Two nice schemes about Open Source

I don’t know how I stumble upon this report of a conference (English translation) from Avi Alkalay but I liked 2 schemes he showed.

In this first scheme (left), I like the way it reminds you that “Open” is not only about software, source code. But now that more and more people are aware of the benefits of Open Source software, it’s interesting to also stress the other sides of openness: open standards (like OpenDocument), open hardware, open architecture.
In the second scheme (below) is about the trend from private control / closed access to public control / open access (apparently from Rebecca Henderson; it could be interesting to find this whole presentation from 2004).

There is a third scheme in Avi’s post but there is something I don’t like in it, although it’s visually appealing. Although I understand that proprietary and open innovations should collaborate for the time being, I think that Open Innovation is the model to follow. Moreover, the “speed-to-market” criteria is, imho, better in the Open Innovation model (but maybe I should see Rebecca Henderson’s presentation).

"Word processors" are not meant to be usable

(… at least for large documents)

Two week-ends ago, I spend a whole day trying to apply a consistent style to a thesis. I spent hours trying to be obeyed by a word processor because it would systematically change the style of some element, somewhere in the 100-or-so pages. Including figures was also a nightmare: we had to keep an eye on the (limited) memory of the computer (otherwise we got unexpected screen freeze, a lot of noise from the hard disk (paging), etc). Generating a bibliography was also another daunting task, even with the use of a dedicated reference manager …

Now I don’t know if I have to blame what we call “word processors” or human laziness …
First, these pieces of software are not really “processing words”. Grep, sed, vim, LaTeX, XSLT… actually are processing words, transforming them from a raw text format to something else, possibly transforming the whole text into something more readable on paper.
Second, word processors tend to let people write whatever they want, in whatever style (some word processors even retain the different style of things pasted into the text), in whatever order. In this aspect they resemble mind mapping software. But if a draft of experiment can be written like this, a good thesis needs a good planned underlying structure (imho). And current word processor software doesn’t push you to do this.

In this aspect, LaTeX may have a steep learning curve but it somehow force you to think about the structure before adding text and embroideries. Changing the style is only done in one place and is easy (once you know the command to type). I already used LaTeX for other reports, presentations and thesis and will certainly keep it for my Ph.D. thesis this year.

Performance freeze in Windows Task Manager

I don’t know if it’s a bug or a feature (*) but the Windows Task Manager doesn’t seem to refresh its graphs when we are moving its window. It’s barely noticeable when you usually move it (**) but you can spot this behaviour when one of your other windows is freezing.

Freezing performance graphs - Windows
(larger screenshot)

(*) I know this post is nearly useless but I’m tired of waiting for this freezing software …
(**) I guess it refreshes its graphs between window movements: a human being can barely notice if Windows stops moving the window for 1/100th of second to refresh

Smoking terrorism

Despite the fact I have smokers amongst my friends, I couldn’t resist to rant a little bit about smokers (“terrorism” is currently a buzzword in Belgium and in the world, so I put it in the title). While some smokers I know understand that “One’s freedom stops where others’ freedom starts“, I am about to think that many of the smokers are still thinking they are the only ones on this planet and, if one dares to complaint, they will grumble, act as if they are victim of some sort of segregation or, worse, retaliate.

In Belgium, a law forbids to smoke in public areas. But it’s allowed in some restaurants and bars where you have a clear separation between the two areas (smokers and non smokers) and enough ventilation (for both parts). For lunch, we decided to stop on a terrace of some well-known restaurant in Liรƒยจge (Belgium). The waiter guaranteed us that the “tent” (on the terrace) was a non-smoking zone. Of course, after 30 minutes, 5 to 7 smokers were already drinking, eating and smoking … But well, I didn’t mind too much since there was enough air for everybody (I can bear some smoke). England goes smoke-free. by Patrick Mayon on Flickr Then one young lady sat next to me and took a cigarette out of her bag. I kindly asked if it was possible for her not to smoke for some time since 1. it was supposedly not allowed there, 2. I didn’t want to inhale smoke while eating my lunch and 3. a pregnant woman was sitting nearby (and passive smoking is also bad for pregnancy). The girl looked at me as if I asked for an impossible mission, as if I was very rude, as if I hurt her deep ego, as if I was some kind of tyrant, as if I was mentally torturing her. She said rude words and threw verbal abuses (in French; fortunately for you, I don’t know their translation in English). Before I had the opportunity to reply, her friend told her I was reacting like one of their male friend who is taking care of a pregnant lady, if I correctly understood. They both got up and went to sit a few tables further. (I’m not describing the dark looks the young lady sent when she was leaving the tent before us)

