EnterFuture.net

Merging Last.fm and Spotify

2009-01-07T13:43:00.011+01:00

Many of you have probably heard of Last.fm, and some of you have also heard of Spotify. These are both great music streaming applications. Merging these two would undoubtly produce something that is greater than the sum of it parts. But what would that look like?

First, a quick summary of the two:

Spotify (portmanteau of spot and identify) is a Sweden-based proprietary music streaming program, which allows listening to specific music without delay via browsing artists, albums or created playlists. Spotify currently cooperates with Universal Music Group, Sony BMG, EMI Music, Warner Music Group, Merlin, The Orchard og Bonnier Amigo and more. So there is a huge selection of music that is just waiting for the user. There are exceptions though. You cannot find i.e. The Beatles, Pink Floyd and Metallica.

Last.fm is a UK-based Internet radio and music community website, founded in 2002. It claims over 21 million active users based in more than 200 countries. Using a music recommendation system called "Audioscrobbler", Last.fm builds a detailed profile of each user's musical taste by recording details of all the songs the user listens to, either on the streamed radio stations or on the user's computer or some portable music devices. This information is transferred to Last.fm's database ("scrobbled") via a plugin installed into the user's music player. The profile data is then displayed on the user's profile page. The site offers numerous social networking features and can recommend and play artists similar to the user's favourites.

Clearly, both of these applications have their advantages and disadvantages. With last.fm you cannot listen to spesific music unless you have these files on your own computer. You can however listen to music that's related to other music, that is i.e. if you like the american prog band Cairo (which is a great band) you can listen to a radio station named Cairo which contain similar artists. This is a great way to just explore new artists which you are more probable to like compared to random music, but you can't choose exactly what track to listen to. It seems that Last.fm has all the features that Spotify doesn't have and vice versa. This is no surprise however since Last.fm has built an application based on having access to the music through radio stations only. Having this as a starting point changes the focus and something more than a music player emerges.

The first step in the right direction has already been taken. On December 18, 2008, Spotify announced on their blog that they've added scrobbling as a feature in their application. Excerpt from blog:

Almost immediately after launch we started getting heaps of requests from people who wanted to be able to scrobble the music they were playing on Spotify to Last.fm (Last.fm is a cool music recommendation site for those of you who don’t know). The demand was so high that people started creating their own solutions to scrobble, which were cool but a little hard to install and run for the average user.

Spotify is not currently freely availible to the public. You can however get an invite if you have a little luck. Three hours ago the norwegian IT-website Hardware.no announced 100 free invites but they were taken away in just twenty minutes or so. There is a great demand. If you cannot get an invite, check out this article on downloading through a proxy (link).

We think the demand for better Last.fm integration will increase steadily as more users (especially Last.fm users) get to know Spotify a little better. There is reason to believe that Spotify will open to the public in the near future, and there's also rumours about an iPhone application being developed.

Photosynth - interesting initiative from Microsoft

2008-11-24T00:17:00.010+01:00

On August 20, 2008, Microsoft officially released Photosynth to the public, allowing users to upload their images and generate their own Photosynth models. What is photosynth?

Photosynth is a software application from Microsoft Live Labs and the University of Washington that analyzes digital photographs to build a three-dimensional point cloud of a photographed object.

Pattern recognition components compare portions of images to create points, which are then compared to convert the image into a model. Users are able to view and generate their own models using a software tool available for download at the Photosynth website.

Here is an excellent video presentation from ted (please select flash version below):

So why is this interesting? Well, often we do not know what can emerge from new technologies like this. But one of the most obvious reason why this is interesting, is because it connects digital images together with respect to the content. This basically means that we're creating a large scaled network of images which is browsable and searchable. And over time we can develop very presice 3D-models of cities and certain objects around the world. Maybe this data and these models can help us develop better navigational tools and synthetic vision for other scientific fields, such as robotics.

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Further reading and sources:
Original website of video
Wikipedia - Microsoft Live Labs Photosynth
Photosynth website

Monkey eating marshmallow using only its mind

2008-07-12T15:43:00.002+02:00

The monkey uses a robotic arm, which it controls using only signals from its brain.

So why would a monkey be eating marshmallows with a semi cyborg arm? The answer is simple. It's hungry for a snack, and its arms are stuck. What options are there, but to utilize a robotic arm to fulfill its sweet desires? Not many, and it seems the monkey is pleased with this innovative solution.

This innovation could benefit people with paralysis and spinal cord injuries. The goal is to make a prosthetic device for people with total paralysis, and ultimately to better understand brain complexity.

Scientific experiments with animals are often topics of ehtical discussions. We contacted Michele D. Baum a resource person from the university conducting this experiment to ask a couple of questions (University of Pittsburgh Schools of the Health Sciences).

Q: How were the monkeys treated?
A: "...I can tell you that the monkeys are well cared for. Primate research is expensive, with each individual monkey costing more than $10,000. Beyond that, the U.S. National Institutes of Health and other funders invest large amounts of money into research that is often animal-based. It would not make sense to mistreat the monkeys. They are very well cared for."

Q: Is surgery required to interpret the signals from the brain of a monkey?
A: "The monkeys do have small arrays of electrodes, about the size of half a thumbtack, implanted on the surface of their brains. The electrodes themselves are very thin -- no wider than a human hair. The brain is not exposed. The brain also has no pain sensors and the implant is not painful to the monkey. Researchers often work with the same animal for many years. If the animal was not comfortable, it would not work, and the data collected would not be valid."

Thank you for your answers.

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Further reading and sources:
Mind over matter
Science Daily - Mind over matter

The basics of Java

2008-06-10T17:13:00.005+02:00

The list of guides and tutorials describing the basic features of Java is endless (not literally of course). Instead of making yet another complete tutorial covering the basics of Java, this lecture will only briefly introduce the basics of Java. If you are a somewhat experienced programmer this short introduction might very well be all you are looking for. If not, that is, you are new to programming in general, it is recommended that you read one of the more careful tutorials available online covering the basics of Java, for instance Suns tutorials.

