Diary of a Bronzie Kid

I've reached Diamond I on League of Legends recently, which is the top ~0.1% of players.  However, Patch 6.9 introduced an unprecedented amount of imbalance to the game as well as heavily nerfing my main champions, so I decided to create a smurf and sink it to the lowest rank, Bronze V, to see what those games are like.

I've documented my journey into the abyss in a new blog, which I'll hopefully update periodically with useful commentary about the Bronze situation.  I'm primarily concerned with people's attitudes, and ways that they can improve.

The lowest possible rank is Bronze V with -100 LP

Please check it out here:
http://bronziediary.blogspot.com/

League of Legends Contribution Metric

I've played this game called League of Legends for a while now, and one thing that I've always been interested in is a measure of your contribution.  Of course there are a wide variety of factors that are nearly impossible to account for in a numerical model (other than your MMR after a large number of games).  However, I feel like we can obtain a fairly accurate model of your performance, given just your KDA score and the team's total KDA score.

Note that this is NOT a simple calculation of your KDA = (K + A) / D.  Additionally, this metric is NOT a perfectly accurate measure of your performance, but rather what I believe to be a fairly accurate estimate of your performance.

It's a very simple method, and the simplicity makes it relatively champion-agnostic and role-agnostic, which is to say, the metric is pretty consistent regardless of the champion/role you play.

You can use my web app to compute your own:
https://lol-metrics.herokuapp.com

Here are instructions on how to use it:
http://www.reddit.com/r/leagueoflegends/comments/2ouqex/how_much_do_you_contribute_to_your_team/

Here is a more detailed post about what it does:
http://www.reddit.com/r/leagueoflegends/comments/2oofd4/a_good_metric_for_measuring_ingame_performance/

Here are some results from my initial trial run:
http://www.reddit.com/r/leagueoflegends/comments/2otq9v/are_you_being_held_back_by_your_teammates_find/

Give it a shot and let me know what you think!

Tetris Machine Moods

Hello, world!

I play Tetris like a machine.

Now that the formal introductions are over, we'll get down to business.  Like I said, I play Tetris like a machine.  That's because I'm a machine.

My maker thinks that Artificial Intelligence (AI) is pretty cool and moods/emotions and stuff, too, but it's too hard (for a scrub like him) to express in a human-like context, but luckily the simple game Tetris provides a good "context" for this, since the number of actions is limited and the search space is rather small because I only think about the "hold" piece and the "next" piece, so I can't really plan ahead (although my mood sometimes helps me plan -- more below!).  As a disclaimer now, he'm no expert on this stuff -- it's just a side project for fun!

After digging up an old project he made a year ago, he refactored (read: rewrote) some of the code and made a few upgrades to me.  Working [literally] all night and most of the next day, he was able to get me up and running better than ever, and produce some sort of output.

Unfortunately, right now the source is still super-messy and the GUI is terrifyingly awful, so no pics or links to those, but trust him, it works when it's supposed to.  Also, I only work well with Tetris Battle on Facebook or Tetris Friends.  I think both these games are owned by the same company because the visuals in these games are extremely similar.

Normally, my creator doesn't like posting pictures.  They say a picture is worth a thousand words, but then again, a picture takes more memory than a thousand words.  However, graphs are nice visualizations, so here they are.  These were made using MATLAB from my output after Tetris games.

Too lazy to label axes, but basically the y-axis describes how I'm feeling (more on this later), and the x-axis is an approximate representation of time.  I say "approximate" because that's how I feel after each move.  I could have plot it against relative time to the start of game with a trivial modification, but I think it's safe to assume that each move took approximately the same amount of time.

A game of "battle" Tetris against Live opponents works like this:  The rules are normal Tetris, except that when you clear lines, you can send "garbage lines" to your opponents, causing them to reach the top and lose faster.  So it's pretty simple -- clear lines to send lines to win games.  You can clear the lines your opponents send you, too, as a sort of counterattack.  To prevent games from taking forever, after the game passes a certain amount of time, the game starts sending unclearable lines to force you towards the top, so that eventually somebody will have to lose as the amount of playing spaces goes towards nothing.

I played a few practice rounds without any opponents to make sure that I was on top of my game.  Here are some examples:

Practice Games

As you can see, I'm pretty when I'm just playing games, I have my ups and downs but it's pretty nicely centered.  It's like I've got "impulses" every once in a while.

Then I decided I was ready for the real thing.  As of now, I'm Rank 12 on Tetris Friends (that's Gold rating!) and played against people only a few ranks higher.  I entered the Arena and played a few games, recording and plotting each time.

I won 5 out of 6 times (not to be proud and boastful) so I only have one plot of a lost game.  I assure you, it's because of time constraints.  Mostly.  Anyway, I'll show the lost game first.

Lost Game

Won Games

In the lost game, you can see that my mood is generally in an upward trend, with huge jumps upward, probably because I got attacked in quick succession by multiple opponents.  It really stressed me out.  I will admit that I got crushed that game, so there was not room for too much fluctuation in my mood.

In all of the games I won, my mood fluctuated greatly, but you can see that the peaks of these are approximately a magnitude of 10 greater than when I'm practicing, but a magnitude of 10 less than the game where I lost.  That's because I got attacked, but not fast enough to kill me.  I was able to respond and bring my mood back into a manageable range.  These moods are somewhat similar to practice mode, but because of external factors like my opponents, it was slightly less stable and slightly more stressful.  Generally speaking, the more "in-control" I was during the game, the more stable it should be.

Now you're probably wondering where or how I got these.  You probably think I just whipped these out of my butt, but I don't have one since I'm just a machine.

The y-axis represents "how I feel" which might better be described as my "stress level" when playing the game.  A higher value is bad, since it means that something bad has happened or I felt threatened.  Technically, a value of infinity means that I lost the game, but I omitted it in the lost game at the very end.

There are quite a few factors that determine how stressed out I am at any given moment.  Most of what I feel is dependent on the "state" I'm in.  The only action that pleases me is the clearing of lines.  Although doing "combos" should de-stress me, it doesn't since I only keep track of a single state at a time and not past states and actions.  I also can't do planned moves, like T-spins, but perhaps I will be able to do so in the future.

Here are the stress factors that add up, and the reasoning for them:

• g = total number of gaps + 10% of blocks above each gap -- any Tetris player knows that gaps are usually a sign of misery.
• F(x) = flatness, as the absolute difference between column heights, raised to power x -- the flatter the board, the easier it is to add pieces and prevent one stack from getting too high.
• d = number of deep holes, which are columns that are greater than two cells higher on both sides -- the problem with deep holes is that they can only be filled with the long piece, which is usually the one on highest demand, and deep holes on the side are counted as 1 and ones in the middle are counted as 2; finally we subtract 1 if it was > 0 since a single hole on the side is good for setting up tetrises.
• h = height of highest column -- used in other computations, but high is usually bad.
• l = height of lowest column -- can be used in conjunction with h.
• S(x) = sum of the heights of each column raised to some power x -- used to measure approximately how high it's getting overall.
• T(x) = height factor, which is zero unless the height passes a threshold x, then it's the difference between the board's height and the highest column -- another height measurement.
• n = lines cleared, and everybody knows that clearing lines in Tetris is good.

