Got an e-mail today. Even though Huffman Coding is explained in about half the introductory computer algorithm textbooks out there, someone wants me to write their College thesis for them. Example code and all.
Respected sir
my name is [redacted].I am an indian.I am doing M.tech (CSE)thesis on
data compression techniques,mainly focussing on
Huffman coding and Run length encoding
I got your mail id from your website.
i would be very thankful to you sir if you can help me
in the following topics
I could not get good material and books from my college.
I need the following tiopics
1) general Huffman coding program in java
2) differences between static huffman coding and dynamic huffman coding program
3) RLE program in java
comparisons betwwen RLE and HUffman coding
which one is the best fro comprressing a file
I hope a favourable reply from you sir
Thanking you
yours sincerely
[redacted]
I don't know whether they want me to write it in broken English.
Marissa frets when she sees the gray in my hair and beard. She equates that with old age and she equates that with death. While I try to assure her that I'm not planning on going anywhere, she is not always comforted.
Going on vacation helped. Perhaps after seeing me continuously she realized she could do without me. But after vacation, Chris and I looked for a break.
With the girls at grandma's, my wife and I went on a date. At BD's Mongolian BBQ, my second bowl of food was shrimp marinated with a single tablespoon of red wine.
At that restaurant, you hand the raw ingredients to a [usually male] college student who cooks it in front of you with croquet mallets. With a whiff of my concoction, the hibachinist turned to me and asked if it contained wine. I fessed up. And for the first time in 15 years, I was carded.
I cannot wait to tell Marissa.
Katie was in my car while the DJ announced that an upcoming song was by the Barenaked Ladies. "That's a silly name" she remarked.
Later she added, "I wish it was Horsenaked."
Read this.
What is amazing is that Chinese parents NEVER adopt legally from the orphanages in their towns.
Our family went on vacation to Gatlinburg. Because Katie is a horse nut, we stopped at the Kentucky Horse Park on the way down. Of course we got a stuffed horse for her at the gift shop. The next day we stopped at the Museum of Appalachia. It was nice but it bored two 6-year-olds. My father-in-law would have loved it.
We rented a house for a half week at the northern edge of the Smoky Mountains with the four other families that adopted with us from Maoming China 6 years ago. We came from Connecticut, upstate New York, Louisiana, and Ohio. There were 10 kids (half were 6-year-old Chinese girls) and 10 parents. We were in a five bedroom house. Two laundry rooms and a slowly leaking hot tub. The two babies slept in their parents' room. The 6 older girls slept together in the great room on a patchwork of ajoining air mattresses. (An instant slumber party.) The two brothers slept in the loft. We reminised each night and went sightseeing each day.
The first day, we went to an overpriced aquarium. Claire waved bye-bye to every fish as we passed and we temporarily lost a our camera case. To even up the plushy ratio, Marissa picked out an Eagle Ray. She ignored my suggestion to name it "Eagle Ray Charles." She named it "Stinger" even though it isn't a Sting Ray.
The second day, we convoyed to Dollywood. Oh just shoot me now. The drive to the parking lot was indeterminably long and the wait for the tram to the entrance seemed even longer. Those in farther lots were being served first! When it did arrive at our stop, the tram wrangler(?) in the very back referred to the guests disparagingly in the third person while conversing over the speaker system with the tram driver in the front. Classy. He also bragged how no one ever has to wait more than 15 minutes. A lie by my watch. You don't appreciate how nicely Disneyworld does it until you see how poorly other amusement parks do it by comparison. And we hadn't even entered the park.
After our family spent $142 just to get in the door, some of our group were remarking how close they came to turning around at the entrance. Along the lines of "I would have turned around had I know you wanted to bail too." Too late.
