Archive Page 2
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?
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Tags: creative, marc jacobs, mohawk, nordic, suit, weird
Sick fixations
Sometimes it’s good to let go.
Unfortunately it’s easier said than done. Once you get stuck on something, it can be very difficult to focus on something else. Actually, you might not even notice that you’re stuck, even though you think about the same thing over and over.
When you’re at school it certainly doesn’t matter. The more you ponder on something, the better solutions you come up with. Likewise with exams: the more thinking, the better answers… hopefully.
However, when school is over and you’re spending time with your friends, having a nice fika while eating carrot cake, you realize that the school issues don’t disappear. So instead of focusing on that exciting story about your friend getting a new apartment, your mind travels somewhere completely else.
I understood I had problems when I started dreaming about code. I dreamed that my body was a function. My head and my feet consisted of curly braces, while the rest of me was some code in courier new. Another time I had a dream I was an tuple. A long empty row in a database. How creative.
At a point like that you might consider separating studies from leisure.
I would like to end with a wonderful quote by Edgar Hubbart:
Don’t take your life too seriously. You won’t get out of it alive, anyway
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Tags: code, databse, fixation, sick, thinking
What I’ve been missing out this summer is the news about CSN allowance for next year. Due to the recession the past years, Sweden is now on a very low budget and has to save up. This means that the government will cut down on very many subsidies. Usually the free amount of how much you can earn each year will rise due to subsidies but not this year and further on. True that it is a necessity for Sweden to save up, but isn’t it better to encourage the students to earn some more pocket money on our own instead?
It would just make more sense if we’re allowed to work more so that there will be more taxes to go round for the country.
- Money – not at all like a toilet paper…
And good news enough, I misinterpret the CSN message! We will apparently get a raise! With 12 SEK each month on the allowance and 308 SEK on the loan part.
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Tags: budget, CSN, government, money, student grant, Sweden
The future is already here
For centuries we’ve been yearning, wishing, hoping and shed tears of blood for this time to come. And for centuries we never thought it’d be more than just a fantasy. But someone heard our prayers, someone let us know we’re being loved! I can not express the joy that’s hurling inside me whenever i think about it, I feel like I’m going to explode if nothing else and I believe my fellow students, friends and geeks also will. At times like this I do feel like I am living in a dream or in a movie, as if I’ve warped into the future. This generation might live long enough to see the future come and see many parts of the so epic science-fiction movies to come true.
The item I am being so excited about is of course none the less than Epoc controller. It is certainly the next generation controller and despite it having flaws, the technology has really come a long way. Now, if only I can get one of those… The launch date will be in the end of December in the United States and it will cost $299. There’s also, sadly enough, limited examples and can only be bought in United States. So unfortunately we up here in the north will have to wait a bit longer for it. For how long I can not tell but I won’t be surprised if it’ll take at least a year. When it comes to game there’s only one game that you’re able to play with this headgear, but let us just wait and hope that the evolution of this thing is going to be fast and awesome!
Watch here and yearn…
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Tags: alert, future, geek, world empire
Cultural diversity at ITU
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.
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Tags: culture, environment, toilet
Improving safety in toilets
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.
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Tags: culture, environment, safety, sign, toilet
Why so serious?
The funny voice of Joker sounds in my head. Why so serious…
I wonder why? Why are people so bloody serious all the time?
I just learnt some complex concepts today that I’ve been struggling for a whole year to understand. It shocked me how easy it was! A good explanation was all I needed. After about five pages in a well written book, everything went from completely incomprehensible to crystal clear. Just amazing. 
God bless good writers!
Sadly though, many people who “know stuff” tend to make things more complicated than they are. Especially when explaining to others. How come people love wrapping their sentences in words so advanced that one totally misses out on the actual information? A tough, technical subject doesn’t have to be taught in an academic way. It totally scares noobs away! I look at all the books I’ve bought and wonder why they are written in such a pretentious language. The covers of them look incredibly dull and I wonder if the publishing house hired civil engineers instead of graphical designers to do the layout.
