My Dream PC is no more

I've been permanently attached to my trusty tablet PC over the last few months, and have grown a bit impatient with its sluggishness. It's three years old, and I was interested in obtaining something more powerful. Here are my requirements:

• WACOM pen compatible
  


• More than 3 gigs of memory
  


• DVD reader/writer
  


• 64-bit OS capable
  


• At least 2.2 GHz
  


• Less than $1500
  

I was happy to see it existed in Gateway's C-142XL. Gateway's tablet PCs have been underrated by review forums online. For some reason, Gateway has avoided the "tablet" tag and instead opted for "convertible"– perhaps this is a weight issue – but the result is that Gateway tablets fail to show up as competition for the Lenovos or Toshibas. At any rate after finally calling Gateway directly (1-800-GATEWAY will most likely redirect you to one of their preferred vendors), I found out the bad news. Gateway will no longer be making any tablet PCs. It appears that my dream machine was made in limited quantities this summer but it's no more.

There are two that come close:

• HP Pavilion tx1420: lacks the speed and screen size of the once C-142XL
  


• Fujitsu T4220: more expensive, slower, less memory than the once C-142XL
  

Stoichiometric Machines of the Future

A few weeks ago, I finally got around to watching "The Inconvenient Truth." The next day the Wired magazine showed up with a special on cutting carbon. How could we have been stupid for so long? Well, the following equation is just so damn easy on this planet:

_C_nH_m + _O₂ = _CO₂ + _H₂O + energy.........................(1)

It's the combustion equation. We use it solely to produce the energy (Gibbs free energy) that comes out of the right hand side. You do this when you throw logs on your campfire, when you throw coal in your potbelly stove, and when you put globs of Texas Tea in your Horseless Carriage. It's even what happens in your lungs. All we wanted was the energy but when you examine the other terms you see the problem. The left side wants some hydrocarbon (with various m's and n's that produces dollars and wars in the Middle East) and the right side produces carbon dioxide – that's the gaseous carbon causing all the problems. If you want to get technical, there's a host of other chemical reactions that are also in there. Nothing we can do about the equation. It's not inherently evil. It's just that we've done it 10⁴⁰ times in the last 5000 years.

Therefore, what we need to do is create other machines that perform other chemical conversions to offset the problems this one has caused - and run those machines 24-7 to set things right. One of the more popular ideas is to fuel cells to create energy instead. This is done by:

_H₂ + _O₂ = _H₂O + energy .........................(2)
This is what futurists call the hydrogen economy. But where the heck are we going to get hydrogen in bulk quantities?

In order to do either of these energy producing equations when we want where we want, we should seek to build plants or devices that do the reverse. Unfortunately, doing the reverse will require energy. So these things will have to be solar powered. Somehow, we need to do this: energy + _CO₂ + substrate = _O₂ + carbon filled substrate.........................(3)

It seems a couple people have had similar ideas in recent years. Perhaps the best one is Nobel Prize winner Dr. G.A. Olah and the Methanol Institute approach to make methanol from carbon dioxide and hydrogen. But still, where do we get the hydrogen? The most tried and true way is simple electrolysis.
energy + 2*H₂O = O₂ + 2*H₂ .........................(4)

That's just zapping water with electricity.

Anyway, my idea is to set up household machines. Machines for every rooftop in the nation (in the world), which just toil away at the latter two equations whenever the sun is shining. The hardest one is the third equation. But perhaps, we could use carbon nanotubes or the like with billions of activation centers to reach out and grab the carbon dioxide and add the carbon to itself. I don't know if it'll work. In the meantime, plant a tree. Plant life does the 3^rd equation one pretty well.

Comparing 70’s Jazz-Fusion Supergroups with Operating Systems

Last night I saw Return to Forever in concert. The opening date of their first tour in 25 years. Their nervousness and the crowd's anticipation nearly stifled their astounding performance. But I must say, it was quite a thrill. Afterwards, I overheard fans fantasizing about seeing reunions of other jazz-fusion supergroups of that same era - Weather Report and Mahavishnu Orchestra. Thinking of that triumvirate lead me to this most dorky of all analogies. Return to Forever is to Microsoft as Mahavishnu is to Mac as Weather Report is to Linux. Let me explain.

