Alexandre's Notebook

Github Blog

2010-04-15T12:30:00.001+03:00

http://al3xandr3.github.com/ is a better platform for writing longer texts, minimalist design, focused on my original content and not to be updated frequently. Is hosted on github.com pages, using jekkyl site generator and git for version control.

Have now improved workflow: I write in (aqua)emacs using orgmode, do orgmode-export-project and git commit the changes that updates the site directly. Also have full control over the site html, so i can make it in whatever layout i feel like(even if is ugly :P ).

source code is here: http://github.com/al3xandr3/al3xandr3.github.com

Note: I'm still keeping the http://alexandrenotebook.blogspot.com/ for re-posting, re-linking, and other shorter content.

jQuery Twitter 'mini' plugin

2010-04-10T17:44:00.010+03:00

Here's a little jQuery plugin for displaying a twitter feed into a web page. The goal was to put my latest 'tweets' on my blog, and also learn jQuery. Ended up making a 'mini' jQuery plugin that can easily be added into any web page.

Demo:

For the code:

$(function() {
  $('#tw').click(function() {
    $('#tw').twitter({'user':'al3xandr3','count':2});
  });
});

click me

The plugin is running on the sidebar of this blog under the 'ON TWITTER' title.

How It Works

It makes an Ajax request to twitter that returns json data of the feed. That data is then read and injected into the selected html element(s).

See in:

$.ajax({
  url: "http://twitter.com/status/user_timeline/" + settings.user + 
       ".json?count="+ (settings.count+1) +"&callback=?",
  dataType: 'json',
  success: function (data) {
  $.each(data, function (i, item) {
            
    //text
    $this.hide().append("<p id=" + item.id + ">" + 
                        replaceURLWithHTMLLinks(item.text) + 
                        "&nbsp&nbsp</p>").fadeIn('slow');
            
    //date
    if (typeof prettyDate(item.created_at) !== "undefined") {
      $("<br>").appendTo("#" + item.id); //line break
      $("<a>" + prettyDate(item.created_at) + "</a>").attr( {
        'href':   ('http://twitter.com/' + settings.user + 
                      '/status/' + item.id),
        'target': '_blank'
      }).css("font-size", "75%").appendTo("#" + item.id);
    }
  });}
});

jQuery is a very nice designed lib, simple and powerfull. Some say its just like a functional programming Monad.

Full source code is available in github: http://github.com/al3xandr3/jquery-twitter-plugin

I'm now a ...

2010-04-03T22:56:00.003+03:00

Papa, Issi, Daddy of a beautiful baby boy, born on the 2nd April at 4am with 3.5kg and 51cm.

UI Optimization(AB testing) Tools, the Future?

2010-03-16T22:49:00.010+02:00

How it works:

You plugin the AB testing tool to your application and say: optimize page A, on the measurable goal X (for example downloads).
The Tool by itself: creates new UI variation -> tests it -> analyses results -> picks best one -> creates new UI variation -> tests it -> etc… This goes ad eternum… Much like natural evolution, keeps experimenting/mutating, until it finds the best combinations.

Details:

New UI variations do not need(shouldn't even) be 100% random, they should use smarter techniques like: genetic(and other search/optimization) algorithms + tried out design heuristics + branding guidelines(avoid color A, use font B, etc..) + (sampled)user filtering + some amount of randomness + etc..
Knowledge Base: Build a Database with the test results, that collects knowledge of what worked and what didn't (for a given context). Just as Pandora collects user input for building its recomendation system, this accumulated knowledge would serve as input for the task of generating the new UI variations. Note: The amount of data is key; the bigger the amount of test results, the closer to all possible variations thus the closer to all the best optimizations. With a large amount of test and tried out results quicky we would get the perfect UI rules.
Page Flow: Tool should optimize not only the page itself, but also navigation along pages, customizing content depending on the flow For example, forward the user to a different page, depending on the keyword used in a search engine when arriving at the website.
Personalized UI: What works for user A might not work for B. A 16 years old likes different things than a 50 years old. Even for a unique user, his tastes changes over over time: winter vs summer, week vs weekend, working hours vs non-working hours etc… So the perfect interface might need to be changing over time(?) Don't assume, experiment and see if it works…

Automating todo tasks lists reports

2010-03-08T09:12:00.009+02:00

Here's the geek automation of the week, its for helping creating reports from my TODO tasks list when using the amazing emacs org-mode(see here whats org-mode all about).

