Why I got myself a Kindle Paperwhite

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This month I got myself a Kindle Paperwhite.

I’ve been a bookworm my childhood and teen years, but somewhere around the ago of 21 I stopped reading books altogether – except from the mandatory tech and language books, that is.

kindle-paperwhite

I rediscovered reading in the last two years, when I realized books actually can help you make sense of the world and yourself, give practical advice and inspiration. In other words: You can actually use them to help you cope with reality, instead of struggling to escape it. – Because that was pretty much what I had used books for my whole life, and it’s why I stopped reading them (different story for a different post).

Just to give some examples, the two books that taught me the most valuable lessons probably are Passionate Marriage (which, despite its title is a good read, maybe especially for poly people) and Your Money or Your Life.  I loved Coders At Work and Masterminds Of Programming. The Talent Code and Outliers inspired me to keep on practicing, and, although I’m highly allergic to esoteric woo-woo, I even read (and enjoyed) The Tibetan Book Of Living and Dying.

Usually, after reading the last page I immediately disposed of these books – either by selling them or by just throwing them away. And although it was just softcover books, I soon got tired of carrying them around in my backpack, just in case I would want to read – because if I wanted, then I had probably forgotten to take it with me that day, but when I had it with me, there was never time to read.

The whole process felt incredibly stupid. I mean, come on: I just wanted to read a text, or to put it in a different way – get some data. Why did I have to have its printed version shipped to me (which usually meant waiting a day and having to walk through the rain to get it from the Packstation)? That’s what I call a slow and highly ineffective way of data transfer, causing, among other things, a growing pile of cardboard boxes and wasted paper.

But let’s be honest: It’s not only that the Kindle solves a problem for me. Yes, I got the Spanish version of The Hobbit, and with the Spanish Dictionary I installed I can look up every word with a tap. I can recite a dozen more reasons why I had to spend 129 Euros on this piece of technology, but the truth is it’s just a shiny new object I love to use. All my Vices are Devices. But it makes me read books, which is awesome, right?

By the way – feel free to recommend (preferrably non-fiction) books in the comments.

Three Month Hobbies (featuring a Hurdy Gurdy)

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breadboardIn December, I started dabbling with electronics. When my dad heard about it, he handed me a pile of books I “might want to have a look at”. It was a huge pile, and I was somewhat hesitant to take them all with me, so, while skimming through them I said: “You know, this might be just another one of my 3-months-hobbies.”
It sounded as if it was a bad habit of mine, and when I realized what I had said, it got me thinking.

Why did I make it sound like a bad thing? What’s wrong about really getting into the stuff that sparks your interest, soaking up all the information you can get your hands on – and dropping it when you lose interest, your priorities change, or there’s a new thing on your “list of awesome things to learn about”?

Well, the answer is there’s nothing wrong with it. But it seems that’s what I’ve learnt when I was a kid.

I know, I know – it makes sense for parents. To use their words:
“What do you mean, you’re not interested in playing the Hurdy Gurdy anymore?! What about the music lessons we already paid? And all the noise we had to put up with …?” “You were all enthusiastic about it, but now that expensive robot construction kit you HAD TO HAVE is gathering dust in a corner.”
And, probably the saddest example: The pet rabbit they got you. Polly, with her fluffy white tail and her black ears.

If you were one of those kids who took up an instrument when you were young and abandoned it later, do you think you’ve failed?
Well, I was one of those kids and I used to think I failed. My attitude changed when I started to learn the accordeon last year.

I had been pondering whether to try it or not for some weeks. Only when I told my flatmates about it, did I realize this was a big deal for me. I was buzzing with enthusiasm for this instrument, but at the same time there was all this doubt and fear of failure. My flatmates frowned (and rightly so): This was just about trying something that was supposed to be fun, right? And if it wouldn’t work out, I’d just try something different, right? So what’s the drama?

Well, the drama was somewhere between my ears, and, to make a long story short, I finally got rid of it. I played the accordeon for about three months and it was awesome. Then I realized studying, learning Spanish, working part-time and learning the accordeon didn’t all fit into my schedule, so I postponed the accordeon. I’m really looking forward to learning it someday. It’s gonna be awesome, the thought makes me smile.

Some people think they are a failure, and they will always find reasons to reconfirm this self-concept. And true, I was that kind of person for some time. I’m not anymore – or at least I’m trying hard not to be :).

So that’s why I invented Three Month Hobbies (TM). You don’t have to stick with them, you’re not allowed to feel guilty when you give them up. You don’t have to become a renowned, world-class hurdy gurdist – just have some fun.

