The IT Student Blog

Just stumbled upon this lovely site, Meninos Store, where you can buy stuff for your home that most definetley will create a unique interior.

Aren’t these lamps just wonderul?

Imaging turning on the lights and having this RSS-lamp shine with its cosy, orange warm glow…

Or why not the chic black lamp shade symbolizing the F1 and F2 keys?

Combining interior design with computing is actually quite awesome.

I don’t know how many times I’ve read in glossy magazines that you always should strive to create a personal style in your home. I wonder if they would change their minds if they saw all these geeky things? Lol.

Dirty microwaves

Just before Christmas some students in the 2nd and 3rd year of Software Engineering and Management programme took their hands to action. They cleaned all Microwave ovens! We got 19 of them in our kitchen and they all looked like hell and smelled worse than ever. In other words, they were all completely appalling.

Two things comes to mind. 1) How come we (the students and the teachers) let our kitchen into such dismay? 2) What wonderful classmates I have that take initiative and lead by example.

Therefore, as a reminder for the coming semester, it is our collective responsibility to take care of the kitchens. The famous cliché expression “Your mother doesn’t work here” never fails.

What can you do?

1. Put your dishes in the dishwasher before you leave uni
2. Empty the dishwasher (if all do this, we only have to do it once a year)
3. Remind your peers

Thank you!

I got mixed reactions on my previous blog post ‘Improving safety in toilets’ especially from my girlfriend. As the student of human rights, power structures and other global challenges she is, she made a point about everyone not understanding my irony and I suddenly felt the urge to perhaps clarify what the post originally was a demonstration of; the cultural diversity at ITU.

Beijing Olympics chop sticks I received from a Chinese friend.

Because it certainly has its advantages of studying in a rich cultural environment. I’ve learned how to eat properly with chop sticks; I’ve tried food I never thought I would eat, or even find, in Sweden; I’ve learned more about Sweden(!); I’ve visited a classmate’s family in northern Netherlands; I’ve learned how to do Smörgåstårta to share with friends; I’ve got insight in the political problems in two of the world’s most closed countries; and there has been room for several cultural clashes.

I’m sure many students with me have their own excellent examples of the cultural diversity here at ITU. Care to share?

If the last post’s irony wasn’t understood the first time then this post is hopefully a better clarification. A large part of the studies at ITU is about understanding. The diversity forces us to excersise understanding daily.

During several occasions we’ve found (dirty) footsteps on the toilet rings. This mysterious behaviour on traditional (at least to Swedes) toilets seems dangerous. Those are quite slippery afterall, and considering the dirt, the shoes must be wet too. Thus, after a long but quite productive meeting today we thought it was time to do something about the safety in our toilets at the 4th floor of ITU.

Illustrative how-to signs

Inspired by the island south-west of us (aka Britain), large instructive signs must be the way to go.

Author’s note: the meeting had nothing to do with toilets, we just felt the need to do something more hands-on after such heavy brainwork.

A few weeks back I had the following conversation with an old classmate on Facebook about our free fuel, coffee:

E: Ursäkta?!?! Free?? Vilket uni går du på?? (Excuse me?!?! Free?? Which uni are you attending?)

Me: E, Yupp – free selecta-machine coffee! Det är nice, men som sagt… inget slår färskbryggt. (That’s nice, but ofc, nothing beats newly brewed)

E: Okej, jag sadla till IT uppenbarligen. I Örebro har de uttrycket “Ocker som i tolv spänn koppen”. (Okey, I should change to IT apparently. In Örebro we use the expression “Usury as in 12 kr per cup”)

Me: Å andra sidan kanske det inte smakar svart gift? (On the other hand, maybe it doesn’t taste like poison?)

E: Bekant med uttrycket “gratis är gott”? (Familiar with the expression “Free is good”?)

And then I realised I had just finished another conversation about how extraordinary it is to have free coffee available!

Over my two years at uni I have still to find one other university in Sweden which offers their students free coffee. Admittedly I often use it for bragging about ITU and it often feels like I’m pointing a finger in my opponents eye. While continuing to describe the luxury available to us they not too rarely end up convinced they should have gone into IT instead.

Now all this is going to go away. By 2010 there will be no more coffee advantage.

While I understand that universities should not be compared solely on their ability to provide their students with free coffee, it is one of those things that makes ITU special and somewhat geeky. By removing the coffee machines the university will loose one (out of several I hope) competitive advantages.

So what is the reason for this sudden change? Watch this:

Not a clean kitchen (by mett)

Evidently the administration/teachers/other staff, who also uses the coffee machines, are tired of finding the kitchen in this state. I admit, so am I, and many with me. So what’s stopping students (and staff?!?) to bring their own coffee machines? According to insurance (or safety) rules these are not permitted on the premises. Eventually, we’ll all have to pay for our coffee like at any other Swedish university. How boring.

Students, get your act together:

• put your cup in the washing machine after you’ve used it
• help empty a washing machine once in a while
• remind your friends to do the same

and together we can show the administration once again that ITU actually is a kind of cool place to study at.

Ps. I forgot to say thanks to those I regularly see cleaning up in the kitchen (they refers to both students and staff)

Lars Pareto eagerly examining some new piece of technology.

Actually, physically it is not that hard. Chalmers is generous enough to give us cards to enter the doors we need (most of the times). Then there’s the not-so-tangible areas which is crawling around on the Interwebs.

