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I don't know about the OpenSource part of it, but you should check out GroupLens at the University of Minnesota. They've published some papers that are available online.

Everyone always stares at me when I profess the beauty of Lisp, as well as its possibilities. While being the second oldest language still in use (after Fortran), it's still modern with respect to the new applications people are finding for the language. For the curious, here's some other cool Lisp/Scheme projects:

A Common LISP Hypermedia Server

UTexas's archive of classic Lisp AI code (SHRDLU, Eliza, etc.)

SPIKE - Planning/Scheduling software for the Hubble Space Telescope

Babylon - an environment for developing expert systems

Lisp-Stat - statistics package


Also, here's a great directory on more info and resources on Lisp:
Association of Lisp Users

back in february, the IMA hosted a talk by Bruce Schneier. It was a public lecture, so I was able to put up a copy of the lecture in mp3 format. (really apropriate considering the person, and what he talked about)
link to the main page for the workshop: Here
and a link directly to the 64kbps mp3 (other speeds are avaliable on the page)

back in february, the IMA hosted a talk by Bruce Schneier. It was a public lecture, so I was able to put up a copy of the lecture in mp3 format. (really apropriate considering the person, and what he talked about)
link to the main page for the workshop: Here
and a link directly to the 64kbps mp3 (other speeds are avaliable on the page)

I don't know exactly how it will compare in price to other solutions, but it was intended to be low-cost. I used it to get a lecture from a prof when he had to head over to CERN once; we were all entirely too distracted by playing with the cameras, but it worked very well. We didn't use the whiteboard, though, just the "point camera at blackboard" method.

Even better- I poked around a bit, and it looks like they might have an installation over at U of M that you could check out, though it's not clear they're still using it. Good luck. Congrats on the position!

This approach had the same advantages and disadvantages of an "object oriented database". The data was too closely coupled to the applications. Adding a new field or index required modifying and recompiling all the applications and rebuilding the database.

The great advantage of a relational DBMS in a business environment is that it isn't closely coupled to the applications. For long-lived data, this is essential. That's why relational DBMS systems won out over explicitly-linked databases decades ago. They have the flexibility needed for long-term data storage.

Persistent data storage of language objects is an idea that keeps recurring in academia. It can certainly be done, but the long-term operational headaches aren't worth the short-term gain.

A related problem is the storage of data trees in databases. The current buzzword for this is XML databases, but systems for this go back a long way; check out MUMPS. You can store a tree in a relational DBMS by breaking up all the nodes into rows and using serial numbers to tie them together, but retrieval takes a huge number of lookups. You can also store a tree as a BLOB (a binary object that the database system doesn't parse), but then you can't search it. There's no general agreement on how to approach this problem yet, but this, not persistent object storage, is probably the way to go.

The database community learned painfully to separate indexing from structure. In SQL, you can do any search regardless of whether indices exist to make it fast. Indexing is a performance enhancement, and indices can be created later as needed to improve performance, without impacting programs. Any new database system should have that property.

Music scores are generally open - if Mozart had not written his down and shared it we would not only not be able to listen to his works today, but other musicians would have had more difficulty building on what he did.

Pharmaceutical companies publish their work, generally in the form of patents - but other companies can build on those patents.

The full text of flatland is available at

http://www.geom.umn.edu/~banchoff/Flatland/

or

http://www.information-resources.com/Library/libra ry73.html

or

http://www.jollyroger.com/xlibrary/Flatland:ARoman ceAE/Flatland:ARomanceAE1.html

or if you use a TI-89, check this out

http://www.ticalc.org/archives/files/fileinfo/151/ 15174.html

Particular instances where I know personally Smalltalk is used:

Progressive Insurance: Smalltalk is behind a *huge* amount of their operation. I interned there. VisualAge for Smalltalk as client as well as GemStone/Smalltalk (OODBMS in Smalltalk) and IBM DB2 on the backend. Mission critical, enterprise wide, blah blah blah.
Medtronic: You ever heard of Pacemakers? Smalltalk is used to prototype the GUI for the "programmers" (devices which speak with the Pacemakers and other in-your-chest devices to, well, prorgam them). Prototyping in a very complex way- there are medical doctors, psychologists, and human-computer interface experts all over it. The department decided that Smalltalk was the best tool, being dynamic and fluid enough (where as most languages and IDEs are not).

