Second Life does all the physics using the Havoc engine on the servers. I can see where using a dedicated hardware-based physics engine could improve Second Life server performance.
Clint Kelly, of SAIC, gave a talk at The Krasnow Institutde recently in which he summarized their entry's results. (SAIC was one of CMU's corporate partners.) The gimbal stablized range finder and the stereo-vision system were unavailable for the Challenge due to an "overly-exuberant student" crashing their vehicle by speeding several days prior to contest. This was likely the major cause of their loss.
Clint also mentioned that there were a large number of power lines along the course that could have interfered with the onboard GPS. The robot depended very strongly on GPS. They had hand coded many new way points between the DARPA supplied way points to reduce dependency on sensor s. (A tack they deemed necessary due to aforemention damage.) Also, the rocky terrain may have unduly interfered with GPS signals.
The Red Team's bot had been successfully trialed on similar terrain -- some of the trials were significantly similar to the Challenge's course.
Hopefully next year the Red Team will keep those "exuberant students" away, and they can get a fully functional machine to the starting line.
Your understanding seems to be that a free press means that the government should tightly control what the press says so that things like the Dixie Chicks debacle don't happen again.
Incorrect. I do not feel that the government should control what the press, or anyone else, says. The Bill of Rights forbids the government from controlling what anyone says. The Bill of Rights defines what the government cannot do.
I am concerned that, whereas the Federal government is so constrained, a media monopoly is not. It can effectively quell language at its whim. Were a particular media outlet one of many, that would be fine; however it's not fine if it's the only game in town. We are already seeing such effects in that we have to go to sources abroad to get information that's simply not reported here in the United States even if it's information directly related to our country. Moreover the hard lesson artists have learned from the Dixie Chicks is that you'd better not dissent from the prevailing view of ClearChannel or other media moguls, or risk returning to obscurity as your works are pulled from exposure.
Since ClearChannel owns most of the radio stations we listen to, they have undue influence in the music and news we hear over that medium. The former has undergone acute homogonization and with the recent Dixie Chicks debacle, politicization. If they don't like what you say, you don't get airplay. This is particularly worrisome as a democracy relies on freedom of expression, and of particular, the press. Witness that most of the salient and quality news regarding the United States' most recent overseas misadventure is from non-US news outlets; this may not have been so prevalent were there more independent domestic news organizations. It is imperative that a public in a free society be as best informed as possible. Too much media consolidation is at odds with that principle.
I echo that. I've been using Boost extensively for years; in fact, I'm using more of it over time. (Partly because they keep adding relevant goodies.)
I note that a significant number of the ISO C++ committee have been activie Boost participants from day one. In fact, IIRC, they started Boost because they had ideas that didn't make it in time for the final ISO C++ ratification.
In any case, much of Boost has been exercised and refined over the years and is very suitable for inclusion in the final specification. Better yet, most compilers won't have to change anything except header files to be compliant with such a specification change.
Effective C++, More Effective C++, and Design Patterns should be mandatory reading for C++ programmers. (The last is just a good general object-oriented design text, so it's obviously not constrained to C++ hackers.) Those books give knowledge critical for C++ proficiency. Yes, that knowledge can be learned from other books, classes, or from being self-taught. However, those books provide standard points of reference that veteran C++ programmers can use to evaluate other C++ programmers and projects. Though ignorance of them doesn't necessarily make for a bad C++ programmer, but instead significantly increases that probability. (Just like observing a programmer using Wordperfect to write code probably means that programmer sucks. And, yes, that's a True Story (tm). He'd write code in Weirdperfect, save it, shell out to DOS, convert the code to ASCII, and then hand-type the 100+ character command line to compile the code. Introducing text editors and make files shouldn't be a road to apotheosis.:P )
It's not "coding by celebrity," but "coding by generally accepted good programming practices." (And, um, not in the sense of Arthur Anderson's interpretation of "generally accepted good accounting practices".) The names associated with seminal books on these practices are just eponymous -- again, they're just used as references by the experienced.
OGRE is an OpenGL (and alternatively DirectX) scenegraph library that's still in development, but may already provide useful functionality. Think of this as a next generation SGI Open Inventor. I've used Open Inventor and have recently switched to OGRE since OI shows it's pre-ISO C++ standard roots. (And pre-Scott Meyers. And pre-Gang of Four Design Patterns.)
You can try modafinil yourself
on
Got Sleep?
·
· Score: 2, Informative
After pursuing many of the links mentioned in the comments sections for legacy 3D communities, I was disappointed to discover that almost all of them only worked on Windows. Aren't there any cool Linux accessible 3D communities?
No, you're not a troll, and I agree with you vehemetly. I'm on the East Coast, but regularly time shift "X Files" to watch it later sans commercials. Of course now, thanks to/. administrative MORONS the major plot point has been given away.
I know about Rand-McNally because the USGS's head was up on the chopping block years ago like all the other agencies. One senator quipped, "Why not privitize what they do? All they do is print maps anyway." To which the Rand-McNally lobbyist replied, "Yes, but where do you think we get all the data for our maps?"
