Julien's fuzzy blog

A campain by Act-Up Paris and the "9eme Collectif de Sans-Papiers".

Back to work after a deserved lazy week-end. No paper to focus on now. I can concentrate on long-term objectives again but I guess it's also time to re-evaluate my way of working and interacting with people. I'll start probably by reading again Richard Hamming's talk: You and Your Research. A short quotation to start with:

"You find this happening again and again; good scientists will fight the system rather than learn to work with the system and take advantage of all the system has to offer. It has a lot, if you learn how to use it. It takes patience, but you can learn how to use the system pretty well, and you can learn how to get around it. After all, if you want a decision `No', you just go to your boss and get a `No' easy. If you want to do something, don't ask, do it. Present him with an accomplished fact. Don't give him a chance to tell you `No'. But if you want a `No', it's easy to get a `No'."

Writing a paper at the moment, an e-mail was suddenly sent to the \LaTeX users:

We MUST move your writing to MS Word for all your future articles.
I won't waffle about the reasons (real or official) (*), but I'm \textbf{really} unhappy about it \includegraphics{sad.png}. First on a technical point of view, I'm going to have to care about the style and so on. Versions won't be compatible on all computers, EndNote never works, I can't work from home as I don't have MS Windows, etc ...
Secondly, this seriously hurts my ethics. Lately I've been more and more reluctant to proprietary software. Should I really compromise and use this shit ? Is that a lab of computer scientists or of businessmen ?

\begin{Huge}\textbf{ ARRRGGGGG }\end{Huge}

(*) Actually, I can't resist to give you the first reason I was told: \textit{MS Word is more compatible} - troll inside !

A nice picture sent by Karim. I don't know if it's a real one, and if it has really been written by the tube staff, but quite funny, though ...

Today the European Parliament firmly rejected the "Computer Implemented Inventions Directive" by 648 votes to 14 ! That will make the great news of the day !

• the BBC article
• the article of Libé (in French)
• more about the concept of free software

I have decided to use the occasion of the UTMB to raise some funds to fight AIDS in Africa, through a charity called AVERT. There is a serious lack of political and religious commitment to provide enough funds and resources for eduction and medical care. Patents on specific medicine leave millions of people without efficient treatment: 2.3 millions of inhabitants of Subsaharan Africa died because of AIDS in 2004. There is still time to reverse the epidemic that is sweeping across Africa.

It's time to act now !
I've chosen AVERT, a charity contributing to numerous projects around the world, helping with the problem of HIV/AIDS in countries where there is a high or increasing rate of infection such as South Africa or the Russian Federation.

It would be great if you could sponsor me for a fixed amount or make a pledge per kilometre actually run - this will give me some more courage to continue.

Thank you !

Donation options:

• directly to me in cash or cheques (GPB or Euro) - just come and see me !
  • for a simple donation
  • for a pledge per kilometre
• online simple donation through justgiving

For more information:

• AVERT
• UNAIDS
• last UNAIDS report (PDF - 2.8MB)
• e-mail me

See also the static page.

I thought making soap using grease from liposuction only happens in Fight Club. An artist said he used Berlusconi's grease to make soap ... Is quite funny though, isn't it ?

- original article in French
- google-translated article - fair enough to understand

PS: I know the post frequency has dropped last weeks. I'm sorry about that, I've nothing more interesting to write at the moment...

French Prime Minister JP Raffarin has become an idol for some people since he tried to speak English about the European Constitution. I reckon the accent is not that bad, but the meaning...


click to get the video

I'm sorry, it's in wmv format I couldn't translate it to divx in a fairly good quality with mencoder (5000-line man page...).

Seen on a banner hanging in front the "Lycée Français Charles de Gaulle" (French high school) on Cromwell Road - in the middle of many other slogans . I'm quite impressed, because this high school is supposed to be very strict.

Note to the non-French readers: I won't translate the title, let you imagine... . François Fillon is the current French Minister for National Education, Higher Education and Research. And tries to pass a very unpopular law. A bit more information on the BBC web site.

It reminds me the students marchs I've done a couple of years ago. By the way, I was wondering if the French students here in London can and will demonstrate in UK. It would be great to show to the French government that even from overseas people strongly disagree. Come on guys !