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Showing posts with the label selection randomness

Dealing With Bugs Using Impossible Tests.

“Muggins! 2 for 15. My points!” My son shouts in my face. I frown and re-examine my cards, sure enough, I’ve missed a card combination. I scramble for a response… “Err... ACC Rule 10 sub-section 1 part (b) states I have to be informed prior to the game that the rule is in operation!” He’s not impressed, But sounding confident is my only hope here. I think the inclusion of the rule details has made him think twice about arguing. (It's the only rule I know off by heart, and it's a lifesaver. I might even get it tattooed on my arm.) A typical cribbage board and pegs, to help with scoring. For the uninitiated, we were playing Cribbage. An old English card game, now popular around the world. Cribbage has an interesting system of scoring, that you progressively learn the more you play. The Muggins rule my son referred to is an optional rule whereby if you underscore your hand the opponent can claim those points. As such it's become a small obsession of mine to lea

Random text tool

I recently blogged about some of the tools I use , and how some are so useful I keep using them. As I mentioned, randomness is pretty useful, and I have tools to help me generate random text. A few of my readers requested a copy of my simple random text generating script, so I've decided to open it up for everyone to use and test. It will have bugs, like all software, please send details and I'll try and fix them. If you are interested in what UTF-8 is and what all that Unicode stuff is about, there is a great article by Joel Spolsky that explains all, and the wikipedia page is ok . To use it... First download the script, its on GitHub . The script is fairly short and is all in one file. You don't have to 'install it', its not a GEM. Second, make sure you have Ruby version 1.9 or greater. You need version 1.9, because Ruby didn't handle UTF-8 well in older versions. Thirdly run the script like this: ruby fuzzutf8.rb That will give you some usag

Tools

Do you ever examine what you carry around with you every day, and wonder if you actually use it? For example, in my pockets I've got a 'smart' phone, wallet (credit & debit cards, cash and ID), keys, Travelcard ( Oyster ) and some coins. Every now and then something gets added, if its unlucky it stays. Over the years, I've noticed, that the criteria for being kept is usually convenience or enablement. That is, the items that don't get chucked or deposited somewhere about my home are usually 'tools' that make other 'things' easier like a smart-phone - I can just look up something or text someone at any time. I could just wait until I got back to my office, or see the person later but it can be easier to just act in the moment, and do it there and then. Enablement items, are things that mean I -can- do things, that without, I'm stuck. For example: door keys. The smart phone fits into this category also, if I want to meet up with someone at sh