Der Bioinformatiker

Recently I succumbed to my gadget-addiction and got a iPod touch. I could restrain myself from buying an iPhone thanks to the ridiculous tariffs here.

Anyway, life was great and I was happy. I even bought the 20$ addon pack with the improved applications and the multipage home screen.

Then I read lots about the jailbreaking and that it was so easy to get good third party apps on my device, so I gave it a try.

First, I tried the Ziphone unlock, because “It’s so easy a caveman could do it!”. Well, a stone age cave man certainly would know what to do with the iBrick I had after trying this program. I, however, restored itto non-jailbroken pristine condition after approximately 10 minutes of cursing and freaking out.

An unfortunate combination of reinstalling my computer from scratch without using time machine and resetting the iTouch also led to the situation where I thought I had lost the 20$ app pack for good. Fortunately, Apple support was kind enough to allow me to download it again…

Anyway, after this desaster I tried the other simple jailbreak: PwnageTool. This works by running the jailbreak not on the device itself, but by modifying the firmware:

1. Get the original firmware (direct links via TUAW)
2. Prepare the device to accept the modified firmware (single click “iPwner” in the PwnageTool)
3. Let the PwnageTool modify the firmware (you can even set some custom options for the iPhone) and get a coffee, this may take some time
4. Load the modified firmware onto the device (option click restore to get the selection dialog)
5. Done. Enjoy the glory of Installer.app and try to create something like this: iPhone ad song

So, as I’m driving around with my car, I notice the “needs service” lamp coming on one or two weeks ago. Great, I think, just in time for the tire change!

So I mail my car dealer to get an appointment and also to arrange a replacement car, if the service takes longer than one hour. The answer: “No, a service is not necessary”.

I’m happy (saved some money) and drive to the car dealer today to get my tires changed. I ask again about the service, because I noticed that the oil is rather low, so I plan to ask them to top it up while the car is there. First, they did not have the sheet prepared for my tire change (must have forgotten it), and then the lady calls the chief of repairs to answer my questions. He told me that the service lamp is right and that I need a service – not just any old service, but a rather important one, even with The Changing Of The Spark Plugs and other important rituals!

Of course, they have no replacement car ready. Reception lady runs around for 10 minutes and finally gets a car for me. I will see how much I’ll have to pay for that and for the service.

So now I’m rather grumpy – and at work 1 hour earlier than planned.

Anyone knows a good VW (veee-dub!) shop in Linz? I need an alternative if they screw up one more time.

I’m getting married.

The ring-swapping and family-name-changing will take place on June 7th – I hope it will be a nice event.

Some of my friends announced the demand for a bachelors party thing – I’m not sure if I’m willing to submit to that Well, we will see.

There will be, of course, photos online later for those who could not make it to the ceremony.

…besides diving and computers. Well, the first one is slightly in connection with computers: Photography. Some time ago, I awarded myself with a Nikon D80 and trying out some things.

I also got a tripod, because I really like taking long-exposure shots. I also experimented around a bit with HDR Photography but I have to practice a bit more before I get really good results. Maybe I’ll post some pictures again. Visit my Flickr page in the meantime!

So now the work-related news:

I currently work at the R&D Department of my Alma Mater, the University of Applied Sciences in Hagenberg, Austria. The project I’m workting on is not bioinformatics-related but very interesting. I got to work a lot with Python and wxPython as well as some insight into hardware development. Some possibly interesting ideas for bioinformatics may come out of this later; I have to find someone who would need it and finance it, however.

The project is planned to be finished by October, we will see what I will work on from then.

I also started working in the education part of the university. Last year, I was project coach, and this year I changed to being tutor for the Linux-For-Beginners course for bioinformatics and one half of the software engineers. Unfortunately, I may only work for 4 hours per week on education besides the research, so the other half of SE has to be taken over by someone else.

I find it very interesting to work with students. I hope there will be more opportunities in the future for that!

So, what’s new with my diving?

Elke and I joined a diving club in Linz (Police Diving Club) to have some reliable company (and get cheaper air). I’m also thinking about continuing my courses (I’d have to change the system from PADI to CMAS, however – there are some annoying exams to qualify for that).

Our “new friends” from the club are all-year-divers, so I got us some nice dry-suits from eBay so we went diving regularely throughout the winter. The water is incredibly clear – and there are no other annoying divers around.

We also had another diving holiday in Egypt, again in Sharm el-Sheik; it was great there, we had some fantastic guides and so we saw around 14 hammerhead sharks on one dive, and lots of turtles.

Well, it’s been a long time since I wrote something here. So I’ll fix up anything that’s broken, and write a recap of what has happened in my life since the last posts.

And then, hopefully, I’ll blog more often. Somehow I feel I got something to say again. But maybe that’s because of twitter.