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Carefully, Correctly Wrong
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| Geeking for Pleasure |
[Nov. 23rd, 2009|12:57 am] |
| [ | Tags | | | geek | ] |
| [ | mood |
| | accomplished | ] |
| [ | music |
| | Radiohead - "The National Anthem" | ] |
I am feeling a little sleep-deprived today. I had quite a pleasant and productive evening watching the original Halloween and transcribing petitions from a DELGA petition taken at Manchester Pride. The film finished and I'd gotten halfway through the pile of sheets, so I figured I'd go to bed... when binary started talking about Haskell and C++ implementations of algorithms to calculate factorials. I demonstrated a more elegant C++ syntax, then started to play around.
My C++ is horribly rusty, and I've forgotten most of the basics (like how to handle command-line arguments), but I soon had something fairly decent up and running. The main problem I had was that factorials get very big very quickly, and rapidly surpass the capacity of C++'s integer data types to contain them. I was pretty sure that there must be a solution to this, and I rapidly found the GNU Multiple Precision Arithmetic Library, which supports arbitrary-precision numbers. This let me calculate up to about 50,000! (a number with around 200,000 digits) before failing with a segmentation fault.
To investigate the fault, I tried playing with the GNU Debugger. This is a common tool for C and C++ programmers, and I've seen it used extensively at work, but not really played with it myself. I found a couple of good guides, including tips on how to compile my program with extra debug info for gdb, and worked out that the problem was caused by my recursive factorial algorithm, chosen to mimic the original Haskell definition. I replaced this with a sequential multiplier, and removed the 50,000 limitation. My program could now calculate 1,000,000! (a number with five million digits) in about a minute, and I left it running overnight to find that it had reached around 6,500,000! by the morning.
The actual numbers don't matter, of course - I'm not going to win any dickwaving contests with a Core 2 Duo laptop. However, it's been ages since I had time to spend a few hours messing around like that, out of pure intellectual curiosity, improving my skills with a language, learning a new library, and a tool to assist debugging. It's not anything that's going to directly benefit me in the foreseeable future, but that's partly why doing it cheered me up so much... |
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| Flying Colours |
[Nov. 21st, 2009|05:57 pm] |
I passed my theory test today with flying colours - 94% in the multiple-choice test, and 85% on hazard perception, so go me.
Unfortunately, I can't book a driving test until 11th January, so my plan to get a license by Christmas won't work out. But still, within 8 weeks I should be all sorted. |
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| The Old Magic's Still There |
[Nov. 19th, 2009|04:49 pm] |
Back in 1997, between leaving Charterhouse and starting at UMIST, I took driving lessons with a local instructor. I was a week or two off from being ready to take my test when I left for university. I kept up the practice for a few holidays until my parents could no longer justify keeping me on their insurance, but I had no more lessons.
Today, I had a driving assessment with local instructor Rob Stoner to see what my skills were like after over a decade away from driving. ( Details )
I've been told by Rob that I probably need fewer lessons than I had assumed. Basically, I can drive - my road awareness and gear changing are good, my steering is smooth, my braking's OK. If I pass my theory test on Saturday, I should book a practical test from the Whalley Range centre ASAP and we'll fit in some lessons ahead of that to get a bit more practice on the trickier elements and more general experience with the car.
Depending on when I can get a practical test, I may still have my driving license before Christmas! |
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| Things Going Boom |
[Nov. 2nd, 2009|08:28 pm] |
Just got back from the fun-fair and fireworks at Cringle Park. I watched ![[info]](http://l-stat.livejournal.com/img/userinfo.gif) tartful_dodger going on spinny rides, had a hotdog, and then we watched things going boom and ate doughnuts. I'm sure some of the explosions were a little close to the ground, mind...
So anyway, I'm thinking about heading to Platt Fields on Thursday night at 7:30pm for more explosions and fire. sward's up for it, anybody else? |
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| Hallowon't |
[Oct. 31st, 2009|06:59 pm] |
| [ | mood |
| |  crappy | ] |
Urgh, feeling particularly crappy today. I failed at sleep last night, failed at getting things done today, and am now cowering behind my front door awaiting imaginary armies of dogshit-laden chavs.
