Advogato: Personal info for bwtaylor

bwtaylor is currently certified at Journeyer level.

Name: Bryan Taylor
Member since: 2000-08-05 06:53:52
Last Login: 2007-04-24 05:21:36

Notes: I am an enterprise software architect. Currently my exprience is strongest in Java and Oracle. I'm also interested in Ruby and Groovy.

Projects

Contributor on Openlaw

Articles Posted by bwtaylor

Advogato Has Failed 24 Apr 2007 at 05:21 UTC
Linux Kernel Contributors Should Sue SCO 24 May 2003 at 22:20 UTC
What is the case against CASE 27 Feb 2003 at 02:53 UTC
Petition to Abolish the DMCA 11 Sep 2001 at 05:26 UTC

Recent blog entries by bwtaylor

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11 Aug 2000 »

4pm: Decklin asked why 1024 is the lower bound in his perl solution to the coconuts problem. Basically, you multiply by 5/4 five times in your loop, giving you a denominator of 4^5=1024. Of course, there are all those extra +1's and int functions messing the precision of this statement up "$x=int($x*5/4+1)", but that's why pondering starting with four extra coconuts helps: it's exactly what is needed to remove them.

11 Aug 2000 »

Coconut Problem Posted by Mattw:
If they'd JUST gathered four more coconuts, then the pile would have split evenly, and four more coconuts would pass to the next stage. Five times four extra coconuts would allow the the pile to reduce by exactly 4/5 and also it would split evenly in five shares at the end. If T was the original pile size, then (T+4)*(4/5)^5*(1/5) would be the resulting coconut share, an integer. Thus T+4 must be a positive multiple of 5^6 = 15625. The smallest solution for T is 15621. Generally T = 15625*n - 4 works for any positive integer n. (original solution)

By the way, regarding the 12-coins Problem: (Nyah-Nyah, nobody got it yet.) There are only 2 platters, not three. Moreover, you should also determine whether the result is lighter or heavier.

I just figured out that on the front page the Recent Diary Entries link shows them together in order. That is swell.

10 Aug 2000 »

I got an email from an old friend today. Ah, there is nothing better. Here's a fun puzzle for whoever wants it:

The 12 Coins Problem

There are 12 coins, all identical in appearance, and all indentical in weight except for one, which is either heavier or lighter than the remaining 11 coins. Devise a procedure to identify the counterfeit coin in only 3 weighings with a balance.

9 Aug 2000 »

Big day for Openlaw. The trial briefs for the NY DVD case have been posted. I'm obviously biased for the defense, but I really think the MPAA's brief is lame. It reminds me of marketing FUD. The judge is a more effective advocate for the Plaintiffs than they are.

2600's Brief

MPAA's Brief

It appears that raph fixed the bug in some entry forms that causes spaces to get spuriously inserted into hyperlinks that word wrap. Hooray! Perhaps there should be a project relationship called "bug reporter". Or is this a "helper"?.

8 Aug 2000 »

I tried M17 today. It seems stable and the caching finally works, which is why I wasn't using mozilla before. I think finally this will be my primary browser. Hooray...

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