I'm sitting next to Anna who has come down with a serious case of the flu. It's very late at night and there's quite a storm blowing outside - I can hear our flower pots getting knocked about by the wind and I hope our roof tiles stay put…
Ida and I decided to take turns watching over Anna, because we did not expect Anna to be able to sleep. She's in a pretty bad shape: nose all clogged, bad cough and running a fever, but despite these ailments, she's actually been asleep (with a few minor interruptions) since 10 PM. I really hope she wakes up feeling better.

I thought I would use the opportunity to post a couple of recent video clips of Anna in her usual ship shape.

Read the rest of this post to see the clips (more…)

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It appears as if Nokia is finally zeroing in on a release date for the updated N80 - the N80i or internet edition. In late august, the N80i was announced for release in mid-september, but no handsets have actually appeared in shops so far.

I have been keeping an eye at a few retailer sites and it would now appear as if something is happening.

On the N80 internet edition page of the Norwegian site lanseringsguide.amobil.no, there is a link to the N80 internet edition at Netshop.no. Until a few days ago, Netshop.no listed N80i availability (unconfirmed) for October 30th, but then changed the date to October 27th¹ 28th² 29th³. Ok, now it's back to October 30th⁴ … pushed to October 31st⁵ … November 2nd⁶ … November 5th⁷ … November 9th⁸ … November 11th⁹

Danish phone retailers, Proshop and Gooby have both been listing the N80i for some time, but without any information on availability.

Yesterday, Danish phone retailer GoBlue.dk also added the N80 internet edition to their product catalog - again without any availability information.

1. Date listed October 24th [back]
2. Date listed October 25th [back]
3. Date listed October 26th [back]
4. Date listed October 27th [back]
5. Date listed October 28th [back]
6. Date listed October 30th [back]
7. Date listed November 2nd also listed at Norwegian retailer back]
8. Date listed October 25th [back]
9. Date listed October 26th [back]
10. Date listed October 27th [back]
11. Date listed October 28th [back]
12. Date listed October 30th [back]
13. Date listed November 2nd also listed at Norwegian retailer XD.no [back]
14. Date listed November 6th [back]
15. Date listed November 9th [back]

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The reply from Tele2 customer service to my request for an update on the 8 mbps upgrade of my broadband connection was a big letdown. Apparently, I was able to sign up for the upgrade by mistake - Tele2 only provides the 8 mbps connection within their own network, which does not extend to my neighborhood.

Bummer!

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I have been all set to buy a new phone for a whole year, but the way phone manufacturers design, announce and release new models is really off-putting to me. I know this is really a luxury problem, but buying a new phone is a big deal (literally!) to me.

At first, I was all set to get the Sony Ericsson P990i, which was announced in October 2005 to be available in Q1 2006. I am currently on a P910i, having been through a P800, and the P990i looked as if it would add the few missing ingredients to make Sony Ericsson's P-line perfect: WiFi, 3G and a better camera.

Sadly, the P990i Q1 release date was quickly postphoned to Q2 2006 and while waiting for the P990i to be released, I started to read less encouraging things about the phone - the P990i's WiFi, 3G and camera was indeed very well received, but some reviews raised issues pertaining to the P990i's updates to the ergonomics of the P800/P900/P910i device line; the new versions of SymbianOS and UIQ; and the P990i's amount of free RAM, which is actually lower than that of its predecessor, the P910i.

In Denmark, the first P990i's did not arrive until mid-august and during the long wait, I had started to look at other options. My attention was caught by the Nokia N80, because it has similar specs (WiFi, 3G and ≥2 MP camera), while also being less bulky (Because of its size and weight, I sometimes leave my P910i at home - not a good thing for a mobile phone.). Just as I was getting interested in the N80, Nokia announced the N80 internet edition, available from mid-september. One of the new N80i features is flickr integration, a feature I currently use quite a bit through Shozu. Since this feature appears to be limited to the N80i (flickr only mentions the N80i, not the N80), I decided to wait for the N80i.

Well, in late august "mid-september" was just around the corner, but it's now mid-october and there's little sign of the N80i. This Norwegian phone launch tracking site lists N80i release for "October" and this Nokia press release mentions a N80i US release for "November". To complicate matters further, Nokia in late September announced the N95 for release in Q1 2007. The N95 seems to be everything the P990i and N80i are - and then some, including for instance integrated GPS (which really looks awesome).

So, what is a poor boy going to do?

