Settled in in Fort Worth

I'm back in school now. Things are looking very settled. I'm rooming with a math major about a semester behind me. We take turns cooking dinner (with lunch on campus normally, and cereal for breakfast) so the food bill is a lot cheaper right now. Plus, I'm eating a lot better.

John watches the Food Network almost obsessively, so he's an amazing cook. In contrast, I managed to screw up my boiled eggs the first day I got here. But I'm learning.

Classes:

• Modern Physics (PHYS)
  

In this class we learn about Physics in the 20th century, particularly relativity and quantum mechanics. I didn't actually have to take this class, but I believe that all mathematicians have to have a strong grasp of physics, given how closely related the two fields are. Plus it's a lot of fun.

• Analysis of Algorithms (COSC)

This is a math class masquerading as a computer science class. We learn about efficient ways to solve computation problems. There is almost no real programming involved (yay!) and a ton of stuff that is of more interest to mathematicians than computer scientists

• Data Structures (COSC)

This is the third and last of the compulsory underclassman sequence for computer science, where we learn 'the basics'. I'm still a bit fuzzy on what this class really involves, except that we learn how the computer stores data. Also, there's tons and tons of java programming involved and very little sleep.

• Galois Theory(MATH)

This is my only 'real' math class this semester. The only other person enrolled in this class is my roomate, so my professor can afford to make this really challenging. I don't know how to describe what we do to a layman, except that it involves algebra. OK, if you're familiar with the quadratic formula for finding the solution x for the quadratic equation ax^2+bx+c=0, I can tell you that there is a similar formula for a cubic equation (that has x^3) and the quaritc equation (that has x^4 as well) but there is not a 'nice' formula for degree 5 and higher. This is the class where we prove this result.

• Honors Research Thesis(MATH)

My super top-secret research project =)

Laptop Buying in California

My laptop fried over the summer, so I had to get a new one. I had an aunt working in an electronics distributor so I managed to get one at a pretty good price (a HP for RM3000)

I'm in California at the moment to recover from jet lag. Another aunt asked me for help to buy a computer. So a good time to do some (belated) cross-continental comparison shopping.

It turns out, that my model costs about $600 (RM1980-ish) over in California! And that wasn't even the cheapest available model. I could have gotten a Dell for $420 (RM1386-ish). So much for our long-cherished assumption that electronics would be cheaper in Malaysia than Silicon Valley.

Oh, but this doesn't include the $40 (RM132-ish) Circuit City charges for "optimization" - i.e. removing all the junk software from Vista (apparently, if we don't do this the computer will be inoperational in a matter of months). Not an issue for me, of course, since I haven't used Windows in 4 years. (Go Ubuntu Linux!) But it shocks me what little regard Microsoft has for their customers' well-being, and how much nonsense those customers are willing to put up with to use Microsoft's wares when superior alternatives are available for free.

Integers, Volume 8.A33

Published!

http://www.integers-ejcnt.org/vol8.html

The PDF file can be found here.