P.S.: And no, I’ve never played a Hurdy Gurdy. But it’s a pretty awesome instrument. I had the neglected pet rabbit, though. :(

P.P.S.: My Three Month Hobbies of 2012 also include Origami and model railways. I’m curious what this year’s will be.

Online courses are awesome.

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Although I planned to, I never wrote a complete post about the Coursera Scala Course I took last year (I did, though, jot down some thoughts on learning functional programming). Well, this post isn’t exactly about the Scala Course either, but about online courses in general.

It was my last but one semester at university, I had only one class to attend. I chose to invest my time in learning Scala. And it was a wise choice. Apart from the basics of functional programming in general and Scala in particular, I learnt about language design (e.g. strict vs. lazy evaluation), pattern matching, currying – and testing.

Back then, before I took that class, when I was reading Ruby code and stumbled across some functional idiom – anything containing a map or inject – I involuntarily frowned. I have to admit even recursive functions often had me raise an eyebrow. To me, those constructs had always remained a little strange and exotic.
Nowadays, they seem natural to me. I write them myself without wasting much of a thought. (I know, I know, it might not be a big deal for you, but for a beginner like me it is.)

Long story short: Online courses are awesome. But take the time to read the next paragraph before you enroll for one.
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On To New Adventures

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BerlinLadies and Gentlemen, Dudes and Dudettes, in April 2013 … *drumroll*
… I’ll be coming to Berlin.

Not only does that mean I’ll be leaving the most awesome software agency ever (a pathetic and heartwarming post on 9e will follow some time soon), it also means saying goodbye to my awesome 10-person-flatshare in both beautiful and ugly Steele, a town that I’ve grown to love over the last two years. And it means leaving the Ruhr area, the place where I feel at home. Or, let’s rather say, one of the places where I feel at home. – I want there to be more than one place like this, and moving somewhere else is probably a good start.

If I wrote about my reasons, it would probably sound like some corny Deutschpop song, so I spare you that: It’s pretty much why everybody moves to Berlin – something about cozy cafés, wooden floors, courtyard houses, 24h Spätis, about the opportunity to try new stuff and join ambitious people who do … and that certain vibrancy to the city – … HOLD IT RIGHT THERE! I promised to spare you.

Anyway, for now, I’m busy writing my bachelor thesis and looking for the flatshare of my dreams.

See you in Berlin in spring – 2013 will be awesome!

P.S.: If you know about any cool job opportunities (preferably with Ruby, Rails, Javascript and nerfgun fights), ping me.

Meet my new guy: zsh.

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Recently, I switched from the standard OS X bash to zsh. I’m not into the kind of religious dispute that typically erupts when it comes to operating systems, indentation conventions or the choice of your shell, so I won’t tell you that zsh is the most awesome shell ever.

But if you – like me – were always too lazy to change and customize your shell, go get oh-my-zsh and live happily ever after.

Why?, you ask. Well:

1. Painless to install. There even is an install script. Paste one line into your terminal and you’re ready to go. No getting your hands dirty – yeah, I’m looking at you, fish.

2. There’s a list of awesome themes. Don’t roll your eyes like that. I’m a very visual person, and I’d rather spend my time on something other than customizing my shell, especially if somebody else already did it way better than I would.

3. Autocompletion (for example, typing kill and pressing tab displays all processes with their pids) with a list that you can navigate by keyboard, plugins for just about everything, shared history among tabs and autocorrect.

Your shell can do all that, too? Well, then keep using it.

Imagine you skim through your files and find … a giant peanut treehouse

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When I was searching my computer for some file, I accidentally stumbled across a little treasure: my dabblings in webcomics, dated 2008, clearly inspired by my favorite webcomic.

It’s a good thing I haven’t found them any sooner, because now is probably the first time in my life that I’m not too shy to post them. (And this means I’m not as self-critical as I used to be. Yay for me!) They are not exactly brilliant, but somehow cute.

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My Magnetic Implant

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I’ve got a magic talent: I can tell whether my hard disk is spinning or not, just by holding my hand above it. I can also tell you whether your microwave oven is switched on, without seeing or hearing it.

Well, to be honest there’s no magic involved at all – it’s just the neodymium magnet half the size of a grain of rice that is implanted in the ring finger of my right hand.

Thanks to it, I’m able to pick up small ferromagnetic objects – needles, small screws, paperclips – and, of course, other magnets.

