New website trouble

So I've been programming my new blog for a little while now but I've run into some trouble with javascript between Opera and other browsers.. If you want to you can check out what I've got so far, not a lot but at least it's something: Link!. Just to make a brief summary of what's been going on lately I've been to Paris for a weekend, then Bruges the next one and now I'm planning a week in Spain for easter(if anyone wants to join in on that one btw please tell me, still have some places left). Apart from that I have gotten a great idea for a game I've been fiddling with for quite a while now and if I can just find the time that might actually turn into a really cool project soon. I'll post something on that later when I've worked a bit on the idea! Apart from that I have found a great new way to get an incredibly small USB key something which I'll post on the new blog as soon as it's up running more stably.. Wow, now that it hit's me what I've actually done lately I guess I'll have to post something more here soon, so keep an eye out :P

New website up and running soon (hopefully)

Hi everyone! So I've been working on a new website which will replace this blog (sorry blogger), and it seems to be coming together now. The only thing which is left now is just to write some .php scripts to make the posting automatic and not manual like now. Just wanted to let you know. Oh, and btw, if you want to make some kind of icon/logo representing me (anything accepted) feel free to make one within the dimensions 256x128 and with a color palette based on light blue colors, kind of like the Fringe cut-scenes ;)

Waay to long time since I've posted!!

As you probably have noticed, assuming you live anywhere close to civilization, there have been both new years and Christmas since my last past. Which of course makes it a long time since I last posted anything but it also means that I should have a lot of things to write about. And guess if I do! Let's start with my recent (well, not so recent anymore) change of family. If you know about AFS you're probably thinking about why I changed families right about now. If not, I can enlighten you and tell you that we are technically supposed to stay in our family for the entire year. But as I said, I've changed. Some people just go together well and some people don't, those were apparently some of the few people I don't go along with to well. Plus they lived in the middle of nowhere. No offense to that, I love living a bit isolated once in a while but it just made all activities hard to join in on and that's something you definitely don't want when you're just staying somewhere for one year to discover and learn as much as possible. But I have to say that my new family is awesome! (again, no offense to the old one, they were really nice people. We just didn't get along) They are so much fun and full of life, plus I've got three younger siblings (those might get a bit too full of life sometimes :P Just kidding) I might post some pictures here of the family and the house in the future so look out for that ;) Anyways, Christmas passed along. Not really reminding me of Christmas considering a regular Christmas for me is 24 hours of darkness and normally at least some snow. Here we had neither and the only times I managed to gather some Christmas feeling was after everyone had went to bed and it was dark and cozy. In a kind of related thought I now have a spring/cold summer feeling as the grass is still green, the snow is long gone and the days are bright. But for Christmas I whipped up some good old Norwegian "risengrynsgrøt" which is a main course made from rice and milk and served with sugar, cinnamon and a bit of butter. It sounds like a desert or just like something completely weird but it's an awesome dish and especially for Christmas. It looks something like this:

Apart from some awesome presents like Norwegian brown cheese and homemade caramels the Christmas passed more or less without action (as Christmas is supposed to). But something else was new years! We were a couple of students who figured we should go to Bruxelles. As said as done, we went to Bruxelles at about 8 o'clock and stayed out for a good 12 hours and returned around 8. Even though the fireworks were disappointing we had an awesome night. That is of course with the exception of when I found an exchange student which I at first thought had gotten too much to drink. At first we just tried to get her to talk to us and stay awake but after it became evident that it was a lost cause to keep her conscious we got someone to call an ambulance. As we had moved her outside to give her some fresh air and she was only wearing minimal clothing I decided to give her my jacket as to keep her warm. After some painstakingly long minutes checking her vitals once in a while by holding a glass in front of her mouth and look for moisture the ambulance finally arrived. But as we boarded her into the ambulance someone managed to slip my jacket of her and away from us. And as they needed someone who knew her to come with her in the ambulance and I was the only person who matched that description I decided to stay with her and let it go. After all she was unconscious, had no money, no cell phone or even ID. In the ambulance she finally came to life, and she had regained more or less full control after only a couple of hours. But guess what I found when I got to the hospital, another exchange student! What are the odds of that, out of the five people in the emergency room there was two of them (not counting me). So after waiting for quite a while we went in to see the doctor after the tests were complete and it turns out that someone had slipped something in her drink. So lessen learned, don't let your glass out of sight, and if you do, better safe than sorry (a new glass is cheaper and a lot more convenient than being robbed and sent to the hospital). But all in all it was a fun night, and something I'll most likely never forget (that is if senile dementia doesn't get me). And it was my first ambulance ride! So after that we started school again, always fun to meet the people again but school is just as annoying as last year.. However it is only a few days to our school trip to Normandy and then London. Needless to say that is something I'm quite stoked for :D And tomorrow is our mid-stay camp down here in Belgium, another thing which is incredibly exiting! What is a bit less exiting is that I was stolen from, again.. After our AFS visit to a chocolate factory we went to bowling. So far so good, thing is that when I got back from bowling I noticed something. Almost all my different chocolates where gone! I still had my three kilos of the same chocolate but I missed my neat variety of different chocolate bars.. I have to say that this stealing thing is starting to get on my nerves, why can't people just accept that my stuff is my stuff and keep their hands to themselves?

