Anyone still want to do algorithms?

Job finding can be particularly frustrating when you know that universities in Hong Kong do recruit people, but only those doing databases like him and him...

Every country needs CS faculty...

I better take back my words around two weeks before. I hope what I heard is not true: well, a visiting/guest is finally moving to T... anyway, not a country I'd like to go. (You don't have the European Champions League Final at the same country every year, do you?) But it seems he has some connections over there before.

What makes me more worried is with his "background", the "shine" he got is still not enough to allow him to stay here (?). As for his ability, on one hand he has been PC member for some conferences; on the other hand you can know how "good" his teaching is by googling...

UK trip day 4

This is supposed to be a free travel day, but actually not much is done. First, a 3-hour train from Liverpool back to London occupies the whole morning. Before going to the airport, I have only around 2 - 3 hours in London. I only go around Westminster, the Big Ben, and the London eye. This is a Saturday and there is a lot of people everywhere. I could have gone to a bit more places, but the admin people of the underground decided to close two lines on weekends, which are exactly those that passes through some tourist attractions. Another line is having "severe delay".
I end up travelling along almost the same path returning to the starting point. Then I reach the airport only to know that the flight is delayed by an hour...

UK trip day 3

In the morning I took a 2-hour train to Liverpool. It needed a change, and the first train was small and crowded, but the second train was fine. When I arrived, Prudence was already waiting me at the train station. She took me to have the famous "fish and chips" as lunch. According to what she said, that is a better one around there and I find it acceptable, too!

We walked up to the campus. Her office is situated in the same floor as some radioactive laboratories. And the building has a real lot of doors - every now and then you open a door and get into a very small closed area with three other doors at the three other sides...

And the talk itself. There are exactly five people including Prudence in the audience. That's good, as I didn't have even a bit of preparation for it. And one of them made the important observation that the "motivation" of the research has absolutely nothing to do with the scheduling problem being studied!

After the talk we walk around the city, in particular going to the Liverpool football club souvenir shop. And it is exactly on this day that the UEFA announced that Liverpool can defend their European Champion title. See I bring good luck here, shouldn't they give me some free souvenirs?

UK trip day 2

This is the day of formal interview. In the morning it is the talk. There are a total of 4 candidates, and they do it in alphabetical order of surnames. Still, having a surname starting F, I'm the third one to give the talk.

The talk itself is not too bad; at least this is what I think. They do it in a lecture theatre, which is not something I expected. Around 10 - 20 people there. They ask quite a number of questions, some of which I'm not entirely clear as to their relevance, like "where do you do this research"...

They take us to lunch in a staff restaurant. As usual, I don't speak in lunch...

In the afternoon there is a formal interview. Interview panel 有五個人：chair 的是個比美國國防部長拉姆斯菲爾德面口稍為好一點的 pro-vice-chancellor. 一個是 CS dept head, 另一個也是 CS faculty staff, 一早見過的。還有貌似聯合國秘書長安南的 law department professor, 與及貌似愛恩斯坦的一位 structural biologist. 至於 interview 的慘況就不要提了... 正當我 nervous 得答非所問，張口結舌之際，我眼尾望到阿秘書小姐係到向我扮鬼臉... 之後似乎答得好左dd...

After the interview I go back to the city centre... and like many other places in Europe, shops close at exactly 5 pm. At 6 pm or so I'm buying food from a KFC which, well, is only semi-operating... Along the way I also heard some Cantonese for the first time here...

UK trip day 1

[So I've finally come back from UK. I have very limited internet access over there and hence not blogging; but to make it more clear what's going on, let's pretend I'm writing this every day during the trip... (12/6/05)]

I arrive London early in the morning. Since I'm not the one to pay, an expensive airline is chosen. But expensive is not always the same as good: the flight is the coldest I have ever taken, one of the toilet is closed for repair, my screen is basically not functioning, etc.

Anyway, after that I took the underground and then a 75-minute train to Leicester. I had a short walk around the city centre for a while, before going to the university in the afternoon to visit the faculty "informally". It's really sunny over there and I feel it even hotter than Hong Kong...

As reported in this page there are lots of Indians there. Not much Chinese in the city, but quite some Chinese students in the campus, although the campus is within walking distance to the city centre. The first four Chinese characters that I see in the city is 專業剪髮 ...

I meet with four faculty staff and a PhD student, all in the Algorithms and Complexity group. Perhaps the most important observation is that one of them has a wife from mainland China, another has a Taiwanese wife, yet another has some connections with Chinese that I don't remember...

free trip (2)

For several years I've been trying to hide myself from the truth. Now that a free trip is really put in front of me, I'm finally forced to think seriously about the cruel reality of the world. Am I really prepared to go away??? Why can't I be like some people who seem to hang around as visiting or guests forever?

Anyway. I'll be going here first, and afterwards have a visit to Prudence.