ACTA, …. (All Control To America)

OK, we tried to protest against FRA… nothing happened, the law was passed and its now in effect.
We tried to protest to IPRED …. to no avail.

Now ACTA is starting to creep in, and people dont seem to care!? Ok, many people dont seem to grasp
the effect of ACTA, the new trade “agreement” between EU and US, but one of the things it is stating
is that after three illegal downloads, you are to be completely shut out from the internet. HELLO!

I am not sure how they are gonna solve that technically but it will be a tremendous job, and rest assured
that you as the end customer will pay the price. The agreement also states “in the family” wich in this situation
is a very loose term, but in effect, lets say I “borrow” some of the neighbours internet using their unprotected
wifi connection.. 3 downloads later, voila, their internet gets shut down. COMPLETELY. They wont
have to prove that it was anyone in that household that did it, because obviously it was from their
router. Thats all they need to know.

On top of it all, we now have the swedish government sniffing around our internet for whatever mails, instant
messaging and our surf habits of us of the populace, now we are gonna let the entire EU AND the US sniff around
to see if we are doing something that the RIAA doesnt approve of.

Now really, someone needs to set a stop to this foolishness of surveillance and turning entire nations
into objects of observation because frankly, this is all turning into STASI and GRU controlled nations where
you need to keep a constant eye on the population to discourage different thinking. This has got to stop
somewhere and I really wish I had the power to change things, but no, I am just a geek amongst millions
The only thing I CAN do is what I am doing right now. Voice my opinion and, in the spirit of the current
government, expect to have it summarily dismissed.

Sooner or later, I will be clapped in irons for voicing this, then thrown in some unknown jail!
No, I am not wearing a tinfoil hat yet, but thats the way we are heading. I think you have noticed
that extreme right wing parties are on the move forward, at the same time as the government is getting
more and more controlling. When the extreme right wing gets the power, because from the looks
of it, it will, they will already have the tools to find their opposition and do something about it. Cool huh?

I dont think so, and frankly, I am starting to get a little scared with the rulers in sweden and their indifference
to peoples opinion, and their obvious interrests of fattening their wallets with the lobbyists money.

I am sorry, but if the vote was today, my vote would go to “the one issue party” “Piratpartiet” again.
It might be a wasted vote in the eyes of some. How I see it, is showing my dissent by voting for the
only party that has something besides the same old regurgitated crap.

Service Unavailable….

E-mail, Cellphone, Facebook, Twitter, IM clients. And to make things worse, all those things are
crosscombined. Are we ever truly unavailable? Think about it for a second. I know I am available
pretty much 24/7 through either one of these things and it really bugs me sometimes.

Those that knows me a little better knows that I have a slight aversion to phones, still I work
in an area where phones is a tool of the trade, but I handle pretty well I think.

Is this new form of availability the curse of the modern world? Well, in my opinion its
both “Yes” and “No”. Just yesterday there was 2 stories about twitter. First was the
couple who actualy twittered during their own wedding ceremony. Now, that has
gone too far. But, on top of that, was a mother who had a 2 year old that took
a plunge into the pool, and let her OTHER kid call 911 while she twittered about it!

I dont know about the rest of you, but I almost started to cry, big macho man that I am (I can hear
you laughing, stop it!) If my kid had taken a dunk into the pool and was unconcsious(sic due to lack of coffee?)
I wouldnt be texting Twitter about it, I would be frantic trying to give my kid CPR, and when the paramedics
came, I would let them do their job while nervously hovering over them chewing off the last of my nails.

Now, In the defence of social networking, there was ALSO a topic about a girl that was pretty much forced
to stay in her apartment by a man wielding a knife. She updated her facebook from her mobile phone,
friends noticed and called 911 and the police came and resolved the issue, so they are not all bad even though
they are starting to take more and more of our time. Let me give you something to look at for referrence.

This is what I am using, some more rare then others, but still, I have accounts.
Facebook
Myspace
Helgon
Yahoo Messenger
AOL Instant messenger
MSN Messenger
ICQ
Paltalk
Skype
Google Wave

Not to mention all the different email adresses that I am having, some that comes with the IM clients, some that
are used for different reasons. Currently I have 3 active ones that I use. 1 for work, 1 for receiving spam and 1
for private usage. Then of course there is my cell phone, wich ironically enough, gives me access to all the ones
mentioned above.

People say that technology can isolate, and I guess that is in some extent true if you just sit there and look
dumbfounded at your screen, but really, what technology causes most is the stress of knowing that anyone
can reach you at any time, and still you have the feeling that you dont wanna miss out with the small action
of unplugging.

Oh the dilemma.

Now I have to twitter about this post…..

So, here we are again…

Sitting at home, and looking outside the window and all I see is white. White and cold.
Right now the thermometer shows me 12.7 below, and we need to get more milk. Guess
who will have to stick their nose out into that blistering cold and walk to the store?
It looks alright, but seriously, you become a popsicle the minute you poke your
face outside the door.
Here is a view from outside my job.

It was alright when it was around 5 degrees below, but this is really a little too cold for my
leather jacket to handle and I am not sure that I can find a jacket that is thicker since ive
gotten accustomed to the milder winters.

On to something funny.
Alice Cooper was in Sweden, and he made 2 gigs. 1 in gothenburg and 1 in Västerås, and me and
my VERY pregnant girlfriend went to the last one. The old coot still has power in his pipes, let me
tell you that. He brought Electric Boys with him as a crowd warmer, but lets face it, they are
good if you consider the playing technique and all, but not really my cup of tea. They played their
two hits “Lips and hips” and “Electrified” but for some reason i felt most of them lacked the glow
for playing on that large a stage. Except the baseplayer who seemed to enjoy himself fully.

Alice did a nice concert and the executions that he incorporated in this show included a hanging,
the guilliotine and also him showing a large steel pole into some minions chest, all with the same
flair that has come to be the trademark of his name.

There where only 2 things that I missed in that show to make it perfect for me. First off,
“Feed my frankenstein”. He could have inserted that song at about 3 songs from the last
just to raise the room since the song itself is fast, heavy and packs a helluva punch that very
well might have lifted the roof.

Second, Alice had a song that didn’t do to well, The only place it did do well was actually
in sweden. The song is “He’s Back” aka The man behind the mask. That could have
made the whole audience sing with him.

Other then that, the show was packed with theatrics, acting and music. Everything that you have
come to expect from a performer (Note that I wont say “Singer” here, because that would be unjust.)
such as Alice Cooper.

Sights on Google usage

excessive googling.

Working as tech support, you sometimes notice impact of things to a higher
extent than what you think would be possible. A good example is Google.

When you are sitting with a client on the phone and you give them a
URL to visit to solve their problems, or, something that they need
to download to ensure security, and VERY often, they put a cursor
up at the adress field, and then types www.google.com and THEN
searches for the URL on google…. What the hell is that about!
I will not use the term “googling” it, because that really is
not a correct term yet. It is something that is commonly used yes
but what you really are doing, is doing a search in a searchengine.

Even though Google is a large player in the searchengine market and I wont
dispute that for a second. However I still think that Google is being
overused to the extent of causing stupidity. Google might aswell not
create a search when someone types in a url but instead if the URL.

There are so many different ways to remember adresses on the web but
for some reason, people cant seem to fathom how to use bookmarks
or browser history. Why is that? Have people relinquished their
tools and handed their own actions into Google?
is found as active, instantly send the person searching to that adress.

Now, some of you remember the childhood of internet when altavista was
the search engine of choice. It did have an impact yes, but not such
a profound one as google, and if i remember, altavista was also the first
company who made a swedish adaptation of the engine, they called it evreka
and from what I can remember, it was half descent. After that, I switched
to metacrawler and then I started to use google due to a friends insistance.

So yes, I do use Google and I dont begrudge those guys their success, they
have worked very hard at it, but, as the features grow, the ease of use
lessens. Their latest venture however, needs a little better implementation
before it gets me jumping up and down.

So if you want a google wave invite, well, lob me a comment with your email
adress and ill see to it.

1984, in your computers today

Well, today is the day when the swedish government will be able to monitor all traffic that is going to
cross swedish servers (i wonder how long it will take for them to realize that MOST things that goes
over the internet will go abroad…. i do hope they have plenty of storage space) so, as of today
I will start giving some tips on how to protest this idiocity, in a few easy steps.

First up, for you bloggers. Unless you are doing like me and hosting your own servers,
you are most likely using blogger.com or wordpress.com blogs. Both situated in the US.
Now, all your bloggposts will be monitored when sent online, and you wont get a single
reader point for it. Depressing isn’t it? However, you can protest that with an easy set of
actions.

First off, I am pretty sure that they are not sitting there and manually scanning all the
data being sent through the nodes, but rather using an advanced filter algorithm that
goes through what you are sending and if something suspicious is found, saves it to be
controlled at a later date. Now, lets see if we can activate that filter and get our posts
stored shall we?

Add this paragraph as the last part of your post and voila, you will most likely get scanned.

Jihad, Mulla, Sarine, C4, Explosives, Plane, Hizbollah, Infidels, Muhammed, Sura, Subway, Stockholm,
shipment, panic, authorities, Akbar, seize, attack, heart, anarchy, riot, cataclysmic.

Now, I am pretty sure that you recognize the words, and I am pretty sure that if a machine is set
to search for words that may give hints of future acts of terrorism would be squeeling in delight
at that combination of words.

Now, the majority of people in sweden seems to be using e-mail services from either gmail, hotmail or yahoo. Guess what.. neither of those are situated in Sweden. So, no more steamy e-mails to your
missis while she is visiting her mothers, because one wrong word in it, and most likely, your
email will get stored so that someone can read it. Great huh? Now, you can protest to this
aswell using the above mentioned string of words, but why not do it in a more blatant way?
Add an automatic CC to hostmaster@fra.se and save them the trouble of scanning your mail
since you will be sending them a copy of every mail you send. On top of that, if more
people do the same thing, you will get a nicely spammed box in that system. And heres the
kicker: If they have a catch-all adress, that one will be spammed too. Not by bulk mail, but
by information that they explicitly have asked for.

Now, most of you who read blogs are pretty well versed in technology, but still dont
really want to be bothered with the deep details about encryption, but there are easy
ways to come around the traffic scanners. One is using encrypted traffic.

Here are a few easy ways to do just that. Follow one of these links

http://software.informer.com/getfree-ip-traffic-encryption-software/
http://www.google.se/#hl=sv&q=internet+traffic+encryption&meta=&aq=f&oq=internet+traffic+encryption&fp=49ab7a78993c0a42

Until next time.

If you have a daughter…

…then this song should appeal to you tremendously. I dont have a daughter, but I
realize that the same thing that Mr. Chapman describes happens to me and my son
over and over again. Everything goes so fast and it feels like yesterday when I held
him in my arms and he gurgled and cooed. Now he has learned the word No, wont
stand still for more then 2 seconds and constantly runs around trying to give
his parents heartattacks from fright.

First, the lyrics:

She spins and she sways
To whatever song plays
Without a care in the world
And I’m sitting here wearing
The weight of the world on my shoulders

It’s been a long day
And there’s still work to do
She’s pulling at me
Saying “Dad, I need you

There’s a ball at the castle
And I’ve been invited
And I need to practice my dancing
Oh, please, Daddy, please?”

So I will dance with Cinderella
While she is here in my arms
‘Cause I know something the prince never knew
Oh, I will dance with Cinderella
I don’t want to miss even one song
‘Cause all too soon the clock will strike midnight
And she’ll be gone…

She says he’s a nice guy and I’d be impressed
She wants to know if I approve of the dress
She says, “Dad, the prom is just one week away
And I need to practice my dancing
Oh, please, Daddy, please?”

So I will dance with Cinderella
While she is here in my arms
‘Cause I know something the prince never knew
Oh, I will dance with Cinderella
I don’t want to miss even one song
‘Cause all too soon the clock will strike midnight
And she’ll be gone

She will be gone

Well, she came home today with a ring on her hand
Just glowing and telling us all they had planned
She says, “Dad, the wedding’s still six months away
But I need to practice my dancing
Oh, please, Daddy, please?”

So I will dance with Cinderella
While she is here in my arms
‘Cause I know something the prince never knew
Oh, I will dance with Cinderella
I don’t want to miss even one song
‘Cause all too soon the clock will strike midnight
And she’ll be gone .

And second, the song.

Tech Support at its finest.

Well, tech support is fun at times, and at other times it really is a major pain
in the rear end. However, at the end of the day you have a certain feeling of
satisfaction. You know that you have perfomed a job that is needed by the
majority of the population. You may not know everything about cooking, fixing
cars or even taking care of the elderly, but by god you know how to deal with
peoples tech related issues.

What most people fail to understand that helping them is a strain on you, and that
thin thread that keeps you sane keeps getting thinner and thinner, and sooner or later
you either resign to the idea that you will be doing this forever and start to enjoy
it, or you turn into a bitter, cynical individiual that has lost his faith in the intelligence
of humankind.

But what happens when all those things collide? That you like your job, you have your
abilities but you still appear to be that cynic that smiles to the caller, but inwardly
you despise every fiber of the person on the other end of the phone.

Hopefully I wont become too bitter and cynic, because frankly, I like helping people
even though there are some people that really doesn’t want the help you can offer,
but instead are calling in to vent their frustration at their own ineptitude on to you.
But, to all you tech support people that are out there, I raise my hat to you, and nod
in recognition of your efforts.

