Ramblings of a Geek

The Border Blues

2007-03-21T20:09:00.000-05:00

It turns out I'm not the only member of my family that is having problems at the border.

My father travels for work (and pleasure) quite frequently. He and my Mom are planning a trip to Russia in a couple of months and as such they have had to turn in their passports to the Russian Consulate so they can get visas to enter.

Unfortunately, my dad had to travel to Denver this week - and with the passport requirements now he has had to resort to using his British passport (we're dual Canadian/British citizens) both to enter the States for work and return to Canada.... it should be interesting.

I suggested that he should have given his British passport to the Russians and travel there using it, so he can still travel back and forth to the States with his Canadian passport. He thought about it for a second and agreed that would have been the better way to go...but it's too late now.

And the blogpoints go to...

2007-03-21T20:04:00.000-05:00

... PeterJ, Kimota94, and Vishrut all of whom got the correct answer to the simple quiz posted the other day.

And for a twist, the new question is English based instead of mathematical.

For each of the following two letter pairs, the person that finds the longest English word that both starts and ends with the letters gets a blogpoint. Example: "ER" -> "Eraser" would qualify (but it probably isn't the longest valid word.

1) "AL"
2) "DE"
3) "RE"

I learned something new today

2007-03-20T21:26:00.000-05:00

Apparently, Danica McKellar - famous for playing Winnie Cooper on The Wonder Years (and some other stuff including a recurring character on The West Wing) is some sort of mathematical genius.

She was recruited to UCLA by a mathematics professor who had her working on proving a theorem during her undergrad studies. The theorem is now known as the Chayes-McKellar-Winn Theorem and is explained in her article: Percolation and Gibbs states multiplicity for ferromagnetic Ashkin–Teller models on Z²

I'm not sure what that means from the title...but I'm determined to find out.

Slightly less intimidating - Danica answers fan math questions on her website.

Quick brain teaser

2007-03-20T14:30:00.000-05:00

Jane has twice as many brothers as she has sisters. Her brother, Jim, has one more sister than brothers. How many boys and girls are in the family?

1 blog point to all correct answers within the next couple of days.

I'm going slightly mad

2007-03-18T20:07:00.000-05:00

That's right...I'm going slightly mad for the NCAA Men's Basketball Championship - AKA March Madness. For the first time since the "Fab Five" freshmen started for the Michigan Wolverines I give a crap about American College Basketball. I decided to enter an 'office pool' basing my picks exclusively off a sports columnist I enjoy reading. I started well going 13-3 on day 1 including picking VCU over Duke. But things have fallen apart for my bracket since then.

However, I have to admit, I've been intrigued by a number of the matchups and actually enjoyed watching some of the games. Maybe I'll try again next year making my own picks instead of copying somebody who 'knows something'.

Happy Pi Day!

2007-03-14T09:03:00.000-05:00

Today is March 14^th - 3/14 - pi day!! I'll be celebrating at 1:59 this afternoon by thinking about circles and trigonometry.

A blog point to the person who posts the longest accurate decimal representation of pi before the end of the day.

A Momentary Lapse of Reason

2007-03-10T15:24:00.001-05:00

This is a guest blog entry for Ramblings of a Geek. While clearly a different sort of geek than the owner of this blog - I'm comics, he's computers - I'm confident that I can ramble with the best of them! As I say at my own blog, "I'm Kimota94, and you're not (unless somehow... you are)." That's, of course, a riff on Chevy Chase's old Saturday Night Live line, revealing not only the way my humour tends to run, but also my advanced age!

Speaking of being old: while everyone knows I'm really only a day older today than I was yesterday, in a demographic - or actuarial - sense I somehow find myself an entire year closer to my life expectancy figure on this particular day. That's gobbley gook for "it's my birthday." I tip the scales at 44 years of age today, a full 33% further along than the usual writer here.

As it happens, I've known "the Human Calculator" for more than a fifth of those years that are piling up under my belt. James showed up at my previous job at the bank as a fresh faced new hire during a period of growth we were experiencing at that time. Considering when that was - 1998 - we were probably bulking up with Y2K coders back then, not so much to provide their software expertise to the problem which was pretty much solved already anyway, but rather to give us more bodies to throw in front of the crazed hordes that were expected to show up in the wee hours of New Year's Day 2000, recreating, as it were, the run on the bank that was immortalized in the film It's A Wonderful Life.

Fortunately, it never came to that. As we all know, Al Gore built a time machine in early 2000, amidst the smoking ruins of civilization that sprawled around him, and travelled back to the mid-1980s and worked tirelessly to get companies working on the Y2K problem in time to avoid that catastrophe. How he has the energy to do the same thing, again, regarding Global Warming, is beyond me, but of course that's only part of the equation as to why he'll eventually be remembered as one of the greatest world leaders of all time.

At any rate, eventually "Jimmy Hinckley", as I like to call him, left the bank to follow new paths of glory, and half a year or so later I followed him. One of the easiest questions I've been asked in recent years has been, "Do you ever regret leaving that job?" Whatever the ups and downs we may experience at our current company, I've never looked back, and I suspect James hasn't, either. We've both done well in our careers since jumping ship, and I can't help but feel that our employer's done well by us. And everything we left behind, from what I hear, is still there, bedeviling the folks who couldn't bring themselves to do anything about it. At last count, James and I have something like 8 other former bank employees among our numbers at the new workplace, and that's kind of cool.

I could write more on these topics and others, but I'd best save something for the day when I reach 40 Blog Points hereabouts. And if Hinckley keeps putting up those math problems, that shouldn't be too long at all....

I Changed My Handle

2007-03-09T22:21:00.000-05:00

On Kimota94's suggestion I changed my handle on Chessworld. I am now known as "Kimota94 Fan".

They have a policy that limits the number of times and frequency you can change your handle - so I'm going to be a fan for at least 2 months.

2 blogpoints for Kimota94. I was very close to taking Peter J's suggestion of either Sigma6 or Abdab (former names of bands that eventually morphed into The Pink Floyd which became Pink Floyd)...so 1 point for him.

This pushes Kimota94 over the 20 point barrier and he nowhas the option of posting an entry on this very blog.

Online Pseudonyms

2007-03-07T21:51:00.000-05:00

As loyal readers of this blog know (both of you) - I like to play chess online at chessworld.net. I've been playing in a few tournaments and doing OK - but I've been on a losing streak in the past couple of weeks. But that's not really the point of this post...the point is that most people on that site (and most gaming sites as far as I can tell) don't use their real name, but rather some sort of pseudonym or handle. Even in the blogosphere (damn, I thought I'd never use that term), people shroud their identities with handles - see Jim Hinckley (my former alias for posting comments), Kimota94, The Man From Mars, etc.

Anyway, on Chessworld my handle is currently, the o-so original, "James Hindle" - my real 'meatspace' name. I'm playing against people like "Kingcrusher", "KillerLee", "phys-glue-stick", "MrFishy", "Metroline Busman", and so on...

I think it's time to change my handle - so I'm open for suggestions. Here are some I'm considering:

Jim Hinckley
The Artist Formerly Known as James Hindle
The Human Calculator
4A4D48

(Oh and a blogpoint for the suggester of the chosen nickname, and 2 blogpoints for anyone who knows how I came up with 4A4D48)

Word Problem

2007-03-06T22:29:00.000-05:00

11 scientists are working with some very expensive and rare materials. They decide that the materials should be locked in a safe and only accessible when a majority of them are there.
What are the minimum number of locks that should be placed on the safe, and how many keys must each scientist carry (assume each scientist will carry the same number of keys)?

3 blogpoints to the first correct answer. 2 blogpoints for the second, and 1 blogpoint to anyone with correct answers after that.

Goodbye Peasy

2007-03-06T21:49:00.000-05:00

The big news from the NFL this week was that the Steelers let their pro-bowl linebacker Joey 'Peasy' Porter go. He was almost immediately picked up by the Miami Dolphins. Over the past couple of years, Joey Porter has been a defensive captain and the best linebacker in a group of great linebackers.

I'm not a big fan of Porter's off-field antics and the amount of trash he talks - but it works for him and he's been a very effective player in the past. I'm sure now that he's no longer a Steeler I'll like him a lot less...although he'll always be a part of their Superbowl XL championship team.

The Steelers will get on without Porter, just like they did when they let Kevin Green, Greg Lloyd, and Levon Kirkland go in the 90's.

In other Steeler news, they resigned my favourite defensive lineman: Aaron Smith! This makes me much more positive about their future. Smith is an amazing athlete. In the 3-4 system the Steelers play, the role of the defensive line is to occupy the offensive blockers to allow room for rushing linebackers yet Smith always seems to make a few key stops a game and is always around the ball. He can stop the run and pass rush. An all around great player.

Disney On Ice

2007-03-01T21:58:00.000-05:00

Last Thursday (March 1st) was my daughter's fourth birthday and it just so happened that Disney On Ice came to town. So about 3 months ago we bought rink side seats for the performance. The theme of the event was 'Mickey & Minnie's Vacation' - where those two along with Donald and Daisy Duck and Goofy would come out between elaborate musical numbers from various Disney movies.

To say that Maya had an incredible time would be understating it. I think she would have sat there all day if they let her. The whole time she had a huge smile on her face and clapped enthusiastically whenever something exciting happened. We also took Elliot. he was stunned for the first half - I'm not sure he blinked at all the whole time. The second half he got a little fussy, but overall I think he handled it well.

It started with 'The Lion King'. This was my favourite part of the performance. They played three songs from the movie. The highlight was a performance with Simba (the male lion) and Nala (the lioness) doing all sorts of ice dance type moves which are really quite impressive when done a couple of feet in front of your eyes. One thing I found a little odd was when they had a huge choreographed routine with all the skaters dressed as monkeys. The skaters were wearing skin tight monkey suits (literally) which had skin coloured chests with nipples painted on them, so it caused me to take more than a few double takes.

After the Lion King, they transitioned to a 101 Dalmations routine. It was OK, but to get 101 of them each skater had either 2 or 4 'dummy' dogs attached to them via a harness. The 'fake' dogs looked a little weird when you were close up.

After the 101 Dalmations, the skaters started doing some routines to songs from the Little Mermaid. This was Maya's favourite part by far. She loves mermaids and the Little Mermaid is her favourite doll right now. She knows a lot of the words to the songs from a CD we have (and listen to far too often).

Then they had a short intermission, which was followed by routines from Peter Pan and Lilo and Stitch. I didn't see much of the second half because Elliot was overwhelmed at this point - he hadn't blinked in about an hour and was getting pretty fussy. So we went out to the lobby. We did see Captain Hook and a bunch of pirates out there - because they enter the ice from the lobby. Captain Hook was really nice and tried to make Elliot smile by playing peek-a-boo with him and tickling him with the hook. It was a nice personal touch that he definitely didn't have to do.

All in all the whole family had a wonderful time and it was money (and time) well spent.

And The Blogpoints Go To...

2007-02-27T21:01:00.000-05:00

Kimota94 and PeterJ who both got the answer to the previous 'Simple Puzzle' post.

Taxes

2007-02-26T22:33:00.000-05:00

So I did my taxes yesterday - at least a first cut of them. Despite being a computer geek most of the time, I do my taxes with pencil and paper...and, sickly, enjoy doing them that way. Maybe I'm cheap, but why would I spend $30 or so on software that will fill in a few numbers, do some simple arithmetic and file my taxes for me when I can do most of that myself almost as easily?

Anyway, I couldn't finalize them because I haven't got my RSP receipt for January and February of this year yet - but I know what the amount is, so why not fill out the forms ahead of time, right.

It turns out that this year I had almost exactly the correct amount of taxes deducted. My refund comes to $33.08, which means the income tax withheld by my company was 99.91% accurate.

Computer Free Weekend

2007-02-26T13:02:00.000-05:00

I just completed a computer free weekend for the first time in as long as I can remember. After coming home from work on Friday, I didn't turn on my computer (or any other computer) for the duration of the weekend.

This was partly because of a challenge from my wife saying that I was addicted and couldn't go 24 hours without checking my email, and partly to try to take a complete break from work this weekend, because I know this coming week is going to be busy and I want to be fresh and re-invigorated.

Simple puzzle

2007-02-26T09:25:00.000-05:00

Find a 6 digit number in which the first two digits are the product of the third and fourth digits, the first digit is double the second, the third digit is one less than the fourth, the last two digits are the sum of the third and fourth, the last digit is one less than the first and the fifth digit is two less than the last. The sum of all the digits is 23.

2 blogpoints to all correct answers prior to tomorrow evening.

Chess is breaking the Internets

2007-02-20T23:12:00.000-05:00

I tried to go to chessworld.net this evening to check if any of my current games are waiting for me to move and what did I get but an error message:

The page cannot be displayed

The request cannot be processed at this time. The amount of traffic exceeds the Web site's configured capacity.

Please try the following:

Click the Refresh button, or try again later.
If this error persists, contact the Web site administrator to inform them that this error continues to occur for this URL address.

HTTP Error 500.13 - Server error: Web server is too busy.
Internet Information Services (IIS)

Technical Information (for support personnel)

Go to Microsoft Product Support Services and perform a title search for the words HTTP and 500.
Open IIS Help, which is accessible in IIS Manager (inetmgr), and search for topics titled Monitoring and Tuning Web Application Performance, Performance Monitoring and Scalability Tools, and About Custom Error Messages.

Wireless Problems Solved

2007-02-20T22:36:00.000-05:00

Thanks to Tammy for her suggestion...but after a little digging last night I figured it out.

There were three different programs all trying to help manage the wireless network settings, plus a 'helpful' app from Rogers.

The three network management programs were all getting in each others business and changing settings and stuff, so I uninstalled Network Magic (which came with the router), and disabled the Dell wireless software and just let Windows manage the device - simpler is better.

