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LeopoldS

Edge 333 - 3 views

www.edge.org/...edge333.html

technology science fun

shared by LeopoldS on 27 Nov 10 - No Cached
  • LeopoldS on 27 Nov 10
     
    very nice collection ...
santecarloni

the scenic route - 4 views

www.viruscomix.com/page523.html

funny creativity fun

shared by santecarloni on 27 Nov 10 - Cached
  • santecarloni on 27 Nov 10
     
    really true!
  • LeopoldS on 27 Nov 10
     
    page does not load ... :-(
Christos Ampatzis

NASA news conference Dec. 2, on extraterrestrial life?! - 3 views

www.nasa.gov/...M10-110.html

space BIO fun

shared by Christos Ampatzis on 01 Dec 10 - No Cached
  • Christos Ampatzis on 01 Dec 10
     
    Let's start betting which party Aliens vote: GREEN, BLUE, RED, BLACK?
  • ...3 more comments...
  • Luís F. Simões on 01 Dec 10
     
    yes, the internet is going crazy over this one :) (http://cumbriansky.wordpress.com/2010/11/30/nasas-astrobiology-press-conference/) This is the most likely scenario I've seen so far for what will be announced tomorrow: http://skymania.com/wp/2010/11/alien-life-form-is-here-on-earth.html/ "...discovery of microbes in a deadly poisonous lake that get their energy from arsenic. Experts say this shows they had a completely different origin to any other creature known on our planet. It means that life began not just once but at least twice on Earth."
  • Joris _ on 02 Dec 10
     
    well, we've all seen the movie Evolution (http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0251075/) ;p ... this is exactly this scenario indeed.
  • Ma Ru on 02 Dec 10
     
    yaaawnnn... Let's wait until they actually announce it.
  • nikolas smyrlakis on 02 Dec 10
     
    http://astrobiology.nasa.gov/ for the moment is down. My bet, the microbe they found notified its cousins and they are currently invading the US
  • Luís F. Simões on 02 Dec 10
     
    you can still see the rest of it here: http://www.nasa.gov/multimedia/nasatv/index.html a good link with a summary and discussion on the announcement is here: http://www.guardian.co.uk/science/2010/dec/02/nasa-life-form-bacteria-arsenic
LeopoldS

Meet The Man Who Paid A Record $335,000 For Virtual Property - Oliver Chiang - SelectSt... - 7 views

blogs.forbes.com/...rd-335000-for-virtual-property

fun INF

shared by LeopoldS on 30 Nov 10 - No Cached
  • LeopoldS on 30 Nov 10
     
    does he also have to pay property tax?
  • ...4 more comments...
  • LeopoldS on 30 Nov 10
     
    "He says he made the purchase partly because he wants to be able to spend more time in the virtual world. Before, he was averaging 10 to 20 hours per week. He wants to be able to spend about 40 to 60 hours a week now, basically making running the virtual asteroid a full-time job. (He'll also be cutting back on the time he spends developing software in real life.)"
  • andreiaries on 30 Nov 10
     
    From what I remember when I visited the developer/producer company HQ, he wouldn't have to pay any taxes. If he has a virtual business he might have to pay them a license fee. If you want to start a virtual bank, you would need to buy a banking license. The money thing is quite regulated in this enviroment, so probably that's why property prices can be quite high.
  • Joris _ on 30 Nov 10
  • LeopoldS on 01 Dec 10
     
    Remember the study but have completely zapped that this was with this company ... GSP rules :-)
  • LeopoldS on 01 Dec 10
     
    so how does that state get his money from this type of economy? where is the VAT in there?
  • andreiaries on 01 Dec 10
     
    Last time I checked the "state" was still loosing money. But their main income is the sale of resources. Mostly new land, but I believe at some point they wanted to sell their initial planet too.
LeopoldS

iWrite - 3 views

www.vancapy.com/iWrite

fun computer INF

shared by LeopoldS on 16 Nov 10 - No Cached
  • LeopoldS on 16 Nov 10
     
    another reason to buy an ipad .... :-)
  • ...3 more comments...
  • Francesco Biscani on 16 Nov 10
     
