Tuesday, March 11, 2014

Trusting your employees

How do you choose employees you can fully trust? There is no one answer to this question. What is true for one person may be entirely false for the other. So how do I choose? Simple. The first step is a test. To see if there qualifications check out. It can be as simple as drive this letter from point A to point B and the candidate is timed. Not for speed but for safety. It can also be as difficult as solving a real world problem with less real world situations. On a job interview I was once asked to program in PHP, the song the 11 days of Christmas. Then asked what function I would need to enter to figure out how many total presidents at a certain area.

My point? You never know how you are going to test a candidate till you meet him/her and figure if there credentials they claim to have may match them or if they are bluffing. Unfortunately in this economy, people will write anything on paper to get a job. Sometimes you wish people would tell the truth but you never know. So testing a candidate is always the first thing I do.

From there, a look back on the candidates previous career in full starts. From their goals and ambishions, to their failures and success.

Step 3 for me is to qualify them for the current job, a full background check, drug screening, and credit check is in order. Not that finding anything on there disqualifies the candidate, but I like them to be truthful on the application, and you can't erase something on your record that easily. 

Step 4 is usually that I test them on a probationary job. Something the company may need. But that another person can do.

Depending on how they function with and without social interaction shows me if they qualify or not. If not the process ends here. If not and they are above the rest. Then we try them out, a 90 day probationary position is applied to them to see if they can do the work. If so then we can hire them. If not then it's on to the next applicant. It may sound like a rough and costly recruitment process. But choosing the right candidate always does.

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Monday, March 10, 2014

How to figure out your Drivers License Number.

So a lot people have expressed interest with me about how math is really used in society daily. It made me laugh since every, and I mean everything involves math.

Anyhow, today's lesson you guys is this: How to figure out your drivers license number. There is an algorithm that is put into place and I have finally figured each one out. These are compiled from different sources, both web and personal.

How to calculate the North America (US) Drivers License Number Algorithm.
Here is an algorithm based on the Soundex code that you can use to calculate the US drivers license number of individuals for the states of Florida, Illinois, and Wisconsin . This project is a beta. We built an algorithm to show that the power of Soundex is still one of the most powerful and wildly available algorithms today. If there are any errors please us at mail@downloadzombie.com. Soundex is a phonetic algorithm for indexing names by sound, as pronounced in English. The goal is for names with the same pronunciation to be encoded to the same representation so that they can be matched despite minor differences in spelling. Soundex is the most widely known of all phonetic algorithms and is often used incorrectly as a synonym for "phonetic algorithm". Improvements to Soundex are the basis for many modern phonetic algorithms. 

History of Soundex

Soundex was developed by Robert Russell and Margaret Odell and patented in 1918 and 1922 . A variation called American Soundex was used in the 1930s for a retrospective analysis of the US censuses from 1890 through 1920. The Soundex code came to prominence in the 1960s when it was the subject of several articles in the Communications and Journal of the Association for Computing Machinery (CACM and JACM). The National Archives and Records Administration (NARA) maintains the current rule set for the official implementation of Soundex used by the U.S. Government. On 2 Apr 1918, Robert C. Russell of Pittsburgh, Philadelphia obtained a patent on a method for indexing which was based on the way a name was pronounced rather than how it was spelled. He did this by coding 8 phonetic sound types with a few additional rules. Together with Margaret K. Odell he obtained a second patent in 1922 with some variations. This they sold to various commercial and governmental organizations. It was taken up in a modified form in the 1930's by the Social Security Administration under a work creation scheme to extract certain data from the US Census and to index its records. It has also been used for immigration records and, more recently for indexing search engines, spell checkers and in fact, a number of variants of the original design have been used over the years.
The Algorithm as an Outline. 

Soundex Algorithm

A. Remember the initial letter. 

B. Convert each letter (including the first) according to the following table. Ignore punctuation such as apostrophes, spaces and hyphens.

 -1 =  A, E, I ,O, U, Y (The letters A, E, I ,O, U, Y are not coded.)
 
 -2 = H, W (The letters H, W are not coded.)

 1 = B, P, F, V

 2 = C, S, K, G, J, Q, S, Z

 3 = D, T 

 4 = L 

 5 = M, N   

 6 = R 

C. Change all consecutive duplicate digits to a single example. e.g. change 22 to 2

D. Replace the first digit by the letter remembered in step A.

F. Remove all zeros from the string.  

G. Adjust to four characters by truncating or padding to the right with zeros.

The resulting 4 character code is the Simplified Soundex for that name. 
    
<--How to calculate the US Drivers License Numbers for the states of FL, IL, WI and perhaps others.-->

This algorithm is shared by Florida, Illinois, and Wisconsin.

The specific licenses look like the following.


Example of a Florida Driver's License: 
 SSSS-FFF-YY-DDD-N (The last letter is random and cannot be calculated -- see overflow topic below). 
 B652-104-79-163-0 
 The above is for Chris D. Branch, (male), born on May 3rd, 1979. 

