23 analog towers yet to be turned offline

In roughly three weeks from now some areas up north in Sweden will turn their analog-transmitting terrestrial towers offline and turn over to digital-only transmissions. At this point in the project of turning off all the analog towers, a majority of them have completed the transition to digital-only. Approximately 64 % of Sweden's terrestrial viewers will by then have left the analog tv world behind.

In the meantime, my own survey made at an online forum showed that there are still a strong opposition against digital tv broadcasting over cable for those who now only view it in analog form. A company called ComHem is the dominant leader on the Swedish cable tv market and they insist via Press Releases that their customers do not have to do a single thing with their decision making for their future tv viewing. They can continue to watch analog tv via cable, not being bothered with any forced transitions. While such a thing normally is good, I am very displeased with the behaviour ComHem shows towards adoption of digital television in Sweden. The fact is, they dominate the market in this country and as such the broadcasting companies stand in the middle trying to figure out how they should proceed to make money off customers. Will it be either via analog or digital, will they focus solely on the old market that stands still or will they instead have their focus on the exciting growth in the digital television market? It can't be easy today for broadcasting companies to make bets.

Chicken and egg is not the biggest problem here, because the chicken already decided that digital television is the future. No .. the problem is whether the cable tv industry here will act for the better of the consumers and broadcasters. They hold the last piece of the puzzle and so far they have resisted from helping the rest to solve the puzzle. Why is that? With going 100 % digital in cable transmissions, the legacy that still remains can finally be a thing of the past and the circle will be complete once and for all.

But I'll just continue to dream and monitor the growth for digital cable among Swedes, see how it progresses. No records I've seen show any real signs of interest in households for future's television, but once the analog terrestrial network goes entirely offline (100 %) late this year, the market outside the analog cable world will eventually show people how to do things right:

Electronic Program Guide (EPG), Scheduling of recordings for tv shows and movies, Widescreen support and anamorphic capabilities, DVD quality with standard definition signals and HD quality now and in the future, nisched channels popping up to serve certain audiences, etc.

More to come as things progress! :-)

Update, 2007/05/29: There are now 16 towers left instead of 23 and less than 100 days until the "digitalization".

Your computer is about your needs - it's not about impressing your neighbour

What do you do with your computer?
I asked myself that question. If you never asked yourself that question before you might find it to be an eye opener. When I decided what cellphone and cell provider I would sign up with, my decision was similar. I asked myself *where* I needed call and data coverage, geographically. I also asked myself whether I was after a fixed or a variable price for calls. In this case it's computers, and so you should think about which tasks you use it for. Examples of tasks are as following:

- Writing documents, school papers, doing spreadsheets and corporate/school presentations.

- Gaming, situation A
Lots of so called "dedicated PC gaming", where it matters to have the coolest and fastest computer. Upgrading and experimenting with the hardware is of greatest, critical importance.

- Gaming situation B
Casual gaming to relax in front of the computer. This can be tetris-like games or a strategy game that is both entertaining to the person and the mind. Perfect after a tough day at work or school.

- Computer leisure activities such as managing photos, arranging holiday cards, etc.

- Professional editing of movies, music and photos / images.

Note: Unlike what I have seen others do when they write about this subject, I am not going to recommend which operating systemyoushould make based on your tasks. I say: find this out for yourself by giving Mac OS X, Linux distributions and Windows a try on the tasks you need to have done.
The ultimate decision is such a personal choice anyway that you are most likely to disagree with my standpoint in any case if I interfere with my personal opinion on the matter.


If you decide to go an alternative route, how scary is it to be introduced to something new and different?
This is probably the hardest thing for most people. Being scared to something that works very different from what they are used to. While people like me LOVES new things and innovation, a lot of people hate it when they feel lost and almost inprinted with the idea that something is supposed to work in the way *they* want it to work.

The solution to above problem? Be open and be willing to listen and learn.
Accept the fact that there are more than one operating system out there and while A and B can be similar to each other, they are likely to be designed to do at least one thing different. This should logically come from a desire to improve on how things are done in the system.

