algorithms

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Algorithms Misfire: Amazon Lists Book for $24M

Computer-controlled pricing goes a wee bit out of control

(Newser) - Had you scooped up a copy of The Making of a Fly on Amazon last week, you would have made author Peter A. Lawrence a very happy—and rich—man. It listed for nearly $24 million, thanks to a robot pricing war gone wrong, reports CNN . Blogger Michael Eisen first...

Google Catches Bing Copying Its Results

It theorizes that it's spying on users with IE, Bing toolbar

(Newser) - Google is furious. The search giant says it’s caught Bing red-handed stealing its search results—or, at least, mining data from its results to use to adjust Bing's own ranking algorithm. It suspects Bing is using Internet Explorer and/or the Bing toolbar to monitor users’ Google queries and results....

CIA, Google Invest in Future-Predicting Firm

'Recorded Future' scans the web to see what's coming

(Newser) - The investment arms of Google and the CIA have teamed up to support a company that says it can predict the future. Recorded Future—a Massachusetts tech firm that presumably saw the deal coming—monitors tens of thousands of websites and uses algorithms to find the relationships between people, places,...

SEC Probing Possible Stock Chaos Shenanigans

Time to crack down on algorithm trading, lawmakers say

(Newser) - The SEC is on the trail of securities traders who might have "accidentally or maliciously" triggered yesterday's stock market see-sawing, insiders tell Bloomberg , or exploited it to profit illegally. The SEC and the Commodities Futures Trading Commission said after markets closed yesterday that they plan a joint probe into...

Insurance Firm Aimed to Ditch All HIV Clients

Judge slams Fortis' 'reprehensible' conduct

(Newser) - Insurance giant Fortis used every underhanded method it could to purge HIV-positive clients from its books, according to newly released records. Documents reveal that the company—now known as Assurant—used an algorithm to target every policyholder diagnosed with HIV for a fraud investigation and canceled their policies on the...

German Hacker Cracks Cell Phone Code

Expert warns 80% of cell phones lack proper protection

(Newser) - A German hacker says he and his team have managed to crack the code that has protected most of the world's cell phone conversations for over 20 years. Karsten Nohl told a hackers' conference in Berlin that cracking the encryption code for GSM communications—which secures 80% of cellular communications—...

Google Issues Disclaimer Over Racist Michelle Image

But company won't pull doctored photo

(Newser) - Hackers have doctored a photo of Michelle Obama to look like an ape and rigged Google search results so it comes up first under an image search of her name. The move prompted Google to take out an ad on the results page, reading in part, “Sometimes our search...

Her Math Puts BCS Formula to Shame
 Her Math Puts 
 BCS Formula 
 to Shame 
COLLEGE FOOTBALL
Sep 26, 2009 5:13 AM CDT

Her Math Puts BCS Formula to Shame

22-year-old's algorithm is 70% accurate; college football's best hits just 56.6%

(Newser) - The ranking system that determines who plays for college football’s national championship is derided nearly universally, not to mention annually, and though this year’s first set of Bowl Championship Series standings don’t come out until Oct. 18, the detractors might have a new champion: a 22-year-old undergrad...

Algorithm Can 'Fill in the Blanks' of Ancient Texts

Algorithm could also be basis of search engine for old docs

(Newser) - A new computer algorithm could soon take some of the guesswork out of deciphering ancient texts, Reuters reports. The program, developed in Israel and currently used with ancient Hebrew, works with digital copies of unreadable texts and uses pattern recognition to “fill in the blanks,” says one of...

Ultra-Fast Computers Corner Stock Market

(Newser) - Traders using high-speed computers are making billions of dollars and leaving the rest of the stock market in the dust, the New York Times reports. "High-frequency" traders, who use algorithms to make millions of trades in microseconds, have helped big banks and hedge funds bounce back quickly, but critics...

Google Turns to Algorithm to Retain Employees

(Newser) - Google is dealing with the departures of several prized employees the way it deals with nearly everything: with an algorithm. The search giant has a mathematical formula it says will identify which employees are at risk of jumping ship, the Wall Street Journal reports. The formula has already spotted employees...

If You Can't Control Your Emotions, Your Computer Will

Software can analyze the feelings in words

(Newser) - All you naughty Newser commenters, take note: Software developers are readying an algorithm to glean the human emotions in text and possibly censor inappropriate online discussions, New Scientist reports. So far, the biggest users of such pricey “sentiment analysis” tools are companies looking to gauge consumer reaction to brand-name...

UCLA Bags $100K Prize With Record-Breaking Prime Number

Winning discovery is 13 million digits long

(Newser) - A team of UCLA mathematicians has won one of  the math world's most coveted prizes, the Los Angeles Times reports. Their discovery of a 13-million-digit prime number—only the 46th such number ever found—scores them a $100,000 reward from the Electronic Frontier Foundation. The organization is also offering...

Online Dating Sites Seek Love's Secret Algorithm

Peer review of jealously guarded formulas proves impossible

(Newser) - Online matchmakers eHarmony and Match.com have staked millions on the idea that they, not you, can best find your perfect match, thanks to their secret algorithms. So do they work? Lots of academics want to know, the New York Times reports, but while the companies yearn for scientific, peer-reviewed...

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