A friend of mine sent me a link to the wikipedia page explaining the term "Transmission medium".

Since it is more than likely that the text will be changed quite soon, here's the official text from Wikipedia:

A transmission medium (plural transmission media) is a material substance (solid, liquid or gas) which can propagate energy waves. For example, the transmission medium for sound received by the ears is usually air, but solids and liquids may also act as transmission media for sound. it accounts for most bootyshaking media such as retro funk or motown groove


If that's not wiki-comedy, I don't know what is =)

I'm back in good ol' Sweden again. Right now I'm at Arlanda, waiting for my train which will take me back home to Linköping again.

The flights were without delays, but I still had to fly Nashville -> Washington D.C. -> Cicago -> Stockholm. All in all, that feels like enough flying for one day.

This trip has turned out just great and I'd gladly visit the states again.

Yesterday we were upgraded to proper rooms, ours even has a balcony that overlooks one of the indoor gardens. I think it's called Magnolia garden.

Last night we also had the big dinner with the Cooke family whose reunion is our excuse to make this trip. It was in the country music hall of fame which meant that dinner started with us looking at the permanent exhibition all by ourselves (having a whole museum to yourself is quite a cool feeling). After the tour we sat down to have dinner at the penthouse. I was even told that the AT&T building that we saw from there was called "the batman building" due to its earlike towers.

After dinner about half the gang hit the honkey tonk bars. There were about fifteen of us and man, does the Cookes know how to party or what? There were shots, beer and dancing on the bar. After one tequila too many, skrufsan and I called it a night.

Tonight we're having a barbecue and early monday morning I fly home.

Yesterday was all about the music, the gang from the family reunion had set us up with tickets to the show at the grand ole opry. It was nothing like I had expected. The place itself was enormous and the show was broadcast by satellite radio. Unfortunately, since it's radio, there has to be commercials. They even had a bloke onstage who was telling us just how amazing the cracker barrel is.

After the show we met up with Drew, a friend of the family who just happened to be in town. He gave us a tour of Nashville's nightlife. We went to a couple of country clubs and heard a few bands and that's when it happened, I kinda saw the point with country music! When you see that sort of stuff in Sweden, it's always cheesy and embarrassing, but here it really made sense. People were really there just for the music and the whole crowd was so invested in the music that you couldn't help but do the same. The clubs themselves were really gritty, but you could really feel the decades of music in the walls. It was also a rare treat for me that each and every club we went to had at least one live band. This was an experience that will stay with me for quite some time.

Yesterday we checked into our rooms believing that it would just be a temporary arrangement, our room was half a suite where we had a fold-out couch, a roller bed and a small bathroom. Today when we had to change rooms, the hotel had already sold our rooms. As it turns out, the hotel does like the airlines and overbook on purpose. Today that means that 150 guests with valid, paid bookings will be left without a room. For us it means that we'll be stuck with our makeshift rooms and that we might ger an upgrade tomorrow. At least they are comping us appropriately.

We're officially in Nashville, TN!

Unfortunately, I've been out of touch for two days now for two reasons, the first being that after my last post, I used my mobile as an alarm signal. Unfortunately, the battery completely drained during the night. The good thing was that we only overslept by five minutes, but after that my phone has refused to charge. When I plug it in, it just blinks. I tried leaving it there for quite a few hours, but all it did was blink.

I would have loved to post an entry last night, we spent the night at this amazing B&B, the Clearview Horse Farm (horrible website warning). It was a massive farm where they had a ton of horses, dogs and even two Llamas. We had a pool and everything. Nature even treated us to a beautiful, distant thunderstorm late at night.

Today we checked in at the hotel which is connected to the Grand Ole Oprey. It has the fantastic name "Gaylord Opryland Hotel & Convention Center" and it's absolutely massive. They love to tell you over and over that this is the largest non-gambling hotel in the world. Walking across the hotel is nothing short of a trek. We were even given maps and even though we had those, we still got lost (both me and
skrufsan as well as her father and her brother). As if the massive hotel wasn't enough, it's adjacent to an even greater mall. We spent an hour there and we still didn't even see a thrid of it.

Tonight we'll be joinded by Christine, Rose and Tom. I'll try to update again sometime soon.

Today we have been driving nearly all day via Blue Ridge Parkway (which was too cloudy to really enjoy) and then we followed interstates 81 and 40 until we ended up in Sevierville, TN. For those of you who aren't familiar with this plastic paradise, it's next door to Dollywood. We'll probably give Dollywood a miss, but we'll at least drive by it to point and laugh.

After a good night's sleep at "Days Inn" we'll drive towards Lynchburg, TN in order to visit Jack Daniel's.

Tonight I had some fresh, steamed Maine lobster. It was put down and cooked to order and believe me, it didn't die in vain. We also visited Baskin Robin for something tasty to end the meal with.

Now it's bedtime, I'll try to update again whenever I find some WiFi.

We've left D.C. and now we're in the great city of Staunton! It's truly a one-horse town and that horse is missing a leg.

Right now all four of us (skrufsan , her father, her brother and I) are sitting at the Red Roof Inn, trying our best to digest tonight's dinner which consisted of meat, potatoes, deep-fried stuff and beer. We figured the best way to process this massive intake of energy was to have more beer.

It's actually really nice not knowing where you'll be staying, not having a goal for the day.

We've rented a big-ass buick which is nearly as big as the motel room. It's even got a fat guy button which opens and closes the tailgate for you. Oh, and it's got a camera which helps you aim at the things you are trying to run over. It projects the image in the rear view mirror, which is quite neat.

Now it's probably time for another beer, then it's bedtime.

In a few hours we'll be leaving D.C. and begin our drive towards Nashville, TN. It is a hundred mile drive but we have three days to get there. One of the places we'll be visiting is the (im)famous Lynchwood, TN. The home of Jack Daniel's.

Now it's time for breakfast. Mmmm... Fried stuff... *gaarh..*

At last I'm in the states! I've never been here before, but this first stay is really turning out great.  The weather's great and we get to see some really amazing places.

We're staying at the Fairmont which means we're not exactly suffering =)

Right now I'm having breakfast at the european bakery, a place that's just around the corner from our hotel. To be perfectly honest, I wasn't sure I was going to be able to eat this morning as well since we had quite the dinner last night. I had a really good surf 'n' turf with sirloin and king crab legs (caught by some ship that was featured on "Deadliest Catch"). It was really good... I damn near split in half.

Today we'll go shopping in the Georgetown district. For me, that means shoes and clothes.

I'll try to update again before I go home.

Oh, so this is what it feels like to be writing here again... Strange...

I'd love to explain why I didn't update this blog earlier, but I can't seem to find a proper explanation. I guess that all it takes is two parts lack of inspiration, one part lack of content, stir and serve with a thin slice of blandness and you've got the makings of a blog going downhill.

The semester has ended and I have landed myself an ass whooping summer job. I am working at SAAB, developing the JAS 39 Gripen fighter jet. Whereas some of you may just see this as a weapon, I see it more as a peace keeper. Its main function is after all intelligence missions and air to air dogfights. In a way, this means that it's a warrior's plane and anyone who opposes it is in the armed services himself. I guess this doesn't make much of a difference to a pacifist, but to me this represents two things: a fantastic opportunity to work with one of Sweden's greatest exports and a way to get some first hand experience with some of the toughest quality demands one can work with. There really is no room for error.

After throwing that torch into the fray, I suppose it's time to address the somewhat less sore issues. The thing that immediately comes to mind is that skrufsan, her family and I are flying to the states! I've never made "the puddle jump" before so I'm quite excited!

We're flying to Washington D.C. and then we'll rent a car and drive to Nashville, Tennessee. There we'll meet up with Lina's father's girlfriend and go on her family reunion. In a way it sort of feels like crashing their party, but they do seem quite friendly thus far. I suppose we'll have to go there in order to change their minds =)

OK, so technically I'm not on a holiday but it sure feels like it. The exam I studied for earlier went well and now I'm just waiting for the next exam. This time around it's a course in the C++ standard library, a course that I am not all too worried about since I was writing C++ code all summer long. Oh, and some during the fall as well. Anyway, this is an exam that I will do well in.

This comfortably low pace means that I've got some time to kill. Yesterday I was at a friend's house and played cards all day long. He was at home with his kids who were slightly ill. The children were well enough to entertain each other so we had a rather comfortable day.

Today I am going to look at some old exams and laugh, after that I am going to meet another MtG-player here in town and trade some cards and, most probably, play some as well. I've got this fantastically annoying deck which is based around Kitchen Finks, Wall of reverence, Plumeveil and Boon Reflection. Lots and lots of lifegain, persist and other things that make duels take time =)

Tonight a friend is coming over to play a bit of Blood Bowl, a boardgame that's sort of like American football, only you kill each other. It's actually quite fun.

