Fwd: UTAustinX: UT.5.01x: Linear Algebra - Foundations to Frontiers | edX
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Fwd: UTAustinX: UT.5.01x: Linear Algebra - Foundations to Frontiers | edX
 
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Just curious. Has anyone knowledge of this course and/or the school/instructors?
One interesting thing in the FAQ was computer requirements: What software do I need for the course?We will utilize VirtualBox, Vagrant, and Git, which are available for free. We have configured a virtual machine for download to ensure that all participants have the same software and environment. With it, you will create a small linear algebra package using Python 3 and iPython Notebooks. Detailed, easy instructions will explain how to download, install, and use the software. If you are registered for the course, you will receive an email alerting you when these instructions become available. You will be able to access them at least a week before the course begins. (Don't be intimidated by the jargon. We'll get you through it.)
That, on the one hand, is extraordinarily sophisticated, on the other hand a comment on just how hard it is to configure a desktop environment for class material.
Imagine telling someone that you'll have to have a computer within a computer configured correctly to run the Python packages you'll be using!
I was more impressed by Stanford's Machine Learning class that just said: Install either MatLab or Octave. All our code will work with that.
-- Owen ============================================================ FRIAM Applied Complexity Group listserv Meets Fridays 9a-11:30 at cafe at St. John's College to unsubscribe http://redfish.com/mailman/listinfo/friam_redfish.com |
Re: Fwd: UTAustinX: UT.5.01x: Linear Algebra - Foundations to Frontiers | edX
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This is exaclty how we operate at my company and I have found it to be an incredible time saver. The alternative requires detective work to solve every problem for every user. If everyone is using the same Vagrant box then solving the problems of one user can be applied to all of the other users.
I know python is a prime offender on this kind of configuration issues, but this technique is wonderful for many different sorts of software packages… In one go you can have a complete system up and running with potentially many different pieces of software properly configured and running… The instructions typically go, install virtual box, install vagrant, clone this repo, type “vagrant up”… and you are running. —joshua On Dec 6, 2013, at 10:36 AM, Owen Densmore <[hidden email]> wrote:
============================================================ FRIAM Applied Complexity Group listserv Meets Fridays 9a-11:30 at cafe at St. John's College to unsubscribe http://redfish.com/mailman/listinfo/friam_redfish.com |
Re: UTAustinX: UT.5.01x: Linear Algebra - Foundations to Frontiers | edX
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Here’s a new slogan off the top of my head: “If it isn’t virtual, it isn’t real.” :-)
I use VMWare Fusion on my MacBook Pro, although I’ve generally been impressed with VirtualBox (the price is certainly right). Lately, I’ve been using a VM within a VM. I need to maintain an app on some Windows boxes, but don’t have one myself (don’t want one). To maintain the app, it is easiest to give them a solution that runs in a VM in one of said Windows boxes. To do so, I run Windows on my Mac inside Fusion. I then tried running Ubuntu under VirtualBox in this virtualized Windows box, but Ubuntu wouldn’t boot. It could be that if the outer host (i.e. my Mac) were running VirtualBox instead of Fusion, it would work, but I haven’t tried that. Instead, I run VMWare Player (the free, as in beer, not as in freedom, software) inside this virtualized Windows box and Ubuntu runs fine there. Surprisingly good performance, for a simple LAMP stack running in this double virtualized environment. Anyway, life without virtualization would be a whole lot less interesting. Gary On Dec 6, 2013, at 12:54 PM, Joshua Thorp <[hidden email]> wrote: > This is exaclty how we operate at my company and I have found it to be an incredible time saver. The alternative requires detective work to solve every problem for every user. If everyone is using the same Vagrant box then solving the problems of one user can be applied to all of the other users. > > I know python is a prime offender on this kind of configuration issues, but this technique is wonderful for many different sorts of software packages… In one go you can have a complete system up and running with potentially many different pieces of software properly configured and running… The instructions typically go, install virtual box, install vagrant, clone this repo, type “vagrant up”… and you are running. > > —joshua > > On Dec 6, 2013, at 10:36 AM, Owen Densmore <[hidden email]> wrote: > >> Just curious. Has anyone knowledge of this course