We started with a Veggie Tales show. (Some of the attractions were for meant for Christians only.) There weren't many rides, but along the streets were simple crafts we could do for additional fees. The girls did maybe 5 "carny-quality" rides all day. I did one. Chris, none. We bailed after four hours. The exit was through gift shop. Wouldn't you know. Two more stuffed animals were purchased: a horse (surprise!) and leopard (surprise again!) and we were back on the tram. Chris wanted to get the animals to make up for the good time they didn't have. Arghhhh! We've had a better time at grandma's county fair for a tenth as much.
To wash the crass commercialism from my palate, our family went into the Smoky Mountains National Park. The last major National Park that is still free. We went to the peak and saw a bear cub eating along the road. We took pictures. I felt better.
Our group dispersed in the morning vowing to do it again in two or three years.
On the way home we stayed at the lodge at Cumberland Falls State Park. We went swimming in the afternoon and saw their waterfall in the evening. I have empirical evidence that you can still buy a can of coke from a vending machine for only 50 cents. Life, again, was good.
According to this, I am slightly conservative.
Okay...
During my weeklong bike ride I saw lots of families riding together. I was trying to picture my older daughters on the ride in future years. Children my kids' age are too big for a bugger yet too small to ride on their own. You'd see first graders on the back of pricey tandems or on bike trailers. Picture a 20" kid's bike with its front tire replaced with a pole and yoke. The yoke attaches to the back of a regular bike just below the seat to become a poor man's tandem. Many major bike makers produce them.
For several weekends after I got home from GOBA, I dragged my girls to one bike shop after another to gauge their interest and comparison shop. Ones with derailleurs were running $230-$350. A tad pricey if you're not sure if your kid wants to ride on one. So I hit ebay to see if anyone was selling one they'd outgrown.
I lucked out: a bike store was selling new (in box) Adams trail-a-bike. It was last year's model (only 5 gears) and I got it for half what they normally go for.
It came today and Katie couldn't wait for me to assemble it. I was hoping that she would fit it. I managed to bend I part and had to figure out how to still make use of it. That alone set me back for most of an hour.
A half hour before sunset Katie and I were finally able to get on the bike and pedal to the neighborhood playground. She had a great time. Barely big enough to touch he pedals, she didn't bother to pedal herself. Basically dead weight. It is a little more aerodynamic than the bugger, but with a higher center of gravity. So as Katie shifted back there, it would lurch my bike left and right without warning. It turns out the trailer, even thought it has only one undersized wheel, is heavier than my entire bike. Yikes.
Only 11 more months to the next GOBA.
At the tender age of 41, I am shaving for the first time. Well "wet" shaving to be more exact. For the past 24 years or so, I've used an electric razor almost exclusively. Probably because it was what my dad used when I was growing up.
Earlier this year I received a new 17-blade (ok, slight exaggeration, there are just 4 blades) Quattro razor as a belated Christmas present from someone who works at Schick.
I just put the gift away as my Remington was quicker and I was happy with the shave I was getting from it. Well except lately on the weekends after skipping a day. If a hair grew longer than stubble, my electric razor would mash it down instead of cutting it off. Sorta like trying to push a rope up a drain pipe.
So skipping an electric shave on Saturday meant using a razor blade on Sunday to bat "cleanup" as it were.
After having my Remington's battery barely last a week on GOBA, I decided to switch to a blade fulltime. Conveniently I received a free Xtreme 3 disposable in the mail last month as well.
Ever heard of the adage "a man with two watches never knows the time"? Well I am trying to figure out which is the better razor blade to switch to. So while alternating razors daily, I'm overanalyzing via web searches the relative merits of the Xtreme 3, Quattro, and Gilette's Mach 3. And the various shaving cream options. What I currently find fascinating is that a replacement cartridge blade (without a handle) is more expensive than an entire disposable razor (with the rubberized handle). Twice as expensive in fact. I guess I'll have to test-drive them all. I've ruled out Gilette's new "power" model razor blade. The vabrating handle takes (I kid you not): batteries.
Ah, the power of the Internet: I get to research the life expectancy of a razor blade, and you get to read about my personal grooming habits.