In this day I celebrate a great feat that has deeper meanings than what the title mentioned. Yes, right now with the barrel of oil skyrocketing, it is important to say that you have reached a point where you don't really care about international prices. But what else does it mean?
I am no economist or even living in Brazil to present an in-depth analysis of this. But I can certainly make some observations: Brazil is about number 12 in oil consumption [source] and number 9 in GDP [source]. Quite close, but as it happens with all this distributions, the power law tends to hide the importance of it. Take Russia as an extreme exemple: the GDP is pretty much the same ($1.5 trillion with purchasing power parity), while the oil consumption is 50% higher!
The important thing to take away from this is where your energy comes from. The whole ethanol push that Brazil has undergone might not have been as important as some people have claimed, but it was surely a good part of it.
Anyway, I'll stop here as most probably I've already gone far away from my domain of knowledge and will end up just embarrassing myself. With oil prices still going up and strong, it is an important thing to know... Or maybe you should just ignore it all and start walking.
Friday, April 21, 2006
Thursday, April 20, 2006
And streams of time flow
Sometimes it is hard not to look back and realize the time that has gone by and wonder if you've used it well. This happens in all dimensions: personally, professionally, globally. You look at the things you have done, the things that define what you are right now and just wonder: have I traveled the right way? Have I traveled at all?
It has been tough to get a closure on this. Sometimes it feels like I'm not really doing anything; that I'm fooling myself and letting time just flow by. On other cases, I feel like it is just taking me downstream to a large clearing, I just have to pass through a few turns and everything will be easily visible.
It's interesting how it is easy to lose readers with only a couple of paragraphs. So for the people that are still reading, people that think that can extract some of the hidden meaning behind what is written here, I'll stop. There is no benefit in dwelling on things that are and just dreaming of what might one day be. Today I'm a little depressed, but the reason is not really something I can write down here. It's certainly temporary, but not isolated. It seeps into the future as well as illumine the past.
Alright. Writing too much, time to change topic. Time to go techie.
It has been tough to get a closure on this. Sometimes it feels like I'm not really doing anything; that I'm fooling myself and letting time just flow by. On other cases, I feel like it is just taking me downstream to a large clearing, I just have to pass through a few turns and everything will be easily visible.
It's interesting how it is easy to lose readers with only a couple of paragraphs. So for the people that are still reading, people that think that can extract some of the hidden meaning behind what is written here, I'll stop. There is no benefit in dwelling on things that are and just dreaming of what might one day be. Today I'm a little depressed, but the reason is not really something I can write down here. It's certainly temporary, but not isolated. It seeps into the future as well as illumine the past.
Alright. Writing too much, time to change topic. Time to go techie.
Sunday, April 16, 2006
And the experiment began
Remember some time ago I mentioned Kevin Kelly's interview where he mentioned that in the future scientific articles will be done "wiki style"? Well, it seems like it had already started:
QEDen - a collaborative site to solve the Millenium Problems that are worth 1 million dollars each. It would be quite a feat if it works and I'll bow my head to Mr. KK for his vision.
QEDen - a collaborative site to solve the Millenium Problems that are worth 1 million dollars each. It would be quite a feat if it works and I'll bow my head to Mr. KK for his vision.
Tuesday, April 04, 2006
Even if I haven't been blogging much lately, I have to blog this:
The Time Is 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6
Ingenious observation! I think I'll stay up just to enjoy the moment! Of course that my headache might change the plans, but we'll see.
Besides this strange fact, not much to talk about. Daylight savings time is here and everything is so bright until so late... It's weird! And it will only get worse. At the height of summer here, the sunset is at about 10 pm.
I've been busy, trying to reorganize my life here and put some things behind me, but I haven't been able to complete the whole operation yet. There are some things that I just can't find energy to finish, like my father's project. I start working on it and when I see, I'm reading about JDM (Java Data Mining), Barnes & Noble's rejection of Sony's eBook reader (something that it looks like Amazon and Borders are hoping that will get some more traction on the books business), reading how people can waste time and not really realize it (not really reading it, just realizing it).
Anyway, I've been tired and a little stressed. This last weekend was just something to increase in my level of stress instead of relaxing. On Saturday I spent a lot of time digging out ivy at Golden Gardens Park. Then the rest of the day I did laundry and tried to relax a little. It was quite tiring! Then on Sunday I had two choir "pre-concerts". We went to a library and then a bookstore to advertise about the choir and our upcoming concert. I thought it was quite a waste of time. Surely there were people there, but I don't think there were enought people to really make a difference.
The choir I used to sing with in Brazil had a lot of those events. Singing in short events just to see if people would care enough about the choir. And it never really worked. In many times it seemed like we were not really welcome there. The conductor's theory that it also helped for us to get used to presenting had some merit. But after some time it made no difference at all. The current choir I'm singing, people have years of singing experience. I don't think they need to worry about "how to present". But, hey, who am I to say anything, anyway?
Alright. Time to move onto something else. Maybe I'll get some work done finally...
The Time Is 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6
Ingenious observation! I think I'll stay up just to enjoy the moment! Of course that my headache might change the plans, but we'll see.
Besides this strange fact, not much to talk about. Daylight savings time is here and everything is so bright until so late... It's weird! And it will only get worse. At the height of summer here, the sunset is at about 10 pm.
I've been busy, trying to reorganize my life here and put some things behind me, but I haven't been able to complete the whole operation yet. There are some things that I just can't find energy to finish, like my father's project. I start working on it and when I see, I'm reading about JDM (Java Data Mining), Barnes & Noble's rejection of Sony's eBook reader (something that it looks like Amazon and Borders are hoping that will get some more traction on the books business), reading how people can waste time and not really realize it (not really reading it, just realizing it).
Anyway, I've been tired and a little stressed. This last weekend was just something to increase in my level of stress instead of relaxing. On Saturday I spent a lot of time digging out ivy at Golden Gardens Park. Then the rest of the day I did laundry and tried to relax a little. It was quite tiring! Then on Sunday I had two choir "pre-concerts". We went to a library and then a bookstore to advertise about the choir and our upcoming concert. I thought it was quite a waste of time. Surely there were people there, but I don't think there were enought people to really make a difference.
