Around a year ago, I tested out Intel Math Kernel Library (MKL). My task was to implement a function that calculate the distance between a point and triangle in 3D. According to Intel Vtune, this function is what our algorithm (which deals substaintly with 3D objects) uses the most. Even when not compiled using Intel Compiler, Intel Math Kernel Library performs extremely well for the task at hand. A minor change to MKL gives a 100% improvement in term of speed. Excited by this possibility, I wanted to rewrite this whole function to use Intel Compiler in conjunction with MKL. However, this task was postponed due to some other deadline at the time.
Yesterday, determined to give these performance libraries from Intel a better look, I downloaded Intel Professional Suite for Linux. Intel is nice enough to offer their full suite of professional development tools on the Linux platform to non-commercial developers for free. To my delight, Intel has worked hard to improve their installation compatibility with Ubuntu. Installation packages which used to give weird errors now blissfully run through. The installation of Eclipse extension is well documented. I simply add the correct path to the list of extension paths and Eclipse picks up the new configuration and plugins from Intel. Things were going well.
I decided to give the beloved "Hello World" program a run. This is where I get stumped. The wizard for creating a new Hello World C++ project does not allow me to specify Intel Toolchain. "Weird!", I told myself. I spent several hours last night trying to figure out what was wrong. This morning, I found out that Intel extension for eclipse is not compatible with Eclipse CDT 4.0 x86_64. I found this out while digging through the confusing naming of different architectures (IA32, IA64, EMT64, Intel 64). So, I am here again, back to square one.
My hopeful wishes of finally be able to show my fellow lab mates how cool Intel toolchain is on my Eclipse x86_64 has come to a halt. Come on Intel, I have been to your campus and met your great minds. You can do better than this. Give us 64-bit compatible toolchain and we will grab it and run like crazy hackers who found zero-day exploits. After all, 64-bit has been around for long enough. It is time that at least academia (aka my work) makes the jump. Please Intel.
I am planning to try using GCC with MKL. If I am lucky, I still might be able to harness its power. For the next post, I will give some details on how it goes. I will probably throw in some CPPUnit testing to make sure that the function still work as it is expected.
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The story of my 4.0
While I never mention my GPA unless specifically asked, some people do know that I have a 4.0 for as long as I have my education here in the States. I started out at Northern Virginia Community College and then transfered to University of Houston in 2006. Now that I am graduating with a 4.0 in Computer Science, I get to know yet another rule of our great university: honor graduate requires 66 credits completed at UH. I have 59. I told myself: "Great, so I have take 2 freshman level classes to prove to others that I deserve some small golden text that says "Summa Cum Laude" on a piece of paper." The decision wasn't so hard to make.
What I find unfathomable in this rule is: how can one still graduate and not recognized so. If our university is so vehement about the 66 credits requirement, why not just make it so that everyone has to take 66 credits before he/she can graduate from our university? Well, I feel stupid for even writing this post since I honestly do not care enough.
On a side note, my PhD candidacy at University of Houston is going to start next Fall. This will be great. I am ready to show the world what I am made of.
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That day
I have decided that day to be December 31, 2011. This will be the day that I was accepted into my dream company. I want to work at the company which innovative products continously capture its users. I want to be working for that company at which their next launch will instantly guarantee applauses from its users. I want to stand out and be part of that group of smart engineers who will conquer the most challenging problem.
Albeit, everybody knows what company I am referring to. However, not everyone knows what is needed to be part of that team. So here will be the things that I will become experts in
- Image and Video Analysis (very closely related to my PhD thesis)
- C++ (not just some random C++ programmer, I want to be the expert)
- Java (a cup every morning keeps me awake)
- Python (I love Ruby but Python is equally good)
- XHTML, Javascript, CSS (I know that people say that I am already good at this, but it takes skills to become the master)
Projects that I will work on for the next several years
- Bibsync : noone comes close and noone will
- my PhD thesis written completely in C/C++ with Qt and probably XUL/XAML/Flex frontend. I am thinking of putting Rybyqt4 into the mix and spice things up.
- pam_urxd (to be announced later)
Hopefully with a solid background in the above skill, an undying passion to explore and a PhD in Computer Science, I will land the job of my dream. Time to work on it. I have only 1300 days left.
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Aside from reading a pretty good article of Paul Graham today about startups, I was checking out Dojo Toolkit since I have had multiple urge to put more Javascript toolkit under my belt. Either that or I was trying to write some neat banner rotation ^_^.
As I dutifully read through Dojo spotlight and example page, I came across this demonstration of their tookit. I found myself laughing so hard. Putting sharp similarity as a way to say: "hey we rock that too" is just genius. Thanks Dojo. I thinking I am ready to try you guys out.
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Hardy Heron and Fedora 8
It is about 10 more days until Ubuntu officially launches its newest version: Hardy Heron. As always, I try to get my foot into the repository before the launch date so that I won't get bogged down when everyone is downloading the new update in frenzy. I had my x86_64 Ubuntu upgraded to Hardy without any hiccup. I barely notice anything new aside from a newly available theme that looks nicer to the eye. The bootsplash image got a little change but aside from that, my Ubuntu box is still humming away.
I thought "Meh". So today, I downloaded Fedora Core 8 and install it as one of my virtual machines. One thing that I notice about Fedora is that its installation wizard looks really sleek and polished. I have no problem understanding that it says. The choice of font and color blends very well too. After the smooth installation, I have a fully working Fedora Core desktop. The default selection of software is the same as Ubuntu and the menus are the same. I played around with it for a while and came to the conclusion that Fedora Core is an rpm-Ubuntu with blue theme ^_^.
For fans of each project, I see little need to switch over or to declare superiority over the other. I am glad that they are constantly improving the user experience. Now, if only I would get some decent software, it would be great. Here is my wishlist
- new Office product that gets a face lift
- a decent photo organizer (at least on par with Picasa). Either that or Picasa should just port their version.
Linux, rocks on.
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Intype is dead
Have the right tools makes all the difference. OS X users have been enjoying Textmate for a while. For Windows users, you can use e-text editor. I used to use a different text editor called InType. It has quite a few nice features that does make typing code a much more pleasurable activity. However, I have not seen them releasing any new code for a while. The last activity was back in August of 2007. That was more than 6 months ago. Too bad E already got the finish line and reached that usable point of software. Sorry Intype. You should have tried harder.
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