tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-59800659636982952792011-11-27T15:19:43.852-08:00I am a mathematician and philosopher by day, and an entrepeneur/dreamer by night. I enjoy writing about a variety of topics, including all of the above topics listed in the title. Enjoy!Theo V.http://www.blogger.com/profile/06618444161304808159noreply@blogger.comBlogger321100tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5980065963698295279.post-6326206479386481602007-07-14T16:09:00.000-07:002007-07-14T16:23:38.805-07:00

Moving!Over the past three months I've written 31 blog entries! I figured that by now I would have lost interest in writing. But contrary to my own self-doubting I've become increasingly fascinated with writing!I've become so interested in writing (and with the thought that others are gaining some benefit/entertainment from my writing) that I decided to help foster the writing skills of my

Theo V.http://www.blogger.com/profile/06618444161304808159noreply@blogger.com37tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5980065963698295279.post-19078268678554460112007-07-09T13:34:00.000-07:002007-07-09T13:35:23.910-07:00

More Reasons that Google is Really Cool.http://blog.topix.com/archives/000016.html This article points out some of the various reasons why Google is a computing monster.First of all, they have an incredible, almost organic computing structure which allows them not only to do massive computations on massive datasets (100 TB+ a day) but also to continue scaling the ability of those services to

Theo V.http://www.blogger.com/profile/06618444161304808159noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5980065963698295279.post-40547344989160683492007-07-06T10:15:00.000-07:002007-07-06T11:01:09.821-07:00

On the Seventh Day God Rested...So reads the end of the first creation narrative in Genesis of the Bible. I have often glanced over the Sabbath passages in the Bible with very little notice, except as it suited me to take Saturdays off for "religious" reasons :-) But as I was watching a History Channel documentary on the Bible, a very interesting nuance of the Sabbath was presented. The

Theo V.http://www.blogger.com/profile/06618444161304808159noreply@blogger.com3tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5980065963698295279.post-89773180779624441972007-07-03T15:13:00.000-07:002007-07-03T15:14:50.362-07:00

Life StrawThis article in Newsweek (suggested by Malia) reports on a new device that works as a portable water filter that will only cost $3 and filter about 185 gallons (1 years worth of drinking water). Most of the LifeStraw's users will never drink anything fancier than plain water through the device. But its impact on their lives can't be overstated. More than 1 billion people worldwide lack

Theo V.http://www.blogger.com/profile/06618444161304808159noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5980065963698295279.post-67304868151735128432007-06-29T08:33:00.000-07:002007-06-29T12:34:43.937-07:00

MapReduce or How Google RocksThis last week I did a presentation on Google's home grown parallel processing algorithm MapReduce which can be found here. Google has hundreds of Terrabytes (1TB = 1,000 GB = 1,000,000 MB) of information to process every day. They have to rank, sort, and search billions of web pages across the world. And they have to do it as cheaply and quickly as possible. Since

Theo V.http://www.blogger.com/profile/06618444161304808159noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5980065963698295279.post-16500708978506208842007-06-28T12:52:00.000-07:002007-06-28T12:54:12.949-07:00

The Importance of Getting out of DebtIn my last post I urged you all to start saving for retirement. I even did some math to show that one of the best things you can do is to start saving in an investment account as soon as possible. Even if you have debt, I explained, starting the Roth IRA now will lead to great advantages upon retirement.However I would like to expand my analysis a bit. My

Theo V.http://www.blogger.com/profile/06618444161304808159noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5980065963698295279.post-69150453748209305582007-06-26T07:11:00.000-07:002007-06-26T07:12:18.730-07:00

To Save or not to Save: A Tale of Why I love the Roth IRAAs an applied mathematician I feel the constant need to prove my worth by working on practical problems for the good of the general public, like a mathematical superhero of sorts. So far I have solved problems/questions such as "How much of the earth needs to be covered in Solar panels to power the world", "What is the probability of

Theo V.http://www.blogger.com/profile/06618444161304808159noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5980065963698295279.post-60296256615252199142007-06-22T07:15:00.000-07:002007-06-25T14:30:24.185-07:00

