tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-68416544617737052832024-03-07T09:52:14.148+02:00Urikalization - Uri KalishUrikalizing computers, biology, philosophy, mythology, physics, math and science fictionUri Kalishhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08561692601016236573noreply@blogger.comBlogger43125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6841654461773705283.post-69976793233897395872009-07-10T17:25:00.016+03:002009-12-15T00:39:40.153+02:00Doctor House, Please Meet Mister BayesLet’s assume there’s some deadly disease out there, but there’s a pretty good test for it which is 90% accurate (if a person is sick – the test will claim he’s sick in 90% of the cases, and if a person is healthy – the test will claim he’s healthy in 90% of the cases). Now, assuming you took this 90% accurate test, and got a positive result implying you are sick - what are the odds that you are Uri Kalishhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08561692601016236573noreply@blogger.com13tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6841654461773705283.post-10201591759362859622008-12-12T02:24:00.031+02:002008-12-16T00:07:33.460+02:00Honey, I Shrunk the FerrariNot many people know this, but my dad has a magical garage; it has a door on the front, and a door on the back, and these 2 doors can be opened or closed instantly (within zero seconds).Since my parents are away and I’m extremely bored, this is how I wanna spend my afternoon:My friend will open the front door of our 4 meter long garage, and I shall speed with my dad’s 4 meter long Ferrari into Uri Kalishhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08561692601016236573noreply@blogger.com15tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6841654461773705283.post-90347339242466749042008-07-26T03:32:00.012+03:002008-08-07T07:35:06.727+03:00Summon the Wasps, Brainwash the CricketsThe Happening movie SPOILER WARNING!!!A few days ago, I saw Night Shyamalan’s movie The Happening. Main idea: since we ruin the environment, the plants begin to see us humans as a threat, so they release a toxin into the air that destroys human self-preservation instinct, causing all the people to kill themselves.OK, I know what you’re thinking... "Plants cannot defend themselves in such a Uri Kalishhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08561692601016236573noreply@blogger.com7tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6841654461773705283.post-72383552395561916092008-07-10T02:36:00.014+03:002008-08-19T10:24:33.871+03:00And the Machines Shall Inherit the EarthAfter several billion years of trial and error, something extraordinary has emerged from the African savanna. Enter Homo sapiens. Not quite as strong as a Dynastes hercules (able to carry 850 times its own body weight), as fast as a Falco peregrinus (diving at almost 140 km/h = 87 mph), nor as deadly as a Chironex fleckeri (that its sting can kill 60 adults in 3 minutes), but it strongly insists Uri Kalishhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08561692601016236573noreply@blogger.com27tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6841654461773705283.post-61740707023885931842008-05-09T16:42:00.013+03:002008-05-09T22:15:22.763+03:00Fooling the IRS - Benford’s LawSorry for once again posting about a math related issue. I’ll try some biology or physics next time…Let’s say you think the IRS shouldn’t take so much of your hard earned money. So, you sit around and just fake the numbers. Do you think you can get away with it?Benford's Law, also called the first-digit law, states that in lists of numbers from many real-life sources of data, the leading digit isUri Kalishhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08561692601016236573noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6841654461773705283.post-55251673007076244492008-05-08T02:12:00.019+03:002008-05-09T00:43:09.103+03:00Fooling Your Math Teacher - Heads or TailsLet’s say my hypothetical math teacher wanted to show me that the odds for heads or tails (on a fair coin toss) are about 50:50, so he gave me homework to toss a coin for 100 times and write down the result.Well, I certainly have better things to do than tossing a coin 100 times just to demonstrate a simple probability of 50:50, so I decide to fake it.I sit around and just randomly write “H” and Uri Kalishhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08561692601016236573noreply@blogger.com4tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6841654461773705283.post-24720098523100946682008-04-28T01:58:00.014+03:002008-10-18T00:14:31.670+02:00BlogCatalog T-Shirt SlogansBlogCatalog is probably one of the best bloggers’ online hangouts nowadays. It’s a blog directory, a help forum for bloggers, a general discussion board, a social network, and much more - all rolled into one site.Anyway, the other day, the BlogCatalog admins were looking for a slogan for a new BlogCatalog T-Shirt. First I thought about paraphrasing Julius Caesar, so I came up with “I came, I saw,Uri Kalishhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08561692601016236573noreply@blogger.com8tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6841654461773705283.post-76453340346774859782008-04-21T17:05:00.011+03:002008-04-22T11:48:51.545+03:00To Infinity... and Beyond!The Eternity II puzzle is an edge-matching puzzle invented by Christopher Monckton, and is marketed and copyrighted by TOMY UK Ltd. The prize for the first person who submits a correct solution is $2,000,000.This puzzle involves placing 256 square pieces into a 16x16 grid, constrained by the requirement to match adjacent edges (see picture). Each puzzle piece has its edges on one side marked withUri Kalishhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08561692601016236573noreply@blogger.com11tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6841654461773705283.post-72890913708254953712008-04-03T00:13:00.004+03:002008-04-03T00:59:05.511+03:00A