Tangential Ramblings

The presidential race continues, the only saving grace being that it will all come to an end on Tuesday.  I'm sad to say I'm not surprised at Bush and Kerry's using Bin Laden's latest video in their final days' campaigning.  Just for the record, you can download all three of their presidential debates for free from iTunes.  Meanwhile, apparently, Princess Alice has died at the ripe old age of 102.  I'm sure she was a lovely lady, but I have to say that throughout the last third of her life (during most of which I was alive), I never heard any reference to her.  That being said, she probably never heard of me either.

John Peel's death earlier in the week came as a huge shock, although not surprisingly it gained little (no) coverage this side of the Pond.  I was never a big fan, although I completely understand those who were.  Few figures in the world of entertainment will cause such shock and grief at their passing.  As someone close recently put it, it wasn't necessarily his choice in music that people tuned in for; it was the enthusiasm he had for that music.  Murray Walker and Sid Waddell spring to mind as fitting a similar mould - you may not tune in for the F1 or darts, more for the unabated enthusiasm in their commentary.

I've successfully survived a week in my new job. Fly to Boston on Sunday evening for a week of training. It's good to get back into the swing of things with work, and it's nice that quite a bit of it is familiar territory. Having said that, it occupies a lot of your time (don't you know). With regard to the 'blog, this means less time to update it, but more importantly, less time to think about the trivialities that make it up. Which is a shame, given the enjoyment with which the audience has no doubt been reading over the summer.

Money in the US has always caused me grief, but given our length of time here this time, I felt compelled to get it off my chest. (Quite a bit of what I write can be considered "getting it off my chest" as opposed to stuff that I think other people may be interested in. You may have noticed.) Some people will be aware of, even perhaps frustrated by, my compulsion in the UK to have all the notes in my wallet the right way up, with the Queen facing front, and in descending order of size (both monetary and area). So, £50 notes (yeah, right) go at the back, then £20s then £10s then £5s at the front. This compulsion means that when I get change, it takes a little more time than other people might take, as I slot the £5 and the £10 into my wallet hierarchically, but it means peace of mind for me and a known state for my next purchase.

Two factors make this process difficult in the US:

• All notes are the same size and the same colo(u)r
• $1 bills are so commonplace that there are way more notes doing the rounds and way fewer coins.

This means that when you get change, you're often presented with seven or eight notes. Arranging these into the right sequence in my wallet would take quite a bit of time, partly cos there are a lot to arrange, and partly because there are more notes already in my wallet into which to slot them. Anyone with me at the time would probably have walked a couple of blocks before I was able to leave the shop.

The result is that instead of paying a $7 total with the seven crumpled $1 bills in my pocket, I'll use the $10 bill in my wallet, thus adding to the crumpled wad of ones. It also results in a nightly regrouping for my wallet, where the pocket's contents are slotted into their rightful place (Washington, Jackson, Hamilton, Franklin et al. all facing front, of course).

I don't think the issue is going to go away, but as my Dad once pointed out (and I'm yet to find an answer), how do blind people cope? Do they rely on trust with the vendor, or is there a subtle difference in texture for each of the notes? Anyone?

Last night there was a total eclipse of the Chrysler Building as the Empire State cast it in shadow as the sun set.  Later that evening, there was a full lunar eclipse on the west coast.  I wonder if there's going to be a time when all four entities are lined up - the sun, the moon, the Empire State and the Chrysler.  That'd be cool.

So Boston have exorcised those demons with an impressive 4-0 win against the Cardinals.  Being in New York meant that it didn't make the huge news that it no doubt did in Boston.  I'm off to Boston on Sunday, so it will be good to be there for the after-show party.

There's a certain stigma attached with working in Jersey City, mainly because it's not Manhattan.  I have to challenge this.  I now have a desk, and have a wonderful view (on the few occasions when I look up from my laptop) of mid-town, dominated by the bold Empire State Building, with its beautiful little sister (the Chrysler Building) off to the right.  The Hudson sweeps northwards up to the George Washington Bridge.  This is something you rarely see from mid-town Manhattan.