My WifeMalia and I have been married for nearly 6 months now. It seems like just yesterday we were getting engaged atop St. Mary’s glacier. Then we were planning our wedding in what felt like hardly any time. We spent many nights up late planning and talking and waiting until the last minute to say goodbye for the evening.And now we’re married and go to sleep by 10:30 or 11:00 pm at night. And it

Theo V.http://www.blogger.com/profile/06618444161304808159noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5980065963698295279.post-4910401816909221612007-06-19T20:04:00.000-07:002007-06-20T07:37:25.033-07:00

Machine Learning - IntroductionAfter my latest blog on "Why Robots are the way of the future" I realized I have not really written about one of my greater passions...Machine Learning/Artificial Intelligence. Machine Learning and Artificial Intelligence are not quite the same thing. Usually Machine Learning falls under the category of Computational Science, Mathematics, Computer Science and

Theo V.http://www.blogger.com/profile/06618444161304808159noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5980065963698295279.post-35496207351284684212007-06-19T06:32:00.000-07:002007-06-19T06:34:35.164-07:00

Robots are the Way of the Future I have this really cool robot called Roomba made by iRobot. It vacuums the floor for Malia and I. All we have to do is push the clean button and away he goes zipping around the carpet in a semi chaotic pattern until it's all clean. And it works too! This is a great development for 2 reasons1.) It's just cool.2.) It really does save us time.Statements like Robots

Theo V.http://www.blogger.com/profile/06618444161304808159noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5980065963698295279.post-68712099823786443192007-06-14T08:19:00.000-07:002007-06-14T08:21:57.260-07:00

They Took My Toothpaste!Last night my Mom flew to Houston from Denver. As she passed through the TSA security check point, the guards notified her that she would have to relinquish her recently purchased black cherry jam. You can imagine the disapointment she must have felt since black cherries don't really grow in Houston.I experienced a similar disappointment last year when flying to Cozumel. I

Theo V.http://www.blogger.com/profile/06618444161304808159noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5980065963698295279.post-34418483121434044102007-06-05T15:30:00.000-07:002007-06-05T15:32:44.605-07:00

Airplane's are awesome!Last Wednesday I got to go flying with my good friend Josh. He and his instructor, allowed me to come along with them as Josh practiced his short runway and grassy field landings. Shortly after 9:30 AM we were taxiing down runway 11R, getting ready for our turn on the tarmac. The air was buzzing with the sound of the propeller and a few of the other neighbouring plane's

Theo V.http://www.blogger.com/profile/06618444161304808159noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5980065963698295279.post-74830507921699659542007-05-30T17:19:00.000-07:002007-06-01T11:04:25.008-07:00

But How Can I be Sure my Widget is Actually Working?Welcome to the world of statistics, where we try to convince ourselves and our employers/clients/friends/wives that the projects we have spent hours and hours on are actually worthwhile! We will see by the end of this article just how you can too can demonstrate with reasonable certainty that your very own predictor/estimator/widget is having a

Theo V.http://www.blogger.com/profile/06618444161304808159noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5980065963698295279.post-87290988353873655452007-05-29T15:09:00.000-07:002007-05-29T15:11:00.656-07:00

This weekend at the BarbecueI love grilling meat. There's just something very satisfying about meat cooked over an open flame. Perhaps it is my Texan nature. Perhaps it just tastes good. Whatever the reason, Malia and I ate grilled food twice this weekend...and it sure was good! On Sunday we had some nice barbecued chicken and grilled asparagus. Grilled asparagus is one of those surprising foods.

Theo V.http://www.blogger.com/profile/06618444161304808159noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5980065963698295279.post-91381865591812540162007-05-25T11:47:00.000-07:002007-05-25T11:52:06.602-07:00

A Quasi Philosophical BlogAt the request of my brother Arthur this blog entry is going to be long and philosophical in it's essence. Incidentally this blog entry comes not only at the request of my brother Arthur, but also inspired by a 3 part documentary called The Trap by the BBC that he found floating around the Internet. Arthur is an expert at finding quality material on the Internet to

Theo V.http://www.blogger.com/profile/06618444161304808159noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5980065963698295279.post-74250297610217831892007-05-21T10:33:00.000-07:002007-05-21T10:37:17.986-07:00

Credit Card MathematicsAs the last couple of mathematically related articles I've written have been kind of useless here is something eminently practical: periodic interest...i.e. the highway robbery of Credit Card companies.First a brief history about credit cards. Prior to 1978, credit card/revolving loan providers were limited to about 12% interest rates. Most states capped interest rates

