Allister Sanchez

Raspberry Pi

2012-03-01T08:51:00.000+01:00

This is awesome! What am I talking about? Raspberry Pi, an ultra-low-cost computer, about the size of a calling card, that you can buy at only 25USD! And as if that's not awesome enough, they say that the production model is going to be a lot smaller. For now, it runs with Fedora Linux as its operating system, but we can imagine there'll be other OSes soon too.

So... What can I say? Hats off to the ones who developed this tiny pack of awesomeness. Here's a video of a fully working model.

Starcraft 2 Terran vs Zerg

2012-02-20T22:39:00.001+01:00

I have just watched this two-part Starcraft 2 game replay on YouTube and it's so much fun. Reminds me of those days when I used to play Starcraft in our computer lab in the university. Anyway, here's the video. Have fun!

Starting Anew in 2012

2012-01-27T00:42:00.002+01:00

I've decided to give more time to blogging again. There's a lot going on for me, both personally and professionally, but I believe that spending a few minutes to reflect on things and write about it would be a good way to keep my mind sharp and my views in the right perspective. And hopefully somebody else will find my writings helpful.

So, cheers to the gods of blogging! May 2012 be a prolific year for blogging!

Paris

2011-09-27T17:11:00.002+02:00

It's been a while since my last post on this blog and I felt kinda sad about it. I still don't have much to post, although that doesn't mean that there isn't much going on in my life right now -- quite the contrary!

Anyway, the reason I'm blogging again (and hopefully it'll be more frequent) is because I heard Yael Naim's song, Paris. Actually, I've heard it for some time now but I didn't know the lyrics. A Google search today finally gave me something (from a web forum) that's understandable and readable (not just Hebrew characters). So here it is, Yael Naim's Paris with lyrics:

Paris
by Yael Naim

Barachti lemakom acher kol kach maher hachi rachok sherak hitslachti veani bepariz
Haorot dolkim afor veananim ani smecha vetov li aval kol kach kar li bepariz
Mistovevet schor uschor besimtaot ksumot mechushafot bol’ot oti ani bepariz
Binyanim yafim atem zkenim veatsilim kol kach aval haim techamemu oti bepariz

Hmmm... Loin de ma maison à Paris

Bati ad lekan lehistanver ktsat ashlaya yafa sheli nasi litfos oti ani bepariz
Shuv holechet leibud chalom atsuv ani kvar mefursemet veshom’im alay kan bepariz
Achshav hakol shelcha lochesh li merachok ani mitgaagea boi tachzeri elay kvar mipariz
Ani ohev otach ani ohev otach ani ohev otach ani ohev otach vepariz

Hmmm... Loin de mon amour à Paris

Im kol kach tov li po az lama shuv ani bocha vemishtagaat
Oui, je suis si heureuse, alors pourquoi la nuit je pleure?
Mitgaagaat bepariz

Shemesh meira oti mehachalon veod meat argish kvar et hachom
Hamatos nochet veeyn kvar ananim haosher mechalchel shuv letochi shalom pariz

Finally!

2011-04-17T23:21:00.001+02:00

I'm so happy with myself today. Why? Well, simply because after months of preparation I finally finished my first 10km running race!

It all started when my former team leader at work gave me a copy of Jogging International, a French-language magazine on running, early last year. It was a special edition on marathons, with various articles from training programs to diet and foot injuries. I don't know why exactly, but it spurred my interest in running. I actually had tried to run before that but holding that magazine in my hand made me more determined to really finish a marathon.

However, by summer (around June 2010) I realized that I was too heavy. A very slow run or even a brisk walk was enough to raise my heart rate to very high levels. So I started looking around for ways to lose weight.

An online friend introduced me to the P90X training program. This program was extremely difficult for me and it took me weeks to finally decide to commit to this program. I had to try some of the exercises, just to get a taste of it. After a session of the cardio routines (and watching a lot of testimonials on YouTube) I decided that I will do it.

I started doing classic P90X exercises in mid-September 2010, weighing in at 94kg. For the next two months, I religiously did the exercises, devoting at least an hour every night. I bought a pull-up bar, a heart rate monitor, a yoga mat, and a set of weights. The beauty of P90X is that you can easily do it at home.

The best part of P90X for me, however, was the diet. I followed the "portion approach" of the P90X diet. The fact that the first month of P90X required a protein-centric diet suits me just fine -- I love eating meat! Also, I like that I didn't have to go hungry just to lose weight. A grumbling stomach doesn't bode well for me in any case.

