Archive for December, 2023

New Math Operation

Dec

27

2023

I happened to be reading the back of the cereal box during a recent breakfast, and it had some activities to try.

image of the back of a Cheerios box with activities

So I tried them, and I was particularly disappointed with the math challenge. Here is the challenge. You try it and see what you think.

image of the crunch the numbers challenge on the back of the cereal box

It starts off easy enough: raspberry plus raspberry equals 4, so 4/2 = raspberry, thus raspberry = 2.

Then I skipped ahead to raspberry plus spoon equals 12, so 2+spoon = 12, thus spoon = 10

Similar logic with the last clue gave me strawberry = 3

Then we have two of the three variables for the second clue, so we can solve for blueberry = 6

So that gives us all the items we need for the final equation, to find the answer they want.

The first cluster of 3 fruits is a mystery, but we can solve the rest and come back to that. So strawberry plus spoon plus blueberry equals 19. Now all we need to do is add that to the fruit cluster.

The fruit cluster is a blueberry and raspberry and spoon clumped together, with no math operation involved. What is the math operation in this case?

Usually, if you put numbers together with no operator, that means multiply, like (10)(6)(2). So that would give the clump the value of 120, so the answer would be 120+19 = 139

But putting them together could also just be concatenating the numbers, so 6102, which would make the answer 6121.

Let’s check if the answer is either 139 or 6121.

image of the crunch the numbers challenge on the back of the cereal box

Nope, they say the answer is 37. That makes no sense. Let’s see if we can work backwards and figure out what math operation the fruit cluster is.

The clump must be 37-19 = 18.

Oh, if they want you to add the numbers together, they put a plus sign between the symbols. Or they just lump them together with no operators. That was not intuitive, because they already established the plus sign means add. Switching away from that, but then keeping it too, with no instructions or clues for what that means, makes it frustrating.

“Behold, I have discovered this,” says the Preacher, “by adding one thing to another to find an explanation”

Ecclesiastes 7:27

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Google Hertz

Dec

20

2023

For all the talk I’ve heard over the years about how Google hires the brightest and best talent, that apparently doesn’t mean for all aspects of the business. Or maybe they’ve grown too big and have lowered their standards.

I got this email from them, a standard form email, so I’m sure thousands of people got the same email. Which also means it should have been reviewed by someone other than just the one person who typed it up. At least I assume that’s standard practice for most places – an official communication to customers shouldn’t be thought up and sent out by one person.

In reality, it’s not a big deal. I think whoever gets the email will understand what Google meant. But it’s not like it’s an ambiguous term – “frequency” has a specific meaning, especially to electrical engineers, but even non-engineers know that a higher frequency means something happens more often.

It’s not like “turn up the air conditioning” which can get a response of “wait, do you want it warmer or colder?” because “up” can apply to the temperature setting or the fan speed or they actually want the temperature to do down. But I don’t know how you could take the term “frequency” as anything but frequency.

image of an email from Google that misuses the term frequency

Their problem is that they mixed units. The numbers are in time but their description is in frequency, which is inverse time. So when they say “lowest frequency” it’s actually the highest frequency, but lowest time. And vice-versa.

Why they felt the need to use “frequency” instead of “time”, I’m not sure. They must have had guidance from the product team that told them to use “frequency”.

Rid yourself of a deceitful mouth And keep devious speech far from you.

Proverbs 4:24

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All-Haiku Bowl Predictions, 2023

Dec

16

2023

Based on the popularity existence of last year’s article predicting bowl games in haiku form, I present to you this year’s all-haiku bowl game predictions. Still America’s only all-haiku college football bowl game predictions.

These are listed in order of date (earliest first). Some picks are whom I think will win, and some picks are whom I want to win. I’ll leave it to you, the reader, to decide which is which.
(more…)

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Smart Thermostats

Dec

6

2023

I’ve heard about these newfangled smart thermostats, but I have my doubts.

HAL-9000 as a smart thermostat

For the thermostat to be smart enough, it would need to be able to respond to the same question in different ways, depending on who is asking it.

As an example, if I walk into a room and ask the thermostat “Why is it so cold in here?”, the thermostat should give me an answer (“your son left the window open”) and not change anything.

On the other hand, if my wife walks into a room and asks the thermostat “Why is it so cold in here?”, the thermostat should know just to turn up the heat a couple degrees.

I know your deeds, that you are neither cold nor hot; I wish that you were cold or hot.

Revelation 3:15

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