Windows 2000 Service Pack 3: The Register is reporting that SP3 is available now. Grab it here [125MB].
Category: Web Services
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[H]ard|OCP releases an RSS feed: Good stuff.
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Algorithm::Evolutionary: It is a perl library designed to make evolutionary algorithms easier and available to more people. Here is what the freshmeat description has to say about the 0.5 release:
Algorithm::Evolutionary is a flexible set of classes for doing evolutionary computation in Perl, integrated with XML for evolutionary algorithm description. So far, it contains classes for doing string, tree, and vector array-based evolutionary computation, several variation operators, and simple population-level algorithms. It has been distributed algorithms using SOAP, and integrated with the DBI and HTML::Mason libraries. It contains an XML dialect for definition of evolutionary algorithms, called EvoSpec; experiments defined using Algorithm::Evolutionary can be completely serialized/deserialized using this language.
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More format choices = bad, although when you get beyond 128 MB, there’s some incentive. Smaller memory cards worry me because I have a difficult enough time keeping track of my Sony memory sticks. Anything smaller (the xD-Picture Card is about the size of a penny) and I might accidentally eat it thinking I’m grabbing a breath mint out of my bag.
Besides, the user interface for tracking 8 GB worth of pictures would be unreal. I have problems organizing the 6 GB on my Archos Jukebox MP3 player, so 8 GB of anything that I’d have to wade through on a small device would probably make my head explode. The industry needs some serious usability testing and implementation before introducing this much memory in a package that small.
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Fuji and Olympus announced a new digital storage format today called “xD-Picture Card .” Here’s a press release from Fuji. Olympus also released an identical document. I have been working in the photo retail business for over five years now, and I’d like to think that I’m qualified to weigh in on this new format.
This new format cannot be “a good thing.” Basically, there are already too many film formats. Consumers must choose among compact flash, smartmedia, Sony’s memory stick, secure digital (SD) or multimedia cards (MMC). Compact flash cards are by far the most popular, due in part to their close resemblance to PCMCIA cards. Fuji and Olympus are the only major manufacturers still using smartmedia, a format that the two companies invented to challange compact flash. Smartmedia currently ranks the third most popular storage format, though sales of smartmedia have been extremely slow lately, while CF and SD/MMC have been selling like hotcakes.
The new format will initially be available in 16MB-128MB sizes. There’s nothing particularly special here. You can purchase a compact flash card in stores that has a 512MB capacity. You can even achieve more storage if you use a microdrive, a spinning hard drive the size of a compact flash card. Fuji and Olympus claim that the new format will be able to read and write at 3MB/s, a good speed, but one that is currently possible with compact flash cards.
The new format will supposedly scale to 8GB. That’s all fine and dandy, but considering you can order a 1gig solid state compact flash card today, who’s to say that it won’t scale to 8GB and beyone either? The only other thing that could save this new card format is price, but according to the press release, “Pricing for xD-Picture Cards and accessories will be similar to SmartMedia.”
The new format does have one thing going for it: its size. The card is slightly larger than a penny. Size is the reason that many people have switched from compact flash over to secure digital and multimedia cards, though both are larger than xD.
To summarize, I think that yet another digital storage format is not the answer. This new format may cause financial trouble for Fuji and Olympus.
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Salon Blogs has been great for the radio community and the weblogging community as a whole. Since the Salong blogs went live, I’ve seen several new weblogs worth reading, and also a spike in useful radio tools, tips, and tricks. Rock on.
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RadioExpress: A radio hack that allows you to use bookmarklets for easy blogging. [via Radio Free Blogistan.]
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w.bloggar: A very cool looking ‘blogging interface.
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PHP XML-RPC implementations from my morning web stumbling:
So far I have only downloaded the phpRPC implementation, and it looks pretty complete. I’ll post more as I play with it.
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Andre Malraux: “The greatest mystery is not that we have been flung at random between the profusion of matter and of the stars, but that within this prison we can draw from ourselves images powerful enough to deny our nothingness.”
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Choosing Data Structures: It may seem trivial at times, but perhaps the right datastructure for the job will simplify things.
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There’s something surreal about a helicopter hovering 50 feet above your head.
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Ugly but okay:
Within an hour and six minutes of the derailment, rescue crews had all of the people off the train.
From NBC4’s latest report. It looks like there were a few serious injuries, but no fatalities.
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A firetruck en route taken with my JamCam -
From NBC4 An Amtrak passenger train has derailed in Kensington, Md., near Summit Avenue and Plyers Mill Road.The eastbound Capitol Limited, train #30 derailed at approximately 1:55 p.m. It carried 202 people on board including 190 passengers and 12 crew members who were traveling from Chicago to Washington.