After 9 weeks of P90X (mid-November 2010), and losing 12kg of weight, I slowly shifted back to running. This was intentional because I was scheduled to go for a month-long vacation in the Philippines by December 2010. I didn't want to abruptly stop doing P90X, so I started skipping it on some nights and went running instead.

During my 5-week vacation in Manila, I wasn't able to do much sports. But surprisingly, I still managed to lose 2kg more. It must be due to the regular eating schedule that we had (my kids need to eat at regular intervals).

I resumed running upon my return from vacation. But then, I started having problems with my right foot. On January 24, 2011 I felt something ticked on my right foot, somewhere inside my heel, just as I was leaving my office. I suspected that it was due to the stress of running the day before that. But, I thought it was something that was gonna go away by itself.

Unfortunately, it didn't go away. I finally went to see my doctor on February 2, 2011. Ironically, it was an appointment that I set weeks earlier to get a medical certificate that will allow me to run in a race. You see I was already planning to run in the 10km race in Cannes (Le Semi de Cannes) on the 20th of February. So, obviously, I was disappointed that I couldn't go. The doctor gave me an anti-inflammatory drug and it gave me some relief. However, walking a few hundred meters was enough to trigger a bit of sharp pain just above the heel. For some twisted logic, I didn't go to a podiatrist or a sports doctor and simply limped along for the next few weeks. By early March 2011, however, my foot seems to have recovered.

If there was a good thing with my foot injury, it's that it forced me to change my style of running. I used to run with my heels hitting the ground first before my toes. In order to avoid feeling any pain with my right heel, I deliberately changed my step and forced my toe to hit the ground first. It's a bit difficult at first, but I already had previous experience with this thanks to the plyometric exercises in P90X where you have to jump and land on the floor with your only your toes hitting the ground. Also, my new pair of running shoes, Adidas Marathon 10, which I bought at half-price just before I got injured, easily allows me to run this way.

So, with my new style of running, I started monitoring my progress. I found RunKeeper which runs on my Android phone. At first, I ran a bit slower because I used to associate a toe-first step with slower jogging. But I kept at it, thinking that it's just like doing P90X Plyometrics. Soon enough, I was able to do sprints without hitting my heels on the ground.

And today, I was able to finally run 10km at a race: the 20th Semi-Marathon International de Nice! Official time: 01:03:00.69. This is also my best long-distance speed ever, faster than in any of my training runs. So I'm very, very pleased with myself today.

Next goal, a 21km race!

Finally, a new C++ standard!

2011-03-28T15:53:00.000+02:00

Earlier today, the ISO Working Group on the C++ programming language has approved the Final Draft International Standard (FDIS) for C++. The final ISO approval is expected to be in August 2011. So we can definitely call it C++2011.

As a C++ application developer, this is good news for me. There'll be lots of new things to learn about the language and better ways to write C++ code.

Thanks to the C++ Standards Committee!

Naomi Klein: Addicted to risk

2011-02-20T22:35:00.001+01:00

Our collective greed and hubris will be the end of this world.

Juan Luis Guerra: Mi Bendición (Guitar Chords and Lyrics)

2011-01-25T10:32:00.003+01:00

I discovered the Latin singer Juan Luis Guerra yesterday on Spotify and I fell in love with one of his songs "Mi Bendición". I couldn't find the guitar chords online so I decided to pick up my old guitar and write them down myself. Here goes...

