Kenneth Rohde Christiansen

From the other world

2006-10-16T20:30:00.000+02:00

I have been wanting to blog about one of the other projects that I am working on: Syncropated!, so here we go :-)

Basically Syncropated! is an application for easily synchronizing your media contents with mass storage devices such as the Nokia 770 and MP3 players.

Currently it will find your static playlists from Amarok and Rhythmbox and let you sync these with the mass storage device connected. It then automatically generated pls and m3u playlists on the device which are used by most cheap MP3 players. It also handles replacing playlists gracefully, by making sure that no songs are deleted that might be referred to from another playlist. It also syncs photo albums from Picasa and F-spot support is also planned.

It is my first real Python project, and I am slowly getting my hang of it. Python is nice, though there are some things that I dislike. Anyway, I should probably do a few more Python projects to form my opinion on the language.

Anyway, it you would like to check out Syncropated!, it can be found in Ubuntu universe (edgy) under the name syncropated. Go try it out today!

Porting Landell to Tapioca

2006-10-16T20:28:00.000+02:00

As some of you probably have heard, the Tapioca project "merged" with the Telepathy project, in the sense that Tapioca now consists of convenience libraries for working with Telepathy and some extra connection managers and some tools like the Telepathy-Inspector.

Some of you might ask why convenience libraries are needed and why not just use Telepathy directly. Well, actually it is out experience that when using Telepathy we have ended up developing internal convenience libraries in our products and not of the quality that we had hoped for.

To remove this duplication of work and help the KDE Decibel project as well as port the instant messenger Landell to Telepathy, we sad down some time and started designing a nice, usable API for using Telepathy. It is still work in progress, but so far it has been a success.

It really makes sense. Telepathy is designed to provide the features needed to make a instant messenge and VoIP client, while keeping the API small so that it is easier implementing connection managers (like for protocols such as MSN, Jabber, GTalk...). It is also based on DBus which is a cross-platform Inter-process Communication Protocol, which means the API uses raw data structures such as hashes, arrays. This is not really optimal and is thus no longer a problem if you choose to use Tapioca.

Over the last month Renato and I have been porting Landell to use the new Tapioca library. Since we are using C# for the Landell product we were faced with the problem that there was no well-working .NET library for using DBus (which we needed to implement Tapioca# and Telepathy# which it is based on), but luckily Alp Toker took on the task of completing his fully managed DBus (an implementation of DBus only using managed C# code) to the state where it was usable for out needs. Many thanks goes to Alp!

There are still things to be done to Landell, but both me and Renato are currently busy with some other projects. It is coming along just fine though, and I would also like to thank the Tango community for supplying lovely new icons to the project.

Meu coração já naum me pertence

2006-06-16T15:25:00.000+02:00

So this is actually just a post to say that from time to time (that will say mostly every day!) I'm uploading pictures to my fotolog account. Take a look if you want. I'll try to post some here as well! =)

A vida é uma viagem, sem ter qualquer caminho predefinido. Ela fica um tanto em suas mãos, mas o suficiente para que você possa modelar. Nosso caminho pela vida é feito de coincidencias e de nossas açoes.

Nós não controlamos ou decidimos nosso destino, mas temos a habilidade de direciona-la para onde queremos ir. Nós podemos decidir o que queremos valorizar na vida, e podemos aproveitar as chances.

Chances e fé tornam as pessoas fortes, nos fazem capazes de viver nossos sonhos e coisas que nós nunca imaginaríamos. Ela nos dá a habilidade de alcançar a felicidade e não apenas viver, e nos proporciona momentos que fazem o resto de nossas vidas não parecer importante.

E todos que precisamos fazer é ter fé, decidir e suportar, e sem ter medo de fazê-lo. Eu sei o que escholi.

Blogged with Flock

Hva' faan!

2006-06-16T15:13:00.000+02:00

DSC_4400.JPG
Originally uploaded by stamppot kartoffel.

Så har man også set det! Det kommende landmandspar! Er de ikke yndige? =) Tja... with the Flock web browser it is quite easy browing flickr web albums and I fell over this lovely picture of my friend Jens and his girlfriend! If you didn't know better you would think they were a farmer couple! and I should know... i'm from the dark Jutland! =)

Farmer-Jens! hauaahuahauh! Seems you have a backup career going!

Long time no post

2006-06-14T21:58:00.000+02:00

Yeah, I know it :/ I was kind of planning on uploading lots of photos, but then my hard drive didn't wanted to spin anymore and I lost a lot of my stuff ... man, why don't real men make backups! Anyway, this is sort of a test post as I am posting from flock, which is this extremely cool new web browser =) with build in blocking!

Blogged with Flock

2006-04-25T23:19:00.000+02:00

Plagiats-t-shirts... na ja... Betales is a cool band afterall!

2006-04-25T23:17:00.000+02:00

hmm... I look strange here... well, anyway, it is supposed to be me.

2006-04-25T23:16:00.001+02:00

1...2...3...ACTION!

2006-04-25T23:16:00.000+02:00

"..the idea is that you hit with the dart within these circles, otherwise you get no further..."

2006-04-25T23:13:00.000+02:00

..und dann gab es essen! Schwartzbroot und Schwartzfleis ;-)

2006-04-25T23:12:00.001+02:00

Normal people have a cat, a dog or so.. but apparenly not people working at DLR!

