Superficial Intelligence

Reevaluation

2009-08-27T16:13:32Z

I'm currently in the process of reevaluating my blog. Thus, the current "hibernation" stage. I hope to come back fresh and in full later this semester. Thanks for reading!

Back From Alaska

2009-07-08T02:48:40Z

I just returned this week from my awesome vacation in Alaska. It is one of the most amazing places I have visited. Its spectacular scenery makes you feel like you are in a postcard the whole time. I will post some pictures as soon as I sort through the thousands (literally) of pictures that my wife and my mother took.

Meanwhile, here are some of the cool things I did at Alaska:
- Train riding
- Biking
- Paragliding
- Glacier hiking
- Cruising
- Rafting
- Zip lining

Way Up North

2009-06-22T03:41:28Z

I will be on vacation for the next two weeks. Since it is getting warmer and that would just feel too comfortable, I am going up north to Alaska, where it is still somewhat chilly. Nothing fits better together than cruises and sweaters.

GroupLens, The Most Awesome CS Lab

2009-06-18T03:12:24Z

Readers of this blog have probably seen me write a lot about Cyclopath and my research. The Cyclopath project is really cool and one which I am proud to be a part of. But the fact is that Cyclopath is just one of the many cool projects that go on in my research lab, GroupLens. We have a great team and excellent advisors. The group does a lot of research on online communities, such as Wikipedia, and recommender systems, such as MovieLens. If you ever want to know more about out research, check out grouplens.org.

Go Progress

2009-06-09T03:52:16Z

At the beginning of the semester I had talked about trying out the game of Go. And I have to say it was a great choice. I have fallen in love with the game. I am playing almost every day and have blasted through 14 books on the topic already. I recommend this game to everyone. I will most definitely blog more about it in the future. Meanwhile, I leave you with two links.

An introduction to the game: The Interactive Way to Go

The place where I play and practice, fit for players of any level: KGS

Submitting a Paper for the First Time

2009-06-05T04:20:19Z

This week I submitted my first paper to a conference. Well, technically it was a note, which means it is only four pages long. And I was second author. But it is still the first paper to go out there with my name on it.

The process was pretty tiring, but it was worth it. We went from general outline to outline at the paragraph level to outline at the sentence level to draft and finally to finished paper. And the introduction was written at least four different times. It was really hard to nail down.

I am really eager to talk about what we wrote, but it will have to wait until the paper actually goes through the review process and gets accepted. Hopefully that should happen sometime in July. I will blog about it as soon as I get notified!

Research Note

2009-05-28T04:49:15Z

I apologize for the recent lack of posting. I'm in the middle of writing a research note for a conference deadline this Monday. Meanwhile, head on to the Fail Blog for some entertainment.

Real-Life Superheroes

2009-05-17T04:56:33Z

Hard to believe as it may be, there are actually people who go out as masked heroes and try to fight crime. Reminds me a lot of Watchmen. Read more about it in the articles Cincinnati Patrolled By Real-Life Superheroes. What Could Possibly Go Wrong? and The Legend of Master Legend. The "Consortium of Evil" (yes, it exists) had even posted a Craiglist ad (which seems to have been taken down) offering a $10 bounty for the identity of Shadowhare. If you were a real-life superhero, what name would you go by? Something with the words Panda or Ninja would probably cut it for me.

My First MN 5k

2009-05-10T02:53:27Z

Today I ran my first 5k since I moved to MN (and my second ever). I had done terrible my first time, arriving second to last out of around 15 runners. This time I set a personal goal of finishing in less than 30 minutes.

This race was quite bigger than the one I went to in Puerto Rico (although the one I went to was quite hidden). There were more than 300 participants this time. The path went right next to the Mississippi river, so it was really nice and relaxing. It was so nice that I had no idea that I was actually keeping quite a good pace throughout the race.

