Yes, exactly a millennium ago.

 Then the whole Indian subcontinent was a conglomeration of small kingdoms. We belonged to a small one, may be the size of Delhi. It was independent, wedged between two powerful neighbors: the Samoothiripad in the North and some principality belonging to the area, now known as Thiruvithankur (Travancore). Our Cochin state was free from corruption. People were generally happy. One English writer described the India of those times as ‘thousands of villages’, each a republic governed by the village elders. None had money. Gold was used only for making ornaments. Wealth was measured in terms of paddy earned by each family (I am talking in terms known to me). The artisans made clothes, agricultural implements, gold ornaments; made tenements out of mud and hay or palm leaves (cobbler was unknown  as none wore foot wear). Brass and bronze works were excellent, as also wood work. Landlords enjoyed leisure and bonded laborers did the work. The latter were fed even when there was no work. All people were known to each other. Even in my childhood, thefts were limited to coconut and plantain! There was plenty of time for any leisurely activity like literature, sports and arts.

 All were happy, even though epidemics took a heavy toll of men but not animals.

Let us examine, item by item, how life was then and what we have achieved now.

1)      Life was secure then. None was worried about his future. Mostly, traditional vocations were followed, the society being caste-ridden. How will my children live after my time? The question never worried any body. Anxiety on this account was unknown then. Today, every moment we are concerned about it (of course, I am not talking about the Ambanis)

2)      All works were done manually. This kept life style diseases away. People were healthy. The rich people suffered from diabetes, B.P and heart attacks. The poor people were spared. Today, the middle class too have become rich as far as life style is concerned. We don’t exert. Remote control ensured that we need not even move. So we suffer from all diseases of the rich.

3)      The vaidyaji took care of health problems. I don’t remember ever going to a doctor. The Namboodri house stood in the middle of a spacious plot of land. We had our own well and at least one pond. No fencing, we never wounded mother Earth with the pick axe or spade. It was like a forest. Things just grew. Village people scouted for medicinal plants or mangoes in the season. They never asked us. In the month of Karkidagam (Sawan) ladies adorned the hair with “Dashapushpam” (ten flowers). After the land reforms, we too became proletariat, when our only source of earnings was taken away. The land was handed over to the tillers. Today land is fallow because none can afford to grow food. Wages are high and labour is not available in Keralam.

     I have digressed. We were discussing medicine. The vidyaji will only prescribe the medicines. If these cannot be had from the land, there is a shop selling them. Medicines, in soup form, were made at home. People may give some gift like plantain. The belief is that if vidyaji demands compensation, he will lose his ability to diagnose and treat the illness.

 When the people of the West were barbarians (say B.C1000) Ayurvedic system of medicine was well developed in India. At Rajgir in Bihar, I was shown the excavated remains of a hospital where the royal families were treated. Even today Ayurveda can hold its head high in certain fields. But the sanctity of the system was violated when it was commercialized. Now, medicinal soups are bottled and preserved, rendering them sometimes ineffective.

 Today, medical treatment is nothing but shameless exploitation of the masses. Multi speciality hospitals cater to the rich. The poor people survive by grace of God. 50% of the medicines sold in the market are absolutely useless. (It was in the newspapers.) All medicines have side effects. Fees must be deposited in advance (pity the vidyaji). As doctors are “manufactured” in thousands, who can guarantee their quality? (Merit is ignored; caste is the basis for selection of students). Each hospital should earn profit. Or else, it will be closed down. So it must be ensured that people fall ill, as frequently as possible. As soon as a baby is born it is given ten injections, to make sure that its immunity system doesn’t develop. The bird flu was unknown then. Today also desi chickens are not affected. Artificial methods have destroyed the capacity to resist diseases.

 To make people fall ill, fast food culture is deliberately encouraged. To the capitalist, a patient is also a consumer. The only aim is profit. To hell with health! We want every citizen to be in the hospital so that profit can swell.

4) Education was totally free of lucre then. I was thrilled to see rows of neatly made hostel rooms at Nalanda which was just a name until Sir Alexander Cunningham traveled in the foot steps of Huen Tsang and saw small hills covered with grass and shrubs. He suggested excavation of the area which was started in 1914. Even today, a few work men may be seen digging leisurely; it may take another hundred years at this rate, to uncover the whole township. More than four hundred years B.C, it was a beacon of learning, attracting scholars from all over the East. They did not come to get a degree and campus selection for lucrative jobs. They just wanted to learn. Among them was a young man. No body knew he was a prince. He came in tattered clothes and was emaciated like a beggar, after wandering in the forest, begging for food. His name was Gautama. He spent several years in the campus, endlessly discussing the causes of pain and misery and suffering of human beings. (At Bodh Gaya, he is depicted as  well fed and handsome- a real prince charming. His devotees want something pleasing to the eye). I admire him. I like to see Takshashila too!

