I’ve been very busy lately and part of it is because I will be running a publication by the school of CSE of UNSW called BETA.
It will be a fortnightly publication full of tech related interviews, articles, puzzles and more all written by volunteers at the University of New South Wales. Check it out sometime.
The quality of internet services in South Africa suffer from poor bandwidth limitations. Frustrated with this problem, internet company Unlimited IT performed a stunt that showed it could transfer data much faster than Telcom’s (the contries leading ADSL provider) service.
Unlimited IT’s carrier pigeon backed data transfer reached speeds of 1 gigabyte per hour while transferring to a location 100km away. That’s a speed of about 270KB/second.
The idea to use homing pigeons to transfer information is not new. Ancient Egyptians were the first known civilization to be using carrier pigeons 3000 years go. The Roman’s used carrier pigeons to aid them in war over 2000 years ago. The use of carrier pigeons became most prominently known when their use became an important part of World War I and II.
On April fools day 1990, D. Waitzman of Cambridge Massachusetts described an internet protocol using carrier pigeons to transfer data in RFC 1149. This protocol later became known as IP over Avian Carriers (IPoAC). On April fools 1999, Waitzman improved the protocol in RFC 2549. In 2001 however, a Linux User Group took the idea a little too seriously and implemented the protocol using pigeons to transfer data over a distance of 5km, before Unlimited IT of South Africa implemented this protocol as a marketing stunt.
Scabbler is a new way to play Scrabble. It’s just like scrabble with the following new rules.
Placing words:
1. Words made in Scabbler must be non-scrabble-words. I.e. they can not appear in the Scrabble dictionary.
2. Words made in Scabbler must be well formed, that is, they must sound like a real English word.
Scoring points:
1. Same rules as scrabble
2. with the additional rule that non-scrabble words that anagram to scrabble words receive a multiplier of 1+the number of anagrams found at the time of placing a word.
Scabbing points:
1. A player can scab the points away from another player by contesting the non-scrabble-wordness of another players word by looking it up in the dictionary. If it turns out to be a real word, the contester receives the value of that word in points. If the word turns out to be a non-scrabble-word, then the contester loses half the value of that word in points.
That’s it. Happy gaming!
Similar to my last post, I wanted to know how many words in the English dictionary are palindromes. There are 78 in this words list, and none of them are very long.
Ada
Ala
Ana
Anna
Ara
Ava
Bib
Bob
Eve
Gog
Hannah
Laval
MGM
Malayalam
Nan
Ono
Otto
Salas
Tet
Tevet
Tut
aha
bib
bob
boob
civic
dad
deed
deified
did
dud
eke
ere
eve
ewe
eye
gag
gig
hah
huh
kayak
kook
level
ma’am
madam
minim
mom
mum
non
noon
nun
oho
pap
peep
pep
pip
poop
pop
pup
radar
redder
refer
rotor
sagas
sees
seres
sexes
shahs
sis
solos
stats
tat
tenet
tit
toot
tot
wow
The perl script that found them
map {print; print “\n”} grep {chomp; (lc($_) eq reverse lc($_)) && /../} <>
This curious question suddenly crossed my mind today.
What are the most common anagrams? In other words, if you took all the words in a dictionary and grouped all the anagrams together, which groups would be the biggest?
