Christan Christens

Why did Jesus have to Suffer?

2010-06-25T01:55:00.000-04:00

I was listening to Mike Patz from First Assembly of God in Gainesville answer questions. Although I am still watching, I had to pause and write a post because one particular answer was brilliant.

The question was one that I wondered my several times: "Why did Jesus have to suffer before he died?" Why couldn't he just be shot, or drown, or have a quick death to quickly die.

In Matthew 16, Luke 22 and Mark 8, Jesus tells his disciples that he must suffer many things before he is killed. The basic reasoning behind the need for suffering, as explain by Mike is that suffering is a requirement for forgiveness. For example, when someone takes something that you value and destroys it; even though you forgive them, you suffer because you no longer have that item of value.

As another example, imagine a rape victim who is able to forgive her assailant. Because she forgave, she must absorb a lot of suffering incurred through the calamity.

In the same way, in order for Jesus to truly forgive the sins of the world, the very nature of forgiveness required an element suffering. Because he suffered "many things" we can be sure that He was really forgiving us. And because he died we know that are sins are really paid for, because the bible says that the "Wages of sin is death".

The more I understand the testimony of Jesus, the more I love him.

* You can watch the rest of the sermon on the church's media website.

SemSearch 2010 Notes

2010-04-26T12:41:00.004-04:00

3rd edition of the Semantic Search Workshop
These are notes on the talks. To all the presenters I apologize if I misrepresented any information. Let me know I will make updates.

Slides will be available at videolectures .net shortly in the mean time check out the #semsearch2010 twitter stream.
I encourage everyone to look at the papers linked to the presentations. Additionally, Jeff Dalton has a post on the semsearch conference.

Update: Krisztian Balog has posted notes on his blog.

Thanh Tran Duc
Semantic search -> use semantics to enhance any/all of the search steps

Keynote: Barney Pell - Search Strategist and evangelist @ Bing
- Semantics is an 'Opportunity'
- 50% of people rely on search on a typical day
- Satisfaction of search is not going up
- 25% of queries result in quick click backs (User thought it was good but it may not have been for them)
- 42% of sessions need refinement (what specifically user wants)
- s.n. Its good to view search as a session instead of tasks
- 50% of the time searching is on long queries, "Lengthy Tasks"
- Example long query:
- 10 Unique queries, 7 partial re-queries and refinements, 57 minutes (medical)
- 11 Unique queries, 5 partial queries, 33 minutes (travel examples)
- There are opportunities for innovation
- Entity Centered Experiences
- A lot of time is spent on entity centered Experiences
- At Bing, there is entity Cards
- However, Entities are ambiguous.
- Even if you know the entity, you need to uniquely find it
- Need methods for extracting and synthesizing knowledge of disparate content
- Instead of just related search, make them related entities (in Bing)
- See: search Lindsay Vonn
- Semantic Improvements to Core Search
- Semantic Retrieval & Ranking
- Better Entity tagging (Barack Obama. President Obama, the president, he)
- Derive graphs from text
- Semantic Query Understanding
- Presentation and Captions
- Match the meaning of the query not just keywords
- Respect the boundary of the content
- Example:
- ...85% of the population suffers from omega 3 fish oil...
- ...85% of the population sufferer from omega 3 fish oil deficiency...
- Smart Summarization
- Could be too long, Concise, or Concise but misleading
- The highlighted answers include word variations (mocked : parodied)
- Use captions with user data, restaurant, map, reviews, etc..
- Directly Wrap/process structured websites in search (not blindly)
- Faceted search
- Preprocess foods using an open nutritional DB
- Answers and Question Answering
- Structured/Unstructured data
- Medstory .com pre-process pages to view related information my its relevance
- A conversational assistant that allows you to use access different accounts. Example - say you want reservations, its access OpenTable
- Summary
- Deliver great Results
- Richer more organized experience
- Help user accomplish tasks easily
- Conclusions
- User needs have evolved, Data and services are proliferating, search innovations are going live daily
- Bing Demo
- Bing travel "RDU to SFO"
- Restaurants in Raleigh
- You can see reviews
- Entity Cube.com
- Developers of YAGO are now part of Microsoft
- They can take two entities and find the nearest connection of the social graph
* Research: How to search with multiple entities.
* "BMW and Mercedes" = "BMW vs Mercedes"
* What are the other relationships we can exploit between entities?
* What if we have more than one entity?

Paper: Paraphrasing Invariance Coefficient: Measuring Para-Query Invariance of Search Engines by Tomasz Imielinski and Jinyun Yan
Presenter: Jinyun Yan
URL: http://km.aifb .kit.edu /ws /semsearch10/Files/para

- Are the two questions "What is the population of Raleigh" and "How many people live in Raleigh" the same?
- Users ask search engines nicely --> Search engines are still quite sensitive to how the question is formulated. With humans this is not the case!
- Semantic - Understand the meaning behind words
- The search engine should recognize the pair of queries and return the same result.
- Search Metric:
- Semantic invariance -- be invariant to semantically equivalent queries
- Equivalent Queries => para-queries
- How to generate para queries?
- This is a subclass of paraphrase generation, but of course para-query has its own characteristics (e.g. short, few content words)
- Extra information
- Query Reformulation won't promise equivalent meaning.
- Created the Rephraser game
- 430 rounds 15 min each
- Input a start query, a hidden phrase (not visible to players)
- Goal : paraphrase to start query to gain score
- Created as a multilayer racecar game, but players play the game independently
- Use players votes to do the score
- You can use templates with argument slots
- Who is the governor of [X]?
- Para-Queries are searches that have the same top-K url returned by search engine.
- In test the results are low for para-query detection
- Conclusion:
- Current search engines are far away from semantic because they do not recognize similar queries.
- Suggestion
- Measure search quality on paraqueries to ensure a retyped query isn't of less value

Paper: Using BM25F for Semantic Search by José R. Pérez-Agüera, Javier Arroyo, Jane Greenberg, Joaquin Perez-Iglesias and Victor Fresno
Presenter: José R. Pérez-Agüera
URL: http://km.aifb .kit.edu /ws /semsearch10/Files/bm25f

- Keyword-based semantic search -- has become major research area, garnering much attention in the semantic web over the last seven years.
- Is it possible to improve quality results in terms of relevance applying just classic IR approaches to RDF semantic structure?
- "We wrote this paper for ourselves because we were interested, we thought the community would benefit"
- Main problems: Indexing RDF triples using inverted indexes, Ranking based retrieval for RDF objects
- Store RDF triples in inverted indexes or represent Subject Predicate Object in an n X m matrix
- We modify this in SEMPLORE model what uses the row text of the entity and fields.
- SEMPLORE is basis of the index model
- For a long time search engines ave been dealing with flat documents (ie xml)
- Consequence is that all the terms have the same relevance (bag-of-words)
- Structures IR - location of word gives term relavance and possible enhanced meaning (i.e. boost factors depending on the system)
- Robertson et al 2004 --> The linear combination of weights for each field of the document is not enough if a saturation, like log(tf) or sqrt(tf) is used in the TF function.
- Because just because something that occure 25 more times, doesnt meant it is 25 times more important. You need a log or sqrt curve over the term frequency
- Additional, filters harm this saturation effect, such as in lucene.
- INEX - XML retreiveal competiton
- Lucene is not used in IR conferences, there are both strong and week points. It has a type of boolean retrieval
- Performance using Lucene with added Fields is worse that using Lucene with just a large bag of words approach.
- Conclusions:
- Dont use Lucence ranking function
- There is no good ranking model for semantic search, BM25F is probably the best

Paper: Distributed Index for Semantic Search by Peter Mika
Presenter: Peter Mika
URL: http://km.aifb .kit.edu /ws /semsearch10/Files/indexing

- Describe the process of building indices for semantic search using MapReduce. Comparing two RDF index structures
- IR relies on inverted indices
- MapReduce is perfect model for building inverted indices
- Map creates the (term, {doc1}) pairs
- Reduce collects all the docs for the same term (term, {doc1, doc2})
- Skew is a known issue: reduces have uneven load (hi frequence terms)
- Sub-indices are merged afterwards (inexpensive)
- Implementation for building Lucene indices on Hadoop - Katta Project
- Rdf has much richer structure (more expressive queries require more sophisticated indices)
- Differences in semantic search lit. as to what expressivity is required
- Pound et. al WWW2010
- Users unlikely to type SPARQL queries
- Queries on property values are requires in almost all cases
- Simple cheap solution; Post-fixing
- Append the name of the verb to the end of the entity
- Good: there is less skew
- Bad: Dictionary is number of unique terms (this explodes)
- Horizontal Indexing: two fields(index) 1 terms, 1 for properties
- Good for dictionary, occurrences is number of tokens *2
- As much skew as in normal text indexing
- Vertical indexing: One field(index) per property
- Good for Dictionary, Occurrences is number of tokens, less skew
- Bad:
- More complex than the textbooks would like you to believe
- Need to hash docids : used MG4J Minimal perfect Hash (306MB for billions of docs)
- Posting list needs to be sorted by docid
- Used the BTC 2009 data set
- Horizontal index structure is more efficient for keyword queries and field restricts
- Indexing costs:
- Number of reducers can be chosen based on trade offs of too many reduces or too many mappers

Paper: Dear Search Engine: What’s your opinion about...? - Sentiment Analysis for Semantic Enrichment of Web Search Results by Gianluca Demartini and Stefan Siersdorfer
Presenter: Gianluca Demartini
URL: http://km.aifb .kit.edu /ws /semsearch10/Files/dear

- Controversial topics are being discussed on the web
- Search engine can bias (if they wanted) the way we see the web
- It is important to provide a good overview of top-N results for both topic and sentiment
- Contribution: approaches for computing sentiment of web pages
- Trained classifier on a Movie Review Classifier
- So what is an ideal ranking of the sentiment for controversial search results
- Possible results:
- Balances Overview (+1 and -1 docs)
- Neutral Overview (0 docs)
- Realistic Overview (80% docs)
- Personalized Overview (use user profile)
- Extraction of sentiment classification of web pages
- Use a lexicon of sentimental workds (SentiWordNet)
- Compared 14 different queries on 3 search engines top-1 to 50 results...
- Average sentiment is very close to zero for every search engine.
- "The first result is usually favorable for a topic"
- "Average sentiment about employment is greater than the average sentiment of marijuana"
- Quality of extraction/annotations was not studied
- Determine if the top N results are good sample?
- Several interesting applications
- A better training set could be the TREC dataset

Paper: Automatic Modeling of User's Real World Activities from the Web for Semantic IR by Yusuke Fukazawa and Jun Ota
Presenter:
URL: http://km.aifb .kit.edu /ws /semsearch10/Files/modelling.pdf

- Interested in an infrastructural mobile semantic IR
- Investigated the automatic modeling of users' real world activities from the web. (Based on the movies)
- They try to automatically model a users's real world activity (based on twitter of blog)
- Previous people did not extract hierarchical information form the web.
- there is a ontological structure that represents of a Domain, Parent Task, and Child Tasks
- For example, what is the child task "Watch movie" vs. "Make movie"
- Apply idea of PMI-IR to solve this
- PMI-IR = hits(P and A)/ hits(A)*hits(B) -- Hits is search engine hits
- It is difficult to produce a measure between the same tasks and different. We want mostly exact matches between same and different tasks.
- Method 3 in the paper was able to acquire 80% of hierarchical relationships
- This needs to be tested on alternative domains.