Assumptions
In the following I will assume your knowledge about common programming terms, for instance like pointers, variables, methods, constructors, classes and objects, and their attributes. How declaration of these are done in Java will on the other hand be shown.

Installing an IDE
An integrated development environment (IDE) is, simply put, a software combining the process of editing, compiling and executing. In an IDE the editor is typically a graphical text editor with spell checking, syntax highlighting and code folding, and the IDE makes compiling and executing the application effortless.

For beginners not known to the basics of compiling and execution it is not recommended to use an IDE, but instead only download the Java SE Development Kit (JDK) from here. The JDK includes Java Runtime Environment (JRE), which is required to run Java applications. For other users it is recommended to download the JDK bundled with NetBeans IDE from the same site. Alternative IDEs for Java is Eclipse and JCreator. It is interesting to note that both NetBeans and Eclipse is mainly written in Java.

Installing the JDK or the IDE is like installing any other application, so I trust you are able to do this without any guidance.

If you have decided to install only the JDK you need to add "installation/location/bin" to your global path and, if it is not already present, add "." to your class-path (the "." will make a Java-class able to use other classes in the same directory). The coding itself is the same as if you had installed an IDE, only you will be writing in a simple text editor and should save the code file as plain text, for instance as a text file named "MySource.java". Compiling a Java source code is done by writing "javac MySource.java" in a command line prompt positioned in the same directory as your saved source code, and execution can then be performed by writing "java MySource".

Creating the your first Java application
If you installed the NetBeans IDE you can create a new project by choosing "New Project..." in the "File"-menu. Select "Java" in field below "Categories:" and "Java Application" below "Projects:". Proceed to the next step by selecting "Next >". Here write the name of the project. By default NetBeans will create one package, a collection of classes, by the name of the project. The main class, the class that will be executed by the runtime environment, is by default simply named "Main". Normally this is not anything to fuss about, so simply click the "Finish"-button after typing the name of the project.

NetBeans will now display the initial class named "Main" (or whatever you decided to name your main class). The code between "/*" and "*/" are comments to the programmer. The code between "/**" and "*/" are also comments, but in addition these comments will be included in the automatically generated Java documentation if it is present just prior to protected or public classes, methods or object/class variables. If only the rest of a line is to be commented, one simply writes "//", these comments will not be included in the documentation. Viewing the code in light of these facts, there are only five lines of code:

1   package javaapplication1;
2   public class Main {
3       public static void main(String[] args) {
4       }
5   }

The first line simply states that this class is a part of a package, here "javaapplication1". The second line creates a class, here named "Main", by the statement "class Main", and that this class is set to be visible to the entire system, that is, "public". Line three creates a method named "main". This will be the entry point of your application, that is, the runtime environment will always provide control to this method in your main class. It should be declared "public", meaning that it is visible to the system, "static", that is, being a method bound to the class itself, and "void", meaning that it does not return anything. The parameter "String[] args" states that the invoker should provide a (possibly empty) list of multiple elements, called an array, of the type "String", that is a standard text object of possibly multiple characters. The elements of this array will be the arguments the executor provides, if you are executing the program from a command line prompt, the elements is the text written after "java MySource", for instance "java MySource argument1 argument2" will result in a list of two elements. The list can be accessed by the variable "args", which is a pointer. Line four and five indicates the end of the "main"-method and the "Main"-class, respectively.

Lets make the application display "Hello world!". This is simply done by adding the following code between line three and four above:

3.1           System.out.println("Hello world!");

"System" is here a class, like "Main", "out" is a class (static) variable representing a "PrintStream"-object, while "println" is a method in the class "PrintStream".

You can now execute the application in NetBeans by pressing "F6" or by choosing "Run Main Project" from the "Run"-menu. In the output field "Hello world!" should be displayed along with some information about the compiling and execution.

Essential notes about Java-codes
In Java all code must be placed inside classes. The variables declared at the root of a class is unique for each instance of the class if it is not declared "static", then it is bound to the class and common for all its instances.

Inside a class, a static method may only invoke another static method (or itself). This is because the static method does not belong to a object, but to the class itself, so it would not have known in which object the non-static method should be invoked. On the other hand, non-static methods can invoke both static and non-static methods.

To access members of a different class, one needs to inform uniquely the environment in which the member should be accessed. To access a static variable "var" in the class "MyClass", one simply writes "MyClass.var". In order to access a non-static variable "var2" in the same class, one needs to inform in which class instance, that is, in which object, the variable should be accessed. A object pointer to the class is then used, name it for instance "obj", and access is then granted by writing "obj.var2". This object pointer can be declared as following

MyClass obj = new MyClass(...)

where "..." indicates the arguments to the constructor of the class.

The same applies to the methods. To invoke a static method "myMethod()" in "MyClass" one simply writes "MyClass.myMethod()". The non-static method "anotherMethod()" can be invoked by the use of an object pointer "obj" of the class, and write "obj.anotherMethod()". Arguments to the method is placed within the brackets. Multiple methods can be declared with the same name as long as the parameters differ, in number or type. Note that two methods can not both have the same parameters, thought they return different types.

Both variables declared at the root of a class and methods (who must be declared at the root of a class) have access level modifiers. These modifiers determine whether other classes can use these variables or invoke these methods. There are four types of modifiers; "public", "protected", "package" and "private". If declared public "public" it is visible to all classes (as long as the system know where to look for the class). On the other end "private" indicates that only the class itself may access this member. "package", a access level obtained by not using any modifier, states that all classes inside this package should be able to access this member, while "protected" also includes any subclass of this class, even if it is not inside the same package.