For those of you who've known me for a while, I would guess I have at some point dragged you into a discussion about artificial languages (not to speak of artificial countries). And in that case I have probably mentioned both Esperanto and Lojban (or Sealand if we're still talking countries). I have for a long time been intrigued by those languages and possible usage, but also sadly their lack of speakers. I decided to do something about that and finally set out to learn Lojban, the Logical Language. And I have to say it is awesome! During my first few minutes of reading I was literally (and then I mean literally) laughing at how simple a language can really be and also at how incredible amounts of time I have used to learn foreign languages. Now after only a few hours in total reading time I can already say, write and understand simple sentences. So if you've got a few minutes to spare you should look up one (or both) of those articles: article on Lojban and article on languages meant to be used worldwide.

Windows 7 and Google Wave

Okay, it's been a while since I've written about techy stuff here. Mostly because, as I mentioned in my last post, I've been waiting to create a separated blog for that. However it takes some time, especially since I haven't been able to work on it. So here is a post to feed you tech-hungry people. With Microsoft launching Windows 7 almost two months ago I guess at least some of you have tried it and started to get familiar with it. For those of you who haven't I'll here give you a small update. I changed from my dual boot of Windows XP and Windows 7 to a only Windows 7 setup on the 2nd of November 2009, the first thing I noticed was that the task bar had changed. You probably all know the standard Windows taskbar with it's tiny icons and text, apparently Microsoft figured that it was enough of this extremely simple and effective system. The new system is consistent of larger icons without the text. Looking something like this:

Of course there's an easy way to change this by right-clicking and going into options quickly giving you back the familiar taskbar:

I prefer to use the last one simply because it robs less room from my workspace and gives me more information. What's cool with it is that you can pin objects to it. So if you've got a program you use all the time while you're on your computer you can simply pin it to the taskbar and now it'll stay there even if the program is closed. But as I use Objectdock and Launchy I don't really have need for another program launcher option. The next thing you'll notice is that if you let your mouse hover over a taskbar icon you get a tiny preview image of what the window look like, so hovering over Opera would give me this:

And if you then hover your mouse over the preview image it brings the window into focus until you move your mouse, great option if you want to take a peek on some info while working in another window. E.g. for checking Facebook while writing in word or checking on a copy status while watching a movie. Another new taskbar feature is the right click. While this normally brought you a tiny menu where you could close the window or other simple features the Windows 7 version brings a more feature filled flyout menu. So far it doesn't seem like a lot of programs have a lot to put in this menu but Google Chrome for example puts it's recent visited webpages and open new window options there. And of course the pin to taskbar option is also located here.

But what you probably will notice most on a first look is the improved graphics. I've never been one for killer graphics, always saying that it's the content that matters and not the looks, but good looks are always a plus. A lot more now moves and flies around on your screen instead of just appearing and disappearing like in older versions. But one thing which really annoys me in Windows 7 is the UAC. When I first sat there with a fresh install of Windows 7 and was about to install a bunch of programs it was really a pain to be asked numerous times for every single install. And as I've already got antivirus software I trust and never really visit untrustworthy websites I figured I was better of turning it of. The next thing I noticed was that I couldn't alter all my files! As I know what I'm doing I would want to be able to delete, change and add files anywhere in my system. But after searching for a solution to my problem I can't find anything! It seems like Microsoft for whatever reason have figured out that no one should be able to edit the files in for example "Program Files". While I can kind of see where they're coming from I would wish that they would at least leave an opening for the people who know what they're doing to modify stuff on their own computer.

