Search results for 'app:weblogs' matching tag 'Cool Software'

Project Trident: A Scientific Workflow Workbench available for download

Anonymous — Tue, 14 Jul 2009 05:00:00 GMT

Project Trident CTP is now available for download. Project Trident is a scientific workflow workbench MSR External Research has been working on for the past few years, which allows scientists to analyze large, diverse datasets. It’s built on Windows Workflow and utilizes SQL Server (Express or Server). Download it and try it out…

Project Trident

Built on the Windows Workflow Foundation, this scientific workflow workbench allows users to:

Automate analysis and then visualize and explore data

Compose, run, and catalog experiments as workflows

Capture provenance for each experiment

Create a domain-specific workflow library to extend the functionality of the workflow workbench

Use existing services, such as provenance and fault tolerance, or add new services

Schedule workflows over HPC clusters or cloud computing resources

Project Trident: A Scientific Workflow Workbench - Microsoft Research

Wow - DeepZoomPix Technology Demo – Azure, Silverlight and Deep Zoom

Anonymous — Thu, 16 Apr 2009 05:00:00 GMT

Just tried out the DeepZoomPix Technology Demo – it’s pretty amazing – brings together Azure, Silverlight and Deep Zoom.

I tested it out with some Astronomy photos…

dfd

Using Flickr for Astronomy – and viewing in WWT

Anonymous — Fri, 20 Feb 2009 06:00:00 GMT

The use of online services such as Flickr to help scientists is in its infancy and applications utilizing commodity based solutions will continue to pick up momentum. I especially like the integration and the ease of use – science should be about discovery and exploration – not about the technology. Of course the ability to view those analyzed images in WorldWide Telescope completes the circle and allows you to view the image in context.

Check out the Orion Nebula.
After it opens up – click on the thumbnail at the top.

You can also add your own – check out Dinoj’s post on the WWT Data Blog - Sticking images on the sky with WWT. For fun you can see the crown for the Corona Borealis overlaid on the sky

See the article written by Frederic Lardinois on ReadWriteWeb.

The Great Gig in the Sky: Using Flickr for Astronomy

Flickr hosts a wide range of beautiful images, but a new project built on top of Flickr's API only focuses on photos of the night sky from amateur astronomers. The Astrometry.net project constantly scans the Astrometry Flickr group for new images to catalog and to add to its open-source sky survey. At the same time, this project also provides a more direct service to the amateur astronomers, as it also analyzes each image and returns a high-quality description of the photo's contents.

The Astrometry group currently has over 400 members, and as Christoper Stumm, a member of the Astrometry.net team, told the Flickr Code blog, the back-end software uses geometric hashing to exactly pinpoint and describe the objects in the images. When you submit an image to the Flickr pool, the robot will not just respond with a comment that contains an exact description of what you see in the image, but it will also annotate the image automatically.

While a lot of members of the Astrometry group use high-end telescopes and cameras, the Astrometry.net solver can also analyze images from consumer-level digital cameras.

While just being able to automatically analyze and catalog these images is pretty cool already, every description also contains a link that displays the image in Microsoft's WordWide Telescope.

Astronomy is one of those few scientific disciplines where dedicated amateurs can still make major discoveries and this is definitely one of the cooler applications of Flickr's API that we have seen in a long time.

The Great Gig in the Sky: Using Flickr for Astronomy - ReadWriteWeb

eclipse4SL: Eclipse Tools for Microsoft Silverlight

Anonymous — Mon, 09 Feb 2009 06:00:00 GMT

Just saw a posting that eclipse4SL - the Eclipse tools for Silverlight project is available. It is an eclipse plug-in that enables Eclipse developers to use the Eclipse IDE to create applications that run on the Microsoft Silverlight runtime platform.

The purpose of this project is the creation of open source tools integrated with the Eclipse development platform that enable Java developers to use the Eclipse platform to create applications that run on the Microsoft Silverlight runtime platform. Specifically, the project will be an Eclipse plug-in that works with the Eclipse Integrated Development Environment (IDE) and Eclipse Rich Client Platform (RCP) to provide both a Silverlight development environment and greater interoperability between Silverlight and Java, to facilitate the integration of Silverlight-based applications into Java-based web sites and services. The project has been submitted to the Eclipse Foundation and released as an open Eclipse project.