Walking for a few minutes in the city afterwards, I noticed a lot of Belgians are actually smoking everywhere (“Welcome to the real world” you could say). Most of them hardly care where they exhale their smoke (in the air or on a passer-by who didn’t ask anything, what’s the difference?). Can’t they just take care a little bit of other people?

Photo credit: “England goes smoke-free.” by Patrick Mayon on Flickr (license CC by-nc-nd)

Three restaurants in Germany

Potsdamer Platz by night - photo by Jean-Etienne PoirrierA small post to report three very interesting restaurants in Germany. The first one is in Berlin, on Potsdamer Platz: Ristorante Essenza (website). It’s a very stylish and very classy Italian restaurant. The decor is very sober, the ceiling is very high and I really liked the rugged wall with small cases for different wine bottles. The (English-speaking) service is impeccable and waiters are very tactful. But we don’t enter a restaurant only to enjoy the place … Food in Ristorante Essenza is also delicious, pizzas are served in good proportions and sea food is really nicely cooked. I didn’t have the opportunity to taste their wines (by choice; but they looked all very fine on the menu). Finally, icing on the cake, prices are really, really affordable for this advanced standing (Italian restaurants in Belgium will have many lessons to take in order to beat that standard).

A second interesting restaurant is a real German tavern, also in Berlin (on Alt-Reinickendorf, next to the Ibis hotel ; it’s name is simply Alt-Reinickendorf). It is so small it doesn’t have any website, not even visiting cards. But the atmosphere inside and the service are really warm, friendly and German at the same time (don’t ask me what is my definition of “German atmosphere”: I won’t be able to define it; you just have to know it’s positive). I guess there are many other places to taste real German food, cooked by Germans. But here the owner comes to welcome you and makes sure you have a non-smoking area (*), the waitress is speaking enough English to guide you in the menu and the service is very fast. If you want to taste native food, you have to go there.

Finally, the last restaurant we really liked in Germany is in Hannover, on Vahrenwalder Straรƒลธe and it’s a Vietnamese one, Lotus. They don’t speak English (and I felt so bad not knowing a word of Vietnamese cuisine) but they have an English menu. The decor is classical for a South-Asian restaurant (I’m always wondering why Vietnamese restaurants are calling themselves “Chinese” although they don’t serve Chinese food). Pick whatever you want in the menu and it’ll be served fast (my suggestions: fried duck or chicken with plain rice ; sauces are served aside as it should be). And, of course, it’s tasty (we went there twice).

Enough! (I’m hungry now). I’m not a critique, these choices are of course personal but these are places I would certainly come back ๐Ÿ™‚

(*) It’s one thing that was surprising in Germany: people can still smoke in public areas, including restaurants. In Belgium, it’s forbidden and we didn’t pay attention to this “detail” at first when we planned our trip.

One more Open Source software at ULg

ExamsAfter the promotion of Open Access (see Bernard Rentier’s blog) and a history of publications in Open Access journals (see this last article from the Cyclotron Research Center in PLoS), the University of Liege is slowly slowly publishing Open Source software too.

The last free software published is exams, an assessment management system (for on-line exams, …). They chose the GNU GPL 2, apparently without the possibility to upgrade to version 3 (I don’t know if it’s deliberate or not). And you can download the source code here.

What is even more interesting is that they provide a demonstration website if you want to test it in a nearly real setup (as examiners or students ; only in French). And the demonstration system is hosted by a commercial hosting company (OVH), indicating that it could be possible to use this system on very common platforms (only PHP/MySQL are required).

Now, we can dream of other software from the ULg released as free software, a subversion repository and a users/developers community around exams …

P.S.: of course, we already did all that ๐Ÿ˜‰ since we published Gemvid in an Open Access journal (the Journal of Circadian Rhythms) and published it along with a lot of other tools as free software. But I don’t count this as an institutional push towards free software since it was mainly my decision and the development didn’t involved other people.