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Twitter is sweet

I´ve mentioned it before: I´m a sucker for good communities.

When we first met I thought Twitter was a silly idea. A web service for sharing 140 characters of "what-are-you-doing-now". Would be good for what? If I had money to place in web 2.0 stocks I would never dare to guess that "microblogging" was worth considering as part of the near netsocial future. At the second try I found it real charming. It´s small, it doesn´t attend to conquer the world (even though it might?), it´s quick, practical and keeps a connection among friends who are too old or too busy to chat on IMs...

The Twitter site design is pretty lousy in itself so go get a good looking (and well working) client as Twitterific or something PC-compatible.

Then feel free to add me.

Oh. And while you´re at it, watch twittervision.com...

Intel Mac (Macbook pro) crash problem

My new macbook (6 months young) had a total breakdown last week. It kept crashing over and over again, I couldn't even reinstall the OS. The machine returned from service today, they removed a corrupted ram-chip and didn't find anything else. My company has had this problem with 4-5 first-generation intel-macs so far this year. I'm reinstalling all software and trying to recap mails and project files... (One more crash now and I will consider returning to PCs.)

Icemat for productivity

If you´re still stuck with a sloppy old mousemat, here´s a tip to increase your flow when pushing and pulling the old mouse all day: check out the Icemat 2nd.edition from icemat.com. I bought a 250 * 300 mm brushed glass mousepad and some hard "flat feet" for the (infrared) mouse. It´s an enormous improvement of comfort and workspeed. Hereby recommended.

MUD is back

Word-of-advice-to-young-people: if you want to waste some hours of your life on a semi-litterary text based online adventure game you should read on.

At the end of this summer I´ve spent some night hours (totally around 12 hours I think) on an free online adventure MUD (Multiple User Dungeon) called Discworld Mud. It´s a classic Mud based on Terry Pratchets books from The Discworld, I played there at some time in the 90s long before the huge online RPGs like World Of Warcraft, Anarchy Online etc came along. I was happy to see that it´s still alive and I even found that it´s still great fun to play around with. To start off, here´s a few helpful links:

The game´s homepage
Map of Ankh (huge city, good place for starters)
Thieves Guild info (I´m a Cutpurse Thief named Klomse)

Things to do when spring

It´s spring and the brain starts taking input again like it used to when working permanently. Here´s some advice:

1) Read (over) the story HATE by Peter Bagge
2) Listen to The Pixies
3) Kill zombies
4) Watch a movie with cowboys in it
5) Read a good documentary about the moon

Windows XP problem with wireless network, router restart

After I got the Mac in the house I´ve looked more into a problem I´ve had for a long time with my PC laptop: I have a to restart the router almost every time I reboot to get the PC on the (wireless) network. I have thought that this was problems with the router or the modem or the USB-receiver but since the Mac runs smoothly on the net all the time, my new theory is that this has to do with Windows XP. I found some reports via Google supporting the theory and some saying that this wasn´t a problem before Service Pack 2 arrived. After checking with 4-5 friends it appears that all of them (PC-users) have the same problem. Some has to restart all the time, others once a week or less. Any comments with other experiences/knowledge will be appreciated.

Photoshop CS2 problem on MacBook Pro

"Photoshop is not supported on your Intel-based mac. I suggest that you use the program on another computer."

I have to get this down since I didn´t find much help on this subject via Google.

Photoshop refused to start on my MacBook Pro. I installed the whole Adobe Creative Suite 2 Premium and when I tried to open a file in Photoshop I got a message like "Could not create a new document because of a program error".

I just spoke to a nice guy at Adobe Support. He was polite and helpful but when he heard that I used an Intel based Mac he said Photoshop is not supported on that machine and suggested that I used an older Mac. Like that´s an option... I said I had found little about this on Google and that Photoshop seems to work on other peoples MacBooks. He asked if I knew any who installed it successfully but he was sort of right... I don´t. I just suspect that Google would have heard of it if no mac-user could start Photoshop.

He gave me a "good luck" and a few URLs on my way, one was a remove instruction and the other was a list of suggestions. The least likely (?) of them actually seemed to work! I disconnected the airport for the first Photoshop-startup, opened an empty imagefile and closed the program. Now it seems to work nicely (even logged on). Phew. Back to work then.

My Macbook Pro arrived

Okay you mac-people. I see what you mean, it´s really neat. 24 hours after switching from PC to MAC I´ve really started to love it. The keyboard shortcuts, the widgets, the effectivity of Quicksilver, the software, the crisp screen, the good integrated camera, the strong battery, the absence of cables and wires, the lightweight of the computer itself and the heavy processor(s).

But you really love anti-aliasing, don´t you?
The text is really blurred on the mac. I allways wondered why you guys keep it that way. Then it appears you can´t really do anything about it. Except getting used to it. I tried do remove antialiasing and it worked only partly. My colleague came over and yelled "you´ve fucked up the text?". Five minutes later Photoshop gave me a similar message warning. Okay. I´ll try to get used to it but if I was to decide: you should try out the crisp pixels, instead of these fury characters. It´s like reading a washed out text.

The voices of Bill and Barney
It´s obvious that a Mac and a PC speak to you in quite different "voices". When you install Windows on a new PC you get the voice of Bill, a businessman who wants so bad to please all his customers. And their friends and their colleagues and their kids and wifes and the Church and the Holy Spirit. It´s like buying a car from Ned Flanders, he wants you to feel well but you can tell he does it for the money.
The MAC-voice, I guess, shows more respect for the users intellect (while still being very easy to learn and lowtech). It´s more like a nerd-to-nerd-conversation where we both share the same fascination for computers, technology and what this thing can do for you and together with you. The result of this, as far as I can deduct, is that your Mac is more like a personal friend. If your PC is Flanders then I guess the Mac is your drinking pal, your Barney.

