The Spiderwick Chronicles

The Spiderwick Chronicles



Arthur Spiderwick: "I was so captivated by all the magical creatures I found that I lost sight of the one I already had."

Henry V

An adaptation of William Shakespeare's Henry V by CAST



Henry V:
"This day is called the feast of Crispian:
He that outlives this day, and comes safe home,
Will stand a tip-toe when the day is named,
And rouse him at the name of Crispian.
He that shall live this day, and see old age,
Will yearly on the vigil feast his neighbours,
And say 'To-morrow is Saint Crispian:'
Then will he strip his sleeve and show his scars.
And say 'These wounds I had on Crispin's day.'
Old men forget: yet all shall be forgot,
But he'll remember with advantages
What feats he did that day: then shall our names.
Familiar in his mouth as household words
Harry the king, Bedford and Exeter,
Warwick and Talbot, Salisbury and Gloucester,
Be in their flowing cups freshly remember'd.
This story shall the good man teach his son;
And Crispin Crispian shall ne'er go by,
From this day to the ending of the world,
But we in it shall be remember'd;
We few, we happy few, we band of brothers;
For he to-day that sheds his blood with me
Shall be my brother; be he ne'er so vile,
This day shall gentle his condition:
And gentlemen in England now a-bed
Shall think themselves accursed they were not here,
And hold their manhoods cheap whiles any speaks
That fought with us upon Saint Crispin's day"

Virtualization paradox

For years the main JVM advantage was the portability, then Microsoft released Dot Net using the same VM approach trying to get some portability too. But nowadays with VMWare, Xen, VirtualBox, etc … with OS Based Virtualization in general, there is no problem with the portability issue.

Paradox: Maybe it is time to go back to native compiled code because there will be no real machines anymore in the world.

Blog post by Frank D. Martínez

The future of mobile

Andy Rubin, Google's Engineering Director, points out the following topics as possibilities for the future of mobile computing:
- Smart alerts
- Augmented reality
- Crowd sourcing goes mainstream
- Sensors everywhere
- Tool for development
- The future-proof device
- Safer software through trust and verification

You can read the full blog post for more details.

Nice to MIT you wherever U R

J: "I want to MIT you!"
M: "Sure, just tell me where U R!"

Le Grand Chef

Le Grand Chef
(wikipedia)



Sung-chan: "The best food in the world is equal to the number of mothers."
(or, as I would put it: There are as many favorite dishes as there are mothers in the world)

Jin-su: "It takes more than great ingredients
to make the best food!"
(or, as I would put it: Great chefs know how to cook great dishes even when the ingredients are not the best!)

Fujiwara: "
Now I understand why King Soon-jong was moved to tears.
This beef soup contains every aspect of Korea.
The long-serving cow is Korea's grass-roots democracy.
The hot pepper oil is Korea's hot and lively spirit...
The taro shoots represent a nation that does not submit to foreign power.
The bracken is the vigorous life that spreads like wild grass.
What the Royal Chef cooked for the King was not just simply beef soup.
To the King who had lost his country, he demonstrated that Korea's spirit will live on.
The king could read the Royal Chef's heart and that's why he cried...
"

My Sassy Girl

My Sassy Girl
(wikipedia)



Kyun-woo: " The 10 Rules:
1. Don't ask her to be feminine
2. Don't let her drink over three glasses
3. Drink coffee instead of Coke/Juice
4. If she hits you, act like it hurts. If it hurts, act like it doesn't
5. On your 100th day together, give her a rose during her class
6. Make sure you learn fencing and squash
7. Be prepared to go to prison sometimes
8. If she says she'll kill you, don't take it lightly
9. If her feet hurt, exchange shoes with her
10. She likes to write. Encourage her
"

P.S.
sassy means impudent; bold and spirited; cheeky; saucy; vigorous; lively

System Mechanic

To slightly improve my Windows system performance, I've used System Mechanic.

The results were not spectacular, but I did notice some minor improvements. The main improvement came from disk defragmenting. Review all suggested actions before executing them; System Mechanic was mistaken about spyware and adware; it also wanted to unregister some files that I work with as a programmer.

Started to get things done

Yesterday I finished the assembling of a new work structure, based on ideas from the book "Getting things done" by David Allen.

The two main goals of the system are:
(1) capturing all things to be done in a trusted and reliable system, to let our minds go free
(2) dealing with the inputs in a more efficient manner

So far, so good. I'm enjoying it.

I've assembled my version of the system using Freemind mind-maps.

I've also created a business folder to store files I'm currently working (/biz/current). The idea is to work in this folder during the week. Then, at the weekly review, I go through the accumulated files and either keep them for the new week, store them in reference collections (e.g. /docs) or leave them behind (e.g. /biz/past/2008/09/15-21).

The idea is not to worry about where to save files during regular work, and leave this task for a weekly review.

The mind-maps are backed up weekly.

Bella

Bella



Jose: My grandmother used to say, "You want to make God laugh? Tell him your plans."

Criticism of cloud computing

John Dvorak presents some criticism of cloud computing, namely:

1) Performance issues.
2) Software is software.
3) Dependency problems.
4) Cyber-terrorism.
5) The Internet is ill suited for this purpose.
6) Kills innovation.
7) Reverses individual control.

You can read more about it in John's article on-line "Stormy weather for cloud computing".

Getting things done

Personal organization has always been something very important in my career. Through the years I developed several tools to better manage my work. They were an integral part of my professional growth. The first main conclusion I draw from my experience is that there isn't a single approach that is good for all situations and for all people. For instance, when I was a college student I found that keeping track of studying times for each course was very helpful; but later, when I worked as a consultant doing the same proved very stressing.

Now, with the actual beginning of my PhD, I feel that I need to reconsider my practices. The freedom I have in setting my schedule and the knowledge-intensive work ahead makes my current tools seem somewhat inadequate.

On her last trip to the USA, Joana bought the book "Getting things done" by David Allen. I'm reading the book to help me improve how I work, trying to learn from an expert. I'll share some of the interesting stuff on upcoming posts.

If at first you don't succeed

"If at first you don't succeed, call it version 1.0"
~ Bill Gates

(read it on a student's t-shirt on MIT campus)