Read iAlja's writing - page 7

The wearables and apps I use for self-tracking (Part 2 appendix)

As part of my quantified self series, I also wanted to share a list of tools that I’ve used for an extended period of time in the past couple of years to track my activity, sleep and more. I often get asked about differences among trackers and for buying recommendations, so I’ve also included a s...

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What has the quantified self helped me learn abut myself? (Part 2)

I know exactly how many steps I’ve taken in the past 938 days. And how many hours I’ve slept on each of those nights. If fact, I can compare measurements from multiple sources for a lot of these days, as I‘m currently wearing at least 3 personal trackers at all times (not counting my smartphone h...

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What is the quantified self? (Part 1)

Over the past two years I went from not wearing a watch to always wearing at least 3 (often more) personal trackers that monitor every step I take and every minute of my sleep. And that’s without counting all the apps on my phone.

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Lights on: 1 week and 3 events that filled me with hope

It’s Sunday. I finally got the chance to sleep in a bit. In just a week, I was lucky to participate in three amazing events that were started up by three amazing tech/startup communities. It’s probably not something that will be heavily featured in the news, what with the game of political throne...

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Europe Code Week: Why I want to see every European learn more about how technology works

At this year’s Digital Assembly, me and my fellow Neelie Kroes’ Young Advisors were challenged to pick a common theme to work on. One suggestion was to focus on providing every young European with opportunities to start learning coding. Out of this suggestion, Europe Code Week was born over summer.

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Safer internet forum: lessons learned and observations from an outsider

A while ago, I was invited to join the Safer Internet Forum as a speaker. Huh, me? I am aware of various safer internet initiatives aimed at children, but as I neither have kids nor work with kids, it’s not really something I think about often. Especially because I imagine I can keep myself relat...

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My grandma is now online

I spoke to my grandma over the phone yesterday. When I called, she was just “behind the computer”. I know she’s been taking a computer class at her local center for senior citizens for a while now. But I never expected her to show so much determination and to keep at it. Well, yesterday I was pro...

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The ABC of promoting your programming workshops in a woman aka human friendly way

You might have noticed that I’m getting increasingly fed up with the lack of women in IT. It’s a fun, exciting, creative and increasingly influential industry, so why does the majority of my half of the population still feel like they don’t belong in this world?

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Entering the digital playing field as one, big European team

The past few months have been a crazy roller coaster ride for me. A new job at a cool hardware startup that is trying to improve indoor living (on top of my usual blogging about mobile tech, encouraging Rails Girls, running and what not), and I’ve just returned from the amazing Dublin, where I’ve...

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500 days of writing 750 words each day

I already blogged about why I write at least 750 words each day when I reached one straight year of regular writing. Today I’m celebrating another milestone: 500 days of interrupted writing. In other words: I’ve just added a Space Bird, the ultimate streak badge you can earn, to my collection!

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I'm in love with Markdown

I just want to go on the record for saying that I really, really love Markdown:

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Goodbye Blogger, Hello Octopress!

The recent Google Reader fiasco reminded me of something I’ve been too lazy to take care of for too long: my blog, which I started back in 2006, was still being hosted on Google’s Blogger. Now here’s a question for you: how long before Google decides all blogging should be done on Google+? Ridicu...

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