Paper: The Wisdom in Tweetonomies: Acquiring Latent Conceptual Structures from Social Awareness Streams by Claudia Wagner and Markus Strohmaier
Presenter: Claudia Wagner
URL: http://km.aifb .kit.edu /ws /semsearch10/Files/tweet.pdf

- Social awareness streams (SAS) - aggregation of short natural language messages by users
- Tweetonomies - the latent structures that appear from many users
- name from Taxonomy and Folxonomies
- Do tweetonomies exist?
- Structure os SAS
- Users, messages, content of messages
- content: URLS, hashtags, etc.
- Information from App developers
- SAS model (see paper)
- User nodes, message nodes, resource nodes (all with qualifiers)
- Relationship between message content and users
- Use stream measures and network transformations
- Data set was from twitter stream aggregation during certain times.
- See paper for several Structural Stream measures. They are models to understand streams
- Results
- Difference types of stream aggregations influence stream structures
- hash-tag streams are more robust against external disturbances than user-list streams
- hash tags are good context indicators
- Resource-hashtag networks reveal good latent conceptual structures
- Conclusions
- The emergence of tweetonomies is dependent on the type of networks modeled

Paper:A Large-Scale System for Annotating and Querying Quotations in News Feeds
Jisheng Liang by Navdeep Dhillon and Krzysztof Koperski
Presenter: Jisheng Liang
URL: http://km.aifb .kit.edu /ws /semsearch10/Files/newsfeeds .pdf

- Try to extract annotations in news/blog feeds to get semantic information.
- Indexing these annotations
- Build Efficient, query-able, search for this
- Quotation Search
- What did say about ?
- Speaker/Subject can be specified as:
- Specific entity, Facet - catetory ...
- Document processing --> Clause Processing --> Normalization and Annotation
- Indexed triples (SVO triples) Not currently RDF triples
- The triples have links to the entity research
- there are currenlt 2 million entities (people place, organizations ...)
- Sources Wikipedia and Structures/semi-structures sources (crunchbase, amazon, ...)
- This entity store is being expanded continuously
- Auto matic detection and import of new entities (susan boyl)
- Need Live updates for entities (i.e. sport player traded)
- Entites Properties
- Unique identifier
- type description, synonyms and aliases, type and facet specific properties
- relation properties (i.e. bball player is linked to ites team/league)
- Quote Extraction
- detect verbs, verify verb subject is a person, check quotation marks (could be multiples sentences)
- Coreference Resolutions --> Pronouns e.g. He said, Aliases (said Gates) etc...
- Entity disambiguation
- Identify speaker, mark-up boundry of quote
- Quote is indexes
- Triple speaker, Verb, Quote
- Each triples is a lucene document
- combine lucene + semantic Annotation
- keywords also stored for search
- Example facets (President, country leader)
- Accessible using rest api's -- evri.com
- 10 million quotes
- 60K quotes added each day
- .5 Billion SVO triples
- Query Execution Avg 159ms, median 59ms
- Future Work
- They plan on improving relevance ranking
- Identify Pull quote "The article the editor pulled out"
- Sentiment analysis.

Paper: Semantically Enabled Exploratory Video Search by Joerg Waitelonis, Harald Sack, Zalan Kramer and Johannes Hercher
Presenter: Joerg Waitelonis
URL: http://km.aifb .kit.edu /ws /semsearch10/Files/video.pdf

- Keyword based search is a problem because you should always know what you are looking for
- Doc similarity based on the syntax level
- Explority search
- User is not familiar with the domain
- not sure how to reach search destination
- not really sure about what she is looking for
- Users find results accidentally - Serendipitous findings
- ex: Presidents are linked to a 'battle'
- Created video search engine called yovisto
- use DBpedia, foaf, dublincore, mpeg-7, tagging
- After search, you can get a previous of particular parts of the video
- search terms are mapped to dbpedia entries
- There is ranking/filtering for related entities, heuristics
- rdf-graph-based
- more relevant is the graph structure of two entities are similar
- statistical/linguistic-based
- There are still many questions to be answered, not perfect for all users at all time
- Quality-based Eval
- 19 persons, 124 search tasts, 1489 search queries
- 699 without/790 with exploratory search feature
- Surveys show that users feel motivated to find the actual answer when using exploratory tools. (97% vs 82%)

Paper: Entity Search: Building Bridges between Two Worlds by Krisztian Balog, Edgar Meij and Maarten de Rijke
Presenter: Krisztian Balog
URL: http://km.aifb .kit.edu /ws /semsearch10/Files/entity.pdf

- This is a position paper
- Entity search is important
- Being looked at by both IR and SW community
- Entity search tasks
- Entity ranking
- List completion
- Related entity finding
- Where are we now?
- IR
- Identifying and ranking entities in large volumes of data
- Mostly based on co-occurrences between terms and entities
- Generated models are not always meaningful for human consumption
- SW
- Structured data, naturally organized around entities
- Entity retrieval is as simple as running SPARQL queries?
- Free-text querying is more appealing to (naive) end user
- Related entity finding
- Given: input entity (E), Type (T), narrative(R)
- E = name + homepage
- T = product, organization,
- R = relationship between product
- AIM: compare IR and SW approaches on the related entity finding tasks
TREC Entity 2009 maps soure entity to a Wikipedia page (17/20)
- Tasks is to capture all common entities
- IR approach
- Query, document snippet retrieval, answer candidate extraction, answer candidate [type] filtering, answer candidate ranking, Answer
- SW approaches
- Use sparql query for entity then an exhaustive graph search.
- Most relations returned are by SW methods are of type wikilinks
- Summary
- IR is useful, needs labels
- SW, has capability to produce large amount of data, but LOW is very sparse between entities
- Enhance text-based models with semantic information from LOD
- Use IR models to discover and label links between

Paper: Methodology and Campaign Design for the Evaluation of Semantic Search Tools by Stuart Wrigley, Dorothee Reinhard, Khadija Elbedweihy, Abraham Bernstein and Fabio Ciravegna
Presenter: Stuart Wrigly
URL: http://km.aifb .kit.edu /ws /semsearch10/Files/eva .pdf

- Idea of SEALS is to develop and diffuse best practices in evaluation of semantic technologies
- Create a lasting reference infrastructure for semantic technology evaluation (SEALS platform)
- Goal: Organize two worldwide Evaluation Campaigns
- Engineering toold, Storage are reasoning, ...
- You can use both their hardware and previous stuff
- Eval criteria
- Query Expressiveness
- Usability (effectiveness, efficiency, satisfaction)
- Scalability
- Quality of documentation
- Raw performance
- There is an Automated evaluation phase and a user in the loop phase
- User in the loop phase uses the Mooney Natural Language Learning Data
- EvOnto is a set of ontologies of 5 different data sizes (1K, 10K, ....10M)
- Questionnaire
- System Usability Scale - how you like the system (Lfikert scale)
- For automated version, they want to see system accuracy and performance
- User in the lookup phase - has several result data results

UF CISE Email is Leveling the Playing Field

2010-04-07T11:27:00.001-04:00

There is usually a huge advantage to obtaining solutions to homework questions from previous years. This is a an advantage to joining fraternities and other social circles. While students who were outside of these groups struggle to complete assignments, the people with the previous answer sets would be studying the solutions. This puts a large body of students at a disadvantage. I know there are similar practices in Medical and Dental schools.

Today, I was proud to receive an email from our department chair that encourages professors to post solutions from previous semesters to make the playing ground a little more level.

Several years ago, the CISE faculty agreed to post all assigned coursework (homeworks, exams, solutions, etc) on course Web sites so as to level the playing field for our students. You will recall that we were getting several complaints about some students having access to past course material gathered by their friends/fraternities/sororities while other students were denied such access. Unfortunately, many of us have not implemented this decision. Reuse of past assignment questions, projects, exam question etc. encourages cheating and gives some students an unfair advantage over other students.

I urge everyone to implement the decision made by the CISE faculty several years ago to post all couse work along with solutions. We need to level the playing field for our students. At the very least, please do not reuse assessment instruments.

This is a step in the right direction to preserve quality of graduating students. The reuse of homework/exams is a likely reason Jeff Atwood says so many programmers can't program.

Google Chrome on Linux causing crashes

2010-03-17T12:54:00.002-04:00

If you are like me and use google chrome for ubuntu 9.10 or some other debian linux, you have been experiencing errors when updating for a while.

When you run the update you may get:

WARNING: The following packages cannot be authenticated! packagename

Another symptom may be that the update was hanging at 99% "waiting for headers".

This is because apt-get is trying to validate your installed repository.

There is supposed to be a fix for this, here: http://www.google.com/linuxrepositories/apt.html

It works after hanging for a while

The Mystery of Evil, the Soverenty of God

2010-02-27T01:24:00.000-05:00

The mystery of evil, the Soverenty of God. ATL civic center. This talk had two speakers Os Guinness and Ravi Zacharias. The talks were followed by a breif Q&A session. I tried to type as much of the points in my iPhone as possible but I didn't catch all of it. There are still some powerful and interesting points. I have a bunch of spelling and grammer errors, please ignore them.

My notes:

Os Gunisses
- Evil is the greatest mystery we face having come out of the most murderous century.
- "The un examined life is not worth living." - Socrates
- We need to know where evil comes from
- Where does evils come from? how does it enter the evil ones heart
- evils comes frome our 1bodies, 2nature, or 3other human beans
- Bodies) It is easy to see that our bodies are frail and allow sin to vet in
-nature) Cataclysmic sources of devistation
- humans) 100million killed in war, 100mil political reasons, 100 mil

- Every suffer is unique, you cannot treat them all the same or make sweeping generalizations
- people ask -> Why me? Where's God? How can I stand it?
- People also ask - why not me?
- Athiest tend to blame their not beliving in God on God.
- If you know a why to live it will take care of any how - Neitche
- Appretiates the modern transformations of evil.
- We are not more evil now, just bigger toys
- define:polyanerusin <-- that was a really big word... - in 1900 with asprin is the first time we can live without real pain and suffering- a queen had 14 dead children - Modern toys let evil be able to be done by ordinary laymen. who were not aware. People get distanted from the affected people. - we marginalized the way we deal with evil. - America is making evil cool. we should be warned. look what came out of Germany. what are we breeding in this country. - You can't use science to measure questions- people turn to worldviews and religions for explainations- buudism is a religion sized answer to evil. Ducca- Hinduism - freedom from individuality instead of to it- Athiest - even if we fight heroically we are facing never ending defeat. the real problem is existence. - Trilenna: 3 problems- Big Question: Could God be all good, all powerful, and evil still be evil?- Its not existence that's the problem, it's human disobedience- John 11 -> v35 Jesus wept was a strong wept, furious, the word was the strongest for anger or outrage.
- Evil was nit suppsed to be this way.
- "No other wounds"
- "I don't know the answer to evil, but I do know love."
- We know know God is good bc of Jesus.
- The resistiance leader knows best.
- We are in the Dark because of some stuff, but Jesus is the resistance leader.
- In auchwitz a lot of people actually deepend in faith - Francol
- A small faith is like a small fire. Wind In a small fire blows it out but a large fire get fanned.
- More athiest took their lives ls bc they cannot handle evil.