2006-04-25T23:12:00.000+02:00

Whoo... later there was actually nice food!

2006-04-25T23:11:00.000+02:00

My office :) And yes, there are trees outside!

2006-04-25T23:10:00.001+02:00

Wow! at my office they gave me specially designed drawers with my middle name printed on! NICE!

2006-04-25T23:10:00.000+02:00

Ohhh... Those Ruperts are so happy together!

2006-04-25T23:09:00.000+02:00

Aiiii... I got the eugle! (or how you write that... well doesn't matter so much, it is more like a monkey anyway!)

2006-04-25T22:59:00.000+02:00

This is for all my Brazilian friends! Yeah, really... when you are older than 18 it is really about time to learn to cook some of the most basic things and learn to wash clothes, clean the bathroom etc.. well, you don't :S I know, so now at least let me teach you to how to make an "Omelete do Kenne" ! It is quite simple! Just follow the steps shown in the picture and then after 2-3 tries I am sure you have succeeded! Good luck pals!

2006-04-25T22:56:00.000+02:00

yeah... about time :) also took the whole sunday! Well, actually I had a nice relaxing weekend... Friday I went with Paula to a huuuge, great party at the university and saturday I was so tired and with pain in my feets (danced too much?) that I did absolutely nothing... hehe.. well, then sunday I at last got around to cleaning my room and the rest of the apartment! whooo :-D now it might stay clean a whole week... lets cross our fingers!

...in bed at 6, up at 7 and arrgg... back to bed...

2006-04-20T18:11:00.000+02:00

...so... yeah... was supposed to go to work, but it turned out that I needed more sleep.

Yesterday I was supposed to go with Paula to a party at RWL, but she got a job in Düsseldorf so she had to get up quite early... so anyway I went to her place and we went together to Zülpicherplatz to meet some friends of her that were going to the party as well... I met some other people there that I knew already, like Mr. Schönheit aka Enrique, Lisa, ... blah blah... anyway, it was quite nice and later some of us went to the party and met some other people which means that I am invited to parties for the next 3 days...

Anyway, around 3 today I went to the university to meet Sylvia and we went a bit to the city to look around... really cozy :) ... Later her mother came and we went to look at some rooms Sylvia is interested in and later we went for a cup of coffee..

.... so that was a brief update on my life... until next time.

2006-04-20T18:05:00.000+02:00

Me and Sylvia drinking a capocino with her mother

2006-04-17T19:05:00.000+02:00

Not so much to do today, been going out every single night (and day actually) the last 5 days and I needed a day off. Yesterday night I went to a great Drum n' Bass concert with my roommate Malte.. man that was so great! The melody is still living inside my head =)

2006-04-17T19:03:00.000+02:00

I forgot to shop... :S Almost nothing in the house, and still I managed to make this delicious meal out of almost nothing... seems my cooking skills are improving =)

Making IM history?

2006-04-16T16:29:00.000+02:00

As a long-time instant messenger (IM) user I have gotten quite some good ideas how the whole instant messaging experience could be improved in order to match the current use and still stay simple and useful. I have put a lot of thought into this and I have discussed my ideas from time to time with Nokia engineer and friend, Marcelo who is currently working on the client for the INdT (Instituto Nokia da Technologia) IM framework Tapióca.

Yesterday Marcelo told me that he got green light for implementing some of my ideas! That is really cool =)

Whoo... now it seems that I am making Instant Messaging history!

Bonn, one more city down!

2006-04-15T21:00:00.000+02:00

Just in case the below pictures doesn't make it clear, I spend the day today in Bonn with some new friends of mine. I've become quite lazy at writing in my blog.. I should really try changing that, but there is so much to write about and I have no idea where to start... Anyway, Happy Easter to everyone!

Happy Easter, Vrolik paasweek, Prettige paasdagen, God påske, Feliz pascoa, Good paaske... etc .. etc. . .

Right now I'm drinking a cup of coffee and in an hour or so I will go out with a friend of mine called Steffen... The night is young... and shit, I forgot to shop for tomorrow :-S

2006-04-15T20:29:00.001+02:00

Aiiee... such a camera is just Hammergeil!

2006-04-15T20:29:00.000+02:00

Süsss....

2006-04-15T20:28:00.001+02:00

Very interesting brochures...

2006-04-15T20:28:00.000+02:00

Beethoven lives here... actually was born.. but as we can see in the window, he might still be around...

2006-04-15T20:27:00.001+02:00

Bonn ist ganz gemuetlich!

2006-04-15T20:27:00.000+02:00

..natürlich in Rietz aber bei mir gibt es nur currywurst mit pommes frites

2006-04-15T20:26:00.000+02:00

Aiii.... my great friend the easter chicken!

2006-04-15T20:25:00.000+02:00

"So schön wie Bonn", ja... so hat Lisa das gesagt. Aber ja, sie ist doch auch ganz schön =)

2006-04-15T20:24:00.000+02:00

Paulinchen is such an angle! Sweet, né?

2006-04-15T20:23:00.001+02:00

Salut!!!

