How To Make A Group Smarter

Ladies, you'll never guess the key ingredient in making smarter groups ...

( A group's interactions drive its intelligence more than the brain power of individual members )

Avoiding all-male teams, and giving everybody an equal contribution.

You could have just given me the money. I'd have told you that right off the bat! XD

Social Networking - Entering and Exiting Conversations

Just saw this blog asking about the best exit strategy in a social networking event. I thought I'd share my experiences, and tactics, in that blog's comments section:-

At most once in every networking event, you can stop and think of something. Do a subtle facepalm, look sincere and tell the person "I don't want to let you go or anything, but last night I forgot to ask if [insert name] will be dropping by here. I've got to send [him/her] an urgent text to remind [him/her].'

You can use that once per event, and once only ever with the same person.

THE best way of ending a conversation is to put on a "brainwave" expression, say something like "Funny you should say that. I just thought of something. Can I introduce you to [insert name]?" and, assuming [insert name] is not currently occupied, lead the person over and make the casual introduction. Then separate whilst these people are engaged in the new conversation.

Best to have worked the room, shaken a few hands and obtained some names to begin with, though, if you're to make this tactic work.

The best graceful exit is to literally snatch a passer-by and drag [him/her] into the conversation, then excuse yourself using the excuse that you have to refill your glass or coffee cup and conveniently forget where you parked them.

If you don't mind acting like a wingman to someone else at times, with practice you'll have no problems in taking over and exiting conversations at will.

Mental Arithmetic Bonus - Counting In Hex

Anyone who's handled machine code, picked out an RGB colour for a graphic or played Traveller will know about hexadecimal (base-16) numbers.

The decimal system is based on the number 10. It uses 10 digits - 0, 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8 and 9. Hexadecimal is base 16, and it uses 16 digits - 0, 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9 as before, but then A = 10, B - 11, C = 12, D = 13, E = 14, F = 15.

Hex numbers look strange - 30 = 48; 1666 in decimal = 682 in hexadecimal; you get numbers like 2B0CC9 (2821321 in decimal), but they are valid numbers - and you can perform Vedic mathematical calculations on them just as easily as decimals.

An example, from the last post - squaring a number that ends in 5. In the case of hexadecimal, the units digit which has the same effect as 5 is 8. The calculations are made the same way: multiply the tens digit by one more than the one before, and add the square of the units digit - in this case, 40 (64 in decimal):

28² = 640

38² = C40

98² = 5A40

What you're doing here is multiplying 9 by the next highest digit, A (10). This yields 90, which in hexadecimal is 5A ((5 x 16) + 10).

A8² = 6E40

C8² = 9C40

F8² = F040

and so on.

This works for multiplications of the other type described in the previous post, where you are multiplying two numbers whose units digit complement one another. In this case, the pairings are 16s complements, and their digit products in hexadecimal are:-

8 x 8 = 40
7 x 9 = 3F
6 x A = 3C
5 x B = 37
4 x C = 30
3 x D = 27
2 x E = 1C
1 x F = 0F

Compare with the decimal equivalents:-

5 x 5 = 25
4 x 6 = 24
3 x 7 = 21
2 x 8 = 16
1 x 9 = 09

Let's see some examples of this in action:-

27 x 29 = 63F

31 x 3F = C0F

42 x 4E = 141C

54 x 5C = 1E30

93 x 9D = 5A27

95 x 9B = 5A37

A1 x AF = 6E0F

D7 x D9 = B63F

F6 x FA = F03C

F5 x FB = F037

The sutra Ehadikena Purvena (By one more than the one before) works regardless of the bases, and demonstrates how truly versatile Vedic Mathematics can be.

Replacement for BIOS means computers could boot up in seconds

( Behind the cut here )