berrueta's blog

Important! I moved my blog, update your bookmarks!

Tue, 17 Jul 2007 22:54:36 +0200

(Just in case somebody reads my blog...) My blog has a new home. Please update your bookmarks and point to http://www.berrueta.net/blog/. The RSS feed has also moved to http://www.berrueta.net/rss/?section=blog, so update your feed aggregator and planets.

Thanks to La Comunidad de AsturLinux for hosting my blog during more than three years!

Redesign of my web page

Sun, 15 Jul 2007 22:51:35 +0200

This has been the first weekend in a long time without any close deadline, so I spent the time doing, well, nothing. But that's not completely true. I made a long-awaited (and much-needed) complete redesign of my personal home page. I moved to a CMS (TextPattern), and a new hosting. There are still some corners to cut, but the "beta" version is already online. Don't hesitate to send your comments!

I expect to move my blog to the new home page in the near future, so stay tuned and be ready to change your feed reader.

By the way, special thanks to Wikier for his support with my new web.

Awesome paintings

Sat, 14 Jul 2007 13:34:25 +0200

I've just discovered the work of Julian Beever. Wow, call me impressed! Don't miss the opportunity to check his masterpieces in his homepage. Some of my favourites: one, two, three, four.

A busy week

Mon, 09 Jul 2007 16:33:13 +0200

Last week was a busy one. I attended to the Assembly of the Spanish Initiative for Software and Services at Gijón. Then, I presented a short dissertation and got a new title called "Suficiencia Investigadora" (the most accurate translation is "Research Proficiency"). I don't know if there is an equivalent title in other countries. Moreover, I think this title has little or no value outside of the Spanish Universities, but it is nice to have, anyway.

One step closer

Tue, 26 Jun 2007 23:54:16 +0200

Today I successfully presented my PhD research project (remember: this is not PhD thesis, it is just a previous step). It was very well received by the board, and it achieved the highest marks. I'm very grateful for their help to my project advisor (Labra), to my colleagues at CTIC for their insightful comments and to the reviewers who contributed to the quality of the final result.

When will my dissertation be disclosed? Really soon, I promise. I still want to finish some details before making it public. Please be patient!

And when will I get my PhD? Good question. I'll do my best to start working on my thesis right now, and to keep working until it is finished. However, it might be take some time (years). So please, be very patient! Fortunately, I've completed all the previous steps, although I still have to make another simple presentation next month, just a formality.

Teaching in a Master Course

Sun, 24 Jun 2007 10:53:00 +0200

Last week, I taught a lesson in the Master on Web Engineering at University of Oviedo. The topic was "Applications of the Semantic Web", but I took the opportunity to talk about a wide range of vocabularies and applications, including RDFa, GRDDL, SKOS, FOAF, Dublin Core, Tabulator, D2R Server, SIOC, SWAML, etc. (sorry, I'm too lazy to link all these words. Google them yourself). The slides are available for download. Thank you Labra for inviting me to participate in the Master.

PhD research project

Thu, 21 Jun 2007 22:39:18 +0200

I'm sure nobody has noticed, but in the last month I've posted just once. In fact, I've been very busy completing the report of my PhD research project (warning: this is not my PhD dissertation, that will be the next -and last- step). Finally I made it, and I submitted the report to the University last Tuesday. I even moved forward my holidays in order to have more time to finish the writing. As usual, I retired to the isolation of the mountains for two weeks, and when I returned, the job was done! Now I'm struggling to make some fine slides, because next week I'll defend my work after a board.

So, what is the topic of my research project? Well, I'll make it public soon, but at the moment I can advance that it is related with the Semantic Web (although this will hardly surprise anyone). Stay tuned!

Leyendo sobre Oviedo

Mon, 04 Jun 2007 09:41:49 +0200

Hace unos días escribí acerca de la presentación del nuevo libro de mi amigo Miguel. Ahora que lo he leído, puedo decir que me ha gustado mucho. Ojalá muchos vecinos de Oviedo se lanzaran a leer el libro. De hecho, lo tienen muy fácil para conseguir el libro, puesto que se distribuye con una licencia CreativeCommons. Si lo hicieran, podrían conocer otra visión de la ciudad en la que viven, de cómo ha crecido la ciudad y de cuál es el estado de su ayuntamiento. Miguel ha hecho un trabajo formidable para condensar toda esa información y transmitirla con mucha claridad en su libro. Definitivamente, una lectura muy recomendable, incluso para los que no vivimos en la ciudad, pero la sentimos como parte de nuestra vida.