    How is this any different from the slew of existing WYSISYG LaTeX-based editors? E.g., http://www.texmacs.org/
  • duncan barker on 17 Nov 10
     
    wow!!!!!!!!!!!! you can write equations!!!!!!!!!!
  • Ma Ru on 17 Nov 10
     
    "What you need: - A LaTeX installation" I guess you can buy one in Apple Store... no?
  • LeopoldS on 17 Nov 10
     
    my understanding is that it runs on your other computer who would do all the compiling ....
  • LeopoldS on 17 Nov 10
     
    texmacs ... and how do you install this on the iPad?
Francesco Biscani

Gigapixel-Dresden.de - Large Size Panoramas - 4 views

www.dresden-26-gigapixels.com/dresden26GP

fun

shared by Francesco Biscani on 18 Feb 10 - Cached
pacome delva liked it
  • The picture was made with the Canon 5D mark II and a 400mm-lens. It consists of 1.665 full format pictures with 21.4 megapixel, which was recorded by a photo-robot in 172 minutes.
  • Ma Ru on 18 Feb 10
     
    "With a resolution of 297.500 x 87.500 pixel (26 gigapixel) the picture is the largest in the world. (stand December 2009)" Daring statement... I'm not quite sure, but I'd quess microscopic images used in medicine can easily reach terapixels... What a waste of pixels anyway... they weren't able to find a bit more interesing city?
  • pacome delva on 23 Feb 10
     
    yeah... like Leiden !
Nicholas Lan

temporary extension of body schema illusion - 2 views

scienceblogs.com/...usion_hops_out_of_the_body.php

neuroscience fun

shared by Nicholas Lan on 10 Feb 10 - Cached
  • Nicholas Lan on 10 Feb 10
     
    is it me or is there an ongoing convergence of sources of posts on here? in that vein here's a weird brain experiment you can try at home. can't get it to work myself.
Ian Carnelli

Visualizing science - 2 views

vimeo.com/6644720

fun inf

shared by Ian Carnelli on 16 Feb 10 - Cached
  • Ian Carnelli on 16 Feb 10
     
    toxiclibs is an independent, open source library collection for computational design tasks with Java & Processing
pacome delva

981.pdf (Objet application/pdf) - 6 views

www.seo.nl/...981.pdf

shared by pacome delva on 14 Dec 09 - No Cached
  • pacome delva on 14 Dec 09
     
    Where do you want to go to do academic research and still have a decent salary ? certainly not sweden, France or Germany... prefer the UK, US or the top... Switzerland !
  • ...2 more comments...
  • Luzi Bergamin on 14 Dec 09
     
    Where do you want to go to do academic research and still have fun? Where can you really do research instead of becoming an overpaid secretary? If you want to get rich go and work in investment banking...
  • pacome delva on 14 Dec 09
     
    well.. i'd better live decently than get rich... which is not possible in Paris (take 1680 euros for one family and a 1000 euros rent, minus all normal expenses (health, car, insurance, ...), it's difficult to finish the month...) Without mentioning that in France you would become an underpaid secretary...!!! My ex phd director is a professor and she doesn't even have a secretary to manage the 150 applications to the master she is in charge... My experience would rather say that the salary and the time you have for research are quite decorrelated.
  • Luzi Bergamin on 14 Dec 09
     
    Sure, 44k for a full professor, that's a bad joke! Just my experience from conferences: high saleries do not make good research, I rather suspect there's something like an optimal salery. People with too high saleries often seem to feel obliged to make much noise (whatever the reason might be), the result is not research but PR campagns.
  • pacome delva on 14 Dec 09
     
    I agree ! Just a correction, net salary for a full professor starting in France: 36456 euros/year... For a McF (equivalent junior prof.): 20160 euros/year, and of course a shitload of admistrative tasks and teaching. I don't know why i still dream to have a position...?
Kevin de Groote

