I figured out how to use ssh from the terminal to remotely connect to the Sublab in order to turn in my CS4 homework. At first I was using PuTTY, because the instructions on the CS department are geared towards Windows users and I just followed them. Unfortunately I wasn’t been able to get X11 forwarding to work. Using PuTTY, I couldn’t paste into the terminal properly either. In desperation (as in I desperately didn’t want to leave my room early and turn in my homework at the Sunlab before class) emailed my homework to my CS email account, futzed around with pine until I figured out how to save attachments, and moved to the file into the appropriate folder.

Now at least I can use gnome-terminal and copy and paste to my heart’s content, but X11 forwarding still doesn’t work. I suspect something to do with Compiz and XGL, but other than that I have no idea. I’m pretty much in over my head when it comes to graphics and network stuff.

On a slightly related note, there is a boy who uses Ubuntu on his laptop in Epistemology. He has a 17″ screen and constantly moves around windows, zooms out from his desktop and shows off various other 3D effects during class. He also sits in a chatroom the whole time. It is mildly obnoxious and, feeling defensive of my Ubuntu-geek territory, I wish he used Vista.

tags: class, navi, web

I took a gamble and realized that I will probably be able to switch from the “standard program” philosophy track to the ethical/political philosophy track, which requires three upper-level courses in ethics. I have only taken one ethics class within the Brown Philosophy Department, but numerous outside of it (Justifying Punishment at GWU, Philosophy of Law at UMD, and at Brown: Ethics and Public Policy, Civil Liberties: Moral, Legal and Political Approaches, Intro to Political Thought, Christian Ethical Theories, Shaping of Worldviews). I am eligible to get to credit for up to two of those courses towards my concentration, which would make three “official” ethics courses.

I would like to say that I concentrated in ethics and political philosophy. I would also like to avoid taking Moral Psychology in order to fulfill the seminar requirement of the standard track concentration. I think I will still take Epistemology even though it is not required if I switch tracks because it is a MWF class (50 minute meetings, phew!), the professor is on top of things, and being a philosophy class I know what to expect from it. Also the people in the class are enthusiastic and it meets in a nice classroom in one of my favorite buildings on campus, Smith-Buonanno.

So that leaves us with:

• Epistemology
• Environmental Economics and Policy: idealistic, yet practical
• Objectivity and Its Loss: a class in the interdisciplinary Science and Society department, which used to be the Biomedical Ethics department.
• Introduction to Scientific Computing and Problem Solving: programming in Matlab and C, mostly for Engineers, but seems like it will be fun

tags: brown, class

But let’s not think about it that way, right?

Shopping while sick has been a hassle. So far I gone to Environmental Economics, Epistemology, European Intellectual History, Intro to Number Theory, Intro to Scientific Computing and Problem Solving, and Moral Psychology. I need to take Epistemology and Moral Psychology to finish my concentration. I ruled out Number Theory after looking at the homework and the recitation times. Still unsure about European Intellectual History. Ruled out Environmental Economics because of a group paper (and let’s face it, I slept through the past two sessions while sick), but now that I think about it I might go to lecture tomorrow again just to make sure I don’t want to take it. Pretty positive about Computer Science — need at least one non-writing/reading course and it is practical. Shopping “Objectivity and Its Loss,” a bioethics class, today. I came across a syllabus for “Economics and Psychology” which looked cool, but it meets 3:00-5:20pm on Friday afternoon.

Yes, I am overwhelmed.

tags: brown, class

How time flies. It is almost the end of the semester and I have barely posted at all the past few months.

Exam period is not too bad this fall. I already took my Welfare Economics final midterm this past Tuesday. I have a feeling I got an B on the exam, which would mean a B in the class. In fact I’m not even sure if an 100% would have gotten me an A in the class because I did so badly on the first midterm. But either way it will be something of an accomplishment, considering how I was convinced I was going to fail the class at one point.

Right now I am in the middle of working on my 20 page term paper for Civil Liberties which is due Monday. I’ve never written an academic essay that long, although I did write 20 pages for my Shaping of Worldviews personal belief paper last semester. Luckily I am not starting this paper the day or even two days before it is due. I started writing almost a week ago although I am going at a snail’s pace without last minute pressure. I have about 3500 words down, which means I am a little bit less than halfway done with 3 and half days left. Not bad, but I don’t think I will really be able to relax until I’m at the final stretch.

Once my paper is done I will have 3 days to study for my Statistics final and pack. On the 21st I take my exam and almost immediately fly home.

In other news it snowed 6-10 inches yesterday afternoon and evening. I took a few pictures. Soon I will finally get around to uploading them.

tags: brown, class

I am writing a final paper on Cass Sunstein’s judicial minimalism for Civil Liberties. Judicial minimalism is the idea that instead of having a general theory to apply uniformly to all or most cases, judges should decide based on the facts of the particular case, and their ruling should only apply to that specific case. Today I came across an Amazon review of one of his books that sums up the sneaking suspicion I have had for the past few days: Sunstein has written a book that doesn’t say very much. Every point of his argument for minimalism comes with a caveat. He claims he is against a general theories, but it seems like he has one of his own that he simply hasn’t bothered to investigate — otherwise it is unclear why his argument comes with so many qualifications. Minimalism is desirable because it reduces decision and error costs of judicial rulings — except when it doesn’t. It does a good job of promoting social stability — except when clear rules would do a better job. It helps promote democracy — in certain cases. So why doesn’t Sunstein just come out and admit that he has some kind of first principles in mind? It’s true that minimalism is a good model of how Supreme Court justices often act in practice. But this is ultimately an uninteresting point; I can’t imagine that many people would disagree with his descriptive points.

tags: class

• Pop quizzes, in both Making Decisions and Statistics. They don’t test how well I know the material, they test whether I can think on the spot and have a photographic memory. They don’t help me learn.

• Making Decisions presentation project. The assignment is very open ended: make a persuasive presentation for and against buying insurance, basing both the pros and cons on a common set of facts. I have spent a week already searching online for “insurance facts” and been completely overwhelmed by technical information and economics papers. The only things I can think of to talk about are moral hazard (con: insurance makes you more careless because you know you are covered; pro: knowing you are covered gives you peace of mind) and risk pool (pro: if you get sick, you pay less than you would have otherwise because your costs are being subsidized by everyone else’s payments; con: if you are generally healthy, you are paying more than you otherwise would). That doesn’t make a 12 minute presentation. Also, my group is 7 people, which makes everything take a billion times longer than it should.

• Civil Liberties final paper. I have never written a 20 page research paper. Even though I am starting now a month ahead of time, I am very nervous about finishing. I have a topic I’m not sure how I am going to write 20 pages or what I am going to argue exactly. All my work this semester is due at the end. What am I going to do? Needless to say I will be working hard over Thanksgiving.

Nov 27: Civil Liberties Presentation Paper due
Nov 30: Group presentations start for Making Decisions
Dec 11: Last Welfare Economics midterm
Dec 12: Making Decisions as-yet unassigned paper due
Dec 12: Civil Liberties final paper due

tags: class, nix