http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vXqfRAcnb9k
Hahaha. It was nice to get a few laughs in before heading to class this morning. :)
Hahaha. It was nice to get a few laughs in before heading to class this morning. :)
- Welcome to Clan x86.
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#42
Math and Other Problems / Stress Testing Jars Puzzle
September 27, 2008, 02:05:49 AM
This problem is taking directly from my algorithms textbook J. Kleinberg, E. Tardos. "Algorithm Design." Addison-Wesley, 2005. Note: I'm not transcribing it directly.
You're responsible for doing stress testing on jars that your company produces. Sometimes, you have very many jars to spare for worthy testing, in other times, your company is under fiscal strain and can only provide a handful.
The stress test involves a ladder with [tex]n[/tex] rungs. You want to generate a report on each model telling your manager what the highest rung on the ladder is at which you can drop the jar without it breaking. The models tend to have a lot of variance, so say you have no idea at which rung the jar will break. For simplicity's sake, assume that for each model, there exists some rung [tex]k\leqn[/tex] at which a jar of that model will break. Also assume that the jars are identical and that if one jar breaks at a particular rung, all of them will.
a. Imagine you are given an indefinite amount of jars to test. What is the fastest way to find the rung at which the jars of the particular model you're testing break at? Hint: if f(n) is the number of tries you have to take, f(n) is o(n). That is, n dominates f(n) asymptotically, i.e. [tex]\lim_{x\to\infty}\frac{n}{f(n)}=\infty[/tex].
b. If you are given exactly one jar to test, what's the fastest way you can get a definite answer to the problem posed? Hint: there's nothing tricky about this one. It should be fairly obvious.
c. If you are given exactly two jars to test, you can do better than you did in (b). Give a strategy to do this. Hint: when I say better, I don't mean that you do better by some constant amount. The function that tells you the upper bound on the number of tries you have to do given n actually grows much slower than the one that generates the number of moves you have to make in the situation proposed in (b).
d. Generally, if you are given [tex]k[/tex] jars to test, you can get a better bound than if you were given [tex]k-1[/tex] jars. Formally, if [tex]g(n)[/tex] is your bound for [tex]k-1[/tex] jars and [tex]f(n)[/tex] is your bound for [tex]k[/tex] jars, then [tex]f(n)[/tex] is [tex]o(g(n))[/tex]. Give a general strategy for this.
Remarks:
Part (c) and (d) are kind of hard. If you get (c), you should be able to derive (d) with a bit of insight.
You're responsible for doing stress testing on jars that your company produces. Sometimes, you have very many jars to spare for worthy testing, in other times, your company is under fiscal strain and can only provide a handful.
The stress test involves a ladder with [tex]n[/tex] rungs. You want to generate a report on each model telling your manager what the highest rung on the ladder is at which you can drop the jar without it breaking. The models tend to have a lot of variance, so say you have no idea at which rung the jar will break. For simplicity's sake, assume that for each model, there exists some rung [tex]k\leqn[/tex] at which a jar of that model will break. Also assume that the jars are identical and that if one jar breaks at a particular rung, all of them will.
a. Imagine you are given an indefinite amount of jars to test. What is the fastest way to find the rung at which the jars of the particular model you're testing break at? Hint: if f(n) is the number of tries you have to take, f(n) is o(n). That is, n dominates f(n) asymptotically, i.e. [tex]\lim_{x\to\infty}\frac{n}{f(n)}=\infty[/tex].
b. If you are given exactly one jar to test, what's the fastest way you can get a definite answer to the problem posed? Hint: there's nothing tricky about this one. It should be fairly obvious.
c. If you are given exactly two jars to test, you can do better than you did in (b). Give a strategy to do this. Hint: when I say better, I don't mean that you do better by some constant amount. The function that tells you the upper bound on the number of tries you have to do given n actually grows much slower than the one that generates the number of moves you have to make in the situation proposed in (b).
d. Generally, if you are given [tex]k[/tex] jars to test, you can get a better bound than if you were given [tex]k-1[/tex] jars. Formally, if [tex]g(n)[/tex] is your bound for [tex]k-1[/tex] jars and [tex]f(n)[/tex] is your bound for [tex]k[/tex] jars, then [tex]f(n)[/tex] is [tex]o(g(n))[/tex]. Give a general strategy for this.