Riddle in the DarkFour friends are trying to cross a dark tunnel with a single torch.Aragorn can cross the tunnel in 1 minute.Legolas can cross the tunnel in 2 minutes.Gimli can cross the tunnel in 4 minutes.Frodo can cross the tunnel in 5 minutes.The tunnel is very narrow, so they can walk alone or in pairs, but no more than two at the same time.If two friends are walking together, they walk at the speed of the Uri Kalishhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08561692601016236573noreply@blogger.com17tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6841654461773705283.post-42061018939582414632008-03-29T17:12:00.011+03:002008-06-10T11:58:10.010+03:00Right Brain vs. Left BrainI came across this weird test. It displays a spinning silhouette of a dancer, and asks you to decide which way the dancer is spinning.It claims that if you see it rotates clockwise, then you use more of the right side of the brain, meaning these would describe you: emotional, uses feeling, "big picture" oriented, imagination rules, symbols and images, present and future, philosophy & religionUri Kalishhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08561692601016236573noreply@blogger.com15tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6841654461773705283.post-44540191330694488892008-01-25T16:02:00.001+02:002008-04-07T08:57:09.128+03:00Happy 1st Birthday!!! This Blog is One Year Old!!!Today, the 25th of January 2008, is Urikalization’s first birthday!!!The past year has been a great experience for me. After a few years of ignoring the phenomena, I finally joined the Blogosphere. It was a great fun, even when it kept me up till 3:30AM when I need to wake up at 7:30AM.During this year, I created 40 posts, that’s an average of about 1 new post every 9 days. I admit this rate of Uri Kalishhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08561692601016236573noreply@blogger.com36tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6841654461773705283.post-1702263113784440672008-01-12T01:46:00.001+02:002008-05-09T17:05:34.300+03:00Failing for 130,000 Days Doesn’t Mean You Shouldn’t Try AgainA few decades ago, when I was in school, our math teacher gave us an assignment for homework. After a few days, the teacher came clean. This was what we had to prove:It is impossible to separate any power higher than the second into two like powers.You might recognize it in this form:If an integer n is greater than 2, then the equationan + bn = cnhas no solutions in non-zero integers a, b, and Uri Kalishhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08561692601016236573noreply@blogger.com15tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6841654461773705283.post-84660203359575384762007-12-22T22:58:00.011+02:002011-09-22T22:39:31.311+03:00Sand and Steel - Field Artillery TrainingI just came back from army reserve duty doing a few days of field artillery training. December is definitely not the best time of the year to hang around in the deserts of southern Israel.
Pros: the guys at artillery battalion 8157, the endless wind-sculptured untamed view, the undisturbed round rainbows, the unpolluted night sky, and the extra time to think.
Cons: missing the family, the Uri Kalishhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08561692601016236573noreply@blogger.com11tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6841654461773705283.post-36547977237949834422007-12-04T01:28:00.002+02:002012-09-28T00:30:26.055+02:00A Heretic in the Temple of Saint Albert
I admit it. I’m a huge fan of Einstein’s Theory of Relativity (the parts that I can understand). These ideas from the beginning of the 20th century are so beautiful! Mass-energy equivalence, the speed of light, reference frames, length contraction, time dilation, gravitational space-time curvature, relativity of simultaneity, the Twin Paradox etc. How can you not fall in love with Albert’s Uri Kalishhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08561692601016236573noreply@blogger.com21tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6841654461773705283.post-29148566556684823172007-11-19T02:12:00.001+02:002008-01-04T03:37:56.715+02:00The Elegant Path to a Higher Google PageRank* Rob a bank and leave a picture of you with your blog URL written on your forehead. You'll see, the gullible policemen will handle all your advertising for free.* Go to the zoo and exchange links with caged animals; preferably, exotic ones (just don’t trust bunnies, they’ll probably screw you).* For your site about necrophilia use a domain name like games-for-kids dot com. Some parents might be Uri Kalishhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08561692601016236573noreply@blogger.com25tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6841654461773705283.post-16435061865430335222007-11-12T00:39:00.002+02:002008-05-09T17:04:07.582+03:00One Small Step for Genotype, One Giant Leap for PhenotypeThe DNA difference between humans and chimpanzees is very small, currently estimated somewhere around 1%-4%, depending on which source you read, and what exact pattern matching algorithm you use for the comparison. This small evolutionary step in the DNA code of our ancestors was obviously enough to build a whole different brain. To paraphrase on Neil Armstrong: one small step for genotype, one Uri Kalishhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08561692601016236573noreply@blogger.com14tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6841654461773705283.post-35747315443106612922007-10-16T23:47:00.000+02:002008-01-01T23:46:23.447+02:00Is Programming an Art Form?Recently, I’ve found out that almost all programmers truly believe that writing code the right way, can be considered an art form. This is my minority report…Regarding