Nyman rides again

I’m back. πŸ™‚

A picture of a bumblebee

Not sure why I have to make riding references as soon as I start blogging after a break, but hey, it works, right? πŸ™‚

I hope all of you have had a great last three months; I sure know I have! First I thought I’d
mention some brief things which have happened in the web world, and then go on to stuff in the real world.

Happenings in the web world

Opera Web Standards Curriculum

A very good friend of mine, Chris Mills, is behind a very ambitious project called the Opera Web Standards Curriculum, which aims at delivering lots and lots of education about web standards and recommended approaches.

A quick Google search for “What are web standards” would reveal that yours truly is the first blogger on the list with my article What Are Web Standards? A Comprehensive Explanation Of What Is Comprised In The Term. So why the hell wasn’t I asked? Instead they asked people like some Swedish has-been in Gothenburg called Ranger, or something. πŸ˜‰

To tell you the truth, Chris has asked me for years now to contribute to different things, and he still does, but there’s always something that gets in the way for me (or, I’m just playing really hard to get). I think this is a great initiative, and something which I have thought about creating myself from time to time.

Therefore, I’d like to wish the Opera Web Standards Curriculum the best of luck, and I agree a 100% with Chris that is about education, education and more education!

On the topic of Chris, he just followed this up with having a daughter. Congratulations!

Bruce Lawson

Another friend, Bruce Lawson, has joined Opera as a Web Evangelist, and looking at the Web Evangelist job description it looks like one hell of a job I’d love to have. Personally, I think I’d have a hard time working for a company where I’m not a big fan of their product (mostly the desktop web browser), but hey, for such a work life, maybe I can be flexible. πŸ™‚

Good luck Bruce, and congratulations to landing a top job!

And, talking about Bruce, his take on the iPhone is spot-on!. I’ll write about my opinions pretty soon, but for now, read this and read it carefully:

I mean, 2 meg camera with no video? Only 16 Gig of music? CanÒ€ℒt take the battery out? No bluetooth headphones as standard? Lock-in to one carrier? How much?!?!

Firefox download day

With the release of Firefox 3, they organized an event called Firefox download day to reach “the most software downloaded in 24 hours”. Previously to this there was no existing record to beat, but hey, they set a record. πŸ™‚

Either way, I know it’s a publicity stunt, and anything that can take the focus away from Internet Explorer, I support.

Google Knol

Google launched Knol, which is basically their own version of Wikipedia. Knol offers people the option to take credit for their work, which might motivate some people, and also to comment on articles. Personally I’m not a big fan of the comment thing, and my gut instinct tells me that I’d rather see Wikipedia with their massive following doing this, than Google owning this information too.

SD card prices

Ok, maybe this isn’t news, but buying new SD cards for my digital camera, I realized that the prizes are ridiculously low! When you can get a 1 GB card for about $10, you know that storage size will not be a problem for a long long time.

Facebook status updates

Logging in to Facebook and seeing the updates from my contacts, one persons actions caught my attention. It basically went like this within a couple of hours:

[Person] is now married.

[Person] is now on a honeymoon.

[Person] is now a fan of Jamie Oliver.

WTF happened there? The first two are cute, but unless Jamie Oliver popped into your hotel room in Bora Bora (or wherever you are) and cooked a fabulous meal and/or joined you for a threesome, the honeymoon is not a time when to become a fan of a chef.

Things from the real world

Watching Dexter

Each summer when I’m on a break, and when the kids are asleep, I usually take the time to watch through some TV series I haven’t had the time to watch. This summer the turn had come to Dexter. So far I’ve only seen five episodes of the first season, but I quite like it. His dry sense of humor when he doesn’t understand mankind whatsoever is hilarious! πŸ™‚

Fredrika’s panties

Don’t fret, this won’t be as bad as you think. πŸ™‚

But, the thing is, when doing laundry for the entire family, I have a real hard time telling which panties belong to Fredrika, and which belong to my four-year old daughter Emilia. Size-wise it’s almost impossible to tell, and then it should be said that Fredrika’s panties nowadays are generally a bit bigger than the Victoria’s Secret thongs she always wore when she first snagged me…

Student entering real life

In one of the major Swedish newspapers, they interviewed students on the brink of entering work life, and asked about their expectations, plans and hopes. One thing which caught my attention was the question “Do you think your education has prepared your for a working life”, where one of them replied:

Sure, how hard can it be?