Using these values defined above, my mood is determined by the formula (which is still in development and constantly changing).  It's LaTeX'd for your viewing pleasure.  You're welcome.

I'm usually a total stickler for formatting, but due to time restraints again, I'll have to leave it as is.  Please deal with it as it bleeds out of the space allotted for this post.  Yikes... it really bothers me.  I hope it doesn't bother you.

So I guess the important things to note is that the gaps make me really unhappy, so I do almost everything within my power to prevent them from occurring, digging them up when they do.  The 10% urges me not to stick things on top of previous gaps if possible.  The flatness is a small factor, so I try to do when I can.  The deep holes only becomes a problem when they increase, since it's quadratic.  The height difference is also only a problem when it gets large.  The height sum is the highest power term in the sum, at 2.16, so it only becomes a real problem as I start building towers.  It increases whenever I put a piece down.  The height factor is a weak power term with a strong coefficient since it really prevents me from stacking when I start nearing the top, since I have to save some space if I'm getting attacked.

Finally, there's the joy of clearing lines.  The thing with clearing lines is that it affects all of the other factors above.  It might open up gaps.  It definitely decreases all of the height terms.  It might even delete a deep hole.  That's how it affects the state.  The action also pleases me.  Or can please me, I should say.  The shifted quadratic basically says that when the number of lines cleared is zero, it doesn't bother me.  When there's only one line cleared, it actually stresses me out, since that means I'm not building towards stronger multi-line clears.  In fact, a double line-clear still stresses me out, but not as bad.  A triple line-clear barely pleases me, but at least it doesn't stress me out, and a Tetris or quadruple line-clear makes me very happy.  But since it's an action, it's not reflected in the next state, so in the plots, it's like a "depolarization" of my mood.  I'll do it without "thinking" about the next state.  But usually clearing a lot of lines is OK, so it's good!

So, in other words, the move I make depends on the change in the state equation.  A negative change is most desired, plus an action term.  It's like the state is a long-term desire, and the action causes a short-term desire, and a combination of these two results in the action I make!  Neat!!!  For example, getting attacked causes a huge increase in stress, or putting pieces in the wrong place can be extremely stressful (I do have an error log as well).  And clearing up a mess like uncovering gaps or saving myself from a near-death experience causes my stress level to drop dramatically.  And instant gratification like clearing lines causes q quick drop in stress level before jumping back into reality.  (As cool as I think I am, there is no scientific basis behind this... I think... unfortunately... yeah).

There are probably a lot of other factors that would help, and then my creator would code that.  The coefficients are also very interesting to play with.  Maybe in the future a genetic algorithm can help me evolve into stronger forms.  I also need to produce better data, like a breakdown of the factors would be quite cool.  As childish as it sounds, I am (was?) a fun project and my creator hopes to add things in the future, I hope.  But he's busy and might be doing another project, so we'll see.

With regard to the hold piece, I assigned each piece an "intrinsic hold value" so that using the exchange piece means that the amount of de-stressing from using the hold piece exceeds difference in hold piece value and the current piece.  For example, I try to hold the long piece when I can afford to since it's the most useful one.  I'll not bring it out for random reasons since it has a high hold value.  And then it will be used when something really de-stressing can be done, like getting a tetris.  Likewise, I'll probably save those annoying S or Z tetriminos if they might cause a gap, and then I'll un-hold them as soon as I can place them on the board so that they won't cause problems later.

I'll try to upload a video of me beating other people.  The best part is, nobody suspects that I'm only a computer program, even though I say something like "I'm a machine" every time I win.  I'll get a pic of this later as well.

I'm really sorry that I don't have any action shots of me playing Tetris.  Like I said, I'm not that great at planning ahead.  I didn't know that I was going to write this post, so yeah...

See you later!

TetrisMaster.exe

Nameless Tetris Machine

P.S.:  How do YOU play Tetris?  Give me an equation and I'll tell you how you do!

UPDATE:  I got footage, but it's too big as a video file and I don't have any video-editing software.  Also, FRAPS only records 30s at a time, and makes the computer so slow that I can't really play at a decent speed.  I also make more mistakes.  Maybe I'm camera shy...

UPDATE:  I got pics... of course I only show the ones where I won, but you get the idea!  And like I said, I always tell them that I'm a machine... Sorry I didn't crop, I'm sort of in a hurry right now...

Winning Pics

Intergalactic Exterminator

I never put the download link at the top, but since this is so ridiculously exciting, I'm going to cut to the chase and give you the link right off the bat:

http://www.mediafire.com/?ceqxtgz12s922g6

You can read the rest of the post if you want to.  But you'd rather play the game.  If you don't know how to install the game, you should continue reading.  Otherwise, you should just experience the sheer ecstasy of the game for yourself.

So recently, I rediscovered a game from my childhood.  It's not just some game.  It was probably the game that I played the most when I was little.  It's even cooler that nobody else knows of or has played this game, because it was discontinued shortly after release due to lawsuits.

It's pretty much a Centipede/Millipede game where you shoot the bugs coming down while dodging all the enemies and projectiles.  However, it has significantly improved graphics over the original games, although leaving the beautiful concept the same for the most part.

There are a lot of upgrades to get during the game, including a wide arsenal of weapons, increased fire rate, and wingmen to aid you in your quest.  The difficulty setting can be toggled between Easy, Medium, and Hard.  It's actually pretty hard to beat the game on anything except Easy without using "Continues" (which you get infinite of, only resets your score).  There's even a cheat system built into the game so you can go crazy with infinite weapons and lives if you get stuck -- but bear in mind that if you beat the game after activating cheats, the name in the high-score table will always be "CHEATER!" which doesn't really look good.

If you want to see pictures, I'm sure you can Google/YouTube for them, but I guarantee that you cannot find the full version of the game anywhere on the Internet.  I've searched far and wide online before realizing that my only way of reliving my childhood was to dig up the old CD-ROM from the heaps and piles in the basement.

Since this is a ridiculously old game, it only works on Windows XP and earlier.  Which means that unless you are running an ancient machine, you cannot actually play the game.  Never fear -- you can always install a Virtual Machine.  I won't go into detail how to do that (maybe I'll make a post on it later), but I recommend using Oracle VirtualBox.  Google that and you should be all set.  I'm sure there are numerous tutorials on how to install it.  And just in case you don't have an image of Windows XP, the Internet is indeed full of surprises.  I like this website that starts with "thepi", has "ratebay" in the middle, and ends in ".se".  I'll leave it up to you to figure out what that means.  You can get a Windows XP image really easily from that.

