Category Archives: Life and stuff …

Harald Baumgarter @ Herz von Österreich

Christian M. Schmid,

February 2, 2014,

About two years ago I blogged about setting up the website of Austrian singer Harald Baumgartner. In an attempt to make his work more well known to the public he’s now part of a reality television-music competition series called “Herz von Österreich” (“Heart of Austria”). It’s only airing in Austria, so you might not have heard of it, it’s similar to the Idols TV series. – As I don’t watch television, I didn’t know about it either until he called me last week.

The show in which he’s going to appear is going to air this week on Friday and so some updates to his website became inevitable. I guess that’s the kind of stuff you’re supposed to do on an idle Sunday afternoon. Helping an old friend.

See for yourself http://www.haraldbaumgartner.com – and please don’t forget to vote for him on Friday.

Left4Dead2

Christian M. Schmid,

February 1, 2014,

Friends, Linux, University

Some time during the last year I got myself a steam account. Originally, I just wanted to see where Linux gaming was. My verdict: The choices are limited and most games are only available for Windows. But those that are available on Linux (Half Life 2, Portal, Left4Dead, …) are just as playable on Linux as on Windows.

At any rate, during the holiday season Steam gave away Left4Dead2 for free. That’s why I and most of my steam friends at uni have it and why we meet online to play it from time to time, such as today. Guilty as charged, there’s a little video game addict in me ;)

After all: you have to be prepared for the ultimate zombie apocalypse. Apart from that it’s probably a good idea to make sure you and your colleagues at work (the place where you are most likely going to be when it’s going to happen) are working like a well-oiled zombie defence machine.

Actually that justification sucks …

My Job #2

Christian M. Schmid,

January 31, 2014,

Engineering, University

In my last post I claimed that part of my research is paid for by Infineon, the rest of the money is actually coming from public funding. That is why we have to provide an annual report about our activities once a year. Today I spent most of my time preparing the 2013 report.

The afternoon mostly went into updating my CV and preparing job application material. This week’s discussions made me understand that I should at least be able to hand in something at any given time. – You gotta be prepared ;)

Looking for a Job

Christian M. Schmid,

January 29, 2014,

Engineering, Infineon, University

Ok, I’ll finally talk about my job. I am a PhD student and I am employed by the Johannes Kepler University Linz. However I am not involved in the teaching side of university apart from supervising Bachelor and Master Theses. I am a research assistant, I don’t TA and my research is (mostly) paid for by a company called Infineon.

To be a little bit more specific: I am doing research in the field of mm-wave radar systems. I’ve had quite a good time as PhD student. Lots of interesting conferences, research directions, research questions + great researchers around me. However (hopefully) I am going to graduate soon. Which brings me to the title of this post: I am going to be looking for a new job soon (May/June)!

I can’t help it, I have to make this yet another pleading for getting an engineering degree. One of the reasons: If you were flexible regarding the exact location, getting a job as an engineer has never been a problem during the last 20 years. To give you an example: As of today I haven’t applied for a single job, but I have received 6 job offers during the last year.

Today I was invited to yet another “job interview” at Infineon. – If you believe what some people say about a major Japanese customer awarding Infineon with a design win regarding automotive radar, you could image that they’d have a few of job openings in that field, such as

Actually it was less of an interview, because they know about my background. At any rate it was an interesting discussion and they are definitely on the list of addresses when I am going to start sending out job applications in April.

If you are a talented engineer, are looking for a job, would like to shape tomorrow’s driver-assistance system or maybe even self-driving transportation systems (aka cars), and are willing to move to a nice and dynamic city, I do highly recommend taking a look at the job offers above. Please apply even if you don’t think you’re the perfect fit!

Another Round Of Pro Scientia

Christian M. Schmid,

January 28, 2014,

Life is Good, Music

I guess I keep repeating myself. But the truth is if you blog every day for 30 days and if you do not start repeating yourself, something’s probably wrong.

Apart from my day job (which is more than a day job, but which I can’t or don’t want to talk about that much) I did indulge myself in the world of PRO SCIENTIA again. I left work early to listen to the organ concert of Christiane Hornbachner. She’s one of the 3 “PRO SCIENTIA student representatives” and a gifted, professional organ and piano player.

I think the last time I’ve listened to an organ concert was 5 years ago, and to be frank it always amazes me what kind of music these people (read “the organists”) are able to get out of the per se inaccurate and dynamically disabled instruments. – Sorry, please don’t kill me for that statement.