Remarks:
Part (c) and (d) are kind of hard. If you get (c), you should be able to derive (d) with a bit of insight.
#43
General Discussion / Happy birthday, Blaze!
September 26, 2008, 01:20:42 AM
Happy birthday, you liar! :D
#44
General Discussion / Big Words
August 21, 2008, 09:14:48 PM
Big Words is basically a textbook source aggregator. You give it the ISBN, title, or author of the book and it gives you a list of matches. When you select a book, it looks for it from a variety of sources and gives you a list of the ones with the best prices.
Unfortunately, I already ordered all of my books (from AbeBooks.com, which usually has the best price anyway), but I figured I'd try to save some of you who still haven't gotten their textbooks yet some trouble.
The orange hurts my eyes, but it's still a pretty neat service.
Unfortunately, I already ordered all of my books (from AbeBooks.com, which usually has the best price anyway), but I figured I'd try to save some of you who still haven't gotten their textbooks yet some trouble.
The orange hurts my eyes, but it's still a pretty neat service.
#45
Entertainment District / Batman Interviews Joker
August 03, 2008, 02:14:19 AM
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=w2yv8aT0UFc&fmt=18
This is a parody, but it's not any sort of spoiler if you haven't seen Dark Knight yet.
This is a parody, but it's not any sort of spoiler if you haven't seen Dark Knight yet.
#46
Math and Other Problems / Mild Nerdsnipe
July 06, 2008, 01:01:45 AM
A friend at work got me with this one, but luckily I forgot about it because I got distracted with work. When he asked me about it the next morning, I thought about it for a few minutes and had an answer. :)
You're given a list of arbitrary length where each element in the list is repeated exactly once except for one value in an arbitrary location. Your task is to find the value. You're allowed to pass over the list exactly once and use O(1) (constant, i.e. the amount of space you're using doesn't depend on the size of the list) extra space.
You're given a list of arbitrary length where each element in the list is repeated exactly once except for one value in an arbitrary location. Your task is to find the value. You're allowed to pass over the list exactly once and use O(1) (constant, i.e. the amount of space you're using doesn't depend on the size of the list) extra space.
#47
General Programming / Books and References on Web Services in Java
June 09, 2008, 10:59:02 AM
I know some of you have done a bunch of stuff with web services. Can you recommend some good books and/or references on Java web services?
#48
Blizzard, WoW and Bots / Where are people?
June 01, 2008, 02:39:09 PM
So I've decided I'll probably be playing WoW over the summer. It won't be a lot since I work during the week, but it'll keep me occupied after work and during the weekends when I don't have anything better to do.
What servers are people on? I'm not sure where I'm going to play. Right now, I'm thinking I'll pick up on a level 32 Druid I have from last summer, but I still haven't decided. I'm thinking it'd probably be good for me to start a new character instead so I can get used to it again.
What servers are people on? I'm not sure where I'm going to play. Right now, I'm thinking I'll pick up on a level 32 Druid I have from last summer, but I still haven't decided. I'm thinking it'd probably be good for me to start a new character instead so I can get used to it again.
#49
Entertainment District / Pork and Beans
May 25, 2008, 02:08:22 PM
This is Weezer's official video for their song "Pork and Beans". It's a long strong of references to Youtube/Internet memes. I started a list below, but I have to go, unfortunately, so continue it for me!
Link: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=muP9eH2p2PI
Link: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=muP9eH2p2PI
- Funtwo: Pachelbel's canon (0:00)
- Numa Numa guy (0:16)
- Dramatic Gopher (0:18)
- Nunchuck Guy (0:23)
- Diet Coke and Mentos (0:31)
- T-Shirt Guy (0:38)
#50
Unix / Linux Discussion / VMWare Networking Issue
April 13, 2008, 03:42:21 AM
So I'm running into a strange issue with VMWare on my machine. I have several VMs with different operating systems that are all having the same issue. I'm pretty sure it's something wrong with the settings on the host, but I was hoping someone else had seen this before and might be able to expedite the troubleshooting procedure.
