The master in the art of living makes little distinction between his work and his play, his labor and his leisure, his mind and his body, his information and his recreation, his love and his religion. He hardly knows which is which. He simply pursues his vision of excellence at whatever he does, leaving others to decide whether he is working or playing. To him he is always doing both. –James Michener

500 RMB later, a new disk installed

A quick trip to the local computer mart with my translator friend and I’m all set to go again. Alas, he said, none of my data was salvageable so I have a bit of re-installing and remembering to do. But, the machine is working again, and that means I’m a happy camper. (Except for that part about having to reinstall EVERYTHING) (Oh, and the 500 RMB part, too)

7 Is a Magic Number

So, this guy from EnglishClub.com has a number puzzle in his email. I’ll give the puzzle details here. It’s kinda cool (which gives you a clue to my expansive skills in mathematics).

Anyway, first thing is to choose any whole number less than 700…doesn’t matter which one except with one case, that being if the number is evenly divisible by seven. Moving along –

Use a calculator – the Windows calculator is fine – to divide your choice by seven. If there is no decimal remainder, you have chosen a number which is evenly divisible by seven. Choose another number; we need a remainder.

Now, inspect the decimal remainder – the digits to the right of the decimal point. Select the first six digits of the remainder and add these digits together to achieve a result. The sum of your division problem’s remainder’s first six digits will always be 27.

Example1 Choice is 467. Divide 467 by 7 to achieve 66.71428571428571 Add 7,1,4,2,8 and 5 to achieve 27.

Example2 Choice is 589. Divide 589 by 7 to achieve 84.14285714285714 Add 1,4,2,8,5 and 7 to achieve 27.

Notice it’s always the same six numerals, although they are in different order.

What’s up with that?

 

Dude saves skin — not

What’s irritating — most of all — is of course that I haven’t got a recent backup.

Why is it that we never hear stories like: “Dude saves his skin with diligent use of factory furnished computer backup program.”

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