a journal of a researcher

My Christmas Reading List

2012-01-10T19:19:00.000-08:00

I normally spend Christmas and New Year vacation to travel around the world. But this year, I spent my time lying in my sick bed and reading some books which I do not have time to read in my usual days. I enjoyed the solitude days and deep thinking (or sleepy think?).Steve Jobs (by Walter Isaacson): a good book to know all the characters of Jobs. Especially impressed by the persistence of

An IT era without hardware and software

2011-07-25T09:49:00.001-07:00

Do you see the cloud is coming? Soon, you will not buy hardware and software. Well, you still need a basic computer to type and connect the Internet. But your company will have no more a data center with all the wired servers. They are over the cloud. And the software to run your company, like the ERP system, the email system, the database, and the computation software, are all running on the

What Google Nexus is not good

2011-07-25T09:35:00.000-07:00

I am using Google Nexus phone for about one month. I should say it is not a phone with high quality. It more like a prototype with good ideas. But the phone is not very solid as iPhone or Blackberry. I just compare it with iPhone3.1. The battery life is shorter than iPhone.2. The GPS is way too slow. You cannot use it effectively, because it could not locate your location fast and precise enough.

RIM and Playbook

2011-06-24T09:25:00.000-07:00

We received two more Blackberry Torch and six more Playbook from RIM this week. Our NSERC Engage project goes well. I consider the extra hardware is a support from RIM. iPhone changed the smartphone market. RIM still did OK, if compared to companies like Motorola. Its Blackberry Torch is compared with iPhone 4. And its OS is considered less error compared to Android. However, Blackberry is not on

Playbook, iphone, and google android phone

2011-06-22T20:44:00.000-07:00

I am busy in the summer to work for the nserc engage project. We are using RIM’s playbook for a hospital application. At the same time, I am a three years user of iPhone 3 and a new user to Google’s Nexus S.Playbook: the Hospital has an iphone solution already. But for some reasons, they want the playbook solution. Why? Do not think that once you use iPhone, you cannot live without it. Playbook

The Matrix

2011-03-10T20:02:00.000-08:00

The Matrix is a 1999 movie and the two sequels appeared in 2003. I came back to the three movies after I saw some of new movies of Keanu Reeves. I like Keanu plays super heroes than he plays romantic dramas. Especially, he presented a perfect Neo in the Matrix. The three Matrix are complex enough. This time, I even downloaded the scripts to really understand the story. No need to say the Matrix

programming model in industry

2011-02-14T20:59:00.000-08:00

I touched a little bit android programming. Actually it is not really android, it is just java. I really like this strategy. I think google is really a better strategic player. Android soon gained 24% market share, surpassing many long time players. And the ecosystem around android could be even healthier. Think how many developers could work on android directly.Recently I contacted several

Season of going home

2010-08-23T05:22:00.000-07:00

Year after year, I just returned to China a week or two in the summer. In my eyes, it is like a Chinese saying: “although the garden is still there, it is no more my home.”Needless to say that China is getting better and better. Now, it is the No. 2 economics in the world, surpassing Japan in this year. Things are all produced in China, cheap and abundant. The cities are built modern and big.

Service Cup 2010 Results

2010-07-13T14:28:00.000-07:00

I just went back from ICWS2010. I chaired this year’s service cup. And the results are posted on the Web site. It is always an exciting event. In the SOA and Clouds domain, the students are the major force to bring the new application and new ways to do things into the domain. This year we are on clouds – applications and algorithms on clouds.My plan to the next year is: 1) two tracks: clouds and

Google I/O 2010

2010-05-26T02:50:00.001-07:00

Google I/O 2010 finished on May 20. Very interesting to see what google is doing.1. Android: the message pushing is innovative. You can push content from Web browser to the Android device. Other things you can imagine from google search and from iPhone.2. HTML5: I am just teaching XHTML. It seems xml is not so integrated into HTML. People are using HTML5 for video and animation content. However,

Some truths a student may not know

2010-05-19T08:08:00.000-07:00

Students come and go in a university. However, many students do not know how the university works beyond their classroom and courses. The undergraduate students do not know that my teaching counts only 40% of my work load. They probably surprised that I have projects worth a million dollars to run. And I have another group of graduate students to supervise.The graduate students may not know that

My Linux box finally set up

2010-04-18T14:34:00.000-07:00

It was prepared by Eric Zhao almost one year ago. Now, I just injected some content into it. Here is my sand box at home. I plan to put demos on it.

Eric Zhao defenced his thesis

2010-04-18T14:33:00.000-07:00

Eric Zhao succeeded his thesis defence this week. His thesis titled “Repairing Web Service Compositions Based on Planning Graph” is evaluated “very good” by the committee, the highest grade which represents within top 10%. To have a successful defence, a student really needs to know his/her staff – with a well prepared presentation and answer the questions with good knowledge (if not all the

What should we teach new software Developers?

2010-01-31T08:38:00.000-08:00

Bjarne Stroustrup, the inventor of C++, wrote an article in ACM Communication to discuss what should we teach new software developers. He discussed the separation of computer science teaching to the practice of industry. It is what I also observed. The students do not know how to use what they learn about algorithms and data structures when they hack the code. In addition, the students never

I am in Paris

2009-12-23T16:56:00.001-08:00

Launch Service Cup 2010

2009-12-16T08:28:00.000-08:00

It is my third year to chair Service Cup. In 2010, the theme is “Applications and Algorithms on Clouds”. We want to see business applications as well as algorithms run on commercial or private clouds. As clouds software and hardware are available now in many ways, it is possible for universities and companies to launch clouds project. I should say, it is also a learning process for me to this new

Reborn of Computer Labs

2009-12-09T08:45:00.000-08:00

A chronicle article proves my idea – the computer labs used for teaching need to reconfigure themselves in order to be better used. Most students, over 85% as the article says, have their own laptops. The pattern of the usage of the lab is changing. Students can work on their own laptop at a more comfortable places like in their own bedroom or even in their own bed. The lab becomes a gathering

THE University Ranking and University Qualities

2009-10-26T21:45:00.000-07:00

Times posted its 6rh edition the THE – QS World University Ranking recently and received wide responses. By the way, I got my Ph.D. from the No. 49 and am also an alumina from the No. 29. But this does mean too much. What I am interested is the criteria: Academic Peer Review (40%), Employer Review (10%), Faculty Student Ratio (20%), Citations per faculty (20%), International Faculty (5%) and

The Iceland Strategy on Data Center

2009-10-13T21:32:00.000-07:00

Probably no country was hit by the economic crisis than the Iceland. Pulled back from banking industry, Iceland turns back to its rich nature resources again. The following is based on a yesterday BBC report.This time, it is about data center. It is said that the data centers produce CO2 as much as the aviation flights. Iceland’s cheap and renewable energy, cool climate and water make it an ideal

A Concordia Alunima

2009-10-13T21:30:00.000-07:00

Today I found that the CIO of the federal government is a woman and a bachelor of science from Concordia University. See a recent report about her , and her appointment.

The European School vs. the North American School of Research

2009-10-03T10:25:00.000-07:00

I like the European school of research. Here people are trained well. The atmosphere of research is strong. The struggling and surviving atmosphere is less. I feel that research can be a part of your life, a part of your life style. We do not link research to the pure interests gain in our lives. In North America, research is a tough career. The successful rate is so low that only the most

On my jogging route today

2009-09-15T13:55:00.001-07:00