Categories
'i dag' (Danish) Blogs Historier/Stories Resources Videnskab

“psyk*-protokollen”

Copenhagen Skeptics in the Pub - logo

Næste arrangement i “Copenhagen Skeptics in the Pub” (facebook link) – “Copenhagen Skeptics in the Pub – Lone Frank: Når Naturen bliver Gud” (facebook link) lyder jo spændende, men jeg har jo ry for at være religiøs…OK, Kristjan siger jeg godt må “lege” med alligevel 🙂

Ateister har det jo med at sætte lighedstegn mellem tro og Gud 😉 – det har ikke-ateister jo også…hmm godt man er en slags Buddhist

Der ER jo også mange lighedspunkter mellem sjælesørger og “psyk*-protokollen” – etymologien er i hvertfald ikke til at tage fejl af – http://en.wikipedia.org/wi​ki/Psychology#Etymology.

Tror vi har fundet et diskussionsemne til arrangementet, selv om det nok er for oplagt, og betændt. Altså “psyk*-protokollen” er jo nok det felt hvor den moderne videnskab har den største formidlings-udfordring efter “sjælen” har holdt “flyttedag” væk fra hjertet, i de flestes vestlige menneskers bevidsthed.

Min egen erfaring er at psykofarmaka da virker, og det mest potente jeg har været bruger af, Li+, virker skam, ingen ved dog tilsyneladende hvorfor.

Kan leve med at vi finder Gud, og at jeg, modsat ham her:

stadig er her.

Antager i øvrigt at det er videnskabens synspunkt at det vores kultur hidtil har kaldt “sjælen” kan forklares med “kemi” eller i hvertfald “videnskab” – igen sikkert et for oplagt og betændt emne.

Nå, mange af de “religiøse” er i mellemtiden flyttet andre steder hen, såsom CERN, der kan de jo finde fælles fodslag: “OH DEEP THOUGHT WHAT IS THE ANSWER…” – det kunne jeg godt tænke mig at høre Lone Franks tanker om.

Categories
'i dag' (Danish) Blogs Hackers Historier/Stories Technology

Hvor er det kommunalt

Manglende Google Maps API nøgle på http://htk.dk/Fritid_og_Kultur/Biblioteker.aspx
Morten Saxness delte dette på Google+

Vi har set mange brands udskifte deres website med en Facebook side, men denne Japanske by går all-in på Facebook.

Kunne I forstille jer, at nogle danske kommuner gjorde noget lignende og hvilken effekt ville det have?

Det kunne være et glimrende PR stunt fra en af udkantskommunerne, der er svært pressede.

Det fik mig til at komme i tanke om en “udveksling” jeg havde med min kommune for en måned siden.

Så: debatten er kort…svaret er JA! (sjovt at være i dialog med kommunen om hvorvidt jeg kan få adgang til at rette fejl på deres hjemmeside, antager at der STADIG er fejl her http://htk.dk/Fritid_og_Kultur/Biblioteker.aspx – jow jow – mangler stadig en opdateret Google Maps API nøgle SELV om der IKKE er GIS integration på siden – CMSet inkluderer – som standard – en GIS .js).

Mit take: ingen kommuner har brug for en hjemmeside, tilgengæld skal de være på facebook, og alle borgere skal have mulighed for at blive admins på facebook siderne.

Al selvbetjening skal overføres til http://borger.dk og kræve NemID. KAPLAH!

ps. Til jeres information er her min brevveksling med kommunen, jeg synes da bestemt at medarbejderen gør en glimrende figur, og han kan næppe gøre mere, så længe han ønsker at beholde sit job, man kan så undre sig over at han gør det…

pps. Jeg kan jo også have taget fejl, og ser “ting” på min computer, og det er jo næppe vigtigt for kommunens drift at dette virker.

——————————-klip————————
Fra: Kim Bach [kim.bach@gmail.com]
Sendt: 7. juli 2011 15:13
Til: Kommune
Emne: Fejl på hjemmeside på adressen
http://htk.dk/Fritid_og_Kultur/Biblioteker.aspx – mangler API nøgle til Google Maps

hej HTK,

I har en fejl på hjemmesiden på denne adresse: http://htk.dk/Fritid_og_Kultur/Biblioteker.aspx – i har ikke registreret siden korrekt hos Google Maps (mangler API nøgle)

I kan selv se fejlmeddelelsen hvis i prøver at gå ind på siden.

Testet i Google Chrome under Windows 7, men da problemet er på serveren, bør problemet være der uanset user-agent.

I kan evt. sende mig FTP-login og/eller login til CMS, så retter jeg det for jer.

Venlig hilsen

Kim Bach
Lindevangshusene 58,st,th
2630 Taastrup
Skype:kim.bach
Facebook: http://facebook.com/kim.bach
Twitter: http://twitter.com/kim_bach
——————————-klip————————

Svar fra kommunen

——————————-klip————————
11. jul. 2011 15.03 skrev B :

Tak for din henvendelse!

Jeg har testet med både Chrome og IE 9 på en windows 7, og jeg får ingen fejl.

Får du stadig fejlen?

Dit tilbud om hjælp må jeg takke nej til, da det vil være et brud på vores sikkerhed.

