My name is Javier Martinez and I’m a 26 yr old web developer in Los Angeles, CA. I'll be using my blog to share things I learn as a developer, and things I find interesting as a person.
// June 29th, 2009 // No Comments » // Project Euler
2520 is the smallest number that can be divided by each of the numbers from 1 to 10 without any remainder.
What is the smallest number that is evenly divisible by all of the numbers from 1 to 20?
// June 22nd, 2009 // No Comments » // Project Euler
A palindromic number reads the same both ways. The largest palindrome made from the product of two 2-digit numbers is 9009 = 91 
99.
Find the largest palindrome made from the product of two 3-digit numbers.
// June 17th, 2009 // No Comments » // Gadgets, Technology
This is for all of us who navigate our PS3 with the PS3 controller to watch movies, as we all know, it’s an awkward way to go about this process. Granted that a USB remote seems to work ok, but It’s still no ideal. Well Logitec decided to give this one a try with their Harmony PS3 Remote Adapter.
Why is it better than controllers? Well here we go:
The video below was not made by me and it is part 2 of an “unboxing” series of 2 video by some guy. I didn’t post part one of the video because it sucks, all he does is waste internet space by unboxing the device.
How does it work:
Is this device imperfect in any ways? Yes, the Harmony Adapter is a PS3 specific Bluetooth device, so you can’t use it on any other devices, even if they support Bluetooth. Also it is only available through Amazon.com
How much will you have to shell out? Only $60, while that may be considered slightly expensive, it’s worth it. Some other remote controls will run for a similar price anyways.
// June 17th, 2009 // 1 Comment » // Funny, Newsworthy
Joseph Carnevale, a North Carolina college student took a couple construction barrels and assembled a “barrel monster” that look like it is thumbing down a ride. Joseph was arrested and charged with larceny and destruction of property, both misdemeanors, and he’s scheduled to appear in court next month.
The construction company is not pressing charges and even wants Joseph to build a replica for them. Maybe because the stunt is giving them publicity.
“We’ve had a fair amount of vandalism, but never anyone turn it into art,” Company President Steven Hussey said. “I actually thought it was pretty neat.”
Hussey said the value of the publicity his company has received is well above the $365 cost of the traffic barrels that Carnevale used.
Carnevale said he’s weighing Hussey’s offer to reconstruct the monster for the company’s offices in Climax, N.C., possibly for pay. Meanwhile, at least three Facebook support groups have formed to support Carnevale, including “Don’t Charge Joseph Carnevale,” boasting more than 800 members.
// June 15th, 2009 // 2 Comments » // Project Euler
The prime factors of 13195 are 5, 7, 13 and 29.
What is the largest prime factor of the number 600851475143 ?
// June 12th, 2009 // No Comments » // Funny, Jokes
A school teacher injured his back and had to wear a plaster cast around the upper part of his body. It fit under his shirt and was not noticeable at all. On the first day of the term, still with the cast under his shirt, he found himself assigned to the toughest students in school. Walking confidently into the rowdy classroom, he opened the window as wide as possible and then busied himself with desk work. When a strong breeze made his tie flap, he took the desk stapler and stapled the tie to his chest.
Discipline was not a problem from that day forth!
// June 11th, 2009 // No Comments » // Technology
Photo courtesy of the University of Southern California
If you thought that your Sonicare toothbrush was great, wait till you see this new bad ass way to brush you teeth in action. (Drum roll) I present, a way to clean your teeth with fire…from a little tiny blowtorch. Scientists at the University of Southern California (USC) School of Dentistry and USC Viterbi School of Engineering have developed a pencil-sized plume of plasma on the tip of a probe that actually stays at room temperature. How this bad boy works is by destroying biofilms, complex colonies of bacteria, that help protect bacteria in the mouth from conventional antibiotics. It does this using plasma, the fourth state of matter, which consists of electrons, ions and neutral species and is the most common form found in space, stars and lightning. Except that the plasma used here is safe to touch and only increases the tooth’s temperature by 5 degrees in ten minutes.
So there you have it, finally a way to brush your teeth and feel like a bad ass doing it.
// June 10th, 2009 // No Comments » // Apple, Technology
iPhone Specs
// June 10th, 2009 // No Comments » // Programming
Once upon a time, unbeknown to each other, the “Automated Accounting Applications Association” and the “Consolidated Computerized Capital Corporation” decided that they needed the identical program to perform a certain service.
