Write a piece of code that will use a for loop to calculate the number of digits in a positive integer (Hint use division by ten)

So I created a short, simple function:

int digits(int num)
{
  int i;
  for (i = 0; num > 0; i++, num /= 10);
  return i;
}

To my surprise, I only got 3 out of 4 on that question. Apparently, the loop was supposed to start at 1 (rather than 0), and the test changed to > 9. This would result in 0 having one digit.

I’m not sure what exactly lost me the mark, but it was either that or the fact that my teacher though this would produce “10″ as having one digit, which he tried to explain to me that my logic that produced no digits for zero, as produced one digit for ten, and so forth (which it didn’t).

I had two arguments to his reasoning, and why my function that produced an output of 0 for an input of 0 was correct:

• The question called for a positive integer. While zero surely is an integer, there’s a lot of confusion amongst most people if it’s truly positive or not. I personally believe that zero isn’t positive, but rather non-negative. I haven’t read any definite proof, and tried to show my teacher some opinions (a Dr. Math article), but he came back with some weird story about how my grade school teachers lied to me (more on that after).
• How many digits does zero have? I’ve heard less about this than I have about the positivity of zero, but I really think it’s kind of trivial, and it has no digits. What does zero represent? The absence of something. It means there’s nothing. So, no digits? Zero could be said to just be the leading zero to … well, nothing. The number “1″ has 1 digit, but it can also be represented as “01″, but it still only has 1 digit. So, does the “0″ digit in the number 0 really have digits? I don’t think so, but I’m really certain on this one.

Anyways, I put up a good enough argument that my teacher gave me the mark (which I didn’t really care about anyways - I ended up getting 1% less than I could have had I not, due to my teacher’s bonus-marks-for-test-corrections theory). I was really trying to prove something, and have some good math talk (which I haven’t really done in a while).

At one point, my teacher asked where we learned that 0 isn’t positive, and one of my friend’s said “grade school”, which my professor then went on to say our teachers had lied to us, and “oh, hears something else that your teachers lied to you about! How did they teach you to do exponents?”. I knew he was going to bring up “x to the power of 0″ and say how it didn’t work with the common way of working out exponents (which is to multiply the number by itself how ever many times). I understand what he meant, but it also got me thinking about zero’s part in exponents, which I still haven’t figured out in my weird brain-logic I like to do. I’d like to show him the proof of 1+1=2, or how 1=0.9…

I’d appreciate some discussion on this, and perhaps some more scholarly or scientific opinions, as I’m not a math major nor do I really know that much about what I talk about.

About moving in. It actually went pretty well. We had been packing things into boxes for a few weeks before. We tried to keep similar things together, including glass items, bedroom stuff, etc. So we were decently organized, and only needed a little bit of rearranging at the last minute.

We tried to plan our move a little bit in advance. It’s about 45km from my house (a bit less from Laura’s), so we wanted to do it in one trip. Laura’s parents offered to help us and rent a large (18ft I think) U-Haul truck, which her father drove. We had many of my boxes and quite a few of Laura’s at my house, so we planned to get the truck at 7PM Friday evening, and load it up at my house in town, and then park it out at her house farther out of town and load it up the next morning.

We had asked several of our friends previously if they’d be able to help us move. This was probably the best thing that we could do, as our 4 helping friends were what likely made everything go so smoothly, especially my friend Jimmy who I knew I could count on.

Saturday morning I arrived at Laura’s house at about 7:30, with plans for everyone to show up ahead of time. Laura had moved nearly everything (all the boxes and some light furniture) to the garage the previous day while I was at work, so there wasn’t a whole lot of stuff be brought upstairs. Previously mentioned Jimmy showed a little bit early, and everyone else a bit late. We had started loading right away, with Laura and Allison in the truck moving everything to the back and everyone else loading crap onto the truck.

The hardest challenge was getting the large dresser into the truck, and trying to get the couches upstairs and to fit properly in the truck. Then the guys drove with Laura’s dad to the apartment while Laura, her mom and Allison went to pick up Sophie from the vet in Leamington (about 10 minutes from her house).

So just to put this timeline into place a bit: 8AM started loading, 9AM left for Windsor. 50 minutes to the apartment, so unloading started at about 10AM.

By 11AM, we were done. An entire truckload (18ft) full of our stuff, unloaded in less than an hour. We were done and waiting for 15 minutes before Laura and her mom met us there. Then we all headed back to Laura’s for pizza and beer.

