Martin's defence

I have a presentation tomorrow.. so I started this morning by looking through my old slidesets to see whether anything would be reusable. Turns out that I have actually given the exact same talk I planned to give tomorrow (in terms of material and length). I have no recollection of it whatsover, but the slides are just perfect. Always nice when that happens.

Martin Geisler defended his PhD, which was on an MPC framework (VIFF). The defence was somewhat different from what it would be in estonia. For example, the supervisor plays no formal role what so ever. Also, the defence talk is 45 minutes.. and the questions went on for about the same time.

After the defence there was a reception. What surprised me was that the two eminent computer scientists on the board (N. P. Smart and B. Pinkas) were essentially left alone between the two of them while everyone else just gathered in their normal circles and started discussing everyday stuff. Low power distance yet again, I suppose, as in more status-concious cultures people would have been gathered all around these two. They seemed to be managing fine, however - talking about the faulty systems in place in university administration and in societies in general. All in all, a rather interesting discussion :)

Oh yes, and in the morning, N. P. Smart showed the people sitting around him a picture from 1967 where BBC had commisioned an group of experts to come up with a vision of the future.

This was the picture, labelled "The Worldbox":


Turns out some people do get the future right every now and then :)