I'm using NAT networking. Here's the problem:
I can access anything outside of the local subnet vmware set up for me (which is some 192.168.x.0/24 subnet), but I can't get to the host through that subnet and I can't get to the vm from the host through that subnet. I have the same problem with host-only networking.
Anyone have any ideas?
I'm using NAT networking. Here's the problem:
I can access anything outside of the local subnet vmware set up for me (which is some 192.168.x.0/24 subnet), but I can't get to the host through that subnet and I can't get to the vm from the host through that subnet. I have the same problem with host-only networking.
Anyone have any ideas?
#52
Ender's Book Club / Sigur Ros
March 07, 2008, 12:57:17 PM
Not sure if you noticed, but youtube's featured videos for today were selected by Sigur Ros. :)
#54
General Programming / String Puzzle
December 12, 2007, 12:56:47 PM
Given a string, detect the number of occurrences of two substrings: "fo" and "oo" in O(n) time that works without traversing the string more than once. For example, given the string
"foobarfoo"
The answer would be 4, since there are two occurrences of "fo" and two occurrences of "oo".
After you develop the algorithm, program it in your favorite language and post it!
I don't think this is a super difficult problem, so I won't give any more hints. :)
"foobarfoo"
The answer would be 4, since there are two occurrences of "fo" and two occurrences of "oo".
After you develop the algorithm, program it in your favorite language and post it!
I don't think this is a super difficult problem, so I won't give any more hints. :)
#55
Math and Other Problems / Calc 3 problems
December 12, 2007, 11:05:52 AM
I just got out of my final for Calculus 3 and they had a few interesting problems on there. I'm still not sure that I did them correctly, but I did end up getting complete answers for them.
Here they are.
1) Evaluate [tex]\int_{0}^{1}{\int_{y}^{1}{\sin(x^2)\,dx}\,dy}[/tex]
2) Find the point on the plane given by [tex]ax+by+cz=d[/tex] closest to the origin, then compute its distance.
There were a few less interesting ones involving Green's and Stoke's theorems. The problems were run of the mill -- the kind where they try to trick you into evaluating it as a multi-pieced curve integral. I'm sure everyone interested has seen enough of those, though. :)
Here they are.
1) Evaluate [tex]\int_{0}^{1}{\int_{y}^{1}{\sin(x^2)\,dx}\,dy}[/tex]
2) Find the point on the plane given by [tex]ax+by+cz=d[/tex] closest to the origin, then compute its distance.
There were a few less interesting ones involving Green's and Stoke's theorems. The problems were run of the mill -- the kind where they try to trick you into evaluating it as a multi-pieced curve integral. I'm sure everyone interested has seen enough of those, though. :)
#56
General Discussion / Ever hit a moose?
November 06, 2007, 02:26:14 AM
So, I rode home with my mom last weekend. My mom likes to drive through Cameron Pass, which is this narrow, windy road (it's very scenic and quiet, though), so we went through there. While I was sleeping, a moose got onto the road fast enough to where my mom didn't see it to slow down in time. We hit it going around 35, which was lucky, as it would have been much more catastrophic if we'd been going much faster.
I don't know how many people here are familiar with Moose, but the things are huge. The one we hit was probably a yearling, but it was still very big. Probably bigger than a large horse (and heavier).
http://sidoh.dark-wire.net/upload/files/7P9SCHZGGS-426469a3f71b8f11.jpg
As you can see, it crinkled up the hood pretty well and bent some of the internals (I'm no engine-savvy person, so I have no idea what actually got hurt). No further damage as far as we could see, though. The airbags didn't even deploy, which was nice, but it was still a pretty interesting encounter.
As a funny-ish side story, after hitting it, we drove a few miles up the road to find a place where we could use a phone. We came across some retired people that ran some guest cabins that let us use their phone. After we called the sheriff, he was showing us some pictures of moose he had on his computer. After a few cycled through, a younger looking one popped up and he said "Yep... there's the one you probably hit right there." lol.
As a less funny side story, my sister remarked after we told her about the deputy going off to find and put down the moose: "I hit the moose, but I did not shoot the deputy."