 In the villages, education was the concern of guruji. There was close, personal relation- ship with Guruji and the students who stay with him. Remember the story of Krishna and Sudama who were ordered by guru patni (wife) to fetch fuel from the forest? (I am reminded of an incident I read in a memoir. An English lady accepts an assignment to teach English to the Crown Prince of Japan. She was going through some notes when she wanted the fan to be switched on. She asked the Prince and failed to understand the hesitation in her pupil’s face. Suddenly the realization came. How can anybody give orders to a Prince? Of course, the pupil obeyed.) No tuition fee.  In the end, some guru dakshina (gift) is given. That is all.

 And today? By any stretch of imagination, can you call it education? True learning should aim at liberating the brain power from the shackles of the body, so it can soar higher and higher towards the heaven, scanning the whole universe and beyond. The questions why and how should continuously and intensely torment the inquisitive mind. Learning is tapasya. (Concentrated study). Total detachment from the worldly chores is an absolute must.

 In the present system, children are being hypnotized to believe that every thing written in the text book is absolutely true. The only aim is to secure maximum marks in the examination, by hook or by crook. Whether you like a subject is immaterial. Money is the supreme god. (Lakshmi is worshiped by all, everywhere. Is there a single temple of Saraswati? I think there is one in Keralam) The best brains are hijacked by capitalism and enslaved to make more and more profit. Is there any wonder that educational standards are going down every year?

 In Russia, when capitalism was abolished in 1917, education became free. Science was made number one priority. (Here MBA is made much of because capitalists want them to work for profit).The results are there, for all to see. From the most backward state in Europe, Russia overtook the US in space research. The first man to go up in space was

a Russian. Production of electricity was taken up as the most urgent task. Heavy industry almost outpaced consumer industry. (Indian students who went to study in Moscow found soaps and blades stolen frequently).The all powerful Germans were defeated by Russians in second world war.Without heavy industry backed by S & T, this would have been impossible.

After 1956, the first science city was established in Siberia. From wilderness intended for exiling undesirable characters, Siberia became a treasure of coal, minerals etc. and fully industrialised, an achievement impossible under capitalism. Science is the instrument of this of this revolution.

 Today here we find education being converted into a lucrative industry, in which millions are invested to reap huge profits. Government schools are for the poor- no equipments, no teachers, and no books.

Order of preference of students seeking higher education is somewhat as given below:

 MBA

IIT

Medicine

Info technology

Commerce

Economics

Geology

Pure science

Geography

 Those who fail to get admission for the coveted courses, go for pure sciences. In communist Russia scientists were given maximum salary. They commanded great influence in decision making. Here in Delhi we do not have a science centre where those interested may gather together for a chitchat. Easy access to science literature is a must.

Many of you may think that modern science originated in the west. This is a total misconception .Some of the things our forefathers have recorded in so many words, are stunningly dazzling.

1) That the earth is a globe

2) Earth attracts objects towards itself

3) Earth is rotating: the sun and stars are stationary

4) Shadow of the earth is cause of lunar eclipse

5) Dalton’s atomic theory

6) that the foetus in the womb recognizes sounds and starts learning mother tongue, much before it comes out of the woumb.(Abhimanyu learned strategy of warfare, while still in Uthara’s woumb, according to Mahabharatam.I first read about it in Bhagawat puran.By sheer coincidence, actual scientific confirmation was reported in the newspapers at that period some 8 years back).

These are just a few instances. As all this is written in Samskrutam. People do not even know about it. It is a pity that we have to learn about such things from foreign sources.

Astronomy originated in India at least 5000 years ago. In Egypt too studies in this field progressed at that time. The Malayalam calendar came into existence 1184 years ago. It is based on the movement of the Sun around the equator .The number of days of each month is calculated every year, so that we are not aware of the leap year.

So, before the Malayalam era came into existence, how did they know their age? Each year was given a name. Only 60 years were given names; thereafter the names are repeated.

Each one  must remember the name of the month and Nakshatra (the name given to the group of stars where the Moon appears each day) and also the name of the year of birth , so that his age can be counted. (Like the week. If I am born on Wednesday my age will be the fourth day.) That is why sixtieth birthday is celebrated. The names of the years are repeated, after 60 years.

Two thousand years ago, an European was unable to tell his age. Intellectually, we were far ahead. The Nalanda Vishvavidyala and library were ransacked and burnt by Muslim invaders sometime in fifteenth century. That was the end of a civilization. Knowledge got fossilized in Samskrutam texts to be explored by European Indologists. If these books were available in Hindi or Dravidian languages, history would have been different.

