Domain: sigmaxi.org
Stories and comments across the archive that link to sigmaxi.org.
Stories · 10
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Statistics of Deadly Quarrels
CarlNorthcore writes "Brian Hayes published this paper in the Computing Science chapter of Jan-Feb's American Scientist. It provides a fascinating and [sadly] relevant statistical exploration of our world's deadly conflicts. Look out for the excellent "Web of Wars" diagram." -
Statistics of Deadly Quarrels
CarlNorthcore writes "Brian Hayes published this paper in the Computing Science chapter of Jan-Feb's American Scientist. It provides a fascinating and [sadly] relevant statistical exploration of our world's deadly conflicts. Look out for the excellent "Web of Wars" diagram." -
Statistics of Deadly Quarrels
CarlNorthcore writes "Brian Hayes published this paper in the Computing Science chapter of Jan-Feb's American Scientist. It provides a fascinating and [sadly] relevant statistical exploration of our world's deadly conflicts. Look out for the excellent "Web of Wars" diagram." -
The Past and Future of the Hard Drive
Snags writes "Brian Hayes of American Scientist has written a nice little historical review of hard drive technology, from the first hard drive (nice pic) made by IBM in 1956 to what may be available in 10-15 years. He muses on how to fill up a 120 TB hard drive with text, photos, audio, and video (60,000 hours of DVD's). Kind of ironic that this came in my mailbox today considering IBM's announcement." -
The Past and Future of the Hard Drive
Snags writes "Brian Hayes of American Scientist has written a nice little historical review of hard drive technology, from the first hard drive (nice pic) made by IBM in 1956 to what may be available in 10-15 years. He muses on how to fill up a 120 TB hard drive with text, photos, audio, and video (60,000 hours of DVD's). Kind of ironic that this came in my mailbox today considering IBM's announcement." -
Ternary Computing Revisited
Black Acid writes: "American Scientist's Third Base was a nice introduction to the advantages base 3 but didn't really explain ternary computing. Since 1995, Steve Grubb has maintained trinary.cc which covers many aspects of computing with base 3. Not only are the basic unary and binary gates enumerated, which I independently verified as being basic building blocks, but real-world circuits are described also. Half and full adders, multiplexers and demultiplexers, counters, shift registers, and even the legendary flip-flap-flop are all covered with ternary algebra equations and schematics. Steve Grubb touches on problems of of interfacing to binary computers elegantly, although no schematics are given. Perhaps most impressive are the Transistor Models - schematics of the basic gates which can be built from cheap parts available at your local electronic component store." -
Ternary Computing
eviltwinimposter writes: "This month's American Scientist has an article about base-3 or ternary number systems, and their possible advantages for computing and other applications. Base-3 hardware could be smaller because of decreased number of components and use ternary logic to return less than, greater than, or equal, rather than just the binary true or false, although as the article says, '...you're not going to find a ternary minitower in stock at CompUSA.' Ternary also comes the closest of any integer base to e, the ideal base in terms of efficiency, and has some interesting properties such as unbounded square-free sequences. Also in other formats." -
Ternary Computing
eviltwinimposter writes: "This month's American Scientist has an article about base-3 or ternary number systems, and their possible advantages for computing and other applications. Base-3 hardware could be smaller because of decreased number of components and use ternary logic to return less than, greater than, or equal, rather than just the binary true or false, although as the article says, '...you're not going to find a ternary minitower in stock at CompUSA.' Ternary also comes the closest of any integer base to e, the ideal base in terms of efficiency, and has some interesting properties such as unbounded square-free sequences. Also in other formats." -
Gears, Computers And Number Theory
UncleJosh writes: "The latest issue of American Scientist has an interesting article "On the Teeth of Wheels" about the relationship between gears, computers and number theory." It's as much a well-meshed detective story (hunting for books and obscure references) as a historical and mathematical introduction to the science of gears. Prime numbers, watchmakers and the Fibonacci sequence all play a part. -
Gears, Computers And Number Theory
UncleJosh writes: "The latest issue of American Scientist has an interesting article "On the Teeth of Wheels" about the relationship between gears, computers and number theory." It's as much a well-meshed detective story (hunting for books and obscure references) as a historical and mathematical introduction to the science of gears. Prime numbers, watchmakers and the Fibonacci sequence all play a part.