splendidus' blog

test

2011-07-19T11:41:00.001-07:00

test

Alice/Algebra in Wonderland

2010-04-17T14:57:00.001-07:00

Have to read the book again, with these perpective in mind...

clipped from www.nytimes.com

Alice’s adventures

have often been assumed to be based purely on wild imagination

Yet Dodgson most likely had real models for the strange happenings

Alice has slid down from a world governed by the logic of universal arithmetic to one where her size can vary from nine feet to three inches

“Being so many different sizes in a day is very confusing.”

No, it isn’t, replies the Caterpillar, who comes from the mad world of symbolic algebra

“Keep your temper.”

In Dodgson’s day, intellectuals still understood “temper” to mean the proportions in which qualities were mixed

so the Caterpillar is telling Alice not to avoid getting angry but to stay in proportion

clipped from www.nytimes.com

“A Mad Tea-Party,” we should read tea-party as t-party, with t being the mathematical symbol for time

At the mad tea party, time is the absent fourth presence at the table

How do we know for sure that “Alice” was making fun of the new math?

Dodgson rarely wrote amusing nonsense

Math gave “Alice” a darker side

Attempts to Restore Vision

2010-04-05T07:57:00.001-07:00

Researchers worldwide are trying to find ways to use electronics to improve visual recognition.

clipped from www.wired.com

Bionic Vision Australia, has developed a device called the wide-view neurostimulator

Bionic Vision Australia uses an external camera

An electrode array is implanted in the eye and that connects to the central part of the retina where the greatest number of retinal neurons are present

An external unit has vision-processing software to help generate the electrical impulses.

The resultant vision is not the same as the images that a sighted person sees

it’s a pixelated version with a relatively small number of dots: about 100 in early versions

team hope to do the first human implant in 2013

groups in Germany and Japan are working on similar projects

clipped from www.wired.com

MIT work on a retinal implant that can bypass damaged cells and directly offer visual input to the brain

It won’t entirely restore normal vision, say the researchers, but it will offer just enough sight to help a blind person navigate a room

The eyeball holds a microchip encased in a sealed titanium case

clipped from review.ucsc.edu

Wentai Liu

clipped from www.wired.com

The Dobelle artificial vision system

Effect of Calcium on Iron absorption...

2010-03-20T11:24:00.000-07:00

I wanted to know, once and for all, if calcium had an effect on iron absorption. We usually consume yoghurt with meat, which is our main iron-supply.

This new paper (2010), that takes into account various other studies, concludes:
"calcium in amounts present in many meals inhibits the absorption of both heme and nonheme iron".

Guess we'll have to change this eating-habit of ours...

"Procrastination" Tales Of Mere Existence

2010-03-17T07:51:00.001-07:00

Now why does that sound familiar
In fact, I just vacuumed my room, so it wouldn't distract me while I get my stuff done

clipped from www.youtube.com

Applying Mathematics To Web Design

2010-03-05T08:50:00.001-08:00

Some interesting ideas and sample psd-layouts.

clipped from www.smashingmagazine.com

“Mathematics is beautiful.”

Golden Ratio and Golden Rectangle

A golden rectangle is one whose side lengths have the golden ratio 1:(one-to-phi); that is, 1:1.618

a sample PSD layout that is designed according to the Golden Ratio and Golden Rectangle

Fibonacci Design

0, 1, 1, 2, 3, 5, 8, 13, 21, 34, 55, 89, 144...

a sample PSD layout that is designed according to the Fibonacci sequence

Five Elements, Or Kundli Design

a sample PSD layout that is designed according to the Kundli design

Sine Wave Design

a sample PSD layout that is designed according to the Sine Wave design

Other Techniques

Rule of Thirds

Musical Logic

Learn more about music and mathematics in this Wikipedia article.