The Rogers app was a self-diagnostic app that ensured the network settings were correct in programs like Outlook and such and it could ping the right gateways, servers, etc. to make sure I could reach the Rogers stuff. I don't need it - so I uninstalled that too.

Now it's working like a dream.

Damn Wireless Connection

2007-02-19T22:06:00.000-05:00

Since switching my ISP from Bell Sympatico to Rogers Yahoo! my wife's computer has had a very flaky wireless connection. We've got the same wirelese router hooked up (some cheap DLink thing), but for some reason, with the new ISP her laptop sometimes detects a second wireless network (named 'roxy') and when it does, it disconnects from my network and asks which network I want to connect to.

She's using Windows XP, and my network is set to automatically connect. It's the first (and only) network listed as preferred. Yet every time she's online for more than 20 minutes or so she'll drop the connection at least once.

Now she equates my geekiness with being able to solve this problem...but I'm stumped. Anybody out there with any suggestions?

Robinson Crusoe

2007-02-16T20:25:00.000-05:00

I just finished reading Robinson Crusoe for the first time - another classic that I apparantly ignored during my formative years. Of course I knew the general story already - man gets stranded on a deserted island and struggles to survive.

A couple of things I didn't realize:

He's stranded for about 30 years! Some of the things he accomplishes on the island are incredible, but when you realize the amount of time he spends there (and really what else is he going to do) it becomes more plausible.
How religious the book is. One of the items Robinson Crusoe rescues from the shipwreck is a bible, and though he was not religious prior to his predicament he becomes 're-born' on the island and actually converts a cannibal he rescues to Christianity as well.

One idea espoused in the book is one of optimism. If you constantly compare yourself or your situation to those in a better situation, a feeling of jealousy and inadequacy is a natural (although undesirable) response. Instead, look on your situation as compared to those less fortuante and you will likely find yourself in a positive frame of mind. Furthermore, if you think about the number of people in each of those two camps (better off and worse off), you are almost guaranteed to find yourself better off than the majority.

Work Stuff

2007-02-16T20:19:00.000-05:00

There's been quite a lot of stuff going on at work recently - some good, some bad.

Good: The bonus plan paid out the full amount on the last payday. More money is almost always a good thing (although, they say it's the root of all evil)

Bad: A unsubstantiated and untrue accusation that I bullied and/or intimidated a partner into a direction that they didn't necessarily agree with. If you know me, then you likely laughed at that last statement since I'm not really a bully or that intimidating (unless you're sitting across the chess board from me, that is).

Bad: Constantly switching priorities and messages from the executives make it seem like we are in a constant panic mode and always reacting to crises rather than proactively following a sound strategy.

Good: As a result of the latest priority shift I'll be working on some cool stuff for the next 6 weeks or so. Hopefully practicing and reinforcing some good skills and habits in myself and helping out some others. I'll be working predominately in C, which I enjoy a little more than Java - probably because it takes more discipline to write good, understandable C code.

Where are the updates?

2007-02-14T09:33:00.000-05:00

Some of you (Kimota) may be wondering where the updates are? Well I've been really swamped at home recently and haven't really been turning on the ol' web browser at night. Some of the things keeping me busy:

Valentine's Day prep. Maya is incredibly excited about Valentine' s day this year. She's really into crafts and making hearts and cards for various people she knows. Her day car had a Valentine's day party yesterday (the day before, I know) which required baking and stuff.
Elliot's sleeplessness. He's getting all mixed up with days and nights and he isn't sleeping much between 2 and 5 in the morning. These leads to less sleep for me and Kelly, which in turn leads to less inclination to blog (because I can't string too many coherent thoughts together)
Chess. I've made it into the semi final round of a couple of tournaments online. This takes my nightly computer time up. I don't have the kind of brain that can look at a position once and then work through the possibilities in my head. I have to constantly look at the actual board and work things through. It takes me 15-30 minutes to decide on each move, after which I'm normally ready to go to bed.
Solution to the last math post. Kimota94 got the solution right (5 blog points for him) by experimentation, but I'm going to post the solution using the Simplex method of solving Linear Programming problems. The problem is the solution is very verbose and Blogger is not ideal at formatting mathematical solutions (there needs to be a Matlab like version of blogger for all the math related blogs entries that probably aren't being written because of the barrier of formatting!!!)
A little bit of laziness. I've got a couple of ideas in mind for upcoming posts, but each will take the dedication of at least an hour to write them and I just haven't been able to summon up the energy to take them on yet.

Patience, dear readers. I haven't given up on the blog.

A New Addition.

2007-02-10T22:03:00.000-05:00

My brother, Paul, and his wife, Kim, welcomed their first born into the world today at 6:25.

They had a boy, weighing a whopping 10 lbs 8 oz, and named him Connor William Hindle.

Congratulations to them.

More Math...

2007-02-08T15:30:00.000-05:00

A diet problem:

Using the information in the table below, construct the cheapest diet that gives the dieter at least 2000 kcal of energy, 55 g of protein, and 800mg of calcium.

Food	Serving Size	Energy (kcal)	Protein (g)	Calcium (mg)	Price/Serving (cents)	Max daily servings
Oatmeal	28g	110	4	2	3	4
Chicken	100g	205	32	12	24	3
Eggs	2 large	160	13	54	13	2
Whole Milk	237mL	160	8	285	9	8
Cherry Pie	170g	420	4	22	20	2
Pork & Beans	260g	260	14	80	19	2

Environmentalism and Me

2007-02-08T03:38:00.000-05:00

I'm the first to admit that I don't do everything I can to be environmentally friendly. To be honest convenience wins out (easily) over environmentalism with me. I know that the environment is the hot topic out there these days (kinda reminiscent of the whole Acid Rain scare when I was in high school - but when was the last time you heard that term?) but for me to 'get all green', there has to be convenient ways for me to make the socially responsible choice. Here are some examples of where I make good and bad environmental decisions:

Good: I've chosen to put 30% of my RRSP portfolio in a socially responsible fund. (Acuity's Clean Environment Equity Fund). This is so easy to do - I can't believe more people don't do it.

Bad: My family owns two cars, and I drive to work every day. With two small kids, it's just too inconvenient not to drive all over the place. Maybe if we lived in a climate that was a little more friendly year round it would be easier for me to get rid of a car...there's always global warming. Note: I don't own a van or an SUV...just sedans.

Good: I keep my house at relatively low temperatures (19C when occupied and not sleeping), have a high efficiency gas furnace, turn lights off when not in use, and I'm replacing the regular incandescent bulbs with the energy efficient fluorescent bulbs as they burn out.

Bad: My kids wear disposable diapers. Not all bad - as I'm not doing as much laundry as I would be with cloth diapers. But there's no other choice I'd consider - sorry, Mother Nature.

Good: I recycle and I'm pretty adamant about splitting out the recyclable stuff from the regular garbage. This is inconvenient to do, but once you're in a routine, it's not that bad. I'm not sure how much it actually helps though. I have a feeling it all ends up in the same place despite my best cleaning and separation efforts

Good: I only use organic fertilizer and no pesticides on my lawn. I switched last year primarily for health reasons - don't want my kids rolling around in chemicals. But it's better for the environment too. Plus the lawn care company I use offers an organic program at the same cost as the traditional program.

Bad: I don't feel bad about the environment and what I do to it. I don't advocate environmental choices and, at this point, I don't see myself preaching it as that important to my kids. I guess I feel that entrepreneurs out there will figure out a way of turning this crisis into a business opportunity, will make tonnes of cash, plus save the world with or without my extra efforts.

Post 100

2007-02-06T20:43:00.000-05:00

I never thought I'd make it this far. I think the drive to continue has been fuelled by the comments I've received throughout this 2 1/2 months. Specifically I think Kimota has been the most vocal in his support and encouragement. So thanks, to all of you, especially Matt.

I'll continue to post things that I'm interested in as this blog is mainly for me to look back on in the future. However, without the readership it wouldn't be nearly as enjoyable.

So, what sorts of things would you guys like to see me post about in the next little while? More math? More trivia? Music reviews? Links to wacky things I see on the web? My personal trials and tribulations? Detailed positional analysis of various chess games I play online? Anything else?

Thanks again, and I hope you keep reading.

Oh - and a quick 5 blog points to anyone who shares their favourite post so far.

The "Purple Rain" Game

2007-02-06T20:13:00.000-05:00

So the Colts won SuperBowl XLI - going against my prediction making me 8-3 for the postseason. Not bad - not great, definitely not enough to make me want to wager real money next year.

To be honest, I fell asleep during the SuperBowl. I was watching it about 2 hours tape delayed on my PVR after getting the kids to bed. Started watching and was really excited about the Bears scoring an opening kickoff touchdown return. Devin Hester (if that's how you spell his name) is a really special player. Hopefully he will continue to excite throughout his career rather than fall off the map like Dante 'X Factor' Hall of the Kansas City Chiefs.

Following that play, I found the opening quarter to be predictable. Manning struggled early - probably getting use to the feel for the ball in the rain. Apparantly there was more rain during that SuperBowl than in all previous outdoor SuperBowls combined (8/9th of an inch fell during the game). The Colts seemed to adapt to the conditions much better than the Bears. They pretty much stopped going for the deep ball - which is always trickier to complete in bad weather and concentrated on short passes (mainly swing passes and flare outs to Addai on 3rd down) and the running game. The Bears on the other hand kept letting Grossman throw the ball deep - which led to no big plays.

Prince - one of my favourite musicians played the show at half time on a stage shaped like his former symbol. The diminutive Minnesotan looked like a cross between Little Richard and Jimi Hendrix strutting around the stage in a teal suit with a bright orange suit (Miami Dolphin colours - an homage to the home town fans). He didn't look thrilled to be performing in a downpour - but went through his set professionally although he didn't acknowledge the crowd at all.

The combination of Prince performing at half time plus the deluge of rain throughout the contest has led some in the media to dub SuperBowl XLI the "Purple Rain Game". Not sure if it will stick like the "Ice Bowl", or the "Catch", or the "Drive", or the "Immaculate Reception"...but I sure hope it does.

Football is Almost Over

2007-02-01T23:39:00.000-05:00

SuperBowl XLI kicks off at VI:XXV this Sunday (Feb IV)...here's my all too brief analysis and prediction.

The Colts have arguably (that's so cliche - and easy to say!) been the best regular season team in the league for the past 3-5 years and have finally managed to put their playoff demons behind them and make it to the big game. Not really because of Peyton Manning - more so because of the ineptitude of their opponents and the surprisingly effective Colts defense. Manning still seemed like he had 'happy feet' and has definitely not been throwing with his normal 'laser like' accuracy.

The Bears also have been winning despite the play of their QB. The NFC championship game against the Saints was pretty close until Reggie Bush taunted Urlacher on they way to scoring the last Saints touchdown (and entered the end zone with a completely unnecessary flip). From that point on, it seemed like the Saints angered the "Football Gods" and nothing went their way.
The Bears have won a bunch of games this year with big plays on special teams and defense. I think they'll need to continue that trend to overcome the Colts.

Almost everybody I've read is picking the Colts. And for that reason, I'm going to go against the grain and pick the Bears. I think they'll get a lucky score on either a kick return or a turnover. And I think their defense will hold the Colts offense in check...long enough to frustrate Manning and he'll self destruct under the pressure to finally win his SuperBowl ring.

The Prediction: Bears XXIII - Colts XVII

BlogPoints: Not Completely Useless

2007-02-01T23:30:00.000-05:00

I've decided to attach some meaning to these 'BlogPoints' I've been so carefree in handing out. For each 20 blog points you receive you may post one item to my blog without any editing on my part.

It's your chance to air what's on your mind to the few people that read this thing - including the possibility of ridiculing me. Anything except pornography is OK by me - and I go by how the Supreme Court defined pornography: "I Know It When I See It".

Trivia Answers

2007-01-31T20:47:00.000-05:00

80's Pop:

Tammy got #1 (Jenny) and #5 (Sinead O'Connor) correct for 4 points
Peter J got #2 (Andrew Ridgely & George Michael), #3 (Captain Lou Albano) and #4 (Spandau Ballet) correct for 4 points
Mike M corrected me in that Sinead O'Connor just ripped the Pope's picture, she didn't burn it, so I'll give him a point too.

Pink Floyd's The Wall:

Tammy got #1 (Hey You), #3 (Money) and part of #4 (Alan Parker) for 4 points
Matt got Alan Parker as well - but after Tammy.
The other answers are:
#2: When The Tigers Broke Free and What Shall We Do Now
#4: Alan Parker also directed Fame and The Commitments
#5: Gerald Scarfe

Lyrics:

Peter J gets 3 points for correctly identifying #2 When Doves Cry by Prince from Purple Rain.
#1 is Summer of '68 by Pink Floyd from Atom Heart Mother
#3 is Warm Wet Circles by Marillion from Clutching At Straws

Final Results:
Tammy: 8
Peter J: 7
Mike M: 1

Trivia for Blogpoints

2007-01-28T20:30:00.000-05:00

Here are some trivia questions for Blogpoints. 1 point each unless noted otherwise:

80's Pop:

Who are you trying to reach if you call 867-5309? (3 points)
Who were the two members of Wham? (2 points)
What WWF manager appeared in Cyndi Lauper's video Girls Just Wanna Have Fun?
What band recorded True?
Who burned a picture of Pope John Paul II when appearing as the musical guest on Saturday Night Live?

Pink Floyd's The Wall:

What song appears on the album, but not in the theatrical release of the film? (2 points)
What songs appear in the film, but not on the album? (2 points)
What song's lyrics is 'Pink' writing when the school teacher reads his 'poetry' to the class?
Who directed the film, and what two other music related films has he directed? (3 points)
What artist provided the animation and a lot of the set pieces for the tour?

Lyrics: For these questions I give some lyrics, you name the artist, song and album for one point each.

