Bon Nadal i Feliç any nou!
Zorionak eta urte berri on!
Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year!
Natale hilare et annum faustum!
Joyeux Noël et Bonne Année!
Frohe Weihnachten und ein gutes neues Jahr!
Kala Khristougēnna kai Ēutukhismēno to Neo Ētos!
Nedeleg laouen ha bloavezh mat!
God jul och gott nytt år!
Vesel božič in srečno novo leto!
Sretan bozic i nova godina!
Buon Natale e felice anno nuovo!
Hyvää joulua ja onnellista uutta vuotta!
Häid Jõule ja Head Uut Aastat!
Bonan Kristnaskon kaj feliĉan novan jaron!
Veselé vánoce a šťastný nový rok!
Kellemes karácsonyt és boldog új évet!
God jul og godt nyttår!
Fijne Feestdagen en een Gelukkig nieuwjaar!
Cracin Fericit si un An Nou Fericit !
Wesołych Świąt i szczęśliwego Nowego Roku!
S Roždestvom Khristovym i S nastupayuščim Novym Godom!
Wednesday, December 24, 2008
Wednesday, December 17, 2008
Sunday, December 14, 2008
As requested...
some news on the occupation. They're moving in now! :)
I couldn't believe my eyes. Tents everywhere. And suddenly university looks like a camp of scouts.
Somehow I like this graffiti:
I couldn't believe my eyes. Tents everywhere. And suddenly university looks like a camp of scouts.
Somehow I like this graffiti:
Friday, December 12, 2008
BBC Top Gear internet streaming.
Click on the title to watch BBC Top Gear via internet streaming. It's one of my favourite shows. Enjoy! :)
Thursday, December 11, 2008
Wednesday, December 10, 2008
Where's the man?
Eventually I've been cheated on. Yes, he's taking one of those aeroplanes.. :(
The challenge is now a one man show. But hey, here's the good news! I just booked my ride home. It's a 420 bhp monster called Irizar PB. A bus. :) Pictures of the travel are coming soon!
The challenge is now a one man show. But hey, here's the good news! I just booked my ride home. It's a 420 bhp monster called Irizar PB. A bus. :) Pictures of the travel are coming soon!
Monday, December 8, 2008
Avis, Hertz, Europcar, Sixt,...
.. Budget, Atesa, National, pepecar, Niza Cars, autoeurope, Opodo, carbookers are all the same big shit! And there are lots more. I'm really sick and tired of their "offers" and horribly designed websites with this incredibly stupid search engines that could have been pogrammed by six-year-olds on a Nintendo and their mini tiny fuzzy terms and conditions gently hidden back behind.
So, this is the thing if you want to rent a car in Spain, France, Italy, Switzerland, Germany or Austria in the middle of winter: You are going to die. Yes, if you don't have what is generally known as a big cash account you and your family will die on your way to your winter holiday. All the big names of rental car shit out there would actually let you drive away in a brand new car without winter tires as long as you don't specifically ask for them and that means of course paying for that! A lot! In France - for example - this would be the rent of a small car. And surely you would have to order a big car because they won't fit winter tires to a small one. Don't try to take a cheap alternative. You won't be able to get any extras as long as you pay big money for that without ever knowing how much it is because they won't tell you before you are actually standing right in front of the car.
Oh, lovely information by the way - if you already wondered. Snow in Spain? Snow in France? What's the matter here? Well, did you know that tires are actually the most important part of a car. Indeed, they are right in the middle of the street and your car and mostly the one and only responsibility to keep you on the road. Summer tires are made of special rubber-mixtures to work with high temperatures and they actually loose most of the grip if temperatures fall below 7 degrees. Interesting, isn't it?!
Now here is my advice. Try to get one of those offers. I mean, the really cheap ones. Get the highest insurance option without any own risk. Drive along a beautiful road. Enjoy your day, roll the car down a cliff, say the hand-brake was broke and walk away smoothly.
So, this is the thing if you want to rent a car in Spain, France, Italy, Switzerland, Germany or Austria in the middle of winter: You are going to die. Yes, if you don't have what is generally known as a big cash account you and your family will die on your way to your winter holiday. All the big names of rental car shit out there would actually let you drive away in a brand new car without winter tires as long as you don't specifically ask for them and that means of course paying for that! A lot! In France - for example - this would be the rent of a small car. And surely you would have to order a big car because they won't fit winter tires to a small one. Don't try to take a cheap alternative. You won't be able to get any extras as long as you pay big money for that without ever knowing how much it is because they won't tell you before you are actually standing right in front of the car.
