TED - Technology, Entertainment, Design

I've heard about TED a long time ago, and I actually watched lots of lectures and presentations there. But before this summer I did not realize how big this whole thing is. How many lectures/presentations there are on TED and what topics TED covers. When I got to know that, I put together a small "project" or task for myself, to get through all the presentations on TED and to watch the one that might be interesting for me.
I can finally say I have reached the goal so far. Why "so far"? Because there are more and more presentations being uploaded on the regular basis and that means I will keep track in the future as well.
I rather don't do the calculation of how many hours I have spent watching TED and how many videos have I seen. But I did however managed to put together the list of my favorites. There are lots and sadly they are not ranked. I must say there were many presentations that I have watched but didn't make it to my favorite list and I hope there aren't many that I would enjoy watching but I skipped just based on its name and tags.
I started watching posted videos in reverse chronological order and today I have reached the first page and the newest posts. Usually I watched several presentations in a row here and there.
I am glad that I made it through and that also means I'll have a bit more time for some other things (hopefully).

Happy hollidays and mindblownig 2010

Japan

It has been quite a while that I have returned from my trip to Japan. It was mostly business trip, but I still had a week for my own traveling and getting to know Japan.
After my business part was over in Kobe, I (with my mentor) traveled to Himeji to have a look at the nicest Japanese castle. It was worth seeing and it was beautiful. The same day I took the train to Osaka, a city that has more than 2 million people. It's quite big, but still manageable. I stayed there for a night in a really nice hostel put up in some old garage. I went out in the evening to see the city at night. It is very nice and safe. Next morning I went in Osaka castle that stands in the middle of the city in a small palace park behind great walls and pitches.
In the afternoon I went to Nara a "small" city (300k inhabitants) that holds the most temples in Japan. It is a very strange feeling to walk in the park together with hundreds of deers and of-course thousands of tourists. I stayed there in traditional Japanese inn - Ryokan. It's a nice feeling but it does get cold at nights. Two days in Nara passes by quite fast and the railway took me to Kyoto.
Kyoto is the cultural capital of Japan. It holds many museums, temples and castles. It has a very nice rail-station. While there are lots of tourists at sightseeing places the city gets full (and I mean full) of youngsters and others in the afternoon. It's quite hard even to walk in the street because of the number of people. Again two days past very quickly and I managed to get to know few tourists at the hostel I was staying. Quite interesting people I must say.
For the last three days I was staying in Tokyo. I liked it a lot. I went to different parts of the city to see what is the life in different districts like. It is very colorful I must say. While some parts are full of fashion shops others are full of electronics shops and then others are full of pachinko's, manga shops, book stores and so on. I even went to fish market one morning to find that they pull half of the sea life out every morning and sell it while it is still more or less alive. I even went to the Tokyo's highest sightseeing point in one of the governmental building. The subway is a very handy transport there that brings you wherever you want. Once I even went to the new living district on the artificial island that look kinda nice.
To conclude I must say I am very glad I had a chance to be there and to see what is the most developed country like. I must say it is über clean and über safe. I never ever had even a bad feeling and thrashes can only be seen in very few places. I could live there.
You can find some photos here.

Animes and Mangas

Part of my preparations on the trip to Japan was also study of their very special art, that I appreciate a lot, Animes and Mangas. Since there are not many manga strips or books available in Slovenia and I don't enjoy reading them on the screen, I was mostly studying the animes.
Well it wasn't as much study as it was pure pleasure. I like animes since forever and I just had an excuse to spend some more time watching them. It didn't really help with my knowledge of Japanese language bt anyway, it was joy.
During my staying in Japan I also visited the International museum of Manga in Kyoto. And I am proud to say that I held and read GITS (Ghost in the Shell) in English. It was a great experience after seeing the movie so many times and loving it a lot.
Manga stores are great as well lots of different mangas, I just can't find any English ones. Hope to have some luck in next two days.

First real conference, ISMIR 2009, Kobe, Japan

Now that is over, and I had some time to rest afterwords, I can finally write something about it. ISMIR 2009 (International Conference on Music Information Retrieval) was my first real conference where I actually presented something. I must say it was very intense.
It lasted 5 days, whole days. Even during the lunch there were poster sessions so no time was wasted. Sessions were more or less great and the stuff that was presented was really good. I might even use some of the presented methods one day in my own research. ISMIR is one of rare conference where sessions actually don't overlap so you can attend all of them without fear of missing something good.
It all started on Monday with two tutorial sessions, one in the morning and one in the afternoon. Between tutorials there was a special self-heating lunch. A very strange Japanese invention (or remake).
Next four days were reserved for session presentations of chosen papers. More then 300 people attended the conference, which is a lot for such a small community and such a specific field of research. I got to know many very nice people and great researchers from allover. We had really nice debates during the brakes and after the sessions. I hope I'll have a chance to meet them again and maybe even collaborate with them some time in the future.
Altogether it was a neat experience. But there is a lot of work waiting for me, reading all the relevant papers once I get back home. But in the mean time, I'll enjoy Japan one more week just by myself and just for myself as well.
Hope to be there next year in Utrecht (Netherlands) at ISMIR 2010.

Dr. Michio Kaku

I've been writing about the documentary series The Universe a while ago. One of my favorite scientist that appears in the series is definitely dr. Michio Kaku, a theoretical physicist and popularizer of science.

