Louise's thoughts

Five more days

Until this morning one of my biggest worries, besides having to finish my dissertation by Friday, was that I was out of food and therefore hadn't had any dinner the past three days, except last night where some guys (fellow PhD students) were kind enough to ask if I wanted to join them for pizza. In return I had to go downstairs to the Friday bar and have a beer, which I did reluctantly (and in the ordeal meting some of the new students, among others one who didn't believe that I was a PhD student! Thank you wrinkle cream and blond hair). The problem is that grocery stores here in Denmark close at 8pm, some at 9pm, and let me just say I don't remember the last time I was out of the office before that.

But this morning I found my bicycle with a flat front tire and not only a flat back tire as well, but a back tire that was no longer attached to the wheel. My biggest question was how I had gotten home last night... Optimistically I went to the nearest bicycle repair shop, which embarrassingly enough, I had to call up a friend to locate, but alas, it was closed on Saturdays. The good thing about the whole thing was that I passed by a really big grocery store on the way to the university that is usually out of my way and got, hold on ... sushi! My day was saved. Now I just hope that my bike doesn’t get stolen as I will be cab’ing it to and from work for the remaining week. Five more days to go, so you probably won't hear anything from me until then. And sorry, but I changed the sign on my office door to: 'Stay out, come back after the 3rd'.

Do not disturb

Today I wrote a note for my office door with large letters: NO, stay out, knock ONLY if it is VERY important. Otherwise stay away, I am working. Write me an email if it is sort of important. Except of course if you are on the 'guest list':

Peter (advisor)
Rikke (girlfriend)
Anna (other girlfriend)
Cute guys
Close family
If you bring candy (preferably chocolate)
Or food
Or coffee

My favorite planet

A new probe has taken pictures of my favorite planet (except earth of course)
Saturn. They are wonderful and make me want to be an astronaut. Original source (sorry in Danish)

Three questions

Since I have locked myself in my office, only going for the occasional cup of coffee and Daim, I just wanted to answer three questions that I would normally be asked by friends, colleagues and acquaintances if I had been anywhere outside the blurry world of my dissertation:

So how are you?
I am fine thank you, really looking forward to the party September 3rd and the two conferences the weeks following. I am however deadly nervous for my paper presentation, but assume I will survive (note to self: bring cool shoes).

How was your weekend?
Great, I was working... I actually took the liberty (felt partly obligated) to do three leisurely things consisting of ballet, sushi and brunch with the parents because my Dad came back from Thailand this morning. I considered watching a movie Sunday night, but rather wanted to work on my conclusion.

How is your thesis going?
Funny that you should ask, it is actually going fine. I still have to finish the conclusion and write some clever insights into future perspectives. And then I need to create a bunch of nice pictures instead of the sketches I have right now as well as refining my references (still have to many like [that article from Berkeley in CHI proc 03]). And then of course I need to have somebody proofread it...

Where are the girls? II

This is me in a couple of weeks... Oh no, that is right, my girlfriend is going too. I can't wait!

My automatic life

Everything happens automatic in the new buildings where I work and some of it is really starting to bother me. We had a discussion about it at lunch, the way sensor technology is taking responsibility away from us.

My windows open and close automatically according to if there is sunlight on them or not. For some reason they think that sunlight means that it is hot inside. But I can assure you, it can be hot even without sunlight. And the fact that we are located right next to a huge noisy construction site (the new National Broadcast buildings) means that I spend more time closing the windows because they open automatic than I would have opened them if they weren't.

In the hallway the light is automatic, meaning when there is motion it turns on, if there is no motion for a couple of minutes it turns off. I now get disturbed by a 'click' every 15th minute because someone walks in or it times out. A hall way is fairly populated and only after 5pm does it actually stay out for more than a few minutes.

The kitchen cleans automatically. Every morning when I arrive, all things that were placed on the counter the previous night has magically ended up in the dish washer and are all clean. Today I found my espresso maker and the dish brush in there. Fortunately the bag of coffee that I had left on the counter had been placed in the cabinet instead of the dishwasher. But for what use? My espresso maker cannot close the lid now when it has been in the dishwasher...

But I should be happy, this way nothing is my responsibility around here, no lights to turn out when I leave, no dishes to clean, no windows to close. I can lead a carefree life with sensor technology. I wonder if it is a coincidence that my dissertation is about context-aware technology? Kind of ironic.

Now with excuses

I updated my thesisometer to include excuses why I didn't write that much at particular times. It was nice to see that my travels and other occupations were the ones showing and not random occurances of laziness!

Thesisometer with excuses

Where are the girls?

