Superficial Intelligence

I will be leaving this Sunday for a visit to Puerto Rico. It's been almost seven months since I've been there. I hope to regain some color and to eat all kinds of food that I can't get here in Minnesota. I will probably be too busy eating and enjoying the sun to post frequently to the blog, but I will at least try to post something every 4 days or so. I hope all of you enjoy your Christmas and New Years celebrations. And for those of us who also get Three Kings Day, even more fun for us! Enjoy!

Posted by Fernando Torre at 11:54 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

Merry Christmas to all of the five readers of my blog! Please forgive me if my posts become a bit sporadic during this holiday season. May you all have joyful holidays!

Posted by Fernando Torre at 11:10 PM | Permalink | Comments (1)

We have all seen them. Those email addresses that seem to have been put together by throwing Scrabble tiles all around the floor. You just hate it when someone gives you their address and it looks something like ax34hj5ooo@hotmail.com. (I hope this isn't a real one by the way.) Here are a few ways to tell if your email address falls into the "lame" category:

1. Long Numbers - Any number at all should be used with caution. And the longer they are, the more annoying they get. Just try to remember an e-mail address with a 28463 in it. At my undergraduate university, our e-mail addresses actually had five numbers in it. I still have to think hard to remember the numbers in my own address.

2. Nonsensical Combinations of Letters and Numbers - This applies to addresses with just letters and to addresses with a combination of both letters and numbers. As with long numbers, this makes e-mail addresses very hard to remember. ah2ut83nr@yahoo.com is an example of this. Another common case is when using only your initials for your email address. I could use fetg@gmail.com, but would that make any sense to anyone else?

3. Celebrity References - This does not require much explanation. It is simply lame to have an e-mail like iloveshakira@somemail.com or tonyshalhoubismyhero@someothermail.com.

4. Extremely Repeated Letters - Do not repeat a letter more than twice unless necessary. Emails like grrrrrreat@mail.com or fernaaaaaando@gmail.com just make it harder for people to type or even remember your address.

5. Jokes That Were Funny in the Fifth Grade - These may be fun with friends, but they just look lame in email addresses. Just think of how much i_fart_when_i_type@mail.com says about a person.

6. Very Long - Once again, tedious to write and hard to remember. By the time you write icouldntthinkofagoodemailaddresssoijustwrotethisdown@mail.com your friend or date will have already left.

In this increasingly Web-aware world in which we live in, email addresses are becoming part of our identity. When selecting an address, try to think of what it will say about you. Don't settle for something lame simply because you couldn't think of a good address. Believe me. It will be worth it to put some effort into it.

Posted by Fernando Torre at 12:44 AM | Permalink | Comments (1)

I wanted to post this video a few days back, but it was taken down due to some photographer complaining about the use in the video of a picture she had taken. Now it's back as version 1.1. It's a really funny parody of "We Didn't Start the Fire" and another great video representing the Web 2.0 culture. Also, one more song to get stuck in your head (if you need more, see my post on Internet People).

Posted by Fernando Torre at 2:17 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

Yesterday, a movie aired on the Lifetime channel titled "Christmas in Paradise". I am not writing about it to say that the plot is good or bad (although I enjoyed it), but because it was filmed at my beautiful home country, Puerto Rico. It's not every day that a movie filmed entirely in Puerto Rico comes out. And I loved the cultural elements in the film. It has the musics, the instruments, the sights, and much more. For those of you that have seen the "Eureka" TV show, the sheriff, actor Colin Ferguson, plays one of the main characters in "Christmas in Paradise". If you are interested in seeing a bit of my culture, I invite you to watch the movie. They will be airing it again on December 25th at 5pm. Enjoy!

Posted by Fernando Torre at 9:43 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

Yesterday, my User Interface Design class team finally presented our final implementation of our quiz-making interface. Although there were many parts left unimplemented, I feel satisfied with our work. The following picture is my team with our poster (I'm the one on the left):

And this is a screenshot of the interface. More specifically, the image library and the quiz builder:

I am amazed with how much I have learned in this class, especially with this project. The whole process was very rewarding, even if tiring at times. Some of the things I learned were:

1. Ideas don't tend to translate into code in exactly the same way as in your mind - The end result of this project was quite different than my first idea. Although the basic idea remained the same, many aspects of it changed during our design and implementation process. Just communicating the idea with my partners was enough for them to interpret the details differently and form their own design opinions. This was clearly evident when our team divided into two subgroups and made two entirely different paper prototypes. Another reason for this idea evolution is users. We had to design with our users in mind and that meant sometimes adding new features and removing others. Finally, implementation complexity played a big role in our design decisions. We had only one semester for this project. Therefore, we had to focus on the parts that were really important and eliminate many nice features for which we simply didn't have the time to implement.

