Simon blogs

[Simon]

Caffeine withdrawal

In July, I quit drinking caffeine cold-turkey.

Before, I drank 3 liters of Pepsi Max Lemon per day. I suppose that 3 liters is probably not the daily recommended dose. The body was so accustomed to 3 liters of Pepsi that, after quitting, I had terrible headaches for 5 days and took several naps per day.

After that brutal week, the mind cleared, and the sleeping rhythm became super stable. Very nice. Probably better overall for working with other people and general functioning.

The new drink of the gods is deit Grapefruit, a German sugar-free lemonade. Again I drink about 3 liters of that per day.

I'll have a boardgaming weekend ahead, with Uwe and Icho. For the first time in two months, I'll buy caffeinated soda again -- but only for them, not for me. To still compete in mental prowess on uncaffeinated ground, I'll probably have to eat lots of candy to compensate. World wars aren't easy.





Zendo Notebook

Normal people read a book in bed. I put a notepad next to my bed, and I write down Zendo rules before sleeping.

Already, I have about 30 rules that I would like to master to a player group. I've tried hard to make rules of similar style as we had in Vienna, 2015, with ADmiral, geoo, and Ramon: A focus on geometric rules, trying to find yet-unexplored concepts. These rules will be too hard unless the player group is thoroughly experienced.

Examples -- SPOILER! Don't read if you like Zendo and there's a chance you'll play with me IRL someday

• AKHTBN iff there is an ungrounded piece that is nonetheless not a highest piece in the koan. (Defined as: There is another piece with its highest point higher than the first piece's highest point.)
  
• Hot potato: AKHTBN iff there is a piece that touches stuff (= other pieces or the table) at most in single points, i.e., has no straight lines of contact, and no surfaces of contact. For example, a flat piece balanced on three same-size upright pyramids.
  
• AKHTBN iff there are at least two pieces of the same color, and no two same-colored pieces can see each other. (Defined as: Between any two pieces of the same color, for all straight line segments in space that start in one piece and end in the other, the line segment intersects a differently-colored piece.)
  

Some other rules don't care about the geometry at all, and they're important to the mix, too.

Eventually, I should write all the rules to files and host them on the web. And pruning the list would be nice before actual play.

-- Simon

[WillLem]

What is this Zendo, Simon?

[kaywhyn]

Locale

I use the en_US.UTF-8 Linux locale for everything. I don't want my computer to know that I'm German; all software should be in English so that I can websearch the error messages. The decimal sign is the dot . and the thousands separator is the comma , and that should be adopted worldwide.

Having been born and raised in the USA my entire life, yes, we use commas to separate groups of 3 digits, whereas in other countries they use a decimal point instead. So, for example, one thousand two hundred thirty four would be written as 1,234 where I'm from, which is a big number, but in your country, you instead would write the same number 1.234, which to us here in the USA is a small number, bigger than 1, but less than 2. When I visited my parents' home country of Vietnam for the very first time earlier this year, I remember having to constantly remember that the decimal point in the number for the currency is a thousands' separator, since I'm not used to the decimal point being used in place of a comma as a separator of 3 digits in big numbers. So that 100.000 in Vietnam is actually one hundred thousand, not just one hundred, which is exactly how we in the USA would interpret the number, one hundred. Consistency would definitely be nice, but too bad that's not going to happen.

Nonetheless, some features of the US locale are horrendous, such as starting the week on Sunday. This affects GUI calendar tools in the desktop panel. Here is how to make Monday the first day of the week:

Are dates in Europe written the same way as they are here in the US? I visited Europe back in 2007, but I don't remember what format the date uses. Here in the USA, we use month/date/year. In my parents home country of Vietnam, it's switched, so that the format is day/month/year. When they came to the USA about 40 years ago, they had to get used to the new format. In the same way, when I visited Vietnam for the very first time earlier this year, I had to get used to using Celsius instead of the familiar Fahrenheit. I remember on my Europe trip, my friends and I were on a bus where the temperature was displayed up in the very front and it read 25 degrees C One of them goes, "why is it not cold?" I said, "You know why? Because the temperature is not in Fahrenheit that we're all familiar with, it's in Celsius."  When converted to Fahrenheit, it makes sense that 25 C is actually a warm day (77 degrees F).

