Baffled and Excited

Mass media ignore CC licensing

2009-05-28T21:09:00.023+02:00

While reading a Norwegian online newspaper tonight, I noticed that the paper had used a Creative Commons-licensed picture from flickr as an illustrative image for the article I was reading. I thought it was nice to see how the CC-license was used in a mass media site.

The picture was good, so I thought I'd look it up, and look at other images from the same photographer. The paper had credited the image with the flickr screen name, so it was fairly easy to find. To my surprise I found that the image had "All rights reserved", the opposite of a CC-license. The picture was used illegally by the paper...

I think such a license-violation is pretty serious when done by a major paper. As the curious guy I am, I thought I'd check if this was the case with more images. I ran a Google-search for articles on the site with the text "Creative Commons" within the last month. I got quite a few hits, and ended up checking 14 images.

One of the photos used legally. From lyng883 with CC BY-license

Of these 14 images 1 had no info about photographer or license, 6 used the image without violating the CC-license chosen by the photographer and 7, 50% of the images, were in clear violation of the license. 2 of these 7 even had "All rights reserved".

I put the details in a Google Docs spreadsheet here, which have links to all articles I checked, and, if found, links to the flickr-pages of the pictures used. In addition the spreadsheet has my analysis (in Norwegian) on whether the license was broken, and, if so, in what way.

My conclusion from this is that the journalists in this paper have little or no respect for the licensing of the pictures they find at flickr. When journalists, which should be trained in this, and to be expected to withstand from illegal use of intellectual property, have such disregard for the licensing, are we then naive to think others respect the licensing?

Update: It seems that this in part can be caused by photographers changing the license on their pictures. This is likely the case for the first pictures I checked, the photographer for this has told me that it used to be under CC-license up untill a couple of weeks ago.

This case is more complicated than I first thought...

Update 2: The paper has now replaced the image in the article which I linked to in the top. Both a journalist and the editor of the paper have stated that the picture should not have been used, and that they probably made an error during the search that found the image. What they have not done, is fix the 6 other errors I also found. I don't think they really understood the full extent of this.

I do not know if the paper understands the problem of photographers changing the license on the pictures on flickr. There is a good change this paper actually never did anything wrong on the picture they now have removed. From the response I got from the journalist, it seems that they had fetched the picture some time ago, probably before the license was changed (as the photographer told she had done).

The interesting problem here is that the CC rules state that when you have applied a CC-license to a photo, or something else, this is permanent. The situation the paper ended up in shows why this is necessary. The problem is that flickr does not enforce this rule, the users are free to change the license any way they like. There is an interesting article in Wired on this problem.

The Jacket

2009-05-21T15:27:00.015+02:00

My previous post honored the memory of my late grandmother through a recipe of hers. A few days back I very briefly met someone who honored the memory of someone close to her through a jacket.

It happened on my way to work. I have a long commute to work, train first and then tram the last stretch. As I was waiting at the tram stop one morning, I noticed a woman wearing a suede leather jacket. It seemed old and out of fashion, and I was thinking she probably got it from the Salvation Army outlet. My first impression of the lady was that she was someone without a lot of money, living a hard life.

Then I noticed that the price tag, which was hanging in a string on her back. It was still attached to the jacket, like it would be if the jacket was hanging in a store. I also noticed that the tag was really old. Both the plastic pocket holding the tag, and the tag itself, had turned yellowish. I was a bit puzzled by this, but didn’t think more of it. I was thinking I should tell her about the tag, but before I got to it the tram arrived.

We both got on the same tram, she went onboard before me. It was a bit full, and I ended up sitting down next to her. Now I finally got around to warning her about the tag on her back. I just expected a slightly embarrassed reply from her, and a thank you. But the reply surprised me.

Illustrative image by noborders. Creative Commons BY-NC-ND

She did say thank you, slightly embarrassed. But then, while tucking in the tag, she told me why the tag was there. She had inherited the jacket from her dad when he died. Her father had been so proud of this jacket that he didn’t want to take the tag off. When she inherited the jacket she kept the tag on as a way to honor the memory of her dad.

I totally didn’t see that coming. I just replied with an ok, not saying anything more during the trip. But it made me think. I thought about how we nowadays we throw away perfectly good clothes just because they’re out of fashion. I thought about what kind of relationship she had with her dad. It seemed like she missed him a lot. I thought about how easy it is to make snap judgments of people I know nothing about. And I thought about how many people I pass by every day on my commute, people with interesting stories, stories that I will never stop to listen too.

