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Getting into the zone… soon?

05.05.2011 03:15

Oh, I just remembered: My flexible reversible chroma key screen arrived last Thursday. Granted, it was rather the bundle with holiday backgrounds, but it was part of their weekly Thursday special the previous week, with 50% off, so I jumped on it. With the one-day-only discount, it was still about 33% cheaper than the full price of the screen on its own. Of course, the shipping cost to Norway was a little more than the product itself, but all in all, it was a good price.

The screen itself measures about 1.5 meters by 2 meters (or, for you imperical buffs, 5 feet by 7 feet) when fully unfolded, and it bends down to a nice circle of 84 cm (or 33 inches) when folded. It’s green on one side, and blue on the other, and comes with a neat carrying case.

Why this reversible flexible screen, you may ask? Well, I’m trying to get myself into video production and taking photos with an exchangeable background, and a chroma key background (also known as a “green screen” or “blue screen”) comes in handy with that. Both colors means that I can select a background color based on what my foreground elements are (this is the reversible part). Also, I don’t have any available corner space to set up a more “permanent” shooting studio, so I have to make do with the little space I have. The little space also means that I need something that I can quickly unpack when I need the “studio”, and that I can quickly pack again when I’m done (this is where the “flexible” part comes into play). Unpacking the screen takes less than a minute, and since I now know how it bends (seen in a demo video), I can fold it down in about two minutes. Once folded and inside the carrying case, it’s easy to stow away when I don’t use it. The frame surrounding the screen also allows it to be stretched out, so I don’t get much wrinkles in the screen. Nifty little thing. :-)

So what kind of video production am I planning? I have a few ideas on the table. Two ideas involve some sort of hand puppets (two different kinds, I might add), and two other ideas involve music videos, one more basic and another more advanced. I don’t know how much of it I’ll actually get done, but I hope to have a wide variety of entertainment venues, mainly for my own fun. Hopefully, I’ll get to a point where I can make a living having fun like that, but until that happens, I’ll just have regular ol’ fun with it. It’s still far down the road for that one, though.

I did some filming experiments with the screen up, just to see how it looked, and it seems I need to work a little more on getting the lighting right. First of all, with the lights I had set up, my face had a yellow hue (which it normally doesn’t), and second, even when directing a light on the screen itself (from the side), I could notice I was casting a shadow on the background, which is the stuff that might ruin a shot later on. In any case, my lighting needs some adjustments. I’ll look around the stores to see if I can find something simple off a normal shelf that fits my lighting needs (as I don’t have room for a large worklight for this purpose). Not to worry, once I had seen the footage, I deleted it. It wasn’t anything worth keeping, anyway.

In other news, the pollen season is in full bloom. First contender is the birch, which is the worst part of my summer allergies. The daily pill just isn’t enough, I now have to supplement it with a nasal spray. There’s always an upside and a downside with the summer weather, though. Sun – upside: warm weather, downside: pollen is even moreso in full bloom. Rain – upside: pollen is knocked to the ground and doesn’t bother me, downside: it’s all wet. And when the birch pollen season is done, the grass pollen season takes over. Thankfully, the grass pollen doesn’t give as strong a reaction as the birch pollen does, so I’ll usually manage with the daily pill on its own. Every year, it’s roughly the same. In March, I need to start taking the daily pill (which, btw, is Telfast, 120 mg of fexofenadine per pill, possibly known as “Allegra” in the US), starting with what’s left of last year’s supply, refilling my stock at home as needed. In the extremely high concentration periods, I need to supplement it with a nasal spray (Flutide Nasal, 50 micrograms of fluticasone propionate per dose – possibly known as “Flixonase” or “Flonase” in the US), just to avoid having my ass (or rather, my head) handed to me by Mother Nature. That actually happened to me a few years ago, on our second trip to Germany. My nose and eyes were running wild, and I had forgotten the nasal spray back home. Thankfully, we were helped by a nice pharmacist, just so we could buy the right medicine (without having the prescription at hand) and actually enjoy the rest of the vacation. Lesson learned: always double-check that all medications are packed in the luggage before leaving home.

