14 Dec 2008, 11:58 p.m.

A Second Cheat Sheet: the Sine Rule and the Cosine Rule

More adventures in MST121: Using Mathematics. B3: Modelling with Vectors took an unexpected turn into matters of triangle geometry - and not the more beginner-friendly right-angled variety either - which left me getting to grips with the Sine Rule and the Cosine Rule.

Much like my experiences with Sigma Notation, the principles are straightforward, but I kept failing to spot which equations to apply.

So I've knocked up a further cheat sheet. Here are the files:

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Posted by Simon in Maths and Open University | 2 comments
10 Dec 2008, 4:48 p.m.

My First Contribution to Fifteensquared

I'm pleased to mention that earlier on today, I posted my first contribution to Fifteensquared.net. The post in question is Independent 6,912 by Dac.

For the uninitiated, Fifteensquared is kind of like a blog for cryptic crossword enthusiasts. Several invited bloggers post solutions and explanations for some of the day's main crosswords, and then we all have a bit of a natter about it.

It's gratifyingly nerdy, and is quite high profile within the cryptic crossword world, with many of the setters and editors visiting and commenting regularly.

So I'm pleased that my first post wasn't roundly jeered by the regulars. I'll be posting Independent solutions about once a week from now on, and I'm sure there will be tougher mornings to come!

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Posted by Simon in Crosswords | 2 comments
5 Dec 2008, 11:38 p.m.

Copyright/License Comment Blocks Considered Harmful

Peter Griffin - What Really Grinds my Gears?

Rant alert. You know what really grinds my gears?

It's those epically long license/copyright notice comment blocks with which some developers, particularly those behind open source PHP projects, insist on prepending source code files.

You've all seen this kind of thing. I'm using Wall4PHP to illustrate my point, but they're by no means the only offenders.

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Posted by Simon in Programming | 0 comments