Jul 13, 2010

Intranet flashcards for learning names and faces of co-workers

At work, I’m taking part in organizing and hosting a set of internal, educational conferences that almost half of my co-workers will have attended after summer. It’s four weeks in total with about 30 attendees per week. Since we have five office locations, I haven’t met a lot of these people so there are many names and faces to be learnt.

After printing photos and names in various configurations suitable for learning, it dawned on me that I might not be the only one who would be better off by learning these basic things about my colleagues. Actually, it would be a pretty neat intranet-application, at least I thought so.

We have a Django-driven white-pages app so it didn’t take that long to get something usable, here’s what it looks like at the moment (albeit a bit anonymized):

Guessing the name of a colleague from a photo, six different options

Guessing the name of a colleague from a photo

I went back and forth on the number of options to choose from but finally settled on six. It feels about right but might be too easy given that I pick out people randomly without any regard to gender, thus limiting the plausible options to around three.

Guessing the face of a colleague from a name, six different photos

Guessing the face of a colleague given his or her name

As you can see, there are only two types of questions so far but I plan to expand that in the future. What would you want to learn about your colleagues?

By Jonas Nockert | Posted in English | Comments (2)
Nov 9, 2009

Deployment of Django applications using Fabric

Tonight at the Stockholm Django User Group meeting, which is usually held second Monday of the month, I’ll be giving a short presentation on using Fabric to deploy applications. It’s not particularly oriented towards Django applications per se, I just threw that in to make it fit in and look cooler.

I’m far from an expert when it comes to the subject so hopefully it can trigger a good discussion around deployment ideas and strategies. Because it’s not really about the tools one’s using. For the most part, it’s much more about coming up with clever ways of automating tricky processes. Fabric just gives you some nice building blocks to help you on the way.

Django Deployment with Fabric (on SlideShare)

By Jonas Nockert | Posted in Uncategorized | Comments (1)
Sep 4, 2009

Försöker starta en ny mem

@moonhouse's t-shirt

David Hall är en av de mest ödmjuka och snällaste människor jag känner (@andcar som pekar på hans tröja är också snäll!)

By Jonas Nockert | Posted in Swedish | Tagged , , | Comments (2)
Aug 14, 2009

Another backpacking trip in the north of Sweden

This post was actually meant to go out before we headed out but I just didn’t have time to publish it. Too much time spent weighing the options in terms of equipment (pun intended, see below :)

As we got hooked on fjällen last year, Karin and I early on decided to go backpacking in the north of Sweden again. This time, we met up with my dad and brother at Arlanda airport and flew together up to Kiruna where we took a taxi to Abisko Fjällstation and ate an excellent as well as extensive vegetarian buffet there (Karin felt very lucky!)

Next morning, after a steady breakfast, we started hiking and for two days followed Kungsleden until reaching the Alesjaure cabins. At that point, we headed off along one of the unmarked trails along the Unna Visttasvággi valley in order to reach the Visttas cabin. From there, we headed up another valley to the Nallo cabin. After which we split up for a while. Jens and Olle headed to down to the Sälka cabins to rest a day while Karin and I took a detour to the remote and alpine Unna Räita cabin.

After Unna Räita, we went down to Sälka where the cabin host argued strongly against going up Koupervaggi and ending up at the Tarfala cabins. In retrospect, we should’ve trusted our guide book but at that point we didn’t know and decided to go by what he said. So we followed Kungsleden and the trail to the Kebnekaise cabins where we split up once again. Jens and Olle were going up to the top of Kebnekaise and Karin and I headed towards Tarfala.

Going to Tarfala turned out to be a really good choice. From there we headed “straight” towards Nikkaluokta by starting with going up a steep mountain side consisting of only loose rocks but we were lucky and met up with a crew from the research station who led us up an easier path than the regular one. The top of that pass is absolutely beautiful. One one side, you have views of steep, snow-covered mountain tops and glaciers. One the other side, you’ll have all the gentle sloping hills you can wish for.

The last couple of days we spent on these beautiful hills sloping towards Nikkaluokta. No path, just immense open spaces in front of us.

All in all, camping around the 1000m mark has become our definitive preference — alpine but not too alpine.

