One picture Tuesday

Yesterday Marian installed a motion sensor and a grabber to get data from it. Today we went to work around 9:30 and came back around 2:40pm, leaving Suzie in the living room, with the sensor. I give you THE DATAH!!! This DATAH!!! also warrants the hypothesis that cats mostly sleep. Will investigate in the future.

One picture Tuesday

My new advertisement for PhD students.

I'm becoming an Internet sensation

This semester I'm teaching a distributed systems course, and the first assignment not only required students to implement something bug (GASP!!) asked them to test it. I got sooo tired to answer questions about testing that I decided to make some videos about it. A youtube channel and five recordings later (out of which three were failed because I had forgotten TO PRESS THE DAMN BUTTON) and I'm a bloody internet sensation.

At 34 views in total for 2 videos, I have (in two days) acquired 6 (SIX) likes and 2 comments!!! ZOMG! My channel also has 8 (EIGHT) subscribers. Teaching by youtube FTW!!!

Two years!

Today marks the two year anniversary of me joining the university. Wheeee!! Had my contract not been extended, I would be clearing up my office now, instead of being evil and harsh to students mwahahaahahahaha 

In other insignificant career news, two things happened today:

1. I have an email in my inbox from Bertrand Meyer, he of the design-by-contract fame (ignore this if you are not a cs person or you never took a software engineering course)

2. I have just been made associate editor of the most prestigious journal in my PhD community.

I have fooled them once more!

One picture Tuesday

The McGill campus is right there at the top of the list for the "Best campuses ever!" together with Cambridge and Harvard. I guess I'm a sucker for old buildings. Anyway, no photos of the campus yet as I'm preparing for my talk, but here is what was at the entrance of the campus:

There's more to this statue than shown there and I'll post up more later. But wait! Tulips!

Geeks R Us

My anniversary present:

His anniversary present:

* Ultra compact size with full metal enclosure
* Quad core ARM Cortex-A9 MPCore
* 10/100Mbps Ethernet with RJ-45 LAN Jack
* 2 x High speed USB2.0 Host port
* Audio codec with headphone jack on board
* Android 4.x & Ubuntu 12.10
* Community-driven projects & supports

Beware of geeks. They R eberywhere.

One picture Tuesday

Well, I was going to post a picture of a durian seeing how I am going to Singapore nom nom nom! But, I decided for this instead:

One picture Tuesday

My apologies for taking such a long break from blogging, a LOT has been going on!

Two weeks after I landed in Australia I joined a voluntary program called Scientists in Schools, in which a Scientist (ha, that would be me), and a Teacher team up to make lessons interesting for kids. After a police check and stuff, and two months down the line, I am now partnered up with a good secondary school here in Adelaide.

Yesterday I had my first visit to the school, and I talked about cool examples of math in real life and computer science. In particular, I talked about roller coasters (ha!), GPS triangulation (cool!) and trajectory of a projectile in games (major cool!).

For the last one, I used a simple three little piggies game and a very complex equation (eventually simplified) to get them to apply some maths. Of course, I didn't implement the game, not fully at least, and had Marian deal with the shitty animation part (Objective C, I now heart you! XCode, I still hate you!) I got two of the school's iPads and two of my own and loaded them with the game. We also made a desktop application for them to play with. (Behold my office!)

I spend a lot of time on this (2 nights), especially since I worked only after hours. One time, I left the office at 12 midnight (and spent the next hour in the parking lot texting friends - but more about this later). The fact that I left so late allowed me to see who's living in the tree right opposite the university! A Brush-tailed Possum!

Witness the brush!

Bittersweet - part II

Today I said goodbye to my supervisor. While he will forever remain my supervisor, the next time I will see me he will no longer be my boss. Sadly, he will not be here for my convocation. Nor for when I leave for Adelaide next month. I chocked again, as when I wanted to thank him during my defense. I think he was troubled too, but whether it was because he will miss me or he was scared that I was going to hug him or kiss him on the cheek or something, I do not know.

For you see, our prof is very very shy. The kind of shy that if he were to suddenly be in the limelight (outside professional limelights) he would be so distressed and shudder as if a cold, slimy snake (no offense to snakes!) would suddenly slither up his back. And by limelight in this case would be if somebody would say, ask him what was the color of his t-shirt yesterday or wether he would like prawns or cuttlefish for dinner.

