Thursday September 6, 2001
E4 : Engineering has an article on people counters. I'd almost forgot about this but Faith and I were at a supermarket in Europe last year (can't recall which country) and while I waited at the front for her to get something I noticed a computer display by the registers. A closer examination found that it was tracking the number of people in the store and graphing it against time. The store had a single "chokepoint" entrance and staring straight down at the aisle of incoming people was a camera. This computer showed a small live video window and as a shape was identified as a human a little X overlayed it and the counter click up. Nothing like some of the face recognition that's being attempted.

While checking out math jokes I came across this site featuring posters (and text) from a Math promotion in the London Underground last year. You can see all of the posters here and clicking each poster takes you to a larger image along with some additional text. One of them that caught my eye was about networks and mazes: WMY2000 Poster 6: Maths Connects

Never raise your hands to your kids. It leaves your groin unprotected. - Red Buttons


Did you ever notice when you blow in a dog's face he gets mad at you? But when you take him in a car he sticks his head out the window. - Steve Bluestone

Have you ever noticed? Anybody going slower than you is an idiot, and anyone going faster than you is a maniac. - George Carlin

I have six locks on my door all in a row. When I go out, I lock every other one. I figure no matter how long somebody stands there picking the locks, they are always locking three. - Elayne Boosler

Ever wonder if illiterate people get the full effect of alphabet soup? - John Mendoza

I always wanted to be somebody, but I should have been more specific. - Lily Tomlin

Did you ever see Monty Python's: Funniest Joke in the World?

A mathematician, a biologist and a physicist are sitting in a street cafe watching people going in and coming out of the house on the other side of the street.

First they see two people going into the house. Time passes. After a while they notice three persons coming out of the house.

The physicist: "The measurement wasn't accurate."
The biologists: "They have reproduced".
The mathematician: "If now exactly one person enters the house then it will be empty again."

A mathematician wandered home at 3 AM. His wife became very upset, telling him, "You're late! You said you'd be home by 11:45!" The mathematician replied, "I'm right on time. I said I'd be home by a quarter of twelve."

If you think you can handle more math jokes.