The Dendrite Dump

The "Deep Web"

2011-01-08T07:04:00.000-08:00

In an effort to understand how the simple robots.txt file works for crawling search engines and all of its uses I've run across a couple very interesting things.

Let's start with how a web search engine crawls. The crawler goes to the website and starts are the main page. Off this main page are normally many html links. The crawler follows all these links, which go to other links, and other links; the crawler develops a picture of the entire site. The trick here is this may not contain all the pages on the site.

Enter the Deep Web. This is a place where normal search engine crawlers don't see. A page that isn't linked off the main site can't be found by a crawler. There's no way for it to know what that page name is, aside from guessing, and that could be a very large number of guesses. The crawler program has other things to do, like mapping sites elsewhere.

There are attempts to find these hidden pages. Protocols developed by Google and others attempts to put the onus on website administrators. The owner of the site has to decide what content to advertise. They place this in a file, similar to the robots.txt file used for blocking content from indexing on search engines. This is the opposite of this. These are pages a crawler may not find, but want to make sure they find.

Other areas of untapped data are things like flight schedules, medical journals/writings, and basically search-able databases that don't have direct html links to them. Programs are being developed to place specialized search terms into these online databases to index them like the regular web.

Back to the beginning, as I mentioned I was researching robots.txt and how it works. This is an 'exclusion protocol'. It tells a crawler NOT to index and advertise the particular link or URL. One concrete example I found that would work well for this is redundant links on the site. If there are links for 'print only' formats which are the same as the article, this could junk up the search for the site. One misnomer is using this robots.txt file to keep pages hidden from hackers. This is patently wrong. The robots.txt is accessible by anyone. This lets crawlers figure out what one doesn't want indexed. However since it is accessible by anyone it is a stopping point for hackers to look and see what they can poke at. Robots.txt has its uses, but securing a particular part of the site from unwanted lookers should be setup with authentication that the web server offers.

References
http://www.sitemaps.org/protocol.php
http://www.deeppeep.org/
http://www.nytimes.com/2009/02/23/technology/internet/23search.html?_r=1&th&emc=th
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Deep_Web

Invention

2009-11-25T09:39:00.001-08:00

New million dollar idea for minivans:

The double door addition to minivans doesn't hold a candle to this.
Like the limo has a window the driver can close between the front and
the cabin area the minivan needs the same addition. With the new
reverse video feed in cars you'd simply pipe a video of the cabin to
this so kids can be watched yet preserve the quiet to the front cabin.
This would sell like hotcakes.

--
Sent from my mobile device

"I have no special talent. I am only passionately curious." --Einstein

Into November

2009-11-14T18:30:00.000-08:00

2010 is coming. Lately work has been killer. Very busy. And I've been thinking it really is too bad. I'm trying to find time to reassess what's important and what's not. Even that is difficult to get to. So I guess this is what it means to feel stuck in a rut of sorts.

On a positive note I went duck hunting today. Joel, Ryan, and Christian were also there. We found a nice spot down on the coast and parked for duck. One flew in on us when we were setting up and almost landing on our heads. It was still dark so he didn't see us until he was on top of us. We didn't have the guns loaded so we missed him. We split into two pairs on the bank. Close enough to talk still. A number of duck came by. Black duck, which don't like to land it seems even near decoys. Very edgy duck. Not trusting at all. Some mallards came in; they landed a bit upstream and never got close enough to take a shot at. Teal duck flew by really fast, and a couple may have landed on the other side of some grass near us, but again, too far away to take a shot. There was a junk duck of sorts that was hanging around too. They eat other ducks eggs and have no limit to them. Mergansers (had to look it up again).

So I got to learn some duck species.

Oh...did I shoot any? No. :) Ryan got a goose with duck shot, which was impressive. But the ducks were too on top of their game today. I would have really liked to get a black duck. However when I hunt, as with the goose hunting we tried awhile back, we run into 'odd' days where people see things they've never had happen much like lack of duck, or lack of geese. I seem to have that effect. :)

Thermite Fun

2009-04-06T04:30:00.001-07:00

Yesterday I found sparklers, though a more crude fuse than magnesium,
also lights thermite.

--
Sent from my mobile device

"I have no special talent. I am only passionately curious." --Einstein

Supertasters and tomographic reconstruction

2008-10-19T18:18:00.000-07:00

Wikipedia is a fun place to browse for any subject you happen to be digging into. Perhaps better than howstuffworks.com, it has detail and links that can be very helpful in understanding something. Two recent subjects I looked at are listed in the title.