Playing to learn math

2010-03-05T08:49:00.001-08:00

Fun math games

clipped from funbasedlearning.com

Chemistry games

Learn element names, facts and symbols with Element Quiz

Learn to balance chemical equations with Classic Chembalancer

Algebra games

Learn to draw linear equations by finding points with the Line Gem 1 game.

clipped from www.mangahigh.com

Basic Shapes to Advanced Geometry

Ordering Decimals, Fractions & Percentages

All of the incredible maths games on Mangahigh can be played for free!

clipped from teachingcollegemath.com

Playing to learn math?

Playing to Learn Math? on Prezi

Wolfram|Alpha: Recalculating Teaching & Learning

Brightstorm’s Math Video Library

Compounding Fun with Vector TD

Prime Number Manipulatives

Chain Factor

Accessing Flex-Object via Javascript

2009-10-03T15:33:00.000-07:00

About :: Firebug 'is not a function'-Error
Problem :: Call to function before object is fully loaded
Solution :: Delay call until object available

I wanted to embed a flex-object into a web-page and access it via Javascript with the purpose of setting/getting/managing so called 'local shared objects'.

Everything worked fine during the tests, but in the live environment firebug¹ threw me an error telling me that getLSO(), which is a function in my flex-object, is actually not a function. That was weird, because the test- and live-environments were exactly the same (same files, only in different folders).

I have been struggling with this problem almost half a day. And now that the problem is solved, I decided to share my insight.
I give you the code first; only the parts that are relevant to the topic at hand but enough that it sums up to a working example, keeping it clipped and clear. Then I'll describe the problem and the solution.

The Code

The flex-file, lso.mxml, looks essentially like this:

   1:  <?xml version="1.0"?>

   2:  <mx:Application xmlns:mx="http://www.adobe.com/2006/mxml" initialize="initApp()" >

   3:  <mx:Script>

   4:  <![CDATA[

   5:  import flash.external.*;

   6:  public var so:SharedObject;

7:

   8:  <!-- Determine, which functions will be accessible through external calls. -->

   9:  public function initApp():void {

  10:      if (ExternalInterface.available) {

  11:          ExternalInterface.addCallback("getLSO", getLSO);

  12:      }

  13:  }

  14:  public function getLSO() :String {

  15:      so = SharedObject.getLocal("label");

  16:      return so.data.text;

  17:  }

  18:  ]]>

  19:  </mx:Script>

  20:  </mx:Application>

Figure 1. lso.mxml

The compiling of this file results in the file lso.swf², which we embed in the file lso.html, directly after the body-tag, in the following way:

   1:  <body onLoad="initPage();">

   2:    <object classid="clsid:D27CDB6E-AE6D-11cf-96B8-444553540000" codebase="" id="FlexObject">

   3:      <param name=movie value="lso.swf">

   4:      <embed play=false swliveconnect="true" name="FlexObject"

   5:        src="lso.swf" quality=high bgcolor=#FFFFFF

   6:        width="0" height="0" type="application/x-shockwave-flash"

   7:        ....>

   8:      </embed >

   9:    </object >

  10:    <!-- Further HTML-Code -->

  11:  </body>

Figure 2. lso.html :: Embedded Flex-bject

The Javascript code to acsess this flex-object and call one of its functions, looks like the following:

   1:  <script type="text/javascript">

   2:  function getFlashMovieObject(movieName)

   3:  {

   4:    if (window.document[movieName])

   5:        return window.document[movieName];

   6:    if (navigator.appName.indexOf("Microsoft Internet")==-1) {

   7:      if (document.embeds && document.embeds[movieName])

   8:        return document.embeds[movieName];

   9:    }

  10:    else {

  11:      return document.getElementById(movieName);

  12:    }

  13:  }

  14:  function initPage() {

  15:    var userID;

  16:    var flexObject = getFlashMovieObject("FlexObject");

  17:    var lso = flexObject.getLSO();

  18:    if(lso != null) userID = lso;

  19:    else userID = 0;

  20:  }

  21:  </script>

Figure 3. lso.html :: Javascript functions to access Flex-Object

The Problem

As said before, while testing there were no problems. After moving everything into the live-environment and removing all the redundant comments and alerts, firebug threw the following error:

Figure 4. Firebug :: Error Message

I had no clue why the function was suddenly not accessible anymore, since I didn't change anything essential. After some research and some experimenting I found out that the script worked fine when I called alert() prior to getLSO().