Enough about that, it’s time for me to get some sleep.

Not quite there yet

02.05.2011 17:21

One thing’s for certain: I’m up top again now, considering last week’s bad start. But it did take me a full three days to get back on track. Monday was the day of the blowout and being flat out in bed, while Tuesday and Wednesday were used to recover from the whole ordeal. I finally got well enough to go to work Thursday and Friday, even though I could feel my digestive system wasn’t completely balanced (no runs, though). Today I can truly say that I’m fully recovered.

Later this week, my sister’s boyfriend’s (can I still call him “brother-in-law” if they’re not married?) family comes over from Sweden to celebrate my niece’s first birthday, so that could be fun. They’re always a joy to hang with, so it’s all bound to run smoothly. Two of them are even going to be guests at our house, simply because accommodation elsewhere isn’t always affordable and/or available. But hey, it’s family, right? :-)

In other news, early yesterday, it became clear that my auction was a bust. No takers. I can see two reasons for the auction failing. One, I started the auction that close to Easter, and most people take the Easter week off in Norway (since there are only two and a half workdays that week, anyway). That would put a dent in the possible attention it could get during its two week run. And two, the price was simply too high for a single sponsor. Taking this into consideration, I waited until today to run a second attempt on the auction (NOTE: Norwegian text only). This time, I divided the sponsorship into 4 parts, which would hopefully be a more suitable value for smaller sponsors. The auction runs for 14 days, ending on the 16th. If it doesn’t happen this time around, it will never happen that way.

Who knows? Maybe I’ll get lucky this time around… (Of course, if anyone else would like to contribute, I’ll accept.)

Also in the news, Osama Bin Laden has finally been taken out. As someone I know pointed out, Obama did in 2 years what Bush couldn’t in 7. Then again, it has been a long process in the making, I’m sure. All this mess, and in the end, it ended up with a shoot-out in a villa in Pakistan. A small tactical team was what it finally took to get him. Not huge airplane fleets dropping bombs, not convoys of tanks, but good intelligence and a group of specially trained soldiers (fine, I suppose they did have the support of several tanks and other heavy equipment, but still). What it really takes, is good and solid intelligence with sensible leadership behind it all to do a good job. Not acting on a whim, like Bush did with Iraq. Not to mention bombing the hell out of Afghanistan. Sure, Afghanistan and Iraq had leaders rotten to the core who ignored everything about human rights, but it would still pay off in the long run (both in reputation and in actual costs) to have intelligence reports people can count on as well as people who know what the hell they’re doing.

Like I said when the US started dropping bombs in Iraq, I asked myself several times: Why couldn’t they just gather enough solid intel to take out Saddam Hussein and his cohorts with a small tactical team (or a few assassins)? That would be much quicker and painless than attacking a bunch of civilians. It would have been much cheaper, too. And with Afghanistan, “he must be hiding in a cave up in the mountains” is not a solid enough lead to start bombing the landscape.

We (as the whole world, more or less) can finally start rebuilding the messes we made in both Afghanistan and Iraq, and turn over the keys to the sensible leaders actually elected by the people so they can continue on their own.

Now, who’s next?

What a week!

27.04.2011 03:55

Oh, what a week it’s been. Way beyond early Monday morning started off with an onset of a stomach flu, with “darker” fluids rushing out both ends (and I apologize if that was too graphic for ya). As with previous experiences (and my mother to guide me), I got rehydrated with plenty of water, plus de-carbonated Coke to help settle the stomach (dunno if it actually helps, but at least it helps with keeping the spirits up), and a few small pieces of bread so I could at least get some nutrition in me. A few extra hours of sleep in the guest room (which is in close proximity to the bathroom), interrupted by several trips to you-know-where (flowing in the “right” direction, at least) did most of the trick, though. Most of today (Tuesday) was spent just recovering from the whole thing. I’m still kinda sore in the diaphragm area, so it hurts when I laugh or cough, but it’s nothing I can’t handle.

