Parental Advisory: This might cause your head to explode!
So I received one of those annoying chain mails today. After scrolling down the list of forwards and stupid one-liner comments like "oh well, usually I don't do this but " for a few minutes, I got down to the gist of it, and here's it:

"For every person you send this mail to, Bill Gates will pay you $245, for every person you've sent this mail to and who sends it to another person, he will pay you $244, and for each third person that receives this mail through the person you sent the mail to in the first place, Bill Gates will pay $243."

Now, it was obvious to me, that this was no different than any other of the 2379582394 generic chain mails that go around, but for some reason I wanted to find out exactly how many mails it would take to bankrupt Bill Gates if that mail's content was true. After a few hours of discussion and math explanation (my math sucks, big time!) with a friend from school, he had not only figured out a comparably easy formula (I was expecting a way more complicated one!) but had also managed to explain the formula to me in a way that my way-below-average understanding of math had been wrapped around it.
For example's sake, I will assume that every person receiving this email will forward it to another 10 people, who will then forward it to another 10 people and so on.
So it looks like this:

1. person sends 10 mails
2. persons sends 10 mails, resulting in 10x10 mails sent
3. persons sends 10 mails, resulting in 10x10x10 mails sent

thus it is true that the first person receives 10*245+100*244+1000*243 = 269850 Euro

Since every 2nd and 3rd persons who send that mail thus become a 1st person, as soon as their mail gets forwarded again, we have a nice loop here, which effectively, at least for a linear and easy way to calculate Bill Gates' bankruptcy, makes everyone in the chain a 1st person.
Considering the amounts of people I've seen in the recipients lists of those wretched chainmails so far (sometimes going beyond 50 recipients), I think I'm on the safe side when assuming that reaching 10 different persons on each level works even in today's situation of social networking...
According to Forbes Magazine, Bill Gates is worth $48 bil, which is roughly € 39,9 bil, which I will round up to 40 bil for calculations sake. Getting back to our calculation, while taking Billy's whopping net worth of € 40000000000, and our previously calculated € 269850 per first person, it would take this amount of emails (or different 1st persons) to bankrupt Bill Gates:

40000000000 / 269850 = 148230 (and a bit)

If you take the log_10 of that, you get the amount of levels it needs to get to that amount of emails (it is roughly 5.1).
It is safe to assume that Microsoft/Bill Gates would never go through with such a wild idea of wasting his money, ever.

The formula, for those who're interested in playing around with it, should be:

log_10 (b / (x₁*m + x₁*x₂*(m-1) + x₁*x₂*x₃*(m-2)) = n

with

• b = Bill Gates' networth
• x_n = amount of persons involved for payout (you could change this to x, y, z (etc) for distinction purposes)
• m = amount of money being paid
• n = levels required for bankruptcy

A boatload of thanks to Roland, who led me through this and worked out the formula. Thanks for wasting your time with me on a completely nonsensical calculation that serves no real purpose other than being posted on this blog. ;)

Ta-taa.

Real life goes sci-fi
If any of you ever read or played anything related to cyberpunk sci-fi (Cyberpunk 2020, GURPS Cyberpunk or Shadowrun), "artificial muscle", "muscle enhancement" and similar terms and the ideas behind them won't be new to you.
What used to be part of the cyberpunk/sci-fi world of games, books and movies is now becoming reality though. As reported The Observer, "scientists have developed artificial, super-strength muscles powered by alcohol and hydrogen, which could eventually be used to make much better prosthetic limbs. The artificial muscles are 100 times more powerful than the body's own (...)".
Welcome to the 21st century. Where can I get my set of cybereyes, 12x zoom, low-light and IR vision modes included?

Ta-taa.

