Academic Computing Services Blog

Wolfram Associates, the publisher of Mathematica, has announced the release of Wolfram Workbench, a new state - of - the - art integrated development environment for Mathematica technologies. Wolfram Workbench provides an integrated development environment (IDE) for Wolfram products such as Mathematica, gridMathematica, and webMathematica. Tools include Work with code in a specialized editor, a debug to view running programs at the source level, a profiler to map the code's execution, and aids to develop and run tests.

More information about the workbench is available from Wolfram site - http://www.wolfram.com/products/workbench/ .

The workbench is available as part of the University of Vermont's Mathematica Site License,

(Image from Michael Trott of Mathematica, Woldfram Associates.)

Continue reading "Wolfram Mathematica Workbench Available" »

Posted by Steve Cavrak at 8:25 AM | Permalink | TrackBacks (0)

Technorati is reporting [1] 300 or so links to this video on YouTube. In YouTube fashion, the video is uncredited. A digging session eventually found an original of the video at the MIT Computer Science and Artificial Inteligence Laboratory's Design Rationale's publication page. The original [mpg format, 29 Mbyte] video, circa 2003, is done using a Mimio/whiteboard; the current system enables a more natural sketching style and operates on either a whiteboard and a tablet computer. (The video title mentions the Oxygen program.)

The demonstration is interesting - both for the overall flow of the design process as well as the literal mindedness of the simulation. The front wheel of the cart is sloppily drawn, with an acentric axel, so it wobbles as it rolls down the inclined plane.

Continue reading "MIT Computer ASSISTed Design Demo" »

Posted by Steve Cavrak at 9:18 AM | Permalink

On the daily index page, you should see a list of cities with percentages next to them. The number represents the percentage of news stories that city is associated with for that day.

Locations that appear more often are represented by red circles on the map. The more frequently the cities appear, the larger the circle. Connections between locations are determined by intercontextual referencing in news articles. These connections are represented by lines between locations. The stronger the connection, the darker the line.

Move the mouse over the map to read the location names. Click on a city and relevant news stories will appear. Click "+ Enlarge" to get a larger version of the world map.

Posted by Steve Cavrak at 8:35 AM | Permalink

A new plan by Student Senate will allow students at the University of Kansas access to wireless Internet from more spots on campus than ever before.

Jason Boots, Plano, Texas, senior and student body president, has been working with Information Services and Network and Telecommunications Services to expand the availability of wireless Internet to the approximate half of campus buildings without it. The expansion of a campus-wide wireless network was one of Boots’ campaign platforms during last spring’s Student Senate elections.

Academic classrooms will be the first to receive wireless networks. Second will be student lab areas such as physics or chemistry labs. Third will be common areas such as the hallways in Budig Hall or meeting rooms in the Burge Union.

Source: Nate McGinnis, Plans for a wireless campus in the works. Student Senate is working on making more wireless Internet connection available across campus. Kansas.Com, The University Daily Kansan, Thursday, August 17, 2006. http://www.kansan.com/stories/2006/aug/17/wireless/

Technorati Tags: Wireless, Campus

Posted by Steve Cavrak at 3:01 PM | Permalink

On April 13, 2006, Mike Andrews, a senior consultant at Foundstone.com who leads web application security assessments and teachies the Ultimate Web Hacking classes, recentlly spoke at a google lunchtime seminar. Google has posted a video-capture of the 90 minute session on the their video site. Google video allows downloading and playing on a Macintosh, PC, PSP, iPod, ... or TV, if you have a nice multifunction DVD player.

Mike Andrews, How To Break Web Software : A look at security vulnerabilities in web software, Google TechTalks April 13, 2006. http://video.google.com/videoplay?docid=5159636580663884360

Continue reading "How to break Web Software : Meet the Ultimate Web Hacker" »

Posted by Steve Cavrak at 11:04 AM | Permalink

The abstract of the Blackboard patent [6] announces:

A system and methods for implementing education online by providing institutions with the means for allowing the creation of courses to be taken by students online, the courses including assignments, announcements, course materials, chat and whiteboard facilities, and the like, all of which are available to the students over a network such as the Internet. Various levels of functionality are provided through a three-tiered licensing program that suits the needs of the institution offering the program. In addition, an open platform system is provided such that anyone with access to the Internet can create, manage, and offer a course to anyone else with access to the Internet without the need for an affiliation with an institution, thus enabling the virtual classroom to extend worldwide.

The abstract is followed by 44 specific claims that cascade from the invention - mainly individual components of such a system. An accompanying diagram shows how the system is structured. [7]

The Firendster patent [8], makes 15 claims, primarily focused on their algorithms for searching and selecting "friends of a friend."

Early reactions are focusing on the patent claims, especially the documentation of "prior art." Both the Moodle and Wikipedia communities have created "history of learning sytems" charts. [9, 10]

Continue reading "Private Property and Common Knowledge" »

Posted by Steve Cavrak at 1:05 PM | Permalink

Photo from Wired Magazine, From left: Design Continuum; FuseProject . Evolution of a Laptop: The prototype was designed and redesigned over a seven-month period. Early models (from left) had a power-generating hand crank, rubberized edges, and a handle to prop up the PC. All along, they've come in an array of colors.

Wired Magazine (August, 2006) has an interview / profile piece on Yves Béhar (The Fuse Project), who is working on the design(s) for the One Laptop Per Child Project (laptop.org. The article covers the nitty gritty of design factors (what are the clients requirements, where does the battery go, what color is the case, etc). More interestingly, though, is a discussion of the philosophy and significance of this project ...

Continue reading "The Laptop Crusade" »

Posted by Steve Cavrak at 1:02 PM | Permalink | TrackBacks (0)