The IPython team has released version 0.8.2, with many new enhancements (especially for system shell use - it has never been a better time for switching to "pysh" or "ipython -p sh" as your system shell of choice), as well as many bug fixes.

We spent a pleasant Thanksgiving weekend at the Stanley Hotel in Estes Park. It snowed Wednesday and Friday, but was beautifully clear on Thursday. The Stanley's Thanksgiving buffet was wonderful, if pricey, with beautiful views from the dining room. We have much to be thankful for, including family, friends, and our military personnel who spend this holiday in far and perilous places.

We did some hiking in Rocky Mountain National Park and walked around downtown Estes Park. We also used the Stanley's new fitness center, which has a multistation Cybex machine, several cardio machines, and a fairly complete set of dumbbells. We returned home today and began Christmas preparations.

In Liberation Biology, Ronald Bailey presents a rational case for individual choice for safe and effective biotechnology. He counters arguments from bioconservatives on both the left and right of the political spectrum who would ban or heavily regulate much biotechnology. This is a good overview of the promise and peril that biotechnology brings.

Take time to remember those who go in harms way for you: past, present, and future.

The U.S. Marine Corps celebrates it's 232nd birthday today.

Semper Fi!

We attended the Boulder Military Officers Association of America meeting this morning. One of our members, Bob Brockish, was featured in the Rocky Mountain News for his service as a Marine infantryman during the Korean War.

I spent the afternoon building a raised garden from six inch cross section landscape timbers. I used 10 inch spikes to secure them and my little 3/8 inch drill wasn't up to the job of drilling pilot holes so I had to buy a new 1/2 inch drill. I drove the spikes with a blacksmith's hammer, and even with the pilot holes, it was work. I have a new appreciation for blacksmiths.

J 6.02 is in beta and it continues to improve. It installs easily on Linux and Windows and has good performance. J code looks like the cat walked across your keyboard, but it's wonderfully concise. A function to define the mean of an arbitrarily large list of numbers requires only four characters, each representing a J primitive:

mean =: +/%#     NB. mean is plus insert divide count

J's use of ASCII characters in place of classic APL symbols simplifies keyboard/display/printing though I find it less mnemonic than APL. Frequent use can make that a non-issue, as you learn to switch contexts between J and other mappings for the ASCII characters. It's definitely worth a look for numerical work.

NumPy 1.0.4 is out. From the release announcement:

NumPy is the fundamental package needed for scientific computing with Python. It contains:

• a powerful N-dimensional array object
• sophisticated (broadcasting) functions
• basic linear algebra functions
• basic Fourier transforms
• sophisticated random number capabilities
• tools for integrating Fortran code.

Besides it's obvious scientific uses, NumPy can also be used as an efficient multi-dimensional container of generic data. Arbitrary data-types can be defined. This allows NumPy to seamlessly and speedily integrate with a wide-variety of databases.

This is largely a bug fix release with one notable improvement:

• The NumPy and SciPy developers have decided to adopt the Python naming convention for classes. So as of this release, TestCase classes may now be prefixed with either 'test' or 'Test'. This will allow us to write TestCase classes using the CapCase words, while still accepting the old style names.

For information, please see the release notes:

http://sourceforge.net/project/shownotes.php?release_id=552568&group_id=1369

I've recently been trying out some of CrossFit workouts Crossfit develops all round fitness with a large variety of exercises, including the Olympic lifts, other free weight exercises, gymnastics, and some cario work. I'd never practiced the Olympic lifts, so today I attended an Olympic weightlifting class at Boulder Crossfit. I'm now reasonably comfortable with the snatch and jerk.