I spend a considerable amount of the day writing an entry to an online debate about the declining number of female computer science students. You won't believe the sad numbers from Denmark this fall: undergrad universities are getting between 3.6 and 7 % female first year students (these are only numbers from the two biggest universities, there are about two to three other small universities with other numbers). My own university (which only offers graduate education) has a roaring 35 % women. But then again, it has majors that include the word 'design', which I think is cheating...

I wrote a comment to an article that said 'we need females in tech industry because otherwise the industry will become all nerds'. This is apparently the solution: call all men nerds and use this as an argument to get more women. Bummer. I commented that women can be nerds as well and that the argument for having more women in tech industry and research is more complex than just having fewer nerds. Arguments that include a better distribution providing a comfortable work environment and having a more diverse set of people creating technical solutions for the diverse set of users. Not to mention the fact that women are cheating themselves away from good a pay check when they turn away from technical jobs in order to have 'good deed jobs' like nursing, child care and law (arguably the last example job is neither necessarily ‘good deed’ nor less paid than tech jobs). Wake up sisters, you can do plenty of good deeds by programming a system for the hospital, for the lawyers and for the poor people in Africa.

I received one reply where a guy argued that since computer science involves algorithms where there is most often one 'best' solution, it didn't matter if it was found by a man or a woman. He therefore didn’t see it as a major problem that there are so few females in the area. Besides the complete ridicules assumption that computer science = algorithms, I believe that people are different also due to their sex and this differences are part of making a good work environment. In the end the product you produce will be better when you have had many different eyes on it than if only one type of people developed it.

But it is a difficult discussion often ending up in a ‘guys against girls’ fight. I think it is in fact deeply personal to me in that I, as a woman, would love to see more women in my field. Not so they can take the guys’ attention away from me (don't they dare!) but so they can also experience what a wonderful world computer science in fact is. And I am not being ironic here, I do think that computer science is one of the funniest subjects (well most parts of computer science) and I dig the tech talk that I have everyday with my fellow (male...) researchers. Yes it's been tough, especially during my undergrad studies but if I should choose again I would choose the same. So I think more girls should consider computer science, just because it is fun. Isn’t that argument enough?

Shoe fix

Got my shoe fix at Saks online store today. How can I live without these Burberry Rain boots when I get my dream job in Seattle?

Thesisometer

On popular demand, I present my thesisometer. Inspired by my friend who has good advise about how you keep track of your dissertation progress, I created this tool to keep myself going. I also have a paper copy on my office door, which is updated every night.

Comic strips

One of my favorite comic strips made it into USA today a couple of months ago (but I only saw it today).

Typos

Just found two errors in one of my already-sent camera ready manuscripts (same sentence!). It says: 'Social grouping are often stubbornly persistent, at east in the short term'. I hate when those things happen and it reminded me of a published article I read a couple of days ago in proceeding of UbiComp 2002. One of the paragraphs ended by 'NOTE TO REVIEWERS: we plan to include more quotes from our users in the final version'. Note to self: never submit anything with notes to reviewers.

Help!

I got a workshop paper accepted and they need the camera ready version Monday morning (EST). I haven't had the time to get a native English speaker to proof read it, but hate having grammar mistakes in my publications. So if you have half an hour and think your English is better than mine ;-), I would totally appreaciate your help in proof reading it. It is short (6 small pages) and I just need grammar/spelling corrections. In return you get plenty of Louise credits that can be used for all kinds of fun things (drinks, dancing or a tour of Copenhagen) next time we meet. The paper is at [my official website]/privacy.pdf

Today I...

Today I lit fire to a match box in the process of lighting the match. But then again the matchbox was from Dan Turell, anything bearing his name would be expected to behave rather odd.

Today I took six self-portraits and none of them will appear here

Today I was wearing only a tank top all day, also when sitting in my couch at night writing (and I am in Denmark!)

Today I found this wonderful and horrible example of great voting usability for kids.

Today my advisor told me that he thinks I am doing well and that my contribution chapter looks very promising

Today I got coffee and ice cream for dinner

Today I read in 'where to go', the free Copenhagen magazine, that my street is a disco in itself (alright, they said 'Vestergade', but it is not my decision that all physical streets of Copenhagen have at least three names according to where on the straight line you are). No wonder I hear screams and loud, drunk people most nights of the week. Who would have known, I am living in a disco!

Today I wrote 2197 words on my thesis (you go girl!)

Weather II

Lately I find myself cuddling my mobile phone, even when I am not using it. The hot weather requires girls like me to wear little and most often pocketless clothes, which means that I have no place for my mobile. I end up just holding it in my hand like an extended part of my arm, all day.

