For many months, since I upgraded to Snow Leopard (10.6), I’ve had the following error when trying to import matplotlib. When I issued the command “import pylab” or “from pylab import *” in iPython, Python, or any other tool that uses the Python shell, I got the following error:

ImportError: Matplotlib backend_wx and backend_wxagg require wxPython >=2.8

Well, after poking around this problem for the thousandth time, I finally fixed it for good. I did this by removing my ~/.matplotlib/matplotlibrc file. In this file, there was only one line:

backend : WXAgg

which I removed (and since it was the only line, I just removed the file). Now the error is gone, and matplotlib imports just fine, meaning that I can use it in any Python shell, including Sage.

Just thought I’d post this up in case any other Python/Snow Leopard users are having trouble.

My M.S. in Fire Protection Engineering from WPI was recently confirmed and my M.S. thesis was released for publication. The title of the thesis is “Characterizing the Flammability of Storage Commodities Using an Experimentally Determined B-number”.

Link to thesis is here: http://www.wpi.edu/Pubs/ETD/Available/etd-121409-192436/

The abstract is as follows:

In warehouse storage applications, it is important to classify the burning behavior of commodities and rank them according to material flammability for early fire detection and suppression operations. In this study, the large-scale effects of warehouse fires are decoupled into separate processes of heat and mass transfer. As a first step, two nondimensional parameters are shown to govern the physical phenomena at the large-scale, a mass transfer number, and the soot yield of the fuel which controls the radiation observed in the large-scale. In this study, a methodology is developed to obtain a mass-transfer parameter using mass-loss (burning rate) measurements from bench-scale tests. Two fuels are considered, corrugated cardboard and polystyrene. Corrugated cardboard provides a source of flaming combustion in a warehouse and is usually the first item to ignite and sustain flame spread. Polystyrene is typically used as the most hazardous product in large-scale fire testing. A mixed fuel sample (corrugated cardboard backed by polystyrene) was also tested to assess the feasibility of ranking mixed commodities using the bench-scale test method. The nondimensional mass transfer number was then used to model upward flame propagation on 20-30 foot stacks of Class III commodity consisting of paper cups packed in corrugated cardboard boxes on rack-storage. Good agreement was observed between the model and large-scale experiments during the initial stages of fire growth.

This is me walking the 1.5 block walk home from school for a good warm lunch. The sky dumped another foot of snow on me this past Tuesday. I slipped quite a few times this day, and I fully expect to eat it big on the ice one day… still waiting.

The snowfall has doubly exceeded the usual amount to welcome me in my first winter up here. It falls peacefully yet drains my soul of motivation. Must. Keep. Going.

Enjoy.

Link to complete album