Tweets of the month (last of this year)

I saw Home from the Prudential Skywalk... A Holy Christmas and a Happy New Year! 5:10 PM Dec 24th, 2008

Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year! 5:59 PM Dec 18th, 2008

Once again: back in Boston, back in business 8:07 PM Dec 9th, 2008

Back in Boston, back in business 6:26 PM Dec 2nd, 2008

Goodbye NYC, we're going back to Boston 3:40 AM Dec 1st, 2008

The Tale of Despereaux

The Tale of Despereaux

An interesting character, average drawings, a very weak story. Mildly recommended.

Mother Teresa (DK Biography)

Mother Teresa (DK Biography)

Horton hears a Who!

Horton hears a Who!
Horton: "I meant what I said, and I said what I meant. An elephant's faithful one hundred percent. That's my code, my motto."

TEACHER

Take time
Explain
Assure
Care
Help
Encourage
Reward

Email communication breakdown?

Communication breakdown,
It's always the same,
I'm having a nervous breakdown,
Drive me insane!

in "Communication Breakdown" by Led Zeppelin



Do you get this feeling when you're handling your email? I know I did.

Then I decided to change the way I worked with email using a Google-inspired approach: "archive and use search instead of spending a lot of time storing the messages meticulously in specific folders".

My current email folders are the following:
Inbox
My Mail
Mailing Lists

That's right! Just three!
'Inbox' has the new arrivals that I haven't read or handled yet. 'My Mail' holds all my messages. 'Mailing Lists' holds messages not specifically for me but that I'm interested in keeping. Mail can be directly stowed in Mailing Lists using filters.

When you want to look up a specific mail message, just use your program's search capabilities to retrieve it quickly! (e.g. Thunderbird's search capabilities are very good).

But doesn't this mean that the 'My Mail' and 'Mailing Lists' keep growing indefinitely? Yes, it does. This is why we need one more time: archives.

My archives folders look like this:

Archives
|-My Mail Archive
|-2005
|-2006
|-2007
|-Mailing Lists Archive
|-2005
|-2006
|-2007

Archiving is easy and is done once a year.

For me this email scheme works great. Do you want to give it a try?

John C. Dvorak on the state of education

Are we creating unethical kids by not modernizing the school system?

Read the article by John C. Dvorak in PC Magazine's website

Quantum of Solace (again)

Quantum of Solace

Dominic Greene: "My friends call me Dominic."
James Bond: "I'm sure they do."

Bjarne Stroustrup on educating software developers

Few students see code as anything but a disposable entity needed to complete the next project and get good grades. Much of the emphasis in teaching encourages that view.

Read the full interview by Bjarne Stroustrup, the designer of C++, at internet.com

Chicago

...is my kind of town!

Modern downtown, excellent museums, good (and cheap) public transportation. And great tasting pizza!

It's worth a visit, for sure!

The Screwtape Letters play

An excellent adaptation of the classic book by C.S. Lewis.
The Toadpipe character adds a visual layer to the show that makes it even more compelling.
I certainly hope a DVD edition of the play will be available for purchase.

Ray Ozzie quotes

I love software, because if you can imagine something, you can build it.

I love Windows, because without it there would be no PC. There would be no PC developers. There might not even be a Web.

I love the ubiquitous Web because of the connections it opened up.

I love competition. But when we're behind a competitor, I hate it when we find ourselves just chasing their taillights.

-- Ray Ozzie - Microsoft's Chief Software Architect - quoted on Wired Magazine (Dec 2008).

Prison break 4

Prison break season 4

Theodore Bagwell (TB): So you knew who I was from the start, huh? My real name, my record...
Special Agent Miriam Holtz (MH): I read your file, yeah.
TB: What if you hadn't?
MH: What's your point?
TB: What if you never knew I was Theodore Bagwell, the convict? Would you have believed I was Cole Pfeiffer? Stellar salesman... Talented speaker?
MH: I don't know. You certainly had a lot of other people fooled, though. Till you pointed a machine gun on them.
TB: I guess it's like "we are captives of our own identities, living in prisons of our own creation." Who would've thought they'd actually be right about something?

