« August 2005 | Main | October 2005 »
September 28, 2005
[Research] Journal on Emergent Algorithms
Peter Lamborn (now at MSU) and I did some work on emergent algorithms for model checking. Might this: A Taylor & Francis Journal: International Journal of Parallel, Emergent and Distributed Systems be a good venue for that work. Time will tell.
Posted by jones at 01:37 PM | Comments (0)
September 27, 2005
[Research] Application Server and Web Applicaiton Verification
One of my PhD studnets, Tonglaga Bao, and I are embarking on a study of how to reason about application servers (such as JBoss) and web applications built on top of application servers. Rather than build an formal model of an application server, which usually requires abstracting away interesting details, we are going to take a less rigourous but more useful (we hope!) approach. Our approach is to verify the web application using the execution semantics defined by a given application server in a given configuration. We will do this by turning an applicaiton server into a model checker, or something like that. A model checker is a tool that checks if a transition system is a model of a given temporal logic formula. In our case, the transition system is a web application interpreted by an application server, the temporal logic formula describes things like "deadlock free" "no race conditions" "no starvation" etc. The web application is deadlock free (or whatever was specified) if it models, or satisfies, the formula.
I have been reading about application servers and J2EE and will post my learnings as they come. Meanwhile, I was encouraged to find that a Google Search for j2ee returns "do you want to work for google" as the top hit. Good for Tonga!
The insight I had today while reading Teach yourself J2EE in 21 days is that the n-tier architecture and components framework actually supports verification of components. Component verification is something that I studied and loved as an MS student but the work was not as succesful as I'd hoped. So this may be a place to play with those ideas again.
We are actively looking for funding to support this work. If you are interested in participating or contributing to this work, please contact me
Posted by jones at 03:35 PM | Comments (0)
September 26, 2005
[Research] Learning how to run a research lab
I found that my PhD did an excellent job of teaching me how to think and how to finish something big. It did not, however, equip me with the tools I need to manage a research lab and to teach.
My approach to learning to manage a lab is to read random books from the BYU MBA program. In our bookstore, the CS books are across from the MBA books so its easy to browse through whatever the MBA faculty has picked for their students and read that which looks interesting. A colleague turned me on to The E-myth revisited which taught me about establishing a system and expectations.
I just finished Leadership and Self Deception: Getting Out of the Box. This book was more helpful in working with other people, like other professors, than running a lab. This book was mostly helpful in getting me to focus on results rather than focusing on myself.
Both were good for a young professor learning about this management stuff. Fortunately for me, I have good students to work with so its been a good time to learn in a non-pressure environment.
Posted by jones at 09:04 PM | Comments (0)
September 21, 2005
[Misc.] My new non-school blog
I've decided that it is time to split my school-related blog and my non-school blog. My new non-school blog is Utahania and it is hosted at Blogspot. Blogspot hosting seems pretty cool, except that there's no support for making entries with titles in Safari? Its also not clear how to do categories, but we'll work on it.
Posted by jones at 11:29 PM | Comments (0)
September 18, 2005
[Misc.] My sunglasses history (sad)
I am hoping that by writing this, I will be able to begin the healing process.
My wife bought me a pair of Smith slider 01 glasses 18 months ago for Christmas. They were the first pair of sunglasses I ever really loved. And represented a significant change in my glasses philosophy which went from buy a cheap pair and don't worry about it to buy a nice pair and enjoy it. Life was good--until I lost them. Cost: $100. Fate: Lost on a bike ride above Lindon Utah when they fell off my camelback.
Undaunted, I bought another pair and life was good again. I took them on Scout summer camp for a week and enjoyed their lightweight wellfitted comfort. I even enjoyed switching out the dark lenses for the amber lenses for the black powder shooting thing. On summer vacaction, my loving 2 year old daughter ripped one of the arms off. I sent them to Smith and they sent me back a new frame for free. Life was really good at that point. But it wouldn't last long. Cost: $80. Fate: left at Silver Lake Trailhead after scout backpacking trip. Rescue mission the following day unsucessful.
I decided I wasn't prepared to live the law of expensive sunglasses. So I used my ebay skills to buy a pair of used Smith mainline (I think it was) glasses. They were gold, they fit well but they didn't block wind as well on the bike. But it was ok because they were cheap. I used a sharpie to darken the inside of the bottom edge of the frame to cut down on glare off the funky gold frames. Cost: $25. Fate: Destroyed in a failed diving catch for a disc during an ultimate game on a scout campout. They were in my pocket and I knew I shouldn't have dived. But, the good news was that the frame absorbed most of the impact thus protecting my cell phone.
So here I am, back to ebay for another pair of smiths. I hope that someday I will mature to the point that I can own an expensive pair of glasses. I have also noticed that scout trips are not kind to my glasses (plus I destroyed a canon powershot on a scout trip once too). so I may end up leaving the good glasses (when I am ready for that kind of commitment again) home on scout trips.
