Disqus - Latest Comments for jozilla

Re: Research update

jozilla — Sat, 31 Oct 2009 18:17:23 -0000

Thanks Ruben! :)

Re: Fun with Python, OpenCV and face detection

jozilla — Fri, 30 Oct 2009 07:39:17 -0000

The script uses Gary Bishop's CVtypes, not python-opencv.

Re: How to efficiently perform a literature review

jozilla — Fri, 30 Oct 2009 06:18:37 -0000

Thanks Juan!

Re: Fun with Python, OpenCV and face detection

nop — Sun, 13 Sep 2009 08:26:26 -0000

yes, 9.04

Re: Fun with Python, OpenCV and face detection

jozilla — Mon, 10 Aug 2009 08:23:45 -0000

It might be good to use a specific GUI toolkit in this case, such as WxWindows.

Have a look at Gary Bishop's blog post, where he grabs a bitmap from the camera and displays this in a Wx window: http://wwwx.cs.unc.edu/~gb/wp/blog/2007/02/04/p...

Re: Fun with Python, OpenCV and face detection

jozilla — Mon, 10 Aug 2009 08:22:07 -0000

Are you using Ubuntu?

Re: New homepage

jozilla — Fri, 24 Apr 2009 03:28:42 -0000

Thanks Ruben!

It's the first time someone mentions that it looks like Facebook, although the header is indeed quite similar :-) I'm not an expert in web design, but it will do for now. The design can also easily be changed with a few touches of CSS.

I agree that everyone's needs are different, so a perfect system that works for everyone will be hard to achieve. PmWiki serves my specific purpose very well.

Thanks for mentioning 'CMS Made Simple', never heard of that one before.

And I will try to blog some more again in the future. In the meanwhile, have a look at my Twitter page :-)

Re: blog@CACM

jozilla — Fri, 03 Apr 2009 16:40:22 -0000

Indeed. Many HCI researchers also do research related to other fields (software engineering, machine learning, cognitive psychology, electronics, ...), although they don't necessarily contribute in those areas. I agree that there is no hard classification.

I think cross-pollination between fields is very valuable, and should be something to strive for. The example of Tim Berners-Lee inventing the Web (together with Belgian computer scientist Robert Cailliau by the way) is indeed an interesting one. It is often stated that many of the greatest inventions or insights were based on a mix between different disciplines. Another example I find interesting is the one of Alan Kay who pushed object-oriented programming forward and developed Smalltalk based on his insights from biology (complex organisms consists of billions of communicating cells or 'objects' in OOP terms). He also explored the work of Jean Piaget on constructionist learning in developing Smalltalk (and currently Squeak and Croquet) as an educational tool.

Thanks for sharing your thoughts Daniel!

Re: OneNote: a hidden Microsoft Office gem

jozilla — Mon, 30 Mar 2009 15:47:45 -0000

Indeed, it's strange that they don't promote it that much. I think OneNote is very useful for college students for example.

Re: New homepage

jozilla — Wed, 18 Mar 2009 19:21:03 -0000

Thanks! Of course "a whole day" was a bit exaggerated :-)

Re: Fun with Python, OpenCV and face detection

jozilla — Mon, 05 Jan 2009 04:38:15 -0000

You need to have OpenCV installed. I guess that is the problem. I didn't try it on Windows yet since there's no D-BUS support, but in theory the face detection code should work.

I will probably release a first version of the code in the following weeks, so stay tuned!

Re: Back to the future: Smalltalk

jozilla — Thu, 23 Oct 2008 03:38:27 -0000

Hi Claudio,

Thanks for your kind words! I'm glad you enjoyed the post.

Re: Integrating Disqus with a Ruby Site

jozilla — Tue, 21 Oct 2008 02:36:39 -0000

Hi Jon,

I think you better post this on the Disqus forum.

-- Jo

Re: Fun with Python, OpenCV and face detection

jozilla — Fri, 17 Oct 2008 09:29:44 -0000

You're welcome, I'm glad it was useful for you.

Re: Fun with Python, OpenCV and face detection

jozilla — Sun, 12 Oct 2008 07:25:30 -0000

Ah thanks, that's very helpful!

Re: Small update on face detection post

jozilla — Sun, 12 Oct 2008 07:24:38 -0000

When I find some time to do so, I surely will. For learning D-Bus, you can already have a look at the source code for PydgetRFID.