The practice of implanting a magnet in your body was pioneered by Finnish body modder Samppa, but the first successful implants were done around 2004 by Steve Haworth, who is considered as the inventor.

When I first heard about magnetic implants I was fascinated. Of course I wanted one. But, as my research showed, this body modification was still highly experimental at the time. So I forgot about the idea altogether, until I met a lovely girl who had a magnet implanted in one of her fingers. She told me that most of the problems of the first generation of magnetic implants had been solved (the hull of those would sometimes break, causing the magnet to corrode inside your finger), and that, while still a little experimental, the procedure was actually not that big of a deal. At least you wouldn’t risk loosing your finger or anything.

I was hooked. I had to get one. Luckily, there was a body mod artists just an hour away whom Steve Haworth had taught how to implant magnets: Arnulf at Stigmata Inc. in Cologne. So, one fine day in March, I went there to get my wetware upgrade.

The procedure of implanting the magnet was almost disappointingly easy and didn’t take long. After the anesthesia it was just one cut, putting the magnet into the finger and finally, a single stitch. The magnet is placed at the side of the tip of the ringfinger, so when you grip something you don’t apply too much pressure on the magnet directly.

Healing went very well too, and as long as I didn’t use the finger, there was no pain at all. I used the finger once, to catch my phone from falling on the floor, and yes, that did hurt – but after about two weeks, I could use the finger just like before.

After three weeks I removed the stitches. I tried not to play around with the magnet for the first seven weeks or so, because I was afraid it would move around in my finger and eventually grow out (this is said to happen sometimes).

The sensitivity takes some time. I’m still not as sensitive as other people with magnetic implants, maybe because mine is only seven months old, but maybe also due to the placement in my finger. Only about four weeks ago did I sense my spinning hard drive for the first time, and I’m still experimenting with what else I can feel. (Hit me with suggestions!)

I’ve read about people who feel the underground transformers beneath the streets, or passing electric cars. I’ve read how people develop a three-dimensional sense of electromagnetic fields. – Up to now, none of this happened for me. Maybe there are not as many nerves in the area where my implant sits, or maybe my sensitivity still needs some time to develop – I don’t know.

To my surprise, after I got the implant there were a lot of people asking “Why!?”.
It was totally natural for me that this was (and is!) an amazing thing I wanted to try: A working functional body modification? The possibility of sensing electromagnetic fields? Being able to play around with magnets with your finger? Who wouldn’t want that!? … Well, obviously there are a lot of people who wouldn’t want it, but are still very curious about the whole thing.

I can’t finish this entry without pointing out the risks: As I said, the procedure is still somewhat new; the longest time a magnetic implant has spent in somebody’s finger is around 7 years. If you get one, be prepared to have it cut out one day.

If you want to read more about it and know German, there’s magnetimplantat.de. If you don’t know German, you might want to read some of the English articles linked there. And if you have any questions – ask.

IDEs for Scala …? I prefer TextMate.

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When I started the Scala course over at Coursera, I did so out of a pretty general enthusiasm and curiosity for functional programming. I didn’t expect I’d be actually using it. – Now I think I might as well.

There’s just that one problem that actually made people abandon the course: the IDEs. There’s Eclipse, NetBeans and IntelliJ.

As far as my experience goes, Eclipse is a nightmare on MacOS. The discussions in the course’ forum were full of recommendations for different sacrificial offerings that would keep it from crashing, but the ones I tried didn’t help, so for the time of the course, I took the opportunity to practice some acceptance and patience … and let it crash.

As an absolute Scala noobie, using an IDE was extremely helpful –  I struggled with the syntax a lot.

Today I had a look at IntelliJ IDEA. It didn’t crash, but it still felt clumsy and slow. “Sorry IntelliJ, I can see you’re still busy highlighting my 11 lines of code, but would you be so kind as to fucking show me the letters I type the moment I type them?!” It didn’t.

To be honest, I didn’t even bother installing NetBeans, because I doubted it would be any better than the commercial IntelliJ version.

Instead, I found this blog entry describing how to install a Scala bundle and a sbt plugin for TextMate by Mads Hartmann Jensen. Neither the Scala bundle nor the sbt plugin are actively maintained anymore, but they do work.

I’m terribly happy to be able to use TextMate. It satisfies my aesthetic standards (always a problem with IDEs, I’ve never seen a beautiful one – have you?), it’s quick and it’s what I use for everything else. On the other hand, I’m still a little frightened of using Scala without the help of an IDE … – but reading the API will teach me a lot more about the language than code autocompletion, so using a simple text editor probably is a good idea.

