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2009

January 1, 2009
Welcome to official update 571. ;-)
I never get used to this. Every time I sit down to write this annual log, I catch myself thinking "gee, time really flies, yet another year comes to an end". In a way however, it might be seen as a healthy reminder that time isn't waiting for anyone. We're getting older by the minute and whether we find the time to do the things we really want to do (or not) makes no difference to the unstoppable flow of time.

2008 ended in a way that makes it hard to forget. The financial markets all over the world collapsed in the last 3 months of the year. The collapse was of such magnitude they will probably put it in all future history books. I have nor the required insight nor the time or space to debate to reasons for the collapse, but I will comment shortly. My spontaneous reaction is that such collapses are "part of the game" we've chosen as our favorite business model (capitalism). As such they can be expected - the trouble is to predict them. However when prices of some products just balloon for years in succession you can be sure that such inflation isn't all healthy and the air will eventually come out of that balloon.
There is also the "small" issue with a car industry that is used to pumping out large volumes of old style gasoline vehicles and we are all expected to consume happily at an all increasing rate.
Well bad news then. We are not. Thankfully, people are slowly(!) becoming more aware of the effects we have on the environment. We, the consumers, hold the cash. Why shouldn't we decide what kind of vehicles we can buy? The promised land of the extra, extra large truck, USA, is in seriously deep trouble and need to perform some fine magic to save it's large dinosaurs (GM, Chrylser etc) before they get extinct. In theory, capitalism is what emotional creatures would consider "cruel", much like evolution, as businesses that don't turn profit would go out of business. Survival of the fittest. However, a thing such as the economy of an entire state is a complicated matter. Sometimes it makes sense to throw out a life line and save even the last rat on the sinking ship. Time will tell if that was a lifeline well spent or if that rat will return the favor by spreading disease. (I really like using metaphors today, makes me feel extra philosophical ;-)

Ok so I promised I would´t write a book on the financial collapse, let's drop the subject already. But speaking of the USA, that´s was where I and my girlfriend spent our vacation this summer. We visited lots of places and we even had a lucky break with the cheap dollar (up 20% since). During this vacation we (me mostly) took a lot of photos, which kind of kick-started my deepened interest in photography. (I've always had the interest and I've owned cameras since the 80's, but this year I too the step into the world of *real* photography. In other words I bought a digital SLR (Canon 40D to be precise) and a collection of lenses and other equipment. It's an expensive hobby, but a rewarding one. This led to basically the only noticeable update to my site. The addition of a real gallery. In the process of creating this new photo gallery I decided that I'd solve several problems if only I moved the hosting to a proper web hotel. Said and done. I finally left "Passagen" that had hosted my site for more than a decade. The new web hotel allows fancy stuff such as my semi-automatically generated photo gallery. The photo gallery is the place where most of the future updates will be found although I'll probably throw in a surprise or two as well.

I usually comment on the constant evolution of my computer gear. I have no intention to break such a noble tradition. So what transformation took place in 2008? Well, the most obvious one was that I threw out the last of my remaining CRT monitors. I replaced "old Betty" with a 24" Dell thing. However I'm not completely satisfied with it. It has some issues, but too bad then that my laziness prevents me from complaining/returning it). By adding another harddrive my total storage space exceeded 2TB. A few years ago, that was considered a very large amount of storage space, but I'm sure we'll laugh at it soon enough.´;-) (Some tech gadgets don't age well, do they?)

So that about covers some of the stuff I'm willing to discuss in this forum ;-).
Now, all we can do is to sit back and relax.. and let the all new 2009 give it's best shot. Question is, can we take it?

2008 Click here for older (2008) updates.
2007 Click here for older (2007) updates.
2006 Click here for older (2006) updates.
2005 Click here for older (2005) updates.
2004 Click here for older (2004) updates.
2003 Click here for older (2003) updates.
2002 Click here for older (2002) updates.
2001 Click here for older (2001) updates.
2000 Click here for older (2000) updates.
1999 Click here for older (1999) updates.
1998 Click here for older (1998) updates.
1997 Click here for older (1997) updates.
1996 Click here for older (1996) updates.

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