Tomographic reconstruction is the first. I was looking up the difference between radiologist and radiographer. Unless in or among the fields one probably wouldn't be able to tell the difference. My brother is in radiography, and that is the operators of X-ray equipment. This led me to different types of X-rays, MRI's, and something called CT scans. Standing for computer tomography, it led to another page named tomographic reconstruction. This is a mathematical method of constructing the picture of what you X-ray. For your geek reading pleasure:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tomographic_reconstruction

The second is supertasters. Something I just heard of, it is on wikipedia as well! What on earth are they? People with a large number of fungiform papillae to be specific. They don't like particular tastes, being much more sensitive to bitterness in foods. Broccoli, spinach, brussels sprouts, olives, coffee, and alcoholic drink, are just a few supertasters may avoid. I've encountered a couple ways to test. One is take a spoonful of water with sweet and low (saccharin) mixed into it, and take a drop of that and place it on your tongue. If sweet you are a non-taster or perhaps a mid-taster. If bitter, you are more likely a super-taster. Another test involves litmus type strips of varying types. I didn't have either of these, so I took the last test. Take blue food coloring, drop 1 bit on your tongue and swallow. Try to keep your tongue a bit dry by keeping it out and look in the mirror to see. Near the tip end, you'll see a number of spots that are not blue. These are the fungiform papillae. Find a lot and you are more likely a supertaster. For your reading pleasure:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Supertaster

It has been awhile since I posted, and these seemed as interesting as anything to read about on a day off.