Here is todays laugh:

Do the yo-yo dance

Not sure how many of you out there that knows how hard it is to get a kid to
stay in its own bed for the first period that you get them out of the cot, but
let me tell you, it will wear you down to nothing pretty darn fast.

David has got one of those extendable bed now, so he has something to
grow in so to speak, and thats all well and good, however, he doesnt really
agree with his parents when its time to nap or sleep. So what happens?

Well, we hug him and kiss him and put him in the bed, we go out, close the door
and 5 seconds after, the door opens and there stands David. So, now starts
the yo-yo dance. I put him in his bed, pat his back and walk out, close the
door, and take 2 steps and the door opens, and I have to do the entire thing
all over again. Thankfully me and Linda takes turns doing this because this
takes pretty much all the patience you have as a parent.

Duct taping the kid to a wall or the ceiling is looking more and more appealing for
each time you put David back into the bed. Hopefully his little mind will soon
grasp that it is pointless to open the door again because once he does, a parent
will be there and carrying him back into his cot again.

On the job front then, well, I have been at the new job for about 3 weeks now
and it still feels good to go to the job. Since it alternates with answering mails
aswell as the phone, I dont have any trouble whatsoever with the voice, I did
feel a slight tinge on thursday, but I spent 12 hours on the job that day ( I
volonteered(sic?)) and that still went ok. To the fact comes that the callers
actually listens and are at the age when they still can hear things without
you as an operator having to shout your lungs out of your mouth.

All in all. I like the place, I like the people. I feel good.

A trip down body memory lane

Before I start, let me tell you that this post will undergo a nice little edit
after I have visited the photoalbum and brought my scanner home from those
that have borrowed it from me.

You know, I am not a sentimental guy, at least not as much as I could be, and
I think that part of that is that I dont like to live in my past. Pherhaps that
could be because my past hasn’t been the very best. But, I have somethings
that I dwell on from time to time. Obviously the birth of my son is one
of them, the other is how I met my girlfriend. One that isn’t such a profound
event, but yet, stays in my mind, is how my body has changed during the years.

I have passed 30. I am 32 to be exact, and in todays society, that is not considered
old in any way, there are still people that has 10 more years then me, that still
has that healthy, toned body and yet, here I am, carrying around a lot more luggage
then is considered healthy. Let me fill you in a little bit.

I used to be a gym-o-holic. A bad one at that because it also affected my view
of the world. I was obnoxious, loud and pretty much appearing to be narcissistic.
To a degree I guess I was. To pretty much everyone I had that attitude that simply
walked on peoples nerves and annoyed them. However, the cause for that behaviour
was as at least some people have guessed, insecurity and low self esteem. I still
suffer from that low self esteem and I do occasionally revert to being obnoxious
but everytime I do, I get a little bit sad inside aswell, because I dont want to
be the loudmouth who everyone see. I want to have the security to just be me.
Anyway, I am wandering off the subject here, lets get back on track.

Seeing that I actually ditched school and cut classes to work out I had a nice
toned body with pherhaps a trifle too much muscle to look good, but still
I didn’t feel safe to blatantly display it as some people do.

I met my girlfriend, we hooked up and well, even though I worked out some
it became more and more infrequent to suddenly come to a grinding stop.
However, I did the mistake of not adjusting my intake to the lessened physical
exertion, so naturally, I gained weight. A lot of weight. I was up at 125 kilos at
the most, now, I am stable in my weight, albeit not that much, but still too much
for comfort, and frankly, my body has forgotten how to exersice. Another factor
is that I am eating entirely wrong. I used to eat 3 square meals a day, with 2 snacks.
Never mind what those meals contained, because at that time, it didn’t much matter.
I could burn it away in a multitude of ways.

Now, I eat 1 meal a day and drink way too much coffee and the occasional soda.
See the problem?

I do. Pretty much right away. I can promise to adjust that, I can promise to start to
exersice again. But you know what? That wont do any good. Because, as is common
when one already is overweight, I can find tons of bad excuses not to. Want a little
list of bad excuses that works for pretty much everything? Ok, here we go

  1. I dont have any time to do X because my day is so filled with other things.
  2. I will start tomorrow, next week, next month (insert own timeframe)
  3. Blaming others.

Now, when it comes to the first, apply that to food. Now, an ovengrilled chicken,
with cottage cheese, some cucumber, paprika and other veggies DONT TAKE TIME.
Sure the chicken needs time in the oven, but it doesn’t go faster because you stand there
looking at it. During the grilling, you can do whatever you please. Cottage cheese doesnt
take time, its just to open the damn box.
Apply it to smoking. Well, smoking actually TAKES time, so quitting that habit
actually just gives you more time. Voila!

The second on the list is just an ecxuse to push it forward and can be used with
whatever event lies nearest. Listen to this: I will start to eat healthy after the
weekend because we are going to a dinner at X place and theres bound to be
a lot of food that I cant eat while on a diet.

Then the next weekend comes and you say, I will start monday, just let me
eat junkfood this weekend. A convicted last meal if you will.

WHO ARE YOU KIDDING. If you are using this excuse, its most likely
because as me, you are unsure that you have the motivation to do start
and are afraid of failure.

The third reason. That is pretty much just projecting your feelings and
causes unto others so you wont feel as guilty.

Now, I know who is to blame for my overweight. Its not you, my parents, my girlfriend
or anything else. It’s me. Me, myself and I and noone else. But what to do about this?
Well, what I should have done ages ago. Man up, take the blame for my failure to
keep fit and ask someone who knows about these things to help me with planning
and to help with motivation.

I am telling you this as one overweight person to another. We can do this. Dont
come up with sad excuses, lets team up, keep eachother motivated, help eachother
to loose that extra tire we have around our midsections.

And to you skinny, well-trained toned individuals. If you want to help an
overweight person, go right ahead. The person who is overweight is most
likely so for a reason. One is insecurity, one is overeating. But let me tell
you something, mr/ms Toned. The gratitude you would get from helping
an overweight person, without scorn or pity, will be neverending and you
will get a true, loyal friend in the process. Wouldn’t that be worth some
of your time?

Lets get to work.

Anarchy on the internet, APBstyle

Here we go. You, yes you there, who said those who told stories of how
anti piracy firms would go haywire and throw threats to left and right
were all doomsday profets. Have you eaten your crow for today?
If not, get your salt and pepper ready because here comes some more
for you to put on your plate, together with your integrity, hopes and freedom.

The swedish Anti Piracy Bureu(sic?) has sued the site swetorrents.org
and that in itself, might not be such a strange thing. Now, heres the deal.
The site is a CLOSED torrent site. Means that you have to have an invitation
to get inside. The owner of swetorrents.org received the standard “Hey you, shut down
or we will sue you so hard that your great grandkids will have debts” letter
stating that he/she should cease and desist due to the fact that he/she
is sharing copywrighted material. Ok, said the owner, sure, but what
copyrighted material are we talking about here. Wich files?

To that, the APB responded: “It is an obligation of the one who handles the service
to make sure that this service is not participating in copywright infringement. We
have no intention of submitting a list of the files in question as that is not our
responsability.”

This is however an excerpt, but all in all, heres the meaning of it all.

We think you are filesharing, and since we do, we now threaten you with
very high fines and possible and most likely jail time so that you close down
your site. You wont know wich files we are talking about, because we dont have
to tell you that. So, come out and face the firing squad with your hands up
so we can get this over with.

Does anyone else but me see this as a little strange?
Now the swedish phonecompany and ISP, Telia is battling to not have to leave
the holder of the IPnumber and I REALLY hope that they succeed.

Swedens politicians have forever lost my confidence. They handed away
police business to profit hungry organisations that seem to have null and void
respect for how to handle errands, and who thinks that since they have
money on their side, they can do whatever they want.

Is this how we want it to be? That people have to constantly feel monitored
and watched whereever we go, even if it’s within the walls of what is supposed
to be your private home? We aren’t really there yet, but with the way things are
going, it wont be far now. People in black S.W.A.T. TEAM outfits will kick your
door down and you will see the APB logo on their backs, they will raid your
computer desk, and if there is a single home burned CD there, they will take
it, call it evidence and rummage through it in the safety of their new billion
dollar HQ.

Never mind that the CD is  your vacation photos, and of course, if you and
your spouse had a little quality adult time together with a camera, they will
sue you for damaging A: The porn industry, since it needs people to consume
porn to survive, and B: the manufacturer of the CD-rom since they get a really
really damaged reputation by having that kind of material shown on their
product.

Geez Louise!

How to anger your employee’s (step 1)

Now, I would like to think this wasn’t made on purpose, but for angry-puppy_21050908
some nagging reason, I think it might be. The company I worked
for has done a new  all time low this time. Let me tell you a little story.

My former schedule ended this friday, and due to meetings and stuff
I didn’t receive any new one. Ok, I thought. No worries, I’ll go to work
early and pick one up. So, we set the alarmclocks, we took David to
kindergarten and off to work I went. Its about a 15-20 kilometer drive to
work, not far, but far enough that it takes some time getting there
but at least I was on time, I was there at ten minutes to eight.

Walked up, grabbed my headset and started to log in and I spotted
one of the bosses. I told him that I hadn’t received a schedule for
the coming period. Ok he said, he would get me one.

He sat down at his computer and suddenly looked at me and said
“Hey, Matt, you know that you have a month vacation, starting
today, right?”

What the HELL!!!

No, I was not informed that I had a vacation at all this year to be honest.
Last year you had to fill out a vacation form, fit in the weeks with your
coworkers request and Pete knows what! It was a bloody mess without peer
but hey, at least you could get a vacation. Since I have been away from work
a lot, I havent even heard of any changes, and I sure as hell didn’t fill
in a request for a vacation. They just went straight over my head and
filled in a vacation slot, and didn’t even bother informing me WHEN I
was supposed to have a vacation. To pour salt in the wounds. Today
is the day Linda started working. So… No vacation together this year
either.

I managed to cut down the vacation to 2 weeks at least, but I am still
not happy with them not informing me earlier so Linda and I could
have planned something. But oh no. We wont let families of employee
use any recreational time with the employee. That is bad for morale
or something. I am so pissed off right now I could strangle someone
but what good would that do? Only thing that would accomplish
is a longer vacation spent entirely without the family.

PFAH!

I give you Monochrome

monochromeMonochrome is a 1 sidebar WordPress themes in
various shades  from white to black. No other
colors. It is clean, slick and in  my own opinion,
quite tasteful. Enjoy.

You will find this and more different templates in
the  “Downloads WordPress Templates” section that
you can find up top.

-Z-

Men have no saying regarding pregnancy

Been reading a lot of parenting sites, and (what else is new)ecorrouge_newborn
I started to think about how pregnancies and fatherhood
is regarded in todays society. And the conclusion is that
there really isn’t much a man have to say about the whole
matter.

Let’s use some logic, at least thats what I call it.

  1. It is the womans body who is affected.
  2. The woman decides wether or not the child will be concieved.
  3. It’s not 1 persons responsibility to use contraceptives.
  4. In some cases the contraceptives doesn’t even work.
  5. There is a risk that the male is not the real father.

Now, the last one is a little of a hot potatoe, but the risk is still
there. I am by no means saying that all women are unfaithful,
but the male really doesn’t have much choice then to trust the
woman until the child is born. At which point he probably has
adjusted his own thoughts to be a father.

Now, a lot of people will say “Well, he should have just used
a condom” And yes, he could have, but laying all the
responsibility on one person is, in my opinion not fair.
The man COULD have used a condom of course,
but the woman could have helped him remember.

A joke with the punchline of  “men have 2 heads, but only blood
enough for one” has been around for like forever, and there is
a grain of truth in that. Once the sexual excitement goes to
a certain point, reason pretty much just flies right out the window
and if a pregnancy is not planned, is it really something that only
one person should think about and be responsible for?

newborn_baby_3What does this have to do with the topic at hand you ask?
Well, it really is quite simple. When a pregnancy occurs,
the male have pretty much 2 options.

1. Take responsability and support the mother and child.
2. Absent himself.

If he is unwilling, unready, whatever term you want here
to take responsability, he will, in society’s view be a deadbeat
dad, wich amounts to a certain amount of social alienation and
scorn.

If he however reluctantly, takes responsibility for the child, the
relationship will most likely further deteriorate because of the
males resentment and reluctancy to take himself into parenthood.

Of course, there is abortion, and some males tries to press
and blackmail their partner to do one, but really, is that fair?
No, definetly not, because you as a man really have no say
over your partners body, you are merely “borrowing it” for
a while and really have no claims on it.
Once again, the male have nothing to demand here,
and really, this is as it should be.

This is a tangle of monumental proportions really, because as the society
is shaped now, and with its opinions, “the only acceptable thing” to do is
to face it that you (pardon the pun) screwed up and you are now either
going to care for a child for the next two odd decades, or, forever wear
the stamp of the deadbeat dad.

There is a lot of talk about unwanted pregnancies and how you can
prevent it, but what often is forgotten is that the most of the time
the responsibility is summed up like this:

Ok, girls, make sure you dont get pregnant, make sure that the
boyfriend wears a condom.

But what of the boyfriends? What do they get to hear? Well, what boys
usually hear at the later teens goes in one ear and out the other, might
aswell just admit it, because there’s no denying it, but the stress there
is on STD’s. All well and good but the issue of pregnancy is mentioned
more as an afterthought.