And I get to use it for "real world" (?) plant population and hydrological data analysis and visualization at the NRRI this summer. :)

That all being said, is GIS the future? For the web, I don't think it is. Maybe the distant future. I mean the concept is good. Put in your address, get a map, turn on layers of data to see the things you want to see. But when you actually try doing something like this you find out it is really hard. I work with an organization which has some GIS data. The data is not real clean - getting good clean data with well-built shape files is hard. Most of the data they have is point source data - really ideally suited to having some static maps drawn up. Instead this coming Tuesday I have a meeting with my boss and others because there is a huge push in my company to do a full-blown web/GIS front-end for every bit of data in the house. It's nuts! ...But I tell you, nothing sells to suites better than those dopey zoomable-layered maps. I can show her simple text query forms that return text data and a map at the end all day long, she couldn't care in the least. I tell you what at an ESRI demo her eyes lite right up! She has no concept of the idea we as a company are years and million$ away from having enough good, correct data to do GIS right. Getting good data is very hard. Storing, organizing, moving around, making available to employees, good data is also very hard. GIS chews up megabytes of storage almost as good as video production! :-)

Does the public want some graphic map they have to figure out, click on multiple times and zoom around in just to find out there are three toxic waste dumps within ten miles of their house? Really, I think the public wants a list. A list is easy to understand, it is not critically dependent on having a perfect set of UTMs and perfect GIS data and it doesn't use multi-hundred meg shape files so queries that produce lists seem much faster.

Who knows, maybe someday we will all have really big pipes coming into our houses and thanks to Mr. Moore, servers will be even faster and maybe GIS will be a practical front end to a data heavy web site. I just don't think that time has come yet - and won't for a while.

Mapserver, written by Steve Lime, Minnesota DNR
http://mapserver.gis.umn.edu/

Excellent program!

Also, has anyone else heard about GIF-based encryption systems? Two approaches I have heard include (1) the GIF provides the key for a standard encryption system or (2) the GIF is the key to a masking technique (the message is embedded in the GIF by using a +1/+0 shift in the color bits for the pixels to hide the message in the GIF (sort of an electronic form of invisible ink). This latter was featured on a recent television program as a common technique for use in high schools. For more on this, visit steganography

Disclaimer: the company I work for develops biometric devices and algorithms

Wow, that pretty much describes the class that I'm taking now at the University of Minnesota. How would you differentiate your class from an ordinary history of computing class? I guess you mentioned the `culture' of computing, which might make it different from what I'm taking. Also, my class is dealing a lot with how the government of USA (and occasionally others) funded quite a few important programs..

Anyway, I'm taking a class with Arthur Norberg, and we're using 4 books:

Where Wizards Stay Up Late: The Origins of the Internet by Katie Hafner and Matthew Lyon

Computer: A History of the Information Machine by Martin Campbell-Kelly and William Aspray

The Soul of a New Machine by Tracy Kidder

Transforming Computer Technology: Information Processing for the Pentagon, 1962-1986 by Arthur L. Norberg and Judy E. O'Neill
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I am one of those soon-to-be (ok, well, at least another 2 years) graduates (in IS&T and Biology), and am interested in doing scientific research. I just got offered a undergrad research position at the NRRI analyzing plant population and hydrology data. I see this as my dream job.

As interesting and exciting as this work is, there's a huge difference between acedemic scientific research such as this and the world of business: money. I'm making a little over half of what I would make if I returned to where I interned last summer. My other possibility for this coming summer was to make even more than half of what I'm going to making this summer. I mean, $20/hr is a lot of money to be making in the summer for a college kid, and I am not surprised that many college kids opt for this type of experience (and later job, where the gap can become even larger), being raised to be good capitalist money-grubbers.

So, I suppose I'm saying, if you want to get good CS people for research, start getting them as interns, make them care about what their researching, get them to love it- to those that are worth your time, this would be infinately more important than simply more salary.

I am one of those soon-to-be (ok, well, at least another 2 years) graduates (in IS&T and Biology), and am interested in doing scientific research. I just got offered a undergrad research position at the NRRI analyzing plant population and hydrology data. I see this as my dream job.