Return to Forever is the least rebellious (some would say least cool). Their products are often overly complex and that sometimes complicates the central goal. Some product features are added to great effect others not so much (Hello Again?).

Mahavishnu Orchestra on the other hand consistently put out lethally brilliant pieces that appealed to hip rockers. It was, however, ruled by an overcontrolling tyrant.

Finally, Weather Report started out with creations that were free. It had a huge roster of brilliant but forgettable players that didn't stick around for long. They had a slow evolution from eclectic pieces to more commercial stuff that, in the end, consistently missed opportunities to be truly innovative. And maybe Jaco is Google! Taking the group towards its cohesive peak and later breaking off to develop his own successful (and better) material.

Well that was fun, but I don't suppose we'll be hearing Celestial Terrestrial Commuters in an Itunes commercial anytime soon.

Repost: The Toughest Logic Puzzle

This is a repost from two years ago. That post had become inundated with splogger comments, so I'm reposting it. I’ve taken the liberties (or perhaps you view it as an injustice if you are the original author) to rewrite a puzzle I once heard. I can find no reference to it online, so here goes.
Tale of the Diseased Monks
One Sunday evening after working in the fields, the secluded monks of the Kaetorsian order gathered for evening prayers. After the usual somber songs and pious prayers, the high priest said, “I have a grave announcement. It appears a horrible disease has fallen on our community this fine spring day. I know this because the disease results in a purple spot on your forehead, and I can see that some of you have this. From what I know of this most evil disease - you will remain unharmed for 14 days. After which, the disease will spread to others, and you will experience a most painful passing that may last months. If we are not careful, this disease will completely destroy our peaceful monastery. Therefore, I ask that those of you who have this spot to please remove yourself from our community immediately. I pray (for my sake!) that this matter will be resolved before these two weeks are over. Despite the fact that all of you have taken a vow of silence, and a vow of humility, and thus will not be able to inform one another of the forehead spot, and even though we lack mirrors and the lake is choppy and you are unable to see for yourself whether you have this spot, you are all trained highly in the ways of logic and will be able to deduce on your own whether or not you have become infected. In this way, we will carry on as we always have: working solitarily all morning and congregating here every evening to share in this holy life. Some of you would prefer that I simply point out those of you who are diseased and while I have not taken the vow of silence that you have taken, my vow of humility prevents me from calling attention to your dysfunctions. Good night”
The next few days passed as they always have. The monks that had been infected seemed as good natured as the others, and no one treated one another any differently. However, after more than a week, as the two week deadline approached, an air of nervousness crept in. The second Saturday after the high priest’s announcement was particularly tense. The next day marked the two week deadline before the disease was to spread again, and the diseased monks were still working and praying along side the healthy ones. After the congregation disbanded from the Saturday evening prayers, the monks returned to their private quarters. On Sunday, two weeks after the high priest announcement, all of the diseased monks were gone. Through their highly tuned logic skills, they were able to determine that they had been affected and sacrificed themselves for the good of the monastery.

How many monks were infected (the actual number, please)? And how did they determine it?

My only hint is the following. What would you notice if you were the only one infected?

The Newest, Most Unique Domino Game

Dominid is a result of buying a set of dominoes and realizing how boring and skill-less domino games were. So, here is the first ever published instructions for the best new domino game of the 21^st century.

Dominid

• Required: 28 regular dominoes (0 to 6) and 2 people
  
• Objective: To have the lowest score after all dominoes have been played.
  

