Sunday, April 29, 2007
From Wikipedia
'... there is as yet no research that has determined the percentage of people who are actually laughing out loud when they write "LOL".'
Monday, April 16, 2007
I am a Camera
"Madison Van Duyne said she and her classmates in a media writing class were on 'lockdown' in their classrooms. They were huddled in the middle of the classroom, writing stories about the shootings and posting them online."
-- from the CNN page about the Virginia Tech shootings
-- from the CNN page about the Virginia Tech shootings
Monday, April 9, 2007
My Friend Flickr
Set up a little page here. But what you should really do is click right through to billygoat's page and check out the hot poodle.
Sunday, April 8, 2007
Opening Day, 1910
"TAFT TOSSES BALL," announced The Washington Post. "Crowd Cheers President's Fine Delivery of the Sphere."
Saturday, April 7, 2007
In My Next Life
This guy sounds like fun -- he runs a "4x4 cafe" in Victoria Falls. I don't remember the surfing route that got me here -- something about Zimbabwe.
Friday, April 6, 2007
Thursday, April 5, 2007
Renard Numbers
I don't yet quite understand the logic behind this (why is the error minimized, exactly?), but I really like seeing the reasoning behind the standard:
"Renard's system of preferred numbers divides the interval from 1 to 10 into 5, 10, 20, or 40 steps. The factor between two consecutive numbers in a Renard series is constant (before rounding), namely the 5th, 10th, 20th, or 40th root of 10 (1.58, 1.26, 1.12, and 1.06, respectively), which leads to a geometric sequence. This way, the maximum relative error is minimized if an arbitrary number is replaced by the nearest Renard number multiplied by the appropriate power of 10.
The most basic R5 series consists of these five rounded numbers:
R5: 1.00 1.60 2.50 4.00 6.30
Example: If our design constraints tell us that the two screws in our gadget can be spaced anywhere between 32 mm and 55 mm apart, we make it 40 mm, because 4 is in the R5 series of preferred numbers.
Example: If you want to produce a set of nails with lengths between roughly 15 and 300 mm, then the application of the R5 series would lead to a product repertoire of 16 mm, 25 mm, 40 mm, 63 mm, 100 mm, 160 mm, and 250 mm long nails."
From this wikipedia entry.
"Renard's system of preferred numbers divides the interval from 1 to 10 into 5, 10, 20, or 40 steps. The factor between two consecutive numbers in a Renard series is constant (before rounding), namely the 5th, 10th, 20th, or 40th root of 10 (1.58, 1.26, 1.12, and 1.06, respectively), which leads to a geometric sequence. This way, the maximum relative error is minimized if an arbitrary number is replaced by the nearest Renard number multiplied by the appropriate power of 10.
The most basic R5 series consists of these five rounded numbers:
R5: 1.00 1.60 2.50 4.00 6.30
Example: If our design constraints tell us that the two screws in our gadget can be spaced anywhere between 32 mm and 55 mm apart, we make it 40 mm, because 4 is in the R5 series of preferred numbers.
Example: If you want to produce a set of nails with lengths between roughly 15 and 300 mm, then the application of the R5 series would lead to a product repertoire of 16 mm, 25 mm, 40 mm, 63 mm, 100 mm, 160 mm, and 250 mm long nails."
From this wikipedia entry.
Tuesday, April 3, 2007
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