Blog - Genadij Trimailov

Media: Neverending Toilet Paper

2011-12-27T23:07:00.004+01:00

Once in 2009 I saw an advertisement on Swedish TV. I saw it again a couple of days ago. It was one of not so many ads that got my attention. Even though it's just a toilet paper advertisement, in my opinion it has a great idea to it. In addition, the soundtrack is the best cover (by Cookie Sweetheart) of Neverending Story soundtrack I have heard so far. I think it's a nice twist to say that toilet paper will last like a never-ending story. I have been listening to this song for the whole day today. Also, when watching this advertisement for several times, you can guess what type of people are shown there. Just like with Babylon Zoo Spaceman song, first, the advertisement was released, and, after some time, the full version of the song. Unlike Cookie Sweetheard, Babylon Zoo went high up in the charts back in 1995.

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Life: Back to Work, Roxette Concert

2011-11-06T23:30:00.000+01:00

On the 1st of November I went back to my job after 4 months of parental leave. It takes some time to get back on track but I enjoy it. Marie’s mom is now taking care of Alexander at home and we all get along pretty well.

On Thursday, November 3, Marie and I went to Roxette concert. We had “floor” tickets so we came an hour earlier to get a better place in front of the scene. It was a nice feeling to sing along with some 9600 people in Globe Arena that evening. Pretty much all of Roxette’s greatest hits were played there. The evening would be perfect if there were no group of drunk Swedes trying to get through the crowd to the very front in the middle of the show. In addition, there were two drunk teenage girls near us who were jumping around and stepping on the feet of the people around, really asking for trouble. It’s so hard to deal with people like that. Otherwise, the show was great. It wasn’t Roxette from 90’s but was totally worth going! I really liked that this time the keyboards were back in the songs and not just guitars. I can not name the song that I liked the most but it was kinda touchy when they all gatherer for the last (almost acoustic) song Church of Your Heart. Perfect Day was nearly perfect as well.

Here are the songs that were played:

Dressed For Success
Sleeping in My Car
The Big L.
Wish I Could Fly
Only When I Dream
She’s Got Nothing on (But the Radio)
Soul Deep
Perfect Day
Things Will Never Be the Same
It Must Have Been Love
Opportunity Nox
7twenty7
Fading Like a Flower (Every Time You Leave)
Crash! Boom! Bang!
How Do You Do!
Dangerous
Joyride
Watercolors in the Rain
Spending My Time
The Look
Listen to Your Heart
Church of Your Heart

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Technology: Microwaves and Wi-Fi

2011-09-15T08:55:00.000+02:00

We have a computer in the kitchen which we are using as TVand communicator from time to time. Recently we started using it a bit moreoften, especially when feeding Alexander. The problem is that it uses Wi-Fi, andwhen microwave is on, the Wi-Fi signal gets interrupted. I did a small researchonline trying to figure out what's the problem. Multiple articles state thatthe microwave could be leaking and the way to check it is to put one cell phoneinto a microwave and call from another phone. If there is no leak, the signalwill not reach the phone. I tried that and the signal went through. Thatsurprised me, since the microwave is not that old to allow leaks. Last weekendwe went to the store and experimented on multiple new microwaves. Surprisingly,all the time the call went through. So, the conclusion is that checkingmicrowaves with the help of mobile phones does not work. I came back home andcontinued research. I got some clues about changing Wi-Fi channels, and startedexperimenting with that. With the first change to Wi-Fi Channel 1 the problemgot solved. Now my Wi-Fi became Microwave-Friendly. Apparently, there is quite alot of electronic noise being produced by the microwave that is interruptingthe Wi-Fi signal on certain channels. I do not think that our microwave isleaking but still prefer to stand at least a meter away when it's on.

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Life: June and July 2011

2011-07-25T12:46:00.000+02:00

In the middle of June we went to Klaipeda, hoping for some good weather to test our new sunscreen solutions. Well, the weather did not happen but we had some good time with our friends. We also celebrated the first birthday of our son. We’ve spent there almost 2 weeks and learned that one should not rely on the summer weather in Lithuania much. Well, it’s the same story in Sweden now, actually, since it mostly cloudy. It rains from time to time and hardly gets to 25 degrees. Well, what can we do? Here are some pictures from the windy Klaipeda:

From the beginning of July I am on the parental leave that will last until the end of October. So, currently I am learning all the tough lessons of being a father with the child at home alone. That goes quite good, actually, and I am starting to enjoy it. It does occupy most of the free time, so there is no way to take any computer free-time project seriously. But I have a chance to listen to audio books during the day. I hope Alex does not mind listening to the strange background voices while we are at home.

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Lifestyle: Sunscreens

2011-06-01T21:26:00.001+02:00

I have been into healthy products for a long time now. We have replaced shampoos, conditioners, soaps and toothpaste at home with the organic products. Before the summer I have researched information about the sunscreens, and without a surprise, there were famous ones that are pretty bad and not so famous that are pretty good. One of the most famoust Nivea sunscreens can be even dangerous.

(health hazard 0 - lowest hazard ; 10 highest hazard)

My choice for this summer is Aubrey Organics sunscreen that has really low health concerns compared to Nivea, for example. Aubrey Organics even though it is made in the USA, it can be purchased in Sweden as well.

If you are interested in the general guide for the sunscreens here is the guide:
LINK

Here is the list of best sunscreens for 2011 summer season:
LINK

And here are the safety tips for staying in the sun:
LINK

Enjoy the summer sun :)

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Music: Swedish Pop to the Maximum

2011-02-13T17:21:00.003+01:00

Here is the latest single from Helena Josefsson called Nån annanstans, nån annan gång. She has been behind several Per Gessle (of Roxette) pojects and has her own solo projects and a band. A really catchy pop track.

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Green IT: Fujitsu ECO Mouse and Keyboard

2011-01-27T15:35:00.000+01:00

Fujitsu is the first company that I know of that produced something (keyboard and mouse)that is Green IT, meaning it is made from 100% bio material with PVC free cable. I hope that more companies will start producing such products, especially in IT industry.

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Health & Environment: The Story of Stuff Project

2010-11-17T14:19:00.002+01:00

My friend had a posting about The Story of Stuff Project and I feel that this topic is really important and people should know about it. So, the story is about how the things are made, why they are cheap, why we buy them again and again, where it all leads to, and how we can help the situation. If you have a slight concern about the environment and future on Earth must watch this movie.

Click on the image and select your language there:

есть русские субтитры

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Health & Environment: Tapped

2010-09-29T17:45:00.000+02:00

If you like movies like Fahrenheit 9/11, Capitalism: A Love Story, The Yes Men Fix the World , you definitely should see the movie Tapped. This movie raises the issues of clean drinking water, health, pollution and describes how the major soft drink companies started carelessly harvesting water to earn money on something that anyone should have access for. My personal belief is that it is ridiculous that we got used to buy water and as the main force that creates demand, should stop buying bottled water to protect the environment and our pockets and our health. Here are some points that the movie is trying to make:

1. access to water is basic human right and should be free
2. the regions that the water is taken from turn into deserts
3. the bottles that are used to store the water are:
a) polluting the environment
b) have chemicals that might harm your health
4. the bottled water companies do not have to pass any regulations, unlike companies that supply tapped water
5. and you are not guaranteed to get clean water.
6. bottled water is often filtered tapped water.

The situation with the tapped water is different from country to country. It's close to perfect in Sweden and close to disaster in the post USSR area. So, buying bottled water is the need sometimes. This however does not mean that the bottled water is clean event if you buy it from the store. Meanwhile if you want to buy or carry some water in the bottles or want to buy soft drinks, it is much safer for your health to get it in a glass bottle or aluminum can. And watch the movie if you get a chance, if you care ... well ... about the environment and your own health.

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Freeware: Webcam Login & Fast and Simple File Sharing

2010-09-06T16:44:00.000+02:00

There are 2 pieces of freeware that I have recently found recently and found interesting. First, this is Luxand Blink! that allows you to login with your webcam. The setup will ask the user to turn the head and will remember the face. On login it will start the webcam and if your face is still the same, it will login for you. You can still login with your usual text password. Both x86 and x64 versions for Windows Vista/7 are available.

The second program is a web browser Opera. Actually it is an addon for Opera that I want to mention and allows file sharing. One person specifies the folder to share and gets a link to send to another user. Another user gets the link and can download any file from the first user's shared folder. The second user can use any web browser to download the files. Nothing new here but it works fast without port forwarding or any additional setup or hardware.

I tried this file sharing with files over 1Gb in size and it works great. One thing that is not so good is that the one who shares the files cannot see the progress of how much of the total file size has been downloaded but only which files have been requested and are in progress. I believe this is one of the best ways to share the files when you do not need it on a daily basis but only now and then.

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Life: [A Bit of Everythind] Concert, Lithuania, Chemicals, Kitchen

2010-08-30T17:15:00.002+02:00

It was a couple of busy but at the same time exciting months in our life. Slowly we are learning what it takes to be parents and manage to have some fun. Marie it occupied with the baby more than I these days but I am trying to help her with the small things.

In the mid August a couple of my friends and I traveled from Stockholm to Halmstad to see Roxette concert. 1000 kilometers in one day doesn't sound like a lot of fun, especially for the guy who was driving (not me), but it was an exciting concert and there were 20000+ people there. For Roxette it was a concert to see how they can handle working with the crowd and see if they can go on a big tour next year after a new album. Here are some videos from the concert:

Perfect Day
Things Will Never Be The Same
How Do You Do!
It Must Have Been Love

August 17-22 I traveled to Lithuania. Marie and Alexander stayed at home. Alexander's documents are not ready yet. I met 6 of my friends, and we had some quality time together. We even swam in the Baltic sea and had to run from the rain one day. The beer is still good in Lithuania even though it is not bad in Stockholm at all. Hopefully Marie, Alex and I will manage to travel to Lithuania one more time this year and show our son to our friends. We will see how that goes.

After one of the Russian channels showed a program about the chemicals in the soaps and shampoos and how pretty much all the companies use chemicals that can possibly harm the health but due to the fact that it has not been proven that the chemicals will do that, the companies will still use them because they actually clean the skin and hair better and they are cheap to produce. So, I made a small research to figure out how much more expensive one must go in Sweden to get a 100% organic solution for the daily soap and shampoo. I looked at all the famous shampoos that are advertised on TV so see how many of them include the widely discussed chemical SLS and it appeared that all of the shampoos and liquid soaps do. Even those that say “with natural ingredients” still have SLS as one of the main ingredients.

I have found some special stores in Stockholm that sell organic cosmetics under “Fair Trade” label. There are some online stores that sell the same products and will ship pretty much all around the world. So if there is no rush, it is a better deal to buy them online. I tried to use the black soap (both liquid and hard and I can say I am satisfied. It costs a bit extra but I believe it is worth it.

akomaskincare.co.uk

When I think about it, why in a world did the market started using chemicals instead of natural organic solutions in the first place. Probably the same drive to make stuff cheaper and beat the competitors at any possible cost. It becomes even more dangerous when chemicals are used to produce food to make it look good, stay fresh and cost less.

It becomes really hard when one comes to choose the solution for the detergents. We assume that if we don't eat it, don't put it directly on our bodies, in the washer all of the chemicals from the detergents and softeners will be washed away with water and what we will get is clean, soft and safe laundry. That appears so not true either. Several groups of chemicals that are used in the detergents and especially in the softeners are not washed away with water and constantly come in contact with our skin. There are some organic solutions for the detergent as well, like soap nuts but they will not make the laundry as clean and white as chemicals would but most of the time soap nuts will do a pretty good job.