Oh, lovely information by the way - if you already wondered. Snow in Spain? Snow in France? What's the matter here? Well, did you know that tires are actually the most important part of a car. Indeed, they are right in the middle of the street and your car and mostly the one and only responsibility to keep you on the road. Summer tires are made of special rubber-mixtures to work with high temperatures and they actually loose most of the grip if temperatures fall below 7 degrees. Interesting, isn't it?!
Now here is my advice. Try to get one of those offers. I mean, the really cheap ones. Get the highest insurance option without any own risk. Drive along a beautiful road. Enjoy your day, roll the car down a cliff, say the hand-brake was broke and walk away smoothly.
Friday, December 5, 2008
Facultat ocupada!
All this started a few weeks ago when the middle-sized Italian city of Bologna finally found its way to Barcelona. During the process of unifying the European education system it has been announced that the Autònoma is about to be privatized. Murmur went through the silent widths of Bellaterra. Since then university life got a bit stirred up around here. Graffitis appeared almost everywhere expressing that "Bolonya" is not very welcome and that a university can not be a money-making machinery.
Bit by bit the situation got worse and finally some students decided to take care of the circumstances by themselves. By now several faculties - including the Faculty of Communication Sciences where I'm supposed to attend two lectures - have been occupied since 10 days and lectures have been suspended for an uncertain period of time.
The university staff and all of the other people working here seem to take it very easy. There is no rush. No aggression. It is more of an adult and honest demonstration against what is about to be done and how this would effect lives. I think some of the lecturers are even participating the occupation. There are complimentary workshops all day long making clear what should be the most important goal of good education. It should be for free and open to everyone..
Empty halls:
Empty lecture rooms:
Empty.. aaahhm.. chairs:
Wednesday, December 3, 2008
Where's the countdown?
Alright! Past days I had to realize that a challenge doesn't exactly start when you want it to start. A challenge is a wild and furious thing. You can't simply push it into borders. You are not experiencing or doing a challenge. It dares you. It haunts you.
Gone insane? Sort of! :)
The thing is though, there isn't even one rental car in Spain with snow tires. This is a big problem! As long as we are awaiting snow while driving through the Alps - well, who would not - we are concerned. We have to find a car that is capable of winter conditions or we have to switch to a train or even a regular bus service. Urgs..
The countdown is gone. The challenge already began!
Gone insane? Sort of! :)
The thing is though, there isn't even one rental car in Spain with snow tires. This is a big problem! As long as we are awaiting snow while driving through the Alps - well, who would not - we are concerned. We have to find a car that is capable of winter conditions or we have to switch to a train or even a regular bus service. Urgs..
The countdown is gone. The challenge already began!
Saturday, November 29, 2008
French + Spanish = Catalan?!?
It was back in September or so when the Internet connection of our flat failed. So I had a little chat with my good old flatmate Buddy (name has been slightly altered). He told me that it surely is a problem of the internet provider itself and there's nothing wrong with something inside the flat. He mentioned too that ever since their provider has been taken over by a French company it failed a lot. Once formally known as 'the guy with the Internet' I spread my wings and checked it by myself. It didn't take long to find out what it really was. I followed the wire to the outside phone connection - which has been laid through several rooms, open doors and even open windows - to find out that one of those windows broke it. I fixed that in a couple of minutes and everything worked just fine again. After that Buddy felt a little embarrased and actually apologized for blaming the French.. weird stuff!
A month and a half ago it started to become cold in Barcelona. To call these days winter goes a little too far but since then there has always been a slight breeze out there to remind you about wearing the right clothes. It actually would have been the right time to start heating the apartment when Buddy found out that it was broken. It took him more than 5 weeks to get someone to look at it and that certain someone somehow failed to repair it because of a mysteriously broken water pump. So, we all had to wait another one and a half weeks in a frozen apartment for a new one to arrive. Buddy's girlfriend, she is from Poland, forced him to go after it because all of those Spanish people are lazy bastards. Buddy agreed but it was his pleasure to mention that he is of course Catalan and that has nothing to do with Spain. Well, today another plumber came carrying a very new water pump but he had to recognize that nothing ever happened to the old pump. Nothing was broken at all. But neither the previous plumber nor Buddy did actually turn on the heaters to check if they are heating.. fuck that shit!
