Sunspots 14 Mar 2006
14 comments Latest by Rabbit
Transmissions spotted elsewhere:
- Ajaxian podcast with Jamis
- Includes "Mr." Jamis Buck talking about the scalability of Ajax based chat applications like Campfire.
- Trippy informative chair video from Herman Miller
- The fun starts about 1/3rd of the way in when body cells start DJing, giving massages, and exploring outer space.
- Gladwell: "I prefer to think of Freakonomics not as contradicting my argument in Tipping Point, but as completing it."
- "Levitt pretends he has refuted the Broken Windows explanation. He hasn't at all. In fact, to the extent that he concedes the huge role played by the expansion of police departments in the 1990's, he tacitly supports the Broken Windows theory."
- Copy Goes Here
- A fun film by our officemates at Coudal Partners. Includes a (Wes Andersonish) cameo by Jason and Ryan and a peek at the 37signals workplace.
- Larry Bowa on taking risks
- Dig this quote from Yankees' Third Base Coach Larry Bowa on taking calculated risks: "If you coach third and you don't get anybody thrown out, you're definitely not doing a good job."
- Ta-da Lists Widget
- A free Dashboard widget for OS X that offers quick access to Ta-da Lists.
- Photo of B20 Next Net 25 Conference
- Who says web conferences aren't diverse?
- Silicon Alley's comeback
- Why is this time different for Silicon Alley? Companies are being cheap. "...The current crop of Alley executives can't let a conversation go by without pointing out how utterly miserly they are."
- Srinivasa Ramanujan
- "The man who knew infinity."
- David's Wikipedia entry
- It really says this: "David is widely considered to be extremely arrogant."
- Summary of Jim Coudal & Jason Fried presentation at 2006 SXSW
- A blogger summarizes J & J's talk about using yourself as a target market and building big things with small teams (here's another summary too).
14 comments so far (Jump to latest)
FAA 14 Mar 06
Random math fact: Did you know that if you take *any* multiple of three and then sum each number’s cube, your result will eventually be 153?
Care to show your work to the class?
This isn’t working out on my calculator… But I’d like to see it in action out of nerdy curiousity.
37signals 14 Mar 06
FAA, removed….until our math department comes back with a response at least.
Robert Burns 14 Mar 06
Goes like this….lets choose 27
2*2*2=8
7*7*7=343
8+343=351
begin again…
3*3*3=27
5*5*5=125
1*1*1=1
27+125+1=153
Minky 14 Mar 06
Copy Goes Here bites.
nate 14 Mar 06
Gladwell is oversimplifying the effects of abortion vs. the Pill.
Tomas Jogin 14 Mar 06
David is not arrogant; he’s direct, does not bullshit, stands up for what he believes in and is not afraid to state his opinion. Most people can’t handle that kind of straightforwardness though.
scott 14 Mar 06
153 has many curious properties.
FAA 14 Mar 06
Thank you, Robert Burns!
27 is a fine, yet horribly misleading example. I chose 33 (first multiple of 3 to come to my mind), and judging by your numerical prowess you know how many more steps it takes to verify (and how forgetting to carry the 1*1*1 during whichever of those steps may have lead to my doubts).
Chris Mear 14 Mar 06
There’s a more general case too. Start with any number, and raise the digits to any power, sum the results, and repeat. You’ll find that you eventually end up in a closed loop.
For instance, start with 11 and use powers of 2. You get:
11, 2, 4, 16, 37, 58, 89, 145, 42, 20, 4
and that loop will repeat for ever.
In the specific case of starting with a multiple of 3, and raising to the power of 3, it just happens that the loop you end up in only has one member: 153.
Try Googling ‘narcissistic number’ and ‘recurring digital invariant’ for more of this stuff.
Raymond Brigleb 14 Mar 06
Oh come on now I met David at OSCON last year. He was one of the nicest people there. It’s always nice when a busy fellow like David takes the time to chat with a total stranger like that.
Joel Mueller 14 Mar 06
Copy Goes Here. Fun. I’d like to share a loft business apartment with guys like 37signals and Coudal. How about it? Open up a corner with a few desks and incorporate MacUpdate into Chicago? :)
-Joel
www.macupdate.com
Mark Howell 14 Mar 06
Great Larry Bowa quote! Thanks for the link!
mark
Rabbit 15 Mar 06
LOL! You know you’re popular when you have your own Wikipedia entry! Go David, go!