Svein-Magnus S�rensens Blog @ menneske.org

Sjokolade i Oslo

2008-12-04T17:47:54Z

Etter � ha lest innleggene mine om fin sjokolade f�r nok noen lyst � utforske mer enn kun det du finner p� n�rbutikken. De fleste store byene i Norge har en rekke butikker med et noe mer ekslusivt utvalg i sjokoladehyllene, men det er ikke alltid s� lett � finne ut hvilke dette er eller hvor dem ligger. I Bergen har man for eksempel Moliere, mens i Trondheim er Sjokoladebutikken ved Nova Kino verdt � merke seg. Det er nok ogs� en andre butikker som f�rer god sjokolade i disse byene, men jeg har dessverre ikke noen komplett oversikt over disse, men det finnes fortsatt h�p hos den interaktive websiden ChocoMap. Her kan man s�ke opp sjokoladebutikker i hele verden, og selvf�lgelig registrere de man selv kjenner til. Litt synd er det derfor at ChocoMap ikke har registert s� mange sjokoladebutikker i Norge, og per dags dato ingen i Oslo (!). Akkurat det siste er litt merkelig, for etterhvert som jeg har blitt godt kjent med sjokolademarkedet i Oslo har jeg funnet en rekke gode butikker her, fler enn i de fleste andre Norske byer. Dette illustreres godt ved denne fristende artikkelserien hos Oslopuls om de mange sjokoladebutikkene som finnes i byen. Jeg g�r derfor med planer om � registrere disse p� ChocoMap n�r jeg f�r tid, men travel som jeg er blir det nok ikke med det f�rste. Enn s� lenge f�r jeg derfor n�ye meg med � anbefale mitt eget kart hos Google Maps som heter "Sjokolade i Oslo". Dette kartet har en oversikt over s� godt som alle forretninger og kafeer i byen som jeg vet at f�rer god sjokolade, s� jeg h�per dette kan v�re en super ressurs for de som befinner seg i Oslo og lurer p� hvor de kan kj�pe seg noe ekstra godt. Merk dog at dette ikke er noe jeg har brukt mye tid p�, s� det er helt sikkert b�de butikker som mangler og andre feil p� kartet. Jeg blir derfor veldig glad hvis du sier ifra til meg om de feilene du finner, eller best av alt om du har lyst � hjelpe til med � vedlikeholde kartet! Samtidig vil jeg ogs� nevne et annet kart jeg har laget: "Aktiviteter rundt Bygd�y & Sk�yen" som er en oversikt over alle matbutikker, restauranter og andre steder som kan v�re interessante for beboere langs Karenslyst All� og andre som ofte befinner seg i dette omr�det. H�per dette ogs� kan v�re til nytte for noen :-)

Updated Gravatar plugin for Movable Type 3.x

2008-12-02T09:33:46Z

When launching this blog I started out using Disqus for the comments functionality as it seemed a good choice that would be more interactive than regular comments. However I soon discovered its many downsides, including a lack of search-indexing and the instabilities caused by having the comments section generated in Javascript, which currently is the only option when using their Movable Type plugin. There is a v2.0 plugin for Wordpress that avoids these downsides, but there has not been any word from Disqus on whether a v2.0 plugin for MT is forthcoming. Due to this I have now returned to the regular MT comment-system. However I still wanted users to get neat avatars next to their comments, and the easiest way I found to do this was to add support for the Gravatar user-pic service and Favicons to my comment-listings. Adding them was very straightforward as there are ready made Movable Type plugins for both, except of course that neither of the Gravatar-plugins worked. *Sigh* After some research it turned out that the Gravatar-supplied plugin is outdated and also only supports Movable Type versions pre-3.0, and the MT supplied plugin only supports MT 4.0 or later. Combine this gap in supported versions with Murphy's Law, and it is just obvious that I still had to be using MT 3.3. I did upgrade to MT 4.x once, but it caused so many problems for me so didn't keep it for long, and attempting that upgrade again was not an option right now as I just don't have the time to get it working properly. That leaves the option of hacking the plugin! Yay! With no plugin-documentation to be found and me never having toyed with MT-plugins before, the task naturally stumped me a bit at first. However I figured out soon enough how to get it working, so for anyone else having the same problem I hereby present you with the updated Movable Type 3.3 Gravatar plugin! Enjoy :-) And now all that remains is for my readers to get their own Gravatars. Go fetch!