Although I usually claim that the shy Scandinavian is a category of its own when it comes to mobile phone behavior, it seems as we are quite related to the British who create little virtual 'phone booths' on the street. My own studies in this area shows that SMS is popular because it is discreet and polite, not necessarily fast like a short phone call, which leads me to think that Scandinavians don't use voice mail that much either. Personally I hate if people leave messages just because I missed the call, because the process of listening to it is much more tedious than just returning the call. Voicemail is definitely a leftover from when caller id did not exist. I even have friends who start their message by saying 'Hi Louise this is ... It is now Saturday, 3pm and...' I mean, the machine just told me what time it is but now I am sure it was not lying...

I find mobile phone behavior interesting to observe; I do it everyday, but I don't think the categorization done in the study above is specific to countries and cities. I think the bigger difference is found within subcultures; seeing how my 15 year old cousin uses her phone differs significantly from my own use, which again is different from people with other types of work. One exciting thing when making new friends is always to see what kind of phone habits they have. Do they answer your SMS immediately or do they consider it to be polite as long as they answer within the rest of the day? Do they leave voice messages or just hang up when they get my recorded voice? Do they put little blinky smilies at the end of the message? Thinking about this, I realize that I put a lot of interpretation into this behavior, so next time you SMS me or forget to, watch out, I might put other interpretations into it than you do!

Weather I

So as soon as I got back from vacation, the weather turned nicer than nice. This was the forecast Saturday and it hasn't changed since. I can proudly say that it is warmer than both LA (17 degrees according to my newspaper) and New York City (18 degrees but cloudy). If you have no clue what a degree Celsius is I found this neat converter last time I needed to remember how many fluid ounces are in a liter.

The disadvantage with the heat wave is that windows need to be open 24/7 making me wake up constantly during the night to the loud voices of summerhappy and mainly drunk people who wander through my street. This weekend I realized that there are two solutions to this, either close the windows and suffocate or go out all night as well, so I can sleep in the early morning when the drunk people in the street have been exchanged with early birds rushing to work and the garbage trucks bumping their containers to the ground on every corner. I opted for the latter. I went to the chic part of the harbor Saturday night where not only have they made a closed pool there in the middle of the harbor surrounded by the ferries to Sweden and glamorously decorated yachts with rich people, they have also poured sand all over the place to make the recreational part of the harbor look beachy. "You have to be kidding, I did not get back to Copenhagen last night just to walk in yet another pile of sand", was the first thing I said to my friend as we met. Anyone who knows me, knows that there is only one thing I hate more than grass and that is sand, especially in inappropriate places such as three blocks from down town Copenhagen (don't get me wrong, I love Florida sand and other sensible places where it occurs naturally but you sort of expect it to be at a beach not at the harbor).

As we were sitting there chattingly drinking our white wine and enjoying that it was possible to wear a tank top at 8 pm the bar started playing Wham's "Last Christmas"... it was one of those out-of-body experiences where we just looked at each other and laughed at this surreal touch. Heat wave in Copenhagen is indeed an experience that occurs one week each summer and leaves you scarred for the remaining year.

Back from Vacation

The first few vacation days I had severe withdrawal symptoms. I woke up early in the morning, got up and did all the little things that didn't require internet or access to my arsenal of articles: corrected figures, wrote on my last chapter and read through some old chapters. Then I actually started enjoying my vacation and now after two and a half weeks of Danish country summer I am back to finish up.

I spend most of my vacation hanging out with my family (the greater one extended with half-siblings, cousins, half-aunts, and then of course my parents and two brothers). We barbequed on the porch every single night, went swimming in the ocean almost every day; we went shopping one day including a visit to the local 'cafe' to sooth my latte abstinences. I lay down on the grass, smothered with factor 30, reading my workshop article and writing an abstract for a new article. I did the dishes at least 25 times (being 13 people creates a lot of dirty dishes) and I beat the guys in pool one Saturday night at the local bar. Thanks to my gadget collecting brother we had a video projector and load full of DVDs, so the few hours of dark (wonderful bright nights of Denmark) we watched movies and when it started raining the last few days I sat in the middle of the living room writing, among four other people playing playstation, reading newspaper, chatting and drinking Campari/orange juice. I really hope chapter 9 makes sense...

I uploaded the pictures at [usual website]/summerhouse04.html (sorry no comments yet) and I updated my thesisometer (if you don't know what I am talking about you don't need to know either). Now I just wish for a bit of peace and quiet until August 31st were all my friends (yes that probably includes you) are invited to 'open house' here at ITU. It starts at 16.30 and I will very likely serve some champagne in my new office around 18.00 to celebrate that I finally got a decent office and that I am suppose to hand in my thesis the next day (according to my wonderfully ambitious and belated plan). Please join me, especially if you have once been a student at ITU, you will be surprised to see the new building and how nice it all turned out.