Yankee Hacker

The Tea Potty

2011-11-30T09:32:00.000-05:00

Sometimes, I think my country may be going down the toilet. At times like these, it's important to remember one of the big reasons: The Tea Potty

Please take a moment to vote the shirt up!

Good bye, Steve Jobs

2011-10-05T22:10:00.001-04:00

I am sad, and I don't even like Apple.

Haggling for fair price on a Toyota Sienna

2011-09-19T22:41:00.000-04:00

I purchased a new minivan a couple months ago. I hate buying cars. The whole process seems very confrontational. To speak in terms of 7 Habits, it feels very win-lose with me being the loser. That is probably why I put off making the purchase for so long. I am happy to say that I actually nailed it this time. I do not believe I took the dealer to the cleaners, but I feel good about what I paid and thing I negotiated well. I ended up paying $12,000 for a $17,000 car. Here's how:

My wife did a lot of research about minivans and narrowed us down to Siennas and Odysseys. By limiting the "serious" search to those two the search space became tractable.
I shopped at the end of the month. The dealer specifically referenced this as we were going back and forth, in that he wanted to make the sale before the end of the month.
I researched the prices of cars the night before, so I knew the internet price prior to stepping on the dealership. I do not know if they would have tried the higher price if I didn't know, but knowing the price on the web took the first $1000 off immediately.

I enumerated the available cars in our area and graphed the mileage vs. the price:

Car		Year	Miles	Price	Town	Dealer
Sienna	LE	1999	87391	$8,765	Burlington-ish	Herb Chambers
Sienna	LE	2004	79136	$11,763	Woburn	Woburn Toyota
Sienna	LE	2004	77313	$12,686	Woburn	Woburn Toyota
Sienna	XLE	2004	87501	$12,889	Burlington-ish	Herb Chambers
Sienna		2007	74353	$13,997	Framingham	Direct Auto Mall
Sienna	XLE	2004	96191	$14,555	Lexington	Lexington Toyota
Sienna		2006	76846	$14,597	Framingham	Direct Auto Mall
Sienna	CE	2008	83783	$14,986	Woburn	Woburn Toyota
Sienna		2005	59732	$14,988	Woburn	Woburn Toyota
Sienna		2007	63706	$14,997	Framingham	Direct Auto Mall
Sienna	XLE	2006	88967	$15,678	Burlington-ish	Herb Chambers
Sienna	LE	2006	51593	$15,953	Woburn	Woburn Toyota
Sienna	LE	2006	80134	$15,995	Tewksbury	Tewksbury Toyota
Sienna	LE	2007	61517	$16,988	Woburn	Woburn Toyota
Sienna	CE	2007	57668	$17,317	Burlington-ish	Herb Chambers
Sienna	LE	2008	68134	$18,378	Burlington-ish	Herb Chambers
Sienna		2008	53970	$19,222	Lexington	Lexington Toyota
Sienna	LE	2008	54830	$19,730	Woburn	Woburn Toyota
Sienna		2008	65614	$19,877	Burlington-ish	Herb Chambers
Sienna	LE	2009	49274	$19,987	Burlington-ish	Herb Chambers
Sienna		2008	63053	$19,995	Tewksbury	Tewksbury Toyota
Sienna	LE	2007	57863	$20,996	Hyannis	Hyannis Toyota
Sienna		2009	36132	$21,322	Burlington-ish	Herb Chambers
Sienna	LE	2009	44968	$22,487	Burlington-ish	Herb Chambers
Sienna	LE	2010	33505	$22,679	Hyannis	Hyannis Toyota
Sienna	XLE	2007	42937	$23,782	Burlington-ish	Herb Chambers
Sienna	XLE	2008	63772	$23,999	Lowell	Lannan Chevrolet
Sienna		2008	40786	$26,588	Burlington-ish	Herb Chambers
Sienna		2008	80244	$27,634	Burlington-ish	Herb Chambers
Sienna		2011	25508	$28,566	Burlington-ish	Herb Chambers
Sienna	XLE-L	2008	37135	$29,834	Burlington-ish	Herb Chambers
Sienna	XLE	2007	58888	$31,255	Burlington-ish	Herb Chambers
Sienna		2008	19025	$31,255	Burlington-ish	Herb Chambers
Sienna		2004	96708	?	Woburn	Woburn Toyota

This enabled me to to draw a "best fit" line and point to where the price for certain cars should be at certain mileages. The scientists among you may notice some problems with the graph, but I believe it still sends the right message. By pointing out that the price for my car was on a peak, I had some clear math to get another $4000 off.

Probably the most important is that I was willing to walk away. I made it very clear that I did not care if we bought a particular car at a particular time. I did not try to act like I didn't care, I really didn't care. That takes work.

Of course, this doesn't work for every dealer or every car. I could not have used my nifty graph to negotiate a price down if the price was one of the local minima. Also, the graph only allowed me to pull the price down to where it should be. I didn't get a "steal" on the car. I did walk away feeling good about it, which is worth a lot in my book.

Day9's Starcraft 2 mechanics tips

2011-09-17T15:17:00.000-04:00

Starcraft came out the year I started college. I spent a significant portion of my time as an undergraduate playing, particularly during my freshman year. A friend of mine that lived down the hall had such mad skills that he ranged toward the top of the ladder. I stunk, but still had a fun time. Flash forward to 2010, when Starcraft 2 came out. My time for playing is significantly more limited, but I still enjoy the game. I also still really stink. I mostly play the campaign and co-op with my brothers, but occasionally I swallow my pride for some ladder play in the bronze league.

