Community Server

current gadget apps and twit clients

Justinus — Sat, 14 Nov 2009 04:32:00 GMT

Since my twitting activity is very rare, realtime clients are not the answer at this moment, I have a Gravity twitter client in my phone. Currently Seven push mail and Palringo IM are the best apps for the job, and for the laptop I run TweetDeck and Facebook Notifications since TweetDeck doesn't give account notifications as it only shows new status like in Live Feed.

Weight Watchers Update: Week 7

tjr — Wed, 04 Nov 2009 00:54:00 GMT

I felt pretty discouraged regarding my weight loss program this week. After gaining — GAINING! — a pound last week, I felt like perhaps I had accomplished all that I could with the Weight Watchers system, and would either need to go another route or give up entirely. It didn't help matters that I got lackadaisical regarding my points tracking, and had some foods that, while taken into account, were not particularly healthy.

But I also got in more exercise on purpose; not a lot, but more than I had been the past couple of weeks.

Happily, the scales showed a loss of about three and a half pounds, taking my total up to just over twenty pounds lost so far. Looking forward to another round of results like this for next week!

Open Problem

Soheil — Sat, 31 Oct 2009 20:01:00 GMT

Hey all,
Is there anyone willing to work on a mathematical open problem (specifically, in Mathematical Analysis field) with me as a team?
If you have questions or comments, or if you want to collaborate, feel free to send me email at S.Malekzadeh@hotmail.com or leave a comment.

Weight Watchers Update: Week 6

tjr — Wed, 28 Oct 2009 02:14:00 GMT

Just when everything seemed to be going pretty smoothly, I was surprised. According to the scales, I gained one pound since last week. I’ve been continuing to stay within my allowed points, and overall eating healthier even. I really don’t know what I did wrong.

On the plus side (not as in, plus more weight, that is), it’s continually easier to eat the proper amount of food each day. The first few weeks I was still very used to eating probably at least twice what I should have been, and it was hard to adjust. Now I routinely feel sufficiently full after eating the appropriate amount.

So I suppose now I should really focus more on getting exercise in throughout the week. With the eating reasonably under control, more exercise may be what I need to do in order to continue losing weight…

Maemo?

Justinus — Tue, 27 Oct 2009 06:54:00 GMT

I should think of whether Python S60 should be given in the next semester since it is no longer popular. Besides Java ME and mobile web (XHTML), the options are: BlackBerry MDS, iPhone with xcode, and Maemo Qt.

La Reforma Sanitaria Americana Desde el Ojo de la Tormenta

jeffrey — Tue, 20 Oct 2009 01:57:00 GMT

Here is the English translation of La Reforma Sanitaria Americana Desde el Ojo de la Tormenta. Economía y Salud 2009 (Sep); 66.

American Health Reform from the Eye of the Storm

As my colleague Manuel Garcia Goñi has correctly observed, Americans are now more prepared than ever for fundamental change in their health care "non-system."

Horrifying Statistics

Every day, both the number of uninsured individuals and health-care expenditures break new records. Around 47 million Americans lacked medical coverage in 2007. Given that the vast majority of the population under 65 years of age obtains coverage through employment and that the unemployment rate has recently increased, the current number of uninsured individuals is unquestionably higher. In 1960, American firms spent 1.2 percent of their payroll on health insurance. By 2006, the proportion had increased to 9.9 percent. Starbucks contributes more in health insurance for its employees than it spends on raw coffee beans imported from all over the world. According to some actuarial projections, the trust fund for Medicare, the public program for the elderly, will be bankrupt by 2012. While the health care sector comprises 18 percent of GDP, it is projected that, without health care reform to control the explosion of expenditures, the percentage will reach 28 percent by 2030. Similarly, the average annual insurance premium for a family with employer-sponsored coverage is expected to rise from $12,300 in 2008 to $23,800 by 2020.

On top of these horrifying figures, for the first time in years we are riding the crest of a new wave of reformism. The Democratic Party has assumed control of both houses of Congress. President Obama himself is touring the nation, promoting his proposals to control runaway costs and insure the uninsured.

Collective Anxiety

Despite these favorable conditions, Americans seem curiously anxious about the possibility of bringing about radical change, as if the entire population suffered from a severe collective case of risk aversion. In town hall meetings throughout the country, ordinary people stand up and ask out loud, Is it possible that health care reform -- so-called ObamaCare -- will be worse than what we have now?

