2004 UPDATES(This page is basically a diary)[bottom] 2004 |
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December 31, 2004 The last day of the year 2004. This is where I usually wish you a happy New Year, but considering the the natural disaster in Asia, this year will not start happily at all for millions of people. Just 4 days ago, it was estimated that about 20,000 people lost their lives. That in itself a huge number, but now the death-toll is estimated at 120,000! The earthquake that started off the west coast of Indonesia and the Tsunami it caused is one of the biggest disasters in recent history and it's effects will be felt worldwide for some time to come. Despite all this, for most of us here in parts of the world far away from the scene of the natural catastrophe, life moves on. Although maybe not a very happy celebration, I still want to give you my best wishes for the New Year. Now... There is one more thing... In the first update of 2004, I promised that my book would be a 2004 release and even though it was really close, it just didn't happen. A month ago, I thought I would publish it the days around Christmas but as thing turned out, now may not be the best time. I still plan to make an effort to wrap thing up in the days ahead (because I'm not quite done yet), but then I'll have to see when the timing for the release seems right. In times when millions of people need comfort, my book could be interpreted as a bit harsh and insensitive. Tomorrow, it will be a new year and as usual, I will do the traditional update where I summorise the past year. December 27, 2004 This weekend ended pretty badly for a lot of people in Asia. A 8.9 (on the Richter scale) earthquake caused huge waves which in turn destroyed a lot of villages and towns in the area. It is estimated that over 20,000 people lost their lives in this natural disaster (and many are still unaccounted for). A reminder that nature still can catch us off guard. As for the actual site-update itself, it's a rather meager one, but then again, the updates around the holidays usually are as many reporters take a break and the amount of reported news decreases significantly. It's getting late in the year, but I think I'll manage one more update before 2004 comes to an end. December 20, 2004 Here we go then, I'm on a break now but that didn't really help this particular update. It's really late this time. Oh well... Now that I have some free time on my hands, I'll try to wrap up the work on my 'neverending-book'. And the whole x-mas weekend will be behind us by the time I post my next update. Apart from wishing (those of you who celebrate) a merry Xmas, let me remind you that the Cassini space probe orbiting Saturn will detach it's Titan lander on Xmas eve. Let's hope that goes well and again: Merry Xmas folks. Btw, in an interesting side note, let me mention that this past week, a gamer from Australia made the biggest purchase of a virtual item ever. I'm telling you this because I used to work for the company (almost 5 years) that made this sale. December 13, 2004 So we're nearing mid December and I have one week of school left before the break. Statistically, the period around xmas and New year is when I update my site most frequently, but until then, you get the expected weekend update and a couple of new links. December 6, 2004 Ooh, December already?! ;-) (Hey I promised, right?) Anyway, apart from drowning in schoolwork at the moment, I give you the expected (ultra-late) update and some link-reshuffling. A couple of days ago I also purchased a new sound card for my computer because as it turned out, the integrated solution on my new mainboard wasn't what I was hoping for. So now I ended this round of upgrades with an Audigy2 ZS sound card. As always, you can see my entire setup here. November 29, 2004 A rather uneventful week, but now we're really getting close to Xmas and the long awaited break in my studies. The (late, again) update contains the usual stuff. Come back next week to see me get amazed over the fact that's it's already December ;-) November 22, 2004 Ok, so after a few weeks of political focus, this past week has been about only one thing (if you ask me, anyway). I'm of course referring to the HIGHLY anticipated release of the computer game Half-Life 2. After more than a year of delays the most awaited game of all time is finally out. All credit goes to Valve for producing such a masterpiece. However, why was it cheaper to buy a boxed version from a local retailer here in Sweden than it was to buy it online through Steam?? Makes no sense at all. So apart from that, it's just another week closer to X-mas and the end of the year. The (late) update itself contains the usual stuff.. November 14, 2004 Back on track then, update is out on time... Another week where the political arena overshadows most other