Eventually, I defended my PhD dissertation on July 27th, 2009.
However, I felt I didn't do a good job during the presentation because I almost read the slides during the first half. Sometimes, I was not able to understand the question and just had to say something that I was not sure a good or correct answer.
Actually, there was a very short break in the middle because the projector belonging to the ECE department failed. Fortunately, I had a backup projector from the HPCL, which I called Esam to bring on Friday night. Therefore the presentation was quickly resumed.
After I finished the presentation, I didn't find my wife and the food. Then I called her and found she just started driving away from home. Later she told me that she was not able to cook the food quick enough because there is only one wok at home.
The food arrived a little bit late and all the faculties just tasted a bit and then headed to the restaurant for a more formal lunch. Because it is in the middle of the summer, there are not many people in the department. So more than half food was left and I brought some back with the big cake.
I arrived at home around 5:15PM and then brought Lisa to the Glen Echo park for a pony riding. However, it was figured out that the pony riding was closed on Monday. We decided to come back on Wednesday.
Finally, it is over.
Tuesday, July 28, 2009
The post should be posted on July 23rd regarding the second flight back to DC
The flight from Fairbanks to Minneappolis/Saint Paul arrived at MSP international airport on time at 5:40AM. Then I walked to Gate F2 for flight NW 1914, which is supposed to depart at 7:00AM.
Then a series of interesting things happened. First, the airline staff said there is some battery problem and it was supposed to depart at 7:30AM. After a while, the same lady announced that the battery problem could not solved and the maintence has to manually change the battery. The flight was further delayed to 8:41AM.
Well, you have nothing to do. And my luggage was with the airplane. I guess I made a mistake to check in the luggage because now I have to take the same plane. Otherwise, I may lose it.
Anyway, I waited until 8:00Am and then walked to the gate to check the status. The scene was not promising. When it was 8:20AM, the lady announced again that the battery problem was still not solved and the maintence guy were bringing in a new battery, which will further delay the flight to 10:00AM.
After a short while, the lady opened her mouth again and said the airline is going to change the aircraft for the flight and the gate is changed to C1. The good part is that the departure time is moved ahead to 9:30AM.
So I rushed to Gate C1 again. However, I didn't see the airplane at 9:15AM.
The whole day (Thursday) was completely scewed up because of a small booking mistake. I should be at DC now.
Then a series of interesting things happened. First, the airline staff said there is some battery problem and it was supposed to depart at 7:30AM. After a while, the same lady announced that the battery problem could not solved and the maintence has to manually change the battery. The flight was further delayed to 8:41AM.
Well, you have nothing to do. And my luggage was with the airplane. I guess I made a mistake to check in the luggage because now I have to take the same plane. Otherwise, I may lose it.
Anyway, I waited until 8:00Am and then walked to the gate to check the status. The scene was not promising. When it was 8:20AM, the lady announced again that the battery problem was still not solved and the maintence guy were bringing in a new battery, which will further delay the flight to 10:00AM.
After a short while, the lady opened her mouth again and said the airline is going to change the aircraft for the flight and the gate is changed to C1. The good part is that the departure time is moved ahead to 9:30AM.
So I rushed to Gate C1 again. However, I didn't see the airplane at 9:15AM.
The whole day (Thursday) was completely scewed up because of a small booking mistake. I should be at DC now.
Wednesday, July 22, 2009
A mistake discovered at the last minute
Today is July 22nd (Wednesday). I am supposed to take the flight back to DC to defend my dissertation. I booked the flight two weeks ago. In my mind, I thought my destination airport is Reagon National Airport (DCA). Even I have checked the itinerary several times, I still believed that I was heading to DCA.
Then, I arrived at the Fairbanks airport by riding a bike. I checked in and got the boarding pass. The lady with Northwest airline was very nice and changed my seat to an asile seat. Then I walked into the security check point. Then I looked into the boarding pass and was shocked to find that the destination airport is Dulles.
I quickly brought out the itinerary copy I print out and checked again. Unfortunately, it is the same. The airport agent didn't make the mistake. It was me who booked the wrong flight in the first place.
I walked back to the check-in desk and wanted to find the possibility to change the flight to DCA. The same lady met me again. She felt sorry for me and told me she was not able to change the flight at the desk. I had to call the 800 number to change the flight. However, it may cost me a big amount of money. Anyway, it was not a big deal. There is a bus between Dulles airport and Roslyn. However, the lady was realy nice and offered me to check in my bag for free. Maybe she wanted to compensate a bit for my mistake and it costed her nothing anyway.