Ravi Zacharias
- The lonliest moment of life is the abscense of pleasure
- In the breaking of a life it is senldom only one life if broken/affected.
- Tiger woods= have I kept to the teaching of my faith this would have not happened.
- the buddist founder left his family the day he son was born. he thought the way to life was total renounciation of family and everything.
- Quoting : Tye day America told the truth
-- Women are more moral than men
-- America has no leaders
-- I US was a business we would have been taken over
-- US makes up it's own rules w/ out respect to anybody
-- Us is loosing their childhood
-- US is the most violent
-- break down of taking care of elderly
-- US has no heros
- The conclusions of this is that we all have moral implications. The book title assumes the truth was told.
- define:evil--> violation of purpose, the purpose of the creator.
- the great writers talk about a noble ambistions in people to make a heroic act.
- The people like Karl Marx that te idea of God is an idea that lost it's legitimacy.
- i want to raise a veneration of young people devoid of a conscious, relentless... - Hitler on the sign at Auchwitz
- [A Deitrick Bonhoffer quote about good and evil writtern in prison.]
- How does america frame it's mission statement?
- "We Declare these truths to be self evident...." Something that is self evidence is undeniable. - This is how we define our nation.
- We believe in inallienable rights. This was paid for
- You are not a body with a soul you are a afoul with a body.

- 1) there is an announcement - In the begining God...
- Earnsy Heckle - German zoologist influenced Darwin.
- lower races are nearer to apes and dogs than human.
- 2) there is a commanment - we don like laws
- 3) there are boundaries between life
- Chesterton says thy whenever there is a fence we have to stop and see why it was there in the first place
4) There is a blessing

- When somebody blesses and prays for you in their own human state you come from thr realization that the blessing is from God

- When God made us he called us good
- Principles to govern our lives -- faith, hope, and love
- It is only the love of God that frees us
- "I was covered in somebody elses blood and they took me for dead and spared me." - Words from a man in the Bombay hotel masacre
- The last link in darwins athiesim is the damnable doctorine of eternal damnation.
- Ghandi would not have worked if he wasn't appealing to the hearts of a Christian nation - Bertrand Russel
- God -- goodness -- love --???

- When we ate of the knowledge of Good and evil we made the choice of deciding for ourself
- God gave us the greatest good and free will, in order to make it whole he had to allow for the possibility of evil and to reject the gift of good.

- Pornography makes the individual seek after a feeling instead of a person.
- I was riding the tiger of deceit for so long that I was afraid that if I got off it would devour me.

- Origin, morality, meaning, and destiny
- Always combine knowledge with mistery.
- God has left enough in the world to make faith in him the most reasonable thing. He has left enough out to make it impossible to live by reason alone.
- Truth goodness and evil is a personal responsibility.

Do you need to be poor to be a disciple?

2010-02-15T10:01:00.001-05:00

Which disciples were poor?

Simon Peter and Andrew (Mark 1:16) Probably if they were casting their nets
James and John (Mark 1:19) the sons of Zebedee were probably extremely rich if their father had a fishing company (see 'hired servants').
Levi (Mark 2:14) was a tax collector
Simon (Luke 6:15) was a Zealot, which would be a sort of political figure.
Luke was a Physician
The rest... I don't know

In a time with a small upper and middle class and a disproportionately group of poor, a lot of the disciples seem to come from the upper and middle classes. It is interesting that most of the 12 people Jesus chose to change the world do not appear to be as poor and needy as you think. But they each recognized the authority of Jesus, left everything behind, and followed him.

Soak Instead of Scrub

2009-09-08T17:38:00.000-04:00

Soaking in God's word is like adding soap and hot water to a dirty pan, and letting it sit. The pan in the water, along with the soap, loosens the dirt and grime that has built up on the pot over time. The dirt and grime is there simply because the pot was used. The pot was doing what is was meant to do. (Soaking in how water and soap also helps dust.)

For ministry, and in life in general, it is important not to go long periods without taking time to soak in the word of God. Disagreements, problems at work, arguments, and any other issue of life can start to cling to us, and build up. After a while, if we don't soak, all that mess builds up and really starts to stink.

If we don't soak regularly, to get clean we need a good scrubbing! Sometimes scrubbing can really scratch and bruise the pan... but at the same time, a good scrub is exactly what we need to get us clean.

So, soak regularly instead of scrubbing irregularly.

Tithing Explained via Amdahls Law

2009-09-01T17:02:00.009-04:00

I have a pretty busy schedule. It may not be busy from your perspective but I am having trouble completed all the tasks that I assigned for myself. So I am looking for a way to improve the amount of hours I have per day, or at least increase the number of tasks I complete per day. I am trying to increase my effectiveness.

My issue is with time. For problem solving purposes, lets trade my problem of limited time for a problem of limited money. If I had a problem paying my bills, or buying whatever I needed to buy, the first thing I would make sure that I am doing is tithing. If I am not giving at least 10% of my income away, I would up whatever percent I am giving to at least 10. If I am already giving 10%, I would increase that number, and give more to my church, friends, the needy, or a charity.

In increasing my monetary giving, I can expect that I will receive or obtain more money. This is the law (or principle) of tithing.

The Principle of Tithing

The Lord says on many occasions in the scripture that he owns everything. Psalms 24:1 says that "The earth is the LORD's, and the fullness thereof; the world, and they that dwell therein." We, humans, were given dominion over the earth, as written in Genesis 1:28. With this said, tithing is the act of giving a portion of your money, animals, or crops away. Able first did this in obedience to God in Genesis 4:4. After giving, God, in turn, says that he will bless what you gave Malachi 3:10 Matt 13:23.

For example, if a farmer decides to plant extra seeds instead of eating or selling the seeds she could reasonably expect to produce a larger crop with a greater amount of total fruit (and more seeds) the next harvest.

I am probably oversimplifying the whole concept, but I have friends who went from living from paycheck-to-paycheck to being able to go on vacations simply because they started tithing. In undergrad, when I was short on money in my last year, I prayed and tithed, and out of no where I got a job that was enough to pay for my rent. Even though I took out loan money I did not have to use it.

I know for sure that God honors tithing.

Now concerning time, what naturally occurring phenomenon can explain that if I give more time to God he will Honor my commitment? I believe the answer is Amdahls Law.

Amdahls Law

Amdahl's Law says that greater 'speed up' (concerning systems) is achieved when the portion of the code that makes the largest impact is improved. This law is associated with the phrase "Make the common case fast." This is represented by the following equations:

Speedup = 1 / ( (1 - f) + (f / n) )

where f is the percentage of the importance that can be enhanced and n is the amount or factor by which the system is enhanced.

For example, if I improve 10% of my activities by a factor of 10 then I would obtain a speed up of 1.1 (f = 0.1, n = 10 -> Speedup = 1.09). If you increase f to 0.5 and make a 10x improvement you would get a speedup of 1.8. When f = 0.1 and n = 20 you get a speedup of only 1.10. This shows that you should work to improve the important task.

Now, imagine that we can measure the tasks in our day by the importance. In order to increase our efficiency during the day, by applying Amdahl's law, we should invest more time in "improving" the most important parts of our day. If spending time with Jesus is the most important part of your day, then an improvement in the time spent with him would allow you to achieve a significant increase throughout the day.

Therefore, investing your time were it matters the most will improve your day as a whole. The speedup, or blessing received by investing time with Jesus is definitely worth the sacrifice it takes to make that improvement.

I hope you followed me on this... I know at the end it got a little blurry, let me know what you think.

Differences between C and C++

2009-08-26T10:24:00.005-04:00

Here are some notes from a Programming Language Principles class.

C++ has five major "improvements" over C

Stream I/O
Strong typing
Parameter passing by reference
Default argument values
Inlining

Stream I/O

C++ adds the library which declares two streams cin ( operator>>) and cout (operator<<). The cin stream is associated with standard input and The input lines are buffered and require an end-of-line character before processing input.

Streams are nice because:

Type safe - the type of object in the stream is known at compile time. No dynamic type checking needed with the % operator
Less error prone than printf
Streams are faster than printf.
Streams are extensible to new user-defined data types. So you can read in an object.
Streams are subclassable. ostream and istream are the C++ replacements for the File pointer (FILE*). You can define types that look and act like streams.

Strong Typing

In general, C++ has stronger typing and C.

To express a function with zero arguments in C you must say foo(void) because foo() tells the compiler not to check for input types such as char * malloc();.In C++ the empty argument list means "no arguments."
In C, its ok to call a function that has not been defined. No type checking will be performed. In C++ prior to any function use, you must at least have a prototype defined.
In C++, you are required to return a function of the type you declare. In C, you may choose to return a function of the type you declare or you may choose to simply return;. If you try to use return; when a return type of a function is declared, the compiler say error: return-statement with no value.
In C you are allowed to assign a void* to a pointer of a different type. This will cause an error in C++.
When initializing arrays, the statement char A[2] = "hi" will cause an error in C++ because there is no declared room to add the end of line '\0' character. In C this is ok, and no '\0' is stored ... possibly causing an error with proceeding string functions. It is best to use char A[] = hi;
In C++ we can use new and delete instead of malloc and free. malloc doesn't call constructors and free doesnt call destructors. new and delete are type safe.

I will leave the discussion there. Please feel free to add more.

Are men allowed to wear WNBA jerseys??

2009-07-31T08:31:00.004-04:00

I came across this picture....

Link

Ok she is good but....

Amazon price match gaurentee: WIN

2009-07-01T13:25:00.004-04:00

I pre-ordered the book Natural Language Processing with Python by Steven Bird , Ewan Klein, Edward Loper. When the price of the book dropped amazon gave me a refund on the difference! I didn't even complain to customer service! Go amazon! Here is the message:

You saved $1.91 with Amazon.com's Pre-order Price Guarantee!

The price of the item(s) decreased after you ordered them, and we gave you the lowest price.

The following title(s) decreased in price:

Natural Language Processing with Python
Price on order date: $40.11
Price charged at shipping: $40.11
Lowest price before release date: $38.20
Amount to be refunded: $1.91
Quantity: 1
Total Savings: $1.91

Say no to null pointers

2009-07-01T13:02:00.005-04:00

In a lot of school projects and academic papers where data structures are involved they may describe certain tree nodes as containing null pointers. This object "null pointer" is of course is the proper term. However, in practice I found that using actually nulls in c, c++, java or whatever language to create problems. In particular, in trees with many elements, its a bad idea trust the language garbage collectors to maintain null pointers. Especially, when testing performance.

As an alternative it is better to use an interface or create an object of type null pointer. This way you shouldn't have to worry about null pointer exceptions and bad null memory management. For now on you can know that if a pointer is "null" there is an error in your code instead of thinking that you should have caught an exception somewhere.

Python to build websites

2009-05-04T13:11:00.004-04:00

Why don't more people create their websites using python? This is a question I would love to get answered.

On my break I was playing around with the python's web capabilities and it seems as strong as php and ruby. There also seems to be full support for SQL calls. Additionally, there is a really cool side effect of creating your website using python.

Instead of index.html you use index.py.
Inside of the index.py file you can create many functions. It is possible to execute that function by going to the url. Additionally, all global variables are viewable by default (you prefix the variable with an underscore to hide it.)

Say I have the following index.py file.

# My index.py file
_page = """ <html><body><h2> This is the page of <i>%s</>, Hello World! </h2></body></html>
"""
owner = """Christan Grant """

def index():
""" This is called by default ""
return _page % owner

def copy_right():
"" This is the copy right page?? """
return ' Do you really want to copy this code? '

##########

So displaying this page: http://www.example.com/index.py ( or http://www.example.com/index or http://www.example.com/) will display:

This is the page of Christan Grant, Hello World!

the url http://www.example.com/index/copy_right with display:

Do you really want to copy this code?

the url http://www.example.com/index/owner will display:

Christan Grant

the url http://www.example.com/index/_page will return a 403 error.

This is a very nice method of addressing uri's. I think this has some applications into the semantic web and displaying RDF information.