Classes may be declared without a modifier or with the modifier "public". The effect of these options are the same as for variables and methods as described above.

Inside a method one may declare new variables. These can not have access level modifiers and are only visible before the closuring bracket corresponding to the first previous starting bracket. The interval a variable is visible is called the scope of the variable. If a variable of the same name is already declared, the use of this name will refer to the first previously declared variable of that name, that is, the variable latest declared.

If you were able to keep up with this introduction you should be able to start programming in Java, thought no-one expects you to be an expert at the time, if you have a half-shaky grip of the syntax, you are probably only a couple of hours of test-programming away from being able to code most applications with the use of the Suns application program interface (API), provided that you know an algorithm for each challenge in question. If you feel not smart at all on Java, it is recommendable that you read a more careful introduction tutorial to Java before proceeding to the next lectures. These lectures will be more advanced and not explain any basics of programming in general, but only the subjects in question, which can be program-technical, like multi-threading, or implementation of efficient algorithms for solving specific problems.

All about lithium-ion-based batteries

2008-06-02T21:25:00.006+02:00

Modern portable electrical devices typically use batteries based on lithium-ion or its evolved technology lithium-ion polymer. Older devices used nickel-cadmium- or nickel metal hydride-based batteries. The similarities in advised use between these technologies are not only distinct, but almost complementary, in the meaning that the ideal use of one is (close to) the worst case use of the other. After looking into the history and the resulting myth, advice of proper use of lithium-ion will be presented, and finally we will conclude by looking into the future. Our main focus is on lithium-ion-based batteries in modern laptops.

History and basics
In 1983 the first commercial portable computer running on batteries became available. It used a battery technology based on nickel-cadmium (NiCd). In the next decade batteries based on nickel metal hydride (NiMH) and lithium-ion (LiON) became publicly available. For some time they fought nose-to-nose for customer's acceptance, ultimately leading to the victory of the LiON-based technology. As a result, most portable computers and digital cameras use LiON-based batteries, while mobile phones are typically based on a battery technology evolved from the LiON-technology called lithium-ion polymer (Li-poly), which are more robust to physical damage and cheaper to produce.

The advantages of the LiON-based batteries is its superb energy to weight ratio relative to its competitors, its slow in-use degeneration rate and the lack of a so-called "memory effect", which is both present in NiCd- and NiMH-based batteries. However, there is a great drawback. Batteries based on LiON-technology are ageing from the moment they are manufactured, regardless of whether they are charged or not. This means that an older, but unused battery will last shorter than a identical battery manufactured more recently. However, this disadvantage does not seems to frighten as much as its advantages attract, resulting in a wide use of LiON technology in many portable electrical devices.

In use, a lithium-ion typically lasts between two and three years or 300 to 500 full discharges/charges. The discharge/charge rate presented here is not depended on complete discharge/charge cycles, that is, if half of the battery's capacity is used twice, the sum of these uses counts as one, not two, full discharge/charge. It should be stated that these numbers are not based on the ageing or degenerating previously commented alone, but also on the average use of these batteries. With optimal use one can expect much better result because the degeneration can be somewhat delayed, but more importantly, the degeneration can be, and in most cases are, greatly accelerated.

Myth and the effect of its use
Since a flawed use of NiCd- or NiMH-based batteries often resulted in a distinct lack of power, these batteries' need for full discharge/charge cycles have become publicly known. That is, these batteries ideal use were to fully discharge the batteries before recharging, and during recharging neither use or cancellation were recommended. These batteries were said to remember early charges or discharges, a memory which resulted in lack of power. This effect was and is widely referred to as the batteries "memory effect", and indeed, such improper use of these batteries will result in high degeneration rate.

LiON-based batteries do not provide such a memory effect. Nevertheless, most people still believe this effect is present in all or most batteries still in use, indeed including the batteries used in devices such as laptops. Not only is this a wrong understanding, but the use of this "knowledge", or should we say myth, is also the main contribution resulting in the accelerated degeneration. That is, fully discharging and recharging LiON-based batteries can and often will have crucial effect on the batteries duration.

If close to fully or fully discharged, a LiON-based battery's internal safety circuit opens and it becomes unusable in the sense that it will not recharge. If it is not fully discharged, there exists some boost functions that can be able to reactivate the protection circuit and make the battery recharge. Standard chargers will not perform such a boost. Furthermore, if the battery is fully discharged and has been in such a state form months, a boost function will probably not only fail, but may also be dangerous. In addition, a LiON-based battery is expected to degenerate faster when close to fully discharged than if kept at a somewhat higher charge level rate.

On the other hand, fully charging the battery is also not recommendable. Thought it is not the charging itself that is the problem, the result of keeping a battery fully charged is crucial. As noted, any LiON-based battery degenerates from the day it was manufactured, however, a fully charged battery degenerates much faster, especially in combination with a warm environment. In a environment of 60 degrees Celsius a fully charged battery will within three months typically degenerate to 60 % of its capacity, while a 40 % charged battery in the same environment will only degenerate to 75 % after a year. From these numbers it should be clear keeping LiON-based batteries fully charged will greatly accelerate its degeneration, and indeed, most users who try to follow the old battery-friendly tip of full discharge/charge cycles keep the charger connected after the battery is fully charged, thus resulting in accelerated degeneration.

Proper use
As noted, LiON-based batteries degenerate much faster when kept close to fully or fully charged. In special situation when extra battery life is needed, like on long trips and so on, one must by all means fully charge the battery. Thought, in such situations the battery should be charged only shortly prior to departure in order to keep the battery fully charged as short as possible. However, in normal situations when one simply sits by the outlet, an easy, but not optimal, solution is to disconnect the charger before the charge level reaches 80 % of full capacity. This should also be done prior to journeys where full battery life is not needed.

