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The Normal Distribution

The normal distribution in one dimension is described by the probability distribution $$ f(x) = \frac{1}{\sigma \sqrt{2\pi}} e^{-\frac{(x-\mu)^2}{2\sigma^2}} $$ where \(\mu\) is the mean and \(\sigma\) is the standard deviation. While the mean is easily understood, the standard deviation measures how spread out the distribution is.

Ray-tracing has always fascinated me. I recall playing with a 3-D modeller on my Amiga 1000 many years ago - I tried to look it up and it looks like it was Sculpt 3D. However, modelling with triangles and points in 3-D space did not work that well for me. So when I many years later discovered POV-Ray where essentially program your scene I was able to get something reasonable output.

This article will show some of the experiments I have been making recently.

The problem is to deduce how the temperature changes (we will call this a temperature profile) at one place from measurements at another place.

When washing dishes, mowing the lawn or during commute I enjoy listening to podcasts. The following is a list of my favorite podcasts. I link to their homepage, but you can most likely also find them via iTunes or whatever podcast software you happen to use.

The following is a list of the programs and tools that I install when I get a new computer or reinstall it. I have divided the list into two: The first list contains programs and utilities which can be downloaded and at least tried out for free (some are shareware). The second list contains the proprietary software that I use.