I enjoyed seeing the antithesis of Poundstretcher the other day on Broadway.  A shop was having a sale (I think), advertising "Every Item: $10 and up".  Were they indicating that the higher prices are a sign of quality?  Not sure.

Could well be the final game of the World Series tonight, the Red Sox leading 3-0.  Any Yankee fan would tell you that it's not over 'til the fat lady sings, but I'm confident that they'll pull it off while they're still down in St. Louis - either tonight or tomorrow.

As was kindly pointed out by Mr. Fox (aka Mr. Fowler) on my recent trip to the UK, today I was idiot new boy.  Fortunately, the day passed without major incident, mainly as I was surrounded by many other idiot new boys and girls in a training session.

It was thoroughly enjoyable, although three months' unemployment meant that it probably took more out of me than it should.  I'll struggle to stay awake for the entirety of tonight's Broncos vs. Bengals match, kicking off at 9pm EST.

Will be travelling to Boston on Sunday for a week's induction.  There is the chance that Sunday will see the deciding game of the World Series at Fenway Park, which would be fun to be around for, although the Red Sox' dominant start (2-0 after two home games) suggests that it might all be over before then.  (BTW, that sentence raised an issue that I thought of a while ago: how should you apostrophise plural words ending in X.  Off the top of my head, this is the only such word.  I like to think that x' is acceptable.)

I think Britain has a good balance between the work-shy Europe and the workaholic Americans (the latter of which I join tomorrow). I struggle with the TUC's drive to bring the UK further in line with Europe, particularly given the derision which continental Europe is awarded by the rest of the world in this regard.

Just watched a moment of American history.  Sat down to watch game one of the World Series between the Boston Red Sox and the St. Louis Cardinals and watched a quite beautiful a-capella rendition of the Star Spangled Banner by Steven Tyler, formerly of Aerosmith.  In all fairness, it wasn't at all bad, but in America, it doesn't get bigger than the World Series, and it doesn't get much bigger than Aerosmith.

It seems strange to sit down to watch the grand final of an event, after the culmination of an exciting end to the post-season, and to go to bed (later) without there being a winner.  The first two games will be at Boston (Saturday and Sunday), then off to St. Louis for three (Tuesday, Wednesday, Thursday) and, if necessary, back to Boston for the final two (Saturday and Sunday).  Any game from four through seven could be the last.

Just had take-out from Carmine's, a famous Italian restaurant on the east side of Broadway between 90th and 91st.  First of all, it was rammed, as its reputation would suggest.  Secondly, the meals are enormous, even by US standards.  We ordered two meals, each of which came in a deep rectangular tray around 12" by 18".  Each, along with its side of parmesan and half a loaf of bread, could easily have served three.  I'd suggest that if you're going there, ensure that the number of diners is divisible by three, and that they can be grouped into threes according to palette.  Pasta instead of a roast tomorrow...

Boston are already up 3-0 with one out at the bottom of the first.

I've decided to categorise this post into the Life category as opposed to the Sport category.  Judge for yourselves.

I've since found out that the game to which I was referring in my previous post, Baseball, Football and Soccer is called Major League Beirut.  It sounds like it's quite popular...

FYI, I've tried to categorise my posts into what I believe to be logical groupings.  Click on a grouping in the right-hand Categories module if you just want to read, say, Random thoughts.

A wonderful, if slightly worrying, application offered by Google in beta mode.  Basically, it's google, but instead of using the web as its index, it uses your 'puter.  So, it trawls through and indexes all of your emails and all of the relevant files on your PC.  I think it stores the indexes server-side (which worries me slightly), but once it's indexed your stuff, the functionality is very useful.  You can search for stuff that you did a long time ago, and it'll find it instantly, rather than you having to remember where you put it, or who you mailed it to.

I recommend it...

Wow!  What a match.  It was difficult to stay awake, particularly as the late start (due to the other semi finishing late) meant that it didn't finish until around 11.30 (04.30 according to my body-clock), but it was worth it.  Boston started with a roll, two home runs from Johnny Damon earning six runs, and never squandered the lead.  (BTW, ESPN has to be the worst implementer of contextual links known to man.)

