The Leirdal Blog

Chocolate

nospam@example.com (Jon Leirdal) — Mon, 17 Nov 2008 11:06:36 +0100

I guess this is a kind of "different" blog for me. A friend of mine has his own blog at blog.menneske.org. He is writing a small series on chocolate right now, and I found his entries kind of interesting and educational.
So "introducing" Svein Magnus Sørensen:

Discovering fine chocolate

Fine chocolate for beginners (part 1) (Part 2 is not available yet)

The future, 2.0

nospam@example.com (Jon Leirdal) — Sat, 01 Nov 2008 16:00:31 +0100

As a follow up to my earlier fantasy of new possibilities regarding a documented generation I would like to blow out some steam regarding social software as well.

One of the problems we see today is that there are only a few people producing the information that is consumed by all the rest. Those reading are participating with tagging, bookmarking and rating of the content, but even this should be easier. The production of the content could also be easier.

So let us play with the idea of a documented world. On our way forward we have a few stops on the way. Some of them we are experiencing right now, among else by using Facebook, Linked-In, Plaxo or other social networking applications. By blogging and micro-blogging what we do and what interests us we are giving the world knowledge and information that can be used by other applications as what we often call value-added content.

Consider this, you are watching a video or listening to a podcast on the net regarding some information. The video or audio is tagged in such a way that as you play the content, different meta-information rolls by in tandem with the content, and the media player might then display related information based on automated searches as you watch. We are talking hypermedia that intelligently can give you information that you need or want. You will be able to decide where the information is gathered from.

In the next generation of social software I expect us to be able to increase the value for each other in even better and easier ways than today. And as always, the enabler of these features will always be technology.

So in the future, expect great things. Probably not some of the small ideas I present to you here. What we will see will probably be better.

And you will be a part of it. By easily producing content, and adding meta-information and grading what you see. The world will give you more of what you want and of what interests you.

Whether it is semantic technology or intelligent search engines, I bid welcome to interesting and feature rich social networks, in a documented world where you can have an even more enhanced life experience.

Soon, in a life near you!

Are you documented?

nospam@example.com (Jon Leirdal) — Fri, 31 Oct 2008 09:28:34 +0100

In the future: You will be able to rewind your whole life. Everything you have ever done, ever said, ever seen and ever heard will be reviewable, analysable, searchable and last, but not least, available.

We are getting closer to something a lot of people are calling the documented generation. Even today most of what we do is documented in some way or other. I myself have used my archive of digital images gathered over several years to remember when and where I visited some place. I’ve tagged all my images to simplify finding and searching, but I welcome the day this is an automatic process.

Most of your financial transactions are documented and traceable today when you use a debit or credit card for paying. Often you even use a membership card to get other benefits as well.

Most of your movements are traceable today, whether you use a car with an Autopass chip to pass trough highway toll boots, or you pass traffic cameras that watch the traffic. If you fill gas at a gas station you pay using a credit or debit card. When you go by train you use an electronic train ticket containing an RFID chip. When you go by plane you pay by card and you have to show a picture ID before boarding the plane.

Actually you are filmed by surveillance cameras almost everywhere, and most of what you do at work is logged on your computer.

All of your life is already stored on a plethora of computers all over the world and the internet.

These are known issues and something we have seen emerging over several years. Science Fiction authors have suggested this for years and the last decade these issues have been and are discussed in mainstream literature and media as well. And this is only the beginning.

What this will have to say for us personally, for our security against ID-theft and against the misuse of personal information is probably something a lot of people already have felt.
As long as our information is as available as it is, id-theft and misuse of information will become more and more common. The only way to prevent this is to change the routines and the systems available for those that need to verify our identity. They need a more secure way to verify that we are who we say we are, and they need to increase their efforts for protecting our data.

The way technology improves and evolves makes the possibilities for tracking and storing all kinds of information better each day. A new generation of people where everything they do is documented, from the day they are born until the day they die, is not that far away. The documented generation!

