Danny's Berkeley Blog

Wrap Up

2008-02-19T12:09:00.000-08:00

I've now returned to Lancaster after my trip to Berkeley and I felt that my blog needed some closure before I scrap it.

It was a great experience both personally and professionally thanks to all the folks at Berkeley and those at Lancaster who were kind enough to send me.

Now, its back to 'the real world' and work which, for now at least, I'm enjoying.

I'll leave you with a couple of photos of my final snowboarding trip to Tahoe and waiting in Reno airport for my flight home .

Long time, no blog...

2008-01-22T21:31:00.000-08:00

I'm in Cafe Royal, my favorite Internet bar and 'Dancing With Myself' is playing on the stereo. My time here grows short. It will be hard to leave the city .

Its been a while since I posted because I've been busy with work stuff... which I'm now going to bore you with for a bit!! First of all, this is what a Dust Networks kit looks like:

You get 12 sensor nodes which have two analogue sensor inputs (e.g. for pressure-based depth sensors) and RS232 which allows them to act as (very) low power network interfaces. Despite being low power the nodes can susutain links of up to 2KM in open space. The kit also comes with a Linux manager that gives you an easy to use XML-RPC management interface:

The manager might look heavy-weight compared to the motes but it doesn't actually consume that much power -- being roughly comparable to a single GridStix! So what are we doing with all this Dust Networks hardware?

In the first instance, I have connected Dust motes to Lancaster's GridStix platform. This gives us the option of switching between a 'traditional', very low power sensor network or activating the GridStix, which allow suppport for complex computation (such as image-based flow modelling). In the second instance it allows us to seperate the concern of data gathering from wirless sensor network development. Allowing our partners in Environmental Science to gather data quickly at new deployments, while leaving us free to experiment with more edgy software.

What else have I been doing? Well, I saw a couple of movies. 'Cloverfield' was good and I watched my 'other favorite comedian' Marc Maron at a comedy club in Sunnyvale. I'll leave you with a bit of Maron, discussing Jesus and Judaism with an audience member...

Sausalito

2008-01-13T18:25:00.000-08:00

I went to the Dickies gig at the Red Devil Lounge on Friday, which was pretty cool. The weather this weekend was great. On Saturday I went to AT&T park to watch the 'Mavericks' surf contest live on the big screen, which fun. Then today, I finally hired a bike and rode from Fisherman's Wharf over the Golden Gate Bridge to Sausalito. The scenery were spectacular... just one more reason to love San Francisco Bay.

Looking out to the Pacific

Crossing the Golden Gate Bridge

Alcatraz from the Ferry

My research is also going well at the moment. I finally have full access to Dust Network's Research Development Kit and I spent last week building a Java interface to the Dust Network Manager, which I hope to finish tomorrow. Once that's done, I intend to integrate it with one of our pressure sensors and give our partners in Environmental Science an online demonstration.

My time here is growing short and I still have a long list of things that I want to do... I guess I better get back to work for now! ;-)

Happy Birthday Dad

2008-01-09T21:57:00.000-08:00

It's my Dad's birthday today - here he is with my mum in Paris:

Happy Birthday Dad!

It was interesting to see Clinton's comeback in New Hampshire last night. It mostly seems to have been a sympathy vote after her tearful post-Iowa press appearences. Nonetheless, I'm convinced that Obama will win and I think he will do so based almost entirely on his charisma and skills as an orator. For example, this is how one gives a 'consession' speech:

Back to Work

2008-01-06T17:46:00.000-08:00

I'm settling back into work after my Christmas travels. I spent last week reading papers and learning XML-RPC in preperation for working with the Dust Networks research innovation kit... I got word that I should get access to the Dust research development kit tomorrow, and then the real work begins ;-) I'm looking forward to it!

Also, I've noticed that American brewers tend to have more fun when naming their brews:

Three Thieves Wine "Kick 'em in the Teeth!"

He'brew - The Chosen Beer

The Audacity of Hope

2008-01-03T21:12:00.000-08:00

I enjoyed watching the results of the Iowa caucuses come in tonight and Barak Obama's speech in particular was inspiring stuff.

I recently read Obama's book, "The Audacity of Hope" and to be honest, I found it a little dissapointing. It seemed calculatingly centrist and, for me, didn't live up to the standards of his speeches.

