If you've ever wondered how Google stores and accesses its massive index, you may find this paper on the Google file system interesting. I haven't finished reading it.
Archive for September, 2003
Google file system examined
September 30th, 2003The Ontario Confederation of University Faculty Associations grades the three major platforms
September 29th, 2003If you're interested in both the current Ontario election campaign and university education, then you should read the report OCFUA recently published on its web site, Benchmarks: OCUFA grades the part platforms and offers a prescription for higher education.
Contemporary critical theory: eight classes in
September 28th, 2003I am taking English 470A: Contemporary Critical Theory this term. The course is taught by Murray McArthur, chair of the Department of English Language & Literature at University of Waterloo. The course covers formalism (including American New Criticism), structuralism, pyschoanalysis, post-structuralism, feminism, queer theory and post-coloniality.
The reading list includes excerpts of essays by Victor Sklovskij, Roman Jakobson, Ferdinand de Saussure, Claude Lévi-Strauss, Vladimir Propp, Sigmund Freud, Jacques Derrida, Jacques Lacan and others. To date, we have read and discussed texts by the first six writers.
Lee-Wudrick shills for the Tories and the NDP
September 26th, 2003In this week's Imprint, well known Tory Aaron Lee-Wudrick pleads with student voters to not vote Liberal. A choice quotation:
But what is not a reasonable choice, by virtue of their deliberate incoherence, are the Liberals. To put it politely, this party and its leader are beyond hypocritical, and into the realm of blatantly offensive. To sit in opposition to the PCs for 8 years, opposing every single one of their tax cuts, and the vast majority of their other policies, only to suddenly run on a platform that promises to reverse none of them is frankly quite astonishing. If the Liberals were so opposed to all those tax cuts, why aren't they running on the promise of raising them back up?
Canada’s economic policy and double regulation of post-secondary education
September 24th, 2003Tonight, I attended a talk at the Four Points Sheraton by Pierre Duguay, Deputy Governor of the Bank of Canada. UW's Dean of Arts, Bob Kerton, introduced Duguay to a crowd of 120 Rotarians and guests. The talk was hosted by the Grand River Rotary Club.
» Read more: Canada’s economic policy and double regulation of post-secondary education
Eves and Hampton outdo McGuinty
September 23rd, 2003Howard Hampton and Ernie Eves made Dalton McGuinty look like an OHL player in his first NHL game. Both leaders clearly indicated what they believe in and would do, if elected. McGuinty wavered.
Ethics approval for a work report
September 23rd, 2003As part of my work report, I am conducting two surveys of employees at my employer, Peartree Software. I had heard that human research by UW students required approval from UW's Office of Research Ethics, so I e-mailed the Director of Research Ethics and Grants to find out what I needed to do. It turns out that work reports don't fit very well into the regular workflow of the ORE.
New blog software
September 22nd, 2003I decided to try Movable Type. So far, I am impressed with it. Unfortunately, it's not easy to import my old entries from cafelog, so I'll add them slowly.
If you use my RSS feed, please use this URL: http://helmer.ca/blog/index.rdf
Comments on the new software are welcome.
Feds Structural Budget Problems report online
September 19th, 2003The Structural Budget Problems Report is online. Read it.
Remote Desktop Client from Microsoft makes testing easier
September 18th, 2003So part of my job at Peartree Software includes testing a .Net web application. It's hard to test .Net web applications using a Mac. Microsoft, however, has produced a handy Remote Desktop Client for OS X. I tried it out today on Windows 2003 Server and it worked well. Better than virtual PC, even. Now I can fix problems on my parents' machine on my Mac. Woo hoo!
