OddThinking

To decide who is “it” (or “in”) first, in a playground game, such as chasey (a.k.a. tag), a fixed algorithmic process is used to make a pseudo-random choice.

Of course, this is a deterministic procedure, and we can, with diligence, careful calculation, computational power and just a little bit of luck, reverse engineer the algorithm and determine who will be eventually selected.

How many Australian locations have repeated names, like Wagga Wagga, Woy Woy and Curl Curl?

“But, Julian,” I hear you ask, “What words in the English language have the most anagrams?”

I have an hope for a resolution in the Oatmeal versus FunnyJunk and/or Carreon case that probably reveals something about me.

The law is a not a surgeon’s scalpel, cutting away society’s ills. It’s an axe. So, on the spectrum of morally good, past acceptable and tolerable, politically incorrect, unacceptable through to downright evil, the law can only really pick off acts on the extreme end. There is much that is socially unacceptable and morally wrong [...]

Wishing someone a Happy New Year may subject you to a Denial-of-Service Attack

Voice recognition works particularly well when the computer knows what you are trying to say, and just needs to track along with you. Which leads to an idea for a plug-in for commenters – not for this web-site, but for some others that I frequent. You can tell this idea is half-arsed, as I haven’t [...]

I have been listening to organisations demanding that we defend our human right to die with dignity.

I find myself unable to support them.

Some Unicode characters are just calling for a caption competition. Ṏ “Latin capital letter o with tilde and diaeresis”? Is that the best you can do, Unicode Consortium?

Without performing any research, I solve a problem facing artists, for a cut.