events. This week will be remembered for the death of long-term palestinian leader Yassir Arafat. November 8, 2004 Unlike the previous couple of weeks, I just didn't find the time to deliver the update on time. Ah well, it's here now.. Otherwise, the week was pretty much dominated by the US election. As everyone knows by now, it's another ~1454 days with G.W.Bush. Let's see how that goes. ;-) November 5, 2004 Ok, so I got all my new tech stuff, and I'm now running on my newly upgraded computer. You can see the exact specs here. October 31, 2004 So it's Halloween already. Not that it means anything to me.. Apart from merchants who are desperately trying to turn Halloween into another commercial holiday, it's not a big deal here in Sweden. What else? Oh yeah, I ordered some stuff for my computer upgrade. Some of the stuff is 'in the mail' while one item might take another week or so, I'll have to wait and see. When I have the new stuff up and running I will update the 'about me' page and you'll be able to check out the new config. Meanwhile, I'm busy doing school stuff and the usual Weekend update is all you get. October 24, 2004 For the first in time in many months or possibly even years, I actually posted the Weekend update while it was still Sunday here in Sweden. And there were some other minor changes like a slightly updated PC buyers guide etc.. In a completely unrelated note, I (finally) got the last report from my beta testers (of my infamous book of course), meaning the 'ball is in my court' again. Too bad I'm so busy with school related stuff these days. Oh well, I will just have to make time for this. I've lost count on how many deadlines I've broken so I'm not going to set another one. Let's just say I would be disappointed if I failed to get it out before year's end because judging from the response from my beta-testers, I'm getting very close now.. October 18, 2004 The usual weekend update, although this time almost on time :-) I also added a few new links, and removed a bunch of old one's I never use (or were simply broken). October 11, 2004 Ouch, a bit late this time. I had to choose: sleep for a couple of hours before school or deliver the update on time. I chose to sleep. ;-) It's the usual weekend update and one or two link-changes. The most interesting thing that happened last week was the second successful flight of privately built 'spacecraft' SpaceShipOne. This meant that the company claimed the X-Prize and the $10M prize money. Not that the money matters here, the SpaceShipOne cost far more than $10M to build. What is interesting here is the potential for a new market, a whole new era even; The era of space tourism. These are indeed interesting times to be around. ;-) October 8, 2004 Just added a link to G-mail (Googles 1GB Webmail service) to my main page. I normally don't use webmail, but now that I'm studying again it makes sense. October 3, 2004 Well, what do you know, it's October already! The updates are coming earlier now but that's about it too. September 27, 2004 Another week comes to an end. Considering I'm busy with my studies these days, it's quite safe to assume that the weekend updates won't contain much else apart from the Tech-news update for some time. Today's update was actually almost on time... Almost! September 20, 2004 Man, these weekends just fly by don't they? Actually, now that I'm back behind the schoolbench, I don't mind the weeks flying by ;-) So it's time again for the weekly update then. This one was almost on time, too. September 13, 2004 The usual weekend update, although not as late as it has been for the last couple of months. Also, one or two changes in the link section. Interestingly(?) this weekend update marks the third year in a row without missed updates. Last time it happened was during the week after the 9/11 attacks on WTC. But it actually wasn't because of that (even though there weren't much news apart from that incident) but because I happened to be on vacation on the Canary Islands. Coincidently, it was that week I wrote the basis for my now infamous book which curiously enough reached 'Release Candidate 2-status' and was handed out to selected Beta-testers just last week. In other words, I've been working on it for 3 years now and that's not counting the early attempts that were later dismissed. September 6, 2004 Alright, so by now it's no great surprise that these so called 'Weekend Updates' have really been 'late Monday updates'. Anyway, apart from that, I guess the 'big news' as far as I'm concerned has been my return to the school bench. That's right, after 5 years in the computer game industry and some time off pursuing various personal projects, I decided to go back to school. Since last week, I'm once again a student, and the 'Design Tecnique' programme runs for 2 years. The focus is on CAD (Computer Aided Design) but