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New submitter Provocateur writes: Lenovo will be marking the 25th anniversary of IBM's well known notebook with the Thinkpad 25. Andrew Orlowski writes via The Register: "The long-awaited 'retro' Thinkpad will be based on the guts of a contemporary T470 laptop, Lenovo's business workhorse, according to a German certification site. Lenovo inherited IBM's notebook brand 12 years ago, and with it a design classic. However, in 2012 Lenovo saw fit to 'modernize' the iconic keyboard, along with other unwelcome changes. This didn't meet with approval from some stalwarts, who clung to the superior X220 and T420 lines, the last that you could buy with the 7 row QWERTY. Two years ago Lenovo's design chief Dave Hill acknowledged that some people 'would stand in line' for the classic version. In June, Hill confirmed that for the Thinkpad's 25th anniversary this year a retro edition would indeed be produced, which Hill promised 'will embody many of the things people asked for.'

The German certification site has found the 'Thinkpad 25' variant described as a Thinkpad T470 here (hat-tip to NoteBook Check). A Chinese notebook forum has a picture purporting to be the Thinkpad 25."

An anonymous reader writes "Morph, a joint nanotechnology concept developed by Nokia Research Center and the University of Cambridge, has gone on display as part of the "Design and the Elastic Mind" exhibition at The Museum of Modern Art in New York. The concept demonstrates how future mobile devices might be stretchable and flexible, allowing the user to transform the gadget into radically different shapes. Nokia said that elements of Morph might be integrated into handheld devices within seven years, though initially only at the high end."

ScienceDaily is reporting that a new exhibit at the Museum of Modern Art in New York is part computer, part robot, and part child. Part of the "Design and the Elastic Mind" exhibit "WizKid" is able to focus on human faces and follows your movement allowing you to interact with objects on its display simply by waving your arms. "Wizkid looks like a computer with a neck. But there the similarities with the familiar personal computer end. Wizkid isn't static. The screen on the mobile neck moves about like a head, and it's trained to hone in on human faces. Once it sees you, Wizkid focuses on you and follows your movement. Unlike a computer, which requires you to stop what you're doing and adapt your behavior and social interactions in order to use it, Wizkid blends into human space. There's no mouse and no keyboard. You don't touch anything. There's no language getting in the way. On Wizkid's screen you see yourself surrounded by a "halo" of interactive elements that you can simply select by waving your hands. If you move away or to one side, Wizkid adapts itself to you, not the other way around. If you're with a friend, Wizkid finds and tracks both of you and tries to figure out your relationship, expressing surprise, confusion or enjoyment when it gets your response."

DeviceGuru writes "Harvard University's tiny microrobotic fly, hailed by its creators as 'the first robotic fly that is able to generate enough thrust to takeoff,' will be showcased at New York's Museum of Modern Art starting Feb. 24. The life-sized 'Flybot' reportedly has a wingspan of 1.2 inches (3 cm) and weighs a mere 0.002 ounces (60 mg). This project of the Harvard University Microbotics Lab has received funding from DARPA, the U.S. Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency, which hopes to gain access to micro-miniature surveillance technologies."

yodelingjedi writes "Pixar's CG models, paintings, pencil drawings, maquettes, color scripts, and sketches are the subject of the special exhibit Pixar: 20 Years of Animation, now being held at the Museum of Modern Art in NYC until February 6 of '06. A complete Pixar film retrospective is being shown as well. What's especially cool is that MoMA, like some other museums, is providing a Podcast you can load into your mp3 player and listen to as you're standing beside a specific artwork. Be sure to check out MoMA's RSS feed and listen to the Exhibition Guide (entries 670 to 688.) Each mp3 file corresponds to a numbered artwork. A link on the Pixar exhibit page, Listen to the audio program, brings up a Flash presentation with the same audio as the Podcast, but of lower quality. It does have sample images though. Perhaps MoMA should provide an enhanced Podcast? Enjoy!"

yodelingjedi writes "Pixar's CG models, paintings, pencil drawings, maquettes, color scripts, and sketches are the subject of the special exhibit Pixar: 20 Years of Animation, now being held at the Museum of Modern Art in NYC until February 6 of '06. A complete Pixar film retrospective is being shown as well. What's especially cool is that MoMA, like some other museums, is providing a Podcast you can load into your mp3 player and listen to as you're standing beside a specific artwork. Be sure to check out MoMA's RSS feed and listen to the Exhibition Guide (entries 670 to 688.) Each mp3 file corresponds to a numbered artwork. A link on the Pixar exhibit page, Listen to the audio program, brings up a Flash presentation with the same audio as the Podcast, but of lower quality. It does have sample images though. Perhaps MoMA should provide an enhanced Podcast? Enjoy!"

