Posted by Stephen Waits
Sat, 31 Dec 2005 18:04:49 GMT
Tim Bray posted a link to a thorough airline biz blog, called enplaned. Looks fantastic, I’m subscribed. That puts me at 86 feeds.. I need to prune soon!
Additionally, I’ve been reading AVWeb for years. It’s bi-weekly newsletter, covering news across the entire aviation spectrum. I highly recommend it to anyone with interest in aviation.
Finally, I recently discovered a fantastic TV show, called Wings to Adventure, on OLN. I found this via an advertisement on AVWeb. I’ve only caught one episode thus far, but it was fantastic. It even had a commercial from Cirrus Design – any show sponsored by Cirrus has to be cool right? In that episode, they explored flying to Catalina Island, off the Los Angeles coast, amongst other things. The nice thing is they aren’t afraid to talk in pilot-speak; in other words, it’s not dumbed down – instead they seem to be aiming right at pilots. Very cool!
Posted in tv, aviation | no comments | no trackbacks
Posted by Stephen Waits
Sat, 31 Dec 2005 16:57:31 GMT
I think about all I’m going to be able to actually accomplish on this quiz is to generate a few test cases via brute force or stochastic search. That said, here they are – please let me know if you find shorter solutions so that I may update my own cases.
Update: Christer Nilsson pointed out a better solution for 300 -> 1. I’ve corrected it in my test suite.
Update: Peter Burns has updated my test code, fixing several cases, and making it a bit more data-centric. Check it out here. As a side note, my original code was output by a C++ program. Blush.
Posted in ruby, programming | no comments | no trackbacks
Posted by Stephen Waits
Fri, 30 Dec 2005 23:12:34 GMT
A Serenity Sequel would be my personal heaven.
I recall reading recently though, that Whedon said it was done, over, caput. Fingers crossed.
Via Cinematical.
Posted in movies | no comments | no trackbacks
Posted by Stephen Waits
Fri, 30 Dec 2005 00:10:34 GMT
According to rumorvangelist Dean Adams, it’s possible that Biaggi is heading to World Superbike to join Troy Corser on the Alstare Suzuki team.
It’s a little bit sad to me for several reasons. Mad Max plays a decent antagonist in MotoGP – I’ll miss that. Also, he’s part of the fading “old guard”. And, I’m a tiny bit sad for Troy. Though, I know he can deal with it as well as anyone, he’s one of the coolest cats around. Too, I wonder if Max will have more respect for Troy than he did Nicky; afterall, nobody can doubt Troy’s talent. He’s been around the block more than a few times.
Via superbikeplanet.com.
Posted in motorcycles, racing | no comments | no trackbacks
Posted by Stephen Waits
Thu, 29 Dec 2005 21:07:00 GMT
Joel rambles on The Perils of JavaSchools.
I completely agree with him. Maybe it’s just because I’m old? But maybe it’s because I’ve seen it first-hand too.
One time, when I worked at Stormfront Studios, Inc., I accompanied our HR Manager on a recruiting trip to Harvey Mudd. We arranged our visit with the career center and asked them to line up 20 or 30 appropriate candidates. I didn’t really know anything about Mudd, though I guess I should have, it’s apparently a top SoCal engineering school.
I also had no idea that they’d switched their curriculum to “all Java all the time”, an exaggeration to be certain. I learned about the switch as I interviewed the first few candidates. These Senior level students basically, well, they knew Java.
Without getting too nasty, I’ll just say that we left with no second interviews planned. It may be a great school, and I’m sure some bright kids come out of there (after all, you truly get out of your education what you put into it); however, we sure didn’t get any glimpse of it on our visit.
I headed back home disgusted with the Java-switch, appalled, and thoughtless as to why any university actually believed it to be a good thing for their students.
Joel’s put a lot of sound thought into that why in his article. There’s an undercurrent of great advice in there. Forget Java, learn how to freaking program.
Posted in programming | no comments | no trackbacks
Posted by Stephen Waits
Thu, 29 Dec 2005 20:54:50 GMT
A report links Fructose consumption with obesity. To me the key to weight maintenance is still primarily caloric intake versus calories burned. I’ve witnessed this first hand, in myself, and in observation of others. However, eating the right things has to be a good thing too, and I’m certain processed sugars like fructose aren’t on the “right things” list.
