2009-06-20 13:42:26 - 10 comments
A friend of mine died today. There are some of us who still use irc as a place to hang out. Fifteen years ago, quite a few of the old veterans from usenet and the legendary channel #norge on irc gathered on an irc channel which was an invite channel only. Among them was Erik Naggum.
It was very unusual that Erik would quiet for long periods of time in our channel. Therefore I started thinking a couple of days ago that I should try to get in touch with him via other means. However, time flies and last night I realised I hadn't chatted with him in seven days. After sending him an sms without receiving a reply, I expressed my concern in the channel Another member of the channel then got in touch with his parents, and this morning we received the sad news that he had been found dead in his bed.
Erik is...I'm sorry, this is going to take some time getting used to.. was probably one of the biggest usenet celebrities. Among the people who didn't exactly appreciate him, he was known as the person who would eat newbies alive, and make them wish they had never even pressed the Submit-button on their newsreader. Truth be told, there were times I think Erik was out of line in his flames, but they were darn funny to read. If you weren't on the receiving end of the firestorm, mind you...
If you engaged in a debate with him, he would make you sweat and work hard on your replies. He was especially good at making you question your own conclusions and why you believed that the truths you cling on to really were true. Erik felt that a lot of people couldn't cope with that, and according to him they often replied with personal attacks claiming Erik had made them feel bad and had hurt their feelings.
However, if you're reply was backed with well formed arguments and showed that you actually had a clue about what you were talking about, discussing with Erik was enormously fun and not least, educational.
I've learned a lot from Erik. He was a very intelligent and smart man, who in some regards maybe lacked some people skills. He was our irc-channels very own Dr. House. And I mean that in a very loving way, and I think he actually would take that as a compliment.
If you actually took time to read his writings, you could see that he was very knowledgeable. Sure, he could sometimes have benefited from an editor who could tell him that he should kill his darlings, but is articles were always intelligent, witty, insightful and interesting. I think a shining example is this article where he patiently answers the question on why he really loathed XML. He was, in his own words, an infoholic. He read an unbelievable amount of articles, books and newspapers every week.
I've known Erik for fifteen years. In the beginning I thought of him as a one of those Mr-know-it-alls you ran across on usenet. After I matured, not least intellectually, I realised how wrong I had been. Around ten years ago we started to chat a lot via private messages, and seven years go we had developed a good friendship, which really helped me four years ago when my family broke up.
I've learned a lot from talking to Erik. It's no exaggeration that he during these years really changed the way I look at the world. He really appreciated it when I told him this, and he replied that he liked the fact that I didn't take everything he said for granted. That meant he too had to work hard to question his own beliefs. He often asked for my opinions on articles, before he published them, and I did the same vice versa. He would first dig in to all my grammatical mistakes, of course, something I never could call him on. His grasp of English and Norwegian was fantastic.
In all these years I've only met him in person five times. One of them was the very final time he went out for a beer with the rest of the irc channel. The last time was only a month ago, on the very same day I attended the Jean Michel Jarre concert. He was visibly very ill with back pains, which he had been struggling with for the past six months. This came on top of his ulcerative colitis, which he was diagnosed with twelve years ago. He never complained much, and even when I was visiting him he was more interested in talking about Mathematical books, his gun hobby and the articles he wanted to share with me.
I will miss him very, very much. I will miss our talks, I will miss everything I was supposed to learn from him in the future, I will miss his generosity for sharing information and files, I will miss the gratitude he displayed when one did the same in return and I will really, really miss his puns.
And as for his humour and great wit? Well, you can always go back and read his quotes. Or you can check out what he meant for quite a few people out there.
Rest in peace, Erik.
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2009-05-29 00:26:56 - 5 comments
Last night I received an email from a person calling himself a Photo Researcher for the magazine ArchitectureWeek. I can only assume that Photo Researcher means, "person who gets people to give them photos for free."
He asked me if they could use the photo of Jean Michel Jarre playing the laser harp in their weekly quiz column this week. I promptly replied that it would be no problem, as long as they paid my standard fee. I received a reply telling me that they didn't have a budget for paying for photos like this. But maybe I would be interested in a one year free subscription?
This is the reply I sent:
"As I've stated before, I find it professional of you not to just steal my photo, as some magazines, artists and others have done in the past. However, asking for people's work for free is very unprofessional. In fact, you're trivializing my work.