The choir I used to sing with in Brazil had a lot of those events. Singing in short events just to see if people would care enough about the choir. And it never really worked. In many times it seemed like we were not really welcome there. The conductor's theory that it also helped for us to get used to presenting had some merit. But after some time it made no difference at all. The current choir I'm singing, people have years of singing experience. I don't think they need to worry about "how to present". But, hey, who am I to say anything, anyway?
Alright. Time to move onto something else. Maybe I'll get some work done finally...
Wednesday, March 29, 2006
Busy. Busy as always
That's what I've been hiding behind lately. The fact that I've been quite and weirdly busy. What is weird about it, you might ask, and I say that it's not that I've been working until late at night and weekends... But it's also that I have been working late at night and weekends.
Contradictory, huh? Surely!
But I'll leave it as a contradiction and move on to more details on what is going around in the world.
CNet has an interesting article saying that one of the reasons why Linux hasn't been adopted as much as it could is the dress code that tends to follow it. It is quite scary that I do know a quite a few people that look just like that at Amazon.
So, why does dress code still influences things that much? Well, I don't know why it wouldn't. Dress code means two things: importance and tradition. You wouldn't wear something that is less confortable if you don't think it's important. And it all ties back to what it used to be done in the past and should be rememebered.
Anyway, I'm not being able to make much sense this morning, so I'll move on to the next piece of news:
This is indirectly from a silly book I've found around (but don't own) called Blogosphere: Best of Blogs that, as the title explains, contains a list of "best blogs" in different categories. Of course it suffers with the same effect (if not greater) than lists of best websites: it goes stale quickly. So some blogs don't exist any more, some haven't seen a post for some months, and a coupld even changed subject a little.
Oh, yes, the article:
Kansas is keeping their nuclear power plants safe. These terrorism-inspired reactions always amaze me every time I see them. People pile rules in order to make people feel safer, but it only ends up causing confusion and, later, legal disputes (no, he wasn't heading to the plant when he was shot... the pack that he had on his hand was a shoe box...).
Alright, I know I'll never make it to the list of the best blogs out there. Maybe when my new blog is ready (hahaha - think something like one year from now! I can't even have enough time and energy to finish a reasonably simple project for my father!) I might start to get a little bit more activity around here. I have big plans for it. But, again, I always have big plans for everything. Even the laptop that is taken apart and sitting on my desk (and partly lying on the floor) right now.
And I have to note here that certainly the highlight of this last weekend (wow, it's Wednesday already???) was being able to talk with my best friend and his fiancee using Skype. Made my otherwise quite crappy weekend.
I've also received messages from my sister that works at American Express in Brazil. AE Brazil was sold to the largest bank there, Bradesco, and people are trying to flee, my sister included. One of the ideas that she has in mind is to continue at AE, but move to the US, New York City to be more precise. I don't think my mother will be very happy with that! But It's just in the wishing and planning phases right now.
Oh, and on a sad note: no solar eclipse around here.
Contradictory, huh? Surely!
But I'll leave it as a contradiction and move on to more details on what is going around in the world.
CNet has an interesting article saying that one of the reasons why Linux hasn't been adopted as much as it could is the dress code that tends to follow it. It is quite scary that I do know a quite a few people that look just like that at Amazon.
So, why does dress code still influences things that much? Well, I don't know why it wouldn't. Dress code means two things: importance and tradition. You wouldn't wear something that is less confortable if you don't think it's important. And it all ties back to what it used to be done in the past and should be rememebered.
Anyway, I'm not being able to make much sense this morning, so I'll move on to the next piece of news:
This is indirectly from a silly book I've found around (but don't own) called Blogosphere: Best of Blogs that, as the title explains, contains a list of "best blogs" in different categories. Of course it suffers with the same effect (if not greater) than lists of best websites: it goes stale quickly. So some blogs don't exist any more, some haven't seen a post for some months, and a coupld even changed subject a little.
Oh, yes, the article:
Kansas is keeping their nuclear power plants safe. These terrorism-inspired reactions always amaze me every time I see them. People pile rules in order to make people feel safer, but it only ends up causing confusion and, later, legal disputes (no, he wasn't heading to the plant when he was shot... the pack that he had on his hand was a shoe box...).
Alright, I know I'll never make it to the list of the best blogs out there. Maybe when my new blog is ready (hahaha - think something like one year from now! I can't even have enough time and energy to finish a reasonably simple project for my father!) I might start to get a little bit more activity around here. I have big plans for it. But, again, I always have big plans for everything. Even the laptop that is taken apart and sitting on my desk (and partly lying on the floor) right now.
And I have to note here that certainly the highlight of this last weekend (wow, it's Wednesday already???) was being able to talk with my best friend and his fiancee using Skype. Made my otherwise quite crappy weekend.
I've also received messages from my sister that works at American Express in Brazil. AE Brazil was sold to the largest bank there, Bradesco, and people are trying to flee, my sister included. One of the ideas that she has in mind is to continue at AE, but move to the US, New York City to be more precise. I don't think my mother will be very happy with that! But It's just in the wishing and planning phases right now.
Oh, and on a sad note: no solar eclipse around here.
Sunday, March 19, 2006
An interesting article
Just because Kevin Kelly has been everywhere I've been looking lately (more on this some other time), here is his latest slashdotted article:
SPECULATIONS ON THE FUTURE OF SCIENCE
I think he has some interesting points. However, I think most of the things are a little too hopeful and naive. For example:
The creation of "wiki-type scientific articles" is a little silly. Very few scientific articles actually would benefit from a wiki style mechanism. Most are just self-contained. I think what has to change is the delay for you to add small comments to an article. It's easier to keep up with authorship (and blame) and allows you to organize information in an easier way than a huge 100 people article.
There are lots of other things I think are a little too far-fetched. Unfortunately, I won't give me that much time to comment on it right now. Maybe some other day when I don't feel too guilty that I haven't finished working on everything I need to work today.
SPECULATIONS ON THE FUTURE OF SCIENCE
I think he has some interesting points. However, I think most of the things are a little too hopeful and naive. For example:
The creation of "wiki-type scientific articles" is a little silly. Very few scientific articles actually would benefit from a wiki style mechanism. Most are just self-contained. I think what has to change is the delay for you to add small comments to an article. It's easier to keep up with authorship (and blame) and allows you to organize information in an easier way than a huge 100 people article.