A while ago I've came across his web-site where much of his work is presented and where one can find many things concerning science. It's at: http://mkaku.org/.

MultiTouch Book and our project.

Together with my friend (Luka, see his homepage under links on right) we've been working on MultiTouch table for almost a year now. It took us so long because it is a hobby/garage project and we only worked on it when we booth had free time. It was sponsored by research lab where I am employed. The prototype is coming to an end and will arrive to the Faculty very soon. You can find more on our project in posts on Luka's home page.

In the mean time MultiTouch community was very busy working on documentation, software and now even hardware for the popularization and accessibility of MoultiTouch techology. NUI groupe-book. is the leading community that supports MultiTouch and many things can be found there. You can get fast support on their forums and all the knowledge to start your own MultiTouch project that is now gathered even in e-book.

Singularity University

Quite some time ago I read about new Ray Kurzweil's new project (well he is not alone, here is the whole list) of starting a great University with very futuristic program called Singularity University. Group pulled together set of great professors that will run courses like Nanotechnology, Space & Physical Sciences, AI & Robotics (more can be found here).
I believe this will be a very fine University and that the people finishing it will have a great skill and insight in future technologies, how to use them and more.
But (yes, there is always but) for me the worse thing about such school is tuition. It is true that if you are good enough and will try hard enough you might get scholarship and enter such University. But I still thing this is just another mistake of capitalistic world where knowledge is on sale for sale. I just don't like the concept.
Still I wouldn't mind participating nor leading some of the courses they have.

Hero

I need a hero ...

... this is how a very famous song from Bonnie Taylor starts, and this is what I was singing to myself before previous Tuesday. Now I have one. HTC's Hero of course; with a great Google's Android platform. It's white one and it feels great.

It's true I wanted iPhone, I even planed buying one, but then I put down facts why I even wanted a smart phone:

• I need all the basic mobile phone functionalists (except MMS's )
• I need GPS
• I would like Blutooth, WiFi, EDGE, etc.
  
• I would like to develop my own apps

Because of these there are some additional requirements, like:

• GPS drains battery life really fast, so it would be great to have a chance of switching battery
• Custom storage capabilities.

Since iPhone is lacking these I haven't bought it and I decided to go for Hero. Even thou I have to say Hero is ugly in comparison to iPhone it has some additional advantages:

• mini USB connection to computer and for charger as well
• it cost me half the price of the iPhone
• one can develop in a beautiful language of Java (instead of Objective C)
• HTC Sens UI's home screens are much more pleasant then iPhone's
  

I am happy with my new gadget and I'm sure it will serve me very well. I will report on my proggres and the applications I might develop (one is in production right now).

Hard debate

Just last week, a friend of mine (from far far away land - NZ) asked me, what it would seem an easy question:

"Is it fair to say that our most primary form of communicating information is spoken language?"

Like usual, I didn't gave him a simple answer (my friends would say I'm quite known of complicating things as much as possible, but I would say like to have things very determent and precisely defined). There were several uncertainties about the question it self and how it was meant, so this is how I broke down the problem:

1st
What do you mean with word "primary"? If you mean "common" then I would say Yes for the current time being. If word "primary" is there as "what means of communication man used through time", let us say from stone age on. Then I'm not really sure. It might have been gestures at close distances. I can't really decide between them.

2nd
The second question here is what is the "spoken language"? If that is anything that comes from your mouth then you'll find the answer under 1. But if spoken language is a well defined collections of sounds, organised and so on ... then yes for time being, but not in the early ages of humankind.

3rd
If we take it the easy way ... What about "written language". I would still say that spoken one is more common, but not all would agree.

Later, when he caught me on-line and we chatted for a while the debate went even deeper. But still this debate put my mind on a mental workout again and that is why I like hard debates very much.

Thanks Brandon.

Mont Blanc (4810m)

This last weekend was a special one for me. I was in the mountains again. But not just any mountains. I was on the highest peak in Alps - Mont Blanc.

It was not my highest peak. It was not my hardest. But it has that special touch of a special mountain. Let me just describe how we did it in three days.

There was 7 of us altogether. We started our expedition on Thursday evening (around 7 pm). It took us 8 and a half hours just to get to Chamonix (to be more precise it was Les Houches, the neighbor village). Since we came there really early in the morning, we took a short rest and spend the morning for sightseeing of Chamonix, the pristine mountain city and the alpine center of Alps. It is a nice city worth spending more time in, than we had.

We took the 1pm cable car from Les Houches and the mountain rail, to reach the starting point at about 2.400m. The weather on Friday was really bad. It was cold, foggy, rainy, snowy and very windy. But that did not stop us from reaching the first cottage at 3.167m (Tête Rousse). This first part only took us about 2 and a half hours. We took the rest of the day off for relaxation, eating, rehydrating and playing cards.

Next day we started the climb to next cottage (Goûter) at around 3.800m. Again it only took us about 2 and a half hours to get there, and since it was a beautiful day we took some time for sunbathing and sightseeing around the cottage.

Very early next morning (at 2am) we started our ascend to the top. It's not really hard, nor dangerous to reach the peak, but it is the question of weather you can get to that altitude or not. Even thou that Sunday was again very beautiful and that there was a full moon it was very windy. We made a short rest at the last refuge (around 4300m - Vallot) and carried on to reach the peak at 4.30 am.