A month and a half ago it started to become cold in Barcelona. To call these days winter goes a little too far but since then there has always been a slight breeze out there to remind you about wearing the right clothes. It actually would have been the right time to start heating the apartment when Buddy found out that it was broken. It took him more than 5 weeks to get someone to look at it and that certain someone somehow failed to repair it because of a mysteriously broken water pump. So, we all had to wait another one and a half weeks in a frozen apartment for a new one to arrive. Buddy's girlfriend, she is from Poland, forced him to go after it because all of those Spanish people are lazy bastards. Buddy agreed but it was his pleasure to mention that he is of course Catalan and that has nothing to do with Spain. Well, today another plumber came carrying a very new water pump but he had to recognize that nothing ever happened to the old pump. Nothing was broken at all. But neither the previous plumber nor Buddy did actually turn on the heaters to check if they are heating.. fuck that shit!
Tuesday, November 25, 2008
Camp Nou.
Past weekend my dad came to Barcelona for a short visit and this is what we did. We attended the 257. unofficial very unknown competition of miniature photography at its best. Magnify the following image and you will know what I mean. :)
Of course we went to Camp Nou to watch FC Barcelona vs. Getafe CF. Camp Nou is Barcelona's famous stadium. It has around 100.000 sitting places and is dedicated to good old football only and therefore Europe's biggest stadium for this purpose. The atmoshpere is sheer amazing. It is like a monstrous version of a theatre. People of all ages sitting side by side watching how their team is doing and supporting it with all they have.
As you can see from the following picture Getafe CF was well organized and at the end it was no more than 1:1. Anyway, it's been a great evening and an unforgettable experience.
There were hardly any security issues and we could even stay a little while after the game for a personal tour through the stadium:
Of course we went to Camp Nou to watch FC Barcelona vs. Getafe CF. Camp Nou is Barcelona's famous stadium. It has around 100.000 sitting places and is dedicated to good old football only and therefore Europe's biggest stadium for this purpose. The atmoshpere is sheer amazing. It is like a monstrous version of a theatre. People of all ages sitting side by side watching how their team is doing and supporting it with all they have.
As you can see from the following picture Getafe CF was well organized and at the end it was no more than 1:1. Anyway, it's been a great evening and an unforgettable experience.
There were hardly any security issues and we could even stay a little while after the game for a personal tour through the stadium:
Friday, November 21, 2008
The challenge!
3 times air line from Amsterdam to Zurich.
2 brave Austrian men.
1 tiny Spanish rental car.
It was back in spring this year when a friend of mine and me drove 240km by the beautiful blue Danube from Traun in Upper Austria to Vienna by bike in less than 36 hours. That sounds not too bad you may think at first. But reconsider the fact of two quarter-century old more pencil pusher than athlete kinda guys fighting against stupidly heavy rain showers, amazingly friendly old women offering free vine and lots and lots of candy bars to keep themselves alive. For sure it was a lovely trip. :-)
So, the next ass-flattening challenge is about to be conquered. On the 21st of December we are going to drive all the way from Barcelona to Traun by car. This may be around 1600 to 1800km, depending on which highways we are going to take. There is no limitation of time here, except for Christmas Eve maybe, but as far as I know my colleague and myself we are going to get that thing done as fast as possible. :-)
The countdown starts now..
2 brave Austrian men.
1 tiny Spanish rental car.
It was back in spring this year when a friend of mine and me drove 240km by the beautiful blue Danube from Traun in Upper Austria to Vienna by bike in less than 36 hours. That sounds not too bad you may think at first. But reconsider the fact of two quarter-century old more pencil pusher than athlete kinda guys fighting against stupidly heavy rain showers, amazingly friendly old women offering free vine and lots and lots of candy bars to keep themselves alive. For sure it was a lovely trip. :-)
So, the next ass-flattening challenge is about to be conquered. On the 21st of December we are going to drive all the way from Barcelona to Traun by car. This may be around 1600 to 1800km, depending on which highways we are going to take. There is no limitation of time here, except for Christmas Eve maybe, but as far as I know my colleague and myself we are going to get that thing done as fast as possible. :-)
The countdown starts now..
Thursday, November 20, 2008
This is what I do.
