Reeves has become quite the Hotmail blogger. Think we sell your email address to spammers? Think again. Having trouble with your Junk Mail Filter settings? Read the tutorial. Or, of course, you can just hit his category of all Hotmail related blog to get the latest scoop.

CNet is reporting that a proof for the Riemann Hypothesis has been found by a professor at Purdue. The proof, which is far beyond my ability in math, is a pretty interesting read that covers a large part of the history of prime numbers. It beings:

The Riemann hypothesis is the product of a renaissance in mathematics which began in the seventeenth century after more than a thousand years in which Greek mathematics lay dormant in monasteries. When mathematics is viewed as the science of numbers, two aspects of that science are found to be strikingly present in antiquity.

The ending of the proof:

The proof of the Riemann hypothesis verifes a positivity condition only for those Dirichlet zeta functions which are associated with nonprincipal real characters. The classical zeta function does not satisfy a positivity condition since the condition is not compatible with the singularity of the function. But a weaker condition is satis ed which has the desired implication for zeros.
A curious coincidence needs to be mentioned as part of the chain of events which concluded in the proof of the Riemann hypothesis. The feudal family de Branges originates in a crusader who died in 1199 leaving an emblem of three swords hanging over three coins, surmounted by the traditional crown designating a count, and inscribed with the motto “Nec vi nec numero.”

I think I’m traveling too much. I’ve flown to San Diego the last two weekends. I was in New Jersey the weekend before that and in San Diego the week prior to that. I’m flying back to SD again this weekend to see the rest of the Cather folks graduate. The weekend after that Ami and I are taking a weekend in Vegas (staying in Paris). That makes 6 straight weekend that I haven’t been in Sunnyvale. I can’t wait for July/August when Ami and Justin move up. As a note, it’s looking like we’ll be living in the SOMA area of San Francisco.

Could we get any more shady? Story on BBC.

A Pentagon report last year argued that President George W Bush was not bound by laws banning the use of torture, according to the Wall Street Journal.

The document also argued that torturers acting under presidential orders could not be prosecuted, the paper said.

I’m pining for the Sony DSC-T1 (Amazon) digital camera. Slim, stylish and 5 megapixels. Like all the nice Sony cameras it features a Carl Zeiss lens (oooh) and has a Memory Stick. Unfortunatly, it’s got this odd version of a Memory Stick called a Duo that looks like it’s a good $30 – $40 more expensive than a standard Memory Stick. The camera sells at around $500 and it looks like it requires a docking cradle to unload pictures (so no standard USB connector). Now, if only I had $500 laying around or a need to replace my Canon S230 Elph.

MGM Mirage (MGM, Bellagio, Mirage) launched a $4.85 billion bid for Mandalay Resort Group (Mandalay Bay, Luxor, Excalibur). When in Vegas, I always seem to think how huge and giant the corporations that run these places must be, but whenever I hear news like this, it reminds me of how small and isolated the casino industry is. Mandalay’s market cap is some $6.5 billion as is MGM’s. While not too shabby, Linux company RedHat is a square $5 billion or retailer Bed Bath and Beyond is at $10.9 billion. You’d never walk in to a Bed Bath and Beyond store and say, “wow, now this is money!” as you would when you walked in to Bellagio. It quite proves the point that wealth is a generated illusion.

The other thing that always intrigues me about the business of Las Vegas is the characters and people who pretty much forged this desert town in to an international destination. People like Steve Wynn, who started in the casino business by strong arming his way in to ownership of the Golden Nugget and launching from there a domination empire the capped at the building of the Bellagio. Even more impressive is Kirk Kerorian, who launched an airline, sold it, bought up a huge amount of land in Vegas to build his first hotel, sold it, bought up stock in MGM the movie studio (and eventually owned it), used that company to build the MGM casino (which is now Baileys) and lots of other stuff on his way to becoming a multi-billionare. Check out The First 100 for a good background on the building of Vegas.

Story from CNet’s news.com: Hotmail incinerates customer files. Amusing (not to mention a bit damning) story. Our PR folks call it out exactly how it is: “In this case specifically, it appears to be an isolated incident that is not recurring within our customer base.” Even lawyers who litigate against us agree: “‘In general, consumers are out of luck,’ said Ira Rothken, an attorney based in San Rafael, Calif., who has litigated such cases in the past. ‘Frankly, it’s understandable. There are always going to be glitches that lead to data loss.'”

San Diego airport just added this in the last week or so. Wacky idea. Much more environmentally sound than circling the airport a half-dozen times.

Spent the weekend in San Diego. Rough overview:

Friday — arrived in San Diego, met a bunch of people at Sushi Ota (sic?) in Mission Beach for Tanya’s birthday. Went to the Nite Owl after the dinner, stayed for a drink, then came back to Cather. Most of the people came over afterwards, so we all stayed up hanging out till 5am or so.

Saturday — gym in the morning, Laker game in the afternoon, and Supersize Me in the evening (great movie)

Sunday — went on a massive hike. Justin, Ami and I originally thought we’d go up to Torrey Pines and hike around at the preserve, but it was full and we coudn’t park at the park, so we parked up near Del Mar, and walked along the beach for some three-ish miles from Del Mar all the way down to the Scripps Pier. Luckily, Dan came and picked us up at the La Jolla end so we didn’t have to walk all the way back. Got Wahoo’s for a late lunch, went back to get the car, came home and slept for 2 hours. After waking up, we went to Keith’s in Miramar for dinner (which has these awesome Veggie Melts — basically grilled cheese with a bunch of vegetables in it) and then went to Gaslamp to see what was happening. We tried to check out this piano bar we’d heard of, but couldn’t find it, so after some more searching, we settled at Ra and had a good time there with Dan, Ami, Justin, Ricky and Jennifer. On the way back to the car, I ran in to Charlie (my roommate from first year), of all people. He looks good and is graduating this year.

Monday — got lunch with my sister at Whole Foods. The La Jolla Whole Foods has ripped out their Cafe (boo!) and replaced it with a huge selection of prepacked meals (yay?). I guess it’s not too bad, as Ami pointed out that the cafe wasn’t that good anyway. After lunch, we went shopping at UTC and went and saw Shrek 2 (hilarous). Dropped her back off at her appartment and then went straight to the gym with Ami. Came back to Cather and watched the Lakers finally put away the Timberwolves, then flew back to San Jose.

Not a bad weekend!