Canj Coyote

This is what I think about at lunch

2008-08-05T17:18:02Z

Ok, time to math nerd at you guys for a second.

While I was chomping down on my tasty Subway sandwich, I decided to pop a CD into my computer so I could have some digestion music. I hit the "Random" button in the player program and hit play. The following is what popped into my head immediately thereafter:

"How likely is it that all of the track will play in order, even with the randomize function on?"

First let's make a couple assumptions.

The randomizer won't play a track twice in a row.
Other than that, it is equiprobable that any track could be played

Now, let's represent the number of tracks on a CD as 'N'. That means that each track (and therefore the probability of picking it) is 1/N (1 out of all tracks). So, the probability of picking the first track on the CD when the play button is pressed is 1/N.

If the randomizer could play any track at any time, everything else would be 1/N as well. However, I've stipulated that the randomizer won't select a track twice in a row. That means that after the first track, there are N-1 tracks to select from. So, the probability of picking any of them is 1/(N-1) (1 out of all but the track played).

Just in case your math is rusty: Exponents mean 'multiply by the same thing' the number of times the exponent shows. So, 2^3 (2 to the 3) is the same as 2 x 2 x 2.

Ok, final math note. In probability, you can figure out the probability of a group of things happening by multiplying their individual probabilities together. For example, getting heads on a coin flip has a probability of 0.5 or 1/2. The probability of getting heads 3 times in a row is (1/2) x (1/2) x (1/2) = 1/8.

Ok, now that we've gotten all the math review out of the way, here's the calculations:

The probability of playing the tracks in order is (1/N) x (1/(N-1)^(N-1). That is, the probability of picking the first track first multiplied by the probability of playing all the others in order. The exponent is (N-1) because otherwise we'd be counting the first play too, which would make things FUBAR.

So for, let's say, a 15 track CD, this would be (1/15) x (1/14)^14.

My CD has 13 tracks...

Plugging '13' in, my calculator gives me "8.6274349834319295592983547055589e-15" (about 8.63 x 10^-15, or 0.00000000000000863).

This comes out to approximately 1 in 115,909,305,827,328 (that's 1 in 115 quadrillion, 909 trillion, 305 million, 827 thousand, 328).

So here's my question... has this ever happened to anyone????

-Canj ^..^

This Post Has Been Sweded

2008-08-05T13:27:29Z

Oh, one more thing.

If you haven't already, go rent "Be Kind Rewind" (IMDB Page). I just watched it this weekend.

I say, old chaps, it was rather amusing. Mm, yes, quite.

-Canj ^..^

Ping...

2008-08-05T13:20:26Z

Heh, well I guess I'll never be any good at not neglecting this thing. (I don't think I'll never not be no good at nothing about this. Take that english teachers of the world!)

Whelp, I'm here at work and I'm bored like whoa. I can't really get myself in too deep with anything here because every few weeks they send me out to Bumble%&*#, PA to waste my life for a week or so. Hopefully that business will all be done soon, because it's really really really starting to eat away at my soul.

And maybe when it's all done I can finish moving into my apartment, start looking into taking night courses and getting back into Aikido, and just maybe get one of those social lives I've been hearing so much about.

Anywho, I don't really have much to say atm. Just figured I might as well ping the internet to see if it's still there.

________________________________________________________
localhost login: canj
Password:
Last login: Mon Aug 04 11:30:15 on tty1

[canj@LiveJournal /home/canj$] ping daInternetz
________________________________________________________

-Canj ^..^

P.S. Nerd props to anyone who can tell me one of the following:

What shell am I supposedly in
What is the term used for the response to "ping"

P.P.S. NERDS!!!!!

[edit] Had to change the shell prompt because stupid me originally put in the root symbol :P

Interesting...

2008-07-12T19:33:27Z

I randomly decided to see what the Japanese called coyotes. Here is what I came up with:

日本語 (Japanese)
n. - コヨーテ, 悪党

Now, コヨーテ is written in katakana and easily translates to "Koyoote". That's a long "oh" sound in the middle. So this is basically a phonetic translation of the English word.

The second part, the kanji, required a look-up and is a bit more interesting. 悪党 (or in hiragana = あくとう) can be written in english as "akutoo" and more phonetically as "ah ku tooh".

