Running LP-solver in Postgres

Having reinstalled PostgreSQL with support for Python and pointing at my non-system python, it is time to test whether I can use the convex optimizer library I’ve installed in my Python 2.7 (pip install cvxopt). Install PL/Python if not already…

A new side to Bill Gates

I don’t know why, but I really liked to read this post by Bill Gates. In an odd way it was heart warming :-) Three Things I’ve Learned From Warren Buffett Maybe I should start reading Bill Gates blog as…

Make a RAM disk on Mac OS X 1.5 or later

Create the RAM disk: diskutil erasevolume HFS+ “ramdisk” `hdiutil attach -nomount ram://1165430` (the magic number 1165430 is explained here as the number of 512 byte sectors. The string “ramdisk” is just the name of the disk, which will appear under…

Calling a Python LP-solver from a PostgreSQL function

Prepare the database by installing PL/Python and a function: CREATE EXTENSION IF NOT EXISTS plpythonu; CREATE OR REPLACE FUNCTION hello_lp() RETURNS float[] AS $$ import subprocess output = subprocess.Popen ( [ “”, “” ], stdout = subprocess.PIPE, stderr = subprocess.STDOUT…

NSA back door

This is geek humor at it’s best, and is one of the funniest reactions to PRISM I have seen. Here is a screenshot from the github project flask-nsa The project description simply goes: “Give the NSA free backdoor access to…

Introducing the Web Co-Processor

Here is a project I’m working on called the Web Co-Processor (credit for name goes to Marcos Vaz Salles). There is a demo you can try if you clone the project. Read the following four bullets and you’ll understand what…

The new Google Maps: Explorers delight!

Being interested in maps in general, and specifically vector data, of course I had to take the new Google Maps for a spin. Vector data aside, what fascinated me most was the option to display photos of the current location…