5) Production of food grains, cloths, agricultural implements, kitchen utensils etc. was regulated according to the needs of the village.Transportation was restricted to the bare

minimum. I am not a historian. Perhaps conveyance was restricted to movement of goods.Today production is chaotic. In any society based on rational lines, the requirements will be calculated and production regulated according to the needs. In a market controlled economy, waste is inevitable. Any number of factories are producing cars. Think of the brain power used in designing. If all this is centalised (in this age it is easy) we can have the best model of cars, buses etc. Expenses on advertisement and sales can be saved. Cars will become cheap. Similarly food and other agricultural products can be produced according to requirement.There will be no shortages nor glut. Why can’t we do it? (See my article: Man is the most foolish animal in the world).

6) For sheer joy and entertainment people were engaged in cultural and sports activities. Competition was healthy and without rancour.

Today, what we saw in the cricket world is the influence of money. Before future historians, we will have to hang our head in shame!

Local festivals, drama , music etc were meant for healthy entertainment and people were not glued to their TV sets !

I don’t want to go back to AD 1008. At the same time, I want to change the system to be reorganized along rational lines. Are we not intelligent creatures?

Hey guys,

a lot of things are going on at the moment. I am working on a few different gaming projects with some really interesting people.

A first version of my Super Koopa War, where the player fights Goombas, Shyguys and Monty Moles and tries to defeat Super Mario, will be released for J2ME phones in the near future. A few things regarding usability, balancing and game fun are still to do, before the Demo will be released on the bolg. This little game shall serve as tutorial on how to implement a mobile game with a nice architecture (entity system, event system, collision detection, physics and a nice animation concept) in J2ME.

Additionally, we are working on a second (top secret) project, either for the iPhone or for the PSP, since we have the PSP DevKit now at University.

To provide you guys with new stuff, I posted a new tutorial at the publications section. It is a simple Solar System in 3D. Also a first person camera has been implemented to show how things work in the source code. This example does not use OpenGL functions. Matrices, vectors and calculations are done manually. This should give an impression on what OpenGL does when someone calls gluLookAt() or glRotate(). So camera, transformations and rotations are calculated and applied by hand. Feel free to download the example and play around with it.

The original GLUT library used to support some less well-known input devices under IRIX, such as the Spaceball, a true 3D input device which can be used to control all 6 degrees of freedom (3 axis of rotation and 3 axis of translation) simultaneously. Unfortunately, nowadays, the more “exotic” input callbacks of GLUT such as the spaceball are left unimplemented.

So, yesterday I sat down and implemented the missing spaceball bits of FreeGLUT, which is the most widely used free GLUT implementation.

To avoid adding any extra dependencies to freeglut, I just ripped the relevant code from libspnav, which is part of my free spacenav driver project, and added it directly into freeglut.

Here’s the patch against the current freeglut svn head, as well as instructions on how to check out freeglut and apply it.

I’ve also submitted it to the freeglut-devel mailing list, so hopefully they’ll merge it and we’ll have spaceball input callbacks available with the prepackaged glut that comes with any GNU/Linux distribution in the future.

search request:
ich verbrenne vor sehnsucht

ich verbrenne
vor sehnsucht
nach all dem leben
das da draußen
auf mich wartet

die sehnsucht
zehrt mich auf
und ich bin
fieberglühend

aber
bevor ich
tatsächlich
verbrenne
und zu asche
werde

fache ich
die glut an
und laufe los

]]> http://ilys05.wordpress.com/2009/10/11/opengl-glut-visual-studio-2008/ Sun, 11 Oct 2009 20:52:33 +0000 ilys05 http://ilys05.wordpress.com/2009/10/11/opengl-glut-visual-studio-2008/

Il y a longtemps, j’avais essayer d’apprendre à utiliser OpenGL en suivant les cours de NeHe (que l’équipe de developpez.com a commencé à traduire). Le seul souci, c’est que NeHe crée ses context OpenGL en utilisant l’API WIN32. Implique que c’est laid, indigeste et pas portable.

Récemment je suis tombé sur le livre OpenGL Programming Guide (dont une version existe en ligne), qui lui utilise GLUT pour le fenêtrage. Et là c’est sûre que c’est beaucoup mieux, on apprend plus à faire de l’OpenGL que de faire du Win32 dégueulasse. Et surtout c’est portable et facile à apprendre.

Donc après avoir galéré pendant quelque temps pour faire fonctionner le tout avec Visual Studio 2008, je vous explique comment faire, surtout que c’est super facile.

Pour commencer vous devez télécharger la bibliothèque GLUT. L’archive contient plusieurs fichiers. Vous devez copier chaque fichier dans un dossier spécifique :

• “glut.h” ira dans “C:\Program Files\Microsoft SDKs\Windows\v6.0A\Include\gl” ;
• “glut32.lib” ira dans “C:\Program Files\Microsoft SDKs\Windows\v6.0A\Lib” ;
• “glut32.dll” ira dans “C:\Windows\System32“.

