Flash Tables v1.1 (read the original post here) is now available on the iTunes App Store.

v1.1 is a minor release but implements a highly requested feature, you can now select all tables from the table selection screens.

v1.2 is looking to be a much more substantial update, including localization (starting with Spanish) and improved end test statistics and history.

Download the app from here.

Flash Tables for iPhone or iPod Touch is now available for purchase at the iPhone App Store.

Read the full product description here.

This is our first foray into the world of iPhone apps with much more ambitious projects to follow. Flash Tables is great for kids (or adults) starting out with the process of learning times-tables, it includes both ‘practice’ (Flash Cards) and ‘test’ modes.

On the technical side, we swallowed the openGL ES pill rather than going for the more ‘documented’ appKit implementation. It was a much rougher journey but the lessons learned were invaluable.

I’d like to think we can post some tutorials, but that will be time permitting. As always feel free to comment and we’ll try and feedback as much as we can.

Enjoy the App!

Here are two videos demonstrating practice and test modes.

Dear Apple Community,

For the first time in a decade, I’m getting to spend the holiday season with my family, rather than intensely preparing for a Macworld keynote.

Unfortunately, my decision to have Phil deliver the Macworld keynote set off another flurry of rumors about my health, with some even publishing stories of me on my deathbed.

I’ve decided to share something very personal with the Apple community so that we can all relax and enjoy the show tomorrow.

As many of you know, I have been losing weight throughout 2008. The reason has been a mystery to me and my doctors. A few weeks ago, I decided that getting to the root cause of this and reversing it needed to become my #1 priority.

Fortunately, after further testing, my doctors think they have found the cause—a hormone imbalance that has been “robbing” me of the proteins my body needs to be healthy. Sophisticated blood tests have confirmed this diagnosis.

The remedy for this nutritional problem is relatively simple and straightforward, and I’ve already begun treatment. But, just like I didn’t lose this much weight and body mass in a week or a month, my doctors expect it will take me until late this Spring to regain it. I will continue as Apple’s CEO during my recovery.

I have given more than my all to Apple for the past 11 years now. I will be the first one to step up and tell our Board of Directors if I can no longer continue to fulfill my duties as Apple’s CEO. I hope the Apple community will support me in my recovery and know that I will always put what is best for Apple first.

So now I’ve said more than I wanted to say, and all that I am going to say, about this.

Steve

…and the stock price is up.

Read more here

Today most of what we use the web for on a day-to-day basis aren’t just web pages, they’re APPLICATIONS.

View the comic book here.

More details here.

On August 23rd, a computer reported finding a new Mersenne prime to the server! Because I was on vacation, verification did not begin until the 26th. Two verification runs are in progress. Estimated completion is September 12th and September 16th.

Although large Primes are used in cryptography, quoted from the original article :-

Finding new Mersenne primes is not likely to be of any immediate practical value. This search is primarily a recreational pursuit. However, the search for Mersenne primes has proved useful in development of new algorithms, testing computer hardware, and interesting young students in math.

So I guess that just makes it damn cool!

For geek reference a prime in the 10 million digit range would require about 33 million bits ( ln(10)/ln(2) = 3.3219 ) or 4MB.

Read the full article here

The first naturally occurring superheavy element has been found. An international team of scientists found several nuclei of unbibium in a sample of the naturally occurring heavy metal thorium. Unbibium has an atomic number of 122 and an atomic weight of 292. In general, very heavy elements tend to be unstable but scientists have long predicted that even heavier nuclei would be stable. The group that found unbibium in thorium say it has a half life in excess of 100 million years and an abundance of about 10^(-12) relative to thorium, which itself is about as abundant as lead.

Read the full article here

Google App Engine enables you to build web applications on the same scalable systems that power Google applications.

No assembly required.
Google App Engine provides a fully-integrated application environment.

It’s easy to scale.
Google App Engine makes it easy to build scalable applications that grow from one user to millions of users without infrastructure headaches.

It’s free to get started.
Every Google App Engine application can use up to 500MB of persistent storage and enough bandwidth and CPU for 5 million monthly page views.

Sounds like a very good excuse to dust off those python books!

Read more here

A scrambled Rubik’s cube can be solved in just 25 moves, regardless of the starting configuration. Tomas Rokicki, a Stanford-trained mathematician, has proven the new limit (down from 26 which was proved last year) using a neat piece of computer science. Rather than study individual moves, he’s used the symmetry of the cube to study its transformations in sets. This allows him to separate the ‘cube space’ into 2 billion sets each containing 20 billion elements. He then shows that a large number of these sets are essentially equivalent to other sets and so can be ignored. Even then, to crunch through the remaining sets, he needed a workstation with 8GB of memory and around 1500 hours of time on a Q6600 CPU running at 1.6GHz. Next up, 24 moves.

