Somehow I missed this when searching for something like it the previous time, but Parallel Python (now found via Bruce Eckel’s blog) is exactly what I’ve been looking for.  A simple process pool that can run on multiple cores or on a cluster of machines!

DeVIDE has recently acquired the ability to run in black-box (gui-less) mode, so that networks can also be executed via some other coordination framework, such as Nimrod (see our paper on this, mail me if you want the fulltext).  However, seeing that I’ve neatly abstracted out the interface part of DeVIDE (you can choose between wxPython, simple xml-rpc, command-line with Python driver script, even PyRo), integrating ParallelPython would be a cinch.

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This official GMail blog post announces that the GMail storage counter will be increased even faster… let’s have a look at my gmail.com account:

You are currently using 1541 MB (52%) of your 2911 MB.

What I find even more exciting, is that Google is going to give the free GMail for Domains accounts, which until now were limited to 2GB, the same space counter as normal gmail.com accounts.  As some of you might know, I’ve been rerouting all my work mail (mostly tudelft.nl) to my medvis.org GMail for Domains account.  I have yet to come across a MUA that suits me better than GMail.  Let’s have a look:

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HI THERE GANG! If you don’t like long-winded introductions, skip to the bit starting with “THE NITTY GRITTY”.

Getting Things Done (GTD, see here for the book, here and here for introductory information, and here for a cool workflow diagram) by David Allen is a master-piece. Having read it, most of it kind of fits. It’s almost as if, if one had had the time to sit down and think for long enough, one would have come up with the same brilliant tips. But one hadn’t, so one didn’t. The Delete-Do-Delegate-Defer monster, contextual todo-lists (Work-Computer, Home, Calls, Errands, etc.), the Weekly Review(tm) and actionable next actions are some of the most valuable things I picked up when I read this book about a year and a half ago.

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This is really one of those notes to self one leaves all around the show and is later so surprised about when Google finds it in a few years time, thus saving one’s hide. Again. It’s like Back to the Future, only different.

So today I was plagued by BAD_POOL_CALLER BSODs at every single restart on my XP SP2 HP NC8430 laptop (acronyms rule o.k.). I fired up my windbg, pointed its symbol file path at “SRV* c:\dbgsymbols* http://msdl.microsoft.com/download/symbols” (you should probably remove the spaces after the *s) and loaded the latest memory minidump from windows\minidump (XP makes these by default). The backtrace pointed out the culprit: It was ati2evxx.exe, the infamous i’m-not-sure-what-exactly-i’m-doing-on-your-system ATI hotkey poller. First I nuked it with the brilliant sysinternals procexp, and then permanently nuked it with the equally brilliant sysinternals autoruns. My problems are over. I also feel better after nuking ati2evxx. TAKE THAT, YOU SOULLESS STEAMING P.O.S. SOFTWARE!

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With this I’m doing my bit to spread this news in my part of the blogosphere (*cough* I’m not supposed to use that word, EVAR).

It turns out that Bush knew all along that Saddam had absolutely no WMDs, but that the decision had already been made to invade Iraq, and that the intelligence was simply twisted to fit this policy. Read all the nasty details in this Salon article. Here’s a choice excerpt:

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(For The Impatient and Those With Important Things to Do: this is a long story about Ubuntu Gutsy Gibbon and how Linux Powertop can help you to make you laptop battery last longer. It has pictures. At the end.)

One of the main problems I had with Ubuntu 7.04 (Feisty Fawn) as you will recall, was the extremely poor power management. You don’t spend thousands of euros on a laptop to install an operating system on that drains its batteries in half the time it takes Windows to do the same.

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You can always check my Latest VTK Windows binaries page to make sure you have the latest blog posting and hence the latest VTK binaries.

Get your Python 2.4-enabled VTK 5.1 (Paraview-3-0 branch as of 20070801) and ITK 3.2 Windows binaries by clicking on the following link: http://visualisation.tudelft.nl/~cpbotha/files/vtk_itk/

IMPORTANT: you HAVE TO to install the MS VS2005 vcredist_x86 package (free!) if you want to use these DLLs (thanks Jelle for pointing this out). In future, I might include the relevant assemblies in the downloads, I’ll let you know.

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I’m going to keep this post short and sweet by making use of a visual aid:

The line-up includes Tool, Smashing Pumpkins, Nine Inch Nails (I’m going there for Trent), Sonic Youth, Lacuna Coil, Iggy Pop and some pimply new kids on the block, such as Kaiser Chiefs and Fall Out Boy.

Now I just have to decide whether I’m going to grow that festival moustache or not…

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For work (which I’m not supposed to talk about here, but what the heck) I often read and comment on other people’s work. Often this is done with a good old-fashioned red pen and a paper version of the manuscript in question. However, it can be very convenient being able to annotate the electronic version directly and, it can be argued, this does its small part in Saving Trees(tm), which in turn impresses certain types.

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It seems that the Redjeki Toko in Delft (click here for my Google Map that’ll lead you right there) also sells miso soup! I acquired a supply of my old favourite, but also decided to try a different type of miso, just for kicks:

It’s a so-called family pack, I prefer to call it The Addict’s Friend. There are eight (8) servings in there, man! Notice the big ‘8’ on the package promoting this fact. There is also 30% more or less of something else in there, but I’ll probably never know exactly what.

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