Thursday, 2 December 2010
Wednesday, 17 November 2010
Friday, 12 November 2010
A little bit of history
They are auctioning off a mint Apple I computer, expected to sell for $161,600 - $248,200. This machine came out in 1976, with 8K of RAM and a computer that ran at 1 Mhz. The computer I wrote this on has a million times more RAM and has two processors that run over 2500 times faster.
Labels:
Apple,
Apple I,
Personal computer,
Random-access memory,
Steve Jobs,
Steve Wozniak
Thursday, 11 November 2010
Sunday, 3 October 2010
Wednesday, 22 September 2010
Sunday, 12 September 2010
New bar bet
Image via WikipediaHere's a new bar bet: Ask people to bet what the fifth-most-traded currency in the world is, after the U.S. dollar, the yen, the pound, and the euro.
Answer: Surprisingly (I think) the Australian dollar. I would have gone through China (the one doing the trading), Russia, India, Brazil, Mexico, South Korea, and a lot of other countries before I'd have guessed Australia (if I ever would have)....
Answer: Surprisingly (I think) the Australian dollar. I would have gone through China (the one doing the trading), Russia, India, Brazil, Mexico, South Korea, and a lot of other countries before I'd have guessed Australia (if I ever would have)....
Labels:
Australia,
Australian dollar,
bar bet,
China,
economics,
United States dollar
Thursday, 9 September 2010
Italy Soccer "Training"
Title also, for the video I was talking about previously see Double Rainbow.
Sunday, 29 August 2010
Gizmodo has an interesting article about how the iPhone (and probably other digital cameras) can distort fast-moving objects, with propellers being the most common example. This iPhone video of a propeller is from the comments; there are lots of other examples in the article. Weird effects happen because "as it turns out, most digital cameras don't actually take a picture the instant you hit the button. What they actually do to capture an image is scan over the frame either vertically or horizontally. So basically, not all parts of an image are recorded at exactly same time (the top right could be a little ahead of the bottom left, etc.). Hence it being called rolling shutter."
It is cool to think that if our eyes had rolling shutters, this is how we might see the world too, with fast moving objects seeming to move in and out of existence or bend in strange ways. It's a great example of how perception is not necessarily reality.
Wednesday, 25 August 2010
The meaning of Play Station controller symbols.
Image via Wikipedia
This is interesting: Gizmodo has an article on the meaning of the symbols on a PlayStation controller. Teiyu Goto, an engineer involved in designing them, claims that "Other game companies at the time assigned alphabet letters or colors to the buttons. We wanted something simple to remember, which is why we went with icons or symbols, and I came up with the triangle-circle-X-square combination immediately afterward. I gave each symbol a meaning and a color. The triangle refers to viewpoint; I had it represent one's head or direction and made it green. Square refers to a piece of paper; I had it represent menus or documents and made it pink. The circle and X represent 'yes' or 'no' decision-making and I made them red and blue respectively. People thought those colors were mixed up, and I had to reinforce to management that that's what I wanted."
This is interesting: Gizmodo has an article on the meaning of the symbols on a PlayStation controller. Teiyu Goto, an engineer involved in designing them, claims that "Other game companies at the time assigned alphabet letters or colors to the buttons. We wanted something simple to remember, which is why we went with icons or symbols, and I came up with the triangle-circle-X-square combination immediately afterward. I gave each symbol a meaning and a color. The triangle refers to viewpoint; I had it represent one's head or direction and made it green. Square refers to a piece of paper; I had it represent menus or documents and made it pink. The circle and X represent 'yes' or 'no' decision-making and I made them red and blue respectively. People thought those colors were mixed up, and I had to reinforce to management that that's what I wanted."
Thursday, 19 August 2010
Star Wars Uncut
Star Wars Uncut "The Escape" from Casey Pugh on Vimeo.
I am hugely impressed by this attempt to re-shoot the entire Star Wars canon by cutting up the films into 15 second pieces and letting fans re-make those 15 seconds however they like. A truly great idea. A small sample is shown above.
Via BoingBoing.net
Thursday, 12 August 2010
Monday, 9 August 2010
Even-length palindromic numbers mod 11 = 0
I was surprised to learn from a comment on Project Euler that palindromic numbers are always divisible by 11.
