Internet time machine

A team of computer scientists at the Los Alamos Research Library in New Mexico and Old Dominion University (ODU) in Virginia has written a technical specification that embeds the concept of time into Internet applications. The specification is part of the team’s proposed information framework, known as Memento, which creates an application that allows the version control of Web pages, databases and other online information sources.

Source: Government Computer News via ACM Tech News

New tools to help objects to communicate via the Net

Increasingly, the things people use on a daily basis can be connected to the Internet. Norwegian researchers are working to ensure that the Internet of Things operates as efficiently as possible.

A group of Norwegian researchers have been addressing this issue. In the research project Infrastructure for Integrated Services (ISIS) they have created a platform for developing and distributing applications for the Internet of Things. The platform encompasses a programming tool for developers, called Arctis and the website ISIS Store for downloading applications.

Source: The Research Council of Norway

Using delicious to map the internet

I've been using Delicious since 2008, and it has become a very important part of my "work dispatch engine".

Delicious is a web site where you keep a collection of your favorite bookmarks. The good thing about it, is that it is a Folksnomy. This means that you type words (known as tags) to classify the page's contents. Later, when you need to find your pages, you can search them using the tags.

For example, let's say I want to bookmark the following page on delicious:
http://www.ibm.com/developerworks/java/library/j-jws19/index.html

I click the bookmark option on the Firefox add-on, and I would type the following words: IBM article 2010 java web service

Later, when I want to search my bookmarked IBM articles, I just go to my page and type the tag words:
http://www.delicious.com/mflpar/IBM+article

Delicious is also very useful to find out what other people are bookmarking. It is much more well informed than a typical Google query.
Before I finish this post, I just want to add some tips for choosing your tags wisely:

• Don't glue words, separate them for more flexibility (e.g. type web service instead of webservice)
• Use the word in the singular instead of plural (or the other way around, just be consistent)
• Use the root word (e.g. name, instead of naming) whenever possible

Enjoy! :)

Internet Language

2l8 = too late
4 = for
4get = forget
afaik = as far as I know
afk = away from keyboard
asap = as soon as possible
atm = at the moment
ayf = all your fault
b4 = before
b4n = bye for now
bbiab = be back in a bit
bbl = be back later
bf = boyfriend
bq = beyond question
brb = be right back
btw = by the way
btdt = been there, done that
byp = beg your pardon
cu = see you/ cracking up
cul = see you/ catch you later
cya = see ya
faq= frequently asked questions
focl = falling off chair laughing
gf = girlfriend
gfc = going for coffee
gmab = give me a break
gmta= great minds think alike
hand= have a nice day
idk = i don't know
ikwum= i know what you mean
jam = just a minute
jas= just a second
jic= just in case
l8r = later
lb(g)r = little boys (girls) room (bathroom break)
myob = mind your own business
lol = laughing out loud
m8 = mate
mlnw = make love not war
ne1 = anyone
nm = nevermind
np = no problem
nrn = no reply necessary
omg = oh my god
p? = pardon?
ppl = people
soy = shame on you
sup = what's up
tia = thanks in advance
thx = thanks
ttyl = talk to you later
ubb = urgent bathroom break
w8 = wait
wbs = write back soon
w8n = waiting
wb = welcome back
wn? = what now? / what next?
xoxo = hugs and kisses
y = why

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... :-)

The evolution of the Web

The current day Internet is the global network that connects people from all over the world and enables them to meet to work and have fun together.

At the center of the enormous growth of Internet use in 1990s was a new application: the World Wide Web. The Web leveraged the existing Internet infrastructure and protocols TCP/IP and and provided a simple and elegant abstraction: "Everything is a resource; Any resource can link to other resources".

The Web has evolved from its origins. We can summarize the evolution in three stages: the web of documents, the web of applications, and the web of users.

The web of documents was the original hypertext document system, built from HTML pages linking to other pages. The pages were initially static, but soon there were many ways technologies to generate dynamic pages.

The web of applications came next, leveraging the dynamic web page technologies. Some successful web applications examples are: e-commerce (e.g. Amazon.com), web mail (e.g. Hotmail), and customized portals (e.g. Yahoo!). Soon, the application providers realized that the user inputs were very useful to improve the web applications and its capabilities.