Mvh

B
——————————-klip————————

Svar fra mig:

——————————-klip————————
Fra: Kim Bach [mailto:kim.bach@gmail.com]
Sendt: 11. juli 2011 17:44
Til: B
Emne: Re: Fejl på hjemmeside på adressen http://htk.dk/Fritid_og_Kultur/Biblioteker.aspx – mangler API nøgle til Google Maps

Hej B,

Så må jeg jo hjælpe os, ja jeg er borger i Høje-Taastrup Kommune,, så godt jeg kan, og havde nok ikke forventet den tillid til borgerne som jeg forventede/ønskede 😉

Fejlen er der stadig, den er sikkert ikke hos dig, fordi du sidder inden for en firewall og har måske andre IP adresser og/eller DNS navne.

Vedhæftet en skærmkopi som det ser ud hos mig.

Så vidt jeg kan se ligger fejlen i det inkluderede script
www.n-gis.com/mapscript.js.aspx?view=422 – som har en reference til www.n-gis.com/gkey.js.aspx som ser ud til at have en Google Maps API nøgle i sin href, jeg gætter på at fejlen skal findes her:

document.write(“<script src=’http://www.n-gis.com/gkey.js.aspx?server=”+top.window.location.href+”
type=’text/javascript’></script>”);document.write(“<div id=’nm_gmap’
style=’width:400px;height:400px’></div>”);

altså i gkey.js.aspx ASP-NET siden.

Venlig hilsen

Kim Bach

ps. “sikkerhed” er et frygtiligt begreb som gør ting der er lette som at rette denne fejl, f.eks. ved at fjerne referencen til GIS interfacet helt, da i tilsyneladende ikke bruger det, svære – action is cheaper than control 😉
——————————-klip————————

Svar fra kommunen

——————————-klip————————
11. jul. 2011 19.49 skrev B:
Det er skam fra min egen private maskine og linie jeg har testet, og ikke fra en maskine på rådhuset.

Nu har jeg testet på 3 maskiner – både XP og Windows 7 samt IE 8 og 9 samt den nye Chrome. Jeg får ingen fejl.

Jeg tager en snak med vores leverandør tirsdag.

Der er vist ikke mange virksomheder der vil give adgang til deres CMS for andre end egne ansatte – det er den sikkerhed jeg taler om.

Jo vi bruger faktisk N-Gis – det er det system vi bruger tila t vise simple kort på vores hjemmeside, så henvisningen kan vi ikke fjerne.

1000 tak for at du gider hjælpe med fejlsøgningen.

Mvh

B
——————————-klip————————

Svar fra mig – bliver næppe besvaret 😉

——————————-klip————————

underligt – jeg har kun testet på min Netbook som kører over Telia 3G

ps. et godt råd; drop Google Maps og skift til Open Street Map ;-))

pps. Mht. sikkerhed, så er HTK IKKE en privat virksomhed, men
borgernes ejendom, derfor forventede jeg at få lov til at redigere
hjemmesiden 😉

ppps. ja, jeg er anarkist 😉
——————————-klip————————

Categories
Blogs Bookmarks Computere og Internet Kim Blog (English)

The first time

Kim Bach . Org: Kim Bach . Org Colophon

Kim Bach . Org >> Blog Archive >> Danish Survival Guide

flickr.com: kimbach

EnAnden

da.wikipedia.org: Bruger:Kim Bach

Karnak – Wikipedia, den frie encyklopædi

commons.wikimedia.org: User:Kim Bach

Picture of a statue of the Egyptian goddess Hathor from the Luxor Museeum, Luxor, Egypt. The statue is from the period of the XVIIIth Dynasty and was found at the Luxor temple. The statue is about human size. The picture was taken by Kim Bach, Copenhagen, Denmark on the 17th of October 2004

en.wikipedia.org: User:Kim Bach

Pyramide du Louvre – Wikipedia, the free encyklopedia

Jaiku: @kimbach

kimbach posted to #reboot: finally arrived…

X twitter: @kim_bach

Still looking for my first tweet – I’m sure it’s out there somewhere, but twitter doesn’t really give you access to your full history

Google+: kim.bach

Jeg er ikke alene, der er folk der følger mig//Har det helt på det René//Jeg har det ligesom mig

Facebook: About @kim.bach

is BeerCamp Copenhagen Presentation will be titled “The Cathedral of Learning”
Aug 29, 2008 1:14:01 pm

Categories
Blogs Computere og Internet Design Education/Undervisning Kim Blog (English)

Amazon Kindle – Vision og forretning

Who's afraid of Virginia WoolfHvad er en Amazon Kindle
Amazon Kindle er en kompakt enhed der minder om en computer, men er beregnet til at vise tekst, f.eks. digitale bøger – eBøger/eBooks, på en skærm der bruger en teknologi der hedder eInk. Denne teknologi adskiller sig fra traditionelle computerskærme, ved at den danner billedet med magnetisk blæk, og at skærmen virker med reflekteret lys, som papir, oplevelsen minder derfor meget om papir, og i øvrigt gør det at enheden bruger meget mindre strøm, da det kun er når billedet dannes på skærmen at der bruges strøm, den relativt langsomme opdateringshastighed skærmen arbejder med, gør at man ikke kan vise ting som video.

