

S&P ending '08 around 900, thus... Summer of '97 Thread - time_management

With the S&#38;P set to close at mid-June 1997 levels, I thought it might be appropriate to reminisce about the summer that was, the summer of '97.<p>I was between 8th and 9th grade, at CTY (Carlisle first session, Lancaster second). CTY memories include: Don McLean's "American Pie"... Scum: the Masquerade (a card game)... Bleem, the integer between 3 and 4... trying to hook up with a 15-point-7 year-old "no more" (no success; I was only 14.1). Great times.<p>I was super-bummed about missing out on ARML, having not heard of the contest till national Mathcounts in May, and therefore having learned about the contest too late to register.<p>Outside of CTY sessions, I spent the summer hacking QBasic text adventures that no one but me wanted to play. :(<p>I won't post too many songs of the era, because I figure other posters will pick up the slack. Only three stick out as memorable:<p>Savage Garden - To the Moon and Back. 
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9I9hVzqTbn0<p>This one I remember only because it was absolutely eerie at 4:00 on a summer morning. (I had to listen to the radio at night, else I couldn't fall asleep.)<p>Our Lady Peace - Superman's Dead
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uOZLSHuDBxY<p>Great song from around that time from one of the most underrated '90s bands.<p>White Town - Your Woman
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lVL-zZnD3VU<p>Quirky, odd song from an unusually talented, but unpopularizable, one-hit wonder. Vintage '97.<p>What are your Summer of '97 memories, songs, and (of course) hacking projects?
======
prakash
3rd Eye Blind's _Semi-Charmed Life_ was the song of the summer; and while this
doesn't classify as a tech project, it was making Asprin (acetylsalicylic
acid) with a friend for my 12th grade chem project.

------
cperciva
In mid-1997 I was about to enter grade 12, and getting my first experience
with C -- writing code to compute the 5 trillionth bit of Pi (yes, I believe
in jumping in at the deep end).

~~~
time_management
Do you remember what it was?

If I recall correctly, computing hex digits of pi is fairly trivial, but
decimal digits are not. Is that right?

~~~
cperciva
The 5 trillionth bit of Pi is zero.

 _computing hex digits of pi is fairly trivial, but decimal digits are not_

For some definition of "fairly trivial", yes.

The Nth hexadecimal (or binary) digit of Pi can be computed in O(log N) space
and O(N (log N)^2 log log N) time, while the best known algorithm for
computing the Nth decimal digit requires O(N) space and O(N (log N)^2) time.
This is due to Pi being expressible as a polylogarithm ladder in base 1/2 but
not in base 1/10 (as far as we know).

------
icey
Hmm... in 1997 I was writing software for a living and cursing having to deal
with Internet Explorer issues.

