Eclipse Indigo arrives...

Eclipse Indigo became available for download on June 22,2011. 62 teams coordinated in bringing together 46 million lines of code to make this release possible.I download a copy and noticed a marked improvement in Project Refresh rates. While Indigo appears to be faster, it has bought in some key features such Better support for using GIT, WindowsBuilder for GUI development and automated functional testing of GUI development for Java.

Research Paper Writing

"If any man wish to write in a clear style, let him be first clear in his thoughts; and if any would write in a noble style, let him first possess a noble soul".

- Johann Wolfgang von Goethe

Writing a research paper is an art. Some people get it right in the first go and some don't even after several attempts. My readings have educated me to a couple of simple facts. I will share them with you in these paragraphs. These facts are quite simple and straight forward. If you like them and make them a part of your writing, I have a feeling that it will make life easier for you and for all those who read your papers.

First of all, there is no right or wrong way of writing a paper. Consider the motivation for writing the paper. Why do you want to write. Is it because, you have an idea, you would like to talk about or maybe you have done some research and you want to present your results. That's good enough. Start writing, but keep in mind that not everyone who will read your paper, especially the reviewer is NOT as brilliant as you. Keep it simple, in word and in expression. Next, maintain the flow. It is very easy to get carried away and jump from one idea to another, without them being connected. If you are not sure of what I am saying. Write a couple of paragraphs and ask your friend to read it. If he or she can relate the last paragraph to the first, well then that's a start.

Diagrams and Tables. Someone has said, A picture is worth a thousand words. True, I agree but if the picture has no meaning in the general scheme of things, then it has no business being there. Introduce your picture before you put it in. That will protect your readers from the abruptness of coming across it unannounced. Look at your picture. Is it descriptive or too descriptive. I have seen pictures with information crammed into it. You would like to avoid falling into that trap. A diagram or illustration is meant to simplify things, not to further complicate them. Explain your illustration in the paragraphs following it, and remember you have to move with the flow of the paper.

I have often come across the use of non-standard wording. Well, what is standard and what is not standard terminology is often difficult to decide. But one rule of thumb could be, when describing scientific experiments or situations try to use technical terms which are recognised by the academia, you are aiming your paper at. If ever you decide to introduce a term, use it consistently. If it occurs regularly, give it a place of honour in the key words section of the paper. Okay, so now you have written your paper. Read it.
Is it good ? Probably not. Rewrite it in parts. Keep your sentences short and easier to understand.

Finally, last but not the least is referencing. There are some well known forms of referencing. Follow any style but be consistent in it. Reviewers on receiving papers switch straight away to the reference section as it is a good indication of how well the paper has been researched and of the writers understanding of the subject. Finally, something which I believe in is, enjoy your writing. If it is a drag, then you are not doing it 'write'. A composition should have life of its own. It should breathe. It should have a meaning for its existence. It should be able to sing and dance and make others do the same. I close this monologue by putting together a few links, which I came across in my meanderings. I hope they help. Please refer to some good books on research paper writing.

Referencing and Citations
Monash University's Page on Referencing Styles

Bibliographies
DBLP Computer Science Bibliography : Quite Comprehensive
Cite Seer Home Page & Search CiteSeer

Thesis Writing : Some Ideas
How to Write a PhD Thesis : By Joe Wolf :-A good article. You can read it in French, as well as in Spanish. At the end of the article there are a few other useful links.

Purdue University's Links: Writing a thesis statement, Writing a research report.

Link to IEEE, ACM Digital Libraries through Monash (Need to be a current Monash Student with a valid Authcate account to access theses links)

Publications

Refereed Conference Proceedings

• Sugianto LF, Grozev G, Liao Z, James M, Page J (2012). Simulating cost-based bidding models in Genersys. 6th Int. Conference on Soft Computing and Intelligent Systems, 20-24 November 2012, Kobe, Japan.
• James, M.,Grozev, G.,  Page, J., & Yum, K., "Using Genersys to model electricity generation expansion", In Proceedings of International Congress on Modelling and Simulation (MODSIM 2011), Perth (Australia), December 2011
• Yum,K., George, G.,James,M., &. Page,J., "Solar Power Supply to Mitigate the Diurnal and Seasonal Electricity Demand in Victoria", In Proceedings of Solar2010, the 48th Australian Solar Energy Society Annual Conference (AUSES2010), Canberra (Australia), December 2010
• Page, J., Zaslavsky, A., & Indrawan, M., “Extending the Buddy Model to Secure Variable Sized Multi-Agent Communities”, In Proceedings of the 2nd International Workshop on Safety and Security in Multi-Agent Systems (SASEMAS2005), pp 59-75, Utrecht (The Netherlands), July 2005.
• Page, J & Wang, M., “The Future of Intelligent Information Management:Mobile Agents”, In Proceedings of the 1st International Conference on Information Management and Business (IMB2005), pp 257-263, ISBN 957-9129-33-9, Taipei (Taiwan), March 2005.
• Page, J., Padovitz, A., & Gaber, M. M., “Mobility in Agents, a Stumbling or a Building Block?”, In Proceedings of 2nd International Conference on Intelligent Computing and Information Systems (ICICIS2005), Cairo, (Egypt), March 2005.
• Page, J., Zaslavsky, A., & Indrawan, M., “Countering Agent Security Vulnerabilities using an Extended SENSE method”, In Proceedings of the 2004 International Conference on Intelligent Agent Technology (IAT2004), pp 183-189, Beijing (China), September 2004.
• Page, J., Zaslavsky, A., & Indrawan, M., “Securing m>Business Scenarios using the Buddy Model of Security for Agent Communities”, In Proceedings of m>Business 2004, pp 1-12, New York (USA), July 2004.
• Page, J., Zaslavsky, A., & Indrawan, M., “Countering Security Vulnerabilities in Agent Execution using a Self Executing Security Examination”, In Proceedings of the 3rd International Joint Conference on Autonomous Agents and Multi-Agent Systems (AAMAS2004), Vol 3,pp.1486-1487,New York (USA), July 2004.
• Page, J., Zaslavsky, A., & Indrawan, M., “Countering Security Vulnerabilities using a Shared Security Buddy Model Schema in Mobile Agent Communities”, In Proceedings of the 1st International Workshop on Safety and Security in Multi-Agent Systems (SASEMAS2004), pp. 85-101,New York (USA), July 2004.
• Page, J., Zaslavsky, A., & Indrawan, M., “A Buddy Model of Security for Mobile Agent Communities Operating in Pervasive Scenarios”, In Proceedings of 2nd Australasian Information Security Workshop (AISW2004), ACS, Vol 32, pp. 17-25,Dunedin (New Zealand) ,2004.
• Page, J., Zaslavsky, A., & Indrawan, M., “Agent Communities, Security Vulnerabilities and the Buddy Model of Security: Applicability and Effectiveness”, In Proceedings of the 12th International Conference on Advanced Computing and Communication (ADCOM2004 ), pp 316-324,Ahmedabad (India), December 2004.
• Page, J., Zaslavsky, A., & Indrawan, M., “Security Aspects of Software Agents in Pervasive Information Systems”, In Proceedings of the 14th Australasian Conference on Information Systems,(ACIS2003), ISBN No 0-7298-0544-1,Perth (Australia), 2003.
• Page, J., Zaslavsky, A., & Indrawan, M., “Evaluating Security in Software Agent Systems using a Security Analysis Tool”, In Proceedings of the 1st Australian Information Security Management Conference (InfoSec2003),ISBN 0-7298-0541-7, 2003, Perth (Australia), 2003.

An Integrated Security Framework for Mobile Agent Communities

Open publication - Free publishing - More security