T-Bag played by Robert Knepper and Miriam by Shannon Lucio.

Tweets of the month

Celebrating Thanksgiving in New York 5:36 AM Nov 27th, 2008

Computer (finally) up-and-running. 5:29 AM Nov 26th, 2008

My old computer is back in business! I'm just finishing reconfiguration and implemention of new security and backup policies. 10:19 PM Nov 25th, 2008

Finished defining and implementing my new password scheme: "Casa roubada, trancas MAIORES na porta" / "Stolen house, BIGGER locks on doors" 8:14 PM Nov 19th, 2008

Turning 31 today. Thanks to everybody who sent me congratulations. You have a special place in my heart. 11:20 PM Nov 18th, 2008

My apartment was broken into... 2 laptops, 1 iPod and 1 Canon camera were stolen. It's awful... 8:16 PM Nov 17th, 2008

First impressions were positive. Feedback meeting will resume on Monday. 9:47 PM Nov 14th, 2008

Feedback meeting in 30 minutes. Summarizing key-points of written paper in index cards. 7:56 PM Nov 14th, 2008

I'll get feedback tomorrow. Now I'm improving what I've written so far. 6:24 PM Nov 13th, 2008

Sorted 20 index cards... Wrote draft for first part of thesis proposal. Now I need expert feedback. 11:15 PM Nov 12th, 2008

Finished writing ideas to 40+ index cards. Next, pick and sort! 5:41 AM Nov 12th, 2008

Writing down ideas on index cards... 8:36 PM Nov 11th, 2008

Looking at Japanese RFID technology. Interesting! 1:35 AM Nov 10th, 2008

Looking at MSc students' work proposals... Good evaluation is critical for good science! And also is good feedback! 5:05 PM Nov 8th, 2008

the paper backlog is finally clear! And in between I had some neat ideas for my PhD, with some help from Joana! 11:35 PM Nov 4th, 2008

is back to work, clearing the backlog for interesting papers and research stuff 9:41 PM Nov 3rd, 2008

Computer protection policy

One thing is to teach computer security; another thing is living it! Due to the recent theft, I had to practice more of what I "preach".

I redesigned my identity management policy, using a multi-tier approach, to balance usability and overall security.

I upgraded the use of data security mechanisms. Consider Windows file encryption capabilities (don't forget to backup your certificate, though). If you're using a Mac, consider FileVault. TrueCrypt is also highly recommended, for the most sensitive files.

The data backup procedures were also revised. I finally finished a batch file script, relying on Windows robocopy. The easier it is to backup, the more often you can do it. This decreases the chances of data loss. However, remember to find an alternate, safe physical location for your backup disks. They won't be of any use if they're stolen along with your computer. You can also use an on-line backup service, for less sensitive data.

Currently I'm looking at GadgetTrak or similar service, to enhance the chances of recovering a stolen computer.

In short, take good care of your computer, and prepare for worst case scenarios. It can happen to you!

Birthday present

What more could I wish for my birthday?

Being with the person I love,
In a warm place,
A fun game of Mancala,
A very tasty NY sirloin steak with a green salad,
an ice cream cake with two candles - a three and a one,
and a glimpse of the decisive shot of a Celtics vs Knicks game.

Thank you for the present, but most of all, thank you for being present!

Photo credit: Matthew West, Boston Herald

Turning 31

Today. Under pressure. But, "under pressure, diamonds are forged". With God's grace and a "little" help from my family and friends, of course ;-)

Theft

My apartment was broken into... 2 laptops, 1 iPod and 1 photo camera were stolen. It's awful...

Too bad James Bond isn't around to find whoever did it! Cambridge Police will have to do. Thanks for the effort!

Quantum of Solace

Quantum of Solace

M: "I'm glad you're back."
Bond: "I never left!"

SAPO Codebits 2008

SAPO Codebits, a Google Summer of Code-style gathering of programmers, in Portugal.

As for ideas, it's better to have crazy ones rather than few! / No que toca a ideias, antes loucas que poucas!

