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[OT] Mathematica free for Raspberry PI
Message #1 Posted by BruceH on 22 Nov 2013, 5:50 a.m.

From email from Wolfram:

Quote:
We have a very big announcement about a very small device. The Wolfram Language and Mathematica are now included with every Raspberry Pi--giving the world an early, if not-quite-finished, glimpse of the Wolfram Language interacting with the outside world through sensors and devices: http://www.wolfram.com/raspberry-pi
      
Re: [OT] Mathematica free for Raspberry PI
Message #2 Posted by Eelco Rouw on 22 Nov 2013, 7:48 a.m.,
in response to message #1 by BruceH

Wow,

I'm getting more amazed every day by this platform. At the beginning I was quite sceptical about the moderation of the community (many people have been banned due to feature trolling), but they really seem to have taken off. I heard the production of the raspberry pi has passed the two million mark.

I will certainly try to install mathematica!

Kind regards,

Eelco

      
Re: [OT] Mathematica free for Raspberry PI
Message #3 Posted by Nick_S on 22 Nov 2013, 8:37 a.m.,
in response to message #1 by BruceH

Note that it is only free for non-commercial use, which looks rather like vendor lock-in to me.

Nick

            
Re: [OT] Mathematica free for Raspberry PI
Message #4 Posted by Chris Pem10 on 22 Nov 2013, 12:05 p.m.,
in response to message #3 by Nick_S

Only in the year 2013 can we hear:

"Ho hum... the most advanced computational platform in the known universe is free if I push a few buttons from my chair... oh, but wait, it's vendor lock-in. No thanks Mr. Wolfram"

To the 99% of the world's population that cannot afford this... it's a gift. :)

                  
Re: [OT] Mathematica free for Raspberry PI
Message #5 Posted by Nick_S on 22 Nov 2013, 12:18 p.m.,
in response to message #4 by Chris Pem10

I speak as one who works with colleagues trained to carry out statistics as students in the ubiquitous SPSS package who now face bills of 12 thousand euros per licence in the work environment under IBM's new licensing scheme.

Nick

Edited: 22 Nov 2013, 12:23 p.m.

                        
Re: [OT] Mathematica free for Raspberry PI
Message #6 Posted by Chris Pem10 on 22 Nov 2013, 12:28 p.m.,
in response to message #5 by Nick_S

Ouch ! I don't know anything about SPSS... but I assume that type of software is supposed to pay for itself with results? Looks like a one-year "Grad Pack" license only costs students $99.

                        
Re: [OT] Mathematica free for Raspberry PI
Message #7 Posted by dietmar13 on 22 Nov 2013, 2:23 p.m.,
in response to message #5 by Nick_S

Quote:
who now face bills of 12 thousand euros per licence

there is a free solution, which does ALL what SPSS can and infinite more (i.e. much prettier figures !)...

R

therefore NOBODY has to pay a cent for statistics software...

                              
Re: [OT] Mathematica free for Raspberry PI
Message #8 Posted by Nick_S on 22 Nov 2013, 3:55 p.m.,
in response to message #7 by dietmar13

I use R extensively myself, but the issue here is the hidden cost in time and expense of retraining a team who are heavy users of an existing package (the vendor lock in I spoke of) which suddenly goes through the roof in licensing costs.

I have noticed more and more university departments switching to STATA which offers a powerful alternative to SPSS and includes a graphical user interface to lower the entry barrier. At least the full licences are reasonably priced.

Nick

Edited: 22 Nov 2013, 4:00 p.m.

                  
Re: [OT] Mathematica free for Raspberry PI
Message #9 Posted by CR Haeger on 22 Nov 2013, 12:48 p.m.,
in response to message #4 by Chris Pem10

Quote:
To the 99% of the world's population that cannot afford this... it's a gift. :)

Looks like a good software deal. What does the hardware + required peripherals + 600MB+ SD card cost?

                        
Re: [OT] Mathematica free for Raspberry PI
Message #10 Posted by Chris Pem10 on 22 Nov 2013, 1:44 p.m.,
in response to message #9 by CR Haeger

The Pi is $35. You'll need a monitor capable of HDMI input, a usb keyboard and mouse, and a 4Gb SD card (and an Ethernet cable). And a way to power the Pi via micro-usb 5V.

I don't know if Wolfram has locked it down to Raspberry Pi only... but there are certainly much faster arm platforms available...