Moosehead Lake Adventure

2008-08-19T21:09:00.001-07:00

I'm on vacation. A weeks worth of vacation. A couple days we decide
to spend it with some friends up at Moosehead Lake. They have a camp
up there, but instead of staying at camp, the more 'funner' thing to
do is to stay out on Moosehead island. We got out there in the
mid-afternoon, packed up the boat with our tents and gear, and took
our four kids out to the island. We setup the tents, then shot back
to the mainland to eat supper. The boat we were using was a Lunn, a
bass fishing boat with a low profile on the water. Moosehead is a
huge lake, the biggest lake in Maine, second deepest only to Sebago.
After we ate, evening was starting to approach, so we took a run back
on the boat to the island to settle in. As we are preparing to leave,
I peek at the radar. We know a cold front is moving in, and there is
the potential for thunderstorms. The radar confirms it. We've got
large storms rolling all around, so my friend and I are figuring we
have a limited window of fishing time after we drop everyone off at
the island. We get there, setup the fire for smores, etc, leaving the
wives and kids to figure that out while we go to find some trout.
I kept checking the radar and the storms are getting closer, and the
light is starting to fade. We shot across part of the lake at high
speed to get to an area my friend has seen trout rising for flies. We
saw some big black clouds a bit north, and know we are next. We
fished a bit, watching bats zip around our flies maybe 6 inches to 1
foot off the water. Finally the black clouds have obscured the
western sky. We tossed our poles into the bottom of the boat, and
cruised back to the island.
Lightning is flashing north, and north-west now. The wind has
started to pick up. We pull into the island's beach and tie up the
boat as best we can, secure the life jackets, and head up to the
tents. My wife takes 3 kids up to the outhouse, and I dive into a
tent with the 4th to get out of the wind and potential rain. While we
are hiding out there, the rain starts pouring down. I finally head
out to see where my wife is, and meet them halfway down the trail with
a towel over their head marching together trying to stay dry. As we
approach the tents, I hand a battery power fluorescent light to my
oldest son and get him and my oldest daughter into their tent. As
they jump in, somehow my boy slips and drops the light on the tent
floor. By then I've got the tent zipped up and I'm making my way to
the other tent. I climb in, close up, and hear them yelling that they
have no light. I jump back out into the rain, get into their tent
with my headlamp, and look for what happened. When the fluorescent
was dropped, the batteries popped out the bottom, and their tent went
black. I fixed up the light, and then stay with them until the rain
let up, which was after perhaps 5-10 minutes.
I went over to the other tent, where my wife and I made the decision
to sleep in separate tents so the kids wouldn't be scared. I swapped
my bed, which consisted of an air mattress, and now wet sleeping bag
(the bag was touching the edge of the tent during the rain and pulled
some in - I'm telling you, what ever happened to good old cohesive
liquids anyway? Touch a sleeping back to a tent when raining and
suddenly your sucking water up like a straw; anyway...). The pack and
play I dug out of the older kids tent, and dropped that off. I had
checked the radar before the rain slowed, and knew there was a lull,
albeit a short one, so I was moving as quick as I could. I dove back
into the tent I was sleeping in just in time. The rain started coming
down again, and this time it was going to be for a longer period.
Everyone got to sleep well enough and the morning was on its way.
7:30am - I get woken up by the older kids. I decide to get up and
check the damage. As I step onto the shore I realize the wind has
changed direction and large waves are pounding into shore. The boat
is totally swamped. "This should make things interesting" I think to
myself. "Back up to make a fire." I start sawing and collecting some
wood; the kids chip in. As our friends climb out of the tent I hear
that the husband has rolled over the lighter in his sleep and it is
done for. Thankfully I packed some wooden matches and tossed them in
a zip lock back. While we work on the fire, my friend works on the
boat. A Lunn doesn't sink so easily apparently, and with the back end
sunk down in the water, he gets it started and motors it across to
another nearby island where another boater helps bail out water enough
so the bilge pump can finish the job. He brings the boat back,
anchors it, and dives into the water. If he landed the boat, it would
just fill with water again. We have coffee and popcorn, plus we've
had some banana bread, all in all, a pretty good breakfast. Now we
are trying to figure out how to get everyone back to mainland. The
boat can't be brought into shore. Swim everyone out to the boat?
Brrr...
I take off with a compass up what looks kind of like a snowmobile
trail. I figure it I head west, I'll find another side of the island
with little waves and we can bring the boat over there to pick
everyone up. And success! A place is found. Most of the walk was on
the woods trail, but I did have to venture off a bit once I got near
the water, so I marked the trail with a few white birch branches,
making an arrow of sorts. I time myself coming back: 8 minutes. Not
bad. Time+kids=15-20 minutes maybe. When I show up at the campsite,
it looks like my friends father, staying back at the mainland camp,
has come with his boat as well, concerned with the big waves. The
kids and moms pack up what they can with the expectation that we'll be
coming back in the evening. We start up the trail while my friend
takes his boat around to pick us up, along with his dad's boat
following. They meet up with us, we split up into the two boats, and
start making our way back to mainland. When we can past the island,
some pretty big waves are all around us. Probably two foot swells at
this point. They really pick up going down the stretch of lake there.
We get pretty wet, but make it back in one piece.
After hanging around at the mainland camp for lunch, we look at the
weather and see that it doesn't look any better for the evening or
next day in terms of wind. We decide the camping is going to be cut
short by a day unfortunately. But we've got our stuff on the island.
So we pack up the vans, and send the wives off with the kids to a
playground down the road. Meanwhile we venture back across the lake
where the wind has since picked up, plus we are heading into the wind.
The waves are really smashing around us now, getting us drenched. My
friend's father is also following us in his boat to try and help as he
can. I'm feeling bad asking him to tag along now, because these waves
are pounding on us. I'm sure he isn't having a nice time. We get
around the island again, and the waves are not letting up. We try to
anchor so the two of us can go into shore, but the anchor won't hold.
I wade in while he tries to re anchor the boat. He can't get it to
stick, so he keeps the boat in place, semi-anchored, and I start
packing up the tents and gear. My friend's father has brought along
my friend's brother-in-law, who managed to get dropped off up shore a
bit and hike down to the campsite to help pack up. We get things into
plastic bags and all brought down to shore. From there I wade out to
the boat, which is repositioned in deeper water then when I originally
hopped in. Before it was waist deep, now I'm going up to my underarms
handing things to my friend. Meanwhile I'm bobbing over large waves
coming into shore. As I get up to rib level I have to jump up and
down with the waves, holding stuff over my head as best I can. While
I'm going back and forth I'm remembering a few things. First, you
lose 30% of your body head from your head. So while wading in cold
water, I pull on the hood of my raincoat. Second, you lose body head
600 times faster in water, so I'm glad I didn't wear my cotton jeans.
Last I put on the life jacket I had left on the shore and make my way
out to the boat. The boat is packed at this point. Barely room to
sit. I climb up to the front to pull in the anchor line while my
friend drives the boat. the two foot swells ave found us at this
point. My weight on the front of the boat is causing waves to crash
over the front of the boat, over me, and drain to the back where the
bilge pump has all the work. My friend is getting nervous and wants
me off the front. we head for a nearby island to get the majority of
the water out of the boat we've since taken on. After the bilge stops
pushing water out, we pray and then head out into the waves. They are
good size waves, causing a lot of jarring on our part. But we are
heading with the wind, which makes it a little more pleasant. Once we
get by the island and channel into the fully open water we come
against, not kidding, what have to be 4 foot swells. And they are
wide too. The boat goes down in them, and back up. Since leaving the
island, we've been looking for his dad's boat. He oddly enough
disappeared. At first we thought his dad was picking up his
brother-in-law, because the in-law parted ways when I started sloshing
into the water. I joked that he could hop in and help out, but he
wasn't interested. No worries. But now the boat has vanished, which
is very uncharacteristic of his dad. Back to the 4 foot swells on
open water past the island. We spot the boat, but can't tell if both
in-law and father are in the boat. So we go into the wind, into the
giant waves, to get a closer look. At one moment, my friend asks if I
can see them both in the boat. I've had water spraying in my face,
and even with a raincoat and sunglasses, my water soaked contacts have
limitations. I blink and blink trying to see past it all, and finally
spot both people in the boat. It probably doesn't help that my
prescription of contacts is a bit dated too. Then we turn around and
get to ride with the wind, thankfully, back to port. I keep looking
at these swells in amazement. Not just 4 feet high, but the width,
and trough size is huge. If you fell overboard, you'd go in and out
of view to someone even looking for you in another boat. I'm thinking
this lake is crazy, then I'm thinking I'm crazy. We did get back to
shore. My wife's first thought was the boat looked like the Grinch's
sleigh filled with toys stolen from whoville. We both were drenched,
and as quick as we got the boat onto the trailer, I was off to the
bathroom to change to try and counter the likely mild-hypothermia
setting in. On the way out of town we grabbed a nice warm cup of
coffee, which hit the spot. We swung into mcdonalds where I proceeded
to steal mcnuggets from my younger daughter who wasn't eating them.
They get a toy, I get fatter; it seemed like a win win, although the
calories burned during the days events may have taken care of those
pesky mcnuggets.

