I attended a talk by a couple of google guys at my school (one of the speakers, Krishna Bharat, creator of google news, is an alumnus). Apparently they have a lot of expansion plans. They're planning to set up a new research center (at Bangalore) with around 300 to 500 people. So I'd say this isn't surprising in the light of the long term plans they have.
I attended a talk by a couple of google guys at my school (one of the speakers, Krishna Bharat, creator of google news, is an alumnus). Apparently they have a lot of expansion plans. They're planning to set up a new research center (at Bangalore) with around 300 to 500 people. So I'd say this isn't surprising in the light of the long term plans they have.
Any move takes edge pieces to edge pieces, corner pieces to corner pieces, and face centers to face centers.
Among corner pieces, all positions are possible (reachable from a given configuration), but only one out of 3 orientations are possible.
Among edge pieces, only half the positions are possible (diagonally opposite edge pieces can't be switched) and only half the orientations are possible.
Among center pieces all positions are possible.
So that means only 1/12 of the total configurations are possible!
So if you take the cube apart and put it back randomly, chances are you'll end up with an insoluble position:)
This also allows us to count the number of possible configurations.
The set of operations (operation = sequence of moves) you
can perform on a cube forms a group. Two group elements x, y are said to commute if xy = yx (in this case, 2 operations commute if it doesn't matter in which order you perform them). Question: Find an operation that commutes with every operation.
Rot13d spoiler follows.
Syvccvat nyy gur rqtr cvrprf.
In fact this is the only answer. If you know group theory, this is the only group element other than the identity which lies in the center of the cube group.
* The inventor Rubik used to solve it in about 3 minutes
* To measure your average the standard procedure is to do it 12 times, remove the smallest and largest, and take the mean of the remaining 10
* The fastest cubers have averages of about 17 secs
* The best average anyone ever got is (IIRC) 12 secs (Imagine that!!)
* Some people can solve the entire cube blindfolded!! (Study it once, get blindfolded and then solve it). Its based on group theoretic invariants of the cube. You can do certain operations without changing most of the cubies
* Some people can solve a 20x20x20 cube (a software simulation of course)
* There are some incredible videos of people speed solving it available. One by Dan Knights for instance
* The best known computer algorithm can solve random instances in 18 moves (human solutions take about 60 moves). This is optimal on average; There is a lot of work going into finding "God's algorithm", a worst case move-optimal solution
Disclaimer: I used to do it 2 or 3 yrs ago so my info might be somewhat outdated.
I used to do the cube in under a minute regularly. My best averages were around 50 seconds. Nowhere close to the world champion of course, but still more than enough to impress your friends:)
I used the corners first algorithm. Its not what the fastest cubers use, but its much easier to learn, because its more "natural". It also has a shorter average number of moves (under 60, IIRC). Though I say "easier", it takes several months!
Hi Nat, read your blog entry about the Bangalore development center. This sounds great:)
I live in Chennai, India (just a few hours from Bangalore). I'm finishing school in about 6 months, and I'd kill to get this job! I've been developing gtkboard for a while, so I think I'm not a n00b and I can qualify. So, are you still hiring? If yes could you tell me whom I can contact to put myself through the selection process?
Thanks
Arvind
Thousands of occurrences of unsafe library calls such as strcpy(),
strcat() and sprintf() have been changed to the safer alternatives
strlcpy(), strlcat(), and snprintf() or asprintf() in one of the most
intensive audits yet performed by the OpenBSD project. The kernel is
now completely free of these functions, as is most of the userland
source tree.
That's certainly a good thing, but it raises the question of why they were there in the first place. I mean, everyone's known for ages that these are unsecure, and the manpage lists it a bug etc. Of course its a pain to keep track of the length of each string (making them fixed size is not always feasible), but I would have expected that in kernel level code convenience would take the back seat.
Note: this is purely an academic question, it is not my intention to critisize anyone, but just to learn why these things happen, not being a very experienced programmer myself.
Is there an official forum through which we can show our support for W3C's action? Just like "if you don't believe in free speech for you enemies, you don't believe in it at all", the real test of whether we believe that software patents shouldn't exist is when it affects not us but those whom we despise (in this case MS).
