Hoo-eee!

Last Friday, I was introduced to the Monty Hall Dilemma via Eric Lippert. As I iterated through all of the explanations behind the answer to the dilemma, the easiest technique I found for understanding the situation was to approach it from the point of view of the game show host, not the contestant.

Now the contestant will choose the wrong door initially two thirds of the time. If he or she does, that means that the game show host can logically only open one door. The door that the contestant chose cannot be opened, and neither can the door that holds the prize. Therefore if the contestant chooses the wrong door initially and switches, he or she will always wind up choosing the door with the prize. And if that is true and the first statement is true, the contestant will win two thirds of the time if they always switch doors.

The solution to the dilemma may be to switch doors when offered the chance, but the dilemma actually is more complicated than it initially seems. It has within it multiple parties acting and reacting in turn to a rapidly changing environment following a set system of rules. From my experience, that’s a pretty good baseline for describing a complex software system.

It’s also a good baseline for describing line dancing, but you get my point.

Born in the year of the walkman

Last Thursday night at my birthday party, my girlfriend’s roommate gave me a card with a list of all of the important events that occurred the year I was born. This is so much better than year of the horse.

The one third split

Sheep occasionally have a split scrotum. I know this because a judge at the New York State Sheep and Wool Festival knows this. He was knowledgeable and earnest enough to launch into a brief lecture on the history of split scroti before announcing the winner among the Angora Sheep on Saturday.

After the fair Shannon and Taima and I drove to Catskill where we ate a restaruant run by a man and his Thai wife. It was the least pretentious or for that matter decorated place I have ever eaten at, but I could tell just from entering the door the palce was going to be good from the smell of lemongrass and fish sauce that infused the entire restaurant. It turned out to be so good I wanted to slap the owners of Planet Thai.

A Hostess cupcake with a match in it

I was prepared to spend Friday night in the comfort of my bed after a hearty meal of Chinese takeout and a shower. Never mind that it was my birthday and I had come straight home from a cakeless day at work. I was going to start out the year watching the Karate Kid with my roommate on the couch, and I was going to do it by choice.

One phone call from Westerdale and twenty minutes later two young ladies were sandwiching me for a birthday picture while an amused bartender poured me a drink.

Here's to friends.