pi

Happy Tau Day, everybody!

There's a celebration for everything these days--National Yo-Yo Day, Ice Cream Day, even Corduroy Day. March 14 was Pi Day--3.14... get it? On Pi Day, which celebrates the number that represents the ratio of circumference to diameter of a circle, enthusiasts had pie-eating contests and played educational games.

Guess what today is! It's Tau Day. Tau represents the circumference of a circle divided by the radius, which is approximately 6.28. Today is June 28... get it?

Apparently, people have been celebrating this day for 10 years. On Tau Day last year, theoretical physicist Michael Hartl launched the Tau Manifesto, which explained why pi is confusing and instead should be replaced with tau.

One of his reasons: Since tau is the ratio of circumference to radius of a circle, circles are more naturally defined by their radius than diameter. (Are you still following this?)… Read more

Raspberry Pi: Computer on a stick for only $25

A British nonprofit has a novel idea for getting kids interested in computer programming--a computer that fits in a pocket and costs less than the latest video game.

It's called Raspberry Pi, and the prototype isn't pretty--it looks like a leftover scrap from electronics recycling day. But it's a working computer that game developer David Braben and his Cambridge-connected colleagues expect to make available for only $25 for a fully configured system.

Don't expect to see Raspberry Pi on store shelves anytime soon--although I think it'd do pretty well in the check-out line in between the tabloid mags and packs of Trident--because the rough prototype still needs some refining and the Raspberry Pi Foundation's goal is to get the systems into the hands of children in both the developed and developing world.… Read more

Circle up, math geeks! It's Pi Day

In Massachusetts today, hundreds of apple pies are being delivered to math and science teachers within a 3.14-mile radius of the Raytheon headquarters in Waltham. If that first sentence didn't clue you in as to why, then you aren't living up to your mathletic potential.

Yes, number geeks, it's 3/14, the 22nd year the date has officially been observed as Pi Day, in honor of that trigonometric wunderkind also known as 22/7. The first Pi Day observation was spearheaded by the San Francisco Exploratorium, but the museum is closed on Mondays, so this year it's up to the rest of us to pick up the slack.

Fortunately, there's no shortage of pi celebrations taking place around the world:

One of the biggest pi parties today takes place at Princeton University, where the day is also celebrated as Albert Einstein's birthday. It's all part of Princeton's Geek Freak celebration, which wraps up today--plenty of pies and Einstein look-alikes are on hand. If you're part of the Silicon Valley start-up scene, there's a SXSW Pi Day party at the British Bankers Club in Menlo Park with the requisite pi recitation contest. The Dali Museum in St. Petersburg, Fla., is offering discounts today (Salvador was a big pi fan), and in Tampa at the Museum of Science and Industry you can take the Pi Day challenge, solve a series of logic-based puzzles, and get in for free.… Read more

Gumshoe gamer

Mystery P.I. -- The New York Fortune is a seek-and-find game in which you play Private Eye and help the family of an eccentric billionaire find his will by seeking clues throughout the landscape of New York City. As you find hidden items and decipher puzzles, you get closer to solving the mystery.

The game's instructions are helpful and easy to understand. New York City is rendered cartoon style in this scenario. Players seek clues in familiar Gotham landmarks, such as Central Park and Times Square. Each scene is jumbled and cluttered with items that are part of … Read more

Pi-obsessed Japanese reach 2.5 trillion digits

It's funny how the Japanese love to waste their supercomputers on climate change and car design instead of nuclear weapons like in some countries.

Now they're squandering their teraflops chasing down irrational numbers.

The T2K-Tsukuba System, a supercomputer at the University of Tsukuba northeast of Tokyo, has calculated the value of pi to more than 2.5 trillion decimal places, a record. The old record of more than 1.2 trillion decimal places was set in 2002 by a team from the University of Tokyo and Hitachi.

The new value of pi is 2,576,980,370,000 … Read more

My Favorite Cars, Pt. 3: The Ferrari 308 GTB

When I started brainstorming this week's series of blogs dedicated to my most favorite cars that I've never owned, I drifted back to my childhood. I remembered watching "Magnum P.I.," and while I never cared for the show (or Tom Selleck's porn-stache, for that matter), I did think he had a hot car to chase the bad guys in. Then I also remembered the '80s flick "Cannonball Run," and how Dean Martin and Sammy Davis, Jr. sped across the country in a fire-engine-red Ferrari with T-Tops while dressed like priests. So I … Read more

DSiWare, WiiWare, and Virtual Console releases for this week

This week the Virtual Console celebrates its 300th downloadable game as a classic Zelda game finally makes its debut.

DSiWare Art Style: PiCTOBiTS (Gameloft, 500 DSi Points): This color matching block game is ready for download on the DSi Shop. Enjoy various levels of puzzle-solving fun and the occasional visit from a classic NES character. WiiWare Crystal Defenders R2 (Square Enix, 800 Points): Ward off the encroaching enemy fleet by deploying Fencers and Black Mages. Battle through various maps of combat and strategy. Silver Star Chess (Agetec, Inc., 500 Points): Finally you can ditch that cumbersome chess board and rely … Read more

Buzz Out Loud 930: Live from SXSW--day two

Blasted XP didn't warn me that my hard drive was full! Therefore, half of the podcast didn't record. Thankfully, I was able to salvage yesterday's episode from the Ustream recording, so here it is! Special guests include ZDNet's Andrew Mager, SXSW Event Director Hugh Forrest, and Blogger's Rick Klau.

Listen now: Download today's podcast EPISODE 930

Happy Pi Day! http://www.boingboing.net/2009/03/13/happy-pi-day.html

Facebook: It’s party time for the social Web…on the iPhone http://news.cnet.com/8301-17939_109-10196472-2.html

Facebook Adobe AIR application http://www.facebook.com/pages/edit/?id=23723376453#/apps/application.php?id=23723376453… Read more

National Pi Day? Congress makes it official

Washington politicians took time from bailouts and earmark-laden spending packages on Wednesday for what might seem like an unusual act: officially designating a National Pi Day.

That's Pi as in ratio-of-a-circle's-circumference-to-diameter, better known as the mathematical constant beginning with 3.14159.

The U.S. House of Representatives on Wednesday approved a resolution introduced two days earlier that designates March 14, 2009 (3/14, get it?) as National Pi Day. It urges schools to take the opportunity to teach their students about Pi and "engage them about the study of mathematics."

Backing the measure is a collection … Read more