"In games of Risk, aggression pays. So says a US mathematician in a fresh analysis of the popular board game" [David Harris' Science & Literature].

When I was in junior high, I attempted to find out what the most effective approach would be in playing the game Risk. I didn't have the mathematics knowledge needed to perform a rigorous analysis, but what I did have was a Commodore 64, BASIC and a strong desire to experiment. With these tools in hand, I wrote a program that would throw three dice against two and tabulate the results based on the Risk rules. I let the program run for a day or so with the counter continuously updating on the screen. I don't remember the result anymore, that was years ago, but my conclusion was that it was better to attack. 10:08:32 PM    comment []  

In a vain attempt to garner support from the OSS community, Real is offering a grant of up to $75,000 to promote the development of software based on their Helix multimedia platform [Slashdot]. Read on in the Slashdot forums for some insightful commentary on what the OSS community thinks about this idea.

The media player is simply the player sans any codecs and the server is simply and encoder/server again sans the codecs. Apparently, you're supposed to buy the codecs from Real. Even more annoying is the fact that you can't even download the blasted beta software without becoming an active developer and signing and faxing 5 different NDAs! What the hell kind of "open source" is this anyway?! [AKAImBatman (238306)].

Personally, I think the battle has been fought and Real already lost. Windows Media owns the authorized media format space. The unauthorized media space is owned by mp3 and that is something even Microsoft can't touch. 9:48:24 PM    comment []  

SCO has announced their pricing for a "license" to use Linux [ArsTechnica]. What a bunch of crap. 9:40:57 PM    comment []  

Just as Microsoft anti-trust problems are calming down in the US, they are picking up in the EU [ArsTechnica]. 9:39:15 PM    comment []