"Poesia Matemática" de Millôr Fernandes | "Mathematical Poetry", by Millôr Fernandes

Obrigado/Thanks, De Rerum Natura, pela dica/for the tip:

Dissertação de mestrado | Master dissertation - Luís Santos - ToonTalk

My master student Luís Santos just successfully defended his master dissertation on Mathematics and Natural Sciences, entitled "Modelling experimental systems in ToonTalk for educational environments: the water cycle", devoted to his effort to apply animagadgets from the Playground project to grammar school level (10-12 years) teaching Natural Sciences.

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O meu mestrando, Luís Santos, defendeu com êxito a dissertação de Mestrado em Matemática e Ciências da Natureza, "Modelação de sistemas experimentais em ToonTalk para Ambientes Educativos: Ciclo da Água", onde descreve o esforço de utilização das "engenhocas" (animagadgets) desenvolvidas no projecto Playground, mas a um nível etário e contexto educativo diferente: 5º/6º ano do ensino básico.

Modelação de sistemas experimentais em ToonTalk para Ambientes Educativos: Ciclo da Água

Thesis/Tese: Framework for Computer Programming in Preschool and Kindergarten

In 2005, I completed my PhD thesis (viva in 2006), Framework for Computer Programming in Preschool and Kindergarten. Since it's a large PDF file hosted in the slow network of UTAD, many haven't been able to retrieve it - and indeed, Google hasn't indexed its contents.

So now I placed it in Scribd. Enjoy!

Framework for Computer Programming in Preschool and Kindergarten

Research Grants | Bolsas de Investigação

Bolsas de Investigação – Mundos Virtuais

Está aberto concurso para atribuição de duas Bolsas de Investigação (BI), para a área de sistemas informáticos apoiados em plataformas de mundos virtuais, nas seguintes condições:

1. Duração e Regime de Actividades: Duração de 1 ano, com início previsto para Fevereiro de 2010, em regime de exclusividade. As bolsas poderão ser prorrogadas por um período adicional de 24 (vinte e quatro) meses.

2. Objecto de Actividade: Investigação e desenvolvimento científico-tecnológicos na área dos sistemas informáticos apoiados em plataformas de mundos virtuais, com ênfase para as plataformas Second Life Grid e OpenSimulator.

3. Orientação Científica: Leonel Caseiro Morgado (UTAD).

4. Formação Académica: Mestrado em Informática ou áreas afins.

5. Remuneração: € 980 / mês, de acordo com a tabela de valores das Bolsas de Investigação no país atribuídas pela FCT (http://alfa.fct.mctes.pt/apoios/bolsas/valores.phtml.pt).

6. Datas: O concurso está aberto entre os dias 7 de Dezembro de 2009 e 7 de Janeiro de 2010.

7. Documentos de Candidatura: Os candidatos devem enviar uma carta de candidatura acompanhada do curriculum vitae, portfólio de trabalhos desenvolvidos e cópia do certificado de habilitações, para:

Universidade de Trás-os-Montes e Alto Douro

Departamento de Engenharias – Eng.I

A/C Prof. Dr. Leonel Morgado

Quinta de Prados

5001-801 Vila Real

Podem também ser enviadas as candidaturas por e-mail para leonelm@utad.pt.

Vila Real, 30 de Novembro de 2009

Leonel Morgado

(Professor Auxiliar)

Research grants – Virtual worlds

A call is open for two Research Grants for the field of computer systems based on virtual world platforms, under the following terms:

1.Length and operation: For 1 year, planned to start on February 1st, 2010, under and exclusivity contract. Grants may be extended for an additional 24 (twenty four) months.

2. Research activities: scientific and technological research and development in the field of computer systems based on virtual world platforms, with an emphasis on the Second Life Grid and OpenSimulator platforms.

3. Scientific supervision: Leonel Caseiro Morgado (UTAD).

4. Academic background: Master degree in Computer Science or similar.

5. Grant amount: € 980 / month, following the FCT stipends table (http://alfa.fct.mctes.pt/apoios/bolsas/valores.phtml.en).

6. Dates: the call is open between December 7th, 2009, and January 7th, 2010.

7. Applications: interested parties should send an application letter accompanied by a curriculum vitae, a portfolio of previous works and a copy of their diploma, to:

Universidade de Trás-os-Montes e Alto Douro

Departamento de Engenharias – Eng.I

A/C Prof. Dr. Leonel Morgado

Quinta de Prados

5001-801 Vila Real

Portugal

Alternatively, documents may also be sent by e-mail to leonelm@utad.pt.