Kindle har en 6″ skærm med en opløsning på 800×600 punkter, dette giver en meget tydeligt skærm, som skal ses før man tror det. Teknikken gør dog at skærmen ikke kan vise farver, men det er noget der bliver arbejdet på det, og netop i dag afholdes der en konference i Frankrig, hvor der efter sigende er rigtig mange brugere af de nye eBogs læsere.

I denne artikel, som nok bliver en artikelserie, vil jeg fokusere mere på visionen bag, så der er ikke rigtig tale om en anmeldelse, og alle de steder der står Amazon Kindle, kunne der lige så godt stå noget andet, f.eks. “Tölva” – som en fremtidig enhed kunne hedde – “tilfældigvis” er det netop det jeg har kaldt min Kindle 😉

Hvorfor!
Så hvorfor købte jeg en Kindle? Først og fremmest så var jeg så heldig at få en i hænderne til reboot11, og jeg ønskede mig straks en, så da Amazon annoncerede at Kindle ville bliver lanceret internationalt, trak jeg straks et nummer. Den officielle lanceringsdato var den 18-oktober, den blev sendt den 19-oktober og jeg havde den den 22-oktober, hvilket inkluderede en nat på DHLs lager – den moderne internationale handels evner til levere imponerer mig altid.

Visionen
Den virkelige grund til at jeg anskaffede en Kindle, var nu også at jeg længe har haft et erklæret ønske om at læse noget mere, og her synes jeg Kindle giver os et glimt af fremtiden. Bøger og aviser er utroligt “upraktiske”, jeg glemmer dem, synes de er uhandy og tunge, og dette gælder også paperbacks – jeg føler at det er en af grundende til at jeg ikke læser så meget som jeg selv ønsker. Nå ja, jeg er jo glad for dimser, og da Nikolaj Sonne fra “So Ein Ding” så min Kindle til Copenhagen Cocoa Development Camp et par dage efter jeg havde fået den, stoppede han helt op midt i sin “procedure”, jeg havde en Kindle før Mr. Ding himself.

Når jeg ser en Kindle tænker jeg i øvrigt iPod anno 2001. Kindle er ikke rigtig en dims (gadget – savner dansk ord), det er en platform. Som iTunes og iPod, udnytter Kindle en eksisterende infrastruktur, nemlig Amazons, og husk at iTunes Music Store ikke var i nærheden af at være klar da iPod blev introduceret, Amazon er klar, og har allerede 360,000 titler tilgængelige, og Amazons vision er rent faktisk at samtlige (skrevne) værker der er udgivet i menneskehedens historie, skal være tilgængelige på Kindle. Jeg synes dette er en smuk vision, som det undrer mig at man skal høre fra en privat, kommerciel virksomhed fra USA.

Unboxing
Det første jeg bemærkede, da jeg pakkede min Kindle ud, var at den viste nogle instruktioner på skærmen, jeg prøvede at fjerne den plastik jeg antog var placeret på skærmen, sådan plejer det jo at være, ude af stand til at finde plastikkens kanter, gik det op for mig at Kindle viste et billede på skærmen! eInk skærme er virkelig anderledes, sammenlignet med traditionelle computerskærme – når skærmbilledet først er dannet har det ikke brug for strøm, så selv om enheden var slukket viste den et billede.

Whispernet, trådløs adgang der bare virker!
Jeg var godt klar over at Kindle var en opkoblet dims (wireless device), så jeg var meget overrasket da jeg ikke var i stand til at finde en eneste reference til opsætning, det værende sig SIM-kort, WiFi eller lignende, i den korte dokumentation der følger med – underligt – hvordan kommer den så på nettet?

Så jeg var yderst overrasket da jeg, efter at have været en tur forbi MyKindle websitet på min computer for at ændre navnet og e-mail adressen for min Kindle, og efter en kort lur, opdagede at Kindle havde opdateret sig selv, og at der nu stod “Tölva” i stedet for “Kim Bach’s Kindle” på skærmen.

At se en opkoblet dims der bare virker så snart man har pakket den ud, burde ikke føles som en fantastisk ting, det er sådan teknologi burde virke, men vi er anderledes vant – knockout sejr til Kindle her!

24-November-2009 sendte Amazon i øvrigt en opdatering til version 2.3 af Kindle softwaren, og den virkede perfekt, og blev sendt automatisk – endnu et eksempel på hvordan teknologi burde virke – ingen iTunes og computer nødvendig – tak og lov!

Jeg er dybt imponeret over den aftale Amazon har fået med AT&T, der er nemlig tale om intet mindre end en gratis, global, mobil data-roaming aftale.

Passioneret fællesskab
Naturligvis skrev jeg om Kindle på twitter, og der gik ikke lang tid før jeg fik et svar. Det kom fordi jeg undrede mig over hvor jeg ville finde åbent og frit indhold – det andre kalder gratis – altså bøger der allerede findes på Internettet – f.eks. gennem Gutenberg projektet.

Disse bøger findes som regel i nogle standard formater der hedder .mobi, og dem kan Kindle læse direkte.

Svaret jeg fik på twitter, og jeg havde ikke formuleret et spørgsmål, bare luftet en undren, var at jeg skulle få fat i softwaren calibre. calibre og det er et must hvis du har en eBogs læser. Der er tale om et open source program som fungerer lidt som iTunes til eBogs læsere, det kan konvertere mellem mange formater, og sidst men ikke mindst, importere RSS feeds og overføre dem til Kindle og andre eBogs læsere.

