The large scale selective waste routing process congregates a lot of information and is subject to a huge number of constraints, which makes it a hard problem to solve by exact methods.

This project is based on a real case scenario for one of the most important selective waste Portuguese operators.

We focus on the Vehicle Routing Problem optimization using heuristics. The estimation of the solid waste generation is based on a model using demographic and economic data.

Preliminary results will be presented and discussed.

Keywords: Environmental Management, Routing, Forecasting

That’s the abstract that has been accepted in the 24th European Conference on Operational Research, Euro XXIV Lisbon.

It’s a three day (July 12 – 14 2010) event where I expect to learn a lot and present, for the first time, my almost finished master thesis.

Euro 2010 Lisbon here I go!

I was having some trouble but after some digging I found the way (sources: here and here).

Here is a quick to do list and the commands you have to run to do it.

Install Dropbox

Delete any version of Dropbox on your computer, download and untar the Dropbox daemon to your home folder:

cd ~
rm -rf .dropbox* Dropbox
wget http://dl-web.dropbox.com/u/17/dropbox-lnx.x86-0.7.110.tar.gz
tar xzf dropbox-lnx.x86-0.7.110.tar.gz

Start the “.dropbox-dist/dropbox” executable from the terminal:

.dropbox-dist/dropbox

Copy and paste the link the Dropbox daemon gives you, into the web browser on your local computer.
Once the DB client is linked to the correct account, shut it down and start it in the background:

nohup .dropbox-dist/dropboxd &

Add Dropbox to system startup

Create a startup script:

sudo nano /etc/init.d/dropbox

Copy the text below to the new file you have created:

# chkconfig: 345 85 15
# description: Startup script for dropbox daemon
#
# processname: dropboxd
# pidfile: /var/run/dropbox.pid
#
# Source function library.
. /etc/rc.d/init.d/functions

DROPBOX_USERS=”user1 user2″

prog=dropboxd
lockfile=${LOCKFILE-/var/lock/subsys/dropbox}
RETVAL=0

start() {
echo -n $”Starting $prog”
for dbuser in $DROPBOX_USERS; do
daemon –user $dbuser /home/$dbuser/.dropbox-dist/dropboxd
done

RETVAL=$?
echo
[ $RETVAL = 0 ] && touch ${lockfile}
return $RETVAL
}

stop() {
echo -n $”Stopping $prog”
for dbuser in $DROPBOX_USERS; do
killproc /home/$dbuser/.dropbox-dist/dropboxd
done
RETVAL=$?
echo
[ $RETVAL = 0 ] && rm -f ${lockfile} ${pidfile}
}

# See how we were called.
case “$1″ in
start)
start
;;
stop)
stop
;;
restart)
stop
start
;;
*)
echo $”Usage: $prog {start|stop|restart}”
RETVAL=3
esac

exit $RETVAL

Change above the DROPBOX_USERS to include all users that want to run dropboxd (separated by spaces), and save the file.
Make the script executable:

sudo chmod +x /etc/init.d/dropbox

Add the script to the startup scripts:

sudo update-rc.d dropbox defaults

And it’s done! But if after this you want to manually start, stop or restart…

Manually start Dropbox

To start the service manually, run:

/etc/init.d/dropbox start

To stop it, run:

/etc/init.d/dropbox stop

To restart it, run:

/etc/init.d/dropbox restart

You can also check running status with:

/etc/init.d/dropbox status

Any doubt or suggestion feel free to ask!

Since I didn’t know anything about the history of one of the most used social networks I decided to buy it and I have to say I like the book, I agree with Kevin Spacey it’s “pure summer fun.. juicy, fast-paced, unputdownable”. After reading the title and starting reading the book you start looking for the genius that’s easy to find, Mark it’s a geek, a genius, no doubt about it, but the betrayal that’s a whole other story.

I recommend you read it and after that let me know if you look to facebook the same way you did, as Mark once said ”I’m CEO – Bitch.” so he can do whatever he wants with our information. To protect our privacy I suggest you subscribe the Facebook Protest and on June 6  refrain from ALL facebook related activity.

I start looking and I found MenuMeters, it’s almost as good as iStat Menus (it lacks the date & time and the temperature features) but it’s free and it gets the job done.

For now I’m satisfied but do you know anything better?

PS: Just a quick tip if you are looking for freeware apps for Mac OS X, here is a good list.

The project is Imaginartpt it’s a nice place with good high resolution wallpapers, I recommend you give it a try.

Because of that last week I bought the book Getting Things Done – How to Achieve Stress-free Productivity (GTD) by David Allen.

I read some reviews about this book, it’s placed in #1 in the Amazon Time Management list and it says in the cover “‘Allen’s ideas are nothing short of life-changing’ – Guardian” so I decided to buy it and “change my life”.

It took my two days to finish reading the book and in the end I’m glad to say that I already did some of the methods mention there but there is still room for improvements and that is what I’m working on now.

GTD is a methodology (you can see a resume of GTD in Wikipedia) that if it’s successfully implemented it will boost your energy and your efficiency and that’s what I’m looking for.

Just a tip, if you are looking for sites to buy books you may consider, the well know, Amazon.co.uk or The Book Depository (it has free delivery to Portugal).

Have you ever read this book? Care to recommend another good book (it can be about anything)?

If you have find yourself saying that you don’t have the time to… or are very busy doing… and still find time to procrastinate I suggest that the next time you see yourself procrastinating (now?!) you watch this video.

This lecture is given by Randy Pausch, he was an American professor of computer science at Carnegie Mellon University (CMU). He was elected as The 2008 TIME 100 in the category Heroes & Pioneers.

It’s an inspiring video, it’s a bit long, but I bet you that the hour you spend watching this will save a lot more hours in the future.

If you like this video, I suggest you watch the famous Randy Pausch Last Lecture: Achieving Your Childhood Dreams.

Sabendo eu que ninguém da nada a ninguém e sendo um céptico sobre todos os sites que dizem que dão dinheiro partilho convosco um site que realmente dá dinheiro em troca do preenchimento de questionários.

Não é uma fortuna mas sempre é melhor gastar o pouco tempo que procastino a fazer algo lucrativo do que andar a regar quintas. Quando te registares não te esqueças de introduz o meu e-mail no campo E-mail da pessoa que o recomendou

This sentence was written one year ago when I start this blog, 31 posts and one year later I have to say that 2009 was a nice year, I completed all the most important 2009 resolutions and I’m still here to make the most of 2010!

Looking back I notice that I didn’t post as much as I wanted to, but I will try to change it this year.

I gotta feeling that 2010 is gonna be a good good year! Stay tuned!