Re: Fun with Python, OpenCV and face detection

jozilla — Tue, 01 Jul 2008 01:34:30 -0000

You are right, I noticed yesterday that the cascade file was part of OpenCV. Thanks for clarifying!

Re: Small update on face detection post

jozilla — Sun, 29 Jun 2008 05:29:55 -0000

Thanks Vahid!

The idea is not new though. Eric Horvitz from Microsoft Research has done impressive research in this area (be sure to check out the movies at the bottom of the page).

Re: Fun with Python, OpenCV and face detection

jozilla — Sat, 28 Jun 2008 10:53:20 -0000

You're welcome! I'm glad you find it useful.

Re: Demo video of a Smalltalk environment

jozilla — Sun, 25 May 2008 10:27:37 -0000

Hi Ruben, thanks for your feedback!

I already mentioned in my previous blog post that I believe these ideas should be included in our OOP course. I am not involved with the course though. A good time to include this might be when the course material will be revised :-)

Unfortunately I won't make it to the lecture by Professor Daubechies either. I leave for AVI 2008 in Napels on Tuesday together with Jan Meskens to present our paper. So indeed, see you at another CS event :-)

Enjoy your vacation!

Re: Back to the future: Smalltalk

Mark Miller — Fri, 23 May 2008 00:24:18 -0000

I'm a little familiar with what you're talking about. From the screenshots I've seen, Dolphin integrated better with Windows in the visual sense. The browser window was just another window on the Windows desktop, for example, as was your app., and any debugger windows. ObjectStudio is the same way. Squeak has its own UI separate from the native UI.

I tried my hand with the .Net Bridge, and it works well if you're just using the .Net framework class library (and of course any Smalltalk classes). Where it gets hairy is if you try to bring in an outside .Net library or do COM work through .Net. Then you have to use .Net's own late-binding mechanisms which are a pain. In Smalltalk you get late binding for free. With .Net you have to do gymnastics. It supports it, but it's no picnic. One of the projects I've had in the back of my head for a while is maybe I'll try my hand at improving the bridge for these scenarios. The experience should be better.

Another option I heard about a couple years ago was WxWindows for Squeak. I've heard complaints about it, because it makes you do some gymnastics, but I think it works.

Re: Back to the future: Smalltalk

Mark Miller — Fri, 23 May 2008 00:08:24 -0000

Thanks for your response. The "day job" thing was bugging me, because I wondered if other programmers were seeing something I wasn't. I haven't really had any work experience with it, so I wondered if in "the real world" there were difficulties with it that I haven't seen yet, and what those specifically were. I've heard from people who have used Smalltalk in work settings. Some have praised it. Some have said bad things about it. Ironically, I've found the people who didn't like it didn't understand what it was really about. It made me wonder how they got hired to do it in the first place. It felt like I was talking to someone who used C but didn't understand how pointers worked.

I am familiar with the ESUG list of companies. Things like this give me hope. :)

I consider myself lucky that I was exposed to Smalltalk in college. It was part of a senior course on programming languages, exploring how they worked; different types of systems (compiled, interpreted), different types of languages (imperative, functional, object-oriented). It was a long time ago, so I don't remember exactly, but I think we covered Smalltalk for 2 weeks. I also got exposed to Lisp, in a different class, covering it for the same length of time. So I got a "taste" of them. Honestly, I think there are more jobs for Lisp programmers now than there were back then. ITA Software uses it, as does Orbitz. Both are in the U.S., I think.

As for what Paul Graham said, I'd like to believe that. The thing is, I think so many of the best developers don't believe they can find work using an esoteric language, so they learn Java or something, and apply their talents towards that. It's a self-fulfilling prophecy. A significant minority of talented developers are using and pushing for Ruby and Python to gain wider acceptance. That's good, IMO. They're a step in the right direction.

I have a suspicion what Graham said is boosterism. He's very much into believing that everyone should do what he's done with his life. I tend to agree with what he says, but I think if he were right then we'd see more development in esoteric languages than we do today.

I read up on what Graham wrote about his ViaWeb company. He began it using Lisp. He sold it to Yahoo. It's now called Yahoo Store. Yahoo eventually ported most of it to C++ and Perl. The reason they gave is they couldn't find enough Lisp developers to maintain it. Graham disagreed with that decision, of course, but that was Yahoo's determination.

