thisismyblog.com

XMind now Open Source!

Espen — Sun, 16 Nov 2008 15:28:56 +0000

XMind, the Mind Mapping software based on the Eclipse RC platform has gone Open Source! XMind is definitely one of my favorite pieces of software; though the price has been a bit prohibitive for many people. Now that it is open source, with an optional “Pro” version with some added collaboration features, it should probably get a bigger foothold in the mind mapping echosystem.

If you need a software app that help you structure your thoughts XMind I suggest you try XMind. It is available for download at the XMind website for all major operating systems; Mac OS X, Windows and Linux.

Huge car

Espen — Sun, 16 Nov 2008 15:20:04 +0000

Waiting for a parking space outside IKEA I saw this huge car, or whatever you should call it. I contest the practicality of a car like this. Definitely not a good city car.

P doing accounting

Espen — Sat, 15 Nov 2008 01:09:39 +0000

At almost 2am nonetheless.:-D

P home from work

Espen — Sat, 15 Nov 2008 01:09:28 +0000

P just came home from work. Really tired after working for many hours.

Nanny kid

Espen — Sat, 15 Nov 2008 01:09:17 +0000

This is Astrid, the kid P is taking care of on weekdays. Cute, eh? She started walking yesterday.:-D

P on the run

Espen — Sat, 15 Nov 2008 01:09:07 +0000

Walking toward the subway after lunch break.

Podcast and Wordpress update

Espen — Sat, 08 Nov 2008 12:00:18 +0000

I just finished updating the Wordpress installation powering this website to version 2.6.3. Sorry for the downtime. As you also might have noticed I have voice enabled the website using Odiogo; look for the “listen now” button in the articles. If you have a blog and would like to create a podcast out of your content Odiogo will take your RSS feed and convert it to audio using text-to-speech technology. The service is available to bloggers for free! You will however get a small Odiogo ad at the start. Odiogo also provides services to mainstream media.

If the world could vote?

Espen — Tue, 04 Nov 2008 14:03:25 +0000

What would the result be if the world could vote in the American presidential election going on today? A website has been set up where people from all across the world can go and vote for their favorite candidate. The result is sorted by country. So far 776042 votes has been recorded, and you should be the next one to cast your vote. Go to iftheworldcouldvote.com and choose your presidential candidate. I’ll let the winner (by a large margin) so far be a treat.;-)

The new MacBooks

Espen — Tue, 21 Oct 2008 10:00:48 +0000

Turns out the rumor mill was correct this time. The October 14th Apple event yielded some brand new products (or nice updates to products). There were updates to the whole product line of Apple notebooks; MacBook, MacBook Pro and MacBook Air. Personally I’d really like to get the MacBook Air (as I like to be mobile); but the MacBook and the Pro version of it looks jummy as well. The new production technology that was predicted turned out to be correct. The notebooks are made out of a brick of aluminium; making them quite a bit more durable.

When it comes to the MacBook, it has got a brand new design. Aluminium, as mentioned above, is the main body. It features a glossy screen with a black border around it. Looking very nice. Also, the mouse trackpad has lost it’s buttons and now use virtual buttons in addition to gestures as the MacBook has. The graphics card, that was previously an on-board Intel gaphics chip, has been updated to a (5 times more) beefier NVIDIA GeForce 9400M chip which should make the MacBook a much better machine for simple gaming.

The MacBook Pro has been updated aswell. The design is the same as the MacBook, with all the features mentioned above, except the Pro got a larger screen. MacBook Pro also features 2 (!) graphics chips; one of them is the NVIDIA GeForce 9400M chip as in the Macbook, the other one a NVIDIA GeForce 9600M GT which gives top performance for graphical intensive tasks. You will be able to choose between the two graphics card, where the latter one will provide you with 4 hours of battery life and the first one 5 hours.

Last, but not least, the MacBook Air received an update. Designwise the machine is the same, but the graphics card has been updated; in addition to the hard drive and CPU that has received a storage/speed bump aswell.

Apple also announced a new monitor, the 24″ LED Cinema Display. Featuring easy connections to the MacBook line of products it is assured to be a hit. Except the price which is a huge hit to the wallet…

The spotlight turns to notebooks

Espen — Thu, 09 Oct 2008 19:23:39 +0000

As predicted there will be an announcement of new hardware, most probably new notebooks, from Apple. The rumors leading up to the announcements mentions something about “the brick”. Whatever “the brick” might be is impossible to know. Some sources mention it is a new way to produce the notebooks out of a “brick” of aluminum. Other sources believe it is a new Mac Mini. Another source even think it might be something simple as a new power adapter.

Knowing Apple will have a presentation with the press I guess we can rule out a new power adapter.:-) Will be interesting to see what Apple has up their sleeve this time though. Some believe the new production technology (should that rumor be true) might lead to a price cut, with MacBooks starting at $800USD. The MacBook event will happen at the Apple Town Hall (at the Apple campus in Cupertino), on October 14th at 10:00 a.m. PST.