Halftime in Sheremetyevo

Posted on December 27, 2013 by jonas

We have closed the first chapter of the Christmas and New Year celebrations and we are about to open the next one. At the moment we are at the airport in Moscow, Sheremetyevo, and there are still a few hours until the flight to Novokuznetsk. This year they have simplified the procedure somewhat as we don’t have to check in the luggage again in Moscow, it goes straight to the final destination. Next year they will also get rid of the paper slip that one gets when entering Russia and that needs to be kept until you leave Russia. That is progress 🙂 It will also be interesting to see if the 72 hour visa-free-trips will be introduced as has been reported. I think that could introduce the tourist trips to Moscow and St Petersburg significantly. I have not been in Russia for a year since we were busy at home this year but next year we want to go to St Petersburg again and it would be more convenient without the visa requirement since I don’t have a business visa at the moment.

We had a good, and as usual eventful, time in VĂ€sterĂ„s. The weather was not the best possible but we did not spend much time outside and we did not go to VĂ€sterĂ„s for the weather, but for the people. It was great to see the family, including Joel’s girlfriend Sara, Raoul and Gunnel, and friends from ABB Industrygymnasium. Last night Jakob and I could spend some time tuning his computer as well which felt rewarding for us when things started to work better.

Freja stays in VĂ€sterĂ„s for her yearly “spa-like” week with mom’s nursing and care. Freja showed great loyalty last year when she still wanted to come with us to Switzerland instead of staying in VĂ€sterĂ„s with longer walks and better meals. We hope that we can count on her also in a week…

The weather in Novkuznetsk seems very pleasant, same figure as in VÀsterÄs but with a minus sign in front. There has been no snow so far but according to online weather services it is arriving at the moment and the next days. Looks like there is hope for a white New Year at least.

If anyone wants to get in touch, I am (in addition) available on my Russian mobile number +79832230631.

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Experimenting with Sonos and home automation

Posted on December 9, 2013 by jonas

After being hooked on Sonos and installing loudspeakers everywhere, (yes, also in the washing room and the garage) I have started to think about how one can control and use the system also for other purposes than playing music and film in different zones.

Example: Let’s say you have a thermometer in your garden connected to your network and you would like your home to tell you the temperature at 8 o’clock every morning before you go to work. The sonos system would be an excellent choice to convey that message.

Tonight I took a look at what open source home automation software there are on the market. I found Openhab which “aims at providing a universal integration platform for all things around home automation”. It was fairly easy to set it up as a service on my ubuntu server and they have bindings for a lot of hardware, among them Sonos speakers. They have a decent Android application and after some configuration it is now possible to execute some simple commands like play/pause via my android phone over the internet (yes, the traffic is SSL encrypted and password protected). That is promising for the further development.

Tonight I also installed an open source Sonos client written in Java that runs fine in Ubuntu. Sonos only provides client to Windows and Mac OS but with Janos we get “full coverage” since Java runs virtually everywhere.

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Weekend summary

Posted on November 24, 2013 by jonas

Yesterday we had planned a trip to OBI and made a pit stop at IKEA for breakfast. After finishing our breakfast we noticed that the sofa we have been considering was on sale so we bought it and went home. The sofa fit perfectly in the X5 when maximizing the space in the trunk. OBI can wait until next weekend.

The sofa has been assembled in the small bedroom and the bed that was there before has been moved down to the server room in the cellar. The cellar room looks much nicer now after Tanya’s painting so the support personnel can now take a nap among the servers.

Lately the Sonos sound system has been completed since Conrad delivered the last four speakers a bit late. The ten loudspeakers are working well and has also freed up two sets of loudspeakers to be used with laptops in the small bedroom and washing room. I think the next step is to buy one or two Play:1 speakers to be used in the winter garden or cellar depending on where you are.

I am also considering a TV for the small bedroom but I think it could be worth waiting a year or so. By then it could be time for a 4K TV for the living room and thus freeing up the current TV for other duties.

Another project is to prepare a laptop for Tanya’s father. At the moment I am installing the Russian version of Windows 7 on my Dell XPS M1330. It is a few years old but has managed to age without falling apart. I think it could serve well for a few years more in Siberia.

