Tweets of the month

Back to Lisbon, back to teaching work 5:39 PM Apr 30th

At Orlando thinking about Joana 3:36 AM Apr 28th

Joana just did an amazing job with my new business cards! 11:47 PM Apr 24th

It has been 2 years since my father passed away. I am thankful to God for his life and the many ways he is still with us... But we miss him! 10:47 AM Apr 22nd

This has been a long day, and it's not over yet! Trying to write down everything I have to do. 6:52 PM Apr 21st

Early morning classes. Courses are entering the decisive stage. New projects, new challenges! 7:56 AM Apr 21st

Busy preparing projects for students... Projects are hard work for everybody but they are essential to really learn computer science! 6:32 PM Apr 20th

Teaching early morning class at Taguspark 8:03 AM Apr 17th

Working to make the STEP framework a little better 7:09 PM Apr 16th

Back to work at IST. Just created a Windows Live Account to answer student questions with instant messaging. The username is my IST address. 12:32 PM Apr 14th

Handling a pile of paperwork 5:39 PM Apr 13th

"Christ has died, Christ is risen! Christ will come again!" Happy Easter! 11:35 AM Apr 12th

Just finished an experiment where I prepared a Chocolate Mousse under instructions from my Aunt. Science, sweet science! 4:11 PM Apr 11th

Delivered the new version of my proposal to my adviser, still hot out of the printer thanks to Joana. What would I do without her? 6:53 PM Apr 7th

Almost there... will I finish it on time for the meeting? 3:56 PM Apr 7th

The pieces are fitting in nicely... soon the revised proposal will be ready. 6:58 PM Apr 6th

Back to work, on the path to the PhD 8:48 AM Apr 6th

The Holy Week began today with Palm Sunday, and so did the hard path to Hope that doesn't die. 6:40 PM Apr 5th

Life is indeed bittersweet... A friend's mother passes away in Azores and some friends are expecting their third child in Lisbon. 7:54 PM Apr 1st

Things I didn't know about patents

Recently I had the opportunity to talk with a technology industry veteran and patent expert. During our conversation he mentioned some interesting things I didn't know about patents:

1 - Patents are a government incentive for people to share their inventions with society. In exchange, it gives the inventor 20 years to commercially explore the idea.

2 - Patents should be as detailed as possible and hold nothing back - otherwise they can be invalidated.

3 - Publishing an idea on a paper is like giving it away to society. It invalidates a patent. First patent, then publish.

4 - To write a good patent you have to bring together: the inventor, a patent lawyer and an industry expert.

RFID Journal Live 2009 photos

View the photo set here. It's just a small sample of all the interesting technologies in the RFID Journal Live! 2009 exhibition. Enjoy!

Singin' in the rain

Singin' in the rain

What a glorious feeling!

I dare you to watch this classic movie from 1952 and not to smile at least once. The dancing from Gene Kelly, Debbie Reynolds and the rest of the cast are simply amazing. And remember they didn't have CGI then.

Dead Poets Society / O Clube dos Poetas Mortos

Dead Poets Society

Prof. John Keating:
Carpe, carpe diem, seize the day boys, make your lives extraordinary!

This movie was a sensation in the early nineties. Watching it now, 20 years later, is still entertaining. It has some classical scenes that can easily get to you, after all, growing up isn't easy... and finding your true love isn't either! However the limitations of the "Carpem Diem" motto are more evident to me today as rebellion alone cannot provide the pursuit of happiness. Especially Happiness with a capital H!

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

Este filme foi uma sensação no início dos anos noventa. Ao revê-lo agora, 20 anos depois, é ainda um bom filme. Tem algumas cenas clássicas que nos tocam facilmente, afinal de contas, crescer não é fácil... e encontrar o amor verdadeiro também não! No entanto as limitações do lema "Carpem Diem" são hoje mais evidentes para mim, pois a rebeldia por si só não permite uma verdadeira busca da felicidade. Especialmente a Felicidade com F maiúsculo!

Portugal e os Portugueses

Portugal e os Portugueses by Dom Manuel Clemente, Bishop of Porto


The book is a compilation of several texts by Dom Manuel Clemente. It is written in Portuguese.

A very interesting text to understand the significance of the catholic faith and especially Our Lady in the shaping of the Portuguese people and its history.

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

Este livro é uma compilação de vários textos de Dom Manuel Clemente, em Português.

É um texto muito interessante para compreender melhor a importância da fé católica e especialmente de Nossa Senhora na formação do povo Português e na sua história.

Job searching advice from MIT

Here's some job seeking advice from the MIT Global Education and Career Development Center (GECDC) because of the tough economy:

Top-ten list of "guerrilla tactics":
1. Start with a plan
2. Develop a two-minute drill
3. Networking, networking, networking
4. Conduct informational interviews
5. Be persistent
6. Take advantage of MIT resources
7. Be flexible and focused
8. Use a targeted approach
9. Reach out to smaller, start-up and non-traditional employers
10. Consider "stop-out" strategies, including internships or short-term work employment

Read the full article.

Google News Timeline

Google Labs is experimenting with a News Timeline application.



Very interesting! I once had this idea for a timeline-based analysis tool for business case studies. I still think it's a good idea, because reasoning in time is something important for people.