Of course, the return flight is from Dulles airport as well and I have to figure out how to go there now.
Then, I arrived at the Fairbanks airport by riding a bike. I checked in and got the boarding pass. The lady with Northwest airline was very nice and changed my seat to an asile seat. Then I walked into the security check point. Then I looked into the boarding pass and was shocked to find that the destination airport is Dulles.
I quickly brought out the itinerary copy I print out and checked again. Unfortunately, it is the same. The airport agent didn't make the mistake. It was me who booked the wrong flight in the first place.
I walked back to the check-in desk and wanted to find the possibility to change the flight to DCA. The same lady met me again. She felt sorry for me and told me she was not able to change the flight at the desk. I had to call the 800 number to change the flight. However, it may cost me a big amount of money. Anyway, it was not a big deal. There is a bus between Dulles airport and Roslyn. However, the lady was realy nice and offered me to check in my bag for free. Maybe she wanted to compensate a bit for my mistake and it costed her nothing anyway.
Of course, the return flight is from Dulles airport as well and I have to figure out how to go there now.
Wednesday, January 21, 2009
2009/01/21: After a long break of inauguration of Obama
After a 4-day break due to Obama's inauguration, finally the life is back to normal track, I guess.
Last week, I got the acceptance notification of the paper submitted to RAW 2009. The conference will be held at Italy, Roma and Dr. Tarek will attend it in the May. In the meantime, I am preparing a new paper targeting FCCM 2009, which has a due date of Jan 23rd.
Sometimes, I feel the submitting a paper to a conference is like gambling in a casino. You never know what the result will be. However, it all depends on whether you can be persistent or not. As long as you insist on it, you eventually will get through.
Last week, I got the acceptance notification of the paper submitted to RAW 2009. The conference will be held at Italy, Roma and Dr. Tarek will attend it in the May. In the meantime, I am preparing a new paper targeting FCCM 2009, which has a due date of Jan 23rd.
Sometimes, I feel the submitting a paper to a conference is like gambling in a casino. You never know what the result will be. However, it all depends on whether you can be persistent or not. As long as you insist on it, you eventually will get through.
Saturday, July 19, 2008
July 2008 Trip to Las Vegas
Due to the ERSA 2008 conference, I paid a short visit to Las Vegas from July 14 to 17.
I was supposed to fly on Sunday (13th) night from National Airport (DCA), however, the flight was cancelled due to the weather. At that moment, I have spent one hour waiting at the airport.
However, it was good for me actually since the new leather shoes were hurting my feet.
After I got back to the campus, I made a phone call to my wife and let her pick me up. Nevertheless, there was a miscommunication about the exact location. So, I waited at the the Vernon shuttle stop on H street and she expected to meet me in front of Tompkins Hall on 23rd street. Anyway, I finally found the car because she was blowing the horn.
The next day, the flight successfully departed from DCA with one hour delay. After a 4 and half hour flight, I arrived at Las Vegas. The first thing I had to do was to find my luggage, which I checked in Sunday night and arrived at Las Vegas with the first flight on Monday morning. It took me another 45 minutes to find it.
Then the bad thing happened. The taxi driver started playing scam on me. Instead of using the shorted route, he used the unnecessary I-15 and made a big circle. The price on the meter was 22, which I was pretty suspicious since one local told me it would cost around 12 dollars. I paid full without tip because I was overcharged already.
After checking into the room, I prepared for the presentation for a while before go to sleep. The presentation on Tuesday went quite well.
On Wednesday I decided to walk through the city. The Las Vegas Strip is not quite long and there are around 20 mega resorts and casinos standing along the Las Vegas Blvd South. I had no interest to the casinos and they look pretty much same to me. On the map, there is a downtown area and I decided to pay a visit as well. Therefore, I decided to keep walking after I passed the Sahara casino. Then I entered the original city before the development of the Stip. All of a sudden, you could not find any people on the street and feel like walking in a ghost city. Occasionally, you may encounter some homeless. Finally, I reached the downtown and saw a lot of tourists again. However, they all crowded in the same block. I took the bus, the deduce, as the most tourists did and back to the strip.
The next day, I decided to walk back to the airport since it is not very far. After the lunch at a Chinese buffet near the hotel, Monte Carlo, I started walking with my bag and luggage. Again, there is no people after one block away from the strip. Since it is hot and dry at Las Vegas, there is almost no tree and grass over there. It took me more than one hour to reach the airport.
