This also means that I will be available for hiring starting on October 1. If you are looking for a great GNOME hacker and have something exciting to offer [1]: I’m willing to talk and I will be at GUADEC next week. You can find my CV here.

[1] Note that this should not strictly be a GNOME hacking job: I’m interested if the job poses a good technical challenge and occasionally gives me the chance to fly around and meet interesting people. Bonus points if it allows me to work on GNOME-related technologies (desktop or mobile).

Leuven at night.

I will also be doing a short lightning talk about the state/future of F-Spot at GUADEC. Five minutes, so it’ll be extremely fast, but I’m around all week to discuss it in greater detail. Hope to see you all there!

• There is no apparent correlation whatsoever between size and price. You can pay EUR 450 for 20 squared meters, but you can also find the same for EUR 200. At the same moment, you can find stuff as large as 100 squared meters for EUR 700
• The photography on real estate websites is often extremely horrible. Is it that realtors have no taste, or is this intentional concealing of the truth through horror?
• Why is it that it’s not the norm to have a floor plan available? I’ve spent quite some time trying to puzzle together photos to figure out the layout of some places, but even then, why not make it easier for future renters?

I can readily see an opportunity for a good informative real estate website, focused on the potential rentors. Where are the designers?

Note: If you’re not from the Leuven, Belgium area, you might want to skip the second half of this post.
A call for help
So far the search has not given us a suitable result. Therefore I turn to the lazyweb! I would really appreciate tips for (E-mail):

• A nice two-person apartment,
• Totalling at around EUR 700 rental per month (ideally costs included),
• If possible with two bedrooms, such that we can turn one of those into a small office,
• Available from August 1,
• Obviously with all the standard requirements: the larger, lighter, …. the better (no suprises here),
• Preferably located in this area:

South-East + Center

I’m still thinking on how to reward good tips, but I’m fairly certain that the joy of finding a new place will bring me into a sufficiently happy and creative state to come up with something :-).

Into the wild!
Went for a hike through nature last weekend. The day started out quite foggy, but when it all cleared up, there was a bright sun in the sky. Am rapidly turning into a nature hippie, loving it.

Grab your shoes and head out, the world is too pretty to sit inside!

Panorama – Slightly larger size (original is 25450×2604)

Before

After, awesome!

Is this too much, do I need to go into rehab? Or is the average much higher? How much computers does the average IT-er have (and why do you have them)?

Discuss in the comments!

The master thesis: 85 pages of fun

What’s next? After much indecision as to whether I’d like to find a job in the open-source (GNOME) world or do something else, I’ve accepted a PhD offer at the Distrinet Research Group of K.U.Leuven. GNOME hacking will stay a spare-time activity for now, though I might change that decision in a few years. Exciting times ahead!

Gran Canaria Desktop Summit
Tomorrow I’ll be flying out to the Gran Canaria Desktop Summit. I’ll be spending 11 days in Gran Canaria. I will be arriving in the late afternoon, so that shouldn’t stop me from dropping by at the Canonical hosted opening party. Really looking forward to another GUADEC, Istanbul 2008 was really great. Many thanks to the GNOME Foundation for sponsoring part of this trip, without them, this would not have been possible.

Gran Canaria Desktop Summit (GUADEC)

I won’t be giving a talk, but if anyone wants to have a chat about F-Spot (or any other subject), come and find me!

Therefore I’m offering it up for sale. If you are a free-software hacker who owns a Dell Mini 12 and you want a 6-cell battery: I’m offering mine, brand new and unused (I can’t anyway), for the bargain price of around 80 euro. These batteries usually sell for around 120 euro / 150 USD, so you’re getting about a third off (aint’t that nice?). With this purchase, you’ll also be sponsoring F/OSS development of a poor hacker, consider that the additional benefit.

The only problem will be how to get it: shipping these things costs quite a bundle, so unless there’s some way of hand-delivery, it probably won’t save you that much. I live in Belgium and I will be at the Gran Canaria Desktop Summit next week. If you are interested, contact me before Friday and I’ll bring it along.

May 13: Preparing Slides

Went to the awesome Renault World Series yesterday in Spa-Francorchamps, the sound these machines make is incredible.