According to many commentators, the American population is succumbing to flagrantly false accusations from the right. At the end of the day, however, Americans have come to understand that their health care system suffers from so many interconnected distortions that additional measures at the margin wouldn't work at all.

Monopolization of Private Markets

In the United States, 54 percent of health care spending is accounted for by the private sector, which consists of a number of insurance companies that for the most part do business in multiple states. This sector does not operate in accordance with the competitive model. The past decade has witnessed a massive wave of corporate mergers. In addition, each of the 50 states regulates its health insurance market. For example, when my wife and I bought a house in Rhode Island in 2005, the insurer Blue Cross Blue Shield had a 65-percent share of the private market, while the national chain United Health Care had a 16-percent share, essentially forming a duopoly within the state. We would not have been able to buy health insurance in the neighboring State of Massachusetts except for the fact that we worked for companies that offered us health insurance as a benefit of employment.

How can we remedy the monopolization of the private market? One well-known proposal is to reverse all state laws and regulations in order to establish a genuine nationwide market. Politically speaking, such a proposal would have to overcome the protests of the champions of states' rights. What's more, as a consequence of a long history of state regulation, there is considerable variability in the terms of coverage and, accordingly, insurance premiums. The government of Rhode Island, for example, mandates that every health insurance plan cover assisted reproduction for the treatment of infertility, while 35 states do not impose the same requirement. Rhode Island likewise mandates the coverage of therapy for eating disorders, while 26 states do not. It is not obvious how one would rationalize this enormous heterogeneity of coverage. If all barriers to purchase between states were eliminated without the establishment of minimal federal standards, how would patients with bulimia or hypospermia obtain coverage?

The Public Option Enters the Stage

At this juncture the notorious "public option," promoted by the Obama administration, enters the stage. The basic idea is that a new government-sponsored firm competes with private insurers within each state. Unfortunately, it is not obvious how such competition would function. If the government insurer took advantage of large subsidies conferred by taxpayers, it would have such a competitive advantage that it could drive the other firms from the market. Even if the other competitors survive, the major concern is that their customers will transfer to the government plan, taking the place of those who remain uninsured, a phenomenon referred to here as "crowd out." On the other hand, if the government plan sets premiums according to an individual's income, then it is possible that we might end up with a "Chilean equilibrium," where the public sector insures the poor and the sick, while the private sector insures the rich and the well. As we economists well know, legal regulations that private firms insure everyone regardless of their clinical history would not prevent them from practicing risk selection.

The Tax Subsidy and the Expansion of Coverage

Since the post-war period, the American tax code has contained an exemption for health insurance premiums that the employer pays the employee as a job benefit. There is much evidence that this subsidy has created an incentive for unions to demand and negotiate more comprehensive plans. However, notwithstanding the recommendations of many economists, it is not evident that the elimination of this subsidy will increase the availability of new insurance policies with more exclusions, copayments and deductibles. In fact, if we do not confront the growing distortions in the health insurance market, it is entirely possible that even the gradual elimination of the subsidy will simply function as a punitive tax increase rather than as an incentive to economize. For now, any proposal to impose taxes on benefits achieved through collective bargaining is off the political table.

The Shortage of Primary Care Doctors. Where Goes Massachusetts?

As Professor Garcia Goñi has mentioned, in 2006 the State of Massachusetts initiated a vast expansion of coverage, requiring each resident to be insured and establishing a new public health insurer similar to the current Obama proposal. Three years later, the experiment has resulted in an extraordinary growth of public spending and, according to some sources, total spending on health care services. What apparently happened is that the expansion of coverage enhanced the population's incentive to seek medical care, especially primary care. Unfortunately, there was not an adequate supply of primary care doctors, so that hordes of people ended up in the emergency room, spending hundreds -- more likely, thousands -- of dollars for every headache, sprained ankle and sore throat. In economic terms, the great Massachusetts experiment shifted the demand curve for health-care services to the right without confronting the inelastic supply of basic services.

This country suffers from a grave shortage of primary care providers. The principal cause is the difference in remuneration between family doctors and specialists. In 2006, a general internist earned a median of $167,400, while a urologist made $361,800 and a general orthopedic surgeon made $454,000. As a result, the percentage of American medical school graduates who intended to become primary care doctors dropped from 40 percent in 1997 to 17 percent in 2007. Although legislators as well as the White House acknowledge the growing shortage, current proposals accomplish no more than toss a few molecules of iron at an anemia that is profoundly debilitating our system. Unless we see a significant increase in the number of medical school graduates who elect internal medicine, pediatrics, obstetrics and gynecology, any legislated expansion of coverage is going to increase health-care spending beyond Congress' official predictions.