Vila Real, November 30th, 2009

Leonel Morgado

(Assistant Professor)

Master Thesis | Dissertação de Mestrado - Luís Sequeira - Mechanisms of content transfer between Second Life and OpenSimulator

My master student, Luís Miguel Richheimer Marta de Sequeira, one of the founders of Beta Technologies (see his interview here), has recently presented successfully his Master Thesis/Dissertation in Informatics, entitled Mechanisms of Three-dimensional Content Transfer between the OpenSimulator and Second Life Grid Platforms (the full package with the code is also available as part of the public thesis, including the version of libopenmetaverse he used).

It's a great piece of engineering work, and includes details on the operation of the Second Life Grid servers which you won't find elsewhere, since he had to interview Linden Lab employees to clear several doubts on the operation - for the sake of technical correctness of what is said.

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O meu aluno de mestrado, Luís Miguel Richheimer Marta de Sequeira, que é um dos fundadores da Beta Technologies (podem ver aqui uma entrevista com ele), defendeu recentemente com êxito a sua dissertação de mestrado em informática, com o título Mechanisms of Three-dimensional Content Transfer between the OpenSimulator and Second Life Grid Platforms (também está disponível o conjunto completo de texto e código, incluindo a versão utilizada da libopenmetaverse, que faz parte da dissertação apresentada publicamente).

É uma bela obra de trabalho de engenharia, que inclui pormenores acerca do funcionamento dos servidores da Second Life Grid, que não se encontram em mais lado nenhum, pois o Luís teve de falar com funcionários da Linden Lab para esclarecer várias dúvidas acerca do funcionamento destes servidores (a bem da exactidão técnica do que é dito na dissertação).

Babbage Linden and Rocky Musashi at Vila Real

After last week's Second Life seminar, we went for dinner at Cardoso, in Vila Real, famous for arguably the best Portuguese-style croque-madames (locally known as francesinhas, basically a croque-madame with a spicy sauce). Here's a shot of Jim (Babbage) and Rocha (Rocky) during dinner.

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Depois do seminário sobre Second Life da semana passada, fomos jantar ao Cardoso, cá por Vila Real, que tem as melhores (ok, podem discutir...) francesinhas. Eis uma fotografia do Jim (Babbage) e do Rocha (Rocky) durante o jantar.

As novas capacidades da realidade aumentada | The new abilities of augmented reality

Obrigado pela dica, Cory

Thank for the pointer, Cory:

Babbage Linden downhill skating in Alvão, Vila Real | Babbage Linden desce de skate o Alvão

Well, Babbage Linden has now returned to England. Before going, though, there was the opportunity to go downhill skating in the Alvão Mountains, from the crossing to N.ª Sr.ª de La Salette onwards towards Mondim de Basto.

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Bem, o Babbage Linden já está de volta a Inglaterra. Mas antes de ir ainda foi possível descer de skate a Serra do Alvão, do cruzamento para a N.ª Sr.ª de La Salette em direcção a Mondim de Basto.

Vou à Codebits | I'm going to Codebits

Fui aceite no evento Codebits, com alguns alunos, 'bora programar 24h!

(Ainda não tenho a lista de todos os que foram aceites - depois actualizo este post.)

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I was accepted at the Codebits, accompanied by some students. Let's go and program for 24h straight!

(I still don't have the full list of everyone that was accepted - so I'll update this post later.)

3º Seminário sobre Second Life - com Babbage Linden | 3rd Seminar about Second Life - with Babbage Linden

É já 4ª-feira: o III Seminário "Second Life: uma plataforma" - engenharia e inovação, empreendedorismo, comunicação e educação.

Este ano com a participação de Jim Purbrick, vg. Babbage Linden!

Eis o programa, abaixo.

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It's this Wednesday. the III Seminar "Second Life: a plataform" - engineering and innovation, entrepreneurship, communication and education.

This year, with the participation of Jim Purbrick, a.k.a. Babbage Linden!

The program:

Jim Purbrick, Senior Software Engineer at Linden Lab

Maria Barbas, Escola Superior de Educação de Santarém e Univ. Évora

Paulo Frias, Universidade do Porto

José Rocha, ARCI

SLACTIONS Cocktail Oct 4 | Cocktail da SLACTIONS a 4 de Out

Noke Yuitza and ina Karura kindly organized a cocktail to provide participants in SLACTIONS to socialize, now that the conference is over. Come and join us at the MKAC, on October 4th, 1:30 PM SLT.