How likely is it that person A or person B will succeed with learning a new system?
The willingness to adapt. It's all about adapting to the new environment. Feeling at home. If you dare to, you can compare it with changing from living in a big house to living in a medium-sized apartment in another city.

Personal choice
I myself chose a Mac. I did so because it fulfills all my needs on all aspects. I belong to gaming situation B above, and I also extend my gaming needs through gaming on Playstation 2. Again, I repeat: my needs. Not necessarly yours. The perfect machine for me is either a failure or success for someone else.

Good luck! :-)

Yesterday's red moon: Lunar eclipse

I cannot believe that, for once, the lunar eclipse was visible. I have never seen one before.
This time there were no dark clouds in the way as it normally is whenever there's any spectacular sky event happening at all. I looked up the details on when it was going to happen and for how long it would last. At 22:30 CET (10:30 pm) I watched outside the window and noticed that the moon had its bottom left piece "chewed off". At that point it wasn't much to shout about. 30 minutes later it was obvious something big was going to happen. At 23:50 CET (11:50 pm) the moon looked amazing! Somewhat red and partially glowing. Luckily for those who weren't paying attention in Europe or witnessed dark clouds instead of a clear sky, some of you will have another chance to see it in the near future, because unlike solar eclipses lunar eclipses happen regularly. Wikipedia says it happens at the least, 2 times per year. Here is a link also to what it looks like:
Red moon during the eclipse

For those of you in the US who weren't able to witness it, you will have a better chance on August 28th according to NASA.

Cellphones of yesterday and today: my own experience

My first cellphone ever was a Nokia 2110i which connects to GSM 900 networks. Back in those days, all you could do with a prepaid subscription was call landline and other cellphones. My operator of choice at the time, Telia, initially didn't allow sending SMS - only receiving them. For that to work with Telia you had to sign up for a bill-based subscription paid monthly. Of course, you also had to be 18 years old or above that age. Things were very different back then from how things are now. The most significant difference is that the average Joe did not see the need to own and carry a cellphone with them everywhere they went.

History
Since I belonged to the early adopters, from time to time I always heard from people when they saw I possessed a cellphone, "why do carry one of those? what's the need anyway?". It was as strange for them as carrying a tool with you such as a hammer for no obvious reason. For me it was all about learning the technology and getting used to the features, menu systems and things like that. I kept up to date with which models Nokia and Ericsson had in stock for both standard consumers and business users. As months went on, I noticed around me how other people more and more were getting exposed to cellphones and considering to get one of their own. Numbers of subscribers grew and so did the coverage with GSM 900 cell towers around the country. Call rates were high up in the sky but it didn't scare off regular people to call from their cellphone. The convenience and status it meant to own a cellphone made up for the expensive bills it seemed.

2001 - the year we made contact from cellphones
As I remember it myself, 2001 was the year when people in Sweden and Finland had accepted the fact that cellphones were simply part of our everyday lives from now on. There was this documentary on television that confirmed this as well. They claimed that the success in Finland came from the fact that they are seen as shy people, so a phone call was more comfortable than meeting someone in person. I do not know to this day if that was the reason for the success over there, but here in Sweden I have a theory about how the idea of having a personal phone with you everywhere was an advantage not because it meant fewer person-to-person meetings, but rather an advantage in the sense you could be reached even if the household landline phone was busy. Also, being able to call someone directly in a more private manner rather than calling the family household phone and asking the person answering the phone, "may I talk to ?".

2004 - The price wars
After the market penetration got high, startup carriers/operators wanted to take part of the potential profits out there, steal some market share from the leading companies. How do you steal customers from a competitor? The most common method is to compete in price, so they did! For me, the most fascinating thing was not that the prices fell lower and lower, but that they fell lower and lower for so long! When you thought they had hit the bottom low, another competitor set it even lower. This kept on for TWO YEARS in a row, as far as I can tell! Not until 2006, last year, did I see the market stabilize around the prices.