I have also carried out practical duties today since I started the day with equipping the Saab with winter tires. In the afternoon we tried it by taking the Saab to Albis and going for a walk up the mountain.

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Typical Saturday

Posted on November 2, 2013 by jonas

Since the major renovation projects are finished or not yet started, our weekends nowadays usually consists of finishing and refining existing setups rather than making ground braking changes. It often starts with breakfast around 9 at IKEA, followed by some complementary purchases (like a wardrobe last week) at IKEA, and something more at Bauhaus/Jumbo/OBI. We are back at home around noon and starts assembling/installing our new stuff + cleaning/washing etc.

Today we bought a lot of paint at Bauhaus. We will paint the floor and walls in the “server room”, our new room in the cellar. I have emptied that room and Tanya has started cleaning it. We can probably start painting it tomorrow or next week.

The wardrobe in the small bedroom got installed more permanently today. The molding is now customized for a better appearance and the only thing that is missing, at least according to Tanya, is a bed sofa instead of the current bed.

In an hour we are going to the airport to pick up Natasha who is coming a one week visit. On that topic, we had Jonas Ullberg here for two days this week and since we were anyway going to Bern to pick up my Russian visa, we showed him the Swiss capital as well.

This week I have been to my second Russian lesson and even though I have not spent much time practicing, I think it is good for me.

Now time for some final preparations before our guest arrives.

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Mixed bag of Turkey, Israel, Germany, France, Switzerland, and Liechtenstein

Posted on October 20, 2013 by jonas

Since my last blog post we have been for holiday outside Antalya at the Turkish coast. The weather was excellent and the sea was warm so we had a great and relaxing week together with Tanya’s parents. In the end of that holiday week, we went for a 24 hour trip to Israel to visit Jerusalem, Bethlehem, and the Dead Sea. It was of course a compact trip but it was 24 well spent hours.

When we came back from Turkey, my parents joined in Zurich and the next days we were touring Switzerland all together. Regarding Germany in the headline of this blog post, before my parents joined we spent a day in Konstanz for some shopping and sightseeing. On Friday that week we packed ourselves in two cars (Saab and BMW) and went to Geneva. On that same day we visited the city garden and had a look at the city. It is still hard to believe that the fountain is 140 meters high but if wikipedia says so… On Saturday we went to Cern’s Open Days and took a peek at that collider of theirs. It is not easy to get an overview of all their activities and theories but we did our best. Since Geneva is a bit far away for a day trip, we stayed in a French hotel and drove via the south side of Lake Geneva on the way home which was a first for me and Tanya as well. All in all it was a pleasant finish of that two week holiday.

Regarding the ongoing renovation project, it has slowed down a bit but Tanya has recently finished off the kitchen including the interactive board. At the moment we are in process of moving the kitchen equipment in place. Tanyas’s father also quickly put up a roof for the winter garden when he was here in September. My most recent contribution is a shelf for the office which has been put in place today. I will spend some time the coming week to put things in order there. On the technical side of things, I have recently installed a wireless hifi system from Sonos. It is covering the apartment and I have to say that it is very intuitive to operate with applications for all major platforms.

The next step for some more serious renovation is probably to start with the restroom but we are hesitating since November and December seems to include some visits from friends.

The garden also got an overhaul recently, kicked-off by an initiative of Tanya’s mother. We now have some more thuja trees connecting the big hedge and the ones we got last year. Besides that we got rid of a lot of half-dead bushes and two trees plus replaced the old fence with a nicer one which includes a gate. Since Tanya likes walls, we have also built a little wall. Later on we should replace the tiles outside of the winter garden but I think that has to wait until spring time.

Today we went went for a day trip to Liechtenstein with Paulo and Monica. Initially we wanted to go with the Porsche but the rear seats are not really meant for grown ups so we went with the X5 in the end. The weather was perfect and we had a great stay in the small capital, Vaduz.

Tomorrow Tanya starts a German course in order to take her language to level B2. I need to improve my language abilities as well so on Tuesday I will check out a Russian course to see if I can take my Russian to the next level. Let’s see in a few weeks if we are on the right track.

Regarding weeks and future, we have decided to take the car to Sweden for Christmas and have booked tickets for Novokuznetsk for new year. In other words, we are ready for the fourth edition of our flying Christmas/New Year circus.

