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Testing an RNG is serious business. In total, we’ve considered using four different test suites: Diehard, Dieharder, STS and TestU01. All of these suites can be easily used to test uniform random numbers over unsigned integers. Some are also appropriate for testing uniform random numbers over floatint-point values. But we wanted to test a Gaussian RNG. Here's how we did it. Step .99999990909000:
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You don’t need a fancy distributed framework. You can just load the data into memory and explore it interactively in your favorite scripting language. Or, maybe, a different scripting language: data analysis is one of the few domains where special-purpose languages are very commonly used. Although in many respects these are similar to other dynamic languages like Ruby or Javascript, these languages have syntax and built-in data structures that make common data analysis tasks both faster and more concise. This article will briefly cover some of these core features for two languages that have been popular for decades — MATLAB and R — and another, Julia, that was just announced this year. Big data. No whammies.
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Don't forget Octave[^].
m.bergman
For Bruce Schneier, quanta only have one state : afraid.
To succeed in the world it is not enough to be stupid, you must also be well-mannered. -- Voltaire
In most cases the only difference between disappointment and depression is your level of commitment. -- Marc Maron
I am not a chatbot
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Assisted GPS is used by millions of smartphone users every day to get driving directions, find places, and find themselves. As it turns out, the good old GPS satellite system, by itself, works very slowly and often not at all when you're indoors or walking beneath tall buildings. That's why the GPS software in your phone relies heavily on cellular and Wi-Fi networks to help it figure out where it is. You can't get there from here.
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The Dropbox mobile client caches frequently-accessed files, so that viewing them doesn’t require a network call. Both our Android and iOS clients use the LRU caching algorithm, which often selects good files to cache. But while this is the usual algorithm for caching, I wondered: are there better algorithms, and if not, why is LRU the best option? How Dropbox drops your stuff in your box.
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The heart beating beneath the surface of the re-imagined SimCity is the new GlassBox engine. “It’s a new simulation engine that was developed here at Maxis to support agent-based simulation,” Lead Producer Kip Katsarelis told Wired.co.uk. “It’s not necessarily related to cities, it’s a general engine; we’ve kept the code separate from SimCity. It lets you simulate very simple objects that, when composed together, can do very complex things.” “The genesis of GlassBox goes all the way back to SimCity 4,” added Creative Director Ocean Quigley, “when [engineer] Andrew Willmott and I imagined what the ultimate simulator might look like. At the time, computers weren’t powerful enough for us to implement that at any reasonable scale, so our ideas had to lie fallow until we finished Spore.” Please include Godzilla. Please include Godzilla...
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When multitudes of Windows 8 users start playing with newly purchased hardware in the coming weeks and months, they'll encounter an indignity that once afflicted only smartphone and tablet users: dirty, smudgy, fingerprint-riddled touchscreens. Ah, yes, the dreaded smudge. It's a problem we've all come to grudgingly accept on mobile device screens, but PC users generally aren't so accepting of people touching—let alone leaving fingerprints on—their desktop displays. Brought to you by Windex...
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Oddly enough, I'm not rushing into W8 dev; and am wondering how hard it would be to crossbreed my LCDs with a Van de Graaff generator.
Did you ever see history portrayed as an old man with a wise brow and pulseless heart, waging all things in the balance of reason?
Is not rather the genius of history like an eternal, imploring maiden, full of fire, with a burning heart and flaming soul, humanly warm and humanly beautiful?
--Zachris Topelius
Training a telescope on one’s own belly button will only reveal lint. You like that? You go right on staring at it. I prefer looking at galaxies.
-- Sarah Hoyt
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That is a hair raising idea.
m.bergman
For Bruce Schneier, quanta only have one state : afraid.
To succeed in the world it is not enough to be stupid, you must also be well-mannered. -- Voltaire
In most cases the only difference between disappointment and depression is your level of commitment. -- Marc Maron
I am not a chatbot
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Absolutely shocking.
