Seek and you shall find...

I have long been a believer that the internet knows everything, you just have to know how to find it. Google tends to help. Wikipedia is also pretty useful at times. However if you're not *quite* sure what you're looking for then the search is made that bit more difficult.

My supervisor advised me to do some reading about aneurysms and other medical things that are related, so that I can get my head round all the concepts. So I asked google and wikipedia about them. At first they told me some new and interesting information that I didn't know before, but then the trail dried up. Wikipedia wasn't as in-depth as I wanted to be. Somehow I had to find out how to get up to the next level.

It's like playing sonic the hedgehog. You know there's a magical level 10. But you're stuck in level one. Only you don't go up a level when you collect gold coins.

For years I've heard about "Athens". Not the one in ancient Greece, but the service for accessing some online journals for free if you're a student. The one in Aber was well advertised, but I never used it. The one here is reasonably well hidden away and I have very little idea about how on earth I should use it. Tonight I was determined though that I would find something useful.

After some searching on the uni library website I found a link to somewhere else where I searched for "aneurysm" and it spat out several reasonably useful articles. They're level 10 articles though and I don't understand all of the big long words.

Tomorrow various online dictionaries will get used in an effort to understand and learn something about aneurysms.

Sometimes I get frustrated by fortran!

I like FORTRAN. Really I do. I like creating programs that work and give me answers that mean things and that I can use to help me write reports and things for uni.

I have problems with it though. It took me ages to understand what I'm trying to do with my latest program. Creating a fortran program based on misunderstandings is never a good idea. I now have the concept though. I understand roughly what I'm trying to do.

The only thing is that now I know what I'm doing I can't figure out how to tell the computer the right fortran so that it will give me the desired answers.

Some cool links and news

I got pointed to this YouTube video at the weekend, it is *really* cool and is the sort of thing that makes me sqwee about my subject. You should watch it because it has pretty lights and bouncing shampoo!

Another cool YouTube video is this one about ferro fluids. Ferro fluids are magnetic and... well watch the video and see for yourself what they do.

Today I read the news that my old uni is yet again doing something really cool now that I'm not there to see it. I missed their big show of venus passing in front of the sun about 3 years ago and now I'm missing the first ever 3D images of the sun. Traumatised I am!

That's all for the links for now, I'm incredibly busy with my MSc these days and don't get much time for thinking about any other maths stuff other than coursework and I don't really want to write about that any more than necessary. I do however have something to write about my upcoming summer project which should be a lot of fun, but also very hard work. Before I do that, however, I need rest and I need to do a little more research on it.

Foodstuffs that make me think of maths...

I see it as a true sign of a geek when someone sees their "area" of science/maths/engineering etc in things that they do/see in everyday life. This is one reason why I consider myself to be a maths geek.

When I make custard from scratch, I measure out the custard powder and the sugar. Then I pour in a drop of milk and stir. If there isn't enough milk for the powder then the spoon is really difficult to move. But if you take the spoon out and watch how the mixture moves on its own you can in fact see that at least part of it is a liquid because it's ever so slowly moving to the lowest point possible in the jug.

Recently I tried those Innocent smoothies for the first time. They are very nice to drink, but for a student they're rather expensive. Right now I'm at home for Easter and Mum has a blender, so I can make my own smoothies. It's amazing that you put solid fruit in and get liquid juice out. It's wonderful! It appeals to my inner geek.