CTIVISM for software freedom seems to have weakened somewhat. Truth be said, the FSF saw its power declining, key staff at the FSF left, and Android, which champions the Linux ideology in some sense, does almost nothing for GNU and very little for software freedom. Its code is Free/open source, but it also embraces DRM and other nasties.

Speaking for myself, I intend to extend my activism to freedom in general, as well as justice. For the past 5 years or so I’ve described myself as an advocate of fair competition. This also implies greater parity and more opportunities for new players, as opposed to the cabal of corporations that reign the status quo.

Yesterday I spent a long time speaking to a gentleman from Afghanistan. He came to the UK some years ago and I’ve had several opportunities to speak to him and ultimately befriend him. Things in his own country are grim, he told me, but he does not seem bothered by police state culture in the West, let alone the unjust inequality. For some people, perhaps not idealists or perfectionists, a world full of flaws is OK and not worth improving. But one needs to always be reminded that progress in society never happens without the hard work of those sacrificing their life for good causes.

George Bernard Shaw once said: “The resonable man adapts himself to the world; the unresonable on persists in trying to adapt the world to himself. Therefore all progress depends on the unreasonable man.”

ersonal lives are typically irrelevant to the Web, so if you don’t care about this blog as a personal journal, then jog on to save time. A lot of the content has been about computer vision (since 2004), but sometimes I just wish to share personal stories and this is my only personal space (unlike Techrights or various accounts which are merely hosted by a third party).

The past week or so has been great over here. It feels like summer. Last Thursday I went out for dinner with a friend and the following day to another restaurant with another friend, with whom I might start a company soon (we are both academics, he is a professor). The following day we met again and the day afterward there was BBQ out in the wild. But it was short-lived as time was limited (it was followed by music at my house for about 4 hours), so after some time riding in the sun and learning new areas around Manchester we prepared for a massive BBQ and a bonfire, followed by a pub crawl. The temperatures today might reach 28 degrees (centigrade), and there is no end in sight yet to this sort of heat wave that motivates me to go cycling again in a while. Every day is full of play and fun.

In other personal news, we’ve finally found a venue for the wedding and the missus is looking at some dresses. With a quarter of the day being consumed by conversations with her I have not had much time for activism as of late. I hope this will change.

Yesterday at the BBQ

The morning after (today)

HAVE NOT had much time to blog recently simply because a lot was going on in my personal life. December 18^th is our provisional wedding date and we’re preparing many things. Here are some photos from last week (the second one was edited by her cousin, who took the photo on her phone).

The Crowne Plaza (taken with Android smartphone)

At the beach

Stargazing

Stargazing II

Stargazing III

A walk out in nature

Matching shirts

The working area

watching a DVD

A day in the orchard

Near our cabin

Our view to the lake from the hotel

Walk around the lake at night

In the outdoor pool

The cabin’s jacuzzi

First time wearing the sunglasses (a gift)

illow Garage was created by former Google employees with a talent in robotics. The Willow Garage Web site links to this new page on OpenCV for Android, bringing together detailed instructions. OpenCV is used widely in research labs and on mobile platform it will be interesting to test some cutting-edge methods. It is possible that I will soon explore this path of work. But first, starting tomorrow, I shall spend 8 days with my fiancée.

Clinical and exercise studies have always been a passion of mine, not just computer vision and graphics. I am currently hooking up with some good folks who are eager to start some projects and perhaps companies (based around computer science, which is what everyone in my family does), meaning that there will not be much free time for my activism. I will be away from Techrights until the end of next week.

HE YEAR 2010 had me do research on cardiac activity (image sequences) and in 2011 is was mostly 3-D surface geometry. Soon I might be switching to sequences again and also contribute to Android in one way or another, hence the past 3 posts.

LTHOUGH it’s premature to make predictions or statements of intent, it seems possible that I will add to my existing jobs and in the process move down south near London. I was on vacation there a couple of years back, but otherwise it’s just a place that I visit every 2-3 months. One employer of mine is based there, so I might move there permanently.

Techrights is still my love and passion, so I have no plan to cease promoting Free/open source software (FOSS) in that site. In all my jobs I deal with FOSS and all code that I produce is — as ever before — free for inspection, reuse, and sharing. FOSS encourages better coding and it improves solidarity in our society.