Squatters

An empty flat was occupied by (strange) squatters in our building. Just recently they got evicted and kicked out .. and now they (don’t know who) transformed the flat in what looks like some high-security area ..

4 years!

Last friday four years ago I came to the UK! Happy Anniversary 🙂

Burgers, Kindles & Texas

Yes, this is one glorious (self-made) burger of which I just ate two of.

What’s new? This week we got a paper accepted at the conference ACSAC in Austin (somehow all conferences seem in Texas..) in December. This is very good news and gives me some more material to write up in my thesis (which I should start soon..).

I also ordered an amazon Kindle (ebook reader). Once it arrived I will post an in-depth review here!

Over Under

More and more this develops into a monthly blog! Because of that and because I have a new, nice android phone I might try and change this blog into a picture blog where I upload pictures from my mobile on the go. Me and you will see if I’m going to do that or not.

The picture above is the new Overground line which opened in the last weeks in east London. Funny enough, the overground at this station is below the underground …

With the opening of the Overground another mystery was solved: what the large opening, pictured below, is for. It’s a tunnel opened for that new line .. and we can hear trains passing in front of our house every other minute! But it’s actually not too bad.

I have a lot of new pictures, however they are on the old phone which is archived already! Oh Well.

Jobwise, this wednesday I have a talk at kings college at a workshop on information flow and security.

Some people complained that there’s too many food pictures on this blog, for that reason I end this post with a nice plate of pasta I made recently:

Heron & Bratwurst Sausage

The Heron Tower at Liverpool street is gaining height quickly! There’s a couple of other large, new buildings under construction in central London.

Walkers is producing crisps in all kinds of strange flavours (including yorkshire pudding). Here’s the German Bratwurst Sausage (?) sausage:

McD & stuff

An update after a while of neglecting this blog .. too many things to do. I’m trying to finish off my phd by writing another paper in this year, and started a couple of other things (including the blog oneminusp.com).

I celebrated my (give or take) 10 years McDonalds abstinency with a big meal in our 24 hours mcdonalds around the corner! Below is a picture of the meal I had. Ok, I didn’t eat everything by myself..

The big mac was the most enjoyable burger, however the meal all together left me quite unsatisfied. I have not missed much it seems. Check back in 2020 for another anniversary and reevaluation of McDonalds.

Initially, when I started this blog I was quite surprised by a lot of things in England. Nowadays, I got used to most things.. however I noticed these 3-4 strange sauces in a rack. Why would you want to put this in your food?

Mint sauce, redcurrant jelly, hot horseradish sauce .. wtf 🙂

A random office picture

Haggis, Secret Cinema

We held a Burns Night last Monday, a celebration for the Scottish national poet Robert Burns. Traditionally, you eat something called Haggis and drink Scotch. Haggis is a strange combination of the internal organs of a Sheep mixed with oats. It smells like the Elephant house in the zoo, but tasted quite ok.

Here’s a Haggis Pizza I created.

Finally, there’s a cool video up of the last Secret Cinema I attended. The topic was 1920s and they showed the classic Bugsy Malone. The whole thing ended with a massive custard fight between all the hundreds of viewers. If you are in London, I definitely suggest you to attend one of the secret cinemas.

November pics & stuff

I noticed all conferences look pretty much identical. Here’s a pic from Eindhoven:

The Eurostar lounge in London

Gourmet .. burritos (?!) restaurant in Spitalfields

My parents were here for a few days. Here’s a pic from our proper British afternoon tea:

 

Next week on Thursday I’m going to Japan. The plan is to stay two days in Shizuoka, then taking one of the famous Shinkansen bullet trains to Tokyo, where I’ll stay for the rest of the time. I plan to make lots of pictures 🙂 .. (which kind of reminds me of this xkcd comic.. well I can’t find the comic! Quite difficult to look for a specific xkcd. Anyway I’ll link to it when I find it.)

Eindhoven, Shibuya etc.

I’m in Eindhoven for the FAST workshop for the next two days. Tomorrow I’ll give a talk on our latest research, which will hopefully go well!

I took the Eurostar because I was a bit fed up with flying. Well not really the flying part, but the security checks and other harassments you have to endure when you take an airplane these days.
The Eurostar lounge at St Pancras is great, very spacious, nice and clean. Unfortunately, the eurostar people mistake their trains for airplanes!  The wagons are very densely seated so that you have not more space than on an airplane. Legroom is for weenies. But it’s probably much better at non-peak time.

The picture above is the reengineered and recently reopened Oxford Circus pedestrian crossing. The British learned some urban design lessons from Japan and took over the crossing from Tokyo’s Shibuya station. At their famous four-way crossing, 5000 people can cross the road with one green light without any jams.

I crossed Oxford Circus yesterday and it was a bit awkward because people, including me, just walked all over, but I’m sure everybody will get properly trained on how to cross the road in the japanese-way within a few weeks 🙂

Speaking of Japan, I got lucky and can tag along with my coworker to travel to Japan in December! We will be going to an information theory security conference in Shizuoka (not too far from Tokyo). Definitely more on that in some later posts.

3 years

Wow. Today, it’s exactly 3 years since I left Switzerland..

The arrival – just arrived on campus

One year – finished master, starting phd

Two years – hm still doing phd

Now – ack, still doing phd!

How will September 2010 look like? That’s quite undefined. I try to finish the thesis around then, but what happens afterwards is completely undefined. I probably won’t (and can’t, and don’t want to) stay at QM however I wouldn’t want to leave London already. In any way, I don’t have too much time to decide as (any kind of) job search takes a lot of time here. I keep you posted on my decisions 🙂

I think I haven’t mentioned this here, but my latest paper has been accepted for publication and I’ll present it at the Formal Methods Week in Eindhoven in November! Quite cool.