One of Those Moments

by Zef Hemel

An hour ago I had to think of a poem I once read for my English studies. The Road Not Taken, by Robert Frost. I don’t know why I had to think of that. Maybe it was because it was briefly cited in Dead Poets Society, which I saw again a few nights ago. But still, I don’t know what made me think of this poem.

Then I started to read in my Google Reader and I found this. I guess it was my sixth sense at work.

Armagetron

by Zef Hemel

I’m not a gamer, not even close to it. But today and yesterday I have been playing Armagetron Advanced a lot. It’s a simple 3D open source game that runs on Windows, Linux and the Mac (yay!) based on the Tron movie. What I like about it that it’s live action and in essence very simple. You can play quite well by simply using two keys (one to go to the left and one to the right). You can play it locally or on the internet. I just won my first game online, wooh! ;)

Armagetron screenshot

You can give it a try for free here: Armagetron Advanced website. Recommended!

GTTSE and GWT

by Zef Hemel

I’m here at the GTTSE ‘07, the Generative and Transformational Techniques in Software Engineering summer school which I participate in to get started in the area of transformational techniques which an important part of model-driven engineering, which is what I will be doing my Ph.D. on.

There’s quite a few interesting people walking around here. Yesterday I had a chat with Scott Blum of Google, who works on GWT (Google Web Toolkit) and gave an implementation on their Java to Javascript compiler and all the optimizations they are doing there. We talked, among other things, about why Google develops a framework to basically make it easier to compete with them. The reason for that is that Google wants to convince more companies and people to build web applications, when companies do that (hopefully using GWT and a slew of Google tools, like the Google APIs) the playing field is leveled. Which application is used no longer depends on who gets the best software distribution deals, like which software is pre-installed on Dell desktops, but instead everybody gets a fair shot at getting using them — on the web. That also means that it is easier for Google, or anybody else, to compete.

GWT is not something that was developed in-house, originally. It was developed by a company that already worked on Java to Javascript compilation and AJAX before Google Maps and the AJAX term was coined. Quickly thereafter the company was bought into Google and now they’re working with about 14 people (if I remember correctly) on it in Atlanta. GWT is not currently used for any of the big products that they run, but it is considered for some new projects and some projects are actually being developed with it now. The focus, however, for the GWT team has been mostly at advocating it to the outside world rather than to Google internally.

I find the GWT project very interesting. They do a lot of the annoying, difficult work that you would otherwise have to do yourself. The Java to Javascript compiler is quite amazing, they do a lot of clever optimizations that can make your Javascript code a lot smaller than it would otherwise be (for example by removing all classes and methods and other pieces of code from libraries that are not used).

Recent Going Ons

by Zef Hemel

I haven’t been blogging much the past weeks because I’ve been busy with different things. First I was in Oxford for a week. Then I spent a lot of time preparing my parents’ 25th wedding anniversary, which they celebrated last Saturday (yay!). We’ve organized to give them a week trip to New York, which they were very happy with. Tomorrow I’m leaving to Texel, which is one of Holland’s islands, for a short family holiday.

Throughout this time I’ve also spent quite some time looking at places for rent in the west of the country. It’s amazing how much time you can spend on that.

A Day of Pimpin’ my Mobile

by Zef Hemel

It was not my intention, but you know how these things go. I’m considering switching my mobile provider and have been doing some research. Not only did I spend hours and hours comparing plans — today I also looked into flashing my phone. Those who know me a bit know I’m not the hacker type. I’m not somebody who spends days and weeks getting some exotic computer set-up to work. For me things just have to work and keep working. The same goes for my mobile phone.

However, my phone — a Motorola PEBL U6 — has been branded by T-Mobile, my current mobile provider. That means the logo is everywhere, including a nice “T-Zones” option in the middle of my main menu. That’s kinda annoying, especially if, for example, I would switch to Vodafone or some other company. So this morning I decided to look into flashing my phone. I heard the term before, I roughly had an idea what it was, but had never done it.