A Day in the Internet - 6 views

www.onlineeducation.net/internet

fun

shared by Kevin de Groote on 10 Dec 09 - Cached
  • Kevin de Groote on 10 Dec 09
     
    More decoration for Horizon...
  • ...2 more comments...
  • pacome delva on 10 Dec 09
     
    filtered by ESA: Category : "Pornography"
  • Kevin de Groote on 10 Dec 09
  • Ma Ru on 10 Dec 09
     
    > pacome I'm sure an appropriate notification has been sent to HR :)
  • LeopoldS on 10 Dec 09
     
    can't see what "pronography" is in the lifehacker page Kevin sent .... nice stats btw
nikolas smyrlakis

BBC News - 'World's strongest' beer with 32% strength launched - 1 views

news.bbc.co.uk/...8380412.stm

alcohol beer news fun

shared by nikolas smyrlakis on 27 Nov 09 - Cached
  • nikolas smyrlakis on 27 Nov 09
     
    Innovation in beer : "This is an extremely strong beer; it should be enjoyed in small servings and with an air of aristocratic nonchalance. In exactly the same manner that you would enjoy a fine whisky, a Frank Zappa album or a visit from a friendly yet anxious ghost."
  • Ma Ru on 27 Nov 09
     
    "Tactical Nuclear Penguin"... wow... [Edit] BTW this news looks hilarious on the feed display right in front of the ACT's official website, lol
Dario Izzo

Computers in space - 3 views

www.dansdata.com/spacecomp.htm

INF probabilistic computing

shared by Dario Izzo on 07 Dec 09 - Cached
  • Dario Izzo on 07 Dec 09
     
    A link to help the discussion a few posts below....
  • LeopoldS on 08 Dec 09
     
    one post above you mean ...?
  • Ma Ru on 08 Dec 09
     
    Now that you commented, it's below :) [Edit] Fun reading btw.
LeopoldS

YouTube - Pigeon: Impossible - 4 views

www.youtube.com/watch_popup

fim joke fun

shared by LeopoldS on 01 Feb 10 - Cached
  • LeopoldS on 01 Feb 10
     
    nice :-)
Francesco Biscani

STLport: An Interview with A. Stepanov - 2 views

www.stlport.org/...StepanovUSA.html

computer science

shared by Francesco Biscani on 23 Mar 10 - Cached
  • Generic programming is a programming method that is based in finding the most abstract representations of efficient algorithms.
  • I spent several months programming in Java.
  • for the first time in my life programming in a new language did not bring me new insights
  • ...2 more annotations...
  • it has no intellectual value whatsoever
  • Java is clearly an example of a money oriented programming (MOP).
  • Francesco Biscani on 23 Mar 10
     
    One of the authors of the STL (C++'s Standard Template Library) explains generic programming and slams Java.
  • ...6 more comments...
  • Ma Ru on 24 Mar 10
     
    "Java is clearly an example of a money oriented programming (MOP)." Exactly. And for the industry it's the money that matters. Whatever mathematicians think about it.
  • Joris _ on 24 Mar 10
     
    It is actually a good thing that it is "MOP" (even though I do not agree with this term): that is what makes it inter-operable, light and easy to learn. There is no point in writing fancy codes, if it does not bring anything to the end-user, but only for geeks to discuss incomprehensible things in forums. Anyway, I am pretty sure we can find a Java guy slamming C++ ;)
  • Francesco Biscani on 24 Mar 10
     
    Personally, I never understood what the point of Java is, given that: 1) I do not know of any developer (maybe Marek?) that uses it for intellectual pleasure/curiosity/fun whatever, given the possibility of choice - this to me speaks loudly on the objective qualities of the language more than any industrial-corporate marketing bullshit (for the record, I argue that Python is more interoperable, lighter and easier to learn than Java - which is why, e.g., Google is using it heavily); 2) I have used a software developed in Java maybe a total of 5 times on any computer/laptop I owned over 15 years. I cannot name of one single Java project that I find necessary or even useful; for my usage of computers, Java could disappear overnight without even noticing. Then of course one can argue as much as one wants about the "industry choosing Java", to which I would counterargue with examples of industry doing stupid things and making absurd choices. But I suppose it would be a kind of pointless discussion, so I'll just stop here :)
  • Joris _ on 24 Mar 10
     