In memory of

2009-04-19T20:12:00.012+02:00

I loved my grandmother. She was the kind of grandmother that always made you feel very welcome at her house.

She mixed 150g margarine and 150g sugar and whipped it until white.

My grandmother was strict, but fair. She was the boss in the house. I felt safe around her.

She mixed in 3 eggs, one at the time.

Her kids, my family, are spread around the country, but at Christmas we would always gather at my grandparents house. Those always were very happy times.

She mixed in, a bit at the time, 190g of flour, ½ a teaspoon of baking powder and ¾ dl of milk.

There would always be wonderful food when we visited my grandmother.

She put the mix in a buttered cake tin.

Some of my fondest childhood memories are from eating at my grandmother's house.

She peeled 2 green apples, and split them into wedges. She then put the wedges into the mix already in the tin.

I loved the apple cake she made. I didn't really have apple cake anywhere else. Or maybe I just don't remember having it anywhere else? Nothing could compare to her apple cake.

She sprinkled 3 tablespoons of brown sugar on top of the mix.

There was something unique about the texture, the flavor, the mix of the sweetness of the dough and the acidity of the apples, in this cake. And it was so wonderfully fluffy.

She baked it at 175 degrees C for 40 minutes.

My grandmother died a few years ago. I will always miss, and cherish the memory of, the times I was able to eat her apple cake.

She served me the cake as dessert tonight. I turned quiet when eating it.

She looked at me, wondering what was wrong.

My wife had baked apple cake with my grandmother's recipe, and it was exactly like I remembered my grandmother's apple cake.

I got teary-eyed. I never thought I would taste grandmother's apple cake again. Now my wife had made it for me, and she hadn't even got to meet my grandmother.

I hadn't been happier in a long time.

I love you dear wife.

Rest in peace grandmother.

Finally I Understand the U.S. Finance Crisis

2009-02-25T19:26:00.005+01:00

There have been many, many attempts to explain to regular people what the finance crisis is, and what caused it. We have been told that greed and taking insane risks has been part of it, but it's been hard to understand why.

Finally someone has done the masterpiece of explain it in a way that should make it understandable for everyone. In addition it's done in a very good looking way :)

Via NRKbeta via @MartinBekkelund

Why removing IE6 is hard

2009-02-22T20:07:00.006+01:00

There's a current campaign to make people stop using Internet Explorer version 6 (IE6), and upgrade to a more modern browser. It originated in Norway, and has a lot of momentum here, but is also getting noticed internationally (link to Norwegian site). Because a lot of people still use IE6, the people creating web sites still have to include support for this browser in the sites they build. Takes quite a few man-hours, and those hours are not cheap. For more info check out the wiki, IE6: Do NOT want!, made for the campaign or listen in on the twitter stream #IE6.

I am a strong supporter of this campaign. I have been following this campaign from the very start, both on twitter, blogs and news sites. People are very excited, lots of people are supporting it and everyone agrees on what the problem is. Drivers of the campaign have also expressed that they think removing IE6 from use in large companies and government will be the biggest challenge. I totally agree on that. But I have not seen awareness, with some exceptions (links to Norwegian sites), on why so many enterprises and government still use IE6, and why it will be hard for them to upgrade. I feel that many taking part of the campaign needs a better understanding of why this is such a big problem. Only by understanding the problem can the campaign successfully influence government and enterprises.

Why are enterprises/government still using IE6?
A reason often mentioned is that IT-departments need to standardize the software run in the enterprise to simplify support and more. And when all employees use the same browser because of standardization, a new browser must be tested thoroughly before it is deployed therefore making an browser-upgrade expensive. From my previous experience working in an IT-department, I fully agree.

However this is, in my view, not the biggest cost. Enterprises and government typically have a big portfolio of custom-made systems, where a large part of these systems is web-apps, meaning the browser is used to access it. Commonly these web-apps were built supporting only the browser that was the IT-department's standard, typically IE6. Accessing these apps with a newer browser can result in the layout of the pages getting messed up, and even breaking some functionality.

