The IT Student Blog

HELLLOOOOOO!!!!!! HOW ARE YOU DOING?!

Waffler the Paincake says: I love this pic. It reminds me that even when the computor seems to be smarter and better then me about everything, I can just rip it up to show that I am the alpha male.

*oh my*

How often do you intentionally use the caps lock key?

Not too long ago I vacuumed my keyboard (another brilliant idea) and of course, a key disappeared. It was not caps, but the alt button. Alt is very useful. It took me a long time to dig out that key in the grotesque lump of hairs and dust…  (You can read all about the details in my personal blog, miss783)

I dropped my iPod in the toilet as well. But that’s another story.

Anyway, what made me think about caps lock was when my friend, who is quite unfamiliar to computers, didn’t notice that he accidently hit the caps key when he typed in search words on YouTube. CHOCOLATE RAIN IS CRAZY AS IS, BUT WRITTEN IN CAPITALS IT GETS EVEN CRAZIER.

My friend and I started a long discussion about how stunned you get when you receive e-mails with capital letters. Capitals are serious. Loud. IMPORTANT.

No wonder spammers love to abuse caps lock.

Btw, I never knew that chocolate rain is under the creative commons license.

-You gotta learn something new every day.

Texting is very convenient. You can say exactly what you want in a few words, using some smileys to emphasize your intent and just wait for a reply. No real interaction needed.

-How wimpy can you get!

It just hit me when I texted a friend of mine I haven’t been talking to for five years, that I didn’t dare calling him. I just wrote my question and felt so secure I didn’t have to use my voice to ask him if he would like to hang out some time. But hanging out means meeting up and why should that be less scary than making the call?

Where do you draw the line between virtual and real?

What happens in the virtual world certainly has consequences in the real world. Since the beginning of all these new ways of communication, this line has become harder to draw, and this might be an issue. What you wouldn’t do IRL, you might not find inappropriate in virtual life. But what is the difference when everything has consequences?

Facebook is like a huge gossip magazine containing the latest news from your innumerable “friends”. Friends like the guy in high-school you never talked to, but borrowed pencils from. Friends like your colleague’s boyfriend’s little sister. Or your old math teacher. But of course there are the real friends as well. Pardon my cynicism. Anyway, all these connections with “friends” really puzzle me. Why on earth would you like to see pics of your “friends” having a dinner party? “Friends” drinking a glass of red wine? “Friends” posing with ice-cream in their hands?

Facebook is rather creepy. Just found this vid on YouTube… this shows how weird these friendships are. *POKE*

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.

When you speak to someone (speak in the sense face to face IRL) you use so much more than words. You communicate with your whole body. You might smile, make hand gestures and nod your head in agreement.

It is often said that human communication consists of 93% body language and paralinguistic cues, while only 7% of communication consists of words themselves

–I find that pretty amazing.

However, when having a written conversation, which is basically the way people communicate today, you can never be sure of how that text is perceived, since you aren’t actually there to read any facial expressions. How do we solve this issue?

Well, as my explanatory title suggests: smileys.

If I write to you on msn for instance: “Shut up!” You might feel bad and wonder “Hey?! What have I done to you?”

But if one the other hand I write: “Shut up! ” You will instantly translate this as irony, since the funny smiley sticking out its tongue is anything but serious.

There are innumerable examples of how a smiley can totally change the meaning of expressions. Thus, one should never underestimate the power of the ugly yellow faces!

I’m in need of a solution to one of the greatest hurdles when meeting new people. How do you explain to someone you’ve never met before what you do?

Meeting students from other universities is always a fruitful experience and this weekend I had the opportunity to accompany a friend to a house-warming party in Stockholm for another one of those experiences. It turned out the majority of the students at the party are studying medicine and soon to be doctors, with a knack for good laughs and down to earth conversations. I bet that you in similar situations, among people you have never met before, have to introduce yourself, why you’re there and what you do, in a short and easy to understand fashion.

Most commonly my introductions end up something like along the following lines:

Sophie – “So, what do you do again?”
Marcus – “I’m studying IT in Gothenburg”
Sophie – “Aaah, that means you’re good at computers? Right?” (once in a while computers can be replaced with “I’ve never understood what the purpose of computer games are” and then you’re lost)
Marcus – “Well, I’m not working with the hardware itself, it’s what runs on them that’s interesting… “
Sophie – “You mean like computer games?” (obviously this is true, praise and use perhaps?)

What I’ve found so far is that it helps understanding what the person you’re talking to does first. While he or she is talking make mental notes all the things that easily relate to software engineering. Make sure to use the terminology that you’ve just picked up to make the connections clear once it’s your turn to explain what you do.