Rocks and Canoes

2008-07-25T13:27:00.001-07:00

This is an attempted proof for the rock tossed overboard problem and what happens to the water level.

"You sit in a canoe with a rock. You throw it overboard, and it sinks. Does the rock make the water level go up, down, or stay the same when thrown in?"

Does the water level go up?

Archimedes principle states that when a body is immersed in a fluid, the fluid exerts an upward force on the body equal to the weight of the fluid the body displaces.

Since the rock doesn't sink the canoe, its weight or downward force is being equaled by the buoyancy of the water, an upward force.

B = pgV

B - buoyancy force
p - density of water
g - gravity
V - volume of water displaced

So the weight of the rock is equal to B

w = mg

w - weight or downward force
m - mass of rock
g - gravity

So

B = w
pgV = mg

When the rock is thrown overboard, the rock sinks; it overcomes the buoyant force of water.

In canoe
pgV = mg
In water
pgV < mg

Now 'p', 'g', and 'm' do not change. That being, the density of water, the gravity, and the mass of the rock all stay the same. The only thing left to change is the volume of water displaced, 'V'. The volume of water displaced must go down, and so the water level must go down.

Could the water level stay the same?

The problem with this is the rock must sink as set by the question. To keep the water level the same the rock would need to be equal in density to the water. Water doesn't sink in water, and neither would an object of equal density.

m = pV
m - mass
p - density
V - volume

You can substitute pV for the rock's mass

Before
water         rock
pgV      =   pgV
After
pgV      =   pgV

If the rock was going to sink the downward force would have to be greater. The left side doesn't change, and volume and gravity on the right don't, so the rock's density doesn't. Your force is still equal; the rock wouldn't sink.

However you look at it the water level goes down.

West Branch Flyfishing

2008-07-09T17:51:00.001-07:00

The time has come at last...the legendary fly fishing of the west branch will soon be here. This weekend, as a bachelor party for Joel, a group of us are going fly fishing at one of the hottest salmon fishing holes in Maine. It has the best fishing in the deep hot summer because it pulls water from the ripogenus dam, which in turn gets the water from the near bottom of a lake. This cool water lets the salmon flourish and keep active in the west branch all summer long, when places like Grand Lake Stream (another awesome salmon fishing area) let the salmon run up into West Grand because the shallow water gets too warm for them. I hope for pictures, and many fish in the dusk of evening.

Day of Fishing

2008-06-22T19:10:00.000-07:00

We fished and gave a good effort. Isaac ended up getting a small chub with a worm we dug up out of a pile of dirt by hand (personal note: next time bring shovel for worms or buy worms a head of time). Aside from that trying surface lures, little cleos, flyfishing with streamers and emergent blue-wing olives, but nothing could interest the bass or any other lurking fish waiting in the shadows. The Mattawamkeag River is truly a sight. There are large cliffs that run along the edges of it near the campground. Then there is a good size falls farther down the road. With plenty of places to stop and fish with walk-in trails, it is quite the place to visit. I'll be going back in July if I can help it. Here are some much anticipated pictures of the trip which gives you a few backgrounds and also a small sampling of what wildlife can be found there.

A deer right was found munching on some leaves on the way out of the campground. It didn't seem to mind us at all. We stayed in the car so we wouldn't startle it much.

I believe this is called little Gordon brook. Isaac caught the chub here. It looked like a possible trout hiding spot.

A snapper that we almost tripped over when coming down to fish at the river at the campground. It looked like it was laying eggs because the ground was dug all up around it.

At the end of the day Isaac finally couldn't keep himself awake. After a 4:30-4:45ish wake-up call, this is the end result after a day of fishing.