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A Noke Yuitza e a ina Karura gentilmente organizaram um cocktail para que os participantes da SLACTIONS tenham uma oportunidade de socializar, agora que a conferência acabou. Vinde juntar-vos a nós no MKAC, no dia 4 de Outubro, às 21:30, hora portuguesa.

SLACTIONS first day is over! Second day today!

SLACTIONS 2009 started yesterday, and I just have this quick note to say it was a great moment - check out http://slactions2009.blogspot.com/ for news and pictures, was well as the Flickr tag slactions2009.

Day two already started locally in Hong Kong and other locations, and will open the plenum at 15:00, Portuguese/UK time.

SLACTIONS está a chegar | SLACTIONS is arriving

A conferência internacional SLACTIONS 2009 é já nos próximos dias 24 e 25 de Setembro! Além de ser on-line, decorre também em pólos físicos, da Califórnia a Hong Kong. Em Portugal, é em Braga, onde poderão trocar opiniões cara-a-cara comigo, com o Nelson Zagalo e outros investigadores nacionais e internacionais que trabalham em e com mundos virtuais.

A inscrição para o pólo nacional é bastante mais barata do que a inscrição para participação on-line... e como disse o Carlos Santos, inclui bolinhos, café e as actas em CD.

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The internacional conference SLACTIONS 2009 is nearing - September 24 & 25! Besides being held on-line, it also takes place in physical chapters, from California to Hong Kong. In Portugal, it's in Braga, where you'll be able to chat face-to-face with me, with Nelson Zagalo, and other national and internacional researchers working in and with virtual worlds.

You can register for physical (cheaper) or on-line participation.

Patetices homeopáticas

Obrigado, De Rerum Natura!

Why Can't Programmers.. Program?

Encontrei este post graças a lista de mailing da comunidade NetPonto:

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I came across this post thanks to the mailing list of the NetPonto community:

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From http://www.codinghorror.com/blog/archives/000781.html:

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*

programming and human factors
by Jeff Atwood

February 26, 2007

Why Can't Programmers.. Program?

I was incredulous when I read this observation from Reginald Braithwaite:

Like me, the author is having trouble with the fact that 199 out of 200 applicants for every programming job can't write code at all. I repeat: they can't write any code whatsoever.

The author he's referring to is Imran, who is evidently turning away lots of programmers who can't write a simple program:

After a fair bit of trial and error I've discovered that people who struggle to code don't just struggle on big problems, or even smallish problems (i.e. write a implementation of a linked list). They struggle with tiny problems.

So I set out to develop questions that can identify this kind of developer and came up with a class of questions I call "FizzBuzz Questions" named after a game children often play (or are made to play) in schools in the UK. An example of a Fizz-Buzz question is the following:

Write a program that prints the numbers from 1 to 100. But for multiples of three print "Fizz" instead of the number and for the multiples of five print "Buzz". For numbers which are multiples of both three and five print "FizzBuzz".

Most good programmers should be able to write out on paper a program which does this in a under a couple of minutes. Want to know something scary? The majority of comp sci graduates can't. I've also seen self-proclaimed senior programmers take more than 10-15 minutes to write a solution.

Dan Kegel had a similar experience hiring entry-level programmers:

A surprisingly large fraction of applicants, even those with masters' degrees and PhDs in computer science, fail during interviews when asked to carry out basic programming tasks. For example, I've personally interviewed graduates who can't answer "Write a loop that counts from 1 to 10" or "What's the number after F in hexadecimal?" Less trivially, I've interviewed many candidates who can't use recursion to solve a real problem. These are basic skills; anyone who lacks them probably hasn't done much programming.

Speaking on behalf of software engineers who have to interview prospective new hires, I can safely say that we're tired of talking to candidates who can't program their way out of a paper bag. If you can successfully write a loop that goes from 1 to 10 in every language on your resume, can do simple arithmetic without a calculator, and can use recursion to solve a real problem, you're already ahead of the pack!

Between Reginald, Dan, and Imran, I'm starting to get a little worried. I'm more than willing to cut freshly minted software developers slack at the beginning of their career. Everybody has to start somewhere. But I am disturbed and appalled that any so-called programmer would apply for a job without being able to write the simplest of programs. That's a slap in the face to anyone who writes software for a living.

