Comment Re:Huh? (Score 4, Informative) 700
- Anything else?
Under what has been lost: $300 in purchase price.
Under what has been gained: PS Home, PS Store video rental/purchase, & Netflix.
Comment Re:Python? (Score 5, Informative) 794
I think you are mistaken regarding what most undergraduate science students actually do (they are not maintaining/upgrading old fortran libraries). Most of the high performance capability that undergrads need involves matrix computations, FFTs, convolution, etc., all of which are included in the python numpy/Numeric module (which is a wrapper around fortran libraries, so they're just as efficient). And since they'll likely spend as much time analyzing data as producing it, python + numpy + matplotlib is a perfectly suitable solution.
I'm not suggesting that fortran isn't of value to some scientists in some situations but many science students will never have to touch fortran code unless they're forced to take a class that teaches it. As you said: "They're being taught to program as a mere tool for the important stuff being taught." Which is why it makes sense that their intro language is one that is easy to learn, supports multiple programming paradigms, has efficient numerical libraries, has easy-to-use visualization tools, an interactive interpreter, and can be used as a general purpose programming language. And while I personally prefer python for a high level language, there are others that could serve the same purpose.
Comment It is receiving universal praise... (Score 2, Interesting) 218
...from all the commenters on Wolfram's blog. It is actually rather amusing to read through the long list of overwhelmingly positive comments.
Submission + - Crysis Performance Evaluated - Prepare to Upgrade (pcper.com)
Vigile writes: "Anyone that plays PC games has heard about the upcoming Crysis game for some time and yesterday the single player PC demo was finally released! After being just about a month late, you can grab the 1.7GB demo at all the popular file hosting sites. It was expected that Crysis would set a new benchmark for image quality and the initial performance preview over at PC Perspective indicates it might be even more of a system crippler than initially thought. Even the best-in-class 8800 GTX has trouble at common resolutions like 1600x1200!!"
Submission + - GNOME supporting Microsoft OOXML as ISO standard? (archive.org)
christian.einfeldt writes: "According to long-time OpenDocument Fellowship member Russell Ossendryver, it appears that GNOME founder Miguel de Icaza's widely-publicized praise for OOXML as a 'superb standard' is being followed up with on-going support by the GNOME Foundation in 'resolving' the thousands of criticisms leveled against the purported Microsoft OOXML standard. In an open letter in his blog, Ossendryver calls on the GNOME Foundation to explain its apparent attempts to 'resolve' the criticisms, which is a pre-condition to acceptance of Microsoft OOXML as a second office productivity standard by the world ISO committee. Ossendryver urges the GNOME Foundation to halt its apparent support for OOXML as a standard and to put its efforts behind enhancing adoption of the genuinely open standard, the OpenDocument Format (ODF), which was approved by the world standards bodies as ISO/IEC standard 26300 on 2 May 2006."
Submission + - Gmail accounts hacked - no response from Google (livejournal.com)
jared51 writes: A few friends have recently had their Gmail accounts hacked, causing immense life complications. With Gmail storing all information (many people have a handy label "Accounts" making life easier) that has ever been emailed, a hijacker can easily move on to eBay, PayPal and credit card accounts to turn the crime into cash. Making matters worse, Google is impossible to contact by human. Hijacked users must contend with an endless series of forms.
Submission + - Marvel Studios to produce its own movies
Dekortage writes: "According to the New York Times, Marvel Studios will be producing its own superhero movies instead of licensing the superheros to other Hollywood studios. It's all about the money: despite the enormous popularity of Sony Pictures' Spiderman 1 and 2, the licensing deal only netted Marvel $62 million. The article includes some tips about upcoming works: Edward Norton as Bruce Banner in a new Incredible Hulk, and Robert Downey, Jr. as Tony Stark in Iron Man."
Submission + - Blockbuster adopting Blu-Ray over HD DVD
EveryNickIsTaken writes: Blockbuster announced today that for future HD releases they will only be offering Blu-Ray rentals. Existing stocks of HD DVD rentals will still be offered, but no new discs will be available.
From TFA:
From TFA:
Blockbuster has been renting both Blu-ray and HD DVD titles in 250 stores since late last year and found that consumers were choosing Blu-ray titles more than 70 percent of the time. "The consumers are sending us a message. I can't ignore what I'm seeing," Matthew Smith, senior vice president of merchandising at Blockbuster, told The Associated Press.
