by Llorà, X. IlliGAL technical report 2009001. You can download the pdf here. Abstract: Data-intensive computing has positioned itself as a valuable programming paradigm to efficiently approach problems requiring processing very large volumes of data. This paper presents a pilot study about how to apply the data-intensive computing paradigm to evolutionary computation algorithms. Two representative cases—selectorecombinative genetic algorithms and estimation of distribution algorithms—are presented, analyzed, discussed. This study shows that equivalent data-intensive computing evolutionary computation algorithms can be easily developed, providing robust and scalable algorithms for the multicore-computing era. Experimental results show how such algorithms scale with the number of available cores without further modification. ...

cForms is a WordPress plugin that allows you to quickly add forms on your site. The plugin will allow you to collect information from visitors easily. Besides mail notifications, it also provides database back-ended tracking. Pretty convenient if you have to boost the usefulness of your site. Two examples I have more or less been involved is the SEASR 2009 workshop registration form and the iFoundry application form. On both cases, cForms worked like a champ. ...

I have been using FireStats for gathering statistics on WordPress sites for more than a couple of years now. I mainly use FireStats combined with WordPress Stats, and Google Analytics. Each of them give you different views into traffic, but FireStats is by far quick and fast and give you a good overall picture you can dig down using WordPress Stats and Google Analytics. I just installed the new version 1.6.0 on this blog and found a new interesting goodie. Now FireStats also tracks the number of RSS readers coming to your site :D ...

I just ran into the comic strip below at xkcd. I am still laughing now. Fitness functions are tricky. Once somebody told me that genetic algorithms always get their target; the main problem is to explain what the target is. If you want to learn a “fountain pen”, you better be accurate defining it or you may end up getting an unexpected all-terrain “pencil”. Yes, I know the example is quite solution free, but still has some truth to it. How many times have you end up getting something you did not expect, only because evolution find a better fitted crack in your description? Anyway, it is fun what you end running into on the Internet ;) ...

Tag clouds, despite of being useful, can look a bit dull. My office mate, Bernie Acs, pointed me to a more aesthetic appealing one written in Flash for Wordpress. Roy Tank has released the WP-Cumulus plugin that makes the new 3D tag cloud available as a widget. I couldn’t help myself getting it installed. If you scroll down you will see it in action. Roy, kudos for you!