What happens next?
In a market where there are enough competitors already and hard to squeeze prices (as profits is a sensitive thing), the only way to compete with better prices is to offer something new. The first serious attempt I have seen in this area is X-series™ from Three, which is an operator that operates services over 3G and HSPA (3.5G) networks. Even though they target mobile internet customers, the bundle includes Skype calls, too. This means you can initiate and receive calls for a very attractive price. You can expect more telecom companies to start offering either same or similar services in the future, if they see a need to get a piece of the market there.


I follow the telecom market closely every week. If you're interested in updates on the industry as it is today, you can always go to places such as Google News and search for HSDPA. For an insight of the progress of 3G networks, I suggest searching for HSUPA instead, as that will be the missing piece of HSPA in 3G technology.

Which digital TV solution did you choose?

As digital tv adoption keeps growing for every year and quarter, the question popping up is:
Which one did you choose and what is your experience from using it so far?

Technical standards (and the lack thereof)
There are currently three ways to receive digital television by the means of common standards: Terrestrial, Cable and Satellite. Here in Europe they have technology definitions for each one of them: Terrestrial is dubbed as DVB-T, digital cable uses DVB-C and finally Satellite which uses DVB-S. Apart from this you can also receive it through what is called IPTV (nicknamed 'Broadband TV' sometimes, for consumer clarity).

IPTV aka Broadband TV - Why no standards yet?
I don't consider the fourth alternative (IPTV) even close to being mature yet, though, because of the inconsistency broadband internet suffers from. Today you cannot compare ADSL2+, fiberoptics and cable internet with each other in terms of IPTV experience since the technologies and flexibilities differ from each other.
So, when someone wants to sell you IPTV, there may be a disappointment if you choose to subscribe and expect a certain quality .. and then you don't get the quality you anticipated.

What will it mean to the future of IPTV if the consumers get different experiences from it depending on what broadband connection they have got, AND they do not understand why their experience is bad when someone living in another part of the city sitting on another connection type is more than pleased over the excellency? Just as "broadband internet" means that the bandwidth (frequency) is broad and not autonomously "ADSL2+ connection", IPTV or Broadband TV shouldn't immediately translate to one way of receiving TV over fastlane internet infrastructure. In my view, on contrary, IPTV should get a set of standards itself to allow consumers to tell a distinct difference between the offerings.

Let's examplify this ...

IPTV over ADSL2+ could be dubbed "Copperlane TV"
IPTV over cable could define itself "IP over cable"
IPTV over fiberoptics could have it's name be "Neighbourhood super-highway TV"

Now follows a translation to consumer language (expected to show up in advertisement):

IPTV with ADSL2+
IPTV Light

IPTV with Cable
IPTV Cable

IPTV with Fiberoptics
IPTV Wideband


Feedback, please! :)

Installation of OTA Freeview digital TV

So .. yesterday the unexpected happened: I was able to plug my set-top box for digital television reception, right into the wall plug where you normally connect to analog cable. Instead of connecting up the analog TV to analog cable, I did this:

------- represents coaxial cable
===== represents European SCART cable

[analog cable wall plug] ------- [digital TV set-top box] ===== [Television set]

The very simple accomplishment of mine allowed me to instantly access terrestrial free-to-air digital television channels. Because of the fact that cable companies normally block access to their terrestrial antennas, I had not expected this to work. However, since I had been informed by this cable provider that they do offer this digital tv option I just had to give it a serious try. It just worked, much the same way I am used to Apple products just working right out of the box. Now I'm just pondering about when the right time will be to purchase a prepaid subscription to the full channel plan.

As it turned out I not only need the prepaid subscription but also either an investment in a so called "CI module" or a complete set-top box with built-in support for terrestrial non-free reception.
The latter seems to be a much better choice because of the small difference in price between the two options:

* Buy set-top box that out of the box provides built-in support for commercial content
* Buy extension card to my current digital set-top box (CI module for DVB-T)

Price for choice 1, a new set-top box purchase bundled with prepaid subscription: 1695 SEK
Price* for choice 2, an extension card: approx. 525 SEK


*= Obligatory prepaid subscription plan (starter kit): 795 SEK + the extension card á 525 SEK equals about 1320 SEK in total.
Not much different from 1695 SEK is it ..?



