Posted: August 12th, 2010 | Author: ari.bjornsson | Filed under: Daily Life, Tech | Tags: android, htc desire, top applications, top apps | No Comments »
It’s been a month since I bougtht my lovely HTC Desire and I’m still loving it! During this time I’ve mostly been on vacation and have consiquenly had a lot of time til play around with it; installing and testing loads of applications from Android Market, reading comics and ebooks, listening to audiobooks and watching videos.
I’ve found myself using the same applications over and over again and I find it kinda strange that my top Android application list does not resemble the lists you find by googling after top Android apps.
Before I go into the details I’d like to mention that I’m writing this post using my phone and the WordPress app.
First and foremost is Android Advanced Task Killer (free). This application is essential since Android is a multitasking platform which allows apps to run in the background, even start automatically. Having many apps running reduces battery life considerably and Android does not provide an easy soloution to this yet. You can use this app to kill all running apps at configurable intervals excluding those you specify, the ones you really need to run for longer periods of time. When I started using my phone I had approx. 40 apps running, now they are somewhere around 5.
To manage the data on my phone I use File Manager (free). This app gives you full control over your files and folders, copy, delete, rename, you name it.
The Facebook application integrates nicely with the built in contacts app, allowing you to link contacts with their fb profile, giving you access to phone numbers, profile pics, birthdays etc. Google and twitter accounts integrate similarly.
I use the SwiFTP app extensively, its basically a very simple FTP server and comes very handy when exchanging files with friends pc’s via wireless.
MortPlayer is by far the best audiobook player I’ve come across so far. Note you have to install the widgets separately.
I find Springpad very handy when taking notes or writing todos, however I can’t seem to switch entirely to Springpad from Evernote so I just use them both.
I’m using a few more which will have to wait, my phone is running out of juice!
Posted: June 10th, 2010 | Author: ari.bjornsson | Filed under: Daily Life, Tech | Tags: django, new website, python, www.ari.is | 3 Comments »
I’m very good at doing stuff which isn’t what I’m supposed to be doing, one of these things was redesigning my ari.is website! Let’s face it, it needed changing and frankly I was getting a bit jealous of everyone else having fancy pansy personal pages with mine looking like crap. So this week I swallowed my burning hatred for CSS, and powered by love for Django and Python, I created a new and prettier ari.is – Horray!!
Now I look cool online – no ?
Posted: May 17th, 2010 | Author: ari.bjornsson | Filed under: Daily Life | Tags: afraid of asking, asking for things, asking questions, dtu, master thesis | 1 Comment »
Two weeks ago I started work on my master thesis, Management within Lean Startups, at DTU. One of my supervisors was so kind to give me a tour of the departmental building I’ll be working most of the time, basically showing me the most important places such as the location of the coffee machine etc. The tour included the work area for master students, a big room filled with cubicles, and not being fond of cubicles I asked if there was some other place available and as it turned out there was and I settled myself in an office with an extremely comfy sofa (hello 20 minute power-naps!).
Since I started I’ve been bumping into a few people I know from different courses and they all sound surprised when I invite them into my office, usually they go:
Friend: “What did you do to deserve an office??”
Me: “Well, I just asked if they had anything more spacy”
Friend: “Hey, you also have a white-board!”
Me: “Yeah, I just asked if they had some extra white-boards available”
Friend: “Oh, grunt!” -> followed by thoughts about why they didn’t think of asking and giving me an evil-eye
Although this isn’t a very interesting story, it has a good point; Why are we so often afraid of asking?
Posted: March 4th, 2010 | Author: ari.bjornsson | Filed under: Daily Life | Tags: masters project, thesis | No Comments »
How hard is to find a suitable masters project ? Let me tell you what I think: Holy cow! its hard!
I’ve been in contact with several Icelandic companies and come up with up to 10 ideas for a masters project within my field but somehow I can’t convince myself to pick one or the other. I think that I’m interested in too many things which is preventing me to focus on one specific project and it sucks big time. I also find it hard to be studying in Denmark with no company/contact network which would certainly open doors to local projects and perhaps with an opportunity of a job afterwards. I certainly can’t consider myself a master at decision making right now.
Why isn’t there an online service offering lots of potential projects for people like me ?
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