Oxford – Page 3 – a sibilant intake of breath

First photo in a book

After asking my permission, a group of authors used one of my photos in their book Adrenaline Junkies and Template Zombies: Understanding Patterns of Project Behavior. The photo in question is of a Soviet automobile in the Occupations Museum in Tallinn. I am not sure of the precise context in which it was used, but they have offered to send me a copy.

I will post a photo of the page including my photo when the book arrives. I am generally happy for people to use my photos with permission and proper attribution. The pleasantness of this experience stands in contrast with the unauthorized publication of one of my photos in The Oxford Student.

Increasingly clever machines

It seems my mountain climbing, robot-building friend Mark has a relatively new blog. He works with autonomous robots of the kind that competed in the recent DARPA Urban Challenge.

Here is one way in which such robots see the world: as a set of laser determined ranges.

Previous robot-related posts:

The coming cold

Presenting the mean monthly temperatures of Vancouver, Ottawa, and Oxford on the same graph generates an interesting image. Vancouver is basically Oxford plus a couple of degrees in the winter and about five degrees in the summer. Ottawa is much more variable. In the zones where the lines intersect (around April and October), the mean temperatures for all three places are fairly comparable. That may partly explain why I have been finding the weather so pleasant recently.

I wish I had some data that included standard deviations of temperature on a month-by-month basis. I really have no idea which of the three places would have the most intra-month variability, though my suspicion is that it would probably be Ottawa.

The data for Oxford is from the Radcliffe Meteorological Station. The data for Vancouver and Ottawa is taken from the Meteorological Service of Canada.

Something that caught my interest

I learned something new about my student loans today: while I knew there was a ‘grace period’ of six months between finishing school and starting repayment, I did not realize that you got charged interest over the course of it. On the first day of the seventh month, you need to either pay the interest for both your federal and provincial loans (about $500 on every $10,000 of loans) or have that interest added to the principal, increasing each of your subsequent monthly payments.

In any particular month between then and when your loans are fully paid, you cannot pay less than 1/120th of the total amount you owe. This is to ensure that full repayment takes place within ten years of the first payment. Both the federal government and the government of B.C. offer you the choice between a fixed interest rate (prime plus 5%, based on the rates at the time of your first payment) or a floating rate of prime plus 2.5%.

I guess I know what I will be doing with that ‘extra’ paycheque.

Quite staggeringly popular in this manor, squire

So I curtailed my Walpoling activites, sallied forth, and infiltrated your place of purveyance to negotiate the vending of some cheesy comestibles.

One thing I miss about England is the cheese. While there are equally good premium cheeses in Canada, the average quality of normal cheese is much better over there. The store brand will include Cheshire, Wensleydale, Cheddar, Double Gloucester, Red Leicester, and others and they will all be a lot more enjoyable than the standard can’t – tell – if – this – is – Cheddar – or – Mozzarella variant that seems to sell best by bulk here.

When I return to graduate (eventually), I will have to make a point of enjoying them.

One late end to the Oxford era

Having finally got round to uploading the last of my Oxford pictures to photo.net, I am struck by how long ago the events portrayed seem to have happened. They seem no more immediate to me than photos taken two years ago or more.

Photos from British Columbia – as well as the first Ottawa shots worthy of Photo.net – will emerge in due time. So too will some from Morocco.

PS. Anyone confused about my overall system for sorting photos online should have a peek at this page.

[Update: 12 August 2007] The Morocco photos have been added to Photo.net.

Britain inundated

For those who haven’t been keeping abreast of the flooding in the United Kingdom, it is apparently extremely severe. Brize Norton, the airbase near Oxford, recorded 127mm of rain on July 20th. Normally, soggy Oxfordshire gets that much in two months.

Thankfully, relatively few people have died, though the British firefighting services are apparently describing this as the largest peacetime rescue operation in their history. Hopefully, the waters will soon abate.

Telos

</oxford>

Abandon ship

One helpful fact to know is that if you lock your deadbolt and leave the key in the lock on the inside, it is probably impossible for anyone to come in and evict you. Technically, I was meant to move out this morning. In practice, I doubt anyone from the college is out enforcing rules on a Sunday. Alex and Kai are already gone, and I am trying to deal with the mass of food, random stuff, and dirty dishes that has been left behind.

Anyone in Oxford who wants some food, random stuff, kitchen supplies, office supplies, etc should come by 2 Church Walk ASAP. Anyone who takes a significant amount gets a free bottle of wine (while supplies last). This must be what headlong military retreats are like, when you abandon large amounts of equipment that you otherwise would not as a result of being propelled by larger circumstances.

PS. Happy Canada Day!

Refraction

$Refraction$

This has been an acutely unusual evening. It is hard to leave friends behind for an unknown period of time. Of course, it is best to do so when at a barbecue very well provided for with food and drink. Antonia deserves a commendation for putting so much effort into it.

My profound thanks go out to those who I met and befriended while in Oxford. That is especially true for Antonia, Claire, Alex, Kai, and Kelly. I am gladdened by the thought that we will probably see one another again, some time in the next few years.

PS. Price of shipping books and files to Ottawa: 0.77 iPhones. That does not include whatever Zoom Airlines will charge me for excess baggage, given that I have four bags instead of two and they are definitely over the weight limit.