And, finally, here are some pictures from the kitchen that we have finally completed:

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Life: First Baby (It's a Boy)

2010-06-16T11:36:00.000+02:00

On the 14 of June 2010 08:57 our first baby was born. We did not manage to get many pictures take but here are some of them and a short video:

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Marketing: Sell Your Mother For Spirte

2010-05-06T19:33:00.001+02:00

There are examples of the not-so-attractive advertisements in the world, and, in my opinion, Coke came up with one extra (and only in Sweden, as far as I understand). So, they say Sprite [Coke’s product] is so good, you’d sell your mother for it. I was speechless when I saw it first. What's that all about?

www.sellyourmother.se

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Entertainment: Sitcoms

2010-04-27T21:49:00.002+02:00

Before the mid 2004 I did not consider sitcoms as being something worth watching. I was thinking that it is impossible to keep up something funny and smart for 100+ series. In 2005 I first got a DVD from friend with some series of Friends sitcom. Surprisingly to myself I found them quite entertaining and I ended up watching all 10 seasons little by little. These days I do believe that [even] sitcoms can benefit people and they are not just make you a couch potato.

One of the things that you start picking up is the language with all the idioms, expressions and, of course, jokes. Second, I tend to believe that sitcoms teach people about the relationships, even though the script writers take it a bit too extreme from time to time. In addition to that it can help one to laugh and relax after a hard day at work.

I do not like every sitcom but I do like some. And some are taking longer time to get the idea what makes them special (like Simpsons, for example).

When I came to Sweden, I picked up 2 more sitcoms that I started watching. The first one was Two and a Half Men and the second was Scrubs and I think both are pretty good (even though I think of two, Two and a Half Men is a bit better produced). So, I do find it fascinating that the writers continuously find strengths to come up with more stories and jokes and ways to screw up relationships and, most of the time, put them back together. Or is it just me missing the English language?

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Life: Trip to Lithuania and More

2010-04-08T22:54:00.002+02:00

In the beginning of April I went for a trip to hometown Klaipeda, Lithuania. We decided that I should go alone without Marie, since she is pregnant and we are waiting for the baby-boy to arrive sometime in the end of June.

Besides spending Easter holidays with my relatives, I also wanted to give my best wishes to my friends who are going to leave for Australia. I took long walks in the city, did some shopping for clothes. We managed to get together with some other friends, drink some beer, remember the old times, talk about current political and economic situation in Lithuania and started making some plans for the summer. I also finished watching the sitcom Scrubs but I will write more about it in another posting. I will be trying to get one week vacation sometime in the middle of August. One date that I will be occupied on is August 14, which is the day when my friends and I will be attending Roxette concert in Sweden, so if you are want to come and join us, there are 2 seats left in the car. In August – September, Roxette will be touring Denmark, Sweden, Norway and Russia (St. Petersburg and Moscow). By the way, they have never toured Lithuania though.

For now, here are some Easter animals we spotted from our window:

And here is someone misplaced his Lego part on the road sign:

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Update: Long Time ... No Write

2010-02-16T22:07:00.005+01:00

Since I have got a new job as developer at Sirius in the beginning of December, time started to fly really fast. I enjoy my new job and I think I have found [one of the] things that I really like, which is developing user interfaces. I am not so much involved in the process of deciding how the things should look and where the buttons and text should be but rather implementing them in the designer and behavior code behind. I am bringing suggestions where I see that the things can be improved. I have really nice and supportive people around me.

We have slowed down a bit with renovations and a week ago or so we finished our bedroom. There are some small things that need to be added but generally here are two pictures of what it looks like:

So, now we have started on the kitchen, which is going to be the toughest of them all with all the possible things involved - electricity, tiles, floor, cupboards, gas pipes and so on. But hopefully we will be finished by the end of the spring. It is possible that my father will come to help me on this one as well.

As about my hobby, I was pleased to find out that Roxette is working on the new album and is going to perform live in Sweden this August. It seemed to me that the Roxette machine has stopped forever but it seems that they are up to it again, or there is just a need for extra money; you know, the kids are growing up and stuff :P. I will most likely to go to the concert with some of my friends, so if you are up to it as well, drop me a line.

All for now.

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Life: A Short Update - Renovation and a Wake-up Lamp

2009-11-17T21:41:00.005+01:00

September and October have been quite busy months for us. I was mostly concentrated on learning Swedish (cough) and on the renovation of the apartment and it takes longer time than I expected. Some of the things I was doing for the first time with my fathers help over Skype. The doors installation was quite new to me and since the old doors were not of the same size as the new ones, there was some wall cutting and then cementing and so on. We have just finished the stone decoration by the entrance of the apartment. There are still quite a few things left to do and one room and the kitchen on the todo list. Here are some pictures from the process :).

Having the darkest time of the year at the hand, I really feel a difference waking up in the morning, since it is still dark at 7. One of our friends suggested to try a wake up lamp. That is basically a lamp that starts to light up gradually half an hour before you need to wake up. Supposedly the light makes it easier for a person to wake up. From what I have noticed, Philips is the most known in the marked. Here is an example of one of them:

These are not cheap and are in the 100+ Euros area. It does not have any special lamp and it does not even have an auto adjusting time feature, so I guess it is overpriced a bit. The people who use it say that it really helps to wake up in the morning. I was thinking about making my own lamp like this. While timer is not a problem, a device that could gradually turn on the power seems to be quite difficult to find. Well maybe I should skype Santa and ask him to get it for me for Christmas this year.

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Events: Summer 2009

2009-08-18T09:24:00.002+02:00

Even though the summer is not over yet, the live comes back to a regular pace here, in Sweden. The majority of people had their holidays in July heading up to some resorts or summer houses but now it is the time to get back to work and hope that August and September will bring some more warm weekends.

There were 3 major events during this summer for us:

First, we went for one week to and island Samos in Greece. A bit touristy place with the prices that are really European but if you are looking for the sun and sea, that is not a bad place to go.

Second, we went to Klaipeda for one week. We met almost all our friends who live there and who managed to come this time. Thank you, guys. Спасибо! It was a really memorable week and I was really sad to leave my hometown.

Third, my father came with us to Sweden to help with the on-going renovation project. We managed to do some of the major tasks that we were planning, like crashing of the doors, installing the wires into the walls, replacing the floors, painting and so on.

That is all for now. I hope all of you had a great summer.

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Computers: Desktop Items Management -- Stardock Fences

2009-07-10T10:28:00.004+02:00

There are people who keep the things off their desktops and just have My Computer and a Recycle Bin icons there. For me, the desktop is more of the workspace like on the normal table, where I keep pencils, papers, books, drinks :P, phone,a couple of CDs and so on. Yes, sometimes it is pretty chaotic there :). In the same way the computer desktop gets too much stuff from time to time and I don't know if or when I will needs a certain file. So, there are quite a few icons on the desktop of my computer which becomes a problem from time to time. Stardock has released a piece of free software called Fences that makes it possible to organize the desktops and make some scrollable containers inside the desktop where one can move items around and arrange things. It is quite an interesting approach to get things organized. Personally, I like the idea.

Stardock Fences Page

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Technology: Calls from Computer

2009-06-20T01:54:00.006+02:00

Since we do not have a landlines phone at home, it is pretty expensive to call landlines phones within Sweden. From time to time I need to call tax or migration or embassies and I was using Skype for the purposes that gave me a good deal. Not long ago my sister's friend suggested another program for that and I realized that they give 5 hours or free calls per week, which is more than I need, in this case. The rates to the destinations that I might call as well are a bit lower in comparison with Skype (http://www.skype.com/). While calling from computer to computer I still recommend Skype, calling the normal phones or mobiles can be less expensive when using the program called FreeCall (http://www.freecall.com/).

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Music: Stockholm Concert May 10, 2009

2009-05-11T15:30:00.000+02:00

Yesterday, on May 10 2009 Marie and I went to the tour concert by Per Gessle. I must admit this was an amazing night. Even though we were sitting, I left the concert sweating and my palms were hurting from clapping. It was a very emotional concert with Marie Fredriksson appearing on the stage and the crowd going wild. This was my first time I went to a concert in Sweden (although I haven’t been to many in Lithuania) and I am hoping that Roxette will try to make a new record and would go on tour soon. Then we will get the first rows and be jumping and singing :). Here are some snippets, not really organized, I was more into singing and watching then filming. Quality is pretty bad too :P but there is going to be a DVD released from Stockholm concerts.

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Music: Roxette - Amsterdam 2009

2009-05-08T00:43:00.002+02:00

The long anticipated Roxette performance actually happened on May 7, 2009. Marie Fredriksson joined Per Gessle on his world tour and they performed 2 songs together, It Must Have Been Love and The Look. The last time they performed live together was in 2002. Roxette also confirmed that they will be performing on the Night of the Proms which is a series of concerts in Belgium, Netherlands and Germany.

I hope that Marie Fredriksson will appear for Stockholm show this Sunday when we will be at the concert.

Well, the next thing to wish for Roxette fans is some new material that Per and Marie could do together. A single? Or maybe a whole new album?

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Security: What Would Really Happen If?

2009-05-04T12:02:00.003+02:00

There is a huge concern about the IT security. The way I see it is the first level of the security is the education of the user. In the real world, the biggest problem with the security is actually users entering their addresses, passwords and emails themselves on the fake websites, answering phishing emails or running suspicious attachments from emails. If it gets more serious on the huge corporation or military level, people would not bother with the security, they would do something really simple like this:

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Internet: You Must Be Kidding Me!

2009-04-21T15:13:00.002+02:00

Browsing through the recent news, I saw a link to a website where some of the really disturbing news was published. According to this site, the European Parliament will vote for the right of the internet providers in Europe to limit access to the certain websites. In other words, the internet service providers will be able to package and price access to the internet websites differently. So, the internet will become like a TV, you have 15 channels, you can use google, msn, bbc and some others and will not be able to access other sites. If you want YouTube, you will have to buy a separate "entertainment" package or similar.

It would be a perfect joke for the 1st of April but it seems like this is not the case. I cannot even imagine this happening. Everyone who has a website of their own now will be blocked from the outside world. Can you imagine hosting your webpage somewhere in US and not being able to access it from Europe? Holy c***p!

There are technical issues that I am not sure about, such as, how will they actually fulfill it? There are quite a few ways going around restrictions like that. Second, it directly conflicts with the existing ISPs(Internet Service Providers) contracts that people have. Would that mean that there will be no providers that will allow full access to internet?

This law is supposed to be a step to prevent the piracy. The law itself, besides immoral, I think is pathetic. Just like in most court cases that have to do with the filesharing and internet, people in the government fail to understand that it is impossible to stop people who want to share the files. Has closing of Napster or Kazaa reduced piracy? Do you see The Pirate Bay going down? It is so obvious that there are far more ways of doing piracy in comparison with the ways of preventing it. People will start creating their own independent networks and share the files anyways. As the last option that people have is to burn discs and send them around in schools, universities and at work.

We will see where this leads in the next couple of days.

web links:
Save citizens rights in Telecoms Package
Blackout Europe

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Music: Per Gessle on Tour 2009

2009-04-17T16:38:00.000+02:00

Yesterday, Per Gessle (of Roxette) started his Party Crasher tour. The first concert was in Helsinki(Finland) and all the fans that go to the concerts later were waiting for the setlist to be revealed. Of all the concert songs more than half are Roxette songs, then some songs from his English albums and 1 cover song. It will be interesting to see him singing Roxette songs that most of people usually associate with Marie's voice. Here is a short interview with him from the Finnish TV:

and here is an approximate list of the songs that is used during the tour:

1. DRESSED FOR SUCCESS
2. DROWNING IN WONDERFUL THOUGHTS ABOUT HER
3. STUPID
4. THE PARTY PLEASER
5. WISH I COULD FLY
6. SHE DOESN’T LIVE HERE ANYMORE
7. 7TWENTY7
8. I HAVE A PARTY IN MY HEAD
9. LATE, LATER ON
10. LISTEN TO YOUR HEART
11. DO YOU WANNA BE MY BABY?
12. OPPORTUNITY NOX
13. DOESN’T MAKE SENSE
14. CHURCH OF YOUR HEART
15. DANGEROUS
16. JOYRIDE

EXTRA #1
17. C’MON
18. ARE YOU AN OLD HIPPIE, SIR?
19. THE LOOK
20. IT MUST HAVE BEEN LOVE

EXTRA #2
21. (I’M NOT YOUR) STEPPIN’ STONE
22. QUEEN OF RAIN

source: sonofaplumber forum

And we are going to the concert in Stockholm on May 10, 2009.

