As Eric S. Raymond reminds us, Open Source Software will continue to shape the
dynamics of the computer software industry for the next long while, just as it has for the
last decade. Coined and perpetuated by hackers, the term “Open Source Software” refers
to software in which the source code is freely available to...
No matter what kind of ninja you are—a cooking ninja, a corporate lawyer ninja, or
an actual ninja ninja—virtuosity lies in first mastering the basic tools of the trade.
Once conquered, it’s then up to the full-fledged ninja to apply that knowledge in
creative and inventive ways.
The future of high-performance computing (HPC) lies with large distributed parallel systems with three levels of parallelism, thousands of nodes containing MIMD* groups of SIMD* processors. For the past 50 years, the clock cycle of single processors has decreased steadily and the cost of each processor has decreased. Most applications would...
Everyone cool seems to agree: Ruby on Rails is an amazing way to build web
applications. Ruby is a powerful and flexible programming language, and Rails takes
advantage of that flexibility to build a web application framework that takes care of a
tremendous amount of work for the developer. Everything sounds great!...
The human central nervous system or neuraxis
consists of the brain (encephalon) and the spinal
cord (medulla spinalis). The brain is encased by
the skull; the spinal cord lies within the spinal
canal, extending from the foramen magnum to
the level of the second lumbar vertebra. Globally,
the brain can be subdivided into...
A fascinating, eye-opening and often shocking look at what lies ahead for the U.S. and the world from one of our most incisive futurists.
In his thought-provoking new book, George Friedman, founder of STRATFOR—the preeminent private intelligence and forecasting firm—focuses on what he knows best, the future....
It’s been a long time since we went through the dramatic transition from Mac OS 9 to
the more complicated and graphically rich world of OS X. Many of you reading this
have never known a Mac interface that wasn’t actually OS X (pronounce that “oh-ess
ten” to sound cool). The biggest change...
LEGO bricks have been engaging builders young and
old for decades. There are a number of ways to connect
LEGO bricks, and millions of different things
can be created with them. For many builders, the possibilities
can be overwhelming. The question is often
the same: “How do I get started?”...
Several years ago, Thomas’s English Muffins had an ad that proclaimed
that the tastiness of their muffins was due to the presence of myriad “nooks
and crannies.” The same may be said of the Internet. It is in the Internet’s nooks
and crannies that the true “tastiness” often lies. Almost every...
When I joined IBM in early 2001, WebSphere Portal was little more than an idea. But
some believed this was going to be the future of web technology. When WebSphere
Portal v1 was released later in that same year, spending the time required to cobble
together the components needed to make it run, was an exercise in patience and...
Many books have been written on the C++ programming language, varying across
a spectrum from the very practical to the very theoretical. This book certainly lies
at the practical end of this spectrum, and has a particular focus for the practical
treatment of this language: scientific computing.
One of the most enticing aspects of mathematics, we have found, is the interplay of
ideas from seemingly disparate disciplines of the subject. Linear algebra provides
a beautiful illustration of this, in that it is by nature both algebraic and geometric.
...
