Published and Sold a Picture!

As my friends know, I do have quite a few pictures on Flickr. A few times I have been asked for permission to use them for non-commercial purposes, and I have always granted this permission.

At the beginning of September I got an inquiry through Flickr about a picture I had taken a few years ago during a visit at the Ellenroad Engine House:



This picture will now be used in the editorial local guide of the North Manchester Yellow Pages - and I have actually received a payment for this commercial use! This is the first time I sold a picture. Hope that there are many more to come.

So if you want to use one of my pictures for any commercial purposes, just let me know.

(I really need to tag my pictures properly with location, keywords, fitting title etc.... currently my collection is a bit difficult to browse).

Opening of ISMAR Conference

The ISMAR conference takes place at the Engineering Faculty of U.Cambridge. The morning keynote today was given by Paul McIlroy from Hawk-Eye. As the Technical Director, he presented the Augmented Reality and tracking systems which his company employs in sport events for showing the exact ball location, which is very useful in judging critical situations.

Afterwards was a session devoted to progress of display technology. After the lunch break there were sessions about user studies, layout, and applications (still ongoing). I had to go back to the hotel room to take care of some work to be done.

My first "PhotoSynth"

I just learned that Microsoft has now released their impressive Photosynth tool, which can link pictures automatically into some sort of panoramic view, without any user interaction.

So I quickly used pictures from my visit at Nicosia in March to create such a synth. You can hover with the mouse over the picture and click around, to zoom in or out:



I will search among my other pictures for suitable scenarios, and in the future I will specifically take pictures of interesting objects, so as to create these synths.

Opera in the Park

In Temple Newsam, in the south-east corner of Leeds, an open air event took place: "Opera in the Park", with the Opera North. Several ten-thousands of spectators grace the large lawn, throughout sunset from 20:00 - 22:30, and listen to excerpts from operas. The event ends with Borodin's orchestral piece "Polovtsian Dances". Gives me inspiration to re-work my own rendition of this music, which I had done back in 1994 (actually, I only had worked on the very first part of this wonderful piece).

Graduation

At Leeds Met, this week is Graduation Week. That is why I could not add holiday to my business travel, as every Leeds Met member of staff is supposed to be present. Our Innovation North ceremony is on Wednesday evening at 17:00 and on Thursday morning at 11:00. In addition, I have several meetings scheduled for these 3 days in this week - quite busy schedule!

Again I get the same robe as last year, for walking in the academic procession: some greyish thing, with a blue collar and a round greyish hat. It is very warm in the marquee tent, despite the air conditioners. Very festive atmosphere, as every year here. These ceremonies are really special and well arranged!

Live from Avenida Paral-lel

This is something new: I as sitting right now on the street sidewalk, under an umbrella, eating Calamares and a sandwich with Jamon Serrano - and I am typing this blog entry. Am connected to the accesspoint "BADAR"... no idea who that is.



This morning was the first day of the Marie Curie conference. I actually woke up at 7am, as planned, without an alarm clock. My internal clock appears to work quite well. Have breakfast, then take the subway two stations to the Place Espagna. There are 300 participants at the workshop, all Marie Curie Fellows. There were presentation about research, EU, academia in Europe, and how to link research to industry. Quite interesting. Then there was a poster session. 150 posters in a quite small room, plus a few outside in the foyer. Way too little space, it was very cramped. Tomorrow I will bring my own poster.



But right now I enjoy the lunch break, here on the Avenida Paral-lel (no idea why it is written like that...).

Visit at Computer Vision Centre, Universitat Autonoma Barcelona

I had planned to get up at 7am, so that I would have enough time for possibly getting lost on my way. But I had not set any alarm, simply relied on waking up through the daylight brightness in the room. But when I opened my eyes at 9am, it was still quite dark due to the thick curtains. I had a nice breakfast at the buffet in the hotel, then put on my suit and went out. Since the metro entrance is right near the hotel entrance, I did not have to walk much. With L3 to Place Catalunya. From there with a train towards north. S55 and S2 would be suitable. There are red dressed officials everywhere whom I could ask for quick directions to the trains, as the ticket machines were all in Spanish or Catalan. My zone-1 T-10 ticket would not be valid, so I had to buy a zone-2 roundtrip ticket. Then waiting for the train.