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Lifestyle: Skiing 101

2009-04-11T12:30:00.004+02:00

Last year for the first time I started skiing. My company went to a place 3 hours west from Milan/Italy where we had a conference and a couple days of skiing. The first steps were not easy. A couple of hours or rolling and falling, I managed to get a feeling of it. This year Marie, I and some of our friends went to a place 3 hours to the north of Stockholm and skied for several hours there. We went on the green (easy) lines and it was quite some fun. After that, in the end of March my company went to Italy again and then I tried the red lines (they are more steep and difficult, but black ones are the most difficult [but supposedly most of fun]) and it was the rolling time again. It was a nice practice but somehow stressful, since if you are on the red line, if you fall, it is really hard to stand up without other person’s help. Obviously if there are people waiting for you, it becomes embarrassing. Most of the time I enjoyed it. Here are some pictures:

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Gadgets: Vuzix Video Glasses

2009-04-02T17:10:00.005+02:00

During my flight home from Italy, in the pocket of the front chair I looked through the magazines and in one of them there was a description of a device that drove my attention. The device is a pair of glasses with the monitors inside. So, basically this is a replacement for TV. The idea is not that new and around 5 years ago I saw a similar device back in Lithuania. However, at that time, I was not impressed that much. The picture was not that clear and the device was quite bulky.

So, after several years, I think I am looking at a more improved device. I haven’t tried it yet but I definitely want to give it a shot. Besides the convenience of being small and being able to position yourself in any way while watching TV or playing games, the energy consumption and price of the devices play a great role. The glasses get adjusted for every person and every eye individually, so I am pretty sure the device will work for the most of people. Authors say it replaces approximately 62” TV and is 4 times cheaper than a medium quality TV of this size. I haven’t tried it yet, so I will not jump to the conclusions. I will go to home electronics exhibition this weekend and I really hope I will be able to try them there.

vuzix.com

I think the device has a great potential in bringing some competition to the TV market. Obviously, several people can watch TV but not the glasses. Well, time will show but I am excited about this product. I love technology!

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Gadgets: Skype Phone, BeBook

2009-03-28T12:50:00.003+01:00

There are 2 gadgets that I bought more or less recently and I would like to describe my impressions about them. The first gadget is Belkin Skype Phone and the second is BeBook book reader. The second one I got was Belkin Skype phone, since it had a good price on the Skype website, it was Skype certified and finally that Skype chose this phone to sell and not the similar phones from Netgear and SMC.

Why bother with the Skype dedicated phone, you would ask? Well, first, I never really liked running Skype on the PC. IMHO, it consumes a reasonable amount of resources (it used to almost halt my older desktop PC). Second, I thought it would be nice to sit on the sofa and talk on the phone and not to stand in front of the computer. There are advantage that Skype on the computer would give you, such as more clear sound and a webcam. Generally the device is good when you think you might be using skype while the computer is off.

I would say that Belkin Skype phone became quite a disappointment to me after I had it for a couple of days. First and one of the major problem is the battery life. Obviously, it has to be connected to WiFi all the time, but even in the standby mode it will give you 2 days maximum without a re-charge. Second, is the connection problem. It does disconnect from time to time even when you do not talk, and when you talk you really need to have the router visible to the phone (if I go around the corner to the kitchen, most likely it will start disconnecting every 3-5 minutes). In addition I did not find the way how to disable the sounds that get played when it gets connected and disconnected. The last argument that I would like to present is the design. It looks and feels a bit bulky. The screen should have been bigger in comparison with the case of the phone. The plastic feels pretty cheap. It has some sharp corners and generally it looks soo much better on the pictures than it does in real life. So, from my point of view, neither technology, nor the hardware vendors did a good job in this case. I would not recommend buying this type of phone at this point and wait for the next generation.

As about my second device, BeBook, I really like it. It has the exact features that I need and does not have the ones I do not need. I did not want a device with the full keyboard – this is a book for reading and not for writing. Second, I did not want a touch screen which again has nothing to do with reading and then uses up the battery much faster. I wanted a basic USB connection (mini USB) and not WiFi, Bluetooth or similar. It does have the SD slot for the card as well which becomes really handy. The device displays the text quite nicely, like a good newspaper; it does display images not too bad either (well, as nice as you can go with black and white newspaper). The book supports txt, doc, rtf, html, pdf, mobi, lit, fb2, bmp, jpg, chm, rar, zip and some other formats. It can play MP3 files as well. It supports any TTF type fonts that you can upload. It reads international and Cyrillic characters. The producers update the firmware quite frequently and listen to the requests of the customers quite carefully. The small disadvantage that I can point out is that it has only v 1.1 USB support which makes transfers of the bigger PDF files take longer time. I can put the books on the SD card instead that solves the problem.

A great thing about the ePaper that is used in BeBook (and other book readers as well) it that it consumes very little energy. The most power that it uses is actually to read the files and flip the pages. The actually displaying and keeping the current page does not consume energy at all (unlike the flat panel displays). So, there is nothing that illuminates there. The drawback of that is, of course, that you need a source of light to read the book. You need a source of light to read the book.
The company that makes the BeBook is planning to add the touch screen and WiFi support to the newer versions of the device (to be able to read RSS feeds, for example) and that is why I almost rushed into buying a simple device like this that server my exact needs of the eBook reader.
I read from by BeBook while traveling to and from work and during lunch as well. I am really happy with the device.

E-Paper on Wikipedia
BeBook Official Site

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Music: Yes, Pet Shop Boys, 2009

2009-02-24T12:00:00.004+01:00

On March 23, synthpop band Pet Shop Boys will release their new album, "Yes". The album was produced by Xenomania. Most people would agree that Pet Shop Boys proudly comes from the 90's era but even these days they are still working on new material and producing hits here and there.

Recently, Pet Shop Boys received the award for Outstanding Contribution to Music and performed the medley that included their hits and 2 songs from their new album. Lady GaGa and Brandon Flowers (first time I heard this name) took part in the performance. It is a pretty impressive performance, I believe. There are quite a few songs that I like from their discography.

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Books: Naomi Klein - The Shock Doctrine

2009-01-28T11:00:00.014+01:00

Recently, Marie started reading a book by Naomi Klein called The Shock Doctrine. Most often, it is rather hard to impress me with a good book on economics and politics since I do not trust either of them. Marie shared the impressions and ideas that come from this book and this time it really impressed me. The book tries to show how and why US “free markets” fight their way through the world by mostly making people miserable, creating wars to gain the power and money. The book explains how the United States helped to apply the shock and therapy to economics of several countries (e.g. Argentina, Poland, Russia (USSR)) and how it never really worked, pointing out that the whole world is going down the drain of corruption. This is an extremely informative book that might shake your understanding of good and bad guys, the ideas of globalization and who is good and bad in the area of economics.

Info in english
Info in russian

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A Short Update with Some Pictures

2009-01-19T16:07:00.002+01:00

I hope everyone had nice holidays and is already doing well in this 2009 year. For this year we were happy to invite our friends from Lithuania and then friends from Moscow. Here are some pictures from the New Year events. Thanks guys for coming. We really enjoyed your company and hope to see you some time in the summer when it is warm … well… Swedish warm.

Marie and I have a long term project for renovating our apartment. We do take it easy and my father will come this summer to help me. So, we are planning, buying tools and materials. Here is the picture of our first bedroom that we have done so far. We have done the ceiling, the walls and finally the floor. A couple more touches and this room will be done.

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Media: TV Via Internet

2008-11-28T16:09:00.007+01:00

It has been a couple of months since we asked the community members if we could put a satellite dish on the roof of the house to get some extra channels for us, particularly Russian ones. A week ago or so we got a negative answer from them with the classic explanation that no one would be responsible for the accident if the satellite gets broken and hits another balcony or person. Well, nothing we could do here. I did a small research in the market of the alternatives and realized that there are several companies that are doing quite a good job at transferring TV content via internet. With 2 megabit line it is possible to get a really decent quality picture. It costs almost as much (15 Euros) per month as Swedish cable TV provider ComHem would charges just for one Russian channel. So, I gave it a try and decided to purchase it. It is possible to purchase a digital box that would transfer the video to your TV which becomes really handy if you want to watch it on the big screen or keep you computer for other needs. The picture looks like a good DivX movie on my 24" screen, so I guess it will be pretty good on the 46" TV as well.

What we have ordered now is 1 year subscription, and a wired digital box for the TV (it is possible to get a wireless one too). It cost 328 Euros including the shipping of the digital box. Now we can already watch Russian channels on the computer and the digital box has been shipped to us. Until now I cannot complain about the quality of the service. Even during the peak times when the news is shown, it does not get any worse and I am satisfied. If you are living abroad and are interested in seeing Russian channels via Internet on the TV (2 megabit line is enough), you might consider this alternative to the satellite TV. The service is provided by a German company Kartina GMBH (not Katrina as some people, including me, read the first time).

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Games: Buying A Console for Christmas

2008-11-12T15:53:00.006+01:00

Christmas time approaching, I was thinking about giving myself a present in a form of a game console. I discussed the question with couple of friends and these are my thoughts.

There are 3 main game consoles available these days, which are PlayStation 3, XBOX 360 and Ninetendo Wii. Even though the sales of Will sky rocked:

September 2008 figures:
Wii - 34.55 million
Xbox 360 - 22.5 million
PS3 - 16.84 million

leaving behind PS and XB, the console, on the large scale, is concerned to be one for the kids and some sports enthusiasts. If you are into strategy, action and first person shooters, you can hardly go with Wii. Someone would ask, which console would deliver better graphics? The question is -- you can hardly distinguish between them. It is not like the time when you would compare Sega with Nintendo or Spectrum with Commodore. These days you must go with additional features, exclusive games and price. As always with MS, it took a year to fix the bugs with the red rings of death (or whatever it is called) and add HDMI input, so not the console is ready for a serious buyer. PS on the other hand has a BlueRay player which is considered to be a huge plus. Again, for me, I am satisfied with the DVD quality and the way my DVD player upscales it to the 46" TV. I am not a guge movie collector, so, BlueRay is unnecessary addon for me which I would skip this time and buy a dedicated player later on. Both consoles support HDMI, 5.1 sound and are noisy. Lastly the price. when I looked roughly at the prices in Sweden, I could see that comparing the most basic editions and most advanced editions of consoles, PS is 2 times more expensive than xBox.

There are not so many exclusive games for each of the consoles. Quite often a game comes out on both and there is a PC version as well. Some of the games come out on PC only, for instance. I must admit I prefer using keyboard and mouse to the gamepads but that is just a habbit that I will learn quite fast. There are some classic games being released for both consoles, like ones from Sega Genesis, for example, or Action Packs from Microsoft or Namco with Arkanoid, Pacman, Motos and so on. Everyone has got the favorites from that time (that time meaning if you are of the same age as I).

I have found one video with graphics comparison of the same game on XB and PS. Obsiously it depends on the programmatic implementation and not only on hardware limitations and not using a full potential on one of the systems. But it can give some ideas anyways.

So, mailny based on price and no-need-for-BlueRay-player, my choice will be XBOX360 Elite.

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Music: Ace of Base 2009

2008-11-12T10:24:00.002+01:00

Ace of Base was popping out hits after hits during my high-school years. They have an album called "Happy Nation" which one of the best albums ever produced and it managed to sell 23 million copies worldwide. 2008 - they are trio now (Linn [the blond girl] left the band) and have released a remixed version of Wheel of Fortune and are promising to come up with a single and album next year. This year they are releasing 2CD+1DVD pack of their greatest hits and videos. There is some information on their website aceofbase.com with the video of WOF2009 and 2 interviews. WOF2009 has been quite electonized to compensate for the missing vocals but I think it is a good track for clubs and I kinda like it like that. They were/are touring quite a few countries, including Russia, Lithuania and Belarus.

