Joyce Sequence
Friday, January 20, 2006, 09:02 PM - Beautiful Code
;)
The sequence of numbers
{j_n} giving the number of digits in the three-fold power tower n^(n^n). The values of n^(n^n). for .n==1, 2,. ... are 1, 16, 7625597484987., ... (Sloane's A002488; Rossier 1948), so the Joyce sequence is 1, 2, 13, 155, 2185, 36306., ... (Sloane's A054382). Laisant (1906) found the term j_9., and Uhler (1947) published the logarithm of this number to 250 decimal places (Wells 1986, p. 208).
The sequence is named in honor of the following excerpt from the "Ithaca" chapter of James Joyce's Ulysses:
"Because some years previously in 1886 when occupied with the problem of the quadrature of the circle he had learned of the existence of a number computed to a relative degree of accuracy to be of such magnitude and of so many places, e.g., the 9th power of the 9th power of 9, that, the result having been obtained, 33 closely printed volumes of 1000 pages each of innumerable quires and reams of India paper would have to be requisitioned in order to contain the complete tale of its printed integers of units, tens, hundreds, thousands, tens of thousands, hundreds of thousands, millions, tens of millions, hundreds of millions, billions, the nucleus of the nebula of every digit of every series containing succinctly the potentiality of being raised to the utmost kinetic elaboration of any power of any of its powers."
via (TY Cliff)
7 comments Download Embedded stuff
Friday, January 20, 2006, 08:48 PM - Games
So Andrew Ruder has something for you:
Download Embedded does exactly what it sounds like it does. It adds a right-click context menu entry to download all embedded files on a webpage. Its great for grabbing embedded flash animations, movies, music, etc., and a lot easier than digging through the page source or through Firefox's Page Info.
I would hate Andrew Ruder for being only 21 and doing all this interesting crap if it were not for Nico. Nico is the worst. Nico started University a-few-days-ago. Come on you two. Give me a break.
Understanding UNIX/Linux file system (I)
Friday, January 20, 2006, 08:45 PM - Apt-get Install
A conceptual understanding of file system, especially data structure and related terms will help you become a successful system administrator. I have seen many new Linux system administrator w/o any clue about file system. The conceptual knowledge can be applied to restore file system in an emergency situation.
There we go then
via Adminspotting
Do and don't battery table
Friday, January 20, 2006, 08:43 PM - Games
I can never remember if it's my battery or my woolen socks what I have to put on the freezer all night so it doesn't get beads. Luckily enough, it's been a year and a half and my beautiful Asus M3000np keeps working 4.5 hours without drinking the wall. Julian's one, though, only gives around 2.30. Same batteries, same life and we still don't know how it happened. If only we have had the Battery Table ...
Thanks again, Bryan !
Also, from My life, Cut Short and for all windows users, How to re-calibrate your Laptop Battery. As far as I know, the rest will have to work the BIOS. Sugestions are welcomed.
a Second Life for web apps
Friday, January 20, 2006, 08:40 PM - Games
Ning is a free online service (or, as we like to call it, a Playground) for building social apps - web apps that enable anyone to match, transact, and communicate with other people. With Ning, you can build and use social apps for just about anything.
Developing your social apps on the Ning Playground has some advantages:
* App creation tools - including the ability to view the source code of and clone any running app on the Ning Playground
* App management, hosting, and security
* Example Apps you can clone and run in minutes
* User registration, user profile and role management
* Tagging as a built-in service for every app
* Navigation and search
You can develop an app from scratch by viewing the source code of other running apps to get ideas. Or, simply clone any running app and then modify it however you'd like. To see app source code or to clone, click any View Source or Clone this App link on the Ning Sidebar, found on the right hand 225 pixels of any app page.
When you clone an app, your new app's source code is a copy of the source code of the app you cloned. Your new app works the same as the original, only now you own it and can modify it in any way that you want - run it "as is" or apply it to a new location, interest, topic, or language.
link
TYWAXY
The Python Grimoire
Friday, January 20, 2006, 08:37 PM - Robots
grimoire /grimwaar/ (noun) ::= a book of magic spells and invocations. Origin: French, alteration of grammaire 'grammar'. A grammar is a description of a set of symbols and how to combine them to create well-formed sentences. A grimoire is a description of a set of magical symbols and how to combine them properly. It is sort of a recipe-book for magic spells. See also Grimoire
The core of the Grimoire was originally developed and released by Andrew M. Kuchling in May, 1999. However, it never reached a stage where Andrew felt that it was ready for publication, and eventually he withdrew it. Steve Ferg, however, had found the Grimoire very helpful as he was learning Python, and he persuaded Andrew to allow him to take over maintenance of the document in August, 2002.
link
The [AR] Coliseum
Sunday, September 11, 2005, 01:55 PM - Apt-get Install, Games
From the Department of Mechanical Engineering and Intelligent Systems at the University of Electro-Communications in Tokyo:
In this study, a game environment using augmented reality (AR) technology that enables virtual functions for playing a game using small robots is proposed. Similar to how children can use their imaginations to make a normal room into the air for playing games with toy airplane, we propose a way to embody such imaginations virtually by superimposing computer graphics onto toys in the real world.
Playing with toys such as small robots and vehicles is improved and enhanced by projecting images to the areas corresponding to the actual positions and directions of the toys. In addition, objects are able to express the phenomena of this augmented reality world by controlling actuators according to the results of simulations.
In the environment that we propose, the games are played with small robots and vehicles that can be treated as actual toys of the real world.
How cool is that.
link
video
The rest of Tom's Hardware Report on Siggraph
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