The original version of this story appeared in Quanta Magazine. Imagine a town with two widget merchants. Customers prefer cheaper widgets, so the merchants must compete to set the lowest price.

Tyler Lacoma has spent more than 10 years testing tech and studying the latest web tool to help keep readers current. He's here for you when you need a how-to guide, explainer, review, or list of the ...

One fact about machine learning and data algorithms that may surprise business users is that there aren’t actually that many of them. This topic can get overwhelming for busy professionals. But in ...

“To me, an algorithm is any piece of automated code that accepts some number of variables and data, [then] uses those variables and data to make decisions. But that’s the boring computer science ...

Java programmers use data structures to store and organize data, and we use algorithms to manipulate the data in those structures. The more you understand about data structures and algorithms, and how ...

The Lamport algorithm for generating and applying one-time passwords (OTPs) is a simple solution that provides great value in the right context. Not only can the Lamport OTP scheme provide effective ...