For example, the mozilla foundation in its official statement on the issue says nothing to condemn the Eolas patent, but instead has some content free statements like "The Eolas matter highlights the degree to which web browser software is critical to the user experience of the web.". I don't think this is the right thing to do. Getting all up in arms about say the gif patent and pretending you didn't notice when MS is hit is not good. So let us speak with one voice, and show our support for W3C.
If you're taking the time to write a comment on this story, DON'T. Instead, take that same amount of time to write a one page, reasoned, intelligent letter to your Senators
Excuse me sir,
If you take the same amount of time to post a comment on/. and to write a "one page, reasoned, intelligent letter to your Senators", I regret to tell you that you take slashdot way too seriously. I would advise going out and taking a breath of fresh air:)
National academies press (nap.edu) has thousands of free (public domain) books online, in pdf format. Many of them are reports of some government committees etc., but if you are prepared to dig around for a while you can find some real gems. I've read about a dozen of the books on the site, and they're really good. Check out Storms from the sun. Its an excellent book, both highly informative and very readable. Chapter 3 in particular ("A sudden conflagration") is about the 1859 storm in question. Enjoy.
Hurts linux as well. Too often this is compounded with dependency problems and makes package installation a nagging pain for experienced users and a nightmare for new users. This is one thing that MS has done right. Granted, there's DLL hell on windows as well, but the problem is far smaller than on mac and linux.
No it's not. GIMP for Windows (and possibly for all platforms?) can't (won't) save as GIFs. That's a pretty big gap for a product that professes to be an alternative for Photoshop!
Just checked on my linux box, it saves them just fine. Don't know about Windows though, don't have one. Can't see why it won't on some platforms and will on others. Perhaps it has been enabled after the GIF patent expired.
Do you think the people who sell multi-thousand dollar ads using Photoshop give a crap about the $900 sticker price?
That's true. However there is a large audience to whom $900 matters a lot. eg: 1. Students 2. Companies that want to purchase several licenses
3. Most of the third world
The few days I spent fighting with the GIMP, on the other hand, it crashed several times.
Never crashed on me. Maybe you used a development version? (odd minor version number ==> development version)
Beos poineered the FS as a database concept a long time back
ReiserFS already does these things (incorporating metadata into the FS), and does it extremely well (performance wise)
If Longhorn implements an intelligent FS it would be a good thing for *nix users as well who would otherwise have a problem transferring files/archives to/from windows machines.
The big question is not technical feasibility and not even backward compatibility. Its how to avoid chaos among developers. FS with metadata is such a leap ahead of conventional FSes that a lot of code will have to be rewritten; many programs will have to change their architecture in fundamental ways; in the transition period two trees of code will probably need to be maintained, one for the new and one for the old FSs.
We (the OSS community) need to work on a standard API for next gen FSs. Otherwise there would be a whole bunch of similar but mutualy incompatible FSs.
Even for low earth orbits, drag is significant only for the first few hundred km.
And even if the debris that's up there now will burn up in 30 years, what about all the junk that will accumulate in 30 years?
In case you think I'm making this stuff up, look here or here.
May be this quote will interest you:
"No actual space war even has to be fought," Primack said. "Any country that felt threatened by America's starting to place lasers or other weapons in space would only have to launch the equivalent of gravel to destroy the sophisticated weaponry."
Space debris, Star wars and the Kessler Effect
on
Next Major War in Space?
·
· Score: 4, Interesting
The tragedy of the commons is perhaps best illustrated with space as the example. That beautiful sky above you has become a giant dumping yard for all kinds of debris from satellites, making earth orbit increasingly hazardous. You might think that a few chunks of metal in the vastness of space are insignificant, but keep in mind that even a small fleck of paint, traveling at extremely high velocities, can cause significant damage.
All this would be of no concern if it were not for the Kellser Effect. Basically, when two pieces of debris collide, they break up into several more pieces of debris, which inturn increases the rate of collisions... What's happening right now is an exponential growth in the number of pieces of junk out there (note again that a decrease in the size does not lead to a corresponding decrease in its harmfulness), threatning to make orbit all but impossible within the next couple of decades.