I'm doing this research project at the Computer Vision Center in Barcelona which is called 'Motion Analysis In Terms Of WVCE'. What is Motion Analysis? What does WVCE mean? Well, I'm currently trying to find that out. :-)
Well, WVCE stands for Wireless Video Capsule Endoscopy and takes its part of medical imaging technologies within computer science. Imagine the following situation: Something hurts inside your stomach and you don't know what it is. You go to the Doc and she says, she has to run some tests on you. Finally she tells you that if you really want to know what it is and where it comes from you have to let them do a procedure on you that is called intestinal endoscopy or gastroscopy. Long story short, they stick a camera mounted on a tube up your ass and taker a closer look from inside. Not good! Therefore some eggheads from the lab have discovered a new method. They let you swallow a capsule with a camera inside. This capsule is not much bigger than a regular pain killer (the very strong ones :-) and follows your digestion like everything else. After that, someone has to elaborate the video. For a trained expert this takes up to 8 hours. This is where the lovely words motion and analysis come into account. A computer should do all of this work instead. So, my work is to find out a sequence of different procedures to make the computer able to "see" and to look through all the videos and identify the motion of the intestine. Weird thing!
The images from inside the intestine are lovely. Unfortunately I can't show them to you because I had to sign a contract to state that I'm going to use all this material very very confidently. I'll keep you informed!
Well, WVCE stands for Wireless Video Capsule Endoscopy and takes its part of medical imaging technologies within computer science. Imagine the following situation: Something hurts inside your stomach and you don't know what it is. You go to the Doc and she says, she has to run some tests on you. Finally she tells you that if you really want to know what it is and where it comes from you have to let them do a procedure on you that is called intestinal endoscopy or gastroscopy. Long story short, they stick a camera mounted on a tube up your ass and taker a closer look from inside. Not good! Therefore some eggheads from the lab have discovered a new method. They let you swallow a capsule with a camera inside. This capsule is not much bigger than a regular pain killer (the very strong ones :-) and follows your digestion like everything else. After that, someone has to elaborate the video. For a trained expert this takes up to 8 hours. This is where the lovely words motion and analysis come into account. A computer should do all of this work instead. So, my work is to find out a sequence of different procedures to make the computer able to "see" and to look through all the videos and identify the motion of the intestine. Weird thing!
The images from inside the intestine are lovely. Unfortunately I can't show them to you because I had to sign a contract to state that I'm going to use all this material very very confidently. I'll keep you informed!
Sunday, November 9, 2008
Garraf.
Now look at that! I travelled to Garraf today, a little village settled between the sea and a beautiful national park, just 30 minutes away from Barcelona. I was excited from to moment on I got out of the train:
Fishing seemed to be one half of the work the people of Garraf enjoy.
I got on top of this hill to overview the village and the sea..
.. and an amazing scenery came across my eyes:
Apparently satisfied:
Spoiling tourists seemed to be the other half. To be honest, where else can you see those signs? Parking only for tourists:
Well, I'm still some kind of shy and I didn't want to act like a complete geek taking a picture of a stupid car while its possessor takes his frappucino right next to it on a terrace. But what can you say.. an Aston is still an Aston.. I didn't want to disturb its silence either..
Fishing seemed to be one half of the work the people of Garraf enjoy.
I got on top of this hill to overview the village and the sea..
.. and an amazing scenery came across my eyes:
Apparently satisfied:
Spoiling tourists seemed to be the other half. To be honest, where else can you see those signs? Parking only for tourists:
Well, I'm still some kind of shy and I didn't want to act like a complete geek taking a picture of a stupid car while its possessor takes his frappucino right next to it on a terrace. But what can you say.. an Aston is still an Aston.. I didn't want to disturb its silence either..
Friday, November 7, 2008
Oh boy!
I can't really believe what happened today. My supervisor proposed me to contract me for 1 year in order to work for him and to write my master thesis here. I suddenly have the opportunity to stay here in Barcelona for another full 12 months, join the medical imaging group of the computer vision center and get a grant of around 12.000 Euro for my master thesis. Am I still dreaming? And all that because they are so convinced of my work here. Success!! :-)
The thing is though, I'm not 100% satisified with medical imaging and therefore I am going to reject this offer. Don't rush by calling me a damn stupid jerk. It is indeed a huge satisfaction for me to see what I can reach when I work hard. And by now I know much better what I want and what I want to go for. And I will. You can believe me when I tell you that it was very, very hard to decide. But I stand by my decision and to be honest, I am as happy as I can be by now.