To cut a long story short, it turned out that the function getLSO() was invoked before the swf-file was fully loaded, and hence was not available. The alert()-call gave the swf-file enough time to load.

The Solution

The function initPage() was being initiated after the page is fully loaded (see Fig.2, Line1). But apparently that does not ensure that the swf-file in the document is fully loaded as well.
We couldn't find a way to determine the point in time/code where the loading of the flex-object is finished. I thought of calling the initPage() function with a certain time delay. This would be done like this:

   1:  <body  onload="setTimeout('initPage();', 1000);">

   2:  <!-- This will delay the execution for 1 second -->

Figure 5. lso.html :: Fixed Time-Delay

But that would not be an elegant solution, since the loading-time will differ from user to user, and we can't make sure that the time delay is enough for the slowest connection.
We ended up using an additional Javascript function:

   1:  <script language="javascript" type="text/javascript">

   2:  function isLoaded() {

   3:    var fo = getFlashMovieObject("FlexObject");

   4:    try {

   5:      var lo = fo.getLSO();

   6:      initPage();

   7:    }

   8:    catch(err) {

   9:      setTimeout('isLoaded();',200);

  10:    }

  11:  }

  12:  </script>

Figure 6. Time-Delay Until Object is Available

This functions catches the error and, after a pause of 0.2 seconds, calls itself again. As soon as getLSO() is available, initPage() is called.
Now let's replace line 1 in Fig.2 with the following:

   1:  <body onload="isLoaded();">

and we're done...

¹ Highly recommended: Firebug for Firefox
² You may want to download the Flex 3.4 SDK (free), unzip it to a convenient location, and then use the compiler mxmlc.exe in the bin-folder.
³ To format your code for your web-page, you may want to use this Formatter

I like coffee so much that I have tea for breakfast :-)

2009-02-06T07:00:00.001-08:00

One man's roller coaster history with coffee:
"I like coffee so much that I have tea for breakfast: The first cup of the day in particular is so good that I’m afraid I won’t be able to properly appreciate it when I am half-asleep. Therefore, I celebrate it two hours later when I am fully conscious".

clipped from niemann.blogs.nytimes.com

Coffee

One man's roller coaster history with coffee.

I must have been 5 when I first discovered the taste of coffee, when I was accidentally given a scoop of coffee ice cream. I was inconsolable: how could grown-ups ruin something as wonderful as ice cream with something as disgusting as coffee?

When I was 10 I still hated coffee, but fell in love with the ritual of making coffee

At 17 I still suffered from coffee schizophrenia: I loved the concept of coffee, but resented the taste

When I was 21

I would brew a gigantic pot of coffee around 9 a.m. to help us get through the day

I was focused less on taste and more on quantity and price

My inner accountant quickly convinced me to buy one of those little espresso machines

Here’s a chart that shows my coffee bias over the years.

I order large coffees, but stop drinking when the coffee gets too cold

Hot milk greatly improves the taste of coffee

When you are craving a beer

coffee is the most disgusting

my personal choice: drip coffee with steamed milk

aMap - The Argument Map

2009-01-27T09:06:00.001-08:00

seems a cool tool worth checking out.

clipped from www.amap.org.uk

aMap is short for ‘argument map’. The idea’s very simple - to promote the art of arguing by mapping out complex debates in a simple visual format.

aMap has been developed by a team led by Chris Quigley of Delib (part of Team Rubber) to promote the art of arguing. Initial concepts were developed as part of an academic project in partnership with Perry Walker from the new economics foundation, and various wonderful brains from the LSE (see below for more info)

