Q. Why can’t you tell a joke in octal? A. Because 7 10 11!
A maths diversion
One of my colleagues came into my office the other day, and said to me: If p is prime and greater than 3, prove that p² – 1 is divisible by 24. Interested readers might want to try this for themselves: it’s not particularly difficult. Of course I started in right away. Immediately I thought:… Continue reading A maths diversion
War is over if you want it
Indeed. Imagine what a better place the world would be if John had been alive these last 30 years. Have a happy and peaceful holiday season, whatever you celebrate.
Blizzcon 2010 with friends
This year once more I was really looking forward to Blizzcon. Although there wasn’t a new amazing announcement since StarCraft II is out, Cataclysm is imminent and Diablo III has been announced for a while, there was enough going on that was cool to celebrate for a couple of days. Also, Skye and her son… Continue reading Blizzcon 2010 with friends
Twelve times table
It is puzzling to me that in the US, that holdout of the Imperial system of measurement, schoolkids learn up to the ten times table only. When I was at school, I learned up to 12, even though the UK had been metric for a decade already. But apparently nobody of my generation in the… Continue reading Twelve times table
It works!
A quick trip to Radio Shack, and I got the components to hook up the Symbolics keyboard with Teensy. I didn’t even alter the keyboard itself as Hans Heubner did: rather I just used a standard 6-pin RJ25 socket and connected the Teensy to that, then plugged the keyboard in, and put the connection assembly… Continue reading It works!
Cult of the Keyboard
We’ve got a bit of a keyboard cult going on at work. Of course, I’ve been a fan of decent keyboards for years and a strong believer that keyboards (and mice) generally get too little thought when buying a computer. Ergonomics are important: everyone recognises the value of a decent chair and a decent monitor… Continue reading Cult of the Keyboard
I’m still alive – here’s the latest
Hi there, so much to report since the last update. First, we had the single-car garage (which was being used as a junk storage space) converted into my office/cave. The contractors did a really good job for less than we were expecting. I uploaded some flickr photos of my new cave. You can also see… Continue reading I’m still alive – here’s the latest
StarCraft II Launch Event
Last night I went down to Fry’s in Fountain Valley for the local launch and signing event. Here are some photos (sorry about the quality). A great time was had by all. Really cool to see all the fans and feel the energy of the occasion!
He likes a challenge
I was wandering around upstairs this morning and heard the mini-Elbeno playing downstairs. He was playing “Twinkle, Twinkle, Little Star” on his glockenspiel, a tune he has known for a while. When I came downstairs, he said “Look what I’ve done!” and I saw that he’d swapped around the keys of the glockenspiel in pairs… Continue reading He likes a challenge