Topic: - on November 1, 2002 at 11:38:52 PM CET
Tetris, a popular computer game, turns out to be hard for a reason
NP or not NP?
TETRIS, a computer game invented in 1984, has sold over 60m copies. It is played by organising a sequence of falling blocks in a rectangular well.
Dr Demaine and his colleagues have demonstrated that Tetris belongs to a class of mathematical problems known as NP-complete.
In mathematical jargon, that would mean showing that P=NP.
Most mathematicians believe that P and NP are not, in fact, equal—although none know how to prove that, either. For the lucky person who manages to prove either that P=NP or, contrariwise, that it doesn't, a prize of $1m awaits, courtesy of the Clay Mathematics Institute.
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Topic: COMPUTER - on November 1, 2002 at 11:29:42 PM CET
FBI says DNS server attacks came from U.S., Korea
FULL STORY
THE DISTRIBUTED DENIAL of service (DDoS) attacks against 13 of the Internet's core servers has been traced to computers in the U.S. and Korea, according to statements made by U.S. Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) director Robert Mueller.
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Topic: - on November 1, 2002 at 11:14:11 PM CET
New zip code for London: WC2
It's a pop-up revo-loo-tion. From today drunken revellers in London's West End will be able to spend a penny in new open-air public urinals that rise from the streets just as the evening's drinking sessions begin.
The first of the two-metre high, stainless steel telescopic toilets goes live today in Villiers Street, near Embankment tube station - an area that local councillors believe is a notorious "wet spot".
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