Our packing list for this year improved a bit (but far from the amount the checkbook says ;). Our most appreciated new piece of gear were our NeoAir 120cm sleeping pads. Crazy light and really, really comfortable when you fill them with just enough air.

Backpacking light (or not)

Backpacking light? Not really.

Tentative hiking plan

Our tentative plan (which did change)

Wearing:

Items Weight (g)
Hanwag Tatra GTX boots 1690
Norrøna Nansen pants 380
Houdini Comfort Stretch Belt 54
Outdoor Research Bugaway Bucket, medium 80
Icebreaker Bodyfit 200 wool T-shirt, small 164
Smartwool Adrenaline Light Crew wool socks, large 72
Teko organic EcoMarino wool liner, large 51
Smartwool wool underwear, medium 92
Glasses 22
Suunto T4 watch 50


Carrying:

Granite Gear Nimbus Meridian backpack, 62L regular 1770
Granite Gear Cloud Cover Pack Fly, medium 104


Living and sleeping:

Hilleberg Nammatj 2GT tent (w/o poles and pegs) 2525
Western Mountaineering Ultralite sleeping bag, 6′6″ 853
Granite Gear Air Block Solid compression bag 87
Exped pillow 66
Therm-a-rest NeoAir, small incl. bag 280
Seat/footpad 69


Clothes:

Norrøna Falketind GTX Paclite jacket 384
Norrøna Falketind GTX Paclite pants 306
Houdini Power Hood, medium 476
Patagonia R.5 top, medium 208
Houdini Speed Crew II, medium 132
Icebreaker Superfine Ultralite t-shirt, small 137
Patagonia R.5 tights, medium 148
Icebreaker boxer briefs, medium 104
Craft boxer briefs, medium 74
Houdini Power Wrist Gaiters (love these!) 26
Houdini Toasty Top Hat (love this!) 25
Icebreaker wool liners 59
Sealskinz waterproof gloves 80


For the feet:

Salomon Techamphibian 2, stl 44 632
Seal-skinz Mid-light waterproof wool socks, large 107
Smartwool liner (2) 83
Smartwool PHD socks 93


Eat and cook:

“Kåsa” cup 52
“Kåsa” cup, 0.8L 81
“Kåsa” foldable cup, small 22
Titanium spork 16
Nalgene bottle, 0.5L 92
Platypus 2L 40
Primus gas canister, 230g 366


Dry-bags, etc.:

Sea to Summit Ultra-Sil, 4L 26
Sea to Summit Ultra-Sil, 8L (2) 68
Sea to Summit Ultra-Sil, 1L 17
Plastic bags (3) 50


Miscellaneous:

Gipron Expert hiking pole 256
Sea to Summit mosquito head net 30
Whistle 6
Dry-bag, toilet paper roll and iPood Pocket Trovel 279
Sea to Summit cloth 30×60cm 36
Eye-pad (?, for sleeping when it’s light out) 8
Money, plastic cards 27
Shoecream 33
NeoAir patch kit 11
Outdoor Research accessory strap 22
Spare glasses and case 86


Books, maps, etc.:

Map (BD6 Fjällkarta, cut) and bag 48
Claes Grundsten’s book “På fjälltur: Kebnekaise till Abisko: turbeskrivningar“ 158
Björn Larsson “Drömmar vid havet” book 141
Moleskin notebook 35
Pen 9


Camera equipment:

Sigma DP2 300
Sigma DP2 batteries (2) 60
Spare memory card 4Gb 2
Osprey Digi-Stow, large 67
Gorilla pod 44
Polarization filter and case 40


Food:

Real Torskgryta 130
Real Stenbitsgryta 162
Real Lapskojs 138
Real Viltgryta 143
Pad Thai 256
Various kinds of oatmeal mixes (10) 1253
Home-dried green lentils 86
Home-dried cherry tomatoes 60
Varma koppen Minestrone soup (3) 78
Varma koppen vegetable soup (2) 34
Varma koppen Bilberry and raspberry soup (2) 62
Varma koppen Apple and cinnamon soup (3) 102
HoneyStinger Cherry Blossom (2) 112
Tea bags (15) 46
Vitamins (10) 12
Home-dried leek 10
Home-dried carrots 40
Snickers 60
Kexchoklad 56
Whisky, Auchentoshan 12 years 356
Pumpernickel bread 291
Cous cous 134
Parmesan cheeze 342
Dried bilberries 85
Dried Goji berries 26
Raw sugar 59
Dried cranberries 106
Cashew nuts 67
Tiramisu (thanks Anna :) 127
Jelly Belly Extreme Sport Beans, watermelon (caffeine!) 32
Jelly Belly Sport Beans, lemon lime 31


