logweek9

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Learning Log
A Research Project On
Towards An Autonomous Bibliography Building Agent
By Indrashah Isa

Week Nine
(31st August 1998 - 6th September 1998)
(Project Week)

Daily Task / Assignment

*Day*	*Date*	*Task / Assignment*
Monday	31/8/98	Maintaining the RoboCup '98 competitors webpage, update it and add-in new additional team information (e.g. missing email address of team members). Search for information on RoboCup '98 competitors. Information that is searched is focused on the missing information inside the list of RoboCup '98 competitors at the webpage entitled 'RoboCup '98 Competitors' List'. Search for information on the Internet on the issues affecting autonomous agents.
		5th Minutes of Meeting	Showed and run the WebValidator program to let Tralvex see, he recommended some changes to the program and gave me some pointers in enhancing the program. For example I should not use the pop-up message box after validating each URL, it is not efficient, instead, I should let it run automatically and give a 'DELAY' of around 2 seconds when each URL is being validated. After the validating process, then the pop-up message box will come in handy. He also told me to spent more time in my program development, and take some of the time from my web documentation process. He also mentioned about the reallocation to the ISS building on the 3rd September, which is on Thursday. I should get ready and pack all my stuff by Wednesday. So after lunch on Wednesday I should start packing all the materials inside the small box, and wrap the computer monitor with the bubble wrap. I should label all the materials I'm using, including the boxes that contains my materials. On Thursday morning, I should be working in the new building.
Tuesday	1/9/98	Spent two hours searching for information on the Internet pertaining to issues affecting autonomous agents. Analyze the acquired information and records down some of the important points. Announcement of the new WebValidator known as WebVal 2.0. Finish the interface and adjust its programming codes. Test the program and perform some debugging procedure (e.g. eliminating the pop-up message box after validating each URL). Try to solve the error in the new WebValidator. Try to append numbers to those URL with errors in the list box. Update the list of RoboCup '98 competitors with the latest team information acquired by email, (e.g. from one of the team members in the team known as Delphine, from Germany - update on the team name, changed from Agents to Delphine). Add the information of the team from Australia known as RoboRoos, upon acquiring its information on the Internet.
Wednesday	2/9/98	Analyzing the functions of the WebVal 2.0 program. Enhance its features by adding the 'Abort' command for the 'End' command button so that the validating process will be cancelled when the user wants the URL validating process to be aborted. Add in new information to the RoboCup '98 competitors list. Add the email addresses of some of the members to the team from France known as MIME-IA. Update the webpage carrying the information on that team. Create 2 new webpage for the team from Sweden known as UBU and from Australia known as RoboRoos. Pack-up office materials into the available boxes for reallocation into another building. Label the computer materials and wrap the monitor with the bubble-wrap for safety transportation.
Thursday	3/9/98	Actual Reallocation day to the new KRDL building.
		Orientation of the new place in Institute of System Science (ISS), a building located in National University of Singapore (NUS). Due to certain reallocation problems, I have been reallocated again to another lab, a room in level two (2-04). Shifting of furniture in the room, acquisition of extra furniture to hold the five machines brought from the old KRDL building. Unpack the materials and assemble the machine.
Friday	4/9/98	Searching of some relevant books for the project in the library in the new KRDL building. Books searched for pertains to text and data-mining, autonomous agents and robots, artificial intelligence and visual basic 5.0 programming. Read books on text-mining in the KRDL library, to get a little bit of knowledge on how the text-miming program functions. Planning of project report, highlight the main components and section to be included in the actual report. Report developement. Start the introduction portion of the report, manage to finish half of the introduction part.
Saturday	5/9/98	Company off
Sunday	6/9/98	Company off

Weekly Summary of Task / Assignment

The ninth week of the attachment is basically a week of research and reallocation. Basically, I have to shift over to a new building as the old building was taken over by another organization known as IME. Actually the old building was shared between two organisations, Kent Ridge Digital Labs (KRDL) and The Institute of Microelectronics (IME). On the 24^th of September 1998, the whole building legally belongs to IME and the existing KRDL have to shift over to the new building inside National University of Singapore (NUS [Heng Mui Terrace]), specifically in a building that belongs to another part of KRDL, that is the Institute of System Science (ISS). There are some problems pertaining to the reallocation of labs to the attachment student and also the unavailability of network services like the printing services and the Internet access. On the 3^rd and 4^th of September, I cannot access the Internet to do my research as the network is not established yet. For a more efficient and productive environment, I would recommend to the reallocation management group, to establish the necessary services first before the reallocation process takes place. But on the whole I really do not mind the problems as I have my own work to do to keep me busy, like orientating myself to the new place, go to the library and find useful books, shifting the furniture in the new room allocated to me and planning my report documentation. Below are brief summaries of what I have done for the ninth week of this attachment.

Research work reflecting the project requirements.
Basically I have started to do some new research on the issues surrounding autonomous agents. In order to acquire the information, I searched the Internet and look for useful sites that can provide me with the necessary information. I manage to acquire some useful information on autonomous agents. One problem I faced is that some of the information acquired are very technical. Technical jargons are used and sometimes I did not know what the abstracts are revealing. I usually have to consult the dictionary of Science and Technology (borrowed from National Library) in order to know what the abstracts are conveying. But all the trouble, I have managed to gather some useful and considerably good information on the issues affecting autonomous agents. I also finish up filling in the missing information on the RoboCup ’98 competitors’ list.

Development of the new WebValidator known as Web Val 2.0.
I have started to enhance the features of the validator program I created. For instance the new program has an abort function, used to abort the validating process without returning an error message. The old program cannot perform this function and I frequently received error messages when I click the ‘END, command button. Well, that problem has been solved with the creation of the new program. The status bar also send useful messages to the user and the program is more autonomous as the pop-up message box are no longer appearing after each URL has been validated. User will no longer have to click on the ‘OK’ button on the pop-up message box to continue the validating process, the program autonomously validate every link in the fetched website. It will only prompt the user after the validation process has been completed. The good and the bad URL are separated in two separate list box for distinguishing purposes.

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