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Puzzle Games (Games)

Submission + - Old islamic tile patterns show modern math insight

arbitraryaardvark writes: "Reuters reports Medieval Muslims made mega math marvel.
Tile patterns on middle eastern mosques display a kind of quasicrystalline effect that was unknown in the west until rediscovered by Penrose in the 1970s.
"Quasicrystalline patterns comprise a set of interlocking units whose pattern never repeats, even when extended infinitely in all directions, and possess a special form of symmetry."
It isn't known if the mosque designers understood the math behind the patterns.
page 2 of story."
The Internet

Submission + - Microsoft Vista-Live Combo Impacts Google

ReadWriteWeb writes: "Windows Vista is finally out and along with that Microsoft seems to have kick-started its Vista-Live joint initiative. Which means that Microsoft makes its Windows Live web properties the default in Windows Vista PCs, where possible — for example Live Search is the default search engine in IE7 on new Vista machines. Stats from Alexa show that after Vista's release, traffic on Live.com and MSN rose sharply. And interestingly, both tangents have the same slope: Live's slope is 0.79 and MSN's is 0.76. On the other hand, Google's Alexa chart shows the reverse trend. There is a significant fall in Google's traffic after Vista was released and Google's slope is a negative 0.5. Is this an early indication that new Vista users are happy with what is given as the default — that for example Live Search is 'good enough' compared to Google search?"
Microsoft

Submission + - Microsoft Tells Some Users No on Vista

kog777 writes: After years of delays and billions in development and marketing efforts, it would seem that Microsoft Corp. would want anyone who possibly can to buy its new Windows Vista operating system. Yet Microsoft is making it hard for Mac owners and other potentially influential customers to adopt the software. Microsoft says the blockade is necessary for security reasons. But that is disputed. The circumstances might simply reflect a business decision Microsoft doesn't want to explain.
Programming

Submission + - Fast Regexes

Watson Ladd writes: Perl, Python, and many other languages claim string processing, and in particular pattern matching, as an application they were designed for. But this article shows how slow most of the regex engines now used are due to the use of Henry Spencer's regex package as inspiration. How many more performance losses are due to historical accident.
Censorship

Submission + - BBC Debunks Itself

Pixelpump writes: "The BBC has proven itself to be a shill for the status quo with the release of it's documentary "9/11: The Conspiracy Files." The documentary builds strawman after strawman and then valiantly knocks them down, all the while leaving the real questions unanswered and unexplored. http://www.factivism.com/content/view/77/33/"
It's funny.  Laugh.

Submission + - Translation of Macrovision Response to Jobs on DRM

BoboB-69 writes: Daring Fireball has posted a humorous, and accurate PR-speak to Plain English translation of Macrovision's CEO's response to Steve Jobs' Open Letter on DRM. Highly recommended reading for slashdotters everywhere.
The Media

Submission + - Where Digg Failed

legoburner writes: "An interesting op-ed piece has appeared detailing the author's belief that Digg is so fundamentally flawed that it is only a matter of time before it completely collapses. Why Digg Failed has some choice quotes and analysis of why Digg's popularity has caused it to become too similar to tabloids in gaining attention and how quality has fallen drastically as usage has increased. Take note slashdot/firehose!"
Security

Submission + - 2 JavaScript holes (with exploits) this week

An anonymous reader writes: Double strike this week for Michal Zalewski, who published JavaScript based exploits for two new web browser vulnerabilities. The one disclosed on Monday allows attacker to read sensitive local files on your computer without your explicit permission, and affects both IE 7 and Firefox 2.0.0.1. The other one allows malicious websites to manipulate authentication cookies for third-party sites, and to possibly do other nasty things as well. A patch for the latter bug, notified to Mozilla on Wednesday, has already been developed and will likely be available in a 2.0.0.2 security upgrade. Obviously enough, users of the NoScript Firefox extension are immune from both these attack vectors.
It's funny.  Laugh.

Submission + - Americans are NOT stupid

justelite writes: "So what if they dont know how many sides a triangle have? Or who Tony Blair is? That is not fair...just because their president is as intelligent as a door, it doent mean theyre all like that...if you still think american people are stupi, watch this video and change your mind :)"
Education

Submission + - Kansas Adopts New Science Standards

porcupine8 writes: The Kansas State Board of Education has changed the state science standards once again, this time to take out language questioning evolution. This turnaround comes fast on the heels of the ouster given this past election to the ultra-conservative Board members who originally introduced the language. "Science" has also been re-redefined as "a human activity of systematically seeking natural explanations" (the word "natural" had been previously stricken from the definition).

If you'd like to see the new standards, a version showing all additions and deletions is available from the KS DOE's website (PDF).
Biotech

Submission + - power of the MUD

justelite writes: "This clock is powered by earth, no batteries or other power needed. Just mud... We need more mud for a computer powered by mud."

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