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Math

Towards a Wiki For Formally Verified Mathematics 299

Posted by kdawson from the preparing-the-ground-for-our-robot-overlords dept.
An anonymous reader writes "Cameron Freer, an instructor in pure mathematics at MIT, is working on an intriguing project called vdash.org (video from O'Reilly Ignite Boston 4): a math wiki which only allows true theorems to be added! Based on Isabelle, a free-software theorem prover, the wiki will state all of known mathematics in a machine-readable language and verify all theorems for correctness, thus providing a knowledge base for interactive proof assistants. In addition to its benefits for education and research, such a project could reveal undiscovered connections between fields of mathematics, thus advancing some fields with no further work being necessary."
Security

"Back Door" Cheating Scandal Rocks Online Poker 427

Posted by kdawson from the know-when-to-hold-'em dept.
AcidAUS sends us the story of an online poker cheating ring that netted an estimated $10M for its perpetrators over almost 4 years. The article spotlights the role of an Australian player who first performed the statistical analyses that demonstrated that cheating had to be going on. "In two separate cases, Michael Josem, from Chatswood, analyzed detailed hand history data from Absolute Poker and UltimateBet and uncovered that certain player accounts won money at a rate too fast to be legitimate. His findings led to an internal investigation by the parent company that owns both sites. It found rogue employees had defrauded players over three years via a security hole that allowed the cheats to see other player's secret (or hole) cards." The (Mohawk) Kahnawake Gaming Commission, which licenses the two poker companies, has released its preliminary report. MSNBC reporting from a couple of weeks back gives deep background on the scandal.
The Almighty Buck

Submission + - Visa offers "virtual" credit cards - no pl (apcmag.com)

Submitted by
BaconFloss
BaconFloss writes: "Credit giant Visa has unveiled a new super-secure credit card for online shopping: it's merely a card number and expiry date on a piece of paper which expires once you've used up the prepaid amount. There's no plastic involved. It works much like a mobile phone prepaid recharge voucher, except that the virtual card number is printed out on the docket. Clearly it's relatively secure compared to a rolling credit account, but is it also a tacit admission that the card companies have failed to actually make credit cards adequately secure in the high fraud environment we live in today?"
The Internet

Submission + - Peer-to-peer is good for music sales (in Canada): (ic.gc.ca)

Submitted by xplinuxmac
xplinuxmac writes: A study about the positive effects of p2p music downloads: Industry Canada undertook a music file sharing study during 2006-07 to measure the extent to which music downloads over peer-to-peer file sharing networks, for which the sound recording industry receives no remuneration, affect music purchasing activity in Canada. The data used for this analysis are from a Decima Research survey conducted between April and June, 2006, on behalf of Industry Canada. The report, prepared by University of London researchers, Birgitte Andersen and Marion Frenz, found that music downloads have a positive effect on music purchases among Canadian downloaders but that there is no effect taken over the entire population aged 15 and over. Complete Report
Space

Submission + - Surfer dude stuns physicists with theory of every (telegraph.co.uk)

Submitted by GDI Lord
GDI Lord writes: "An impoverished surfer has drawn up a new theory of the universe, seen by some as the Holy Grail of physics, which has received rave reviews from scientists. Garrett Lisi, 39, has a doctorate but no university affiliation and spends most of the year surfing in Hawaii, where he has also been a hiking guide and bridge builder (when he slept in a jungle yurt)... his proposal is remarkable because, by the arcane standards of particle physics, it does not require highly complex mathematics. Even better, it does not require more than one dimension of time and three of space, when some rival theories need ten or even more spatial dimensions and other bizarre concepts. And it may even be possible to test his theory, which predicts a host of new particles, perhaps even using the new Large Hadron Collider atom smasher that will go into action near Geneva next year... Lisi's inspiration lies in the most elegant and intricate shape known to mathematics, called E8 — a complex, eight-dimensional mathematical pattern with 248 points first found in 1887, but only fully understood by mathematicians this year after workings, that, if written out in tiny print, would cover an area the size of Manhattan."
Google

Submission + - Who Owns Google Search Terms?

