Knowing that I will be slacking for the remaining of my days here, I came rather late to work. I got the details for the plan tomorrow from xp. She will meet me at the train station at 6pm and then we still have time to go for dinner because our train to Berlin is at 11pm. We will be back in Munich on Monday at 7am. That means I have enough time to go to Neuschwanstein Castle which takes 1 whole day to tour. I guess I have to visit Munich itself in two parts: tomorrow evening and on Tuesday morning. Thanks to the longer hours in the day, the sun only sets around 10pm. Hence, tomorrow I would still be able to walk around Munich city after 6pm. Our team went for early lunch and the only girl Caroline joined us again.
During lunch, as usual, they were talking in French and I was sitting just opposite of Caroline. Laurent sensing that I felt bored, suddenly asked me how’s the water in SG. Haha, a rather dumb question. That was his exact question, “How’s water in SG?” I wanted to reply, “Well, his doing fine. Thanks for your concern.” I told him it taste as plain as in France. But I did ask him if we can drink from the tap in France and he said yes. This is to clear my doubt because I always see people buying cartons and cartons of mineral water. Caroline said we can’t drink from the tap in the train however. Laurent said the tap water contains chlorine which helps to kill bacteria. I told them that I think the SG water contains fluoride to help clean our teeth. Mr. Giant said he heard that France or some other country did that also but found out that too much fluoride is unhealthy and so stopped using it. After lunch on the way back, Mr. Giant asked if this weekend is my last here. I said yes but told him I would be in Germany. He said cool. Caroline was a bit shock. He then asked if I am leaving next Friday and I said yes. Then he just kept quiet. It is a funny feeling because in the past few weeks they would occasionally ask about my departure date and I would tell them 17th June. Then they would ask where I would be going, etc. Now it is just next week, they don’t ask about what I am going to do after that. It is like those previous times were just asking for the sake of asking and now it is the “real” asking of my departure date. And the reality is yes, I am leaving soon.
At 2pm, we went for Jaako and Mark’s presentation. Jaako presented his stuffs first which was in fact a lecture more than a presentation. He was talking about Programmable Graphical Units (GPU, can’t remember if the abbreviations mean that) and how flexible it is as compared to OpenGL and Direct3D. Then he talked about the functions, how to use them, how to integrate the functions into OpenGL codes, etc. It was super dry topic and moreover the room was like an oven. I don’t know if I was the only one who didn’t understand what he was talking about but I am sure everyone was as bored as I was. The rest of the guys probably knew what he was talking about because they were all graphics experts. I am just a bummer in CE. No real interest, let alone passion for computer science. In the end, Stephane asked Jaako a question. “You have introduced to us about these technologies but what is your research on them?” Wah. Sounds like a takan kind of question. Jaako said this presentation is to “sell” the goodness of PGU. As for his own research he did have some works and briefly talked about them. When Jaako finished his presentation I clapped out of courtesy although it was really boring. But I found myself the only one clapping and some of them turned and looked at me. Julien smiled.
I turned and asked Sebastien why was everyone so quiet? It looked as though all had fallen asleep. He said he wasn’t sure we should clap at the very end, i.e. after Mark finished his presentation also. But I think it is wrong. Because both of them were presenting two different things. I mean when one presenter finishes, we clap to thank him and at the same time welcome the next one. I guess the guys didn’t clap because they probably felt the presentation was poor. It was poor because of the dry topic. But that is not to say Jaako cannot be blamed at all. He can perhaps make it more interesting, which Mark did very well later and earned loud applause in the end.
Mark’s topic was on his research on BRDF (Bi-directional, something, something, something). For e.g. when light shines on an apple, it gets reflected into our eyes and we can see a spot of highlight on the surface. His research was to compute this highlight in a realistic and convenient way which was really cool. Previously, CG artists have to adjust 3 or 4 scrollbars on the interface to get the right combination. His technique was much simpler, easier to use and efficient. The artist can just use the brush and brushes over the area he wants to highlight. Then he can adjust the intensity by stroking the surface with the brush. The real image would be rendered in real time and the result will be instantaneously displayed. He even took an apple from the restaurant to illustrate his point. It was a very interesting presentation although he spoke a little too fast. But he did apologise in advance for his American accent which was very smart to do; esp. presenting to the French. Even for a layman in computer graphics like me, I was able to understand pretty well what was going on. At the end of the presentation, everyone clapped enthusiastically. I am not sure it was for both of them or just for Mark. Personally, my loud applause went to Mark. What was really bad about Jaako’s presentation was he will explain very longwindedly about a point and then sensing that we don’t get it, he will say, “never mind. That’s not important. The main point I want to stress is…”
After the presentation, everyone went back to work. I continued to surf the net and also tried to pick up some Java GUI coding for self-interest. Chris told me that he had decided to return to SG early, probably because he is broke. He said he just sent an email to xp telling her he will go to Munich in July. Then he changed his mind and so told me to tell xp tomorrow about that. Well, I guess he should have gone to enough places by now. He will be in Spain tomorrow till don’t know when and later in London 2 weeks later. Too bad I would not be in London then. I would be in Italy around that time. However, Chris did “order” me to take pictures of Germany for him because he wanted to go so much. Esp. that Castle I mentioned earlier. It is really one of the most famous castles in Europe. Before I left the office, I wished Laurent happy birthday in advance and went back to INSA. I have yet to pack my bag for the trip and need to sleep early because my train is at 0735am tomorrow. Damn early.