I think there’s some key things we did that really helped us:

• Planned ahead of time, packing boxes over a two-month period, were most of our non-essential stuff was packed long before move date.
• Set a determined date, and arrange everything for that day. The sooner you plan the better, as it’ll help people plan their schedules.
• If it’s feasible, get a moving truck. I don’t think it’d be as effective for moving across town, but for long trips (even 45 minutes), it saves doing several trips. It also helps you get everything done in one bang, and get it all over with.
• Ask some friends to help, and try to be certain you can rely on them to commit. We had 5 friends helping us, which made 5 haulers and 2 “passers”.
• Feed your friends/helpers pizza and beer or something similar. It’s not only a good incentive to tip someone into helping you and a great thank-you, but it’s an excuse to have a pizza and beer (or whatever).

There were some challenges for us though, and things that we could’ve thought over first:

• Our apartment was really cramped with all the unloaded boxes. Unpacking was a chore because it was a game of moving boxes to other rooms just to get them out of the way. Kind of like the game Rush Hour.
• We could have organized our boxes better, based on where the stuff was going to go. Labelling would’ve helped, too, so we knew were to unload them, to minimize the above problem.
• Thinking about how we were going to arrange things. We had trouble (and some arguments) about how to arrange furniture and were stuff like the computer desk was going to go.

So far, after about a month and a half of living here, I’m finding I like it. It’s hard for me to keep up on laundry (that’s one of my chores), and the bedroom hasn’t really been organized yet, but it’s pretty homey.

Again, apologies for the blog silence. I’m not going to promise anything specific, but I have a couple other things I want to talk about, including my new job as a Java programmer and perhaps some web stuff that I’m dealing with in creating my blog for PHP class. Also, that website I’ve been working so hard on at my other work has been release. Checkout www.technophar.com!

Any comments - let me know in the comments (durr hurr).

I wanted to add some images to my recent post about OXM, but feared legal complexities about scanning magazine pages, so I sent an email to Francesca Reyes, Editor-in-Cheif, explaining what I wanted to do and asking for their opinion.  Today I received a reply (directly from Francesca), encouraging my idea. She agreed with my points about not scanning full paragraph or pages (so as not to reproduce the writers’ hard work), but cropping articles was okay. She even wished me good luck on my blog.

Really just another reason I like reading OXM. The writers not only seem nice but are. I’ve read other magazines where I the writer seemed like a complete ass. Customer involvement is a major aspect of any business, and OXM treats there readers great. It’s the same reason I love Nintendo. You feel like they’re doing something for you, rather than just coaxing you to spend money.

I’ve been reading OXM and NIntendo Power for over a year now, and I think in some way they’ve shaped my article writing style. I’ll be the first to admit I’m not a great writer, but I’d be even worse if I wasn’t exposed to so many good articles. Also, some dibs back to Francesca, her monthly “Letter from the Editor” column is always a good read (along with other articles, of course).

Anyways, expect some more images to be added to the previous post, and perhaps a post on September’s Nintendo Power in the next week or two. I want to get something about development up, so that might come first. I have some ideas that I’d like to share but I likely won’t have time or energy to pursue myself.

I got my September Official Xbox Magazine a couple of weeks ago, but I just finished reading most of it this week. There’s a lot of sequels featured in this month’s magazine – previews for Fable 2, Rock Band 2, and Street Fighter IV. Unreal Tournamant III is reviewed and there’s some features indirectly related to Bioshock 2 and Mass Effect 2.

The cover story and the biggest game of the season so far is Fable 2. Page 44 starts a six page colourful and exciting preview of the game that’s hoping to fulfull the promises of the original, and much more. The screenshots display amazing visuals and the environment that I loved in the original Fable. The most exciting feature revealed here is the multiplayer aspect.

From what I understand, there are certain points in the land that have orbs. These orbs contain images of other players (friends and strangers) which you can select and invite that person into your world, where they can help you fight baddies, solve puzzles, gain the adoration of your (supposedly) loyal fans, or in the case of evil friends, murder your wife or the whole town. Experience and spoils are shared in a way that you can set, and the co-oping player gets to bring his treasure home with him. You are responsible for all your friend’s actions, but fortunately you have control over what the game allows him to do (so you can protect your beautiful wife from harm, of course).