I’m not sure if he just wanted to make a comical point, or if he’s just over-positive, but please, let me tell you: in the real word, where you have real deadlines, almost everything is about money and cost and you will, not might, sell out on your principles, sooner or later. Let’s talk when you have worked for a decade or so, ok?

A picture of me in the water

Radovan KaradΓ…ΒΎić

Radovan KaradΓ…ΒΎić was arrested and brought to the Hague to the International Criminal Tribunal. I’m not going to go into politics or history here, but the fact that it took over ten years for them to find him, while he was living and working in Belgrade, was described wonderfully by a German columnist:

I can see why they had such a hard time finding him; I mean, he had grown a beard and changed his name.

Ant invasion

During the summer, there were some very tense days, pretty much like the Cuban Missile Crisis, where you could cut through the tension in the air with a knife in our house. The reason? An ant invasion, where the ants formed a trail from the back door to the kitchen.

Luckily, they decided to retreat and order has returned to the kingdom.

McDonald’s vs. Max

A big sport event was to take place in a mid-sized city in Sweden, and one of the main sponsors were McDonald’s. All fine and well, except for the fact that McDonald’s demanded that their main fast food competitor in Sweden, Max, should shut down entirely during the event.

Naturally, Max said: “Hell no!” and instead of being reasonable about it, the event was moved to another city. Go Max! I mean, really, we have free market competition in this country!

Floss refill

Why do my floss refill bags come packaged in paper that looks just like the ones I get meat in at the supermarket? Hell, I want floss, not something which looks like I bought a fresh finger for lunch.

Computer-free time

This summer I took four consecutive weeks away from the computer, and let me tell you, those were the best weeks in my life in a long, long time. The calm and serenity which comes over you is fantastic, and with me having 11 intensive months per year in front of the computer, I sincerely need this to get perspective and balance.

A picture of a jetty

That being said, I actually had a tingling feeling the day I started using the computer again, about a week ago, and soon you get involved in the same things again (for better and for worse). Some things I love getting back to, while others awaken that feeling, that need, to persuade and convince people about meaningless matters. It’s best described with this:

A picture of a comic depicting Internet usage and about how someone else can be 'wrong' on the Internet

The Olympic Games

In the Olympic Games in Beijing, Sweden failed to get even one single gold medal. Favorites and hopes fell through, one after one. Some were close to delivering, while others were complete failures. Sweden not getting a gold medal in the summer games only happened once before in the 20th century, in Seoul in 1988.

A picture of me making a smash in volleyball

I guess we can comfort us with having the oldest gold medalist of all times, Oscar Swahn, who took a gold medal at the age of 64. The “sport”? Running deer, single-shot on. Nowadays we just call that “old drunk men in chequered shirts go into the woods and shoot shit”, and it’s definitely not a sport anymore.

Bondage goat zombie

Ok, off topic from basically everything here, but Bondage goat zombie must be one of the freakiest song titles I’ve heard in a long time.

Football sissies

Watching Euro2008, I soon realized that most football (soccer) players are sissies, at least compared to other sports. They fake being hurt or touched all the time in such extravagant ways it sickens me. And where’s the stamina?

In the Olympic Games, the Swedish double team played a game which took almost five hours (!), and the next day they had to play the final. In Euro2008, they had to rest at least three days between each game, and then almost a week before the final. Top athletes, really?

When to not play the guitar

For those who don’t know it, I play the guitar. In July, I was attending a party out in the archipelago, and at about three in the morning, out of nowhere, we got access to an acoustic guitar. And let me give an advice: if you’re piss drunk, do not start with Stairway to Heaven. Also, if you’re piss drunk, but you can still hear it’s awful, it is beyond-kill-me-now bad.

Redesign

For those of you following me solely in your favorite feed reader, please take a moment to visit robertnyman.com. I’ve redesigned it and I’m quite happy with the results! πŸ™‚

I remember, a long time ago, I showed a brief design suggestion I’d created for another web site to Phil Sherry, and his response was a bit like this:

Don’t you think you and your visitors are above using a default filter in Photoshop?