This, of course, is very paraphrased and second hand anecdotal, but still kinda funny.
Likely, Rand-McNally and other map printers use the digital spatial data that the USGS provides. And not just topological data, but data of hydrography, political boundaries, transportation networks, etc.
Wow. I didn't know that the Survey was using DGs as far back as then.
ICYC, the Survey surplused the last of their DGs this year. I've still got my old DG workstation I had used since '93 languishing under my desk awaiting shipment back to Rolla. It has dual 33MHz Motorola CPUs; my how we've come a long way since then.
[...] Thousands of USGS employees have lost access to important web sites like the National Weather Service.
Actually, thousands of USGS employees have lost contact with each other. The USGS has several locations throughout the country. Its headquarters are in Reston, Virginia, and it has mapping centers in Missouri, Colorado, California, and Alaska as well as various field offices and research stations. (Some are in Antarctica!) Worse yet, many of the mapping centers have taken on specific tasks. For example, map production is managed by the Mid-Continent Mapping Center (MCMC) in Rolla, Missouri. (I think. With all the re-organization perpetually going on, I'm not completely certain as to who's doing what these days.) MCMC obviously has to do some coordination with the National Mapping Division, which is back in Reston at HQ; except now the net is down, which hampers communication.
I'm sympathetic to the Indians. That accounting system has never been fully functional. And a lot of suspicious things, like fires that have destroyed records, have occured over the years to the Indian Trust. I'm heartended to see some positive progress behing made on correcting that horrible situation. The Indians already have it bad enough without this debacle making their plight worse.
However, the judge has done more harm than good by shutting the entire Interior's network access. As you pointed out, the USGS makes available the largest and most comprehensive repositories of geospatial data in the nation, and perhaps the world. Much of this data is free. And many universities, government organizations, and companies use that data; e.g., where do you think Rand-McNally gets its data to make maps?
Though I'm not as familiar with the other DOI departments and bureaus, I know that they, too, provide valuable public services that a number of people need to do their jobs.
Another angle is the impact on DOI employees. I can tell you I witnessed a number of people standing around the halls looking mystified at the USGS' headquarters in Reston this afternoon. We all depend on network access in some capacity to get our work done. In my case, it's crucial as I work with folks at the Mid-Continent Mapping Center in Rolla, Missouri. I was logged into one of their suns debugging some errant code when the plug was pulled. Most aggrivating.
(Initially I had thought that the network was down because of the Goner virus since the USGS has a history of shutting its network down when the system gets swamped by propogating virii and worms.)
The stuff that made the Hindenburg burst into flames.
Actually, it was the powdered aluminum in Hindenburgs's paint and a grounding failure that caused its demise. The hydrogen venting system worked as designed.
Powdered aluminum, by the way, is an ingredient in the Shuttle's solid rocket boosters.
Another technique is to co-evolve "parasites". First the sort programs converge on a solution and they all start to look alike. Then the parasites home in on the sorting programs. The sort programs start to diversify to escape the parasites. The "fleeing" sort programs explore for different algorithms to use.
You seem to be confusing evolutionary game theory with evolutionary algorithms.
Co-evolutionary algorithms can be cooperative or competitive (or maybe even some combination of the two). Danny Hillis, of Thinking Machines fame, developed a competitive co-evolutionary system that plied a system evolving sorting networks against systems that evolved difficult datasets. This system produced significantly better sorting networks than an evolutionary algorithm that just evolved sorting networks. Mitch Potter's doctoral thesis is on
co-operative evolution, and makes for possibly good introductory reading.
The notion of "fleeing parasitic programs" is, as far as I know, a fantasy.
Genetic algorithms produce results faster without mutations.
That is untrue. Solution space exploration would be critically curtailed with
no mutation. In fact, plain vanilla evolutionary strategies employ only mutation for solving problems.
Slashdot Mirror
SAIC is a Fortune 500 company with around 50,000 employees and is privately owned. All shares are employee owned.
Or, by "open" do you mean that shares transactions be done in a transparent manner? "Open" is an overloaded word in this context.
Punched cards? Feh. Try punched tape, sonny.
If you're using python, consider using Biggles. It does create nice 2D charts.
Second Life does all the physics using the Havoc engine on the servers. I can see where using a dedicated hardware-based physics engine could improve Second Life server performance.
Clint Kelly, of SAIC, gave a talk at The Krasnow Institutde recently in which he summarized their entry's results. (SAIC was one of CMU's corporate partners.) The gimbal stablized range finder and the stereo-vision system were unavailable for the Challenge due to an "overly-exuberant student" crashing their vehicle by speeding several days prior to contest. This was likely the major cause of their loss.
Clint also mentioned that there were a large number of power lines along the course that could have interfered with the onboard GPS. The robot depended very strongly on GPS. They had hand coded many new way points between the DARPA supplied way points to reduce dependency on sensor s. (A tack they deemed necessary due to aforemention damage.) Also, the rocky terrain may have unduly interfered with GPS signals.