To avoid the opening of safety circuits and acceleration of degeneration, it is also recommendable to reconnect the charger when charge level is approximately 20 %. Again, if an outlet is not available and the laptop is needed for use, one must of course keep using the laptop. However, it should be a good reason for forcing the last 5 % out of the battery, since both the danger for opening safety circuits and the level of degeneration increase dramatically while approaching a fully discharged state.

The heuristic of disconnecting and reconnecting the charger is often easy to apply, but does not offer the best result. In the case when one is sitting nearby the outlet, which normally is the typical case, the best solution is to disconnect the battery itself. The battery should be disconnected when the charge level is approximately 40 % and stored properly (see "Storing of lithium-ion batteries"). Please note that disconnecting the battery, thought good for the battery itself, increase the risk of loosing your work to what is present for desktop computers. That is, if one has disconnected the battery and the power fails, the laptop will immediately power off, not leaving any "Do you wish to save the changes" or alike. However, thought varying between each location, normally the power is quite stable, so this downside may not be preponderant.

Storing
As is the case in the recommended use of these batteries, nor in storing is it wise to keep the battery at high or low charge level. The recommended storage charge level is 40 %. The reason this charge level is somewhat high is to keep the battery's protection circuit operational during prolonged storage. Thus, if you plan to store the battery for a shorter period, it might be wise to keep it at a lower charge level, say 20 to 30 %.

The storage environment's temperature can be vital for the battery. Thought freezing the battery is not a good idea, the battery should be kept coldly, about 0 degrees Celsius is a generally good rule of thumb.

To see the effect of these rules of thumb, we previously commented the decreased degenerating achieved by storing a battery at a lower charge level, that is, a fully charged battery stored in a 60 degrees Celsius environment will typically degenerate to 60 % within three months, while a battery stored at 40 % charge level will typically only degenerate to 75 % within a year. Furthermore, if the environment had been of 0 degrees Celsius, one could expect the battery to only degenerate to 98 % in a year, which under the circumstances must be stated as an acceptable degeneration rate. Finally it should be noted that the longer one plans to store the battery, the more important it is to keep these guidelines.

Digital memory
As commented, LiON-based batteries does not possess the "memory effect" present in both NiCd- and NiMH-based batteries. Nonetheless, there is a effect present in these batteries referred to as "digital memory", referring to the memory of a fuel estimate present in many devices using batteries, including both laptops and mobile phones. Short discharges and recharges does not provide synchronization of the fuel estimate and battery's state-of-charge. The effect of this "digital memory" is not related physically to the battery, as was the case for the "memory effect", but it will make the fuel estimate increasingly less accurate. To avoid this effect one performs a calibration by fully discharged and then recharge the battery. To eliminate the failure caused by the "digital memory", it is often recommended to perform a calibration once every 30 charge.

Does lithium-ion-based batteries belong to the future?
Since it became commonly available, the use of LiON-based batteries have been discussed, and still is, thought its competitor based on NiMH is not much used. The technology behind the LiON-based batteries have been continuously developed, and the development is still in progress. By obvious reasons it is of particularly interest to decrease the natural ageing of the LiON-based batteries, and progress has been achieved.

Thought development and progress, it should not come as a total surprise if a new technology claim the battery-throne in the near future. After all, the progress of existing technology typically only results in modest improvements, while users and scientists keep dreaming of laptops lasting weeks – or maybe years. Having said that, progress has been unexpectedly slow in the field of new battery technologies for the consumers marked, so it might remain with the dreams for yet some years to come.
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History of laptops
Is lithium-ion the ideal battery?
Lithium-ion polymer battery
All about laptop batteries
How to prolong lithium-based batteries
Sweet Nanotech Batteries: Nanotechnology Could Solve Lithium Battery Charging Problems

Fun with programming - JavaScript

2008-05-27T16:03:00.040+02:00

This is a great example of creative programming. Check out this neat JavaScript.

Instructions. Enter a website that contains a lot of pictures (example). Then copy this script into your adress line, and hit enter.

javascript:R=0; x1=.1; y1=.05; x2=.25; y2=.24; x3=1.6; y3=.24; x4=300; y4=200; x5=300; y5=200; DI=document.getElementsByTagName("img"); DIL=DI.length; function A(){for(i=0; i-DIL; i++){DIS=DI[ i ].style; DIS.position='absolute'; DIS.left=(Math.sin(R*x1+i*x2+x3)*x4+x5)+"px"; DIS.top=(Math.cos(R*y1+i*y2+y3)*y4+y5)+"px"}R++}setInterval('A()',5); void(0);

Neat!
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Further reading and source:
StopGeek - Neat trick with JavaScript

Phoenix lands on Mars

2008-05-27T01:36:00.013+02:00

24 hours ago NASA's Phoenix spacecraft landed on Mars. It's the first successful Mars landing without airbags since Viking 2 in 1976.

So, what is there do be done on Mars? Well, there is plenty of information to be gathered. The complement of the Phoenix spacecraft and its scientific instruments are ideally suited to uncover clues to the geologic history and the biological potential of the planet. Phoenix will be the first mission to return data from either polar region providing an important contribution to the overall Mars science strategy "Follow the Water".

Follow the water?
Without a clear presence of surface water, it may seem like a strange name for a Mars exploration. How can we follow water, when it doesn't seem like there is any to be found?

Following the water really means looking for scientific evidence that water was present in the past or is present today, either below the surface or possibly in rare locations near small, hydrothermal vents like those we might find at Yellowstone. Our Mars missions have already sent back views of the Martian surface that seem to show evidence of dry riverbeds, flood plains, rare gullies on Martian cliffs and crater walls, and sedimentary deposits that suggest the presence of water at some point in the history of Mars.