I took the camera and made a short video of our campsite...unfortunately I'm having a little trouble with it for now. Blogger has been 'processing' for about 2 days...rigggggggggght. I will post later, perhaps through youtube then posting a link here.

Morning comes early

2008-06-21T06:14:00.001-07:00

Isaac was up around 4:30 or 5:00 and kept trying to get me up until
around 6:45 I capitulated. We made an attempt to catch some morning fish by the beach but it wasn't meant to be. All is not lost though.
We saw a good size snapping turtle likely laying eggs in the sand.
I'll post photos later. Meanwhile we've had breakfast and packed up
camp to head down river in search of the mighty bass.

--
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Mattawamkeag Wilderness Park

2008-06-20T19:43:00.001-07:00

Isaac and I rolled in around 9:30PM and to my surprise this is a nice little campground. I thought it was more of a place like Elsmore Landing on Pecompass lake. Not that it isn't nice but it has a more rough appeal to it. They have electricity and running water here. Catch my drift? :). Isaac is still awake, full of excitement because this is his first time in a tent. I suppose he's been in the grandparent's camper, but that's not REAL camping. ;)

We'll go fishing tomorrow and maybe wander around the campground.
Apparently they have a playground, and I think showers, another thing I didn't expect. The staff are very friendly and thought they recognized me from last year, but it was likely my brother as I have not been here for a long time. I don't think I've ever camped here. Oh, and a bonus is they give you muffins at checkin. What a kick. Big blueberry muffins. They'll go great with cereal and donuts we brought...probably healthier too. Time to finish with a little
reading and then sleep. Isaac has finally settled down and I think he's asleep but will likely be up tomorrow early.

Another day goes by

2008-06-01T23:17:00.001-07:00

Packing up after another night of attempted fishing. I'll save you
the suspense, no fish. But a good day. Great weather and a fun trip
to check out Cabelas' new store was part of the highlights. Tomorrow
is the last day so I hope we can find where the stripers are hiding.
We fished at parsons beach tonight on the outgoing tide. And now I
need my beauty sleep. Oh. I tested out my new loose fit waders from
LL Beans as well tonight. No leaks! :)

--
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Good Morning

2008-06-01T07:37:00.001-07:00

We are up and about at last. I'm not sure which beach we'll be going to, but some of us are taking advantage of the hot tubs at this campground (camping is so rough sometimes).

First Night

2008-05-31T22:26:00.001-07:00

The first night of fishing is over. The morning tide was passed up
due to a lightning storm that passed by. We opted for breakfast after
wandering around Freeport. It was a nice little place. Then we
wandered for far too long looking for Hannaford. First Ryan thought
it was south on rt 9 on the left. Then I thought it was north on the
left. Then we decided to go to the campground. But on the way we
wanted to try for hannaford again. I found one with a gps, but Ryan
drove right by and had to turn around. So now everything is 'on the
left'. We tried the evening tide but didn't even get a hit, let alone
a fish. We we're in good spirits though and now we are headed back to
the campground for some much needed sleep. More tomorrow.

--
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First Morning - Higgins Beach

2008-05-31T06:10:00.001-07:00

I have arrived after a 5am alarm and 3 hour drive and it is fantastic.
Joel and Ryan came down last night but were not here when I arrived.
I used my phone to call and found them parked at LL bean's lot.
Apparently they went there after fishing the tide last night and fell
asleep in the parking lot. So I beat them here! But they have all
the gear so I'll have to wait. Otherwise I'd be in the surf right now
looking for stripers. More to come tonight after fishing.

--
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Fishing and a Water Heater

2008-05-30T19:44:00.001-07:00

I'm gearing up for a 3 day weekend of fishing for striper. I've got to get up at 5:00am to drive to Southern Maine and arrive by 8:30am to meet my brother and a friend at Higgins Beach. We are going to be striper fishing, specifically, saltwater flyfishing for striper bass. I've done this one before 2 years ago and it was a blast. It can be a little brutal because you end up fishing by the tide. Last time that meant getting up at 1am and fishing until about 5am. *Phew* But the striper are suppose to be top action this time of year. So I'm quite excited. And I almost didn't go...wait...what? Yeah. I almost didn't go.

I'm at work today, nearly on another plane of existence thinking of pulling in large whale-size fish so I can ride them around like King Titan in the ocean seas, and I find out my water heater, an on demand propane water heater, so it doesn't have a tank, isn't working. So I leave early to try and beat it home before the stores close in case I neat some parts. I look at the water heater and I don't have a clue. Looking online reveals it is a discontinued unit and tech. support for the thing is closed until Monday. Hey, it is Friday after 5 by this time...who can blame them? I talk with my wife and make a last minute decision to put in an electric water heater. I've been wanting to anyway with the cost of propane. But how am I going to manage purchasing one when the store closes in 15 minutes and I am not an expert plumber by any means? The first thing I did right as I was driving home was to pray for some wisdom, because I was coming up pretty dry and not 100% sure what to do. So God had some mercy while I was wondering whether my fishing trip was on or not. I called a friend and he met me at the hardware store. He got the plumbing parts, I got the electrical pieces, and a few hours later, *poof*, an electric water heater is in place.

