28 août 2006

Squiglyness Theory

FSI

The reasoning seems intuitively right, but you have to admit that it is still a bit weird.

Some nations are just doomed from the start, often because their borders are not squiggly enough. That's the conclusion of a recent NBER study by Harvard economists Alberto Alesina and Janina Matuszeski and NYU's Bill Easterly.

Squiggly border theory | FP Passport

Environment Friendly

http://www.haworthnj.org/recycling.jpg

Here is a study by Greenpeace as to where different electronics company stand about environment.

This Green Electronics Guide ranks leading mobile and PC manufacturers on their global policies and practice on eliminating harmful chemicals and on taking responsibility for their products once they are discarded by consumers. Companies are ranked solely on information that is publicly available.

How the companies line up | Greenpeace International

Happy Birthday Linux (late)

http://www.acmesystems.it/articles/00021/tux_case_front_small.jpg

Linux (the OS) turns 15 today. To commemorate the event, here is an email by Linus Torvald (Linux's daddy, as his name indicates)

Hello everybody out there using minix -

I'm doing a (free) operating system (just a hobby, won't be big and
professional like gnu) for 386(486) AT clones. This has been brewing
since april, and is starting to get ready. I'd like any feedback on
things people like/dislike in minix, as my OS resembles it somewhat
(same physical layout of the file-system (due to practical reasons)
among other things).

I've currently ported bash(1.08) and gcc(1.40), and things seem to work.
This implies that I'll get something practical within a few months, and
I'd like to know what features most people would want. Any suggestions
are welcome, but I won't promise I'll implement them :-)

Linus (torva...@kruuna.helsinki.fi)

PS. Yes - it's free of any minix code, and it has a multi-threaded fs.
It is NOT protable (uses 386 task switching etc), and it probably never
will support anything other than AT-harddisks, as that's all I have :-(.

Google Groups: comp.os.minix

22 août 2006

La preuve de Perelman semble tenir la route!

Perelman, ICM

En 2002, Perelman soumettait une preuve de la conjecture de Poincaré. Semblerait-il que personne n'a trouvé de faille dans sa preuve, et voilà maintenant qu'il refuse la médaille Fields.

Grigory Perelman, the Russian who seems to have solved one of the hardest problems in mathematics, has declined one of the top prizes in maths.

BBC NEWS | Science/Nature | Maths genius declines top prize


08 août 2006

A costly comma

http://capefeare.com/hutz.gif

Just goes to tell you that:

  • The law is something that can be twisted in incredible ways
  • Lawyers will always find a way to make themselves useful. We are talking about an 18-month long dispute here
It could be the most costly piece of punctuation in Canada. A grammatical blunder may force Rogers Communications Inc. to pay an extra $2.13-million to use utility poles in the Maritimes after the placement of a comma in a contract permitted the deal's cancellation.

globeandmail.com : Comma quirk irks Rogers


Avis aux voyageurs: réduire le prix des billets

http://images.evalu8.org/images/airplane300.jpg

Je suis pas sûr si ça marche, mais j'imagine que ça vaut la peine d'essayer pour tenter de sauver de l'argent sur les billets d'avions.

What's the absolute best time to purchase a ticket directly from the airlines? Turns out it's Wednesday from midnight to 1a.m. in the time zone of the airline's "home base."

Tip For Best Purchase Time of Airline Tickets - SeekingAlpha


03 août 2006

Simple et si beau

http://www.bmezine.com/tattoo/A60318/high/bmepb238563.jpg

J'ai toujours dis que si jamais je me faisait tatouer quelque chose, ça serait sans doute l'équation d'Euler (voir ci-haut). C'est la première fois que je vois quelqu'un qui a eu la même idée que moi!

Finite Simple Group

Video about a math love song (such things exist apparently). Worth checking out.

The Klein Four Group is the premiere a capella group of the world of higher mathematics. We call the Northwestern University mathematics department our home.

The Klein Four Group