Mi Bendición

Juan Luis Guerra

CM7--F-G

C Dm7 Em7 FM7

Dicen que las flores no dejaban de cantar

Dm7 G7sus4 G7

tu nombre, tu nombre cariño

C Dm7 Em7 FM7

Que las olas de los mares te hicieron un chal

Dm7 E7sus4 E7

de espuma, de nubes y lirios

Am Am/G Am/F#

Y la luna no se convenció

D7 D7sus4-D7

Y bajo a mirarte el corazón

C Dm7 Em7 FM7

Y al mirarte dijo que no había visto un sol

Dm7 E7sus4 E7 FM7

radiante, mas bello que mi bendición

G Em7 C7sus4 C7 FM7

Tenerte, besarte, andar de la mano contigo

G Em7 C7sus4 C7 FM7

Mi cielo, mirarte, decirte un te quiero al oído

Em7 G7sus4,G7 CM7 FM7-G

yo te lo digo, que bendición

C Dm7 Em7 FM7

Dicen que las palmas aplaudían al oír

Dm7 G7sus4 G7

tus pasos, tus pasos cariño

C Dm7 Em7 FM7

Que los ríos salen de su cauce al contemplar

Dm7 E7sus4 E7

tus ojos, tus ojos divinos

Am Am/G Am/F#

Y un lucero no se convenció

D7 D7sus4-D7

Y bajo a mirarte el corazón

C Dm7 Em7 FM7

Y al mirarte dijo que no había visto luna

Dm7 E7sus4 E7 FM7

llena, mas bella que mi bendición

G Em7 C7sus4 C7 FM7

Tenerte, besarte, andar de la mano contigo

G Em7 C7sus4 C7 FM7

Mi cielo, mirarte, decirte un te quiero al oído

Em7 G7sus4,G7 CM7

yo te lo digo, que bendición

Fm CM7

Cuando me hablas oigo un coro de amor para dos

Fm G FM7

El falsete de un te quiero pegado a tu voz, que bendición

G Em7 C7sus4 C7 FM7

Tenerte, besarte, andar de la mano contigo

G Em7 C7sus4 C7 FM7

Mi cielo, mirarte, decirte un te quiero al oído

Em7 G7sus4,G7 FM7

yo te lo digo, que bendición

G Em7 C7sus4 C7 FM7

Tenerte, besarte, andar de la mano contigo

G Em7 C7sus4 C7 FM7

Mi cielo, mirarte, decirte un te quiero al oído

Em7 G7sus4,G7 CM7

yo te lo digo, que bendición

FM7-G CM7

Que bendición…

Living in Manila

2010-12-29T09:41:00.000+01:00

It's great to be home with family and friends. More so when you're doing it during the Christmas holidays in the Philippines -- officially the world's longest.

I left Nice earlier this month to spend a bit more than a month in the Philippines. Since my wife now works in the country's financial capital city of Makati, we've decided to stay put in the Metro Manila area. It would've been more fun back in my hometown in Iligan, but the thought of having my first Christmas in the Philippine capital is actually a bit exciting.

For all the heavy traffic, the sea of people (at least 12 million people live in the National Capital Region), the pollution (noise, smoke, dust, you name it), you can't help but love Manila (unless all you want to do is jog or do a marathon -- because, really, you'd have to be a bit suicidal to run right next to Manila's roads). Manila is a city that NEVER sleeps. It's got almost everything an average guy like me could want -- provided you have money, of course. The ubiquitous shopping malls -- THE MALLS!!! I know, I know, it's unbridled capitalism but I sometimes wish they have a lot of those in France. They just make shopping so convenient.

I've never really liked the thought of living in Manila (or any capital city for that matter) but now that I've tried it, I am actually surprised to realize that it's not so bad after all!

Related Reading(s):

Introduction to Hurdy-Gurdy

2010-09-20T20:30:00.000+02:00

I really enjoyed this presentation by Caroline Phillips where she introduced a rather complex musical instrument called the hurdy-gurdy (also called "la vielle à roue" in French, "la ghironda" in Italian, and "zanfona" or "cinfonía" in Spanish). The Basque song that Ms. Phillips sang (whose lyrics I add below) is also quite moving.

Egunsentia, Oihan, goizero da sortzen
Maitatzeko girela digula aitortzen
Hain hurbil bihotzaren taupada urruna
Maitatzeko ez bada alperrik duguna

Translation in English:

Oihan, every morning the dawn appears
Confirming that we are here to love each other
The beating of a heart far away yet so near
Means nothing if it has no one to love

Oh! Kinabuhi (Oh, Life!)

2010-09-17T11:43:00.001+02:00

I've just seen that video of famous boxer Manny Pacquiao singing a sort of medley of Visayan songs so I thought I'd post the lyrics and translation of one of them here. This song is called "Oh! Kinabuhi" by Filipino singer Victor Wood.

Oh! Kinabuhi
Victor Wood

Inig sidlak sa adlaw sa sayo sa kabuntagon
Masud-ong ta ang katahoman ning kalibutan
Gidayandayan sa nahigmata nga kalanggaman
Nga nanag-awit ning kabukiran

Ug mopadulong sa pagsalop sa kahapunon
Ug sa dughan nga walay naglaylay
Sa kasing-kasing nga way nagsapnay
Sama kanako nga sinalikway ay magamahay

Chorus:

Oh kinabuhi sama ka sa usa ka gapnod
Nga gianod-anod sa bul-og ning mga luha
Way kinutoban way hunong ang iyang guidulngan
Ayayay-ayayay nganong sakiton man.

Here's the English translation:

Oh Life!
by Victor Wood
(translated by Allister Sanchez)

When the sun shines early in the morning
We'll see the beauty of this world
Adorned by the awoken birds
That sing in these mountains

And it heads to set in the afternoon
And to the bossom where no one lulls
To the heart that no one cradles
Like me who's rejected, will be hurt

Chorus:

Oh life, like flotsam
Washed away in the rush of these tears
Unending, ceaseless in its destination
Ayayay-ayayay why ache over it?

