Using iTunes backup and restore can cause thousands of your music tracks to be lost.
The procedure for transferring your iTunes music library from your old Windows PC to your brand new iMac is very simple:
On the PC, use the Backup command in iTunes to write your 5,016 songs onto 6 DVDs.
On the iMac, insert each DVD in turn and let iTunes restore all the songs.
Enjoy your songs, all 3,679 of them.
If you compare step 3 with step 1, you will see one snag: only 73% of your songs have survived the process. More than a quarter of your music library has been silently lost.
One thing I discovered last week was how important it is to think of time as well as power.
Before now, I’ve tried a move, been countered by my opponent, and therefore immediately gone on to try something else. Only last week did it occur to me to ask myself: how much is this costing him?
Because if it doesn’t cost me much to maintain the pressure, and he’s in a weak position and using every ounce of his strength to resist me, it makes a lot of sense for me to wait a few seconds and see if time is on my side.
Like all big discoveries it’s utterly obvious but it’s made a big difference to my game. Whenever we reach a momentary stalemate I make this test – and if I think that he’s going to run out of steam before me (usually because I’m in a better position than I thought, but it might just be that he’s weaker than I thought) then I apply less strength but more weight, count to five and see how things evolve.
Now I have to get rid of the related bad habit: when trying a move you’re not sure of, try it at half strength first and if it feels OK then really commit yourself to it. In other words, give your opponent notice of what you’re doing! It’s an easy habit to get into if you’re not confident and surprisingly hard to kick.
Walking across the City of London I came across a huge glossy clothes shop in a brilliantly lit modern building. It was evening and the shop was closed, but as I looked at the window I saw a movement.
One of the local residents was investigating the latest fashions. He rummaged around under the jacket for a good long while, but then he turned his attention to the material the shirt was made of, and that’s when I was able to take his photograph.
His tail is unclear because he was waving it and it’s only a camera phone, but you can see that he was serious about his research.
To recap: we know that 3²+4²=5² and 3³+4³+5³=6³. Cyprian’s Last Theorem states that these are the only cases of n consecutive nth powers adding up to the next nth power.
I’ve nearly proved it.
Specifically, I’ve proved it for all values of n that are not of the form 16m+2 or 8m+3, and, in addition, for all values of n (of whatever form) that are less than . This is not the same as proving it for absolutely all values of n, but it’s enough to be going on with.
The final gap in that proof was proving Part B of the problem described here. I floundered around for a while, getting nowhere in particular, and then submitted it to the American Mathematical Monthly for publication in its problems page. In accepting it, the editor sent me a proof by one of his colleagues of a weaker version of Part B, and I was able to strengthen it to prove the result I needed.
So now I have a 45-page paper describing the whole adventure in a chatty and discursive style: I think it’s important that mathematics should work as a spectator sport as long as the spectators can be helped to participate a little bit in what’s going on. I’m letting the paper infuse for a few weeks and then I’ll tighten it up a bit and smooth it out.
This is a lightweight documentary clip that’s good for explaining to your friends what this BJJ thing is all about. It’s good to watch how Helio moves.
Walking across the City of London I came across a huge glossy clothes shop in a brilliantly lit modern building. It was evening and the shop was closed, but as I looked at the window I saw a movement.
. This is not the same as proving it for absolutely all values of n, but it’s enough to be going on with.