However there are some elements of geek culture I don't like very much, like the likening of people to machines, that can also be chemically hacked. It's a way to objectify i.e. treat as an object. A little bit doesn't hurt, as long as things are kept under control, and you don't forget a person is much more than the sum of its "parts".

Using index cards to help you write

Photo credits to Dustin Wax

I wrote down the ideas for the paper, one per index card.
Next I sorted them, and placed small post-its on the corner with a sequence (#) number (e.g. 1, 2, 2.1, 2.2, 3, ...).
Next I wrote the paper using the index card sequence. I didn't concentrate on the sentence connections that much. I left this for later rewriting.
I reread the paper and rewrote it several times, but the general structure was stable. It allowed me to focus on what I meant at the paragraph level rather than on the order of the paragraphs.
Finally, I wrote a new set of index cards, to summarize the paper contents and help me present the ideas on a meeting.
I felt very productive!

Thanks to Joana for the suggestion!

LyX

LyX is an open-source software for document editing. It's a hybrid between Word and LaTeX.

I'm giving it a try. Still not sure if it is good enough to replace Word in everyday use.

MITSO lite

MITSO


William Boyce: Symphony #3 in C major: Allegro, Vivace, Tempo di Minuetto
HK Gruber: 3 MOB Pieces: Patrol, After Heine, Verse
Evan Ziporyn: Frog's Eye
G. van Swieten: Symphony in F major: Allegro assai, Andante, Presto

Digital Apollo

Presentation of the Digital Apollo by David A. Mindell

An interesting account of the human-computer interface challenges in the Apollo space program, that took Man to the Moon for the first time in 1969.

One of the highlights for me was the book cover picture, available at the book's website. It is a computer graphics recreation of the perspective Neil Armstrong had when he was landing the lunar module. Thrilling!

Sure takes me back to when I was a kid and wanted to be an Astronaut...

Parabéns irmão!

17 anos, 17 razões para te dizer que valeu e vale a pena continuar a crescer!
Um grande abraço dos teus irmãos, Miguel e Joana

P.S. - E agora, algumas prendas electrónicas! ;-)

Led Zeppelin's John Bonham drums solo - Moby Dick


Steve Jobs @ Stanford, 2005
Part 1
Part 2

Baran

Baran (Rain)
From Director Majid Majidi

Old man: Come and warm yourself.
Lateef: Please, there is a hole in my shoe. Can you fix it?
(Old man accepts shoe and starts fixing it)
Lateef: Do you live here?
Old man: Everyone who meets me, meets me on the road.
Lateef: Do you know Soltan?
Old man: There are many Afghans called Soltan.
Lateef: He is a construction worker.
Old man: All Afghans are builders. At dawn they go to cities, at dusk they come back home.
Lateef: Are you living with anyone here?
Old man: A man alone is a neighbor of God. ''From the hot fire of being apart comes the flame that burns the heart.''
Lateef: You speak very well.
Old man: These are words from the heart, my son.

An unconventional love story set in modern day Iran, focused on the very hard life of Afghan emigrants. It's about one boy growing up and finding that giving more and more of oneself is the only true response to love.

Highly recommended!

Mamma Mia!

Mamma Mia!


Rosie: [to Tanya] "Typical isn't it? You wait 20 years for a dad and then three come along at once."

Liquidism Email Signatures

Liquidism provides a free email signature image generator, with some cool visual effects. Here's a sample:
Give it a try!

Learning is a process of becoming rather than a process of acquiring.

Stephen Downes

Kit Kittredge: An American Girl

Kit Kittredge: An American Girl

A portrait of the tough times during the Great Depression in the United States. A great movie with great actors. Too bad for the goofy villains, but overall a great movie! Recommended!

Kit's father to Kit: "Don't let it get the best of you!"

Support Wikipedia

A farewell to Michael Chrichton

Michael Chrichton passed away on November 4th.

I have fond memories of discussing the Jurassic Park books with my friend Miguel Panão back in my high-school years in the 1990s. My view of science ethics was never the same afterwards.