This implies that the task of upgrading the browser must be accompanied by an upgrade/replacement of several of the custom-made web-apps used in the government/enterprise. Building a new system, or even upgrading an existing one, requires a lot of man-hours, or rather, IT-consultant-hours, who usually build such apps. IT-consultants don't come cheap (I know because I'm one of them). The enterprises/government will not take this cost without a very good reason. As long as they are not given such a very good reason, they will keep running IE6 to support old web-apps, until these web-apps are not needed/replaced.

Everyone has known for a long time that building for IE6 only is bad. Why was it done for so long?
One might wonder why the old custom-made web-apps built to support IE6 only are still in use in enterprises/government. It’s a long time since web-developers learned that they should build web-apps with multi-browser support. The answer is that web-developers kept building apps supporting IE6 only for a long time, even when they knew it was bad practice.

I posted a twitter message about this campaign a few days ago, trying to bring up the cost of replacing old web-apps built for IE6. One of the responses I got was this: "If you first develop a solution for IE6 only, then that's a cost you should take. That's bad practice from start to end... :-)". I agree that it's a bad practice, but the world of IT-projects, which develop the web-apps, is a world of compromises...

An IT-project is never funded enough for it to be able to deliver the perfect system. There's always a fight between developers wanting to build a system following best practices and the need to finish on budget and on time. The latter two usually gets higher priority.

If there is a concrete, and current, need for multi-browser support, that need usually gets priority in the project. This is typically the case for non-internal apps, e.g. a portal for customers. Apps used internally only are a different matter. Unless there is a clear policy from the project-owner for multi-browser support for internal apps, this support ends up far down on the list of priorities for the project, and maybe not making it through. If it doesn't, the web-app is built supporting only the browser currently used by the project owner.

Hopefully, most project-owners now have policies requiring multi-browser support even for internal web-apps, but from my own, and colleagues', experience this was not common earlier. This means that a lot of web-apps were built with support only for the browser currently in use at the project owner (typically IE6). This again meant that it would be even more expensive to upgrade to a better browser, since more systems needed upgrading/replacement, therefore pushing an upgrade ahead. This again meant continuing development of internal web-apps supporting only IE6, giving a catch-22 situation. Hopefully IT-departments implemented a policy for multi-browser support when they discovered this catch-22. But that took time, giving the answer to why IE6-only web-apps was built for so long.

Giving away invites to Spotify

2009-02-14T22:10:00.004+01:00

I have a few Spotify invites left over after completing my mission of spreading Spotify amongst my friends and colleagues. Do you want one? Leave a comment with your email, and I'll send you one (if I have more left). It might be smart to mask the email address to avoid spam (e.g. myaddresse at gmail dot com).

Are you thinking "Spotify? What's that?"? If you listen to music from your pc, you really need to check it out! You'll need an invite though, leave your email and I'll provide...

Internet and music - a perfect match

2009-02-13T22:09:00.010+01:00

As do a lot of young people nowadays, I don't use physical CDs when I listen to music. Playing music always means playing MP3-files or streaming music from the Internet. The most common way to play music is using my iPod, both when commuting to work, and at work. Sometimes I use iTunes on the pc.

Lately I have fallen in love with Spotify, an amazing music streaming service which has a huge music library, and you can stream it exactly as you wish (full freedom in picking songs, skipping songs and so on). It has two subscription models, one free with adverts playing at times, and one paid with no ads.

What impresses me the most about Spotify is the client you install on your pc (available both for Mac and Windows). This client looks familiar for anyone using iTunes. The impressive part though, is that it is as responsive as iTunes as well. Find a song, press play, and it starts playing instantly. Skip to the middle of the song and it happens instantly. No noticable buffering. You'll forget you're streaming from the Internet and not playing your MP3s.

iPod, iTunes and Spotify share one thing, they are all able to "scrobble" to last.fm, another great Internet music service. Scrobbling means uploading information about what you're listening to last.fm. By telling last.fm what you listen to, it can show you what you have listened to lately, which songs and artists you listen to the most, and more. However, the real value appears when last.fm compares what you listen too with what other users listen to, and find users sharing your music taste. Based on this it gives recommendations on music you might like, but you don't have already. A great way to discover new music.

I do scrobble from both my iPod, iTunes and Spotify. This covers 99% percent of the music I listen too, meaning that I tell last.fm about pretty much all the music I listen too. My last.fm profile is public, so anyone can see what I've listened to. It feels a bit strange letting everyone know every song I listen too, but then again, openness is a part of the Web 2.0 revolution, which I'm a big fan of.