I looked for a Starcraft podcast to listen to in an effort to improve my game a bit. I found Starcast. While the episodes do not maintain the production and host quality I expect from TWiT netcasts, it is a fun low-key show with good information spread here and there. The hosts pointed me at a gold-mine (or mineral-mine, if you will) of tips in Day[9]'s daily podcast. I do not particularly like the speaking style of Sean Plott (a.k.a. Day[9]), but the content is pure Starcraft gold (or mineral, if you will). Every player should watch his newbie mechanics episodes: 257 and 261.

This list contains a summary of the mechanics he emphasizes:

Click on things instead of area select
Don't scroll your screen with the mouse
Use hotkeys, including groups
Use screen hotkeys
Click on minimap
Watch the minimap, not your main screen
No click spam, just accuracy
Establish patterns and develop habits
Tap (hotkeys without moving screen)
Move slices of your army instead singles
Always have building structures building things
Never get ahead 500 minerals

So if you just started Starcraft: Good luck, have fun, and I hope that helps. If you have been playing a while, got any silver-bullet tips to share? Keep an eye out for me on battle.net as Zorgum.

"Resurrected" to mortality

2011-09-05T10:09:00.002-04:00

The issue at hand is that the "Resurrection" entry in the LDS Bible Dictionary must be wrong because of Hebrews 9:27. Specifically, man can only die once and can therefore not be restored to mortality after death. The corollary to this is that anybody who believes otherwise is a nincompoop. I will be playing the role of nincompoop today.

There are many scriptures which explain that Christ resurrected first. Acts 26:22-23 says that Christ "should be the first that should rise from the dead." 1 Corinthians 15:19-23 describes Christ as "the firstfruits of them that slept." Colossians 1:18 described Christ as "the firstborn from the dead," while Revelation 1:5 calls Him "the first begotten of the dead." Seems pretty clear to me, but I must be misunderstanding something about Hebrews 9:27.

Hebrews 9:27 states "And as it is appointed unto men once to die, but after this the judgement." That does seem a bit confusing. I interpret the "once" to apply to the "appointed," but I can see where the other interpretation comes from. A good friend of mine who majored in English Language Linguistics and studied Early Modern English agrees with my interpretation, but there are others who see it the other way.

A drastic approach would be to discount the letter to the Hebrews. It is always dangerous to get theology from wikipedia: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Authorship_of_the_Pauline_epistles#Hebrews. Plus, the afformentioned LDS Bible Dictionary insinuates that the letter did come from Paul. So the letter to the Hebrews remains cannon.

Is the Bible infallible? Certainly not. Consider the two conflicting accounts of Paul's vision: Acts 9:7 and Acts 22:9. There are also conflicting accounts of Judas' death: Matt 27:5 and Acts 1:18. When we start getting into contradictory interpretations (such as the current subject of this discussion), the list grows by leaps and bounds.

Consider the experience of Joseph Smith, found in Joseph Smith History 1:11-12:

11 While I was laboring under the extreme difficulties caused by the contests of these parties of religionists, I was one day reading the Epistle of James, first chapter and fifth verse, which reads: If any of you lack wisdom, let him ask of God, that giveth to all men liberally, and upbraideth not; and it shall be given him.
12 Never did any passage of scripture come with more power to the heart of man than this did at this time to mine. It seemed to enter with great force into every feeling of my heart. I reflected on it again and again, knowing that if any person needed wisdom from God, I did; for how to act I did not know, and unless I could get more wisdom than I then had, I would never know; for the teachers of religion of the different sects understood the same passages of scripture so differently as to destroy all confidence in settling the question by an appeal to the Bible.

So Joseph went and prayed to ask for this wisdom. We know how that turned out.

Today we have modern prophets and apostles. Just as Peter, Paul, and the other ancient apostles brought clarity in how to preach the gospel to the Gentiles, our modern day apostles bring clarity in establishing the official theology of the church. Were ether set of these great men infallible? No. Do words from dead prophets have more authority than words from living prophets? No.

Then again, I'm just today's nincompoop.

The Bit9 race car team

2011-08-25T21:51:00.001-04:00

Sorry for the kerfuffle over the last set of Bit9 race car pictures. I should have that squared away now. If you took a look at them, you might have wondered if they were legitimate. I'll admit that even I thought they were photoshopped. I am now certain that there really is a Brazilian Bit9 race car team. Our partner in Brazil, FreeDivision, seems to be pulling out all the stops! Ka-chow!

Does your job have race cars?

2011-08-11T22:34:00.001-04:00

Interviewing with BAE

2011-07-25T21:38:00.001-04:00

Here is a description of the process I went through when interviewing for my first real job out of grad school. I interviewed with BAE-AIT specifically. The whole process started because I posted on Facebook that I needed a job. One of the employees in that office found that and sent me in as a referral. I had never met the guy or heard of the office, but it got things rolling and they kept rolling until I had a job! It has been three and a half years since I went through this process, so my memory fails me at some points.

