Python Cloud IDE

Our incoming students might be interested in this - PythonFiddle.com is a cloud-based IDE that lets you write and run code in your browser. Both apps and data are migrating to the web, but apps have lagged. There are plenty of ways to store almost any data in the cloud, but there are still many kinds of apps that only run locally (and many apps that do have cloud-based versions are still far behind their local equivalent. Working with students on their code over the years, I've been desperate for a GOOD cloud-based IDE, so that wherever we are I can sit down with them and run their code in the same environment in which they've been running it (it gets old really fast to have them email me their code, often missing some files, then download them, import them into Eclipse, compile, run, debug, comment, and then reupload the files for them...

Let me know if you know of other cloud-based IDEs that you like, especially any for C++, Java, Prolog, or any of the Lisp variants.

Stanford offers free CS courses

From DeviceGuru

Last year at Educause, I heard Neil Gershenfeld (of MIT's Center for Bits and Atoms) speak on a shift away from a scarcity-based model of education. A significant point was that technology has the potential to radically revolutionize the business of education. In the past, access to ideas was limited by access to physical resources: books, laboratories, faculty members. When resources are digitized, the nominal cost of reproducing them becomes insignificant.

In the latest of a series of similar examples, Stanford University has announced that it will be offering a series of 10 free online computer science courses, including their introduction to computer science, artificial intelligence, and robotics. As of a couple of days ago, more than 120,000 students had signed up for the courses.

Why Were Irene's Intensity Predictions So Off?

From Technology Review

A timely piece on weather prediction - a heavily data-intensive modeling discipline.

"Hurricane path prediction has enormously improved. Forecasters knew days before it made landfall that Irene would hit the Carolinas and move up the East Coast, reaching New York and New England."

"While path prediction has steadily improved over the decades, forecasting the intensity of storms still proves tricky. Irene's expected monster intensity—much to the nation's relief—was far less as she weakened a day or so after reaching land. "What made Irene especially difficult for the forecasting models was that she had three landfalls and followed the coastline," says Heymsfield. "We need a lot more research to understand how to better model this land interaction."

IBM's moves toward quantum computing

From Computerworld

Image Source: zmescience

IBM, one of the most patent-rich companies in the world, continues it's amazing pace of research and innovation. The future, they believe, is in a radically different paradigm of computing hardware (which will also require new thinking in software approaches as well).

"But the computing industry is moving to a new future as disruptive and as radical as the era that began with the introduction of silicon chips, and that future is quantum computing. These are systems that use the behavior of subatomic particles to conduct calculations now performed with transistors on a chip."

"An ordinary computer is a collection of bits that can either be a 0 or a 1. But quantum bits can hold those states, 0 and 1, simultaneously. Instead of doing a calculation one after the other, the processing power in a quantum computer can increase exponentially. Two quantum bits, or qubits, can hold four distinct states, which can be processed simultaneously, three qubits can hold eight and 10 qubits can hold 1,024 states. In time, researchers expect machines with thousands of qubits."

Profile Pics Put Your Privacy At Risk

From Discovery News

Data mining techniques applied to massive amounts of publicly available data make it easier than you would imagine to cyberstalk.

Image source: neonfudge.com

"In one experiment, Acquisti and his team uniquely identified 4,900 out of 5,800 anonymous dating site members."

"In arguably the most disturbing experiment, Acquisti used students who had their date of birth and hometown publicly posted on their social network profile to predict their Social Security numbers (SSNs). By using techniques from a previous study showing that SSNs can be somewhat accurately guessed using public information, Acquisti correctly identified the first five digits of SSNs in 16 percent of the students. After four attempts, the accuracy rate jumped to 27 percent."

How Computational Complexity Will Revolutionize Philosophy

From Technology Review

Image courtesy http://www.core.org.cn/

For those of you who have been in my Data Structures and Algorithms class... or anyone who is interested in what can be accomplished "before the heat death of the universe." :-)

"The theory of computation has had a profound influence on philosophical thinking. But computational complexity theory is about to have an even bigger effect, argues one computer scientist."

"Since the 1930s, the theory of computation has profoundly influenced philosophical thinking about topics such as the theory of the mind, the nature of mathematical knowledge and the prospect of machine intelligence. In fact, it's hard to think of an idea that has had a bigger impact on philosophy."

"And yet there is an even bigger philosophical revolution waiting in the wings. The theory of computing is a philosophical minnow compared to the potential of another theory that is currently dominating thinking about computation."

Data are traveling by light

From Fraunhofer-Gesellschaft

My favorite part of the article: the use of the word "ensconced." A visible light WLAN might be kind of impressive, but if the users are also ENSCONCED in a room, well then that's just amazing!

Joking aside, this is an interesting approach to networking that doesn't rely on traditional radio signals.

