You could also buy a NeXT. They all came with Mathematica. Of course, that was the late '80s version.
-Eric -=--=---=----=----=---=--=-=--=---=----=---=--=-=- Eric B. Wolf 720-209-6818 USGS Geographer Center of Excellence in GIScience PhD Student CU-Boulder - Geography On Wed, May 6, 2009 at 10:25 PM, SteveC <[email protected]> wrote: > I cannot recommend enough trying Mathematica if you never have, and even if > you've played with other functional languages. I had the extreme luck and > privilege to work there as an intern a decade ago otherwise I would never > have learnt or taught it. > > Your nearest major university will have a site license if it's any good, and > the home edition is a new license option and relatively cheap compared to > what it used to cost you. I would work through the Mathematica book too, > it's brilliant. It's included electronically with Mathematica itself, but > you really want the hard copy. > > You will find Mathematica references in books like Cryptonomicon and > Information Rules, too. > > Best > > Steve > > > On 6 May 2009, at 19:21, P Kishor wrote: >> >> On Wed, May 6, 2009 at 9:04 PM, Mike Liebhold <[email protected]> wrote: >>> >>> A Wolfram Research person's hard working Mathematica hacks to map his >>> outdoor excursions: >>> >>> http://blog.wolfram.com/2009/04/17/mapping-gps-data/ >>> >>> >> >> >> as much skepticism I have for Wolfram Alpha, I have even more >> amazement at the stuff Mathematica can do. Here is a post from >> Wolfram's blog that I noted a few months ago >> >> >> http://blog.wolfram.com/2008/12/01/the-incredible-convenience-of-mathematica-image-processing/ >> >> If only remote sensing had been so much fun. Just for the above, I >> will buy Mathematica and futz around with it. >> >> Now, that same Theodore Gray (the one who shows fun ways of doing >> image processing in the link above) has this to say about the role of >> Mathematica in the creation of Alpha >> >> "This is the essence of what has made Wolfram|Alpha possible. It’s not >> so much that it would have been impossible to do without Mathematica, >> but that it would have been impractically difficult. In fact, the >> easiest way to create Wolfram|Alpha without Mathematica would have >> been to write Mathematica first, then use it. Which is precisely what >> we have spent the past 23 years doing" >> >> See >> http://blog.wolframalpha.com/2009/05/01/the-secret-behind-the-computational-engine-in-wolframalpha/ >> >> Wolfram seems to have a mindset similar to the Goog's... the solution >> to every problem lies in data. The more data you can gather and >> analyze, the better solution you can create. Google's approach seems >> to be that the world is their data, and they analyze it as is, >> programmatically, more less with the internet and its openness as >> their modus operandi, while Wolfram wants to take the data, dice it, >> prep it, dress it using their own finite experts and their own >> proprietary code. I am not expressing it well, but that is my >> uninformed but intuitive gist of what I think the difference is >> between Google and Alpha. And then there are the breed of new >> aggregators/filter-ers such as kosmix and the ilk (see >> http://www.nytimes.com/2009/03/15/business/15ping.html). In any case, >> fine by me... as long as data can be free, we will see Wolfram's >> Alpha, someone else's Beta, and everyone's Gamma. >> >> >> >> -- >> Puneet Kishor http://www.punkish.org/ >> Carbon Model http://carbonmodel.org/ >> Charter Member, Open Source Geospatial Foundation http://www.osgeo.org/ >> Science Commons Fellow, Geospatial Data http://sciencecommons.org >> Nelson Institute, UW-Madison http://www.nelson.wisc.edu/ >> ----------------------------------------------------------------------- >> collaborate, communicate, compete >> ======================================================================= >> >> _______________________________________________ >> Geowanking mailing list >> [email protected] >> http://geowanking.org/mailman/listinfo/geowanking_geowanking.org > > > _______________________________________________ > Geowanking mailing list > [email protected] > http://geowanking.org/mailman/listinfo/geowanking_geowanking.org > _______________________________________________ Geowanking mailing list [email protected] http://geowanking.org/mailman/listinfo/geowanking_geowanking.org
