Pauline and I have solved all but three of the following questions so far. Pauline got most of them ;-)

How would you do?

Mathsmart Christmas Quiz

Example: 52 W I A Y

Answer: 52 Weeks In A Year

1. 12 D O C
2. 7 S O A F P P
3. 6 F O A C
4. 24 B B I A P
5. 100 P I A P
6. 366 D I A L Y
7. 13 R I A B D
8. 5 S O A P
9. 52 C I A P
10. 11 P I A F T
11. 8 P I A G
12. 9 L O A C
13. 10,000 M O T G O D O Y
14. 90 D I A R A
15. 26 L I N T A
16. 2 P F A Y
17. 1000 C C I A L
18. 3 W M F T E
19. 36 I I A Y
20. 1066 T B O H

Update. With Heather's help it looks like we've cracked all 20 questions if we assume that (o) is in fact 26 L I T A.

PS Some of the above questions would be difficult for 'foreigners' (non-Brits) so don't feel bad if some of them stump you ;-)

via Scripting News - Jeff Polaski: The Twelve Bugs of Christmas

Recent News | BBEdit 6.5.1 Now Available

"Bare Bones Software today announced the release and immediate availability of BBEdit 6.5.1. New to BBEdit 6.5.1 are language support for Java Server Pages (JSP), and an improved "bbedit" command-line tool, which allows BBEdit to be used as an external editor for Unix programs on Mac OS X. This update also incorporates improvements for running Unix scripts (such as Perl, Python and shell scripts), a scriptable "Preview as Text" command, and a simplified interface for choosing a default Mac OS API reference, as well as an assortment of other enhancements and fixes. "

The fuller report is still pending although I did get my exam questions finished.

The 'proceedings' of the Constructing a Managed Learning Environment: Tools, tactics and the human experience workshop I attended in Edinburgh last month are now on-line:

"This JISC MLE conference was held on the 23rd and 24th of November in London and Scotland. The conference presented the emerging results of the Building MLEs in HE programme. Copies of the presentation given and a number of supporting papers can be found below...."

Strangely, the title of the web page is (still) wrong and seems to be a hang-over from a previous workshop.

I'm hoping to get time in the vacation to review my notes of the conference and will rate the presentations. I suspect any conscientious reader - hi David! - will determine for themselves which of the presentation had substance and which were just BS ;-)

via Iain - IBM Research | Resources | News | IBM's Test-Tube Quantum Computer Makes History

"SAN JOSE, Calif., December 19, 2001 - Scientists at IBM's Almaden Research Center have performed the world's most complicated quantum-computer calculation to date. They caused a billion-billion custom-designed molecules in a test tube to become a seven-qubit quantum computer that solved a simple version of the mathematical problem at the heart of many of today's data-security cryptographic systems."