mars 2003 Archives

One of my co-workers (Fredrik Karlsson) just sent me an 41MB email !!!! Can you image a professional in the computer science business sending that large emails :-( Had to wait for 1.5 minutes for my inbox to open. Hrrmrmrmrrrrmrmrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrr. The email was a bunch of presentations from a research meeting we had last week (my Umeå trip) but also all the digital photos they took there. WWW is a working medium, even the press have known that since around 1995 when they invented the Internet (I wonder what I was using before that?).

That feels better. Now of to bed to read some Tom Clancy, Executive Orders (more about that tomorrow!!)

Have you noted the Rate Me section to the right? Now you have! Give me a vote and tell me what you think about this Blog! Please (with sugar on top :-) It you want to say something more than just a number then comment this note or any other note on this Blog. Please (with honey on top).

I have now done my first online real voting (not the normal online voting stuff) but a real political issue! The question was if the central street down town should be for busses only (for all Americans, the kind of vehicle that more than person rides at a time ;-) or for busses and cars. I obviously voted for the former (not having either drivers license or car). I have actually voted twice tonight. Johanna was to lazy to do it herself!

As of 22.26 tonight I am no longer an online voting virgin.

As some of my dear readers might have noticed I am very fond of human powered vehicles and I just got a mail about a Human Powered Bus! Check it out! Note the small numbers at the bottom of the page with links to more images of the bus!

I just saw a really funny movie! See it or miss something really fun :-) Interstate 60 with James Marsden, Gary Oldman, Michael J Fox, Chris Cooper and many more! Just see it!

I just read an old paper (1992-93) entitled "Why Do Users Like Video? Studies of Multimedia-Supported Collaboration" by John C. Tang and Ellen Isaacs. The paper is long paper and reports on an investigation they did within SUN regarding different video conferencing solutions. They write many good points but one thing really stood out:

"Rather, we should strive to understand how new forms of interaction can be integrated with the existing ones into people's day-to-day work"

Mikael Drugge wrote this small poem...

Marratech sailing in the Stockholm archipelago. I am the one sitting in the middle with the green shirt. Click the image for a larger view. More from this series...

Ever wanted to know what it feels like not having any sex (and I mean ANY ;-) for 40 days and 40 nights? Then see this movie:

The new Pentax Optio S looks very good. It is the first ultra compact camera to have 3x optical zoom. It is about half the size of an Ixus and weights 115 g (with battery and memory). Links: DPreview, Pentax USA, CyberPhoto.

It seems like we got summer time (daylight savings time) during the night?! Is usually advertised over TV and radio for days before the event but this year I haven't heard a beep about it. I had to go out on the net and search for confirmation (and found this that convinced me).

It is snowing :-( Oh no! Buhu, I long for the summer!

I am heading out to the play ground anyhow with Tovah. No amount of snow can stop us :-)

For all women out there, need a new bra? Try "Joe is my interactive bra"!

I was out riding my bike tonight and twice I was almost run over by a car. It is like the drivers have forgotten that there might be bikes on the bike paths so they just don't look before crossing them. I hope that 66666-taxi got a permanent dent in the hood when I hit it with my fist!!

I hate car drivers ;-)

It seems like winter is coming back. It is currently -0.4 and forecasts say that it will drop down to -6 over the weekend. I just hope we don't get any snow. That would really put a stop to my spring happiness! But why worry about something that you cannot control!

Brace yourself for a new great day! :-) Good night!

A tip all graduate students and others writing papers out there!

It is always a good idea to have correct grammar and spelling in papers. For some strange reason it increases the acceptance rate ;-)

When working with Latex it is very simple to spell check your files. Just run 'ispell *.tex'. Grammar is harder but what I do is to open the file in MS Word and let it use its grammar check mechanism to tell me what is wrong.

I strongly urge all that submit papers to do this!!

Found this very interesting article on synthetic vision. Augmented reality for real! As always the military are the only ones that afford this.

Drugge, this is something for Borderland!

There are many interesting articles on Wired. Check out this one on unmanned aerial vehicles, UAVs.

If you ever have played any of the GTA games then you have to take a look at this movie!

