Just-in-time Learning

One of my favorite ways of learning is just-in-time learning. That is, you learn something when you need it. Splines are cool and all, but you don't really need to learn them until you're doing something with cubic interpolation. (Like path definitions in video games.)

When I learned about splines, however, I recognized that my just-in-time learning strategy would have failed me, had my other team member not known about splines. Just-in-time learning only works when you have a broad enough knowledge base to know what you need to learn. If you have no idea what sorts of problems calculus can solve, you will not even consider needing to learn calculus to solve a particular problem. Put me back in that situation of ignorance of splines, give me the same problem, and I would have suggested doing some basic Newtonian physics to come up with a standard function for a parabola. But how to unitize it... No clue. It was a problem I was brick walled against, and a spline-less solution would have been inelegant and ugly. It would not have been a good solution. This is why teams can be beneficial: you draw from each other's knowledge pools, and just-in-time-learn the specifics when someone knows generally what is needed.

Also, for a side-note, just-in-time learning isn't for everyone. I suspect my high IQ helps me in this aspect, but people with very average or below average IQ's would struggle to take up my learning methods. IQ is a fairly reliable test to measure how easily a person can learn new things, and the reason they have geometric and pattern matching questions on it isn't because knowledge of such things is more useful than, say, knowledge about car engines, but because humans are known to suck at holding shapes and figures and calculations and patterns in their heads, no matter how smart they are. How well you can do it versus someone else is a key thing the IQ test measures.

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Flex XMLList Set Intersections, Unions, Differences

Here's some code I wrote recently I felt like sharing with the world, just because. Consider it public domain, no warranties, guarantees, etc. Don't know how it will work with XML with children. (Actually it works as expected. These functions and some array-versions I implemented have been quite useful.)

// The following XML set functions are not implemented with efficiency in mind;

// probably best not to use them for large sets.



/**

 * var l1:XMLList = new XMLList('<user name="bob" /><user grade="4" name="alice" /><user name="susie" />');

 * var l2:XMLList = new XMLList('<user name="alice" grade="4" /><user name="frank" />');

 * trace("diff: " + CustomFuncs.XMLdifference(l1, l2).toXMLString());

 * trace("union: " + CustomFuncs.XMLunion(l1, l2).toXMLString());

 * trace("intersection: " + CustomFuncs.XMLintersection(l1, l2).toXMLString());

 * trace("symm diff: " + CustomFuncs.XMLsymmetric_difference(l1, l2).toXMLString());

 * (Output:)

 * diff: <user name="bob"/>

 * <user name="susie"/>

 * union: <user name="bob"/>

 * <user grade="4" name="alice"/>

 * <user name="susie"/>

 * <user name="frank"/>

 * intersection: <user grade="4" name="alice"/>

 * symm diff: <user name="bob"/>

 * <user name="susie"/>

 * <user name="frank"/>

 */

public static function XMLdifference(list1:XMLList, list2:XMLList) : XMLList {

  // list1 - list2 = set of nodes in list 1 minus any that also appear in list2

  var diff:XMLList = new XMLList();

  for each (var node:XML in list1) {

    if (!list2.contains(node)) {

      diff += node;

    }

  }

  return diff;

}




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The Perfect Ones

This is a short story I wrote for a class assignment in 11th grade (I think it was to write a Canterbury Tale) that a friend recently dug up to remind me about. She says she likes it, so I'm posting it here unedited. I think it's okayish. I may go back to this world and do a Part Two. Note that while I still share a significant number of the underlying views presented here, my 11th grade self (only a few years ago too!) is almost a completely different person to me now.

---

There once was a country, larger than any, full of people of all sizes and colors and opinions. The ruling force was well-begun, but by this time the whispers and shadows of its crumbling were near certainty for a large group of people. These people gathered together, discussed the situation, and debated on a course of action. War was no solution, for their country possessed the mightiest troops and machines designed for a hundred years with the sole purpose of killing in masses. Yet nor was a passive resistance the answer, as the government had suppressed many uprisings in the past (with rebel forces far outnumbering their own) and the general population was so deceived and mindless that they did not give a second thought, if they heard of it at all.

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Eminem's New Album Rules

Just throwing that out there. Recovery wins.

I don't even think I have a really favorite song from it, either, because they're all such great tracks. I think I can make a list of my favorite five, maybe, but among those? Not sure how to rank them. I think this is a mark of a great album; with Relapse, Beautiful was clearly the best song, followed by Underground, and the rest were good but not fantastic.

Also, yay flac files!

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Enjoy it!

Why all the focus on "live life in the moment, 'cause tomorrow you may die!"? Or "Enjoy it while it lasts!"? Why not simply live life, sometimes in the moment, and why not simply enjoy it? Why should something have to end in order for you to appreciate it more?

Of course it's not necessary, and humans have no problem whatsoever with valuing "everlasting" things. I can find some stories about valuing old trees if necessary, but surely everyone can see it?

Life's great, I don't know why people have to use death to justify its greatness. And in the end it just makes us rationalize it all the more when one of our number decreases, some people going so far as to suggest it's a good thing. It boggles my mind.

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Role Playing Is Like Chess

I started doing online role playing roughly 6 or 7 years ago, though for the past 2 years at least I've been on an RP hiatus. I just lost interest, and I lost contacts with people. My primary source of RP has always been Furcadia (before you ask, no I don't consider myself a furry and don't think yiffing really constitutes RP), in addition to the once-in-a-blue-moon forum RP or quick session in an IM window.

Anyway, I did an RP earlier tonight that lasted a long time, and it was fun, interesting, cool. I'm using a classic character I've had for years, but I'm re-inventing him in some aspects and giving him at least temporary oddities such as communicating through metaphors, symbols, and examples. (It's fun to think that way.)

And I realized: RPing is fundamentally quite simple. You put yourself in situations, and write about it with other people. The nature of this makes pretty much every RP unique in many respects, even if there's strong similarity at some points or there's an overall theme. So this is a lot like Chess. Chess is fundamentally simple, you only have a certain amount of pieces with a certain amount of valid moves. But while each game may have similar openings and other aspects, they nevertheless tend to be fairly unique. And fun, interesting, cool because of it.

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Why I Sometimes Really Dislike Java

I don't hate Java, but the formalities really annoy me sometimes. And I wrote this code, so I don't hate it at all. (Well, the XML design wasn't mine, and it will be refactored.) Anyway, this is why. Mainly just the first line.

Map<String, Map<String, Map<String, Map<String, String>>> > meta_data = new LinkedHashMap<String, Map<String, Map<String, Map<String, String>>> >();



while (rs.next()) {

  int c = 1;

  String type = rs.getString(c++);

  String schemaName = rs.getString(c++);

  String name = rs.getString(c++);

  String col_name = rs.getString(c++);

  c++;

  int col_len = rs.getInt(c++);

  boolean is_null = rs.getBoolean(c++);

  String data_type = rs.getString(c++);




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