• Who's going to buy the N80 internet edition if is delayed any further? Especially when considering the many complaints about N80 battery life, non-autofocus camera and buggy firmware?
• The Q1 2007 release date of the N95 suggests that if we are really, really - I mean really - lucky, the phone will come out around April 1., 2007 (or else Nokia have us fooled). However, going by the track record of previous phone releases, the N95 is probably more likely to be released some time next summer.
• By the time the N95 is released another, extremely desirable model will of cause have been announced.
• The P990i is available now and the price has gone down quite significantly over the last week or so. From about $770 to $680. Maybe I should just get that one and start saving for the N95?

Dammit! I hate the promises of these phones that are "just over the horizon"…

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In a continued effort to catch up with Swedish internet broadband prices and speeds, my ISP Tele2 announced the availablility of 8192/512 Mbit/s broadband in September 2006. The 8 Mbit line is priced at DKK 379 (∼ $63) a month, which is actually DKK 20 less than what I currently pay for my 2 Mbit line - go figure…

Needless to say, I immediately signed up for an upgrade to 8 Mbit and on September 11th, Tele2 confirmed my upgrade request, telling me the actual upgrade would take place within 4 weeks. I have been testing my broadband line transfer rates from time to time ever since, but nothing has happend - the transfer rates remain at 1.8 Mbit/s download and 450 kbit/s upload, which translate into the 2048/512 kbit/s line I'm subscribed to.

So, today I emailed Tele2 customer support, asking them if they can tell me when the upgrade will be effective.

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In addition to research databases and journal archives, I use Google Scholar quite a bit. One of the things I really like about Google Scholar is the ability of the service to dig up publications that are "floating around". Sometimes, when an article or manuscript is really hard to come by - maybe because it has not been officially digitized, or maybe because the local university library just does not subscribe to the publication that published the article - then Google Scholar is able to find is some version of the article. A big time saver, because I would otherwise have to request a hard copy of the work at the university library and wait for it to arrive.

I recently discovered a feature, which further improves the usefulness of Google Scholar, namely the ability to import citations directly from Google Scholar into my citation management software.
This feature surely beats entering citations manually, but it's also faster than logging on to a research database, finding the publication, publication volume and issue, and finally the publication itself, which usually the place from where a citation can be exported.

The citation import feature needs to be enabled in the Google Scholar preferences. The preferences are accessed from the link provided just next to the search field. On the preferences page, locate the 'Bibliography Manager' section, enable links to citation imports and choose a suitable import format.

After saving preferences, Google Scholar search results now include an option to import citation:

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I have just enabled a new theme at this site and it's something I have been meaning to do ever since moving to Wordpress. So far, I have been using the default Kubrick theme (in a slightly modified version, that displays the sidebar on all pages), which is a very nice theme albeit somewhat bland (or maybe that's just beacuse so many people use it?). I have been wanting to use a different theme that was my own and a little more feisty, in comparison to the Kubrick theme.

Now, the way it is with these itches, it is something where it's quite a leap to actually start doing something about it. I have done it by not starting from scratch and by working in small increments, which also is why it has taken me so long.

I started by finding a theme, that would lend itself to customization. After taking a look at a few very comprehensive and complex themes (one theme is described as a theme suite), I decided to use something simpler that would not require me to spend a lot of time learning the intricate details of the theme. This led me to the Modified Kubrick Full Sidebar Theme, which is based on the original Kubrick theme. I therefore knew the basic layout, CSS and so on, and I knew these to be pretty straight forward and clean cut.

The Modified Kubrick Full Sidebar Theme satisfied my requirement for Wordpress widget support, but I also wanted a theme that made use of the available horizontal space on the screen. The original Kubrick theme (and subsequently also the Modified Kubrick… Theme) is restricted to a width of 760 pixels, to cater to users with 800×600 pixel resolution. According to the statistics collected by Statcounter (it's free…) for this site, only about 1 percent of my visitors use a resolution of 800×600 pixels. To help me come up with a layout to satisfy this requirement, I found my way to this very useful guide to Wordpress themes.

Lastly, I had to come up with colors and shapes for the elements in the layout. I don't believe in engineers doing graphical design since the result is usually pretty horrible. So what I did was to shop around by looking at other themes, either copying or getting inspired by what I liked. The result may still be horrible, but be assured that I at least made a conscious effort to avoid it.

Please feel free to comment on the theme - especially if you come across errors (I'm aware of some IE issues, including custom bullet points and transparent .png's).

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