IT-Sektionen – http://its.ituniv.org -
To this one we all belong. Make sure to pay your union fee and the board treats everyone nicely. Also follow them on twitter @itsektionen

ITIT Students – http://www.ait.gu.se/student_pa_itit/ -
Refreshed with lots of practicalities that students ought to know about.

Systemsex – http://systemsex.net -
The students with something orange and black attached to their leg.

Camera Obsüra – http://camera.ituniv.org -
Ka pika picha? (+ spelling, my Swahili isn’t very good) They take photos.

IRC – irc.ituniv.org -
There’s always current and alumni students available to discuss even the craziest matters.

Shell – http://shell.ituniv.org -
Need a *nix shell account to deploy that latest hack of yours?

Wiki – http://wiki.ituniv.org -
Useful, and not so useful, content. Feel free to add more!

Forum – http://forum.ituniv.org -
Maybe this picks up speed again, or is forums too much 90s?

Google – http://google.se -
Also called Brain by some students.

IT-universitetet Official Website – http://www.ituniversitetet.se/ -
So far no one has been able to explain in simple terms what the IT-university really is. I bet a more comprehensive description can be found here though.

Gothenburg University – http://www.gu.se -
They have links to your grades and so on from here.

Chalmers Mail – http://www.outlook.com -
This one is new, let us know if it works please.

GU Mail – http://gmail.com -
They also sold their soul, but to Google instead.

I’m sure there are many more to be listed. Please drop a comment if you spot one which ought to be here.

Oh, and by the way, a warm welcome new students!

A Square at ITU (By McB of Camera Obscüra)

Considering my summer in terms of employment is rather patchy, I early April decided to apply for two summer courses. In case I found myself in a position of having too much free time, at least I would learn something new. Thus, off to Kalmar (on the east coast of Sweden) to take an introductory course in rhetorics. I didn’t have any expectations of facilities when I arrived but my first impression stuck with me the entire day.

So during a short break a few things struck me as I was sitting in the old dimly lit classroom waiting for the lecturer to start again – what a workplace IT-university offers in comparison! Here are five reasons why I like the workplace at ITU.

1. Everything is new
Surely, the furniture probably cost a lot of money, but there’s enough tables and chairs (of different characters) for everyone. Nothing feels rusty, smells old, or is worn.

2. Open areas
As mentioned in a previous post most curricular activities are centered around the squares. The squares are perfect for communication! It’s a place to meet, discuss, debate, lecture and work. Moreover, there’s plenty of light in the squares.

3. White-boards everywhere
When you need some group-alone time, perhaps brainstorming “the next big thing”, there’s plenty of white-boards to go around for everyone. Basically every bit of glass wall is a white-board and can be used as such!

4. Shared space
Teachers and students share kitchen, meeting rooms, and so on. At least in theory. Here’s a big room for a huge debate, I’m not going to go into the details, but I and many students with me I know, value the shared space. Let’s hope it will be this way also in the future.

5. Free coffee
Coffee fuels. And at ITU, the coffee is free. Students I meet from other universities are always shocked when I say this. “Unbelievable!”, “You’re kidding with me?”, and “Riiiiight… oh, you really mean it. Damn.” are just some of the responses I’ve heard.

My first impression of Kalmar University Collage is mundane. It works, but it doesn’t provide added value. They have a lot to learn from ITU.

What do you expect from your workplace? What does your favourite workplace look like? Let me know.

Once in a while I usually find myself in a discussion about productivity. The topics covered so far is broad and it is everything from that nifty python script to what kind of programming fuel you should take. Another not so uncommon discussion is about work environment.

First, let me give you a quick description of the facilities we have at the IT-university which I must say are very pleasant. The university is located in the midst of numerous respectful IT-companies (such as Ericsson, Sigma, and Findwise to name a few). Nearby are also several upper secondary schools where I think Ester Mossesson’s gymnasium is the most visited one by university students as they have a bakery with awesome “fika.” University staff, students and faculty is housed more specifically in renovated buildings originally used for building ships and today owned by Chalmers and part of Lindholmen Campus.

Cafées are perfect for reading and writing blogposts

What about the inside then? In the case of the Software Engineering and Management programme all bachelor students are found at the top floor. Each year has their own “square” and a number of group rooms to go with them. We have our own kitchen with plenty of microwave ovens for everyone and not that many forks (I’ll give you the fork-story another day). Due to the “square” idea students work in an open environment with plenty of possibilities to exchange wild ideas.

Obviously, working in open environments have both its advantages and disadvantages. It is amazing how quick ideas are shared, spread and elaborated upon when so many active brains are in the same square! Lately, however, I’ve found myself distracted by the working atmosphere all too often. It is not so much about lack of productivity, more so it is my creativity which is hampered. And for those of you who didn’t know already, programming is a lot about creativity. Thus, in my case when creativity is inflicted upon my productivity level decrease.

So I started a social experiment with myself and investigated areas where I can place my self in a “creative mode”. It turns out that environment is closely linked with what tasks at hand. Here is a list of a few tasks that I commonly do these days:

• Managing my mailbox: train or bus (I’m not used to my current mail load so it tends to get messy once in a while)

• Writing blog posts: café or other public space

• Updating the project’s Software Design Description: kitchen table

• Programming: Norton’s coffee corner (a corner of our square)

So, the open environment, the square; what happened to that? If found it to be a corner stone in my day-to-day communication. An equally important but perhaps less obvious task which doesn’t always come for free.

I wonder what it would have been like without our squares? Do have other examples of communication squares?