Officials with the Montgomery County Fire Department said about 60 people are hurt, and approximately six people suffered traumatic injuries. Emergency reponse teams said three of the injuries are considered serious.
Within an hour and six minutes of the derailment, rescue crews had all of the people off the train.
The train consisted of 2 engines and 13 cars. Montgomery County police spokesman Lieutenant Harold Allen says all 13 cars of the train derailed, but not all flipped over.
Amtrak is establishing a customer care center. An emergency number has been set up for family members of passengers who were on the derailed train. The number for family members to check on a passenger’s welfare, is 1-800-523-9101.
Investigators with the National Transportation Safety Board are looking for the cause of the accident.
A witness said a freight train came down the tracks just minutes before the passenger train. “I heard a big kaboom. Before that happened, a train came through with coal on it, it was flying – a lot of coal was flying everywhere. A couple minutes later the Amtrak train came through, and then all of a sudden, I saw the track collapse, the inside rail of the train collapsed. The train started rolling, and the cars started flipping over, ” said Kermit Tyler, a witness.
He continued, “Then I heard a little girl scream. She had one foot hanging in the window and the rest of her body hanging beneath the train. I ran down and tried to help her and got her out. More people were yelling. I brought her up to the top of the hill where a police officer was and then went down and tried to grab some more people. By the time I did that, there were a lot of other people here. I tried to help them out and then got out of the way when the rest of the rescue squad came here.”
The train derailed on tracks owned, operated and maintained by CSX Corporation.
MARC Rail uses the same track, and officials said they are making contingency plans for this evening’s commute. MARC passengers who usually use the Brunswick line are being told to use their MARC passes to take MetroRail to Shady Grove. From the Shady Grove station, MARC is providing bus service to passenger’s final destinations.
The derailment may affect MARC’s service tomorrow morning. Passengers can get instructions from MARC’s web site or by calling (410) 539-5000.
Commuters who drive in the area, especially those who use Connecticut Avenue, can expect delays this evening.
News4 reporters are on the scene along with the News 4 helicopter, and nbc4.com will have further details as soon as they are available.
Dozens Hurt in Md. Train Derailment
Mon Jul 29, 3:24 PM ET
By STEPHEN MANNING, Associated Press Writer
KENSINGTON, Md. (AP) – An Amtrak train carrying about 200 people derailed near Washington on Monday, injuring dozens. There were no immediate reports of fatalities.
Montgomery County fire spokesman Oscar Garcia said about 60 patients were awaiting transfer to hospitals and at least six people with what he called “traumatic” injuries.
The train was the Capitol Limited en route from Chicago to Washington. The accident happened about 1:55 p.m. near Connecticut Avenue, a major through street, authorities said.
The train, using double-decker “Superliner” passenger cars, left Chicago at 7 p.m. Sunday with about 190 passengers and a crew of 12, Amtrak spokeswoman Karina Van Veen said.
It had two engines and 13 passenger cars, and preliminary reports indicated that 11 cars derailed, an Amtrak statement said.
At least 85 fire and rescue workers were sent to the scene. Scores of rescuers helped evacuate passengers.
Television footage showed a row of double-decker cars lying on their sides, between the tracks and trees along the route.
Montgomery County police spokesman Lucille Bower told Baltimore television station WJZ-TV that “it is possible there are passengers pinned inside.”
“It is our understanding at this point that there have not been fatalities,” Bower said.
A woman identified only as Paula told WJZ that she was heading from Chicago to Washington with her 13-year-old daughter. They both escaped unharmed.
“The way our car fell, we were on the bottom. So, we had to climb out … onto the top, which was the side of the train, and onto a ladder.”
In 1996, the Capitol Limited and a Maryland commuter train collided in nearby Silver Spring, killing all three crew members and eight passengers on commuter train.
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It’s ugly, I just saw pictures of it on the news. It’s kind of weird seeing a picture from a camera that has to be sitting on a bridge a block from where you are.
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WHEATON, Md. — A passenger train has derailed in Kensington, Md., near Summit Avenue and Plyers Mill Road.
Emergency crews are responding, and News4 has learned people have been hurt in the derailment.
Initial reports indicate at least six cars derailed. A witness says cars are on their sides.
A News4 crew is on the way and nbc4.com will have further details as soon as they are available.
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I’m down the road from it, but things are so blocked off I won’t be able to make it down there.
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Apparently a train has derailed down the street from my work. More details as I get them.
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Expect More: Sam Ruby’s new essay on SOAP and evolution.