Its easy to be cynical about politics these days, but what if Obama is just what he looks like? An intelligent, principled and inspiring leader capable of uniting a country... wouldn't that be cool?

Party Like A Rock Star

2008-01-02T10:26:00.000-08:00

Well with Rock Stars :-) I went to the Me First and the Gimme Gimme's gig at the Parkside in Potrero Hill on New Year's Eve.

I drank far too much but really enjoyed the gig and I even got to meet Fat Mike and Eric Melvin from NOFX -- my two favorite musicians.

Eric Melvin

Fat Mike

And yes, I was hammered ;-) I'm starting to worry that I'm building up a big Karmic debt... why is it that I keep getting all of the things I want?

Take Me Home, Sweet West Bay

2007-12-29T18:02:00.000-08:00

I've had a great time Snowboarding in Brighton today. The resort is really set up for snowboarders and the powder was probably the best I've ever had.

Obviously that's not me above ;-)

I'm heading back to San Francisco in an hour and I have to admit it will be good to get home. Utah has been fun, but it just isn't California.

Here's what I'll miss about Salt Lake City:

1. The Snow!

2. Two-pint glasses of beer in front of a cinema screen at 'Brewvies'.

3. The excellent micro-brew beers: Polygamy Porter, Cut Throat Ale etc.

Things I won't miss:

1. Getting ID'd everywhere I go.

2. The 'support our trooops' bumper-stickers.

3. Hearing a white guy use the 'N-word' for the first time.

These few negatives aside, if you want to snowboard on the best snow in the world I've found nowhere like Salt Lake City.

Snow Bird

2007-12-28T22:13:00.001-08:00

I'll keep this quick, Snow Bird was great, but *really* cold! Here's some pics....

Salt Lake City

2007-12-27T16:26:00.000-08:00

No snowboarding for me today as Delta lost my bag :-( I finally got it back at 6:30 this morning. Unfortunately, after staying awake all night attempting to locate it, I was in no shape to catch the 7:30 ski bus!

So instead I spent today exploring Salt Lake City. Here's some photos from Temple Square. The temple itself was designed and commissioned by Brigham Young based upon a supposed devine revelation and took 40 years to complete as the Mormon 'pioneers' struggled to establish their settlement in the high desert. Personally I'd have spent more time on the harvest and less on the church, but that's just me.

Leaving Las Vegas

2007-12-26T13:59:00.000-08:00

When is a delayed flight a good thing? When its due to heavy snow and you're going snowboarding :-)

I've had a great Christmas break here in Vegas. Aside from indulging in the city's staple entertainments, of drinking and gambling I've seen some good live shows. I caught Penn & Teller's comedy magic show last night which was fun and they seemed very nice, waiting after the show to chat with the audience and sign tickets.

Today I fly to Salt Lake City today from which I'll visit the ski resorts of Brighton, Alta and Park City. The Mormon state should be quite a contrast to sin city.

Anyway, I guess I have to post the obligatory Las Vegas photos (I'll put the rest on flickr later).

Vegas

2007-12-23T20:23:00.000-08:00

Hello from Las Vegas!

This will be a short post as I want to get back out to the strip before too long. I barely made it here in time for Bill Maher's gig last night due to the holiday traffic. The gig was great though.. for those of you who dont know Bill Maher, here's a YouTube clip from his HBO show 'Real Time'.

After the show I played some slots, roulette and wheel of fortune at the Hard Rock Casino. I did win some money, but then lost it all again!.. probably due to the free cocktails!

Anyway, I should go, I hear the 99 cents margaritas calling!

So Cal

2007-12-21T19:48:00.000-08:00

Yesterday morning I caught the 'Starlight Coast' Amtrak train from Oakland to Los Angeles. It was a long but pleasant journey and I spent the time reading some papers and enjoying the scenery as we travelled down the coast.

I only had one full day in LA, most of which I spent hanging around Venice Beach where I hired a bike and rode up the boardwalk towards Santa Monica trying the little bars and cafes.

Venice Beach

Santa Monica

That evening, I had a nice meal at an Italian on the Santa Monica promenade and caught a show at the local comedy club. Most of the four or five comics tanked, except maybe the last one, Danny Vermont who by coincidence writes for Bill Maher, a (much better) comedian who I'll be seeing in Vegas tomorrow.