Eclipse Tools for Microsoft Silverlight

The Earth, Stars, and Planets in 3D

Anonymous — Tue, 27 Jan 2009 06:00:00 GMT

One of the coolest new features of the WWT Solstice Borealis Beta (released at the beginning of Jan) is the ability to see the Earth, Stars, and Planets in a stereoscopic 3D effect. I’ve been using the Anaglyph mode (View | {arrow} | Stereo | Anaglyph) which uses the stylish red/cyan glasses shown below to not only look at the Stars, but you can zoom all the way out and see the lattice structure made up galaxies of the universe. Checking out the planets, like Mars, Saturn, etc is also very impressive. Going down to Earth, you can change your perspective by holding down the ctrl key and then you can fly into objects like Mount St. Helens

Mount St. Helens in normal view Mount St. Helens in stereoscopic view

Check it out if you have a pair of red/cyan glasses – they are all the rage :-)

Science Images in Photosynth

Anonymous — Tue, 20 Jan 2009 06:00:00 GMT

Here are a few really good synths of scientific images in Photosynth. You can find others using Microscopes or Biology. And there is even a Dissected Cat if you have a strong stomach.

Obelia, polyps, golangia by ppberk

Micrographs of powder coating material by SynthSets

Frog Kidney by ppberk

NodeXL for viewing and analyzing network graphs is available again (formally .NetMap)

Anonymous — Fri, 16 Jan 2009 06:00:00 GMT

NodeXL – the app formally know as .NetMap is available again on CodePlex. NodeXL is a Excel template and addin for viewing and analyzing network graphs. There are a whole slew of updates and bug fixes. Check it out….

So you don’t think you can Sing?

Anonymous — Thu, 08 Jan 2009 06:00:00 GMT

Now you can have your own musical accompaniment to match your voice without having to worry about artistic differences. I’ll have to play with Songsmith and see if can help even my voice sound decent :-) But you won’t see me posting the songs or videos online.

Just think – you can add a musical soundtrack to your everyday tasks…doing the dishes, walking the dog, or the one I like – kids ~~saying~~ singing “Science is Cool”….neat to see this product coming out of Microsoft Research.

What is Songsmith?
Songsmith generates musical accompaniment to match a singer’s voice. Just choose a musical style, sing into your PC’s microphone, and Songsmith will create backing music for you. Then share your songs with your friends and family, post your songs online, or create your own music videos.
Where can I get it?
A free trial download is available on our download page.

Photosynth in Silverlight

Anonymous — Tue, 16 Dec 2008 06:00:00 GMT

Very neat to see a experimental Silverlight viewer for Photosynth.

Here’s one synth I did while at SC08 of the MS Booth

InfoMesa Project – Whiteboard for your data

Anonymous — Tue, 09 Dec 2008 06:00:00 GMT

One of neatest apps I’ve see lately is InfoMesa – a project by Sam Batterman – the example is InfoMesa allows any kind of data or visualization to be added to the Whiteboard.

The folks at RENCI are using it in their Social Computing Room (SCR) w/ a 360 degree desktop.

You can download the implementation and code and test it out.

Download

What is it?

InfoMesa is a project to allow scientists to do more science and more discovery in a collaborative and data-rich environment. The metaphor that we have elected to use as the underlying fabric of the InfoMesa is a Whiteboard.

InfoMesa allows any kind of data or visualization to be added to the Whiteboard. Far from static, these tools are interactive, allowing data to be absorbed from data sources like Oracle, SQL Server, Excel Spreadsheets, XML or even Cloud-based web services. InfoMesa, when complete will support imagery, video, 2D connected models, 3D models (lit in a photo realistically manner), web searches, results from web service calls, Image Tile Maps, ScatterPlots, Sticky Notes, Ink Notes, Rich Annotations and Associations.

An Example of a typical InfoMesa Whiteboard is shown here:

Welcome to the InfoMesa Project - Official Launch - Windows Live