Contemplations by Thor /tɔː(r)/

On my last travel I decided it was to be the last for my 3 kg 17" Full HD notebook. As the battery capacity of my iPod Touch 1G is insufficent for watching anything longer than one hour, I decided it was time for a new gadget: a netbook. A quick look through reviews revealed that the Asus EEE PC 1005PE was the best choice. An impressing battery capacity of 14 hours was listed. Limited availability of the PE had me look to the P version. Cheaper, but why? The guy in the store claimed the smaller HDD (160 vs 250) was the only difference. I tried to list differences from the Asus' website but found none. A google search indicated that the PE had a glossy display, which would rule it out as a choice. The PE battery was also of bigger capacity, 14 vs. 11 hours indicated. I decided to buy the 1005P. Having used it for a couple of days, I have now an updated list of differences: 1) P does not have Bluetooth 2) P does not support 802.11n 3) PE does not have glossy screen 4) some ke...

In 1994, December 15. to be more precise, I purchased a Moccamaster KBC741. This morning, almost 15 years later, it stopped working. In 1994, 1,195 NOK was a lot of money for a coffee maker. Now, after 15 years of maintenance free service I am happy to go out and get another KBC741 with aluminium finish. The buttons have moved, but the design is otherwise unchanged. An auto-off feature is implemented as an option. The price is now 1,500 NOK.

A family with two kids and a large dog often face the challenge of finding a car big enough. By car I then exclude the bus category some peope resolve to buy. When we knew a couple of boys were on the way, we contemplated buying a VW Caravelle or a MB Vito. We came to the conclusion that we'd rather buy a trailer and use it whenever needed rather driving a bus year around. Still, there's only a handful of station wagons to fit the dog cage and a twin cart. My lovely '01 BMW 520iAT (two seater, "green" license plates due to odd tax rules) could be converted, but the car was simply not big enough. I decided that only MB E-class, the new BMW 5-series and Volvo V70 were the list I could choose from. I should mention that some brands like Ford, VW and all french cars were excluded by obvious quality considerations. Still, I was not sure whether my station wagon slash trailer would suffice. To avoid putting too much money into this project (cars are generally bad invest...

It's always been a dream of mine to drive a Cadillac DTS. The Northstar V8, the four chromed exhaustpipes and the majestic exterior has always attracted me about this car. So when me and my friend decided to go roadtripping from San Antonio to Miami we settled for a DTS. At San Antonio International airport I picked up a '07 black DTS. I could not get it confirmed, but I belive it was the 272 bhp version. It was really fantastic to take the car out from the lot. It definately gave the feeling of excessive luxury you fail to find in most American cars. The next morning we set out for Austin, and we discovered soon the comfort of this car on the highway. It is definately a car for the long stretches; very comfortable. For a person used to a fairly tight BMW 5-series, this car felt very loose. I had read to my surprise that this car had a front wheel drive, and this was certainly noticeable when hitting the accelerator. Both me and my friend normally drive rear wheel driven cars s...

It has been an issue for me for some time that the dual athlon was ready for decommisioning. Especially certain Adobe products as well as the installation of Internet Explorer 7 made it obvious that it was time to enter the Core2Duo era. When the PS3 was presented with a price tag og 6k NOK I seriously considered returning to the PC gaming platform a couple of years and wait for the PS3 to become cheaper. I have been waiting for a while to make sure Vista was available when I bought a new computer. I have so far never purchased an OS other that the ones that came with the computer. A decent gaming PC cost easily 13k NOK. As I have a "hjemmePC" deal with SINTEF I was able to buy a Dell computer that cost 10080 NOK and basically pay half of that. I got a decent Dell with E6400 processor 2 GB 667 MHz RAM, a couple of 320 GB SATA drives in striping mode, Vista Home Premium and a 19" LCD. The LCD was not an issue as I have a 21" CRT EIZO I'd stick to for gaming purpo...

This fall, a trip to US involved meetings in Elkton, Maryland, Cleveland, Ohio as well as Los Alamos, New Mexico. Since we were three persons travelling, a fullsize car was not fitting all luggage. The first leg, driving from Washington D.C. via Elkton to Cleveland was done with a Chevrolet Trailblazer LT 2006. This car has a 4.2L inline six with about 290 bhp. It was supposed to be fuel efficient but an average of 15 miles per gallon did not impress us. Neither did the 4x4 (although set to 2x4) cruising on the I-80 West. When we arrived in Albuquerque in the evening I was so fed up with the thought of driving another 4x4 so I asked the guy at the counter for alternatives. He offered me a Chrysler 300 Hemi C 2005 for 200 bucks extra. We agreed on 125. The Chrysler has a 5.7L V8 with 340 bhp and 530 Nm. This was the first time I'd driven a V8. The sound of the engine was of course smooth; one does wish the car was not so soundproofed. The torque was instantaneously noted, and not bu...

the last couple of years the garden work has been scarce. the lawn is moved; the basic maintenance. but no real effort has been put in. for this year, it seems that both me and Sissel are more interested in having the garden look nicer. not only is the lawn moved more frequently, but the dandelions are removed by the root as well. the flowerbeds are a pretty sight. one problem has emerged: goutweed. I think our neighbour is the source of the problem. he is a professor, unfortunately not in biology. the birches there gives enough shade for nettle and goutweed to dominate the undergrowth. I started cutting the weed down. no luck. it grows surprisingly fast and it would take continuous garden work to keep them out of sight. reading up on goutweed on the net, I learned that they are very persistent. no luck cutting them down. no luck keeping light out for one year. the only thing that works is to dig down at least half a meter. removing every single root is a must to ensure you ...