Sam's L33t Journal

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Current Month

Jan. 30th, 2008 @ 09:55 pm More of the Best, Programming and Otherwise

Current Mood:

chipper

Programming:

I've been seeing quite a lot of discussions of web design style lately. Compare the emerging style of early web design with the polished Web2.0 Style. Even newer styles, such as Grunge and Hand-Drawn use the techniques of modern web design while breaking from the Web 2.0 aesthetic.
Rich Programmer Food: On compilers and the most important class for computer scientists.
An article on "Turing Tar Pits" and how programmers make things hard for themselves.
How to teach yourself programming in ten years.
10 Python Quirks: Read this if you're a Python programmer. Did you know all of those? (I didn't.)
An anecdote about teaching children programming.
Big Red Angry Text: On CSS styles for debugging

Other:

Post-It Note Art: Completely amazing!
On why "don't talk to strangers" is "just about the worst possible advice you can give a child".
An article on the Naked Rambler, who in January was free for several steps before being arrested again for his persistent nudity. *facepalm* How should society deal with such people? And should (yes, I mean that in the moral sense) the Naked Rambler just wrap / shut up and conform?
An anecdote on parenting, food, and vegetarianism.
The website for Urville, a fictional city created by a savant who now makes a living by imagining / drawing / writing about / talking about said fictional city. Also a particularly good example of (what I'd refer to as) 90's Crazy web design style.
A recipe for Pan Seared Salmon with Avocado Remoulade
A video on turning a sphere inside-out. Nifty. Watch if you're interested in topology / are wondering what the heck "topology" means.
On creating a warning marker to last for 10,000 years.
Why Starbucks actually helps local coffee shops.

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Oct. 21st, 2006 @ 12:53 am Soccer Ball Theorem Proof

Current Mood:

thoughtful

Tags: math

Here's the answer to that homework problem I mentioned earlier. To restate the problem:

A ball is sewn together from pentagonal and hexagonal pieces of material. Each edge of each polygon lines up exactly with an edge of another polygon. Three polygons meet at each corner of each polygon. Prove that the ball must contain exactly 12 pentagons.

( The answer to this problem is simple... )

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Oct. 18th, 2006 @ 12:55 am The Soccer Ball Theorem

Current Mood:

contemplative
Current Music: This Week in Tech #73

Tags: class , math

The following problem was on my homework (paraphrased):

A ball is sewn together from pentagonal and hexagonal pieces of material. Each edge of each polygon lines up exactly with an edge of another polygon. Three polygons meet at each corner of each polygon. Prove that the ball must contain exactly 12 pentagons.

It's quite the beautiful proof.

( Hint )

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Sep. 8th, 2004 @ 12:09 am To Work

Current Mood:

busy

Tags: math

L33tminion: To work! ... Oh, sorry, I though you were proposing a toast...

Sam: *shakes head*

I didn't have any classes this morning (although I did get some work done), but the afternoon was very busy. After software design, which was unexceptional, was the cohort, where we split into teams and began work on our project for the quarter, bottle rockets. We're going to use this as a center point for our curriculum, allowing us to apply to what we learned (physics, calculus, Matlab, mathematical modeling, experimental design, the scientific method, teamwork, design, etc.).

Afterwords, I attended a guest lecture given by Dr. Arthur Benjamin, a professor of Applied Mathematics from Harvey Mudd University (and a mathematical genius and exceptional human calculator).

( More on the lecture (interesting, but long)... )

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Jul. 19th, 2004 @ 09:58 pm Soap Bubble Science

Current Mood:

happy

Tags: math , science

Yesterday's lecture on chaos theory was interesting, but today's lecture, which was on the physical properties of soap films, was by far the best lecture this session. The lecture showed how properties of soap bubbles can be used to demonstrate solutions to minimization problems.

( More Details on the Lecture )

The professor also gave the following problem. How can you construct a square of side length a given two points a units apart using only a compass (no straight edge)? I've thought about this for a little, but so far I haven't figured it out. I might work on it a little later.

Today in lab, I finished working on the first draft for our final report. Tomorrow we will finish the report and begin work on our presentation.

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Jul. 6th, 2004 @ 06:54 pm Calm Before the Research

Current Mood:

energetic

Tags: israel , math

Today was pretty relaxing. I got my kit of stuff, which includes a map and a really nice hat.

The group spent the morning attending lectures on the different research projects, and the afternoon interviewing with the project coordinators who will make the project assignments.

I interviewed with the Mathematics and Computer Science Coordinator. My top 5 project choices were:
1. Image Completion Using Multiscale Interpolation (Computer Vision)
2. Using Genetic Algorithms to Solve a Simplified Version of the Protein Folding Problem (Genetic Algorithms)
3. Reconstructing Motions from Data Recorded from a Sensor Glove (Data Recording)
4. Identifying Objects in a Database from an Image Despite Arbitrary Lighting (Computer Vision)
5. Proving that a Simplified Version of a Game of Minesweeper is NP-Complete (Complexity Theory)

The interviewer seemed impressed by my ComSci knowledge (I think I am the only serious Computer Science person in the program, or at least one of a few) and offered me number 3 as I was telling him my choices (It wasn't mentioned in the lectures, and I only had four projects chosen at the time).

After my interview, I took a walk to get my glasses fixed (I lost a nosepiece). The walk was long, and I wasn't sure of the directions, but I was finally sucessful. The walk would have been really nice, except that it is so hot and humid here (remember: hat, water bottle, sunscreen). At least the buildings are all air-conditioned.

( Extended Weather Forcast )

Tonight, a party. And project assignments will be revealed.

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