Leslie Steward

ABC Url

noreply@blogger.com (Les) — Mon, 15 Mar 2010 21:06:00 +0000

How to play:

Open a browser
In the url bar, type each letter
Put those websites in a list.

From my laptop's Chrome:

a - www.alistapart.com
b - blogger.com
c - chatroulette.com (last week I found a webcam simulator, mwahaha)
d - dailymile.com
e - en.wikipedia.org
f - facebook.com
g - gmail.com
h - http://lesliesteward.com
i - imdb.com
j - jquery.com
k - kirklandweather.com
l - lesliesteward.com
m - mail.google.com
n - news.ycombinator.com
o - okcupid.com
p - pandora.com
q - quake.usgs.gov (seattle traffic is doomed)
r - reddit.com
s - smellsfunny.com (not sure why)
t - twitter.com
u - business.gov "Official business link to the U.S. government"
v - video.google.com
w - warlight.net
x - xbox.com (huh)
y - youtube.com
z - zillow.com

You should make your own list and put a link in the comments.

Pictures Gallery is Alive!

noreply@blogger.com (Les) — Wed, 24 Feb 2010 02:44:00 +0000

Instead of fighting with zend, php, and godaddy, I've added a prebuilt javascript gallery to the pictures page. Give it a try. If you see something that's not quite right, please let me know.

http://lesliesteward.com/pictures/

Many thanks to Jesse Berman's javascript interface for Picasa. It needed to be tweaked to work with jQuery, IE, and my discriminating tastes*, but was very easy to use.

Little program to Use Integer math to find the Date

noreply@blogger.com (Les) — Mon, 22 Feb 2010 23:00:00 +0000

I was skimming my feeds this morning and saw a puzzle by Paul Jungwirth in the Coding Horror comments.

You have the numbers 123456789, in that order. Between each number, you must insert either nothing, a plus sign, or a multiplication sign, so that the resulting expression equals 2001. Write a program that prints all solutions. (There are two.) This is a pretty tricky problem, actually, if you don't think to use recursion. I was satisfied with pseudocode, but the Perl Mongers version was to fit the whole thing into 80 characters!

So here's my solution (in php, because I've been using that recently):

http://lesliesteward.com/projects/datemath/

Included is a form so that you can try it out on just about any number.

PHP Pic Tweaker

noreply@blogger.com (Les) — Thu, 11 Feb 2010 23:58:00 +0000

As I was flipping through the pages of PHP Cookbook, I saw that you could manipulate images. All productivity for the rest of the day was lost as I built php functions to resize, add a dropshadow, and add a border to almost any image.

PHP Dropshadow, Border, and Resize Functions

For example, you can turn this:

Into this all within the html image tag.

Kinda neat, huh.

How to disable Google Buzz

noreply@blogger.com (Les) — Wed, 10 Feb 2010 23:52:00 +0000

The idea of Google Buzz is great. It provides a way to get fast feedback on small issues. But sometimes you don't want it.

Log into Gmail
Scroll down to the bottom of the screen
By "Gmail view:" click "Turn off Buzz"

Maybe you're like me and you don't want everything in one convenient locations, in Gmail. You could try twitter quick thoughts. Perhaps Google reader for reading headlines. And a desktop chat client for, um, chatting.

Interview Questions from January

noreply@blogger.com (Les) — Thu, 04 Feb 2010 21:40:00 +0000

The heart of software is solving problems. To practice you need to ask questions. Here's a few questions that were asked during an interview last month. I didn't get the job.

Describe a test plan to test Netflix's search.
My abridged answer: test basic functionality, create use cases, possibly performance test, focus on specific input and expected output.

Their answer: Don't remember, didn't write it down, but something similar.

Shoulda said: Not sure. Talk about different testing techniques.

Write a SQL statement that would pull the second oldest employee from a table.
My answer: "select top 2 * from employees order by age desc" then use the calling function to extract the second.
Their answer: Use a nested query. Grab the two oldest, grab the second in that list using max. (Not sure why max() since it only returns 1, but the hour was up so I didn't press.)

Shoulda said: What they said. They were looking for a query only way to get the result.

A corporate phone directory is in nested folders. Your name is a folder under your boss up to the CEO. In each folder is a phone.txt file with a number with the format xxx-xxx-xxxx. Write a script to change the formats to (xxx)xxx-xxx.