Der er iøvrigt flere muligheder for at overføre data til Kindle, man kan enten gøre det via. Whispernet (e-mail), men det koster så $1/megabyte, så det er bedre at bruge det medfølgende USB kabel, som er standard mikro-USB.

PDF – ikke en eBogs standard
Mange er nysgerrige for at høre om Kindle understøtter PDF. Det korte svar er ja, det lange er noget mere kompliceret. De fleste PDFer er sat op til at blive udskrevet på A4 papir, og det passer ikke ret godt til Kindles 6″ skærm. Et af problemerne er at PDF er mange ting, skannede sider f.eks.

Dette skuffer sikkert mange, men problemet er altså PDF, ikke Kindle, man er simpelthen nød til at omformatere sin tekst så den understøtter variable “papir” størrelser, og der bliver nødvendigt at “teste” sine udgivelser på mange enheder.

En lidt sjov ting jeg har brugt PDF visning på Kindle til, er at jeg har lagt billetter på den, og brugte min Kindle som billet to gange under CPH:DOX – desværre havde de ikke stregkode skannere til nogle af arrangementerne, men jeg synes det ser sandsynligt ud at det ville fungere.

Amazon Kindle Store – impulskøbsalarm
Amazon Kindle Store virker som det skal, gå til forretningen, søg efter den titel du er intereseret i – her er det smart at Kindle har et tastatur, køb og titlen er klar på din startside i løbet af 30 sekunder – imponerende. Kindle bruger din Amazon konto, så hvis du har one-click slået til, så er din Kindle, effektivt, et kreditkort. Samtlige bøger kan i øvrigt hentes i en prøveudgave med adgang til udvalgt indhold, så man kan se om det er den rigtige titel, dette fungerer virkelig godt, men det er lidt for let bagefter at komme til at trykke køb, da det er standardknappen – derfor har jeg nu en kopi af “Pigen der legede med ilden” på engelsk. Det skal dog tilføjes at man straks får muligheden for at fortryde sit køb.

Der er også mulighed for at abonnere på en lang række aviser og tidsskrifter, jeg valgte straks International Herald Tribune og Asimovs Science Fiction. Det smarte, og farlige, ved aviser og tidsskrifter er at man får den 14-dage gratis.

Kindle som browser
Selv om Kindle umiddelbart er en “iPod for bøger”, altså har sin egen hukommelse hvor indkøbte bøger bliver downloadet til, så er Kindle også en computer der kører en speciel version af Linux. Der er også indbygget en browser, som tilgås gennem Kindles menupunkt “Experimental features” – her finder man “Basic Web”, og her får man adgang til en webbrowser, der, i den internationale version, ser ud til kun at give adgang til Wikipedia, men det er da heller ikke så tosset, gratis adgang til Wikipedia uanset hvor man er i verden.

Jeg har testet hvordan sider med f.eks. matematiske formler viser, og det ser virkelig godt ud.

Kindle er bestemt ikke verdens hurtigste browser, men det virker, og er gratis.

One Kindle Per Student (and Teacher)
En vision jeg får når jeg ser en dims som Kindle er at en dims som denne burde være tilgængelig for hvert eneste barn, eller rettere hver eneste “studerende” og lærere, og hvorfor nu det?

Kindle er enkel, virker robust, og kan allerede i dag, indeholde en kopi af alle de skolebøger man har brugt i hele sit aktive studieliv, det er lige fra Folkeskole til Universitetet.

Kindle eller Dynabook?Jeg synes at Kindle ser meget bekendt ud, og den minder mig om Alan Kays vision – Dynabook – Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia. “A Personal Computer For Children Of All Ages.”

Hvis samtlige børn (“studerende”) havde en platform som Kindle, ville det også skabe et nyt marked for skolebøger, hvilket burde være med til at forbedre kvaliteten – hvis man ellers tror på markedsøkonomi.

I dag bliver innovationen indenfor uddannelse bremset af ophavsretsloven, det er, f.eks., meget svært at hjælpe børn med ting som matematikopgaver over Internettet, fordi det ikke er muligt at dele skolebøgerne online, eller som downloads til en eBogs læser.

Lærer er i øvrigt i den brede definition, fordi vi alle vil blive, potientielle, lærere hvis denne teknologi blev gjort tilgængeligt for alle.

Rent faktisk er vi også alle studerende, nutidens samfund kræver af os at vi fortsætter med at uddanne os hele livet, er det ikke vidunderligt, og det er også sundt! Få din hjerne til at “pumpe jern”.

Hvor er verdens førende IT land?
HVORFOR kan jeg ikke få lov til at betale for min avis (og heller ikke BØLGEN ;-)) – der er nemlig ikke en eneste dansk avis der synes det var umagen værd at levere aviser gennem Amazon? Tilgengæld kan jeg, via. RSS og den uundværlige calibre software, hente Information, og det koster helt gratis.

At ingen danske forlag har fundet det nødvendigt at kunne distribuere via. Amazon var mere forventet.

Rygtet om litteraturens død er stærkt overdrevet
Kindle kombinerer vision og forretning, Amazon har leveret en dims der er så let at bruge som jeg mener det er muligt med nutidens teknologi, og der er en klar forretningsmodel. Amazon har en vinder her.

