The Leirdal Blog

I played around with my extension rings and my 50 mm 1.4 lens this weekend and maybe I got some of the last few insects and flowers of the summer/autumn on "film". I haven't been able to test out all of my extension rings since I bought them earlier this summer.

This weekend though, I just felt that I had to do something. So this is one of my lucky shots. This bastard fled just a few seconds later. Actually I only got this one picture of this fly.

There are a lot of beautiful subway stations all over the world. For a quick example I recommend you to do a quick Google image search on the subway in Moscow. In Oslo they have also used some resources on beautification. Last night my girlfriend and I happened to walk in one of the tunnels down to the railway and subway station at "Nationaltheatret" station in Oslo, and we were alone down there. I did not bring my tripod or my SLR camera, but my G9 was put to the test.

Yesterday Google launched their new Google Chrome web browser. The follow-up in miscellaneous media has been enormous. I've tested it myself and I do find it a very interesting application. There are a few features I miss, but I guess Opera has made me a demanding web user. All in all I expect Google to release a solid and innovating new browser when the final version is finished. As usual regarding Google, a few questions concerning the content and other privacy issues do surface. The new secure surfing feature is great, but a few people have issues with the licensing terms:

"By submitting, posting or displaying the content you give Google a perpetual, irrevocable, worldwide, royalty-free, and non-exclusive license to reproduce, adapt, modify, translate, publish, publicly perform, publicly display and distribute any content which you submit, post or display on or through, the services. This license is for the sole purpose of enabling Google to display, distribute and promote the services and may be revoked for certain services as defined in the additional terms of those services."

That is a direct quote from this article at Slashdot. I am not sure this is an issue to fear. It seems that they need that in order to display content on your screen, but we will see I guess.

Finally, if you have not seen the comic from Google explaining the new browser, please read it.

Cloudberry is the English name for "Multe". This one of the names where I think the English name is a lot better than the Norwegian one. I guess the Norwegian name is old and have a lot of history back to the Old Norse language, but just read the English name. Cloud... berry...

The name says it all, they are found in the clouds.

When visiting my family this summer I also managed to pick a few cloudberries up in the mountains above my home village. And among the picking I also managed to attempt a few photographs of berries with the mountains and sky in the background. It didn't turn out that magnificent, but I have to experiment in order to get better.

While I was on vacation The New York Times had an article about the latest research on the Antikythera Mechanism. If you want to read more there is also a web site for the research-project itself.

If you have no idea of what I'm talking about, and want to know what the Antikythera Mechanism is, then Wikipedia as usual has a good explanation.

The Antikythera mechanism is an ancient mechanical calculator (also described as the first known "mechanical computer") designed to calculate astronomical positions. It was discovered in the Antikythera wreck off the Greek island of Antikythera, between Kythera and Crete, in 1900. Subsequent investigation, particularly in 2006, dated it to about 150–100 BC, and hypothesised that it was on board a ship that sank en route from the Greek island of Rhodes to Rome. Technological artifacts of similar complexity did not reappear until a thousand years later.

So, it might be considered a historical anachronism. Something so advanced that many people do not believe it could have be created 2100+ years ago.

The latest research connects it to Corinth and possibly Syracuse (the hometown of Archimedes) and also informs us that the mechanism could among else calculate solar eclipses and the four year cycles of the Olympiad.

I wonder what more knowledge they can wrestle from this very interesting artifact.

The Norwegian rock group Madrugada lost one of their key members, Robert Burås, last year. He contributed heavily on their last album, released a few months after his death. They have now decided that the do not want to continue as Madrugada any longer. According to the media of course. So if you are a fan, like me, this year might be the last chance to experience one of the greatest bands to come from Norway.

I recently attended a performance of theirs earlier this month in Trondheim. If you get a chance, check out their performance schedule and enjoy a great band and their music.