Tweets of the month

My heart and my prayers go to the people of New Zealand
22 Feb

Taking a Twitter break :)
21 Feb

Stating the model assumptions...
18 Feb

Developing math model for estimating system cost
16 Feb

Mubarak resigns, hands power to military http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20110211/ap_on_re_mi_ea/ml_egypt
11 Feb

Back to work listening to "50 classical pieces for your mind"
7 Feb

O Principezinho no Vimeo http://vimeo.com/17732369
4 Feb

Is the 2nd dot.com bubble underway?

According to Patrick, there are 10 tell-tale signs that a bubble is being blown:

» 1. The arrival of a “New Thing” that cannot be valued in the old way. Dumb-money companies start paying over the odds for New Thing acquisitions.

» 2. Smart people identify the start of a bubble; New Thing apostles make ever more glowing claims.

» 3. Startups with founders deemed to have “pedigree” (for example, former employees of New Thing companies) get funded at eye-watering valuations for next to no reason.

» 4. There is a flurry of new investment funds catering for startups.

» 5. Companies start getting funded “off the slide deck” (that is, purely on the basis of their PowerPoint presentations) without actually having a product.

» 6. MBAs leave banks to start up firms.

» 7. The “big flotation” happens.

» 8. Banks make a market in the New Thing, investing pension money.

» 9. Taxi drivers start giving you advice on what stock to buy.

» 10. A New Thing darling buys an old-world company for stupid money. The end is nigh.

Source: Dominic Rushe, The Observer

A new dawn for Artificial Intelligence

Given the choice between a flesh-and-blood doctor and an artificial intelligence system for diagnosing diseases, Pedro Domingos is willing to stake his life on AI. "I'd trust the machine more than I'd trust the doctor," says Domingos, a computer scientist at the University of Washington, Seattle. Considering the bad rap AI usually receives - overhyped, underwhelming - such strong statements in its support are rare indeed.

Read the full article: New Scientist

Steps to organize a fund-raising dinner

So, you want to organize a fund raiser dinner?
(maybe for World Youth Day)

1 - Pick a theme for your dinner

2 - Draft a menu - it can include an entree, one or more courses, and dessert.
Having a standard menu makes it easier. The more options you provide, the more uncertainty, and more complexity in the kitchen.
Identify the necessary ingredients for one person.

3 - Make a prototype. s it delicious? It should be :)
Is it easy to cook? How many could you cook in a short time? Can the food wait to be served and still be in top shape?

4 - Visit one or more food providers and log the prices for the ingredients you will need. Don't go necessarily to the cheapest option. Remember that quality is very important and that you want people to come back for more fund raising iniciatives.
Calculate the cost of the dinner for one person.

5 - You are now ready to announce the dinner and to open the registration.
Define lower and upper limits for the number of people, depending on the room where the dinner will be served.
You can ask for a reservation price. It should cover most of the dinner cost.
You can also have some form of entertainment to make the dinner more attractive.

6 - A few days before the dinner date, close the registration and start planning.
Define the shopping plan. Assign responsibilities. Rely on teamwork.

7 - Prepare a detailed plan for the dinner day. What should be done at a given hour. Remember that every minute counts. It's very important to keep you team motivated and able to execute the "battle" plan without any flaws.

It's possible, but it's not easy. So, prepare for hard word and, if everything goes according to plan, enjoy the reward of achieving something special for the guests and for your team!

Tweets of the month

Trying to reproduce results from another paper. There's always something important the authors don't have the space to write about...
28 Jan

Fosstrak EPCIS used in Norwegian Food Chain RFID Tracking: wp.me/pFIC4-1M
25 Jan Favorite Reply Delete

MIThomepage
http://web.mit.edu How using all that mobile technology could be hurting your social life.
18 Jan

ionline
Universidade de Coimbra é a primeira universidade de língua portuguesa a mostrar-se no iTunes U http://www.ionline.pt//c98642
14 Jan

Using Excel to write a research paper. Sounds awkward, I know :)
14 Jan

Make or break time
11 Jan

Back to work with the help of a Pomodoro !? :) http://www.pomodorotechnique.com/
6 Jan

Happy New Year!
1 Jan

Big Oh notation explained

Assuming a hypothetical computer called the Random Access Machine where:

• Each simple operation takes exactly one time step.
• Loops and subroutines are not considered simple operations, but a composition of many single-step operations.
• Each memory access takes exactly one time step.
• Memory is unlimited.

The run time is measured by counting up the number of steps an algorithm takes on a given problem instance. We then have the worst, average, and best case complexity functions.

The Big Oh notation further simplifies function classification by disregarding multiplicative constants and defining an upper bound.

f(n) = O(g(n)) means c . g(n) is an upper bound on f(n).
Thus there exists some constant c such that f(n) is always <= c . g(n), for large enough n >= n0 (for some constant n0).

Reference: Algorithm Design Manual by Steven Skiena, book and web site.

Copy text from picture

Have you ever wanted to copy text from a screen capture?

Microsoft Office OneNote has that feature built-in.

You just have to add the screen capture to a OneNote notebook, right-click the image, and select the option "Copy Text From Picture", and paste it where you want it.

The results are usually very good, but not perfect, because this feature relies on OCR.

Amazing Grace

Amazing Grace

Amazing Grace, how sweet the sound,
That saved a wretch like me....
I once was lost but now am found,
Was blind, but now, I see.

NYC abortion

Father Barron responds to the recent statistical study demonstrating that approximately 41% of pregnancies in New York City end in abortion. Take a moment to read Father's commentary about "the most compelling moral issue of our time," and please spread the word.

Read the article.

Tweets of the month

Waiting for Christ-mas
20 Dec

Back on track. Thanks to Jo and Rialva ;)
16 Dec

After a paperwork detour, back to writing
16 Dec

Amazing tool for PDF hacking based on the iText library: http://www.pdflabs.com/tools/pdftk-the-pdf-toolkit/
15 Dec

"You lost today, kid. But that doesn't mean you have to like it." -- IJ3
13 Dec

Outline changes are mostly done. Now I'll resume writing.
10 Dec

Listening to Indiana Jones soundtrack
7 Dec

"Adventure is out there" - just don't be afraid to face it in the eye
6 Dec

"Adventure is out there!" -- Thanks Joana for reminding me of joy everyday
6 Dec

Just attended César Pimentel's PhD defense presentation. Good presentation! Good luck for the rest of the evaluation!
6 Dec

Back to writing
3 Dec

In this whole WikiLeaks business I see mostly useless gossip. In the middle of so much noise is there anything worth revealing?
2 Dec