Men mange har problemer med motivasjonene. I alt stresset i vår moderne hverdag, blir det lite bibellesning. En av årsakene kan være at man går trøtt. En form for utbrenthet.

Noe av det som anbefales når det gjelder utbrenthet, er å gjøre noe annet. Få andre impulser.

Om du er en av de som synes det er vanskelig å lese i Bibelen, prøv med noe annet. Og da mener jeg ikke noe annet enn Bibelen.

Men Bibelen er oversatt til mange språk, og den finnes i mange versjoner.

Prøv en lydbibel - på norsk eller engelsk. Prøv å lese i studiebibelen, og sjekk grunnteksten og hva som står skrevet om bakgrunnen for bøkene i Bibelen. Jeg hadde stor glede av en tegneserieversjon da jeg var tenåring. Og prøv en Bibel på et annet språk.

For min del har jeg fått øynene opp for en engelsk versjon: NIV. Den har et enkelt, godt og lettfattelig språk. Mens jeg studerte engelsk (en del klassisk litteratur, inkludert Shakespeare), likte jeg å lese King James Version (KJV). Den ble utgitt i 1611, og har et veldig gammeldags språk. Noen ord har endret betydning siden den gang, og det kan være en kamp å forstå enkelte vers. Men språket virker for oss i dag som vakkert og nesten poetisk.

Om du ønsker å sjekke disse og andre versjoner av engelske bibler, kan du finne de fleste på nettet, før du bruker penger på å kjøpe en (jeg fant en NIV versjon til 89 kroner, men de fleste er dyrere og har tynnere papir).

NIV - lydbibel, lese bøkene - og det finnes også vers- og ordoppslag

My DVD-player was starting to act up, and finally the time came when it refused to read a DVD for the first time. It was time to take it back to the store under warranty. So, what to do. I figured I'd save the store some work, and document it myself. It would sometimes read a DVD, and sometimes not. I simply filmed the whole process from putting in the DVD, until it threw up a "no disc" message. The first time I did it, the player actually recognized the DVD, but some other things were funky. So I deleted the take and tried again, this time starting with the funky bits, then ejecting and re-inserting the DVD. And this time it didn't recognize the same DVD.

When I got to the store, I showed the video (not very sharp, but sharp enough to see what was going on) to the clerk, and he asked me some pesky questions to see if it was user errors or not. My answers convinced him, and he sent it for repair or replacement.

But the point is, because I documented the error, he didn't have to hook it up and turn it on, then try to mount a DVD. It saved him a lot of work, while giving me the assurance that he saw what I saw - who knows, if the player cooperated in the store and he was really annoying, he might say there's nothing wrong with it? I'm guessing some documentation might help people with more timid personalities, because there's no room for enterpretation if it's an on again off again fault with a product?

I've used the still camera to document other malfunctions before with good results. But for this particular problem, a video camera was the only thing that would really prove it.

I made a crack comment about gamers. I've got friends who are gamers, and I know they sit for hours on end without getting up. And some do allnighters, especially if their league is in another time zone.

She said parents came to her, with or without their children, distraught about their kids' health. Serious gamers, and with back problems at a young age.

So I made another crack - with kids, walking around isn't going to cut it. It's too dull. How about another game? Buy a dance mat? (Originally developed for Playstation 1&2, there are also versions for the computer) See youtube video of an arcade version, you can have fun even if you're not good at it!

She flipped over the idea, and is now thinking of getting one for her 8 year old daughter!

BTW, if you decide to get one for yourself check on quality before you buy. A grown up may want a metal or hard plastic version, not those things that slide around. Oh, and a mother who had a seriously hyper 4 year old said the dance mat was the only thing that could tire her kid. After watching this five year old pro, I can believe it.

So, kids, parents, grown up computer addicts: Get moving, before you develop serious problems. I saw a net friend had written a recommendation for a physical therapist recently. I assume his computer use had been at least part of the cause for several surgeries and other back and neck issues. This therapist was working with stuff he could use at home - personally, I like the big excercise balls you sit on (see sissel-online for excercises, or even better, look up an excercise class locally). Great for core strength - fixing up abs and back, so you're stronger and less likely to get injured. Also, MBT shoes are great for posture or back problems - and especially for store clerks who need to stand around all day.

Personally, I have amassed quite a bit of home equipment over the years. My favorite is the treadmill. Norwegian winters are harsh, and with that thing, I don't have to worry about slipping and falling, and can walk or run at any speed I want.

He roped in a friend to help him, and had the friend set up the router at his place. It worked. They took it back, it didn't work. So obviously, the wireless wasn't fried. Something was wrong with the location.

So they removed power to circuit after circuit in the house, before walking into the living room. The friend asked "What's that?", and pointed to their wireless Audio-Video link. It connected the TV in the living room with the TV in the kitchen, so they didn't need more than one set top box. When they powered down the AV link, WiFi worked.

They solved their problem by setting the AV link to another frequency. It had a choice of four settings. It had been set on one, and that was apparently the same frequency as the Wifi router.

So, AV links can create interference that makes your Wifi router seem dead. Food for thought!

I was talking to a customer who thought my mailserver had "a moment" and rejected his mails. Turns out it was his computer that had "a moment".