Hvordan går det så med at læse noget mere. Jeg er f.eks. nu halvvejs gennem min første bog, “The Raw Shark Texts”, som blev indkøbt til mig af min veninde @anetq fra den fine Undr! blog – tusinde tak for “gaven”.

Igen virkede twitter på mystisk vis. Da jeg roste bogen på twitter, og skrev forfatterens navn, gik der ikke mange minutter før jeg fik et “thanks” fra @steveha11 – forfatteren af the “Raw Shark Texts” – en bog jeg nyder meget. Det er fantastisk at forfatterne nu kun er et tweet væk. Så vidt jeg kan forstå, så arbejder Steve Hall på en filmatisering af “The Raw Shark Texts” – noget der ikke bliver helt let.

Jeg tror virkelig at Amazons vision kan få os til at læse mere, hvilket også vil få os til at skrive mere, så rygtet om litteraturens død (Information 2059: Amatørerne har gjort en ende på litteraturhistorien) er stærkt overdrevet. Hvordan det kommer til at gå med “bogen” – jeg tror personligt at bogen, som vi kender den, forsvinder, men at vores enheder vil blive så gode at vi slet ikke kan se forskel.

Her er et tip til hvordan Danmark kan blive nummer 1 på rigtig mange af de lister Statsminister Lars Løkke Rasmussen snakker om – sats på åben og fri digital distribution af alle skolebøger, og vi kan få en renaisance for læsningen og viden.

Bogen er død, længe leve bogen!

Tidligere dækning:

Eksterne henvisninger:

Her kan du hente gratis eBøger

  • epubBooks.com http://www.epubbooks.com/ – et bredt udvalg af eBøger i ePub formatet. Skal konverteres, f.eks. med calibre, før de virker på Kindle, noget calibre gør automatisk
  • Project Gutenberg http://www.gutenberg.org/wiki/Main_Page – her er der over 30.000 gratis eBøger
  • Planet eBook.com: Free eBooks – en række klassikere i PDF format

Litteraturliste:

Categories
Blogs Computere og Internet Kim Blog (English) Technology

Amazon Kindled KISS

Kindle
Order Date: October 7, 2009
Order #: xxx-xxxxxxx-xxxxxxx
Recipient: Kim Bach

Items not yet shipped:
Delivery estimate: October 21, 2009 – October 23, 2009
Shipping estimate: October 19, 2009
1 of: Kindle Wireless Reading Device (6″ Display, U.S. & International Wireless, Latest Generation)
Sold by: Amazon Export Sales, Inc.
1 of: Patagonia Kindle Case (Fits 6″ Display, Latest Generation Kindle)
Sold by: Amazon Export Sales, Inc.

Kindle and Sony PRS-505I’ve been waiting for the Kindle to be launched in Denmark, I’ve wanted one since I laid my hands on one at Reboot 11 in June. So now I know what I’m getting for my birthday.

Yes, the Kindle has it’s problems, and I fear that it will end in my hardware graveyard, alongside my Palm Vx (which I loved, and read books on) and my Compaq PDA (which I loved, and read books on), but the Kindle is a different creature, much like the iPod, it’s focusing on a specific application and has connected that with a clear business model, I see it as a connected object, a beautiful combination of form and function, something Microsoft has never understood, and that Apple has abandoned, except with the iPod Shuffle.

KISS!

For those oblivious to what a Kindle is, it’s an eBook reader developed by Amazon. Amazon’s vision is to make all books ever published available in digital form, and Jeff Bezos can repeat after Steve Jobs: “we have xx millions of accounts, AND they come with creditcards”. I believe that it will take talent for Amazon to fumble this.

Categories
Blogs Computere og Internet Education/Undervisning Hackers Historier/Stories IT Guruer Kim Blog (English) Open Source Technology Undervisning Videnskab

Forget this world and all its troubles and if possible its multitudinous Charlatans… – Celebrating women in tech

March the 24th 2009 is Ada Lovelace Day, the brainchild of Suw Charman-Anderson. Suw pledged to write a blog-post about a woman in tech that she admired, if at least 1,000 would make the same pledge, and since I’ve admired and been fascinated by Ada Lovelace since childhood, and especially after I read the wonderful book The Difference Engine, so I embraced the project, but at the same time I knew that it would be difficult for me to find just a woman in tech that I admire, that is because the list is long, and I’m happy to say that it’s actually getting longer.

In the end it turned out to be quite simple to name one single woman in “tech” that I admire, a woman that I’ve admired for 2,5 years since I met her at the wonderful BlogForum 2 – an initiative that we really need to revive – and almost did at Copenhagen Twitterfestival.

Since 2006 the woman I have in mind has become quite the celebrity, due to her uncompromising and relentless pursuit of the truth in the murky waters of the Danish tech-business, and this year she’s the natural selection, she’s the woman behind the mainstream breakthrough of the blog-media in Denmark, she is – of course – Bizzen/Toften: the journalist and blogger par excellence Dorte Toft.

Love/hate relationship with “tech”
I have a love/hate relationship with my field, the field known as “tech”. Tech is definitely one of the places where change is happening today, and I feel blessed that I’m involved in bringing this change.