I have full instructions on how to do all of this for free, via QEmu emulation in Ubuntu 13.10; but emulation is very, very slow. Just send an email.

Bonus: Turn you raspberry pi into a touchscreen mobile device... like the DukePAD and run Mathematica:

https://wiki.openjdk.java.net/display/OpenJFX/DukePad

Not yet cost-effective... but give it two years and something equivalent will be for sale in the gas station checkout line for 20 bucks.

This time next year you'll probably see Mathematica 10 for sale in the Google Apps Store.

                              
Re: [OT] Mathematica free for Raspberry PI
Message #11 Posted by Howard Owen on 23 Nov 2013, 7:43 p.m.,
in response to message #10 by Chris Pem10

I paid $77.95 + tax for this bundle at amazon. It comes with WiFi and HDMI cable, plus some breadboarding gear including a GPIO breakout adapter.

Vendor lock in? Absolutely. I'm doing this as a hobbyist so pfffft.

                        
Re: [OT] Mathematica free for Raspberry PI
Message #12 Posted by Thomas Klemm on 22 Nov 2013, 1:53 p.m.,
in response to message #9 by CR Haeger

Depends a little on what you already have. But Pi + SD-Card + USB-cable will be about $50. I can connect to my Pi using ssh and run wolfram and get: 

pi@raspberrypi ~ $ wolfram
Wolfram Language (Raspberry Pi Pilot Release)
Copyright 1988-2013 Wolfram Research
Information & help: wolfram.com/raspi

In[1]:= D[Sqrt[Cos[x]+2Sin[x]], x]

            2 Cos[x] - Sin[x]
Out[1]= -------------------------
        2 Sqrt[Cos[x] + 2 Sin[x]]

In[2]:=
This is rather fast. Or then I can start mathematica which will pop up a screen. That's a little slow but you can draw graphs and stuff.

But I must admit I'm not that familiar with both.

Cheers
Thomas

                              
Re: [OT] Mathematica free for Raspberry PI
Message #13 Posted by Chris Pem10 on 22 Nov 2013, 2:04 p.m.,
in response to message #12 by Thomas Klemm

Press "==" aka two equal signs and you can enter Wolfram Alpah queries...

                                    
Re: [OT] Mathematica free for Raspberry PI
Message #14 Posted by Thomas Klemm on 23 Nov 2013, 7:32 a.m.,
in response to message #13 by Chris Pem10

That's nice to know. But slow compared to using a browser directly.

Thanks
Thomas

      
Re: [OT] Mathematica free for Raspberry PI
Message #15 Posted by Chris Pem10 on 22 Nov 2013, 11:41 a.m.,
in response to message #1 by BruceH

You beat me to it!

Was trying to install it this morning, but my SD card is too small.

Setting up a virtual Raspberry Pi now in emulation...

Regardless... THIS IS HUGE. Expect Mathematica 10 on a tablet very soon. It's bring your own device time!

            
Re: [OT] Mathematica free for Raspberry PI
Message #16 Posted by Erwin Ried on 22 Nov 2013, 12:14 p.m.,
in response to message #15 by Chris Pem10

Quote:
You beat me to it!

Was trying to install it this morning, but my SD card is too small.

Setting up a virtual Raspberry Pi now in emulation...

Regardless... THIS IS HUGE. Expect Mathematica 10 on a tablet very soon. It's bring your own device time!

Isn't mathematica already in tablets? https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.wolfram.android.alpha&hl=en

                  
Re: [OT] Mathematica free for Raspberry PI
Message #17 Posted by Chris Pem10 on 22 Nov 2013, 12:19 p.m.,
in response to message #16 by Erwin Ried

Wolfram Alpha is just the tip of the iceberg. Mathematica is a huge environment. It's been under constant development for 25 years.

            
Re: [OT] Mathematica free for Raspberry PI
Message #18 Posted by Thomas Radtke on 23 Nov 2013, 10:07 a.m.,
in response to message #15 by Chris Pem10

Quote:
Regardless... THIS IS HUGE. Expect Mathematica 10 on a tablet very soon. It's bring your own device time!
So that the employer can be sure everyone is (mis)using their own software licences?
      
Re: [OT] Mathematica free for Raspberry PI
Message #19 Posted by Paul Dale on 22 Nov 2013, 5:20 p.m.,
in response to message #1 by BruceH

It will be interesting to see the impact this has on hand held calculators.