I will hopefully learn other useful things. August 30, 2004 So the Olympics have come to an end... I enjoyed it as usual and congratulations to all the participants and to the hosts, Athens for a good event. Sticking to the world of sports, I would just like to mention Formula 1 for a moment. While Schumacher secured his 7th championship win, he WAS finally beaten fair and square by Kimi Raikkonen (McLaren Mercedes). Prior to this very eventful and exciting race (Spa, Belgium), Schumacher had won every race in this years GP except in Monaco where he had to retire due to car damage. Enough sports for this week then, let's take a look at the actual update. Surprise, surprise, it's the usual one, just as late as the previous weeks. However, this week also marks the 4th anniversary of my news-service. It was on August 27:th 2000 I first posted the 'Tech news of the week' update. Looking all the way back to the creation of this site back in 1996, this is update 422 ;-) Mind you, I did have a personal site already in 1994 but it was at a different location (GeoCities I believe) and it wasn't much to look at with a mug-shot and a line of text... ;-) August 23, 2004 Oh wow, this weekend has been a really good couple of days for the Swedish athletes in the Athens 2004 Olympics, winning 3 Gold medals in Heptathlon, Triple Jump and High Jump respectively. Not unlike the latest Athletics World Championship last year. As for the update, it's the usual one, pretty much just as late as the last couple of weeks. August 16, 2004 Ah yes, the usually 'late as hell' weekend update is here and it's late as hell. ;-) I blame the Olympics and my recent purchase of Doom3 And coincidently I also blame the latter for my excessive usage of the word 'Hell' ;-) August 9, 2004 Well, after last week's surprise update, we're back to the normal 'late as hell' weekend update. ;-) That's about it for now and let's hope the Olympic games wont interfere too much with my update next week. August 2, 2004 Holy crap, is it August already? Oh well... As you can see from the two previous updates, not much happened. But this week I actually have a bunch of new things. It's probably the biggest update in a long time. First of all, there's the usual update. But now to the more unexpected stuff. I completely reworked my Astronomy pages. I think I mentioned that I planned to do this a long time ago. Anyway, they are here now. There are thousands of good astronomy pages out there on the net, but I wanted to put something together that would in some quick steps give the 'astronomically challenged' ;-) reader the proper perspective on Earth and our place relative to the rest of the universe. There is also an astronomical timeline included that shows our progress through history. Enjoy... Obviously, time has not been kind to my PC buying guide. Last update was from October 2003 I believe, and things happen fast in that biz so I updated those pages and they are now up to speed. Finally I also made some cosmetic changes to the left menu, which I think you've noticed by now. July 26, 2004 A late weekend update and a few new links. July 19, 2004 An ultra-late weekend update and not much else. July 13, 2004 Got my brand new graphics card today. It was a birthday gift from my generous family and fortunately ;-) I got to choose the model of my taste. I chose the GeForce 6800 GT. This card will replace my aging GeForce 4 Ti 4400 which will be demoted to my secondary computer. July 12, 2004 The usual weekend update and I added a really old pic to the gallery. How old? It's from 1993! Speaking of ancient things, this past week marked the 10:th anniversary of my first contact with Internet. I got hooked at once, so now I've officially been using the Internet for a full decade. July 5, 2004 Oh wow! Who would have thought? Greece are the football Champions of Europe. With tactics not seen since the days of Franz Beckenbauer Greece went on to stage the biggest upset in modern football (soccer) history. But it wasn't just luck and coincidence. While they were hardly the most fun team to watch, they certainly impressed everyone with their incredibly tactical play and highly effective counter attacks. As usual, 'my' teams didn't win, but at the end of the day, it was a good tournament and congratulations to Greece. Well done. Apart from that, I already mentioned in friday's update about the arrival of the Cassini spacecraft to Saturn. Since then it has already managed to provide some new info about the big moon Titan. The next major mission event will be the very close (1200km) flyby of Titan on October 26:th. Cassini has a whole range of instruments capable of penetrating the thick layers of clouds in the Titan atmosphere, and we should expect some very high resolution data (visual, infrared, radar etc..) Now to the least exciting bit, the site update