So, lets sum this up a little, because knowing my ramblings I have probably
sidetracked, raved and ranted so much that you couldnt keep up.

Girls, You can get pregnant, keep that in mind.
Boys, you can make a girl pregnant, please remember that.

Both of you: Respect your partner and help your relationship
by not rushing headlong into a pregnancy before you are ready.
Males matures later then girls. Also a fact to keep in mind.
Just because someones biological clock is going haywire, that doesn’t
mean that your partners clock is in sync. Communication is the
key and the vital part is shared responsability for the be or not to be
when it comes to pregnancies.

Girls, it is true that it is your body, you can do with it pretty much
what you want, but does that mean that you have the right to enforce
parenthood on someone unwilling? Is it not in BOTH persons best
interest to be protected and in concensus regarding the pregnancy?

Guys, how you want to do is really your call, but respect your
partner, and talk to your partner about pregnancy, how you feel
and think about it, and regarding contraceptives.

IT IS THE RESPONSIBILITY OF BOTH OF YOU TO MAKE SURE!

Iphone this and Iphone that.

Oh my GOD! I am getting so fed up with the hype surrounding Iphone.
It’s a mobile phone from apple. So what? Ok, lets get my view straight
from the onset. The Iphone as a really awesome flow, just because
the hardware is made for the software and they are locked to eachother.
So, naturally, it flows nice and easy compared to many other phones
and the same can be said about apples computers. But really….

Does it need huge headlines? I personally dont think so. I am not
a Mac Fanboi, neither am I one of those that need to have a gadget
just “because its so cool” to have one. The reason I would want an
fruitphone would be that it has a little better capabilities when it comes
to the extra functions. Right now I have a HTC Touch. First edition, so
its a little slow and it runs out of memory when I surf, but I know about
this and expect it. However, I am eyeballing the new HTC Touch HD
(A.K.A Blackstone).

I know, I know. It has Windows Mobile on it. However, that is ONE
of the many reasons. You see, I have all my ebooks in Microsoft .lit
format, wich, albeit is a locked format, but its pleasant to read, and
well, im comfortable with it. And seeing how much of a PDA this thing
is, I already have a score of different software that I use on a daily
basis that can still be used on that phone. Nifty huh?

Now, just to annoy some of the people out there, heres a comparison
of the BlackStone contra Iphone3G: (click image for larger version)
iphone_vs_stone

Found some old

goodies laying around on a drive and I figured, hey .. I havent played around
with these babies for a while. This is the result:
second

To be quite honest, I made another version first but I didnt feel that
it was up to my standards, or, if it wasnt my taste, I am not sure,
all I know is this one, I like.

Turnsignals! Do you use them

There is a few things that really annoy me to no end. Today, I had a run in with
three of them all situated in one person.

First off, I have to go through a few curves to get to work.
It is customary while driving to signal where you are about to go, at least
I thought so until I got my drivers license. Now, it appears that when you
buy a new car, you obviously don’t get the lightbulbs to the blinkers when
you buy em, you get em when the warranty runs out or something.

What is it with new cars that makes people think that just because they
drive something flashy, they can do whatever the hell they like in traffic?
I had this moron drive out right in front of me, no turn signals of course
and I had to slam the breaks to not hit his passenger door. The idiot
continued his driving and stared at me like I was the one that was
doing something wrong. Now, I was in the correct lane, having
my turnsignals going, he, was in the lane to go straight forward, not the
turn one, on the opposite side. He also didn’t have any blinkers flashing.
You can imagine my irritation at that one.

Why do people glare at you in traffic when they are the ones that
act as if they have a deed on the road? First rule of traffic? Hardly
The first rule of traffic is, be considerate. Displaying WHERE you
are going, keeping a lookout at whats around you and driving
safely. At least.. thats what I think.

Legitimate violation

mareados-whiskey-glass-swidAs most of you know, I am a whiskey lover.
More towards single malts then blended,
but despite that, I get a lot of blended
scotch whiskey in my hands, and, dont tell
anyone, I actually start to like. Some
however, lacks in appeal to me.

A while ago, I was given a bottle of a brand
named “Claymore” a scottish blended that
has a pretty distinct taste, and the aftertaste
is very hard to place, yet I find myself thinking
“Hmmm, what could I do with this one.”

Today the answer came. I had some icecubes
in the freezer and I have my trusty soda streamer
and heres what I did.

I crushed the ice and filled a pint glass to about two
thirds. then I poured equal amounts of apple soft
drink and Claymore scotch into it. It made for a
wonderful drink in a striking heat and it was a pure
joy sitting at the balcony sipping one.

If I figure out some more good stuff, I will let you know.

Frustration is a friend

Calling tech supportAt least in small doses, because without
frustration, many things never would
be invited. Lets take a small thing as
the potato-peeler. Do you think that
someone thought “Hey, I can make
money on how people peels a potato
or, do you think that it was more in
the likes of: “I am soooo damn tired
of peeling my potatoes with a knife.
I cut myself, my hands are all aching
and the next time my wife wants
potatoes its all going to be the same.
” I am pretty sure it was the latter.

I am pretty sure that most inventions
that are created are really a
combination of  frustration, lazyness
and genious. Some things might not
be a sign of a genious, but hey, if they
work, dont rack down on it.

Anyways, seeing as frustration is a key to a lot of inventions, I might be
on the verge of solving the problem of world peace or something, at
least if the level of frustration is a measurement on how big a breakthrough
an invention will be. Everyone of course have different tolerance levels
to stress and the likes, but frankly, I think I am getting close to my
breaking point. Oh well … I will just do what I usually do.

Ride it out, pick up the shattered pieces and start to build again.
Ya all have fun in the sun now ya hear.

Emotional storm

Emotions are funny things really, we can’t surpress them, and we
can hide them, but beneath the exterior of our masks, they are
still there. Churning, want to induce laughter or make you cry
but somehow, in todays society we generally dont show emotions
the way that might be needed sometimes, we bottle it all up inside
and swallows that lump down and pretend that it was never there
in the first place.

This comes back sooner or later to bite you in the posterior of
course, and your therapist earns a bundle just because we and the
society we live in expect us to behave in a certain way, and to the
lowest hell with the one that doesn’t comform with those ideas.

Let me give you a good example. How often do you see a man
cry? Sure. it happens, but usually its because one or another sports
superstar retires and its usually followed by a macho slap on the
back from the fellow drinking buddies. And really, sports are intertwined
with a lot of emotions, but how about a man crying just because a sad
movie, or Pete forbid, a sad song.

Think on that for second. If you, as a man compare the times when
you cry, compared to your girlfriend/wife and you see for yourself.
If you cry just as often or more, the chances are, you are most likely
considered a “wimp” by the other fellow men, and you are aware of it.

Now, let me admit. I am a man, and I can cry, and no, its not because
a superstar retired, and not because I stubbed a toe.

I find that I have become very sensitive to things that regards children
and parents relations to their children. There are a lot of sad songs out
there, but some of them are simply a little too horrible in their content
for me to not react. Let me show you a few, and please, feel free to comment
and give me more to list here.

Martina McBride – Concrete Angel

Stephen Curtis Chapman- Cinderella

Kenny Chesney – There goes my life

Now, not all are sad, but they do touch me emotionally to a really big extent.
Hope you like em.

Sometimes simple is better

Maybe because when you make simple things, it is couples
easy to see what your aim was. In my gallery, there
is a series called “boundless” wich I am very fond
of despite the fact that it is some of my early works.
Just a few 3d models with just the right light to make
it dramatic, and the bodies tell the story. Now, tonight
I was playing around with the same models actually,
working more with textures and in a different
software but I really like the general outcome of it.

Click the image to see the full resolution version of
the image in question.

Simple, clean, yet with a nice power of emotion, and
that simple but powerful statement made by the
image itself is something that greatly appeals to my
artistic senses. I dont aspire to be a great artist, I
dont think I ever will be, but hopefully, there is
someone out there that likes what I do enough to
appreciate the time I put into these things.

What is art. Well, the definition of art is more or less
something created to inspire reaction or emotion in
the reciprocating part. For me, this is a piece of art
because (hopefully) it wakes some emotions in the
viewer.

Comments are of course, gratefully accepted.
-Z-

The enemy of the internet. Part II

A while back I wrote a post called Sarkozy, the enemy of the internet nicolas-sarkozy
about how the french want to start disconnecting
people who fileshare over the internet. This was a
highly controversial thing to say and in my ears,
pure stupidity. Why let the hobbypolice that resides
within the media industry waltz around doing
whatever it wants and without much proof, and remove
peoples way to interact with eachother?

Now, some people say “they have evidence”. Of course
they do .. they have screenshots.. COME ON! I have
shown you multiple times how easy those are to forge.
“They have logs” you say? Oh, and a text file cant be
changed? Really. We all know that the media industry
will go to any extent to “prove” that someone is sharing
material that they feel that they have the supreme
control over.

Today, this controversial “law” was put to the vote in
france and believe it or not, it was voted down. Such
a defeat for Sarkozy, hopefully it was humiliating aswell.
If you are swedish, you can read more HERE
I can’t say that I know much of the grander things the
french has done, but I know now, that they CAN do
good things and do sensible things, aside from art.

So, to all you french people who thwarted the enemy of the internet again
I salute you.

Analyzing filesharing (MONSTER post)

Filesharing is a hot potatoe these days, and while I am filesharing
Pro in some situations, I can take a different standpoint in
others. For instance, I am for filesharing software for personal,
non-profit purposes. I think I covered that in another
post somewhere, but, for creation thousands of copies
of something and SELL it? No. THAT is theft, because
then you have stolen a sale that the recorded artist
would have made.

However, you cant calculate your losses using the
formula “X*Y=Z” where X is the amount of downloads, Y is the price
and Z is the grand total of the two. Because frankly, many of the
downloads that are being made would never ever have turned into
sales in the first place.

Now, some will argue that since they have downloaded it,
they would have purchased it. I beg to disagree, let me explain
why.

If I download the song, it is most likely because I have heard it somewhere
and I want to hear it again, So, I download it. Why didn’t I buy it? Well,
I cant buy just 1 song in the store, can I? And most likely, the song that
I want, is probably only found on some obscure Various Artists album
wich contains 12 or more songs extra, that I have no interrest in what
so ever. On top of that, I have to pay for all those extra songs, even
though they might make me sick and cause me to jump off my balcony.

Today, people are more selective, because people KNOW that there are
alternatives to what is being offered in neatly printed plastic discs,
and to be honest, the Internet is a large part of that awareness, but
would that awareness be there without the record companies themselves?

The record companies are pushing out a never ending stream of  one hit
wonders and the pace really is very fast, there are too much coming
out that are pure crap to be honest, and of course, most of the media
is jumping on the hype train and we, as regular consumers doesn’t really
have any chance to keep up, for a multitude of reasons, one being the
financial aspect of it, and another being that we simply dont have the
time to go to a record store every time theres a new fad. There are
a few artist that I gladly BUY. You heard me. Buy. And well, here goes
but, keep in mind that my tastes in music is so much more.

In my CD rack right now, there is a couple of Ozzy discs, 2 Dio albums,
4 Alice Cooper albums and a few AC/DC records. Why? Well, frankly
I know that even though I may not like ALL the songs on the albums
there are definetly more then 3 that I will like, so, it is worth the
effort to go to the store, and even though I hate the price, I feel
those artists deserve my money.

Why do people keep up the illegal filesharing, Well let me list a few reasons
and I wont restrict myself to music and movies, but also software and games.
filesharing

The first and foremost, is the human curiousity. We, as human beings are
interrested in new things. Always. We don’t always know what this new
thing does, but we still want to take a little peek and see if it can be of any
use for us. I know there are shareware and trialware for pretty much
everything that is out there, well, usually they have a lot of features that
are locked, and hence can’t be viewed until we see the whole package.

Second, the price tags. Lets face it. Open source alternatives are good,
but usually they just mimic other, commercial software. Case in point:
Microsoft Office > Open Office.org and Star Office. Adobe Photoshop >
The GIMP. The list can grow endlessly. Now, The GIMP is free to download
and you can do ALMOST the same things as in photoshop. Theres that
word again… ALMOST. Seeing as almost is a word that we dont like, well…

Anyhow, Adobe Photoshop, for those that dont know, is pretty expensive
even in its standalone, the Creative Suite, is a lot more expensive. The stand-alone
costs a whopping 699 dollars. Not something that the regular people can
spend to edit their photos, create graphics for their own personal webpage
and whatnot. The Creative Suite makes you spend 1,399 dollars, and that
is for the standard edition. Now, before you do any conclusions, I want
you to know that the reason for using Adobe Photoshop is becuase
everyone knows what it is, so everyone has some sort of basis to see what
I am gaining at. When it comes to the music and movies, well, here’s an
interresting comparison. A CD, with music, takes X amount of music
to produce. You need the studio, the logistics, promotion etc etc etc,
and that is not free. So, the CD will land at around 200 SEK, but a
movie, with its special effects is a lot more expensive to create, you
need more equipment, more people involved etc. So the price will
land at around 200 SEK ….. wait a minute? Somewhere theres
something not right. I am guessing either the movie industry is
charging waaaaay too little, but I doubt that, or the movie industry
are charging waaaaay too much, wich in my world is a lot more plausible.
Also, since logicistics and distribution costs, why isnt digital downloads
that much cheaper? They have the same pricetag as the physical discs.
Just a thought.