The train stations I have seen so far are all underground, linked to the metro system. This makes the commute easy, but the air there is very warm, and the walks along those tunnels are sometimes quite long.

The train leaves exactly on time. I txt Antonio that I would arrive soon. He is there at the station to pick me up and drive me to CVC, as the distance is not very short.

Last year, I had participated with CVC in a joint bid to the EU in the FP-7 program. So I had thought that it might be a nice opportunity to combine my travel to Barcelona with a visit to their institution. I had prepared a talk about my work and the Centre for Creative Technology, to give an overview over the many topics on which we could to collaborate.

When I entered Antonio's office, I first saw Prof. E.D.Dickmanns' latest book. He had been here for a visit a few years ago. Meet then also Angel, and Fernando.

I try to get the mobile phone working, with GPS and Wifi, but the GPS reception is poor. It is quite interesting that the stand-alone Garmin GPS is so much fasterin initialising, while the XDA sometimes takes quite a while until it gets a fix. This might have its cause in the GPS acquisition being somewhat crashed, as for a long time there are no satellites at all. On the other hand, once the phone has a GPS fix, the tracking of the position works remarkably well, even under deteriorating conditions.

My talk is scheduled from 12:30 to 13:30. I have 72 slides, am supposed to end in 40 minutes. It takes overall 50 minutes. Some slides have the wrong order... I should have reviewed the set again after finishing it at 3am the night before. But overall the talk goes well.

Afterwards, we go to lunch in the cafeteria. A large buffet, with excellent samplings of the Spanish/Catalan cuisine. I was told that my introduction at the talk sounded funny, when I said "good afternoon" (at 12:40), because it was still considered morning. Afternoon would be now, after lunch, at 3pm. Ok, next time I know.


Angel, myself, Antonio (left to right)

Antonio then shows me a presentation of their work. Very impressive, many technological advances in computer vision projects, a wide variety of approaches. We discuss a few things, very interesting. At 16:30 I head back, walk to the station through the campus. Quite a large campus, two train stations (one at each end) from different lines coming from the city, very green, hilly. Most buildings are quite hidden away under trees and in valleys.

Back in the city I head to the Exposition centre to register for tomorrow's conference: the Marie Curie Workshop. It is now quite unbearably hot in the subway and in the endless tunnel hallways, outside the air appears to be fresher.

No dinner tonight, as I am still full from the delicious lunch. I fall asleep for two hours before I update my blog here.

Departure from Leeds Bradford Airport (LBA)

Last week has been a very busy week. Deadlines, two bids submitted, several meetings, making a poster, ISMAR issues. And then the yesterday night again packing. Ensuring that all the gadgets are ok, fully charged, that all the cables are available. It is not the most efficient way in which I am dealing with this... more a brute-force approach. Several power adaptors for the different devices, redundant set of cables so that I do not get stuck should one one work (happened already once). I leave in time, drive first briefly to the campus. Need to make a printout in my office. Also take a few flyers of the Centre for Creative Technology - one never knows if they are needed.

