Memestate

Setting up OS X as a Scientific Programming Environment (From MacResearch)

From MacResearch (http://www.macresearch.org/setting_up_os_x_as_a_scientific_programming_environment):

I came across this great little article in setting up a scientific programming environment on OS X written by Dr. Eric P. Salathé Jr., a researcher in the Department of Atmospheric Sciences at the University of Washington. There are a number of sites with simple "essential application" lists for OS X, but this page is focused specifically on scientific programming, and instead of presenting a mundane list of applications, Dr. Salathé goes into detail on why each application should be installed and the scenarios in which they are used. I also like the fact that he's included several gems from the open-sources world that some Mac users may be unaware of. Although Dr. Salathé personal interests lie in the Atmospheric Sciences domain, he lays out a capable scientific programming environment that is suitable for any number of scientific disciplines. Topics covered in the page include:

• Installing fortran and C compilers
• Dealing with binary data
• Installing Optimized math libraries

You can view the complete article on Dr. Salathé's Website

Dr. Salathé's site looks incredibly useful. Dealing with Fortran on OS X is a battle. While I don't use Fortran for my own work, it is a dependency of R. I have a custom built R and Rpy installation for development of the Chartshare project. Every time I upgrade either component, there is at least a couple hours involved in fighting with GNU Fortran.

New DBT material coming soon.

From JamBase (http://www.jambase.com/headsup.asp?storyID=7920):

A Blessing and a Curse, the new Drive-By Truckers album, will be in stores April 25th, but they have already released a downloadable MP3 of one of the tracks called "Feb 14" for Valentines Day!

The Drive-By Truckers are purveyors of a new kind of southern rock storytelling - dense, dark, majestic and intelligent. Featuring three absolute ace songwriters, their albums are stronger for the natural competition. One of the hardest working live bands in the business today, DBT's performances are epic and cathartic. This 7th album is their most concise to date. While in keeping with their now recognizable sound, they have made some significant changes: the songs were all freshly written with this record in mind and without a specific theme. The result is very thought out and deliberate with a decided air of sophistication (Truckers style!).

While I'm always excited to see that some new Truckers material is on the way and really hoping that the new material will result in a couple of visits to Texas, the thing that got me hooked on the band was the fact that there material seemed to have a coherent theme. While there are some good, stand alone tracks on Southern Rock Opera, the common theme running between all the tracks on the album is what took the album from good to great. There is something worrisome with describing a DBT album as "very thought out and deliberate with a decided air of sophistication." I hope this turns out better than the god awful North Mississippi Allstars effort, Polaris, which was described in a similar manner before its release.

By the way, I absolutely love Rolling Stone's description of the band -

If the Old 97's weren't R.E.M.-adoring spastic nerds, they might sound a little bit like the Drive-By Truckers from Athens, Georgia. This country rocking quartet writes Americana anthems for the modern day working man and woman. Touched by the hooves of Crazy Horse, these guys have a rich and crunchy guitar tone, sounding like a string of Neil Young's tweed Deluxe amps turned all the way up out in an open hay field. Their music is basted in tangy harmonies and patiently marinated in both southern soul and small town honesty. These songs are powerful and cathartic creations that display unpretentious arrangements and true grit.