benoitg - Slashdot User

First Self-Replicating Creature Spawned In Conway's Game of Life 241

Posted by Soulskill on Thursday June 17, 2010 @12:27PM from the emergent-gameplay dept.

Calopteryx writes "New Scientist has a story on a self-replicating entity which inhabits the mathematical universe known as the Game of Life. 'Dubbed Gemini, [Andrew Wade's] creature is made of two sets of identical structures, which sit at either end of the instruction tape. Each is a fraction of the size of the tape's length but, made up of two constructor arms and one "destructor," play a key role. Gemini's initial state contains three of these structures, plus a fourth that is incomplete. As the simulation progresses the incomplete structure begins to grow, while the structure at the start of the tape is demolished. The original Gemini continues to disassemble as the new one emerges, until after nearly 34 million generations, new life is born.'"

Justice Not As Blind As Previously Thought 256

Posted by samzenpus on Tuesday May 18, 2010 @03:05PM from the too-pretty-for-jail dept.

NotSoHeavyD3 writes "I doubt this is much of a surprise but apparently Cornell University did a study that seems to show you're more likely to get convicted if you're ugly. From the article: 'According to a Cornell University study, unattractive defendants are 22 percent more likely to be convicted than good-looking ones. And the unattractive also get slapped with harsher sentences — an average of 22 months longer in prison.'"

Feed Norway endorses ODF (theregister.com)

From feed by registerfeed on Wednesday May 16, 2007 @10:12AM

Open format war continues

Norway is considering whether to make the use of the Open Document Format (ODF) compulsory in its government agencies.

Digg.com Attempts To Suppress HD-DVD Revolt 1142

Posted by kdawson on Tuesday May 01, 2007 @11:26PM from the toothpaste-back-in-the-tube dept.

fieryprophet writes "An astonishing number of stories related to HD-DVD encryption keys have gone missing in action from digg.com, in many cases along with the account of the diggers who submitted them. Diggers are in open revolt against the moderators and are retaliating in clever and inventive ways. At one point, the entire front page comprised only stories that in one way or another were related to the hex number. Digg users quickly pointed to the HD DVD sponsorship of Diggnation, the Digg podcast show. Search digg for HD-DVD song lyrics, coffee mugs, shirts, and more for a small taste of the rebellion." Search Google for a broader picture; at this writing, about 283,000 pages contain the number with hyphens, and just under 10,000 without hyphens. There's a song. Several domain names including variations of the number have been reserved. Update: 05/02 05:44 GMT by J : New blog post from Kevin Rose of Digg to its users: "We hear you."

Feed F.C.C. Rules That Rural Carriers Must Connect Internet Calls (nytimes.com)

From feed by nytfeed on Friday March 02, 2007 @01:12AM

The decision marks the breaking down of one of the last barriers to allowing VoIP to fully compete with traditional phone carriers.

Feed Europeans Threaten More Fines for Microsoft (nytimes.com)

From feed by nytfeed on Friday March 02, 2007 @01:12AM

The European Commission said Microsoft was demanding unreasonable royalties from rivals seeking to link their software to the Windows operating system.

Comment Re:SORBS (Score 1) 156

by benoitg on Monday December 18, 2006 @02:03PM (#17288994) Attached to: ORDB.org Going Offline

If people taking this stance would at least bounce the email, it wouldn't be quite so bad. Right now a lot of people don't, and those running their own mailservers do not even know when a message will not reach the intended recipient because their IP address wasn't "expensive enough".

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