Like most domino games, the two players draw and add dominoes to a single structure of dominoes that takes form in the middle of the playing area. But as you can see from the figures, this shape can be built "up" as well as "out." It is for this reason that standard dominoes that are exactly twice as long as they are wide are necessary in order to stack correctly. Also, the big difference in Dominid is that players place dominoes side-by-side as opposed to end-to-end. In placing a domino, the only constraint is that it borders two numbers (see Fig. 1 and Fig. 5) – it doesn't have to be the same numbers. The issue is that one's score is determined (in part) by the distance between the placed domino and the one it borders. By distance, I am referring to the total difference in the numbers. So, for example, the last domino placed by a player in Figure 1 is the top one (2 6). Since this is adjacent to (2 5), then user score goes up one point (1 pt. = 2 – 2 + 6 – 5). And yes, this is always positive – that's why we call it a distance.	Figure 1: Unlike other domino games, the numbers don't have to match, but your scorce will depend on how different your "placed" domino is from its neighbors.
Next up. Building upwards. The next player drew the doublet (5 5). She wants to place it next to the 5 & 4 to minimize how much her score goes up. She can actually place this right on top of the 5 & 4 as is shown in Figure 2. Here it gets a tad more complicated. Determining the distance to 5 & 4 is only one option, since it is also next to 2 & 1 and (6 4). So, she could choose to make her distance 7 or 2 respectively. But, of course, since she wants to minimize her score it is compared to the 5 & 4 below. In this way, more options are available when building up than building to the side. But there is one constraint: a domino cannot be placed directly over another. For example, this (5 5) domino could not be placed on top of the (6 4) in the first and second figures. You can only build up by straddling two other dominos that are at the same height.	Figure 2: Building on Figure 1, a 5-doublet is placed on top of the (5 4).
That's the easy part. Now here comes the real strategic element. One player is assigned the odd numbers (1, 3, 5) and the other is assigned the even numbers (2, 4, 6). At the end of the game, the evens player can subtract off from their score any contiguous cluster of same even numbers, so long as that cluster is greater than 3. An example? Good idea. In Figure 3, all dominoes have been played. The evens-player current has 17 but since there is a cluster of three 4's and three 6's, the end score is 17 – 3 – 3 = 11. The odd player ends with a 15, and he also has two clusters of three: the row of 5's and the 1's to the right. His score is 9. Hence, "odd" wins since 9 is lower than 11. A cluster of three pieces is worth three points, a cluster of four is worth four, five is worth five, etc. A cluster of two (or one) is not worth any points. Okay, that the gist of it. Let me start over with a more detailed description.	Figure 3: A final configuration shows that "even" has 2 contiguous clusters of three numbers (4 and 6), and "odd" has two clusters (1 and 5).
Start: All pieces are placed face down on the table and shuffled (moved about randomly). Both players simultaneously draw a piece from the pile and place it face up (as in Figure 4). Add the total of each piece. The player with the higher value goes first. If the two tiles have the same total (e.g. (4 0) and (1 3)) than the player with the highest single value wins (4 0). The player with the losing domino must arrange the two side by side in the center of the table while the winning player draws three dominoes to start their hand. Then, the losing player draws their 3 dominoes. The winning player plays his first domino and then declares whether he want odds or evens. Note, this doesn't change what you dominoes you play. Even though, you declare evens you will likely be forced to play many odds, since drawing new dominoes is a random affair. However, since your score in the end will depend on the clusters of the numbers you declared in the beginning, you will find yourself playing different strategies with these pieces. After each placement of a domino, draw a new one so that you always have 3 dominoes in your hand. It's best to keep them a secret from the other player, otherwise they can use this knowledge against you. Players take turns until all dominoes are played. In the last few rounds, the draw pile will be empty so your hand will dwindle from 3 to 2 to 1 final piece. There will be countless places to play a piece at any given turn. The only limitation is that your pieces must border two other pieces and cannot completely cover another piece. Figure 5 illustrates these two forbidden cases. With each turn, players should announce their new score. You can think of the scoring like golf. You want to have the lowest score, so each move will cost you some "strokes" depending on how different your placed piece is from those around it. If your piece stacks on top of others, remember - you can take whatever pair of neighbors leads to the lowest score (as in the example of Figures 1 and 2). But it must be a neighboring pair - not one number to the left for the top digit and one to the right for the bottom digit. Okay, so that's it for basic game play. In terms of strategy, that's a whole other matter. You want to try to connect your numbers in clusters while you play so that at the end, you can take off a big chunk of points. You can also strive to cover your opponent's numbers to break up his clusters. Since you can't control what dominoes end up in your hand, you will often be playing odds even though you're trying to build even clusters. You will also learn that doublets take on a particular advantage in this game. If possible, hold onto those until the end. This is the first attempt to write up these instructions, so feel free to post your questions.	Figure 4: First two pieces of a new game are simultaneously drawn by the two players.
	(a) (b) Figure 5: The only types of moves that are not allowed are (a) placing a piece completely over another, or (b) not being along side two other numbers.