But “Tech” is a field that is riddled by paradox. On one hand it’s crawling with greedy snake-oil salesmen, on the other it’s home to the most revolutionary, idealistic and altruistic people ever as well as some of the most wonderful concepts that humankind has ever come up with.

The problem with the snake-oil salesmen, is that, until now, they’ve pretty much got away with cheating their customers, the authorities, the business community and worst, their employees, and a lot of the snake-oil has been sold under the heading that Denmark is number one in tech.

It’s been a constant embarrassment to me, and I actually left the business four years ago, and it took me two years of “repenting” before I felt that could return to “tech”, and today I’m luckily to be employed by a tech-company that doesn’t carry any snake-oil.

Emperor’s new clothes
I’m just going to, briefly, mention the fact that Dorte Toft was the woman that noticed that Stein Bagger and IT Factory didn’t wear any clothes, thus exposing one of the biggest scams the Danish tech-sector has seen to date, but thank you Dorte for exposing these people, so that we can be protected against these predators and making it possible to feel proud about working in “tech” again.

Feminism isn’t “low-status”
What I’d rather celebrate today is that Dorte Toft is a self-proclaimed feminist, even though it’s – in her own words – a field that is “low-status”, and her labour of love “Nærmest Lykkelig I Nørdland” (“Almost happy in Geekland” – something got lost in translation sorry about that), where Dorte Toft has been writing and writing and writing about the benefits young women would have if the choose to join the so-called “though” fields, technology and science, a very noble cause.

I noticed that Dorte Toft also wrote a blog-post in observation of Ada Lovelace Day today. In this blog-post Dorte is pledging to return to “Nærmest Lykkelig I Nørdland”, I’m so, so happy to hear that, Dorte Toft has been toiling away, trying to ease young women into the fields of tech and science, and her work deserves so much more attention than the perpetual Stein Bagger saga.

To all the wonderful women that I’ve worked with, am working with and will work with in the future, thank you so, so much for putting up with us, we need you, and remember how far you’ve come.

When I mentioned to my father how much I loved having female managers, he simply said that he could never ever imagine have a female manager, I was appalled.

Women, “tech” is too important to be left to men
Women please don’t stop now, so that next time I’m in a position where I’m hiring tech-staff, I hope that I’ll receive applications from women. Looking at the number of students at the IT University in Copenhagen I’m quite optimistic that that would be the case.

DORTE TOFT: Please go work on “Nærmest Lykkelig I Nørdland”, I’m waiting for it, unlike the book about “Banditterne i habitterne” (“The Bandits In Suits”) – and remember feminism isn’t “low-status”!

YOUNG WOMEN: We really, really need you in the tech-sector. Tech is far too important to leave to us men, and listen to, and get inspired by Dorte Toft!

Celebrating the Enchantress of Numbers
I’ll close this post with these wonderful quotes.

We may see aptly that the Analytical Engine weaves algebraic patterns just as the Jacquard loom weaves flowers and leaves
Lady Ada Lovelace

Forget this world and all its troubles and if possible its multitudinous Charlatans – everything in short but the Enchantress of Numbers
Charles Babagge, inventor of the Analytical and Difference engines

Notes
If you want to learn more about the fascinating life of Ada Lovelace, daughter of Lord Byron, by many considered the inventor of programming languages, I’d strongly recommend “The Bride of Science: Romance, Reason, and Byron’s Daughter“, “Zeroes and Ones: Digital Women and the New Technoculture” and “The Difference Engine“.

I’m also building a “shrine” to Ada Lovelace on Algorim.dk, a result of “mellemrumssingulariteten” which was inspired by a young woman I know, this woman is, BTW., working in the purest field of them all 😉

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Passion for industrial design: The spotlight turns to…Jonathan “Jony” Ive

Jony Ive - Apple Senior Vice President - Design

Yesterday, the 14th of October 2008, Apple had an event titled “The spotlight turns to notebooks”, where they unveiled a refresh of the MacBook Pro, a new version of the MacBook in aluminium and a new Cinema Display.

Clever spin
All of these announcements were already confirmed and leaked days before the event, Apple can’t or won’t, contain the leaks, and the new strategy seems to be to use the leaks to drive the hype.

Remembering how secretive Apple events used to be, I sort of, expected Steve Jobs to pull something out of the sleeves of his turtleneck, “one more thing”, but he didn’t, or did he?

One more “thing”
One notable thing about the event was that Steve shared the stage to such a high degree. This is a trend that has been going for some time, especially when it comes to events that focus on the Mac, it’s a bit like Steve isn’t that passionate about computers.

Luckily others are, and at this event Jonathan “Jony” Ive shined – and I’m not referring to the reflections from his shaved head.

It was simply a thrill to see this low-key, soft-spoken, man talk about the manufacturing process involved in producing the new MacBooks, the attention to detail, the months spend refining the new trackpad etc. etc.

Over the years, speculation as to who might take over the position as CEO of Apple after Steve Jobs, has been growing, and my first reaction was that I’d love to see Ive in that position, he’d be a natural.

But really that would be such a shame, so I’m convinced that Ive will stay in his current position, and there’s many more iconic designs hidden in that shiny bald head of his.

So watch the video where Ive talks us through the manufacturing process of the new MacBooks, it’s simply breathtaking.

