Recently in Misc Category

I was trying to explain the Monty Hall problem to Alyssa the other night and failing miserably.

Imagine that the set of Monty Hall's game show Let's Make a Deal has three closed doors. Behind one of these doors is a car; behind the other two are goats. The contestant does not know where the car is, but Monty Hall does.

The contestant picks a door and Monty opens one of the remaining doors, one he knows doesn't hide the car. If the contestant has already chosen the correct door, Monty is equally likely to open either of the two remaining doors.

After Monty has shown a goat behind the door that he opens, the contestant is always given the option to switch doors. What is the probability of winning the car if she stays with her first choice? What if she decides to switch?

The correct answer is the contestant should always change their mind, by doing so they increase the odds of winning from 1 in 3 to 2 in 3.  This is pretty counterintuitive, and even experts get it wrong.  But it makes more sense if you draw it out:

Keep your choice:

C G G Initial Config
X     Your choice
  H   Host's Choice (he could choose either goat w/same results)
X     Keep your choice (WIN)

C G G Initial Config
  X   Your choice
    H Host's Choice
  X   Keep your choice (LOSE)

C G G Initial Config
    X Your choice
  H   Hosts Choice
    X Keep your choice (LOSE)

Change your choice:
C G G Initial Config
X     Your choice
  H   Hosts Choice (he could choose either goat w/same results)
    X Change your choice (LOSE)

C G G Initial Config
  X    Your choice
    H  Hosts Choice
X     Change your choice (WIN)

C G G Initial Config
    X Your choice
  H   Hosts Choice
X     Change your choice (WIN)

As these things go, my guilty pleasure is a pretty benign one.  About the only TV I can sit down to anymore is home improvement shows.  And not Tim the Toolman but old episodes of "This Old House," "Hometime," "Holmes on Homes," whatever.  My local PBS and a few secondary off air channels provide a trickle of mostly repeats on the weekends.  When I had cable Discovery provided a few more, and DIY was a premium channel with in house shows that were new as good as the Public Broadcasting originals.

Engineering humor:

A man is walking through a field, when he spots a hot air balloon low above the trees. The balloon nears, and the man in the balloon calls out, "Hello! Can you tell me where I am?"

The man in the field pauses for a second, then says, "You are in a hot air balloon, about thirty feet off of the ground, above the field in which I am walking."

The man in the balloon replies, "You must be an engineer."

The man in the field, who is an engineer, responds, "Why yes, I am. How did you know?"

The man in the balloon says, "Well, everything you told me is technically correct, but is not useful to me."

The engineer asks, "Would you, by any chance, be an executive?"

The man in the balloon, who is indeed an executive, replies, "Yes. What gave it away?"

The engineer responds, "Well, you obviously have no idea of where you are or where you are going, you are in just as bad of a position now as you were before you talked to me, but now it's my fault."

My nomination of Austin for Google's 1GB to the Home project:

Situated in the beautiful heart of Texas, Austin is one of the greatest creative and startup environment in the US.  We have bands uploading videos and music, digital movie distribution, and the Silicon Hills full of gaming companies and IT startups.  The annual SXSW film, interactive media and music conference bring thousands of creative people into town every spring. 

Austin is the hub for Smart metering and Green Power initiatives.  AustinEnergy, our municipal owned power provider, is a leader in progressive power delivery.  Texas is the largest generator of Wind Power in the US due to AustinEnergy's GreenChoice program.  The city and the utility have partnered to form the Pecan Street project, which funds and provides technical assistance to Green Power and Green transportation startups.

This creates an unquenchable thirst for connectivity.  Yet Austin is trapped in the Bermuda triangle of bandwidth.  Surrounded by the large cities of Dallas, Houston, and San Antonio much connectivity and access bypasses Austin, going for the large datacenter havens in those cities.  Choices for broadband providers are limited to the cable monopoly, and the phone monopoly.  Both provide moderate download, but significantly restricted upload speeds.  Neither provider offers a fiber to the home product, and neither is investing funds to upgrade their last mile connectivity.

The City of Austin's own efforts to create a alternative municipal network for universal access were stalled when the providers lobbied for a state law prohibiting municipalities from competing in the broadband space.

Austin's residents are leaders in technology and the arts.  Our city is well positioned to develop and use, and contribute to Google's Fiber for Communities project, and we look forward to working with Google on the future of the Internet.

Submit your city here.

Looking back at my posts so far, it doesn't seem like I've settled on any particular topic for my blog.  So I'll stick to telling what I learned yesterday.

Try using Baking Powder instead of Baking Soda in the standard Toll House cookie recipe.  The cookies end up puffier and don't seem to spread out as much.  Don't try substituting white sugar for some or all of the brown sugar.  The brown sugar helps the flavor a lot. 

My wife took some pictures and video of my son trying to help.

I highly recommend watching "The Big Bang Theory" on CBS.  The show's portrayal of geeks and nerds is a bit excessively stereotypical but amusing.  The first season is a little weak toward the end because of the writer strike but its worth starting from the beginning.  First season is available on DVD or from Netflix.  Thinkgeek seems to have provided about half of the props for the show.

Anyhow... that is not actually what this post is about.  While watching an episode I saw this advertised during a Public Service Announcement.   CBS is having a "CBS Cares Colonoscopy Sweepstakes."

This is an actual sweepstakes and, if you are the grand prize winner, we will fly you and a companion to New York where you will receive a free colonoscopy. You will also be given three nights' accommodation in a suite at the luxurious Loews Regency Hotel, which will include the night before you are "awarded" the colonoscopy.

I wish it was a hoax.