For math papers, OpenOffice works *better* than the MS equivalent, and for many tasks, makes more sense than using Maple or Mathematica.
As another poster noted, you should be using LaTeX for this sort of thing. Maple exports to LaTeX... I expect Mathematica does too, but I haven't got it yet. (It's on order.)
Off the top of my head... besides Feynman, and Hawking, "Hyperspace" by Michio Kaku is a nice one, as are "Flatland" (Abbott) and "Flatterland" (Stewart).
There are papers (albiet old) on the IBM site which show they were able to come within 10% of FORTRAN performance using Java code and a massaged JVM.
IBM's matrix routines (downloadable somewhere) are friggin' fast.
The runtime optimisation also lets you tweak and prune to a greater extent than C/C++ code, although FORTRAN still rules in the code optimisation department. I believe this is because it's a simpler language (and most papers I've read come to this conclusion... C/C++ lose because the compiler can't be as brutal in its optimisation).
For a while there were large advances in C/C++ compilers, but I don't see as much of that any more... not that it would be on my radar necessarily, because I haven't kept up on the reading.
Anyway... Java... eventually. I think it'll get there. Of course I meet with huge resistance from the FORTRAN purists whenever I say that, but that's life. Whatever works for you, I guess. I'd rather write stuff in Java that FORTRAN; FORTRAN drives me up the wall.
That being said, I do most of my stuff in MATLAB these days. That program rocks.
It's my opinion that autopilot for your car is an inevitable development. It will become the only way to keep highways scaling. Adding more lanes to add capacity works to a point, but doesn't work forever. I don't think it's feasable to expect a human to navigate a twenty or thirty lane highway. And the density of traffic which an existing highway can carry is limited by the poor driving ability of humans.
Actually, humans are quite brilliant at driving, in spite of the idiocy you see on the road. And computers are particularly bad at things that we are good at.
You should probably clarify that fuel cells are not a heat engine, so the thermodynamics apply on a reaction level, not on the cycle. In other words, they can be more efficient than the Carnot cycle theoretical maximum that we're acquainted with.
I watch the thrashing that goes on on kde-artist everytime somebody makes an icon that looks similar to OSX (normally) or Windows.
The "home" icon in Gnome takes liberties on OSX, as does the terminal, and the process viewer. Hell, one of the screenshots features a straight rip-off of the OSX "Internet" globe.
Yes, agreed. It would be interesting to have a cooling system completely powered by humans and mechanical energy. I see problems with that, but I'm sure that there might be ways to work around it. Maybe we could pump water to pull the fan? I hate to see this turn really complex.
The main problem being that humans generate heat while doing work...
On a slightly unrelated note, I wonder how many kilowatt hours a single "average" male could generate in a 8 hour work day with the most efficient mechanical system.
Less than 1.6kwh. Not very impressive, is it? We can generate around 200W when we're going at a good (and sustainable) clip. Unfortunately we can't run at that level for 8 hours straight... closer to two hours.
Assume a worst-case scenario: would you want the software (some of it critical) on your machine to expire if we end up living in a law-induced dark age?
Personally, I want my 60MHz Pentium server to run for as long as *I* want it to... not as long as some third party (whether that be a hardware developer, a software developer, or the government) wants it to run.
Of course the nice thing about OSS is that you'd be able to remove the code that expired it.
Does anybody know of a gallery (or two) with high-quality (i.e., impressive looking) Blender renders?
Every Blender render I've ever seen looks plastic, and the meshes I've seen look simple, compared to output from other programs.
I don't mean to dump on it (I've played with it a little myself, and found the modeller layout quite innovative) but I am/was able to get better images out of other programs.
Every decent 3D program has at least one Picasso user who's head and shoulders above the rest of the crowd... where's Blender's?
My BSME Thesis project was a city transit bus fuel economy study, so I think I know what I'm talking about. Big diesel engines are the most fuel efficient engines on the road (best power to fuel consumption ratio). Yes, of course big engines spew more pollution than small ones, but what you're not taking into account is the pollution per person. There's a reason why 40 people can fit on a bus.
Did you study pollution or just fuel efficiency?
Our Environmental Engineering Department (Carleton University) did a study here in downtown Ottawa, and buses made a disproportionate contribution to the total amount of hazardous emissions.
Another thing to remember is that electric motors make their maximum torque at 0rpm. So you can get fast acceleration times (assuming your wiring can take it) by just unloading your batteries.
No "perhaps" about it. All of the companies you list are Carbonizing their apps (or possibly rewriting them in Cocoa). Though I've never heard of Kinetix. Perhaps you mean Connectix?