If you want to check you what I listen to, look here: www.last.fm/user/arakvaag. Or, you can just look below and see which albums I play the most. If you want more info on a specific album, click on the album cover and you'll be brought to last.fm's page for it :)

I'm on twitter!

2009-02-04T22:37:00.007+01:00

I have now started using Twitter. Been testing it for a while, and it is really growing on me :)

You find my tweets on twitter.com/arakvaag.

One More Grow!

2009-01-22T21:09:00.005+01:00

One of the most remarkable series of flash games has finally gotten an addition! There's a new Grow game available, this time called Grow Tower :)

I haven't been able to complete the game yet, but I'm guessing the tower is suppose to get very tall. Already from my first couple of attemps I'm seeing crazy things happening, as we have learned to expect from the Grow games.

But now, off to make my tower grow!

Hmmm..., somehow that sounds a bit, uhm, wrong?

Happy New Year!

2008-12-31T20:55:00.005+01:00

2008 has been a great and eventful year for me and my wife, and we both hope 2009 will be the same. We hope you are pleased with 2008 as well, and we both send you the best wishes for the year to come!

A wonderful summary of 2008 has been made by Eirik Solheim, in a 40 second video showing the beauty of the 4 seasons. Enjoy!

P.S. Check eirikso.com for info on how he made it, and even download it in HD if you would like that.

Another geeky joke

2008-12-07T11:42:00.004+01:00

Here comes another geeky joke, this time you won't need a computer science degree to get it. Some math knowledge will help in understanding and appreciating the joke though.

An infinite number of mathematicians walk into a bar. The first one orders a beer. The second orders half a beer. The third, a quarter of a beer. The bartender says "You're all idiots", and pours two beers.

via hot soup? anyone?

The Wonderful Tuscan Countryside

2008-11-09T14:34:00.015+01:00

Driving our rental car out of Rome, on our way to Tuscany, we both had a feeling that we had seen some amazing sites, but that we had not seen true Italy. We had rather seen a city where everything was more or less taken over by tourism.

This all changed from the moment we drove off the A1 highway, and entered the narrow winding roads in the countryside of Tuscany. Being dark already, it was a mysterious landscape we drove through. Passing old brick buildings, driving through small medieval town on the hilltops, and trying to see what was around the next corner. The most special moment was probably when we saw an old fortress/castle all lit up on a hilltop. We were both very excited and could hardly believe we were actually driving through this fantastic, wonderful area.

We finally found our way to the olive farm/resort Le Casacce, where we were going to stay. Arriving there we were greeted by Enrico Casini, the owner of the place, wearing his signature red glasses, saying, "Welcome to my house", and by Max, Enrico's dog. Since we arrived a bit late, we headed straight of for dinner.

We had learned of this place from a colleague of mine, and she had told that the food was really good. Because of that we were excited and curious about what we would be served, but at the same time didn't really know what to expect. The first dinner turned out to be one of the best meals I've ever eaten. We were the only guests there (it was low season) so a staff of three or four people was working on our dinner. We were even seated in the living room instead of the restaurant area, making it even more personal and intimate. There was also a fire in the fireplace next to our table. It all felt a bit surreal, but very cozy and romantic as well.

We were served a six (!) course dinner, with antipasti (appetizers), soup, primi (pasta dish), secondi (meat dish), cheese plate and dessert. All the courses were really good, but I especially remember the homemade pasta and the beef with mashed potatoes. And all with the house red wine, which was very easy to drink (Minnie loved that), but still an interesting wine. We both knew after that meal that we made a really good decision staying here (and this was only the first night).

The day after we were finally able to enjoy the view from our apartment, looking out on valleys covered with olive trees or vines, and old yellow brick houses spread around. The weather was grey, but the view was still wonderful. The picture below does not do it justice.

You often see postcard-pretty pictures from places, showing off the areas they are proud of. But so often, these pictures only represent a small area, and therefore giving a false impression of the place. People visiting it as tourists then often get disappointed to see that the place as a whole is far from as nice as the pictures. This is not the case with the countryside in Tuscany, not at all. It was stunning to see how valley after valley looked just like the postcard pictures.

