Last month I had a lung infection, and was sick for a whole time, so I did not have much time to do work. Perhaps some allergic/hypersensitive reaction which caused this, so still some examinations at the hospital, howevever it seems to be more stable now. It all started when I came back by airplane from Madrid and was hospitalized at the airport due to health issues.
I could just do some emailing and some work from home, and then it is still convenient to have the connection, however since health is also important, I also took a week vacation to recover.
Just had some extra time to do some writing articles from home, do some research, and make some planning, and yes.. time to review articles. Casework is not possible from home, however I still had discussion concerning a case since we had different opinions. I am not sure if I will make trips with airplanes that take more than 12 hours this year. The other things are continuing, so it is all progressing with ENFSI, AAFS and FIDIS. I will submit a proposal for a workshop and a paper I think.
Saturday, May 31, 2008
Thursday, May 01, 2008
May 2008
There have been a lot of things going on, and I did not have enough time to fill this blog. Last week I went to Madrid for ENFSI, in order to prepare our meeting for the Forensic IT working group www.enfsi.eu . I am also invited for the 19th conference of ANZFSS http://www.anzfss2008.org.au/ and it is the week before Madrid to give a plenary talk and a workshop.
And finally finished a deliverable for FIDIS www.fidis.net on Forensic Profiling. I took over a small website for our apartements in Zandvoort www.trompborgh.nl . And finally I have to rewrite some chapter of a book on forensic science. And of course some work for the encyclopedia. Still we are wondering if there are partners for EU projects on the forensic toolbox in digital evidence.
There are many holidays in the end of April and beginning of May. In forensic science we always have discussions on time of delivery however quality is always most important.
Also discussions on the market in forensic science. If we look at the Forensic Science Service http://www.forensic.gov.uk, it is an example where it did not work out that well at the moment. It appears that the police groups itself with procurements and that there is not a real open market, since there are only a few bidders. Also the prices of forensic casework are not undermined, and it is questionable if the so much needed Research and Development can be paid for if you leave it open to the market. It is however a relatively small market, where we see the figures of 40-50 millions euros available.
However the market is as such interesting for people that like media attention, and so it can be a spin off for other research. Also in the United States we see that there is not a real market in forensic casework in criminal justice, and of course in civil cases it is a real market.
Also in the Netherlands we see some developments with companies and universities that are starting forensic casework. There are also developments with a register where experts are certified for forensic casework.
Of course it is good to have more source where one can get forensic expertise of, however we should make sure that the quality is maintained. In the common law countries it is more obvious to have defense expert witnesses. They have a market on these, where they read the reports and will give comments on the methods being used.
Also in the system of Dutch Law (which is influenced by Napoleon), we have the prosecutors that are standing magistrates. In some cases a different opinion is needed, and a defense expert might be asked for.
There are people that claim that we should have a market in forensic science. And when I discuss with some of them, they claim I do not understand economics, since the market should work as such. Often the large laboraties are from the state, and are nearly monopolies, since the bills are paid directly by government. If we open the market everyone should have equal rights, of course under the condition that they have a good quality assurance system.
I am not sure what will happen. Since most labs have large backlogs it is also not good that these exist. If there is a market these back logs might vanish. It is good to do some small tests and look what works best. We also see that in healthcare some market working was good, since the waiting times have been improved very much. However there should be enough casework to keep the experience ready for each lab, and with some niche markets this might not work.
And finally finished a deliverable for FIDIS www.fidis.net on Forensic Profiling. I took over a small website for our apartements in Zandvoort www.trompborgh.nl . And finally I have to rewrite some chapter of a book on forensic science. And of course some work for the encyclopedia. Still we are wondering if there are partners for EU projects on the forensic toolbox in digital evidence.
There are many holidays in the end of April and beginning of May. In forensic science we always have discussions on time of delivery however quality is always most important.
Also discussions on the market in forensic science. If we look at the Forensic Science Service http://www.forensic.gov.uk, it is an example where it did not work out that well at the moment. It appears that the police groups itself with procurements and that there is not a real open market, since there are only a few bidders. Also the prices of forensic casework are not undermined, and it is questionable if the so much needed Research and Development can be paid for if you leave it open to the market. It is however a relatively small market, where we see the figures of 40-50 millions euros available.
However the market is as such interesting for people that like media attention, and so it can be a spin off for other research. Also in the United States we see that there is not a real market in forensic casework in criminal justice, and of course in civil cases it is a real market.
Also in the Netherlands we see some developments with companies and universities that are starting forensic casework. There are also developments with a register where experts are certified for forensic casework.
Of course it is good to have more source where one can get forensic expertise of, however we should make sure that the quality is maintained. In the common law countries it is more obvious to have defense expert witnesses. They have a market on these, where they read the reports and will give comments on the methods being used.
Also in the system of Dutch Law (which is influenced by Napoleon), we have the prosecutors that are standing magistrates. In some cases a different opinion is needed, and a defense expert might be asked for.
There are people that claim that we should have a market in forensic science. And when I discuss with some of them, they claim I do not understand economics, since the market should work as such. Often the large laboraties are from the state, and are nearly monopolies, since the bills are paid directly by government. If we open the market everyone should have equal rights, of course under the condition that they have a good quality assurance system.
I am not sure what will happen. Since most labs have large backlogs it is also not good that these exist. If there is a market these back logs might vanish. It is good to do some small tests and look what works best. We also see that in healthcare some market working was good, since the waiting times have been improved very much. However there should be enough casework to keep the experience ready for each lab, and with some niche markets this might not work.