2006-04-15T20:23:00.000+02:00

A joystick? A dildo? well.. nooooo... it is just the standard glass used for serving Boennsch

2006-04-15T20:22:00.000+02:00

The group drinking Boennsch... well, mostly the group, since Paula is taking the picture,

2006-04-15T20:21:00.000+02:00

The station is cozy looking like most things in Bonn

Nádia and Luis dropped by for dinner!

2006-03-26T22:02:00.000+02:00

2006-03-18T23:17:00.000+01:00

Almost home.... tired! so tired! I had such a headache this morning.. and then I helped Jens make a bit of technical design for one of his projects... really didn't help with my headache, but I know he appreciated it a lot :) so it was a pleasure to do... Thanks friend for being so kind and giving me a nice time again in Groningen! Hou je taai!

2006-03-18T23:14:00.001+01:00

The view of the Oosterpark...

2006-03-18T23:14:00.000+01:00

Another morning... now I am getting used to make coffee this way :P

2006-03-18T23:12:00.000+01:00

And the Olde Grieze aka Martinitoren!

2006-03-18T23:11:00.000+01:00

The Municipaly of Groningen City

2006-03-18T23:10:00.000+01:00

Looks like Binne is still ready to party, but it all seems closed :(

2006-03-18T23:09:00.000+01:00

Binne in some kind of Pub (Het Vaatje) around 6 o' clock

2006-03-18T23:08:00.000+01:00

So finished eating! and straight to the beers and movie!

2006-03-18T23:07:00.000+01:00

Jens and Binne are very busy preparing dinner for me. Friday evening we went to Binne to eat and later go out a bit... Jens went home around 0:00, shortly after Mauritz showed up... but somehow I managed to get home at 7am hehe

2006-03-18T23:05:00.001+01:00

Jens has one of those ducks! yeah... just look what it brings up in him :) heheeh sweet childhood memories!

2006-03-18T23:05:00.000+01:00

Jens also cooked some Tortillas ala Jens for me... new recipe... but TASTY :P In the Netherlands they use gas for cooking, just like in Brazil!

2006-03-18T23:03:00.001+01:00

Uh... I really need an Apple.. see how good it looks with my iPod!

2006-03-18T23:03:00.000+01:00

My good friend Jens, smiling and funny as always!

2006-03-18T23:00:00.000+01:00

Well... My Danish friend Jens was so kind to let me stay as his and Danielle's place, but coffee cooking proved to be a bit of a problem... so let me introduce my latest invention :)

2006-03-18T22:57:00.000+01:00

So I am almost ready to go to my exam! Yeah this weekend I went to the Netherlands as I had to do an oral exam in Architecture and Infrastructure... I was fearing the exam a bit, but it weird better than my expectations as I got a 9 (out of 10) which was the best grade given! Whoo!! :D

Recipe... how to make soup the Japanese way :)

2006-03-11T01:21:00.000+01:00

YEah, I know... Japanese food is delicious... well, that will say with the exception of the soup... Soup... well yeah, it consists of water... but does it also have to taste of water? Apparenly yes! well... at least we can spice it up a bit by putting a few nicely cut vegables in it...

Mom! Mom! I miss soup the way you make it! With kødboller and melboller og alt der som skat til! Kom kom... tag suppen med, så skal jeg nok vise jer rundt i Køln!

Jörg leaves work... part 3

2006-03-11T01:12:00.000+01:00

So...yes, Jörg got a Kimono or what it was it was called...or was that the name of the restaurant? I don't remember right now...anyway, it is a kind of pyjama, that is not really a pyjama but instead some kind of very fine Japanese dress... well, at least Jörg knew very well what it was, and of course we forced him to try in on! :) Inside the Japanese restaurant, heheh...

Yes,... and then a bit more to the right....

...and TA-DAAAA!!! and it is on!

Jörg leaves work... part 2

2006-03-11T01:07:00.000+01:00

Uh.... I looove sushi!!!

But if we all pay good attention, we will notice that der Jörg definately also likes getting presents! So here is the present in question... does it look Japanese to you? It definately does to me!

"...but... it says that it is Chinese..?!". Yeah, well.. Chinese, Japanese... it is all Asian to me =)

Christmas lights in the eyes! and uh... the big moment is getting closer!

Jörg leaves work... part 1

2006-03-11T00:59:00.000+01:00

So Jörg from my work is leaving and invited us all to go to a Japanese restaurant to say good bye in a more relaxed way.

I have never been at a Japanese restaurant before, but people who know me, knows that I like to learn about and try new things!

The first thing that surprised me was the price! A menu costed between 26-46 euros :-O ... and then the second surprise came when I saw how few pieces the so-called "vegetables plate" consisted of!

Anyway, the food was delicious, though you had to get used to the sticks :-P

2006-02-23T22:53:00.000+01:00

In Kölle geiht et loss...un mir sin dabei! (My friend Malte and Michael from my work!)

2006-02-23T22:52:00.000+01:00

I'm sorry girl... but next time get a health insurance with dentistry treadment included! heheheheheehhe....

2006-02-23T22:47:00.000+01:00

At work we have a guy called Guy. Guy is a fan of Linux and thus likes pinguins... Guy is also a guy and likes models :) so... some time ago someone put this on the toilet :P "We wish you lots of fun here! but behave and hurry up!" hehehehe...