itself :-) Well, you guessed it, the usual (very late) weekend update and possibly some minor link changes. July 2, 2004 Time for another surprise, midweek update (since when is friday 'midweek'? ED). I added a new pic to the Apache project page in the gallery. I also added a link or two. I have to mention the big event of the week, the arrival of the Cassini spacecraft. This Wednesday/Thursday (depending where you live) it arrived at Saturn after almost 7 years. THe orbit insertion procedure included a risky flight through a gap in the ring system. Fortunately, all went well and the spacecraft is reported to be in excellent condition. You can see some of the early photos here. And finally... Who would have thought that Greece would reach the final in Euro2004? Well, they did. So the tournament will end the way it started. Portugal vs Greece. June 28, 2004 In typical fashion, the teams I support (England, Sweden) have both been eliminated from Euro2004. Ironically, they both lost on penalties after tight games. At this point my guess is that Czech Republic will play Portugal in the final. Czech Republic is by far the most impressive team so far, and I hope they win (besides, being a Liverpool fan, it's nice to see that the Liverpool players in the Czech team are doing well). Well, let's not forget the other big event coming up this week. After 7 long years, the NASA/ESA space probe Cassini has finally arrived at Saturn. Orbit insertion is planned for June 30:th. It will take the probe a couple of months to reach optimum orbit, but this Wednesday is the day it reaches the ringed planet. For most recent news about the Cassini mission, I suggest you keep an eye on the official web-site located here. What else? Well, obviously the usual weekend update and som minor link tweaks. June 21, 2004 An exciting Euro2004 week comes to an end. Just as I suspected, we've been treated to a lot of high class drama. This coming week will be even more exciting and I intend to see it all. ;-) Other than that, do I even have to say it: The weekend update. June 14, 2004 It's been quite an eventful weekend. The European Championship in football (soccer) kicked off this Saturday. There should be a lot of high class drama for us to enjoy in the weeks ahead. Of course, anyone who saw England - France will know that reality is stranger than fiction. Moving out in space, this Friday, Cassini (spacecraft) passed the small Saturn moon 'Phoebe' and returned some sharp images of this mysterious object. For all the latest Cassini images, check this site. Finally, there were elections to the European Parliament yesterday. I voted of course, let's see where this leads.. Apart from all that, there is the usual (late) weekend update and some new links. June 10, 2004 Added a new WIP to the gallery. It's a brand new project, but this time it's a 'real-time' object. It's a model that is meant to be used in real time, e.g. Computer games. Why? Well, it will be part of my portfolio when it's done. You can find it in the gallery under the name 'AH64'. June 7, 2004 This Sunday, June 6:th, happened to be both the 'national day' here in Sweden and the 60:th anniversary of 'D-Day'. 10,000 ppl died just on the first day of 'Operation Overlord'. It was the beginning of the end of WWII and also the beginning of a long lasting peace in Europe. Other that that, it's pretty much 'same old, same old'. Today's update includes the Weekend update and some new links. May 31, 2004 Last day of May and another (late) weekend update. May 24, 2004 Just the expected Weekend update. May 17, 2004 Late weekend update and some new links. The big event of the past week was the E3 show in Las Vegas. Perhaps the most unusual thing was that no less than 4 different gaming consoles were officially announced. Can't remember the last time something like that happened. Anyway, check the news to read more about them. May 12, 2004 Added a re-rendered RedBull pic, it's in the gallery of course. Just klick the old thumbnail and you'll se both the new and the old render. I also added a couple of new links. UPDATE: The older render has been removed. May 10, 2004 Weekend update and some link changes. May 5, 2004 Updated the HOT page, here which means that DJ DES has been working hard again ;-) (As usual, this is only relevant to a select number of music enthusiasts ;-) May 3, 2004 So... It's May then. The European Union now consists of 25 countries and big market just got even bigger. The Union now consist of some 450+ million people. Today also happens to be last day here in Sweden to 'do your taxes'. Otherwise it's all 'business as usual' here. The expected (and late, yes) update is here with a whole bunch of news items (42). April 30, 2004 Ah yes, finally some real speed. I just upgraded my broadband connection to 8Mbit (down, 1Mbit up). For just €6 more (per month), I get 4 times faster download and 2 times faster upload speeds. Upgrading was a so called 'no brainer'. Btw, I doubt I'll update tomorrow, so I'll say it now. Tomorrow the European Union suddenly gets a whole lot bigger. 