There are lots of other things I think are a little too far-fetched. Unfortunately, I won't give me that much time to comment on it right now. Maybe some other day when I don't feel too guilty that I haven't finished working on everything I need to work today.
blah.. blah... blah... bad blogger... blah.. blah...
I know that I haven't been blogging much lately. The worst thing is that I don't know if I have a good reason for this lately. Yes, I have been busy and I haven't been spending time in front of my computer much lately, but I'm not sure this is actually the reason for my disappearance.
However, instead of trying to analyze why I haven't been writing (something that I've actually tried to do and post about maybe 3 times between the last time I've posted and now), I'll just move one and post something!
Well, I'm back! It's been a very good week, I guess. Last weekend I was in Colorado Springs visiting my former roommate and a very good friend. It was a lot of fun, but very cold too! Amy and I arrived there on Friday evening, were persuaded to have dinner at my old roommate's place and went to sleep at about 1:30 am. Woke up Saturday early morning and went skiing. It was quite a nice day to go skiing!
We went to Loveland, quite a nice ski resort with something like 11 lifts. We kept ourselves to the only one corner of the resort that had only 2 lifts. The first one for beginners (from which I went up maybe 4 times) and one that had some easy and intermediate slopes. At the end of the day, I've decided to go crazy (and I would found out quite soon that I was REALLY crazy) and went to this second lift.
There I went, sitting down at the lift and seeing it going up, and up... The base of the resort was at about 10K feet high (about 3 km). Let's say that the ski lift took us to almost 13K feet high (almost 4km). I was petrified when I got out of the lift. There was an easy way down, but easy was based on the slope of the way down and not the length. Let's say that I had to stop maybe 4 or 5 times on the way down just to wait for my legs to start responding again. I was exhausted, but alive! I only fell twice getting out of the easy lift and once on the way down the long path (just because I felt I was too fast and my left leg didn't want to help me turn right - so I just forced myself to stop by sitting down).
Sunday we went to the Mountain Zoo in the morning. Quite a nice zoo, actually. Just was a little cold sometimes. And in the afternoon we went to the Garden of the Gods. It was also quite nice, but the weather wasn't very nice. Very windy and cold... And then it started snowing, the time we decided to head back to a warm place; my old roommate's place.
There we ordered a pizza and played some group games, like Apples to Apples and Wise or Otherwise. It was fun!
On Monday we woke up at 4 am and started our way to the airport to arrive at work at about 10:30am (keep in mind that I've won an extra hour with the time zone difference).
What happened is that I've spent the whole week trying to recover from the weekend, but I would do it again!
As for the rest, I've finished two books this week: Olympos, by Dan Simmons; and A Short History of Nearly Everything, by Bill Bryson. Both very interesting and entertaining! Olympos is the continuation of Ilium. While Ilium was quite interesting because it tried to put a huge twist to the Greek-Trojan war, Olympos pretty much decides to divert completely from this line of thought and goes to a much more "action-packed" and quite inventive hard sci-fi.
A Short History of Nearly Everything is a must read! There isn't much else I can say about it! It's a very readable and sane description of what science knows (or maybe knew, as it was published in 2003) about the creation of the universe, physics, biology, astronomy, geophysics, and many other sciences that relate to who we are and where we are.
The rest, there is nothing much else to talk about. I have tried to work on my taxes today and got scared with the fact that I might have to pay federal taxes this year. This puzzled me greatly, as I don't quite understand how this could happen. So, instead of spending my whole day trying to figure this out, I've moved on to posting on my blog.
However, instead of trying to analyze why I haven't been writing (something that I've actually tried to do and post about maybe 3 times between the last time I've posted and now), I'll just move one and post something!
Well, I'm back! It's been a very good week, I guess. Last weekend I was in Colorado Springs visiting my former roommate and a very good friend. It was a lot of fun, but very cold too! Amy and I arrived there on Friday evening, were persuaded to have dinner at my old roommate's place and went to sleep at about 1:30 am. Woke up Saturday early morning and went skiing. It was quite a nice day to go skiing!
We went to Loveland, quite a nice ski resort with something like 11 lifts. We kept ourselves to the only one corner of the resort that had only 2 lifts. The first one for beginners (from which I went up maybe 4 times) and one that had some easy and intermediate slopes. At the end of the day, I've decided to go crazy (and I would found out quite soon that I was REALLY crazy) and went to this second lift.
There I went, sitting down at the lift and seeing it going up, and up... The base of the resort was at about 10K feet high (about 3 km). Let's say that the ski lift took us to almost 13K feet high (almost 4km). I was petrified when I got out of the lift. There was an easy way down, but easy was based on the slope of the way down and not the length. Let's say that I had to stop maybe 4 or 5 times on the way down just to wait for my legs to start responding again. I was exhausted, but alive! I only fell twice getting out of the easy lift and once on the way down the long path (just because I felt I was too fast and my left leg didn't want to help me turn right - so I just forced myself to stop by sitting down).
Sunday we went to the Mountain Zoo in the morning. Quite a nice zoo, actually. Just was a little cold sometimes. And in the afternoon we went to the Garden of the Gods. It was also quite nice, but the weather wasn't very nice. Very windy and cold... And then it started snowing, the time we decided to head back to a warm place; my old roommate's place.
There we ordered a pizza and played some group games, like Apples to Apples and Wise or Otherwise. It was fun!
On Monday we woke up at 4 am and started our way to the airport to arrive at work at about 10:30am (keep in mind that I've won an extra hour with the time zone difference).
What happened is that I've spent the whole week trying to recover from the weekend, but I would do it again!
As for the rest, I've finished two books this week: Olympos, by Dan Simmons; and A Short History of Nearly Everything, by Bill Bryson. Both very interesting and entertaining! Olympos is the continuation of Ilium. While Ilium was quite interesting because it tried to put a huge twist to the Greek-Trojan war, Olympos pretty much decides to divert completely from this line of thought and goes to a much more "action-packed" and quite inventive hard sci-fi.
A Short History of Nearly Everything is a must read! There isn't much else I can say about it! It's a very readable and sane description of what science knows (or maybe knew, as it was published in 2003) about the creation of the universe, physics, biology, astronomy, geophysics, and many other sciences that relate to who we are and where we are.
