Nothing to see here

I have moved from Blogger to my own domain. Head over to

http://www.eldholm.net/
http://www.eldholm.net/
http://www.eldholm.net/

and let me know what you think

Goodbye Blogger. Hello WordPress

Yes, I have moved on to WordPress. Please update your bookmarks/feeds/whatever:

http://disused.wordpress.com/
http://disused.wordpress.com/
http://disused.wordpress.com/

Who knows, someday I might even get my very own domain...

About me

When I fist started this blog I did not have very high hopes of its longevity: it was basically a response to a blog just started by a friend of mine. In creating the blog I more or less made a prediction of its future and named it disused.

As some time has passed since I first created it I have been hard (that’s a lie, but not really a big one) at work to make sure the prediction would not become reality – and so far it’s been working.

There have been quite a few changes from the very start, most of them for the better, and the few that have been mistakes have quickly been weeded out. But one thing has remained the same: the lack of information about me, the writer (or in some cases the ranter).

For some time now I have contemplated putting up an ‘About’ page, and reading these two pages by Andreas and Marvin finally convinced me that I should get it done. I’m not sure yet if I’ll go for the long or the short version, but at least I have an image ready. Expect to see some changes implemented shortly
 

Ten year anniversary?

We’ll see in a few hours time I guess. For now enjoy the Starcraft splash from blizzard.com

This page best viewed in Netscape 4.0 or higher

It’s been a while since I that phrase last – though I did find this page through a quick Google search - but it might be time to get it out of storage again.

This page best viewed in Opera 9.0 or higher



If you cant notice the difference, good for you! It probably means you’re not experiencing perfectionist tendencies or don’t care as much as I do. And for the record the Opera way of portraying the page is the intended one.

(No the Google search box is not it)
 

Paper bricks

I have more books that I haven’t read than I care to think about. Right now for instance there is a big brick of a book lying on my bedside table collecting dust, and it has been doing so for the last couple of months.

Fyodor Dostoevsky’s The Brothers Karamazov is one of two (I think it’s two) books that I am currently not reading. These two are books I started to read at one point, only to put them down and not pick up again – it is not because they are bad or uninteresting books, I just do not find the time and/or interest to sit down and read more than a few pages. And to get into a book I need to read a bit more than that.

At some point I will finish them though: There are only two books that I can remember (and that I started to read voluntarily) that I did not finish. And only one of those because it was a book I did not like at all. Considering that I manage to get through quite a few books each year I’d say that’s quite a good track record…

As far as the brick on my table: At some point I am sure that I will pick it up again, but right now I’ll opt for a few more layers of dust before I do.
 

Human beatbox meet human chellist

Remember him? Of course you do, well he's back with his latest project:

Pidgin – don't shoot the messenger, eh?

This whole issue started when Windows Live Messenger started to act up and use all available CPU power for no apparent reason. In general I like Live Messenger – it looks and feels nice, has the features I want (and a bunch that I don’t, but selective awareness filters out those). But using all available CPU power is not something I can live with: the laptop gets hot, the fan starts going into overdrive and everything on the computer starts to go really sluggish.

So I started to look for a replacement. The name Pidgin came up more than once, so I decided to give it a go. I went through the usual download and install process: Windows platform, Norwegian language, the usual install directory. A few moments later the program was ready to run.

Cue problem one: Syncing with Live Messenger.
For every contact I have Pidgin decided to present me with a yes/no option. An option that might have made sense if I had been a long time user of GAIM, but since I’m not I went with the safe answer: Yes.

Bad call: An Unexpected Error Has Occurred. Oh well, these things happen in Windows. “No I don’t really want to send an error report; I just want to get the program up and running again.” Again I start up Pidgin, get presented with a bunch of yes/no windows and go for the safe answer: An Unexpected Error Has Occurred. At this point ‘no’ start to look like a good alternative.

Click. “Wow it worked.” Click. Click. “This could take a while.” Click. “How about a ‘yes/no to all’ button in the next version?” Click. An Unexpected Error Has Occurred. Yeah, baby! I missed you. At least I got 5 fewer windows to wade through the on the next restart. Repeat until window count is at 0. It was almost enough to dissuade me from using the program, but I decided to at least give it a fair chance. I should have known better…

Cue problem two: Meldingen kunne ikke bli sendt på grunn av en tilkoblingfeil.
Translated: The message could not be sent due to a connection error. Now, this is not the first time I have seen the error message; Live Messenger produces one like it occasionally. But it does not produce one in every conversation; usually multiple times per conversation; and even every other message at times. It might not be the worlds most important smiley I’m trying to send as a response to something being said, but I’d like for it to be sent nonetheless.

Cue problem three: Norwegian?
This problem I probably should have anticipated. Translations may vary much in quality in different programs and applications, and Norwegian is not really a high priority language so it tends to get little attention. But translating about half of the program, then leaving the rest in English is the first time I have encountered. This image should give a clear example of the problem, and it is like that throughout the program.



At this point I (foolishly) though that a reinstall of the program would do the trick. I could just choose English at the start of the installation and everything would be peachy: I was wrong.
Reinstall one: “That’s odd. I’m sure the language selection was at the very beginning.”
Reinstall two: “Nope, restarting the machine between uninstall and install did not help. And how come it keeps all my settings”
Reinstall three: “How foolish of me to think that deleting the application data folder would change anything.”
Reinstall ‘one more for good measure’: Yeah, right…

Cue problem four: Documen…wha?



How foolish of me to think that the Help function in the program would lead to a valid webpage. I should have known better, right?

To be fair, there is a section that deals with my language problem in the FAQ section. It is even the first question in the Windows Specific section.

How does Pidgin for Windows determine which language to use?

For the user who installed Pidgin, the language selected during installation will be the default. This can be overridden by setting the PIDGINLANG environment variable (for example, PIDGINLANG=de). If neither of these are specified, it will fall back to the default Windows user locale setting.

Oh right, you just change the PIDGINLANG variable. How could I have missed that! The PIDGINLANG variable! (At this point, your sarcasm metres should be spiking)

If this is indeed a frequently asked question, one that is even asked so much that it gets to be number one; how come the answer can only be understood is you have intricate knowledge to the program code?