This goes to my little brother (who really isn't that little at all)
Next week, your final exams begin and I remember the dread I felt when I first was where you are now. Keep in mind that it's just another exam though! Everyone goes all fuzzy about them, but they really don't differ that much from regular exams, other than they're the last ones, and one is oral.
I'm not saying you shouldn't try to make the best of the remaining days to review whatever you feel is most necessary to review, but don't let all the stress that people tend to attach to those exams get to you, it's really not worth it.
Despite any fights we've had and despite the things I might've said, I know you're a damn smart person and truth be told, I think you're way fitter to pass these exams than I ever was. So go and show them that we might be weird and complicated but capable nevertheless. And after all, it's about being capable and nothing else.

I have your back. Kick some n00b teacher ass for me!

Zapped
It's the small things that make you think of work as something bad. For me, it's the dreaded thought of getting zapped all the time, be it when I shake hands with my boss in the morning, or when I open a door, or when I grab for my tea mug, or even if I press the space key half a second too long!
I really don't understand what's wrong with me, none of my colleagues seem to have this kind of problem, and I've tried out 2 different pairs of shoes already, to no avail. It's not consistent, too. Last week, it was okay-ish, with me only getting a mild zap every now and then. Today, I've been zapped left and right, and I've only been in the office for 45 minutes; and it was bad ones at that! The kind that not only you can hear, but also others!

I'm still waiting to see a little ball lightning to go off when I try opening a door, killing everyone in the vicinity...

Ta-taa.

Comparison of the week
"Americans taking over foreign words into their language is like them making pizza: it looks like the real thing, but the original's just so much better!"
- Anonymous Italian waiter

No hot finnish girls .. but lots of slacking!
I don't think I've had such a total slacker's weekend for some time; I hardly left my bed, except for preparing some food and going to the bathroom. Alas, I didn't sleep all the time, oh no! I watched Lost, and went from episode 7 to episode 21 in just 2 days. I'm such a geek...

Friday night and most of Saturday daytime saw me suffering from a severe headache though, which meant I had to postpone my Lost marathon until Saturday late afternoon/evening; but yeah, I managed. ;)

Today, I'm gonna finish the first season (only 4 episodes left) and then I'll have to go slow, because there's been only 15 episodes released from the 2nd season, and the 16th is being aired on March 22nd! Which means, I'll have caught on in roughly 2 weeks, and then I'll either have to play the waiting game or lose interest in it again. I'm guessing the latter will be the case, at least for a while; until there's been several episodes again to be watched in one go. ;)

Now it's time for some quick snack and then more geeking.

Next weekend should include hot finnish girls then. I'll probably have run out of Lost episodes by then anyways, despite all restraint. ;)

Ta-taa.

Anniversary facts

• 1579035 minutes ago, I made the first entry in this blog (3y 13h 19m)
• This will be the 225th entry to the blog, resulting in an average of 0.2 posts per day (talk about commitment)
• There was only 1 month in the entire time when I didn't blog at all (June 2005)

Since starting this blog, I have:

• learnt to navigate with map and compass
• learnt to disassemble and reassemble 7 different guns
• learnt to shoot or use 11 different guns/weapons
• used 6 different guns in regular training over longer periods of time
• jumped out of an intact airplane with nothing but a parachute and lots of good faith
• had 2 cases of slipped spinal discs, with a 3rd one being on the brink of slipping
• gone to university
• dropped out of university
• started my own company
• worked as a bartender
• worked as a field tester and localisation tester for cellphones
• been to 6 different countries

Probing
Hm. So Hot Girl from the office has a boyfriend it seems. Not that I really cared about that, but it does make things a bit more complicated. This calls for an actual plan!

Or maybe I'll just go out partying next weekend and pick up some hot Finnish girl with a liking for strange foreigners. I've been reaffirmed today by my boss (who reminds me a lot of my older brother, just without the artist's touch) that Finnish girls are crazy about foreigners and that it really shouldn't be a problem to have some fun. Unless, of course, I get my hands on one out of the ~5% that really don't like foreigners. I can already see Murphy grinning like mad... ^_^

Time for Lost.

Ta-taa.