## Strange Change

July 8, 2013

A classical example of a greedy algorithm is the algorithm to return change given a set of face values. In Canada (and the US) the usual coins are 25¢, 10¢, 5¢ and 1¢ coins—there’s also a 50¢ coin, but they’re rare nowadays. The algorithm proceeds as follows. You are given a number of cents to return, and you start with the highest face value, $v_1$. You subtract $v_1$ from the numbers of cents while the number of cents still to return is greater or equal to $v_1$. If the number of cents still to return is smaller than $v_1$ but not zero, you repeat using the next denomination, $v_2$, then if there’s still some, with $v_3$, etc. Eventually, you return all the change, using a minimal number of coins.

So the next interesting question is whether our current coinage is optimal, as measured by the (average) quantity of returned change? No. It’s not. Let’s see why.

## Artsy Recycling

June 19, 2012

Even when you actually want to recycle computer parts (especially scrap parts that do not quite work anymore) it’s quite hard to do so. One possible solution is to simply chuck everything in the usual recycling bin and hope for the best. Or you can try to find a metal reseller. Or you can use the parts in a creative way. Kind of.

I disassembled the CFM01 and got quite a lot of spare parts from the 1U Pentium III servers. The casings aren’t all that interesting since they’re fairly cheap (compared to, say, a Dell PowerEdge server) and the CPUs are useless. Nobody wants them. Even recycling the all-copper heat sink proved a problem. So I used them differently.

## Wallpaper: Menaçant tubercule

June 16, 2012

(Menaçant tubercule, 1920×1200)

## Herding Cats

April 10, 2012

I’m sure you’ve heard the expression herding cats before. When you’re trying to manage programmers, the expression certainly comes to mind. What if programmers were cats, which one would you be?

## Markov

March 27, 2011

Two weeks ago, I went back to the Université de Montréal to pay a visit to my Ph. D. Adviser. As we toured his laboratories, I noticed that a drawing I scotch-taped to a wall ( as a Masters’ student) was still there after all those years.

…So it’s been there since 1994. Damn, I’m old!

## Kaleidoscode

March 18, 2011

(A photographic experiment involving a kaleidoscope and some code)

## Lost+Found: Wisdom Teeth by Don Hertzfeldt

December 25, 2010

Also by Hertzfeldt : Rejected.