The noose is tightening

by Sander Tams 30. July 2009 19:46

Goodmorning everyone.
It's 19.47 PM and I'm just waking up, waiting for some dinner to quicken me up.

Lately I've been getting pictures from some contacts through rotary I have on facebook. Pictures taken by some of the rotary students who are already in their host country now, and I'm finally starting to feel a little more excitement about going to Taiwan.

For me there's still 20 days to take off from Denmark, and actually 21 days untill I'm in Taiwan, so it's still a little distant to me, and I haven't been thinking too much about it for that reason. It's kind of like I haven't realised that I'm going to spend a year of my life on the other side of the globe, and even though I know, I guess it's just too alien to me to comprehend it just yet.

Although, because of the pictures coming in from the other guys and gals and their new host families in New Zealand and Australia plus more, I have been thinking a lot about how it must feel to suddently live in a completely unknown familys home, and even more, going to become a part of that family, and I am really excited. Especially now that I am going to Taiwan where people don't speak english too good and are accustomed to completely different culture and customs. Heck, I might even end up in a family that don't speak english later in the year. But I'm not really scared about anything right now, actually. Well, except for forgetting something or not getting my visa in time, although I doubt anything like that is going to happen.
I'm just looking very much forward to see how it feels to get my everyday life turned completely upside down.

I am not ready though. Still need to get a lot of things done before I go there. Now, I'm looking forward to some reporting-backs from the Japan team who are going to take off in a few days. Maybe that can get me in a more this-is-for-real-ish mood. :)

 

Strange rock formations around the northern tip of Taiwan
Strange rock formations around the northern tip of Taiwan

Tags: , , , , , , ,

Travel | Taiwan

Google Wave

by Sander Tams 24. July 2009 01:06

It is clear to anyone who knows what Google Wave is, that there has already been written numerous of blogs about it.

However, that is not going to stop me from doing it too. I love originality, but Google Wave is just too awesome. People have to know about it ASAP! :D

Oh oh oh! Don't leave the blog post already, if you think some of what I write sounds nerdy, Google Wave is going to be a powerfull and very userfriendly tool when it is done - For everyone to use, very likely instead of using E-mails and Instant Messenger Application.
Of course: As of right now when Google Wave is still a project, you got to be a little tuff on internets to understand most of the information you can find on this subject, but you should really give it a try because at least it seems to me as a very exciting thing, Google Wave.

So yeah: Two days ago I bumped into some webpage i don't remember, which wrote about Google Wave. I didn't really read the article (it was probably another Blog), no I searched on google for Google Wave and came to this site: http://wave.google.com/. Logically, Google is the creators of this, and since they own YouTube, they just posted a 1 hour 20min "HD" video with their presentation of the upcoming open protocol.

I have had my doubts about google, really.
They are kindof cool because the things they make are very usefull and usually free to use. They especially help webmaster like me alot with all their search engine stuff, APIs, gadgets and more.
But they are, after all, a giant commercial corporation. And giant commercial corporations usually can't be trusted too much, especially when they are about to buy up so much of the internet. The list of (rather popular) websites and companies Google own is quite long.

But over these few days where I have been watching the presentation of their under-development-project Google Wave, I've been really amased about Google.

 

Thing is: Google Wave is open source. And furthermore, it is also open protocol.
Because what Google is trying to do, is reinvent e-mail in a form that can support: Live Updates (through AJAX), Instant Messaging, Live Webpage Integration, Collaborative Document Editing, Plugins of all kinds like an Advanced Spellchecke, Google has also made in the process and then of course a lot of APIs.
The Wave which is the core feature of Google Wave is pretty extensive: It might be a little hard to figure out what some of the things I wrote in the above short resume looks and works like i reality, so I'm just going to urge you: See the YouTube video on their webpage please. It is awesome (and there are Danish people talking english pretty good in it aswell.)

And just to clarify a bit: Open Source means that all the code in the project is going to be publicly available for everyone to edit and use on their own websites: Actually it sounds like Google is going to give away some packages (completely free of charge), which has all the functionality, Google built into it so far, for anyone to just snatch and use on their own website if they like.
Another thing is: It is also open protocol: This means that Google will let anyone program their own application from scratch, which works somewhat similar to Google Wave, and can even exchange Waves with other Wave enables products. (Just like you can get a tonne of different e-mail server software, yet they can all send e-mails to each other. It doesn't have to be the same server software for users to be able to e-mail each other.) Imagine the possibilities. :)

Sounds wicked, doesn't it?

I don't know if this is going to be the future facebook/twitter/blog/e-mail/document-editing/online-conferencing/cooperative-project-tracking/and-everthing-ing protocol, but it could very well become a great milestone in the life of the internet. At least: I hope it is going to be really widespread.
Thank you Google. I'll be excitedly awaiting the launch of the finished version.

BTW: My blog is at http://sander.zunavi.dk/, should you be looking at this blog post from somewhere else, like facebook or feedburner.

Tags: , , , , , , ,

Programming

Så kom Taiwan lige pludseligt lidt tættere på.

by Sander Tams 7. July 2009 00:15

Sådan da.
Eller NOT. Mabe.