Here's the proof (for six digit numbers):
i.) A palindromic number has the form abccba [By definition]
ii.) abccba = 100000a + 10000b + 1000c + 100c + 10b + a [Expansion in Base 10]
iii.) abccba = (100000a + a) + (10000b + 10b) + (1000c + 100c) [Re-organizing ii.)]
iv.) abccba = 100001a + 10010b + 1100c [Re-organizing iii.)]
v.) abccba = 11 (9091a + 910b + 100c) [Factor out 11 from iv.)]
QED [= Proved, since we have factored 11 out.]
I think this always holds for palindromes (of any length) with an even number of characters, but it does not necessarily hold if you are allowed to include an 'odd' digit in the centre. (I know it sometimes holds because 121 = 11 x 11, but I don't know if 121 is a special case.)
Here's the proof (for six digit numbers):
i.) A palindromic number has the form abccba [By definition]
ii.) abccba = 100000a + 10000b + 1000c + 100c + 10b + a [Expansion in Base 10]
iii.) abccba = (100000a + a) + (10000b + 10b) + (1000c + 100c) [Re-organizing ii.)]
iv.) abccba = 100001a + 10010b + 1100c [Re-organizing iii.)]
v.) abccba = 11 (9091a + 910b + 100c) [Factor out 11 from iv.)]
QED [= Proved, since we have factored 11 out.]
I think this always holds for palindromes (of any length) with an even number of characters, but it does not necessarily hold if you are allowed to include an 'odd' digit in the centre. (I know it sometimes holds because 121 = 11 x 11, but I don't know if 121 is a special case.)
Labels:
Factoring,
Math,
Number Theory,
Project Euler,
Recreation,
Specific Numbers
Thursday, 5 August 2010
M of the M
This is a photo taken out of a larger album (composed of 505 photos to be exact) solely of Mario and Luigi around North America. This album is found here. Photo credit given to revengingangel. Mario of the Month for August 2010
Wednesday, 4 August 2010
Tuesday, 3 August 2010
Friday, 30 July 2010
Sunday, 18 July 2010
Thursday, 15 July 2010
Project Euler
Image via Wikipedia
"Project Euler is a series of challenging mathematical/computer programming problems that will require more than just mathematical insights to solve. Although mathematics will help you arrive at elegant and efficient methods, the use of a computer and programming skills will be required to solve most problems."(Leonard Euler, pictured at left, was a Swiss 18th Century mathematician.)
Labels:
Computer programming,
education,
History,
Leonhard Euler,
Math,
mathematics,
Project Euler
Tuesday, 13 July 2010
Thursday, 8 July 2010
The universe as rounding error
Image via Wikipedia
I enjoyed this quote: "Nine out of every 10 atoms in the universe are hydrogen, the first element and the major constituent of stars. The other 10 percent of all atoms are helium. That's already 100 percent. The rest of the periodic table, Elements 3 through 118, lithium through ununoctium, barely register on a cosmic scale. The rest of the universe, you and I included, is a rounding error."
Sam Kean/ Hydrogen: Where It All Started in Slate
Labels:
chemistry,
Hydrogen,
Life,
periodic table,
philosophy,
science,
thought
Wednesday, 7 July 2010
Friday, 2 July 2010
Russian optimism
Image by funkandjazz via Flickr
"Eight percent of Russians believe their national team will win the World Cup, despite the fact that it never qualified for the tournament, an independent poll has showed."From Reuters via Yahoo News
Monday, 28 June 2010
2010 World Cup is lowest scoring competition ever
"2010 is indisputably the lowest scoring World Cup in history."
From: http://footballpolemics.wordpress.com/ via: http://www.marginalrevolution.com/
From: http://footballpolemics.wordpress.com/ via: http://www.marginalrevolution.com/
Labels:
2010,
FIFA,
FIFA World Cup,
soccer,
soccer FIFA,
Sport,
statistics,
world cup
Thursday, 24 June 2010
The man who sold a $22 billion share in Apple for $800
Ron Wayne co-founded Apple with Steve Jobs and Steve Wozniak. At the beginning he owned 10% of the company. Today that 10% would be worth $22 billion. Alas, Wayne sold his 10% back for $800 before Apple succeeded. A rough investment decision! More details at CNN here.