So now I'm packed up, ready to go, and hitting the couch with a book for a few before I pass out and start the drive tomorrow. Stay tuned for an evening post of the fishing fun tomorrow!

Free classes

2008-05-24T17:19:00.000-07:00

I have found, for me, what is some of the most exciting sort of thing to find online. Free MIT courses. They've taken recorded lectures of all kinds and put them on their site. They have lecture notes if that interests you, and also tests with answer sheets. You won't get credit, but there is the potential to learn a bunch. I'm interested in physics myself. A number of other courses are available as well.

Get started here:
http://ocw.mit.edu/OcwWeb/Physics/index.htm

Ideas...

2008-05-22T19:34:00.001-07:00

Here's an idea I had after reading about some companies taking advantage of SMS text messaging and providing coupons through phones.

Movie Gallery, to compete, should offer at the counter to take your cellphone and send you a reminder when the 5 day rental is due back. Maybe the day before. Also they could deliver text messages on new movies coming out, coupons for discounted rentals, and movies you may be interested in that others have rented in relation to a movie you rented...a lot like netflix does with their website.

Thought of the day

2008-05-22T07:24:00.001-07:00

Multitasking is an ambiguous term that has varying levels of implementation. One should employ this method of working in limited fashion as work quality exponentially decreases with greater use of this skill. Although looked at as a skill one should put on their resume and sell as a personal plus they bring to any job, this is highly oversold and thought of as a wonderful thing. However one must remember we are not multidimensional beings. We occupy one area of space at a time and therefore multitasking is must be weighed out and balanced against this very real physical fact.

Speaking of multitasking...I've multitasked myself away from what I was originally working on...

Online Tools

2008-05-12T19:10:00.000-07:00

Online tools are getting more and more powerful, so I wanted to mention a couple that I've enjoyed recently.

Google Reader (http://reader.google.com)
This is truly a fantastic invention. More and more I enjoy this site. If you visit a number of sites on a regular basis looking for updated articles, this is the site for you. It is a way to grab all those sites, and stick them into an inbox style list that lets you view a synopsis of the articles off a particular site, browse through quickly, marking read items so you know if a new post comes in, and allowing you to keep track of all the sites you like to visit. And no bookmarks! You can be on any machine anywhere and pick this up. It is truly more and more enjoyable as you use it over time and you wonder why someone didn't tell you about it sooner.

Del.icio.us (http://del.icio.us)
I started using this as a bookmark site because I got tired of again, going to a new machine, a new computer, and not having that bookmark. Well no more! With Delicious I can bookmark and go...and at that other computer pull up the same list of bookmarks.
There are a couple really excellent features with this that bookmarks don't offer. It is a site that other use and bookmark their sites, so you get to see how many others are bookmarking the site you bookmark. Second, you can network with others and share bookmarks. Third, you can search on tag words that you setup when you bookmarked a page. Fourth (running out of fingers) you can search on other peoples tag words, helping you find sites that google and other regular search engines really may not help you find as easily.
Digg is a similar site; I just haven't used it yet.

Google Docs (http://docs.google.com)
Store documents online for access anywhere. Word docs, spreadsheets, you name it. Basically comparable to an online microsoft word, google style! Whatever you might want to save here you can; and even share it with others. It is really quite a system and a treat especially since it is free.

Good enough for now; I had a moment and thought I'd do a dendrite dump.

Cheap Medication

2008-03-08T08:01:00.001-08:00

So I spoke with my eye doctor today who is very smart, to ask about conjunctivitis. I'm more posting here for documentation purposes. He said instead of a prescription, given my symptoms, two over the counter options are available to me.

1) Bacitracin
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bacitracin
2) Polysporin (which contains polynixen and bacitrace)
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Neosporin mentions it.

Take 4 times a day for 10 days, or 2 days after symptoms subside.

What an exciting post!

Wireless, Lunar Eclipses, and Anatomy

2008-02-17T06:08:00.001-08:00

I'm so cheap that I'm stealing an email from my friend to post here. It was a good summary of a few things I've been up to.

