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Maths... getting there slowly

I've been following Justin's Math series on his blog with great interest. Maths is one of the things that I blog'ged about earlier this year, stating that it was my intention to understand it:

    http://weblogs.asp.net/dneimke/archive/2004/05/18/133996.aspx

Since reading Justin's entries I've managed to build 3 little demo applications to solidify my learnings, they are:

1. TraverseCircle.cs - this application displayed every 10th number between 0 and 360 at its correct position in a circle.
2. BoundingCircle.cs - this application allowed you to enter a number and then it would draw a line with that many points touching a bounding circle. So, if you entered the number "3" you would get a triangle sitting inside of a circle, etc.
3. SpriteAnimation.cs - this one is like a pendulum but without the laws of physics to give the effect of gravity. In the app. a pendulum swings between the angle 20 degrees and 160 degrees.

It's been a real ride learning, not only the trigonometry but also some interesting GDI techniques.

So, if, like me you are a Math dummy in search of a new quest, I'd encourage you to keep an eye out for Justin's maths blogs: Justin's Blog

Linking morsels of informational data... sometimes learning is like a tantalizing treasure hunt

Since encouraging Justin to blog about applications of mathematics in everyday, real world problem solving I've been an avidly following his teachings on that matter. Justin is certainly a smart guy and also has a knack for using the raw power of maths and logic in some really interesting ways. Justin's recent articles have provided me with a tangible link between maths theory and the practicle usage of some simple mathematical methods.

Late today I also read a timely piece by Mark about "Chunky Conceptualization" which just seemed to fit where I'm at in my current maths journey. I liked Mark's naming of "Chunky Conceptualization" as it relates well with how I've gone about learning maths and music recently. You start by learning core concepts as individual units and then build upon that by surrounding them with contextual information. This leads to more discovery and forms a kind of building block approch to gaining insight.

There's two things that I've found while learning new stuff:

1. I'm often amazed to discover how links can appear from angles that you never really expected when learning a new topic.
2. It can be really frustrating when you are eager to learn everything about a new topic that you have to be restrained by the limit at which you can understand and internalize information.

New tools in the fight against comment spam

ScottW has just uploaded a new version of .Text which has some major new features.  The cooleast new features relate to management of comments and tools to help remove comment spam.

The feedback tab now allows the deletion of multiple comments in a single action so, if like me you get hit with 30 or 40 spam comments in a row you can delete them much more easily.  There are also the ability to moderate comments (admin > options > preferences).  If you turn moderation on, each new comment won't show up on your blog until after you approve it.

Another security feature is that new comments to posts more than 30 days old will not be allowed. In the future this will be much more configurable, but, in the meantime, this should really help to reduce the surface area of blog spam attacks.

Oh yeh, there's also a new TextBox control on the posts page which should now enable blogging from mozilla/firefox.

Some UG questions about installing Whidbey

Because we've got our Adelaide .NET User Group (ADNUG) Whidbey Install-fest this week, I thought that I'd bookmark this list of Q&A's:

     http://weblogs.asp.net/JSawyer/archive/2004/08/06/210230.aspx