My Life, My Universe, My Everything

Today I found the webcalldirect.com service. It allows you to make free calls, so they claim. I decided to try it out – and it worked – for about 5min I could chat with my parents, then we got disconnected. So I called again,… and again… All this without even registering.

As mentioned before, I went to Venice July 22nd – 24th. Today I managed to put up the pictures.

A little tool called Exifer helped me to solve the following problem: given two photo collections of the trip – both cameras not synchronised on time – how can I order the pictures chronologically? Using two pictures that must have been taken within seconds apart, I determined the offset of both cameras. Then I used Exifer to change the Exif date and time of one of the photo sets. That’s it… (note, do not tick the box “Incremental”).

Furthermore, Christine visited last weekend. We went to Carnuntum, Melk and Bratislava.

Recently I went to Venice. A friend recommended to call Lorenzo who opened a B&B in Venice not so long ago. Lorenzo had indeed a room available so we stayed for two nights there. The B&B is located near the Piazza San Marco. We had a very pleasant stay and I want to recommend his place to all of you: Lorenzo’s B&B. If you ask me I can also give you his phone number.

Dr. Dobb’s | Escape the software development paradigm trap | May 29, 2006

I want to keep a marker to this article as it addresses several interesting issues in software development but also the metaphors used are thought provoking.

Wired News: Work More, Do Less With Tech

This article at Wired describes a feeling I have came to think about lately, too – technology, work load and productivity. Many people consider me to be well organised and a person that “gets things done”. However, I don’t feel the same way. I find it increasingly difficult to define my own success, i.e. a state such that I can say have I achieved something.

A friend asked yesterday, why it is that we go in to the office on a bank holiday or weekend, why can’t it wait? I answered twofold: (a) these are days where new issues hardly come in, so I can concentrate on what’s on my plate already and (b) that the rest of the week is already planned out (but 10h) and I thus feel I need the extra day to be ahead of the game again.

I don’t think I had this kind of constant pressure as a researcher or lecturer despite the fact that I was dealing with more people most of the time. It seems that students respected my time much more than most of my customers (or even colleagues). With ‘respect’ I also mean that I didn’t receive mass emails about their coursework or whatever they were working on – but I receive such emails today. Why do most people think that I need to know every little problem – most of my students tried to solve their problems on their own and then presented the solution and the problem solving process.

Maybe I make the mistake by being there too much. The students I told “go ahead, solve it on your own”, because it was part of their learning. Now I often solve the problems a.s.a.p., reducing the chance of learning for the problem holder. Maybe I am in the conflict that I believe that I have to solve the problems as a manager but good managers teach their staff to solve problems on their own. However, teaching typically takes more time initially and I’m back at the beginning, that I feel I don’t have the time… any ideas?

As promised, I added the pictures from my trip to Canterbury and the Kurt-Gödel Symposium. In addition, I put up some pictures from a business trip to Budapest as well as a couple of photos from Flanagans.

In case you missed, it was Kurt Gödel’s 100th birthday on April 28th. Why should you care, you ask? He is one of the greatest logicians of all times, some say. All computer scientists out there should know the “Incompleteness Theorem” Gödel proved in his habilitation (after he proved the “Completeness Theorem” in his dissertation).

On Saturday afternoon I went to a Public lecture by Roger Penrose organised by the Kurt Gödel Society. Frankly, I was a little disappointed by the lecture. Roger Penrose repeated himself a few times and occasionally lost the flow. He showed a proof and then said he is not sure anymore whether this is right but assumes so. I felt it was too technical at times for a public lecture, too. Anyway, after the lecture they showed the movie “Kurt Gödel: Ein Mathematischer Mythos”. The content was interesting (most of the time) but the presentation was very old fashioned. I understand that no TV station today wants to show it. It also contained a small error as Fermats last theorem has been proved by now.

Some pictures about this event will be online soon.

