Noiz Waves

1. “I’ve sent my resume out to a few companies, so if i don’t hear back from them, I’ll sent it to you”.

A note: NO ONE wants sloppy seconds!

http://fastra.ua.ac.be/en/index.html

What a beast! It puts our single 8800 GTX machine to shame. I want one!!

So the other day I wanted to store a lookup table in constant memory because of its decent sized cache (compared to global memory with no cache). After trying to get it working, I just could not get the syntax correct. At first there was no speed up at all, so the global memory must have been incorrectly used. Eventually I stumbled across a code sample that used the constant memory in the way I wanted to, and got my code using constant memory correctly! Heres how I did it:

Step 1: Global declaration (ie. not inside a function) of the constant array
extern __constant__ int d_nLookup[1<<13];

Step 2: Copy the data to the constant memory in a host running function
CUDA_SAFE_CALL(cudaMemcpyToSymbol(d_nlookup, h_nlookup, 1<<13 * sizeof(int), 0, cudaMemcpyHostToDevice));

Step 3: Use array in __device__ or __global__ functions directly (no need to pass array reference as a parameter)
fTemp += d_idata[d_nLookup[i]]; // use only loop map

As the array is defined as extern, it can be referenced in any __device__ or __global__ function without needing a reference to be passed to the function. Unfortunately, the size of the array has to be set at compile time (although I didn’t try dynamic allocation, it might just work). It’s important to note the use of cudaMemcpyToSymbol instead of cudaMemcpy; this fact was not emphasized anywhere and really had me stumped! Also, there is no need to cudaMalloc or cudaFree constant memory.

I suspect that the constant memory is simply a wrapped up version of 1D texturing. The constant memory array is used inside a loop, so theoretically with a hit and miss cache setup the first call to each position of the array should be a miss (meaning global memory latency). However this is not the case, so I suspect the compiler has detected the usage and fills up the 8KB cache on the first call.

A few months ago we organised some new phones for us developers so that we could be more contactable in case of an emergency. So we got the phones, but they never really saved the day when problems arose. We couldn’t do remote access, read encrypted emails, or do anything useful. Instead, the phone became a broadband modem, which required access to a laptop; hardy something you want carry every time you leave the house!

So we’ve been casually looking around for VNC and SSH clients for the Dopod C730 (which runs Windows Mobile 6 Standard). All the clients I’ve tried so far haven’t installed, or had incorrect key mappings and were entirely useless on Win Mo 6. I was starting to lose hope of ever using the phone for its intended purpose. But now that the semester is over at uni, I thought i’de put in a decent days worth looking for apps that worked. After a few hours of looking, I stumbled across some really useful programs, that actually run perfectly in Win Mo 6…

LogMeIn Hamachi Mobile

Hamachi is an easy to use and secure VPN. With it, you create and join a virtual network, and all traffic is encrypted. Very neat! Using Hamachi, you can access computers/services behind firewalls, NAT and with no need for port forwarding. Hamachi installed from a .cab file, and no additional tweaks were required. Hamachi is free to use to.

Hamachi will connect over Wifi or 3G/EDGE/GPRS, so its very flexible.

MidpSSH Mobile SSH Client

MidpSSH is a free Java-based SSH client. All key bindings work as expected, colours work and the text is actually readable. I’de recommend changing the default font, unless you can read miniscule glyphs. It can be changed by Settings > Fonts > Font Size (LCD 5×9 is my preference).

As the app is Java, the interface is a little clunky to use; entering text takes a few additional button clicks each time (to access the text field, enter it, end the text, OK it, and move on). By default, Java applications won’t have access to the Hamachi network interface, but this is easily changed in the Java Apps launcher by going Menu > Settings (7) > Choose Network (4) > Hamachi Network.

VNC Plus (VNC+)

VNC+ is (another) brilliant Java-based app that provides VNC client functionality. With it, you can connect to a computer running a VNC server and control it remotely. VNC+ provides all the functionality of a desktop client, but in a mobile setting. It behaves just as you’d expect it to. No clunky scrolling or slow refreshing like other clients I tried. It’s a true miracle app that will no doubt come in very handy. It is well worth the $19.95, and comes with a free 7 day demo. VNC+ also provides efficient zooming, which loads the screen at the correct level detail. After connecting with the server, navigating around the whole screen is painless. This program is just so awesome!

Like MidpSSH, if you are accessing a computer over Hamachi, the Hamachi network must be assigned to Java. Otherwise, just bind Java to the Internet. I did have to manually bind the function keys to their appropriate functions in the program. This was done in Menu > Setup > Assign Keys, where I bound Select to my middle button, Menu to left soft key and Enter to right soft key.

With these apps installed on my phone, I can confidently leave my laptop at home and still be able to tackle any issues that flare up. Now thats mobilty!

Update: Discovered that VNC+ doesn’t recognise the letters from the 10 digit keys (numbers are transmitted regardless of whether Fn key is pressed or not. This makes it really hard to type text into the VNC session.

