Older blog entries for fxn (starting at number 351)

chalst, well, unfortunately I am not a specialist in agent-based programming. What I've read from experts is that there is no consensus in the field except perhaps in a common denominator. If you liked to read a bit more about it there is a course in slides by Michael Wooldridge here.

In the conference I attended there were people from the industry. My impression was that they were serious about it. I mean, they saw this paradigm as a way to understand some problems better. And they applied it in real applications. It is just an abstraction, nothing magic. It helps in thinking the problem and build a solution when the problem fits the paradigm. Well, that's what I've seen, but let me insist those are impressions of an outsider.

In a panel discussion at the end it was recognized that unfortunately the term is a buzzword sometimes and that hurts the field.

Random stuff

• After reading this article (Spanish) I ordered this book about intelligence by the founder of Palm Computing. (Seen in Barrapunto.)
• I just discovered Angie Stone, a friend of mine recommended her. I am a big fan of black music (in the line of Erykah Badu or D'Angelo for example), how could I miss her?
• The ADSL has doubled its speed at home automatically. I saw a 40Kb/s in a download. The main telco in Spain is doing a nation-wide upgrade for free.

After a few more interations the quiz is out.

A picture of me doing a demo in the ATC 2004.

I've done another iteration in the preparation of the quiz, which will be the QOTW of this Wednesday. There are some input examples, a video depicting the execution of a possible solution, and a revised wording. I sent everything to Mark.

I wrote a first solution of the quiz. This problem has a simple GUI. I first tried wxPerl but looks like the Wx::*DC classes are partially ported (to be confirmed in wxperl-users) so I switched to Perl/Tk.

Since it would be good to provide a movie of what the program is expected to do more or less, I upgraded Snapz Pro X, which is something I planned to do some day.

Now I'll double check with a coworker the elementary physics involved in the quiz.

Today I wrote some quick code to test and idea I had for the Perl Quiz of the Week of October the 20th, which I volunteered for, and then sent a first draft of the quiz to Mark. He liked it and suggested some improvements.

Microsoft looks for a developer to finish IronPython (seen in Daily Python - URL).

Screen Movie Capture

Great trick to record screen activity as a Flash movie, worth a thousand screenshots.

ATC 2004

Writing today from Zurich, attending the ATC 2004. I am impressed by some presentations about real-life solutions built using agent technologies. There was one for instance about agents embedded in physical systems (valves, etc.) that manage weapon cooling in ships of the Navy. The very controlling units are managed by agents.

After lunch there's the demonstration session. I am here to show an agent-based simulation RAD we are building in Jython at work for an European Project. It is a humble output of a research project, but this room is full of professional real-life applications! Poor me!