/dev/chat

Faheem Mitha

09:37

@Isaac I'm looking at g-shock watches on Amazon India. That might be a good option.

2 years manufacturer warranty.

They're a bit "military" looking, though. Like something a commando might wear in a jungle.

How does one adjust the strap?

Faheem Mitha

10:26

@Isaac Ok, but I'd like to shoot for more than 3-5 years.

Wow, it's really pouring here.

@Isaac Thank you for the suggestion. I'm not even sure where I put mine. Actually, my fathers and mothers should be around here too.

(Perhaps I sound a bit casual about this, but I don't generally own expensive things, so I don't have a mindset where I have to keep track of them.)

Faheem Mitha

11:17

Some of these G-Shocks are solar powered, too, which is impressive for the price. E.g.

amazon.in/Casio-G-Shock-Analog-Digital-Watch-GAS-100B-1ADR-G772/…

Not sure if solar powered makes sense, though.

Faheem Mitha

11:38

Looking more at these G-shock watches. They actually look like really good value for money.

This rain will just not let up. Apparently it isn't necessarily raining near the reservoirs, though. Bummer.

Isaac

20:04

If you look for "dressing" (fashion, not tough) style try: Edifice
https://www.amazon.in/Casio-Chronograph-Multi-Colour-Watch-EFR-539D-1A2VUDF-EX190/dp/B00KR9O1B8/ref=sr_1_15?dchild=1&keywords=edifice&qid=1596657675&s=watches&sr=1-15

Faheem Mitha

@Isaac That's handsome. But the military thing was just an off-hand comment. Watches don't kill people. Also, I won't be wearing it.

Actually I thought the Mudmasters had a really great feature set. The one I was looking at was solar, shock resistant, water resistant, mud/dirt resistant, date/day/time.

Isaac

I meant something like:
https://www.amazon.in/Fossil-Analog-Blue-Dial-Watch-BQ2311/dp/B07DMQ2SWB/ref=sr_1_11?dchild=1&keywords=fossil&qid=1596658115&s=watches&sr=1-11

Faheem Mitha

So, I have a list of strings (titles of a list of posts about companies from an investing viewpoint). I'd like to sort them, but ideally like to have the same companies together as far as possible (there might be multiple threads about the same company).

So, I'd like to use a similarity metrix, but am not sure how to combine that with sorting.

@Isaac Fossil? I'm confused.

I thought we were talking Casio.

Isaac

@FaheemMitha Not a g-shock but tough-solar fits the description for solar-powered:amazon.in/…

Faheem Mitha

@Isaac I found a solar G-shock. Maybe I posted it here - can't remember. Do you want the link?

Isaac

20:13

@FaheemMitha I am answering your concern about the 3-5 years life. Please follow the link to "what I am answering to". There are several separate issues in your posts.

Faheem Mitha

@Isaac Wouldn't the G-shocks last more than 3-5 years?

Isaac

@FaheemMitha Yes, you already posted the link. Just that the tough solar are somewhat "less expensive". Of course, less impact resistent as well.

Faheem Mitha

@Isaac Sorry, I lost the thread. What do you mean by "tough solar"?

I'm not terribly concerned about saving money on a watch. It should last a while, assuming he doesn't lose it, or destroy it, so it makes sense to get a good quality one.

As long as it's good value for money, of course.

Isaac

@FaheemMitha Again: folow the link to "what I was answering to". Watches with a Miyota movement (quite cheap) are meant to a general life of 3-5 years. Fossil happens to (usually) have that movement (the motor inside the watch).

Faheem Mitha

My general approach to things is value for money.

@Isaac Ok. How long would you expect a G-shock to last on average? I think you said you have some.

Isaac

20:18

@FaheemMitha I provided a link to one watch example of tough solar from casio. It is simply a brand of casio. Like the brand g-shock or edifice or others ....

@FaheemMitha G-shock life? Forever maybe? It is a really tough watch. But realistic: 10 years. The watch band tends to break, but are easily replaced almost anywere. The band is quite easy to find.

Faheem Mitha

@Isaac 10 years sounds good. Are the G-shocks best in class, or close?

Isaac

@FaheemMitha The movement life is a lot longer than that, they are really protected inside the watch. 25 years maybe?

@FaheemMitha Best in class for tough. Not fashion or dress.

Faheem Mitha

@Isaac Ok. Wonder they don't do themselves out of business, with that kind of lifetime.

@Isaac Durability is a very desirable trait in a wrist watch. And accuracy, of course. But with a quartz movement, that's a given.

Isaac

@FaheemMitha What I did say is that I had several Eco-drive. They are stilish and eco-friendly.

Faheem Mitha

@Isaac Oh, sorry. My mistake.

@Isaac stylish, I think. Not stilish.

Isaac

20:24

@FaheemMitha Accuracy to 1/2 a minute per month, yes. There are more precise ones, but too expensive IMO.

Faheem Mitha

How would you rate durability of the Eco-drives vs the G-shocks?

Isaac

@FaheemMitha Yes, My mistake.

Faheem Mitha

@Isaac I didn't realise quartz movements had a hierarchy.