Now, this is interesting because 悪党 means scoundrel, rascal, villain, or outlaw.

So, basically the point of all of this was to tell you that I've come up with a new motto for the coyotes of the world.

"COYOTES: We're bad ass."

- Canj ^..^

Amusing musing

2008-07-12T15:07:43Z

If all of the air conditioners in the world were turned on and all of the doors and windows to those buildings were opened, what would it do to the temperature of the world?

Let's put aside the fact that it would probably overload the global power grids. This is of course what make it impossible. Let's put aside the fact that some of the air conditioners in the world don't function well (or at all).

Suppose that it could be done. Suppose all of the air conditioners in the world were operating at peak efficiency and turned on at full blast. Hell, let's even further suppose that all of the other heat generating devices in the world were turned off. Would that amount of cooling make the temperature of the world drop by any measurable amount? Or would the heat produced by the air conditioners and power generation sourced negate that effect?

If the temperature did drop, what would the climactic implications be? Would the earth freak out and go all "The Day After Tomorrow" on us?

That was what bounced through my head this morning while I was eating my pop tarts.

So yeah, I'm back.

Hello :)

- Canj ^..^

For your viewing pleasure

2008-02-05T10:33:18Z

Rap lyrics explained with charts and graphs.

more available at http://www.jamphat.com/rap/

-Canj ^..^

This is unbelievable. Pass it on.

2008-01-05T23:54:41Z

REPEAT THIS IN YOUR JOURNAL. BOTH QUENTIN AND IDDO ARE DOWN WITH NO COMPUTER ACCESS, AND CANNOT TELL ANYONE

Bucky Rabbit / Bucky Bunny, A.K.A. Charles Bucchioni is a thief. He broke into the apartment of Quentin Mohos quentincoyote and Iddo Geva falconeio and stole all of their games, consoles, hard drives and graphics cards.

The theft was EXTREMELY SPECIFIC, Charles knew exactly how to get in, when they would be gone, how long he had, and precisely where everything was hidden.

Why this happened: http://quentincoyote.livejournal.com/466037.html

ITEMS STOLEN:

2 Xbox 360 and all controllers, memory cards and face plates
2 Sony Playstation II, controllers, & memory cards
2 Ninetendo Wii and all controllers and memory cards
1 laptop hd for Dell Inspiron
1 video card
1 raid card
100 + games for all systems in individual cases
1 40 item Swiss Army knife
Large quantity of quarters and loose change

If you see Charles Bucchioni in possession of any of these items in the NY/NJ/CT area, call the police IMMEDIATELY! Call Detective Debbey McGorty @ 201-863-0881 or 201-319-6044

Charles Bucchioni is a member of the NY Army National Guard, and was supposed to report for duty in October, but may be AWOL. Police are now looking for him.

If you have any information on Charles wherabouts, call Iddo Geva @ 646-296-6565 or Quentin Mohos at 917-596-7329, or call Detective McGorty @ 201-863-0881 or 201-319-6044.

THIS IS TIME-CRITICAL! PASS THIS AS FAST AND AS FAR AS POSSIBLE.

PLEASE REPEAT THIS IN YOUR JOURNAL. THE THEFT WAS EXCEPTIONALLY SPECIFIC AND ONLY CHARLES BUCCIONI HAS THE KNOWLEDGE TO HAVE STOLEN THESE ITEMS.

UPDATE: Copy and paste this info into your journal if you like!

Brrr, it's cold in here

2007-12-05T15:50:25Z

There must be some Toros in the atmosphere.

I'm so torn when it comes to this whole winter...thing. I always look forward to the winter because I think snow is beautiful and I love winter sports. I used to play ice hockey. I've been skiing since I was 2. Snow ball fights and wrestling in the snow were always favorites of mine.

However.

I am definitely definitely definitely a warm weather person. I thrive in the summer. I hate being cold with a passion >.<

It is actually quite cold here in my hotel room. I've got the thermostat set to 74, but I can't get it to feel like more than 55. You'd think it would help that I'm on the top floor of my hotel, but I have a feeling this building isn't terribly insulated terribly well.

Last night was pretty cold as well. The foundry I was working in shuts off its furnaces around 2:00 PM, and I have a feeling they don't bother heating the area at night. So it got progressively colder, to the point where I was wearing a jacket and gloves and was still getting cold.

