Oh, by the way

Browsing the web got even better today:

Firefox 1.5 is released.

CommentsTags: firefox, software, tech

November 30, 2005 at 5:20 pm · Filed under Computing & techiness, Internet

Junkmail fun

Sometimes I wonder if I’m really a nice guy. Mostly becuase I come up with little sadistic schemes all the time. Not that I ever would go through with them, but I still wonder how I come up with them. This idea came to me when I noticed that as we are going towards the peak of the holiday shopping season, the stacks of junkmail dropped through my mail slot are getting ever larger by the day.

The idea is a game that requires only a few key components: a door with a mail slot and peephole (can be excluded but requires faster reactions), and an ETA of the junkmail delivery person. The course of the game is to wait by the door, preferably dressed as if to go out, until the deliverer is outside the door – and then swing the door open with full force. I guess I have to work out some sort of scoring system. It could also be interesting to join up with a few others in the building, to see who disables the target first.

I don’t suppose this would become a truly international sport, since while doors open outwards here in Sweden, that doesn’t seem to be the case everywhere.

CommentsTags: sports, thoughts

November 30, 2005 at 5:17 pm · Filed under Random ramblings & reflections

I’m not getting on that…

Having nothing better to do, I got stuck watching a little of a Discovery Channel documentary about the construction of a new Airbus jet. It looked pretty impressive, until the head test pilot said “It’s actually quite easy to fly, almost like a bicycle.” Like a bicycle? I’m not going further than the gate if I see that plane outside – last time I checked, bicycles were as far from easy to fly as anything can be.

CommentsTags: language, random

November 26, 2005 at 3:47 pm · Filed under Random ramblings & reflections

One of those little things

I just opened a new pack of coffee. I like that – that first whiff of fresh coffee when you open, and then the first few extra fresh cups. One of those things that are, when you think of it, quite nice. But I guess that from a more practical viewpoint it means that I should get that coffee grinder I’ve been thinking about, so I can get my brew as fresh as possible all the time.

Another nice thing is new CDs, especially if they are not only really good, but also just what you’re in the mood for. I wrote about Ane Brun in an earlier entry, and I got the new release Duets in the mail yesterday. I’ll return with a review in a couple of days.

Oh, and relating to the fever dreams I mentioned in the last post, check out Dreamlines. Enter a few keywords, and see the web dream about it. Here’s the “flesh and blog” dream. The creator, Leonardo Solaas, explains the work:

“Who is dreaming? The user, or the Internet itself? In a certain way, both. The program generates a personal moving picture, unique, unpredictable, and forever gone when it is finished, just like dreams. But that dream is made out of pieces taken form the subconscious of the whole net, gathered by some words of the user and the obscure logic of searching algorithms.”

The abstract image is a snapshot of a dream (click for full view, I didn’t want to lose detail by resizing it)

CommentsTags: Art, links, thoughts

November 24, 2005 at 3:56 pm · Filed under General

Illness

I have got the cold. Or some sort of flu. Something with fevers, at least. I always get trouble sleeping when I have a fever, so the last few days have been quite hazy. And my dreams always get quite bizarre. When it comes to some, I’m glad they fade quickly.

I just hope I havn’t come down with this…

CommentsTags: links

November 23, 2005 at 6:47 am · Filed under General

Free fall

I live on the fourth floor, and I usually take the stairs instead of the elevator. Like I did today. I went out, and on the short way to the stairs I got out my phone to check the time. I’m obviously not a woman, becuase it was proven that I lack the coordination required to look at a phone while walking down a stair.

After only a few steps I dropped the phone. I don’t know how, it just somehow left my hands. And, for some reason, the designer of the stairwell decided to put gap between the wall and the stair, providing an excellent free fall experience for dropped items. And not only down to the ground floor, but all the way to the basement. That’s where my phone went.

From where I was then that means a ten meter drop – or about 33 feet, in case you’re imperially impaired. So my Nokia fell. Literally. There was no cartoon-like bouncing between the walls or anything. Just straight down onto the stone floor.

And somehow it survived. Without a scratch. (It did break up into its removable components, though – the battery and front part of the cover were at the other wall)

I didn’t expect it to live through that, but I’m glad I don’t have to buy a new phone right now.

Oh, and my ISP upgraded me to a connection with 8Mbit downstream today. That’s quite nice. I’ll try not to drop the dsl hardware down the stairs.

