Windows and Linux

The car analogy

• Windows is an SUV. Linux is a hybrid.

The sex analogy

• One is like having sex with a partner who doesn't move at all. The other is like having sex with a lot of power play. Frustrating at times, but rewarding.

The religion analogy

• One belongs to a denomination that fears the number 13. The other is an atheist who pretends at times to be a Pastafarian.
  

The shoe analogy

• One is a pair of boots on the verge of going out of fashion. The other is a shoe kit that comes with a manual teaching you how to be cobbler. And how to design a shoe that stays atop of fashion.
  

The significant other analogy

• One is the kind who had looked attractive at first sight, but who you now perceive to be unreliable and emotionally distant. The other caused you immense frustration, but is always ready to learn and compromise.

The teenager analogy

• One is the party boy. The other is the introverted studious one who seems to know something about everything.
  

The pedagogy analogy

• The first one believes in "no child left behind". The other one believes in self-learning.

The young parent analogy

• One is your standard authoritarian parent. The other is overly permissive, but slightly negligent.
  

The married couple analogy

• The first is a both in work, no kids couple; he works in customer service, she works in advertising. The other one has the guy working in a home office as an indie game developer, with his fellow colleagues coming over for visits as she tends to the house and blogging actively. (well, this analogy is quite digressive)

The elderly person analogy

• One constantly nags at you because he/she has to go to the loo. The other one has a lot of moral personal experiences to tell your child.
  

Project Euler

I'm not sure if I'd mentioned this already, but if someone else is interested in solving the recreational mathematics problems over at this web page, Project Euler, I'd give you a hug or any monetary reward less than or equal to S$2.

Please? It's so lonely.


Pretty please?

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ci_(poetry)

It was so beautiful I simply had to link to it.

The bus and wabi-sabi

Wabi-sabi. Or, in Japanese, 侘寂. The first letter, spelled wabi in Japanese, suggests disappointment and abandonment. The second letter, sabi in Japanese, suggests stillness and desolation. Together, these characters represent a Japanese aesthetic that cannot easily be explained without examples.

The bus sported its indiscreet uniform of orange, white and purple.Today, I boarded the bus home. Sat in the front seat on the second deck for it offered the widest view.
The plastic pane covering the tube which the driver looked through to observe the upper deck had its frame broken.
One side was missing. The others were chipped.
The window was stained with teardrops of translucent grey dust; its gray frame was yellow with dirt.
There weren't many people up on the second deck; just me and a few aging uncles performing an on-again-off-again conversation in a dialect that would probably disappear from regular usage given another generation.


Everything was incomplete, they have suffered under the hand of time.

And in it all in all the dirt and dust and rust it was beautiful.


Like the journal wrinkled from rain and dog-eared from thumbing.

Unlike the storybook protected by non-biodegradable plastic.

Like the clumps of damaged thread on your aged garment.

Unlike the dress and sash you bought just yesterday.

Like the yellowing bedsheets of five years old.

Unlike the LCD television, sleek and glossy.


The paint forced on the bus peel under rain revealing bits and portions of metal dulled white.

2 ideas

1. Bottled coffee
   
   
   
   • Well, we have bottled tea already, so why not? It might be a cultural crime, but there are lots of apathetic wage slaves who just want to get their jolt of caffeine in the office from a 500mL/1.5L bottle. Of course, research must be done on the effects of acidic coffee on plastic bottles.
   
   
   
   


2. 
   Online file storage
   
   
   
   • But we have Google Docs already! And box.net! Well, the thing I'm considering right now is not so much google docs. Imagine an online file storage service that can be opened in your file browser (or Windows Explorer). Your zip and archive files can be opened, you have thumbnails for your pictures, you have previews of your file icons, your flash files are animated, your video files too, your program code is highlighted, and, you have an integrated image editor, text editor, word processor, archiver, spreadsheet program, presentation editor, and all the office programs save in the ODT format. You can also save and open HTTP files/web pages. By the way, check out www.liondrive.com
   
   
   
   

Immature fac and nCr functions in Python

Okay, here goes nothing!

def fac(n,k=1):
 #k for multifactorials
 if n<k:
     return 1
 else:
     return n*fac(n-k)

def nCr(n,*k): #(n,k1,k2,k3,k4), no k defaults to n/2
 #negative generalization not supt for multifact
 for r in k:
     r=r//1 #get floor of r
     if r<0: #negative exception
         return 0
 if not k:
     k=(abs(n)//2,)
 if len(k)<=1: #if binomial, n*...*(n-k+1)/k!
     prod=1 #k=n-k is not used for negative considerations
     for i in range(k[0]):
         prod*=n/(i+1)
         n-=1
 else: #if multinomial, n!/k1!k2!k3, does not generalize to neg
     if n<0: #negative exception
         return 0
     prod=fac(n)
     for r in k: #for every dimension
         prod/=fac(r)
 return prod

Hehe : D