Expert Committees. Withdrawing Life Support from Grandma

Nearly all experts agree that our system is replete with inefficiency. There is no doubt that we spend a lot on tests, procedures, and medications with minimal benefit. The challenge is to eliminate the inefficient while preserving the efficient. The consensus of economists here is that a drastic revision in the way that physicians are remunerated is essential. Unfortunately, the bills drafted by legislative subcommittees still speak of these changes in vague terms.

President Obama and his advisors apparently favor the establishment of a new panel of experts to guide the practice of medicine in the direction of cost-efficiency. If both the new governmental enterprise and the Medicare program empower the panel to control physician remuneration, it would have a significant influence over the practice of medicine. Such a proposal is not all that innovative. Private insurers have already adopted the practice on a small scale. But it has become a political trap. Critics have put Obama on the defensive with images of experts withdrawing life support from grandma simply to save money.

What will emerge from the storm of interviews, debates, press conferences, editorials and telepropaganda that inundated our media this summer? Will we see fundamental reform, or political stagnation?

Jeffrey E. Harris is Professor of Economics at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology in Cambridge, Massachusetts, and a primary care physician at Blackstone Valley Community Health Care in Pawtucket, Rhode Island.

back from Jakarta: INHERENT operator workshop

Justinus — Sun, 18 Oct 2009 15:58:00 GMT

INHERENT (Indonesian Higher Education Network) is growing! TEIN3 backbone is connecting!

A new start ...

Soheil — Sun, 18 Oct 2009 11:26:00 GMT

Hey everybody,
I'm gonna update here soon, but I really have no idea about what I'll post.
I'm figuring it out and I'll come back once something occurres to me.

Weight Watchers Update: Week 4

tjr — Sun, 01 Nov 2009 02:13:00 GMT

My third week didn’t offer many new things learned; kept moving along at my point level, and lost a little over two pounds.

This past week I was on vacation, eating out multiple times a day, including some sweetened soda (3 points per can), a Big Mac (without sauce, 11 points), fried mozzarella (5 points per piece, estimated), and some of the best pizza I have ever had (7 points per slice, estimated).

Even with these foods, I did not go over my daily point allowance, as I also did a fair bit of walking during the trip, providing about twenty “activity points”. I thought perhaps I would break even on the scales, or maybe even go over a little bit, but hey, it’s a vacation, and I enjoyed the food.

To my surprise, I still lost nearly three pounds, bringing my grand total lost so far up to just over fifteen.

A Brief Compiler Bug Story

tjr — Fri, 09 Oct 2009 02:12:00 GMT

I was converting an avionics subsystem from Ada to C. It was a client application that had to talk to an Ada server, sending and receiving rather huge chunks of data, large, deeply nested, intricate structure types. The C structure type had to match the Ada type exactly, or else it wouldn’t work.

I got it working fine on our desktop simulation, but running on the actual hardware it was consistently off. After extensive testing, I realized that it was a bug in the compiler for the target hardware, such that a very particular type of structure (something like, {int, char, float}) was being packed incorrectly, resulting in a 2-byte pad that shouldn’t be there. If I reordered the structure elements, it was fine, but that particular grouping and order refused to work correctly.

It was GCC, so we could fix the compiler ourselves, right? Not very practically, as, for avionics systems the compiler has to be thoroughly qualified for avionics use, and changes equal requalification. I “fixed” it by storing the float as an array of characters, converting it to and from a real float type as we needed to use the data value.

Trivial, perhaps, but I was very excited to resolve the problem, after spending days barking up wrong trees. One usually expects that the problem is not in the compiler…

Weight Watchers Update: Week 2

tjr — Wed, 30 Sep 2009 02:12:00 GMT

These new eating habits are continually becoming easier for me, though not every day has been a breeze. Today, for instance, I found myself having several snacks that I probably didn’t really need… low in points, but still unnecessary.

Earlier in the week, I took a bag of baby carrots with me to work. According to the Weight Watchers guide, ten of these carrots counts for zero points, so I ate ten of them and continued with my work. Later, I found myself mindlessly eating more carrots. Granted, a few extra baby carrots isn’t going to be detrimental to my weight loss goals, but it made me realize how easily I can eat available food without even thinking about it.

Results for the week? Lost five more pounds… ten total, so far.