Have you ever been threatened with a knife?

2006-02-06T20:23:00.000+01:00

Well, I had neither, ...until today. I was on my way to Capoeira and entered the U-bahn (underground) at Lohsestrasse. I saw two junkies around 30, a man and his girlfriend, who were both quite stoned. I walked around them and continued walking until I passed a boy and a girl. The man walked toward the boy and tried selling him some drugs. The boy rejected and said he would never start with something as stupid as that. The boy and girl started walking away and so did I. Noway, did I want to have contact with that junkie.

Apparenly, the junkie was seriously mad at me and started shouting to me that he would beat me up and put a knife into my chest. I just kept standing, but then he started walking toward me slowly carrying a knife. His girlfriend ran to me quickly and tried to stand between us. She said that I shouldn't worry as he would have to cut her first and he would never do that.

I was a bit uncomfortable with the situation but I knew I could run away anytime if I wanted so I stayed. The guy shouted to his girlfriend to get away so that he could cut me and he kept shouding that and the whole situation became more tense; and I really wished the U-train would come any moment. The girlfriend then tried taking my hand and wanted to start kissing me... argh! what the heck was this!??! The U-train arrived and I hurried aboard and the girlfriend told me to get in front and then she made sure that the guy got in the last waggon... yeez... never have I tried something like that before!

Reflecting on my life

2006-02-02T13:32:00.000+01:00

I was always different and I didn't fit in and i wanted more of my life. Like most people I was searching for a reason with life and I was afraid of not living 100%. I had problems at home and at school and I wanted a new start, but didn't know what I really wanted... I was searching for myself. I just followed people's advice as always as I was kind of weak in many ways and it went okay in the beginning.

I had lots of social problems and felt like a stranger amoung people, like noone understood me, like I didn't belong and I never would. I had no big friends that I could trust myself to, and I couldnt trust myself to my family either as I felt that noone understood me. How could anyone understand me if I didnt understand myself?

As I had social problems I dedicated myself to music, poetry (to understand and write down my feelings) and computers (later languages).

I was not feeling loved and I was searching for love. Since I didn't feel the love from my parents I needed it even more. I had had many smaller and longer relationships and just before I moved to Copenhagen I had fallen deeply in love with a German girl called Tine. There was no way we could be together and I hated life for it. Luckily, I quickly got over her and started my new life which was kind of okay :)

Then I met the Dutch girl Hannah. She looked sweet and like a girl with a huge heart! She was not really my type, qua look, clothes, a bit too childish (though I like that to some level), etc. but I also never expected anything with her, just wanted to flirt, kiss her and move on.

But she really wanted to visit me and I gave it special meaning. I felt noone wanted to do anything for me - friends, parents etc - but now someone wanted. I fell in love with her because of this and of course, some of her qualities. It was always nice with her, but it was more like a friendship from my side.

I donno how much time passed (I was with her 4,5 year), but maybe after one year I kind of started to forget her (she lived in the Netherlands and me in Denmark) and I fell in love with some other girls. Actually, I fell very easily in love, but nothing happened... either I decided that Hannah was the best for me or they didn't want me anyway because they had a boyfriend already or knew about Hannah.

Hannah noticed that I was forgetting about her and did everything to keep me and it worked. Then I got afraid! I was afraid of loosing my good friend Hannah and I was afraid because the relationship got more serious as she wanted me to live with her. I had the feeling in my mind that I needed to try something else or else I might wake up in 10 years being marriaged with kids and finding out it wasn't right for me.

We had a month apart from each others as I went to a summer school to study Dutch. It was a great time! I was very popular with the girls and there was an Italian girl that I liked. We started dating and that was it. I liked her, and she broke with her boyfriend as a consequence and wanted to do much for me and make a very serious relationship. I wasn't ready for this! I couldn't just jump from one relationship to another. So I was alone again and Hannah really wanted me and we were together again, but some things changed. I noticed that there were a lot of other girls out there who liked me, and my life with Hannah was far from perfect - I wasn't living life.

Then I started using Orkut for real. First for fun and to write in other languages and meet people, but many, many girls seemed to like me and I flirted. It was great, I felt that I had been locked and now I was breaking loose. One girl called Camila took my flirting too serious and thought she had a relationship with me. I was a bit in love so I let her think that, but it was wrong. I knew she was not my type but still I felt good about myself because she liked me so much.

Then I met Livia. This girl was different and very special and I fell in love. I really wanted to meet her but it seemed that, even though she went to Germany, that I never would.

Immediately after I met her I tried breaking up with Hannah. I knew it was over, but Hannah's world fell together and she was begging me to be with her. It was hard! I had planned to move to the Netherlands because of Hannah and I didn't want her anymore. Every time I thought about her I felt hurted and bad. I tried telling Livia about her, but it was impossible for me at this time. Too much pain. I moved and I was depending on Hannah the first time... I felt so unbelievable bad.

Finally Hannah kind of understood that it was over and I it seemed that nothing would ever happen with Livia, so I decided to forget about her. I got my life in the Netherlands and I was even kind of in love with another girl there for some time, but maybe it was more to forget Livia.

