Serendipity at SXSW
This year I had the great fortune to be asked to be on a panel at SXSW. It was amazingly fun. However there was only one person I had ever met in person at the conference this year. So I was swimming...
View ArticleAddress emotions in your forms
I learned quite a few things at SXSW. Many are interesting but potentially useless, such as how unexpectedly interesting the reviews for Tuscan Whole Milk, 1 Gallon, 128 fl oz are.However the one that...
View ArticleTouching Women
Today I want to share two useful tidbits about touch and women that I think should be better known, but aren't because people get embarrassed to talk about this stuff.The first is a pressure point to...
View ArticleRandom grab bag
I can't believe that it has been nearly a month since my last post.If you've been following me on buzz you'll know that I've been doing a joke a day. I started Feb 18, so now I've gone for 2 months,...
View ArticleLe Châtelier's principle: not just for chemists
I seem to be updating my blog once a month or so. I don't intend to do that, I'm just busy. This particular entry is one I've been meaning to write for months, but just haven't gotten around to.But...
View ArticleThe stock market thinks Microsoft has just under 4 years left
(I posted this basic analysis at http://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=1417156, which was a discussion of this Newsweek article, and then decided that it was interesting enough to call out for additional...
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Dozenal glyphs - a modest proposal
A proposal that shows up every so often is to use dozenal arithmetic. The idea is simple, in base 12 more fractions work out very conveniently. You can easily divide things 3 and 4 ways. This is...
View ArticleHow did pterosaurs get so big?
The pterosaurs got going something like 230 million years ago. They died out with the dinosaurs 65 million years ago. Over their history they came in all sizes, from Rhamphorhynchus who was the size of...
View ArticleAnalysis vs Algebra predicts eating corn?
I like learning about odd connections between disparate things. This probably is the oddest example that I know.Broadly speaking, mathematicians can be divided into those who like analysis, and those...
View ArticlePiaget Water Level Test
Many years ago in a dentist's office I read an interesting article in a magazine. It talked about how there were questions that were specific to certain adult genders. In particular until puberty there...
View ArticlePractice poker online for free
I enjoy playing poker. I'm not that good, but I do OK in small home games and I enjoy myself.Recently I've been having a lot of fun playing online for free. How, you ask? Well go to...
View ArticleBluer than blue
On my profile I have answered the question Something I can't find using Google with The lyrics to the version of "Bluer than blue" we sang in highschool jazz. It isn't that you can't find lyrics to the...
View ArticleHow I do Proofs
I was looking through some old papers, and decided to put online some advice that I gave many years ago about how I tackle mathematical proofs. The advice is at How I Do Proofs. This is only lightly...
View ArticleSQL formatting style
I have written considerably more SQL than most programmers have. And after you've written and maintained several hundred line queries, it becomes obvious that SQL is a programming language like any...
View ArticleFinding related items
I've mentioned in the past (not in this blog) that C++ programs can beat databases by many, many orders of magnitude. I learned this while doing a specific fun project. I have permission from the...
View ArticleI've switched to Google+
I've been interacting on Google+. You can see my new posts there. The content is different, but includes some content which previously would have appeared here, such as this explanation of...
View ArticleA worst case for the possible US government default
(This is crossposted from Google+. If you use Google+, you scan find the original here.)Lots of people are scared about the possibility of a US government default. But I have an unusual reason that few...
View ArticleFinancial stress on the system
I posted this last week on Google+ at https://plus.google.com/u/0/114613808538621741268/posts/13tBzre1nRa. Given market drops since then, I'm reposting it in a more public forum.How could our next...
View ArticleA/B Testing vs MAB algorithms - It's complicated
Several months ago, several blog posts appeared on Hacker News comparing A/B testing and multi-armed bandit techniques. If you want to review the posts and the discussion, see 20 lines of code that...
View ArticleHow reliable will the Falcon 9 be?
Let's apply statistics to see, based on current launch data, how reliable we predict that the Falcon 9 will be.Falcon 9 just had a launch that succeeded despite an engine failure. According to design...
View ArticleMy son's flashcard routine
My 7 year old son is in grade 2. In the previous grade, despite his intelligence, he was significantly behind his class in handwriting, letter reversals, and spelling. He was getting extra help from...
View ArticleA/B testing scale cheat sheet
This is not a guide to how to do A/B testing. If you want that, see Effective A/B Testing, or any number of companies that will help you with A/B testing. Instead this is a cheat sheet of basic facts...
View ArticleSpeculating about the Hyperloop
Elon Musk has been dropping hints about his Hyperloop idea. (We cannot call it a proposal because he has not actually proposed it yet.) There is a lot of curiosity about what it might be. Given...
View ArticleBecoming a web designer
I recently was having a conversation with an art student who wanted a better future than her job as a barista was likely to provide. I suggested a job as a web designer. She had no idea what would be...
View ArticleWhy NSA surveillance scares me
Nothing To Hide explains why you should care about surveillance even though you have nothing to hide. But it missed the point that most concerns me.Surveillance states target people who are disliked by...
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