måndag 31 mars 2008

Earth Hour

Earth hour

I'm as concerned as the next person but what was I supposed to do? Stay home with the lights off?

söndag 30 mars 2008

Cool

You need to be wired to be cool. See were the dosh is going?

Wordpress all done




All done and no troubles. Wordpress updates are easy. Still, there's a new widget page that took some working out. I managed to delete all my traffic tracking scripts. I've got them back now. Of the tracking sites but that pissed me off a bit. As you can imagine. So be careful if you try this at home.

Back up the important stuff and upload the content of wp-themes and wp-plugins separately. Otherwise you are going to overwrite these folders and loose your custom content. Oh, this isn't in the book. Upgrade your plugins and themes to the latest version before you upgrade Wordpress. Saves you being stuck with a plugin or theme that doesn't work with 2.5.

Otherwise, it's a doddle! (lnk)

lördag 29 mars 2008

Don't miss out: Free upgrade

If you are a wordpresser you really don't want to miss this!

Doc Searls Weblog. Now!

De-enginering the web

Writing about the 25 most valuable websites is very clever. Not including one single link to a mentioned site is not.

And it's a good article, but not linking to original sources on the web makes publishing on the web pretty pointless.

I came to the article from another website but I know some publishers are reluctant to link away from their own site. Unless it's another site of the same media brand.

This is de-enginering the web back to, well, what? Something less than useless. How would you find anything?

You can swat flies with a paper when there is no more information to be had.

But like I said, It's a great article so don't let me hold you up (lnk)

torsdag 27 mars 2008

I'm worried about the Cat


I've found porn in his basket!

Original post here

What do we care?




Just read that Tata motors, an Indian company has bought Jaguar and Land Rover. It's the yanks who are selling it so it's really not a big deal.

DEPENDING on which way you look at it, in acquiring Jaguar and Land Rover from Ford for $2.3 billion, a deal finalised on Wednesday March 26th, Tata Motors has either got itself two of the most famous brands in the car business at a bargain-basement price—or a sea of troubles.

I don't actually know any one who drives a Jag these days. I've got a friend in Stockholm who wants one, but that's it! Maybe that's the problem?

Still, we're in the same boat. Ford who has just sold the above have declared that they are hanging on to Volvo.

onsdag 26 mars 2008

All about pictures and living on line

From Desktop to webtop. I use Google docs quite a bit. Especially for writing and editing blog posts. Nowadays, anyway.

I learned the hard way that one day you might want to rewrite and use that great post. Just a tip!

TechCrunch has a post about picture editing with fotoflexer. There's loads more in the post.

tisdag 25 mars 2008

What a surprise! Swedish television tries something new :-)

I quite often write about stuff in the Swedish papers and it's a shame you can't read the original source. I mean, I could make anything up :-)

Today is different. I just read Metro on the net and there's a new tech program on TV.

What's new is the host is a woman, Anna Charlotta Gunnarsson.

About a year ago, journalist Anna Charlotta Gunnarsson got an idea for a new TV show after thinking about just how widely technology affects people’s lives.

Called “The Whole Machine” (Hela Apparaten), the show premiers April 16th at 19.30 on SVT and is meant to get viewers to reflect on the workings of technologies that people use in their everyday lives.
“My hope is that those who watch the show will gain some self-confidence about their own technical skills,” said Gunnarsson.

It's a good idea as I believe many of us are intimidated by technology. I know this is true for computer users as I often get to help friends and family with their computer problems. Do you know anyone who describes a computer as "user friendly" unless they're selling one?

The fact that a woman is hosting the program might even make it more accessible to those who are not of the nerdier persuasion. I'll be watching. Might even come back with a review.

måndag 24 mars 2008

The fraudulent web

Getting in the groove to get back to work tomorrow. Not all that reluctantly. I like my job. I realize I'm lucky in that respect.

There are a lot of great blogs out there but sometimes I think they get stuck behind the static. I try and promote blogs that I like so now and then I'm going to write about other blogs and bloggers. A lot of the blogs I read are in Swedish and it wouldn't be meaningful to promote a blog you couldn't read.

There are, however blogs that don't require translation. Art blogs or picture blogs can be appreciated in any language.

Take a look at this image. It's from Linda Palmer's blog P O N O R. And yes, I did ask :-)

If you follow this blog and leave some well thought out comments, chances are you'll learn a lot from this artist.

So, go on over there and make conversation!

söndag 23 mars 2008

Google Easter Eggs


Getting bored and looking for something to do?

Google has some fun and games hidden among all the serious stuff.

Try out the compulsory Google Easter game.


Or try Google search in your favorite alternative language. Available are Klingon, Hacker, Elmer Fud and probably many more.

This is more of joke really. Google Glug Beta. A drink to make people perform searches quicker.


The picture is from the original article over at
IDG. If you want to know what a Swedish Tech press
website looks like. Go and have a look.

lördag 22 mars 2008

Holidays



Happy Easter!

It's a clear, cold day here in Stockholm. There's even some snow and we haven't seen much of that this winter.

Not much going on. The Easter holiday is very much a family affair in Sweden so people are busy visiting relatives.

I stayed home with the cat this year and to see some friends I haven't had much time for, lately.

I read in one of the large daily papers here, that the Cherry Blossom are starting to bud in Japan. This is apparently a big deal over there. People have counted the buds even and the press are covering the event as if it was a sporting event. Like Slalom, in Sweden (but probably going better :-)).

Have a good Easter! I'm taking it easy during the weekend and might miss a post or two. Don't worry if I do. I'm probably just off eating dinner with someone or going to the pictures!