And my whole auction seems to get an interesting outcome. According to QXL.no, I’ve had almost 600 views, but still no takers. I did get an e-mail from someone wanting to get some dedicated ad links inside some of my blog posts, since he couldn’t bid on my auction, and it’s something I’m seriously considering. It won’t get me all the way there on its own, but every little bit helps, right?

This post kinda serves a dual purpose: to update you on the latest week in my life, and to give this WordPress for Android app a real test spin. It doesn’t quite match up to the regular web admin interface, but it seems nice enough for shorter blog posts. I know, this didn’t exactly turn out as a short post, but at least I got a little bit of training out of it. The auto-correcting phone dictionary is somewhat of an interfering pain in the rear, but it’s more a matter of patience, something I sometimes lack (which is also the main reason I never seem to finish up most of my “big” projects I have planned out).

In any case, it’s bedtime for me right now. I’ll see ya around!

Power outages

18.04.2011 18:31

I hate power outages. Especially at work.

Why do I hate them?

First: Since I work at a company that makes software, it means that everyone at the office (including myself) can’t get much work done, since everything they’re supposed to connect to and work with, is unavailable (mainly because either the server or the network is powered off). That is, those who are lucky enough to use laptops. Those with desktop (stationary) computers are not so lucky.

Second: Once power comes back on, who do you think is responsible for making sure all servers and computers are coming back up and no data has been lost? That’s me!

Sure, battery backups are fine, but they can only last so long.

Today’s power outage lasted almost one and a half hour, just because some idiot worker in the neighborhood dug through a high-voltage power line that provides the wonders of electricity to the entire city district (including our office). I know this because I called the power company to find out. The outage was timed to roughly the last two hours of the normal workday.

Way to go, Monday! (mumble-grumble)

At the time of writing this post, we’ve had power back on for almost two hours, and I’m still struggling with recovering data on the final server. Since the last command I entered takes a while to finish (it’s currently at 90%, and has been doing its recovery work for the last hour and a half), I thought I’d vent some steam on my blog, because I know I’m going to need it when I’m doing unpaid overtime.

Don’t get me wrong, I love my job. It’s just that sometimes, it hands me challenges that either knocks the air out of me or gives me one heck of a head ache. And those challenges usually comes when I least expect them to (and need the highest possible priority).

I can’t wait to get it overwith so I can go home for the day…

I’d like to go to New York…. (follow-up)

18.04.2011 11:06

So it’s done, then. My auction is up (Norwegian text only). I’ve even taken time to draft a preliminary sponsor contract (PDF, 14 pages, Norwegian only) where I make a whole lot of promises (which I plan to keep) in exchange for this sponsorship.

I finalized the auction post yesterday morning, with the best promotion packs they had, and already I’ve gotten 84 views, 2 of these were visits through my Twitter message (where I used a link shortener, the visit count is from them) regarding my auction. No bids (or other messages) yet, though. But still, fingers are crossed.

The auction itself will last for another 13 days, so there’s still plenty of time. I’ve also put up a “buy now” price somewhat higher in case someone wants to bank the deal straight away (I have absolutely no hopes for that to happen though). And not to worry, I’ve already set my expectations for any type of response very low, just to prepare myself for possible disappointment so that I don’t fall down too hard if/when the auction runs out without any bids or responses.

So there you have it. I do have a glimmer of hope that the trip will happen, though, one way or another.

I’d like to go to New York….

14.04.2011 15:04

About two months ago, a date was set for the 20th anniversary fan meet for Blue Man Group in New York. That’s right, Blue Man Group has had their show in New York for 20 years now, and the arrangers are hoping to fill the entire theater on the 30th of July this year. I hope to become one of them.

My vacation plans in recent years have revolved around getting to see Blue Man Group in one form or another. In 2008, I went to Copenhagen, Denmark, for a stop on their How To Be A Megastar international tour, which is more of a concert experience. In 2009, I went to Las Vegas and Orlando to see their theatrical show for the very first time, and to experience the Orlando fan meet that year. I ended up seeing three shows in Las Vegas and two shows in Orlando. In 2010, last year, I went to Stockholm, Sweden, for their more or less travelling show (lasting two months in Stockholm), and managed to catch 7 shows during that week’s stay (meaning, all of that week’s shows). It would have been 8 shows if the Wednesday show hadn’t been cancelled (due to low sales, and no room for advertising due to the Swedish elections).