yodelingjedi writes "Pixar's CG models, paintings, pencil drawings, maquettes, color scripts, and sketches are the subject of the special exhibit Pixar: 20 Years of Animation, now being held at the Museum of Modern Art in NYC until February 6 of '06. A complete Pixar film retrospective is being shown as well. What's especially cool is that MoMA, like some other museums, is providing a Podcast you can load into your mp3 player and listen to as you're standing beside a specific artwork. Be sure to check out MoMA's RSS feed and listen to the Exhibition Guide (entries 670 to 688.) Each mp3 file corresponds to a numbered artwork. A link on the Pixar exhibit page, Listen to the audio program, brings up a Flash presentation with the same audio as the Podcast, but of lower quality. It does have sample images though. Perhaps MoMA should provide an enhanced Podcast? Enjoy!"

yodelingjedi writes "Pixar's CG models, paintings, pencil drawings, maquettes, color scripts, and sketches are the subject of the special exhibit Pixar: 20 Years of Animation, now being held at the Museum of Modern Art in NYC until February 6 of '06. A complete Pixar film retrospective is being shown as well. What's especially cool is that MoMA, like some other museums, is providing a Podcast you can load into your mp3 player and listen to as you're standing beside a specific artwork. Be sure to check out MoMA's RSS feed and listen to the Exhibition Guide (entries 670 to 688.) Each mp3 file corresponds to a numbered artwork. A link on the Pixar exhibit page, Listen to the audio program, brings up a Flash presentation with the same audio as the Podcast, but of lower quality. It does have sample images though. Perhaps MoMA should provide an enhanced Podcast? Enjoy!"

peterwayner writes "One mathematician I know told me that the most important lesson he learned was how to read a math book. It did no good, he said, to just start plowing through the theorems because that brought confusion. The key was to skim the book five or six times to get an idea of what the writer was trying to do. Then, and only then, was it possible to figure out the equations. This is what Barry Mazur tries to do in his book Imagining Numbers . There are some equations, graphs and diagrams, but first and foremost he offers plenty of poetry, philosophy and history to lay a foundation for understanding imaginary numbers." Peter's review continues below -- despite its complicated, abstract subject matter, he says that it's "simple enough to be accessible to most who will be interested in it." Imagining Numbers author Barry Mazur pages 267 publisher Farrar, Straus and Giroux rating 8 reviewer Peter Wayner ISBN 0374174695 summary How to imagine imaginary numbers like the square root of minus fifteen.

Much of modern mathematical literature is structured with crisp, scripted precision. First there is theorem one, then theorem two, which leads to theorem three, which could only be followed by theorem four, and so on until we reach theorem n. If you want to learn the mathematics of complex numbers (a +bi), then classic texts (this or this) will get you there.

Some may like this logical progression, but it leaves others cold in the same way that crisp, modern architecture by Mies van de Rohe leaves some craving a more layered, fractured, ornate, organic and just plain fun place to live and work. Less isn't more, as Robert Venturi said, less is a bore.

If you happen to feel a chill when churning through an assembly line of theorems, you might enjoy the treatment of Mazur, a professor at Harvard who seems to spend as much time reading poets like Rilke or Stevens as he does examining old mathematical texts. Mazur is not the kind of machine that turns coffee into theorems-- he's too busy stopping to smell the rhetorical flourishes.

The book isn't aimed at mathematicians per se. The publisher, Farrar, Strauss and Giroux specializes in mainstream literature and that's probably the best pigeonhole for this book. Mazur wants the reader to understand how to think about imaginary numbers, not evaluate some integrals -- and that reader could really be anyone with the desire to think about mathematical things. The book is simple enough to be accessible to most who will be interested in it.

In many ways, Mazur attempted a much harder task than just teaching complex analysis. It's one thing to learn how to find the roots of polynomials, but it's another thing to try to help people get a feeling or an intuition for the square root of minus fifteen. Integers are easy to understand and even feel by counting out things, but imaginary numbers don't seem to exist. Mathematicians have spent many years trying to find the best metaphors and structures to understand how to find answers for all polynomials and it's never been an easy struggle.

The best part of the book is, without doubt, the historical treatment of how other mathematicians confronted the question of irrational and complex numbers. These ideas have always been hard to grasp and it took time to evolve the most compact and consistent nomenclature.

If you're interested in mathematics as more than just a mechanism that churns out answers, you'll probably enjoy the book. It's a light, friendly, philosophical expedition looking for a way to make imaginary numbers work in our minds.

Peter Wayner is the author of Translucent Databases , a book on how to imagine databases that hold no information yet still do useful work. You can purchase Imagining Numbers from bn.com. Slashdot welcomes readers' book reviews -- to see your own review here, read the book review guidelines, then visit the submission page.

Humility writes "EETimes, a weekly trade magzine for electrical engineers, has a story about the integration of networked computers into domestic residences and artwork. This is a little more far reaching than just wiring up your home with a bunch of MP3 players and speakers. I think it's quite interesting." Fully networked houses on display at The Museum of Modern Art. Sweet! I wonder if this guy's place qualifies? It should.