The best new computer of 2011

If you are waiting for the best. It is now here. No it's not a Mac.... No its not a PC..... what it it?????

See it here

I want one. I think it even can run a c64 in emulation mode. I am not kidding. I am not.

DataFlux a SAS company

I have been told that this is a product worth looking into. For data cleanup and master data management. It is called DataFlux. I like the name

100 of the best data visualizations

There is a magazine that is devoted to Visualisation of data. They did a 100 of the best data visualizations that is worth looking at if you want to move beyond the pie and bar chart. Here is the link to the 100 best. And if you want to read more take a look at the magazine.

Media Monkey

Christmas is here and it is time to start thinking about what you want to get your computer from Santa.

If you are looking for a cheap (free) gift and you have over 100,000 mp3's and are frustrated by old media players that choke at 20,000 mp3's. Point your browser to http://www.mediamonkey.com/ and download now. I tried both winamp and Microsoft media player and they both could not handle my 100,000 song collection. Media Monkey did it with style and grace.

Thats about the size of it.

Here is a neat way to look at the size of things. Cell Size and Scale. There is a slider on the bottom that lets you zoom into the microscopic realm and a scale on the top that lets you know how little you are.

Flowing Data

I was looking up something to visualize email and came across this post from Flowing data.

Some of the visualizations are really good and others are more arty than meaningful. At any rate at least take a look around the flowing data site it looks pretty interesting.

There is some really interesting work going on right now in the area of computing and visualization! Well worth the read.

Best Science Visualization Videos of 2009

This is what high end computing is all about. Turing numbers in to visualization. For those about to crunch we salute you SCIdac keep it up..... Best Science Visualization Videos of 2009 Some of the most impressive images in science are produced when researchers take numerical data and represent it visually through modeling and computer graphics. The Department of Energy honored 10 of this year’s best scientific visualizations with its annual SciDAC Vis Night awards, at the Scientific Discovery through Advanced Computing conference (SciDAC) in June. Researchers submitted visualizations to the contest, and program participants voted on the best of the best. From earthquakes to jet flames, this gallery of videos and images show how beautiful (and descriptive) visual data can be.

Windows 7

Yes, a moment of silence was observed around the world as we paid respect to the release of another OS from Microsoft. I was at a bar in Karabi, Thailand with live music and I managed to get the musician to toast the release. No all the patrons knew what we were toasting, and some jeered us. But that is the price you pay at times for belonging to the nerd_heard. We believe all OS are inherently good because they are part of the computing story. Ommmmmmmmm Shanti Ommmmmmmmmmm

John has installed Win 7 already and we gave it the once over. We are impressed. I am ordering 3 copies. It runs like water on the Nova p22 (official computer of the heard). Office 2003 opens is less than a second.

A must read

This is required reading for membership in the nerd heard.

From Publishers WeeklyA 75-cent discrepancy in billing for computer time led Stoll, an astrophysicist working as a systems manager at a California laboratory, on a quest that reads with the tension and excitement of a fictional thriller. Painstakingly he tracked down a hacker who was attempting to access American computer networks, in particular those involved with national security, and actually reached into an estimated 30 of the 450 systems he attacked. Initially Stroll waged a lone battle, his employers begrudging him the time spent on his search and several government agencies refused to cooperate. But his diligence paid off and in due course it was learned that the hacker, 25-year-old Markus Hess of Hanover, Germany, was involved with a spy ring. Eight members were arrested by the West German authorities but all but one were eventually released. Although the book will be best appreciated by the computer literate, even illiterates should be able to follow the technical complexities with little difficulty. Literary Guild selection. Copyright 1989 Reed Business Information, Inc. --This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.

http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/1416507787/ref=kinw_rke_tl_1

Join the KIVA Nerd_Heard Team

The BKK Nerd_Heard now has a presence in the micro-finance world! Join the team today and free yourself of all that guilt!

