[Edu-sig] Calculus with Stickworks (more Gnu Math)

[kirby urner]

On 9/30/06, Arthur <ajsiegel at optonline.net> wrote:
> kirby urner wrote:
>
> >> You are taking something open and public, and  narrowing it, and
> >> appropriating it.
> >
> > Absolutely.  My right and freedom.  No apologies.  Go for it.
>
> You are free to do it, but not by right. Is it your right to do anything
> that no one can stop you from doing? Maybe in a schoolyard sense, yes.
> But not in a grown-up sense.  At least in the world according to me.

Just going by what's in the Python license.  You should be glad I'm as
open and public with my special case narrowing as I am.  Nothing to
keep me from running silent, and just sharing it with my perfect
friends.  I say "should be glad" because yes, I do think my curriculum
writing is high caliber, or I wouldn't be spreading all over
cyberspace (I hope in the right file cabinets -- the vista keeps
shifting).

>
> > In other words:  elegant isn't always my style.
>
> Believe it or not, I think we are more on the same side, than not.  But
> I am forced to remain adversarial, mostly on the issue of style.  Style
> is malleable, so it becomes a choice, a strategy.  Your style - i.e.
> your strategy -  is the basis upon which I am forced to question your
> seriousness.

That's your privilege.  If it were one road in a lonely town, and one
lone red light, you being the light, me racing my engines, then I'd
say we were adversaries.  But it's a four lane freeway each way, no
lights, except what's blinking on my dashboard (the Arthur light keeps
flashing a lot, pesky :-D).

> My style is certainly also open to question.  I like to think that my
> willingness to be abrasive is, at least, a sign of my seriousness.  And
> I am serious. Enough to not feel I need to apologize to anyone for
> engaging you, which others might see as taking something that is none of
> my business, and making it my business. I am exercising my citizenship,
> and am only surpised that others don't feel inclined to do the same.
>
> Art
>

Lots of people engage me, if not here on edu-sig that much.  You and I
go back to Synergetics-L.  People engaged me there.  I fight with Rybo
24/7 on Synergeo.

Rest assured, I get tested a lot, and I don't boast always passing.  I
boast talents, yes, but my powers are strictly limited (yours too
no?).

I goof up, lose at ping pong, bomb in chess (means I lose).

I remember this time I was on Don's boat (where I just was today),
yakking up the amazing superiority of human intelligence over anything
mechanized (giving the birdie to AI), while meanwhile fooling around
with my cell (the one before this Motorola -- it's all my blog).

Just then, it beat me in chess.

I can't tell you how humble I felt losing chess to my stupid cell
phone.  I had to think about the invisible army of engineers behind
that performance, all the chess playing acumen that must have gone
into this program.

That assuaged my ego somewhat (hey, they had an army).  Still... pesky device.

Kirby