Theo V.http://www.blogger.com/profile/06618444161304808159noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5980065963698295279.post-44712778663262110292007-05-18T11:47:00.000-07:002007-05-18T11:51:55.746-07:00

Kent at The Digression blog asks: What is the probability of a blog's subtitle's first letter of each word producing a meaningful acronym?Apparently the subtitle for my blog makes the acronym MPEG. MPEG is the acronym for a file format that contains movies or motion pictures. Well be careful what you ask for, cause here's my answer! :-)First, let's simplify this by asking, what is the probability

Theo V.http://www.blogger.com/profile/06618444161304808159noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5980065963698295279.post-63855850220285670202007-05-18T09:30:00.000-07:002007-05-18T09:36:37.787-07:00

Why I Want to Live Off the Grid - Part III Producing Your Own Food It seems that lately organic food and natural lifestyles have emerged on the National scene as never before (see note 1). More and more Americans are taking hold of the belief that food grown without chemicals, preservatives and antibiotics is better for your overall health. I think that this trend is really cool.However, the

Theo V.http://www.blogger.com/profile/06618444161304808159noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5980065963698295279.post-24618459495895967392007-05-15T14:07:00.000-07:002007-05-15T14:11:44.786-07:00

A Cool Fact about Uniform Distributions On Monday I received the problem of the week from Doubleclick Technical Group guru, Andrew. The problem was as follows: If I have a hat with all the numbers from 0 to 1 in it, and I start randomly choosing numbers from it...how many times will the number I draw be the maximum value for the numbers I've already drawn when I draw a total of n numbers from the

Theo V.http://www.blogger.com/profile/06618444161304808159noreply@blogger.com4tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5980065963698295279.post-38576755852646346592007-05-10T10:51:00.000-07:002007-05-10T12:34:07.004-07:00

My First Trip to NewYorkThese past few days here in New York have been my first exposure to the Big Apple. While I was a bit nervous about spending time in a large fruit it turns out that the big city is very interesting and an experience that all who count themselves cultured should have. Sunday afternoon I caught a flight out of Denver International Airport. If you've ever been to DIA, then you

Theo V.http://www.blogger.com/profile/06618444161304808159noreply@blogger.com6tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5980065963698295279.post-87506738547355026492007-05-01T17:28:00.000-07:002007-05-01T17:34:12.017-07:00

EntrepreneurshipTo become a successful entrepreneur it is imperative that one adhere to the following rules....Okay, I'm just joking about that. If there were a set of rules to follow to become a successful entrepreneur than every body would be one. Who wouldn't want to be the guy in charge? So what does it take to run a successful business? In the end, I really couldn't say. I've never run a "

Theo V.http://www.blogger.com/profile/06618444161304808159noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5980065963698295279.post-62842139090638846822007-04-27T12:41:00.000-07:002007-04-27T12:43:18.881-07:00

Stock Market Analysis ToolsFor the last 5 months (basically since I finished my Master's thesis) my stock market prediction software has been on hold. I was making great progress on it and thought that I had finally cracked the problem last September. However after running a real time trial that essentially paper traded all the stocks on the S&P 100 on a daily basis, my theoretical accuracy of 60

Theo V.http://www.blogger.com/profile/06618444161304808159noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5980065963698295279.post-42448691141141484702007-04-24T14:02:00.000-07:002007-04-24T15:32:12.544-07:00

Sahara Desert Not a Viable Source of Solar PowerIn one of my last posts I talked about the math behind using solar power. In the end I concluded that the Sahara Desert could power the earth 211 times over. After sending out this link to a lot of family and friends the number question/objection I received back was, "But putting solar panels in the Sahara Desert is really impractical." I would

Theo V.http://www.blogger.com/profile/06618444161304808159noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5980065963698295279.post-539435429429330332007-04-20T09:15:00.000-07:002007-04-21T14:25:35.210-07:00

A False Dilemma?This article in the Christian Science Monitor points out the growing concern in the US Southwest about water shortages. While droughts in the desert are nothing new, the concern is that water usage by electric utilities accounts for about 60 percent of all non-farm water usage. In a region that is growing by leaps and bounds this could be a problem. As more people move in, more