Not even a 2 hour bike bimble around Heaton Moor could cheer me up - it's one of those evenings where I could happily go to bed right now and not wake up for several days... |
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| Random Skeeviness Test |
[Oct. 28th, 2009|01:51 pm] |
If somebody were to say to you I like looking at this porn star because they remind me of you , how freaked out would you be? |
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| Snumbledore |
[Oct. 27th, 2009|07:32 pm] |
Help me settle an argument... is tartful_dodger likely to have an LJ icon consisting of Snape buggering Dumbledore? Elucidate in comments. |
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| Good Evening |
[Oct. 23rd, 2009|03:43 pm] |
I've just had a really nice evening. I've spent it with friends, chatting about all sorts of stuff, having guests in my flat, feeding them until they burst, and taking a couple of peoples' Withnail & I cherries.
I'm off to bed tired and happy. |
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| TV Trauma |
[Oct. 20th, 2009|01:18 pm] |
| [ | Tags | | | advice, tv | ] |
| [ | mood |
| |  annoyed | ] |
| [ | music |
| | Venus Hum - "Pink Champagne" | ] |
I have a south-facing ground-floor flat. Do I spend £40 on a high-gain digital TV aerial, or £40 on a FreeSat aerial?
What are the pros and cons of each? Remember that I'm not bothered about "HD". |
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| The Stress / Relaxation Cycle |
[Oct. 18th, 2009|10:02 pm] |
Hmm, have spent the day being nice and relaxed, catching up on e-mail backlog and RSS, reading a book, playing computer games and so on. I decided to skip the Mark Burgess gig to give myself some more relaxation time.
Now it's gone 10pm and I need to apply for a job, carefully respond to some job-related e-mail, move some boxes to the basement and do a dozen other things. I've not spent time with greyeyedeve as intended, and I'm feeling pretty stressed out and crappy. Sounds like I could do with a day of chilling out to recuperate...
I'm getting fed up of this endless cycle now. |
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| WIDATW |
[Oct. 12th, 2009|03:42 pm] |
Wow, it's been ages since I updated. Just been a bit too busy / stressed to do so, I guess. I figure I'll stick something up and hopefully get back in the habit.
Last week was the Tory party conference in Manchester; I was quite busy with identity activism stuff, but was happy to run across mr_flay in journalism mode, and spend some time with peachweeks.
This Saturday I did more identity activism, helping flyer in Fallowfield for the ID Card Con campaign. It's great fun to flyer people not to spend money, because it totally throws them. It's also a much more positive exchange - Don't get an ID card! I'm not interested. That's fantastic, have a great day! .
On Saturday night I did a big shop so greyeyedeve and I had some food in. We chilled out together and got much-needed early night. On Sunday I did some Lib Dem campaigning, including some delivery in Fallowfield. I dashed back to Levenshulme to try and make a train into town, and just missed it despite my epic cycling. I need to sort out my front light though - it's good enough to be seen by, but not great at illuminating a dark Fallowfield Loop, and only my awesome night vision saved me.
Having missed the train, Eve and I got a taxi into town to the cinema to see Zombieland, which is a very silly action-comedy zombie flick, and highly recommended. |
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| Monitor |
[Sep. 30th, 2009|10:23 pm] |
tartful_dodger's laptop has gone for a burton. I have a spare desktop which is just about usable for web browsing and instant messaging, but I don't seem to have a spare monitor any more.
Does anybody Mancunian (esp. Levenshulme people) have a spare monitor they could loan until Olly's laptop is repaired? It could take a few weeks... |
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| Help Needed: Lifting |
[Sep. 30th, 2009|03:29 pm] |
I'm trying to see if I can accept a delivery of 20 boxes of 5,000 A5 flyers at my flat in Levenshulme on Thursday October 8th; these will be moderately but not excessively heavy. It's feasible if I can get one or two bods to help unload the boxes from the van into my front room. Many will be picked up the following day; I can take the remainder down to my basement myself.
Trouble is I'm not sure what time the delivery will be around on the Thursday; is there anybody who can get to mine on reasonably short notice who could do this for me? I'll be at work... |
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| Swine Flu |
[Sep. 24th, 2009|04:20 pm] |
| [ | Tags | | | health, work | ] |
| [ | mood |
| |  curious | ] |
| [ | music |
| | Robyn - "Dream On" | ] |
Somebody I was in reasonably close contact with over the weekend has been diagnosed with Swine Flu. I've got a bit of a sore throat, headache, runny nose and dodgy stomach, though at least 50% of those are symptoms of stress which I definitely have. I'm going to pick up a thermometer on the way home - if my temperature goes above 38C / 100F, I'm not allowed into work.
