Archive: December 2005

Google Speaks Klingon

Posted by mustapha under Search
[1] Comment | No Trackbacks
Klingon (tlhIngan Hol), a language created by Dr Marc Okrand, a professional linguist, for use by the alien Klingons in some of the Star Trek movies. To make Klingon sound truly alien, Okrand used combinations of sounds which do not exist in any natural language. It is a complete language, with its own vocabulary, grammar and usage.

There is even an instute named The Klingon Language Institute that promotes and supports this language.

» Read More

 

Google.org – the philanthropic arm of Google

Posted by mustapha under General
Add comment | No Trackbacks
It's now almost considered cool to give away millions every year, which is the way it should be.

Google.org is the philanthropic arm of Google, with nearly $1 billion earmarked for social causes. In addition, Google Grants program has donated $33M in advertising to more than 850 non-profit organizations in 10 countries

» Read More

 

Google can't subtract

Posted by mustapha under Programming
[2] Comments | No Trackbacks
You certainly know the calculator feature of google.

I saw today many bloggers reporting from Google Blogoscoped that google cannot subtract. Look at the picture.
Google substraction

The problem has nothing to do with google. Take the same operation and try to play with some programming languages, you will get the same result.

  • Ruby: 1 - 0.9 - 0.1 = -2.77555756156289e-17

  • PHP(4.4): 1 - 0.9 - 0.1 = -2.7755575615629e-17

  • JavaScript:1 - 0.9 - 0.1 = -2.7755575615628914e-17

  • VbScript: 1 - 0.9 - 0.1 = -2,77555756156289E-17

  • Java2: 1 - 0.9 - 0.1 = -2.7755575615628914E-17

  • Perl 5: 1 - 0.9 - 0.1 = -2.77555756156289e-017

Try other languages if you want, I will be surprised if you get (Zero) the correct answer.

So, why all these programming languages give the wrong answer ?

» Read More