For more than three years the N++ Newsletter team provided the latest, most exciting news from our Network of Excellence. As a token of gratitude, they have put the last effort in summarizing the most remarkable outcomes of NEWCOM++ life in this logbook: now it’s time to “take a tour” through the N++ life once again and remind the achievements and events that we were a part of!
NEWCOM++ est mort, vive NEWCOM++ !!!
by Marco Luise, from the final issue of the NEWCOM++ Newsletter:>>> This is the last issue of the Newsletter, and it is not easy for me to write. So I will start from the words of Sergio Benedetto in his “farewell” message to the whole Network of Excellence: “Today (April 30) is the last official day of existence of NEWCOM++. The final review of the project will be on July 4th in Brussels, and that will be the real final act for all of us (apart from payments…). Considering “old” NEWCOM first and NEWCOM++ then, it’s been almost 10 years of exciting research, meetings, travels, in one word: work. But above all, it’s been almost 10 years of exciting interaction and, in many instances, friendship with the best people in Europe in our field. We would like to sincerely thank everybody who contributed to this: the Executive and Advisory Board members, the N++Office, all the local scientific and administrative representatives, the Work Package leaders, everybody that contributed to the organization of events, those who did research together, everyone who gave and took benefit to and from this wonderful Network of People. “ I have very little to add to this. I had planned to write a long foreword with detailed mentions of everyone who had a relevant place in the Network. On a second thought, I gave up. All of us had a special and key place into NEWCOM++, so the acknowledgement has to be, well, to everybody, as Sergio himself says. The only one I need to explicitly mention here is the editor of the Newsletter Pawel Sroka from Poznan University of Technology without whose help the everyday life and achievements of N++ would not have put into the spotlight. Pawel is the one who will actually waive us the last goodbye [webmaster’s note: available online since July 1st, 2011]: he will put together all the past issues of the Newsletter and prepare “The NEWCOM++ Logbook”: a nice story of a nice experience of research and friendship. And, speaking of the Logbook, how not to think of Captain Kirk, the popular commander of the Enterprise from the sci-fi series of the 60’s Star Trek, whose voice reciting excerpts of the ship’s logbook started each episode of the series? You can see Captain Kirk in the picture below, speaking into what was called in the movies the “communicator” that allowed him to audio/video wirelessly communicate with the mother ship when he was on an alien word. The “communicator” (whose detailed pictures can be found on the Internet) is just what many of us has today in their hands: a flip cellular phone with color display and a miniature camera, with which we can easily place video calls. Something that in the 60’s was definitely in the domain of science fiction is now in everybody’s hands. How many field of science and technology can actually boast similar achievements?