My condolences to the family.
Give him eternal rest, O Lord, and may your light shine on him for ever.

How to write a paper review

Outline:
1 - Write a quick summary of the paper in your own words. Don't repeat the abstract, but state what stuck in your mind;
2 - Enumerate the paper contributions;
3 - Describe the paper's strengths and weaknesses;
4 - Write detailed comments about specific things;
5 - Approve or disapprove the paper.

Of course, if you're on the paper writer side, try to anticipate what a reviewer would say about your paper in these terms, and improve what can be improved.

Pocket classes / Aulas de bolso

Here is a modern day dilemma: how to combine domestic chores with the demands of knowledge work? One inventive way of making the most of your time is to have "pocket classes"!

Photo credits: Joana

You just need an iPod and some eLectures (from iTunes U, for instance) to get started! And a notebook to make some notes once in a while.

/ This post is bilingual: English (U.S.) and Portuguese (Portugal) /

Eis um dilema dos tempos modernos: Como conciliar as tarefas domésticas com as exigências do trabalho de conhecimento? Uma forma creativa de aproveitar o tempo é ter "aulas de bolso"!

Para começar basta ter um iPod e algumas aulas electrónicas (do iTunes U, por exemplo). E um bloco de notas, para tirar apontamentos de vez em quando.

President Barack Obama / Presidente Barack Obama

The elections are finally over. Barack Obama has won and will be the 44th President of the United States of America.

I wish the best of luck for the new President, because there are several dark clouds in the horizon of the Free World.

Photo credits: AP Photo/Alex Brandon

/ This post is bilingual: English (U.S.) and Portuguese (Portugal) /

As eleições chegaram finalmente ao fim. Barack Obama venceu e será o 44º Presidente dos Estados Unidos da América.

Desejo muito boa sorte ao novo Presidente, porque existem muitas nuvens carregadas no horizonte do Mundo Livre.

Congratulations Father João Seabra / Parabéns Padre João Seabra

Congratulations Father João Seabra for 30 years of priesthood.

/ This post is bilingual: English (U.S.) and Portuguese (Portugal) /

Parabéns Padre João Seabra pelos 30 anos de ordenação sacerdotal. Seguem-se algumas citações dos seus sermões.

Toda a moralidade cristã se reduz a isto. Usar todas as coisas tomando nota da Luz da qual são feitas (p. 125)

Porque quem resolve, nos momentos decisivos, pensar só pela sua cabeça acaba por pensar pela cabeça da opinião comum (p. 190).

Para se renunciar à santidade é precisa uma disciplina de ferro, porque a santidade oferece-se a nós todos os dias (p. 210).

Misteriosamente, os que estão no Inferno não estão lá presos. Estão lá porque não querem sair de lá (...) o seu castigo é esse ódio eterno ao bem (p. 272).

Meus amigos, meus irmãos, vivei cada instante como se fosse o primeiro instante, como se fosse o último instante, como se fosse o único instante» (p. 211).

Excertos do livro "Directo ao Assunto", Lucerna, 2003, seleccionados por João Luís César das Neves

Class feedback - MIT style

At one Computer Science course this Fall at MIT, at the end of each class, the Professor hands out feedback sheets to the students.

The feedback sheet asks for comments and suggestions about the class. Sometimes, it even asks some specific questions about what was taught.

At the beginning of the next class, the Professor does a short recapitulation, and answers the questions received in the sheets and by other means.

Starbucks ordering table

There's a Starbucks prototype table being tested in Korea.


Read the full story and enjoy your Frappuccino!

Today is US Election day

McCain/Palin vs Obama/Biden - May the best team win!

My view of the candidates in one word:
McCain - honor
Obama - hope


Photo credits: A sand sculpture of US presidential candidates John McCain (L) and Barack Obama (R), created by Indian sand artist Sudarsan Pattnaik, is seen at a beach in Puri on November 2, 2008. SANJIB MUKHERJEE/AFP/Getty Images, in Business Week.