2. Paper prototypes are cool - Our first design was a low fidelity prototype on paper. This was a very interesting experience. The reason for this approach was to allow a larger number of design ideas to be tried out and to avoid unneeded implementation and emotional attachments that come as a result of spending too much time on a design. This way, discarding designs and exploring more ideas became much more simple. Also, when we moved to the actual coding part of the project, we were able to focus more on the functional part of the code, since the design was already specified. The paper prototype served as a great guideline for adding all the different components to the project.

3. Evaluations and user testing are important - If it were up to me, I would've started coding directly from our paper prototype. Yet, there were still a lot of obvious (and not-so-obvious) problems that had to be addressed. To find these problems, we did everything from cognitive walk-throughs to heuristic evaluations. Then we took our first implementation and did user testing. We found lots of problems. I am amazed at how many. Buttons were missing, tasks were tedious, and things we thought were obvious confused our users. Thanks to all the testing we did, we were able to address most of these problems.

4. Rash implementation decisions can lead to coding frustrations - One decision that we made before starting to code led to a lot of troublesome problems later on. Initially, we wanted to store quiz information in a database. Due to timing constraints and the fact that we were using an entirely new programming language, we decided to use simple, temporary XML files to store our quiz data. XML files were very easy to use and handle using this programming language. The problem was that we left the files organized as if they were the actual database, which separated quiz information from questions and question groups. With a database, this would be easy to manage, but with XML files, keeping track of all the dependencies became a pain. If only we had just stored each quiz in a separate XML file...

5. I love procrastination nights - We had one night were, after pretending to code for a little while, we decided to just go play video games. It was my favorite project meeting. And, I believe it helped us work on our teamwork too. Every now and then, it is good to just take some time off and procrastinate.

In conclusion, I think what I learned during this project was: ideas change (especially when mixed with other people), paper is still cool (especially for "interface scrapbooking"), evaluations and testing remind you that your designs are not perfect (who would've thought the program needed to be usable too), hasty decisions produce frustrated programmers (I'm still dreading those XML files), and procrastination is good (well, only sometimes...).

Posted by Fernando Torre at 11:06 PM | Permalink | Comments (3)

It's amazing how a small gesture of appreciation, even if not on purpose, can lift your spirits. I received an e-mail this weekend from a member of the Poker Research Group in my CS Department. He asked if he could borrow two of my comic strips (the ones relating to Poker of course) to put in his group's website. To me that was a way of showing appreciation for my work. And that made me feel happy. Let people know that you appreciate their work. It really means a lot and can turn a bad day around.

Posted by Fernando Torre at 12:18 AM | Permalink | Comments (2)

As promised, here is an original comic strip to officially end comic strip week. Right now I am working as a research assistant in a data mining lab, so I just had to draw something about it. I hope you enjoy the comic and hope you have enjoyed this special week!

Posted by Fernando Torre at 12:40 AM | Permalink | Comments (4)

Today, the last day of this comic strip week, I have more than one comic strip. These are comic strips that I have either begun reading recently or that I consider almost a different category.

First off is Penny Arcade. This strip has been around for a while, but it wasn't until recently that I subscribed to it and started reading it more regularly. Its focus is video games and they do a pretty good job of satirizing current events in the video game world. If you're a fan of video games, go check them out at www.penny-arcade.com/comic.

Second in the list is xkcd. This comic is, well, unique. If your interests lie in romance, sarcasm, math, language, and stick figures, this is the comic strip for you! Go check it out at xkcd.com.

Finally, a comic strip with a unique style that doesn't really fit the convention. Superest is a sort of battle between two artists. Each artists draws a hero that can defeat the previous hero drawn by the other artist. They really come up with some creative characters. Find out who the current champion is at www.thesuperest.com.

Later today, I will try to upload a new Superficial Intelligence comic strip. I already drew it and scanned it. I still have to do all the computer editing, which can take me about an hour or two, but it shouldn't be a problem to fit that into my schedule. Expect it maybe later tonight.

