jbh_denmark

A turn towards monogamy

noreply@blogger.com (Jesper Blaabjerg Holm) — Sun, 08 May 2011 09:49:00 +0000

I finally decided on what camera to buy and the choice was Canon PowerShot SX230 HS. Among the reasons why my choice fell on the Canon were especially its video capabilities, and the zoom.

Monday to Saturday I spend on a holiday in Berlin, Germany so I have now had some time to test the camera and I really do like it. However there are a few points that annoy me. First is the flash – I have no problem when I use it, but when I let other people use the camera then the problem arises. The problem is that the flash pups up when you turn on the camera, but if your finger is on top of the flash when you turn it on then the flash stays down. That means that if you let people borrow your camera in lowlight conditions you might end up with pretty bad pictures.

This photo would have been amazing with flash.

Second problem is the battery, I went to the Zoo in Berlin and I had to refrain from shooting some photos and video I would have shot if the camera had a better battery life. I don’t know if other cameras with the same specs are any better than the Canon but I still find it annoying.

Third problem is the GPS. A lot of the photos I take are not being geo-tagged because the GPS is to slow, this could be solved by letting the GPS be turned on all the time (even when the camera is turned off) but since I already have problems with the battery then that is not really an option.

Fourth is the horrible horrible software that Canon supplies with the camera. When I bought a Canon PhotoShot A530 in 2006 I got more or less the same software and it seems like Canon has not made any updates to the software since then. That is not good enough Canon. The worst is the PhotoStitch software – since the Canon does not have a feature where the camera stitches photos together for panorama shots then a pieces of software like that is essential, but the performance of that program is just horrendous. I found the free software Hugin is way way better.

Canon PhotoStitch

Hugin

On the plus side though are some really good photos and videos and an absolutely amazing zoom.

A romance turned orgy

noreply@blogger.com (Jesper Blaabjerg Holm) — Thu, 14 Apr 2011 14:31:00 +0000

After my post yesterday I had some people help me out and I am now even more confused. There are quite a few options and all of them have their pros and cons. And on top of that I must say that I still have a lot to learn about cameras to be able to make a proper informed decision. I think I have some studying and thinking to do. So far I have found six cameras that I still find more or less interesting:

Fujifilm FinePix F550EXR – 2538DKK (340.28 Euro)

16-megapixels

15x zoom

1080p video
GPS
Three-inch LCD

I have not been able to find a proper review of this camera.

Sony DSC-HX5 – 1812DKK (242.94 Euro)

10.2-megapixels
10x zoom
1080i video
GPS
Three-inch LCD

Verdict (http://www.trustedreviews.com)
The Sony Cyber-shot DSC-HX5 once again demonstrates that when it comes to technical excellence Sony should never be underestimated. The camera is well made, handles and performs extremely well, and is capable of producing very good results under a wide range of circumstances. It is a technological tour-de-force loaded with more features than anything else on the market.

Panasonic Lumix DMC-TZ10 – 1974DKK (264.66 Euro)

12-megapixels
12x zoom
720p video stereo
GPS
Poor battery

Verdict (http://www.trustedreviews.com)
The Panasonic Lumic DMC-TZ10 is a well-designed, solidly built and extremely versatile camera with a lot of useful features. The 12x zoom, optical image stabilisation, HD video and excellent low light performance are the main benefits, and manual exposure is a nice bonus. The GPS feature is a bit of a gimmick, and drains the battery too fast to be much real use.

Casio EXILIM Hi-Zoom EX-H20G – 2228DKK (298.72 Euro)

14.1-megapixels
10x zoom
720p no zoom during recording mini-HDMI
Hybrid GPS
Three-inch LCD
Good battery life

Verdict (http://www.trustedreviews.com)

The travel zoom market has been in growth of late, with even formerly humble pocket models now boasting a 15x reach to further distance themselves from the latest smartphones. But rather than trying to trump competitors when it comes to zoom power, Casio has here added the extra of GPS to a still versatile 10x optical reach. Though a bit of a gimmick surely for most amateur photographers, it works up to a point, and helps earmark the camera as a possible purchase for those who love their gadgets as much as their photography.