GrooveShark Comming to iPhone

2009-04-11T04:58:00.006-04:00

One of the greatest Apps on the iPhone is Pandora. Pandora offers free streaming radio. They use your positive or negative feedback as a method of filtering songs you wouldn't like.

So apparently, I have heard news that GrooveShark (a Pandora competitor) is planning to release their own iPhone app. GrooveShark is a little late in the game, but it will be interesting what improvements they will support compared to the Pandora app. I will be checking the headlines.

http://patdryburgh.net/blog/grooveshark-iphone-app-screenshots/

Here a link to where screenshots have been posted : Pat Dryburgh.

JavaFX Demonstration @ GatorJUG

2009-04-08T23:02:00.005-04:00

Gainesville, Florida was fortunate enough to have Jim Clarke (Principle Engineer at SUN) on hand to give a demonstration of JavaFX. We had about 12 people on hand. (Pictures Below)

His talk was unique because instead of going through slides, after pizza, he simply set up a laptop and began coding examples. He worked through how to set up a JavaFX application and got everybody familiar with the coding. It was fairly interactive - we went well into the night answering questions ranging from "Will this work on the iPhone" to "whats the difference between JavaFX and javaFX mobile."

One of the best demos he showed is displayed online. It is a draggable MP3 player. Basically, it is a java MP3 player that starts in your browser and is able to be dragged and your browser closed. This is similar to yahoo widgets, the widgets in vista, or the widgets that come with google desktop.

Jim has a book that is coming out in June (I think). It is called JavaFX-Developing Rich Internet Applications.

Join my OSUM group for more information, announcements for talks, activities, and community! http://osum.sun.com/group/ufosum

Pictures!!!

From SUN Events

IBM to buy SUN??

2009-03-18T09:18:00.005-04:00

My dad called me this morning about the headlines today that say "IBM to buy SUN." This took me buy surprise as it has obvious direct implications for me. While this is possible ... I think this may be more of a marketing move to raise interest and sales in a bottom scrapping market. The companies run parallel in a lot of their directions (opensource, servers, unix, green initiatives), they also have completely difference business strategies that an acquisition of this magnitude would come with way too much overhead. While I am not a business guy, it would be interesting to see how the brass @ Microsoft would react to this. Because if it works MS could be the next acquisition for big blue.

(These are solely my views and do not reflect the views of any of the companies mentioned [Insert legal jargon here] )

Your creativity is on loan

2009-03-16T12:43:00.007-04:00

The TED Conference (Technology, Entertainment, Design) is a conference where basically famous/successful people from all areas and disciplines give keynote speeches. The theme of the conference, according to wikipedia is "ideas worth spreading." These conferences are usually held in a Palm Springs or places like that.

[[A lot of the talks available for your viewing pleasure online.]]

The first talk I listened to and found talk enlightening was by Elizabeth Gilbert entitled: A different way to think about creative Genius. While I don't agree with everything she says I think her ideas can stir up a good discussion between artists.

She just had an extremely successful book and she is now worried, and reminded by people that she may never have another successful book. So she went on a search for creativity. Here are some notes:

The Greeks and Romans believed that creativity was given by a magically divine, and disembodied entity. The Romans called this Entity a Genius. This protected people from taking the glory/blame for creative ideas.
The Renaissance brought the idea of creativity being from self. People began to be called Geniuses. This brings pressure to artists.
She said this better explains the capricious creative process. It is unpredictable.
She continued to give examples of successful people who believe in this genius.
We should think about our creativity on loan.
We should continue with our human mule like stubbornness to continue to go to work.

This is talk is an answer to a prayer of mine. I spent almost all of Saturday trying to debug one of my projects. At the end of later during my quiet time I questioned whether or not wasted my time, especially because I made almost no progress. I do believe that all of my success thus far is not of myself but of God. I find a lot of things whether programming, sports, attaining positions - I will complete then look back and see that was unexpectedly easy. Then on the other hand when I am stuck on something I will stay stuck on it, and If it gets unstuck I won't be able to tell how it because unstuck.

It's like opening a jar. You try and twist and twist and it wont open, so you hit the edge of the jar against the door a bunch of time, but that doesn't seem to work. Then at one point you twist and the jar inexplicably opens. You don't know which of the times when you hit is the jar actually became loose, you just know that the jar was once closed and now you are able to open it.

We will probably never know the exact moment or what in particular caused us to pass certain thresholds. We will achieve things and look back and not really understand why. So the times when we are struggling we should not give up or loose hope. 2 Timothy 2:15 says to "Study to show yourself approved unto God, a workman that needs not to be ashamed..." Also, Colossians 3:23 says "And whatsoever ye do, do it heartily, as to the Lord, and not unto men..."

Below is the Video:

OpenSolaris @ Florida Linux Show

2009-03-15T02:27:00.005-04:00

I just came back from a talk at the Florida Linux Show at Jacksonville, Florida (University of North Florida). Here is a Bio they posted about me.

Because my car was out of order, I called my Account Manager Tim Simmons and he came to my rescue picking me up from my apartment in Gainesville and driving all the way to Jacksonville and back. It was a nice time to get to know him and his expereince working at SUN.

Also, Martin Brown the Campus Ambassador at FAMU made the trek across the panhandle to the first coast to support me in the talk.

I knew I was going to speak to an audience of linux enthusiast so I decided to speak about Open Solaris and what it has to offer with respect to linux in general. I made my slides from pieces of Open Solaris slides all over the web. (I will make my slides available to CAs on http://www.sunambassadors.com/)

Most people were impressed with the features available in Open Solaris. The biggest misconception I corrected was the advancement of OpenSolaris's package management system. Most people don't know that Ian Murdock (the Ian in Debian, the linux distro that introduced packagees) is helping to design Open Solaris. The biggest wow factor I got was the time slider and the ideas driving ZFS. If I had more time I would have went more indepth about ZFS and Zones.

I was suprised to see the amout of people who have used the open source music player SongBird. Also, people seem to prefer VirtualBox as their virtualization tool.

I love giving open solaris talks and impressing people with all the features in the OS. It is always a bummer to confess to people that it still is not mission ready yet, and they should run it on virtual box first. I am hoping the 2009.6 version will be much more stable and ready for installation on my machine.

Below are some shots of the sun team that represented at the Florida Linux Show.

How angry is God?

2009-03-04T12:07:00.003-05:00

A lot of people take the account of Jesus chasing out the money changers (Mark 11:15) to be an impulsive act of wrath. However, a couple of verses before in Mark 11:11 the Bible says that Jesus went into the temple and 'looked round about upon all things.'

Of course the verse doesn't say that Jesus saw the money changers and did nothing but this may be inferred. Also, I am not sure if he visited the temple on the Sabbath in which case may mean the temple may have been empty.

But verse 11 this does take away from that prevalent thought that Jesus's anger is harsh and rash. Instead, it makes this account seem more like a chastisement than a raging attack.

A lot of people have this idea of God being a harsh, lightning striking, menacing big brother when in fact He is more similar to a loving, giving, and understanding Father. Lamentations says that His compassion's are new every morning, and his faithfulness is great.

If you have an issue trusting God, know that he has called you to be in a relationship with him. He is good to the soul that seeks after Him. Come to God, he showed his great love already by dying for you.

Web Object Grabber in Python

2009-03-03T12:24:00.008-05:00

I had a goal to write a simple Python functions that takes either a url or html document and an XPath query and returns the queried element. This was surprisingly difficult.

After researching some through some blogs I decided to go with lxml. I also installed beautiful soup which supports the parsing of html that is pretty far from structured. I needed to use something that is as system compatible and os independent as possible. I was testing on Ubuntu 8.10.

sudo apt-get install python-lxml
sudo apt-get install python-beautifulsoup

I'll go step by step through the lines of code I wrote give comments

from lxml.html import parse
root = parse('http://www.hotels.com').getroot()
or
root = parse('hotels_test.html').getroot()

The above code first imports the parse function from the appropriate package. The parse command takes either a url or a file name as a parameter. One note about taking in a URL is that websites do not produce the same html as your browser, hence the second argument. I saved the html in a file and parsed that instead. The command .getroot() is called on a document object and returns the HTMElement at the root of the document (<>).

x = root.xpath('/html/body/div[2]/div')

The above command is the magical statement I wanted to return to me the node in the document which corresponds to that XPath statement. HOWEVER, lxml does not support the position elements ([#]). This is a big monkey wrench in my plans and it requires a significant work around. The naive method is to replace all the elements containing ' [#]' with the descendant operator ('//'). The does grow the size of the result set.

I am currently thinking of solution which elegantly fit in my methodology. I would love suggestions!! Below are some websites and resources I used and recorded.

Update

It turns out that in order to properly specify which in a number of elements an xpath is specifying you need to put parenthesis around the xpath string.

Instead of:

x = root.xpath('/html/body/div[2]/div[3]/li/ul')

we have:

x = root.xpath('((/html/body/div)[2]/div)[3]/li/ul')

This seems to work fine.

Update 2:

I was grabbing XPath's via Firebug... but it seems like either Firefox or Firebug change the the underlying DOM for some reason. Now I need to make sure I either get the transformed HTML or an XPath query which built from the source html.

Floss better than toothpaste??

2009-02-10T07:41:00.002-05:00

So I was at at the dentist last week and I heard some surprising news about flossing. So apparently brushing and mouthwash alone will kill about 40 percent of the germs in our mouth. That 99.9 percent of germs Listerine claims is in a dish. Flossing on the other hand will kill 60 percent of the germs in your mouth. Why the discrepancy? Floss is cheap! Companies would lose so much money trying to sell a 75 cent piece of thread to the masses. She wasn't trying to down play brushing and rinsing - she wanted to emphasize the importance of flossing. So she recommended I floss before I brush.

So if you are on the go and could only take either floss or a toothbrush, choose the floss.

Google doing a good Job

2009-02-04T23:50:00.004-05:00

Mashups are getting nicer and nicer. Google released has a mobile application that allows you to see my friends locations and status messages via google maps. The website says that the application is available right now on Android phone, BlackBerry devices, windows Mobile devices. This will be released to iPhone users through Google's Mobile App. (Probably an Android vs iPhone competitor delay)

http://www.google.com/latitude/intro.html

There are some privacy concerns of course but Google made a valiant effort to address these. There must be a handshake between friends in order to share locations. You are allowed to set privacy levels (hidden, city or best) in order to duck from those stalkers you have.

Now parents will be stalking their children from any where, and kids will be switching sim cards with friends.

Clairmont Databasae research

2008-12-23T19:42:00.002-05:00

Leading Database researches get together ever so often to discuss the future of the industry. Stanford school of information has a nice blog where they summarized the discussions. Here is the link to the blog:

http://infoblog.stanford.edu/2008/12/vacation-post-claremont-berkeley.html

Netbeans great for class projects

2008-12-09T22:51:00.006-05:00

Me and three other students had the opportunity to use Netbeans 6.5 as a common development environment for our airline flight reservation project. We developed in jsp/javaee and used the University of Florida's department Oracle db as our database. We also used SVN as our version control system and hosed the code through code.google.com.

Generally, the rest of the group members only had previous experience using Eclipse. The transition to Netbeans was a 5/10. It was possible to change the key map to use the same shortcuts as eclipse. We were discovering new shortcuts and functionality everyday.

Admittedly, I have not coded a javaee program in Eclipse, but it was simple to set up the project. Netbeans came pre-installed with Tomcat so we did not do much configuring. The code completion, automatic formatting, and inline help was easy to use and extremely helpful. These features were also present in both the javascript and css code. It is usually a pain having to search to remember how to format certain properties. Netbeans does have visual web creation tool (drag and drop web objects), but I preferred to write the html code by hand.