Posted by Fernando Torre at 11:47 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

Yesterday the second match of the Algorithm competition's first round ended. And I am excited to say that I qualified and am now advancing to the second round. I was able to achieve position 14, which put me on the top 50 of this match. Now, I have to start training for round two, which starts in February. If I do well enough in round two, I get to travel to Paris for the final round! I hope I can make it!

Posted by Fernando Torre at 4:19 PM | Permalink | Comments (2)

One recent comic strip I have discovered is called Basic Instructions. Scott Meyer does an excellent job with it. The drawings aren't the focus of this strip. He repeatedly uses the same images (although I think that it somehow adds to the humor). The idea of the comic strip is to give advice. It's a comic-style how-to, where each strip gives humorous advice and instructions on a certain topic. The dialogues between the characters are particularly funny. In just a short time, this strip has become one of my favorites. You won't find it in newspapers for now, but you can visit Scott Meyer's site and even register to receive the comic strip on your feed reader at the link below.

Posted by Fernando Torre at 12:36 AM | Permalink | Comments (0)

Tony Carrillo's F Minus is a hilarious, sometimes bizarre, comic strip that brings up the most unlikely situations. His strip barely has any recurring characters, focusing more on improbable and funny situations, much like The Far Side. The drawing style may not look top-notch, but I give F Minus an A Plus in creativity. To read the latest comic strip, just click on the picture below to follow the link.

Posted by Fernando Torre at 12:42 AM | Permalink | Comments (1)

Today's comic strip comes once again from www.comics.com. Like Dilbert, this is a workplace-based strip. John Zakouris and Kyle Miller are the authors of this strip (and I just found out Kyle has another strip at www.gamecreature.com). Although this comic strip has many elements that are similar to Dilbert, the style is very different. Some characters and jokes seem a bit generic, but others, like Roy, the resident geek, are quite memorable. It is a light strip, but always enjoyable. The link to the comic strip is below.

Posted by Fernando Torre at 12:32 AM | Permalink | Comments (0)

Today's featured comic strip comes from artist Stephan Pastis. Pearls Before Swine is witty, strange, and of course funny. The title comes from the New Testament, from the phrase, "Don't cast your pearls before swine." Thus, one of the main characters of the strip is called Pig. The other main character is a selfish, egotistic rat called, well, Rat. The site where this comic strip can be found says, regarding the title of the strip, "In this case, Rat believes that he is an endless source of wisdom, and that it is wasted upon Pig, who is rather slow." Scott Adams, creator of Dilbert, manages to describe what Pearls Before Swine is about in just one word: stupidity. This comic strip is about the stupid things people do and the stupid situations we find ourselves in. You are definitely in for a laugh with this comic strip. To read the latest comic strip, just go to www.comics.com/comics/pearls/index.html.

Posted by Fernando Torre at 12:43 AM | Permalink | Comments (1)

As a PHD student, this comic strip is a must. Author Jorge Cham does a great job of capturing the woes of being a graduate student. If you are a graduate student, you will definitely see yourself in many of the same situations, but even if you are not, you will still be able to feel our pai... I mean, joy. The characters are also enjoyable. There is the smart, chocolate-loving Cecilia, the lazy, eternal graduate student Mike Slackenerny, the Humanities student Tajel, the nameless, average main character, and, of course, the research advisor. The comic strip is actually called "Piled Higher and Deeper", which is an alternative meaning to the PHD acronym and a pretty good descriptor of graduate life. If you are interested in this comic strip about life (or, as the comic strip site says, the lack thereof) in academia, just go to www.phdcomics.com. The site even has an RSS feed to get new comic strips directly in your feed reader! Enjoy!

Posted by Fernando Torre at 12:22 AM | Permalink | Comments (0)

Today is the first day of seven dedicated to comic strips. I'll be presenting some of the comic strips I enjoy the most throughout the week. All of them can be read online, so you don't have to worry about finding a newspaper to catch them.
Today's comic strip is Dilbert, the cubicle-dwelling engineer drawn by Scott Adams. I used to say that this was the comic strip for engineers. My dad used to buy the books and I would spend hours reading them, even if I couldn't understand half of the jokes (I still hadn't developed enough industry lingo). Although I probably enjoy older strips more than new ones, Scott Adams still manages to make me laugh often. The strip has an excellent cast of characters, from the pointy-haired boss to the lazy co-worker and from the gullible intern to the dog bent on conquering the world. If you're looking for workplace humor, this strip is a must. Go to the strip's site at www.dilbert.com and subscribe to get this strip daily in your e-mail!

Posted by Fernando Torre at 1:39 AM | Permalink | Comments (0)