Deviant Abstraction

I have been selected for the Google Summer of Code application!

Yes. Yes. Yes.

I will be working on JackRabbit, a really interesting repository project based on the JSR 170 (the Java Content Repository API).

Here is the project: Jackrabbit Backup.

“Implement a tool for backing up and restoring content in an Apache Jackrabbit content repository. In addition to the basic content hierarchies, the tool should be able to efficiently manage binary content, node version histories, custom node types, and namespace mappings. Incremental or selective backups would be a nice addition, but not strictly necessary.”

I assume I will have a busy summer and a brand new Apple laptop (:D) at the end of the summer.

I will post here regular updates on how everything going… This will be useful at least for next year contestant.

Link to my application
Google Summer of Code

Business 2.0 has an interesting article on mobile future. Nothing new. Nothing revolutionnary. But a nice article to summarize and evangelize.

Mainstream is catching on.

Link

Either you get or you don’t get STNG. If you get it, you will be happy to know an auction of Star Trek items (from episodes, from movies ) will be held soon. If you don’t get it, please ignore this post politely.

Via Eric Sink’s Weblog (I want too the Resikkan flute from Inner Light - one the most beautiful they ever made).

Link to the auction

Here is an article on OpensLaszlo. Computer programmers discard too easily Flash and its suite. It has some real advantages though. It does make some programming easier.

The kind of thing you can do with Laszlo:

Link

Microsoft has just launched a contest to develop cool bots for MSN Messenger. I invite all of you to enter in. This seems like a good idea. No one has yet figured out something interesting to do with bots (and agents in Research). It seems to be the kind of contest which would be won on the idea sides. Technically programming a bot is not hard (unless you want it to pass the Turing test).





Here are the offered prizes:

• Grand Prize – Alienware MJ-12 7550 Workstation worth $10,000 USD
• 1st Prize – Bose Lifestyle 48 DVD Home Entertainment System worth $5,000 USD
• 5 x 2nd Prize – Alienware Sentia M3200 System, backpack and $200 Think Geek certificate
• 10 x 3rd Prize – Garmin Nuvi 360 sat nav systems worth $1,000 USD
• Users Choice Award – 80GB USB Portable drive, DX1 Input System and LED Binary Watch worth $500 USD

Good luck.

More information on the contest (French)

Bots examples (French)

The contest

Yahoo! presented itself to their financial analysts. It is a great (and huge) read. I will try to comment on it later. In the meantime, I invite all of you to at least open it and look at the webcast and the slides.

Yahoo! is not anymore the much touted company it used to be. However, it is still an Internet giant and it builds quietly a new Web through careful acquisitions and good R&D (mobile, semantic web mostly I think).

It has a huge power as a mainstream platform and totally underestimated (they did not build their brand through PR as did Google). The Web people are on Yahoo! They used to be on AOL. They hope to be on Google.

Yahoo! is taking a path worth following and an original one.

Other blogs have mentionned it; especially the excellent Read/Write Web. But no one really seems to care, especially the blogosphere. They might be missing an important event. Yahoo! has defined its strategy quite precisely for the next five years.

Their new home page is a consequence of their new strategy. Their declaration of war to the old Web. (OK at least of intention). They were still supporting Netscape 3 last year. It is a very meaningful step. (Terry Semel is a Hollywood guy: he knows the power of symbol). We will see how far they conquer and if their declaration of intention (those links below and the new home page) will work. We will watch them.
If you want to sell them something, I would suggest to read all this carefully.
Link to the event page

Link to the slides (PDF - 12.2 Mb)

Link to the webcast

Update 05/25/06
One article on this

For those who have not heard, the EFF is suing AT&T for its participation in an illegal NSA surveillance program. Wired has published a good article on this and some evidence provided by the EFF, especially AT&T’s internal documents provided by one of their technician (on EFF side).

Computer geeks know how to protect themselves from the NSA (basically encrypting everything and not being from Al Qaeda) and even though the NSA is way more advanced than civilian cryptanalysts, huge keys should still work (>= 4096 bits for instance) They could use computing breakthrough (quantum computing, new algorithms,…) to break them, but I doubt they have had.
The US way is to declassify fast any technology that can have a lot of impact on US economy and a breakthrough such as this would. This is how it happened with transistor and computers. A few month after their inventions, they were declassified. We are not anymore in the Cold War, so there is even less need to act like this.

It is true though it seems US military (including NSA) have a lot of advances in cryptanalysis techniques. The DES is using some techniques find by civilians years after. Actually, some techniques were found after (and not because) the DES was declassified. They found out then it was already used in DES. (told by Stéphane Natkin in a CNAM class).

This blog is supposed to be my professional blog. However I love Battlestar Galactica (who doesn’t?) and we just got some hints about the next season. I had to blog about it. Please forgive me.
From an interview with the actor playing the great Gaius Balthar: James Callis.

“If you thought the first two seasons of “Battlestar Galactica” were dark and brooding, well, then you haven’t seen nothin’ yet, series star James Callis told SciFi Wire.”
Callis said comparisons of the coming third season, in which the humans struggle under Cylon domination, to France under the Nazi occupation of World War II are apt. (Note from the blogger: Doesn’t this remind you of the cool V TV show?)
“And the first few scripts of this particular season are phenomenal,” he said, “and far darker and more gritty and more worrying than anything that you have seen before. I really am not just saying that. I remember just reading it going, ‘My God almighty, this is remorseless and relentless.’ And as such should be very gripping television. Even though it’s very, I think, the word is dystopic”.

This is excellent news. Especially after an inequal season 2 (the best episodes and the worst are in this season).

We all know that BSG can be a better show. For now, it has not been very good. I hope this will change.
Link

Link to a French website dedicated on the season 3

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I want one. I want one. I want one. I want one. I want one. I want one. I want one. I want one. I want one. I want one. I want one. I want one. I want one. I want one. I want one. I want one. I want one. I want one. I want one. I want one. I want one. I want one. I want one. I want one. I want one. I want one. I want one. I want one. I want one. I want one. I want one.

Actually, it is a future predicting machine. You remember the stuff about random number and the field of consciousness.
From the artist (and Collision Detection):

“Whether or not these forces exist, the user will develop a strong relationship with the device. Any time it “goes off,” the user will try to associate it with a significant event either in his life or the lives of others. Even if his rational mind thinks the basis of this device is complete nonsense, the primitive brain will develop a system of superstitions around the machine. Say the device goes off when the user is having the most amazing sex of his life; or when he receives a phone call that brings news of a relative’s death; or when a terrorist attack occurs in his hometown. Any correlations between events and the device’s behavior will have a visceral impact on the user’s belief system — especially his beliefs about psychic phenomena, physics, spirituality, technology, academic paranormal research, and art. While the device has been constructed with rigorous scientific purpose, interaction with it takes place in a very human and emotional space.”

If you care to see in action.

I just want one. Well if it is too expensive, I will just build a better one by myself.

Art and technology are blending. What is not blending with technology those exciting days?

It might be one of the best time to be in computer. So much things to do, to make, to create!

Via Collision Detection