So I took the eeepc down to my inlaws the last weekend here, and coming back from the topsham hannaford, left it on the dashboard and did wireless scans all the way back to bowdoin. Quite the surprise to see all the wireless systems out there! I think a neat app would be something that combines gps with wireless scanning. It wouldn't be too hard to code an app that put scan in a flat file for uploading to a website that posts where hotspots are. Maybe one already exists! I haven't looked. All I have to do is retire, then I'd have time to play with stuff like this. I don't think my 401k is quite up to snuff yet though :).

Lunar eclipse coming up on Wed if you like to photograph things like that. I have no idea what the weather will do though.
http://science.nasa.gov/headlines/y2008/13feb_lunareclipse.htm

I have tomorrow off, so we'll be redoing the bathroom a bit, oil change, and maybe I'll try buying some pellets from Tibbetts to see how cheap they are.

Also I had to look up leg anatomy the other day. My left calf muscle, near the front just to the right of the large bone (), hurt a little bit. No bruising, but I've been working out and could have pulled something. Not sure on the muscle, but it seems better today. Always interesting to throw in a little anatomy once in awhile though. Wikipedia wasn't bad for it, but I kept searching around for a little more details on pictures.

A new way to blog

2008-02-11T20:25:00.001-08:00

This is my first blog posting a new blog way, via email. I thought this would be easier to keep things up to date, and I don't have to login to the blog site. The latest and greatest is that I just got to see my Uncle Ken, who I haven't seen in almost 9 years. It was great that he came up to visit and we had a great time over at my Dad's with spaghetti.

Currently the kids are still growing like mad. We play some tetris like games lately on the computers against each other. I also get a kick that they really enjoy the gladiator show. They end up picking a favorite from each team and cheering them on.

We went sledding this past weekend at the inlaws. That was also a really good time. The drive down and back were both filled with crazy roads, and cars in the ditch. On the way down, near Waterville, a large tractor trailer was off the road partially jackknifed into the right lane. On the way home, heading north, we passed a gas truck in the median between the two highways. But the sledding was nice and we stayed at Sara's aunts with the two younger ones to lessen the cat hair effects on their allergies.

I'm about to fade off to sleep, but a few last things on the geek side to mention. One, try google reader. I was introduced to it by a friend and it is a great way to keep up on the rss feeds. I call it the ADD(attention deficit disorder) reader, per Greg and my coining of the phrase since you can flip through 100's of articles very quickly. But it really is a great piece of web-ware. And I've started playing this online game called travian, which is a very slow online game similar to CIV. The fact that it is slow is appealing because I don't have a lot of time to commit to any gaming right now. So this game you make about 2 choices per day, and then you've used up your resources and you wait until tomorrow. Not a bad idea for the busy person.

Sundays are blog days

2008-01-27T18:17:00.000-08:00

I'm about to embark on a blog expedition. I've never dug around much in the blogger.com world so I'm going to see what sort of interests others have out there. I'm a sys. admin. so I'll see what sort of good posts there are and maybe start watching some of them on a regular basis. A friend of mine codes a lot and has at least one he likes to read regularly, so maybe I can find one too.

Also it is biggest loser competition at work so good eating, portion control, a good aerobic and anaerobic workout is in the works for me. It has been 3 weeks since I started the regiment and I'm feeling pretty good. Desserts are cut down to weekends, and even those are controlled, which after a week of no desserts and sugar, 3 cookies can seem like an overload. I had an unbelievable amount of coffee today though.

Ah, and a pellet stove now sits in my basement. But uninsulated, I think I'm warming the ground up, so some pink sheet insulation is going in soon. Then less oil burning is in order. In this neck of the woods, less oil is good.

Science Experiments

2007-11-12T18:22:00.000-08:00

I was poking around last night on the computer and found some old Bill Nye and Mr. Wizard videos. We homeschool, so today I worked with the two older kids on magnets. We messed with a little magnet kit, made a compass with a needle and glass of water, and took apart an old harddrive which has a couple heavy magnets in it that controls the mechanical arm that moves across the platters. So my point about Nye and Mr. Wizard is that I found an old clip from Wizard's show that gave a puzzle to cut up a piece of paper with a hole big enough to walk through. They seemed to enjoy that. Back to work tomorrow after a nice 4 day weekend.

Coding Primes and E

2007-11-11T05:29:00.000-08:00

So I've been messing with some javascript code I found to try and calculate a few different things for fun. I turned the code into C and attempted to calculate prime numbers. It is basically a loop that counts up from 1 to whatever you want and finds all the primes between.

The second program was to try and calculate 10 digit primes off e. This didn't work so well. I found that even your long datatypes have limits. There are some libraries out there that let you use bigger numbers (bmp) but I didn't feel like messing with that.