Fixes for slow browsing in Windows Explorer

2008-11-21T12:48:52Z

After a recent defrag of my harddrive it suddenly became excruciatingly slow to browse 'My Computer' and other folders with Windows Explorer (explorer.exe) in Windows XP. Sometimes just opening a regular folder with a few files in it would take more than 5 minutes, as well as having explorer.exe hang and be not responding. As none of my other applications were noticeably affected it really had me stumped as to why a regular defrag would cause such a slowdown for folder-browsing, until I discovered that browsing was still near instantaneous when using other file-explorers like Total Commander. Relieved that it wasn't a problem with my drive but likely just a bug in Windows Explorer I set out to find a fix that would bring it back to its old self, but that was easier said than done, and I spent several days searching and experimenting with various fixes. Apparently many people are having problems with Windows Explorer being slow, and for a host of different reasons too. Most commonly I found the obvious suggestions to run windows update, antivirus, antispyware, defrag and chkdisk, as this will commonly fix the performance and many common issues that crop up on computers that are not kept and maintained by professionals. The next step is to improve performance by adjusting the Folder Options in Explorer. Good tips here are to disable the automatic search for network folders and printers, as well as using simple folder view and to not cache thumbnails. But it didn't make any difference and explorer was still just as slow afterwards. Then I downloaded and ran CCleaner to do a full systems checkup and registry cleaning, and I also removed all recent network paths from my "Network Neighbourhoood" as these things also appear to cause many slowdowns too. Still none of these suggestions made any difference. A thread at Google Answers hinted to NeroVision Express as a possible culprit, but I didn't have that installed of course. Finally I stumbled across a Techspot thread describing how you by logging in as a different administrator user and deleting the folder "c:\documents and settings\\local settings\application data\microsoft\windows", can fix the problem of extremely slow browsing in Explorer, and this actually worked! It seems that something had corrupted that part of my windows user profile, but deleting the folder and inducing an automatic recreation of it on the next login fixed all of the problems I was experiencing. Another good thing to come out of this is that all the other tweaks has made the rest of my computer faster too :-)

HTTP 503: President unavailable

2008-11-16T13:37:43Z

Through the Enterprise 2.0 blog I discovered an article in the New York Times discussing how President-elect Obama may have to give up his personal Blackberry when accepting the position as leader of the free world, while he might be the first President to actually keep a computer in the Oval Office. It is really food for thought that the most powerful man on earth does not have the freedom to use the web as he likes or even to read his own email. Maybe then its not so strange that high-ranking politicians are becoming more and more disconnected from their electorate. On a different note Eirik referred me to some maps from StrangeMaps comparing the southern election-districts where Obama won with the cotton producing plantations in 1860. While not surprising, the overlap is certainly striking!

Fine chocolate for beginners (Part 1)

2008-11-16T11:29:17Z

So you just read my last entry on how I found my way into the world of fine chocolate. Maybe you got a little bit inspired, and now you want to try out some fine chocolate for yourself but you don't really know where to start. Traveling to Belgium just to sample chocolates might be tempting, but due to cost or other concerns I expect that most people would like to start off a little closer to home, like at for instance their local grocery-store or a nearby deli. Picking out the right chocolates in such locations can be a challenge however, so here I'll provide a few pointers on how to put quality into your chocolate enjoyment. First things first: The wrapping. This is usually the only thing you have to go on when picking out chocolates at a regular store, so its naturally one of the things you must pay close attention to. It is well known that the branding and presentation of foods can have a great deal of influence on your perception of taste. This means that chocolates from a brand that is exquisitely wrapped or advertised to be a product of quality and luxury will often be a good buy, if only because the presentation will make you think it tastes better than the other brands. Also you will rarely find high-quality products in a lousy packaging, so by going for the pretty boxes you have at least reduced the chance of making a bad choice. Note however that many manufacturers tend to wrap poor products in quality packaging to sell more or to fetch a better price, so only going by the quality of packaging is far from a sure thing.]]> only contain these ingredients:

Sugar (Preferably raw sugar)
Cocoa liquor / cocoa solids (Not used in white chocolate)
Cocoa butter (Avoid if partially replaced with vegetable fat!)
Soy-lecithin (Optional but common emulsifier. Used to give a smoother mouth feel.)
Vanilla (Optional but common flavoring. Avoid if replaced with artificial vanillin)
Milk fat & solids (Optional: Should only be found in milk-chocolate)
Natural flavorings (Optional: For instance fruits, berries, nuts, salt or spices)
Fillings (Optional: Anything from liquors and to nuts and berries )

You should bring this list to the store for comparisons, and remember that if a chocolate contains anything not mentioned here it is usually bad and something you might want to avoid. The most common flaws you will encounter in the ingredients list of mass-produced chocolate are these:

Vanillin instead of vanilla or other artificial flavourings (Artificial flavourings give a metallic after-taste)
Vegetable fat replacing some or all of the cocoa butter (Very unhealthy!)
Artificial sweeteners instead of sugar (Unhealthy and has a different taste and texture)

These things are usually put in chocolate to reduce production costs, but they also reduce the quality and taste of chocolate and should therefore be avoided. Now on to the final thing you are in a position to consider about your chocolate, namely the storage conditions. They are often the cause of the gray-white coating that you have probably come across on your chocolates from time to time. Most often this is caused by too warm storage making the fat in the cocoa butter dissolve, or by humid storage that dissolves the sugar crystals in the chocolate. Both effects leaves the dissolved fat or sugar as gray-white deposits on the surface of the chocolate. This is known as 'bloom'. Bloom is not dangerous, and does not usually affect the taste or texture of the chocolate much, but it does make the chocolate look less appetizing. To avoid this chocolate is therefore best stored in a cool semi-dry environment, preferably at around 12-16°C and at less than 50% humidity. Also note that the cocoa-butter in the chocolate readily absorb strong flavours from nearby food, especially cheese and spices, so the distance to such items is an important consideration. If the conditions in the shelf-area of the store are outside these values, either due to the outdoor climate or because of bad positioning, you might want to find another store to get your chocolate from. Of course in many places it might be difficult to avoid such high temperatures during the summertime, so as always it is a matter of consideration. While we are on the topic of storage I should also mention that the usual shelf-life of dark chocolate is about 12-18 months at the most, and for white and milk chocolate it is only around 6 months due to the milk-contents. Both types can be kept in a freezer for an additional 6-12 months, but then beware of the moisture when thawing! If a chocolate is stored any longer than mentioned above it will generally start to bloom regardless of conditions, and also the cocoa-butter might be getting rancid and start affecting the taste, but that all depends on both the quality of the chocolate and the storage conditions. Then over to the awaited tasting part. You should always bring the chocolate out of storage early and leave it to temperate until it reaches about 22°C, or common room temperature. This will give you the most taste sensations from the chocolate as it will more readily melt in your mouth and release stronger flavours. Some people claim to prefer eating refrigerated chocolate due to its increased hardness and different mouth feel. This is usually caused by much common chocolate being badly tempered or containing much milk and vegetable fats, which allows the chocolate to readily melt at room temperature. Quality fine chocolate on the other hand is usually plenty hard even at room temperature, and only melts at 34°C. Finally I would just like you to remember that taste is a very subjective matter. Purist connoisseurs even argue whether lecithin and vanilla is acceptable in fine chocolate, and some claim that 100% cocoa-content chocolate is very tasty (I disagree). The best advice I can give is therefore to trust your own tastes to tell you what is really good. If you enjoy your bloomed chocolate with artificial flavourings and vegetable fat, then by all means indulge yourself! It might not be "fine chocolate", but it can still be heavenly good from time to time. And that concludes Part 1 of this basic introduction to fine chocolate. Continue to Part 2 for more about different cocoa-beans, production methods, brands and fillings and how those affect the taste, as well as information on where to buy true quality chocolate.