If Pidgin aspires to be a real alternative to proprietary IM clients like Live Messenger, AIM and Yahoo! Messenger a few things need to change.
1: Stable connection with the various providers’ services: I don’t want to repeat myself over and over again just to get my single smiley across to whomever I’m talking to.
2: Language packs: complete them or don’t offer them. Most people will be more annoyed at bad translation than the fact that their language is not available yet.
3: Documentation: I know that Pidgin is supposed to be clean and easy to use, but at times, someone, somewhere will have a question that they need answered. Having the help function lead to a non-existing webpage does not answer that question. Forcing people to use the developer wiki as their only source for information only accomplishes to make non-programmers, like me, feel stupid. You really don’t want to alienate your users like that.

Until those three changes I’ll stay right here with my proprietary, advertise-filled, CPU hogging Live Messenger, thank you very much!
 

Microsoft to Google: We got cash too!

Google picked up DoubleClick right from under Microsoft’s nose. And prior to that, they snatched the deal to provide search advertising on AOL sites. Things like that can make any multi-billon dollar company a little bit upset. “Fool me once, shame on me. Fool me twice, we’re buying Yahoo!. Think about that for a while.”

Microsoft has showed renewed interest in a takeover of Yahoo, the New York Post reports. This is not the first time Microsoft has showed an interest in taking over the internet giant, but sources now say that Microsoft is willing to dig deeper in their pockets and find the money a deal requires. And it’s not small sums we are talking about here: Wall Street sources estimates a price tag of around $50 billion. (In comparison Google paid $3.1 billion for DoubleClick)

Yahoo! stock prices are up 18% from yesterday, in anticipation of a future takeover. Microsoft stocks not doing as good with a drop of one point five percent.

I just have one thing to say: You go Bill!
 

Imagine the Possibilities

The social technography of Web 2.0

Mac users are almost twice as likely to generate content on the web as Dell users, according to a new report by market research firm Forrester

Mac users were also more likely than Dell users to be "Critics" (those who comment on blogs and otherwise participate in discussion about the content posted by others), "Collectors" (those who use RSS and bookmarking/tagging services like del.icio.us), and "Joiners" (the group that uses social networking sites like MySpace and Facebook). The biggest percentage difference came in the "Spectators" category—those who merely read blogs, listen to podcasts, watch videos, etc.—where roughly 55 percent of Mac users fell but only 30 percent or so of Dell users.

The Mac/Dell breakdown makes sense if demographic stereotypes about Mac users are true: Mac users tend to be more active with new media online than PC (specifically, Dell) users traditionally are

I have noting to add here, so I'm adopting the dvorak.org/blog setup for todays post
 

Adam, Jamie and the Ninja

Digg users spark a riot

Something happened yesterday that angered the Digg community beyond belief. Someone has done some magic with a HD DVD player to disable the copy protection on HD DVD disks. This is apparently nothing new, as the code surfaced in mid-February according to computing.co.uk. The thing that sparked a riot, however, is the fact that an article got submitted to Digg with the code, and then subsequently got removed. Removing articles from Digg for anything but a double post is a big no-no.

As I am writing this the Top in 24 Hours section of Digg is now filled with the 16 digit code or stories connected to it. In fact only one story has made the top fifteen not regarding the whole HD DVD issue, and that’s in at number fifteen.

This whole riot will die down eventually, more people use Digg than own HD DVD players, I’m sure. What is interesting is how this will affect the format war with Blu-ray. Probably in no way at all, but an end to the format war would benefit all the consumers not wanting to get stuck with the latest Betamax.

And how will this affect Digg? In the words of founder Kevin Rose:

But now, after seeing hundreds of stories and reading thousands of comments, you’ve made it clear. You’d rather see Digg go down fighting than bow down to a bigger company. We hear you, and effective immediately we won’t delete stories or comments containing the code and will deal with whatever the consequences might be.

If we lose, then what the hell, at least we died trying.

 

Nothing to see here

Sometimes I write a more or less complete post, just to realise it’s not really saying what I want it to say, or it is just plain bad. Instead of going over it to try and try to fix it, I post something else completely, or just delete it. To conclude this rant, here are some words from such a deleted post: This is a bad attitude!

Videogames and too strict gun laws

I have sympathy with the people who need to find someone to blame. Who in their mourning tries to find answers to impossible questions. It is human nature. With 32 people left dead by a student at Virginia Tech and many more wounded, there is going to be a mountain of grief and sorrow to get by. A mountain that will cast a shadow on VT for a very long time after the eyes of the media turns elsewhere.

But, please, spare me of the people using the tragedy as a means to promote their personal agenda. Yes, Jack Thompson, I’m talking about you. Yes, Dr. Phil, I’m talking about you. Yes, Larry Pratt, I’m talking about you. Jack Thompson – the lawyer on a one man crusade to rid the world of videogames – was quick to lay the blame for the shootings on videogames. Dr. Phil – never one to shy away from free publicity – did the same thing as Thomson, with the typical Dr. Phil wording.

Then there is Larry Pratt, executive director of Gun Owners of America, who as a response to claims that gun laws in the US should be reviewed as a cause of the shootings, managed to come up with something along the lines of: “If everyone on campus had a gun, the gunman would have been shot before he could have loosed a single bullet.” Those were not the words he used, of course, but these are: “The latest school shooting at Virginia Tech demands an immediate end to the gun-free zone law which leaves the nation’s schools at the mercy of madmen.”

The sad part is that they might get more fuel to their fire as more information is disclosed. My stereotypical image of a young South Korean (the shooter moved to the US from South Korea at the age of 8), is a person with an above interest in new technology and videogames. I fear that a connection will be easy to establish – too easy perhaps?
 

I’m an IT-investor

And I didn’t even know it. Vodafone? Yup. Microsoft? You bet. Nokia? Samsung? Ericsson? Yup, yup, yup. Google? Certainly!

