Singularity on the Plane

The procedure seems to change every semester. Once it was on Kinanti. Once it was in BNI. This time it’s in Bank Mandiri.

I arrived there around 10 AM and got number 56. I needed to wait until my number is called by the female worker. The currently called numbers were in the 200s, and simple inquiry revealed that the number will go to 500 before going back to 1. I was additionally told that mine should be called around an hour later (which means around 11 AM).

So I left to browse the web. I took note that I left at 10:18 and the last called number was 285. I arrived back at 10.56 and the last called number was 391.

I deliberately wrote all those info because I wanted to predict when I would be called. After finding a seat, I started to calculate.

The average rate of people processed during my absence was (391 - 285) people / (56 - 18) minutes, which is around 2.789 people/minute.

Let us assume that the processing rate is constant. My number is equivalent to 556, so I would be called around ((556 - 391) / 2.789) minutes later, which is around 59 minutes later. Because the time was 10:56, that means I will be called around 11:55.

I waited while practising writing some kanji. I got called at 11:57. Pretty close, eh? (compare with the 11 AM prediction which was pulled out of thin air)

Windows isn’t Windows if it doesn’t behave crazy from time to time.

OK, so I installed Japanese fonts (for an obvious purpose). I also installed Japanese IME so that I could input Japanese in a sane way. Last, I set “Language for non-Unicode programs” to Japanese so that I could activate IME on console programs (”Regional and Language Options” -> “Advanced”).

See, I did all those Japanese-related tweaking, but never did I order Windows to set its user interface to Japanese (and I couldn’t see any way to do it). But this is what I get:

I don’t know what caused it. When started, the program was fully in English. When the menu went crazy, other programs were also still fully English.

Oh, and previously I’ve observed half of my Notepad’s menu turning into Japanese. A precious moment, but I delayed taking a screenshot until the computer went down (electricity outage or Windows crash).

Or perhaps Windows has an advanced detection technology that could detect my kanji level. I’ve learned all kanji in the above screenshot. Maybe as I improve, more menu items will turn into Japanese.

It’s the first day of 2007 and PLN is kind enough to give power outage as a new-year present. Well, let us passionately welcome another year full of power outage!

(Considering all the power outage in 2006 and the lack of UPS, it’s actually a wonder that my computer is still alive. Could it survive 2007?)

Yes, it’s going to start soon… Therefore don’t expect any posts until January 15th (2007 of course).

However don’t expect that there will be no posts either… I might be naughty and blog amidst the finals…

If you expect nothing from somebody you are never disappointed. - Sylvia Plath

When I passed “SD percobaan” this morning, I couldn’t resist the foods sold at the front gates (it was almost 12, and I was extremely hungry). So I went there and bought 2 lehers (lekers? forgot the name) which were put in a paper container.

The paper container was made from a used math book page, or a copy of it. I won’t talk about its hygiene but about a problem in it:

Simplify: a³ x a² : a⁴

It was a “problems” page so there were no answers. However I could guess that the answer deemed “correct” by the book is a^3+2-4 = a¹ = a. That is also the answer that most, if not all teachers would give. However that’s wrong!

First, looking at other problems on the page, they use negatives (-13, -8, etc.) and fractionals (3/2, 4/9, etc.). So it is safe to say that the variable a is a rational number (as opposed to, i.e., a natural number). Now, remember that the set of rational numbers contains 0, and this is where we need to be careful.

If a is nonzero, the expression can be simplified to a^3+2-4 = a. However if a is zero, division by a⁴ = 0 cannot be done so the result is undefined. Therefore the correct answer is:

a, if a is nonzero
undefined, if a is zero

Saying that the answer is unconditionally a is the same as saying that 0³ x 0² : 0⁴ = 0 which is of course wrong.

As a tangential side note, I once encountered a multiple-choice national (UAN) math test question about integrals. Because the problem question maker overlooked division by zero, none of the answers were correct. A math question then becomes a moral question: Is it a sin knowing that an answer is wrong, but answer it anyway because the question maker would probably regard it as correct? Indeed, ignorance is bliss.

I found a poem on the first page of a wedding photobook album. It’s not printed into the album itself, but added by the documentarist (for the lack of a better word). Here it is:

Love blossoms in the hearts
of those who give and share.
And like alovely flower,
it brings gladnes
everywhare

OMG typos! “alovely” should be “a lovely”, “gladnes” should be “gladness”, and “everywhare” should be “everywhere”. That’s like, possibly the worst thing that could happen to someone’s marriage! Be careful in choosing a documentarist (this one is done by “Saluyu”).

But thank God “the” is not mistyped into “teh“. Else the couple will be really “pwned“!

After holiday, it’s mid semester test. The last test day is November 10th. Probably no real blog until then…

I’m in holiday now… Probably this blog also…

(It’s still possible that I will blog randomly)

じゃぁぁ…

This morning (September 15th), I went to SIC. When I was heading to the entrance, I saw three Asian foreigners. They were tall and wore black suits.

I didn’t really care, but when I passed them, one of them spoke something that was recognizably Japanese:

何でも。。。

The sound was heavy and most important of all, authentic! Hearing it spoken by a native speaker just some inches away was a really gratifying experience.

(Written on 11:22 PM 9/6/2006 GMT+7)

The sliced bread I usually buy from Mirota Kampus is now Rp. 3,000. Previously it was Rp. 2,700.