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Looks like YouTube might actually be useful at something in the end ...

When I was young undergraduate math student I often wished that one day technology would allow me to project outside myself some kind of holographic animations of what I had in mind. A bit like creating the below video, store them and show them to students, not by spending ages playing around with computer animation softwares but just by thinking of them. Additionally, being able to do this interactively, as student are asking questions, would have been priceless for the student themselves, but also an endless source of pleasure for the teacher...

As I have a very geometrical mind, this could have been used, few years later, not only when I was tutoring in topology, but also while teaching most of algebra.

"...some birds aren't meant to be caged. Their feathers are just too bright and when they fly away, the part of you that knows it was a sin to lock them up..." quote from The Shawshank Redemption, my favourite movie ever. I saw this movie again this evening (it might be the 10 times for me watching this movie) and I still couldn't help crying.

I read a quite interesting article in Stylist Magazine (Issue 14) this evening. It talked about Stacy Smedley, a woman 29 years old who is a child of a sperm donor and she found his siblings (half-brother) via donorsiblingregistry.com. This website was created in September 2000 by a mother whose donor-conceived son had curiosity about his genetic origins. This website helps to connect children who share the same sperm or egg donor. The website works by collecting donor children's names and donor codes, then searches for sibling matches.

Stacy has a very happy childhood, she admired her mother be brave enough to have a sperm donor baby 29 years ago and happy to have a good grandfather as a father figure role for her when she was young. However, she was always curious about her genetic origin. When she found that website, she registered and eventually got contact with her half-brother. They started to exchange emails and then met. She said "It was overwhelming to be faced with a stranger who had all these traits in common with me. We spent hours comparing everything down to our big toes." What even surprised her is that she is going to meet her donor father as well.

At the end of the article, Stacy said "Finding Christopher (her half-brother) has answered so many questions about my identity. Meeting my father will be the final piece of the puzzle".

This evening I played Sudoku for the first time (I had to look up Wikipedia to learn the rules, because I really didn't have a clue of what it was), and then I decided to write a program to solve it. One hour and half later (between 11pm and 0.30am) it was done...

... but then, maybe I should start the story from the beginning.

Two months ago I was sitting next to Aubrey when I saw her playing a game called Unblock Me, by KiraGames. The principle is somehow simple, you need to slide the pieces horizontally or vertically in order to unblock the red one.

I didn't have any intention to actually play this game, but decided to write a program to solve it. I draw the picture I saw on her screen and started coding.





What really motivated me wasn't the fact that it is a difficult problem (in fact it's not), but the fact that I have always been interested in game analysis without having had any opportunity to write programs in this area, so I thought that for my own education, I might as well spend some time on it.

The program takes a description of the initial board in input (using of course my own conventions)

h2,2,3,1
v3,4,2,0
v3,5,2,0
h2,1,4,0
v2,3,4,0
v2,2,5,0
h2,3,6,0

and outputs the solution (the sequence of moves to free up the red one)





The initial implementation was done in PHP and worked perfectly (of course). Few days later I decided to re-implement the entire thing in Objective-C, also as a command line utility. The two implementations follow the same logic (building an increasingly big tree of possibilities) and outputs the exact same answer, but are not of identical implementation, there is a slight difference in the way the children of a given node are computed in the Objective-C implementation (this said, the two trees are the same in the end).

The surprising thing is that Objective-C, despite of being compiled, didn't do as much better than PHP as I had anticipated. Objective C is only just about twice faster than PHP on the above board. PHP took 6.39 seconds, while the Objective-C implementation took 3.45 seconds. (This result seems to be quite a constant, from very easy to more complex boards).


Anyway, coming back to tonight, I came across the following: Oracle RDBMS 11gR2 – Solving a Sudoku using Recursive Subquery Factoring which I found was genius, but I also realised that I didn't know how to play Sudoku. Quick online search and I found Web Sudoku. The first game was the following





Which has given birth to the following program: http://pastebin.com/f37fe848a (I embedded the board in the code, so not to have to read it for an external file -- and don't pay attention to nslog, it's one of my standard functions, I use it for debugging) and the following solution





So now, given how easy it was to write a program to solve that thing, I don't understand all the fuzz about Sudoku. People should learn, say, Chess (or even better, Go). Just to make my life a bit more complicated :-)

Background information: few weeks ago I wrote a script to be able to set Aubrey's wallpaper from my own laptop. In effect to be able to set her wallpaper from Amsterdam while she is in London (the process uses our web server as data broker, so the communication between the two computers is totally asynchronous). Then, of course, I attached it to a cron job to do it every so often, so I don't need to remember to do it...