The last program was to calculate e as far as I could take it. First I tried a method I found off the web. Using the formula (1-1/n)^n I tried to write a program to use this and do as far as n was set to a variable. C didn't like using fractions and floats for me. I then changed to another method I read about which was calculating up to a certain set of digits. Using a method like so:
1+1+1/2!+1/3!...1/n!
Where n is a variable set on how deep to calculate it. Setting n lets you calculate e to n-3. As an fyi for review, 1/3! means 1/(1*2*3). So the code has a nested loop to it that helps with calculating this. I'll try and post the code in the comments for any interested.

Ok...trying to post it here since comments get angry with what it thinks is html code.

PRIMES.C

#include stdio.h

int main(){

unsigned long int maxNumber = 999;
int primeFlag = 1;
unsigned long int maxTest;
unsigned long int Test;
unsigned long int i;

for ( i = 100; i <= maxNumber; i++ ){
primeFlag = 1;

maxTest = i / 2;

if ( (i != 2) && (( i % 2 ) == 0 ) ){
primeFlag = 0;
}
Test = 3;
while ( ( Test <= maxTest) && ( primeFlag == 1 ) ) {
if (( i % Test ) == 0 ){
primeFlag = 0;
}
Test = Test + 2;
}
if ( primeFlag == 1 ){
printf ( "%ld, ", i );
}
}
printf ("\n");
}

CALC_E.CPP

#include iostream
#include iomanip

using namespace std;

int main(){

int howdeep = 18;
int i, j;
double frac, denom, my_e;
//double e = (1+1/howdeep)^howdeep; //doesn't work - can't put exponent on it

//cout << "E: " << setiosflags(ios::fixed) << setprecision(5) << e << endl;

for ( i = 2; i <= howdeep; i++ ){
denom = 1;
for ( j = 1; j <= i; j++ ){
denom = j * denom;
//cout << "denom: " << denom << endl;
}
frac = 1 / denom;
my_e = frac + my_e;
}

my_e += 2;

cout << "E: " << setprecision(15) << my_e << endl;
return 0;
}

Bumpa

2007-07-07T09:33:00.000-07:00

I wanted to start documenting some of the things my grandfather has said that were funny, thought provoking, etc. He's just passed away and I thought it appropriate to put these down before they start to slip my memory (as I'm sure numerous stories and sayings already have).

Bumpa-isms
It only bothers you if you let it.
Only boring people are bored.
You didn't eat all your beans? I ate all mine...want me to prove it?

He would visit his sisters who's book shelf had perfectly aligned books. He'd push one in just and not tell her just to bug her.

He told a story about a woman who ordered some fresh cut meat at a store and was in a bad mood. As she left the cashier said have a nice day, and she replied "Don't tell me what to do!"

Diddly say kiddly's?

Throw it under
He asked mom prop a stick under his motor home bed while he was holding up one end. He said throw is under, and she threw the stick under the bed...they laughed for quite awhile about that.

Spliv parking
This is what he called handicap parking.

He'd constantly mess with toll takers on drives through to Florida. Mumbling 'they aren't very friendly are they?' and things of that nature while giving them money and getting change.

He, his father, and uncle, all went to Harvard. He had a masters business degree. He'd alway say "you can tell a Harvard man, but you can't tell him much."

An interview while fresh out of college was for a sales job. While interviewing the owner walked in and while holding his suspenders asked a few questions. Bumpa didn't know he was the owner, but the owner thought he'd be best for marketing. He doesn't want to be in marketing. The owner wants the man interviewing to call downtown and setup an interview with the marketing director. The interviewer does, and the owner walks out. Bumpa turns to the man and says well this is a fine mess you've gotten me into. What am I going to do now? The man hands him a book the marketing director wrote. He says, here, read this and say it back to the marketer...he'll eat it up. So Bumpa does read it while on the midnight train and spews it all back to the marketing director. He gets the job.

He introduced me to frozen peas and cayenne pepper.

Preferred two ply.

When driving the motor home he would enlist the passenger to his right to say 'yes yes yes yes' or 'no no no no' to tell him when the traffic to the right was clear when turning left.

He didn't like the blinking colon between the hour and minutes on his indash motorhome digital clock, so he put a piece of black electrical tape over it.

He'd like to teach about not being able to speak with someone when concentrating on driving. He'd explain this very throughly so as to make sure you didn't misunderstand why he wasn't able to look at you while driving.

Was a sailor in World War II, a navigator no less. Later in life, trying to teach a kid about how to find the N. Star, and ended up pointing at the wrong one.

In numerous drives to Florida with his motor home he had all kinds of stories to tell. One I remember is: Bumpa will leave on time as necessary. He'd bring people down to FL, sometimes some high schooler that was working for him. So one time it was time to leave. The kid that said he was coming wasn't there, so Bumpa started down the road. The mom caught up on the highway with the kid and flagged him down to pull over. He did, and the kid ended up making the trip after all.