Chants of "Who's Your Daddy" to Boston's Pedro Martinez (his earnings this year totalling $17.5m, showing how big the sport is) confused me somewhat (at one point, I honestly thought they were questioning his parentage), until I realised he used to play for the Yankees, and had previously commented that they were his Daddy.  The long-standing argument over the validity of the title of the World Series will continue, with very limited involvement from countries outside North America.

It's Boston's first World Series for 18 years, and it should be good.

In response to Ms. Scott's conundrum in the earlier post Prime factorisations, I've created a spreadsheet that does this for you. It's not iterative (so I've taken it up to values of n up to around 12,000). It'd need some macros to automate it. Also, not sure how Excel deals with very big numbers (I think it starts rounding them) so not sure if Excel's the best tool for this.

Enjoy...

Although I've done the odd update over the last couple of weeks, they've been a little sparse.  They've been truncated somewhat due primarily to the transient nature of internet cafés (I've now regained the power of the acute accent, btw).  You're always clock-watching, particularly in Stelios's joints, where you pay for your time up front.  I'm now back to the wireless wonderland in New York, so can wax lyrical...

So we left New York just over two weeks ago, the taxi taking the Van Wyck Expressway.  The golden sunset created the most fantastic silhouette of the Manhattan skyline as we wended our way to JFK.  The following morning, our pilot interrupted our flight just south of Ireland to inform us that one of the engines (that's 50% on a 767) had "started coughing" and so it was now "idling".  Now, if presented with an array of adjectives to describe an engine's activity while crossing the Atlantic, idling would not come high up my list of favourites, particularly when there's only one other engine.  In fact, I think ablaze is the only descriptor that would worry me more.  Anyway, I'm writing this update, so you may have gathered that we landed safely.  I was much less nervous than the lady to my right, who turned white and kept thrusting her head between her legs.  The 777 on the return leg this afternoon didn't suffer any problems, which is nice.

I forgot to mention that on our visit to the US Embassy the other week, we (I) spotted the two runners-up from the latest Pop Idol.  Couldn't remember their names at the time (or later), but they're called Sam and Mark.  That suggests that they may well be coming across here to try and make it big - can't wait.  This afternoon, we entered the US on our new visas, and the feeling was great - a sense of permanence and belonging that the 90-day waiver doesn't offer.

A couple of films worthy of note on the flight back.  Around the World in 80 Days is a dreadful film.  It has its moments of mild amusement, but there is little redeeming about it.  Meanwhile, Dodgeball: A True Underdog Story has all the hallmarks of being absolutely atrocious, but I quite enjoyed it.  Maybe the altitude affected my judgement, but it had some moments of rip-roaring laughter, although Ben Stiller and a dodgy 'tache did their best to spoil it.  I wouldn't recommend it to anyone (I did that with Mars Attacks, much to the chagrin of the victims of said recommendation - I maintain it's a good film btw), but if anyone else sees it, let me know what you think.

Americans (and other nationalities for that matter) must be appalled on arrival at Heathrow, as they board a taxi (do you board a taxi?) and see the meter working overtime as it makes its way towards their London hotel.  It's a minimum of £45 to get from Heathrow, more in peak hours, and you can double that for Gatwick.  The £50 that we paid this morning (from West London to Heathrow) is almost double the $55 we just paid to get from JFK to Manhattan this afternoon.  On the way through London, I couldn't help but notice a shop called Iranian Caviar.  You rarely see caviar shops, but this one was even more specialist.  Maybe the Iranians are world-leaders in this market.

Texters who don't use predictive texting should be lined up and shot (along with Tube Fare Dodgers, as I pointed out back in 1998).  It's a wonderful feature that makes the twelve phone buttons way more powerful than they used to be (there's that number twelve again!).  I saw a girl on the bus yesterday who was obviously one of those requiring capital punishment, as she wore out both her thumb and phone by that annoying repetitive button-clicking.  She was a one-thumb-texter as well, which annoyed me - two is way quicker.  Quite a few people are afraid of it (predictive texting), don't understand it, or are happy with their current method.  I s'pose it's like touch-typing, if a little better adopted.

