Jamcleat

This week I was able to attend 2 lectures by Professor William J. Cook, Chandler Family Professor, ISyE, Operations Research, Georgia Institute of Technology at Furman University’s 2011-2012 Donald H. Clanton Visiting Mathematician Program. 

Exact Solutions in Linear and Integer Programming

This lecture treats the problem of finding exact rational solutions.  While the details of the mathematical theory cannot be covered in a one hour lecture, Professor Cook was able to help the audience (me at least) understand the difficulties inherent in the computer’s limited numeric precision, the large number of calculations involved each with its inherent possible losses, and a number of approaches to reducing or at least managing these errors. With David L. Applegate, Robert E. Bixby, and Vasek Chvátal, William J. Cook is co-author of The Traveling Salesman Problem: A Computational Study

In Pursuit of the Salesman: Mathematics at the Limits of Computation

This lecture is  more accessible by the non-mathematician.  Professor Cook outlines the history and origins of the problem: How to minimize the length of the trip a salesman must make to visit all of the required cities.  The complexity of this problem grows super-exponentially with each added point. With delightful illustrations, pictures, and explanation he makes this problem come alive and helps us understand why the Traveling Salesman Problem is important not just to travelers but in genetics, manufacturing and astronomy.

Professor Cook’s book In Pursuit of the Salesman: Mathematics at the Limits of Computation be available in January, 2012.

If you have an opportunity to hear Professor Cook speak, do not miss it. You will enjoy his knowledge and excitement in mathematics.

An article in the Economist  caught my eye. The article/commentary concerned the organizing principles of the Occupy Wall Street movement and especially as it relates to the American style of Democracy. Well into the article was this

Moreover, direct deliberative democracy by its very nature puts effective power disproportionately in the hands of extroverted, energetic, and charismatic individuals with a knack for persuasion. The opinions of introverts and those of us who need a good deal of time to mull things over tend not to be fully included into the decision-making process. So these people (most of us, I think) must go along, their views systematically underrepresented until the rule of the pushy yammerers becomes too intolerable and they leave. Exit is more powerful than voice if voice is not your strong suit.

Looking at the first sentence, I would say that it is also true of monarchies, dictatorships, boardrooms, executive suites, unions, Congress, sales and marketing and just about every other human endeavor.

Looking at the last sentence, exit is much easier for the young as the elders have a great deal of inertia/momentum depending on your reference frame.

A usual, the contemplative are stuck in the middle.

We saw Leo Kottke at The Handlebar in Greenville, SC. last night There is no comparison.

Labor Day weekend is a big one in Dacusville, SC. Saturday and Sunday were the Dacusville Farm Days. This event has been going on on Labor Day for quite a number of years. A combination of tractor and engine show, crafts, traders, music, and fun. When Phillip and I went last year, we got there too late and missed the veneer mill. While we did see the sawmill operating, Phillip really wanted to see the veneer mill. I checked the on-line schedule and suggested that we get there by mid morning.

We got to the site on Pace Bridge Road right on schedule. The sawmill start was running late and the veneer was scheduled after that. While we were waiting for the mills to run, we got some pictures of the steam mill engine and it’s boiler, a shingle sawmill run from a tractor PTO belt, and more tractors than you can shake a bundle of sticks at.

Both the sawmill and the veneer mill are in separate sheds, each powered by its own large single cylinder diesel engine. The flywheels on the engines are about 6 feet in diameter. Since we got there early, we got to see the diesels started. First a pot-engine drives an air compressor to fill the receiver to 9.5 kg/cm2 (135psi). While this is going on, the starting team opens the cylinder head valve and moves the piston to top-dead-center by using a long metal bar engaged in holes in the flywheel to pull the flywheel around. Next the compression valve is closed and a plug on the cylinder-head is removed. Starting fluid is poured in and the plug replaced. When the air pressure is as required, a valve is opened and the fly is turned by compressed. Once the flywheel is turning, the engine begins to ignite fuel and white smoke pours out gradually becoming clearer as the engine begins to heat up. Once the engine is warmed up, a clutch is engaged to turn the line-shaft. Belts are checked. Everything is good. The engine is brought to operating speed and everything is now moving.

The saw mill consists of a carriage and circular saw. As the log is sawed, the slabs are take off the back and brought to and edge-saw table that makes a rough plank by trimming both edges as the slab is conveyed through the edge-saw. Lumber is taken of the back and stacked.

The veneer mill has a similar diesel engine. The veneer mill itself consists of a cast-iron frame with the log to be worked suspended by two long screw-jacks with face-plates that support and turn the log. the log is scored so that each turn produces two pieces. The jacks are turned by a large 2 m (6 ft) reduction gear. The horizontal veneer knife is held in a heavy cast-iron frame that is moved by a ratchet a little bit at a time into the log. Two men catch the veneers as they come off, roll them and hand them to spectators.

After watching sawing and veneer, we had some lunch. We looked for a friend who restores small engines and shows them at shows like this but he had already packed up by the time we were wandering around. After watching the blacksmith and the Parade of Power, we departed. Near the exit, we realized that we had just missed the threshing of about 25 bushels of wheat. Maybe next year.

Long ago and far away, I was lucky enough to go to a boy’s camp near Charlevoix, Michigan. Camp Charlevoix. At Camp Charlevoix, I was lucky to sail what is still one of my favorite sailboats. The Snipe class. The boats that I sailed had no sail numbers I remember. Web surfing I find Snipe 2457, an early number. The picture is full color. My birthday card arrived from aunt. Snipe 2740 with my Uncle Leonard sailing and my mother crew. My understanding is that Uncle Leonard built the boat while in high school in consultation with Clark Mills who was already building similar boats in Clearwater, Florida. I checked the model on the mantel, Snipe 4270. A longer story, maybe not for here. If you can only have one boat, it should be a Snipe.