Because of the wind we didn't stay on top for longer time and started to descend really soon. We made short stops at both cottages to pick the rest of our stuff and we made it on the 1.25pm mountain train. We left the Chamonix at 4.30pm and came back to Velenje at 1.45am on Monday.

Now a short info about expenses and timing.

• it is possible to peak the Mont Blanc in 2 days, we did it in 3 just because of better acclimatisation.
• It took us 8 and a half hours to get to Chamonix and same to get back home.
• we rented a minibus for 8 people for 30€ per day and spent around 100€ on gas, 84.6€ on toll and additional 41€ on Mount Blanc tunnel.
• the cable car was 12.90€ for return trip and 14.50€ for mountain train return ticket.
• sleeping at cottage was 13.30€ per person on Tête Rousse, and 13.90€ on Goûter. Food was 24€ for dinner at both cottages, tea was 3€ at Tête Rousse and 3.5€ at Goûter, water was 4.5€ Tête Rousse and 5€ at Goûter. We reserved the beds almost a month ahead.

The only thing that is left is the photos. You can find them here.

Stenar (2501m) and Križ (2409m)

Two weeks back 4 of us decided to go for a trip to the mountains again. This time we conquered two peaks in little more then 6 hours.

We started early (4am) from Velenje and arrived to valley of Vrata few minutes before 7am. The marked path says it's 5 hours to reach the peak. We did it in 2.5 hours. On our way down we topped another peak and took a different path back down. The weather was nice, a bit chilly few times but at least not too hot.

Some photos are here.

Three trips (Skuta-Dolgi Hrbet-Češka cottage-Kranjska cottage-Savinjsko pass, Lovrenc lakes, Kanin)

Last two weekends I finally took some time for myself and did some trips to hills and mountain. There were three to be precise.

The first one was a bit more then just a trip, since it was quite intense. My sisters fiance Božo and me went on a trekking to Skuta, Dolgi Hrbet, Češka cottage, Kranjska cottage, Savinjsko pass and back to the valley. It took us altogether 12 hours and few minutes with all the rests and stops to finish this trekking. Our knees betrayed us on the way down. But we did it and were glad.
You can find some photos here.

The second one was to Lovrenc lakes. The pristine lakes on Pohorje that are really beautiful. We went there with my parents and it was a bad choice actually. There were tons of people all over the Rogla (our starting point) all the way to the lakes. It was hardly bearable, much like pilgrimage. Still it was worth all the beauty and fresh air.
Some photos are here.

The third one was to the mountain of Kanin. The plan was to see the new part of highway that was opened just a week earlier, and to get through Trnovski forest to city of Bovec and from there to Kanin. It was our first time in Trnovski forest and we were amazed by the beauty of it. Its the pristine natural forest in the midland. Perfect for easy trips and picnics. I bet there are lots of mushrooms there as well (note to myself: get them next time). We took the cable car from Bovec to the ski resort of Kanin and did some trips up there. Rocks are so different there because of all the glacier remains and karst terrain. There are some of the world deepest abysses here.
Again some photos are here.

World Science Festival

Now a traditional festival for promoting science, called World Science Festival takes place each summer in the city of New York. I've only found out that last week, when one of my friends posted a video from the festival on the facebook (thank you Samo). I was so amazed by the content of the video that I just had to check it out. And once I discovered the home page of the festival (here), I found out that there is an archive of videos (here) there from previous festivals. I took some time and watched most of them. And I liked them all.

Since I am a science freak this was an amazing discovery for me. I hope that I'll have a chance and join this festival. The things that scientists are presenting to the public are amazing, the discussions between the scientist are awesome, including all the arguments. I would suggest everyone who is interested in science to check this site and event.

Jon Schmidt

Just a week ago or a bit further back I have accidentally discovered this really great composer and pianist. It was on a site who all of you know for sure: YouTube when I was listening to the music for my research.

I came across a brilliant composer Jon Schmidt, his home site is: http://www.jonschmidt.com/

The first composition I was listening to was: All of me (YouTube, Jon Schmidt). An amazingly happy composition. I just couldn't stop listening to it for quite some time. I've also watched some responses to it like: None of me (YouTube, Jason Lyle Black), which also are amazingly beautiful.

But then I made even bigger discovery and I found: Love Story meets Viva la Vida (YouTube) that just blew my mind away for even longer time then All of me. This is just amazing piece of composition.

Still listening to it every day.

BBC documentary series

There were three BBC documentary series I've watched recently:

• Yellowstone (IMDB, Wiki)
  a 2009 documentary about my favorite national park I can think of. This three part series shows us what goes on in Yellowstone throughout the year. Each part is about different part of the year and shows ups and downs of commodity of living in this beautiful piece of Earth. It only encoureges me to go there by myself someday.
  
  
• Earth: The Power of the Planet (BBC, IMDB, University of Plymouth)
  a 2007 documentary series where in five episodes geologist Iain Steward takes us around the world to show us all the nature wonders and beauties our planet has to show. It also shows us how very small we are and what some real powers of our planet are. Also he shows us how human race is changing the planet and what are the consequences of our doing. At the end he faces us with the fact, that it is not planet that might "die" if we don't start taking better care of it, it is us that won't be able to survive in conditions that we are creating.
  
