CharmingGeek.net Funness

I’m off to Bog’s hitching ceremony tomorrow, so that means lots of ironing tonight. Ironing shirts is hard. It’s the pleats in the sleaves that really get me. Hooray for easy-care sateen.
In other news, it’s Brad’s immune system:1; Disgusting virus with aspirations for destroying humankind:0.

After reading an article on the planet’s population reaching 6.5 billion this Saturday, when I started getting sick yesterday, I was sure that nature was culling the overpopulated human race, starting with me. Unfortunately for you population control advocates out there, I think I’ll survive. Thank you so much, Rachel, for being my angel and bringing me a little get-well kit.
My goal for today is to eat something, so I’ll be feasting on Ritz crackers and Sprite, then maybe some soup tonight if I can lift a spoon. I actually walked down to the bottom floor and back up to my room this morning without getting winded. Still, I feel like I’ve been hit by a slow moving yet persistent truck. Most bothersome is my right wrist. It’s terribly sore, and I’m going to say that’s because of the pain-killer / sleep-aid I took last night. Although it did allow me to get some sleep, it also made me completely unaware of the awkward position my arm was in.
Well, if you need me, I’ll be right here.

With Answers from the Shoeblogger published daily in the Express, I may actually learn something about fashionable shoes. Well, more about fashionable shoes.

“Manolo says, the Manolo he personally knows many of the brianiac scientists, and he would have to say that sartorially they are the sorry lot, perhaps second only to the mechanical engineers and the German fashion designers in terms of fashion faux pas per minute.”

You should go ahead and bookmark Monolo’s Shoe Blog.

And now for something completely different.
Scampi! Check out this flash animation about SUBVERSIVE ESPIONAGE going on right under your nose.
This video is from weebls-stuff. But that site is overwhelmingly scary. Don’t go there.

You know, working on that Sudoku solver has really helped me when I’m solving these things by hand. Working out the algorithms for solving these puzzles has made more more meticulous when I’m doing it on paper. Not only does that keep me from making mistakes, but it keeps me from overlooking possible solutions. I also discovered a few new tricks while writing the solver. I’m still working on jsudoku solver 3, because what I’ve got is still kinda ugly and slow. But I actually like that it doesn’t solve instantaneously. It’s fun watching the numbers populate in the order that they’re solved. In case you didn’t notice, part of my algorithm involves making guesses when there’s not an obvious solution. After guessing one number, the solver will try to solve from there. If it runs into a problem, it’ll back out and try again. That’s my favorite part!
Anyhow, solving by hand.
People have different methods for solving. Personally, I have a male brain. This means I can only think about one thing at a time, so if I don’t write down every step in the solution, i get distracted by …oh, look, something pretty!
Where was I? Oh yeah. So I use the “grid of dots” method. I just made up that term. It’s like this: I imagine each unsolved box in the Sudoku is a 3×3 grid. The top row represents 1-3, next row 4-6, bottom 7-9. As I eliminate possibilities from a box, I put a dot in that box’s corresponding grid location. For example, I know that box X cannot be a 5, 7, or 9 because I’ve already used those numbers in the row, column, or 3-by-3 square. So in box X, I put a dot in the center, the bottom left, and the bottom right. When box X has 8 dots in it, I know that the solution is the number corresponding to the missing dot.
Of course, if i can’t tell a dot from a crumb, then I end up blowing the whole thing and solving it with my program. But if I’m really meticulous, this works for me, and is really the only way I can make it through one of these numbers.
Congratulations for reading this far in my ramble! Now it’s your turn for participation.
What’s your Sudoku style, trick, or method?

(Because I have to do everything in javascript)
I slapped together a web-based sudoku solver a while back, and it pretty much stunk.
I’ve updated it, included new algorithms. In most cases, this new version will work much faster. It actually uses the same type of solution method that I would use with pen and paper. The difference is, the JavaScript sudoku solver will actually get the correct solution. Still the algorithm isn’t as smart or as efficient as a human would be, but it is much faster and less prone to mistakes. This is the reason I own a computer. I’m talking too much. Here is the sudoku solver.

Hapy Valentine’s Day! In celebration, here are pictures of Washington, DC’s biggest celebrity, panda cub Tai Shan, playing in the snow.
Cue awwwing.

Mr. T has something he wants to tell you.
Wow. Check out that bling.

First there’s this touch screen developed at NYU that recognizes multiple points of contact simultaneously.

I really must have one of these. You don’t know how many times I’ve complained about only being able to select one thing at a time. This isn’t even a touch screen issue. The way I see it, if I plug two mice into my computer, I should have two pointers. This is a major breakthrough in human-computer interaction. Maybe the biggest step toward making interacting with a computer like working in the physical world.

Then there are these songs about space, physics, energy and motion, weather, and nature.

This editorial really sums up what I’ve been thinking about cartoons and violence. I really never have gotten the whole rioting thing, anyway. I like to think of myself as pretty open-minded, but some people’s logic, I just don’t understand. Some days I get angry. I never then go flip my neighbor’s car or burn the Saudi embassy. I just don’t see it.