Old Blog Post

Paul Mooney asked "What does your work environment look like?", and posted a picture of where he works.So I had to do the same.Below is a pictureis my desk at work. I have a main computer with two 19" LCD screens, a test server running Domino 5.0.12 (our production server version) connected to a 17" LCD screen (a left-over with a scratch), and two additional client systems, one test client runing Notes 7 and one system called Workhorse where I run more time consuming agents so I won't lock up my main/development machine... I tooktwo pictures with my camera phone and then used AutoStitch (highly recommended free software) to make them into a panorama.So what does your work environment look like? 

John James posted a list of what food on the "Omnivore's 100" list he have eaten. So I decided to post my version of the list. The list if, as John explians it, from Very Good Taste blog who came up with a list of foods that they feel every omnivore should eat in their life time.Bold means I have eaten/tried it, crossed out means I wouldn´t touch it in a million years. So here is the list, along with my results.1. Venison2. Nettle tea - Had nettle soup, though. Great with hard boiled eggs3. Huevos rancheros4. Steak tartare5. Crocodile (alligator counts?)6. Black pudding7. Cheese fondue8. Carp9. Borscht10. Baba ghanoush11. Calamari12. Pho13. PB&J sandwich - not my thing, but should probably try it.14. Aloo gobi15. Hot dog from a street cart16. Epoisses17. Black truffle18. Fruit wine made from something other than grapes19. Steamed pork buns20. Pistachio ice cream21. Heirloom tomatoes 22. Fresh wild berries23. Foie gras24. Rice and beans25. Brawn, or head cheese26. Raw Scotch Bonnet pepper 27. Dulce de leche28. Oysters29. Baklava30. Bagna cauda31. Wasabi peas32. Clam chowder in a sourdough bowl33. Salted lassi34. Sauerkraut35. Root beer float36. Cognac with a fat cigar37. Clotted cream tea38. Vodka jelly/Jell-O39. Gumbo40. Oxtail41. Curried goat42. Whole insects (survival training in the army)43. Phaal44. Goat´s milk45. Malt whisky from a bottle worth 0/$120 or more46.Fugu47. Chicken tikka masala48. Eel49. Krispy Kreme original glazed doughnut50. Sea urchin51. Prickly pear52. Umeboshi53. Abalone54. Paneer55. McDonald´s Big Mac Meal56. Spaetzle57. Dirty gin martini58. Beer above 8% ABV59. Poutine60. Carob chips61. S´mores62. Sweetbreads63. Kaolin64. Currywurst65. Durian66. Frogs´ legs67. Beignets, churros, elephant ears or funnel cake68. Haggis69. Fried plantain70. Chitterlings, or andouillette71. Gazpacho72. Caviar and blini73. Louche absinthe74. Gjetost, or brunost75. Roadkill76. Baijiu77. Hostess Fruit Pie78. Snail79. Lapsang souchong80. Bellini81. Tom yum82. Eggs Benedict83. Pocky - I don't eat chocolate84. Tasting menu at a three-Michelin-star restaurant.85. Kobe beef86. Hare87. Goulash88. Flowers89. Horse90. Criollo chocolate91. Spam92. Soft shell crab93. Rose harissa94. Catfish95. Mole poblano96. Bagel and lox97. Lobster Thermidor98. Polenta99. Jamaican Blue Mountain coffee - I don't drink cofee100. Snake52 out of 100. And there are still things on there I would like to try. 