Example of a Illinois Driver's License: 
 SSSS-FFFY-YDDD 
 T651-5357-7044 
 The above is for Lam P. Turnpike, (male), born on February 13th, 1977. 

Example of a Wisconsin Driver's License: 
 SSSS-FFFY-YDDD-NN (The last letters are random and cannot be calculated -- see overflow topic below). 
 R163-2838-0587-03 
 The above is for Georget C. Roberts, (female), born on March 7th, 1980. 

Convert the name to the form “letter, digit, digit, digit” by adding trailing zeros if there are less than three digits, or by dropping rightmost digits if there are more than three digits.  The following examples of names have these corresponding soundex codes:

 Case     C200  Gauss       G200
 Smith    S530  Smythe      S530
 Lloyd    L300  Bednarczyk  B356
 Jackson  J250
   

SSSS = Soundex code of your last name

  

SSSS = Soundex 

FFF = Encoded first name and middle initial

FFF = First name and middle initial


Look up your first name on this table:
 
Name    Code Name   Code Name   Code
Albert    20 Frank   260 Marvin   580
Alice    20 George   300 Mary   580
Ann    40 Grace   300 Melvin   600
Anna    40 Harold   340 Mildred  600
Anne    40 Harriet  340 Patricia 680
Annie    40 Harry   360 Paul   680
Arthur    40 Hazel   360 Richard  740
Bernard   80 Helen   380 Robert   760
Bette    80 Henry   380 Ruby   740
Bettie    80 James   440 Ruth   760
Betty    80 Jane   440 Thelma   820
Carl    120 Jayne   440 Thomas   820
Catherine 120 Jean   460 Walter   900
Charles   140 Joan   480 Wanda   900
Dorthy    180 John   460 William  920
Edward    220 Joseph   480 Wilma   920
Elizabeth 220 Margaret 560  
Florence  260 Martin   560  
Donald   180    
Clara   140    



Then look up your first initial on this table: 

If you fail to find your name, look up your first initial on this table: 
Initial Code Initial Code Initial Code Initial Code
A  0 H  320 O  640 V  860
B  60 I  400 P  660 W  880
C  100 J  420 Q  700 X  940
D  160 K  500 R  720 Y  960
E  200 L  520 S  780 Z  980
F  240 M  540 T  800  
G  280 N  620 U  840  



Now look up your middle initial on this table: 
Initial Code Initial Code Initial Code Initial Code
A  1 H  8 O  14 V  18
B  2 I  9 P  15 W  19
C  3 J  10 Q  15 X  19
D  4 K  11 R  16 Y  19
E  5 L  12 S  17 Z  19
F  6 M  13 T  18  
G  7 N  14 U  18  



Add together the code for your first name or your first initial to the code for your middle initial. 

  

YY & Y-Y = Year of birth 

The two numbers together represent the year of your birth. 

   

DDD = Month and day of birth plus gender

This portion encodes the month and day you were born on. The general equation is: 

General: (birth_month - 1) * month_multiplier + birth_day + gender_mod 

Florida: (birth_month - 1) * 40 + birth_day + (male:0, female: 500) 

Illinois: (birth_month - 1) * 31 + birth_day + (male:0, female: 600) 

Wisconsin: (birth_month - 1) * 40 + birth_day + (male:0, female: 500) 

birth_month is the number of months into the year, January is 1, December is 12. 

month_multiplier varies by state. Illinois uses 31. Wisconsin and Florida both use 40. 

gender_mod varies by state. In Illinois men use 0, women use 600. In Wisconsin and Florida men use 0, women use 500. 

If the result is less than 100, add zeroes to the left side to make it 3 digits. (So, January 1st is encoded as "001" for men in Illinois.) 

  

Overflow

Looking at this, it may become clear that it is possible for two people with similar names to get the exact same driver's license number. For example, if "Joshua William Smith" and "Jack Wayne Snotty" were born on the same day, they'll get the same Illinois Drivers's License number. This is solved with "overflow" numbers; a simple sequential number can be appended to each duplicate number to resolve the confusion. 

Wisconsin prints the overflow number on your license. As a result, the last two digits of your Wisconsin Drivers license number represent the number of people who had the same license number as you (ignoring the last two digits), when you got your license. 

Illinois may do this, but if they do the information is not on your driver's license. This means that if Joshua William Smith is wanted by police and his driver's license number is flagged as such, Jack Wayne Snotty may be briefly detained while the police check their records to sort out the shared number. It has been said that Illinois state databases actually include a two or three digit number to distinguish between different people with the same license. 

It is also know that Florida adds one extra digit to the end. We have heard of the last digit being a 0, but it may well be another overflow digit, meaning that one should expect to see other numbers there as well. 

  
NOTE: The people mentioned above anywhere in this essay are fictional.