I think Yahoo didn't have enough faith in Graham's decision to use Lisp. They probably said to themselves, "Yeah, whatever. He's a bit eccentric." If they understood his reasons, they would've pushed more for Lisp competence, pressuring CS programs to teach it more because, "We need Lisp developers." That's my perception of how these sorts of decisions happen at universities. They try to deny that they respond to industry pressure, but they do.

The thing is universities (in the U.S.) tend to teach them with a very clear message that "These are research languages. You won't be using them for your work." One of the things that's bugged me for a while is how Lisp was pigeon-holed as an AI language right from the start, as if it wasn't good for anything else. This doesn't do it justice.

Yes, startups have more freedom. So long as the founders can take care of most of the development themselves they can get away with that. I don't think corporate perception that there are too few developers who understand the esoteric languages is wrong. I think it would be a challenge to hire a whole lot of Lisp or Smalltalk developers. In my view it's a chicken and egg problem. You have on the one hand perception that there aren't enough developers who understand this stuff (so startups typically use PHP), and on the other you have a perception on the part of developers that they can't find work using them, so they go to PHP or Java.

I think there is a perception as well that in order to be able to handle a project you MUST be able to hire X number of developers at a rate range Y. In addition, a lot of commercial concerns look at industry support. There's a perception that you need good 3rd party support for whatever development platform you use, and if it doesn't have it it's not worth using. What Graham says, and I believe it's true, is if you use an esoteric language you don't need as many developers. In fact large teams are inefficient anyway. Secondly, you don't necessarily need the third party support if you have a good technical team that can roll its own solutions. So it takes someone brave, willing to buck convention, to do this. They also have to believe that their technology is a competitive advantage. Unfortunately in the U.S. for the past several years there's been a growing belief that "I.T. doesn't matter" (ie. technology is not a differentiator), and that IT management is what can differentiate one company from the next. There's some truth to that, but it's not the whole story.

Re: Back to the future: Smalltalk

jozilla — Mon, 19 May 2008 02:24:51 -0000

The fact that you can rarely use Smalltalk in a day job has more to do with Smalltalk's (lack of) popularity than with its intrinsic qualities. As far as I know, there are only a handful of companies in Belgium that use Smalltalk, let alone offer Smalltalk jobs. The most well known is MediaGeniX. It seems they don't even require experience with Smalltalk anymore. In one of their job postings they say that applicants will be trained in the Smalltalk development environment. The European Smalltalk Users Group (ESUG) has an extensive list of companies that use Smalltalk.

Lisp has the same problem. I found a list of Lisp companies, with only one from Belgium: PEPITe, a spin-off company of the University of Liège.

So I didn't say that Smalltalk is not suitable for real-world software development, but it is just not used much in industry. As far as I know, most of the traditional programming jobs require either Java, .NET or C++. Furthermore, most programmers have no experience with Smalltalk. To the best of my knowledge, the only university in Belgium that actively teaches Smalltalk is the Vrije Universiteit Brussel, who perform research in programming languages. They host the Planet Smalltalk blog, hosted ESUG meetings and have employed some well-known people in the Smalltalk community (e.g. Roel Wuyts).

I can imagine that managers are afraid that they won't find programmers to maintain their codebase if they use Smalltalk. Although Paul Graham once said: "if a company chooses to write its software in a comparatively esoteric language, they'll be able to hire better programmers, because they'll attract only those who cared enough to learn it", I have a slight feeling that most companies don't think that way :-)

Of course, it all depends on the career you choose (and what you like to do). I can imagine that startup companies have more freedom to pick their preferred development tools.

Re: Back to the future: Smalltalk

jozilla — Sun, 18 May 2008 05:50:52 -0000

Thanks for pointing this out!

Re: Back to the future: Smalltalk

jozilla — Sun, 18 May 2008 05:42:53 -0000

Thanks for your kind words! I'll update the blog post with a few lines on Smalltalk being written in itself.

From reading Jeffrey Massung's blog, Dolphin Smalltalk indeed seemed to offer easy integration of Windows libraries (e.g. DirectX). I am not sure how Squeak compares to this. They have an FFI interface and a .NET bridge as far as I know. An advantage of Squeak to me is that it runs on many platforms, including mobile devices.