Just got back to the US in time for the climax of the two semi-final series in the baseball.  St. Louis just beat Houston to take it to the deciding seventh game.  Meanwhile, I've just sat down to watch the final game in the Red Sox vs. Yankees series.  Apparently, New York won the first three, and Boston then won the next three to set up tonight's thriller.  Should be fun, if I can stay awake.

The internet has the power to get to lots of people very easily, hence the proliferation of spam and the like.  What if this ability to reach so many was put to good use?

If the NHS, or maybe a reputable cancer research body, sent me an anonymous questionnaire all about my life (or allowed me to access one online), then I'd be willing to fill it in, so long as I knew it would be going to the right people and used for the right reasons.  I'm thinking of quite possibly the most detailed and longest questionnaire ever.  From demographic profile to drinking behaviour, drug use, smoking history, diet (down to specific food-stuffs - do you like grapefruit, how often do you eat it), exercise patterns, work environment, home environment (proximity to traffic, power lines etc.).  All of this would cover both current behaviour and that earlier in life.

At the end (or beginning) of the questionnaire, you would then be asked about illnesses you have suffered, are suffering etc.  You could even have the option for people to update their anonymous questionnaire as they progressed through life, were struck by illness etc.

The rationale behind this is the fact that people keep linking certain food-stuffs and behaviours to diseases - farmed salmon and microwaved coffee both cause cancer, so I heard this week.  If there was a huge, reliable database containing very detailed information about people's behaviours, then not only could such claims be validated, but more informed causes of major diseases could be made.  Cross-tabulations and regression analyses would take some doing, as the aim would be to have a very wide dataset, but computing power could deal with this.  At the moment, I assume that the only data available to researchers is test data (based on small samples of people) and data from sufferers of the disease (knowing that these people eat white bread does not prove anything, as you don't know whether non-sufferers eat white bread too).

Thoughts would be welcomed, but I genuinely believe that this would be a useful exercise, and one that would be relatively cheap to realise.

There was a fascinating programme on BBC2 on Thursday about the history of black-jack - how casinos and a specific section of the general public had each been upping the ante (so to speak) in cheating and the war against it. A guy called Edward Thorp is credited for developing a wonderful yet simple system of card-counting, aiming to and succeeding in beating the odds.

At one point in time in the early 90s, around 125 students (geeks) from MIT (they have a great website, btw) were all travelling to Vegas at the weekends to beat the casinos. In the end, the security firm hired by the casinos to crack down on it used the MIT yearbook as the basis for its facial recognition database. I'm not an aficionado of US universities, but I've always maintained that if I was to be associated with any, I'd love it to be MIT, and this story only serves to increase this desire.

In the end, the casinos won the battle, but only by prevention means (you can't play in here because we think you're too intelligent). I like the fact that if allowed to play, they'd clean up.

It seems that the politics matters little in this year's election. They say that Schwarzenegger may run for president next time, but based on this evidence, he might as well not bother. Can't wait to get back to the US for the unbearable last two weeks before the election...

Apologies for the lack of reading material with which I've been providing you over the last few days.  I'm sure you've all been going spare, not knowing where to turn...

Anyway, we went to the US Embassy last Wednesday for our interviews.  It's a somewhat primitive process, similar to that you go through at the Sainsbury's deli.  They give you a number (as opposed to you taking one from the machine) and you wait until your number is called.  Instead of asking you what type of meat, fish or cheese you want, they take away your paperwork and ask you to sit down again.  Then you've got to wait for your number to be called again for your interview.  Four questions later, our visas were processed, and two days later, our passports were issued, complete with a visa allowing me to work in the US for the next three years - which is nice.

