MATLAB in unexpected places

This topic is for unexpected or bizarre or humorous references to MATLAB. Specific citations would be appreciated.

Answer 1

[Kaustubha Govind]

"Matlab" in Hindi literally stands for "meaning" - although it's pronounced Muth-lub (both u's pronounced as in the English word "hut").

[Andrew Newell]

You could start pronouncing it that way in Mathworks, and see if it catches on!

[akkii sdf]

haha

[akkii sdf]

btw its true.. :)

Answer 2

[Matt J]

At the company I work for, I sometimes provide people with various MATLAB-compiled standalone utilities for their work. When I told him it was MATLAB, one of the people here, who was apparently unfamiliar with The Mathworks and its products, concluded that MATLAB itself was my invention and that I had named MATLAB after myself (because my name is Matt......Matt-Lab......get it?).

[Chad]

could you elaborate on 'MATLAB-compiled standalone utilities'? I recently developed a spectral analysis tool for my company as an intern and I am curious how one would go about implementing this on dedicated hardware to be used in the field (middle of the ocean) without needing a matlab license

[Walter Roberson]

I think Matt means programs built using MATLAB Compiler. The startup icon would be the MATLAB logo.

If you want to develop for dedicated hardware you are more likely going to want to look at MATLAB Coder, or Simulink Coder, possibly with some of the extension toolboxes like Fixed Point Toolbox or HDL Coder.

[ali yaman]

that was funny :)

Answer 3

[Walter Roberson]

High concentrations of cadmium and arsenic have been found in Matlab

[EDIT]

The original article is no longer at that link, but the scientific study can be found at http://www.supportforlife.org/media-centre/news/2197-researchers-investigate-levels-of-arsenic-and-cadmium-in-food-chain-in-bangladesh

[Matt Fig]

TMW just has to open a branch office there!

[Andrew Newell]

See also the Wikipedia page (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Matlab_Upazila) - "Not to be confused with MATLAB, the popular mathematical software."

[Walter Roberson]

And for those of you who haven't read the link and might be wondering: No, it is not a joke: it is a serious report about a real problem.

[Sean de Wolski]

Doe that mean that those of us who consume a lot of Matlab have to be worried if we become nauseous or develop abdominal pain?

http://www.diagnose-me.com/cond/C15891.html

[Matt Tearle]

Better not tell the people in the "I hate MATLAB" facebook group! They probably already believe that MATLAB causes abdominal pain.

Answer 4

[Sean de Wolski]

At my University someone has a car with "MATLAB" as their license plate text. I'm not positive who it is, though I have my guesses (that I'm sure some of you can deduce by looking at my University). As far as a reference/citation, I don't think whoever owns that car would appreciate their license plate shown all over the internet.

[Matt Fig]

Of course, we already know what the license plate says... I am guessing it is Dr. D.H. or Dr. B.L.

[Duane Hanselman]

I don't know who Dr. B. L is, but my license plate has been "MATLAB" for about a decade now. :-) I started using "Classic MATLAB" on the mainframe in graduate school in 1983 and was one of the first purchasers of PC-MATLAB in very early 1986. Jack Little answered the phone as he was tech support back then. I wrote a couple books on MATLAB. Duane Hanselman

[madhan ravi]

Wow

Answer 5

[Andrew Newell]

And let's not forget the famous musical group DJ Matlab!

[Walter Roberson]

Cool DJ logo!

[Matt Tearle]

You, sir, have won today's internets by 7 wickets to love in the 4th hole of the 3rd chukka.

[Andrew Newell]

I'm glad ... I guess.

Answer 6

[Arnaud Miege]

I like this one from this blog:

Arnaud

[Sean de Wolski]

I think it's kind of funny that he refers to it as a mesh. Isn't it a surface?

Answer 7

[Matt Fig]

I do see the logo on other vehicles once in a while. If you see the logo on the back of a silver VW EuroVan with Idaho plates, look at the driver. You may just spot a bearded man wearing a MATLAB hat. Don't hesitate to wave!

