Re: [COFF] [TUHS] Photos of University Computer Labs - now off topic

Re: [COFF] [TUHS] Photos of University Computer Labs - now off topic

[John Cowan]

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-tuhs +coff

On Thu, Dec 23, 2021 at 11:47 AM Dr Iain Maoileoin <
iain@csp-partnership.co.uk> wrote:

I totally agree.  My question is about language use (or drift) - nothing
> else.  In Scotland - amongst the young -  "Arithmetic" is now referred
> to as "Maths".   I am aware of the transition but cant understand what
> caused it to happen!  I dont know if other countries had/have the same
> slide from a specific to a general - hence the questions - nothing deeper.
>

Language change is inexplicable in general. About all we know is that some
directions of change are more likely than others: we no more know *why*
language changes than we know *why* the laws of physics are what they are.
Both widening (_dog_ once meant 'mastiff') and narrowing (_deer_ once meant
'animal') are among the commonest forms of semantic change.

In particular, in the 19C _arithmetic_ meant 'number theory', and so the
part concerned with the computation of "ambition, distraction,
uglification, and derision" (Lewis Carroll) was _elementary arithmetic_.
(Before that it was _algorism_.)  When _higher arithmetic_ got its own
name, the _elementary_ part was dropped in accordance with Grice's Maxim of
Quantity ("be as informative as you can, giving as much information as
necessary, but no more").  This did not happen to _algebra_, which still
can mean either elementary or abstract algebra, still less to _geometry_.

In addition, from the teacher's viewpoint school mathematics is a
continuum, including the elementary parts of arithmetic, algebra, geometry,
trigonometry, and in recent times probability theory and statistics, for
which there is no name other than _ mathematics_ when taken collectively.


> In lower secondary school we would go to both Arithmetic AND also to
> Maths classes.
>

What was taught in the latter?

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Re: [COFF] [TUHS] Photos of University Computer Labs - now off topic

[Dr Iain Maoileoin]

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On 12/23/21 6:02 PM, John Cowan wrote:
> C _arithmetic_ meant 'number theory', and so the part concerned with 
> the computation of "ambition, distraction, uglification, and derision" 
> (Lewis Carroll) was _elementary arithmetic_.  (Before that it was 
> _algorism_.)  When _higher arithmetic_ got its own name, the 
> _elementary_ part was dropped in accordance with Grice's Maxim of 
> Quantity ("be as informative as you can, giving as much information as 
> necessary, but no more").  This did not happen to _algebra_, which 
> still can mean either elementary or abstract algebra, still less to 
> _geometry_.
>
> In addition, from the teacher's viewpoint school mathematics is a 
> continuum, including the elementary parts of arithmetic, algebra, 
> geometry, trigonometry, and in recent times probability theory and

Hey that was 50 years ago! topics like Matrices, subjects like Algebra, 
Geometry, so things like Integration+ Differentiation, integration by 
parts, simple statistics etc.

Arithmetic was of the form "A customer buys 2 pairs of gloves at 1 and 
6pence halfpenny per pair and a hat for a crown.  She pays with a 
guinea; what is the smallest number of coins in change you can give 
her."  (a guinea was 21shillings, 12 pence in a shilling, a crown was 5 
shillings etc etc).  I think I would be better called mental 
arithmetic.  We had ounces and pounds, and stones and hundredweight.  
Inches, hands, feet, yards, chains, furlongs, miles etc.  So perhaps 
arithmetic was a more required learning?


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Re: [COFF] [TUHS -> COFF] Photos of University Computer Labs - now off topic

[Nemo Nusquam]

On 2021-12-23 11:00, Larry McVoy wrote:
> On Thu, Dec 23, 2021 at 03:29:18PM +0000, Dr Iain Maoileoin wrote:
>>> Probably boomer doing math wrong.
>> I might get flamed for this comment, but is a number divided by a number not
>> arithmetic.?? I cant see any maths in there.
> That's just a language thing, lots of people in the US call arithmetic
> math.  I'm 100% positive that that is not just me.

Classes in elementary grades are called "math classes"  (but then there 
is Serre's book).

N.
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Re: [COFF] [TUHS] Photos of University Computer Labs - now off topic

[Theodore Ts'o]

(Moving to COFF, tuhs on bcc.)

On Tue, Dec 28, 2021 at 01:45:14PM -0800, Greg A. Woods wrote:
> > There have been patches proposed, but it turns out the sticky wicket
> > is that we're out of signal numbers on most architectures.
> 
> Huh.  What an interesting "excuse"!  (Not that I know anything useful
> about the implementation in Linux....)

If recall correctly, the last time someone tried to submit patches,
they overloaded some signal that was in use, and it was NACK'ed on
that basis.  I personally didn't care, because on my systems, I'll use
GUI program like xload, or if I need something more detailed, GKrellM.
(And GKreelM can be used to remotely monitor servers as well.)

> >     SIGLOST        -        Term    File lock lost (unused)
> >     SIGSTKFLT      -        Term    Stack fault on coprocessor (unused)
> 
> If SIGLOST were used/needed it would seem like a very bad system design.

It's used in Solaris to report that the client NFSv4 code could not
recover a file lock on recovery.  So that means one of the first
places to look would be to see if Ganesha (an open-source NFSv4
user-space client) isn't using SIGLOST (or might have plans to use
SIGLOST in the feature).

For a remote / distributed file system, Brewer's Theorem applies
---  Consistency, Availability, Partition tolerance --- chose any
two, but you're not always going to be able to get all three.

Cheers,

					- Ted
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