Posted in science | no comments | no trackbacks
Posted by Stephen Waits
Thu, 29 Dec 2005 20:31:53 GMT
Check out these snippets of Mel Gibson’s Playboy Interview, from July 1995. It’s an older interview, and this is only a snippet, but it’s still new to me and still appalling. The whole thing is stupid. Instances of stupidity that don’t even need explanation to any rational person:
How come apes aren’t people yet?
Or how about:
There’s a big credibility gap. The carbon dating thing that tells you how long something’s been around, how accurate is that, really?
Well, read something about it, and you’ll find out!
But, one particular piece of idiotic ignorance really jumped out at me:
I’ve got one of Darwin’s books at home and some of that stuff is pretty damn funny. Some of his stuff is true, like that the giraffe has a long neck so it can reach the leaves.
He’s saying that Darwin was mostly wrong, but got some of it right. As evidence of what Darwin got right, Gibson mentions something that he might have actually gotten wrong!
The thing is.. The giraffe’s neck gets in the way of eating and drinking. Sure, it can reach higher leaves, but it makes drinking water and eating lower leaves very difficult (no, it can’t just bend its neck down). And lots of animals survived on eating the lower vegetation alone, so why not the giraffe? And why just a long neck? If being tall was key to survival then it seems that it could have evolved to be generally tall, rather than just having a long neck.
Yah, Darwin got a lot of things right, as did his predecessors, and he made mistakes. However, I’m certain that he got much more right than Mel Gibson.
He goes on to trash women as basically inferior. Smart guy, this one.
Gibson’s words scream of ignorance and a very low mental capacity. The bottom line is, Mel Gibson is DUMB!
I won’t ever watch another of his movies again. I’m sorry I’ve already watched some of his crap in my past. Now, I’m completely done with him.
Now, there’s a chance that these excerpts are illegitimate; regardless, I stand by my own opinions of him.
Posted in politics, science | no comments | no trackbacks
Posted by Stephen Waits
Thu, 29 Dec 2005 15:29:16 GMT
Finished today’s in 15:22.
Posted in sudoku | no comments | no trackbacks
Posted by Stephen Waits
Thu, 29 Dec 2005 03:13:53 GMT
Get it while it lasts, Amazon’s Price Drop Policy explains how to get refunds on purchased items whose prices are lowered within 30 days. Since this article is screaming around the ‘net right now, I don’t expect it to last.
On my 3 or 4 orders within the past month, I did find one book that dropped from $28 to $24, so I submitted my refund inquiry. It seems that Amazon’s pricing is rather fluid; several items increased in price too. Anyway, nothing to lose I guess…
Good luck!
Update: Here’s a site that will automatically notify you when prices change for the better. Just punch in your email address (for notification, of course), the item number, price, and date, and forget about it!
Via reddit.
Posted in deals | no comments | no trackbacks
Posted by Stephen Waits
Wed, 28 Dec 2005 19:20:29 GMT
Catching up on a few puzzles..
Posted in sudoku | no comments | no trackbacks
Posted by Stephen Waits
Wed, 28 Dec 2005 18:13:42 GMT
A nearly 8 year old paper from Ron Rivest, Chaffing and Winnowing: Confidentiality without Encryption, details an algorithm somewhat similar in concept to steganography, but considerably more secure in that it still depends on a secretly shared authentication key in order to filter wheat from chaff. The cornerstone of its confidentiality is in making chaff look like wheat, and mixing the two. Technically, this isn’t encryption, and should not be subject to encryption export laws.
Though I am not equipped to vouch for the actual level of confidentiality one might achieve with such an algorithm, it does seem smart. M. Bellare and A. Boldyreva have published a paper on The Security of Chaffing and Winnowing. Additionally, The SANS Institute published, A Review of Chaffing and Winnowing, which analyzes Rivest’s paper and introduces their own alternative algorithm, “Chaffinch”.
Rivest paper via reddit
Posted in security | no comments | no trackbacks
Posted by Stephen Waits
Sat, 24 Dec 2005 02:30:00 GMT
Ouch! Today’s puzzle took me 34:18! Am I getting dumber?
Posted in sudoku | no comments | no trackbacks
Posted by Stephen Waits
Fri, 23 Dec 2005 04:59:00 GMT
I finished today’s puzzle in 6:12.
