Yeah, it’s time for a new blog post. Many things have happened recently, so I think there might be something worth reading for you guys ;-)
First, studies have started again. I’m now staying in Lausanne at a friend’s flat. The story behind this is that me and Samuel will have our own flat from the 1st October onwards. Until then, I’m enjoying the hospitality of friends. There are many new topics to discover this semester. I have courses like Advanced Computer Networks and Distributed Systems or TCP/IP networking which sound challenging and interesting, other like Stochastic Models for Communications that provide some dry but necessary theoretical background.
Apart from my courses, I took up work as a student assistant for a programming course. We help first year students to solve their programming exercices and to find their way through the unfamiliar Linux environment. Explaining complicated things in a simple way can be very challenging, but those hours are fun nonetheless.
One last thing about studies: SWERC 2008 is coming soon! Two years ago, I represented our school at this programming contest, which was held in Lissabon. EPFL offered us the trip and hotel rooms, and we spent a nice and intensive weekend in Portugal. This year, the team composed of Robert, Christian and me will try to qualify again and improve the past result.
So much about studies, what about my free time? Much of it has been computer-related recently. For EVP Vechigen, a local political party, i developed a new website based on the Drupal CMS, the same free content management system that runs this blog. One thing that surprised me was how much progress Drupal has made between summer 2007 (when I started my blog) and summer 2008. There are improvements all over the place… thanks a lot, guys!
More computer stuff… my laptop has been completely renewed. First, the motherbord was replaced (on warranty ;-)) because it didn’t cope with the humid singaporean climate. After that, I reinstalled the operating system and am now running Debian Linux exclusively… we’ll see how long I can manage without a Windows on my computer :-)
This post may not look like it, but there are actually a lot of non-technical things and happenings in my life as well. We had a very nice scouting afternoon last Saturday. Following the story of Bilbo Beutlin, we spent an afternoon deciphering secret maps, fighting orks and crafting bows. The next day I spent with my brother and Johanna, playing Memory and Set and other games. Many evenings have been spent with friends during the last weeks. Apart from all that, I’m still trying to figure out what sports to do this semester, or whether to start playing guitar again. Is there anybody near Lausanne reading this post that would sell me an acoustic guitar?
That’s it for the moment. Feel free to comment or ask questions!