[mantha16]

Are dates in Europe written the same way as they are here in the US? I visited Europe back in 2007, but I don't remember what format the date uses. Here in the USA, we use month/date/year. In my parents home country of Vietnam, it's switched, so that the format is day/month/year. When they came to the USA about 40 years ago, they had to get used to the new format. In the same way, when I visited Vietnam for the very first time earlier this year, I had to get used to using Celsius instead of the familiar Fahrenheit. I remember on my Europe trip, my friends and I were on a bus where the temperature was displayed up in the very front and it read 25 degrees C One of them goes, "why is it not cold?" I said, "You know why? Because the temperature is not in Fahrenheit that we're all familiar with, it's in Celsius."  When converted to Fahrenheit, it makes sense that 25 C is actually a warm day (77 degrees F).

I think pretty much everywhere used day/month/year apart from the USA.   

In Britain we are super annoying cos sometimes we use celsius for cold temperatures and farenheit for hot.  Also most people of a younger generation than me will use kg and km for weight and distance whereas I grew up using  stones, lbs and oz for weight and miles for distance and speed (for driving as in MPH) but km, m, cm and mm for other measurements.  Our speed limits and speedomoters are in MPH despite the fact KPH would be the more modern way to do it.  It would be chaos to change those things though

[Simon]

What is this Zendo, Simon?

Zendo is a tabletop game. Players build little structures of colorful pieces.

A moderator ("master") has a secret rule. For each structure, the master will mark it white if it follows the rule; black, if not. The player who correctly states the secret rule wins. Example secret rules for new players.

Zendo can produce strong aha effects. It has been my favorite tabletop game since 2014. Full rules of Zendo on the designer's homepage.

Britain
miles for distance and speed (for driving as in MPH) but km, m, cm and mm for other measurements.
speed limits and speedomoters are in MPH

The UK is particularly inconsistent because its main system is metric, and it still keeps the miles for driving.

The remainder of Europe enjoyed the full blast of metrication from the French revolution, only datetime wasn't metricated because the church was still strong. The adage is to never let a crisis go to waste. But no similar convenient event will happen anytime soon for UK or US.

I sure would like another French revolution for ditching decimal in favor of hexadecimal. And this time, we also fix datetime.

dates in Europe written the same way

pretty much everywhere used day/month/year

Yeah, day.month.year is common. There is this joke how the US's month/day/year format is badly sorted, but those Europeans are ill-guided if they point to day.month.year and believe that to be an improvement. Reason: Even this European notation is still middle-endian, i.e., the most-often changing figure is neither at the front nor the back. The most-often changing figure is the ones digit of the day. It's in second position.

The One True Date Format (ISO-8601) is year-month-day, and it should be used wherever possible. There are even official German guidelines to use this (DIN EN 28601). But sadly, it's not popular, it doesn't match how Germans pronounce the dates either.

At least it's popular with information scientists and technical people.

-- Simon

[Proxima]

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Date_format_by_country

[kaywhyn]

In Britain we are super annoying cos sometimes we use celsius for cold temperatures and farenheit for hot.  Also most people of a younger generation than me will use kg and km for weight and distance whereas I grew up using  stones, lbs and oz for weight and miles for distance and speed (for driving as in MPH) but km, m, cm and mm for other measurements.  Our speed limits and speedomoters are in MPH despite the fact KPH would be the more modern way to do it.  It would be chaos to change those things though

Interesting. Yea, I would find this inconsistency annoying as well. When I visited my parents' home country of Vietnam earlier this year, I had to get used to seeing kilometers instead of miles for distance, the latter which I'm very used to back in the USA.

I sure would like another French revolution for ditching decimal in favor of hexadecimal. And this time, we also fix datetime.

