Friday, October 30, 2009

RT: Computing in the 21st Century (Nov 4 Tokyo, Nov 6 Kyoto)

繰り返しになりますが、来週、
慶応大学(11/4)か京都大学(11/6)でお会いしましょう。
私が出演したプロモーションビデオも上映されると思います。
大学の方だけでなく、企業の研究者の方もwelcomeです
ここから事前登録できます。無料です!

Saturday, October 24, 2009

Otaru, or Failure to Capture the Underlying Information Needs

MY QUESTION:
Is there a convenience store near here?
HOTEL CLERK:
No, there isn't.

(But it turns out that there is a supermarket
inside the hotel complex. I bought a bottle of water there.
That was all I wanted. Why didn't she mention the supermarket?)

MY QUESTION:
How do I get to the Tengu Mountain Ropeway?
LADY AT TRAIN STATION INFO DESK:
Please take a bus at Platform #3.

(But it turns out that there are two Platform #3's.
Why didn't she tell me?
We nearly took the wrong bus.)

MY QUESTION:
Can we get a tax refund for this later at the airport?
LADY AT A GLASSWARE SHOP:
You can get it here.
MY QUESTION:
But can we get it later at the airport?
LADY AT A GLASSWARE SHOP:
You can get it here.
MY QUESTION:
(Are you one of those stupid AI systems from the seventies?)

This was my third visit to Otaru. Fourth? No thanks.
But we had good food and took good pictures.


View from the hotel room





Glassware factory





Gareth (right) and someone I don't know (left)




Friday, October 23, 2009

AIRS 2009 Day 3 (Boys Be Ambitious)


Liz and Chin-Yew


"Excellent luck" for me, thank you.







Thanks again to Prof Masaharu Yoshioka and Prof Takuya Kida -
they've done an incredible job as local organisers.

And so AIRS 2009 is over.

Thursday, October 22, 2009

AIRS 2009 Day 2




Jeffrey Paul's talk on mobile application marketplace.




Banquet: Excellent food!
Please browse on and regret that you didn't come to AIRS 2009.















The best paper award (the first ever at AIRS) was given
to Falk Scholer and Andrew Turpin.
The paper was selected because Falk's slides contained
zombies.

(Dear students - This is a joke by the way. A zombie in your
presentation usually does not get you a best paper award.)

Wednesday, October 21, 2009

AIRS 2009 Day 1

Okay, the number of submissions was small this year,
but we're actually having first-rate papers.




Masaharu Yoshioka the REAL conference chair
(He did all the work, together with Takuya Kida.)


Falk's slide showing zombies (users).


Beers at the reception.

Then I took some people to an Izakaya and had some Sake.

Now I'm drinking some more at the hotel.

And I think I now know which paper is going to receive the best paper award at the banquet tomorrow.

IPSJ SIGFI Information Access Symposium 2009

第一回情報アクセスシンポジウム
主催:情報処理学会 情報学基礎研究会(FI研)。
来年度より情報基礎とアクセス技術研究会(IFAT=アイファット)に改称予定。


神門先生の招待講演


黒橋先生の招待講演



稲垣さんの招待講演



金田さんの招待講演



パネル


吉岡先生のサマリ