[Sean de Wolski]

I'm glad I'm not the only one who had the surface plot on their car. I had it on my old car but when I got a new one I didn't want to adulterate it with any bumper stickers. After it gets a few dings I have a surface plot waiting for it!

[Image Analyst]

Sean, that's why we need the static cling window sticker. I already let Steve know, but if you have any pull with the swag acquisition folks, put in your vote too. We could be driving billboards for MATLAB.

[Sean de Wolski]

Will do!

My previous comment is a little dated; I have a surface plot covering a ding on the tailgate of my truck :)

The best piece of new swag in the last couple of years was the chapstick. It came out it late December right as the winter was kicking into gear.

[Star Strider]

How ‘bout magnetic versions? Cars, fridge magnets...

[Image Analyst]

The link I gave for Steve has a kind of fridge magnet his son made from bottle caps, but a big sticker like one would be good for filing cabinets, etc.. For a car, I'd worry that someone would swipe my magnetic MATLAB sticker, that's why I'd prefer a static cling sticker that I can put on the inside of the car window, facing outwards. Seems like it's time for another MATLAB contest where we let our creativity loose on promotional items.

[Sean de Wolski]

Do you have the MATLAB dashboard cell phone pad?

[Star Strider]

Never heard of it. What is it?

[Sean de Wolski]

Like this, only it says MathWorks. I'll take a picture of mine when I'm back in MA

http://tigzoo.com/wordpress/wp-content/uploads/2011/12/dashboard-pad-demo.jpg

[Image Analyst]

I don't have it. I don't recall seeing it as an option before. Reminds me of a mousepad - do you have a MATLAB one of those? Like a thin neoprene and fabric one? I'd take one of those.

[Mike Jordan]

Never heard or seen before.

Answer 8

[Andrew Newell]

I Hate MATLAB. (3,873 people like this.)

You can choose between I Hate MATLAB, I hate "MATLAB", We Hate MATLAB, I F#$*ing Hate Matlab, or I Hate MATLAB and LABVIEW!!!

Maybe we'll start to see things like:

I Hate MATLAB but I hate those jerks in the I hate "MATLAB" group even more!

[Sean de Wolski]

It's very enjoyable reading some of those...

[Andrew Newell]

Really? Which ones?

[Sean de Wolski]

ok we hate matlab but do any1 knows how to use it??? :D

[Matt Tearle]

I know I'm biased (but for the record, for me, loving MATLAB => employment @ TMW, not vice versa), but why would you *hate* MATLAB? I can understand not loving it like we do, but *hate*? I'm not a great fan of FORTRAN (at least F77, which I had to endure through school), but I don't hate it. (And the specific things I hated about F77 were precisely the things that MATLAB fixed!) I find Mathematica syntax far less intuitive than MATLAB, but, again, I don't hate Mma in any way.

All languages/applications have their strengths and weaknesses.

Odd. Very odd.

[Matt Tearle]

I also liked "Only 0.18% of people in the industry actually use this langauge. That's how bad it is."

That's just begging for a "[citation needed]".

"The" industry. Which "the" industry, I wonder...?

[Andrew Newell]

And why do people go to a site to say the same thing as everyone else? Do they feel validated?

[Sean de Wolski]

A sad statement about my generation Andrew...

[Paulo Silva]

I just reported that facebook group:

* Violence or harmful behavior->Self-harm

it's really self-harm :)

[Jiro Doke]

Like Matt, I also got my job at MathWorks because I love MATLAB. I actually got scouted from MATLAB Central! :)

I think the professors "forcing" these students to use MATLAB for their homework sets are partially responsible for these reactions. If students only see this as another tool they have to learn to solve something that they *think* they can do with Excel (or a calculator), then I can see them disliking MATLAB. When professors become creative and give interesting problems for students to solve, I think it'll be different. I do think "hate" is kind of extreme. But kids nowadays like to exaggerate everything.

I *LOVE* flossing!! (okay, not really, but it does feel nice afterwards).