While we have not been friends (and imagine, i was his golden child! how shy can one be?!), he has been a very good professional mentor to me. I do not know about him, but I know that I will miss him immensely. And in truth, the only reason why I am still considering a career in research (rather than only in teaching) is because I think it would make him proud. I guess that in this respect a part of this Chinese make-your-elders-proud has rubbed on me as well.

Ah well...

Grrr. I have never had a proper job interview in my life. All the jobs that I had were either "come on, we just need some people, can you program? yes? ok, you'll do!", or were "do you want to join our group?" or "i will take care of you until you find a job - kinda thing". I had phone interviews. I failed 66% of them, which means that i had 3 and failed 2. In one it was not my fault, in the second i was came out as too noob. I passed the third in the sense that I got invited to come on site. But then again, the third was just a "let's see if you can speak english" kinda thing. Looks like i can speak English!

Anyway, tomorrow I am flying off to Adelaide, for my first, ever ever ever proper interview in my life. I am almost 30 for crying out loud!!! Anyway, I have never been more scared in my life, not even while I was contemplating death on the face of the matterhorn. And now I know what our school really needs: a post-graduate career office, to help graduate students find jobs!! I most probably will fail this interview, but the experience i will get will be priceless I think - also, Adelaide will be my second Australian city (for free some more!)

Facebook withdrawal symptoms - Part II

Oh noes, what to choose, what to choose! Several things are pushing me in opposing directions ... First there's:

The guilt - Text message from doris: "you needa be back on facebook ... hien typed a super long happy public note about [promoting finally to inter] and tagged everybody [but you]"

Then there's:

The productivity - definitely increased. Or so I thought, until I discovered the zillions of blogs I had been neglecting since I started stalking camping on facebook. And then productivity was back to its normal self. Drip. Drip. Trickle. Trickle.

And there's:
The pride - Making a new facebook account would just mean that i have no spine and that the motherfucking corporatists win.

What to do? what to do?

Facebook withdrawal symptoms - Part I

Number of times I wanted to check Facebook (approx):

• On Monday: 40


• On Tuesday: 30


• On Wednesday: 2*

*Only because I had to stand in for my supervisor for the whole day so I had no computer access.

Facebook account gone!

Well, my account has been Claudia Facebooksux for as long as i can remember. I was an active facebooker :) although i did not allow any applications and I did not like it when people asked me to share/give them animals in farmville or whatever - so i was pretty harsh on them (i.e. i ignored them).

Today I tried to login and found that my account has been disabled (no warning, no anything - I guess the facebooksux in the name was really putting them off). In Facebook's own words, asking why my account was disabled, I got this:

"Profiles created to represent celebrities, pets, ideas, or inanimate objects are strictly prohibited.
People on Facebook want to interact with their real friends and the people they know in the real world. Since fake accounts can damage the integrity of this environment, they are not allowed to remain on the site."


On the problem with fake names:
"Facebook is built around real world interactions. Operating under an alias detracts from the value of the system as a whole. Users who operate under fake names are also prone to abuse. We take this standard very seriously and remove fake accounts as we become aware of them."

Then, when asking why i did not get a warning:
"Depending on the severity of the violation, it is not guaranteed that you will receive a warning prior to becoming disabled. Unfortunately, accounts that are disabled for severe violations of Facebook's Statement of Rights and Responsibilities cannot be restored."

And then, when asking what i could do to restore my account - sadly, I will not make another account but i do not want to lose contact with ppl I was in contact before - like RME's links, dodo's camping on facebook etc - here's what i got:

"Please upload a government-issued ID to this report and make sure that your full name, date of birth, and photo are clear. You should also black out any personal information that is not needed to verify your identity (e.g., social security number). "

Sad part is, my account was not fake and I did not "damage the integrity of this environment". The irony is that indeed, Facebook sucks :)

Facebook withdrawal symptoms, here I come!

Will I blog till I am 90?

I don't really know, but what I really hope is that by the time I am 90, the title of this blog would have changed, at least not to include "graduate programmes". Here's a video of a lovely and inspirational 90-year old granny blogger.

Amazing how technology sometimes reaches out to people from the older generation.
My 78-year-old grandmother uses her computer to Skype with me. She is loving it! And so am I! It does make the distance shorter, even for a little while ...

Mastercard moment

1. 22 years in school: 8150 USD (12 * 200 + 5 * 150 + 5 * 1000 )


2. Taxes for the last semester: 1000 USD


3. Examination fee: 400 USD


4. Amount of paper used to print: 5 * 500 pages

Happiness, dread, anxiety, of finally submitting the thesis to the university: Priceless.

