Webware

This alternative browser looks to be built on Internet Explorer, combining a robust notepad with diminished Web browsing. Freeware Student Pad splits the browser and notepad horizontally, so that the top half of window is for taking notes and the bottom half is for surfing the web. It sounds like an interesting project, but the execution of it as it is now shows that there's room for improvement. There's also no documentation on the browser's source, although it uses Favorites so I'm assuming it's based on IE.

It's a good idea, with an execution that is clearly still in development and more novelty than anything else. There are some nifty student-based needs addressed here. There's a built-in calculator with square-root functionality, calendar, bibliography template, e-mail client with Gmail and Hotmail hooks, MDI editor, and a basic spate of browsing features. The notepad lives on top of the browser, emphasizing both workflow and feature set.

The browser is really what stops Student Pad from joining the workforce as a tolerable alternative browser. You can change your font, adjust the text and background colors, mark favorites, and view the source code. A helpful icon--the sheets of paper--copies and pastes the URL you're looking at directly into the notepad.

However, the browser itself doesn't work as smoothly as it should. It's slow to load pages, sluggish when scrolling, and reluctantly lets you jump into other programs. A lack of tooltips makes getting acclimated a struggle. Modern browsing features such as tabs and a download manager are not supported, and advanced security enhancements are present only in a "web security indicator" that doesn't seem to work.

There are some interesting tweaks here, including rolling most features under the Tools menu. Perhaps the program will become significantly better in the next major update, planned for April 10. For right now, Student Pad remains an interesting curiosity--but nothing more.

Updated at 7 p.m. PDT with Google comment.

Google's calculator has troubles with some large numbers.

(Credit: Google)

Google's calculator has some trouble handling math with some large numbers, an issue that's not unheard of in computing circles but that might not sit well at a supremely nerdy company that's named after a humongous number.

The errors appear, though not consistently, with some very large numbers. For example, 2,999,999,999,999,999 minus 2,999,999,999,999,998 should be 1, but Google calculator shows it as 0.

It's not a simple case of a cutoff where things fall apart, though. 1,999,999,999,999,999 minus 1,999,999,999,999,995 incorrectly equals 0, but 1,999,999,999,999,999 minus 1,999,999,999,999,993 correctly equals 6. And 400,000,000,000,002 minus 400,000,000,000,001 incorrectly equals 0, but 400,000,000,000,002 minus 400,000,000,000,000 correctly equals 2.

Perhaps most amusing for the schadenfreude crowd, Google botches some math involving a googol, which is 1 followed by 100 zeros. The quantity of a googol plus one, minus a googol, equals 0 rather than the correct result, 1.

Cutting Google some slack
To be sure, math is difficult at this scale, where special methods for encoding numbers must be used if fine precision is to be maintained. Happily for those building calculators, though, it's a relatively unusual requirement in the real world: when measuring numbers on the magnitude of the distances between stars, it's rare that precision of a few centimeters can be obtained. And it's also rare that such precision actually is relevant.

Big numbers are often expressed with a two-part floating-point format, with some small number (the mantissa) multiplied by 10 to some power (the exponent). For example, Google's revenue in the second quarter was $1.25 billion, which also can be expressed as $1,250,000,000, or as $1.25 times 10 to the power of 9, or as $1.25 x 10^9. Floating-point math is good at spanning vast ranges of numbers, but typically the first component only keeps track of limited number of digits, so the small change falls by the wayside.

Precise math on computers is compounded by the fact that computers typically work in binary math, with digits of only 0 or 1, whereas people operate in decimal math, with digits running from 0 through 9. Accuracy is compromised when computers convert numbers into binary for processing, then back to base 10 to show us the results.

Indeed, even with decades of computing technology already under our belts, it wasn't until IBM's latest flagship Power6 processor that even Big Blue could do actual decimal math without converting into binary and back.

Ordinary calculators quickly run out of steam when trying to deal with large numbers. Sure, Google may have some issues, but most handheld calculators don't even let you type the number 1,999,999,999,999,993 much less do some mathematical operation on it. And there's not a big market for software such as Wolfram Research's Mathematica that can get the math right.

Google acknowledged its math is imperfect. "We are aware that the calculator tool in Google Web search is not working properly for certain calculations, and we are looking into this problem further. We apologize for any problems that this causes our users," the company said in a statement.

So big math is deceptively difficult. Should Google be forgiven for shortchanging us a bit when it comes to significant digits?

