How do you lose weight? Easy: eat less, eat healthier, exercise more. Everybody knows those are the three steps, and everybody knows there’s no getting around it, but no one actually wants to do those three steps because it’s really unpleasant to do so. That’s why diet books fly off the shelves with promises of eating whatever you want, as much as you want, and never exercising, because their special secret sauce will make you lose weight anyway. We know it isn’t true, but the tiniest part of our brains thinks that maybe, just maybe, somebody finally found the golden ticket (spoiler: they didn’t).
The current US deficit is a spot on analogy for dieting. How do we fix the deficit? Easy: cut spending, raise taxes, and stop going to war. Everybody knows those are the three steps, and everybody knows there’s no getting around it, but no one actually wants to do those three steps because it’s really unpleasant to do so. That’s why politicians always run on the platform that we can cut spending without cutting any government services, that we can raise taxes on somebody else who is not you, and that we won’t go to war, we’ll just have “military actions.” Let’s take these one at a time.
Everyone check out my first professional blog post, written over at TorrentFreak!
6 Reasons Why Filesharing Will Go Down in History as the Greatest Thing Ever to Happen to Music
Tags: bittorrent, intellectual property, music
Before continuing, the reader should acquaint himself with Philip’s explanation of the basic form of the Monty Hall problem, as shown in this YouTube video:
Intro
I just had a very interesting email exchange with a reader named Johan who had some excellent questions about Monty Python-esque probability puzzles. The questions he brought up were so thought-provoking that I decided to dedicate an entire blog post to answering them. Figuring out what’s wrong with Johan’s hypotheticals is an excellent exercise in improving your probabilistic vision. I hope you enjoy it!
Johan writes:
What if you have 4 cups on a table and then you ask your friends to take one coin and put it randomly under one cup while you are looking away. Then you pick one cup secretly not telling anybody (25% of picking right). Then you say to your friends “Ah my misstake! I meant only that there should be 2 cups!” and you remove two cups at random not selecting the one you have secretly selected
Tags: logic, math, Monty Hall, probability, Puzzles
My friends and I went to see The Colbert Report on Monday, April 11. It was really fun! Stephen Colbert looks pretty good in person and he was genuinely witty even when unscripted during the Q&A at the beginning. Although, he did put a few babies on spikes #NotIntendedToBeAFactualStatement. If you look at the pictures below, you’ll notice that we were front and center in the very first row. This is because my friend Lynn is so hot that she was handed a special “white ticket” that got her preferential seating 
Tags: funny, The Colbert Report, TV
About a month ago I decided to start learning the guitar, and here’s where I am so far.
I screwed up the beginning “lamp post” and “the most”, but the second verse onward I think was better. This is one of my favorite songs, and it’s actually pretty easy to play. The hard part is singing at a different beat than the strumming.
Taggy makes your Evernote tags function as you want them to: hierarchically.
“Does only one thing… and does it brilliantly. I won’t say that I was losing sleep over the state of my Evernote tags but I’m certainly happier now they’re organized. Nice job, thanks.” – Simon London
For many people, it’s annoying that searching for a tag in Evernote does not find notes filed under child tags. Taggy solves this problem. Essentially, Taggy iterates over all of your notes, looks at their tags, and auto-tags them with their parent tags as well.
Example tags: food -> dessert -> donuts
Clicking “Hierarchify” will change notes tagged with “donuts” to be tagged with all three: “food, dessert, donuts.” Clicking “Un-Hierarchify” will change notes tagged with “food, dessert, donuts” to be tagged with just “donuts.”
Using this tagging scheme which Taggy creates for you automatically, organizing your tags into a tree structure will make them act that way during searches.
As an avid Evernote user myself, I made this tool to help Evernote work better for me and it has allowed me to be more productive with my notetaking. I hope that it helps you as well!
FYI: This app requires that you have Evernote installed on your Intel Mac with OS X Snow Leopard 10.6+. You can find Evernote for free in the Mac App Store.
If you have any comments or questions about this app, please submit a comment below.
My friend and I were playing chess the other day, and while he was admiring some birds in the park I pulled a fast one and stuck one of my pieces back on the board. Unfortunately, my new-found criminal career was doomed from the start, for he quickly noticed my deception.
“Did you see me out of the corner of your eye?” I asked.