  
• Planet Earth (BBC, IMDB, Wiki)
  a 2006 documentary series in eleven parts. If I would have known sooner that the US version was nerrated by Sigourney Weaver I would have watched that one. But anyway. It is a series that shows us nature in all of its beauty. The places of the earth one could never see by himself, spices of plants and animals I've never heard of before. It was well worth watching to see what all our planet hold and what all there is to see in the nature.

All the documentaries are awesome and if you haven't seen them yet, you should watch them as soon as possible.

My first conference article

It finally came down to this. As I wrote down several times here on my blog, I am a researcher at the University of Ljubljana, Faculty of Computer and Information Science, Laboratory for Computer Graphics and Multimedia (a long title it is).

And as a researcher there is some research I am conducting. My current research involves ethnic music and computers. More precisely I am researching how we can use computers to help ethno-musicologists with their research with use of computers.

Now to be really precise I will just put down the title of my article, that was accepted at the ISMIR 2009 conference: Calculating Similarity of Folk Song Variants With Melody-Based Features. I however had a lot of help and guidance of my mentor who is also a coauthor of this article.

I am glad that my work finally showed some results that are actually worth showing to the rest of the world. Once the conference is over I will publish the link to the article here as well. I will continue my research work in this field and hope to good research results in the feature as well.

New Dask Lamp

Just last week I got an package from USA which I've been waiting for for quite some time. I was thrilled. A friend of mine, that I got to know while I was on exchange in New Zealand, sent me a desk lamp (the silver one).


I am very pleased to have one of these low energy, High efficient LED lamp. It's very hard to impossible to get them in our country or even Europe. That was the main reason why I asked my friend John to send one to me.

Thank you John.

Richard Feynman Lectures

Everyone who likes Physics a bit should already know Richard Feynman and at least heard about very famous Physics lectures books - "The Feynman Lectures on Physics" made after his lectures to undergraduate students at Caltech in 1961-63.

In 1964 he gave a series of lectures called "The Messenger" at Cornell that were recorded and published but BBC. Now they are accessible free of charge at M$ Research center (Thanks Bill for this). I recommend it to every physics fan.

You can watch it on-line here.

Ribno 2009

I felt really bad last year when I just couldn't go camping with our scout group. I went on the camp for 18 year, each year and it was amazing every year.

I was in shortage of time this year again, but I was at least able to go to the "Ferry-tale" (like we call that little piece of heavens in Julian Alps region, near the city of Bled. Its just amazing. I was there for 2 weekends each weekend with different group of kids and youngsters.

For time being I helped two other guides with leading the guide school. It is my favorite task/assignment at camp. With first group we went on the hike on Jelovica. We had a really great weather and awesome time up there where the nature is still amazingly beautiful. With the second group I helped with some lectures and other things that are going on in the guide school.

Once again I was really happy in company of large number of scouts.

BP

Summer schools of 2009

Each year there are several summer schools organized at our Faculty. Summer schools have different target audience. Some are for high school-ers , students or teachers, and there are some that are for all of them.

Last two weeks, we organized two such events. First was CoLoS summer school for teachers of Informatics. It was about Action Script 3 (wiki, adobe) and Silverlight 2.0 & 3.0 (M$).
All the classes were recorded and streamed to the internet for everyone to see. The official summer school home page can be found here (in Slovene), where you can also get all other information and links.

The other summer school was Development @ iPhone platform. GameTeam group from Faculty of Computer in Information Science, University of Ljubljana created great program for a summer school for everybody to join. From beginners to more experienced programmers.
More about this summer school can be found here. Also this summer school was recorded and streamed over the internet and the archive can be found at the home page of the summer school.

Both schools were a success and will probably return next year. There are more summer schools coming up this summer at our faculty. Here is the list of all of them.

Peru, Bolivia report

This will probably be my longest post ever. I just had to do a brief overview of where we were and what we have done on our trip and since I was lazy not to write it day by day I'm putting it all in this one post. Hope you like it.

There are also photos from our trip in my gallery here.

Day 1 & 2 - Home, Venice, Madrid, Lima (17. & 18.4.2009)

Well the adventure actually started on the very first day and the adventure involved our airplane tickets. Few months before start of our journey we have booked and bought our airplane tickets. We wanted to have connected flights throughout our journey and that is where the thing started. Because the airliner we were traveling with (IBERIA - we'll say more about it later) didn't have agreement with some other airliner, we couldn't get electronic tickets. We'll OK we thought, we'll get printed tickets and we'll have to take good care of them ... Eeeee, wrong. They told us, that they will send tickets to us, but later we realized that they "sent" them to our departing airport (Venice). OK, we've said. We'll get them before we'll board. Eeeee, wrong again.

When we came to the airport and told them who we are and what we are there for, the told us that there are no tickets for us, even more, that only reservations were made. After several hours of debating we finally convinced them that we were right and they said that they will arrange things for us and that they will call us, when we are ready to go with one of the next flights. Good we said, we'll at least have a chance to see Venice.

We went for a sightseeing and were waiting for the call from IBERIA. But there was no call. After several hours we went back at the airport and asked again what is going on. They told us that we were re-booked on the flight that left just half hour ago. After another hour of negotiations they finally booked us on next flight, gave us electronic tickets and checked us in.

At last, we boarded and left Venice behind. After few hours of waiting at the Madrid international airport for overseas connection, we successfully boarded LAN's (gladly it wasn't IBERIA) Boeing 767 and started the long flight to Lima.

We did loose half a day (actually whole night in Lima), but we were there.


