8 February
2014
7 February
2014
Hourglass puzzle
5 February
2014
Pine Mountain again
5K run in the forests of Pine Mountain. Today I waited for some morning light so I could see where I was running. The trees were beautiful – completely drenched in overnight rain and with a slight wind rustling thru the leaves. At one point, it was so quiet except hundreds of birds tweeting that I stopped running and sat there for ten minutes just to hear the birds. I could figure out nine different bird sounds…
Now coffee, breakfast and then back to the team meetings…
4 February
2014
Unique Soap Opera
4 February
2014
6K in dark Pine Mountain
Karthik and I got out in the cold dark roads of Callaway Gardens at 6am for a 5K run. Myself in layers, earmuffs, headgear etc wondering why did I forget to pack in the gloves. He, in shorts and half shirt. No caps either! You want to guess which one of us studied in Wisconsin? 🙂 Btw, we landed up running 6K since we got lost on the way 🙂 🙂
3 February
2014
Super Bowl half time!
2 February
2014
Fowler Park makes a big difference!!
Lots of Chalupa members showed up today. We had two guests – Amrita and Arka – from Birmingham, Alabama join us. Also ran into my old friend Raj Sundaramurthy! Even Sudipto and Mishtu came!! We had four junior runners there. By the time I showed up half an hour early to put in an extra couple of miles, Atashi and Sid were already there running on the track! There were sixteen of us in all.
Seems like Fowler Park makes a big difference!
1 February
2014
Happy Birthday Samaresh!
1 February
2014
Slow Run
Went out for a run near my neighborhood. Ran slowly for 5 miles. Need to stretch now desperately.
Was listening to songs all the while running on the left edge of the road. Suddenly, as a song ended, I thought I heard footsteps alongside me. Turned around and sure enough, there was a dog following me. Not sure how long it had been running with me. It would not bark, it would not go away – it just kept going with me. Thought of trying a trick and turned around and retraced my path. The dog kept running back with me and then suddenly stopped in front of a property. I am quite sure that is the right house for the dog and also am guessing the owner is a runner and takes the dog for a run… Wish had my phone with me to take a picture….
30 January
2014
Puzzle time: False positives
This week’s trip is over. Time to leave Florida and start skidding on icy Atlanta roads. Also time for a puzzle.
Many of you are aware that my current job involves catching fraud in online transactions. We of course focus on building systems that can catch maximum amount of fraudulent transactions. However, what you may not know is that an equal challenge in building these systems is making sure that we do not flag the good transactions as fraudulent (and irritate the good customers). This is always a tough balance. This is also called the “false positive” problem. (The test showed “positive” but that is a false result).
Here is a false positive puzzle. A village has only one lab that can perform a particular test for a particular disease. The test, however, is only 98% accurate. So, a patient who does not have the disease will get “you do not have the disease” report 98% time. 2% of the time, it will say (erroneously) say “you have the disease”. Similarly, a patient who indeed is suffering from the disease, will get a “you have a problem” report 98% of the time. The rest 2% time he or she will get a clean chit erroneously.
You also know that 0.5% of the village population has been indeed afflicted by the disease.
Your friend from the village just received a report that he has the disease.
How concerned should he be? What is the real probability that he has the disease?