2003 UPDATES

(this page is basically a diary)

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2003


December 29, 2003
This is probably the last update of the year. Traditionally though, I do update on January 1:st, I think I can do it this year as well.
Just as I predicted, Xmas week was slow on Tech news. That doesn't mean nothing has happened though. A serious earthquake hit Iran and the death toll is at least 22,000. But there could be even more casualties! Ironically, the Iraq war so far has claimed about 20,000 casualties (military & civilian). According to Islam, everything that happens is according to 'Allah's will' so this will certainly puzzle some Muslims in the affected area.
Enough politics for now, today's update includes the usual tech news update and an overhaul of the link pages.
Oh yeah, I almost forgot... >Happy New Year to all of you who celebrate it and better luck to all people who don't have it so good at the moment.


December 23, 2003
Just a quick intermediate update. I added a 2005 Calendar but obviously, you'll have to go through the 2003 Calendar page, since it's still 2003 (Duh!). I also added a link to a online Calendar site which I recently found.
Also added a bunch of other links, and among them a really good one too. Try Wikipedia, it's a free online encyclopedia. I'm adding it to both my quicklinks and the 'Services' page.


December 22, 2003
It's now just days before the big commercial holiday, namely 'Xmas' (as I prefer to spell it). I saw LOTR: The Return Of The King this weekend. As marvelous as the visuals were, it was just a tad too long to be perfect. The ending was just as tedious as the rest of the movie was spectacular. But still, there's no denying that it was a great movie. This year we've seen the closures(?) of a bunch of trilogies (Terminator, Matrix and Lord Of The Rings). We still have the final Star Wars chapter in 2005 but after that... are we running low on blockbuster movies? I'm sure the brilliant minds in Hollywood will come up with something sooner or later, but to replace cultural phenomenons such as Star Wars , The Terminator, The Matrix and Lord Of The Rings and is easier said than done.
So let's just use the good old cliche... Only time will tell.. (See, it works every time :-)

No spectacular news as far as the site update goes, however, a while ago I registered the domain HardwareShader.com. (It's a term that only makes sense to you if you know something about high end computer graphics.) Anyway, I just put together a simple page and pointed the domain at it. It will get better (hopefully) but for now, it's better than not using the domain at all. I put a link to it in the main left hand menu under 'graphics'. (Or just click here.)
Apart from that, it's just the usual weekend update with the tech news. And there's a lot of news this time, which is just as well, because the last week of the year (next week) is typically very slow. So Happy Xmas to all of you who celebrate it. There will be one more update this year, so come back then.

(Btw, December 17:th 1996 is the date of the first entry in this diary, so yeah kids... It's been more than 7 years since I started writing these site-update comments.)


December 15, 2003
The big news this weekend, the capture of Saddam Hussein. I'm not sure how big a difference it will make in Iraq, but I guess it's better to be safe than sorry. As long as he was 'at large', people couldn't be 100% certain that he won't return to power some day (although it was very unlikely).

So much for world news, I'd rather not get too political on this site. This is primarily a 'tech-site'. So what's new this time? Well, apart from the usual weekend 'Tech news' update, I also changed some things on the 'Search' page. I removed a bunch of obsolete search engines and included more Google stuff. Let's face it, Google rules. I used to be an Alta Vista 'fan', but a couple of years ago Google came up and it was simply way better than Alta Vista. Certainly, it's questionable wether the other search engines are of any use at all these days.


December 8, 2003
Just the usual weekend update.


December 1, 2003
Would you look at that, December is here! That means than in many parts of the world, hysterical times are ahead. X-mas decorations and shopping floods our society. Never mind the vague religious connection, X-mas is a commercial holiday that is very important for the business. Many resellers rely heavily on X-mas sales, and without it they might go out of business.
Anyway, whatever month it is, it's still the end of the week, which means there will be an update on my site. This weekend is no exception.


November 25, 2003
Got my new HD yesterday, and I'm not talking about a Harley Davidson. :-)
My system drive was simply getting too damn crammed, and I even started installing progs on other partitions which is always a good sign you need a new Hard Drive. But instead of buying a small HD for my System, I got a big one (160GB) and shuffled around the rest (I have 3 of them). So now I have 280GB total HD space. A quarter of a TeraByte. Not too many years ago, this was considered to be a huge amount of storage, after all I could store 400 CDs on it. But these days the prices are so low, there is no point in buying a smaller drive.