The Easter eggs are from www.clipartandcrafts.com, I didn't ask 'cause it said they were free :-)

fredag 21 mars 2008

Fallen out with the neighbors?

It's business as usual over here in Stockholm despite it being long Friday. A sweep of the Swedish blogosphere brought this post up and I wanted to share it with English language readers

Fallen out with the neighbors? Here's a creative way of dealing with conflicts without crossing the fence!



From the Swedish blog TEXT.NU

torsdag 20 mars 2008

Amazing pastels in New York

BoingBoing is a great source of inspiration to me. Theres always something unexpected and today is no exception.

A new pastel show in New York. Art by Barnaby Whitfield. Away you go! I've never seen pastels like this. In fact, as much as I love art, pastels have never quite it done for me. You live and learn.

From the press release:

From lovingly using his art dealer to anthropomorphize the ‘Bird Flu’
to finding fictional passion with Hernan Bas on a men seeking men
website, we continue to get amusing and rather untrustworthy glimpses
into Whitfield’s experience in the art world. And besides an over all
theme the artist states as “sexualizing the environmental crisis within
the context of American politics” we also see the end to Barnaby’s
quest for his real parents (Whitfield was one of those children that
always suspected they were adopted even though they knew quite well
they were not), and a startling turn of events in his ongoing Clonie
series (a character created when the momentarily impoverished artist
decided to sell nudes on eBay inadvertently gaining the attention of
31GRAND and being welcomed into the fold.)


I find the pictures pretty exciting with a lot of precision and detail, all set of by fantastic colours! Check out the post on BoingBoing.


Technorati Tags: ,

onsdag 19 mars 2008

Be careful what you learn at school

I just wrote a post on my Swedish blog about writing and web publishing. I was all about getting harassed by teachers for writing to well! I got accused of copying an essay out of a book because it was so well written! That screwed my writing up for years.

I'm glad I'm over that but it has certainly taught me to be more careful when I give opinions around my own children.

I was so happy when my youngest daughter came home and told me she had a special exercise book at school for writing. Just for writing, whatever she wanted. The teacher never corrected this writing. Not spelling errors or grammar, it was just for the love of writing.

Of course my daughter had learn grammar and spelling and all the rest of it. She is quite good at that, better than me :-) But above all she is not afraid of expressing herself.

tisdag 18 mars 2008

My first reader question :-)

Getting an email about your blog on the first day is pretty cool :-) Well, I got one with a question and I'm going to share it because it makes a pretty good point about language and identity.

Here goes:

Q: do you feel the same about your Swedish self..? I.e. would you feel
like starting a fejksvensk blogg..?
I don't, because I am Swedish. I can feel British but I'm not British! I think it's to do with living in London during my formative years and not having anyone my age to share stuff like TV programs-we-watched-as-kids, with. I can tell my Swedish friends about what was going on in my life but that's just anecdotes.

Does that make sense?

I wouldn't say I'd never find it meaningful to do a Fake Svensk (Swedish) blog but I just don't see it at this point in time.

Anyway, thanks for the attention and I'd love more questions like that because it helps me sort out why the heck I'm doing this :-)

måndag 17 mars 2008

...almost

One last post, then. Not knowing much about the English reading blogosphere, I would like some input on what I'm doing here. If this blog goes well I will consider moving it to it's own domain. See this as a practice run.

Done for today

I added som trackers and stuff to the sidebar so that somone will know when I update the site. Not much point in writing if nobody reads, right. Be fun to see if the site metre I added will start moving (it hasn't yet, still on one).

So, I'm getting ready to do some writing here. All about being the fake brit and that.

Got an interesting email, bye the way. With a very interesting question about my chosen topic. Feeling like a fake Brit in Sweden but you're going to have to wait 'till tomorrow. I'm knackered!

Added a site metre

I just added a site meter. I just looked at it and it said I've had 1 visitor :-) Which is all right. I had the option of starting at a higher number, but what the hell. This blog isn't in a contest so I'll just leave it and watch the numbers grow!

What language settings?

I've run into a problem. I can't get the language settings the way I want them!

The blog is now a terrilble mix of Swedish and English. Not a catastrophy but it looks stupid. It's probably because I have a blog in Swedish on Blogger. I still think that setting the default language to UK English would do just that.

Fire up the blog

Just read that the weather here in Stockholm is going to be crap over Easter. I don't really mind seeing I'm never at a loss for things to do indoors.

One thing I'm going to be doing is give this blog some attention. It's new and I doubt that many people have found it yet so that's a great time to think about appearences.

So, please come back and see how I'm doing. This project is a bit scary. I have never started a writing project in English before so please, have patience. Obviously, if you see stupid misstakes, let me know! But I want to hear about the good stuff as well :-)

Want to see what a Swedish on-line newspaper looks like?
Go here. Svenska Dagbladet means (roughly) Swedish Daily News





söndag 16 mars 2008

What's up 'ere then?

So, what is up 'ere then?

Just me blogging in English for a change, so please bear with me.

I thought I might devote this premier post to explaining what this blog is all about and let you a bit about myself. I was born in Stockholm, grew up in London w 4 (that's Chiswick) then went back to my native country, which is Sweden.

It was a shock coming back to Sweden. The two country's are so different in almost everything. I suppose living in England during my formative years left its mark. Took me long enough to learn how to be Swedish (or fake it :-)) but now I fell I want a little corner of the WWW where I can do my Fake Brit thing.

So, don't mind me. I'm just doing my roots thing, over here. Should you by any chance want to engage in dialog, feel free to comment