Hygiene:

Toothpicks 7
Deodorant 15
Tooth brush 21
Toothpaste, 1 tub 30
Deodorant wipes, 15st 37
Earplugs 3
Lotion 25
Schampoo 28
Lipbalm 11
Soap 27
US622 Anti-mosquito wipes (10) 35
Dental floss 1
Bag 15


All in all, 15981 grams carried including backpack. When we started from Abisko we noticed Karin was carrying as much as me so we gradually moved stuff over to my backpack during the hike.

Karin’s packlist

Backpacking!

Click the above to see the Flickr notes on what Karin is bringing.

By Jonas Nockert | Posted in English | Tagged , , , , , | Comments (1)
Feb 7, 2009

Ubiquity search for Bloggy.se

For people who have installed Ubiquity from Mozilla Labs, here’s a user script that enables you to quickly search for words in Bloggy:

makeSearchCommand({
  name: "Bloggy",
  url: "http://bloggy.se/search/{QUERY}",
  icon: "http://bloggy.se/favicon.ico",
  description: "Searches Bloggy for...",
  preview: function(pblock, directObject) {
    var searchTerm = directObject.text;
    var pTemplate = "Searches Bloggy.se for ${query}";
    var pData = {query: searchTerm};
    pblock.innerHTML = CmdUtils.renderTemplate(pTemplate, pData);
  }
});

I’ve added Ubiquity meta information to this page so that you should see a Firefox bar across the top of the page asking you whether or not to install/subscribe to this script.

By Jonas Nockert | Posted in English | Tagged , , , , | Comments (0)
Oct 25, 2008

Search words in Wordnik from Ubiquity

For people who have installed Ubiquity from Mozilla Labs, here’s a user script that enables you to quickly search for words in Wordnik:

makeSearchCommand({
  name: "Wordnik",
  url: "http://wordnik.com/{QUERY}",
  icon: "http://wordnik.com/media/img/wordnik.ico",
  description: "Searches Wordnik for your words.",
  preview: function(pblock, directObject) {
    var searchTerm = directObject.text;
    var pTemplate = "Searches Wordnik for <b>${query}</b>";
    var pData = {query: searchTerm};
    pblock.innerHTML = CmdUtils.renderTemplate(pTemplate, pData);
  }
});

I’ve added Ubiquity meta information to this page so that you should see a Firefox bar across the top of the page asking you whether or not to install/subscribe to this script.

By Jonas Nockert | Posted in English | Tagged , , , , | Comments (0)
Aug 31, 2008

Ubiquity code for Jaiku search through Jaikungfu

For the Jaiku users who have installed Ubiquity from Mozilla Labs, here’s a user script that enables you to search Jaiku through Jaikungfu (please let me know if you have a suggestion for something shorter and easier to type!)

makeSearchCommand({
  name: "jaikungfu",
  url: "http://jaiku.lemonad.org/search?q={QUERY}",
  icon: "http://jaiku.lemonad.org/favicon.ico",
  description: "Jaikungfu search Jaiku.",
  preview: function(pBlock, directObj) {
    if (directObj.text)
      pBlock.innerHtml = "Searches " +
      "<a href=\"http://jaiku.com/\">Jaiku</a> for " +
      directObj.text +
      " (<a href=\"http://jaiku.lemonad.org/\">jaikungfu</a>)";
    else
      pBlock.innerHTML = "Searches " +
      "<a href=\"http://jaiku.com/\">Jaiku</a> "+
      "for the given words " +
      "(<a href=\"http://jaiku.lemonad.org/\">jaikungfu</a>)";
  }
});

Thanks to Håkan Kjellerstrand for teaching me the basics!

Update 2008-08-31: I’ve added Ubiquity meta information to this page so that you should see a Firefox bar across the top of the page asking you whether or not to install/subscribe to this script.