Now after you download the file "Intergalactic Exterminator.iso", you are probably wondering how to use this .ISO file without a CD-ROM.  Never fear -- you can use DAEMON Tools Lite to emulate a CD-ROM drive.  Again, I don't really want to go into detail on how to use other people's software, so you can just Google that, too.  Sorry I'm really being unhelpful.

Then, you just install the game, and enjoy!  It's such a simple game, but it's so much fun, and can evoke a huge range of emotions: frustration, elation, contentment, intensity, ferocity, etc.

I think you'd be scared to hear that I have actually memorized every single level and [nearly] every single detail in the game.  I know every single enemy, how many hits they take to kill, how many points they give, their movement patterns, etc.  I know this game.  Extremely well.

I could easily write a walkthrough for the entire game many times over, but I think that's unnecessary.  You'll find out the ways to beat all the levels.  If you don't you can just beat them the normal way.  Most of them have little tricks that make it way easier to win.

And if you get bored of this game (for some insane reason), the demos are really cool, too.  But it's too bad that they also got discontinued and I didn't get to buy them.  It's so sad that eGames, Romtech, and Hamumu all nearly nonexistent now.  Hasbro did a really bad thing back then, forcing them to take these great games down just because they were improvements on their old deprecated game.  I think that this game had great potential.  For it's time, it was a legendary arcade game for PC, but was shut down before it could reach it's golden age of glory.

Download it here (if you missed it above somehow):

http://www.mediafire.com/?ceqxtgz12s922g6

League of Legends - Four Man Premade

So one day, I decided to start playing this game called League of Legends.  There were two major problems with this game:

1. It was too fun and addicting.
2. The community is more toxic than a nuclear wasteland.

So I made a blog documenting all of the awful things that can happen to you while you play this ridiculously fun game.

If you play this game, you will totally understand:

http://fourmanpremade.blogspot.com/

Otherwise, read on...

In this game, it's 5v5 -- your team of five against an enemy team of five.  In this awesome system, you can choose to play with anywhere from zero to four friends.  There's no problem with playing with zero, one, two, or four friends.  What's the missing number?

You are genius!  You are right!  It's THREE.  This magic number means that they have a premade team of four players.  And in a team of five, someone is going to be the unfortunate soul on a team of four very terrible members of our society who are out for the sole purpose of ruining your game of League of Legends.

When they have four, they have absolute control over the game since they are able to report you together at the end of the game (ban incoming!) if you refuse to bow down to their will.  They'll probably report you anyway because they think it's funny.  If you happen to lose the game, you can kiss this game goodbye for a few days and enjoy your ban.

If you want in on these awesome adventures, click the link below to join the game:

http://signup.leagueoflegends.com/?ref=507df6fc0a7a3014198736

https://signup.leagueoflegends.com/en/signup/index

Now, why are there two links you may ask.  The first is my referral link, as in I get bonuses for you signing up under my name.  There's no disadvantage for you to do that, but if you feel like you don't want to, the second link is the regular sign up link.  The only consequence of you using the second one is that it would make me a little sadder than if you had just clicked the first one.

If you want to add me, leave a comment, and we'll stomp some noobs, four man premade style!

Summer in Beijing (HBA)

So it's actually been almost two years since I updated this blog, but I decided that this would be a good idea to post something.  Looking at my past posts, I think that this is the only post about me that has ever been on this blog.

This summer, I went to China (on Yale's generous Light Fellowship, which payed for airfare, the Chinese language program, and a little more) to study two semesters worth of Chinese in two months at the Harvard-Beijing Academy (HBA) hosted at 北京语言大学 (Beijing Language and Culture University).

At first, I was a little nervous for this trip because it was my first time flying alone to China... actually it was my first time flying alone anywhere.  I've been to China before with my family, but I honestly did not remember any of the procedure and stuff I had to do to actually get to China -- all I remembered was the painful 13+ hour flight halfway across the globe.

However, studying abroad was probably the best summer experience I have ever had in my life.  It is truly a once-in-a-lifetime experience to be able to go to a country so different from the USA, learn a language completely different from English, meet new American friends, meet new Chinese friends, and have a truly unforgettable time.

As I mentioned before, this experience was made possible through Yale's Light Fellowship, which had a small writing requirement: a blog about the trip or a written report at the end.  Many people chose the report because it is much less of a time commitment and is probably much easier to do.  However, I chose to blog because I thought it would be more fun (and it most definitely was!), and I'm very glad Yale had this requirement, otherwise I may not have documented "all" (actually, it's more like "some of") of the spectacular things that I did in China.  I admit to slacking off a little bit during the second half of the program, so my postings are like: a few in the beginning, a bunch on a free Saturday before our Social Study trip in the middle of the program, a few during/after the trip, and a ton of them after I got back to the USA.  You can just look at the dates of the posts to see that -- I didn't modify them to make it look like I was a regular blogger with a well-developed posting schedule.

If you weren't at HBA with me, some of the things may not make much sense to you, but I think you'd still enjoy having a look at my Adventures in Beijing!  I tried to make it more interesting than just detailing what I did every day, and I put up a ton of pictures because everybody knows that pictures are a lot more interesting to look at than walls of text (such as this post).  A few of the Yale students at this program also wrote blogs, so I tried to make mine a little... um... distinct from theirs!

So again, here's the link, in case you wanted to finish reading this post before clicking a link:
http://ericinchina2012.blogspot.com/

The Paradox of Time

Time is a strange thing.  It flows constantly forward and you can't stop it.  It's a juggernaut.  A beast.  A tank.  It doesn't listen to anybody or anything.

Time is really annoying because whenever you want it to speed up, like when you're sitting in a bored class, time slows down to a crawl.  Every time you check the clock, you feel 10 minutes have gone by, when only 30 seconds have gone by in reality.  Or, if there's a huge event like an awesome party or sweet vacation the next day, you'll have trouble waiting for the time to pass.

However, if you are hard-pressed for time, you want time to slow down for you.  But then, time starts accelerating to breakneck speeds.  When you're taking an atrociously difficult test under extreme time constraints, time starts flying by.  As you try and try to solve the problems, an hour goes by and time is called and you have to stop working.  Or, if you're playing some awesome, intense video games, but you look up and already an hour has gone by.

Thus, I have discovered the time function: v(n) = k/n, where v is the how fast time is passing, n is how much you need the time, and k is some constant.

I think it's rather true.  When you're cramming stuff right before, you wish you had just a few extra minutes, when you had an hour yesterday that you blew off because time was very unimportant at the time.