Image Crisis - Inspiring a New Generation of Computer Scientists

Rick Rashid in "Communications of the ACM", July 2008

The author of the article presents some of the misconceptions behind the drop of interest in Computer Science in the Unites States of America, namely:
1 - "the stereotype of the solitary male programmer who slaves over a keyboard and subsists on snack food";
2 - "underestimate the role that computing can play in changing the world";
3 - "belief that computer-related jobs are quickly being outsourced".

He knows what he is talking about, as he is head of Microsoft Research.

My opinions about the misconceptions are the following:

1 - This is not true. In fact, from my experience, computer science is a highly collaborative profession. Communication with other people is crucial to the success of your projects. Just look at the thriving open-source communities... However, the individual discipline and contributions are still very important.

2 - Computer science doesn't save the world by itself, but it helps almost all sciences and businesses to work better and progress faster.

3 - Some jobs will be outsourced, but the demand for computer knowledgeable people at the decision level is on the rise.

Bee Movie

Bee Movie


Title Narrator: "According to all known laws of aviation, there is no way a bee should be able to fly. It's wings are too small to get its fat little body off the ground. The bee, of course, flies anyway, because bees don't care what humans think is impossible."

Flight to heaven

An airplane flight is a good flight when it takes you to your destination in one piece. Even if there are lots of problems, in the end you say it was good if it took you to where you wanted to go.

With life it's just the same. A life is a good life when it takes you to heaven.

Father Richard Clancy, MIT Chaplain

Short circuit

Short circuit


Stephanie Speck: "Life is NOT a malfunction"

Stephanie Speck to Newton Crosby: "Are all genius as dumb as you?"

China: economic miracle, environmental disaster

The article Economic miracle, environmental disaster was posted on CNN.com Technology. It's an excerpt from "What Matters," the latest book by "Day in the Life" series creator David Elliot Cohen. For more information, see whatmattersonline.com

Very impressive...

The cost of cheap "Made in China" products to satisfy our consumerism will be high for all of us, and first and foremost to the chinese people.



/ This post is bilingual: English (U.S.) and Portuguese (Portugal) /


Artigo da CNN: Economic miracle, environmental disaster - milagre económico, desastre ambiental.
É um excerto do livro "What Matters," de David Elliot Cohen. Mais informação on-line em whatmattersonline.com

Muito impressionante...

O custo de produtos baratos "Made in China" para satisfazer o nosso apetite consumista vai ser muito elevado para todos nós, e principalmente e em primeiro lugar para os próprios chineses.

How to update Facebook status from Twitter

Twitter Will Update Your Facebook Status - Here's How... Posted by Mitch Joelon on his blog.

1. Get the Twitter application installed in your Facebook profile here: Twitter App For Facebook.

2. You'll notice a link that says: Want Twitter to update your Facebook status? Click here!

That's it.

EJB 3 is worth a new look

There's an interesting article by Adam Bien on JavaWorld about EJB, called EJB 3: From legacy technology to secret weapon.

It argues that EJB is worth a second look in version 3 after the bad experiences with configuration in version 2. I tried EJB 2 several times and always had to quit because of this.

EJB stands for Enterprise JavaBeans. It is the standard Java Enterprise framework for the implementation of business applications.

I found the article's discussion of Convention over configuration and Interceptors particularly interesting.

John C Dvorak's phone of the future wish list

Here it is, John C Dvorak's wish list for the phone of the future:
- Smart screens and keyboards
- Voice command and speech recognition
- Clear voice technology
- Situational awareness
- Ownership awareness
- Induction charging
- Broadcast TV reception
- Built-in projector
- Point-to-point walkie-talkie
- Extensible

Of all these wishes I agree particularly on "Smart screens and keyboards". I would like to be able to wirelessly connect my iPhone-like device to a proper workstation with full-size screen, keyboard and mouse.

Read the full story on PC magazine's site.

