I've recently been putting on a bit of weight. Well, not so much weight, as girth. This doesn't cause me much problems, except that I have a shortage of shorts now. I even managed to blow the button off one with a decent huff.
I think I've found the source of my problem...
I think this also explains why I never put on weight before. These date back from last Easter. Or before. I'm not sure.
Update: Looks like they date from Christmas 2004. Old enough that the Crunchies aren't anymore.
I'm helping develop a web browser in what spare time I find. It's surprisingly difficult, because it has to be usable immediately by anyone. No lengthy experimentation, no backtracking - things must work exactly as expected by everyone.
This quickly reveals how different people conceptualise. For example, does a bookmark point to a page, or is it attached the page? What should we do if the user creates a bookmark twice from the same page? If they use the former concept they would expect two bookmarks to be created, and be allowed to edit them. If they use the latter concept they would expect just one bookmark to be created, and would not be allowed to edit it. This is all important for tackling usability, unfortunately.
But all this is minor compared to the usability problems created when I try to apply formal concept analysis to collections of bookmarks. Perhaps I'll explain that one later...
Yesterday was Australia Day. It's a fantastic day for families, with a huge number of people out at the beaches for some fun. I spent most of it working, of course. PhD students don't get holidays (we just take them instead).
My flatmate and I did manage to get out to see the fireworks, which ran a full 20 minutes and was actually pretty impressive. Half the fun was getting there though, with him riding side-saddle on the rear-mounted cargo tray of my push-bike. 25kph, overtaking other cyclists... we should've done this before! :)
PS.The head in the picture is just some random girl. Not my flatmate.
I recently came across a news report talking about the rather large cost of being interrupted. With 5 different instant messaging protocols to choose from, I can admit I've seen this in myself. So, when entering the workforce, I've decided to steel myself against interruptions. That means being able to take interruptions and temporarily shelve them until work is done.
When I was in my first year of undergraduate studies I could do this quite well. My friends can attest to that; I wasn't very social. I've become more social over the last few years, to the detriment of work. But I finally recalled an old habit of mine; rubber bands on my fingers.
Once I have a rubber band on my fingers I'm not in a social mood anymore; that's work time. Seems to be working well so far. Though I don't know where I put that rubber band right now. I guess that's why I'm posting here...
Well, time for a first post. Should probably say what this blog is all about. It's simple, selfish and about me. What did you expect? :)
Seriously, it's about what's happening with me for the next year or so. If things all go to plan, then I have no clue what will happen. So I figured, to keep people posted, I'd open this blog. Hope you enjoy. :)