My answer: Use a script that would start at the root and recursively visit each folder, so depth first. In each folder, if there is a phone.txt file, open it and look for the regular expression matching the phone number. If there was a match replace with a correct syntax.

Their answer: None given.

Shoulda said: Upgrade to database. Or, maybe, pull all phone.txt into a list, then iterate through list.

Infernal Machine

noreply@blogger.com (Les) — Fri, 29 Jan 2010 23:17:00 +0000

Machine, for reference only. Made about a year ago.

Processor: Intel Core 2 Quad 2.33 GHz @ 1333. 4mb cache.
Ram: 8gb Crucial DDR2 Ballistix PC6400
GPU: Radeon HD 4670 PCIE
Mobo: Gigabyte EP45-UD3LR
HD: 500GB Seagate Barracuda 3.5" SATA 7200rpm
Power: 600w Zalman ZM600HP. 4 +12 vde rails
NIC: DLink Wireless PCIE DWA556
Drive: LG 20x DVD-RW SATA
Case: Cooler Master Chassis Sileo 500
OS: Windows Vista Ultimate, Ubuntu 9.10

New Menu Using jQuery

noreply@blogger.com (Les) — Thu, 31 Dec 2009 01:09:00 +0000

I wasn't happy with the existing title menu that spread across the top of the screen but didn't provide much value. There was a lot of blue gradient with no content, especially on very wide screens. It needed to be changed.

What I was hoping for was an expanding menu with a small foot print, kind of like the Windows 7 jewel. At first I started shuffling around some divs with homemade dhtml, but that was a pain. I'm not sure where I came across jQuery, but it solved all the problems I was having; working in different browsers, easy syntax, minimal code, etc. It's really a nice library, and I can see why it was so highly recommended.

So the new menu contains 2 parts. The first part is a little icon that, when clicked, shows the navigation. It expands it to fit and I was very surprised at how easy it was. Essentially, this is all the code needed:

<script type="text/javascript" src="/includes/jquery132.js"></script>
<script type="text/javascript">
  $(document).ready(function() {
    $("#slider").hide();
    $("#button").toggle(function() {
      $("#slider").show("fast");
    },function(){
      $("#slider").hide("fast");
    });
    $("#slider h1").click(function() {
      $("$slider").hide("fast");
    });
  });
</script>

I hope you like the little icon and new menu. Try it by clicking him in the upper left. I'm definitely going to look into jQuery more for cool dynamic webpages or if I need to have javascript do other magical things.

Mom's Rhubarb Muffins & Bars

noreply@blogger.com (Les) — Wed, 23 Dec 2009 01:21:00 +0000

Found some rhubarb recipes while cleaning house. Image from Time Online UK.

Rhubarb Muffins

Makes 18 muffins or 2 large loaves.

1 1/2 cups brown sugar

2 1/2 cups flour

1 tsp baking soda

1 tsp salt

2/3 cup vegetable oil

1 egg

1 cup milk

1 tsp vanilla extract

1 1/2 cups diced rhubarb

1/2 cup nuts

Cinnamon and sugar

Mix sugar, flour, soda, and salt together in a bowl that will hold everything. Mix oil, egg, milk, and vanilla in another bowl. Mix wet mixture into dry. Fold in rhubarb and nuts. Pour into greased muffin pans or loaf pans. Sprinkle top with cinnamon and sugar.

Bake muffins at 350 degrees for 20-25 minutes.

Bake loaves at 350 degrees for 40-45 minutes.

Rhubarb Bars

Makes a 9x13 pan

Crust

2 cups flour

1/2 cup margarine or butter

1/2 cup shortening

2 tbsp sugar

Mix, mash, and bake into bottom of 9 by 13 pan, 375 degrees for 15 minutes.

Filling

3 cups rhubarb

1 1/2 cup sugar

2 tbsp flour

1/2 cup cream

1/3 cup orange juice

Meanwhile, in a large saucepan cook all filling ingredients till thick. Remove from heat and blend in 3 egg yolks.

Meringue

3 egg whites

6 tbsp white sugar

There's probably more instructions, but that's all ma wrote. Maybe she wants you to use your powers of deduction.

