A few days ago I flew with easyJet between London and Barcelona. During the check-in I experienced something that made me think about how our lives are dominated by rules and regulations at the cost of common sense. The staff at the check-in informed me that my bag was too heavy — 21.6 kilos — 1.6 kilos above the weight limit. Instead of charging me right away the staff asked me if I could move something from my check-in luggage…
A cloudy-day hike in the Montseny Natural Park together with a couple of friends. We set off from Figaró and headed for La Garriga along the PR C-33 short distance path — with a mid-way detour to the top of Roca Centella (1001m).
On a recent trip to Iceland I did a short hike that I have not done in quite some time. I hiked onto a small ridge called Skorradalsháls (314m) and separates the valleys Skorradalur and Lundareykjadalur in west Iceland.
Mt. Esja rises above Reykjavík across the bay north of the city. It is one of the most popular recreation areas close to Reykjavík. The most popular peak is Þverfellshorn (780 m) which is accessible by a marked path, yet fairly challenging.
A hike to the top of Kvígindisfell (783 m) in western Iceland. We got a true sampling of Icelandic weather — sun, rain, snow, …
While at Yahoo! Research I was involved in various projects on analyzing, extending and utilizing tagging of Flickr photos. We analyzed what type of tags users applied to their photos and devised a method for classifying those tags into semantic categories. We developed two prototypes, one for tag recommendation and and one for tag based browsing of photos. We started our tag analysis by mapping tags to WordNet broad categories and found out that while users annotations are sparse, they…
The Urban Volcano is a collection of my short fiction writing. It contains mainly fictional short stories written in the past few years. Most of the stories are based on a real-life experience, but extended and exaggerated into fiction. The Icelandic section also contains my works of poetry.
Fannr – Flickr Annotator – was a prototype application for assisting users in annotating their Flickr photos. Two types of annotation support is provided when annotating a single photo: tag recommendation and location recommendation.
Christmas is a time where many people cook turkey. As a consequence, the days after christmas is a time where many people have cold turkey. A cold turkey sandwich. For example. I did not cook any turkey this christmas. Yet I decided to go for the cold turkey. For many years, I have been physically addicted to caffeine. If I do not get my daily coffee I get a headache. Therefore I have a cup of coffee every day. Usually…
I woke up late on last Saturday morning and reached for my duct-tape glued-together glasses. I sighed. Remembering what was my task for the day. I had decided to go hunting for new glasses. I sighed again. Shopping is not exactly on the top of my list of fun things to do. I guess it is somewhere between waiting for the bus and cleaning the toilet. Anyways … On the way to the first shop I thought about what I…