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Weekend – and no planned work

Posted on September 7, 2013 by jonas

Wow, it is early Saturday and we have the weekend in front of us without a huge to-do-list. Great news. As usual we had a release on Friday, i.e. yesterday, but I got out of office before midnight at least.

Since Tanya came back from her trip to Novokuznetsk, we (naturally mostly Tanya) have been working on the bed room and yesterday she finished putting the new floor in place. The old floor, and the carpet that was glued to the floor under it, is in the Saab together with some other garbage. I don’t think I have ever seen the Saab so packed and it is soon time to go to a recycling station, in Schlieren now for a change, and get rid of it. My regards goes to Fredrik R for the recycling coupons…

The plan for the weekend is to relax instead of working, and I think we both need it. The municipality folks at Adliswil are re-doing the street outside of the garage, but I hope we will be able to get a car out, and then head south to Ticino at 9. We have booked a hotel in Locarno where we are meeting our friends Daniel and Hanna. They are staying in Italy but “Swiss Italy”, i.e. Ticino, is close enough for a visit. The hotel seems to have a nice view over the city, at least according to the images on the booking site, and since the weather forecast predicts 29 degrees and no rain, the expectations are set high. 🙂 With nice company, it can’t go wrong even if the hotel is a disaster and the Swiss meteorologists happen to have a bad day.

My old cars got CD players so this week I have burnt some vintage CD-Rs. Feels a bit like travelling back in time but it is fine. Tanya’s new computer seems to fail the simple task of burning audio CDs (it always fail with some error message in the end of the process regardless of burning software) but Brasero in Ubuntu on my old HP is executing swiftly. No more portable loudspeakers or weak FM transmitters anymore, proper plastic discs, that’s the future. 🙂

Okay okay, time to get going. I’ll get back with a report from Locarno. Cheers for now.

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Holiday with Joel

Posted on July 24, 2013 by jonas

Last week we had a break both from Credit Suisse and renovation projects. My brother Joel was here for the whole week and together we did our best to explore Switzerland and Milan. In the beginning of the week we went south-west and visited Geneva and Montreux. We stayed at a French motel though close to Geneva, which could be a good advice for people who want to spend their cash in the restaurants instead of in the hotel. We walked around and looked at houses and gardens.

After a day in Adliswil, we were ready for next trip. Neither Tanya or I had been to Lugano and now it was time. The traffic towards Italy has always been less than tempting at summer time but on a Thursday it is still possible. We stayed a few hours in Lugano, strolling in the small but pretty city center and along the lake, before heading further south to Milan. Milan is, as all big cities, heavy on traffic so plan your car trips there accordingly. We had a hotel outside of the city center but the tram made it rather convenient to explore the city center. Even though Milan is a big city, it is still possible to make a sightseeing trip by foot. None of us had been to Milan before so it was nice to get a glimpse.

On Saturday we did some serious sun tanning and swimming at Nordiska and ended the day with a visit in the cute town Rapperswil. On Sunday we went hiking at Pilatus, and this time we walked the full distance down the mountain. It was a good four hour walk which we still can feel in terms of sore muscles.

When time allows, I will publish some photos in the photo album on the struggling web server.

Now I am a few days into the work week and back in the hamster wheel. Fortunately we have another holiday planned for September so there is still light in the tunnel…

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Renovation update

Posted on July 5, 2013 by jonas

Since I wrote here about a month ago, we have finished the small room, the bathroom has been equipped with the radiator, all the doors have been carefully refurbished, we have made progress in the kitchen (water tap, radiator, more cupboards, fridge, oven, stove, microwave) and started renovating the living room. The living room is being prepared for new wallpaper and floor. Tanya does not like the “eye brows” made for supporting the curtains over the windows since she says the room looks smaller then, so shas removed all three in the living room. I have to agree, the room looks slightly more spacious without pelmets. Hopefully we can start with the wallpaper this weekend and finish the floor next week.

Today I went to the company gym at Uetlihof for the first time. I have signed up for a year and aim to go three lunches per week (Mon-Wed-Fri). We also bought a swimming pool subscription for Tanya. When the renovation is done we will have so much sparetime… 🙂

Last weekend we got access to our new room in the cellar. For the time being we store tools and IKEA furniture there but later on we will prepare that room a bit to make it look nicer. I have noticed that the Powerline network works there with decent performance so it should be possible to locate some servers there at a later stage.