The vast divide between those who can program and those who cannot program is well known. I assumed anyone applying for a job as a programmer had already crossed this chasm. Apparently this is not a reasonable assumption to make. Apparently, FizzBuzz style screening is required to keep interviewers from wasting their time interviewing programmers who can't program.

Lest you think the FizzBuzz test is too easy-- and it is blindingly, intentionally easy-- a commenter to Imran's post notes its efficacy:

I'd hate interviewers to dismiss [the FizzBuzz] test as being too easy - in my experience it is genuinely astonishing how many candidates are incapable of the simplest programming tasks.

Maybe it's foolish to begin interviewing a programmer without looking at their code first. At Vertigo, we require a code sample before we even proceed to the phone interview stage. And our on-site interview includes a small coding exercise. Nothing difficult, mind you, just a basic exercise to go through the motions of building a small application in an hour or so. Although there have been one or two notable flame-outs, for the most part, this strategy has worked well for us. It lets us focus on actual software engineering in the interview without resorting to tedious puzzle questions.

It's a shame you have to do so much pre-screening to have the luxury of interviewing programmers who can actually program. It'd be funny if it wasn't so damn depressing. I'm no fan of certification, but it does make me wonder if Steve McConnell was on to something with all his talk of creating a true profession of software engineering.

The Stolen Child

A nice example of the level reached by Second Life machinima, and one mentioned by Philip Rosedale recently:

Um belo exemplo do nível que já atingiram os machinimas em Second Life. Este em particular foi mencionado recentemente por Philip Rosedale:

The Stolen Child - WB Yeats (Poem No. 1) from Lainy Voom on Vimeo.

A Gwyn entregou a dissertação | Gwyn submitted her master dissertation

Bem, já está: após algumas iterações de leitura/comentários/revisão, a Gwyneth Llewelyn está hoje a deslocar-se a Vila Real, à UTAD, para entregar oficialmente a sua dissertação de mestrado (com que nome da vida real? Chiiiuuuuuu....).

A própria Gwyn já tinha mencionado anteriormente o seu trabalho de mestrado.

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Well, that's it: after some iterations reading/commenting/editing, Gwyneth Llewelyn is travelling to Vila Real today, to UTAD, to officially submit her Master's dissertation (with which real life name? shhhhhhhh...).

Gwyn herself has mentioned her ongoing master work before.

Jogo de vídeo dos Beatles | A Beatles videogame

Bem, é para fanáticos como eu... vai sair no dia 9/9 não só a edição completa remasterizada de todos os albúns dos Beatles, mas também um jogo de vídeo dos Beatles, da série RockBand. É desta que compro o Guitar Hero Metallica e World Tour. Sim, porque os controladores do Guitar Hero funcionam no Beatles RockBand.

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Well, this is for fanatics, like myself... 9/9 will see the launch not only of a full remasterized edition of all Beatles albums, but also of a Beatles videograme, from the RockBand series. That's does it: now's the time I'm going to get Guitar Hero Metallica and World Tour. Indeed, Guitar Hero controllers work with Beatles RockBand.

Drat! Taser quits! | Droga! A Taser desistiu

Taser Drops Linden Lab Lawsuit

This is the worst outcome: nothing changes, regarding what I stated earlier.

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Taser desiste do processo contra Linden Lab

Este é o pior desfecho: nada se altera, relativamente ao que expliquei anteriormente.

Noite de fados no Second Life . Fado evening in Second Life

Por iniciativa da Comunidade Cultural Virtual (parabéns e obrigado, Tpglourenco e Afrodite), decorreu ontem uma transmissão ao vivo de fado para o Second Life, a partir de uma Casa de Fado "real life" e fadistas "real life". No SL, marionetistas controlaram os avatares dos fadistas.

Tive o prazer de ser o marionetista do avatar do guitarrista Mário Pacheco, durante uma hora, acompanhando os avatares dos fadistas Miguel Capucho e Cuca Roseta.

Thanks and congratulations to Tpglourenco and Afrodite for their initiative at the virtual cultural community, CCVirtual: last night took place a live transmission of fado on Second Life, from a real life fado house, with real life singers and players. In SL, puppetteers controlled the avatars of players and singers.

I had the pleasure to be the puppetteer of guitar player Mário Pacheco's avatar for an hour, providing the music for vocal by Miguel Capucho and Cuca Roseta.