The theory

aMaps are based around the same structure as “informal logic” - this is the logic people use to argue in everyday life. Informal logic has a four-tiered structure:

- Your position (I think . . .) - what you think overall
- Propositions (Because . . .) - reasons that support your position
- Arguments (As . . .) - supporting arguments that back up each of your propositions
- Evidence (Supported by . . .) - supporting evidence to back up your arguments

Tony Benn "If you wont broadcast the Gaza appeal then I will myself"

2009-01-25T12:53:00.001-08:00

clipped from www.youtube.com

Measure the duration of an event in VC++ 2005

2008-01-20T07:45:00.000-08:00

// time.h included
int i = 100000;
clock_t start, finish;
double duration;

printf( "Time to do %ld empty loops is ", i );
start = clock();
while( i-- )
;
finish = clock();
duration = (double)(finish - start) / CLOCKS_PER_SEC;
printf( "%2.1f seconds\n", duration );

Color of Magic :: I'd sue my face for slander

2008-01-09T15:17:00.000-08:00

"Oh, and there is one other thing, " the Patrician said, as the wizard groped for the door handles.
"Yes, lord?" he replied, with a sinking heart.
"I'm sure you won't dream of trying to escape from your obligations by fleeing the city. I judge you to be a born city person. But you may be sure that the lords of the other cities will be appraised of these conditions by nightfall."
"I assure you the thought never even crossed my mind, Lord."
"Indeed? Then if I were you I'd sue my face for slander."
Terry Pratchett, The Color of Magic (p.26)

Color of Magic :: Time does not, for all practical purposes, exist

2008-01-08T06:46:00.000-08:00

"You'd be Twoflower, wouldn't you? Or is that later?"
"Later?" said Twoflower. "Later than what?" He stopped.
"Well", said the voice. "You see, one of the advantages of being dead is that one is released as it were from the bonds of time and therefore I can see everything that has happened or will happen, all at the same time except that of course I now know that Time does not, for all practical purposes, exist."
"That doesn't sound like a disadvantage," said Twoflower.
"You don't think so? Imagine every moment being at one and the same time a distant memory and a nasty surprise and you'll see what I mean. Anyway, I now recall what it was I am about to tell you. Or have I already done so? That's a fine looking dragon, by the way. Or don't I say that yet?"
...
"I think you already told me that," said Twoflower.
Did I? I certainly intended to," said the dead man.
...
"... But I can see I mustn't keep you. I expect you'll be wanting to rescue your friend."
Twoflower gaped. "Hrun?" he said.
"Not him. The skinny wizard. My son Lio!rt is trying to hack him to pieces. I admired the way you rescued him. Will, I mean."
Terry Pratchett, Color of Magic (p.131)

Yusuf Islam - In The End

2007-12-17T13:55:00.001-08:00

I like this song... wonderful music...

clipped from www.youtube.com

Yusuf Islam - In The End

SEM Snow Pictures (36000x zoom)

2007-12-17T09:52:00.001-08:00

clipped from www.2loop.com

Low temperature SEM magnification series
for a snow crystal.
8 images of a snow crystal continually zoomed in until 36000x

Cool 3D Animation: Esc - Animatior Vs Animation In 3D

2007-12-13T18:31:00.001-08:00

clipped from postarelibero.blogspot.com

clipped from www.metacafe.com

nside a 3D program a mouse cursor creates a 3-dimensional character that comes to life after an unknown error in the program and gets into a journey across the computer d... More»esktop
Esc is my student film completed in 8 months at Emily Carr Institute

Interesting Times :: Natural Selection

2007-12-12T04:05:00.000-08:00

Natural selection saw to it that professional heroes who at a crucial moment tended to ask themselves questions like "What is my purpose in life?" very quickly lacked both.
Terry Pratchett, Interesting Times

2007-12-07T11:53:00.000-08:00

Once and for all, as a reminder for myself: How to convert an integer into a string in C++ (Visual C++ 2005 to be more precise):

char stnum[10];
sprintf_s(stnum,"%d",123); //stnum = "123"

If someone stumbles upon this page incidentally and knows a better way: please leave a comment.