By Jonas Nockert | Posted in English | Tagged , , , , , | Comments (3)
Jul 19, 2008

Going backpacking in the north of Sweden

Hello! It’s been a while.

Karin and I are going backpacking in the north of Sweden. The tentative itinerary is to meet Jonathan and Jessie in Kiruna on the 23rd. They’ll arrive at the airport coming from the US via Stockholm. On the morning of the 24th we’ll start hiking from Abisko and follow Kungsleden for a couple of days.

When we reach Sälkasstugorna we’ll head off on the “unmarked” trails up towards Nallostugan. Then follow the “unmarked” trails down to Vistasstugan and up again over the pass at Mårmastugan and back up towards Abisko. We’ll see how it goes ;)

Now, we’ve spent tons of nights in tents while biking but we’re relatively unexperienced hikers so the last couple of weeks we’ve been planning and purchasing stuff to bring. We thought we had most of it but, alas, the checkbook says no, you really didn’t.

Here’s what it boiled down to:

Backpacking

Backpack fodder

Wearing:

Items Weight (g)
Hanwag Tatra GTX boots 1700
Norrøna Nansen pants 380
Endura belt 22
Outdoor Research hat 74
Patagonia Capilene 2 T-shirt 112
Patagonia Wool 3 longsleeve shirt 248
Smartwool Hiking Medium Crew socks 80
Smartwool Hiking Liners 42
Smartwool Underwear 90


Carrying:

Items Weight (g)
Arcteryx Bora 65 (72L) backpack 3100
Hilleberg Nammatj 2GT tent (w/o poles and pegs) 2500
Western Mountaineering Ultralite sleeping bag (incl. bag) 888
Thermarest Prolite 4 (incl. bag) 728
New Balance 920 shoes 708
Norrøna Falketind GTX Paclite jacket 384
Norrøna Falketind GTX Paclite pants 306
Patagonia R1 Flash Pullover 282
Norrøna /29 Fleece Hood 286
Smartwool Midweight Bottoms 196
Smartwool Trekking Heavy Crew socks 98
Smartwool Hiking Liners (2 pairs) 84
Smartwool Underwear 90
Craft Underwear 72
Houdini Wrist Gaiters 26
Cannondale Headwear 32
Manzella MAX-10D gloves 48
Manzella liners 32
SealSkinz gloves 80
Arcteryx Pack Cover (incl. stuffsack) 192
Sea to Summit Drysack ultra-sil 8L 32
Sea to Summit Mosquito Head Net (incl. stuffsack) 28
Wettex cloth 7″x7″ 6
iPood Pocket Trovel 108
Inova Microlight l.e.d. lamp (red beam) 10
Thermarest Stuff Sack Pillow (small) 50
Seat Pad 44
Therm-a-Rest PackTowl (small) 42
Optimus Nova Stove 320
Optimus Fuel Bottle (incl. bag) 382
MSR Pot Holder 47
MSR Blacklite Pot 2L 186
MSR Blacklite lid 96
MSR Blacklite bag 32
Snowpeak Ti Spork 16
Dish scraper 18
Matches 8
MSR PackTowl 10
Cup 56
Bowl 16
Camelbak 1L 190
Toiletries (soap, deodorant, anti-mosquito balm, etc.) 294
Whistle 8
Trash bags (3) 36
Lazy Lizard Merlot Tetra 258
Oatmeal breakfasts, organic (8 homemade w/ quinoa, oats, flax, fruit, etc.) 978
Lunches (8 various soups) 194
Lunches (9 various fruit soups) 300
Saltå Kvarn Cous Cous 188
Dinners (8 homemade and freeze-dried) 1066
Snacks (nuts and fruits) 480
Snacks (organic trail bars) 446
Bananas, freeze dried, organic 102
Apples, dried 84
Coffee, freeze dried, organic (16 mugs) 44
Chocolate powder, organic (16 mugs) 132
Tea bags, organic (10) 26
Carrots, dried, organic 42
Piri Piri, dried, organic 4
Angostura Rum 362
Saltå Kvarn Sesame Seed Cookies, organic 88
Fjällkarta (BD6 Abisko, Kebnekajse, Narvik) 98
Nokia N82 116
Valuables (money, car keys, notepad, credit card, ID) 92
Canon 20D camera + 50mm 1.8 lens (incl. drybag) 1090
Pair of kittens worth it
Total 18357

Karin’s packlist

Backpacking

Good for one week of backpacking? Missing: Clothes for wearing, towel, peanut butter, soft bread, money and possibly a book.