When I got into my car at around 10:30 PM, the thermometer was reading 12 degrees. That's Fahrenheit.

Anyone up for moving to the tropics? lol

-Canj ^..^

Incredibly long time no post

2007-08-28T05:44:41Z

Very drunk

Happy Birthday to me.

I may be sick soon.

-Canj ^..^

It's 8:16 AM, will you wake up please?

2007-05-16T11:38:00Z

Interesting day planned:

My friend is graduating from Columbia today, so I'm getting ready to catch a train into NYC. I'll probably get there on the early side, but I'd rather be waiting around for a while than miss part of the ceremony (which will probably take hours, lol).

After that, I may bum around in the city for a while. Maybe I'll search out some new sushi places I haven't tried yet.

That's all for now,

- カーンジュ ^..^

Oh...my...Science

2007-05-16T00:44:02Z

Wow, this Livejournal thingy has gotten fancy since I last posted.

Sup, y'all? How've you been? Anyway, I'm hoping that this will be the last time I disappear for an entire year before resurfacing because...
I'm Graduating on Friday!!! \/\/007!!!
That's right, this pup is entering the real world. Has Canj been picked to live in a house with 7 strangers? NO! Of course not, you fools!

L-O-L

Somehow I did pretty well this last semester, even though senioritis was in full effect for most of it.

Society, Ethics, and Technology: A-

Artificial Intelligence: B+

Japanese 101: A [こんにちは　ビチース！　(Konnichiwa Bitches!)]

Engineering Economy:B- (This is where my senioritis shows. I f**kin hated that class. You finance majors can have that stuff)

Compilers & Interpreters: A

So yeah, except for that B- in Econ (I hate you econ...forever), I did pretty well all things considered. Made the deans list for the 3rd semester in a row, which is pretty sweet. To make things even more better... I got me a job! Starting June 1st I'll be working for Inductotherm Corp. down in Rancocas. I don't know exactly what I'll be doing yet, but I'm sure it will involve massive EM fields and computer control and circuits and things. I'm pretty nervous about the whole "Real Life Job" thing. I mean, I'll be walking into a super corporate environment, completely out of my element, and for all I know I could suck...alot. Equally bad would be if the job sucked ALOT. Well, I guess I won't know any of that until I start. For now, I'm just enjoying my free time and looking forward to graduation.

YAY!!!

I'm going to be renting out a room in a friend's house near school for the months of June and July, but after that I'll be moving into my own apartment. And you know what that means... House Warming Party!!!" Err, well apartment warming actually, but you get the idea. More details on that as that gets closer.

So yeah, I'm back in the land of the living. Just poking my head out to say hi.

[End of Transmission]

-Mr. Coyote

P.S.

An absurd article

2006-07-30T12:32:15Z

This is absolutely ridiculous:

Man Arrested For Shooting Photo Of Police Activity

I'm not awake enough to comment on this yet, but I have a feeling there will be a follow up on this post.

-Canj ^..^

Road Trip to Tejas

2006-07-26T06:05:31Z

Hooray for free wireless intarweb!

I'm currently enjoying the free hookup in a Days Inn motel just outside of Memphis.

"Why are you in Memphis, fool?", you may ask. Well, I shall tell you.

A good friend of mine, a recent engineering grad from my school, is going to be entering a PhD program in "Material Science" down at the University of Texas in Dallas (UTD). As Texas is quite far from New Jersey (if geography is not your forte, see Google Maps for reference), my friend has decided to move to Dallas rather than commute every day.

So, he'd planned on driving down to school. I, being a fan of randomness and roadtrips, offered to accompany him to Dallas. Thus "Dallas Road Trip 2006" was born.

This is the end of day two. Yesterday we spent the night in Ohio (oddly enough, we stayed in a Days Inn). Today, we drove through most of Ohio, Indiana, Illinois, and Missouri, and have found ourselves in Arkansas, just outside of Tennessee. Our plan: Visit Memphis (We're tourists...what can I say), and then pull a u-turn and head down to Dallas.

Tomorrow should be a relatively short day of driving...and after tomorrow, we can hang out in Dallas and pretend to be cool. (Don't worry, it's all just pretend)

I may edit this later. This was all just stream of consciousness.