Its bad enough as it is, and we need to think of a way to solve the problem real fast. If space turns into anything remotely resembling a "battleground", space will be a very, very different place from what it is now. Perhaps it will even mean the end of the space age.
Indeed. What's particularly pathetic is that currently Sun are in an ideal position to make money with StarOffice -- MSOffice remains ridiculously expensive, and SOffice has finally reached a high level of usability. Its fast to start up, imports MS formats perfectly, etc. But they have to do it *now*. If they wait 6 months, OOo's speed problems will go away (the devs have already announced that start up time is going to be a top priority) and then star office will become irrelevant. Linux PCs with OOo will start rapidly conquering the enterprise market.
Slashdot Mirror
Electronic voting done right in India
I attended a talk by a couple of google guys at my school (one of the speakers, Krishna Bharat, creator of google news, is an alumnus). Apparently they have a lot of expansion plans. They're planning to set up a new research center (at Bangalore) with around 300 to 500 people. So I'd say this isn't surprising in the light of the long term plans they have.
I attended a talk by a couple of google guys at my school (one of the speakers, Krishna Bharat, creator of google news, is an alumnus). Apparently they have a lot of expansion plans. They're planning to set up a new research center (at Bangalore) with around 300 to 500 people. So I'd say this isn't surprising in the light of the long term plans they have.
http://theory.cs.iitm.ernet.in/msj.pdf
http://theory.cs.iitm.ernet.in/msj.txt
-
Among corner pieces, all positions are possible (reachable from a given configuration), but only one out of 3 orientations are possible.
-
Among edge pieces, only half the positions are possible (diagonally opposite edge pieces can't be switched) and only half the orientations are possible.
-
Among center pieces all positions are possible.
So that means only 1/12 of the total configurations are possible!So if you take the cube apart and put it back randomly, chances are you'll end up with an insoluble position :)
This also allows us to count the number of possible configurations.
-
Corner positions: 8! (8 factorial)
-
Corner orientations: 3^8
-
Edge positions: 12!
-
Edge orientations: 2^12
Total = 8! 3^8 12! 2^12 / 12 = 43252003274489856000 = 4.3 * 10^19Now a math teaser:
The set of operations (operation = sequence of moves) you can perform on a cube forms a group. Two group elements x, y are said to commute if xy = yx (in this case, 2 operations commute if it doesn't matter in which order you perform them). Question: Find an operation that commutes with every operation.
Rot13d spoiler follows.
Syvccvat nyy gur rqtr cvrprf.
In fact this is the only answer. If you know group theory, this is the only group element other than the identity which lies in the center of the cube group.
* The inventor Rubik used to solve it in about 3 minutes
* To measure your average the standard procedure is to do it 12 times, remove the smallest and largest, and take the mean of the remaining 10
* The fastest cubers have averages of about 17 secs
* The best average anyone ever got is (IIRC) 12 secs (Imagine that!!)
* Some people can solve the entire cube blindfolded!! (Study it once, get blindfolded and then solve it). Its based on group theoretic invariants of the cube. You can do certain operations without changing most of the cubies
* Some people can solve a 20x20x20 cube (a software simulation of course)
* There are some incredible videos of people speed solving it available. One by Dan Knights for instance
* The best known computer algorithm can solve random instances in 18 moves (human solutions take about 60 moves). This is optimal on average; There is a lot of work going into finding "God's algorithm", a worst case move-optimal solution
Disclaimer: I used to do it 2 or 3 yrs ago so my info might be somewhat outdated.
I used to do the cube in under a minute regularly. My best averages were around 50 seconds. Nowhere close to the world champion of course, but still more than enough to impress your friends
I used the corners first algorithm. Its not what the fastest cubers use, but its much easier to learn, because its more "natural". It also has a shorter average number of moves (under 60, IIRC). Though I say "easier", it takes several months!