WOF2009:

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Music: Per Gessle - Party Crasher

2008-11-06T15:51:00.000+01:00

A week ago, Per Gessle has released a single "Silly Really" from his forthcoming album Party Crasher. He seems to always experiment with the sound, so this time he picked up 70's disco style, not so much of a guitar, no live drums. The album will see the daylight on November 26 in Sweden, and depending on the success in Europe and then maybe worldwide. It feels almost like a comeback to the Joyride days with the catchy melody, bubblegum and baloons. Per Gessle will most likely go on European tour with that album.

Here are the previews of the songs on YouTube.

Silly Really

Stuck Here With Me

Sing Along

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PC Games: Tackmania Nations - Freeware Racing Game

2008-10-20T14:21:00.006+02:00

A couple of years ago I received an email with an add that there is a free racing game out there available for download. It is a decent game if you consider the price (free) and you can play multiplayer which becomes a lot of fun with the crazy loops and jumps and ability to create your own tracks. Single player mode will not disappoint you either. It is fairly easy to learn as well. Take a look. It's a great time killer :).

Trackmania Nations

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Cartoons: Подруга (USSR 1989)

2008-10-06T21:19:00.006+02:00

It happened a couple of times to me that I recall a movie or a cartoon that I have seen during my childhood. Most of the times it is rather easy to find it with the help of the Internet. However one of the cartoons that I was searching for took me quite a long time. First, this cartoon was shown in cinema before the movie “Flight of the Navigator” and it was quite some time ago. Second, it did not have any dialogs so I was not sure if it was a cartoon made in USSR or it was a foreign cartoon. And finally, it had a bit weird story plot where a fish drowns in the end :) .

Just like with the most of the movies from the past, this cartoon does not look as inspiring as it did at the time when I watched it for the first time. However it did manage to won a prize at that time. See it for yourself:

info on Wikipedia (rus)

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My Music: Swedish Side of Roxette

2008-09-30T10:07:00.002+02:00

Most people know Roxette, not so many know the solos that both parts of the duo have done. I am not a big fan of their off-Roxette works either but here are 2 Swedish songs from both artists that I like the most.

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My Music: DJ Boyko & Sound Shocking

2008-09-24T14:26:00.005+02:00

It was almost 2 years ago, when, being in Klaipeda in the night club Metelica I picked up a song by DJ Boyko and Sound Shocking called Глубоко (Deep). I listened to the album and that was the only song that I really liked. And after 2 years this is the song that I still listen to almost every day. This video is a club/long version of the song. However a shorter/radio version was released as well. This is hardly a live performance but it is just for the sake of listening to the song.

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Technology: Microwave Inverter by Panasonic

2008-09-20T13:13:00.003+02:00

Microwaves became almost a must have at home mostly for heating up the food or defrosting. Choosing a microwave becomes a matter of design and size and programs and not so much about the technology behind it. So when we were choosing one, I looked up for a couple of reviews and found and interesting video about Panasonic trying to enhance the technology with the Inverter. And I wondered why was not it used in every microwave in the first place because it is really how microwaves should work. Take a look.

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Technology: Universal Remote Control

2008-09-11T09:51:00.007+02:00

I could hardly imagine my life without having a single remote control in the house. You end up having TV, DVD and Stereo as the minimum setup for the room. And what comes up with it - 3 remote controls. Here, in Sweden, I have seen in the shops that there are universal remote controls for sale but I never believed they could do a good job at actually supporting most of the devices. While searching for a set of speakers and information on how to place them, I have found the solution for not only a great universal remote control but also a way to put all the devices inside the furniture and still be able for the signal from the remote control ro reach them. The device is Power Blaster that has some wires that get connected from the device to the place where the signal gets received by your device. So, there are 2 options to buy. First, if you want just the remote control. The second the the pack that includes the remote control and the Power Blaster (that makes it possible to hide your devices inside the furniture and still be able to reach it with the remote control..

The solution is for the North Americal market but I will try to find something similar in Europe (without the trippled price for the import) or I will get it shipped here.

Press Release from 2006
Remote Control Description
Amazon Page

Some of the companies went beyound that and created bigger, with the color touchscreens remote controls that include quite a few additional features and even games. However the price of such devices will popup really high. I would mention that if your mobile phone has Infra Red port, it can also be used as a remote contol with some additional software.

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Freeware: PDF Toolset for Everyday Use

2008-09-01T09:50:00.002+02:00

There used to be times when Adobe Acrobat (not reader) and Distiller were the only tools to create the PDF files, arrange them, extract pages from, convert to other type of documents and so on. I was really surprised how many people still believe that Adobe Acrobat is the only tool for that. It is the tool if you are planning a serious publishing tasks and you need to deliver a really specific PDF file tweaked for a certain typographical settings or if you need to create scripts inside PDF Files that will do some text manipulations. However if your major task is to send the documents between each other and just to make sure it prints the same way from every computer, here is a set of tools that will be able to help you with that.

To start with, both Open Office and Microsoft Office (although MS Office requires a separate free download addon) support Save As PDF.

Here is a set of freeware tools that might help you when not using Office application but for example if you want to create a PDF from your browser, notepad, development application, etc. The programs listed here have support for XP and Vista both x86 and x64 platforms. Obviously there are more tools that can do the same thing but these are of my personal preference:

1. PDF Creating Tool (via a PDF printer driver installed on the computer)
BullZip PDF Printer

2. PDF Tools (encrypting, decrypting, joining, splitting, stamping, rearranging)
Sheel PDF Tools

3. PDF to DOC Converter (converts your PDF files to Word DOC files)
PDF to Word Doc

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Music: Marie Fredriksson First #1 Hit Ever

2008-08-30T20:41:00.010+02:00

While it has been a long time since the last news about Roxette came up, there has been some work done by both members of duo separately. Per Gessle had released an album and Marie Fredriksson has been doing some paintings and exhibitions. However recently Marie Fredriksson managed to get to the Top1 list of singles with her new work which is the soundtrack to the second part of the Swedish movie Arn. This is the first time when Marie Fredksson (as a solo artist) reaches #1 in charts. I am planning to see the movie soon so I cannot reflect on it now but here is a video for the movie:

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Politics: Big Guys Fight - Small Guys Suffer

2008-08-25T10:16:00.003+02:00

One of the most talked topics these days is the conflict between [pause] well, originally used to be Georgia and Ossetia, now it is Georgia and Russia but it is almost USA and Russia. Quite a few people asked me what is my opinion about it, since I am considered to be Russian more than anyone else. I was not much into politics before since I believe that all politicians and [joke start] lawyers are the first in the line to burn in hell [joke end] .

However I decided to express my thoughts on this topic. First, conflicts like these make me mad because, as always, these are the civilians who pay the highest price. Second, it only now proved to me that USA is really getting to dominate the world and none of the so called world organization and unions (UN, NATO, EU) are able to go against the policies of the USA. As an example to compare the current conflict with Iraq conflict. It is unbelievable how easy the whole world agreed that US should go into Iraq, like they were the only ones who were able to "liberate" the country. You are on the other opposite side of the planet, for God's sake. I am really sick of the USA policies of bringing the peace and security into the world by placing the military bases in every country and cutting off their GDP.

I never supported the violent way of solving the problem and I do not thing that either Russia or USA doing any good. My observation is the world's reaction to conflicts like that, when you can see who is winning (probably the most important) the media war, who is holding other countries under control and trying to place weapons there and who is just a little freak who is dancing around big guys earning money and letting civilians of his country suffer.

Overall, I really hope that this conflict will not grow into anything bigger and that the two giants will calm down.

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Politics: Kings of the World

2008-08-21T09:31:00.008+02:00

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Web: Old Russian Cartoons

2008-08-13T11:17:00.009+02:00

My sister, being a big fan of the internet pointed out privet.ru website page where one can watch Russian/Soviet cartoons. Some of them are really old good classics.

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Freeware: Disc Defragmentation

2008-08-07T13:52:00.007+02:00

A couple of days ago, in the news I saw a review of the company Paragon releasing a new version of the computer defragmenter and I recalled the time when I was thinking about purchasing a defragmentation tool for my computer but realized that the features that they provide are not that of the need that I require and that the standard Windows defragmentation engine would do.

Basically what most of the free tools will do is defragmenting the files and placing them to the first place possible where it fits. The commercial applications, on the other hand, will use the smart way and/or ask you if you want to place the files according to the frequency of use, how often they change or you even could select the place for the individually.

These are probably the most-talked-about defragmenting tools on the web:

Diskeeper Pro: $49.95
PerfectDisk 2008 Pro: $39.99
O&O Defrag: $49.95
Total Defrag 2009: $29.95

All four of them have the upgrade options, which means that in a year or two if you want to upgrade to a newer version, you will have to pay around 50% of the initial price for the upgrade.

It is not the question whether you should or not do the disc defragmentation (which you obviously should) but which tools to use for that. If you are not concerned about 2%-10% increase in the performance that the commercial tools will give you, I guess the free tools will do the job. These days I use a free Auslogic Disc Defrag that works on x86 and x64 systems. See CNET the video and maybe it will be worth giving it a try.

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Transportation: Think Electric Cars

2008-07-30T11:43:00.008+02:00

think.no

Today I talked with my colleague about the situation in Lithuania, electricity prices, global warming and other things. He happened to mention that Norwegians started to produce a Think car that is fully electric and gives around 200km of driving, which is excellent for the city. Obviously it is environmentally friendly. You would not pack your IKEA furniture in it but for getting to work or to the sports place is just what you need. I have been thinking about a car like this.

It is not a prototype and is being produced in Norway already. This year Denmark and Sweden will follow. The battery for the car is rented and includes a full service. It is going to cost around 25000 Euros and for 200 Euros per month, you are going to get full service, insurance and electricity.

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News: Back from Holidays in LIthuania

2008-07-30T10:29:00.003+02:00

Last weekend we came back from our 2 week holidays in Lithuania. As always the time flew really fast and we had quite a few things to do and even did not manage to meet all our friends. Together with some business, we had some relatives coming to meet us as well. So, it was pretty intensive holidays with not too much rest and we are sorry if we missed some of you this time. We managed to get to the seaside for a couple of times and see the first day of the Sea Festival in Klaipeda.

There were quite a few things waiting for us back in Stockholm. First, this Friday we will be fully moved to our new apartment. We have ordered some furniture and there are so many things to thing and consider for the new apartment.

So, I am back at work, enjoying an empty office (all of the development guys are still on holidays this week) and going through the list of bugs that I need to fix.

So many things, so little time.

N-Joy the summer.

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News: Apartment, Football,Traveling

2008-06-26T18:10:00.004+02:00

Tomorrow (July 27th) we are getting the keys to our new apartment. Today we signed the papers in the bank and tomorrow we officially will become the owners of our new apartment. There are lots of things to do, most of which are nice and exciting.

At the same time we have planned our next trip to Klaipeda. We will come on the 13th of July and will stay there for 2 weeks until the 26th of July. So, I guess I will see some of you around. Next time we will try to coordinate the dates a bit more carefully so we would see as many people as we could. We will also try to combine/coordinate our travel plans with some of our friends from Spain, Russia, Netherlands and some others so we could meet together for a big party.

In addition today Russia plays Spain in football semifinals and that is going to be an interesting game I guess and I hope to see Russian in finals.

All for now.
Have a good weekend everybody.

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Freeware: Antivirus for Personal Use

2008-06-02T10:08:00.005+02:00

Antivirus applications were always a critical element for computer beginners and for people who might expose themselves to threads by downloading something from not so much trusted websites. Almost 10 years ago I made my first choice of choosing antivirus software. There was not so much choice at that time. Most popular ones were Norton Antivirus and McAfee. I talked to my friends (there was not so much available internet at that time to read the reviews) and Norton became my choice. And it was my choice for a very long time. It was about a year ago or so when we got a notebook for Marie and I really thought to look if there is a freeware version of the antivirus protection software for the home/personal use. I also noticed that the thing I do not like in Norton is the interface. Just like when I dropped WinAmp and started using Foobar, that says, "The quality of the sound is not skinnable," Norton provides a pretty heavy interface for the application, that loads pretty slow and has a heavy installation pack while you access it not so often and usually just see the icon in the notification area. So, "The quality of the security is not skinnable" either. Obviously, it is a matter of personal preference.