Would you like to say something before you leave
Perhaps you'd care to state exactly how you feel
We said good-bye before we said hello
I hardly even like you, I shouldn't care at all
We met just six hours ago, the music was too loud
Dig if you will the picture
Of you and I engaged in a kiss
The sweat of your body covers me
Can you my darling...can you picture this?
I saw teenage girls like gaudy moths
A classrooms shabby butterflies
Flirt in the glow of stranded telephone boxes;
Planning white lace weddings from smeared hearts and token proclamations,
Rolled from stolen lipsticks across the razored webs of glass
Sharing cigarettes with experience
With her giggling jealous confidantes,
She faithfully traces his name
With quick bitten fingernails
Through the tears of condensation
That’ll cry through the night
As the glancing headlights of the last bus
Kiss adolescence goodbye

Random stuff from another blogger

2007-01-27T15:48:00.000-05:00

I know Kimota94 looks down on just linking to something you saw without providing any commentary...but I'm not feeling that well today - the whole family's sick so here are two links to a blogger who is a film buff and an Alan Moore fan (and is not Kimota94)

EDIT: The four star movie link is now working - sorry for the bad post yesterday.

Link 1) Four Star Movies this is a list of all the movies that get 4 stars in the Halliwell movie guide (the guide that pioneered the 4 star system). Some people say it is too skewed towards B&W films.

Link 2) From Hell and Other Comics his take on the appeal of Alan Moore as opposed to comics in general

Tarzan of the Apes

2007-01-25T23:46:00.000-05:00

I'm currently reading "Tarzan of the Apes" - the original story about Tarzan by Edgar Rice Burroughs. Of course I already know the mythology from various cartoons and movie adaptations, but I have never actually read the source material (embarrassing). So it turns out that this novel is in the public domain and freely available in ebook form from Project Gutenberg. So I downloaded it the other day and started reading.

I'm quite enjoying it - as my friends would say about a good movie - it's a real page turner ;).

However, something is bugging me about it (hence this post). I can suspend my disbelief about a grief stricken ape-like mother rescuing a human baby and raising it as her own child. Similarly, I can buy into the fact that Tarzan, after discovering children's books and an English dictionary, is able to teach himself to read and write English despite never encountering written language before. The author is fairly careful to point out that spoken English is completely foreign to Tarzan because he has no idea about pronounciation of any of the letters. However, in a couple of situations, Tarzan writes a note that includes his name! How could he possibly come up with the spelling for 'Tarzan' when he has no idea about the sounds of any of the letters?

Probability and Statistics

2007-01-25T11:49:00.000-05:00

When I went to Waterloo I was forced to take a few statistics courses. Initially I enjoyed them and was actually enrolled as a CS/Stats double major for two years. Then I started taking more advanced statistics courses and decided that stats wasn't for me and concentrated on computer science and pure math.

Here's a type of probability question I enjoy...and there's 3 blog points up for grabs:

A bag contains 6 red balls and 8 green balls. 5 balls are withdrawn and placed in a red box, the rest are dumped in a green box. What is the probability that the number of green balls in the red box plus the number of red balls in the green box is not a prime number? (For this example assume 1 is defined as prime).

Guitar Solos

2007-01-24T22:05:00.000-05:00

I love guitar solos. This blogger took a list of the top 100 guitar solos according to some guitar magazine, and searched the internet for videos showing either the solo or the entire song, normally performed live.

Here's a link to the post. I wasted a good hour looking at some of my favourites.

Highlights for me included:

David Gilmour got #4 for Comfortably Numb
Jimi Hendrix at #5 All Along the Watchtower (he had 3 of the top 20!)
Brian May for Bohemian Rhapsody at #20

New Features with Rogers

2007-01-24T21:59:00.000-05:00

Well, technically it's the Sara electronic program guide by Scientific Atlanta that provides the new features. I noticed the other day that my settops restarted on channel 1 which is an indication that they received a software upgrade. Nothing is announced and there is no indication about anything that's changed so I find it a personal challenge when this happens to track down the changes by exploration (rather than searching some yet to be invented global repository of data that has some means of searching...)

Anyway, I quickly found 4 features, two of which I've been lamenting the absence of for some time:

When selecting a in-progress recording from the 'list', now you are presented with a choice of whether to start watching at the current point, start watching from the beginning, or to stop recording (with a keep or discard option). The 'start from beginning' feature has been absent prior to this update and a real sore point with me.
When watching a recorded show you can now see the title and original air date in the info bar. Furthermore, pressing info actually displays the original program description. Nice
The flip bar will now display TV and MPAA ratings along with the title
When a recording ends, the status bar indicates you can press 'Live' for live TV (not really sure what the benefit is here)

Anyway, it's nice to see that some iTV products are actually deployed to paying customers once in a while.

One Easy, One Hard

2007-01-22T15:21:00.000-05:00

Two new math problems...and BlogPoints available to the first correct answers of each. I'm not saying which is easy and which is hard. But the easy one is worth 2 blog points and the hard one is worth 4.

1) An intelligent, but eccentric census taker (eccentric means he never questions unnecessarily) came to a house where the three residents were not at home. The housekeeper answered the door. Here is their conversation about the three occupants:
CT: What is the product of their ages?
HK: 1296
CT: What is the sum of their ages?
HK: The same as the house number.
CT: I still can't figure out their ages. Are any of them older than you? (He must know the house keeper's age)
HK: No.

How old are the three occupants?

2) If it takes James 2 hours to mow a lawn and it takes Maya 5 hours to mow the same lawn. How long would it take to mow the lawn if James started feeling sorry for Maya after she had been working for 90 minutes and he started helping? (You can assume they each have their own lawnmower)

David Gemmel's Rigante Series

2007-01-21T12:33:00.000-05:00

I just finished reading a four book fantasy series by David Gemmell. These books were recommended to me by a friend and I really enjoyed the first two books. The last two books were OK, but not nearly as good as the first two. The series follows the Rigante clan of the Keltoi tribes. It is obvious to the reader that the Keltoi are analogous to the highlanders of Scotland. In the first two books, the focus is on the conflict between the Keltoi and the more 'civilized' people of 'Stone' - which is equally obvious as being the Roman empire. The second book follows the son of the main character from the first book. The third and fourth books happen much later in time - but are still focused on the Rigante but the new civilization they are up against are the Varlish - (based on the English). The overriding theme of all the books is that the more 'civilized' we become, the more we destroy nature and the 'magic' of the land. In the later books this theme was so obviously reinforced that I felt like I was being scolded by the author. In fact if there was another book in the series I probably wouldn't have read it.

Sword In The Storm: 3/4
Midnight Falcon: 4/4
Raven Heart: 2/4
Stormrider: 2/4

New Steelers Coach

2007-01-21T11:25:00.000-05:00

It looks like the Steelers have selected a new coach. It's not former offensive coordinator Ken Whisenhunt who opted to take the head coach position at Arizona. Nor is it former assistant head coach and line coach (and former Washington Redskin Hog) Russ Grimm.

Instead it is Mike Tomlin, the one year defensive coordinator of the Minnesota Vikings.

With Whisenhunt leaving, it probably means Mark Whipple - the Steelers QB coach will also depart to the Cardinals. Those are the two guys who have worked the most with Roelisberger thus far. Here's hoping Tomlin is a good coach, and he can find some coaches that Roelisberger can get along with and grow under.

Conference Finals Weekend

2007-01-19T22:41:00.000-05:00

Well, I'm sticking with my New Orleans over Chicago prediction. But thanks to Schottenheimer I am faced with making a change to my original picks.

The Colts-Pats game this weekend will be very interesting and could go either way. Based on the regular season, it should be a no-brainer for the Colts to win. Furthermore, their defense has really improved in the playoffs shedding their reputation of being unable to stop the run. Unfortunately for the Colts, Peyton Manning has continued his playoff woes. In the last two games he's looked jittery in the pocket. Against KC he threw some uncharacteristic picks and against Baltimore he couldn't get over their 15 yard line.

On the other side, New England just seemed to manage to hang around against San Diego. They didn't make any killer mistakes and took advantage of the bone headed plays on the other side of the ball. One big positive is that they have Brady and Belichek who are now 12-1 in the playoffs. The downsides are the same as they've been all year: no playmakers or big names on either side of the ball, rookie safeties (because of injuries), rookie placekicker (Vinatieri is now on the Colts), relatively slow linebackers.

On paper this shouldn't even be close and the Colts should walk away with it. But because of the Brady-Belichek vs Manning-Dungy factor it throws all the regular season statistics in doubt.

I'm still going to pick the Colts to beat the Pats however.

The Pros and Cons of Travelling

2007-01-18T22:49:00.000-05:00

I just got back from a whirlwind couple of days in Philadelphia meeting with one of our parent companies and two of the other software joint ventures. I always view travelling on business as a dichotomy of good and bad. I thought I'd outline some of the specific good and bad things from this trip:

Good

face to face contact with partners results in better understanding of each others problems and concerns
putting a face to a name you've heard before, or spoken with, or emailed back and forth adds a dimension to the relationship
all food and drink will be reimbursed (especially good when travelling with my boss who picks up the expensive meals)
finding a pretty good jazz club in Philly that had two great bands on consecutive nights (a tuesday and wednesday, no less)
no screaming kids in the middle of the night in a hotel
meeting the bouncer in the aforementioned club and realizing what a great guy he was - Philly truly is the city of brotherly love (also - see below)

Bad

Leaving the family is stressful on both me and my wife
A hotel that is under construction is not much fun - the power to the alarm clock went out both nights
The TSA and the stupid 'enhanced searches' I always seem to receive
Canadian Immigration screw-ups....it's still not resolved so I got hassled getting back in to my own country
Mesaba Airlines operates the NWA airlink between London and Detroit - they have the worst planes I've ever been on. The seats are really uncomfortable
Rushing to get a conneting flight when the first flight is late
Sitting on the runway while your plane is de-iced
Walking to the hotel and seeing a large homeless man masturbating while lying on the sidewalk - I said it was the city of Brotherly Love.

Retroactive Blog Points

2007-01-17T10:33:00.000-05:00

Retroactively awarding some blog points for correct answers to math questions previously posted.
2 points per correct answer. I'm going to give myself 1 blog point for each question that stumps the (somewhat less than massive) readership for at least one week.

Kimota94 receives 8 blog points for correctly solving One Of My Turns, Speak To Me, Word Problem, and the first half of the Big Number Problem.

Vish gets 2 blog points for his answer to the second part of the Big Number Problem. I'll also give him 1 point for his answer to One Of My Turns because it came after Kimota's answer was already published and acknowledged as correct.

And cjg gets 1 blog point for getting the answer to Brain Damage - but through a brute force mechanism rather then the theoretical/calculable method I was looking for.

I get 3 blog points for the unsolved (or incorrectly 'solved') questions Biding My Time, Math Is Fun, and Making Change.

This vaults Kimota94 well into the lead for blog points.

NFL Playoffs - the weekend that was.

2007-01-17T10:16:00.000-05:00

Recap of the past weekend:

Bal-Ind: Battle of field goals. The Ravens has a strange game plan. They hardly blitzed at all which is very different from their regular season defensive strategy. They may have been trying to emulate Pittsburg from last year who were a blitzing team in the regular season, then surprised Indy by playing a straight defense in the playoffs and coming out of the RCA Dome with an upset victory on the way to the Superbowl. However, Baltimore should have recognized that Indy wasn't confused or surprised by the regular defense this year and they should have adjusted their strategy to try something different. On offense, nothing seemed to work for Baltimore. This could be the result of coaching ego in that head coach Brian Billick fired his offensive coordinator mid-season and took over play calling duties. Maybe he should fire himself after that 6 point outing against a supposedly sup-par defense.

NO-Phi: An entertaining game that was much closer than I expected. I loved the NO running game and still like their chances to win it all. At the close of the game, NO was running the ball well and running the clock down when they executed a 'flip' (sort of a handoff but tossing the ball to a moving RB - in this case Reggie Bush). Unfortunately Bush bobbled it and it resulted in Philly recovering the fumble around mid field with 2 minutes remaining and 2 timeouts down by 3 points. NO managed to force a 4th and 10 and Philly converted with a 18 yard passing play (long passes seemed to work really well all day for Philly) - but there was an offensive penalty on the play resulting in 4th and 15. Then Philly sent out the punting unit?!??!?!?!?! I couldn't believe it. It was like they were giving up? What were they thinking. They have two timeouts left and less than two minutes to go they just went for it and made a long pass. A couple of years ago they completed a 25 yard play on 4th and 24 against the Packers. Why'd they give up?

Chi-Sea: Much closer than expected. I only watched the OT. What a clutch play by the Chicago kicker to win with a long field goal outside. Rex Grossman will kill the Bears next week against New Orleans.

SD-NE: Again Marty Shottenheimer crapped his pants in the playoffs and Brady/Belicheck proved completely unflappable. A couple of the low-lights from a San Diego point of view:

Stupid head butt penalty on NE fourth down resulted in a new set of downs and eventually three points for New England.
After New England tied the game with less than five minutes left with a two point conversion, SD apparently forgot they could run the ball. Their RB is the League MVP, to this point they had been gaining about 5 yards per rushing attempt. However, they decided to put the game in the hands of first year starter Philip Rivers which resulted in a couple of incompletions (which stopped the clock allowing New England to engineer a drive resulting in a field goal)
SD challenged a play resulting in a fumble that was obviously a fumble. This wasted a second half timeout. What would have happened if they still had this timeout when they reached the NE 36 with 24 seconds left? Not a 54 yard field goal, I'm guessing.

So I ended up going 3-1 for the weekend, 7-1 so far in the playoffs.

Because of the SD loss, I'll have to revisit my predictions for the conference finals.

Totally Eighties

2007-01-14T11:09:00.000-05:00

I was given "Trivial Pursuit: Totally '80s" for Christmas. Last night was the first night we played it. It was pretty easy, but lots of fun to play while watching the Saints and Eagles in the background. The categories are: Headlines, TV, Movies, Music, Sports&Leisure, and Wildcard.