Risky strategy?
The MacBooks themselves? To me they ooze quality. Apple has obviously decided that they will not address the current trend towards cheap notebooks, aka. netbooks, when asked Steve called it a “developing market”.

The strategy is risky, it defies the market, but I welcome it, and it will only mean that Apple will grow it’s market share in terms of revenue, instead of units moved. With these new notebooks, there’s no doubt that Apple owns the high-end market, and that’s where it’s the most fun, and profitable, to be.

The old MacBook product line has been plagued by quality problems, hopefully the new MacBooks addresses this, I’ll bet that this is the case, these are, to me, the first true Intel based notebooks, designed from the ground up for the Intel chips.

I’m tempted by Ive’s new industrial sculpture

The picture of Jonathan “Jony” Ive, that accompanies this article, is a frame from the video issued by Apple for the launch of the MacBook Aluminium, it’s Copyright Apple Inc. I hope that my use here is considered “Fair Use”.

Currently the video is available on the Apple Website here, it’s likely to be moved, and it’s a good guess that it’s already on YouTube. The video is produced much like a documentary, really professional marketing on Apple’s part.

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One final thing: How do you like them Apples? – The spotlight turns to notebooks

Applenotebookevent - The spotlight turns to notebooksA draft of Steve Jobs’ presentation for the Notebook Event titled “The spotlight turns to notebooks” scheduled to take place on October 14th 2008 in Cupertino, has been leaked.

Since rumour has it that Apple is softening up to rumour sites: if you don’t like me publishing this rumour: SOSUME.

“Gi’ mig Danmark tilbage” by Natasja is blasting the Cupertino speakers!

Steve Jobs takes the stage

(applause)

Welcome, and thank you for coming.

One first thing:
Apple has realized that we can’t compete with Linux and has decided to make an investment in Linux. So we’re discontinuing Mac OS X in favour of Linux with KDE, all Mac OS X developers will instead be working on contributing to Linux, ending years of, mostly, passive and luke warm support for the open source movement. Apple wants to appologise for this mal-pratice, and all code will be shared back with the community.

The next version of Mac OS X will be renamed Linux Snow Leopard, and it will be licensed under the GPL – meaning that it can be freely copied, and installed, on any computer.

(oooooh)

Linux Snow Leopard is available as a free download from Apple AppStore, and it is available…NOW!

(applause and cheers)

The reason for this change is that captalism, as we knew it is dead, instead of competing to death and the focus on economic growth, that is destroying the planet, human kind will instead work to improve the quality of life for all.

Democratisation of technology will be instrumental in bringing these changes.

Apple wants to be part of this.

(Steve moves the cover on the table, pulls out a picture frame with a picture of Richard Stallman on one side and Nicholas Negroponte on the other side, from this frame he pulls out a beautiful sub-notebook)

So today I’m happy to announce the insanely great TuxBook, developed in coorporation with Asus.

Asus is bringing the change, and since our old notebooks really weren’t anything but repackaged Asus products anyway, we’ve decided that Jonathan Ive will now be working full time making Asuses look cool.

The TuxBook comes with 2GB RAM, 32GB SSD, WiFi, Bluetooth, a 3G modem and A-GPS. It sports 8 hours of batterylife, and can, optionally, be solarpowered.

Demo:
(The splash screen is a Penguin holding an Apple)

Isn’t that beautiful? KDE 4.1: BOOM!

The TuxBook will be priced at $99, and it is available…NOW!

Thank you all for coming, and Karl Marx was right.

(applause)

One more thing:
Since you can’t make money on stock, APPL will be unlisted from the stock exchange, Apple will in the future be a Section 501(c)(3) not-for-profit charity.

One final thing:
How do you like them Apples?

(standing ovations and wild cheers: T-U-X what’s that spell? TUX!, what’s that spell? TUX!)

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DrupalCamp Copenhagen 2008 – Drupal Danmark: You’ve come a long way, baby

Drupal.OrgRegular readers might know that I’m a big fan of the Content Managment System Drupal. I’ve been actively promoting this system for 3 years, and I was active when Drupal Danmark, the Danish Drupal community, was established in the spring of 2006.

Despite this, I’ve never really managed to build anything useful using Drupal!

It’s not that I haven’t tried, actually I’ve ventured into a number of projects where I’ve tried to use Drupal as an application framework, because I, strongly, believe that Drupal is so much more than a CMS.

The projects haven’t failed completely, and I’ve learned valuable lessons, but I never really managed to finish them.

As a developer trying to work with a CMS for development is rather frustrating, since you get to spend most of your time configuring the system, and you constantly run into limitations, that mostly are related to the fact that developers and non-developers alike, has to be able to configure the system.

Why did the projects fail? Was it due to lacking skills on my part, or is Drupal not suited to use as an application framework or are there additional factors?

I’d like to explore this, so I’ve signed-up for the very first DrupalCamp Copenhagen, that will be held November 15th and 16th 2008 in Copenhagen.

I’ve also proposed a session: Using Drupal as a Web Application Framework, let’s see if that is accepted, but for sure I’m not going to be a tourist, and I’m going to actively pursue an answer to my questions.

You’ve come a long way baby
Like I mentioned, I was present when we took the first steps trying to establish the community back in spring of 2006, but since late 2006 I’ve been mostly absent from the community.

