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Only for Windows. Porters can grab the win32 source and try their luck and hope it isn't win32'd to death, but pfeh.

http://www.cs.wisc.edu/graphics/Gallery/NPRQuake/i WantIt.html

TomatoMan

sketch render

blueprint render.

all MUCH BETTER then the ASCII renderer

sketch render

blueprint render.

all MUCH BETTER then the ASCII renderer

The current incarnation has several improved renderers and works non-invasively. In Other Words, one can play Quake 3, as well as many other GL games/applications (works with A|W's Maya), with pencil sketches, blueprints, depth-cued wireframe, etc. etc.

It's really great work, Alex presented it at the I3D conference this year. It isn't being released to the public at this point, but for more information, including pictures and a video, look here when the slashdotting dies down: http://www.cs.wisc.edu/graphics/Gallery/Stylized/

For example, I live in Michigan, and we've been having huge problems with the introduction of zebra mussels into the Great Lakes ecosystem. The zebra mussels came in as passengers on ships coming in through the St. Lawrence Seaway. The zebra mussels are not the only problem either -- this quote from The Wisconsin Sea Grant website gives some examples:

While the zebra mussel invasion and its immense impact on the Great Lakes ecosystem has focused attention on the issue, the introduction of nonindigenous (exotic) species is not a new problem. An estimated 130 nonindigenous species have been introduced to the Great Lakes, most of them arriving since the St. Lawrence Seaway opened in 1959. Several of these species -- including the sea lamprey, alewife, smelt, carp and milfoil -- have contributed to massive changes in Great Lakes fish and plant communities.

I'm sure that nobody thought that there would be this much ecological impacts from opening a passageway for transportation into the Great Lakes.

I'm not saying that GM salmon are a non-native species exactly, or that the problems we may see will be the same as when non-native species are introduced into an ecosystem (check out www.invasivespecies.gov to see what other problems that has caused). I'm just saying that we've already seen unexpected problems that occur from playing with the environment, and in most cases, we end up with serious problems.

Just because the FDA hasn't found any problems with this yet doesn't mean it's safe. Genetic engineering is a fairly new science, and I don't believe that we've seen all the possible consequences that may come from it yet. I really think we need to spend more time studying the environment and possible interactions before we do anything which can't be undone.

Quite the contrary. If a person ignores prior art or worse - neglecting to mention it or denying its existence - the entire patent can be held invalid. Check out the last paragraph under the section "Prior Art and Barring Events" on this page.

These patently absurd (pun intended) patent grabs are nothing more than people trying to take advantage of the current chaos at the Patent and Trademark Office. Once again we see our tax dollars NOT at work.

That said, you have to start somewhere. And if it can be shown that those who are cryopreserved have a decent chance of good recovery, then I think offering cryonic suspension/recovery services will be a very lucrative business. After all, if it works, cryonics will vastly increase the one resource that's strictly limited for everyone, no matter how wealthy they are--time. How much would you pay for an extra 100 years of healthy life?

With such large amounts of money involved, it seems to me that cryonics organizations will have a strong incentive to come up with mechanisms for ensuring successful (very) long term care and recovery of their patients.

I saw a presentation by Stephen Valentine on the TimeShip idea. The $180 million price tag is the expected price for the final completed project. Although it is not mentioned in the article, the TimeShip is designed to be modular. Initially, the Timeship will be much smaller than its final dimensions--only the core services will be constructed (research facility, one storage module). As demand increases, more modules can be added until eventually it reaches its final dimensions.

However, in my opinion, cryonics will remain a small, financially precarious community of true believers until it has been demonstrated to work. It's going to take a lot of research to demonstrate that it will work.

Therefore, if you're interested in helping cryonics succeed (even if you're skeptical of the TimeShip project) here are some suggestions:

• Learn more about the practice of cryonics. You can find links to most of the available online information from the Cryonet home page.
• Donate money to the Life Extension Foundation (LEF), with the proviso that it be earmarked for cryonics research. Saul Kent is also the co-founder of the LEF.
• Join Alcor or the Cryonics Institute or the American Cryonics Society. All of these organizations are small, and a single activist can have a big influence. Help raise funds for scientific research.
• Write a polite letter to the president of the Society for Cryobiology, urging him to strike the blanket ban, barring individuals who support cryonics from membership in the society. (See Section 2.04 from their bylaws.