Perhaps the most helpful was the database explorer/developer. Instead of downloading a new application to interface with oracle, we downloaded a jarfile from the oracle website and set up Netbeans to interface with it. This was extremely easy as well!! (Code completion also works for SQL!!!)

The only gripe I have to complain about is the SVN plugin. Eclipse's Team Perspective plugin felt easier to work with. But I was able to install a whole bunch of plugin's with out the system crashing.

I have done a lot of work with eclipse, but in the realm of school projects i felt Netbeans is the best IDE to use within a group. Our team found it intuitive, user friendly, and very powerful.

Why art thou cast down, O my soul?

2008-12-01T01:19:00.007-05:00

"Why art thou cast down, O my soul?" Psalms 42: 5

David, being a shepherd, here was actually talking about condition among sheep. Below is a excerpt from a website.

"Cast" Sheep

A sheep that has rolled over on its back is called a "cast" sheep. It may not be able to get up. It happens mostly with short, stocky sheep with heavy fleeces on flat terrain. Heavily pregnant ewes are most prone. Cast sheep become distressed and can die within a short time if not rolled back into a normal position. When back on their feet they may need to be supported for a few minutes before release to ensure they are steady.

This is the condition in which David described his soul. His soul was in a state where it was rolled over and vulnerable, and he couldn't snap out of it. Casts sheep cannot get up on their own, they need a shepherd to roll them up and stay with them. It should be no secret, Jesus is our shepherd (Ps 23).

This tends to happen on flat terrain ... for periods of time in lives everything is the same and repetitive no ups or downs this is when our soul can become casts and we may become depressed. Maybe it starts off as just boredom and them moves into something more serious.

Finally, this tends to happen to sheep who are pregnant. In the words of TD Jakes, we are pregnant of possibilities! At the cusp of the fruition of our potential we are subject to Cast. Stay on guard, or the seeds we planted yesterday could be choked up by the weeds and thorns of today.

Don't try to struggle and distress yourself to get back on your feet. Sheeps in Cast may die. Instead, cast all your cares on somebody who cares for you. Jesus died for your sins, so you can have a new life and relationship with him. Giving your life fully to Jesus is the most satisfying decisions you can make. You will have The Shepherd always with you.

Thank you Jesus!

--thanks Jana Alcorn

New Interfaces

2008-11-24T16:40:00.005-05:00

Im really excited about the advances in non-traditional interfaces. In particular G-Speak and the Microsoft Surface, TouchLight and Second light! Here we come minority report type stuff!

Below is a clip from the Minority Report and comparisons:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=P51w0UI-xkY

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5a3ZP25nizs

g-speak overview 1828121108 from john underkoffler on Vimeo.

Cheryl Cook @ UF

2008-11-15T00:54:00.000-05:00

Cheryl Cook the Vice President of United States sales for SUN was supposed to be at UF today. However, she was stuck in Atlanta with a delayed flight. So instead Tim Simmons led a discussion with graduate business students, and was also there fielding some questions. The even went well.
Cheryl is a UF Alumnus. Maybe she we will get to see her another time!

The Message they are really trying to send Joe Plumber

2008-10-16T23:19:00.004-04:00

Message to Joe Plumber

Project Kenai

2008-09-23T00:42:00.002-04:00

Before, there was just Google Code. People like me who wanted to work on team projects using my own a version control system had to rely on Google Code to host the project. This was invaluable helping me pass many classes! But now sun has released what they are calling Project Kenai pronounced Keen-eye.

At first glance it seems a little bit confusing, there is a little bit too much happening on the page, whereas the code.google.com site is simple. The are obviously going for the Web 2.0 look and feel which I think is a little over the top. Maybe I secretly don't like ruby.

The good news is that SUN is taking suggestions! So this has a chance to be really nice. Especially if we can see graphs and statistics about code, etc...

I will be finding a reason to try this out, and I will write another entry about my findings.

Am I still trying to be perfect?

2008-09-22T08:21:00.004-04:00

I was watching a program where the speaker said some Christians are still under the law. Hmm.... ok take a step back. We've heard that we are not under the law anymore because Jesus died for us. But the truth is until be accept Jesus Christ as the propitiation of our sins we are still under the law.
Here are some questions people may ask:
"Whats so bad about the law, laws meant to be broken?"
"Can you have eternal life without accepting Jesus Christ as your savior"?

OK, there are six hundred and thirteen (Jewish) laws to watch out for. The bible says that the wages of sin is death but the gift of God is eternal life. [Rom 6:23] And Paul Quotes in [Rom 3:10] Scripture from Psalms 14:1-3 that No one is righteous, not not one.

It is impossible to live a perfect life! If you have already messed up there is no way for you to make up for it, because that small sin already costs your life. You are in debt. Thankfully, the one person who has lived the perfect life paid that cost. Jesus Christ fufilled the laws.

Instead of trying to answer the questions further: Galatians 2:15-21 gives a pretty good answer. Below I copied the excerpt from the Message bible because the idea here is written pretty clearly.

15-16We Jews know that we have no advantage of birth over "non-Jewish sinners." We know very well that we are not set right with God by rule-keeping but only through personal faith in Jesus Christ. How do we know? We tried it—and we had the best system of rules the world has ever seen! Convinced that no human being can please God by self-improvement, we believed in Jesus as the Messiah so that we might be set right before God by trusting in the Messiah, not by trying to be good.
17-18Have some of you noticed that we are not yet perfect? (No great surprise, right?) And are you ready to make the accusation that since people like me, who go through Christ in order to get things right with God, aren't perfectly virtuous, Christ must therefore be an accessory to sin? The accusation is frivolous. If I was "trying to be good," I would be rebuilding the same old barn that I tore down. I would be acting as a charlatan.
19-21What actually took place is this: I tried keeping rules and working my head off to please God, and it didn't work. So I quit being a "law man" so that I could be God's man. Christ's life showed me how, and enabled me to do it. I identified myself completely with him. Indeed, I have been crucified with Christ. My ego is no longer central. It is no longer important that I appear righteous before you or have your good opinion, and I am no longer driven to impress God. Christ lives in me. The life you see me living is not "mine," but it is lived by faith in the Son of God, who loved me and gave himself for me. I am not going to go back on that.
Is it not clear to you that to go back to that old rule-keeping, peer-pleasing religion would be an abandonment of everything personal and free in my relationship with God? I refuse to do that, to repudiate God's grace. If a living relationship with God could come by rule-keeping, then Christ died unnecessarily"

I think some us Christians are so freaked out about every little thing we and especially other people do that we forget that we were saved by grace.

Lets accept Jesus's Death and move forward giving the grace we were given ourselves. We should stop trying to work so hard because we can cast our burdens on Jesus!

"Cast thy burden upon the LORD, and he shall sustain thee" [Psalms 55:22]

Software Freedom Day @ University of Florida

2008-09-22T05:29:00.004-04:00

Saturday September 20th was Software Freedom Day. This was a celebration of the ideas and technologies which drive free and open source technologies. As the SUN Microsystems campus ambassador to the University of Florida, I put on an event to celebrate this. I started off by giving an introductory talk to the SFD and SUN's involvement.
The main speaker of the event was Colin Hosert the CIO of GrooveShark.com. He spoke of how using open source technologies both helped and hindered his company. (GrooveShark is a company that is run rather tight and efficient budget compared to their competitors).
Later, I spoke breifly about OpenSolaris and showed how to install it using VirtualBox. I gave away free bags and cds. We also had some GREAT food from Sonny's BBQ!!
I made some great contacts with foss enthusiasts in the gainesville area, and on UF campus. Especially, people from Florida Free Culture and GatorLUG. We will probably have some joint events together in the future.

Below is a link to some picture I snapped of the Event.
LINK

Proverbs 16 - Offer your plans to God!

2008-09-21T04:17:00.004-04:00

Proverbs 16 is a really powerful book! So while I was reading it I took down some notes and highlighted some keep verses.

1: The first verse is interpreted in two basic ways according to different versions of the bible. Traditional King James says "The preparations of the heart in man, and the answer of the tongue, is from the LORD." while several other versions interpret this verse more closely as "The preparations of the heart belong to man,But the answer of the tongue is from the LORD. "
The next verse says that the Lord is the judge in anything we do, and h judges by weighing the spirit of what we planned. Some people do wrong and don't think twice, but God is Just and the motives that drive their actions are made visible to him. So we should always check our motivation behind our plans and actions.
So as in v3, commit everything you do to the Lord, and your motives will be follow in line. No matter what happens after remember God is in control.
Make your plans (under the submission of God) and your steps in turn will be directed by him [v9].
Its best to Gain what you do with honor than to rush past God's time line [8,12].
"How much Better is it to get wisdom than gold! to choose understanding rather silver! .. Pride goes before destruction, and a haughty spirit before a fall"
There is a way that seemes right unto a man, but the ends of it is destruction. [v25]
"He that is slow to anger is better than the mighty; and he that rules his spirit than he that takes a city"[v32]

165+

| Selah - Wonderful Merciful Savior
|

Chrome is messing up my sound ; Contains Microsoft Code

2008-09-16T02:45:00.007-04:00

OK, I am getting a little annoyed, previously I said Chrome was nice here (Chrome Impresses) but I have been having a problem where every time I use Chrome, the audio on my computer is disabled. If I am listening to a CD in windows media player and I then open up Chrome to do anything the audio shuts off. Anybody have any clues?

Below, here is my Desktop info:

From Blogger Pictures

Update

A program manager who writes a blog let everybody know that some of the code in Chrome uses libraries that Microsft open sources in 2004. Who says Microsoft doesn't release code. Here is a link to his blog: hanselman

Update2

I found the solution to the sound problem. The flash player crashes inside of Chrome. I used the Chrome task manager to end the flash process and restart the webpage. I only fixed it once, but I am sure if the sound goes out again I can use the same method to fix it.

Jesus was "Ugly"?

2008-09-14T20:29:00.005-04:00

Some one put a really well put together disclosure on youtube entitled Pretty/Ugly. He explains why he believes why Jesus is ugly and says it isn't a bad thing! I think everybody should watch this video, it subtly challenges the ideals of our Hollywood culture. I'll spare you from anymore of my reactions and let you watch it. Comment!

Thanks to N.H. for pointing me to this.

Here is the video:
Pretty/Ugly

Loser tree in Python

2008-09-12T11:18:00.007-04:00

I am taking an Advanced Data Structures and Algorithms class with Dr. Sahni at UF. I used a data structure discussed in this class as an opportunity to learn Python a little better. I implemented the loser tree. The loser tree is a complete binary tree with n external nodes and n-1 internal nodes. The root of the tree has the overall winner. The loser tree is a more efficient version of a winner tree which are both types of Tournament Trees. In the winner tree the winner of each competition is inside the nodes, however it is more efficient to keep the loser of the competitions in side the nodes and bubble the winner up the tree.

The loser tree has applications in areas such as Run Generations during external sorts, Bin-Packing Problems (Truck Loading), and others.

I am not yet sure of how to transfer my c++ knowledge of pointer to Python, so I used an array representation of the binary tree to keep track of the nodes. If anybody knows how I could implement a tree with pointers, I would love to know.

In anycase, below is my code. It isnt great code, and any suggestions would be great! Thanks to Yet Another Coding Blog for the code highlighting tip.


