In the last two months, I’ve become fascinated with clocks and automatons. My family never owned a mechanical clock, but I had an aunt with a musical cuckoo clock, and a grandfather clock that showed the phases of the moon. I wondered what made the pendulum keep swinging (was it magnets or batteries?), and what […]

The book cover for the book Paul and I wrote is now available on Amazon, and here’s what it look like. Here’s the Amazon listing, should you care to pre-order 1 or 2 hundred copies… :) UPDATE: Can’t wait for the book? You can get early access to an online edition using O’Reilly’s new Rough […]

Eduyng Castano writes to me about a Sudoku solving technique he has discovered. Here is his paper describing what he calls Golden Chains (pdf). The technique is a generalization of XY-Wing that identifies exclusion pairs connected by chains of arbitrary length. It solves many (but not all) of the same puzzles that can be solved […]

LEGO unveiled their next generation robotic system, Mindstorms NXT at the Consumer Electronics Show this week. As reported in Wired, the kit features a boatload of new features, including a sleeker RCX with a 32-bit CPU and larger LCX, server-style motors, an ultra-sonic sensor (for motion & obstacle detection) and lots of other robot sweetness. […]

Puzzle Japan is the puzzle website for Nikoli, a popular puzzle publisher in Japan that popularized sudoku puzzles. Their website offers eight different logic puzzles, including sudoku and kakuro, available in online and printable formats. Many of the puzzles involve building walls or boundaries, an activity reminiscent of the game of Go. One of my […]

A few days ago I went hunting for free music notation software. Once again I was struck by the bewildering array of music software out there, clamoring for your attention. I found at least a hundred notation packages alone. I think the reason for this is that a lot of musicians are programmers, and it […]

These 4 non transitive dice are one of the great illusions sold by British Toy & Magic Shop Grand Illusions, which specializes in mathematically-based novelties. Ask a friend to choose a die, you choose another. Make ten throws, and you will win the majority of the throws. No matter which die your friend chooses, you […]

I heard Howard Dully’s personal story about his transorbital lobotomy, 45 years ago, on the way home today, while listening to NPR. This chilling and emotional tale, in which Dully finally confronts his father about the operation which ruined his life, makes up for 9 months of horrible music cues and pledge breaks. This is […]

After seeing my Wacky Packages Coverpop, astronomer John Dubinski wrote to share with me his amazing large-scale photo mosaics of Wacky Packages (and also take my ego down a few notches, by demonstrating his superior geekitude). These are the most accomplished photo mosaics I have seen to date, involving random image placement of images with […]

The latest Kong trailer looks quite promising. Jackson’s respect for the original film is quite evident, and he’s had the good sense to make it a period picture. The hardest part for me is trying not to think about kielbasa sausage while listening to Jack Black, but I’m working on it. I think I can manage it by December.