“Yes,” my friend admitted, “but to tell you the truth, I would have known even if I was a complete stranger just passing by.”
I laughed. “Don’t be silly! A stranger wouldn’t even know who’s turn it is, let alone that there is an extra piece on the board.”
“It’s the power of logic, my friend,” he said with a smile. He then proceeded to embark upon the most fascinating journey of deduction that I have ever heard. Twists and turns abounded at every corner! And, at the end, he managed to prove with mathematical precision exactly which piece on the board should, in fact, not have been there.
Before I continue with the story, I urge you to look at the board below and see if you can figure out which piece is the extra piece. Do not assume that my friend and I played smart chess, only that we followed the rules. Also assume that there is only the one error on the board.
Tags: chess, logic, Puzzles, Raymond Smullyan
Every time Apple comes out with a new product there are people who complain about Apple’s “walled garden.” Such was the case with Apple’s new Mac App Store. Just like the App Store on the iPhone, the Mac App Store allows consumers to purchase applications for their Mac computers through an Apple-controlled store. The good part about this is that the Mac App Store is very simple to use, and Apple has proven time and again that “simple” is something that customers value highly. Installing an application takes but a single click, and since every application has to go through Apple’s approval process, there is no danger of downloading viruses or spyware, which is one less thing for the average computer muggle to worry about.
The bad part about this is that it’s Apple’s way or the highway. Apple can and does reject apps from its store for any and all reasons, and sometimes even apparently for no reason. Sometimes previously approved apps get yanked without warning. This offends a lot of people, including myself, because it goes against one of the principles of computing: namely, that I can use my computer to do whatever I wish. Why should Apple get to tell me what I can and can’t do with my own property?
This is an analysis of my game versus International Master Dean Ippolito during his 16-game simultaneous exhibition at the Marshall Chess Club in New York City. Please don’t laugh at how badly I got beaten!
1. Nf3 Nf6 2. d4 d5 3. c4 c6 4. Nc3 Bf5 5. cxd5 cxd5 6. Qb3 b6 7. Bf4 e6 8.e3 Be7 9. Bxb8 Qxb8 10. Bb5+ Kf8 11. Ne5 h6 12. Bc6 g5 13. O-O Bd6 14. Rac1 Bxe5 15. dxe5 Ng4 16. Bxa8 Qxe5 17. g3 h5 18. Ne2 Kg7 19. Bc6 Nf6 20. Qc3 Qd6 21. f4 gxf4 22. Rxf4 Rh6 23. Nd4 Be4 24. Rcf1 Rg6 25. Rxf6 Rxg3+ 26. Kf2 Rg2+ 27. Ke1 Qxh2 28. Rxf7+ Kh6 29. Nf5+ Bxf5 30. Qh8+ Kg5 31. R1xf5+ exf5 32. Qf6+ Kg4 33. Qxf5+ Kh4 34. Qf6+ Rg5 35. Qf4+ Qxf4 36. Rxf4+ Kg3 37. Rd4 Re5 38. Ke2 h4 39. Rxd5 Re7 40. Rg5+ {Black resigns} 1-0
Here’s also a brief live video from the beginning of the exhibition. I’m his 8th opponent in the dark blue shirt. http://www.facebook.com/profile.php?id=834842#!/video/video.php?v=111007125632116
Tags: analysis, chess, club, Dean, exhibition, game, IM, international, Ippolito, logic, Marshall, master, simul, simultaneous
So, I got mugged yesterday for my iPhone 4. Woo, my hazing is complete and I can now officially say that I am a true New Yorker!
Actually, the story has a happy ending. I had just finished a chess tournament at the Marshall Chess Club and was turning the corner of 10th Street onto Fifth Avenue when a guy approached me. It was 7 PM so it was still broad daylight (sunset is at 8 PM) and there were plenty of people milling about. He looked like one of those guys asking for spare change for the subway, so I got ready to ignore him: I had my headphones on and was fiddling with my iPhone so I figured I could walk right past shrugging my shoulders.
He straight up punches me instead! Talk about the element of surprise. It was very sudden, but I basically knew what was happening at that point. Still, I was thinking, “I’m in a nice part of Manhattan, there are people everywhere, it’s not even dusk, surely I’m not getting mugged.” As I was kind of staggering trying to deflect the punches he grabbed my iPhone and took off running. So, I took off after him!
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