So, going back to the Antivirus software, I am currently using Avast. That was the first software that would work with Vista x64 that I have at home. After reading a review on 3dnews, I am thinking about giving a try to another antivirus software (that was actually almost hated in the computer lab during my college years for not being able to handle/scan the macros in the Word and Excel files but I think they had improved during the last years).

Anyways, if you are looking for a free antivirus solution for home, it might be a good choice. It's free for personal use, it is rather light and has a good reputation.

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Movies: WALL·E by Pixar

2008-05-28T10:48:00.008+02:00

I always liked cartoons produced by Pixar. They seem to know what they are doing. To name a few of their works, they have done Toy Story, A Bug's Life, Finding Nemo, The Incredibles, Cars, Ratatouille.

We were in the shopping center yesterday and I saw the preview of a cartoon WALL-E that will appear in the cinemas June 27 the in US and September 5 in Sweden (OMG!). I also looked at the profile of Pixar on IMDB and saw that they are announcing some more cartoons that will be released before 2011, including Toy Story 3.

Wall-E on Disney
Wall-E on Pixar

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Opinion: Sweden -- A Thing I Hate About It

2008-05-21T17:04:00.006+02:00

Sweden is a good country in many aspects. Each and every country has its own peculiarities and Sweden is not an exception. After almost 2 years of living in Sweden, the worst thing that I have faced here is bureaucracy. There could easily 2 institutions sending you back and forth saying they need a paper from the second one before the first one can proceed. If you need to do something about documents, registrations, dealing with the mobile, cable and internet providers and any kind of paperwork first you will be in a line for half an hour, then there will be a different person than the one you talked to yesterday and you will have to tell the whole story again. And the answers from different clerks of the same institution could be insanely different. Most of the time they just do not care and are really happy to send you to another person or tell that someone is on vacation and you should come in 2 weeks. There are exceptions but you need to be lucky to get lucky. Even Lithuania was a bit better in this case.

A good image of a bureaucrat was created in the movie “The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy”

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Sports: Russia -- World Ice Hockey Champion

2008-05-18T22:49:00.006+02:00

I just finished watching the final World Ice Hockey Championship game where Russia played Canada. I must admit it was a really great game where Russia losing 2:4 was able to gain control of the game and make the score even 4:4 by the end of the game and then score the final gold goal in the over time. 5:4 and Russia is a champion after a long 15 years break. Congratulations!

Pictures from the game
International Ice Hockey Federation
World Ice Hockey Championships on Wikipedia

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Music: Back to the 90's - Dr Alban VS Haddaway

2008-05-17T14:35:00.006+02:00

Today I heard Dr Alban song on the radiostation and decided to look his webpage online and was nicely surprised by the amount of media available on his webpage. There are video clips available there and description of the discography. I know there might be some people from my school and college years who liked this artist and might be interested in checking out if they have missed something. There is also a new project by Dr Alban in collaboration with Haddaway (another great artist from the 90's) and they are preparing a new single to be prepared. Even though both artists have been releasing abums all the time, there was not so much attention on them and I had listened to their works and it didn't feel like it was something special. This time however, I really hope that this cooperation will produce something worth worldwide attention.

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Русский язык: Не совсем русское слово, но…

2008-05-15T13:50:00.003+02:00

Как то помню один знакомый человек как то сказал что слово пацан на самом деле имеет корни уходящие немного не в русский язык и имеющие довольно сомнительное значение. Пробежался я по поиску и нашел несколько страниц совпадающие с этим утверждением. Так вот, прежде чем говорить, «я на пару часов с пацанами пивка выпить», может неплохо вот эту цитату прочесть.

ресурс: http://www.mlove.ru/forum/topic4419.html

Все наверняка неоднократно слышали такое громкой слово как "пацан", которое должно изображать нечто нимеоверно крутое, все при понятиях и все такое... недавно я задумался, случайно услышав одно из еврейских ругательств.. оно звучало так: "ты настоящий поц". Услышано было в одном из фильмов:) Дык вот, чего-то от нечего делать перерыл инет в поисках перевода сиего перла народного искусства и нарыл презабавную статейку... зачитав ее, выяснил, что "поц" - ни что иное, как мужской детородный орган". Тут же пришло в голову явная однокоренность (хз, короче как правильно, по русскому все равно тройка в школе:) ) слов "поц" и "пацан":) еще чуток попозже выяснилось (у соседа - стопроцентного евремя, когда покурить вышли вместе), что "пацан" в вольном переводе с еврейской мовы означает ни что иное как тот же самы детородны орган, только уменьшенных размеров:))) (жаль матом высказать не получится - правила есть правила)
А теперь, внимание! Вопрос: кто тут еще есть пацан?:)))
Мне вот лично себя как-то стремно пацаном назвать:))

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Science: Large Hadron Collider

2008-05-15T13:32:00.008+02:00

I saw it on Discovery channel one day. A huge group of scientists are building a tunnel where they want to accelerate the particles up to the speed that would produce something similar to a black hole. What kind of interest do I have in that, you would ask? Well, I read quite a few sci-fi books and seen quite a few movies (just like many of us) where people travel through outer space and have cars that, I could say, flying. Well, after reading so much so much fantasies, it is kinda shame that we still use gasoline to move on 4 rubber wheels and manage pollute the environment with that. I really hope that during my life there will be radical discoveries and there is something left to discover and ... yes I would like to travel to space and see the earth from the surface of the moon or something.

Anyways, here are the links to the websites dedicated to the "Large Hadron Collider" project:

Official WebPage
Wikipedia (Rus)
Wikipedia (Eng)

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Jobs: Remote Job Opportunity in Stockholm

2008-05-10T13:19:00.008+02:00

In-between the jobs, I was working part time for one company that is an online store for the sportswear and underwear. After I got another job, and started to learn Swedish more intensively, I can hardly find any time for keeping up with this project and I would really like to find a reliable person who could take over my project there.

It can be a person from almost anywhere in Europe or Russia :) who could work part time from home (or even full-time is possible) via remote software and could get some days (maybe a weekend) to fly (the company will pay) to Stockholm for orientation and when it is necessary to be there when there is a new project coming. It is not an intense job and it is fun. You do not need to know Swedish but you do need to know English. Well, you need to be a C# .Net developer and have some sort of experience in Windows Forms (ASP .Net would be nice as well) and MS SQL Server. I would help the person with the information and help to take over the code. So if you know someone who would be interested, please let them know (or contact me). :)

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Apartment: We Bought Our First "Bostad"

2008-04-24T16:13:00.007+02:00

Getting an apartment in Sweden is not an easy task, especially it is so in Stockholm. If you want to rent second hand, you need to pay 60 Euros for 45 days just to be able to look at what people want to rent out. Then, when you find one you like (and it is not easy either), you must schedule a meeting with the owners of that apartment to come and see it and bring the job contract and recommendations from people from whom you rented previously. Considering you are one of 15 people who came and want to rent it, it might become a really frustrating task, especially when you need the apartment asap.

Buying an apartment is a bit different story which doesn’t make it more easy. Besides the need to have a permanent job and good income, the system is much different from most of the countries. I used to see the fixed price for the apartment and then you come to a real estate agent and negotiate and try to lower the price a little. In Sweden you first come and see an apartment, and then you sign up for bidding. So, most of the time it’s one third of the price that goes on top of the starting price. If the agent is not satisfied with the final price, he can make a second round when more people will come and see the apartment and then bid as well.

After renting 4 apartments in 2 years, we decided that out economical situation is stable enough to afford buying an apartment. We chose the area just outside of Stockholm (20-30 min by subway) and started looking for what is available for sale. And today after bidding we finally got one. The price is a little bit higher than we hoped for but we like the apartment. It requires some work to be done but it is a nice location, very sunny, high sealing, well, I will take some pictures later. For now, here are the pictures that the agent used for display on the bwebsite:

ps: Bostad - is place to live; house; flat; room Swedish
(http://lexin.nada.kth.se/)

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Software: Color Theme/Scheme Picker

2008-04-01T15:07:00.009+02:00

When creating templates for the presentations, colorful headers for the documents, layouts for the brochures, quite a few people rely on the feeling of the color scheme which is basically trial and error and you know it feels right when the colors match. Obviously there is a pattern/rule/law for the matching colors. Colors can we warm or cold, bright or dark, with high or low contrast. There is an online tool that might help in picking up the matching colors for you. I think it is a pretty nice tool for the mentioned purposes. Take a look.

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Technology: BigDog, the Robot

2008-03-19T13:29:00.005+01:00

A colleague from work showed me a video on YouTube where a BigDog robot is demonstrated. I was really impressed. It's a good job people from Boston have done:

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Computers: Folder as Drive

2008-03-03T11:12:00.005+01:00

Every computer user has his/her own tweaks and special widgets that help with the everyday work. My latest discovery was about creating a virtual drive on the computer that would be mapped to the folder on the same computer. Well, for example I would like to have drive X: pointing to My Documents all the time. Not too bad right? It appearts that it has been possible to do that since DOS times (and it still works on Vista). It is achieved via running the command:

Assign:
SUBST [DRIVE LETTER] [FOLDER PATH]
Remove:
SUBST [DRIVE LETTER] /D

For example to map a folder C:\temp to the drive W:

Assign:
SUBST w: C:\temp
Remove:
SUBST w: /D

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Bits and Bytes: Firefox Addon

2008-02-16T20:54:00.004+01:00

It has been a long history of download managers on the web and there are quite a few of them out there these days. Some are free, some are less free and some have built in games just to make people pay for it. I remember back in my college days downloading bigger files and splitting them into floppy discs. The internet speed was not that great but the files started to grow. At that time I did not know much of the alternatives to GetRight. It was a great tool and it did the job -- resumed downloads, autodialed modem, shut down the computer.

These days for most of the users the idea is still the same -- download a group of files and resume if something goes wrong. In the broadband times it does not happen very often but it is a nice feeling to know that those files will be downloaded safely.

Since the day the first free download managers came to the scene, I have tried quite a few of them. I believe only Opera has put something similar to the download manager into their browser but I am with Firefox these days.

So, after giving up on FlashGet (it turned out to be quite buggy on my Vista x64), and not really finding anything suitable for native 64 bit support, I have found a plugin for Firefox called DownThemAll that does almost everything that I need (except for the speed control) so if you are a firefox user, take a look, you will not be disappointed.

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Объявления: туда ни хади, сюда хади...

2008-01-26T22:18:00.001+01:00

Пытаясь найти подходящее для нас жилье в Стокгольме, пробежался по объявлениям и собрал несколко перлов по разной тематике.

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Online Shopping: Negative eBay Experience

2008-01-25T10:03:00.000+01:00

I have been on eBay for quite some time already and it is really hard sometimes to stay away from cheap prices for products that come from sellers in Hong Kong, China and some other not that reliable places. One needs to be really careful not to purchase fake items that can even have a hologram and a package like original. 3 major problems with electronics from China that I had was a Sony Duo memory card for my phone, mp3 player and GPS receiver. The memory card that I received worked on some other devices but didn't work on my phone. I contacted the seller and he told that this is a compatibility problem and accepted the return. In this case I lost my shipping payment and I also had to pay for the shipping it back. It was a light item and it didn't cost much.

The mp3 player worked for about 4 months and then the buttons stopped responding, it would turn off from time to time. With MP3 players I can definitely say -- buy it only in the local stores. The last mp3 player that I bought was SanDisk Sansa Clip and I had to replace it with another one because the battery wasn't functioning well. There was some kind of energy leak. It would discharge after a couple of hours of use. After I changed it to a different one, the problem was solved. So, there could be problems even with the branded merchandise and that is the case when you want to make sure you can exchange it or get your money back. Generally if you buy a branded thing, you will have more esthetical feeling (you will enjoy it more), it will last and you will have warranty. How much time it will take to contact customer support and actually replace the defective widgets is another story but at least it is possible and feasible.