<--US DRIVER LICENSE NUMBER SEQUENCES-->

AK - driver's license numbers sequentially issued. 7 digits.

AL - driver's license numbers sequentially issued. 7 digits.

AR - uses driver's SSN. Will assign a nine digit sequential number upon request.

AZ - uses driver's SSN. Will assign a nine digit sequential number upon request.

CA - issues an 8 character alpha-numeric driver's license number.

CO - issues a driver's license number of up to 7 characters.

CT - issues a 9 digit number.

DC - uses driver's SSN.

DE - issues a 1 to 7 digit number sequentially.

FL - issues a 13 character alpha-numeric number.

GA - uses driver's SSN. Will assign a nine digit sequential number upon request.

HI - uses driver's SSN. Will assign a nine digit sequential number upon request.

IA - uses driver's SSN. Will assign a nine digit sequential number upon request.

ID - issues a 9 digit number.

IL - issues a 12 or 13 character alpha-numeric number.

IN - issues a 10 digit number.

KS - uses driver's SSN. Will assign a nine digit sequential number upon request. Older licenses consist of six alpha numeric characters.

KY - uses driver's SSN. Will assign a nine or 10 digit sequential number issued upon request.

LA - issues a 9 digit number.

MA - uses driver's SSN. Will assign a nine digit sequential number upon request.

MD - issues a 13 character alpha-numeric number.

ME - issues a 7 digit numeric number.

MI - issues a 13 character alpha-numeric number.

MN - issues a 13 character alpha-numeric number.

MO - uses driver's SSN. Will assign a sequentially issued number upon request.

MS - uses driver's SSN. Will assign a nine digit sequential number upon request.

MT - uses driver's SSN. Will assign a sequentially issued number upon request.

NC - issues a 7 digit numeric number.

ND - uses driver's SSN. Will assign a sequentially issued number for non-commercial drivers upon request.

NE - issues a 9 character alpha numeric number

NH - issues a 10 character alpha numeric number

NJ - issues a 15 character alpha numeric number

NM - issues a 9 digit numeric number. Older licenses use an 8 digit number

NV - issues a 12 character alpha numeric number

NY - issues a 9 character alpha numeric number

OH - issues a 8 character alpha numeric number

OK - uses driver's SSN. Will assign a nine digit sequential number upon request.

OR - issues a 7 digit numeric number.

PA - issues a 8 digit numeric number.

RI - issues a 7 digit numeric number.

SC - issues a 9 digit numeric number.

SD - uses driver's SSN.

TN - issues an 8 digit numeric number.

TX - issues an 8 digit numeric number.

UT - issues a 4 to 8 digit numeric number.

VA - uses driver's SSN. Will assign a sequentially issued number upon request.

VT - issues an 8 digit numeric number or an 8 character alpha numeric number.

WA - issues a 14 character alpha-numeric number.

WI - issues a 14 character alpha-numeric number.

WV - issues a 7 digit numeric number.

WY - issues a 9 digit numeric number.
 
Provided by: Downloadzombie.com Contact: downloadzombie@gmail.com
On the Website: http://www.bitmap.us/Soundex.txt 
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Sunday, March 9, 2014

BitCoin Relivence

Lately the US news sources have been taking an interest in the web. specifically: Bitcoin. What is BitCoin you ask? 
Bitcoin is an online currency that is used by many websites specifically in what is known as the dark net. Used to be if you wanted drugs you had to find your neighborhood drug dealer. Now there are websites you can browse anonymously using a web client called "tor network". tor network is an open source project developed to browse the net without anyone being able to find who you really are. The joke really is on the users though, who put too much faith in being anonymous with the help of said 3rd party application. Never the less, Bitcoin has become such a huge currency that there have been talks of Target and even Overstock.com using such currency. In Seatle, WA you can find ATMs where anyone can walk up, access there Bitcoin wallet, cash out there wallet to USD funds, or buy Bitcoin with USD funds. Recently a major company providing the Bitcoin service claimed to be hacked. Stealing over 10 million USD worlth of Bitcoin. But where did it all go?

The Ceo of such platform claims to have no response. But such outrage came over the users that common hackers decided to find out.

Recently the hackers gained access to the companies Bitcoin Servers to find some astonishing news to say the least.

The Ceo actually made many withdrawals under several names all to a couple anonymous Bitcoin wallets that were then cashed out. So we're did the money go? And why can't the government do anything about it?

We'll, for starters Bitcoin is not a US currency monitored by the federal reserve. Infact Bitcoin is not monitored or controlled by any government. There are no laws against such attacks. 

The money however was not recovered but what I have seen and/or discovered is that the Ceo has stashed it. The were abouts currently are unknown. It shouldn't be too long however until such Ceo decides to move it eletronically. When he does. People that you never noticed before will make their move.

We live in an evolutionary world. One were computer geniouses are the new rock stars. The evolution is growing, and fast. 

We can only wonder who will strike next, and when.

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