Review

The PhD Grind (2012) by Philip Guo is a must read if you want to do a PhD in Computer Science. Even if you're already doing one, I definitively recommend it. It's a first-person account of how it was for the author to complete a six-year PhD at Stanford. Basically all of the obstacles that the author had to overcome during his PhD, are things that either happen to all of us, or that I've heard many times from PhD students. Read this. It's a very short free book that articulates well some of the common negative experiences of PhD students -- and what you can learn from those experiences.

If you are already doing your PhD, specially if you're in your last years, read A PhD Is Not Enough (2nd ed, 2011) by Peter J. Feibelman. Again, it's a short book, that focuses on the transition from PhD student to tenure-track professor to tenure. It has tons of great concrete advise and tips.

Finally, a very comprehensive book is The Professor Is In (2015) by Karen Kelsky, which is really a career guide for academics. The author, a former tenured professor and department head, maintains a popular blog on the subject, and professional career counseling/coaching services. Her approach, as she admits openly, has neoliberal tones: this is a competition that you want to win, however, the author also gives a very reasonable justification as to why this is a good mindset to approach some key career steps. The book is a really detailed guide that covers basically every aspect of an academic career, starting with choosing a PhD advisor but going well into valuable tips for those holding a more advanced or tenured, position.

My advise: read all three, starting with the first one which is shorter.

Bonus: slides by José L. Balcázar on doing research, publishing, writing, defending, and applying for grants.

If you're a vegetarian/vegan travelling to Barcelona, here is some advice.

As much as I love Barcelona, I recognize the place is far from Germany or the Netherlands in terms of veg-friendliness, but it is an easier place than the rest of Spain and most of France. There are tons of vegetarian/vegan restaurants, you can check the very reliable Happy Cow Barcelona for a quite extensive list.

If you are a vegetarian, at most regular restaurants you have to say that you don't eat meat AND you don't eat fish, even if you ask for a green salad. In many places, the green salad has tuna. Say that you are a vegan (vegano), if they don't get it, try strict vegetarian (vegetariano estricto).

If you go for tapas, the vegan tapas are:

• Patatas bravas, and the all-i-oli sauce that looks like mayonaise is actually vegan in many places, it is just garlic and oil. You have to ask if the sauce has eggs (huevos).
• Pa amb tomaquet, or bread and tomato.
• Pimientos del padrón, which are delicious green peppers
• Setas or alcachofas fritas, mushrooms or fried artichokes, which are rare tapas, sometimes available in some places

There are some nice fast-food restaurants and bars in Ciutat Vella, the old part of Barcelona, which are very yummy. My favorites are Gopal which has burger take-away and a couple of tables to eat there, and Cat Bar which is an English-speaking vegetarian/vegan bar with lots of local beers to taste. In another neighborhood, Gracia, there is this very small juice bar, Quinoa Bar, which also has great sandwiches. Also in Gracia, a good friend of us has a delicious take-away vegan shop called Vegetart, which has vegan versions of traditional Catalan food.

If you are up for a restaurant, I like Teresa Carles and Biocenter, both are nice and casual. For Indian food, VegWorld is a great choice.

If your travel partners insist on a traditional Catalan restaurant, the least bad alternative in my opinion is the Mussol; I once had nice grilled avocados there, you can have a veggie grill, and if you're lucky you can get to try the grilled soft scallions called "calçots" which are delicious.

If you're up for a short trip outside Barcelona, in winter, there are two Catalan towns who have their traditional "fiesta" around two delicious local products which are vegan. Artichoke lovers should not miss the Carxofada de Sant Boi, while those who like calçots can enjoy the Calçotada de Valls.

Enjoy Barcelona!

Somebody told us you can find fresh vegetables and plants in Qatar directly from a producer that has lots of greenhouses. It is possible.

The place is worth a visit for a chance of seeing so much vegetation in such a dry place. Plants here are much cheaper than the price of the ones you find in the shopping malls. There is also a small selection of vegetables (the minimum you have to buy is one kilogram) that varies with the season.

We went on a Saturday morning and they closed around 12:30. I don't know what are the opening times in other days. You can only pay in cash.

How to get there:

The place is named "Arab Qatari Agricultural Co." the entrance is at these coordinates: 25.36681, 51.24544.

View Larger Map

Take Al Rayyan road towards the west. Continue on the highway to Dukhan past Education City on your left. Then you will pass a palace on your left, the Amiri guard on your left, then a large roundabout with a stadium (Al Rayyan Sports Club) on your right.

The next roundabout (a few kilometers ahead) is marked with signs for the Camel Racing tracks. Exit on that roundabout and immediately turn right, entering a road that goes back to Doha parallel to the highway and very close to it. Pass a Woqod petrol station on your left. Then you will find on your left the Arab Qatari place. There is a barrier there.

Ask them if they sell plants, they will say yes and open the barrier. Go inside, buy your plants and veggies, keep the receipts (they will ask for them on the way back), and enjoy!

Fotos: Foursquare, Fabiola.

In one great scene of the film The Invention of Lying, Mark Bellison (played by Rick Gervais) addresses a crowd in front of his home and millions around the world following his speech through TV.

Mark lives in a world were nobody has ever told a lie, but has discovered that he is able to tell lies. After telling her dying mother that she was going to a "better place", people push him to tell them everything he knows about afterlife. He makes up an explanation in the form of a list of 10 things that he writes in two pizza boxes.

Number one: there is a man in the sky who controls everything.

Number two: ...

Man 1 [interrupts]: what does he looks like?

Mark: tall, big hands for making stuff, good head of hair.

Man 2: what ethnicity?

Mark: he is a new ethnicity, he is a mixture of all our ethnicities.