With GPS receiver however it is a different story. I paid a price that was much lower than in the stores but it was a non-branded GPS receiver. When I got it, it worked for a couple of weeks and then just died. I have contacted the seller (ebay name: cardmagasin, real name: Yee Yuen Pang) and he told me that I should try to replace the battery and try if it will work. I told him that I do not have this type of battery and I probably should send it back to him for replacement. And guess what -- no answer back. He disappeared and then was no longer registered on eBay. It was a non-branded so I could not go and complain to the customer service or get it fixed. It even might be dangerous since it should send the Bluetooth signals. So, my GPS receiver has to go into the recycler. Here is a picture of what not to buy on eBay:

One very obvious thing to do is to check the feedback of the seller. If there are some people saying that the sold things were not working, fake or similar, do not take the risk. Generally, do not risk buy electronics from eBay. Things like cameras, phones, mp3 players, some of the computer-related hardware should not be bought from unknown sellers from mentioned regions.
I have to mention that I bought quite a few good things on eBay. However all of them are from Europe, US and Japan: a notebook, 3 phones, router, USB Hard Drive, TV Tuner, USB Flash Drive and some others.

Just a note, if you are looking for a good memory, flash drive seller from eBay, I would recommend jjmedia_usa.

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Computers: Free Video Tutorials

2008-01-06T04:37:00.000+01:00

While browsing the web I have found one very interesting resource that might help to get started (or learn new tricks) when usug Adobe products (Photoshop, Illustrator, Flash, etc.). There are basically videos created by them and posted on YouTube. It is a great resource if you want to learn how to create fancy buttons, learn masking or discover how to use particular filters. It a nice free learning resource. Take a look.

TUTVID.COM

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Computers: Easy Remote Desktop

2007-12-01T16:29:00.000+01:00

Quite some time when there is a need to explain someone how do perform a certain activity on the computer, people spend a lot of time on the phone saying go there and click this and so on. Some of the support companies use remote desktop software like VNC and PC Anywhere which are not free and require additional setups on the router, port forwarding and most of the time to have an external IP address or be in the same network.

For the daily use when I try to help my relatives and friends with some tasks, I recommend TeamViewer application that is extremely easy to use, doesn't require setups and is based on P2P network, meaning you will be able to connect to another computer even if you are behind the firewall or a router that doesn't allow forwarding ports.

The person who is the host will run a small application and it will generate an ID and a Password and then the remote person will get the details over the messenger or phone and will enter the same details to connect to that computer.

This application is free for the home users (non-commercial).

TeamViewer Website

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Software: Word, Excel, PowerPoint

2007-11-28T11:41:00.000+01:00

With my new computer I was thinking about actually buying Microsoft Office 2007 Home and Student edition since it gives the license for 3 computers and it is not really that expensive; one can get it for around 110 US$ from eBay. So if you have 2 computers at home and a sister of brother that need Office as well, it comes down to 35US$ per computer which is a really good price. There is another side of the story when you actually need to buy a language pack for Office separately - 25US$ per each language.

My believe is that people really get carried away with the fancy stuff and do not realize that there are alternatives to Microsoft Office. They basically do not have the information. For the businesses, on the other hand it's a part of being cool and afford having Microsoft Office and do the presentations in fancy PowerPoint. There are also macro developers as well who do some things in Access and so on. Those probably cannot live without Microsoft products. Still, there is a huge number of home users that actually do not need all the stuff that Microsoft supplies with Office. Could you imagine how may people use just Word for writing some papers and checking spelling before they send essays and so on.

For people like me, it is very often a task to suggest to a person using computers which software to choose. Especially it was so back in Klaipeda when I had to make a decision about persons needs for a certain activity to be performed on the computer. Microsoft Office was one of the must-be-there things at that time.

These days I do not use word processor much at home basically because I do not write long papers for the university. For the emails in English, Firefox and Gmail will do pretty much all I need. On the other hand, for writing emails in Russian or Swedish, there is a need for a spell checker. Well, well, well – where am I heading to? Trust me it took a really long time for me(about 2 years) to persuade myself that instead of getting MS Office I really can efficiently use OpenOffice. But I did it and now I am using OpenOffice at home. I could roll on describing that OpenOffice can actually do most of the things Microsoft Office does example by example but I will just summarize the most important ones.

1. There is a free Microsoft solution to view and print (not edit) all Microsoft Word, Excel, PowerPoint files, including 2007 formats. So you will never end up receiving a downloading Office file that you cannot view. I can provide the links to download the viewers and support for 2007 format.
2. OpenOffice does have all the features of header, footer, section breaks, graphs, text formatting and so on.
3. OpenOffice does have the spellchecker for almost all the languages.
4. OpenOffice has the output to PDF format. It cannot edit PDF files. Neither does MS Office.
5. OpenOffice is free.
6. There are some quite handy free add-ons for OpenOffice.
7. OpenOffice cannot work with macros that were developed in Microsoft Office.
8. There is a huge knowledge base online for OpenOffice and how to achieve different results with it.
9. OpenOffice user interface is multilingual. You can get all the menus and options in Russian, for instance.

I hope I didn’t roll on for too long in this posting and I hope it will make you try OpenOffice.

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Travelling: Christmas Trip

2007-11-16T14:18:00.001+01:00

The time has come for us to plan the next trip to Lithuania. We have booked the tickets for December 23. We will be flying to Riga and then taking a bus to Klaipeda. Marie and I will spend Christmas in Klaipeda but for the New Year Marie will go to Belarus to meet with her family. I am going back to Sweden from Klaipeda on January 3.

Computers: Russian Phonetic Layout (Vista, 7, x64, x86)

2007-11-13T15:53:00.004+01:00

For quite a long time I was using LithWin for Windows to add Russian Phonetic keyboard layout, so the letters/sounds pronounced in Russian would be the same letters pronounced in English. In other words, having a keyboard layout with the following layout:
A=А B=Б C=Ц D=Д E=Е F=Ф G=Г H=Х ... and so on.

With Lithwin, it worked on 2000, 2003, XP and even on Vista but only 32 bits. On the 64 bits Windows it didn't work. With the help of Microsoft Keyboard Layout Creator, it is possible to open he existing layouts and then create installations for other versions of Windows, including x64. So, I have recompiled the Russian Phonetic to make it possible to run on Vista x64. It will work on any windows starting from Windows 2000 as well. So, if you cannot find the Russian Phonetic layout for XP, you can use this one. In comparison with LithWin, it will automatically add the language to the installed/used ones. Download it here.

Updated: Works on Windows Vista as well as Windows 7 both x86 and x64 editions.

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Computers: Fonts, Encodings, Fun

2007-11-05T16:06:00.000+01:00

Probably all my friends that had to deal with more than one language (Russian/Cyrillic especially) have faced the problem when a non-unicode application or the page on the web wouldn't recognize the encoding and display the question marks or the nonsence characters instead of the Russian symbols. In some Russian fairy tales, there is some kind of a knight during his long journey, on the road, faces a stone where it is written - if you go to the left, you will lose your horse; if you go to the right, you will lose your life, if you go straight ... and so on. So, I think this picture (although a pretty old one) combines both in a nice way. Very often there are things that you really need to see from the screen but it's not that easy. For the programs, things became much easier after Windows 2000 and the implementation of the Unicode. However, for the web pages it is still a problem sometimes ... Windows-1251, KOI8-R ...

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Computers: New Computer

2007-11-04T20:38:00.000+01:00

Finally, on Friday I picked up the last parts of my computer and around 22:30 with the help from Marie we were done putting together my new computer. It became with some disappointments, such as that motherboard only supporting the raid with one internal and one external SATA drive although on the package it said it does support RAID and nothing else. That was the first time Asus disappointed me. So, I decided not to have RAID and just have 3 HDDs in the computer. Second, the processor came boxed with the cooler but I had already bought a different Asus cooler which is much bigger and more efficient (you can see that on the picture), so I have one spare cooler now.

As about Windows Vista Business 64 Bit, I was really amazed how easy it was. First, I used Memtest and tested 8GB or RAM - it actually took some time. Then, there was an option during the installation to test the RAM which I did as well. Everything was good, and it was worth investing a bit more money into good memeory like Kingston.

The rest is pretty simple, just like with XP, installation, drivers, etc.

The software part wasn't that complicated. Most of the software will run perfectly on 64 bit vista. Some issued that might raise are the programs that use drivers - like CD Burning, video tweakers, etc. The rest is ok. From the software that I have installed so far, I didn't have any problems.

So, here is the configuration of the computer:

Date / Time 2007-11-04 / 20:30

Computer:
-- Computer Type ACPI x64-based PC
-- Operating System Microsoft Windows Vista Business

Motherboard:
-- CPU Type QuadCore Intel Core 2 Extreme QX6850, 3000 MHz (9 x 333)
-- Motherboard Name Asus P5K-V (3 PCI, 1 PCI-E x1, 2 PCI-E x16, 4 DDR2 DIMM, Audio, Video, Gigabit LAN, IEEE-1394)
-- System Memory 8192 MB (DDR2-800 DDR2 SDRAM)
-- Video Adapter NVIDIA GeForce 8600 GTS (512 MB)

Monitor
-- LG L246WP(Digital)

Disks:
-- 2x Disk Drive WDC WD1600JS-55NCB1 ATA Device (149 GB, IDE)
-- Disk Drive WDC WD5000AAKS-00YGA0 ATA Device (465 GB, IDE)

Optical Drive
-- LITE-ON DVDRW SOHW-1653S SCSI CdRom Device (DVD+R9:4x, DVD+RW:16x/4x, DVD-RW:12x/4x, DVD-ROM:16x, CD:48x/24x/48x DVD+RW/DVD-RW)

Keyboard
-- Microsoft USB Comfort Curve Keyboard 2000 (IntelliType Pro)

Mouse
-- Microsoft USB Trackball Explorer (IntelliPoint)

All for now.

[G]

Security: Facebook Users Warning

2007-10-26T09:10:00.001+02:00

One of the Swedish news pages in English thelocal.se today posted an interesting warning to some 400.000 Swedish users of facebook. I think there is something to consider. Here is the citation:

A Swedish government IT advisor has warned the country's estimated 400,000 Facebook users that the networking website's terms and conditions amount to a "slave contract."

Pär Ström, a member of the government's IT Council and integrity spokesman at think tank Den Nya Välfärden, says the 13-page contract users agree to when joining Facebook gives the US company rights over their personal information and photographs.

"People think it is free to join, but you pay with your personal integrity and your future. When you apply for a job in 30 years, the recruiter will be sitting there with what you have written," he told Metro.

I am out of facebook.
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Security: Flash Drive Content

2007-10-24T09:42:00.000+02:00

For quite some time I was having a question in my head about "how to keep the data on a flash drive in a secure way?". It's also nice to have some small applications on the flash drive as well, Total Commander, for example. For that, I must carry the license file on the same flash drive as well. The same is true about the documents. I also want to make sure that the documents that I put on the flash drive are securely stored and if I lose the flash drive, no one could open it. For that reason I bought a U3 flash drive that has U3 security system on it. A couple of weeks ago, I tried to search if there are any alternatives for this type of security that would not be hardware dependant (U3 security system will only work on the drives that have U3 hardware in them), so I could put it on my MP3 player as well or lets say my 40GB external drive. I discovered quite fast that there is a way for that and that is what people do at portableapps.com.

Although both of them (U3 and PortableApps) serve the same purpose, there are quite a few differences between them. Here is short article that compares them. There are some other differences between them such as U3 system not having exe files stored on the disc but in special compressed format. Another difference would be the way files are actually executed (U3 will extract the files to the temp directory on the hard drive while portableapps will run it right from the usb stick). Anyways, both systems are quite good and it is worth considering if you are planning to buy a new usb stick or you have one and want to have more security there rather than just compressing your documents with the password. And you can always install portableapps on your older stick to enable security.