Der er lang tid til, at jeg rejser mod Taiwan. Ja, det bliver først den 20 august, og jeg mangler sådan set stadigvæk at få visa, så jeg føler egentlig ikke, at Taiwan er så tæt på endnu.

I weekenden, 3-5 juli, var jeg i Randers og møde en masse spændene jævnaldrende plus/minus 50 år. Det var enormt hyggeligt og da også lidt berigende, sådan rent socialt. For det meste.
Jeg har udvidet mit netværk betydeligt, og på facebook er der da også meldt en del venner ind, også af dem fra andre lande, som skal til Taiwan snart, selvom de så ikke lige kommer pga. mødet i Randers, (dem fra andre lande.)

Omkring den informative del af briefingen, alle talerne, kan jeg desværre sige, at jeg ikke fik meget mere ud af det, end jeg allerede vidste. Og så gjorde man jo meget ud af, at lære os om, hvordan man holder gode taler - suppleret med rigeligt af eksempler på alt det, man skal undgå at gøre, for at lave en god og spændene tale. Det var nok ikke helt optimalt, men det var jo obligatorisk at komme der, hvis man ville sendes afsted, og så var det vel ok nok at få det hele terpet lidt igennem, så man har bedre styr på det.

Og så var der jo stadigvæk guldkorn at hente, men mest fra de to tidligere udvekslingsstudenter, som var instruktører for min gruppe, og præsterede at gøre os - (dem, der smutter en tur til Taiwan -) lidt mere forberedte på hvad, der nu kunne ske i udlandet, og så ellers underholde i lang tid med gode fortællinger, trods ingen af de to var fra hverken Japan eller Taiwan. Og så var orienteringsløb med udvekslingsstudenter som smider alt tøj foruden underbukser, drenge som piger, jo heller ikke helt kedeligt.

Jeg kan dog ikke fortie min dårlige eftersmag af jantelovs-lejrskole, som jeg alligevel måtte gå fra briefingen med. Der var nemlig noget, som bestemt ikke var som man kunne ønske sig, og det skal de gamle rotarianere også høre om snart, så de kan undgå at gøre næste afrejsebriefing til den samme socialpsykologiske fiasko som denne: For desværre var det ikke alle instruktører (de tidligere udvekslingsstudenter, som hjalp til med aktiviteterne på mødet,) ikke for modne alle sammen. Mødet gik simpelthen op i jantelov og chikaneri natten før dets afslutning, og det er da for uprofessionelt, at forbyde alle de kommende outbounds i drikkeri og rygning, for samtidigt at lade de tidligere udvekslingsstudenter, som et eller andet sted gerne skulle have være en form for forbilleder, rende rundt og ryge og drikke alt det de ville, samtidigt med at de så kunne lære os allesammen ekstra meget jantelov. Det duer altså bare ikke som forberedelse til små mennesker, der skal ud og gøre verden til et bedre sted - specielt når de fleste af dem stadigvæk er helt små børn fra folkeskolen.

Nå men nok mundgylde fra min side. Der er langt mere på vej til omtalte rotarianere, så de forhåbentligt bliver overtalt til at give instruktørerne en ordentlig skideballe og forbyde dem i at gøre alle de ueksemplariske ting såvel som festeri langt ud på natten til næste år, når det nu er idéen, at de da kommende udvekslingsstudenter jo gerne skulle være mere i centrum til næste år.

Store smil (der måske ser lidt skæve ud, men menes helt venskabelige) til alle de spændene og flinke nyligt færdige folkeskoleelever såvel som efterskolere og gymnasieelever, der tager et pauseår, og ekstra tommelfinger op til dem, der deler min mening om nick og jay og andre falske lyddrenge. (I øvrigt dobbelt op til alle dem, der tør at bo i Japan og Taiwan.)

PS. Folk skal endeligt sige til, hvis de kunne tænke sig en blog at skrive i om deres tur.
Til dem, der tager til Taiwan: *High Five* !

Tags: , , , , , ,

Dagligdag | Travel | Taiwan

Ads

Boonbot

Please note that I now do most of my blogging on Boonbot.com. There, you can also find many photos that I take. Try and have a look at my post about Taipei Game Show 2010 or my posts about Computex. My little article on a few of my favourite Taiwanese Foods has also gotten quite popular.

E-mail subscription

Need some extra e-mails? Put in your adress here and feedburner will send you some free ones whenever I blog.

Enter your email address:

Delivered by FeedBurner

About Me

My name is Sander Tams.
I am an exchange student from Denmark in Taipei, Taiwan.
I'm mainly focusing this blog on how it is to try and live a life as the locals here as a foreigner, commenting on the differences in culture and whatever I find amusing or interesting.
Have fun with the info about my life here. 

 Me

Should you decide to leave a comment when you drop by, please enter only your own name and personal website or blog, should you have such. Any comments linking to a non-personal website such as a commercial one will be deleted unless related to the article in a usefull way.

Add to Technorati Favorites

RecentPosts

RecentComments

Comment RSS

Privacy

This website participates in the Google Adsense Programme. This means that third-party advertisers participating in the Google Adwords Programme can place cookies in your browser and utilize web beacons to analyse and optimise advertisement campaign efficiency. If you will not allow this, please leave this site at once and delete eventual cookies already downloaded by your browser.