Milestone 250

Just reached a nice round number in my practice runs: 250 km and counting only since early this year. Actually, this was in even less than 6 months, because my first log dates back to the end of January!
Thanks to my brother Alexandre, that gave me a Nike+ accessory for my iPod last Christmas, everything is properly logged so that I can brag about it :)


Last minute news: just stop by the mailbox, and Arnold has finally decided to send me my definitive California driver's license. Thanks Terminator!! Now I don't need to carry around my passport whenever I want to drink a simple beer! You can't imagine the ordeal that was to have this done. Folks at DMV are somewhat complicated and disorganized. I was waiting for it since end April. I'm thinking about suing them...
...this "American way of life" is starting to get to me!

André Teixeira Puga

Hoje é um dia triste para mim. Estou certo que não estou sozinho neste sentimento. Alunos ou colegas do Professor André Teixeira Puga estarão certamente comigo neste dia em que ele nos deixou. A faculdade onde o conheci (FEUP) perdeu um dos que, na minha opinião, era um dos seus mais competentes professores. Isto claro, sem falar na qualidade do seu trabalho como investigador. Foi sob a sua orientação que fiz a minha tese de mestrado, e foi ele um dos principais motivadores na minha vinda para a UCSD. Devo-lhe muito. A minha curta carreira de investigador terá sempre a sua chancela. Recordo com saudade as diversas tardes de Sábado ou Domingo que passámos a trabalhar na minha tese. A minha motivação? o canudo. A do André? o puro prazer de ensinar!

A vida é mesmo assim. Há coisas com as quais não contamos... e esta, para mim, foi pura e simplesmente um choque.

Caro Professor, amigo André: até sempre!
do seu aluno, Zé Maria

final's week

at last... the final's week for the last quarter of the academic year is about to begin! I can't imagine how time went so fast.

Today in the afternoon, I was just thinking a little bit about all the amazing experiences I've been living this year. Not forgetting some frustrations along the way... but then again, looking back it's incredible the amount of knowledge I've acquired. For those of you that think something like: "oh yeah... he works on computers", it may be complicated for me to explain how broad of an area the "computers" are. You might not be aware, but I've slightly deviated from my original major. Come to think of it, I guess I've never really worked in what my degree was supposed to prepare me for: software engineering/computer science. As such, it's easy to understand that my potential learning curve is bigger than those in the field for years (if I am willing to open my mind). I must admit, I take a lot of pleasure in going back to school. Although I keep complaining about midterms, finals, homework... I could do this for life :)

People often ask, but what exactly do you do after all? And I always have problems explaining this. When I do try to give an explanation, I always end up with this feeling that the message didn't get through... Perhaps I use too much technical jargon. Computer vision, machine learning... what is this stuff? I guess there is no better explanation than to actually show an application. Here is a cool video with a projected vision for a known game controller.