C’est tout. GLUT est maintenant installé. Vous n’avez pas besoin de Linker quoi que ce soit, le fichier glut.h se charge de tout faire à votre place. La seul chose à laquel il faut faire attention , c’est de créer un projet “Application Console WIN32″, sinon vous aurez lors de la compilation cette erreur :

1>MSVCRTD.lib(crtexew.obj) : error LNK2019: symbole externe non résolu _WinMain@16 référencé dans la fonction ___tmainCRTStartup

Une autre erreur est survenue en essayent de compiler le code minimale suivant :

L’erreur survenue est :

1>c:\program files\microsoft visual studio 9.0\vc\include\stdlib.h(371) : error C2381: ‘exit’ : redéfinition ; __declspec(noreturn) est différent

La solution est toute bête, inclure “stdlib.h” avant “gl/glut.h”, et non après.

En gros se sont les difficultés que j’ai pu avoir. Si jamais vous en avez d’autres faites m’en part.

BRISBANE’S office market is taking a beating, with one large tower remaining mostly vacant for more than a year and a total of 186,000sq m of empty space spread across the city’s offices…. From The Australian. Full story

This site may contain information about: list city. For a different topic see Relocate from Houston Texas to Detroit Michigan. The blog is also related to: tent city.

I was just pointed (via someone I follow on Twitter) to an article in the Harvard Business Review about how damaging information overload can be. It mentions a September 2009 article titled “Death by Information Overload” and cites the stress this puts not only on individuals but, as a result, on organizations.  But as author Alex Wright tells us in his book titled Glut: Mastering Information Through the Ages, this is not a new problem.  Here’s how the dust jacket summarizes the book:

Today’s well-documented ‘information explosion’ may seem like an acutely modern phenomenon, but we are not the first generation–or even the first species–to wrestle with the problem of information overload. Long before the advent of computers, human beings were were collecting, storing, and organizing information: from Ice Age taxonomies to Sumerian archives, Greek libraries to Dark Age monasteries.

I do recognize that the problem is especially intense these days.  Part of this results from the possibilities that social networking provides for expanding and enhancing our own brain:  members of one’s PLN (Personal Learning Network) become an extension of one’s own mind in a manifestation of an emergent form of collective intelligence.   This is the “memory of the future” that Wright envisions at the end of his book:  “As people find their way online, they seem to coalesce into small groups. . . .Small, self-organized communities [emerge] around common causes and shared values” (236).  I would call these “memedoms”:  a socio-political entity that exists outside of conventional markers of identity (country, political party, etc.), one that is bounded by the contours of a particular idea or “meme.”  Witness the followers of Rush Limbaugh who call themselves “ditto-heads” because they merely repeat verbatim what the master has spoken. . . The ideas that are channeled your way depend on who you’re following on Twitter, whose blogs you read, what RSS news feeds you receive, whose slideshows you favorite on Slideshare, and so on.

Information Overload has gotten so bad that there is now an Information Overload Research Group, complete with its own set of resources that point you in endless directions toward… yes, more information–in this case, about information overload!

I suggest one way to deal with this in a presentation about a concept I developed called “mnemonomics“:  the management of memory.  If we think of ourselves as part of a larger, emergent collective or group intelligence coalescing around certain memes or concepts, then we become part of a larger whole, doing our part, whatever that happens to be, to perpetuate the meme (as when I published a letter to the editor about the upcoming international day of action for climate change organized by 350.org).  As the idea of mnemonomics suggests, we need to learn how to manage this larger, socially-networked memory that we now have available to us.

The problem is similar to the age of print literacy, when people walked around with shirts that said, “So many books.  So little time.”  Now the shirts say, “So many social networks.  So little time.”  Same difference?

HYDROCARBONS

OPEC to eye economic stimulus, not just oil supply 

OPEC ministers meeting in Vienna this week were expected to keep supply targets intact and instead rely on hoped-for economic growth to sustain oil prices.

OPEC will keep current output target at Sep 9 meet

Oil producer club OPEC will maintain its current 24.845 million b/d crude production ceiling at Wednesday’s ministerial meeting in Vienna, Iran’s OPEC governor said Monday, quoted by the Mehr news agency.

Natural gas glut expected to test US storage system this fall

With US natural gas storage supplies comfortably above 3.3 Tcf, and with even more gas trying to push its way in, many in the industry are bracing for a very real capacity test of the storage system in the coming weeks.  Despite a gas rig count that, according to Baker Hughes, is about 50% below last year, supplies have been kept flush by a relatively mild summer in most of the US and weak economic conditions.  “We have a recession, so there’s no demand,” said Adam Sieminski, chief energy economist with Deutsche Bank. … the plain fact is that “there’s just not enough storage for the gas that’s trying to get in,” Sieminski said. “There’s a physical limit.”