Really? I for one definitely prefer the metric system over the customary USA system that we use. Conversions between metric units are so much easier, being based on powers of 10. Not so in the USA. Here, we have very strange measurement equivalents, and the only way to know them is to memorize them. For example, 12 inches = 1 foot, 3 feet = 1 yard, 1,760 yards = 5,280 feet = 1 mile. Not easy numbers to remember at all. These are some of the ones I happen to know and remember.

[Simon]

ditching decimal in favor of hexadecimal

Really? I for one definitely prefer the metric system over the customary USA system that we use. Conversions between metric units are so much easier, being based on powers of 10.

I don't advocate for what the US does.

My point is that 10 is a bad base for a positional system: 10 contains only one power of 2, and an awkward divisor of 5 in the base. I want to scrap base-10 everywhere for base-16, not only in measurement, but wherever numbers are expressed in a positional numeral system.

Exactly as we divide a meter into 10*10*10 millimeters, in hex, a day will then be divided into 16*16*16*16 subunits, which, written in base-16 that is universally adopted alongside, will be written as "1/10000 of a day" and conversions are again easy. One can also invent a prefix or a short name for this unit.

You will find people on the internet who advocate for base-12 over base-10. They have seen... at least part of the light.

-- Simon

[kaywhyn]

I don't advocate for what the US does.

Nor do I expect you to. The customary system is a lot messier than the metric system, anyway.

My point is that 10 is a bad base for a positional system: 10 contains only one power of 2, and an awkward divisor of 5 in the base. I want to scrap base-10 everywhere for base-16, not only in measurement, but wherever numbers are expressed in a positional numeral system.

Well good luck convincing the folks at the board or whoever's in charge. Being a prospective math teacher myself, I don't quite see the advantages of base 16 over base 10, but that's probably because I have worked in base 10 my entire life and can't think of any good reasons right now. Granted, I learned how to do arithmetic in other bases briefly in my History of Math class for my graduate program, but it's been a while, so I would certainly need a refresher.

We people here in the USA certainly aren't going to be overhauling the decimal system for a long time, if ever. I certainly wouldn't mind working with a new base, although since we have worked in base 10 for a really long time and it has worked out fairly well, why change it? As they say, "If it ain't broke, don't fix it."

What we do need is a major educational reform here in the USA. We're one of the worse academically performing countries in the areas of science and math, in the bottom 5 out of the 50 states here in California. I plan to advocate for some major reform measures once I get my own classroom in the future. We recently switched to a new math curriculum called Common Core, which I understand it emphasizing critical thinking versus the tried-and-does-not work traditional lecture in the old curriculum, but honestly it's doing way more harm than good to students right now. Even I don't always understand the way the math is taught under this curriculum. I understand the mathematical material and concepts, but how it's being taught is quite perplexing, since the methods are drastically different than how I was taught the same mathematical concepts when I was going through school.

[grams88]

I found this Zendo game. maybe other websites will let you download the game.

https://www.old-games.com/download/5719/zendo-san

[WillLem]

Zendo is a tabletop game... The player who correctly states the secret rule wins

maybe other websites will let you download the game

This game looks amazing, I'll definitely have to try this out sometime. In theory, you could apply the principle to any game pieces, but the little colourful shapes make it particularly appealing. There's a set on eBay, I might get it to play at Christmas.

Even this European notation is still middle-endian, i.e., the most-often changing figure is neither at the front nor the back. The most-often changing figure is the ones digit of the day. It's in second position. The One True Date Format (ISO-8601) is year-month-day, and it should be used wherever possible.

Hmmm. I never thought of it that way! But, it makes total sense. We notate digital time that way (i.e. HH:MM:SSms) so, it does indeed follow that Year-Month-Day-Hour-Minute-Second-Millisecond is the best order for time notation in general.

