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Wednesday, 20 July 2011 18:10

Does the Slope of a Pyramid Really Matter?

Does the Slope of a Pyramid Really Matter?

Image by Ryan Briggs

This is the famous Bent Pyramid. The lower part of the pyramid has an angle of 54° and the upper part is at 43°. Why is it bent? Really, who knows. The two likely reasons are:

  • Time or money (well isn’t time = money). Basically this idea says that they either didn’t have the time or money to finish the pyramid at the initial slope. To cut costs (or time) they changed the angle.
  • Building the pyramid at the original slope caused structural instabilities. Either the foundation couldn’t take the weight or the building material itself started to crack.

I don’t really have a...

Pig Up! Facebook Game Just Ruined Your Productivity

Allow me to introduce you to the game that caused you to not get any work done today.

Pig Up! is the latest addictive creation of PopCap Games, the creator of casual hits like Bejeweled and Plants vs. Zombies that just got acquired by megapublisher Electronic Arts for three quarters of a billion dollars. It’s a Facebook game that uses your social graph, but at its core it’s just a compelling action game that would work well on any platform.

You: a pig that’s been shot out of a cannon. Them: bees. Flap your makeshift wooden wings to get more height, but your flaps are limited. You can gain more f...

Wednesday, 20 July 2011 17:00

Computer Beats PC Game After Reading Manual

Computer Beats PC Game After Reading Manual

By John Timmer, Ars Technica

Normally, covering computer science articles are a bit of a strain, but two things about a recent one had a strong personal appeal: I’m addicted to the Civilization series of games, and I rarely bother to read the users’ manual. These don’t necessarily sound like issues that could be tackled via computer science, but some researchers have decided to let a computer teach itself how to play Freeciv and, in the process, teach itself to interpret the game’s manual. Simply by determining whether the moves it made were ultimately successful, the researchers’ sof...

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