Hubble Ultra Deep Field Background

noreply@blogger.com (Les) — Fri, 18 Dec 2009 22:40:00 +0000

After reviewing Boston Big Picture's Decade in News Photographs, I was reminded how awesome the Hubble Ultra Deep Field photo was. And since I like dark backgrounds, I just figured I'd make some wallpaper to share. This one is 1680 x 1050. The original is available through Wikipedia.

From Random Awesomeness

Odd Number Counter Finder 3000

noreply@blogger.com (Les) — Thu, 10 Dec 2009 23:43:00 +0000

So after bombing an Amazon technical interview because I couldn't remember syntax and the efficiencies of data structures, it seemed like a good idea to fix that. So here's the question and the code I'm going to say is correct. I'm still reviewing the java documentation, but if you have suggestions please comment.

Create and test a function that accepts a positive integer array and returns the value that appears an odd number of times. There should only be one integer in the array that has an odd number of occurences.

Here's some broken code below. I realize this accepts non-positive integers, has bad commenting, and other issues, but my biggest question is if I'm using the most efficient data structures.

RunTests.java


import java.lang.reflect.Array;
public class RunTests {
 public static void main(String[] args) {
  OddNumberFinder onf = new OddNumberFinder();

  TestCase[] testCases = {
    new TestCase(new int[] {1}, 1),    
    new TestCase(null, 0),
    new TestCase(new int[] { 1, 1, 2, 2, 3 }, 3),
    new TestCase(new int[] { 1, 1, 0, -1, -1 }, 0),
    //new TestCase(new int[] { 'a', 'b', 'c' }, null),
    //new TestCase(new int[] { }, null),
    //new TestCase(new int[] { 1, 1 }, null)
  };
  
  for(int i = 0; i < testCases.length; i++) {
   TestCase tc = testCases[i];
   try {
    System.out.print("For test set ");
    System.out.print(tc.toString());
    System.out.println(" the odd value is " + 
      onf.FindOddNumber(tc.numberSet));
   }
   catch (Exception e) {
    System.out.println("Exception");
   }
  }
 }
}

OddNumberFinder.java


import java.util.HashMap;
import java.util.Iterator;
import java.util.Set;
import java.util.Map;
import java.lang.Exception;

public class OddNumberFinder {
 public OddNumberFinder() {
 }
  
 public int FindOddNumber(int[] numbers) throws Exception {
  int numbersLength = numbers.length;

  //ArrayList counts = new ArrayList(); // what do I use? map?
  HashMap counts = 
   new HashMap(numbersLength);
  
  for(int i = 0; i < numbersLength; i++) {
   int key = numbers[i];
   int newValue = 0;
   if(counts.containsKey(key)) {
    newValue = (Integer) counts.get(key) + 1;
   }
   else {
    newValue = 1;
   }
   counts.put(key, newValue);
  }
  Set countSet = counts.entrySet();
  

  Iterator i = countSet.iterator();
  while(i.hasNext()) {
   Map.Entry me = (Map.Entry)i.next();
   if((Integer)me.getValue()%2 != 0) {
    return (Integer)me.getKey();
   }
  }

  throw new Exception();
 }
}

TestCase.java


public class TestCase {
 public int length;
 public int[] numberSet;
 public int expectedValue;
 
 public TestCase(int[] numberSet, int expectedValue) {
  this.numberSet = numberSet;
  this.expectedValue = expectedValue;
 }
 
 public String toString() {
  String s = "{";
  for(int i = 0; i < numberSet.length; i++) {
   s += numberSet[i];
   // Add a comma unless we have reached the last of the set. 
   if(i != numberSet.length - 1) s += ", ";
  }
  return s + "}";
 }
}

Mobius Bagel

noreply@blogger.com (Les) — Tue, 08 Dec 2009 07:17:00 +0000

The wonderful worlds of food and mathematics have merged in a marvel of thought and engineering.

Behold!

The Mobius Bagel

Its glorious conception and instructions are here: http://www.georgehart.com/bagel/bagel.html

Pioneers

noreply@blogger.com (Les) — Mon, 23 Nov 2009 04:53:00 +0000

Walt Whitman has a way with words. Thanks to Art of Manliness and Levi's for reminding me.