Here is a sample card, and borrowing from Kimota94 - there are "blog points"^tm up for grabs:

HL: What firm set a record for profits on Wall Street in 1986 thanks to Michael Milken's shady dealings?

TV: What show featuring the exploits of everyday folks was hosted by luminaries like Byron Allen, Mark Russell, and Fred Willard?

MOV: What stand-up comic played an old rich dude after Rodney Dangerfield backed out of Caddyshack II?

MUS: What critically panned song from The Woman in Red was Stevie Wonder's best-selling single ever?

S&L: What was the first home video game to let players take a bead on wildlife with Nintendo's patented "light gun" controller?

WC: What European lake was systematically swept by sonar cruisers in 1987's Operation Deepscan?

Good Interviewers Make A Big Difference

2007-01-12T20:39:00.003-05:00

Quite often I listen to CBC Radio One to and from work. For those unfamiliar with Radio One, it is a talk radio format with lots of different interviews and interviewers throughout the day. On the way home it is normally "Here and Now" hosted by Matt Galloway. He is an example of an excellent interviewer. He actually listens to the answers his guests give and asks intelligent follow up questions. When he was off for a few weeks this year, I tried to listen to his replacement (Mary Ito I think), but after a couple of days - despite the content being almost the same, I stopped listening to the program because the interviews were so boring and I couldn't stand the facile interpretation the host brought to the table. In fact I would tune in just long enough to determine if Matt Galloway was back or not.

Last week Matt hosted "The Current" in the morning and did an excellent job spelling for Anna Marie Tremonti.

Moving Day

2007-01-12T20:39:00.001-05:00

Friday was 'moving day' at work. We're getting new cube furniture that is more suited to an 'agile' development team. I guess that means lower/no walls and easy to reconfigure by the teams to have common/shared areas.

I hate packing up my stuff....probably because I have too much of it. It took a couple of hours and I ended up with 5 boxes, plus a bookshelf, plus my computer, plus two TVs. I should really get rid of some of the stuff I don't use frequently. I may have to if the new area I'm moving in to is as small as I think it may be.

Lemmatisation

2007-01-11T13:37:00.000-05:00

I learned a new term today: "Lemmatisation".

I was in a video conference talking about searching Video On Demand content from a set top box. The company providing the server side indexing system mentioned the concept of "Lemmatisation and Stemming" in passing without any explanation. So...I did a little research and found that this term is used in the linguistics area of artificial intelligence.

Lemmatisation takes a sentence (or any sequence of words) and parses it identifying the part of speech (noun, adverb, etc.) of each word and then reduces the word to its base (cannonical) meaning. For example go, goes, going, and went would all be replaced by "go". Because the analyzer requires a knowledge of the grammar being used different languages require different parsers.

Stemming just removes any common pre/post fixes to get to the root meaning of the word. This is a much simpler form of lemmatisation because it doesn't need to analyze any context nor does it care about language grammar.

In the Video On Demand example, the searchable text and the search string will be lemmatised to reduce the potential dictionary of search terms and make fuzzy connections between what is explicitly being requested and what is being returned.

Pretty powerful stuff.

Carnivorous Clownfish

2007-01-10T14:20:00.000-05:00

Nemo attacking Elliot

Big Number Problems

2007-01-10T13:59:00.000-05:00

Kimota94 mentioned that the last math problem I posted was easy. He got it right, so I guess for him it was easy as everyone knows an easy question is one that you know the answer to.

Here are two 'easy' ones (Easy in that it only requires public school level arithmetic to solve).

1) What is the sum of all the digits used in writing out all the numbers from 1 to 1,000,000,000?

2) What is the product of 666...666 * 333...333 (where each number has 666 digits, the first being all sixes, the second being all threes).

Bathroom Shenanigans

2007-01-10T09:56:00.000-05:00

This morning my daughter left the breakfast table saying she needed to go to the bathroom. However, after a few minutes I went up to check on her and the door was closed - which is unusual. I knocked and she said: "Just a minute, I can do it myself." A few minutes later I hear the flush of the toilet and her washing her hands. She came out and proudly said "look at the toilet paper". She had used the last piece and wanted to show off the empty roll. Unfortunately - that roll wasn't close to empty before she started. She had placed about a half a roll of toilet paper in the bowl...what a mess!

Then I realized why she had done it. Last weekend when we had guests over she went to the bathroom and used the last piece of toilet paper (because the roll was very close to empty). When she came back downstairs she announced that fact to us and our guests which elicited a big laugh. So Maya had associated using the last of the toilet paper with doing something funny.

I guess it just shows you, that you have to be careful in how you react to the strange things kids sometimes say.

NFL Playoff Preview

2007-01-09T22:43:00.000-05:00

Coming off a 4-0 weekend, I feel pretty good about my NFL knowledge...although I'm sure it will all come tumbling down this weekend. If you recall from my previous playoffs predictions, I predicted that Indy will win in Baltimore and the remaining home teams will win this weekend. The current playoff format started in 1990, and since that time, home teams in the divisional round are 51-13, (i.e. they win 79.6% of the time)...so I'm not exactly going out on a limb here.

Here's some more analysis that outlines why I think this will happen.

New England at San Diego:

A few stats here would lead you to think that the Patriots have a decent chance at winning in San Diego:

Tom Brady is 11-1 as a starter in the playoffs
Philip Rivers (the SD QB) has never played in a playoff game
Marty Schottenheimer (the SD head coach) is 5-12 in the postseason and has not coached a playoff victory in 13 years.

Despite all that, the Chargers have a couple of big positives that I think will help them win this weekend. They've got the league MVP in LaDanian Tomlinson as their running back, and they had last week off to get healthy.

The Patriots seemed to handle the Jets reasonably well last week, but their lack of a big play maker at wide receiver showed and they relied on their defense. It will be tough for them to come away from San Diego as the winner.

Pick: The San Diego Chargers

Indianapolis at Baltimore:

Last weekend, Payton Manning didn't exactly look brilliant playing against Kansas City. He threw a bunch of interceptions and couldn't seem to get things done in the red zone so they ended up settling for a bunch of field goals. In the regular season that never seemed to happen. However, their defense played really well shutting down the Kansas City running attack. KC didn't even get a first down until the last few minutes of the third quarter! Indy extended their home record to a perfect 9-0 this season with that win. However, now they are travelling to Baltimore, and Indy is 2-7 in outdoor playoff games.

I've said that Baltimore has been overrated for most of the season. I don't think that Steve 'Air' McNair is a quarterback that can be relied on to manage a game for a full 60 minutes. He has moments when he looks great - and then he throws a completely uncatchable ball that is quite often intercepted.

This meeting will be a matchup of the great Indy offense against the great Baltimore defense. I think one of the reasons for the resurgence of Ray Lewis and the Baltimore defense has been the play of their rookie defensive lineman Ngata. He's been able to absorb a couple of OL blockers making room for the fast Baltimore linebackers to make plays in the backfield. This is the key to any 3-4 defensive scheme and it has worked well so far. However, as most rookies do, Ngata is probably reaching the 'rookie wall' where he isn't used to the extended NFL season. I don't think he'll be able to maintain that level of play this weekend.

Pick: Indianapolis Colts.

Seattle at Chicago:

Seattle looked pretty bad last week and is lucky to still be in the playoffs. They can thank the mistakes of the Dallas Cowboys for that. Seattle has injuries at defensive back hand has a guy they signed off the street in the last week of the season (Hunter, I think) playing as their third defensive back. Dallas didn't really try to take advantage of this by going to 4 or 5 wide receiver sets very often which can be blamed directly on Bill Parcells.

Chicago had a great season, the only down side being that their quarterback, Rex Grossman, had a few stinker games (QB ratings of 0 and 1.3!!!) where he turned the all over a number of times and didn't look like he knew which team he was throwing the ball to. Arizona should have beat them on Monday Night Football (one of the few games of theirs I actually watched). However, their defense and special teams have been outstanding all year long.

If Rex Grossman doesn't turn the ball over more than 2 or 3 times, and their defense plays at leas their 'B+ game', then Chicago shouldn't have much trouble beating the Seahawks.

Pick: Chicago Bears

Philadelphia at New Orleans:

Philly looked like they just did enough to beat the Giants last weekend. They weren't able to take control and 'win early' and let the Giants hang around too long. However, they were able to win the field position battle in the third quarter and eventually came away with the win.

However, this week they won't have their loud fans booing the Saints. Instead they'll be listening to the cheers of fans who haven't had much go their way in the last couple of years with the exception of this Saints team. Drew Brees and Reggie Bush have lifted the spirits of the entire city. Coming off shoulder surgery in the off season, Drew Brees has been, arguably, the best quarterback in the entire league. Sean Payton, the Saints' rookie coach, was voted coach of the year.

I've picked New Orleans to win it all this year despite them never winning a playoff game past the wild-card round in their history.

Pick: New Orleans Saints

The pick I'm most confident about is the Chicago pick - Seattle doesn't stand a chance. The pick I'm least comfortable about is the San Diego pick - New England and Tom Brady are always dangerous in the playoffs.

Word Problem

2007-01-08T16:00:00.000-05:00

Two brothers sold a flock of sheep. For each sheep, they received as many dollars as the total number of sheep in the original flock. The money was divided as follows: The older brother took 10 dollars, after which the younger brother took 10 dollars. This process repeated until it was the younger brothers turn and there wasn't a full 10 dollars left. He took what remained, and in order to even things up, the old brother gave him a penknife. What was the penknife worth?

End of an Era

2007-01-07T09:50:00.000-05:00

On Friday, Bill Cowher announced he was leaving his position as coach of the Pittsburgh Steelers. Having been the longest-tenured coach in the league for the past 8 years, and having won a SuperBowl, and been to 5 AFC championship games. I'd say he's earned the right to leave the position with his head held high.

I hope the Steelers promote someone from within the organization to replace him rather than hiring a new coach. My first choice would be offensive coordinator Ken Wisenhunt. The Steelers aren't exactly experienced at hiring head coaches (they've had two since 1969 - Chuck Noll and Bill Cowher), but the ones they've chosen have been incredibly successful. Let's hope they go 3-3.

NFL playoffs so far

2007-01-07T09:45:00.000-05:00

Nothing unexpected from the two wild card games yesterday.

Indy dominated a pathetic Kansas City team. KC should have done much better, but apparently their offense was unaware they were in the playoffs and failed to show up. Indy's defense performed well, but I think it was more an ineptitude from Kansas City (especially their offensive line) that made the game so one sided.

I only watched the last half of the Dallas-Seattle game (I've mentioned before that I care a lot less about the NFC, right). Two thoughts dominated my mind for most of the time I watched the game:

These are two of the best teams in the NFC? Thank goodness I didn't spend much time watching Fox telecasts this season.
Tony Romo is a Pro-Bowl quarterback? Huh? How is that possible?

Hopefully the games today will be a little more entertaining and well played. I'm anticipating much better games today...and hopefully I'll have time to watch them.

Memory

2007-01-06T17:28:00.000-05:00

I've got a good memory for the most part. However, I've had a few experiences where I absolutely knew with 100% certainty I was going to remember something. Not something exceptional, or life altering, but a trivial experience.

In these cases I'd experience something, and then find myself reflecting on it a few minutes later as if it had happened much longer ago. It's as if I had purposely transfered the experience from my short term memory to long term and then recalled it from that long term memory. That's the only way I can explain the feeling of something that I just experienced seeming like it happened weeks or months prior.

The first time I had this experience was when I lived in England. I was in the equivalent of grade two and my family was going to move to Canada over the summer break. My class was visiting the next class - where most of them would be when school restarted. We played 'I Spy' in the class, then we walked back to our classroom. During that walk we went through a courtyard where there were a number of student desks lining the wall. As I passed by one of the desks, I placed my fingers in the hole in the desk surface left for the 'inkwell' (did I mention this was an old school in England). When we got back to our class, I had a 'recollection' of putting my fingers in the inkwell. At that point, I knew that I'd always remember what we had just done.

I've had this happen a handful of times in my life. I can't yet control this ability to force an experience into my long term memory. But I probably try to do it at least once a month. It's frustrating to know I have this ability, but not know how to use it.

Making Change - The Answer

2007-01-05T15:25:00.000-05:00

How many unique ways are there to make change for a dollar?

This is a much harder problem than it initially seems. Credit goes to Kimota94 for attempting it - he had the right idea but used multiplication between the steps instead of addition which resulted in a much larger answer. Nobody else seemed brave enough to venture an answer.

I used a recursive approach to come up with the answer.

Let A_nbe the number of ways to make n cents with pennies.
Let B_nbe the number of ways to make n cents with pennies and nickels.
Let C_nbe the number of ways to make n cents with pennies, nickels, and dimes.
Let D_nbe the number of ways to make n cents with pennies, nickels, dimes, and quarters.

The question is asking us to find D₁₀₀

The number of ways to make D_n when n >= 25 if at least 1 quarter is used is D_n-25, while the number of ways to make D_nwhen no quarter is used is C_n.

Therefore: D_n = C_n + D_n-25, n >= 25

Similarly:
C_n = B_n + C_n-10, n>=10
B_n = A_n + B_n-5, n>=5

It is obvious that A_n is always 1.

It is slightly less obvious, but fairly clear to see that B_n is 1+x where x is n/5 truncated to the integer portion of the quotient. We can show this obvious solution by proving it true for the first few values of n and then relying on the recursive definition above.
If n <>n = 1 (only pennies are possible). For n = 5, there are two choices: 1 nickel or 5 pennies. If 5 < n <>

Therefore B₅ = 2, B₁₀ = 3, B₁₅ = 4, ..., B₁₀₀=21.

