Jared Moran

Nonlinear Relationships

Fri, 12 Mar 2010 10:09:00 -0800

An interesting piece on a pair of mathematical penpals - a Cornell professor and his high school math teacher.

Math is about playfulness. It’s a kind of art: It’s about expressing yourself. A lot of people don’t get that, including many teachers, who don’t really understand the subject. To them, it’s about following rules. You have to follow this algorithm or this procedure.

They’re also featured on an episode of Radiolab titled “Numbers”.

And this is where I stole that last joke from :)

How can you tell if a mathematician’s an extrovert?

Fri, 12 Mar 2010 09:53:36 -0800

He looks at your shoes when he’s talking to you.

They’re all working so hard on their final projects. Or...

Thu, 11 Mar 2010 20:15:00 -0800

They’re all working so hard on their final projects.

Or intensely checking facebook.

Dear Meg, You get me. Mountain of hugs,Jared

Thu, 11 Mar 2010 14:11:00 -0800

Dear Meg,

You get me.

Mountain of hugs,
Jared

Check it out everyone, I made it!

Thu, 11 Mar 2010 09:34:00 -0800

Check it out everyone, I made it!

The Rasmussen My building’s sign is back in action!

Wed, 10 Mar 2010 22:26:00 -0800

The Rasmussen

My building’s sign is back in action!

This new life is flying by. I’ve gone through a lot of changes over the last couple months. I...

Wed, 10 Mar 2010 16:40:00 -0800

This new life is flying by.

I’ve gone through a lot of changes over the last couple months. I became single again, started a new job at Instrument, and returned to teaching at the Art Institute. Shaved my beard too.

Now it’s March and there’s more change on the way. My students - or Padawans as they like to be called - start working on their final projects tomorrow. How is it week 9 already?! In a few weeks I’m teaching a different class for the Graphic Design department, which means an entire new batch of lesson plans and homework assignments. It’s all worth it though ;)

And to top it all off, Instrument is moving to our new office this weekend! Pictures will be coming as I already know this space is incredible.

So much change, so little time to process it all and keep the stress/anxiety levels at a minimum. That’s what my guitar is for, and it’s why you’ll find me out drinking Friday night.

“Mario’s Closet” Art Print by Glen Brogan

Wed, 10 Mar 2010 10:17:54 -0800

“Mario’s Closet” Art Print by Glen Brogan

malty: I think Otters are my power animal. They are basically...

Tue, 09 Mar 2010 17:20:03 -0800

malty:

I think Otters are my power animal. They are basically just like me. Reasons: Adorable, loves the water, oily coat (I’m Italian), eats off belly, short limbs and (according to this picture) can rock hats.

I’ve always thought the same about myself. I’m an oily Italian who likes the water. If otters like pizza then it’s definitely a match.

Although I don’t have short limbs. Hmm.

ronghorse: ESG-“Dance” Can’t get enough of that bass...

Tue, 09 Mar 2010 10:48:38 -0800

ronghorse:

ESG-“Dance”

Can’t get enough of that bass line. Gets me every time.

Panic Blog » The Panic Status Board HTML/CSS: Neven says,...

Tue, 09 Mar 2010 09:55:42 -0800

Panic Blog » The Panic Status Board

HTML/CSS: Neven says, “This baby is all WebKit candy. The only images here are the icons. The rounded corners, the gradients, the animation – all CSS. Learn -webkit-transform and love it!

Happy Birthday Kate! Somebody get this lady some whiskey. (via...

Tue, 09 Mar 2010 09:14:57 -0800

Happy Birthday Kate!

Somebody get this lady some whiskey.

(via jared moran)

Disc Golf, Week 2 Shot a +22 yesterday. Heh, getting...

Mon, 08 Mar 2010 17:47:00 -0800

Disc Golf, Week 2

Shot a +22 yesterday. Heh, getting better!

Mr. Lundy, I’m hoping to spread the disc love down your way in California. Ahem, ahem.

High-End Hemp Speakers Are All the Buzz And the dropped...

Mon, 08 Mar 2010 16:07:45 -0800

High-End Hemp Speakers Are All the Buzz

And the dropped “d”?

“It just sounded better,” he says with a shrug. “It’s a ’70s thing.”

Well I’m sold. That’s all I needed to hear.

Yes, cuter than a bunny dressed up as Sherlock Holmes smoking a bubble pipe.
You are correct.

Mon, 08 Mar 2010 15:21:09 -0800

Then it’s settled. Jared: 1, Bunnies: 0

I win :)

You are the cutest thing in the world.