I've invested in equipment, I've spent countless hours learning to master the craft of photography, I've read photographic literature and articles, I've practised, I've worked with models, I've done concert shoots and basically really educated myself to be able to do this as part of my living. Do you really expect me to give my work away for free?
It took me three full days of hard negotiations to get the job that enabled me to take the photograph in question. Then I spent seven hours at the concert hall to do the job. And don't get me started on the time I spent on post production of the photo. In short: It took whole a lot of work to get that shot done.
You tell me that this will give me free exposure. I'm sorry, but the exposure I will get from your use of my photo is minimal. Besides, would you go to the local grocery, buy lunch for your colleagues and then tell the cashier to give it to you for free because it will give the shop publicity? Would you tell the carpenter working on your building that "it's not in your budget to pay them, but that you can offer them a free subscription?" I doubt it. Do you work for free?
I realise that you're just making do with the cards that people higher up in the chain have dealt you. I would seriously suggest you go back to them and tell them that if your magazine is going to appear serious, you should have a budget for paying for people's work. If not, then there's always free stock photo laying around.
If you're interested in buying anything from me, then you're more than welcome to. If what you're looking for is free stuff, then I'm not your guy.
Best wishes
Hogne B. Pettersen"
Sometimes I'm just too polite...
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2009-05-26 15:45:02 - 4 comments
I finally get some time to blog about my encounter with a musical idol of mine; Jean Michel Jarre.
He is currently out on a two year long world tour, and visited Oslo Spektrum on May 13th this year.
I managed, with the help of Ras Bolding. to get hold of Louis, Jarre's tour manager. Let me digress for a moment and tell you all that Ras Bolding is an official hero of mine from now on. If anyone bad mouths Ras, I will go medieval on their asses! He really helped me out on this one. More -->
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2009-05-21 03:27:07 - 1 comments
Happy birthday to the video game playing, Lego building, hard school working, soccer playing, animal loving boy who just got his first merit badge for swimming across the pool, who don't want to go for hikes but loves it when we're in the middle of it, who likes to play with experiment sets, who is a food lover, who, seriously, never gives me much trouble and who also happens to be the bestest thing in my life.
Happy birthday, Håkon! Daddy wuvs, you!
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2009-05-05 13:46:24 - 1 comments
Nina Karin Monsen mottok i dag Fritt Ord-prisen. Dette har skapt voldsomme reaksjoner, og i begynnelsen var jeg litt skremt over at folk som vanligvis påberoper seg ytringsfrihet var så snare til å dømme Monsen og stiftelsen som gav henne prisen. Man må tåle at folk forfekter andre meninger enn sine egne. Når Monens kritikere går offentlig ut med meningsytringer, kan de ikke sutre og påberope seg offerrollen når Monsen argumenter mot det de har ytret.
I dag kom jeg til og med over en kommentar på facebook hvor det ble hevdet at Monsen frontet «det grumsete synspunktet til folk flest.» Nå tror jeg ikke det stemmer, men hvis man virkelig mener at flertallet av befolkningen skal holde kjeft siden deres meninger ikke stemmer med ens egne, tror jeg at man har større problemer enn Nina Karin Monsen.
Jeg finner det merkelig, men ikke overraskende, at folk blir såret av Monsen. Hun har absolutt ingen makt over andre. Ingenting av det hun sier kan stoppe den nye ekteskapsloven eller hindre folk av samme kjønn i å gifte seg. Det skal være lov å si sårende og støtende ting, men følelsenes tyranni har dessverre fått bre alt for mye om seg i samfunnet, og det stopper effektiv oppegående og intelligente debatter.
For Monsen har, på tross av sin religiøsitet, framstått for meg som en meget intelligent debattant, med en skarp tunge. Da prisen ble annonsert syntes jeg det var et modig og ikke-politisk korrekt valg. En Fritt Ord-pris som ikke var kontroversiell og som ikke skapte debatt ville vært fullstendig tannløs. Ja, kanskje til og med uten mening.
