I broke my nose in 1978 or 79. I was 28 and had recently started working for a small startup computer company, Floating Point Systems. Looking back at my career this was probably the most exciting job that I had had. We were working in the super computer industry with a product that performed like a Cray supercomputer at a far less cost, for certain applications.
Playing Cards
Home Automation (smart home)
I have had a “smart” home for probably over thirty years. So I get amused by the “new” trends in home automation such as Philips Hue, and Wink, etc. The new technology is great, definitely better than what I have been using, but when I look at replacing what I have I find the costs to be prohibitive. Re-doing my house would cost about $1000 and in some ways not be as good as what I currently have.
Continue reading “Home Automation (smart home)”Card stack technique for Xavier Perret’s Da Vinci’s Code card trick
See https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tPQEF24XWAc for the effect.
Steps
- Sort the cards into four face up piles, each pile consisting of a single suit in order from the back (A) to the top (K). So when you hold a pile in your hand face up, the Ace is next to your palm and the King is the visible card.
- Set the hearts, spades and diamonds aside for a moment.
- Take the clubs and divide them into the following three groups:
- Ace to six, 7 to 10, and then the Jack, Queen and King
- Pick up the Jack, Queen and King and move the Jack between the Queen and King.
- Pick up the 7 to 10 pile and interleave the Queen, Jack and King between the 7, 8, 9, and 10 so you end up with the cards in 7, Q, 8, J, 9, K, and 10 order.
- Now pick up the A to 6 pile and interleave them into the 7, Q, 8, J, 9, K, and 10 pile so you end up with:
7, A, Q, 2, 8, 3, J, 4, 9, 5, K, 6, 10 - Move the 7 from the bottom to the top so you have:
A, Q, 2, 8, 3, J, 4, 9, 5, K, 6, 10, 7 - Holding the clubs pile face up in your right hand, pick up the diamonds pile in your left hand and Faro shuffle the two piles face up together, keeping the 7 of clubs on top.
The order of those cards after the shuffle are: AD, AC, 2D, QC, 3D, 2C4D, 8C, 5D, 3C, 6D, JC, 7D, 4C, 8D, 9C, 9D, 5C, 10D, KC, JD, 6C, QD, 10C, KD, 7C - Place the face up spades packet on the face up hearts, and then Faro shuffle those with the packet that has the 7C on top. Keep the 7C on top as you Faro shuffle
Word games (Scrabble, Word with Friends)
I enjoy playing Word with Friends. I play often with my sister. I developed a training aid which you can use. To access it go to https://robertjwallace.com///wordgame
White Elephant Ranch
My cousin Andrew rents out accommodations to hunters (deer, bird, big horn sheep). The ranch is the “White Elephant ranch” just outside of Condon Oregon. Below are some photos:
Continue reading “White Elephant Ranch”Retirement
I am planning (actually have retired now) on retiring before or on my 65th birthday, so when a client wanted a countdown timer I checked one out. Since I am now retired it shows the time since I stopped working.
8 years, 2 months, 5 days, 7 hours, 14 minutes agoNephew Phil and his son Aiden
Cutting the aces
This is a video of me practicing a “cutting the aces” routine using a method I developed
Continue reading “Cutting the aces”