That said, you have to start somewhere. And if it can be shown that those who are cryopreserved have a decent chance of good recovery, then I think offering cryonic suspension/recovery services will be a very lucrative business. After all, if it works, cryonics will vastly increase the one resource that's strictly limited for everyone, no matter how wealthy they are--time. How much would you pay for an extra 100 years of healthy life?

With such large amounts of money involved, it seems to me that cryonics organizations will have a strong incentive to come up with mechanisms for ensuring successful (very) long term care and recovery of their patients.

I saw a presentation by Stephen Valentine on the TimeShip idea. The $180 million price tag is the expected price for the final completed project. Although it is not mentioned in the article, the TimeShip is designed to be modular. Initially, the Timeship will be much smaller than its final dimensions--only the core services will be constructed (research facility, one storage module). As demand increases, more modules can be added until eventually it reaches its final dimensions.

However, in my opinion, cryonics will remain a small, financially precarious community of true believers until it has been demonstrated to work. It's going to take a lot of research to demonstrate that it will work.

Therefore, if you're interested in helping cryonics succeed (even if you're skeptical of the TimeShip project) here are some suggestions:

• Learn more about the practice of cryonics. You can find links to most of the available online information from the Cryonet home page.
• Donate money to the Life Extension Foundation (LEF), with the proviso that it be earmarked for cryonics research. Saul Kent is also the co-founder of the LEF.
• Join Alcor or the Cryonics Institute or the American Cryonics Society. All of these organizations are small, and a single activist can have a big influence. Help raise funds for scientific research.
• Write a polite letter to the president of the Society for Cryobiology, urging him to strike the blanket ban, barring individuals who support cryonics from membership in the society. (See Section 2.04 from their bylaws.

That said, you have to start somewhere. And if it can be shown that those who are cryopreserved have a decent chance of good recovery, then I think offering cryonic suspension/recovery services will be a very lucrative business. After all, if it works, cryonics will vastly increase the one resource that's strictly limited for everyone, no matter how wealthy they are--time. How much would you pay for an extra 100 years of healthy life?

With such large amounts of money involved, it seems to me that cryonics organizations will have a strong incentive to come up with mechanisms for ensuring successful (very) long term care and recovery of their patients.

I saw a presentation by Stephen Valentine on the TimeShip idea. The $180 million price tag is the expected price for the final completed project. Although it is not mentioned in the article, the TimeShip is designed to be modular. Initially, the Timeship will be much smaller than its final dimensions--only the core services will be constructed (research facility, one storage module). As demand increases, more modules can be added until eventually it reaches its final dimensions.

However, in my opinion, cryonics will remain a small, financially precarious community of true believers until it has been demonstrated to work. It's going to take a lot of research to demonstrate that it will work.

Therefore, if you're interested in helping cryonics succeed (even if you're skeptical of the TimeShip project) here are some suggestions:

• Learn more about the practice of cryonics. You can find links to most of the available online information from the Cryonet home page.
• Donate money to the Life Extension Foundation (LEF), with the proviso that it be earmarked for cryonics research. Saul Kent is also the co-founder of the LEF.
• Join Alcor or the Cryonics Institute or the American Cryonics Society. All of these organizations are small, and a single activist can have a big influence. Help raise funds for scientific research.
• Write a polite letter to the president of the Society for Cryobiology, urging him to strike the blanket ban, barring individuals who support cryonics from membership in the society. (See Section 2.04 from their bylaws.

This is useable and sensible. I can see this.

[inserting tongue in cheek]

But we might not need to worry because of all of the other disasters that are proposed to be happening between now then then, including the end of the Maya Epoch (get your Mayan Date TShirt here, and the destruction of civilization by asteroids in 2028 (orbit info here, Seattle Times disinfo here, commentary here)

And, with the crashomatic feature in MS OS software, the world will come to an end well before that when the MS .NET system gets hit with a succesful .NET virus that wipes out lots of data from the hard drives. Of course, it will be a MS email virus, that scans the network for vulnerable files.

