Steve Betts: Family

Magic trick for the kids

Fri, 23 Feb 2007 20:30:48 GMT

Here's a self-working card trick my dad showed me when I was but a wee lad. It sounds pretty mathematical and uninteresting in the telling, but try it out -- in practice, people are amazed at the outcome.

Take a standard, 52 card deck and randomly discard ten cards. I prefer to do this before the trick starts and never tell the audience, but you can do it in the middle (step 6) if you're feeling honest. These ten cards will play no part in the trick.

Deal the 42 cards into piles using the following method: Flip the top card from your deck face up, announce the value aloud (e.g., "seven!") and place it on the table as a foundation of a pile. Now continue to deal cards onto that pile, counting upwards with each card, until you hit thirteen. So after putting the 7 face up, you would deal five cards onto it, counting "Eight", "Nine," "Ten," "Jack," "Queen," "King!"). If the foundation card is an Ace you will create a 13-card pile; if it is a King it will constitute a pile unto itself. When a pile is complete, turn it face down and start a new pile with the next card. If the final cards in the deck do not make a complete pile (e.g., you flip over a "Three" but only have five cards remaining) set them aside for the moment.

Ask your audience to pick three of the face-down piles. Take all the unchosen piles, combine them with the remainders from step 2 (if any), and hand the deck to your audience.

Tell your audience to flip over the top card on one of the three, face-down piles. After he has done so, tell him to discard that many cards from his deck. So if he flipped over a 9, he would discard nine cards from his deck.

Tell your audience to flip over the top card on a second pile and, again, discard that many cards.

Only if you did not remove cards in step 1: tell your audience to discard ten more cards "for good measure".

Tell your audience to count how many cards he has left in his hand. Then tell him to flip over the top card on the last of the three face-down piles. If you've done everything correctly, the value of the card will equal the number of cards he holds.

The best thing about this "trick," I've found, is that there's no trick involved -- it's just math. So when your audience asks you how it's done, you can say "I just showed you -- try it yourself." This is especially good for kids because, requiring no slight of hand or misdirection, it is virtually un-screw-up-able, so long as they follow the recipe.

[defective yeti]

Tool for lifeblogging? Keeping families in touch?

Thu, 01 Feb 2007 17:47:56 GMT

New Stuff From OurStory.

I've known about OurStory for awhile and met CEO Andy Halliday when they were in stealth mode and in the early days, collaborating with VideoEgg.

On the DEMO stage this afternoon, Andy showed a face lift to OurStory: an online service for member-generated storytelling and collaborative family history. Their online service essentially guides users to collaboratively create and share life stories and biographies.

OurStory combines the best of blogging, photo sharing, digital storytelling, and family history. It uses a rich feature set that includes an interactive visual timeline, privacy controls, collaborative email requests and a library of over 2,000 prompting interview questions.

While most social networking sites such as MySpace.com focus on adding "friends," OurStory encourages deeper sharing and a collaborative process of online storytelling among family, friends and groups.

Says Andy, "you can collect your life long media over the course of a timeline, tell the stories behind the pictures, family stories, love letters, etc. You can start a timeline for your child, with things to share that are as early as photos and audio of the ultrasound. The stories can be a combination of various file types. Media can be tagged and displayed by the who, what, and where of your life."

After uploading photos, audio, and video for various decades of your timeline, you can add text to it along the way and turn it into a book. While some people use it as an online diary about their personal lifestory, some use it as a way to celebrate the life of a family member, and others document a group of people's history, such as The Rhodesian Air Force.

They have a free service, as well as a premium subscription for $39.95 per year, which includes features such as multiple profiles and timelines, unlimited privacy circles, style embellishment, and discounts on books and CD/DVDs.

[down the avenue]

Scott points out ways to save money

Fri, 14 Jul 2006 15:28:47 GMT

Some tips for saving money.

I met with some family friends today, at their request, to do a simple financial and debt analysis and come up with some ideas on how they could save money month to month.