We want D₁₀₀, let's use some substitution here:
D₁₀₀ = C₁₀₀+D₇₅
D₁₀₀ = C₁₀₀+C₇₅+D₅₀
D₁₀₀ = C₁₀₀+C₇₅+C₅₀+D₂₅
D₁₀₀ = C₁₀₀+C₇₅+C₅₀+C₂₅+1

Similarly:
C₁₀₀ = B₁₀₀+B₉₀+B₈₀₊B₇₀+B₆₀+B₅₀+B₄₀+B₃₀+B₂₀+B₁₀+1
C₇₅ = B₇₅+B₆₅+B₅₅+B₄₅+B₃₅+B₂₅+B₁₅+B₅(note no +1, since C₅= B₅)
C₅₀= B₅₀+B₄₀+B₃₀+B₂₀+B₁₀+1
C₂₅= B₂₅+B₁₅+B₅

Substituting with the values of B_n in the formula above we see:
C₁₀₀= 21+19+17+15+13+11+9+7+5+3+1 = 121
C₇₅= 16+14+12+10+8+6+4+2 = 72
C₅₀= 11+9+7+5+3+1 = 36
C₂₅= 6+4+2 = 12

Finally:
D₁₀₀= C₁₀₀+C₇₅+C₅₀+C₂₅+1= 121+72+36+12+1 = 242

So there are 242 ways to uniquely make change for $1 using pennies, nickels, dimes, and quarters.

New channels in the Rogers Lineup

2007-01-05T00:42:00.000-05:00

I just noticed there are a bunch of new channels in the 9xx channel range. Unfortunately it's nothing really exciting...just simulcasts of a bunch of Ontario FM stations. About 5 London stations, a few from the KW area, some from Toronto, Ottawa, Guelph, Kingston, and Tillsonburg(?).

The Registrar Idiom

2007-01-04T23:08:00.000-05:00

Goal

To construct/create objects without hard-coding the class name in the code.

Motivation

I heard that this sort of technique was used by the developers of the AS/400 OS to introduce new printer drivers at runtime. One of the complaints of an old version was the length of time required to install new drivers, so when IBM re-wrote the OS in C++ one of the goals was to have a dynamic run time registration system for new hardware drivers. The developers used this idiom to accomplish that requirement.

C++ vs Java

This is much simpler to do in Java with the static code block facility that is executed when the .class file is loaded by the VM. The solution below details how to accomplish this Idiom in C++, doing the same in Java is omitted for brevity.

Solution

Add a clone() method to all classes (The 'Virtual Copy Constructor?' Idiom)
Create a Map instance to use as a registry for all the subclasses of Thing
- This must use 'construct on first use' semantics
- This should be a static member of the base class, so the Registrar is referenced as Thing::registrar()

'Ugly' code can populate the registry with hard-coded or well known subclasses of 'Thing' as follows


Thing::registrar()["ThingA"] = new ThingA();
Thing::registrar()["ThingB"] = new ThingB();
... (one per derived class)

The original goal is achieved as now the following works:


String className = ...;
Thing *t = Thing.getThing(className);

where

Thing* Thing::getThing(String className)
{
 return Thing::registrar()[className]->clone();
}

OPTIONAL:
- Use the constructor of a static object in the derived class to populate the registry
- If the registry doesn't contain className, then getThing can try to dynamically load a library that could contain the new derived class and then retry querying the registry.

Example

Shape.h


class Shape
{
public:
  ...
  virtual Shape* clone() const = 0;
  Shape* getShape(String& name);
  ...

protected:
  ...
  static Map& registrar();
  ...
  class Registrarer {
    public:
       Registrarer(String className, Shape* prototype);
  };
  ...

private:
  ...
};

Shape.cpp


Map& Shape::registrar()
{
 static Map* registry = new Map;
 return *registry;
}

Shape* Shape::getShape(String& name)
{
 if (!registrar().containsKey(className))
 {
    String DLLName = className + ".DLL";
    // try to load DLL containing the requested shape...
    ...
    if (!registrar().containsKey(className))
       throw Exception("Can't find: " + className);
 }
 return registrar()[className]->clone();
}

...

Shape::Registrarer(String className, Shape* prototype)
{
 Shape::registrar()[className] = prototype;
}

...

Circle.cpp (note no .h is necessary)


class Circle : public Shape
{
public:
 ...
 virtual Shape* clone() const;
 ...

private:
 ...
 static Shape::Registrarer reg_;
 ...
};

// Automatically add myself to the Shape registry
Shape::Registarer Circle::reg_("Circle", new Circle());

...

Arghhhh..

2007-01-04T23:01:00.000-05:00

...what a frustrating day it was today at work. I can't even get around to writing the blog post I want to because I just keep thinking about it. So, instead, I'll blog quickly about what happened, hoping that the act of writing it down will clear it from my brain so I can sleep well and start tomorrow fresh.

So, last night I didn't sleep very much between doing some work, and Elliot not sleeping very much. I ended up getting about 75 minutes starting around 1AM, and then another 30 minutes around 3. Kelly relieved me at 5:30 when I took another 3 hours before going to work. This led me to have a fairly short fuse today which aggravated the situation.

I get in to work and find that an individual at another company is making false claims about me and my work in order to cover his own behind. I'm not sure how in detail I should go here...in fact I may have crossed the line already...\

Suffice it to say, I was pretty frustrated. I got a chance to confront my accuser via tele-conference with our respective bosses present and it went OK. Although there were a number of issues I heard were raised in the morning that were never addressed in the afternoon call. I trust my boss will follow up on them though so that sort of thing doesn't go un-mentioned for too long.

Hopefully everything will be better going forward.

Boom Goes the Dynamite

2007-01-03T23:43:00.000-05:00

The December issue of Wired magazine has a couple of articles about YouTube and some of the problems Google will likely face in trying to turn the large viewership of YouTube content into revenue. It is often quoted that YouTube provides over 100 million streams a day...however, a majority (note YouTube founders dispute the use of that word) of those streams are embedded in other web pages. This means that, unless something changes static ads around the video window for YouTube content won't be seen by lots of people streaming the content. Furthermore, the rise of Mozilla as a browser means lots of people (including me) don't see the static ads on web pages because of great plugins like AdBlock. Putting ads at the beginning of the stream is something YouTube has said they wouldn't do in the past, and I think it would make the experience less inviting. Putting ads at the end of the content doesn't really work since people could (and would) simply stop watching the content when it's over.

I'm not sure what the solution is...but I'm sure Google has a plan - you have to have a plan before spending 1.65 BILLION dollars, right?

Anyway, in the Wired article, they mentioned one of the viral clips hosted on YouTube called 'Boom Goes The Dynamite'...I watched it (and embedded it below). I didn't find it that funny...but if you like laughing at uncomfortable situations and the mistakes of others here is possibly, the worst sportscast ever....

2007 Canada Payroll Tax Limits

2007-01-03T13:55:00.000-05:00

In 2007, the CPP maximum contribution is $1,989.90 up from $1,910.70 in 2006.
The EI maximum contribution is $702.00 down from $729.30 (unless you're in Quebec where the EI maximum contribution is $569.40 down from $596.70).

Hey Buddy..You Got Change For A Dollar?

2007-01-02T16:14:00.000-05:00

Another math problem:

Using just pennies, nickels, dimes, and quarters, how many distinct ways are there to get $1 (order does not matter).

NFL Playoffs

2007-01-02T15:19:00.000-05:00

So this year only 8 teams will end their season with a win: The yet to be determined SuperBowl champion and the Steelers, Texans, Lions, Rams, Panthers, 49ers, and Packers. Ahh...there's hope for next year...

The NFL playoffs offer two weekends of exciting matchups (wild card weekend, and the conference finals) and two weekends of let down matchups that will probably be blowouts (division weekend and the SuperBowl). It's always fun, but almost never accurate, to try and predict what will happen so here's my shot:

Wild Card Weekend

Kansas City Chiefs at Indianapolis Colts:

On paper this looks like it could be an offensive shootout, with the KC Chiefs impressive rushing against the poor Indianapolis rush defense on one side and Peyton manning on the other.
Both coaches have less than impressive playoff records, with Herm Edwards being especially poor in Time Management (see NYJ v PIT two years ago).

I'm going with Indy in this one since:

The Colts are playing at home where they are 8-0
KC lost to Pittsburgh like 87-3 or something equally lopsided earlier this season, and the Steelers couldn't even make the postseason
KC must be just happy making the playoffs after needing about 6 things to happen last weekend to make it (including nail-biting OT loses by both the bengals and broncos)
KC is only 3-5 on the road
Larry Johnson (KC RB) has rushed a ton this year (pretty much their entire offense) and must be at the point of breaking
Indy desperately wants to shake its rep as playoff choke artists (they started by choking in the regular season)

Pick: The Colts

New York Jets at New England Patriots:

As members of the same division, these two have played twice already - each winning the 'away' game. This game will be played at New England's Gillette Stadium. Don't expect a repeat performance of the 17-14 loss the Pats had in that game though. The Jets' coach, Eric Mangini, is a rookie and the youngest in the NFL and was also a former assistant of the Patriots' Bill Belichek.

The only concern for the Patriots is the same one they've faced all year - no real playmakers at wide receiver. They'll rely on the same three aspects they've used all year to win:

Well coached players - probably the best in the league
Smart play calling on both sides of the ball
Tom Brady - [channelling generic sports announcer]"This guy just knows how to win games in the National Football League"[end channelling]

Pick: The Patriots

Dallas Cowboys at Seattle Seahawks:

I really don't follow the NFC nearly as closely as the AFC (because the Steelers are in the AFC, and the AFC seems to just be a better conference at this point, as evident from the last SuperBowl with the #6 AFC seed beating the #1 NFC seed). However, I'll still try to predict these games.

Dallas is starting a rookie QB (Tony Romo) who won his first few starts but has looked terrible in the last couple, has the ongoing soap opera of a WR in Terrell Owens, and the super arrogant/over-rated coach Bill Parcells.

Meanwhile, the other sideline will have the SuperBowl losers from last year with only one appreciable difference from last years team - the departed Pro Bowl OL Steve Hutchinson. Last year, the Seahawks seemed almost unbeatable at home, but this year they were a mediocre 5-3 (good enough for the playoffs in the NFC).

I have to think that Seattle just has to not make any big mistakes and Dallas would have to play almost as perfectly as they can in order for the Cowboys to progress any further in the postseason. I don't see that happening, so...

Pick: Seahawks

New York Giants at Philadelphia Eagles:

I've picked each home team so far, and even though the odds are against all home teams winning, in the wild-card weeked, I still can't pick the Giants to beat the Eagles.

The Giants have Manning the Younger at QB, Tiki Barber and RB, Jeremy Shockey at TE and former Steeler Plaxico Burress at WR. So on paper they look like they have a really good offense that would be able to beat a team that lost its starting QB to injury in the season, its best WR to Dallas in the offseason, and hasn't had a decent running game since Randall Cunningham was their QB. Unfortunately they removed the play calling duties from their offensive coordinator after week 16 ( replace by Kevin Gilbride last week) and they have a head coach in Tom Coughlin who likes to take credit for the victories and blame others (notably Eli Manning, their place kicker, and offensive coordinator) for their loses - not exactly what you look for in a leader. Tiki Barber has been promoting his retirement and post-football career since the midpoint of the season.

The Eagles have lots of playoff experience in the past few years, a big advantage of playing at home, and Jeff Garcia (their replacement QB) knows how to win from his time in the CFL and with the 49ers.

Pick: The Eagles

Assuming everything happens as I predicted above I see Indy beating Baltimore in Baltimore in the division weekend, with the remaining home teams (San Diego, Chicago, and New Orleans) winning.

Then in the Conference Weekend San Diego beating Indy and New Orleans beating Chicago.

Finally, the SuperBowl will be won by New Orleans.

How I Can Tell I'm Old

2007-01-01T14:55:00.000-05:00

We turned on the TV last night at 11:45 to watch some of the New Year's Eve festivities. We started out watching CityTV which was broadcasting live from Toronto (Nathan Phillips Square, I think). Neither Kelly or I could identify the performer that was singing - and neither of us really cared for the song. So we switched to NBC where it seemed that Dick Clark had been rejuvenated. It turns out it was Carson Daly. I've heard the name before, but couldn't have placed a face to it before last night. Then the feature band at Times Square as "Panic! At The Disco" (only identifiable by the caption on the broadcast. I've never heard of them before, nor had I heard the songs they were performing.

Guess I'm just out of touch with pop-culture.

Casino Royale

2007-01-01T11:56:00.000-05:00

Yesterday Kelly and I were actually able to go out and watch a movie. My mother-in-law came over to babysit the kids for 3 hours and the feeding schedule worked out so that we could see a matinee. We chose to see Casino Royale because we are both fans of the James Bond franchise (me a little moreso than Kelly). I had purposely avoided reading anything about the movie ahead of time, and had only peripherally heard a couple of good opinions of Daniel Craig as Bond.

The plot was typical of most bond movies - a few action sequences loosely interconnected to a general world threat that was overcome by a single British Secret Agent, some double crosses.

When the title sequence started I got really excited (pretty childish, I know). The movie started with the activities that led to James Bond getting 'promoted' to double-0 status. This led me to think that with a new Bond actor, they are trying to restart the franchise, similar to the success of 'Batman Begins'.

I thought Daniel Craig played Bond exactly as he should be played. Cocky, self-aware, rough, but not overly suave/sophisticated (my biggest complaints about Dalton and Brosnan). Similar to On Her Majesty's Secret Service they showed how a true relationship with a woman affected Bond's personality going forward and provided an explanation for how he can treat peope's lives (men and women) with such indifference.

In a departure from previous Bond movies, where Bond played a card game at a casino it was Texas Hold-Em instead of Chemin De Fer (or Baccarat). This probably makes sense with the current poker craze and the general understanding of the rules of that game as opposed to the former. This is especially true considering how integral to the script the gambling scenes were.