The rest, there is nothing much else to talk about. I have tried to work on my taxes today and got scared with the fact that I might have to pay federal taxes this year. This puzzled me greatly, as I don't quite understand how this could happen. So, instead of spending my whole day trying to figure this out, I've moved on to posting on my blog.
Tuesday, March 07, 2006
Learning to sleep
I think I forgot what it means to go to sleep. It's not that I don't sleep, it's just that I don't really want to sleep any more. It's not that this is something new, it's just that it has been bothering me lately. I get home tired of spending a whole day refactoring other people's code to enable unit tests (more on this some other time). I get to my computer to check my emails and then just rathole into reading papers, studying new technologies, checking the news... When I look again to the watch it's past 2am. In the morning I just jump out of the bed and get moving. My body is tired, but I just don't want to waste time (even though I have been getting late to work, as I've been just doing random things at home in the morning, like doing the dishes and cleaning)
In general, lately I've been busy. Lots of things to do and think. And what worries me the most is that things are starting to pile up and I just can't get to finish any of the things I have to do!
Tomorrow I'm going to Colorado Springs, Colorado to meet some friends. My former roommate moved there and another very good friend was going to visit his, so I decided to tag along. But I think I mentioned this already in the past. The plan there? Talk, entertain girlfriends/wifes, visit and just take my mind ouf the the things I have to think about lately. Try to restore my sanity a little.
Oh, last weekend I bought one more missing part for my recipe reader project: a new wireless router. My old one (my cable modem) is only 802.11g compatible, but my cheap laptop has an 802.11b wireless card. Also my PDA didn't like to connect to the network that much either. It would work sometimes, but most of the time it simply wouldn't be able to get an IP address. Now it works perfectly!
Anyway, step by step I'm getting there!
Now it's time to have breakfast and head to work!
In general, lately I've been busy. Lots of things to do and think. And what worries me the most is that things are starting to pile up and I just can't get to finish any of the things I have to do!
Tomorrow I'm going to Colorado Springs, Colorado to meet some friends. My former roommate moved there and another very good friend was going to visit his, so I decided to tag along. But I think I mentioned this already in the past. The plan there? Talk, entertain girlfriends/wifes, visit and just take my mind ouf the the things I have to think about lately. Try to restore my sanity a little.
Oh, last weekend I bought one more missing part for my recipe reader project: a new wireless router. My old one (my cable modem) is only 802.11g compatible, but my cheap laptop has an 802.11b wireless card. Also my PDA didn't like to connect to the network that much either. It would work sometimes, but most of the time it simply wouldn't be able to get an IP address. Now it works perfectly!
Anyway, step by step I'm getting there!
Now it's time to have breakfast and head to work!
Tuesday, February 28, 2006
Web as a source of information
I've just read a very interesting article on the Wall Street Journal about fake web "original content", written by Lee Gomes. He claims that he was once hired to produce "original content" for $2 an article where he just had to get articles from other websites and change the wording just enough so that it will look like something different. He ends the article saying:
"In fact, search engines are more like a TV camera crew let loose in the middle of a crowd of rowdy fans after a game. Seeing the camera, everyone acts boorishly and jostles to get in front. The act of observing something changes it.
"Which is what search engines are causing to happen to much of the world's "information." Legitimate information, like articles from the WHO, risks being crowded out by junky, spammy imitations. Nothing very useful about that."
Very well put and quite scary what search engines are doing to the web.
But then there is a second side to it: people are actually finding information (if they know how to search, or are looking for the same thing that most people are already looking, something that is cannot be old information)! And with this, people are making money! I've talked a week ago with a web designer friend of mine and he said that buying an ad at Google was the best investment he has ever made. It is very inexpensive ($1 per click) and he said that it makes him about 150x profit. I guess I've just been the only one that never clicked on an adsense ad.
Finally, soon you will see some changes to this site. I'm planning a major change in direction of this blog, both making it nicer to look and easier to see what you are looking for. One detail: I won't promise any more and better content. It's just that I'll be a little bit more proud about it. One of the major things that will happen is that I'll be moving off of Blogger!
Scary thought, huh? It's been a long time that I just haven't seen anything new coming out of the Blogger team. Pretty much since blogger was bought by Google, it stalled; much like any "already established" system at Google. Look at Google news! Orkut (although it looks like there is a more complicated story behind that)! Google itself! Just projects left aside to give way to more "AJAXy" things, like Google maps and Gmail. By the way, talking about Gmail, I HATE that you can't click "back" to go back to the page you were.
"In fact, search engines are more like a TV camera crew let loose in the middle of a crowd of rowdy fans after a game. Seeing the camera, everyone acts boorishly and jostles to get in front. The act of observing something changes it.
"Which is what search engines are causing to happen to much of the world's "information." Legitimate information, like articles from the WHO, risks being crowded out by junky, spammy imitations. Nothing very useful about that."
Very well put and quite scary what search engines are doing to the web.
But then there is a second side to it: people are actually finding information (if they know how to search, or are looking for the same thing that most people are already looking, something that is cannot be old information)! And with this, people are making money! I've talked a week ago with a web designer friend of mine and he said that buying an ad at Google was the best investment he has ever made. It is very inexpensive ($1 per click) and he said that it makes him about 150x profit. I guess I've just been the only one that never clicked on an adsense ad.
Finally, soon you will see some changes to this site. I'm planning a major change in direction of this blog, both making it nicer to look and easier to see what you are looking for. One detail: I won't promise any more and better content. It's just that I'll be a little bit more proud about it. One of the major things that will happen is that I'll be moving off of Blogger!
Scary thought, huh? It's been a long time that I just haven't seen anything new coming out of the Blogger team. Pretty much since blogger was bought by Google, it stalled; much like any "already established" system at Google. Look at Google news! Orkut (although it looks like there is a more complicated story behind that)! Google itself! Just projects left aside to give way to more "AJAXy" things, like Google maps and Gmail. By the way, talking about Gmail, I HATE that you can't click "back" to go back to the page you were.
Saturday, February 25, 2006
A weekend of deep work
That's what I'm doing this weekend. But I'm actually having fun, because things are actually working, except something very silly like the connection between my laptop and my linux desktop (my server). It works after I disabled all the firewalls on the server, but it is SLOW, very slow... Not completely sure what is going on...