So how did I find this out all of a sudden? I read it on the internet of course! At the end of 2006 the Government Pension Fund was worth a staggering 1.748bn NOK, with around 724bn invested in stocks. Of those 724bn around 9% is placed in IT stocks. The Norwegian financial newspaper Finansavisen has done some number crunching and come out with the stakes each Norwegian has of the ten biggest IT companies the fund has invested in:

• Vodafone Group - 993 NOK
  
• Microsoft Corp. - 740 NOK
  
• Telefonica - 654 NOK
  
• Nokia Oyj - 625 NOK
  
• Sap AG - 560 NOK
  
• Ericsson - 537 NOK
  
• Google Inc - 488 NOK
  
• Samsung Electronics - 440 NOK
  
• Telecom Italia Spa- 430 NOK
  
• Deutsche Telecom AG - 424 NOK
  

Now it’s not like I have the option to take out the money any time soon, but it makes me feel good nonetheless...

(For those of you who care, the going rate for one USD is around 5.9 NOK and 8.1 for one Euro)

Via Dagens IT

“We don’t take kindly to your sorts around here”

MySpace: You can’t play in the sandbox with us!
Photobucket: Can too!
MySpace: No you can’t – it’s my sandbox!
Photobucket: But I want to play! And it’s my bucket!
MySpace: Take your bucket and find your own playground! Go away!
Photobucket: I’m not gonna!
MySpace: My dad is bigger than your dad!
Photobucket: Waaaaa! Waaaaa! Waaaa!
MySpace: You’re such a cry-baby.

So apparently MySpace told Photobucket to take a hike and find somewhere else to play. MySpace land is for MySpace people and not for strangers. The problem with this whole issue is that quite a few of the MySpace people also are Photobucket people. And alienating a large portion of the user base is not something to take lightly.

It is not like there is no alternative to the two sites. There are several sites out there that offer uploading, storing and sharing images. And not surprisingly MySpace is one of them. And new social networking sites spring up left, right and centre almost daily.

Photobucket has got 36 million registered users; MySpace is somewhere up in the 100 million plus range. Assuming that half of Photobuckets user base also have got a MySpace account then the number of shared accounts reaches 18 million. Assuming half of the people stay with MySpace and half with Photobucket the outcome looks grim for one of them. MySpace stands to loose 9 million accounts from the imagined scenario – something they would take in stride. Photobucket on the other hand stands to loose one quarter of their total user base. Not a fatal wound, probably, but a severe one nonetheless.

The above math is flawed. The number of shared accounts is taken out of thin air, and I have not taken into consideration the many people who will retain dual citizenship even after the content has been blocked. But flawed as it is, it is still clear who stands to loose the most on such an exclusion. Also, social networking sites are all about the people in them. And there MySpace is unparalleled by its sheer number of people. “Switching storage facility or abandoning friends?” is an easy question when asked that way.

When this story first appeared on Digg there were quite a few (rash) people to comment on not to bite the hand that feeds you. But who’s feeding whom in this case? Is it MySpace with its hundred million plus users; or Photobucket with its thirty-something millions? It’s not so much biting the hand that feeds you, as it is the hand that stopped feeding – biting suddenly seems like a viable option.

So is YouTube next? If MySpace is intent on following this line of blocking content in favour of their own services, then things could point in that direction for sure (and YouTube has even been blocked in the past). But I can’t see it happening though, and there are a few things speak in favour of my point of view. One is YouTubes size. YouTube is in the video sharing world what MySpace is in the social networking world: the name everyone knows. While blocking out services like Imeem, Revver and Photobucket has had little impact on MySpace numbers, the same would (most likely) not be the case if blocking out one of the few sites out there that are bigger than MySpace.

Then there is the other part of it: Money. In August 2006 Google coughed up $900m for the rights to provide search and advertising in MySpace. And in October the same year Google acquired YouTube for $1.65bn. As long as the deal between Google and MySpace stands, the services under the Google umbrella should be safe from harm.
  

Random musings

Earlier today, while watching a program on the Greatest Rock Anthems on Showtime (don’t ask), me and my flatmates got to wondering is any of today’s artists could gather a crowd like Queen did. And what concerts are the largest held (single concert, not a festival or world happening)? I decided to write a little bit on the subject

I had it all set up. I was going to write about how all the big names in music are gone. How none of today’s big names can really draw an audience like they used to do back in the days… Beatles drew a number of 55.600people at Shea Stadium back in 1965, and would have gotten many times more had the venue permitted it. The Rolling Stones drew two and three hundred thousand in the UK and US respectively back in 1969. Granted they were both free performances, but the numbers are still there.
Queen drew 72.000 people to Wembley Stadium two nights in a row in the summer of 1986 and under a moth later Knebworth Park got packed with 120.000 people who got to experience the group’s final live performance with Freddy Mercury on the stage. Not to mention the 325.000 people the group drew at the Rio Rock Festival early in ’85.

I had it all lined up and ready to go. Who can draw those numbers today? What band is big enough that people are more than willing to stay all the way in the back at Wembley just for the possibility to say “I was there when they played that time”? There are some names that draw such a crowd I’m sure – U2 is one that springs to mind. And there are probably others that have the name to draw such crowds all by themselves.

There is a ‘but’: A huge, friggin giant of a ‘but’. Look up a bit and see if you can connect a name and a place. If not I’ll give you a hint: the year is 2006.

The Rolling Stones, Rio de Janeiro, 2006: Estimated one-point-five-million people present.

(Yes it was a free concert. Yes they are oldies. Yes only paying attendants should count. But it is 1.5m people at a single location gathered to see one band. I have nothing)

…If you were wondering: Queen – We Will Rock You won the title of Greatest Rock Anthem…

Link Hike

Sometimes I follow links just to see where it takes me. And no, I don’t mean I follow the links that tell me that I can get free Viagra if I only fill in my credit card and personal information, or the ones that tell me that I can help launder money for a rich Nigerian mobster who is not really a mobster but the heir to a fortune that only he knows about. No one follows those, right?