Other than Daniel Craig himself, the only actors I recognized were Dame Judi Dench (as M again), and Jeffrey Wright (from Ali and Syriana), who played Felix Leiter. This is something I appreciate about the classic Bond movies - they use actors that are not Hollywood 'names'. It is something they got away from in the later Bond movies that led to them being more like typical Hollywood action fare (think Vin Diesel) rather than the separate (better) class of movies. The actress that played Vesper (the Bond Girl) was pretty good, although Kelly complained that she always had "the same stupid expression". She actually reminded me of Tammy a little bit - especially her eyes.

Woulda, Coulda, Shoulda

2007-01-01T10:18:00.000-05:00

I'm not ready to talk about the NFL playoffs yet....had the Steelers simply beat the Ravens in the penultimate week, with everything that happened yesterday, they would have had the second AFC wild card spot instead of the Kansas City Chiefs.

Had they beaten any one of the AFC teams they lost to in the regular season (including the pathetic Oakland Raiders) they would have been in the playoffs.

Oh well, there's always next year...that and the fact that they are still the reigning (I can no longer say defending) SuperBowl champions.

Math is Fun - The Answer

2007-01-01T07:36:00.000-05:00

The question was: Find the smallest positive integer (base 10), composed entirely of the digits 0 and 1 that is an integer multiple of 225.

Solution:

First notice that 225 = 9 * 25 so the correct solution will be a multiple of both 9 and 25.

Starting with the factor 25...any multiple of 25 will end with one of 25, 50, 75, or 00. Obviously 00 is the only potential ending that meets the criteria of only having the digit 0 or 1.

Next, we know from this post that the sum of all the digits of any multiple of 9 is also divisible by 9. Since we are restricted to just using ones and zeros, the smallest number divisible by 9 will be 9 consecutive ones.

Combining those previous two observations we get the solution that the smallest positive integer that is evenly divisible by 225 is: 11,111,111,100.

Chess Tournaments

2006-12-31T03:38:00.000-05:00

For the first time I decided to enter some online correspondence chess tournaments over the holidays. I've never done this before because I've preferred to play more friendly games against people I know. But I decided to broaden my horizons a bit and potentially improve my play.

I play at chessworld.net (link with referral code on right hand side) and entered three different tournament with mixed results:

Knockout:
The first tournament I entered was an 8 person, single match, open knockout tournament. 'Open' means it is open to anyone of any rating. The 8 entrants are seeded based on rating with #1 playing #8, #2 vs #7 and so on. #1-4 have white and must win to advance (i.e. Black can advance with a win or tie). I was seeded 4th with a rating of 1895 against a player with the handle 'Trapper D' from the USA. We quickly exchanged pieces and I ended up making a blunder in the endgame and resigned - thus quickly ending my first online tournament.

All-Play-All:
In this style of tournament every entrant plays two games (one as white, one as black) against each other entrant. You get 1 point for a win and 0.5 points for a draw - the entrant with the most points after all games are played wins. I chose a 4 player tournament, so I have siz games to play. So far I won one game with Black and drew another so I have 1.5 points. The other games I'm playing are against much stronger opponents - I hope to be able to salvage a win and a draw out of what is left.

Pyramid:
This isn't really a tournament in that there is no fixed end. Rather it is open to as many people that want to play. There are 7 levels to the pyramid - each with about a third as many people as the level below. You start on the 1st level, and advance by beating a player in the level above you. You can also be demoted a level if you lose to someone on the same level (or a level below you). I've won all three pyramid matches I've been involved in so far, so I'm on level 3. Below is the current distribution of players in the pyramid:

Level

Players

224

564

1487

Overall, I'm quite enjoying the tournament play - lots of chess boards to move on and lots of new and interesting people to play against.

Allergies and Sensitivities

2006-12-30T23:21:00.000-05:00

Earlier I posted about a potential allergy our son may have to cow milk proteins. We've received a lot of conflicting advice from the Health Unit, a dietitian, and our family doctor. Ranging from give up breast feeding in favour of Soy formula, to avoid all formula and solely breast feed.

Kelly has been doing an amazing job of feeding Elliot exclusively by breast (still 7-9 times a day), but even with that his weight gain has not been great recently. He's six months now, which is when we're supposed to introduce rice cereal (pretty much the most bland tasting mush you can make). We started using a Nestle product that you can mix with breast milk which we tried - Elliot got diarrhea with it, but Kelly was on an antibiotic at the time so we weren't sure whether it was the cereal or if it was the drug getting through the breast milk.

So we waited a few days and tried a different brand (from Heinz) that didn't have any milk proteins and contained a lot fewer additives than the Nestle version. Again we were mixing with breast milk and thought everything was going well (no upset tummy, no red cheeks) - but today (day #3 on the cereal) he had 7(!!!) dirty diapers and now the poop is green and chunky - yuch.

We're not sure what's going on...but we're going to try a couple more days since he doesn't seem dehydrated (yet) and he has a Doctor's appointment on Tuesday morning.

We never had these problems with Maya - I didn't realize how easy it was back then.

Math is Fun

2006-12-29T09:51:00.000-05:00

Here's another math problem to wrestle with while counting down to the New Year.

Find the smallest positive integer (base 10), composed entirely of the digits 0 and 1 that is divisible by 225.

Christmas Stuff

2006-12-28T06:09:00.000-05:00

Well after a couple of days of dealing with an exceedingly excited 3 year old I'm ready to put fingers to keyboard to describe Christmas...

On Christmas Eve we visited my Mother-In-Law for dinner and had a pretty good time. Got home at 7:00 (about half an hour before Maya's normal bedtime) and immediately started the bedtime routine with no fussing (because, as she said, Santa won't come until we're all asleep). She got to bed in record time, skipping some of the normal elements of the routine and hunkering down under her covers with her eyes scrunched closed determined to fall asleep immediately. Which she did - there wasn't a peep from her room.

Elliot (our 6 month old) had a pretty good night. He woke up at 3:00 to be fed but was back asleep in his crib by 3:45. Maya woke up at 7:15 - which is a little later than normal for her. So far, so good.

We then proceeded down to the family room to see if Santa had come. Maya was so excited when she saw the 'big present' that Santa had left for her: a 'Rapunzel Castle'. She had seen this set up in Sears when we went for Christmas pictures of the kids three weeks ago and had talked of nothing else since. She asked for it in her letter to Santa, and when she saw Santa at the mall and at the TVWorks holiday party. So, unless we were going to teach her a life lesson about disappointment, she was going to get that castle. (more on disappointing your kids intentionally in another post, I think). Maya also got a watch in her stocking, but to my disappointment, she wasn't interested in it at all despite asking for a watch a number of times and always expressing an interest in my watch.

After about 30 minutes of play downstairs with the kids and the stockings we headed up for breakfast. Maya was too excited to eat and was jumping all over the place, but we managed to get something in her. Elliot was getting hungry at this point, so Kelly fed him, while Maya and I went back downstairs to play with the Castle. After eating Elliot fell asleep.

So Kelly, Maya, and I started opening the presents under the tree. Some highlights:

Me: Shoes, CD (Love - The Beatles), and an IOU for the Wii - Kelly couldn't find one in time and was very apologetic. I kept telling her that it was the thought that counts and I was just as excited for the IOU as actually getting one. Delaying the gratification is good too.

Kelly: Necklace, Sweater, PJs, CDs (Sam's Town - The Killers, Continuum - John Mayer)

Maya: Lots of Little Mermaid paraphernalia - I'm not comfortable feeding the Disney conglomerate, but I'm doing it anyway...don't feel great about it though.

Elliot: Clothes, a couple of big rubbery dinosaurs (T. Rex, Pleisiosaurus), some plastic animal toys that make noises when you move their appendages.

In the afternoon we went over to my Mother-In-Law's for turkey dinner. It was excellent. My sister in law and her new boyfriend were supposed to be there at 3:00. Dinner was at 4:00. At 4:30 she called to say that they went for brunch with the boyfriend's family and weren't hungry and were too 'tired' to come over. She told her mother that if she wanted she could bring the presents over to their place after 7:00 when she got her kids back from her ex.

I couldn't believe how inconsiderate and rude that was. My mother in law was almost in tears as she got off the phone. She went over later so her grandkids could have their presents - but there is still a lot of tension between the two of them. I would normally enjoy that tension, but it's almost beyond that now.

We got back home around 7:00 again, and once again, Maya was so tired she went straight to bed without any fuss and slept through the night.

A Sad Anniversary

2006-12-27T22:43:00.000-05:00

A year ago today, the sister of one of my wife's friends was found murdered. She was found in the trunk of her car in the parking lot of the public school at which she taught in Nova Scotia. The police have yet to find the murderer and have not laid a single charge. Her name is Paula Gallant and the police are still looking for any tips that could lead to an arrest - there is up to $50,000 available for any such information.

In the year that has followed, her sisters have struggled to cope with this tragedy and maintain a relationship with their niece, who is almost 2 years old now. They have helped open an art room called "Paula's Place" at the school and have held auctions to raise funds and awareness of the investigation. But to this point nothing has led back to anything

Some more information can be found here, here, and here.

1000! revisited

2006-12-25T23:04:00.000-05:00

It's been a few days since I posed the 1000! question and while cjg posted the correct answer he used a brute force approach. Here is a more formal solution:

The only way to get a zero at the end of a number is by multiplying by 10. The prime factorization of 10 is 5*2. The prime factorization of 1000! will contain 2^m and 5ⁿ. So the number of 0s at the end of 1000! will be the minimum of m and n.

1000! contains a factor of every number from 1 to 1000, so we start by counting how many of those numbers contain a factor of 5.

Every 5^th number is a multiple of 5.
Every 25^th number is a multiple of 25 - which has an additional factor of 5.
Every 125^th number is a multiple of 125 - which has yet another factor of 5.
And 625 has another factor of 5.

So, we get 1000! has 200+40+8+1 = 249 factors of 5.

We know every other number has a factor of 2, so 1000! trivially has at least 500 factors of 2. since 500>249, the number of zeros at the end of 1000! is 249.

Now, through all of this we assumed I was asking base 10. If, for interests sake I really meant everything in base 2, the answer would be derived identically:

In base 2, a zero at the end occurs for each factor of 10 (2 base 10). 1000 base 2 is 8 base 10.

Every 2^nd number has a factor of 2.
Every 4^th number has an additional factor of 2
Every 8^th number has yet another factor of 2.

So we see that 1000! (base 2) has 4+2+1 = 7 zeros at the end.

Merry Christmas..

2006-12-24T16:58:00.000-05:00

and happy holiday thoughts to anyone that is (un)fortuante enough to be reading my ramblings on the day before Christmas.

Come in Number 51, Your Time Is Up

2006-12-24T16:26:00.000-05:00

This is post #51 and with it marks an end to my theme of titling posts with Pink Floyd song titles. I found it more difficult to come up with the title than most posts content. I even cheated in a few ways:

I used an album title once (Animals)
I used a Roger Waters solo track name once (What God Wants)
I used duplicates a lot - something I wanted to avoid initially (See Emily Play 7 times, High Hopes 3 times, Money 3 times, Speak To Me twice)

Goodbye Cruel World

2006-12-24T16:23:00.000-05:00

That's it. The Steelers have officially been eliminated from the playoffs following a 31-7 loss to the "over-rated" Baltimore Ravens. Too bad because Jacksonville lost again.

Kimota94 - you can once again watch football...me...I'm going to dip into the Christmas egg nog a little early.

Free Four

2006-12-23T18:00:00.000-05:00

As in "One Two Free Four Five"...

Here are the five things not many people know about me that Peter suggested here:

I think of myself and am generally considered to be pretty good at math, but on the first two tax returns I submitted (ages 14 and 15) there were 'calculation errors' that Revenue Canada found and corrected on my behalf. Only if math teachers did that too :(
I have had my appendix, gall bladder, wisdom teeth, and tonsils removed.
I prefer a tray of cold cuts, fresh bread and a 'make your own sandwich meal' to pretty much any other kind of meal. It is always my choice when asked what I want to have to eat for a family get together - to the point where nobody asks me anymore.
I suck at first person shooters and real time war strategy games.
I believed in Santa until I was 9.

Brain Damage

2006-12-22T13:12:00.000-05:00

Again, Kimota94 provided the first (and this time, only) correct response to the last math problems. Congratulations - go here to see his solution.

Here's a new problem for the holidays:

How many zeros are at the end of 1000! ?

(for those unaware of the ! operator - it is read "factorial". n! means the product of all numbers from 1 to n. e.g. 4! = 1*2*3*4 = 24)

A Saucerful Of Secrets

2006-12-22T11:01:00.000-05:00

In response to Kimota94's post about math tricks...here's a few 'tests for divisibility' that you can use to impress your (geeky) friends.

1) An integer is divisible by 2 iff (that's if and only if for you non-geeks) its last digit is divisible by 2. If you didn't know this one already there's a problem ;).

2) An integer is divisible by 4 iff its last two digits are divisible by 4 because 100 is equivalent to 0 mod 4 (again, for the non geeks, mod is short for modulus meaning remainder (100/4 = 25 remainder 0, 0/4 = 0 remainder 0 - the two remainders are equal so 100 and 0 are equivalent mod 4)

3) A number is divisible by 3 iff the sum of its digits is divisible by 3.
Proof:
coming later

4) An integer is divisible by 9 iff the sum of its digits is divisible by 9 (casting out nines)

Proof:
Let x be an integer with digits a_ra_r-1…a₁a₀.
Therefore x = a_r*10^r + a_r-1*10^r-1+…+a₁*10+a₀

Now 10 is equivalent to 1 mod 9
Therefore, for all k > 0, 10^k is equivalent to 1^k which is equivalent to 1 mod 9.

Now look at x mod 9:
x = a_r*1 + a_r-1*1 +… + a₁*1 + a₀(mod 9)
Therefore x is congruent to 0 (mod 9) (i.e. it is divisible by 9) when the sum of:
a_r+a_r-1+…+a₁+a₀ is congruent to 0 (mod 9)

Another way of saying it is that x is divisible by 9 when the sum of its digits is divisible by 9.