If you attempt to move or copy an Excel worksheet from a Excel 2007 or later workbook to an Excel 2003 workbook it will fail. The error message displayed does not give you any hint about the incompatibility and suggests cut and paste. You can complete the copy if you make the target workbook the same level as the sending workbook.
Do a Save As of the target worksheet to the new format. Close it. Re-open the just saved version to complete the conversion. The Move or Copy Worksheet function should then work properly.
This presumes that you actually found the Move Copy Worksheet function now conveniently located at Home -> Cells -> Format -> Organize Sheets -> Move Copy Worksheet. Whodda thunk it.

In our kitchen/breakfast space is a big Mission Style chair. My analysis of this chair is that it was home or school shop built in the early 1950′s. It has been in a flooded basement or a flood. It has been over-stressed and broken (before the flood). And repaired by someone-not-the-builder.
After a number of year of our use, some of the joints got loose and it was time to repair.
Nearby you can see the chair after repair. And tools involved.
Forensics: The front lintel had been broken before. I suspect that verticals had splayed enough to allow one of the dowels to break. Pulled back together by the repairer, a scrap of wood was nailed to prevent the splay. Long ago and far away, I learned that nailing oak (other than flooring) was futile. Similarly, the glue blocks in the corners were nailed, maybe more than once as attested by the collection of rusty bent nails in each.

I drilled holes for screws in the corner glue blocks that were loose. Put in screws and re-glued. Glued the dowels in 3 out of 4 corners.
About 3 hours and just a small number of hand tools.
Some “Antique Road Show” host of the future will tell then owner of this one, “Interesting, well made, several repairs, a pretty good chair. But not worth much”.

Elvis, our 18 year old cat, died in his sleep last evening. He was walking around when I fed him at 1730. I did not check on him again until I went to bed. He was not breathing. I had taken him to the veterinarian at Cedar Lake Animal Hospital last week. He was off his feed and not perky. She said that he was old with some thyroid and metabolism problems. She was reluctant to give medication given his precarious condition. Now he is gone. I miss that old cat.

The 1995 Cutlass Cruiser instrument cluster lamps burned out. Actually, two of them had burned out 3 years ago. At that time, I exchanged the the two burned out lamps from the 0-55 side side of the cluster to the 55-110 side that I hardly ever use. Sometime in March, another bulb went making it impossible to see the speed at night. From the original disassembly, I remembered that it was a pain. Allow about 2 hours. Before beginning, make note of the positions of the dead lamps. It may be difficult to tell failed lamps.
For safety, disconnect the battery to disable the airbag. Avoid the yellow wires associated the airbag sensors and airbag. There are a number of screws (over 20) involved in this, so it may be useful to have piece of corrugated box to hold, organize and note the screw positions. Remove 2 screws from either side of the ALDL connector. This will allow the trim panel to be removed from the car in the next step. Remove 3 screws from the bottom surface and 2 screws from the bottom forward edge of the steering wheel trim panel. Remove and set aside.

Using a putty knife at the inboard end of the outboard air-vent airflow director, gently work each of these out. This will expose a 5/16″ screw head. Two more are located on either side of the open ashtray. and one additional one under the instrument cluster. Remove these screws. The trim panel will be retained by several spring-friction clips. Gently work the trim panel loose and set aside. Figure 2. A flexible trim ring may surround the steering column. Remove it at this time. There are 4 screws under the top surface instrument panel surround and 3 along bottom. Remove these screws and the instrument surround. There are 4 screws around the instrument cluster. One on the left is hard to reach. The upper screw behind the corner of the radio panel in Figure 2 is the right-hand side. The left-hand one is located simlarly. Two screws are on the lower edge. A wire and clip connect the panel to the steering column collar. The clip will slide off and the instrument cluster can be removed.
Along the top of the back edge there are 6 smaller bulbs. These are type PC74 lamps and illuminate the warnings. There may be an extra in the “spare” slot that you could use in a pinch to replace a warning light. There are 8 PC194 lamps to illuminate the panel. A ninth PC194 lamp is located on the bottom edge to light the transmission selector indicator quadrant. This is the only lamp the dealers computer called out and it called it as a PC195. Dealer price is $15.00. Online price is $2.00. These PC lamps twist out from the flexible printed circuit with a 1/8 counterclockwise turn. Replace any failed lamps. You can test them on the bench with a 9-volt battery and test clips. Avoid wires associated with the airbag..
Carefully re-insert the instrument cluster plugging the PC connectors into the sockets. Start the 3 easy to reach screws. Reconnect the clip to the steering column collar. Use a piece of paper towel to retain the hard-to-reach left-hand screw in the socket and start and tighten left-hand screw. Tighten the remaining screws on the cluster. You may wish to temporarily re-connect the battery to check the lamps at this point. Disconnect the battery before proceeding.
Re-install the instrument surround and tighten the screws.
Press the long trim panel into place. Start all screws. Then tighten all screws.
Re-install the trim around the steering column.
Re-install the trim panel under the steering column.
Re-insert the vent directors. Note that there is a post on the outboard side of the the socket that keys with a slot on the director.
Finally re-install the ALDL socket.
Reconnect the battery.

For fans of Richard Scarry’s Cars and Trucks and Things That Go, Goldbug is on this page.
Sorry the picture is not perfect. After the first shot, she flew away.