Caribou Coffee: Ending My Boycott

In the past, I have been boycotting Caribou Coffee because they were bought out and majority owned by Arcapita (formerly First Islamic Bank of Bahrain). As part of their ownership, Arcapita required Caribou Coffee to have an official policy of adhering to Sharia (Islamic law) with regards to their business, whicn included bans on interest and pork.

Even though Caribou was certified to not be supporting overseas groups involved in terrorism, I did not want to support Arcapita's middle-eastern Muslim investors, so I refused to patronize them.

However, I am changing my position. According to this article, Arcapita has sold a large portion of its shares in Caribou, and now only owns about 25% of the company. Arcapita may be the largest single shareholder, however, the public now owns most of the company.

By the way, you still can't get pork at Caribou, in case you were wondering.

New Products - iAuto Bikes and iLister Pets Released

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Research in software engineering

Researching software engineering is to study the artificial. Other engineering disciplines have "truths" that exist even if no humans are involved. The laws of physics that determine what is possible in mechanical and civil engineering are there regardless if applied when constructing a particular building.
Because of this I strongly believe that research in software engineering must be based on what practitioners do. I started to write professionals, but realised that a lot of important stuff in the world of software are actually made by amateurs (in the sense they are not getting paid to do it). And I also think research methods from the social sciences can provide great insights into software engineering.

A colleague of mine said that a good researcher in software engineering should have three base pillars to stand on:

1. A good knowledge of real problems that practitioners have
2. An interest in developing solutions to these problems
3. Knowledge and experience in evaluating the solutions in practical (real) settings

I have previously written about why I don't like formal methods. I think this is an example of where researchers tend to focus on the appealing solutions without a strong foundation in practitioner's problems or a thorough evaluation in practical settings. The most interesting solutions to investigate from a researcher's perspective are not always related to the most critical problems.

A short litmus test to discern if a researcher has enough experience of practical problems:
Describe the difference between a software process and a software project.

The Second Classified Media Innovation Award

The second Classified Media Innovation Award will be organized by ICMA. The winner will be selected from the proposals received. All classified media companies are allowed to participate, whether ICMA members or not.

The 2011 Award will be announced at the ICMA Conference Awards Ceremony on Friday 29 April, in Nice, France. The winners will be decided by the ICMA Committee and the Top 5 shortlisted companies may be invited to present their innovation in the conference. More about 2011 ICMA Classified Media Innovation Award.

Genetic Car Design Demo

This is making the rounds, and it is really neat. This is a demo of using a genetic algorithm to design as simple 2D car.  I find that it goes a little better if you keep the mutation rate lower, so that you don't waste a lot of chances on DOA designs.

Link

Cop Tactics Fail?

Take a look at this still from a video posted on Jalopnik.  After a sloppy PIT maneuver, which causes the policeman on the right to be jammed into the retaining wall, both policeman jump out and draw their pistols.  But since they are approaching from oppposite sides, they are pointing their weapons roughly at one another.

Shouldn't the guy on the right have stayed in front of the vehicle, so the fields of fire would have crossed like an X?  Am I missing something?

Nine Ways to Secure Your Installation of iAuto Classified Software

Almost any Web-based software can endanger your server. Hackers can seize your administrator account details to access Admin Panel and wreck chaos to your website.

If you are starting a new script installation, you should take several steps to increase security of your website and server from the very beginning.