Does it take a history major to tell that if London had been blown up then things could have gone differently?! :)
I live in Chennai, India (just a few hours from Bangalore). I'm finishing school in about 6 months, and I'd kill to get this job! I've been developing gtkboard for a while, so I think I'm not a n00b and I can qualify. So, are you still hiring? If yes could you tell me whom I can contact to put myself through the selection process?
Thanks
Arvind
Note: this is purely an academic question, it is not my intention to critisize anyone, but just to learn why these things happen, not being a very experienced programmer myself.
I wonder what the sound of the dying server will be like? A bang or a hum?
I suggest cockroach + robot = "cockrobot"
As an added benefit: "I, for one, welcome our new cockrobot overlords" has a nice ring to it.
For example, the mozilla foundation in its official statement on the issue says nothing to condemn the Eolas patent, but instead has some content free statements like "The Eolas matter highlights the degree to which web browser software is critical to the user experience of the web.". I don't think this is the right thing to do. Getting all up in arms about say the gif patent and pretending you didn't notice when MS is hit is not good. So let us speak with one voice, and show our support for W3C.
http://www.emptylogic.com/suprnova/torrents/469/li sts.tgz(1).torrent
Please remove random space inserted by slashcode.
Caveat: Its a few days old, so it might not work
Excuse me sir,
If you take the same amount of time to post a comment on /. and to write a "one page, reasoned, intelligent letter to your Senators", I regret to tell you that you take slashdot way too seriously. I would advise going out and taking a breath of fresh air :)
National academies press (nap.edu) has thousands of free (public domain) books online, in pdf format. Many of them are reports of some government committees etc., but if you are prepared to dig around for a while you can find some real gems. I've read about a dozen of the books on the site, and they're really good. Check out Storms from the sun. Its an excellent book, both highly informative and very readable. Chapter 3 in particular ("A sudden conflagration") is about the 1859 storm in question. Enjoy.
Hurts linux as well. Too often this is compounded with dependency problems and makes package installation a nagging pain for experienced users and a nightmare for new users. This is one thing that MS has done right. Granted, there's DLL hell on windows as well, but the problem is far smaller than on mac and linux.
I wasn't able to see the benchmark results, but I was able to see that the server its hosted on is not very scalable.
Just checked on my linux box, it saves them just fine. Don't know about Windows though, don't have one. Can't see why it won't on some platforms and will on others. Perhaps it has been enabled after the GIF patent expired.
Do you think the people who sell multi-thousand dollar ads using Photoshop give a crap about the $900 sticker price?
That's true. However there is a large audience to whom $900 matters a lot. eg:
1. Students
2. Companies that want to purchase several licenses
3. Most of the third world
The few days I spent fighting with the GIMP, on the other hand, it crashed several times.
Never crashed on me. Maybe you used a development version? (odd minor version number ==> development version)
Even for low earth orbits, drag is significant only for the first few hundred km.
And even if the debris that's up there now will burn up in 30 years, what about all the junk that will accumulate in 30 years?
In case you think I'm making this stuff up, look here or here.
May be this quote will interest you:
Could you back that up with some links please?
All this would be of no concern if it were not for the Kellser Effect. Basically, when two pieces of debris collide, they break up into several more pieces of debris, which inturn increases the rate of collisions... What's happening right now is an exponential growth in the number of pieces of junk out there (note again that a decrease in the size does not lead to a corresponding decrease in its harmfulness), threatning to make orbit all but impossible within the next couple of decades.
Its bad enough as it is, and we need to think of a way to solve the problem real fast. If space turns into anything remotely resembling a "battleground", space will be a very, very different place from what it is now. Perhaps it will even mean the end of the space age.
Evil bit. And we all thought it was just a harmless April fools' joke. :-P
Indeed. What's particularly pathetic is that currently Sun are in an ideal position to make money with StarOffice -- MSOffice remains ridiculously expensive, and SOffice has finally reached a high level of usability. Its fast to start up, imports MS formats perfectly, etc. But they have to do it *now*. If they wait 6 months, OOo's speed problems will go away (the devs have already announced that start up time is going to be a top priority) and then star office will become irrelevant. Linux PCs with OOo will start rapidly conquering the enterprise market.