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Wednesday, July 25, 2012 - 02:28 SGT
Posted By: Gilbert

Least Publishable Unit

Mr. Robo's keyboard development has unfortunately hit a snag or two, but the combined writeup was getting a bit long even by usual standards; I thus figured that the mostly-unrelated first half might as well go out by itself:


Mr. Robo's Mailbox

A statement has recently arrived from a fellow academic ham, hailing from another field, but without supplied proof:

Hamming distance; if there are n binary switches, then given any point x in the n representational space, i.e. any random representation of switch states, most of the space lies d=n/2 bits away from x.

Mr. Robo's opinion is to respectfully disagree. Let S(x,d) be some arrangement of n switches that lie a distance d bits away from some point (valid arrangement) x. Then let x0 be the arrangement where all n switches are off (or zero), for simplicity. The Hamming distance of any arrangement of length n from x0 is then exactly the number of switches that are on (or one) in that arrangement.

Consider now some random arrangement xA that lies more than d bits away from x) in the Hamming distance metric, i.e. has over n/2 switches that are on. Then by symmetry, every xA uniquely corresponds to another random arrangement (n-d) bits from x, which is obtained by flipping the bits.

Then, if n is odd, the number of possible Hamming distances is even, corresponding to the integers between 0 and n inclusive. Since the number of arrangements of distance (n/2)-1 or less is exactly equal to that of distance (n/2)+1 or more, the statement does not seem to hold in its given formulation. Consider the concrete example of n=3 and its eight possible arrangements: H0(000)<->H3(111) and H1(001,010,100)<->H2(110,101,011), with half the space lying a distance of 1<1.5=n/2 or fewer bits away from x0.

Of course, this may just be a quibble after all - the statement would be true if the terminology were adjusted to refer to the remaining space (not including x itself), which may have been implicitly assumed to be understood; Mr. Robo can however be anal in these matters, given how little power he has in other respects. Please do understand. He does also take the opportunity to apologize for a prior oversight.


By The Shades

Coming across the most recent fiction bestseller list of perhaps the preeminent broadsheet in the world, I was taken slightly aback by the novel of the times being basically about a lady getting with an asshole, whose main redeeming factor is being stupidly rich (if still creepy, but with refined style - important!); lest this be dismissed as a fluke, it's been a fixture on the list for five months, and if that were not enough, Number Two and Number Three are its sequels.

It gets no better. Continuing down the absolute pinnacle of contemporary literature by consensus of the paying public, the top non-Shades book has the leading man being a doubtlessly dapper vampire geneticist, and then proudly features, in no particular order and four-fifths by female authors (and devoured by, I strongly suspect, female readers):

  • An excitingly rugged New York detective who has also adopted ten kids; (we'll begin with the benign fantasies)
  • A lady who runs out on her wedding to find an exciting new man; (also recommended: Eat, Pray, Love)
  • A lady who considers an exciting year-long sham marriage for (enough) money; (also recommended: Indecent Proposal, the Playboy Mansion)
  • A lady who may have been murdered by her husband (but he was probably exciting, so it was worth it);
  • Yet more sympathetic lady protagonists who go for... exciting mates; the poor, poor things.
  • The Shades trilogy in one convenient bundle of exciting wealthy mysterious asshole concentrate;
  • One of the greatest Presidents of all time, who emancipated entire peoples, reduced to an exciting wannabe Buffy racing about in tophat and tails cleaving B-list vampires with an axe; (at least it's only 28th)
  • And by far the worst of all, "...a Midwestern matron... experiencing a feminist awakening."


Sadly, he lost his re-election bid to a ripped werewolf
(Source: geekpeeks.com)


This clear signal of preferences and reaffirmation of Ham-Bag Theory has led to what can only be compared to grave desecration, as venerable centuries-old classics are coerced - weeping and battered - into "new-generation reimaginings". As I look into the skies above, I am saddened by the realisation that this must indeed be the end of days.

Even if all falls apart, however, my calling remains, and one of today's questions is - how many shades of grey are there really? It pains me to report that fifty may in actuality not be too far off, from just-noticeable difference in the Lab colour space (giving ~43). More in-depth answers exist but do not disagree by too much, ranging from about 30 to 60, to about a hundred, and in any case the human eye is fooled easily.

Colour theory, so prevalent in image processing, does get applied when coordinating a wardrobe, a task which I accepted for the first time ever with the ongoing Great Singapore Sale and online retailers. Although academics are generally not known for their predilection for dressing well, I suppose it's not too much against the norms to give it a go, especially in the stickler for formality that is Japan. All knowledge does, in the end, flow into the same stream.

While I'm on the subject of appearances, The New Paper on Sunday has just revealed that, gasp, many bodybuilders here are using steroids, following Today's call for the SNOC to send a strong anti-doping signal. Well, this may still be understandable in endeavours like cycling, where the more innocent might reasonably hold on to hopes that some of their champions are drug-free, but competitive bodybuilding?!

Without naming any names, the most desultory search throws up physiques of such muscular development that it is difficult to imagine their owners not having, ahem, ridden a bicycle if they have not yet put in decades of work, further reinforced by the wink-wink nudge-nudge going on in forums dedicated to the lifestyle; you know, when a sport finds it necessary to hold events explicitly for natural practitioners, it may be time to drop the pretense and just come clean and do it openly.

Still, when it comes to cosmetic makeovers, the South Koreans are but rank amateurs compared to the media here. Recall my doubt in January when the pain of the upper crust was trumpeted under the subheading "Well-off bear biggest brunt of the price increases, figures show". Well, ok, whoever's in charge has the prerogative of kneading them figures, but when it becomes impossible to gloss over the reality that poorer folks get hit harder by rising prices using artistic statistics, that fact gets buried so deep that it doesn't even appear in the preview. Woffles would be proud.

Oh, and it seems that professionals have to give up their rights to creative expression (unless you're on the right side of the tracks) and medical confidentiality here. A vibrant city - but all the moves must be choreographed.


Almost There





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