gsake.info

A few bugs...

Sun, 25 Oct 2009 14:58:03 +0000

Well, it seems like this whole year of not upgrading the scripts of this website had its costs... The RSS and weather feeds wont display anymore, since there has been a problem in fetching xml files and storing the related information into the database. Unfortunately, even when I tried to change the php function that the system uses to some alternatives, I got the same errors. Seems like I have to backup everything and try a master upgrade or a clean install of the new core. But since this is too risky to carry out, I will stick to the current version...

ACAA Elections '09

Thu, 01 Oct 2009 12:37:00 +0000

Well, it is time for elections! Never hid my enthusiasm about my school and its educational model; maybe it is not something out of reality for US or Canada, or even UK, but comparing to the Greek standards what the Hellenic American Educational Foundation has achieved is fantastic. Having a very strong and active alumni association, I could not resist to join their team and start helping with the athletics team. After some years of inactivity I was granted the right to run the administrative part of the Athletics team (where I belonged as a student), something that really gave a high motive to me to continue being active in the ACAA, known as "SAKA" in Greek. Now it's elections time and it was proposed to me to stand as candidate for the administrative board of the association; and so I accepted! Another interesting challenge there, but still, no matter the result, there is so much to do with the athletics team...

PS: An Alumni Track&Field event is coming soon in November! Still racing there...

Back in Action

Thu, 01 Oct 2009 12:19:57 +0000

I hardly felt how this year went by. Since the 2nd September 2008, when I joined the forces of Hellenic Air Force, more than 12 months have passed. It had been a good year, I was taught lots of things, had some unique experiences, met lots of people. The fact that no internet line was allowed in my office (preliminary examination's office) due to security reasons, was very disappointing, since I could have used lots of time in order to improve and update this site. Still searching through it I remember my choice to create a multi content web site with technical information as well, so that other creators that are not web designers or pros would get some help to build their own. It wasn't a bad choice, although the content available right now in the relevant section is outdated, although functional.

Back in my office I am trying to catch up the tempo of real life and get my self to work for real. The fact that I have already applied for a PhD (on which I am starting to work soon) gives me a reason to continue supporting the site. It is definitely the most "well built" website I had ever set up; this is why there are no plans for changing the design here; I should update the core software though, since I am still running version 2.0.15.

This news blog entry is more of a brainstorm than a solid post referring to a subject or idea... Oh, forgot to mention, went back to Edinburgh for a while, from March 24th to April 2nd, for a Conference. Still beautiful, mysterious, spooky, special, unique; never bored to walk down the royal mile and enter the "Woolen Mill" store, next to Hunter Square...

I will continue post in English, although some papers are in Greek; I am planning to use this site for posting some research material and any publications under (CC) licenses. And of course I will start again posting my thoughts, pictures from great places I've been, just for the fun of it! Next online project is a Law Office's site! So, welcome back G...

Military Service mode: ON

Mon, 10 Nov 2008 19:44:16 +0000

Almost half a year has passed since my last post here. I am not sure if it is work to blame for, or just my laziness. Summer was really nice, got a nice “set” of vacations and recharged my batteries for good! What makes me feel better (at least for the last three months) regarding my “abandoned” web site is that I have been spending most of my time away from my office, away from home and definitely away from my laptop.

Doing my military service has proven to be a nice experience, but a great setback regarding work as well. Being an “airman” is not that bad, and definitely better than a typical “soldier”. After finishing the basic military training and the so called “specialty's training” in Tripolis I found my self doing paperwork again at Hellenic National Defense General Staff in Athens. I am quite sure that paperwork includes guarding the facilities as well, but this is nothing new nor scary to me, had enough and I am always ready for more...

Without being in the mood to drop more lines I can tell that there is nothing to complain about my post-student life so far; wish there was some more free time to feed this space, after dealing with my last boring obligation (military service) I will be able to sort my life the way I want; or at least, the way I can... In the meantime I can always enhance the image bank...

ps: Despite all these, I did find time to repair my laptop (good old FSC M3438GV), setup a dual boot system wearing Ubuntu 8.04 LTS and Windows XP SP3 (Vista should be officially banned!!). Oh, I also found a new toy now, a PNA GPS device, wearing Windows CE 4.1. Funny how easily it can be tweaked... So, it is obvious that I had no time dropping lines here!

Summer ante portas!

Fri, 23 May 2008 14:49:27 +0000

Sitting at my office I realized that once again this little "repository of ideas" hasn't offer any new content to its "restricted audience" for quite a long period of time. Can't say that there is not much to tell, to discuss, to actually "share" online. But to be honest, when one is no more a typical student, there is little time to spend for a personal web site. Being almost a normal lawyer and a PhD candidate can be classified to the top of my personal "changelog". Hate to say that, but I still miss Edinburgh... I miss the 10ish coffee at NERO, in between the IP lectures on Friday, the cookies at 4 o'clock during Burkhard's lecture and definitely Andre's laptop with that huge (CC) sticker on it. Cannot deny that I would love to stay there, be in the closest touch with my field, "Technology & Law", BUT cannot deny that there are other pretty little things here in Athens that renumerate me for my "losses"; these are too silly or too personal to chat about.

Leaving behind the Athens' Bar Association exams, I have a whole summer to work, have some fun and finally prepare my self for another adventure, the military service! People say that this period is a man's last excuse for “being lazy”, or more politely, “decide what one's gonna do with his life”; I am quite sure that neither 's going to work for me, so it is just going to be “the military service among other duties”. Well, like I mentioned before, there is still a whole summer to go through...

One of the future plans for this site has to do with the creation of a section relevant to tourism and brief descriptions of rad trips. As a prologue, I provide only some pictures from the beautiful artificial Plastira Lake; brief “guide” of the trip will follow... Cheers!