/ravi
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"Tape and strings literally made Surface." Panos Panay, general manager of the team behind the Microsoft Surface, touches an old mockup made of black and white plastic. He's forgetting glue, certainly – two panels appear to have been hot-glued to form the "tablet" part of the device — but tape and strings really are two key ingredients in this prototype, the one Panay's team used to show off what Surface would look like. It's crude and fragile, but it's also unmistakably Surface. Surface... below the surface.
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Surface delivers the power of amazing software and the feel of premium hardware in one exciting experience. Originally unveiled in June, Surface with Windows RT will initially be available in three SKUs: a 32GB version priced at US$499, a 32GB version bundled with a black Touch Cover priced at US$599, and a 64GB version bundled with a black Touch Cover priced at US$699. So... are you going to buy one now that you know what it costs?
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Lame.
There is a conference coming up soon, and I would seriously consider getting a Surface if I didn't have to wait until 2013 to get the Pro version (i.e., the version that may be able to run Visual Studio, which would make the Surface actually useful for a developer conference).
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Terrence Dorsey wrote: So... are you going to buy one now that you know what it costs? No, I will wait until at least several months after it's out, and then:
1. Get hands-on experience with a Surface with the keyboard that costs more (as of pre-release information) that allows "moving keys:" I would never touch a keyboard without moving keys for any significant work. Then I'd be looking closely at screen resolution, and clarity.
2. I'll be reading, by April, or so, I would hope, critical reviews of Surface performance, and reportage of the usual screw-ups with new hardware and software roll-outs that drive developers, and end-users, insane.
3. I'd then evaluate cost/benefit of a Surface compared to other tablets and OS's.
4. And, I'll be asking the same questions about the Surface, at any time, that I am now asking myself about getting a "smart phone:" do I really need this, either personally, or professionally; will I really use this ?
best, Bill
~
Confused by Windows 8 ? This may help: [ ^] !
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For the first time in the history of the PC, Microsoft is rolling out a new Windows ecosystem for which they will be the sole software distributor. If you buy Windows 8, the only place you will be able to download software that integrates with its new user interface will be the official Windows Store. Microsoft will have complete control over what software will be allowed there.... But how realistic is the assumption that the Windows desktop will still be a usable computing platform in the future? And what would be the consequences were it to disappear, leaving Windows users with only the closed software ecosystem introduced in Windows 8? All your apps are belong to us!
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Confused (and saddened) by the recent split between Anonymous and WikiLeaks? Allow us to help explain it all. [ITworld]
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The operating system's Metro interface is almost sure to cause a surge in calls to the enterprise help desk as users contend with tiles where the familiar 'Start' button and 'Explorer' icon used to be.
----------------
With a host of new tools and capabilities--such as Secure Boot, Windows To Go and greatly improved file management--Windows 8 may have broad appeal in a variety of businesses. I like Windows 8 just fine. Give it some time and you might like it too.
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GeekForChrist wrote: I like Windows 8 just fine. Give it some time and you might like it too
I can't stand it. What I can't stand most is that, at its core it's an excellent OS. Security, the tweaks like the resource manager, file copies, the underlying security, and the general stability is excellent. A far more stable and flexible OS than iOS, and I use both.
The split of the UI, however, is so clumsily done that the fall is the worse for it being on something that should be so much better. I used to go back to iOS and complain about dumb things like having to eject USB storage, or not being able to shake a window and have all other windows collapse, or the stupidness of the "+" sign on iTunes minimising it. Now I no longer complain. Now I just stay quiet and sad.
cheers,
Chris Maunder
The Code Project | Co-founder
Microsoft C++ MVP
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Chris Maunder wrote: The split of the UI, however, is so clumsily done that the fall is the worse for it being on something that should be so much better. I agree that the split is quite clumsy. I guess I got used to it out of a feeling of necessity.
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i haven't really done too much reading but i think my investment in WPF is now considered obsolete.
dev
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Why is your investment in WPF now considered obsolete?
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i havent read much but is it true Metro apps runs on WinRT API and WPF/.NET all considered obsolete?
Read this?[^]
dev
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devvvy wrote: but is it true Metro apps runs on WinRT API and WPF/.NET all considered
obsolete?
No. You can still run WPF/.NET apps on Windows 8. Where you get some confusion is in what you can run on Windows 8 running on ARM processors.
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