You've seen the adverts, perhaps. “We identified 15 fund managers who consistently outdid their peers over the last ten years”. What's the deal here? Do they believe their own hype, I wonder? I would be surprised if among 8000+ fund managers, they could not find 15 who fulfilled some level…
A break in the weather
After over 2 weeks of living in 2 rooms of the house, and sitting next to hard-working but ultimately not-very-effective AC units, we seem to finally be enjoying a cooler spell. Today's high is 80. The forecast says that the highs this week will be around 75. Yay! Actually I…
free-range bee invasion
Mrs Elbeno called me in a semi-panic this lunchtime to report that there were six bees in our kitchen. Two of them were trapped between window panels, “but that doesn't fully enclose them – if you are a bee you can get out! And the rest are free-range bees!” Well…
Solve sudoku without thinking?
As found on BoingBoing. 1. This procedure works for the simpler puzzles only. It does not address intermediate and advanced solution steps. 2. I have never resorted to writing little numbers since I consider it cheating. The real way to solve sudoku is to figure it all in your head.
dumb headline alert
“Scientists question nature's fundamental laws” Well, duh. They are scientists. It's their job.
Yum
Mrs Elbeno made strawberry shortcake for dessert tonight.
a sad day
It is with a sense of foreboding that I read the news about Kraft Foods’ purchase of part of United Biscuits. United Biscuits make Jaffa Cakes, the nicest biscuit (or cake?) known to man and a favourite of the Elbeno household. Kraft Foods is owned by the Altria Group, which…
Why programming is fun
This week I have been working with a colleague on optimising a piece of code. Last week, what we started out with (a first implementation) was taking over 80ms to run in my test case. We had confidence that the overall algorithm was the correct one for the job, so…
A fascinating read
Mrs Elbeno bought me Silence On The Wire for my birthday. It’s been a fascinating read. There are tons of interesting things you can do with IP packets, both in the field of passive forensic analysis and for the purposes of active subversion. There are a lot of fascinating lower…