Tweets of the month

is giving candy to trick-or-treaters! 10:50 PM Oct 31st, 2008

Miguel is having his research Big Picture day... Lots of RSS to catch-up with the help of Google Reader. 10:41 PM Oct 24th, 2008

Changing from Yahoo! Mail to GMail - same username, but ending with gmail instead of yahoo.co.uk 2:09 AM Oct 20th, 2008

Back to work at MIT after a long weekend. 7:03 PM Oct 14th, 2008

Windows Azure

Microsoft is announcing a new cloud operating system, called Windows Azure.

See a technical introduction by Manuvir Das, Director of the Windows Azure team.

Using RealPlayer to download Flash Videos

RealPlayer has a new killer feature: Flash video download. It works on websites like YouTube.


Notice the "Download This Video" call-out on the upper corner of the video. Very convenient!

Trace

Trace


A new game for iPhone that echoes the great classic platform games of the 1980s, like my all-time favorite Manic Miner. This time however, some of the platforms are drawn by the player... A very original approach, and a demonstration of how a new user interface can change the user experience.

P.S. - If mentioning Manic Miner makes you nostalgic about the ZX Spectrum, check out Your Sinclair magazine top 100.

GIMP Script-Fu

I've just finished a couple of GIMP Script-Fu scripts. Both to automate the generation of smaller images.


I love the name Script-Fu, and indeed learning it takes some time, as any "martial" art... It is a Scheme dialect. Not the best language for scripting in my opinion, but after some trial and error the results were OK.

The documentation is also very scarce. The most useful resources I used were:
- GIMP Documentation chapter about Scripting;
- GIMP's procedure browser window;
- Example scripts included with GIMP installation.
Using just these it's almost impossible for a novice programmer to get over the learning curve before quitting. I know I almost did! I had to will myself to finish the scripts while looking to keep my programming skills sharp.

I also used DrScheme to try some Scheme expressions and for a more complete language reference.

The Screwtape Letters

The Screwtape Letters by C.S. Lewis



Audiobook




Comic book

There are two equal and opposite errors into which our race can fall about the devils. One is to disbelieve in their existence. The other is to believe, and to feel an excessive and unhealthy interest in them.

This is truly a great book! I highly recommended its reading (or listening - the audiobook version is particularly captivating). Even the comic book is worth it, as it includes the full text of the infamous letters of the senior devil Screwtape to his nephew Wormwood filled with advice from below about the "patient" and filled of warnings about the "Enemy".

Nim's island

Nim's island


Nim Rusoe: "Nobody invades my island and gets away with it."

Delicious Library 2

In case you're wondering how I produced such a nice bookshelf picture, take a look at Delicious Library 2. It's a very visual library management application, with barcode scanning for quick data entry. It's integrated with Amazon.com's databases to fetch product data. It's very good!

Just two nuisances: doesn't recognize many Portuguese products, and is only for the Mac (I use in Joana's computer).

My current RFID bookshelf

Studying EE / A estudar EE

I'm studying Electrical Engineering, in the footsteps of great men, of one man in particular, very dear to me.

Left 18 months ago, but is Always with me.

/ This post is bilingual: English (U.S.) and Portuguese (Portugal) /

Estou a estudar Engenharia Electrotécnica, seguindo as pisadas de grandes homens, de um homem em particular, que me é muito querido.

18 meses de saudade, mas Sempre presente.

MIT ESD.209 Special Topics in Supply Chain Management on iTunes

One of the most interesting offerings on iTunes are the lectures from some of the best universities in the world.

I'm currently listening to MIT ESD.209 Special Topics in Supply Chain Management.


Using iTunes, you can conveniently download the lectures, put them on your iPod, and listen to them while you're walking from home to work, and back.

The history of RFID

Jeremy Landt, in IEEE Potentials, Oct-Nov 2005
http://ieeexplore.ieee.org/xpls/abs_all.jsp?arnumber=1549751
(requires IEEE library access)

Eye-fi

While looking at the Amazon tikitag starter kit, I noticed Eye-fi, a SD card what is readable using Wi-Fi.



Now you don't even have to take the card out of the camera to take out the pictures...

Check out Eye-fi's website.