I had my first interview over the phone with a section lead (manager of half-a-dozen people). He asked me about my history and my interests. No real technical questions, although we did talk intelligently about my school work up to that point. Whatever I said must have been good because they then decided to bring me across the country (from Utah to Massachusetts) for a full day of interviews.
I spent a solid day interviewing.
1. My first interviewer gave me an overview of the company (with slides) and described the main product, ATIF. The technology was not directly related to my academic experience, but it looked cool and she claimed to like the questions I asked.
2. Next, I gave my presentation. I essentially gave a combination of my LCTES and PLDI talks. It went really well. This, more than anything else, landed me the job (I think). My future manager asked me some fairly specific technical questions that I fielded well. One audience member asked me a question to make sure he understood what I had done. When I answered that he had it right, he leaned back in the chair with his hands on his head and said "wow."
3. My first real interview did not go so hot. The interviewer asked me about object oriented design. I had known this was coming and had studied on the plane, but I still thought too much like a C programmer. I was glad to be done with this one.
4. Second up was my future manager, although I did not know it at the time. He had asked some tough questions during my presentation, but the technical question he asked me during the interview was about bit manipulation. He wanted me to reverse the order of the bits in an int. Not a problem.
5. I had one more interview before lunch. This one had a technical question about developing a protocol for communication between two processes. I did not think I handled it too well, but I also do not think I bombed it.
6. For lunch I went with two section leads. They both spoke in glowing terms about the company, and their enthusiasm was contagious.
7. The final technical interview that I remember went over a home grown data structure for managing search trees. The engineer I talked with and I just walked through the white paper and discussed the pieces. He did not seem to be trying to judge me as much as showing me what kinds of problems they dealt with.
8. My last interview of the day was with the director (manager of a handful of sections). Unfortunately, my brain was fried by this point and I do not think I put up my best performance. I must not have done too bad, though. . .

Application Whitelisting 101

2011-07-19T20:45:00.000-04:00

Received this email today:

Dear Nathan,

Application Whitelisting ensures only authorized software can run, rendering the APT useless and ensuring you never get malware again.
Success requires a simple, adaptive approach. Follow the three Rs for Application Whitelisting: Real-time management, Rules-based policies and the world's largest software Reputation service.
Learn how Bit9 customers prevented the breach that penetrated RSA in this live webcast:

Application Whitelisting 101 - the Three Rs:
Real-time, Rules & Reputation
Live Webcast
July 28, 2011 - 2pm Eastern

REGISTER TODAY

Best regards,

Bit9, Inc

Application
Whitelisting 101
July 28, 2011
2pm Eastern

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- InfoWorld

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View as a web page

© 2011, Bit9, Inc. All Rights Reserved.
Bit9, Inc., FileAdvisor, Find File, Parity, and ParityCenter are trademarks or registered trademarks of Bit9, Inc.
All other names and trademarks are the property of their respective owners.
Bit9 reserves the right to change product specifications or other product information without notice.
266 Second Street | Waltham, MA 02451| USA

Unemployed

2011-06-24T10:34:00.000-04:00

Yesterday was my last day of work at BAE Systems. I am now unemployed!

Not really. New job starts on Monday with bit9

Palin attacks

2011-05-30T09:41:00.000-04:00

Today's top news story on Google News for me:

Palin Rides into DC on a Motorcycle
ABC News - 1 hour ago
The former Alaska governor kicks off her tour on a bike, not in a bus. Investigators are unsure what caused the animal to attack. A happy ending for one family in Joplin, Missouri.

Although it is obviously a conglomeration of several headlines, it brought a little smile to my face. We may never know why the family in Joplin rejoiced that Palin attacked DC on a bike.

Here's the screenshot:

Presentation on Mormon.org and Social Media

2011-02-09T20:23:00.029-05:00

A couple weeks ago I co-taught a lesson about on-line resources available from the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. In my part of the presentation I covered:

Since I am a ward mission leader, I stuck this as the conclusion:

There are many ways you can better meet your personal obligation to help find people for the missionaries to teach. The simplest way will be the best.

President Eyring
February 2011 Ensign

pointing out that filling out a profile on mormon.org is really simple.

Here are the slides from my part of the presentation:

I should note that we started our slide deck from a presentation given by Jeff Adams at last month's Nashua Stake Conference. Thanks, Jeff!

Priesthood authority and computer security

2011-02-07T20:15:00.002-05:00

A couple weeks ago I gave a talk in church on priesthood authority. As I prepared I made a Google Doc for my notes and opened it up for editing by anybody. I also notified my Twitter followers, Facebook friends, and family email lists of the doc. A handful of people contributed, and I think I ended up with a decent talk.

Intro

I spent some time this past week trying to come up with an allegory that captured the principles I am sharing today. I thought about the allegory of the olive tree, popular movies, Harry Potter, and many others. I thought about nuclear engineering, pigeons, and aviation. None of them seemed to fit. Then, while I was at the temple last Thursday, a good allegory came to me: This may come as a shock to those of you who do not already know, but I am a software engineer. So the allegory I came up with has to do with computer systems.

There is a perpetual issue with computer security in the our age of the internet. This can vary widely in type: misinformation spread either ignorantly or maliciously, phishing for personal information, denial-of-service a web portal, sending a computer virus as an international attack. A computer system is a very dangerous place for data (just watch Tron). One useful tool for combating these dangers is the use of encryption and keys.

Encryption transforms data so that it cannot be decoded and read or used without knowing the key. Controlling the key also controls access to the data. For example, if I send an unencrypted email to my grandma, anyone who intercepts the message may read it or even change it before arrival. On the other hand, if I encrypt it first, even if they intercept the message then they cannot read it without knowing the key. My grandma can then use the key to unlock the message.

A Supreme Being wanting to guide His creations would want to ensure that guidance remained true. He would use keys to ensure His works and messages reached their destination without interception or modification.