[Andrew Newell]

Now there is something I just cannot understand - preferring Excel to MATLAB.

[Matt Fig]

I love helping folks see how cool MATLAB is! At work I often end up teaching someone how to do something in MATLAB that they couldn't figure out how to do on their own. It is my experience that when people see what MATLAB can do, how quickly ideas can be vetted, and how customizable it is, they end up coming back for more. Great stuff!

[Paulo Silva]

There are many I hate Excel groups on facebook!

[Andrew Newell]

That presents some tough choices: Do I sign up for "I hate Excel", "I hate Excel!", "I hate Excel!!", "I hate Microsoft Excel", or "we all hate microsoft excel"?

[Matt Tearle]

Judean People's Front?! We're the People's Front of Judea!

Answer 9

[Andrew Newell]

From the Acknowledgements section of Spectral methods in MATLAB by Lloyd Nicholas Trefethen:

"... there is a brass plaque on my office wall, given to me in 1998 by The MathWorks Inc., which reads: FIRST ORDER FOR MATLAB, February 7, 1985, Ordered by Professor Nick Trefethen, Massachusetts Institute of Technology."

Answer 10

[Fabio Freschi]

http://www.phdcomics.com/comics/archive.php?comicid=1289

second scene

Answer 11

[Walter Roberson]

According to Ancestry.com, John and Mary Matlab lived in Schuylkill, Pennsylvania in about 1910, along with their children Mary Matlab, John Matlab, and Steve Matlab .

Frances Mupad lived in New York, New York in about 1840.

(I was looking for information on the history of MuPAD and was startled to see genealogy records ;-) )

[Walter Roberson]

For some reason I keep thinking that somewhere out there, some author most have created a character, 'Steve Matlab, PI" (Private Investigator); or perhaps they made him a policeman. Maybe a high-stakes Forensic Accountant investigating the flow of criminal money. But certainly not "Steve Matlab, Caricature Artist", or "Steve Matlab Clowns For All Occasions".

This is what I think about what I cannot sleep at night.

Answer 12

[Walter Roberson]

Someone ran a book comparison between "MATLAB for Control Engineers",

and "Bakugan Battle Brawlers: Dan and Drago"

Wonder which one they bought?

 "My Control Systems Toolbox deactivates your Battle Transfer Function!"

 "Oh yah? Well my Image Toolbox demotes you to D-list celebrity!"

Answer 13

[Andrew Newell]

I can't resist posting a link to a picture from the site Walter linked to:

http://web.archive.org/web/20100731213321/http://www.icddrb.org/uploads/images/hl_matlab.jpg

[Matt Fig]

It's even all caps!

[Matt Tearle]

No (R) though. We should sue them. The armed guards are a bit scary, though - they might be too much for us to handle.

[Walter Roberson]

Unfortunately the original article that had the picture no longer exists. I did some searching but did not manage to come up with another copy of it.

[Andrew Newell]

Found - using a Firefox addon.

[Walter Roberson]

Perhaps edit in the new link?

[Andrew Newell]

The image didn't display reliably on this site, so I have posted the link to the archive instead.

Answer 14

[Andrew Newell]

Matlab - Quality Custom Finishing: "For more than three decades, Matlab has set the standard for quality custom paint and powder finishes ... Woman owned and operated."

Answer 15

[Walter Roberson]

Some Matlab lyrics.

Unfortunately, I can't make out a single one of these. :(

http://www.thelyricarchive.com/song/2330991-387174/Matlab

http://www.sweetslyrics.com/542833.OM%20JAI%20JAGADISH%20movie%20-%20Pyar%20Ka%20Matlab.html

http://hiox.org/17422-jo-ishq.php

http://www.lyricsmasti.com/song/5112/get_lyrics_of_Matlab-Jo-Samjhe-Mere-Sandes-Ka.html

http://www.hibeamlyrics.com/matlab-nikal-gaya-hain-lyrics-mohammad-rafi.html

[Kaustubha Govind]

"Matlab" in Hindi literally stands for "meaning" - although it's pronounced Muth-lub (both u's pronounced as in the English word "hut"). The last four links refer to Hindi songs. :)

[Kaustubha Govind]

And apparently the first one is from a Nepali group.

