Paper Prototyping to the Extreme?
Well, it's actually an ad, not a paper prototype. But this video of gmail is just awesome. And many of the things they do in the video remind me of when I did my paper prototypes last semester. Enjoy!
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February 27, 2008
February 25, 2008
Grading for the First Time
As a PhD student, if I don't have a fancy fellowship, I have to work as a research assistant or teaching assistant to sustain myself economically. This semester, I am doing a little bit of both. And the one that seems a newer and a more different experience for me is being a TA (teaching assistant). One particular new aspect about it is the grading. This week, I have been grading my first assignment ever. I'm glad the class has only 20 students, because grading 20 assignments is tiring enough. (I still haven't finished, by the way). The fine balance between being merciful and being strict is just hard to find. This week I have gained a bit more respect for teachers everywhere (those who grade, of course).
February 21, 2008
It's Here: Round 2 of Imagine Cup's Algorithm Category
In less than three hours, the second round of the Algorithm category of the Imagine Cup competition will begin. For those of you that are unfamiliar with the competition, it is a worldwide competition hosted by Microsoft with nine technology-related categories. In the Algorithm category, 200 competitors make it to the second round. I was lucky enough to be in that group this year. I have already blogged about my experience during round one here, here, here and here. This second round will prove to be more challenging and require a deeper understanding of programming algorithms. I am lucky enough to be taking an advanced algorithms class this semester. So let's hope I can do a good job in this round too. I will keep posting on my progress throughout this round, which will end on May 2. Wish me luck!
February 18, 2008
My Own Company
Today I went to a conference on financing new technology ventures. It really got me pumped up. Everyday, I like more the idea of working in a small company or, even better, starting my own. I don't think I want to work in a large company or in Academia as soon as I get my PhD. I want to try some of my ideas out for myself and see where they lead me. Of course, the hard part is actually coming up with these ideas. If I am going to take the risk of starting a new company, I better have a good idea. I have four and a half more years to think of something (that is, assuming I finish my PhD in the supposed five years it's supposed to take). Let's see how that goes.
February 15, 2008
Valentine Road Trip
Tomorrow I am going to Illinois as part of my wife's Valentine's Day gift to me. It's a super short road trip to go to a concert of a band that I really enjoy. I am really excited about it. To celebrate Valentine's Day (although a day late), here are links to two funny Valentine videos from Mahalo Daily. Enjoy!
February 13, 2008
I Wish I Were In Alaska
This week, out of curiosity, I decided to look up the temperature in Juneau, Alaska. To my surprise, it was 15 degrees (F) warmer than here in Minneapolis! For the first time in my life, I found myself wishing I was in Alaska.
February 11, 2008
She Amazed Me: How Random Lyrics Can Sound Cool
Last month, Scott Adams, author of Dilbert, asked readers of his blog to write random lyrics that almost seemed to make sense. A band in Germany later combined many of those lyrics and turned them into a song. I must say, the resulting song is quite catchy. It almost seems to make sense. And I'm sure you can come up with some weird interpretation if you try hard enough. Here is a video that another reader of Scott Adam's blog put on Youtube with the song:
I believe this stands as proof that you don't really need much writing skills to come up with a hit song. Just luck and good music. My compliments to all those writers out there who actually put their minds into writing good songs. (I still don't mind the nonsensical songs with good music though!)
February 7, 2008
Puzzle Week, Day 7: Kakuro
I saved my favorite puzzle for last. Kakuro is said to be a mix of Sudoku and Crossword puzzles. It has logic similar to Sudoku, but with math added to it. The idea is to fill rows and columns with the specified sums using the numbers from 1 to 9 and without repeating a number in that column or row. A sample Kakuro puzzle and solution are below:
I find Kakuro puzzles challenging, but very fun. They really help you work on your math. That is, unless you use combinations cheat sheets, which really take the fun out of it and makes it loose its purpose. First time I tried Kakuro, it took me about 45 minutes to finish an easy one. After a while, I managed to get the time down for easy ones to around 5 minutes. Now I am back to about an hour of solving time tackling a book called "Black Belt Kakuro", which is the hardest out of a series of four Kakuro books. My challenge is trying to solve them without annotating possibilities in the cells, that is, only writing in a cell when I have the answer. Kakuro really is a great puzzle. If there is one puzzle book that you buy in the whole year, be sure to make it Kakuro. Happy solving!