Da jeg leste argumentasjonen til Nina Karin Monsen ble jeg jeg imidlertid straks mer skeptisk til utdelingen. Jeg har vært en varm forsvarer for folk som Tor Erling Staff; ikke fordi jeg er enig med ham, men fordi vi trenger folk som ham som kanskje kan få en til å se ting fra flere synsvinkler, selv om de desverre blir møtt med emosjonelle og lite gjennomtenkte utrop. Vi skal applaudere meninger som går på tvers av det som ansees som riktig, men argumentasjonen til Monsen bærer preg av synsing og udokumenterte påstander, som egentlig bare bunner i en ting: «Jeg mener at ting burde vært sånn, og så leter jeg opp konspiratoriske argumenter uten dekning.»
Det kan naturligvis hende at Monsen føler seg truet og føler at hun må forsvare standpunktene sine, og at hun takler dette dårlig. Jeg har via en god online-venn de siste årene fått et langt bedre innblikk i filosofi enn jeg har hatt tidligere, og det som slår meg er at filosofer sjelden argumenterer for sine egne meninger. Isteden argumenterer de for at det finnes flere mulige svar på spørsmålene enn de etablerte sannhetene vi klinger oss til. Kan reaksjonene på Monsens argumentasjon være mer et resultat av at vi skyter budbringeren?
Monsen har sagt mye opp gjennom årene som jeg har vært helt enig i , spesielt om kvinnebevegelsen, men sitatene jeg har lest fra boken hennes får henne til å framstå som en rablende religiøs mørkemannskvinne som bruker irrasjonelle argumenter som man lett kan avvises. Bør man premiere slikt?
Da David Irving ble invitert til litteraturfestivalen på Lillehammer truet Fritt Ord med å trekke tilbake pengestøtten til festivalen dersom de ikke trakk tilbake invitasjonen. Argumentet til Fritt Ord for å gi Monsen prisen er at Monsen i alle år vært modig og gått mot strømmen med å forfekte meninger som er upopulære. Det samme må vel kunne sies om Irving? Jeg finner det svært merkelig at Fritt Ord er så vinglete i sitt standpunkt. Er det, som en venn av meg påpekte, fordi nazistene var frekke nok til å invadere Norge, den mest fryktelige forbrytelse noensinne?
Jeg er en vitenskapens mann. Jeg er beredt til å skifte mening når jeg får servert overbevisende argumenter om hvorfor jeg tar feil. Og jeg elsker å diskutere og omgås smarte folk som kan mer enn meg. Det gjør jeg hver dag, og jeg har i løpet av dagen fått mange verdifulle innspill fra flere av dem i debatter om denne saken. Jeg har flere ganger i dag gått fra det ene synspunktet til det andre om hvor vidt det var riktig å gi prisen til Monsen.
Men uansett hvordan man vrir og vender på det: Debatten har fløyet høyt. Folk har fått demonstrere. De har skrevet debattinlegg og boggpostinger. Alle sider har fått fremføre sine standpunkter. Det kan bare bety at det frie ord fortsatt står sterkt i Norge, uansett hvem som får prisen og hva man måtte mene om den. Så får det bare være at magen min vrenger seg når jeg ser Anita Appelthun Sæhle stå og gratulere Monsen med prisen på taket av operaen...
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2009-04-08 03:24:20 - 1 comments
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2009-03-22 15:03:55 - 0 comments
The blog is very quiet, I know. 12 months ago I would get a sting of guilt thinking about my lack of updates. Stupid I know, since I don't owe anyone any blog postings. But I think all bloggers have that desperate feeling. "I should really blog soon! But I don't have the time. Oh my!"
However, these days I don't feel like that. At least not as much as I used to do. Because I realised last week that I'm not so quiet as my lack of updates can lead you to believe. Actually, I'm posting more links to articles, videos, photos and other stuff that I find interesting, than ever before. Only thing is, I don't share that stuff here, I post it on facebook.
Last year I read an article which claimed that personal blogging soon would be a thing of the past. Professional blogs, like science blogs, newspaper
blogs, famous writer's blogs and other blogs from people who do it for a living will still be going relatively strong. However, social networks would eventually evolve and include functionality that would replace the personal blog. At the time I scoffed at the idea and paid it no mind. But I realise now that they were right.
In the past months I've been sharing stuff on facebook that I previously would either have blogged about, or more likely, been thinking of blogging about, until I forgot all about it. Facebook has become a very easy tool for sharing stuff. It's also very easy for people to comment on your shared items, without having to think of anti spam measures or clumsy comment forms. Sometimes you even have to register to be able to comment, and who wants to do that?
