Project #1: Using the language of choice develop a program to shuffle a deck of cards in the most efficient manner while maintaining a high confidence of random draws.
Bonus: Build this program as a library that can be used by later projects to expand their functionality.
Project #X: Create a program to utilize your shuffle library that will adequately replicate an existing single player card game. (Solitaire)
Continue to build from there until you have a working online casino.. ok.. well maybe not that last part.
-Casey
The RouterStation Pro was merely Ok.. for the value point. We sold a lot of them when I used to work for a WISP hardware provider but they had a ridiculously high 10% return rate compared to the less than 1% return rate on a comparable Routerboard.
I don't work there anymore but I still use Mikrotk RouterOS and Routerboard in my home and office. While comparable in priceto Ubiquiti they both beat the blue router pricing by a hundred country miles and pound for pound the configuration interfaces are superior to blue router's old and busted command line. It just makes sense when you look at it.
The console Mikrotik console commands actually resemble english.
The OP Gets what he asked for in a single package with great software development and durable hardware platforms
Developed on open standards and utilizes a Linux Kernel 3.3.8 package on Arm and Tilera Cores (Also runs on x86 hardware)
You get to annoy some pushy Tier 1 Blue router salesperson and get something useful at a reasonable price while they sputter incoherently about TAC availability and premium service contracts. . This has happened to me
Cons:
There can be a bit of a learning curve if you are only used to COTS routers like linksys and D-Link - But I will volunteer to help you get started.
The price:to-feature-set ratio is so low you may have a hard time convincing yourself that it is a quality device. Trust me it is.. If you don't trust me just Google around.
Annoyed blue router salesperson might stop taking your calls for when you really do need a large blue router/switching package. This has happened to me. I just called up and got a new one. They were much nicer.
I would rather see you utilize one of the newer Single Board Computer routers from a vendor like Mikrotik rather than spend far too much money for a Cisco ASA or SoHo solution.
As an enthusiast I would recommend the Routerboard CRS series for price and punch. It will provide the OP with all of the features he requested and a ton more that CISCO would charge a licensing fee for. The base cost will be around $149.00 for a CRS with 8 1gbp Ethernet Ports, a Gbit SFP cage, and integrated 802.11N MIMIO interfaces. http://routerboard.com/CRS109-...
Wanna build your own, you can add 802.11AC to any of thier base baords and chuck it in an enclosure for rock bottom prices. -- http://routerboard.com/R11e-5H....
It supports Client and Server modes for IPSEC, OVPN, PPTP, L2TP, VPLS,GRE,SSTP and those are off the top of my head.
I'm not a salesman, just a nerd.
Casey Annis
P.S. If you go with Mikrotik, I'd be happy to do a TeamViewer session with you and get you started.
There is a growing movement in rural and bedroom communities to stick it to the big carriers by providing FTTH 1gbps service to thier residents as partnerships between the towns and provisioning companies. For instance you can take a look at Wake Forest, NC. One man, a private citizen, started an initiative to get FTTH service into the town and now we will have 1gig service for about a hundred bucks a month. That is twelve dollars less per month than I pay for 50mbps from Time Warner.
www.wakeforestfiber.com for reference.
unklStewy
Even a slice in the continental backbones can be overcome by a creative redundancy plan and it makes me happy to be a network engineer.
Now if rural Ohio would invest in some more infrastructure I wouldn't have to go into "Oh Crap" mode when someone neglects to call DigRite and takes out our single fiber stub.
Glad to hear that Telecom Egypt has their act together.
-Casey
Excellent Math Skills!;)
That needs to be wrapped up with a bow and sent over to Defense Distributed so they can etch it into their next Lower.
--Casey
I suppose that is a matter of opinion. I prefer the 7.62 and other.30 caliber bores when I go hunting. The rest of the party were stocking.223 and 5.56. The.223 and 5.56 have become popular here and I know it isn't because of cost. The rounds for my Mosin (Brown Bear from Walmart) are dirt cheap compared to the ammunition for the AR-15's.