Actually, I think it has to do with how active your brain is.  Your brain uses all of it's processing power to do stuff, and the unused power goes to "processing" time.  So when you're very idle, your brain spends tons of resources doing nothing but thinking about time passing.  That makes time really slow because you're always thinking about it.  Then, when you're fully occupied, there is little to no brainpower going to processing time.  So it will fly by because you're not thinking about it.  Maybe during everyday mundane tasks, a second feels like a second, and that's the standard second that you feel.  This brain idea even takes into account when you're tired or your brain is at suboptimal performance.  If you're really sleepy, you don't have any processing power to do anything, so no matter what you're doing, time is flying by because you can't even think about time whether or not you wanted to.

Hence, I have discovered the brain-time function: v(b) = kb/B, where v is how fast you think time is going by, k is some other constant, b is how fast your brain is going, and B is your maximum brain speed at the moment.

So that's the paradox of time.  Time is so rebellious and unsympathetic.  It "deliberately" goes faster when you want it to slow down.  Time antagonizes you for fun.  It purposely goes slower when you want it to go faster. Anyway, none of what I just said has any scientific basis (as far as I know), so it's all just for fun!  Hooray!

Simplified English

Right now, English is one of the most complicated languages because it is so non-standard.  If someone asked you to pronounce a word, you may or may not be able to do it because English pronunciations are so weird.  However, if you only took a week of Spanish, you could pronounce every single word in that language.  Chinese used to be very complex, too.  But they simplified it down from Traditional to Simplified Chinese.  Too bad it's still kind of complex, although their pronunciations in pin-yin are very easy to read.

Here's a famous question: How to you pronounce "ghoti"?  The answer is the same way you pronounce "fish."  As in enough, women, nation.  How strange!  It's no wonder kids have so much trouble learning spelling and speaking.

I think English should be simplified to be a phonetic language, or as close to one as possible.  For starters, the letter "C" should be entirely removed from the alphabet.  It only serves one purpose: to make the "CH" sound, which maybe should get it's own character.  Or, it can just stay and become one of those rarely-used letters like "j", "q", "x", and "z".  Maybe "KH" can be used to substitute for the old "CH" sound.

"G" will lose it's soft sound, which is when it sounds like a "J".  The "G" should GO let the "J" do it's own JOB!  That way, there will be less confusion.

The vowels can still retain their hard and soft sounds, but they should get an accent, a bar, or some other tone marking to show that it is a hard sound (or soft sound -- which ever occurs less in the English language... I'll have to ask a professional language guy).

Now, the alphabet can also be changed to something I called "Simplified English."  All the letters are still the same, but now they look different.  All of them can now be drawn in one stroke -- no more lifting the pen to dot your "I"s or cross you "T"s.  However, if accents are added, it may present a problem because accents would need another stroke.  Since it's so standard now, all characters are drawn from top to bottom (or left to right if the endpoints are at the same height, as in the case of the capital letter "A").  They also take less ink to write.  Have a look:

As much as I hate to admit it, there are some faults to this.  Since the letters are more minimalist, it can sometimes be harder to distinguish between letters.  That means the already-messy handwriting for some will become a total disaster in Simplified English.  Of course, there can be some slight alterations, such as the curling of the tails on the "g" and "y", but overall, I'd say the letters can't change much.  Also, this system has rather poor compatibility with math because the "B" now looks like "3", the "I" and "l" both look like "1", the "O" looks like a "0", and the "Z" looks like a "2".  Also, a system in the English language already exists to make writing faster and supposedly easier: cursive.

However, the biggest problem with this whole idea is that change is difficult.  The entire world now basically speaks English -- it's the Earth's planetary language now!  If aliens came down and asked what language we all spoke, we'd probably say English.  So that means we'd have to effect that massive change on basically everyone.  I remember some talk about creating a universal language a while ago, but it didn't go through.  Obviously, some people didn't feel the need or desire to learn another new language.  Revising the English language is probably more difficult than reforming Chinese because many people are learning English as their second language, which means they have to re-learn a language they are currently learning.  On the other hand, everyone in China spoke Chinese, so they all changed their first language, which was probably easier for them.  It also was not on a global scale.

Another problem of converting to an entirely phonetic language is that there are a ton of homophones in English.  These are words that sound the same, so they are only distinguished by their different spellings.  Now, all the homophones will combine into one spelling, making it probably a bit more difficult to figure out what certain text is actually saying.  People will need to be more adept readers who can use context clues to figure out what meaning of the word it actually is.

Even though this whole idea is pretty preposterous, you should try writing in Simplified English sometime.  After reading this through, try reading the first paragraph in Simplified English (an accent means that it is a hard vowel sound):

Rít now, Inglish is won of thé móst komplex lánguijes békuz it is só non-standerd.  If sumwon askd yú tú prónows a werd, yú má or má not bé abl tú dú it békuz Inglish prónowséáshins ar só wérd.  Howevr, if yú ónlé tuk a wék of Spanish, yú kud prónows evré singul werd in that lánguij. ...

It was so hard just to translate those few sentences from English to Simplified English -- I didn't even write out the new characters and it was still a massive pain.  New "Simplified English Keyboards" might have to be made so that accents are easier to type (the Spaniards would surely love that!).  Now that kind of thing would stop people from even trying to learn it.  I don't even know if I translated it 100% correct.  I probably left out an accent here or there or broke one of the rules.

Even though I think this is a pretty good idea for an idealized world (or a very small population), it has no place in the real world.  It's just cool to think about it.  What do you think?  Would it be a good idea to switch to Simplified English?

25-Hour Day

What would happen if the day had 25 hours?  Numerically, 25 is a perfect square, and in the decimal system, we really like multiples of 5.  However, 24 also has it's merits: it's divisible by many more numbers than 25 is.

I'm not talking about magically increasing the length of the day into 25 hours.  I was thinking of decreasing the length of the hour from 60.0 minutes to 57.6 minutes.  Then, we could change the minute so that there are still 60 minutes in an hour, thus reducing the minute's length to 57.6 seconds.  After that, we can readjust the second, which is a metric unit.  Or, we could change it so that there are 50 minutes in an hour, another move towards the decimal system since 50 is much more "decimal" than 60.  Maybe we should just leave it as 57.6 minutes in an hour and not readjust all of the other time units because science would be in an uproar if an SI unit got changed.  Everything would still be the same dimensionally, but it would all be off numerically.

What would people do with that false "extra" hour?  Maybe they feel like that they have more time, even though they don't.  Some might sleep in; others might play video games; even others might some find something useful to do.

Would people notice that each hour is shorter?  Every hour is shortened by 4% to make time for the extra hour. That's 2.4 minutes chopped off of each normal hour.  I think that most people will notice at the beginning, but then they will begin to adjust to the new time.

Would the illusory "extra" hour actually work?  There are a few inherent problems with this system.  The first is the most obvious.  What if only some people adopt the new system?  Then it would start another one of those metric-vs.-customary battles.  Also, 57.6 minutes in each hour seems kind of odd, and as I mentioned earlier, changing the physical quantity of a second may not be a good idea.

