Hello Kobo!

I was in the UK for 3 weeks recently, and I “made the mistake” of walking into

I was in the UK for 3 weeks recently, and I “made the mistake” of walking into a WHSmith bookstore. I still haven’t built up the necessary self-control to walk into a bookstore and walk out without buying a book. In this instance though, I actually did walk out without buying a book. Instead, I bought a KoboTouch. I really had no intention of buying one when I walked into the store, I was only going to look at it. Eventually, though, a combination of a really friendly sales person, reasonable pricing, and common sense won out; and I walked out with the KoboTouch, a case, and a light. Common sense, because I’ve almost run out of space for physical books. It’s been a little over 3 weeks since I’ve bought the Kobo and I’ve read for a total of about 60 hours and finished 9 books. I think I might have a problem 😛

Kobo Touch

I downloaded a few books from Project Gutenburg, mostly classics, that I wanted to re-read. I hate to admit it, but I ended up pirating a few books too because, some of the books were simply priced too high . I could buy it from Amazon for a cheaper price, but they would be DRM’d. While music is most available to be bought DRM-free, ebooks aren’t there yet. How I wish I could I could compare prices on multiple providers and buy from the one that has the cheapest. I think I can buy books from any provider that sells epubs with Adobe DRM, but I’m yet to risk it. I’m sure over the next few months, I’ll buy at least one book each month. Definitely more often than I used to before I owned the Kobo since buying is so easy.

Moving On

It’s been about 10 months since I’ve started working at HasGeek…

It’s been about 10 months since I’ve started working at HasGeek and it’s been an amazing few months. I’ve been part of 4 amazing conferences, a workshop, and a bunch of Geekups. Among other things, I’ve written code, organized content, and edited videos. It’s probably the most intense job I’ve ever had.

When I joined HasGeek last year, I’d committed for a minimum of 6 months. After 10 months at HasGeek, I’m moving on. I’m very exicted to announce that starting Oct 2, I’ll be working for the Open Knowledge Foundation a Data Wrangler and Web Developer! I’m very excited and looking forward to working with the amazing folks at OKFN. As Sunil pointed out, I’m now in the non-profit sector 🙂

7 things about me

For the first time, I’m doing a meme! Unfocused tagged me and here it goes.

4 Rules

  1. Link to your original tagger (s) and list these rules in your post.
  2. Share seven facts about yourself in the post.
  3. Tag seven people at the end of your post by leaving their names and the links to their blogs.
  4. Let them know they’ve been tagged.

7 Things

  1. I live in a half-hour timezone. If you think timezones suck, trust me, half-hour timezones suck even more. Every calculation needs just a bit more time so that you don’t get it wrong. My sleep cycle is mostly UTC though 😉
  2. I’ve only been involved with open source for less than 2 years. But I’ve contributed code to Ubuntu, Debian, Etherpad, Launchpad, Mozilla WebDev, and Firefox in this time.
  3. My cellphone can do calls, texts, and radio. That’s it. It has worked for me for the past few years, and continues to serve me well.
  4. I lost my cellphone in the middle of the road and got it back. Yes, my phone fell out of my pocket on the way to work one day. Someone found it, called the last dialed number (my parents), found where I was working, and dropped it off at the office! My friends, however, joke that even someone who found the phone on road don’t want to be caught dead with it .
  5. I read a lot and own a lot of books. In fact, when I get my own place, I most probably will have a room just for books.
  6. I walk to work. I have friends who work from home, so you folks will not think this is great, but my friends with an hour long commute will know how precious being able to walk to work is. Walking to work, and taking my bike almost results in the same time due to traffic anyway.
  7. In December, I will have completed 5 years of having started a working life. Looking back to my first job to where I am now, I cannot even think how I landed up this way 🙂

7 People

I’m tagging the following people – aditseng, davedash, devrat, geohacker, suryajith, Xiaozhuli, and zainabbawa.