Illustration of the Phoenix landing

The Phoenix will contribute to our overall picture of Mars. It will help us to determine if life ever arouse on Mars, and to understand its climate and geology. In addition it could also contribute to the preparations for human exploration.
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Further reading and source:
NASA - Phoenix Mars Lander
Dagbladet (Norwegian)

C++, Setting up your computer and writing your first program.

2008-05-20T14:50:00.040+02:00

First of all we'll introduce some basic C++ terminology. It is important to learn good terminology in order to understand the concepts that we will be describing and discussing later on.

If you have been programming in other languages, you might have learned words like methods, functions and procedures. These are all named just "functions" in C++. A C++ program in its simplest form consist only of one function, which is called main. This is a pre-defined function name, and its body is enclosed in braces {}. The main function needs to exist so that your system (your run-time enviroment) will know where to start the execution of your program. If it didn't exist it would be like not knowing where to start reading a book. In order for your program to make sense, it needs a starting location – the main function.

When writing C++ code, you will be using some sort of text editor. If you are programming in a Windows enviroment, you could use a simple text editor like Notepad, Textpad or Notepad2. If you're in a linux enviroment you could use i.e. Notepad++, Pico or Nano. It really doesn't matter which editor you choose to use, as long as you give your source files the extension *.cpp. I.e. your first program could be named:

myFirstProgram.cpp

Let's say this file contains some code that you've written using Notepad. In order to make this file an actual program, we need to translate it into native machine code, a binary code consisting of only ones and zeros. Fortunately we don't do this manually. We have a program to do it for us – the compiler.

There are many C++ compilers out there, which perform pretty much the same (although they may vary slightly). It all boils down to this: You will have to make choice. Which editor will you be using? Which compiler will you be using? Tough questions? Well, don't worry. We will provide for you a complete and easy solution to these questions. This solution applies best to the Windows OS, because binaries only are availible to Windows systems. You can however compile the source code for your desired system. Well, anyway, the answer that we like, is Dev-C++ from Bloodshed. Dev-C++ is what we call an "IDE" (Integrated Development Enviroment). An IDE combines the editor, compiler and other useful tools in the same software package. There are of course alternatives, but Dev-C++ is under GNU General Public License which means it's free and open source (publicly availible source code), and it's also a very neat IDE.

The Dev-C++ workspace – a simple and nice GUI

Note: There might be other IDE alternatives that are better if you're an OS X or Linux user. If you want more information about this, just google it. I.e. "c++ IDE for linux", or simply post your question at our site.

For downloads and more information, please check out:
http://sourceforge.net/projects/dev-cpp/

After installing the IDE, we are ready to move on to our next section.

Writing your first program
Start up your IDE software, and create a new source file (a clean document). In Dev-C++ you can hit CTRL + N. This is where we'll type our code. So, let's get started.

Our program will be using commands for outputting and inputting information in a console window. To enable this functionality, we must include a library named iostream. Then we have to choose namespace to use, so the compiler will know what names are connected to our imported functionality. You don't need to fully understand at this point. The numbers to the left are line numbers.

1   #include <iostream>
2   using namespace std;

Next we have our main function, and the starting brace of our main function. As you can see the main function should return an integer value. When we return the value 0 (later in the code), our program will be terminated. This is considered good style, but it is not required by all compilers. Some compilers will allow your main method to return nothing thus writing void main( ), and some compilers doesn't even require a return statement, even if the function should return an integer. Well, anyway, we will use the following style, because it is good style.

3    int main( )
4    {

We are now inside the main function. The code that we write here will be executed line by line. So, let's declare a variable of type int, that we will name yourLuckyNumber. Btw: int is the C++ type for whole numbers; integers. Then we will use some of our imported functionality: cout (console output) and cin (console input). This is used for outputting and indputting information in the console window. Note that cout and cin used different operators (<< and >>). You will learn about operators later. Note: endl ends the current outputted line.

5        int yourLuckyNumber;
 
6        cout << "Please enter your lucky number, and hit enter: ";
7        cin >> yourLuckyNumber; 
8        cout << endl;

Now that we have read an integer from the user, and stored this value in our variable, we can analyze this number so we can output appropriate information.

9        /* Determine whether your number is positive,    
10       negative or zero */
    
11       cout << "Your lucky number is ";

12       if (yourLuckyNumber == 0)
13       {
14           cout << "zero";
15       }
16       else if (yourLuckyNumber < 0)
17       {
18           cout << "negative";
19       }
20       else if (yourLuckyNumber > 0)
21       {
22           cout << "positive";
23       }

Line 9 and 10 are comments. By enclosing text within /* and */ you can provide information for yourself and the person that is reading your code. Comments will be skipped by the compiler and can be very useful when documenting the different parts of your program.

Now we will use an operator which is called modulo (in C++ this is represented by the percent symbol, %). The modulo function finds the remainder of division of one number by another. Given two numbers, a (the dividend) and n (the divisor), a % n is the remainder, on division of a by n. In example, the expression "7 % 3" would evaluate to 1, while "9 % 3" would evaluate to 0.

This function can be used to determine whether an integer is odd or even. If we have an integer, n, then the following expression will help us determine whether n is odd or even "n % 2". If the remainder is 0, then it is even (or zero), and if it's 1 that means our integer is an odd number.

24       cout << ", and it is also an ";
    
25       //Determine whether your number is an odd or even number
26       if (yourLuckyNumber % 2 == 0)
27       {
28           cout << "even number.";
29       }
30       else if (yourLuckyNumber % 2 != 0)
31       {
32           cout << "odd number.";
33       }

34       cout << endl; 
35       cout << "That is all =)";
36       cout << endl;
37       system ("PAUSE");
38       return 0;
39   }

Notice line 25. Here we use a different style for our comment. In stead of enclosing some text within /* and */, we use // to make the rest of the line a comment, but only this line. If our comment uses more space than one line, we could put // in the beginning of each line, or we could enclose it with /* and */ as previously discussed.