The network is down and I feel totally isolated. Everything I do relies on resources on the net. E.g. 3 minutes ago (14.00) an online meeting regarding Stefan Elf's and Jeremiah Scholl's PhD work should have started. Sigh, why can things just work? I cannot even post this message although the server is in my garage but unfortunately it relieas on a DNS server at the University (which I cannot access right now).

The net came back after about 50 minutes after 4 calls to the support department :-(

Got a message that my friend that is fighting cancer (mentioned two days ago) is feeling better after a few days at the hospital! I feel so helpless in this situation. You want to do something to help but you cannot really do anything directly. It is very frustrating!!!

It is now rather clear that the extra "tax" I mentioned two days ago will affect the department and not my division directly. That is a relief but it will still influence the department result this year. The sum is 2.5% of the whole turnover of the department.

I can now also say what it is all about as it has been all over the press. The cost relates to Dick Schefström leaving the University after making enemies with many researchers and management at the University. As a "punishment" he had to leave resign and for that he got 2.5 million SEK (about $/€ 260000). I have a hard time seeing that as a punishment though. Perhaps, I should make some real enemies as well and get forced to leave with 2.5 million in the pocket ;-)

I just got word that the close friend I mentioned yesterday is in stable condition after the surgery! A real relief!

Added Today's word and quote in the sidebar! These are automagically updated from time to time :-)

Happy Nowhere has released a hillarious anti-mac sketch. Independent of if you are a Mac-lover or Mac-hater you have to see this!

Crash Different
Crash Different - mirror at MacLabbet
Crash Different - mirror at Parnes.com
Happy Nowhere Productions

The Microsoft Journal Viewer is now available for direct download.

"This accessory enables users who do not have a computer running Microsoft® Windows® XP Tablet PC Edition to view files that were created in Microsoft® Windows® Journal on a Tablet PC."

I just realized that my Apple G4 DP (2*1.25MHz) hasn't been turned on for over 2 weeks now. The reason is two fold, it is too loud and it generates so much heat that it gets overheated in the closet. Come on Apple, make better hardware.

Performance wise, I have made some comparisons between the Apple Tower DP and a Intel 2.8GHz machine and the PC is more than twice as fast on almost all operations including graphics programs, CD to MP3, games (they have identical graphics cards). MacOSX is great but it doesn't work to well in a mixed Windows and Apple environment. Just to much things that take longer than necessary to accomplish.

I am an Apple Un-Switcher!

I decided to change the name of my blog into "DrPeppar, The Mad Scientist" as it reflects the contents more than the old name!

To my wife Johanna: I cannot let you go outside at night as the glimmer in your eyes would make the stars jealous! Love you!

I have had a rather long day where the main part has been around my on going management education. Today's sessions was primarily around the reorganization of the University but I felt rather out of it. I woke up at 0645 with a bad stomach and that has haunted me all day. The end of the session was spent in our 6-group (that is currently diminished to 5 persons as one person has gotten ill again in cancer (again) and is currently undergoing treatment), and that felt very good.

During the morning I also found out that the department will get a very large extra "tax" because of a person leaving my division. This will of course affect our financial bottom line this year to the negative. I will most likely write more about this later. This extra "tax" made me rather depressed as it is a cost that was decided by top-management (the President) but the department/division has to pay for it. :-/ The rest of the evening has been around tons of emails with the person in question (all local can guess who).

I also had a long and very good discussion with my friend Kåre Synnes about everything. That felt very good that we got this chance to talk.

Yet another cancer case ended today where a person I have worked somewhat with over the past years passed away today. May she rest in peace!!

And another close friend of mine is going through surgery tomorrow. Hope everything goes well!!!

A rather heavy day and I hope tomorrow will be lighter!!!

Ps. I created yet another category, called DrPeppar where I will put blog-notes about myself.

My most fun memory of Tovah is when one of the program leaders of the Bollibompa children show was pregnant and they had spent the whole episode discussing how babies were made. After the show I sat down in front of the TV to catch the news and Tovah comes up to me, stands there contemplating for a while, lifts my shirt and "titta pappa barn" meaning "watch daddy baby". Hmm, do I have that large stomach? Tovah was 27 months at the time (autumn 2002).

