Thane Plambeck

The web page at mail.google.com may say it, but I'm tired of reading it

Spam is no "conversation."

800m run, world records

The WORLD RECORD for MEN
1:41.11 Wilson Kipketer DEN Cologne ln 24 August 1997

The WORLD RECORD for Women - 20 years in 2003
1:53.28 Jarmila Kratochvilova TCH Muenchen 26 July 1983

Kearney High School vs Lincoln East [December 1979]

My father gave me a nice scrapbook of photos at Christmas. Here I'm shooting in the lane against Lincoln East. I'm pretty sure I missed the shot.

[added later: a kearney high game played tonight]

Clue in the Friday NYT

52 Across: Pioneer in the math of Sudoku (5)

answer

Hmmm—not sure I buy that.

I did like

Nitpick? (7)

answer

Toss or document (or both)?

Instead of simply discarding big chunks of software I hack together after they get too complicated for me to understand (or use) anymore—as is my usual practice—I've decided to try write manual pages for them, instead. Then it at least I have some record of it before it gets trashed.

I'm writing up one set of soon-to-be-discarded software this morning. Already it's looking like it might be a useful idea.

I got the idea that it's best to simply toss big and confusing blobs of code long ago after reading this passage from Don Knuth's The Art of Computer Programming, vol I, pg 188, "Basic Concepts: Subroutines:"

Step 3 (Reexamination). The result of Step 2 should be very nearly a working program, but it may be possible to improve on it. A good way is to reverse direction again, studying for each subroutine all of the calls made on it. It may well be that the subroutine should be enlarged to do some of the more common things which are always done by the outside routine just before or after it uses the subroutine. Perhaps several subroutines should be merged into one; or perhaps a subroutine is called only once (if we are fortunate, perhaps one is never called) and should not be subroutine at all.

Then the kicker:

At this point, it is often a good idea to scrap everything and start over again at step 1! This is not intended to be a facetious remark; the time spent in getting this far has not been wasted, for we have learned a great deal about our problem. We will probably know of several improvements that can be made to the organization of the program; there is no reason to be afraid to go back to step 1—it will be much easier to go through the above steps again after a program has been done already. Moreover, we will quite probably save as much debugging time later on as it will take to rewrite the program. Some of the best programs ever written owe much of their success to the fact that about this stage all the work was unintentionally lost and the authors had to begin again.

From Emerson's Quotation and Originality

1) Marmontel's principle, "I pounce on what is mine, wherever I find it."

2) "He that borrows the aid of an equal understanding," said Burke, "doubles his own; he that uses that of a superior elevates his own to the stature of that he contemplates."

3) Many of the historical proverbs have a doubtful paternity. Columbus's egg is claimed for Brunelleschi. Rabelais's dying words, "I am going to see the great Perhaps" (le grand Peut-etre), only repeats the "IF" inscribed on the portal of the temple at Delphi. Goethe's favorite phrase, "the open secret," translates Aristotle's answer to Alexander, "These books are published and not published."

4) Observe also that a writer appears to more advantage in the pages of another book than in his own. In his own he waits as a candidate for your approbation; in another's he is a lawgiver.

5) The child quotes his father, and the man quotes his friend. Each man is a hero and an oracle to somebody, and to that person whatever he says has an enhanced value. Whatever we think and say is wonderfully better for our spirits and trust, in another mouth. There is none so eminent and wise but he knows minds whose opinion confirms or qualifies his own, and men of extraordinary genius acquire an almost absolute ascendant over their nearest companions. The Comte de Crillon said one day to M. d'Allonville, with French vivacity, "If the universe and I professed one opinion and M. Necker expressed a contrary one, I should be at once convinced that the universe and I were mistaken."

6) Next to the originator of a good sentence is the first quoter of it. Many will read the book before one thinks of quoting a passage. As soon as he has done this, that line will be quoted east and west. Then there are great ways of borrowing. Genius borrows nobly. When Shakspeare is charged with debts to his authors, Landor replies "Yet he was more original than his originals. He breathed upon dead bodies and brought them into life."

7) Goethe frankly said, "What would remain to me if this art of appropriation were derogatory to genius? Every one of my writings has been furnished to me by a thousand different persons, a thousand things: wise and foolish have brought me, without suspecting it, the offering of their thoughts, faculties, and experience. My work is an aggregation of beings taken from the whole of nature; it bears the name of Goethe."