On the down side, it is disappointing that the full extent of the zoom cannot be used for video as it can for stills, and that Casio insists on cramming information in several different languages on each page of its manuals, making them hard to decipher in a hurry. But, that aside, we actually have very few black marks to place against the EX-H20G, other than the aforementioned high price. Shop around however and less demanding photographers may well find this particular Exilim stacks up well as a possible travel companion. Though, we'd argue, if you don't need the GPS, not quite as well as a sharper compact system camera like an Olympus Pen, Panasonic GF or beginner's DSLR might.

Canon PowerShot SX230 HS – 2178DKK (292.01 Euro)

12-megapixels
14x zoom
1080p video
GPS
Three-inch LCD

Verdict (http://reviews.cnet.com)
The good: The Canon PowerShot SX230 HS has good low-light photo quality for its class; excellent color; shooting options that encourage experimentation; and great-looking video quality.

The bad: Its shooting performance, though good, lags behind the competition as does its GPS functionality. The battery life is short and the overall design could use some help, too.

The bottom line: If you want a compact megazoom with manual controls, GPS, and excellent photo quality, the Canon PowerShot SX230 HS is a good place to start.

Samsung WB650 – 1675DKK (224.57 Euro)

12-megapixel
15x zoom
720p video with stereo
GPS
Three-inch AMOLED
Poor Image Quality

Verdict (http://www.trustedreviews.com)
In many ways the Samsung WB650 is a better camera than the Panasonic TZ10. It has a better zoom range, a more accurate GPS system, a sharper monitor and crucially longer battery life. Build quality, design and handling are all excellent, but it can't quite match its rival on low ISO image quality.

I have fallen in love…

noreply@blogger.com (Jesper Blaabjerg Holm) — Wed, 13 Apr 2011 14:45:00 +0000

I have fallen in love… But I don’t know if this love is meant to be. I have fallen in love with the Sony DSC-HX5 but I am not sure if there is more pragmatic choice out there. What I want is a compact camera with a decent zoom, decent megapixel count and most importantly GPS, for not too much more than 2000DKK (268.16 Euro). What I have not found yet is a webpage where I can get a list of all the cameras with GPS so that I compare them and make my decision. Does anyone know of such a page? So far of all the cameras I have found the Sony DSC-HX5 seems to be the best but if I don’t know what else is out there it is impossible to know for sure. If anybody knows of a way to list all cameras with GPS or a better one then than the Sony HX-5 please let me know.

Is the Amazon Appstore driving people to piracy?

noreply@blogger.com (Jesper Blaabjerg Holm) — Thu, 07 Apr 2011 18:28:00 +0000

Everyday I get news about a new great app being available for free in the Amazon Appstore, this gives me a feeling of being treated unfairly since I'm in a country where I am not allowed to download these apps. Apps like SwiftKey and Wolfram Alpha that I would love to have for free are available to many Android user but not for me. Angry Birds Rio is free without adds before it is released with adds in the Android Market but not for me. This unequal treatment one could speculate would drive some more tech savvy Android user to take matters into their own hands and simply download a pirated version of these apps to counter this. Amazon might have a good reason for not making their Appstore available worldwide from the start but I think it is a shame and might have some unintended consequences.

Follow my adventure

noreply@blogger.com (Jesper Blaabjerg Holm) — Tue, 05 Apr 2011 13:20:00 +0000

You wanna follow my adventures as an intern at The Danish Embassy in Oslo then have a look at my other blog: http://theosloexperience.blogspot.com/

Trying Blogger for Android.

noreply@blogger.com (Jesper Blaabjerg Holm) — Wed, 09 Feb 2011 10:40:00 +0000

This is a post written on my HTC Desire HD.

Guitar Rock

noreply@blogger.com (Jesper Blaabjerg Holm) — Tue, 16 Nov 2010 23:58:00 +0000

WTF

noreply@blogger.com (Jesper Blaabjerg Holm) — Mon, 27 Sep 2010 07:51:00 +0000

Seen in the window of an empty store on the way to the bus...

Vegeterian?

noreply@blogger.com (Jesper Blaabjerg Holm) — Thu, 02 Sep 2010 08:53:00 +0000

Fuck asier jeg tror jeg har fundet det rigtige studie "Vegeterian?"