and/or the school/instructors? >> https://www.edx.org/course/utaustinx/utaustinx-ut-5-01x-linear-algebra-1162 >> >> One interesting thing in the FAQ was computer requirements: >> What software do I need for the course? >> We will utilize VirtualBox, Vagrant, and Git, which are available for free. We have configured a virtual machine for download to ensure that all participants have the same software and environment. With it, you will create a small linear algebra package using Python 3 and iPython Notebooks. Detailed, easy instructions will explain how to download, install, and use the software. If you are registered for the course, you will receive an email alerting you when these instructions become available. You will be able to access them at least a week before the course begins. (Don't be intimidated by the jargon. We'll get you through it.) >> >> That, on the one hand, is extraordinarily sophisticated, on the other hand a comment on just how hard it is to configure a desktop environment for class material. >> >> Imagine telling someone that you'll have to have a computer within a computer configured correctly to run the Python packages you'll be using! >> >> I was more impressed by Stanford's Machine Learning class that just said: Install either MatLab or Octave. All our code will work with that. >> >> -- Owen >> ============================================================ >> FRIAM Applied Complexity Group listserv >> Meets Fridays 9a-11:30 at cafe at St. John's College >> to unsubscribe http://redfish.com/mailman/listinfo/friam_redfish.com > > ============================================================ > FRIAM Applied Complexity Group listserv > Meets Fridays 9a-11:30 at cafe at St. John's College > to unsubscribe http://redfish.com/mailman/listinfo/friam_redfish.com ============================================================ FRIAM Applied Complexity Group listserv Meets Fridays 9a-11:30 at cafe at St. John's College to unsubscribe http://redfish.com/mailman/listinfo/friam_redfish.com |
VM within a VM (was UTAustinX: UT.5.01x: Linear Algebra - Foundations to Frontiers | edX)
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On 12/06/2013 10:56 AM, Gary Schiltz wrote:
> Lately, I’ve been using a VM within a VM. One of the problems I have with this: http://www.simulation-argument.com/faq.html is the potential for infinite regress. At that point, I think it boils down to whether you accept this: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bekenstein_bound I remember sitting in on a talk by this guy: http://www.isepp.org/Pages/12-13%20Pages/Bristol.html wherein he posited that a (hypothetical, of course) system of systems universe might actually loop... i.e. yes, it's turtles all the way down, but you could (in principle) mark any given turtle and find your way back to a marked turtle with an ongoing monotonic scale change. -- glen ep ropella -- 971-255-2847 ============================================================ FRIAM Applied Complexity Group listserv Meets Fridays 9a-11:30 at cafe at St. John's College to unsubscribe http://redfish.com/mailman/listinfo/friam_redfish.com |
Re: UTAustinX: UT.5.01x: Linear Algebra - Foundations to Frontiers | edX
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In reply to this post by Gary Schiltz-4
Great input, thanks! I admit to being a browser fan-boy just because, beyond needing a "modern browser", its config-free.
But I'm definitely open to zero-config of any sort. Will report.
BTW: The linear algebra course the MOOC is modeled after uses Strang's Linear Algebra.
Tom: (10/11/09) you're right, it IS "idiosyncratic" but I found it compelling, the parts I followed from his video lectures and using his book.
-- Owen
On Fri, Dec 6, 2013 at 11:56 AM, Gary Schiltz <[hidden email]> wrote: Here’s a new slogan off the top of my head: “If it isn’t virtual, it isn’t real.” :-) ============================================================ FRIAM Applied Complexity Group listserv Meets Fridays 9a-11:30 at cafe at St. John's College to unsubscribe http://redfish.com/mailman/listinfo/friam_redfish.com |
Re: UTAustinX: UT.5.01x: Linear Algebra - Foundations to Frontiers | edX
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I am subscribed to a MOO programmers list, and someone offered a Vagrant file for MOO tools; so besides eliminating dependency problems it can be used to giftwrap goodies. However, virtualisation still takes a little setting up and although performance has improved considerably in recent times older machines (to address the same ethic as 'offline first', namely do not design primarily for the most well-prepared users) might balk. A liveboot image seems a nice alternative.
-Arlo ============================================================ FRIAM Applied Complexity Group listserv Meets Fridays 9a-11:30 at cafe at St. John's College to unsubscribe http://redfish.com/mailman/listinfo/friam_redfish.com |
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