Trinidad and Tobago gas reserves revised 

Trinidad and Tobago has proved gas reserves of 15.4 tcf and another 30 tcf in unrisked exploration potential, according to recent findings of Ryder Scott Consultants.  Herman Acuna, Ryder Scott managing senior vice-president, told a news conference in the Caribbean twin-island nation’s capital of Port of Spain that while there was a reduction in the country’s proved reserves, its probable and possible reserves had increased.  The study was conducted for 2008 and showed that the largest exporter of LNG to the US had 8.5 tcf of probable reserves, 6.3 tcf of possible reserves, and 29.6 tcf of unrisked exploration potential.

NUCLEAR

Iran rules out talks on its nuclear “rights”

Iran’s president on Monday snubbed U.S. President Barack Obama’s end-September deadline to talk to world powers on its disputed nuclear program, saying in his opinion discussion on the issue is “finished.”

GEOPOLITICS

China Oil Deal Is New Source of Strife Among Iraqis

… [T]he China National Petroleum Corporation has struck oil at the Ahdab field in Wasit Province, southeast of Baghdad. And while the relationship between the company and the Iraqi government has gone smoothly, the presence of a foreign company with vast resources drilling for oil in this poor, rural corner of Iraq has awakened a wave of discontent here.

Medvedev puts his foot down

Russian President Dmitri Medvedev today ordered Gazprom to stop advance payments to Ukraine for transit of natural gas across its territory.

Moscow ‘may lend Kiev $2bn’

Russia could lend Ukraine $2 billion to support the former Soviet republic’s economy ahead of next year’s election, according to local media reports.  Moscow-based business daily Vedomosti, citing an unidentified Russian government official, said gas supplies and the possibility of lending money to Ukraine would be discussed at an October meeting between Russian Prime Minister Vladimir Putin and his Ukrainian counterpart Yulia Tymoshenko.

On star-studded world tour, Chavez seeks to create gas cartel

According to Philippe Moreau Defarges, senior fellow at the French Institute of International Relations (IFRI), Chavez is hoping to rally energy-producing countries such as Turkmenistan, Iran, and Russia against the United States.  “The OPEC is in a bad way, so a new cartel around gas, which is considered to be a clean energy, is a good way to recreate an anti-Western front,” Moreau Defarges said in an interview with FRANCE 24 on Tuesday.  On Monday, Chavez called on Turkmen President Gurbanguly Berdymukhamedov to join a gas forum of natural gas exporters.

Iran and Venezuela seal $760m deal

Venezuela and Iran will both invest $760 million in each other’s energy sectors under deals signed during a visit to Tehran by Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez, according to local media reports.

CLIMATE and ENVIRONMENT

Rigs going green

As oil and gas operators venture into deeper waters to feed the global hunger for energy, a greater challenge exists to balance cost control with environmental concerns.   Environmentalists often blame the noise from seismic acquisition and drilling operations for the beaching of whales and other disruptions to marine life. … Industry players have developed new technology in attempt to resolve these issues, although, as yet, no one approach can offer a complete solution.

Friendlier Arctic seas bring opportunity — and risk

Arctic trade experts say that natural resource development and regional trade will open up marine shipping through the Arctic over the next decade and that many non-Arctic nations will be participating.

U.S. climate change bill to compete with healthcare

 Environmentalists hope the push in Congress for climate change legislation is not overwhelmed by the debate dominating Capitol Hill over changing the U.S. healthcare system. But it might be.

LAVISHLY subsidised Chinese solar cells are flooding the world market and creating a glut that threatens to hamper the Rudd government’s efforts to foster a solar cell industry in Australia…. From The Australian. Full story

This site may contain information about: of china. For a different topic see chronometer chronograph. The blog is also related to: china lite.

LEST YOU THINK it’s all done with smoke and mirrors, let me re-cap some of the things I’ve had to deal with in the past two months as the owner of four very old houses (two in Brooklyn, two in Philly) and a landlady with 10 rental units:

• Finding tenants for a very special four-story, 6 bedroom townhouse in Cobble Hill. (Actually, they found me, via this blog.)
• Painting the interior of that house ($6,000), removing several years’ growth of ivy from the back wall ($1,400), and otherwise getting the place spiffed up and ready for the incoming family.
• A punch list of additional repairs with which my new tenants very politely presented me, requiring the services of plumbers, appliance guys, and a handyman.
• A late-night call from tenants in Boerum Hill who’d blown a fuse while trying to air-condition and microwave at the same time. (Yes, a fuse – the only apartment in the building that doesn’t have circuit breakers.)
• Next door neighbors in Boerum Hill who are convinced their basement floods in heavy rain because of the placement of my drain pipe. (Unresolved.)
• A notice from the City of Philadelphia telling me of a leak in the water main from the street in front of my South Kensington house to the building’s water meters. Cost of repair, which is my responsibility (as it would be in New York): $2,800.
• Vacancy in rear unit of the South Kensington double-trinity house, but not for long: it’s on the verge of being rented, all things being equal, to someone who lived in that very unit years ago, when the building was owned by the woman who sold it to me. He saw my listing on Craigslist, recognized it immediately, and is excited about moving back to the same space, renovated and under more responsive management.
• Persistent roof leak at my 1810 Queen Village building, now reaching down past the top floor apartment to the apartment on the floor below. Tenants tired of catching rainwater in pots. $4,000 estimate from the roofer.

It seems that a lot of old-house maintenance issues occur in high summer and the dead of winter, when extreme weather causes flooding, freezing, and so on.

Then there are the problems brought about by extreme economic conditions, or perceived such conditions. The latest doozy is tenants in Brooklyn asking for a 20% rent reduction in mid-lease because they’ve heard there’s been a softening of the rental market. (Would I ask tenants for a rent hike in mid-lease because of a bullish rental market? I don’t think so!) No doubt in some parts of town there’s a glut of product: mostly unsold, newly built condos now being marketed as rentals. There’s no glut of unique 4 BR brownstone duplexes.

I said no.

The entire purpose of the charity organization Save Venice is to safeguard the art works stored in Venice that are constantly at risk of damage due to flooding. Venice’s Gallerie dell’Accademia houses, amongst other works, da Vinci’s Vitruvian Man, but does not always choose to display the work. Venice, itself, is a work of art, with its Byzantine architecture. On our final day in Venice, we decided to, amongst of things, visit the Peggy Guggenheim Collection.

Always fans of excentrics or those who dare to be ahead of their time, we took an immediate liking to Peggy and her collection of 20th century art. From Picasso to Kandinsky, Miró to Chagall, the house had a very interesting collection of some of the best artists of the 20th century, as well as an exhibition of sculpture by Robert Rauschenberg called “Glut” that was enough to keep us entertained for quite some time. If you visit, and we think you should, please be sure to check out the Nasher sculpture garden.

Galleries dell’Accademia, 1050 Campo della Carita 30123 Venice

Peggy Guggenheim Collection, 704 Dorsoduro 30123 Venice

glühende flut

geht ganz gut
mit der glut
in meinem blut
vor der flut

horst nägele

Further increases in petrol prices are predicted as Australia’s unleaded benchmark price scaled a 10-month high of almost $100 a barrel in the past week.  

While the continued signs of a recovery in the global economy had been great news for share market investors, the same could not be said for motorists, Commonwealth Securities economist Savanth Sebastian said.

The Australian Institute of Petroleum’s weekly report showed the unleaded petrol prices rose by an average 1.9 cents per litre in the past week to 124.5 cents.

The average metropolitan price rose by 2.6 cents a litre to 124.2 cents, while the regional average price rose by 0.7 cents to 125.1 cents.

“The glut of oil inventory on global markets is not putting downward pressure on prices,” Mr Sebastian said, adding traders and investors were focussed on the recovery story.

Even a strong Australian dollar has not been able to significantly absorb the rally in oil prices.

This resulted in the benchmark for Australian unleaded petrol – the Singapore gasoline price – rising to a 10-month high of $99.70 from $97.33 in the past week.

“If there is any consolation for motorists, it is that the rise in pump prices is likely to be rather sedate,” Mr Sebastian said.

“The petrol price will rise over the next fortnight, but only modestly, up around three to five cents a litre.”

Source  :  www.thewest.com.au

También pueden ver este tema completo acá.

Hoy quiero presentar un ejemplo que hice recién, para los que se quieran adentrar en el mundo del OpenGl con C++, Linux y Glut. Lo traté de hacer lo mas simple posible, por lo tanto es un dibujo plano en dos dimensiones (2D).