The weather has been mild and warm, a bit humid, but some sun rays. Now, however, as I drive towards the airport, the mist turns into a grey fuzzy haze, and small rain droplets form on the windscreen. Does not look good - I hope that the flight is not delayed. I had not taken a taxi this time, but had reserved a parking space near the airport. 47 Pounds for 8 days, appears reasonable to me. When I enter the Long-Term parking, every possible space appears to be occupied. I had been there before, and it never was a problem; I always had found a space right near the entrance. But now all spaces there are filled. What is happening? Are all these people travelling on an EU grant so that they can afford the parking? I continue to search. Did not know that the parking area was so vast. Through parking areas 2, 3, further to 4,5. No space. No traffic either - these must be all people who came here on the weekend. Who would fly now on a Tuesday into holidays? Finally, at parking area 7 there are spots available. I park, get out, and the slight rain drizzle continues. This time I have 5 pieces of luggage: suitcase, carry-on bag, laptop bag, camera bag, and poster roll. I consolidate the camera bag into the carry-on, but there are still 4 bags to pull all the way to the terminal, through that long parking area. The rain does not help... I grab a trolley and put everything on it. I could wait at one of those bus stations for the courtesy bus, but I decide that time is already tight, and I would rather walk quickly to the check-in. Halfway through there is in fact a courtesy bus coming from the terminal, bringing people to their cars. I will do that as well upon my return. I could get in now, at least be dry, but I do not know how long that bus will circle around. So I keep walking quickly toward the terminal, passing signs which state "no pedestrian walk across the parking lot. Take the courtesy bus".

When I enter the Jet2 check-in area in the terminal, it looks like a zoo. The Leeds Bradford Airport (LBA) could almost close if it had not these Jet2.com flights. I remembered to queue towards the right for Jet2, the left side would lead to another budget airline. But as I wait there for a few minutes, nothing is moving. I am getting nervous now, the time is running. I leave the trolley and walk towards the front. An attendant is blocking access to the actual check-in queue. I ask her where I should go for my flight. She points me to a counter where very few people are. Great. She also mentions that the flight may be already closed... not so great. I grab my luggage and stand behind the few people of counter 43. Then it is my turn. The flight is not yet closed. But my suitcase is too heavy. Only 17kg are allowed, mine is 18 kg. So I have to walk across to pay 6 Pounds. As I come back, the clerk sees my big poster cardboard tube. This would also need to be checked in, as I cannot take so many pieces into the plane. She makes a phone call, and then it is decided that I can take the tube into the plane. Good.

Now towards the X-ray control. They have refurbished it since the last time I was here. Two isles now, one for fast track. When getting my car parking, I had noticed on the web the option to pay 5 pounds to get a fast track. Now this really shows the hypocracy of all that security hype: it is just plain money extraction from the customers. This does nothing to help security, any terrorist can pay it if they want to. Where is here the difference between this "official sanctioned fasttrack procedure" and the good old method to slip the officer a fiver so that he lets you go through faster (not that I am implying that this has ever happened...)? There is no difference. But I had refused to slip that fiver when seeing this option on the web. So I am stuck in the slow queue.

Fortunately there is no queue. But the officer who checks boarding pass and passport, tells me I have too many pieces of carry-on luggage. Why the hell is that? Whad does it impede security if I have one or three bags to carry? But I do not complain, smile friendly instead. Pack the laptop bag into the carry-on bag which is now almost bursting. The poster will have to go separate still. And I am allowed to carry the laptop separately. I squeeze it under my arm, hope it does not all out. The controls are very thorough today. Is there any security alert? They seem to be more thorough than 3 weeks ago at Manchester Airport. After I have passed the control, I start again to establish my seveal carry-on items: the wheeled case, the laptop bag, and the poster roll will just have to be separate. The camera bag stays nicely in the wheeled case.

Boarding at 15:00. I had paid the 12.50 Pound fee for an extra legrooom seat, but since this is at an emergency exit, the seat back does not recline. The legroom is great though. They just took out the seat in front of it, so that I have actually the lenght of two seats. I stretch my legs and take a nap.

The flight takes only 2 hours.

3rd Day in Pervolia

This morning session is very long: it ends at 3pm. All the students now had given their presentations, with pointing out their own work, the focus, the methodology, and the current state. The discussion takes a while as each student expects some useful feedback.

Today I plan not to use the car for anything else than just going to town to grab a bite. I sit most of the time on the bungalow terrasse, writing some software. Unfortunately the lack of internet prevents me from progressing in my web-based projects.