We spent 4 days in this area, and made daytrips to Florence, Siena and Montalcino (where the great Brunello di Montalcino wine is made). Every day we came back to the amazing dinners at Le Casacce in the evening (the menus listed in the bottom). We had an amazing time, and highly recommend a trip to this area. I promise you will leave with a feeling of having experienced genuine Italy. We sure did.

PS. Here's what we were served for dinner the 4 evenings at Le Casacce
Monday:
- Antipasti: Ricotta
- Soup: Beans with cabbage
- Primi: Homemade pasta, cut in triangles, with tomato-sauce with meat.
- Secondi: Beef, from a local breed, with mashed potatoes (but without any milk, butter or egg, just pure potato).
- Bonus-dish (I think this was a spontaneous thing): Cheese-plate with sliced pears and walnut-honey.
- Dessert: Homemade ice-cream with chocolate topping.

Tuesday:
- Antipasti: Something very similar to carpaccio, but with cured meat (a sort of prosciutto I think).
- Soup: Mushroom and spinach
- Primi: A locally produced pasta, we don't remember the name of the type, with tomato sauce with meat.
- Secondi: Beef in white wine sauce with a side salad.
- Dessert: Cream puff with chocolate topping

Wednesday:
- Antipasti: Crostini (toast with cheese) with black truffles
- Soup: Beans with ham
- Primi: Giant tortellinis (just two pieces to fill the plate) with ricotta cheese and something else we don't remember the name of.
- Secondi: Meatballs in tomato sauce with boiled potatoes with basil.
- Dessert: Butterfly, the chefs own creation. It basically is vanilla cream with super thin flakes of pasta placed in the cream to make it look like a butterfly, and then its topped with warm chocolate.

Thursday:
- Antipasti: 3 small crostinis with meat and 2 big ones with tomato and oil
- Pizza: Big pizza with 4 different toppings. One part tuna, one part sausage, one part vegetable and one part meat
- Secondi: Pork ribs with fried potatoes
- Dessert: Melon Sorbet

The Rome Experience

2008-10-29T16:27:00.008+01:00

Our first stop on our Italy trip was Rome. It would be a shame not to see the amazing sites in Rome, and this is also where we meet up with Minnie's old friend Karina, and her husband Raymund. Rome didn't give the best first impression though. It's not very clean, and it also looks a bit run down. And there is a lot, and by that I mean A LOT, of tourists there...

Another thing that disappointed us was the public transportation system. This big city has only two metro lines, and it's about 7 minutes between each departure. The result is that the trains are packed most of the time, and it's chaos when people get on and off. I really don't understand why they don't get more trains and run more frequently. Taking a bus is not tourist friendly at all, both because you can't buy tickets on the bus, and because there's no announcement of the stops, making it very hard to know when to get off.

The reason for going to Rome is of course the sites. And there are some truly, truly amazing sites here. The first one we did was ancient Rome (Colosseum, Forum, Palatine Hill). The size of the Colosseum made a great impression, it's hard to grasp before you're there. We took part in a guided tour, and it was great to hear the stories of the place, and trying to imagine how it was during games.

The Palatine hill was a very scenic place, and has a lot of great history to it, but then again so little is left of the the original buildings that it is hard to imagine how it once looked. I would think Forum, and the surrounding ruins, is the most significant historical place we went to. A large part of Forum still stands, giving a good notion of how big it was. The ruins around Forum is mostly reduced to small parts of the original buildings, which means it gives little hint to how it was originally, and it tends to just become one ruin after the other. Maybe a guided tour would be the best here if you wanted to understand the history behind it all.

After lunch, we went to the Pantheon. Pantheon is known for having the largest masonry vault ever built, and it is extremely old, completed already in year 120 AD. The dome is 43,3 meters high, and has a circular opening at the top that lets light in, and, when it rains, also water. At the very centre of the floor, you find draining holes to let the water out. You do earn a lot of respect for the ancient builders when visiting the Pantheon.

We also went to the Spanish Steps. What a disappoinment, that has to be one of the most overrated tourist attractions ever. There's not even a nice view from the top... After that we walked to the Trevi Fountain, which was not disappointing at all. That was a very nice site, highly recommended.

The day after we went to the Vatican. First going through the Vatican Museum, seeing a lot of amazing paintings/frescos, tapestries and of course the Sistine Chapel with Michelangelo's amazing fresco in the ceiling. It is always a strange feeling seeing for yourself what you have seen so many times on tv or in pictures.

