beta21 - Slashdot User

Comment Re:Clearly, this will fix the problem. (Score 1) 1591

by beta21 on Wednesday January 16, 2013 @03:45PM (#42607541) Attached to: New York Passes Landmark Gun Law

Not true.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Central_Coast_Massacre
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Strathfield_massacre
And there are more, true none of them racked up 35.

But after Port Arthur the severity is much less.

Comment Re:Useless submission. (Score 1) 793

by beta21 on Monday July 02, 2012 @05:43PM (#40521673) Attached to: What's To Love About C?

And we never want Curiosity to be const

Submission + - Richard Feynman's FBI Files (muckrock.com) 1

Submitted by

v3rgEz

on Wednesday June 06, 2012 @08:30AM

v3rgEz writes: "The FBI files of noted physicist, esteemed author and all-around geek Richard Feynman have been released:

http://www.muckrock.com/news/archives/2012/jun/06/feynman-files-professors-invitation-past-iron-curt/

Feynman and the FBI had an extended encounter after the Bureau discovered he had been invited to speak at the USSR, which set off a flurry of investigations into his loyalty — even as he pestered the State Department for guidance on whether he should or shouldn't go, guidance they only gave belatedly.

Of particular interest to the FBI was his avid devotion to the art of lock picking, his high school membership in a socialism club (for social reasons, he swore), and the fact that he was a godless scientist who loved his bongo drums.

Original Documents are available:

http://www.muckrock.com/foi/view/united-states-of-america/fbi-files-on-richard-feynman/1165/#366921-responsive-documents

One other element? A seven-page letter detailing a conspiracy theory that Feynman was a sleeper agent for enemies unknown, but probably communist ones.

http://www.muckrock.com/news/archives/2012/jun/06/richard-feynman-master-deception-and-enemy-america/"

Comment Re:Transparent, benign big brother? (Score 2, Insightful) 216

by beta21 on Tuesday April 20, 2010 @05:10PM (#31915678) Attached to: Google Enumerates Government Requests

Maybe Huxley was closer to the mark.

Finding the First Trillion Congruent Numbers 94

Posted by timothy on Tuesday September 22, 2009 @11:19AM from the after-that-it's-easy dept.

eldavojohn writes "First stated by al-Karaji about a thousand years ago, the congruent number problem is simplified to finding positive whole numbers that are the area of a right triangle with rational number sides. Today, discovering these congruent numbers is limited only by the size of a computer's hard drive. An international team of mathematicians recently decided to push the limits on finding congruent numbers and came up with the first trillion. Their two approaches are outlined in detail, with pseudo-code, in their paper (PDF) as well as details on their hardware. For those of you familiar with this sort of work, the article provides links to solving this problem — from multiplying very large numbers to identifying square-free congruent numbers."

Comment Re:why are people... (Score 1) 200

by beta21 on Monday March 16, 2009 @08:12PM (#27219403) Attached to: Utah Senate, House Pass Jack Thompson's Game Sales Bill

+1 Insightful and funny?

Comment Re:Speaking as a valve fanboy and steam early adop (Score 1) 159

by beta21 on Tuesday March 10, 2009 @02:32PM (#27138405) Attached to: The Age of Steam

Most large companies have their code in escrow. In the event they go under, terrorists take over, the pink unicorn rampages through their offices etc.

Hopefully this is something like what Valve means.

On a personal note I'm more a fan of ImpluseDriven from stardock. They have actually given me a refund on a game that crashed on startup, this is a first for me from any game company.

Comment Re:First collision (Score 1) 456

by beta21 on Thursday February 12, 2009 @06:07PM (#26834661) Attached to: Satellites Collide In Orbit

OMG you just asked someone to tear out their eyes and cry into their hands... John David Jackson's _Classical Electrodynamics_ I still have nightmares about some of the problems in that book.

Comment Re:Virus? in such a critical environment? (Score 1) 290

by beta21 on Friday January 16, 2009 @07:22PM (#26490683) Attached to: Virus Infection Hits UK's Ministry of Defense, Including Warships

I mean seriously, what could sailors be downloading that could be dangerous to windows machines?

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