Outline

Heavenly Father
- Supreme being, different names
- Heavenly Father
- We are his children
- He has a plan for us. Happiness and salvation
- jaj All powerful, wise, loving, loves interacting with his children and sending blessings
Need - walk by faith
- jaj Executing the Plan of Salvation (Christ’s plan to bring us back to God).
- jaj Great and eternal work requires a host of manpower (that is, God can do all things, but He uses men to accomplish His work> teaching/baptizing/ministering/leading)
- jaj allocating responsibility to His children (and seeing them succeed) brings Him joy
- Eph 4:11-14 - Priesthood offices so we will not tossed around by every wind of doctrine
Historical
1. Priesthood in Old Testament
  - Lord’s church established with Adam, Enoch, Noah, Abraham, Moses
  - Heb 5:4 - And no man taketh this honour unto himself, but he that is called of God, as was Aaron - must be called by someone holding keys
  - Exodus 28:41, 40:13-15 - Aaron and sons consecrated
  - Numbers 27:23 - Moses laid his hands on Joshua - passing keys
2. Priesthood in church established by Christ
  - Matt 16:15-19 - Peter given keys of the kingdom
  - Mark 3:14, John 15:16 - Christ ordained twelve
  - Acts 6:6 - Apostles lay hands upon seven men
Apostasy
- Foretold -
  - Old testament - Amos 8:11-12 - famine of the word of the Lord
  - New testament - 2 Thess 2:3-4 - falling away first, 2 Timothy 4:3-4 - Not endure sound doctrine
- D&C 121 - amen to authority of that man, unrighteous dominion, unrighteousness
- Rejection, persecution, death, and exile of apostles and church members loss of keys
- Dark Ages - without revelation and priesthood authority, philosophies of men, corruption
- Gutenberg Bible
- Protestant Reformation - John Wycliffe, Martin Luther, William Tyndale, John Calvin
- First and Second Great awakenings in the United States
Restoration - PMG Chapt 3 lessons 1 and 5
Could mention line of authority, always back to Christ. (We believe that a man must be ordained of God, by those who are in authority...) —tvandy
- Confusion of many different churches
- James 1:5 - if any of you lack wisdom, let him ask of God, that giveth to all men liberally, and upbraideth not; and it shall be given him
- First vision - JSH 1:16,17
- Asked which to join. Answer: none of them, but Lord would restore through Joseph
- Heavenly messengers restoring keys
- John the Baptist (ministering of angels and baptism) - D&C 13
- Peter, James, and John (ministry) - D&C 27:12
- Moses (gathering of Israel), Elias (gospel of Abraham), and Elijah (turn hearts) - D&C 110
Book of Mormon
- Ancient volume of scripture comparable to the Bible
- Translated by Joseph Smith (fruit, by their fruit ye shall know them)
- Priesthood keys, apostasy, and restoration
- Alma the elder Mosiah 18:18, Alma the younger Alma 6:1, Christ 3 Nephi 11:21
Today
May not go with current outline, but could talk about D&C 121 and the fact that no man maintains authority in the priesthood when they are unworthy. Holding the priesthood is not sufficient, must be worthy of the Holy Spirit to properly exercise the priesthood. —tvandy
- Prophet, apostles, seventy.
- Bishop, quorum presidents.
- Revelation open
Conclusion - Moroni’s promise - Moroni 10:3-5

Notes

The Power of the Priesthood

Apostasy and Restoration

Authority in the Church

Monty Python politics

Christ telling apostles to not rebuke imitators - Luke 9:49-50

Pharoah’s priests - Exodus 7:11

Definition of ordain

Allegory of the Olive Tree - Jacob 5

Apostasy and restoration
The Gardner and his servants

That's it. You can also see the Google doc embedded here:

Awesome items on Amazon

2011-01-31T20:31:00.002-05:00

I should be packing for a business trip, but instead I got sucked into looking at awesome things on Amazon:

Badonkadonk
Wolf shirt
Zubaz pants
AudioQuest cable
Denon cable
Tuscan milk
Uranium ore

If you don't get it then look at the prices, reviews, pictures, product descriptions, etc. Still don't get it? Go buy a wolf shirt. Other suggestions for products?

Tired of snowstorms

2011-01-27T07:54:00.000-05:00

I just want you to know that I am tired of snowstorms. There have been a ridiculous number this year, and the accumulation is way out of control. I took these pictures this morning. This first one is of our backyard play structure. This is at a different angle and includes a better view of the fence. I'll admit that the snow can be pretty on the trees. It's just that my back is starting to hurt just thinking about shoveling. The deck was shoveled as of two days ago. So all that is on there is fresh accumulation. This is the fourth time (I think) this season. Here is a view of the sad trees in my front yard. Yes, that's my front yard. I went upstairs and got an alternate view of the play structure. This one includes iccicles! A more boring picture of our backyard. You can see our poor snowman (or what's left of him). Here is the view to the street from upstairs. It is hard to see how big the snow banks have become. The worst ones are by my other driveway, but I couldn't get a good picture of them from inside. Finally, here is a view of the roof and the chimney for the fireplace we don't use. Two bad we have already used snowpocalypse and snowmageddon this year. I have a feeling we aren't done yet. We are also worried about when this all melts.

Technical phone interview

2011-01-26T20:56:00.000-05:00

Eventually I had the technical phone interview with Facebook. It went pretty well, I think, but did not result in further interviews. The interviewer was a relatively new engineer there that got a PhD doing distributed systems work.

The interviewer started out by asking me to say some more about my background. I mentioned briefly what I am currently doing and then went into more detail about my graduate work. The interviewer asked follow up questions that required me to go into more detail than I normally need to when answering this type of question. At one point the interviewer asked me to explain the unique contribution of my dissertation and I floundered a bit. Oh well.

