SYMLINK.DK - Spaceman Spiff

Spaceman Spiff

So who is this Spaceman Spiff-dude anyways?

My name is Mikkel Holm Olsen. I am a 34 year old male. I was born and grown up in Denmark, and I currently live with my wife Hannah, in a small town called Virum, about 10 km north of Copenhagen.

I've always been interested in computers and electronics (and other technical stuff), which has labeled me a geek. The enlightened will know that this term is no longer negative. Some people have also used the term hacker on various occasions. Note that this should not be confused with the term cracker, as most people unfortunately do.

As Eric Raymond excellently puts it in his How To Become A Hacker (which is also included in his book The Cathedral & the Bazaar):

There is another group of people who loudly call themselves hackers, but aren't. These are people (mainly adolescent males) who get a kick out of breaking into computers and phreaking the phone system. Real hackers call these people 'crackers' and want nothing to do with them. Real hackers mostly think crackers are lazy, irresponsible, and not very bright, and object that being able to break security doesn't make you a hacker any more than being able to hotwire cars makes you an automotive engineer. Unfortunately, many journalists and writers have been fooled into using the word 'hacker' to describe crackers; this irritates real hackers to no end.

The basic difference is this: hackers build things, crackers break them.

The above links to the various terms all point to the Jargon File (also available in printed version as New Hackers Dictionary), which can provide hours of good reading material and funny stuff, especially for the more technical people.

Time passes by

So how did I spend my life so far?

I was born on the 7th of April, 1978 in Copenhagen.
The next several years of my life I only remember from other people telling me about it, so I will not go into details. It is like when you can't remember anything after being very drunk, only this is several years, and I don't think I have had a single drop of alcohol in this time (although some photos seem to document matters differently).
I went to kindergarten until 1984.
Then I started in the public school Nærumgådskolen, later renamed to Nærum Skole, where I finished after 9th grade in 1994.
The next three years I spent at Gladsaxe Gymnasium on the math./science-line, and finished in 1997. (I maintain the site http://3w97.dk/ which has contact information for my classmates).
My education continued with the Civil Engineer (M.Sc.) studies at the Technical University of Denmark, where I graduated as M.Sc. (Civilingeniør) March 4th, 2003.
From 2003 thru 2007, I have done a PhD at Ørsted•DTU, Automation. The title of my project was "Human-machine interfaces in distributed automation systems". I defended my thesis on February 23rd, 2007, and was awarded the degree.
As of September 10th, 2007, I started working as development engineer at Logos Design A/S.
I changed jobs from March 2011, and I am currently employed as embedded software developer at Doms A/S.

Hobbies and interests

As you can see from these pages, a couple of my main interests are electronics and computers (including vintage computers and games). Other interests include:

Aesthetically pleasing design (clean and simple)
Woodworking, carpentry and DIY
Metal-working
Nature. Including trekking, canoeing etc.
Cooking

What about the name Spaceman Spiff?

As most of you are probably aware, Spaceman Spiff is a character of the comic strip Calvin and Hobbes, created by Bill Watterson. Calvin and Hobbes is a magnificent story about a six year old boy with a vivid imagination, and his stuffed tiger. Spaceman Spiff is a character of imagination of the main character Calvin.

I can actually not remember how (or when) I started using the nickname Spaceman Spiff about myself, but I must confess that I think I chose this nick myself (although some people argue that a real nick has to be given not taken). However most of my friends (and some of my enemies) seem to have gotten used to it, and more than a few of my friends often refer to me as Spiff.