The below just happened by email

[Aubrey] when I opened my laptop, I could not see the wallpaper you sent me but only a blue colour background. Why?

[Pascal] Go to system preferences and change the refresh time from 5 minutes to 15 minutes. and tell me if you got the new picture.

[Aubrey] yes, after changed the time from 5 to 15 mins, I have got the wallpaper.

[Pascal] Ok so for your information the problem had nothing to do with the time, it was something different but I knew that changing the time would do the other thing I wanted.

[Aubrey] but why it happened?

[Pascal] Bug in OSX, nothing to do with me.

[Aubrey] "bug" is not something unique to microsoft? oh my god!

[Pascal] Well, there are few in OSX, even though you need to work a bit to find them... :-)

I dumped into the following last night

How Pleiades came to Life ?

I had forgotten that I had the original version of the text in the Pleiades documentation... (which is still due to go online, I will do that soon...)

This text is an email I sent to some colleagues at Standard Bank on August 2009 about the birth of Pleiades (which had happened one year before, in 2008, the same year I started coding in JavaScript), I was basically answering an answer from a grad student. The original text had the code samples pasted in the text itself, I have just replaced them by screenshots, for added sexiness. This email was, ironically, sent two days before I resigned from the company (at the time I wrote it I didn't know yet that I would). I don't know if Pleiades is still used over there, even though I think it must because all the client side logic of Hypercube was based on this runtime.

.. thinking of it, nobody, beside Aubrey and the business users at the Bank has seen the late Hypercube logo. It features a part of the star cluster. I came up with this new logo after having recoded all the UI (client side) above Pleiades/CoreImage...

In this moment I have a very quite and calm life which is almost entirely dedicated to study.

Note that even though I live in Amsterdam which is at GTM+1, I live on GMT-7 or GMT-12 (depending on the parity of the week). So all the below has to be shifted from what "morning", "afternoon" and "evening" means for you... (above all if you live in Europe).

When I wake up in the morning, I spend some time (from 30 mins to a couple of hours), coding and reading some news (mainly an impressive collection of weblogs), then I go to work (by tram or taxi), where I start studying (sometimes I make a phone call first to have some food delivered). I am quasi alone in the office, without much distraction, so the setting is perfect to concentrate on something. I usually study five or six hours straight before starting to feel hungry, at which point I can only carry on coding. Then I call a taxi, arrive home, cook, read some more news, feel too tired to code but do it anyway, and then fall asleep, from which point I will sleep for about 10 or 11 hours.

The best part of all this, in spite of all the exciting things I am learning and building in this moment (some advanced mathematics, finance and various software engineering projects), has to be arguing with the taxi driver on the best (shortest/cheapest) way to travel between my flat and the office. That part is priceless :-)

But the sad part, is that maybe one of the reasons I like it, is that it's the only moment of my days when I actually talk to somebody. This said, I cannot afford right now to go out and make some new friends, the studies I am undergoing are way to important for me. It's like I am a PhD student again, but sadly without the PhD mates and my students.

http://www.sp-studio.de/

Today was my first yoga lesson. When I did warm up exercises and practiced basic movements, I could hear my bones making "breaking" noise. When Lisa my tutor asked me to close my eyes, feel my breath and my body, I almost fell asleep. Yes, I was standing when I almost fell asleep. Was I too tired or too relaxed? I have no idea.

Lisa told us the first thing in practising yoga is to find your centre and keep the balance. Feel your body! It was not very easy for me to keep the balance and I failed to do some postures. I discovered that yoga has something like Taichi, we are encouraged to feel "something" from inside. Lisa did mention that yoga is different from other sports/exercises. It is something from inside to outside and other sports/exercises are more from outside to inside. I am not sure whether it is 'qi' (in Taichi) but will discover more in the future.

Anyway, it was very enjoyable experience!

