Random useful thoughts

I have started using Julia as my language of choice for mathematical programming. It is very nice, faster than Python, open source unlike Matlab, and an intuitive syntax so that migrating is simple. There are precompiled packages that can be downloaded from the website, but for whatever reason I had problems with them. One particular example was when performing a Cholesky decomposition of a matrix. As the matrix size increased the result became less and less similar to the Matlab decomposition of the same matrix and then crashed above a certain size. After googling for quite a while I found it was similar to issues other people had with the linear algebra subroutines. I found that downloading the source from github and compiling on my computer fixed the problem. Hence this is what I would recommend. This is how to install from a clean install of Linux Mint 17.1, but it should be effectively the same as for any Ubuntu based Linux distribution. Firstly install git sudo apt-get insta...

As an extension of my post on running Unreal Tournament 2004 on Windows 10, this post is about running Serious Sam: The First Encounter and Second Encounter on the new Windows. Installation from the CD is fine, as is the patch to the latest version ( First Encounter , Second Encounter ). The biggest difficulty getting the game in a widescreen resolution. When the game runs for the first time it adds all the settings to a file: C:\Program Files (x86)\Croteam\Serious Sam\Scripts\PersistentSymbols.ini In this file set persistent extern INDEX sam_iScreenSizeJ=(INDEX)1080; persistent extern INDEX sam_iScreenSizeI=(INDEX)1920; persistent extern user FLOAT plr_fFOV=(FLOAT)105; save and exit. For me this worked without any issues for the Second Encounter, but the First Encounter had this file completely blank. It turns out that Windows does not allow the game to edit this file when it's not running in Administrator mode. To set this so that it runs in Admin mode every time right...

I am planning to play some old games with some friends, but there are some issues with new hardware. For UT2k4 when starting I get the following error: UT2004 Build UT2004_Build_[2005-11-23_16. 22] OS: Windows NT 6.2 (Build: 9200) CPU: AuthenticAMD Unknown processor @ 3506 MHz with 2047MB RAM Video: AMD Radeon HD 7700 Series (1429) LockRect failed: D3DERR_DEVICELOST History: UD3DRenderDevice::ReadPixels <- UD3DRenderDevice::Present <- UGameEngine::Draw <- UWindowsViewport::Repaint <- UWindowsClient::Tick <- ClientTick <- UGameEngine::Tick <- Level Untitled <- UpdateWorld <- MainLoop <- FMallocWindows::Free <- FMallocWindows::Realloc <- 10910191 0 FArray <- FArray::Realloc <- 0*2 <- FMallocWindows::Free This seems to be a problem with Direct3D, so to fix it open the configuration file (C:\Program Files (x86)\Steam\steamapps\common\Unreal Tournament 2004\System\UT2004.ini). Under [Engine.Engine] comment out using a semi-colon ...

So I decided to upgrade my desktop to Windows 10 from 7 whilst it's free. Before the upgrade it had a dual boot with Linux Mint 17, which I had set up with the following partitions: 8Gb swap,  60Gb Linux,  60Gb Linux /home, 50Gb Windows,  322Gb shared partition. I downloaded the Windows 10 installer and started the update. The download is about 3Gb which was fine, but the first problem hit just after. The installer got stuck on "checking for updates", which after googling seems like a common problem. To fix it you have to restart windows update service by opening cmd in admin mode typing net stop wuauserv​ net start wuauserv​ I had to repeat this a few times before it finished.  The next problem was that the partition didn't have enough free space, which was a surprise as I only use Windows for games and those are on the shared partition. It turns out that although Windows 7 requires 20Gb to install, a normal install uses ~45Gb after all the updates. A...

Since the UK general election in May there has been a lot of discussion about tax credits and whether the proposed cuts would make the poorest worse off. On one side the government says that the increase in minimum wage to the living wage  as well as an increase in the tax free allowance would make low earners better off, whereas the critics point to the fact that a £4.4 billion cut has to have a detrimental effect. The proposed cuts were passed in the conservative lead house of commons, but was blocked by the house of lords, where the government does not hold a majority. As a result the Chancellor of the Exchequer, George Osbourne, announced in the Spending Review that the proposed cuts would not go ahead. At the time there were a lot of figures being thrown around about who would be better and worse off, but mainly used by people with an allegiance to a particular group or political party. As I wasn't sure who to trust I decided to take a look at the numbers myself as a no...

VIM is amazing, the best text editor available. I have written everything from bash code to a PhD thesis using it. There is a really nice graphical cheat sheet available here http://www.viemu.com/a_vi_vim_graphical_cheat_sheet_tutorial.html but there is no UK layout. I have edited it for the UK, download as pdf  or svg

This is a blog to document any ideas or thoughts that may be useful to the world. I have found many solutions to obscure problems on other people's blogs, so would like to repay the favour. The blog will likely contain various problems that I have run into along with how I solved them, if a solution was found. Also it will be a good place to post my musings. I would say that I hope people enjoy the posts, but that's not the point. Rather I hope that me having found a solution to something saves someone else time and effort solving the same issue.