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Gauss’s Formula for Summing Numbers Continued
In an earlier post I mentioned coming across the reasoning followed by Gauss to prove that the sum of the first n numbers is equal to n(n+1)/2. I started wondering if there is no generalization available for this formula: what is the sum of the whole number m to n, m and n included. Following the same reasoning as Gauss you can show that in this case the sum turns out to be (n+m)(n-m+1)/2. If you plug in m-1 you get the same formula as before.
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Under Siege
After having watched Half Past Dead I decided to also watch Under Siege again, probably the best Steven Seagal movie. The whole movie takes place on a battleship that is overtaken by a group mercinaries. The crew is locked up while the mercenaries plan to remove all the warheads from the ship. Only 1 crew member, the cook, is not locked up with the rest of the crew but is instead locked up the freezer of the kitchen. When some mercenaries come to eliminate the cook he manages to neutralise them instead and escapes. What follows is a cat and…
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100 Days of Code Python Bootcamp Progress
As mentioned earlier I am checking out this course on Udemy to see if it is something worth while suggesting to my son. The first 14 days cover the basics and are labelled beginner and 14 days of coding should be doable for him, these are sessions that take 1 to 2 hours each, watching videos plus completing coding challenges. On a tangent I got to know about the html <progress> and <meter> elements and I also figured out (I hope) how to use them on WordPress. The <progress> and <meter> elements are very similar but as the name suggests…
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Understanding Gauss’s Formula for Summing Numbers
As mentioned in another post I am checking out a 100 days of code python bootcamp on Udemy and following the beginners section to see if it would be useful for my son. On day 5 loops and the range function are discussed. In one lesson Gauss pops up and the story is told how the 10 year old Gauus solved the problem of summing of the numbers 1 to 100 in 2 minutes when it was given to him by his teacher. I still remember the formula we learned in school that the sum of the first n numbers…
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Olivita in Leuven
This week we went for dinner at Olivita in Leuven. This is a Spanish restaurant in the city center. Probably because we are in the middle of the exam period and there is soccer world championship ongoing there were not many people walking around in the streets and the restaurant was almost empty. As the weather was nice we decided to eat outside. This is just in front of the restaurant on the sidewalk so not a particularly charming setting. But as it is in the city center there are mostly only pedestrians, cyclists, scooterists and the odd public transport…
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Serendipity
In the previous blog post I mentioned I was scouting around for a good Python course for my 15 year old son and went of on a tangent about whether AI means you don’t need to know Python at all. Needless to say I still believe that you can benefit from being able to program even with the advent of AI, else I would not be looking for good course for my son. I found a 100 day bootcamp on Udemy which looks quite interesting. It is quite cheap so this could be an option. I don’t think he is…
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Why Practical Python Courses Matter for Young (and older) Learners
Recently I was scouting around for a good Python course for my 15 year old son. They way they are teaching it in school is not very practical. There is a lot of text explaining concepts in a web application with questions and code cells where you have to type code and execute. He is learning all these things but there is no connection to reality. I asked him: you learned all these commands, write a program that asks a user to give their weight and height and that calculates their bmi and then tells them in what bmi category…
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HTML For the World Wide Web, Elizabeth Castro: Part 4
Chapters 6 & 7. Page Layout & Hyperlinks Chapter 6 is about styling the layout of your page without css using attributes of for example the <body> tag to set the background colour. All of this is no longer done and this particular example didn’t work in my browser. Some other tags that are no longer part of HTML5 like <center> to center text still worked though. Most of it can be forgotten with the exception of the following tags which are still HTML5. The chapter about hyperlinks is more up to date but still has some outdated content, like…
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Top Finalists of 2026 Queen Elizabeth Concours Shine at Leuven’s Cello Concert
On Thursday we went to 30cc in Leuven to listen to the number 1, 2 and 3 finalists of the 2026 cello Concours. We saw Leland Ko, Tae-Yeon Kim and Ettore Pagane each play a piece individually with the Brussels Philharmonic Orchestra and then at the end they played a short piece, the 3 of them together without orchestra as a bonus. Needless to say these are three outstanding musicians and the orchestra is also of international fame. There was a lot of variety in music as each musician chose their piece to play. We heard work from Antonin Dvorak,…
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Dutch Mountain Trail Hike Preparations
As mentioned in another post we are planning to walk part of the Dutch Mountain Trail this year. So; not the complete 100km but a little over half of it during 3 days. And we will walk sections, returning to our hotel every day. Some of the preparation started with a hotel found in Heerlen and ordering the official guide book. Delivery was fast, within a week of ordering it I had it in my mailbox. It has a handy, small format so we can take it with us during the hike. It has maps and directions, plus information about…
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