November 24, 2003
So another week gone already. Strange how one can never quite get accustomed to how fast time flies sometimes. Speaking of time.. This Saturday was exactly 40 years since the assasination of JFK. We still don't know what happened exactly. It is a healthy reminder to never take history for granted. Who know how many events we consider as 'truth' that are a simple lie?
Oh well, let's not get to philosophical in this poor, old diary. This is only a place to report the latest news, so lets do that. As always, there's the good old weekend update. No new links this time.


November 20, 2003
Minor update, just a couple of new links. On of them on the main page, in the 'Quick link' menu.


November 17, 2003
A slow week for sure... Not much happened, I think... Because I don't remember anything in particular :-)
As always, the news are there and one or two link changes (And yes, it was late this time too).


November 10, 2003
Bought a new Logitech mouse (MX500) early this week. I only bought it to improve my chances in everyone's fav game: Counter Strike ;-)
It turns out this mouse is very accurate and fast, BUT... it's also extremely ergonomical...if you have a tiny hand. Alas, I do not.. So now I have a really uncomfortable, but highly accurate and responsive mouse. Oh well, the things people do to get better at Counter Strike..

Alright, you know the rest.. Weekly news and a bunch of changes in the link-pages.


November 3, 2003
Ouch! November already? Oh well.. So what's new? I got a faster broadband connection this weekend, going from 1Mbit to 2Mbit. Incidently, 2MBit is what the Swedish 'Broadband commission' once decided was the lowest limit for a service if it was to be labeled 'Broadband' at all. Then of course 512kbit and 1Mbit services flooded the market and no one cared about the initial definitions. Still, the fastest available services (here in Sweden) offer up to 26Mbit/s using *DSL tech and some other tricks. Apparently it's not possible to perform the same tricks on Cable based services.

As always, there's the weekend update and possibly some link changes.


October 27, 2003
Got my DVD burner earlier this week (+/-RW). I felt that the timing was right. Prices are now low and the standard more mature even though it's still a matter of trial and error before I find a media that works fine with this particular DVD unit. Anyway, my old 8x CD burner just didn't feel that great anymore :-)
What else? Oh yeah, I updated the 'PC buyers guide' again, so it should be up to date...again..

And of course, the usual news..


October 20, 2003
A slow week for me but a giant leap for China. In case you haven't heard, this past week, China became only the third nation to put a man into orbit (space). Trailing The former Soviet union and USA by some 40 years, but still a noteworthy effort. Hopefully, this will be a good thing for humanity in the long run and not just a technology test for future Chinese military use.

Otherwise, it's been a 'another slow week' for me, so you only get the usual news.


October 14, 2003
Just added a bunch of new links.


October 13, 2003
Congratulations to the Swedish ladies for the silver in the FIFA World Cup, unfortunately, this also means they lost the final against Germany. (1-1 After Full Time, 1-2 After Extra Time)
So what else? Actually, I added a pic to the gallery, but it's not a new one. In fact it's more than a decade old. It is an old self portrait I drew way back in early 1993. I recently scanned some photos and decided to scan the drawing as well. So far, my gallery has been 3D-generated pictures only, but I figured a bit of traditional art won't hurt.
And yes, there's the usual weekend news updated too.


October 6, 2003
First of all, I want to congratulate the Swedish ladies for reaching the World Cup final in soccer. This is a first for Sweden and it is well deserved too. Good luck in the final game against Germany!
All right, this weekend I just finished the second Beta of my infamous book so I'll start dispatching it to my selected Beta testers real soon. (A Beta phase is kind of a test-phase where you look for feedback and make final adjustments before a public release.)

Other than that, it's been just another week with the usual news update.