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Computers: Order is Placed

2007-10-16T13:30:00.001+02:00

It's been now several months since I went to Lithuania and gave my notebook to my sister, thinking soon I am going to buy a normal desktop for me. My family and friends know that computers play a great (maybe too great) role in my life. So, some weeks ago the time came to make an order. For some time I was thinking should I get an AMD or Intel system. After reading several magazines, browsing the web and asking people around, I figured out that to get a powerful PC this days (almost high-end), you must go with Intel systems. AMD is lagging for almost 6 months now with not being able to release a quad processor for desktop. It was possible to get a motherboard with 2 processor slots for AMD but this would mean more heat and noise. Even with that type of motherboard and 2 duo processors, latest Intel Quad processor would still outperform that. So, I made a decision to go for Intel Quad system and I have ordered the parts already. I will receive the order by the 26th of October, go home and put the parts together for them to become my new desktop. I will put the specs and details with some pictures after I am done with the "building" process.

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Job: Second Impressions from Ascade

2007-09-10T17:27:00.001+02:00

After working for a couple of weeks at Ascade, I must admit that so far, this is the company with the best work organization I have seen so far. I am pretty sure things are quite cool at Ms and Google but I was really impressed with Ascade. First, there is training; and when I say training, I really mean it to the full extent. Mostly it consists of the lectures and they are 1-4 hours long and the total time (I am still attending the training sessions) is 3 weeks. Some days it is 4 hours total but some are full 8 hours of training. Then, there are really nice step-by-step written manuals how to do things. The only thing that you could do better that that is probably video tutorials. Otherwise, you feel pretty comfortable about being a new person in the company.

The work (sketching, developing, coding) starts with writing the documentation, describing that data flow, names of the datasets, forms, gui that will be used in the program. Then, some of the data is transferred into XML from which the documentation will be written as well as some auto-generation of the reports (tables in the database, stored procedures, etc.). The system is mostly new to me but I think as soon as I will learn it, I will enjoy working there.

Besides the technical part of the work, we get free breakfast on Mondays, cookies and cakes on Wednesdays and beer on Fridays (for the weekly Fridays meetings, no need to say that everyone attends those). I hope I didn't reveal company's secret here.

By the way, I am starting my SFI classes (Swedish) on September 13. Svenska, baby.

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Music: Roxette - No More Crashing Guitars

2007-08-29T13:44:00.000+02:00

There was as short interview with Marie Fredriksson during this summer on 13the of August during which she told that there will be no more Roxette projects in the future. She will continue working in Swedish though and will release her solo album soon. So, the project Roxette that lasted for 20 years is "officially" closed now. Both Per Gessle and Marie Fredriksson are continuing there solo projects. Marie not long ago has done a solo album in English. Per, at the same time had quite a success with his project Son of a Plumber in English. So, we might expect something interesting solo projects in English in the future.

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Computers: What to Buy - Classics

2007-08-25T14:17:00.000+02:00

Since I have given my notebook to my sister and preparing myself for buying a new desktop pc, the first aspects I am looking for is processor and monitor. On the web I have found a short review from the magazine and found some information on what to see when you look at monitors and processors. I will be looking for the quad system, so I was particularly looking for these solutions. Since Intel has quad processors already, they have the advantage. AMD, on the other hand uses 2 sockets on the motherboard with 2 duo processors which it makes it into a quad system. What AMD tells on the other hand is that as soon as they release quad processors, you will be able to replace 2 duo processors with 2 quad processors which will make it into octo (8x) system without the need to upgrade the motherboard. So, I am kinda on the AMD side although before the review I was on Intel side. Well, one month to go before I will buy it and I need to find the place in Stockholm who will do a custom build for me but it’s never too bad to have some info upfront. The review has not only the guide for the processors but also for LCD monitors.

[G]

Job: One Week at Ascade

2007-08-25T09:10:00.000+02:00

Well, one week has passed since I have started at Ascade and I must say my happiness about working there has raised together with the days. On the fist day I got a bit overwhelmed with the information but later on I realized that there is no particular immediate rush and I will manage to catch up with the process. Before September, there are some other new people joining the company and that will be the time when the main training will happen and the actual real work will start. I got the idea about how the work is done and which tools are used. I think every company that has chosen .NET platform, does it in its own particular way, having own framework, controls, tools and so on. There are quite a few smart people in Ascade and I will learn a lot from them in the process, I like the idea of learning from people with experience rather than just reading the books. People are very friendly here. The major difference from my experience is that Oracle database is used and not MS SQL. I think I will benefit from learning Oracle SQL PL since it is widely used in the world. The next time I will have to install the database on my computer, I will have to think which one :). Technically, in comparison with Tobii, this job is much closer to one that I had at Basic Partner in Klaipeda.

The company uses Dell computers and servers. My computer is not brand new but it's P4 3.00Ghz, 2GB RAM, 150 GB HD, Radeon X300. Surprisingly, there are quite a few ergonomic devices here. First is the vertical mouse which I have talked about in my previous emails and the second one is mouse trapper which is almost in every government institution and banks these days in Sweden. I will ask if I can get one of those for me.

So, Ascade office is on the 3rd floor and there are other companies in the same big (wide) building as well. In the past, I think it used to be a brewery there but now offices are there. I have a view on the water and I can see the town hall from the window in front of me. There are quite a few restaurants outside to go for lunch and there are two food stores near the office where I can buy lunch, bring it to the office and eat it there if we are too lazy cooking at home.

The room where I work is pretty big and some 15 people are in the same room. It has a very good air conditioning system and I hope it will have a good heating system in winter as well. As about the office location, it's around 30 minutes from the place where we live. Half of the way I travel together with Marie (5 minutes by bus and then 10 minutes by metro) and then I switch to another line and travel one more stop by metro while Marie goes a couple of stops further.
Here is the picture of my working place with some view from the window:

[G]

Fun: Music CDs Collection as my Hobby

2007-08-24T16:36:00.000+02:00

I have got some questions about what I was doing during the time while I was on my summer holidays. Well, besides being lazy, drinking beer and gaining some extra weight, I came back to my old hobby which is collecting CDs. I spent a lot of time eBay and Tradera (Swedish eBay) and managed to get almost all Roxette CD Singles released. CD Singles are not that popular in Lithuania and I will give a short explanations what it is.

A CD Single or/a Maxi CD is a CD that might be either 5" (like a normal CD) or quite rare these days 3" (a smaller CD). Singles usually come in thinner plastic boxes or carton ones. In US, the singles come in normal CD boxes like albums. So, a single is usually a track from the album that is put on the CD with some extra material (remixes, edits, demos, live material, non-album tracks) or can be just one song and sold for a shorter period of time (unlike albums), from 2 weeks to 2 months maximum and then gets deleted from the catalog and cannot be ordered by the stores from the record companies anymore. These sales define the singles charts positions. Very often (but not always) a single gets a video promotion that is shown on MTV, Viva and so on. Sometimes single versions, album versions and video versions are slightly different. I remember that in school times I thought that the video version of the song was the "original" one. But it appears that the album versions quite often are edited for the singles. From time to time there are remixes that are release only on vinyl discs.

So, I decided to pay a tribute to the old-school times and collected quite a few Roxette singles (around 40) with various rare versions and live material. I also got their vinyl albums and some vinyl singles with the tracks that were not released on CDs. Along with my growing Roxette collection, I tried to get singles of Dr.Alban, U96, Erasure, DJ Bobo, Snap, Scooter, Westbam, Culture Beat, Haddaway, Madonna, Pet Shop Boys and some other bands from my high-school times when music was really something I was crazy about. Usually they wouldn't cost more than 5-6 Euros per CD with shipping. From time to time I try to search for the CDs like that just in case there is something interesting. I don't spend a fortune on that just from time to time here and there a couple of Euros. Obviously everyone has own taste and I have got my favorites. It's a nice feeling to have them in the collection, since there are fewer and fewer bands that could produce one good song after another. Is it us getting older or is it the world of music changing so much. Anyways there are quite a few old tracks that you do not get bored of even these days, and I am really happy that some of the old times figures are still making music and can compete with todays teenagers demand for music.

[G]

Events: Tall Ships in Stockholm

2007-08-14T17:45:00.000+02:00

Catchin’ up a little with the events. In the end of July, in Stockholm there was a day when quite a few tall ships “parked” in Stockholm to spend a weekend and then go for the race. There were some events arrange for that. There was a parade when the teams from different countries (pretty much from all around the world) would march through the center of the city. After that there was a short concert where the same teams would present a song. After all, there was a long evening with small stages all around as well as beer and snacks. Here are some pictures of the ships. There was one ship that attracted a lot of attention. It was Russian Shtandart, which is a nice replica of the old frigate.

In 2009, the tall ships races will make a stop in Klaipeda for a couple of days.

[G]

Hardware: Skype Outside the Box

2007-07-24T17:09:00.001+02:00

For quite some time I have been thinking about getting a palm device that would work with Skype. I wanted to have a messenger separate from the computer, working with wireless. These days it’s impossible to get a palm lower than 300 Euros and it will include a camera, phone and will be running Windows Mobile 5 or 6. So, I was looking for a touch-screen device without the camera, without the phone with the thumb keyboard. It wasn’t an easy task but after several hours of research I have found that there is an iPAQ 4350 that fits my desires. It runs Windows Mobile 2003 Premium on 400 MHz processor. Well, there were 2 operating systems released after (the device is 4+ years old) that so I wouldn’t be able to run the latest software. On the other hand, I needed a Skype carrier, Bluetooth, Wi-Fi (I already had a Bluetooth GPS receiver). Combined all the things it was the best and the only choice. It took me 3 weeks to hunt it on eBay and I finally got it for 170 US$ which is a very good deal. I received the device yesterday, installed all sorts of programs, tweaks and so on, and I should say I like it better than the latest Sony Mylo communicator (mainly due to the absence of the touch screen), for instance. Email, internet, icq, msn, pdf but no Java (I don’t think any of the WM devices can run java these days. Well, here are some pictures.

[G]

Nature: Spanish Killer Slugs

2007-07-17T15:48:00.001+02:00

From time to time after the rain, here, in Sweden, it's possible to see interesting slugs on the roads. The rainy weather this summer made the population of them really boost. Until a couple of days, I realized that this creature isn't much of a vegetarian. I mean they do eat the vegetables in the gardens but would easily eat their brothers, the black slugs. The local newspapers printed the reports >> and one of them a list of the ways how to fight them. The killer slugs (Arion lusitanicus) resist even the boiling water. However if you put a jar with the beer, they tend to go in and drown there :P. Pretty wasteful way though.

There is one type of ducks that eats them. But when there are too many of slugs, ducks become fat and lazy.

[G]

Lifestyle: Shoelaces - Change the Look

2007-07-07T10:20:00.000+02:00

There are quite a few different ways of tying the shoelaces than we were taught in the kindergartens. Here are some examples of them. If you want a printable document (in Russian though), let me know.

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[G]

Free: SMS for free [Updated: Not Anymore]

2007-07-06T10:33:00.004+02:00

I have tried quite a few applications that supposed to send SMS-es for free. None of them quite worked. My sister sent me an invitation to frype.com (frype.lt as well) where it's possible to send SMS for free around the world. I tried to send to Lithuania and Sweden and it worked. It will add an advertisement in the end but you still got a free sms with 160 symbols. I am not sure if this service will last long but if you would like an invitation (they don't do open registration for now), drop me a line.

UPDATE:
Frype has changed the rules and free SMS service is not available anymore so there is no real point in opening an account with them.

[G]

Misc: June in Stockholm

2007-07-02T23:07:00.001+02:00

So, I am having two and a half months off this summer which I am pretty much enjoying. There are a couple of things missing that would be the sea closer to our place and some friends from Klaipeda. Well, what can we do? On June 13 I attended a record signing session for the release of the new album by Per Gessle (of Roxete) sung in Swedish. Not my favorite album but I bought it and got signed. I had to stand in the line for one our but it was worth it. I hope one of those days both Marie Fredriksson and Per Gessle will be signing records as the new Roxette album will be out. Future will show.

