Apr 122012
 

Yup, currently my Nissan LEAF is nothing more but a GPS+radio in a airconditioned metal box on wheels. Auxiliary systems like the radio, Sat Nav & AC work just fine, but the engine won’t start.

I’ve done some Googling, and the problem seems a lot like the one reported in a posting in the LEAF wiki.

Nissan is aware of this issue and issued a technical service bulletin addressing it, NTB11038. The fix is to have the Vehicle Control Module (VCM) reprogrammed by a Nissan dealer. A side effect of the reprogramming is an improvement in the accuracy of the Driving Range Display.
The weird thing is that my LEAF has been in for service at Brennes Auto for this exact software update on March 29th! (I haven’t been told whether the software update was needed/has been applied). After that the car hasn’t been used for a week because of holidays. On April 10th it behaved normally, and yesterday the problems started.

Of course I don’t know for sure whether this is a NTB11038-issue but it almost seems like they went healthy->faulty software on March 29th. If that is indeed the case, they f*cked up big, big time!!

I hope to hear from them today. Hopefully that they have fixed the problem, but at the very least with an estimate on how long it will take. And they’re not done with me until they tell me exactly what was wrong. A ‘well, we dunno what was wrong, but now it works’ will not do.


Day 3 (I’m realistic and excluding weekends in the count)
The peeps at Brennes auto have determined there is something wrong with the ‘big’ battery, tossed my LEAF on a flatbed and transported it to Oslo. Apparently there is the only location with the equipment & expertise to check/fix this…


Finally… Today, on April the 26th, I could collect my LEAF again! :-)

Mar 072012
 

Now that governments more and more want to enforce four-letter words like SOPA, PIPA & ACTA on us, you may just want to be 100% anonymous/untrackable out there every once in a while.
Or perhaps you simply want to appear to be online from a different country, to watch the latest Simpsons episode on Fox or listen to music via Pandora.
You could of course use a proxy site like Anonymouse, Proxy Browsing or Hide My Ass!, but that isn’t 100% foolproof and it only works within your browser.

Enter VPNtunnel. This Swedish company offers 100% anonymous access to the Internet. What they provide is not a simple proxy, but a full-fledged VPN. As their name suggests, VPNtunnel connects you via a Virtual Private Network to the Internet so that it appears you are online from the location of the VPNtunnel server (instead of your actual location). It is 100% secure and will also work with other applications (like Skype, Steam, µTorrent & Tribler) & protocols (like FTP, BitTorrent & VoIP).

NB: Only via Sweden you’re 100% anonymous! As they write in their TOS/Privacy policy:

1 – Sweden – In accordance with swedish law, we do not store any data at all on our swedish servers. In other words, on our swedish servers we are able to provide a maximum of personal integrity.
2 – The rest of the world – Due to other countries laws, when you connect to any server that is not swedish we will store ip and timestamp logs of when you login and logout of our service for 30 days.

Currently they offer servers in Sweden, the Netherlands, Denmark, Germany, USA, UK, Romania & Russia.
You can exactly specify in their GUI which application(s) on your PC should use the tunnel, and which ones should connect without. Another neat function is that you can specify that your connection should change IP address every 30 minutes, or even every 5 minutes.

Keep in mind what they state when it comes to illegal activities: ‘The user is not allowed to use the service in any illegal way. “Illegal” is to be understood as something that does not correspond with SWEDISH law’. The keyword here being ‘Swedish’, so as long as you don’t threaten to take candy from a baby, you’re probably safe. :cool:

Various forms of payment are accepted and all give you access to the 1 plan they offer: unmetered access, 24/7/366 (it’s a leap year!). Prices are between €3.71-€5/month (about $4.87-$6.60/month), depending on how many months of service you purchase at once.

