Travel

Never mention the technology

A few posts back I talked about travel and was stupid enough to mention the vulnerability of technology while traveling. I could do this because fundamentally I am not a superstitious person and I was speaking about the risk of forgetting a vital part of technology like a cable. Naturally things like this do not go unpunished and I was (almost) instantly struck by lightening.

The keyboard and pad to my macbook pro just stopped working. Using an external mouse and keyboard worked fine – basically a hardware error. But I was far away from rescue disks, backup systems, external hardware, support and any kind of help. Basically I was screwed.

So I spent my days traveling with dead technology, wishing it to work but to no avail. Fortunately I was back at home base (Göteborg) on Monday. Major backups, handing in the laptop to the repairman and then attempting to get my old laptop into some kind of working order. My old one is very unstable and insecure no matter what I do to it.

Getting a computer into shape takes time. All the minor adjustments that turns it from a mass market product into a comfortable work environment is a slow process. Eventually I managed to get to sleep only to wake up two hours later for no reason. Returning to sleep never worked. After tossing and turning I succumbed to the temptation and went back to adjusting my laptop.

Sometime during the night I began to think about an idea of my former professor, Bo Dahlbom. He used to claim that we were becoming a nomadic society. Naturally he was referring to a segment of society and generalizing. Even though it’s mostly by train I am beginning to feel like a nomadic tribesman. But there is a problem with the nomad analogy.

The nomads are a self-reliant group, their technology is durable, lightweight and basic. If they cannot carry it, service it or fix it then they will not use it. The same cannot be said of the tecchie nomads who need a well functioning infrastructure around them to be able to carry out the semblance of what they (we?) would call a normal life.

On the train platform I saw my first iPhone – sweet!

Posted on by mklang

Experiences of a semi-nomadic lifestyle

By accepting my new position at Lund’s university I knew I was also accepting a great deal of travel. Before actually beginning the plan was that I would spend 2-3 days a week in Lund, two days in Göteborg, where I maintain a small part of my previous work. Most weekends would be spent in Norway with my girlfriend.

The plan naturally required living in Lund. This turned out to be rather difficult since Lund is a university town (small population – loads of students). Despite this I managed to find a flat with a flatmate. It’s a rather expensive university accommodation – but on the bright side it is in the center of town.

All this was easy enough to plan and predict.

Then came the surprises. Since I spend so little time in any one place:

Buying food for longer periods almost does not work. So I end up eating out a lot more. This is expensive, unhealthy and rather dull in the long run.

There is no point in ordering a morning paper in the letterbox so reading a newspaper becomes a luxury.

The gym is becoming a thing of the past. Running is the activity of choice. However carting around running gear (in particular the shoes) quickly fills any small carrier bag.

Any book, cd, dvd (whatever) you need or want will always be somewhere else.

Travel requires two things organization and patience, the former before and the latter during. Frequent travel requires much more of the same. Missing the bus to work is annoying missing the train is F##cking annoying & embarrassing. I have missed two in the last months.

Since I have always liked words of advice like “Keep your powder dry”, “go west, young man”, and plastics is the future (or something similar in the film The Graduate) here is some advice for others – based upon what I have learned.

– Never take the window seat on trains. In winter the heating is on this side, in summer the heat and light is annoying and if the train is crowded leaving the seat is difficult.
– Extra underwear must be kept at all locations.
– Duplicate (or triplicate) necessities. Shaving kit, after shave, aspirin, running shoes, notebooks, teas, etc etc.
– Make sure you have a bag with all your technical kit. Do not unpack this bag. Keep it close to you at all times. Clean underwear is nothing compared to a mobile with an empty battery.

    Once you start planning and organising things tend to work themselves out rather nicely… Until the next ugly surprise…

    Posted on by mklang

    Pomp and circumstance

    On Saturday I attended the Göteborg University doctoral conferment ceremony. This is the event where those who have written doctoral thesis’ or those who are granted honorary doctorates are awarded the symbols of their dignity. The whole affair was very grand with speeches in Swedish, English and Latin.

    The whole affair begins and ends with a long parade of academics led by flags and insignias. It also includes two people carrying thick marshall batons – these used to be those who kept the peace in academic life. I never knew that academics ever needed to be physically subdued.

    I was among the 188 new doctors created on that day in a three hour ceremony. I was going to give the whole thing a miss but at the same time it is kind of nice to have attended. The actual conferment occurs when the faculty representative (called the promotor) steps on to the stage and begins by awarding himself/herself her degrees. Basically she crowns herself with the laurel wreath while uttering the correct Latin phrases. Then the doctors are called forward to receive their diploma and are physically lead across a small bridge by the promotor. This symbolizes the Parnassus mountain (the home of the muses) and the travels and struggles needed to obtain the doctoral dignity.

    Three hours passed surprisingly quickly and despite my anti-ceremony approach to life, I enjoyed myself.

    Posted on by mklang

    Free Software, Social Innovation

    As a part of the STACS-project the Free Software Foundation Europe and M6-IT are organizing an event at The Hub in London.

    The idea is to invite NGO’s to a show and tell session on the way in which Free Software functions. The idea is that the organizations will see the advantage of Free Software and bring it into their organizations and influence other organizations.

    From the website:

    We understand that not everyone will be able to cover the costs of visiting the event and we are willing to contribute towards travel and accommodation costs. We invite you to fill out an application by the 19th of October 2007 at the latest. The selected attendees will be contacted by the 22nd of October.
    Venue

    The Hub is an incubator for social innovation. It’s a place for people to meet, learn and connect with each other to make things happen. The Hub in London is located on 5 Torrens Street which is conveniantly close to the tube station Angel on the Underground Northern Line.