Line 37 makes the console perform a pause. If we omit this line then our console window would open up, run, and then close again, giving us very little time to read the output of our program. Line 38 and 39 includes the return statement for the main function, and the closing brace for the main funciton.

You now have a complete C++ program which is ready to be compiled. If you are using Dev-C++ you can hit F9 (compile and run).

Here is the program running under Windows XP:

A sample run of our program (click for full size)

Introduction to Java

2008-05-20T00:25:00.060+02:00

Welcome to our first lesson in Java programming. This lesson provides a brief historical background to Java and its fundamental differences to traditional programming languages as C and C++.

In June 1991 James Gosling created a programming language. The language was created as a part of the Green Project of Sun Microsystems. Initially the language was called Oak, reflecting an oak tree that stood outside Gosling's office. Unfortunately the trademark lawyers rejected the used of this name. It came to the point when the lack of a name was the main reason preventing the shipping of the language. In a rush to find a proper name, a dozen employees spent an afternoon yielding out random words. These words were ranked, and the sorted list was sent to the trademark lawyers. The fourth suggestion on the list passed the lawyers test and became the name of the newborn programming language, Java.

The first public implementation of Java, named Java 1.0, became available in 1995. Since launch the average performance of Java programs has increased. Todays public implementation, Java 1.6, perform comparable with C and C++. The whole Java implementation have been available under the terms of the GNU General Public License (GPL) since 8. May 2007, except for a relative small portion of code which Sun did not hold the copyright of.

The Java maskot, Duke

From its beginning an important feature of Java can be summed up in Suns slogan Write once, run anywhere (WORA), reflecting Javas platform independence. That is, a program written in Java should run similarly, or ideally identically, on any supported platform and hardware. This is achieved by the fact that most Java compilers code the Java language file only halfway, to a code called Java bytecode. This bytecode is run on a virtual machine (VM) which interprets and executes the Java bytecode.

Java suffered, and in some circuits still suffers, from a reputation of poor performance because of the need for interpretion of the Java bytecode or a convertion to native machine code. The performance of Java is dependent on the virtual machine that is used to execute the Java bytecode. As previously noted, new virtual machines perform comparable to some of the most efficient programming languages as C and C++. In general the difference in performance between the languages varies, each of the languages is out-performing the other on spesific tasks. In real life programs benchmarks shows that there is typically little to no performance difference.

For completeness it should be mentioned that there exists compilers, such as The GNU Compiler for the Java (GCJ), which is capable of coding Java source code or Java bytecode to native machine code. When compiled to native machine code no interpretion or futher convertion is needed, as is the case for most traditional languages as C and C++, but this is of course performed at the expense of the Javas platform independence.

Looking aside from platform independence and performance efficiency, Java offers a class library consisting of million of codelines, which is, as mentioned, currently released under the GPL. This library, which for each new Java version is being updated and optimized, provides a solid foundation that can and should be used in every Java program. In most other programming languages no such library is present, the only library one can rely on, apart from custom implemented libraries and the libraries some compilers provide, is the general library of the operation system in use. These library is generally much smaller than the class library Java offers, resulting in the need of fewer items to be coded. In addition, most programmers, and especially beginners, often find Java easier to use. Indeed, it could be argued that Java in general is easier to use, since the combination of its library and its syntax tend to give Java source code much fewer codelines, as a rough estemate compared to C or C++, half the number of lines are needed in the Java source code compared to the same program written i C or C++. Of course, patriotic C or C++ programmers will probably argue that their custom libraries is only created once, so the number of codelines need for future programs is less (with the use of these old custom libraries). Keeping in mind that Javas library consist of million of codelines, it is left to the reader to persuade this argument.

We conclude the discussion noting that there are applications where a spesific programming language will have its clear advantages. In addition, the choice of programming language will often depend on the programmers previous experience, since this often defines the programmers way of thinking. However, either if you are new to programming or are ready to change your language, Java should be given a good chance to be your language of choice.
_______________________________________________________
Further reading and sources:
James Gosling commenting on the question How was Java named?
GCJ Homepage
Java pulling ahead? Java versus C++
Jake2, a port of Quake2 game engine, benchmarks

Convert flat images into 3D models

2008-05-16T13:52:00.006+02:00

Computer scientists from the university of Stanford have developed an algoritm which they call "Make3d". A suitable name?

Extracting three-dimensional data from still images is an emerging field of computer technology. Make3d does this completely automatically. It takes a two-dimensional image as input, and creates a three-dimensional "fly around" model. This way you can experience the depth of the scene, and view it from numerous locations. If you install VRML viewer or Adobe Shockwave, you can even fly around in your favourite scene.

The algorithm uses a variety of visual cues that humans use for estimating the three-dimensional aspects of a scene. To make a computer perform such a complex task they utilize powerful machine learning techniques. This way the computer can learn the three-dimensional structure of a scene (as a function of the image features).

This is a very interesting step in technology, simply because it's a way to digitalize our world. This digital information opens up doors in many other technologies. The application, the researchers say, could range from enhanced pictures for online real estate sites to quickly creating environments for video games. And also, it might be a great way to improve the vision and dexterity of mobile robots as they navigate through the spatial world.
_______________________________________________________
Further reading, and sources:
Make3d website
Article on science daily

Can mushrooms and the Life Box save our world?

2008-05-13T22:35:00.016+02:00

How can mushrooms make the world a better place? What is the Life Box? Paul Stamets has the answers.

Paul Stamets has been a dedicated mycologist for over thirty years. Over this time, he has discovered and coauthored four new species of mushrooms, and pioneered countless techniques in the field of edible and medicinal mushroom cultivation. In addition, he has written six books on mushroom cultivation, use and identification.