I would venture the guess that very soon we will see solutions in the consumer market that enables us to document events while they happen in new and exciting ways. Things like video-goggles that store everything you see, hear and say while attending a meeting or conference. The information might be stored on small, flexible, secure and large storage devices or directly on network storages units. This information may even be integrated with GPS-data and other environment information like weather or temperature, or with auto tagging features that adds other automatic metadata to the different parts of the recording. Face-, object and speech recognition will be automated and stored together with video and sound. And maybe not that much further in the future, this might be available in a 3D video with better than HD-quality.

The benefits that come with this kind of easily available information will of course be both a curse and a boon for us users. I often wonder where I met some people for the first time or what some customer said about some technical problem. Together with the stored information and multimedia we will probably be able to cross-reference our ”life-stream” with all other kind of information. With automated image and speech recognition everything we do, experience and say will be searchable and analysable.

What do you think? How soon will this be available? In 15 years? In 10 or 20 years? Will it be possible to rewind you whole life?

And as a small idea: When will we see the possibility for creating alternate experiences that makes it look like you have led a more exciting life than you really have? Will we see jamming equipment for jamming people from recording you on their life-streams? If you have an idea, please add a comment below.

PS: Yes I am aware of this little thing from the US, but I am saying that people are willingly going to do this just because they can.

The first snow of the winter

nospam@example.com (Jon Leirdal) — Thu, 30 Oct 2008 13:06:03 +0100

Yesterday the first snow this winter arrived in Oslo. As usual people think they will get away a few more days without switching to winter tires, when they suddenly realise that they are wrong. The right lane almost did not move at all.

Timeless(?) art

nospam@example.com (Jon Leirdal) — Thu, 30 Oct 2008 12:46:26 +0100

I had been working late at a customer of ours and was walking through an underpass below the railway track on Skøyen in Oslo, Norway when I spotted this little curious effect on one of the concrete walls. On one wall there was a lot of graffiti and text, on the opposite wall there was a hole letting through the yellow light from the streetlights nearby. The light created a spotlight effect on the wall with all the graffiti. One word lit up, and the contrast was so hard that most other "art" was hidden in the dark.

Swedish sign language

nospam@example.com (Jon Leirdal) — Sun, 19 Oct 2008 21:54:04 +0200

So, my girlfriend and I had a little weekend in Sweden lately. While we were there we drove around and among else we noticed these two signs. In Norway we have a lot of weird crossing signs, among else reindeer and cows, but both of these were new to me.

Rack 'em up

nospam@example.com (Jon Leirdal) — Wed, 08 Oct 2008 12:28:37 +0200

I always enjoy looking at pictures that have a skewed point of view. It can be a picture of a child looking like a giant caused by a camera placed extremely low, or it can be of something mundane but with a twist. I have started recently to try capturing pictures like that myself. So what do you think? This is a bike rack outside the Telenor building on Fornebu, Oslo.

I've included a colour version of the same picture as well.

A macro world

nospam@example.com (Jon Leirdal) — Mon, 29 Sep 2008 16:36:00 +0200

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.

Subway stations

nospam@example.com (Jon Leirdal) — Fri, 19 Sep 2008 10:17:08 +0200

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.

Color Chairs

nospam@example.com (Jon Leirdal) — Sun, 07 Sep 2008 18:20:24 +0200

I recently did a photowalk by myself in Asker. While walking around I found theese chairs.

More pictures are available inside this blog-entry.

Google Chrome

nospam@example.com (Jon Leirdal) — Wed, 03 Sep 2008 13:36:54 +0200

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.

What's in a name?

nospam@example.com (Jon Leirdal) — Mon, 01 Sep 2008 10:45:55 +0200

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.

The Antikythera Mechanism explained

nospam@example.com (Jon Leirdal) — Fri, 22 Aug 2008 11:15:42 +0200

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.

Last chance to see Madrugada?

nospam@example.com (Jon Leirdal) — Tue, 19 Aug 2008 08:58:12 +0200

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 they 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.

Doozers

nospam@example.com (Jon Leirdal) — Sun, 27 Jul 2008 15:06:03 +0200

Some years ago there was a TV-series called "Fraggles Rock" from the creator of the Muppets.

The series was translated to Norwegian and one of the "races" or "creatures" of the series was called "Doozers" or "Doserne" in Norwegian.

I recently noticed the following sign on a building in Oslo. I guess the people of that company saw the series when they were young.

PS: If you didn't get the joke: The doozers always built things.