#!/usr/bin/env python

import copy

class INode:
 ''' Internal nodes of the tree '''
 def __init__(self,value=None,ptr=None,run=0):
  self.value = value
  self.ptr = ptr
  self.run = run

 def __repr__(self):
  return repr(self.value)

 def __cmp__(self,node):
  if isinstance(node,INode):
   # return cmp(self.value, node.value)
   return self.value <= node.value
  else:
   # return cmp(self.value, node)
   return self.value <= node
 

 def __copy__(self):
  return INode(self.value,self.ptr,self.run)
  
 def copy(self):
  new = INode()
  new.value = self.value
  new.ptr = self.ptr
  new.run = self.run
  return new
 __copy__ = __deepcopy__ = copy

 def clear(self):
  ''' Clear the value of this INode '''
  self.value = None
  self.ptr = None
  self.run = None
  
class LoserTree:
 '''The size of data must be a ,perfect square (i.e. 2,4,8,16) '''
 def __init__(self,data=None):
  self.size = len(data)
  self.data = [INode() for i in xrange(len(data))]
  self.data.extend([INode(data[i],i+self.size) for i in xrange(len(data))])
  self.initialize() 

 def initialize(self):
  '''Build the tree'''
  index = self.size # Give us the index of the lowest level
  left = True
  for i in xrange(0,self.size,2):
   l,r = int(index+i), int(index+i+1)
   if(left):
    if(self.__cmp(self.data[l], self.data[r])):
     # Left Wins
     loser = r/2
     self.data[loser] = copy.copy(self.data[r])

     winner = loser/2
     self.data[winner] = copy.copy(self.data[l])
    else:
     # Right Wins
     loser = l/2
     self.data[loser] = copy.copy(self.data[l])

     winner = loser/2
     self.data[winner] = copy.copy(self.data[r])
   elif(not left):
    # We are on the right side of a tree
    # so we need to bubble the winner up
    winner = None
    win_tmp = None
    if(self.__cmp(self.data[l],self.data[r])):
     # Left Wins
     loser = l/2
     self.data[loser] = copy.copy(self.data[r])

     win_tmp = copy.copy(self.data[l])
     winner = loser/2
    else:
     # Right Wins
     loser = r/2
     self.data[loser] = copy.copy(self.data[l])

     win_tmp = copy.copy(self.data[r])
     winner = loser/2
    # Bubble up
    while True:
     if(self.data[winner].value == None):
      self.data[winner] = copy.copy(win_tmp)
      break

     elif(self.__cmp(self.data[winner], win_tmp)):
      tmp = copy.copy(self.data[winner])
      self.data[winner] = copy.copy(win_tmp)
      win_tmp = copy.copy(tmp)

      winner /=2
     else:
      winner /= 2
   left = not left

 def getWinner(self):
  return self.data[0].value  
  
 def popReplace(self, newValue):
  '''Return the winner and update the tree with the new item'''
  oldWinner = copy.copy(self.data[0])
  runner = self.data[0].ptr
  levelup = runner/2
  
  newINode = INode(newValue,runner,oldWinner.run)
  # Is new node less than the old winner 
  # if so increment the run count
  if(newValue < oldWinner.value):
   newINode.run = oldWinner.run + 1

        # Replace Winner
  self.data[runner] = copy.copy(newINode)
  self.data[0].clear()
 
  win_tmp = copy.copy(self.data[runner])
  while runner > 0:
   levelup = runner/2
   if(self.__cmp(win_tmp,self.data[levelup])):
    #win_tmp wins and is promoted
    runner /= 2
   else:
    tmp = copy.copy(self.data[levelup])
    self.data[levelup] = copy.copy(win_tmp)
    win_tmp = tmp
    runner /= 2
  self.data[0] = copy.copy(win_tmp)

  return oldWinner

 def __repr__(self):
  '''This prints the leaves of the tree'''
  return repr(self.data[0:self.size])
  
 def __cmp(self,left,right):
  '''This compare function compares the current run, then the values'''
  if(left.run == right.run):
   return cmp(left, right)
  else:
   return cmp(left.run, right.run)

if __name__ == '__main__':
 print "Data  :",
 data = [4,3,6,8,1,5,7,3,2,6,9,4,5,2,5,8]
 print data
 t = LoserTree(data)
 print "Leaves:",t
 print "Winner: ", t.getWinner()
 replace = 9
 w = t.popReplace(replace)
 print "Replaced the winner %s with %s" % (w,replace)
 print "New Winner: ", t.getWinner()
 print "Leaves:",t

Chrome Impresses

2008-09-03T19:18:00.003-04:00

If you haven't already, it is time for you to download Google Chrome. This week google released an open source browser named Chrome. Once you download it you will immediate notice two things. First are the lightweight loading of tabs; there is no lag or delay when the browser loads up. This is because each tab in Chrome is threaded and treated as its own window. You can drag any tab (while a page it is loading) out of one window for it to act as a new window. The second diffference you will notice is the default home page which shows icons of some popular sites you like and recent searches you have made.

It is good to see an open source browser work so well. It uses Safari's rendering engine which is annoying for some sites. For example, if you are looking at a facebook album there is a limit on how many picture you can look at until the browser stops working properly.

Seeing how well Chrome worked makes me excited to see the andriod operating system in action.

Check out more details on chrome |Here|

Relationship Rules + Faith, Hope, Will

2008-09-01T18:26:00.006-04:00

Here are just a few thoughts on my hearts. I got these ideas from tv/radio programs.

Thought 1

Three rules to follow in a relationship for men:

Be a man of strength and tenderness. You need to show strength but not so much that she is afraid of you. Beyond making her feel loved it is important for her to to feel chosen.
Reassurance. Your wife needs to be reassured that she is doing the right things and still the person that you love. So praise your wife. Let her know she is doing a good job as wife.
Avoid Criticism. Don't have a critical spirit. If you need to say something for the sake of honesty make it kind. Honesty should be served with gentleness.

Thought 2

Faith, Hope, Will - These were the name of characters of shows I was watching the other night. So I went on a little rant trying to put the terms together.

God is Love
As humans we have Faith, Hope, and a Will

Jesus died so we would have freedom to Hope. He asks that awe have Faith in him. 1 Peter 3:15 | John 3:16

This relationship is how we build our faith. Lets have a relationship with God so we can build our faith in him. Following him and doing what he says. Jude 1:20

Lets transform our will's to Gods. Seeking after him and finding him will change your life. Romans 2

O taste and see that the Lord is good: blessed is the man that trusts in him! Psalms 34:8

Olympic addiction fix

2008-08-12T01:26:00.008-04:00

If your like me and you love watching the olympics it if tough getting your fix! So here's two tips to keep you going.

If you google "medal count" google displays the current medal ranking by country. If you click on the website it give you a lots of detail. Here is a link to that search: LINK
The second tip and the best is the fact that nbc post full length events on its website! There are a lot of events broadcasted live too! -- http://www.nbcolympics.com/video/player.html There are also some highlights from Athens. One great video is a karate video where a guy gets knocked out like he was a putty patrol on power rangers. Check it out: Athens 2004: Moon Dae-Sung

I can't wait until track on Saturday, this is one of the best Olympics I've seen thus far!

Update:
Its ok to to shed a tear or too after winning the olympics... But no whimpering! This guy needs to man up! Maybe he is over compensating with that gun. The camera should have let him have that private moment. The announcer is noticible uncomfortable; he tries to help the man out by saying "This is one of the toughest sports." LOL Thanks to these people for posting this video.

Wimpy Italian man gets silver at olympic shooting 2008

To Gator Nation: Take pride in the No. 1 ranking

2008-07-29T23:01:00.004-04:00

Yes we are the number one party school according the princeton review. While most have given the credit solely to fraternities I submit to you it take more than greeks to be a quality number one party school! Below I list 5 reasons why we have the crown:

National Championships --> We are used to celebrating, we planned for more championship parties this year expecting success and even if we lost we wouldn't never cancel the party, we just change the name.
Chi Alpha Christian Fellowship (Chi Alpha) --> This organization I am a part of is comparable to a college youth group. They may have single handedly pumped the school up to a number one ranking. This group of authentic disciples of Christ are not ashamed to celebrate their salvation!!
Tim Tebow --> This iconic figure also inspired many to celebrate in his name.
Budget Cuts --> The Budget cuts in the state of Florida cause UF to cut some Jobs. Why they were looking for new positions friends threw them going away parties.
I Love New York, Flavor of Love, Grey's Anatomy, etc --> These TV shows were extremely popular to the college-aged crowd at UF. Whats better than to throw an episode watching party once a week.

These are just a few reasons. It's important to note that not everybody has drinks at their parties (e.g. XA). So people shouldn't correlate the high party ranking with drinking - even though clubs/bars are right across the street from the newly rennovate Library West. So Gator Nation be proud of this #1 ranking!! This is the first in many more to come in the 2008-2009 school year!

Cuil not impressive, ZOOperstars amazing

2008-07-29T22:25:00.006-04:00

With the recent unleashing of the self proclaimed "google stopper" cuil, many people were left extremely underwhelmed, myself included. I was wondering how much better this could be. How close could cuil come to reading my mind?!?! While the results wasn't what I expected, the interface was beautiful.

Google filed a patent for its search result interface [citation needed], everybody has been producing similar search result pages. IMHO Cuil steps out of the box a little more than I have seen giving more information without having to move my ornery touchpad. They display information on either two or three column including pictures. So now instead of looking at words I will be scanning the pictures associated with each page to find what I am looking for. They also keep an index of page results on the bottom of the page (which is probably needed). They also cluster (categorize) the results and let you search with in this clusters.

My suggestion to Cuil is to keep the interface but trash the search engine and leverage googles'. That would make life perfect for me.

For everybody who wasn't impressed with Cuil's debut, here are two youtube videos which are definitely more entertaining that you think. Introducing the ZOOperstars:

Roger Clamens eats the bat boy!

Erlang marketable?

2008-07-10T03:13:00.009-04:00

It seems a new "old" programming language is gathering of late. Erlang developed in 1987 by Ericsson has attracted programmers because of it is built to support "distributed, fault-tolerant, and insert buzz current word".

Erlang was originally built to support difficult demands of ATM/Telecom switches. Ericsson found the other programming languages wanting and decided to create their own. Below are some notes on their design emphasis. (This information was obtained from a google tech talk.)

Fault tolerance --> Isolate errors so they don't disturb other processes. Instead of swiss army knives seperate knife, nail clipper, cork screw. Process supervision. OTP is a process supervision framework for Erlang.
Non-stop --> "error-free", updatable. Hot code replacement. Erlang keeps two or more versions of code so you can update code without "restarting the server."
Concurrent --> All processs are equal (simple round robin scheduling is better)
Distrubuted, scalable and heterogeneous --> inter-process communication. Erlang uses a virtual machine, compile to a byte code. Symmetric Multi-Processing: Multi cores may choose which process you execute from a scheduling queue.
soft real-time --> Some small delays ok. Advanced GC/memmang mechanisms.
"prototypeability" --> Start off quickly with our program to see if it works. Declarative programming. Run time linking.

So why now? The language and these design issues very compatible with the whole "CloudDB' trend. In fact, CouchDB, an opensource distributed database, is written Erlang as well as Amazon's SimpleDB. Other people may be using it to develop their system but have not admitted it. In any case there will be more jobs for Erlang programmers.

It is not a sure thing for Erlang to arise as the standard Cloud Computing standard. C++ and Java remain strong the the Enterprise realm. New Java message passing frameworks such as Kilim. continue to increase the flexibility of Java.

Erlang has room to evolve. A growing user base and the strong design of its roots at the least prove it to be marketable.