We all know (especially gardeners) that microorganisms convert organic material into rich and nutrient soil. This is required for plant growth. In example, they break down rotting food, leaves and other forms of decaying organic material. Fungi play a key role in this process.

We will not try to cover the depths of his research, as that would make this article very long. Instead we will present different applications of his research, which all are truly amazing. Watch this video, or/and continue reading.

Breaking down diesel spill
Paul Stamets has collected more than 250 strains (in 2002) of wild mushroom, which he stores in several gene libraries. Some years ago he and his team conducted experiments in breaking down a diesel spill in Bellingham, Washington. There were four piles of contaminated soil. One pile was treated with bacteria. One was a control pile. One was treated with chemical enzymes. The other pile was treated with oyster mushroom mycelium.

After four weeks, oyster mushrooms up to 12 inches in diameter had formed on the soil treated with oyster mushroom mycelium. After eight weeks, 95 percent of the hydrocarbons had broken down, and the soil was declared nontoxic! Neither of the other treated piles showed significant changes.

Mushroom can break down petroleum spill. Pictured here: Diesel

Mushroom against ants and termites?
Termites and carpenter ants can invade and damage crops and buildings. Metarhyzium is a unique group of fungi, that can kill these vermins. And so the pesticide industry has tried to use Metarhyzium spores to kill termites, but with poor luck. The termites understand that it's poisonous, so they simply avoid it.

Stamets had carpenter ants in his house, so he ordered some metarhyzium. He found out that if he coaxed the fungus into a form that delayed sporulation, the ants would be attracted to it. Because he noticed that they were attracted to the fungus before it started to produce spores.

Carpenter ants took pieces of mycelium Stamets grew back into their nests, and two weeks later, they were gone. His house was protected from reinvasion for four or five years.

Paul Stamets - the mushroom man

The Life Box
Perhaps the man’s most intriguing and practical invention to date is the Life Box. Here’s how it works. Say you order a pair of Timberland shoes online. Under shipping options, you can check “plain old brown box” or pay an extra dollar or two and get them shipped in a Life Box. You order the Life Box and your shoes arrive. Instead of recycling the box, you toss it into the backyard, water it, and boom, you’ve got a garden. Depending on your zip code, you’re growing corn, beans and squash, or grassland plants, old growth forests, you name it. Stamets even thought of shipping them to refugees after his initial test box yielded 30,000 seeds, enough to start a small farm!

Imagine yourself buying a CD of the Web, and then....

Stamets sees the Life Box as a means to “combat global warming, teach our kids about sustainability, and re-green the planet.”
_______________________________________________________
Further reading and sources:
How Mushrooms Can Help Save the World
How mushrooms will save the world
Mighty mushrooms

Introduction to C++

2008-05-12T15:08:00.008+02:00

Welcome to our very first lesson in C++ programming. This introductory lesson will give you some historical background and also the important differences between C++ and its predecessor C.

The C++ programming language can be thought of as the traditional C progamming language with an important added feature; classes. Classes is a significant feature of a very popular and indeed powerful programming technique called object-oriented programming (OOP). Well, let's have a look at the C programming language.

The C programming language was developed by Dennis Rithcie of AT&T Bell Laboratories in 1972. It was designed for writing and maintaining UNIX operating system. Before C, UNIX system programmers wrote their programs in assembly (a low-level language) or a in language called B. Today B is almost extinct, as it was replaced by C. C is a very powerful and fast language. It is also considered a general-purpose language, as it can be used to write any sort of program. C and UNIX fit very well together, actually so well that almost all commercial programs that ran under UNIX were written in the C language. It simply rocked the programming world, but C was not perfect.

The C progamming language is a high-level language, with many features of a low-level language. Like low-level assembly you have directly access to the computer memory, so memory manipulation is easy. In its written style it is a high-level language, which makes it more easy to read and write (compared to assembly). This way, it was a very good and fast language for writing system programs and system applications. But for many other programming tasks, it was not so easy to understand and come around. In addition to this, it didn't have the automatic checks as some other high-level languages. This made errors much harder to spot.

Bjarne Stroustrup, the developer of C++

This is partly why C++ was born. The C++ programming language was also developed at AT&T Bell Laboratories (by Bjarne Stroustrup), seven years after C (that is 1979). It was first named "C with classes", but in 1983 it was renamed to C++, as there were made more enhancements. These further enhancements were mainly virtual functions, operator overloading, multiple inheritance, templates and exception handling. Note: C++ being an enhancement of C, means that most C programs also are C++ programs (the reverse, however is not true).

Well, thats all for now. If you do not understand all of these terms discussed here, that is perfectly ok. We will start with the basics next time, so there's no need to worry.

Next lesson: Setting up your computer, and writing your first program.

ATLAS - What's really going on?

2008-05-11T18:11:00.004+02:00

What is the worlds largest experiment all about? Physcist Brian Cox talks about the Large Hadron Collider at CERN.

Further reading at LHC homepage.

Programming in C++ and Java

2008-05-10T20:33:00.008+02:00

As from now, programming in C++ and Java will be a part of this blog.
For starters, we will be writing:

- Lessons in both languages (C++ and Java)

Virtually anything, anywhere

2008-05-09T14:28:00.019+02:00

Computer graphics have become very sophisticated, and eventually, it will reach a certain level where realism is no longer restricted by graphics quality, but rather the fact that action is taking place on a flat display.

In order to emulate reality and the feeling of realism, we need to enhance stimulation of our senses, and the 3D feeling. To do this, reasearchers will in the next decade be working on integrating todays awesome graphics into real world enviroments. This new technology is called augmented reality (AR), and will make the line between reality and computer-generated components considerally more blury.