[Andrew Newell]

That first comment is worth an answer of its own!

[bym]

I concur, if it were an answer, I'd vote for it

[Walter Roberson]

Kaustubha, if you would do the honors so you can receive the credit ?

[Kaustubha Govind]

Done! :)

Answer 16

[Walter Roberson]

Futuristic MATLAB in a film? See the review of Stealth (2005) that Mike Verdone wrote.

Answer 17

[John Tillinghast]

There is a town in Bangladesh where many studies have been done on diarrheal disease:

http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S027795369900146X http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/20099756 http://www.indepth-network.org/dss_site_profiles/matlab.pdf

etc.

Some of these are pretty mathematical papers, but I doubt that is why the town keeps getting chosen.

[Walter Roberson]

That is the same town where the high levels of Cadmium and arsenic were found in the water table; a high concentration of those metals in the body could cause some pretty nasty effects :(

Answer 18

[Grzegorz Knor]

http://youtu.be/hyzwxD33LcI

http://img504.imageshack.us/img504/8388/dailypicdump640155.jpg

http://www.ecrater.co.uk/p/9296034/duniya-matlab-di-by-harmandeep

Answer 19

[Richard Brown]

On an episode of Harry's law (I can't remember which one), Tommy Jefferson (a fast-talking lawyer) boasts about a number of lawsuits he's won against various big corporations. It went something like this:

"Amazon, Microsoft, Matlab, ..."

Which was pretty amusing

Answer 20

[Walter Roberson]

http://abstrusegoose.com/288

[Image Analyst]

I imagine the picture for "WALTER DISCOVERS MATLAB" would show the kid a few tick marks to the left.

[Image Analyst]

And I wonder how this got on there...

http://abstrusegoose.com/267

[Walter Roberson]

It was only one Nickelback song!! And all I said was that it wasn't as bad as everyone made it out to be!

Answer 21

[Walter Roberson]

http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2013/07/130704094920.htm

Playing Cricket: Physicists Cast New Light On Spin-Bowling

As the Ashes series gets underway next week, a pair of brothers from Australia have been exploring the physics behind the spin of a cricket ball.

[...]

Garry Robinson said: "Our results show that the effects on a spinning ball are not purely due to the wind holding the ball up, since a reversal of wind direction can cause the ball to dip instead. These trajectory changes are due to the combination of the wind and the spin of the ball.

"The effects of spin in the presence of a cross-wind, and how to fully exploit it, may or may not be completely appreciated by spin bowlers. Either way, we have provided a mathematical model for the situation, although the model of course awaits detailed comparison with observations."

[...]

Once the equations were constructed, they were numerically solved using a computer software program called MATLAB; the solutions were then used to create illustrative examples for cricket.

[...]

Answer 22

[Luuk van Oosten]

There is this guy who hates around everything about MATLAB. Pretty fun to read about his frustration and anger.

http://abandonmatlab.wordpress.com/

Answer 23

[Doug Hull]

The is a MATLAB box in the background in the movie Contact when Elie runs in after hearing first message.

Answer 24

[Walter Roberson]

MATLAB mention in a humor post about Programming Vehicles:

http://crashworks.org/if_programming_languages_were_vehicles/

Answer 25

[Walter Roberson]

Christmas (Kiritimati) Island, http://cobblab.blogspot.ca/2013_09_01_archive.html

[Jan]

This answer has been marked as potential spam. I'm afraid it advertises the use of Matlab in an unexpected place.

Anyway, I've removed the flag.

Answer 26

[Walter Roberson]

https://youtu.be/MHTizZ_XcUM

Mark Rober uses MATLAB to control automatic dart board.

Answer 27

[Walter Roberson]

Using MATLAB to simulate a million golf-balls

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=b-pLRX3L-fg

And running Snake

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TOpBcfbAgPg