February 6, 2008
Puzzle Week, Day 6: Crossword Puzzles
In my opinion, crossword puzzles are the most challenging puzzles of all. No amount of logic alone will get you through them. My wife and I started trying to solve crossword puzzles together about two months ago, mainly as a way to work on our English. The newspaper crossword puzzles proved to be too difficult for us, so we ended up buying a book of "over-easy" crossword puzzles. We still have trouble solving them, but once in a while we manage a perfect solution.
The compelling aspect of crossword puzzles is their need for mastery of the language and knowledge of the world. You can really learn a lot by solving (or trying to solve) crossword puzzles. You get to work on your geography, trivia, and language, all while having fun. Of course, if you start with newspaper puzzles, you will definitely feel overwhelmed.
I actually tried to work on one in my native language (Spanish), but did even worse. I think I'll stick with over-easy English crossword puzzles for now.
February 5, 2008
Puzzle Week, Day 5: Masyu
I am sure most of you have not heard of Masyu. I encountered this puzzle when I purchased (or received as a gift) a book called something like "The Monster Book of Japanese Puzzles". Masyu became one of my favorites. It's not too difficult in my opinion, but very fun. The idea is that you have black and white circles in a grid. You have to draw one continuous line that goes through all the circles. Lines cannot pass over one grid cell more than once. Lines must also turn 90 degrees when encountering a black circle. When encountering a white circle, lines cannot turn on the circle, but must turn before or after (or both). That is all there is to it. A sample puzzle with solution looks like this:
Interestingly, the name Masyu means "evil influence". That is not the original name though. The original name was actually Shiroshinju Kuroshinju, which means "white pearls and black pearls" in Japanese. Some of the characters were misread by the preseident of Nikoli, the company who publishes these puzzles, and the name became Masyu. Personally I prefer the short and simple Masyu.
Masyu books are not very common, but I have seen them in stores, as individual books and as part of puzzle collections. If you are really eager to try Masyu and can't find it, you can check the Nikoli website and order a book directly from Japan. Enjoy!
February 4, 2008
Puzzle Week, Day 4: Hanjie
Also known as Nonograms, Hanjie is a picture and number puzzle. The object is to fill in the cells in a grid to form a picture. To know which cells to fill in, you are given a set of numbers for each row and column that let you know how many consecutive cells are filled and in what order. For example, a "10 3" would mean that you have ten consecutive cells followed by an arbitrary numbers of empty cells and again followed by three consecutive filled cells. An example of a puzzle being solved (taken from Wikipedia) is shown below:
Although the more advanced Hanjie puzzles may still not be as challenging as advanced Sudoku puzzles, they are yet another good way to work on recognizing patterns. There is also some simple math (mostly counting) involved. I find Hanjie puzzles to be good for when I don't want to strain my mind as much but still want to work on puzzles. A good book to start out with if you are interested in Hanjie puzzles is "The Essential Book of Hanjie and How to Solve It", by Gareth Moore. Also, if you have a Nintendo DS, you might want to check out Picross, which is yet another name for Hanjie puzzles.
February 3, 2008
Puzzle Week, Day 3: Tangrams
The rules for tangram puzzles are very simple. You are given a shadow and seven pieces. The goal is to form the shadow's shape using the whole set of pieces. The pieces look like this:
And the shapes you have to build look like this:
Like jigsaw puzzles, tangrams help a lot with pattern recognition. Plus, they are very fun to play against friends, trying to see who can solve them first. They usually don't take too long, so if you want just a quick, short challenge, be sure to check tangrams out!
February 2, 2008
Puzzle Week, Day 2: Jigsaw Puzzles
The Spanish word for jigsaw puzzles is "rompecabezas". This literally means "head breaker". And it is no wonder why they got that name. Although many of use grew up with jigsaw puzzles, most of these had a lot less than 100 pieces. But when tackling a real jigsaw puzzle (one with 1,000 pieces or more), that's when you really start to feel your head about to brake. Of course, for serious jigsaw puzzle fans, 1,000 pieces is a walk in the park. The largest jigsaw puzzle has about 24,000 pieces. I actually saw it at a game store and I think I could fit in its box!
Jigsaw puzzles are a great way to work on your pattern recognition skills. You develop the ability to better recognize edges, color contrasts, and shapes. I recently started solving jigsaw puzzles and have already completed two 1000-piece jigsaw puzzles, the second one together with my wife (yes, jigsaw puzzles are very fun for building with friends!). If you think jigsaw puzzles are lame and 24,000 pieces are not enough for you, you can always try a colorless jigsaw puzzle. Go for it!
