random

Fuzzy Microphone

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One of my volunteer sidelines is producing the sound for the Houston Roller Derby.  It’s a lot of work, but usually only one day a month for about half the year.  I have the microphones coded with colors and try to give the same ones to the regular announcers just so I don’t have to … Read more

In My Brain

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So, this was some debugging output that I was going through yesterday. My whole day was like that. And this particular one, pointed me toward one of my problems. Rr2rrrrrrrrrBCDrr1w3wwww8wwwwwDww “10-14” = Wr2rrrrrrr0rBCrrr1w3wwWw8wwwwwDww; “15-19” = Wr2rrrrrrrrrBCDEr1wrwwWw8wwwwwDww; “16-19” = Wr2rrrrrrrrrBCDrF1wrwwWw8wwwwwDww; “8-12” = Wr2rrrrr8rrrrCDrr1w3wwWw8wwwwwDww; “9-13” = Wr2rrrrrr9rrBrDrr1w3wwWw8wwwwwDww; “9-14” = Wr2rrrrrr9rrBCrrr1w3wwWw8wwwwwDww; Yes, this is what I do during … Read more

Math Entertainer Answers No. 1

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I recently proffered the first quiz from Mr. Heafford’s book.

As I suspected, it scared everyone away. Except for the mathematician that I know reads the blog. He offered up his answers. The 9 of the 20 he answered were all the same answers offered by the author.

Many of the numbers give more of a glimpse of how the world has changed in the last 50 years. Since calculators became widely used in the 60s and 70s, and then computers in the 80s, we rarely “handle” these numbers directly. Number of centimeters in an inch, sure, but the square root of 2? No.

Answers after the jump:

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The Math Entertainer No. 1: Quickies

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I obtained a book a few years back from Crazy Mike’s Crazy Emporium, that was once located at what is now Sig’s Lagoon. This 1959 book was written by Philip Heafford, Department of Education, University of Oxford: The Math Entertainer. His goal, from his introduction seems extremely optimistic. To entertain enjoyers of mathematics, but also … Read more

What Are these Creatures?

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Here’s your quiz of the day: what are these five things? Answer tomorrow. (Please refrain from posting spoilers in the comments – wry hints and jabs thoroughly encouraged.)

Who is Bill Shirley?

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Some people think that Shirley is an uncommon name. It’s not. You come across many more less common names when you’re going about your life. It’s more common than less (being in the 43rd percentile of last names in the US – it’s a bit more common in Texas)

Last time I checked the Houston phone book (which was admittedly a while ago), there were nearly thirty Shirleys and I didn’t know any of them.

Of course, William is a very common name (fifth most common in the 1990 US census).

Almost twenty years ago I met via the internet a guy named Shirley, and then his brother Will. They lived outside of London, were a few years younger than me, and were both in computer work for a living. I always hoped to visit them, but never did. I’ve lost track of them.

Bill Shirley (1921 – 1989) was an actor and singer and singing voice of Prince Philip in Sleeping Beauty (1959).

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