Brilliant Tutorials in Mathematics and Computer Programming

The name is the attractor. I certainly want to be brilliant, if only in my own estimation though not the world’s. About 272 days ago, we both signed and paid $161.88 each. She is still mad at me because she paid for something that does not work. I pointed out that they say that they are hiring and proofreading high school math is exactly her kind of job. So, that ball is in her court. I still work the problems, even when the problems have problems. 

I usually work at night and sometimes I have to skip one (even two) sessions, but I earn battery charges that carry me over. 

So far, I have completed series in elementary algebra, geometry, and calculus in addition to Probability & Chance, Functions, and Vectors, and large sections of logic, data analysis, and some others. A few, I began and chose not to pursue. The lessons on Digital Circuits and Circuits are waiting for me to make time to haul out the breadboarding kits. (I want to see their answers.) 

The reviews are nice exercises at bedtime. I do most of the work in my head. Some got complicated and required pen and paper and some of those are long tutorials, which, if I quit, I lose my place and have to start over. (About the third pass, I have memorized the first several answers.) It’s bedtime reading. I do enjoy the learning.

Find sin(a+b). 

I worked this through over three nights and was able to conceptually integrate the lesson and the proof of the formula. 

The Pythagorean Theorem has over 300 published proofs (one of the them by Pres. James Garfield). The proof in Euclid’s Elements is one of the most complex and demanding and least intuitively obvious presentations of this well known truth. So, too, with this demonstration of the measure of the sines of two adjacent angles. Nonetheless, after several repetitions, I found it elegant.

But not everything works that well. I ran into bugs in their tutorials for polar coordinates and for modulo arithmetic. As I told Laurel when she discovered other errors, all that is required is to document everything with screenshots, write out a descriptive narrative to show your work, and send it to them. 

51 mod 3 = 0 and also 51 mod 17 = 0.
And 51 mod 2 = 1.
But not here.

The Polar Coordinates maths are inverted.

The iPhone can be a barrier. I stopped working in Python, computer science, and AI because it is easier on the keyboard and I seldom sit here before going to sleep. So, I do what I can in bed and let the rest slide until I can have some daytime hours free for fun and games. I did finish the packet on Algorithmic Thinking. 

For another overview, see Wikipedia here https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Brilliant_(website)

More pros and cons on Quora here https://www.quora.com/What-is-your-review-of-Brilliant-org

PREVIOUSLY ON NECESSARY FACTS

Elisha S. Loomis and the Pythagorean Proposition 

How the Martians Discovered Algebra 

The Man Who Loved Only Numbers 

G. H. Hardy’s ‘Apology’ 

Birth of a Theorem by Cédric Villani 

A Simple Truth 

Grigory Perelman’s Perfect Rigor by by Masha Gessen 

ArmadilloCon 50: 2028 (My Proposals)

This was my cover letter to the FACT Board:

Dear Fen:

Attached as a PDF are some ideas that I have for the 50th Anniversary ArmadilloCon in 2028. What actually gets done will likely be much different from these points of discussion and that is the reason why the planning should be begin as soon as possible. Here in Texas we are often “fixin’ to start”—not actually doing the thing but knowing that we need to get ready to. 

I have been going through our archives by editing the show URLs (schedule, speakers, etc.).

Just for instance:

https://armadillocon.org/d16/

https://armadillocon.org/d27/

https://armadillocon.org/d32/guests.shtml

https://armadillocon.org/d36/writers.shtml

Then, I found the Con History on the FACT website: 

https://fact.org/con-history/

The array of past guests of honor, attending authors, presenters, speakers, and events is astounding and has analogs with every other long-lived SF/F gathering within the galaxy of science fiction, fantasy, and alternative fiction. That all comes with a burden of responsibility to the future.

LLP,

Mike M.

This was the proposal that I submitted.

ArmadilloCon 50 in the Year 2028

Submitted to the FACT Board October 11, 2025, 

by Michael E. Marotta (uszik11@gmail.com; books78640@gmail.com)

FACT should form now a convention committee for ArmadilloCon 50. It will of necessity change over the next three years, as people come and go. Open discussions should start now. A website, discussion board, Substack, or whatever should be launched now to facilitate interest and stimulate enthusiasm, by encouraging suggestions. Put out a call to FACT members to volunteer for the 50th Anniversary Committee, perhaps limited to eight (if that many are interested.)