That is all.

-Canj ^..^

We made the news!

2006-07-19T20:47:13Z

Hello from Boston!!

Exciting news... A number of news organizations have come up to us to ask us questions about our robot. Yesterday, a woman from C|Net came over and asked us a bunch of questions.

Today we're famous (http://news.com.com/2300-11394_3-6095809-2.html?tag=ne.gall.pg)

There you go. The first online pictures of our robot.

Enjoy,

-Canj ^..^

A post with nearly no content

2006-07-15T23:32:55Z

http://www.nataliedee.com/070106/bilf.jpg

Lawl.

-Canj ^..^

A.D.D. style post

2006-06-29T22:15:16Z

Hi all,

It's Thursday, and you all know what that means...

... yeah, neither do I.

Anyway, here's some
As some of you already know, I'm involved in a robotics project, the goal of which is to create a basic sociable robot for the AAAI competition in the middle of July. I've spent the better part of this year teaching myself both fundamental A.I. techniques and Prolog.

I chose Prolog for a number of reasons, but the most important reason is that Prolog was designed with Natural Language Processing in mind. Since I'm creating a sociable robot, NLP is a large part of the project.

Up until now, I've been using the Visual Prolog distribution, as I was told it was the easiest distribution to link with Visual Basic. I actually developed a nice set of DLLs for VERY basic language processing.

Anyway, what I'm working on is reworking the NLP stuff so that it uses more advanced techniques. Now, much of the NLP stuff that I've come across in my readings uses Definite-Clause Grammar (DCG) to validiate incoming captured utterances. Prolog, being the nice little NLP language that it is, makes DCG a very easy thing to code. Actually, I should say that MOST Prolog distros do so.

Apparently, Visual Prolog decided that DCG was something that wasn't at all necessary. I mean, seriously. Who would want to do Natural Language Processing in Prolog?

So, I spent the better part of today investigating different distributions. What did I find out? Apparently every other distro of Prolog is easier to use than Visual Prolog. Awesome.

I actually have a lot more to say about this, some of which might help convey how I actually feel about all of this. I'm just too lazy to type it out right now.

-------
In other news, I just picked up "Stadium Arcadium" by the Red Hot Chilli Peppers. It's pretty good. My laptop speakers don't really do it justice. I'm sure I'll like it a lot more once I get it into my car.

-------

Anthrocon was a lot of fun. Pittsburgh was a pretty cool city (or at least the small bit that I saw was nice). I wish I'd gotten to spend more time with everyone. God dammit why do you all have to live so far away??

The food Amanda and I had in Philly was pretty damn good. I actually have a little bit to say about two of our dining experiences. I'm just don't feel like writing about it now.

Damn A.D.D.

-------

What happened to summer? Does anyone remember when summer meant sunshine and fun? What is with this rainy, humid, depressing little floodfest we're having now? I mean, I remember being a kid and being upset when it rained for the first time in a month during the summer. Now, I'm surprised when I look outside and see color.

When did we all move to Seattle?

-------

I just got the urge to go snowboarding. Anybody want to fly to South America with me and go snowboarding?

-Canj ^..^

P.S. Damn, focused thought is unbelievably difficult today. You probably guessed that already. I mean, this is probably the worst entry anyone has written in quite some time.

We're Here!!!

2006-06-16T04:58:35Z

Well, Amanda and I finally got to Pittsburgh.

We're staying in the Doubletree hotel (.4 miles away :<).

Track us down tomorrow at the con. I'll have my phone on 8-)

-Canj ^..^

canj @ 2006-06-15T11:04:00

2006-06-15T15:07:37Z

AUGH!!

Why can't this day move faster?!? I wanna leave for AC nowz.

NOWZ!!!

-Canj ^..^

Anthrocon, WOO

2006-06-14T21:06:32Z

I'm so bad at this Livejournal thing. I start entries all the time that never get finished.

Anyway, I'm super jazzed to be heading off to AC tomorrow. You might have been able to gather that from the title of this entry.

I'm at work now, so I can't be to verbose. Just saying hi.

Everyone who's heading to AC, have a safe trip.

See y'all in the Pitts.

