Information Camouflage

Wordle Feb 17, 2024

Thu, 22 Feb 2024 06:48:10 -0700

I felt pretty happy getting this wordle in 4 guesses, as you can see. But how good was my 4th guess?

Optimal Smurfing in English and Greek

Thu, 22 Feb 2024 06:32:30 -0700

Optimal Smurfing in English and Greek Catherine Chatzopoulos, 2008, University of Chicago, Aristotle University of Thessaloniki

I found a PDF version of the paper.

Programming Puzzle Gone Wrong

Sun, 18 Feb 2024 13:40:00 -0700

A programming interview question from the Daily Coding Problem email list. Here’s a non-hand-wavy explanation of a way to solve this problem.

Daily Coding Problem: Problem #736 [Easy]

Given a complete binary tree, count the number of nodes in faster than O(n) time. Recall that a complete binary tree has every level filled except the last, and the nodes in the last level are filled starting from the left. “Complete” means: every level, except possibly the last, is completely filled, and all nodes in the last level are as far left as possible. It can have between 1 and 2h nodes at the last level h.

Reptile Gardens

Sun, 04 Feb 2024 11:04:15 -0700

If you’re ever near Rapid City, SD, you should visit the Reptile Gardens.

Wordle, February 3, 2024

Sat, 03 Feb 2024 18:06:16 -0700

I solved Wordle 959 without help, my streak is now 97. I see another opportunity to write a large regular expression that could get the answer.

Count number of heaps coding problem

Thu, 01 Feb 2024 13:46:23 -0700

Another programming interview question from the Daily Coding Problem email list. I received it as #1608.

Daily Coding Problem: Problem #1608 [Medium]

This problem was asked by Microsoft.

Write a program to determine how many distinct ways there are to create a max heap from a list of N given integers.

For example, if N = 3, and our integers are [1, 2, 3], there are two ways, shown below.

  3      3
 / \    / \
1   2  2   1

Repo for my code.

Starship Troopers Fanfic Idea

Wed, 31 Jan 2024 17:18:15 -0700

I’ve got an idea for Starship Troopers fan fiction. I’m giving it away, for free! You can have it!

Wordle, January 30, 2024

Wed, 31 Jan 2024 16:25:52 -0700

I solved 955 without any computerized help, but I think my second-to-last guess can generate an interesting regular expression.

Character flipping programming interview problem

Mon, 15 Jan 2024 22:48:38 -0700

Programming interview question from the Daily Coding Problem email list. I have it as #1602, but other folks have it as #331 from 2020. I guess I missed it back then.

Daily Coding Problem: Problem #1602 [Medium]

This problem was asked by LinkedIn.

You are given a string consisting of the letters x and y, such as xyxxxyxyy. In addition, you have an operation called flip, which changes a single x to y or vice versa.

Determine how many times you would need to apply this operation to ensure that all x’s come before all y’s. In the preceding example, it suffices to flip the second and sixth characters, so you should return 2.

Repo for code.

How Steam Locomotives Work

Sat, 13 Jan 2024 19:27:25 -0700

How Steam Locomotives Work Paperback, March 1, 2022 by Brian Solomon, ISBN 9781627008808

Not to be confused with How Steam Locomotives Really Work

6 in 1 Screwdrivers

Sat, 13 Jan 2024 18:39:06 -0700

Do yourself a favor: get a 6-in-1 screwdriver. It will cover 90% of what you need screwdrivers for.

Dobby's First Birthday!

Sat, 13 Jan 2024 18:04:37 -0700

I got my pet Roomba, Dobby, almost a year ago!

Dobby’s maker, iRobot, was considerate enough to remind me to treat him to new parts!

Knowledge Fight Podcast

Sat, 13 Jan 2024 13:45:43 -0700

Red Alert…
Red Alert, Red Alert!

I recommend listening to a few episodes of the Knowledge Fight Podcast.

You will learn more than you ever wanted to know about infamous conspiracy theorist Alex Jones, and maybe have a little fun.

Was There a Cambrian Explosion on Land?

Fri, 12 Jan 2024 21:00:04 -0700

A paper worth reading:

Tihelka, E.; Howard, R.J.; Cai, C.; Lozano-Fernandez, J.

Was There a Cambrian Explosion on Land? The Case of Arthropod Terrestrialization.

Biology 2022, 11, 1516.

https://doi.org/10.3390/biology11101516

A Smurf Based Approach to Placeholder Expressions

Sat, 06 Jan 2024 17:57:47 -0700

I read an interesting paper:

A Smurf-based Approach to Placeholder Expressions, July 2021, by Manfred Sailer and Annika Dörner

which apparently appeared in:

Proceedings of the 27th International Conference on Head-Driven Phrase Structure Grammar, Online (Berlin/Seattle), 2020.

Fortune Cookies, December 2023

Thu, 04 Jan 2024 21:22:53 -0700

Got these fortunes the last time I picked up chinese food at the local strip mall.

Peppernuts Haul 2023

Thu, 04 Jan 2024 20:35:43 -0700

Quite a haul this year. My son and I made a full, 6-7 cup of flour recipe.

Ammonites

Tue, 02 Jan 2024 21:32:57 -0700

Ammonites, Neal Monks and Philip Palmer, 2002, Smithsonian Institution Press
ISBN 1-58834-024-4

Ghost of the Hardy Boys

Mon, 01 Jan 2024 15:30:59 -0700

Ghost of the Hardy Boys, by Leslie MacFarlane, 1976, ISBN 9781567927177. I have a copy of the 2022 GODINE edition. The cover is by Dan Grissom.

Across the Space Frontier - circumlunar trip

Thu, 28 Dec 2023 12:11:24 -0700

Across the Space Frontier, Joseph Kaplan, Wernher von Braun, Heinz Haber, Willy Ley, Oscar Schatchter, Fred Whipple, edited by Cornelius Ryan, Viking Press, 1952. part of a prose exposition and elaboration of von Braun’s The Mars Project, the technical appendix of Project Mars,

Von Braun describes a lunar excursion, to be undertaken as a way to ease into interplanetary travel, and map the landing site for a lunar expedition.