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  • My first mobile-Internet-enabled camera

    Palm M105 (1999/2000)Back in 1999 my “mobile computing platform” consisted of a Palm Pilot with a grayscale screen and a larger-than-life Nokia mobile phone with an onboard modem. These were communicating via an infrared link.

    As I was about to go on holiday one summer I found that it was possible to get a camera adapter to be attached to the Palm M105 (see photo) which could take up to 24 photos with near VGA resolution!!! I just had to have it.

    Having managed to secure a working device by considerable sweat-of-brow and long-distance phone calls, my intent was to cause massive envy among my friends by sending them holiday photos as e-mail attachments from my camera/Palm/Nokia device. I did, they became envious and I, consequently, became very, very happy!

  • Why I do not trust FaceBook (and its relatives)!

    eCircles will permanently shut down!The last few weeks FaceBook has spread like a wild fire througout Norway. The major newspapers have started to pick up on the trend and having read their many articles to the praise of FaceBook, I feel like reflecting a little.

    Back in 1999/2000 a social networking site called eCircles was on the rise. A group of friends including myself had started to use eCircles for the purpose of maintaining social relations, putting up shared message boards and even for writing a novel. In most respects, eCircles was near identical to the social networking sites of today. And it was functioning very, very well for us. One of us was going to university over in London, another was in South Africa and the rest of us were distributed around Norway.

    Then in early 2001 it was announced that eCircles.com would seize to be and that services would be shut down permanently on the 15th of April. All content would go away with it.

    (more…)

  • The Baghdad battery

    The Baghdad batteryIn the 1930’s during the excavation of a village near Baghdad, archeologists encountered a battery – a 2000 year old battery to be omore precise. You can read more about the Baghdad battery and other world mysteries at http://www.world-mysteries.com. Read a short outtake from the World Mysteries homepage below:

    In 1936, while excavating ruins of a 2000-year-old village near Baghdad, workers discovered mysterious small vase. A 6-inch-high pot of bright yellow clay dating back two millennia contained a cylinder of sheet-copper 5 inches by 1.5 inches. The edge of the copper cylinder was soldered with a 60-40 lead-tin alloy comparable to today’s solder. The bottom of the cylinder was capped with a crimped-in copper disk and sealed with bitumen or asphalt. Another insulating layer of asphalt sealed the top and also held in place an iron rod suspended into the center of the copper cylinder. The rod showed evidence of having been corroded with an acidic agent.

    …

    German archaeologist , Wilhelm Konig, examined the object and came to a surprising conclusion that the clay pot was nothing less than an ancient electric battery.

    How did this highly useful technology stay hidden for 2000 years or more? What would have been the consequence of man being able to harness electricity back then? I find the question intriguing!

  • FlexiFront: dersom djevelen barberar seg

    Bilete av FlexiFrontpakken som kjem til meg i posten kvar månad!Ein kveld eg var i retteleg godt humør hausten 2006 svara eg mot betre vitande når hustelefonen fasttelefonen min ringde. Det plar eg aldri gjere ettersom all erfaring tilseier at det er seljarar som ringjer. Men denne kvelden braut eg altså med leveregelen min grunna uvanleg ljos sinnsstemning.

    I den andre enden var det ein pågåande kar som vil løyse barberingsvanskane mine for resten av livet. Eg forklarte han at dette ikkje var eit problem som stod høgt på prioriteringslista mi nett no men takka for interessa og føreslo eit par dårleg barberte kameratar han kunne prøve å ringje til.

    Men han gav seg ikkje. Eg skulle få tilsendt, heilt gratis, ein barberhøvel og ei rekkje barberblad frå FlexiFront – som tilliks med Ruud & Rye før dei no skulle ta opp kampen mot Gillette. “Same, same but different”, tenkte eg.

    Til slutt sa eg at han kunne sende kva han ville så sant eg slapp å ha noko meir med han å gjere. Då sa han at han berre måtte ha litt informasjon fyrst. Då takka eg høfleg (tykte eg sjølv då) for samtalen og ynskte han ein god kveld vidare. Med dette tenkte eg at eg og FlexiFront var ferdige med forretningssambandet vårt. Slik skulle det ikkje bli.

    Nokre veker etterpå dumpa det ned i postkassen min noko svineri i ei lita flat pappøskje. FlexiFront stod det på øskja og det var merkt av for at innhaldet var undertøy. “Pokker ta Sture ” tenkte eg (Sture er ein kollega som har lang tradisjon for å bestille meiningslause ting til meg på Internett: frå fadderbarn via bleier til latexhanskar).

    Etter nokre dagar tok eg mot til meg og opna øskja. Der låg det ein svært billeg utsjåande barberhøvel og nokre barberblad som ved fyrste augekast minnte veldig om gamle Gilletteblad. (Dette synte seg også å stemme når eg seinare fann nokre gamle Gilletteblad som passa fint inn i denne høvelen). Sture vart altså frikjend denne gongen.

    Eg var byrja å gå tom for barberblad under tida og såg meg til slutt nøydd til å prøve FlexiFront. Det gjekk ikkje så bra. Eg pådrog meg ikkje mindre enn tre større kutt under barberinga og blødde friskt på den ljose skjortekragen min.

