Eirik Stavem - to whom it may concern...

iMac turns 10!

Wed, 07 May 2008 00:52:34 -0700

Yesterday marked the tenth "birthday" of the iMac! I'm the proud owner of a 24" iMac, and it's by far my favourite gadget. It's a good performer, it looks good, takes up hardly any space on my desk, takes up absolutely no space on the floor next to my desk, it's quiet - and did I mention it looks good?

The only thing I'm missing from my setup now, is an iPhone, and I'll be really happy and content - until Apple releases yet another must-have gadget, that is...

Opera Dragonfly

Wed, 07 May 2008 00:29:11 -0700

Finally - it's official! Opera Dragonfly is out in an alpha release that looks really good. I've been playing around with it for a while in the internal 9.5 builds, and it's helped me a out a number of times already. More importantly, it's allowed me to debug errors without having to open Firefox with Firebug installed, which is a Good Thing™ in itself.

Read more about features and road map on opera.com/products/dragonfly/.

Long time...

Wed, 16 Apr 2008 13:12:56 -0700

I haven't blogged in a looong time, and part of the reason is in the previous post I made over a month ago. Since getting the new TV, we've been watching tons of TV-shows and movies, and just finished watching Buffy season 6. The last three or four episodes were fantastic!

Another task that has taken a fair share of my time has been beta-testing Delicious Library 2, as well as translating it to Norwegian. Looks very promising, and has a bunch of cool new features.

Oh, almost forgot the main reason for blogging today, I made a nice wok that was pretty tasty and very simple, so I thought I'd share the "recipe":

What to buy (serves 2):
- 250/300 grams of pork or chicken
- 1 paprika
- 1 small broccoli
- 1 onion
- Teriyaki-sauce
- Noodles (I used pre-cooked cheater's noodles, were tasty enough)

How to make:
- Cut the meat and vegetables into your preferred size chunks.
- Quickly fry the meat in a hot pan with a tablespoon or two of oil.
- Take the meat out, add a bit more oil to the pan, and start frying the vegetables. Put the broccoli in first, they need the most time. Remember to move the broccoli around so it doesn't turn to charcoal.
- Once the broccoli has gotten a couple of minutes alone in the pan, add the onion and paprika, and put the meat back in.
- Turn down the heat to a medium-high temperature (e.g. 8/10 on my stove), and fry the whole mix for 2-4 minutes.
- Now add about 1dl of teriyaki sauce, or to taste.
- At the end, add the pre-cooked (or cheater's) noodles, and as soon as the noodles are warm, you're done.

Pretty simple and cheap dinner for two, and not the least healthy dish you can make.

Our new couch-view

Wed, 12 Mar 2008 08:13:18 -0700

Marianne and I both enjoy watching TV-shows and movies, so we finally got around to getting a decent setup for watching them:

Best sales-pitch ever

Wed, 12 Mar 2008 02:53:28 -0700

Did you know that there's a huge difference between different HDMI-cables? Did you also know that if you buy the cheaper cables they have in the stores, the ones that makes the salesman's bonus slightly lower, you will end up with a really crappy image on your TV? Here's a conversation that took place today between myself - who knows very little about the difference between cables, and a salesperson at a local HIFI-store:

Me: I'm looking for an HDMI-cable, nothing fancy or anything, how is that one? (pointing at a 1 meter cable costing 298 NOK).
Salesperson: yeah, you could go for that cable ("you cheapo"), but we also have this one for sale (fetches a different cable). This one is much better, and used to cost 698 NOK but you'll get it for only 498 NOK!
Me: what is the difference between them, and how will I notice the difference on my TV?
Salesperson: well, the biggest difference is that the image will feel more 3-dimensional, compared to if you're using the cheaper cable.

Ok, I've already admitted that I don't know much about these things, but "the image will feel more 3-dimensional"?

Needless to say, I left the store with the cheapest cable, so I guess I'll have to live with a 2D-image on my TV...

Home-made pizza

Sat, 08 Mar 2008 10:01:09 -0800

Made pizza tonight, and for the first time in ages I made the crust from scratch. I'm too full to write the recipe now, just thought I'd post some photos, before and after the goodies spent some time in the oven.