I don't know how many people here are familiar with Moose, but the things are huge. The one we hit was probably a yearling, but it was still very big. Probably bigger than a large horse (and heavier).
http://sidoh.dark-wire.net/upload/files/7P9SCHZGGS-426469a3f71b8f11.jpg
As you can see, it crinkled up the hood pretty well and bent some of the internals (I'm no engine-savvy person, so I have no idea what actually got hurt). No further damage as far as we could see, though. The airbags didn't even deploy, which was nice, but it was still a pretty interesting encounter.
As a funny-ish side story, after hitting it, we drove a few miles up the road to find a place where we could use a phone. We came across some retired people that ran some guest cabins that let us use their phone. After we called the sheriff, he was showing us some pictures of moose he had on his computer. After a few cycled through, a younger looking one popped up and he said "Yep... there's the one you probably hit right there." lol.
As a less funny side story, my sister remarked after we told her about the deputy going off to find and put down the moose: "I hit the moose, but I did not shoot the deputy."
#57
Entertainment District / [NSFW] Dickmento
October 21, 2007, 10:21:21 PM
This video is funny by itself, but I can imagine it wouldn't be as funny if you haven't seen Memento. It also references Requiem for a Dream, but more subtly.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KZcfJu4cWZ4
Edit -- Forgot NSFW. There's nothing visually explicit, though.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KZcfJu4cWZ4
Edit -- Forgot NSFW. There's nothing visually explicit, though.
#58
Unix / Linux Discussion / Linux with Abit AB9 Motherboard
October 08, 2007, 03:57:20 PM
If you intend to run Linux on your computer, stay away from this motherboard. It's a nightmare.
I've tried Ubuntu (Fiesty Fawn, Gusty Gibbon -- both the live CDs and the text installers), Ubuntu Studio, Fedora Core 7 and Slackware 12. With the exception of Slackware, they all fail to install or work shortly after installation. I'd prefer to have a slightly more shiny-out-of-the-box distribution for my workstation, meaning Slackware is pretty much a last resort.
I was pretty confused as to what was going on, but some reasoning and Googling led me to believe the motherboard is the culprit. I've updated to the most recent version of the BIOS that I can get (the newest one fails to download or be recognized using their utility) and it doesn't help at all.
I suppose I'll give Arch Linux another try (I had bad luck with it when I installed it on my server), but does anyone else have a recommendation? I suspect that Slackware will work, but I'd like to have something with a package manager on my workstation.
I've tried Ubuntu (Fiesty Fawn, Gusty Gibbon -- both the live CDs and the text installers), Ubuntu Studio, Fedora Core 7 and Slackware 12. With the exception of Slackware, they all fail to install or work shortly after installation. I'd prefer to have a slightly more shiny-out-of-the-box distribution for my workstation, meaning Slackware is pretty much a last resort.
I was pretty confused as to what was going on, but some reasoning and Googling led me to believe the motherboard is the culprit. I've updated to the most recent version of the BIOS that I can get (the newest one fails to download or be recognized using their utility) and it doesn't help at all.
I suppose I'll give Arch Linux another try (I had bad luck with it when I installed it on my server), but does anyone else have a recommendation? I suspect that Slackware will work, but I'd like to have something with a package manager on my workstation.
#59
Joe's Bunker of Pie / Happy Birthday!
September 25, 2007, 01:08:28 AM
I guess you don't gain many special privileges when you're 17. That must suck. (Kidding :)).
Happy birthday!
Happy birthday!
#60
Entertainment District / Shoot 'em Up
September 08, 2007, 02:28:44 AM
So, I hung out with drake and his Canadian friends today. He called deadly and I called him an asshole. :D We went to Fort Fun, which was Fort Broken Games, but laser tag was pretty sweet.
The movie was definitely a "guy's movie." I liked it. The stunts were pretty ridiculous, but it added a twisted sort of humor. I'd give it a solid 8/10 stars. It's worth seeing unless you hate "non-stop action" films.
To top it all off, we saw a Jurassic Park Jeep on our way out of the theater. It was badass.
The movie was definitely a "guy's movie." I liked it. The stunts were pretty ridiculous, but it added a twisted sort of humor. I'd give it a solid 8/10 stars. It's worth seeing unless you hate "non-stop action" films.
To top it all off, we saw a Jurassic Park Jeep on our way out of the theater. It was badass.