Using R snippets written by other developers can be unendingly maddening.  There are a variety of reasons for this, most of which boil down to a simple issue: most code is written such that a system must be configured in … Continue reading → [Read more...]

Finally, the fog lasting for days went away this morning and the sun comes out. It’s a lovely winter day. After taking a walk after lunch, I feel like doing some math. So, here comes the 25th Euler problem. The … Continue reading → [Read more...]

It’s a lovely day. I took a walk around the campus after lunch. The scene was enjoyable in one deep autumn day. Before the afternoon work, I’d like to spend a few moments on the 24th Euler Problem. A permutation is an ordered arrangement of … Continue reading → [Read more...]

Officially, it’s weekend. I’m solving this 23rd Euler problem just before my supper. A perfect number is a number for which the sum of its proper divisors is exactly equal to the number. For example, the sum of the proper divisors … Continue reading → [Read more...]

Just had my supper. Stomach is full of stewed beef and potato.  I’d like to solve the 22nd Euler problem before tonight work (right, I’ll work late in my office). Using names.txt (right click and ‘Save Link/Target As…’), a 46K text file containing over … Continue reading → [Read more...]

It’s been over one month since my last post on Euler problem 20, when  I was planning to post at least one on either Euler project or visualization. So I am four posts behind; I’ll try to catch up. Tonight, I’ll solve the 21st Euler … Continue reading → [Read more...]

It’s been quite a while since my last post on Euler problems. Today a visitor post his solution to the second problem nicely, which encouraged me to keep solving these problems. Just for fun! 10! = 10 * 9 * … * 3 * 2 * 1 … Continue reading → [Read more...]

China just announced the Diaoyu Islands baselines yesterday (US EST). Take a look at their locations (Clike here for the google map). [Read more...]

I’ve been working overtime last weekend. Although I suffered little from the Monday syndrome, I still need a break. So, I’m back to the Project Euler after days of Olympic data digging. Today, I’m gonna to solve the 19th problem. You are given the following … Continue reading → [Read more...]

After generating a few interactive charts with googleVis, I realized that it’s a great way to visualize numeric data, especially multi-dimentional data. Days ago, my colleague sent me a picture taken by Curiosity from Mars. He was crazy about it … Continue reading → [Read more...]

It’s already midnight. I’m sitting near my bed. And before going to bed, I’ll type my last post on London 2012 Olympics. Olympic games are not only individual competitions, but also the reflections of countries’ strength. This is one reason why Olympics data … Continue reading → [Read more...]

Alan brought up the suspicion to Ye’s world record in women 400 metres individual medley. And I quote: “Her last split caused controversy (deep suspicion of doping) as she swam it faster than the fastest male swimmer. I wonder how commonly this … Continue reading → [Read more...]

I’ve been going through the medal statistics in London 2012 Olympics recently. I was planning to present some extra charts, such as medal-per-milli-population or medal-vs-GDP. However, it’s a little boring to present the same kind of charts. Thus, I’d like to look into some particular … Continue reading → [Read more...]

It’s almost midnight. Before I go sleeping, I’d like to post the chart about ”medals per event” on 2012 Olympics. As some visitors suggested, I searched for the competition information for each athlete. Finally, thankful to the mighty Guardian datablog, I find the … Continue reading → [Read more...]

It’s the weekend. I just woke up from a nap. Got my mind freshed. I’d like to continue with my digging into the Olympics medal results. Today, I cited the number of participants from each country (see wikipedia). I want to see how … Continue reading → [Read more...]

Folks at WSJ were funny. They gave another medal list of London 2012 Olympic Games, not for the first place but for the last place. They replaced Gold, Silver and Bronze with  Lead, Tin and Zinc. No matter who came up to this idea, it’s … Continue reading → [Read more...]

The 18th Euler problem is sorta a route finding problem. It has occupied my mind for two days. Finally I came up to a clever solution. Find the maximum total from top to bottom of the triangle below: 75 95 64 17 … Continue reading → [Read more...]

The 2012 Olympic Games officially ended this Sunday in London. Although I missed most of the games, I was still entertaining myself with some hilarious news, such as Thomas’s re-diving. So much fun. I would remember this for years :) Games ended. … Continue reading → [Read more...]

It has been two weeks since my last post on the 16th Euler problem. Now, since I just need a break after supper, I’m coming the 17th problem. If the numbers 1 to 5 are written out in words: one, … Continue reading → [Read more...]

The 16th problem is another big-number problem: 215 = 32768 and the sum of its digits is 3 + 2 + 7 + 6 + 8 = 26. What is the sum of the digits of the number 21000? This … Continue reading → [Read more...]