Yesterday I had the first opportunity to see my apartment, which is still under construction but hopefully getting near completion. I made some photos and posted them here.

The building was full of work as we entered, and it still looked far from being ready to be handed over, even though it is already much delayed. The investor is not experienced with the city’s bureaucracy, and is also having difficulty with sub-contractor management.

The apartment itself, however, gave no reason to complain. The walls were straight and smooth; electricity plugs were in place and windows seemed flawlessly mounted. The overall image made detailed measurements that I planned seem unnecessary, so I focused on taking photos instead.

I stepped out to the balcony (carefully, no hedge yet), looked outside – the day was very cold, but the sky was clear, and the sun was still high. The “apartment – mortgage – have to earn – bigger apartment – bigger mortgage – …” trap came to my mind; everybody is aware of it, yet only few are able to get out of the cycle.

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After much delay, I made the first attempt to write the ‘About me‘ page. I always thought it was needed as an addition to the CV; it would be a pity to be defined just by the job one does.

In the end it turned out that, at least for now, there is not much I can conveniently say about myself other than what I read, watch, and use. Surely such realization can lead to some disturbing existential thoughts… however, I must keep them waiting for a more suitable time.

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For the sake of my newly found interest in neural networks, I need to go back to the basics first, including certain elements of linear algebra and mathematical analysis. Without this most basic foundation, I will not go very far with the topic.

In order make myself a bit more efficient and the exercise easier to follow, I wanted to employ a computer system to do all the boring stuff. In this view, I found Axiom to be a decent toy to play with.

There is little chance that I will ever need more from the system than it now offers; 30 years of development have been invested in it. Axiom was originally developed by IBM and open sourced in 2002.

The documentation allows to get started fairly quickly. Unfortunately, the Windows interface leaves a lot to desire, and the graphics module is not available; everything would work just fine on a Linux system, though (I may need a Linux box a lot sooner that I expected).

I look forward to making some progress on the weekend.

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I’m afraid I will have little time for blogging in the near future. I started an intensive consulting project, and my ability to publish became limited to the point of non-existence.

Even when I have some free time, I expect to spend it on developing some of my recent ideas, rather than on serious, and therefore time consuming, writing. Presently my focus is on neural networks, which I find to be quite a challenging topic for someone with math abilities as rusted as mine.

I promise to keep you updated in case of any progress in this area, though.

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I just came back from a short, secret mission to Munich. Missions like this are what I like in this job.

Here are some photo highlights from my stay, starting from the impressive Munich airport.

More photos below. (read more…)

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Inevitably, my article “How do you make money on Web2.0?” gathered the following comment by SidewalkPilot on digg:

What does WEB2.0 mean, and why are there no spaces?

I use the term merely as a shortcut for saying “the new internet companies”, in contrast to their predecessors from the original Internet bubble. Web 2.0 is just a slogan coined for the needs of this time period, and I use it not because I believe it means anything, but because I see a practical purpose of labeling some topics in a way consistent with general public.

The companies in question often share certain elements that are trendy today, such as technologies (AJAX, RSS, …), approach (focus on social features), or even design (the famous blue gradients). Some people try to take these features and create a definition of what “web 2.0″ is and what it is not, but I’m not one of them.

Note that it’s my personal approach on this, though. As can be expected, the topic is a subject of a lively conversation, with skeptics like Russell Shaw (“Web 2.0? It doesn’t exist”) and committed defenders like Stowe Boyd (“Traitors in our Midst: Web 2.0 Antihype”). Dion Hinchcliffe has a nice summary of this discussion.

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New Year has started, and the question what to do with it cannot wait any longer. As promised, below are the things I wish to pursue in 2006:

• Think out something new and big
• Leave Poland (for a while), backpacking in the summer – obligatory
• Help people with true potential, if they come across
• Manage language abilities
• Make more progress with this web site
• Continue dancing lessons
• Earn much more:)
• Finally get a driving license, if circumstances allow (last priority)

I’m starting right away.

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Now, that?s a promising headline.

My original inspiration was zeevveez’s post ?How to Make Money off Open Source or off Web 2.0??.

His article goes in the direction rather unexpected from the title. Nonetheless, it reminded me of my master thesis, where I was investigating how open source companies make money and how differently from the ones based on the commercial software. I was using Microsoft and Red Hat as case study subjects.

David J. Teece created a framework helpful to understand how companies make profit out of their innovations. Below a quick description of the model and then a trial run against commercial the software industry, the open source companies, and, to justify the title, the Web2.0 companies. (read more…)

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Fresh air, unlimited supplies of vodka and beautiful women (no correlation at all between the latter and the vodka). On top of that, prominent guests. New year?s party in Goldap!

A photo summary below. (read more…)

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