Spring Cleaning.

Spring is in the air and for many people that means it's time to give the apartment or the house a good cleaning. I'll probably do that one day before next Christmas as well, but I decided to start with cleaning the backend of this site. There has not been many updates lately, and I would like to be able to say that I've been working on the site's backend, but I can't. Because I haven't. What have I been doing? I don't know for sure.

I've been thinking about implementing a Twitter-like social awareness feature. Of course I could just use Twitter, but I don't wanna. At least I'd use their APIs instead of the HTML widget they provide. I also want to merge the Moblog and the rest of the entries, since moblog entries are basically just like all the other entries, they're just smaller and with a picture attached to them. Read more (327).

For Sale: GTA IV compatible game console!

Yes, I'm at it again, selling stuff off my site. This time I'm letting go of my Xbox 360, all the extra hardware I've bought for it and every single game!

This is what you'll get:

• Xbox 360 console with 20GB harddrive, wireless controller, headset with microphone and all the cables you need to hook the console up to your TV and stereo.
• Xbox 360 Wireless Racing Wheel with force feedback. Supports both the Xbox and the PC platform.
• Xbox 360 Memory Unit (64 MB)
• Xbox 360 Quick Charge Kit with one rechargeable battery that'll fit in both the racing wheel and the wireless controller.

You'll also get these 14 high quality games:

• Guitar Hero III: Legends Of Rock (with guitar - this game is bought at Platekompaniet and still sealed, so you can go to the store and exchange it for something else if you want to).
• Battlefield 2 Modern Combat
• Need for Speed ProStreet
• Need for Speed Carbon
• Kane & Lynch Dead Men
• NASCAR 08
• Test Drive Unlimited
• Project Gotham Racing 3
• Project Gotham Racing 4
• Command & Conquer Tiberium Wars
• Saints Row
• Forza 2 Motorsport
• Colin McRae Dirt
• The Orange Box

All this is yours for a mere 6995 NOK! That's over 500 NOK off the price I'm advertising elsewhere on the interweb. Why? Special price for you, my friend.

Because of the size of the bundle it's preferable that you can come pick up everything in the Oslo area, but I can of course ship worldwide at the buyer's expense.

Grab it now before it's too late!

The Big Three Oh.

Yes, on Thursday I left my innocent twenties and entered the harsh thirties. As with every birthday, I can't really say that I feel any different than I did the day before, and I don't feel any emotional crisis related to suddenly being 30 years old looming either.

It's probably because on the inside of this ragged old man in his early thirties is still an innocent boy in his late twenties.

• I'm still enjoying playing video and computer games. Still, I've decided to sell my Xbox 360, with the Racing Wheel, all the games and all the other goodies. That logic will probably be explained an a later post.
• Getting kids is still a very distant idea.
• I don't want to buy a motorcycle yet. But maybe that's what men do when they get to 40, not 30.
• Marriage is right up there with the whole kids thing.
• Politicians still confuse me.

That said, there are some signs that a grumpy old man in his eighties is also trapped inside of me.

• People who can't write and talk properly annoys me. Of course I can live with the odd grammar and syntax error - if I could not, I would have had to perform Hara-kiri a long time ago. I can also accept that when you're drunk it's hard to talk.
• If you bicycle in the wrong direction of the road I want to strike you down with my cane.
• I'm getting grey hairs.

So all of you who are worried about leaving the safe twenties; it's nothing to worry about.

The Joker, the Joke and the Other Joker.

Yesterday was April 1st and with the success of last year's April's fool joke I decided to pull one yesterday as well. I sent this e-mail to all the people at work:

From: Vegard Skjefstad
Sent: 1. april 2008 09:01
To: All Employees
Subject: Important information regarding your e-mails.
Importance: High

All,

As of the 1st of February this year the new Norwegian Cyber Terrorism Preparedness Act of 2008 became active. The CTPA has been pushed through by the US via the EU and the result is as follows:

All employees who do not hold a Norwegian citizenship will have to send all e-mails they have sent to recipients outside of the Norway since the 1st of February this year to <address removed>, and CC that address on all future e-mail they send to recipients outside of Norway. The e-mails will then be automatically forwarded to the right authorities who will check your e-mails for anything suspicious. Any e-mail you might receive that contains suspicious information should also be sent to the above e-mail address.

Since we're already lagging behind, it's important that you start sending your e-mails to <address removed> today or the authorities might seize your computer, or, in a worst-case scenario, the mail server.

Best regards,
Vegard Skjefstad

We're quite international when it comes to employee citizenship, so it was a good chance that at least one of the people at the office would fall in the trap. Read more (189).

Direct Note Access

Wow. Just wow. Kristoffer, if you didn't see this already, you'll want to watch it over and over and over again.

But the more I pondered the subject, the more I began to see that what doesn't work in theory can still work in reality.

More information on Direct Note Access from Celemony.