September 29, 2003
This week is another one to remember. A small step for AMD, a huge leap for Desktop users. Or is it the other way around.. Whichever it is, AMD this week released the first Desktop PC oriented (mainstream) 64-bit CPU. Personally I'm pretty excited to get access to the 64-bit world of computing, although I expect it will take half a year or so before there is enough 64-bit software to make it really tempting. (The Athlon 64 as the new CPU is called, runs 32.bit programs faster than any previous Athlon so 64-bit is not the only motivational factor. However, the possibilities offered by 64-bit computing is what appeals most.) Is it possible that Microsoft will remove the #1 annoying thing in Win XP which is the fact that it dumps 'unused' programs to Virtual Memory regardless of how much RAM you have? Since 64-bit CPUs can address much more memory one can only hope that the 64-bit version of Windows (which is in Beta atm.) will deal with this in a more clever way. As always, only time will tell. (Come to think of it, so could a beta tester :-)

Otherwise, there's the usually late weekend update.


September 26, 2003
Updated the DJ DES 'HOT'-list. (Which usually means there is a new release out. :-)


September 22, 2003
Another ordinary week. The Tech News are dominated by Intel news because of the annual Intel Development Forum. I believe I threw in a couple of new links too.


September 15, 2003
Sometimes time flies by and nothing really happens. And sometimes lot's of things happen. Bad things..
This past week was a bad week for most Swedes as the Foreign Minister Anna Lindh was assassinated at a local shopping mall. Ironically, the date for Anna Lindh's death is easy to remember, September 11:th. The reason can be speculated about since they haven't caught the killer yet, but it's difficult *not* to think it had something to do with the September 14:th Euro elections as she was a front figure for the 'Yes' side. The day Sweden would decide wether to adopt the Euro as currency or not. That day is now behind us, and the 'nay-sayers' won by 56% vs 42%. For me that was bad news also as I voted 'Yes' and hoped the majority would too.
But democracy is not about doing what's right, it's about doing what the majority wants and for the loosers it just doesn't feel that great. :-(

So, a really bad week for many of us then, but as always, the show must go on. I updated today with the expected news, but I also threw in a another WIP pic from the GAT project. As always you can see it here.


September 8, 2003
Back to normal then, the usual news and a couple of link-changes.


September 1, 2003
Ah yes. September, which for most means 'end of summer'. Anyway, this past week has been pretty interesting because of the World Championship in Athletics in Paris. I love to watch athletics and I am fascinated by the performances these athletes produce. Sweden performed particularly well winning no less than 5 medals.
Coincidently, this week also marks the 3 third anniversary of my news service. Yes, it's been 3 years (or about 155 updates) since I started. In all these 156 weeks, I've only missed 1 weekend update (the week of the September 11 attack when nothing else happened, so there was nothing to report). In retrospect this tells me one important thing. I need a to go on a long vacation. :-)

Anyway... yesterday was one of those rare days when I decided it was time to update the galley with some more WIP pics. Today we are back to normal, which means the usual news and not much more.


August 30, 2003
A rare interim update. I know, it's been a long time since the last one. So whats new? Well, i felt it was time to add another WIP pic to the gallery. It's the GAT project and you can see it here.


August 25, 2003
From time to time I actually comment on things in the world of sports here. Today I want to say 'Congratulations Carolina!' for the wonderful performance in the Athletics World Championship yesterday. The 20-years old Swede is only the 3rd woman in the world to score over 7000 points in heptathlon. She won the Gold of course, and the hearts of millions of TV viewers.
Now for the actual update. Well you guessed it right? The expected news (again, sorry for the late update) and some new links (Software category). Oh yes, I also updated the 'About me' page.


August 18, 2003
Ah well, what can I say.. Same old, same old. The expected weekend update, though extremely late but with LOTS of news.


August 11, 2003
Update #40 of the year. (Yes I'm counting ;-)
No surprises here, the usual weekend update and some minor link changes.


August 4, 2003
Here we are then. August is here and that always feels like the end of summer.
Ah well, no need to change anything. Today you get the usual weekend update. As always...


July 28, 2003
Oh, damn... It should feel like the middle of summer, but with rainy weather and August almost here, it feels it has almost come to an end.
Otherwise, it's the standard 'late' update with all the interesting Technology related news from the past week.


July 21, 2003
Another standard news-update but also some new links this time..