Check out the Vinny the Vampire comic strip

While I am not conviced that this type of interface will make computer apps in general more accessible, gesture recognition has been put to great use in making accessible kiosks and ATMs. When you encounter an accessibly designed ATM, tracing a line diagonally accross the screen will activate speech synthesis mode.

So, while gestures are a powerful paradigm for interfaces, careful thought must go into how and when they are implemented. If done correctly, they can be used to make apps much more accessible.

here's another interesting device to help the blind "see".
--

Hey - don't forget that other open source Java-based visualization system VisAD: http://www.ssec.wisc.edu/~billh/visad.html
This one is more raster-based (e.g. topo and satellite data) rather than vector-based. But nonetheless, quite impressive software.

Salieri writes, "Ever notice how it's sometimes very difficult to tell which is the real or relevant link in the article write-up? Perhaps the editors can distinguish where the main attraction is." He then clicks preview to make sure the links work.

--------------------------------

Apparently the symptoms hit so fast at the end of the infection that there isn't time for antibiotics to do the job; the toxins generated by the bacteria aren't destroyed by the medication, and the toxins create the majority of the symptoms. For more information, check this page (Google is your friend).
--
spam spam spam spam spam spam
No one expects the Spammish Repetition!

I believe the detectors were made in Stoughton, Wisconsin at the Physical Science Labratory of the University of Wisconsin. I used to see them being built while I worked at the facility next door (the Synchrotron Radiation Center)

(Actually, in addition to high-altitude contrails are an indicator of not spraying the Earth, any concerted contrail activity would be visible in satellite photos and impossible to hide.)

Now, with an arc welder and a two sticks of graphite, you too can create buckyballs!

Isolating them is an entirely other beast, though.

but "flux penetration" is very much a real term.

This is a very important concept in superconducters. As the flux (magnetic field) penetration increases, the resistance of the superconducter increases in a roughly ohmic nature. Superconductors "pin" flux in vortices in order to prevent this resistance, which leads to dissapitave loss. For movies of this go here, and for images of the Z component of flux in High Tc superconductors, go where I worked before I entered the private sector.

Please, do your research, I've actually done mine.

I've considered porting the whole lot to mozilla, and probably will someday. I'd like to be able to take advantage of Mozilla's parser to do the filtering. Right now the HTML has to be parsed twice; once for the proxy, and once for the browser.

--Bob

Yeah! And when the virus hits your system it waits for a few days, then hits you with an EULA that you have to agree to or it formats your system.

On this EULA will be the stipulation that you agree to pay me (Mr. Flibble) $20.00 for the continued use of my virus and its "protection" of your hard drive and information.

It's a good thing that there is no prior art for viruses because that would eat into my cash flow.

Don't worry though, I plan to publish this wonderful program for all operating systems, I would open source it too you know, but I don't want to damage my revenue stream.

Besides, it will be there to "protect" your system right? We all know that security by obscurity is the best security!

If you're around Mad City, WI from May 6th-9th there is this conference being held on IP. I originally saw it on the OpenLaw DVD mailing list and after looking over the speaker list thought about staking out some pavement and protest^H^H^H^H^H^H^Hvoicing my opinion. I probably won't be able to make it (my son will just be over a month old then :) but I do encourage anybody who can make it to go and let your views be known.

If you're around Mad City, WI from May 6th-9th there is this conference being held on IP. I originally saw it on the OpenLaw DVD mailing list and after looking over the speaker list thought about staking out some pavement and protest^H^H^H^H^H^H^Hvoicing my opinion. I probably won't be able to make it (my son will just be over a month old then :) but I do encourage anybody who can make it to go and let your views be known.

The sources are downloadable. GNU GhostScript is a GPL'ed version. There's also Aladdin GhostScript which is free for non-commercial use and a commercial version. Take a look here: http://www.cs.wisc.edu/~ghost/

http://www.upl.cs.wisc.edu/~craft/bar/section9.htm l a page of non zero sum games.