The thing is though, I'm not 100% satisified with medical imaging and therefore I am going to reject this offer. Don't rush by calling me a damn stupid jerk. It is indeed a huge satisfaction for me to see what I can reach when I work hard. And by now I know much better what I want and what I want to go for. And I will. You can believe me when I tell you that it was very, very hard to decide. But I stand by my decision and to be honest, I am as happy as I can be by now.
Sunday, October 19, 2008
Spain vs. Austria.
As you probably wondered, what the f**k is this guy doing all day long?!? Well, here's the answer:
As an Erasmus student, studying here for 5 month (officially), I need to achieve 15 ECTS credits in order to gain money from the association of Erasmus. For this reason I'm taking two courses - one in Spanish (which makes me very proud because I understand a lot) one in Catalan (unfortunately) - and of course I got myself my very own place in a research project as half research assistant other half PhD/Erasmus student. There is no explanation on my status. In fact, I'm the first Erasmus student at my faculty who is joining a research project. Therefore, some things got a little confusing and all the administrative stuff is a little weird since none really knows what to do. :-)
But, this is really amazing! For the first time of my life I'm treated like capacity. There is no longer this feeling of being just a stupid student that has to study way more things to conquer a state-of-the-art research assignment. People here are very kind and friendly and you get a warm feeling out of every conversation pretty soon. Unlike in Austria where you feel like a jackass as long as you don't have a damn long title in front of your name. In Spain this is really a bit different, as far as I have experienced by now. I really like that and I feel very comfortable with it. It's a lot of serious work to do but it makes me really happy.
That's the place where I'm working.
I need to do some laundry now but ""I'll be back"" soon with a more detailed explanation on what this project is about. It's pretty interesting so come back again soon! :-)
As an Erasmus student, studying here for 5 month (officially), I need to achieve 15 ECTS credits in order to gain money from the association of Erasmus. For this reason I'm taking two courses - one in Spanish (which makes me very proud because I understand a lot) one in Catalan (unfortunately) - and of course I got myself my very own place in a research project as half research assistant other half PhD/Erasmus student. There is no explanation on my status. In fact, I'm the first Erasmus student at my faculty who is joining a research project. Therefore, some things got a little confusing and all the administrative stuff is a little weird since none really knows what to do. :-)
But, this is really amazing! For the first time of my life I'm treated like capacity. There is no longer this feeling of being just a stupid student that has to study way more things to conquer a state-of-the-art research assignment. People here are very kind and friendly and you get a warm feeling out of every conversation pretty soon. Unlike in Austria where you feel like a jackass as long as you don't have a damn long title in front of your name. In Spain this is really a bit different, as far as I have experienced by now. I really like that and I feel very comfortable with it. It's a lot of serious work to do but it makes me really happy.
That's the place where I'm working.
I need to do some laundry now but ""I'll be back"" soon with a more detailed explanation on what this project is about. It's pretty interesting so come back again soon! :-)
Tuesday, October 14, 2008
Escuela de rock!
If you are interested in rock and metal you should definitely give this guy a call!
Oh no, the deadline ran out. Sorry..
Oh no, the deadline ran out. Sorry..
Sunday, September 28, 2008
Blanco-negro.
Some of my black-and-white shots of Barça:
My favourite one: :-p
Two more from the market:
My favourite one: :-p
Two more from the market:
Thursday, September 25, 2008
Tibidabo.
Some impressions of Mount Tibidabo with its beautiful church and its maniac theme park at the top. Look, you can go there by tram! I really love this sign, that's Pac-Man style:
Would be more impressive at night time, I guess: :-)
The some-kind-of-rail-thing in front is actually a rollercoaster where you will be cruised around treetops in a carriage while lying down on your front. Look at the insane height and this incredible view over Barcelona. I didn't try it!
If you are afraid of heights you can't even use the elevators. Hmm, if you are afraid of heights, why would you go to a theme park on top of a mountain? Why would you go to a theme park anyway??
And back to Barcelona:
Would be more impressive at night time, I guess: :-)
The some-kind-of-rail-thing in front is actually a rollercoaster where you will be cruised around treetops in a carriage while lying down on your front. Look at the insane height and this incredible view over Barcelona. I didn't try it!
If you are afraid of heights you can't even use the elevators. Hmm, if you are afraid of heights, why would you go to a theme park on top of a mountain? Why would you go to a theme park anyway??
And back to Barcelona:
Wednesday, September 24, 2008
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