Transfer to Pervolia

The night before, just after midnight, I had reserved a car for the last three days of this stay, using the internet from the room. I just had done a very quick search for "car rental cyprus", and had come across the Carhire3000 site. I reserved a car, 3 days, 67 Euro all inclusive. With a free upgrade to an airconditioned vehicle. The confirmation email stated that I would need to print the voucher and present it at the counter... well, is not so easy done without a printer. I replied, explaining that I could not do that. It appeared that their office was in Manchester; I wrote done the phone number, just in case I would have to call them.

The morning seminar went well. The idea of using Survey Monkey for setting up a review of submitted abstract worked reasonably well. We discussed some of the abstracts, then closed the session.

It was again hot, and also getting more humid. As I was very thirsty, I walked for the last time to the Convenience Store to buy a few drinks, for the road and for the evening. Not sure how the options would be in Pervolia.

The bus arrived shortly before 16:00 near our dormitory at the University of Cyprus Campus. I had packed my stuff, but somehow was not able to fit everything into suitcase, computer bag, and photo bag; so in addition to these I had 3 plastic bags, with some drinks and towels. When we entered the bus, the driver was afraid that we would not be able to store everything in the bus - there was no luggage compartment. But we just piled everything onto the back seat row, and off we drove.

At about 17:00 we arrive in the "Journalist Village" in Pervolia. I wanted internet access - something that the bungalows would not provide. So I stay in the bus, together with a few others, to drive on to the Faros Hotel nearby where a few rooms had been reserved.

Beach near the Journalist Village

However, for me there was no room reserved there - instead there was only a bungalow flat in the "Journalist Village". And since that had been reserved, there was no way of bailing out of it. I almost considered just swallowing the double booking, until I got details about the internet access in the hotel: there was a phone dialup only, and the cost would be quite significant. So I decided to go back to the bungalow afterall. There was a PC in the hotel, 2 Euro for 15 minutes. There are also a few internet cafes in the town centre, so I gave up the idea of having internet in the room and settled for a few days without the web.



Christian and myself decide to take a taxi to Pervolia Centre, a few km west, to find out about internet access and to get some cash. The taxi trip costs 17 Euro. There is a cash machine in Kiti. The taxi driver asks a few kids around where the next internet cafe is. They point to a bar one block down the road. There are two PCs, coin operated, one coin machine is broken, so only one can use the PC at a time. 11 minutes cost 50 cents, appears to be reasonable. I am able to read a few emails and reply to the most important ones.



Slighty problemating with updating this blog is that blogger always adapts itself to the native language. So this means that I have to guess where to enter my blog entry (the previous entry was done through this).

At 20:00 there is a joint dinner at the restaurant "Enalia". Rudi Kaufmann from University of Nicosia joins us. We have a nice chat about students, PhD pursuits, and worldwide relocation.

3rd day: Excursion to Limassol

On the 3rd day of the "Intensive Program" (IP), the plans had changed: the excursion to Limassol which had been scheduled for Wednesday, will take place today on Tuesday.

I leave the hostel in the morning at 7am to walk and finally to buy a towel, as there are no towels in the dorm (I had to improvise a bit...). But the supermarket (2km away by walk on a dusty road) is still closed, and the convenience store does not have any towels...

We meet at 9am for departure at U.of Cyprus. In Limassol there is a lecture at the University of Technology of Cyprus. The speaker there, Christina, had lived in Manchester for many years, and here in Cyprus she misses the Manchester weather, with its rain showers and cool temperatures. I never heard anything like that...

After that talk, we have a few hours to walk around in Limassol or to go to the beach. I go with Richard, Martin, and Christian towards the beach, walk a few steps into the really warm water. Then a short snack at a pub bar, Moussaka salad, then I walk with Christian back towards the town centre, just to see what is there. We walk to the old castle which has Byzanthinian roots. Also visit the "sea sponge exhibition", a great tourist trap! The bust leaves back at 4:15. Monika and Julius had expressed an interest in seeing an archaeological site on the way back, therefore we left earlier than 5pm. But somehow the info was not conveyed to the bus driver... as I woke up from having dozed away, I see that we long have passed that location.

The Limassol Castle

This evening I am going to do a bit of work, for my geo-software. No excursion planned.

