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Chinese Wooden Puzzle
I brought the Chinese Wooden Puzzle with
me to my office. One colleague suggested that we should search for the most
compact solution. There are various possible metrics for compactness. He
suggested to use the largest distance in the pieces with the same
colour. Some other that I thought about was the area of the smallest
enclosing rectangle or the area of the smallest convex enclosing. Later,
I thought about the simple metric that I have used before: the number of neighbouring squares with the same colour.
The two solutions I found today for searching for compact solution are
found on the list of solutions.
The second of these is the most compact on the list (sofar). It is:
One of the least compact solutions is the second solution on the list,
which is:
Chinese Wooden Puzzle
Today, I let a program calculate all the solutions for the
Chinese Wooden Puzzle using two pieces for all
possible type of pieces, inside a 15 by 4
frame. I got this idea a colleague showed me a solution. A total of 78600 solutions where found, with 51852 different
color patterns. A total of 12963 unique solutions where found.
Playing Go
It has been four weeks ago that I went to the university in order
to play Go. Short after I arrived, Rudi
and Taco also arrived. Rudi suggested that he would play against
us simultaneously. He accepted a eight stone handicap against
me. Somewhere in the middle game, I lost one of my groups. I
first realized that the group in the center of the board did
only have one eye. Next I discovered that I could make a second
eye in the corner. But instead of playing on the 1,2-point, I
played on the 1,3-point, which was followed by Rudi playing on
the 1,2-point and thus destroying the second eye. I formally
resign, but we finished the game. I lost with about 30 points,
but Rudi estimated that the group that was killed was worth
about fifty points. Next I watched the game between Rudi and
Taco till the end. I could not remember much about my own
game, but when I sat home and tried to replay the game, many
moved came to my mind, and I created this game 'sketch' in SGF.
Dyslexic brain
In the article Neural mechanism reveals why dyslexic brain has trouble
distinguishing speech from noise (about the paper
Context-Dependent Encoding in the Human Auditory
Brainstem Relates to Hearing Speech in Noise:
Implications for Developmental Dyslexia) it says:
Interestingly, Dr. Kraus's team also observed that, when
compared with the children that did not have dyslexia,
the dyslexic children exhibited enhanced brain activity
during the variable condition. "This may enable dyslexic
children to represent their sensory environment in a
broader and arguably more creative manner, although at
the cost of the ability to exclude irrelevant signals,"
speculates Dr. Kraus.
The Inescapable Self
This morning, I finished reading
the book The Inescapable Self: An Introduction to Western
Philosophy by Timothy Chappell. I started reading this book on May 22,
after I bought it on Saturday, May 16
from De Slegte for € 9.95.
The book deals about the sceptic question whether we can be
sure that there is an external world. Can we be sure that we
are dreaming all the time, or that our mind is deceived as
in The Matrix?
The book also deals with a number of (moral) dilemmas that are
related to this issue. The author explains how various philosophers
through the ages have dealt with these questions, hence the subtitle.
I have to confess that I probably less than one third of the text
of the book. I felt the sixth chapter, about the nature of
consciousness a little weak. For example, it introduced the
concept of zombie minds in a rather ad hoc manner, without questioning
it much, lest trying to explain the problem of consciousness verses
zombie minds. Also the last chapter, in which the author gives a
sketch of how all, but the first dilemma (can we be sure about the
existance of a real world), can be done away with, either by
showing that there is no dillema or by showing that there is a
way out, leaves much to be answered. Nevertheless, I found it
an interesting book to read. But I am happy that I finished it.
Origami
This afternoon at 13:12:34, I bought two books from
bookshop De Slegte, namely:
Just a Saturday
This morning, I weighted 76.8 kilogram on our scales. That
is the lowest value in months. The last two weeks I dropped
about one kilo. This might be related to the fact that
Annabel is staying home during
the week again. Maybe it has to do with the fact that I
go to bed earlier or that I am more active because I have
to cook dinner? I don't know.
I have been reading in the Dutch translation of Letters
to Anais Nin (which I bought last Thursday)
and been paging through the Dutch translations of Dairies
1931-1934 and Henry and June
by Anaïs Nin.
This afternoon, I went into the city for some shoppings. I went to
Fotogalerie Objecktief where
I watched the exposition "New Saints" by 'de
realisten' (Jan Wierda and Carel Lanters). It was quite interesting, because
it involded 3D-photography. On both sides of the hall large portret
pictures where put on the wall. In the center there were stand with
two small mirrows on top of them. If you stood before one of the
stands, each eye would see (through on of the mirrows) one of the
portrets, and produce a 3D-effect.
Next I went to bookshop De Slegte
where at 16:02:09, I bought the following two books:
- Ik besloot dat ik alles kon doen. Loesje by
Loesje for € 2,50.
- Power of style: Berlin Stylewriting for € 6,99.
In the evening, Annabel and I watched the final of "The best idea of
Netherlands". Annabel also baked some bread for the first time. It
turned out quite nice. I also read about
half of the book by Loesje.
This months interesting links
Movements
KMZ file of movements.
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