All in all, I believe the complete package with set-top box, CI module integration and prepaid subscription is worth the extra hundreds. Why? Because it's a complete package ready to plug in and run! Simplicity wins me over, just as MacOS X did for me.

Received a mobile dishwasher

People I know are renovating their kitchen. Among things, there's a new dishwasher being installed and the previous installed dishwasher was today considered obsolete. Kindly enough, the obsolete dishwasher was given to me for free as they have no need for it any longer and wanted to get rid of it somewhere - they thought I would be able to make good use for it as soon as I find a vacant apartment to move into.

Now all I need is that vacant apartment, of course! As if that would happen anytime soon in this town ...

How finance affects the mood

It may not come as a surprise that money is key in modern society, but depending on who you are it affects you differently on the emotional level. It is not so much the money itself that controls one person's mood but the anxiety vs cheerful mood that you won't vs will be able to pay upcoming bills. I mean, at least for me it is much easier to be happy about life if the financial part is currently working out and I know the near future will prosper financially as well.

This is why I think it's so important to have a longterm job settled for you: not for the income itself, because money is not everything. But rather because money is one of those critical things you need to have, and if you know for certain that money will keep stumbling in for months to come, you don't need to worry about your bills, food purchase plans, leisure activities including misc purchases. Of course, there are other ways to gain income than having a job. I for one know this very well because I haven't had a job for more than 3 years - my current income comes from the study loan I have.

However, I have been searching for jobs lately since I am hoping to get an employment somewhere, as soon as possible. Even though I have an opportunity to continue study for years to come, my biggest wish right now is to get job experience (including a better income). It's a huge problem in Sweden today, to get just *any* job at all - no matter what grades from school you have. Obviously I can only speak for the city I live in and the northern part of the country in general, but I'm sure more cities in Sweden have job opportunity issues too. It's a shame really, when there are a big bunch of people who desperately want a job and they are ambitious about it, while the corporations who previously offered jobs nowadays tell you that they currently have no room for more employees. It is as if, either it is:

1) Lack of balance in the economy (growing pool of unemployed vs much less-growing demand)
2) Too few companies established - we need more so more people can get employed
3) Political issue with taxes and regulation - scares away the corporations from establishment

I am optimistic about the future of job opportunities, but I don't count on finding a job this year. Maybe in 2008, who knows! Still trying, though! :-)

Temperature dropped to -18˚C

This is the coldest month of the year, it always is. At least for us who live here up north. I saw weather statistics scroll by on the TV earlier today and noticed how one city clearly is not even close to being part of the "winter cold" climate I'm used to. The numbers showed an astounding +1˚C in Malmö (Malmo, located deep down in the southern parts of the country).
Obviously living in the northern hemisphere has got its disadvantages for people like me who prefer a milder climate, but on the other hand we have not had problems with heavy storms. That is something Gothenburg experienced just a while ago, including other nearby communities on a wider scale.

I expect it to continue be cold for another three weeks, then we'll probably see temperatures leave the minus scale and hit zero, if not even more than zero. Maybe I'll post a blog entry when the time comes to see how my prediction turned out!

Swedish class: done

At last.. I am done with the course. Now, all I have to do is to wait and hear what grade I got. All I'm asking for is getting an acceptable one, it doesn't need to be astonishing. The only reason I signed up for it was to pass it and have it nicely on the paper with my merits. It has to be there or otherwise I can't apply for university later on..

Finished NP tests today, and there is bright light outside

Finally. I am done with the NP test. In Swedish that's "Nationella Provet i svenska" and in English.. just a mother test of all tests, meaning it's critical if you want to pass the course with anything else than an F :)

I have had a rough time trying to sleep, also, mainly because it's way too light outside. That's one of the few negative things I have to say about living up north when you really want to sleep. However, you can turn it to your advantage too, say if you're spending time outside with friends in a cottage, a summer's stay, just to mention one situation where it definitely is appreciated!

Yet another test coming on tomorrow in the morning hours. By the middle of next week I can relax and focus more on other things. That will be nice.