Since then Drupal, and Drupal Danmark, has grown stronger and stronger, and if you take a look at the sign-ups for DrupalCamp Copenhagen 2008, you can see how strong the community has grown.

The fact that there’s a significant number of international attendees is impressive. This has a lot to do with Drupal Danmark and evangelists like Morten DK’s and Mikkel Høgh’s very active participation in the international community.

So thank you all for growing the community, and having the guts to go ahead with DrupalCamp Copenhagen 2008. YOU ROCK!

Drupal Danmark: You’ve come a long way baby.

Hope to see you at DrupalCamp Copenhagen.

See also:

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iværk08: Morten Lund: “Amateurs build the Ark. Professionals build the Titanic”

iværk08: An emotional Morten Lund facing the pressAn emotional Morten Lund, faced the press at the iværk08 conference for entrepreneurs in Forum, Copenhagen, Denmark, on September 13th 2008. Morten Lund is a Danish Entrepreneur and Investor, usually associated with Skype, but more recently with the horrible collapse of the Danish newspaper Nyhedsavisen, which he owned a majority stake in.

Morten Lund started out, clearly shaken, and in a most open way, much against the advise of his counsellors, by addressing the press. He did that by stating that he would be accepting, at least 7 questions, from the audience first.

I really, really, want to believe that all that has actually happened, is that Morten Lund has lost a lot – he says all – of his money, and that his considerable ego has taken a serious hit. He’s also very sorry for the people that lost their jobs, and he’s also very regretful about having tried to start-up something in Denmark, which is a big shame.

His story sounds credible, and you can read it on his blog, LundXY: The Day I Woke Up Without Arms And Legs.

Personally I understand, and applaud, that Morten Lund took on the Danish media, they’re in serious need of being shaken up, but why he choose to do it by investing that heavily in a venture like Nyhedsavisen will remain a mystery to me, he must have known that it was a black-hole when he entered, or maybe he just had very, very bad advisors. The reason I’m baffled is that Nyhedsavisen clearly had the best website of all Danish media, but Nyhedsavisen relied heavily on distribution of a print-version, and my first reaction when I heard about Morten Lund’s investment was that it didn’t make any sense.

The established Danish media is a formidable foe, just consider the unfortunate fate of “Dagen”, the previous high-profiled, and very short-lived, attempt at shaking up the Danish media landscape.

While answering the questions from the press, Morten Lund made a very bold statement, by claiming that everyone was “played” by David Montgomery. (David Montgomery is Executive Chairman of Mecom, which owns Berlingske Media, one of the major Danish media conglomorates, and a main competitor of Nyhedsavisen). A statement that can also be found on his blog.

The case will unfold in the days and – probably – years to come, and there’s likely to be a juridical aftermath, even though Morten Lund, according to his blog, is keeping his fingers crossed. The juridical aftermath could become very ugly indeed.

After taking the promised 7 questions from the press, Morten Lund went on to discuss how to start things, which was what the majority of the audience had come to listen to.

Morten Lund – “The Amateur”

Morten Lund has a number of well-know mantras, like “Act don’t talk”, “Network is everything” etc. but a mantra that sort of sums up his general attitude is this:

Amateurs build the Ark. Professionals build the Titanic

Morten Lund takes pride in being the amateur – which literally means ‘lover of’. A get-goer and change-maker, who claims that he really doesn’t know anything – what so ever – about the fields that he gets involved in, but he manages to either find out, or to find people that do, and you can feel the energy and passion when he speaks about these topics, it’s quite contagious, hey it got me blogging again – something neither the Roskilde Festival 2008 nor Reboot 10 managed to do – which is rather strange come to think about it.

Even though Morten Lund says that nobody can predict the next big thing, he believes that the future is all about technology, and that Google is the one to watch. After praising AdWords, which is a brilliant idea, that is making Google tons of money, he asked the audience if anyone could explain the business model of Google to him. Only one raised his hand (me ;-)), so I guess I have some explaining to do, because it goes somewhat further than AdWords. Will blog about it, so stay tuned, but if you’re a regular follower of mine, you might have guessed that it will have something to do with “Pyramids”, hey I might – finally – make my point about that clear.

Morten Lund finished by demoing how to create a brand. After that demo, he will now – at least in the minds of the audience – forever be associated with recorder flutes! Great demo – hmm did they collect the flutes after the demo? Didn’t notice!

I want to believe

Like I said: “I want to believe”, and right now, I hope that Morten Lund, a true entrepreneur and risk taker, will have his name cleared, and that he, in the eternal words of Chumbawamba, “got knocked down, but will get up again”.

OTOH considering what happened last time I “wanted to believe”, I’m not overly optimistic.

The real looser in this case is the Danes. Unfortunately Morten Lund is most likely done trying to do business in Denmark :-(, so somebody else will have to pick up the gauntlet, and take on the Danish media.

Denmark deserves better media than what we have now, and risk takers like Morten Lund are in short supply. His message that Denmark is the perfect place to take risks, since there’s a wonderful social security system to avoid you from falling into poverty, could have been lost in translation – he qualified it by stating how important having that security is, and that we should nurture and respect our welfare society – good call! His point was that Danes really have nothing to fear, so take those risks!

I also did some live Jaikuing from iværk08, you can read it here:
At iværk08 in Forum: Amazing amount of small start-ups working with IT, including a former business partner