Excalabur

[Excalabur]

New here. Gaming for years, but haven't FPSed since... Tribes? Just got a new rig and the Orange box, so here I am.

Am a grad student in Waterloo, so I have some time.

Mostly play medic, engie, heavy. Anybody recognise me? :)

[Mike-KT]

What do you study? I just got my BA in politics and religion from Waterloo

[Excalabur]

My undergrad was in Engineering Physics, but now I study straight up experimental quantum optics.

i.e. I play with lasers.

[BlossoM]

Hi Welcome !!!
oooooooooo physics !!!!!!!!
laxers = medics !!

[mico911]

I think that the standard for knowing when we've reached "the future" is when medical technology reaches the point of waving a blinking laser over your body and being magically cured of all ailments.

Quantum physics, very interesting. The question is, is Schrödinger's cat alive or dead?

[Excalabur]

I think that the standard for knowing when we've reached "the future" is when medical technology reaches the point of waving a blinking laser over your body and being magically cured of all ailments.
That'll be a while yet, though lasers are turning up more and more in medicine: your dentist probably has one for surgery, and laser eye surgery is certainly increasing.

The lasers we have vary from 'put holes in the wall' (no joke, there is one) to 'one photon at a time'.



The question is, is Schrödinger's cat alive or dead?

Yes, of course.

[jkaupp]

Welcome to the forums, another grad student to help launch the "Homework Help" section of the forum and another medic to fight :)

Heisenberg was here.

[notorious]

ZOMG HW HELP! I NEED IT :(

anyways welcome excalabur! hope to see you on servers sometime

[jkaupp]

ZOMG HW HELP! I NEED IT :(

There's 3 PhD's on here, so chances are we can answer at least SOME questions and possibly be right.

Stride for genetics prolly some bio and general rocketry
H20yeah for Chemistry and blowing stuff up.
Myself for Mechanical/Biomedical Engineering/Melee Weaponry.

Also several masters students that have a lot of knowledge in areas. Excalibur in physics for instance.

[Mike-KT]

Do you know Mike Mosca? He's a great guy.

[Slaughter]

Welcome!

I'm useless unless it's accounting or cars. So don't look at me for HW.. However, if you want to lease a car, give me a call! :)

[Crayola]

how do you stop the laser that shoots through walls?

[ArchAngel2]

how do you stop the laser that shoots through walls?

Shut it off?

[Crayola]

they would have to set the "on" time to a minuscule amount...

[ArchAngel2]

A big mirror then.

[Excalabur]

In reverse order:

Metal is much less flammable than walls are, so high power laser beams usually get dumped into a blackened metal surface when you're done with them, often in a clever way to avoid reflections-in-the-eye. As long as this isn't at a focus, it's not a big deal, the block of metal just gets a bit warmer. Our biggest laser is actually a pump for two of the other ones, and it lives inside a tube so you don't light things on fire.

I just bought a ``new'' beater last week, so I'm good on the car front :D

Yes, Mike Mosca's a good guy, works upstairs. Busy dude, though, his grad students have a hard time getting ahold of him. You know him from St. Jerome's?

And yes, I can provide HW help in physics/building catapults/etc. if need be. :) Jkaupp is the guy to go to for bone-saw use, though, he's gotten me at least a couple times already (grrr).

[Zero Hero]

Woot for Tribes - no one here seems to recall the best FPS of all time whenever I meantion it. I mean, no other game has jetpacks, wtf?

[Mike-KT]

Yeah I was on SJU student's union and he was the faculty rep. Only ever saw him once though.


no other game has jetpacks, wtf?
Star Wars Battlefront to name one (two?)

[The Killing Joke]

Do you know Mike Mosca? He's a great guy.

Do you know Mike Little? He's a great guy.

[Zero Hero]

Star Wars Battlefront to name one (two?)

LOL, good point.

[Mike-KT]

awwww you're a sweetie

[badastronaut]

Welcome excalabur! Always great to have another medic to help with the fight :)

Homework help... unless anyone else is either into business management or political science, I can't help or receive help :( So many science people o_o AHH!!

[fakeplasticbunny]

heyhey, welcome :) the orange box got me back into FPS too!

[mffns]

Hey man, welcome to the forums. I had a good time playing with you today (I play under the name of PREZ)

[notorious]

its because science and tf2 are interrelated

why do you think i'm majoring in chem engineering?! to dance like an engie!

[Excalabur]

Thanks all for the kind words: I actually recognise almost everyone that's commented, which is a good sign.

Hard science/eng has a higher fraction of gamers than artsie-type subjects do, nearly across the board, so it's not surprising that what seems like a lot of scientists are on here. I'm not even the only physicist, because at least a few of my friends from undergrad play here in either TF2 or CS:S.

[Fil]

Welcome, wow it seems there are a lot of masters and phd students around these parts and even me now, and yes Tribes was the best online FPS out there, if anyone wants to play I still frequent the rebel's katabatic server every now and then (its pretty much the only server that gets traffic anymore).
I do know alot of people that still hold LAN games of UT or CS in the computer labs here at queen's so if anyone's interested.

[Onawire]

Hard science/eng has a higher fraction of gamers than artsie-type subjects do, nearly across the board, so it's not surprising that what seems like a lot of scientists are on here. I'm not even the only physicist, because at least a few of my friends from undergrad play here in either TF2 or CS:S.

I love scientists, they discover things and then fail horrifically at trying to explain what they've discovered with written words. Then they hire me at an extremely inflated rate to explain their discovery to the world. So carry on and please whatever you do never learn to write like a normal human instead of a member of the ivory science tower!