I saw a video from microsoft research which showed a new editor with like "infinite zoom" when viewing all source code files, like flash vector files - really cool. But i can't seem to find this video again! Does anybody know what it's called? Or a link?
posted by flexiverse on Aug 29, 2009 - 8 answers

Examples/terminology for media so compelling it drives you insane. [more inside]
posted by allen.spaulding on May 13, 2009 - 36 answers

What's the next polynomial in this series: x⁴+2x²+16, x⁸+40x⁶+1128x⁴+2560x²+65536, ? [more inside]
posted by Mapes on Nov 27, 2007 - 14 answers

What's the sum of all integers? I remember from somewhere in the distant past of my math education that you can sum up all the integers and get a wide variety of different results. For instance, you can write the sum as S = 0 + (1 + -1) + (2 + -2) + ... where each pair cancels to 0, so S must be 0. But you can also write it as S = 0 + 1 + (2 + -1) + (3 + -2) + ... where each pair adds up to 1, so S must be infinity. With a little more work it seems like you could also get other answers. My question is: are these answers correct, or are all but one of them mistakes like the numerous "proofs" that 3=2? If they're all correct, how does it make sense that the same numbers can add up to different things when you get to infinity? If they're not all correct, what's the fundamental mistake?
posted by jacobm on Oct 5, 2005 - 29 answers

Can anyone recommend any good recent articles or papers on whether the universe is infinite or finite? I've heard that scientists suspect that the universe is flat, which lends credence to the infinite-universe hypothesis. I've decided I don't know enough about this. Nothing too technical, please, though I'd prefer something more complex than an article from a newspaper science section.
posted by painquale on Jan 12, 2005 - 20 answers