But now for the more interesting things: it is confirmed that I will be going to Colorado to get together with some friends in two weekends! It's going to be fun! But nothing comes without weird coincidences, right? Well, we are all going with our "significant others". Two of the "significant others" are called "Maya" and one is "Amy". Note that all the names have only three letters: A, M and Y. Just weird.
On another completely unrelated note, today I've received my touch screen glass. Very neat, although being a little bit bigger than I was expecting. I tried to plug into my $200 laptop, installed all the software, but it didn't work for some reason. I'll leave it for some other time to figure out why. But it's exciting that I have almost all components for me to start working on my recipe reader project.
The rest of life has been quite the same.
But now for the more interesting things: it is confirmed that I will be going to Colorado to get together with some friends in two weekends! It's going to be fun! But nothing comes without weird coincidences, right? Well, we are all going with our "significant others". Two of the "significant others" are called "Maya" and one is "Amy". Note that all the names have only three letters: A, M and Y. Just weird.
On another completely unrelated note, today I've received my touch screen glass. Very neat, although being a little bit bigger than I was expecting. I tried to plug into my $200 laptop, installed all the software, but it didn't work for some reason. I'll leave it for some other time to figure out why. But it's exciting that I have almost all components for me to start working on my recipe reader project.
The rest of life has been quite the same.
Wednesday, February 22, 2006
The error series
Just to continue my error series... Here is an error I got today:
Error 500--Internal Server Error
From RFC 2068 Hypertext Transfer Protocol -- HTTP/1.1:
10.5.1 500 Internal Server Error
The server encountered an unexpected condition which prevented it from fulfilling the request.
It had to be in IEEE with all this explanation of what is the standard that is providing explanation about the error. Ah... Engineers...
Oh, and finally Imagestation worked! Now I just have to weed through about 200 pictures (from my last two weekends) remove the ones that are not that interesting and put captions on the ones that deserve explanation. Quite some work still left.
What happened to me yesterday? Not much... Didn't sleep that much last evening trying to figure out why I was getting a strange behavior on a system yesterday (and I still don't know what it is) and going around and getting a bunch of papers on a wide variety of topics that seemed interesting. Some very interesting concepts! I might start writing here some comments on the papers I read, mostly for my own future reference, but trying not to be too selfish.
Error 500--Internal Server Error
From RFC 2068 Hypertext Transfer Protocol -- HTTP/1.1:
10.5.1 500 Internal Server Error
The server encountered an unexpected condition which prevented it from fulfilling the request.
It had to be in IEEE with all this explanation of what is the standard that is providing explanation about the error. Ah... Engineers...
Oh, and finally Imagestation worked! Now I just have to weed through about 200 pictures (from my last two weekends) remove the ones that are not that interesting and put captions on the ones that deserve explanation. Quite some work still left.
What happened to me yesterday? Not much... Didn't sleep that much last evening trying to figure out why I was getting a strange behavior on a system yesterday (and I still don't know what it is) and going around and getting a bunch of papers on a wide variety of topics that seemed interesting. Some very interesting concepts! I might start writing here some comments on the papers I read, mostly for my own future reference, but trying not to be too selfish.
Tuesday, February 21, 2006
Just a random status... I just tried to access Imagestation again and got the same error! And because I'm feeling like sharing the happiness, I'll quote the error message for the few of you readers that might appreciate it:
Oops ...
Unable to write to cat list file:can't create /raid/mason/www/comp/sony/htdocs/category/.catlist.dat: No such file or directory at /raid/mason/www/sitelib/Zing/DB/Category/CreateFile.pm line 154 Stack: [/usr/local/lib/perl5/5.8.2/Carp.pm:191] [blib/lib/Storable.pm (autosplit into blib/lib/auto/Storable/logcroak.al):71] [blib/lib/Storable.pm (autosplit into blib/lib/auto/Storable/_store.al):206] [blib/lib/Storable.pm (autosplit into blib/lib/auto/Storable/nstore.al):166] [/raid/mason/www/sitelib/Zing/DB/Category/CreateFile.pm:154] [/raid/mason/www/sitelib/Zing/DB/Category/CreateFile.pm:188] [/raid/mason/www/comp/zing/htdocs/album/edit/info.html:264]
Try Again
Fun!
Oops ...
Unable to write to cat list file:can't create /raid/mason/www/comp/sony/htdocs/category/.catlist.dat: No such file or directory at /raid/mason/www/sitelib/Zing/DB/Category/CreateFile.pm line 154 Stack: [/usr/local/lib/perl5/5.8.2/Carp.pm:191] [blib/lib/Storable.pm (autosplit into blib/lib/auto/Storable/logcroak.al):71] [blib/lib/Storable.pm (autosplit into blib/lib/auto/Storable/_store.al):206] [blib/lib/Storable.pm (autosplit into blib/lib/auto/Storable/nstore.al):166] [/raid/mason/www/sitelib/Zing/DB/Category/CreateFile.pm:154] [/raid/mason/www/sitelib/Zing/DB/Category/CreateFile.pm:188] [/raid/mason/www/comp/zing/htdocs/album/edit/info.html:264]
Try Again
Fun!
I'm a little scared today. Lots of things are accumulating on my to-do list and not that many are getting done. And when I try to get some things done, something happens and I just can cross it out of my list. Today it was Imagestation. I use it to store and distribute my pictures. I was adding the pictures from yesterday's hike (more about it below) when suddenly I get a Mason error! Something like not being able to cat a file. Very ugly error - made me a little scared about using the service. However, there was one thing I liked about it: I went to the help page, clicked on "live chat" and suddenly I was talking to someone that just told me that they were going through some maintenance right now and that I should try it again in the morning.
Alright, now about the hike on Sunday... I went with some friends from Jconnect to Oyster Dome. It was a little tough - 8 miles both ways, ~12 km - elevation gain of 2,200 ft, ~700m - in other words: 4 miles going up and then 4 miles going down. My legs are a little sore, but the view was worth it! Drop me an email that I'll send you an invite to see the album and you can see for yourself (although the pictures don't really make justice to the great experience that was seeing it all).