Weight Watchers Update: Week 1

tjr — Tue, 22 Sep 2009 02:11:00 GMT

This has, on the whole, been a good week. The first couple of days were the most difficult, but as I began to learn what kinds of food would be most nutritional and filling without exceeding my point allowances, I started to settle in to some new patterns.

The two most interesting things that I learned over the week: much of the food I had been eating was inordinately high in calories and fat, and, relatively simple changes in what I eat can make a huge difference toward eating healthier. As an example of the latter, if you are eating fast food, asking for a salad or a baked potato instead of french fries, and getting water or unsweetened tea to drink instead of a soda can significantly reduce your caloric intake. It may take some getting used to, but I suspect you’ll find (as I did) that the healthier options taste great too.

My biggest challenge had to do with eating between meals. At my desk job, I routinely start feeling hungry (either for real or in my imagination) at various points throughout the day. My normal course of action was to eat something. Now, monitoring and limiting my eating habits, I was forced to consider other options. I can still eat something, but have been finding and choosing healthier snacks. Also, I may be able to curb the hunger without eating, perhaps by drinking some water or going for a walk.

These new ways of eating are still not quite second nature to me, but I believe that I’m off to a good start. I feel healthier than I did last week, and according to the scales, I’ve lost about five pounds.

Test

jpulli — Sat, 19 Sep 2009 16:47:00 GMT

test

Another test

jpulli — Sat, 19 Sep 2009 16:46:00 GMT

tes

Karen Blixt: Mad Hope

tjr — Thu, 17 Sep 2009 02:10:00 GMT

Currently listening to the recent Karen Blixt album, Mad Hope. This is a very nice blending of traditional jazz concepts with a more modern sound and hipper arrangements.

Highlights include original lyrics for the often-overlooked Paul Desmond tune “Take Ten”, performed as duet here… “7th Heaven”, a surprisingly-flowing adventure in 7/4 time… “Faith Baby Faith” with only vocal, drums, and bass (the latter played by Abraham Laboriel).

FDA approves new swine flu vaccine

isnaini — Wed, 16 Sep 2009 08:35:00 GMT

The Food and Drug Administration approved the new swine flu vaccine Tuesday, a long-anticipated step as the government works to start mass vaccinations next month. Limited supplies should start trickling out the first week of October -- about a week earlier than expected, Health and Human Services Secretary Kathleen Sebelius told Congress. Then about 45 million doses should arrive around Oct. 15, followed by more shipments each week.

She said they'll be available at up to 90,000 sites, including schools and clinics, across the U.S. that state health departments have chosen as best at getting the shots out fast.[AP]

Automakers try to energize electric-car business

isnaini — Wed, 16 Sep 2009 08:33:00 GMT

The race is on among the world's auto companies to make electric cars go farther on a single charge, bring the price down to compete with gas-powered vehicles, and give drivers more places to recharge them than just the family garage.

Electric is the big buzz at the 63rd Frankfurt Auto Show this week, and nearly every major automaker has at least one on display. Renault introduced no fewer than four electric models, while Tesla, the only company producing and selling purely electric cars, handed over the keys to its 700th all-electric vehicle, a blue Roadster Sport, to a German buyer at the show.

If the models unveiled Tuesday are any indication, the notion of electric cars as small, stunted boxes with little range is about to be junked.

Starting Weight Watchers

tjr — Wed, 16 Sep 2009 02:10:00 GMT

As I approach my sixth year of spending all day sitting at a desk doing avionics engineering, it’s hard not to notice that I have put on a little weight. My eating habits are not drastically different than they were in the past, but since walking around the college campus and lifting eighty pounds of computer tapes is no longer built into my regular life, I have become very physically inactive.

As a general rule, if you do not use at least as many calories as you consume, you will gain weight. The obvious solution in my case is to become more active, and indeed, I have been purposefully increasing my physical exercise. But I want to be even more proactive than that, and ensure that I am not unwittingly consuming far more calories than I really should be. Thus, tonight I signed up with Weight Watchers.

During check-in, I was surprised to see that I had put on even more weight than I realized. (I guess that explains the huge pants I’ve been wearing…) Thankfully, they did not make newcomers like me stand up in front of the class and say “hi, I’m Trevis, and I’m obese” or something like that.

The Weight Watchers program measures daily food intake using a system of points, rather than strictly measuring calories: points are determined using a function of calories, fat, and dietary fiber present in the food. Each program participant must calculate the maximum number of points they can eat each day based on a variety of criteria; my daily point intake value came out to be 47. They also encourage eating a range of different foods: grains, fruits, vegetables, proteins, etc… basically, the food pyramid we forgot about from elementary school.