From time to time we try to explore new parts of the city, take walks in the center, meet with friends and have a beer or just sit on the benches by the bay and drink soda and eat some cinnamon rolls. Last weekend we dropped by a flee marked. My expectation were too high for that place. I was thinking it will be something like in Klaipeda with the stuff actually look at. The place was much smaller than the market in Klaipeda with the very few things of my interest. There were mostly Asian people selling various things and the theme of everything was pretty much Asian – the cloth, music, books and so on. We spent 15 minutes there. Maybe we should search for another flee market some day.

And here are some pictures of us and of our current apartment

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Job: Next Step - Ascade

2007-06-28T18:01:00.000+02:00

During past 2 months I have been actively searching for a new job. My position at Tobii hasn’t been very satisfactory neither to the company nor to me mainly due to the language issues. So, the 27 of May was my last day at Tobii. It’s not an easy task to search for a job in Sweden even with IT experience when you have to say, “I have just started learning Swedish.” Most hiring agencies will be glad to have you on their list and will invite you for the interview but there are very few chances you will catch anything really fast there. I have been looking for a job in Sweden 2 times now and in both time we (Marie and I) did the search on our own and that what brought the results. From the April 27 – June 25 (Almost 2 months) I have applied to almost 200+ companies that had a “smell” of .NET, C# or VB. I had gone to 4 inerviews. Well, there is actually the 5th one I will have to go on the July 2 but I guess since I have already signed the contract with the new company, I will have to cancel this interview. The most peculiar place I applied for was the internship at EA Games. Could’ve been kinda cool though.

So, the new company name is Ascade. This is multinational company and they are working with the software solutions for the telecom companies (Lithuanian Teo is the customer as well). The software searches for the fastest point between the providers in intermediate switches when the connection needs to be done. The more sophisticated example case would be if you want to call from Europe to Japan and then the connection goes through several providers in between, almost like the internet networks. To maintain who and where got and received (bought and sold) how much traffic is the goal of the software as well as sending rates and bills between the telecom providers. Well, I hope you get the idea. 2 days ago, I have signed the contract and I am starting on the August 20.

So, before the start date we are planning one more trip to Lithuania. We will be there from August 1 to August 10, since these are the days when Marie has got the holidays from work. We hope the weather will be nice during that period.

[G]

Fun: A Couple of Nice Sayings (Rus)

2007-06-27T10:32:00.000+02:00

Человек молод, когда он еще не боится делать глупости.

Друг бесплатно достается, а врага надо заработать.

Есть только две бесконечные вещи: Вселенная и Глупость. Хотя, насчет Вселенной я не уверен.

Пустыня бизнеса усеяна костями тех, кто посчитал, что понимает все и перестал учиться.

Нет ничего сложнее, чем использовать свой шанс!

PS: кто сказал - не знаю

Trips: On the Road Again

2007-06-06T23:43:00.000+02:00

Last week we managed to move to a new flat closer to the center of Stockholm. We rented a small Toyota Yaris, packed it with our stuff and it was my new experience as a driver in Stockholm. There was some adrenalin during the way some wrong turns and some weird situations but we managed it alright, I think.

Since the last week, Marie went to Belarus to change her passport and I went to Lithuania to see my grandmother in Vilnius hospital, who was in a pretty bad shape. The doctors diagnosed the 4th stage of cancer. She spent 3 weeks in the hospital, wasn’t able to eat or drink anything. Later, after the operation it appeared to be a small thing with bowel, so there was no cancer. Medicine sucks big time in Lithuania. Things like that make me mad. Thanks God my grandmother is doing a bit better now.

Besides that I had a chance to meet my family and my friends and catch a couple of hot summer days here, in Klaipeda which I enjoyed a lot. The beer is good, as usual. There are some things that I missing from Lithuania but not enough to keep me there.

Marie is back in Stockholm and today is her first day at work. I am going back to Sweden on Friday. I am wishing everyone a pleasant and hot (rainy when it’s needed) summer. It might be so that I will be back to Klaipeda sometime in July – August but for now it’s kinda early to say.

Job: Marie is Junior Investment Analyst

2007-05-13T17:46:00.000+02:00

This Friday, Marie went to her 3rd and final interview at Aberdeen (Stockholm) and the great news is that she got the job! She will be a Junior Investment Analyst. Well, what the company does, to put it into very short terms is the analysis of the risk and return on investments. So she will be dealing with all sorts of fancy words like funds, portfolios, roi, bonds, stocks, volatility and tons of other terms that we heard and not heard (I didn’t say learned :P )at LCC. But Marie has been learning it for quite a long time for her masters and half way through her studies, I gave up on trying to understand what actually she is studying and how it works. I am really happy that she enjoys what she is doing and she’s got a job like that.

Software: Classic Menus for Office 2007

2007-05-04T06:58:00.000+02:00

With the new Microsoft Office 2007 interface, some people and companies surely stayed with Office 2003 or earlier just because of the drastic interface change. Microsoft also introduced the new docx xlsx pptx and so on formats for the files and that will keep people unhappy because there is no direct backward compatability (although you could install an addon that would do that). There is probably a good reason for not switching to Office 2007 because the company staff will need to be re-trained for the new interface. It's not very much intuitive and self-explanatory. Well there is another company that developed an additional tab for office 2007 that brings the functionality of the classic menus:

IMHO: Microsoft lost quite some market because they didn't implement this feature. Is the ribbon control really that good? Well, the time will show. I am glad Adobe didn't switch to the ribbon interface with CS3.

Hardware: Headsets In-Ear

2007-05-03T10:00:00.000+02:00

When buying an audio device, like a player or a handsfree for the phone (in my case it came bundled with the phone. I always get the regular headset which my ear suppose to hold. However it desn't work for my ears. So, I was thinking if there are any adapters that would make those headsets into the "in-ear" type, where it has some silicone that goes right into your ear. I didn't know what this type of the adapter would be called but it appears that those actually exist (I almost thought I could invent them :]). They are called iBuds and were designed for the iPods phones but I guess will fit any regular headsets. I am planning to purchase them for my mobile handsfree. It costs just a couple of bucks and can be bought on eBay and Geeks.com.

TVs: LCD or Plazma (Rus)

2007-04-27T15:55:00.000+02:00

Не имею представления когда мы будем покупать новый телевизор, однако уже сейчас полезно прочесть информацию о том, куда движется рынок экранов и что важно знать при покупке. >>

Fun: Optical Illusions

2007-04-19T16:46:00.000+02:00

From all the illusions I have seen, this one is the best:

In this one the squares A and B are actually of the same color. How weird is that? Use microsoft paint if you like to cut off pieces of squares to put them together to check.

Weather: First Summerish Weekend

2007-04-17T09:48:00.000+02:00

This weekend felt almost like a summer in Stockholm. A lot of people went outside and had picnics. Others, like us went to the center, grabbed some snacks and took long walks. Here are some pictures that I have taken with my phone. The quality is pretty bad and I don't think that I don't know how to use it. You know, phone camera.

Magazine: PC World (May 2007)

2007-04-12T18:23:00.000+02:00

I was going through the articles of PC World magazine and there were a couple of interesting articles there. It seems like the new Microsoft Operating System that will be released in the end of 2009 (the earliest), will be 64 bit only. One more time I was convinced to buy a 64 bit PC this year.

Although the magazine is US-oriented, every time I look through it, I find a page or two worth reading.

So, there were some articles that were related to the following pages:

The best color lazer printers.

The big monitors - good or bad?

The best big monitors.

Awfully expensive in-ear headphones.

Process Explorer - A handy application to diagnose the problems.

Travelling: There is no place like ... Lithuania

2007-04-10T22:46:00.000+02:00

We had a nice trip to Lithuania last week, spending 5 full days there. We met out friends and relatives, went to the dentist and did some shopping. Then on Saturday we went to the sauna place some 15 kilometers away from Klaipeda. It was a very nice place which was build not long ago. There were quite a few of our friends there, from Vilnius and Klaipeda. It was a nice feeling to get all together again. Our friends Anzhela and Sergei prepared some delicious chicken and ribs. And of course the beer was there as well.

After that, in the evening we went to Anzhela and Sergei apartment and after some tea and cake went to the night club Metelica. Unfortunately we had to go back to Stockholm the next morning and had to leave earlier.

The whole week was pretty cold in Lithuania, dropping down to -2 in the night and with the strong and cold wind during the day. When we had to leave on Sunday, it started to snow.
Anyways, we really hope to see you all guys some time in July when we will come to Klaipeda for a longer time. Hopefully it will be warm and sunny by that time.

G & M

Electronics: Notebook and Mobile Phones

2007-04-10T15:17:00.000+02:00

There were three more or less major purchases that we did during the last month or so.

First, LG Z1 notebook for Marie.

It is very light, pretty fancy with the white keyboard and dark cover. It came with Windows Vista Home Premium. I must admit that this is one of the most portable notebooks I have ever seen. So, if you are on the way a lot, I would recommend this notebook. You won't be able to play the latest games but it easily outperforms any of the office-type requirements.

Second, we bought two mobile phones. I was getting sick of my huge Sony Ericsson p800 with the 2 days battery life, while Marie's Sony Ericsson T230 was basically becoming obsolete. Our choices were Samsung X820 for Marie and Motorola KRZR K1 for me. Well, mobile phones is a huge matter of the personal taste and preferences. As for my KRZR, I was looking for a small one with a good battery life. I am pretty much satisfied with it. Now it's the time to do the tweaks for the phones, like change the icons, animations, ringtones, put some games, and gmail client on it. I wish I had time for all of it. Marie's X820 is a really nice, intuitive and fancy phone. Both phones have 2 MPixel cameras which is the same as my Kodak photo camera that I bought in 2002 in US. Things got smaller and smarter in 4 years.

Samsung X820:

Motorola KRZR K1:

Hardware: Which Mouse to Get

2007-03-12T22:00:00.000+01:00

It was the time for me to choose the new mouse. I decided to go for an ergonomic solution and I wanted to try something new. If I would've been a gamer, I would definitely go for a regular ergonomic mouse from Microsoft or Logitech. However, I am more of a developer these days and I came up with 3 possible solutions for me:

1. A Pen Mouse - works just like a mouse but you hold it like a pen. It has 2 buttons and a scroll functionality. It would've been really good but every time you need to use it you actually need to pick it up and before you go back to the keyboard, carefully put it back on the table.

2. A Vertical Mouse - a pretty good thing, I believe and I tried to imagine how it would work. you kinda need a lot of space on the table for that. Very ergonomic but very expensive.

3. The third and the solution that I have chosen is an ergonomic trackball (Microsoft Trackball Explorer). It saves a lot of space on the table, has a scroll, 5 buttons and an ergonomic design. Well, I will see how it will work. I think trackballs have been underlooked in the mice world. It's kinda fancy as well. As a personal preference, I prefer one with the ball on top to one with the ball on the left side where you have to move it with your thumb.

Weekend: A Walk Worth some Memories

2007-03-11T20:31:00.000+01:00

Today was one of the spring-like days here, in Stockholm and our friends and we decided to take a walk in the Skansen park in Stockholm. Besides the nice talks and some tea with sandwiches, I got a feeling back from my high-school times when I was a crazy fan of Roxette. After we crossed one of the bridges there, I saw a man and a woman coming the opposite way to us and I realized it was Per Gessle and his wife taking a walk in the park. My eyes were doubled in size, I think. I had a camera and I could’ve talked to him and ask to take a picture. But guess what – I didn’t dare. I haven’t been to any Roxette concerts and I haven’t seen them live. So, you can imagine what kind of feeling is that to meet someone you adore so much. Well, he didn’t look at me but I guess his wife saw my face and smiled. After that we went to a cafe and had some tea and sandwiches but I couldn’t think about anything else. After 3 hours, I still have hard times getting over that impression.

And here are the pictures from the cafeteria

and of the flowers on our porch that appeared a couple of days ago.