There were two interesting things that I've learned in the hike:
1) People like to take their dogs on long hikes. Lots of dogs going around!
2) They are trying to protect that area from logging! Logging is actually a very interesting money source for the government, so they reserve some areas to be logged from time to time. Walking around we saw traces of the last time they logged the area and left it pretty much bare - about 70-100 years ago! Now they won't be cleaning it all, but will leave some empty spots all over.
I guess that's all I have to report. Maybe this and a link to an interesting but sad article that a friend sent to me today:
The Social Life of Paper, published in the New Yorker in 2002. This was written by Malcolm Gladwell, the author of Blink and The Tipping Point, two very famous books that are not too bad.
Alright, now about the hike on Sunday... I went with some friends from Jconnect to Oyster Dome. It was a little tough - 8 miles both ways, ~12 km - elevation gain of 2,200 ft, ~700m - in other words: 4 miles going up and then 4 miles going down. My legs are a little sore, but the view was worth it! Drop me an email that I'll send you an invite to see the album and you can see for yourself (although the pictures don't really make justice to the great experience that was seeing it all).
There were two interesting things that I've learned in the hike:
1) People like to take their dogs on long hikes. Lots of dogs going around!
2) They are trying to protect that area from logging! Logging is actually a very interesting money source for the government, so they reserve some areas to be logged from time to time. Walking around we saw traces of the last time they logged the area and left it pretty much bare - about 70-100 years ago! Now they won't be cleaning it all, but will leave some empty spots all over.
I guess that's all I have to report. Maybe this and a link to an interesting but sad article that a friend sent to me today:
The Social Life of Paper, published in the New Yorker in 2002. This was written by Malcolm Gladwell, the author of Blink and The Tipping Point, two very famous books that are not too bad.
Saturday, February 18, 2006
TagCloud
As you must have seen (if anybody actually reads my blog - not blaming anybody, it's just that I haven't been posting anything lately), I have added something to my side bar under the Pheromone Trail part. I found about it randomly going around some blogs the other day and I was interested in knowing what it was going to say about my blog. But, so far, nothing. I'm not sure if it is by date, or if it doesn't like my RSS feed, or maybe it's just broken. I'll wait a week (that sometimes may turn into a month with my level of updates on my blog) until I just give up.
So the weekend is here. Lots of things to do! But what I'm most excited about it that I am planning on going on a hike tomorrow! It's a little cold here and my legs are sore from going on the "forbidden machine" at the gym on Thursday, but it should be fun!
On the more geeky side, I'm testing Camino, a new browser made only for Mac. It looks pretty good so far, but I'll still keep on testing. It so far looks like Firefox (well, maybe it's because it also uses Gecko as the rendering engine).
Another thing I'm testing right now is a suggestion that I've got from a co-worker and reiterated by this interesting Mac Freeware list: Buttler. It is quite interesting, but requires you to get used to it.
Alright, time to get to work!
So the weekend is here. Lots of things to do! But what I'm most excited about it that I am planning on going on a hike tomorrow! It's a little cold here and my legs are sore from going on the "forbidden machine" at the gym on Thursday, but it should be fun!
On the more geeky side, I'm testing Camino, a new browser made only for Mac. It looks pretty good so far, but I'll still keep on testing. It so far looks like Firefox (well, maybe it's because it also uses Gecko as the rendering engine).
Another thing I'm testing right now is a suggestion that I've got from a co-worker and reiterated by this interesting Mac Freeware list: Buttler. It is quite interesting, but requires you to get used to it.
Alright, time to get to work!
Thursday, February 16, 2006
Posting every other week makes it hard to follow what is going on. I know... But maybe it's because not much is going on right now. I'm still recovering from my crazy times of working late, but I'm still not back to my old self. I've been getting home nervous for some reason that I'm not completely aware of, and this makes me just not do anything really productive until I decide to go to sleep (or am lulled into going to sleep).
There were a couple of events of note, though (in no particular order):
1) I got an email from a total stranger from Brazil asking what it is to go for a Ph.D. at Oklahoma State University. Ok... He was not a "total" stranger, as he is a student of the professor that gave me the contact to the professor in Oklahoma that offered me the position. But it was quite tough to reply to this email. It's not that I didn't like Oklahoma, it's just that I don't know many people that would enjoy the experience as much as I did. It was a very introspective time of my life.
2) I took my camera for a trip to Central Washington, the other side of the mountains. It was a very nice day trip with Amy. The first experience is that you get out of a place with a lot of trees, go to snowy trees, then just snow and when you least expect, the snow is gone and the only thing you see around you are small and sparse bushes! Semi-dry, a complete shock in vegetation change. Very interesting. The rest had some very nice views, small towns and quite some driving. We left my place at about 8 am and were back at 6 pm after driving for almost 400 miles (almost 650km). Fun to be away!
3) Oracle is trying to buy everybody lately. They finished their purchase of Sleepycat, now they are eying JBoss, Zend (that makes PHP-based systems) and even MySQL. They are following the plan of silencing the competition before they are too loud. Something that Cisco has always been very good at doing in the networks world.
4) I'm moving forward on one of my projects. I bought a $200 laptop and now I just need to be brave enough to buy a touch screen attachment and destroy the laptop. It the project works it will be very cool!
5) I'm also working on my spare time on some things for B'nai B'rith do Brasil, organizing publicity for the Cascadian Chorale, and even sometimes going to the gym (didn't go today because I hurt my back doing volunteering work last Sunday and it's still not good enough for me to feel confortable in potentially making it worse again)!
I guess that's what is going on in a nutshell. I still need to write and reply to so many emails that makes me sad just to think about it. So many "I'm sorry for taking this long to reply to you..." that it makes me feel like I shouldn't even bother replying. And I know this is the wrong feeling.
There were a couple of events of note, though (in no particular order):
1) I got an email from a total stranger from Brazil asking what it is to go for a Ph.D. at Oklahoma State University. Ok... He was not a "total" stranger, as he is a student of the professor that gave me the contact to the professor in Oklahoma that offered me the position. But it was quite tough to reply to this email. It's not that I didn't like Oklahoma, it's just that I don't know many people that would enjoy the experience as much as I did. It was a very introspective time of my life.
