Book Reviews
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Sunday, October 27, 2002
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Cascading molecules drive IBM's smallest computer: "IBM researchers have created a simple computation engine that's more than 250,000 times smaller than the most advanced silicon circuitry. Called the world's smallest computer, the system relies on a "molecular cascade" that pushes a handful of carbon monoxide molecules across a copper surface to perform digital logic functions." [John Robb's Radio Weblog]
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What can computer errors cause? -- Comment()
There has been a lot of interest in what bad programming can cause: explosions, radiation overdoses, shooting down civilian aircraft, etc. Unfortunately there are a lot of urban legends about computer errors, and many of these legends are very loosely based on reality. My story about computing discusses this matter from the perspective of computational science. Can computer simulations be trusted? I also wrote an article about computer errors a couple years ago (in Finnish, titled "Uppoamisia ja räjähdyksiä"). The article was originally published in the Tietoyhteys magazine, and reprinted in the mathematics newsletter Solmu. That version is available on the web. A shortened version of this article is included in the first chapter of our textbook on numerical methods (in Finnish). Perhaps the best source for this topic is the Usenet newsgroup comp.risks.
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Physics may have been hit with a nasty hoax: "There are rumours that two brothers, Igor and Grichka Bogdanov, have managed to publish about five gibberish papers on high-energy physics in peer-reviewed journals, and what's more, they managed to get PhD's in physics from Bourgogne University in France in the process! You can find links to their theses in the above-referenced newsgroup post by John Baez, and the PDFs of the theses contain appended copies of a few of these papers." [Ars Technica]
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Music giants target workplaces: "The US record industry is continuing its fight against computer users downloading songs free from the internet by calling on employers to ban downloading at work." [Google Technology News]
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Are We Living in the Golden Age of Hacking?: "Recent months have seen an increase in security holes and in new tools used to exploit them, expert warns." [Google Technology News]
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