FreeMat – the MATLAB alternative
Working on Ubuntu, thinking if I could create my assignment tasks from the university without restarting the system and booting into windows, I searched Synaptic for MATLAB and found in the first few results FreeMat. From the Synaptic’s description,
FreeMat is a free environment for rapid engineering and scientific prototyping and data processing. It is similar to commercial systems such as MATLAB from Mathworks, and IDL from Research Systems, but is Open Source. FreeMat is available under the GPL license.
Tried running a couple of tasks I have previously programmed and voila all of them worked 
. It stood at only under 10mb, is fast and suited perfect for the small algorithm implementations we are working on in the university.
URL: http://freemat.sourceforge.net/
Screenshot:
FreeMat on Ubuntu
Semantic Web on JSP
Well I hadn’t heard the term “Semantic Web” until this semester when I had been asked to develop a project for, strangely, the course that was not in any way related to it 
… It was assigned as a research project to me and I feel thankful to our teacher because though it did not help in the course, it did add to my experience and knowledge as Semantic Web is said by the Internet experts to be the future of web.
Other classmates of mine had given presentations on the basics of Semantic Web, what is RDF/XML, ontologies, how we design ontologies on Protégé etc. Was also told by the teacher that would need to work on the Jena API on Java to accomplish my task of developing a sample Semantic Web Application on JSP.
Difficulties in the project:
- Not enough idea on why and what was Semantic Web.
- From where would I get an ontology and if I were to develop one, what are the things I need to keep in mind while I develop it.
- JSP :S
Areas of my interest:
- Java
- HTML
Though experienced several hiccups on my way to completion but in the end the project was highly appreciated by the teacher . Now I can add on my CV that I have knowledge of working on JSP and Semantic Web …
JigYourPic – The Jigsaw Puzzle for Facebook
Welcome my latest project on Silverlight and the worst in terms of design . I was just focused on programming this time and, don’t know why but, just couldn’t get the graphics to look atleast nice and simple if not outstanding. It has been a couple of weeks since I have not worked on it and frankly have lost my interest working on it. May extend this project if it gets enough response.
My next target towards a Silverlight App would definitely be a data driven application not a game, though I did want to create a multiplayer sort of game but uhh lets see what happens.
Comments are welcome and much needed. Ohh and yes the game can be reached here.
AddressBook Source
In the spirit of opening up the sources of The Snake project, here are the sources of my AddressBook created in Silverlight. Hope it helps you the way it has helped me in playing with Silverlight. Well, not much to say tonight too so Good Night .
The Snake Source
Well i have made the source code of my first ever big project (no it isn’t that big now but still my favourite one), TheSnake, which I worked on as our second semester C project.Wasn’t sure someone would indeed be interested but hey I’ve got a visitor who wants to take a look at it . And it’s better to open up something than making it die in dark. Thats all for now. Good night everyone.
My Attempt at Silverlight (Address Book)
This is my first attempt at a Silverlight project and have tried to impress my instructors to the fullest. Do take a look and comment on what you think about it.
The application is only client based and all information it saves resides on your own pc. Nothing is shared with the world or me . Also the application is not feature complete. Will use this application as the base for my future projects as I have implemented many cool features of Silverlight like Visual State Manager, Templates, Data Binding, Observable Collection etc.
References:
- Silverlight Unleashed by Laurent Bugnion
- Accelerated Silverlight 2 by Jeff Scanlon
- Video Tutorials by Mike Taulty
- Free Icons Web
PS: Am not that good at graphics so bare with any glitches (but do notify me so that I may not make the same error again) in the User Interface.
Online Computing – Desktops
From Wiki,
A web desktop or webtop is a desktop environment embedded in a web browser or similar client application. A webtop integrates web applications, web services, client-server applications, application servers, and applications on the local client into a desktop environment using the desktop metaphor. Web desktops provide an environment similar to that of Windows, Mac, or a graphical user interface on Unix and Linux systems. It is a virtual desktop running in a web browser. In a webtop the applications, data, files, configuration, settings, and access privileges reside remotely over the network. Much of the computing takes place remotely. The browser is primarily used for display and input purposes.