But most important of all: Social networks have also made tumble bloggers out of people who would never have even contemplated becoming bloggers in the past. They don't even think about it as blogging, it's just sharing on facebook. And that's the kind of functionality that we old timers would have had to use our blogs for in the past.
Additionally, more and more web-sites are including functionality that makes it very easy to share items on facebook. I have even included such a functionality in my own blog (sese below this posting). Not that too many people have used it, though...
Even if a web-site hasn't included such a functionality, you can still share it on facebook via the Share bookmarklet. Also, I get much more feedback (and probably traffic) on my facebook postings than I get in my blog.
If you also take in to account that more and more services are creating widgets that enable you to not only display your contents at those services, they even make it possible for you to control the contents from facebook, as well as making it easy for your facebook contacts to comment on said contents. And in some cases, they even make it possible for your contacts to share it with their own contacts.
Just think of the nice integration that facebook and twitter has going for them. Other examples are last.fm, flickr, youtube, various blogging platforms, newspapers, weather services and so on. Not to mention the new functionality added by Living Social. The end is listless.
Facebook is turning into a control panel that caters to the whims of your interests and needs. Along with the new filtering options let you group what you want to see in your news feed, this is going to change the way we look at social networking.
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2009-03-03 08:45:50 - 0 comments
De siste dagene har flere av bloggerne som er selvutnevnte feminister, og som tilhører venstresida i norsk politikk, blogget om hvor latterlig de synes det er at de blir beskyldt for å svikte innvandrerkvinner i sin kamp mot diskriminering. De føler at det er unødvendig å måtte understreke dette. Personlig synes jeg det er på sin plass, for venstresida skyr vanligvis disse debattene som pesten.
Da Kadra ble slått ned på åpen gate i Oslo for å ha brukt ytringsfriheten sin, trålet jeg dagene etter bloggene til en rekke av de personene som nå leker indignerte. Ikke en eneste av bloggerne nevnte saken med et ord. En rekke av de samme bloggene var senere fylt til randen med tirader om all rasismen som Ali Farah ble utsatt for. Selv nå, etter at ambulansepersonalet har blitt frikjent i en rekke instanser, kverner flere debattanter fortsatt om denne saken.
Da karikaturstriden raste som verst, handlet ikke venstresidas blogger om at det frie ord var i ferd med å bli kvalt. Det dreide seg i stedet om hvor uklokt og unødvendig det var å trykke tegningene. Ambassadebrannene kunne vi takke oss selv for. Dette kan ikke tolkes som annet enn at man mener at muslimer er intellektuelt på femårsstadiet, og at det er naivt å forvente motargumenter i stedet for vold.
Hver gang noen tar opp problemene som finnes blant diverse innvandrergrupper, møter venstresida disse med argumenter som kulturforståelse og at samfunnet bør tilpasse seg. Den mest vanlige strategien er å beskylde de som tar opp disse problemene for å ha rasistiske motiver eller for å være islamofobe.
Spesielt det siste punktet er gjennomgående. Hvis noen forsøker å diskutere uheldige strømninger blant en liten delmengde innvandrere, er det veldig viktig for de som står politisk på venstresida å rope ut at kritikeren skjærer alle over en kam. På den måten kveler man debatten,. I tillegg kan man distansere seg mest mulig fra sine politiske meningsmotstandere og fortsatt føle seg som et godt menneske som mener Riktig Ting.
Hvis nå venstresida faktisk er villig til å ta denne debatten, vil ingenting glede meg mer. Siv Jensen har stort sett blitt møtt med en nesten psykotisk frykt. Og motargumentene mot henne har gått ut på at Jensen kaprer feminismen til fordel for sine egne rasistiske holdninger. Hva med heller å gjøre som Abid Raja? Si til Siv Jensen: "Flott, dette må vi ta en debatt på. La oss diskutere løsninger!" Dette på tross av at han mente hun overdrev dimensjonene.
Det må være en wake up call for venstresida å se at flere og flere innvandrertalsmenn står fram og sier at ingenting skaper mer rasisme i samfunnet enn venstresida selv. Spesielt siden de ikke er villige til å ta debatten. Og vil man virkelig ha støtte fra folk som Usman Rana, hvis meninger ville ført til et oppstyr uten like om de kom ut fra Dagfinn Høybråtens munn?
