Posts in category –

Yellow!

It has been a long time since I wrote my last post and meanwhile a lot has happened. So prepare yourself for some ultra-mega-spectacular summary of these last few weeks.

• 10th of June: done at TNO.
• “free” time for the next 3-4 weeks.
• start with my thesis project.

Bam.

Finishing the report for TNO still took a lot of time, which resulting in a busy last work day. But when it was over, it was over. And I could finally have some “free”-time.

In those 3-4 weeks of having no obligatory tasks, it still did not feel like vacation. This was mainly due to an assignment that I had to finish for my last course. Although I enjoyed myself, this creeping thought of having this assignment kind of killed the whole “freedom” feeling.

Eventually I had to start working on this assignment. I assumed that it would be ‘easy’ and I would get it done in no-time, but it turned out to be the other way… Because of my attitude I procastinated a lot which resulted in me working very hard in the last two weeks to really complete it on time.
I know it was my own choice to do it this way and I could have handled it differently but I just wanted to start my thesis project as soon as possible.

And now, the rollercoaster-ride called the “thesis project” has started and will be done in 9 months (approximately/hopefully). Which means that after that time I should have made up my mind on where and what I want to work/live on/in.

It is strange how fast it all goes. The hardest part for me now is to choose where I would like to work. Which comes down to the question: “what kind of stuff do I want to do for 40 hours a week?”
I think you can never really have a ‘good’ answer to that question until you just try something. So that’s probably what will happen over time.

Oh, before I forget! This time I would include a puzzle. According to Wikipedia, a puzzle can be a game, problem or a toy that tests a person’s ingenuity. And this word represents the quality of being clever, orginial or inventive.

The “problem” I have found is:
You are going to visit your grandmother on Mother’s day. You want to give her two cakes. However, to get to her house you must cross seven bridges. At each bridge is a troll who demands ½ of all of your cakes as the price to pass. However, this troll, being a nice troll, feels bad and gives you back 1 of the cakes that he took.

So actually, you could consider this more of a riddle than a puzzle… But maybe riddles are a subset of puzzles… Anyway, if you have read all of this: thank you for reading this!
If you only scrolled down to see look at the pictures and read the puzzle: Well, that is also fine. I mean, you probably had better things to do. Or atleast, that’s what I hope.

Welcome, welcome, welcome, welcome, …, welcome, welcome, welcome, …, welcome, welcome, …, welcome,

As you all know, the last couple of weeks the Netherlands/Holland/Dutchland had some really nice weather! Which is good if you want to train a lot for some 1/4 triathlon (like I do). But, of course, there is also a downside.

As I am writing this, I am sitting at my desk, inside…, behind my computer…, with the iron curtains closed…. and no possibility to open a window… I am still trying to think of a way where you can combine a desk-job with being inside and outside. It would be even better if the work you do outside is somewhat physically challenging and still counts as ‘work’.
For now, I have not found a solution to this problem… (If you have found the answer to this, let me know! Sitting inside gets really boring…)

Speaking of solutions, my Matlab file keeps getting more complex/better/awesome’r and is actually solving physical relevant “problems”. These problems aren’t actually problems, when you compare the things you see on the news, they are just a tool to impress your colleagues with your Matlab/smartness-skills.

That is how I feel when I solved another problem.

Now you might be wondering.. oh, what did Seb do? Why is he talking about all this stuff? Well.. just for a quick `heads up’. My intern at TNO consist of simulating the airflow inside a Greenhouse with the Lattice Boltzmann Method. Which is some new fancy method that is mildly awesome and can simulate quite complex stuff.

These last days I’ve been trying to model the relative humidity inside a greenhouse. Which I’ve been somewhat successful in, but I’m not sure yet.
Here is an impression of what I’m looking at most of the time:

(Click on it for a better view)

This is a simulation of a square that is heated from below. It looks nice, but I’m not sure whether it has any use.

In whatever way, anyhow, anyway, -random-, in either way, the intern at TNO is quite alright! (By the way, those first few words are all synonyms).
Yes, you have to be inside all day, yes it might get boring sometimes. But when you are working, you are not alone. You always have your colleagues that can cheer you up, or distract you when you are all out of concentration.

My final presentation will be on the second of June, so my time here is almost over. And I think I’ll miss the people here. The `ambience’ and the way of working appeals to me, not a lot people seem stressed and for most people the quote `work to live, don’t live to work’ applies.

Oh, and check out this video:

[vimeo]http://vimeo.com/80318195[/vimeo]

Well hello there!

For all those people that were thinking: “wow, his last post was really really really long… I’m never gonna read all of that!”
This one is significantly shorter 🙂

First things first! There are finally some results from my intern at TNO. Look at them below…

[youtube]https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JrjW9WUXs6M[/youtube]

Besides this good news, there is even more good news! But also some bad news… Let me first talk about the good news. As you’ve all noticed, the weather is really really nice. Which is a good ánd bad thing.
Because when you must be inside all-day-long, it kinda sucks. But! In the afternoon/weekend I don’t have to study/work at all, so then I can be outside all the time 🙂

So, because the weather was so nic… suddenly I realize that I’m doing a typical Dutch ‘thing’ now… talking about the weather… Really, if you ever meet someone from the Netherlands, start talking about the weather. They will instantly love you, because you can “relate” to them.
Anyway, because of several reasons, I went cycling last weekend. Not just for fun, no, I had my first ‘serious’ cycling-competition. If you want you can see me here in action (if you don’t, close your eyes really fast now!) :

(Picture was taken by fotokoos.nl)

Although it didn’t go as I’m used to… In retrospect, looking at how much I’ve trained on the bike this year, I did quite alright.

But now the bad news. And I will keep this short…
Because it took so long to get some results at TNO, they didn’t want to proceed with the project I’m on. So one moment you have something and the other moment.. it is all gone 🙁  There is only one upside I can think of right now.. and that is that I can be more in the sun. But that’s about it…

EDIT: April fool’s!

Oh and for those that were wondering whát you are seeing in the short movie… that should represent the speed (not velocity) at a certain point in the greenhouse. Where the floor (bottom) was heated. As you can see, it moves around quite fast, this is due the fact that I have not optimized some parameters. So it not a good representation of the world, yet.