You wouldn't believe just how boring it can be to study for an exam in embedded systems design. All I have to go on are old exams and some slides from the lectures and they are all in a great big mess... The exam is on Monday and I'm trying to do my best to get myself prepared before Sunday because if I do, my reward will be that I'll allow myself to go to Norrköping and visit markdeniz  and erybar .

Still, it's a struggle not to let my short attention sp.. ooh, shiny!

Err, where was I? Oh, right. Books.

If you're anything like me you probably don't use MSN more than necessary. Its interface is awful in every sense, it's cluttered, it's bloated, it's just not any fun to work with.

Anyway, I was about to give up on MSN once more when I found A-Patch, a tool which does two things: it lets you customize the UI of messenger and it tries to convert you to a brand new religion during the install process.

I've applied parts of it to my messenger client and all of a sudden, it's usable! The most important thing for me is that all those damn animated commercials are dead and gone. Also, nudges doesn't cause the world to shake anymore. Total bliss.

Last night I worked my first night out of two at the whisky expo which means that right now my head only works at half its normal speed and I smell like an industry of some sort.

Yesterday I got to sample some absolutely fabulous whiskies. The highlight for me was the "Private Collection" bottling of the Caol Isla Cognac wood finish. An independent bottling that is approximately twice as good as it sounds. The cognac really mellows the peat and tar which leaves a very civilized whisky that just keeps on changing as you drink it. I couldn't even begin to describe all of the phases it subjects your tongue to. If you ever get a chance to try it, do so. It might be a bit pricey but it's absolutely worth it.

I also had the good fortune to try the Mackmyra Special, a limited bottling of about 25000 bottles (8000 of those were sold in Sweden). I was first in line when it was released but unfortunately I gave it away for Christmas. Needless to say, I was quite excited to finally taste it. The initial taste was surprisingly fresh with quite a lot of lemon and lemon zest, followed by a fairly distinct peatiness. The finish was quite long and complex, a fact that I found quite surprising given that it is such a young whisky.

After the fair had closed, all of the exhibitors had a good meal and a couple of beers. I left at about three in the morning and I was way past tipsy, hence today's ripe breath.

The plan for today is to take a friend's dog for a walk, then my family will come to visit for the expo's second night. In short, it'll be a busy but good day

=)

It's that time of the year again, that magical day when I actually post something here!

Lately I've had the luxury of indulging myself in two of my greatest areas of nerddom. This last sunday I was at the prerelease of the latest Magic the Gathering set release, Conflux. It was a sealed deck tournament with 29 participants and I ended up at 15:th place, however, if I had managed to win the last duel I would have been top-8 which would have meant that I would have had competed in a free draft tournament (with fairly generous prizes).

I managed to get a great cardpool which I could easily have turned into two really good limited-decks sharing only 5-8 cards between them. I could technically have sideboarded the other deck but instead I settled for a great Naya-deck (G, W, R) which put me at seven points and with the best tie-breakers among those with seven points.

I had a great time and I'm happy to say that this was by far my best limited tournament, both cardpool-wise and in terms of my own game. I'm really looking forward to the next prerelease. The reason I'm not attending the proper release is that it takes place on saturday and as we all know, that is one of the days for Linköping's Whisky expo! That's right folks, I'm working there this year too!

This year's expo will probably be just as mad as any other, it sold out in no time (as always) and I'll be working both friday and saturday. I'm so looking forward to it =)

Apart from the obvious excitement over the expo, my family is going to be here for the last day of the expo. It feels like I haven't seen them in ages and in fact it was about a month since we last met.

Looking out the window it has started to snow again. This is really beginning to look a lot like christmas =)

FIRE!

Yup, we've had ourselves a bit of drama here in Linköping. A LOL (Little Old Lady) on the ground floor managed to set her lunch on fire today. I reacted to the scent of it while we were preparing this evening's dessert. At first I was wondering whether it was something burning in the oven but the scent just didn't add up. I also noticed that the smell came from the door (eek!).

There was quite a heavy haze by the stairs, I coughed like crazy while trying to hear which apartment the fire alarm sounded from. When I reached ground floor the noise was fairly loud and when I listened through the mailboxes, there was no doubt that it was old lady Ekenby who had set something ablaze.

I tried the door but it was locked and nobody answered. By now another neighbor had joined in on the fun and we quickly decided that he would try to find the super's key while I called it in.

The fire brigade were here in no time at all, I was very happy with their response time. In the meantime my neighbor had gone around the building and saw that the lady was standing on her balcony, trying to vent her smoky apartment. Since she is quite old, she didn't hear him when he tried to talk to her.

