Random Articles (Page 2)
Have a deep view into what people are curious about.
π Fork Bomb
In computing, a fork bomb (also called rabbit virus or wabbit) is a denial-of-service attack wherein a process continually replicates itself to deplete available system resources, slowing down or crashing the system due to resource starvation.
Discussed on
- "Fork Bomb" | 2020-02-19 | 140 Upvotes 111 Comments
π Trial and Execution of Nicolae and Elena CeauΘescu
The trial of Nicolae and Elena CeauΘescu was held on 25 December 1989 by an Exceptional Military Tribunal, a drumhead court-martial created at the request of a newly formed group called the National Salvation Front. Its outcome was pre-determined, and it resulted in guilty verdicts and death sentences for former Romanian President and Romanian Communist Party General Secretary, Nicolae CeauΘescu, and his wife, Elena CeauΘescu.
The main charge was genocideβ namely, murdering "over 60,000 people" during the revolution in TimiΘoara. Other sources put the death toll between 689 and 1,200. Nevertheless, the charges did not affect the trial. General Victor StΔnculescu had brought with him a specially selected team of paratroopers from a crack regiment, handpicked earlier in the morning to act as a firing squad. Before the legal proceedings began, StΔnculescu had already selected the spot where the execution would take place: along one side of the wall in the barracks' square.
Nicolae CeauΘescu refused to recognize the tribunal, arguing its lack of constitutional basis and claiming that the revolutionary authorities were part of a Soviet plot.
Discussed on
- "Trial and Execution of Nicolae and Elena CeauΘescu" | 2022-12-07 | 19 Upvotes 7 Comments
π City officials attempt to doxx Wikipedians
Discussed on
- "City officials attempt to doxx Wikipedians" | 2023-08-01 | 183 Upvotes 90 Comments
π Vantablack
Vantablack is a material developed by Surrey NanoSystems in the United Kingdom and is one of the darkest substances known, absorbing up to 99.965% of visible light (at 663 nm if the light is perpendicular to the material).
The name is a compound of the acronym VANTA (vertically aligned nanotube arrays) and the color black.
Discussed on
- "Vantablack, one of the darkest substances known" | 2019-02-07 | 12 Upvotes 4 Comments
π In re Bilski
In re Bilski, 545 F.3d 943, 88 U.S.P.Q.2d 1385 (Fed. Cir. 2008), was an en banc decision of the United States Court of Appeals for the Federal Circuit (CAFC) on the patenting of method claims, particularly business methods. The Federal Circuit court affirmed the rejection of the patent claims involving a method of hedging risks in commodities trading. The court also reiterated the machine-or-transformation test as the (meaning sole) applicable test for patent-eligible subject matter, and stated that the test in State Street Bank v. Signature Financial Group should no longer be relied upon.
The Supreme Court of the United States issued an opinion on appeal (as Bilski v. Kappos) that affirmed the judgment of the CAFC, but revised many aspects of the CAFC's decision. In its decision, handed down on June 28, 2010, the Supreme Court rejected the machine-or-transformation test as the sole test of process patent eligibility based on an interpretation of the language of Β§ 101. The majority, however, had high praise for the Federal Circuit opinions, advising that "[s]tudents of patent law would be well advised to study these scholarly opinions."
Discussed on
- "In re Bilski" | 2010-01-18 | 11 Upvotes 3 Comments
π Max/MSP: A visual programming language for music and multimedia
Max, also known as Max/MSP/Jitter, is a visual programming language for music and multimedia developed and maintained by San Francisco-based software company Cycling '74. Over its more than thirty-year history, it has been used by composers, performers, software designers, researchers, and artists to create recordings, performances, and installations.
The Max program is modular, with most routines existing as shared libraries. An application programming interface (API) allows third-party development of new routines (named external objects). Thus, Max has a large user base of programmers unaffiliated with Cycling '74 who enhance the software with commercial and non-commercial extensions to the program. Because of this extensible design, which simultaneously represents both the program's structure and its graphical user interface (GUI), Max has been described as the lingua franca for developing interactive music performance software.
Discussed on
- "Max/MSP: A visual programming language for music and multimedia" | 2020-02-17 | 128 Upvotes 65 Comments
π Rich Hickey's Wikipedia page nominated for deletion
Discussed on
- "Rich Hickey's Wikipedia page nominated for deletion" | 2011-07-11 | 16 Upvotes 12 Comments
π Pig War
The Pig War was a confrontation in 1859 between the United States and United Kingdom over the BritishβU.S. border in the San Juan Islands, between Vancouver Island (present-day Canada) and the State of Washington. The Pig War, so called because it was triggered by the shooting of a pig, is also called the Pig Episode, the Pig and Potato War, the San Juan Boundary Dispute and the Northwestern Boundary Dispute. Aside from the death of one pig, this dispute was a bloodless conflict.
Discussed on
- "Pig War (1859)" | 2022-10-20 | 25 Upvotes 11 Comments
- "Pig War" | 2019-10-03 | 84 Upvotes 28 Comments
- "Pig War (1859)" | 2017-12-25 | 22 Upvotes 6 Comments
π Zone Rouge
The Zone Rouge (English: Red Zone) is a chain of non-contiguous areas throughout northeastern France that the French government isolated after the First World War. The land, which originally covered more than 1,200 square kilometres (460Β sqΒ mi), was deemed too physically and environmentally damaged by conflict for human habitation. Rather than attempt to immediately clean up the former battlefields, the land was allowed to return to nature. Restrictions within the Zone Rouge still exist today, although the control areas have been greatly reduced.
The Zone Rouge was defined just after the war as "Completely devastated. Damage to properties: 100%. Damage to Agriculture: 100%. Impossible to clean. Human life impossible".
Under French law, activities such as housing, farming, or forestry were temporarily or permanently forbidden in the Zone Rouge, because of the vast amounts of human and animal remains, and millions of items of unexploded ordnance contaminating the land. Some towns and villages were never permitted to be rebuilt after the war.
π Golden parachutes: Record severance payments at Wikimedia Foundation
Discussed on
- "Golden parachutes: Record severance payments at Wikimedia Foundation" | 2023-05-22 | 412 Upvotes 394 Comments