Most digital publications are recognised directly by the Zotero-chrome plugin and so there is never a need to manually import a reference. If I download a paper I immediately link it with the reference in Zotero so that I do not have to remember which paper belongs to which reference. For some reason the digital archives have weird naming conventions so this makes finding the right paper again a breeze.
Of course Zotero has support for exporting the reference list as BibTeX, hence, I'm all set for a much more pleasant writing experience compared to the overly complicated office suites (OpenOffice.org and MS Office).
Thesis writing toolbox as of today:
Zotero for reference management (exports to BibTeX)
Mimmi, a friend of mine, recently launched her own company under the title "En promenad om dagen" (freely translated to "A walk a day"). And her idea is simple: exercise thirty minutes a day and you will be rewarded.
The second thing I admire with Mimmi's initiative is the fact that she is doing it. A lot of people talk (including myself many times) about doing something about something, but never or extremely seldom do it! I'm looking forward to see what experiences she will learn and how it will progress. In the mean time, stay up to date by following her blog.
Investors, venture firms and start-up coaches always preach one and the same thing: keep it simple. It's their mantra. And yet keeping things simple is probably the most advanced art form around. I'm fascinated by it. Most things are rarely simple at first. Only over time, and by iterating and evaluating an idea, a report, a software program, or business plan, are we able to discover its simplicity. I believe Mimmi is on to something.
Next week I have an exam in Spanish. While I think I am making progress I still have a hard time remembering words. Haven't used word lists since 4th grade I guess. Today I have a new take at it.
Essentially it is down to practice, so I wrote myself a little application to shoot words at me and correct me if I'm wrong. I've built the list on my own based on words from our classes but it can easily be replaced with any other list.
Maybe tomorrow I'll convert it to a web-app so that my colleague can rehearse too.
Repetition is the mother of all knowledge.
Update: It now keeps track of my score too, quite discouraging at the moment. Looking forward to changing this!
I recently had the chance to review a project audit of great length. One of the key contributions (if I may call it that) in this report was the importance of aiming for simplicity. Something which certainly isn't simple.
For me, building new software can be extremely cumbersome and all too often I find myself implementing things features which are not needed yet and, hence, dodging simplicity. To be completely honest, sometimes I don't even know if they will ever be needed, and still I spend time hacking them out. A beginner's mistake perhaps, yet utterly difficult to realise when you're in code-monkey mode.
When we developed the website for the 22nd World Scout Jamboree 2011 we started out with the basics, and over two months developed the majority of things visible on the site today. It is not maintained anymore as the Jamboree is over. During its life, however, new features were added as a response to the buzz we recieved on-line. One example is the Social, or Live, page which would display what Scouts were saying about and doing at the Jamboree right now. This feature had two incarnations: first as Social which simply displayed Facebook, Twitter and Youtube feeds. Later, as Live, which integrated a live-blogging service used at big events, a twitter feed of #jamboree2011, and our Bambuser channel.
My very first sketch of the Social tab was extremely simple and only aimed to convey the idea. It looked like this:
Some say failure is the only way to progress. Lukas and Annie who reviewed my wonderful drawing didn't really understand what all the boxes were and so after its first review, and me frantically trying to master Gimp, it looked like this:
Still boxes, but it was encapsulated in what we already had in place. Eventually, the Live tab came to this:
What started as a simple idea and a few silly sketches was with the help of an amazing team transformed into one of the most viewed pages of the Jamboree website.
Starting simple (and boring and ugly) but enough to convey the idea is probably the most underestimated concept ever.
Now, what do you do to avoid the conquer-the-world-all-at-once-trap?
A good friend and classmate initiated a discussion about what different types of companies there are that would be willing and likely to hire specialists in distributed systems. And perhaps even more importantly, what types of companies interests us in our search for future employment (we both graduate from EMDC this summer).
His initial classification looks like this:
The Silicon Valley company are looking for polyglot engineers with knowledge in a range of programming languages (scripting, object oriented, functional) and technologies. This expertise should preferably be shown in practice, either through tests, open source contributions, or similar. The company need not be from the valley, but they all exhibit an aura of entrepreneurship, drive to change the technology spectrum, and be a disturbing force in the market.
The startup is a subset of the previous but usually emphasize the skill of learning new tools and skills quickly. Agility and adaptivity is more important than skill in any particular language or technology.
Outsourcing and consulting companies occupies huge portions of the job market. None of them are making any impressive job offers (with the exception of salaries perhaps). Most jobs seem mundane and not particularly challenging. They probably are, but it does not show in their proposals.
Others. This group obivously need refining, but examples include web agencies, and medium-sized companies. Those who managed to survive the start-up but whose core-business are not engineering driven.
I took the liberty to add a fifth type:
The enterprises hire the white-collar programmers working on business systems. It is companies like Ericsson in which your line of code is a tiny tiny fraction of the revenue, and where processes are followed religiously (at least by managers).
Yes, we are stereotyping. We know. However, job descriptions provide very little insight into the world of employment and we are only seeking to understand it better. It is no secret which companies are the most attractive.
What are your thoughts? Do you agree or disagree? What types have we missed?