Now flashing (or reflashing), it turns out, is like reformatting your harddrive and reinstalling your OS. Except it’s faster, it only takes a few minutes. I’m on a Mac so all the Windows flashing software does not really work. But I found out there’s a nice Motorola on Mac flashing tutorial available. I found a recent flash file for my phone and flashed it, except nothing appeared to have happened when it was done. All the logos were still there. It turned I had just updated the software. If I wanted to replace the rest too (menus, sounds and all that stuff) I had to use something called an MP — a Monster Pack. I downloaded one and installed it and every looked, well, let’s say different. The background was moving like some kind of 3D shooter. The fonts looked crazy, the menu was completely different and I had a different set of applications available now. Not what I wanted, but we were getting somewhere.

What I feared might happen, happened trying the next MP: the phone did no longer boot. The screen just remained black. Luckily I was able to get back to the booter by holding * and # simultaneously while starting the phone and I could install another MP. After a few tries I found the default unbranded Motorola PEBL flash file, which is now running on my phone. Everything seems to work fine, I have no T-Mobile stuff in there anymore.

All this did take me the whole morning and a bit of my afternoon however, but the result is that I have now pimped my phone. I’m a regular sir pimpalot.

To Oxford

by Zef Hemel

Tomorrow morning I’ll be getting up at 4.20 a.m. to go to Oxford (UK). I’ll be going there for a one-week study trip. Really looking forward to it (except for the getting up). Blog to you in a week!

Another Change in Direction

by Zef Hemel

After studying English for half a year (with great results by the way) I know and realize that I really enjoy it, but that it is not my future. The question then becomes whether to finish (by studying another 3-4 years) or quit and do something more “compliant” with your future. After my girlfriend applied for a Ph.D. position in the west of Holland (I currently live in the north), I started to think about this more. I considered finding a job in the west as well, but after talking to some people I reconsidered the option of doing a Ph.D.

I started looking around in the country to see if there were any interesting projects going on. Then I found this. And it reminded me of what I posted almost 2.5 years ago in The Importance of Laziness:

This is what I’m passionate about: being lazy, err, tools that make developers more productive. I like playing with them, promoting them and creating them. It’s what I want to do. Not only tools, but also development paradigms and everything that improves the development experience, getting rid of the boring stuff and reducing it to the essentials.

That’s why I like languages like Python and C#. That’s why I like IDEs like Eclipse and Visual Studio. That’s why I like paradigms like object oriented programming and code generation. That’s why I like application frameworks like ASP.NET and Ruby On Rails (which I’ll be looking into soon).

When I get my master(s), we’ll see where I can work on stuff like that. Having programmers only working one hour per day, yet doing the same amount of work they did in a day before, that’s my goal.

When I read the research project’s full project plan I found this:

The aim in development is to produce a high-quality system with the least possible effort. The aim in maintenance is to apply improvements and extensions with the least possible effort.

When you set your goals so much in line with what I wrote about 2.5 years ago, how could I not apply for this position? So I did. And they were interested and invited me for a day of interviews American style.

Yesterday morning I got up at 5.30 in the morning, took two trains and two busses and arrived at the TU Delft around 11. First I did an (almost) hour long presentation for their group (slides in PDF, 14 MB) about my M.Sc. dissertation project, I think it went well. They had some valid remarks.

After lunch I had interviews with four of their group members. First the project leader Eelco Visser, then the professor, Arie van Deursen, then two of the current Ph.D. students: Martin Bravenboer and Ali Mesbah. They all turned out to be really great people working on interesting projects. At the end of the day I was offered the job. This morning I accepted.

So, starting September 1st I will be a Ph.D. student at the TU Delft! I’m very excited and looking forward to it. I will have to move of course, so I have to find a place to live somewhere around there for me and Justyna, but I’m sure it will be fine.

If you think: hey, that is really interesting, I would want to do something like that, maybe you can. If you have a M.Sc. in computer science and interested in this have a look at this page. They are still looking for one or two PhDs and a PostDoc. So if you have your Ph.D. already you can also apply. You will be working closely with a great group of people, among who will be… me. And honestly, who wouldn’t want to work with me ;)

I am not quitting my English studies yet though. I intend to more-or-less finish this year. I probably won’t take all classes (I also teach myself this semester which takes time), but I’m still studying.

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