10 new countries join the Union pushing the tally from 15 to 25 countries. So I say to the newbies: 'Welcome to the European Union! Let's make this thing work!' ;-) April 26, 2004 Who am I kidding... The Weekend update is becoming the late Monday update. Ouch! I'll try to do better next week ;-) Anyway, I also added a couple of links this time. April 19, 2004 Weekend update, slightly less late than last week. Maybe I should just call it a Monday update. ;-) April 16, 2004 A rare addition to the gallery. It's another WIP pic from the old AK47 project. Now to some exciting stuff for those of us who are into computer graphics... A couple of days ago, nVidia released it's latest line of graphics chips (GeForce 6xxx) and this one looks quite incredible as far as performance goes. And at 222 million transistors it's likely to be one of the most complicated chips ever produced. This comes at a price however and I'm not just talking about cash. It is also very power-hungry which means people will probably have to buy a new power-supply along with the new graphics card. nVidia recommends 480W or more which is a lot! And I thought my 360W PSU would last for a couple of years. Check the web to read more about the GeForce 6800 Ultra as the new chip is called. April 12, 2004 Deja Vu! A very, very late weekend update. Due to the Easter holidays, there wasn't much news-reporting going on this weekend. April 5, 2004 The expected weekend update. And yes, it's late as usual. April 1, 2004 Just a minor update, noticed some links that don't work anymore. Btw, don't believe everything you hear today. ;-) March 28, 2004 Yesterday we switched to 'summer-time' so the days will feel a teeny bit longer now. For a short while it looked as if though I would manage to post this update early...but no... It's late as usual. ;-) March 22, 2004 Springtime! Or is it? Well, it's getting close anyway. For some reason, this years switch to 'daylight saving time' or 'summertime' wont occur until next weekend. The big annual CeBIT exhibition was held this past week, which should mean a few extra Tech news. This coming week, it's time for the annual Game Developer Conference in San José, California. I attended this conference in 1999 and 2000 but now it's obviously been a while since my last visit. Anyway, enjoy the usual news and cya soon. March 15, 2004 Here we go again, another late update. March 8, 2004 Well, what can I say... The usual tech-news update. March 1, 2004 Oh, so now it's March already? Sigh... Yesterday was a rare February 29:th which must have been a thrill for all those who are born on that day... ;-) Ah well, you'll find the usual news. Nothing radically different this time either. The update coming even later than last week, which is not a good trend. (Ok, so maybe me watching the Oscars had something to do with it ;-) And btw, congratulations to the entire crew who made the Lord Of The Rings experience possible. 11 Oscars out of 11 nominations?! Phew!) February 23, 2004 After getting a new monitor earlier this week, I could finally put my second computer to good use. I also acquired a new network adapter allowing me to set up a new 100Mbit network which is now working just fine. This past week was flooded with semiconductor news because of the annual Intel Developer Forum. Other than that, you have the expected (but late as usual) weekend update. Oh yeah, I also got myself proper web hosting for my domain which I will use to promote my infamous book, which is nearing a release. The URL will be publicly announced at a later date. February 19, 2004 Updated the 'about me' page because I bought a new monitor for my primary computer. Also added/removed some links. February 16, 2004 Voila! The expected weekend update. February 9, 2004 Just the usual weekend update. February 6, 2004 Another surprise addition to the gallery today. As long as I keep the 3D scenes simple then production times goes down dramatically. This is another quick project with a simple scene, but where the goal is to make it look (somewhat) real. You can see it in the gallery. February 2, 2004 Oh my! February already... First, some good news from Mars. The second rover 'Opportunity' has rolled of it's lander and is now standing on Martian soil. Meanwhile, NASA engineers have fixed the problems with the first rover, 'Spirit'. It is planned that 'Spirit' will resume it's science mission later this week. Well, other than that, not much new really. The good old weekend update and some link adjustments.. January 25, 2004 Another eventful week for Mars explorers. In midweek, the - until now - perfect operational record of the Spirit