First Snow

Saturday, first snow in Baltimore.

Trouvaillen

Tonight, a sudden flash of useless linguistic insight hit me.

The terms "syndrome" (a group of symptoms that consistently occur together), "concurrency" (esp. programs running in parallel), "Mitläufer" (sb. acting without having formed an own opinion), and "also-rans" (a loser in a race) syntactically all have the same components in their own languages - however, obviously their actual semantic meaning is completely unrelated in each!

Fascinating how the same expression evokes different meanings and feelings in different languages.

Then again, "współbieżny" actually means the same as "concurrent". And for some unrelated ridiculousness, check "współdzielić". (And it's almost unbelievable all those terms in the table there not only mean, but actually evoke all their different semantics!)

Culturalities (Siemens and Pizza)

Yesterday, my little boss arranged a visit at Siemens Corporate Research in Princeton, where I had to give a talk. Luckily, the talk was about something that nobody really knew what it should be (meaning I could choose what to talk about). Sadly, I am still new in my field. Luckily, it went somewhat alright.



I learned that the NIH recently changed its scoring table for grant applications. Where they had a 1-to-5 scale before, in 2009 nothing less than a 1-to-9 scale is good enough. However, the first five categories are labeled "exceptional", "outstanding", "excellent", "very good", and "good". It could be a sign of an imbalance. Projects rated less than "outstanding" face a small chance of getting funded.

Today, I committed a cultural mistake. Ordering a chicken-and-green-pepper-pizza-with-soda-combo-number-three-for-here-thank-you, there was enough cash in my wallet (not BE "purse") to cover the check (not "bill") to cover it. Mistake part one was to pay cash in the first place. Mistake part two was to wait for six cents change. I realized this after the cashier closed the counter without returning my change, but it was too late to back out without embarrassment. So I tried to look around in a noncommittal way without moving an inch. Finally he got the hint, reopened the counter and handed over my six cents. Score for the German.

Half-life

It just occurred to me that by now I have spent more than half my life so far with programming (in the loosest sense of the word, probably more like "thinking in algorithms").

If all goes well, the next half will be spent with programming, too.

If this doesn't change the neural connections, then I don't know what could.

(... I still remember very clearly how arrays confused me back in highschool times... using DIM in QBasic in MS-DOS 5.0 - how could many values be stored under the same name? I chose to ignore pointers back then.

It was awesome that some fellow highschool students were actually able to use TurboPascal's "GUI" units.

Later came the magic of callback functions (with pointers!) in C, when programming the Schroeder 2 in XForms (which still look as fugly as they did back a decade(!) ago) kept us awake.

OOP in Java (brand-new back then, a year or two later; I actually ordered a CD-ROM with something like an "IBM WebSphere Java Developer Kit" through mail) was a relief.

Also, I remember vividly how at the turn of the millenium I learned C++ from what is probably the least appropriate tool - Stroustrup's The C++ Programming Language.

All of this happened before the Internet happened in the way I use it for programming today, which means all of this was harder (which means one actually looked up the parameters for printf() in a book).

Still, I grew up in the era after GOTO.)

The Digital Gutter

Spotlight.

Apple's Mac OS X search facility is built right into the operating system, hooking into the file access functions to know about every last bit that goes in or out of your disks. Every file is indexed the very moment it is written, read, moved, or anything, and searching for file names, file content, file types, dates, or anything is a blast, happening right as you type.

(Alright, Windows got something similar much later, called Live Search, or Search 4.0, or whatever unfunky name is its moniker du jour.)

But the point that has to be made here is not about how fast finding things has become. Rather than organizing stuff, it's possible to simply find it. Even if you are organized (maybe as a result of DCD's filing dogma), searching for your data is much faster than going after it through the directory hierarchy. The more you use certain documents, the more probable it is they show up right away at the top of your search before you even actively remember how you would like to look for them.
But that is also not the point of this post.