2) I took my camera for a trip to Central Washington, the other side of the mountains. It was a very nice day trip with Amy. The first experience is that you get out of a place with a lot of trees, go to snowy trees, then just snow and when you least expect, the snow is gone and the only thing you see around you are small and sparse bushes! Semi-dry, a complete shock in vegetation change. Very interesting. The rest had some very nice views, small towns and quite some driving. We left my place at about 8 am and were back at 6 pm after driving for almost 400 miles (almost 650km). Fun to be away!
3) Oracle is trying to buy everybody lately. They finished their purchase of Sleepycat, now they are eying JBoss, Zend (that makes PHP-based systems) and even MySQL. They are following the plan of silencing the competition before they are too loud. Something that Cisco has always been very good at doing in the networks world.
4) I'm moving forward on one of my projects. I bought a $200 laptop and now I just need to be brave enough to buy a touch screen attachment and destroy the laptop. It the project works it will be very cool!
5) I'm also working on my spare time on some things for B'nai B'rith do Brasil, organizing publicity for the Cascadian Chorale, and even sometimes going to the gym (didn't go today because I hurt my back doing volunteering work last Sunday and it's still not good enough for me to feel confortable in potentially making it worse again)!
I guess that's what is going on in a nutshell. I still need to write and reply to so many emails that makes me sad just to think about it. So many "I'm sorry for taking this long to reply to you..." that it makes me feel like I shouldn't even bother replying. And I know this is the wrong feeling.
Monday, February 06, 2006
Randomly saying something
I'm back.. So what's going on here? Well, a lot of things, but nothing really that exciting to write about. Yesterday I went to a Superbowl party just to see the local team, the Seahawks, lose. Everybody was a little sad, but it's not that I was paying too much attention to the game anyway. There were about 65 people in a house that perhaps could accomodate 40. Fun anyway! Oh, and the highlight of the party was that one guy proposed to his now fiancée during half time! No, it's not that they love football and felt that this was a great opportunity to get engaged. It's more like they've met in this same party for last year's Superbowl and thought this was an important day in their lives.
Another thing I did this weekend, besides my normal cleaning process, was playing around with my new toy: Canon EOS-D20 SLR Camera. I'm still in awe with what it can do... It would have been a little better if the weather on Saturday hadn't been so bad.
I've also been sadly following all the rage about the Mohammed's cartoons. A sad, sad moment in the history of freedom of speech and tolerance. I found this article on the Financial Times quite interesting to show what acutually happened: Timeline: How the cartoon crisis unfolded. Sure, like all news, it will probably be outdated by tomorrow, but...
Finally, to finish this post on a positive note, Wired finally published their famous "Vaporware Awards". There are some very interesting ones there, but I can't say that I've seen any earthshattering technologies that were never released. Just modifications on the same theme over and over.
Another thing I did this weekend, besides my normal cleaning process, was playing around with my new toy: Canon EOS-D20 SLR Camera. I'm still in awe with what it can do... It would have been a little better if the weather on Saturday hadn't been so bad.
I've also been sadly following all the rage about the Mohammed's cartoons. A sad, sad moment in the history of freedom of speech and tolerance. I found this article on the Financial Times quite interesting to show what acutually happened: Timeline: How the cartoon crisis unfolded. Sure, like all news, it will probably be outdated by tomorrow, but...
Finally, to finish this post on a positive note, Wired finally published their famous "Vaporware Awards". There are some very interesting ones there, but I can't say that I've seen any earthshattering technologies that were never released. Just modifications on the same theme over and over.
Saturday, January 28, 2006
Time flies and life remains
sorry for the absence, but it's been busy times. I've been working a little hard to get a project out of the door, and this is not only taking most of my time, but most of my energy to do anything else. But things are nearing conclusion and I have even forced myself to stay this weekend without working. The only interesting thing of it is that anytime I sit down or lay down to rest, work keeps popping to my mind. Nothing really bad, just ideas that I have, or lists of things to do. I've been dreaming and breathing work lately, so it's expected. It's been fun, nevertheless, but I'll be glad when it's over.
Nothing much else is going on. Besides this strange thing that I saw on Amazon today:
I was just trying to buy some stuff and then suddenly I look at my dangerous Amazon Prime "1-click shopping" buttons on the top of my screen and read the following: Get it Tuesday, January 31st - Overnight; Get it Saturday, December 31st - Two-day.
Then I was shocked: had somebody at Amazon invented a time machine? December 31st, 2005 was a Saturday and it won't fall on a Saturday again until 2011! So they must me talking about last December, right? Anyway, shopping at Amazon when you work there sometimes is so painful. On Monday I have to figure out who is responsible for this page and let them know. I know some people that work on Prime, but I'm not sure it's their piece of the system.
Anyway, I have to go back to doing nothing here. Yea, right... Doing nothing. I was cleaning and have been cooking a lot this weekend.
Decided to buy a bread machine yesterday and so far I haven't been impressed. I've set it to prepare bread overnight so that I would have fresh bread at 8:30 am today... Making the bread I've set up was going to take 3 1/2 hours approximately. At 6:30 am I was up and decided to check on the bread. When I got there it was a half mixture, far from homogeneous as you would expect.
I restarted the program and saw what happened. For some reason the whole bread dough ball had stuck higher up on the cooking bowl and the mixing paddle couldn't reach it. I mixed it all by hand and restarted it all, so the bread was only ready around 10 am. It has to cool down for 30 minutes before eating so, at 10:30, after alreayd having had breakfast, I tried the bread. And it was a little too dense for my taste.
I won't give up just yet... I'll believe that there was something wrong with the recipe or the weather, and will try something new one of these days.
Nothing much else is going on. Besides this strange thing that I saw on Amazon today:
I was just trying to buy some stuff and then suddenly I look at my dangerous Amazon Prime "1-click shopping" buttons on the top of my screen and read the following: Get it Tuesday, January 31st - Overnight; Get it Saturday, December 31st - Two-day.
Then I was shocked: had somebody at Amazon invented a time machine? December 31st, 2005 was a Saturday and it won't fall on a Saturday again until 2011! So they must me talking about last December, right? Anyway, shopping at Amazon when you work there sometimes is so painful. On Monday I have to figure out who is responsible for this page and let them know. I know some people that work on Prime, but I'm not sure it's their piece of the system.