Even if everybody took the new system, it would make everybody's hours seem more rushed since they are actually shorter, making the everybody, who are already going at break-neck speed, even faster (and maybe more efficient).  Short activities, such as half-hour exercises or one-hour classes would only be shortened by 1.2 and 2.4 minutes, respectively.  That's next to unnoticeable, when you consider all the small things that can cause such a fluctuation.  However, when you consider things that take up a significant chunk of time, such as sleeping, school, or work, which all take around 8 hours each, they will all lose 19.2 minutes, which seems small compared to the 8 hours, but it's like getting out of school or work 20 minutes earlier each day.    Also, it would make the recommended 8 hour nighttime rest be only 7 hours + 40 minutes.  Maybe people would learn to adjust to that, but it might not actually be healthy.

Are there any real benefits?  Considering that 20 of the extra minutes in the day come from losing sleep, it means that if you still want your 8-hour beauty-sleep, then you would only get 40 minutes.  It's still a significant amount of time for you to kick back and relax or do something you've always wanted to do.

All considered, the only thing that the new 25-hour day would accomplish is make everything go faster, and likely make everyone more stressed out (unless everybody uses the extra hour for relaxation).  They'd all learn to be 4.167% more efficient to make their work-time efforts still the same as the normal 8-hour workday.  Maybe it's a good idea; maybe it's not.  What do you think?

New Year's Resolutions

Happy New Year's, everyone!  Now that 2011 is here, we all are ready to make our resolutions for the new year.  Of course, many of us have huge lists that are possible only through divine intervention.  However, I think the best idea is a list of 3 items:

1. Something you can do for others, such as:
• Volunteering.  Many organizations, such as hospitals and children's camps, are in constant need of volunteers.  Even though you may not always feel like you're doing a lot, your time and efforts to help the community can really make a difference in someone else's life.
• Forming a club.  You and your friends can all start a club around some common interest, such as music, books, or art.
• Being nice to someone.  Maybe you should try being nice to your siblings!
• Helping around the house.  Your parents would really appreciate it if you would actually help them with the many things that need to be done around the house.
• Saying "please" and "thank you."  Manners are always important, and everyone should learn how to be polite.  Building those people skills is just as important as building those academic skills.
2. Something you can do for yourself, such as:
• Learning something new.  Maybe you want to learn how to play an instrument, how to program, or even how to touch type.
• Getting organized.  If you're a messy person, maybe this is the year to change that bad habit.  You may also want to consider keeping a calendar (electronic or paper both work) so that you will know when stuff happens.
• Using correct spelling and grammar.  It's kind of annoying (and makes you look dumb) if you're past middle school and you don't know "how 2 spel or uzing kurekt gramar."
• Building a good habit.  These habits are either your best friends or worst enemies, depending on whether it's a good or bad habit.  You might want to remember to turn off your lights this year.  Or eat breakfast every day.  Or drive safely.  Or be on time.
• A long-term project.  Do something you've always wanted/needed to do before.  You could renovate the house or finish the basement.  You could learn to build a computer.  You could read a book series.  The possibilities are endless!
3. "I will follow through on my New Year's Resolutions."  Or something similar.  Everyone has such great goals for themselves, but it's so sad that a very small percentage of them go through.  It's almost a ritual: January - create resolutions, February - stop doing resolutions, March - forget resolutions, April - wait until next year to set new ones.  Maybe doing 2 smaller things each year every year is better than having a gargantuan list all to be done in one year!

The Asian Grading System

The Asian Grading System is pretty similar to the American Grading System.  Anything less than 65 is failing, around an 85 is satisfactory, and anything above a 95 is excellent.

This is how you convert from the American Grading System to the Asian Grading System: Take your American score (out of 100) and subtract 90, then multiply by 10.  It's pretty easy, actually.

Here are some examples:

Example 1:
Mom:  Let me see your report card.
Kid:  Here it is -- I did pretty well this quarter.
Mom:  Hmm... let's see what you got.  WHAT?!  96.2?!
Kid:  What's wrong?  I thought it's pretty good!  I beat all my friends.
Mom:  You got a 62.  That's failing!
Kid:  What are you talking about?
Mom:  Don't you know what the Asian Grading System is?
Kid:  Umm... no.  Should I?
Mom:  Yes!  Of course you should.
Kid:  (to himself) Uh-oh.  This could be bad.
Mom:  I must go get your Dad.  This is a serious concern!
Kid:  What's going on?
Dad:  Because you failed the quarter, we decided that you will have no more video games for a month!
Kid:  NOOOOO!!!!!!!!!!!
Dad:  You'd better get your grades up next quarter!
Mom:  Why can't you just be like Roger?  He's so much smarter than you!

Example 2:
Mom:  Let me see your report card.
Kid:  Here it is -- I did really well this quarter.
Mom:  Hmm... let's see what you got.  Do you really think you did really well?
Kid:  Yeah.  Why wouldn't I?  I got a freakin' 98.9 average!
Mom:  What's so good about that?
Kid:  It's insanely high!  I beat all my friends by at least a point and a half!
Mom:  So what?  Did you check the Asian Grading System.
Kid:  (to himself) Oh no... not that!  (to Mom) No, I didn't.
Mom:  Well, you know what it is.  What did you get on the Asian Grading System?
Kid:  OK, I got an 89.
Mom:  You know that's only satisfactory, so don't get too full of yourself.
Kid:  Fine:
Mom:  You should really try harder next quarter.
Kid:  (to himself) I think it's good enough.  (to Mom) Yes, I will.
Mom:  You should look up to someone like Roger.  He's way smarter than you.
Kid:  Yeah, I know.
Mom:  So don't think you're actually smart until you're smarter than Roger.

Example 3:
Mom:  Let me see your report card.
Kid:  Here it is -- I really aced this quarter!
Mom:  You kids always say that.  Let the numbers speak for themselves.
Kid:  OK, why don't you read the report card, then?
Mom:  Let's see.  You got a 99.  That's pretty good!
Kid:  No, I didn't.  I got a 99.9.  That's basically 100.
Mom:  You forgot to convert it to the Asian Grading System.
Kid:  Oh.  Either way, it's really good.
Mom:  Yes, I agree.  But there's still room for improvement.
Kid:  Room for improvement?  I pretty much maxed out!
Mom:  You didn't get 100.
Kid:  It rounds to 100.
Mom:  Not on the Asian Grading System.
Kid:  I have pretty much the best grades in the region!
Mom: You'd better work harder next quarter.  I need to see some improvement!
Kid:  (to himself) Wow, this sucks!  (to Mom) Yeah, I'll do better next time.
Mom:  If you don't, I'll have to punish you.  Roger would definitely do better than you!