Why so serious?
If it weren’t for the seriousness, the effectiveness of learning would most definitely increase.
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Tags: design, dull, engineer, joker, love, serious
Change is always for the better
Change is good?
Today DN, one of the largest newspapers in Sweden, has an article about how the municipality of Stockholm is outsourcing their IT infrastructure and support to Volvo IT. Quickly sifting through the comments reveal outcries of all sorts. “Why are they not choosing open source?”, “The state never thought about the IT infrastructure in the first place”, “Where does the numbers come from?” And so on! (Editors note: what does open source got to do it? it’s about outsourcing the maintenance and support… right?)
It’s dissappointing to see that no one dares to look at it from Volvo IT’s perspective. Not that I think the 8000-kr per installation price is justifiable, but someone there really appreciates the change. They’re making big money. Nevertheless, change is always for the better [from someone's perspective].
In a course called change management, which I’m unfortunate to take, my head spins with these perplexing thoughts all day. What’s changing in your head?
Oh, by the way, I’m not so sure the 200 IT technicians in Stockholm municipality agrees with me.
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Tags: addiction, change, learning
Space addict or space deprived
I’ve been thinking way to long about a follow-up post on the workspace at the IT-university and been pushing it off for way to long now. Then I read this quote from 43 Folders and decided to just start! (I didn’t even finish 43’s blog post)
“Every time you sit down to write represents a new chance, and I really encourage you to make yourself see it that way. That means set aside the time (with a beginning and end, if possible), take it seriously, and, most importantly, try not to think. Thinking is not writing; thinking is thinking. Thinking does not make books.”
Unfortunately this post will not be as encouraging as the last one.
1st and 2nd year students
During the first year of the Software Engineering and Management programme there are plenty of group rooms available and when there are no on-going lectures the square is also heavily used. Since the square is dedicated to SEM 1 students only there are never any complications with colliding schedules. The latter applies also to the second year of SEM. One square, one class. The major difference is, however, that there are no more separate group available for students to use (no more in this sentence means on the 3rd floor where the SEM students reside). Instead, all group activities are forced to the square, or some other floor in the ITU building.
3rd year and master students
Are not as lucky as the 1st or 2nd year students. Instead around 50 3rd year students and another 50-60 master students share one square in which lectures are organised almost daily but rarely addressing all of the ~110 students. This is due to the change in the way the programme is organised in the later years. What’s more? No group groups.
Space addicts?
Considering there are two more floors available there should be space enough for everyone? After a quick count I’m down to two available group rooms which should be booked in advance across the two floors. Not a lot. There used to be more but these have been converted into office spaces for permanent staff and guest professors. As argued in the previous post, the squares are a phenomenal working place which stimulates creativity and enhances collaboration. But, it is not suitable for all occasions, and moreover it is frequently booked for lecture purposes.
No, these days we’re space deprived. ITU is, and has been, my workplace of choice. I want it to be that way until I graduate.
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Tags: addict, deprived, productivity, work-space
Chilly nights at uni
When the sun sets, the frost comes creeping up the windows and darkness enters every corner of the land, most people go home and watch TV, eat sandwiches and think about 
tomorrow’s problems. But there are people that just never seem to go home. They sort of get stuck in what they are doing, and don’t even attempt to get out of it.
During nighttime, there are so many students left at uni.
I crossed the kitchen once and saw this lonesome girl, eating biscuits while being totally absorbed of the bright, blue light from her laptop screen. Everything else was so dark and I thought that she must be feeling utterly lonely, just sitting there by herself, while the rest of her friends had gone home (probably) hours ago.
There must be something in the air that makes students want to stay in the building for such a long time. The persistency to pass the upcoming exams? The project? Or just to use the wireless network for some time longer..?
It’s a fact that certain students almost never leave the building… any explanation?
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Tags: biscuit, darkness, night, project, TV