5) A number is divisible by 11 iff the alternating sum of its digits is divisible by 11.

Proof:
Mainly left to the reader. It is almost identical to the proof for 9s except 10 is equivalent to -1 mod 11 so the 10^k is either 1 or -1 depending on if k is even or not.

Shine On You Crazy Diamond

2006-12-20T17:06:00.000-05:00

The "Change Bank" is one of my favourite SNL commercial parodies ever. My favourite line is: "People ask how we make money. The answer is simple: volume".

I found it on YouTube:

HIgh Hopes (part 3)

2006-12-19T05:52:00.000-05:00

I know what you're all thinking: What happened to the Steelers' playoff chances with the NFL results this past weekend?

Well, I'm here to let you know that while still slim, their hopes are still alive. Oh...and a mistake from last week. Buffalo has the same record as the Steelers, but if they win their remaining games would beat the Steelers based on conference record. I must have missed that one, because I can't look at a team starting JP Losman at quarterback and think they have a chance at making the playoffs. Turns out their chances (while still slim) are better than those of the defending Superbowl champs.

The Good News: Pittsburgh won (easily) while Cincinnati, Jacksonville, and KC all lost.

The Bad News: Denver and the NY Jets won (although neither win was surprising against Arizona and Minnesota respectively.

The new scenario for the upcoming weekend:

The Steelers must win against Baltimore this weekend
Denver and Cincinnati play this weekend, both are 1 game ahead of the Steelers and both hold a tiebreaker against the Steelers, so unless they tie (very unlikely), the winner will beat the Steelers for a wild card spot. Which means there is only one left
So Jacksonville must lose against New England (in New England)

Assuming Denver and Cincinnati don't tie, the Steelers have to hope that in the next two weeks they go 2-0, the Jaguars go 0-2, Denver loses their last game, and the Jets, Bills, and Titans lose at least once.

Simple, right. Just not very likely.

Speak To Me

2006-12-18T21:22:00.000-05:00

Congratulations to Kimota94 and Vish, who correctly determined the answer to the last math question. See their comments for details...

Now for some algebra:

Two cars race around a circular track, in opposite directions, at constant rates. They start at the same point and meet every 30 seconds. If they move in the same direction, they meet every 120 seconds. If the track is 1800 m long, what is the speed of each car?

One Of My Turns

2006-12-17T10:48:00.000-05:00

Another math problem...answer coming in a couple of days or after the first correct answer in the comments section:

Angle ABC = Angle DEA
length AB  = 3
 BC = 4
 AE = 1

What is the length of line segment ED?

When You're In

2006-12-16T22:32:00.000-05:00

The NFL tie breaking procedures to get into the playoffs are some of the most complicated rules I've ever analyzed or seen discussed in such detail. Last year, at the end of the regular season, the Atlanta Falcons were playing a game and had to make a decision between going for a field goal for a tie or going for a touchdown to win. Because of 'playoff implications' they decided to go for the touchdown and failed - missing the playoffs. It turns out that had they played for a tie they would have made it into the playoffs. On the sidelines, following the end of the game, you could see the coach screaming into a cellphone. In the press conference afterwards he told the media that he was unaware that a tie would get them into the playoffs so he played for the win. When you read the tie breaking procedures it's no wonder he was confused.

Here they are (courtesy of espn.com with further explanations from me...)

Within a division:
1. Head-to-head (best won-lost-tied percentage in games between the clubs).
2. Best won-lost-tied percentage in games played within the division.
3. Best won-lost-tied percentage in common games.
Common games are against same opponents. Within a division, two teams will have 8 games in common excluding the head-to-head and division games.
4. Best won-lost-tied percentage in games played within the conference.
5. Strength of victory.
Best won-lost-tied percentage of opponents the team beat
6. Strength of schedule.
Best won-lost-tied percentage of all opponents
7. Best combined ranking among conference teams in points scored and points allowed.
Ranked 1-16 within conference for points scored and points allowed. Two rankings added, lowest number is 'best'.
8. Best combined ranking among all teams in points scored and points allowed.
Ranked 1-16 within conference for points scored and points allowed. Two rankings added, lowest number is 'best'.
9. Best net points in common games.
Two teams in the same division have 14 games in common including 2 head to head meetings.
10. Best net points in all games.
11. Best net touchdowns in all games.

TO BREAK A TIE FOR THE WILD-CARD TEAM
If it is necessary to break ties to determine the two Wild-Card clubs from each conference, the following steps will be taken.
1. Reduce to at most one tied club per division by applying the division tie breaker.
2. If more than one club is tied following step 1, see below.

Two Clubs
1. Head-to-head, if applicable.
2. Best won-lost-tied percentage in games played within the conference.
3. Best won-lost-tied percentage in common games, minimum of four.
4. Strength of victory.
5. Strength of schedule.
6. Best combined ranking among conference teams in points scored and points allowed.
7. Best combined ranking among all teams in points scored and points allowed.
8. Best net points in conference games.
9. Best net points in all games.
10. Best net touchdowns in all games.
11. Coin toss.

Three or More Clubs
(Note: If two clubs remain tied after third or other clubs are eliminated, tie breaker reverts to step 1 of applicable two-club format.)
1. Apply division tie breaker to eliminate all but the highest ranked club in each division prior to proceeding to step 2. The original seeding within a division upon application of the division tie breaker remains the same for all subsequent applications of the procedure that are necessary to identify the three Wild-Card participants.
2. Head-to-head sweep. (Applicable only if one club has defeated each of the others or if one club has lost to each of the others.)
3. Best won-lost-tied percentage in games played within the conference.
4. Best won-lost-tied percentage in common games, minimum of four.
5. Strength of victory.
6. Strength of schedule.
7. Best combined ranking among conference teams in points scored and points allowed.
8. Best combined ranking among all teams in points scored and points allowed.
9. Best net points in conference games.
10. Best net points in all games.
11. Best net touchdowns in all games.
12. Coin toss.

High Hopes

2006-12-14T07:24:00.000-05:00

So the Baltimore Ravens won on Sunday - which means that the Steelers can no longer win the division. So as promised here is some detailed analysis as to how the Steelers can win a wild card spot in the playoffs.

Since the Bengals and Jaguars already have eight wins and both hold tie-breakers over the Steelers (and their respective division winners already have 10 wins), the Steelers must win their remaining three games and one of those two teams must lose their remaining three games.

Looking at the upcoming weekend, that means a Steelers loss or both a Bengals and Jaguars win means that the Steelers are eliminated from the playoffs. Other than that, it depends on what the other 7-6 teams do over the remaining three weeks. Lets look at the possibilities assuming that the Steelers are going to go 3-0 and there are no ties.

NY Jets: remaining games are against the Vikings, Dolphins and Raiders.
If the Jets go 2-1 over that three game span they will be tied with the Steelers. If the loss is against the Vikings then the Jets will hold the tiebreaker based on a better conference record, however if the loss is against Miami or Oakland, then the Steelers will probably win the tiebreaker based on "Strength of Victory"

Denver Broncos: remaining games are against the Cardinals, Bengals, and 49ers.
If the Broncos go 2-1 over that three game span they will be tied with the Steelers. Denver owns the tiebreaker against the Steelers based on a better conference record.

KC Chiefs: remaining games are against the Chargers, Raiders, and Jaguars.
If the Chiefs go 2-1 over that three game span they will be tied with the Steelers. However, the Steelers beat the Chiefs (handily) earlier this year, so they would win the tiebreaker.

Miami, Buffalo and Tennessee all have the same record as the Steelers. If Miami or Buffalo go 3-0 the Steelers would hold the tie-breaker because of a better conference record. However, if Tennesse goes 3-0 it is unclear at this point which team would win the tie-breaker because it would come down to Strength of Victory. I have a feeling Tennesee would win that however.

So what are some potential scenarios that see the Steelers into the post-season? See the list below. Note: I ignored the scenario where both CIN and JAX go 0-3 since that seems very unlikely (but could result in the Steelers getting the 1st or the 2 wild card spots)

Scenario A

JAX	0-3
CIN	1-2 or 2-1
KC	2-1 or worse
DEN	1-2 or worse
NYJ	1-2 or worse
TEN	2-1 or worse

Scenario B

JAX	0-3
CIN	1-2 or 2-1
KC	2-1 or worse
DEN	1-2 or worse
NYJ	2-1	with one of the wins against MIN
TEN	2-1 or worse

Scenario C

CIN	0-3
DEN	1-2	must beat CIN, lose to ARZ and SF
JAX	1-2 or better
KC	2-1 or worse
NYJ	1-2 or worse
TEN	2-1 or worse

Scenario D

CIN	0-3
DEN	1-2	must beat CIN, lose to ARZ and SF
JAX	1-2 or better
KC	2-1 or worse
NYJ	2-1	with one of the wins against MIN
TEN	2-1 or worse

What God Wants

2006-12-12T17:20:00.000-05:00

I was listening to The Current on CBC Radio One this morning and the satirical opening was talking about Canadian retailers wanting to embrace the materialism of Christmas without alienating the Christians so they were launching a new campaign: W.W.J.B. : What Would Jesus Buy.

I laughed out loud!!

Fearless

2006-12-11T16:26:00.000-05:00

In my post about motivation (Money) - I forgot one basic motivation that some people use to drive their efforts: Fear. It could be a fear of failure, or a fear of losing their job, or a fear of embarrassment. But any sense of fear resulting in you putting in the maximum effort you can to accomplish a task to reduce the feeling feared outcome is a source of motivation.

I'm not sure how ethical (or even legal) it would be for a manager to prey on an employees fears to coax their best effort...but not all managers out there are paragons of ethics (thinking Tom Parkinson, former CEO of Hydro One)

Yet Another Movie / Round and Around

2006-12-10T10:36:00.000-05:00

I'm sure everyone is familiar with a dining room table that can expand by placing 'leaves' in either the centre or at the ends to give more surface area when needed. Normally these tables are rectangular or oval (only centre leaves for oval tables).

Well DB Fletcher is a furniture design company that makes a circular 'capstan' table that can expand when needed but maintain its circular shape. How? Well the mechanism is so ingenious they have a video expanding and contracting of it on their website that has to be seen to be believed.

To expand, the table is just rotated in one direction, the pie shaped panels separate and a star shaped centre piece is raised along with the missing pieces between the 'pie slices'. To contract, the table is simply rotated in the opposite direction.

(found the link from bOing bOing this morning)

Money

2006-12-10T10:03:00.000-05:00

Get a good job with more pay and you're okay
But if you ask for a rise it's no surprise
That they're giving none away.
-- Money, Pink Floyd

My friend Kimota just posted an article on his blog about raises which got me thinking about money and how it relates to motivation with respect to your job. When I was younger and much more foolish I though that money in the form of bonuses and raises were the best forms of motivation. Having been on both ends (giving and receiving raises) now, I have come to the conclusion that motivation is very loosely tied to salary and raises if at all.

I think this is based purely on expectations. If you expect to get a raise of n% for whatever reason - good performance review, better than average quality of work, high inflation rate, impression from the manager, talk amongst peers, previous raises - but end up getting less than n% (or even if you get n%) then the raise is looked at in a negative light because it didn't meet your expectations. This is similar to going to a good movie that has been built up by reviews and recommendations as the best thing ever and then being disappointed because it was merely a good movie.

A bonus is slightly better than a raise in terms of motivation because, generally, it is not expected, it follows a particular accomplishment and it is a large sudden, influx of cash you can blow on whatever takes your fancy at the time. That feeling lasts a little while and may translate into better motivation at work. However, because these 'spot' bonuses are usually rare, the realization comes that because you got a bonus recently, no matter what you do now you won't be 'due' for another bonus for a long time - so the motivation trails off.

Instead of money, I've realized that the motivation has to come from the work itself. Motivation is a two part problem - you have to be motivated by something to perform well. And your manager has to figure out what motivates you and attempt to give you that motivating item regularly. Here are some of the things that motivate me and how a manager can ensure that I'm motivated:

Motivation Source	Solution
Challenge	Make sure you are challenged in your tasks
Praise/Recognition	Make sure you get positive reinforcement
Competition	Make sure you feel like you are in a competition and are doing well - but not winning
Accomplishment	Make sure you are aware of how completing your tasks will affect the product/marketplace/team
Chance for advancement/power	Publish the career development path opportunities, talk about continuous learning with employee, etc.

Run Like Hell

2006-12-08T00:41:00.000-05:00

I just watched the Steelers easily beat the Browns. Man, if they played that consistently every game they would definitely be in the playoff picture.

During the game, Willie Parker set a new Steelers record for most rushing yards in a single game (223). He probably could have beat the NFL record, but was pulled out of the game with 12 minutes to go after the Steelers took a 27-0 lead.

During the game they showed a graphic depicting the turnovers for the season. This year they are -10, last year they were +7. They also showed the 5 teams with the worst turnover rates this year - the Steelers were tied for 3rd worst in the NFL.

The above photo is from AP Photo/Gene J. Puskar.

Mother

2006-12-07T15:25:00.000-05:00

Recently I've been looking into TV ratings and parental control features for TVs and digital set top boxes. Not because, I want to censor what my kids watch - they are too young to be interested in anything worth censoring at this point - but for work reasons.

