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Hmm, interesting video from the Top Gear guys…the Euro NCAP rating is indeed something to consider when selecting a new (second hand) car!

So, here I am; first-timer in the KLM Business Lounge at Amsterdam Airport Schiphol!

I recently got upgraded to Gold Member in KLM’s Flying Blue program. I have to admit; I’m gonna spend more time here! 😉 …no more last minute runs through customs and rush to the gate…I’ll be here a few hours before departure, working via free WiFi, enjoying a meal and a wide choice of drinks; name it, they got it!

Anyway, gotta run, my flight to Vienna leaves in a bit…next stop; Bratislava. Will be there until Friday morning, CYA!

Start of a new week, a week filled with a trip through Europe; I left Norway yesterday for The Netherlands, was staying over with my parents for the night, before that visiting my sister/brother in law and nephew (who sleeping like a baby boy, which he actually is! 😉 ), and then playing first-line PC helpdesk support for my mothers work PC (I have to admit, my father did a great job in installing Windows XP on that, crashed, computer!).

Today I drove to Brussels, and enjoyed a day filled with customer meetings, teleconferences and an perfect dinner to end the busy day…Brussels is great!

Tomorrow? Back to NL for an afternoon in the office, then flying to sweet Slovakia in the evening to spend the rest of the week there…it’ll be great to be in Bratislava again, it has been some time! They have the Euro now, and I am just in time to exchange my Slovak koruna/crowns! 😉

Just some weeks ago I posted an article from the Telegraph about how man-made global warming got disproved…today I am thinking; and still the climate uuhhh, changed!

Well, it always did and will do, so changing ‘Global Warming’ to ‘Global Climate change’ is still way off!

And yet, the end of last week in Norway was relatively mild, temperatures around 0 degrees Celcius, even a bit above…today we had a stunning +4, strong winds and rain…if I didn’t know better I’d say it was friggin’ October! 😉

In The Netherlands on the other hand, temperatures were down to -10 dgr Celcius with an absolute minimum of -21 in the South!! The whole country is skating on the canals and lakes and I don’t understand why there is no snow around Oslo…is this a one-timer or a true effect of the so-called Global Climate change, and…can it be proven??

Hey, it’s Apple, so this MUST the future!! 😉

Apple Introduces Revolutionary New Laptop With No Keyboard

I’ll go to see my first ever live ice hockey match tonight!

Vålerenga, currently number one in the competition is playing against the Storhamar Dragons, the number six…I guess it’ll be an easy win for ‘my’ team! 😉

Another new experience, great!

This years MacWorld Keynote turned out to be good as always, yet not spectacular with respect to new products. Hmm, could it have been that the lack of ‘super’-announcements also was one of the reasons for Steve Jobs’ absence?

Three main announcements were presented:

1. iLife ’09 – the personal multimedia application suite included with every Mac.

New things in this version:

iPhoto ’09: Faces, Places, integration for FaceBook & Flickr, Slideshow Themes and Travel Book

iMovie ’09: Precision Editor, Advanced drag & drop, Dynamic Themes, Animated travel maps

GarageBand ’09: Learn to Play, Artist Lessons

2. iWork ’09 – Apple’s office application suite with updates to Keynote, Pages, Numbers.

New is iWork.com, an online collaboration tool like Google Docs.

3. 17″ MacBook Pro

An upgrade of this high-end notebook, similar to the MacBooks introduced at the end of 2008. It has one major difference; the battery is non removable, lasting up to 8 hours!

There was ‘One last thing’, covering three announcements related to iTunes. A new pricing structure varying from $0.69, $0.99 and $1.29 per song, all music will be DRM free via iTunes Plus and the iPhone can now access the Music Store also on 3G.

So, as I said, a good Keynote as always, but not spectacular. There was  no Steve, no iPhone nano, no new MacMini nor iMac…I assume Apple will organize seperate events for these. 😉

Early January is traditionally the time for Apple to kick off the New Year, announcing new products at MacWorld!

There are a lot of rumors floating around on the ‘net, although this year things will be unlike any other years; the Keynote speech will have to do without Apple CEO Steve Jobs (aka Stevenote)! He wrote an open letter to the Apple community to explain why he will not be present. A major pity, since I always enjoyed his performance on stage, the man is a true Master in presenting!

Anyway, let’s see how Phil Schiller (Apple’s Senior Vice President of Worldwide Product Marketing…how’s that for a title? 😉 ) will do tomorrow. And, what exciting new products will be announced! And who knows, perhaps Steve will drop by for his famous ‘One more thing…‘ segment at the end of the Keynote!

I’ve had a terrible back pain last week. Having last week off, doing some back exercises and generally taking it easy solved things!