Relations

A mathematician is a machine for turning coffee into theorems.

A Ph. D. student is a machine for turning coffee into crap.

The true nature of the internet

Googled today: "google interview questions"

Got back as search hints: "google interview questions answers"

One picture Tuesday

In COM2, SCHOOL OF COMPUTING, NUS. Nerds no need 2 write. "Maybe"

Oskar speech

Probably went through the most scary moment of my life when I submitted the thesis today to the secretary - actually, to the secretary's secretary cause the secretary was out to lunch (sheesh!). Below is my oskar speech, for those of you who are reading here and are not on Fbook (ahem!). Of all of those mentioned below, clarifications and extra hugz are really needed for the following a) the prof (first paragraph - and only one that has one for himself - this one really wrote it with all my heart and without inspiring from other ack's) b) marian (ahem, needed one by himself ahem but it's not a love story what?), c) san and doris for reasons written below and many more hahaha, d) marius (for showing me that you CAN do mountaineering at fifty-fucking-four years old) , e) mihai and mariuca for settling both marian and me in during the first years and last but not least f) my mother - "raising me" should read "putting up with me and my impossible self - really" for about 23 years (i would have kicked myself out long before that). So, here goes nothin'!

It is with unbounded gratitude that I write these lines. I would like to thank my supervisor, Professor Yong Meng Teo, for supporting me throughout this thesis with patience and knowledge, while at the same time allowing me room to follow my own way. Professor Teo has taught me how to look at a problem, what important questions to ask, and how to present my ideas clearly, focusing on the big picture and the important insights, rather than the intricate details of methods. More importantly, through his never-ending patience and kindness in dealing with his students, he has shown me that teaching is an act of patience and understanding, rather than a simple information exchange. I am happy he was my
supervisor throughout these years and could not wish for a better advisor.

I would like to thank my thesis committee, Professors X and Y, for their continuous feedback and encouragement. They have both given me their precious time and provided me the resources I needed. I would further like to thank Prof. Rassul Ayani and Dr Simon See for the helpful and insightful discussions on simulation, composability, and distributed computing. Dr Verdi March has always offered feedback and highlighted important issues during our seminar talks.

In the daily work in the Computer Systems Research Laboratory, I was surrounded by many great friends and brilliant colleagues. To Marian, for being a constant support throughout all the stressful times, putting up with me and making me laugh or focus when needed, there are no words to express my gratitude. To Mihai and Mariuca, thank you for all the coffee breaks and companionship throughout the first part of this quest. To Bogdan and Cristina, thank you for all the insightful conversations on life and computer science, over the never-changing food from the Science canteen. To Marius, I am grateful for showing me the power of believing in my dreams. To Sandra and Doris, thank you for being my climbing guinea pigs and sharing the cost of durians with me, although I always ate the bigger part; you've made this foreign country seem like home. To Cristina, Nandini, Dmitry, and Aleks, thanks for all the fun in this last stretch.

Finally, I thank my mother for raising me, supporting me through my university studies, and always pushing me to give my best.

10 years

Well, ten years have gone by. Ten years in which I finished a university and hopefully will finish a PhD (next month). Others have gotten married and have two (TWO!!!! OMFG!!!!) kids. Or have turned from class idiot to airline pilot (remind me NOT to fly that airline). Like ever. Most of them, especially the guys, have gotten fat. The fattest of them all (in highschool) lost weight. I know I haven't changed much because I overheard the lit teacher tell the math teacher while i was skipping the highschool stairs - "You're right, she's unchanged". I also have ensured a backup plan for when I cannot find a job - I can go teach programming at my highschool.

My math teacher told me he had a crush on me in highschool. His exact words were "You are the only student I EVER had a crush on." Fucking freaky, but to give him credit, he NEVER showed it.

My lit teacher is AMAZING and I am so sad that I did not get to know her as well during highschool. She let us read the books we had to read and tell what WE thought about them. She was smart and funny back then but I could not appreciate it then. Now, we stood around her and listened to her tell stories. It was fenomenal - I needed the laugh indeed, but I could not stop myself.

And now, here we go, with the pics.

Me and my desk mate. Girly and spoilt as usual.


My crush with a girl he was friends with. Oh how I wished I was in her shoes. In highschool he was about 1.8 m and about 65 kg. I am so glad we never got together.


The math teacher and the lit teacher.


All of us around the lit teacher.


Me with the lit teacher. Notice my short hair. Product of romanian communist hairdressers. Pfft! I cannot tie it.