Mathematica pretty much does everything any calculator does and in most cases does it far better. It is definitely more feature rich than any calculator.

If I were developing a new calculator from scratch, I'd seriously consider using Mathematica for the internals and wrapping a device specific interface over the top. This would mean a more capable CPU and some extra memory but both of these are cheap these days.

The Wolfram Language would likely be the implementation language of choice too.

- Pauli

Edited: 22 Nov 2013, 9:18 p.m. after one or more responses were posted

            
Re: [OT] Mathematica free for Raspberry PI
Message #20 Posted by Chris Pem10 on 22 Nov 2013, 9:16 p.m.,
in response to message #19 by Paul Dale

I can say, absolutely 100% without any reservation, that if Mathematica were available on a hand-held device (of my choice), I'd never buy another calculator again. I'd eBay my entire collection immediately before prices fell. Modern calcs are like abacuses in comparison... even the Prime, TI nSpire, etc. Mathematica on your own device is coming; it's inevitable. A computing platform where your work is synced on the cloud, you can collaborate with anyone in real-time, voice input, "keyboards" that not only morph and predict your needs but never break, the world's data at your disposal... A child born today will never press a "physical" button again.

"Google glass: What's the derivative of sin(x) times cos(x)?"

Edited: 22 Nov 2013, 9:27 p.m.

                  
Re: [OT] Mathematica free for Raspberry PI
Message #21 Posted by Walter B on 22 Nov 2013, 10:01 p.m.,
in response to message #20 by Chris Pem10

Quote:
A computing platform where your work is synced on the cloud, you can collaborate with anyone in real-time, voice input, "keyboards" that not only morph and predict your needs but never break, the world's data at your disposal...

"Google glass: What's the derivative of sin(x) times cos(x)?"

Watch it! Then Google (et al.) also knows what you're calculating, and what you did calculate before and ... :-(

Seems I'd prefer standalone calculators still.

d:-/

                        
Re: [OT] Mathematica free for Raspberry PI
Message #22 Posted by Gerson W. Barbosa on 22 Nov 2013, 10:38 p.m.,
in response to message #21 by Walter B

Quote:
Watch it! Then Google (et al.) also knows what you're calculating, and what you did calculate before and ... :-(

That's really a concern, but I doubt anyone, even NSA, is interested in what I submit to W|A :-)

(200 - pi/15)^1/2

sqrt(2)*(1000 - pi/2)^1/3

2*(2500 - 5*pi/3)^1/4

sqrt(200 - 1/(3 + sqrt(pi)))

                              
Re: [OT] Mathematica free for Raspberry PI
Message #23 Posted by Walter B on 23 Nov 2013, 2:21 a.m.,
in response to message #22 by Gerson W. Barbosa

You may be right. Most people - even most forumers - use their calculators mainly for real life calculations, however. And if such a cloudy device is going to replace calculators ...

d:-/

                              
Re: [OT] Mathematica free for Raspberry PI
Message #24 Posted by Thomas Klemm on 23 Nov 2013, 7:28 a.m.,
in response to message #22 by Gerson W. Barbosa

Some might disagree:

Quote:
I could use ascii but I like the 0-Z set as six bits. I wonder if the NSA would figure out that you couldn't decode my text down to eight bit characters.

-- Chuck Moore, Color Forth

Cheers
Thomas

                  
Re: [OT] Mathematica free for Raspberry PI
Message #25 Posted by Paul Dale on 22 Nov 2013, 10:07 p.m.,
in response to message #20 by Chris Pem10

And you've hit a bit of a problem right away. Is the answer to What's the derivative of sin x times cos x ? cos(x cos(x)) (cos(x)-x sin(x)) or cos(2 x)? Natural language is horrible as an input method for mathematics.

- Pauli

Edited: 22 Nov 2013, 10:07 p.m.

                        
Re: Communicating mathematics in natural language
Message #26 Posted by Peter Murphy (Livermore) on 23 Nov 2013, 12:13 a.m.,
in response to message #25 by Paul Dale

In 1983, a blind mathematician published a monograph on the use of spoken English to communicate mathematics:

http://web.efzg.hr/dok/MAT/vkojic/Larrys_speakeasy.pdf

A related work is here:

http://s22318.tsbvi.edu/mathproject/appB-sec1.asp

If speaking mathematics to your handheld device becomes possible, it may be that something like this will work.

