Archive for the ‘Personal’ Category
I was always amazed by the Triple Packs in modern film releases. This included the Blu-Ray version of the film, a DVD version and a digital version, which you can download from iTunes by giving a special code included in the packaging. Of course this comes not for free … you pay something more.
I’m regular customer of amazon.co.uk and I have in my possession several movies in “triple packs”, bought originally from there. I’ll be honest, I bought the pack for the DVD version of the film (useful when you travel and you cannot have the Blu-Ray player with you), but since I could download the digital copy, I thought it would be handy to have it also. After all, its my prerogative … NOT!
Since I bought this from the UK, I should be there to download the copy. And I mean literally there, since the code was invalid outside UK. Doh! Nobody told me that, when I bought the original product … When I go to UK for vacation, I will get all my Blu-Ray disks with me to download my share of the copies (three, one in Full HD, one for computer and one for portable devices).
Oh well, seems like the music and film industry have a lot to learn about the digital world and the new way of doing things. This is why the pirate bay or sites like that exist I think …
Ironman 2 - Triple Play Pack
Summer is slow, even when I am writing my thesis, and I decided to get the apache logs from the web server that is hosting my website (aka gaijin) and see how many people have downloaded my publications so far. I discovered the logs for 1 year back and voila … the results:
Starting Date: Tue Aug 04 05:21:07 EEST 2009
Ending Date: Mon Aug 23 22:52:25 EEST 2010
- Evaluating the Quality of Open Source Software, 578 hits, (Journal)
- Compiling regular expressions into Java bytecodes, 376 hits, (MSc thesis)
- Python tutorial (Part IV) – Simple GUI construction with wxPython, 358 hits, (Magazine)
- Building an e-business platform: An experience report, 328 hits, (Conference)
- Python tutorial (Part I) – Introduction, 305 hits, (Magazine)
- FIRE/J: Optimizing regular expression searches with generative programming, 278 hits, (Journal)
- Applying MDA in enterprise application interoperability: The PRAXIS project, 260 hits, (Conference)
- Enabling B2B transactions over the internet through application interconnection: The PRAXIS project, 239 hits, (Conference)
- Python tutorial (Part III) – Handling Bibliography with Python, 224 hits, (Magazine)
- PEGASUS: Competitive load balancing using inetd, 181 hits, (Conference)
- A Software Development Metaphor for Developing Semi-dynamic Web Sites through Declarative Specifications, 171 hits, (Technical Report)
- Software Quality Assessment of Open Source Software, 156 hits, (Conference)
- Python tutorial (Part II) – Blogging with Python, 153 hits, (Magazine)
- Performing peer-to-peer e-business transactions: A requirements analysis and preliminary design proposal, 151 hits, (Conference)
- Introducing Pergamos: A Fedora-based DL System Utilizing Digital Object Prototypes, 142 hits, (Conference)
- Tuning java’s memory manager for high performance server applications, 141 hits, (Conference)
- Enabling B2B transactions over the Internet through Application Interconnection: The PRAXIS Project., 130 hits, (Poster, Conference)
- Fortifying applications against XPath injection attacks, 60 hits, (Conference)
- J%: Integrating Domain-Specific Languages with Java, 46 hits, (Conference)
- Blueprints for a Large-Scale Early Warning System, 38 hits, (Conference)
In addition, I used a Geolocation database for the IP Addresses and listed hits from specific countries:
- United States 2299
- Greece 1036
- Russian Federation 196
- China 121
- Czech Republic 77
- India 63
- United Kingdom 53
- Netherlands 52
- Germany 44
- Brazil 34
- Thailand 32
- Taiwan 31
- Korea, Republic of 26
- Japan 17
- Egypt 15
- South Africa 14
- Cyprus 11
- Spain 10
- Ukraine 8
- Canada 7
- Italy 6
- Turkey 5
- Sri Lanka 4
- Indonesia 3
- United Arab Emirates 2
- Belarus 1
Total number of downloads was 4872.
According to a naive facebook test I am Chaotic Neutral.
“You are Chaotic Neutral. You are a Free Spirit.
“Chaos” implies freedom, adaptability, and flexibility. On the downside, chaos can include recklessness, resentment toward legitimate authority, arbitrary actions, and irresponsibility. Those who promote chaotic behavior say that only unfettered personal freedom allows people to express themselves fully and lets society benefit from the potential that its individuals have within them.
People who are neutral with respect to good and evil have compunctions against killing the innocent but lack the commitment to make sacrifices to protect or help others. Neutral people are committed to others by personal relationships.
A chaotic neutral person or roleplaying character follows his whims. He is an individualist first and last. He values his own liberty but doesn’t strive to protect others’ freedom. He avoids authority, resents restrictions, and challenges traditions.
A chaotic neutral person does not intentionally disrupt organizations as part of a campaign of anarchy. To do so, he would have to be motivated either by good (and a desire to liberate others) or evil (and a desire to make those different from himself suffer).
A chaotic neutral person may be unpredictable, but his behavior is not totally random. He is not as likely to jump off a bridge as to cross it.
Chaotic neutral is the best alignment you can be because it represents true freedom from both society’s restrictions and a do-gooder’s zeal.”
Always thought I was Chaotic Good … 
Hey, just noticed that the next version of the book Dive into Python
My friend George Oikonomou showed me a few linguistic gems, found in a official document of an insurance company.
- minixter, suggests a super minix guru
- abone, indicating a single piece of bone
- copliant, … i leave that to your vivid imagination