Anyway, I have to go back to doing nothing here. Yea, right... Doing nothing. I was cleaning and have been cooking a lot this weekend.
Decided to buy a bread machine yesterday and so far I haven't been impressed. I've set it to prepare bread overnight so that I would have fresh bread at 8:30 am today... Making the bread I've set up was going to take 3 1/2 hours approximately. At 6:30 am I was up and decided to check on the bread. When I got there it was a half mixture, far from homogeneous as you would expect.
I restarted the program and saw what happened. For some reason the whole bread dough ball had stuck higher up on the cooking bowl and the mixing paddle couldn't reach it. I mixed it all by hand and restarted it all, so the bread was only ready around 10 am. It has to cool down for 30 minutes before eating so, at 10:30, after alreayd having had breakfast, I tried the bread. And it was a little too dense for my taste.
I won't give up just yet... I'll believe that there was something wrong with the recipe or the weather, and will try something new one of these days.
Saturday, January 21, 2006
Sorry I haven't been a good blogger lately. Too busy with work without really much to talk about. I'm blogging right now just because I was late for the bus, so I have 5 more minutes for the next one and because I found an interesting article on Wired about Sony's next eReader:
Screening the Latest Bestseller
It is cool to see that technology is still moving to go beyond the paper. Yes, there is still a lot to go, but hopefully we will get there in my lifetime.
Alright. My 5 minutes are almost gone, so it's time to move to the bus stop. Lots of work still to be done today. I estimated that I have about 20 hours of work to do this weekend so that I can have a less hectic week.
Screening the Latest Bestseller
It is cool to see that technology is still moving to go beyond the paper. Yes, there is still a lot to go, but hopefully we will get there in my lifetime.
Alright. My 5 minutes are almost gone, so it's time to move to the bus stop. Lots of work still to be done today. I estimated that I have about 20 hours of work to do this weekend so that I can have a less hectic week.
Wednesday, January 11, 2006
The vibe, the time
Nothing much to talk about, I'm afraid. I've been working a lot lately. It is interesting that it hasn't been as much as I used to work. For instance, I have slept about 10 hours in the last two evenings combined, but I feel much more tired that I used to feel when I slept 5 hours every night. I'm growing old, I guess. But I do have other theories that I went throug here once, so will leave you without.
Yesterday (ok, technically the day before yesterday), I had my first choir rehearsal of the year. Also I got a personal invitation to sing in the premier of an opera, Stargazers, by Garret Fisher. I really would love to participate, but the concerts are going to be next Thursday, Friday and Saturday. Yes, a week from tomorrow!!! With me working 13 hours a day, it is just hard to put aside the time to learn the piece. It's not hard, but requires memorization. Moreover, I have already paid to go watch a concert next Thrusday. It is so painful to have to reject it but I will...
Another thing that is going on in choir is that they want me to lead the PR committee. They liked what I did for last concert and want me to continue the work. Again, I just don't know if I should invest my shrinking free time on that. I have so many things I want to do... But, at the same time, this would be so much more like me, to do things that are actually useful for other people and not really anything that I had planned to do for myself... I'll probably won't escape from this one, but I'm trying to buy some time before committing to see if somebody else appears to save the day.
What else is up? Oh, I finished listening to Blink: The Power of Thinking Without Thinking by Malcolm Gladwell. Sure it is number 3 on the NY Times's most blogged books of 2005, but not without any merit. It is an interesting book mostly because of the summary of some of the results from phychologist researches, and not too much for the overall meaning of the book. I think it lacked some sort of cohesive story, a real conclusion. Another book like that is number 1 on the list, Freakonomics : A Rogue Economist Explores the Hidden Side of Everything by Steven D. Levitt and Stephen J. Dubner. Full of interesting facts, very bloggable, but not really cohesive.
Right now I'm trying to finish reading Ilium by Dan Simmons and then I already have about 10 books lined up. It is interesting how quickly my pile of books grew in the last month or so. I think I have been going home and to work a little bit more tired than usual and this has decreased my book throughput. I have to do a study about that!
Ok. Time to go to sleep some. I think I gave myself enough time to digest my midnight dinner.
Yesterday (ok, technically the day before yesterday), I had my first choir rehearsal of the year. Also I got a personal invitation to sing in the premier of an opera, Stargazers, by Garret Fisher. I really would love to participate, but the concerts are going to be next Thursday, Friday and Saturday. Yes, a week from tomorrow!!! With me working 13 hours a day, it is just hard to put aside the time to learn the piece. It's not hard, but requires memorization. Moreover, I have already paid to go watch a concert next Thrusday. It is so painful to have to reject it but I will...
Another thing that is going on in choir is that they want me to lead the PR committee. They liked what I did for last concert and want me to continue the work. Again, I just don't know if I should invest my shrinking free time on that. I have so many things I want to do... But, at the same time, this would be so much more like me, to do things that are actually useful for other people and not really anything that I had planned to do for myself... I'll probably won't escape from this one, but I'm trying to buy some time before committing to see if somebody else appears to save the day.
What else is up? Oh, I finished listening to Blink: The Power of Thinking Without Thinking by Malcolm Gladwell. Sure it is number 3 on the NY Times's most blogged books of 2005, but not without any merit. It is an interesting book mostly because of the summary of some of the results from phychologist researches, and not too much for the overall meaning of the book. I think it lacked some sort of cohesive story, a real conclusion. Another book like that is number 1 on the list, Freakonomics : A Rogue Economist Explores the Hidden Side of Everything by Steven D. Levitt and Stephen J. Dubner. Full of interesting facts, very bloggable, but not really cohesive.
Right now I'm trying to finish reading Ilium by Dan Simmons and then I already have about 10 books lined up. It is interesting how quickly my pile of books grew in the last month or so. I think I have been going home and to work a little bit more tired than usual and this has decreased my book throughput. I have to do a study about that!
Ok. Time to go to sleep some. I think I gave myself enough time to digest my midnight dinner.
Wednesday, January 04, 2006
I had to steal this from Amy's blog:
create your own personalized map of the USA
Yikes, 33% of the states in the US. But most of them were only driving by on my way to Buffalo, NY.
create your own personalized map of the USA
Yikes, 33% of the states in the US. But most of them were only driving by on my way to Buffalo, NY.
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