Intensive PhD Program in Cyprus - 1. Day

Unicersity of Cyprus, Noew Campus in Nicosia


The reason why I travelled to Cyprus was to give a workshop within the Intensive PhD Program.

My role in this program was to give a workshop to the PhD students for writing their own paper, to be submitted to a conference, journal, workshop, or other. The seminar started in the morning of Sunday, 22. June, at the campus of the University of Cyprus. Erwin Bratengeyer (Danube University Krems) and Savas Katsikides (University of Cyprus) had organised this seminar and gave an introductory overview on this seminar. Then I started my workshop.

Naturally, when it comes to paper publication in the Computer Science domain, the automatic paper generation tool SciGen comes to mind. While this is a great tool for "testing" conferences, it also has some educational merit as showing the general structure of a paper. And it creates a fun effect for all participants who can get one of those fabulous nonsense papers.

The workshop gave to participants the first assignment: to find suitable outlets for their work.

For lunch we Savvas ordered 8 pizzas, which we ate on the roof of the university building.

Driving to Hostel

Ultimately we had to leave the plane and wait in the nightly airport lounge. After about 1 hour waiting, the announcement was made (in Greek only) that there would be no plane today to Larnaca. Instead, they would drive us by bus. Bummer. And I had been looking forward to a restful sleep...

Immediately I text Nikos, the cab driver, who is waiting at Larnaca Airport to pick me up and is expecting the plane to arrive at 11pm. Since he is the only one who knows where I am supposed to go tonight, it is imperative that I meet him. Aternatively, I could have taken a taxi from Paphos airport directly to my destination - that is whay my colleagues did. Originally, I thought that the drive would be too long, but now with going first from Paphos to Larnaca, then to Nicosia, the direct taxi from Paphos to Nicosia looks more and more like a viable option.



Some confusion at Paphos airport about where to take the bus... But finally we sit all in the bus and drive along the coast towards east.

I use the opportunity to sleep a bit. Had already dosed off right after takeoff from MAN.

At arrival at Larnaca Airport around 3am, I txt Nikos. Great that I had at least his mobile number (thanks, Savas!). He has now been waiting for 4 hours... It is about 4am when I arrive in Nicosia.

The campus of University of Nicosia is east of the centre. A night guard is there to show me the room in the student hostel. I slowly realise that this accommodation is a bit different from what I am used: there is no TV in the rooms, no internet is available yet. There will be no breakfast, people will have to buy their own stuff. I was not really prepared for this... But the worst discovery comes when I am in the bathroom: there are no towels. Somehow I must have missed this bit of information in the preparations... Well, I will have to improvise in the morning... Now trying to get at least a few more hours of sleep.

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Cyprus Airways

In contrast to all those El-Cheapo airlines, Cyprus Airways is a "proper" airline, where the price includes everything: luggage, a decent meal, aq movie, and as much beer as one likes. A recent booking at Jet2.com (just to show an example) resulted in a low initial fare quote, but then a series of surcharges were added on: a sudden jump in the base price occured for no explicable reason, each piece of luggage costs, a seat reservation costs, extra legroom costs... Quite annoying. And then in the plane each drink needs to be paid, food is available for purchase only.



The fare with Cyprus Airways from MAN to Larnaca was just under £300, similar to what the final price with a low cost airline would have been.

When will airline catering providers finally invent some food items that are "flight-compatible"? For example, a coffee milk container that does not appear to burst when being opened. Or a type of light food which is compatible with the sitting for a few hours.

They say that one should not drink alcohol on flights because it dehydrates. I never had made this experience: one simply has to drink a lot of it to compensate the dehydration. :)

The flight left one hour late from MAN. As a am writing this, I am siting in the plane, just having finished my meal, and preparing for a work session. I need to prepare for tomorrow's seminar...

Since there is no way of live upload now, this post will be uploaded later in the hotel.

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Under the arcades of Via XX Septembre. 

Via XX Septembre. 

Via XX Septembre.  

View through old gate. 

Front of historic ship with gallion figure - town in the background. 

Ruins of medieval building