Here are the 100 most common anagrams
stael tesla least slate stale steal tales teals
carets caster caters crates reacts recast traces
pares parse pears rapes reaps spare spear
keats skate stake steak takes teaks
ingres singer reigns resign sering signer
east ates eats sate seat teas
palest pastel petals plates pleats staple
elsa lesa ales leas sale seal
post opts pots spot stop tops
alger elgar glare lager large regal
mensa amens manes manse means names
drapes padres parsed rasped spared spread
andes danes snead deans saned sedan
caret cater crate react recta trace
castor castro croats actors costar scrota
bates abets baste beast beats betas
lapse leaps pales peals pleas sepal
restrain retrains strainer terrains trainers
emits items mites smite times
ester reset steer terse trees
cretan canter nectar recant trance
easts tessa asset sates seats
lois oils silo soil soli
pores poser prose ropes spore
reins resin rinse risen siren
elam elma male lame meal
tosca ascot coast coats tacos
arts rats star tars tsar
moran norma ramon roman manor
ernest sterne enters resent tenser
darin indra randi drain nadir
drano norad ronda adorn radon
arced cadre cared cedar raced
eros rose ores roes sore
drawer redraw reward warder warred
idlest listed silted stiled tildes
angered derange enraged grandee grenade
capers crapes parsec recaps scrape
aster rates stare tares tears
enos eons noes nose ones
sabre bares baser bears saber
mister merits miters remits timers
parleys parsley players replays sparely
artiest artiste attires iratest tastier
miles selim limes slime smile
mabel mable melba amble blame
paste pates septa spate tapes
spears parses passer spares sparse
slater alerts alters salter staler
arno aron nora oran roan
enlist inlets listen silent tinsel
earp pare pear rape reap
alerting altering integral relating triangle
aridest astride staider tardies tirades
dearths hardest hatreds threads trashed
levi evil live veil vile
hares hears rheas share shear
dale leda deal lade lead
leno leon noel olen lone
seder deers deres reeds sered
glaser glares lagers larges regals
cesar acres cares races scare
astor sarto roast sorta taros
ares ears eras sear sera
deltas lasted salted slated staled
kendra danker darken narked ranked
persist priests spriest sprites stripes
abel bela elba able bale
elanor elnora lenora lorena loaner
mates meats steam tames teams
salem selma lames males meals
dniester inserted nerdiest resident trendies
tangiers angriest gantries ingrates rangiest
dorset sorted stored strode trodes
parts sprat strap tarps traps
patel leapt petal plate pleat
sahel hales heals leash shale
seton stone notes onset tones
beard debra bared bread debar
aden dane dean dena edna
claimed decimal declaim maliced medical
sung gnus guns snug
rites tiers tires tries
reduces rescued secured seducer
evan neva nave vane
leary early layer relay
latiner latrine reliant retinal
earth harte hater heart
cortes corset escort sector
asp pas sap spa
construe counters recounts trounces
artsy satyr stray trays
ate eat eta tea
past pats spat taps
esters resets serest steers
depart parted petard prated
boers bores robes sober
piers pries ripes spire
neil nile lien line
ambled bedlam blamed lambed
This is the words list used to create it. The full list of groups of anagrams can be found here, and the perl script used to generate that list below.
map {
chomp; s/'s//; tr/A-Z/a-z/; s/[^a-z]//;
$a = join '', sort split //;
$words{$a} = ($_) if !defined($words{$a});
$str = $_;
push @{$words{$a}}, $_ if !grep $_ eq $str, @{$words{$a}};
}<>;
for $w (sort {
$#{$words{$b}} <=> $#{$words{$a}}
} keys %words) {
for(@{$words{$w}}) {
print "$_ ";
}
print "\n";
}
Some of the words in this list are pronouns so you could say it’s cheating, but it’s the only word list I have at the moment.
This is an interesting group:
angered derange enraged grandee grenade
Which is the odd word out?
The word ‘anagram’ has no anagrams, what a pity.
logarithms is an anagram of algorithms
secretion is an anagram of erections
I received an email today that began with a question:
Are you looking to fast track your degree?
What does that mean? I had to look it up
“fast track”
a rapid means of achieving a goal; “they saw independence as the fast track to democracy”; “he took a fast track to the top of the corporate …
Ah no thanks, I’m quite happy with the pace that my degree is going.
“Fast track” isn’t a colloquially used term. You’ll never find two friends talking to each other asking, “hey you wanna fast track…”, or “dude, are you going to fast track that or what?” It probably came straight out of a corporate ‘vision statement’ brainstorming session, so it sounds foreign to us.
