Month: January 2007

Press your luck

By AMH

I have relatively little to add to this hilarious post from defective yeti about the stupidity of Deal or No Deal except to agree that the show is idiotic, relying on the mathematical ignorance of its contestants and audience. It really makes me crazy that people think “the banker” actually makes decisions about what to offer based on a personal assessment of the contestant, when it is clearly a selection of an amount from an error range around the mathematical expectation of what the contestant might win. Yeti’s proposed game show might be more entertaining – I’m trying to brainstorm … Continue reading Press your luck

Something done, Something new

By AMH

WIth a major project done, the temptation hits to pick up too many new things to fill the fake void in one’s schedule. I’m working on finishing off a variation of the Cheesy Love sweater with a more argyle style pattern across the front in pastel cotton. But I also spent the afternoon browsing through my latest issue of Craft and somehow only just realized that like the sister publication Make, Craft has a weblog with great links to projects and patterns. I’ve been trawling through the archives and the following were the standouts, some of them particularly geeky…. Knit … Continue reading Something done, Something new

4D screenshots!

By AMH

As part of putting together a document about the courses I have been teaching, I decided I wanted to be able to share some screen capture video. I’ve done next to nothing with that sort of software, so I solicited recommendations and two people pointed me in the direction of Camtasia Studio. They have a 30 day demo version which, from the little that I tried, seems to give you access to a fairly complete version. I didn’t use the audio or webcam functions, but it looks like it would be really easy to combine annotation from one of those … Continue reading 4D screenshots!

If only…..

By AMH

So very, very busy right now, so I will just leave you with the following – a classic from Usenet that has particular appeal to me this week: MAKE.TENURE.FAST

Geeky stuff to keep you warm

By AMH

I’m getting down to the wire on a few projects, so here is some random fun to get you through the middle of the week…. I’m a huge Stephenson fan, so I’m excited that the SciFi channel is making a mini-series out of Diamond Age. It isn’t my favorite Stephenson book, but I actually like it a lot – more than I think a lot of people do. I really love the idea of the instructional friend book/computer. It reminds me of some of the parts of Ender’s Game I liked a lot. They’re having Stephenson do the adaptation, so … Continue reading Geeky stuff to keep you warm

Boolean Quilt

By AMH

In class tomorrow we are going to talk about 5 variable Karnaugh maps, having just done 2-4 variable Karnaugh maps. I’m partial to the 5-variable versions pictured at that link with the diagonal lines to indicate the top versus bottom of the map. Working through some examples for my lecture notes today, I noticed that they look an awful lot like quilt patterns, like these traditional Nine-patch Blocks. I am now determined to design a quilt based around a five-variable boolean expression – I envision blue fabrics for true, white for false, and maybe yellow for don’t cares. I just … Continue reading Boolean Quilt

Internet Side-effects

By AMH

There are tons of articles that have been written about the impact of e-mail, IM, text messaging and the link on communication, but this is the first article that I’ve read that discusses their impact on the scientific community [via A&L Daily]. Besides claiming that scientists communicate more informally using the internet than when written letters were the most common form of communication – a non-controversial claim – it looks at the historical impact of not having a tangible record of scientsts’ communications. Analysis of conversation through letters has often been used to trace the path of ideas and ascertain … Continue reading Internet Side-effects

That evil textile monopoly….

By AMH

Via Boing Boing, this article draws a pretty awesome analogy between the RIAA and 17th century French button-makers who worked to block individual innovation to protect their business interests. The quote that is getting passed around the most on this topic as the demand by button-makers to be able to search people’s homes to make sure that they were not using buttons made from outside the guild. Note that the analogy does not (from what I see at least) argue that individuals should be able to rampantly appropriate others’ ideas without due credit and compensation, or argue for the theft … Continue reading That evil textile monopoly….

Automated Grading

By AMH

It’s just a short little blurb, but report is that starting this year the MCATs are going to be graded automatically using an artificial intelligence system, rather than human graders. The MCAT, like the GRE, moved to a computerized format recently to allow more frequent administration. The essay section, though, was graded in much the same way with multiple readers scoring the writing samples and a degree of consensus being required for the final score. The claim is that the AI system is more consistent than human scorers. I’ve certainly read that human scoring can vary widely. The AI system, … Continue reading Automated Grading

Cute Cute Cute

By AMH

Oh yeah – the little clutch purses whose instructions are given here are soooo cute and also look like the perfect way to use up a moderate amount of a pretty fabric, though the designer comes at it from more from an interest in using the cool handles you can find in craft stores. The pattern seems very scalable – make a little change purse or a full sized bag – or a set of both. I’ve got some awesome purple plaid silk that I’m going to made a box-pleat summer dress out of, and I’m thinking the scraps would … Continue reading Cute Cute Cute