Update, May 18th
The grade was more than G (Good / Passed). I actually got VG (Very Good) on both parts of the test! Wohoo! Excellent.

Summer at the beginning of May

It turned into a summer climate about a week ago. We never had spring around here, it went from a cold winter into a comfortable temperature, enough to make it possible to talk a walk in shorts, enough to make you go out and embrace the sunlight .. for at least a little while, it all depends on your situation and mood of course.
I imagine myself sitting with a laptop next summer outside with WiFi if I'm alone. Else, an alcohol-free drink and dessert together with someone.

Summer jobs around here - are you kidding me?

Anyone who have ever taken a look at the current job unemployment statistics for young adults (18-26) in Sweden the last couple of 5 years and today, knows how hard it is to be a student in summertime. I don't even bother applying for the currently two listed available jobs that I can imagine maybe 2,000 people (?) will try to get their hands on. CSN, the study council board, seems to haven't updated their policy with student loans during summers. I do not understand why they aren't giving out money between June and August when most of the chunk is loaned money anyway.

In the longrun they make more money that way and it would higher the quality of life for such a large number of students in this country who can't find any jobs and won't be able to afford a vacation during their 3.5 years or longer of university education. Something's terribly wrong. Encouragement to get educated is pretty high in Sweden, but should be much higher than it already is. There is not enough flexibility and possibility to independence through job salaries today, and will continue to be this way for an uncertain future ahead of us.

I followed a debate about young adult unemployment in this country, on TV, just a couple of days ago and found out there are somewhere between 140,000 and 170,000 unemployed young adults. The numbers differ depending on if you count in students, long-time or short-time unemployed, non-students, etc. The politicians have job offer hirings for 20,000 long-term unemployment people in the governmental sector. That will make a difference, but the rest of the unemployed in the same age group will still be left out and with nothing but uncertainty for now.

My education plan is firsthandedly about getting a secured monthly income, secondhandedly about reaching my goals in life with getting a nice, appreciated, fun and wellpaid job in the future. My own personal hope is that the job market will have recovered until about 2010-2012 some time, or else I will have to move somewhere else, possibly to United Kingdom where jobs flourish (the pay being less of course, but a job is still a job!).

How Wikipedia and Impress can work together

So, I have a much dreaded test on Tuesday in Swedish class. I tried to figure out which way would be the best to study for it and what I concluded is the following: looking up keywords on Wikipedia (Start page) or Wikipedia in English. I am only recommending the English version because of the vast resources they have there to offer people fluent in English, since most contributions ended up there instead of the localised versions they try to push.

Impress is the free and open alternative to the office application Powerpoint from Microsoft. It's compatible with .ppt files and has a lot of professional features to offer. My idea here, is that you first you go visit Wikipedia and type in keywords for everything you need to find information about that's related to the test. Collect the information, filter it through: what is important? What does it say? Is this reasonable?

Make this information into both questions and answers in form of text you put inside the Impress presentation pages. Once done and ready, push the playback button and sit back, try to learn and think about what's on the screen at the moment. Do you understand what it says and can you learn it?

First let the question present itself, followed by the answer to that question after X number of seconds, say perhaps you need 30 seconds to think it through, or 10 if you're more sure about the topic you're on. Set up the pages to transition from one to another automatically so you don't have to push the mouse button for every slide to come up on the screen.

Failing or succeeding the test could depend on your ability to study using this method. I came up with this idea some week ago and I'm not sure yet if I should try it out or not, but I just might try it. No guarantees for it to work, of course, but it sure could be worth checking it out.

Pure Pwnage: a funny show - except for n00bs

Well, well!

I started watching the Pure Pwnage episodes some weeks ago. It's come to the 10th episode this far, and I'm really starting to like it. I hope the guys are going to continue do it. From what I understand it is gaining in popularity as more and more people become aware of the show's existance.

It's exciting to see the technology becoming cheap enough for amateurs with medium-sized pockets to be able to invest and do shows on their powerful mid-range to high-end computers. It's going to get even more interesting in the near future, as more and more people get hands on great software at a great price. The dual-core Intel Macs will certainly make low-cost - and high quality - amateur productions possible!
If you have not done so already, check out fun videos (some of them being well done) on the Google Video site.