Over the years, in some dark corners of the hard disk, directories that have been handed down over time, that have survived copying disks a dozen times, somehow made it through three or four operating systems, twenty upgrades, six or seven different computers, that adhere to naming conventions one cannot remember ever having used, with file formats that you have forgotten you ever had the respective programs for, those directories are still around. These files have begun their lives on 120MB hard disks, were backed up using command line tools onto 1.44MB HD floppies, later onto 100MB ZIP disks, then onto 600MB CDs, sometimes maybe even onto DVDs, before it simply became too unwieldy to take care of all this data, before it became feasible to simply buy more and more storage space to put them onto, and before they were simply and unceremoniously forgotten.
Normally, there is nothing of any conceivable use contained in them any more. Files and file collections that once were considered huge are now sitting around in megabyte-sized chunks, waiting huddled in silence for the day when their file system node will accidentally release them in a crash as orphaned files, which in these days of journaled file systems has become not just improbable, but with pervasive http://www.apple.com/macosx/what-is-macosx/time-machine.html backups on your terabyte desktop disk, manual copies on the central file server approaching petabyte capacities, and Dropbox replication in the infinite cloud simply utterly impossible. Won't every bit and byte somehow end up in the resource fork of some operating system index structure, to be stored away forever and to surface again at the whim of a moment, at the merest twitch of a little finger?

This digital gutter, the last refuge of data that has long outlived its welcome, is dragged back into the spotlight using the search facilities mentioned at the beginning. Presentations from grad school, dissociated program chunks from undergrad courses (originating from right after the last crash, back in the old millenium, that still had a chance of effecting real data loss, files like the first flickering light from the young universe after it had cooled down from the Big Bang), links from the World Wide Web that back then was still awaiting the dot-com boom and knew nothing of the bust that was to come, Java documentation from the language's early, unstable times, they all reappear in milliseconds like impotent spectres when some unsuspecting keystroke combination enters the search.

It's a different world you live in when everything you ever stored, every site you ever visited, every email you ever wrote or received, is less than the blink of an eye away.

Close To Home

I know almost everybody and their grandma knows and reads the PhD Comics.
But for those who don't, this last series hits uncannily close to home. Even when you're not a female.

America Through The Lens Of

Recently I travelled a bit, got a very cheap close-up lens, and met people.



As usual, click through the link to the original post/pictures.

Baltimore Artscape, and Lab space

Two completely unrelated picture sets, one from the annual Baltimore Artscape festival that regularly draws crowds to music, art sales, movies, and food, and one from our lab, deserted at night.



As usual, click on the slide show to see bigger pics.

Kittykat Tyrone!

This cute little tiny kittykat has been with us for a few days (somebody had to babysit it). The other two cats were completely irritated by this CUTE TEENY KITTY!

Lancaster, PA (Party like it's 1899!)

On Saturday, we went to Lancaster, PA, the center of the Amish population (maybe in the U.S., but definitely on the East Coast), also known as Dutch County (even though they are originally of German origin).
Following a conservative religious lifestyle, they usually forfeit all modern amenities like cars, electricity, and telecommunications. However, they can adapt, and in particular they can party (like it's 1899)!

LEGO Heaven

I cannot complain too much.

Today, our mechanical engineering maven agreed with me that my LEGO-based approach seems feasible.
Later, I went searching for LEGO in our lab and found a whole room full of LEGO... up to the ceiling.
Now, I got a few boxes (only a selection of them is shown below), an iced tea, and found myself a quiet secluded spot with a great view over the campus greens... it feels like being a kid all over again :-)

Robofest 2009

Every year, the LCSR enjoys a Robofest - a picknick organized by one of its labs in round-robin fashion.
This Sunday, the Robofest 2009 took place in Rocky Point Park near Baltimore. As my Mom came by for a visit the day before, I took her along to meet my fellows here.