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Saddam's dilemma

From a news article, "Saddam may hang within 30 days":

Aref Shahin, chief judge of the appeals panel, said there was no further legal recourse for Saddam and the Iraqi executive is free to send him to the gallows "any day, ... starting from tomorrow." The execution must be carried out within 30 days.

This reminded me of the "execution paradox" (maybe it has some other name?). On Sunday, the executioner tells the prisoner, "You'll be killed some day in this week, and you won't be expecting it."

The prisoner reasons as follows: "Well, I can't be executed on Saturday, because that's the last day of the week, and I would have survived the other days and would certainly expect to be executed on Saturday. So, Saturday is out. Similarly, I can't be executed on Friday, since once Thursday ends, I would know for sure that the execution would be on Friday, since it absolutely can't happen on Saturday...."

Similarly, he works backward to Monday and then Sunday. He's safe! He can't be executed at all!

Then the executioner takes him out of his cell on Tuesday, kills him, and you know what—he wasn't expecting it...

Wholphin DVD #3 choicebits

I got Wholphin 3 in the mail a few days ago.

What a great idea to bundle up interesting short films on a DVD like this.

These are the two I liked the best.

A stranger in her own city—an absolutely mesmerizing portrait of a thirteen year old girl in Yemen. Directed by Khadija Al-Salami.

Never like the first time animated short, directed by Jonas Odell.

Talk - action = zero

Talk - action = zero
Originally uploaded by Denim.

A pithy equation, I thought—but then I realized it implies that talk equals action.

ALGRTHM

Gray Jeep behind Starbucks, Middlefield Rd, Palo Alto
Originally uploaded by thane.

Statues of Liberty

Photoshopped from two murky, distant photos [#1, #2] on my father's camera.

What American accent do you have?

What American accent do you have? Your Result: The Midland   "You have a Midland accent" is just another way of saying "you don't have an accent." You probably are from the Midland (Pennsylvania, southern Ohio, southern Indiana, southern Illinois, and Missouri) but then for all we know you could be from Florida or Charleston or one of those big southern cities like Atlanta or Dallas. You have a good voice for TV and radio.
The West
Boston
North Central
The Inland North
The South
Philadelphia
The Northeast
What American accent do you have? Quiz Created on GoToQuiz

Goal, U9 boys vs girls

shot
ball about to slip by the goalkeeper
celebration run starts
still running
others join in denouement
girls awating kickoff
goalkeeper

Throwing the switch

Amidst a mostly run-of-the-mill story on a gang of identity thieves, I found this vivid description:

When the gang's premises were raided by the members of the Serious and Organised Crime Agency (SOCA), Kostap was handcuffed with his hands in front of his body. He managed to leap up and flick an electrical switch that wiped databases that could have contained records of the gang's activities stretching back more than 10 years, SOCA said.

Kostap's action also triggered intricate layers of encryption on the gang's computer systems, which SOCA's experts were unable to crack, the court heard.

SOCA was not prepared to discuss what encryption was used or why it was unable to decrypt it, as such information would enable other criminals to use the same methods.

Season's greetings, reprise

Cole elfed himself, too.

Feudal landholder

Feudal landholder
Originally uploaded by thane.

Thanks to Orange for pointing this out.

U9 Boys paired with U9 girls

Before yesterday's scrimmage between the under nine boys and under nine girls, the coaches had them walk onto the field in pairs.

It reminded me of the presentation of the homecoming royalty at a high school football game.

Moments later, it was game on:

From Nature, 7 December 2006, pg 661

ON THE RECORD—THE SUPREME COURT TACKLES CLIMATE CHANGE

Justice Antonin Scalia: Your assertion is that after the pollutant leaves the air and goes up into the stratosphere it is contributing to global warming.

James Milkey: Respectfully, Your Honor, it is not the stratosphere. It's the troposphere.

Justice Scalia: Troposphere, whatever. I told you before I'm not a scientist. That's why I don't have to deal with global warming.

Friday NYT crossword clue

Knock-down-and-drag-out (5)

MELEE was the answer. It doesn't quite work for me.

I think "knock-down-and-drag-out" can only be read as an adjective. MELEE is a noun.

I wouldn't have the same complaint about "free-for-all."

Season's greetings

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GLORIA: That's disturbing. Oh—and it dances better than you do.

THANE: Thanks so much for these kind words.

* * *
Added later Marc has more attitude.