My new life started and I felt good! Livia took contact to me again and we actually met. It was wonderful and everything that happened was great. I thought it was because of her and in many ways it was, but it was also because I got to put my life old behind me and felt for the first time that I was living life.

I felt so good that I felt that what I had done was the best that I have ever done in my life, and I decided to just follow my heart and dreams in the future and not worry about the consequences.

I really put everything behind me and I only thought about going forward and about this new life. Everything went the way I wanted it to and everything felt like it was ment to be this way forever. Like destiny. I felt that I found out the secret of life and I wanted this to last forever and do everything for it. The time wasn't entirely perfect, but to me and compared to my old life, it surely felt that way.

I realized some things about myself, life and what I wanted in life and that made this time very special to me and I gave everything from this time a special meaning.

It felt like every moment that I had was the best moment of my whole life. I LOVED the time, and though, I knew it would not last forever and that I might get very hurted, I didn't care: I was living! Thought the time was short, it felt like the moments could fill a life time. I felt so good and gave myself 150% to this new life, which also meant Livia.

But every thing good comes to an end, and that was hard. I thought that I had everything and that it would last forever. It seemed that way, and I couldn't accept it if it didn't. I was sure that what I felt and had felt was destiny and that I could never experience anything like this again at any time. I didn't want to let go.

It was hard feeling when things started going bad, and it was hard accepting. I blamed myself for everything, and seeked faults that I made during the time. Of course, I made faults, she too, but it was the way it was, and things happened the way it happened and none of us were to blame, though we people always search someone to blame.

Every day after was a step ahead and a step back, and I realized a bit more about everything, every day. You could say that the time with her, I found myself, and the time after was/is the time to find life.

With her, I thought that I learned so much, and I did! Such a wonderful time, so wonderful moments, but it doesn't exist anymore. These last two months I have never learned more. Every day my life gets turned upside down and I have had to rethink so many times of my past - that past that I totally left behind.

I feel a lot more settled now... I am not entirely there yet, but getting there steadily. I am letting go of Livia and moving on. I have realized that, though, she is lovely and fits with me in many ways and though we share such wonderful moments, well, then she might not be the one for me anymore and there are indeed others out there.

It was hard realizing this, as I wanted the time we had together to never loose it's meaning, and I wanted to see it as more than it was and I wanted to believe she was the only one for me.

Sometimes, I feel really great, sometimes normal and sometimes a bit sad, but every day I feel greater! :) Now I need to concentrate on me and see where life brings me.

I hope Livia will have a nice time here in Cologne and I wish her happiness, but I am a bit afraid that she will make my mistake and put too much meaning to her new life here as I did to my new life with her. But anyway, making these mistakes is the way we learn.

2005-12-12T22:28:00.000+01:00

Ohhhh sooo cute! Here we have my little niece Freya! I look so much forward actually meeting her in real life when I am celebrating christmas at my sister, Janne's place! Janne made the dress herself! So handy she is! She has a proud brother, that is for sure...

2005-12-12T22:24:00.000+01:00

Caju! Or better known as Cashew nuts... I never imagined them actually being a fruit (used for juice) with a nut attached! Now I understand why Cashew nuts are so insane expensive!

2005-12-12T22:20:00.000+01:00

See what kind of food they "forced" me to eat, hehehe... luckily I loooooved it! :) Especially the octupus/squid we had one of the first days!

2005-12-12T22:16:00.000+01:00

The Netherlands is indeed flat! Here you see Amsterdam/Schiphol

2005-12-08T00:04:00.000+01:00

Pure beauty... Almost as puur as my sweetieheartie :)

2005-12-07T23:38:00.000+01:00

Marcelo, the gaming expert at Instituto Nokia da Technologia (INdT).

2005-12-07T23:36:00.000+01:00

Eating with some of the people from Instituto Nokia da Technologia :)

2005-12-07T23:32:00.001+01:00

How the favelas look from an appartment...

2005-12-07T23:32:00.000+01:00

The favelas... full with chearful children, and just because I am talking a photo of them

2005-12-07T23:31:00.000+01:00

Massagueira!

2005-12-07T23:29:00.000+01:00

Such peace in my mind!

2005-12-07T23:28:00.000+01:00

The pousada!

2005-12-07T23:26:00.000+01:00

Fishers in the ocean close to Pousada Barra Velha where we stayed.

2005-12-07T23:25:00.000+01:00

So beautiful and yet more beautiful in real life! Ponta Verde beach!

2005-12-07T23:24:00.001+01:00

Frances, the first beach that I really experience in Brazil

2005-12-07T23:22:00.001+01:00

It is getting around 5pm and the sun is setting over Olinda - So quiet and beautiful

2005-12-07T23:22:00.000+01:00

A church in Olinda!

2005-12-07T23:19:00.000+01:00

Some street dancers in Olinda!

2005-12-07T23:17:00.000+01:00

Me looking at the wonderful beach Maragogi

The advantages and disadvantages of IM services

2005-11-09T19:14:00.000+01:00

I thought a bit more about IM services and whether it is generally better not to use or not. I have come to the conclusion that IM is very good for on/off conversations, but it doesn't really scale to real conversations - at least not with people you really care about.

