What is Digg?Sponsored by Dragon Age: Origins
Join the Dragon Age: Origins development team on Facebook view!
facebook.com/DragonAgeOrigins - EA presents BioWare's new dark fantasy epic Dragon Age: Origins. '9/10' from Game Informer.
103 Comments
- gerry87, on 10/12/2007, -11/+127http://www.trowbridgegallery.com.au/mirror_room_pages/mirrors_images/104.jpg
- Nitesh9999, on 10/12/2007, -4/+97"What is Digg?
Digg is a user driven social content website. Ok, so what the heck does that mean? Well, everything on Digg is submitted by our community (that would be you). After you submit content, other people read your submission and Digg what they like best. If your story rocks and receives enough Diggs, it is promoted to the front page for the millions of visitors to see."
http://www.digg.com/about
Stop moaning. Digg's not for your nerdy ass to read about Apple all day long. Plenty of people must have enjoyed it to get on the front page. - utcursch, on 10/12/2007, -2/+82Here is a beautiful mathematical art from the guy (Cassidy Curtis):
http://www.math.brown.edu/~howison/newbanchoff/publications/images/20sketch.gif
Interestingly his website says that he has "colored-letter synaesthesia"
http://www.otherthings.com/uw/syn/ - Alfdog, on 10/12/2007, -6/+72I was hoping for something like in the "Hot for teacher" video.
- armbar, on 10/12/2007, -1/+64Here's the text. I found it on Yahoo's cache, not Google's. Maybe the world's coming to an end? Anyway, I couldn't get the picture; I assume it wasn't picked up by the cache robot.
Homework is a necessary chore for teachers as well as for students. Occasionally, though, a routine assignment produces something that is a pure joy.
Every instructor can recall students who have done outstanding jobs on assignments that stretch over a number of days, but I have a candidate for the Best Overnight Homework Ever. Nine years ago I was teaching an honors course in the calculus of several variables to a group of well-prepared first-year students. In my calculus courses I always encourage students to draw - first of all so they can sketch graphs of curves in the plane, and then so they can begin to visualize surfaces in space. Visualization techniques have always been important in mathematics and its applications, and they are especially so nowadays as sophisticated computer graphics enhance our ability to interpret phenomena we could not imagine a generation ago. But you can only really appreciate what the computer is showing you if you've tried to render the curves and surfaces freehand. Almost all of my students get the hang of it well enough to draw a pretty good surface, and some display a particular talent for illustrating mathematical ideas.
Right from the beginning, Cassidy Curtis '92 was unusually adept at drawing surfaces representing complicated algebraic expressions in two variables. He seemed instinctively able to choose just the right viewing angle to display the salient features of a surface, and he used color and shading to bring out key properties. He was equally impressive with colored pencils and with the interactive computer-graphics tools we were developing at Brown.
What astounded me, though, was his response to my first lecture on functions of three variables. We had spent a good deal of time analyzing contour lines of functions of two variables, such as the curves of equal temperature or pressure on a weather map or the contours of mountains on a topographical survey. I then introduced the analogous concept of contour surfaces for functions of three variables, such as the points of equal temperature in a room with a wood stove. I had a particular challenge in mind. The previous summer, I had attended a series of esoteric lectures at Berkeley given by Professor Friedrich Hirzebruch from the University of Bonn. Professor Hirzebruch was interested in a surface with many singularities (points where the surface looks like two cones with their points touching) defined using a polynomial in three complex variables:
f(x,y,z)=(-8x^4+8x^2-1)+(-8y^4+8y^2-1+(-8z^4+8z^2-1)
Although the lecturer said he knew a great deal about this function from the point of view of calculus and linear algebra, he regretted that he could not visualize its geometric shape. I thought our graphics team could help him out. I telephoned my sophomore assistant, Ed Chang '91, who rendered the surface on a computer using a contour-surface algorithm developed by Steve Ritter '85 and Kevin Pickhardt '85 in Professor Andries van Dam's computer-graphics course. Thanks to overnight mail and one-hour film developing, we had slides of the surface in Berkeley in time for Professor Hirzebruch's next lecture. He was delighted, and he has used our computer-graphics illustrations in his lectures and publications ever since.
