Wednesday, February 6, 2008

Wolfram Mathematics Demonstrations Project

The Wolfram site is associated with Wolfram's well-known Mathematica, but it is not necessary to have the software to explore the demonstrations. Instead, visitors can download a free Mathematica player. I explored a number of the music demonstrations since I have a special interest in synthesizers and electronic music composition; the Jazz Voicings, Piano Keys, and MidiKeyboard Limits demonstrations were instructive and impressive. All demonstrations include access to the source code.

The Wolfram site is a good example of a resource site that combines a free service with advertising for a product; they provide free mathematical demonstrations (for teachers and students of mathematics, and for hobbyists) while advertising software that can be purchased by institutions that choose to purchase the full Mathematica package. ____JH (Thanks to Helge Scherlund's eLearning News for this initial information about this site.)

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"Conceived by Mathematica creator and scientist Stephen Wolfram as a way to bring computational exploration to the widest possible audience, The Wolfram Demonstrations Project is an open-code resource that uses dynamic computation to illuminate concepts in science, technology, mathematics, art, finance, and a remarkable range of other fields.

Its daily-growing collection of interactive illustrations is created by Mathematica users from around the world, who participate by contributing innovative Demonstrations.

Interactive computational resources have typically been scattered across the web--requiring specialized programming knowledge that's made them difficult and expensive to develop. As a result, their coverage has long been limited, and progress has been slow.

In many ways, The Wolfram Demonstrations Project introduces a new paradigm for exploring ideas. The power to easily create interactive visualizations, once in the domain of computing experts alone, is now in the hands of every Mathematica user.

Demonstrations can be created with just a few short lines of readable code, powered by the revolutionary advances in Mathematica. This opens the door for researchers, educators, students, and professionals at any level to create their own sophisticated mini-applications and publish them online."


Read more ...

30,000 Books on a Keychain, 7.5 Million Books on Your Desk

I'm a long-time fan of Project Gutenberg, so I'm passing along this item about Michael Hart, Gutenberg's founder, from Open Access News. ____JH

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Michael S. Hart, The Top Inventions of 2008, Global Politician, January 3, 2008. Hart is the founder of Project Gutenberg. Excerpt:

What will be the top inventions in 2008?

1. ...The advent of USB 3.0 will combine with inexpensive terabyte drives....

3. Virtual Libraries (Taken One At A Time)

By the end of 2008 the Project Gutenberg Library will be as large -- or larger--than the average United States Public Library.

30,000+ volumes originating from Project Gutenberg....

Claims of over a million eBooks from some sources notwithstanding -- Project Gutenberg's library stands alone in that the volumes should each have been proofread by at least two human beings, along with a wide variety of software proofreading programs, and in the fact the eBooks take only one file per volume and are very small files.

As time goes one, more and more virtual libraries of this size will become available in these small files that allow an entire library, 30,000 books of a million characters each, to be worn on keychains, necklaces, bracelets, etc.

These small text files also work very will with compression program varieties such as .zip files, that allow 5 books to be stored in an alternate .zip file in the space 2 books took previously.

5 books in 2 megabytes....

30,000 books in 12 gigabytes.

That's all the words in the books of an average US Public Library.

2008 will see 12 gigabyte USB flash drives for under $100.

$100 to carry every word in 30,000 books. . . .

In less space and weight than your average wristwatch....

Before Gutenberg the average person owned zero books.

Before Project Gutenberg the average person owned zero libraries.

4. Virtual Libraries (Taken As A Whole)

...[B]y the end of 2008, there are going to be 7 million eBooks in the world . . . and someone somewhere is going to download all of them....

Still presuming one million character per volume:...

7.5 million volumes could be stored in .zip format in 2.6 terabytes.

The average computer today sells for under $500.

It comes with about 120 gigabytes of hard drive.

Adding in five drives at half a terabyte each totals under $500.

There is your potential world class library for under $1,000!

Yes, there are problems.

First is the unwillingness of people such as Google to make it easy to download their books in .txt format.

I understand this is changing, but changing a million books takes a bit of time, and I worry that Google is more concerned with SAYING THEY HAVE MILLIONS OF BOOKS than actually making them available as actual text files the likes of which you are reading right now.

This is not just a concern with Google, I have the same concern via the work of The Million Book Project, The Open Content Alliance and all of the rest who speak in terms of millions of online books from the perspective of "instant gratification." ...

[Open Access News] Read the rest ...

Department of Education Folded Into Department of Defense

Department of Education Folded Into Department of Defense
Washington - President Bush today signed a bill which folds the Department of Education into the Department of Defense. The bill, called “Protection Over Knowledge Every Time,” was passed quickly by both the House and the Senate in recent days.

Schools scramble to find questionable meat

Many districts have stopped serving ground beef products in response to allegations that a packing house used 'downer' cattle.

Leave no patty unturned, no meatball overlooked. Read the rest ...