A long time ago, I realised that IKEA’s shopfitters must be experts in fractal dimension – they manage to lay out their shop so that you have to walk past every single thing they’re selling. You can’t just nip into IKEA – you have to go through the whole hour-long “It’s A Small World” of…
Picture this!, an interactive problem/puzzle
“PSUM: problem-solving in undergraduate mathematics”, a project we are supporting at work, have produced an interactive problem/puzzle as an early prototype for a virtual problem solving resource package. Picture This! is an interactive problem solving application. You are shown a diagram which somehow relates to two integers. You are asked to change the two integers…
Rising chair by Robert van Embricqs
Rising chair by Robert van Embricqs:
Pricing bot interactions
Carlos Bueno writes about a book “Computer Game Bot Turing Test”. This, he says, is: one of over 100,000 “books” “written” by a Markov chain running over random Wikipedia articles, bundled up and sold online for a ridiculous price. The publisher, Betascript, is notorious for this kind of thing. He writes that the pricing bots…
Almost all above average
This morning James Grime tweeted about a BBC News article, “‘Third of UK postcodes’ have slow broadband speeds“. This quotes Julia Stent, director of telecoms at uSwitch saying: Britain might be riding the wave of a super-fast broadband revolution, but for 49% who get less than the national average broadband speed, the wave isn’t causing…
Newcastle MathsJam February 2012 Recap
February’s MathsJam was loads of fun! We had a record attendance of 14 cheery people who just about managed to fit around the biggest table in the Charles Grey. After last month’s puzzlocalypse, which left me for over a week unable to count the toes on my feet, I wanted to have a nice relaxed…
Turing stamp issued tomorrow
As part of its Britons of Distinction Stamp Set, one of a series of special stamp sets issued this year to mark the Queen’s Diamond Jubilee, Royal Mail are due to release a stamp commemorating Alan Turing tomorrow. This features the rebuilt Turing Bombe on display to visitors at Bletchley Park. Bletchley Park are offering…