What is Digital Coffee all about?

This is one of those posts that I really had to think carefully about before writing.

I would like to take some time to write a little bit about what you as a reader can expect to find in this publication. It’s not all completely random, even if it at times may seem like it.

Digital Kaffe 🇳🇴 / Digital Coffee 🇬🇧

This publication has a double name, one in Norwegian (Digital Kaffe 🇳🇴) and one in English (Digital Coffee 🇬🇧).
This is the first thing that gives a hint as to what to expect to find here.

Now, before we move on, load the Christmas coffee. It’s time to read.

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Language,
Norsk (norwegian) 🇳🇴 and The English 🇬🇧

I am from Norway, and norwegian is my native language. At first I was thinking it would be nice to simply write in my native language. Then at the same time, there’s no doubt that using english as the primary language will have a way broader audience compared to only writing in Norwegian. To separate this into two different publications, one in Norwegian and one in English, could of course be done, but I find that too troublesome. I’d rather have everything in one. It’s more manageable, and I do believe that even if you are a native english speaker subscriber, you will still manage to survive the occasional post in a language you don’t understand. I guess if you’re really curious there are tools like Google translate, or even many of the different AI systems can do a half decent job at translating or summarising an article.

This Substack was started a little more than a year ago, but it’s been extremely quiet here for some time, before I recently started publishing again, this time with a bit more seriousness and intent to try and make something happen. And I myself are noticing I tend to write more English than Norwegian these days. As weeks have passed, I see that I quite enjoy publishing one or two articles per week. I don’t really have a fixed day when articles are supposed to be published. This is perhaps something that will be set at a future time.

I have even tried to discuss the choice of language in a seperate post here.

So to conclude, you will find both languages here. We will see how this blog evolves. But for now at least, the idea is to have both languages present.

Blog / Newsletter / Publication

I’m not completely sure what to actually call my Substack. Is it a blog, a newsletter or a publication? Those are questions that comes to me every time I write.

Kjært barn har mange navn 🇳🇴 / A beloved child has many names 🇬🇧

I really dont’t have a great answer to this question, so I kind of tend to use all of the above terms.
Perhaps you, the reader can help me decide on one of them?

The Coffee ☕️

So what about the coffee part then? Well, I do love my cup of coffee, and it so happens to be an important part of my everyday life. The morning never properly starts without a nice hot cup of coffee. At work, the workday doesn’t properly start without that nice hot cup of coffee before classes starts. And let’s not forget the best cup of coffee of the day, the one that comes after dinner. The workday is done. You can finally sit down and relax for a bit. Having a little chit chat with my wife and kids, enjoying the company of my family, and of cource, a good cup of coffee; now that to me, is the best.

So why call the publication Digital coffee?

That is an excellent question. As we understand, coffee can be many things, it all comes down to the situation, and how you perceive it. It can be work related, it can be all about relaxation, about hobbies, about everything in general that fuels your life. For me, coffee is one of those things that can be present in most situations. We often find coffee in social gatherings, and it is an important drink that we so often enjoy, and makes us feel good. Now, this isn’t to say that coffee is everything or the most important thing in the world, it’s not. Like, Really, it’s not. What I’m talking about here is simply some of the things coffee might represent. And with that, we have a simple name that implies that this publication, or perhaps blog if you will, can be just about anything. Do I even dare go as far as to say it could mean completely random thoughts? Well, perhaps maybe. I think I want to say it like this, the notes will and to me also should be (a bit / a lot) more random and less organised in comparison to the posts.

What about the Digital part?

That one is very easy to explain. Writing on Substack is an online publication. Simply put, it’s digital. Then again, could it also be a word play? When I put it like this, the obvious answer is of course yes. I have a tendency to like everything that’s digital. More specifically, everything computer / technology related. I’ve been around computers almost all my life, and started very early playing with programming. I think I was around 9 or 10 years old. It doesn’t mean I’m a mastermind when it comes to programming, but I do have some knowledge that thankfully is something I can bring to work, helping students learn. As you probably already might have guessed, I am a teacher. In my previous job, I was also the IT manager at a school, so I do have my share of experiences with all those helpful situations “Have you tried turning it off and on again?” 😂

So basically anything tech related could be mentioned. You shouldn’t be surprised if you find tech related posts that somehow also is in connection with education, or as it’s often referred to as ed-tech.

You probably know the drill:

New tech is introduced. Students take advantage.

Teachers in general frustrated.

Some wants to ban the tech.

Some embraces it.

Some (even a few teachers) starts utilising it as a good helper tool at work.

Moving forward, students will take exams with only pen and paper....

Yes, that kind of summarises how technological advances are done and progressed, and after a while, things start to normalise again. Cutting edge technology is a dual-edged sword, and the way I see it, should be used with a bit of caution.

As the name implies, anything goes

Does this mean exactly that? You can actually expect to find just about anything here? Yes kind of.

Technical stuff is, as you might already have imagined, something that I’m fascinated by, so therefore it’s naturally something I’d like to write about. In the introduction to this substack, I have written it’s part for teaching, learning and entertainment.

I have done many different things in my life. I am a radio amateur with callsign LB3OH. I probably might write something about that from time to time. Within the topic of Amateur radio, there are so many things to talk about. You will surely be amazed!

Fun fact: Did you know that in every major chrisis around the world, Radio Amateurs have been there to set up emergency communication so ambulances, fire departments and police can manage to do what they are supposed to do?

I have a deep passion for music, and especially electronic music. I have even made some music too. For a while I had a few songs published to Spotify (they are taken down for now). Back in the day, I was a DJ, making a living spinning records, so yes, technology is something that fascinates me, and all of my experiences will in a way make out what I have chosen to call “Digital Coffee”.

At some point I will have to take a deep dive into the whole AI thing. I have done a little bit. For those with a keen eye, have probably already noticed many of the images I have used on my substack are AI generated. I find the whole AI thing incredibly fascinating. There’s no doubt that there are endless use cases that shouldn’t be done, but there are at the same time many good use cases, that I also hope to properly incorporate in my everyday work. One of the things I have in mind here is using AI to generate among other all sorts of math problems for my students, that are perfectly taylored to each individual. It would be far too much work for me to create individual problems for each student to solve, but with the help of AI, I see some useful potential. When I have this part figured out, it will definetly be something to write about.

I did Godot and now I do not?

I started with writing about my starting attempt at creating a game in Godot. One of the problems was that I became too busy with everyday life, family, kids and work, so I never had time to finish that. I really like Godot, and when time permits, I will definitely continue my journey creating games. So for now on hold, but all of a sudden it will be picked up again.

There you have it

So there you have it. This should hopefully give you a better picture of what to expect from my Substack “Digital Coffee”. And through this post, you also got to learn a little bit more a bout me.

Hopefully this will spark some interest, that you also would like to subscribe, if you’re not already that is.

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As always, thank you so much for reading, and I hope you have a pleasant day.

And finally, I’d love to hear your thoughts.

1. The 2024 Christmas Coffee Special, is a unique discount that gives you 90% off forever. It has to be redeemed by Jan 1, 2025. This offer like it’s being given here, will never again be repeated like this. So this is your only chance to lock in on this kind of discount.