Category Archives: Science/Technology

Cool stuff from the world of science and tech

Hacking Las Vegas

August 16, 2005 Alexander Leave a comment

A group of "baby-faced MIT students, hyper-geniuses and anarchistic whiz kids" figured out how to cheat casinos efficiently at blackjack.

Fifty thousand dollars strapped to each thigh. A hundred thousand dollars, in 10 bricks of hundreds, taped across my upper back. Fifty thousand more Velcroed to my chest.

I try to control my breathing … Continue Reading ››

Politics, Science/Technology

The economics of crack-related violence

August 9, 2005 Alexander Leave a comment

Violence related to the sale of crack cocaine in the US is way down. Steven Levitt, the author of the excellent book Freakonomics, looks at why, in an article in the NY times:

...as of 2000 -- the most recent year for which the index data are available -- Americans were still smoking … Continue Reading ››

Book Reviews, Science/Technology

Book review: Freakonomics

July 18, 2005 Alexander 1 Comment

In the 80's crime rose sharply in the US. Instances of murder, robberies, muggings all went up in the big cities. Experts were crying doom, predicting that it could only get worse. Then it got better. Not just a little, but a lot. The question is Why? Giuliani took credit for cleaning up New York City. … Continue Reading ››

Book Reviews, Science/Technology

Book review: The golden ratio

July 13, 2005 Alexander Leave a comment

1.61803398874989484820458683436563811772030917980576286213544862270526046281890 244970720720418939113748475408807538689175212663386222... Doesn't look like much does it? What if I told you, that this number is significant in such varied circumstances as: * The construction of pentagons * The number of spirals in sunflowers * The construction of sea-shells * Fractals Spooky, huh? The number is called variously the golden mean, the golden section number, the golden ratio or simply phi (pronounced … Continue Reading ››

Open Source Business, Science/Technology

Firefox browser reaches 25.000.000 downloads

February 17, 2005 Alexander Leave a comment

Since Firefox 1.0 became available a few months ago it has been downloaded a staggering 25 mio. times. Not bad for a free, open source product developed by volunteers.

If you're not already using it, you need to know that:
* It's free
* It has more and better … Continue Reading ››

Open Source Business, Science/Technology

Giving it away

January 6, 2005 Alexander Leave a comment

According to a recent analysis, 35% of all traffic on the internet today is done in a protocol called bittorrent. So this was probably developed by Microsoft, who're making a zillion bucks on it, right? Wrong! Well, then it must've been created and marketed by some other big internet company, RIGHT? WRONG! Bittorrent, which is a … Continue Reading ››

Science/Technology

Wikipedia: Coolest tool on the net

September 14, 2004 Alexander Leave a comment

Of course there's no way you could engage thousands of people world-wide in creating a comprehensive, up-to-date, on-line encyclopedia. If you simply opened up the system, so anybody could contribute to any subject, it would be completely impossible to protect the system against vandalism, jokes and random errors. Such an encyclopedia could never work.

Continue Reading ››

Science/Technology

Bad astronomy

August 5, 2004 Alexander 7 Comments

Philip Plait debunks weird, pseudoscientific claims at his excellent webiste badastronomy.com. Here's his take on what it's like to stand up for science:
Have you ever gone to a carnival, or a fair of some kind, and played the game "Whack-a-Mole"? It's a table with holes in it, and little mechanical rodents pop their … Continue Reading ››

Science/Technology

Browser upgrade

February 11, 2004 Alexander Leave a comment

I just upgraded to Mozilla Firefox 0.8, and it's a great browser. If you're still using Internet Explorer, cursing about incessant advertising popup windows, consider giving Firefox a try. It's more stable, faster and has more features than Internet Explorer, plus it downloads in minutes and installs in seconds.

And of course it's open … Continue Reading ››

Science/Technology

Identity

February 10, 2004 Alexander Leave a comment

I keep coming back to the concept of identity. Lots of human ideas, activities and concepts are influenced by identity. Personal identity. Group identity - if there is such a thing.

Last week I had the pleasure of meeting Owen Davies who's working on one aspect of this, namely digital identity. A secure, trustworthy … Continue Reading ››

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