RigLogix - upstream intelligence system

RigLogix - upstream intelligence system This could have some interesting data that would be worth looking in to. Here is there pitch "RigLogix is a premium data service providing you with instant access to comprehensive offshore rig data covering the entire global fleet. You can use RigLogix to track future rig contracts, rig availability, dayrates, utilization trends, rig capabilities, rig locations, and much more. RigLogix delivers timely data in a usable and convenient format. "

A laser harp

This is a musical instrument worthy of mention on the nerd heard. It is basically synthesizer that works by "Plucking" beamz of laser light.

The music you can create with it is actually pretty lame but the uniqueness will be sure to sell a few of these units. Sort of reminds me of "Revenge of the Nerds" when they do the Talent Show part at the end.

http://thebeamz.com/

Neural Network Software Add-ins for Microsoft Excel

Another cool tool in the predictive modeling game is this software from NeuroXL. It is a addin to excel that allows you to build nural networks and classification algorithms. Here is the sites info box. Neural Network Software Add-ins for Microsoft Excel: "NeuroXL Classifier is a fast, powerful and easy-to-use neural network software tool for classifying data in Microsoft Excel. Designed to aid experts in real-world data mining and pattern recognition tasks, it hides the underlying complexity of neural network processes while providing graphs and statistics for the user to easily understand results. NeuroXL Classifier uses only proven algorithms and techniques, and integrates seamlessly with Microsoft Excel"

Visual Text

So lets say you want to get into the text analysis game, where do you start? Take this blog post for example, a text analyzer will read it at some point because almost all of the blogs are read electronically. It will look at my grammar, spelling, choice of words and decide how old I am, what this post is about, what I might be interested in….. So how do you build tools that can mine the text on the internet or in your databases, email’s, documents? You need some text analysis software.This is a pretty interesting software. I have installed it and done a little work with it. Basically you give it some text and some logic and you can create software that can categorize what the text is about. I can't fully explain what I am using it for but needless to say if you have a lot of text that you need to electronically read and process this is a tool to look at. Here is their blurb. Text Analysis International: "VisualText is the premier integrated development environment for building information extraction systems, natural language processing systems, and text analyzers. The Professional version is now FREE for personal, internal, academic, development, and non-commercial use."

Smaller housing

We all know in technology smaller is better, but is it also better in a house? This page has lots of examples of small houses/cottages that people have put together. Small high quality housing that will not cost you a fortune is something worth considering. Small Compact Prefab Home Design — www.shedandshelter.com

WriteMonkey - Home

I love this word processor, why you might ask? It removes everything from the user interface execpt your words. It sounds simple but why can't the big boys at microsoft add this as a feature that simplifies the interface to nothing. They are too proud of their design to hide it. WriteMonkey - Home: "Zenware for full screen distraction free creative writing. No whistles and bells, just empty screen, you and your words. WriteMonkey is light, fast, and perfectly handy for those who enjoy the simplicity of a typewriter but live in modern times."

Wordle - Beautiful Word Clouds

Say you have some text and you want to turn it into a picture. I know we've all wanted to see this before. Well along comes wordle give it some text and it will create a "word cloud". The image to the left was done using this site as the content. Horray now we can summarize powerpoint slides into one picture and skip the mindless reading of the slides. Wordle - Beautiful Word Clouds

A Nerdly puzzle game.

In need of a break from crunching numbers and computing in general? Here is the perfect cure. Its a complex puzzle game designed by the game puzzle master himself Cliff Johnson. Cliff designed David Blaine $100,000 challange in 2002 and the computer game "A fools errand" in 1987. The new game is called "A fool and his money". I pre ordered the game.....hold on! The Fool's and his money.

We are missing the nerd event of the year!

Comic-Con is on. http://www.comic-con.org/ and we are missing it. We are pathetic. Whats next missing the consumer electronics show! A few trips to Fortune Town are in order to make up for this transgression.

Good advice

"If your out among normals' flaunting your tech dosn't make you look like the King of Coolsville, it makes you look like Count Clueless of Dorkylvania" Wired - Marren Jinnett I want to know how to get a job in Dorkylvania, and what is the uplift there?