Simplest Universal Turing Machine Proved

A twenty-year-old undergraduate student has claimed a $25,000 prize for proving that a very simple machine can be programmed to do anything that a computer can do. The machine is a cellular automaton, with a particular set of rules describing how it should use colored squares to decide how to color other squares. It changes between two states that decide how to color squares in three colors. That's all it is, and theoretically, with the right squares to start with, and peripherals, it could run Windows Vista.

As this article points out, what this means is that the simplest conditions are conducive to extraordinarily complex behavior. The universe is teaming with life.

Learning Robots

Watch this short video (TED talk) on learning and self-aware robots. It depicts a four legged robot that learns its own shape by forming a self image as a hypothesis, and then testing it and adapting its self image until it mirrors its movements. Then the robot refines its movements to maximize forward motion. So the software put onto this robot would allow any robot, regardless of its shape, to learn how to walk if it was physically possible for it to do so.

Radiohead Releases Pay What You Like Album

Today I downloaded a full professional quality album from Radiohead's website for a price of my choosing. Radiohead is a famous, talented, skillful band, and they have decided to release their latest album under their own label from this website. You can pay any amount you like, down to 1 pence to download a zip file containing mp3s with no copy protection, and no contract.

I paid 5 pounds ($11), because I want to support this trend in music distribution.

I had no trouble at all with the pre-order, or downloading the album today, but I notice the order site seems to be down today.

Thinner TV

For $1700, this Christmas you will be able to buy a coin-thickness 11" Video display made with organic LEDs. It has superior performance and uses 40% less energy. The last step is not too far away, it seems: TV wallpaper is coming soon.

Automated Software Optimizing

Researchers at UC Davis have developed software that automatically improves software written in Java. In their paper, "Automated bug isolation via program chipping" they have demonstrated a program called ChipperJ, which can reduce large human-coded Java programs to 25-30% of their size. The process takes about an hour.