Wow… our book is not complete yet and folks have already started writing code based on our examples? :-) I just read on Jim’s blog that Guilherme Silveira, Adriano Almeida, and Lucas Cavalcanti have been doing some good work in this space. Very very cool. Excellent job! Now guys… we …
I loooove good technical arguments. Over the last couple of years, I have stayed out of the community discussions around REST, Web Services, SOA, Grid, and all that. This was a conscious decision on my part. I much prefer to focus on building technology rather than arguing about it :-) …
/**/ What a wonderful wonderful experience that was! We had a blast! I left work early to get to Vancouver with 1 1/2 hours to spare so that I could have dinner with my friends before the Black Eyed Peas who were opening for U2. Unfortunately, I hadn’t calculated the …
/**/ On Friday, my neighbors Janet and Ed threw a party for Ed’s birthday at Sole Repair in Capitol Hill. They always know how to throw a good party :-) It was an absolute blast. The theme was “Xenophilia = love of the strange”. It was so great to see …
/**/ Seattle is sooooo beautiful at this time of the year. I’ve been carrying my camera with me the last week or so and taking photographs of the colors and the rapidly changing landscape. This is a sunset from my balcony… The top of the Queen Anne hill, where …
/**/ I went to Moby’s concert here in Seattle yesterday. It was absolutely great. I don’t know whether it was the music, the dancing (lots of jumping :-), the vibe, the wine + beers that we had beforehand, or the combination of all but I had an amazing time. I …
/**/ I am extremely honored and humbled to be amongst so many scientists who have contributed to the book entitled “The Fourth Paradigm: Data-Intensive Scientific Discovery”. I met Jim Gray back at the end of 2003 and since then he’s been an inspiration to me. He was amongst the best …
/**/ I attended the “Star Wars in concert” show at the KeyArena earlier tonight. It was quite an experience! :-) There was a large orchestra and symphony to play John William’s compositions from the movie series. A huuuuge screen was playing snippets from the movies. Cameras were not allowed in …
/**/ Amongst the videos I was sent today, these two really stand out, for different reasons. The first one is beautiful and moving. Kseniya Simonova, a sand artist from Ukraine, participated in a talent show on TV and won. Apparently she joined the competition because she wanted to help a …
“It’s the one-man fight against global warning! All I need to do is stick a wire up your butt, and hey presto, no more CO2 problems.” This is what one of my best friends wrote while we were chatting because I keep talking about positive and negative “energy” :-)))) It’s …
/**/ It was a very short but, still, great trip to the UK and Greece. The last day of my visit at my family home was relaxing… just spent time with everyone and met more friends. My sincere apologies to everyone I missed. My days were totally packed :-( I’ve …
/**/ After an amazing day/night in Thessaloniki, Kostas and I drove to Xanthi, my home city (just a couple of hours from Thessaloniki). My family house is actually 5km out of Xanthi, in the beautiful village of Petinos (photos of the place where I grew up will come with my …
/**/ I don’t expect all nights are going to be like my first one in Thessaloniki because if that’s the case, I’ll need to take a vacation immediately upon my return to Seattle :-) Wow! The welcoming was amazing. Kostas picked me up from the airport and we headed towards …
/**/ Despite a rocky start to the trip due to the jet-lag and a cold, I now feel so much better and I am ready (and very excited) to see my family and friends in Greece. I am currently at the British lounge at Gatwick, waiting for my flight. The …