A Short Trip To Bézier

IMG_4893, originally uploaded by smithco.

Took a trip to Bézier today. Turned out that the place is dreadfully boring. At least, I managed to get a few decent photos. View the whole photo set.

Del.icio.us Badge

I've added a del.icio.us badge on the right of this page. Nothing too special, but it does allow one more networking opportunity.

Cigale

Cigale 2, originally uploaded by smithco.

These little critters hide in the trees around Montpellier. Somehow, these insects, about an inch long, make an astoundingly loud noise. It's kind of a cricket-like noise, but higher pitch and much, much louder. There's almost always at least one per tree and can be heard from pretty much anywhere in the city. They start in the morning and stop when the sun goes down. One more reason as to why I'm not enjoying the summer here.

Global warming could lead to a frozen Europe

A brief explanation of how changes in the wind cycles of the Atlantic could breakdown and lead to a much colder climate in Europe.

read more | digg story

MySpace

Ok, I finally caved - I set up a MySpace page.

Basically I did this to keep tabs on various music groups. It seems to be the only thing that MySpace is really good for. But, on the off chance you, my unfaithful reader, decides to add me as a friend on MySpace, that would be cool too.

Visit my MySpace page.

Now all I have to do is figure out how to make my MySpace page not look ugly. I've heard rumours that this is actually possible.

MOG

Visit my MOG page! My online journal of the music I listen to.

MOG

C++ Tip: dimnum - C++ classes for storage and manipulation of dimensionful numbers

dimnum documentation

Dimnum is a library for handling measurement units. Unit conversions and correctness checks are done at compile time. This is a very nice way to ensure that units don't get screwed up when writing simulations.

However, the documentation for this library is a bit lacking. So, here follows a brief example of how to use it. In this example, a unit type that is included by default is created and a simple calculation is done to show the output.

#include <dimnum/dimnum.hh>
#include <dimnum/si.hh>

// Create a dimensional base for force
namespace dimension {
  typedef powers<1, 1, -2, 0, 0, 0, 0> force;
}

// declare unit used for force
default(si, force, newton, 1, 1, 0, "N");

// create the unit abbreviations
// library bug - this should be done automatically
const char unit::meter::abbr[] = "m";
const char unit::newton::abbr[] = "N";
const char unit::joule::abbr[] = "J";

int main()
{
  si::length<double> l(3.0); // 3 meters
  si::force<double> f(10.0); // 10 newtons

  // output 3m x 10N
  // The first result is in SI base units
  // The second result is in the SI derived unit, Joule
  std::cout << l << " x " << f << " = " << l * f << " = " << si::energy<double>(l * f) << std::endl;
}


While useful, it should be noted that there are three small problems: the documentation is sparse, unit abbreviations need to be created for all the units used and there aren't many units available by default. However, given how increadably useful this is, those little problems shouldn't be reasons not to use this library.

The CBC website is 10 years old!

A neat overview of how one of the web's older websites has evolved over the years. Some nice photo overview of this evolution are included. See the site design and the back-end hardware develop from old-and-broken to new-hotness.

read more | digg story

Google Spreadsheets

Thanks to Break over on Digg, I now have access to Google Spreadsheets. Very Cool. Post your email if you need an invite.

Wine Journal on the Side

Way down on the right side of this jounal, my wine journal on Cork'd is now displayed. Click on any of the entry titles to read the full wine review.