Instant Messaging is good for

Arranging meetings
Just saying hi and quickly telling the latest news
Working on something together that requires internet access

So, why is this? Well, the first two points doesn't really require you to be 100% present - or at least just for a short period. The reason why I find that IM doesn't scale to real conversations is that you are always multitasking when you are at the computer. It is just so tempting to open a web browser the first second someone is not saying anything; to answer others on the chat, browse your music collection to find a nice song... etc.

I wondered why I don't get irritated when I talk over the phone and I came to the conclusion that I actually do sometimes! And this is when I am sitting close to the computer - I answer people on MSN, quickly check my e-mail, the news, etc and for a few seconds I don't pay attention and I end up getting irritated with the one I am talking to! and don't really feel like talking. This is exactly the same that happens with instant messaging - you are never there 100% for the one you are talking to, at least not for a longer time.

IM though, does have its advantages. If you are cooperating and need to study internet pages, read PDF's etc, it is great! You sent each other links or files and you both read quietly and answer/ask when you have time - without expecting an immediate answer. This works a lot better than two sitting at the same computer.

I guess the answer is that if you really want to talk to someone and have a nice conversation, then you should make a special IM account with only that person and try not doing other things at the same time. Actually, I wonder very much why the popular services don't have an option like: "Show as Offline to everybody except to the people I am currently having conversations with".

Why Instant Messaging is a bad substitute for being together

2005-11-03T20:05:00.000+01:00

During the last month I have realized that instant messaging services are a bad solution to cure your longing for really being together. There are several reasons why I think so, but the biggest that it gives you a fake sense of intimacy.

The waiting part
When you really miss someone and know that the person occasionally is online, well then you are afraid of running past each others, which means that you spend a lot of time waiting for each others, just to be disappointed with the kind of contact provided by the instant messaging system.

Distraction
When you are in love, you need a lot of intimacy, something that a IM service cannot provide. When you are at a computer it can be hard not surfing a bit while talking, not chatting to others if they start chatting to you, not checking your mail etc. This means that you are never really alone together, and thus not there 100% for each others. And so you get irritated with each others for almost no reason. When you are seldom at the internet, it becomes even harder not doing other things.

Feelings
It also proves very hard to transfer feelings and interpret feelings correctly, which is a big part of the intimacy. Emoticons are just not refined enough and you can easily hide behind them, showing other feelings than you have; something that is harder to do with facial expressions.

Webcams help a bit, but you cannot tell if the other person is really looking at the camera or it is covered with another window (browser window, for instance), so it is not such a good solution either.

Final words
I saw Instant Messaging as an easy way to gain intimacy and share my daily life with my fiancé now that we are apart for some time. Instead we both realized that the supposely pleasant intimacy tends to get ruined, and that we have to find others way for gaining intimacy.

The Instant Messenger gives you a fake sense of intimacy, and when you realize that things are not the way you assume, you get sad, irritated, and start missing each others even more...

Google Personalized vs. Windows Live

2005-11-02T13:48:00.000+01:00

Today, I checked out the new Windows Live website. It is not perfect but it actually works quite well. Many nice gadgets are available such a horoscope, a mail and a weather forecast gadget and more can be found on http://microsoftgadgets.com/. The layout is pretty relaxed to look at and less obstructive that the layout of the personalized Google start page.

Generally, I like the way the Google page works more, but the lack or gadgets and the ability to write your own gadgets for the Microsoft Windows Live, unfortunately makes the Microsoft page more usable for me at the moment. I hope that Google will make it possible to write your own gadgets and have more default gadgets such as horoscope, world clock, online buddies (Google Talk), tv-show reminder, calendar, etc.

Actually, I would really love Google to build a Google Calendar. I web-based calendar is something that I really need. If it could be made to work as well as GMail and my online friends can see parts of my calendar, they will really have a winner.

Lets see what Google's next move is...

Denmark, Malta and Switzerland; the most happy nations in the World

2005-11-01T22:23:00.000+01:00

According to the following link, World Database of Happiness I come from one of the three most happy nations of the world =)

Unfortunately, I never really felt that happy there... makes you wonder :)

Home sweet home, where are you?

2005-10-31T23:39:00.000+01:00

I'm getting a bit tired of the Netherlands or of Groningen, at least. I do not really know why, but lately it seems that everything Dutch tend to irritate me. I have had a great time here, found good friends and enjoyed the city a lot. But suddently it is all enough. Everything seem too Dutch to me and it is very hard finding out why. Maybe I just don't really fit in with most people here, maybe I am just to different.

In Passau I didn't really like the mentality of most people, that was clear, and the city was too limiting. On the other hand I enjoyed the time there a whole lot. It was of course also a special time as I grew there together with my Lívia. When we moved to the Netherlands, before she went to Brazil, we were really happy to be in Groningen. The first week we needed to adapt, but there are so many options here, nice shopping street, nice bars and it was possible to prepare a lot nicer food that in Passau.

I can wonder why things are different now, and I think I might know several reasons. First of all, I live alone now, and my fiancée isn't around. With her, I truly had someone who I could share things with, one who could understand me and read my feeling. I really had someone around that I fit 100% with. In Germany we also had our own place, and here I have to share bathroom, kitchen and I never really feel home, and that I did in our appartment in Germany.