The Red Team's bot had been successfully trialed on similar terrain -- some of the trials were significantly similar to the Challenge's course.
Hopefully next year the Red Team will keep those "exuberant students" away, and they can get a fully functional machine to the starting line.
To be more accurate, you'd multiply the hourly rate by 2080.
So, $60/hour ~= $120K/year, not $60K/year. or $124,800/year if you use the more accurate 2080.
Incorrect. I do not feel that the government should control what the press, or anyone else, says. The Bill of Rights forbids the government from controlling what anyone says. The Bill of Rights defines what the government cannot do.
I am concerned that, whereas the Federal government is so constrained, a media monopoly is not. It can effectively quell language at its whim. Were a particular media outlet one of many, that would be fine; however it's not fine if it's the only game in town. We are already seeing such effects in that we have to go to sources abroad to get information that's simply not reported here in the United States even if it's information directly related to our country. Moreover the hard lesson artists have learned from the Dixie Chicks is that you'd better not dissent from the prevailing view of ClearChannel or other media moguls, or risk returning to obscurity as your works are pulled from exposure.
- http://warblogging.com/
- http://agonist.org/
- http://www.alternet.org/
- http://www.stratfor.com/corporate/static_index.ne
o
Most of these sites, in turn, have pointers to scores of other, quality news sites and blogs.s/bill/law/. It was made law in 1896.
Since ClearChannel owns most of the radio stations we listen to, they have undue influence in the music and news we hear over that medium. The former has undergone acute homogonization and with the recent Dixie Chicks debacle, politicization. If they don't like what you say, you don't get airplay. This is particularly worrisome as a democracy relies on freedom of expression, and of particular, the press. Witness that most of the salient and quality news regarding the United States' most recent overseas misadventure is from non-US news outlets; this may not have been so prevalent were there more independent domestic news organizations. It is imperative that a public in a free society be as best informed as possible. Too much media consolidation is at odds with that principle.
I note that a significant number of the ISO C++ committee have been activie Boost participants from day one. In fact, IIRC, they started Boost because they had ideas that didn't make it in time for the final ISO C++ ratification.
In any case, much of Boost has been exercised and refined over the years and is very suitable for inclusion in the final specification. Better yet, most compilers won't have to change anything except header files to be compliant with such a specification change.
Actually, I like the new green LED traffic lights; though I wonder why they're only replacing the green and not the red and yellow, too.
It's not "coding by celebrity," but "coding by generally accepted good programming practices." (And, um, not in the sense of Arthur Anderson's interpretation of "generally accepted good accounting practices".) The names associated with seminal books on these practices are just eponymous -- again, they're just used as references by the experienced.
OGRE is an OpenGL (and alternatively DirectX) scenegraph library that's still in development, but may already provide useful functionality. Think of this as a next generation SGI Open Inventor. I've used Open Inventor and have recently switched to OGRE since OI shows it's pre-ISO C++ standard roots. (And pre-Scott Meyers. And pre-Gang of Four Design Patterns.)
... as well as read more articles about it.
After pursuing many of the links mentioned in the comments sections for legacy 3D communities, I was disappointed to discover that almost all of them only worked on Windows. Aren't there any cool Linux accessible 3D communities?
Oh! Gravy guns!
Unbelievably, pig-headedly, unforgiveably s-t-u-p-i-d.
This, of course, is very paraphrased and second hand anecdotal, but still kinda funny.
Likely, Rand-McNally and other map printers use the digital spatial data that the USGS provides. And not just topological data, but data of hydrography, political boundaries, transportation networks, etc.
ICYC, the Survey surplused the last of their DGs this year. I've still got my old DG workstation I had used since '93 languishing under my desk awaiting shipment back to Rolla. It has dual 33MHz Motorola CPUs; my how we've come a long way since then.
I'm sympathetic to the Indians. That accounting system has never been fully functional. And a lot of suspicious things, like fires that have destroyed records, have occured over the years to the Indian Trust. I'm heartended to see some positive progress behing made on correcting that horrible situation. The Indians already have it bad enough without this debacle making their plight worse.
However, the judge has done more harm than good by shutting the entire Interior's network access. As you pointed out, the USGS makes available the largest and most comprehensive repositories of geospatial data in the nation, and perhaps the world. Much of this data is free. And many universities, government organizations, and companies use that data; e.g., where do you think Rand-McNally gets its data to make maps?
Though I'm not as familiar with the other DOI departments and bureaus, I know that they, too, provide valuable public services that a number of people need to do their jobs.
Another angle is the impact on DOI employees. I can tell you I witnessed a number of people standing around the halls looking mystified at the USGS' headquarters in Reston this afternoon. We all depend on network access in some capacity to get our work done. In my case, it's crucial as I work with folks at the Mid-Continent Mapping Center in Rolla, Missouri. I was logged into one of their suns debugging some errant code when the plug was pulled. Most aggrivating.
(Initially I had thought that the network was down because of the Goner virus since the USGS has a history of shutting its network down when the system gets swamped by propogating virii and worms.)