Wow.
A little slow in posting for a bunch of reasons: first, Laurie was here for a week around Thanksgiving... always a good thing. :) We went to Cologne again and had real steak and soft pretzels... no, not together. Note for Philadelphians: yes, the street vendor pretzels there are based on the same recipe -- but the originals are fresh out of the oven and just wonderful. I had some two day old ones -- and those tasted exactly like Philly soft pretzels. :)
Then all of a sudden I had an absolute ton of work to do. A major graphics assignment to code, a research proposal to write, a 20-minute presentation to give, and one-page reviews of 8 other presentations, all due within a five-day span. Woof.
So the graphics thing I got done early, and the research proposal was easier for me than it apparently was for some others, once I found an appropriate topic. The presentation -- well, it's this afternoon; it won't be my best ever but it won't be bad.
And in the middle of this apparently I'm supposed to be picking out a Masters thesis topic. I guess I thought something as major as that would be something they'd set aside time and guidance for... silly me. I've met with one professor already and have another meeting with another in 15 minutes to talk about topics. A third, I've written to (a week ago) but heard no response. So I don't know what I'm doing yet.
One option is in database replication, which would go right along with what I've been doing for work for the last umpty-ump years -- which I'm not sure is something I want to do. The meeting today is for a parallel implementation of a theoretician's tool which I don't understand and don't care much about (the tool, not the implementation -- parallel algorithms are fun.) Option 3 is something to do with evolutionary computing, which is also fun, but I'm not sure how it would relate to the "parallel and distributed" meme. So we'll see.
But it's been nonstop work for a while. Last night I took a detour on the way home from school and had dinner at the Hard Rock Cafe; they have reasonable if pricey American food and, even better, they give you a decent size drink glass and refill it like an American restaurant. (In a Dutch restaurant, if you order a Coke, they bring out a can, pour it half into a glass (if they poured it all it would look silly because the entire can often doesn't fill up even the tiny glasses they have here!) and charge you two bucks.)
So I was sitting there looking out at canals and canal boats and listening to 80's American rock music and looking out at the 18th century Dutch architecture outside and drinking 7-Up and hearing people speak French at the next table and studying for a Masters degree.
Wow. Welcome to my Neverland life. :)
Then all of a sudden I had an absolute ton of work to do. A major graphics assignment to code, a research proposal to write, a 20-minute presentation to give, and one-page reviews of 8 other presentations, all due within a five-day span. Woof.
So the graphics thing I got done early, and the research proposal was easier for me than it apparently was for some others, once I found an appropriate topic. The presentation -- well, it's this afternoon; it won't be my best ever but it won't be bad.
And in the middle of this apparently I'm supposed to be picking out a Masters thesis topic. I guess I thought something as major as that would be something they'd set aside time and guidance for... silly me. I've met with one professor already and have another meeting with another in 15 minutes to talk about topics. A third, I've written to (a week ago) but heard no response. So I don't know what I'm doing yet.
One option is in database replication, which would go right along with what I've been doing for work for the last umpty-ump years -- which I'm not sure is something I want to do. The meeting today is for a parallel implementation of a theoretician's tool which I don't understand and don't care much about (the tool, not the implementation -- parallel algorithms are fun.) Option 3 is something to do with evolutionary computing, which is also fun, but I'm not sure how it would relate to the "parallel and distributed" meme. So we'll see.
But it's been nonstop work for a while. Last night I took a detour on the way home from school and had dinner at the Hard Rock Cafe; they have reasonable if pricey American food and, even better, they give you a decent size drink glass and refill it like an American restaurant. (In a Dutch restaurant, if you order a Coke, they bring out a can, pour it half into a glass (if they poured it all it would look silly because the entire can often doesn't fill up even the tiny glasses they have here!) and charge you two bucks.)
So I was sitting there looking out at canals and canal boats and listening to 80's American rock music and looking out at the 18th century Dutch architecture outside and drinking 7-Up and hearing people speak French at the next table and studying for a Masters degree.
Wow. Welcome to my Neverland life. :)