Pitching makes perfect

2008-11-15T12:52:02Z

While doing my Masters degree I used to volunteer for the student organization Start Norway, an organization working to promote entrepreneurship and innovation among students and faculty staff at higher-learning institutions all across Norway. This experience inspired me to apply for a graduate programme called the Norwegian School of Entrepreneurship, where I was accepted and got to spend three months studying and working as an intern in the heartland of IT, Silicon Valley. Both during my volunteering and during the entrepreneurship programme there was of focus on learning and doing the so called "elevator pitch", a very valuable skill that everyone should learn and perfect for their own needs. For those not familiar with the term, an "elevator pitch" is simply a short practiced speech that explains in an enticing way what you do during the time one usually spends in an elevator, often 30 seconds or less. And why an elevator in particular? Because it is based on the assumption that if you by chance should find yourself in the unique opportunity of being in an elevator with someone you badly want or need to talk to, having a prepared elevator pitch to present might pique the other persons interest enough for you to get a real meeting later, and with that a real chance to present your business or idea properly. That's not to say this is only applicable in elevators of course, as using it successfully in an elevator will likely be a very rare occurrence for most people. However it is also a very useful and efficient way to present yourself to new people in various other settings, for instance when people at a party ask what you do, or when you are presenting yourself at networking events. Having a good elevator pitch prepared in such situations lets you stand out and be interesting to the people you talk to, and lets you avoid having to say those conversation killing words: "I'm a consultant" So how do you prepare a good elevator pitch then? Well, like most things there is no single answer to how to make the perfect pitch, but good suggestions abound on the Internet so check out these resources:

And finally have a look at other peoples pitches to see how yours compare!

Discovering fine chocolate

2008-11-13T18:32:17Z

Ever since childhood I have been especially fond of the filling round taste of dark chocolate, something that may have originated from me habitually sneaking bits of Mom's baking-chocolate from the kitchen-drawer, a preference that stayed with me ever since. Naturally I greatly enjoyed most other kinds of Norwegian chocolate too, and while growing up I gradually expanded my chocolate horizons. Early in my travels I discovered Swiss Toblerone, and later I randomly came across the amazing Cote d'Or and Guylian imports from Belgium. With my studies abroad I found myself delighted by Australian Cadbury and American Ghirardelli, but I always treasured the one special kind of Freia baking-chocolate called "Selskapssjokolade" from my childhood far above all others. This all changed in 2006 when I started traveling regularly to Brussels to visit my girlfriend living there. Flying down so often allowed me to thoroughly taste my way through all of the amazing chocolate-shops we came across on our travels around Belgium, and I got to try an amazing range of delicious pralines the like of which I could never have imagined, as well as the wide selection of Cote d'Or, Galler, Jacques and a host of other brands available in the grocery stores. But one day I came across something different, namely a set of three country-labeled chocolate bars in the display-window of a Neuhaus-shop. The label "Occumare Venezuela" especially piqued my interest, so I simply had to try one...]]> Sao Tom�" and "West Africa". Those too ended up surprising me, but not in the amazing way that the Occumare did; The West Africa bar tasted very much like most other regular chocolate to me, and while the Sao Tom� bar was somewhat better it too felt dry and boring in comparison. I couldn't help but wonder why the Venezuelan bar tasted so much better than the other two in the series, and also whether the special "Occumare"-label found only on that bar had something to do with it. I immediately started Googling for answers. Now, I'm not going to turn this into some mystery novel about Chocolate so I'll just give you the simple facts. After days and even weeks of spending my free time reading about chocolate on Wikipedia and a host of other sites, I started getting the hang of it, and it turns out that cacao isn't just cacao after all. It consists of a myriad of different varieties roughly divided into three main groups, of which the South-American version called Criollo is highly praised for its aromatic properties and the one most often used to make quality chocolate. This type of cacao combined with quality preparation is what made the Venezuelan bar from Neuhaus so amazing. At that time it was actually considered to be one of the best bars available so it turns out that me finding this particular bar was a stroke of luck, as it was its special combination of an amazing taste and the branding mystery that led me to begin my search to learn about and discover the world of fine chocolate. And what of the "Occumare"-label you ask? It turned out to be the name of a green valley leading to a small seaside municipality on the Venezuelan coast, a place where the cacao-harvest has been a staple of life since the Spaniards created their first plantations there in the 1650's. It has since been one of the most famous sources of cacao used to create quality chocolate, and even more so in later years after origin-bars stating their source of cacao has become popular among artisan chocolatiers. Now if you are curious to learn how you yourself can identify fine chocolate in a store, I will be writing a follow-up to this post in a few days, so read up on chocolate history in the meantime and stay tuned! Update: And why was it notable that Freia Selskapssjokolade was my favourite as a child you may wonder. Well it turns out that up until the new millennium and the booming interest in fine chocolate that followed, that particular brand was one of the purest and most high quality semi-dark chocolates available on the Norwegian market. This means that the preference for dark chocolate that led me to chocolate connoisseurship in Belgium was likely caused by me being randomly exposed to one of the only somewhat fine dark chocolate-bars available when I was a child! That certainly is a strange twist of fate :-)

