Stackless Python vs. Go

Note: I did a little more research and it turns out that the gc runtime creates one OS thread only, and then adds threads as a way to avoid I/O locks. On the other hand the gccgo runtime maps goroutines and p_threads on a 1 to 1 basis (as of now).

I have been lazily following the Go language project for a while now, when it
was suddenly discussed in this post of “Appunti Digitali” (in italian), that
pointed at this post
on Dalke Scientific.

It really got me that S.Python manages to beat Go so
badly, so I decided to run my own tests on my trusty old IBM X-41 (Pentium-M 1.5
GHz).

Continue reading “Stackless Python vs. Go”

Cyborgs among us

Maybe the post raises the vision of an even too dark future (as cyberpunk literature shows us), but in this case we are talking about an initial experiment of integration between the human being and a powered exo-skeleton.

The unit, called HAL (which stands for Hybrid Assistive Limb), interprets the electrical signals coming from motor neurons and, based on their intensity, it activates its several servo motors in order to enhance the users motion and strength.

The integretaion is not intrusive at all (yet it might be) and it allows disabled persons to be independant once more, or, more simply, to increment the wearer’s strength by up to 10 times (according to HAL’s father, prof Yoshiyuki Sankai of Tsukuba Univeristy).

It is interesting to notice that Sankai refused to licence the technology for any use other than the therapeutical (so no miltary exo-skeletons).

The first step towards a future of artificial limbs has been made. Cyborgs are among us.

Pandora!!!


Holy crap!

I did not know about the project Pandora. It is millions of times better than the crappy GP-32!

WTF, they already sold out the firs production batch (3000 units)! I will have to wait Christmas…

Here are the specs of the system:
* ARM® Cortex™-A8 600Mhz+ CPU running Linux
* 430-MHz TMS320C64x+â„¢ DSP Core
* PowerVR SGX OpenGL 2.0 ES compliant 3D hardware
* 800×480 4.3″ 16.7 million colours touchscreen LCD
* Wifi 802.11b/g, Bluetooth & High Speed USB 2.0 Host
* Dual SDHC card slots & SVideo TV output
* Dual Analogue and Digital gaming controls
* 43 button QWERTY and numeric keypad
* Around 10+ Hours battery life

Down below a render and videos. Enjoy the goodies of collaboration and open source!


Porca pupazza!

Non conoscevo il progetto Pandora. E’ milioni di volte meglio dello schifosissimo GP-32!

Porc, hanno gia’ venduto il primo batch di produzione (3000 unita’)! Mi tocchera’ aspettare Natale…

Ecco le specifiche del sistema:
* ARM® Cortex™-A8 600Mhz+ CPU running Linux
* 430-MHz TMS320C64x+â„¢ DSP Core
* PowerVR SGX OpenGL 2.0 ES compliant 3D hardware
* 800×480 4.3″ 16.7 million colours touchscreen LCD
* Wifi 802.11b/g, Bluetooth & High Speed USB 2.0 Host
* Dual SDHC card slots & SVideo TV output
* Dual Analogue and Digital gaming controls
* 43 button QWERTY and numeric keypad
* Around 10+ Hours battery life

Qui sotto un render e video. Godetevi le gioie della collaborazione e dell’open source!

Continue reading “Pandora!!!”

Study online

MIT releases publicly it’s classes since a long time, under the initiative OpenCourseWare.

To MIT have nowadays followed both the campuses of Berkley and Stanford with the initiatives Webcast and Stanford Engineering Everywhere.

These are websites to absolutely keep in your bookmarks and check quite often.

Matlab 7 (R14), Ubuntu 8.04 and GCC 4.x

I recently had the necessity to install Matlab on a Linux machine running Ubuntu 8.04 and I have encountered a few quirks here and there.

First it is a good idea to run unset LANG before running Matlab, otherwise certain GUI components, such as the directory selection modal dialog, will not run properly.

Second, it is necessary to modify the options related to mex, the C (or Fortran) to Matlab interface. The reason is that with GCC 4.x it is no more necessary to link against libstd and trying to do so will cause quite a bit of hassle (you can solve it on Fedora by installing gcc-compat, which is not available on Ubuntu, as far as I know). The solution is then to modify the file ~/.matlab/R14/mexopts.sh and simply remove the -lstdc++ option from the gcc section.

Finally I would suggest to run Matlab from console: KDE does not get along well with it.

Hope this helps.