Mikael Fernstrom

>So, now I’m in Heathrow. Long and boring wait for flight to Shannon.
There’s definitely something outright ugly with Heathrow, and the only thought that lifts my spirit is the quote from Douglas Adams 1988 book “The long Dark Teatime of the Soul”:

“It can hardly be a coincidence that no language on Earth has ever produced the phrase, ‘as pretty as an airport.’ Airports are ugly. Some are very ugly. Some attain a degree of ugliness that can only be the result of a special effort.”

So taking Douglas’ advice from the Hitchhiker’s Guide, let’s get a few pints and some peanuts before I eventually board the Vogon, ah, I mean Aer Lingus flight. Let’s hope the captain doesn’t try to read any of his poetry.

>Today, it’s ConGas Management Committee meeting. Not as fun as scientific (and artistic) presentations we had yesterday. Despite this, many interesting links and ideas flying around, e.g. Sound to Sense, Sense to Sound, Sound and Music Computing.
This evening,. demo time and then concert.

>I’m having a good time, meeting up with old friends and colleagues, also new, at ConGas meeting in Leeds, UK. We need some new awareness among funding agencies about this area of work… Hopefully, we’ll get some coherence in all good ideas tomorrow.

>Why haven’t anubody, or, any country, suggested the following retirement scheme:
Age 50: 3 day weekend
Age 55: 4 day weekend
Age 60: 5 day weekend
Age 65: 6 day weekend
Age 70: 7 day weekend
I’d say that a lot of people would be a lot happpier if we tried this and I bet it would increase both productivity and employment.

>This evening, I was trying to remember who played in what band, what we called the bands, etc., for the last 30 years or so. I couldn’t. I did a Google for Mixie and many other great musicians. No luck. I phoned our old lead-guitar man, Pelle. He didn’t remember either. So, if anybody is still alive out there who ever played in a band with me, please feel free to send me a message, note, or if you’re dead, try sendning me a sign or something.

>The other day when we were driving into the woods in county Halland, we passed the Grimmeton Radio Station. I was delighted to see the place again and that it’s now (since 2004) a World Heritage site. The station was built in 1920 by GE and further developed by a Swedish engineer, Mr. Alexandersson. It’s still in working condition.

>I have discovered that a country can be characterized by its baggage trollies in airports.
Ireland: Trolley normally can roll freely, brakes only apply when handle is pulled.
Sweden: Trolley normally can’t roll, brakes have to be released by pulling handle while pushing the trolley.
So, in essence, I think this reflects the general mentality of a country and its people.

>I really enjoy writing this – Microsoft is crap. This evening I was doing some quick calculations, fiddling around with Microsoft Excel (as too many people do). When I tried 2^64 – 1, the answer was surprising! It didn’t do the subtraction….!!!! To check when this happens I did up a simple Excel sheet (can be downloaded from here), and lo and behold for any number above 2^50 Microsoft Excel craps out.
So what are the implications of this?
We’ll there are banks, governments, hospitals, students, anybody using Microsoft Excel. When they use really big and important numbers, Microsoft Excel steals the results. How can you trust anything coming from Microsoft? You can’t. So don’t use it.

>In an attempt to speed up our recovery from our current cold & flu misery, we decided to try my classical Garlic Soup. The only problem was that we didn’t have any mushrooms, but we had Shitake. Looking up these japanese fungi in our herbal books, we noted its supposedly beneficial properties on immune system, etc. So, we made our soup with plenty of garlic and Shitake instead of mushrooms. Oh shit. The soup tasted better than ever, and it felt like a real and almost instant boost to all healthy aspects of life. But, after a few hours tummy-rumbles revealed that the soup had probably knocked out all other natural bugs in our digestive systems, hence Shitake is now, in our hosuehold, renamed Shit-Ake.

>It’s been a very intense week with Todd Winkler and Cindy Cummings at IDC at UL + Andy and Cian from Tyndall in Cork.
It’s an interesting concept we’re trying to develop, but both hardware and firmware in the Motes have a long way to go before they can be really used in performance.
My cold and flu has continued. I went to my GP on Thursday who told me that I really shouldn’t work and he presecribed some antibiotics. Today, I’ve been feeling somewhat better but still quite unwell.
Finally, the Portal Skin arrived in the IDC, from the National Sculpture factory in Cork.