The funny thing is that my current Lucille (.v5) is nicknamed alexandra, and I feel the same about her (^.^)

I would like to see the movie "Confucius" for three reasons:

1. I can't image that someone can make a movie of Confucius. Just like I can't image that I can watch a movie of Descartes or Aristotle in Cineworld (except a 3D or CG version). This movie may be something once in a blue moon though I think this movie could be a bit boring.

2. I want to see how Chow Yun Fat plays the role of Confucius. Chow was one of my idols when I was young. I like his charm and style especially when he played the role of Hong Kong cop.

3. In today's society, who cares about Confucianism? Who cares about respecting others? Who cares about other people's happiness? We may really respect and care of someone whom we are dating with or we love. However, do we really respect and care of other people? I suspect that how many people (even Chinese people) know about the ideas of 仁 (Benevolence/humanity/goodness), 義 (Righteousness), 禮 (Ritual), 智 (Wisdom), 信 (Honesty). Some ideas of confucianism (e.g. absolute loyalty to your country, parents...) are reasonably criticised but please don't underestimate something good of Confucianism.

I have ever read an article saying that Chinese government would like to promote Confucianism in China because of the breakdown of moral values in today's Chinese society (Chinese Communist government destroyed everything during Cultural Revolution). I am not sure whether they have hidden agenda but the important thing is how they promote or interpret the traditional values. I think different people could see different things and obviously we need wisdom and maturity to understand the true meanings.

Maybe you would like to read some quotes: "Keep what you say and carry out what you do." "What you do not want done to oneself, do not do to others." "Everything has its beauty but not everyone sees it."

Reposted from Craiglist's missed connections [original link has been lost, author is unknown]


Date: 2010-01-12, 11:55AM MST

So a couple of weeks ago a put up a post regarding the etiquette of intersexual drink-buying at bars. Lo and behold, this past weekend a friend of mine got burned at the tav by falling for the exact trap that my post warned against. Accordingly, I felt compelled to repost for the benefit of all the beautiful women in Salt Lake who don’t want to scroll all the way down to find the original post. This may be redundant, but I cannot in good conscience let this phenomenon go overlooked. So here it is again: Why I didn’t Buy You a Drink.
You: Cute girl at the bar. Me: The guy you chatted with while waiting for our drinks. The Topic: Why I didn’t buy you a drink. The Audience: Women everywhere, please read this. I know it’s long, but I feel the length is expedient to truly illustrating and arguing my point.

I was waiting to order right as things were getting crazy. It was obvious that it would be a long wait. What can I say? I can’t compete with all the douches yelling for jager bombs. It was then that you appeared. A cute, petite, slightly hipster-ish girl standing next to me, waiting to order as well. The conversation began in the typical manner, simply relating on how frustrating it is when you spend half a night out just waiting for a drink. It then evolved into a true conversation. I spent the next twenty minutes finding out you have great taste in music, movies and literature. You laughed at my jokes, and that’s a big deal to average-looking guys like me. Unfortunately, after we’d both finished our respective drinks, but were still immersed in discussion, you dropped a bomb that sent shrapnel into my heart.

"So are you gonna buy me a drink or what?"

I had been dreading this moment. I’ve learned from hard experience that any prolonged conversation with a girl at a club or a bar inevitably requires a fee of rum and coke, vodka tonic, or God forbid, a cosmo. As cute as you were, I felt obligated to retain my self-respect.

"Sorry, I don’t buy girls drinks. Just kind of my policy."

You looked at me like I told you I was going to rape your dog Charlie (yes, I remember his name). Your face morphed from a beautiful smile into a twisted caricature of shock, revulsion, and utter disbelief.

"Seriously, you’re not gonna buy me a drink? What’s your problem?"

Well sweetheart, let me explain to you in detail my logic regarding this decision that you found so unbelievable:

1. I’ve been going to bars for a couple of years now. I enjoy meeting people when I do. I enjoy meeting attractive girls like yourself. I have, however, learned that buying girls drinks is a sucker’s game. Yes, it has developed into sharing my bed for the night a couple times, but 90% of the time, all it does is give me a higher bar tab. Now you might say I’m a prick for expecting a girl to sleep with me just because I buy her a drink. I agree an $8 cocktail does not and should not equal a sexual encounter. However, I believe spending time and money on a girl when I could be having a good night out with my friends does entitle me at least one of the following things: You reciprocating by buying me a drink, you giving me your phone number and/or going out on a date with me, where once again I will be spending time and money on you. Notice that sex is not a requirement or expectation that is coupled with any of these options. Now, of course, if I had offered to buy you a drink, and you accepted, you are not obligated to any of these things. The big distinction here is that you asked me to buy you a drink, and were shocked that I wouldn’t do so. This brings me to my second point.

