Category: Technology

After playing around with Project Euler for a while, I determined I wanted to challenge my coding skills even more, but stay firmly planted in the mathematical realm in which I’m familiar. So, I’ve begun writing some code that can be used for certain mathematical objects. In particular, I’ve written a fraction class, a 2D vector class, and a complex number class. You can find the code on GitHub.

As part of my year of focus, I’ve been trying to spend more consistent chunks of time working on programming. In particular, right now I’m focusing on doubling down on my Python knowledge, and exploring some other aspects of computer science that interest me. After checking out a few books and tutorials, I’ve made my way back to a website that I found a number of years ago, which is the most intriguing to me: Project Euler.

The gist of Project Euler is to give a wide range of mathematically-oriented programming puzzles for people to solve. You can always just go on there for ideas of small programs to write, whether it’s to learn some math or to try out a new computer language. In my case, I’m trying to write the most efficient programs possible, making use both of clever algorithms I spend time figuring out or researching, and making use of Python syntax to make particularly elegant solutions. If you make a simple account, you can keep track of your progress and access message boards about each problem.

It has been very engaging so far. They are more bite-sized, but give ideas for more complex programs that can be written which are more general purpose. Rather than writing a script that solves a problem, I can focus on writing broad functions that may be helpful.

A fun problem I worked on today involved triangular numbers. These are just numbers you get from adding together all the positive integers before it. So, the seventh triangular number is just 1+2+3+4+5+6+7=28.

The goal was to find the smallest triangular number with more than 500 divisors. Here’s the Python code I wrote for it. (I apologize, I can’t figure out how to make syntax highlighting work right now.

import math

def getTriangular(n): ## Generates a list of triangular numbers up to n
    triangularList = [sum(i for i in range(1,k+1)) for k in range(1, n+1)]
    return triangularList

def getNumberDivisors(n):  ## Generates number of divisors
    numDivisors = 2  ## We don't care about n=1, so assume it has 1 and n
    for divisor in range(2,int(math.sqrt(n))+1): ## Only check to sqrt(n)
        if n % divisor == 0:  ## Needs to be a divisor
            if divisor * divisor == n: ## If square root
                numDivisors += 1
            else:
                numDivisors += 2  ## Otherwise, divisor has a factor
                                  ## pair larger than n//2

    return numDivisors


def main():
    triangleList = getTriangular(25000) ## Hopefully big enough
    is500 = False
    triangleIndex = 7 ## It's certainly larger than seventh number
    while not is500:
        triangleIndex += 1
        #print(triangleIndex)
        if getNumberDivisors(triangleList[triangleIndex]) > 500:
            is500 = True
            print(triangleList[triangleIndex]) ## Tell me the number

main()

The code runs reasonably quickly, which is always the goal. The standard view on Project Euler problems (and I believe it is their official stance) is that well-optimized solutions should run for no longer than a minute on nearly any computer. The first few problems should take substantially less time than that.

I recommend giving them a try if you have an itch for some challenges, and either want to work on optimizing your code in a certain language, or try out the functions in a new language. For example, the fact that Python supports arbitrarily large integer addition (compared to C or Java) makes some problems pretty trivial. Thinking about how to deal with other languages becomes rather interesting.

During sophomore year of college, I embarked on a project to put a Linux operating system on my laptop. I had been interested ever since using a computer in one of the engineering labs which ran Ubuntu, one of the most mainstream, user-friendly distributions out there. I was intrigued both by the visual design, and the ease with which complex programs could be run. There was also the intrigue of feeling like a cool hacker, using a terminal and typing commands to get around a file system. I was hooked, and since then I’ve had a Linux distribution running on every computer I’ve owned over the past three years.
I want to spend a good chunk of time explaining my growing passion for Linux, and why I think more people should seriously consider it as an option for the computers in their lives. This first post will focus on two of the oft-repeated phrases in the Linux community, and its main inspiration: Linux is free.
Continue reading “Why Linux? Part 1: Free As In…”

The cutting edge of technology is particularly awesome these days. Cars are doing more on their own, phones are surpassing some current computers in their performance, and VR is coming into its own finally. I listen to a lot of tech podcasts, and love messing around with technology, but due to my status as a recent college graduate, I am definitely not maintaining a collection of cutting-edge devices. And that’s okay.
First, let’s talk about cars. I recently purchased a post-lease 2015 Honda Civic, LX trim (in other words, the only model more basic comes with a manual instead of a CVT.) The disparity between that car and other higher-end cars from the same year is rather shocking. Sitting in it, I feel super cool. It’s a big upgrade from the 1998 EX-L Honda Accord I had been driving. There’s a “cockpit” feeling to it, good Bluetooth connectivity, and a back-up camera. It’s relatively zippy for a cheap car, and the gas mileage gained by the CVT cannot be beat.
Then, I read a Golf R Review by Casey Liss. He is one of three car enthusiasts on the Accidental Tech Podcast. Not surprisingly, the only one I can identify with is John Siracusa, who to my knowledge has mostly driven manual Civics and Accords for his entire life. Casey though, he complained about the lack of assisted driving and automatic parking. The car needs to be fast, it needs a sunroof, and of course Carplay! This was absolutely baffling to me. I just cannot get my head wrapped around why some of these things are important. These three men have attempted to address it on their podcast, but it still does not click with me. Cars can be purchased only so often to be at all reasonable, and so one cannot even stay on the cutting edge.
The other issue is that he recently began working from home exclusively, yet sounded very hesitant to become a one-car family. Oh well, to each their own.
Now, obviously cars are a very special case of not staying on the cutting edge. I’ve only owned my own car for a few months, and it’ll be a number of years before I can even begin to think about getting another. But phones: now that’s another matter.
I’ve had my Galaxy S7 for two years now. Previously, I had a Galaxy S4 for two years, and then some random LG (I think) phone for 4 years throughout high school. In my mind, until I can afford the “every year” phone upgrade, two years is a reasonable time in these days of mostly non-replaceable phone batteries. So, with my S7 really slowing down and the battery life starting to tank, it was time to figure out what to do. Was the newest Galaxy S9 worth the incredible price tag? Did I want to save some money and get a Pixel XL or a new LG phone, each containing last year’s processors, despite them being the newest in the lineup?
I ended up choosing a Galaxy S8+. Due to the release of the S9, I got a very good deal on it, and the processing difference (and battery life) between the S7 and S8+ is much larger than the S8+ to a comparable newest generation phone. Once again, I opted to stay on the duller edge of technology. And I am happy with that decision. I tried the S9 in stores, and it truly did not impress me anymore than the S8 does. The S8 was the revolutionary phone (just like the iPhone X, and whatever comes out next will not be quite as lauded).
This is what is interesting about technology. So many people are excited to get the newest and best thing. The hype is always there, but the price-to-performance normally isn’t. I spent all of last year in school working on a 4-year old Ideapad and a 5-year old refurbished Thinkpad. They performed admirably for me, because like most people, I’m not doing much heavy-lifting.
Being on the dull edge, and looking out at what is available and what others have, can be fun. I don’t think there is anything wrong with living life on some sort of delay with technology. Perhaps as I grow older and make a bit more money, that will change. But for now, I am happy with scouring the internet for good deals, and getting what I actually need for the best price.