Logic Question

Apparently this question was asked in a job interview for Google. Try your computation power and see if you could get a job at Google.

There are 100 floors in a building. You have two eggs. If the eggs will only break once it is thrown from a height beyond a particular floor. In what pattern would you throw the eggs off the building in order to locate that particular floor with the least amount of throws.

For example, if you throw an egg beginning from the first floor until you reach the particular floor, it would take you 99 times if the particular floor the eggs would break is 99th floor. Which obviously, is not the most efficient pattern of experiment.

Highlight the text below to see the answer:
Divide building into ten intervals. Throw an egg on each interval beginning from the ground floor until it breaks. Then start throwing the remaining egg from the immediate lower interval, floor by floor, in ascending order. When the egg breaks, you've got the particular floor.


For instance, if the particular floor is 78, you'd throw an egg at 10, 20, 30, 40, 50, 60, 70, 80, 71, 72, 73, 74, 75 ,76, 77, 78th floor in order, where bold are the floors in which the eggs would break. So it would take you at most, 18 throws to locate that particular floor (no matter where within the 100th floor it is located), assuming that the egg must break on one of the 100th floors.


Thanks to Joe for bring my attention to this question.

Is Migrating Data Online Safe?

That was the gist of question I asked Google's CEO Eric Schmidt earlier on. The answer (now featured at the Times Online) I got back from him was as follows:

Keith,

Let me say first that cloud computing is the future. But the concerns that people have about security in cloud computing are understandable: some people like to be able to see their computer server to know that's exactly where their data is. It's somewhat parallel to the banking system: early on, people believed that their money was safer under their mattress than in a bank, but all the systems and rules that have evolved over time do not support that belief.

You can look at cloud computing in a similar way. We have built and continue to build a lot of security protection into our applications to protect your privacy and your information. Consider also that if you put your data on one drive in your home and it gets stolen or damaged, then you have lost it permanently - I remember reading various articles in the British press about government officials losing sensitive data on laptops, CDs, memory sticks and the like.

As well as trying very hard to ensure your data is kept private and secure, we also recognize that you want to own your own data. We actually have an initiative called Data Liberation that is dedicated to making sure you can export your personal information — your mail, contacts, photos and so forth — from any Google property anytime you want, and take it with you to another service.

The original question was: "Cloud computer is seen as the future of computing but many are still not convinced by the security measures taken by companies to protect data privacy. How do you think the web can be more made secure and safe for everyone to migrate data online?"

Orientation (Again)

The season for orientations have begun. You would see people dressed with the same colour t-shirt (often bright and this year, a new trend of having a towel wrapped around their necks) wandering on the streets, some running some sweating some following. They would shout for seemingly no reason, do bizarre things that pass-byers cannot comprehend, but they know this is probably the only chance they can get to make friends, so they did it. I was one of them - two years ago.

I have nothing against orientations. Fact is, you do get to know more people. And I know the organisers have put in tremendous amount of efforts and plenty sleepless nights to make it happen, it's exhilarating.

But to those who are still out there trying to pack as many orientation days, camps or nights into your August, if you ever fear you won't be able to make friends without attending them, rest assure, orientations is just one of the many other means. There is much more in University life which opens you up to great people. It was true for me. In fact, 95% of the people I am closest to now (and probably for the rest of my life), were met during various coincidences outside the orientation period for the simple reason that I believe artificial groupings is foreign to our social skills. Orientations are often designed with the idea to create memories in mind. According to Cambridge Dictionary, this is "made by people, often as a copy of something natural", i.e. artificial.

It'd be scary at first, but have faith in yourself, you'd find the right ones very soon. Stay hungry, stay foolish.

BEA Orientation Day 2009.
If you see nothing here, it's because the photo owner has decided to make this public picture private.

Looking Back at My Work

I was going through some of my archives this afternoon when I discovered piles of exam papers during my secondary school age. Not surprising, many have turned yellow and filled with brown spots. But reading over them reminds me of the days when exams are the most important thing in my life.

I'm glad I've moved on; I'm glad I learnt to look at the world differently. But there is still much more waiting for me; I'm still on my journey to explore and discover my path, and I'm working hard on it.

English Paper III

Think Wider

I was planning to clear the dustbin two weeks ago and was looking for a plastic dustinbin bag but couldn't.

A week ago, the bag was kindly changed by my host.

Today, I looked at the cupboards again and found the plastic bags that has always been there.

Why?

Because the original plastic bag was black while the one replaced by my host was white and the ones in the cupboard, as you might have known by now, are white.

Yet another illustration that human minds at times, can be very narrowly placed.

Movies To Be Watched

I hope I can get all this done by next week before the next season of movies roll out ...

[Design] Current Affairs Competition

Broken pieces that really belonged to one whole plain.
But should physical separation matter anyway? Really?

This poster reminds me that maps are often misrepresented. Have you ever thought of why the "northern" hemisphere always appear on the top? Why is Europe most of the time appearing in the center? And if you pay enough attention, the sizes of countries often are not proportionate to their actual territorial area. Africa is three times larger than the entire Europe yet often appears much smaller on maps. And since planet Earth is a globe, everything should be stretched (distorted) a bit to reflect reality when printed on paper.

Test: Click to enlarge the upside down world map below. Close your eyes. Now see how long it takes to find Hong Kong. ;)

Exams Over

What next?


I guess I would have to start planning for my summer. I know I say this every year, but can't imagine that was a year.

Humour: A Tale of Two Cows

[Socialism]
You have 2 cows.
You give one to your neighbour.

[Communism]
You have 2 cows.
The State takes both and gives you some milk.

[Fascism]
You have 2 cows.
The State takes both and sells you some milk.

[Nazism]
You have 2 cows.
The State takes both and shoots you.

[Traditional Capitalism]
You have two cows.
You sell one and buy a bull.
Your herd multiplies, and the economy grows.
You sell them and retire on the income.

[Surrealism]
You have two giraffes.
The government requires you to take harmonica lessons.

[An North American Corporation]
You have two cows.
You sell one, and force the other to produce the milk of four cows.
Later, you hire a consultant to analyse why the cow has dropped dead.

[A German Corporation]
You have two cows.
You re-engineer them so they live for 100 years, eat once a month, and milk themselves.

[A British Corporation]
You have two cows.
Both are mad.

[A Welsh Corporation]
You have two cows.
The one on the left looks very attractive.

[A Japanese Corporation]
You have two cows.
You redesign them so they are one-tenth the size of an ordinary cow and produce twenty times the milk.
You then create a clever cow cartoon image called 'cowkimon' and market it worldwide.

[A Chinese Corporation]
You have two cows.
You have 300 people milking them.
You claim that you have full employment, and high bovine productivity, and arrest the newsman who reported the real situation.

[A French Corporation]
You have two cows.
You go on strike, organise a riot, and block the roads, because you want three cows.

[An Indian Corporation]
You have two cows.
You worship them.

[An Italian Corporation]

You have two cows, but you don't know where they are.

You decide to have lunch.

Philosophies vs Theories

Your philosophies shape your behaviour while your theories are based on past experience. In this regard, I prefer philosophies over theories since philosophies allows imagination. To believe, not to settle for the believed.