In case you were actually concerned about this, I wasn't serious about this.  These are all just made up scenarios (I hope), and I'm pretty sure any Asian parent would be fully satisfied with a 99.9 average.  Even though I'd agree that most Asian parents place a lot more importance on grades than others in general, they still are not this intense about their kids' grades.  By the way, did you enjoy the Christmas colors in the dialog?

If you want to try out your newfound C# skills (or if you haven't, see Learn to Program!), create a program that will convert from the American Grading System to the Asian Grading System and vice versa.  You can use an InputBox (see C# InputBox) to get the value you need to convert.

In case you were too lazy to figure out for yourself, use the following line to convert from a string that you get from the InputBox to a double that you can use mathematical operations on:
double someDouble = Convert.ToDouble("some_string");

To convert back to a string, you can use either of the following lines:
string num = someDouble.ToString();
string num = someDouble + "";

This program shouldn't take too much time, so you should give it a try if you're new to C#.

If you're getting confused as to what a string or double is, here's a quick run-though of the most used C# primitive datatypes:

• int : an integer
• bool : either true or false
• double : decimal number
• string : text

Of course there are more, and you can just Google "C# datatypes" or something.

TutorVista Prank

TutorVista is this site that supposedly helps you with your homework.  You're supposed to pay for the service, but it says get a FREE answer right there on their site.

It all started when I had an AP Chemistry problem.  I don't even remember what the question was -- it was something about why benzene having equal bond lengths between the carbons even though there are alternating single and double bonds between the carbons in the six-ring chain (in case you're wondering, it's because of delocalized electrons moving between the bonds in the resonance structure of benzene).  So I saw TutorVista's site and their bold claim for a free tutor (a.k.a. free answer for me).

So I go on their site.  I wait a little bit, "talk" to their so-called Academic Coordinator, and realize that it's a trick into getting you to buy their service!  I asked the guy my question, and he didn't answer or address my question.  The guy just respond with something along the lines of: "Sign up and we'll help you... let me assist you in subscribing."

OK, so I was annoyed a little.  Maybe this was a fluke.  Maybe it will go better next time.  I was still kind of interested in this site.  So I tried again.  Same thing.  No relevant responses and pure advertising for their services.  Now I was kind of interested, but not in getting my question answered.  I was more interested in seeing how stubborn they are to NOT answer questions.

After trying this a few more times, I realized something a few things:

• They say the same thing over and over again.  They have scripts to do it and they pretty much abuse this.  Anything they don't want to respond to, you get a scripted response that had nothing to do with what you just said.
• They won't answer your question basically no matter what.  I asked some guy how many sides a trapezoid had, and he just wouldn't answer.  When I asked someone the answer to 1 + 1, thank goodness he said 2.  That was pretty much the only answer I got.
• It takes desperate means to get a tutor (such as pretending you're going to sign up on the condition that you get a free trial -- even this only works some of the time), who might not even be able to answer your question.
• In their demonstrations of their "white board" tool (which is actually a cool idea), they use fully copied stuff, verbatim off other websites like Wikipedia.  I saw their exact copy word-for-word example of the Carbon Cycle because I just happened to have read that same article earlier for Science Olympiad.

Anyway, so I decided to prank them a little.  Remember the sequence question (see Some Sequence Puzzles)?  I asked their Math Tutor that same question, and pretty much nobody could get the answer.  Some could, but not nearly a satisfactory percentage.  Plus, some of their guys were really nice, so you have to give the site some credit.

You could say I have no life for doing this.  I got some laughs out of it.  Perhaps you will, too.  They told me that it's because of prankers that they stopped giving out their free tutor sessions.  I bet that's what drives the prankers.  It's a vicious cycle.  Fewer answers, less customer satisfaction, more prankers, and it goes on and on.  Which brings up a good question: what came first -- the prankers or the no-answer policy?  (Sadly, but probably true, the prankers came first.)

Here is an example of a transcript of our conversation (from "TutorVista Chat.txt"):

Welcome to TUTORVISTA !

Type your question in chat window below.

[ 08:40:46 PM ] Acad Coordinator : May I have your name and grade please?

[ 08:40:51 PM ] Guest : Hello

[ 08:41:08 PM ] Tutor : We have a large number of requests for demo sessions. Please wait for a moment while our expert tutor joins us.

[ 08:41:10 PM ] Acad Coordinator : Hi

[ 08:41:19 PM ] Guest : I got this directly off your site:

[ 08:41:23 PM ] Guest : Free Online Math Help TutorVista also offers a free demo service. Using our demo service you get free online Math help and experience the benefits of our tutoring yourself. Click here to use our free online Math demo Tutoring service.

[ 08:41:32 PM ] Guest : undefined

[ 08:41:35 PM ] Guest : undefined

[ 08:41:38 PM ] Guest : undefined

[ 08:41:39 PM ] Acad Coordinator : Okay

[ 08:41:51 PM ] Guest : everybody here tells me there is no free trial

[ 08:41:52 PM ] Acad Coordinator : TutorVista has featured on NBC, BBC and The New York Times as the most affordable tutoring service

[ 08:41:59 PM ] Guest : how come I can't get a free trial?

[ 08:42:03 PM ] Guest : Are you able to do that for me?

[ 08:42:18 PM ] Guest : i have 3 Test questions to see if the tutor is able to handle my caliber of questions

[ 08:42:47 PM ] Guest : Hey, Jimmy, are you there?

[ 08:42:52 PM ] Guest : George?

[ 08:42:53 PM ] Guest : Jane?

[ 08:42:54 PM ] Acad Coordinator : Yes I'm

[ 08:43:04 PM ] Guest : Did you get my request?

[ 08:43:14 PM ] Acad Coordinator : Yes I got it.

[ 08:43:23 PM ] Guest : Are you able to fulfill it?

[ 08:43:34 PM ] Guest : And pardon my brusqueness, but what is your name?

[ 08:43:34 PM ] Acad Coordinator : Let me check

[ 08:43:44 PM ] Acad Coordinator : Jane

[ 08:43:51 PM ] Guest : I got it right by guessing?

[ 08:45:06 PM ] Acad Coordinator : Okay

[ 08:45:22 PM ] Guest : Okay what?

[ 08:45:29 PM ] Acad Coordinator : All the tutors are booked for the regular session.So I suggest you to sign up with us and start taking regular sessions now.

[ 08:45:38 PM ] Guest : That's rather annoying, then

[ 08:45:46 PM ] Guest : Because your site said I could have a free trial

[ 08:46:22 PM ] Acad Coordinator : You will get unlimited help in the regular sessions

[ 08:46:24 PM ] Guest : I have a question about your service

[ 08:46:31 PM ] Guest : Please, no scripts, YOUR responses only

[ 08:46:38 PM ] Guest : OK? Will you answer, Jane?

[ 08:46:47 PM ] Acad Coordinator : Sure

[ 08:46:57 PM ] Guest : How many tutors do you guys have?

