date: '2004-09-30 09:18:01'
layout: post
slug: new-opengl-based-pipeline-for-java-2d
status: publish
ref: http://www.artima.com/forums/flat.jsp?forum=121&thread=73135
title: ' new OpenGL-based pipeline for Java 2D'
wordpress_id: '44'
categories: Programming
According to the rhw Java Buzz Forum there is a binding to OpenGL in Java 1.5 enabled by adding the VM argument
-Dsun.java2d.opengl=true
I must try this to see if it improves the performance of our Java app that does a lot of image movement on the screen.
date: '2004-09-30 15:14:47'
layout: post
slug: 2004-electoral-vote-animation
status: publish
ref: http://www.electoral-vote.com/
title: 2004 Electoral Vote Animation
wordpressid: '45'
categories: Society
image: https://web.archive.org/web/20040831201756if/http://electoral-vote.caida.org:80/all2004-fast.gif
image-text: Animation of electoral map predictions
Here is a great way to visualize how the presidential race is going, using data from http://www.electoral-vote.com.
Watch those battleground states swing back and forth! In particular keep an eye on the crucial states of Florida, Ohio, and Missouri.
date: '2004-08-17 15:39:24'
layout: post
slug: two-terabyte-memory-card-coming-to-production-technology-mobilemag
status: publish
ref: http://mindstream.watsmore.net/keshav/main.html
title: 'Two-Terabyte Memory Card Coming to Production : Technology : MobileMag'
wordpress_id: '41'
categories: Product
Thanks to S. “Tetherless” Keshav, who gave a talk here today in HP Labs, for giving me a pointer to this promised Two-Terabyte Memory Card. This could change some of the trade-offs in designing distributed systems over unreliable, intermittent networks.
date: '2004-08-09 23:35:46'
layout: post
slug: in-defense-of-powerpoint
status: publish
ref: https://web.archive.org/web/20040806051229/http://www.computer.org/computer/homepage/0704/profession/index.htm
title: In Defense of PowerPoint
wordpress_id: '40'
categories: Product
From Computer Magazine – In Defense of PowerPoint comes an interesting approach to giving conference presentations:
conference presenters who merely recapitulate the contents of their paper place themselves in danger of putting their audience to sleep, particularly straight after lunch. A more effective approach uses the presentation to persuade the majority of the audience to actually read the paper, then devotes the question time to those few who have already read it.
and how to use bullet points:
Bullet points—PowerPoint's most vilified aspect—are the most misunderstood of presentation techniques. As far as the audience is concerned, bullet points only serve to remind them of the presentation's general context. As far as the presenter is concerned, bullet points replace the mnemonic techniques handed down from the Greeks and the more recent prompt cards hidden in the hand of a formal debater.
I am not sure that Tufte would agree.
date: '2004-08-08 12:31:45'
layout: post
slug: how-to-read-smalltalk-if-you-are-a-java-or-c-programmer
status: publish
ref: http://www.squeak.org/
title: How to read Smalltalk if you are a Java or C++ programmer.
wordpress_id: '38'
categories: Programming
My programming language trajectory has been BASIC –> FORTRAN –> Pascal –> C –> C++ –> Java with a few diversions such as Perl and Python. On the way I have become a firm convert to object-oriented programming, and as such I always found my lack of knowledge in Smalltalk was a big gap.
Now that I sit near Alan Kay and have been impressed by Squeak and Croquet I have felt it was time to fill in that gap in my knowledge.
However, I did find initially that the syntactical differences of Smalltalk were a barrier to my understanding, one of the reasons I have created my own Java-Smalltalk cheatsheet.
So I was delighted to find Wilf LaLonde's tutorial, I Can Read C++ and Java But I Can’t Read Smalltalk.
date: '2004-08-08 13:41:14'
layout: post
slug: spatial-orientation-of-desktops
status: publish
ref: http://arstechnica.com/paedia/f/finder/finder-1.html
title: Spatial Orientation of Desktops
wordpress_id: '39'
categories: Futzing
John Siracusa has an written an excellent article on what, in his opinion, makes a good desktop shell, concentrating mostly on the Macintosh finder.
As an experiment I have set up my Windows XP folder options to to match his recommendations as much as possible.
In the folder context menu:
In the folder view→toolbars menu desect all toolbars
In the Folder Options panel
General tab: select “Use Windows classic folders”
General tab: select “Open each folder in its own window”
View tab: uncheck “Display the full path in the title bar”
View tab: check “Remember each folder's view setting”
View tab: check “Restore previous folder windows at logon”
View tab: click apply to all folders
It's like I have a brand new GUI on my operating system! Let's see how well I like it after using it for a while.
date: '2004-08-06 13:37:52'
layout: post
slug: some-nice-looking-java-software
status: publish
ref: http://geosoft.no/software/index.html
title: Some nice looking Java software
wordpress_id: '37'
categories: Programming
GeoSoft – Geotechnical Software Services has some nice looking GPLed Java software.
date: '2004-10-05 10:24:13'
layout: post
slug: mount-st-helens-volcanocam
status: publish
ref: http://www.fs.fed.us/gpnf/volcanocams/msh/
title: Mount St. Helens VolcanoCam
wordpress_id: '47'
categories: Science
image: http://www.fs.fed.us/gpnf/volcanocams/msh/images/mshvolcanocam.jpg
image-text: Live image
Mount St. Helens VolcanoCam – Mount St. Helens National Volcanic Monument
date: '2004-08-05 09:51:39'
layout: post
slug: non-linear-dimensionality-reduction-techniques-for-unsupervised-feature-extraction
status: publish
ref: https://web.archive.org/web/20041010053416/http://webhost.ua.ac.be/visielab/debacker/papers/dimred/dimred.html
title: Non-linear Dimensionality Reduction Techniques for Unsupervised Feature Extraction
wordpress_id: '36'
categories: Programming
Non-linear Dimensionality Reduction Techniques for Unsupervised Feature Extraction
Overview of some techniques for dimensionality reduction.
Update: The above HTML version is missing parts of some formulas. To see them see the compressed postscript version.
Update 2019-09-13: Converted to PDF
date: '2004-08-04 17:22:51'
layout: post
slug: charles-stewarts-congressional-data-page
status: publish
ref: http://web.mit.edu/17.251/www/data_page.html
title: Charles Stewart's congressional data page
wordpress_id: '35'
categories: Society
Lots of raw data of congressional roll call votes on Charles Stewart's congressional data page. I've got some ideas of some data mining I want to try out on this data.