Anyway, I’m still wondering what you Scala coders out there use. vim?

So, if using TextMate with Scala doesn’t drive me to despair, you can expect an entry about my first dabblings with Play soon.

“Void Your Warranty” – Labortage 2012

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Last weekend, Bochum’s local hackerspace Das Labor hosted the Labortage, an annual event featuring lectures, workshops, cool people, and, of course, lots of caffeinated beverages plus really decent food.

 

 

 

 

 

I’m trying to building the habit of attending at least one talk on a topic I have no idea about at this kind of events. At Labortage, this was fairly easy: I attended a talk about OpenCL.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

I also attended the somewhat mandatory Git talk and, together with Evi, gave a somewhat improvised talk about magnetic implants (if you’re interested: I’ll write a post about it soon). Unfortunately I missed the Powerpoint Karaoke – but I’m looking forward to joining it next year.

First Weeks Into Functional Programming: Lessons Learned

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Apart from the first three chapters of Land of Lisp, the Scala Class at Coursera by Martin Odersky is my first real try at functional programming. I’m five weeks into the class and wanted to share some random insights:

Have you read Babel 17? It’s a sci-fi novel in which there’s an enemy alien race using a language enabling them to think purely logically and strategically, making them nearly invincible when it comes to strategic fighting. I was around 15 or 16 at the time I read that book, and I had actually already read Benjamin Lee Whorf’s “Language, Thought, Reality” before, because I found the paperback version in my dad’s bookshelf. Ever since I wondered if something like that was actually possible.

I usually roll my eyes when somebody mystifies something like I do now, but please bear with me here – I’m an enthusiastic functional programming padawan and the whole thing still is a little mystic to me: While learning functional programming, I’ve been reminded about Babel 17 a lot.

You start with a problem you can’t solve with the existing words of your language – yet. Then you start building the vocabulary of a language that will enable you to solve it, the functions being your words – until the solution is a very easy sentence consisting of these words. – I know I’m not the first person drawing this comparison, but experiencing it first-hand is really awesome.

Coming from an OO perspective, everything in functional programming seems more difficult at first – trying to wrap your brain around that stuff until you have a working function that solves one piece of your problem correctly … but at the end, when you combine all your fiveliners into an mindfuckingly easy and elegant solution … – wow. That moment is the fun in functional programming, and it’s why I go through the pain – and yes, at the moment it still is a lot of pain, I won’t deny that.

Another thing that occurred to me during the exercises of the class is that I wouldn’t have been able to solve any of them without tests.

When you build up your solution on top of several small functions, you need to be absolutely sure these work correctly – otherwise you’ll go straight to the inner circle of debugging hell. Tests also helped me a lot when I had to rewrite my object-oriented solutions (with mutable variables and for-each-loops) to functional ones without breaking everything. Last but not least, with tests, when I was really desperate and couldn’t figure out how to do something I could at least try some good ol’ trial and error.

By the way, I highly recommend the class – it’s a great way to learn functional programming in general, even if you’re not really interested in Scala – you’ll learn a lot about algorithms and language design.

Walking Barefoot

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Recently, something strange happened: I’ve been converted to a shoe enthusiast.

It’s safe to say that, for most of my life, I owned around 1.5 pairs of shoe at a time.
The shoes I bought myself and wore every day were usually a pair of black Doc Martens. The individual pairs only differed in their number of holes and grade of wear. I still love their bulky design today.

I used to wear Doc Martens in summer, in winter and in between. In winter with thick woolen socks, and in summer with the habit of getting them off and washing my feet with cold water first thing when I came home.

The half pair of the mentioned 1.5 pairs would usually be sports shoes, or, more recently, the Birkenstock sandals I wear about three times a year when summer in Germany actually deserves to be called summer.

So much about shoes. But what about no shoes?

I do enjoy walking barefoot. About seven years ago I lived in a dorm with a small strip of trees and bushes behind it. There was a narrow gravel walk and a lonely bench.
When it was warm enough, I used to walk on the gravel with bare feet, up and down that path like some sad hippie. I’d happily pluck out the occasional piece of broken glass afterwards, because I loved the feeling of walking, being aware of the ground beneath my feet. It’s just awesome.

That’s why, ever since I heard of all the barefoot shoe business, I was curious.

But as much as I liked the look of the Vibram Fivefingers, they didn’t match my style at all. I mean, seriously: There is more than a slight difference between Doc Martens and Fivefingers. – And that’s why it took me until six months ago to finally discover that there are other barefoot shoes. Like, for example, the ones Vivo Barefoot sells.