Learning to write (again)

Mon, 21 May 2007 20:52:03 +0200

Yet another book review. Yesterday I completed another reading, in this case, of Turabian's "Manual for Writers". I bought the book to improve the quality of a dissertation that I'm due to deliver by next month (more details will probably follow in next posts). It's not that I'm ashamed of the quality of my previous works (for instance, Zinc was acknowledged as a fine piece of research and writing), but everything can be improved, and everyone should try to do their best.

This book, however, hasn't been as useful as I thought it would be. Many of the advices weren't new for me, or have little use in my case. Anyway, some chapters are really funny to read, because they were written more than 20 years ago, when computers weren't as popular and powerful as they are now, and typewriters were much more common. Word-processing software was at its infancy; screens and printers were pretty limited in their features. So all pieces of advice on how to use a computer and a word-processor to prepare the dissertation are deliciously old-fashioned. In spite of my age, I can recognize myself using those applications and old computer hardware twenty years ago. Maybe I'll post on this in the future.

A different perspective of Oviedo

Sun, 20 May 2007 17:14:11 +0200

Hardcore readers of this column will probably know that I like to post reviews of some of the books I read. However, today I'm going to talk about a book I've not read (yet).

Yesterday, my friend Miguel presented his new book, "Oviedo, detrás de la fachada". Actually, they're two books, one of photographs (by Maria Arce) and other of research and opinion (by Miguel). I'm eager to read them, because I'm sure Miguel has done a superb work. However, I doubt the City Mayor would like the book.

Update: Oh, I forgot to point that the book is published under a CreativeCommons license.

A book about Google

Sat, 12 May 2007 21:15:39 +0200

Some time ago, Labra posted in his blog about "The Google Story", a book about the popular search engine. Of course, it caught my attention, so I bought the book. I started reading it during my trip to Poland, and now I've just finished. It's a good book that tells an interesting story. You don't need to be very old to remember the rise of Google, because all the action has taken place over the last ten years. In fact, I still remember the first time somebody told me about Google ("hey, you have to try this!"), because I was really amazed with the superiority of Google with respect to the previous search engines. It probably happened in 1999 or 2000, and Google has been my preferred search engine since then. I also remember Google's announcement of GMail (in fact, I was fooled and I thought it was a joke, although I quickly admitted my mistake). I also have had other "wow!" moments, for instance, the first time I saw Google Maps/Earth, and every time Google delivers search results in just fractions of a second. So it's probably fair to say that I'm guilty of being a Google fan. That said, I wouldn't like to live in a Google-dominated world, no matter what their motto is!

Learning new symbols

Thu, 10 May 2007 19:49:16 +0200

One of the best things of travels is that you discover and learn new things. Wikier has already posted about how the cars are parked in Poznan (Poland). When we were there, we also discovered that (at least in some cases) public toilets are not identified by the usual symbols (an iconified picture of a man or a woman). Sometimes, there is only a triangle or a circle, without words. Sorry, but I don't have any photo to illustrate this story: I'm not brave enough to stand in front of the women's toilet to shoot a photo, specially in a foreign country!

Of course, these new symbols are a challenge for foreign people, like Wikier and me. Can you imagine which one (triangle/circle) suits your gender? Would you have made a decision and entered one of them, and maybe faced the shame of choosing the wrong door? Try to use your logic to determine which symbol represents male and which one represents female, and only then, check your answer! By the way, are you aware of any other country that uses these symbols?

Popular photo

Tue, 08 May 2007 20:01:20 +0200

Wow! one of my photographs of the Barrios de Luna bridge illustrates up to seven Wikipedia.es articles. Last time I checked, it was only present in two of them. Apparently, Wikipedia editors enjoy this photo! By the way, I've just discovered that this bridge can be also found in Youtube (see video).

Nombre llamativo para una tienda de informática

Sun, 06 May 2007 10:46:45 +0200

Ayer, mientras buscaba sitio para aparcar en Gijón, me tropecé con una tienda de informática con un nombre y un logotipo muy llamativos. A esas horas se encontraba cerrada, pero por supuesto, al llegar a casa tiré de Google para encontrar más información. Aquí dejo un par de enlaces (uno y dos) a un par de bloggers asturianos que han colgado en la red algunas fotos de esta tienda tan peculiar.

You know you've been travelling abroad a lot recently when...

Tue, 01 May 2007 20:12:45 +0200

... when you enter a pizza-bar in your hometown in Spain and almost ask for a pizza in English.
... when you sit down on your seat in the movie theater and wonder where the seat-belt is.