2007-12-05T06:04:00.000-08:00

"Once I realized that those morning trash piles were nearly half paper – were once forests – I was determined to find out where they were going. So I took a trip to the infamous Fresh Kills landfill on Staten Island. Coving 4.6 square miles (12 square km), Fresh kills, is one of the largest dumps in the world. When it was officially closed in 2001, some say its volume was greater than that of the Great Wall of China; it’s peaks 25 meters taller than the Statue of Liberty. I had never seen anything like it. I stood at its edge in absolute awe. As far as I could see in every direction were couches, refrigerators, boxes, apple cores, used clothes, stuff. You know how a gory car crash scene makes us want to turn away and stare at the same time? That is what it was like. I just couldn’t comprehend this massive mountain of materials, reduced to muck, by some system obviously out of control. I knew this was terribly wrong. I didn’t understand it back then, 20 years ago, but I vowed to figure it out. And I did. It’s the Story of Stuff."
Annie Leonard
Visit "http://www.storyofstuff.com" and watch the 20-minutes-movie, it is worth seeing.

Blue Moon...

2007-12-02T16:31:00.001-08:00

clipped from www.avertedimagination.com

An image of the waning gibbous moon in the morning sky, captured while waiting to record a daytime transit of the Internation Space Station.

Binary Sudoku

2007-11-30T14:18:00.001-08:00

BumpTop 3D Desktop Prototype

2007-11-27T05:01:00.001-08:00

clipped from www.youtube.com

Going Postal :: Table d'hote or nothing

2007-11-26T12:42:00.000-08:00

"All right, all right, I really didn't want to go into this, but it's against my religion," said Moist, who'd had time to think. "We're forbidden to have any image made of us. It removes part of our soul, you know."
"And you believe that?" said Sacharissa. "Really?"
"Er, no. No. Of course not. Not as such. But you can't treat religion as a sort of buffet, can you? I mean, you can't say yes please, Ill have some of the Celestial Paradise and a helping of the Divine Plan but go easy on the kneeling and none of the Prohibition of Images, they give me wind. It's table d'hote or nothing, otherwise... well, it would be silly."
Terry Pratchett, Going Postal (p.166)

Going Postal :: Cut cubes out of the air

2007-11-26T10:55:00.000-08:00

"The hub or nerve centre of the coach business was a big shed next the stable. It smelled - no, it stank - no, it fugged of horses, leather, veterinary medicine, bad coal, brandy and cheap cigars. That's what a fug was. You could have cut cubes out of the air and sold it for cheap building material."
Terry Pratchett, Going Postal (p.206)

Zero and One

2007-11-25T16:32:00.001-08:00

clipped from www.youtube.com

A Feegle Glossary :: Ships

2007-11-25T15:40:00.001-08:00

"Ships:Woolly things that eat grass and go baa. Easily confused with the other kind."
Terry Pratchett, A Feegle Glossary

Going Postal :: On Freedom and the need of filing boxes which are not so flimsy

2007-11-25T15:30:00.000-08:00

"In his Thoughts, which I have always considered fare badly in translation, Bouffant says that intervening in order to prevent a murder is curtail the freedom of the murderer and yet that freedom, by definition, is natural and universal, without condition." said Vetinari. "You may recall his famous dictum:'If any man is not free, then I too am a small pie made of chicken', which has led to a considerable amount of debate. Thus we might consider, for example, that taking a bottle from a man killing himself with drink is a charitable, nay, praiseworthy act, and yet freedom is curtailed once more. Mr. Gilt has studied his Bouffant but, I fear, failed to understand it. Freedom may be mankind's natural state, but so is sitting in a tree eating your dinner while it is still wriggling. On the other hand, Freidegger, in Modal Contextities, claims that all freedom is limited, artificial and therefore illusory, a shared hallucination at best. No sane mortal is truly free, because true freedom is so terrible that only the mad or the divine can face it with open eyes. It overwhelms the soul, very much like the state he elsewhere describes as Vonallesvollkommenunverstandlichdasdaskeit. What position would you take here, Drumknott?'
"I've always thought, my lord, that what the world really needs are filing boxes which are not so flimsy," said Drumknott, after a moment's pause.
"Hmm," said Lord Vetinari. "A point to think about, certainly."
Terry Pratchett, Going Postal (p.78)