2. You know exactly what you’re doing. You’re an attractive girl, and when you go out there is no shortage of guys offering to buy you drinks. You know that they are all doing so with the hope that it will lead to sex with you. You know that it’s not going to happen, but you will accept the free drinks anyway. I don’t hold this against you. If they’re dumb enough to think that buying you a drink is the key to your heart and that they are somehow different from the other Ed Hardy-wearing frat-bros then it’s their own damn fault. You’re using your god-given assets to get free alcohol, nothing wrong with that. But it is precisely because I know that you do this that I will not be another douche who thinks he can get into your pants with a mixed drink. It’s insulting to my dignity as a man and your honor as a woman. I noticed you when you first walked in. I saw you dancing with that hopeless collar-popper. I saw him go to the bar and bring a drink back to you on the dancefloor. I saw how the second the glass was in your hand, you gave him the "Thanks for the drink, it was really nice meeting you" treatment complete with the obligatory pat on the chest. I saw the pathetic, defeated look on his face as you walked away. He will enter the next round of bar hopping a little wiser I hope.

3. You took my unwillingness to fall into such a trap as an insult. You accused me of being stuck-up. You then said that I had a chance at fucking you, but that I’d ruined it by being an asshole. What exactly are you trying to tell me? That the asinine idea that getting a girl a drink will get you in her pants is actually true? That your decision of whether or not to sleep with a guy is based on him liquoring you up? We had a good conversation, and maybe you were actually interested in me. But the fact that any rapport we built was destroyed when I wouldn’t buy you a gin and tonic means that I am no longer interested in you. Not all guys are desperate sperm donors. Some of us actually value a good conversation, and we value girls who have enough respect for themselves that they don’t view sex as a transaction.

4. We established during our conversation that we are both broke-ass fine arts students. Why then would you expect that I, someone who shares your financial woes, would want to spend money on you, a girl I just met? I don’t believe that chivalry is dead. I’ll hold a door for you, I’ll pull out your chair or take your coat. I’ll help you change a flat tire, carry you over deep puddles, figure out the remote, reset your modem. I’ll even help you move when I know you a little better. Why? Because I’m a gentleman. I will not, however, buy you a drink under the pretense that it is what a gentleman does, because I simply cannot afford it. If you want a guy who can afford to buy you whatever you want, find a fifty year-old sugar daddy. There was no shortage of potentials at the bar the other night.

I hope this illustrated my thought-process clearly enough. I hope you realize that you seemed amazing at first, and that declining to buy you a drink was in no way an insult. Your reaction, however, revealed the self-entitled, game-playing she-devil that was lurking underneath. I thank god for the out that he provided at that moment though. Just after you finished your little rant on what I dick I was for not boozing you up, a group of girls emerged at the bar right behind you. Two of these girls were thin and pretty. They immediately got the attention of some bros and had free drinks within minutes. The third girl was overweight and out of place. She had clearly spent a great deal of time and effort on her appearance, but alas, she was once again forsaken by her prettier friends and left to stand by herself, looking miserable. Luckily, I know when the universe has given me a profound gift. There were two incredible moments that filled me with an elation that could not be rivaled by the orgasm I would have had while fucking you. The first was the sincere, excited smile that the chubby girl gave me when I moved past you and asked what she wanted to drink. The second was turning back and seeing the look of horror on your face. You pathetic "have fun with the fatty" remark as you walked away was priceless. I may be broke, but I was willing to go into the red to make this girl’s night and to piss you off. I’m sure as soon as you left you got plenty of free drinks and plenty of idiots drooling over you. I just hope that I got under your skin enough to prevent any enjoyment of those things.