Day 3 - Lima, Ica (19.4.2009)

Because we were a night short we skipped the planned sightseeing in Lima, took a long taxi ride from airport through the city (There is not much too see and it was not really pleasant city - at least for our taste) and went straight for the next city on our list, Ica. Ica is smaller city to the south, what we knew about it, was that there are sand dunes there. After arrival we "accidentally" met a guy (Luis) that was a freelance tourist/travel agent, who spoke really good English. he made a really good offers for buggy ride and sand-boarding, as well as for visit of Ballestas Islands (Glapagos for poor people, as they call them), visit to Nazca Lines and visit of Cruse del Condor. It was a good offer and we took it.

The first thing we did was buggy ride and sand-boarding, we did it in afternoon, since we had to rest a bit and find a place to stay first. It was amazing. The sand dunes were so nice, the ride was adrenaline rush and sand-boarding was great new experience as well. On top of that sunset at dunes was like cherry on the cream.


Day 4 - Ica, Nazca (20.4.2009)

We started the day with a long (50 minutes), slow (max 60 kph) taxi ride to the port where boats for Ballestas Islands start their way on the tour. The islands were great; I've never seen so many birds at such small area, and so many different sorts of birds. There were cormorants , penguins, pelicans and lots of different seagulls. On the island there was uncountable number of sea-lions and the coast was really nice, rocky. There are guano collecting facilities located at the islands, that are collecting bird shit for production.

In the afternoon we have continued our way south to get to Nazca. And we did it in style. Luis organised a ride for us with an old American muscle car; a beauty. The ride was long but fun and we stopped st a sightseeing tower to get the look at the Nazca lines from ground. After we arrived to the Nazca airport we had to wait for our flight over the lines. We had a great pilot, that was willing to do some acrobatics with our 4-seats CESNA airplane, if we will not get sick. It was awesome. Not only the flight but also the sight on the lines far below us and the landscape of half desert.


Day 5 & 6 - Arequipa, Cruz del Condor (21. & 22.4.2009)

After the overnight drive from Ica to Arequipa we just missed our tour to Cruz del Condor, to catch up we took the local bus and start our journey there by ourselves. We were really lucky to meet nice girls (Milagros and Angela), and a woman that used to be a tour guide that helped us with all this. We left our heavy backpacks at the hostel and took with us only the necessities for 2 days. After another long drive with local bus we arrived at our resting place for the day in small village near Chivay.

We had some problems with altitude sickness because of major altitude difference we did in such short time (it was from 600 m to 4900 m and back to 3900 m above sea, where our hostel was). We were very tired, but it was much better next day.

In the morning we went to Cruz del Condor to see those mighty birds, spreading their wings over the second deepest canyon in the world - Colca Canyon. The scenery was amazing. Over 5000m high mountains cut down by the river for more then 2 km. It was as someone would painted tall peaks and put some cream on the highest of them.

On our way back we also encountered vicuñjas, whose wool is really pricey (300 - 400 $ per kilo), not to mention all the llamas, alpacas and donkeys. After we returned to the Arequipa we still didn't have much time for rest. We took a night bus to Cuzco.


Day 7 - Cuzco, Ollantaitambo, Aguas Calientes (23.4.2009)

In the morning we arrived to a nice city of Cuzco. We wanted to find a cheap ride to Ollantaitambo, and to see some attractions as well. Again we had a bit of luck. We got a taxi that rook us all the way and stopped at the places worth visiting. And they were wort visiting. We had to buy Cuzco pass thou that wasn't really cheap, not even with student discount.

On the way we stopped at several places (you can see what is included here:
http://cache.virtualtourist.com/3320694-Cuzco_Tourist_Pass-Cuzco.jpg
). It was very much worth it and the drive through the valleys offered amazing sights as well. There were lots of ruins (probably from Incas).

When we reached Ollantaitambo and wanted to get train-tickets to Aguas Calientes (Machu Picchu), we found out that all the "cheap" tickets for Backpackers train were already sold out. The only choice that we had was to buy the once that were a "bit" more expensive. To put it in numbers. The once we wanted were 31$ (yes 31$ one way and it is US $, for like one hour of drive); the once that we got were 53$. We realized that price varies according to hour of departure, and we also had "fancier" train then people with "cheap" tickets.

Even thou that the tickets were insanely expensive we did have a really nice ride with awesome view at very high peaks on each side of the valley. It was breathtaking. We arrived to Aguas Calientes in early evening, found a hostel and took a walk through the small city.


Day 8 - Machu Picchu, Cuzco (24.4.2009)

We woke up early in the morning and began our ascent to the Machu Picchu. It was still dark and we had a headlamp to show us the way through the jungle at the heights of our highest mountains. The path was well seen and easy to walk on. Because we started so soon we were one of the first people waiting with tickets in front of entrance. Due to early morning hours there was very thick fog all over the place and you couldn't see much.
Once the doors opened the crowd rushed in and spread all over the Machu Picchu. Fog was the reason that the feeling one had was really mystic and almost a bit creepy. After about hour and a half fog started to rise, and over about another hour it was completely gone, leaving behind awesome scenery of the great complex of Machu Picchu.

We took the path to Sun gate to see the ruins from above. To see the remains of once great fortress feels amazing. We had to make our visit fast, due to lack of time; our train left early in the afternoon and there was so much more to see. Sadly we had to skip visit of Waina Picchu, the upper part of fortress.

