I wrote a C++ program to keep track of how much I’m spending… With all the thinking I’ve been doing lately of Cal Poly Pomona vs. Cal State San Bernadino, this has been on my mind a lot.

It’s not optimized. It’s clear, although takes a minute or so to understand. But, for my purposes, it works. I’m adding a download link with the source code, so you can edit it to your specifications if you need something similar.

Extract all the files into the same directory.

Are there other, better ways to manage your budget? Probably.

But I needed the practice in c++ reading and writing to files, and making text file databases.

Download link:

http://seanybob.net/codedownloads/budget/

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*sigh*

This was a wonderful night.

“Docendo Discimus.”

One of the most powerful statements I’ve ever heard. Indeed, one of the truest as well.

Docendo Discimus. We learn by teaching.

The entire educational system is corrupt. Kids go, sit in a chair for 2 hours, and listen to a professor talk. Some take notes. Most of the stuff is general knowledge that the kid is not interested in.

It’s wrong.

We learn by teaching. I enjoy programming. How do I progress? Well, I teach myself, I take some classes… and I share my knowledge with others. I try to teach my friends, classmates, random people over the net. That is where I truly learn new things, and totally master old things.

I encourage you, if you are stuck in a learning facility, try using this principle in your life. You will be amazed at how much more you come to know, and how many new things you learn.

If anyone has cd’s or mp3 files of classical music, you should send them to me. I am forced to create my own using beeps from a computer in C++.

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Oh man… good times.

So I started asking a good friend probing questions (as a sort of game) to get to know her better. Every time I give her a ride somewhere (typically once a week) I get to ask her a question. She has to answer – unless she absolutely does not want to answer, in which case she just has to say so, and I’ll ask a different question.

This has proved to be a lot of fun. I’ve learned a lot about her, and moreover, she’s learned more about me (she makes me answer my own questions too ).

Perhaps you can put some use to these.

1) You are the last human alive on earth. Something (disease, comet, whatever) wiped out everyone else. What do you spend your time doing?

2) I’m in a car accident. I’m rushed to the hospital, where you meet me. The doctors say I have no chance to live, and will die in a couple minutes, just enough time for you to say one last thing to me. What would you say?

3) I mysteriously vanish, and no one (my family, roommate, friends) knows what happened. What would you do?

4) You’re in a car crash. Metal from my car is intertwined with your spine. The doctors say you have no chance of living through the night unless… they perform an experimental operation, that will give you a 75% chance of living, though it will paralyze your arms and legs forever. Moreover, the operation costs $500,000 and is not covered by your medical insurance, so your family will just have to go into debt. Your family and doctors say the choice is up to you – do you want to go ahead with the operation?

More to come.

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Semi-true story. Nuff said.

I played risk yesterday with friends, and we got in a debate (as always) whether it’s better to attack or defend.

I’ve always thought it really didn’t matter, that the odds were so close that chance played a bigger part than any minor advantages one side had.

I decided to write a program to figure out which side (if any) has an advantage in Risk. Here are the results…

First, I ran a test doing about 100 attacks. As you can see, it varied, but it looks like attacker may have a VERY slight edge. Chance screwed everything up though, either side could easily win.

So… now for 10,000,000 attacks…

So my thoughts were basically correct. For low numbers, it really doesn’t matter. However, as you can see from the previous image, attackers do have a slight edge.

Download source code/exe:
http://seanybob.net/codedownloads/risk

So I wrote a c++ program to determine the odds of winning the game of craps at a casino.

At first, I ran about 10,000 games per test. I found the overall winner to be somewhat random… sometimes the player would emerge with about 53% wins, sometimes the house would get about 54% wins.

So I stepped it up.

I ran it 10,000,000 games at a time. Finally, my results were final and unchanged. House wins (naturally, casinos couldn’t operate otherwise).

I did the 10,000,000 game test run 6 times, to make sure my results were valid. Here’s a screenie:

House won: 30,440,854 of 60,000,000 games (50.735%)

So a player has a 49.265% chance of winning.

Of course, various betting strategies alter the amount the player wins…

Interesting.

Download for source code/exe:
http://seanybob.net/codedownloads/craps

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You ever noticed this? You never think to say certain things until it’s… too late.