But, due to my current economy, I can’t quite get it to stretch for the flight and hotel as I would like for this year’s trip. And that’s even the cheapest flight + a full two weeks at a 3 star hotel. And time is running out, at least for the best priced plane tickets.

Last week, an idea turned up. What if I can get the trip itself sponsored somehow? I would already have enough for spending money (including tickets to see several Blue Man Group shows) by that time, it’s just the trip itself that’s biting my bum.

A sponsored trip would take a large chip off my shoulders for a once-in-a-lifetime experience. But how would the best way to get a sponsor for this?

Then, it struck me: online auctions.

Tomorrow, when my paycheck comes in, I plan to put up an auction ad on QXL.no, a Norwegian branch of a large European online auctioneering service (comparable to eBay), with additional highlighting and the works. It’s a certain cost, I know, but it’s a lot easier than finding funds for this vacation elsewhere.

In exchange for the sponsorship, I plan to offer advertising on this blog (inside the the blog posts themselves, not just hidden away in the small Google AdSense space below my navigation meny), and going to various tourist attractions in and around New York as a walking advertising board. That is, clothes with visible logos in large print, both on T-shirt(s), backpack, baseball cap, and if needed, pants. In case of rain, I will also have a poncho or an umbrella, also covered in logos. And if my sponsor wants to, I can hand out various effects (buttons, T-shirts, whatever) to random strangers.

I plan to catch everything on camera, both as photos and as video (using my digital camera), and post these on my blog, on Flickr and on YouTube, both to increase the sponsor effect, and to provide a form of proof that I’m keeping my end of the deal.

And, like I did in Stockholm, I also plan to post a daily summary of my experiences, and this time, the sponsor will get exposure in every summary report.

I plan to take a flight out of Ålesund on Sunday, July 17, and leave New York on Monday, August 1. That’s a full two weeks for sponsor exposure, and 15 nights at a hotel. Nothing has been booked yet, but I hope to get this in order barely after the Easter holidays this next week (that is, if I manage to get a sponsor).

I’ll be hammering out the details in a agreement document hopefully by the end of today. I already have made a spreadsheet to calculate the final value price that QXL.no will invoice me from the winning bid, which shows me what I have to set as a starting bid to get the funding I need for flights+hotel (which will be booked either through Expedia or Travellink, another online travel agent that’s in the same price range as Expedia – these two alternate on who’s better priced).

My preliminary queries say that I’ll have to expect a low-cost (but user-recommended) three-star hotel and matching flights will cost 20,000 NOK (or, with the current exchange rates, about $3,700 for you Americans – yes, the Norwegian krone has a big advantage over the US dollar these days) and up. That’s after the winning bid commission is withdrawn, though.

Unless someone else steps in and wants to bypass, I’ll go ahead with the action tomorrow.

Fingers crossed!

En trist dag for norsk personvern

05.04.2011 02:12

Det ble for kort tid siden vedtatt i Stortinget at Norge skal innføre datalagringsdirektivet, der alle teletrafikk og nettrafikk skal loggføres og lagres i seks måneder.

Som jeg og mange andre har sagt i diskusjoner (riktignok ikke her), vil dette føre både til svekket personvern for alle oss borgere og til høyere kostnader hos tele- og dataleverandører landet over.

La meg først takle mitt syn på svekket personvern i denne saken. I gjennomføringen av datalagringsdirektivet vil alle borgere teknisk sett bli overvåket som potensielle kriminelle, enten du har gjort noe eller ikke. Mange vil nok si at hvis du ikke har gjort noe, har du heller ingenting å skjule. Det kan så være, men det holder ikke nødvendigvis å ha gjort noe kriminelt for at dataene som er lagret på deg kan brukes. Det holder at du tilfeldigvis har befunnet deg i nærområdet av en kriminell, og dermed en potensiell mistenkt som medskyldig.

