Tag Archives: mathematics

Granny Squares, Now in Color

2/24/2012 Melissa Avery-Weir

Many moons ago, I debuted my Granny Squares Color Pattern Generator, a utility to help crocheters randomize their blankets, which can be a daunting task.

I recently got a request for a way to help visualize the blanket that’s generated. It’s hard to work from a list of “r/h/p”-type entries. Not very user-friendly.

So I added in a color picker today, and the generator now shows the colors of the squares. As a warning, if you have a lot of very similar colors, the generated image may be difficult to work from. Then again, if your blanket’s in 15 shades of purple (yes, please!), you may not need this utility.

Continue reading Granny Squares, Now in Color →

Weekly Linkage: Grumpy Heroines, CRUD, and Prison Work

8/10/2011 Melissa Avery-Weir 1 Comment

This week’s internet cruising:

Questionable Content – Tool reference!
What does English sound like to foreign ears? – The Blogs at HowStuffWorks – An absolutely amazing song and video by an Italian comedian faking English, plus some adorable animal sounds.
Why CRUD might be what they want, but may not be what they need – Reading this sent me back to an old client’s site (from almost two years ago), remembering the CRUD-based admin console I developed that was such an incorrect way to go about giving them the functionality they needed. Oy.
Renaming Many Files At Once with Pattern Matching in Bash | Andy Regan – This proved very handy in renaming about 40 files quickly at work.

Video interlude! This video convinced me to start playing Mass Effect (the first) tonight.

So far, it’s a blast, and not too chock-full of grumpiness. Just enough to be fun.

…I did punch a rambling scientist, though.

On the Lieberman/Coburn plan (again) – “What we really should care about in [using life expectancy as a factor in Medicare change] is not life expectancy at birth, but life expectancy at age 65. In other words, if you make it to 65, how long will you be on Medicare? That’s when things get tricky.”
Leave to live by no man’s leave – Ayende @ Rahien – This is a 2005 post by a developer I frequently read from Israel, writing about his four years in the IDF working in prisons.
“On the one hand you are required to provide the prisoners with proper treatment and on the other hand… you listen to the news and see a bombing in Jerusalem and hear them celebrating. And that is in addition to the usual conflict of being in a position where you need to take care of people who would truly like to kill you.”
Why Steam Makes You Reinstall DirectX | Rock, Paper, Shotgun – Finally, an explanation! It’s still annoying, but I feel a bit better now.
O’Reilly OSCON Data 2011, Steve Yegge, “What Would You Do With Your Own Google?” – YouTube – Learn math and solve important problems, apparently. I’m a fan.
Google, at scale – Ooh, a book review that makes me interested in the inner workings of Google. This one’s going on my wishlist.

Weekly Linkage: A Microaggression, a Game, and Some Dancin’

7/26/2011 Melissa Avery-Weir

This week’s internet cruising:

Microaggressions submission – I love microaggressions.com, and this one is actually cute.
Learning from Fable III’s UX Mistakes | UX Booth – A nice look at the usability issues of Fable III.
Email Management Made Fun | The Email Game – Okay, this is a cute and fun spin on the (in my mind) GTD principle of fast processing an inbox. I got 2375 points in my first game, and 2250 on the second.
Make Love, Not Flamewars – bitquabit – I don’t care about mercurial vs. git (I use and enjoy both), but I like the approach of giving up the silly flamewars and debates over which is best. Pick the right solution for the job you’re on. Learn the tools to give you options. All else is moot.
An Integer Programming Model for the Sudoku Problem – I spent quite a bit of time pouring over this and related Wikipedia articles in tandem with some new thinking on the granny squares solution I posted last week.

And, by one of my favorite choreographers:

Chewing on Granny Squares

7/15/2011 Melissa Avery-Weir 5 Comments

My knitting colleague E. made the (arguably) goofy decision to refresh her crocheting skills by taking on a granny squares blanket.

It’s a great idea for using up a ton of scrap yarn.

It’s not a great idea if you enjoyed the level of sanity you had when you started.

She quickly ran into the classic self-randomizing problem: given 20 different colored yarns of different weights, how do you put 3 different ones in each square while trying to keep the colors as random as possible? Sounds easy enough, but after 15 or so squares, it gets tricky. If you’re aiming for randomization, the last thing you want is a big diagonal of purple in your blanket when you’re done.

So E. appealed to me and asked me to write her a “script” to randomize her colors. I was on board, look forward to some Python/Django fun before I realized that what I’d been handed was a graph coloring problem with some fun restraints. (Turns out it was easy, but fun to think through.)

Before I get into the technical bits, go make a blanket or two. Then go find some esoteric method to contact me (or comment here) and let me know what you think, especially if you run into an issue.
Continue reading Chewing on Granny Squares →

Weekly linkage

9/8/2010 Melissa Avery-Weir

Just a few:

Passive voice is killing your design documents – " I would argue that if the goal is to communicate clearly, actually stating and explaining the uncertainties is going to be much more helpful to readers."
The Size Of Our World – Bad graphical quality, but cool comparison.
6174 (number) – Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia – Who comes up with stuff like this? Who sits around adding and subtracting numbers to find patterns?
Ta Prohm temple at Angkor, Cambodia – Absolutely gorgeous.
8.4 Million New Yorkers Suddenly Realize New York City A Horrible Place To Live – I don't normally read the Onion (maybe I should!), but this struck me as a brilliantly-written article. For instance: "'This is no place to raise a kid, that's for sure,' said 32-year-old Brandon Rushing, a lifelong New Yorker. 'I grew up here and I turned into a giant asshole. Why would I want that for my son?'"
Java Programmers are the Erotic Furries of Programming " Some Guy Ranting – A Programmer Hierarchy. As a budding Python programmer, I have no idea what he's talking about with regards to Python folks thinking they're better than PHP folks. …No idea at all.
What fuels my passion for technology & writing code – Highlight: "I began having difficulty finding people to discuss ideas and thoughts with. When I did find someone who I could brainstorm and bounce ideas off of it was a very surreal feeling. I loved every minute of it and did not want to stop. Even today I have very few of these conversations but cherish the people I can have these conversations with. I enjoy my ideas being challenged. I enjoy being challenged, period. My level of excitement in these conversations are off the hook."
A Showcase of Single Page Websites – I like pretty things. And creative things.
Reader Story: How I Save Tons of Money by Grocery Shopping Once Every … – This sounds really, really awesome. If I were to implement it, it would take some changes in food style–Greg likes meat and I'm lazy about lunches–but it would probably be change for the better.

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