http://saulpwanson.com flawed, incomplete, and temporary Mon, 27 Oct 2008 21:59:19 +0000 http://backend.userland.com/rss092 en A few years ago, I was playing a lot of Minesweeper, and I realized that I was spending most of my time implementing two very simple rules repeatedly: If the number of mines indicated by this square is equal to the number of neighboring mines already flagged, clear any uncleared/unflagged neighbors. If ... http://saulpwanson.com/2008/minesweeper-automation At least the 10% of my 401k that I lost today is not as much as the 10% I lost yesterday. As a side note, it is interesting that the stock market performs better and with less volatility during Democratic presidencies: Using the Dow Jones industrial average as the benchmark, Stock Trader's ... http://saulpwanson.com/2008/on-the-bright-side The very idea of Sarah Palin being President of the United States (POTUS) scares the piss out of me. It's not just her take on the issues (well, the ones she's actually thought about) and her ignorance and her appalling lack of experience--though they should be enough to disturb ... http://saulpwanson.com/2008/president-palin-bumper-stickers My mom found some of her favorite music on Youtube. She's been looking for some of these songs for a long time, and now that she's found them, she's scared that Youtube will pull them and then she won't have them again. She wants to download them so ... http://saulpwanson.com/2008/youtube-to-mp3-converter I recently read this blog post entitled Sowing the Seeds of a Future Society (emphasis mine): Given that I believe a major environmental crisis is unavoidable, how might we ensure that genuinely sustainable communities could become a reality? Firstly I believe we should use the most powerful tool of the current ... http://saulpwanson.com/2008/sustainability-mmorpg Math is science's search for God. Science always begins, "We have constructed assumptions which predict results, but what is the basis for those assumptions?" So it delves deeper. It says, "If we assume these assumptions are 'God', then our search is effectively over, so we assume there ... http://saulpwanson.com/2008/on-the-eternal-battle-between-science-and-religion This can you name the elements game from Sporcle is extremely simple, but well done and actually kinda fun, at least the first two or three times. Accepting the input instantly is a nice touch. Their geographic tests (like how many countries in Europe can you name) are even harder, ... http://saulpwanson.com/2008/can-you-name-the-elements I would like to see a timeline of superlative modifiers, when they came into fashion and when they became uncool. extra- (L. outside, 1922-1945) super- (L. above, 1940-1958) ultra- (L. beyond, 1979-1984) mega- (Gk. great, 1984-1993) hyper- (Gk. beyond, 1994-2000) meta- (Gk. after, 2001-present) I bet Lexus-Nexus could run this query, actually. http://saulpwanson.com/2008/superlative-modifiers I finally got around to using my 30-day free trial in World of Warcraft, and I have a few thoughts about my experience. Not everyone enjoys in-depth analysis of online role-playing games, though, so first let me share a brief summary for those people who wonder what the big ... http://saulpwanson.com/2008/my-free-trial-on-world-of-warcraft Slashdot had a post noting that today the world population will surpass 6.666666666 billion people, right on track to hit 7 billion by 2012. Many people, including myself, think the world is radically overpopulated with humans, but I'm no longer worrying about it. It's just how life goes: ... http://saulpwanson.com/2008/world-population