Breakthrough the wilderness

2008-07-07T03:31:00.013-04:00

Brooke Fraser - Shadowfeet

I listened to a couple sermons recently one by Sean Smith while he was at First Assembly, another at the Triumphant Church, and another on BBN radio. Below are are notes to the sermons in no particular order. The sermons may be mixed and intertwined Also I added links to his sermons below if you are interested in listening.

Video Audio :: Sean Smith Sermons @ First Assembly 7/7/08

[2 Chronicles 7:14]
If my people, which are called by my name, shall humble themselves, and pray, and seek my face, and turn from their wicked ways; then will I hear from heaven, and will forgive their sin, and will heal their land.

This verse show a good way to approach God in our time of crisis. First we should be motivated. The word "humble" in the hebrew has the idea of "submitting" or yeilding. So we should learn to purpose ourselves to seek after God. Next, is supplication. We should pray, being devoted to him we have every right to make our needs be known to him. We should have deep care for the spritual needs of another. Dedicate yourself to seeking God while recognizing the holiness of Him.

"Belive the Love"
Faith works by Love [Galatians 5:6] At the root of unbelief is the lack of love. When you need to troubleshoot some situation that you are in, it is important to start from the beginning. So we should check our faith, an we know because of Galations 5:6 that we should check our Love.

It is hard to Belive the Love. In John 17:23, Jesus is praying and he expresses his desire that we know that God sent him and that we should know that God love us just as much as he loves Jesus. Amazing! Yet hard to belive, that God really loves us. If we get a revelation of this, it will reck our lives, changing our lives completely! - I pray that whoever reads this can get a glimpse of your love.

God is Love, and since God loves us so much we should also love one another, that is how God's love is perfected in us. While we were still terrible people God sent his Son to die as a substitute of our sins. [1 John 4:7-12].

The world says "I love you but if you hurt me I am going to let you loose." But unbelivers need to experience the goodness of God.

Sometimes we don't worship until we feel good. Do we wait for a good feeling before we go to work? We worship ouur savior regardless of how we feel. We love God regardless of how we feel.

We need God's word to keep us grounded so we will not waiver.

"Breakthrough the wilderness"
This is when you are more taxed than relaxed. You feel isolated, the source of your inspiration is tapped out. A Wilderness is a hallway to your next destination.

[Isaiah 43:19] "Behold, I will do a new thing ... I will even make a way in the wilderness, and rivers in the desert."

A new thing is like:

An item never possesd
A place never visited
A thought never formed -> you need to know new stuff to survive in the wilderness
An action never taken

A wilderness is like a circumstantial fast where we can't depend on anybody but God. When we come through it we can say "If it had not been for the Lord on my side."

When we come out of the wilderness we should be totally different. Like make over shows where people go into a backroom and come out looking beautiful because some specialist was working on them. We go into the wilderness where God is working on us so we can come out looking brand new!

Wilderness is like the time where you have a promise and stuff is not lining up with you. Feeling like you have a delay in your life may throw you into a wilderness.

During this time we should be careful, that is when temptation is at its strongest. The power of temptation is the state it find you in to cause you to fall. Then people may become frustrated because God has you in a particular season.

When you are going through the wilderness there is no due north. It is hard when people ask you how you are doing because you may not know.

[Genesis 21:14]
Hagar Abraham's baby mama went through a wilderness.
Keys to personal break through:

(1 )You must have Desert develop desires. In the Desert God wants us to release a cry in our life. We need to be desperate with God even after serving him for a while. There needs to be a new cry from your heart. The Sun may evaporate water in a lake to the clouds which then produces rain to go back into the lake. The move of God first begins because the Son of God shines on you to evaporate the water inside of you for God to rain down on you again. The move of God starts when the spirit inside of you heats up. God wants you to be in touch with where you are. Be persistent. WE LACK PERSISTENCE, a lot of the forefathers in the faith, and grandparents had persistence that is why we are here today.
(2) Don't wander from your word. You may receive a word of encouragement, remember it. Or the enemy make your problem seem bigger than the solution we carry. We need to not only hear what God has said, but to also hear the voice of God now! Issac would have been dead if Abraham did not hear God telling him to stop. Hagar received a word about Ishmael a long time ago but she almost lost it.
(3) Rescues our vision. It is often what we don't see in the spirit that holds us back. Gen 21:19 -- God Opened her eyes so that we saw a well. The well was always there God opened her eyes. We panicked and we were blinded by our situation.

Research Methods

2008-07-02T00:34:00.011-04:00

Today, I had an insightful conversation with someone who had an interesting viewpoint concerning the differences in the published work of schools in the east (e.g. GA Tech) and schools in the west coasts of the US. The basic idea behind his viewpoint was that schools in the east tend to approach scientific problems more as engineers than as scientist. More specifically, when attacking a problem, schools in the east tend to spend less time on defining the problem they are attacking and more time engineering a solution.

While I do not have the expertise to agree or disagree with his statement, the important take away from the conversation was that the most important step in the scientific process is to define the problem. I guess he is saying the investigation of a well defined problem is the difference between scientist and engineers. Engineering focus on the result while scientist focus on the process.

Later , I realized that the day before I had a conversation with a PhD student who proved his point. When I asked him how he went about publishing papers he told me he does not really start off with that as a goal. Instead, he said as a PhD student he is given projects to work on and if a paper is produced out of it then that is a plus. His words definitely did not agree with my spirit. What I would have liked to hear is - "I am given problems and I work with my adviser to understand and formally define the problem. Next, I take time and perform a literature review on the work in the problem's area. Following those steps, I develop algorithms and run experiments on them and compile the results. I can publish anytime after the problem is defined."

Below is a list version of how to attack attach research problems - this is obviously not the only method.

Find the problem --> Finding the problem may occur in one of three ways. First, after reading papers we may find facets of other's research which is untouched or difficult, and still has room to improve the state of the art. Secondly, we may see a practical problem occuring or notice something that is inefficient, whether that be through the newspaper, tv, friends, colleagues, etc. Lastly, because computer science has tentacles which may reach towards other areas, it may be possible to map the fields terminology and processes to the cs domain (an example of this is the general area of "Neural Networks").
Fully define the problem and its domain --> This step is of the utmost importance and must be completed before moving any further. Fully define the problem until it is well defined, sorted out, and ready to be attacked. This prevents people from questioning the foundations your research. A bonus of this step is that it allows you to do an elevator pitch to friends and colleagues at conferences.
Related Research --> Don't reinvent the wheel and stand on the shoulders of giants. Find and record all related work.
Develop Solution --> Figure out the best solution then design experiments to test solutions. When producing algorithms your foundations should be secure so you credibility is not taken.
Publish --> Publish all publishable work.
Rinse and Repeat

Beware of IPtables

2008-06-29T04:39:00.004-04:00

A lot of people who use Linux would like to make their server visible to the world. Ubuntu is usually pretty good with that, everything is straight forward. Fedora (at least Fedora 9) is a little bit more annoying. After configuring everything correctly as you think, you may come to the point where stuff is still not working.

It is probably is your iptables. Iptables are basically the firewall for the Linux box. They are enabled by default in Fedora and Red hat as far as I know. If you become root and run the command: services iptables stop.

A good reference from Linux home networking is available here: |Link|

Prepare for Talks and Meeting

2008-06-29T01:13:00.007-04:00

My experience during my internships and doing research is that meeting with managers are just as important while the project is going on as when the project is completed. Typically, my manager and I would set up meetings so I could show them my progress on a project and tell him my next directions. To make these short meeting go smoothly, I typically I will prepare something like a script to show where I am. For instance, say I am working on a website. I will first quickly show some decisions I made to get to the point I am at currently, then spend some time showing what I have - explaining where necessary, and lastly I will show places where I plan to improve or further develop.

To make sure this meeting goes smoothly, I will try to allocate 15 minutes or more before meetings to prepare these points. I think ahead and have answers to questions that my boss or manager may have. I may also quickly produce PowerPoint or OpenOffice slides that will show what I have done. These slide graphs can also help later when you are presenting a large talk or demonstration.

It is important for a manager to be confident knowing what he can expect during the next time you meet. Even if you do not accomplish as much as you would like, clarity during this meeting is important. Also, the less time you spend on fluff the better it is for both of you.

Below I have listed some "points to remember" I compiled when giving a research talk:

Explain up front why the problem is important. This gives some meaning to your work and avoids wandering.
It may be good to memorize the first few slides so you can start off well even if you are nervous.
Smiling at people will usually cause them to smile back. So be enthusiastic.
Its good to start with a question to gauge the backgrounds of the people at the talk.
“Tell them what you are going to tell them, tell them, then tell them what you told them.”
Memorize the 7 key points you have so you can know what to cover in the case you are side tracked.
If people are not using the slides as notes use more pictures and less words. Words are for the people who miss the talk. Even those people can just read the paper. People read at different rates and you may get a confusing rippled reaction to slide content.
Be able to skip ahead at any point.
If you know people in the audience, use their names, it makes it more personal.
Slides cost zero dollars, so it is okay to use put extra content on another slide
It is a good idea to use crop/blur/fade techniques to draw attention to a particular part of a picture while still showing something as a whole.
Showing a video, and narrating what is going on is a good idea.
Demos are always great (use Alt-Tab to switch between programs)
If a question is difficult you may 1) Ask them to repeat it 2) Ask for clarification 3) Question the motivation behind the question 4) Be political and answer the question with a question. 5) If it is a long answer or off topic answer the question off line.
At the begining introduce yourself if someone else has not and if it a job talk be sure to name drop and toot your own horn "toot toot"
During Q/A have a slide that has everything you talked about so people may remember question they wanted to ask you but forgot.

Sunday Trip

2008-06-16T00:52:00.003-04:00

So today is Sunday and I made plans to attend a new San Jose church. Because finding a church that was within walking distance was a little bit unreasonable, I reached out to my campus church group Chi Alpha for help. The leaders of the University of Florida group, Steve and Charlene Michaels reached out to an alumni who lives in the area. She and her husband recommended two churches one being Jubilee Christian Center.

So I used google maps with their public transportation feature to find the right bus/trains to make it to the church. This application, although not highly publicized because more people have cars, is pretty amazing. The whole architecture is well put together and Is worth checking out! The trip took about two hours (just like it said) and I easily found the HUGE church.

Right before church I met an extremely nice member who made me feel welcomed. I was introduced to a lot of people, and learned a lot about the church. After the church, the lady took me to McDonald's. I also found out that her daughter is a designed who makes wedding dresses. She gave me her daughters card and I told my bride to be who would like to check it out.

On the train back I actually met another man named Jay who told me I should check out Bethel Church. I will probably make plans to do that.

This weekend was a good break from work. I am definitely having my troubles, most beyond my control. However, I am looking forward to a successful and productive week!

This Sunday I have softball practice. I missed the first game, which they lost, but I plan to come in and make an immediate difference.

Jesus is Lord and I love him! No matter what your going through run to him, he will give you a peace you haven't experienced yet.

That hair style has got to go!

2008-06-07T00:48:00.006-04:00

Ok, this is a topic that I just want to get off my chest. Hair.

There are some styles that need to go! Below I have compiles a small list, if I forgot anything or disagree please comment below!

Jheri Curl
It doesn't matter if it is wet or dry. This has got to go! Wikipedia says that is "a wash and where style." But in most cases it looks unwashed and worn. Some people have tried to disguise it by cutting it short, it is still jheri curl and everybody knows it! If you are thinking about this I guarantee you can do better.

Hillary's Hair
Vote for which ever candidate you like the best, but please impeach Hillary's hair. This hair style says "I am past my prime." This is not an offense on any person just style has to go! This style is OUT and the public need to know. Clay Aiken has also been spotted with a similar version of Hillary hair.