With a tip'o'the hat to Uncle Eric.
Labels:
Apple,
business,
Company,
Ron Wayne,
Steve Jobs,
Steve Wozniak
Friday, 18 June 2010
OnLive gaming service comes to the Mac
Image via Wikipedia
These are good times for gaming on the Mac: Following Steam's recent arrival, OnLive has now arrived for the Mac. From the site's own description: "The OnLive® Game Service is a revolutionary, on-demand video game platform that delivers the latest and most advanced games instantly over a broadband connection on virtually any PC or Mac®, via a small browser download, or HDTV, via OnLive's MicroConsole™ TV Adapter (coming soon). OnLive enables an entirely new way to discover, explore, purchase and experience the hottest video games from the world's leading publishers."
Labels:
Games,
Mac,
Macintosh,
OnLive,
Personal computer,
Steam (content delivery),
television,
Video game
Wednesday, 16 June 2010
Shortest possible game of Monopoly
"we started to wonder about what the shortest THEORETICALLY POSSIBLE game of Monopoly would be. That is, if everything went just the right way, with just the right sequence of rolls, Chance and Community Chest cards, and so on, what is the quickest way one player could go bankrupt? After working on the problem for a while, we boiled it down to a 4-turn (2 per player), 9 roll (including doubles) game. Detail on each move given below. If executed quickly enough, this theoretical game can be played in 21 seconds"
Text and video taken from (and further discussion at) scatter.wordpress.com, via BoingBoing.
Monday, 14 June 2010
FIFA US VS England Highlights- In LEGO
Final score: 1-1, even if England was, in my opinion, dominating the game.
Thursday, 10 June 2010
Tuesday, 8 June 2010
The Khan Academy
I love what this guy is doing: Salman Khan has recorded over a thousand ten-minute lectures on every topic in the K-12 curriculum (and quite a bit beyond that), and they are all free. There are tons of math lectures. He is doing it primarily as labor of love, not for profit. I hope he gets very rich off it anyway; he deserves it. Amazing and inspiring to see. Check out the Khan Academy.
Via: BoingBoingth
Labels:
education,
Free,
Khan Academy,
Salman Khan,
School,
university
Saturday, 5 June 2010
Friday, 4 June 2010
The Art of Money
There is a great web page on art made from money here at the Brain Pickings website.
Image shows a hand-made work by American artist Mark Wagner.
Wednesday, 2 June 2010
Tuesday, 1 June 2010
Tuesday, 18 May 2010
Useless math fact
"These and other remarkable formulas are the basis of modern computations of : you might ask how does one find such formulas? I have no idea".
From: http://rjlipton.wordpress.com
Wednesday, 12 May 2010
Steam for Mac is now available.
"Steam for Mac is officially available, along with a sizeable trove of games—including Portal, which is now free for everybody."
Gizmodo's headline says it all: "Real Gaming for Macs Is Finally Here". (I stole the line above from Gizmodo too.) Steam is an online gaming platform that has heretofore been limited to Windows.
Thursday, 6 May 2010
Hitler at the Robotics Championship
This will probably get taken down soon; the owners of the movie don't like 'Downfall' parodies (though the rest of us do!)
Friday, 30 April 2010
Science Conspiracies
Lots of people believe, that the "Large Hadron Collider", will destroy the world, similarly to making a wee version of a sun using 192 uber powerful lasers (see the article for more information) by 2022.
Also, an extremely popular video explaining in vague details what the LHC does can be found here.
A pretty good video proving the LHC conspiracy is "Science!" (though it goes off topic quite a bit).
Labels:
Collider,
Conspiracy,
destruction,
Expensive,
Hadron,
Large,
Laser,
LHC,
Newgrounds,
science,
SUN,
Video,
World,
YouTube
Sunday, 25 April 2010
Distribution of stock ownership in the USA: Note that 50.9% [Owned by top 1% of population] + 39.4% [Owned by next 2% of population] = 90.3% of all stocks are owned by just 3% of the population!
Graph from: http://donklephant.com
Graph from: http://donklephant.com
Labels:
Equities,
Research and Analysis,
stock market,
stocks,
Stocks and Bonds,
USA
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