Jamcleat

I do not claim any understanding of Nelder-Mead or anything like it, also called a downhill method of finding a minimum for a system of equations, which, if you keep up with these things, may be old news. But consider the possibility of the inverse, nearing the summit realizing that whatever your strategy and method, the climb has led you up the wrong peak. Or more to the point, in the valley, you cannot realize or see that the adjacent (or some very distant) valley is lower but not chosen because the initial solution set off in the wrong direction. The desired goal is now distant. Maybe in Step n, there could be a global check for other minima. Or maybe this accomplishes that trick.

Those who might have noticed an up-tick in the “On the Player”. Not to mention that there is an up-tick in the volume. My wife is away taking care of folks that took care of the country in World War II. Both of them are ok but they want to be independent and strong and some of those things start to fade.
So I am here taking care of the cats (5 neutered males, 2 neutered females, 3 stray males), doing the laundry, dishes, and listening to music that is…not usually permitted.
Challenge: Find a 10 second segment of any 20 second segment of “Dust Devils” that would not make an outstanding ring-tone (not necessarily for you, just for someone). If you have that in mind do not waste you time looking at t’boli or squeal piggy.
Challenge 2: A sub-woofer for a cell phone that replicates the heart-stopping pulse of a car-trunk kick speaker or floor bass.

After a bit of snow on Friday night/Saturday morning, my daughter came down from Asheville in the afternoon. We had supper of spaghetti and salad and music that we rarely get to hear. Sunday, my son came down from school, BLT’s for lunch, naps, daughter changed the oil in her car and we had meat loaf and baked potatoes for supper.

I stumbled on this list while surfing the other night. While none of our cats have showed any interest in furthering their education, it is possible that one of may try to fake it. Watch out.

My long-time friend Bob sent me news to help understand Windrows 7. Hay-Hay-Hay.
Fortunately I only have to use Window at work. The company I work for can afford to pay lots of smart people to protect me from folks who would do bad things to my computer. At home, I use Ubuntu, a Linux based system. Much less worry about invasive software problems.

Those concerned about global warming may enjoy this. It’s superstringy, from The Reference Frame. Or maybe not.

My neighbor has a hobby restoring classic British sports cars.  I have seen his work on his own cars and on jobs that he has done for others.  The work is always top-notch.  He does take the time to do the job right.  He has a fine web site too.

John Burton Works on Triumph

John drives his Austin Healey 100.

I have heard that Windows 7 became generally available today.  As I have said elsewhere, no version of Windows is safe to use on the average home computer.  Be warned. 
I have also heard that it is difficult (impossible) to upgrade from Windows XP to Windows 7.  Fortunately, I do not have to worry about that. My machine came with Windows 2000 Professional and is too small to run XP, Vista, or 7.  I have developed a tool that I call the Windows Upgrade Advisor.  It works with any version of Windows, even 3.1!  I hope that you find this tool useful.
I heard something on the radio this morning that went something like this:
“Last night I set my bed to Microsoft Sleepnumber 7. Now it’s full of bugs and has no support.”

I saw a new-ish school bus the other day.  In South Carolina, the state taxpayers buy and maintain the buses for the local school districts.  The new buses are flush-front (like a city bus), yellow with black letters and accent stripes. And it has strobes and LED lights to make sure you stop when lights are flashing.

The part I like best are the mirrors.  Instead of the long flat rear-view mirrors on a tube frame, the mirrors are mounted in a black molded plastic  extention that drops down at the end to hold the long mirror and round convex wide-angle mirror.  The whole thing has an appearance like bee antennae. The buses are like big yellow and black, wingless  bees.

I dreamt that I had an exam in English 101.  These were the questions on the exam:

1. Compare and contrast the poetry forms Limerick and Haiku.

2. What factor is used to convert Iambic Pentameter to customary units? SI?

3. Do the recent changes in attitude of what makes a married couple allow rhymed couplets to be formed from pairs of words that are not homonyms? Discuss.

4. Postulate that either the Epic Poem or the Advertising Jingle is superior.  Provide a formal proof.

5.  Outline a marketing plan for Beowulf Channel, All Beowulf, all the time.