As interesting and exciting as this work is, there's a huge difference between acedemic scientific research such as this and the world of business: money. I'm making a little over half of what I would make if I returned to where I interned last summer. My other possibility for this coming summer was to make even more than half of what I'm going to making this summer. I mean, $20/hr is a lot of money to be making in the summer for a college kid, and I am not surprised that many college kids opt for this type of experience (and later job, where the gap can become even larger), being raised to be good capitalist money-grubbers.

So, I suppose I'm saying, if you want to get good CS people for research, start getting them as interns, make them care about what their researching, get them to love it- to those that are worth your time, this would be infinately more important than simply more salary.

I am one of those soon-to-be (ok, well, at least another 2 years) graduates (in IS&T and Biology), and am interested in doing scientific research. I just got offered a undergrad research position at the NRRI analyzing plant population and hydrology data. I see this as my dream job.

As interesting and exciting as this work is, there's a huge difference between acedemic scientific research such as this and the world of business: money. I'm making a little over half of what I would make if I returned to where I interned last summer. My other possibility for this coming summer was to make even more than half of what I'm going to making this summer. I mean, $20/hr is a lot of money to be making in the summer for a college kid, and I am not surprised that many college kids opt for this type of experience (and later job, where the gap can become even larger), being raised to be good capitalist money-grubbers.

So, I suppose I'm saying, if you want to get good CS people for research, start getting them as interns, make them care about what their researching, get them to love it- to those that are worth your time, this would be infinately more important than simply more salary.

I've written a fun little program that encrypts mp3 filenames in a searchable manner. Download it here and avoid being spied on by Copyright.net. I just really don't like these guys.

You may enjoy the license agreement too.

I've written a fun little program that encrypts mp3 filenames in a searchable manner. Download it here and avoid being spied on by Copyright.net. I just really don't like these guys.

You may enjoy the license agreement too.

Well gee, I suppose once you get past the 72-char line limits, the dearth of types, the pathetic flow control, and the complete lack of objects, higher order functions, lazy eval, complex data structures, & everything we've spent 30 years developing ..

Fortran90/95/2000 does not have 72-char line limits, has derived types, pointers, dynamic memory allocation, overloading... most of the stuff you've spent 30 years developing. What it doesn't have is a lot of crap that is unnecessary for scientific programing. Sure, every now and again I wish could have pointers to functions, or inheritance, but rarely. Use the best tool for the job. Modern Fortran is a really great language for scientific applications.

you're left with code that almost no one can or will read.

Almost every single major computational chemistry code is written in a dialect of Fortran: Gaussian, GAMESS, MolPro, MOPAC,... It is the language of most scientific programmers and is excellent at what it does.

Nor can they get compilers. Writing in a flavor past F77?? Cheapest compiler - $1000. Is that what you might call student priced?

That is just not true. And there is a group working on a GPL'd f90 compiler right now. How long did C exisit before gcc was written (before gcc was useful)? How long has C++ been around? How many problems does gcc have with C++ code? How much does a good commercial C++ compiler cost?

Anyway, your magical '10 times faster' FORTRAN skillz don't really help you since you have to work with a team. A team, mind you, who are now all using Matlab, LISP, or Perl-with-C-mods.

A team who also knows Fortran. Or shit, if they don't it is SO easy to learn. Especially if they already know C and/or Perl.

Something useful written in F95

This project has been discussed on /. before, but it deserves to stay on the radar because it is interesting (not just because they use linux, but also because of the distributed computing aspects). Here's the research group's website, and here is an article in the U of MN's CS dept newsletter about the project. I graduated in CS from the U, and I used to give departmental tours of various projects, including this one. Nikos & company are doing some good work here.

This project has been discussed on /. before, but it deserves to stay on the radar because it is interesting (not just because they use linux, but also because of the distributed computing aspects). Here's the research group's website, and here is an article in the U of MN's CS dept newsletter about the project. I graduated in CS from the U, and I used to give departmental tours of various projects, including this one. Nikos & company are doing some good work here.

I've just recently started helping with this research project at the U of MN, and I must say that the little scout robots are pretty damn sweet.

