mulaz

V mesecu maju smo pripravili razstavo 30 let x86 arhitekture, ki je nato gostovala na Fakulteti za računalništvo in informatiko v Ljubljani ter v MC Postojna. Razstava je bila sestavljena iz 4 velikih samostoječih kosov stiropora in ker se soočamo s prostorsko stisko, je seveda nekaj takega, kot so veliki kosi stiropora nemogoče skladiščiti dlje časa. Kaj torej s tem? Spodaj desno je le ena izmed takih idej v končni obliki. Potrebujete le malo iznajdljivosti, veliko potrpljenja in dobre volje. Ekipa računalniškega muzeja (moja malenkost ter Martin Hribar) okrepljena s sodelavci je napela ustvarjalne sile in med prazniki v osamelih prostorih Kiberpipe izpeljala akcijo “predelave” stiroporja. Kako je vse skupaj potekalo si lahko ogledate v spletni galeriji.

Do 23. 1. 2009 je v prostorih caffee Metropola na Kersnikovi ulici v Ljubljani še na ogled razstava na temo “grafična računalniška oprema v 80-ih ter 70-ih letih pri nas”, po zaključku te razstave pa bomo na ogled zaradi večjega zanimanja ponovno postavili začasno razstavo Prvi slovenski računalniki. Konec meseca februarja bomo pripravili razstavo o prvem računalniku s shranjenim programom (vsaj danes mu to priznava strokovna javnost) - EDSAC-u. V okviru bloga se bom še naprej trudila redno objavljati v rubriki CICIscan, v obliki novic pa vas obveščala o zanimivostih iz računalniške zgodovine in novostih v muzeju. Seveda pa moram ponovno omeniti tudi natečaj za naj retro računalniško majico, na katerem lahko sodelujete do 20. 2. 2009. (Več o natečaju si preberite tukaj.)

Rejoice and sing the Gnu song! GNU is a quarter of a century old!!

Richard Stallman started the GNU project on September the 27^th 1983, with its first code written on January the 5^th 1984 ...which is, yes, exactly twenty-five years ago! Congratulations GNU!!! :D

Read more about it on FSFE's news post.

Hmmm, coincidence has it that I also came to be in 1983 — I suppose that makes me the GNU generation ;)

hook out >> drinking herbal tea and studying
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December 2008 finally ended and I can proudly say that I’m still running. More determined and for longer then before. This month’s total sum is 97.8 km (~60 miles). The reason for lower number of kilometers is because I dropped one running day. I’m now running only four times a week instead of five.

Running stats for December 08

I dropped one running day because I replaced it with a game of badminton every Monday afternoon. It seems smart to combine different activities to make sure you train different muscles as well as not to get bored of it. I also love it that @andraz is always eager to play badminton and there is no hassle in organizing this. After a month of playing badminton, I can say that I’m getting better at it as well as being in a better shape for it. Lots of quick, short distance running around the court.

Overall December was a great month, with my first running event where I’ve seen how great running in crowd is and that I really should participate in these events as spring starts.

Other notable events

• I managed to run my first 10K (that’s km). It’s incredible feeling to be able to run this far in just 3 months of light training.
• Running in snow during winter was a great adventure, teaching me that there is really no reason to be afraid of it. Temperatures around 0 degrees, are actually warm and really enjoyable for running.
• My last run of the year was on 31. December, at 7pm in -8 degrees (17.6F). It seemed crazy but it was probably the most incredible training of the month. Streets were totally empty with just lots of fireworks going off in the distance, making it somewhat unreal. Since it was a very dry week there was just a bit of cold no ice on the streets so it was a great 7.5km run.

Random observations

• Breathing while running is getting easier. Googling around reveals that the more you run, the more your body figures out the best running rhythm by itself an it took about 3 months in my case for that to develop.
• Adding some Myrtl strenght routines to my training as welll as other sports probably helped me in running longer distances.

Frequently asked Questions

(people ask me all sorts of random stuff)

Q: Isn’t it too cold to run / don’t your lungs hurt after breathing this cold air / don’t you get sick?

A: Suprisingly not. While -8C was a bit interesting experience for first 2 km, it was a normal run afterwards. It’s only annoying if there’s a cold wind blowing, otherwise it’s fine. I don’t feel any pain in my lungs or having a cold (I’m very allergenic so my nose is always runny, but I’m not sick).

Q: Do you use any special winter running shoes?

A: I’ve looked into it and while they’re nice, for now my normal running shoes are giving me more then enough grip to make it work. I also like running in them and I’m afraid of buying something I won’t use.

Q: Aren’t you afraid that you’ll ruin you running shoes sooner because you’re running in rain/snow/mud.