Athens by night... At office!

Tue, 08 Jan 2008 20:12:57 +0000

Already in 2008 and I feel bad about abandoning this site with no updates for such a long time. To be honest I have also “forgotten” the fact that my laptop has a burnt-out graphics card, three months must have passed since the first time I saw that lovely blue screen warning me about the permanent hardware failure... My daily routine has changed (me) dramatically since this magic word called “work” entered my world. Even when the pressure is a bit lighter (right now I am posting from work), there is always a “next issue” to work on. Well, leaving the legal training alone, one of the fascinating things here is this good old Pentium III that I am using right now, forget about the other specs of this “baby”, which runs under Linux, Ubuntu distribution. Not bad at all I would say, this old fellow would be totally useless right now if it wasn't for Linux. The open source motives are ringing bells and I can hardly say that I miss any of the Windows' features in a strictly professional environment that needs no more than a good office suite and a stable browser to be complete. Well, sometimes lawyers are boring even when referring to their software needs to run their office...

How on earth did I end up talking about software again? I blame the labor law overdose under which I was exposed today! Sometimes I miss Edinburgh, sometimes I don't. What I must start getting used to missing, is the careless Edinburgh's mornings, when the only problems to care about were the empty fridge (which meant go to TESCO) and some hundreds of pages about IT,IP law and crazy AI stuff that I had to go through... Oh, I also miss that -5C training night... Not joking!

One year and eighty-one days

Wed, 12 Dec 2007 14:26:39 +0000

Well, it has been months since I published anything here. Its is beyond no doubt that the daily schedule has totally changed since I left Edinburgh. Last act was “on stage” on the 28th November 2007, a few weeks ago, when old friends met once again for the graduation ceremony and had the opportunity to have a few drinks at their classical meeting point, next to the School of Law. Good old fellows were there to celebrate drinking our last Scottish pints, wandering around Edinburgh's city, which had already worn its Christmas spirit suit.

Weather was sweet and everyone was in a very good mood, all of us laughing to each other at the sight of the gown and especially during the very moment when we graduated, making fun of our awfully pronounced surnames. Ceremony was nice, neither casual nor hyper-luxurious, just like the way it should be I would say. Everything was perfectly organized, everything was scheduled with precision, the contrast between the graduation ceremony in Athens, in October 2006 and this one was definitely great. But I doubt if there is any comparison to be made; different philosophy, and approach, two totally unalike “systems”, the British one fighting with its own industry of academic institutions, the Greek one still haunted by the ghosts of the past, uncertainty, insecurity, lack of mission and concrete philosophy; but still not less qualitative than the first one; two different aspects of the west European higher education's system.

I really don't know if there is an “Edinburgh's Review” to be written down, or not. But what I am totally sure of, is that I spent one fantastic year up there, full of new experiences and I managed to collect great supplies for the future. Only one promise to make, no way I wont return to Calton Hill to spare some minutes exploring the North See under the clouded Edinburgh's skies...

No tears left...

Mon, 27 Aug 2007 02:26:46 +0000

One would seriously doubt if there are any words at all to describe what Greece is experiencing these days... The whole country is burning; trees, houses, people, a national tragedy has struck all Greeks and will remain in our memory as the saddest summer of our lives. I doubt if there is anything to be written about what has happened; a work of arsonists this horrible nightmare has already changed the way Greeks will feel about their country from now on; many used the expression "our 11th September" to describe the way we feel about it; the Greek version of "ground zero" was released during these days: no direct violent attack, but a cruel "asymmetric threats" like model was used in order to achieve such a high level of disaster; we keep questioning what will be left from this country, will people be able to live in these areas anymore? Even ancient Olympia was threatened by the flames; there is no humanity left in this world, no honour, no feelings; what kind of future are we building for our selves... We are used to blaming the older generations for all problems in Greece, but unfortunately I can't see why we claim to be better. Let us believe that there are still some tears left to shed for future tragedies...

Where do I start, where do I begin?

Wed, 25 Jul 2007 14:41:13 +0000

This is the last post from Edinburgh. I am about to return to Scotland for a few days at the end of August and for the Graduation Ceremony in November of course - but still this is the last post from my flat. Ten months have passed, a whole academic year has nearly come to its end. Not sure what was the exact "taste" of this period, definitely a special one that I am going to remember forever. What is now left for this summer is to finalize my dissertation and spend some days with friends on an isle of our choice. Given that everything works fine with dissertation and other academic duties, even if I still can't tell where do I start from now on, at least I can tell a little bit more of myself. That's not bad at all...

ps: Did I forget to mention that I am already posting here for more than a year?

The Final Countdown

Mon, 09 Jul 2007 13:58:20 +0000

It has been a very fascinating year so far, a wonderful experience of studying abroad in one of the best universities in United Kingdom. There are many things one could write down about these nine months that I stayed in Edinburgh; it was not only the academic level and facilities but the general aura of this city that granted a very special character to my studies. Fully satisfied from all the knowledge offered there is nothing left to do but follow the developments in the field of IT Law; now that one has learnt where to search for information and how to interpret them, the most important is keeping in touch. Apart from excellent knowledge, this year offered me great friends and the unique and sometimes humorous experience of living alone in a flat; but still it was a "student's flat", so no one is claiming a real simulation! There is no time and I am not in the mood to summarize this year; will never forget the gold medal from scottish universities athletics events! Never expected to win a gold medal abroad, six years after I had retired from training and races; so there is so much to talk about, so little time to waste. There is only one thing I am sure of: Ready for Athens or not, there is lots of work that has to be done; and quickly!