In a previous post, I promised to write about testing the quality of pseudo-random number sequences.  I'll post later about some of the statistical tests often used, but I first wanted to mention a sort of practical test one can do. One of the many things you might want to do with pseudorandomly generated numbers is Monte Carlo integration/simulatation/etc.  As mentioned by acer in this comment, Monte Carlo integration can be shown to work better with some of the pseudorandom number generators (PRNGs) which are considered inferior in a statistical sense.  In this post, we will play with a simple Monte Carlo approximation of π.

I recently celebrated my 10-year anniversary at Maplesoft. I've enjoyed my time here, working with a terrific group of colleagues, and I hope to be here for many more years to come. Part of the satisfaction comes from being able to interact with this wonderful user community.

I also celebrated the 20th anniversary of the plot code, parts of which I've had the pleasure of maintaining and improving over the past 10 years. Actually, I believe it is closer to 25 years old...

This week, I had the pleasure of attending a rock concert with my son Eric who is now about to turn 15 and who has turned out to possess non-trivial interests and talents in music. The concert was by the band Rush who, to the uninitiated, would be yet another big, loud, over-produced rock band. But to a generation of technocrats (e.g. yours truly) educated from the late 1970’s and on, they are the band of choice due to an intriguing mix of musicianship, technological...

Since the FIFA World Cup final is approaching quickly, I have created this animated Netherlands flag.  It is for my Dutch acquaintances to cheer for their favourite team during game.

with(plots):
p := [ seq( 
          plot( [ seq((1/4)*sin(x+`if`(j > i, 1, 0))+1+2*i, i = 0 .. 3) ],
              x = 0 .. 2*Pi, y = 0 .. 8, 
              color = [white, blue, white, red], filled = true, axes = none), 
          j = [0, 1, 2, 3, 4, 3, 2, 1])

Happy Dominion Day.  

acer

The term “from months to days” is a favorite slogan of mine and I have relied on it religiously for over two decades to illustrate the fundamental benefit of symbolic computation. Whether it’s the efficient development of complex physical models using MapleSim, or exploration of parametric design surface equations (my dissertation) using good old fashioned Maple V Release 2, the punch that symbolic computation provided was to automate the algebraic mechanics...

Has the 'tabbing nuisance', as reported in I declare defeat: rolling back to Maple 9.5, been resolved in Maple 12+? And what about the 'XML-contamination', as also mentioned?

PS: Congratulations to MaplePrimes for a visually very appealing interface. With the migration to this new interface, I have finally been able to gain again access to my account, this partly explaining...

A long while ago, I wrote a couple posts (part1 and part2) about mining data from the US SSA website.  I subsequently adapted the code from those blog posts into a visual application with sliders and interactive plots.  If you have played with the new ?MapleCloud functionality in Maple 14, you may have seen it posted already.

From the outset, the goal of MaplePrimes was to provide the Maple & MapleSim user communities with a platform to ask questions, share knowledge and to collaborate with other users.  And for the most part, the site has exceeded these goals.  Since its inception in 2005, we have received tens of thousands of posts from over 10,000 members, and we are privileged to have accumulated a group of dedicated, knowledgeable users who have become the heart of this community.

Go Habs Go!

Since my blog (as well as other) posts are deleted here, I am not that anxious to continue posting here. Meanwhile, I started a blog at Windows Live and my mapleadvisor site.

I was also thinking about restoring my part of the wiki that was there, but don't have time for that at the moment.

Alec

I haven't been logged into this site regularly for a while, being busy with other things.

But I've just noticed that, some time in the past few weeks, Robert Israel's eponymous handle has attained a mapleprimes points number that exceeds the total of all the handles that I've ever used here. So... congratulations, Robert!

I've...

As of today, Maplesoft has an office in Germany, allowing us to provide local sales and support to customers in Germany and Austria.  With the opening of this office, Scientific Computers will no longer act as Maplesoft's reseller in these territories.

Additional details are contained in the press release.