CommentsTags: gadgets, tech

November 18, 2005 at 6:30 pm · Filed under General

New reality show: Brats in Chopper County

I keep wondering what the reality show makers will come up with next. Why not just brush up something old? In Brats in Chopper County Paul Teutul Sr., his sons and employees at Orange County Choppers, known from Discovery Channel’s popular series American Chopper, will be assisted by eight girls who never have operated more advanced tools than a nail file – until they got their own credit cards and could hire people to do that too. Maybe could end up like this:

Summary of episode 3: The girs are making a slight progress in adjusting to their new environment, but still can’t be convinced into doing anything practical, except for Amanda’s ordeal with cleaning up the “contribution” her Chihuahua made to a seat cover in the last episode. There’s also seems to be a general reluctance towards interacting with the shop’s regular staff, although Michaela seems to find it amusing to convince Mikey to bring her things.

In a sudden burst of creativity Tiffany gets out her nailpolish and adds a red design to the tank for one of the bikes under construction, the other girls agree that it “looks like something that that kind of people would like”. Jennifer returns, having recovered most of her eyesight after having stared to long into a welding torch. Rick is still annoyed over her “my father is rich so don’t tell me what to do” attitude.

Paul Sr. gets into the worst fit of rage ever shown on television when punching a clueless Paulie in the face even before asking how he could come up with the idea of putting a blood splatter design on the “Stay Alive” bike they are building in honour of the troops in Iraq.

Now that’s good television, isn’t it…?

CommentsTags: thoughts, tv

November 18, 2005 at 1:36 am · Filed under Random ramblings & reflections

Evicted by Microsoft

I almost thought I was getting kicked out from my PC earlier. When I booted it I got a message along the lines that “the hardware configuration has been considerably altered since Windows was verified on this computer”. That’s kind of interesting. Yes, I have changed hardware in the computer, but that was only adding a hard disk and a DVD-burner. And I reinstalled Windows two months ago, and then the verification went just fine, and I havn’t changed anything since then.

So, I start the activation thing, only to find out that there’s no activations left for my product key.

Next step, phonecall to Microsoft, where a machine asked me to enter the installation ID. Of course I got one digit wrong. What are the chances of that? I mean, it’s only a tiny 42 digit affair… I really must be retarded to get that wrong.

Well, at that point I’m glad that I’m being transferred to real living person. But of course I forgot one thing… being put on hold. So I had to spend 15 minutes listening to crappy pop music, Ricky Martin or something and other similar somethings. I wonder what was up with all the static and noises, by the way – it sounded like they got the music from an untuned radio in an auto-workshop. Has some bright record industry type come up with the suspicion that people would call support centers only to make bootleg music recordings?

When I finally get connected I get to talk to a Norwegian person. Well, I’m Swedish and our languages are similar – actually, I even think it’s quite attractive when spoken by women – but after being faced with the threat of being thrown out of my own computer, there’s enough differences to make it something you don’t need to end up with at the end of the telephone maze. Thankfully, that was the end of the problems.

But I think the main problem is that there was a problem. It feels so wrong having to to through all that to use a software license I own. If I had used a pirate version it would probably never have happened. But here I am, being punished by annoying verification systems for having bought the product.

CommentsTags: software, tech

November 16, 2005 at 12:37 am · Filed under Computing & techiness, Random ramblings & reflections

Dr. McNinja, and generally random update.

The first episode of The Adventures of Dr. McNinja was recently concluded, so if you havn’t done so yet I think you should check out this well made and quite hilarious comic.

It also seems I have been quite slow on posting recently. Got another game that has taken some of my time. Gun, which isn’t perfect, but a western action game is a bit different, and the story is quite good. And then there’s been som general restlesness. The next design of the blog will have a miniblog/asides sort of thing, so I think that will provide a good place for those small, random posts. Quick mock-up of the design idea here. I think I’m quite satisfied with that (plus style for the miniblog.)

CommentsTags: comics, Dr. McNinja, games

November 14, 2005 at 7:04 pm · Filed under General, Internet

Brains? What brains?

When I was waiting for the bus earlier a guy came running to the bus stop, and asked me if the bus had gone. People really don’t use their brains anymore, do they?

If I had been in his situation, I would have been able to draw the conclusion that I hadn’t missed the bus based on a few facts like:

• there’s a guy standing at the bus stop
• there’s only one line trafficking that bus stop, so that guy must be waiting for the same bus
• the guy doesn’t have the annoyed look of someone who’s just realized he has to wait 20 minutes for the next bus.

I wanted to tell him that “yeah, the bus just went by, but I stayed here to tell you that you missed it”, but the risk of having to explain that it was a joke and ending up giving him a definition of the concept of humor seemed to great.

CommentsTags: thoughts

November 10, 2005 at 8:37 pm · Filed under Random ramblings & reflections