Vague blog future due to institutional changes

The IT-student blog has been up and running (apart from multiple server breakdowns) since April 2009.

As you can see in the archives, the content has varied a lot from technical Erlang posts and philosophical questions on IT and gender, to geeky gadgets and funny YouTube-clips.

The purpose of this blog has been to give a broad picture of what people studying at the IT-University in Gothenburg are like, especially at the programme Software Engineering & Management (SEM), and to give a realistic picture of what it’s like and to entertain our readers from all over the world.

However, the SEM programme will no longer be under the department of applied IT, who took the initiative to start this blog. Hence is there no interest from to keep supporting this blog unless it starts to focus on educations provided by their department.

But it all comes down to you guys reading this… what would you like to see more of? What are you ideas of a blog like this? Are you maybe interested in contributing?

If you have some ideas, don’t hesitate to share them!

The huge gap between us

Last week we were presenting some benchmarking results about comparisons between the programmes at ITU to similar programmes at other universities in Sweden. Not very surprisingly there are a lot more men than women on IT educations. But what startled me were the results about the huge income gender gap. I knew that it would be a gap, but the size of it was really depressing. Apparently it doesn’t matter if you have the same degree if you’re a woman you will probably earn less money anyway.

Urban Nuldén claimed that it might be due to men being more aggressive at salary negotiations.

When I was waiting in the queue in a shop today and I saw all these pyjamas for children. It shocked me how different the pyjamas for boys and girls are. The boy pyjamas have prints of Spider Man, cool tiger stripes or action heroes in strong, vivid colours on them. The girls pyjamas on the other hand are exclusively pink with either cute little kittens or princesses on. The shop also provided ballet tutus for girls with glitter on.

This is were the inequalities begin. Boys are encouraged to behave like action heroes. Girls are encouraged to behave like powerless princesses. -Who do you think will win the salary negotiation?

HONESTLY.

I feel so upset! Why differ girls from boys to that extent? They don’t even have any visible physiological differences when they’re so small. Their bodies are pretty much the same. Their capabilities are the same. They could play the same games, learn to grow up together and how to treat each other. But what happens when you differ them is that they grow up separated from each other, learn that men and women are different species that come from different planets, Venus and Mars and society automatically remains unfair.

Some women (and men) react and call themselves feminists, but the concept of feminism is so stupid I feel even more upset. Talk about making the gap between men and women even bigger! It’s just like saying: WOMEN ARE A MINORITY THAT DESERVES MORE RESPECT..! -Pity. Feminist politicians make it even worse when they suggest affirmative actions. They must love giving women special treatment.

Do we need a third world war to prove that women are capable of doing the same jobs as men? The way people react when you’re a girl and you study information technology is remarkable. It’s like girls, passionate about computing are some kind of weird exception.

We need to fight for our rights. Not wait for a new law that will solve our problems.

I REFUSE TO EARN LESS MONEY THAN MY MALE CLASS MATES. End of story.

Tags: action hero, disaster, equality, fail, job, money, princess, salary, weird

A fresh start

After a long summer and a long break from this blog… school is about to begin again.

SO it’s time to fill up your cup with hot coffee, plug in your machine and start absorbing new information. A fresh start! Now you’ve got the chance to do all your assignments on time, pre-order the new course literature, be the first to borrow what you need in the library and avoid the snooze button in the mornings (as the mornings are still quite sunny, and it’s nice to get up).

As to all the new students…

My absolute best advice for you guys (including everyone else) is to start up with things early. Even though you might get a soft start… do pick up your books. Google the things you don’t understand. Ask questions. Be curious. And never underestimate the power of Wikipedia. Keeping yourself up to date is invaluable.

Time flies and the exams always come faster than you think… so start up your work right away and you will increase your chances of surviving itu.

Act NOW, tomorrow might be too late. You don’t want to catch up with re-exams, trust me.

I wish all new students good luck with their studies and don’t run away if the more experienced guys talk about stuff you haven’t heard of when you’re having your first lunch breaks. Eventually you’ll undestand just as much… or even more. Just hang in there. Be cool. Keep on reading.

Tags: coffee, exam, focus, newcomers, productivity

Opening the Next Chapter

Time flies. Three years have passed since I began studying at the IT-university. Three pretty amazing years I might add! Having been interviewed twice about why I started at the Software Engineering and Management programme I’m still not sure I know or remember the answer. However, in retrospect I don’t really care either as it has been a perfect match and I’ve enjoyed (almost) every moment of it. And since this is my last blog post on this blog, allow me to explain why.