Theo V.http://www.blogger.com/profile/06618444161304808159noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5980065963698295279.post-27845854330469121512007-04-16T17:03:00.000-07:002007-04-20T09:14:34.370-07:00

The Mathematics of Free EnergySome would note that I am a bit idealist about getting off the grid and Green energy. Some might say it's impossible and rather impractical. However, I believe that the mathematics behind it really "adds up". Here's a look at the arithmetic behind it all.First the energy usage of the world per year: from ecoworld.com we have the following estimated energy usage in

Theo V.http://www.blogger.com/profile/06618444161304808159noreply@blogger.com4tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5980065963698295279.post-67868430157106390792007-04-13T15:56:00.000-07:002007-04-20T09:24:54.081-07:00

Why I want to Live off the Grid - Part II, Not Living in the Stone AgeWhen it comes to the practicalities of living off the grid there are many options, and just as many enthusiasts willing to help. The Internet is home to a growing community of DIY green enthusiasts who's advice the off-gridder will most appreciate. A Good starting place is Treehugger.com.Thoreau's explains in his classic book

Theo V.http://www.blogger.com/profile/06618444161304808159noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5980065963698295279.post-15565785313743716742007-04-11T15:43:00.000-07:002007-04-20T09:19:58.384-07:00

Why is there something, instead of nothing?Philosophers are always pondering such questions like why is there something instead of nothing (thanks Jason Fraze for the question prompt) I don't think that this is really an answerable question.However I would like to ask the question is there such a thing as nothing? In other words is there a place in the universe that is totally devoid of an

Theo V.http://www.blogger.com/profile/06618444161304808159noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5980065963698295279.post-42930362728462376952007-04-09T16:10:00.000-07:002007-04-20T09:20:44.287-07:00

Why I Want to Live off the Grid - Part I, Interdependence, or how the TV is the DevilIn High School I quickly became a teachers pet for a paper I wrote called "Television: The Work of the Devil?". Most people who know me, know that I am a well-meaning Christian, and I must first say that this paper was not about the moral evils of television content (though indeed I do find most television

Theo V.http://www.blogger.com/profile/06618444161304808159noreply@blogger.com4tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5980065963698295279.post-27594236447987413102007-04-03T13:55:00.000-07:002007-04-20T09:22:01.206-07:00

A Random Walk Through the Stock MarketHave you ever taken a random walk in the park? If you say yes, then chances are, you are incorrect. Nearly everything we do has purpose and direction to it...if only because our minds have trouble doing anything without it. The Stock Market exhibits a mathematical phenomena we call a Random Walk. A truly random walk in the park would mean that one starts off

Theo V.http://www.blogger.com/profile/06618444161304808159noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5980065963698295279.post-65775641942595178492007-03-29T14:04:00.000-07:002007-03-30T08:51:17.175-07:00

I was talking with my buddy Will today. Will said that he read an interview with an Amish guy who was 100% content with his life. Will hypothesized that amongst other things, the Amish live a simpler lifestyle more focused on the arts and the human situation. In other words the Amish are kind of like conservative hippies that are sticking it to the Man by living off the grid.Hearing about the

Theo V.http://www.blogger.com/profile/06618444161304808159noreply@blogger.com3tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5980065963698295279.post-18664427730802274342007-03-23T14:54:00.000-07:002007-03-23T15:02:16.256-07:00

Many times throughout my studies in Mathematics the question has been posed, "What are you gonna do with a Math Degree...teach?". Being prideful I always said that I was going to use the right side of my brain to make a million dollars in the stock market. But in the case that one chooses to be a professional mathematician and has no passion to make millions on the stock market, here are a few

Theo V.http://www.blogger.com/profile/06618444161304808159noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5980065963698295279.post-72975099569870701132007-03-22T13:44:00.000-07:002007-03-22T15:03:57.808-07:00

I have started this blog for a few reasons. I hope that my posts are useful and productive for myself and anyone else who stumbles across them. Hopefully I will have at least one post a week on one of the following topics:1.) Green Technology - all things that give us free energy, or help to conserve energy without making my life a drag. 2.) Math, Statistics, Machine Learning and the Stock

Theo V.http://www.blogger.com/profile/06618444161304808159noreply@blogger.com1