Some other cool things (that you may have read on the various sites, but I thought I'd say them anyway) and notes about them:

• They can jump with the help of a spring 'foot.'
• They each carry a black and white camera to send video to the controlling ranger.
• There's also a scout that has a camera that pops out of the tube and can pan and tilt. Check the Demos Page for videos showing this and other features.
• For testing and demonstration, the scouts can be driven around with a Palm Pilot hooked up to a transmitter.
• A PIC chip is used as the processor for the scout.
• Need to get a scout through a window? No problem. The ranger can shoot scouts through glass (see the end of the first video from the Demos Page.

I've just recently started helping with this research project at the U of MN, and I must say that the little scout robots are pretty damn sweet.

Some other cool things (that you may have read on the various sites, but I thought I'd say them anyway) and notes about them:

• They can jump with the help of a spring 'foot.'
• They each carry a black and white camera to send video to the controlling ranger.
• There's also a scout that has a camera that pops out of the tube and can pan and tilt. Check the Demos Page for videos showing this and other features.
• For testing and demonstration, the scouts can be driven around with a Palm Pilot hooked up to a transmitter.
• A PIC chip is used as the processor for the scout.
• Need to get a scout through a window? No problem. The ranger can shoot scouts through glass (see the end of the first video from the Demos Page.

It looks like Dr. Dobb's is slashdotted already.

There's another movie on Papanikolopoulos's homepage: http://www-users.cs.umn.edu/~npapas

Actually, nope. Antitrust law does not require demonstration that consumers have been harmed. The longstanding principle in antitrust is that it's extremely difficult and intrusive for a court to determine whether consumers have been hurt. As such, it's the actions to monopolize, conspire, etc. which are illegal, not the harming of consumers through those acions. This goes back to price-fixing agreeements such as US v. Trenton Potteries, where the court said price-fixing agreements are illegal regardless of the prices they fix.

As to other issues, Jackson may have been biased an/or acted improperly, but I've still been impressed by his grasp of the case. Microsoft is trying to protect its OS monopoly by preventing an alternative application platform from "commoditizing" the OS, just as Windows has commoditized the hardware. The fear (reasonable or not) was that people would depend more and more on their browsers, and that a browser could run on any operating system.

This can be hard to see because it doesn't match what antitrust folks normally think about when they think "tying" or "predatory pricing" or any of that. But I think Jackson was right-on.

While I was there I noticed that the CERN neutrino beam went right down the main street of the nearby town of St. Genis in France and on into the Jura Mountains. I wonder if the townspeople in St. Genis would feel comfortable knowing they were being irradiated, even if they understood the particles wouldn't interact.

While I was there I noticed that the CERN neutrino beam went right down the main street of the nearby town of St. Genis in France and on into the Jura Mountains. I wonder if the townspeople in St. Genis would feel comfortable knowing they were being irradiated, even if they understood the particles wouldn't interact.

I work for the University of Minnesota computer science department. I'm a part time sysadmin/webmaster. The pay and hours are good, and I've gained valuable experience.

The staff ratio is about 50/50 students to fulltimers. The students handle most of the tech support grunt work and are assigned more in depth jobs as time and ability allows. Recently I've been assigned to do almost entirely web work-- some html writing and a fair amount of CGI scripting.

I think student-run IT departments are a good thing. We get experience, the U gets cheap labor, and everyone ends up happy. The level of professionalism and the relationship between fulltimers and students has been excellent. Most of the staff are former U students, so things work out quite well.

I think I'm extremely lucky to have a job that allows me to support myself, take classes, and build my resume all at the same time. Most of my friends make less than I do for tedious grunt work. CS students today really are spoiled.

Having to create these databases, however, can be a lot of work. Other systems being developed include metal strips implated in the road (used in California, but not in Minnesota because of temperature extremes) and a magnetic striping tape on the lanes.

The truck is being developed by the Intelligent Transportation Systems Institute at the University of Minnesota. Some more information is here.

Having to create these databases, however, can be a lot of work. Other systems being developed include metal strips implated in the road (used in California, but not in Minnesota because of temperature extremes) and a magnetic striping tape on the lanes.

The truck is being developed by the Intelligent Transportation Systems Institute at the University of Minnesota. Some more information is here.

