DTal's New Writeups

August 5, 2009 (log)

2009-08-04T16:33:39Z

Far be it from me to perpetuate such ridiculous memes on E2, Facebook, or any other place.

However, when I saw this on Facebook, it appealed to the verbal-puzzly side of my brain, and I decided to fill it out, purely for my own amusement. I was sufficiently pleased with the result that I saved it, and it has sat on my hard drive untouched until now. Presented here for your edification is:

MY LIFE ACCORDING TO ORBITAL *groan*

Pick your Artist: Orbital
Describe Yourself: The Sinner
How do you feel: Way Out
Describe where you currently live: Planet of the Shapes
If you could go anywhere, where would you go: Lost
Your favorite form of transportation: Monorail
Your best friend is: Out There Somewhere
Yo…

November 4, 2008 (poetry)

2008-11-04T01:05:06Z

idle chat status
quoth 'free the rest of the night'
stay up till the dawn

July 22, 2008 (event)

2008-07-22T15:34:33Z

Our family is in the process of moving from one side of the Atlantic to the other, as a result of which we are very frequently thousands of miles apart. Now is one such time.

Last night an email from my mother popped into my inbox, which I only read this afternoon. Apparently my father had a stroke very early yesterday morning and is numb down one side of his body. He's had a history of this, and usually it has cleared within minutes, but this one hasn't. He'll be in and out of hospital while they do more scans.

My family only left a few weeks ago, and I'll be following on in a few more. It seems rather cruel that this should happen in the relatively short time we are out of each other's reach.

Update: According to a recent telephone call from my mother, he has no motor impairment, although one side of his body is tingly. So hopefully it isn't too serious.

24/96 (thing)

2008-05-28T04:44:02Z

Abbreviation for 24 bits, 96 kilohertz. Refers to a particular resolution and sampling rate often found in very high end audio equipment. 24/96 has the potential for absolutely stellar audio quality, compared to CDs which "only" sample 16 bits at 44.1 kilohertz.

The benefits of 24/96 recording are actually quite subtle and apply mainly to recording artists and mixing engineers. In fact, as we shall see, it is decidedly overkill.

The Rationale Behind 24 bits

16 bits was chosen as the resolution for the CD-DA format because it provides a 96 decibel signal-to-noise ratio, just about spanning the dynamic range of human hearing (that is, a single CD could reproduce the loudest and the quietest sound you could perceive without alteration of the volume knob). This is fine if the recording is "hot" (mixed as loud as possible without clipping), as all the bits are then used. This is called "saturating the bits", and nearly all…

Do similar pieces make a puzzle easier or harder? (idea)

2008-01-15T16:06:35Z

This completely ignores the human element, in both the act of creating and the act of solving a puzzle. There are two distinct methods of finding the correct piece: shape, and colour. A puzzle with regular pieces forces a potential solver to rely on colour and image characteristics such as lines, but is also utterly predictable. An irregularly carved puzzle need not, but it does have the potential for deliberate trickery.

Let me tell you about my dear grandmother. She's a puzzle-maker by trade, and she wields a mean jigsaw. She invariably sends us at least one of her puzzles for Christmas. Fiendishly difficult, they are quite idiosyncratic with distinctively loopy pieces and full of cunning traps. Because each piece is hand-cut on a jigsaw, no two are alike. Oftentimes, she'll carve a piece along a line of colour to make the neighboring one hard to find. I have also done puzzles of hers which seemed to have 5 corner pieces (one was…

December 10, 2007 (personal)

2007-12-10T13:15:22Z

I know Mondays are supposed to be teh suck, but this is a bit much.

By 11:00 AM I have already managed to do the following:

Sleep in due to malfunctioning alarm clock
Miss two trains in a row, thus missing all morning classes
Arrive home 50 miles and 90 minutes later to find I'd left my keys behind
Climb in through bathroom window, wetting socks
Send frantic text message to landlord, as I can't get into my room
Read mail: two nasty letters from the bank saying I won't be doing any Christmas shopping, or indeed eating, and one bill for three thousand pounds, payable

…