Jeg gleder meg nå til å kunne lese kritikk av slike mennesker i disse bloggene. Men jeg er redd for at postingene vil bli fylt med "men andre er ille også da" og ikke minst mantraet: "Hva med USA da?!?" Jeg håper jeg tar feil.
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2009-02-27 14:34:54 - 0 comments
Some people might think I need to grow up, but Wired's article about why the Japanese hates the iPhone just created a huge grin on my face.
Some quotes: "The country is famous for being ahead of its time when it comes to technology, and the iPhone just doesn't cut it. For example, Japanese handset users are extremely into video and photos — and the iPhone has neither a video camera nor multimedia text messaging. And a highlight feature many in Japan enjoy on their handset is a TV tuner, according to Kuittinen."
Not to mention: "A large portion of Japanese citizens live with only a cellphone as their computing device — not a personal computer, said Hideshi Hamaguchi, a concept creator and chief operating officer of LUNARR. And the problem with the iPhone is it depends on a computer for syncing media and running software updates via iTunes."
Now, some perceptive people back home have complained about these very same things. I won't mention names...
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2009-02-26 15:19:41 - 0 comments
- Pick Up is closing! The text message lights up the display on my cell phone. It's a rude awakening of huge proportions. How the hell am I supposed to spend my time now when I go back to the home town where I grew up? I might be in danger of loosing my inheritance here, but visiting the old record shop, where I in many ways grew up, is among the highlights of the summer. What's the point of going back now? I can always see my family when they come down here...
I'm not surprised that Wiggo is closing shop. He's been going on about how he will shut down after Xmas for the past three years, but it was just unfathomable. Pick Up was a watering hole where you could hang out. No matter where you travelled out in the big wild world, you could always return home to Wiggo and his shop. It gave you a feeling that everything was as it should be, and always has been. But now the oasis has dried up.
I don't think the people of the road cross village of Fauske realise what they've lost. Less than twenty years ago the town had a butcher, a fish monger and several other specialised stores where you knew you could count on the expertise of the people working there. You were on first name basis with the people behind the counter, and you could idly chat away while things where weighed, tallied and paid for. But most important of all, the people running these shops had a genuine passion for what they were doing.
Try asking in your local supermarket for advice and tips about groceries or recipes, and I think the answer will be "we've got what you see in the shelves and isles." There are even those who want wine to be sold in Norwegian supermarkets. I wonder what the answer to questions about wine tips for dinner would be from the spot faced teenager stocking the bottles. "Umm..well, we've got to types: Red and white."
What's missing is expertise. And Wiggo was full of expertise. A lot of my musical interests are because of him. Sure, I'd still be a music geek even without his influence, but music that followed me through my teenager years, through my time in the army, my days at college and even to this day, is stuff I started listening to after Wiggo recommended it to me. It created a solid foundation for music I later discovered on my own.
I started hanging out at Pick Up in 1985, only a year after it opened. When I think back on my adolescence, Pick Up is a vital part of my life. I was one of those who would drive Wiggo crazy by hanging around all the time. If Wiggo were me, I'd have chucked us out a long, long time ago. In stead I ended up running around with flyers, and doing the occasional job as Santa. All for a few free records as payment.
As one got older, one had to move away from Fauske. I've been assured by Wiggo that there was a new generation of music geeks waiting to take over the job of turning the store owner in to a slobbering man crouched on the floor in the fetal position. I seriously doubt that the new music shops, namely the Post Office and the supermarket, will handle it as gracefully as Wiggo.
So it's not just another independent music store closing down. It's a solid piece of the village history that is being lost. Pick Up has been important to a lot of people. And what for some people began as a customer relationship, has turned in to a very nice acquaintance, or even a friendship. It was always very nice to return home and stop by Pick Up to (no pun intended) pick up the conversation from last year. And Wiggo, despite his complaints about the chaos of nagging costumers and unopened parcels of CDs, clearly loved his job.
Last night there was a wake at the store, before the doors were closed for the very last time. I really wish I could have been there. I've been looking at photos from the empty store that were posted on to Facebook, and it really breaks my heart.
So to Wiggo, Ann-Siw, Barbro and everybody else who worked behind, in front of and to the left of the counter: Thank you! Pick Up is dead. Long live Pick Up.
This blog posting is a translation of a piece I wrote for Saltenposten
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