The web of users is the current stage in the Web development. It is also known by the moniker Web 2.0. The user inputs became central in the provided applications. Amazon's recommendations are an early example of this. More notably, the Google search engine took advantage of user clicks on results to create a PageRank. More recently, the user contributions are even more explicit, with social networking applications, like Facebook, MySpace, LinkedIn, Delicious, among many others.

So, what is next for the Web? It is about to become even more world wide.

There are three technology trends that will shape the next stage of the Web: mobile Internet access, geographic information systems, and automatic identification and sensing.

Mobile access to the Internet, using hand-held devices and wireless networks is on the rise.
People are starting to use the Web in new places and situations where a desktop or laptop computer would not be possible or convenient. As a result, there are new user needs and requirements.

Geographical information systems, like Google Maps, allow users to access map data with several information layers, to locate points of interest and provide directions. The current user location can be determined using a GPS enabling location-aware applications.

Automatic identification and sensing technologies, like RFID identifiers and sensors, are making their way to supply chains in retail, pharmaceutical, and other industries. Soon it will be possible to tag any valuable or interesting physical object, enabling item level track & trace. In addition, the object identity can be used as a search parameter, to retrieve data from the Web.

When these three technologies are combined, an Internet of Things emerges, a Web of Things, where people and the physical world can interact in novel ways.

As an example scenario consider the following. A person walks into a bookstore and finds an interesting book. However the only available copy has a torn page. Using the mobile phone camera, the user scans the book's bar-code and queries if the book is available in any other nearby bookstore. It isn't, so the user goes to a on-line shop and orders one copy to be delivered the next day at his home.

Can you imagine it? If you can, and would like to work on it, leave a comment here on the blog or email me.

Escaping the media vortex

Have you ever had the feeling of being "sucked" into your TV or computer and lose the notion of time? You're not alone. Nowadays media is so professional, and the viewing devices are so good - HD TVs, laptops, mobile phones, etc - that you are not alone, for sure.

Clipart credit: clker.com

The problem of this is that you end up being mostly a consumer of information and not a producer. This numbs your mind and makes it more difficult to be sharp in your knowledge-based work.

As a computer scientist, I've personally experienced this as a major obstacle in my work.

Here are some hard-learned tips to escape the media vortex.

TV


1) Have only one TV at home. Keep it on a central part of the house, a common zone. Watching TV should be a family experience. Family get together and not family each one for him/herself.

2) Make turning on the TV hard. People are lazy by default and you can avoid casual TV viewing if you have to remove a cover or turn on a projector or something that entails some work, even if minimal.

3) Forget cable. All the money you spend on all those channels you don't watch can be used to buy the movies you really want, either on disc or on-line (iTunes). For sporting events, go to a restaurant or a coffee shop with some friends and watch it there.

4) Don't "let's see what's playing on TV now". See the listings and turn on the TV to watch the programs you want to watch.


Computer


1) You can work at the computer but you can also have fun. Long gone are times when you saying "I'm at the computer" was equivalent to say "I'm working".

2) Your computer is a super TV. Internet media delivery can be even more addictive than TV. You can spend hours in YouTube and other similar sites viewing clips and related clips, and related clips, and... you get the picture.

3) Use your computer as a tool. Close the lid and open it saying: "I'm going to use the computer to write a document", "I'm going to read an article", "I'm going to watch the latest episode of my favorite TV show", etc.

3) Social networks are also very addictive. You want to see what is happening with your friends, etc. Pick a time of the week to go there, like the weekend. Or use the last 20 minutes before lunch.

4) Avoid the temptation of starting something else when the computer is "thinking" (e.g. hourglass in Windows, colorful ball in Mac, web page loading). Just wait. Don't go check some site or something else. You'll known that you're doing this when you see a program window an say: "Oh, I was trying to do that 10 minutes ago".

5) Implement a "communication hour" in your daily routine, where you enable all your email, instant messaging, blogging, etc; Zero your inbox. After that, disable your internet connection - I really mean it, go to the network options and click disable - and go to work. Have one or two "communication hours" a day and log off the rest of the time and you'll notice how much better you can concentrate.


At first all these tips might seem like a downgrade in your life. You probably will complain, because you're so used to consuming information. But, with some strength of will, you'll overcome and win.

Feel free to share your experiences and media vortex escape tips in the comments.