Nuno Sousa's Corner

Today I decided to write about Linux and its evolution. You see, I am a Linux user. Unfortunately at work there are some restrictions that translate into a single sentence: you can't use Linux. I don't know why, but that is life. At home and in my Thesis I only use Linux. Why? Well, because it is free, it is stable, it is fast and it is easy to use once you have it configured. In fact, lately it is even getting easier to configure it, but thats not the goal of this post. I have laptop that is almost making 6?? Well, either 5 or 6 years old, I can't remember exactly when I bought it. Facts are that I installed Linux in it the very day I bought it. At the time I left the windows that came with it in a different partition, but something like 3 years ago I realised I didn't have any free disk space. You see, it came with a 20Gig hard drive. Windows had 5 and with all the digital photos, videos and projects was screaming for more disk space. So, 3 years ago I simply deleted...

Today I found blog that follows the lines of what I wanted to do. It contains many little hacks or tricks to make something that is way cool for the end user simple for the programmer. You can find it here . It also has a nice tree index if you're looking for something specific. This blog contains some of the things I would like to be doing, if I had the time. Well, in fact I have the time because the time I should be investing in my Thesis I don't. Why? Well, I would say lack of motivation or of writing something that should have been written a long time ago. Maybe I should just swallow this frog and write it out of hanger... Yes, lets just do it! In can you are wondering " Swallow this frog " is an expression that Portuguese people use. When is it used? Well, when you're doing something you don't like but that you must. And since frogs are ugly and in Portugal they aren't part of a standard diet we call it swallow a frog .

If I haven't told you before, I'm telling you now: I'm making a Master Thesis. This is a Master Thesis at the old Portuguese levels, that is, for the rest of the world it is like I'm making a second Master Thesis. Well, names ans systems aside, I'm making a Master Thesis. As part of that Thesis I wrote a while back an article for a conference. Well, the article was accepted and I ended up presenting it in the conference. I though the story ended there, but no. Today I received an email inviting me to have my article published in a technical magazine. Of course I said yes: it's something to put on my CV and a good compensation for the nights I lost writing it. The crazy part is that GMail marked the message that contained the invitation as SPAM! I was lucky that my Thesis Adviser also received it and asked me if I was going to send it. I was completely in the dark. I'm not saying that GMail's SPAM marking is bad. In fact, this is the first time it failed ...

Today I had an enlightening experience that I think will change my life. I usually start my day reading too many blogs from the web. These blogs range from technical articles and news, to jokes, movies, you name it: it's my "Inbox of the Web" - like someone from the Google Reader team said. Everything was running as usual when I step upon a very long blog entry that I actually read. Why? Well, although the blog should be about Java, among other things, the entry was dedicated to a quadriplegic that had passed away. What captivated me in the log was the description of all the things that person had done after the skying accident that forced him to move in a wheel chair. He leaved is life to the fullest. You might think: what the hell does it have to do we me? Well, that person actually programmed. How? Well, he used a stick in his mouth and typed one key after the other, very patiently. Although this shows the type of person he was, it wasn't this fact that caught my a...