Don't touch the Apple (A change of religion)

It has happened, after all these years as PC/Windows-user I have decided to convert to MAC. Why?

- It's the standard at my office
- It's actually the standard in my field of business
- The hardware and software looks good
- The new MacBook is supposed to be quite powerful
- I like change, it allways leads to... something
- I was planning to buy a Duo Processor laptop this winter anyway

My only experience with MACs so far in life is that they crash whenever I come near them. It is then ofcourse with mixed emotions I have ordered a MacBook Pro with 1.83 GHz Intel (!) processor, 2 GB ram and 100 GB (7200 rpm) disk. Most of all I'm looking forward to it. While I wait, I hope that all you Apple-prophets will give me some introduction to what you're actually doing with that machine, how you do it, with which software and whatever else I need to be prepared for...

Metal objects vs winter depressions

It's amazing how a new technical gadget can cheer you up in these days of cold and darkness. (Living north of the arctic circle we're awaiting the sun to return in less than a month now...) Like today when I got the mail containing this compact piece of classic technical wonder, heavy metal and strong glass... It can tell the time, the day and date and you can keep it on at 100m below water (which is ofcourse just what I needed...).
And it looks great.

I just drank the worlds best whisky

If you like real whisky (Scotch Single Malt) you may have thought about going to Islay, Scotland. The small island is home of the worlds best whisky: Ardbeg, Lagavulin, Laphroaig, Bowmore, Bruichladdich, Caol Ila and Bunnahabhain. If you consider going there you may ask me first and I could tell you would how well you will be recieved, where you may stay and what you should visit. I might even show you some snapshots from my trip to the island last week. (First part available. Full series will be uploaded soon.)

Getting Kickstarted

This autumn is really getting started. Days at work are busy, creative and productive.

I've added three new illustrations to the portfolio. I'm talking about this, this and this.

It's allways exciting and a bit disturbing when Marcomedia release a new version of Flash. Yesterday Flash 8 was launched and I look forward to putting it into use.

Lots of interresting projects are at my desk, among them some webprojects, a Flash site, a book cover, a Flash game and several posters and t-shirt projects.

Sony Ericsson k700i can't swim (water damage)

I dropped my phone in a swimming-pool this summer. After drying it up for 24 hours it worked! Then after a few weeks it died. Today I got the answer from the service dept.: it's dead for good. Too bad, I had 250+ photos in it and I really enjoyed the camera.

Now here's my new prescioussss. A new gadget can really brighten up an otherwize average day!

Logitech handicapped me for weeks

It started with a classic coffee-spilling in the keyboard. It died and I looked at it as a golden opportunity to get one of those fancy pants cordless keyboards that everyone seem to have these days, leaning back on their office chairs with the keyboard on their lap with no worries and no strings attached.
I spent maybe 1000 NOK ($100+) on a real fancy Logitech thing with a huge ergonomic mouse and loads of extra buttons that I couldn't understand how I'd managed without for so long.
The mouse proved to be a hell working with. So heavy (with it's own weight and two large batteries) that it stuck on the table until I gave it a hard nudge, flying the pointer across the screen. I gave it a second and a third chance but I really avoided working with Illustrator and other drawing-applications as far as I could for these weeks. The keyboard super-smart-buttons was hardly used. (Who really wants a separate button for Logitechs homepage after all?)

Today was a HUGE relief: changing back to the old lightweight and lowtech mouse and a new cheap and ugly keyboard. Sometimes new technology just makes you so damned helpless.

A sucker for communities

And here's the community of the day: Threadless. I just moved in and submitted my first t-shirt, it's a great place to stay. My home is here.

Please vote for my Obi Wan Kerrist shirt so it can be printed.

As a PS: this is true, it IS a great EP and a great band.

Documentary ixus shots

I took some new Ixus shots around the office today. Plus some outdoor shots from the roof. I like that little camera, it gives a sort of retro look even though it's as digital as any. Some of them are uploaded at the porfolio page, choose photography > ixusShots2.

Yes, we DO have a pair of skis stowed away in the shower! (And yes, I found the hockey sticks!)

New Kolar Goi material

Yep, I made this Flash site for the electronic band/artist Kolar Goi and yesterday he dropped by with a few new unreleased songs. Which reminded me that I've wanted to give the mp3-player a makeover... We plan to expand the Kolar Goi site in near future. While you wait, check out the tunes. http://www.kolargoi.com

And now for something completely different

After 6 months with strictly flashBlog I found I needed an outlet for all nonFlashRelated content. So, with the help of brilliant MovableType, here's my new weblog.

My flashBlog is and will be here: www.jetfly.no/flash not to be hidden away and forgotten. Not at all. Hopefully I will post there more regulary after this MT makeover. Flash is still one of my main focuses in daily work. One reason to keep the flashBlog separated is that it's syndicated on a few good (well, the best!) flash-news-aggregators. (It's MXNA and Fullasagoog I'm talking about.) I want to keep my offtopic spam to myself and be able to brag on about whatever project I work on at any time. Flash or nonFlash.

Oh. And. Speaking about Flash: FedEx called me today and said they have a package for me from Macromedia. I hear people get a toll surprise with this gift...? I'll live with that, getting a pack of bribe goodies from the mothership will melt my heart no matter what.