Coen’s blog

For some time now, I’ve spent my free time working on an experimental Operating System called FreeNOS (Free Niek’s Operating System) and it’s about time I tell you something about it.
FreeNOS was invented by a friend of mine: Niek Linnenbank and is an microkernel OS written in C++, purely for learning purposes. By far the most work on FreeNOS is done by Niek but there is also some work on my name: I’ve been working on a time server, a parser library and the new challenge ahead is writing my own filesystem (as has Niek done with his LinnFS).
If you’re curious you can check out the code from Google Code and read all about FreeNOS on it’s website. It’s all very well documented (one of the main purposes of FreeNOS) and there is a developers manual on the way. I cannot emphasize enough that it’s possible for anyone with some programming experience to contribute to FreeNOS, regardless of what you want to do. So go on and explore!

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So this is a nice one. Just back from my holidays and a short week before starting my new job the CEO of the company calls me to tell me that I’m not needed anymore (anymore? I didn’t even work a single second, but whatever). That’s kind of a bummer but hey, I made a backup plan and that’s what I’m going to execute right now.

And actually, I’m very excited about it. The thing is, next September I’m going to give the master Biomedical Image Sciences a try. Maybe as soon as next week, I’ll have an appointment with the programme coordinator and see how I can get started.

That also means that I’ve to look out for an additional job to earn myself some money to pay for the tuition fees so if any of you have any idea’s, you’re welcome

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Well, I’ve been quiet for some time now and today I decided that it was time to write about something else than programming, for a change. For the last 3.5 weeks I’ve been traveling through Thailand and I thought it would be nice if I shared my experience a little with y’all so there we go:

Wat Phra Kaew, Bangkok

Panorama from Vertigo, Bangkok

Waterfall at Erawan National Park

Muay Thai matches in Chang Mai

Giant Panda in Chang Mai Zoo

Wat Mahathat, Chang Mai

Idyllic view from our guesthouse in Koh Pangan

And that’s it. Completely for free for you to get jealous about.

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Yesterday I had to graduate. I had to do a presentation about the project I’ve been doing the last couple of months and after that it was time to defend myself. I had to answer a couple of questions about my thesis and about my project, but that all went well. The result of those last months will be visible on my diploma by a big fat 9 out of 10! I created two possible follow-up projects involving the Eclipse Modeling Framework: integrate my proof of concept code in the EMF and after that project it could be interesting to see to what extent the Naked Objects Pattern can be applied while working with the EMF. My code is, by the way, publicly available from Google Code. It needs a *lot* of cleanup but it’s there for anybody to grab and learn And now: back to celebrating my holidays!

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As we all know, at a given moment in time, some things end as other things begin. That’s also currently happening over here at coen-HQ: I’m working on the finishing touch of my graduation project and I’m preparing for the life after that. That means that I’ve got to do some interviewing for jobs and I’m preparing my submission for the Software Engineering master at the University van Amsterdam. At this moment, I have no idea whatsoever what – or where, for that matter – my job will be but actually I don’t care (actually I do care that it’s a computer science job). The most important thing to look out for is the environment I’ll work in: the colleagues, the working conditions, the diversity of the job and the career opportunities I’ll have. If these are fine, I don’t care what or where my job will be.

As for my thesis: it’s finished and ready for delivery next Tuesday, June 2nd. On June 15th I have to defend my case and I think I’ll be fine. After that my last but very long holiday begins in which I’ll be backpacking in Thailand with two friends and I’ll make sure to post some nice pictures over here

I must say, I learned a *lot* during the last five months. Not only about pure software development, but I also learned to take a little more distance from my own work and review it like it was someone else’s and it’s actually pretty difficult to not go native when reviewing, for example, my own thesis. I also thought about what kind of programmer I’d like to be the most. The answer is definitely a backend programmer. Another thing I’d like to do is teaching. I simply love the idea of trying to teach someone something and afterwards see the successful results. Maybe that’s a boy’s way of thinking just as much as it is with programming: you create a toy and it works and you are happy.

I’m curious what the next couple of months will bring me with regard to jobs and stuff but I think fate and I will handle those things fine. Up to the next milestone!

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