A few productive days...

Yes, I actually had a few productive days for the past few days. Although I still get my sleep in, I actually did some decent work. (If you have to know: I added an algo to detech multiple ridges in a 2D distribution, as well as, in theory, finding the BW of a given ridge.) Once I plug all these in my GUI, I can start the SOM part.

Baggy: I was complaining to Geoff about my PhD (as I do always) and he actually recommends you to be the person to talk to :P Since I'm complaining about whether to use SOM/CBR/HMM... fun time, fun time. :P I dunno whether CBR or SOM is my best bet actually... there's some thought in trying to use entropy as a feature, ah well.

Since I've had... like... 3 or 4 productive days in a row, I predict today won't be very productive at all :P We shall see...

GAAAAAAAAAAAAAAA!

I spent a whole day writing this algorithm that I've been putting off for a while. Thought I finally got it all sorted. And THEN it dawns on me, after writing the whole damned thing out, that there's a MAJOR logical flaw in it.

I hate thinking on Friday afternoon. *sob*

Battle with Kalman Filter part 2

Yup, after all the excitment about plannign the trip to US and whatnot, I'm back to battling with Kalman Filter. And I'm just getting really sleepy reading about maths really.

Also wondering whether I have asthma. Been having shortness of breaths A LOT lately.

Ah well, green tea is all good at the moment. I'llmuck around a bit longer than back to reading about maths. *sigh*

The Numbers in LOST, as seen in the eyes of a psuedo-maths geek

Psuedo, becasue I'm not crazy enough to do a maths degree. :P (No I'm not bitter about not being able to make it to Maths Olympic when I was in high school)

Now, I stopped watching LOST (along with most engineers) because it's fallen as a victim of "Americanitis". It's dragging on without resolving plot, although Geoff did mention the finale for season 2 wasn't half bad, I'll have to see it to judge it. Still, as I always said, if it's been an anime, ALL the mystery would be shown and this season we'll have an even more fantastic story. All hail anime!

Now, back to the topic, I was looking at the famous "numbers" on series (being 4, 8, 15, 16, 23, 42), and I'm seeing the fact that, maybe, just maybe, the writers aren't morons. (It's only the producers. Grr.)

• Let's start with a no-brainer: 4+8+15+16+23+42=108. Every 108 minutes, these numbers needed to be entered.


• 4 = 2+2, 2*2, 2^2... not to mention the smallest composite number. Also a square number. How nice. There's also four classical element (well, not counting quintessence) Bonus cool points


• 8 = 2*2*2 = 2^3. Not as neat. But it's a Fibonacci number. Also there are 8 trigrams in I Ching. So it claims cool points.


• 15. This is trickier, but still. 15 is the sum of any row, column, diagonal in a 3x3 magic square. And magic squares are always cool.


• 16 = 2*2*2*2 = 4*4. You know what that means right? It means it's 2^4 as well as 4^2. Not to mention it's the base for Hex numbers.


• 23. NOW we get interesting. It's a prime! Not only is it a prime, it's the sacred number of Discordian. (Yes I'm reading the Illuminatus! trilogy. Fun read, fun read). Made of even (2) and odd (3). all hail Eris. Yadda yadda.


• 42 = The answer to Life, the Universe, and Everything. End of story.


• 108 = 1^1 * 2^2 * 3^3. Also a cool number. Not to mention it's a sacred number in Hinduism.

Well, other numbers that I'm disappointed not seeing on the list (possibly because it doesn't add up to some cool number) include 5, 11, and my favourite number of all, pi. Prime is very under-represented (Granted, I don't like primes...), and irrational numbers aren't represeted at all! (heh) The again imagine typing pi in every 108 minutes.

Does that neccessarily means the writers have all these in mind, but I wouldn't be surprised if they actually put some thoughts into what numbers to put in. 15 and 16 is a wee bit of a stretch though. Maybe there are some other meanings in 15 and 16 that I don't know of. And what about 3: the holy Trinity in Catholism? You have classic Greek, Tao, Hindu, Discordian, and Douglas Adam-ism even, where is Catholism in all that?

And I like 12. Why not 12? It's highly composite as well as being the number of Zodiac, 12 stations of the cross, yadda yadda. And no perfect number either! (unless you count '6', which is the number of numbers there)

Ah well, I wasted another afternoon...

Weird songs deemed "possibly inappropriate after 9/11"

Interesting things you can learn from wiki . I was having yet another research block, so I've decided to "surf" on wiki (an activity I made up which involve clicking on links after links on wiki. Great fun.) I was reading on Black Hole Sun, and then found out it's been put on the "list of possibly inappropriate songs" after 9/11.

Interesting. I can see how some song might be a wee bit inappropriate, so I've decided to have a look at the link. Some of the songs are pretty much a no brainer: Great Balls of Fire, for example. Then you get some interesting entry:

Louis Armstrong – "What A Wonderful World"
The colours of the rainbow, so pretty in the sky
Are also on the faces of people going by
I see friends shakin' hands, sayin' "How do you do?"
They're really saying "I love you"

That, apparently, is inappropriate.

Ok, move on to other songs:

John Lennon – "Imagine"
I still can't see how that's inappropriate. If anything that's a very nice song for reflection really.

Rage Against The Machine – all songs
OKay, that one made me chuckle a bit. Maybe they just hate the band. Heh.

But here's the worst one:
The Smashing Pumpkins – "Bullet With Butterfly Wings"

Bloody hell! That's my favourite Smashing Pumpkins' song!

Seriously: I can understand some people, especially those who lost love ones on that tragic day, would not want to hear anything with "flying" and "wings". But I still find it somewhat odd that any song that promote racial harmony is deemed inappropriate. This is fueling racim. And for what?