But there is more! The standard programs which is shipped with Windows have also got an overhaul. Paint, for example, is one of them. But while they've added lots of new features, like drawing triangles, hearts and other figures, it still lacks basic rotation and layer support. But the calculator have finally got square root in scientific mode along with n-th roots, something which I find pleasing. Along with this there is of course a lot of other functions and tweaks, and while it's still a lot better than Vista I'm not sure I would have left XP just yet if I still had the chance. Mostly because of the inability to modify everything and some incompatibility problems with old software(like Worms and the drivers for the Internet here..).

But enough of that, if you really want to know how it works the best way to do go is to simply create a new partition on your hard-drive and install it there. Now for something completely different:

As some of you might know Google have launched Google Wave, a new tool meant to replace the e-mail. As Google say, e-mail was created about 40 years ago. And while e-mail is a lot easier than regular mail for managing multi-person projects it's not really optimal. Just think about trying to arrange a BBQ per mail, regular mail, with letters. That's more or less what you do when you do it by e-mail, just a bit faster and easier. Google wave on the other hand is kind of a mix between mail and Wikipedia. Everyone can add, edit and change info. Add maps, images, upload files and comments. A good, short video describing Google Wave can be found here, or if you've got lots of time you can watch the full 1h20 video here. At the moment it is in a preview state meaning that you would need an invite to use it, everyone who's using it at the moment got a few invites so if you want to try it just contact me and I'll see if I've got any left. Even though not a lot of people have it yet it seems like this would be a really neat way to plan stuff and arrange projects. So far I've tried it with a couple of friends and the result so far are great. But I'm not as sure about it as a replacement for e-mail. While it surely have some great advantages it's got one major disadvantage over e-mail. It's only for Google. While I use Google services(G-mail, Google Wave, Google Earth, Blogger, YouTube etc), not everyone does. And while e-mails can be sent between all different mail clients, from the tiniest home-made mail servers to web-mails Google Wave only exists for Google. And while this might be a good idea for marketing I'm pretty sure that we'll soon see companies like Yahoo!, Microsoft and others creating similar solutions. Also they working only for their users. So if I want to create my BBQ I would have to create a Google only BBQ or work as a link between the technologies to synchronize everything between them. So as nice and shiny Google Wave seems I just don't see it replacing anything anytime soon. It will just join the ranks of cool solutions that never caught on for other than us techies. And as another sidenote is does not work in Opera yet, and in Explorer it forces you to download a so called Chrome Frame. But Google Chrome works perfectly(obviously) for Google Wave ;)

Wowzer!!

As usual it's been a long time since last post (unfortunately). But that only means there are a lot to write about, hurray. So as I still haven't split my blog in two I'll start by splitting this post in two. First I'll tell you all the stuff which have been going on lately and then the stuff which will go on soon and then I'll tell you about stuff like Windows 7 and Google Wave. So lots and lots to look forward to ;)

So, I visited Brussels two weeks ago for a so called Oxfam breakfast. For those of you who don't know Oxfam is pretty much the same as fairtrade (might even be the same thing). My job there was to walk around with a Norwegian flag and talk about Norway for those who where interested, turns out that was about zero people.. So what I ended up doing was to walk around and talk with the other exchange students which were there in the same service. Here's a picture of two of them (from Egypt and Italy if my memory doesn't fail me completely) and one of the other people there:

From Peter's universe: The Peterverse

From Peter's universe: The Peterverse

After that we went to visit mini-Europe, which is a place where they have made miniature models of famous buildings from Europe (in terms of the European union, so no Norwegian stuff). I got approximately 200 photos from there before my iPhone first ran out of storage space and then battery, after that I took some with my host fathers camera. A lot of them are to create high quality panoramas though so I'll get back to you whenever (if ever) I get that done. But here are some samples, including two photos of my host father standing in some funny suits:

I'm just wondering, if Norway was in the Union what should they make a miniature of The castle would be a good idea, but don't we have any other cool buildings? And of course we visited some of Brussels landmarks, the Atomium picturing an iron (that's at least what they say, haven't checked) molecule symboling strength between the regions of Belgium. And of course also the small peeing boy, which seems to be somewhat of a symbol of the town (for reasons yet to be known :P)

From Peter's universe: The Peterverse

And I also found a Norwegian flag! There was apparently some kind of competition where you could win a trip to a Scandinavian country or something like that.