Og med en slik type overvåkning på plass, er også terskelen for høynet overvåkning blitt senket. Altså, hvis du allikevel har blitt vant med og har godtatt en overvåkning av din posisjon, hvorfor ikke øke innsatsen litt og rette et kamera i alle retninger? Eller i alle hjem? Du har jo ingenting å skjule, har du vel?

Les boken “1984” av George Orwell, eller se filmatiseringen med samme navn, så kanskje du ser hva vi kan ha i vente om vi ikke stopper politikerene. Med datalagringsdirektivet har vi tatt første steg mot en slik type fremtid. Storebror ser deg.

Tilhengere av datalagringsdirektivet, som Kripos, er glad i å påpeke at overgripere (som f.eks. pedofile) kan gå fri om ikke datalagringsdirektivet innføres. Dette er et farlig kort å spille ut. Hvor mange saker kunne ha vært løst om en slik mengde trafikkdata hadde vært tilgjengelig? Ikke mange. Jeg mener på å huske at kanskje opptil én ekstra kriminalsak i året ville kunne oppklares ved hjelp av data gjennom datalagringsdirektivet. Er det da egentlig verdt det?

Mens vi fortsatt er inne på temaet personvern er det også en trist dag for de som ønsker å være anonyme, som f.eks. varslere i bedrifter/organisasjoner og kilder for journalister.

Det skal visstnok også være klart for at private aktører også skal kunne ha tilgang til disse lagringsdataene, så lenge disse er forhåndsklarert. Så langt er det bare én eneste privat aktør som har en slik type konsesjon på utvidet prøvetid, nemlig piratjegererne i advokatfirmaet Simonsen. Dette advokatfirmaet har gang på gang vist seg å være storeslem i jakten på de som driver med ulovlig fildeling, uansett om dette er i liten skala eller stor skala.

Jeg har tidligere uttalt meg om en slik type piratjakt, og jeg mener fortsatt at en slik juridisk etterfølging er en bortkastet bruk av penger og andre ressurser. Hadde det ikke vært for pengene som musikk- og filmbransjen bruker på å sette inn ressurser og advokater på alle som driver med ulovlig fildeling av opphavsbeskyttet materiale, hadde tapet de påberoper seg som følge av fildeling vært mye mindre, kanskje til og med ned i under halvparten av tapet på global basis. En slik forfølgelse setter fokus på feil andel av fildelere. På mange DVDer i min samling føler jeg at jeg blir beskyldt og/eller behandlet som en potensiell kriminell i et visst introklipp (mange vet sikkert hva jeg sikter til). På noen av DVDene i min samling er det en annerledes introvideo med meldingen “takk for at du støtter oss ved å kjøpe innhold på lovlig vis” (jeg kan faktisk telle denne typen på én hånd, og det er fra en samling som i skrivende stund teller i underkant av ett tusen DVD-plater/bokser). En slik type introvideo gir meg en god følelse inni meg, og motiverer meg til å kjøpe mer av min underholdning på lovlig vis. Dette må da være en bedre bruk av ressurser enn å behandle alle som potensielle forbrytere? Gjennom bruk av introvideoen som nærmest beskylder meg for å bedrive kriminelle handlinger, gir den meg en følelse av “siden jeg likevel blir behandlet som en kriminell… én piratkopiert nedlasting gjør vel ikke noe fra eller til?” – og det er en farlig tankerekke, spesielt med tanke på hva intensjonen med den kampanjen er.

Tilbake til det egentlige temaet, datalagringsdirektivet krenker personvernet til oss alle ved å behandle alle som potensielle lovbrytere, og dermed gir en “unnskyldning” til å overvåke alle. Jeg kan tenke meg at hvis Erne Solberg (i Høyre, som har vært den store pådriveren for datalagringsdirektivet) hadde fått et overvåkningskamera installert av myndighetene på kontoret sitt, eller eventuelt utenfor kontordøren sin, hadde det nok blitt andre boller. Har hun noe å skjule, kanskje?