When I wrote that same equation on the board for my freshman honors students the following semester, I didn't tell them how difficult a visualization challenge it was. I had planned to spread the story over two weeks of class periods, climaxing by exhibiting our computer illustrations.
But I hadn't counted on Cassidy. The very next class, he came up to me and said he knew what those surfaces looked like. He showed me a page of drawings that were unlike anything I had ever seen from a student - perfect, hand-drawn renditions of the object we had created on the computer the previous summer with such labor, not just one image but an entire sequence. And on the next page of notebook paper, he showed how to stack all the color-coded surfaces together in four-space, something our computer could not do at the time!
Since then I have shown slides of Cassidy's work all over the world: in schools and universities, at conferences and art shows, for research mathematicians and for alumni groups. This is not only the best freshman math homework I have ever received. I contend it is the best overnight homework any teacher has ever received in any course at any level at any place in any subject at any time, ever, ever, ever. That is an extreme claim, but I'm still waiting for another teacher to produce a worthy challenger. - Recusant, on 10/12/2007, -4/+45I don't FEEL tardy...
- e03179, on 10/12/2007, -3/+44Save the calculus student, save the world.
- inactive, on 10/12/2007, -1/+41It's a pity that the image is so small I can't read it.
- Rivetgeek, on 10/12/2007, -0/+27Yes tardling, but this kid did it BY HAND. That's what is impressive.
- Maagic, on 10/12/2007, -1/+21I thought this was going to be the "No, there is a ELEPHANT in the way" sketch.
- cheeseylaalaa, on 10/12/2007, -0/+20http://web.archive.org/web/20030126090228/brownalumnimagazine.com/photos/homework1.jpg
The picture to go with the above article - jarinudom, on 03/31/2008, -0/+18What if this is, in fact, the best homework ever to exist in all the history of the universe?
- gerryk, on 10/12/2007, -1/+19Just because you don't understand it doesn't mean it's stupid
- bj00rn, on 10/12/2007, -1/+18Tiniest picture EVER
- damndj, on 10/12/2007, -1/+15There will be two types of comments to this article. Those who can appreciate what this kid has done and those who will be making $5.75 at 30 years old.
- jcapogna, on 10/12/2007, -0/+14Ding, fries are done.
- 2thDec4y, on 10/12/2007, -0/+14Mentally visualizing a complex surface given only an equation IS amazing
- dustedbunny, on 10/12/2007, -0/+12540+ people apparently.
- ZacamCheron, on 10/12/2007, -0/+12It said in the article that he drew a visualization of the formula in 4-space. That alone is amazing.
- MAdaXe42, on 10/12/2007, -0/+11A monkey saddle is a geometric formation - imagine a saddle shaped for a monkey. Two legs and a tail.
- Epyn, on 10/12/2007, -2/+13No, it did not catch it.
- mtxblau, on 10/12/2007, -3/+14...except the kid graduated in 92, meaning he did this in 88 (as a freshman), back when Macs still sucked.
- RationalAntaxia, on 10/12/2007, -0/+10This is actually Topology. I took this class as a senior. Its called Knot Theory and its actually a real cool topic to learn about. You'd be amazed how much information you can get from a simple knot.
- Lorian, on 10/12/2007, -1/+11No.
- 2thDec4y, on 10/12/2007, -0/+10EvolvedAnt:
"he showed how to stack all the color-coded surfaces together in four-space, something our computer could not do at the time!"
traced it from where? - Joeymad, on 10/12/2007, -1/+10http://web.archive.org/web/20041128050423/http://www.brownalumnimagazine.com/storydetail.cfm?ID=907
- ellimist, on 10/12/2007, -0/+9It is the graph of an equation in "four space" - four dimensions (we live in three).
However, the kid (a freshman in calculus) HAND DREW it. Amazing. - deuceswilde, on 10/12/2007, -0/+9I'm looking forward to a digg feature that automatically deletes the comments of griefers and whiners.
- AgentAnderson, on 10/12/2007, -0/+8Don't EVER use the name of Math in vain again!
- greyfade, on 10/12/2007, -1/+9anticlimax? this is incredible. expecially for a first-year calculus student!
