The tutor shares another surprise from Boggle. I’ve seen the word anon in various places, but can’t remember where. Of course, it’s an abbreviation for anonymous. Playing Boggle with the family the other night, I had the opportunity to make …
The tutor reveals how he solved a problem with Windows Live Mail. As the in-house computer troubleshooter, I received the following request from my wife today: “I can’t open .pdf attachments from within the email program, but I always could …
The tutor shares a definition he stumbled upon. I’ve never thought about it much, but always believed I knew the difference between a lake and a pond. However, the guessing is over for any who may be in doubt; I …
The tutor continues about the golden ratio. In yesterday’s post I brought up the golden ratio. Historically, it’s believed to be the ideal shape for a rectangle. The ratio of length to width is (1+5^(1/2)):2 or 1.618:1 Below is a …
Math: radical expressions: the golden ratio, continued Read more »
The tutor introduces the golden ratio. The golden ratio is defined as x/y, where x/y = (x+y)/x, x>y, y>0 Muliplying both sides by xy gives x^2=xy+y^2 which leads to x^2-xy-y^2=0 Using the quadratic formula to solve for x, we imagine …
The tutor reveals a long-anticipated find. I’d heard cascara is abundant here on the west coast, yet, until the other day, had not positively identified any. That evening, right after supper, I headed into some nearby woods with the purpose …
The tutor brings up a shrub perhaps noticeable now. Around here nowadays, one often sees small trees (shrubs) abundant with red berries. They have compound leaves. My guide suggests they are mountain-ash. One I examined closely has sharp-pointed leaflets; I …
Tree identification from a field guide: mountain-ash Read more »
The tutor shares a chess observation. The summer hasn’t left me with substantial mental resources for chess playing, but I’ve had some good games. I’ve also been watching kingscrusher and MatoJelic on YouTube. From all three sources, I’ve noticed an …
The tutor shares another of his field finds. Out in the woods a few days ago with the field guide, my simple plan was to identify a new plant. I didn’t know what or where it would be, but expected …
Plant identification from a field guide: foamflower Read more »
The tutor continues about Perl arrays with another trick. For background, the reader can look up yesterday’s post. The main idea is that an array is a list of values. Let’s imagine an array declared as follows: @arr0=(“milk”,”eggs”,”bread”); To print …