very blunt and to the point sentence, but Pete and Kovacs replied with long emails, giving advice on what to do etc.


Lisandro, what did you think of today's linear algebra? I was sitting 3 seats to your left

Yes, I think Kovacs is underrated, shy, but very pleasant man. Pete is very helpful, he once spent ten minutes explaining epsilon-delta to me when I said that Spivak's explanation (the writer of the Calculus book on which he bases his lectures) wasn't the most clear and left some ambiguous areas.

By the way, the lecturer who replied with the blunt sentence, I'm guessing it was one of the lecturers I don't have? Vladimir says the home assignments are for practice and aren't meant to be a significant component of assessment. By the way, what was the response?

Dammit, I should've looked to the left! Well, there's still Analysis II, come up an introduce yourself when the exam is over. I think today's paper was not rocket science (though Kovac's would have been if he had included a rocket equation problem!), it's a paper where a very high mark won't be unusual.

PurpleFistMixer wrote: »

Have you not met Finch????

I have, and Eric Finch is undoubtedly quite fantastic. However, his impact is different from Pete, Pete is very calm, clinical and subtly charismatic, the kind of person you know you'll love from the very second you see him, and I say the same about Hutzler.

I draw a distinction with Eric Finch, however, because there's nobody in the department of Mathematics of whom I'm aware who has the same impact as him. He's a very jolly, outgoing, instill-you-with-excitement-and-enthusiasm type of person, his impression on everybody is very out-there and explicit.

All three are fantastic, but for clarity, my comparison was one-to-one; I didn't intend to neglect any of the great individuals in both departments.

Maybe_Memories

Lisandro wrote: »

By the way, the lecturer who replied with the blunt sentence, I'm guessing it was one of the lecturers I don't have? Vladimir says the home assignments are for practice and aren't meant to be a significant component of assessment. By the way, what was the response?

It was Colm O'Dunlain. He copy and pasted half of my email, then under it wrote "No, there's no penalty for not handing in homework - COD"

If everything next year is the same as this year you'll have him for Group Theory. Every lecture is essentially a case of:

"Right, we're going to prove this lemma now! I love lemmas and refuse to call anything a theorem!"
*looks at lemma on blackboard*
"Erm, actually, we wont, because I've forgotten how to."

Tears in Rain

Maybe_Memories wrote: »

It was Colm O'Dunlain. He copy and pasted half of my email, then under it wrote "No, there's no penalty for not handing in homework - COD"

If everything next year is the same as this year you'll have him for Group Theory. Every lecture is essentially a case of:

"Right, we're going to prove this lemma now! I love lemmas and refuse to call anything a theorem!"
*looks at lemma on blackboard*
"Erm, actually, we wont, because I've forgotten how to."

Googled him and found this http://www.maths.tcd.ie/~mathsoc/wiki/Colm_O%27Dunlaing

Guy sounds great, if unreliable

Aoiferz

COD is one fascinating man, too bad he wasn't fascinating enough to keep me awake in his lectures

Raedwald

One of the best colleges around and the useless ****ers cant tell us when we get our results :mad:

A Neurotic

Exams: unpleasant.