Still alive

Today it’s been exactly two years (woah!) since my last post on this blog, which was about how the blog changed address to http://blog.hanschen.org. Two years is also the time I’ve spent so far on my Ph.D. Coincidence? I think not.

Anyway, since it’s been so long and I’ve received questions asking if this blog had moved somewhere else, I just wanted to give you a quick update that everything’s fineplease save me and that I haven’t completely abandoned this blog yet. I’ve had a few posts saved in drafts for a while but never found the time or energy to flesh them out. Maybe I will someday.

I’m doing science and I’m still alive.

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Blog moved to http://blog.hanschen.org

Just a heads up: I’m working on a personal website which will use the hanschen.org domain, so I’ve moved this blog to the following new address:

http://blog.hanschen.org

If you’re subscribed to any feeds or have bookmarked pages, please update the links by adding blog. in front of hanschen.org. The old address (hanschen.org) will continue to point to the blog until I’m finished with the new site. I’ll also try my best to keep old links intact.

Please let me know if you find any dead links or other problems (either in the comments section below or in an email, see Contact page).

Nice subtle effect

Ever noticed this? I didn’t until today.

I remember reading about showing the file progress in icons some time ago and thought “that would be neat, but will probably take some time until it’s done.” Guess if I was surprised when I saw this today. I usually set the icon zoom level to 32×32 pixels, so maybe that’s why I didn’t notice until now. KDE rocks!

After a little search I found that this was done by Shaun Reich as part of a SoK (Season of KDE) project. There is also a Brainstorm idea about it. (Next question is, how did I miss that it was marked as Done?)

Now it would be nice if it was clearer for small icons, and if possible, showing the file progress would be incredibly neat.

Update October 4, 2010: More information can be found here:

How can I see this?

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New blog address is new

Starting from today, the blog has a new primary domain which is one character and a “.wordpress” shorter:

http://hanschen.org

So now is the time to update your bookmarks and feeds! (Actually you don’t have to – the old URLs should still work. But if you need a little distraction…).

Starting with Git

Recently I’ve started to use Git more and more for various projects – code, university stuff and important dotfiles, just to name a few examples. Not completely used to the workflow yet, but I feel pretty comfortable with the basic Git commands now.

In the beginning I had a hard time grasping the concept of Git and version control systems in general. Two online resources helped me a lot in understanding Git, which I also want to share with you:

  • The Git Parable
    After reading it, you’ll still have no clue how to use Git. But you will know for what purposes Git was designed, and what Git is. From here it’ll be much easier to learn the commands to use Git.
  • Pro Git
    Online version of the Pro Git book; well written text and many pretty pictures make it easy to understand what happens “behind the scenes”. Goes through most stuff you’ll need to get started with Git.

Thanks go to Luca (einar77) and Ingo (neverendingo) for the tip about Pro Git.

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Software Freedom Day 2008

Hop, hop, hop… 311.

This is what happens when I have too many things to do.

Posted in Random. 1 Comment »

How Are You? or New Things I Love

Have I ever mentioned that I read the webcomic xkcd?

I admit this isn’t the best strip, but it shows what I love about xkcd: that’s me! I usually try to avoid just answering “I’m fine thanks”, because that’s just plain boring. And most of the times isn’t really a honest answer at all.

Other than that, there are so many comics there which I can identify myself with. Almost all of them. (OK, maybe not all; can’t recall being strapped like that).

Guess I’m a geek after all.

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Broken umbrella

Tip of the day: don’t try to rolling hop a curb with an umbrella in your hand. At least not without practice.

On a side note, I’m quite comfortable on my new keyboard now. Typing about 30 wpm, ~57 % of my original qwerty speed. After a month. Not too bad. And my hands feel good doing it, no more awkward twists.

I said I was going to remap some keys, here’s the result; I’m pleased to introduce chvorak 0.9:

Click to enlarge

Note that I’ve omitted the backspace, enter and space key in the middle. You can’t see the function keys either (for example the numpad).

I’m really happy with the layout so far. The only thing I don’t really like is the placement of the apostrophe. It’s quite dangerous being between Esc and Tab, but in my opinion much better than the Svorak placement.

Phoenix Down

First post in 2008. Took some time, didn’t it? I don’t think anyone actually read this blog, so it probably doesn’t really matter.

Like most blogs out there, this one was doomed to die before it was even born. It’s suffering from “penuria of vicis”, or rather, I am.

Not much has happened since last time. The first version of KDE4 and KDE 4.0.1 as well have been released. I like the slogan “be free”. Speaking of freedom, I’ve listened to a lecture by Richard Stallman when he was in Stockholm. Awesomeness. He’s weird.

The first patch I’ve written made its way to SVN. Isn’t it nice?

And finally, I’ve decided – no Lobster for me this summer. Unfortunately. But that’s how things turned out. At least I think my wallet and legs are grateful. And probably the rest of my body. Oh well.