Smidig utvikling med PS2000

2008-11-12T21:18:46Z

P� et nettverksm�te i kveld lanserte Dataforeningen offisielt en ny veileder (PDF) for hvordan man kan kombinere smidig systemutvikling med bransjestandard PS2000-kontrakter for iterative utviklingsprosesser. Denne er utarbeidet i Faggruppen for Effektiv Programvareutvikling av et team som har inkludert deltakere fra b�de kundesiden, leverand�rsiden og r�dgiversiden, representert ved blant annet Bekk, Computas, Conceptos, Promis, Forsvaret, L�nekassen, NAV og andre selskaper. M�tet bestod av presentasjoner av nyvinningene i veilederen sett fra synspunktene til alle tre deltakende grupper, samt en �pen debatt om fordeler og ulemper ved bruk av smidige metoder i forhold til prosjektvilk�r og kontraktsforpliktelser. Som kan forventes var Forsvaret som et konservativt statlig organ noe skeptiske til � slippe bruken av smidige metoder fri av frykt for � miste kontrollen, mens konsulentbransjen er sv�rt opptatte av � kunne benytte de beste tilgjengelige arbeidsmetodikkene for � kunne levere bedre l�sninger til sine kunder. Veilederen er delvis delvis basert p� pilot-erfaringene som er gjort i MATS-prosjektet der jeg selv har arbeidet i snart to �r, hvor et stort team fra Computas arbeider med � utvikle et nytt enhetlig fagsystem for Mattilsynet. Avtalegrunnlaget for prosjektet er en standard PS2000-kontrakt hvor kunde og leverand�r i fellesskap og med stor suksess har g�tt over til � benytte Scrum som arbeidsmetodikk for alle deler av prosjektet. I l�pet av denne prosessen har mange erfaringer og tanker dannet seg her og p� andre prosjekter rundt emnet smidig PS2000, og disse har blitt l�pende presentert p� en rekke konferanser, inkludert Smidig, Prosjekt og JavaZone, samt p� andre m�ter og seminarer. Mine erfaringer fra dette og andre utviklingsprosjekter levner ingen tvil om at smidige og post-smidige metoder er veien � g� for � oppn� h�yere kvalitet, m�loppn�else og effektivitet i de fleste typer utviklingsprosjekter. Sammenlignet med fossefall og andre tidligere metoder som i stor grad er basert p� 'intelligent design' er smidige metoder mer Darwinistiske i sin tiln�rming til problemene som skal l�ses. Dette gir systemutviklingen en mer naturlig flyt mot � oppfylle systemets faktiske krav og bruksomr�der, framfor � v�re begrenset til de l�sningene man klarer � forutse p� forh�nd. Dette er virkelig et stort steg videre for systemutvikling som en prosess, og enn� har vi ikke engang begynt � snakke om automatisk programmering... :-)

Blogging in Norwegian / Blogging p� Norsk

2008-11-10T11:12:04Z

I have now created a separate category for Norwegian content to better facilitate meaningful writing and discussion about Norwegian matters and Norwegian national news on this blog. To aid readers who only desire to follow my entires in one of the languages I have also created separate singe-language Atom-feeds containing just the Norwegian or just the English entries for your feed-reading pleasure. These are available from the left-hand menu. Norwegian: Jeg har n� opprettet en egen kategori for Norsk innhold her p� bloggen for � tilrettelegge bedre for innlegg og diskusjon rundt Norske emner og nyheter. For � hjelpe lesere som kun �nsker � f�lge innlegg p� et av spr�kene har jeg ogs� opprettet egne enkeltspr�klige Atom-feeds som bare inneholder de Norske eller de Engelske innleggene mine. Disse er tilgjengelig fra venstre-menyen.