    Schedule: Friday 2nd November
    09.00 Free Software as a Social Innovation
    10.30 Coffee/tea break
    11.00 Empowering NGOs with Free Software
    12.30 Lunch
    14.00 Hands-on experience with Free Software
    16.00 Coffee/tea break
    16.30 Hands-on continued..
    18.00 Social event and dinner

    The number of participants is limited and the last date to apply is on the 19th October. For more information and applications go here.

    Posted on by mklang

    C'mon, catch-up!

    This is not a moan about information overload (or frazzing) but it is scary how many email messages, blog posts, voicemail, facebook messages (etc, etc & etc) are created each day. Usually reading and reacting to messages as and when they appear is an excellent tactic. But going offline for extended periods means that the pile of  (what? data, information, communication, interaction, knowledge or just plain crap) is almost overwhelming.

    Today was spent traveling and doing hamster work (running round the wheel without getting anywhere). Replying to email, voice messages and tonight, the main event, scanning through my favorite blogs. Too many posts. So much stuff I want to comment on. The problem is when the pile of work has grown this much my main impulse is to ignore it.

    But then again there is a masochistic desire to push through the pile of work and get to the other side… Or at least to blog 🙂

    Posted on by mklang

    Travel is amazing

    Landing in Istanbul was uneventful but the ride to Sile was more exciting. Traffic is an interesting thing here. Driving along motorways filled with cars but no lights. Weaving among heavy lorries and small cars – bumper to bumper at between 100-130 km an hour gave the impression of a high-speed chase in a typical action movie. Most invigorating after the boredom of air travel.

    The university campus at Sile is a large affair and I have been installed in a very nice student room overlooking the Black Sea. I can see a red crescent moon and hear the waves breaking on the beach. Across the bay are the lights of Sile town (I assume) and a lighthouse sweeps the bay.

    This morning I saw ostriches on my morning jog – not something I was expecting…

    Travel is amazing.

    Posted on by mklang

    Travel is a waiting game

    Sitting in an airport looking at other people I realized that the whole thing with travel is all about the ability to wait. To make yourself relaxed and comfortable in unnatural, artificially priced environments. It’s easy to forget about this with all the exotic adventure propaganda being published.

    Good travelers are not those who have stocked up on the latest air-sickness tablets and tourist-tummy pills but those who bring more than a magazine on a five hour flight, those who begin flights by politely ignoring people who are, in reality, sitting way way to close to each other. Seriously we don’t let people come this close unless they are family, lovers or medical staff.

    Airport boredom can be relieved in many ways (one is blogging), work is another good method, reading, watching movies or simply counting the number of people who have white or red shoes. The only thing you don’t really want it is someone who is too bored to amuse themselves and therefore strike up conversations…

    Posted on by mklang

    Turkey tomorrow

    Tomorrow I am off to Turkey to attend and teach on a course called Legal Aspects of the Information Society in Sile on the Black Sea. This is a great opportunity to meet some interesting people and to travel but there is one thing that really annoys me. Since I have just started on a new job I don’t really have the time to stay in Turkey. This means that I will not have time to explore Istanbul which is one of the cities that I have always wanted to explore.

    Turkey, Istanbul, the Black Sea, the Bosphorus, Marmara Sea – all this evokes the exotic region to be explored. I have been totally fascinated by the region and its history since I read Michael Psellos‘ histories of the Byzantine emperors and lots of crusader literature. This fascination continued and I almost wrote my masters thesis in maritime law on the transportation of oil through the narrow straights of the Bosphorus. But in the end my thesis was on IT law – despite this my fascination remained.

    Despite the fact that I will have no time to spend in Istanbul I cannot help myself. I have bought an Istanbul guidebook and I am reading Orhan Pamuk’s amazing book Istanbul –

    Reading about a city which I will be crossing but not exploring is a peculiar form of masochism but I think the root lies in the desperate hope that somehow I will find time to see something of the city.

    Posted on by mklang

    Sunrise on the Malmö Express

    There is something special about seeing the sunrise while sitting on a train. Rushing past the waking countryside and towns. Sitting motionless on a fast moving train watching the inaction of life outside. The Göteborg-Malmö line has not been part of my regular travels. Most of my trains have been in the east-west direction (Göteborg-Malmö) but now with the new job this trip is going to be a regular weekly event – So it’s kind of important that it’s a nice ride.

    It was a long time since I had a first day at school after a summer vacation. You remember the feeling? New pencils and paper, maybe new clothes. A kind of anxious excitement about returning to the familiar routines. This is new and exciting. Even though I have no new lunch-box or pencil case 🙂

    It also feels great to be breaking out of old routines and doing something new. It reminds me of the poem The Road not Taken by Robert Frost – OK so I had to look up the poem but I did remember the punchline

    I shall be telling this with a sigh
    Somewhere ages and ages hence:
    Two roads diverged in a wood, and I—
    I took the one less traveled by,
    And that has made all the difference.

    Posted on by mklang

    Annoying Delays

    Traveling is an adventure but it can be frustrating. Right now I am on my way to the iSummit in Dubrovnik and the first flight of three between G̦teborg and Dubrovnik is delayed by 20 minutes so I am not sure if I will be arriving there on time since I shall probably miss my connecting flight in Budapest Рdamn!

    Posted on by mklang