KISS principle – John Canessa

Convex Hull

In this post we will learn a few things about a convex hull.

Before we get into the main subject I would like to chat for a few on a different subject. Currently I continue to read Natural Language Processing by Ekaterina Kockmar. Earlier this morning I was reading the section 3.2.2 Matching forms of the same word: Morphological processing. In the current chapter we are trying to develop an information retrieval system. In a nutshell we have a set of documents of interest and a set of queries. The idea is that given a query we want to return relevant documents in descending order. Sounds very much like what Google search does. Of course the objectives are not to write something to compete with searches on web browsers, but to give us an idea of the general steps needed to perform such a task.

In particular I was reading about Stemming. The idea is that when you have words in a query and wish to map them to words on a document, the forms of a word may be different. A simple word match would not work (e.g., continue and continuation) because for a computer the words are different. If we implement an algorithm using stemming we will be able to match the words.

As I was reading the section an old Spanish saying (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Saying) “The devil knows more through being old than through being a devil.” If you stop for a few and think about the Spanish saying you should reach the conclusion that it is wrong. In general if you do not reflect on what happened, the good and bad decisions you made, you will not learn and therefore you will not become wiser. For the Spanish saying to be true one must assume that the devil reflects on past events. Since the devil is a personification of evil and not a being like us, the saying is just a saying. Continue reading “Convex Hull”

Notes from the UnsafeCSharp Presentation

At work each month a set of hours are set aside/scheduled for employees to learn something new. I have worked at more than a dozen companies and have never seen a periodic time scheduled in the company calendar for it. Yesterday we had eight hours scheduled for learning. During that time an invite for a one hour presentation UnsafeCSharp showed up. I watched and enjoyed it. In addition most presentations at work are recorded so I am planning on watching it again later today.

As I am writing this post I am not sure if there are things that were presented that are company confidential. For that reason, at this time I am not disclosing the name of the presenter or will dive into specific topics. Continue reading “Notes from the UnsafeCSharp Presentation”

Divide Chocolate

Good day! Hope your workday has started on the right note. Currently in the USA we are observing the Daylight saving time which this year ends on Sunday, November 7, 2021. Today is Thursday October 14, 2021 so we have a little over one month for the time to get back to normal.

I see the positive sides of daylight savings time during summer. In my opinion, in the USA, daylight savings should start on Memorial Day and end on Labor Day. The reason for this is that schools and universities tend to be off during such period.

For college students it should not make much of a difference, but for K-12 students it does. Most children use public school buses to commute to school. Depending on the grade they attend, they may be picked up in the morning around 07:00 AM. I am always up before 06:00 AM. I am a morning person. After fixing breakfast I wake up my wife so we can have the first meal of the day together.

After we are done with breakfast, she helps me with the dishes. After rinsing the dishes and putting them in the dishwasher I shower, get dressed, and head down to my office to work on my first 2-hour block of the day. This includes weekends in which I work one or at most two blocks. On regular workdays I tend to do four to five blocks a day.

For the past week or two, when I head down to my office, the day is very dark, to the point that I have to turn on lights. It happens that when I am heading down is about 07:00 AM and I see kids that are already riding public school busses. They had to walk from home to the bus stop while it is quite dark. I thought that children were first in our society. It seems I am wrong. Go figure!

In the month that we have to wait before daylight savings ends, it will be dark close to 08:00 AM. So why is this happening? Well, the thought is that if the school day ends with some light, parents will be more prone to head out and grab a bite which is good for business. I guess children do not have much homework in these days. Things have changed since I attended K-12. Continue reading “Divide Chocolate”

Merge Sort Revisited

Good morning! Hope your day has started on the right note. Yesterday was quite hectic for me. Hopefully the day will go as smooth as possible. Continue reading “Merge Sort Revisited”

Direct Recursion

Good day software developers and software engineers. The forecast for today Thursday in the Twin Cities of Minneapolis and St. Paul calls for rain and thunderstorms. As usual the forecast changed at least a couple times in the past few days. Today the storm is forecasted for the evening hours. So far I have not heard thunder. I do not like to have my computers on during a thunderstorm. A couple times I have lost some equipment. Continue reading “Direct Recursion”

Short Palindrome

Good morning! It is a cold and dark Sunday morning in the Twin Cities of Minneapolis and St. Paul in Minnesota. The silver lining is that the forecast for today calls for a high temperature of 80F. Perfect day for grilling outside and perhaps drink one or two adult beverages.

After finishing my 2-hour block, my wife and I will complete our grocery shopping by stopping by Trader Joe’s in St. Paul. It seems that lately we are doing groceries every other weekend. That saves around five gallons of gasoline every month.

It is too early (dark and cold) for box elder bugs to be out and about. As it gets warmer they seem to appear from nowhere. We are planning on grilling outside so they will become a nuisance. In the afternoon hours most homes in our area have a few hundred box elder bugs on the walls. As long as we do not have to interact with them, let them be. Continue reading “Short Palindrome”

Database Sharding

Good day software developers and engineers. Today is Wednesday and it seems it is going to be a sunny day in the Twin Cities of Minneapolis and St. Paul. Hope the weather cooperates in your neck of the woods.

I continue to read and experiment with the contents presented in the on-line course Introduction to Python Fundamentals: Lesson 02 by Paul Deitel published by Pearson Education, Inc. As a matter of fact, tomorrow I will start with lesson 03. So far I am pleased to be reviewing and learning new things during the process. Continue reading “Database Sharding”

Sherlock and GCD

It is a Monday morning and it is garbage collection day so I had to put out on the driveway both bins. The company that provides our development with the service collects every week both garbage and recycle bins. All previous companies that I am familiar with collect garbage every week and recycle every other week. To be honest with you, my wife and I would be fine with recycling once a month and if it was not for the potential for smell during summer, garbage every other week.

Earlier this morning, I saw in my inbox a recommendation for a problem from HackerRank named Sherlock and GCD which maybe solved with a Dynamic Programming approach. Continue reading “Sherlock and GCD”