Tweets of the month

Sharpening the Problem chapter of my PhD proposal. 3:03 PM Mar 31st

Teaching at IST... This week finally the Web Services stack is completed! But most students are busy with the first project delivery. 9:59 AM Mar 30th

Recommends 'Gran Torino' by Clint Eastwood. About life and how to live it. It's also very close to the real suburban eastern USA. 9:29 PM Mar 28th

"Value your first (PhD proposal) draft not because it's perfect, but because it's there!" 8:04 AM Mar 25th

Back to work on my PhD, with courses in between. 1:28 PM Mar 24th

Participated in a Student's representatives meeting. A nice lunch and a nice talk about life at University. 4:58 PM Mar 21st

Impressed with the depth and quality of BRIDGE project's deliverables. 11:02 AM Mar 19th

Congratulations Doctor João Barreto. It was a pleasure being here. Now, back to Distributed Systems course work and my own PhD. 4:16 PM Mar 17th

João Barreto's PhD live (...)

Tired after the first full week of classes of the semester. New email settings are helping to stem the tide and refocus on my priorities. 5:19 PM Mar 13th

Having a hard time dealing with so many things at the same time. It will have to be 'one problem at a time'. 10:46 AM Mar 12th

Ashamed because my team, Sporting Lisbon, suffered the greatest defeat in European soccer history (12-1 vs Bayern Munich), but still a fan! 10:42 AM Mar 11th

Multi-tasking between PhD, Distributed Systems and Enterprise Information Systems courses... Who said life was easy? :-) 5:51 PM Mar 9th

It's my first time at IST Tagus since my return. I'm pleased to see the building is - finally - completed! Much better now! 9:59 AM Mar 6th

Rearranged my office desk to face the door and receive more sunlight sideways. Much better! 5:18 PM Mar 5th

Just attended a short, interesting course about oral communication techniques. 1:12 PM Mar 4th

I'm starting a new semester at IST: same courses, new students, new enthusiasm! Meanwhile, I've resumed writing my thesis proposal. 4:54 PM Mar 2nd

@pedrocustodio Good luck! 4:12 PM Mar 2nd

Gran Torino

Gran Torino

Father Janovich:
Walt Kowalski once said to me that I knew nothing about life or death, because I was an over-educated, 27-year-old virgin who held the hand of superstitious old women and promised them eternity.
Walt definitely had no problem calling it like he saw it. But he was right. I knew really nothing about life or death, until I got to know Walt... and boy, did I learn.

IEEE RFID 2009

I wonder what Mickey Mouse and Donald Duck will have to say about RFID... ;-)

Pope in Africa controversy / Polémica do Papa em África

All discussions should be based on complete statements, not on edit sound bytes. I'm posting the complete question and answer that generated the controversy.

Journalist Philippe Visseyrias from France 2:

Your Holiness, among the many ills that beset Africa, one of the most pressing is the spread of Aids. The position of the Catholic Church on the way to fight it is often considered unrealistic and ineffective. Will you address this theme during the journey? Holy Father, would you be able to respond in French to this question?

Pope Benedict XVI:

I would say the opposite. I think that the most efficient, most truly present player in the fight against Aids is the Catholic Church herself, with her movements and her various organizations. I think of the Sant’Egidio community that does so much, visibly and also behind the scenes, in the struggle against Aids, I think of the Camillians, and so much more besides, I think of all the Sisters who take care of the sick. I would say that this problem of Aids cannot be overcome merely with money, necessary though it is. If there is no human dimension, if Africans do not help [by responsible behaviour], the problem cannot be overcome by the distribution of prophylactics: on the contrary, they increase it. The solution must have two elements: firstly, bringing out the human dimension of sexuality, that is to say a spiritual and human renewal that would bring with it a new way of behaving towards others, and secondly, true friendship offered above all to those who are suffering, a willingness to make sacrifices and to practise self-denial, to be alongside the suffering. And so these are the factors that help and that lead to real progress: our twofold effort to renew humanity inwardly, to give spiritual and human strength for proper conduct towards our bodies and those of others, and this capacity to suffer with those who are suffering, to remain present in situations of trial. It seems to me that this is the proper response, and the Church does this, thereby offering an enormous and important contribution. We thank all who do so.

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

Todas as discussões devem ser baseadas nas afirmações completas e não em citações fora do contexto. Publico o texto integral da pergunta e resposta que gerou a polémica.

Jornalista Philippe Visseyrias, da France 2:

Santo Padre, um dos maiores flagelos de África é o problema da epidemia de SIDA. A posição da Igreja Católica na luta contra este mal tem sido frequentemente considerada irrealista e ineficaz.

Papa Bento XVI:

Eu diria o contrário. Estou convencido de que a presença mais efectiva na frente de batalha contra o HIV/SIDA são, precisamente, a Igreja Católica e as suas instituições. Penso por exemplo na Comunidade de Santo Egídio, que tanto faz e tão visivelmente na luta contra o S.I.D.A; ou nas Camillianas, só para mencionar algumas das freiras que estão ao serviço dos doentes.

