Hi, I'm César

My Ultimate Terminal Customizations for macOS

A guide

Posted on May 22, 2022

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There is a common belief that top-class software developers can do their job without ever abandoning the terminal. I think this is true to some extent. It is impossible to become an outstanding software developer without knowing how to get the most out of the terminal. Personally, I treat my...

No One Cares About Your Research!

A comfortable truth

Posted on May 11, 2022

That’s the truth. No one cares about what you’re doing in your PhD, no one, no one!1 But don’t be sad, This is actually a very comfortable truth. I only came to this realization after a while. Once you get it, then you will start looking at your PhD journey...

Inversion of Control and Dependency Injection in Java

The holy grails of modern enterprise Java frameworks

Posted on April 12, 2022

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Inversion of Control (IoC) is a programming principle. The idea of IoC is delegating the control of parts of our application to a framework that initializes some specific task for us. Dependency injection (DI) is a popular design pattern that applies the IoC principle. This pattern was made popular by...

AOT vs. JIT Compilation in Java

Which one is better?

Posted on March 27, 2022

There are two ways of compiling a Java application: using Just in Time Compilation (JIT) or Ahead of Time Compilation (AOT). The first is the default mode, and it is used by the Java Hotspot Virtual Machine to translate bytecode into machine code at runtime. The latter is supported by...

How to Write a Good Revision Letter

My system to address major revisions and get my papers accepted

Posted on March 13, 2022

I just finished a major revision for one of my research papers.1 It was a lot of work, as usual. Writing a response letter for the editor and reviewers is always a challenging process. After receiving the editor’s decision, I had to put aside what I’m working on at the...

Staying in Academia: How PhD Profiles are Evaluated?

An overview

Posted on February 22, 2022

Let’s say that you just finished your PhD and have decided to stay in academia.1 Typically, the next move is applying for a temporally position as PostDoc at some good university. To get a good PostDoc, at the end of the PhD your profile will be rigorously evaluated. At this...

Bus Factor: A Human-Centered Risk Metric in the Software Supply Chain

Public transportation may become hellish

Posted on February 6, 2022

What if some members of a software project are suddenly hit by a bus? What would happen to the project in such an unfortunate scenario? According to Wikipedia, this question was first pointed out in 1994 when someone publicly asked about what would happen to Python if Guido van Rossum...

How to Write a Good Paper Rebuttal

A practical guide

Posted on January 29, 2022

The rejection of a research paper is always a tough spot in the life of researchers. Today, many top conferences allow the authors of a rejected paper to submit a so-called “paper rebuttal.” This is a last chance for the authors to defend their work in case the reviewers made...

How to Track the Progress of a Research Project

My methodology based on the weekly delivery of verifiable artifacts

Posted on January 17, 2022

Academic research is a very intense and mentally demanding activity subject to constant change and evolution. At the beginning of a research project, there is often no clear path to follow. Consequently, researchers have to figure out a good plan to take in order to achieve their objectives. But a...

Encoding, Encryption, Hashing, and Obfuscation in Java

From concepts to code

Posted on December 19, 2021

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The concepts of encoding, encryption, hashing, and obfuscation are at the core of many critical software technologies. For example, encryption and hashing are the backbones of the blockchain technology that fuels cryptocurrencies, whereas encoding and obfuscation unify and secure the web, respectively. Unfortunately, these concepts are often mistakenly confused or...