Spent the last few days helping my parents move house - 200 metres round the corner, but stressful and chaotic nonetheless.  I think the lack of distance lulled all into a false sense of security (we can always go back for it a bit later) which later bit us.  Anyway, all has gone well, and the relocation has been completed.  It's been great to catch up with the family (bro' included) for the last few days, even if in such stressful circumstances.

BT's idiocy over transferring their phone means that I type this from a manky Internet cafe (it doesn't even have Word, so I'm struggling to find out how to get an acute accent over the "e" of "cafe" - I think you can do some form of crazy "alt + three digit number" combo, but I've not got time to trawl through them all).  Back to London on Friday to catch up with some folks before heading back home to New York next Wednesday.  Fingers crossed, start work on 25 October.

Glad to see that the numbers conundrum appealed to at least someone (AMS).  There was some confusion between myself and Mr. Creutzberg as to whether He-Man was indeed the Master of the Universe, or whether it was actually "He-Man and the Masters of the Universe".  Anyone?  Also, my Dad threw in "Wilson: Trainer of Champions" for those of you the other side of 40 (or 50?).

I'm sure you've all been eagerly awaiting the answer to the numbers conundrum that I offered up the other day. Well, wait no longer. Each number represents (sequentially) the numbers 1 through 100, but represents it as its prime factorisation as opposed to using our traditional decimal system. (Another thread that I may start when I'm suitably bored is why the world should change from decimal to duodecimal, if only to help those parents with three, four or six kids, at the expense of those with five. Not now, but it's something I'm passionate about.) The last number in the string represents 2, the next one to its left represents 3, then 5, then 7, 11, 13, 17, 19, 23 and so on.

The number 90 is 2 x 3 x 3 x 5, so is represented as 121, the former 1 representing the 5, the 2 representing the two 3s and the latter 1 representing the 2. This system is fine until you get to 1,024, when you get single prime factors represented more than nine times, so maybe at this stage, you could pipe-separate such entries, 15,360 being represented as 11|10| (one 5, one 3 and ten 2s). Actually, in thinking about this, the leading and trailing separators must be different from one another, otherwise it could be confusing which number is being separated (10|10|10|10|10 could mean 1, 0, 10, 1, 0, 10, 1, 0 or 1, 0, 10, 10, 10, 1, 0 for instance). Maybe a leading forward-slash and a trailing back-slash would sort it out. This would only be an issue for numbers for which one of 2¹⁰, 3¹⁰, 5¹⁰ etc. was a factor, so it would rarely come into play.

I found it easy to find out which decimal number a string represented, but more difficult to work out a decimal number's prime factorisation in order to generate it, particularly when numbers get big. Excel helps, but I'd need some macros to fully automate it. Originally, I was under the impression that it would have a 1 to 1 mapping with the decimal system - making it kinda cool - but the above issue makes this not the case. However, every decimal integer that we use does represent another decimal number if you think of it as its prime factorisation. I wonder whether there are any numbers (other than twelve) that are identical using both systems. This would be 10 in duodecimal, btw.

The other day, I walked through London, from Victoria to Holland Park, taking in the delights of Hyde Park, something I rarely/never did while living here. In doing so, I stumbled upon the "Diana, Princess of Wales" scenic walk.

Whenever her name appears like this (following the rigmarole over her title after separating from Charles), I'm often reminded of the various other people who've succeeded their name with a strapline: Xena: Warrior Princess, Austin Powers: International Man of Mystery, He-Man: Master of the Universe, Michael Flatley: Lord of the Dance. The list goes on. There's a certain degree of expectation following the name that I think warrants a colon after "Diana" rather than a comma.

During the walk, I encountered the new fountain that was dedicated to her a few months back, located just north of the Albert Memorial on the south side of the Serpentine. I was reading the blurb about how the fountain was built, standing behind a couple of middle-aged, northern women who were reading it aloud to one another. Not sure why they were doing this, as it was clear that they both were fully capable of reading. One read that "it was designed using state of the art technology and assembled using traditional techniques". The other lady's response was "Well, they forgot one traditional technique: gardening".