Random Number Generator

noreply@blogger.com (Les) — Fri, 13 Nov 2009 07:33:00 +0000

Hey, I made you a random number generator. Hope you like it. I use it all the time. Les

A Dozen Electrocuted Animals

noreply@blogger.com (Les) — Wed, 04 Nov 2009 18:43:00 +0000

Strange territory up here in Montana. This article should stay alive, so I'm copying from Eureka's Tobacco Valley News. I almost wish there were photos.

Crews find 12 dead animals on Pinkham Mountain power line

By Krista Tincher

Of the Tobacco Valley News

Lincoln Electric Co-op repair crews stumbled upon a grisly scene last week.

The carcasses of four whitetail deer, four black bear, two wolves, a coyote, and a turkey vulture lay strewn about a snow-skiffed remote power line on Pinkham Mountain, in various stages of decay.

It must have been months ago, speculated Tim Engleson of Lincoln Electric, that a dead lodgepole pine had toppled onto the power line, which services communications equipment on the mountain.

But the pine dropped the line to within a foot of the ground, and the line remained hot.

The power company had no way of knowing about it.

So it may have started with a deer, stumbling over the line.

The deer's carcass then attracted predators, which in turn were zapped by the live wire, attracting further predators.

And it was only when the weather turned wet enough last week for the electricity to find a path to the ground, said Engleson, that Lincoln Electric became aware of the outage.

With no residences on that line, even a dimming or flickering of lights couldn't be reported, Engleson said.

"It was kind of a freaky deal," he acknowledged. He has never heard of such an occurrence, he said. "We've had cases with a single critter," he said, but never 13.

"It was something I hadn't seen before," said game warden Jim Roberts, who also responded to the power line scene. "Like a regular little killing field."

The black bears consisted of one yearling, two females, and a male, he said. You could still see the singe marks on one bear's back, he said.

The male wolf and a younger wolf were likely members of the Lydia pack, he noted.

"It's just kind of one of those things. Strange things happen," said Roberts.

The event serves as a reminder, said Engleson, for people to stay away from downed power lines. You never know when they might still be hot.

"It's probably a good thing we found it before hunting season," added Engleson. "It was an unfortunate deal."

Google Sky

noreply@blogger.com (Les) — Tue, 13 Oct 2009 01:45:00 +0000

Mom was the art teacher at the school I attended. Every year she organized an inflatable planetarium to be sent to the school. After it was packed full of air, it was packed full of kids who would sit on the well worn plastic. They would listen with undivided *cough* attention as the cosmos was projected onto the inside of the bubble. The best part was the ability to see the connections between the stars to actually see what the constellations looked like.

Later I found some pictures of the Hubble Deep Field, which I still can't quite comprehend.

This is all leads me to http://www.google.com/sky/ which lets you search for you favorite star (did you know the middle star in the big dipper handle is a double star?), or get a glimpse of the Milky Way, or see the Horsehead Nebula.

Dance Party

noreply@blogger.com (Les) — Sat, 26 Sep 2009 19:28:00 +0000

Good News.

Eli's Dance Party is back!

How to make Facebook your homepage

noreply@blogger.com (Les) — Fri, 04 Sep 2009 23:10:00 +0000

Someone asked recently how to make Facebook their homepage. Although this might not be a good idea for productivity, here's how you do it.

Figure out which browser you have. You probably have Internet Explorer, Firefox, Safari, or Chrome. You can usually tell by the program icon.

Set your homepage to Facebook.
- Internet Explorer
  1. Press the alt key
  2. Click Tools
  3. Click Internet Options
  4. In the homepage input box type "http://www.facebook.com"
  5. Click OK
  6. Test by clicking the Home icon
- Firefox
  1. Click Tools
  2. Click Options
  3. Change when firefox starts to "Show my homepage"
  4. Replace everything in the homepage input box with "http://www.facebook.com/"
  5. Click OK
  6. Test by clicking the Home icon
- Chrome
  1. Click the customize button in the upper right. It looks like a wrench.
  2. Click options
  3. In basics, in the startup section, click "Open the homepage"
  4. In the homepage section, click "Open this page:"
  5. In the box, type "http://www.facebook.com"
  6. Make sure the "Show Home button on toolbar" is checked
  7. Click Close
  8. Test by clicking the Home icon
- Safari
  1. Click Preferences
  2. Click General
  3. In the home page box type "http://www.facebook.com"
  4. Close the preferences box
  5. Test by opening a new window with ctrl-n

For other browsers, look for a preferences or settings section. Within there should be a method for setting the homepage.

