Tuesday, December 31, 2013
Memorable Books of 2013
Saturday, November 3, 2012
Photos from my most recent San Francisco trip
Friday, March 9, 2012
TechnikBasteln – Technology Tinkering
Thanks to sponsorship via the 6th NetIdee call of the Internet Foundation Austria (IPA) we at OLPC (Austria) were able to launch a new project in November 2011 - TechnikBasteln (which half-decently translates into Technology Tinkering):
“TechnikBasteln is an innovative and interdisciplinary project which is focused on children. They are accompanied by us in experiencing, learning about, and understanding information and communication technologies (ICT) in workshops. Among other topics, these workshops address how computers and mobile phones work, the structure of the Internet, and how to safely use these tools and technologies.”
Since November 2011 Tanja and me have spent a lot of time planning and preparing these workshops, researching about other projects and content related to what we want to achieve, contacting teachers, schools, and other organizations to let them know what we’re doing, etc.
Now this week we launched the second phase of our project as we held the first two workshops in primary schools here in Vienna. The first one was focused on some of the basic technologies of the Internet and the second one was all about the building blocks of modern computers. We had a great time in both classes, the children also seemed to like what we were doing, we got good feedback from the teachers, and while there is room for improvements overall the concepts we had developed over the past few months worked really well.
So even though the past few days were really busy and intense (and I’m now in dire need of a relaxing weekend!) I’m also very happy with the progress we’ve made with TechnikBasteln and am already very much looking forward to our next workshops.
Monday, February 27, 2012
A List of Countries I've Been To
So here's the full list with all the countries where I've spent at least one night:
- Argentina
- Belgium
- Bolivia
- Canada
- Cambodia
- Chile
- China
- Croatia
- Czech Republic
- Cyprus
- Denmark
- Egypt
- England
- France
- Germany
- Greece
- Hungary
- India
- Ireland
- Italy
- Japan
- Laos
- Malaysia
- Morocco
- Mongolia
- Nepal
- Netherlands
- Norway
- Paraguay
- Peru
- Poland
- Portugal
- Russia
- Saudi Arabia
- Slovakia
- Slovenia
- South Korea
- Spain
- Sri Lanka
- Sweden
- Switzerland
- United Arab Emirates
- United States
- Uruguay
- Taiwan
- Thailand
- Turkey
- Zambia
-
Denmarkdone! - Luxembourg
-
Portugal
-
Abu Dhabi (UAE)done! -
Amsterdam (Netherlands)done! - Doha (Qatar)
-
Dubai (UAE)done! - Panama City (Panama)
Edit: My father just pointed out to me that as per my criterion I would also have to add Hong Kong, Japan, South Korea, and Thailand to the list of countries I’ve been to. However given that I was less than 3 years-old at that time I don’t think these countries really count – which of course gives me all the more reason to try and visit them soon! ;-)
Update (2013-03-04): After my most recent trips I was able to add Cambodia, Laos, Zambia, and Thailand to the list.
Update (2013-05-17): Added Denmark to the list.
Update (2013-12-30): Added Malaysia to the list.
Update (2014-10-12): Added Cyprus to the list.
Update (2014-10-27): Just realized that I had totally forgotten about a work trip from earlier in the year which brought me to Bratislava for a night. Which means I was able to add Slovakia to the list.
Update (2015-01-24): Added United Arab Emirates to the list.
Update (2015-08-29): Added Portugal to the list.
Update (2015-12-07): Added Chile to the list.
Update (2016-01-10): Added Egypt - which I had visited in October but had forgotten to add then - to the list. Thanks for the reminder L.!
Update (2017-04-05): Added Sri Lanka to the list.
Update (2017-08-26): Added India and Saudi Arabia to the list.
Update (2018-03-30): Added Ireland to the list.
Update (2018-05-02): Added Norway to the list.
Update (2019-09-06): Added Japan to the list.
Sunday, December 4, 2011
An Inspiring Quote from Steve Jobs [video]
There is no shortage of thought-provoking, inspiring, and just generally thoughtful comments made by Steve Jobs. However this one, which has been making the rounds on many social networks lately, really might just be one of his most inspiring ones.
"When you grow up you tend to get told the world is the way it is and you're life is just to live your life inside the world. Try not to bash into the walls too much. Try to have a nice family life, have fun, save a little money.
That's a very limited life. Life can be much broader once you discover one simple fact: Everything around you that you call life was made up by people that were no smarter than you and you can change it, you can influence it, you can build your own things that other people can use.
Once you learn that, you'll never be the same again."
Monday, September 19, 2011
Photos from Dresden and Paris
Travel-wise these past few months have been very dull around here. Since my return from Madrid at the beginning of July I spent the entire so-called summer in Upper Austria and Vienna. Now in the first half of September I finally had a chance to travel a bit as I attended the DeLFI 2011 conference in Dresden, Germany where I presented a paper about OLPC before heading to Paris, France to attend Sugar Camp #2, a 3-day gathering of OLPC and Sugar volunteers.
In Dresden I really only had one evening and half an afternoon to wander around the city so there weren’t many opportunities to take photos. As a result the corresponding Flickr album is really quite thin.
In Paris I had more time to snap photos (album), first of all to document and share what was going on at Sugar Camp #2 and secondly because I stayed an extra day to be able to visit some places where I hadn’t been on my three prior trips to the city. One place which was very high on my agenda was Père Lachaise cemetery where famous people such as Jim Morrison, Oscar Wilde, Edith Piaf, and many others are buried.
Jim Morrison's grave at Père Lachaise cemetery
This was also the first time that I exclusively relied on my Nexus S Android smartphone to take photos. Even though I actually had the small Canon IXUS 100IS in my back bag the convenience of quickly being able to share the photos was a major advantage of the Nexus S. I have to say I was also pleasantly surprised by the quality of the images. The IXUS 100IS would have certainly been able to take better shots under difficult conditions but overall the quality of the phone camera photos are really good enough.
Tuesday, June 28, 2011
Photos from Spain
My five months here in Madrid are quickly coming to an end – I will fly back to Vienna on Thursday evening – so I thought this is a good time to briefly mention the photos I took on my various trips here in Spain. As always I’ve uploaded them to my Flickr account and the individual albums available there are: