Paradigmatic's

Parallel collections will be part of scala 2.9. Here are some primers:

• Scala Parallel Collections - A Generic Parallel Collection Framework
• Presentation (Video + slides)
• Scaladoc

Other expected changes: Changes between Scala 2.8 and Scala 2.9

As a researcher in computational science, I use currently some nice free and open source software, which make my life a lot easier. All the following tools work on Linux, most of them on MacOSX and some on Windows (chek the links for more info).

Git

Git is a distributed version control system. That is to say, git allows you to track, manage and archive all preceding versions of you work. Since it works with text files (binaries are also supported) it it allows you to track:

• Your programs source code (obviously)
• Your papers, thesis, reports, grant applications written in LaTeX
• BibTeX reference lists
• The configuration and setting files of your experiments
• Notes written in text format (see next section).

Its distributed nature allows you to:

• Commit revision without network access (working from a train or a plane)
• Share easily you works with colleagues (great for collaboration with a remote place)

Finally you can access remote repositories using shared filesystems (NFS or Samba) or with a basic SSH server. Therefore it is directly usable in most universities environments.

Org-Mode

Org-mode is an emacs/ extension acting as a personal organizer, which is great for:

• Taking notes
• Laying down todo lists
• Managing agendas
• Writing presentations

Its interface is really smart and allows very quick editing. It supports directly LaTeX syntax and allows you to export your notes to HTML, LaTeX or LaTeX-Beamer presentations. I use it mainly to organize my thoughts and prepare my teaching slides.

Jabref

Jabref is a reference manager using BibTeX. It adds a graphical interface to BibTeX .bib files, which supports many useful features:

• Edit reference list
• Search references
• Import bibliography from other formats ( BibTeXML, CSA, Refer/Endnote, ISI Web of Science, SilverPlatter, Medline/Pubmed (xml), Scifinder, OVID, INSPEC, Biblioscape, Sixpack, JStor and RIS).
• Export bibliography in: HTML, Docbook, BibTeXML, MODS, RTF, Refer/Endnote and OpenOffice.org.
• Online seach and import from: Medline, Citeseer, IEEEXplore and arXiv

The nice part: Jabref won’t mess with your files. You can still use a regular text editor to open them.

Just set up a new blog. Hope that the simplicity of posterous will encourage me to write more often...

Cheers.