Submitted by
Law Student
Law Student writes: "I'm a law student taking an intellectual property course at the University of Texas at Austin. I've recently learned that in order to prove copyright infringement in a civil suit, a plaintiff need not establish that an alleged infringer knowingly copied the protected work in question; rather, unknowing copying is enough. This obviously puts something of a burden on creators of new works to ensure that their purportedly new works don't infringe upon pre-existing copyright. I've written some lyrics to a tune I also wrote. My gut reaction is to google phrases from the lyrics in quotations to test their originality. However, I'm hesitant to do so becuase I'm not sure whether Google might have a valid claim of ownership (worst-case scenario), or whether those lyrics might arguably pass into the public domain once submitted (not quite as bad). Any IP attorneys or others out there who could shed some light on this issue?"
The Internet

Submission + - Bill Gates voted IT's most influential person

Submitted by Stony Stevenson
Stony Stevenson writes: Bill Gate, Steve Jobs, and Michael Dell rank one, two, and three in a list of the most influential people in IT over the past 25 years. The list was compiled by the Computing Technology Industry Association (CompTIA), a tech trade group with 22,000 members. The poll got 473 votes, mostly from people who have worked in the tech industry for at least three years. Gates, chairman and co-founder of Microsoft Corporation, was selected by 84% of the participants. Jobs, CEO and co-founder of Apple, was selected by 73% of those taking the poll. Michael Dell, CEO and founder of Dell, got the nod from 53% of CompTIA voters. Linus Torvalds, creator of the Linux operating system, made the list with 47% of the vote, tying for fourth place with Google co-founders Sergey Brin and Larry Page. Strangely absent from the list is anyone responsible for pushing the computer gaming envelope.
Hardware Hacking

Submission + - The Aerodynamics of Bicycle Racing

Submitted by
Ponca City, We Love You
Ponca City, We Love You writes: "Nick Frey, the reigning national time-trial bicycle champion, is a mechanical and aerospace engineering major at Princeton who puts his knowledge to work in modifications to his racing bike. Once a bicycle is moving fast enough, nearly all the cyclist's strength goes into pushing aside air. Reducing that resistance by a relatively small amount can result in major increases in speed with minimal increased effort so one of Frey's innovations is enclosing his brake cables in a special housing shaped like an airplane wing that shields them from the wind, reducing the resistance on his bike. "It's like free speed," says Frey. "And in cycling, every second counts." Other improvements include the helmet he purchased to match his riding posture and the silicon gel between his wheel rims and tires that subtly changes the shape of his tires, making them more aerodynamic. Frey subjects his own performance to rigorous analysis and posts his training and performance results, along with details about various races, on his blog."
Music

Submission + - Download Songs Legally With SpiralFrog (xuecast.com)

Submitted by
XueCast
XueCast writes: "SpiralFrog is a free web based and advertisement supported song and music video download service, all the songs and music videos in SpiralFrog are legally licensed from the respective record labels. It has more than 800,00 songs and more than 3,500 music videos and is planning to add 1,200,000 more songs to it's collection within a near future."
Media

Submission + - Musharraf defends emergency rule (bbc.co.uk)

Submitted by
dTrump
dTrump writes: "Today's headline on the BBC News website:

"Pakistan's President Pervez Musharraf has defended his decision to declare emergency rule, saying he could not allow the country to commit suicide.

In a televised address he said Pakistan had reached a crisis brought about by militant violence and a judiciary which had paralysed the government.

The chief justice has been replaced and the Supreme Court surrounded by troops.

The moves came as the Supreme Court was due to rule on the legality of Gen Musharraf's October election victory.

The court was to decide whether Gen Musharraf was eligible to run for re-election last month while remaining army chief.

The BBC's Barbara Plett reports from Islamabad that fears had been growing in the government that the Supreme Court ruling could go against Gen Musharraf.

It is not clear whether the parliamentary elections due in January will go ahead. Gen Musharraf made no mention of them in his speech, but he insisted he wanted to restore democracy. ""

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