Another reason is the culture and nature. I see almost no nature here in the north of the Netherlands; everything looks alike, everything is flat and I'm never in a forest or so - I never see nice gardens, etc. The Netherlands is very beautiful and special when you are here for the first time. Everything has its own special Dutch style to it, but when you have seen it once and gotten used to it, you see it the whole time, and everything seems too much alike.

I really miss the curved, small streets of Passau, the rivers, the many different coloured houses... It was truly beautiful there - it was. So many good memories, even of things that seem stupid, like bringing back a DVD during the night while walking in the moon light. It will never be the same, and it will never be a place I want to live, though it would be nice coming back once.

Maybe I have a better idea of where I want to live now... maybe I don't. Every place has its advantages and its disadvantages... Let's hope Cologne is the place that combines all my wishes, but I think there is a good chance that it is.

Chaos Theory

2005-10-31T15:28:00.000+01:00

Yes, I turned in my TSR report and I also finished the first report in modeling and Simulation! I spend the last week looking into the Chirikov map - aka Standard map - and it's properties (thus chaos theory). It was quite interesting I must say. Really nice working with a bit of Math again.

Today I played with the winding numbers to see if I could characterize when a given K, X₀ and P₀ would result in periodic, quasi-periodic or chaotic behavior. Indeed ,this seems possible!

It was quite nice as I recognized many theorems from the generally hated course Complex Function Theory that I did in Copenhagen. A course that I ended up liking a lot =)

The Dr. Phil test

2005-10-31T00:10:00.000+01:00

So today me and Jens did the Dr. Phil test. When I did it using the test someone mailed Jens I got a 51, but the same answers on other sites as 1, 2, gives me different results varying between 43 and 45, which leads to the following conclusion:

Others see you as fresh, lively, charming, amusing, practical, and always interesting; someone who's constantly in the center of attention, but sufficiently well-balanced not to let it go to their head. They also see you as kind, considerate, and understanding; someone who'll always cheer them up and help them out.

Taken from the test, copyright reserved.

Not that bad I guess =) Still want to be my friend?

Remembering the good old days

2005-10-30T23:42:00.000+01:00

I just watched the movie Sahara and at some point someone was using a computer running IceWM and some pre-GNOME 1.0 Gtk+ application called Notepad. Hmm, this really remember me about the time around 1998-1999 where I was sitting in my dad's room slowly getting involved with GNOME development...

It gives me good feelings of nostalgia, but I am also very happy with the progress we have made during the years, and the way my life has changed.

Life is not always perfect, but I love where it has taken me. My future looks really bright, but I am standing at an edge and a lot of huge changes will happen during the next year, just like this last year.

Very soon I am going to Brazil to visit my fiancé, see her country and meet her family and friends. Never in my life have I looked so much forward to anything. I thought a big part of the reason was because I am going to see Brazil, but when I get in touch with my feelings, I feel that Brazil means very little - at least very little, compared to being with my love. But when you combine those two, you have heaven!

2005-10-30T19:37:00.000+01:00

Picture from the SkørHårFest. © the Fotocie

Me and the girlfriend (forgot her name) of Klaas-Jan. Apparently, I was quite tired that evening :) if you compare with this picture taken the day thereafter:

2005-10-30T19:31:00.000+01:00

But well, nothing beats the crazy color-changing, christmas-tree-like hair of Emil =)

Picture from the RaarHaarBorrel. © the Fotocie

2005-10-30T19:26:00.000+01:00

Getting used to the new me

2005-10-30T19:05:00.000+01:00

So at last I finished my summary report :) And I even think it is not that bad at all, though it is a bit critical of the original article.

I didn't do much else today. Actually, I even got to sleep long for a change! and that even after I changed my watches to follow the Daylight Time Saving that took affect this night! Unfortunately this means that it will get dark earlier and that it is winter time again... and like most people: I HATE winter :(

Jens dropped by for a little while and I had a nice, relaxing chat with my fiancé, making me feeling a bit better than yesterday. I didn't feel so nice yesterday. I'm a bit stressed and I sometimes have some feelings that I feel that I shouldn't have. I'm trying to analyse those and trying to become a bit more calm, and it is really helping. I don't want to have these feelings; it hurts me and I end up hurting people who care about me, which then again hurts me.

I've been missing out on some things in my life due to different reasons and now my whole life has changed for better and I have really opened my eyes. It feels like a bit late to do that and I feel a bit afraid of missing out on things again. It is like I want to do all these things that I have missed out on and I have no patience to wait. That is of course unrealistic and I know that. I guess I just need to relax and with time I will get used to my new wonderful life and the new me.

2005-10-29T17:44:00.000+02:00

So, I'm still fighting with that article... progressing slowly though.

Yesterday evening was quite nice, nothing amazing happened or so, but I went to visit Binne together with Jens, and we ended up talking about interesting things such as life, future until 4:30 in the morning. I was home around 5 am and kind of counted on sleeping loooong... but around 11:00 I already woke up. A nice shower, something to eat, a cup of coffee and I was ready for the day.

Right now I just ate one of the most delicious salads in my life. Well, it still doesn't beat the one Lilly and me made in Passau, but this one is getting close... I also ended up eating it all, which is kind of scary as it consisted of:

300 g of mixed salad
half a package of tomatoes
half a package of nice Danish feta
220 g of chicken (put in a nice marinade)
70 g of garlic croutons
plus some nice Italian herb dressing

Oh, well... some times I am just hungry I guess :) Now back to work...