After the museum we went to St. Peter's Basilica. That was really the high point of the Vatican for me. That cathedral has so many amazing features, and the size of it alone is crazy. So many amazing statues, large paintings, so much gold. And the altar... We also went through the treasury, which displays various gifts the Vatican has received. The amount of gold in that treasury, along with the amazing craftsmanship, was truly impressive. However, in the back of my head, I couldn't help thinking about the motivation for giving all this money to the catholic church, maybe to buy forgiveness? I don't think that's how it's suppose to work, is it?...

Now we are off to the country side in Tuscany :)

Can McCain Catch Up and Win?

2008-10-19T18:15:00.016+02:00

I take part in the guessing game so many others in the world also take part in nowadays, "Who will win the U.S. Presidential Election?" We can tell from the media, both international and local, that Obama is ahead of McCain. The impression I get, and I would think many others get, is that McCain still have a chance.

The latest poll shown on BBC News tonight shows the Obama has 50% and McCain 43% of the votes. It's a lead, but it's only 7%, with a +/- 2% margin of error, and there's still 16 days left till the election. It seems to early to conclude, at least from what the big media tells me.

So what does these numbers really say? Well, they tell how many of the registered voters nationwide will vote for Obama, McCain or haven't decided. Here's the thing though, the nationwide numbers is not important, it's the electoral votes that matter.

As you might know, the electoral votes are handed out by the states. For most of them, the candidate that gets more than 50% of the votes from the citizens, gets all the electoral votes for that state. In theory this means that a candidate with much less than 50% of the nationwide votes can get the majority of the electoral votes (if he wins small in many states, but loses big in other states).

So who has the most electoral votes, based on the polls? Here is an electoral map from RealClearPolitics.

Obama is 131 electoral votes ahead. And this is actually quite a cautious prediction, other sites give Obama even a bigger lead.

Just to confirm that Obama really is as far ahead of McCain as the electoral vote numbers say, I checked the betting odds for the election from a U.S. betting company. Betting companies' whole business is dependent on giving precise odds, so the odds tend to be a good indicator. McCain gave an odds of +350 and Obama -600 . That means that if you bet $100 on McCain, and he wins, you get paid $350. If you bet $600 on Obama, and he wins, you get paid $100. Obviously the betting companies are certain Obama will win.

So, I think we can conclude that Obama is winning. What's going to be exciting to see is how big the win will be. Maybe we'll see a landslide? That would be the final slap in the face for George W. Bush :)

Edit: It seems like some media is acknowledging this, judging from this headline: "Obama aiming for chocking victory" (as of this writing, the top story in the biggest Norwegian newspaper).

The 10 Lives of Your Cursor

2008-10-19T13:32:00.008+02:00

When you have played a few online games, you discover that you rarely find games that are truly original. Usually it's just a new twist to an old idea. Not so with Cursor*10.

The purpose of Cursor*10 is to finish the 16th and last level, and you have to do this within a time limit. The "character" in the game is the cursor, and your character has 10 lives. Completing a level is done by clicking (with your cursor) on switches and boxes, which will reveal the stairs to the next level. So where's the original part of this game? Well, one of the cool parts of the gameplay is actually discovering just what is so original :)

Cursor*10 is a fairly easy game, and it won't take you very long to finish when you have learned the two "tricks" needed to complete it. A great example of a small, very minimalistic, game having a truly original twist. It also shows advanced graphics really isn't needed for great gameplay :)

Enjoy here.

The Miniature Earth

2008-09-22T18:42:00.010+02:00

"If we could turn the population
of the earth into a small community
of 100 people, keeping the same
proportions we have today,

it would be something like this..."

This video really grabbed me. And left me silent when it was over. Rarely does 3,5 minutes of video make such an impression on me. You can watch the video on the site of the project (no music, but better quality) or you can watch the YouTube-copy here (with music).

Role Models

2008-07-26T16:13:00.018+02:00

If you have opened www.google.com (the english language version) today, you might have noticed this line in the bottom of the page:

"In Memoriam: Randy Pausch (1960-2008)"

I clicked on the link today, and spent more than an hour watching a university lecture unlike any lecture I've ever seen or attended. But more on that later.