I had a great night. I introduced the big girl to an open-minded friend, and as I write this they are across the hall having loud sex. Normally going to bed alone, subjected to the sounds of raucous lovemaking across the hall would be a serious downer. But tonight, as I crawl into my lonely bed, I will go to sleep comforted by the fact that I have retained my self-respect. Having encountered more than a few spoiled bimbos, I infer that sex with you would have consisted of you lying on your back expecting me to be so grateful that I’m seeing your "hot" naked bod makes up for the fact that you are putting absolutely no effort into this sexual experience. This may just be me trying to justify going to bed alone tonight, but hey, what can you do?

The moral: Ladies, accept drinks if they are offered. Do not expect them. And if you’re feeling particularly wild on a given night, offer to buy the guy a drink. He will be instantly smitten.

Not long ago, I came across some random show on Animals TV (or maybe the Discovery channel, I don't really remember, anyway, one of those...). The show was about the journey of a young (female) biologist who were looking for specimens of a previously thought extinct sub-species of alligator, called the Nil crocodile. Her journey brought her across Kenya and Egypt.

I wasn't so much interested in the crocodiles than in the fact that, when I started watching, she was talking to some locals and they were telling her that the place she was standing is filled with crocodiles during the flood, and that maybe the sub-species she was looking for would be among them. Unfortunately it was the dry season she she could only see dry land and sand around her.

She asked the first most obvious question I would ask to them: "Right, fair enough, but then where are they right now ? Where do they hide during the dry season ?". The locals replied that the crocodiles were hiding "in the trees", with that stupid look on their faces which let you guess that they have been telling themselves the same story over and all over again during the past few thousands years, and that she would have to believe them on faith. The funny thing is that there wasn't many trees around, all of them without leaves, and it was enough to just look at them to see that there wasn't any crocodiles hiding there, but apparently this little detail didn't seem to bother the locals who maintained they explanation.

Fortunately our young biologist decided not to believe in those fairy tales (not only because her research paper would not be published with such a fantasist ending, I think she also had that thing called "scientific mind") and started to think. If those crocodiles where still alive (if the sub-species had not gone instinct), then they must be hiding somewhere during the dry season. Why not in the ground ? We have never seen crocodiles digging around, but the ground was definitively the only place they could ever be (unless of course if they migrate, but let us not explore that other hypothesis now, and just stay on the ground thing...).

So our biologist started to look around, she looked, she looked, and after a while bumped into what looked like a very dark, dangerous looking, hole in the ground. Something looking like the entrance of a cavern. She lied on the ground, put her head inside but could not see anything. If that hole was going anywhere, it was some kind of a long tunnel.

At that point she had a nice idea. She managed to buy some kind of remote controlled moving toy and strapped on the top of it a camera with a wireless connection to her laptop. She double checked everything and started driving Hole1Explorer inside the ground, with the locals behind her attentively looking at the screen, and wondering what the hell she was hoping discover in that place.

Of course she found the crocodiles.

Now, what really interests me, is what must have happened in the mind of the locals at that very moment. The moment where a pure, plain, bold, unencrypted evidence lands on some previous strange looking beliefs you had.

Additionally I would like to know whether the locals are going to tell the same stupid, tree related, story to their children, or if they are going to tell them "well, until recently we thought that the crocodiles hid in the trees during the dry season (because this is what we were told by our parents before -- but now thinking of it, that was pretty silly actually), but that biologist came up and we saw with our own eyes that in fact they just hide in the ground".




I wonder whether I will still be alive when science will bring an absolute definite proof of Evolution. I want to be there to see the face of those stupid religious believers. This said, I guess they will do just as they did last time [Galileo affair, wikipedia.com], just take 400 years to admit their mistake.

I like perfume and it all started when I was a little girl. My mother showed me a French perfume which brought by my dad when he was working in Tahiti. I did not think that it smelled very good but I felt something magically about perfume.

When I grew up, I have tried different kind of perfume including Chanel No.5, No.19, Miss Dior, Christian Dior Jadore, Christian Dior Hypnotic Posion, Kenzo Flower, Davidoff Cool Water, Prescriptives Calyx, Estee Lauder Pleasure, CK Eternity....

I don't always stick to one specific perfume, I always buy another brand when I finish a bottle or use two different brands and switch them from time to time. It is because I like trying new perfume and want to know how this new perfume will react with my body smell. Another reason is that when you always use the same one, you will get used to it and really can't smell it from your own body. It will be a shame to lose the enjoyment of smelling the perfume on your own body. My current perfume is Miss Dior.