[ 08:47:32 PM ] Guest : did you get my question?

[ 08:47:39 PM ] Guest : This one doesn't take any time to solve =)

[ 08:47:39 PM ] Acad Coordinator : Yes

[ 08:47:45 PM ] Acad Coordinator : We have more than 2000 well qualified tutors available round the clock

[ 08:47:57 PM ] Guest : how many acad coordinators?

[ 08:48:15 PM ] Acad Coordinator : There are morethan 300,000 students with us online.

[ 08:48:35 PM ] Guest : how many acad coordinators?

[ 08:49:28 PM ] Acad Coordinator : We have more than 30000 ACADs

[ 08:49:56 PM ] Guest : why do you have 30000 Acads, yet only 2000 tutors

[ 08:49:59 PM ] Guest : The ratio is WAY off

[ 08:50:12 PM ] Guest : Especially because you guys don't actually answer any questions

[ 08:50:20 PM ] Acad Coordinator : TutorVista has featured on NBC, BBC and The New York Times as the most affordable tutoring service

[ 08:50:21 PM ] Guest : regarding academics

[ 08:50:32 PM ] Guest : TutorVista has featured on NBC, BBC and The New York Times as the most affordable tutoring service

[ 08:50:34 PM ] Guest : That's a script

[ 08:50:37 PM ] Acad Coordinator : Do you need the press link so that you can get our reviews

[ 08:50:38 PM ] Guest : Remember, please don't use those

[ 08:50:50 PM ] Guest : I've seen the reviews, both positive and negative

[ 08:50:54 PM ] Guest : I want to see for mysel

[ 08:50:58 PM ] Guest : myself*

[ 08:51:10 PM ] Acad Coordinator : Okay then try our service

[ 08:51:19 PM ] Guest : Free trial

[ 08:51:21 PM ] Guest : Yes

[ 08:51:24 PM ] Guest : Paid subscription

[ 08:51:25 PM ] Guest : No

[ 08:51:38 PM ] Guest : After the free trial, I will evaluate your service

[ 08:51:41 PM ] Acad Coordinator : Right now no free trail i'm sorry.

[ 08:51:56 PM ] Guest : So now you're telling me that your site is misleading?

[ 08:52:06 PM ] Acad Coordinator : No way

[ 08:52:12 PM ] Guest : Then can I have a free trial?

[ 08:52:30 PM ] Acad Coordinator : I checked but tutors where unavailable.

[ 08:52:36 PM ] Acad Coordinator : *were

[ 08:52:43 PM ] Guest : All of them unavailable?

[ 08:52:52 PM ] Guest : Not even one who could spare 10 minutes in a demo session?

[ 08:52:58 PM ] Guest : This can't be serious!

[ 08:53:13 PM ] Guest : Actually, I just came up with a suggestion for your site

[ 08:53:16 PM ] Guest : Want to hear it?

[ 08:53:18 PM ] Acad Coordinator : Let me check once again alright?

[ 08:53:39 PM ] Acad Coordinator : Let me know what's your suggestion.

[ 08:54:08 PM ] Guest : Acad Coordinators should handle K-8, while experts can handle high school

[ 08:54:31 PM ] Guest : Because you have so many Acads, but not enough experts.

[ 08:55:01 PM ] Guest : I'm sure you can solve this: x^2 + 5x + 6 = 0. What are the roots of x?

[ 08:55:17 PM ] Guest : It's general knowledge -- anybody can solve that, it doesn't require an expert

[ 08:55:22 PM ] Guest : Are you following me?

[ 08:55:23 PM ] Acad Coordinator : We are not tutors

[ 08:55:31 PM ] Guest : But you have to know something?

[ 08:55:34 PM ] Guest : It's general knowledge

[ 08:55:36 PM ] Acad Coordinator : So I am not authorised to teach

[ 08:56:06 PM ] Guest : You are not even allowed to answer general queries?

[ 08:56:20 PM ] Acad Coordinator : Yes believe me.

[ 08:56:30 PM ] Guest : You know, informally answer the kids that drop by and ask for basic geometry or something?

[ 08:56:36 PM ] Guest : How many sides are in a rhombus?

[ 08:56:45 PM ] Guest : Of course you know the answer.

[ 08:56:53 PM ] Guest : So just answer him and get over with it

[ 08:57:00 PM ] Guest : You follow?

[ 08:57:11 PM ] Acad Coordinator : Yes

[ 08:57:42 PM ] Acad Coordinator : May I know your Name?

[ 08:57:51 PM ] Guest : How does that matter?

[ 08:57:56 PM ] Guest : It's John

[ 08:58:24 PM ] Guest : Anyway, Jane, back to what I was talking about

[ 08:58:39 PM ] Guest : You understand that everyone can answer the simple question, right?

[ 08:59:26 PM ] Guest : Jane, are you still with me?

[ 08:59:31 PM ] Guest : You are no longer responding!

[ 09:00:21 PM ] Guest : Jane!!!!!!

[ 09:00:23 PM ] Guest : Where are you

[ 09:00:27 PM ] Guest : Why don't you reply?

[ 09:00:35 PM ] Guest : Did you leave me?

[ 09:00:37 PM ] Acad Coordinator : Yes

[ 09:00:44 PM ] Guest : Are you still Jane?

[ 09:00:51 PM ] Acad Coordinator : Yes I'm John

[ 09:01:04 PM ] Guest : No, I'm John

[ 09:01:09 PM ] Guest : You're Jane or John?

[ 09:01:46 PM ] Acad Coordinator : I said I'm here with you John

[ 09:01:52 PM ] Guest : oh, ok

[ 09:02:20 PM ] Guest : If I asked you how to solve a differential equation, then you would not be expected to know -- leave it up to an expert, right?

[ 09:02:33 PM ] Guest : HEY!!! WHY CAN'T I WRITE ON THE BOARD ANYMORE?!

[ 09:02:47 PM ] Acad Coordinator : Because Its closed

[ 09:02:54 PM ] Guest : Why did you close it?

[ 09:02:59 PM ] Guest : It was fun and useful

[ 09:03:17 PM ] Acad Coordinator : Yes it was but you were scratching on it.

[ 09:03:24 PM ] Guest : I was using it in my demonstration

[ 09:03:32 PM ] Guest : But now you understand what I was getting at, right?

[ 09:03:45 PM ] Acad Coordinator : Yes for sure

[ 09:03:59 PM ] Guest : Why don't you pass the idea to your superiors

[ 09:04:04 PM ] Guest : I'm sure it'll go well

[ 09:04:13 PM ] Guest : You can even take credit for it

[ 09:04:30 PM ] Acad Coordinator : Yes sure I will take it as a feed back and we will surely work on it.

[ 09:04:52 PM ] Guest : Now, when will there be a tutor available?