Therefore, I do hope that everyone likes the new design and doesn’t see it as an insult. πŸ™‚

Also, Isac, you’re completely right: black is indeed the new black. πŸ™‚

Rob is back!

So, Nyman’s back. Are you glad to have me? Can I get a hell yeah (or heaven yeah, if that suits you better)?

 

(Oh, please, don’t let this be a no-comments post πŸ™‚ )

34 Comments

  • Remy Sharp says:

    Welcome back. I suspect the rise of Robert would be soon, given the recent activity on Twitter and randomly landing on your redesigned site yesterday.
    Still jealous of the 3 month break. I managed 3 day last week!

  • Andreas says:

    "the honeymoon is not a time when to become a fan of a chef."

    would been even more hilarious if you joked about Naked Chef

  • BARTdG says:

    SD cards are crazily cheap indeed. My brother has bought me an 8GB through Amazon in the US, for a mere $27. And there are even cheaper brands!

    Good to have you back by the way. Enjoy another 11 months πŸ˜€

  • Jens says:

    Nice to have you back and hell yeah!

  • Kalle Wibeck says:

    Welcome back Robert, no mentioning of wasps? We've had a massive wasp invasion most part of the summer, we could hardly eat outside due to these terrorists.

    Speaking of funny titles, today I stumbled upon "Ninja Cheerleaders", must be Oscar nominated. I mean, how could a film about cheerleading strippers with Ninja skills ever be a bad movie? πŸ˜‰

    // πŸ˜‰ Kalle

  • Welcome back Robert, I've sent about a gazillion mails to your workmail. Just so you know. πŸ™‚

    And. Do you really think first day after a vacation is the best day to start bragging about working a decade? πŸ˜‰

  • Welcome back, indeed! The new site looks spiffy. Black is the new black.

  • Hiya Robert, good to have you back!

    Nice to see you're watching Dexter, it is indeed a brilliant series. Can't wait to hear your opinion about the season finale!

    Hell yeah!

  • RobertDM says:

    Hi Robert, good to have you back.

    I play the guitar too. It's what got me into webdesign actually: didn't like the look of my band's website so I decided I could do better myself. Started reading the helpfiles of dreamweaver and the result was a WYSIWYG copy/paste tablemonster with no regard for standards, accessibility, usability, css, doctype etc… But It got me hooked πŸ™‚

    p.s. I've been improving ever since (at least I hope so πŸ˜‰ )

  • Glad to have you back. The Google adds for this page are too much, there are adds for Panties Women, Bra for Men and Women Wearing Girdles!

    I agree, black is the new black.

  • Phil Sherry says:

    Come on, I must've said something worse than that? πŸ™‚

  • Martin S. says:

    I love the new blog layout, the best one by far of the ones you've had. Absolutely fab.

    Keep it up man!

  • icaaq says:

    Welcome back!

    The internet has not changed while you where away. (IE is still trying to figure out css2.1, when other is going towards css3)

    I'm at S02E05 of Dexter. I guess you heard that he knows HTML.

    Looking forward to to some geek meets…

  • Welcome back man! Seems like you had a nice summer with beach volleyball πŸ˜€

  • Stephen says:

    Nice to have o uback look forward to reading your posts again.

  • Ole says:

    Welcom back into the "real world" Robert πŸ˜‰

    It seems you have had a great shiny summer (instead of us in germany, which was a bit rainy… πŸ™ )

    I'm beeing anxious to read good postings from you with nice discussions.

    Greetings from Germany!

  • Jens Meiert says:

    Nice one, welcome back!

  • Dave Child says:

    Welcome back. πŸ™‚

    The Dexter books are great – if you like the first series, I highly recommend reading them.

  • Ced-le-pingouin says:

    Welcome back Robert!

    I wish I could get some weeks away from the computer right now, but is is alas impossible πŸ™

    I recently was shocked at how cheap the (micro)SD cards were too. I got a 2GB one for about 10€.

    I have still to watch Dexter, but I suspect I'll love it, I saw the first episode and it was great.

    Being a music freak, one thing I of course picked up from your post is the amazing title Bondage goat zombie, which crazy band is this from ? I love crazy/funny titles, as a matter of fact I'm "rediscovering" the Misfits right now. Some unbelievably long titles from Nile are funny in their own way too.

    Hey sorry for Sweden at the OG. For once, us Belgians are happy coz we got two medals πŸ™‚

    The latest release from the Greatest Band in the universe, swedes Opeth, is worth every medal though πŸ˜€

    Well, back to work…

  • Welcome back! I almost don't need to follow anything going on in the world when you're on vacation, because you come back and summarize the entire summer for me.

  • Chris Mills says:

    We all love you Robert, and like many of the others, I also still want to have your babies.

  • bruce says:

    I shall send you a pair of my panties to mark your return.

  • Robert Nyman says:

    Thanks a lot, everyone! And I'm glad to hear that you liked the new design as well! πŸ˜€

    I look forward to seeing more Dexter, for those who touched on that.

    BARTdG,

    That's just ridiculous! And thanks. πŸ™‚

    Kalle Wibeck,

    Man, it's been a while! I expressed my opinion about wasps on Twitter, so we're on the same page there. πŸ™‚

    Emil,

    Well, we'll just have to see if I work another decade. πŸ™‚ Actually, this is my 13th work year; time to win some money and retire, I say!

    RobertDM,

    Yeah, guitar and then on to web developing: that's the normal route. πŸ™‚

    Tanny,

    Yeah, the Google ads went crazy with this kind of content. πŸ™‚

    Ole,

    Well, June was ok here in Sweden, July very sunny but the weather in August has pretty much sucked.

    Joakim,

    Yeah, I love summer sports!

    Ced-le-pingouin,

    That title is by a band called Belphegor. There's more at Wikipedia, if you're interested. I've never heard the band, by the way, only saw the title.

    Especially I'd like to congratulate you to the gold in women's high jump, that was a true surprise; go, Tia Hellebaut!

    Eric,

    Ha ha, I'm glad that you feel that way! πŸ™‚

    Chris Mills,

    Yes, next baby is with me, right? πŸ™‚

    bruce,

    Superb!

  • Mmmm … my RSS feeds will be nice again … oh, and a new design, so I guess it wasn't entirely computer-free πŸ™‚

  • Robert Nyman says:

    Morgan,

    Well, it was, but the last week has been pretty computer-intense on the other hand. πŸ™‚

  • Deborah says:

    Welcome back Robert!

    Glad to hear you had a great time away from the computer, and obviously from the photos, you enjoyed some wonderful fun this summer. Love the new design!

  • Robert Nyman says:

    Deborah,

    Thank you! Good to "see" you again!

  • Niklas says:

    Hölle jawohl! Enfer oui! ¡Infierno sí!

    <del datetime="06Z">A google knol sounds fun. Even if getting it means having to grow a beard and change my name. Or becoming a chef.</del> Damn.

    Nice to see you're up and at it again!

  • Robert Nyman says:

    Niklas,

    Thank you very much! Also, I'm in debt to you for, sort of, abandoning you in your project just before my parental leave.

  • Jenny says:

    Yay! the Robert's talk feed lives again!

    I know what you mean about computer-free time being heavenly. I recently went on a trip overseas to an area with no computers, and I had no phone… what a wonderful couple of weeks πŸ™‚ I suffered a little from withdrawal at first though (hehe).

    And let's face it… I do enjoy a bit of programming, so it would be hard to give up computers for long (actually impossible, really, considering students and lots of jobs require them). My mobile phone on the other hand… maybe if I just let it discharge permanently… πŸ˜‰

  • Robert Nyman says:

    Jenny,

    Thanks! πŸ™‚

    Yeah, I had some withdrawal syndrome at first, too! And I'm a 100% with you on regards to mobile phones: let it just slowly drain out… πŸ™‚

  • Matt Robin says:

    Hellyeah!!! πŸ˜€

    Maybe I'll get back to blogging sometime soon too…

  • Robert Nyman says:

    Matt,

    Good to see you again! Go blog now. πŸ™‚

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