North Island, South Island, All Around the Town
This thing about what they ought to call the two primary islands of New Zealand —
I think they ought to call them "Ralph" and "Alice"
ref: BBC article "Confusion over NZ islands' names"
(http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/asia-pacific/8011846.stm)
Wednesday, April 22, 2009
Tuesday, April 14, 2009
Shop-Vac
The other day my wife was using the Shop-Vac and turned it off and then immediagtely back on. It fried the switch, so I'll be replacing that right away. I looked up parts on the Shop-Vac web site and found that the schmucks will not sell the switch. They will sell you a whole new "power head", motor and all, for about $70. Stupid. Very stupid.
The other day my wife was using the Shop-Vac and turned it off and then immediagtely back on. It fried the switch, so I'll be replacing that right away. I looked up parts on the Shop-Vac web site and found that the schmucks will not sell the switch. They will sell you a whole new "power head", motor and all, for about $70. Stupid. Very stupid.
Sunday, April 05, 2009
My Sudoku Method
I have a three-part marking system. It's all based on positional notation; any mark relevant to the presence or absence of a '1', for instance, is in the upper-left corner of the cell. Similarly, the other digits are in a grid, thusly:
1 2 3
4 5 6
7 8 9
If there are only two possible places for a '1', that corner will have a small circle.
If there are three, there will be a slash. If four or more, a dot.
If the numeral cannot be there, it's an x.
If there's nothing, I haven't gotten to that stage het.
I first scan for the obvious and fill those in. Then I go over the whole puzzle grid once for each numeral. Sometimes I just do the twosies (the little circles) first. Sometimes the twosies and threesies together. And sometimes I do the full monty, putting dots in the multifarious places.
The reason these marks evolved is that one can easily upgrade a dot to a slash, or a slash to a circle (a little messy but readable). And an X can always be placed over anything else.
Might write more later, maybe even with pictures.
I have a three-part marking system. It's all based on positional notation; any mark relevant to the presence or absence of a '1', for instance, is in the upper-left corner of the cell. Similarly, the other digits are in a grid, thusly:
1 2 3
4 5 6
7 8 9
If there are only two possible places for a '1', that corner will have a small circle.
If there are three, there will be a slash. If four or more, a dot.
If the numeral cannot be there, it's an x.
If there's nothing, I haven't gotten to that stage het.
I first scan for the obvious and fill those in. Then I go over the whole puzzle grid once for each numeral. Sometimes I just do the twosies (the little circles) first. Sometimes the twosies and threesies together. And sometimes I do the full monty, putting dots in the multifarious places.
The reason these marks evolved is that one can easily upgrade a dot to a slash, or a slash to a circle (a little messy but readable). And an X can always be placed over anything else.
Might write more later, maybe even with pictures.
Saturday, April 04, 2009
Those Damned Address Labels
I have vowed to not give money to any organization that sends me any more of those damned address labels. I have composed a form letter that I enclose with the return of their solicitation; it begins with "This is a sad day for all of us ... "
Yesterday I got some of thos Damned Labels from Amnesty International. You have to draw the line somewhere, sometime, and I drew it, and they crossed it. They get the letter. I hope they get the point. I encourage others to do the same thing.
I have vowed to not give money to any organization that sends me any more of those damned address labels. I have composed a form letter that I enclose with the return of their solicitation; it begins with "This is a sad day for all of us ... "
Yesterday I got some of thos Damned Labels from Amnesty International. You have to draw the line somewhere, sometime, and I drew it, and they crossed it. They get the letter. I hope they get the point. I encourage others to do the same thing.
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)