rover ended. Some sort of malfunction crippled the rover to a point where it's future looked very grim indeed. NASA's JPL team has during the last couple of days managed to find out where the fault lies. They still do not know exactly what is wrong, but they have figured out a work-around that gives them back control of the rover. While the rover wont move anywhere for the next couple of weeks, there is a good(?) chance the mission can be resumed in the near future. It remains to be seen how much of the functionality the team will be able to get back, however. But that was not all the Mars news for this week. The second rover, named 'Opportunity' successfully landed on the red planet this weekend. It seems to be in good working order and has already sent back some fine pictures. Below, you can see the traditional panorama that all the other rovers send back very soon after touchdown to give us all an idea of what the landing site looks like. 
Believe it or not, but that's still not all the Mars news for this week. The European orbiter Mars Express just sent back confirmation that there is frozen water on the Martian south pole. So as you can see, it's not often we get so much news about what's happening on another planet. I find all this very exciting and I wish the JPL team the best of luck with both rovers. Now apart from that, let me just inform you about the actual site updates. There is the usual news update obviously, but I also added a online CV & a temporary portfolio. It's not spectacular, but better than nothing - I hope. Now, a CV is nothing I consider to be an official part of this site in a sense that I would treat as a normal part of the content. Therefore there is no link to it from the main page. The link is located on the 'about me' page. January 20, 2004 Thought I'd surprise everyone (including myself) by adding a new pic to the gallery. It's nothing amazing, just a quick project that doesn't require months of work. If I did more of these quick projects, my gallery would contain many pages by now. :-) January 19, 2004 The president of the United States, G.W. Bush, made an interesting announcement this (past) week. The speach was expected and pretty much everyone knew what it would be about. But it wasn't official until Wednesday (2004.01.14). Anyhow, the announcement was about a new goal for NASA. The space administration hasn't really had any particular goals the last few decades. Well, maybe the Space Station, but nothing like the Space race in the 60's. This new goal includes a permanent base on the Moon and also sending people to Mars. Now, most of us expected that NASA was going to send people to Mars sooner or later, but at least now, it's an official goal. The Moon-base part is also interesting, because it will lead to development of new spacecraft. The current Shuttle-fleet will be retired at the end of the decade. It's only remaining purpose is to assist in the finalization of the International Space Station. The Moonbase is supposed to happen around 2020 or so. The Mars mission is a bit more difficult to specify precisely at this point, but it's safe to say it will be at least another 20 years before it happens. Here is a transcript of the entire speech. Meanwhile, the MER-A or 'Spirit' as the Martian rover is named, successfully rolled down from it's lander onto the Martian surface. It was a big moment for NASA and now the rover is finally where it was designed to be. On the surface of Mars, roving around and performing scientific tasks. Not to mention sending back pretty pictures of this alien planet. The news-update was of course late as usual. And this time we were really blessed with an endless supply of news. January 12, 2004 Another good week for Mars-lovers. The Rover sent back a couple of high resolution color images of the surface of Mars. It's not the first time we get color images from Mars, but they never before have they been in such high resolution. Take a look at the first color image here. During this coming week, the rover is scheduled to roll of the Lander/ramp and start roving around on the surface. What else? Well, as far as site updates go, I added and removed a few links and I also added a link to news archives to the menu in the left frame. Of course, the tech-news are there too. You will notice that the number of news items is back to normal after the Holidays. In fact, there's plenty of news related to the big CES show in Las Vegas. I experienced a couple hours of downtime tonight as my ISP did some maintenance work. This delayed my update a number of hours. January 4, 2004 I usually don't include any image here, but today is a special occasion. Ok, so we've had robotic probes land on Mars before. We've even had rovers on Mars before, but still. This weekend NASA successfully landed the first of two big rovers on Mars. The image below is a 'stitched, b&w panorama photo taken by the Mars Exploration Rover 'Spirit'. 