(As usual, hit the link http://picasaweb.google.com/philipp.j.s/RoboFest2009LightAndShadow# or click the above slideshow to embiggen the pics on Picasa).

Hobby, Work, and the Value of Colleagues

It is important to have your work be your hobby... and maybe your hobby be your work.
This is the case with my task here. I enjoy it.

And although programming is just a small part of it, it is very enjoyable, too. Even though I have to admit that I learned more about programming and learned more from my (ex-)colleagues while I was at UBT. Honestly, my programming skills (no matter how limited) have grown tremendously while working with some of my old labmates.

First and foremost Techno and Dabbelju, I really appreciate all the little and also the bigger things that I learned from you. They still help me every day in programming, debugging, and profiling.

(As I have said a long time ago, I brought my T_Matrix<T,homo> class with me, and I use it proudly ;-). Over the last week, I spent way too much time working with it, and I learned a lot about programming, C++, and my own old faults during that time. And while I whittled away at some old bugs and shortcomings, its performance just today increased from 2fps through 4fps and 6fps all the way to 23fps.
When this happened I called it a day.)

European Parliament Elections

I missed the elections for the European parliament... I realized too late that my voting notice probably is in the stack of my mail back at home in Germany.
Therefore, I want at least to post some very strong opinions on why people should GO VOTING, why they should GO, and why they should VOTE.
It's not too much to ask. (But the following is maybe a generalization. Still, it serves to make a point.)

"[...] In D, voter turnout is a bit lower than it was last time... still around 20%. Sigh. Ppl don't realize how good the EU is.

Maybe they are ok with the EU, but they donot care who goes there to work.
Yes, but even in that case, it would show that u care about the EU, even if u vote just almost anybody. It's about legitimacy. If only 20%, then whenever there are problems, ppl will say "I didn't vote for them". Sigh. Here I had a hard time arguing with my colleagues (even intelligent ones) why going to vote personally, with your own feet or car, on your own time, once every four years is not too much. Why electronic voting is a shame. Defending D's pen-and-paper voting system. Why do u need electronic machines to vote? Why is electronic voting bad?

This is what is wrong with America. Because there are companies that could build those machines, they can argue that if you DON'T use electronic machines, it is unfair for them... WTF??? Here everybody believes they have a RIGHT to make money - even if it hurts everybody else. And e-voting machines are just one very bad example: Why do they have ANY advantage over paper ballots? They only have disadvantages. The votes cannot be traced. They can be modified. They can get lost. The long history of errors, vote loss, and outright fraud in the U.S. elections speaks for itself.

Sure it could be done online, like online banking or filing a tax statement. So why not vote online... because GOING to vote on a SUNDAY when u have nothing else to do anyways, once every four years, is not too much to ask. This is the only way normal ppl participate in a democracy. Democracy is very simple these days. Politicians do everything for you. People don't get shot any more for democracy. So going to VOTE is really not too much. Of course it would not be difficult to do it electronically or online. But this only serves to make people even more detached from democracy. If u can do it from ur own couch, then why bother at all. Going to vote is the single most important thing the average citizen in a democracy will usually do for the nation, so making it more of a commodity will not make more people vote, but less, because one will lose respect of this sovereign act.

People have to participate, so they cannot say later that they didn't know anything, that they didn't vote for whatever happened.

D citizens have a damn obligation to vote."

Unit Bloat

Awesome. Every week in the U.S. brings about another weird unit.

"Southern Utah’s Lake Powell was once teeming with boaters, fishers and vacationers. But from 2000 to 2005 its water level dropped from 20 million to 8 million acre-feet, due to severe drought. [...]"

How the 2nd Battery was Lost and Found

The improbable story of the disappeared battery, with particular focus on its incomprehensible reappearance after it was already given up for good and considered lost forever.

Beauty, and the Lumix GH1

This place and this camera will be my next treat... after I finally accomplish what I am still missing...

Kauai sunset: Lumix GH1 slow motion from Philip Bloom on Vimeo.