One of the exciting aspects of this feature is that you can see how different another’s world is, and affect it. Apparently there are parts of the story (even early on) where different decisions can make drastic changes on the game world, and a town in a friend’s game may be a slum where the same town in your home world is a prosperous city. Also, as I noted above, the townsfolk react to you (and your friend) based on your reputation and other factors. Some reactions described in the article included disgust and gawking at disfigured players, lustful desire for beautiful ones, and large crowds gathering for the most famous. Of course, if you’re friend visits you and he’s more famous, you’re suddenly forgotten.

The game play and story of the long-awaited sequel seem to me like they’re going to feel a lot like the original – which is a good thing. There are some changes – for one, you don’t get money from quests, but you can take up other trades and hobbies to make money (perhaps even stealing, or bandit work?). You’ll be recognized for your career accomplishments as much as your heroism. It sounds exciting and should drop on October 21.

Rock Band 2 will have some new features that improve on the different modes of game play, but nothing too drastic – all the old instruments will work with the sequel. There will be new, better instruments, which look nice, but I think I’ll stick to my current ones and save some cash (Aside from buying a wireless guitar). All Rock Band (and RB2) DLC will be compatible with either game, which is a bonus, and the Rock Band 2 tracklist is the best part of the game, with a whack load of new songs planned. And of course, September release date is awesome.

The “We Love Xbox” section this month features Rock game peripherals – and damn. The $300 third-party Rock Band drumset looks wicked, and can be used as an electric drumset. It won’t happen for me, but Guitar Hero World Tour’s drums look (functionally) sweet, and the guitar as a frickin’ touch-sensitive panel for slides. Of course, Konami’s got Rock Revolution in the works, and while the drums look ugly the seem like they’d be fun to play.

There was an article in this month’s issue that was a good read for an aspiring developer. Beyond The Sea describes the formation of 2K Martin, which will be developing Bioshock 2. Anyone who’s into game development should read the article.

There was also a short excerpt for a Mass Effect novel from Drew Karpyshyn, Mass Effect’s lead writer. I haven’t got a chance to read it yet, but the little bit I did read was well written (like Karpyshyn’s other books I’ve read).

The magazine was good to read, and there’s a lot I didn’t talk about. Hell, I haven’t even gotten to read it all, I’ve been so damn busy this summer. I think the next magazine post will be a bit shorter (I get excited about sweet things like Fable, sorry). Next up, if I can make myself do it, will be September’s Nintendo Power, which has some great previews of it’s own (another Sonic promiser!). Please, feel free to leave a comment about what you think.

I’m also going to do sort of “themed” days. I’ll not hold any strict rules about these, but it’s a guideline for me.

• Mondays – Work/Career/Business

• Tuesday – Life, Love, Laughs

• Wednesday – Web & software development

• Thursday – Geeky things

• Friday & Weekend – Gaming (Friday bitches!)

I’ve got a couple of ideas cooking, but I’m still working full time for at least a week, so I don’t know when I’ll be able to do them. Here’s some of them:

• Discussing the recent legal drama with CompSci.ca and LanSchool, and my part in it.

• Review of September OXM and Nintendo Power magazines. I get my subscription over a month before the actual “date”, so I’ll give some takes on what I think the interesting articles and previews/reviews are.

• Thoughts on the development of company website that I’m nearly done.

• Rants about moving and bragging about living on my own.

There’s some people out there kicking me to be active, one being myself, so this weekend I’ll have a post, I promise. Thanks for reading (and clicking my ads! The two months this sites been up netted my about $5 ad revenue total. I only had $1 for the previous 8 months or so from my site).

Bug Shooting is a small little application that sits in your taskbar and gives you better control over screenshot taking. It allows for customizable shorcuts for the three different commands it has: whole screen capture, box selection capture, and time-delayed capture. You can specify “servers” to send the shots to, which included some bug tracking systems, skype, or mail application. You can also define custom commands, though I haven’t looked into that.

Once the capture is taken, a window pops up allowing you to crop, rotate, or add things (lines, text, even images) to the screenshot, then save it or send it to that “server”. It’s pretty handy, and while I have found a couple of flaws (it likes to keep the last taken screenshot open, which can have a memory impact if took a large shot), it’s a pretty decent utility, and I haven’t seen any better.

Check out Bug Shooting’s website, http://www.bugshooting.com/web/ and let me know what else is out there and your experiences with this program and others like it.