Og så var det over til dette med høyere kostnader, da. Hver websideadresse, e-postmelding (riktignok bare adressene til avsender og mottaker) og tekstmelding/telefonsamtale (også her bare nummer til avsender og mottaker) skal lagres. Det å skulle lagre seks måneder med slike loggdata krever lagringsplass, og lagringsplass koster – spesielt med tanke på tilgjengelighet (speiling av data), sikkerhet (hvis dataene skal kryptereres tar også dette ekstra lagringsplass) og backup av data vil kreve noen ekstra harddisker i året (hvis man tar slitasje inn i betraktningen). Hvem skal ta regningen? Jeg er nok redd for at hver enkelt aktør må legge ut for dette. Og hvor skal aktørene tjene inn igjen denne ekstra kostnaden? Jo, med dyrere tjenester for hver av oss.

Er det da egentlig verdt det for en så liten potensiell gevinst?

I de uoppklarte sakene hos politiet (og andre politimyndigheter) er det mangel på ressurser for å etterfølge sakene som ligger til grunn, ikke datagrunnlaget i bunn. Kripos og andre politimyndigheter foretrekker visst å legge ut overgriperkortet fremfor å fokusere på at de faktisk er i bakleksa med de aller fleste andre saker de har liggende (blant annet også andre overgrepssaker som er like grove). Gjør jobben deres, folkens! Sett fokus på å skaffe flere ressurser for å øke den generelle oppklaringsprosenten slik at vi til stadigheter slipper å se saker som blir “henlagt pga. bevisets stilling”, til tross for at den som anmelder saken leverer inn tonnevis av bevis sammen med anmeldelsen sin, gjerne med videoopptak som viser forbryteren i aksjon (og dermed tatt på fersk gjerning). Det er altfor mange saker som blir henlagt på denne måten, eller som bare ligger og blir foreldet.

Høyre har i saken med datalagringsdirektivet på mystisk vis klart å få Arbeiderpartiet med på laget, og dermed sikret seg flertall nok til å overkjøre resten av partiene på Stortinget, og til tross for at det også var noen få representanter for Høyre som også stemte imot datalagringsdirektivet, ble det altså vedtatt med 89 stemmer for, og 80 stemmer mot.

Det er tydelig at det er svært få som hører på oss fagpersoner som nå får dumpet ansvaret med å innføre slike lagringsordninger i fanget. Vi sitter på kunnskap og erfaringer om slik type overvåkning, og de fleste av oss er da mot dette direktivet. Vi blir rett og slett ikke tatt på alvor.

Norge står forresten utenfor EU, men vi er i toppsjiktet når det gjelder innføring av EU-direktiv. Og som EØS-land står vi litt friere til å nekte å innføre enkelte direktiv. Datalagringsdirektivet burde ha vært ett av disse.

Det er altså en trist dag for personvern i Norge når datalagringsdirektivet trer i kraft fra og med 2012. Jeg håper inderlig at det fortsatt er tid til å anke avgjørelsen slik at direktivet kan stoppes i tide.

Bless you!

17.02.2011 02:19

While on my lunch break today, I had a very interesting experience. I was approached by young, deeply Christian people, twice. Let me share the moments for a bit.

The first encounter was outside a grocery store (where I had just made some minor purchases). I was sitting down on a bench, enjoying the last few sips of some strawberry milk (no, I’m not making that up), when a Swedish girl asked to sit down with me to talk a little (she did bring a friend, but she kept very much in the background). She revealed that she was a Christian, with a deep faith in Jesus (you know, that guy from the second half of the Bible). She wanted me to know that God sees me, and will continue to protect me (no matter what I believed), and asked further what my faith was (agnostic – I’ll explain further down – as I also explained to her). My faith is very inclusive towards all/most religions, basically. She also asked if everything was alright, if I had any problems in particular, which I really don’t. We had some small talk for a few minutes before we said our goodbyes. The whole thing kinda put me off for a few minutes after that, but all in all, it was a slightly positive experience.