July 14, 2003
Ah yes, cut'n paste last weeks update note. 'Another late update.. Ah well, you should be used to it by now :-)'


July 7, 2003
Another late update.. Ah well, you should be used to it by now :-)


June 30, 2003
Well, I did manage to squeeze in a mid-week gallery update, how about that? :-)
Today it's actually Monday and back to normal. Really late News-update and possibly some link changes. Tomorrow, we begin the second half of 2003 (and of course the 3rd quarter). 2004 will be here in no time.


June 24, 2003
I thought I'd surprise you with an update of my gallery. I added two new Work In Progress (WIP) pics from my existing projects. No major differences perhaps, but an update is an update, right?


June 23, 2003
Deja Vu... The usual news, lots of them and delivered late, too....


June 16, 2003
The usual news, lots of them and delivered late, too....


June 9, 2003
Nothing unexpected this time either... The usual news, and lots of them.
UPDATE 2: Added some links too (in a second, later update).


June 2, 2003
Late update today, but I just got back from a weekend (party :-) trip to Copenhagen so I didn't really felt like updating this stuff yesterday. Copenhagen is a nice little place btw, I can recommend it.. :-)
Ok, so there were no interim updates. Once again, I shouldn't have said anything until it was actually done.

So just the usual news then? Yup.


May 26, 2003
Late update today. I have no good excuse, just being lazy. You have the usual news, but there might be another interim update this week. Stay tuned.
Anyway, got my upgrades this week. I decided 512MB RAM is for wimps, so I ordered 1GB 333MHz DDR SDRAM. It's cheap these days, so why not. I also got my Serial ATA Seagate drive. Only 80GB, but it will have to do for now.. Of course, when I upgrade my hardware, I also update this page about me and my stuff.


May 20, 2003
Today I decided it was time to update the 'History of computer graphics' page. And the one I'm updating is the of course the one describing the present ant the near future. Check it out here.


May 19, 2003
Just the news this time and as you can see, a bit on the slow side... Sure, there are always things happening, they're just not always interesting. The most interesting thing was probably the annual E3 show. You will find some E3 related articles among the software news. For gamers everywhere, 2003 will be a year to remember.
What else? Oh yeah, I had some trouble with 'Passagen', the service provider hosting my site. I'm actually thinking of moving to another Web hotel. (Which costs money, but seems much better in terms of support and available web-space).


May 12, 2003
Sunday already? Let's have another update then... The usual stuff again, Tech news & links.

Now to something completely different...
For the last 5 years (4 years, 8 months anyway) I have been working for MindArk on the Massive Multiplayer Online game Project Entropia (Officially we actually call it a 'virtual universe').
The 'game' went gold a couple of months ago so in theory, the project is completed, but in reality the game needs a couple more updates before it meets the high expectations of the gaming community. Anyhow, MindArk AB the company I worked for, decided it was time to restructure the company to cut expenses and focus on marketing and continued support of the virtual universe. This resulted in the start of a new company, MindArk PE which takes over the entire Project Entropia development. In the process though, the work-force was cut significantly. So from now on I'm no longer working on the project.
What this means is that at least for the immediate future I might have a 'breather' and focus on my own projects for a while. I really intend to finnish my book this summer (I really mean it this time :-)) and quite possibly a couple of my old projects for my portfolio...For you the visitor, this means more frequent updates and definitely new stuff in the gallery...
I'll keep you posted..


May 6, 2003
Got my new CPU yesterday. Not that it was anything wrong with the old one, but when you can boost the performance more than 200% then it's worth upgrading IMO. The new AMD Athlon XP 2600+ (333MHz FSB) replaces my old 1.2GHz 'Thunderbird' which will move to my secondary computer..
Now let's see if I can put it to good use :-)


May 5, 2003
Another weekend, another update.. Just the news, I fiddled enough with the links in the previous (mid-week) update.


May 1, 2003
Well, not everyone knows this, but May 1:st is a holiday here in Sweden... So I decided to take the opportunity and do a boring link overhaul on my site. I removed or updated some 40 links so now, all links should be pretty much up-to-date.


April 28, 2003
Aaargh.. I forgot to change the date on the main page again! (Last week's news) I can't believe I keep forgetting that part!