You've heard of 3DS Max, right? That's Kinetix/Discreet, a division of Autodesk.
Slashdot Mirror
That doesn't mean they aren't flying beforehand.
MJC
As another poster noted, you should be using LaTeX for this sort of thing. Maple exports to LaTeX... I expect Mathematica does too, but I haven't got it yet. (It's on order.)
MJC
(Remembered another one.)
"The Universe and Dr. Einstein" if you can find it.
MJC
Off the top of my head... besides Feynman, and Hawking, "Hyperspace" by Michio Kaku is a nice one, as are "Flatland" (Abbott) and "Flatterland" (Stewart).
MJC
There are quite a few people working on polishing up Java for numerical work.
A couple of links would be IBM's NINJA, the Java Numerics page and Java Grande.
There are papers (albiet old) on the IBM site which show they were able to come within 10% of FORTRAN performance using Java code and a massaged JVM.
IBM's matrix routines (downloadable somewhere) are friggin' fast.
The runtime optimisation also lets you tweak and prune to a greater extent than C/C++ code, although FORTRAN still rules in the code optimisation department. I believe this is because it's a simpler language (and most papers I've read come to this conclusion... C/C++ lose because the compiler can't be as brutal in its optimisation).
For a while there were large advances in C/C++ compilers, but I don't see as much of that any more... not that it would be on my radar necessarily, because I haven't kept up on the reading.
Anyway... Java... eventually. I think it'll get there. Of course I meet with huge resistance from the FORTRAN purists whenever I say that, but that's life. Whatever works for you, I guess. I'd rather write stuff in Java that FORTRAN; FORTRAN drives me up the wall.
That being said, I do most of my stuff in MATLAB these days. That program rocks.
MJC
Actually, humans are quite brilliant at driving, in spite of the idiocy you see on the road. And computers are particularly bad at things that we are good at.
MJC.
He was selling pirated games too, for something like $10 a pop.
Maybe the mod chip I can see, but "gee I didn't know hit was illegal to burn that disc." Yeah, right.
MJC
You should probably clarify that fuel cells are not a heat engine, so the thermodynamics apply on a reaction level, not on the cycle. In other words, they can be more efficient than the Carnot cycle theoretical maximum that we're acquainted with.
MJC.
I watch the thrashing that goes on on kde-artist everytime somebody makes an icon that looks similar to OSX (normally) or Windows.
The "home" icon in Gnome takes liberties on OSX, as does the terminal, and the process viewer. Hell, one of the screenshots features a straight rip-off of the OSX "Internet" globe.
I'm a little puzzled.
MJC
Yes, agreed. It would be interesting to have a cooling system completely powered by humans and mechanical energy. I see problems with that, but I'm sure that there might be ways to work around it. Maybe we could pump water to pull the fan? I hate to see this turn really complex.
The main problem being that humans generate heat while doing work...
On a slightly unrelated note, I wonder how many kilowatt hours a single "average" male could generate in a 8 hour work day with the most efficient mechanical system.
Less than 1.6kwh. Not very impressive, is it? We can generate around 200W when we're going at a good (and sustainable) clip. Unfortunately we can't run at that level for 8 hours straight... closer to two hours.
MJC.
Assume a worst-case scenario: would you want the software (some of it critical) on your machine to expire if we end up living in a law-induced dark age?
Personally, I want my 60MHz Pentium server to run for as long as *I* want it to... not as long as some third party (whether that be a hardware developer, a software developer, or the government) wants it to run.
Of course the nice thing about OSS is that you'd be able to remove the code that expired it.
MJC.
Does anybody know of a gallery (or two) with high-quality (i.e., impressive looking) Blender renders?
Every Blender render I've ever seen looks plastic, and the meshes I've seen look simple, compared to output from other programs.
I don't mean to dump on it (I've played with it a little myself, and found the modeller layout quite innovative) but I am/was able to get better images out of other programs.
Every decent 3D program has at least one Picasso user who's head and shoulders above the rest of the crowd... where's Blender's?
MJC.
You can't have a lab (staffed by humans) in geosync without some sort of shielding.
The ISS is inside Earth's magnetosphere, so it's largely protected from the nasty particles the Sun, etc., heave at us.
MJC
Did you study pollution or just fuel efficiency?
Our Environmental Engineering Department (Carleton University) did a study here in downtown Ottawa, and buses made a disproportionate contribution to the total amount of hazardous emissions.
You're saying we don't know how to tune motors? :)
--MJC.
--MJC.
So is that one web page for every known bug?
MJC.
You've heard of 3DS Max, right? That's Kinetix/Discreet, a division of Autodesk.
Have you looked at Object Desktop? It's very good. http://www.stardock.com