Tomorrow at lunch time we will go to a “WillkommenapĂ©ro” for new inhabitants in Adliswil. We were invited already a year ago but could not attend then.

This weekend there is also a big city party, ZĂŒrifĂ€scht, which is taking place every third year. We will do like I did three years ago and go to Nordiska for bbq and fireworks. I can hear now, it is Friday evening, that the celebrations has already started with fireworks also today.

Between the apĂ©ro and ZĂŒrifĂ€scht I will try to cut the hedge. Whenever I have had an opportunity, the weather has been crap. The forecast for the weekend is very positive so I think it should be possible tomorrow. It is not easy to do during the week since one is not allowed to make noise in the evenings. In the mornings I have been drilling and preparing for Tanya’s day time activities.

Freja is still a very pleasant lady who’s company we enjoy a lot. She has learnt two more tricks lately, “Up” and “Spin”. Besides such playful activities, she is also doing her best to assist in the renovation project. She is sweeping the floor with her tail and keeps us company whatever we are doing.

Yesterday we had some team activities at work in order to celebrate a big release that took place last week. Tonight, as many Fridays before, I had another release for a product I am looking after. Next week I will have another release for the same product but after next week I will have a week of holiday and Joel is coming to visit us. We plan to do some excursions and have a break from the renovations. Hopefully we are able to finish the living room until then but at least the small room is done so we can provide a guest room.

This week I have hidden a little toy in the garage but that’s a secret for now so I’ll write more about that another time.

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Crappy weather but renovation progress

Posted on June 2, 2013 by jonas

The weather in May has been historically bad here in the Zurich area. It has been alright though since we have been busy indoors with the renovations. Tanya has been working a lot with the door and door post painting meanwhile I have built up parts of the kitchen. There is still a lot of work to do, especially in the kitchen and the small room, but the bathroom is finished except for the radiator renovation and installation. It is indeed very convenient to have two toilets and a bathtub.

The room in the cellar that we will rent from 1st of July has been equipped with proper light and an entrance door. It is a rough room so it would also need some care at a later stage. My secret plan is to put my servers there later but I need to solve the issue of quick network access first. The wireless network extends to there but it won’t do as network connection for servers…

We have not planned much for the next weeks since we need to make some more progress with the renovation. In August though, Tanya is going for two weeks to Novokuznetsk. Freja and I will need to stay at home since my holiday account unfortunately is limited. In September we might go to Turkey for a week but it is not definite yet.

Seems like my blog has turned into a monthly status update. It might be like that now but I think there will be time for other things than work and renovation later on.

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Ongoing renovation

Posted on May 5, 2013 by jonas

Primarily Tanya, but also myself, has seen a need for an apartment renovation and the last four weeks this idea has been put into practice. Tanya’s father has been here to help but at the moment the workforce consists of Tanya and myself.

The first phase includes the bathroom, kitchen, corridor and the small bedroom. All rooms are still work in progress but the major work has been done. After stripping all rooms plus corridor down to the concrete, tiles for floor (except for the small bedroom) and walls in bathroom and partly in kitchen have been mounted. A bath tube, WC, and new water tap has been installed in the bathroom. It is mainly wallpaper, painting, and IKEA furniture assembly work left. There is no extreme hurry now that we soon (some more days needed) will have bathtub capabilities. The winter garden is acting as temporarily kitchen and our old kitchen furniture, including kitchen and freezer, is still operating from its new location.

There was no WC in the bathroom earlier, but now that it has been restored in the bathroom (there used to be one earlier in the bathroom but it was removed by the previous owner), it will be easier to renovate the small bathroom, which previously hosted the only WC in the apartment, later.

Next week, probably on Wednesday, we’ll go to Sweden for dad’s 60 year celebrations. I have seen that there are some decent flight tickets on offer but we’ll go by car this time. Then we can easily take Freja with us and transport some remains from my stuff in my previous apartment in Gothenburg. If there are no major issues, one day of driving should be sufficient since we are going to meet up in Malmö.

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