Finally we managed to make her open her door, the worst bit was over. The firemen accompanied her into her kitchen and they quickly concluded that there was no real danger. In the end, all they had to do was to put a big fan at the bottom of the stairs which vented the smoke and call the lady's family.

By now the worst adrenaline rush has subsided but for a while there I was seriously considering which of my belongings I wanted to try and rescue.

OK, so I'm back at it again... You know that it's been too long when you need two attempts at remembering your password.

Christmas is over and done with and I have to say that this was really a good one. I have had the chance to spend a lot of time with my friends and family, nobody was panicking when Christmas was only a few hours away and we really had a calm holiday. The past three Christmases have been full of drama and people either dying or nearly dying.This one was different, sure, it's been a fairly rough year but we did manage to get by,

I have been in my dearest home town of Eskilstuna with my extended family whereas skrufsan  has been in France with her family. I really hate not being with her but I wouldn't miss the holidays with my families for the world.

Did I mention that I've had a Christmas fling? I have absolutely fallen in love with Spotify, an online music service that is just brilliant. The gist of it is that they have an online music library of two million odd songs and you can stream it to your computer for free. There may be commercials between songs sometimes but it's so worth it. Unfortunately this service is by invite only so if you're not on the list, get in line.

My parents loved this so much that they bought a wireless router and an Asus EEE 900 so that they could listen to it through the kitchen stereo. I'm actually testing the range of the network right now, this post is written on their eee 900. I took care of it today and upgraded it with eeebuntu netbook edition, It's such a vast improvement over the standard Xandros dung that it comes bundled with.

I took a quick glance at my friends list and I realized just how much I've neglected you all recently, sorry about that but for some reason I've lost touch with LJ. Strange but true.

At least I'm not too late to wish you all a happy new year, here's to the next year being a good one!

Damn you Wikipedia!

You all know what it looks like when you browse to Wikipedia, on their front page they always have that "On this day..."-thing which lists historical events that have taken place on the current date, that thing made me curious so I went ahead and fast forwarded to my birthday just to see what celebrities I share my birthday with. All I found was a bunch of cricket players and other sports stars. Oh, and Ulf Ekberg, one of the guys in Ace of Base...

After I had scrolled my way through all the births I came across everyone who died on this day. Guess who was first on the list? S:t Nicholas. Great, Santa died on my birthday. He might have beat me by several hundred years but still, it counts.

First things first, a big congratulation to markdeniz  and his family, they have just greeted audrey_deniz welcome to this world. Welcome, gorgeous.

There is an old saying, "it will never happen to me". Yeah, right. Today, completely out of the blue, skrufsan's computer decided to call it a day and refuse to boot. The BIOS-splash screen says VAIO just like it's supposed to and it even chirps like it's supposed to, however, instead of booting Windows XP, it just displays "Operating system not found". This could be really funny but let's face it, it isn't.

I have tried changing the boot order, I have tried to explicitly boot it from that HDD but to no avail. There was one quite funny thing, when I entered BIOS to check the boot order, the floppy had a higher priority than the HDDs. The funny thing about that is that this is a modern laptop and as such, it doesn't have a floppy disc drive. Oh well, there's probably an unused floppy connector on the motherboard I suppose.

I shoved an Ubuntu Linux live CD in it and it worked like a charm, I have managed to backup everything on her HDDs to my computer via the network so now I feel confident enough to call tech support. Regardless of what they do to the poor thing, I still have the data intact. The fact that I managed to mount her C: ought to mean that there is still room for hope that this baby can be restored.

This brings me back to my original statement, since all the computers in my house only rely on manual backup, a situation like this means disaster. If I hadn't been able to restore her data, we would have been screwed. Sure, a lot of it was redundant, we do try to keep all of our photos backed up on several computers but still, none of the backups are really safe. What I'd need is a small, quiet server which has the ability to run a pair of RAID1-HDDs. Luckily, I've found just the thing, the eXcito Bubba 2, a server that is fanless and energy efficient (it consumes far less energy than a lightbulb). A friend of mine bought one and he's really happy with it so far.

It's strange how people (including yours truly who really should know better) ignore to backup their data, I mean, when you ask people what they would first try and rescue in case of fire, most people would say that they'd save their photo album. These days nearly all photos are digital and as such, they are can quite easily be destroyed, all it takes is either the press of a button or a simple hardware malfunction.

The files seem to have finished copying now, I supose that I should brace myself for a session with tech support. Wish me luck...