I would then try to browse the source with a hyperbolic web visualization tool, such as Inxight or Webviz from the Geometry Center (RIP). Apparently there are many such visualization tools. Perhaps one will work well with LXR output.

I agree!

I'm in college, and I take all of my notes on my upgraded MessagePad 2000. I also put all of my Biology I notes on-line, because converting them to HTML and uploading them is very easy. Check out http://www.d.umn.edu/~reic0024/notes/. Not something you could do on a Palm (without way to much work), and the HWR is unmatched. While Wince machines have Transcriber, it's correction functions and letter changes are extremely poor compared to thato f the Newton's. Transcriber also doesn't seem as well integrated into Wince as well as the Newton's HWR is into the Newton OS.

One thing the Newton does for me, and that I like a lot: it's close enough to a computer that I can use it to keep me off my computer. I can develop software (I'm working on a genetic programming framework in NewtonScript), design, and other fun stuff without having to be indoors planted in front of a noisey computer.

I'm hoping to see something better come out that's supported, but it's truly dissapointing the sad PDAs that are out now.

Keep the Green!

I am new to programming, so no flames please. Can something like this be ported to Perl? (I am trying to learn it.)

Yes, this can be ported to perl. Anything in C can be written in perl (and vice versa).

C is weakly typed, so I'm not sure what you're getting at here... Strong typing is to save the programmer from himself. I personally do not enjoy programming in languages that remove C's power to make non-sensical casts.

So, I guess what I am really asking is: Is this kind of program only able to be written well in something like C++ or Java?

Absolutely not. This is just an algorithm for calculating Pi. C is nice because it's portable and fast. Check out a functional programming language like Haskell. Selecting a programming language for a particular task involves clearly stating your goals. If I wanted to confuse you, I'd write it in Malbolge or BrainF*ck. If I wanted to calcuate pi quickly (millions of digits), I might write it in C, but I'd also do my homework. If I wanted something from the command line, I'd use:

$perl -e 'for(0..9999){$i=$_*8;$p+=(16**-$_)*(4/($i+1)-2/($ i+4)-1/($i+5)-1/($i+6))}print$p'

It's really a matter of "what gets the job done."

(Besides that I have a feeling that using an object-oriented language (like Visual C++) would reduce the amount of code you would have to write (due to increased code re-use.))

Simple algorithms like this one are fairly atomic. You're foo class isn't going to help you here. You really aren't going to resuse this either. That's what M_PI is for =).

Unfortunately, the 1996 Federal Trademark Dilution Act changed this. Look here for a nice discussion of the deceit theory (IMHO the only legitimate basis for trademark enforcement) and the dilution theory (which allows the sort of ludicrous crap Pillsbury is pulling). Another law bought and paid for by Corporate America.

That price (heh, heh!) being $50,000 USD payable to each author for the source license, plus $5,000 USD payable to each author for deployment of each binary copy of the software.

Tne US government isn't technically allowed to make criminal laws -- that's reserved to the states. The national government is, however, allowed to impose taxes. (another example: when lynchings were treated with a blind eye by the states, (or in the case of the Rodney King beating), the federal charge is violation of civil rights, not murder. It's also why drug sales were originally handled by the Treasury Department.
_________

In any case, I expect that a copyright suit is going to have to be launched at some point, against someone. In this case, I think that the suit could have been launched in the states (against the US sales of the product).

It's also possible (IANAL) that the 'actual damages' could be based on the price charged by the person selling the offending product.
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I'm actually quite surprised that most of the responses to this thread have been an offhanded slight. The Gopher system is a very well designed system. It was a solidly built way to share files without opening your network to the security risks of NFS or ftp. It toted a heirarchical organization of information for network wide distribution. And it originated at the University of Minnesota (um..."gopher"... the University mascot?).

Interesting Links

• Gopher RFC
• UMN's Gopher Info site
• UMN's ftp gopher directory

I'm actually quite surprised that most of the responses to this thread have been an offhanded slight. The Gopher system is a very well designed system. It was a solidly built way to share files without opening your network to the security risks of NFS or ftp. It toted a heirarchical organization of information for network wide distribution. And it originated at the University of Minnesota (um..."gopher"... the University mascot?).

