Dr jwr – Computer Graphics & Image Processing.

Info here

It’s a few years since I finished my PhD, so things may have changed a bit.

First, it may depend on the subject, but you don’t need a PhD to be a lecturer. However, it does seem to be the most common route to switch into lecturing whilst doing your research. I taught part time for 4 years while I did my post-grad work. I was offered a post after I finished my research programme, but turned it down.

As for funding you really need to discuss that with the research department. I was lucky enough to get supported through a scholarship. Together with my teaching pay this was enough to see me through my research without any debt. A few of my colleagues were being funded my commercial companies who had interest in a particular piece of research. When I started there was also the possibility of EPSRC funding, not sure if that’s still available though.

-j

As I understand it it’s basically a gambling site. You place bets on an auction. Each bet uses up some of your credit.

-j

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Heckler rebuilt[/url] by jwrfooo[/url], on Flickr

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Heckler Rebuilt[/url] by jwrfooo[/url], on Flickr

-j

I used to use a pair of polarisers on my old Canon AE-1. It worked, but I had to be extremely careful about lens flare. I guess this is a consequence of stacking a couple of fairly cheap filters in front of the lens.

I find my 110 filter (1/1000th light transmission), although expensive, is spot on for daylight shooting of water. The downside is you cannot see anything through the viewfinder. I usually compose and focus the shot, then add the ND filter, then keep taking images until the exposure looks about right – it’s not a quick process!

-j

@molgrips – first one is a 3-image HDR from a Canon 30D, 10-22 lens and a B+W 110 ND filter. The other two are Canon 7D, 10-22 lens and Canon timer remote control.

-j

Creamy water thanks to a 4s exposure through a ridiculous ND filter:
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Collieston Coast[/url] by jwrfooo[/url], on Flickr

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A hint of Aurora Borealis[/url] by jwrfooo[/url], on Flickr

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Night Sky[/url] by jwrfooo[/url], on Flickr

-j

Got my stands now and am suitably impressed. I’m using them purely as storage stands as I already have a Park workshop stand. The only stumbling block was that it didn’t fit one of my bikes which was fitted with LX cranks. They are fine on my other bikes with XT and SLX cranks.

-j

@DezB – superb aren’t they? I got rid of my TZ10 and bought an S95 – there’s a whole world of difference between them.

-j

I found the TZ10 to have quite poor image quality compared to the TZ7. Too many pixels and gimmicks is my guess.

-j

I ordered some last week. Should arrive in the next few days… hopefully they live up to their reputation.

-j

I’ve used Adobe Kuler[/url] to generate palettes in the past. Can’t remember if it can output illustrator palette files though.

-j

I’d highly recommend taking a look at the Canon S95. It doesn’t have a huge zoom range (28-105mm), but the image quality is superb for a point-and-shoot. And it will shoot in raw.

I owned a Panasonic TZ10 briefly but was very disappointed with the image quality. I think they crammed too many pixels into the tiny sensor. The TZ7 was much better.

-j

This sums up Autumn for me. No bikes in shot, but I was out on a ride… honest!

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Fly Agaric[/url] by jwrfooo[/url], on Flickr

-j

I learnt using http://cocoadevcentral.com/ (mostly cocoa, but all Objective-C underneath) and just playing around with examples. F-Script is also a good way to experiment once you head down the Cocoa route. If you do go for a book I recommend the one from Aaron Hillegass.

-j

Yep – got a team going at work. I’ll be aiming for the full Sam Elliott this year…

(donate here[/url] if you like).

-j

My winter setup is a Nokian Gazza 2.3″ on the rear and a WTB Weirwolf 2.4″ on the front. The Gazza finds traction in the gloop and the ‘wolf is pretty good on wet & muddy rocks etc.

-j

I come from a C-programming background and certainly in my current role as a research / scientific programmer the demand for C has reduced dramatically. These days I work mostly in Python and only dip down to C or C++ when we want to speed up some low-level library routines (usually maths functions).

I think the universities are also moving away from the mid-level languages like C. I taught C and C++ for a number of years and the uni I was working for was just about to scrap those components in favour of Java and Perl when I left.

-j

Great read – thanks! This is one of the mini-adventures I have planned for next year, so I’ll bookmark your site for future reference.

-j

This is the route I typically do. It’s very similar to the one on the Ecurie Neep website.

-j

There are so many fantastic photos on this thread I’m a bit nervous about posting my efforts. Some from the last month and a couple of older ones:

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Hover Fly[/url] by jwrfooo[/url], on Flickr

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Collieston Coast[/url] by jwrfooo[/url], on Flickr

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Mouse Stealing Food[/url] by jwrfooo[/url], on Flickr

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Yellowhammer[/url] by jwrfooo[/url], on Flickr

-j

Brilliant! I can spend some time tonight reliving my childhood.

-j

Obviously you should seek proper advice – the underlying cause might not be clear. I had a bad back for years and eventually got to see a physio. I turns out my problems stemmed from shortened ham-string muscles pulling my pelvis and hence my lower back out of shape. After six months of being very careful to stretch properly after riding my back is so much better.

-j

I recently rebuilt my flickr account, so my stats are a bit screwy. Most viewed at the moment is:

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A hint of Aurora Borealis[/url] by jwrfooo[/url], on Flickr

-j

Here’s my Rat fresh from a day of touring up and down the coast:

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Roadrat[/url] by jwrfooo[/url], on Flickr

Behind the panniers there’s an 8-speed Alfine drivetrain.

-j

I really like my 2.2 CDTI – it’s a smashing little car. As mentioned above, watch out for dodgy clutches on the big diesel. The test is to get it into 4th or 5th gear and give it a boot full. Watch out for the clutch slipping as it climbs through the lower end of the rev range.

-j

@IanMmmm – yeah, your footage looks a lot steadier than mine. I am using the vent mount as well… I wonder it it’s faulty. Thanks for the sample video – looks great.

-j

How about Caslon for that classical feel?

-j

I like these threads…

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Sea King rescue helicopter[/url] by jwrfooo[/url], on Flickr

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Chinook flying[/url] by jwrfooo[/url], on Flickr

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Hind flying[/url] by jwrfooo[/url], on Flickr

I run with a Petzl Tikka 2+ – good, but a bit pricey. Works well although you do need the straps reasonably tight to stop it slipping.

-j

Best bike I’ve owned:

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-j

Woosh:
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Typhoon heading towards space[/url] by jwrfooo[/url], on Flickr

Big:
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B52 static display[/url] by jwrfooo[/url], on Flickr

@organic355: how do you find the mounts on your VHoldr? Mine seem really crap – very loose and wobbly. I think I’ll end up making my own.

-j

Ace… perhaps not:

-j

Standard gearing:
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Hub geared / rack / panniers:
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-j

I stuff my SLR into my rucksack whilst riding. I tend to store it in a slightly padded bag towards the middle of the rucksack. Despite a few crashes it's still fine. My thinking is that there's no point having a nice camera if you aren't going to take it out and use it.

-j

Added to my RSS feed – very amusing.

@DrJ – two points: 1) DNG is fully documented, so in theory if Adobe closed the standard someone could write a reader independently. 2) You can embed your original camera manufacturer RAW files within the DNG, so you don't lose anything apart from a bit of disk space.

Also of note is that DNG is basically an extension of the TIFF standard and I believe that the ISO group responsible for TIFF are looking at merging the changes into the next spec.

-j

Just a quick comment to those worried about not being able to read raw files in a few years time. The best bet for now is to convert your the proprietary RAW files into Adobe DNG which is designed as an open standard. This doesn't completely remove the burden of library maintenance, but it does make life easier.

-j