My-Life

I don’t understand why people are buying and offering Apple iPods to their family members. In fact, offering an iPod is like telling you: “Here is a costly electronic device I’m giving you, it’s cool thanks to huge marketing efforts but hey, in 5 - 10 years (or immediately if you lose your player), you won’t be able to read any music files you bought anymore: it has DRM inside. Moreover, when this one will be old, you’ll be forced to buy an Apple player to keep listening to music you bought”. In short: “I am offering you a beautiful trap”. ...

In science, you have to justify nearly all your assertions and this is done by citing another scientific paper, called a “reference”. With practise and advices of some people, I arrived to a satisfactory references management system I’ll explain below. My “problem” is that in the academic world where I work nearly everyone use EndNote or Reference Manager, two proprietary reference management software for MS-Windows. And I want to use the simple yet powerful BibTeX system. ...

Holi is an annual and popular Indian spring festival. Although the playful throwing of the coloured powders won’t be allowed in the college, ISAL is inviting you to its annual Holi celebration party. As usual, it will take place in Leuven and everyone is welcome. More details here.

When I began my Ph.D., I don’t know if Flickr existed but, at least, I didn’t know it existed. So I didn’t know about this PhD vs Girlfriend comparison nor these work/motivation/courbature vs time charts. I didn’t get a canned Ph.D. where all the techniques are already used since a long time in the lab but then it would have been too easy! Finally, after my defense, if I have the opportunity to go to the USA, I’ll get this smart car (or the plate, at least). ...

I was surprised being tagged by Chris. One day, it could be interesting to study how and why people are making (web) links to each other (see the blogroll on the left, for example), what are the motivations, etc. Here, I posted a comment about recyclable bags on his blog. Apparently, Jeff Pulver started this “blog-tag” game “in which bloggers are sharing five things about themselves that relatively few people know, and then tagging five other bloggers to be it”. I like the way he calls it a “Virtual Cocktail Party”. Is it useful? I don’t think so :-D ...

I am still alive. I am very busy. And things will not calm down soon: I have to finish my thesis. Nearly all my other projects are paused. Although writing entries are not time consuming, I am not sure I’ll be able to update my blog with (imho) interesting news, projects and software.

In the context of the Bozar Festival India, my father-in-law (Philippe Falisse) will give a dhrupad concert with the Gundecha Brothers on Wednesday 17th of January 2007 at 20:00. The concert will take place at the Planetarium of the Royal Observatory of Belgium ( access plan). :-)

While everyone (interested in this topic) is looking at internet applications, using and abusing of buzzwords like " Web 2.0", " mashup" or " Ajax", I think the next wave of cool software applications will be related to personal, local storage and organisation of documents. Of course, you have > 2Gb of storage in most free e-mail services. Of course, you have broadband access at home, at work and nearly everywhere you go. Of course, you can watch movies on the web. Of course, you can share photos on the web. Of course, you can download songs and books on the web. Etc. ...

It’s a bit late to wish you a merry Christmas (if you celebrate this event). But it’s still time to wish you a happy new year 2007. :-) And now, a little video-clip/remake from Boymongoose (some background about India needed). youtube owK5tHjL0aE You like Indian self-satire? Here is Welcome to the Laddu shop (after 50 Cent “Candy shop”) and Curry n Spice girl (after Gwen Stefani’s “Hollaback Girl”) (a lot of background about India needed). OK now, back to real work …

This evening, we attended a wonderful concert of Shahid Parvez at Bozar. He plays the sitar and was accompanied by tabla and tanpura. As usual, it’s better to hear a live concert rather than a CD. I was also delighted by the games played between the tabla player and Shahid Parvez :-D No photos since I didn’t dare to disturb the performance.