[grams88]

I was thinking the same as yourself Willem as you could probably do a thing maybe with lemmings levels or other things. We use to play it on this forum as well in the past. I was still probably trying to get used to the rules and still learning the game. It's a great game as I love my board games, my brother got me some board games for Christmas. I like to think everyone has their board that they are good at, I know some board games require luck such as your backgammon but I challenge that aspect. There were skilled backgammon players playing against hard computers and most times the players won the game. Don't get me wrong luck plays a Hugh part in games but there's the skill aspect as well.

I noticed you gave up the caffeine Simon, is that very hard to do. I like the pepsi max, I think they have the non caffeine version of diet pepsi. Does caffeine do more damage than good, it probably does when we thing about it. Good on you Simon for giving that up for July time.

Are you still going cold turkey with it at the moment Simon?

[Simon]

This game looks amazing, I'll definitely have to try this out sometime. [...] There's a set on eBay, I might get it to play at Christmas.

I warmly encourage you to buy it. The 2017 release of Zendo ("Zendo 2.0") is the current and recommended printing, and it often appears on UK/US Amazon or Ebay.

It comes with 9 pieces of each of the 9 kinds, enough to rarely run out. Also, it offers cards with lots of easier rules, to help novice masters not accidentally make a rule too obstuse and difficult. More experienced masters can still invent their own rules.

(The only other release is the green box from 2003, it's practically nowhere to be found nowadays. So no worries; as long as your box is the black-and-white square box, you have the 2017 printing.)

In theory, you could apply the principle to any game pieces, but the little colourful shapes make it particularly appealing.

you could probably do a thing maybe with lemmings levels or other things. We use to play it on this forum as well in the past.

Right, I too prefer Zendo with (either the 1.0 pyramids or the 2.0 shapes) over Zendo with letters, numbers, or playing cards. A few different colorful pieces combine in many different ways, they look amazing on the table and patterns pop out.

My older post on this, with reasoning.

Does caffeine do more damage than good, it probably does when we thing about it. Good on you Simon for giving that up for July time.

Are you still going cold turkey with it at the moment Simon?

Yes, I still haven't drunk any caffeine since.

Caffeine probably won't lead to permanent damage, maybe I'll come back to it in a couple of months. But its wakening power is strongest when one isn't habituated to it. Thus, I'd rather not have any caffeine until I really need it some evening.

-- Simon

[Simon]

Some bash/git tricks

cd -
Switches back to the directory where came from before the most recent cd.

git checkout -
Switches back to the previously checked-out branch or commit.

sudo !!
Repeat the previously executed command, but this time with superuser rights. Careful! (The shell expands the !! before it executes anything; i.e., this is not a property of sudo.) There are magnificent apps that bring this idea of command-fixing to the extreme.

git switch
git restore
Around git 2.26, these appeared, they're intended as alternative commands for git checkout. These make it clearer whether you want to switch the checked-out branch (and the contents of the worktree along with it), or merely put some files from the same/another branch into the working directory. The manual says: THIS COMMAND IS EXPERIMENTAL. THE BEHAVIOR MAY CHANGE. I feel you should still teach these instead of checkout, because checkout confuses newbies.

geany $(ack -l Wurst)
Open in the text editor (geany in my case) all files in the current directory (recursing through subdirectories) that contain the string Wurst. Here, ack is a better grep for searching through an entire directory of text files, and I warmly recommend ack. You can build a similar command line with find and grep, but it will of course be longer.

git diff --cached --name-only
Print all files that git status would show as changed and added, but not yet committed. Like the previous item in this post, you can wrap this in yourTextEditor $() to open the files in one shot: geany $(git diff --cached --name-only)

git diff --name-only --diff-filter=U
Print all files with unresolved merge conflicts. Again, mostly useful to wrap in yourTextEditor $(), because otherwise the plain git status remains king.

Lengthy commands can always become your own shell scripts or git aliases; see my aliases.

git purr :3

-- Simon

[namida]

cd -
Switches back to the directory where came from before the most recent cd.

Tested on PowerShell and Windows command prompt. Does not work on either.