Highlights: cheese is a mix of cheddar, gruyere, and buffalo mozzarella (thanks Jesper for the tip!), the pizza dough is based on a Jamie Oliver-recipe that uses honey insted of sugar, and 50/50 semolina-flour and ordinary flour, and the tomato sauce is a tin of finely chopped tomatoes with basil, some garlic, and some chili powder for heat.

Marianne's topping: tomato sauce, cheese mix, ham, pineapple, and some freshly ground pepper on top. Before/after photos:

Looks pretty tasty, right? Well I can promise you it was really really good!

Eirik's topping: tomato sauce, cheese mix, a few pieces of ham, plenty of peperoni, and pineapple. Before/after photos:

I'm already looking forward to eating leftovers tomorrow morning!

Project Euler

Sat, 01 Mar 2008 01:08:06 -0800

Jesper recently introduced me to Project Euler, and at first my reaction was "I won't even bother trying that, I suck at math!", but eventually I decided to give it a go. If anything this should be a great opportunity to get better at maths and as a result of that become a better developer. Just from solving the first four problems, I've learned or re-learned a couple of really useful math-basics - prime factoring (by trial division, I couldn't wrap my head around the more complex algorithms) and calculating the Fibonacci-sequence.

I'm pretty sure that I'm quite soon going to meet a problem that I just don't know enough about maths to be able to solve, but for now I'm having fun doing this, while bugging Jesper now and then with SMQs.

If you're a developer who is looking for some interesting challenges, go register at projecteuler.net!

jquery/AJAX/TinyMCE

Wed, 27 Feb 2008 06:15:45 -0800

Here's an issue I came across today: I'm updating an article in my CMS, using jquery.ajax, and everything works well, until I notice that the TinyMCE-textarea's contents isn't updated.

My workaround/hack, in case someone runs into the same problem:

Example JS-function:

function send_form() {
$.ajax({
type: 'POST',
url: 'foo.php',
data: $('form').serialize() + '&article=' + tinyMCE.getContent('article'),
success: function(){
// Show success-message, reload article-list etc.
},
error: function() {
// // Show error-message
}
});
}

The JS is a stripped down un-tested version of my function, but it shows the workaround: adding a POST-variable at the end of the request, after serializing the form content, getting the textarea's current content with tinyMCE.getContent:

data: $('form').serialize() + '&article=' + tinyMCE.getContent('article'),

This means that "article" is sent twice, but in my tests the last one is used. I'll look into how to overwrite the initial "article", but at least this seems to work.

CSI piano tune, heeeelp!

Tue, 29 Jan 2008 13:49:33 -0800

I've been looking for the name of a piano track from a CSI-episode for a long time, with no luck. Maybe someone out there has heard it before and knows where I might find the whole track?

It's from CSI season 7 episode 2 - "Built to kill, part 2". Here's a YouTube video of the scene where the melody is used.

Simple, yet tasty #2

Fri, 18 Jan 2008 09:22:06 -0800

Here's a recipe that we've used regularly over the past couple of years, with slight modifications from time to time:

Chicken salad with indian spices and saffron rice

Ingredients (no measurements or amounts):
- Iceberg salad
- Tomatoes
- Cucumber
- Bell pepper/Paprika
- Chicken breasts
- Tandoori Masala spice mix (Rajah)
- Marinated feta-cheese
- Basmati or jasmin rice
- Saffron

The ingredients above can be mixed and chopped to your own taste, I like chunky bits while Marianne likes smaller pieces, so we usually end up with a compromise.

How to make it?
- Boil the rice as you would normally, but add a small pinch of saffron to the water before you add the rice.
- Cut the chicken into cubes, and fry in a pan in a tablespoon or so of olive oil. When it's almost done, add the tandoori masala spice mix and stir so all the chicken gets covered with the goodness. I also added some hot curry paste this time.
- While the rice and chicken is cooling down, cut the rest of the ingredients into your preferred size bits.
- Now layer all the ingredients into a large salad bowl, whip up (or fetch from the fridge) your favorite salad dressing, and serve with a glass of a premier- or grand cru Chablis (or a Coca Cola, which we had today).