Third reason, is informationflow. The internet is filled with information and
we suck it up like dry sand sucks up liquids, all well and good, but also that
wealth of information feeds our curiousity to new levels. What is this thing
that everyone is talking about, who is that artist that people say is up and
coming? Well, we can A: Go to a store, or an online store, pay money to
see if we actually LIKE that artist and realise either 1: Yep, 200 SEK well spent
or 2: Nope, someone is overhyping this and I just wasted 200 SEK.

Those 200 SEK really is a lot of money just to satisfy our need to follow
up on information, feed the curiousity and keep up with what the rest
of the world thinks, and make our own opinion.

The fourth reason is Time.
Stress, preassure, deadlines. We know those words and well, if you dont
then its good on you, but the rest of us surely do. Let’s say person X just got
home from work. He sit’s himself down in front of the TV and flips the channels
around and voila, MTV, VH1 or whatever other music channel you desire
plays a song that he actually starts to listen to. He likes the song and wants
to do some research. So, Wikipedia it is. Turns out this artist has released
X number of albums, and this man never even knew the artist existed
(how’s that for promotion costs) So, this man who has worked all day
and wants to relax with some music has a few options. A: Go down
to a record store and risk buying albums that really isnt good.
B: go online, purchase the songs for the exact same amount, but now
digital, now branded with DRM, or C:
Find them on any torrent site available, wich means he only has to
wait a few minutes til can listen to an entire album (that is, if the
artist is popular enough to have people sharing it.)

So, downloading for the internet is pretty much effortless and free.
We know that. Free is good. But when it comes to music, there is
actually an alternative to purchasing it, if you want it NOW, instead
of lets say, the weekend. Spotify is more then just a buzzword.
It has saved my musical life to be honest, but here, the recording
industry is biting their own tail a little.

Metallica. Good Musicians, BAD tacticians, or pherhaps their label
needs to think a little further then their nose, but you can hardly
find any of their songs on spotify.

Now, spotify is a pay OR an ad service. Wich means that the artist
WILL get paid, yet record companies dont want to share their
catalogues and actually REMOVES things from there based on
wich country it is. Hows that for smart business?

In the end, theres a chasm really. A deep, wide chasm filled with financial
calculations and on one side, we find the companies, on the other, we find
the people who fileshare, and the funny thing is, that most of the times
when the people on the other side of the companies tries to build a bridge
over to the companies, the corporations either throws the bridge down,
or, places so many tollbooths on the bridge that for a regular user there
just isn’t any good way of navigating, wich means the bridge collapses on
itself.

Anyhoo, I would really like input on this, because I find this fascinating
not only from my own standpoint, but from every angle.

WordPress themes … again

Well, you have seen that I make wordpress themes from time to
time, Well, check the menu on top, and you will see that I made
a page collecting them so you dont have to browse every single
post.

Hope you enjoy

Cover it up (massive video)

It is a phenomenon that has shown its head more and more these days.
Musicians are making covers of this and that, and well, some might be
an utter waste of time, but some are actually worth listening to, and in
some aspects might even be better then the original. My taste in music
is very broad and hence, I come across covers pretty much everywhere.

One favourite song of mine, is Disturbed’s “Land of confusion:

What many dont know, or maybe dont care about is that the song is actually
a cover of an old Genesis song. Yeah, Genesis, you know, those who had that
famous drummer named “Phil Collins”. Here’s the original:

Not a bad cover by David Draiman and his band ey?

A cover is one thing, but making a bad cover is another story really.
There are of course, hilarious covers out there aswell, and I will get to
those later on in this little show of mine.

Some people, like “the king of rock” Elvis Presley make a living on covers
and some release covers just to boost a low or waning career. Whatever the
reasons are for an artist to make a cover, the only thing I ask for is
that you do something that pay homage to the original artist, not to
slice and dice the song in a futile effort to make the song seem like it
is “yours”.

Depending on your voice, you may, or may not be suited to do certain
covers, here you have what I personally think is an abyssmal choice of
song.:

I seriously hope I dont have to tell you wich band made the original.
Dear Avril, you have a good voice, much better then I have, I will freely
admit this, but couldn’t you have picked a better song to cover out of
Metallica’s wide arsenal of musical rockets? How about Sanitarium (Welcome home)?

Then of course, there are those that just likes to twist your arm and force you
to start listening to something that you never would have listened to in the
first place. This is a song that pretty much everyone can sing along to, but
I am pretty sure that there isn’t that many that openly admit to liking it.

And I can honestly say, I really dont like the Bee-Gees, but hey, they made
money didn’t they?

However, when you stumble across an old hero making a cover of THAT,
it either brings a laughter out of you, or a tear. For me, its a mixture of both.

Do you have more examples? Feel free to mail me or leave a comment
and I will take a look.

Oh, I dont need Hallelujah by Mr. Cohen, because I know that both Jeff Buckley and
Rufus Wainwright does beautiful covers of it.

Parental feelings

Sometimes you tire of your offspring, of course, who doesn’t loose patiencechildabuse
at one point or another, but you do your best not to take it
out on the child. At least, thats what anyone that has a
clear cut conscience does. You see, just because one’s life is
hard, stressful and filled with adversity, there is no real
excuse to take things out on a poor, innocent child, no
matter what mess that child has managed to make, or
whatever that child did break.

When you physically hurt a child, is it a need for control, an
outlet for helplessness, or just plain mental problems? I
really can’t make a call on that because I am not a shrink like
Dr. Phil, neither am I a therapist in any other way that matters,
but I can, and do let people know that by being a parent I
can vouch for my own feelings in the matter at hand.

Every single day, there are children being physically abused
by adults and that to me, is unacceptable. If you see
someone  violently shaking or hitting a child, even if it is an
open handed slap, would you react, and more importantly,
HOW would you  react? I am not gonna sit here and tell you
that I would do this and that or else.. but I would do
SOMETHING at least. It is an obligation I have towards every
child out there, an obligation that every single sensible adult is bound to.

There is no excuse for inaction. I have heard of those that just shrugged and
thought “hey, its not my call”. IT IS YOUR CALL. You are observing it.
How would you feel if that same child, later that night died from one
to many blow to the head, and you realized that if you had spoken up
for that child, that little person would be alive, albeit a bit sad to be
separated from the parent because, lets face it, abused children still
loves their parents on one or another level, and leaving that parent
may in the beginning feel like a betrayal, but in the end, maybe you can
make the child understand that it is not his or her fault that their
parent is hitting them.

Now, just to share something. My girlfriend showed me this earlier tonight
and even though I am supposed to be one of the stereotype manly men
(I know I most definetly aren’t one) I got a little wet in the corner of my eye.

The song is named “Concrete angel” and the lyrics are below.

She walks to school with the lunch she packed
Nobody knows what she’s holding back
Wearing the same dress she wore yesterday
She hides the bruises with the linen and lace, oh

The teacher wonders but she doesn’t ask
It’s hard to see the pain behind the mask
Bearing the burden of a secret storm
Sometimes she wishes she was never born

Through the wind and the rain she stands hard as a stone
In a world that she can’t rise above
But her dreams give her wings and she flies to a place
Where she’s loved concrete angel

Somebody cries in the middle of the night
The neighbors hear but they turn out the light
A fragile soul caught in the hands of fate
When morning comes it will be too late

Through the wind and the rain she stands hard as a stone
In a world that she can’t rise above
But her dreams give her wings and she flies to a place
Where she’s loved concrete angel

A statue stands in a shaded place
An angel girl with an upturned face
A name is written on a polished rock
A broken heart that the world forgot

Through the wind and the rain she stands hard as a stone
In a world that she can’t rise above
But her dreams give her wings and she flies to a place
Where she’s loved concrete angel

Sleek and slick.

I know that some of you actually use my themes since from some, I even get thank you
mails, and others are found on google. So, I keep doing them. I kinda like
the blueline theme I did a little while ago, but wasn’t too pleased with how
it turned out, so, I decided to make this one: Sleek
sleek

The wallet connections between filesharers and Hollywood

You probably have noticed that I read and think a lot about
filesharing, p2p and pretty much everything in that corner, so
I am guessing that there is no big surprise that I dig up news
about it in various places. I might not be the first to write
about it, but I dont need to be, I feel that it is better to have
a broad front and reach many, then to contend to be first
and maybe not get the whole story.

Anyhoo, the P2P developer Vuze, who used to program
and maintain azureus, a popular bittorrent client, recently
ordered a survey from Frank Magid Associated, and
the result, at least to me, wasn’t that surprising.
Frank Magid Associated conducted the survey, looking at
693 American Vuze users and 606 American Internet users,
all aged 18-44, wich is usually the “core age” for filesharing.

It appears that the people who are engaged in filesharing
and downloading movies are spending a lot more money
on content then those who doesn’t.

It appears that the users of Vuze (the decendant of azureus)
have no problem purchasing DVDs, they actually buy up to
16 a year, whereas the other group lands on average 13 per
year.

From Frank Magid Associated

From Frank Magid Associated

Vuze CEO Gilles BianRosa about the results. His take is that P2P users are
“Hollywood’s best customers, and that’s clearly something that we don’t think that Hollywood is very aware of.”

The survey shows that even though they can obtain what they want for free,
the filesharers doesn’t really mind spending money, but a theory regarding
why people dont buy more movies might be the fact that a purchased movie
these days are DRM protected and priced a little too high.

Read the article about this on ARS technica

The irony of it all…

Im sitting here listening to some music just to relax a tad and the song
that just ended was “Too much love will kill you” by Queen.

Isn’t it the ultimate irony that mad
a voice, that spanned over four
octaves, who entertained more
or less the entire globe, who
came from such a small, legendery
place as Zanzibar, should die at
what can be called a young age.

Sometimes you have to wonder if he
was aware of that fact already while
recording songs way before he
contracted the HIV wich would
develop into AIDS, and later lead to
his demise.

You can analyze his songs and of course,
if you only take snippets out of context, you
can find anything, but I really think that the
song “Too much love wll kill you” sums it best.

This artist that, as many of the great artists,
received most of his fame posthumously.

Who could have imagined that young  Farroukh Bulsara would give
so much of himself to the world, creating works of art way into
the very last. It is impressive that he managed to hide the fact of
his disease all the time, up to the day before his death.

freddie-mercuryThe one whom the Gods love, dies young
it is said. I can’t really say if Freddie was
young, but I think he should have had more
years on this godforsaken rock in space.

He doesn’t see the awareness he became
a part of, neither does he see what his legacy
accomplishes today, but one thing is certain,
the world did loose one of the great ones when
Freddie passed away in his Kensington home.

Say what you will about his sexual preferences
but that man had a voice unmatched in its versatility.

From metal, to opera, he could do it all. How many
singers today can boast that fact and then own up
to it? I would say that you would be hard pressed
to find even one with the vocal abilities to equal
Freddies.

Anyhoo, If you haven’t heard “Too much love will kill you” I strongly
urge you to listen to it, at least twice. First time to just enjoy the song
and second, to pay attention to the lyrics. Just to make it easier, I’ll
give them to you here.

Im just the pieces of the man I used to be
Too many bitter tears are raining down on me
Im far away from home
And Ive been facing this alone
For much too long
I feel like no-one ever told the truth to me
About growing up and what a struggle it would be
In my tangled state of mind
Ive been looking back to find
Where I went wrong

Too much love will kill you
If you cant make up your mind
Torn between the lover
And the love you leave behind
Youre headed for disaster
cos you never read the signs
Too much love will kill you
Every time

Im just the shadow of the man I used to be
And it seems like theres no way out of this for me
I used to bring you sunshine
Now all I ever do is bring you down
How would it be if you were standing in my shoes
Cant you see that its impossible to choose
No theres no making sense of it
Every way I go Im bound to lose

Too much love will kill you
Just as sure as none at all
Itll drain the power thats in you
Make you plead and scream and crawl
And the pain will make you crazy
Youre the victim of your crime
Too much love will kill you
Every time

Too much love will kill you
Itll make your life a lie
Yes, too much love will kill you
And you wont understand why
Youd give your life, youd sell your soul
But here it comes again
Too much love will kill you
In the end…
In the end.

Freddie Mercury / Farroukh Bulsara passed away at the 24th November, 1991, at the
age of 45.

If you are a little bit more interrested in this marvellous performer and want to know
a little more about his life, I recommend purchasing the DVD
“Freddie Mercury – The Untold Story” It takes you from the streets of
Zanzibar, to Eeling school of arts where Freddie Studied design and fashion
and on to becoming the icon he is today. The documentary contains
interviews with lovers, like his last one, Jim Hutton, his mother and sister.

freddie

New WordPress theme

Well, I have to do something while I wait for response, and tonight
I figured that I had to do something creative to soothe my own nerves.
The result was this: blueline

Blueline. A sleek blue theme with sinus lines
showing. The background itself is static so it
will always be visible.

Use it as you wish, just leave my link at the bottom please.

Ahoy mateys, hoist the sails and raise anchor…

…because daddy has a new little pirate around.

There was a fair in town this weekend, quite large ones actually
and there was quite a lot to look at, but a few things struck me
as odd. First, it seemed like every third stall was selling sunglasses
and well, to be honest, not the good looking ones. These where the
types that was modern in the 70’s, and might be so now, but they
still make you look like a beetle or a fly. I simply cannot understand
why good fashion never comes back, but the bad always do.