Going Postal :: Being an Absolute Ruler

2007-11-25T15:26:00.000-08:00

"Being an absolute ruler today was not as simple as people thought. At least, it was not simple if your ambitions included being an absolute ruler tomorrow. There were subtleties. Oh, you could order men to smash down doors and drag people off the dungeons without trial, but too much of that sort of thing lacked style and anyway was bad for business, habit-forming and very, very dangerous for your health. A thinking tyrant, it seemed to Vetinari, had a much harder job than a ruler raised to power by some idiot vote-yourself-rich system like democracy. At least they could tell the people he was their fault."
Terry Pratchett, Going Postal (p.68)

Going Postal :: Either the government or a hero

2007-11-25T15:18:00.000-08:00

"There was a stir when they climbed up into the chilly morning air, followed by a few boos and even some applause. People were strange like that. Steal a five dollars and you were a petty thief. Steal thousands of dollars and you were either the government or a hero"
Terry Pratchett, Going Postal (p.15)

Wintersmith :: You, the white kitten, as in "You! Stop that!"

2007-11-25T14:38:00.000-08:00

"The white kitten watched the snowflakes. That's all it did. It didn't bat them with a paw, it just watched, very intently, each flake spiral down until it landed. Then the kitten would watch it some more, until it was sure the entertainment was over, before it looked up and selected another flake.
It was called You, as in "You! Stop that!" and "You! Get off there!". When it came to names, Granny Weatherwax didn't do fancy."
Terry Pratchett, Wintersmith (p.113),

splendidus' blog

test

Alice/Algebra in Wonderland

Attempts to Restore Vision

Effect of Calcium on Iron absorption...

"Procrastination" Tales Of Mere Existence

Applying Mathematics To Web Design

Golden Ratio and Golden Rectangle

Fibonacci Design

Five Elements, Or Kundli Design

Sine Wave Design

Other Techniques

Playing to learn math

Chemistry games

Algebra games

Basic Shapes to Advanced Geometry

Ordering Decimals, Fractions & Percentages

Playing to learn math?

Accessing Flex-Object via Javascript

About :: Firebug 'is not a function'-ErrorProblem :: Call to function before object is fully loadedSolution :: Delay call until object available

The Code

The Problem

The Solution

I like coffee so much that I have tea for breakfast :-)

Coffee

aMap - The Argument Map

The theory

Tony Benn "If you wont broadcast the Gaza appeal then I will myself"

Measure the duration of an event in VC++ 2005

Color of Magic :: I'd sue my face for slander

Color of Magic :: Time does not, for all practical purposes, exist

Yusuf Islam - In The End

SEM Snow Pictures (36000x zoom)

Cool 3D Animation: Esc - Animatior Vs Animation In 3D

Interesting Times :: Natural Selection

Blue Moon...

Binary Sudoku

BumpTop 3D Desktop Prototype

Going Postal :: Table d'hote or nothing

Going Postal :: Cut cubes out of the air

Zero and One

A Feegle Glossary :: Ships

Going Postal :: On Freedom and the need of filing boxes which are not so flimsy

Going Postal :: Being an Absolute Ruler

Going Postal :: Either the government or a hero

Wintersmith :: You, the white kitten, as in "You! Stop that!"

About :: Firebug 'is not a function'-Error
Problem :: Call to function before object is fully loaded
Solution :: Delay call until object available