The Blowout
This hair style says "I am overcompensating for something." I think it is a failed attempt at a new type of fade. It is not cool. It is hard to describe... An internet search will show that it is worn by "Guido's". This is the first time I heard this name, but I have seen the culprits! Below is a picture I found:

Please comment!

Friday!!

2008-06-07T00:11:00.004-04:00

Okay first week in IBM is done! Woo-hoo! It seemed like a semester. This is a big pace change from school last semester.

The discussions with intelligent people is a fun challenge. Being able to coherently express yourself is extremely important in the sciences. A lot of time is spent in design meetings attempting to debate points where often it is the case that both parties agree but view an issue from separate perspectives. Being able to wholly describe your ideas increases productivity. This is an area I will be focusing during my IBM group meetings.

The work environment is great. Its the weekend in Cali but I will be at home because I am broke and the govenator wants 8.25% sales tax!! I can't wait until PAY DAY!!$!

Off to the races!

2008-06-06T12:07:00.008-04:00

I am officially swamped. Because I recently graduated I took an extra two weeks to have to my self before I started working, a little more than some of the other interns. So now it seems like they were waiting for me to start the real work! The last couple day I spent "finalizing" design documents for the system that we are building. This was an extreme amount of work. But this should make the actual construction of the system relatively easy.

I will discuss at another time some of the technologies we will be using. One of them may be some JetSpeed from Apache.

Yesterday (Thursday June 6), the interns had a small get together and I got my first IBM t-shirt. I am going to try and stock up on that and as much other free stuff as possible!

Also, One year from today I will be getting married!! This is our -1 anniversary! How many people have those? So I surprised her with flowers and a note. I got her calla lilies because those are the type of flowers she wants in the bouquet and at the wedding in general. They were in a pot so we can grow them and save money on flowers. And I scored major points, oh yeah!

At any rate, because of the occasion I will start the count down at 365! I will put a countdown widget some where on this blog.

First two days as an IBMer

2008-06-03T23:15:00.003-04:00

So I completed the first two days of my IBM Almaden internship and I am actually looking forward to the end because of the cool project we are working on. Before I give a few hints as to what the project is I will give sort of a chronological ordering of my days starting with Sunday.

Sunday June 1
I began planning to go to a church I found on google maps. This church was about a mile away. So I began walking and i was surprised to see my house mate and his wife driving off, they asked me for a ride and of course I accepted. I told them the intersection I was going and he said ok... I assumed he knew of the church. As I we reached the area were I though the church was I saw no church but i though he knew where he was going. So he drove a little bit more and we found a church about 4 blocks from where I expected the church to be. I walked in and the first thing I saw was a fountain in the middle of the church. Puzzled, I continued into the church to use the bathroom.
Unfortunately, I forgot that with a one percent African-American population in San Jose I would stick out like a sore thumb. So a nice lady came up to me (because I was 20+ minutes early) and asked we questions that summed up to "what are you doing here?" She was nice, I conversed and nervously ran to take a seat and wait for the service to start. I thumbed through the program, and that is when I realized I am at a catholic church.... However, with no where to go i stayed for most of the one hour service. I'll pass on commenting anymore about the church itself.

Monday June 2
After the typical first day paperwork and exciting orientations I finally met with my team! Again, the project I am working on is the HealtheAssistant. The remainder of my day we spend attempting to configure the applications on my fully loaded Lenovo laptop, 22" wide screen LCD screen. I am in a cube but the atmosphere is great. Additionally, there are two other gators in the lab where I work, namely, Florin Rusu, Fei Xu. Both of them are also members the Database Group at UF and extremely bright. I believe they were authors on a SIGMOD best paper.
The cafeteria has nice selection, but it is hard to find time to eat! While waiting at the lobby I did get say high to Dr. Bruce Lindsay a famous IBM fellow and one of the founding fathers of the RDBMS. I saw many other famous people whom ironically I did not immediately recognize | Folks |.

Tuesday June 3
This project is going to be pretty overwhelming, but that is what I signed up for! I am excited to continue. I am working Bryan Hankerson from Georgia Tech, who I met during a visit (small world). We hashed out some plans on what the system API/module calls will be and tomorrow we will try and finalize that and start configuring the SVN/CVS and the server/client. I am excited to work with this server...
So, Almaden Research Center (ARC) is on top of a giant hill and in the middle of a state park. We received several warnings about deer, wild turkeys, mountain lions, rattle snakes, and a few other animals. I have not seen any wildlife yet, I think its a ploy to get people to stay in the lab. Nonetheless, the view outside the window is beautiful, I cannot wait until I receive that camera!
To get to ARC from where I am living I currently walk to the bus stop, take the bus down the street, walk to the IBM shuttle which takes me straight there. Its takes around 45 minutes to get there. Its is a bit of a walk but at least the bus and the shuttle are free. The walk does seem like it will start to become annoying, that is when I am going to look into renting a car. At some point I am also going to look up scooter prices...

Bless the Lord, O my Soul

2008-05-31T13:37:00.005-04:00

Sometimes we are caught up in all the wrong we have done and feel rejected from God. At times we feel like we are so horrible that there is no way a Holy God of the Universe would have any type of positive feelings towards us. But God loves us unconditionally. The words of Psalm 103 are encouraging at these times. Get in his word!

Psalms 103

Bless the Lord, O my soul: and all that is within me, bless his holy name. Bless the Lord, O my soul, and forget not all his benefits: Who forgiveth all thine iniquities; who healeth all thy diseases; who crowneth thee with lovingkindness and tender mercies; Who sateisfieth thy mouth with good; so that thy youth is renewed like the eagle's.

The Lord executeth righteousness and judgment for all that are oppressed. He made known his ways unto Moses, his acts unto the children of Israel. The Lord is merciful and gracious, slow to anger, and plenteous in mercy. He will not always chide: neither will he keep anger for ever. He hath not dealt with us after our sins; not rewarded us according to our iniquites. For as the heaven is high above the earth, so great is his mercy toward them that fear him. As far as the east is from the west, so far hath he removed our transgressions from us.

Like a father pitieth children, so the Lord pitieth them that fear him. For he knoweth our frame; he remembereth that we are dust. As man, his days are as grass: as a flower of the field, so he florisheth. For the wind passeth over it, and it is gone; and the place thereof shall know it no more.

But the mercy of the Lord is from everlasting to everlasting upon them that fear him, and his righteousness unto children's children; To such as keep his covenant, and to those that remember his commandments to do them.

The Lord that prepared his throne in the heavens; and his kingdom ruleth over all. Bless the Lord, ye his angles, that excel in strength, that do his commandments, hearkening unto the voice of the Lord. Bless ye the Lord, all ye his hosts; ye ministers of his, that do his pleasure. Bless the Lord, all his works in all places of his dominion: bless the Lord, O my soul.

Anyway via Mother Teresa

2008-05-31T01:37:00.002-04:00

People are often unreasonable, illogical and self-centered;
Forgive them anyway.

If you are kind, people may accuse you of selfish, ulterior motives;
Be kind anyway.

If you are successful, you will win some false friends and some genuine enemies;
Succeed anyway.

If you are honest and sincere, people may deceive you;
Be honest and sincere anyway.

What you spend years building, someone could destroy overnight;
Build anyway.

If you find serenity and happiness, some may be jealous;
Be happy anyway.

The good you do today, will often be forgotten tomorrow;
Do good anyway.

Give the world the best you have, and it may never be enough;
Give the world your best anyway.

You see, in the final analysis, it is between you and God;
It was never between you and them anyway.

Im in "Without Joseph"

2008-05-30T16:14:00.005-04:00

So I am here, in San Jose. I flew through time, made a stop in Colorado and made it here around 12 local time. The flight was really cool. We flew over a lot of snow capped mountains and I had the opportunity to see the salt fields in Utah ( I'm going to work on either getting a new home or a camera so I can start taking pictures). Unfortunately, I didn't see any famous people in the airport. The man i am renting from picked me up and saved me a bunch of money on a taxi! We passed by the HP Pavilion also know as thee Shark Tank where the San Jose Sharks (Hockey) and the Sabercats (AreaFootball) play. The view of this in Google Maps is pretty cool |Map|.

We were not too far from the airport, the ride took about 10 minutes (minus the stops at Home Depot and Boston Market). The first think you notice are all the cool mountains. It never seems like you are on a mountain, they always seem like they are in the background. The roads seem pretty easy to remember too (even though I will not be driving).

Another strange thing is the patients of the people here. Nobody beeps the horn, nobody even says excuse me at CostCo. Usually older people will bump you, and lay on the horn if you cut them off.

I checked out the bus stops and there is one there is an 8 minute walk (I timed it) from where I am staying. Then I would take that bus to the free IBM shuttle that takes me straight to Harry rd. In all this is supposed to take about 50 minutes but I doubt this. I expect it to be about 2o minutes. Ill time myself on Monday.

At some point I am going to check out what is supposed to be a bike path over the mountain to IBM. There used to be a road there but apparently it has been closed off. I need to get in shape for the wedding some how...

This place I am stay is nice. I am satisfied. I am with a young/newly married couple and another girl who I share a bathroom with. I have a pretty big bedroom (with no closet) with a big window looking out to the front yard. The house has a heated pool, HD Tv, Xbox 360, Wii, Cherry tree, Lemon tree, and wireless. All this for 700 a month. The owner is also going to put a mini fridge and a microwave in the room. I got a really good deal!

I saw that there is a barber shop relatively close but I don't know if they can cut black people hair... I am going to walk in on Saturday and see what they say. Other wise, I am set, things are looking pretty good for me!

I found two Churches that are within walking distance. The first is Grace Bible Chapel and the other is New Generation Church. I might go to the Friday service of Grace Bible Chapel today. The couple I am staying with does not go to church right now. Hopefully, I will have some people I can go with shortly.

IBM Almaden Internship

2008-05-27T19:26:00.002-04:00

Hello all, my name is Christan. I just graduated from the University of Florida with my Bachelors in Computer Engineering. Starting this fall I will be a PhD student at UF. I plan to perform research somewhere in the intersection of databases, information retrieval, and data mining.

However, before all that I have an internship at IBM Almaden. During the interview this internship was described to me as "3 months of hell." I will be working under Dr. Tyrone Grandison on a project called the Health-E-Assistant.

I wish I started this blog a couple weeks earlier. I already have had some problems finding a place to stay. Last summer, I interned at Harris RF and they put their interns up in a nice place to stay. Admittedly, I was a little spoiled, but IBM through us to the wolves with some cash. They gave us relocation money and told us to find some place to live. They suggested craigslist and another site called internhousing.com. I spoke to some interns who where having a terrible time finding a place to stay. Fortunately, i stumbled upon a pretty sweet deal. So I will be living with a family and another roommate in a place I have yet to see about 6.8 miles away from IBM. Hopefully, this all works out.

I also have a fiancee** who is in her last year of dental school here at UF. She doesn't want me to go across the country. We will keep in contact with a web camera and I am going to try and fly back a couple of times.

More about the job...
I do not know too much yet. I was told to bush up on my Java SE, Perl, and a perl DBI::CSV module. I never used perl before so I spent sometime becoming familiar with it. I am pretty good with Java so anything done with that should not be a problem.

I was also told to research Chronic disease management systems. This is definitely out of my jurisdiction so I believe working with these will be the biggest obstacle I will have to overcome.

Stay tuned... I will have more to come especially about my my flight, my commute, and the "dangerous" neighborhood.

**Note fiance is the male to be married and Fiancee is the female. The first 'e' is supposed to have an accent on it.