At last, I get one the plane at mid night and head back home. I don't like the city at all.
I was supposed to fly on Sunday (13th) night from National Airport (DCA), however, the flight was cancelled due to the weather. At that moment, I have spent one hour waiting at the airport.
However, it was good for me actually since the new leather shoes were hurting my feet.
After I got back to the campus, I made a phone call to my wife and let her pick me up. Nevertheless, there was a miscommunication about the exact location. So, I waited at the the Vernon shuttle stop on H street and she expected to meet me in front of Tompkins Hall on 23rd street. Anyway, I finally found the car because she was blowing the horn.
The next day, the flight successfully departed from DCA with one hour delay. After a 4 and half hour flight, I arrived at Las Vegas. The first thing I had to do was to find my luggage, which I checked in Sunday night and arrived at Las Vegas with the first flight on Monday morning. It took me another 45 minutes to find it.
Then the bad thing happened. The taxi driver started playing scam on me. Instead of using the shorted route, he used the unnecessary I-15 and made a big circle. The price on the meter was 22, which I was pretty suspicious since one local told me it would cost around 12 dollars. I paid full without tip because I was overcharged already.
After checking into the room, I prepared for the presentation for a while before go to sleep. The presentation on Tuesday went quite well.
On Wednesday I decided to walk through the city. The Las Vegas Strip is not quite long and there are around 20 mega resorts and casinos standing along the Las Vegas Blvd South. I had no interest to the casinos and they look pretty much same to me. On the map, there is a downtown area and I decided to pay a visit as well. Therefore, I decided to keep walking after I passed the Sahara casino. Then I entered the original city before the development of the Stip. All of a sudden, you could not find any people on the street and feel like walking in a ghost city. Occasionally, you may encounter some homeless. Finally, I reached the downtown and saw a lot of tourists again. However, they all crowded in the same block. I took the bus, the deduce, as the most tourists did and back to the strip.
The next day, I decided to walk back to the airport since it is not very far. After the lunch at a Chinese buffet near the hotel, Monte Carlo, I started walking with my bag and luggage. Again, there is no people after one block away from the strip. Since it is hot and dry at Las Vegas, there is almost no tree and grass over there. It took me more than one hour to reach the airport.
At last, I get one the plane at mid night and head back home. I don't like the city at all.
Thursday, April 17, 2008
The existence of alien intelligent life form.
Two thousand years ago, people thought the Earth is the center of this universe and human was the only intelligent life form in this world. Later, people discovered the vastness of the universe and found the Earth is only one of the countless planets. Then, logically it becomes interesting to find whether there are some other intelligent life form in other planet.
Personally, I believe there are some other intelligent life forms existing at remote planets in the universe, just like us. However, I don't think we are able to find them and contact them, and vice versa. Human, as one species living on the Earth, faces the same fate as other species. Eventually, human species will start extinguish one day and the culture developed at that time may not reach the level to perform inter-planet journey in an efficient way, i.e., we are not able to go to other planet as described in the movies.
The other intelligent species at other planets face the same situation.
We are not alone, however, we are lonely from the sense that we cannot contact other intelligent life form in other distant planets.
Personally, I believe there are some other intelligent life forms existing at remote planets in the universe, just like us. However, I don't think we are able to find them and contact them, and vice versa. Human, as one species living on the Earth, faces the same fate as other species. Eventually, human species will start extinguish one day and the culture developed at that time may not reach the level to perform inter-planet journey in an efficient way, i.e., we are not able to go to other planet as described in the movies.
The other intelligent species at other planets face the same situation.
We are not alone, however, we are lonely from the sense that we cannot contact other intelligent life form in other distant planets.
How to get accurate and balanced information in today's world?
Everyday, we get the information about the events happening in this world through different channels, such as news paper, radio, TV, Internet. It is impossible to witness these events in person; therefore, it is necessary for us to know what are happening through the media. However, media are produced by people based on the information they collect. There are several factors that may affect the accurancy of the information what they give us.
Firstly, the information they collect may not accurate or complete at the very beginning. In today's media market, different companies are competing against each other in order to get the eyeballs from the audiences. Hence, all the media are forced to provide the information to the public as quick as possible. Once something happens, the journalists working for different companies rush to the scene and start releasing information as soon as possible based on the information they can obtain at that moment. Therefore, the stories they tell may change as the time goes. For example, during the reporting of the Virginia Tech Massacre last year, the media was not able to provide the correct information about the exact number of casualties and kept telling different versions of the story.