Mon, 08 Mar 2010 14:35:51 -0800

Cuter than a bunny dressed up as Sherlock Holmes smoking a bubble pipe? Close call I’d say.

Oh anonymous… Thanks ;)

Student Loan #1 - R.I.P.

Mon, 08 Mar 2010 14:20:44 -0800

It’s been a hell of a ride, my expensive little friend. I’d be lying if I said I’m sad to see you go. Now to take care of your much larger, much more expensive brother. FUUUUU.

It was my goal to wipe out at least one major school loan before I hit 30. Done and done. Clearing debt is the BEST.

nullisnotzero: POWERFUL The backstory for this one might be...

Mon, 08 Mar 2010 11:34:00 -0800

nullisnotzero:

POWERFUL

The backstory for this one might be too deep to get into but I’ll try to fill it in and get it right.

Back at RIT, dalas and Kevin recorded what’s probably the funniest thing Kevin has ever done for Jakob Lodwick’s (and others) show The Ginch. All improvised, and the raw footage is around 1 hour. The tape has been in Mr. Lodwick’s possession for years and dalas just recently got his hands on the original tape. It’s just as funny as it was 8 years ago. Hooooly shit, Kev.

So instead of just letting Kevin have his shining moment of glory, Cory decides to step in and take ownership of the tape, only to do what you see in this video.

Spite is a very powerful motivator within our friendships.

We’re still friends, right!?

PS - That’s me behind the camera, giggling.

Mansterpiece Theatre

Fri, 05 Mar 2010 10:55:52 -0800

Jared: people are still pissed at comcast for taking the games off the air. that's some bullshit
Jesse: ehhh, whatever
Jared: imagine if your favorite gay community theater cable access show was pulled from the airwaves
Jesse: dude, that'd be awful
Jared: i know dude
Jared: Mansterpiece Theatre
Jesse: hahahaha!

The Fisher–Yates shuffle

Thu, 04 Mar 2010 11:55:00 -0800

The Fisher–Yates shuffle:

While updating a site our shop created for Google, I needed to find a way to randomize a finite set of items. Little did I know that while performing a typical random sort on an array may certainly create a randomized set of results, the results are biased.

The typical, lazy random sort works like so:

function RandomSort (a,b) { return (0.5 - Math.random()); }

But if your goal is to reach a truly normalized and equal distribution of results, this method is flawed as it will always favor at least one member of your finite set. For a better explanation, read this.

The fix is to implement an algorithm that works essentially the same way as picking cards from a hat: you randomly choose one member from the set, remove it from the set, decrease the range of your set by 1 and repeat until you reach the last member of your set. This is what the Fisher-Yates shuffle is all about.

Here’s a javascript implementation of the more modern Durstenfeld algorithm:

function arrayShuffle(aArray) { var mTemp,j,i=aArray.length; while (i) { j = Math.floor(Math.random() * i); mTemp = aArray[--i]; aArray[i] = aArray[j]; aArray[j] = mTemp;} }

I tested this over 1,000 10,000 and 100,000 iterations and the results were essentially the same. The variation over all the results was the was less than 10%. BAM!

So there you have it. If you ever need a truly random permutation of a finite set where the results are equally distributed, this is the way to go.

Jared Moran

Nonlinear Relationships

How can you tell if a mathematician’s an extrovert?

They’re all working so hard on their final projects. Or...

Dear Meg, You get me. Mountain of hugs,Jared

Check it out everyone, I made it!

The Rasmussen My building’s sign is back in action!

This new life is flying by. I’ve gone through a lot of changes over the last couple months. I...

“Mario’s Closet” Art Print by Glen Brogan

malty: I think Otters are my power animal. They are basically...

ronghorse: ESG-“Dance” Can’t get enough of that bass...

Panic Blog » The Panic Status Board HTML/CSS: Neven says,...

Happy Birthday Kate! Somebody get this lady some whiskey. (via...

Disc Golf, Week 2 Shot a +22 yesterday. Heh, getting...

High-End Hemp Speakers Are All the Buzz And the dropped...

Yes, cuter than a bunny dressed up as Sherlock Holmes smoking a bubble pipe. You are correct.

You are the cutest thing in the world.

Student Loan #1 - R.I.P.

nullisnotzero: POWERFUL The backstory for this one might be...

Mansterpiece Theatre

The Fisher–Yates shuffle

Yes, cuter than a bunny dressed up as Sherlock Holmes smoking a bubble pipe.
You are correct.