After about 2 months of hard work, it’s here! The Math Wizard is finally here!
I’m selling it for USD 10, and you can find out more here.
Today is auspicious, as the Chinese would say, because there are only 0′s, 1′s and 2′s in the date.
“You know, if you launched on 1 Feb 2010, it would be even nicer. 01022010 in DDMMYYYY format. That’s a palindrome!”
Uh… yes you’re right. Well, I needed 9 more days to prepare…
This is a short announcement, and a slight deviation from the usual topics (not that the topics are consistent, but … never mind).
I’m excited to say that my Math Wizard ebook is going to be launched in about 9 days. Launch date is 10 February, and the time is
Thank you for reading Polymath Programmer, with the wide (and sometimes weird) variety of topics covered. This ebook product I created is an amalgamation of my interests in math and Dungeons & Dragons (a tabletop roleplaying game). The price will be set at USD 10 (for now).
More product details will be announced on the launch date. For now, you can download a free preview of the Math Wizard, or you can read more on why I created the Math Wizard.
I’m making things happen. Tell me about yours.
It’s the end of the year 2009. There’s also something you should know. I’m not affected much by holidays, as in I don’t do anything special on or for them. To me, they’re like another Sunday. The days pretty much blur into each other.
Time is circular. Seasons change, things change, people change, stuff happens, but time goes on. In fact, we humans can’t comprehend how time continues to go on and on (except for the movie Titanic, but that’s another story…) that we have to break it up. Like years, and months, and days.
Time is circular. In fact, the very notion of time itself is questionable. Sure the sun rises at dawn, and sets at dusk. You think the sun cares that you designated a time called “dawn” and “dusk” for it to rise and set? The sun just happened. It just spun all 9 (sorry Pluto) 8 planets around it, while orbiting another larger source of gravity. What does time mean?
Time is circular. In fact, if you think about it, space and time are the same. If you walked from one spot to another, how far did you cover? What if I asked you how long you took? Is it the same? What if you didn’t move, and just sat there for an hour? It just meant it took you one hour to move zero metres.
Time is, perhaps, an illusion.
I started out with the goal of thanking you for reading my blog, for tolerating some of my inane writings, for finding something useful out of others. Then my mind wandered, and I wrote something philosophical, and very likely another one of those inane writings I mentioned. Let me get back on track.
It’s been about 2 and half years since I started writing. Perhaps you found a programming article useful. Perhaps you found a funny article. Perhaps you corrected me on a blatant mistake. Perhaps you’re too shy to voice your opinions (I know, I’m psychic, remember?).
I thank you.
Yes, even you, the mutant genius squirrel who’s living in some forest plotting world domination. Wait… what am I talking about…
My goals for 2010 are:
Since time is circular, there’s no real point in setting goals just for the new year. You should be doing that all the time, and readjusting as needed anyway. But hey, I need to change my calendar, so it’s a good time as any.
What are your goals?
And this has been brought to you by the entirely self-serving advertisement of the Math Wizard, possibly the smartest RPG character you’ll ever play.
I had a tumultuous past month (or so).
My network adaptor died on me, and since my computer then was about 5 years old, I thought “Why not just get a new computer?” So I did.
Due to some personal reasons, I feel a bit worn out. So I’m putting that ebook project on hold for a while. Partly because I’m also channelling my energy to another blog. Please visit Honeybeech, where I tell stories, mainly about my Dungeons & Dragons gameplay adventures.
Rest assured that I’m still here. So I’ll be writing math and programming topics here at Polymath Programmer, and RPG/fantasy/fiction stuff over at Honeybeech.
Because even programmers need to eat (as in “eat properly”, despite whatever you’ve heard about pizzas and fizzy drinks), I’m writing an ebook as a D&D game supplement. It’s called Math Wizard (I know, it’s so “me”, right?), and the character’s powers are mostly based on math and science concepts.
Considering all my options, I believe I have a better chance at making “Math Wizard” work better than “Discipline and Deflection” (the original ebook project). I also believe the former can inspire more people and ignite their imagination and curiosity than the latter. I will still create both, and I’m just constrained by time and effort.
A friend also introduced me to a book store here in Singapore called BooksActually. They have a sister branch called “Polymath & Crust”. Awesome! They have the word “polymath” in it. I have to visit that book store.
The store is located at No. 86 Club Street Singapore 069454, if you’re interested.
[Disclosure: I'm not paid by them. I even bought a book. See below.]
We went in, and it was a quaint little place, carrying books that you don’t see in major book stores. My friend bought himself a dictionary of symbols, and I bought a dictionary of mathematics.
Even their paper bag is interesting. I wonder what that interesting shape mean?
Found this from Merlin Mann:
If you don’t feel that you are possibly on the edge of humiliating yourself, of losing control of the whole thing, then probably what you are doing isn’t very vital.
John Irving
That said, many things get in the way of writing articles, as Brent Diggs found out.
I also found that writing articles is harder than writing code. It’s even harder when your wireless adaptor dies on you. Which was exactly what happened to me. Yup, that wireless adaptor. My super power apparently failed this time.
There will probably be no new articles for a week. Maybe 2. It depends on how fast my new computer arrives. Yes, I’m scrapping the current one. Because the battery for the internal clock appears to be dying. And because the USB connection from the keyboard seems to be acting up. And because the RAM thought there wasn’t enough space to hold variable values and decided to store those variable values in a buffer overflow, which apparently overflowed into the physical world and ATE MY COMPUTER FROM THE INSIDE OUT. And I might as well upgrade from Windows XP to Windows 7 (my computer’s 5 years old).
If you’re positively dying for some action, go to Stack Overflow. Ask a question. Answer a question. Then come back and tell me how awesome you are.
I planned to write about inserting an image into Excel in Open XML format (following the article on stylesheet creation in Open XML). In case you’re really interested in that, subscribe to my RSS feed so you’ll know the moment I publish that article.
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Because you're hardcore and want to write the code from scratch yourself. Click here to find out more about Spreadsheet Open XML From Scratch
I write about maths, programming, entrepreneurship and business stuff. I also make videos.