A: Based on what I’ve read I’ll have to replace my shoes every 600 - 1000km anyway. With a running tempo of 100km per month (hopefully 200km soon) that’s about 6 months anyway. I’m comfortable with throwing shoes away 3 months earlier if that meant I had a few good winter running months.

Q: Do you wear anything special to run in this “cold”?

A: Nothing much different from 6C. I’m usually dressed in skiing underwear + training pants, with a fit dry t-shirt and long sleeved fit dry short over. Since it’s cold I add an anorak jacket. It’s really much warmer outside when you’re running then you’d expect from just walking outside or using public transportation.

Closing observations

I’m slowly changing my running into a general do sports 5 times a week goal, with running as a default fallback if other plans don’t happen. In January I’ll add ice skating to the mix, until the streets get dry enough to allow for running once again.

Earlier reports:

• What I learned after 1st month of running
• What I learned in my 2nd month of running

Sedmi CICIscan nam prinaša malo bolj “resen” program - za učenje seštevanja. Glede na to, kako radi danes uporabljamo kalkulator in se s “trivialnimi” izračuni ne ukvarjamo, lahko marsikomu malo vadbe prav pride :) Ciciban letnik 40 (1985), številka 7, avtor Marko Batista.

This last year felt like it took forever with so many things happening. Each quarter of the year I was presented with a different challenge and opportunity person growth (however cheesy that sounds).

The year revolved mostly around my work at Zemanta as I spent most of my waking hours doing something for the project.

Q1 ‘08 gave me my first real full time job and opportunity to see what it takes to take care of a big part of a project. Lessons were mostly in engineering, quality assurance and testing as well as planning and letting go of the things that you can’t complete in time. At the end of the day, I’m happy that Marko S. took over so I could continue learning from him as he’s a much better skilled at all these things.

Q2 ‘08 was mostly a lesson how to do user support and gather user feedback. Much less coding and more work on User Interfaces and talking to users, figuring out bugs and what we needed to to do to make a great product in the end. Started a bit with traveling as a community manager.

Q3 ‘08 lots and lots of traveling and connecting to people directly in person. Through the year I’ve visited London, San Francisco, Las Vegas, New York, Cork, Copenhagen and many more great places. Interestingly enough, there was a huge overlap of people that I’ve met at these events, making me realize just how small the Web 2.0 community of doers really is. More great lessons on connecting with people and about building relationships across multiple countries and continents.

Q4 ‘08 finally brought in more focus other things. I’ve finally started to run, making it a big part of my day and I’m slowly starting to see results in terms of better health and more positive world view. I also shifted my every day work more towards marketing which is an area I’m not enjoying that much, but I have to learn more about it to make a final decision.

Overall it was a great year and I wouldn’t change it in any way.

Image by Lutz-R. Frank via Flickr

My plans for 2009 are modest, focusing mainly on more sports to finally get in shape as well as working more with different communities around open source, web and usability.That’s probably going to translate to more active involvement in Kiberpipa and organization of diferent BarCamps in Slovenia (we’re already making plans for second one).

I’d also like to invest more time in creating visualizations and continuing my studies as I’m feeling that I missed a large part of social informatics that really interests me.

Thanks to everyone that made this year such an incredible experience!

I don't like things done only half (or three-quarters for in this case) made, so I've done some more cleaning up of my world.

What I did now was to check again what's obsolete by running:

dog /var/lib/portage/world | xargs paludis -up --all-versions

...and removing those entries from /var/lib/portage/world. I feel better now :]

hook out >> listening to Rage against the Machine and drinking my last cuppa of Doars F.F. — I'm just shy of being completely out of Darjeeling and similar Indian teas! Aaaaaaaaaaaaaarrgggggghhh!!! XD — while studying Property Law
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Amongst other things I've decided that in 2009 I'm going to write Christmas/New Year/your_winter_solstice_holiday_here cards or at least e-mails to everyone I know and care about. And by that I mean individual greetings — not those generic mass "undisclosed recipients" e-mails or FaceBook notification that get on my nerve! Sure, it'll take me days, but hey! if I can't take that much to write someone I know at least an e-mail (if not a real card!), why bother at all?

Hmm, what do you wish for someone who's of another religion than you? Your holiday or his/hers or some generic "politically correct droppings of a male bovine"?
IMHO the best option is to wish him/her your holiday greetings, if the basic idea of it doesn't clash with his/her religion and also wish him/her his/her own holiday greetings if its basic idea doesn't clash with your religion. What do you guys think?

Oh, yea ...happy 2009! ...sorry, I'm very much like Charlie Brown when it comes to New Year's greetings — but I'll try to improve for the next year! ;)

hook out >> study now, party later :P
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