I've often seen interviews where the journalist asks the person interviewed who has been his role model. For a large part of my life I wouldn't have a good answer if someone had asked me that. I felt that was a bit weird, and also worrying. What was I missing by not having a role model? I wasn't sure I really understood what a role model was even...

As I started studying for my bachelors degree this changed. A few of the students at my university college really impressed me. They were smart, they were able to achieve great things and at the same time they were really nice and friendly. This was people that made me think "I wish I was like that". And I saw what being a natural leader meant. I found my first role models.

When I moved on to university I met a lot more people like this. It was inspiring to be around these people, it made me want to work a little harder, and set my goals a little higher. I understood the value and importance of good role models.

Another quality of a role model, and a very important one, is showing strength in hard times. It's in the tough moments and times you see what people are made of. One person who has showed this strength in a wonderful way is the man Google honors on their web site today, Randy Pausch. He died from cancer yesterday, and displayed strength in hard times in a very special way at the end of his life.

He was a professor at Carnegie Mellon University in computer science, recognized for his work in computing education and human computer interaction (HCI).

What made him gain world wide fame was his amazing "The Last Lecture". Full version here, and a news story about Pausch and the lecture here. This was given in September 2007, at a time he knew he was dying from cancer. The title of the lecture was "Really Achieving Your Childhood Dreams," and told of his childhood dreams and how he achieved most of them. Pausch was upbeat and humurous during the lecture, while not being in denial, not at all behaving like one might expect from a dying man.

The lecture is very entertaining, touching and inspiring, and shows a man with an amazing strength when facing the end of his life. He was definitively a great role model, not only by showing strength when facing death, but also in many other ways, and I think the memory of him will inspire many in the time to come.

Rest in peace.

Back at Moldejazz!

2008-07-18T12:09:00.011+02:00

Growing up close to the town Molde meant that I was able to enjoy the amazing Moldejazz festival every summer. For those of you that don't know this festival here are some quick facts:

- It was established in 1961, and been arranged every year since - making it one of the oldest jazz festivals in Europe.
- During Moldejazz, the number of people in Molde is estimated to be five times as high as the rest of the year. Molde during Moldejazz is a different town than the rest of the year.
- Some of the most famous jazz artists visiting the festival is: Chick Corea (3 times), Miles Davis (2 times), Pat Metheny (2 times), Herbie Hancock (5 times) and Dizzy Gillespie.
- The 2008 festival: 6 days, 16 different stages, 61 concerts, 54 artists/groups.

The festival is not only jazz. To secure enough income, and to make it a festival for everyone, not just the jazz-lovers, the festival always features one or more big non-jazz artists as well. These concerts are held at the wonderful out-doors stage at Romsdalsmuseet (The Romsdalen Folk Museum) with a capacity of about 8000. These concerts have always been the subject of discussion, some feeling that it's wrong that Moldejazz features non-jazz artists.

Big non-jazz artists featured on that stage have been Sting, Mary J Blige, Lauryn Hill, Stevie Wonder, B.B. King, Ray Charles, Santana, Eric Clapton, Bob Dylan and Blues Brothers.

Moldejazz will always be special for me, and I think I will always enjoying going back and enjoy this wonderful festival. And it feels really good to be back again this year after a couple of years absence. I'm attending six concerts, and have very high expectations :)

Roots of breakdance

2008-07-06T19:17:00.003+02:00

One of my favorite pod-casts is "Best of YouTube". Today a video called "Roots of Breakdance" dumped into my iTunes from that podcast. I totally love it and had to share it here on the blog.

It's an old video showing how breakdance actually originated in the Soviet Union. Or does it now? ;)

A Lucky Start

2008-06-29T14:32:00.003+02:00

Sometimes when I think back on my life, I can't help feeling that I have been very lucky to end up where I am today. So many times have coincidences and things out of my control turned out in my favor and moved me towards where I am now.

However, I am convinced that the luckiest moment of my life was where it started. The fact that, in 1976, I was one of the babies born in Norway, and because of that got to grow up here. Using the UNDP Human Development Index, what probably is the best index to tell how good a country is to grow up in, we see that Norway now is the second best country. Number one is Iceland. The total population of these two countries is just above 5 million. So, if you're born in Norway or Iceland, you are one of the 5 million persons that live in the best two countries in the world to live in.

