Entries Tagged 'general' ↓

So BarCampChristchurch went pretty well. Quite a few interesting talks/discussions and I think my talk on the Singularity held some interest for people:

It’s also fortuitous that the BarCamp was on the Friday before the Singularity Summit 2007 because it meant I could at least pretend I was attending! On a side note, the Summit got on the front page of the San Francisco Chronicle.

Ben Kepes and Marek Kuziel live-blogged the event. There were even some rumours of video being recorded. I’ll make an update if that eventuates (and I don’t look like a daft fool).

I enjoyed going out for beer and Indian dinner afterwards. Met a bunch of interesting web types, which was cool because I’ve been somewhat isolated from the web-tech world while doing my PhD in an Ecology department. I also heard some more about The Valley In Christchurch meals, which I’d like to attend… once I’ve exumed myself from the monetary grave I am in right now!

A whole group of friends from Wellington and a couple from Australia came to Christchurch recently. For snowboarding, and for our alternate event to Burning Man…. Melting Man. Helix DJed at Nitrate, with some of the WDC there to support him on the Saturday. We travelled to Flock Hill station on Sunday, and on Monday I mountain biked like a crazy man (on the Broken Hill track). Monday evening was building a snowman, dancing on a hill, and having good times (more about it from Kathy and Tatjna).

Next week I’ll be speaking at the unconference Bar Camp Christchurch, on not one, but two things. First my PhD work and second about the Singularity. Seth, the founder of Interclue, invited me along, since he’s interested in tech/singularity stuff and thought it’d be a nice opportunity to spread the idea to those that hadn’t heard it.

Of course these’ll be smart geeks I’m talking to, so I’ll have to do my best to convey the ideas well because the singularity is often just relegated to crack pottery.

Think I’ll watch some TED talks of other presenters explaining similar concepts and peruse the SIAI website for useful info.

I promise I won’t do this often, but this poem from this book sums up the first half of this year for me.

My life has fallen down
around me before
–lots of times,
for lots of reasons–
usually other people.

Continue reading →

You can ask Panda_pitt or Mundens, I had an idea about making a meme where people video themselves catching and then throwing a ball (or something) in a youtube video. It has no purpose, but it’d be fun to watch. And you could make a web-app mashup with google maps to show where the ball was travelling.

Google has decided to make one for GMail, showing a GMail envelope going around the world. Of course my idea was to automate the whole thing, and Google is going to just select the best ones and put them together manually, probably for an ad or something.

There is something exciting about clean slate. The potential it holds.

As a kid I used to ridiculously excited about buying stationary for school each year. All that blank paper, waiting for thoughts and ideas to placed upon them. Even now when I go to book stores, my favourite area is not the fiction shelves, the technical book shelves, or the magazine stand, it’s the stationary area. Particularly the notebooks, so many styles and all begging me to express my thoughts, ideas or projects upon them. It’s the same with buying a new computer, it’s a new piece of equipment with a spanking fresh OS install, I can plan how to organise my folder structure, trim down the installed applications to just what I’m currently using and my mind exudes a clarity that immediately fills with potential projects and Cool Things to do.

And so it is with my life right now. Despite the best of intentions, the whole “lets just be friends” isn’t feasible for my ex and me, at least not with some significant amount of time apart. So here I am almost at a place I can in some ways call a clean slate. Not quite yet though, I still have to finish this PhD I foolishly committed to some 3 years ago. Purely by being in the same environment for so long has kept me from moving on due to so many memories over that time. I do immensely look forward being ALL DONE, then the world is my oyster, or at least my olive*.

There is one thing I might have trouble with though. The sheer limitless number of possibilities available when I buy a new book or computer often has me procrastinate for a long time while I try and weigh up my choices, trying to come up with the best plan. It’s difficult to overcome this block since before I start perfection is still a potential state for anything. I want things to be just right, and sometimes it prevents me from doing anything. I know it’s psychological, and that I should really follow Nike’s slogan: Just do it.

*since I’m potentially allergic to shell fish.

Those Japanese have the craziest game-shows! Although I do admit this is also pretty cool too…

via jwz.

I feel like I need one these woolen suits:

From Joshua Dalsimer

I wouldn’t normally post a job position on my personal blog, but my supervisor is having trouble finding someone with Matlab skillz.

Basically someone in the university has got some research funding to do some grid computer, and my supervisor wants to get a whole lot of Self Organising Maps and Multilayer Perceptrons (both a type of Artificial Neural Network, ANN) running on a computing grid. All the code for the ANNs etc is there, from my understanding it just needs to be adapted to run in parallel across the computing grid.

Shoot me an email if you are in chch looking for some temporary work ( joel.pitt@gmail.com ).

Well, it’s been ages since I wrote on here about what I’m up to generally with life – so I thought I’d give everyone an update.

PhD

No, I’m afraid you can’t call me Dr. Pitt yet. I’m still writing my thesis and getting a few bits of analysis out of the way. I’m aiming for the end of July, but then I’ve been aiming to be finished in a couple of months for a while now. Grr. I’m seriously sick of the subject – don’t get me wrong, it’s somewhat interesting, but I feel like I’ve departed from the science I’m most interested in. Stuff like AI, genomics, and system simulation.

I got a writing scholarship to write a scientific paper about the spread of Argentine ant in New Zealand, so that’ll help with finances. My scholarship ran out back in February, and since then I’ve been on the student allowance. It’s tough going from approx $25k/year to an allowance, but I’m managing somewhat.

After PhD

I’m not too sure what I’ll do afterwards. I’ll be spending a couple of months developing a GUI or web-based version of my simulation tool and being paid technician rates, so that’ll tide me over while I decide. Currently my plan is to move to Wellington after I’ve finished up the GUI. From there I have a few options:

• Consulting for AgResearch – I presented my work at a weed modelling conference in Hanmer in April. AgResearch had a similar project to my work which has been on hold for a few years while seeking new funding. They recently got some, and were looking for people to help with it, expressing interest in recruiting me.
• Senior Biosecurity officer – There is a position for DoC (I think) who want someone to take up this role. I probably couldn’t go directly into the position, but they indicated they are willing to groom the appropriate person towards this position.
• Some miscellaneous programming job – if all else fails, I’m a pretty damn good programmer (in comparison to most Computer Science graduates).
• Get a part time job, work on my business ideas – I could just get some menial part time job, maybe a IT/customer support role, and work on my website ideas in my remaining time.

I don’t plan to stay in Wellington for too long, maybe a year or so. Then once I have a little cash I’ll bugger off overseas and see all those people who have already made there way to Australia and the UK. Of course I might decide to be a complete freak and run away to China, Japan or Dubai where there is mad cash for researchers doing some totally whack stuff (Totally whack is my new phrase).

DJing

I’ve so far had two events in clubs (more here and here) and one outdoor event at KiwiBurn. I have another couple events lined up in June, so I’m looking forward to those. Generally my sets have been pretty well received, and I get a real buzz from the whole experience. It’s definitely something I’d like to keep up with and take as far as I can.

Oh and I was invited back to Curve in Wellington to play this Friday. Fun

Life

I’m keeping mostly healthy. Emotionally, I’m a bit a fragile after parting ways with my ex. Still, I’ve been meeting lots of new people and generally forming new friendships. Friendships which I realised I was lacking in when I became single.

Oh, and this is cool

This keyboard I’ve mentioned before. It’s awesome and is now available for pre-order! I’d so be buying it if I had the cash.