Here's the list they left with:

Don't get tricked by Irregular Pay Periods - If one spouse is paid "every other Weds" and one is paid on the 1st and the 15th, pick one schedule to go with. For example, take the every other Weds paycheck and deposit it into a separate account and "pay yourself" on the 1st and the 15th.
Be aware of Irregular Bills - Have an interest bearing account where you pay a "simulated monthly bill" (much like a mortgage escrow account behaves) that builds up until the yearly/biyearly payment comes out.
Turn off everything in the house (as if you were on a trip) - When you go out for a long trip you likely prepare the house by turning things off. Why not do this all the time and work out a system where minimal things are on while you're at work? LCD or not, your computer monitor is a big light bulb. Forget screen savers, just turn it off.
Save for Property Taxes Monthly - In Oregon, Yearly Property Taxes tend to sneak up on folks. Save for those taxes, and everything irregular, in a regular way like your paycheck. Money in, money out, same every month, makes for a predictable lifestyle.
Call the Electric Company – Some electric companies give out Coupons for High Efficiency Lighting (fluorescent). Call yours.
Library Book/Videos Box near the Front Door - Don't pay late fees. Leave a shoebox near the door you leave from. Make it a habit to put things like library books and rental videos in that box and take them with you as you walk out.
Minimize Cell Phone Time - Somehow you survived the 80s and 90s without a cell phone. Save $75 a month or more by getting the plan that is the cheapest and hang up while driving.
Check Tire Pressure Weekly - Get a tire pressure gauge, or better yet, check your pressure everytime you fill up. Good tire pressure can get you another 5 MPG or more.
Know not just your Car's Mileage but your Dollars Per Mile - How much does it cost you to drive a mile? Is it 80 cents to the video store to rent a two dollar video? Maybe you should walk, or ride a bike.

Fill up, write down ODO. Drive. Fill up, write down ODO. Take Miles Driven and divide by Gallons. That is your Miles Per Gallon. Then take the price of a gallon of gas and divide by your Miles Per Gallon. That’s how much it costs to drive one mile.

Consolidate Trips - If you're out, get all your errands done in one trip. Avoid the "hub and spoke" model of returning home and heading out.
Cancel the local paper delivery - You pay for Internet, use it.
Cut Coupons and avoid waste - Bread lasts longest tightly bound in its bag, in the dark. Put Fruit in a paper sack in your fridge. Close lids.
Consolidate Insurance - Is your home and car insurance with different companies? You might get a discount if you consolidate.
Store Credit Cards are Satan - Cut up and close Store Cards. Call your existing Credit Cards and ask them if they can lower your rate. If they want your business, they will. Otherwise, leave them.
Know how your Cash Flows monthly - Monthly is usually the way to go if you're paid monthly or on the 1st and 15th. If not, find a boundary that works for you and get your life's inputs and outputs into a simple CASHIN-CASHOUT=SOMELEFTOVERCASH equation. Then, take the left over cash and save it. Take your checkbook down to some agreed upon number. We always "level off" to $300. Then next month you'll get a paycheck(s) and pay bills. Take the SOMELEFTOVERCASH-$300 and save it. Rinse, Repeat.

It was a fun evening and everyone left feeling a little more empowered and prepared to take action. If not these actions, some action.

[ComputerZen.com - Scott Hanselman]

Sat, 17 Apr 2004 00:52:13 GMT

Well, we had a miracle occur this evening. Moira (my wife and technology ignorer), brought the laptop down to the kitchen so she could cook using a recipe she found on the web! Congratulations!

Thu, 15 Apr 2004 00:40:45 GMT

Connor had his second select soccer game tonight. Playing versus the Kettering team. Unfortunately, they didn't play as well as last time, and lost 7-1 :(

Wed, 07 Apr 2004 01:53:08 GMT

Hey, look at that. His team has a web site. Wonder when it's actually going to have information in it :)

Wed, 07 Apr 2004 01:49:39 GMT

Tomorrow is Connor's first select soccer game of the season. He'll be playing at Washington Mill park at 6 pm. I'm hoping his team scores some points in this first game of the season, after only scoring a single point all last season. Here's a link to the organization's web site.