In the end, I beat my goal by more than 5 minutes, finishing the race in less than 25 minutes and in 22nd place. This was really surprising and at the same time motivating. Now I can't wait for the next one! I just hope I don't get such terrible allergies next time (it seems my nose does not enjoy running outside in the Spring as much as I do).

Cyclopath Tags Are Live!

2009-05-03T05:25:20Z

One of the features I have been working on for some time in my lab was just released this past week. Cyclopath, the geowiki for bicyclists, now supports tagging. It is just too cool. Here are two short videos that one of my teammates prepared explaining how tags are used in the system.

First Talk at a Conference?

2009-04-29T04:17:25Z

Last Sunday I gave my first unofficial talk at a conference. The APA (American Planning Association) was holding a conference in Minneapolis and they invited the Cyclopath team to give a presentation about our system. The Cyclopath advisor and project leader were both unavailable, so it was up to me and two other members to handle the presentation.

We were not able to rehearse much, but overall I think it went well. It was a different audience from usual, as they were more interested in the applications of a system like ours to planning. Because of this we got many interesting questions, some for which we weren't completely prepared, but all of them good ones.

One good outcome was meeting a planner from Portland, Oregon (probably the top biking city in the US). He was very interested in having a similar application in Portland. He told us of a guy who works with them who got on his bike and rode every road possible in order to provide the data they needed. That is the advantage of a system like ours, where our users do all the work!

I must now focus on my own research so that I can hopefully give a more official talk at a conference next time.

The Power of Procrastination

2009-04-24T03:42:50Z

This was the title of a talk I went to today. Excellent title, isn't it?

It was a talk by PhD Comics author Jorge Cham. And it was great. He did an excellent job of entertaining the audience (98% grad students by the way), relating to them, and motivating them to hold on. (I'll be waiting to see if he decides to write a strip about his visit to Minnesota.)

His message was basically that procrastination is okay. And when you are a grad student, making close to minimum wage, having to take work with you home, and not being able to see the end of your studies, this is exactly the kind of message you need to hear.

How do you think procrastination can be helpful?

The Twitter Killer

2009-04-20T06:18:48Z

Twitter has been getting a lot of attention from the media lately. Ashton Kutcher challenged CNN saying he would get 1,000,000 followers on Twitter first. And even Oprah announced she was joining Twitter. So it is only fair to poke fun at them. Here is a funny Twitter parody. Enjoy.

Really Tough Ping-Pong

2009-04-15T02:42:01Z

About a week and a half ago I had the opportunity to go to the national college table tennis championship, which was held less than two hours away at Rochester, MN. One of my Japanese friends was playing for the University of Minnesota, so we went to root for him. It was a really fun event. It makes me wonder why college basketball gets so much coverage, but something as cool as this is left with a crowd of spectators of about less than 200.

Our friend got us into the practice area for the competitors and we were able to show off our super slow-motion skills. At least that is how we felt while the players all around us were playing at full speed. We must have looked fairly pathetic.

A fun surprise was to find out that there was a team from my home country, Puerto Rico, participating. And they were actually quite good. It was great to be able to talk to some fellow Puerto Ricans and to root for them while they played.

That day after we came back, I played the most ping-pong I have ever played in my life. At least now I am confident that I can beat a total beginner. Unfortunately, it seems that just watching really good players is not enough. But it still gives me the motivation to go play and make a fool of myself.

Distant Worlds

2009-04-12T04:10:23Z

Today I attended an orchestra concert titled Distant Worlds. It was music from the very popular Final Fantasy games. An excellent excuse for ladies to get their geeky boyfriends to go out or for guys to pretend to be romantic. I probably fit more into the second category, since I took my wife and she has never played any of the games. But we both enjoyed it very much. The composer, Nobuo Uematsu, made a few appearances, although he didn't speak much. The crowd was not what you usually expect to see in any orchestra concert. Some were playing Nintendo DS while the concert started. I saw a few dressed up as Final Fantasy characters. Still, it was an enjoyable night with great music (much of which I could actually recognize). Go check out their site at www.ffdistantworlds.com!