Imágen de una ventana con el ejemplo

Aquí va:

/* Simple.cpp
 * compilar: g++ simple.cpp -o simple -lglut
 * by Writkas
 */

#include <GL/glut.h>

void display(void)
{
 // Borra los valores preajustados
 glClear(GL_COLOR_BUFFER_BIT); 

 // Delimita los vértices de una primitiva o un grupo de como primitivas
 // , GL_POLYGON es el modo que se a seleccionado.
 glBegin(GL_POLYGON);
 // Indica los puntos que se trazan en un plano cartesiano para
 // formar la figura. En el identificador "glVertex2f" el numero
 // "2" indica el número de argumentos y "f" el tipo de dato que
 // se pasa como argumento. En el caso de la f es float.
 glVertex2f(-0.5, -0.5);
 glVertex2f(-0.5, 0.5);
 glVertex2f(0.5, 0.5);
 glVertex2f(0.5, -0.5);
 // Termina de dibujar.    
 glEnd();

 // Fuerza de la ejecución de comandos en OpenGl
 glFlush();
}

int main(int argc, char** argv)
{
 // Se inicia el modo Glut, los argumentos son para enviar ordenes
 // externas al programa.
 glutInit(&argc,argv);
 // Inicializa el modo de visualización del programa, si está en modo
 // GLUT_SINGLE significa que tendrá un solo bufer. Lo que guardará la
 // imagen para luego mostrarla. Y el modo GLUT_RGB se asigna el modo
 // color. RGB resume "Red, Green, Blue".
 glutInitDisplayMode (GLUT_SINGLE | GLUT_RGB);
 // El tamaño de la ventana 500 Píxeles de ancho y alto.  
 glutInitWindowSize(500,500);
 // Indica la posición de la ventana.
 glutInitWindowPosition(0,0);
 // Define la ventana y le añade el título "simple".
 glutCreateWindow("simple");
 // Enviar una función para que se ejecute de forma independiente. Se
 // dice que es conectar la señal "display".
 glutDisplayFunc(display);

 // Empieza todo lo dicho anteriormente. Se mantiene ejecutando la
 // ventana y esperando cualquier evento dicho anteriormente, u otros
 // predefinido por glut. Por ejemplo, se espera que alguien presione
 // la x de la ventana para salir del programa.
 glutMainLoop();
}

Se puede compilar con Make:

.../simples$ make

O compilarlo de forma:

g++ Simple.cpp -lglut -o main

Hay que tener muy en cuenta que se necesitan instalar las librerías necesarias. Y el archivo esta adjunto al post del tema del foro www.programacion-x-foro.tk

Manchmal muss man Umwege gehen,
um an genau der richtigen Stelle rauszukommen,
wo man erkennt, was wirklich wichtig und was dagegen bedeutungslos ist.
Dafür hat es sich gelohnt,
auch noch so weite Strecken abzulaufen und auch mal außer Atem zu kommen.
Vor allem wenn der Lohn dafür als Glück zu bezeichnen ist.

Glücksmoment
…im Hier und Jetzt
Das Unglück erreicht erst dann den Tiefpunkt, wenn die in greifbare Nähe gerückte praktische Möglichkeit des Glücks erblickt worden ist.
[aus M.Houellebecq: Elementarteilchen]

Langsam spürte man, dass die wärmenden Strahlen der Sonne den Kampf gegen alles Kälteeinflößende gewannen.
Immer wissend, dass es so sein würde und es war auch schon lange ersehnt.
Manchmal wenn das Glück greifbar war, bekam die Sonne Verstärker, die es vermochten ein Feuer zu entfachen, welches nicht nur wärmte, sondern glühen ließen.
Da war diese Helligkeit mit angenehmer Gesinnung, die dem Fließen der Dinge kein Hindernis in den Weg legte. Und da war dieser Funkenregen, der das Licht von innen nach außen in ein Glutrot eintauchte, von dem man sich wünschte man könnte es auf ewig festhalten.

Marie genoss den Lauf der Dinge, nicht beeinflussbar zuweilen und dennoch immer ihr Eigenes.
Irgendwann mal vor langer Zeit gab es diesen Cut off.
Kein Aufheben und Wegschließen von Vergangenem, sondern die endgültige Trennung durch Entsorgen von Dingen, die keinen Platz mehr hatten in ihrem Leben.
Bei dem Gedanken, dass sie eigentlich immer einen guten Grund fand, Erinnerungen aufzubewahren um daran festzuhalten in Gedenken an bessere Zeiten, musste sie lächeln.
So vieles verstaubte in den Schubladen und tat nicht gut, wenn der Drang zu groß wurde diese zu öffnen.
Immer war alles greifbar und nicht endgültig gelöscht.
Natürlich, auch der Kopf war ein guter Tresor, dennoch ließ die Zeit andere Blickwinkel entstehen.