The Child-Driven Education

2010-09-11T23:50:00.001+02:00

According to education scientist Sugata Mitra, children can learn by themselves. And with this simple idea, children from places where no teachers go can still learn with the right (long distance) guidance. Quite an impressive study!

Stupid or Evil

2010-08-24T13:46:00.000+02:00

This video from The Daily Show is a great exposition of the danger of media companies such as Fox News Corp. twisting information to create ignorance and fear to manipulate public opinion.

In defense of religious freedom: the "Ground Zero Mosque" issue

2010-08-17T14:41:00.000+02:00

Here is Keith Olbermann's passionate defense of religious freedom and exposition of the cynical manipulation of popular sentiment against the building of a "mosque" near "Ground Zero" at the World Trade Center site. I hope every American racist and bigot gets to hear his words. Well done, Keith!

Why the world needs WikiLeaks

2010-08-01T14:52:00.000+02:00

This is a TED Talks interview of Julian Assange, co-founder of the whistle-blower website WikiLeaks. It's amazing how this small organization is able to release more classified information than all of the world media organizations combined.

He wishes for the cloths of heaven

2010-07-09T11:29:00.000+02:00

Had I the heavens' embroidered cloths,
Enwrought with golden and silver light,
The blue and the dim and the dark cloths
Of night and light and the half-light,
I would spread the cloths under your feet:
But I, being poor, have only my dreams;
I have spread my dreams under your feet;
Tread softly, because you tread on my dreams.

-- William Butler Yeats

Revisiting basic statistics

2010-07-08T17:21:00.005+02:00

A friend of mine works for a physical therapy clinic and she needed to decide if a certain patient's physical ability -- in this case, his hand grip strength -- is good enough. She let the patient use a strength measuring device and did 3 trial measurements. The device comes with a table of typical strengths (giving the average strength, μ, and the standard deviation, σ) for different age groups and gender.

From the 3 measurements, she calculated the average measured strength of the patient's hand grip. My friend's problem starts because the average measured strength is lower than the patient's age group's lower limit, μ-σ. Her question is: how can she trust the average of her 3 measurements, and thus conclude safely that the patient really has a weak hand grip?

To answer this question, we have to make an assumption that if the patient would have to make a large number (n) of trials, the measured grip strengths would vary or fluctuate around the average measurement and that if we draw a graph of the distribution of measurements, we would see a "bell curve", as shown below.

This curve is also known as the normal distribution, and is often the behavior of the result of measurement of many natural quantities.

But in most practical uses, we won't have data that will look like this smooth bell curve. Instead, what we have is a discrete graph of measured data that can only approach the bell curve when the number (n) of sample measurements becomes large enough, similar to this graph below:

As a consequence, we can see that the calculation of the average measurement can only be very reliable when the number (n) of sample measurements is large enough. But my friend will have to live with just 3 trial measurements (and the poor patient probably can't do a lot of tests). So is there a way she can test the usability of her results? Luckily, there is.

The average measured grip strength has a precision, ε, that can be calculated based on the standard deviation σ of the data and of number (n) of trials: ε = σ / sqrt( n ). Then we relate the value of ε to the coefficient of variation, σ/μ, of her measured data, which she calculated to be 0.15: ε/μ = (σ/μ)(1/sqrt( n)).

So, for just 3 trials, ε/μ = 0.15 / sqrt( 3 ) = 0.087. That is, the precision of the average measured grip strength is about 8.7% of its value. Hence, we can say that her measurements were precise enough and that the poor patient's grip strength is really lower than μ-σ. Simply said, the poor guy's hand grip is really weaker than more than 84% of his age group.

Disclaimer: Of course, my friend will have to decide for herself the proper course of treatment for her patient and this discussion should be taken with a grain of salt. For one, I have a feeling that the actual distribution for the higher-age groups don't really follow the normal distribution.

Related reading(s):

Bring on the learning revolution!

2010-07-07T12:39:00.001+02:00

Our education systems need to be revolutionized!

Bon courage, President Benigno Simeon C. Aquino III!

2010-06-30T05:52:00.000+02:00

I sure didn't vote for Senator Noynoy Aquino during the 2010 Presidential Elections. I preferred someone else. However, for the future of the country, I wish all the best for President Aquino and his administration. This is a difficult time for most of the country. I can only hope and pray that he succeeds in making the Philippines a just, peaceful and prosperous nation.

For the tough days ahead, I hope, Mr. President, that you will lead the nation and make the best decisions for the country. May you have the wisdom and the courage to do the right things at the right time.