Early Morning

It's Sunday 2:30am, and the robotics lab is still busy with people working. PJS submitted his abstract, so felt entitled to go home... although this leaves a slightly guilty feeling behind.

Outside, birds are singing in the trees.

This is America.

Wildlife!

Raccoons are visiting us (rather the birds' feeding box) regularly!



(As usual, click slideshow for full view.)

Maple Card

Well, this certainly took long enough :-)

hp

Here is another aspect of life in America that I haven't understood yet.

Of what use are the large engines, having some three to eight liters of displacement (btw, why is this measured in liters, not in quarts or gallons or fl. oz.?), when one cannot use them anywhere except for a racing-style head start at the traffic lights? Highways are limited to 60 or 70 mph everywhere, and for good reason.

But this results in something else, an experience that is probably unknown to the average American car driver... the feeling of the engine being maxed out, not yielding more power any more, once you have reached the car's top speed, determined by a combination of engine power, wind resistance, and road slope and curvature. The neurons which convey an intuitive feel of this subtle relationship at around 180-220km/h must be missing from an American brain. Or maybe they are used for other things. Maybe marksmanship.

Canadian English

Click cromulent image to embiggen.

New Words

Sine I came here, I learned a couple of new words. Not at a mindboggling rate, but they keep coming in.
Among these are:

• dive


• tight


• saucy wench

and surprisingly, the correct pronounciation of sewing.
However, I also learned that ebonics is not for the white man.

More Old Pictures! (Canada 2005)

I am recently looking for an easier way to post pictures... which should not be locked up in my main blog.
Maybe Picasa Web Albums could do the trick? Album after the link (click the picture).

Conference Trip - Alberta etc. 2005

In Hiding

This amazing thing has been hiding in one of the kidney phantoms I built the other day.

Fait Accompli

After the first trip to Canada in August 2005, I decided to spend some time there.

Given the time frame at my disposal, a feasible approach seemed to be to apply for permanent residency there. Today, the procedure was finished. The last step was to land with the PR immigrant visa in Canada.




Naturellement, everything has changed since then. My dentist friend recently mentioned he envies me for the adventure, but franchement, the excitement subsides with time.

Still, bienvenue au Canada!




Three places were shortlisted as candidates for me to go and cross the border there this weekend... and finally I chose Montréal, to get some European feeling that is missing so much in Baltimore. And really, it is so great to be in a place where you can walk at your own leisure, without fear of being in the wrong neighborhood and get robbed at the next corner. Why can't every place in North America be like this?

In Canadian cities, what one often sees are directly neighboring, little compatible buildings. Often industrial constructions right next to housing, but sometimes just vaguely clashing styles.




In genereal, it's cold.




Still, there is life on the streets.




Inuit art from the (small) collection of the Montréal Musée des Beaux Arts.



Although flying to the North was with a proper jetliner, the return flights were with a turboprop machine. Small plane, really bumpy flight.

Patch And Pray

At least I am not suffering from paranoia on this front: U.S. roads are in a deplorable state. Of course one is spoiled when having used German streets, but still the sheer amount of huge potholes here isn't exactly a symbol of pride for a First World country. Everything else about the infrastructure, from bridges to water management, seems to be in similarly poor shape, and now it's official (again).

Bröselnde Brücken, undichte Wasserleitungen
2009 Report Card for America's Infrastructure

Furthermore, to feed my cyberchondria, I have taken a self-test about "autistic spectrum disorder" (a less flashy version is here in English).
The results... well, like every decent cyberchondriac, I should go and see a doctor.

Disconnect

So many things are happening recently, some of which should be depressing, some upsetting, some uplifting, some wonderful, some outrageous... and still, it is so hard to actually experience, to actually feel them. Plus, this disconnect comes packaged with a lack of initiative as well. Where has empathy, where has motivation gone? Rage, sadness, drive, exhaustion - where are they? What to make of that?