Good luck.

Simple and Encompassing is Dead

noreply@blogger.com (Les) — Mon, 17 Aug 2009 00:46:00 +0000

A long, long time ago I created a blogspot website to post fun and exciting thing found on the internet (other than this one). Well, I didn't maintain it, but fortunately no one looked at it. But rather than toss it away, I've compiled a list of the best stuff here. Farewell, simple and encompassing.

Best Game Ever: Cursor*10
This man wants to control the internet
TED: Craig Ventner on DNA and the Sea
George Parr explains subprime market
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Image:Solvay_conference_1927.jpg
Video: Keepon dancing to Spoon's "I turn my camera on"
http://strangemaps.wordpress.com/
Reanimated rodents
Robots evolve and lie
Seminar bingo
Video: Frankie Valley - Beggin' Remix
Video: Faith No More - I started a joke
Video: Ryksopp - Remind Me
http://flickrvision.com/
Video: Big dog
Video: Awareness Test
Don't destroy my American Dream
Landover Baptist Quiz
LSD Drawings
Video: They're made of meat

Haiku Generator

noreply@blogger.com (Les) — Sun, 09 Aug 2009 05:27:00 +0000

You ever felt like you needed a randomly generated haiku? Yeah, me too. So here it is:

Les's Haiku Generator

If you want your haiku added, just add it to the comments, or email them. :)

Kill Internet Explorer 6

noreply@blogger.com (Les) — Fri, 07 Aug 2009 02:35:00 +0000

Jump on the bandwagon. Kill IE6. Visit ie6nomore.com, grab their code, and add it into your site.

Q: But why? What did IE ever do to deserve this?

A: IE6 was pretty good 8 years ago when it came out. But web development standards have improved significantly since then. The web has incredible potential, but disproportionate amounts of time are spent working around IE6's peccadillos. That's time that could be spent creating incredible new things, like HTML 5.

Help your developer buddies out and encourage people to upgrade to a cool new browser, instead of driving around in a busted old one.

New Golf Terms

noreply@blogger.com (Les) — Sun, 12 Jul 2009 17:42:00 +0000

Thanks Sully!

A "James Joyce," an impossible read
A "Rock Hudson," looked straight, but wasn't
A "Cuban," needed one more revolution
An "Elton John," a big bender that lips the rim
A "Lou Gehrig," a dead Yank
An "Adolf Hitler," two shots in the bunker
A "Saddam Hussein," from one bunker straight into another bunker
A "Yasser Arafat," ugly and in the sand
A "Kate Winslett," a little fat but otherwise perfect
A "JFK, Jr.," didn't make it over the water
A "Rodney King," over-clubbed
An " O.J. Simpson," got away with it
A "Princess Grace," should have taken a driver
A "Princess Di," shouldn't have taken a driver
A "George W.," steadily fading
A "Condom," safe, but didn't feel very good
A "Rush Limbaugh," too far to the right
A "Nancy Pelosi," too far to the left

How to redirect the www version of your site to non-www

noreply@blogger.com (Les) — Tue, 07 Jul 2009 06:18:00 +0000

Let's suppose you have a website. Did you know you probably have 2 versions of the same site? Try it, remove or add www and see what you get. If you want to consolidate your URLs, as the folks at http://no-www.org/ would advise, and you have a linux server follow these steps.

1. Login to your server so that you can create a file called .htaccess in the root directory.

2. Add this code to your .htaccess file.

RewriteEngine On

RewriteBase /

RewriteCond %{HTTP_HOST} !^lesliesteward.com$ [NC]

RewriteRule ^(.*)$ http://lesliesteward.com/$1 [L,R=301]

3. Replace lesliesteward.com with your website name.

4. Save

Now all your www.foo.com will point to foo.com. Good luck. If you have trouble, just leave a comment.