No, Google should do better
Nah. Any company that named itself after a big number must be held to a higher standard.

It might slow down calculations fractionally if Google had to detect when a large but high-precision number was involved, then send that calculation to a different server equipped with a more advanced math algorithm. And Google is rightly focused on server response, since users search more when the search engine is faster. But this issue is part of Google's core culture and image. Google muffing the math is like a politician wrapping himself in a flag that's got an extra couple stars.

After all, this is the company that decided to raise $2,718,281,828 billion in its IPO, a reference to "e," the base of natural logarithms, and that invited job applicants who could solve a math puzzle.

Ideally, Google could fix the algorithm. That's what Microsoft did with a recent Excel math problem and Intel did--at great expense--with the notorious FDIV bug that afflicted some Pentium processors in the 1990s.

Others have found limits with Google's calculator. For example, 2.00135558564^1023 is interpreted by Google's calculator as 1.79769313 x 10^308. But increase that number by one eensy little amount to 2.00135558565^1023, and Google interprets it as a search, not a math problem.

Which leads me to my final thought. In that last example, Google punts on the math and shows a mere search result, which isn't likely to lead anyone astray. It's what's called a graceful failure mode. It's better to show no results than bad results. That's especially important given that the very calculations where people would use a calculator are the very ones where, unlike the examples above, people aren't going to notice an error.

(Via Google Blogoscoped.)

Mathway is a Web calculator that not only solves math problems for you, but also shows you how it got to the answer with step-by-step directions. It's the kind of service that would have utterly ruined me in middle school if I had wanted to cruise through the stacks of homework without doing any of the actual computations.

Mathway covers several types of math genres, including high school level stuff like trigonometry and calculus. It'll also take any "basic math," like what you'd do with a calculator, although it's kind of a waste since most problems only involve one line of explanation. I'm guessing most people would simply open up their computers' calculator instead.

In addition to its problem solver, Mathway has a built-in graphing tool and a glossary--just in case the solver throws some terminology around that you haven't heard before. You can also embed any answer to show it off to others--although I'm betting more people are likely to use the e-mail link instead.

[via SimpleSpark]

Mathway solves simple to complex math problems and shows you what happened to get to the answer. It's a potential homework helper for students.

(Credit: CNET Networks)

Who knew tackling global warming could be so fun?

A Boston-area entrepreneur has launched a Web site called Carbonrally that aims to marry online games and social networks with consumers' desire to shrink their carbon footprint.

Carbon reduction mashup--see how is your team doing.

(Credit: Carbonrally)

Here's how it works. The company behind Carbonrally, Carbon Challenge, regularly posts a "challenge" that translates into a reduction in greenhouse gas emissions. Choosing filtered tap water over bottled water, for example, translates into reducing 3 pounds of carbon dioxide emissions a week. (No plastic bottles involved.)

Individuals or teams can take up the challenge. Typically, it's the "dark green" consumers who take on the challenges, says founder Jason Karas, who studied environmental management but took a detour into Internet management for 10 years.

But ganging up to take on other teams, in a friendly competition kind of way, is what gets people really fired up.

A group of 17 "tweenagers" from New Jersey just passed Google's Pittsburgh office in carbon reductions. Google Pittsburgh, meanwhile, is duking it out with Google's Cambridge crew. "We're taking Cambridge down!" the Steel Town Googlers say.

There are already several carbon calculators out there available from carbon offset companies and other sources. Make Me Sustainable is another Web site for managing your carbon diet. Carbon Rally wants to keep it quick and light, while tapping into people's tribal competitive spirit.

"We don't have to get people worked up and bummed out about climate change," Karas said. "We've giving them a place where they have an opportunity to act on that emotion."

The company expects to make revenue by having its challenges sponsored by corporations that offer environmentally oriented products or are looking to green up their image.

Another planned feature is to have "carbon ralliers" themselves offer challenges to others.

(Credit: Mingle2)

Ever wonder if you are worth more dead or alive?

Someone dating you might, according to the dating site Mingle2.

While Mingle2's cadaver calculator won't do life insurance policies or tell you your carbon footprint, it will tell you how much your healthy body, or unhealthy body as the case may be, is worth to science.

If you don't mind anonymously answering personal questions such as the number of drinks you have in a week or whether you have elephantiasis, the bizarre quiz will calculate your worth in death.

Unfortunately, good health and normalcy is not necessarily the name of the game when it comes to whether science is interested in you.

Price for this healthy writer's body dead: $5,075.

See if you fare better.