Later that night we had another PRO SCIENTIA presentation. This time from a member who has an engineering PhD and went on to become an engineering manager. The topic: Product Development. We spent the whole evening discussing graphs like this one

Running

Christian M. Schmid,

January 27, 2014,

Life is Good, Sports

Usually I swim during the winter months and run during the summer months. I’ve truly neglected this habit since December, but I’ve picked it up again a week ago. And as we never really had winter this year in Austria (well it’s here now), I decided to start running again. Here’s the workout I tracked:

It was slower than usual a) because I am out of shape and b) because it was more like running on ice. I was even passed over by a cross-country skier on the running track!

What I find funny is that while it is still the same track that I’ve been using for years now, it does not get boring. I even thought about marking some spots along that track about things that have happened to me in the last couple of years. But as I am not much into nostalgia (that’s probably for later) I ditched that thought again.

Parents

Christian M. Schmid,

January 26, 2014,

Friends, Life is Good

Sunday’s are for sleeping, laundry and for connecting with people you haven’t seen in a while. I realized I hadn’t seen my parents since the first week of the new year. So it was good dropping by at my parent’s house for some coffee.

I would not want to move in again with them if you know what I mean, but they are always awesome hosts and great company for the duration of a nice Sunday afternoon coffee. Although it means some extra work for my mum, I guess she also appreciates the occasional visits.

This reminds me of a line from Mary Schmich’s graduation speech:

Get to know your parents. You never know when they’ll be gone for good. Be nice to your siblings. They’re your best link to your past and the people most likely to stick with you in the future.

I guess I should give my sister a call tomorrow ;)

General Assembly

Christian M. Schmid,

January 25, 2014,

Friends, Life is Good, Music

Some suggestions what you can do to live up to the stereotypes about Upper Austria/Bavaria:

Play a brass instrument
Be a member of a local wind band
Go to church
Go to a Gasthaus (tavern, inn) after you’ve been to church

I guess I can say I payed my dues today. 1/2 are things that I am doing for years and 3/4 were part of today’s general assembly of the Stadtkapelle Laakirchen (a local wind band), which I took part in. During the 3 hours event we were informed by the ExCom of the registered association about the past year, future plans, the financial situation, …

Lots of talking, lots of fun, lots of beer (not for me actually as I was the designated driver), lots of photos from past events, lots of awards (especially for members of age 60+) and a great evening for all of us.

Choices, Perfectionism and Photoshopping

Christian M. Schmid,

January 24, 2014,

Music, Reflection

Today I stumbled across yet another video

Many people on youtube gave it a like. I disliked it and some people asked why.

To begin with, I’d like to make one thing clear: The video is georgeous. The song is beautiful, the lyrics are convincing, the setup of people making music in a backyard is awesome. It really has everything that justifies it to be called “beautiful”.

What I don’t like about the video is that it is trying to sell the image that this actually was the setup that they used to record the whole thing. You can see mics all over the place and they left some imperfections in the video that probably are supposed to make you think that this was the original way it was recorded. E.g., how the drum pickup at around 1:55 is not perfect, or the imperfect intonation of the brass instruments, which for instance can be heard at around 3:30.

I do still doubt that it was recorded in that backyard, as they try to lead you to believe. There is musical photoshopping going on. If not entirely, at least at quite a few points. Like at 1:32 (“And I”) when you hear Emily sing background vocals while her mouth is not moving.

Again you can still say that the video is beautiful, there is no argument about that. – But so are the photos of those superficial models on the covers of the magazines at your local newspaper kiosk. I would rather prefer it to be a little bit more authentic with less photoshopping. Even if that meant it would turn out to be less perfect.

Keeping on Top of Mail

Christian M. Schmid,

January 23, 2014,

IEEE, Online

I did some statistics a while ago. Today I can give you an updated version. My term as IEEE Region 8 Student Representative lasts for 388 days now and on average I have received about 18 e-mails per day and I have sent out about 3.5 e-mails per day. – My work and private e-mails go through different accounts, so that is just the IEEE stuff.

The way I try to deal with my mail is simple. – Nothing is allowed to stay in my e-mail Inbox, unless it is unfinished buissness. If I receive some invitiation to some conference that I don’t care about -> it goes into my Ads folder. If I receive some ads -> again Ads folder.

Other mail goes into project related folders unless it requires some action that I am for some reason not willing to put on my todo list. In that sense my Inbox is also a kind of todo list, which should be as empty as possible. From time to time I fall a little behind, so it was time to do some serious housekeeping today.