Until today; I woke up with a minor pain in my back this morning, didn’t take it seriously and got a first warning when I took the bbq from the veranda to the garage (something that I should have done some months ago 😉 ). Directly after that I went ice skating (again!)…trust me; NO good for your back, especially not when you’re practicing the optimal position for speed skating (a low position with the knees bent), ooch! Even a sauna at home didn’t help…I’m SO looking forward to start the working week/year tomorrow…

The iPhone Dev Team released a software unlock for the iPhone 3G, roughly half a year after the phone was released…that’s over a month faster than that it took the community to release a software unlock for the original iPhone last year. A tutorial is available on iClarified.

I wonder what Apple will bring in 2009, after they introduced the iPhone in 2007 and the iPhone 3G in 2008…heavily rumoured is the iPhone nano.

2009; time for a new iPhone??

Happy New Year y’all!!

I’ve had a great start of 2009; first a splendid party at Willy & Katka’s place where we rocked the place with Guitar Hero World Tour (it’s really heaps of fun to play as a band!) and at the end of the night I turned out to be über-metrosexual…I won the Singstar Abba edition (uhh, yes, that is Abba… 😉 ).

Quite a contrast with this mornings (/afternoons 😉 ) wake up with the Wiener Philharmoniker New Years concert and some leftover ‘oliebollen‘, a great combination and a long tradition.

No tradition yet is ice skating on New Year’s Day. The long period of temperatures below zero, lack of snow and blue skies made the conditions today perfect, and the Bogstadvannet lake was a be-au-ti-ful place to try my ice skates after 6 years! I loved it, this year started great…Happy New Year y’all!!

Today is that one day in a year when we turn the imaginary page of time…page 2008 in the ‘book of life and the world’ has almost been written, all experiences of the past year are in it.

Good to know that they are stored in a safe place, our memories…one can always look back, read and learn.

Writing things down and then turning the page mainly means that things can be put to rest…it’s time to go on and look to the future, something which comes automatically if you start to live your life now, in the present…

The car hunt was not successful today, at least, there was no car sold. 😉 …pictures on the internet are sometimes not even close to the real thing!!

So, the car hunt continues!

We (or actually Santa Claus 😉 ) took Robbert & Suzanne to the movie ‘Australia‘. There’s a lot to say about the movie, positive or negative, but I liked it a lot! (well, I love the Land Downunder a lot too, so that might help)…anyway, go and see it!

Our best friends from NL, Robbert & Suzanne, arrived today…they’re staying until Saturday, it’s great to end the Old and start the New Year with friends! We used this afternoon for catching up…tomorrow will be all about, uhh, buying a new car! 😉

Telegraph.co.uk: “Easily one of the most important stories of 2008 has been all the evidence suggesting that this may be looked back on as the year when there was a turning point in the great worldwide panic over man-made global warming. Just when politicians in Europe and America have been adopting the most costly and damaging measures politicians have ever proposed, to combat this supposed menace, the tide has turned in three significant respects.”

Interesting article that deserves more attention, especially since it is one of the few of its kind that made it through the mainstream media filters (or, was ‘allowed’)…so, share it too!

(thx Adam Curry for pointing me to the article, unfortunately I missed the Live edition of the Daily Source Code today)

This Christmas seems to be, more than ever, all about food; it started a true traditional Norwegian Christmas Eve dinner, following by a superb Christmas brunch on first Christmas Day (also traditional Norwegian), seemlessly followed by a huge and delicious Christmas dinner for two last night…

Today it’s second Christmas Day and we got invited for yet another Christmas brunch! It’s supposed to be quite a big one, and international; around 22 people including Vikings, Bradwurst lovers, Cheeseheads, and some more…

Oh, incase you wonder if this was enough eating; tomorrow we’ll have six dutch/norwegian friends over for a third Christmas Day dinner at our place…jeez, I’m gonna look like a stuffed turkey! 😉

Ho, hoo, hoooo…Merry Xmas / Zalig Kerstfeest / God Jul everybody!!!

We’ve been invited by friends to celebrate a traditional norwegian Julaften (Christmas Eve). As mentioned yesterday; today is THE Christmas day for Norway, it’s bigger than 1st Christmas Day, which traditionally is THE day for the dutch, and I guess the rest of the (Christian) world.

It feels great to take part in these ‘new’ traditions, afterall, Norway really feels like home now!

Yaayyyyy! I just came home and will have 1.5 week Xmas Holidays!!! So, CYA January 5th, dearly beloved colleagues! 😉

The days off THIS week are obvious, having the holy days on Thursday and Friday plus the fact that Wednesday is ‘Julaften’/Christmas Eve, which is actually a bigger day in Norway for Xmas celebrations than first Christmas Day…?!?

I took next week off since Robbert and Suzanne are coming over Monday-Saturday for a spectacular New Years party at Willy & Katka’s place!

I’ve been Mr. Xmas-DJ in the office today; I played a collection of all-time greatest Xmas tunes for my colleagues!

I found the perfect mix via my iTunes music library, the Sky-Radio live-webstream (every year this dutch radiostation turns into ‘THE’ Christmas station of NL), and all of that nicely mixed with tunes found via my favorite tunes search-site; seeqpod.com!

Santa says ho-ho-hooo! 😉