During lunch, as usual, they were talking in French and I was sitting just opposite of Caroline. Laurent sensing that I felt bored, suddenly asked me how’s the water in SG. Haha, a rather dumb question. That was his exact question, “How’s water in SG?” I wanted to reply, “Well, his doing fine. Thanks for your concern.” I told him it taste as plain as in France. But I did ask him if we can drink from the tap in France and he said yes. This is to clear my doubt because I always see people buying cartons and cartons of mineral water. Caroline said we can’t drink from the tap in the train however. Laurent said the tap water contains chlorine which helps to kill bacteria. I told them that I think the SG water contains fluoride to help clean our teeth. Mr. Giant said he heard that France or some other country did that also but found out that too much fluoride is unhealthy and so stopped using it. After lunch on the way back, Mr. Giant asked if this weekend is my last here. I said yes but told him I would be in Germany. He said cool. Caroline was a bit shock. He then asked if I am leaving next Friday and I said yes. Then he just kept quiet. It is a funny feeling because in the past few weeks they would occasionally ask about my departure date and I would tell them 17th June. Then they would ask where I would be going, etc. Now it is just next week, they don’t ask about what I am going to do after that. It is like those previous times were just asking for the sake of asking and now it is the “real” asking of my departure date. And the reality is yes, I am leaving soon.
At 2pm, we went for Jaako and Mark’s presentation. Jaako presented his stuffs first which was in fact a lecture more than a presentation. He was talking about Programmable Graphical Units (GPU, can’t remember if the abbreviations mean that) and how flexible it is as compared to OpenGL and Direct3D. Then he talked about the functions, how to use them, how to integrate the functions into OpenGL codes, etc. It was super dry topic and moreover the room was like an oven. I don’t know if I was the only one who didn’t understand what he was talking about but I am sure everyone was as bored as I was. The rest of the guys probably knew what he was talking about because they were all graphics experts. I am just a bummer in CE. No real interest, let alone passion for computer science. In the end, Stephane asked Jaako a question. “You have introduced to us about these technologies but what is your research on them?” Wah. Sounds like a takan kind of question. Jaako said this presentation is to “sell” the goodness of PGU. As for his own research he did have some works and briefly talked about them. When Jaako finished his presentation I clapped out of courtesy although it was really boring. But I found myself the only one clapping and some of them turned and looked at me. Julien smiled.
I turned and asked Sebastien why was everyone so quiet? It looked as though all had fallen asleep. He said he wasn’t sure we should clap at the very end, i.e. after Mark finished his presentation also. But I think it is wrong. Because both of them were presenting two different things. I mean when one presenter finishes, we clap to thank him and at the same time welcome the next one. I guess the guys didn’t clap because they probably felt the presentation was poor. It was poor because of the dry topic. But that is not to say Jaako cannot be blamed at all. He can perhaps make it more interesting, which Mark did very well later and earned loud applause in the end.
Mark’s topic was on his research on BRDF (Bi-directional, something, something, something). For e.g. when light shines on an apple, it gets reflected into our eyes and we can see a spot of highlight on the surface. His research was to compute this highlight in a realistic and convenient way which was really cool. Previously, CG artists have to adjust 3 or 4 scrollbars on the interface to get the right combination. His technique was much simpler, easier to use and efficient. The artist can just use the brush and brushes over the area he wants to highlight. Then he can adjust the intensity by stroking the surface with the brush. The real image would be rendered in real time and the result will be instantaneously displayed. He even took an apple from the restaurant to illustrate his point. It was a very interesting presentation although he spoke a little too fast. But he did apologise in advance for his American accent which was very smart to do; esp. presenting to the French. Even for a layman in computer graphics like me, I was able to understand pretty well what was going on. At the end of the presentation, everyone clapped enthusiastically. I am not sure it was for both of them or just for Mark. Personally, my loud applause went to Mark. What was really bad about Jaako’s presentation was he will explain very longwindedly about a point and then sensing that we don’t get it, he will say, “never mind. That’s not important. The main point I want to stress is…”
After the presentation, everyone went back to work. I continued to surf the net and also tried to pick up some Java GUI coding for self-interest. Chris told me that he had decided to return to SG early, probably because he is broke. He said he just sent an email to xp telling her he will go to Munich in July. Then he changed his mind and so told me to tell xp tomorrow about that. Well, I guess he should have gone to enough places by now. He will be in Spain tomorrow till don’t know when and later in London 2 weeks later. Too bad I would not be in London then. I would be in Italy around that time. However, Chris did “order” me to take pictures of Germany for him because he wanted to go so much. Esp. that Castle I mentioned earlier. It is really one of the most famous castles in Europe. Before I left the office, I wished Laurent happy birthday in advance and went back to INSA. I have yet to pack my bag for the trip and need to sleep early because my train is at 0735am tomorrow. Damn early.
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