Batch systems have been around a long time in the HPC world. Gridware was orginally developed by GENIAS Software GmbH. GENIAS produced a batch scheduler called Codine, which was a commercial version of DQS. In fact, Sun's Grid Engine FAQ even states that Sun Grid Engine is a new name for CODINE.

Of course, DQS/Codine/Grid isn't the only batch-scheduling/cycle-scavenging game around. Other players are:

• Condor
• openPBS and it's commercial version PBS Pro
• Load Leveler (which IIRC is IBM's commercial implementation derived from Condor)
• LSF which is the product Sun was previously co-marketing until they purchased Gridware (probably because of the high per CPU cost of LSF).
• and lots of others that I've forgotten, many based on the once-common NQS/NQE batch system.
• There are also systems like Legion that represent a sort of ``next step'' computing enviroment.

Many of these predate newcomers like SETI@home and Mosix by serveral years. Most also provide hooks into parallel computing APIs like MPI, PVM, openMP, or something similar.

Batch scheduling and cycle-scavening are old concepts. Having wasted away my years as a graduate student submitting large quantum chem jobs to Crays, it's nice to see lots of groups continuing to squeeze every useful cycle out of existing hardware. Sun's recent annoucements are just the latest update to an old product---not a new idea, and not a Mosix/SETI rip-off.

FYI - Condor supports all of the platforms that you mention in your post. I don't know how useful it will be in your particular situation, though.

I guess this is news... maybe not, though since the Condor Project has been available for a whole lot of platforms for quite some time now. (Yes, Linux is supported.)

I guess this is news... maybe not, though since the Condor Project has been available for a whole lot of platforms for quite some time now. (Yes, Linux is supported.)

It sounds in concept like condor being developed by the CS department at UW-Wisconsin Madison, unfortunately the condor folks aren't letting their source code out except for special special cases, and then you have to beg them for it.

It is very easy for each machine-owner to restrict or preference which jobs will run on his machine, for each job to preference certain machine attributes, and also for the queueing system to fairly distribute net CPU time across all active users of the system. All of this works using a very simple C-like language in which you express you desires.

I have used an NFS capable variation of /s from the UW Madison CS department.

At one of my sites I setup A set of tools not unlike stow and graft that would build sets of software for anyone to use. The set of tools would automaticly reconfigure users enviroment like encap (can't remeber were that is from). It would however do it in the filesystem so that you could appropreately control the revisions or toolset that a scritpt was coded to use. A.K.A. #!/home/gulfie/u/project_uts/bin/perl -w

It is not a packaging system as such, it is more of a software installation system, but a packaging system on top of this would be almost trivial... I like trivial it is more likly to be gotten correct.

The top 15 energy producing States in the U.S. produce more carbon emission than the entire country of Russia

Southern U.S. States emit more carbon emissions than China

If six Northern States (Indiana, Pennsylvania, Ohio, Illinois, New York, Michigan) were an independent Country, it would be the 3rd largest carbon contributor in the world, just behind Russia and China
(source).
and still two countries between them and India: Japan and Germany.

Try out the demo here.

Main features are:

e-mail notification

problems entered by users or reps

users can view the problem status and add additional information

searchable problem database

usage reporting

comment forms

Try http://mirror.sit.wisc.edu/pub/linux/kernel/v2.4/ instead of the www.sit.wisc.edu. Also damn fast, if you're attached to Internet2.

I assume this is available to the outside world as well...

ftp://mirror.sit.wisc.edu/pub/linux/kernel/v2.4/
http://mirror.sit.wisc.edu/pub/linux/kernel/v2.4/

I assume this is available to the outside world as well...

ftp://mirror.sit.wisc.edu/pub/linux/kernel/v2.4/
http://mirror.sit.wisc.edu/pub/linux/kernel/v2.4/

Not curable yet, and currently there is an outbreak of Ebola in Uganda which has taken 162 lives so far (with 421 cases). And, unfortunately, the outbreaks occur primarily in the poorer areas of the world, where the populace cannot afford the cost of immunization. We are not likely to see a significant drop in the occurances of hemmorhagic fevers anytime soon.

