Want to get as much as possible out of the video coverage of the 2012 Dakar rally from ASO? Finding it hard to get to the good stuff over at http://www.dakar.com? Well, in that case I’ve got it all sorted for you. Below you’ll find a list of all the English videos posted by the official Dakar organization on YouTube – in a structured manner! At the least I’d recommend watching the Stage summary and the Magazine for every stage, however all the other material is really interesting as well! The Stage summary is usually around three minutes long, and the Magazine is about a minute and a half. What I find is a real pity is that none of the material is available in HD, the nature shots would’ve been awesome in a better resolution and bitrate. Oh well, can’t have it all without being there I guess. =) Here goes:

Just saw the season finale of the new series Homeland and I’ve got to say that it’s a really good series! It’s managed to keep me more on edge during the whole first season than a lot of other series. Up until the last episode of this season they kept an intriguing story line with a few unanticipated twists left right to the end, aka – cliffhanger.

I’ll be waiting for season two now! :)

A couple of days ago I got a flat tyre on my bicycle. In and of itself that’s not really a big problem, I consider myself handy enough to fix that myself. However, what was a problem was time; I really needed my bike the next day and for the rest of the week and I didn’t really have any time in my already busy schedule to fiddle around with a punctured inner tube. Also, I don’t have a clue as to which sizes of inner tubes there are and if there is a chance of me getting the wrong one.

So I decided that I would only bother with taking the wheel off the bike and then let someone else fix the flat tire using any means necessary. This seemed very reasonable partly because there is a bicycle shop around the block from where I currently work.

So at 10 am when the shop had opened I went over to see if they could help me. Little did I know that in three minutes flat and 170 Swedish krona later I was equipped with a new inner tube mounted on my wheel – ready to be put back on my bike!

The moral of the story is basically this:
Realize that there are people more skilled than you and let them do their job so that you get more time to do your job (or whatever you happen to value most right then and there). Everybody wins! Those 170 Swedish krona are probably the most well spent money I’ve put into that bike!

After having been checked out by a neurologist due to suspicion of multiple sclerosis (which no one really thought was plausible anyway) I’m now waiting for step two in the investigation of my hanging eye lid. If only they could stay on schedule, that would be awesome.

I’m guessing that either way it’ll end up with some form of surgery. It’d be interesting to see myself in the mirror again with that stern look I was able to serve before the eye lid started out its life of lazy. ;)

So, given that I’m into motorcycles and that I’ve had to put away my bike for the winter I’m yearning for all stuff bike related. One of those things are motorcycle films. Combine this with my newfound addiction to MotoGP I want to see the films Faster and the follow-up Fastest. What I found was that I couldn’t see or buy them, even if I wanted to pay for it!

What’s the deal with not releasing your merchandise ASAP around the world?

Now, in my book that’s one of the problems fueling piracy….

(BTW, I sent an email to the production company asking about the availability and they told me they would get back to me when I can get it… *yawn*.)

This exact same thing annoys me about certain web shops, specifically the ones that have the product, but won’t ship it to Sweden (or any other European country for that matter) for some unknown reason. It’s called e-commerce for a reason, right?

Since I began riding motorcycles I haven’t really thought much about the noise levels accumulated inside the helmet. I guess I’ve always thought that if everyone else can do it I can too. But then one day I realized that the small amount of tinnitus that I already have was being more and more easily provoked by the noise in my helmet. That’s when I started riding with ear plugs and the more I asked around among other bikers it turns out that quite a few of them also wear varying types of ear protection.

Given that my ear canals are on the small side I’ve had troubles finding protection that won’t make my ear canals hurt like h**l after a while (especially inside a helmet). After some research I found a company (EARfoon – Swedish site) which will make molded forms of your ear and produce custom made ear plugs which they then fit with filters specifically made for bikers. About three weeks ago I had my molds made and now they’ve arrived at the shop. Going to pick them up at 11 – happiness! =)

- update -

Oh my, this is some good stuff I’ve gotten my hands on! They fit like a glove on the first try and no more turbulence induced noise in my ears. I’m still able to hear people talk with the plugs in (although at a slightly lower volume) and the engine is still slightly hearable. Sure, you can feel that you’ve got something in your ears, but it’s not nearly as painful as regular plugs. Plus that these plugs won’t move around in your ears (and thus causing noise/acoustic pressure) as the helmet moves on your head (due to road conditions and so forth). Given the fact that these will allow me to keep my hearing even though I’m riding bikes this might be the best investment in the motorcycle equipment department for a long time to come!

If you care for your hearing even the slightest bit – get a set of these!

Today I realized that something from my past as a systems administrator has passed on. The NewSID tool has been retired by it’s founder himself, Mark Russinovich.

As it turns out it’s impact was pretty nominal, and might even be detrimental in some cases where software has been installed before the SID is changed. This is a scenario I have experienced myself actually. My intention was to prepare a fully installed BizTalk server which I could clone whenever I needed a new instance of it.

As it turns out the Enterprise Single Sign-On data becomes unavailable after the SID is changed. I’m guessing that the SID is somehow used to encrypt the data, and therefore the decryption fails with the new SID.

To read the specifics about why the tool has been retired head over to Marks own blog where he goes through all the gory details.

The other day I enabled Time Machine backups on my Mac and after a few exclusions (e.g. my virtual machines) I had a backup of about 40 GB to do.

Today after a day in the office I noticed that the next backup would take 600 MB. This made me wonder what actually was backed up and why that much data had changed.

After some google searches I found the tool timedog on google code. By using this tool as described on their web you can find out exactly which files were backed up in the last backup and how much space they take up. Using this knowledge I could tune my Time Machine exclusions further.

Small addition though: if your Time Machine is on the network you will first have to have it mounted so that it appears as Time Machine Backup under the Devices node in a Finder windows. This is easiest done by right clicking the Time Machine icon in your menu bar and then selecting Enter Time Machine. This will mount your backup as a device and take you into your Time Machine. When exiting your Time Machine your backup will still be mounted and thus be accessible for use with the timedog tool.

Enjoy.

Tonight from 8 pm to 9 pm (local Swedish time) will be the time for my first appearance on radio. Not just the web-radio version, but actual frequency modulated energy transmitted to peoples radios via.. air. The show in question is a local Swedish show appearing once a week on friday nights playing electronic music (sometimes referred to as synth). I’ll be playing music together with two friends: mDr and Diverge. So, if you’re a resident in Stockholm or the areas around it tune your radio to 95,3 MHz or point your media player to the digital web-version of the show (which will be working when we go on the air).

I’ve collected a few tracks which I think will be good energizers for a friday night, kind of as a preparation for the upcoming dance floors for the night. We’ll see how I manage to dish those tracks out for you. =)

Yes!

Since my switch from PC to Mac I’ve had to find a new instant messaging program which preferably has support for multiple protocols. The application of choice here seems to be Adium, which I’ve been using since I got my Mac. The main drawback compared compared to Miranda (which I’ve been using on my various PCs) is that it lacks support for IRC.

Until today, that is. Today I found out that the current beta of Adium has support for IRC, and it also supports SSL connections to the server you use (provided that the server supports it too, of course). Being the old school user of IRC that I am I immediately noticed that the layout of group chat windows in Adium didn’t quite fit my mental image of what IRC chat windows should look like. This is where Adiums styles come to the rescue!

The internets provided me with this excellent style: irc 2.0. It also has inverse color schemes for those of you who don’t like the black background.

My life as a happy Mac-user continues.