We weren't washed ashore, neither were we considered giants nor did we have to flee. Quite the opposite. Our small Peugeot rental took us rattling up the hills to Spain's smallest neighbour. Despite being surrounded by darkness, I could feel the serenity of the mountains. We were the tiny people. And the mountains looked down upon us like giants.
The population of Lilliput Andorra is roughly 80 000, of which roughly 30 000 are nationals. Separate from the European Union the country pride itself as a tourist magnet, attracting millions of visitors each year, and as a tax haven. Clueless about the country's history, I now understand why it has primarily been left alone from the countless wars Europe has suffered in its past. Bordered only by Spain and France and located at an average altitude of 1400 metres above sea level, this make the country a challenge to reach.
No issue for our Peugeot though.
Promising on average 300 days of sun each year, one could start to wonder if the mountains would be dressed in white. Especially considering the fatality of this year's winter. On day two, as it turned out, it snowed so much that police were commandeered to ensure every driver used snow-chains. We bought a set for our little rental. Then the road closed and we had drive back down again, and up the next.
But as they say, with fresh snow comes great skiing. And so we skied.
People with clear goals in their lives are rare. It is difficult to know what you want to do in several years time, but an even bigger challenge is daring to pursue exactly those dreams. Of my friends, only a handful carry within them that true dedication needed to reach for the dreams of their life.
One such person is very dear to me and currently engaged in an massive undertaking in the alp-surrounded, multi-national, and ever so lovely Genève. Her work is often beyond my intellectual capacity, although I try to follow as best as I can, and contribute with whatever cents I find.
For long as I can remember, Lisa has had the dream of pursuing a career at the United Nations. This Monday she took a giant leap towards exactly that goal through an internship at UNAIDS. I'm confident it will be a hugely rewarding experience for her, and it will further reinforce the dream of her life. I, for one, is eagerly looking forward to the outcome of this adventure.
To get a taste of her determination and dedication, listen to Lisa's talk at TEDxYouth@Göteborg where she speaks about the importance of young leaders and how organisations can foster a culture for young talents.
In simple terms, it is purely awesome to be a part of Lisa's journey! A journey which has just begun.
For more Lisa-dedication, read her own words on her blog Travelling Dreams.
Went to bed last night thinking I'll have a sleep in. That didn't happen. Maria, one my four flatmates, invited me to join for a little trip up the Montserrat with the infamous group of Johnny. Montserrat is a nearby mountain which with its funny shape attracted a bunch of religious hermits back in the day. Way back in the day. A short music and photo compilation at one of the museums highlighted five areas: símbolos, espiritualidad, identidad, cultura and natura. And I must say, the five words capture the essence of Montserrat perfectly. It's a weirdly located little village, full of religious relations, in an absolutely serene place.
Being free from the main tourist crowd, which I expect will arrive later in the spring, we conquered one of the Montserrat's many peeks. The clouds running over the mountain created a mysterious and silent feel to the uphill walk. With the conquest, the sun scattered the clouds (this is Spain afterall), and we enjoyed a light snack as kings and queens of the hill.
Now, why do we almost always build beautiful buildings in the most remote and challenging places?
Off I went. New semester, new city, new adventures! I met a friend at the airport who thought I was moving back to Portugal. Nope, not this time. This time it is beaches, cheap beer, tapas, sun, nice weather and... wait, that I had in Lisbon too? No, this, my tenth and final semster of studies, I'm living in Barcelona.
Last semester as you all know includes writing a thesis which is exactly what I will be doing for the majority of my time here. More specifically I'm doing it at Tuenti, a private social network with some 12 million users here in Spain. It is, I've learned yesterday, the most trafficed site in Spain with many many billion pageviews per month.
Thursday
First day at Tuenti. Met and greeted a lot of people, of whom I only remember a handful of names. Luckily the office is not that large, hosting roughly 30 employees, but has support from the head office in Madrid with another 200.
I'll be joining Toni, a recommender system and data analyst expert from Telefonica, in improving and building a recommendation system for the Tuenti site. What, exactly, I'll be doing, no one knows. Least of all me. But I'm sure that time will sort that out.
Breakfast, Cafe com leche y mini chapato, and the office building at Placa de Catalunya.
Friday
Met and greeted more people. Awesome people. Friendly and cheery. Everyone is truly enthusiastic about, well, everything it seems, even the daunting tasks. Spent the morning visiting the Spanish bureaucracy. That was largely a failure. Need to be registered at an apartment, get a personal identification number and then, maybe, I can get the social security stuff sorted. Colleagues are guiding me through the process. It will be an experience, especially after having heard all the horror stories from Nick.
The afternoon was spent reading papers. I'm trying to collect all my thesis notes on a separate site, check in there if you're interested in what I'm about to work on.
A big hobby of mine is presentation techniques. This includes everything from planning, to delivery, to reviewing presentations. Today I gave a five-minute talk on slide design as part of a course I'm currently taking in scientific communication and academic writing. In the class, we have addressed presentations quite broadly; discussing tone, pace, language, structure and content, but we haven't covered design in great detail. Thus, I decided to narrow in on that.
The feedback I got after delivery was positive, although I found myself looking for some words and therefore resolved to making a few dirty shortcuts. Why? I never rehearsed the whole talk. Lesson learned.
