A student of mine has done an M.Sc. thesis on choosing the right voice for smart homes. It was a very nice thesis, and all that prevents us from publishing it is lack of participants, sooo ... cue some more recruiting!

My student has set up a neat, short little experiment hereIt will only take you 15 minutes. All you need is a computer with sound ( Read more... )

If you know my real name, you can find me on Facebook and LinkedIn, but I've just deleted my Bebo account (didn't even know I had one ...). Otherwise, it's just too much to keep up with :(

1. I'm still alive
2. I always read
3. I rarely comment
4. I almost never post ...

BUT - I need to make an exception today because I need to thank the lovely joesther for the books she gave me in exchange for HP7 on CD and in book format. I also need to salute the amazing angua9 for sending me the signed American edition of HP7, which arrived safe and well last ( Read more... )

Nicked from awelkin1. Professor - about right ( Read more... )

So, she's two now. And lots of things have happened. First, there's the two-word phase, which she entered with abandon a week before her second birthday last week. Now, it's "get up mama", "kaffee oma" (coffee grandma), "nass hose" (wet trousers) and all sorts of goodies. Her vocabulary's exploding all at the same time, with 1-3 new words per day. ( Read more... )

To everybody I'm sending books to, chrysantza (free book), stereo_m, h311ybean, joesther, I have to apologise - haven't sent them off yet. I've been crazy busy ever since organising scots_hallows and haven't had a chance to drop the books off to the post office. To compensate for this (and especially to compensate for the delay joesther will have to endure!), I'll give you free P&P and send all the ( Read more... )

My old provider sent me an email on July 20 telling me they're shutting down at the end of July. As a courtesy, servers will still be up until the end of August. This, obviously, comes at the worst possible time for me, what with leaving for Germany this week yadda yadda ( Read more... )

Careful, major spoilers ahead!

( My take )

The weekend in bullet points:

Thursday, 5.15pm: perceval, sarka and hildigunnur meet for coffee. A serious food shop follows, capped by Tiramisu chez perceval

Friday, 3pm: Having double-booked herself (doh!) perceval arrives at the train station to meet miriammoules and jessandi. cynthia_black arrives 20 minutes later.

4pm: We meet sarka and hildigunnur and repair to chez perceval for the dumping of various luggage items ( Read more... )

As soon as we're back with our books (around 1am British Summer Time), we'll set up a laptop and webcam in the attic where we'll be reading. You can reach us via my YAHOO IM address. Feel free to (virtually) join us! We'll leave the cam running as long as people are reading ( Read more... )