Share your whereabouts with Foursquare, Cotchin! and the N900

noreply@blogger.com (Jesper Blaabjerg Holm) — Fri, 04 Jun 2010 13:02:00 +0000

I've had some problems with Barriosquare where I've not been able to get a GPS fix which made the app more or less useless. Therefore I've for a while been using the FourSquare mobile website, but that has not been a very good solution since it is not very well optimized for touch and the N900. Then the other day I found Cotchin! which is a web based FourSquare client that works brilliant for the N900 because it's fast and very finger friendly. The only complaint I have about Cotchin! is that it's ugly the colour and the icons some work, but apart from that I really like it. If you want to try Cotchin! go to Cotchin! mobile website.

Get fit with eCoach and HeiaHeia.com

noreply@blogger.com (Jesper Blaabjerg Holm) — Fri, 04 Jun 2010 10:01:00 +0000

I have not been posting for a very long time but I've been very busy with my studies. I'm planning to start running again this summer and today I went for my first run. When I used my N82 I was using Nokia Sports Tracker to record and share my workouts but since the N900 is not supported by Nokia Sports Tracker I had to find another way to do that.

The solution was eCoach and HeiaHeia.com. eCoach works, like the Nokia Sports Tracker app for Symbian, by recording your workout using the GPS. While you are recording you can see you progress on a map or data showing your speed, time and the distance.

After you finish the workout you can view a graph showing speed vs time and altitude vs time. eCoach also have support for using a heart monitor (FRWD B600 and Zephyr HxM) but unfortunately I do not have such one. The latest version of eCoach supports upload to HeiaHeia.com. HeiaHeia.com got its name from the Norwegian Heia! Heia! chant for their cross-country skiers and other athletes, and it is a service that combines training diaries and social networking. The reason why I like HeiaHeia.com is that I can share my workouts via Twitter or the HeiaHeia app on Facebook.

Although I like to be able to record and share my workouts with eCoach and HeiaHeia.com, I still find that some features missing. When I upload my workout to HeiaHeia.com it does not contain any of the GPS information that eCoach gathered, I would love to be able to show of the route of the workout online. Also I do not seem to be able to share my workout to my wall on Facebook only to the HeiaHeia Facebook app and I can't seem to figure out how to change the language of the HeiaHeia Facebook app from Finnish.All in all eCoach and HeiaHeia.com is enough for my basic needs, but I do hope that we'll see some development especially on the HeiaHeia.com side so that this will be able to compete with Nokia Sports Tracker.

I have for years now been using iTunes on my PC because in my opinion it's the best music-player for PC. But because iTunes is an Apple product it does not work with any other device then the iPhone and iPod and that is very annoying. So what do you do when you want to sync you Nokia N900 with iTunes, well you could do like me and use Salling Media Sync. With Salling Media Sync you can sync music, podcasts and photos. When syncing music you can choose to sync all you music or just specific playlists. Salling Media Sync is free in the unregistered version, the only drawback when using that version is that whenever you want to sync you music to the N900 Salling Media Sync will delete all the music and re-transfer it making sync time longer then when using the registered version where Salling Media Sync only transfer the new music to the N900.

Sync the Nokia N900 with iTunes using Salling Media Sync

noreply@blogger.com (Jesper Blaabjerg Holm) — Tue, 09 Mar 2010 08:51:00 +0000

Now using Barriosquare for Foursquare on the Nokia N900

noreply@blogger.com (Jesper Blaabjerg Holm) — Tue, 02 Mar 2010 18:46:00 +0000

Woohoo... I've been waiting for this day since I started using Foursquare and now it has come. I am now testing Barriosquare for my Nokia N900 and I like it... It's obviously not a finished build since it's not even in Maemo extras-devel yet, but that doesn't mean that it's not very usable and usefull.
To install Barriosquare I first had to get permitted into this group to be able to get the .deb-file after that I had to manually install the dependencies through X terminal with "apt-get install", luckily there's a great guide on how to install in the group.
When I first opened Barriosquare I had to login and then it worked. I could from the options menu choose how Barriosquare should acquire my position, I could see my position on Google Maps, see my badges, see the nearby venues, I could add a venue and I could search for a venue.
I was unfortunately not able to show my friends' recent checkin list, and my checkin history but I think that could have something to do with the Foursquare servers as I often get error screen when I use the browser version!?

