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http://thinkorthwim.com/2010/02/12/mathematical-porn

if you take the time to watch till the end, its worth your while....

First, the blurb is very misleading. I took from it that the bank yelled at the use of the phrase "one hexadecimal dollar" which no banker would understand how to equate to the digits, $2.56.

Along those lines, I always wondered whether or not this check was ever mailed to Verizon, and if so, whether or not they managed to cash it.

The Focus Fusion Society proposed it in 2004:
http://focusfusion.org/log/index.php/site/article/ x_prize/

Unfortunately, the X-Prize Foundation response in 2006 was less than encouraging:
http://focusfusion.org/log/index.php/forums/viewth read/10/

Here's what I wrote about it:
http://thinkorthwim.com/2006/11/22/why-google-shou ld-go-nuclear/

A prize is simply a way to leverage more effort from more people to solve your problem. Look at the Darpa Grand Challenge:
http://thinkorthwim.com/2006/11/19/robotic-racing- winning-the-darpa-grand-challenge/
They could have spent $2 million dollars funding each team, which is the way they'd approached funding in the past. Instead they spent $2 million for ALL the teams efforts, and it worked. What a spectacular bargain.

Prizes are perfect if you have a specific goal that's almost achievable, but you need to get a bunch of young innovative folks excited about it. In general, prizes are appropriate for engineering problems, not for fundamental science. Here's something else I wrote about why Google should use a prize to fund fusion. On the face of it, that sounds stupid, but I think it makes a lot sense if you think about it:
http://thinkorthwim.com/2006/11/22/why-google-shou ld-go-nuclear/

A prize is simply a way to leverage more effort from more people to solve your problem. Look at the Darpa Grand Challenge:
http://thinkorthwim.com/2006/11/19/robotic-racing- winning-the-darpa-grand-challenge/
They could have spent $2 million dollars funding each team, which is the way they'd approached funding in the past. Instead they spent $2 million for ALL the teams efforts, and it worked. What a spectacular bargain.

Prizes are perfect if you have a specific goal that's almost achievable, but you need to get a bunch of young innovative folks excited about it. In general, prizes are appropriate for engineering problems, not for fundamental science. Here's something else I wrote about why Google should use a prize to fund fusion. On the face of it, that sounds stupid, but I think it makes a lot sense if you think about it:
http://thinkorthwim.com/2006/11/22/why-google-shou ld-go-nuclear/