new desks and stuff in office

Today's good news is that our new desks arrived such that we really could start working in our nicely refurbished rooms.

bad football game

Unfortunately, my favorite German football team just lost their match in the German cup (DFB Pokal) against Bayern Munich, the so-called "Drecks-Bayern". This is actually a very bad end of October!

hiking in lake district

We spent a weekend in the Lake district for hill-climbing. We had a nice walk on Saturday with mist, wind, and rain. Shoes (and everything else) were soaking through...

In the evening we had a Halloween party, which was an interesting experience. On Sunday, the sun came out, we had a perfect day and a very nice walk. I don't know, how many mountains we climbed, but it was great!

more pictures

bart simpson density

Just found the Barts Simpson density (see plot). The corresponding equation is

f(x)=0.5 N(x|0;1) + 0.1\sum_{j=0}^4 N(x|j/2-1;0.1)

N(x|a;b) is the normal (Gaussian) density with mean a and variance b. So, the Bart Simpson density is just a plain old Gaussian mixture with 6 components. Nevertheless a cool design.

greensleeves

Not bad if you should be working...

ph.d.-comics talk

I just come back from a talk by Jorge Cham. This is the guy who writes the PhD comics. Great talk. And probably the one in which I laughed most. Particularly shocking was the comparison between an average grad student salary of $14,055 per year (in California) and a salary of a McDonald's worker of $14,040 per year. I knew that we don't get much, but this little ... "You know, you can survive — somehow ..."

ubuntu upgrade

After upgrading my linux to ubuntu 7.10 I had some dependency problems (X died during installation...). However, I could fix the problems and ubuntu is running again.

official ph.d. student ;-)

I just got a letter from Karlsruhe saying that they accepted me as Ph.D. student.

nan got a ph.d. position

Yesterday, Nan (my housemate) applied for a Ph.D. position here in Cambridge. Her professor agreed. Congratulations!

moved to new office

Finally, we can move from our temporary office into our new office. Internet already works, shelves, office mates, computers, etc. will come soon.

hiking around edale

Today we (hill walking club) went to Edale (peak district) for hiking. Really cool.


We walked through moor and small creeks. The weather was as I imagined typical British weather: foggy, drizzle, gray sky :)

1st year's report submitted

The first year is over and finally I submitted my first year's report. Finally... Weekend is waiting!

sunrise in autumn

When I woke up everything was gray like early morning (wasn't too early, though). However, when I left our house the sun was rising. I crossed the meadows with the cows along the river Cam covered with mist. I had to take some pictures. It was so beautiful.

first rain

Unbelievable, but true! Today I felt the first raindrops in Cambridge falling on my head. Ok, I was away last week, but nevertheless the weather is not too bad here. Especially not too hot :)