Nice news: Einstein@HOME, a project using the same distributed computing ideas as the original SETI@HOME, has found the first significant discovery: A radio pulsar. This event proves the utility of the collective power of this distributed computing effort.

Even nicer news: The data for this discovery was collected by the Arecibo Observatory at Puerto Rico! (Yes, the same one as in the James Bond movie...) 

This week turned out to be tougher than I had originally expected! Living alone is no joke; which is why when I do decide to move out, I am getting a dog.

Most of the week I was either working on my project, or spending a lot of time on itunes listening to music and/or watching (more like attempting to watch) tv.

Strange to say, I am starting to like the Portuguese language a lot more. It could be because I am surrounded by people that only speak this thus forcing me to like it. But at the same time, knowing that I can say, "I can communicate in 4 languages", brings me a lot of joy. Now I can say for certain that learning theory is not the best way to learn something. You need to actually go out and 'experimentar', and this can apply to any subject.  

It is sad to say that I will miss Brazil. It has been good to me as I have been good to it. The environment and culture are the things I will miss the most. They way things work around here is not like in Miami. Although you do have your certain individuals here that are liars and thieves. But the majority of the population has have a certain trust that is no longer seen back at home. For example, at a Kilo restaurant, you can go and pick your portions, go outside and enjoy the food. After you have finished your meal and have had your drinks, you then go back inside and pay your dues. Back in Miami, any restaurant like this would probably not work. Now it is not fair to say that all citizens of Miami are like this, however unfortunately there are people that like to destroy this type of trust among latino-americans and thus why certain communities of White Americans detest latinos, especially in areas where the latino population is not common.

The culture here is also another ideal that I will miss. Here people have a different mentality when it comes to the meaning of life. Now I'm not going to say that the answer is 42, however the idea that they have is the reciprocal of ours back in the states. People here do not live to work. Here their biggest passion along with being brazilian is futebol (soccer). And while your can read in magazines and textbooks about Sugarloaf and the amazing Christ statue; these mere landmarks are only the tip of the iceberg when it comes to experiencing the actual culture of Brazil. Culture is like an artists canvas. You can have a mere drawing of a portrait, or you can have a canvas infused with rich colors that define and makes it stand out above the rest. Passion is what creates the second canvas, and it is what the brazilians have.

I know, because I saw it. I experienced and I lived it. There is only one word that can describe what I felt when I experienced this and that word is: envy.

Envious of what they have as a country, and what we lack in America. Not to say that in latino areas of the United States you had some small groupings rooting for their country; ironic as they should be rooting for USA and not Argentina, Uruguay or Brazil. But when the whole country absolutely stops what they do, and I mean a complete shutdown of the entire workforce; this is the passion they have for what they love the most. It is not about the amount of money they make. Brazilians will cheer and scream no matter what size tv they have, or whether the channel is in HD and its being Tivo'ed. 

I have seen this canvas of passion and explosive sentiments; and it definitely kills our view on life.

Countries throughout the world have their culture that is defined and solid. So intricately designed that to confuse one for the other would be taboo. Italy created their monumental masterpieces, and Brazil's love for soccer are some to be mentioned. I sometimes wonder what people think of our legacy. The creation of a privatized Federal Bank? The deprivation of solid education for our youth? The idea of having teachers think of our youth as $ dollar signs instead of students.

Envy is definitely the word I would use to describe Brazil's culture, and I have no regrets participating in the PIRE program. Out of my 4 years at Florida International University, this has been the best (and only so far) experience period. I would not trade the last 2 months for anything in the world and if I had the opportunity of doing this again, I would jump on it in a heartbeat.

An opportunity has come to publish our ideas in FlexiTools@SPLASH2010. The deadline was today (but got extended until next Friday). That explains why I did not update this blog in a while . During these days I finished a final draft of the paper to be submitted. I’ve been receiving great feedback from Dr. Fabio Kon and David Villegas. I feel that I have already addressed the issues mentioned by them. I'm now waiting for a review of the paper by my advisor, Dr. Masoud Sadjadi.

Some info from the last 2 weeks:

I attended three sessions of ‘Javali en São Paulo’, a special one-day conference on Java and Free Software. The first was entitled ‘New features in OpenJDK 7’. The focus of the talk was on describing the upcoming features for this Free Java JDK. The speaker mentioned the clean up of the syntax (ala Ruby or Smalltalk) and the changes in the JVM to host dynamic languages.

Another session was entitled ‘Cloud services for SMB software developers’. The speaker presented various SaaS solutions and their usefulness for improving Soft. Eng. Practices.