I got asked "Why are you interested in Facebook?" I was honest here and said that basically "you guys came to me" and "Facebook is cool." I think this, more than anything else, is what deterred a future interview. If you are interviewing with a company, have some good reasons why you want to work there!

The interviewer shared a little about their background.

We also discussed hip-hop. Alright, so it is really HPPHP, High Performance PHP. It is a tool they use at Facebook to enable web designers to code in PHP and still get the performance of C++. The interviewer did some rough math on a hypothetical situation. Suppose we have 100,000 servers. Each of those servers costs $5000 for the hardware and then another $5000 for maintenance over three years. That's $1,000,000,000. HPPHP results in a 50% savings. Instead of 100,000 servers, we can get away with 50,000 servers. That's $500,000,000 in savings. Now consider if it is just 1% savings. That's still $10,000,000! One of the interviewer's points was that in academics, 1% is nothing. In the real world, it matters.

Of course, there was also a technical question. The interviewer had me go to a website which opened up a shared notepad-type interface. We could both type on this interface, although there was some lag. Once I got a strange pop-up come up because I tried to use an Emacs shortcut (fingers were on autopilot).

The interviewer listed some numbers in a sequence. My job was to figure out the next element in the sequence and then write some code that would print out the for n elements of the sequence. The sequence started at 1 and then each next number was the previous number read out loud. So 1, then 11 (one 1), then 21 (two 1s), and so on. Not too bad.

At first I tried to reason out the mathematical relationship between the numbers, but the interviewer quickly intercepted me and indicated there was not one to be found. The interviewer suggest I just code it up like I did it in my mind. So I did.

             1
            11
            21
          1211
        111221
        312211
      13112221
    1113213211
31131211131221

// Prints first n numbers in the sequence
void seq(string n)
{
    cout << 1;
    string last_number = "1";

    for( int num = 1 ; num < n ; num ++ )
    {
    
    
  // Last char
  char last_char = 'x'; 
  unsigned count = 0;
  string new_number = "";
  for( int x = 0; x < strlen(last_number) ; x++)
  {
    //character
    char c = last_number[x]; 
    if( c == last_char )
    {
        count++;
    }
    
    if(( c != last_char) ) 
    {
        if( count > 0)
        {
            new_number+=(itoa(count));
            new_number+=last_char; 
        }
        last_char = c;
        count = 1;
    } 
  }
     new_number+=(itoa(count));
     new_number+=last_char; 
  
    cout << new_number;
    last_number = new_number;
    
    //int y = atoi( c );
  }
}

The formatting is awful but the interviewer seemed satisfied with my response. Here is a version that I spent a few minutes getting to actually compile:

#include <iostream>
#include <cstring>
#include <cstdlib>
#include <sstream>
#include <cassert>

using namespace std;

// Prints first n numbers in the sequence
void seq(int n)
{
  if(n < 1) return;
  cout << 1 << endl;
  string last_number = "1";
  
  for( int num = 1 ; num < n ; num ++ )
  {
    // Last char
    char last_char = 'x'; 
    unsigned count = 0;
    string new_number = "";
    for( int x = 0; x < last_number.length() ; x++)
    {
      //character
      char c = last_number[x]; 
      if( c == last_char )
      {
        count++;
      }
      if(( c != last_char) ) 
      {
        if( count > 0)
        {
          ostringstream tmp;
          tmp << count;
          new_number+= tmp.str();
          new_number+=last_char; 
        }
        last_char = c;
        count = 1;
      } 
  }
    ostringstream tmp;
    tmp << count;
    new_number+= tmp.str();
    new_number+=last_char; 
    
    cout << new_number << endl;
    last_number = new_number;
  }
}

main(int argc, char** argv)
{
  assert(argc==2);
  seq(atoi(argv[1]));
}

That compiles with g++ in cygwin and it appears to work correctly. I noticed a few mistakes in making the version that actually compiles and did things a bit differently in some places. Might be one of the reasons they didn't want another interview.

As I have written this up I recall the problem was posed as a basis case and an inductive case. That seems to indicate that a recursive function could also solve it. That would have been clever. Might have been what the interviewer hoping to see.

After writing the code the interviewer had to leave for another meeting. I got to ask one question, so I asked what Facebook was doing to maintain its culture as it became larger. He gave a semi-generic answer, which is about all I should have expected. Then that was all.

A few days later I emailed the recruiter to follow up, and the recruiter let me know they would not be pursuing further interviews with me at this time. It was actually a relief to not have to decide between a sweet job and our #1 location.

Facebook technical phone interview prep

2011-01-24T20:36:00.001-05:00

After my initial Facebook interview the recruiter told me they wanted to have a technical phone interview with me. The recruiter then passed me on to somebody else who arranged the interview. Meanwhile, the recruiter sent me some tips on how to prepare.

Please research any recent news about Facebook for talking points and more information about the company. You may be asked questions as to what your favorite features of the site are, and how you might improve those features. It will be helpful to take some time to think about this beforehand.

Be prepared for technical questions involving coding or algorithms in your best language, design patterns, and more specific questions to your background. It may also help to review core CS concepts (data structures, binary trees, link lists, object oriented analysis/design) as well as subjects pertaining to the scale of our environment. Please be near a computer with internet access as you will be coding over a web application.