-Canj ^..^

My Name is Jonas

2006-05-16T21:07:03Z

Howdy Ho, Ranger Joe!

Well, it's my first free week in lord knows how long...and of course I'm sick. It's alright, though. It's forced me to catch up on my sleep :)

So, yes. A life update...

I've successfully completed my 4th year as an engineering major. Does that mean I'm done? No, of course not :P. I finished the last of my concentration-specific courses this past semester, so all I have now are:

Thermodynamics - I'm a EE, so I consider this a "Gen Ed"
Econ Requirements - Microeconomics and Engineering Econ
A Western History

I think I can handle that 8-)

I'm also working towards a Computer Science minor. I know I know, "Minors don't count for anything". It's an excuse to take a bunch of courses I'm interested in.

I also think I've finally found a field that really interests me: Interactive Robotics. My senior project, a two semester capstone project, was to design and build an interactive robot using AI techniques that will be entered in a competition in July. I'll have details about this later and I'll put up a link to the project website after I update it a bit.

I'll be doing some research with a professor this summer on robotics. Hopefully, I'll come out of the summer with *gasp* publishable paper *jumps for joy*. I'll have more info on this as the summer progresses.

Amanda and I are approaching the 1.5 year mark. Our relationship is better now than it has ever been. We are both going to be down in Ewing this summer, so we'll be spending a ton o' time together :). I just hope she can put up with me.

Unlike me, she did graduate a few days ago. She'll be continuing her psych studies down in North Carolina. We're both pretty bummed that she'll be so far away. However, I like driving and I've made that trip before. So, I'll be going down there fairly often to see her. My car is gonna hate me, but it'll be worth it :).

Umm...I know there's more, but I can't seem to think of it. Stupid sicky type brain thing.

Ok, that's all for now. Send me some messages, y'all. Let me know you're still listening.

-Canj ^..^

Slightly drunk. Living it up.

2006-05-11T07:55:57Z

I am live!

This semester was intense. INTENSE!!!

More information to follow.

I LOVE YOU ALL.

-Canj ^..^

P.S. This is what part of the alphabet would look like if 'Q' and 'R' were eliminated.

P.P.S. Why is drunk such a depressing mood icon. On a scale from 'one' to 'awesome', I'm feeling 'super great'.

Christopher Walken for President

2005-11-04T04:51:32Z

http://www.walken2008.com

-Canj ^..^

Best book report ever...

2005-11-02T03:58:19Z

HOW To Kill a Mockingbird

That is all.

-Canj ^..^

Drink and drink and drink and drink and drink and drink and fight (Oi!!)

2005-08-28T11:24:58Z

Early to bed and early to rise makes a man, healthy, wealthy and wise.

Late (and drunk and tired) to bed and early to rise makes a coyote go *grumble* and fall over.

Dave & Busters was a blast. My friends made sure that I was exceptionally drunk... so drunk in fact that at present I'm not sure whether what I'm feeling at the moment is residual drunkenness, a nice happy post-birthday hangover, or my body freaking out because it only got 3 hours of sleep last night.

That's right, kids. When my friend dropped me off last night around 3:15 AM, I was still totally blitzed (I'll explain why in a moment). I drank some water, tossed away my clothes, and crashed. Luckily I had thought to set my alarm before I went out. Yup, set it for the bright and early wakeup time of 6:30 AM. Yeouch.

So, my friends made sure that I was drunk almost as soon as I got there. I was marched over to the bar and forced to drink an Irish Car Bomb, followed by a Mind Eraser. We walked around and played a few games (there is a phenomenal racing game there) before I was dragged back to the bar to have a Three Wise Men. So, for those of you counting the amount of "drinks" I'd had up to this point, that's an Irish car bomb (about 2 drinks), Mind Eraser (about 2 drinks), and a Three Wise Men (At least 3 drinks. And it tasted horrible). So, that's at least 7.

It was at that point that I got to practice the infamous skill of faking sober, which usually comes across as faking less drunk.

I had a couple more drinks before I left, went to a diner and had some gravy fries, and came home.

3 hours later, I'm packing up so that I can leave for college around 8:30.

Ugh.

-Canj ^..^

Huzzah!

2005-08-27T05:58:15Z

It's my birthday. YAY!

I'm drunk. YAY!

-Canj ^..^ Yay!