Tis the Season (for a road trip)

2007-12-17T20:24:00.000-08:00

I saw these guys by the Powell Street BART station the other day and it made me chuckle. I think at least three of the things listed on the right-hand sign are in San Francisco's motto ;-)

Work is pretty good. Lancaster has decided to buy a 'Smart Dust' kit to instrument the River Eden. I'm hoping they'll order it before Christmas so I can spend the break reading the data sheets and planning out my remaining work.

Sorry that there are no photos from my 'bike trip to Sausalito', but the beer got away from me on Friday night (in my defense, some of it was free) and after that I didn't fancy an early start on Saturday.

I've planned out my Christmas travel. I'm heading to LA, then Vegas and finally Salt Lake City for a few days skiing. I'll be back in San Francisco for New Year and the Me First and the Gimme Gimme's gig. It should be sweeeet.

Only in California

2007-12-14T20:15:00.000-08:00

I find myself once again in Cafe Royale, armed with my favorite (Boonville) beer. Tonight I'm going to watch 'I am Legend' at the imax. I know, I know... not very exciting for a Friday night, but I want to be up early tomorrow as I'm going for a bike ride to Sausalito.

I've seen some amazing work since I arrived at Berkeley. Along with the sensor network stuff, I share an office with one person who builds tiny jumping robots and another who works on computer/brain interfaces. Just today, at our lunch meeting, I saw a presentation on printing circuit boards using a combination of biological material and modified ink-jet printers. But occasionally Berkeley's genius verges on the wacky...

*** WHAT FOLLOWS MAY OFFEND THE SQUEAMISH! ***

I thought I'd share my favorite 'odd' Berkeley project with you. It, was proposed by a major pharmaceutical company (who I will not name). This company thinks that we need a brand new kind of feminine hygiene product that uses wireless technology. Why, this company reasoned, couldn't feminine hygiene products include a tiny computer that could text their owner information about current (ahem) environmental conditions? My own informal polling suggests they may struggle to gain acceptance with their user-base ;-) what do you think?

*** THE SQUEAMISH MAY UN-AVERT THEIR EYES. ***

In terms of my own research, I think there are some very productive directions that can be pursued in my remaining time at UCB but I've run afoul of various non disclosure agreements :-( Hopefully this will be resolved by next week!

Annie's Social Club

2007-12-13T11:08:00.000-08:00

I watched the Flatliners gig at Annie's Social Club last night. The band was really good, as was their support. I even saw minor celebrity Floyd from Fat Wreck Chords -- cool huh?

Hot Heresy

The Flatliners

I feel that I'm settling in here at Berkeley. After a chat with Kris Pister on Tuesday, some new opportunities came to light and while I intend to continue reading papers, looking at the cool kit that's been developed here, meeting with researchers etc., I'm hopeful that I will also have the opportunity to do some practical work in preparation for instrumenting the River Eden with a 'smart dust' deployment. This could be of significant value to Lancaster and particularly Environmental Science.

Oops

2007-12-11T21:47:00.000-08:00

That gig is actually tomorrow -- I feel almost as stupid as the guy who hit this hydrant ;-)

City Life

2007-12-10T20:41:00.000-08:00

My hand might have been forced by the availability of acommodation but I'm really enjoying life in the city (despite the hour it takes to travel to Berkeley). There's something very pleasant about stepping off the BART into the buzz of the city center every evening.

My favorite moments so far are those like last Sunday evening, which I spent in my favorite bar Cafe Royale watching a really good jazz three piece while finishing off the last of my work emails. A great bar where its totally acceptable to use the Internet. Is this what heaven looks like?

I'm aware that my life so far here in SF might not have made the most interesting blogging, but that will change! Tomorrow night I'm off to Annie's Social Club (a rock venue I've heard a lot about) to watch the Flatliners. I will of course tell you all about it.

*** WARNING - WORK STUFF FOLLOWS ***

I had another meeting with Jay from the Hydrowatch project today and I got to see the sensor nodes that they've been using to monitor micro-climates in the Sierra Mountains.

Jay and his group have developed a generic model for planning and provisioning solar-powered sensor networks. Their model validates a lot of our existing choices and will be useful in our next phase of deployment.

Also, examining their kit revealed that they use a single low cost chip to monitor current flows, whereas we currently use our own specialised board with several components. Switching to these chips will save me significant time and improve the accuracy of our sensor readings, which is great. I'm still hoping that I may be able to wangle a field-trip to the Hydrowatch site before Christmas - it would be great to see the kit at its deployment location.

