I don't like MSN Live Messenger

Today I gave MSN Live Messenger (i.e. version 8 of MSN Messenger) a try. I downloaded and installed it, and started configuring it to suit my simple needs: a list of contacts on MSN, preferrably transparent, without commercial ads.

But then I started thinking... Where does the chat history go? How do I get rid of the annoying window that pops up in my face? Why can't I configure the window to be transparent? (Microsoft, the creator of MSN Live Messenger, introduced the transparency feature in Windows 2000, yet I haven't seen them use it a single time, while others like Trillian, Miranda and Picasa all do. For free...)

After a few minutes of annoyance, only compensated by the potential of seeing the fancy smileys that people send me from time to time and the certainty that others will see my avatar picture properly, I closed MSN Live Messenger and fired up Miranda again. Back to basic.

Update:
Annoyance grew out of proportions when Stefanie made me try chatting on MSN Live Messenger; compared to the simple setup I use in Miranda, the chat window looked like the most messy place on earth--or my display, at least. And all the fancy smileys only added to the mess. I think I can manage without...

Five persons stabbed near my apartment

While I am safely located in the office, online newspapers Aftenposten, Dagbladet and VG reports that five people have been stabbed just one block away from my apartment in downtown Oslo. Apparently, the violence began as an argument in a Kurdish youth club, while the stabbing took place on the pavement outside when several persons came to a blow. The perpetrator (who according to eye witnesses was male) has not yet been caught. I hope he is...

Pictures from Sunday on Flickr

Waterskiing on Ulviksjøen

Just a note to tell you that I've uploaded some pictures from Sunday's trip to Ulviksjøen in Aurskog on Flickr. Enjoy!

Update:
Later, I've added the "picture previewer" in the right hand column, with a selection of my most recent pictures on Flickr.

Speeding around

Today I went waterskiing with Gunnar, Ragnhild and Ole Kristian at Ulviksjøen some 45 kilometres east of Oslo. But not only did I speed around on the water surface. As I bicycled to the lake (while the others went by car) I equalled my speed record of 60 kilometres per hour. I repeated the act on my way home, and also sat a new personal record with an average velocity of 30 km/h over a 50 kilometre distance.

To settle things down, after I got home I had a chat with my Turkish friend Basak. She just bought a new digital camera and are taking great pictures with it. Take a look at her pictures on deviantArt. (The link is also in the linklist in the right hand column.)

Latenight café life

Ragna and her glass

Yesterday (as was the original name of this blog), Ragna came over for dinner, and brought her new Canon Ixus 800IS digital camera. Dinner was the most tender sirloin of pork, but the main motive for her visit was to play with her new digital camera. So we walked to a café, had some coffee, took a few pictures and walked through the concrete jungle with its tall buildings towards the seaside. However, when climbing a bridge Ragna's skirt flew up turning her into Marilyn Monroe for a second, and we decided to turn around.

The sunny side of life

Sunbathing with Bente

Although working, the nice weather have forced me to take some time off and go to the beach. After I first visited the beach "Katten" in Oslo with Kristine on Sunday it has become my favourite, featuring grass and smooth coastal rock to lay down on, and diving boards and a small sandy beach from which I can take a dip in the Oslo fjord. Picture is from yesterday's visit with Trine Lise and Bente.

Take a look at time

In a previous blog post I mentioned my new alarm clock from Rosendahl with its square shaped LCD display, which shows hours above minutes.

Bringing similar LCD design to the wrist, the July edition of Wallpaper* presents a watch from Swiss company Ventura, "the world’s first and still only automatic digital watch that does without a battery" (according to themselves).

Most of Ventura's collection appeals to me, at least the models that display hours above minutes just as my alarm clock. So maybe I should abandon the six-year-old habit of not wearing a watch, and wish for a SPARC fx from Ventura?

Lousy service

Non-Norwegian speaking readers have to excuse me, but here is a complaint I sent to both NSB (Norwegian State Railways) and Trafikanten (a Norwegian service for public transport):

I dag oppdaget jeg ved en tilfeldighet at Østfoldbanen er stengt på grunn av at en bro har falt ned ved Loenga. Denne informasjonen kom jeg over på nettsidene til Dagens Næringsliv. I et forsøk på å få bekreftet informasjonen sjekket jeg nettsidene til NSB og Trafikanten, uten å finne noe informasjon. Søk på togtider fra Oslo S til Holmlia ga heller ingen advarsel om at Østfoldbanen er stengt. Etter å har ringt NSB Kundesenter og fått vite at køen der var på 12 minutter og 31 sekunder, ringte jeg Trafikanten og fikk bekreftet at joda, Østfoldbanen er stengt og det går buss fra spor nr 19 til samme tid som toget.

Denne informasjonen burde ligge på forsiden til både NSB og Trafikanten, og også komme opp når man søker etter avgangstider på de respektive nettsidene. Det er rett og slett for dårlig at jeg må ringe for å få slik informasjon.

Briefly summarized, the story is that I am having dinner at my mom's place today, and I usually go there by suburban train. Today, however, I accidentially discovered--through the Norwegian newspaper Dagens Næringsliv--that a bridge has fallen down on the line, blocking it totally. But neither the web pages of NSB nor Trafikanten said anything about traffic problems, not even when I searched for departures; everything appeared to be quite normal. So I had to call to get the information confirmed. Incredible that this information is not available online!!!

Being a computer geek

Tonight, I felt like a real computer geek alongside Arnljot at his place. While he worked on configuring a Linux-based multimedia computer, I browsed the Internet for Network Attached Storage (NAS). A NAS is basically an external disk drive, but with a network interface that makes it independent of a computer. And why would I need that? Well, in addition to being a place to store away music, pictures and video recordings, I would like to play the music without having to use a PC--perhaps with something like the Sonos ZP80 and its companioning controller unit.

In my search for a NAS, I stumbled across Tom's Networking were I found many interesting reviews of diverse NASes. However, the Thecus N2100 stands out both in functionality and appearance. And price. It comes without hard drives, which must then be bought separately. And not only one, but two. But, although this solution is expensive, it features real-time backup so that when one hard drive fails (which they tend to do after some time) I won't lose any of my pictures or other data. And as already mentioned, it comes in a wrapping that can actually be part of the media solution in a modern, civilized home...

Update:
Tom's Networking also did a review of the Sonos player.