It’s difficult, it’s frequently implemented poorly, it tends to run slowly, and beginning freshmen rarely get it right for their homework assignments. That’s why I’m writing this little snippet of code. One frequent assignment freshmen get is to write a recursive program that calculates the nth Fibonacci number. That’s the sequence that goes 1, 1, 2, 3, 5, 8, etc., where the nth term is the sum of the n-1 and n-2 terms. Read on to see the solution to this recursively and non-recursively, and learn why the non-recursive way is better. FYI, the programming icon shows an elephant stuck in the La Brea Tar Pits. Look up Fred Brooks on Amazon.com if you don’t get it.
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Mild Site Changes
As you probably noticed, I moved the search form to the side of the page instead of at the bottom. I put in its place a text message for lawyers, since every site needs one of those nowadays. I also added two topic categorys, Programming (for snippets of code that I write from time to time) and Work (for those stories from the salt mine that everyone can relate to). We now return to our regular programming.
New Bible Study: Sleep
I’ve been looking through my site statistics reports the last few days and have noticed that most people visit during the midnight hours. Since it’s obvious you people should be sleeping at that time, I did a Bible study on Sleep in order to encourage you. Of course, the stats package doesn’t record what time zone it is in when it says “midnight”, so you might be visiting at a decent hour. Anyway, there you go.
Red Rabbit
Tom Clancy has returned to his roots. Red Rabbit is a simple story about Money, Ideology, Conscience, and Ego, set between Patriot Games and The Hunt for Red October. It has a simple, easy to follow plot, and resembles HFRO in more ways than one.
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Wilbur the Wildcat, you’re under arrest for possession of a deadly weapon
I knew my alma mater was a bit on the kooky side at times, but this takes the cake. The U of A mascot, Wilbur the Wildcat, has been disarmed by University officials. Phoebe Chalk, UA assistant athletics director for public relations, was quoted as saying “Wilbur’s likeness is used for the Junior Wildcat Club, with children, and we didn’t want to have guns in this day and age on a cartoon character.” Um, yeah, sure. Your motives might be pure, but just make sure you don’t let any of the Junior Wildcat Club members near the basement of Bear Down Gym, where there is a small arms range right next to the ROTC supply room. Oh, and never mind teaching them about gun safety. That whole NRA-Eddie Eagle thing about running and telling an adult isn’t as effective as showing them a sanitized mascot.
Perseid Meteor Shower: The Aftermath
I went out with my roomate Carlos and 6 of our friends on Monday evening/Tuesday Morning to see the Perseid meteor shower. I brought along my camera, just to see if I could catch one or two on film. Unfortunately, I only caught one on film. Well, live and learn. Astrophotography is nothing if not a teacher of patience. This link is a 976×679 130k jpeg, the only one of the roll of 24 that came out with a streak on it.
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What does 41.3 MPH feel like on a bike?
I went for a bike ride this morning for the first time since May. It felt good, but I realized about a mile and a half from my house that my main cycle computer was not giving me good information. I had just finished a sprint across flat terrain, and it said my max speed was 41.3 mph. I checked my other computer, and it said a more reasonable (and consistent with other rides) 26.6. I haven’t come anywhere near 41.3 on the down side of hills, let alone flats. I probably just need to recalibrate my wheel circumference.
Bill Gates needs to be dragged out into the street and hosed
I’m not normally one to complain, especially about others in my field, since I don’t know the innards of what goes on in their jobs. However, the last few days have been absolutely insane when it comes to working on my computer. Windows, you see, has been acting up. A lot.
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New Download: Bible Study Templates
I thought it might be nice to put up the templates for the Bible Studies I use. These are in Word 97 format, so they should work with any version since then. They are base on a Hermeneutic approach to Bible study recommended by Steve Hall. Put them in your templates directory and you will be able to create new studies from the New Office Document menu option. BibleStudies.zip (9k file)