Emails that open with a question are intended to provoke a “yes” answer, but in most cases, it sounds more like annoying marketing speak. Not the good kind of marketing speak. The good kind of marketing speak sounds authentic, like a recommendation from a friend–someone you can trust. No, this is a failed attempt at marketing because it emulates the bad kind of marketing. The bad kind of marketing is the stereotype we have of marketing and sales people. The scheming, lying, dishonest, blood sucking, scum filled rodents in this service oriented economy. They’re the people who send you spam, the people who are trying to sell you drugs that you don’t want, the people who pretend to be your friend at school and abandon you when you needed them, the people who made your baby cry.
Why do emails that start with questions like this trigger such strong emotions of distrust? Maybe it’s because we’re exposed to far too much of this from spam and advertising. “Are you looking for the perfect vacation”, “what are you waiting for?”, “feeling depressed?”, “are you ready to get back to school?”. As a result, we’ve instinctively learned to respond with “No, and go away!”
Another reason that emails like this provoke these feelings might be that the sender didn’t have permission to ask. They’re questions that require you to think and make a decision. Some of them are personal, and they’re not the kind of questions that you would ask someone during the first meeting. Subconsciously your mind is saying “how dare you ask me that, I barely know you!”. Asking a personal question first without an introduction is a bad way to greet someone. Asking, “what time is it?” to a stranger is ok because it has a factual answer, and the person asking really wants to know. Your answering it is helping some else. Helping others is a good feeling. Even then, that question is usually proceeded by a request for permission ”excuse me, what time is it?”. On the other hand, a personal question, even one like “How are you?”, feels intrusive when it’s asked by a stranger. It provokes the response, “who are you to care?”, and in the context of a spam message, a positive response to it is like an invitation for more spam. Most people don’t like that.
A much better way to send that email would have been to use a more human greeting.
Hi Charles,
I’m from [blah] and we’re doing [this]. It might be interesting to you because you’re a computing student. etc etc..
There. That wasn’t so hard was it? It’s much more authentic, like a greeting from a real human, not a marketing drone.
This quote came from a recent post by Seth Godin.
After the decision, going down the path is the easy part.
Decisions without perfect information is scary. Often times we have to make decisions with uncertain outcomes. If waiting longer means that we can obtain more information to help make that decision, then wait. But I think that more often than not, waiting longer doesn’t help and it’s not worth the agony of worry and indecision. The easiest way to become certain is to make a decision and go with it.
It’s easier said than done, and I often have to remind myself of this.
Most people are normal. They’re good at some things, but not that good at other things. Some people are extraordinary; they’re so good at something that they become known as gifted or talented in the thing they’re good at. The girl who always tops the class is extraordinary. The guy who regularly wins the poker tournament is extraordinary. The athlete who is the best in the world for more than 4 years in a row is extraordinary.
Being good at everything is extraordinary, but being the best at one thing is also extraordinary. It’s getting harder to be good at everything. The domain of human knowledge now is far too great for a single person to learn. Competition is far too fierce for anyone to be the best at more than one sport. I would bet that more extraordinary people today are only extraordinary in a very narrow domain compared to extraordinary people only 100 years ago.
The good news is that there are more opportunities to be extraordinary today because there is more to do today than there was in the past. You could be the bests player of a particular video game or the best lecturer in the university. If you’re the best, you will be noticed and labeled extraordinary. Being noticed gives you the power to influence those who noticed you. With that power you can become more extraordinary.
When it comes to being extraordinary, the sum of above average skills across a large variety of disciplines is not perceived to be nearly as extraordinary as being the best at one thing, even if the narrow focus of becoming the best made you below average in many other skills.
I guess the lesson to learn here is to invest in becoming extraordinary, because being somewhat good at lots of things is only just above mediocre.
This post was inspired by “Why the 80-20 rule is wrong“.
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