Show people what you are listening to with Nokia N900 and Last.fm

noreply@blogger.com (Jesper Blaabjerg Holm) — Mon, 01 Mar 2010 16:07:00 +0000

I've used Last.fm for many years now, I do not stream music from Last.fm and I do not pay for the service but I like to be able to keep track of which tunes and artists I listen to the most and I'm a great fan of how Last.fm is able to recommend artists to you by analyzing what you normally listen to.

When I used my Nokia N82 I used Mobbler and I when I got my Nokia N900 I really wanted to have something similar first I tried Vagalume but could not make it work and thought it was to big and clumsy, then I found Last.fm Scrobbler which is perfect. It is small and runs automatically you just login once and then every time you listen to music through the build-in music player Last.fm Scrobbler scrobbles your music.

Now I can still keep track on what I listen to, and with Last.fm connected to my Twitter profile, Last.fm automatically sends out tweet for me every week with my top 3 artists of that week.

Send up a kite with the Nokia N900 and Brightkite

noreply@blogger.com (Jesper Blaabjerg Holm) — Sun, 28 Feb 2010 14:56:00 +0000

A few days ago I wrote a post about Foursquare, but Foursquare is far from the only location based social network service that you can use on the Nokia N900. When checking into Foursquare you are limited to public venues (I know that some people are adding their homes but that is not the purpose of Foursquare). With Brightkite on the other hand you have the opportunity to check-in at any address so that you can tell your friends that you are at home or visiting your grandmother. Brightkite gives you the opportunity to send your check-ins to Twitter, Facebook, Flickr and Fire Eagle. Because Brightkite does not have the game element of badges that Foursquare has it is not as fun to use therefore I find that using Foursquare and Brightkite together is the best way to use these services, checking in with Foursquare when I'm at a public venue and checking in with Brightkite when I'm at a private location. As far as I know Foursquare are working on some way to allow people to add private venues to the service but until then I'll be using both services.
Since there is no Brightkite app for the N900 there are two ways to use Brightkite on the N900 the first is through the Brightkite mobile website and the other one is through the normal Brightkite website, since the normal website works perfect on the N900 that is what I'm using.

Tell the world where you are and earn badges with Nokia N900 and Foursquare

noreply@blogger.com (Jesper Blaabjerg Holm) — Fri, 26 Feb 2010 15:04:00 +0000

The last week or so I've really become addicted to Foursquare. I think that with more and more people carrying around smartphones, sharing you location is gonna be huge, and I think Foursquare is a great example of how location sharing can be done. I've in another post written a bit about Google Latitude, but for me Google Latitude has not done the trick, because even after a great deal of convincing, I have not succeeded in getting any of my friends to use it, and since Google Latitude cannot be connected to either Twitter or Facebook it is essential that you friends use it as well. Foursquare is different, of cause it is more fun to use if your friends use it too, but since it has great integration with Facebook it can still be meaningful to use, even if your friends doesn't. With Foursquare you check-in to venues through the Foursquare mobile website. The venues has either already been added or you can add them through the Foursquare website. When you check-in at the venues you earn badges, and so far I have earned the Newbie badge, that you get for your first check-in, and I have earned the Local badge, that you get for checking in at the same place three times in the same week. You can also get to be the mayor of a venue if you are the one with the most check-ins at a venue (atm. I'm the mayor at three different venues.).
Foursquare has dedicated apps for iPhone, Android and Blackberry, users of the Nokia N900 are stuck with the mobile website that looks far from great in the fantastic MicroB browser. But the mobile website is usable and since the only thing you need it for is checking in it is alright.
But we will not be left out for long... BarrioSquare is coming... BarrioSquare is a Foursquare client for the N900 developed by Chris B and is as far as I know in private beta atm.