Bon courage, Mister President.

Who wants an iPhone smoothie?

2010-06-26T12:43:00.000+02:00

This is one awesome blender!

My first Adobe Flex application

2010-06-25T21:13:00.001+02:00

I have always liked learning about new programming tools and am always on the lookout for which tools would do best which job. From time to time, I check on the status of rich internet applications, and in particular Adobe Flex (or Adobe AIR), which is a great framework in case you want nice user interfaces.

Finally, my chance came. My wife needed a software to record and analyze the trend of prices of various products on the market. So, basically, she needed a convenient way to store information into a database and display it on a chart, a use some statistical tools to come up with business decisions. And most importantly, she needed soon -- in about a week's time.

Adobe Flex first came to my mind and after a quick research, I determined that it's the right tool for the job. It's very convenient for making graphical controls (text input, buttons, tables), data visualization (charts), and -- after a bit of clarification -- it handles local file databases (sqlite). These can all be done with just a single XML file with a sprinkling of ActionScript in places.

For my first attempt, I spent a whole weekend (2 days) to come up with something almost complete. However, I was not satisfied with how my code looked. So I rewrote the whole code, specially user interface, for another day. Not bad for someone who's never programmed in Flex before. And my wife was happy as a clam -- she even showed it to her boss :-)

I called TrendViewer and here are some snapshots.

Of course, there are still some tiny bugs to be fixed, and there might be some performance issues with bigger data sets in the future, but this weekend I'll take a well-deserved rest.

Looking for a Chinese name

2010-06-18T10:37:00.004+02:00

My second son, Andrew Meson, is now going to a new school since we moved late last month to the capital of the Philippines. It turns out that this school is catering to the East Asian community in the capital (mostly Chinese-, Korean-, and Japanese-Filipino students). And to add to our surprise, we were asked to give our son a Chinese name!

So, I spent the whole day yesterday trying to come up with a good name for my son. I already know some Chinese characters because I have learned Japanese during my stay as a student in Japan. Still, I found it a rather challenging task. So I can only wonder what it would be like for a parent who has no knowledge whatsoever of the Chinese language.

I found that many "baby names" websites actually have a list of popular Chinese names. So, if you don't want to complicate things, you just pick one from there. The downside is that it's not exactly tailored to what you might want for your child's name. For that I found the Mandarin Tools website really useful, in particular their Chinese character dictionary. Google's translation tool also helps, especially if you want to know the Chinese equivalent of common English names. Using it, I found that the Mandarin for Sanchez is 桑切斯 (Sāngqièsī). I've decided to use the first character (桑 Sāng, which literally means "mulberry tree") as the short version of our family name. And after several discussions with my wife, we've decided on our son's name: 桑梅森 (Sāng Méisēn).

So, did I pick a good name?

Related reading(s):

Eating right to prevent and cure diseases

2010-06-16T17:04:00.000+02:00

I saw this very interesting TED talk by Dr. William Li: Can we eat to starve cancer?

The idea is that a lot of diseases, from cancer to obesity, are related to the growth of blood vessels or angiogenesis. And in the end, Dr. Li presents a strong case for changing our diets to control angiogenesis and, hence, control or prevent diseases like cancer and obesity.

Related reading(s):

Football Frenzy!

2010-06-15T23:48:00.000+02:00

The biggest sports event of the planet, the FIFA World Cup 2010, has started last Friday, the 11th of June 2010. Finally, I am in a country where football reigns supreme -- unlike my native Philippines that's living inside it's own NBA basketball bubble -- so I get to watch ALL the games!

By tomorrow, all the teams will have played their first matches. Germany leads the pack with a staggering 4-0 slaughter of the Australians. Let's see if they can keep it up. South Korea also did a splendid 2-0 win over the sluggish Greeks, and so did the Dutch against the Danes (although in a less spectacular manner). The Brazilians, though not quite showing good teamwork, have managed to win 2-1 over the North Koreans.

The most memorable gaffe so far is that of England's goalkeeper Robert Green, and for his sake I hope someone else (perhaps the Spanish keeper? hehehehe) will commit a graver error. So I'm keeping my fingers crossed for tomorrow's match between Spain and Switzerland.

Till then, allez, allez, olé!

By the way, what do you think of those noisy vuvuzelas?

Related reading(s):

Magnitka

2010-06-11T01:42:00.001+02:00

This video by Sasha Aleksandrov, titled Magnitka, reminded me of what used to be the National Steel Corporation in Iligan City, Philippines. It amazes me how such crude industrial environments can be viewed as a living piece of art.