Today one of those link hikes got me to an article on dinosaurs. Now for those of you who remember back to my post on blogs that I read, you might remember that I tend to stop by blogs that are well written: and this one is no exception.

What the Discovery Channel Doesn’t Tell You About Dinosaurs

Dinosaurs are more famous now than when they were alive and ruled the planet. They are the Elvis of the Animal Kingdom. This is in large part to the Discovery Channel which promotes and disseminates a pro-Dinosaur agenda nearly 24 hours a day. Surely, no advertisers are demanding this content. The target audience is extinct after all. Who is really behind this Paleozoic propaganda and what are they not telling you?

Internet Zillionaire has been added to both my bookmark folder and the list to the right. Go read! It will be time well spent. I promise
 

So I dropped my computer…

from about table height down to a very hard and unforgiving floor. And it didn’t like it very much. At all. So it shut down in protest.

After refitting the parts that fell off (part of a USB port and the IR-port cover), I tried to turn it on – no luck. No lights were lit, including the one indicating charging. So naturally the next step was to check if the battery was loose. It wasn’t, but I took it out anyway just to be sure. After refitting the battery I tried the power button again. No luck.

At this point I started to get worried. Really worried. But I would not give up (partly because I had no battery on my iPod, had forgotten my charger at home and there was nothing good on TV. Normally I would have waited and hoped it had resolved itself by the time I got back to it). So with a little help from my trusty IKEA toolkit and a screwdriver that kinda sorta fit, I got the covers away from the RAM and HD slots.

It is virtually impossible for an untrained eye like mine to see if anything is broken on the two components, but I pried them out anyway to have a look. The both looked ok (meaning they were not broken in two or bent at funny angles) so I put them back in again: after a bit of trial and error and prying with the aforementioned screwdriver they slotted into place. You should think it is as easy to put them in as it was to take them out - but it never is.

At least now I know that I have a HD from Fujitsu and RAM from some manufacturer I had never heard of and have already forgotten…

After refitting the covers I tried the power button again. Lo and behold: it worked! My trusty old computer booted up, no problems. I love electronics that, when broken, gets fixed after looking sternly at the individual parts…

This was Saturday evening, and it still works. It’s as good today as the day I got it! Apart from a broken keyboard that had an unfortunate run-in with some coffee, cracked cover around the hinges and middle due to an unfortunate run-in with a shoe, partly busted audio out due to tripping over a headset cable and a partly busted USB port due to the mentioned run-in with the floor. But aside from those minor details it’s all good!

I should take better care of my computer...
 

The real Truman Show?

So I was going to write some words about justin.tv: the site that features 24 hour live coverage of the life of Justin Kev. But I’m really uninspired, so this will be short.

24 hour a day coverage of any one persons life is boring. I really don’t need to see Justin trying to install a printer for 10 minutes (something he has been doing while I am writing this).

I sort of get why he gets all the attention that he does. Having him appear on one show or other creates a fun segment for that show. Watching him sit in front of a computer for 10 minutes doing nothing is a totally different thing altogether.

I think I’ll skip this internet hype…

Peanut butter? Really?

Wow! The people in this video have so little understanding of science that it’s truly frightening. And, their ability to mash together analogies out of utterly unrelated things is stunning. A true masterpiece! Easily on par with the banana proof.

Two questions, though… First, does this proof hold up no matter if you use smooth OR chunky? And second, what happens when you create Elvis’ fav sandwich, fried peanut butter and banana? If yes, does that make it a holy sandwich? Oops, that’s three questions. See what a can of worms one opens thinking about such things? Wait a minute… worms… in peanut butter… Where’s my video camera…

dvorak.org/blog
 

What’s up with twitter?

I don’t get it. It might be that I’m a bit slow, but I just don’t get it. But first things first: what is twitter?

twitter is yet another social networking site, stripped down to its bare requirements. It’s a site that revolves around one question only: What are you doing? That is it. Answer the question “What are you doing?” in 140 characters or less. Then you add your friends, and you get updates of what they are doing. Followers are the people that follow you, but which you in turn do not get updated on. That’s it.

I just don’t get it.

twitter first came to my attention through a podcast (not that I can remember which), and has been occurring in several podcasts since then. And every time hosts try to explain ‘for those of our listeners that do not know what twitter is’ there is always a few seconds of dead air and then a more or less coherent explanation. But one thing they all agree on is that twitter is very addictive - in batches of 140 characters or less.

And it’s growing. Fast. Expect to hear more, much more, about twitter in the future. I might even get it some day…



Traffic data from alexa.com. Read more at SFGate.com

Edit: Some interresting thoughts on twitter. And why it won't last

I wonder how this will turn out

http://bumrushthecharts.com/
It will be interresting to see if it acctually works

The game has changed

You have probably seen the Vote Different video, with Hillary Clinton cut into the Apple 1984 commercial. It’s been kind of hard to miss. The big question has been who created the mashup. The Clinton campaign certainly had nothing to do with it. The Obama campaign claimed to have no knowledge or other ties to the video. Who made it?

Over at The Huffington Post, Arianna Huffington decided to use he network to try and solve the mystery: and solve it she did. The man behind the nick ParkRidge47 appeared to be Phil de Vellis (until recently) of Blue State Digital. He explains to have made the video on a Sunday afternoon using his Apple and some software. But here is the real kicker: Blue State Digital is the company that created the Obama campaign website and have ties to several previous campaigns.

Obviously Blue State Digital claims no knowledge or involvement in the creation of the ad piece: the same claim echoed by Phil de Vellis. But no matter how much they deny it, the questions will still linger and cast a dark shadow over Barak Obamas election campaign. Did they really not know? What would have happened had it not gotten as big as it got?Is Phil de Vellis a scapegoat?

In his explanation de Vellis writes:

The company had no idea that I'd created the ad, and neither did any of our clients. But I've decided to resign anyway so as not to harm them, even by implication.

This ad was not the first citizen ad, and it will not be the last. The game has changed.

