It’s a Big, Big World
On Commercial Street, one of Bangalore’s shopping meccas, our group was on assignment to bargain for and purchase various items. While buying a pair of turquoise earrings, I felt a slight graze on my upper arm. I turned and faced a middle-aged Indian woman with a baby. She brought together the fingers of her free hand and raised them to her mouth, motioning an eating action. Then she cupped that hand, presented it to us palm side up, and looked at us pleadingly.
Brouhaha Rhythm
People often assume that we have relatively poor English skills just because we go to a school that’s predominantly scientific and engineering-ic. That, of course, is simply not true. Well, not necessarily, anyway.
Brouhaha Rhythm
Ah, it’s good to be home. My sibling is toiling away at high school and my classmates are trudging 15 miles uphill both ways through the less-than-tropical climate of winter in Cambridge. Meanwhile, I’m warming my toes in luxurious Virginia. Sure, it’s not sunny California or Hawaii, but it’s where the heart is, no doubt about it.
Ask SIPB
This week, we will explore several ways in which to access MIT e-mail accounts and the advantages that various e-mail clients offer when compared to Webmail.
Through My Eyes
If you died tomorrow, would you have regrets? Would you be satisfied with your life? Would you be more than content?
Brouhaha Rhythm
Boy, when people sing about a winter wonderland around here, they ain’t kidding. I’d wager that with the first major snowfall of the year comes an increasingly enthusiastic populace with ideas aplenty as to what to do with it. The fact that many here are from toastier climes and may be unfamiliar with some key properties of snow (such as its effectiveness in projectiles) only adds to the potential for hijinks.
Practicing Poverty
I’ve always been interested in international development. Traveling to exotic places while saving millions of lives — what a double whammy! I call that the perfect job. My friend calls that a hero complex. Nonetheless, I signed up to take the D-Lab: Introduction to Development course (11.025J / SP.723) because it offered a once-in-a-life time opportunity to travel and make a difference. Little did I know that a small assignment called “Practicing Poverty” would change my perspective on international development.
How to Pick Up … at MIT
Everyone has, had, or will have this problem. Some have solved it. Others have given up. Colloquially, we refer to the problem as “picking up.” Here, one can’t help but draw a natural comparison to “picking up” hardware at a computer store. If only things were as simple as ordering to specification or as exciting as a buy-one-get-one-free sale. But perhaps the real dilemma lies in the vagueness of our colloquial talk. In light of the fact that MIT students are such unbelievable pset solvers, we might as well reformulate our problem in a more familiar language:
Cipher in My Cereal
<i>Solution to Dec. 4 Cipher: </i><i><Zoroaster, Zarathustra, Zartosht> </i>→<i> take out all repeating instances of letters </i>→<i> <Zartosheu> </i>→<i> anagrams to </i>→<i> <azure shot> </i>→<i> <the second word, shot> </i>→<i> <SHOT = Society for the History of Technology> </i>→<i> <they award the Dexter Prize> </i>→<i> <Dexter’s Laboratory> </i>→<i> <Cartoon Network></i>
Through My Eyes
Known as “Asians,” Indians make up a significant part of the East African population. Though the minority, their culture has been strongly integrated into the East African culture. Considering themselves Asian-Africans, the Indian community in Kenya are well-respected and mostly in the higher economic class. Though I did not interact with any Asian-Africans in Kenya, the integration of the two cultures was obvious. However, I should say, the differences were pronounced and some environmental factors were almost the opposite of what they were in India.
Cipher in My Cereal
<i>Solution to Nov. 27 Cipher: William Barton Rogers, founder of MIT; BEAVER PRIDE</i>
Brouhaha Rhythm
Many people at MIT are nerdier than most, and some have and continue to spend hours at a time playing video games instead of talking to anything with a pulse. So, it’s self-explanatory that social skills, at least among us freshmen, may be a smidgen underdeveloped. As impressive as our LANs are, we are not, by and large, a party school. By that, I mean that when people hear “MIT,” they generally don’t think of us as the “Planet of the Witty, Friendly, and Appropriately Hygienic Students” so much as they do the “Planet of the Slide-Ruling Apes.” Tragic, no?
Squid vs. Whale
I was browsing through <i>The New York Times</i> at lunch last week when I ran into this article: “Effort to Limit Junk Food in Schools Faces Hurdles.” Apparently with kids getting fatter, our government felt forced to ask the question, “Are our children eating too much junk food?” And with the answer being a resounding “Yes,” they’re thinking of banning junk food from schools.
Ask SIPB
If you’ve used a computer for any length of time, you’ve undoubtedly wanted to have a backup of older versions of the files you’re working on. You may also have wanted to let multiple people edit a document and track the changes each has made. In this week’s Ask SIPB, we’ll discuss version control, the traditional solution to these two problems, and walk through using <i>Subversion</i>, a popular, modern version control system.
Squid vs. Whale
I was going over my holiday shopping list (yellow sweater, new toys for Winston Beagle …) when I started thinking about all the things I used to want as a kid. The “what do you want for Christmas holiday sweepstakes” was an intense game of brinkmanship in my family.
Cipher in My Cereal
This morning, a mysterious letter appeared in the mailbox of our friend Bill B. Rogers. By the looks of the fancy letterhead, watermarked paper, and wax-sealed envelope, the message in the letter is important. However, the letter itself makes no sense. Below is a copy of the text — who is our friend, and can you help him decipher his letter?
Through My Eyes
Remember the dilemma from Plato’s “Allegory of the Cave,” where a prisoner was released into an unfamiliar, bright world? Seeing only dark and shadows created by a single fire behind him, the cave was the only world the prisoner had known. The unchained prisoner only returned to the cave to enlighten his fellow prisoners and was unable to adjust back to the dark, chained environment.