--Casey
We have guns and other defensive weapons not because we are trying to over throw the government or because it is a macho thing to do. It is as our Nation's Fore Fathers defined in the Constitution the right of American Citizens to bare arms and to have the right to assemble a well armed militia. The need for a militia may not be present now but at the time the document was written we had just finished a bloody revolution and we were marching into unknown territory as the population spread west. The Government could ill afford a standing military in every territory in which its citizens might find themselves. They were also aware that not all governments foreign or domestic may remain altruistic in their endeavors and that defense of home and hearth was likely to be necessary in the future. So yes we cherish our ability to own firearms and there are a lot of reasons for which we do. However I wouldn't expect anyone not a citizen of the U.S. to understand the rights we hold close to heart as is evidenced by your ignorance of our society and your apparent need to denigrate our cultural habits. The school shootings are very dark portions of our history and using them to take punches at our culture in general is base and unappreciated. -- Casey
It that is the case it is in direct conflict with the NFA which ascribes the definition of 'machine gun' to existing machine gun models as well as any drop in auto sear or components that could convert an otherwise non-NFA defined firearm into a fully automatic firearm.
--Casey
True. Although the definition of intent is very open to interpretation. Suppose I buy a.308 match barrel at 24" it's perfectly legal. If I take that same barrel and for sh*ts and giggles cut and crown it down to 17" but I don't install it on the receiver who defines my intent to do so in the future. As much as I hate legalese I hate vague legalese even more. --Casey
I think the biggest problem with the inclusion of the words "without significant sporting purpose" is that who decides this and what are the thresholds for defining it.
When we went hunting this year I took my Mosin Nagant M91/30, a true battle rifle albeit and old one. We also had an AR-10 and an AR-15 as well. Just because the AR platform guns look like they could be carried into a war zone does not make it any less valid for sporting use. Cosmetic changes to popular sporting caliber firearms do not make them battle rifles.
Conversely the idea that sporting purpose is reserved only for hunting is also wrong. With the rise of defensive tactics as a sporting category these firearms are the platform of choice for competitors.
As long as Defense Distributed has the appropriate level of FFL they are within their rights as a manufacturer to produce serialized and registered parts for these platforms. An example of something they can't produce for sale under their current license would be a drop in auto sear which would convert one of the semi-auto platforms to a full-auto platform. They can however produce firearms for sale, development and testing purposes that can include full-auto firing platforms if they submit and file a Class 3 upgrade to their Type 7 FFL.
--Casey
Actually 'Rifle Barrels' under a certain length are regulated by the National Firearms Act (NFA) and enforced by the ATF.
The NFA defines NFA "firearm" as:
A shotgun or rifle having a barrel of less than eighteen inches in length or any other weapon, other than a pistol or revolver, from which a shot is discharged by an explosive if such weapon is capable of being concealed on the person, or a machinegun, and includes a muffler or silencer for any firearm whether or not such a firearm is included in the foregoing definition.[3][4]
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/National_Firearms_Act
-Casey
Slashdot Mirror
Project #1: Using the language of choice develop a program to shuffle a deck of cards in the most efficient manner while maintaining a high confidence of random draws. Bonus: Build this program as a library that can be used by later projects to expand their functionality. Project #X: Create a program to utilize your shuffle library that will adequately replicate an existing single player card game. (Solitaire) Continue to build from there until you have a working online casino .. ok.. well maybe not that last part.
-Casey
The RouterStation Pro was merely Ok.. for the value point. We sold a lot of them when I used to work for a WISP hardware provider but they had a ridiculously high 10% return rate compared to the less than 1% return rate on a comparable Routerboard.
I don't work there anymore but I still use Mikrotk RouterOS and Routerboard in my home and office. While comparable in priceto Ubiquiti they both beat the blue router pricing by a hundred country miles and pound for pound the configuration interfaces are superior to blue router's old and busted command line. It just makes sense when you look at it.
The console Mikrotik console commands actually resemble english.
I forgot to mention the State-full Firewall with Connection Tracking and QoS systems with packet inspection rulesets. Casey
Cons:
I would rather see you utilize one of the newer Single Board Computer routers from a vendor like Mikrotik rather than spend far too much money for a Cisco ASA or SoHo solution.
.
As an enthusiast I would recommend the Routerboard CRS series for price and punch. It will provide the OP with all of the features he requested and a ton more that CISCO would charge a licensing fee for. The base cost will be around $149.00 for a CRS with 8 1gbp Ethernet Ports, a Gbit SFP cage, and integrated 802.11N MIMIO interfaces. http://routerboard.com/CRS109-...
Wanna build your own, you can add 802.11AC to any of thier base baords and chuck it in an enclosure for rock bottom prices. -- http://routerboard.com/R11e-5H...
It supports Client and Server modes for IPSEC, OVPN, PPTP, L2TP, VPLS,GRE,SSTP and those are off the top of my head.