Secondly, the information they give us is interpretated by the people working for the media. In the interpretation process, they inevitably add their personal opinions. Sometime, they even change the story by covering the truth. The extreme case is how CNN made news based on one picture, which was cut into half intentionally, for the event happened in XiZhang (Tibet) following 3.14. The right part of the original picture shows the rioters were throwing stones to the military trucks. What CNN did is to cut off the right part and only showed the left side with the trucks and then started making stories on the top of it.
Thirdly, the people who work for media even make the news based on nothing. Before America invaded Iraq, media kept telling the public that Iraq owned the MDW and chemical weapon by quoting the voice from the government instead of investigating the truth. Because their continuous effort for broadcasting the fake story, the public started to accept it as a truth until later the report from the government itself claimed that there was no any this kind of weapon at all in Iraq.
Because it is impossible for us to witness all the events in person, it is necessary to get information from today's media. However, it is very important to get the correct information from the stories provided by these media. In order to get accurate and balanced information about any event as much as possible, the public can do the following.
1) Do not assume the information given by media is always correct and complete, particularly for big event. It is better to wait for enough time, such that we can get enough information before making the conclusion or judgement.
2) It is good to obtain the information about the same event from different channels. You may first hear some news from the radio or TV. Then you can check the Internet to see whether they are telling the same story, or there is something conflicting in different versions. It is always a good strategy to look for information from different sources and verify each other.
3) Use individual's own judgement. Once the individual hears some news, it is necessay to look at the logic behind it. If the logic does not make any sense, the information we get may not correct or complete at that moment.
Actually, the public can not completely blame the media itself for the inaccuracy. Most of the time, media is driven by the desire of the public to get news as quick as possible. Therefore, all the media companies always rush to provide the information to the public under pressure. If the public are able to give media enough time to collect information and acknowledge the accuracy and completeness, the media itself will start changing the way providing and interpreting information eventually
Firstly, the information they collect may not accurate or complete at the very beginning. In today's media market, different companies are competing against each other in order to get the eyeballs from the audiences. Hence, all the media are forced to provide the information to the public as quick as possible. Once something happens, the journalists working for different companies rush to the scene and start releasing information as soon as possible based on the information they can obtain at that moment. Therefore, the stories they tell may change as the time goes. For example, during the reporting of the Virginia Tech Massacre last year, the media was not able to provide the correct information about the exact number of casualties and kept telling different versions of the story.
Secondly, the information they give us is interpretated by the people working for the media. In the interpretation process, they inevitably add their personal opinions. Sometime, they even change the story by covering the truth. The extreme case is how CNN made news based on one picture, which was cut into half intentionally, for the event happened in XiZhang (Tibet) following 3.14. The right part of the original picture shows the rioters were throwing stones to the military trucks. What CNN did is to cut off the right part and only showed the left side with the trucks and then started making stories on the top of it.
Thirdly, the people who work for media even make the news based on nothing. Before America invaded Iraq, media kept telling the public that Iraq owned the MDW and chemical weapon by quoting the voice from the government instead of investigating the truth. Because their continuous effort for broadcasting the fake story, the public started to accept it as a truth until later the report from the government itself claimed that there was no any this kind of weapon at all in Iraq.
Because it is impossible for us to witness all the events in person, it is necessary to get information from today's media. However, it is very important to get the correct information from the stories provided by these media. In order to get accurate and balanced information about any event as much as possible, the public can do the following.
1) Do not assume the information given by media is always correct and complete, particularly for big event. It is better to wait for enough time, such that we can get enough information before making the conclusion or judgement.
2) It is good to obtain the information about the same event from different channels. You may first hear some news from the radio or TV. Then you can check the Internet to see whether they are telling the same story, or there is something conflicting in different versions. It is always a good strategy to look for information from different sources and verify each other.
3) Use individual's own judgement. Once the individual hears some news, it is necessay to look at the logic behind it. If the logic does not make any sense, the information we get may not correct or complete at that moment.
Actually, the public can not completely blame the media itself for the inaccuracy. Most of the time, media is driven by the desire of the public to get news as quick as possible. Therefore, all the media companies always rush to provide the information to the public under pressure. If the public are able to give media enough time to collect information and acknowledge the accuracy and completeness, the media itself will start changing the way providing and interpreting information eventually
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