Hello Kitty stuff for housewives

It ain't no doubt that Hello Kitty loves everyone and it sure applies to housewives as well. Being a housewife myself, I have recently found a bunch of cool housekeeping stuff in the loveley theme of Hello Kitty.

For instance, Hello Kitty Hell shows us a washing machine and a mop:



Merlin.pl has a toy hover (okay, not exactly housewife item, but future housewives will love it):


The best stuff is to be found at Universal Kitty House. Among other items, there are latex gloves:


a sponge:


and the coolest toilet brush I have ever seen:

So cute! >.<

Geek gets guitar!

Hello, World!

I am thrilled to announce that I am now the happy owner of a brand new electric guitar: a Viper 200FM:


And to go with it, Hubby bought a Rolland Cube 20-X:


So I'm learning to play the guitar again. I can play a few chords so far.

No complaints from the neighbours have been noted yet.

The new 7 great tricks to improve your life.

No, this isn't another "7 great tricks to improve your life" article. I have read many of them. I have read many great advice lists and found many great ideas on various sites (like Zen Habits just to name one). I have also found a lot of advice that doesn't suit me and finally, there's even more tricks that I have found and lost.

It's time for something different.

New year is coming, and with it, the resolutions. So, for that occasion, I have 7 awesome tips to make your life better:

1. find 3 sports activities that you will practice without making any excuses
2. find the 3 weight loss mistakes you keep on making
3. find 10 tips that will help you become more productive
4. same thing for organized
5. find 5 cool family activities to do more often
6. find 6 lunches that you will finally pack for work
7. find 7 more positions for the list you're reading that would best apply to you.

Once you've found all that stuff (and I bet you know where to look), you'll have a great starting point for improving your life in 2010. Good luck!

I made a huge mistake today

Gosh, I made such a huge mistake today...

I was multitasking, combining Christmas shopping with shopping therapy (which means bying gifts for others and myself) and I bought this Hello Kitty lunch box:



when that Hello Kitty lunch box is avaliable on the market:




Maybe at least mine is cuter...

[Picture credit, credit]

I love Amazon

Seriously, I really like Amazon. I have had really good experiencec buying from them. And what did I buy? I guess you can tell by the recommendations I have just received:

Introduction to Modern Cryptogr... (Hardcover) by Jonathan Katz

Classic Shell Scripting (Paperback) by Nelson H. F. Beebe

Ideals, Varieties, and Algorithm... (Hardcover) by David A. Cox

Okay, so modern cryptography: cool, me likes. Classing shell scripting: not so much. I belive shell scripts should be received from kind people who wrote them, not written by myself. Ideals and varieties sound pretty interesting too, but something tells me that I wouldn't get through such a book without taking a class in the subject and I'm done with my math classes.

So, who wants to guess what I've been watching on Amazon?

The Sims 3: World Adventures

After months of waiting, I finally got my hands on the first Sims 3 expansion pack: World Adventures.


Happy and excited as a kid who just got a new game, I immediatly installed it. It didn't load.

Bummer.

Blogging my thesis: Bernstein was super-easy

Did I say I had trouble understanding Berstein's work? I take that back. I'm reading Boneh now.

I'm reading one paper by Boneh. I have started reading it over half a year ago. I still don't really get it.

The paper is called "Finding Smooth Integers in Short Intervals Using CRT Decoding". In it, the author does the following:

• presents a new algorithm for CRT decoding
• uses it to find smooth integers in short intervals
• discusses how to apply it to the quadratic sieve method
• generalizes the CRT decoding problem
• reduces the gap between CRT and Reed-Solomin decoding.

My brain is burning.

Why I love Sage in 6 simple lines

This is why I love Sage:

e = sqrt(log(4*B) / log(P)) + (5 / (4*d))

g = [P^(a - i) * (x*B - R)^i for i in range(a)]
h = [(x*B - R)^a * (x*B)^i for i in range(d - a)]

m = matrix(Integers(), d, [list(k) + [0] * (d - len(list(k))) for k in g+h]).LLL()

w = sum([x^i * m[0][i] for i in range(d)])

return filter(lambda x: x[0].is_integral() and gcd(P, x[0] - R) < P**e , w.roots())

(That's a crucial part of my thesis.)

Blogging my thesis: Friday the 13th

Friday the 13th was a good day for my thesis - mama had some time for its baby.

I did some hard work that didn't translate into a single additional line, but boy, did I get results. I debugged my sieving for smooth numbers method. I now have two methods that do the same in different ways and give me the same results. Almost. They don't when an unexpected divisor of n is found, but factoring n is the whole point, and that glitch will be corrected very soon.

Now, I have to finish implementing the third method and make some kind of interface that would use all three and make comparaisons.

Friday the 13th was also a good day overall: I did the assignement at the lab and dont' have to go there next week (hooray, more thesis time!) and I went to the gym. I also started my Christmas shopping, where I have pretty mixed feelings. While I can't stand the Christmas ads in November, being in the city at noon was a good occasion to visit a few shops.

So, all in all, dear diary, Friday the 13th was a nice day. Today, I'm coding some more for the thesis.

Geek gets fit (kinda sorta almost)

One of the downsides of my otherwise amazing career is the lack of physical activity. And while I am aware that I should be fit and I love yoga, I am not fit. Yet. However, somes serious steps have recently been taken towards this noble goal.

First, Hubby and I got Multisport cards from my work (and I would like to thank my boss and everyone...)


The cards are way shinier IRL and they let us access many gyms ans swimming pools for [almost] free. We've been using them intensively and visiting a gym twice a week (and the swimming pool later to relax) for a month now.

Second, Husband got a balance for his nameday. A kinda smart balance, that measures your fat and water percentage. The smart balance taught me that I'm made in 50% of water and 30% of fat- sigh.

Finally, Hubby bought me my nameday present: the Wii Fit!



The Wii Fit always tempted me, but I judged it by its cover, and the cover mainly features yoga poses (they look best on pictures), so I instantly thought of the mountain of money I could save by doing these exact same poses on my bedroom floor. But, since I got the console as a wedding gift (I love you Auntie!), its cost dropped significantly and the temptation won.

I like it. It is important to note, however, that it's a weird cross between a game and a workout. It's not a decent game. It's not a decent workout either. But, on a Thursday night, after 8 hours at the office, and knowing that we'll hit the gym the next day and a real workout is not a great idea, the Wii Fit is a pretty cool pasttime.

I may write a better (longer) review, but in the meantime, Gizmodo has an extensive and geek one - enjoy!