Secondly, avoid software engineering terminology at all costs! No one understands what an architecture is, they will relate it to architecture of buildings, which is not the same thing. Hey, I’m not even sure I know what an architecture is.

Be polite and patient; it might seem like an obvious attitude to have, yet there are so many times that I feel my questions to seek understanding is ignored. Only once I know the person I’m talking to understands the concept I allow myself to dig into details. Otherwise I’m more likely to end as the lonesome nerd in the corner, and in that corner I’m not going to meet new friends, challenge my perceptions or learn something new!

Nevertheless, there are also more things to talk about than studies. How do you introduce yourself to people you’ve never met? I volunteer to try new ways anytime. If there is an universal solution, you’ll be the first to know. Promise.

House Mouse, Mus musculus. lol ^-^

Kitty Kittiwat, a newfound idol of mine, having a masters degree in biochemistry and running an oriental spa (which I find very impressive) taught me some very wise things about the body: Take care of it now, you’ll never get it back.

Suddenly I felt both worried and perplexed, because I realized I have been taking my body for granted.

Lately, I’ve been having an unhealthy relationship with my laptop, which has resulted in my right arm getting totally out of function. Just being able to press one key at a time with my left hand sucks and makes me so mad I don’t know what to do. This is what we Swedes call the dreaded MUSARM!

Hurts like hell. Please, do consider taking care of your bodies.

Btw, when my pain is gone I will write some mindblowing posts. Stay tuned and take care.

Gifts exchange owners at SEM Christmas Party 2009

Uni is relatively empty today. There are only a few members of my project group here although I have seen some lonewolfs around too. Christmas is coming as fast as the snow is falling. Most projects are over for the SEM students, thus there was a great Christmas Party last week. Photos from the event can be found here: http://event.quandoo.se/photos/christmas2009/

Just because uni is empty does, however, not equal to nothing to do. Our research project (studying the relationships between organisations who have introduced Free/Libre Open Source Software and communities) continues with a second, somewhat weird, deadline on the 4 January 2010. The 4th may not seem so innocuous at first, but the course requirements tells another story. A story where students aren’t singing Christmas carols, snow is replaced by heavy rain and days are turned into nights. In this story, students are visiting their grandparents accompanied by their laptops, frantically squeezing a minute of typing in between Kalle Anka and the Risgrynsgröt.

In an attempt to rectify the problem and possibly give 50 students a white Christmas we composed an e-mail to our course coordinator giving two alternatives. One where the deadline is postponed to match the requirements, and a second where the course requirements are corrected to match the absurd deadline. Now all we can do is to hope for some sympathy.

“Have yourself a merry little Christmas,
let your heart be light.
From now on,
our troubles will be out of sight.”

Merry Christmas everyone

I dress with respect. My clients expect that I dress in a certain way. It is with respect to them that I always wear a suit. No matter what.

-Who would confide in a lawyer dressed in jeans and a t-shirt? Obviously the lawyer in front of me had a good point in what he was telling me. But I couldn’t stop thinking about the opposite of his dress code… where showing up in a suit would be most inappropriate. Who would put trust in a game developer looking like Marc Jacobs? Honestly?

Suit or not, people at ITU really have their own kind of style. Some students use the same set of clothes for five days in a row; other students are really creative, wearing extremely short skirts and high-heels. But it’s not just the clothes that makes people creative. I know one guy that used to let the nails on his pinky fingers grow so long that he wasn’t able to type with them on his keyboard. Another guy let some nice student cut his hair, which resulted in a hilarious Mohawk.

One day, two of my class mates took me to the sofas and asked me if they could put some makeup on me. They said: We Persian girls just loooove makeup! -Well sure, go ahead. A few minutes later I ended up with thick, black eyeliner and dark powder. My nordic featuers had magically vanished. Woaah… I realize I haven’t seen any Persian girl at the whole university not taking care of her appearance. They’re all so cute.

But most common though, is the people wearing plaid shirts or black t-shirts with a print of dangerous wolves. After all, it is what you would expect future software engineers to look like? Isn’t it?

Foobar. Oh how lovely.

Just learnt that it isn’t true what they say about the acronym for Fucked Up Beyond All Recognition. That’s fubar. Wikipedia taught me the harsh reality.

Even though I kind of want it to be like that, because that’s what I learnt in the elevator one day.

Elevator conversations are always so informative. It’s cold outside today. Really? Yeah. By the way, did you know that foobar actually stands for Fucked Up Beyond All Recognition? What? No? … *silence in lack of better things to say*

I don’t know how many times I’ve seen examples with foo and bar in lack of better words. Where do those words come from?

Until I find the answer to that burning question, I will think that Foobar is a bar where you can order wicked drinks and get fucked up beyond all recognition. Really stupid, but maybe it’s just what foobar is.