Even by implication. It’s a bit late for that now: the questions will still be out there. But one thing is certain: this will not be the last citizen ad. Phil de Vellis just set the bar
 

On the subject of blogs

I don’t read a lot of blogs. Not regularly at least. My bookmark-folder for blogs counts the grand total of 15 entries. And I guess read about half of those on a more or less regular basis. But I’m expanding: like today for instance, I added two. Both of them winners of a Weblog Award (yes I’m horribly late with discovering the winners: I had to get them through a mainstream newspaper). Now for a short list:

Gizmodo
“Gizmodo, the gadget guide. So much in love with shiny new toys, it's unnatural.” This is a very good blog about gadgets. New shiny stuff that I’ll never get and some things that I wouldn’t want if I got it for free: All very well written with a lot of (somewhat geeky) humour by the staff at the Giz.

Engadget
Engadget could be called Gizmodo’s big brother and is the top ranking blog at Tecnorati (Gizmodo ranking in at number 4). It covers much of the same subjects as Giz, and combined they give tell you all you need to know about the what’s in the world of gadgets.

StopBuyingCrap.com
This is what the ‘About’ section has to say about StopBuyingCrap.com: “Quick story. One day I woke up and found out that I’m $10,000 in debt — and I wasn’t even of legal drinking age yet. Uh oh?” It’s a well written personal finance blog – go take a look.

Violent Acres
Some people might have a hard time admitting to reading Violent Acres, and I don’t blame them. The blog is written by an angry, bitchy, I-take-on-the-world woman in her early thirties who is very much for abortion and has a strong disliking of so-called ‘mommybloggers’. She usually writes about a vide variety of subjects and most of them make for a good read (even if some of the posts are a bit … much)

Waiter rant
This is one of the blogs that made it into my bookmarks folder today. A waiter in New York writes about life and bad tippers. Winning the Weblog Award for Best Writing in a Weblog (I see a pattern emerging) this blog is one that I’ll no doubt follow more closely from now.

English Russia
This is a photoblog with images from all over Russia often with a small commentary following a set of images. Every day something happens in the worlds largest country (too bad it has significantly more downtime than most other blogs).

BibliOdyssey
Books~ ~Illustrations~ ~Science~ ~History~ ~Visual Materia Obscura~ ~Eclectic Bookart. Another photoblog featuring artwork from a vide variety of literary sources. It’s pretty, go have a look.

PostSecret
Weblog of the Year. “PostSecret is an ongoing community art project where people mail in their secrets anonymously on one side of a homemade postcard.” A worthy winner indeed.


Suggestions for additions to my bookmarks folder greatly appreciated…
 

An arm and a leg...

Err... Make that both legs instead. Anyways!

A little while ago I came over a video of a Linux desktop displaying physical characteristics in regards to files and folders: something that is usually lost on a computer screen. (My Windows desktop is significantly less cluttered than my other one)

I have to admit that for all the nice features it displayed I could not see the real advantage over a standard desktop and filing system that most people use – that is, until today.

Perceptive Pixel has taken it a giant leap forward with their new am-I-really-seeing-what-my-eyes-tells-me-I’m-seeing-cause-last-time-
I-saw-anything-remotely-similar-was-in-Minority-Report screen. Say hello to multi-touch technology the way it’s meant to be:


(Zatz Not Funny via Dingz) 

Suzanne sez

iGeek is the new word in the tubes

(alternative spelling includes IGeek, Igeek and igeek)
 

I'm hooked

3D Pong Game

Found via BT's Teknoblogg

The List

The BBC reports:

The alleged mastermind of the 9/11 attacks, Khalid Sheikh Mohammed, has admitted his role in them, and 30 other terror plots around the world, in a hearing at Guantanamo Bay, the Pentagon has said

That is a list of thirty-one counts of planned, attempted and/or accomplished acts of terrorism in all parts of the world. These include the bombing of the World Trade Center both in 1993 and 2001, the night club bombing in Bali, and a suicide bomber who struck a hotel in Mombasa, Kenya. Plans that he has admitted to participate in include attacks on several buildings in the US: landmarks and financial centres such as the Empire State Building (NY), Sears Tower (Chicago), Plaza Bank (Washington State) and the New York Sock Exchange. Outside of the US targets included Heathrow Airport, NATO headquarters and the Panama Canal.

All these targets, and many, many more, were included in a list read by Khalid Sheikh Mohammed’s ‘Personal Representative’ (read: us military officer assigned to the case). And in no uncertain terms Mohammed admits to having written the text read at the hearing:

PERSONAL REPRESENTATIVE: [Reading]”Also hereby admit and affirm without duress that I was a responsible participant, principle planner, trainer, financer.”
DETAINEE: For this is not necessary as I responsible, responsible. But with in these things in responsible participant in finances.
PRESIDENT: I understand. I want to be clear, though, is you that were the author of that document.
DETAINEE: That’s right.
PRESIDENT: That it is true?
DETAINEE: That’s true.
PRESIDENT: Alright. You may continue with your statement.

That is to say – this is the unclassified version: and with only minor omissions as well. I wonder what kind of ‘persuasion’ was needed to get Mohammad to type out the list. I hear Guantanamo prisoners are ‘persuaded’ on a more or less regular basis.

And now that they have The List, I wonder how long it takes before Khalid Sheikh Mohammed is found dangling from the ceiling of his cell in Guantanamo Bay…
 

Some ideas just takes longer to develop

1943:


2005:


I like the concept better...

Images from here and here

The white helpers

"Don’t bite the hand that feeds you" or "the road to hell is paved with good intentions"?

The year is 2002, and in the southern parts of Africa 12 million people were at the risk of dying from hunger according to the Red Cross. Trying to fathom the scale of such a disaster is next to impossible: twelve million people is a number so large that most people have no basis of comparison. But at the same time such a large number sparks the will to help. And so Norway starts a big operation to send two hundred white trucks to Africa to help with distribution of food.