A bit of this and a bit of that

2005-10-28T19:53:00.000+02:00

So not the most interesting day, but on the other hand also not that bad. Most of the day I worked on writing a summary article for the course Technology of System Realization. In many ways it feels like a great waste of time. I enjoy writing articles about things that I have worked with and have gained a lot of knowledge about, but having to summarize a difficult article that doesn't interest you one bit is not really nice, and it is not that I am learning a lot of new stuff.

Oh, well, I got the first two pages done, but I must say that I'm not progressing so quicky as I would like to. I just took a few hours of sleep so maybe I can work a bit further now.

My fiancé is trying to take care of a lot of beaucrazy today so that she can come back to me in January. I really hope that everything will work out, but I have a good confidence in it. Speaking of her, I just received a nice letter this morning that she sent from Salvador... oh.. It is all those small things that make me so happy. I also got a letter saying that I will get half of the money back that I paid for my study! Nice! It would have been really nice if I had known about this option last year as well... but yeah, in the Netherlands you should expect anyone to guide you on the right path.

I also looked a bit on SWAT today. Looks interesting and promising. Reminds me that I need to look more into Ruby of Rails as well... oh, well, if I get ever some time =)

Uh.. what a boring saturday

2005-10-22T19:49:00.000+02:00

So, my plan was to relax today and sleep really long. Unfortunately, I woke up quite early taking into account that I went out yesterday night. I wasn't really supposed to, but when your friends invite you :) you don't say no, do you?

So, I also didn't really get to relax. I donno... but it is quite hard for me relaxing when I know that there are lots of things that I need to finish. Instead of doing something school related, I did some work-related work. I am currently working on putting a dictionary online, but I cannot say much more than that.

Anyway, I first got samples in one format and developed some tools to transform it into a structured format (XML) and another tool to dump the data to the database. But the authors only have the final version as a PDF :( Well, there is an option to export to XML, but unfortunately it gives me text filled with weird spaces, weird letters and randomly places XML tags. Scheisse....

The file is around 6-7 MB so I didn't really feel doing this manually :) and instead spend today (and most of yesterday) figuring out the different structures of entries and developing some regular expression rules that can convert the file together with some Perl code. It seems to work quite well, but some places it has gone totally wrong (leftover from the PDF->XML conversion) and I have to clean that up manually; bummer!

Complicated regular expressions can give you a hard time, but man, they save you a lot of time as well :) Doing this work manually would take me around a year.

Na ja....

2005-10-21T19:32:00.000+02:00

As my friends most of you know that I am sad that my parents never visit me, even though I have invited them many times. This week I got even more sad as I was talking to my sister on the phone and she told me that my parents went camping in Belgium! :-O Oh, but my place in on the way to Belgium from Denmark, and they didn't say a word not visited me! Anyway, not much to do about that except hoping that they would visit me on the way home.

I sent an SMS and hoped for the best. Today, 4 days later or so, my dad called. I had had a very real dream with him this night and I kind of had the feeling that he was going to tell me that they would drop by on the way home. He sounded kind of happy and I talked and asked how it was in Belgium.

Then my dad suddently changed subject and said, "no Kenneth we won't visit you, it is not so easy with the caravan". I said, "why not, there are plenty of camping places outside the city, it is no problem." He said, "no no, we just won't do it. Another time we will come." Hah, my experience tells me that that means that they won't come and I don't care about words without action, so I said, "That is what you always say and that means that you don't come at all... Please count how many times you have visited me the last 6 years."

He answered "Yeah, but Kenneth it is not so easy... we don't have so much time etc." Then I said, "but you can always plan and you are at least in Belgium now. Apparently you have time for that! You could also have choosen to visit me. It is all about what you prioritize."

"...Yeah", he said, "but we don't have so much time to have fun and have it nice..." and I said, "well it is nice to know that you don't consider visiting your son as being nice or of any importance ..." and I really felt hurted and like crying... and that kind of ended the conversation with him.

My mom took the phone, I didn't really listen as it was too much for the moment, but I'm could feel that she felt that I was deeply hurted. Now... Let's see if they will ever visit me here in the Netherlands before I move... I guess I shouldn't hold my breath.

2005-10-20T20:15:00.000+02:00

Fatty? Hey, is this a hint or so...?

2005-10-02T09:57:00.000+02:00

In Frisia we went to find ús mem (our mother) which is supposed to be the mother of the frisian people I suppose :) It turned our to be a cow... makes you wonder...

Uncle Kennie! :-D

2005-09-06T13:04:00.000+02:00

Yes, yesterday morning my mother called me to say that my sister gave birth to a little baby girl 2 hours earlier (8:08 am). The girl weighted 2.850 g and was 47 cm long. My sister and her husband Tommy decided to name the cute little girl Freja, a name which I really adore. It is also a name with a lot of history and it is highly tighed to Danish culture: Wikipedia/Freya.

My dad sent us a lot of nice pictures and I must say that I am very proud to be an uncle!

It doesn't need mentioning that my family (mother, dad, grandmother etc) and the family of Tommy are all melding away of happiness!