Well, I ordered some – and to make a long story short: I decided I’d never want to wear anything else.

Walking in barefoot shoes is a little like … seeing with your feet. I’ve even taken up the strange hobby of walking part of my way home with my eyes closed, to concentrate on the different types of tiling.

There are a lot of interesting surfaces to feel. My favorite ones are these – you find them in German cities, especially around train stations, to help visually handicapped people finding their way. They look like the surface of a giant LEGO brick and they feel fantastic – even better than cobblestone. The thick carpet inside an ICE, grass and drain grates also feel great.

If you’re thinking about buying some: Be careful, you’re friends might think you’re acting a little strange, happily hopping on drain grates yelling “wheeee!”.

There are two downsides, though:
1. There are not that many styles to choose from – that is, not yet. It also depends on where you live and how much postage you’re willing to pay. Sadly, there are no barefoot steel-toed boots and no doc-marten-like ones.

2. Prepare to be spoilt for the rest of your shoe-wearing life, because it might well happen that you never want to wear other shoes again.

Learning Languages: 5 Things That Help Me Learn Spanish

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I’ve always had a thing for languages. I guess it would have been difficult not to, with both my parents being language teachers. On the other hand it was really easy to be the only one not playing an instrument in a family of musicians – ah, well, that’s a different story.

Anyway, apart from the mandatory English, and French  – which, by the way, I never really got good at, probably due to lack of enthusiasm for the language – I’ve learned Russian for some years while I was still at school, and studied Japanese for over four years.  I also attended three sessions of a Chinese class before I gave up and dabbled at Finnish for about two months.

Of course I’ve forgotten the Russian declinations and almost all of the two thousand kanji I knew – but the one thing that stuck and I got better at, is learning in general – and especially learning languages.

Currently I’m learning Spanish. It’s been a year, and of course I am nowhere near where I want to be, still finding myself struggling with the most basic stuff. Nonetheless, I’d like to share my most useful tools so far:

The first one is a Flashcard App for your mobile device. I use Brainscape on my iPhone, because it offers Spanish flashcards with audio and lets you add your own. The UI’s pretty neat and that progress bar you see in the screenshot below let’s you track your progress. And tracking your progress is important to stay motivated, right?

I use it on the train, on the toilet and before going to sleep. Back when I was studying Japanese I used handwritten flashcards, but you can’t carry around all of them, you got no audio and manually sorting them into different stacks for different levels of confidence is somewhat tedious. Plus, you can’t sync your handwritten flashcards between devices.

Another really useful thing to practice on the go are Language Learning Podcasts. I really enjoy Coffeebreak Spanish (iTunes link). It’s perfect for beginners and fun to listen to. For Japanese I used JapanesePod101, the podcasts were awesome. (But careful there: Either decide to pay or use a disposable e-mail address and just download all the content and delete your account afterwards – otherwise they’ll nag you with “special offers” for the rest of your life.) Again, I usually listen to it on the train or while doing chores.

When I really sit down and learn, I often use babbel.com. It’s a website that offers classes for many different languages. Their system is pretty simple, but effective. Unfortunately it’s in Flash, so you won’t be able to use it on your iPad. They offer a mobile app too, but it’s pretty basic compared to the website. If you really want to use babbel to learn a language, you’ll have to get a subscription, but you might just give it a try – there is a lot of free content available.

Then there’s music. Go and find some music you like. For my Spanish I found Los Bunkers (two favorites: Llueve sobre la ciudad and Ahora que no estas) and Soda Stereo. You’ll never forget a word in the chorus of a song you like. And it’s really nice how the meaning of the lyrics unfolds with every new word you understand.

If there’s anything you’re into – like comics, your favorite TV show or video games – try to find a localized version if it exists. For example I switched Skyrim’s language to Español and now the whole game is one awesome vocabulary trainer. With dragons!

Last but not least, my personal ultimate secret to effective language learning: your private language teacher.

Yeah, I know: It’s not cheap. I’m a student working part-time, so I’m not exactly rich either. Still, after I attended a Spanish class with over a dozen people of all ages and backgrounds, for some of them Spanish being their first foreign language ever – … well, let’s just say I only went to that class once, and that same night when I got home I searched for a private teacher on Google and e-mailed her. I might be paying six times more money than the people in that class, but I get more than six times more practice  – and I’m having a great time.

Addendum: There’s also stuff like Learning Spanish with Songs on youtube. No me gusta nada la mayoría de estas canciones, but maybe you do :).