White paint was donated to paint the trucks chosen for the mission, as were fuel and spare parts. And transport aboard a large carrier ship was given to the operation as well. All were set for a humanitarian success-story. And the media followed up with reports of success as the white trucks delivered food to areas previously unreached. All the while the bulk of the trucks were still stuck at the port where they had arrived: the papers for the trucks were not in fact ready, and they sat there waiting. And drivers had to be trained to operate trucks with the wheel on the wrong side. Probably an honest mistake…

So why the big commotion? It’s all about the trucks that were sent. They were old. Up to forty years old. Decommissioned by the Norwegian military during the nineties and awaiting disassembly. Veteran trucks. Those were the trucks the Norwegian Red Cross decided to send to Africa - with a fresh coat of white paint.

As mentioned the trucks got hold up at arrival. One of the reasons for that was in fact that they were not allowed to drive through South Africa, as they were deemed a safety risk as well an unwelcomed pollution source. They ended up being shipped by train out of South Africa. And during the nine first months (deemed the most critical) the trucks had transported well under 20% of their initial target.

Evaluations of the project concluded that under no circumstances were the costs of running the veteran trucks under twice that of locally available commercial transport. Not that any such messages were conveyed by the Norwegian Red Cross to the foreign ministry who continued to pour money into the ‘successful’ project. The latest trucks to be shipped left Norway the Easter of 2006.

Today the majority of the trucks sent to various parts of Africa sit idle in parking lots or automotive graveyards waiting for disassembly. The few that are still in use have numerous breakdowns and are in constant need of repairs. A mechanic working on the trucks said it like this: send ten trucks out on a given mission and expect four not to make the trip. Not to mention they use more fuel and carry less load than comparable means of transport.

It’s time the myth “Humanitarianism works, by definition” was laid to rest. 



Source: the TV2 documentary “De hvite hjelperne” and this article (norwegian) 

King for a day?

Cheap! A young monarchy, 102 yrs old, for sale. At the moment the monarchy is settled in Norway, but can be brought to an other country any time. People, king and queen, is not included, but I'm sure they and their family will follow.

And just look at that bargain shipping cost!
 

I did not see that coming

So I just watched the latest episode of Battlestar Galactica, and I have to say: I did not see that one coming. At all

And according to this blogger, who reportedly have seen the remaining episodes of this season, the shakeup have only just stared. (Major or minor spoiler warning, depending on whether or not you've seen the latest episode)

I can barely wait for the next episode
 

A husband admits defeat

There has been a new development in the story of the pianist Joyce Hatto and the recordings passed off as her work. The husband now admits (after a mountain of evidence has been presented against his case) that the recordings passed off as Hattos were indeed those of other “pianists whose sound and style were similar to that of his wife”.

At first (or so he claims) it was only to fill inn the parts where his sick and dying wife were stumbling. And as her sickness progressed, and his skills in integrating the music, the pieces of others recordings grew longer and the original Hatto recording subsequently shorter.

His story is very nice and heart-warming. But is it too little too late? Further investigation into the matter will no doubt shed some light on the case. For now it remains a string of good intentions gone bad; or a cover-up trying to appeal to the good nature of the public. The jury is still out on this one…
 

What the ..?

I guess you can argue that having a baby while financially dependant of your parents is a good idea. I guess you can argue that the added stability and security can add up to a safe environment when growing up. I guess you can also argue that having a baby at an early age will add several years’ worth of maturity the moment a small head peaks out and draws breath. But I am sure that none of these thoughts crosses a fourteen year old girl's mind before she decides to get pregnant. OUT OF BOREDOM!

"There's nothing for children to do in Paignton. I honestly think they get bored and think it's a fashionable thing to get pregnant."

Or even worse; as a fashion accessory

"When my friends see my bump they say they wish they could have a baby, then three weeks later they're pregnant and don't know what to do.
[…]
It seems to be fashionable to get pregnant."

I cannot even begin to contemplate what goes through a young girls head at the point where thinking ‘babies are cute’ equals ‘I want to have a baby’. But perhaps it’s a natural progression from seeing that hot celebrity with the ridiculous mini-dog tucked away in a thousand dollar bag with a ten thousand dollar collar. They do tend to produce babies just like the rest of the adult population after all. ‘I want a dog like that’ is similar to ‘I want a baby like that’ I guess…
 

...

There is a reason why some clips on YouTube have over three million views

(remember to turn up the volume)

A different kind of hoax

If your wife is dying from cancer and happens to be a former concert pianist what do you do? Why, of course, you release some of her recordings and win her as much acclaim as you can for her work. And that’s exactly what her husband did. On a private label the husband of Joyce Hatto publishes his wife playing pieces of well known classical music. And as a critic in the Boston Globe put it in 2005 ‘[she is] the greatest living pianist that almost no one has ever heard of.’

At least that’s how it should have gone. But with a little help from iTunes, things took a slightly different direction. As gramophone.co.uk first reported, a listener of Hattos sat down in front of his computer and was in for a bit of a surprise: the music was recognised as a recording of Liszt – as it indeed said on the cover of the disc. But the name that appeared on the screen was not of the female virtuoso as expected, but a pianist by the name László Simon.

How is it, people had previously asked, that a previously unknown artist that stopped performing publicly more than three decades ago, and while battling with cancer, can suddenly start to produce such great music? The sad, but honest truth is that she couldn’t (or at any rate didn’t). It was all one big scam from beginning to end.

Take one piece of good classical music alter the pace, re-master it and give it out under the name of Joyce Hatto. Rinse and repeat. All of a sudden you have an amazing collection of work praised for its brilliance – the only problem is the name on the cover. A name that did not in fact play the music…

As for the reasons for publishing the music under his wife’s name not a lot is known. William Barrington-Coupe still claims all recordings are genuine and played by his late wife, but the evidence supporting his claim has yet to be presented. Meanwhile the list of musicians recognised on the Hatto CDs is still growing.

Side by side comparison of some of the pieces can be heard at Pristine Audio.
 

Time well spent

Having spent the better part of the afternoon and evening trying to get my head around OpenID - its uses and how to acctually get an OpenID for my blog I finally got it all to work. Largely thanks to a very informative screencast by Simon Willison that can be found here.

[I was going to write more, but I got sidetracked, so I'll just leave it at that...]