I like few things about perfume: smell, name and advert. I like the advert of Chanel No.5 (Nichole Kidman) but not the new one (Audrey Tautou) expect I like Audrey dressing in black at the end. The advert of Keira Knightley for Coco Mademoiselle is also very nice.

I am currently in the train between Amsterdam and Paris (where I am due to spend the week end with a friend), browsing the web using the wifi network that the Thalys first class have access to. I was surprised that nobody seems to care about checking my passport but I realised that today is the very first time that I travel cross countries in Europe by train (usually I take the plane). So then this is what they actually mean by the Schengen Agreement.

Thinking of it, I now understand why they check it when I travel by plane, that's because Airport's boarding areas are international territories (technically outside the EU). Interesting....

Incidentally people do check my passport when I enter into the UK (either by plane or using the Eurostar) but during my recent commutes between Amsterdam and London, I noticed that my passport is not checked when I leave the UK. I eventually became so surprised by this, above all after the recent problem at Schiphol airport (after which I thought security measures would be tightened), that few days ago, when I was travelling from London to Amsterdam, I actually came to a security officer at Gatwick airport and asked her why wasn't my passport checked, as if (as I pointed out) the UK border agency doesn't actually care who leaves the country. She said that they were in charge of Security (like checking my bag for illegal items) but not passport control.

More on security, nobody checked my bag or luggage for illegal items of even explosives when I took the train today (they perform this checking when you take the Eurostar between Paris and London). I had not really realised before how easy it is then to carry lots sort of funky things within the EU :-)

So I guess that the slogan "Libre circulation des biens, des personnes, des capitaux et des services" actually means something, but I am still looking for a freaking way to move money between my bank accounts; a way which doesn't require me carrying bags full of cash.

Saw avatar. Twice. The first time in 3D without glasses (because the batterie powered, microchip controlled, hight tech design 3D vision pair of glasses that I had wasn't working -- but this wasn't at all a problem as very few scenes are actually in 3D), and the second time in 3D with glasses.

Let me take this opportunity to get something out of the way: Movie directors, please, please, please, stop annoying everybody with that 3D shit. It doesn't work! It doesn't make your movie any better to show it to us in 3D. If you want to impress us, why not coming up with a... you know... that think called "story".

... and while being at it, Papyrus font, really James ? Didn't any of your design assistants learn anything at school ? You spent half a billion dollars on that movie, hired botanists to help you name the plants, and linguists to invent an entire new language from scratch and all you could come up with for the subtitles was that very piece of design shit ?! This is something for you: An Open Letter to James Cameron From Papyrus.


I actually remember the very first time, a long time ago, when I discovered that someone, and not anybody but James Cameron himself, was about to make a movie called Avatar. I don't know why but I then immediately thought "Yes! Finally someone is going to address the little problem of MMORPG immersion". Problem that I tasted once when I was spending more time playing World of Warcraft than talking to Aubrey.

I love Avatar for, at least, one single reason: everything is blue (this movie is more blue than The Matrix was green). I haven't read a lot about the various reviews (I found them quite bad to start with) which popped up all over the internet after the movie release, but all those I have read say, more or less, than Avatar is Cameron's statement about Imperialism and Biodiversity. Bullshit. One thing for sure, Avatar is nothing else than a perfectly mastered hybrid between The Matrix, Dance with Wolves, a tiny bit of The Last Samurai, but most importantly Pocahontas. The movie should have been called "Pocahontas in Space". All this, on an amazingly beautiful Alien world, which is so perfectly thought of, and rendered, that every single supporter of Intelligence Design will be masturbating at night in front of the DVD release.
.. but this is beside the point.

Avatar, if any, reminds me the following TED talk.





An this is why in the end I think that Cameron missed an opportunity. He missed the opportunity of actually talking about an interesting subject: Avatars.

On my continuous quest towards personal freedom and liberty, I have just made my unique 2010 new year resolution: quit Facebook. I have deactivated my account and should not be back for a while. In fact, the only reason I would ever come back, is if one day I made it to the top and people can become fan of me :-)

Now that I have quit stalking random people, I should have time to do better things. ... for instance, there is that address book where I keep the phone number of my (real) friends. Might be a good time to call them.