Enjoy!

Kopi Luwak

Fri, 18 Jan 2008 07:55:03 -0800

About a week ago, I ordered an early birthday present for Marianne; a really cool handbag from Morelle.

The package arrived by mail today, and when we opened it, there were a couple of surprises inside!

A beautiful bowtie purse to compliment the handbag, and this:

A bag of Kopi Luwak coffeebeans - only the most expensive coffee in the world!

Thanks ever so much for the surprises guys!

Semi-long hair

Mon, 07 Jan 2008 13:05:49 -0800

This is one step towards a "real" long-haired photo. It's taken back in 1995, at Roskilde festival, with semi-long hair:

BTW: notice the awesome sweater!

Meme: In. One. Word. Only.

Sun, 06 Jan 2008 08:41:23 -0800

Stian has tagged me in this year's first internet meme, so after translating the questions to Norwegian, here are my answers -
In.
One.
Word.
Only.

Where is your cellphone? Livingroom
Describe your girlfriend? Treasure
Your hair? Out-of-control
Your mother? Self-sacrificing
Your father? Hard-working
What is your favourite gadget? iPod Nano
What did you dream last night? Censored
What do you prefer to drink? Cola
Dream car? BMW M5
What room are you currently in? "Office"
Your ex? Insignificant
Your biggest fear? Nothingness
What do you want to be in 10 years? Happy
Who did you spend last night with? Marianne
What are you not? Messy
The last thing you did? Cooked
What are you wearing? Cosy-pants
Favourite book? www
The last thing you ate? Candy
Your life? 85%
Your mood? :-)
Your best friends? Close
What are you thinking about right now? Education
Your car? Workhorse
What are you doing right now? Waiting
Your summer? Expensive
Marital status? Dreaming
What is on your TV right now? Wii sensorbar
When did you last laugh? Today
When did you last cry? Yesterday
School? Nope

I hope Allan, Jesper, and Tim will answer these questions too.

Simple, yet tasty!

Sat, 05 Jan 2008 11:11:29 -0800

This is going to sound like a weird combination, but don't knock it till you've tried it!

Pesto-marinated beef in pita-bread with feta and pineapple, and a curry-dressing:

What to buy? (serves 2)
- 350g of beef (sirloin or tenderloin)
- A glass of good pesto
- 1 pack of feta-cheese
- 1 tin of pineapple rings
- 2 pieces of pita-bread
- Sour cream
- Hot curry paste and curry powder (we used Rajah-products)

How to make it?
1. Slice the meat in 1x1x5cm pieces, and marinate it in plenty of pesto for just a few minutes.
2. Quickly sear the meat in a hot pan with just a little bit of oil, and when all sides of the meat have been sealed, take pan off the heat and let the meat rest for 5 minutes in the pan.

3. While the meat rests, you slice the feta in 0.5cm slices, and drain as much juice as possible from the pineapple rings. Then make the dressing by mixing sour cream with curry paste and -powder to taste.
4. Heat the pita-bread in a toaster (or in the oven) until it's nice and warm on the inside, and slightly crispy on the outside.
5. Slice the pita-bread open, just like you'd split a hamburger-bread in half, and put the meat in the bottom, then a slice of feta, and then a ring or two of pineapple on top. Finally pour dressing over the pineapple and feta right before you dig in, and "close" with the top half of the pita-bread. Done!

Roast chicken with rosemary roast potatoes

Fri, 04 Jan 2008 10:58:24 -0800

We wanted something nice for friday night dinner, so I found this recipe for a roast dinner with chicken and potatoes.

The chicken was stuffed with lemon, garlic, and thyme, and rubbed with seasalt and freshly ground pepper. Next time I'll probably make a "pocket" between the chicken breasts and the skin, and fill it with thyme and butter, to give a bit more flavor to the meat. Other than that, I wouldn't change a thing in the recipe - the chicken was so tender we hardly had to chew it.

Roast potatoes is something I've never tried making before, but will definitely make again!

The potatoes were par-boiled with the lemon and whole garlic cloves, and then roasted in the oven for 45 minutes with rosemary in the nice juicy fat from the chicken. Mmmmm tasty..