Anyway, all things considered that really was the least of my worries this week. Sticking to my policy to not comment my personal life here, since it's really 'off topic' I won't go into detail what my week was like. Suffice to say, it's been a 'ride to hell and back' and that applies to both professional and personal level..

Anyway, enjoy the update/news, I'll be off for a drink... :-)


April 21, 2003
Here in Sweden, Easter means a 4-day 'mini-holiday', so I'll enjoy that while it lasts.

If you follow the happenings in the CPU (processor) business, tomorrow is a big day. Intel's biggest rival, AMD, will finally launch it's 64-bit CPU, the Opteron. It is a server CPU, but the desktop version is due for a September release, perhaps starting the transition to 64-bit desktops. A transition which will, no doubt, take some years. This means, interesting times are ahead..

Alright then, now you know..:-) The news are there, as expected.


April 13, 2003
For the first time in a very long time, I posted an early update.
But yeah... Same old, same old... :-) (But unusually large amount of Science news.)


April 7, 2003
So where were we? Oh yes.. Same old.. There's the expected update and one or two link changes. (That said, I had to be slightly more careful about the news published between 31:st and April 1:st..)

Remember that I mentioned the 'Free energy' device last week? (Well, if not, just read last weeks update below damnit! :-) As always, I'll remain sceptical until real proof is presented, but I did think about one thing... How come that all we (think we..) know about electricity and what is taught in schools is based on Maxwell's and Lorenz's theories from the 1860's something?? Isn't it a real possibility that we miss out on a lot of potential solutions unless we integrate quantum mechanics (quantum field theory) into that? So regardless of what you think of the Free Energy (taken from the quantum vacuum) , you have to admit that our common 'knowledge' about electricity is heavily outdated. That fact alone is concerning.


March 31, 2003
So here we are then, the end of first quarter 2003. Can someone please slow down time?? :-)

This weekend I attended a seminar arranged by the 'Disclosure Project' team. Their claims are extraordinary, but not really new. It's the same stuff about extra terrestrial presence here on Earth and the cover-ups of amazing technology that we've heard about for years. In fact, even their 'smoking gun' free-energy device is something I read about on the net last year. Anyway, I added a link to their site both on my link pages and here.
Make up your own mind...

Alright, enjoy the 'off-the-shelf' update :-) That's a lot of news, aint it?


March 24, 2003
Needless to say, this week has been flooded with news from the war on Iraq. I do not intend to comment on that as for all of us not involved in the conflict, life goes on as usual anyway. In any case it was a 'heavy' week with many hours spent at work and some other peculiar stuff in my personal life I'm not gonna bore you with. (Women, what else :-)
This weekend was also significant for me because I posted the first 'Beta' version of my infamous book to my first 'beta-tester'. More people will receive the beta this coming week. I really intend to release it before the summer this time. Good luck to my beta-testers, your work is greatly appreciated and will certainly improve the quality of my work further.

So back to the usual stuff then. Yes, there are the news, no new links, I think.. What else... Oh yeah.. In a rare moment of inspiration, I actually started to draw a picture in Photoshop.. Didn't work too long on it, but it looks decent enough.. Some more work, and I might post it here, on my site.. After all, some 2D art might be nice among the 3D pics...


March 17, 2003
The news, with lot's of stuff from the annual Cebit expo in Germany. This week truly was 'mobile week' in the Chip biz, as all the big players announced mobile version of their chips (Intel, AMD, nVidia, ATI).


March 10, 2003
Doh, another late update... Just the usual news.


March 3, 2003
Ah yes, March... (And another creepy date, 03.03.03) The damn weather here in Gothenburg has been EXACTLY the same for over a month now. I hope it will end soon, I'm really tired of it.
Anyway, Sunday was a good day for all Liverpool fans out there as they managed to beat Manchester United in the league cup final (Worthington Cup).
What else, well, as usual there are the news (and a whole bunch of them, 45 items to be exact), but I didn't really touch the link pages this time.


February 23, 2003
Somewhat earlier update than usual... And a bunch of new links, actually..


February 17, 2003
Updated the news and removed some dead links.


February 10, 2003
A 'normal' week. This means the usual news.