It is pretty lucky to be amongst those 5 million. To illustrate how lucky, imagine you play heads or tails with a friend. The first time the coin is flipped, it lands on the side you picked. The second time it does the same. The same for the 3rd time. You're very pleased with your luck today. And you keep playing. And it keeps landing on the side you pick. The 4th time, the 5th time and the 6th time. This is unbelievable! And there's no cheating, it really is just pure luck. Again, the same happens the 7th time, the 8th time, the 9th time and even the 10th time.

We all know this kind of luck never happens in real life, right? Well, it happened to me when I was one of the babies born in Norway... And every baby born in Iceland or Norway has the same luck. For every single person living in Norway or Iceland, there are about 1300 persons living in countries below Norway in the UNDP index.

I will forever be grateful for that stroke of luck :)

Inequality of the sexes

2008-06-01T13:00:00.007+02:00

Equality of the sexes has been an important issue in many, many countries for a long time now, and a lot of progress has been made. However, in some areas there will never be full equality, because there are, luckily, some fundamental differences between men and women. Giving birth the most obvious example maybe...

Besides differences coming from biology, a lot of the natural differences between us comes from psychology, giving results such as men's fascination for muscle cars and women's fascination for bags (I have just given up understanding the bag thing...)

I saw another example of this today, when I checked the IMDB score of this new movie. This is a movie with loads of buzz these days, premiering in the states last Friday, and on next Friday here in Norway. A lot of people have been waiting for this movie for a long time. It had a very low score in IMDB, only 3.8 when I checked, which usually means a crappy movie. I was surprised, with the size and anticipation for this movie I had a hard time believing it wasn't better than that. Then I checked the demographics for the votes and it all made sense :)

The target group of this movie is women in their 20's and 30's, and certainly not men. I think they hit the target spot on :) Clearly, this movie, and the series it comes from, appeals to the feminine mind.

Did you figure out which movie it is by now? It's Sex and the City of course. A movie my wife can't wait to see, and which she certainly will see with her girlfriends, not with me :)

Subscribing to blogs

2008-05-18T22:25:00.005+02:00

After discovering the universe of blogs, I've started following quite a few blogs. The only way to easily do this, is by subscribing to the blogs. This is done using a technique called RSS. Explaining RSS is not easy, but luckily someone is really good at explaining things in plain English, even RSS. Check out this video from Common Craft which in a very easy and understandable way explains RSS.

One addition to what was brought up in the video. Do you use iGoogle? Google Reader can be set up in your iGoogle-page. I use it, and it works perfectly, and I don't need to open the Google Reader site to check on my subscriptions.

So, do you want to try RSS? You can try by clicking the RSS-icon in the top-header of this blog, and you will be forwarded to a page where you can choose service to use for subscribing. My recommandation is Google Reader :)

Weird. Fun. Japanese.

2008-05-18T19:02:00.004+02:00

It's always fun to experience something original, something you would never think of, something that just blow you away. Especially when it's comedy. The Japanese tend to come up with stuff that matches this description for their tv shows.

Here is a short list of my favorites:

Human Tetris

There's more from the same show here and here.

Hit in the b....

Silent in the library

Special effects

Baby with an attitude!

2008-05-10T13:38:00.007+02:00

Minnie and I visited our friends Odd Geir and Monica last weekend, seeing their new big house and, of course, playing with their baby, Nicolai. When looking through the pictures we took over that weekend, almost all of them were of Nicolai, hehe.. We couldn't help being soo charmed by him :)

Maybe the most charming part of Nicolai was his facial expressions, ranging from what seemed as total despair if he was crying, to endless joy when Odd Geir or Monica were playing with him. The most interesting though was what I was able to capture in the pictures below during feeding time. Nicolai sure is a baby with attitude! :)

Chuck is da man!

2008-05-07T22:20:00.002+02:00

Browsing through blogs of friends of Minnie, I stumbled upon a post with Chuck Norris facts on Dep's blog. There's so many of these on the net, not all them that good really. However, a few of the ones on Dep's post were very funny and also a bit different than the typical Chuck fact. I picked 5:

- Chuck Norris can kill two stones with one bird
- Outer space exists because it's afraid to be on the same planet with Chuck Norris
- Chuck Norris can sneeze with his eyes open
- Chuck Norris can slam a revolving door
- Chuck Norris’ hand is the only hand that can beat a Royal Flush

Chuck rocks! :)