Matrix Toolkits for Java

I have been using Colt for a while, and thought it is pretty good. Today I just came across another numerical library that could be the best I have ever seen - MTJ. Native interface to BLAS and LAPACK, sparse matrix solvers, and distributed matrix computation are all packed in one library?! Are you kidding me?! For those who stick with C++, I found MTL. For C# users, I found Math.Net. But they certainly cannot compete with MTJ in terms of the features mentioned above. Java people are just extremely blessed!

Frequently Unanswered Questions

I thought the title of this posting is neat. After reading a post from Slashdot, I collected the links here so I can ponder upon in the future. No, I am not interested in how placebo works. I am not blessed with the mathematical talents to solve the millenium problems, either. The things that always fascinate me are the cosmology and astrophysics stuff - strange gravity pull and speed of light that make Einstein famous. Moreover, I do find the sonoluminescence phenomonum very interesting and I may have some reflection on Navier-Stokes Equation. Without further ado, here are the links

• Millenium problems
• Open Questions in Physics
• 13 things that do no make sense

I just increased my swap space with a swap file

/sbin/swapon -s

Filename                        Type            Size    Used    Priority
/dev/hda5                       partition       1044184 0       -1

df -m

Filesystem           1M-blocks      Used Available Use% Mounted on
/dev/hda7                  372        81       272  23% /
/dev/hda2                   46        10        34  22% /boot
/dev/hda6                 9705      2325      6887  26% /home
none                       251         0       250   0% /dev/shm
/dev/hda3                26537      2113     23076   9% /usr
/dev/hda8                  251        64       173  27% /var

su

dd if=/dev/zero of=/usr/extraswap bs=1M count=1024

/sbin/mkswap /usr/extraswap
Setting up swapspace version 1, size = 1048572 KiB

/sbin/swapon /usr/extraswap

/sbin/swapon -s

Filename                        Type            Size    Used    Priority
/dev/hda5                       partition      1044184 0       -1
/usr/extraswap                  file            1048568 0       -2

cp /etc/fstab /etc/fstab.mybackup

emacs /etc/fstab&

diff /etc/fstab /etc/fstab.mybackup
10d9
< /usr/extraswap          none                    swap    sw              0 0 

Eclipse

I found Borland JBuilder become quite sluggish as I move on to the version of JBuilder 2005. Since I have been reading high praise on Eclipse for some time, I finally decided to give it a try. After I loaded the download page of www.eclipse.org, somehow it smartly detected I was using HP-UX and let me download the HP-UX version of Eclipse Platform SDK 3.0. This version just launched without any problem as it detected the path of installed HP Java VM. At this point, I was very impressed since nothing worked in HP-UX so naturally before. This is a whole new experience!!

The interface is of motif theme that seems outdated, but, again, it is a HP-UX version. I will need a windows version for a fair comparison. The perspective, in my opinion, is a pretty good idea. It let you switch around different arrangements of the panels for each specific task. Switching over from JBuilder is not easy since it also has many merits and I am very accustomed to it. I will explore other notable features of Eclipse after I have accumulated more play time.

The Dow Jones Expensive Merlot Index

Movie "Sideways" slaps Merlot but here is the rebuttal.

By DOROTHY J. GAITER AND JOHN BRECHER

In a broad tasting of American Merlots that cost $20 to $50, mostly from the 2001 vintage, these were our favorites. While most inexpensive Merlots are meant to be drunk immediately, many better Merlots, including these, will age beautifully for some years. These pair well with steak and similarly serious foods.

Vineyard/Vintage	Price	Rating	Tasters' Comments
Duckhorn Vineyards 2002 (Napa Valley)	$49.99	Delicious	Best of tasting. Intense, dark and rich, with herbs, earth and cedar -- all in a package that's so sensual it's like blackberry chocolate fondue. Very young.
Sarah's Vineyard 'Besson Vineyard' 2001 (Santa Clara Valley)	$20.00	Very Good	Best value. Lighter than some, with more obvious fruit flavors. It tastes like great grapes, left alone to taste good -- fruity yet not at all sweet. Very pleasant.
Steltzner Vineyards 2001 (Stags Leap District, Napa Valley)	$24.98	Very Good/Delicious	A deep, complex wine, with a sense of place and plenty of layers. Slightly herbal and nicely tight, with such great acids it demands a big meal.
Corte Riva Vineyards 2002 (Napa Valley)	$44.99	Very Good	Hefty, with great body and structure, some herbs and plenty of earth. Blackberries and cream. A real mouthful of wine.
Groth Vineyards & Winery 2001 (Napa Valley)	$34.99*	Very Good	Elegant, with Bordeaux-like structure and a long, dry finish. Could age for a long time.
Joseph Phelps Vineyards 2001 (Napa Valley)	$38.99	Very Good	Smells like chocolate, blackberries and rich soil, with some nice hints of herbs, too. Tight and nicely earthy.
Larkmead Vineyards 2001 (Napa Valley)	$36.00*	Very Good	Very serious wine, with hints of black tea and soil. Have it with roast meat.
Matanzas Creek Winery 2001 (Sonoma County)	$29.95	Very Good	It looks and even tastes dark, with hints of tobacco and coffee and a kind of leathery toughness. Classy wine.
Provenance Vineyards 2001 (Carneros, Napa Valley)	$26.95	Very Good	Grapey and pleasant, with some spice and cream, a dark core and nicely dry finish.
Rombauer Vineyards 2001 (Napa Valley)	$25.95	Very Good	Very pleasant, plum-like fruit and terrific acids for food. Quite complete. More forward and easier to drink than some.

NOTE: Wines are rated on a scale that ranges: Yech, OK, Good, Very Good, Delicious, and Delicious! These came from California, Florida and New York. *We paid $36.95 for the Groth and $29.97 for the Larkmead, but these prices appear to be more representative. Prices vary widely.

4 8 15 16 23 42

Again I am LOST!

Episode 18 - Numbers

4 8 15 16 23 42

I am tired of guessing. The facts that interest me are

• The flight number of their crashed plane is 815
• Someone has already registered the domain name http://www.4815162342.com
  

Episode 19 - Deus Ex Machina (Latin for "God from the machine"). This episode will center on Locke (BTW, John Locke is the name of a English philosopher). The title is so tantilizing that ABC is going to make us wait for a LONG LONG time (April 13 according to TV Tome). Some quick notes are:

• Deus Ex Machina refers to an implausible ending where everything is solved and justice is served.
• The episode title is also similar to the title of Chapter 48 of Watership Down "Dea ex Machina." (Watership Down is the book that Sawyer was reading that came from Boone's suitcase).
  

Facts provided by TV Tome