Anyhow, we got a few things that was good. I got myself a new wallet thingy
one of those that are more made to keep credit cards then cash, but still
I dont carry around cash if I have to, I got myself a nice little 3d poster
for the wall over my computer setup, and Linda of course, got candy, and
another handbag. I think she has 8 or so now. I guess it’s kinda like the shoe
thing with women. You know that a woman can never have enough shoes.
For Linda, its handbags.

Anyhoo, back to what we got. Sort of at least.
I recently joined a group on facebook, called “I dont care if your crocs are comfy,
you look like an idiot wearing them” and guess what Linda brought home from
the faire… you guessed it. A pair of blue crocs for David to wear and my protests
was met with “But, they are so cuuuuuute!” And that was that. My son now
wears crocs wether I like it or not.

We also needed another hat or cap for David because the one he had, had those
earflap things that well, covered the ears, but in 25 centigrade warmth, that isn’t
really comfortable. So, we looked around, and lo and behold. We found a Pirate/
biker bandana, take a look:
bandana1

bandana2

Kinda neat huh? So, now when I take the babystroller, I fill it with my own little pirate.
YARR!

Nice neighbourhood

In there area I live, we have something that I find pretty cool.
If we have any bulky things that we need to get rid of, we simply
put those items outside the main door on thursday nights
and on friday morning, a crew comes and collect it, unless
someone else in the neighbourhood wants it. Usually
thats what you do with furniture that you want to get rid of.

Now, some of my neighbours are quite… well…. posh to be
honest, so not everything goes. This thursday someone had
put a TV bench outside and from my balcony it looked  kinda
OK, so I went downstairs to take a closer look. Turns out that there
was hardly  even a scratch on it, the only errors I could find was that the
main shelf for DVD player or VCR was missing, not broken, just missing
and another shelf for the side cabinet. Of course, an occasional mark
but hey, it is used after all. Also, the magnets for the main doors
had fallen off. Now, this server, zutgorak.ath.cx resides in an old stereo
rack, wich, incidentally, had magnet lock doors. However, since the
cabinet is skewed, the magnet lock isn’t in use, im using velcro bands
to keep it closed and also, to keep a certain little kid from turning off
the server.

So, today I grabbed my trusty screwdriver and removed the magnet
from the stereorack, and mounted that in the TV bench. Lo and behold
it fit like a glove, and since the mounting screws wasnt the same diameter
as the old ones, I didn’t even have to plug the holes up, just screw it into
place. Woooh! Go me!.

So, now we have done a little refurnishing and its in place, and it looks good
too. Here’s how it looks:
bench

Nice neighbours indeed.

How to loose ones fingernails

As you know, I have been having problems with my larynxes for quite a while
now and it has really put a damper in my spirits, but I haven’t shut my light
out completely yet.

About a week ago, I saw an add for a job as copywriter and techical blogger.
Well, I looked into the add and saw that this might be something for me, seeing
as I have a technical background and I do blog a lot and I have tried different
blogging platforms just to see wich appealed to me.

It appears that the software that they use are WordPress, blog
and seeing as this blog itself is run on a linux server
and it is, in fact a wordpress blog, I can easily say
that I have some experience with the interface.

Add to it that I set up wordpress blogs for people
for free just for the fun of it, and it to read other
peoples views on things in general, I think I may be
qualified.

Another little twist in the add was that since the
blog that this new employee will write on is aimed
towards English readers, the applicant needs a very
firm grip on the English language, both in written form
and in spoken form, and seeing how this blog looks,
I would say I am still in the running for the job.

However, I hate waiting, but that is really all I can do
at the moment. Wait until someone contacts me
regarding this job, with either questions, or if they
want me to take a writing test to discern how good my
English really is, or, if I, like many, are stuck using
translators for the long and technical words.
Well, I really hope that I am up to par, because I think
I might be a good team player for these guys.

The MP sounds like a very nice guy and well, since I only
have a voice impression of him, all I can say is that he
sounds like the guy I would like to have as a boss.

But, now its time to chew the nails some more and
hope I get contacted soon, and lets hope that the
contact is as positive as the short telephone calls I
had with the MP

Why? (A ranters confessions on IPRED and FRA)

In a mail today I got a little comment. “Why are you againstbig-brother-is-watching-you
the ipred law, are you one of those pirates?”

Well, maybe I am, maybe I’m not. That really isn’t what my
ranting is about, what I am going on about is the fact
that the swedish government has shown a complete and utter
blatant disregard for peoples wishes, integrity and privacy.

You see, before IPRED and FRA, you needed a suspicion to
be under scrutiny from authorities, and frankly, that was
OK with me. If there was a strong suspicion that I was
engaged in anything that was not right according to law
I was put under the spotlight and my comings and goings
might be logged. All well and good. However, the government
has decided that every single one of us is a potential
terrorist and lawbreaker, so, why not just treat everyone
in the fashion applicable. I wouldn’t say jack about the
law if it was ONLY those that are engaged in something that
can be placed in the range of illegal, terrorism, trafficing
etcetera, but why on earth slap the entire nations face
straight off and yell “You are a suspect, we are watching
you” right into its ear? I just dont understand it, and
really, I cannot support it.

In regards of the IPRED law, where the copyright holders
can ask the ISP’s to deliver logs on who had what IP number
at a certain time, well, to me that reaks of corruption.
What you need, is pretty much logs, to ask out an IPnumbers
leaser, and you can sue that person for a gazillion dollars
unless he pays a small fee directly. This will then be
enforced by the vultures known as company lawyers that
wont hesitate for a second to pick you down to your bones.
In my previous post I took 5 minutes to create FAKE logs
that looks just as real as any other screenshot or log
and that was five minutes of my time, and I covered two
different protocols, the popular Bittorrent, and the old
FTP protocol and showed how easy it was to get what in
some cases are related to as evidence.

In an even older post, this one:  Ipred, Dollars and Businessmodel
I show what happens when companies gets to take a huge chunk
out of the legal systems. Suing grandmothers for sharing gangsta rap
and even suing DEAD people for filesharing. You heard me. DEAD
people are supposedly sitting on the net, on some DC hub and
spreading gangsta rap to all the little wannabe gangstas around the
world. Sheesh.

So now, we have these hobby police that doesnt really care for
your economy, situation, or even if you even committed what
they claim for, because their mistress is named Profit and whoooo
boy is she a mean one. You either help Profit grow, or become
the slave to her watchdog, Unemployment.

Now, I am not saying that these laywers are the bad persons
in here, they are after all, only representing the companies
that keeps the leashes tight around their necks and whisper
toxic statements into their ears but really. It has to stop, and
stop soon.

I know its a horror scene, but at the rate things are going
I am pretty sure that soon, you will find government employment
as mail opener, as peeping tom and snitch.

The government eyes what we  do, they read everything we wite
and listens to every single thing we say, as long as we are not doing
it face to face, and who knows, maybe even then. I really really
feel that some slight paranoia is not unjustified in this case.

Just because you cannot see them, doesn’t mean that they are not
out to get you.

One foot outside the law?

A few weeks ago, maybe even months, there was a summons sent
into a court apb3to find out who was using an IP adress at a certain time,
all according to the IPRED law that has hit the nation of Sweden.
All in all, this was not too bad and seemed OK.

According to the the Anti Piracy Bureau in Sweden, the server was
packed with pretty much every swedish audiobook ever realese, and
this was shared to the public, and so they acted on behalf of their
employers. Now, this is all well and good, but now, some new lights
has come into the light. You see, if I set up a server, that is totally
free to use, so that anyone could log into it without any password
verification, and then fill it with whatever copyrighted material I
can find, the APB can, and probably will go over the server and then
drag me into the court. However, If the server has any form of password
protection, a new problem rears itself and stares you in the face. Let me explain:

If the server was password protected, it was not made public to the
general populace. Hence, the subpoena is faulty in its initial phrasing.
Ok, so, you can rephrase that.

If the server was password protected, you need the permission from
the server owner to log on. In other words he, or someone he appointed,
have given you your own personal login details.

If the Anti Piracy Bureau did not have their own password and user,
they either A: used an informer who had a password who then sent
logs, screenshots and files downloaded to the Anti Piracy Bureau.
I want you to know that ANYONE who has the slightest interrest
in computers can write a log that makes it look like someone downloaded
whatever file from whereever, be it a log, or a screenshot.
Let me demonstrate.

Look at this image:
proof

Now, before someone decides to find that torrent tracker, let me tell you this: A short lookup
will tell you that there is none there. What in reality is there is http://www.aftonbladet.se

You want more “proof” ? Ok, how about a real FTP log, this log is what I actually did:

Status:    Ansluter till 192.168.1.103:21…
Status:    Anslutningen etablerad, väntar på välkomstmeddelande…
Svar:    220 ProFTPD 1.3.1 Server (Debian) [::ffff:192.168.1.103]
Kommando:    USER zutgorak
Svar:    331 Password required for zutgorak
Kommando:    PASS ******
Svar:    230 User zutgorak logged in
Kommando:    SYST
Svar:    215 UNIX Type: L8
Kommando:    FEAT
Svar:    211-Features:
Svar:     MDTM
Svar:     REST STREAM
Svar:     SIZE
Svar:    211 End
Status:    Ansluten
Status:    Hämtar kataloglistning…
Kommando:    PWD
Svar:    257 “/home/zutgorak” is the current directory
Kommando:    TYPE I
Svar:    200 Type set to I
Kommando:    PORT 192,168,1,100,13,44
Svar:    200 PORT command successful
Kommando:    LIST
Svar:    150 Opening ASCII mode data connection for file list
Svar:    226 Transfer complete
Status:    Kataloglistningen lyckades
Status:    Hämtar kataloglistning…
Kommando:    CWD haven
Svar:    250 CWD command successful
Kommando:    PWD
Svar:    257 “/home/zutgorak/haven” is the current directory
Kommando:    PORT 192,168,1,100,13,47
Svar:    200 PORT command successful
Kommando:    LIST
Svar:    150 Opening ASCII mode data connection for file list
Svar:    226 Transfer complete
Status:    Beräknar serverns tidzonsskillnad…
Kommando:    MDTM blogs.html
Svar:    213 20090515222120
Status:    Tidszonsskillnader: Servern: 0 sekunder. Lokalt: 7200 sekunder. Skillnad: 7200 sekunder.
Status:    Kataloglistningen lyckades
Status:    Ansluter till 192.168.1.103:21…
Status:    Anslutningen etablerad, väntar på välkomstmeddelande…
Svar:    220 ProFTPD 1.3.1 Server (Debian) [::ffff:192.168.1.103]
Kommando:    USER zutgorak
Svar:    331 Password required for zutgorak
Kommando:    PASS ******
Svar:    230 User zutgorak logged in
Status:    Ansluten
Status:    Påbörjar hämtning av /home/zutgorak/haven/blogs.html
Kommando:    CWD /home/zutgorak/haven
Svar:    250 CWD command successful
Kommando:    PWD
Svar:    257 “/home/zutgorak/haven” is the current directory
Kommando:    TYPE I
Svar:    200 Type set to I
Kommando:    PORT 192,168,1,100,13,52
Svar:    200 PORT command successful
Kommando:    RETR blogs.html
Svar:    150 Opening BINARY mode data connection for blogs.html (6350 bytes)
Svar:    226 Transfer complete
Status:    Filöverföringen lyckades

Now, this is in swedish, but still, its easy to understand if you read FTP logs on a fairly regular basis.
Lets change this a little. Note that I use the same “movie” again in this log just to keep it consistent:

Status:    Ansluter till 192.168.1.103:21…
Status:    Anslutningen etablerad, väntar på välkomstmeddelande…
Svar:    220 ProFTPD 1.3.1 Server (Debian) [::ffff:192.168.1.103]
Kommando:    USER zutgorak
Svar:    331 Password required for zutgorak
Kommando:    PASS ******
Svar:    230 User zutgorak logged in
Kommando:    SYST
Svar:    215 UNIX Type: L8
Kommando:    FEAT
Svar:    211-Features:
Svar:     MDTM
Svar:     REST STREAM
Svar:     SIZE
Svar:    211 End
Status:    Ansluten
Status:    Hämtar kataloglistning…
Kommando:    PWD
Svar:    257 “/home/zutgorak” is the current directory
Kommando:    TYPE I
Svar:    200 Type set to I
Kommando:    PORT 192,168,1,100,13,44
Svar:    200 PORT command successful
Kommando:    LIST
Svar:    150 Opening ASCII mode data connection for file list
Svar:    226 Transfer complete
Status:    Kataloglistningen lyckades
Status:    Hämtar kataloglistning…
Kommando:    CWD moviez
Svar:    250 CWD command successful
Kommando:    PWD
Svar:    257 “/home/zutgorak/moviez” is the current directory
Kommando:    PORT 192,168,1,100,13,47
Svar:    200 PORT command successful
Kommando:    LIST
Svar:    150 Opening ASCII mode data connection for file list
Svar:    226 Transfer complete
Status:    Beräknar serverns tidzonsskillnad…
Kommando:    MDTM moviez
Svar:    213 20090515222120
Status:    Tidszonsskillnader: Servern: 0 sekunder. Lokalt: 7200 sekunder. Skillnad: 7200 sekunder.
Status:    Kataloglistningen lyckades
Status:    Ansluter till 192.168.1.103:21…
Status:    Anslutningen etablerad, väntar på välkomstmeddelande…
Svar:    220 ProFTPD 1.3.1 Server (Debian) [::ffff:192.168.1.103]
Kommando:    USER zutgorak
Svar:    331 Password required for zutgorak
Kommando:    PASS ******
Svar:    230 User zutgorak logged in
Status:    Ansluten
Status:    Påbörjar hämtning av /home/zutgorak/moviez/Tropic Thunder [2008 DVD5 Retail].iso
Kommando:    CWD /home/zutgorak/moviez
Svar:    250 CWD command successful
Kommando:    PWD
Svar:    257 “/home/zutgorak/haven” is the current directory
Kommando:    TYPE I
Svar:    200 Type set to I
Kommando:    PORT 192,168,1,100,13,52
Svar:    200 PORT command successful
Kommando:    RETR Tropic Thunder [2008 DVD5 Retail].iso
Svar:    150 Opening BINARY mode data connection for Tropic Thunder [2008 DVD5 Retail].iso (41237278 kilobytes)
Svar:    226 Transfer complete
Status:    Filöverföringen lyckades

ponten

Henrik Ponte´n

What can we deduce of this then. Well, we can
deduce that digital evidence is wayto easy to
manipulate, and in my opinion should not be
valid in a court of law.
Back to the track, dont let me wander off now 🙂

What they could have done, and this could be
a possibility if the server owner was sloppy
and careless enough not to set maximum
errouneous tries to log on, but, just brute force
your way in using dictionaries and random keys.
It takes a while, a looong while, but hey, with
mulitple computers trying, you reduce the time
needed.