Update 2: Discovered the “Send text” menu option in VNC+. It allows for any text to be sent. Just need to get backspace working, then I’m all set.

So I decided it was time to begin the long haul task of watching Lost from the beginning. Recently I’ve been watching the latest episode with some friends, and really getting into the analysis of each episode, nutting out theories, and asking and answering questions. There is such a wealth of hidden detail in each episode, its very easy to miss first time around. Last night I watched the first 3 episodes, and it reminded me just how good the show is.

A couple of things I picked up on during the first 3 episodes (potential spoiler alert ahead):

1. In season 1 episode 3, 6 survivors hike into the jungle to get a better signal on the transceiver, but lie upon returning to camp about what happened. In season 4, we learn that 6 survivors (The Oceanic Six) make it off the island and decide to lie about what happened. Strange, but worth noting.
2. The pilot of the plane is played by Greg Grunberg (who plays Matt Parkman in Heroes). Pity he didn’t use his telepathy to get them rescued
   

I use VLC to play all of the TV I watch. Because of this, I’ve been missing out on a lot of the shine that Front Row has to offer. One of the mean reasons for not using Front Row is it’s inability to play DivX/XviD encoded .avi files…

Enter Perian. Perian is a free, open source plug-in for QuickTime that enables Divx/Xvid/many more encoded videos to be played in QuickTime and Front row.
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In addition to adding DivX support to Front Row/QuickTime, installing Perian came with some unexpected surprises:

1. OS X can produce thumbnails for .avi files in Finder. No more ugly icons!
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2. Cover Flow uses these thumbnails too, and looks awesome.
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3. Quick Look now plays the .avi files.
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Much better. Now all thats required is a big HD LCD TV to really show off Front Row.

Encountered this bug today at work, and it kept me stumped for (too many) hours! The symptoms where that Microsoft Outlook 2003 would freeze when printing an e-mail, showing the unresponsive “Printing…” status dialog in the middle of the screen. Now that Outlook was frozen, any new e-mails that were opened would spawn a new OUTLOOK.EXE process and wait for the busy process to finish.

After terminating the busy process, all the e-mails would open immediately! Major pain in the a-hole. It turns out that Quick View Plus had installed an addon into Outlook which made printing a bit screwy. Disabling it was easy; from Outlooks main window, Tools > Options > Other > Advanced Options > Add-in Manager, and uncheck the Quick View Plus add-in. Save those settings and restart Outlook.

Update: If restarting Outlook doesn’t work, try ending via Task Manager any OUTLOOK.EXE and OLADDIN.EXE processes that may be running, then starting Outlook again.

So I felt like I needed to buy a new toy/gadget/thing to play with the other day. After looking around, nothing took my fancy. Somehow the idea of buying a domain + web hosting popped into my mind. After a few days of mulling over the idea, I just bought a domain .

In due course, www.noizwaves.com will likely replace the current noizwaves.bur.st URL for this site.I’m undecided whether the blog should hold the www sub-domain or its own special blog sub-domain. Heck, maybe it can have both!

I used DreamHost for the web hosting. After looking around at a few places, this one seemed good. A friend also recommended them for their ease of use and excellent customer support. The hosting gives me lots of sub-domains and e-mail addresses, and private domain registration.

Right now I’m looking forward to making some regular posts about my recent activities. Life has been unbelievably busy over the last 4 months it’s crazy! A regular outlet is just what I need.

Update: www.noizwaves.com is now 100% operational!

This is some stupid thing that cost me several hours of tinkering tonight. By default, URLs and last access time/date are not part of any style in LaTeX. How freaking ancient is that?!!?!

So heres a fix. Its been tested under OS X 10.5, so it should work for anyone running Linux too.

1. Download urlbst from http://nxg.me.uk/dist/urlbst/. For me the current version is 0.6.
2. Extract the archive anywhere, just so happened to be my Downloads folder.
3. Open a terminal window, and navigate to the newly created directly. For me it was ~/Downloads/urlbst-0.6/
4. Run ‘./configure’ without the ‘ and ‘
5. I have to use the acm bibliography style, so i will be playing around with acm.bst
6. Run ’sudo mv /usr/local/texlive/2007/texmf-dist/bibtex/bst/base/acm.bst /usr/local/texlive/2007/texmf-dist/bibtex/bst/base/oldacm.bst’. This moves the original style file to a safe place.
7. Run ‘./urlbst /usr/local/texlive/2007/texmf-dist/bibtex/bst/base/acm.bst newacm.bst’. This adds the URL information to the style.
8. Run ’sudo cp newacm.bst /usr/local/texlive/2007/texmf-dist/bibtex/bst/base/acm.bst. This moves the new style file to a directly where LaTeX can find it.

Now all your webpages and sources with online references & cite dates will look right! Woot! Sleepy time now!!!

Excellent guide that worked for me here.

Ever since the purchase of the MacBook Pro i’ve been keen to invest in some kind of external cooling mechanism. Spending a short amount of time at full load causes the fans to spin wildly and internal temperatures to skyrocket! Clearly external cooling would help, and I thought eBay had saved the day…

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