"Just imagine the following scenario: four people are comfortably ensconced in a room. Each one of them can watch a film from the Internet on his or her laptop, in HD quality. This is made possible thanks to optical WLAN. Light from the LEDs in the overhead lights serves as the transfer medium."

'via Blog this'

5D glass storage could revolutionize medical imaging, computing

From ExtremeTech

"Researchers from the University of Southampton, England, have successfully recorded, read, and erased data from a piece of nano-structured glass. This technique could revolutionize microscopy in general, and medical imaging in specific — and, perhaps more importantly for computing, it could also be used to store binary data, like an optical disc."

"The end result, and it’s hard to say this with a straight face, is permanent five-dimensional data storage. Not only can the standard three dimensions be used — vertical and horizontal position on the piece of glass, and varying depth depending on the duration of the femtosecond laser pulse — but the wavelength and polarization of the light can also carry data. These nano-structures are absolutely tiny, too — just a few nanometers, much smaller than a DVD or Blu-ray disc — so we could be talking about an incredibly high-density storage medium."

How 5 Recent Social Uprisings Were Wired

From Scientific American

Iran, Tunisia, Egypt, China -- modern day revolutions are relying on wired technologies.

"From the horseback ride of Paul Revere—and for millennia before—people have used the latest technology available to rally others sympathetic to their cause. As ubiquitous as Twitter and Facebook have seemed lately in spreading the word for gatherings, whether benevolent or malevolent, many recent demonstrations and revolts have used a variety of primarily digital platforms to spread their message. Here are five examples in just the past two years:"

Apple's back-to-school promo clobbering Microsoft's efforts

From AppleInsider

Image Source: Forbes

Apple isn't just for artists anymore!

"Global Equities Research analyst Trip Chowdhry issued a note to investors earlier this week pointing out that education sales of Apple’s Macs have been significantly outselling Windows PCs. The firm’s research indicated that “80% of incoming students are buying Apple Computers vs. Windows Computers.”"

Chowdrhy also reports that Apple is enjoying substantial success in the Enterprise. New data indicates that “probably about 35% of Fortune 500 companies are giving Apple as a Choice to its employees, and majority are preferring Apple over Windows.”

The report believes that Apple's gains are a result of “the success of iPad is putting pressure on Enterprise IT to not only support iPad, but also Apple iPhones and Apple iMacs and MacBooks,” going as far as to say that high-level executives are “influencing the IT to bring Apple products into the Enterprise.”

A Day Made of Glass

From Corning.

This video shows some cool possibilities for near future tech. It's more than five minutes long, but engaging and worth it.

'Software is the Modern Language of Science'

From HPCwire

Computation, according to Nobel physics laureate Ken Wilson, has joined theory and experimentation as a "third leg" of scientific discovery (see Denning 2007, for example).

“We now have very small periods in time that are leading to very large changes in the amount of data, the amount of computation, and the amount of knowledge that is needed in order to carry out this kind of work,”

“...after more than four centuries of science being conducted at a painstakingly slow pace, today’s communications technologies and scientific advances are forcing a dramatic change–and acceleration–in all areas of science. At the heart of this change will be software.”

More recently, some have even been talking of a "fourth paradigm" -- the use of massive databases to discover new knowledge. For more see "The Fourth Paradigm," a series of essays published by Microsoft Research.

BrainGate neural interface system reaches 1,000-day performance milestone

From Brown University News and Events

Image Source: Brown Univ

An interesting milestone in machine/human integration. The system described is being used to replace functionality lost to tetraplegia, but as with any such system, it could someday be used to give unimpaired people extra abilities.

"An investigational implanted system being developed to translate brain signals toward control of assistive devices has allowed a woman with paralysis to accurately control a computer cursor at 2.7 years after implantation, providing a key demonstration that neural activity can be read out and converted into action for an unprecedented length of time."

"Under development since 2002, the investigational BrainGate system is a combination of hardware and software that directly senses electrical signals produced by neurons in the brain that control movement. By decoding those signals and translating them into digital instructions, the system is being evaluated for its ability to give people with paralysis control of external devices such as computers, robotic assistive devices, or wheelchairs. The BrainGate team is also engaged in research toward control of advanced prosthetic limbs and toward direct intracortical control of functional electrical stimulation devices for people with spinal cord injury, in collaboration with researchers at the Cleveland FES Center."

Good time for CS jobs

From NetworkWorld

"It's a good time to be a computer science major. Job prospects are rosy for today's graduates, who are entering the workforce at a time when tech hiring is on the rise and talent is hard to find.

'We've calculated that there are about two to three open jobs for every computer science grad this year,' says Alice Hill, managing director at job site Dice.com."

For anyone searching, build your online professional presence at LinkedIn; search for positions on Monster.com, and join the CIS-Messiah Facebook group.