Check them out! You won’t be disappointed…

Feb 082012
 

A more proper title would probably be A program with similar/improved functionality to Siri for Android. Actually naming the Android program Siri would get you a wolf pack of Apple lawyers on your hiney so fast that you won’t even have time to ask your Siri-surrogate to locate you the nearest criminal defense lawyer

What is Siri? Let’s see what our good friend the Wikipedia has on the subject…
Siri (pronounced /?s?ri/) is an intelligent software assistant and knowledge navigator functioning as a personal assistant application for iOS. The application uses a natural language user interface to answer questions, make recommendations, and perform actions by delegating requests to a set of web services. Apple claims that the software adapts to the user’s individual preferences over time and personalizes results, as well as accomplishing tasks such as finding recommendations for nearby restaurants, or getting directions.

Sounds all pretty impressive, right? Well, what Siri & Apple can do, Android & Google can do better/as well/different! They’re currently working on Google Majel. For the Trekkies among you: Yes, this project is named after Majel Barrett, who supplied voice of most onboard computer interfaces throughout the Star Trek series. She also portrayed Nurse Christine Chapel in the original Star Trek series, and Lwaxana Troi on Star Trek: The Next Generation.

Fortunately we don’t have to wait until Majel gets released. There are plenty of alternatives already available in the Android Market. Here are some, in no particular order:

logo-app Skyvi (Siri for Android)
BlueTornado
Gratis   star-on-dark-imgstar-on-dark-imgstar-on-dark-imgstar-on-dark-imgstar-half-dark-img
pulsante-google-play-store
pulsante-appbrain
qrcode-app



logo-app iris.
dexetra
Gratis   star-on-dark-imgstar-on-dark-imgstar-on-dark-imgstar-on-dark-imgstar-off-dark-img
pulsante-google-play-store
pulsante-appbrain
qrcode-app



logo-app Assistant
Speaktoit
Gratis   star-on-dark-imgstar-on-dark-imgstar-on-dark-imgstar-on-dark-imgstar-half-dark-img
pulsante-google-play-store
pulsante-appbrain
qrcode-app


So far I’ve only tried iris. myself, but I hope to test Skyvi & Speaktoit soon as well.

For those of you who want to see more about the capabilities of Siri I can recommend S05E14 of the Big Bang Theory. Here’s a bit of it:
(may not be 100% accurate…)

Jan 172012
 

Beginning at 05:00 UTC on Wednesday, January 18, the English-language Wikipedia will be blacked out for 24 hours. The blackout is a protest against proposed legislation in the United States — the Stop Online Piracy Act (SOPA) in the U.S. House of Representatives, and the PROTECT IP Act (PIPA) in the U.S. Senate — that, if passed, would seriously damage the free and open Internet, including Wikipedia.

This pending US legislation would make it impossible to run any website that links or allows commenters to link, by making them liable for copyright infringement on the sites they link to.

Mozilla, reddit, the Cheezburger Network and Boing Boing are some of the others joining in the protest.

Jan 042012
 

Or, as it’s called in its native language, Det Missionerande Kopimistsamfundet is now formally recognized as a religious organization in Sweden.

The Swedish government agency Kammarkollegiet registered the Missionary Church of Kopimism as a religious organization in late december, just before Christmas, the group said in a statement today. Members of the church applied three times in their more than year-long quest to have the religion formally recognized in Sweden.

Sweden is now the first and only country to recognize Kopimism as a religion, the group said.

“For the Church of Kopimism, information is holy and copying is a sacrament,” it said in a statement. “Information holds a value, in itself and in what it contains, and the value multiplies through copying. Therefore, copying is central for the organization and its members.”

Philosophy student Isak Gerson, spiritual leader and founder of the Church of Kopimism, said being recognized by Sweden is a big step towards removing the stigma around copying.

“Hopefully, this is one step towards the day when we can live out our faith without fear of persecution,” Gerson said in a statement.

The Church of Kopimism, which holds CTRL+C and CTRL+V as sacred symbols, was founded in 2010 with the hopes that file-sharing would be given religious protection. Followers of the church, who are called Kopimists, organize so-called “kopyactings,” or religious services where members copy and share information with each other.

reduction
Bear
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