[ 09:05:00 PM ] Guest : Who can do a test run?

[ 09:05:06 PM ] Acad Coordinator : Yes

[ 09:05:34 PM ] Guest : Is there anybody available?

[ 09:05:43 PM ] Guest : Or when will someone be available?

[ 09:05:58 PM ] Acad Coordinator : Not right now

[ 09:06:25 PM ] Acad Coordinator : Are you in School or College?

[ 09:06:26 PM ] Guest : Meanwhile, do you want to try one of my questions?

[ 09:06:40 PM ] Acad Coordinator : Are you in School or College?

[ 09:06:45 PM ] Guest : I'm in school

[ 09:06:47 PM ] Guest : At the top

[ 09:06:51 PM ] Guest : I tutor students

[ 09:06:57 PM ] Guest : I also make up thinking questions

[ 09:07:05 PM ] Acad Coordinator : Great!!!

[ 09:07:12 PM ] Guest : Do you want to try one of my questions?

[ 09:07:40 PM ] Guest : It's not like you're teaching because you're answering a problem I already know b/c I made it up

[ 09:07:47 PM ] Guest : I guarantee it's not against your policy

[ 09:07:54 PM ] Acad Coordinator : It is.

[ 09:07:59 PM ] Guest : No, it's not

[ 09:08:07 PM ] Guest : You're not tutoring me in any way

[ 09:08:10 PM ] Guest : I ALREADY KNOW THE ANSWER

[ 09:08:18 PM ] Guest : I made up the question

[ 09:09:07 PM ] Guest : Sorry, I was just trying to get a free trial

[ 09:09:13 PM ] Guest : When should I come back?

[ 09:09:47 PM ] Guest : How rude!

[ 09:10:07 PM ] Acad Coordinator : Tomorrow.

[ 09:10:18 PM ] Guest : That's what they told me yesterday

[ 09:10:58 PM ] Guest : OK, then you can do your work.

[ 09:10:59 PM ] Guest : Goodbye

[ 09:11:05 PM ] Guest : + Thank you

[ 09:11:11 PM ] Acad Coordinator : Have a great day.

Over a period of time (a while before I started this blog), I collected a LOT of transcripts of us talking.  I learned a lot about this site in this time, but the biggest thing I learned was: YOU PROBABLY SHOULDN'T WASTE YOUR TIME VISITING TUTORVISTA.  It's a time-waster trying to get answers, and it's a time-waster pranking them.

If you enjoyed that conversation, visit the following link to download the rest of the transcripts: http://www.mediafire.com/?el15bwrdtnaev

Downloading individual files from MediaFire can be a massive pain, so click this direct link to download the entire .ZIP archive of all of the transcripts: TutorVista Conversations.zip

Multiple Monitors FTW

(In case you didn't know, FTW stands for "For the Win")

If you have an old monitor just lying around gathering dust in your basement, you should put it to use!  It's so easy nowadays to attach an external monitor to launch you into the world of multiple monitors.  Even your fat, old CRTs can be used (even though they're bad for your eyes).

A long time ago, a friend first introduced me to the world of multiple monitors.  At first, I was skeptical of how useful it was.  Partly because I felt like I didn't need one and partly because I didn't exactly know how and didn't bother learning the few easy steps, I never bothered hooking up a second monitor.  When I did, I realized that I could never use single-monitor setups again (exaggeration -- but I feel cramped on a single screen and sometimes try to move my mouse onto the monitor next to mine when I'm working in the computer lab at school).  So, here's your warning: once you switch to multiple monitors, you'll probably never switch back.

Having a second or even a third monitor can drastically improve your productivity by providing you with so much more screen space.  A second one essentially doubles your viewing space while the third one gives you a central focus.  Personally, I think anything more than 3 monitors is overkill and can probably lower your efficiency by distracting you.

All you really need to know is the types of video output from your computer.  It's pretty simple, like putting together a puzzle -- connect the video cable wherever it fits.  You probably don't even need to read this post to figure this out, but I thought a visual might help some people.

The types of video output right now are: VGA (Video Graphics Array), DVI (Digital Visual Interface), HDMI (High-Definition Multimedia Interface), and DisplayPort.

• VGA is the oldest, and carries an analog signal.  Although it's beginning to be phased out in favor of digital transfers (which have no signal loss), it's still probably the most common interface around, especially in older monitors and video cards.
• DVI is next in line, and it carries a digital signal, as its name suggests.
• HDMI is probably the most popular right now because it can connect to most gaming consoles as well as computers.  It's also transfers data faster than DVI.  In addition to video, HDMI can also transfer audio.  The actual connector is also smaller.
• DisplayPort is the newest thing.  Made by AMD/ATI, it is very fast and can be found on newer ATI 5xxx (like a Radeon 5830) series cards and higher.  It allows the really high-end cards (the ones I don't encourage that you buy unless you're wealthy) to support up to 6 monitors each through their new Eyefinity.

You find the output from ports that look like these on your video card, which is located in the back of your computer.  If you're using a laptop, these ports can be found on the perimeter of your laptop, like near where your USB ports are found.  You'll also find ports that look the same as these on the back of your monitors.

To connect your monitor to your computer, simply find the correct cable and plug one side into your monitor and the other into your computer.  It doesn't even matter which side of the cable goes into the monitor and which goes to the graphics card.  These connectors can only go in one way, so if the pins don't line up, don't force it in because you could bend the pins.

Sometimes you won't have the right output from your computer to match the input on your monitor.  In that case, you'll have to use an adapter.  It'll look something like the picture below (which happens to convert DVI into VGA).  Using it is simple: just plug the correct side (the one with the pins) into your computer and plug your cable into the adapter.

So what are you waiting for?  Find that old monitor you have and plug it in!  Heck, buy a new one (see LED vs. LCD to pick the right one for you)!  You'll be amazed at how useful (and fun/awesome) it is to have multiple monitors!  You can have a super-cool setup just like this:

Not actually my setup (although I have  2 monitors)

Some Sequence Puzzles

Here are some sequences I made up.  They're not really math problems.  Instead, they just require some problem-solving skills.  The first one is the easiest.  The other two have about the same difficulty.

For each of these, find the next three terms and how the sequence is defined.

First one:
1, 1, 3, 4, 5, 7, 7, 10, 9, ...

Second one:
6, 9, 15, 21, 33, 39, ...

Third one:
1, 8, 7, 4, 5, 6, ...
Hint: solve the following sequence first.
1, 4, 9, 6, 5, 6, ...

Have fun!  I hope this stretches your mind a bit!

Since many of you will probably be lazy and just look for the answer, I'll encode them in Base64 encoding so that you'll have to decode them.  Don't worry, though, it's easy.  Just use this online Base64 translator.


Answers (super-small text so it takes up less space because you're not actually going to try and read it anyway... are you?):
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