We left Machu Picchu full of amazing sights and feelings. Upon our arrival to Cuzco we bought tickets for night bus to Puno and enjoyed the evening on the main plaza. Soon we realized that the city is getting more and more alive and that we are leaving a great tourist-party-city behind without attending any of the parties. We sadly realized that too late.


Day 9 - Puno, Titicaca, Copacabana (25.4.2009)

Early in the morning (3 or 4 am), we arrived to Puno and fortunately encountered yet another "tourist guide", that made us a good deal. We booked morning trip to Titicaca floating islands and he offered us to stay at the common room of one of the hostels until the sun gets up and the tour starts. Before the tour started we briefly visited the central plaza of the city.

Taxi picked us up at hostel and took us to the port where we boarded a ship. It is a very big lake, and the waters are very dark, unless there is something green growing on the surface. On the way to the islands guide explained some details of the lake and the floating islands. We stopped at one of these islands and their chief told us how the islands are built, why they living on the islands and how is the life on the islands like. The feeling to walk on those floating islands is good (one can feel if someone runs, jumps, etc.). The main resource on the islands is totora reeds, that is used for building the islands, homes, boats and as food as well.

In the afternoon we continued our way to Bolivia. First stop there was Copacabana, a small tourist city. There was quite a big difference in architecture as well as infrastructure and of course prices and living standard.

We booked into the most fancy hotel in the town for 50 Bolivianos (5€) per person per night including breakfast. The hotel still wasn't very luxurious but it was worth the price. The city was very relaxed and our rest here was good. After all it was only stopover on the way to La Paz.


Day 10 & 11 - La Paz (26. & 27.4.2009)

Running through Peru was very exhausting, especially because we've seen so much more than we planned. That was the reason why we needed a break. La Paz was a perfect spot for our break, since it had everything we needed. Our hotel (Hotel Torino) was in the center of city and it was affordable (30 Bolivianos per night with shared bathrooms was good price). There were many Internet spots with cheap rates (from 2-3 Bolivianos per hour), with good machines and many huegos (games). And we really needed those.

In this 2 days we have booked our tours for days to come, ate some proper food at Burger King and Mc Donald's, went to cinemas few times, drank a lot of Coca Cola and played lots of Warcraft 3 mods. A great relaxation.


Day 12-14 - Uyuni, Salar (28. - 30.4.2009)

In the south part of Bolivia, close to the Chile border there is a large salt dessert - Salar de Uyuni, which was our next destination. We started from La Paz in the evening and reached the Uyuni early in the morning. We looked for a good agency to take us to the desert and beyond on the 3 day tour. We got a really good discount and pretty service.

On the first day we went to see the train graveyard, where many old trains were, that used to drive minerals to the sea (at those times, Bolivia still had sea, but as you should know, nowadays it doesn't have it anymore). Because there was no need of those trains anymore, they were left in the desert to rotten through the years.

After some more driving we have reached the white ground of the salt dessert. The feeling of white ground is really different. Everything is so bright and it's really hard to see any texture when the sun at highest. Salt hotel (the original one) was our first stop in the desert. Hotel built completely from salt (salt bricks, salt tables, salt beds, stc.). We also stopped at the island that once used to be in the watter, but is now only surrounded by salt, where many big cactus's are and where one can see remains of old corals. From the top of the island there is amazing view at the white all around and volcano's at the far ends of horizon. We were driving at about 4000 m all the time and those volcano's were still 1500 to 2000 meter higher. At the afternoon we have left the Salar behind and start driving in volcano-lands where we also slept the first night.

Second day we continued our way to the south through the strange and colorful lands, passing many lakes, seeing many birds, vicuñjas and some other animals, and we finished our day in a small village at 4200m. Last day we got us very early and vent to see "geysers" as they call them. They are actually steam pillars that are bursting from the ground. There are also other form of volcanic grounds like bobbling mud and stinky sulfur steams.

We also stopped at the "aguas calientes" (thermal waters), left two passengers at Chile border and started returning to Uyuni. On our way back we've seen a mini sand twister, remains of old lava flows and listened to a new music that our driver bought during one of the stops.


Day 15 - Potosi (1.5.2009)

We came to Potosi (highest city in the world) with evening bus from Uyuni and thankfully reserved our hostel before we came. The room was waiting for us and we took a good long sleep. In the morning we went for a tour to the mines. It's really funny that you can buy explosive (Dynabol, a Bolivian dynamite) at the market. We bought some as gift for the miners. It used to be a very well payed job to be a miner in this mines. They do not use any new technology at all, the mining is still the same as it was almost century ago. There aren't any plans of all the shafts in the mountain and everybody can dig where he thinks it's best.

The fact that we were in Potosi on 1st of May was the reason that many people were drunk and were celebrating. There were also explosions (small ones) in the city as part of celebrations. We left Potosi same evening and went to Sucre, the constitutional capital of Bolivia.


Day 16 - Sucre (2.5.2009)

1st May evening was very joyful and happy in Sucre once we came there. Many people were out celebrating. It was also much warmer then in Potosi, and also much greener, because of the altitude. We had a good night out and next morning went for a city tour. We unintentionally came over a bus that was driving people to "dinosaurs". We took the bus that took us to the museum where they had replicas of the dinosaurs as well as many posters and also some real bones. This museum was built next to the biggest site where they found dinosaurs footprints in the world. The carbon wall next to museum used to be at the bottom of shallow lake in times of dinosaurs and kept their footprints. It was a pleasant experience to see such site.