It will help to look at the puzzles on our careers page for some ideas on the types of problems they will potentially ask. For coding questions, you will be asked to produce clean, efficient code in a reasonable amount of time. You have 45 minutes on the call. If the interviewer gives you hints to improve your code, take them and run with them. It is good to adjust and work through the problems with the interviewer to show your thought process and problem solving ability.

Simple and straightforward enough. The recruiter also sent me a bunch of links to review. I had heard most of the news through TWiT and TWiG, but the list still provided a nice review.

Facebook Engineering Page
Facebook Careers Page
Interesting Article
Tech talks
Important Statistics
#1 Innovative Company by Fast Company
Facebook now directs more traffic to portals than Google
Facebook users now average 7 hours per month, vastly more than nearest competitor
How Facebook Can Become Bigger In Five Years Than Google Is Today
Hitwise: Facebook Overtakes Google To Become Most Visited Website In 2010
Person of the Year 2010 - Mark Zuckerberg
Internet Advertising: Is Facebook About to Overtake Google?
Why Facebook Is Such a Crucial Friend for Goldman

In preparation I also set up Chrome to have bookmarks ready while I interviewed. That ended up not mattering much, but I will tell that story later.

Facebook phone interview

2011-01-21T13:06:00.002-05:00

I recently had a preliminary phone interview with Facebook. The recruiter contacted me out of the blue saying they were looking for "rockstars." I almost marked it as spam, but then actually read it. Facebook is the kind of company that I can't at least consider should they choose to pursue me. Plus it is good to try and sharpen the saw every once in a while.

Here are the questions I was asked and some of the answers I gave:

This position is in Palo Alto. Are you willing to relocate?
Probably. I was being honest here. I think I would be more willing to consider moving than my wife, but working for Facebook is a ~~singularly~~ unique opportunity.
Can you tell me a little bit about the work you are doing right now?
Blah blah blah. I probably rambled a bit too much here. Oh well. I was out of practice and forgot the preparation that good interviewing requires.
Do you use Facebook?
Yes. I then told the interviewer that I landed my current job through networking on Facebook. The interviewer asked me to explain that, so I did (probably rambling too much again).
How familiar are you with the technologies we use here at Facebook? Do you follow
Not very. I know the features Facebook puts out, but not the underlying technologies.
How comfortable are you with technical phone interviews?
It's hit or miss. I'm out of practice. My actual answer was much more verbose. The straight answer is "I normally stink and do horribly at any technical interview," but that doesn't seem like a good thing to say. Plus, I do occasionally do well.
How many guesses would it take you to find a number between 1 and 1000 if I tell you "high" or "low" after each guess?
10. I figured they were getting at a binary search, which is O(log n).
What is the run time complexity of inserting into a heap?
I have no idea. I'll guess n*log(n). I could have tried to figure this out, but I was having a brain fart and decided it was pointless to try and brazen it out. The actual answer is O(log n). Okay, okay. Really it depends on the implementation.
How many direct children can a node have in a binary tree?
0, 1, or 2.

The interviewer then told me she would pass on my answers and my resume to a hiring manager and that I would hear back in the next few days. The next morning she emailed me to set up a 45 minute technical interview.

Trying to get a job at Facebook? You do have an up-to-date profile on Facebook, right? After that, I would start by poking around at their careers site. I noticed they have a intriguing puzzles section that it probably wouldn't hurt to solve. Facebook has several recruiters on LinkedIn, so just do a search for "facebook recruiter" to get some contact information for a real person.

$20 Amazon gift card for $10

2011-01-19T23:42:00.000-05:00

If you have been living under the internet equivalent of a rock, maybe you have not heard. Hopefully you read this before 8:00 eastern time on Thursday, January 20th. Acting on it can get you a free, quick, and easy $10. LivingSocial has a deal today where you can buy a $20 Amazon gift card for $10. I had to look around a bit for it. My default city was Lowell, but I could not find the deal there. I had to look at Boston deals.

Amazon is an investor in the company, which is how I think they are pulling this off. There have been 1,211,962 gift cards ordered so far. Do the math: that's 12 million dollars of free Amazon credit. And there is still eight hours left! Go get your piece of the pie.

Lazy post

2011-01-05T20:39:00.002-05:00

I'm tired and still have a bunch of things to do before I go to bed, so this is what you get today:

MATLAB tutorial

2011-01-03T14:20:00.000-05:00

I have mentioned before that many of the folks at my office use MATLAB. Since my office has historically been an "algorithms" shop, most of the ideas are prototyped in MATLAB before a software engineer (such as myself) implements them in a traditional programming language. I have picked up some MATLAB, but still felt I needed a better grasp on the tool. So I plunged into the help and online tutorials. Here are some nuggets I have learned in addition to my original MATLAB post:

MathWorks provides a good collection of MATLAB tutorials on their website. This includes links to other people's guides and their own audiovisual walkthroughs.
I liked a linked MATLAB walkthrough from MIT. It is fairly concise and covers most of what you need to get going, except for cell arrays (which is what I really wanted to learn better). The different entries in the table of contents link to a single webpage.
The main confusion I have with MATLAB is with the array notations. As a C programmer I have a certain way of looking at arrays, but someone brought up in the MATLAB universe doesn't even use the same vocabulary to describe things. Hence the difficulty. Here are some notes:
- : (colon) - indicates a range, typically a domain
- [] (brackets) - define a matrix or vector
- ; (semicolon) - new row for matrix defined in brackets
- () (parentheses) - indexes to a vector or matrix
- , (comma) - indexing into next dimension of a matrix
- .() (dot) - access named fields of a structure
- {} (braces) - similar to bracket and parentheses, only internal structure is preserved
Typing doc paren or help paren will bring up MATLAB's description of these operators.
Speaking of doc and help, they both are similar to the linux command man. doc opens up the help browser, whereas help prints out information at the prompt.
I would suggest using help and doc on a number of useful commands: path (where MATLAB looks for things, plot (make the fun graphs for which MATLAB is known), clear (disassociate a variable), and nargin (number of arguments to a function).
The Programming Roadmap on the MathWorks site talks about advanced function features. Use help/doc on varagin, varargout, and funfun. MATLAB can even have anonymous functions using @, but I doubt the scientists and work want me using λ functions.
Need/want to play with MATLAB but do not want to fork over private funds for a license? Try Octave!