Penso que este problema, o SIDA, não pode ser vencido com slogans de propaganda. Se falta a alma, se os Africanos não se entre ajudarem, o flagelo não pode ser resolvido com a distribuição do preservativo; pelo contrário, arriscamo-nos a piorar a situação. A solução só pode advir de um compromisso duplo: primeiro, na humanização da sexualidade, ou por outras palavras, num renovamento espiritual e humano que traga consigo uma nova forma de proceder uns para com os outros. E em segundo lugar, num amor autêntico para com os que sofrem, numa prontidão – mesmo à custa de sacrifício pessoal - para estar presente aos que padecem. São estes os factores que podem trazer o progresso, real e visível.

Assim, eu diria que o nosso esforço deve ser o de renovar a pessoa humana por dentro, o de dar-lhe força espiritual e humana para uma forma de comportamento justa para com o seu corpo e o corpo do outro; e ainda o de ajudá-la a ser capaz de sofrer com os que sofrem e de estar presente nas situações difíceis.

Acredito que é esta a primeira resposta ao problema do SIDA, que é esta a resposta da Igreja e que, deste modo, a sua contribuição é uma grande contribuição. E estamos gratos a todos os que assim contribuem.

Cromwell

Cromwell

It's an odd thing, Mr. Ireton. Every man who wages war believes God is on his side. I'll warrant God should often wonder who is on his.

Oliver Cromwell

Formalizing information systems' requirements

I've been reading some of the BRIDGE project deliverables and I'm very impressed by their depth and quality.



One of the things I liked was a template to formalize information system requirements after a questionnaire to end-users. Here is an example:

ID REQ_REP_19
Priority medium
Summary Methods for communicating a delayed response are the email or HTTP POST (which even could be SOAP like)
Rationale Most of questionnaire responses agree on that. One of the methods will be chosen,
Priority Rationale WP2: depends on DS specific implementation
Requirement Methods for communicating a delayed or asynchronous response are via email or HTTP POST (which even could
be SOAP like)
References • Bridge WP2-3 report v0.3. Section 10.4 Communication mechanism for delayed/async response? (Q83)
Originator AT4 wireless
Taxonomy Functional

Tweeting live from João Barreto's PhD defense

Tweeting live from João Barreto's PhD defense. Good luck João!

The committee members are putting on their robes. José Carlos Monteiro is wearing the MIT robes, hat included.

José Alves Marques is presiding. The defense has started. First the 30 minute presentation.

João is explaining the problem. The presentation graphics look nice.

Thesis goals were rapid commitment, and minimal aborted work.

contributions a) commitment protocol, b) exploitation of non-replicas for improved consistency, c) redundancy elimination in storage and propagation of state-based updates.

João is explaining the commitment protocol based on epidemic voting (VVWV).

Moving on to b) exploitation of non-replicas. It's an interesting idea. They carry only the voting information.

Getting to c) redundancy elimination. João is placing his related publications in each slide's footer.

João has been presenting his results using graphs. It's always good to see hard data.

1 minute conclusions slide. Maybe too fast? Now all 9 publications are on display in the final slide.

Marc Shapiro is now asking questions to João.

Discussing whether application semantics should or shouldn't be used.

Carlos Moreno (DI/Univ. Minho) made some good overall comments about the thesis. Now going chapter by chapter.

Carlos Moreno is asking some questions to João. Some of the issues were out of the thesis' scope

Q&A with Carlos Moreno continues... Now discussing the possibility of applying the results to sensor networks.

Carlos Moreno asking a question about the sampling (Are 5 runs enough to average?). Now moving to final question.

José Carlos Monteiro (JCM) is now addressing João. Particularly liked Chapter 2. It explains all the required concepts.

JCM found a gap: algorithms are for limited devices but there are no figures for resource consumption of algorithms.

José Alves Marques (JAM) is talking now. Lot of effort in the thesis. Chapter 2 is very good although a glossary missing.

JAM is asking what is the rationale of the thesis - or is the thesis just a sum of 3 parts?

Paulo Ferreira is the final speaker. It's an important day for João - he's wearing a tie!

João started his work in early 2000s. Research started with MS ad-hocFS. He has a good publication record.

Paulo Ferreira is giving some nice questions to João. It's a good thing to have a friendly adviser.

The defense is over. We're now waiting for the announcement of the new Doctor...

Congratulations Doctor João Barreto! It was a pleasure being here. Now, back to Distributed Systems course work and my own PhD.

Breaking the news circle

Portuguese journalism is in very bad shape. All news channels provide the same news. The journalists are driven by an illusion of independence and bound to politically correct, unwritten rules.

This is a very serious problem, because without free press, there is no real freedom.

I recommend a different perspective... from the USA, for instance.

Try watching NBC Nightly News podcast. It's brief, very professional, and very informative. You'll literally discover a new world. And not all news are about tragedies and real-life soap operas...


Visit the MSNBC Podcasts web page to get started.

More about the USA / Mais sobre os EUA

Last time I lived in America I wrote My view of the USA.

Now, after living for 6 months in Massachusetts, I want to one more comment.

Each state is a state of its own

Massachusetts (Mass) is considerably different from New York (NY), and they're close to each other. So, keep in mind that each American state has its own unique features. Don't take the part for the whole!


(credit: Wikipedia)

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


A última vez que vivi na América escrevi A minha visão dos EUA.

Agora, depois ter vivido durante 6 meses no Massachusetts, quero acrescentar um comentário.

Cada estado é um estado...

O Massachusetts (Mass) é consideravelmente diferente de New York (NY), e são bastante próximos um do outro. É importante ter em conta que cada estado Americano tem as suas características próprias. Não tomem a parte pelo todo!