I'm not entirely worried about this development - it's fairly unlikely I've got it, and it won't be the end of the world if I do (though it'd be extra crap for greyeyedeve). Frankly I like the idea of another two weeks away from the office ;)
Update: Bah, my temperature's normal for now at least. |
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| Back from Conference |
[Sep. 24th, 2009|09:13 am] |
I'm back from four-and-a-half days of Lib Dem conferencing. I did about 80% of my planned itinerary, giving me a good mixture of training sessions, fringe meetings and DELGA work. I didn't spend any time getting involved in the actual business of policy since I didn't pay the premium for the right to speak and vote, so I'm quite entertained by learning about fallouts between Nick Clegg and various party committees, none of which were visible on the ground. I met and chatted with Nick about DELGA's work, and he was very enthused that we were encouraging local parties to promote our LGBT equality record at Prides and other community events.
The only drama that hit me personally was that my useless treasurer threw a hissy fit and resigned having sat on his arse and done nothing for nine months. I'm now acting treasurer and need to make an effort to ensure we're up to speed with legal compliance. I've also been elected treasurer next year; I'm mostly au fait with the position now so hopefully it won't be too much hassle.
On the way down I stopped off at my parents. It was good to see them, and I finally came out to them about my bisexuality and told them about tartful_dodger. It's the beginning of a process of discussion, education and acceptance rather than the end, but at least we're taking the journey together as a family, and they seem broadly OK with the idea. I do feel relieved for having told them. It's nice to be able to say everybody knows about my sexuality without appending except my parents , and it's good to know that the (admittedly low) risk of alienating people very important to me has been taken.
Last night I headed out to Taurus with greyeyedeve and tartful_dodger, where a bunch of us were gathered for Celebrate Bisexuality Day. Mostly the usual suspects, plus a couple of Lib Dems I badgered into attending, but there was some pleasant company in ms_rivet, minnesattva et al. and some entertaining and rowdy debate about sexuality and gender with a drunk Lib Dem.
Today I am back at work dealing with stress and a huge mail backlog. Friday night I'll be at the BiPhoria stall at LGBT Fresher's Fair; Saturday I'll spend the morning doing identity activism at the Anarchist Bookfair. |
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| Conference Itinerary |
[Sep. 18th, 2009|01:48 am] |
In case people are interested in what I get up to at political conferences, here's my planned Conference itinerary so far, a mixture of Conference business, fringe meetings, training sessions and helping on the LGBT Lib Dems stall. There are a few overlaps where I'm not 100% sure what I'm doing yet.
( Read more... )
At least this year I'm remembering to leave time for lunch breaks... |
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| Job Fail |
[Sep. 16th, 2009|04:13 pm] |
| [ | Tags | | | lib dems, work | ] |
| [ | music |
| | My Life With The Thrill Kill Kult - "The Smash-Up" | ] |
I didn't get an interview for job I applied for a fortnight ago, as a PA for the Liberal Democrats. I will e-mail them and request feedback.
And now, My Life With The Thrill Kill Kult, at ear-splitting volume. |
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| HYPERBLAG |
[Sep. 3rd, 2009|10:51 am] |
fluffle has a FACE. This is all. |
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| Random Night Out |
[Aug. 27th, 2009|11:30 pm] |
| [ | Tags | | | social | ] |
| [ | mood |
| |  peaceful | ] |
So tonight has been a weird evening. tartful_dodger and I met up with sloop from work at 1940 Squadron ATC where he volunteers. We went for a pint in the Blue Bell, where I ran into one of the Manchester Lib Dem councillors I know from volunteering.
As a result of trying to demonstrate more personal interests for a job application, I recently learned that CAMRA have joined the 19th Century and allow you to sign up via Direct Debit online. I did this a few days ago, and my membership card arrived in the post today.
My councillor friend asked me whether I was a CAMRA member, and I was able to answer yes - at which point me, sloop and Olly got dragged into the local CAMRA branch meeting. Turns out that the Blue Bell won CAMRA's pub of the month award for August 2009, and they were there to celebrate, along with a free buffet.
As a result of somebody I work with, some of the activism I do, and a job I'm applying, I've had a really good evening... |
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