Damals war es gar nicht so einfach die Escape Taste zu drücken, doch die Distanz gesellte sich zu den Einsichten und ließ die Waage des Pro und Contras in die richtige Richtung abdriften.
Im Grunde genommen war es das Nichts, was zum Neuanfang trieb und die Konsequenz zum Ziel machte.
Auch wenn gerade das Nichts in so manchem Moment Alles war.
Im Nachhinein betrachtet hatte Tom recht, wenn er sie aufmunterte nicht in jedem Stein einen Felsen zu sehen, der sie zu besiegen vermochte.
Nein, sogar aus Steinen konnte man etwas Schönes bauen, nur für sich selbst aus eigener Sichtweise heraus, so wie zu der Zeit, als er sich seiner Gefühle zu ihr nicht mehr sicher war.
Auch wenn die Architektur zuweilen im Skurrilen lag, eher einen eigentümlichen Charakter hatte, war es dennoch ihr Werk aus eigener Hand.
Und je mehr alles Form annahm, desto größer wurde der Stolz, wenn sie es aus der Distanz betrachtete.
Auch wenn mal ein Stein in Schieflage geriet, konnte sie selbst noch nachbessern, wenn es im Gleichgewicht störte.

Mit der Zeit wurde der Bau größer, nichts war vorgezeichnet, einzig der Moment ließ intuitiv erschaffen.
Zu dem Stolz gesellte sich die Freude, die jede Anstrengung und Mühe vergessen ließ. Schrammen und blaue Flecken wurden eben gepflegt, weil sie dazugehörten.
Sie verlor sogar ihre Höhenangst und begann sich dort oben wohlzufühlen.
Alles war eine Frage der Zeit. Und die Dinge ändern sich, auch aus der eigenen Sichtweise heraus.

Dann standen sie beide dort oben und unterhielten sich über das Glück, welches sie für kurze Zeit aus den Augen verloren hatten.
Es war ihr eigener Steinbau der skurrilen eigentümlichen Art. Es war ein heller wärmender Raum mit einem großen Fenster, der von außen angestrahlt wurde und dennoch in sich selbst glühend ruhte.
Und er stand neben ihr. Genau so ein Moment, in dem sogar das Nichts Alles sein konnte.
Nichts war störend und alles war im Fluss.
Glück als Empfindung in einem Augenblick, in dem man schon vorher wusste, dass es nichts zu bereuen gab, weil nur dieser Moment zählte.
Manchmal möchte man so einen Moment anhalten um ihn festzuhalten, weiter auskostend im Fluge bis ganz nach oben. Egal was danach kommt. Es war die Bedeutung die zählte in ihrer ganzen Werthaftigkeit.

Marie schaute ihn an. Da gebrauchte es keine Worte, die eh nicht das ausdrücken konnten, was man empfand.
Glück war die Empfindung im Hier und Jetzt unaufhaltsam fließend im Strom mit der addierten Kraft der freiwilligen Gemeinsamkeit. Und genau in diesem Moment war es da.

Und draußen wurde es langsam wärmer.
Endlich.

Another excellent piece from George Riesman published at the Mises Institute. And while Riesman may be somewhat challenging to read for someone who isn’t used to diving into the fascinating world of Austrian Economics, it’s well worth it even if it takes some time. Go. Read. Now.

1. Install Windows SDK

Download link

Of course, documentation and examples tabs are not necessary.

2.  Download GLUT Library

Download link

Extract all files:

• Move all files .h to <PATH>\Microsoft SDKs\Windows\v6.1\Include\GL

• Move all files .lib to <PATH>\Microsoft SDKs\Windows\v6.1\Lib

• Move all files .dll to C:\Windows\system32

3.  Create example project in Visual Studio 2008

• Create Visual C++ Win32 Console Application

• In Configuration tab,  in Application Settings check Empty Project

• Go to Project > Properties, display Configuration Properties and from Configuration combo box chooseAll Configurations

• Display Linker > Input, then in Additional Dependencies write GlU32.Lib OpenGL32.Lib glut32.lib and it is all

Advice: display Project > Properties > Configuration Properties and in General tab change Character Set to Use Multi-Byte Character Set (it solve some problems during compilation)

Bibliography (in Polish)

Tweex blog

This code will load a doom md5 model with textures and animation. The source code for this application was adapted from here. I do have a better version of this application but some of the features are not yet complete such as bump mapping and displacement mapping. I will upload the updated version at some point in the future when I have enough spare time to finish it.

Some interesting additional information about the doom md5 model format is available at the following websites:

http://www.doom3world.org/phpbb2/viewtopic.php?t=2884
http://www.modwiki.net/wiki/MD5MESH_(file_format)

Here is a pretty screenshot from the program:

The pinky doom md5 model

Download link

(Note: Files are in RAR file format and projects are created in Visual Studio 2005)
Let me know if any of the links go dead

this is a kind of exception that happens normally when u r coding with opengl, whether using Tao framework for C# or native opengl
when u run the opengl program and u find it just crashes with no reason
then one of the main reason is the function “glutInit()“
this function initializes the GLUT which should be initialized only ONCE per program run
and if this function fails to initialize -for many reasons- but with me mainly because it’s called more than a time, it crashes the program and just closes it
so just make sure u call this function only once..