MathsChallenge

I know that for some people it might not be "good" that I publish this post during the examination period..

Nevertheless, I think that you can have some fun during your breaks from studying (if you are studying :D)..

MathsChallenge website is "dedicated to the puzzling world of mathematics". It has an amazingly nice developed and maintained "Programming Challenge: Project Euler". It has many nice programming/math problems. It seems easy in the beginning, but the difficulty grows exponentially :D

Project Euler gives you a great opportunity to extend your knowledge about a programming language(that's how I started), and furthermore, extend your ability to solve mathematical(mainly) problems.

I more than recommend it :)

(Actually it was Athanasakis who introduced me MathsChallenge..
Thanks dude :D )

Courses selection II

After the invaluable help of guru, I am getting closer and closer..

The updated selections are here.

Actually, I can relax for a while because the database will be open until the 2nd week of September :)

I just wanted to conclude on some good courses and sign up for them, because later they might be full. Currently I have singed up for 7 courses :)

But still, if you have any comments(or you want me to learn something in order to hire me later), post your comments or send me an email..

Courses selection

The ITU course database is open for the next semester's courses.
For those who don't know, I have to select 3 courses out of many offered.
At my ITU website I have made a list of 10 potentional selections.. I still have to throw out 7..

If anyone wants to give any reason for selecting one course or another, he is welcome to make a comment or send an email.

Το χάσαμε και αυτό γαμώ!

Η Συναυλία: Την Πέμπτη 2 Ιουνίου, στο θέατρο Βράχων "Μελίνα Μερκούρη" εμφανίζεται (στο πλαίσιο της παγκόσμιας περιοδείας του) ένα από τα πιο αγαπημένα γκρουπ του ελληνικού κοινού, το οποίο εκπροσωπεί με τον καλύτερο τρόπο την progressive σκηνή, οι Thievery Corporation.

Ολόκληρο το άρθρο είναι εδώ.

Τι να πεις;
Δε θα γυρίσει ο τροχός;

Getting closer and closer

I just woke up(15.00) after being at the university for 18 hours(about 15 hours of studying).. Today was the deadline for handing in the project that I was doing!
My Greek fellows know that while I was studying in Greece, the longer I have stayed at the university was 4 hours and that was only for exams.

So, at one of project's breaks, I finally booked a ticket to my homeland!!!
26/6 01.30 I will be in Greece!!

For the time being, I have 4 exams.. 3 for the courses and 1 for the project..
Let's see..

Tired of being absent..

I was trying to recover from not being at Anathema concert with my friends..
I am listening to Anathema for almost the last 5 years and they are one of my best bands. And they decided to give a concert at Thessaloniki. And my friends called me from inside the concert.. And I was in Denmark.. That was too painful..

But, since I am studying and I have a lot of things in my mind here, I managed to get over it.

And then, Greece won the Eurovision 2005 contest!! Greece was burned!! There was a party at every corner!! And I was still in Denmark..

I am counting the days like a prisoner until going back..

Horoscopes..

I am going back to a subject about which I have published a post before, but I found some very nice information..

Unfortunately, some links are in Greek, but there are some in English also..

The main idea is that astrology is not a science and shouldn't be concerned seriously.
Horoscopes are meaningless and are just fooling people.
There is absolutely no reason to believe in horoscopes, as there is no approved scientific background.

If you disagree with the above, you should follow the links below..

Greek links:
- Απο αυτό το link, αξίζει να διαβάσει κανείς τα "Τι έδειξαν οι έρευνες των επιστημόνων" και "Τα τεχνάσματα των αστρολόγων"..

English links:
- Skeptical Studies in Astrology presents an double-blind test of astrology made by a researcher of University of California and published in Nature (December 5, 1985).

- The astrology page publishes a list of scientific tests that were made in the past in order to prove that astrology does not work.

Intoduction Week Project

WE WOOOOOOON!!!!

Me and 5 more teamates had the chance to work together and make a project of a phone. The project's objective was to make a phone prototype, make a webpage of the phone and finally present it to some professors. The idea of our team was to make a simple phone, easy to use for everybody and rather cheap. So we created simple phone, which has large buttons, has no menus, no sms and no confusing stuff. It was built for older people that don't like technology and don't want to get used to it, as well as, for young people that want just a cheap phone to make their phonecalls.

With this idea we won the first prize, which actually was more less 80€ each. Something like the first book for our studies, for free :)

The judgement of each group's product was about supporting your product, marketing it, making a webpage that is linked with the product and a general overview from the idea to the final result.

The webpage of our product, is http://www.itu.dk/~ppserek/home.html and is better viewed with internet explorer.

Are light cigarettes healthier?

Many smokers have switched to "light" or "low tar" cigarettes thinking they are a healthier alternative to regular cigarettes. This assumption could not be farther from the truth. The numbers for tar and nicotine attached to brands of cigarettes comes from a smoking machine that "smokes" every brand of cigarettes the same way. These machines cannot tell how much tar/nicotine an individual smoker will receive because people do not smoke cigarettes the same way the machines do. Find more, here.

Since the 1970s, cigarette manufacturers have altered the composition and design of cigarettes to reduce the amount of nicotine and tar measured by federal machines. By lowering the cigarette emissions detected by federal machines, manufacturers could justify marketing these products as safer alternatives. Cigarette design revisions for these purposes include adding a filter, increasing the size of the paper wrap that covers the filter and adjusting the blend of tobacco with fillers and additives. Read more, here.

Smokers often choose light cigarettes as a way of lessening the damage to their bodies and abating their guilt. Even if light cigarettes do contain less tar and nicotine than the regular versions, that does not mean a person who smokes them inhales less of those compounds, according to past research and a new study from Japan. Doctors think that even though light cigarettes may appear more healthful, people smoke them more often, inhale deeper, or take more puffs off those types. Read more about this research, here. The full research, can be found here.

Free Games..

After a long time, I am posting again.. I was trying to write a nice article, which I wont tell you because I hope to post it..

For the time being, I just want to upload two of the latest games I developed in Delphi 7. If anyone has any suggestion, I am full of ears :)

The games are on the right, at the 'My games' section.

NOW without bugs..
I hope.. :)

Maps and driving directions online

The reason of this post, is that I can't remember how many hours I have spent in front of my computer trying to find an online map. I just want to introduce maporama to everybody that don't know it.

According to the company, the simplest expression of Maporama's location-centric technology is that it provides relevant answers to the three omnipresent questions everybody is faced with when planning a trip:
Where is this address?
How to get there? and
What is located around it?

In addition, you can have information about the length of the trip, the average time, the weather of the place you are going, as well as comprehensive driving details.

I believe that once you try it, you wont search for other online map again :)

SysInternals

A computer software company which is worth mentioning is SysInternals. There are various useful freeware utilities that make the use of Windows much easier..

I believe that every computer using windows should have at least Process Explorer, which is a utility similar to default Task Manager of Windows, but much better and with more options.

A very useful utility is Autoruns, which shows all the auto-starting programs that start at System bootup or login. With this program it is very easy to boost you system's boot time, as you can indicate which programs you want be executed at start up and which not.