Photo by Diana Walker (http://digitaljournalist.org/issue0712/y_walker08.html)
“This was a very typical time. I was single. All you needed was a cup of tea, a light, and your stereo, you know, and that’s what I had.” – Steve Jobs
My personal hero.
This reminds me of the time during studies, when I used to move with just one trunk full of stuff. Including my bike, computer, CRT and laser printer. Which left little space for clutter. Good old times.
I just read an interesting article by Lance Fortnow about how (and why) publishing in CS differs from most other disciplines. Beware that it is a bit ACM biased. 
Open Access by Gideon Burton (cc-by-sa)
I agree that the current situation is not perfect. E.g. the focusing on deadlines has disadvantages (but also advantages). And I must say, that the most useful parts of most conferences are the coffe breaks and birds-of-a-feather sessions. I guess something like the Linked Data Meetup would at the same time be cheaper and more enjoyable.
On the other hand I am not sure whether the best solution would be to change to a journal centric model as in other disciplines. Fortnow criticises the “least-publishable units”, which end up as conference papers. On the other hand, working in small increments is a main feature of lean processes, and also start-ups (cf. Eric Ries “minimum viable product”). For example, FOAF+SSL has been developed publicly, on the web. As Fortnow explains, the current model of publication in CS has emerged as a result of the agility of the discipline. It would be a pity to sacrifice this agility.
I guess what we need is a mixture: Web 2.0 style work within sub-communities, publishing early and often. And then maybe some kind of journal (or better open access) style process for disseminating results across communities.
Cheers, Simon
I have had serious lower and upper pack pain for a couple of days this week, which effectively kept me from working. Once it got a little bit better and I started working again, the pain returned after two hours. Here are my counter measures, which seem to work so far:
Workrave Micro Pause Dialog
I have set up the workrave applet, such that it forces me to do a 30 seconds micro-break every ten minutes and a 15 minutes break once an hour.
In addition I get some physiotherapy.
How did this happen? Well, I have a typical desk job and I use to travel a lot, often for 7 or 8 hours, multiple times a week. Now trains, planes and cars are not the places where you get much movement either. Last weekend we went on a three-day trip for a friend’s wedding, travelling another 25 hours. And that obviously finished me off.
Why will this not happen again? This experience has been so painful that I will do everything to prevent it happening again. Despite the above measures, I will exercise at least three times per week again. I’ve been there, but became lazy over the last year. And I will do more breaks while travelling and maybe reduce travelling, where possible.
When I feel better again, I probably will reduce the frequency and length of the breaks a bit, but the overall setting seems quite useful.
What are your measures against back pain?
Cheers,
Simon
We bought a new desk yesterday evening. This morning, I set it up. This is where I work, when I stay in Lübeck. A short overview of the equipment and the way I use it:
Homeoffice
In the picture you can see the 150×75cm desk, with lamp, telephone and inbox, whichwill be empty this afternoon. The laptop is a Lenovo X300 – highly recommended. Lightweight, small, good battery (I’ve got the 6 cell battery plus 3 cell extension), SSD, great display. The LCD is 15″ and will probably be replaced some time soon. I am still looking for a new lamp. Any recommendations? The telephone is a Fritz!MT-D, connected to a Fritz!Box7270, which can be controlled through the phone. The Fritz!Box serves as a DECT base, router, alarm clock, print server and streaming server. All cables, the router etc. are fixed to the bottom of the desk with two IKEA Galant cable holders. I attached a socket to the left leg of the table, which is easily accessible and can be used for devices like laptops, which are not permanently in use.
On the small shelf we have two printers: a Canon photo printer and a LaserJet M1522nf for cheap printing, fax and scanning. I mainly use the scanner with document feed. In fact, the printer was cheaper than a scanner with document feed alone. This device has already digitized 2 meters worth of shelf space, which are now compressed to a 3,5″ 1TB hard drive. The shelf is not yet perfect. I was looking for a small one with wheels, which would fit under the desk, but there are none available, which can hold the LaserJet.
Right of the shelf there are some drawers with stuff like pens, paper, photo paper and stuff. The black box under the desk is a shredder.
After a couple of iterations I would say, this is close to my perfect home office. Ideally, I would not need the drawers and the paper…
Cheers,
Simon
Dear reader,
Simon
this is me, Simon.
I was updating my university homepage, when I started wondering, how much more work it would be to set up a blog instead of hacking CSS by hand. It turned out not much more. So here we are.
From time to time I will post thoughts about Semantic Web, entrepreneurship and privacy here.
Cheers,
Simon