116 years ago today abstract painter/sculptor Joan Miró was born in Barcelona. He had an obsession with imaging the Sun in new ways. Apparently, so do IBM and Oracle.
(From left to right) The Red Sun, Dancing Under the Red Sun, The Adoration of the (Blue/Red) Sun, The Gold of the Blue, Managing the Sun, Upsidedown Under the Red Sun.
As we guessed, some of the uncaptioned photographs by Life Magazine photographer Alfred Eisenstaedt are indeed of famous mathematicians. We’ve identified 3. Here is the first.
David Blackwell, is perhaps the world’s most famous black mathematician. While the Rao-Blackwell theorem may be his most important, his favorite paper is On an Equation by Wald, written while teaching at Howard University, where he taught for 10 years after a postdoc at the Institute for Advanced Study with the likes of Einstein and Von Neumann in 1941 at age of 22. That appointment included nomination as a Visiting Fellow at Princeton, causing controversy and opposition from the University adminstration. Perhaps that is why he only applied to teach at black colleges.
In 1954 things had changed sufficiently to where he could move to the new Statistics department at UC Berkeley. In 1965, a year after these photos were taken, he became the first black elected to the National Academy of Sciences. He co-wrote a classic textbook that is still in print. There is a wondeful interview from 2002 online. Professor Blackwell is actively retired in Northern California with his large family. Next April 24th he celebrates his 90th birthday.
Yesterday Google released their web browser to beta. It is called Chrome, and, from what I’ve seen, it is great. Like Joss Whedon’s Serenity, Chrome has an online comic book. But unlike Whedon’s Firefly-class ship, Chrome is fast – very fast. And it uses a process per tab instead of a thread per tab – providing better firewalls to thwart security bugs and memory leaks. This should compete well with IE8 and Firefox 3.
P.S. Joss Whedon’s Dr. Horrible’s Sing-Along Blog is now available in hi-resolution for free on Hulu.
As Microsoft CEO Steve Ballmer began a presentation at the Corvinus University in Budapest, a rude Hungarian (redundant) student stood up and shouted
Hey you! Microsoft has stolen 25 <billion> Hungarian Forint. To the Hungarian people, give that money back. Right now!
He then threw 3 eggs – 1 on the floor, 1 on the wall, and 1 on the projector screen – before running out of ammunition, while Ballmer took refuge under the rostrum. The student was asked to “Please leave” and “Very quickly” and “What were you thinking?” to which he responded the country pays while this guy has the nerve to be parading around here, and walked out exposing everyone to the back of his shirt proclaiming “Microsoft = Corruption.”
Following the “friendly disruption” Ballmer calmly continued his talk, wherein he was found by index.hu to be a surprisingly brilliant speaker. In the Q&A he admitted to being egged before, in 1966 (no doubt on Halloween, when he would have been 10).
While the whole incident took place in broken English, Fake Steve Jobs is looking for a Czech translator!? I am sure you’ve seen the original recording of the event posted on youtube – here is the Bono version. Now we know who the Eggman is, but who is the Walrus?
Τomas Rokicki is a man of many algorithms. He co-authored Golly, a Life simulator that is super fast due to its unique hashlife algorithm. Last month he proved that 25 face moves (where face move = a quarter or half turn) are suffficient to solve any Rubik’s cube, and he did it using a computer (similar to the solution to the famous Four Color Problem) – specifically, he used Herbert Kociemba’s Cube Solver, which you can download for free.
In 1995 Michael Reid showed that 20 moves were necessary to solve the superflip (pictured). Kociemba ran his cube solver over 1 million random configurations, and not one needed more than 20 moves to solve. He then ran 1000 optimal random configurations (at ~2 minutes per solution with 3 GHz processors and 8 GB memory) and found the “average” cube can be optimally solved in ~18 moves. It clearly appears that 20 moves should suffice to solve any Rubik’s cube. But can that be proven?
Initially, solution algorithms could take up to 75 moves. In 1995 Reid showed Kociemba’s algorithm could reduce the maximum to 29 moves, still quite a ways from 20. In 2006 this was improved to 27, and in 2007 to 26. Now, thanks to Tom Rokicki, it stands at 25 - and he is on to 24.
Update: As of June, Rokicki cut it to 23 using a Sony/Spiderman render farm.
Update: As of August, Rokicki cut it to 22 using the same Sony/Spiderman render farm.
Not a memorial, but a tribute – since he is a ‘missing person’ for 5 years – you can register for the technical session or reserve a transcript of the proceedings here.
It started with Google maps. Sometime back they added Satellite Views, which show decent images – of my house from above, you can see the white deck chairs out by the pool which is covered by a black tarp. They recently introduced My Maps which lets you share a map with others. Go ahead and add your location to my blog reader map by clicking Edit. Today they introduced Street Views of Boston and its surrounds, where you can actually see your neighbors in the public environment. I figured I would preserve some privacy by being located in the obscure suburbs. But no! Sometime this summer the Google camera truck rolled down Robinson Road and took a picture of our house. You can even see Lia and Alan’s red wagon parked out in front. I can’t wait for the Google picture phone with GPS to follow me around.
P.S. Now the US government is concerned: BBC article.
P.P.S. See here.
As Lia – playing with sharp objects – and Alan – filling up on Mom’s chocolate pretzels – can attest, pumpkin carving was a sweet success. No one can yet say if the One Laptop Per Child (OLPC) will be a success, but for a limited time starting November 12 you can Give One Get One (G1G1) for $399. You can test drive it today using VMware’s free player (registration required) and the latest pre-made images.
Full disclosure: I work for EMC, which owns 86% of VMware – but I got no VMware stock (sad face).
I also have 3-year old twins who would love an XO laptop – but they don’t live in the third world – and their daddy ain’t rich – but their mom is good looking 
Update: Message from laptopgiving.org:
Starting Monday, November 12 at 6:00am EST, you will be able to donate one XO laptop to a child in the developing world and also receive a laptop for the child in your life, by visiting www.laptopgiving.org or calling toll-free 1-877-70-LAPTOP.
“Give One Get One” is the only time we are making the revolutionary XO laptop available to the public. For a donation of just $399 ($200 of which is tax-deductable), you will be giving the gift of education. Additionally, T-Mobile is offering donors one year of complimentary access to T-Mobile HotSpot locations throughout the United States, which can be used from any Wi-Fi-capable device, including the XO laptop.