aww's New Writeups

Bell lap (idea)

2002-11-03T15:30:33Z

In many cycling and track (running) events the final lap of a race is signaled by ringing a bell as the leader crosses the line for the final lap. In some cases a starter's pistol firing blank rounds is used in place of a bell.

Reit (thing)

2002-11-03T15:29:33Z

REITs are corporations that purchase and manage real estate on behalf of shareholders.

The acronym is formed by taking the first letter of each word in the formal term - Real Estate Investment Trust.

Investors typically like REITs because they pay out a high percentage of their earnings as dividends and REITs recieve favorable federal tax treatment at the corporate level so they are often able to operate quite efficiently. Most REITs focus are particular niches of the real estate market, e.g. Shopping malls, apartment complexes, commercial office buildings, etc...

Vipul's Razor (thing)

2002-09-02T12:31:35Z

Vipul's Razor is an opensource package for collective detection and marking of spam so that it can be filtered by end-users. Special algorithms are used to detect slightly modified versions of the same spam and the integrity of the system is upheld by skewing results towards reports submitted by users with a better reputation. Reputation is gained by accurately submitting spam.

The project is hosted by sourceforge and gets it name from the package's author, Vipul Ved Prakash. It is freely available under the artistic license

overround (thing)

2002-09-02T01:47:47Z

If you look at the odds given by bookies in a typical sports event you will notice the sum of the probabilities will add up to an amount greater than one.

Here's an example using a hypothetical horse race:

Contestant    Odds    Probability                                     
Horse-1       2-1     0.3333                                          
Horse-2       4-1     0.2000                                          
Horse-3       4.5-1   0.1818                                          
Horse-4       5-1     0.1667                                          
Horse-5       6-1     0.1429                                         
Horse-7       7-1     0.1250                                         
Horse-8       8-1     0.1111                                         
Horse-9       9-1     0.1000                                         
                                                                            
Overround:            1.3608 (sum of probabilities)

…

How to carry skis (idea)

2002-03-06T00:14:32Z

1). Hook your skis together by sliding the brake portions of the binding together

2). Place the skis on one shoulder. The flat part should rest against your clavicle and the tips should face forwards. The front of the binding should be right behind your shoulder.

3). To avoid hitting other people in the head carry the skis with the tips pointed down at a 30-45 degree angle.

iXL (thing)

2001-12-18T03:01:00Z

iXL was once a high-flying dot-com consultancy.

iXL no longer exists as an independent entity. In November 2001 iXL and Scient merged and retained the Scient name. Since the merger the company has continued to downsize and does not appear likely to survive as a going concern.

Over the summer of 2002 the combined iXL/Scient operating on the Scient name filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy. SBI out of Salt Lake City, UT bought some of the remaining assets by providing a few million dollars of debtor-in-possesion financing.