Get started on your own Internet of Things with tikitag

Tikitag is a do-it-yourself approach to building a personal network of objects. Objects are tagged with a smart stickers (RFID tags) and can be read with a reader that connects to a web site where object information is stored.

Amazon is selling a tikitag starter kit for around USD 50.

It's worth a look. I'll be watching Tikitag.

P.S. - Thanks to Joana for telling me about tikitag :-)

One Laptop Per Child

Nicholas Negroponte
MIT poverty week

Programming is the closest a child can be thinking about thinking i.e. learning about learning

More about this talk on Joana's blog.

Leaving Yahoo for GMail

After 6 years as a Yahoo! Mail Premium customer, I decided to abandon Yahoo and switch to GMail. The new address is just the same as the old one, the only difference is the domain name, @gmail.com instead of @yahoo.co.uk .



My discontentment was growing for these past few years, especially because the new Yahoo Mail has been unfinished for years with an awful settings page, but the final reason was the failure of Yahoo Mail support to help solve a problem I experienced and reported and waited for a fix for almost a month. This problem prevented me from sending email from a new email address I set up with my wife.

Googling the Internet and beyond

Aleksandar Kuzmanovic, EECS Department, Northwestern University
MIT CSAIL seminar

This was a breadth talk, covering several topics:
- TCP congestion control - removing exponential back-off - paper on ACM CCR 2008;
- DoS against streaming CDN (e.g. Akamai) - how to attack a CDN network, how to leverage a CDN network knowledge of network topology to make better routing decisions - paper on IEEE ICDCS 2008, and Usenix/ACM IMC 2008;
- Googling the Internet - an interesting approach to profiling internet usage by querying google about IP addresses - paper "unconstrained endpoint profiling" on ACM SIGCOMM 2008
- IDNet mesh - identity validation credentials - work in progress

Very lively talk, with some interesting research.

Beyond Google - seeking the un-indexed content

Khai N. Truong, Department of Computer Science, University of Toronto
MIT CSAIL HCI (Human Computer Interaction) Seminar

The talk was about ubiquitous computing and human-computer interaction.

First, the talk was about a diary study that lasted 4 weeks, aiming to capture information needs of people when they are not at the computer - What Why Where What When?
858 needs were reported; 22.5% needs were not satisfied in time; 32.2% needs were never satisfied. More information on the CSCW 2008 paper by Dearman, Kellar & Truong

Next the talk was about the analysis of why people answer in the site Yahoo Answers.
Their main motivation is to help others and not to learn. A similar approach can be used for mobile applications, to try and capture information in context.

--

On a side-note, the presentation used a very neat visual technique: small replicas of previous sides on the lower right corner of a new slide, to help the audience recall a previous slide.

The new life of Madredeus? / A nova vida dos Madredeus?

There's a story about Madredeus on the Expresso newspaper website.
Madredeus music without Teresa Salgueiro? Let's wait and hear...

P.S. - Thanks to Ana for sending me this story


/ This post is bilingual: English (U.S.) and Portuguese (Portugal) /


Saíu uma notícia sobre os Madredeus no sítio do Jornal Expresso.
Madredeus sem Teresa Salgueiro? Vamos esperar e ouvir...

P.S. - Obrigado à Ana por me ter enviado esta notícia

SOP - Service on Process

Ramos A., "eXtended Information System Architecture for SmartTags", Instituto Superior Técnico, MSc thesis contains an interesting figure about how services can relate to an Enterprise Architecture (AE).



It's called Service On Process (SOP) and the full reference for the work is:

Almeida, J.M.; Santos, P.; Carvalho, B.; Marques, E.; Segura, J.; Vieira, A.; Sousa, P.; "BPB-SOA e SOP: uma Framework e Metodologia para SOA orientado ao negócio", Link Consulting, 2008.

John Chambers at MIT

It's not about YOU as Time Magazine stated, but about US, the on-line collaboration communities.

I was at John Chamber's talk at MIT. He is CEO of CISCO Systems.