    Omlag samstundes byrja kollega Per Torodd å dukke opp på arbeid med svære kutt i andletet. Det synte seg snart at også han hadde gått i FlexiFront-fella.

    Det er ikkje nokon moral i denne forteljinga, men vi kan dra likevel lærdom av feilskjæret mitt (bokstavleg tala)! IKKJE KJØP OG FRAMFOR ALT, IKKJE BRUK FLEXIFRONT (TIL BARBERINGSFØREMÅL)!

    Oppdatering 04.09.2007:
    I dag mottok eg eit inkassovarsel for ein ikkje-betalt FlexiFront-faktura. Vart forbanna og sende denne faksen til ymse mottakarar:

    Oppseiing av IKKJE BESTILT/IKKJE-AKSEPTERT FlexiFront abonnement

    Eg vil med dette kansellere alle framtidige sendingar frå FlexiFront.

    Om de går attende og sjekkar lydbandopptaka dykkar vil de finne at eg aldri aksepterte då de fyrst kontakta meg heller. Har likevel betalt fakturaene dykkar då det var lettare enn å kome i kontakt med dykk.

    No fekk eg til alt overmål eit inkassovarsel og er lut lei. Barberhøvlane dykkar er forøvrig heilt ubrukelege.

    Mine detaljar er:

    Stein Runar Bergheim
    Dalavegen 32
    6856 SOGNDAL

    Fakturanummer på sist faktura var 32810117410

    Hadde de hatt noko som helst slag skam i livet hadde de sett til at mine kostnader med hadde blitt refunderte. Det har de vel imidlertid ikkje.

    Kopi: ProVoice, Forbrukerrådet, TV2 hjelper deg

  • Exotic Menu at Sjávarkjallarinn

    During my three trips to Iceland I’ve had an exceptional dinner at Sjávarkjallarinn every time. The name means sea food cellar which is an excellent description of what we’re dealing with.

    The restaurant is located in a dimly lit cellar in downtown Reykjavik and is fitted with a modern yet comfortable interior design. The food is excellent and the event-meal Excotic Menu is a safe choice for the pallate although painful on the wallet!

  • Six good movies in the "drama" genre

    Recommending films is always difficult as I may ultimately be held accountable for wasting two hours out of someones life. Although a risky business, recommendations can tell you something significant about the person who gives the recommendation. Hence, I put a few recommendations up on my blog.

    • Hearts in Atlantis
    • Simon Birch
    • Finding Neverland
    • Million Dollar Baby
    • Ciderhouse rules
    • Sliding doors

  • "Slamming" at A Tasca Tequila Bar in Lisbon

    Shooter!A Tasca Tequila Bar is little more than a hole in the wall, located in a narrow street in Lisbons Barrio Alto district. Still, this is where I find myself coming back to every time I visit the city.

    At A Tasca I usually find myself drinking Tequila slammers. A Tequila slammer, for those who aren’t familiar with the idea, is equal parts fizzy drink (7-up or similar) and Tequila poured into a shooter glass. The drinker then uses his hand as a lid on the glass, slams it violently on the bar counter so the thing stirs properly and downs the content in one fell swoop while it is still fizzing!

    Slamming is a remarkably efficient and painless way to consume a bottle of Tequila and get you in the right mood for a night out on town!

    Of course, A Tasca has a lot more to it than shooters. They prepare a mean Caipirinha (cachaca, sugar, lime and ice) for those who have fallen in love with the Brazilian national drink, or a Caipiroska (substituting cachaca for vodka) for those who have bad experience with the aftermaths of sugar cane rum.

    This little bar is also a salsa place. While I am not a dancer (by a good margin) I enjoy the latin music and rythms as a backdrop for drinking and as a starting point for a good night out on town in Lisbon!

  • Moving to WordPress

    WordPressAfter having written on my homepage blogged for nigh on 10 years now I have come to the conclusion that I no longer have sufficient time to both developing the technology and blogging. Having assessed my alternatives I concluded that WordPress would be the best way forward.

    All the articles from my old web site blog are still available off these pages but may suffer from some design issues which I may look into over time!

  • Rein på Labakken

    Rein ved LabakkenDå eg var liten var det sjeldan å sjå rein i Fitjefjella i det heile. Ivrige fjellvandrande grannar kunne rapportere å ha sett reinstammen borte på Vona i Naustdal eller kanskje så nære som i Steinbotnen, i Hyemarka eller på Granekupa. Nede i tuna på Fitje var dei aldri som eg kan hugse. No går dei i små grupper på bøane. Dette biletet er teke rett innom Labakkelada i slutten av April i år.

  • Idiocracy

    I am looking for a particularly powerful file deletion utility to wipe the remains of this tragic movie off the hard drive my media center PC.

    Do not under any circumstances allow yourself to be tricked into seeing this film. Even the longest of life spans doesn’t allow for this utter and complete waste. I will borrow the words of Churchill: this is not a film to be put aside lightly, it should be thrown with great force.