I want a Dell cell phone

And no I don’t mean it that way… I’m not dying to see a cell phone with the Dell logo printed on it in big letters. The brand is not of any particular importance. What I want is for a mobile phone company to pick up the Dell business model. Just picture this: 

- Hello, and welcome to Dreamphone Inc. How may I help you?
- Yeah, hello. I’d like to order a cell phone…
- Certainly, sir. What type of cell phone would you like?
- Well… It’d have to be a small one, but with a nice bright screen
- Ah, yes. Then we have two models you might like: one is a slider and one is a flip phone. The flip is slightly bigger but you get the additional screen to see who’s calling, and we can fit a better camera module into that one. The slider phone has the advantage of a slightly better battery – but both will have around average standby and talk time.
- Well, I’m not concerned about the camera, but is it possible to get a 3G module in both phones?
- Certainly sir, but that means you have to sacrifice some of the internal memory – or move up to a slightly bigger shell. Not a problem? All right then. 
[…]
- Is there anything else I can add to the order?
- I don’t think so…
- We have your phone then. A mail with the complete specification list as well as an illustration photo of the phone will be sent to you shortly. Don’t hesitate to call again if you have any questions or changes. Your phone should be shipped within three weeks. Have a nice day, and thank you for using Dreamphone Inc.

I’m not all that optimistic, but a little daydreaming hasn’t hurt anyone...
 

To Kill a Paperclip

The last scene is a still photo of Clippy standing proudly on his prized piece of notebook paper. The dates "1997-2007" appear, and then simply, the words "Goodbye Clippy." The place is packed. There's not a dry eye in the house. Tux the Linux penguin and Sonic the Hedgehog are seated in the front row, holding hands, bawling their eyes out.

Easy money?

If you walk past a slot machine do you put on some money just to see if you, just this time, can win the big jackpot? The flashing lights tell you, you are only one coin away from the big payout. Or are you one of those people who play the lottery every week for that insignificant chance of winning the first price? A comforting thought might be that you are not alone.

In 2005 each Norwegian bet on average 1400 € in the hopes of getting to the pot of gold at the end of the rainbow. One thousand four hundred euros. Each. Not included in this number is the around 500m € spent on unregulated internet gambling that year. And since I know for a fact that I spent significantly less than that in 2005, someone must have a serious problem.

A survey from 2002 found that around 49 000 people between the age of 15 and 79 had a serious gambling problem. And since then the amount of money involved have increased by 25 %. A new survey, that is well underway, is bound to find that the number of people with a problem has increased.

One of the most popular lotteries (if not the most addictive as it is a weekly game) is the Norwegian Lotto. It’s your basic ‘pick 7 numbers out of a pot of 34’ lottery, and if you get them all correct you win the first price. The principle of it all is very easy to follow. The hard part is actually winning anything. And as anyone who have ever put some money into a lottery like this knows; winning isn’t enough – it’s the first price that really counts.

One in five million.

That’s the chance of winning the first price on any given set of numbers. One in five million. So why do people insist on throwing money into the lottery? It’s because every week another lucky sod gets half a million after putting in five euros in the pot! Every week that one in five million chance happens to someone. Sooner or later it’s bound to happen to me, right? Right? 

How about a carrot?

“Support the WHO FCTC – it saves lives!” Not heard of the WHO FCTC? Well there is not much you need to know, really. They save lives, so they must be the good guys. The good guys saves lives, so saving lives must naturally make you a good guy. It’s logical.

This is how the WHO FCTC saves lives. Scare you, did it? Well, it’s designed to do just that. Those are from Canada by the way. Reportedly they work better than the small warning printed on the side of the package in the US. So good of them to use three years, and who knows how many millions to come up with that answer. I bet they didn’t look into the increasing numbers of cigarette cases sold, though.

I know that smoking kills. You know that smoking kills. So does anyone with half a brain. And smokers? They get it force fed every time they try to light up. They should have gotten the message by now. Perhaps instead of covering half a package we should cover the whole thing? With an even more illustrating picture. And the warnings on the packages? Not powerful enough. “Smoking kills” could be made into “Every time you smoke you help Osama kill an infidel”. (Naturally the warning would have to be locally adapted).

I am sure that psychologists and psychiatrists would tank us for the added work bound to come from treating depressed and disillusioned smokers…

Mac has issued a salutation. Cancel or allow?

Apple has done it again - another Mac vs. PC commercial is out. Now normally I watch it once, smile a bit then continue with whatever I’m doing (the commercials do not air in Norway). But this one actually has got a valid point…


Windows needs your permission to continue
User Account Control stops unauthorised changes to your computer. If you started this action please continue.

-Continue- -Cancel-

-Continue-


As I was saying – this new one actually has a point to make. If I want to make changes, minor or major, to my computer I do not want to get asked every step of the way if I really did click the button on the screen: Are you sure you want to do that? Are you? Really? Cause it might be a bad idea, you see? Really? A backup could be considered a threat, you know? Do you really want to shut me off? Do you? Really? Cause if you do we take no responsibility whatsoever? You think that’s unfair? Really?


Windows needs your permission to continue
User Account Control stops unauthorised changes to your computer. If you started this action please continue.

-Continue- -Cancel-

-Continue-


I have a feeling that this function could be more hated than even the dreaded paperclip in Word. I’m sure you remember the one. It’s very hard to forget once you’ve encountered it. It seemed fun and functional the first time. You could even animate it at will! Then it turned up when you least wanted it. Made a mess of the screen, and whatever you were thinking at the time got lost into the great abyss – just so you could get “Did you know that …” Yes I did know. No, I did NOT need to be reminded. Thank you, and good night!


Windows needs your permission to continue
User Account Control stops unauthorised changes to your computer. If you started this action please continue.

-Continue- -Cancel-

-Continue-


One of the points made when launching Vista was that it was more secure than the old XP. It had built in safety and every step of the way. I’m sure there is more to it than this bit here. But it’s this bit here that is visible, and it doesn’t look all that good. Imagine a 100 meter race where every few meters there is a door that needs opening. The track can be the fastest in the world, but the focus is still on the doors, not what’s leading up to them…


Windows needs your permission to continue
User Account Control stops unauthorised changes to your computer. If you started this action please continue.