I'm not a salesman, just a nerd.
Casey Annis
P.S. If you go with Mikrotik, I'd be happy to do a TeamViewer session with you and get you started.
There is a growing movement in rural and bedroom communities to stick it to the big carriers by providing FTTH 1gbps service to thier residents as partnerships between the towns and provisioning companies. For instance you can take a look at Wake Forest, NC. One man, a private citizen, started an initiative to get FTTH service into the town and now we will have 1gig service for about a hundred bucks a month. That is twelve dollars less per month than I pay for 50mbps from Time Warner. www.wakeforestfiber.com for reference. unklStewy
Even a slice in the continental backbones can be overcome by a creative redundancy plan and it makes me happy to be a network engineer. Now if rural Ohio would invest in some more infrastructure I wouldn't have to go into "Oh Crap" mode when someone neglects to call DigRite and takes out our single fiber stub. Glad to hear that Telecom Egypt has their act together. -Casey
Excellent Math Skills! ;)
That needs to be wrapped up with a bow and sent over to Defense Distributed so they can etch it into their next Lower.
--Casey
I suppose that is a matter of opinion. I prefer the 7.62 and other .30 caliber bores when I go hunting. The rest of the party were stocking .223 and 5.56. The .223 and 5.56 have become popular here and I know it isn't because of cost. The rounds for my Mosin (Brown Bear from Walmart) are dirt cheap compared to the ammunition for the AR-15's.
--Casey
Good Show nweaver! We are in the process of getting our Type 7 as well. --Casey
We have guns and other defensive weapons not because we are trying to over throw the government or because it is a macho thing to do. It is as our Nation's Fore Fathers defined in the Constitution the right of American Citizens to bare arms and to have the right to assemble a well armed militia. The need for a militia may not be present now but at the time the document was written we had just finished a bloody revolution and we were marching into unknown territory as the population spread west. The Government could ill afford a standing military in every territory in which its citizens might find themselves. They were also aware that not all governments foreign or domestic may remain altruistic in their endeavors and that defense of home and hearth was likely to be necessary in the future. So yes we cherish our ability to own firearms and there are a lot of reasons for which we do. However I wouldn't expect anyone not a citizen of the U.S. to understand the rights we hold close to heart as is evidenced by your ignorance of our society and your apparent need to denigrate our cultural habits. The school shootings are very dark portions of our history and using them to take punches at our culture in general is base and unappreciated. -- Casey
It that is the case it is in direct conflict with the NFA which ascribes the definition of 'machine gun' to existing machine gun models as well as any drop in auto sear or components that could convert an otherwise non-NFA defined firearm into a fully automatic firearm. --Casey
True. Although the definition of intent is very open to interpretation. Suppose I buy a .308 match barrel at 24" it's perfectly legal. If I take that same barrel and for sh*ts and giggles cut and crown it down to 17" but I don't install it on the receiver who defines my intent to do so in the future. As much as I hate legalese I hate vague legalese even more. --Casey
I think the biggest problem with the inclusion of the words "without significant sporting purpose" is that who decides this and what are the thresholds for defining it. When we went hunting this year I took my Mosin Nagant M91/30, a true battle rifle albeit and old one. We also had an AR-10 and an AR-15 as well. Just because the AR platform guns look like they could be carried into a war zone does not make it any less valid for sporting use. Cosmetic changes to popular sporting caliber firearms do not make them battle rifles. Conversely the idea that sporting purpose is reserved only for hunting is also wrong. With the rise of defensive tactics as a sporting category these firearms are the platform of choice for competitors. As long as Defense Distributed has the appropriate level of FFL they are within their rights as a manufacturer to produce serialized and registered parts for these platforms. An example of something they can't produce for sale under their current license would be a drop in auto sear which would convert one of the semi-auto platforms to a full-auto platform. They can however produce firearms for sale, development and testing purposes that can include full-auto firing platforms if they submit and file a Class 3 upgrade to their Type 7 FFL. --Casey
Actually 'Rifle Barrels' under a certain length are regulated by the National Firearms Act (NFA) and enforced by the ATF. The NFA defines NFA "firearm" as: A shotgun or rifle having a barrel of less than eighteen inches in length or any other weapon, other than a pistol or revolver, from which a shot is discharged by an explosive if such weapon is capable of being concealed on the person, or a machinegun, and includes a muffler or silencer for any firearm whether or not such a firearm is included in the foregoing definition.[3][4] http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/National_Firearms_Act -Casey