MouseInfo has posted some nice pictures of the upcoming "Many Adventures of Winnie the Pooh" ride at Disneyland Resort! It also show two short movies of the ride being tested (not to exiting though :-)

Disney has released a new toy for guests of the Walt Disney World park, an interactive pal :-

--- Material from Disney press release:

LAKE BUENA VISTA, Fla. -- He’s the ultimate insider at Walt Disney World Resort, a cheerful friend who helps enhance a theme park visit with timesaving tips and fun facts. Who is he? Pal Mickey!

Pal Mickey is a talking, huggable Mickey Mouse toy that shares timesaving tips, fun facts and jokes while guests visit the four Walt Disney World theme parks in Lake Buena Vista, Fla.

"It's almost time for the parade!" Pal Mickey says. "We better hurry if we wanna see it!"

Available for rental or purchase at WDW beginning in April, Pal Mickey enhances a theme park visit by:

* recommending theme park attractions
* offering reminders about parades and show times
* sharing stories
* playing games
* helping locate Disney characters in the parks

The interactive toy will be available to all guests as a daily rental for $8 per day plus tax and a refundable deposit, or as a $46.94 purchase plus tax at merchandise locations in each of the Walt Disney World resort hotels starting in April.

Pal Mickey will be offered at select locations in Magic Kingdom, Epcot, Disney-MGM Studios and Disney’s Animal Kingdom beginning in May.

Copyright 2003. THE WALT DISNEY COMPANY.

---

A picture of th critter can be found here!

Can't Telia ever make anything right? That is a slogan I hears quite often and Telia hasn't earned it for nothing. The latest thing not working is their Unified Messaging system where they are supposed to connect their fax/phone system with the web allowing to e.g. see my incoming FAX messages on the web (and even to get them as emails). This system was rather reliable until about 2 years ago when they redid the whole backend and since then it has been very unreliable :-/

I am sitting here waiting for a fax I have in my fax box to appear on line and in my mail box but it never seems to show up. The fax is actually a recipe for waffles from the hotel I stayed at last week in Umeå!

Several years ago I wrote a program called mVCR and it was further enhanced by my company Marratech which I with some friends founded in 1998.

The article in LinuxJournal issue 78 describes a system based on the mVCR program!

This is rather amusing. A hacker leaks unreleased CERT reports! More info at Slashdot!

I am currently taking part of 18 months long management education as part of my employment at Luleå University of Technology (I am an assistant professor). The first part was the whole first week of February and the main goal of that was to get to know yourself better. I have to admit that the week was very tough and very intensive, I was "dead" all of the weekend after I got home.

Today, was the first follow up with the organizers (Personal Management International - PMI) and I sat down for 1.5 hours with Freddie Lyngeraa and it felt really good to discuss all the issues again. Doesn't it always feel good to be the total focus of a conversation ;-)

The real challenge is to apply everything one has learned in the process to ones daily life, both professionally and at home! I am convinced though that I have taken some clear steps in the right direction towards becoming a better being. Have you noticed a change? Please, let me know!

If you get the opportunity to take a personal development course, take the chance, it might be your best experience in your life!

Digital media is not always the best thing! I have gotten accustomed to listening to Swedish Radio digitally over the Internet. Unfortunately it doesn't work right now. BuuHuuu, don't you feel sorry for me?!

Update: and just as i pressed publish it started working again. Now I am all happy and peppy again :-)

Yesterday was the 12 year anniversary of me and Johanna getting together!! Woohoo! And we both forgot about it as usual :-) Hopefully I won't forget about our wedding anniversary April 2 1996.

Just wanted to write that I am very proud of my graduate student Mikael Drugge. I just read a draft of a paper he is writing on and it is very good. This is the cyborg I mentioned yesterday!

It is the Waffle day in Sweden today? It means we eat waffles :-) Is this a Swedish thing or is it Waffle day in other countries as well? Please make a comment, I am curious!