Anyway, that's enough time spent writing about work... I still have some more that I want to do tonight!

Routine

2007-12-08T16:12:00.000-08:00

It's another beautiful day. I'm writing this in an Internet cafe in the 'Russian Hill' area of San Francisco. I have a feeling I'll be spending a lot of time in 'net cafes as my hotel's WiFi tends to get a bit flakey over the weekend (presumably when lots of people are using it).

I finally have my student ID, health insurance and other admin related stuff sorted. I've even settled into a kind of routine: wake up at 7, on the 8AM BART, 9 to 5 in the office and then back home by 6.

I've had some productive chats with people working on Hydrowatch project, particularly Jay Taneja, who'se role in Hydrowatch is similar to my role in FREE - deploying and maintaining a sensor network for collaborators in the Environmental Science department. The Hydrowatch project currently has a similar deployment scale to FREE, but they're looking to expand to over 400 nodes!

Despite some nerves, I think my presentation on Friday went well. My only remaining area of concern is how my work relates to that of Kris Pisters' research group, which focuses upon electrical engineering and the very low level software aspects of sensor networks. Hopefully Kris will be content for me to spend my time drawing on related work from the broader university (e.g. Hydrowatch)... We have a meeting on Monday to chat about it.

This will be the second Christmas I've spent looking at Chistmas trees set against sunny skies. Last Christmas I was in Gambia, this Christmas I'm in California. You know, I think I'm looking forward to spending next Christmas at home...

Fisherman's Wharf

Union Square

Tramp Food

2007-12-05T19:35:00.001-08:00

I'm sitting in a funky little bar a block or two from my hotel that has free Internet access. I'm drinking an excellent pint of 'Boonville' beer and I'm feeling pretty good. Over the last few days, I've had more than a few crises of confidence. I don't feel like I deserve the great opportunities I keep getting. Especially not this one. Nevertheless, I've had a productive day today and I'm feeling a bit more like my old self.

It was (another) beautiful day at Berkeley. I met with Nir Krakauer from the Hydrowatch project, which closely relates to our own flood monitoring work. Perhaps feeling like I've done something worthwhile today is what's restored my confidence a little... The next big stress will be when I present my work to Kris Pister's research group on Friday.

Anyway... I should probably sign off, but before I do, here is my wisdom on US currency: there is no real use for coins smaller than a quater, so I now keep my change in two pockets: the right is quaters, which are useful for the metro (BART), the left is 'tramp food' which I dispose of on an ad-hoc basis whenever a tramp waves a plastic cup at me.

Ivory Towers

2007-12-03T21:16:00.000-08:00

My first day at Berkeley went well. The commute from downtown SF is pretty easy and the campus is spectacular -- is that an actual ivory tower?

I didn't do much today besides sign in and meet with my supervisor Kris Pister and his research team, all of whom seem very nice. They even preemptively named a room after me ;-)

What Would Jesus Buy?

2007-12-02T20:37:00.000-08:00

I'm sitting in a coffee bar drinking an Anchor Steam and using the free Internet. I've found that my hotel's Internet connection, while always OK for web browsing and usually OK for Skype becomes achingly slow on the weekend for heavy use. This is probably a good thing - it means that if I insist on using the Internet at the weekend, I must do so in the company of other humans, such as in a coffee shop (preferably one that serves beer).

Since I arrrived I've spent too much of my free time shopping for apartment stuff. I finally have the place how I want it. I've alerted the folks at U.C. Berkeley to my arrival and I anticipate physically checking in tomorrow. It's a bit nerve-wracking, starting anew 5000 miles from home at one of the world's best universities.

Anyhoo, I should go. My beer is running low and I plan to catch the 9:15 showing of "What Would Jesus Buy" at the Lumiere movie theater. Below are some photos of my home for the next few months at the Taylor Hotel. Not too bad for what seems to be the cheapest room in San Francisco. All the soft furnishings etc. are my picks.

Dawn on a New Day

2007-12-01T16:35:00.000-08:00

I was really ill by the time I arrived in San Francisco on Wednesday. I've not done much since then except try to settle in and get well (I'm treating myself with high doeses of Mountain Dew and junk food).

I'm renting a room in a budget long-term hotel in San Francisco. The room is a good size, though quite plain, which suits me as I can add some of my own stuff to make it feel more like home.

Best of all, it has a view...