I just wrote my reflections on September 11. I then saw that System i Addict (David) wrote about Remembering 9/11 & forgetting the terrorist. I just want to point out a few things, which are not talked about that often here in the US. * 15 of the 19 hijackers were from Saudi Arabia, also the home country of Osama Bin-Ladin. {link}* Saudi Arabia got the name from the family Saud, who "unified" (annected) several regions into one kingdom in 1932. The country is an absolute monarchy, which in this case is an autocracy (pretty much the same as a dictatorship). The king is the supreme ruler.* Saudi Arabia is using sharia law (same as the Talibans promoted), with public flogging, amputation of hands and feet as well as beheading as punishments. Recently a 19 year old woman was sentenced to 200 lashes and 6 months in prison for being gang-raped by 7 men. Her crime? Being in the company of a man not her husband or brother...* Human rights organisations are very critical of Saudi Arabia. Not only are women not allowed to drive cars, but recently the political police forced teenage girls back into a burning dorm building, using whips, because the girls were not wearing veils and thus were not properly dressed... An unknown number of young girls died from that.* In 2002, the United Nations Committee against Torture criticized Saudi Arabia over the amputations and floggings it carries out under the Shari'a. The Saudi delegation responded defending its legal traditions held since the inception of Islam in the region 1300 years ago and rejected "interference" in its legal system. {link}* Talking about schools:The study of Islam remains at the core of the Saudi educational system. The Islamic aspect of the Saudi national curriculum is examined in a recent report by Freedom House. The report found that in religious education classes (in any religious school), children are taught to deprecate other religions, in addition to other branches of Islam. {link}andEducation in Saudi Arabia has never fully separated from its Islamic roots. All curricula must conform to the Islamic Sharia laws and the Qur'an, and traditional gender roles continue to shape educational opportunities available to females. The education of females has increased dramatically in recent years, from 25 percent of all students in 1970 to 47.5 percent in 2001. However, education is largely segregated by gender. There are six Universities which have both male and female sections out of the nation´s eight universities. Certain subjects are not available for women yet.{link}* There are reports that up to 90% of the money funneled to muslim fundamentalists around the world comes from saudi princes/royalty. The principle is similar to in the old catholic church, that you can buy yourself salvation in the after life by doing "good deeds for God", e.g. building a church if you are a christian or a islamic school if you are muslim. You can also support holy warriors (Crusaders in the 12th century, mujahedin in…

I was sitting in the office in downtown Boston as usual when Angie, my then-wife, called me. On August 31 she had surgery, and on September 7 she got some chest pains that they diagnosed as a suspectedpulmonary embolism, so they were keeping her in the hospital for about a week. She was watching TV in her room at

As several others, I haveposted a proposalfor a LS2009 session at IdeaJam.Go there, read it and let me know what you think.Please, if you denote it, write a few lines why, so I can modify the proposal. 

Warning, this blog entry have a potential political content.Disclaimer: I have been living in the US for almost 11 years. I still have some European views, though.When it comes to US politics, I have a hard time when it comes to agreeing with either of the two parties. In Sweden I voted for theModerate party(lower taxes, tougher on crime, strong defence forces, less government and more personal freedom). But the views of that party is more liberal (in the original meaning of the word, not as it is currently used in the US). For example, the party is pro-choice (not only when it comes to choosing daycare for your kid or hospital/doctor to visit, but also when it comes for a woman to be in charge of her own body).Because of this, I sometimes enjoy(?) to look at the lack of logic among US politicians. Let me give one simple example.We will compare the stand on gun ownership vs sex education among certain politicians. For simplicity, we will assume that the politicians also agree with NRA on certain issues.NRA even have a webpage with safety resources aimed especially to youths:http://www.nrahq.org/youth/resources.asp So teaching young people/kids about gun safety is good, since it prevent people from being hurt.But the same politicians are against teaching youths/kids about sex, including how to avoid becoming/making someone pregnant.The logic used is "if we teach them about sex, they will have more sex".Nobody (well, some democrats might) claim that "if we teach kids how to use guns, there will be more shootings". Right?http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Political_positions_of_Sarah_Palin#Gun_rights"Palin is a strong proponent of theSecond Amendment, and supports gun-safety education for children."http://www.latimes.com/news/politics/la-na-sexed6-2008sep06,0,3119305.story:"Palin's running mate, John McCain, and the GOP platform say children should be taught that abstinence until marriage is the only safe way to avoid pregnancy and disease. Palin's position is less clear. In a widely quoted 2006 survey she answered during her gubernatorial campaign, Palin said she supported abstinence-until-marriage programs. But weeks later, she proclaimed herself 'pro-contraception' and said condoms ought to be discussed in schools alongside abstinence."Time to decide?We all know that if you make something "forbidden", it becomes more interesting and tempting. So by preaching abstinence, the youth actually want to try the "forbidden" thing.I do not think it is a coincidence that the US have thehighest rate of teenage pregnancyper capita inindustrializedcountries, way higher than most European countries, where sex education and pregnancy prevention is taught more/earlier.I have a hard time with hippocrites, no matter if they are politicians preaching family values andhaving affairsbehind the spouses back, or using flawed logic(as in the example above), or people calling themselves "christian" (and going to church every Sunday) while having affairs with married women/men.  