    "At Google, python is one of the 3 "official languages" alongside with C++ and Java". Java runs everywhere (the byte code itself) that is I think the only reason it became famous. Python, I guess, is more heavy if it were to run on your web browser! I think every language has its pros and cons, but I agree Java is not the answer to everything... Java is used in MATLAB, some web applications, mobile phones apps, ... I would be a bit in trouble if it were to disappear today :(
  • Dario Izzo on 24 Mar 10
     
    I personally do not believe in interoperability :)
  • Ma Ru on 24 Mar 10
     
    Well, I bet you'd notice an overnight disappearance of java, because half of the internet would vanish... J2EE technologies are just omnipresent there... I'd rather not even *think* about developing a web application/webservice/web-whatever in standard C++... is it actually possible?? Perhaps with some weird Microsoft solutions... I bet your bank online services are written in Java. Certainly not in PHP+MySQL :) Industry has chosen Java not because of industrial-corporate marketing bullshit, but because of economics... it enables you develop robustly, reliably, error-prone, modular, well integrated etc... software. And the costs? Well, using java technologies you can set-up enterprise-quality web application servers, get a fully featured development environment (which is better than ANY C/C++/whatever development environment I've EVER seen) at the cost of exactly 0 (zero!) USD/GBP/EUR... Since many years now, the central issue in software development is not implementing algorithms, it's building applications. And that's where Java outperforms many other technologies. The final remark, because I may be mistakenly taken for an apostle of Java or something... I love the idea of generic programming, C++ is my favourite programming language (and I used to read Stroustroup before sleep), at leisure time I write programs in Python... But if I were to start a software development company, then, apart from some very niche applications like computer games, it most probably would use Java as main technology.
  • Francesco Biscani on 24 Mar 10
     
    "I'd rather not even *think* about developing a web application/webservice/web-whatever in standard C++... is it actually possible?? Perhaps with some weird Microsoft solutions... I bet your bank online services are written in Java. Certainly not in PHP+MySQL :)" Doing in C++ would be awesomely crazy, I agree :) But as I see it there are lots of huge websites that operate on PHP, see for instance Facebook. For the banks and the enterprise market, as a general rule I tend to take with a grain of salt whatever spin comes out from them; in the end behind every corporate IT decision there is a little smurf just trying to survive and have the back covered :) As they used to say in the old times, "No one ever got fired for buying IBM". "Industry has chosen Java not because of industrial-corporate marketing bullshit, but because of economics... it enables you develop robustly, reliably, error-prone, modular, well integrated etc... software. And the costs? Well, using java technologies you can set-up enterprise-quality web application servers, get a fully featured development environment (which is better than ANY C/C++/whatever development environment I've EVER seen) at the cost of exactly 0 (zero!) USD/GBP/EUR... Since many years now, the central issue in software development is not implementing algorithms, it's building applications. And that's where Java outperforms many other technologies." Apart from the IDE considerations (on which I cannot comment, since I'm not a IDE user myself), I do not see how Java beats the competition in this regard (again, Python and the huge software ecosystem surrounding it). My impression is that Java's success is mostly due to Sun pushing it like there is no tomorrow and bundling it with their hardware business.
  • Joris _ on 24 Mar 10
     
    OK, I think there is a bit of everything, wrong and right, but you have to acknowledge that Python is not always the simplest. For info, Facebook uses Java (if you upload picture for instance), and PHP is very limited. So definitely, in company, engineers like you and me select the language, it is not a marketing or political thing. And in the case of fb, they come up with the conclusion that PHP, and Java don't do everything but complement each other. As you say Python as many things around, but it might be too much for simple applications. Otherwise, I would seriously be interested by a study of how to implement a Python-like system on-board spacecrafts and what are the advantages over mixing C, Ada and Java.
nikolas smyrlakis

