Sun, 17 Jun 2007
What I learned during my thesis ...
Right, so as
announced I finished my thesis this week. Its translated title is (if
anyone want to know)
"Design and Implementation of a Model for the
Retrieval of Free/Libre Open Source Software using a Case-Based Reasoning
System".
Writing it certainly was an educational experience but I am still happy
it's done now. Especially the last weeks where rather unfunny, more so
since about ten days before my deadline we had a massive heat wave here in
Lower Saxony.
Now that it's done I am still waiting for enthusiam to kick in. So far weariness still prevails. Maybe also because finishing my thesis does not yet end my studies. We also have to do written and oral examinations which will take place in July and after.
So at the moment I spend my days mostly sleeping and trying to muster up enough wanderlust for my trip to DebConf7. (At the moment the prospect of traveling long distance with trains and cheap flights and then be surrounded by a few hundred happy people is still rather daunting.)
Anyway, in order to give an impression of my last weeks and months and to sum this all up, a list of random notes, taken during the last weeks, of what I learned while writing my thesis:
- 6 months are NOT a long time!
- 10.000 chars are not enough to model a Debian package description
- 50 chars are not enough to model a Debian package name (YES, THAT MEANS YOU, libmaypole-plugin-authentication-usersessioncookie-perl!)
- osi.org does not belong to the Open Source Initiative but to Ontario Swine Improvement (Ontario Swine Improvement (OSI) is an industry-run organization dedicated to providing swine improvement and genetic products, programs, information and expertise. Our goal is to help Ontario pork producers achieve competitive advantages and excellence in the global market place.)
- I must not procrastinate.
Procrastination is the mind-killer.
Procrastination is the little-death that brings total obliteration.
I will face my thesis.
I will permit it to pass over me and through me.
And when it has gone past I will turn the inner eye to see its path.
Where the thesis has gone there will be nothing.
Only I will remain. - Dr.-Ing. Roland Bless rules! (So does his LaTeX class for theses.)
- Working without internet is possible. It is even better than working with internet. Simply leave gaps where you need to look up stuff and fill them in in the evening.
- Losing half a litre of blood does not impair my fitness for (brain) work.
- Working with version control requires a minimum of
intelligenceattention. Unfortunately mostly so when ending work (dead tired) and when beginning to work (dead tired). - Side effects: Insomnia, itchy area on left leg, belly aches, little blisters on the sides of my fingers, headaches, slight but constant petulance.
- "I know what I want to say, getting it on paper is the least work." - WROOOONG!
- German is such a crappy language to write scientific texts in. Special greetings to the generic masculine. Gah!
- When the cat's writing her thesis ...
The fun time's over now, darling ;) - "I have don't really like proof-reading your thesis in PDF, can't you just send me the Word file?" is not what you want to hear from your proof reader.
- Good: Debian, vim, subversion, LaTeX, bibtex, evince, xpdf, pdftk, PostgreSQL, OpenOffice.org, dia, gimp, phpESP, tea, coffee, ramen, chocolate, electric fan, eating at the uni's cafeteria twince a day, raw cornflakes straight from the box, frida (my trusty laptop), power naps, pizza, people understanding my true problems, the freedom to burry myself in my work and absolutely and utterly neglect anything else until I am finished.
- The flat can look worse. Much!
- Bad:
- The FSIL (student council for teaching students) belt grinding(!) tables on the balcony in front of the students' working rooms.
- People trying to be nice and asking how it's going with the thesis.
- Fellow students greeting me with "Hey still here?"
- Our evil DPL blogging about his highly addictive monsterz just when I got to work.
- I'll do it after I handed in the thesis.
- I'll see a doctor about it after I handed in the thesis ...
- I should commit much more often (svn that is)
- How come there are so many extra 'i's in your thesis?" Because it's Linux!
- Sense of time is overrated.
- Print shop guy is mean.
A = Me, overtired, having formatted and doing last changes to this document the whole night through and on until 20 minutes before the printing appointment.
B = Print shop guy
B: You know that's not A4 ...
A: WHAT?!
B: Yea, it's too big.
A: WHAT?! But, but, I ... That can't be!
B: I'm telling you, it's too big. See, 0.3mm too long and 0.12mm too wide
A: ... *death stare*
- The examination office is now located in the fourth floor in the building next to the post office at the Hindenburgplatz.
- Tolimar is the most patient and understand guy I've ever known.
Thank you! - 6 months are SUCH a long time!
Posted at: 19:05 in /english/uni
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Just when you are about to give up ...
It actually seemed as though I wouldn't be going to DebConf this year. I didn't get to work much the last two months, since I wanted to spend all my time on the near completion of my thesis so I didn't have the money to pay for a flight (or train) to EDI and back myself. Due to that same thesis I also didn't have the time to prepare a talk this year so I was also not a speaker. Since I am also neither a DD nor in NM I was pretty sure I wouldn't be eligible for travel sponsorship this year. And, as expected, I was indeed very far down the queue, so when I still hadn't heard anything about being sponsored until about a week before DebConf was starting I had pretty much given up on the whole thing and resigned to the fact that this year's DebConf would happen without me.
However, on 10 June I had a mail in my Inbox. Subject: "Your travel cost sponsorship request for DebConf7". It seems the DebConf team was able to dig up some more money and do another run on the sponsorship queue. This was three days before I had to get my thesis to the print shop and I wasn't really doing anything else except for frantically going over my proof readers' annotations, doing last minute additions, changes etc. and occasionally lie down for a few hours of rather uneasy sleep. So my first reaction was something along the lines of "What?! Now?! I don't have time for this now! Go away!" and I was pretty close to answering the mail saying "Thank's but that's too short notice. I won't be coming, have fun, see you all next year." Luckily Tolimar prevented this though and actually managed to find a flight for me that not only goes on the actual days that I had originally planned to arrive and leave but that is also not far over my travel sponsorship!
So, long story short, I'll be flying to EDI on Wednesday. It'll only be for the very last few days and I am probably already missing out on lots and lots of stuff, but at least I'll be able to attend for a few days. And in time for debian-women's third birthday! :)
I just hope everything will go well, it seems there's a lot of trouble with flying to DebConf this year, at least judging from what I read on planet and heard on irc.
See you all soon!
Posted at: 11:19 in /english/debian/events/debconf7
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