- pfunked, on 10/12/2007, -0/+7If you would rtfa you'd see the professor who received the homework makes this claim:
"This is not only the best freshman math homework I have ever received. I contend it is the best overnight homework any teacher has ever received in any course at any level at any place in any subject at any time, ever, ever, ever"
I'm floored by those drawings. This is one of those "Good Will Hunting" "only happens in movies" scenarios where the kid genius solves a notoriously difficult problem with little formal training. - elck03, on 10/12/2007, -0/+6@excalpius
try giving that equation to your art friends in ART 101; let's see if they can come up with the graphs without using any outside software. I doubt they can draw y = 3x+5, ha!
Sorry, I suck. I don't mean to be rude, but unfortunately I am. - ZacamCheron, on 10/12/2007, -1/+6It's really sad that people like tr0n, mtxblau, and ArnoldTPants have to go and bash this accomplishment. We all have our own way of experiencing this world, and I think being able to visualize the complexities of mathematics is one of the finer. If this is not your way, then fine, but don't be disrespectful.
- GenVoss, on 10/12/2007, -2/+7it looks like none of the mirrors caught it. can somebody who saw it look through their internet cache, find the pic, and host it for us? thanks!
- JohnyD, on 10/12/2007, -11/+16re: Nitesh9999
I agree with what you've said however you've left out the most important detail in that all users are not equal. Personally submitted stories and how well they've done are huge elements to digg. If you're a nobody and you find the most interesting story ever there's a very good chance that it will never make it to the front page. Although I have no evidence I feel quite certain in saying that digg users with high ratings (and therefore a high chance of getting a story to the front page) probably scan through newly submitted stories. When they find a good one they resubmit it. They get the credit and the bum who origianlly found the story gets nothing but dugg WAY down when he posts the second submission claiming that he submitted the story first, etc, etc.... We've all seen those posts... and they always get dugg down. Now I LOVE digg... but I don't love how successful digg'ers have more power than others. Let the users decide what makes the front page. That's what I believe...
...then again I also believe in the tooth fairy... go figure. - Optic7, on 10/12/2007, -0/+4People, please read the article before saying that it doesn't look that great. The coolness factor of the homework has little to do with his art skills - it has mostly to do with his mathematical visualization skills.
- paxmaniac, on 10/12/2007, -0/+4Here is a very interesting explanation of the monkey saddle picture:
http://www.otherthings.com/uw/torus.html
A tattoo of a similar surface:
http://www.otherthings.com/uw/t2.html
Turns out this guys worked for Dreamworks on several animated features:
http://www.imdb.com/name/nm0996697/
He also has an amazing study of 'graffiti archaeology':
http://www.otherthings.com/grafarc/
What a talented guy! - JuyLe, on 10/12/2007, -1/+4Well, that just sucks.
- GrooveChampion, on 10/12/2007, -0/+3I brought my pencil give me something to write on...
- halfway, on 10/12/2007, -0/+3nice one gerry
- Volatile, on 10/12/2007, -0/+3Why do people get so pissed off over something so inconsequential? This is really cool and I think I might give something like this an attempt the next time I have to draw something out.
- WileEPeyote, on 10/12/2007, -0/+3@excalpius
I think you missed the point. It isn't that he can draw those shapes as that wouldn't be all that impressive. No, not even to use knuckle draggers who can't possibly understand what art is. It's impressive because he was given a mathmatical formula and was able to visualize it and turn it into a picture without the aid of a computer. Maybe if you weren't drowning in artists you'd understand math... - profOblivion, on 10/12/2007, -0/+2To all the ignorant folks out there saying "I could draw that in grade 1," I don't doubt you could - on the surface it's just a few pretty shaded drawings. To anyone who doesn't know what they're looking at, yeah, it's just a bunch of bubbles. If most everyone else seems to get it but you don't, instead of acting like an ignorant dick, swallow your pride, take a cue from bobbi here and ASK when you don't understand something.
Thank you bobbi for having the guts to admit you don't know something. +1. - sjaskow, on 10/12/2007, -0/+2The downside is most diggers are probably not old enough to get the joke. :)
- Philonius, on 10/12/2007, -1/+3Very funny.....wait...I can't see myself in it!
OMG I'm dead! - ayeroxor, on 10/12/2007, -1/+3Now pull out your colored pencils, and we'll all see how you stack up against TFA.
- ayeroxor, on 10/12/2007, -0/+2thanks!
-
Show 51 - 100 of 104 discussions
© Digg Inc. 2009
— Content created and posted by Digg users is 
