A great explanation of how musical notes relate to math

I've often wondered about this, but only got so far as to deduce the 12th root of 2 as a factor.

http://math.stackexchange.com/questions/11669/mathematical-difference-between-white-and-black-notes-in-a-piano

This link also, is chock full of awesomeness:

http://www.maths.abdn.ac.uk/~bensondj/html/maths-music.html

Frontend Engineering

With all the talk about Google PageSpeed in the past several months, I have developed an appreciation for learning how to improve user's experiences through better management of the conversations between web browser and server. These concepts pertain to an area of discipline that is being called Frontend Engineering.

Given tools like PageSpeed, it is a shame that many sites still fail to address the issues it reports. Easy gains are often had by following the advice it offers.

I hope to document some of the issues I encounter as I work through them in my day job, involving a large application that I'll call Big Enterprise App (BEA). I'll aim to compile from this a series of Frontend Engineering entries.

Update: Here is a good description of the topics Frontend Engineering deals with. The most succinct description I've heard for this kind of work so far is "responsibility for View Source."

New Toilet - Toto Drake II

We recently bought a Toto Drake II CST454CEFG to replace a poorly installed (and poorly performing) "builder grade" Mansfield Alto 160. The Toto uses only 1.28 gallons per flush, but it never clogs like the Mansfield did. It also is an elongated style, ADA height and overall just seems to have a higher quality fit and finish.

We ended up purchasing online through National Builder Supply, where we got $20 off for using Google Checkout. Shipping was free and the packing was impressively solid with no damage at all to the parts at all.

Installation was pretty straightforward, once I learned that a good way of coping with a broken PVC flange included overlaying it with a metal one expressly made for that purpose.

Obsoleting our plunger was reason enough to make the switch, but we really like that this minimizes our water usage and saves on the bill.

Our take:

• Environment +1
• Reduced rate of consumption for water service and softener salt +1
• Improved aesthetics +1
• No more plunger needed +1
• Price was right, at $306 after $20 discount

We expect to place one of these in our other 2 bathrooms in the coming months.