Seen from Earth, Mars is just a bright dot in the sky. Many people have no idea what they are looking at when they see Mars in the night sky. And yet, there are other people, who have developed the technology necessary to land robots on this planet some 70 million kilometers away from Earth. (The distance varies with time.) NASA landed it's first rover on Mars in 1997. These new rovers are much bigger and more mobile. They can travel 100m/day. The second rover, dubbed 'Opportunity' will land in about 3 weeks on the opposite side of Mars. The primary mission for both rovers is to seek for signs of previous life. The first rover landing was a great success, my best wishes to NASA for the second rover. Meanwhile, ESA, the European space agency is still trying to contact the small 'Beagle II' lander which landed late last month. Alright, enough about Mars for now, I'm sure there will be plenty to talk about the coming weeks. The amount of tech news is still somewhat meager. I expect things to return to normal within a week or so. Today's content update is of course the usual Weekend update and because of the modest amount of news, I actually managed to post the update on Sunday evening as opposed to Monday morning. :-) January 2, 2004 Made the necessary updates to 'History Of Computer Graphics - 2000 and beyond'. Check it out here. January 1, 2004 All right then, it's time. Another New Year means another update where I summarize the past year. Let's start as usual, with site updates. Considering I update at least every weekend I usually land on 60 something updates/year. In 2003 I updated the site 65 times. To be honest, 2003 wasn't a great year for me. I've seen better years both professionally and personally. For example, the company I had worked for for almost 5 years had to be restructured so 75% of the staff was dismissed. (including me). If we look at the situation in the world, there was the unfortunate Colombia space shuttle disaster early on in 2003 effectively grounding the entire shuttle fleet, and they haven't flown since. That meant the Russians were and still are responsible for all crew exchanges on the International Space Station. Space exploration is a dear topic to me, and towards the end of 2003, Europe successfully put Mars Express into orbit around Mars. This was the first time ESA put a spacecraft into orbit around another planet. At this point it is still not known exactly what happened to the lander that was released and set to land on the surface. Early on in 2004 NASA will make a big return to the Red Planet so it will be exciting to see what they'll discover. In March the the predicted Iraq war came. Several reasons were given by the US and GB but, the emphasis was clearly on Weapons Of Mass destruction. To this day, they have not found a single site of that kind, but as always people forget the past and adapt to the new situation. Late on in the year, Saddam Hussein was captured which made a lot of people happy (although probably not all). In the world of sports, 2003 was a good year for Sweden, the women in particular. We remember such things as Carolina Klyft's superior performance in the Heptathlon and of course the silver medal in Women's Soccer World Cup. This site has an emphasis on Technology news, so what was the biggest tech event of 2003? Well, I'd say that, without a doubt, it was AMD's launch of their 64-bit CPU. First a server CPU later a desktop model. Finally an affordable 64-bit CPU for the masses. Of course, it will not have proper impact until a 64-bit version of Windows is released. Among other notable events were the hysterically frequent releases of new graphics chips from both nVidia and ATI. 2003 was the year nVidia lost it's performance crown to ATI. Needless to say, this spawned a frantic product release cycle. My computer received a number of upgrades in 2003. I bought a new CPU, a couple of SATA HardDrives and a DVD burner. I also 'upped' my Internet connection to 2Mbit, although compared to the alternatives, that is considered pretty slow here in Sweden. Moving along here to other topics usually associated with my site. The gallery didn't see much action, but for a short while there was some enthusiasm about the GAT project update. I did some other stuff too that didn't reach the gallery, but it still might in 2004. We'll see about that. Then of course, we have this book I never seem to finish. It's still not done, that is true, but to my defence I can say that I've had 2 BETA trial periods and I'm ALMOST there. Really! 2004 is the year it will be released. That is a promise. Now, as always, I'd like to say to all my visitors: 'Thank you for visiting and welcome back'. Click here for older (2003) updates. 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