-Continue- -Cancel-

-Continue-


Now of course you could turn it off, but just once in a while it could be nice to get a “You are about to totally fuck over your computer. Cancel or allow?” But by then I'm sure that the continue-click has been made an automated process, and all the frustration would be even greater. I’m sure that if you kept it on long enough the paperclip had one valid suggestion. It must have had. “Did you know that I can be turned off?” 


Windows needs your permission to continue
User Account Control stops unauthorised changes to your computer. If you started this action please continue.

-Continue- -Cancel-

-Cancel-
 

Rowan Atkinson - Comedy Genious

Hello, nice to see you all again.

Now, as the more perceptive of you have probably realised by now, this is Hell, and I am the Devil. Good evening. You can call me Toby, if you like – we try and keep things informal here, as well as infernal. That’s just a little joke.

Now, you’re all here for eternity, which I hardly need tell you is a sod of a long time, so you get to know everyone pretty well by the end, but for now I’m going to have to split you up into groups. Are there any questions? Yes?

Um, no, I’m afraid we don’t have any toilets. If you’d read your Bible you might have seen that it was damnation without relief. So, if you didn’t go before you came then I’m afraid you’re not going to enjoy yourself very much … but then, I believe that’s the idea.

Right, let’s split you up then.
Can you all hear me still?
CAN YOU HEAR ME AT THE RACK?
All right, off we go …

Murderers, over here. Looters and pillagers – over there please, thieves if you could join them, and bank managers …
Fornicators, if you could step forward – my God there are a lot of you. Could I split you up into adulterers and the rest? Adulterers if you could just form a line in front of that small guillotine there.

Okay …

Americans, are you here? Look, I’m sorry about this, apparently God had some fracas with your founding fathers and damned the entire race into perpetuity. He sends particular condolences to the Mormons who He realises put in a lot of work. That’s the way the wafer crumbles. The Iranians, I’m afraid, can’t be with us – someone’s been holding them in purgatory for about nine months. Sodomites, over there against the wall.

Atheists! Atheists? Over here please. You must be feeling a right bunch of charlies. Okay, and Christians! Christians? Ah yes, I’m sorry, I’m afraid the Jews were right. Okay, Moonies, maniacs, marmite eaters, male models, masochists, mass murderers and masseurs, if you could take a pew at the back - with the Methodists that is.

Now, you’re the lot who used to kill whales, is that right? Ah, yes, I must remember - I’ve got some strips to tear off you bastards later.

Everyone who saw Monty Python’s “Life of Brian” – I’m afraid He can’t take a joke after all. Alright now, one final thing. We’re trying to implement some kind of exchange scheme with the Lord God Almighty, or Cliff as we know him. Some of you will travel up and have a decade in heaven and we’re having some angels down here. Now, I hardly need tell you that in heaven you will be expected to behave in an exemplary manner, so I hope you will do the exact opposite – tear off their wings, use their haloes for frisbee practice, that sort of thing.

Well, I have to go now, unfortunately, but Beelzebub here will show you the ropes ... and the chains, and electrodes.

And I’d just like to leave you with a favourite joke of mine, if I may. Quite apt to the circumstances, I feel, which goes something like:

“Knock, knock.
Who’s there?
Death.
Death wh…”

--------------------

From what I can tell this is the original version from his live performance in Belfast. You can listen to it here.
There is also a later version readily available on YouTube.

A picture can tell a thousand words

or so I have heard. Imagine reading a newspaper without any images in it. Pages upon pages of more or less dry retelling of the happenings of the world. It sounds dull. It probably would be dull. Thousands of words, just to create the same effect as a small collection of coloured ink on a piece of paper. The trouble occurs when the picture chosen for a given article does not in fact tell a thousand words; when the picture chosen is more of a light introduction to the topic. Or even just some filler material because the journalist is out if time and out of words. They have a deadline to work against, and probably a dozen different pieces to write before the end of the week. A mediocre article accompanied with a mediocre image, read the next day and then thrown in a bin at the end of the lunch break.

When I open a newspaper I expect to get, well, the news. I expect to get the news delivered to me in a way that I can understand and possibly relate to. I expect to get opinions in the commentaries and leaders, and I expect the information delivered to be accurate. What I don’t expect pages upon pages of advertising, half finished articles and copy-pastes of the big international news agencies. I tend to get the latter.

Whenever I hear about falling numbers of readers in the daily press I get this little voice in the back of my head going “We will combat the falling numbers with more focus on entertainment news and sports, add extra revenue from advertising and possibly cut a few positions in the journalist department.” To be honest I don’t care what celebrity it was this time who went with a too short skirt and no underwear. Or that a football player sprained his pinkie but thankfully will make the big match next Saturday – although he missed a training session and was rushed to the emergency room for a thorough x-ray examination. Those two stories? Five pages if you include a comment from the doctor doing the examination. And a couple more if you get someone saying the celebrity in question is a bad role model for the kids growing up today. Then an additional page if you can quote a given b-celebrity saying: -No I would not go without underwear in that short a skirt, and I sincerely doubt it will become commonplace in the next year or so. Meanwhile the two elections in Europe and the sinking of a ferry in Indonesia get half a page maximum spread out over the five pages of international news. Do they really wonder why people stop reading their papers?

One small step for a man

one giant "who the hell cares?" from mankind.

This here'll be my little corner of the internet. My little collection of
thoughts on, and/or comments to the things that holds my intrest at
the time of writing an entry. I reserve the right to add watever I like
whenever I feel like it, be it the latest bit of interresting news or just 
some meaningless gibberish. If anyone has a problem with that
 - tough luck. Im sure there are other corners of the internet
you'll find more pleasing, so shoo!

If you're still here be sure to check back in from time to time for a
new entry. I wont promise to keep the entries coming at any regular 
intervals so irregularly will probably be more than good enough. Thats it for tonight, the next entry wont be far off
as this is all new and exciting at the moment. Watch this space