BTW, you're absolutely right that SciAm is a great site (and magazine).

I thought it was pretty clear that I was being tongue-in-cheek. I work for a research group whose principal product is over 500,000 lines of C++ code on ten platforms. My code compiles flawlessly with "-Wall -pedantic". I don't think there's an issue of "chops" here.

Try FilterProxy...it does exactly what you describe, in perl.

There is an Undergraduate Projects Lab at UW-Madison that is very similar. We are at http://www.upl.cs.wisc.edu.

The original (sparc solaris) port has been going on for over four years now, with several graduate students working on it. There is an i386 linux port in progress, but I don't know if it's generally available yet. I'd suggest reading the papers (the above link), as there are a lot of fascinating "gotchas" and the ways that these were dealt with are quite clever. (For example: how do you atomically insert a sequence of two instructions into a process that you can't stop?)

In any event, the papers are good reading, and will be very useful to your research. (BTW, the student who started this project is finishing his PhD this winter and has a "killer job" waiting for him. :-) )


~wog
My views are my own and do not reflect those of my university or research group.

The NT paper in HTML or PDF

The 1995 "fuzz-revisited" paper in PDF

The original 1990 paper PDF


cheers,
~wog

The NT paper in HTML or PDF

The 1995 "fuzz-revisited" paper in PDF

The original 1990 paper PDF


cheers,
~wog

The NT paper in HTML or PDF

The 1995 "fuzz-revisited" paper in PDF

The original 1990 paper PDF


cheers,
~wog

The NT paper in HTML or PDF

The 1995 "fuzz-revisited" paper in PDF

The original 1990 paper PDF


cheers,
~wog

The NT paper in HTML or PDF

The 1995 "fuzz-revisited" paper in PDF

The original 1990 paper PDF


cheers,
~wog

Point taken -- there is a mention on the project web site, but it's not exactly prominent, to put it mildly. That will have to be corrected.

We ran a nice display ad (US$350 with the University's discount) in the local sunday newspaper a few weeks back, and got just one (1) response. The problem is in part that we can't start someone at $85K/year, but a greater difficulty may actually be just reaching people at all.

The SWEng community who were refereeing it wanted to see more stuff about testing methodology, whereas the fuzz tests are incredibly simpleminded in their approach and don't fit in to any of the accepted "testing paradigms". That's not to the tests' discredit at all, though, as what they exposed (the incredible fragility of many common C programs) is absolutely amazing.

I went to a talk that Prof. Miller gave on fuzz about a month ago, discussing the 2000 NT results. I'd personally be really interested to see where the blame for this lack of robustness lies: the applications, the MFC, or the Win32 API. Unfortunately, there's really no way to do that with such simple testing tools.

You can see Prof. Miller's fuzz page here. Bart Miller is a great professor and researcher; as an aside, you should really check out the Paradyn project (which is sadly slightly less well-known than fuzz outside of the scientific computing communities) and its child, the dyninst API; the purpose of these projects is to allow alteration and instrumentation of stock binaries.


~wog
My opinions are my own and not those of the research group or the university that I am affiliated with.

The SWEng community who were refereeing it wanted to see more stuff about testing methodology, whereas the fuzz tests are incredibly simpleminded in their approach and don't fit in to any of the accepted "testing paradigms". That's not to the tests' discredit at all, though, as what they exposed (the incredible fragility of many common C programs) is absolutely amazing.

I went to a talk that Prof. Miller gave on fuzz about a month ago, discussing the 2000 NT results. I'd personally be really interested to see where the blame for this lack of robustness lies: the applications, the MFC, or the Win32 API. Unfortunately, there's really no way to do that with such simple testing tools.

You can see Prof. Miller's fuzz page here. Bart Miller is a great professor and researcher; as an aside, you should really check out the Paradyn project (which is sadly slightly less well-known than fuzz outside of the scientific computing communities) and its child, the dyninst API; the purpose of these projects is to allow alteration and instrumentation of stock binaries.


~wog
My opinions are my own and not those of the research group or the university that I am affiliated with.