Quantum Forest

Yesterday was my first Father’s day; I mean as a father, of course. The day started at 5am with Orlando reciting a 45 minutes poem full of goos and gaas, and smiles. Really memorable. It is incredible to see how much he is changing everyday.

I later called my dad, 11,000 km away and 14 hours time difference to say ‘Happy father’s day’. It was a real surprise for him: Father’s day in Australia and in South America are in completely different times of the year.

Later during the day I felt touched by the news coming from Beslan (North Ossetia): the sadness of so many wasted lives due to fundamentalism. What would I do if I were in that situation? There are no words to express the horror suffered by those people, and here we are on the other side of the world without much that can be done.

Last Sunday I was watching Chilean news in SBS, a multicultural TV station in Australia. One of the news was that thousands of files documenting the violation of human rights during Augusto Pinochet’s dictatorship are slowly disintegrating. This is mainly due to the original poor quality of the documents and lack of proper care. This situation affects many documents archived by Vicaría de la Solidaridad (The Solidarity Vicariate) — an organisation to defend human rights created by the Catholic church — and the Agrupación de Familiares de Detenidos Desaparecidos (a group of family of missing people).

The news produced a deep sadness on me. It reminded me of “In the name of the rose” by Umberto Eco, where a library is completely burned and there is a feeling of irreparability: there is nothing that can be done to recover what was lost. In the case of the Chilean files, they document part of terrible recent history and the papers are fading in the same way that people’s memories vanish. The first things to go are the small details, they are followed by the names and finally we are left with a mosaic of pictures standing in a poster.

I have not written for a while about Orlando. No, I have not lost interest on him; on the contrary, there is so much interest that I try to spend as much time as possible with him doing things rather than writing about it.

Several people have asked for new pictures of Orlando. Here we have a couple when he was just three months old (two weeks ago):

After a slow start he is catching up on weight (5.5 kg) and size (63 cm) and becoming very talkative, with lots of goo, gaa, etc. He is smiling very often and starting to sleep for longer during night (for the relief of his parents).

Some days ago I bought a PalmOne Tungsten T3. I have slowly been exploring (and discovering) software and hardware features.

Yesterday, I went to K-mart and saw a Kodak digital lab. I was starting to pull the SD card off my PDA when I realised that the lab had an infrared port. A few taps and I was in ‘photo’ beaming Orlando’s pictures to the lab. A few seconds later I had photo quality prints of the cute boy. I really love when technology works without any hitches!

I have also been testing and buying some additional things for the PDA: Agendus Pro, a calendar replacement (which I bought, it is very good value); Bonsai, an outliner (which I am testing but I have not bought yet); and Handbase a database that I am starting to evaluate. I have also purchased a Krusell leather cover for the PDA, which has good quality, although it can not be used while synchronising, and Brando’s WorkShop Screen Protector. This screen protectors are great, washable and the delivery took only four days from Hong Kong. Before I purchased Brando’s products I tried with Belkin’s clear screens, but they were too short for the T3 and not worth the money, so I took them back to the shop for a refund.

Since Orlando’s arrival last week I have had almost no time for updating this weblog or for my usual participation in numerous internet fora. No, I am not complaining but only presenting a statement of fact. It has been good to have a rest from many endless discussions (for example, about the environment in Tasmania) and focus in the new little one. In addition, I have been too sleepy to present any coherent thoughts or drive a good argument.

I have also been working shorter hours, but of a much higher quality. The units of work per time spent have more than doubled. There are so many things that I need to complete that I do not have much time for web browsing, TV or any other “time wasters”. This is great, but I still want to spend more time planning the next year, so I can finish some interesting pending projects.

In another note, I had never been much of a car person; my basic philosophy has always been ‘if it goes forwards and backwards is OK’. Now I love cars, not because of the make, features and speed, but because they are great at soothing babies. If we need to travel, Orlando will cry at most four blocks and then he is sound asleep. What a great treat for struggling first time parents!

While soothing Orlando I have been reading again the notes on project management that I got in a course ran by John Smyrk. They are very (may be too) concise, but present a good structure on things to take into account for the management of projects. For example, the distinctions between outputs and outcomes, the non-existence of so-called “solutions”, ways of determining the stakeholders, etc. Some of the forms used for the ITO (Input Transformation Output) approach are available in this Tasmanian Government web site. I will probably also start re-reading J.R. Turner’s book The handbook of project-based management, which seems to go pretty much with the ITO model.

It has been a rather long week in hospital, coming in and out at strange hours, with people cleaning the streets and empty carparks. It has been a completely new experience of the city.

In one of the longest days ever, Orlando arrived on May 10 with nearly three kilograms and a beautiful smile. He came with the greatest gift of them all: a new life full of challenges and opportunities.

As many researchers, I try to work with the latest available tools—particularly statistical software—to make my life easier. The newer the tools, the more up-to-date are the procedures behind the tool. There are a couple of exemptions to these ‘rule’: I still use a trusty Hewlett Packard HP 41CV scientific calculator (yes, with Reverse Polish Notation) and at work we keep using a Barr & Stroud dendrometer.

Barr & Stroud dendrometers are instruments used to find the diameter of a tree at a given height, and are based on rangefinders designed by Barr & Stroud (a Scottish engineering firm) for the British Navy and Army. Specifically, the FP9 dendrometer is based on a tank rangefinder and it is a highly accurate instrument.

Yesterday, Adrian was teaching David and me how to calibrate our FP9 before using it to measure giant trees. The procedure is rather different to the calibration of our laser tools, and involves mucking around with a screwdriver until we get it right.

We have the FP9 number 44 and one cannot stop thinking of what has been the fate of the previous 43 dendrometers. Occasionally, one can find references to Barr & Stroud dendrometers being used in all sort of exotic locations. They are—together with the HP41—relics from a great engineering past.

P.S. After changing jobs at the end of 2005 I do not have access to either the HP 41C or the Barr & Stroud.