Read more here

The Experiment
Over Christmas we took the time for a little in-house experiment. With only a limited budget of around US $900 we wanted to set up a brand new machine that can handle Crysis on High settings. We should note that Very High settings are reserved to keep Crysis future-proofed, just like Ultra was in Far Cry.
Together with EA we looked in shops around the world and bought the hardware parts to put together our machine starting from scratch. While we had a budget in mind, we wanted to still make sure this machine would have top-notch hardware such as a multicore processor or a DirectX10 graphics card.
The Videos
As you’ll see from the 8 minutes of video we recorded, Crysis looks absolute fabulous on High settings with this configuration and runs very smoothly on a 1280×720 resolution. They show different locations from the Crysis Singleplayer Campaign with everything set to High.

The Configuration

Below you find a rough list of parts we purchased so you can see and check for yourself about the total costs of such a high-end computer. The prices may vary from country to country, but overall the costs should be within the same range (shipping included).
CPU Intel Core2Duo E6750
GPU GeForce 8800GT 512MB
Motherboard NVIDIA nForce 650i Socket 775
PSU 600W ATX12V
RAM 2GB (2 x 1GB) 240-Pin DDR2 800 (PC2 6400) Dual Channel Kit
HDD SATA 250GB 7200RPM
DVD 20x DVD±R Burner
Case ATX Midi Tower Computer Case
OS Microsoft Windows XP Home with SP2
The Message
With this experiment we have shown that Crysis runs smoothly and provides and amazing, unparalleled performance on High settings and on an affordable machine that is readily available today.
We know most of you already have a great base to work with, so compare your current hardware with the setup mentioned above and consider an affordable upgrade – you do not have to purchase a new machine. Crysis is very scalable and looks great on Medium settings compared to current next-gen games.
Your Hardware?
Of course we would like to know what kind of hardware you are running the game on and how it is running. We encourage you to run a benchmark test in Crysis which you can share afterwards with the members of your favorite Crysis forum (which you can do by starting here).

Regards,
-Crysis Dev Team

Download the videos from here

The long-awaited first Crysis patch is finally released for the masses.

Finally it is out! The long awaited Patch 1.1 for Crysis is available for download! The 140MB sized file can be downloaded from one of the sources further below. The patch mainly addresses the performance of Crysis. Additionally it includes quite a few bug fixes and tweaks for the Multiplayer part to provide a more balanced gameplay.
Please find here the complete change log:
Fixes:
* Fixed: Potential crash in D3D10
* Fixed: Orange boxes apearing when hispec savegame loaded into lowspec game.
* Fixed: Inconsistent damage dealt to vehicles when shot by LAW.
* Fixed: Reflection resolution on D3D10, MultiGPU reflection update fix
* Fixed: Memory leak with FSAA modes
* Fixed: Infinite ammo hacks.
* Fixed: Memory leak in D3D10 when switching screen modes
* Fixed: Muti optimizations
* Fixed: When player melees during gun raise animation, their gun will be in a
permanently raised position.
* Fixed: Crash when loading savegame with level exported recently by editor
* Fixed: Virtual keyboard does not function properly when a game pad is connected
* Fixed: Users can lose the ability to look around with the Right Stick
* Fixed: Setting screen resolution to “default” stops user from selecting last resolution
* Fixed: Bug when changing resolution in D3D10
* Fixed: Issues with Depth of field and water droplets in D3D10
* Fixed: Crash on NaN warning
Updates:
* Added: Motion Blur UI and V.SYNC UI options
* Optimized: Motion blur
* Optimized: FSAA (Full Scene Anti-Aliasing)
* Optimized sound id implementation
* Enabled VSync functionality in D3D10
* New benchmarking files for ice CPU benchmark.
* http/xmlrpc password protected remote control session
* Marked debug cvars as cheat
* F12 (screenshot) now works in restricted mode as well
Tweaks:
* Reduced LAW splash damage vs. infantry in PowerStruggle mode
* Slowed Rocket projectile speed down in MP slightly
* Disabled automatic turret bounding boxes on vehicles to prevent issues with LAW hit
detection
* Reduced grenade explosion radius in multiplayer
* Clamped water tesselation to avoid cheating in MP
* MultiGPU improvements with depth map updates

Regards,
-Crysis Dev Team

Download from here