                              
Re: Communicating mathematics in natural language
Message #27 Posted by Thomas Klemm on 23 Nov 2013, 7:22 a.m.,
in response to message #26 by Peter Murphy (Livermore)

Coding by voice is already a thing:

  • Using Python to Code by Voice
  • VimSpeak Demo
  • VimSpeak Demo - VimGolf using only voice

    Shouldn't be that difficult to do it with mathematica.

    Cheers
    Thomas

    •                                     
    Re: Communicating mathematics in natural language
    Message #28 Posted by Gerson W. Barbosa on 23 Nov 2013, 7:58 a.m.,
    in response to message #27 by Thomas Klemm

    Nice! This gag ("Computer! Computer?") wouldn't have worked if Star Trek IV had been shot just a few years later.

    http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=R5e1vfaST2I

    Cheers,

    Gerson.

                                              
    Re: Communicating mathematics in natural language
    Message #29 Posted by Thomas Klemm on 23 Nov 2013, 11:18 a.m.,
    in response to message #28 by Gerson W. Barbosa

    Best comment:

    Quote:
    bei 1:02 kann man sehen - wenn man gaaaaanz genau hinsieht - dass Scotty ein Teil des rechten Mittelfingers fehlt.
    -- Kittichan 4 years ago

    Cheers
    Thomas

                                                    
    Re: Communicating mathematics in natural language
    Message #30 Posted by Gerson W. Barbosa on 26 Nov 2013, 3:12 p.m.,
    in response to message #29 by Thomas Klemm

    Quote:
    Quote:
    bei 1:02 kann man sehen - wenn man gaaaaanz genau hinsieht - dass Scotty ein Teil des rechten Mittelfingers fehlt.
    -- Kittichan 4 years ago

    In English, courtesy of Google Translate ("Life is too short to learn German", sorry! :-)

    You can see - if you look closely - that Scotty is missing part of the right middle finger.

    This wouldn't have stopped him from typing that fast, but the lack of typing skills when they had become unnecessary in the future would. That's a weak point in the scene.

    James Doohan really missed part of his right middle finger, according to Wikipedia:

    http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/James_Doohan

    Cheers,

    Gerson.

                            
    Re: [OT] Mathematica free for Raspberry PI
    Message #31 Posted by Thomas Klemm on 23 Nov 2013, 7:52 a.m.,
    in response to message #25 by Paul Dale

    From the Handbook for Spoken Mathematics linked above:

    Quote:
    sin cos : sine of theta times co sine of theta

    sin ( cos ): sine of the product theta times co sine 

    Wolfram Language (Raspberry Pi Pilot Release)
Copyright 1988-2013 Wolfram Research
Information & help: wolfram.com/raspi
    
In[1]:= D[Sin[x]Cos[x], x]
    
              2         2
Out[1]= Cos[x]  - Sin[x]

    Cheers
    Thomas

                      
    Re: [OT] Mathematica free for Raspberry PI
    Message #32 Posted by eri on 23 Nov 2013, 12:43 a.m.,
    in response to message #20 by Chris Pem10

    Last week I got to play with a Dell Venue 8 Pro. Quad core atom, 7.5+ hours battery life. Runs real windows 8.1 so full windows x64 compat. My friend had installed visual studio and was doing a build on it. Amazing and fits in my large coat pocket. First windows 8 device that I want.

    I was eligible for a deal and was able to order one for $200. Install mathematica and your dream is reality.

                
    Re: [OT] Mathematica free for Raspberry PI
    Message #33 Posted by Nick_S on 23 Nov 2013, 5:24 a.m.,
    in response to message #19 by Paul Dale

    Pauli wrote:

    Quote:
    If I were developing a new calculator from scratch, I'd seriously consider using Mathematica for the internals and wrapping a device specific interface over the top.
    The HP 28S derived calculator application for the iPhone called ND1 does this for its symbolic calculations by calling Wolfram Alpha:

    "Solving, calculus: not directly supported; for differentiation, integrals, taylor series, solving, variable isolation, the app goes out to WolframAlpha.com and displays results in integrated web-browser."

    http://naivedesign.com/ND1/Specs.html

    Nick

    Edited: 23 Nov 2013, 9:45 a.m.

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