In the afternoon we took a walk through the city and bought the tickets for the evening bus to La Paz.


Day 17 - La Paz (3.5.2009)

We took another day off in La Paz when we went for shopping, to get some souvenirs and of course to play some huegos, again.


Day 18 - Tiwanaku (4.5.2009)

Tiwanaku was the cultural heart of South America. Here were found the oldest of all remains of Pre-Inca civilisation. Tiwanaku used to be right next to lake Titicaca, when it's waters were higher. There are not many remains but those that were found tell a story about civilisation that was spread over a large part of South America. There are many theories why they came to an end and why Inca civilisation came to a rise after them.

At the Tiwanaku one can see many monoliths and gates (sun gates, moon gates, star gates), pottery, and even remains of the pyramid that they built.


Day 19 - Death Road, Coroico (5.5.2009)

The world most dangerous road. That was the title that many agencies used to attract people too book a bike ride on THE road. The prices for this trip varied from 260 Bolivianos up to 600+ The difference was in equipment that you got and bikes. We checked the bikes at one of the cheep agencies and their equipment; we were satisfied and we booked there. We took hard-tail, front suspended, mechanic disk Trek bikes that were good enough for the challenge. The bike ride starts at 4750 m and ends at 1170 m. It is downhill all the time. Much fun and pleasure. It takes about 3-4 hours to get down. The first part is asphalt, but later on you get to the old road that is more adventures.

The road is not really dangerous if you drive with caution. We stopped many times so that we regrouped and also for a snack. The temperatures went form about 10 to over 25 in the low part. When we came down we took a shower and had a meal. But we were not the only ones. Sand flies also had a great mean until we managed to escape to a bit higher grounds of Coroico. We met a really nice Swiss couple and realised that we are all on the way to Rurrenabaque.


Day 20-23 - Road to Rurrenabaque, pampas (6. - 9.5.2009)

The 14 hours drive on bus to Rurrenabaque we were driving on almost as dangerous road as the death road is. We also had an unplanned stop in the middle of the night when our bus got stuck in the mud and we had to pull it out of it. Because of that unfortunate event we almost missed out tour in the morning.

When we arrived to Rurrenabaque, there was a man waiting for us at the bus stop. We gladly had time for breakfast before we started our tour to Pampas. To get to pampas we had to survive 3 hours drive with an old Toyota Land Cruiser on a bumpy muddy road. And after that another 3 hours drive on the boat. While the first drive wasn't really pleasing, the second one was awesome. All the green, still water, birds and amazing sky.

In the evening we went to Sunset bar, and after we have left we realised how many mosquitoes there are in pampas. During the day, there isn't a single mosquito around, but only 5-10 minutes after a sundown there are so many that it is unbearable. For me not even repellent didn't do any good. I was bitten so many times, but gladly I managed not to scratch so that it wasn't even worse.

Next day we went on a hunt for anacondas. We were lucky to find not only one but 4. Two of them were mating and two more males were close by. Later we realised that those weren't actually anacondas but were one spices of spitting cobras. This hunt was the worst mosquito encounter ever. I'm glad it's past.

In the afternoon we went fishing for piranhas. Me myself wasn't lucky but together, we coughed enough for everybody to taste some at dinner.

I the evening of the second day we went on a alligator hunt. If you point the headlamp at the eyes of young alligator they glow red, and it is pretty easy to see them. Our guide coughed one and we could held him for a while. It was a pleasant experience. Later we realised that of course that wasn't alligator but a spices of caymans.

On the last day in pampas we went for a swim with dolphins in the morning, and it was great. Water was just of the right temperature. In the afternoon we left for Rurrenabaque. The boat drive was shorter, but car drive took 3 hours again. From Rurrenabaque we took the plane back to La Paz.


Day 24 - La Paz (10.5.2009)

This was last day of our trip for one of us. We used the day to relax, to do his last shopping and for him to pack all the things. The remaining two of us also had to prepare for a trekking plus mountaineering trip we booked for next 4 days.


Day 25-28 - Trekking, Huayna Potosi (11. - 14.5.2009)

We sad goodbye to our flatmate and put him on a taxi for the airport early in the morning and went back to bad for few more hours. Later on we checked out from hotel and went to the agency to try all the equipment packed the one needed for trekking and waited for a ride to our starting point. On that day there were manifestations in the city and almost all the roads were blocked. We spent over a hour just to find non-blocked road to escape from La Paz. After that we had another two hours to get to starting point.

The weather was getting bad for the first time on our travel (except at nights). The weather was getting worse and worse during our first day and at the end it was already snowing. After we put up a camp we went for acclimatisation trip few hundred meters higher and returned for dinner and a good night sleep.

Next day were walking for several more hours over two passes (one 5100m and the other 4900m) and through a long valley. The scenery was amazing. We didn't have many problems with altitude; it was hard to walk uphill but we kept a good tempo and came to the end more then two hours early. After the trekking we took a ride to Huayna Potosi base camp and spent a night there.

Next morning our mountaineer guide came and took us from 4700 m to 5200 m, where we stayed for the rest of the day. Very early next morning (at around 2am) we started our ascend. It should take about 6 hours but we did in 3,5 hours, including all rests and waiting for the sunrise below the top, where it was less windy. The tour wasn't easy but it was beautiful and very much worth all the efforts.