UNITED KINGDOM SPACE AGENCY UKSA (fake website) - 3 views

www.uk-space.com

space united kingdom fun

shared by nikolas smyrlakis on 24 Mar 10 - Cached
  • nikolas smyrlakis on 24 Mar 10
     
    according to the normal website (http://www.bnsc.gov.uk/): "The UK Space Agency website will officially launch on 1 April 2010. Until then, the BNSC website will be in a state of transition " the guys above i think just take the piss coz theres no official website. Mission statement: TOGETHER WE ARE GOING TO EMBARK ON A JOURNEY INTO SPACE. ..........................THE MISSION IS......MARS................................."
  • Ma Ru on 24 Mar 10
     
    I've just read a blog entry about this on New Scientist, and while the entry itself is not interesting, I learned from it where the UKSA and ESA's UK establishment are going to be based. Answer: it's even more in the middle of nowhere than Plymouth! BTW does anyone (Leo?) know what is the basis on which new ESA establishments locations are chosen (if this info is classified, you can send it on priv ;) [Edit] Esa has released a news item about it... Whatever one can say about the British Space Agency, they certainly have a fantastic logo!
Luzi Bergamin

Physics in a Crisis - 3 views

www.rqm.ch/physics_in_a_crisis.htm

phy LHC crackpot fun

shared by Luzi Bergamin on 30 Mar 10 - Cached
  • Luzi Bergamin on 30 Mar 10
     
    Luckily I'm far away from Geneva, but this has to be said today, when the LHC starts! No, not tiny black holes will eat us (what a nonsense!), but the supernovae energy will let LHC explode!!! Pacome, I expect you to debunk this with gratest care!
  • ...2 more comments...
  • pacome delva on 30 Mar 10
     
    wtf is this! As I read this morning in the newspaper (not even a scientific one), 1 TeV is the kinetic energy of a flying mosquito... so be careful ! It seems they already sloved every thing on this website: "At the Institute for Space Quantum Physics ISQP, it was already proved in 1991-1992 that dark matter is in magnetic fields as magnetic space quantum flux." This website is the biggest source of crackpots i have seen in a long time...! (http://www.supernovae-energy.com/)
  • Ma Ru on 30 Mar 10
     
    Come on guys, this website is hilarious! "The HAITI EARTHQUAKE (...) were impossible for the Institute for Space Quantum Physics (ISQP) to compute because on one single planet was on a common line or axis with the Sun: Venus."
  • Luzi Bergamin on 30 Mar 10
     
    Unfortunately, most information I have about the guy (Hans Lehner, a Swiss) is in German, his official homepage is http://www.rqm.ch/ According to EsoWatch he is the Swiss analogue to Dr. Mills and his Blacklight power. Lehner apparently founded a company, which should have produced a "Raum-Quanten-Motor" that -- of course -- produces energy out of nothing. The theory is based on spookey forces mediated by Lehneronen. 11 Million Swiss Franks (about 8 Million Euro) were lost when the company bankrupt. And the guy is selling new stocks on his homepage again... Lehner calls another crackpot named Oliver Crane Zweistein (from Einstein being "Onestone") and himself "Dreistein". Now he is looking for Mister or Misses Vierstein. Perhaps you should apply, good luck!!
  • Nicholas Lan on 30 Mar 10
     
    i like the first line of their supernovae energy technology document "Dear potential investor:"...
Ma Ru

The Canadian insect collector who eats his specimens - 0 views

news.bbc.co.uk/...8596627.stm

fun bio

shared by Ma Ru on 05 Apr 10 - Cached
  • Ma Ru on 05 Apr 10
     
    Dedicated to Tobias...
Ma Ru

ESA's Flickr Photostream - 0 views

www.flickr.com/...europeanspaceagency

esa Web 2.0 communication space fun photography

shared by Ma Ru on 23 May 10 - Cached
  • Ma Ru on 23 May 10
     
    Did you know it exists? You can also check http://flickriver.com/photos/europeanspaceagency/popular-interesting/ for their shots sorted by popularity. Is ESA already on Facebook too? ;-)
Juxi Leitner

Slashdot Games Story | Google PAC-MAN Cost 4.8M Person-Hours - 3 views

games.slashdot.org/...AC-MANem-Cost-48M-Person-Hours

just for fun productivity

shared by Juxi Leitner on 25 May 10 - Cached
  • LeopoldS on 26 May 10
     
    stupid calculation
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