Jim Roepcke's weblog have browser, will travel (est. 1999)

RE: A math problem is driving me nuts!

Seth showed me how to solve the math problem I was having, as did Dori, privately. Thanks!

While trying to work it out, I was thinking that there has to be a way to get that lone "3" into the numerator, since it was completely gone from the author's answer, but I was struggling to find the way. When I saw what I had missed, lots of old synapses fired and soot balls were jettisoned from my ears.

At first I was a little disappointed that I had forgotten something rather simple, but after a few minutes that blue mood went away. I can't get discouraged so easily, especially when I've JUST started studying again. Obviously things aren't going to come as easily as I hope they would.

I've got 3 months to get my brain into shape. I think that's enough time.

Here are some of the bookmarks I kept while browsing for Math resources back in March...

• MathWorld from the makers of Mathematica
• MIT OpenCourseWare | Mathematics
• Five Free Calculus Textbooks, a thread on Slashdot.
• Mathematical Background
• Mathematics bookshelf from Wiki Books

As you can see there is no shortage of material to study from. I still think I am going to need some more elementary material though. I need a thorough review of factoring, for one thing. Frankly, I need a thorough review of all junior-high and high-school level algebra and trigonometry.

A math problem is driving me nuts!

I took a picture of an example from the math text I am reading. This is in the introductory section that is demonstrating how to solve inequalities.

I think there might be an error in his work, but when I plug the original inequality and the suspect one into the Graphing Calculator (the one that comes with Mac OS 9), I get the same result. So I'm not sure if this is a coincidence or if he really did do it right.

What I don't understand is how he made x(x+5)/x+1 > 3 into (x2+2x-3)/x+1 > 0. If you expand x(x+5), you get x2+5x, so I don't see how he ended up with only 2x in the numerator on the left hand side of the inequality instead of 5x.

It looks to me like it should be ((x2+5x)/(x+1))-3 > 0 instead. Can somebody please confirm this or explain how you might get from what I got to, to what he got to?

Thanks!

teleport, a smart software KVM

abyssoft: teleport -- "teleport is a simple utility to let you use one single mouse and keyboard to control several of your Macs. Simply reach the edge of your screen, and your mouse teleports to your other Mac! The pasteboard can even be synchronized between the computers."

I have been talking to friends about doing exactly this software since 2001 (maybe even earlier), but obviously didn't get motivated enough to do it. I wanted it to work across platforms, mind you, not just Macs, but Windows machines as well, and why not *nix too? This is something that should be straightforward, but probably is quite tricky. It could probably re-use a lot of VNC code... but really, it's much simpler than VNC.

Oldest Canadian World War I combat vet dies

CP: Oldest Canadian World War I combat vet dies

There are now only 8 Canadians left from the 650,000 that served in the war.

UserLand announces services group

UserLand Product News: UserLand Adds Professional Services Group

Interesting. Who have they hired?