From Peter's universe: The Peterverse

Talking about Norwegian stuff (smooth transition), tomorrow is so called Potluck, meaning that everyone are supposed to make one dish from their country and bring it for everyone to taste! Fortunately for the other I chose not to make fermented fish or fish in lye, but rather some "fiskekaker" or directly translated "fish-cakes". I just hope they'll like the Norwegian food better than my host brother, when I made "risengrynsgrøt" he went to bed hungry. But I have to say that the food here is pretty good, however they eat way too much for me :P For lunch for example it is completely normal to buy a Mitraillette, which is a baguette with a special kind of sausage in it and all buried in a pile of fries. I'll be sure to take a photo if I buy one, probably have to starve myself for a few days to be able to eat it though..

And soon it's Christmas :D That is of course after St. Nicholas, which is on Sunday, the tradition here is apparently that all the students get a cup, get out in the streets and beg for money, then goes to the supermarket and spends it all on Alcohol :P And if people don't give you money you are supposedly meant to throw eggs and flour on them.. Kind of like one-upped Halloween for older people ;) Got exams the week after though, so probably not a good idea to get too hammered. Doing math in French with a hangover just sounds like a really bad idea. But of course, Christmas here is not like Christmas at home. We're already at the fourth of December and there's no snow and it's light during the day.. I actually thought I would never say this, but I actually miss the 24 hour darkness. It's just so Christmasy :P

But as I've got to get up early tomorrow to make my fish-cakes I should probably have gone to bed a few hours ago. I'll try to write the tech stuff someday soon ;)

Amsterdam!!

Okay, the small posts thing failed miserably.. It was definitely a good idea (I think) but I ran into some problems. First of Facebook was obviously not able to take the feed data from the blog feed and prefix a counter link from my server so that I could monitor the traffic to my posts. This of course rendering my short-post experiment pretty useless an there was no true way of monitoring the effect. Another problem was that Facebook didn't check my feed often enough leading to my posts being published there at about 6 PM instead of the scheduled 11 o'clock which would correspond better to classes back in Norway. But what in the end put the project on ice was simply my decision to split this blog in two. One technical blog and one more personal blog. Thing is that I wanted to write something here about my recent change to Windows 7 but I felt like I should wait until I'd set up the tech blog. Only problem is that I would want to program the entire blog system myself to ensure that I can control every aspect of it. Something which leads to me having to learn some more php(sorry to all of you who didn't get that statement :P) I've figured out though that I'll write something about it here after this post and I might post something about it on the other blog as soon as I've got that together.

So yesterday I went to Amsterdam with AFS! Getting up at 5 o'clock on a Saturday is never a favorite but we all have to make some sacrifices ;) So after a three hour train ride we finally arrived. Here is a picture taken as we waited outside the train station:

From Amsterdam

The first thing we did was to walk through the streets watching the coffee shops and tilted houses. Here are some photos from walking around town:

From Amsterdam

From Amsterdam

From Amsterdam

From Amsterdam

From Amsterdam

From Amsterdam

And also an extreme suspicious add:

From Amsterdam

Along with regular Amsterdam stuff like a Cannabis seeds store :P

From Amsterdam

Then we visited something which was apparently like a Monastery in the way that women lived there and prayed but it was a lot more liberal than a Monastery. I took some photos from there and created these two synths:

And we also visited the Red Light district but as we were not allowed to take pictures of the prostitutes it was kind of hard to take any photos at all. But I ended up with this one:

From Amsterdam

Not really a good photo but one step further into the Red Light district and you couldn't take pictures without a prostitute in it.. The store on the left hand side says "Cannabis College" by the way :P

After this we had a break were I watched a magic/comedy show by a Canadian street performer, even though his magic was kind of lame and I'd seen some of the tricks before I enjoyed the whole comedy thing even though from time to time it got a bit tedious.. After that we went to Madam Tusauds and looked at the freakishly realistic sculptures. I took some pictures which can be found in my Amsterdam album here:

But I'm going to bed now so I'll have to fill you in on the details some other time.

Going to England!!

Okay, everyone, new day new post. I'm so excited because my school have figured out that if 90% of the 5th grade is in on it we'll go on a trip to Normandie and England! In Normandie we'll of course visit Omaha Beach as expected but the cool part is when we go to England. What will happen there is that we get a host family! That's right, I'll be on exchange on exchange :P How cool isn't that :D