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BlackJack

I made a blackjack game in C++. You can click the link to download the game (probably only works on windows). You can see the source code after the jump.

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Grid Game: Latest C++ Opus

Here is my latest C++ masterpiece after the jump. Move your guy (U) to get the treasure (T) and avoid the monsters (Q and M).

This is some seriously hi-tech shizzle.

(Oh and I stole the clear screen function from the interweb ^_^. I couldn’t come up with that on my own!)
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Deal cards

Here is some more C++, I am just posting it here to dump it somewhere to show it to someone with 1337 hacks. Please disregard if this sort of thing bores or confuses you. ^_^

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C++

I have been playing around with C++ the last couple days, just because I am a big computer dork and to see what I can remember from back in high school computer science.

Here is my latest gem.


#include
#include
using namespace std;

float num1(0), num2 (0), answer (0);
string operate;

int main ()
{
cout << "Welcome to the calculator" << endl;
cout << "Enter the first number" << endl;
cin >> num1;
cout << endl << "Enter the second number." << endl;
cin >> num2;
cout << endl << "What operation would you like to perform? (+ - x /)" << endl;
cin >> operate;

if (operate == "x") {
answer=num1*num2;
cout << answer << endl << "You have multiplied " << num1 << " and " << num2 << ".";
}

else if (operate == "+") {
answer=num1+num2;
cout << answer << endl << "You have added " << num1 << " and " << num2 << ".";
}
else if (operate == "-") {
answer=num1-num2;
cout << answer << endl << "You have subtracted " << num2 << " from " << num1 << ".";
}
else if (operate == "/") {
answer=num1/num2;
cout << answer << endl << "You have divided " << num2 << " into " << num1 << ".";
}

else {
cout << "I'm sorry, you didn't enter a valid operation to perform" << endl;
}

}

Take that MS Calculator!

Map of Almaty, Kazakhstan

My friend here in Denver has a company called Umapper (www.umapper.com), which lets you make custom maps and applications. So i was testing it out, and made a map of Almaty, Kazakhstan and wanted to post it here on the website.

Having lived and visited several times in Almaty, hopefully I labeled some places on this map that will be useful to anyone who stumbles upon it…because it is essential that people in Almaty can find the Arasan Bathhouse! (which I labeled on the map).

On the TX

On the train. All the 8:23 regulars are here. Strangers on a commuter train.

Yesterday was crazy busy at work. I don’t fully understand the seasonal ups and downs of the scientific editing business, but right now, we are swamped. I really need to speed up my editing, but of course the trick is to do that while maintaining accuracy.

Yesterday, I worked from 9:30 am to 9:30 pm, bookended by an hour on the train each way — on thanksgiving. Lucky me (but Monday was a holiday, so I can’t complain too much).

It’s little late, but I wonder if there is somewhere in this country where I can score some pumpkin pie?

Wave Test

After the jump, I have a Google wave embedded.

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Climate Change and Site Tweaks…

I have not updated this blog in a long time. Time has been short, as I am really busy at work these days. Moreover, I have not had much to write about. Lately, I have felt that my contribution to the Web 2.0 (or are we at Web 5.0?) were better suited to the 140-characters-or-fewer format of Twitter. After my twitter and Facebook output, there is not much left to write about here.

However, I was struck by the urge to tinker with the Web site today. Even if no one reads it, I still enjoy tweaking it. I mostly upgraded various components of the blog to their most recent versions; thus, most of the changes are not very noticeable. I also implemented a new login system. You can now log in with Google/Facebook/twitter/OpenID, or you can use your existing FoC login if you would prefer — you should be able to associate the existing FoC account with a third party login. Let me know if you have any trouble.

I also wanted to write something today because a subject came up (other than health care reform, about which I lack the perseverance to write) that I thought was well suited for regular blogging rather than microblogging.

A few days ago, a leading climate change research center was hacked. Among other things, their private e-mails have been spread around the Internet. Many climate change deniers have latched onto certain portions of these e-mails as proof — not just the smoking gun, but the mushroom cloud!! — that climate change is a big hoax.

The most talked about passage stated,

“I’’ve just completed Mike’s Nature trick of adding in the real temps to each series for the last 20 years (ie from 1981 onwards) amd from 1961 for Keith’s to hide the decline.”

Words like “trick” and “hide” certainly have a negative nuance, hinting that something untoward took place. However, based on my understanding of the matter, this was not the case. Although I feel silly having to cite the definition of a commonly known word, it is probably the simplest way to approach the first commonly cited point in the e-mail.

Trick: A convention or specialized skill peculiar to a particular field of activity.”

Was this definition the intended meaning of “trick”, or does it instead refer to malicious deception? The answer to this question depends on the meaning of “hide the decline”. Many climate change deniers seem to interpret “hide the decline” to mean that global temperatures are actually decreasing and that any reported rise in global temperatures is the result of manipulation of data — a hoax dreamed up by Al Gore and George Soros. However, surely an enterprising scientist somewhere would notice this, right? Never mind the fact that decreasing temperatures would conflict with numerous separate observations, for example, sea ice thickness, weather patterns, and species extinction.

Therefore, I think it is safe to conclude that the scientists were not hiding declining real global temperatures. So, what were they hiding?

Climate scientists use a variety of proxies instead of actual temperature measurements, such as tree-ring growth and the isotopic composition of polar ice cores. These proxies are necessary to construct models of the global climate thousands of years in the past, since frequent, accurate, and widespread measurement of temperature is a fairly recent occurrence. However, these temperature proxies are not perfect. For example, the tree ring “divergence problem”, whereby the strong correlation between tree-ring growth and temperature considerably weakened after 1960, is well know. It has been reported that in the e-mail, “decline” referred to the decrease in the modeled temperature obtained by using tree-ring data.

In order to deal with large and complex data sets, various statistical treatments must be applied. In this case, tree-ring growth provides good data up to 1960. However, since the correlation subsequently weakened, the “decline” needed to be “hidden”, not because they were twisting the data to fit their political agenda, but because they were constructing a model to fit the observed data.

WH Health Bill

It looks like the White House might draft its own health care bill….which I think could be a great strategy.  Congress has done 85% of the bill, and now Obama can take control of the debate, while also shielding himself from criticism by saying that he is taking the best parts from the various congressional plans that have already been drafted.  And anything to speed up the sausage-making process would be a good thing. (Damn you Gang of Six!)

Russian Translation

In case anyone wants some great Russian and English translation services, you should check out our new company – Mile High Russian!  We’ll translate anything!   We also offer Russian tutoring!

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