So, lets sum up a little, either they paid someone to get digital evidence
wich as I have shown you, are very easy to conterfeit, or they broke
into the server. Now, breaking into a server is also breaking the law.

Here is a little kicker. Henrik Ponte´n, the lawyer for
the swedish APB denies any allegations regarding
illegal methods of obtaining evidence, but refuses to
state how the actual gathering of proof has been conducted.
This in itself is really suspicious in my book but hey, I am not
a lawyer, so I am not really sure what to say about this.

andre

Andre´Rickardsson

However, when this case was known to the public,
a complaint was made stating that APB had hacked
their way into the system and the complaint was filed
by Andre´Rickardsson, a former cybercrime
investigator for the swedish security police.

Henril Ponte´n responded that those accusations was
groundless, but of course, refused to make it official on
how the evidence had been gathered.

Now, in an addition to the summons, from the 8th of
may, it is confirmed that the server in question was,
in fact password protected. Lending more credibility
to Rickardssons accusations. The same information
came from another addition from the Internet Service
Provider “Ephone” who had the server owner as a customer.

How far can a company go to gather evidence for their
own cause? Have companies overstepped the law repeatedly in gathering evidence in the matter of filesharing?

Well, I think so, but sofar, this is only speculation on my part and not hard facts.

Everyone is entitled to their own opinions and by Pete, you should be allowed to voice
them as long as they are not aimed to intentionally hurt anyone.

I will be following this case a little with a large interrest though.

Shameless advertising.

Ok, I have been thinking for a while. Why not make a post about something
that I know by heart, something that is technical and at the same time funny.
But what should I then write about? I toyed around with the notion of satellite
tv and similar things, but lets face it, there are a lot of sites that handles DVB-S
better then I can in a simple blog post. So, whats the next logical step?

Well, Here we are. The slingbox. In sweden it is available to Viasat Customers
and it is then called Viasat Everywhere. This was one of the things that I used
to give support for, so, I know it pretty well.
sling-500
This little silvery chocolatebar actually does the job very well. But what does it do?
Well, in laymans terms, it takes the audio and video signals from a unit, and
streams that via the web to a client that can be anywhere in the world.

Sounds easy? Well, it actually is.

slingbox-drawThis diagram shows how to connect it, but there really is
a little more then just this diagram. So, what do you need
to get this little thing to work properly. Well, I will take this
from the Viasat standpoint, because thats the one I know.

1 digital satellite receiver.
1 router
1 slingbox
1 account at an ISP that has an upload speed exceeding 256 kbit/sec

The first thing you do is hook up the input cables for audio
and video from your digital satellite receiver to the slingbox.
If you want to see what the slingbox are receiving, you also
need to take the output and connect that to your television set.

Now, you need to place the IR blasters. It’s the cable
that looks like the image to the right.IR blasters

Where to place them varies quite a lot depending
on what satellite reciever you have. On a Nokia,
you need to place it slightly to the right of the clock,
on a  Pace TDS 460 you put it just to the right of the
smart card slot. On on top of the receiver,
the other on the bottom.

Now, its time to connect the entire setup to the router.
I wont go into port forwarding here, because frankly,
there are waaay to many routers out there to list the
procedure for all of them, but if that is something that
you need help with I would advice you to go to
www.portforward.com

Why do we need port forward? Well, lets simplify it a
little. You are on a business trip, and you want to
watch some Swedish TV.
You try to connect to your slingbox, but alas, your router dont know
what you are trying to reach, and since the router itself isn’t sending
any signal that the slingplayer software can display, well, its a no go.

Also, if you have a router, you have internal IP’s and one external ip.
The internal IP is what is in your home network, for most routers
the internal ip range is 192.168.1.XXX where 1 is usually the router
itself. Your external IP can be pretty much anything that your
Internet service provider decides.

This in effect causes the router to not allow any connections to your
internal IPs before it is manually set, and that block means no TV for
you my friend. Anyhow, when you have set the port forwarding,
you are pretty much set to do the initial setup of the slingbox, wich
has to take place on the local network. You have to be connected to the
same router to be able to finish it all.

Simply start the installer, it used to be named “slingplayer setup” when I was
working with it, and the setup starts. Take your time and read the different
frames before pushing onward, because on one of the frames, you will receive
your slingbox ID. That slingbox ID is a good thing to save on a note in your
wallet, because using that, you can always access your slingbox if its on.
It works a little like a DNS name really, and that in itself is kind of impressive.

When all is completed, you can enjoy your TV from anywhere that you can get
a broadband signal. Not bad for a little plastic chocolate bar eh?

Pedophiles out in the open

I do detest some people more then others. 1
Look at this image. Looks kind of harmless
wouldn’t you say? I think so too, a father
playing with his kid. Nothing important.

Until you realize that this image in particular
is used by individuals that wants to legalize
sexual relations with children!

You heard me correct. Legalize pedophilia.
How can anyone even think of such a thing?

Here is the groups own words:
==========================================================
We believe that the abuse of children would not happen if people could get an outlet
for their neverending love of children on the same terms as the children, without
having to resort to threats and violence.

We do not wish to hurt anyone, but when we live in a society that allows transvestites
and zoophilia, then it is absurd that a healthy relationship between an adult and a child
is forbidden.

One of the reasons that this subject has become taboo is because of how we raise
our children. Parents constantly tells their children to stay away from other adults.
This fills them with an irrational fear for something they really know nothing about.
We in this group stand for a more liberal view in the relationship between adults and child.

See this group as a protestlist for those of use who will not stay silent any longer.
Let the children be free and decide what to do with their own bodies.
==========================================================
I found this article here:
http://www.expressen.se/Nyheter/1.1584170/kanda-svenskar-hangs-ut-i-pedofilgrupp

What the hell?!? They say it themselves. “Something that children know nothing about”
So, if we raise our kids to believe that its ok for adults to satisfy their sexual needs
using the child, the child wont  suffer trauma? I really really really dont think that
type of logic is applicable here.

The even stranger part is that this group has over 80000 members.
I am VERY sure that some of them just interpreted the groups title
to be a group to PREVENT SEXUAL ABUSE OF CHILDREN but instead
they wound up as members of a pedophile group. So sad that people
do not read before clicking “Join”

Seeing someone who was sexually abused as a child and to see their
pain when they talk about it, it is horrible. And the few that I have actually
talked to regarding this matter say the same thing. “I didn’t know”

A child is innocent, and should stay that way until the child itself is ready
to loose the innocence for the adults views on sexuality, not be lured
into it at a tender age.

I can understand that pedophilia is a sexual preference that you do not
choose, but you can choose to supress that sexuality, just like so many
gay men and women have supressed their sexuality to avoid persecution
for years. You, as an adult choose to excersize or abstain from a sexual
preference that harms the development of another human being.

If you cant, then seek help, because, what you are doing is destroying
lives. Not just of the child in question, but the childs family. The father
and mother will take the blame for the childs misfortune of running into
one such as yourself.

Lets tie the bag here shall we, because if we dont, I will rant on for hours
and I really dont feel that it would serve any purpose.

Sexuality in all its glory is great, and can be a wonderful source of joy
and pleasure, if used with common consent. If one partner is not aware
of your intentions, or know what those intentions means, it will never
be common consent.

To all you Homosexual, Bisexual, Transsexual, Heterosexual whateversexuals
Good on you. Have fun, Have sex, use condoms to prevent yourself and your
partner.

To all of you that has a sexual preference that harms other people (unless its
within mutual, common consent) Seek help. You will need it. You either
seek help, or wind up in isolation wards at jail sooner or later.

To all you facebook users who are actually members of this group. I
sincerely hope that you missed reading what the group was about
when joining.

Edit:
It appears that the group is now removed on facebook

Politics, politics and politics. (Survey inside)

buggingYou all know the drill. When I start
to talk about politics, there is usually
a rant in the making and this time is
no different then the previous ones.

Most of you have read my thoughts
in regard if the FRA and IPRED laws
and knows my standpoint. If not
click HERE

It’s really  not that complicated to
understand that: Yes, I want artists
to get paid and NO, I do not think the
government has anything to do with
my inbox or sent box.

Pherhaps they do, but I dislike the
fact that now, you need NO SUSPICION
WHATSOEVER to start what was previously frown upon.

Due to these laws, the swedish PiratPartiet has gained a large following and what they
are going on about is the issues of integrity and privacy online, and really, I agree
with the party in that matter, but there are some other parts that I dislike about it
but hey, thats my personal point of view, on with the show here before I sidetrack.

Due to that massive influx of members to the pirate party some of the other political
parties are doing what political parties do best. Lie and fish for votes using outright
fabrications, deceptions and of course, smooth talking. This has always been
the recipy for success for them, even though it is old and most people have
long since lost any respect for the established parties for many different matters.

What is commonly called the “labour party” here in sweden, Socialdemokraterna
is now doing a turncoat. Just last week they released a report and the initial lines
was these, but in swedish: “We are growing deeply concerned about the increased
effect for integrity and legal security that is being implemented in a rapid pace.”

This can be read in this article:
http://www.svd.se/nyheter/politik/euvalet2009/artikel_2950591.svd

So… lets make connect some dots here.
The man who instigated this hysteria when it came to read everyones loveletters
and political messages via email was, and forever will be: Tomas Bodström.
Now, Tomas, Mona and the rest of you, feel free to correct me if I am wrong
here but isnt Tomas a prominent member of Socialdemokraterna.

I am pretty sure that was the case when he actually handed over the proposition
that started all of this. Later on, Fredrik Rheinfeldt and his league of extraordinarie
wealthy and tax-evaders came along and saw that “Hmm, I bet we can get some
money out of this” and clubbed the proposition through, and now Sweden is
about as guarded as old Soviet or Germany when it was under STASI surveillance.

So, I ask you these questions:
[SURVEYS 1]

With those questions out of the way, lets continue.

Göran Färm, from the labour party stated this idiocy:
“When these desicions where made, there where good reasons for them,
but now we see how many different propositions they really are.
This report is a signal that we as “Socialdemokrater”(labour party members)
in the parlament is actually ready to rethink our previous standpoints.”

Oh, come on. You my friend, are fishing for votes and both you, me and the
people know it. You are no longer a party that can be trusted with issues
on personal integrity, privacy and pretty much ANYTHING that can be
of interrest to multinational companies.

Who should my vote go to if the election was today?
Ok, I will give you a hint. the pirate party has an issue that
is very dear to me, and well, that would be my vote. Either that
or I should vote NO to drive on the right side of the road.

Come on politicians. I am a voter. Find something that can sway me,
because right now, you established parties have only managed to
spit on my privacy, now, when its dried, you want to cover it
with some makeup, that will flake and fall away after the election.

Desktop Wallpapers

Nowadays, there are a lot more different desktop wallpapers then was
around in when I started using computers. Mainly I am guessing because
when I started, there was no desktop, unless you count the dosbased Norton
Commander. Norton Commander was groundbreaking in its day because
you could see two folders at once, instead of using the old copy command.

For those of you who wasnt around in those days, heres how you did it.
first, pretty much the only thing you saw was this:
prompt Not very inspiring was it?

Well, lets say you wanted to copy something
from your folder named “images”, what you had
to do is either know the direct path to the file
you wanted to copy and the path to where you
want it to go and then type this:
copy c:imagesimagename.end c:destinationsubfolder
If you didnt know the file name, you could do this:

cd images to change to images directory, then type
dir (i preferred dir -w to get some structure) to locate
your file, then type copy imagename.end c:destinationsubfolder. Kind of tedious if you ask me.

Then along came Norton Commander. It may not look like much compared to the new
windowed based operating systems, but back then, it was heaven on earth, it even had
support for null modems. (If you dont know what a null modem is, check here)
It may be text and ascii based, but hey, it was at least something resembling a desktop.
nc

This was actually my filesystem of choice on my old 386 with a whopping
16 Mb ram and running at a totally staggering 33Mhz … hard to think
that you where actually satisfied with that seeing as the calculator I have
next to me right now actually has more processing power… oh well.

