ruanchored

I wrote in a paper "I wish I'd have waited..." Someone told me it should be "I wish I had waited..." Which is right, and why?

I never took a formal trig class, though I understand the basic concepts. It seems like it should be easy, but I can't figure it out. I have a 4-sided figure and know all the sides, and they're all different, so it's considered a "scalene" quadrilateral. What I want to know are the 4 angles. Given the lengths AB, BC, CD, and DA, how do you solve for angles a, b, c, and d?

Probably a 90's movie, but not positive. Earth picks up communications from space, and they figure out a pattern - something to do with primes I think - and figure out how to interpret the signals. From further communication they get the plans to a space ship - a big round one, which they finally try to send off with a lady on board. From earth's perspective, it looks like the spaceship just falls straight to the ground without going anywhere, but the lady comes out telling the tale of having gone through a wormhole to some distant place and talking to some being, but they think she's a liar.

On the original Knight Rider, in the episode Hearts of Stone, there's a brief display of a helicopter control panel, and there's a note on it (made with one of those label makers where you turn the wheel to choose your letter, then punch it into the blue sticky plastic strip) which says:

SIMULATED ENGINE FAILURE

PROHIBITED FROM RIGHT SEAT

Any idea what that's for / what it means?

(the one that got into the greenhouse and was caught in the trap Mr. Aarons set for it)

In Henry VI part 2, act 3 scene 2 line around line 325 or 335, we find the words: "Their softest touch as smart as lizard’s stings!"

No lizards have stings, as far as I know, and Shakespeare has already used "sting" in this very scene once related to bees and twice to snakes, so obviously he's using the broader meaning of "sting". But even so, lizards that are aggressive enough to bite people aren't that commonplace, and the only known living poisonous lizards are endemic to North America, which Christoffa Corombo hadn't yet discovered in the mid 15th century when this play is set.

Did "lizard" have a broader meaning at the time? Was he just sick of referencing snake "stings" and figured he'd extend the concept to another reptile? Were aggressive lizards more common in that day?

Buying auto insurance recently, one agent told me I had a ticket from 2 years ago, (which is completely bogus). He said it was on my CLUE report. I checked with the state DMV, and they don't have any such ticket on record, and my other agent didn't see it on my record either. If my current agent and company see my record correctly and are giving me insurance based on that clean record, does it really matter what my CLUE report says? If there's some good reason to make sure it gets changed, I'll make the effort, but I wasn't going to bother otherwise.

So I'm in Windows Task Manager (XP Home SP4) looking at the System Idle Process in the "CPU Time" column. The seconds seem to be counting up at (roughly) two for every one real second, so the total time far exceeds the time since the PC was turned on.

I'm not overclocking anything or using any tweaks I can think of that would cause such behavior. It's a Pentium 4 on a genuine Intel board with the latest Intel chipset drivers installed, etc. Rebooting makes no difference.

Couldn't tell you if it's JUST the System Idle Process showing incorrect times, since nothing on my computer is taking significant CPU time. The CPU times of other processes are consistent with what's listed in Sysinternals Process Explorer, but Process Explorer doesn't give a total time for the System Idle Process, so I can't compare.

Not sure if anyone else has encountered similar behavior or has any suggestions on why it's wrong or how I could get it to be correct...

Thanks.

Is there a jocular/witty/cool/slang term for "someone who is acting in an immature/childish manner"?

If I needed to express this either to someone or about someone, and I said it like it's written above, I'd come off sounding like an uptight prig.

And obviously I don't want to descend to using an immature retort in trying to communicate someone else's immaturity, so it has to be some sort of fun-loving/jocular term or phrase that still gets the point across - nothing crude or mean, please.

I thought I sort of understood it, and I used it effectively in one routine, but trying a different addressing mode of that instruction in another similar function didn't work right for me, but a MOV instruction worked instead. So anyway, I'm confused.

I'm writing a machine code routine, and I need the value of ZF stored in a memory byte.

Right now I'm forking with a JZ conditional jump, but I was thinking there's got to be an easier way. Here's the relevant part of the code:

JZ zero_flag_set: (#74, #06)

MOV [EBP+12], 0 (#C6, #45, #0C, #00)

JMP end: (#EB, #04)

zero_flag_set:

MOV [EBP+12], 1 (#C6, #45, #0C, #01)

end:

English is so confusing :-) Any related insights are welcome.

I took my old Ford Escort in for repair around noon, and he had it done by closing time, so he got right to it.

Maybe because I'm stingy, or because I hate to spend half the value of a car on what I thought would be a minor repair, or because I've had trouble with other mechanics, but just wanted a second opinion.

Symptom: Stepping on brakes made shaking/knocking in front of car.

Cost: ~$500 ($173 labor + parts) (wish I made $173 in an afternoon).

He replaced both calipers ($149), both disc rotors ($90), and a set of brake pads ($60).

What's the chance the problem was on both sides and that he really needed to replace all that? It's not like they only sell these in pairs, right? He said the calipers were sticking, and that was the problem, but why does that mean replacing the rotors and pads too?

I thought it was till I noticed in this totally awesome jump rope performance by the Kings Firecrackers at a US Naval Academy basketball game:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=d2WK44cH2J0

that there's someone in the stands (seen around 7:20 and later) that is in a bear suit and holding a shark.

Just a Homestar fan, or are they mascots or something?

Someone called me while I was unavailable, and when I looked at my phone, it told me I had a missed call and gave me the phone number and date (today) of the call under caller ID. Using a reverse phone search, I found it was an unlisted cell phone within 2 hours drive of here. I do have an answering machine, which may or may not have picked up, but no message was left.

I called to confirm with my phone company - I don't have caller ID service. How did my phone get the number? Are there different kinds of caller ID? Maybe some kind that could have transmitted when the answering machine picked up, but not if the phone isn't answered?

Any ideas, or just a fluke?

It's easy enough to figure out the winding ratio by plugging it into an AC power source and checking the output, but how can I tell how much amperage it can handle without burning out?

I've seen multiple online retailers who ship internationally, but not to Italy. Why not? Are there shipping problems? High import tariffs? Strict customs laws?

I see various types and shapes, e.g. "type C", "type D", etc. What's the difference? Are any types compatible? Which is "better"? Which is most popular?

I'm just having trouble finding much info on this. Experience, links and pictures are all appreciated. Thanks.