other stuff

Balmers Brainwashed Offspring

In an interview with Fortune Magazine Steve Balmer replied to the question do you have an iPod?

No, I do not. Nor do my children. My children–in many dimensions they’re as poorly behaved as many other children, but at least on this dimension I’ve got my kids brainwashed: You don’t use Google, and you don’t use an iPod.

In a similar comment a few months ago the Swedish Minister of Justice has said in an interview that his children do not have any illegally copied music.

While I understand the needs of the fathers to portray an image. Why cant the children do what all other children do? Being a Swedish teenager today and not having pirated music is a serious social drawback. Copying and sharing music is part of the teenage experience. In my primitive youth it was the tape recorder that was an introduction to personal technology. In the same way that I learnt to speak by copying others, I learned how to create by recording from others.

Browsing the internet without google works but avoiding it on principle is just silly.

Posted on by mklang

Data Skum

Meaning through translation.

Having a problem with your computer? Use a can of DATA SKUM! Spray your problems away.

Posted on by mklang

Wireless

Our department has formally changed faculty from the Business School to the IT-university. The IT-university students all have laptops with wireless access which makes teaching an interesting experience. Recently a law professor at the University of Memphis banned laptops in class since he argued that the students are not paying attention to the lecture but are more concerned with their notes. Among the problems with connected laptops are that the students are not even concerned with their notes but are more focused on browsing, messaging and mailing.

This is not the point of this post. The point is the classroom of the future needs to be designed with a lot more thought as to the users need for electricity.

The unelegant current solution

Posted on by mklang

Street Art

I have begun to notice the development of a new (?) form of street art. Small decorative items turn up in the usual and unusual places. This is an example at the ATM on Vasagatan (G̦teborg Рareal photo)

Kind of cute…

Posted on by mklang

Standby Power

Question Technology posted this quote from the Economist

STRANGE though it seems, a typical microwave oven consumes more electricity powering its digital clock than it does heating food. For while heating food requires more than 100 times as much power as running the clock, most microwave ovens stand idleâ??in â??standbyâ?? modeâ??more than 99% of the time. And they are not alone: many other devices, such as televisions, DVD players, stereos and computers also spend much of their lives in standby mode, collectively consuming a huge amount of energy. Moves are being made around the world to reduce this unnecessary power consumption, called â??standby powerâ??. (The Economist)

The term standby power used to be called leaking electricity but the term standby is taken to be more correct. This might be a shame since the idea of a leak is something that needs to be fixed. The number of appliances which do not have “real” on/off switches is actually quite large. If you add to this the number of fixtures which need to draw power to ensure that they function when required then the amount of unneccesary power being eaten is very large. In particular when you think about the fact that these appliances are waiting 24/7 every day. (More information on this topic Standby Power Home Page)

Posted on by mklang

Theme Competition Deadline Extended

The theme competition for WordPress 2.0 Themes continues. I am looking forward to seeing the results.

After much thought and input from the wordpress theming community, Iâ??ve decided to extend the theme submission deadline to May 1st, 2006, 12pm PST. This will allow ample time for theme design, locating new sponsors, and spreading the word in general. Please update your calendars and thanks again to everyone thatâ??s supporting the WordPress Theme Competition. Winners will be announced May 15th, 2006.

The competition blog is at www.arenawp.com

Posted on by mklang

Nigerian 419

Most of the time when I get another scam email from the family member of a deceased or deposed head of state, or maybe a criminally minded employee of some bank or oil company telling me they trust me implicitly and are willing to give me a large sum of money if I help them transfer an even larger amount of money from somewhere to somewhere else – I delete them without a glance. Sometimes I read them for amusement and wonder if anyone is ever fooled.

The LA Times has now reported that a Psychiatrist (you think he would have a better knowledge of human nature?) has lost (rather gave it away?) over 1.3 million US dollars to scammers.

So now I know…

(via Consumerist)

Posted on by mklang

Return from the wilderness

After a brief holiday in the wilderness of Grängesberg an old mining community in the middle of Sweden. The snow was great and the people still use the traditional Spark (translation: kick) to get around.

The thesis? You ask with some trepridation… My “magnificant octopus” as Baldrick would say has been with me and I have been editing brutally. No word counts until tommorrow since not only have I been offline, I have also been uncomputerised.

Posted on by mklang

human enhancement

A new book from the on the subject of human enhancement entitled â??Better Humans? The politics of human enhancement and life extensionâ?? (edited by
Paul Miller & James Wilsdon) is out now and available for download.

This is from the online blurb:

We all share a desire for self-improvement. Whether through education, work, parenthood or adhering to religious or ethical codesâ?¦more consumerist pursuits hold the key to self-improvement: working out in the gym, wearing makeup, buying new clothes, or indulging in a spot of cosmetic surgery.â?¦Within the next 30 years, it may become commonplace to alter the genetic make-up of our children, to insert artificial implants into our bodies, or to radically extend life expectancy.

The book is a collection of 12 essays on the implications of human enhancement technologies and includes chapters like â??Is it wrong to try to improve human nature?â?? (by Arthur Caplan, â??Brain gainâ?? (by Steven Rose), â??Better by designâ?? (by Sarah Franklin) & â??The unenhanced underclassâ?? (by Gregor Wolbring).

via Techne

Posted on by mklang