Improving strategy through 'piracy'

2008-11-08T10:14:16Z

Chris Brogan recently wrote a very thought-provoking post about how businesses could deal better with hard times through the time-tested strategies used by pirates on the high seas. The analogy may be historically flawed, but the concept itself is surely one to take note of, and one that resonates very well with Nietzsche's concept of creative destruction, as named by economist Joseph Schumpeter. That this is how the world of business actually works might not be obvious at first glance, but this has been thoroughly researched as presented in detail by Richard Foster and Sarah Kaplan in their book by the same name. It was among the readings for a university-course I once did on ICT and Markets, and I would absolutely recommend it to anyone working on business strategy, should that be for a company or just for yourself. Finally I present you with a more personal take on creative destruction, as put forward by Rachel Cornell like this:

"When you find your life is in pieces, don�t get out the super glue. Find the shard that matters the most to you, the one element that you are the most passionate about and build something great out of that."

External links in a new window?

2008-11-07T12:28:02Z

Since the early days of web-publishing I have been adding a target="_blank" attribute to all the external links I create on my websites. This has partly been to keep readers from 'forgetting' about my site after leaving through an interesting link, but mostly because my personal browsing preference is to open most links in new tabs so I can complete reading that page later. It makes sense to me, so it should to everyone else too, right? Maybe not, so have googled a bit to find out other peoples preferences on this topic, and while the opposition to forced new windows appear very vocal, these polls surprisingly shows that a majority actually prefers links opening in a new window, especially if it is indicated on the link that it is so. From the debate around that poll and on other sites I came across, the opposition to forced new windows generally take the stance that users are not ignorant and should be allowed to choose for themselves, since browsers make this very easy nowadays. Adherents to forced new windows on the other hand claim that many people hardly even know about tabbed browsing, or even the back button (!), so helping them discover this is a good thing. Besides those who already are in know are likely to open the link in a new tab anyway, since that is the reasonable way to browse for experienced netizens. I would tend to agree most with the latter statements, but I'm still considering to get rid of my forced new-window links as a token of good faith to my readers. Well and also because Jakob Nielsen is against it, but what do you think?

Why I blog

2008-11-06T08:23:56Z

While I was working on setting up this blog I serendipitously came across this recent article by Andrew Sullivan through Eiriks forfatterblog. In it Andrew is reflecting in great detail on the development and properties that make blogs into such valued tools for writing on recent developments and how they fit into the human desire of building communities. Despite the article being angled towards professional writing I found the underlying themes highly relevant to what I am trying to do here, which Sullivan excellently phrased as 'writing out loud'! And what is it that I am trying to do here then? Well first of all I have been wanting a place to express myself about current events and other relevant issues in the business and technology fields. Hopefully this site will fill that need and in the future provide a place for open exchanges on these topics among others with aligning interests. Secondly I hope that having this place to share my knowledge and expertise will be a good way of honing my skills through direct feedback and discussion. Also I hope that maintaining this site in addition to my participation elsewhere on the social web will over time help me to establish my personal brand as a recognized part of the global, or at least the Norwegian, IT-community. Is this realistic? Well, others have done it before. I just need to find my niche I guess..

New professional blog

2008-11-05T10:35:16Z

Up until recently my blogging have mostly consisted of diary-like details on my endeavors around the world, and its form has not been particularly suited to the discussion of vocational matters. However as of today I am launching this new blog and will be dedicating space and time here to deliberate and debate various matters of business and technology. I intend to keep the content professionally focused, specifically on matters within my fields of interest. Hopefully the contents that come to be written here will be far more appealing and engaging than my previous and rather dry musings on everyday life and travels. So with this I welcome you to browse around, read, comment and enjoy your visit! Oh yeah, and unlike what some misinformed people seem to think, the blog format is most certainly not dead...