Hey all. No news is good news. We are simply superbusy on a bunch of
stealth projects. An update will come soon. Stefan Kaempfer, Mike Lee and
many others do a great job organizing Euruko07, so another european ruby
conference is on the way.
Here is one update I can talk about .. my hair makeover done by my
beautiful wife. That is what I look like right now. Hal called it an
"ugly baby" :-).
After writing a "nice letter" they finally accepted the miles. I
am still positively surprised that I was able to get somebody in this big
company to listen to me. Good. I guess the lesson to learn is that one has
to by very stubborn and never give up!
I fly more than 50,000 miles a year with Air France and I was never happy
with Flying Blue. Long waiting queues in an automatic answering system and
probably you don’t get what the premium flight you want in the first
place.
Anyhow, my wife flew with AlItalia from Buenos Aires to Munich. As she
forgot to show her flying blue card at checkin time we sent the original
boarding passes to Air France. Surprise, surprise, they do not add the
miles and also do not send back the original boarding passes. Of course I
did not go so upset if that were the first time … the same happened
to our miles from the flight to Colombia.
Oh well, we are all human, so I call flying blue and wait and wait in the
queue only to hit a poor operator who can’t even pass me to his
manager .. the system does not allow me. So, I call Air France directly to
hear:
"It's your choice whether you fly with Air France or not".
Isn’t that a nice statement? An for sure, it will be my choice. I
will empty my frequent flyer miles and then good bye Air France! Airlines
try to save money, but treating your customers like that is simply
appalling! Why can’t one talk to a normal human being and release
steam and find a solution that works for all parties?
I recommend you all to take your money where people treat you with respect!
Luis von Ahn is an assistant professor in the Computer Science Department
at Carnegie Mellon University, where he also received his Ph.D. in 2005.
Previously, Luis obtained a B.S. in mathematics from Duke University in
2000. He is the recipient of a Microsoft Research Fellowship.
ABSTRACT
Tasks like image recognition are trivial for humans, but continue to
challenge even the most sophisticated computer programs. This talk
introduces a paradigm for utilizing human processing power to solve
problems that computers cannot yet solve. Traditional approaches to solving
such problems focus on improving software. I advocate a novel approach:
constructively channel human brainpower using computer games. For example,
the ESP Game, described in this talk, is an enjoyable online game —
many people play over 40 hours a week — and when people play, they
help label images on the Web with descriptive keywords. These keywords can
be used to significantly improve the accuracy of image search. People play
the game not because they want to help, but because they enjoy it.
I describe other examples of "games with a purpose": Peekaboom,
which helps determine the location of objects in images, and Verbosity,
which collects common-sense knowledge. I also explain a general approach
for constructing games with a purpose.
Forrest Gump: That day, for no particular reason, I decided to go for a little run. So I ran to the end of the road. And when I got there, I thought maybe I'd run to the end of town. And when I got there, I thought maybe I'd just run across Greenbow County. And I figured, since I run this far, maybe I'd just run across the great state of Alabama. And that's what I did. I ran clear across Alabama. For no particular reason I just kept on going. I ran clear to the ocean. And when I got there, I figured, since I'd gone this far, I might as well turn around, just keep on going. When I got to another ocean, I figured, since I'd gone this far, I might as well just turn back, keep right on going. When I got tired, I slept. When I got hungry, I ate. When I had to go... you know... I went.
What is your favourite "programming musiuc" (non-technical question)
I came across this insane Dilbert-like posting
in the comp.lang.java.programmer group.
> Hi all,
> When you are programming, what kind of music or which song you love to
> hear? Is it classic music, piano, or pop music? Is it by male singer or
> by female singer?
I don't listen to music as such; I listen to an 8-second mp3-loop of my
manager screeching, puce-faced, at the top voice, "WTF is taking you so
long?!?! RELEASE THE CODE!!!! RELEASE THE CODE!!!! WTF AM I PAYING YOUR
SALARY FOR?!?! RELEASE THE F%#KING CODE, YOUR WORTHLESS, DISGUSTING,
INTOLERABLE PIECE OF S@&T!!!"
> I think sometime hearing music would be helpful in
> our productivity, right?
I find that this mp3-loop truly helps <TWITCH> my productivity. I love
<TWITCH> my manager, and dream of him <TWITCH><TWITCH><releases safety>
often ...
> Regards,
> Sam Huang
.ed
A new book
showing the madness of patents. Don’t forget that Fourier
transformations are patented .. even though they were invented ny
Jean-Baptiste-Joseph Fourier living 1768-1830.
As my girl-friend is allergic against smoke, going to restaurants in
Germany can be a pain, as most restaurants do not yet have non smoking
areas. I am jealous of Italy in that respect, where smoking is simply
banned in all public spaces.
To make our life easier, I invested 5 hours to setup a simple website to build a database of
nonsmoking restaurants. It is a simple rails application.
