La France

Zut alors! The blogging just can't keep up with life. Now several weeks ago I went to France with Messieurs Anberee, Gurnell, Swinbank, and the lovely Mademoiselle Pounds-Cornish. Photos are online here and here.

I've only been to France twice before, when Bree and I went to Paris, and when we went to Lille. The trip to Paris was the first trip we made after moving to the UK. We hadn't yet started working so we were mostly broke. We walked all over the city, and subsisted on picnics of cheese and bread. I remember we had left over cheese one night, which we wanted to keep, but it smelled so bad we had to keep it on the window sill outside our hotel room. Good times! This time I was in small town France, first with Thomas' brother in Ile de Yeu, and then at Richards Dad's holiday home near Niort. Quite a different experience. I won't go into what we got up to. Take a look at the photos if you want to know. A few points of difference though: the French care much less about gardens and the appearance of their houses. It is normal for the rendering of a house to be falling off. Food is cheaper and better quality. The stereotype really is true! I'd like to know why that is. France is so close that I should think the same produce would be available.

The Grad Student's Pain: TeX

Ezra's things I learned about TeX today resonates strongly with me. In many ways (particularly it's layout algorithms) TeX is a thing of beauty, but in terms of interface it is a complete pile of junk. Most incredible is that after some 20 years no-one has done better.

Why is the UK so expensive?

Why is the UK so expensive? The ripple down effect of high property prices seems to be the consensus opinion. The UK town planners have made a conscious decision to avoid sprawl, at the cost of raising the price of land. I can't complain, as the higher population density is one of the reasons I live in this country instead of Australia

Why I Should Spend More Time Blogging

Brad DeLong on The Invisible College, or why I should spend more time blogging.

Gettting Dumber

Brain size has decreased by 10% in the last 30'000 years. Oh dear. The most common theory is a relationship to diet.

CS and Religion

From a student project:

The best way to design a system...should include...Polytheism

You read it here first!

Stop, Easter Time!

Today being part of the Easter holidays Bree and I did what is traditional, and worked on the garden. The plan is to reshape the lawn. Apparently this plan has been in gestation since we moved in, but as my gardening role is to provide manual labour, brute force, and ignorance, I was, of course, largely ignorant of this plan. Anyway, I dug up lawn, dug up garden beds, shifted lawn into garden beds etc. I am told It Is Good.

Earlier in the day we kicked out Matt who'd broken his nightmare Glasgow to Canterbury train journey with a couple of nights in Brum. Much geeking was done, and at one stage we had 42 inches of Powerbook in the house! A side-effect of kicking out Matt was I went in to town and shopped at the markets for the first time since, well, before going to Australia. And the result of that is:

Basil and Black Pepper Stir Fry

This is inspired by a meal I had at Han's Cafe in Perth

Ingredients for the stir-fry

• Some beefy protein (e.g. beef, seitan)
• A carrot
• A red capsicum
• An onion
• 2 cloves of garlic

Ingredients for the sauce

• About 12 leaves Thai (sweet) basil
• 1 tbsp cornflour
• 1 tbsp soy sauce
• Dried mushrooms
• Cracked black pepper

Method

Get your rice on! Works best with rice, but noodles would work as well.
Cut up everything.
Mix the cornflour to a paste with some water
Rehydrate the mushrooms in boiling water. When the water has cooled, add the cornflour, soy and basil. If using seitan, add some of the juice from the can.
Get your wok on!
Cook in the usual way: meat (if using) first, then set aside. Then onion, garlic, carrot, capsicum.
Add your protein.
Add the sauce, boil till thickened.
Get your snack on!

The Economics of War

This week's File on Four covers the war in Afghanistan. Our stereotype of the Taleban tends towards the religous fanatic. An interview with a Taleban fighter reveals a different story:

“I'm fighting with a Kalashnikov and an RPG - a rocket propelled grenade launcher,” he said. “I'm not trying to take over the country. I am just trying to earn my salary.”

Compared to his previous work in the coal mines, fighting is easy and the pay is much better. He goes on to explain the Taleban even offer bonuses for killing American soldiers. An interview with an opium farmer reveals a similar economic motivations. He'd happily grow vegetables, but the market for opium is just so much better. This highlights the core economic problems behind the current problems in Afghanistan (and many other places in the world). Instead of the Wars on Terror and Drugs, perhaps Dubya should launch a War on Farm Subsidies. It ought to play well at home given that France is one of the main proponents of the EU's Common Agricultural Policy.

Control of creativity

For a few years now the media companies have been going nuts about copyright protection. This article compares the differences in control over creativity in the fashion and the media. Why is it that Sony, for example, goes nuts if you sample a few seconds from one of their artist's tracks, but if you copy someone's clothing designs (as Topshop, H&M, etc. routinely do) you get, if not applause, at least no negative repercussions. I don't have a good answer, but I know which model I prefer.

Winter and Tech Reports

I walked in today along the canal. It's a clear cold day (-3C right now), a relief after all the dreary overcast days of late. The canal had frozen and I could clearly see a hexagonal structure in the ice, like enormous frozen snowflakes.