Later on, about 15-20 minutes after my first encounter, and on my way back to the office, I had a second encounter. This time, it was one guy (Norwegian, who sounded like he was from the Oslo area) and two girls (who the guy identified as being Canadian and American). I had noticed their faces a few minutes earlier, as I had just passed them about a block earlier, heading in the opposite direction, but they must’ve taken an interest and caught up with me inside a shopping mall. They, too, were Christian, and they asked if they could pray for me. Heck, I’m an open-minded guy, and thought that if it would make them happy, I’d just let them. They, too, asked if there were some problems in particular to pray for, which I really didn’t. They each put one hand on me and took a turn with their prayers, basically asking to protect me and praying for my continued kindness, each in their own words. The whole séance probably took about 5 minutes, with odd stares from people passing by. When they finished, they thanked me for the opportunity, and we said our goodbyes and went our separate ways, leaving me with a strangely positive feeling of some strangers caring about me enough to do all that.

Yep, today, I was a Christian magnet! It was a particular “life is good” kinda day, too. My monthly pay rolled in the day before, and my 31st birthday is tomorrow (well, technically speaking “today” at the time I write this – it’s way too late in the evening/night, though).

Agnostic? What’s that?

Some of you might wonder about my stance towards faith and religion. I define myself as an agnostic, which means I’m in doubt.

I believe there’s something all around us, which is yet to be properly defined. I believe that religions world-wide have made efforts to define it by giving it names. Some call this feeling God, some call it Yahweh, some call it Allah, some call it The Force, some call it Mother Nature, some have even split it into several deities. In essence, I believe all of these are one and the same, only with different names.

I believe there is “one truth” for all of us, yet to be defined, and that this truth is somewhere in our common future, somewhat further down the line that any of us can see. In the meantime, it is not only correct, but essential to keep your current faith, as long as you respect the faith of others, even if it seems to differ from your own. The important thing is not what you believe in, but that you practice your belief respectfully and without resorting to violence.

OK, that’s probably enough words of wisdom for one day. I guess the idea of growing older is sneaking up on me today.

Proud to be hosted by Linode

19.01.2011 17:20

I thought I’d show off some appreciation to my hosting provider today.

This year started a little slow for me, both in health and in economy. You know, Christmas shopping taking its toll on the credit cards. This also meant that the annual charge for my blog’s hosting didn’t go through. Usually, they give me 10 days to sort things out before they shut down my virtual server, but after a quick question to their support, I was able to extend that for a few more days (my payday is the 15th every month, and since January 15 was on the weekend, the payday is that Friday leading up to the weekend). Needless to say, 5 days ago, I paid off my annual hosting bill (for that virtual server), and shoulders went back into relax mode. It also gained a mountain of trust and friendliness towards my hosting provider.

Who is my hosting provider, you ask? Linode.com, of course. About a year ago, I set up my third virtual server with them at their newly-created datacenter in London, providing a perfect location for my blog to be hosted. It’s mid-way between my own location (Norway) and the US.

So what does Linode.com provide? They provide me with a virtual Linux server, which is almost as customizable as dedicated server, and I can set up all the software I want on it, as long as it’s legal to use. And since I have more than 1 virtual server with them, the bandwidth allowance is pooled together to combine one huge traffic allowance (800 GB total per month – and I’m nowhere near reaching that total yet).

If you know a little bit about Linux administration, I would certainly recommend getting a Linode.com server. They’re very flexible.

I’ve also used ProHosting in the past, and I still use them for my basic e-mail and some leftover sites to host.

Note: All my Linode.com links use my referral code, which gives me a small account credit ($20) per new customer that sticks around for more than 90 days. Then again, if you like fiddling around with Linux, you’ll probably be with them for a much longer time. And not to worry, if you don’t, you’ll be refunded for the time you don’t use (ie. if you paid for a month and decided to leave after only a week, you’ll be refunded for the remaining 23-24 days).

You can either use my referral code or not, I recommend them either way.