Convention Theme: 

The Psychohistorians. What are our future histories? It is easy to imagine many paths of development given some selected assumptions. However, Isaac Asimov’s conception of psychohistory was a science of applied mathematics. To be a science, a body of knowledge must be falsifiable, which means that it must offer predictions from outside its own establishment.

Convention Theme:

Frankenstein. Arguably not science fiction, the story does carry the program of The Other, whether from another planet or a parallel universe, whether a robot or a dragon, to ask, “What is human nature?” Perhaps quintessential to science fiction, Frankenstein is the story of an invention gone wrong. 

Convention Theme:

Alternate sciences. Allowing that even magick has rules, what are the frontiers of science (or sorcery) that can provide the set and setting for a story? 

Attendance Goal: 1000 registered at $100 each.

Panels and Tracks

Artist Track — We talk a lot about the craft of writing and the markets for publications but we seem to pretty much leave artists on their own. We do have plenty of artists around. Perhaps a track for them or a couple of panels for media and markets would add a dimension to the convention.

Copyrights and Copy Wrongs

I heard that one of the publishers of anthologies failed to actually register their copyrights for their authors and many works were taken without compensation. The USA joined the Berne Convention in 1985 and that treaty gives authors and other creatives their primary rights but those are only the right to sue after the fact. In the USA we still should register with the US Copyright Office. Unfortunately, that office is now closed. What can an author or artist do to protect their intellectual property ?

Social Consequences of Life Extension.

As we all live longer and ever longer, do we push out to seek those famous new frontiers or do we become more conservative, less willing to take risks, more distrustful of change?

TV and Film Writers You Need to Know.

Laurel and I watched an episode of Castle, about a mystery writer who insinuates himself into police investigations, a known trope in crime fiction. In this story, the non-real writer, Rick Castle, is playing poker with Stephen J. Cannell and James Paterson. I knew Cannell from The A-Team and Riptide, etc., but not Paterson. Laurel knew Paterson but not Cannell.

Convention Publication

ArmadilloCon 100. Austin in the Year 2078. Ten flash fiction stories of 1000 words each by ten invited authors from our GoH roster (or others). Offer $100 each and see who is interested. 

Panel Moderators and Other Guests of Honor

Send out a Request for Proposals, asking writers and others to submit their bids to be at ArmadilloCon 50. 

Ahead of ArmadilloCon 50, we could engage some new practices and have the wrinkles ironed out for the big show.

A message board. At computer security conferences here in Austin, OWASP often puts up a flipchart on a tripod where people can leave messages for each other. At ArmadilloCon 47, I worked the Registration desk and on Saturday morning, someone wanted to leave a message for another attendee and I made note of that and kept that half-sized sheet until Sunday afternoon. Cleaning up, I threw it out. Then the recipient arrived looking for a message. 

A tech station for printing, etc. The hotel typically has its own workstation for guests, but those are notoriously insecure. This year, the hotel workstation was down for remodeling. Jonathan ran out and bought a tablet, but the team could not get it up and running properly. 

Convention T-Shirts. We have had Pegasus Publishing as a dealer for several years. They can handle our T-shirt production and sales. Moreover, they could have been selling prior year t-shirts for which, as I understand from a chance comment overheard in the last hours of the show this year, we have no interest and no market and just give them away so as not to be bothered with the extra inventory. 

Convention Coffee Cups. Reach out and see if LG Ceramics is interested. I believe that if they had five (and only five) Convention cups at the next show, those would sell out and create the market for the cups of the following year. Otherwise, these things can be ordered dishwasher safe and microwave safe from many places.

Having received the proposal but not having a motion to act on, the chair agreed to put ArmadilloCon 50 2028 in the Old Business section of the Minutes for the November meeting. 

I sent another email to the FACT Board, and cc:ed some of the past convention workers who might be interested, such as the FlashFiction coordinator.

Convention Publication

ArmadilloCon 100. Austin in the Year 2078. Ten flash fiction stories of 1000 words each by ten invited authors from our GoH roster (or others). Offer $100 each and see who is interested.

I brought my checkbook to the Board meeting and I was prepared to pay for the writers for this Festschrift but we never got that far into the discussion of the 50th Anniversary Convention because we ran out of time.

PREVIOUSLY ON NECESSARY FACTS

Whitman Publishing: Fact and Value in Numismatics

Getting Published: Advice to a New Author

From Texas to the Moon with John Leonard Riddell

For the Glory of Old Lincoln High