This comment highlighted two traits of the British that are just not shared by the US:

• Pessimism
• Mediocrity

The fountain itself is quite impressive. You can walk across any one of three bridges to the centre of the ring that it forms, but the resultant footfall has turned the underlying grass into more of a soil composite. With reference to pessimism, the ladies didn't seem to appreciate the beauty of the fountain, instead preferring to focus on the negative side. I can't help but think that when they left their hotel that morning, it was already in their heads that nothing would be good enough to commemorate this great lady, and that they were out to find fault.

With regard to mediocrity, I have to say, I agree with their sentiment somewhat. While the fountain itself is impressive, its surroundings do let it down. The soil underfoot; the temporary B&Q-esque fencing used to cordon off the area; the cheap, plastic boards strung up on said B&Q-esque fencing to tell us tourists all about it. They all created an aura of a half-assed (half-arsed?) job having been done. In contrast, I'm sure the area that will be used to commemorate the victims of 11 September at Ground Zero will not be surrounded by soil, nor will it come with plastic information boards.

So far, the only thing I have missed about the UK is the automated woman's voice that tells you which cashier to go to in Boots. "Cashier number 2, please."

Just a little teaser. I'll come on to the rationale behind it when I give (or someone else gives) the answer.

What's the significance of the sequence of 100 numbers below?

0
1
10
2
100
11
1,000
3
20
101
10,000
12
100,000
1,001
110
4
1,000,000
21
10,000,000
102
1,010
10,001
100,000,000
13
200
100,001
30
1,002
1,000,000,000
111
10,000,000,000
5
10,010
1,000,001
1,100
22
100,000,000,000
10,000,001
100,010
103
1,000,000,000,000
1,011
10,000,000,000,000
10,002
120
100,000,001
100,000,000,000,000
14
2,000
201
1,000,010
100,002
1,000,000,000,000,000
31
10,100
1,003
10,000,010
1,000,000,001
10,000,000,000,000,000
112
100,000,000,000,000,000
10,000,000,001
1,020
6
100,100
10,011
1,000,000,000,000,000,000
1,000,002
100,000,010
1,101
10,000,000,000,000,000,000
23
100,000,000,000,000,000,000
100,000,000,001
210
10,000,002
11,000
100,011
1,000,000,000,000,000,000,000
104
40
1,000,000,000,001
10,000,000,000,000,000,000,000
1,012
1,000,100
10,000,000,000,001
1,000,000,010
10,003
100,000,000,000,000,000,000,000
121
101,000
100,000,002
10,000,000,010
100,000,000,000,001
10,000,100
15
1,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000
2,001
10,020
202

If you ever hail a cab in New York, and it has the letters "3H16" on its roof, you have two options:

• Get in and pray for your life
• Nonchalantly walk by, and hail another.

For those that are confused, taxis in New York are identified by a four character code, a system enabling up to 1.68m taxis to cruise the streets - one for every six New Yorkers. In reality, there are only 12,053 licenced cabs in New York City. I once took a picture of the taxi with the code 5P55 outside the Angelika cinema on West Houston, as there's a piece of statistics software called SPSS - that's by the by.

We just took this very taxi from 43rd and Fifth to 89th and Amsterdam. In hindsight, I should've timed the journey, which must've taken less than five minutes. In reality, I was too concerned for my life to breathe, let alone reach for my stopwatch.

Back to the story. The taxi was driven by an Italian. I say Italian. Any chance of any Italian blood in an American causes them to call themselves Italian. Not American-Italian, just Italian. The way in which he was weaving in and out of traffic was somewhat worrying, particularly when we passed cyclists and a rickshaw (one of those ones driven by a cyclist like you see in Soho London). There was the odd toot of the horn, along with two obviously well-rehearsed gestural expletives, each using the middle finger on the left hand in salute to fellow drivers. Seatbelts on the backseat are not compulsory, and even taxi drivers themselves don't have to wear them, but I soon reached for my seatbelt out of fear for my life.

Anyway, we arrived in one piece, and will be tootling off back to the UK tomorrow for a couple of weeks.