I've spent most of this week working on a techinical report. I'm glad it's finished and I feel good about the work. Doing the analysis, and getting statistically significant results, was nice (when I reviewed other work for the Related Work section I was rather surprised how few authors do any proper analysis of their results). I hope to turn it into a publication soon.

A Doctor is made

My mate Dave has just got out of his viva, with minor modifications. And that, folks, is what it is all about.

The Failure of Research

There are is no Journal of Failures, an unfortunate state of affairs as what doesn't work can provide just as much insight as what does. Of course, I have a personal interest in salvaging knowledge from failure, as at this moment my simulated annealing process is failing to converge (example results, till I delete them). I was hoping to make ICML'06 but it is unlikely I'll have results by then. Well, that's the way it goes. Research is a high risk activity. If it wasn't, it wouldn't be research! A lot of the structure of our research institutions are designed to reduce the risk of failure. Even if your experiments don't work, you'll still get paid. You might not get a promotion, but that is preferrable to being destitute. This structure has been very successful. Thousands of people now spend their careers as researchers, compared to handfuls in previous centuries. The resultant benefits to society have been vast. All up it's a pretty good deal. However, decreasing risks necessarily involves also decreasing potential gains. I wonder if Universities lose out on the best and brightest due to this policy?

Rather Large Cats

Ligers, a cross between a lion and a tiger, are the biggest cats in the world. These things are enormous! I think Bree would agree that the ligers in the pictures need to go on a diet, but I guess no-one tells a 500kg cat they can't have any food. We have a hard enough time with William!

Computer science vs programming

I set up this blog with the intention of documenting my research, but instead have mostly focused on snippets of life for the benefit of friends and family. I'm going to try and include more research related items. If it suits I'll carry on. If not I'll find another venue.

My first link item it to link to The Geomblog: Computer science vs programming. Ah, undergraduate education! A topic I'll happily rant about for a goodly long time! It's well worth a read if you're involved in CS education. Unfortunately, current circumstances, with declining student numbers, are having the opposite effect to that suggested by the article. Instead of teaching becoming more personal, and interesting, most CS departments have responded by setting up professional Masters degrees, and making their courses even more programming, with the intention of attracting students interested in the relatively well paying career that programming is.

Busy Fortnight

Last fortnight has been particularly busy. Here's a wrapup:

Last Wednesday I went down to London, meeting up for lunch with my cousin Cass, and then on to the British Library to meet Shriram, before finally heading to LShift for a Scheme UK meeting. The British Library is fantastic; I can't believe I haven't been before. My highlight was Leonardo's journals, which are every bit as restless and energetic as his genius.

I had to head back to Birmingham that evening, as the next morning Bree renounced any vestigial sporting ability, and accepted British citizenship. The Lord Mayor presided in all pomp and circumstance. Included amongst the citizenship pack was a Christmas card from himself and the Mrs. How unexpected.

The following weekend was Bree's work Christmas party, held at a hotel outside Redditch. The hotel was fun: we went to the gym, then swimming (a salt water pool!), then sat in the spa for a bit. Party was also fun. Danced till they kicked us out. Both of us woke up the next day feeling not 100%. Initial thought it was the excesses of the night before, but as the day wore on it became obvious we had acquired colds. Spent the evening at Nick and Rosie's. They've really worked their butts off doing it up, and it looks great. Thankfully we didn't have carpet stapled (!) to the floor when we moved in. Saw the kit-peas for the first time since we gave them to Nick and Rosie. They are bigger but just as cute. I'm glad all those late nights nursing them were worth it.

Bree had this week off and spent most of her time doing two things: being ill, and fixing up the laundry. Oh, and also preparing for our Christmas party on the Thursday. All were carried off successfully. The laundry is done, and looks great. The party was a great success. And we've both lost our voices from talking too much with sore throats.

For a few photos, start here.

Blunketto

Blunketto, the epic, though quarter-hour long, opera of a man, his mistress, and his faithful companion Labradori. Brilliant! Listen before next Thursday, when it will be replaced with a new piece, hopefully just as good.

Envy!

My cousin, Cassandra Catherine Coburn is currently completing a course at University College in the capital. She has been commisioned to create a chronicle of her capers which cannot help but make me covetous of her circumstances!

First Snow

First Snow
Originally uploaded by Noel Welsh.

A cold winter has been predicted. Today it arrived. From about midday we've had snow on and off. By the time I left University there was a good centimetre on the ground. Bree took this photo out the front window of our house.

The House

IMGP1755.JPG
Originally uploaded by Noel Welsh.

This set of photos shows the house as it was a few weeks ago, before the builders and all the flatpack furniture arrived. Note that the house is clean and tidy, which is certainly not the case at the moment! (Note: click on the photo to see the whole series.)

Bree and William being cute

Bree and William being cute
Originally uploaded by Noel Welsh.

Does Bree love her cat, or is she trying to strangle him in her sleep?