3D graphics in Resolver One using OpenGL and Tao, part III: Stock prices
I've done another 3D example in Resolver One. This one uses Yahoo! Finance to download the close prices over the last two years for every stock that's currently in the Dow Jones index, then charts them in a 3D window which you can pan and zoom using the mouse. Here's a video showing it in action (click the image to view):
Shiny new blog theme
I thought it was time for a change around here, so I've updated the theme with something prettier. What do you think?
New York Financial Users Group
A quick follow-up to my last post; the guys at Enthought are also starting a Financial Python Users Group for New York. If you're interested, the LinkedIn group is here.
London Financial Python Users Group
Last night, I went to the inaugural meeting of the London Financial Python Users Group. It was a small gathering (as you'd expect for a new group), just four of us, but a very interesting one. Didrik Pinte gave a presentation of an interesting new library called pandas, a useful layer on top of existing stats packages that provides some very neat data-alignment capabilities, and we also discussed what future meetings should involve (lightning talks are definitely on the cards).
As with all these things, the most interesting discussions were left for the pub afterwards. I was particularly interested in what Didrik had to say about Cython, a tool which lets you write CPython C extensions in Python (!). I'll have to play with it and see if it can easily integrate with Ironclad...
Anyway, the next meeting is very tentatively planned for 14 December; the best way to track the group is probably currently the LinkedIn group, though I will definitely also post the details when they firm up.
New splogging technique?
I'm sure everyone has encountered the kind of spam blog where they're scraping posts from someone reasonably well-known -- presumably via RSS -- and presenting the results as their own, normally with a million Google ads on the sidebar.
Here's a new (to me) twist on that. I spotted two new incoming links to my WebGL blog. One was a (very brief) mention in a roundup from Dion Almaer on Ajaxian, an Ajax community site. The other was on "tutorials4html.com".
Let's compare Dion's introductory sentences:
A lot of great news is coming in via Twitter. I make a lot of Ajax comments under @dalmaer and wanted to give you a roundup on the month of October via Tweets. Always interesting to take a glance at the month. What do you think?
...with that of the intriguingly-named "admin" on tutorials4html.com:
A aggregation of enthusiastic programme is reaching in via Twitter. I attain a aggregation of Ajax comments low @dalmaer and desired to provide you a roundup on the period of Oct via Tweets. Always engrossing to verify a spring at the month. What do you think?
Well, yes. It certainly is always engrossing to verify a spring at the month. Couldn't agree more.
What impresses me, though, is that they've clearly automated this. There's no way a paraphrase that bad could have been written by hand (or if there is, I never want to meet its author) so presumably they have some kind of program doing it. Maybe they run it through Google translate a few times?