So long, and thanks for all the comments!

This is the last post. You don't have to go home, but you can't stay here.

It's been fun writing this blog, but maintaining a sustainable flow of quality content has been too difficult, as of late. And, posting junk is unfair and pointless. For those refusing to let go, cheer up - w116 will resurface under a different URL in a few months, shrouded in much needed anonymity, of course. Surely, enough interesting things will happen by then to justify a new blog. Maybe it can be my dissertation-defense-blog, or my life-after-a-Mets-World-Series-win-blog, or even my check-out-my-new-book-deal-blog. Who knows.

Anyway, thanks for reading and commenting. Thanks for agreeing and disagreeing. Mostly, thanks for the book loans. I just hope that if I read this a few years from now, I won't be too embarrassed.

Almost deja vu

Making us think that it's 1999:

- Roger Clemens, check.
- Andy Pettitte, check.
- Marianno Rivera, check.
- Derek Jeter, check.
- Jorge Posada, check.
- Luis Sojo, uh... check?

Missing from the illusion:

Tino Martinez, Chuck Knoblauch, Scott Brosius, Bernie Williams, Paul O'Neill, Darryl Strawberry, David Cone, Orlando Hernandez.

No Way.

Roger Clemens is a Yankee. Wow. Really, I didn't see this coming, even in light of all the rumors and speculations. This move is just a symptom of the misguided way that the Yankee organization has been managed in recent years. The focus is obviously on deals of the breaking news variety, even if they mean bringing in aging legacy players who should have retired several years ago. If Clemens turns this season around for the Yankees, I'll be happy to take back my criticism.

Apple lust strikes again

Do you have people in your life who have a particular effect on you? Or perhaps our brains form various associations that are very difficult to break out of. There is a girl I see about once a year, and every time that we meet, we eat chocolate cake. Whenever she sends me email, I have a terrible craving for chocolate cake. So, I exchanged a few emails with Anthony the other day, and now I am experiencing terrible gadget lust. This time, I really want a MacBook. I don't need a MacBook. ("Nobody NEEDS a MacBook). Maybe Intern Zach's adventures in cheap hardware acquisition land had something to do with this too. But I really hope that I get over it, because there is nothing that will make me justify a purchase of a new laptop.

By the way, does anyone out there want to give me a MacBook?

Cry me a river

There are a lot of sad Yankee fans out there. It kind of breaks your heart, and warms it at the same time. Kind of the same feeling you get when rich people get caught for tax evasion. Sad, but you know they had it coming. The interesting observation here is that you never see Mets fans in such a despondent state. And I don't mean just now. In general. Mets fans aren't sad, they just are. The fact that the Mets are not, have not, will not win the World Series is right in the same column with the fact that you, me, that guy, will not win the lottery. A winning season is just a bonus, a pleasant surprise, like the promotion you never even applied for. Well, maybe not. But this is one of my favorite gross generalizations.

Problem wording

Tucker states the problem as follows:

"A set of 8 binary digits are equally spaced about the edge of a disk. We want to choose the digits so that they form a circular sequence in which every subsequence of length three is different. Model this problem with a graph with 4 vertices, one for each different subsequence of two binary digits. Make a directed edge for each subsequence of three digits whose origin is the vertex with the first two digits of the edge's subsequence and whose terminus is the vertex with the last two digits of the edge's subsequence. a) Build this graph. b) Show how an Euler cycle will correspond to the desired 8-digit circular sequence. c) Find such an 8 digit circular sequence with this graph model. d) Repeat the problem for 4 digit binary sequence."

Gross states the problem as follows:

"Find a (2,3)-deBruijn digraph and sequence. Repeat the same for a (2,4)-deBruijn digraph and sequence."

The problem is identical, although it is stated in obviously different terms. The question is, which is the optimal wording.

It should be noted that in Tucker, the question is presented after a chapter on Euler cycles, which mentions nothing at all about deBruijn sequences. In fact, this problem appears very early in the book, and very little has been said about digraphs at all, up to that point. In Gross, it follows an elaborate chapter dedicated entirely to deBruijn sequences, about half way into the book. However, I think that the Tucker approach works better in an introductory course. It's very much in spirit with the notion of letting the student "discover" the math that they need to solve a particular problem. Granted, the idea of a disc of binary digits probably does not stir the imagination for most students. But I think that it's a more constructive way of presenting the problem, as opposed to just explicitly stating the exact subject that you want the student to understand. If nothing else, the Tucker wording is far less conducive to just googling the answer.

A note on the subject of graph theory...

The comprehension of the material, as well as successful completion of problem sets, is made significantly easier by the use of colored pens. Yes, indeed. Coupled with a competent instructor and a decent text, colored pens (or pencils, if you will, or even markers, if you are a barbarian of that sort) are really essential to anyone's success in the subject. I learned other things too, but this was the most apparent.

One more day

Tomorrow my semester will officially end, as I hand in the final for my Graph Theory class. I'm just nearly done with the exam. I took today off to work on it. It was actually quite nice to be on campus strictly in the grad student capacity. Really nice. The final was a lot more challenging, compared to the midterm, which I found to be surprisingly easy. Overall, my experience with the class and the subject has been generally positive. I wish we had time to cover more material. That's really my only complaint. But I will write more once I get my grade.