Impressions

Homewood.


Gefräßiger Plapperkäfer von Traal:
"Ein zum Verrücktwerden dämliches Vieh, es nimmt an, wenn du es nicht siehst, kann es dich auch nicht sehen - bescheuert wie eine Bürste, aber sehr, sehr gefräßig."



From Eadweard Muybridge's time-lapse photographs of a man riding a galloping horse.



From Homewood.

Bag of Hurt

To use Steve Jobs' words (from another context), these days are a bag of hurt.

The year started out somewhat shaky, and so far has only gone downhill. The more one believes something to be stable, the less it becomes so.

Time to do something about it.

Paris

As promised, MC and I made a trip to Paris. It was not without its difficulties even to get there, but these were not exactly related to the trip itself. Bad omens were ShabuShabu's astute refusal to start the engine (the ADAC had to jumpstart the car, and the battery had to be replaced) and several hours ineffectively spent around the Kaiserslautern post office.

But then, we arrived in Paris alright and determined to have a happy new year.




And so it was. It was incredibly cold, windy, rainy at times, and outrageously expensive, but Paris is great any time of year. The last time I've been there was probably in 7th grade as a language exchange student, so freshing up on all the sights, museums, and churches was (American colloquialism ahead) all da hoot. More or less according the vague draft as follows, it were some foot-hurt-filled days.

Dezember
29. Pont Neuf 桥
29. Schiffahrt auf der Seine 赛那河
29. Pantheon 先贤祠 (offen?)
29. Tour d'Eiffel 爱飞尔铁塔 (9h30 à 23h45*; Dernière montée 23h00 (pour le sommet 22h30))


30. Louvre 卢浮宫



30. Place de la Concorde 协和广场
30. Galeries Lafayette



30. Printemps


31. Centre Georges Pompidou 蓬碧度 (December 24 and 31, the Centre Pompidou will be closed at 7pm. Tickets available until 6pm. The Pompidou Center is open every day, except Tuesdays and May 1, 11am-10pm.)

31. Musee d'Orsay 奥赛博物馆 (9.30-18 Uhr; 21.45 Uhr donnerstags; Montags Geschlossen)



Januar
1. Sacre Coeur 圣心教堂
1. Notre Dame 巴黎圣母院




1. La Defense 拉迪芳斯新城


1. Arc de Triomphe 凯旋门

The plan turned out to be slightly too ambitious, it turned out that (as heard before) France is no North America (and thus has no Internet anywhere), so lugging Oolong along was a weird idea, but still, with the tourist guide book in hand, it proved to be successful.

Fireworks on New Year were disappointing (basically nonexistent), but throngs of people were still trying to get to the Tour d'Eiffel on time.



Praying for no rain one day resulted in snow the next.

Parking was an adventure, but ultimately rewarding.

Stupidly enough, I forgot all but one of my credit and debit card PINs - so I had to pay for everything Euro-ish with my American account, in dollars.

I saw a guy in front of Notre-Dame who had an R1. I approached him, we nodded to each other, and we each went our ways.



The last day, desparate over still not having been to the Tour Eiffel, on the way back I drove straight to the tower. Against all expectations, we found a parking spot not even 50m away from the base, the ticket booth line was short (due to extreme cold, sure), and the view at Paris at dusk was spectacular. But frosty.



And although it has nothing to do with Paris, today I gave a short presentation about RONAF's 3D ultrasound to the surgical robotics winter school audience here at JHU. The faculty attending are to a large extent old acquaintances from 2003's Montpellier summer school. Although that "acquaintance" is rather unidirectional, I believe.

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More pictures of Paris will follow. Today I am too exhausted from the last few days of Matthias (our Fraunhofer project partner) being here, doing experiments, and yesterday attending an extremely long kidney operation until very late at night that was far from successful in the end. But more to come.

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More pictures of Paris have been added. Gosh, doing this in Blogger is incredibly time-consuming.