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vol. 17 no. 1 - January 2001
The U.S.S. Alaric is a North Carolina chapter of STARFLEET, the International Star Trek Fan Association. Starfleet and the Alaric recognize Paramount's sole ownership of all Star Trek copyrights. Annual individual member dues to the international club are $15.00 per year.
U.S.S. Alaric
How To Join:
The U.S.S. Alaric currently does not charge local membership dues. However, since the Alaric is a Starfleet chapter, in order to join the Alaric, you must first join Starfleet. When you join, you will receive a member packet which includes a Little White Card (LWC, or LBWC). To join the Alaric, bring this verification to a meeting, or mail it to the Alaric chapter president at the address below:
U.S.S. Alaric
P.O. Box 2072
Asheville, NC 28802 U.S.A.
Membership Renewal:
The first step is to renew your membership with Starfleet. Once you receive your LWC, send it to the chapter president. It is important that you renew your Starfleet membership 2 to 3 months in advance, since it might take that long for headquarters to process it. Other means of verification include an address label from the national newsletter, or a canceled check or money order in case of delays.
Alaric Meeting Schedule:
The Alaric holds regular monthly meetings at the South Buncombe Branch Library meeting room, 260 Overlook Road (near TC Roberson High School, in Skyland, NC), generally the afternoon of the second Saturday of the month.
February 10 - monthly meeting, 1 p.m.
March 10 - monthly meeting, 1 p.m.
Staff meetings, when necessary, are held generally the weekend before the regular monthly meeting (i.e., first Saturday of the month). However, most staff meeting-related business is conducted via email.
Check out the USS Alaric's club home page at:
http://home.sprynet.com/~ian/alaric/alaric.htm
The U.S.S. Alaric is the oldest and first Starfleet starship in North Carolina. The Alaric's logo, a starship silhouette orbiting a Starfleet insignia over the state of North Carolina, reflects our roots.
The U.S.S. Alaric, a starship in Starfleet's Region One, is the science flagship for Region One.
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CC 0101 Contents:
Carolina Communicator (c) 2001 by USS Alaric.
Promotional materials copyrighted by Paramount Pictures, Universal Studios, and other companies, and selected submissions copyrighted by individual contributors.
NEWSLETTER EDITOR: Ian "Krell" Johnsson
Next Issue Deadline:
All submissions for the next CC are due by:
February 24, 2001.
Please observe the deadline. This helps get the CC out on time!
Submission Guidelines:
Send submissions via email to: ian@sprynet.com
Please follow these guidelines:
- Include the submission as an attachment to your email.
- ASCII text file format is preferred, but I can also handle WordPerfect 8.0 or MS Word 2000 formats.
- Large text files and picture files should be zipped.
Subscriptions:
The Carolina Communicator is published six times a year. You can subscribe one of two ways:
- To subscribe to the online electronic CC, send an email to AlaricRH@sprynet.com telling me so and include your name, mailing address, and affiliation (ship, regional position, etc.). I will send you an email every two months telling you the url for the latest published issue.
- To subscribe to the paper copy of the online CC, send a letter to: Carolina Communicator, P.O. Box 2072, Asheville, NC 28802. Include your name, mailing address, and a check or money order for $8.00 made payable to RICHARD HEIM.
Back issues of the CC are available for $2.00 plus $1.00 S&H each.
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The views expressed in the Carolina Communicator do not necessarily reflect those of the staff,
or all of the members of the Alaric.
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Alaric
Command
Reports
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ELECTED OFFICERS:
President (Captain) - Richard Heim
Vice-President (First Officer) -
Dale Anderson
Executive Secretary (Second Officer) -
(currently vacant)
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FCapt. Richard Heim
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Welcome to the 0101 issue of the Carolina Communicator, the first issue of the new millennium! With this issue I am totally turning over the editorial reigns to Ian Johnsson. Ian has been hosting the Alaric's web presence for years now, and he has graciously offered to help out with the editing chore. Thanks Ian! I'd also like to thank those who contributed. From the looks of things as I write this, there weren't very many contributors. And I'm going to publicly state, here and now, how disappointed I am at the poor publishing/reporting record of some of our department chiefs.
Access to the traditional url for our web page (http://home.sprynet.com/~ian/alaric/alaric.htm) has been temporarily interrupted. A duplicate site has been set up at http://www.ussalaric.org/ courtesy of member Robert Saucier (thanks Robert!). We are in the process of updating the contents. Speaking of which, I desperately need your responses to those emails I've sent out in the last couple months.
We may be changing our monthly meeting place soon. Late last year I sent out a survey seeking your input on this, and have received responses from a few of the Alaric crew. Come on, people! Send those survey responses to me! I need to know what you want so we can make an informed decision.
I'd like to remind everyone of the special club activities. These include collecting Campbells product labels in support of Eliada Children's Home, and aluminum can recycling as a club fund raiser. Our XO, Dale Anderson, is heading up our participation in the Vessel Readiness Certification Program. I call upon the Alaric crew to please support these acitivities.
REGULAR MONTHLY MEETING REPORTS
Attendance was light at our 0011.11 meeting. We had officer reports and our regular doorprize drawings. Our fun activity this month was exchanging trading cards, organized by Sheila Hand.
In December, we met at the library for our regular meeting at 1:00 p.m. After a short business meeting, we conducted a Star Trek Trivia Contest, which was organized by David Moxley. Dale was the trivia winner, hands down! We adjourned the meeting at 2:45 and reconvened at Ryan's family restaurant for our Christmas dinner.
