Gentleware recently released version 4 of “Poseidon for UML” (an UML modeling tool). They said it now respects many more features of UML2 but I am not proficient enough in UML to clearly see all the advantages. But there are still some strange things. Two examples: 1. The default graphics format of Poseidon installed on a Fedora Core 3 is PNG. The default graphics format of Poseidon installed on a Fedora Core 4 is JPG (same with SuSE). I tried to look in the config files (in fact, in all text files in the installation path) but I didn’t find anything related to this topic. It’s probably an OS default setting but I didn’t had the time to check. ...

Some days ago, IDC published a study carried out on behalf of the BSA (Business Software Alliance). In this study, they promised the creation of 4 000 new jobs and the addition of 2.6 billion US$ to the economical growth in Belgium if software piracy is reduced by 10% between 2006 and 2009. For France, it is a promise of 30 000 new jobs and an addition of 13.7 billion US$ to the economical growth! ...

This afternoon, the secretary of the university ethics committee came to visit (inspect) our animal housing unit. We (and I) can be proud of our work since he said quite a few times that we have a “model” unit, a unit that is clean, etc. :-D As I said before, the animal wellbeing is one of the top priorities in the lab. And it is always good to be congratulated for our work (since I am working alone in my unit, it doesn’t happen often and it is even more important for me).

Today, internet was down from 8.30 to 15.40 (I don’t know the reason). We were able to work on the local network but not further. No mail, no web surfing, no chat, nothing. This gave us the opportunity to work hard :-) Soon after the “disaster”, I looked for incidents on verious support websites. I didn’t find anything. But I do find some interesting graphs about the internet connection. For example: Of course, this link is completely useless if the connection is down (since we wouldn’t be able to access it). And, anyway, it’s again a geek-only concern.

I am currently (i.e. during the night, my only free time) trying to use the libpng in order to open PNG files and process them later. I haven’t read the entire manual yet but, following their example.c, I succeeded in opening a file, check if it’s really a PNG, read all the data and display some basic information about it (width, height, bit depth, …). Next step: process the data (I will probably only be able to do it during the next week-end).

My webcam is finally working with Fedora Core 3. Thanks to Luc Saillard’s page on Philips USB Webcam Driver for Linux, I was able to download and put a new module for my webcam (a Logitech Quickcam Pro 4000). I first tested it with GnomeMeeting and it worked fine. Thanks to camE, I was able to take this snapshot (and get rid of any unnecessary GUI ; snapshot is a reduced version of what I get). ...

Following an urban audit from the European Commission, Liege (the city where I am living) is one of the top criminal city in Europe ( detailed results here)! In 2001, they counted 256 crimes for 1000 inhabitants. In Belgium, Bruxelles has 153 crimes and Charleroi, a city one often refers as a mafia city has only 144 crimes for 1000 inhabitants. Even big capital cities like London has a lower scores than Liege (146) … ...

Caffeine is currently the most widely used stimulant in the world (it can be found in coffee, tea, soft drinks and chocolate, e.g.). For the first time, researchers have directly demonstrated that caffeine modulates short-term working memory. Using functional magnetic resonance imaging ( fMRI), Florian Koppelstatter (Medical University Innsbruck, Austria) and his colleagues determined the effects of caffeine consumption on brain activation in a network of modules subserving short-term memory of healthy adult volunteers during a working memory task (working memory represents brain activity required to remember things for a short period of time). When given caffeine (approximately the amount in two cups of coffee), the volunteers demonstrated a tendency towards improved short-term memory skills and reaction times during the given task. The fMRI showed increased activity in brain regions located in the frontal lobe and the anterior cingulum. This shows that caffeine modulates a higher brain function through its effects on distinct areas of the brain. What is exciting is that by means of fMRI, they were able to see increases in neuronal activity along with changes in behaviour. ...

If you are looking for free (as in ``free speech") C/C++ source code, csourcesearch.net could be interesting for you. Apparently, Robert Schultz spent one year using various tools to enter millions of lines of C/C++ code from free software in a database. Most of the code come from software under GPL (more than 40% ; see all the licences parsed and all the packages used). And results are color-coded for the pleasure of your eyes. ...

When they are not doing any experiments (or even while doing experiments), scientists can be good singers. Here is the proof with two bands: Les Horribles Cernettes and Science Groove. Of course, you need some science background to understand everything …