Here are a couple of links about Gödel:

TIME 100: Kurt Godel

“Kurt Gödel: He turned the lens of mathematics on itself and hit upon his famous “incompleteness theorem” — driving a stake through the heart of formalism
By DOUGLAS HOFSTADTER”

http://www.time.com/time/time100/scientist/profile/godel.html

“Kurt Gödel
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia”

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kurt_Godel

…lots of time to find my data.

Last week I decided that my private laptop needs a clean-up – a very thorough one. I backed up my data; basically I copied a few directories to my external HD, amongst them “Application Data”. Then I reinstalled Windows. Of course, I wanted to get my data back but what a scare as I could not find the “Application Data” directory on my external HD anymore. So I installed some recovery software to look for the data on the main drive. This takes a while and so one week was lost trying to recover my data.

Ok, I don’t know why I haven’t done the following earlier: this morning I had the great idea of starting a search over my entire external HD for “App*”. Of course, there it was… The settings in the Folder View of the reinstalled Windows Explorer hide systems folders and apparently “Application Data” is a systems folder… How stupid of me not to think of this earlier – how stupid of MS to be so rigid.

Anyway, I am glad to have my data back as I feared the worst, namely that I lost a few years worth of email. Now I can also continue to install some of the essential programs again and put up the pictures from my trip to Canterbury soon. Though, this will still have to wait for one week as I have to get some work done. Great weekend in the office – here I come.

So I’m back in Vienna but what happened in Canterbury after Monday?

On Tuesday I went around the different departments I used to work in. I spent hours of talking to the people, catching up with the recent news. It is great to still feel part of it. I had a longer conversation with Simon about students coming to Vienna for a placement year and about other possibilities of cooperation. Unfortunately, due to the Easter vacation, I couldn’t meet with everyone I wanted to. On the other hand, it gave me more time for those I met. For example, it gave me time to enjoy a lovely lunch with Nadia in Origins Bar. In the evening we had another BBQ and I retreated early.

Wednesday I decided to travel to the factory outlet in Ashford. I wondered about the presence of the police at the Asda supermarket but heard later that just an armed robbery happened there. I then walked through most of the shops but wasn’t very decisive on the day so I ended up with only two t-shirts. On my way back I decided to drop by TK-Max in Canterbury and it was worth it – three more pieces of clothing. I like shopping in England as it can be cheaper, offering better quality and also a different kind of fashion. In the evening Matt, Carrie, Brad and I went to The Ancient Raj for a nice meal out. All in all, I had a quiet and relaxing birthday.

Thursday, Matt and I went to Biddenden Vineyards. I wanted to drive the car and we “needed” some good Cider. We had a nice walk around the vineyard and tasted some of their apple juice before buying some of their Strong Kentish Cider (Medium and Dry) and Special Reserve Cider. I took a bottle of each home to Vienna. We also purchased a crate of a nice local Ale. On the way to Canterbury we passed Headcorn where I used to perform my first parachute jump. So I took Matt around the Headcorn Aerodrome and the Parachute Club.

Thursday evening we had a bigger BBQ event at 3WW. This was part of Matt’s announcement:


I think we're going to BBQ this Thursday. You should, by now, know the
time. You might even know the routine. In case you don't...


WHERE: 3 WW
WHEN : Thursday, April 20th, 19:00ish
WHY : Come say high to Ralph
WHAT : Bring some food and beverage


Many followed this invitation. It was nice to have half an hour to talk to Keith – all the best for finishing up your dissertation. Also, Nick came along with a bunch of friends. The food was good as ever but we realised again that two BBQ’s are better than one and that we need a second. I forgot to prepare the dates wrapped in bacon (you can fry them up in a pan too) – shame on me.

Friday I had to leave again – I can’t say I wanted to leave already. The place changes and more is to come. However I don’t come for the place but for the people. Once everyone is gone I feel Canterbury will be like an empty shell. Pictures will be up soon, I hope. But more about that endeavour in a different post.

Many thanks to all in Canterbury that made my stay so pleasant!!!

This is just a short note to tell you that I will be in Canterbury for a few days. I really look forward to a short break with friends. My job turned rather busy lately and I need a bit of time to reflect on the recent changes.

I wish everybody reading this blog a Happy Easter.