Four weeks ago I stopped drinking soda. It has been almost six years since I stopped drinking regular soda (mainly Coca-Cola) and switched to diet drinks, but about a month ago I decided I would try to cut them out altogether. I still needed my caffeine, so I started drinking more (hot) tea, as well as found someCrystal Lightand similar powder with caffeine that I could put in my water bottles.I have now managed to avoid any kind of soda for four weeks. The only one I had was one can of diet Coke last Sunday, when a friend of mine invited me and my son out onthe lake forlabor day.I also had a few beer during the four weeks, but never more than two in one evening. And Guinness is actuallyless badthan regular beer. :-)I have not lost much weight the last 2-3 weeks, I am hovering just below 220 lbs (98kg), but I am going to the gym 4-5 days/week and hopefully I am building muscle mass, and that is why I don't lose anything right now.  

http://telstarlogistics.typepad.com/telstarlogistics/2008/09/boeing-747-to-b.htmlAnyone who is tired of ordinary hotels will be able to get an unusual experience at Stockholm-Arlanda Airport. In December the first ever hostel in a jumbo jet will open....The interior renovation of the jumbo jet will begin today, and when finished there will 25 rooms and a wedding suite in the cockpit. Quite a few changes will be made to distinguish this plane from the ones still flying. For example, guests will be able to stroll on the wing and they will not have to use cramped toilets with push doors.Interesting, could be fun to try!  

I am in the process of trying to lose a few more lbs, and I recently (2 weeks ago) signed up at LA Fitness. My membership ($29.99/month) allows me to us any of their facilities in Texas. I work right next to one, and I live about 10 minutes from another one. There is even a third one located about half-way between my place and my ex-wife, so we can meet in the parking lotafter I am done when it is my turn to have our son.Whaen I started going to the gym, I was at 229-230 lbs, depedning on the scale I used. I try to do about 1 hour of cardio on the elliptical trainer, and I also trying to get some weights in. For the latter, I signed up with a personal trainer, andI am going to start that on a more serious level in two weeks.At the same time, I am also trying to adjust what I am eating. I have been trying to eat somewhat helthy for a few years now, and I lost some weight doing that. The biggest chnage, however, was something I decided last week. I will stop drinking soda, or at least just have one on occasion. I switched from regular soda (mainly Coca-Cola) to diet drinks back in late 2002 or early 2003. That (combined with some marital problems at that time) caused me to lose about 40 lbs in a few months.I have a slight problem when it comes to giving up sodas. I need the caffeine. What I did is to have hot tea in the morning, and I also purchased some Crystal Light mixes containing caffeine. I can recommend Wild Strawberry and Natural Citrus Splash. They are currently on sale at Kroger, two boxes of 10 packets for $5.00 with their card.So today is my 7th day with no sodas of any kind. This morning I was also down to 220 lbs. 

 I saw that Gayle shared a recipe for Almont Pork Tenderloin, and I thought I would share two of my favouite ones. One is lean and healthy, the other one not so much so. See if you can spot which one is which...  But both are tasty. Rosemary Chicken1.5-2 lbs chicken breast/tenderloins (about 3 chicken breasts)1 can chicken broth4 tablespoons soy sauce2-3 tablespoons balsamic vinegar3 cloves crushed fresh garlic, or 1-2 teaspoons crush garlic from a jarrosemary leaves (about 1 tablespoon is good)salt, black pepperMix everything but the chicken in a pot and bring to a boil.Trim any fat off the chicken and cut in smaller, bite size, pieces Put chicken into the pot.Bring back to a boil and let it cook for 7 minutes.Serve with rice of your choice and a mixed sallad. Flying Jakob2 lbs chicken breast/tenderloins (about 3-4 chicken breasts)cayenne pepper, paprika powder1 banana1/2 cup salted peanuts1 pint heavy whipping creme (or for a leaner version, creme fraise)1 bottle Heinz chili sauce2-3 tablespoons bacon bitsTrim chicken breast from fat. Dust with cayenne pepper and paprika powder, possibly some salt.Bake in owen until done (make sure not over done, better go a minute or two too short).Cut in small bite size pieces. Put in oven safe deep dish.Slice banana over it, distribute slices evenly. Sprinkle peanuts evenly over it as well.Whip the cream, mix in chili sauce and stir/mix well. Pour over chicken. Top with bacon bits.Bake in oven, 450 degrees for 20-25 minutes.Serve with rice and a sallad. Enjoy! 