Google Translate

I hadn't used Google Translate in a long time but when I used it recently I noticed a significant improvement in the quality of the translation from Portuguese to English.

It's so good it's scary :-) Give it a try!

The secret? Getting humans to work for you in large numbers to improve your machine learning results. The system works as long as it's a win-win scenario for everyone involved.

Eclipse configuration tips

How to optimize Eclipse configuration for STEP Framework projects:

-- General settings --
1 - Start Eclipse
2 - Go to "Window", "Preferences" and go to "filter text" box
3 - Type "ant"
Select "Editor", "Problems", enable "Ignore all buildfile problems"

4 - Type "spell"
Select "Spelling", disable "Enable spell checking"

5 - Type "log"
Select "LogWatcher", enable "Restore previously open watcher on restart"

6 - optional - To disable incremental compilation - a.k.a. annoying distraction while thinking about code - go to "Window", "Preferences", "Workbench" and uncheck "Perform build automatically on resource modification".

To disable internal java builder altogether right-click on open project node, select "Properties" and then "Builders". Uncheck Java builder (i.e. turn it off) for that project.

-- Project settings --
1 - Go to "Project", "Properties"
2 - Select "Java Build Path"
3 - Select "Source"
Add all source folders.
4 - Select "Libraries"
Add JRE (jdk1.5)
Add Library, JUnit, JUnit 4
Add Library, User Library, jwsdp-essd-2009
Add JARs (all jars included in project lib)
Add Class Folders (all view/build/classes, ws/build/classes, ws-client/build/classes - these folders only exist after first build)

-- Tips --

Use Ant in command line. Eclipse stays more stable because compiling memory leaks don't accumulate over time.
Also, you can change into the desired directory and build only the component you're working on.

Typical example:

cd project
ant build
(wait 10 minutes)

cd project
cd subproject
ant build
(wait 2 minutes)

Software reuse

Today I answered a survey about software reuse, by Manuel Sojer, that had an interesting definition.

The following activities are considered as reuse in this survey:

* Reusing of functionality from external components in the form of libraries or included files. E.g. implementing cryptographic functionality from OpenSSL or functionality to parse INI files from an external class you have included. Please do not count functionalities from libraries that are part of your development language, such as the C libraries.

* Reusing of snippets (several existing lines of code) copied and pasted from external sources. If you have modified the code after copying and pasting it by e.g. renaming variables or adjusting it to a specific library you use, this would still be considered as snippet reuse in this survey.

A resource is considered reused if it comes from a source outside of the focal project. I.e. using a snippet from file 1 of a project in file 2 of the same project would not be considered reuse while using a snippet from project 1 in project 2 would be considered reuse.

It also presented a nice classification of a software stack:

* Very low, e.g. operating systems, drivers
* Low, e.g. infrastructure software, libraries
* Middle, e.g. utilities, development tools
* High, e.g. end user applications
* Very high, e.g. plug-ins

Instant questions / Dúvidas instântaneas

This post is for my students.

I've decided to create a Windows Live account to chat about course questions.

The username is my IST e-mail address:


Whenever I'm available for answering student questions via instant messaging I will log-on with this user. This will usually happen on course help schedules. I'll try to connect more on project season, but don't expect to find me connected in the middle of the night... :-)

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

Esta mensagem é para os meus alunos.

Decidi criar uma conta Windows Live para esclarecer dúvidas através de mensagens instântaneas.

O nome de utilizador é o meu endereço de correio electrónico do IST:


Sempre que estiver disponível para o esclarecimento de dúvidas, irei estar ligado. Normalmente será durante os horários de dúvidas das diferentes disciplinas. Durante as épocas de projecto tentarei estar mais ligado, mas não esperem encontrar-me a meio da noite... :-)

John Paul II in comics

The life of Pope John Paul II in comics



It's a beautiful comic book!

State of education / O estado da educação

Whassamata if de ecuation is acentted or alcaline? Or ow meny verrses haz a scuare?

I couldn't resist cross-posting this very funny status message from my good friend RR in Windows Live Messenger. It wittily conveys how confused a bad high-school student's mind can become.

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

O ké quintressa se a ecuação é exdruxula ou alcalina? Ou cuantas estrofes tem um cuadrado?

Não resisti a publicar esta mensagem engraçada do meu amigo RR no Windows Live Messenger. Demonstra de uma forma sagaz quão confusa pode estar a mente de um mau aluno do secundário.

9 uses for Twitter

Twitter is a very useful new web tool. You can request to follow me on .



If you want to know more about the service, read John C Dvorak's article Nine Ways to Use Twitter:
Microblogging
1. Twitter Witness = Twitness
2. Breaking News
3. Communication
4. Feedback
5. Crowd-sourcing
6. Informal Polling
7. Public Address System
8. Sales and Marketing
9. Tweet Ups

Tess

Tess

She was a poor man's daughter, an aristocrat's mistress, and a gentleman's wife. She was Tess, a victim of her own provocative beauty.

Hot, Flat and Crowded

Hot, Flat and Crowded by Thomas L. Friedman



A very interesting book about the environmental, economical and political challenges mankind faces in the near future.

A recommended read, even if the book could be a little shorter.

I loved the Energy Internet section. Very cool!

The following article by the author briefly describes the book's fundamental points:
http://www.nytimes.com/2009/03/29/opinion/29friedman.html