Interesting Links

• Gopher RFC
• UMN's Gopher Info site
• UMN's ftp gopher directory

Quantum Computing is NOT the same thing as Quantum Cryptography even though they are both rumored to involve QM ;->.

Here's an intro on quantum computing for non-physicists...

See the Center for Distributed Robotics website for lots of info, demos, etc. Or read this article from the UMN CS Dept Newsletter featuring this project.

See the Center for Distributed Robotics website for lots of info, demos, etc. Or read this article from the UMN CS Dept Newsletter featuring this project.

See the Center for Distributed Robotics website for lots of info, demos, etc. Or read this article from the UMN CS Dept Newsletter featuring this project.

Wouldn't an ice klein bottle just keep expanding and contracting forever?

Actually, University of Minnesota, Crookston has been doing this since 1993, with quite a bit of success. Being a former student/help desk guy from there, it's great. Check them out at http://www.crk.umn.edu

The University of Minnesota, Crookston claims to be "the first campus in the nation to issue laptop computers to all full-time students" according to this site.

Also, I think Winona State University also requires laptops.

Oh, by the way, mushrooms aren't vegetables. In the three kingdoms, animal, vegetable, mineral, fungi dont fit into any of them (I'm sure someone can explain it better)

"fungus sb. .....In Bot., a cryptogamous plant, characterized by the absence of chlorophyll and deriving its sustenance from dead or living organic matter."

It's all the result of some weird reasoning that we decide to categorise the various parts of plants into being fruit or vegetable

No, it's a culinary convention. 'Fruit' are sweet, or made into sweet dishes, and served for dessert. Hence the stalk of the rhubarb plant being called a fruit, whilst botanical fruit - tomatoes, chili peppers, aubergines/eggplants, mangetout peas and so on - are called 'vegetables.'

It's the same thing as when I see signs in supermarkets which point me to "beers and lagers". Lagers are beers dammit.

Hmm, it's not the same, you are just having a rant. This is fine in itself, but for the record yes lager is a subset of beer. 'Beer' is used on the store's shelves however to distinguish top-fermented (or even lambic) brews from lager (bottom fermented).

It's the same kind of thing where you get goods labelled "Organic". Well, of course it's organic. It has carbon in it doesn't it?

You really don't like words to have more than one meaning do you? In agricultural terms 'organic' means grown with due care and attention to the long-term needs of the soil [we have lost half the world's top soil since 1945, try feeding 6 billion people with no top soil in which to grow their food] and without persistent chemical pesticides. This is widely understood and most nations run certification schemes with which farmers must comply for their food to be labelled as organic.
Where does "the dumbig down of society" fit into this?
- Derwen

What this site needs to become is sort of like a Weather Underground for auroras.

Well, there already are other similar services. The Alaska page already mentioned is a good one. Spaceweather.com is a fairly good site as well. And there are also sites for reporting your own aurora observations. The Auroral Activity Page is for world wide aurora observations, while this page at the University of Minnesota is for the midwest of the U.S. and Canada.

--

These popped up with a trip to Google:

Student's electrial engineering project, includes schematic (scanner + RS232 interface)

And another.

Can't be too hard to do anyway; just need an IR LED, IR phototransistor positioned to pick up the reflections, clean the signal up into digital and stuff it into a computer for processing.

Or the software way, if you've got a decent enough quality webcam, write some image recognition stuff to read the barcode off frame grabs.

I got it as an email. My roommate heard something about it on 9-20 as well (he just mentioned he say some paper or something). I tried digging through ADCS comp. facilities site, and haven't been able to find it, I'm really not too sure where these policies would be found.

http://www.resnet.umn.edu/html/policy.ht ml

This one doesn't explicitly state 'don't use napster' but it does say "no illegal content" which would include downloading mp3s from albums one doesn't own.

Maybe MP3s need a service of collaborative filtering like Movielens and Movie Critic do for films.

After you listen to some tune, you rate it. When the service has enough rating, it will try to match them with everybody else's and find that there is an 80% probability that you would like this other song [link to download].

Of course, it's much harder to do this with songs that with films. There are more, and even with films, after rating more than 100, I don't get totally reliable results (why I do still rate then?)
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