Click the above to see the Flickr notes on what Karin is bringing.

Say hello if you meet us! Feel free to help us carry our too heavy backpacks ;)

By Jonas Nockert | Posted in English | Tagged , , , , , | Comments (3)
Jul 13, 2007

Jaikungfu: A firefox extension for Jaiku

Some of the information herein has not been updated for a while. Go to Jaikungfu on Google Code for the latest version!

JaikuGreasemonkey scripts are great. However, for users and developers alike, they do pose one problem; that of managing updates and bug fixes. There’s no automatic infrastructure set up for it and users might not notice that there are newer versions out—especially if they’re happy with the functionality of the current version. Developers can’t notify these users either since they don’t know who they are.

So to get around that limitation, over the last week or so, I’ve slowly (and painstakingly) made my own Firefox extension combining the two Jaiku Greasemonkey scripts I had previously made (AutoLink and More Context for Comments) with some additional features.

Jaiku

without Jaikungfu

Jaiku

with Jaikungfu

Jaiku

with Jaikungfu (blue marks extended icon set, version 0.1.3)

Jaiku

Integrated search form in sidebar (version 0.1.5)

Jaiku

Integrated channel search form in Jaiku channel and explore sidebar (version 0.1.6)

Jaiku

Inline reading of comments. Click the read inline link and and comments for the presence update are downloaded via ajax and displayed underneath (version 0.1.7)

Jaiku

List of commenters displayed underneath comment edit box. Click to insert @usernames (version 0.1.9)

In order to be able to submit it for Mozilla approval, I need people to beta test it first so I would really appreciate if you would register and download Jaikungfu from my sandbox at addons.mozilla.org. The sandbox is an area for advanced users to test add-ons before they are reviewed for general use. In order to access the sandbox, after registering, you must enable it in your account settings: click the link in the upper right corner that says My Account and check the box that says Show sandbox?. Then click save.. If you’d like, you can read more about it here.

Good news, the extension is out of the mozilla extension sandbox and can now be downloaded without registering—thanks everyone! :)
Kung-Pow! Download Jaikungfu 0.1.5 from addons.mozilla.org (or if you prefer the absolute latest version, development build 0.2 is available directly from my site. Download and open with FireFox/Flock).
Oh, and please remember to remove my previous Greasemonkey scripts before installing Jaikungfu as they probably don’t play well together :)

If you find a bug or have suggestions, don’t hesitate to email me!

  • 0.1.3 extends the icon set shown on the Jaiku site.
  • 0.1.4 removed some files that was no longer needed.
  • 0.1.5 is the latest public version (approved on August 2) and adds a search form to most pages (the search functionality can be accessed without jaikungfu at jaiku.lemonad.org/search/).
  • 0.1.6 is the latest beta-version and adds channel search through Rick Measham’s JaikuFans channel search.
  • 0.1.7 adds inline reading of comments.
  • 0.1.8 adds a list of commenters under the comment box for quick insertion of @username’s.
  • 0.1.9 improves upon the list of commenters under the comment box by adding user images. It also fixes a rear display formatting problem with inline comments.
  • 0.1.10 just includes some small tweaks to the above functionality.
  • 0.1.11 adds a “top” link below comments to quickly return to the top (per request on Jaiku).
  • 0.1.12 integrates search and channel search into one form with two submit buttons.
  • 0.1.13 includes a number of changes and additions with the main ones being that it now works in Firefox 3, clickable inline comment avatars, and links for increasing size of profile avatars.
  • 0.1.14 primarily fixes a very annoying problem for users not using adblock (Thanks again Rick Measham for all the help with finding and solving this! :).
  • 0.2 is the latest alpha-version and fixes a minor problem for users not using adblock. I really hope this will become the public version so I rev’ed it to 0.2 :)
By Jonas Nockert | Posted in English | Tagged , , , , | Comments (6)