Together we’ve got about $12k. Tuition and other school fees are about $2500 each and we need to put away about $3600 for rent up until April. With about $2500 for books, bus pass, and other school supplies, I’ve got a little bit of extra cash to stow away. Hopefully that can stay save for gifts, etc.

My concern is the monthly costs. Utilities are included in rent, and the only real needs are food and gas - with gas being about $35/week for going to work across town and getting large groceries, we’ll use the bus for other travel.

I have absolutely no idea how much groceries will cost. It’s just the two of us. We’re not too heavy eaters but we don’t like eating crappy cheap stuff all the time either, and we’ve gotta have lunch-packable items for school. I’ve thought no more than $75 a week (after the initial cupboard stocking, of course), but Laura seems to think that it’ll be closer to $100, if not more. I’m more inclined to believe her, as I don’t cook or do shopping whatsover.

So, this I’m calling for comments. Any ideas on what our weekly/monthly costs are gonna be (keeping in mind we’re in the Windsor area) are welcome, and just general living costs and issues and discussion.

I’ll have some geek stuff next post, I promise.

That about puts them all on the same plate, which means I have to develop for three different browsers, all with their own little perkiness. Of course, I could just use tables - hell, tables work anywhere. Or I could make a navigation bar with images only. But as a geek and supporter of standards, I of course have to use CSS only. And the navigation menu isn’t in a line of text. No, it’s an actual list element. And it’s floated and horizontal, with no bullets.

And the best part - it’s a rollover, drop-down menu. Without Javascript. Of course, that was the point, except in order for IE to accept rollovers properly, I had to use some Suckerfish javascript. Well - at least it was tidy, and worked. Sprinkled throughout the code are little hacks and tricks to make everything fit in place, like !important flags and .margin-top: -2px tricks. In my quest to achieve standards compliance and full accessibility, I have broken my core religious believes and broken my balls over gettings everyone to play nicely. Isn’t it just easier to say eff that browser I don’t care about you? Well, certainly. But then I’d be a rational, productive person.

So my father and I go back, load up, whatever. Then I found his phone (it’s one of those smart phones with Windows Mobile or something on it) and we grabbed it. I decided I’d play some games on it on the way to the new house, so I turned it on. But wait - “Tap here to sign into Live Messenger”. Tap.

Of course he’s got 3 messages popped up already. The first one was from some girl (his girlfriend? I don’t know). (Keep in mind my brothers a moody, music, poem type, but not emotional, just a weird combination of punk, emo, and american eagle):

Her: hey how r u hun
Me: alright i guess
Her: alright as in could be better?
Me: yeah
Me: i did find a cool site tho
Me: www.internetisseriousbusiness.co
Me: .com
Me: stupid phone
Me: anyways i g2g
Me: bye

And the rest of the night I was humming the song, and dancing occasionally. Once I told Laura, she smirked in a “you’re-a-nerd” kind of way when she heard me.

So, epic win, amirite?

(note: not a /b/tard, just have /b/tarded friends that have worn off on me)

• My girlfriend and I decided we were going to move out to an apartment for school this year
• My parents gave us a couch set, a water fountain, and told us they’d pay first & last
• Her parents offered us a bunch of stuff like pots & pans
• We bought some cookware on clearance
• I looked up some apartments in Windsor
• We went and seen two, one on Millen St and one on University Ave W
• Decided the first (Millen) was crap and a dump and wouldn’t pay $400/mo for it let alone $570
• Fell in love with the second (on University)
• Before we even go halfway home, had called the guy and told him we’d take it

So now, we’ve got a 1 bedroom apartment with a fair amount of space (600+ sq.ft. I think), $600/mo all inclusive, includes a fridge, stove, microwave, private washer/dryer, and even air conditioning. It’s 14 minutes away from school and about 4 minutes away from my friend’s.

So sweet deal, eh? But what about my Star Wars poster and other things, including my B-wing lego set, my large Master Chief wall-sticker, my two swords, and 40+ Nintendo Power posters? Laura has already said she’s the “decorateur”, and while I’m sure she’ll do a fine (amazing) job of it, she’s not nearly as geeky as I am (yet still pretty geeky). I’m sure you can understand that small spot of rust in this amazing shiny new deal.

However, there is hope - last night she professed to me that she thinks the Star Wars poster might look nice in the living room, since there’s a lot of blue in it and that would match our couches. And if not then I can put it in our bedroom. Sweet. I just love that girl.