Posted by jones at 11:13 PM | Comments (0)
[Misc.] Safe Boy Scout Campout near 5 Mile Pass
I just wanted to point out that we took all the scouts, age 11-17, on an overnight camping trip on a small section of playa near 5 mile pass in Utah. It was a great trip with about 6 adults and 25 scouts. Amazingly, nobody was hurt, harassed or hindered on the entire trip.
We did however, build a monkey bridge across the playa that failed with a scout on it. He was ok.
Posted by jones at 11:02 PM | Comments (0)
September 15, 2005
[Misc.] Once again: Welcome to the MWC TCU!
Although I got my PhD at the U of Utah, I remain an ardent if forlorn and somewhat bitter BYU football fan. After the Utes shut out BYU at home two years ago to snap the shutout streak, I have nursed a loathing for Utah football (I know its small and petty, but that's the way it is).
So, anyway, after an embarassing loss to SMU, my new second favorite MWC team beat Utah in overtime. Once again, welcome to the MWC! I'll remain a TCU fan as long as they loose in Provo next week.
Posted by jones at 10:04 PM | Comments (0)
September 12, 2005
[Misc.] html symbols
HTML 4.0 Entities for Symbols and Greek Letters Very useful for online notes in one of my classes
Posted by jones at 08:18 AM | Comments (0)
September 05, 2005
[Misc.] UNPC Local Tour permit
This is the real deal direct from the council office. For a while, they had a cover page that also wanted a list of young men coming on the trip, and wanted the form 2 weeks in advance. I don't see that cover page this time and there's no instructions that want a list of participants. Your milage may vary.
Posted by jones at 02:09 PM | Comments (0)
September 03, 2005
[Misc.] Welcoming TCU to the MWC
Ok, I am not excited to see TCU added to our fair conference here in the Mountain West. I thought it made more sense to add Boise State. Of course, I don't really understand TV markets and all that stuff and I think that was the main reason to add TCU.
But after TCU's big win over OU and Boise's loss to Georgia I got to say that I am way stoked to have TCU in the conference. I think that's probably one of the top 10 wins ever for our conference against a non-conference oppenent and its only their first game! So I guess I can quit quibbling about whether or not TCU is really in the Mountain west and say "welcome to the conference! Its good to have you here"
Posted by jones at 09:08 PM | Comments (0)
September 01, 2005
[Misc.] Well, I guess there is a place for blogging in New Orleans
I do feel much better after my little diatribe on New Orleans in which is said that blogging is useless and the internet is a forlorn dream in a city with looters but no electricity. Turns out I was wrong and The Interdictor has a fine blog live from New Orleans. Fascinating.
Posted by jones at 09:26 PM | Comments (0)
[Misc.] Thoughts about New Orleans
This hurricane and New Orleans thing has really got me down. Time for some writing therapy.
[CNN.com - Sniper fire halts hospital evacuation - Sep 1, 2005
] In the wake of the recent 3rd world country-like events in New Orleans, one is left to wonder: where is the Army or the National Guard? I mean if we can't put 10,000 battle ready troops with 2 weeks of supplies in New Orleans within 6 hours of when we want them there, then what has our army come to? Are all of our quick response teams in Iraq? Europe? Japan? What if the Canadians attack over the border one day, are we going to take 2-4 days to get a few helicopters and humvees there to pluck citizens off their rooftops while we watch the troops pour over the line? (A little far fetched, but now that there's no Soviet threat, you have to think up different scenarios).
[Random observations on Hurricane Katrina] And you'd think that democrats would at least have the decency to wait until they finish finding and burying the dead before they get back on the Bush-is-a-weanie-and-we-hate-him bandwagon. I suppose the next thing we will hear is that Katrina and the flood are the result of a Republican conspiracy (orchestrated by Karl Rove of course) to steer the debate away from the war in Iraq and create a smokescreen for the energy crisis. The flood especialy. How do you think the levee breach started? It must have been high-level White House operatives under the direction of Rove himself. Let's deal with the crisis first (even though the response has seemed kind of weak from where I sit in my air conditioned, dry, basement) then start pointing partisan fingers later.
I was a little surprised to see questions like: how can IT type people employ their unique skills in this situation? How can blogs help in disasters? I was surprised because I thought it was obvoius that the answer is a resounding "your skills are useless, send money if you aren't local and get a shovel for the sandbags if you are" I think once New Orleans gets things like, say, electricity or maybe even clean water going again, then we might start thinking about blogs and websites there. My blog isn't very functional without power and that seems to be an issue in New Orleans, especially for the hospitals??!
Finally, New Orleans doesn't seem to have a coherent plan for how to deal with this disaster. The city has a lake on one side and a river on the other and it sits BELOW both of them. Seems like spending some time practicing and writing a disaster plan for the "levee break" scenario might have been a good idea. This is either a great example of man's hubris in the battle of technology v. nature or its an incredibly inept execution of a poor plan.
Ah, I feel a little better already. I feel almost as bad as I did on 9/11, 9/12 etc watching all the horific news on TV. So I had to limit my intake of new TV for a while. Too bad college football doesn't start til Saturday (and I will be at a wedding for my team's first game to top it off).
Posted by jones at 06:45 PM | Comments (0)