I now feel much more confident in my MATLAB skills, or at least my knowledge of MATLAB resources. Hopefully I can put them to good use when given the opportunity.

I have an awesome wife

2010-12-20T21:57:00.001-05:00

This is what my wife got me:

She also took me to see Tron Legacy.

Need a towel? Check out Thinkgeek.

Philosophies of men

2010-12-17T23:06:00.000-05:00

I have lately found myself thinking about LDS theology's intersection with politics. I am a practicing Mormon, so it makes sense that LDS theology would affect my political views. The reason I have been thinking about it so much lately is mostly due to two LDS friends. These friends hold political views I do not agree with. They choose to share those views in such a way that it is clear that they think anyone not sharing their views is ignorant or stupid or (more likely) both. They also choose to share those views often. In general, I admire the conviction of these two friends and think I could learn a bit from that conviction.

This past week one of them emailed me a ridiculous powerpoint presentation. I read a good portion of it and skimmed through the rest. It consisted of pictures of political, historical, and LDS figures and quotes they made. It basically talked about how there are Gadianton robbers in our day and that we need to fight them. I'll get back to my thoughts on this later, but I responded to my friend by saying "That's pretty special" and questioning the emphasis on politics in the Book of Mormon. He caught my sarcasm and responded with some more content I will talk about later. I told him I would explain myself a bit more. This blog post is that explanation. It will not be concise. It will not be short.

I took the required History of Civilization course at BYU from the Political Science department. I had Dr. Matthew Holland for my instructor (son of Elder Jeffrey R. Holland and current president of UVU). I should mention here that this entire post is my personal opinion and is in no way endorsed or acknowledged by Dr. Holland, the LDS church, or anybody other than myself. In his class, Dr. Holland had one lecture where he tied what we had been studying that semester (Plato, Socrates, Machiavelli, etc.) to LDS theology. I found it extremely interesting to see all the parallels in the scriptures to Plato's Forms. He also said that during the semester we had learned about "the philosophies of men." He continued to state that although that phrase has a negative connotation in LDS theology, there are many good, important, and true things to learn from those philosophies.

The one idea from Dr Holland's lecture that I want to highlight comes from the story of Shadrach, Meshach, and Abed-nego (Daniel 3). At this point in their history, Jerusalem has been sacked by the Babylonians and what then remained of the Lord's covenant people carried off into captivity. The Babylonian king took some of the young Israelite men to serve in his court. I will note for the overall point of this blog post that they actually served these captor-kings. In the story of Shadrach, Meshach, and Abed-nego, they refuse to worship a golden image, so the king gets mad and is ready to throw them into a furnace. Dr. Holland's point is in how they respond in verses 16-18:

16 Shadrach, Meshach, and Abed-nego, answered and said to the king, O Nebuchadnezzar, we are not careful to answer thee in this matter.
17 If it be so, our God whom we serve is able to deliver us from the burning fiery furnace, and he will deliver us out of thine hand, O king.
18 But if not, be it known unto thee, O king, that we will not serve thy gods, nor worship the golden image which thou hast set up.

The point is to trust in God's will and acknowledge He is in control. These three men did not know if they would be saved, but they did know that God had the power to save them if it was His will. They also knew that God was in control of their nation, including putting them under the control of king Nebuchadnezzar.

There is a counterpoint to this. LDS theology teaches that We believe in being subject to kings, presidents, rulers, and magistrates, in obeying, honoring, and sustaining the law. However, we also believe the men of the American Revolution were inspired by God. There are times in LDS history when, living on the western frontier, Mormons showed some of that revolutionary spirit and frontier justice. There is an interesting and delicate balance to walk there (if any of you are deciding to start a revolution sometime soon).

Remember that the Jews of Christ's time were manipulated by the Sanhedrin into demanding His crucifixion because they were expecting a political savior instead of a spiritual savior. Even in the face of the farce that was His so-called trial, Christ recognized the authority of the high priest. Then there is the explicit example of Christ's teaching on taxes:

19 ¶And the chief priests and the scribes the same hour sought to lay hands on him; and they feared the people: for they perceived that he had spoken this parable against them.
20 And they watched him, and sent forth spies, which should feign themselves just men, that they might take hold of his words, that so they might deliver him unto the power and authority of the governor.
21 And they asked him, saying, Master, we know that thou sayest and teachest rightly, neither acceptest thou the person of any, but teachest the way of God truly:
22 Is it lawful for us to give tribute unto Cæsar, or no?
23 But he perceived their craftiness, and said unto them, Why tempt ye me?
24 Shew me a penny. Whose image and superscription hath it? They answered and said, Cæsar’s.
25 And he said unto them, Render therefore unto Cæsar the things which be Cæsar’s, and unto God the things which be God’s.