In honor of Ye11owDay (or is it Ye118owDay?), I logged went to my blog here at BleedYellow, and was surprised to see the site was all blue. I guess Chris, Nathan and the other guys at Lotus911 have an odd sense of humor. :-)To celebrate the day, I am wearing a yellow shirt, have my desktop decorated with the Ye11owDay logo and brought my morning tea in a Lotusphere water bottle from my collection. The yellow coffee cup is a "Coffee Cup for Dummies" I got while working at IDG Sweden in the 90's. 

 For the last few years, I been a big fan of Chipotle, a chain of burrito restaurants. The burritos are good, they meat is from animals raised without hormones and antibiotics, same with the sour cream. The beans are ecologically grown, etc. In short, I been feeling good eating there, and I also thought the food was reasonable healthy.Last Saturday I went to get a haircut, and happened to pick up Men's Health or some similar magazine. They had a tip; have a bol (bowl) at Chipotle instead of a burrito, skip the sourcream and cheese and add double tomatoes. They said that the tortilla by itself was 300 calories!I looked onthe Chipotle website, but no nutritional information. But I found a site that had it, Chipotlefan.com. I added up what I usually get in my burrioto: Tortilla, rice, pinto beans, barbacoa meat, tomato, corn, hot sauce, cheese and sourcream. 1136 calories, 42 grams of fat!Ouch!!So today I tried their bol (a paper/cardbord bowl with the ingredients put in). Rice, pinto beans, barbacoa meat, tomato, hot sauce and lettuce. 521 calories, 13 grams of fat. Much better, and it tasted great. Next time i will skip the beans, that will bring me down to 413 calories, 12 gram of fat. That's less than a double cheeseburger at McDonalds (440 calories, 23 grams of fat), but more food and healthier. 

 Found a list on the Mens Health magazine over the 20 worst food items in different categories. The "winner"? Outback Steakhouse Aussie Cheese Fries with Ranch Dressing with 2,900 calories, 182 g fat and 240 g carbs.This weapon of mass construction is the caloric equivalent of eating 14 Krispy Kreme doughnuts, before your dinner arrives. Even if you split this "starter" with 3 friends, you'll have downed a meal's worth of calories.You should also look at some other bad items. It is scary! For example, the number 2 on the list (worst starter), Chili's Awesome Blossom: 2,710 calories, 203 g fat, 194 g carbs, 6,360 mg sodiumIt takes a special talent to turn a single oversized onion into the fat equivalent of 67 slices of bacon, but the line cooks at Chili's manage this horrific feat with the help of a thick batter, a calorie-loaded dipping sauce, and a vat of bubbling fat.Good thing I never eat those anyway. However, as you seen in a previous posting, I recently realized how bad the burritos at Chipotle are.The Chipotle Mexican Grilled Chicken Burrito makes the list, as "worst mexican entree" with 1,179 calories, 47 g fat, 125 g carbs and 2,656 mg sodium.  

 A few years ago I got an account at HotOrNot.com, one of the early sites where you could rate pictures, in this case guys or girls who uploaded their pictures for rating. I experimented with different pictures, and some got good results, other got not so good. I actually used the ratings to decide which pictures to use on regular dating websites. The one rated high were used, the other ones were dropped. The other day I shot a quick picture with my cell phone, and just for fun I put it up on the site. I was surprised about the feedback...Even if math was not my strongest subject in school, I don't understand how the average can be 9.5... Unless it is calculated in some weird way... 