Swedish e-commerce: screw up once - it's a mistake. Twice - a fool

[Begin rant] In the mailbox came two movies I had ordered from a Swedish online movie site. One of them was "Pirates of Caribbean" and the other one was a Swedish film. But after opening the package I understood the Swedish film was not there, but rather "Night of the living dead"?! What the...!!

This is not the first screw-up they make. I have friends who have ordered recently and gotten something totally else than they ordered. How this can happen is just a puzzle. What kind of incompetence is that? The Swedish film I ordered was a family movie rated for kids. The movie they sent is from EIGHTEEN and is a horror movie! Get this: the bill even clearly states the correct movie name and article number, etc. Still.. they screw up. I just can't believe it. They have tough competition online, and they sure need it to improve themselves. If they get a bad reputation, people will jump ship to their two main competitors.

What I would like to know is where the issue is: employees who can't do their jobs with the packaging or an administrative setup gone wrong?
Which is better: one day delivery time with half the merchandise getting mixed up, or two days time with everything always correct on delivery? Yes, you bet it's the latter :).
[End of Rant]

Well, you know what? It's the 13th, just happens to be. Coincidental? Yep.

Two new DVD movies for my collection

Today I purchased "Enemy of the state" and "Bad Company" for a bargain, a total of 99 SEK for both of them! I really don't mind buying good movies some year or two after their release if the price is right. Usually, though, ordering online can mean you get the same movies for sometimes half or a quarter of the price what you do in IRL stores!

It's getting tedious to administer the ever growing list of movies in my collection, but I'm doing my best for it to stay synchronised. Anyone wondering where this list is? Well, it's not published - I keep it mostly only for my own purpose of keeping track of which movies I have and which ones I don't have. In the future it will prevent me from ordering movies I already possess. Haha, that would be when the collection has grown out of control I suppose, if it ever does? So far it's not even close to happening!

I need more movies in the comedy genre. Any suggestions in the commentaries on this would be appreciated.

Swedish B: ancient Greece and the Medieval times

Bleh!

Tomorrow morning and afternoon there will be a big test that involves answering questions about ancient Greece and the Medieval times. I missed out on the two tutor sessions of course, naturally oh so unfortunate with the timing.

I have had NO motivation to study for all this and I looked through my material and paper of questions, quickly found out I lacked a much-needed book to get all I needed to learn about the things that will be on the test. Uh, I am going to bed a bit earlier than usual tonight to try get some extra sleep.

Tomorrow will be a long day, especially since it will continue after the test with 4 hours of another Swedish lesson... joy, oh what joy it is ;)

Winter

Suddenly you realise that the winter has arrived, it is pending between -10 and -18 degrees celsius, depending on the hour of the day, the daylight's under a short interval.. and being indoors I can still urge for ice cream occasionaly. My friends think that's very strange of me ;D.

There is not a lot to report right now and hasn't been for quite a while. Christmas is only a month away now and that feels very cool. It's probably the one and only event of the year that actually still is a firm and steady tradition here. Midsummer Eve is very important as well, but cannot be compared to Christmas.

The studies are going quite good. I get a little nervous sometimes right before those final tests, but except for that.. things are okay.

I've been working on my homepage today and I think it looks kinda cool now. It was hard to get the CSS 100% correct, but both the markup language and the Cascaded StyleSheets are strictly valid according to W3C, which I am pleased with, of course! :)

A day in town

Today I went to town with a friend to trade in a couple of console games for another, new console game. After that we bought some lunch: a very nice Chicken salad from a place called Katharina's. It turned out to be a perfect choice for food, I sure will return! :-}

I've been sick all week so far. Already sensed it this Sunday, and on Monday it was clear to me when I woke up in the morning. However, I've managed to recover from it very rapidly, step by step. If I continue make progress in this tempo, I will be fine on Tuesday when next class in school starts again. I say both fortunately and unfortunately for me, that this week was a vacant one.. on the other hand, I didn't have anything else to do this week, so.. not like it matters anyway, I suppose!