Colleagues

April 2007

Amsterdam central station

I am just using my new phone K800i where I have UMTS and can directly post on this blog and made a photograph out from the window of our appartement in Amsterdam. It seems to be convenient, however for me it was also important that the phone has a radio on it. Today I had a phone conference with this new phone, and tested VOIP over UMTS. It did work, however it appeared that I had some latency issues.

As always enjoying new things. Yesterday some casework and a reconstruction at night, since we had to have similar conditions. This week it was somewhat more quiet due to Eastern, so a good time to think on old projects that should have been finished, and look how to have some new projects and possibilities.

March 2007

The AAFS www.aafs.org was a very interesting conference in which progress has been made to form a digital evidence and multimedia section. After this conference I didn't have much time, due to backlogs. We had to write new and modified project proposals, do casework, give advise, and had several visitors.

Furthermore I went to Damascus for one week. It was a nice and relaxed vacation. We rented a car and visited many nice sites and visited very good restaurants. Our hotel was in the mountains around Damascus, and it was a good time to relax.

Currently I am sitting at the FIDIS www.fidis.net general meeting. Many interesting talks on identity related issues. As leader of WP 6, it appears we had some trouble with delivering the deliverable on time. The issue is that it was difficult to find a forensic profiler with the necessary clearance on time. Suddenly we are working on a solution by cooperating with the University of Lausanne, and I have a good feeling that this deliverable will be finished in 2006. The nice part of FIDIS is that it is more multi-disciplinary, so I get more insights in different perspectives.

February 2007

I am looking forward to the AAFS meeting in San Antonio this month. This time, I organize a workshop, give two papers, and even receive an award. I like the good atmosphere of the AAFS, the interesting people to meet, and some good discussions about forensic science. It is 8 hours flying at least, so I will stay one day longer to get used to the time difference.

Currently I am preparing the presentations. However it appears that this time my planning and scheduling is better than before. I got it ready last week, and everything was in time. Also my casework has been in time. We are also doing software project with students, and I am looking what will happen with these. Also as chairperson of the employees representatives, I had several meeting, and since our director will change, we have some interesting times. Also the organization is expanding now, so it looks very optimistic.

December 2006 (3)

At the end of december, finishing tasks and deadlines. The handouts of the AAFS workshop in February should be ready now. Then I have some work for writing and reviewing articles. Also the FIDIS www.fidis.net network of excellence asks me to write a small contribution to a deliverable, which should be finished soon.

The most suprising is that I have to go to court on the 27 December 2006, to explain a report that I have written on CCTV-evidence. Normally you just can finish and clean tasks, however it belongs to the job. Furthermore I have to be reachable for my work 24 hours a day these two weeks, in case expertise is needed. However it is all nice. I also have to clean up my mailbox, since it appeared I had 9 Gigabytes in my mailbox and the mailserver was not very happy with that. That also takes some work (since I like to have all mail available of the past for the information).

December 2006 (2)

After the vacation and one week sickness due to some side effects of cholesterol medication where I had this catherisation in a hospital since it appeared to effect the hart, I am finally relaxing. Stopped the medicine, and I was very glad that the effects were disappearing.

When I came back at the office, I had the usual piles of mails and emails and work. It appeared that our director gets a promotion and moves away. Then it appeared that in the week I was in hospital and at home due to the side effects, the conference on digital evidence I organised, did not work out too well. I should have finished the program last week and call the persons if they really would show up. However then it appeared that due to bad luck on one afternoon none of the three workshops worked out.

That week I went to a conference with chairpersons of ENFSI Working group www.enfsi.org . Since I had somewhat too many tasks (and also had to check with the hospital if I could fly again, since I also had many contusions in my arm due to the catherisation, which took more time then expected since they had to test different catheters before the right one came in the right hart chamber). I came in one day later. It was very nice organized in Tallinn, Estonia. Our director is current president of the ENFSI, and it was a good experience. We had an open discussion. Also the declaration of FIDIS in Budapest www.fidis.net where I was involved in earlier was discussed, since it was the biometric passport which was discussed here.

Last week it was nice at the office. I had to do some casework. In one case we had to do many comparison, however we still needed some extra material to draw a conclusion. Also discussions on the profile of the new director (since I am chairman of the employees council). Then later on a received a letter to testify in court for a case I did several months ago. So even on 27 December an appointment. Normally this week it somewhat more quiet.

Also the preparation work for the different tasks I have to do :
- FIDIS writing some contributions
- the encyclopedia writhing a contribution and keeping track of the contributors
- AAFS workshop handout

It suddenly appeared also that two of my projects where cut in their budget. One on the biometric devices and the other one of measurement of noise in camera's for identification (since we would like to validate this). It appeared that I could find alternative budget in the NFI for the second, however I have to spend the money this year. And in government organisations that is not easy.. since these processes take longs. However I am always positive and try to find a solution for that. Mostly if you really spend some time in these processes they speed up. The biometric devices is more interesting, however perhaps partly we can do it with the funding of FIDIS. And most of the times you will find new solutions if you can find them. It makes the work also even nicer ;)

December 2006

After a nice vacation in the Ukraine and Turkey, where we went from Kiev to Odessa, by ferry over the black sea, to Istanbul, and further south to Izmir. After that we stayed in a five star hotel for only 25 euro per night, since it is the season of the year that not many people go on vacation, we flew back to Brussels and took a train to Amsterdam. It was a nice vacation.

Unfortunately when I came back I had chest pain, and already used nitroglycerine spray prescribed by a cardiologist (which was taken away from me due to the fluid regulations in airplanes), the doctor decided to send me to the emergency service of the hospital by ambulance, because they suspected a heart attack based on the ECG. I got more nitro, and had to stay in corony care for a night with all monitors around me. Then they had to make a catheterisation to the heart which could be done at the same day. The left heart chamber was clear, and in good condition. They did the cathetarisation via the wrist and it took ten different catheters before the reached the right heart chamber. Also this one was fine, so I was satisfied that there was nothing serious. I could go home, and it appeared that everything went well.

At least writing emails gets somewhat more troublesome, due to the contusions on my wrist caused by the catherisation. Then, when I arrived home, I had the same effects with pain on the chest. I was thinking what could have caused this, and suddenly I realised that in the hospital they did not have the medicine Modalim on stock which was prescribed by the home practioner several weeks earlier. It appeared that as soon as I use this medicine the pain came back. So just testing this effect, and hope it helps to resolve the pain. It is indeed somewhat frightening if you have these kinds of experiences, since I try to do enough exercise (by bicycle to the work and three times a week workout at the health club), and also try to keep the diet under control. Anyway, I had seen enough doctors this week, and hope to start up next week with my work.

Well at least, it changed my planning in my agenda. I have to reschedule, and look what to do this month, and which appointments I should skip.