Day 29 - La Paz (15.5.2009)

It should supposed to be the relaxation/packing/shopping day, but it was far from that, at least for me. We both got food poisoning in the mountains and I was feeling really bad whole day; I was vomiting and had diarrhea. Gladly it was much better next day when we had to go to a plane. We were both very tired and had no energy at all.


Day 30 & 31 - Way home (16. & 17.5.2009)

Early in the morning we payed the hotel room for the last time and ordered a taxi to the airport. We had to pay airport tax upon our check-in and we were on our way to Santa Cruz where we had to switch plane to get to Buenos Aires. In Buenos Aires we had few hours time but not as much as we planned, so we couldn't afford to go in the center. We had to wait for our flight and we had to pay airport tax again. On our way overseas our plane run short on fuel and we had to make unplanned stop at Canary islands to refuel our plane. That was the reason that we missed our connection from Madrid to Venice and had to wait for the next flight.

Finally we landed in Venice where friends parents were waiting for us to take us home.

Again, you can find photos from our trip here.

Peru, Boliva

Another thing that kept me going and took lots of time for preparations is our (my roommates and mine) trip to South America. We are planning this trip for quite some time now, but day after tomorrow is "D" day.

For almost a month we will travel through Peru and Bolivia, trying to see as much of the wonders as possible.

If I'll have a time enough will, I might even write some things here. Wish us luck.

Adios.

End of BSG

A very sad but on the other hand a very good thing. For those of you that don't have a clue what am I talking about. The sci-fi series Battlestar Galactica has come to an end. It is a good thing because I really enjoy the well closed story throughout the whole series and I especially like the last part.

I almost cried. It was that overwealming. But the producers said they will return with the story from before the on of BSG.

I hope you enjoyed it at half as much as I have.

Arcade dancing

Yes. One of the things that kept me occupied was my new little addiction, arcade dancing. We have the dance pad in our laboratory at work and I just had to try it out. I must say it's great. Especially for cold evenings when you just can't go for a run.

I discovered that there is quite a large community behind the whole thing and you can find a lot of info about arcade dancing here.

It's a great calorie burner and a sport that keeps you in shape. You just need to do it often enough. I admit I have put it on a side these last weeks, since it is nicely warm outside and I rather go for a run.

We (my roommates and me) are planning a sport event thou that will include arcade dance and some of our friends. Stay tuned.

Zeitgeist Addendum

Another documentary from the Zeitgeist movement. And I must say it's quite a good one as well. Ok. Well, there is some BS (bullshit) in it but it shows what could have be or what maybe is. It is up to each individual to decide weather he (or she) will believe everything that is stated in the movie.

You can watch the movie on-line here. And I do recommend it. If not anything else, it broadens the mind and perspective.

Finally another post

Yes, ...

I know. I am a really bad person. But I was really really busy this month. Had a paper to finish, WoW to play, series to watch etc.
You know how it is.

But I have also done some nice things, that you'll be able to read about in the following posts. So let's begin.

Triglav (1.3.2009)

Like every year we planned to pay a visit to Slovenia's highest mountain last year sometime near Christmas time. Since the weather was terrible at that time we had to postpone our tour to some later day. And that day was yesterday. We started early in Saturday morning and reached the Kredarica cottage somewhere around noon. Our cars were parked more then hour and a half walk further then previous years so it took us a bit longer to get to cottage as usual.
We used the afternoon for relaxation and rest so that we were ready next morning to conquer the peak. And we did.
The weather really nice, except for the wind that was blowing quite hard, and we had to be very careful because of that.
After taking a good look at the surrounding areas (mostly Alps, Slovenian, Italian and Austrian) we started our descent. We packed the rest of the stuff at cottage and head for the cars.
It was really nice.

You can find some photos here.

Skiing in Arabba

After last years winters holidays in Val Thorens, we have returned closer to home this year in the village of Arabba. We've been here two times already and it was fun every time.

A week of skiing in winter paradise does good to us every year. This year there was more snow then previous two times so it was even better.

I'll put some photos on-line soon and link them here.

Big Endian, Little Endian

It's more computer science thingy than anything else.

Most of you (CS) people out there have heard about different endian rules when it comes down to handling individual bits of data. There are basically two rules:

• Little endian - LSB on lowest address (see wiki)
• Big endian - LSB on the highest address (see wiki)

There is also much less popular rule of (Middle endian).
Now one of the interesting things about this rules is where do they come from. And the answer is from inhabitants of island of Blefuscu from the book Gulliver's Travels (see wiki). It's not much, but I wanted to share this little secret with you all.

Long break again

I know, I know. But I was really busy. It's just one of many excuses that I usually use when I feel bad about not blogging more often.

I do have some posts too publish, I just need to put them into a proper form and publish them here.

Grintovec (30.12.2008)

In the lowlands of Slovenia weather was very foggy and the clods filled all the sky. Very depressing weather. But we decided to take a nice winter mountaineering trip to 2558m high mountain of Grintovec.

Once we left the lowland and have reached the height of about 900 - 1200m we were astonished. We passed all the clouds and left them beneath us. The sun was shining very strong and there wasn't a cloud in the sky above us.

It was, as some would surely say, "perfect". And it really was. I f you don't believe me trust your eyes and check pictures here.