(simplified) Work Flow

I get a request, add it into my todo list queue, marking it as a TODO item.
Work, work, work, guided by the todo listed tasks, balancing priority and effort and (..add your own reason here..).
When finished, mark an item DONE.
Generate a report every week with the done tasks.

Generating the Report

(I use this setup on Mac, with some adaptations should also on Linux and Windows)

Every week i then generate a report of the DONE Tasks, by running:

# file: get-work-done.sh 
# run: sh get-work-done.sh

# Uses emacs to extract the DONE items from work.org, generating a work-done.csv
/Applications/Aquamacs.app/Contents/MacOS/Aquamacs -batch -l ~/.emacs -eval '(org-batch-agenda-csv "+TODO=\"DONE\"" org-agenda-files (quote ("/.../work.org")))' > work-done.csv

# Applies desired report formatting to the exported work-done.csv, generating work.csv
ruby format-report.rb work-done.csv

# Clean up the originally exported file
rm work-done.csv

# Opens the final file in the default .csv handler, typically Excel.
open work.csv

(see the comments "#" to understand what it does in each step)

Then I use the format-report.rb bellow to apply formatting to the report, for example: add my own header, add/remove columns, Dates, change names, calculate values, etc, etc... see example:

# file: format-report.rb

flines = File.open(ARGV[0]).readlines

column_map = { 
  "friendly_name_i_use1"  => "required_final_report_name1", 
  "friendly_name_i_use2"  => "required_final_report_name2",  
  "friendly_name_i_use3"  => "required_final_report_name3"
}

File.open( "work.csv","w+") do |fl|  
  fl.puts "header1,header2,header3,header4"
  flines.each do |l|
    a = l.split(",")

    # Time, mapping-defined-in-column_map, original-column-2, original-column-3
    fl.puts Time.now.strftime("%m/%d/%Y") + "," + (column_map[a[1]] || a[1]) + "," + a[2] "," + a[3]
  end
end

And voila, i run this and an excel sheet opens up with the report of the week.

Guardian Data Blog

2010-03-05T09:03:00.002+02:00

A nice concept from www.guardian.co.uk, Data Blog shares official good data free with the world, for your own plotting entertainment. Hosted in the nice and easy google docs. With things like:

here

book: The Undercover Economist

2010-03-02T09:02:00.003+02:00

Has (economic)ideas that are useful for everyone to be aware of, as for example an explanation of the pricing of coffee shops, but same ideas apply to all goods. Maybe a bit more "traditional economics" oriented than the Freakonomics book, but in similar fashion.

How Randomness Rules Our Lives

2009-12-21T13:38:00.007+02:00

Authors @ Google talk with Leonard Mlodinow about his book, "The Drunkard's Walk: How Randomness Rules Our Lives".

I haven't read the book, but very much enjoyed the talk.

Euclid's Elements

2009-12-07T09:30:00.016+02:00

Written by the Greek mathematician Euclid in Alexandria circa 300 BC, Euclid's Elements is a collection of mathematical definitions, axioms, theorems and proofs about geometry.

Is the most successful and influential textbook ever written, one of the most influential works in the history of mathematics and is estimated to be second only to the Bible in the number of editions published.
- wikipedia

A proof, from Euclid's Elements:

And there's of course an (English)online version with interactive demonstrations

Functional Programming - Erik Meijer

2009-11-26T08:52:00.007+02:00

Enjoying these lectures:

A journey into the world of Functional Programming with functional language purist and high priest of the lambda calculus, Dr. Erik Meijer.

lectures here

3rd European Lisp Symposium in Portugal

2009-11-19T09:31:00.011+02:00

The purpose of the European Lisp Symposium is to provide a forum for the discussion and dissemination of all aspects of design, implementation and application of any of the Lisp dialects. We encourage everyone interested in Lisp to participate.

Call for Contributions: we would welcome both papers describing original work, not published elsewhere, and submissions for tutorial sessions.

Details here...

Functional

2009-11-13T10:24:00.009+02:00

Here's a few articles from Slava Akhmechet (on www.defmacro.org) that i enjoyed reading:

And there's more.