Paul shows similar behavior to Christ in his interaction with the high priest (although with a bit less self control): "Thou shalt not speak evil of the ruler of thy people." Peter speaks along the same lines, putting those who despise government as the unjust who will be punished. A handful of references is not concrete evidence, but I feel that it is enough to show that the question cannot be settled by latching on to certain quotes or scriptures.

While we are wresting the scriptures, let us consider the most political chapter of the Book of Mormon: Mosiah 29. In that chapter, Mosiah sets up laws to transition his kingdom into a republic. On my mission, I had a very strange district meeting where some rebellious missionaries used verse 29 to attack their district leader. My response to that argument is to look at all the wars which occur from that point until the end of the book: they are all started by men of high birth or lesser judges looking for power. It is also unclear from this chapter how they implemented the "voice of the people." It is nice to think that is a democracy, but how does that work in such a large kingdom? No TVs, no radio, no cars, no trains. I think it must have been more of a republic with elected officials called upon to represent the voice of the people. Kind of like the United States Constitution originally sets up our leaders to not be dumb products of a popularity contest. Moving on.

The biggest problem I had with the powerpoint presentation my friend sent was that it didn't have any quotes from President Hinckley. The presentation was put together in 2007, so the living prophet at the time would have been President Hinckley. Why is this important? Well let's go to last October's General Conference and review Elder Costa's talk and Elder Duncan's talk. They both review President Benson's 14 fundamentals in following the prophet, and I would like to highlight the third one: "The living prophet is more important to us than a dead prophet." While I am pointing out conference talks, I should mention that Elder Cook's talk from this past conference and Elder Oak's talk from a year ago both provide good guidance on theology and politics.

All this most recent discussion started because I tweeted my support of the DREAM act. The DREAM act looks to be voted on in the senate tomorrow (Saturday). It will probably fail due to the racism and fear-mongering in the country and the spineless politicians in congress. One of my friends is a loyal follower of Glenn Beck. I was first exposed to Mr. Beck in 2007, when my Elders Quorum presidency counselor and I were driving back from service cleaning church trucks in Salt Lake. He turned on Beck's radio program and talked about how awesome it was. I had a hard time keeping a straight face with what I was hearing. He and Palin are the face of the TEA party? When the TEA party first started I thought they had some good points. Now I think they are mostly a bunch of nutters. Their leaders and pundits use an annoying and disingenuous strategy of inserting gross falsehoods in with a bunch of truths, and then repeating that over and over again. Exposed to something enough, anybody believes.

Even the philosophies of men, mingled with scripture.

Online profiles

2010-12-13T23:13:00.019-05:00

I played around with my online profiles a bit.

To begin with, I created a "profile graveyard" on this site and moved a bunch of links from my Google Profile. My Google Profile had gotten fairly ridiculous. Alright, fine. It started out ridiculous and it still is ridiculous, but it is less ridiculous than it was a few days ago. All my rarely/never used profiles are now linked from the graveyard and not from the profile.

Once I got going, I then moved on to my LinkedIn profile. My resume and my LinkedIn profile are a bit stale. They still are a bit stale, but my LinkedIn profile is less stale than it was a few days ago. I added a few sections and noted some volunteer work I am doing with the PDMA-CDMA Educational Foundation.

Please go check out my profile graveyard, Google profile, and updated LinkedIn profile. Feedback is welcome, more or less.

Tangled

2010-12-10T21:48:00.001-05:00

I took my family to see Tangled today. It was awesome. My kids were a little bit aware of it, but my wife prepped them good this past week with YouTube previews. They were very excited. I love Disney, and I loved The Princess and the Frog, but their animation studio still has a ways to go before it regains my complete trust in their quality. Pixar has it still, Disney Animation does not. ~~Rapunzel~~ Tangled, however, helps.

I was also a little worried about the movie because of its name. I had first heard about it and seen a clip back in 2004. Back then it was still going by "Rapunzel," which is what it really should be called. However, Disney was apparently disappointed with the reception by boys of The Princess and the Frog, so they tried to fix that with this movie. I am not sure what was wrong with Princess and the Frog. Maybe they made the prince too weak/negative. I don't know. I was worried that they would compromise in order to appeal to young boys. No need to worry. Still a great story, and still should be called Rapunzel.

I was a little worried about my kids "freaking out" at the scary parts, which is what they have done with any modern movie they've watched that has a decent plot. Surprisingly, my eldest managed to not freak out. I do not know if this is because she is maturing or if it is because the movie is not that scary. There is really only one scary part, and it is pretty low-key. That didn't stop my youngest from spazzing, but at least the oldest one did fine.

The villain in Tangled, Mother Gothel, may not rise to the upper echelon of Disney villains, but I did find her compelling. She is interesting for two, slightly related reasons. The over-arching quality is immense selfishness. She has found the proverbial fountain of youth and wants to keep it for herself. Part of that is keeping Rapunzel locked in a tower as her "daughter." However, since Gothel is selfish she is also abusive. The abuse comes as emotional abuse, which is a bit unique among Disney villains. I like it, and it made me think a bit about the things I say when I am "joking."

The songs were short but great. I liked the animation style and thought the story was compelling. The characters were also great, with Rapunzel and Flynn both being a great balance. Rapunzel is young and naive, but part of the film's journey is her learning she is perfectly capable of taking care of herself. Flynn is a self-absorbed thief, but he shows depth in the end and is not a shallow and helpless pansy (like Prince Naveen in The Princess and the Frog). The favorite line from my kids: "They can't get my nose right!"

In keeping with the lame posts of this week, here are the three trailers for Tangled to finish this one off: