All posts tagged: Microsofty

Monday Microsofty 78: Card Sharks That Bite Harder

Monday Microsofty 78: Card Sharks That Bite Harder

Published by Jenni Sidey

If you go to a gambling establishment and play the one-armed bandit, the outcome for each of your turns is determined by computer software. To write good code for that, you need to know how to generate random numbers. I once consulted for a gaming establishment  involved in a lawsuit. I examined the software for a number of machines and became an expert in generating them. But interestingly, computer code can’t generate truly random numbers. The best it can do is generate pseudo-random numbers. To make sure that the pseudo-random number generator works, those who write software for gambling or sweepstakes must have their code analyzed by a third party to make sure that the pseudo-random number generator is working accurately. Here’s the transcript. To win at gambling, you need probability on your side. In pure chance games like roulette, craps, and one-armed bandits, the house edge guarantees you’ll lose over time. In probability theory, this is guaranteed by the Law of Large Numbers. That’s right. It’s the law: You lose. On the other hand, …

Monday Microsofty 60: Here’s a Puzzle From Gunsmoke

Monday Microsofty 60: Here’s a Puzzle From Gunsmoke

Published by Jenni Sidey

Are you sharp enough to solve clever puzzles? To interpret clues beyond their apparent meaning? Doing so shows you have a high IQ on the nerd scale and might be a good computer programmer, mathematician or engineer. We offer puzzles each Monday here at MindMatters.ai. Good ones are often surrounded by obfuscations meant to derail thought trails and otherwise distract. Sharp minds can see through these distractions, focus on the problem and offer solutions. We call these puzzles Micro Softies after the ones Microsoft used to use to select programmers. Last Monday’s Micro Softy was inspired by an old CBS television show, Alfred Hitchcock Presents (1955‒1962), which premiered on October 2, 1955. We’ll give the answer to that puzzle below, after presenting this week’s Micro Softy which also deals with old time television. Gunsmoke (1955‒1975), the first adult TV western, also premiered on CBS a month earlier on September 10, 1955 as a continuation of a highly successful weekly radio drama. The weekly episodes have aged well. Gunsmoke has recently been showing up today on …

Monday Microsofty 59: Alfred Hitchcock’s Low-Pressure Tire

Monday Microsofty 59: Alfred Hitchcock’s Low-Pressure Tire

Published by Jenni Sidey

Editor’s note: Due to seasonal travel issues, the Monday Microsofty could not be published until today. To be a good computer scientist or engineer, you have to be a nerd. Nerds like me are offended by flawed portrayals of mathematics and physics in movies and television.  For example, in the classic 1939 Wizard of Oz Movie, when the Scarecrow got his brain, he said “The sum of the square roots of any two sides of an isosceles triangle is equal to the square root of the remaining side.” This mistake ruins what is an otherwise wonderful movie for me. I can accept flying monkeys, witches riding brooms and Lollipop Guild Munchkins. But not bad math. The Scarecrow was trying unsuccessfully to quote Pythagoras’s theorem: “In a right triangle, the square of the hypotenuse is equal to the sum of the squares of the other two sides.” By contrast, the TV series The Big Bang Theory and its spin-off Young Sheldon, are fairly accurate in their math and physics. (Their treatment of Christianity is embarrassingly shallow.) …

Monday Microsofty 58: Is a Famous Bassist His Own Grandfather?

Monday Microsofty 58: Is a Famous Bassist His Own Grandfather?

Published by Jenni Sidey

Are you sharp enough to code for a top software company? Our Monday puzzles are based on the types of questions they are known to ask, hence the name of the series. Some of these questions include topics like “relativity.” It’s not math, exactly, but you need to be able to figure out relationships. Because last week’s Micro Softy was also about figuring out relationships, we will depart from our usual practice by presenting its solution before we ask this week’s question: Solution to Micro Softy 57: My Mother’s Mother-in-law     My father is Ben. Ben’s mother is mymother’s mother-in-law. My boss, Ms. Sterno, asked me the identity of a man named Ben, whom I was just talking to. I told her “Ben is a valued friend and source of information. His mother is my mother’s mother-in-law.”  So who is Ben in relation to me? Take a look at  Figure 2: Ben is my father. His mother is my mother’s mother-in-law.   Or, with the same logic, instead of Ben, it could be one of Ben’s …