He did a very good presentation overall. I was particularly impressed with the way he connected with the audience, climbing up and down the stairs, and looking straight into the people's eyes. He was using a lapel wireless microphone. He also used Powerpoint as a complete accessory. Great!

Some of his insights were:

On business...

Understand a crisis 101:
1 - Is it market-driven or self inflicted?
2 - Determine its length and depth
3 - Prepare for the upturn

Time frames:
Vision - 5 years
Strategy - 2 to 4 years
Execution - 12 to 18 months

Organizations are switching from "Command & control" to "collaboration". This change is process-driven and requires a common vocabulary inside a company.


On technology...


We're going from "software as a service" to "everything as a service".

The importance of telepresence, not just teleconference.

With collaboration and tele-presence, CISCO now can keep track of 26 priorities a year, instead of 2 or 3 as before.

In-network processing to perform bandwidth adjustment to destination's screen size.

They have an internal Facebook-like application that enables them to choose the right people for the right job, in a cross-department view. They have a reward engine in place that is based on these kinds of contributions.


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Joana was also at the event and posted about it on her blog.

Quick guide to research / Guia rápido de iniciação à investigação

So you did some interesting scientific work, and the question looms in your mind: is it worth being published? The answer is a definite yes!
Writing is the way to express your ideas in a way useful to other people. Your own personal learning is greatly impaired if you don't distill your work by putting it in writing.

I've just published a short guide to research. It aims to help novice researchers learn some of the "trade secrets". It covers: writing, citing, publication types, structuring, reading and tools.

If you're interested, follow the link:
Quick guide to research.

/ This post is bilingual: English (U.S.) and Portuguese (Portugal) /

Fizeste um trabalho científico interessante e a questão impõe-se: será que vale a pena publicar? A resposta clara é sim!
Escrever é um modo de expressar as tuas ideias de uma forma útil para outras pessoas. A tua própria aprendizagem não fica completa se não distilares o teu trabalho de forma escrita.

Acabei de publicar um guia rápido de iniciação à investigação. Pretende ajudar os novos investigadores - alunos de mestrado - a aprender de forma expedita os truques da escrita científica. O guia aborda: escrever, citar, tipos de publicação, estruturação, leitura e ferramentas.

Se estás interessado, segue a ligação para o documento:
Guia rápido de iniciação à investigação.

A note on state-of-art surveys

A state-of-the-art survey at the beginning of a research work is an advisor's admission of ignorance on the subject.

I think the research work should start with something more objective and let the survey happen later, naturally driven by the actual research needs.

This World of Ours (Oretachi No Sekai)

This World of Ours (Oretachi No Sekai)

After Requiem for a dream, another movie with a complete lack of hope.

NOT recommended.

MIT symphony orchestra - Celebrate!

MITSO



Dvorak: Carnival Overture
Prokofiev: Piano concerto #3 (soloist Matthew Serna)
Child: Punkie Night
Turina: Sinfonia Sevillana

Einstein quote

Do not worry about your difficulties in Mathematics. I can assure you mine are still greater.

Albert Einstein

mailto:wwood@hell.com

My dear Wormwood,

I found a new tool to distract humans from what they're supposed to do: the Internet.

Blogs, e-mails, web-pages, videos, iTunes, etc.: they all can be used by the Enemy to let them learn new stuff, however it can also be used in our favor. With great benefits...

Your affectionate uncle,

Screwtape
(stape@admin.hell.com)

Distributed Systems: Principles and Paradigms (2nd edition)

Distributed Systems: Principles and Paradigms (2nd edition)



An updated version of my favorite book on distributed computing.

Excellent references list and suggested readings. It's a very good book to get a broad sense of distributed systems.

The new materials are mainly about peer-to-peer, with extensive discussion about distributed hash tables although scattered across the book.
There is also coverage for Web Services but it's not very extensive with some major omissions, namely WS-Security and WS-ReliableMessaging.

The new Architectures chapter is not very clear and it somewhat confusing because of the paradigm approach in the later chapters of object-based, file-based, web-based and coordination-based distributed systems.

Finally, I loved the new cover. It's much more sober and inspiring than the first edition's.