Nokia N900 as your cookbook with Pyrecipe

noreply@blogger.com (Jesper Blaabjerg Holm) — Thu, 25 Feb 2010 11:53:00 +0000

Yesterday I had made vegetarian Swedish Sausage dish (Svensk Pølseret) with my Nokia N900 acting as my cookbook and my shopping list using Pyrecipe.
Pyrecipe is a great way to organize your recipes on the N900, with the option to both import and export recipes it is easy to build op a great database with all your favorite recipes.
With the build-in shopping list its easy to make a shopping list from the ingredient list and check-off the ingredient when you have put it in your basket.
Swedish Sausage dish is not usually a vegetarian dish and I haven't had it since I went vegetarian 7 or 8 years ago, but since the only meat in the dish is the sausages it is easily converted to vegetarian by choosing vegetarian sausages instead I bought Anamma Sausages at Helsehjørnet in Aalborg.

If anyone is interested in the recipe it can be downloaded here (Gourmet XML) here (KRecipies) or here (HTML) (The recipe is in Danish)

Blogging from the Nokia N900 with MaStory

noreply@blogger.com (Jesper Blaabjerg Holm) — Wed, 24 Feb 2010 14:47:00 +0000

I usually use my laptop when I'm blogging but for this post and the one before this I've been experimenting with using MaStory. MaStory has some really great features among them are great integration with Blogger, Wordpress, Livejournal, Drupal, Pixelpipe, Flickr and Picasa. But also support for a lot of HTML code and very advanced posting options. The only thing that I personally miss from MaStory is spell- and grammar-check.
MaStory for me means that I can work on my blog posts whereever I am, and I do not need my laptop for blogging anymore - that's a great freedom.
One problem that I have found though is that when I add pictures straight from MaStory they are way too big for my layout here on blogger.

Genealogy on the Nokia N900 with geni.com

noreply@blogger.com (Jesper Blaabjerg Holm) — Tue, 23 Feb 2010 09:15:00 +0000

For some years now I've been interested in genealogy, first I used different offline solutions on my PC for building my family tree, but in the start of 2007 geni.com went into public beta and since then I've used geni.com. Today I'm connected to nearly 35.000.000 profiles with more than 100.000 blood relatives on the tree. With the help of geni.com I now know how I'm related to the Margaret the 2nd of Denmark and I can follow my bloodline back to Yngvi Hálfdanarson born in the year 20. Geni.com is in my opinion a fantastic tool for building family trees because it combines pure genealogy with social networking because you can invite your family to participate in building your family tree. The reason why I mention all of this if because of the fantastic browser MicroB on the Nokia N900 the full flash support in the browser makes it a perfect toll for using geni.com on the go. So far I have not found a single thing I cannot do on geni.com with my N900, I can even navigate the tree.
All this means that I can now do genealogy while I'm on the train, waiting for the bus or even laying in my bed.

Enjoy podcasts on the Nokia N900 with gPodder

noreply@blogger.com (Jesper Blaabjerg Holm) — Sun, 21 Feb 2010 13:44:00 +0000

Another app that I use a lot on my N900 is gPodder. gPodder is a podcast application with many features most importantly u can stream or download podcasts. I have yet to explore all the features of the app especially in connection with the many ways you can add podcasts and that is because so far all the podcasts that I’ve added has been video podcasts which had URL feeds. Because of that the only thing I had to do after I installed the gPodder was to copy the URL for feed into the app by choosing “Add new podcast” and then select “Podcast feed/website URL”. That’s all.
The Podcasts I’ve added are mostly Danish podcast and I can very much recommend these Podcasts:

Danskerne Akademi :
http://vpodcast.dr.dk/feeds/akademirss.xml (Danish)
DR2 Udland:
http://vpodcast.dr.dk/feeds/DR2_udlandrss.xml (Danish)
Smagsdommerne:
http://vpodcast.dr.dk/feeds/smagsdommernerss.xml (Danish)
So ein Ding:
http://vpodcast.dr.dk/feeds/soeindingrss.xml (Danish)
Spise med Price:
http://vpodcast.dr.dk/feeds/spisemedpricerss.xml (Danish)
Troldspejlet:
http://vpodcast.dr.dk/feeds/troldspejletrss.xml (Danish)
GeekBrief.tv:
http://www.podshow.com/feeds/geekbrief.xml (English)

All the video podcasts from Danmarks Radio can be found here: http://www.dr.dk/Podcast/video.htm

MMS on the N900

noreply@blogger.com (Jesper Blaabjerg Holm) — Sun, 21 Feb 2010 08:51:00 +0000

I finally got MMS to work on my N900 the last couple of days I’ve managed to both send a MMS and receive one.