 Seems like Melanie's husband Chuck now is taking responsibility.One of the comments further down have an interesting point/explanation:I do DSL support for a major ISP. I think I can guess how Mr. Kroll came to send the e-mail from his wife´s account"...".Many businesses (and quite a few individuals) use e-mail client programs, typically various versions of Outlook and Outlook Express on MSwindows machines or MacMail on Mac OS X machines. If you have multiple e-mail adresses in one of these programs, one of them will be tagged as "default" and, unless changed when you send an e-mail, the default address will be used as the "from" address for any e-mail.At a guess Mrs. Kroll´s machine was set up this way and Mr. Kroll?n his rage?orgot to change the from address. Understandable, in a stupid sort of way, but poor setup in any case.On any reasonbly modern machine (WinXP, Vista, Mac OS X, Linux), access can be separated by login account and mail clients can be set differently for each account in order to prevent something like that?t least to extent that the error would be sending e-mail inadvertently from ones own work account, rather than that of someone else.Perhaps worth to point out is that if you use the Lotus Notes client for your email, you don't have the same problem, even if you have Notes setup to be your default mail client. If Notes is not running, you get a login prompt asking you for password, and you see the name of the user. Of course you don't give your spouse the password to your work mail.But in most cases I would assume that you don't use Notes as default mail client for mailto links. I have Gmail setup for that, using Gmail Notifier. So to send work mail, I login to the Notes client, and to send mail to addresses found on web pages, I use Gmail. 

 The other day, Philip Storry wrote "A lack of training, or a lack of intelligence", about someone sending a death threat to a professor who happens to be an atheist. This person (mkroll, who later was identified as Melanie Kroll) sent the mail from her work address at 1-800-FLOWERS. If you look at the headers provided by Professor Myers, you can see that the address is not spoofed.I contacted a journalist at IDG that I know from working there, and he did some investigating to see if he would be able to write a story about this. I just got a mail from him, informing me that Melanie was fired yesterday over this mail.I say as the very funny Ron White: "You just can't fix stupid"... 

 Robert McMillan just wrote a story in PC World about a new laptop tracking system, which is free:Lose your laptop these days and you lose part of your life: You say good-bye to photos, music and personal documents that cannot be replaced, and if it's a work computer, you may be the source of a very public data breach.But now, researchers at the University of Washington and the University of California, San Diego, have found a way to give you a shot at getting your life back. On Monday, they plan to launch a new laptop tracking service, called Adeona that is free and private.Named after the Roman goddess credited with guiding children back to their parents, Adeona uses software that has been under development for the past year. Sounds interesting! Read the full article for more details. 

You are Superman Superman75%Iron Man70%Spider-Man65%Green Lantern65%Robin57%The Flash55%Supergirl50%Catwoman50%Batman45%Hulk45%Wonder Woman35%You are mild-mannered, good, strong and you love to help others.Click here to take the Superhero Personality Test 

 Bill Buchan just wrote about exporting data to Excel using a CSV file. There is actually a cool and surprisingly easy way to generate documents that show up in Excel as real spreadsheets, with formatting, colors, etc.Simply create a file containing a HTML table. It may even work with multiple tables. You can use tags like <B> and <I> for bold/italic, and use the color attribute to set text color and background color. Use the colspan attribute to split a cell over multiple columns. Save the file in Lotusscript as a regular text file, but with the extension XML XLS. Excel, as well as OpenOffice.org, will read the HTML and present as a nice spreadsheet. 

 We all know that Notes let us create tabbed tables. But you have limits to how nice you can create the tabs.In an application I am working on, I wanted full control of the tabs, and I found out it was actually pretty easy to create my own tabs. I just used a computed background, something I actually never used before.By the way, I stoleborrowed the graphics from Yahoo Mail for now, until I get the final graphics created... The application displays information about the (insurance) claim selected in the drop-down box. Each claim has one or more claimants (affected people/parties), and I display them in the tabbed section. You can see the tabs in the screenshot below.  What I simply do is to keep track of the currently selected claimant, the number of claimants, and then I built a table with 3 columns in the first row and one merged cell as the second row.In the center cell in the first row, I set the background to the "active colored" (lighter) tab. I use @Formulas to set the background in the two other cells:@If( @TextToNumber(CurrentClaimantNumber) > 1; "CCdb_InactiveTab.gif"; "" )and @If( @TextToNumber(CurrentClaimantNumber) < @TextToNumber(LNPClaimantCount); "CCdb_InactiveTab.gif"; "" ) The inactive tab is the darker one. Then it is just a question about writing code that trigger when the lables (computed-for-display fields) are clicked, to update the current claimant value, load the claimant data and refresh the form. I hope you get some inspiration from this. Oh, and this is all Notes 5...