Savas Weblog

What happened to MEST? Why are we talking about the Web?

Mon, 06 Oct 2008 00:11:06 GMT

Bill de hÓra made a comment on Stefan Tilkov ’s post about our “How to GET a Cup of Coffee” article... Q205: “I feel that I have learned a lot from the discussions with the REST folks and together with Jim we hope to move that understanding forward to...(read more)

“How to GET a Cup of Coffee”

Thu, 02 Oct 2008 19:54:45 GMT

My “web book” co-authors ( Jim and Ian ) and I worked on a fun article for InfoQ about how Web technologies could be used to support a “cup of coffee ordering” scenario. It was really fun working on the article and I am pleased with the ideas conveyed...(read more)

“Microsoft SQL Server Data Mining Services”

Fri, 19 Sep 2008 12:10:37 GMT

Our own Dan Fay ( eScience blog ) has a great post about data mining services in the cloud . “So for fun – I downloaded a csv file of a stream gauge near Redmond into Excel and ran the “Highlight Exceptions” tool to find outliers in the dataset – it read...(read more)

“I’m a PC” ad campaign

Fri, 19 Sep 2008 05:21:30 GMT

After all the buzz about the Seinfeld ads , Microsoft announced the “I’m a PC” campaign . Clever me finds. Finally, something creative from Microsoft . I’ve said in the past how much I love the Apple ads (not just the “I’m a PC, I’m a Mac” ones but everything...(read more)

On advertising (that new Microsoft ad everyone is talking about)

Sat, 06 Sep 2008 08:27:59 GMT

I must admit, I do love the "I am a Mac, I am PC", as I've said a number of times on this blog. When Microsoft announced that they were investing $300M on a campaign, I hoped that something good would come out. Well, the first ad has now...(read more)

Travel blog: A week in Greece

Tue, 02 Sep 2008 10:35:45 GMT

And what a week has been! Lots of food, meeting friends, traveling around, and even been productive with work (i.e. no meetings!!! :-) I am now back in Xanthi and at my family's home in Petinos (3.5km outside of Xanthi). I'll continue working...(read more)

My online identity... change or keep the current one?

Tue, 02 Sep 2008 09:23:16 GMT

When the .name top-level domain name became available, I thought that I would make use of it for all my online identity needs for the rest of my life, so I purchased the savas.parastatidis.name domain. My personal email has been savas@parastatidis.name...(read more)

Freebase Parallax

Thu, 28 Aug 2008 12:37:20 GMT

This is a break from my "travel blogging" :-) I just watched the video of the "Freebase Parallax" browsing interface demo . Really really cool. It's the power of semantics!!! Freebase Parallax . Read More......(read more)

Photos: Zurich airport at sunset and after the rain, Greek food!

Wed, 27 Aug 2008 05:28:11 GMT

So, I arrived in Greece and it's already been fantastic. After a long trip that saw me waiting at Heathrow for 6 hours, at Zurich airport for 3, I finally arrived in Thessaloniki. My friend Kostas picked me up from the airport at 2am and drove me...(read more)

"How Do I Model State? Let Me Count the Ways"

Sat, 23 Aug 2008 14:34:45 GMT

Long time ago, in a galaxy far away... there was OGSI, there was WSRF, there was HTTP, there were services... and there were heated discussions :-) Ian Foster suggested that we write a paper together explaining our different approaches in building applications...(read more)

Radiohead at the White River Amphitheater

Fri, 22 Aug 2008 03:57:51 GMT

I found last-minute tickets for the Radiohead gig at the White River Amphitheater last night. It was absolutely amazing; loved it! The venue is great and it was absolutely packed. Here are some photos... A panorama of the venue before they started. I...(read more)

Amazon Elastic Block Store (EBS)

Thu, 21 Aug 2008 14:38:05 GMT

EBS is another great service from Amazon . The company continues to innovate. Werner had talked about this service in the past but now it's available. Well done Amazon ! The Amazon Web Services Blog has more . I found the pricing model interesting...(read more)

Chem4Word project

Tue, 19 Aug 2008 05:59:41 GMT

One of the projects on which I've been spending lots of my time is the Chem4Word one. Alex Wade is driving the project and just published a page for the world to see . The team over at the University of Cambridge is fantastic; a pleasure to work with...(read more)

Extending “Famulus” using arbitrary data models

Tue, 19 Aug 2008 00:30:43 GMT

“Famulus” has always been the codename for our “Research Output Repository Platform", which I’ve discussed in previous posts. I am mentioning the codename in public for the first time only now because it makes the discussion of code samples so much...(read more)

Tony Hey interviewed by Jon Udell

Thu, 14 Aug 2008 07:13:56 GMT

You can listen to the interview and/or read the transcript on “on10” . Read More......(read more)