To do so I needed to apps: fAPN and fMMS. fAPN is used to make a new APN and fMMS is the actual MMS client.
As I’m in Denmark and my N900 uses Telias network I had to find the right MMS parameters for Telia Denmark, and fortunately the Maemo community has made that pretty easy as there is a list with all the know MMS parameters listed by country and provider here.

After I had found the right parameters and installed the two apps I opened fAPN and added the APN Telia MMS, then closed the program and went to internet connections in the settings menu. There I chose connections, Telia MMS and Edit. I then had to push next and put in www.mms.mtelia.dk as name of access point, then next and then advanced. In advanced I had to put 193.209.134.131 as HTTP-Proxy and 8080 as port number and then hit save.
With the APN now configured I then went to fMMS and configured the app I chose Telia MMS as the APN, http://mms.telia.dk as the MMSC, put in 300 as the value for “Resize image width” and then my phone number including country code.
And that was it… Now I can send and receive MMS on my N900.

Another great game for the N900: SuperTux

noreply@blogger.com (Jesper Blaabjerg Holm) — Wed, 03 Feb 2010 16:51:00 +0000

Those of you who played Super Mario Bros. on the NES will feel right at home in this game. SuperTux is basically the same as Super Mario Bros. but instead of the Italian plumber brothers the main character is the penguin Tux. So far I've played through the first 4 stages and I really like it the control is easy and the stages are perfect length for wasting a few minutes. SuperTux is cross platform but I think it's perfect for the N900.

I had a few problems with the game though. Because of my Scandinavian version of the N900 I had to setup the keys a bit different. But when using "wasd" as directional keys and "space" as jump and "m" as power/run everything works perfect.

Sync N900 contacts with Facebook and Twitter using Hermes

noreply@blogger.com (Jesper Blaabjerg Holm) — Tue, 02 Feb 2010 08:56:00 +0000

Another app that I really like for the N900 is Hermes, with my old Nokia N82 I had to use ZYB to sync the contacts on my phone with my friends on Facebook. With Hermes I can do that right on the Nokia N900, that means that the profile pictures and birthdays are saved in then contacts on the N900 and because of the great integration between contacts and calendar on the N900 the birthdays of the contacts shows up straight away in the calendar.

Bird demolition with Angry Birds

noreply@blogger.com (Jesper Blaabjerg Holm) — Sun, 31 Jan 2010 20:05:00 +0000

One of my favorite games on the Nokia N900 is Angry Birds. In the game you got 5 different kinds of birds with different abilities that you send off with a slingshot to try to kill some green pigs. The game loads fast and is great if you just have a few minutes to spare. Unfortunately there are too few levels BUT it seems like the Maemo community have come up with a solution - user made levels. I have not tried the user made levels myself yet but I'll post when I do. The new levels and information can be found here: http://talk.maemo.org/showthread.php?t=40591.

If you are playing Angry Birds try to slide your finger up and down at the middle of the screen that will zoom in and out.

I wanted to post some screenshots but I think the video from the Angry Birds website is very good so I embedded that instead:

The game is also available for iPhone

Series database on my N900

noreply@blogger.com (Jesper Blaabjerg Holm) — Sun, 31 Jan 2010 16:10:00 +0000

One of my favourite apps on my Nokia N900 is SeriesFinal. I always keep forgetting how many episodes I've watched of each of the TV-shows that I follow and with Series Final I don't have to anymore. Basically what SeriesFinal does is download the information about a show that you choose so that you can see how many seasons it has been running, how many episodes there have been and even a little information about the episode itself. Then next to each episode there is checkbox so you can checkoff every episode you have watched.

I've made a few screenshots so you can see how it works.