February 3, 2003
Very few of you could have missed the news about the Space Shuttle Columbia tragedy. My condolences to the crew's families. It's a very sad thing to see an accident like this, even more so if one is interested in space-research etc. (As I am...) While the loss of human life is regrettable, I hope NASA doesn't let this bring down the spirit of space exploration. We are all humans, and we are all going to die one day. But our mission must go on. Individual lives will be lost, but humanity will harvest the fruits of their sacrifice.

Alright, that's that.. Life goes on, and here it is.. This week's update. News, yes.. Also checked some links.(Added, removed)


January 27, 2003
Again, the usual weekend update. Enjoy.


January 20, 2003
What can I say, the usual stuff... The News and maybe one or two new links.
(Again, a very late update, sorry.)


January 13, 2003
Already at my fifth update of the year.. Oh well.. Today, you get the news and a DJ DES 'HOT' update. If you know what I'm talking about, check the list here, otherwise you're probably not interested.
Alright, that's it for this week, and my apologies for the extra-late update...


January 6, 2003
Well then... My vacation ends today and did I do all the stuff I planned? No, of course not.. :-)
Anyway.. As you may know, the first week of the year isn't exactly the best, news-wise... With all the reporters being home celebrating... So don't expect a lot of news this time... Things should return to normal next week though... And since my vacation ends, I'll probably return to my 1 update/week cycle...
Ok, see you next week?


January 5, 2003
No actual content update, but a couple of cosmetic changes. I did change some visual aspects of the main page. I replaced the Text-headlines with slightly more colorful (and color-coded) Graphical headlines. I added a new banner on top of the page and moved the JAVA applet down below. Oh yes, I also changed the way you access the old and future calendars. Just click on the current (2003) and once there, you'll have an option to move back/forward in time. :-)


January 3, 2003
Well guess what. For some reason, I decided to 'spill the beans' on the mysterious GAT project. It's still early in development (despite being a 2+ year old project) so maybe it's a mistake to show stuff this early, but I thought 'what the hell...'. It's probably just my subconsciousness trying to put some pressure on myself :-)
Anyway... Once it's on the web, it's irreversible... So check out the gallery for more info..


January 1, 2003
Here we go then... 2003 is here. This first update of the year traditionally describes the year that was and what may come ahead. Sort of a summary of the past year..

Let's start as usual, with site updates. The number of site updates was a bit lower than the year before and ended at 62.

I started off 2002 by continuing my lengthy vacation that began in Dec2001, but despite that not much happened on this site. (To be honest, I don't remember what the hell I did, back then :-)

Then followed the weekly updates and not much more. At the end of March I made what turned out to be the worst purchase of the year when I payed €440 for a new GFX card which I couldn't start using properly until I bought a new Motherboard at the end of November... By then, that same card was down to €250.
Speaking of that... In May I couldn't be bothered anymore by my ever-crashing computer so I ripped it apart and built a second computer from slightly different parts laying around in my apartment :-)
I used that secondary computer daily until i finally got the new Mobo in November. And it proved to be the most amazingly stable computer ever. Not a single crash, lockup or anything that would require a reboot since May! (Yes, it still works just fine)

However, before that, sometimes in April, I apparently had a vacation, and started working on yet another project, the AK47 'Kalashnikov'. I posted 1 pic in the gallery, but since then, no progress on that one... :-(

The highlight of the year was certainly the WorldCup in soccer, then computer-wise, months of frustration followed, because I kept waiting for a particular motherboard which never seemed to arrive. (As I said earlier, I got it at the end of November) I also had my cell-phone stolen in October, so another source of frustration as I waited for a particular Nokia model. (Which I finally received in December)

So 2002 didn't sound like much fun at all, did it? Well, keep in mind I only comment on a few technological items here, not my life as a whole :-)
But what plans do I have for 2003? Well, obviously, I still want to finnish that damn book, and who knows what time/discipline/inspiration allows... At work, the 'Virtual Universe' we've been working of for years, will soon be officially released to the public. (January 30:th they say) I don't know exactly how that will affect my situation, but obviously, it's an important milestone for any Game Developer.

Now, as always, I'd like to say to all my visitors: 'Thank you for visiting and welcome back'.




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