intention… Although art is a term almost impossible to define, Wikipedia claims that art is a product of human activity, made with the intention of stimulating the human senses as well as the human mind, by transmitting emotions orUri Kalishhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08561692601016236573noreply@blogger.com24tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6841654461773705283.post-60406285617232187252007-09-18T00:08:00.001+02:002009-01-07T08:36:11.852+02:00The Day the Sky will Fall - Colliding with the Andromeda GalaxyMeet Andromeda, a beautiful spiral galaxy (you must see this) bigger than our own, approximately 2 million light-years away. Andromeda is blue-shifted, meaning it’s heading our way, however this does not mean it will definitely collide with our Milky Way, since the galaxy's tangential velocity is unknown. Galaxies colliding is a frequent event within galaxy groups, and there are signs that Uri Kalishhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08561692601016236573noreply@blogger.com38tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6841654461773705283.post-29658154627970924152007-09-05T00:38:00.004+03:002009-08-16T23:11:42.542+03:00Beating Asafa - Zeno's ParadoxMeet Asafa Powell, the 100m current record holder. If chased by a lion, he’ll make the first 100 meters in 9.74 seconds so find another partner for that dangerous backpacking trip to Africa...EDIT: Since this post Usain Bolt has done it in 9.58 seconds.Meet Maya, my 1.5 year old daughter (I have another 3.5 year old son named Yoav). When she runs, her feet twist inwards and her upper body leans Uri Kalishhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08561692601016236573noreply@blogger.com14tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6841654461773705283.post-67606023104338103542007-08-13T17:52:00.000+03:002007-08-13T21:31:14.804+03:00Forever YoungThis is an Ankh - the ancient Egyptian symbol of life. They believed in immortality and the afterworld that was filled with comfort and happiness, and were probably anxious to get there. I don’t. This is why I write this post.Life expectancy is constantly rising; the world average is almost at 70, and in some modern countries it is already above 80. Still, a person living for more than 90 years Uri Kalishhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08561692601016236573noreply@blogger.com21tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6841654461773705283.post-12558512452000558512007-07-27T13:55:00.000+03:002007-07-31T02:08:58.518+03:00Where Is My Mind?The Turing test is a proposal for a test of a machine's capability to demonstrate thought. A human judge engages in a natural language conversation with two other parties, one a human and the other a machine; if the judge cannot reliably tell which is which, then the machine is said to pass the test.The way I see it, there are two ways to build a computer that can pass this test. The first way isUri Kalishhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08561692601016236573noreply@blogger.com21tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6841654461773705283.post-12311070952790280762007-07-22T01:22:00.000+03:002008-02-04T01:41:49.964+02:00Cap’n, Me Cap’n! Yer Lads Be Jumpin’ Ship!Assaf Koren a.k.a. “Suffik”, left my company this week to pursue his dream, founding a new startup named WebSpeakup. Apart from being a very good off-work friend of mine and a personal loss, it’s been the third ultra-talented guy leaving us in the past few weeks. “Boogie”, “Suffik” and “Shorty”, have all jumped overboard to their own startup boats, leaving the rest of us dangling on the deck of Uri Kalishhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08561692601016236573noreply@blogger.com5tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6841654461773705283.post-80152014980459713902007-07-16T00:56:00.000+03:002007-07-25T10:06:59.496+03:0016,777,215 Ways to Be OriginalDo you remember why you started blogging in the first place? Try to remember… Way back, before you found out all you do is recycle content from other websites, before you scrolled down and discovered your whole blog is embedded with stupid movies from YouTube, before the HitCounter rush, before the FeedBurner hysteria, before the Analytics reports, before the AdSense clicks… It was about making Uri Kalishhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08561692601016236573noreply@blogger.com18tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6841654461773705283.post-52248130371728744002007-06-30T03:32:00.000+03:002007-09-05T10:43:51.626+03:00Counting Crows, Hunting Bugs - Hempel's ParadoxA new version of our product is just around the corner. We’ve just passed the code-freeze date, meaning no more writing code. The plan is to spend the next few weeks hunting down all those elusive bugs lurking viciously beneath the unsuspecting user interface. The rigorous checking and rechecking of all the features will probably prove to be a very boring task, so I came up with this alternative Uri Kalishhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08561692601016236573noreply@blogger.com12tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6841654461773705283.post-52469144709696727652007-06-15T00:07:00.000+03:002007-07-25T10:07:53.095+03:00Round Shaped Structures for a Square Minded CultureA few years ago, an architecture student told me it’s very frustrating to finish university and get flushed to the real world with all those innovative ideas, only to be faced with the harsh reality and discover people insist on living in simple rectangle shaped houses with boring square rooms. A few years after replying him with “it’s only natural” I want to recall my statement. Snowflakes and Uri Kalishhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08561692601016236573noreply@blogger.com9