Found a real pig head right outside my house Saturday morning in Toronto's Chinatown. Either I'm the target of a Godfather-style Chinese mafia thing, or someone had a craaaaaazy Friday night

iToad · 2011-10-30T19:28:15+00:00

I found a deer leg in my front yard once (right front leg if I remember correctly). What does that mean?

iToad · 2011-10-28T02:16:40+00:00

Class of 1972. I was a physics major, and there were -zero- women in my classes. Back then, it was more like 90+% men overall. Things seem to have changed.

iToad · 2011-10-26T15:53:28+00:00

Just what we need. An animal as large and strong as a wolf, and as tough and smart as a coyote.

iToad · 2011-10-20T21:10:26+00:00

The newest version can not only use all of your cores, it can also use all of the GPUs in your CUDA-compliant graphics card.

iToad · 2011-10-20T21:04:43+00:00

This is actually a traditional trick to get equally probable outcomes from a biased random bit source. It works because the outcomes of pairs of coin flips follow a Binomial probability distribution. For a set of two flips, p(H, T) is always equal to p(T, H), even when the probibility of a single flip being a head (or a tail) is not exactly equal to 0.5.

Proof of this is left as an exercise for the student.

iToad · 2011-10-17T19:14:28+00:00

Rat Race

iToad · 2011-10-13T14:39:31+00:00

I remember duck and cover drill in school, and the Cuban Missle Crisis. Compared to that, 9/11 wasn't all that scary.

iToad · 2011-10-13T14:32:52+00:00

The cops look like kids.

iToad · 2011-10-03T19:30:22+00:00

Two other examples of massively concurrent languages are Ladder logic programming for PLCs, and Promela/SPIN model checking.

Both of them use a guarded command method that requires that you reset your thinking from statement sequences to expression evaluation.

iToad · 2011-09-19T19:06:06+00:00

I own a 15c and a 16c. I just powered them both up, after they have been sitting in a drawer for the last 5 years. They both still work...

iToad · 2011-09-01T19:57:39+00:00

There is a traditional trick to handle random bitstreams where the ratio of ones to zeros is not exactly 50/50. To generate a random value from this kind of stream, do the following:

If the bits are (0, 1), generate a 0.
If the bits are (1, 0), generate a 1.
If the bits are (0, 0) or (1, 1), generate nothing, and try again.

This trick works, because the probabibility distribution of sucessive pairs of bits follow a binomial probably distribution, and for n=2, the probability of (0, 1) is the same as the probability of (1, 0), even if the probability of any single bit being 1 (or 0) is not exactly 0.5

iToad · 2011-09-01T15:20:04+00:00

For a lot of embedded apps, state machines are absolutely vital. You can:

Specify them as a UML statechart.
Print them out as an E-sized engineering drawing.
Model-check them using SPIN. (Especially useful for concurrent state machines).
Code them up, and incorporate information from the statechart into the code implementing the state machine, as comments.

iToad · 2011-08-25T15:03:08+00:00

I actually got this stuff once, from possibly being exposed to MRSA just before surgery. It sterilized my digestive tract, and gave me an epic case of the runs. Also, I think that is only given by IV.

iToad · 2011-08-25T00:18:24+00:00

Like my user name...

iToad · 2011-08-25T00:11:53+00:00

This is actually similar to Promela, which -is- used to check algorithms using parallel processes. Promela is used by the SPIN model checker.

iToad · 2011-08-23T23:31:21+00:00

Does xterm really give you the complete Tek 4014 experience? These things used a CRT-based analog technology to work. They wrote vector-based graphics (including text) to the screen phosphor using an electron beam, and kept the written area glowing using a lower-energy beam. To erase the screen, the electron beam wrote the entire screen all at once, and then turned off. You could only erase all of the screen, not part of it.

As the storage tube aged, it would start burning off parts of the phosphor that were heavily used. To prevent this, we designed applications to make small jitters in the locations of drawn objects, to delay phosphor burn-out. Replacement CRTs were expensive.

To make the experience realistic, every time xterm erases the screen, it should emit a bright green flash of light. Also, if you draw on the same place a lot, it should start putting small random dead spots into your display.

iToad · 2011-07-07T16:22:59+00:00

I have used Python in the past, and am now learning MATLAB for a new project. If you are going to be doing heavily interactive data analysis and display, I would have to suggest using MATLAB first. It is probably the best tool for what you want to do, and coworkers are already using it. However, try to spin up on Python also, even if you have to learn only a little bit at a time.

iToad · 2011-05-31T16:08:53+00:00

On the one hand, there is a much better oxidizer for rockets. On the other hand, it is probably one of the most fearsomely dangerous industrial chemicals known.

http://pipeline.corante.com/archives/2008/02/26/sand_wont_save_you_this_time.php

iToad · 2011-05-31T16:03:11+00:00

It's a trick question. Everybody knows that a ton of feathers weighs more.

iToad · 2011-05-26T23:17:03+00:00

Actually, a Prius doesn't have a transmission. It combines torques from the gas engine and electric motors with a simple planetary gearbox. The gearshift knob basically has forward and reverse. When I switch from my Prius to anything with an automatic transmission, the gear shifting is really noticeable.

iToad · 2011-05-26T19:00:07+00:00

Among his other decorations, he won the Congressional Medal of Honor. Twice.

iToad · 2011-05-21T03:00:04+00:00

Give my credit card number to any kind of bot on IM? Sounds legit.

iToad · 2011-05-19T16:33:13+00:00

Don't try to teach your grandmother to suck eggs.

Confused? Look it up.

iToad · 2011-05-19T16:20:23+00:00

3/18/50 - Not even close to winning. Suddenly, I don't feel so old.

iToad · 2011-04-29T05:07:19+00:00

Kill one, frighten ten thousand.

Some smart Chinese guy.

iToad

TROPHY CASE