• Problem Based Learning (PBL) – Without a doubt the projects that we’ve carried out at the SEM programme has been the most rewarding, as well as the most demanding. Getting a group with members of extremely broad backgrounds to collaborate and produce quality results is as fun as it is challenging.
  

  Some dude (aka Jonte) enjoying the cleaning after a Christmas party

• Work space – I wrote about it last year and I got some harsh critique on the post in the lines of “How much did the ITU pay you to write that?” but I stand for every word I wrote. Having open areas, and areas in general, which students can go to everyday and basically use as an office has allowed, at least me, to pick up on questions, material and facts that I’m sure would have missed if I stayed at home.
• Flexibility – almost every course have allowed the students to, to some extent, choose their topic of specialisation themselves. Not only is it motivating, but it also allows me to early on discover which areas I’d like to follow up and perhaps specialise in.
• Diversity – roughly 60% of our class were foreigners. This provides a tremendous cultural experience. Enough said.
• Teachers – (and for my classmates reading, yes, I know it’s controversial) Actually we happen to have had the luxury of having Gothenburg University’s best teacher, Carl Magnus Olsson, as he was this spring awarded with the university’s finest pedagogical prize. However, without giving any names, we’ve also been unlucky to have some pretty crappy pedagogues and thereby also had the opportunity to practice our course evaluation skills.

Overall though, my ITU experience will be remembered for the amazing moments: hacking late nights with crazy and fun friends still somehow managing to deliver on-time, Emil Janitzek and my thesis writing, the crappy free coffee, the countless number of pranks a common result of either too much free coffee or too much intensive programming.

There’s tonnes more to say but it is time to move on. Many of my classmates are already busy earning money at various companies around Gothenburg, some are about to start any time, some are continuing to study. Myself, I’m continuing with an Erasmus Mundus Master’s degree in Distributed Computing starting as an exchange student in Portugal this autumn.

Two final remarks: One, if you have any questions feel free to contact me (marcus at quandoo dot se). Two, if you’re interested in blogging here contact me too and I’ll forward your request.

So long, and thanks for all the fish!

Tags: future, learning, love, project

Java 4-ever

Computer geeks, listen up! I just received a brilliant link from my friend Reza. (Reza who always stumbles upon all the great stuff) Go ahead and enjoy this awesome trailer for the film Java 4-ever; From the acclaimed director of Javatar and .not. JavaZone Entertainment presents stars like…

Eddie Larrison

Scala Johansson

William Windows

Mona Lisa Harddrive

and (the cute little) Lenny Linux…

-If this film were real it might be even better than Kick-Ass! Even though I thought that was impossible.

“One of the most compelling dramas of our time” -The Java Posse

“Truly gripping…” -Wired

“…a masterpiece!” -James Gosling

Kiss

Keep

It

Simple,

Stupid!

It’s amazing how easy you forget about that principle. I don’t know how many times I’ve found myself doing things way more complicated than they have to be. Reading old programs I’ve written sends shivers up my spine. Files with monstrous lines of unnecessary code… Code that desperately needs to be cleaned.

When programming something difficult, the easy solution is generally the best solution. More efficient, simpler to read, to update… and so on.

I think you get the point now, do you?

K e e p  i t  s i m p l e

Oops sorry caps

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.

Tags: chocolate, ipod, keyboard, weird, Youtube

SMS convenience/Avoiding phone calls

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?

Tags: interaction, mobile phone, sms, texting, weird

The virtual friendships on Facebook

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*

Tags: facebook, friends, IRL, virtual, weird, Youtube

I AM STILL ALIVE

I AM STILL ALIVE

Yes I am.

Still alive!

-Still alive….

Alive yet again.

Alive today as well.

…

I have already written a post about how meaningless I think Twitter is (even though that post disappeared when the old server took its last breath).

There is this feed that just consists of innumerable tweets saying “I AM STILL ALIVE” by some artist called On_Kawara. And believe it or not: it has 990 followers in the moment I’m writing.

Maybe you’re thinking “another weirdo out there”. But when thinking deeper about it, it kind of sums up the whole Twitter idea: a little tweet everyday to state your own existence.

Because, hey! -I am still alive.

My gosh, what if I didn’t update my Twitter all the time… you would all think I’m dead.
-UPDATE UPDATE UPDATE!!!

Be sure to always be available.

Be sure to ensure your existence.

On Kawara is not dead.

河原温 IS TILL ALIVE