With the entrance of Windows 3.1x The desktop started to resemble something
graphical at least. You could even start using images as desktop images,
albeit you had to use the heavy bmp or tif format, but you could at least
see your kids on the desktop.

win31-1-11

I kinda didnt use windows much back then though. Id rather edit my autoexec.bat and
config.sys to allow my soundboard to be used in the few games I could play, Wolfenstein3D
for instance.

My old 386 eventually died, but I have some fond memories of it at least,
and I got my pentium 166. As the name implies, it ran at 166Mhz and the
real news was the operating system. I can still remember seeing the
commercial on the TV, with the nice “start” messages
and of course, the catchphrase: Where do you want to go today.
I am of course talking about windows 95.

This is where it really started to kick off. Desktop especially when the + pack
came with 3d generated screensavers and ability to use themes. Whooo haw!
On top of that, Microsoft launched Internet Explorer 4, wich was supposed
to be the best since sliced bread, but what really made me install it was the
“Active Desktop” But lets face it, the thing you saw the most was this one:
bsod
Remember the good ole BSOD that persisted to
taunt you whenever you where in the middle
of a good game, or, had written 50 pages in
Word without saving? Oh, how you hated that
screen. This thing persisted for a loooong time
time, and well. It’s the windows way of “guru meditation”

Nowadays, most people use XP, Windows Vista, or even Windows 7 Beta, but
for me, the thrill of desktop wallpapers still persists. When will I create the one
that is perfect for me?

Anyhoo, here is my latest one.
wip

Creativity.

Creativity. Such a nice word, and very useable too. But what is it? And where
does it come from? Why do some people have it, when others obviously dont?

Well, to be honest, I think that we all have the same amount on creativity to start out
with, but later in life, our social circuit, upbringing and schooling alters it. Some learn
to remake creativity into logic and intuition while others learns how to put it into
notes and drawings.

Speaking of drawings, yesterday, when my girlfriend was having a much deserved nap
on the couch, I was a little bored and started dabbling with colors as I usually do,
and here is the result. Feel free to leave a comment. And to all you spammers, no
I _STILL_ dont buy prescription drugs or pretty much anything else you continue to
offer me.

Abstract:

Abstract

Abstract

Light of my life

Have you noticed how in these times we seem to take for granted
things that we really hold dear and cherish, but we simply dont have
the time to care for them as much as we want to?

Well, I have been blessed and cursed at the same time with this damage
to my larynxes. I have been able to spend a lot of time with my son, time
that I never would have had without the damages. It also gave a lot of time
in reflecting on life itself. I dont claim to be a guru or anything, but in my
humble opinion, life is what you make of it, just make sure that you have
good times and love along the way.
glass1
David is both a cause of joy
and grief for me. Grief because
I really have a hard time standing
high pitched voices, and a childs
scream is almost outside the
hearing range, note the almost.
But also, I really cant imagine
what life without him would be.

I am not really what I myself would
consider to be ideal parenting material.
I have my flaws as much as everyone
else on this planet, but I would atleast
like to think that my son appreciates me
with my faults and everything, despite
me having a hard time standing his squeels
of anger when he doesnt get what he wants.

David is of course, a much photographed
motif in our little household, and the
images ranges from “Ooooh so cute”
to “look at that little monster” and I
figured id share some with you.

Lately, David started signing with his hand when he wants something, pretty much the
same way that you or I would call a waiter for an additional order or the check, I am
not really sure where he picked it up, but I know when I saw it for the first time.

I was eating some crisps, sitting in front of my computer as always and suddenly this little
hand came up right in front of my eyes. I thought it wasnt more then a little gesture that
he wanted a kiss on the finger or similar, so I gave the finger a lil kiss.
Still, the handsign persisted. Oh well, he should grow tired of it soon enough.
So, i grabbed a crisp, moved it to my mouth and HE SNATCHED IT.
Just like that .. YOINKS! Now he has started that sign for pretty much everything
he wants. He peers at the object in question, and raises his hand. like this:
waiter_plz1

Cute, aint it?

Well, some images just have to be shown because they are so wonderful.
You remember those little cherub booktags that you could get? I got my own.
dreaming

Recently though, he started to make funny faces at me and his mom. Dont ask us
where they came from, because I never made any (at least to my knowledge)
but he manages to pull off a pretty good “possessed” look when he wants to,
I even photoshoped the next photo for my own sake to keep, and it turned out well.
Heres the original:
monster

I will end this saying this. You all heard me say that ill treat you for a latte
Well, heres what mine looks like when i make em:
latte

Blogs and web

Why do I blog?
q

Why am I so fascinated with various
IT topics? Well. My guess is that really
that it’s a will to learn new things really.

I am not a coder by any stretch of
imagination, I do however enjoy design
a lot, and to see something completed
is a marvel. However, a blog is never
completed, is it? I mean, I use it to vent
my frustration, sorrows and bad times
aswell as share my good times and findings.

I also do it because I like to see things
evolve. My blog is sort of a child to me. I can see it grow, and every thing I
do adds up to a whole that can make people reflect. The more people think for
themselves, the happier I am.

So, why using a blog as a medium for venting thoughts? Well, there are a
multitude of reasons. First off theres the technical parts. It is a lot easier
to update a blog then it is to update a static website and of course, there are
easier to pass the words around using different ping services. Second, well,
I really enjoy writing.  So much that I have thought about writing a book,
but lets face it. Who would want to read a book that I wrote?

Third, well, I could shout from the rooftops instead about how I see the world
but that could generate in either three or all three things:
1: I get taken for a loon and hauled to the asylum.
2: I fall down from the roof.
3. I generate a crowd that wants me to jump.

so, there you have it. It is a lot more complex then that, but
this will suffice til I have a better reason.

Regurgitating….

Something that really spokes my wheel these days is the fact that I am pretty
much isolated. Last time I was indoors this much, I developed a nice social
phobia that I still have problems with. At least, this time I am doing something
that is somewhat creative at least. I keep on making designs for blogs and sites
and of course, I write here. But really, there is something missing in my life
right now and I cant really find a way to compensate for that void that simply
sucks time out of my life.

I know this sounds a bit depressing and to be honest, it is. But there really
isnt much I can do about it but to continue to search for another job.
The voice I used to have, probably not the most beautiful there ever was,
but at least it was strong and I was articulated and could make myself be
heard pretty much everywhere. Now, I have to speak low, so low
that most of my friends that hears me now asks me if ive gone timid
in the beginning of my dotage.

Arrrgh. It is really hard to keep the spirit up when you know that
The majority of your body is fit for work, but one single detail tears
it all down and makes you bound for home. To be honest I can probably
count up all the items on my computer table by heart right now, thats
how much I sit here.

The scary part is that I have caught myself sitting and just staring on
a facebook window and doing nothing else, just watching, as if somehow
facebook will animate itself and do funny things if I just look intently enough.
I really need to find a job before they find me sitting here giggling
with insanity and have to haul me away.

They are coming to take me away HA HA, HE HE.

They are coming to take me away HA HA, HE HE.

Oh well. Ill try to hang on for another

Do you have a job for me?

Ok, this is starting to bug me. I have been working with tech support for almost
five years now. Count em. 5 years. I give great service, have good technical
knowledge in a large area, both when it comes to X86 pc structure aswell
as various DVB platforms. I know how to explain things so that a layman
can understand what needs to be done, and why, I can usually isolate the
problem fairly fast, and can find a solution using the sources available to me.

I can repair pretty much any PC if i just have access to spare parst, I can handle
web-based design aswell as slight modifications in code. I am a decent graphics
artist and know a few tricks when it comes to design in general.

Here comes the kicker. My voice isnt what its supposed to be.
My larynxes are damaged and I have been home for three months.
Three months of doing pretty much nothing but trying to get better.
I have a job, wich I cant go to, because at that job, I am dependant
to with my voice deliver a service in an amount that I currently
are physically unable to deliver. And it feels like crap to be honest.

Why? Well, first off, I dont want to be a burden to the company I work
for. I may not like all their little quirks, but hey, they gave me a job
right? Its called LOYALTY. Look it up. They dont have a job position
that is suited to my current voice problems.

So, right now im trying to find another job, using pretty much everything
I can think of, this blog included. I am not that picky with what that
job would be, just make it somewhat tech related. If you think that
stashing boxes containing chassis is tech related, hell. At the moment
id take that too.

It really is kinda sad because in a pure physical way, minus the larynxes,
I feel pretty good, certainly able to do physical labour (and it would only
do me good to get a chance to move about) and wanting to work, but
alas, not much there to be had.

Got a company that needs a techie? drop a comment and Ill call you back.

Are you human?

Figured it was time for something funny. You all seen it. At least if you are surfing
the web on a daily basis and leave the standard places. When registering to a new
social network, Registering on a forum or, for that matter, leaving a comment on
my blog. I am talking about the Capthcha. The Capthcha is a challenge-response to
prove that you are a human and not some scripted bot who crawls sites for spam.

CAPTCHA stands for Completely Automated Public Turing test to tell Computers and
Humans Apart. However, these Completely Automated things seems to have a little
twisted sense of humor. Here, take a look at these:

Why you little....

Why you little....

Or this one:

err .. come on, its 2.am just lemme in

err .. come on, its 2.am just lemme in

Sometimes, its hellish for people like me tho:

Someone get me the

Someone get me the

Or …. well.. take a look

How am I gonna feel those dots?

How am I gonna feel those dots?

And finally …

Lemme know when you solved it

Lemme know when you solved it

These images are taken from: http://www.oddee.com/item_96665.aspx

What happened to all the nice guys…

Oh, my female readers will flame me for this one, but its so true that
I cant help myself. This is taken from Craigslist straight off, so I did not write this:

I see this question posted with some regularity in the personals section, so I thought I’d take a minute to explain things to the ladies out there that haven’t figured it out.

What happened to all the nice guys?

The answer is simple: you did.

See, if you think back, really hard, you might vaguely remember a Platonic guy pal who always seemed to want to spend time with you. He’d tag along with you when you went shopping, stop by your place for a movie when you were lonely but didn’t feel like going out, or even sit there and hold you while you sobbed and told him about how horribly the (other) guy that you were fucking treated you.

At the time, you probably joked with your girlfriends about how he was a little puppy dog, always following you around, trying to do things to get you to pay attention to him. They probably teased you because they thought he had a crush on you. Given that his behavior was, admittedly, a little pathetic, you vehemently denied having any romantic feelings for him, and buttressed your position by claiming that you were “just friends.” Besides, he totally wasn’t your type. I mean, he was a little too short, or too bald, or too fat, or too poor, or didn’t know how to dress himself, or basically be or do any of the things that your tall, good-looking, fit, rich, stylish boyfriend at the time pulled off with such ease.

Eventually, your Platonic buddy drifted away, as your relationship with the boyfriend got more serious and spending time with this other guy was, admittedly, a little weird, if you werent dating him. More time passed, and the boyfriend eventually cheated on you, or became boring, or you realized that the things that attracted you to him weren’t the kinds of things that make for a good, long-term relationship. So, now, you’re single again, and after having tried the bar scene for several months having only encountered players and douche bags, you wonder, “What happened to all the nice guys?”

Well, once again, you did.

You ignored the nice guy. You used him for emotional intimacy without reciprocating, in kind, with physical intimacy. You laughed at his consideration and resented his devotion. You valued the aloof boyfriend more than the attentive “just-a-” friend. Eventually, he took the hint and moved on with his life. He probably came to realize, one day, that women aren’t really attracted to guys who hold doors open; or make dinners just because; or buy you a Christmas gift that you mentioned, in passing, that you really wanted five months ago; or listen when you’re upset; or hold you when you cry. He came to realize that, if he wanted a woman like you, he’d have to act more like the boyfriend that you had. He probably cleaned up his look, started making some money, and generally acted like more of an asshole than he ever wanted to be.

Fact is, now, he’s probably getting laid, and in a way, your ultimate rejection of him is to thank for that. And I’m sorry that it took the complete absence of “nice guys” in your life for you to realize that you missed them and wanted them. Most women will only have a handful of nice guys stumble into their lives, if that.

So, if you’re looking for a nice guy, here’s what you do:

1.) Build a time machine.
2.) Go back a few years and pull your head out of your ass.
3.) Take a look at what’s right in front of you and grab ahold of it.

I suppose the other possibility is that you STILL don’t really want a nice guy, but you feel the social pressure to at least appear to have matured beyond your infantile taste in men. In which case, you might be in luck, because the nice guy you claim to want has, in reality, shed his nice guy mantle and is out there looking to unleash his cynicism and resentment onto someone just like you.

If you were five years younger.

So, please: either stop misrepresenting what you want, or own up to the fact that you’ve fucked yourself over. You’re getting older, after all. It’s time to excise the bullshit and deal with reality. You didn’t want a nice guy then, and he certainly doesn’t fucking want you, now.

Sincerely,

A Recovering Nice Guy

Masculinity be damned.

Lets talk about sex. No, this is not some bad attempt to increase traffic its
the same as always, thoughts, ranting and input. Today, in the swedish newspaper
“Expressen” there is an article about “5 sextips for new parents”, the article is
found here: http://www.alltombarn.se/foraldraliv/5-sextips-for-nyblivna-foraldrar-1.16456

Now, I am a fairly new parent, and really, lets face it, wich person, male OR female is not
interrested in sex? I know there are asexual people out there, but lets face it, they are
a vast minority. So, I read the article, or rather, watched the slideshow. And it strikes me
All of those things are tips, but the tips in general are in the category of “how the man
should behave to make the woman feel better” and it galls me to no end.