Automated hired a programmer-analyst, Alan, to solve their problem.
Meanwhile Consolidated decided to ask a newly hired entry-level programmer, Charles, to tackle the job, to see if he was as good as he pretended.
Alan, having had experience in difficult programming projects, decided to use the PQR structured design methodology. With this in mind he asked his department manager to assign another three programmers as a programming team. Then the team went to work, churning our preliminary reports and problem analysis.
Back at Consolidated, Charles spent some time thinking about the problem. His fellow employees noticed that Charles often sat with his feet on the desk, drinking coffee. He was occasionally seen at his computer terminal, but his office mate could tell from the rhythmic striking of keys that he was actually playing Space Invaders.
By now, the team at Automated was starting to write code. The programmers were spending about half their time writing and compiling code, and the rest of their time in conference, discussing the interfaces between the various modules.
His office mate noticed that Charles had finally given up on Space Invaders. Instead he now divided his time between drinking coffee with his feet on the table, and scribbling on little scraps of paper. His scribbling didn’t seem to be Tic Tac Toe, but it didn’t exactly make much sense, either.
Two months have gone by. The team at Automated finally releases an implementation timetable. In another two months they will have a test version of the program. Then a two month period of testing and enhancing should yield a completed version.
The manager of Charles has by now [become] tired of seeing him goof off. He decides to confront him. But as he walks into Charles’s office, he is surprised to see Charles busy entering code at his terminal. He decides to postpone the confrontation, so makes some small talk then leaves. However, he begins to keep a closer watch on Charles, so that when the opportunity presents itself he can confront him. Not looking forward to an unpleasant conversation, he is pleased to notice that Charles seems to be busy most of the time. He has even been seen to delay his lunch, and to stay after work two or three days a week.
At the end of three months, Charles announces he has completed the project. He submits a 500 line program. The program appears to be clearly written, and when tested it does everything required in the specifications. In fact it even has a few additional convenience features which might significantly improve the usability of the program. The program is put into test, and, except for one quickly corrected oversight, performs well.
The team at Automated has by now completed two of the four major modules required for their program. These modules are now undergoing testing while the other modules are completed.
After another three weeks, Alan announces that the preliminary version is ready one week ahead of schedule. He supplies a list of the deficiencies that he expects to correct. The program is placed under test. The users find a number of bugs and deficiencies, other than those listed. As Alan explains, this is no surprise. After all this is a preliminary version in which bugs were expected.
After about two more months, the team has completed its production version of the program. It consists of about 2,500 lines of code. When tested it seems to satisfy most of the original specifications. It has omitted on or two features, and is very fussy about the format of its input data. However the company decides to install the program. They can always train their data-entry staff to enter data in the strict format required. The program is handed over to some maintenance programmers to eventually incorporate the missing features.
SEQUEL:
At first Charles’s supervisor was impressed. But as he read through the source code, he realized that the project was really much simpler than he had originally thought. It now seemed apparent that this was not much of a challenge even for a beginning programmer.
Charles did produce about 5 lines of code per day. This is perhaps a little above average. However, considering the simplicity of the program, it was nothing exceptional. Also his supervisor remembered his two months of goofing off.
At his next salary review Charles was given a raise which was about half the inflation over the period. He was not given a promotion. After about a year he became discouraged and left Consolidated.
At Automated, Alan was complimented for completing his project on schedule. His supervisor looked over the program. With a few minutes of thumbing through he saw that the company standards about structured programming were being observed. He quickly gave up attempting to read the program however; it seemed quite incomprehensible. He realized by now that the project was really much more complex that he had originally assumed, and he congratulated Alan again on his achievement.
The team had produced over 3 lines of code per programmer per day. This was about average, but, considering the complexity of the problem, could be considered to be exceptional. Alan was given a hefty pay raise, and promoted to Systems Analyst as a reward for his achievement.
// June 9th, 2009 // No Comments » // Microsoft, Technology
Even though Microsoft’s new search engine is still in its beta phase, they know it’s all about marketing. Bing is a revamped version of their previous Live Search that boasts a plethora of features and is being called the “decision engine” instead of a “search engine”. Among the features is the way it categorizes image searches into groups by size, layout, color and style. The primary goal of Bing seems to be to simplify searches and results to make you make the best desicion faster. Bing was initially officially unveiled on May 28, and it aimed at helping consumers make better decisions. It is currently being rolled out internationally, and will be fully available on June 3.