Man 3: does he live in the clouds?

Mark: no

Man 1: can we see him?

Mark: no, he is high in the clouds, too high to see him.

Man 3: so he lives in space.

Mark: no, not that high.

Man 2: so he is in the thermosphere?

Mark: sorry people, we have a lot to get through here. Man lives in the sky, you can't see him, controls everything ...

Number two: when you die, you don't disappear into an eternity of nothingness. Instead, you go to a really great place.

Number three: in that place, everyone will get a mansion. (the crowd cheers).

Man 4: what kind of mansion?

Mark: the best mansion you can think of.

Man 5: damn!, I was thinking of a horrible mansion.

Mark: no, no, it is the best mansion ever. Not the one you are thinking of right now, but whatever the best mansion that you like, that is the one you gonna get.

Number four: when you die, all the people you know will be there.

Man 6: will they have their own mansions?

Mark: yes, everyone gets a mansion.

Man 6: what if I want them to live in my mansion?

Mark: yes, they leave their mansion come to live at your mansion.

Man 6: what happens to their mansion?

Mark: I don't know. It goes back to the market.

Number five: when you die, there will be free ice cream, for everyone, all day, and all night. Whatever flavour you can think of.

Woman 1: even bad flavours?

Mark: why would you think of bad flavours?

Woman 1: you said every flavour I can think of.

Man 7: oh no, I thought of ...

Woman 2: I just thought of chocolate with diarrhea.

Mark: there are so many other ice creams ... what is the matter with you people?

Number six: if you do bad things, you don't get to go to this great place when you die.

Man 8: where do you go?

Mark: a terrible place, the worst place imaginable.

Woman 3: what constitutes a bad thing?

Mark: awful crimes, rape, murder, things like that.

Man 8: is punching someone bad?

Mark: yes.

Man 8: what if they are trying to hurt you?

Mark: then it is fine.

Woman 3: is cursing bad?

Mark: no

Woman 4: what about being late for work?

Mark: no, that's fine, you may loose your job if your boss doesn't like it, but it won't affect where you go after you die.

Woman 5: what if you forget to feed your dog?

Mark: well if the dog dies it is bad ... just don' t do it on purpose. Don't buy a dog just to starve it ...

Man 9: if I do just one thing, do I go to the bad place?

Mark: [pauses to think for a moment] no, you get three chances, three bad things, and you are out.

Man 9: like baseball [crowds agrees]

Mark: yes, anything else?

[everybody in the crowd raises his/her hand]

Mark: please, can we just move on?

[Someone]: No! We have to know everything that is bad!

Man 1: is it bad to wear pants?

[Sign: "Two Hours Later"]

Mark: no, there is no hair style that can put you in the bad place. We've been through this ... The main ones are things like hurting people physically, on purpose, taking their stuff, doing things to people they don't want done. Murdering people, on purpose.

Number nine: the man in the sky who controls everything, decides who goes to the good place and who goes to the bad place. He also decides who lives and who dies.

Man 4: does he cause natural disasters?

Mark: yes

Woman 6: did he cause my mom to get cancer?

Mark: yes

Woman 7: did he cause that thing on my car last week?

Mark: yes

Anna [Mark's friend]: did he kill my dad with a heart attack?

Mark: yes

[the crowd disagrees and murmurs]

Man 10: I say fuck the man who lives in the sky!

Man 5: that guy is evil!

Man 6: why did he do all those bad things to us? Why did he do this to our faces?

Woman 2: we have to stop that evil bastard before he kills us all [crowd: Yeah!]

Mark: wait, wait, listen. The man who lives in the sky and controls everything, is also responsible for the good things that happens.

Man 11: did he save my life in that fishing trip when the boat capsized?

Mark: yes

Man 11: did he capsize the boat?

Mark: yes

Woman 1: he killed my grandmother and left me those millions of dollars?

Mark: you bet yes.

Woman 6: so, he is the one who cured my mom's cancer.

Man 7: so, he is kind of a good guy, but he is kind of a prick, too.

Mark: right, but check this out,

Number ten: even if the man in the sky does bad things to you, he may offset that by giving you an eternity of good things after you die.

Woman 4: as long as he does not do more bad stuff to us.

Mark: yes

Woman 5: so it is kind of a test?

Mark: yes, so, that is everything I know.

[crowd applauds]

Woman 6: how do you know these things?

Mark: because the man in the sky told me.

Woman 6: but how do we find about it now, millions of years in our existence?

Mark: he forgot. See all the stuff he does. Thank you!

The movie is funny, witty, and I definitively recommend watching it. You can check the official site at: http://the-invention-of-lying.warnerbros.com/.

Tejedores del Web en 1997

El sitio fue el primer sitio en habla hispana sobre desarrollo Web, y el más visitado en el tema durante varios años. Contenía información principalmente sobre HTML incluyendo una guía de la sintaxis de cada elemento HTML. Más tarde incorporaría Javascript y otros temas.

Desde el 2002 me dediqué principalmente a la investigación y dejé un poco de lado el tema del desarrollo Web y el sitio Tejedores del Web. Continué agregando algunos artículos relacionados con recuperación de información y bases de datos.

El sitio ha sido transformado en el 2008 en una wiki y el objetivo es crear un sitio libre creado colectivamente, con contenidos de alta calidad sobre temas relacionados con desarrollo web. Comenzamos con los artículos que contenía Tejedores del Web en el pasado y que todavía estaban vigentes, y construiremos desde ahí.

Buscamos expertos y aficionados que deseen contribuir lo que han aprendido, para ayudar a la comunidad de personas interesadas en crear o participar en la web. ¿Quieres ayudar?