Clonaid has now published a picture of what they claim to be a clone baby! Note that they still haven't agreed to making DNA tests which makes the while thing "smell bad"! See BBC News for more information.

Credit to Johanna for the tip.

Found this blog, "Where is Raed ?" who claims he is actually blogging from inside Bagdad! True or not, it is still interesting reading!

Why would anyone in the world e.g. buy 32 Gillette blades or 9 Braun Oral-B brush heads? Well, that is what my wife do for fun, and it is about half price against shelf price in Sweden, even with shipping from US. She must be really bored, I better take her to bed then ;-)

Since a month or so I am following a number of Disney World news groups and one thing really puzzles me, well not really but it struck me as a bit strange anyhow. In these groups there are about 200-400 postings per day, but only on weekdays. Do Americans (yes it is 99.8% Americans posting there) only read and post messages when they are supposed to work? This last weekend there was about 20 messages posted in total and the Monday bunch is coming in right now ( I am reading these news groups in Sweden which means I am 6 hours a head of the US east cost). I do a lot non-work related stuff during work hours but I on the other hand have VERY flexible work hours (i.e. I decide my self when I work and when I don't)* and I do post messages on weekends!

* A drawback from deciding your own work hours is that it sometimes is hard not to work, and (if anybody is curious) my flex account including Feb 2003 is 1173 hours. That means that I can leave now and don't have to come back until next year ;-)

My mother just invited herself. She is coming up April 19-23. Easter time. Oh well....

I just got back from this years first bicycle training. I cycled about 10 Km (my cycle computer has ran out of batteries during the winter) to Lulsundet and back. Puuuh.

Just added a handout (2 page powerpoint) about my research group, Media Technology to my presentations page.

Sony Media has created a really cool site for sharing live material (audio and video) over the Web called Screenblast. Check it out! Imagine combining this with a scalable distribution and one cool online TV channel (Jeremiah are you reading? ;-).

On the subject of video on line I just found some links about Video Blogs. Why limit ourselves to only text? I have a camera in front of me all day anyhow? You don't want to see me? Tough luck!

Looking for news? Annoyed with all the pages that take ages to load? Check out news.nu!

After 2 years break, Johanna got our Quicken database up and running again so now we know how much money we have. This for both good and bad as it shows how much several of stock-funds have decreased in value :-( The worst is now worth 12.5% of the money we put in :-(

Johanna (my wife) found my missing wedding ring (see "No wedding ring :-("). It actually was on the floor in the kitchen. Don't know how I could miss it yesterday!

The spring has finally reached Luleå and two days ago I brought out my recumbent, a HP Velotechnik Spirit. Last night it got a bit cold and on my way to the University today I fell, ouch. There was a large ice patch behind the D-house. I was really careful when I left the home but after 2 minutes I had forgotten about that and was thinking about other issues instead. Oh well, one cannot be deterred by some ice and the sun is shining so here I come :-)

More pictures from last summer...

Just found the GeoURL concept and I just had to add it to my site. It maps web sites from cyberspace into meatspace so you can find out if you have any "neighbours" :-) Initially I mixed up the longitude and latitude so I ended up outside Bombay, and then outside San Juan but I got it right in the end (I think :-).

I just saw the movie Sällskapsresan aka The Charter Trip. This is one of the best Swedish movies ever made but if you are not a Swede you would probably not get the humor :-) If you haven't seen it, see it, if you have see it again! I must have seen it at least 10 times and it only gets better each time :-) Plot summary from IMDB:

"Stig-Helmer Olsson isn't the fashionable, jet-set type, but for the first time in his life, he's gonna travel abroad. He takes a trip to the Canary Islands over the christmas. Before leaving, his doctor asks him to bring a package to a friend of his. Without Stig-Helmer knowing it, the package contains 50,000 SEK, which of course is illegal to take out of the country. However, Stig-Helmer's bag with the package disappears at the airport. Dr. Levander's friend believes that Stig-Helmer has stolen the money and is anxious to get them back."