Solution to Goose/Fox/Seed in a boat problem

noreply@blogger.com (Les) — Fri, 15 May 2009 23:31:00 +0000

(4:13:43 PM) les: if you needed to get a fox, goose, and bag of seed to an island, but you only had room in your boat for two and yourself how would you get them all on the island?
(4:14:39 PM) Eli: dude - that's not right - geese and foxes don't get along
(4:15:06 PM) les: yes. geese eat foxes
(4:15:18 PM) les: er
(4:15:20 PM) Eli: so i'd have the fox eat the goose
(4:15:22 PM) Eli: then go
(4:15:42 PM) Eli: for two and myself?
(4:15:45 PM) Eli: that means 3 right
(4:15:52 PM) Eli: that's enough room for all of us
(4:15:57 PM) Eli: hold the seed in my lap
(4:16:06 PM) Eli: or the goose
(4:16:09 PM) les: boat will sinc
(4:16:15 PM) Eli: you said room
(4:16:22 PM) les: now i'm saying sink
(4:16:27 PM) Eli: didn't say there was a weight limit
(4:16:57 PM) Eli: i'd untwine the bag and make a rope, tie it around the gooses neck and have it either fly or paddle behind the boat
(4:17:14 PM) les: gesse are unpredictable
(4:17:22 PM) Eli: that's why i'd have the rope
(4:17:24 PM) Eli: silly
(4:17:25 PM) les: it will eat the bag
(4:17:33 PM) Eli: too late, i already made it into a rope
(4:17:46 PM) les: how you gonna get the seed across?
(4:18:04 PM) Eli: fox, seeds and me in the boat
(4:18:06 PM) Eli: goose behind
(4:18:16 PM) les: goose is too big for ropes
(4:18:30 PM) les: tough goose. no neck
(4:18:35 PM) les: or feet
(4:18:36 PM) Eli: do i need the seeds when i get to the island?
(4:18:39 PM) les: or wings
(4:18:50 PM) les: eventually
(4:19:17 PM) Eli: but i could use the seeds as a trail for the goose to follow
(4:19:36 PM) Eli: geese luv seeds!
(4:19:39 PM) les: goose can't follow. no feet
(4:19:49 PM) les: or wings
(4:19:56 PM) Eli: why would i want to bring a footless/wingless goose with me?
(4:20:05 PM) les: it's part of the purchase order
(4:20:22 PM) Eli: why am i going to an island to sell something? it's uninhabited
(4:21:03 PM) les: there's goose/seed/fox cooks there
(4:21:34 PM) les: neutral zone. international waters. no cops
(4:21:39 PM) Eli: i'd mail the seeds via ups
(4:21:45 PM) Eli: then take the goose and fox in the boat
(4:21:57 PM) les: fox will eat the goose
(4:22:03 PM) les: and it's sunday
(4:22:06 PM) Eli: not if i sit between them
(4:22:18 PM) les: fox is crafty
(4:22:20 PM) Eli: wait till monday
(4:22:26 PM) Eli: i'm craftier
(4:22:33 PM) les: cooks have a timelimit
(4:22:41 PM) Eli: please..since when?
(4:22:59 PM) les: these are international waters man. pirate cooks
(4:23:12 PM) Eli: you said it was neutral territory
(4:23:16 PM) Eli: doesn't soudn that way
(4:23:25 PM) les: pirates are crafty
(4:23:48 PM) Eli: what's your point?
(4:24:32 PM) les: don't remember
(4:24:47 PM) Eli: nice story, can i kill the goose now?
(4:25:41 PM) les: died of starvation
(4:25:58 PM) Eli: what?
(4:26:01 PM) Eli: who did?
(4:26:09 PM) les: the goose
(4:26:11 PM) les: and the fox
(4:26:14 PM) les: and the pirates
(4:26:22 PM) Eli: why was i going to the island again?
(4:27:01 PM) les: to deliver the purchase order
(4:27:13 PM) Eli: a dead order?
(4:27:18 PM) Eli: to dead pirate cooks?
(4:27:53 PM) les: you didn't fulfil the terms of the purchase order
(4:28:11 PM) les: pirate cooks aren't going to work with you now
(4:28:25 PM) Eli: i really think i need a new profession

Laser Kitten Vertices

noreply@blogger.com (Les) — Thu, 07 May 2009 15:46:00 +0000

This is a test.