That's all for this report. Live Long, and Prosper!
FCapt. Richard Heim
Commanding Officer, USS Alaric
AlaricRH@sprynet.com
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Alaric Department Reports
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DEPARTMENT HEADS:
Chief Science Officer - Richard Heim
Chief, Social Sciences - Dale Anderson
Chief, Astrophysics - Susan Vaughn
Chief Engineering Officer - Sheila Hand
Chief Quartermaster - Janice Self
Chief Medical Officer - Susan Bolick
Recruitment Officer - Mark Bolick
Chaplain/Counselor - Shirley Heim
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Chief Science Officer
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FCapt. Richard Heim
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In November, Shirley and I drove to Nebraska. It was a business trip for me (attending and presenting papers at the Drought Monitor Forum workshop) but, since we have relatives in Lincoln, it was a vacation trip for Shirley.
While on the road, I picked up several brochures on local caves and caverns. In this issue of the Carolina Communicator, I'd like to discuss the National Caves Association, which is a non-profit organization of publicly and privately owned show caves and caverns -- caves developed for public visitation. At their web page (http://www.cavern.com/) you can learn about the Association's 91 caves and caverns that span the United States. The Member Caves Directory lists the address and phone number of each cave, and many of them have web pages and email points of contact as well. The web site has an interactive message board on which you can post information about the caves, the tours, and other activities at the particular show cave, and in the area. They also have a link to the National Speleological Society's website (their link doesn't work, but the Society's website is http://www.caves.org/), where you can learn more about the science and study of cave formation or about the exploration of undeveloped caves.
 
If you like spelunking, then this is a good place to start!
Check out the Alaric's science department web page:
http://alaricrh.home.sprynet.com/science/AlaricSci.htm
FCapt. Richard Heim
Chief Science Officer
USS Alaric
RDC REGION ONE SCIENCES NEWS
Not much new has happened in Region One Sciences. I received no applicants for the Assistant RDC position, and nobody applied for the newsletter editor position either. Consequently, the December issue of the Region One Sciences newsletter webzine will be a little late. I'll be traveling to Albuquerque, New Mexico, in the middle of January for yet another work-related trip, this time to the American Meteorological Society's annual meeting, so I'll be working on it when I get back.
Check out the Region One Sciences web page: http://alaricrh.home.sprynet.com/science/R1Science.htm
FCapt. Richard Heim
Regional Division Chief, Sciences
Starfleet Region One
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CC Editor |
Ian "Krell" Johnsson
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Greetings all! As Captain Heim mentioned above, I am now the full-time editor for the CC. So just in case you
missed the new guidelines up top, I thought I would go over a few points.
Since this is basically a web-based publication, it would help me greatly if you submit any articles or reports
in html format. But if you don't know html don't worry about it. I can convert it from basic ASCII text,
and in fact if you're not that comfortable with html don't even try. I'd rather you not use html at all then
use it poorly.
Obviously the easiest way to get your submissions to me is by email, just
send me a message with "CC submission" in the heading and with your article attached. If there are picture files
that go along with it, please zip it all together in one attachment, otherwise it takes much longer for me to
download it.
And one last word regarding submission deadlines: Nagus knows I'm not the most punctual Ferengi, so I can certainly
understand it if you're running a day or two late with you departmental reports. Just drop me a quick note to
let me know that you're working on it. I begin working on the issue on the submission deadline date, and as soon
as I get it finished (usually a couple of days, depending on my free time) it'll be posted. So if I don't have your
report and don't know that it's on the way, I'll go ahead without it. I'm not going to just automatically extend
the deadline because of a low submission turnout, it's up to you to let me know that you're going to be running a little
late.
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Cracker Barrel Problem
Joseph M. McCollum
Some months ago, some friends and I went to the Cracker Barrel restaurant.
As many readers may know, on the tables, the Cracker Barrel has little peg games
to keep the patrons amused while their food is being cooked. Basically, the game consists of 15 holes
and 14 pegs arranged in the following configuration:
The object of the game is to jump one peg over another (the jumped peg is removed from the game)
and continue until there is only one peg remaining. A solution is particularly elegant if the last
remaining peg is in the original empty hole.
After some frustration with the game, I sat down and wrote a program to solve the game.
Here is the code.
This program can find a solution in a matter of minutes. Here are some sample solutions (all elegant).
3111-3331-4121-1131-1232-1412-5133-2442-3133-4224-1533-3313-1311
1412-3313-1533-4224-1214-3133-1131-4121-2123-2442-5133-3313-1412
3313-2123-4121-5133-1131-2442-4222-1232-3133-1412-3313-1214-1513
1214-3113-1131-4121-1412-3331-2141-1533-4224-2422-5131-3113-1214
1315-3313-1214-1513-5133-2123-4121-2442-1131-1333-4224-3133-3315
4224-1333-1513-1214-3113-1412-1113-5131-2141-4123-2442-1333-4224
In this key, "3111", for example, means "move the peg in the 3rd row, 1st column to the hole in the 1st row, 1st column".
Considerably more difficult is the 33-hole, 32-peg problem (known variously as Wood Solitaire or Hi-Q) with the following
configuration:
In this particular variation, diagonal jumps are not allowed. The author is looking for ways to improve execution
time of the program.
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Free counters provided by Honesty.com.
This issue prepared 01/24/2001 by Ian "Krell" Johnsson and uploaded
to the Alaric's web site by Richard Heim.
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