Last week I finally found a HMD solution for our PDA Cyborg wearable project. Interactive Imaging Systems have produced a a CF-card that connects directly to a small (40 gram) head mounted display!! Finally! It should be ship on Monday or Tuesday and I will keep all eager readers informed after some testing! Below are images of the display as well as an image of one of my graduate students (Mikael Drugge) as a cyborg. The price was "only" 999 USD plus shipping.

Ps. Click Drugge to the left for a larger view.

We have some new projects going together with Umeå University and the Interactive Institute in Umeå, so I will be traveling to Umeå quite a few times in the future and my first trip between Luleå and Umeå was last Tuesday. I took the bus down and I took the chance to try out their new business class. They had transformed the last 5 (?) rows on the second floor into 3 three rows with 3 larger chairs (very comfortable), a 220V power outlet for your laptop, free headphones for the movie, free coffee/the, free sandwich and very good service. The price for the upgrade was 80 SEK, about 9 USD. I was all alone in this section which added for extra peace (the rest of the bus was almost full). The extra money was well worth it (as if it was I personally paying anyhow ;-) The business class is available on bus 100 Luleå - Sundsvall. More info on Länstrafiken Norrbotten.

Going to Umeå and need a hotel? I can very highly recommend Comfort Hotel Uman on Storgatan 52. I have traveled quite a lot in my life (that makes sound really old ;-) and I have to say that this is one of the best hotels I have ever stayed at. The welcoming I got from the lady in the reception was really overwhelming and I felt "at home" immediately.

The hotel is rather small with 89 rooms but it offers large nice rooms, sauna with free beer, free dinner buffee (simple but very tasty, salads, "sill", bread, pasta and meat sauce) server until 22.00, normal size breakfast buffee with fresh waffles. On Mondays the manager offers a free glass of wine. And if you enjoy movies, I know I do, then "Filmstaden" is just 100 meters away.

Earlier this week I saw the movie Catch me if you can. Highly recommended. I gave it a 9/10 on IMDB.

From IMDB:
"An FBI agent tracks down and catches a young con artist who successfully impersonated an airline pilot, doctor, assistant attorney general and history professor, cashing more than $2.5 million in fraudulent checks in 26 countries."

Have you seen any good movies lately? Tell me by commenting this blog note.

Yesterday I got the SIP - PSTN connection to work! Woohoo, now I can phone people from my computer and include their voice in my favorite E-Meeting software. The SIP-stack used is the NIST-SIP and the PSTN gateway is DigiSip.

Between 16.00 yesterday and 14.00 today I lost my wedding ring :-( :-( I might be in the snow outside as we had a spring barbeque (yes we still have about 1 meter of snow here), in the house or somewhere on the campus as we went for a night walk before going to bed yesterday. HELP! :-(

There is tons of information about Walt Disney World on the net (somebody wrote that the two travel sites in the world with the most information is Walt Disney World and Las Vegas) and a couple of days ago I got a tip to check out Waltopia. It contains among many other things Walt's last movie where he presents his vision of the Experimental Prototype Community of Tomorrow - EPCOT. The movie is very interesting to watch even if you aren't interested in details about Disney as it presents a real vision (not too many of those around these days) of how people might live. It is 24 minutes long. After watching the movie head over to the EPCOT survival page for a view of what parts of the vision exists today.

During February 2003, we spent two weeks in Hurghada, Egypt on vacation and I finally put my travel report online. We also have 379 photos from the vacation online as well the rest of our photo album. Unfortunately, this wasn't out best vacation and I cannot really recommend Hurghada to anybody!

The Blog wave finally caught up with me and I have started yet another journal type service over. The first I ever started was actually a service I called "news" where I reviewed ALL new websites that appeared on the WWW. How did I manage to do that you might ask? Well, this was back in 1993-94, before Internet was invented ;-). Back then everybody that created a new site (or modified it heavily) posted a message on a Usenet news group (also known as Google groups) and I checked it out and wrote a short review. I kept this up for about 1 year (updating it daily) but after mid 1994 it just became to much work (to many sites to review). Unfortunately, I don't have any copy of these news pages anymore but if anybody out there that was around on the WWW 1993-94, and have a copy of this pages I would REALLY appreciate an email!

My family and I will be adding "interesting" blogs about what is happening in our lifes in Luleå!