A question similar to what I wanted to ask:

5

Q: Sorting String based on similarities

consider the following Strings: he llo goodbye hello = (goodbye) (he)(llo) good bye helium I'm trying to sort these in such a way that similar words comes together, I know alphanumerical sorting is not an option removing special chars ",-_ and etc then comparing is certainly helpful but resu...

Closed. Yay.

Sometimes SO can be really irritating.

It sounds like the complaint was that the question wasn't more precisely worded.

But the reason it wasn't more precisely worded is that the poster (like me) didn't know exactly what he wanted. Not everything can be precise, people.

Isaac

@FaheemMitha G-shock movements will resist almost anything, Eco-Drive, when used for casual dressing and not to work in a shop building machines are expecting hammer impacts, will last around the same or better. Understand that the battery in a eco-drive is rechargeable and cost more than 40U$.

Faheem Mitha

@Isaac Doesn't the G-force have a rechargeable battery too?

Isaac

20:32

@FaheemMitha Only if it is also a tough solar (powered by light). In general, g-shock use a normal battery of around 2U$ that should last for 2-3 years (depending on model).

Faheem Mitha

@Isaac I was think of the solar G-shocks.

Around USD 180.

Quite reasonably priced for the money I'd say.

Here's another one, but unfortunately in Perl -> stackoverflow.com/q/30984287/350713

Isaac

@FaheemMitha There are adjustable quartz movements, not the usual though: Please read this

Faheem Mitha

@Isaac Ok.

Isaac

@FaheemMitha There are other precision movements

Faheem Mitha

@Isaac Yes, I see.

Isaac

20:40

@FaheemMitha It is quite dificult to define what "similar" is. Our brain is capable to jump over many things to find the underlying pattern. Machines are far away from reaching such perception level. The questions can not be answered if there is not a precise definition of "similar".

Faheem Mitha

@Isaac Relatively reasonably priced, all things considered.

@Isaac Since thase are titles of posts about companies, two titles for the same companies should have a big chunk of similarity. This wasn't intended as a CS problem.

That Perl thing would probably work for me, if I can figure out what it's doing.

Isaac

@FaheemMitha Then, you might like this solar-powered and accurate to ±1 second per year

Faheem Mitha

@Isaac I don't see a price for that one.

So, anyone here who knows enough Perl to explain what this code does?

The first looks like storing a 2d array.

Isaac

@FaheemMitha It uses the Text::Levenshtein module to measure distance between strings. You may search for that in google (hint: Levenshtein distance).

Faheem Mitha

@Isaac That part I got. The details of how he's doing the sorting is what I'm not following. I'm not a Perl user.

It looks like he's making a 2d array with all the values of the distance for all pairs. Then after that I'm not sure what he's doing.

Isaac

20:53

@FaheemMitha It is a prototype, not commercially available, some thousands of $USD for sure.

Faheem Mitha

@Isaac Sure.

Isaac

@FaheemMitha Sort it?:: sort { $distances{$cursor}{$a} <=> $distances{$cursor}{$b} }

Faheem Mitha

This is a somewhat late comment, but would you consider adding a description of what you are doing here for people who don't know Perl and don't particularly want to learn it? :-) — Faheem Mitha 16 secs ago

Appeals based on laziness rarely work, I find. I don't understand why. I'm very much in favor or laziness. But it's worth a shot.

@Isaac I assume it's sorting by the Levenshtein distance, but how does that work for a 2d array?

Ok, looks like he first sorts the entire list. Then he walks it. For each element, he sorts the entire list based on distance from that element.

Isaac

@FaheemMitha For each group of the same $cursor sort the next index, probably ? Think of sorting by columns, each column sorted.

Faheem Mitha

Then he presumably prints the element followed by everything that is close to it. Though I don't see a criterion for closeness in there.

@Isaac What is his cutoff for closeness?

Isaac

21:02

@FaheemMitha There is no cutoff that I can see.

Faheem Mitha

@Isaac I don't see one either. But without it, how would it work? I may be misunderstanding the whole thing completely, of course.

Can you read Perl?

Isaac

@FaheemMitha Think of an excel worksheet, how do you sort by column? First sort one column, then for all values of that column that are equal, sort a second column.

@FaheemMitha Just enough to be dangerous ....

Faheem Mitha

@Isaac Hmm. Is that what he's doing?

Isaac

@FaheemMitha That would be my wild guess, yes.

Faheem Mitha

@Isaac Ok.

I don't immediately see how that would produce a good result, though.

Isaac

21:09

@FaheemMitha Then you probably need to look deeper into what the Text::Levenshtein distance actually measures, i guess.

Faheem Mitha

@Isaac That part isn't the issue. It's how he uses it to do the sorting.

The basic idea would be to create groups based on similarity, then sort the groups somehow. But it's not obvious how best to do that.

Isaac

In ** sort { $distances{$cursor}{$a} <=> $distances{$cursor}{$b} }** for a fixed $cursor the array is sorted by Levenshtein distance

@FaheemMitha Could you point to the exact line that you do not understand?

Faheem Mitha

@Isaac Most of it, unfortunately.

@Isaac For a fixed value (the cursor), that looks to me like the list is being sorted by the distance from the fixed value. But I could be wrong.

I should get to sleep. Thanks for assistance and advice, @Isaac.

Transcript for