The last one was ‘Business Intelligence with Java’, where the speaker presented a key abstraction, known as a ‘cube’, which is used to make BI data be more easy to access. Tools for Data Mining where also demoed.

All sessions where presented on Portuguese. I was able to understand them all!

One of Barcelona's beaches

I will miss views like this one from the balcony of our apartment.

I will remember these views for the rest of my life.

I will miss the people, the markets, the stores and the bars that serve you on the sidewalks.

Barcelona

Socio Cultural Note:

Barcelona's only two remaining bullfighting arenas are being boycotted by radical animal right's protection groups and by a separatist group that claims that bullfighting is not part of Catalunyan culture. Conservative nationalist groups defend the bullfighting tradition that dates back to the Roman Empire era. The bullfighting arena shown here is being converted into a shopping mall leaving only one functioning bullfighting arena left in the city.

It is located in Plaza Catalunya at the base of a 2000 foot hill by the coast called “Mount Puij” that overlooks all of Barcelona. The bullfighting arenas reside within city limits and the bulls are brought in trucks to underground stables not unlike those used in the times when the Romans ruled the land.

The Sagrada Familia

Barcelona is home to one of Europe's famous cathedrals, the “Sagrada Familia”. Construction stared in 1882 and it is still under construction. An endless line of tourists await to go inside. Just three metro stops from the “Sagrada Familia” we find the Gothic town, which houses the Picasso museum and the Cathedral of Saint Mary.

Cathedral:

Pictures in the Gothic town:
 

Many bars buy spaces on the sidewalk to place outdoor tables for their customers. This is common  through out Europe 

                                                                    This is an indoor market undergoing renovation.

remains of a Roman wall that enclosed the city in the middle ages

Here we see some of the classic narrow streets that are a staple of many towns in Europe.

Bullfighting arena:

Plaza catalunya ( the first 4 are on the way to Plaza Catalunya)

At The museum of modern art of Catalunya they were preparing for a night show for the next day.

Here is a video of part of their rehearsal for that show.

Socio Cultural Notes 

The youth in Spain are very expressive when they are in groups. By the time I had to come back to the US I had experienced the antics of two high school girl teams at the airport and one on the train going to Figueres. They chant local songs in their local Catalan tongue and play games and pranks on each other. When I found groups on the streets or on the Metro they were usually very lively and loud. That behavior makes a contrast with our unspoken custom of not being loud in public places and at the same time it arouse in me feelings of joy and freedom that seemed to lower inhibitions I was not even aware of.

This week had turned out to be a sad week. Just as one got better from Dengue... Gabriel, the other guy who traveled with us to Brazil also got Dengue. Not to mention the Professor had his brother's wedding over the weekend and was not in Rio, but Sao Paulo! Which left me with one question. What is one suppose to do on a Friday night? So I went over to my phone and started dialing numbers of the local students from the university and we ended up taking one of the most random trips I have ever taken since I arrived to Brazil 7 weeks ago. 

We went to Icarai and went to a small bar to have a couple of beers and then had to decide where the rest of the night was going to be spent at. After walking around aimlessly trying to figure out where to go. One of my friends had the craziest idea to take a bus all the way to Copacabana. Now mind you, this trip isn't entirely crazy... but at 1:30AM it kind of is.

So we walked to the bus stop hoping for a bus to pass by. There were plenty of busses, however none that went remotely close to Copacabana. After 45 minutes of waiting we had all lost hope, until on the horizon we saw a bus with the name "Gavea" on the front. One of my friends screamed out "ahhh caralho! Olha Gavea!" (which means "well I'll be damned... look Gavea") So we hopped on the bus and low and behold 30 minutes later we were in Gavea... which is less than 5 minutes away from Copacabana by taxi. The rest of the night was spent at a night club there in Copacabana, and we left at 5:45 in the morning. We all opted to go get some after-party munchies and then waited for 7:00 to pass by since the buses would start working again. (this is so we wouldn't have to pay about 70 reais for a taxi)

We managed to get a bus by 8:30, and got home by 9:15.... All in all this was one of the first times I had seen the sunrise since the day we landed in Brazil. Here the sun rises at around 6 in the morning.... way too early for my taste.

All in all, the weekend had turned out better than what I had expected. Now I hope that by next week, I am able to finish my jammed pack tentative schedule so I can go and enjoy one of my last weekends here in Brazil just like this one; no plans, just go out and do what comes to mind. IMHO these are the best nights!