Saturday, March 22, 2008
March 2008
It is a very nice start of the month. However it appears that there is some bad weather, so going on bicycle from Zandvoort to Heemstede is not always possible. We have started new projects.
Currently two students are working on PRNU, Pixel response Non Uniformity, and we try to use these methods in court. I am always aware of validation issues, and of course it should be more easy to use for the common user, for that reason we make them publicly available in Java on sourceforge if it works out fine.
Also students from Hogeschool Amsterdam are working on several projects. The project defraser, which is also open source at www.sourceforge.net/defraser, is really developing. We asked students to write plugins for JPEG, AVI en perhaps rewriting it for Linux. The software works for the analysis of videofiles, such as 3GP en MPEG, and could be used as assistance for repairing files. Since I am project leader of the project and also the database, I am very happy it works out fine.
Another project we are looking into is ENF collector. Electric Network Frequency appears to vary due to large generators, as is described by Catalin Grigoras. Currently we are looking into Java-applets for the collection of these, and of course we also need to do some more validation.
This month I also have a meeting of FIDIS www.fidis.net in Berlin. Our deliverable on forensic profiling is nearly ready, and I am very happy with the good collaboration. Also the JIDIS journal is getting good shape now, and our proposal for a new deliverable on identification (PRNU and face comparison) is also getting shape now.
The casework is also good, and sometimes surprising to find new solutions. This month I finished several reports, and now we add a form were the reader of the reports can give comments to the readability, since that is always an issue, especially if we make Bayesian way of conclusions (which are certainly in case with many hypothesis less easy to read).
Currently two students are working on PRNU, Pixel response Non Uniformity, and we try to use these methods in court. I am always aware of validation issues, and of course it should be more easy to use for the common user, for that reason we make them publicly available in Java on sourceforge if it works out fine.
Also students from Hogeschool Amsterdam are working on several projects. The project defraser, which is also open source at www.sourceforge.net/defraser, is really developing. We asked students to write plugins for JPEG, AVI en perhaps rewriting it for Linux. The software works for the analysis of videofiles, such as 3GP en MPEG, and could be used as assistance for repairing files. Since I am project leader of the project and also the database, I am very happy it works out fine.
Another project we are looking into is ENF collector. Electric Network Frequency appears to vary due to large generators, as is described by Catalin Grigoras. Currently we are looking into Java-applets for the collection of these, and of course we also need to do some more validation.
This month I also have a meeting of FIDIS www.fidis.net in Berlin. Our deliverable on forensic profiling is nearly ready, and I am very happy with the good collaboration. Also the JIDIS journal is getting good shape now, and our proposal for a new deliverable on identification (PRNU and face comparison) is also getting shape now.
The casework is also good, and sometimes surprising to find new solutions. This month I finished several reports, and now we add a form were the reader of the reports can give comments to the readability, since that is always an issue, especially if we make Bayesian way of conclusions (which are certainly in case with many hypothesis less easy to read).
Saturday, February 23, 2008
February 2008
The AAFS-meeting www.aafs.org in Washington DC was really nice. Finally the Section Digital Evidence and Multimedia got started this week, and I got elected as chairman. It was good to see that all green lights are on and all the efforts of many collegues in this field got rewarded, and it will be good for the forensic community to have this exciting field with fast developments within the scope. Also many presentations and one workshop where at the conference at this field.
Sunday, January 20, 2008
January 2008
This month is just warmer than normal in many senses. With my website I had some issues with traffic and spamming which was difficult to prevent, and as always takes more time than expected, however now everything seems to work again.
Sometimes you experience that some training at work can help you in you household as well. When moving we had a safe where we had lost the key from. As I had done in the past some lock-picking training when I was a tool mark examiner, now it appeared to work. After one hour working it appeared I could enter this safe, so I was happy again.
We also had some results of the somewhat worse housing market when selling our apartments in Amsterdam. It appeared that the buyer could have his mortgage ready much later than expected, since the banks are not so easy anymore. For that reason it was several weeks later than scheduled that the apartment was sold.
We started with several students this year on several research and development projects. It appeared that the deliverable for FIDIS is also progressing now as well as some work for the encyclopedia.
In February I will go to the AAFS, and of course look forward to this. Washington DC is a very nice place, and for Europeans it is not expensive anymore.
Sometimes you experience that some training at work can help you in you household as well. When moving we had a safe where we had lost the key from. As I had done in the past some lock-picking training when I was a tool mark examiner, now it appeared to work. After one hour working it appeared I could enter this safe, so I was happy again.
We also had some results of the somewhat worse housing market when selling our apartments in Amsterdam. It appeared that the buyer could have his mortgage ready much later than expected, since the banks are not so easy anymore. For that reason it was several weeks later than scheduled that the apartment was sold.
We started with several students this year on several research and development projects. It appeared that the deliverable for FIDIS is also progressing now as well as some work for the encyclopedia.
In February I will go to the AAFS, and of course look forward to this. Washington DC is a very nice place, and for Europeans it is not expensive anymore.
Monday, December 31, 2007
Sunday, December 30, 2007
December 2007
December was a busy month since we moved to near the sea from Amsterdam. It is more fresh air, and the view is beautiful. Also some casework had to be finished, however now I finished all casework I had to do this year.
As always many new plans for 2008. The AAFS www.aafs.org in Washington DC which is held in February should be prepared. I have the three presentations ready now. It will be a turbulent year with many changes, as far as I can see now.
As always many new plans for 2008. The AAFS www.aafs.org in Washington DC which is held in February should be prepared. I have the three presentations ready now. It will be a turbulent year with many changes, as far as I can see now.
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