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Random observations

2004-05-27 13:37:16

In the period that my blog was down (between mid-April and mid-May) Nigel also celebrated his 23rd birthday. I got him Zen and the Art of Motorcycle Maintenance, which I thought would dovetail nicely with his recent acquisition of a motorbike. He seems to be enjoying the book so far.

I also finished reading Two on a Tower and really loved it. I know it’s not supposed to be one of Hardy’s best pieces, but I don’t care. I liked it, and that’s that. Hardy’s brilliant writing ability was in evidence, but his style was not as melancholic as in his other books. The plot was less depressing than Jude and Tess, even though the ending was sad. If I had any grievances with the book, it felt like he really rushed the ending. It’s a pity, because it could have been a really, really good book. Also, if you get down to it, there was nothing very novel or unique about Two on a Tower. It’s really a straight up and down romantic tragedy. But it’s a Thomas Hardy romantic tragedy, and the way he writes makes it worth reading. Tess is still the best, though.

Now I’m reading something really different: Rebel Without a Crew by Robert Rodriguez, who wrote and directed El Mariachi, Desperado and Once Upon a Time in Mexico among other films. It’s very amusing. Rodriguez is famous for filming El Mariachi for $7000 – a feat unheard of in modern times. Even more interesting is that he sold his body to science in order to make enough money to begin shooting the film!

Categories
Random observations

2004-05-27 13:17:59

The Champions’ League Final was played and won by Porto overnight. I was too tired to wake up and watch it. It’s very rare that I’m too tired to watch a football match! Yesterday the first match in the 2004 State of Origin series was won by NSW. I only got to see a small part of it because I was preoccupied with a phone call. It’s only Rugby League afterall. :)

The monthly NWWT meeting took place today. I was able to report my prototype was finished. The researchers and engineers working on the LiveSpaces project seemed very interested in my service discovery protocol. Hopefully they’ll want to use it in their work. I should also look at getting it integrated with the PACE work. But the PACE group is pretty busy at the moment.

I’ve almost finished marking the second COMP4301 assignment. Six assignments left to mark, I think. No more pracs to attend! But the third and final assignment is due on Monday.

I have to start working on the paper I’m supposed to be writing with Steven Livingstone. The paper is based on his honours work, which was about bridging Jini and Twine. There’s only about two weeks left before the submission deadline.

I should also have mentioned that Sasi submitted his thesis on Monday. Good luck to him. Hope everything goes well. We’re having drinks and/or lunch next week.

This blog is boring and needs sprucing up. Hopefully there’ll be some interesting material to report soon. :)

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Random observations

2004-05-24 22:39:03

A couple of weeks ago I had a paper accepted to a workshop in Spain. The paper was about the application of complex systems theory to service discovery. It’s a workshop, so I’m not even sure why we submitted. I like the paper, and somehow I’m feeling as though I wasted it. Jaga’s going to Spain. I’m finishing off my thesis. :)

Categories
Random observations

2004-05-24 13:28:13

I’ve finished the service discovery prototype. I’ve got the local-area half working, the wide-area half working, and they’re nicely glued together. Now I just have to collect some data and finish writing. I’m not sure how relevant the peformance data is going to be. The main goal of my project was to define a protocol that can work in all sorts of computing environments. I think I’ve achieved this, regardless of what the performance data say. The figures shouldn’t be bad, it’s just that they won’t really mean much. But I have to do it for completeness, I suppose.