Robot Controller

I am creating an FSM (Finite State Machine) that can be used as a controller to control the actions of a robot.

There is a grid with a food trail in it. My robot will have to find and follow that trail. There are gaps in the trail. The robot cannot keep a count of the food it found. It doesn't have to perfectly follow the entire food trace, and it shouldn't have masses of states to precise follow this food trail.

My available commands:

• move (1 step forward)
• left  (turns robot left)
• right  (turns robot right)
• food-ahead
• eat
• off-grid (determines if the robot has stepped off the grid)

I haven't decided yet if the robot will be able to return back to the grid in case that it has stepped off it.

Busy busy busy...

The first semester started and the modules are very interesting so far! =D I am taking an extra module C++ which is prerequisite for Games Technology for next semester ^^

I am currently looking for a data set so I can apply a data mining technique (such as clustering, association analysis, classification) to it. I would be interested in using Neural Networks. If so, I will have to separate my data set into two parts: the training and test set. After that I will train my network applying back propagation using the training set and check if everything is OK by running the test set on it. I should definitely be careful not to overfit it. That would be an interesting coursework. I have to investigate more my options though =D

Here we go!

The new academic year begins next week! It is my final year at university. Here are the modules I will be studying:

• Parallel and Concurrent Programming
• Data Mining
• Software Agents
• Games Technology
• Theory of Computation
• My dissertation, which is a financial application that allocates assets using genetic algorithms and finds the best efficient portfolio for different investor profiles.

Back to programming now! More details later on =D

Eclipse configuration

• Configuration for Eclipse Galileo - M2Eclipse - Subversive
• (M2Eclipse-0.9.9: http://m2eclipse.sonatype.org/releases/0.9.9.200906081351 )
• Hibenate tools: http://download.jboss.org/jbosstools/updates/stable
• eclEmma.org - Java code coverage for Eclipse: http://update.eclemma.org

To configure manually eclipse workspaces edit the file:

eclipse\configuration\.settings\org.eclipse.ui.ide.prefs

A simple way to create new Eclipse workspace with all your old settings is to copy this directory .metadata/.plugins/org.eclipse.core.runtime/.settings into your new workspace directory.

To configure static imports simply configure static import favorites on the

Window > Preferences > Java > Editor > Content Assist > Favorites preference page

Effective eclipse - shortcut keys

Remotely backing up my data on the Cloud

Since I formatted my laptop recently I decided to find an online repository so I can store my files there. I created a Dropbox account and I made a request for the Ubuntu One. Soon I will have an Ubuntu One account and I will be able to compare those two.


Dropbox is quite fun. It runs in the background on the desktop and it synchronizes my files to my laptop and the web. It is a content management system that does versioning like SVN. The files are accessible on the internet via a url.

You can get both accounts for free with 2GB storage space but you have to pay if you want more space.

Ubuntu 9.04 rocks!

I moved from Ubuntu 8.10 to 9.04 and the problem with my wireless was fixed! ^^ If you have an Atheros 2414 then upgrade to the the 9.04 version of Ubuntu.

I also changed the file system to ext4. I did a full format of the partition in two laptops using the entire disk. The system works much faster now with the new journal file system in both laptops. It also boots faster.

Here is the Technical Overview of Ubuntu 9.04.

In addition the user interface of Ubuntu 9.04 looks much better :)

How to post XML code on Blogger

In order to post XML code on Blogger you need to convert the text to HTML entities.

This is a useful website that helps you encode/decode HTML entities.

Struts2 web framework - Set up Struts2 with Maven

These are the minimum requirements to create a HelloWorld Struts application.

Here is the pom.xml

<project xmlns="http://maven.apache.org/POM/4.0.0" xmlns:xsi="http://www.w3.org/2001/XMLSchema-instance"
xsi:schemaLocation="http://maven.apache.org/POM/4.0.0 http://maven.apache.org/maven-v4_0_0.xsd">
<modelVersion>4.0.0</modelVersion>
<groupId>eleannita</groupId>
<artifactId>blog</artifactId>
<packaging>jar</packaging>
<version>0.0.1-SNAPSHOT</version>
<name>blog</name>
<url>http://maven.apache.org</url>
<build>
<plugins>
<plugin>
<groupId>org.mortbay.jetty</groupId>
<artifactId>maven-jetty-plugin</artifactId>
<version>6.1.9</version>
</plugin>
</plugins>
</build>
<dependencies>
<dependency>
<groupId>junit</groupId>
<artifactId>junit</artifactId>
<version>3.8.1</version>
<scope>test</scope>
</dependency>
<dependency>
<groupId>org.apache.struts</groupId>
<artifactId>struts2-core</artifactId>
<version>2.1.6</version>
</dependency>
<dependency>
<groupId>com.opensymphony</groupId>
<artifactId>xwork</artifactId>
<version>2.1.2</version>
</dependency>
</dependencies>
</project>

You can now execute that using Jetty. It is an lightweight servlet container and you can easily run jetty using maven with the command:

mvn jetty:run

Voila! :)

Automate your build process with Maven

I like using Maven because it makes the build process easy. It is much more organized than Ant.With maven you know by default what is the project structure.

Maven: The Definite Guide is an excellent book that provides comprehensive documentation for Maven and also has example code. You can download it for free and even access it through eclipse.

Java in the Google Cloud

Ever since Google made App Engine available to the public the number one request has been for Java support. Finally Google have obliged and opened GAE/J (Google App Engine for Java or "Gay-Jay") to public beta. Unlike Amazon's cloud services GAE/J is based around a deployable application as the basic unit. You create your WAR, deploy it to Google's cloud infrastructure and Google publish it to the world and make it scale.

There is a meetup at Skills Matter tomorrow about it. A whole range of questions about GAE/J will be answered. What does the cloud mean? What can it give me above deploying my own applications? Will Google own my data? How will I need to change my application to take advantage of GAE/J's features? How will it fit in with my existing applications? Can I use my favourite framework? Can I use all these hot new JVM languages and dynamic web frameworks?... and many more!

Speakers?
Chris Read and Ola Bini

Registration page for Skills Matter Java in the Google Cloud event
Don't miss it!

Firebug - The most helpful web development tool

The web development tool that you cannot live without is Firebug. You can use Firebug to inspect the elements in the DOM, debug Javascript, modify the code and see the changes immediately without having to refresh. It also lets you monitor the network activity.

You can edit, debug, and monitor CSS, HTML, and JavaScript live in any web page.

Bad news: It is only available for Firefox :P

Manipulating content with the DOM - Javascript

Today I have been adding dynamic content manipulating the DOM (Document Object Model) using Javascript. With this you can add, remove, modify content.

Helpful websites with references to the DOM API and examples of the DOM methods.

CSS Box Model

Today I am looking at CSS layout techniques.

I read about how to do inline lists with CSS. Another interesting website about positioning: Learn CSS Positioning in Ten Steps

It is also important to understand the box model.

The CSS box model describes the rectangular boxes that are generated for elements in the document tree.

This is my first post... :)

I study Computer Science and I am interested in Agile Development. I am currently using Java, Hibernate and will start learning Spring this month. I will also focus on front-end development.

I will be posting some interesting links. You can follow my links on delicious here.

I am looking for a job. If anybody needs a passionate Software Developer and hard worker here I am.