Hung Truong: The Blog!

LocoRoco for Sony PSP – Sorta Review

So I bought LocoRoco from Amazon.com after some crazy glitch that let me order it for 60% off. It finally came while I was out of town and I got a chance to sit down and play it.

LocoRoco is one of those weird Japanese games that become famous due to their weirdness. In LocoRoco, you roll a yellow ball animal thing by tilting the world left or right. You can also bump the world so the ball can jump. When the ball eats red flowers, it can grow. You can also blow up the big ball into smaller balls, and reform the big ball later on.

Basically, the idea is to get the ball as large as possible and to make it to the end of the stage. You can get attacked by black spiky things that will reduce your size. At the end of the stage, you see how well you did getting larger, and collecting other random stuff.

And that’s how the whole game goes. There’s not much else. If you’ve played one stage, you’ve sorta played them all. I got through the first world.

One plus is that the game is super cute. Like the little yellow balls will sing in random pseudo-Japanese (it’s not actual Japanese, but it uses Japanese syllables). And the theme song is sorta addicting. Just listen to it! [audio:LocoRoco Title Theme.mp3]

So yeah, LocoRoco is sorta repetitive, but also way cute. Like me!

Threadless Spring Broke Sale – $10 T-Shirts!

So there’s another $10 t-shirt sale goin’ on at Threadless.com. I had a lot of referral credits ($30 worth) so I picked up some tees. I was only gonna order one, but then they said I had to use all of my credit at once, so I ordered 3. Stupid Threadless!

Anyway, here’s what I ordered:

Pencil Forest

When I saw Pencil Forest debut a few weeks ago (or was it last week?) I thought it was pretty cool. But not $15 cool. Luckily, it’s $10 cool.

It sorta doesn’t make sense though. So the guy is cutting down the tress to make pencils? But why are the trees made of pencil shavings? Oh well, I guess it doesn’t really need to make sense.

Para Poppins

I’ve wanted Para Poppins for a while now, though I don’t think it’s ever been in stock during a $10, which is usually when I’ll buy shirts from threadless. It’s just the kind of weird, off-beat shirt that I find myself gravitated towards. I’m sure Mary Poppins will show those insurgents who’s boss!

Stone Jungle

Stone Jungle is a pretty cool looking shirt that has some city stuff on the top, and nature stuff on the bottom! How artsy fartsy! I got it because I was forced to get 3 shirts. I like the design, plus green is my favorite color, so yeah, there ya go.

In fact, I just noticed that all the shirts I ordered today have a shade of green in them… Weird.

The Threadless Spring Broke sale lasts until March 12, so get the shirts you want now! And vote for this shirt to be reprinted!!!

Family Feud – Starring J. Peterman!

So lately, I’ve been watching Family Feud on TV. It’s only because all the other shows that are on at that time are either soap operas, or Anna Nicole Smith documentary shows. And by that, I mean gossip shows that only talk about Anna Nicole Smith.

For some reason, I thought that Louie Anderson was still hosting Family Feud. He’s kind of depressing and scary, so that’s why I have a bad image of Family Feud. Well, they finally kicked out Louie Anderson (probably a long time ago) and now John O’ Hurley is hosting! Who is John O’ Hurley, you ask? I dunno, but he played J. Peterman on Seinfeld!

It’s kind of weird seeing a character actor like him hosting Family Feud. Like there was a contestant named “Elaine” and when he said “come up, Elaine” I had weird Seinfeld flashbacks! He even said it in J. Peterman’s voice! I guess technically it’s his actual voice, but still.

Oh, and speaking of Family Feud, I really hate how they show the answers at the end of each round. Like they have the audience read them to us slowly as if we’re blabbering, illiterate idiots. I suppose most people who watch Family Feud are, though. (Not me, of course)

Also, where do they find these families? Can people be so out of touch with reality that they think funerals are a good time to have a family portrait taken? Or that Wal-Marts exist in malls!? Who are these people!?

Grad School Update: Michigan

I was accepted to the University of Michigan School of Information a few days ago, and I just got an email regarding my scholarship. They’re offering me a half tuition merit scholarship which reduces my tuition to the same that a resident would pay (around $7000 a semester).

This is pretty cool! They’re also going to pay for me to fly over there and visit the school on March 24-26. I have the Google College Day thing on the 23rd though. Maybe I can just fly over there directly from California. I’m gonna be tired when I get back!

As for the whole grad school thing, if the Google thing works out, I may decide to not go to grad school. I’m definitely keeping my options open, though. The scholarship offer from Michigan makes it feasible (at least, I think) for me to go to school there. If I get some kind of assistantship or maybe a paid internship (Google has an office in Ann Arbor), I could make it work.

All in all, I’m very happy to have options, as they help to keep my stress levels down (if one thing doesn’t work I could go to the next, etc). I’ll post updates as soon as I get them.

Always Have Exact Change With Only 10 Coins!

I hate having spare change. Change sucks because it usually just sits in your house and it’s a waste of money. I found a way to use the change you have and never get change back when purchasing with cash. With a set of just 10 coins, you can make change for any amount from 1 cent to 99.

I’ve already read about the 10 coins somewhere else online. It’s not really interesting to have the answer given to you. Since I’m a nerdy computer scientist, I was trying to come up with an algorithm to produce this set of coins. I came up with an iterative solution that goes like this:

Start out with no coins.

From 1 to 99 cents:

If you can make exact change for the current amount, go to the next amount.

Otherwise, try adding the largest denomination coin to your set of coins (a quarter) that will allow you to pay the exact amount. If it’s too big, go to the next smallest until you hit a penny.

End Loop.

I came up with this in the shower. When I got out and tried it, it actually worked! Here’s a portion of the trace through the loop:

No coins, I need to make change for 1 cent. Add a penny. Yay, I can make change for one cent!

…

4 pennies, need to make change for 5 cents. Add a nickel.

…

4 pennies 1 nickel, need to make change for 10 cents. Add a dime.

And so on. I believe the algorithm works because it uses a greedy heuristic of choosing the largest denomination coin first before defaulting to the penny. Am I a nerd? Yes.

Oh, I just realized I didn’t actually say which 10 coins were the ones you need. They’re 4 pennies, one nickel, two dimes, and three quarters. You can also do it with two nickels and one dime but that’s not what my algorithm came up with, plus two dimes are lighter than two nickels!

Have fun getting rid of your change!