Announcements

I have two major announcements for whoever tries to keep track of my life.

1. I have completed the operating systems course. That's great news. Otherwise, I'd have to take it again and that would be another few months of hard work, and this time, I wouldn't learn much. Plus, that's the hardest course at this faculty. This means that if I could do it, I can do anything. Well, actually, that means I can get a bachelor's degree in CS at the end of this year (unless I screw something else up), and with all the classes I have done in advance, my master's degree will be only seven classes away.
   
2. My Google Summer of Code application has been rejected. I'm a bit disappointed, but that was to be expected. Maybe next year... I'd love to work for OLPC a bit, so maybe the next GSoC would be a great opportunity. Maybe. We'll see what life brings.
   

Now, I can focus on completing the classes I have until June and start thinking about my next career move. And I'm learning Java.

Writing my Google SoC application, part 3

A week ago, I wrote and posted my SoC application and was very happy with it. Then I learned the deadline had been pushed by a week and things got a bit crazy.

The first thing to do was to contact the potential mentor and ask him whether it was what was needed. Actually, it was a thing to be done long before. There's a week before the student application period starts for that and then the entire week. But, silly me, I missed that first week. (Wasn't I finishing the operating systems project then? It doesn't matter anyway.)

So I asked. And got answered. That another student had applied for the same project and they preferred him. The project got therefore split into server-side and client-side, the second one being for me, and I had to rewrite my application. I am not as happy with it as I used to be, but well, otherwise I would have no chance of being accepted. Not that the odds are very strong now, OLPC has over 150 applications, and I guess it won't have more than 20 spots, so there can't be two on one project.

Speaking of numbers, there are 175 organisations and 7000 applications. 7000/175=40, so OLPC is high above the average. (I should have applied to Tux Paint.)

Anyway, I did my best and the guy in charge does what he can too, so we can just hope for the best now and wait patiently for the results, which will be announced on April 21st.

Writing my Google SoC application, part 2

Here's part 1 if scrolling down doesn't let you see it and you wonder where it is.

During the next few days, I browsed the OLPC wiki a lot. I also installed my own Sugar: one emulated on Quemu under Windows with a ready-to-use image, and one I compiled myself under Ubuntu (it really does take hours). I tried out DrGeo and made a project that illustrates that the angles of a triangle always sum up to 180 degrees:


I wasn't getting any answer and time was passing, so I started thinking about alternative ideas. For the language and finance teaching software, the competiton had grown. I decided to go for the blogging project - creating a blogging platform based on Wordpress easy enough for the children to use and bandwith-saving (if I have a hard time loading Blogger's home to start posting - how about kids in the bother countries?). Friday - started thinking. Saturday - discussed it with Boyfriend and wrote down a few use cases. Sunday - spent the entire day (excluding: sleeping late, visiting Grandma, going to Church) writing my application and I finished past midnight.

I was quite happy with my application and glad that I was done. All I had to do was now wait patiently for an answer and get back to my school work. Well, I thought so. But I was wrong.

To be continued.

Google SoC student application deadline moved!

If I had posted that yesterday, no one would have believed me. Or... this is Google playing a joke on me. I hope not.

Anyway, the point is, the student application deadline has been moved to Monday, April 7, 2008! I think it's a great desicion because the amount of time that was given was very short and writing one good application was realy hard, as I already started writing (see, I was even too busy to blog about it!).

Now that explains why when I opened my "student home" page at SoC, I still could add new applications.

I guess I will write a new application then. I won't be able to give it as much time, but I won't require that much time either, as I have been browsing the OLPC wiki and thinking about it a lot for a week.

Keep wishing me luck!

Writing my Google SoC application, part 1

Storytime, kids. I spend most of this week preparing my application for the Google Summer of Code and will tell you a bit about it.

So, on Tuesday, I started looking at the list of organisations and their ideas (they were published on Monday). One definitely stood out for me: One Laptop Per Child. I already wrote about my enthousiasm towards this initiative a few days ago. Although some others had interesting ideas, I decided to stick with OLPC, for two reasons: first, I'm really enthousiatic for it (and would do something for them even without the SoC), and second, with 175 organisations with a dozen of ideas each, you have to narrow it down somehow.

I also registered to their wiki, did a little bit of translating - you can't reach me better than give an opportinity to help with "Only have five minutes?".

On Wednesday, I kinda picked my project. A few ideas looked interesting to me, namely some language and finance teaching software. But, some people already expressed their wish to write these things and had some ideas about it. I had no ideas and didn't really hope for suddenly having any, as I am exhausted and my creativity is dead. Plus, I decided not to get into competition, these people were there first, but to pick something else.

Then I noticed DrGeo, program that lets kids learn geometry. I loved geometry in high school, know SmallTalk and French (in which the program and the documentation are written), and there's a nice to-do list - I decided to go for DrGeo.

Okay, once the project was picked, I had to write the application, and teherefore figure out what exactly I would do. I knew I was able to do whatever was required (if I can just take the Linux kernel's sources, read them and start modyfing them - is there something I can't?), but couldn't really estimate how long each task would take (if you don't pick enough, you won't get selected, if you pick too much, you won't make it and won't ghet the cash) and still was pretty blurry about what was to be done. I e-mailed one of the authors asking for advice about it.

To be continued.

One Laptop Per Child

One Laptop Per Child is one of the coolest projects I have ever seen. The mission of the One Laptop per Child association is to develop a low-cost laptop—the "XO Laptop"—to revolutionize how we educate the world's children.

Nicholas Negroponte says on the website:

It's an education project, not a laptop project.

Well, my reaction is:

Did somebody say laptop?

Anyway, it's really an awesome project and I've been thinking of participating for a month now, but school has been keeping me very busy all the time. I've actually been thinking of volunteering somewhere for a very long time. I even did it a bit in high school (with elder people, I'm a good listener). However, in college, I could never make time for that. When I'm already overwhelmed by my classes (this two-majors thing ain't easy) and exhausted by all the travelling (it takes me an hour to get to school), I'm not really eager to do some more travelling. I'm also not really able to make some commitments right now with everything that goes on at school: the operating systems lab is not yet over for me, the team is already kicking my pretty little but about the team project...

Anyway, OLPC seems like the best opportunity ever for me. I could contribute form home, evening, whenever I have time. Also, what is really important for me, I could make a good use of my skills. I know that the most important kind of help is not technical and doesn't often look impressive from the outside, but geek volunteers are needed too. So you won't see me walking homeless dogs or something when I can use my tech and lingo skills to do something great.

So, now that OLPC has been accepted for the Google Summer of Code, it' on absolute top of my whishlist. I'm just a bit afraid that this project is really popular (quite a few project ideashave already been taken!) and that I might not be selected (which would mean plan B: get a normal job for the summer ). I only have a week to pick one and write an awesome proposal. Wish me luck!

Installing, installing, installing....

Today is a pretty typical geek day. Basically, it means sitting at the computer all day long.

Having formatted my hard drive on Friday, I re-installed Windows XP from my recovery CD. Then I installed Ubuntu 7.10, only 34 days before Ubuntu 8.04 is out (you can get the beta if you can't wait, but I don't like the word "beta", or read a review here).

Sunday was Easter, so all I did was install The Sims 2, among with the expansion packs: Open For Business, Bon Voyage and Free Time. Then played a lot.

On Monday, I continued celebrating and installed Visual Studio C# and Visual Web Developer, both express editions of course. However, I didn't even have the time to run one of them.

Today, back to the serious stuff. Right now, getting the 204 important security updates Ubuntu has got for me. Then, installing Java and Eclipse. Then, Sugar, because One Laptop Per Child has been accepted for Google Summer of Code and I'd love to do something with them. Then, Thunderbird, which I'd love to see working under both Linux and Windows, using the same mail folders of course. Then, some SVN client, then, the libraries I need for my team project, namely Tuscany SDO and Apache Maven. Then, getting to work.

Ah, an entire day at the computer. I'm feeling so good right now.

Google Summer of Code 2008 is on!

Google Summer of Code 2008 is on!

Time to find a project idea and a mentor.(Time = 4 weeks)

If anyone has any ideas involving cryptography, error-correcting codes, AI, Arabic, web programming and stuff, let me know! I wanna spend the summer coding in the sunshine...

Meeting with the ABW (NSA equivalent)

I just came back from a meeting with the ABW (Internal Security Agency). I'm enchated and excited as every little kid when he discovers his vocation at the early age of eight and says "I wanna be a agent!" (as well as fireman, policeman, austronaut,... I was gonna be a teacher and a writer, never an agent.). I'm seriously considering applying there. But not today.
The pros: the meeting was with people specializing in cryptology, internet security,... And what do they do? EVERYTHING! Cryptography, cryptoanalysis, testing network protocoles,... just make a wish and do it! The have access to all the newest software! And Arabic teachers! I think ths is a place where I could do exactly what I want and I would be able to change it easily as I change my mind. I'm afraid that companies can't provide so many possibilities.
The con: the giant responsability. I wouldn't exactly want to have the weight of the world on my back, and that's what this kinda work is about. I'm scared!
Scared... But that reminds me of one thing: the only good definition of "courage" I ever heard was in a Disney movie (Princess Diaries). I was: "courage is not the lack of fear, but the conviction that something else is more important than fear". Well, isn't the country's security more important than my fear?
This reminds me of another thing: the movie "Thirteen days", when the guys wish there were some great smart guys that would come and solve the issue... but there are no such guys! Or more precisely, they are those guys! All they can do is do their best. So maybe I am one of the guys? With a solid crypto knowledge and being only able to do my best?
That's how I see working at the ABW: as a vocation. You can't do that for the money (they won't hire you). You can't do that for your own satisfaction (allthrough you get it). You can only do it for the country and doing it means assuming a huge responsability, not going "yahoo! I got a great job!".
Now a more pragmatic point of view. It's a work full time, wich means I won't be able to do it for the next 2,5 years (still in school!). So there's no point in applying now. However, it's something that I am really going to consider in two years. I need time to find that vocation in me (or its lack!) and to consider everything. Meanwhile, it's school, hopefully Google Summer of Code this summer, a part-time job next year, and we'll see the rest in its time.