There are a number of webtops available freely but only a few allow guest login and therefore you need to sign up (though it takes only a few minutes but you don’t want useless accounts on the sites you probably won’t use) before you can test the desktop. So here comes the list,
1. eyeOS (http://eyeos.org/en/)
An Open Source AJAX based Desktop with its own set of applications including office suites, games, basic accessories and even a process manager. Provide an API for developers for integrating there own services into eyeOS. You can check out the demo here http://demo.eyeos.org/?lang=en.
eyeOS is a new kind of Operating System, where everything resides on a web browser. With eyeOS, you will have your desktop, applications and files always with you, from your home, your college, your office or your neighbor’s house.
2. Global Hosted Operating System (http://www.g.ho.st/)
G.ho.st provides every person in the world with a free Virtual Computer (VC). Like a Windows PC, or Mac, the VC is a personal computing environment which includes your desktop, your personal settings, your files and your choice of software applications. But unlike a PC, your VC is not installed on one physical computer – instead it is stored in professional data centers across the Internet cloud, and is accessed from any Internet browser in the world.
Flash based and pretty much solid desktop. Works together with 3rd party web applications like Zoho, Google Docs etc. which makes it even powerful as the apps work seamlessly within the desktop.
3. GlideOS (http://www.glideos.com)
No demo account. No briefing on the project. User Comments makes this desktop sound the best of all. Comes with its own web applications which also are very much praised.
4. DesktopTwo (http://www.desktoptwo.com/)
Desktoptwo is your home in the cloud with all of your personal information, files, programs, applications and more in one user friendly location. All you need is a simple web device and your browser instantly becomes your private desktop.
5. WidgeTop http://www.widgetop.com/mobile.html
Lots of widgets. Different from all above desktops as it relies totally on widgets. So its only useful when you need to keep you system as a showcase .
Is that all ? I want more… If thats your case then google is your friend.
PS
- The numbering above is not supposed to be the ranking of the desktops.
- Don’t forget to turn on the fullscreen mode of your browser (F11).
Online Computing
The world of computing is getting together on the web (or should I say cloud). We have loads of free web based applications that provide competitive features as compared to desktop applications. Online, we now have Email Clients, Messengers, Web OS, Media Players, Office Suites, Image editors, Development Environments etc. all of which run inside your web browser without the need of installing any application(ofcourse you need to have browser plugins to run most of them). Most of these apps even provide free web space to save your documents online so that you may access them from anywhere, anytime. Or if you have Live Linux CDs or Asus Express Gate(Splashtop) powered motherboard you dont even need to have an OS installed to access all these apps.
Most apps in the beginning were implemented through AJAX and many now have transited to Flash/Air. And with the increasing competition between JavaFX, Flash and Silverlight we can say that there is much yet to come.
List of several applications grouped by categories are currently being googled. Will soon publish the result 
.
searchMe
Searchme lets you see what you’re searching for. As you start typing, categories appear that relate to your query. Choose a category, and you’ll see pictures of web pages that answer your search. You can review these pages quickly to find just the information you’re looking for, before you click through.
Cool Flash Based Visual Search Engine (Also available in Lite HTML Version) that displays previews of your search results. Not enough to say as I still haven’t explored it much, so go and try it out yourself.
Project Touchless
Official Introduction:
“Touchless enables touch without touching by using a webcam to track color based markers.”
“Touchless” is an open source Microsoft Office Labs community project that enables touch/multitouch (like the one in Windows 7) in your applications using just an oridinary webcam by tracking/monitoring unique colored markers. The Touchless SDK and Demo is available testing or using the feature in our applications.
I tried the demo and it did work but, because of improper lightings and markers, the result was not very pleasant. But am working on setting up a proper environment for the demo to work and maybe we will develop a demo of our own .