Just aswell as a woman doesnt stop being a sexual being when concieving a child,
neither does the male. The male has to accept that the woman is now mother first
and lover second. No harm in that and I think that most men accept that but what
happens to the male sexuality? Is it taken as “understood” that the male sexuality
receedes(sic?) when he becomes a dad? I know sure as hell that mine didnt. Neither
did it increase. It was at the same level.

The female body goes through an immense amount of changes just after birthing
and the anatomy and physiology changes. It’s natural and as a man I have to accept
that and well, take matters into my own hand so to speak.

But seriously. Why is the male forgotten as a sexual being? Nowhere do you find
articles made FOR women about male sexuality in parenting, nor the desires a
man might have, unless you look into magazines of a more questionable nature.
Am I, in the part of the sexual part, supposed to simply cosset the woman, make
sure that she feels great, but forget my own needs?

Of course there are some men who more or less demands things from their spouse
but I dont want to be one of those. A no means no, and lust is a delicate thing to
work with, as is passion.

From the base of a lot of similar articles ive surmised that the consensus these days
are that after birth, a man is to become sort of a body servant. We are to pamper
the woman, make her feel good, be romantic and then MAYBE, just MAYBE, if she
feels like it, then I might be able to let loose my own libido. It just doesnt feel right.

I dont expect the smoking hot sex, neither do I believe in a single sided sexual
relation, but for the love of pete, when “journalists” writes about sextips, please
try to remember that you are usually 2 people in the relationship, and usually
what makes a man get aroused is very often something different then what gets
a woman going. Is that too much to ask?

Soundpollution

Ok, in the neighbourhood where I live there is some extensive restoration
going on for the sewage system. The entire stem is going to be replaced.
Yay, great. But really. Every day now for a week, there has been this huge pump
running pretty much outside my window. It starts at 8 sharp and runs til
16:00 sharp and it makes the whole building I reside in vibrate. Ok, vibration
can be good at times if you catch my drift, but NOT when you have a 1 and a half
year old little tyke that needs to have his lunch nap.

His lunchnap is a respite to me and the longer it is, the better for me, because
that means I can concentrate on fixing some snack for him, take it easy and just
relax for myself at times. As much relaxation that is possible with that noise.

I dont mind the reparations, but WHY oh WHY do they need to make such
an infernal racket?

Sarkozy, the enemy of the internet

It appears that the French government has pulled something out of the blue
that really, really is cause for a second french revolution. At least in my book.

Here is the article: http://www.aftonbladet.se/nyheter/article5128913.ab

Hear me out here BEFORE you decide to bomb the comment block.
Filesharing is a pretty hot topic right now and has for some reason, become
a synonym with software and art piracy. Now, I am not really sure but
isn’t pretty much EVERYTHING on the internet filesharing? I mean,
you are reading this blog, that means you are downloading index.php
header.php, footer.php, bgbody.jpg and whatnot. So, what is said that
after 2 warnings, french filesharers will be disconnected from the net.

Now, Sweden is bad. I mean, really bad. We have private little armies
sifting through our fibres for any trace of illegal activity like filesharing
and then we have the government on TOP of that to listen in the cables
for possible occurance of terrorism. Oh, this reminds me, you dont have
to read the next 2 rows. Its just to piss people off.

Jihad, Allah, God, Sarine, VX, Gas, C4, Dynamite, Nitroglycerine, firing pin,
grenade, For the people, Revolution, Assassinate, Holy War, Arms shipment.

Sorry bout that. Just had to alert the authorities. I get such nice server logs
when I do that 😛

Ok, back to the french conundrum. Who will the french have decide what is
illegal filesharing? The french eqvivalent to RIAA? Oh yeaaaaah! that will be
great. 96 year old man who lives on yogurt alone and has been too spastic
to even write his name on a check will get warned twice for sharing the
latest of Insane Clown Posse and Blacknuss Allstars. Come on. Dont you
have better things to waste time on?

I am not gonna bring up the classic “you have bigger crimes to fish for” because
it really isnt doing any good. What I WILL bring up is that its really really REALLY
about time that we threw the companies out of the politics. If they are going
to continue their slaughter on free speech, free will and free thinking, sooner
or later George Orwell’s 1984 will become more of a reality then it already is.

I am saying more of a reality because in effect, Big Brother IS watching us
all already, registering our keystrokes, what websites we read and I wouldnt
be surprised if our sexual preferrences where the case for a lot of  laughs
in the secret archives. But if companies that wants to supress technology
and evolution keep buying politics like Sarkozy, Soon we wont be able
to bend over because when we do, someone will shove a microscope
up our rear end to see if we have eaten anything that was not grown
by GrainFarm(tm) because if we did, we are to be summarily executed.

Come on. Get real. Go outside, Sniff some fresh air.
Go lie down on a lawn somewhere for an hour and just watch
the sky. It is beautiful, and for a a little longer at least, copyright free.

The Laptop from hell.

I am at home, and have been for some time and most of you readers
know this. Yesterday, a friend from my former workplace came by with
a laptop.  A toshiba equium. The problem with this was that it had a nasty
BIOS password that was really stubborn. So, I started to check around
the web for possible solutions. Google is your friend ya know.

Anyhow, it appears that this particular toshiba used a Phoenix Bios
instead of the pretty much standard Award BIOS.

Now, if your computer has an award BIOS, the backdoor is most likely
AWARD_SW or, if you have a swedish keyboard, AWARD?SW since the ?
translates to the _ on the keyboards.

Ok, that didnt work, and neither did Toshiba, wich is supposed to be another
one of those backdoor passwords. So, i figured, hey, if theres a nice little
bios reset jumper… but noooo, its a laptop, so didnt think too hard on that one.

Then came another flash of classic ideas. Remove the BIOS battery, power up
the machine and then shutdown and replace battery. Sure enough.
I got my trusty phillips screwdriver wich is always close at hand for comfort
and flipped the laptop over.

Not sure how many of you have actually looked on the underside of a laptop, but theres
a lot more screws there then on a standard desktop PC. Anyhoo, I removed the pretty
much every frigging screw visible, and then some. I even removed the screws that was
on the hatches AND the screws that was visible INSIDE those hatches and the
damned chassi still felt like it was glued on with epoxy.

Now, I tried a little gentle violence wich is always needed to move some things
out of the way, but to no avail.

Lets compare this a little to the laptop we have in the house. My girlfriends. Hers is
an Asus A6000 model. Was pretty good when we got it, and still gets the job
done.

On that I had to clear the fan because it was clogged with cat hair, and really, it wasnt just
a few stray hairs, it was a solid lump of hairs, but I am digressing. To remove THAT laptops
chassis, there was a total of 8! count em, EIGHT screws and the thing was just to lift off.

So, whats the conclusion? Well, the chassis designer on Toshiba should get summarily
executed by the use of an old pendulum axe AFTER someone has slowly deepfried
his cohones WHILE they are attached and THEN slowly cut them of with a rusty ice-skate.

IF someone asks you for help concerning a Toshiba and you ever REMOTELY suspect
that you have to open it. Refuse. It is a lot easier on your mental health and on the
ears on your environment.

I give you Monochrome

Monochrome is a 1 sidebar Wordpress themes in various shades  from white to black. No other colors. It is clean, slick and in  my own opinion, quite tasteful. Enjoy. You will find this and more different templates in the  "Downloads Wordpress Templates" section that...

Found some old

goodies laying around on a drive and I figured, hey .. I havent played around with these babies for a while. This is the result: To be quite honest, I made another version first but I didnt feel that it was up to my standards, or, if it wasnt my taste, I am not sure,...

Legitimate violation

As most of you know, I am a whiskey lover. More towards single malts then blended, but despite that, I get a lot of blended scotch whiskey in my hands, and, dont tell anyone, I actually start to like. Some however, lacks in appeal to me. A while ago, I was given a...

Emotional storm

Emotions are funny things really, we can't surpress them, and we can hide them, but beneath the exterior of our masks, they are still there. Churning, want to induce laughter or make you cry but somehow, in todays society we generally dont show emotions the way that...

Sometimes simple is better

Maybe because when you make simple things, it is easy to see what your aim was. In my gallery, there is a series called "boundless" wich I am very fond of despite the fact that it is some of my early works. Just a few 3d models with just the right light to make it...

The enemy of the internet. Part II

A while back I wrote a post called Sarkozy, the enemy of the internet about how the french want to start disconnecting people who fileshare over the internet. This was a highly controversial thing to say and in my ears, pure stupidity. Why let the hobbypolice that...

Sleek and slick.

I know that some of you actually use my themes since from some, I even get thank you mails, and others are found on google. So, I keep doing them. I kinda like the blueline theme I did a little while ago, but wasn't too pleased with how it turned out, so, I decided to...

The irony of it all…

Im sitting here listening to some music just to relax a tad and the song that just ended was "Too much love will kill you" by Queen. Isn't it the ultimate irony that a voice, that spanned over four octaves, who entertained more or less the entire globe, who came from...

New WordPress theme

Well, I have to do something while I wait for response, and tonight I figured that I had to do something creative to soothe my own nerves. The result was this:  Blueline. A sleek blue theme with sinus lines showing. The background itself is static so it will always be...

Nice neighbourhood

In there area I live, we have something that I find pretty cool. If we have any bulky things that we need to get rid of, we simply put those items outside the main door on thursday nights and on friday morning, a crew comes and collect it, unless someone else in the...

One foot outside the law?

A few weeks ago, maybe even months, there was a summons sent into a court to find out who was using an IP adress at a certain time, all according to the IPRED law that has hit the nation of Sweden. All in all, this was not too bad and seemed OK. According to the the...

Shameless advertising.

Ok, I have been thinking for a while. Why not make a post about something that I know by heart, something that is technical and at the same time funny. But what should I then write about? I toyed around with the notion of satellite tv and similar things, but lets face...

Pedophiles out in the open

I do detest some people more then others. Look at this image. Looks kind of harmless wouldn't you say? I think so too, a father playing with his kid. Nothing important. Until you realize that this image in particular is used by individuals that wants to legalize...

Desktop Wallpapers

Nowadays, there are a lot more different desktop wallpapers then was around in when I started using computers. Mainly I am guessing because when I started, there was no desktop, unless you count the dosbased Norton Commander. Norton Commander was groundbreaking in its...

Creativity.

Creativity. Such a nice word, and very useable too. But what is it? And where does it come from? Why do some people have it, when others obviously dont? Well, to be honest, I think that we all have the same amount on creativity to start out with, but later in life,...

Light of my life

Have you noticed how in these times we seem to take for granted things that we really hold dear and cherish, but we simply dont have the time to care for them as much as we want to? Well, I have been blessed and cursed at the same time with this damage to my larynxes....

Do you have a job for me?

Ok, this is starting to bug me. I have been working with tech support for almost five years now. Count em. 5 years. I give great service, have good technical knowledge in a large area, both when it comes to X86 pc structure aswell as various DVB platforms. I know how...

Soundpollution

Ok, in the neighbourhood where I live there is some extensive restoration going on for the sewage system. The entire stem is going to be replaced. Yay, great. But really. Every day now for a week, there has been this huge pump running pretty much outside my window. It...

Every once in a while…

you surf around looking for pretty much nothing at all and find something that is wonderful. I love music and I admire good artists a lot, some more then others of course, but there are a few thats dear to me even though they dont even know that I exist. I want to...

The power of blogs or…..lack thereof

How much power does the average blogger have? What can I as a blogger do about situations in the world and what political goals can I achieve simply by writing? Very good questions really and it really isn't the blogger that changes things. It is his readers. I dont...

Sticky corporate fingers

Apparently, something is rotten in the state of sweden.  seeing as this man, Thomas Norström, who was the judge in the TPB case has pretty close connections to the media industry. Close enough to be called challenge. Close enough to be challenged. According to...

WordPress themes

I have got a very flattering question recently. "Where did you find that theme that you are using?" Well, frankly I didn't. I created it. And that question alone is really important to me as I try to create things that pleases my eye aswell as readers eyes, and to...

Spam Sandwich

In a way, the spammers also amuse me. I have never ever gone to one of the URLs that they
have left behind, either as link hidden in their name, or even one thats waaay out in the
open. I see no point in them because if I click that link, I justify their way if leaving
manure in my comment box.

7 minutes and counting

I dont think the world has listened to sweden this much EVER but now, the pirate bay trial is about to get the first verdict. Of course there will be at least 2 more, but hey.. its a start 😛

Numbness of mind

Yes, childabuse is a horrible thing in all its guises
and there is no excuses for it. Let me give you an
example. Right now, there is a 20 year old woman
on trial, for helping to beat her own child to death.
Why? Because her new husband didn’t think that this
little 2 year old was saying Thank you! and Please!
as often as he would like.

M.I.A

On the morning of christmas eve while doing the morning
routine, IE changing diapers and washing up for the
day, we notice that his lil’ belly button is all
goey and inflamed. So, we called a doctor who said
that it was most likely impetigo, but we should
come in the the hospital just to check.

Push my buttons

Go right on ahead and do it why dont you? Have you ever had someone that was fairly close to you who actually seemed to enjoy trying to make you feel bad, tried to push the blame for pretty much everything that is wrong with that persons life onto you? I do. Let me...

Arkivet