Summer has finally arrived to Britain, so we have had several heavy rains as part of it. However, according to some newspapers it could be the wettest June In 100 Years. It is very funny that many people around the world is complaining about how their summer is too hot, perhaps the following picture can illustrate how we feel about it:
As part of my dissertation work, I gave the presentation to the e-science team and the clinicians from the national genetics reference laboratory, it was a good experience and a great opportunity for developing transferable skills. However, I was pretty nervous for most of the presentation. The reason for this is that I didn’t expect to have such a large audience, there was around 20 people in the presentation, including a person hearing us through Skype. I am sure I will do it much better the next time.
In other news, we had the visit of the prominent Dr. Richard Stallman to our university. He spoke about the Free Software Movement, which fights for the rights of the users as the absolute owners of their computer systems. Diverse forms of DRMs(Digital Rights Management) exist for restricting the way someone can use their own devices, and gives the control of them to some other entity or business.
Moreover, Dr. Stallman envisions a world in which we can share anything, and for every piece of art we should be able to give a voluntary contribution. He also mentioned that a special tax should be payed towards supporting the creation of art, such as films, books and music. These are very impressive ideas indeed, and very well supported, perhaps he is able to see the future of humanity in which art is available to everyone, in which the sharing of knowledge is not forbidden, but encouraged. However, it may be too far ahead of us, and we may never see it happening. If you are interested in these topics you can find more information in the following links:
I hope you’ve enjoyed reading me. See you next month!