I can’t say that I am looking forward to counting everything I eat, but being on a regular program with weekly advice and encouragement should help me on my journey back to my normal pants, and more importantly, to being healthier overall.

our inner space

edwin — Mon, 14 Sep 2009 16:03:00 GMT

We reached the moon and came back, but we find it troublesome to cross our own street and meet our neighbors. We have conquered the outer space, but not our inner space.

US job openings fall to lowest level in 9 years

isnaini — Thu, 10 Sep 2009 21:01:00 GMT

Job openings fell to the lowest level in nine years in July, according to a Labor Department report Wednesday, as businesses remain reluctant to hire despite signs the economy is improving.

The department's Job Openings and Labor Turnover survey, or JOLTS report, found that businesses and government advertised 2.4 million open positions on the last day in July, down from 2.5 million in June. That's also the fewest openings since the department began compiling the data in December 2000.

Still, jobs are being added in some sectors, as companies seek more health care, technology and child care workers.

The report underscores the tough competition that jobless Americans face. With 14.5 million unemployed people in July and only 2.4 million openings, that means there were six unemployed people, on average, for every job opening. [AP]

Alfresco

Justinus — Tue, 08 Sep 2009 06:55:00 GMT

I am now exploring Alfresco. Is it any good? anyone

-Albert Schweitzer-

edwin — Sat, 05 Sep 2009 10:09:00 GMT

"In the hopes of reaching the moon, men fail to see the flowers that blossom at their feet".

How to install Openfire and Spark/Sparkweb IM in CentOS 5

Justinus — Wed, 02 Sep 2009 13:49:00 GMT

Openfire is an open source Instant Messaging system that allows you to install your own IM server. The protocol is the standard XMPP where you can use in almost all IM clients available. For this Openfire installation I use Spark (standalone application) and Sparkweb as the clients. Here are the steps, I only mention the important points: 1. Download the rpm installation and install it (something like rpm -i openfire-3.6.4-1.rpm) 2. Create a new database manually, in mysql type: create database openfire; 3. Create entries of new user and db in mysql, with its password 4. Dump in the Openfire database (mysql -u -p -p - update ofUser set plainPassword='adminsnewpass', encryptedPassword=null where username='admin'; 11. Restart Openfire (this is a must!): /etc/init.d/openfire restart 11. Go to the users and groups in the admin page, create some users. 12 Install Spark or Sparkweb and test the created users. That is all about the installation. If you need to have a conference chat then you need to make a room chat from the admin menu. Explore the admin page for more settings.

Snow Leopard on the way

Justinus — Thu, 27 Aug 2009 23:50:00 GMT

Last night I purchased Snow Leopard through online Apple Store with a very special price (aprox. 10 USD). This special price comes with those who purchase Mac between June and December 26, 2009. This means that if you buy a Mac before December 26 this year, you still get the old Leopard. Anyway, reading some reviews in the net it looks like Snow is a very fast OS with full 64 bit operation, but it will need more RAM. 2GB will probably not enough for multitasking office apps, IMs and a browser. 4GB of RAM is recommended after installing Snow Leopard. Can't wait to have my order arrive, I will definitely write a review on this.

INRIX TRAFFIC! for iPhone still has a long way to go

wenyang — Thu, 27 Aug 2009 04:51:00 GMT

i've been experimenting with this app for a while. It does bring some of the basic traffic real-time/predictive information, but mostly limited on freeways. It appears to a prototype of next generation traffic data provider/collector -- yes, it could use the information your cell phone provides. Here is what its website claims:

"Every driver in the network anonymously and automatically sends their speed, position and heading to INRIX Smart Driver Network servers. INRIX intelligently combines your information with real-time data from other drivers and traditional road sensors and then instantaneously updates the traffic maps on INRIX TRAFFIC! Everyone in the network benefits from up-to-the-minute, accurate traffic information with superior road coverage. "

To really make this work, there are still a lot to do. One needs large sample sizes to ensure the quality is reliable, and some sort of smart algorithms to make the best out of the data. In addition, it could be more useful to users if it can be combined with a navigation system, or at least has some sort of voice guidance on potential congestion based on our current location/speed. And last but not the least, the battery life of the phone could kill this sort of app -- not sure about others, but i'm quite concern about how fast the battery drains when location service is left on...