AR is simply a fusion between real and virtual. AR displays, will overlay computer-generated graphics onto the real world. It's still in an early stage of research and development at various universities and high-tech companies, but its application is getting wider and wider.

When the technology is getting older, and we learn to master it, AR will likely pervade every corner of our lives. It has the potential to be used in almost every industry. And maybe especially gaming, construction and instant information services.

Have a look at these interesting links:
Total Immersions Augmented Reality Demo
"Variety of videos", scroll down this page to see
a collection of YouTube movies.

Can we save lives by playing computer games?

2008-05-09T00:42:00.010+02:00

Researchers at the University of Washington have developed a game (currently in Beta stages) which enables heavy contribution in a certain scientific field - proteins - the key for biological mysteries.

Proteins are involved in almost all of the processes going on inside the human body. They break down food to power your muscles, they send signals to your brain which again controls your body and they also speed up chemical reactions. It's absolutely vital in a huge variety of tasks.

In this game, named "Fold It!", you are going to fold and shape proteins to satisfy several conditions. It might sound boring, but it's actually a fun puzzle experience. You can also chat with your fellow puzzle solvers. Best of all - your gameplay can actually contribute to curing diseases.

With a decent broadband connection, it took less than 5 minutes before we had this game set up and running. It's availible for Windows XP/Vista and Mac OS X (10.4 or later). And the installer was only 52,7 MB. It does, however require registration, as you will be uploading testimonial data to their servers.

It's absolutely free.
If you want to give it a try, visit the project homepage.

Screenshot of Fold It!

Question and Answer
Q: But why folding and shaping?
A: Even though proteins are just a long chain of amino acids, they don't like to stay stretched out in a straight line. The protein folds up to make a compact blob. Every kind of protein folds up into a very specific shape - the same shape every time. The unique shape of a particular protein is the most stable state it can adopt. This shape/structure specifies the function of the protein.

Q: What disease mysteries will I be contributing to solving?
A: Just to name a few: HIV/AIDS, Cancer and Alzheimer's.

Q: Isn't there any computer programs to fold and shape these proteins for us?
A: Yes, there are. But they are not efficient enough. This game will be collecting data about your puzzle solving strategies. Based on data from thousands of users, programmers can optimize and teach these strategies to computers.

Q: What are the future plans of this sofware?
A: Since proteins are part of so many diseases, they can also be part of the cure. Over the summer, there are plans for adding new functionality to the game to allow users to design brand new proteins that could help prevent or treat important diseases.

Teaching robots to learn

2008-05-07T01:37:00.012+02:00

There have been numerous debates concerning robots, and their (possible) future involvement in our lives. This is an interesting question, because robotics as a scientific field is getting bigger and broader. Especially the field concerning artificial cognitive systems (ACS). This has become a very fragmented field with a very high degree of specialization during the last years. Some have focused on machine vision, human-robot interaction, others on optimizing two legged walking, just to name a few.

CoSy
In september 2004 EU launched a project called Cognitive Systems for Cognitive Assistants (CoSy). This project is planned to end august 2008, so it has actually been going on for quite some time. What have they been doing all this time? Well, for starters, they have been trying to unify the fragmented fields within ACS technology - making these different yet related technologies work together is no simple task. The next generation of cognitive robots are still under development, but the complexity of the tasks being solved by robots is increasing dramatically these days. Mainly, one could say that these new robots are more aware of their enviroment and better to interact with humans. A good example of this is the Explorer:

Explorer, which is developed by the CoSy team, has a more human-alike understanding of its environment. Explorer can even talk about its surroundings with a human.

Take a look at the CoSy's homepage. There are many interesting video presentations for you to check out. Just scroll down at the pages below and have a look at the two main projects:

Explorer | Playmate

Question and Answer
Q: What could we expect from robots, are they part of our future?
A: Most certainly, yes. We think, that in the near future we will see robots performing errands of great diversity, but it will probably take some time before we can rely on them in daily life situations.

Q: What tasks can we expect them to perform?
A: Well, they are already moving our lawns and vacuum cleaning our floors (at least some),
so it wouldn't be completely off track to suggest that in 10 years they could be cleaning our entire house. The service sector is a perfect place for robots.

“In the future people may all be waited on by robots in their old age”.

Further reading on ICT results. Enjoy :)

The worlds largest experiment

2008-05-05T22:36:00.015+02:00

What is the unknown 96 percent of the universe made of?
Why do particles have mass?
What lies beyond Earth's dimension?
What happened in the Big Bang?

100 metres below ground at CERN in Geneva, Switzerland lies an enormous device that has been built to unlock the mysteries of the universe. Let's just cover the basics (for now).

The construction* mainly consists of a 27 km tunnel, and a very large particle detector. This wild thing will recreate conditions akin to the Big Bang - the scientific birth of our universe. Protons will be accelerated inside the tunnel to reach the highest speed possible (close to the speed of light**). At top speed there will be approximately 1 billion proton collisions every second. These collitions will be carefully monitored by the detection device called the ATLAS, which weighs 7000 tons.

To understand how precise the ATLAS is, we can compare it to a digital camera with 100 million image sensors that can produce 40 million snapshots every second. That will give us serious amounts of information. And scientists are hoping to use this information to answer the questions above.
_______________________________________________________
*Also reffered to as "large hadron collider" (LHC)
** 300 000 km/s , the speed of light

Question and Answer
Q: Will the machine produce information of importance?
A: Most likely (personal opinion). In fact, 2500 scientists from 37 countries were recruited to help design, test and build the ATLAS detector. This is the worlds largest experiment. This is as good as we get right now.

Q: Does it radiate?
A: Yes, the radiation field produced by the usage of the machine is stronger than a nuclear reactor.

Q: When is the ATLAS turned on?
A: Summer 2008 (goosebumps)