When watching TV you've probably noticed at the beginning of the show (and sometimes coming back from a commercial) an icon that provides some sort of 'rating' indication. It looks a little like this or this depending if you are in Canada or the USA (other countries may have something similar - I'm not sure). Since 2001, all TVs with a diagonal screen size of 13 inches or greater must be able to set rating limits based on these rating indications and if set, block the content from view until a PIN is entered. All this functionality is based on the v-chip technology

The Rating Systems
In North America there are four rating systems in effect that can be used to block TV content:

The MPAA system we are all familiar with from movies (G, PG, PG-13, R, NC-17, Not Rated)
The US TV system (None, TV-Y, TV-Y7, TV-G, TV-PG, TV-14, TV-MA) which has additional letter descriptions (FV - Fantasy Violence, V -Violence, S - Sexual Situations, L - Adult Language, D - Sexually Suggestive Dialogue)
The English Canadian TV System (E(xempt), C, C8+, G, PG, 14+, 18+)
The French Canadian TV System (E, G, 8ans+, 13ans+, 16ans+, 18ans+)

In Canada, a lot of programming is exempt from these ratings because of freedom of speech concerns including news programs, sports, documentaries, talk shows, informational programming, and music videos (!)

How Does the TV Know the Rating
The TV can't 'read' the screen to see the rating of the current program, instead it reads data from the VBI (a vertical blanking interval) where other information like closed captioning data is stored. If you have a really old TV where there is a knob to adjust the vertical sync of the picture you can turn it and see a black band instead of video. This black band actually contains data including the rating information for the program. Maybe a later post will explain VBI and all the information that can be pulled out of it.

Why Do I Care About This?
Well, I find it fascinating that the Cable TV industry puts such a high importance on parental controls yet often leaves the implementation of it as an afterthought. At work we often talk about 'little Timmy' seeing naughty video' when discussing potential optimizations to tune times. Nothing we do to improve the performance is acceptable if little Timmy could see or hear a flash of restricted content. But the enforcement and setting of parental controls in OCAP was omitted from the first version (added later as ECR778).

We support more advanced parental control features than just rating in our software as do most electronic program guide providers (block by channel, by title, by time of day as well as by rating) - yet currently there is no way to harmonize parental control settings set for VBI/V-CHIP ratings on your TV and the parental controls set via the guide UI you might be using for digital TV.

I'm thinking about ways to harmonize the two now so 'little Timmy' can't bypass the parental controls set in one system by starting to use the other system.

It Would Be So Nice

2006-12-06T07:09:00.001-05:00

I am on an email mailing list for a company that produces high end chess boards and chess sets (the pieces) called the 'House of Staunton'. Each year around this time they have a promotion called the "12 days of Chessmas" where they offer a new special each day for twelve days.

This year they introduced a new line of chess sets called the "Gardena Art Chessmen". These pieces are a wonder to behold. If anyone is wondering what to get me for Christmas one of these chess sets or the Nintendo Wii would be great ;)

High Hopes

2006-12-05T23:49:00.000-05:00

My friend Kimota hates the Steelers as much as I like them. He hates them so much in fact that he's been boycotting the NFL season thus far because they won Superbowl XL.

However, he declared that once the Steelers are eliminated from post-season contention, that he'd resume watching football. The sports media (and I as well, to be honest), have already written the Steelers off as a lost cause this year and have used the phrase, "all but mathematically eliminated" or something similar when referring to their playoff chances. But because they are not mathematically eliminated, let's take a look at the scenarios that would have to happen for the Steelers to make the playoffs this year.

Let's assume for the sake of argument that the Steelers can run the slate, and win their remaining 4 games against the Browns, Panthers, Ravens, and Bengals (three division games). That would put their record at 9-7.

Can they win their division?
They are currently 4 games behind the Ravens, so that would mean that we'd have to go to tie-breakers. Head to head they'd be 1-1, so within the division the Steelers would be 4-2 and the Ravens would be 3-3. So the Steelers would win that tie-break and beat the Ravens for the AFC North Division. However, what would have to happen to the Bengals? We've already assumed that they will lose to the Steelers. Their remaining games are against the Raiders, Colts, and Broncos. If they win 2 of those 3 games, it would be a three way tie for the division and Cincinnati would win the tie-break (Steelers and Bengals would have a 4-2 division record beating the Ravens 3-3, but the Bengals would either have a better record against common opponents or would have a better conference record than the Steelers depending on which two teams they beat).

So Yes they can win their division if:

The Steelers go 4-0 in their remaining 4 games AND
The Ravens go 0-4 in their remaining 4 games AND
The Bengals go 0-3 or 1-2 in their next three games

If they don't win the division could they get a wild-card berth?

Probably. There are currently 5 teams at 7-5 that are not division leaders (Jets, Chiefs, Jaguars, Broncos, and Bengals). The Colts and Chargers are division leaders with 10 wins, so even if they don't win their division, they'd beat the Steelers for a wild card spot. The other two division leaders have 9 wins.

Let's wait and investigate this possibility after this weekend's action.

Another Brick in the Wall pt. 2

2006-12-05T22:42:00.000-05:00

Congratulations to my friend, and former co-worker, Vish, who recently scored an amazing 760 on his GMATs! Just to put that in perspective, the test is out of 800 and a score of 720 is normally in the 96-99th percentile!

He is applying to a bunch of the best business schools in the US (Wharton, Harvard, Dartmouth, MIT, ...) and has asked me to submit a couple of recommendation letters which I'm more than happy to do.

Good luck in getting in to the school of your choice Vish - and remember the recommendation when you're pulling in the big bucks!

We don't need no education.
We don't need no thought control.
No dark sarcasm in the classroom.
Teacher, leave those kids alone.
Hey, teacher, leave those kids alone!
All in all its just another brick in the wall.
All in all youre just another brick in the wall

Atom Heart Mother part b: Breast Milky

2006-12-05T22:02:00.000-05:00

Yesterday we discovered that our 5 month old son has a sensitivity to cow's milk. A few weeks ago we started giving him some rice cereal which we mixed with water to supplement the breast milk he's been having exclusively up to that point.

We didn't notice at first but after about 7 days we realized that he had been a lot crankier than normal, not sleeping as well and had very red cheeks. Kelly did a little research in one of her many baby books and found that it these were all typical symptoms of a food sensitivity or allergy. We thought that maybe we had started to give him cereal too young (the health unit now recommends six months, but we had given our daughter rice cereal at four months without any problems) and his digestive system maybe couldn't handle it.

Everything was OK, but then we noticed that he hadn't gained any weight in a couple of weeks, so our doctor suggested that maybe it was a breast milk supply problem and that we should supplement with formula after each feed. We tried that and he started to get the same red cheeks and fussiness that we previously saw with the rice cereal.

We mentioned it to our doctor again who came to the conclusion that it was probably a sensitivity or allergy to the cow milk proteins in the formula and in the rice cereal. He then suggested we start on a soy based formula instead.

So out came the baby books again and we read that about 40% of kids who have an allergy or sensitivity to cow milk proteins will also have the same reaction to soy. So we called the health unit who basically suggested that we just stick with breast milk until he is 8 months old when we can introduce some solid foods. So now we are debating whether to try the soy formula, or just stick exclusively with breast milk. We will probably go with the formula after about a week when he's over the current reaction because he is just having a mild reaction and Kelly is pretty exhausted from all the feeding (7-9 times a day with 1-2 wakings in the night).

Some other things I learned about allergies in the past couple days:

any allergy, not just food allergies, in a parent (including things like hay fever) is an indicator for potential food allergies in children. I always thought that food allergies were completely different from environmental allergies.
1 in 3 children that exhibit eczema as a sensitivity reaction to a food prior to six months of age (which my son did) will develop asthma or some other allergy by age 3.

See Emily Play #7

2006-12-05T16:02:00.000-05:00

Well it's over. Kramnik lost with the black pieces today. His strategy of simplification at all opportunities by exchanging pieces was effective in that he managed to draw 4 games (and could have drawn the second if not for overlooking a mating attack by the computer) . He fared much better than Mickey Adams did against Hydra a couple of years ago.

The Fritz 4.0-Kramnik 2.0 score matched my prediction, but I envisioned a win and two draws for the human instead of four draws.

Kramnik walks away with half a million dollars and his reputation intact despite losing to the machine. It was unfortunate we didn't see him go all out with some sort of sacrificial exchange might have worked or might have failed quickly in the final game since he had nothing really to lose - a draw didn't help his cause. But that would have been against his style.

See Emily Play #6

2006-12-03T14:33:00.000-05:00

The last game for Kramnik with White ended in another draw. With one more game to play, the score sits at Fritz 3.0 - Kramnik 2.0. So at best Kramnik can hope for a drawn match by winning the last game with the black pieces - no easy feat.

Fritz has proven to be a stiff competitor, but it hasn't launched any spectacular attacks. It defended precisely as you would expect a machine to do, and took advantage of Kramnik's mistake in game 2 to capture the only decisive match so far.

Despite the score, I would say I've been impressed with Kramnik's preparation and play, and disappointed with the computer.

Money

2006-12-02T23:39:00.000-05:00

I just came up from my basement after listening to Money from Dark Side of the Moon on my new (to me) AV receiver. I've never had any fancy stereo equipment before - I couldn't justify the expense since, with my hearing, I can't really tell the difference between a tape and a CD. However, last week I happened to find an 'offer I couldn't refuse'.

My wife works at an insurance company and recently an electronics store they insure had a claim when some water leaked from the roof onto the display area. The insurance company paid the claim and took the now un-sellable merchandise from the insured. They then offered all that equipment in a silent auction to the employees. There was a lot of fantastic stuff there - but the mantra is 'buyer beware' as this stuff is salvage from an insurance claim.

We bid $175 on a Sony Home Theatre system (the DAV-FX900W) which retails for $1200 (Canadian) and won it. Great! Now there are a few things missing that I didn't know about ahead of time:

no remote control - I have a Harmony 880 already
no AM or FM antennas - I don't listen to the radio very often outside of my car
no 'table' speaker stands, just floor stands - I'm going to mount the speakers on the walls anyway
no 'calibration mic' for simple audio configuration - I'll do it the 'hard' way
no surround amp/IR receiver - this is the one that hurts a little

A key feature of this particular system is that the rear surround speakers don't need a wire back to the main unit. Instead Sony has come up with some infrared way of transmitting the audio information. However, to make this work, the left rear speaker needs a power source and an IR receiver cable, neither of which I have. I've looked into getting the part from a Sony service department but it looks like it will be more than I paid for the whole system to this point. So I guess I'll have to have the speaker wires routed to the back of the room somehow.

Getting back to where I just was, I set up the system in the basement this evening after the kids went to bed, just to test it out and the first CD I put in was Dark Side of the Moon. Now I can't wait to move it up to the family room and hook it up to the rest of the components - but that's going to wait until Christmas (my present just came a little early).

Massed Gadgets of Hercules

2006-12-02T16:03:00.000-05:00

Google is a pretty fantastic outfit these days. They offer so many different products other than search it's hard to keep track . Here are some I use:

Analytics - to track if anyone is actually reading this blog
Blogger - this blog (duh)
Gmail - awesome web based mail
Desktop - client side search and more
Gmail Alerts - automatic email when google news sees a phrase I've registered
Calendar - web based outlook type calendar
Page Creator - my homepage
Personalized Home - replacement google main page with lots of web content at a glance
Talk - IM client - don't really use this but I have an account
Google Maps - my first choice for getting directions
Google Video - almost as good as YouTube - but now that's part of Google
Froogle - comparison web shopping

Other products I've heard about but haven't used yet

Docs and Spreadsheets
AdSense
Google Earth
Picasa - photo app

And I'm sure there's plenty more.

See Emily Play #5

2006-12-02T16:00:00.000-05:00

Kramnik and Fritz had another draw yesterday. Initially it looked as though the computer would win easily as it had a significant advantage in terms of development. But Kramnik managed to simplify the position by exchanging pieces and lead the computer into a Bishop vs Knight endgame.

He was then able to construct a fortress and was happy to move his king back and forth between two squares until the computer had to offer a draw because it was unable to penetrate Kramnik's defense.

I must admit Kramnik is doing much better than I had expected...or maybe it's the computer that's doing worse. Either way it is now Fritz 2.5 - Kramnik 1.5 with two games remaining.

Ramblings of a Geek

The Border Blues

And the blogpoints go to...

I learned something new today

Quick brain teaser

I'm going slightly mad

Happy Pi Day!

A Momentary Lapse of Reason

I Changed My Handle

Online Pseudonyms

Word Problem

Goodbye Peasy

Disney On Ice

And The Blogpoints Go To...

Taxes

Computer Free Weekend

Simple puzzle

Chess is breaking the Internets

The page cannot be displayed

HTTP Error 500.13 - Server error: Web server is too busy.Internet Information Services (IIS)

Wireless Problems Solved

Damn Wireless Connection

Robinson Crusoe

Work Stuff

Where are the updates?

A New Addition.

More Math...

Environmentalism and Me

Post 100

The "Purple Rain" Game

Football is Almost Over

BlogPoints: Not Completely Useless

Trivia Answers

Trivia for Blogpoints

Random stuff from another blogger

Tarzan of the Apes

Probability and Statistics

Guitar Solos

New Features with Rogers

One Easy, One Hard

David Gemmel's Rigante Series

New Steelers Coach

Conference Finals Weekend

The Pros and Cons of Travelling

Retroactive Blog Points

NFL Playoffs - the weekend that was.

Totally Eighties

Good Interviewers Make A Big Difference

Moving Day

Lemmatisation

Carnivorous Clownfish

Big Number Problems

Bathroom Shenanigans

NFL Playoff Preview

Word Problem

End of an Era

NFL playoffs so far

Memory

Making Change - The Answer

New channels in the Rogers Lineup

The Registrar Idiom

Arghhhh..

Boom Goes the Dynamite

2007 Canada Payroll Tax Limits

Hey Buddy..You Got Change For A Dollar?

NFL Playoffs

How I Can Tell I'm Old

Casino Royale

Woulda, Coulda, Shoulda

Math is Fun - The Answer

Chess Tournaments

Allergies and Sensitivities

Math is Fun

Christmas Stuff

A Sad Anniversary

1000! revisited

Merry Christmas..

Come in Number 51, Your Time Is Up

Goodbye Cruel World

Free Four

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