Meanwhile, I was messing around with some really difficult puzzles in Susser Sudoku, a great freeware (Mac, Windows, and Linux) sudoku solver; and, holy hell. Puzzles that I was certain required backtracking (i.e. “guessing”) don’t. You really can figure them out. It seems like you can solve most puzzles with naked pairs, hidden pairs, intersections, and pinned numbers - but that’s just the tip of the iceberg.
On the USA Today puzzles I rarely need more than a single naked pair, and I never need to write out and track all of the possibilities. Easy.
Contrasting that are the puzzles in a book my sister-in-law got me called Second-Degree Black Belt Sudoku. I started a puzzle in this and quickly concluded that these weren’t “true” sudokus, but instead required guessing. Bottom line, I’m wrong. They’re just hard as hell. But that makes it fun!
Posted in sudoku, books | no comments | no trackbacks
Posted by Stephen Waits
Fri, 23 Dec 2005 04:38:00 GMT
The northern hemisphere winter solstice has passed. Finally the days have stopped shrinking. We won’t really notice for a bit, sinusoids and all, but still, it’s nice to know we’re on our way. I remember our friend Lonna telling us years ago how happy she is when we get past this day! So, Happy Winter Solstice Day Lonna!
Posted in science | no comments | no trackbacks
Posted by Stephen Waits
Fri, 23 Dec 2005 04:17:00 GMT
Ok, I’ve been mentioning this to enough people (face to face) that it’s finally to the point where it will be easier to just post it here and point them to the blog.
Anyway, on to the point of the post: perfect scrambled eggs! Mr. Breakfast’s “Perfect Scrambled Eggs” recipe claims to be just that, and I’d have to agree. It differs from my own in the following ways:
Uses a light cream.. lowfat milk, or even water! I tended to use a heavier cream, such as sour cream or cream cheese. This is weird, but it works very well. Note: My friend Rob swears by whipping cream; however, I have yet to try it myself. The lowfat milk thing is going to be hard to beat.
Uses less cream. Again seems counterintuitive, but works.
Uses a hotter pan. He allows his pan to heat (at Medium+) for at least two minutes, while getting the eggs, milk, and salt together, and beating them.
Beats eggs longer. I guess this was probably just laziness on my part.
When it gets to the “flip them all” part (i.e. first side done, or not enough runny egg left to continue “Martha Stewart” technique), he only cooks them for a short time on the new side. This leaves them with a perfect texture.
Oh, and if you aren’t sure what the “Martha Stewart” technique is, I’ll try to explain. I’m pretty sure she didn’t invent this, because it’s how I’ve always done my eggs, and I don’t watch her. Basically, you need to be patient. Let the eggs cook. Then with a spatula, push all of the edges into the center. As you do this, pick up the pan and tilt it so the runny, uncooked egg will fill in the edges again. Repeat, repeat, repeat. This should leave you with nice big chunky curds.
Now read Mr. Breakfast’s recipe well, follow it closely, go cook some eggs, and please do tell me how it works!
Via reddit.
Posted in food | no comments | no trackbacks
Posted by Stephen Waits
Wed, 21 Dec 2005 15:41:20 GMT
I completed today’s puzzle in 7:47.
Posted in sudoku | no comments | no trackbacks
Posted by Stephen Waits
Wed, 21 Dec 2005 14:51:00 GMT
Check out Printf to String. This programmer needs to be learned… or shot..
Posted in programming | no comments | no trackbacks
Posted by Stephen Waits
Tue, 20 Dec 2005 18:44:00 GMT
Two links from my friend Ralfie: A MotoGP highlight reel (looks to be a few seasons old) and Screenshots from the upcoming Xbox 360 version of MotoGP 2006.
Posted in motorcycles, racing, videogames | no comments | no trackbacks
Posted by Stephen Waits
Tue, 20 Dec 2005 17:36:31 GMT
Nitro is another Ruby based Web Framework, like Rails. Nitro uses Og for its ORM, which has some features that ActiveRecord doesn’t. Check out the two new Nitro screencasts. More are supposed to be on the way, specifically demonstrating some of the advanced features of Og.
Posted in ruby, webdev | 2 comments | no trackbacks
Posted by Stephen Waits
Tue, 20 Dec 2005 16:03:59 GMT
I did today’s puzzle in 9:44.
Posted in sudoku | no comments | no trackbacks