YQL

2009-11-10T09:08:00.016+02:00

The Yahoo! Query Language (YQL) web service allows to query web data in an SQL-like syntax, so you can do things like:

Get all cat pictures from flickr:

select * from flickr.photos.search where text='cat'

Get pictures from flickr that have interestingness starting with word Chinese:

select * from flickr.photos.interestingness where title like 'Chinese%'

Get sushi places in San Francisco that have a rating bigger than 4:

select * from local.search where query='sushi'
and location='san francisco, ca'
and Rating.AverageRating > 4.0

Get the profile of all my friends(my social connections):

select * from social.profile where guid IN
(select guid from social.connections where owner_guid=me)

It allows to combine several different sources in the same query, just like a SQL query that uses several tables, is possible to join results of GEOIP services with restaurant rating services, rss feeds, financial information, weather service, etc etc...

Nice one Yahoo!

Screencast: Introducing YQL

YQL site

The book of Odds

2009-10-22T11:55:00.005+03:00

Collection of Odds about everything here (on US population).

The odds a man does not own a pair of blue jeans are 1 in 10 (US, 2001).
The odds a man using a public restroom was observed not washing his hands are 1 in 2.99 (US, 2007).
The odds a woman owns a pair of high heels are 1 in 1.64 (US, 2001).
The odds a person 25 or older with a master's degree has an income of $100,000 or more are 1 in 5.43 (US, 3/2007).
The odds a female 25 or older with a master's degree has an income of $100,000 or more are 1 in 10.98 (US, 3/2007).
more...

Hermosa y Horrible- a.sáxeo

2009-10-18T22:27:00.004+03:00

a.sáxeo in a Spanish art gallery

Javascript validator on Emacs (v2)

2009-10-12T09:12:00.015+03:00

A Javascript validator that I use frequently, mentioned here for Textmate, now on Emacs:

(defun my-js-validate ()
  (interactive)
  (if (string-match "\\.js$" (buffer-file-name))
      (shell-command
       (concat
        "java -jar /Bins/Javascript/rhino1_7R2/js.jar /Bins/Javascript/lint/rhino_jslint.js "
        (buffer-file-name (current-buffer))))))

(defun my-js-hooks ()
  (progn
    (message "Entered Javascript Mode")
    (add-hook 'after-save-hook 'my-js-validate)))

(add-hook 'javascript-mode-hook 'my-js-hooks)

To force to run: M-x my-js-validate

With the hooks setup, whenever a javascript file is saved then my-js-validate is executed.

(if you use js2-mode or espresso-mode, then you need to change 'javascript-mode-hook accordingly, for example to 'espresso-mode-hook)

less calculus, more probabilities

2009-10-10T09:10:00.001+03:00

PT - 2009

2009-10-05T10:16:00.000+03:00

PT - 2009

2009-10-03T10:11:00.001+03:00

re-post: Standard Deviation explained

2009-09-24T12:20:00.006+03:00

Why use the standard deviation instead of the more intuitive mean deviation? Found a nice explanation here.

PT bedroom bookshelf

2009-09-15T09:12:00.003+03:00

book: Career 2.0

2009-09-13T20:24:00.007+03:00

Good career advice.

My Takeaways:

Ultimately the responsibility for your career and your life rests with one and only one person. You.
Be passioned about your work.
Keep on learning, keep on building your intellectual portfolio.
Select your goals and remind them frequently.
Breakdown your goals into weekly and even daily actions.
Sharing knowledge, by writing and speaking publicly, deepens your grasp of the knowledge.

This book is also good reference of public speaking techniques.

Thanks Erki, for the suggestion.

Michael Jackson Dance Tribute - Tallinn

2009-09-03T09:54:00.003+03:00

Awesome dancing in one of the most busiest streets of Tallinn.

FlightCaster

2009-09-01T10:03:00.002+03:00

“FlightCaster predicts flight delays. We use an advanced algorithm that scours data on every domestic flight for the past 10-years and matches it to real-time conditions. We help you evaluate alternative options and help connect you to the right person to make the change.” check it out

Its a very interesting mix of Clojure, Rails, Hadoop, Amazon EC2 and YCombinator.

Basketball Throws

2009-08-27T09:19:00.008+03:00

A little probability simulation, using Clojure and Incanter, hosted on google docs: