What's next?

I got this problem from Paul Zeitz book (The art and craft of problem solving).

What is the next member in this sequence?

1, 11, 21, 1211, 111221, ...

C# grid control

It is frustrating that Microsoft Visual Studio does not provide support for grid controls for C#. Fortunately, I found an open source C# grid control classes called SourceGrid from the Code Project website. SourceGrid supports virtual grids, custom cells and editors, advanced formatting options, and many other amazing features.

Hunger for recognition

Remember the Faye Nicole San Juan hoax? India has its own version -- CNN recently posted a story about Saurabh Singh who allegedly won the NASA's International Scientist Discovery examination. This 17 year old said he took the exam at Oxford University, London. He also said that the Indian astronaut Kalpana Chawla, who died in the Columbia shuttle explosion in 2003, administered the exam.

The problem? There's no NASA International Scientist Discovery examination. The Oxford University denies that there's such an exam. Dragging the name of the dead astronaut in this scam didn't help. Furthermore, he has no passport.

It seems that this delusional guy got a monetary award from the government and a day's salary of more than 100 members of the upper house. Ok. Maybe he's not delusional after all -- he's just a wise guy. :)

Kid's Health

The Kid's Health website (kidshealth.org) is a great site to look for articles about dealing with sick child. With my son having colds and fever, the recent article by Steven Dowshen, MD is particularly helpful.

Answering Machine Joke

Perfect for those unwanted calls. :)

Hi, this is Jim. Thanks for calling during my spring pledge drive.
A basic membership is only $30, and a $60 pledge gets you an
"I love Jim Shea" T-shirt. Please wait for the tone, and
thank you for your pledge.

This joke came from this site.

Three-peat

The Ateneo de Naga computer animation students bagged the top prize of the annual Animazing Shorts tilt for the third time. I am proud of them.

Terps are no match to Tigers

Clemson tigers sweep the Maryland terrapins this season by winning today's game, 97-93.

Avatar - the last air bender

We accidentally seen the start of a brand new show in Nickelodeon: Avatar - the last air bender. The show's teaser is here.

Online class

I want to learn how to program in C#. Fortunately IEEE provides a free online course on C# to its members. I enrolled in course 2124 (programming with C#) last 24 January 2005. I completed today all the 14 modules on C#.

Did I learn anything? Oh yes -- there are a couple of features in C# which my favorite language (i.e. C) doesn't have. If I have some time, I may do some software projects using C#.

Sweeping the hurricanes

The hokies beat the canes today -- the second time this season. With this win, the hokies are now post-season eligible. They need another win though to have a winning season in the ACC. They will face the wolfpack next saturday.

UPDATE: The story of the 71-58 win against Miami is here.

Some cartoons

The cartoons posted on this site made me laugh. :)

Thriller at Cassel

The virginia tech hokies beat the duke blue devils today 67-65! During the last 5 seconds, the dukes tried their last attempt for 3-points -- the ball bounced off the ring and caught by Dixon.

The last time the hokies beat the blue devils was in 1966. Better luck next time dukes. :)


A grab of SI.com's headline showing the late 3-points by Zabian Dowdell

Eight more remaining

I was able to find 13 more commemorative quarters (Delaware, Pennsylvania, Massachusets, Vermont, Kentucky, Lousiana, Indiana, Mississippi, Alabama, Missouri, Iowa, Florida, and Michigan). I now have a total of 27 out of 35 coins (not 31 as I previously posted).

I'm still on the lookout for Maine, Wisconsin, Texas, California, Minnesotta, Oregon, Kansas, and West Virginia. I might not be lucky to collect all 35 coins soon as the 2005 coins may not be in the circulation yet. The US Mint website has details on the 10 year schedule of US state quarters.

US state quarters

I find it amazing that commemorative quarters sell as much as $9.95 a piece. There are now a total of 31 US state commemorative quarters -- short of 19.

1999: Delaware, Pennsylvania, New Jersey*, Georgia*, Conneticut*
2000: Massachusets, Maryland*, South Carolina*, New Hampshire*, Virginia*
2001: New York*, North Carolina*, Rhode Island*, Vermont, Kentucky
2002: Tennessee*, Ohio*, Lousiana, Indiana, Mississippi
2003: Illinois*, Alabama, Maine, Missouri, Arkansas*
2004: Wisconsin, Iowa, Texas, Florida, Michigan
2005: California

I have 14 out of these 31 coins. Let's see if I can complete this collection. :)

Happy Valentines!

With my family on the other side of the world, I just have to content myself with long-distance calls. :) Happy Valentines day everyone.

Another open source graphics software

If you are into computer modeling and animation, you might want to check Blender. Blender is an open source software for 3D modeling, animation, rendering, post-production, interactive creation and playback.

Some open source graphics programs

I recently surfed the net searching for open source graphics programs. I found alternatives to highly priced Adobe Photoshop and Adobe Illustrator.

GIMP (GNU Image Manipulation Program) is what it says it is. It can be used to manipulate JPEGs, PNGs, TIFFs, and other images just like Adobe Photoshop.

Inkscape. It is a vector based illustration software like Adobe Illustrator. I did a few doodles using it and the results look fine.

These programs install in Windows and Linux systems. Best of all, they are free.

I am ...

(c) Jorge Cham

three way tie

A day after duke blue devils won the unc-duke thriller, wake forest joined the ACC top teams in a three way tie. Duke blue devils (18-2, 8-2 ACC), Wake Forest demon deacons (20-3, 8-2 ACC), and UNC tar heels (19-3, 8-2 ACC) lead the ACC league.

How about the hokies? Well, they are still 5-5 in the ACC. They lost two games in a row (against Wake Forest demon deacons and Maryland terrapins). They will travel to Charlottesville this saturday to face the Virginia cavaliers for the second time this season.

Facing mortality

Today is ash wednesday -- a day meant to remind us of our mortality.

I caught the 5:30pm mass held at Squires before going home.

Mother's day!

Happy birthday nanay! I love you.

Repairing Basic Education

Randy David of Inq7.net wrote about the prospect of repairing basic education in the Philippines. His essay came about because of the recent issue of whether to add another year of basic education or not. As he said, perhaps the issue is not the number of years. Perhaps the quality of education is the issue -- quality that should not be confused with using english as a medium of instruction.

My best teachers in basic education mathematics never hesitated using the native language when teaching. I'd say I learned a lot from them. I may never reached graduate school if not for them.

Sweatshops for Virtual worlds

A sweatshop company ending up in court for manufacturing digital weaponry. A digital island sold for $30,000.00. Weird? MSNBC has this very interesting article about how law (and economics) encroaches in the virtual world.

Pagmamahal

While surfing the net, I found this poem written by Rico Abelardo. He was my teacher in Filipino literature back in college. He is also a good friend of mine.

He now has a loving wife and daughter. He is practicing law somewhere in Manila.

Mangyari Lamang

Mangyari lamang ay tumayo ang mga nagmamahal
Nang makita ng lahat ang mukha ng pag-ibig
Ipamalas ang tamis ng malalim na pagkakaunawaan
Sa mga malabo ang paningin.

Mangyari lamang na tumayo rin ang mga nagmahal at nasawi
Nang makita ng lahat ang mga sugat ng isang bayani
Ipadama ang pait ng kabiguan
Habang ipinagbubunyi ang walang katulad
Na kagitingan ng isang nagtaya.

Mangyari lamang ay tumayo ang mga nangangambang magmahal
Nang makita ng lahat ang kilos ng isang bata
Ipamalas ang katapatan ng damdamin na pilit ikinukubli
Ng pusong lumaki sa mga engkanto't diwata.

Mangyari lamang na tumayo ang nagmahal, minahal at iniwan
Ngunit handa pa ring magmahal
Nang makita ng lahat ang yaman ng karanasan
Ipamalas ang katotohanang nasaksihan
Nang maging makahulugan ang mga paghahagulhol sa dilim.

At sa mga nanatiling nakaupo
Mangyari lamang ay dahan-dahang tumalilis
Palabas sa nakangangang pinto
Umuwi na kayo!
At sumbatan ang mga magulang
Na nagpalaki ng isang halimaw.

At sa lahat ng mga nakaiwang nakatayo
Mangyari lamang na hagkan ang isa't isa
At yakapin ang mga sugatan
Mabuhay tayong lahat
Na nagsisikap makabalik sa ating pinagmulan
Manatiling masaya at higit sa lahat
Magpatuloy sa pagmamahal.

RICO ABELARDO

Baybayin

It is remarkable for a canadian to put up a very informative website about baybayin, the alphabet used by early filipinos. Paul Morrow even sought the help of a pinoy to ensure the correct filipino translations of his essays.

Burden of writing papers

I just submitted a paper for possible publication in BMC bioinformatics. I have been doing the painful revisions for quite a while and I'm happy to finally get it out the door. I can now concentrate on finishing another one.

Cannot go past 63

Today, the hokies won the road game at Miami, 73-63. The lady hokies also beat Richmond, 79-63.

The CAP folly

Good thing I never considered CAP.

(c) PMJunior (appeared in Inq7.net on 02/01/05)