And in the conversation, I mentioned that Outlook can sometimes be a bit temperamental. And he said, yeah, he uses Thunderbird at home. And I said, heh, I use Pegasus mail. And he said he'd heard of that program when he was studying IT a long time ago.

A little game of "mine is longer than yours" relating to e-mail programs.

And Pegasus really is the safest alternative, unless you want to get dirty and use Pine or similar...

So there...

One wand (mine is 20 inches long and plastic, but can be other materials)
One silk ribbon. Mine is red, 1.5 cm in width and 33 inches long as it hangs off the end of the wand
Duct tape to secure the ribbon

The wand with the ribbon works very much like the cat charmer. The cat charmer is better (multicolor striped fleece, ultra light), but this is much better than any DIY wand I've tried before (sisal rope). What is better about the DIY wand is that it's sturdy (Pusur has almost chewed off the end of the cat charmer ribbon), and you can replace the ribbon if your cat is the destructive sort.

So, where do you get the wand? Maybe you have a broken cat toy? If you don't, look for branches off bushes or trees that work. I've had one I cut off a lilac bush for quite a while. They're easier to skin during spring. If you have ideas for other ways to get wands, DIY, please let me know.

Send me an e-mail if you comment here. I get so much spam, the legitimate comments are hard to spot.

I finally found something I thought would work. It looks a lot like this wand.

It's a wand with what looks like a long Christmas tree wreath. It's plastic, with hot pink center and white tips. The wreath is built with a metal thread, so it wafts lazily, a bit like a cat's tail. And the tip of the wreath has a few feathers with what I'd describe as a light weight. That way, the action is just right. And IT RUSTLES!!!!!

Pusur went wild.

And since he usually goes wild Christmas Eve with all the gift wrappings, I combined the wand with the paper. Instant hit. No risk of me getting clawed by accident, and the rustling combined with the rustling paper got him all worked up.

Poor guy didn't want to get to bed. He kep looking at me late at night, hoping I'd come up with more fun...

If you want to buy your cat a toy like that, beware if your cat is the destructive type. The metal thread and plastic doesn't taste that good. In fact, Pusur lets go quickly. He's not the destructive type. He can keep toys for years without ruining them. But if yours is destructive, be careful exactly what materials, and how sturdy the wand is.

Update: The wand broke the second day, after I wrote this entry. Not because the cat is destructive, but because the wreath was made with metal thread. Metal that thin has a tendency to weaken if you twirl it around too much. A weakness in the design, would be my guess. I'm thinking of repairing it, and putting something else between the metal thread and the wand, to shore up the place where it would break a second time. Maybe a piece of string. But in the mean time, I accidentally made another wand out of a piece of ribbon and the wand.

Occasionally, we get customers that don't have Windows CD's. Some never had them, and some have imaginative stories as to whose fault it is they don't.

These days most computers have the license key on a sticker on the computer itself, so that bit is (usually) covered. If it's not on there, then at least WRITE IT ON THERE when you get the machine. A CD marker or a face down sticker might work.

But an OEM license doesn't work with a non-OEM CD. So just plonking any windows CD in the CD-player won't work. So what to do?

You could try finding a Fujitsu Siemens owner with the same windows version as you have (home or professional). The recovery CD doesn't have any drivers on it, and will accept your own license key.

Hopefully some above average end user will appreciate this tip from the trenches...

Let's say you're using vpopmail. Let's say there's a file called lastauth - telling you when each user last checked e-mail and from what IP address.

Then you could get a guesstimate of the number of users by doing this:
find /home/vpopmail/domains | grep lastauth > yourfile

This will take quite a while, if you've got many users.

Then check number of lines in that file, by typing:
wc -l yourfile

Finally remove yourfile

And no, I don't provide support on this. This is for qmail admins, not regular users.

I needed to upgrade the bios to get the new processor to take (Pentium II 400 HMz is a bit slow with SimplyMepis, a Pentium III 600 would hopefully mean a performance boost, and the new processor was a spare part...), and had Linux on the machine. Which means the bios upgrade was the wrong operating system. No problem, just boot from a win95 or thereabouts boot floppy, then do the upgrade from a floppy.

But of course, I started the computer thinking the board would autodetect the new processor. Luckily I saw it didn't have the right frequency and powered down to read the motherboard manual. After changing some dipswitches, I was good to go.

The intended user is reading newspapers right now, and is confirming that the machine is faster. BTW, a good idea for "newspaper reader users" is to have all their links on their browser's home page. Less stuff to learn in the beginning. And a few icons on an uncluttered desktop for the one or two programs they use, easily marked (Internet browser is better than Firefox or Internet Explorer. Write Letter is better than Word or Text Editor).

Mission accomplished.

Problem is I never got any wlan card to work on it. Finally I was desperate enough to try alternate solutions (who wants to lug 3 kg around when you could lug less than 1 kg?). Here's something that might work for you if you're in the same predicament. Just remember you're doing this at your own risk.

This relates to machines with Windows 98 first edition. The version of Ndis.vxd changed from first edition to Win98SE. The card requires the version that came with Windows 98 Second Edition.

To fix (and it might break something else, so beware), download the right language file from this page:
http://support.microsoft.com/kb/q243199/

Then save it to some location, open a dos prompt and type:
243199us8.exe /c /t:a:\

Change folder to the one you've got the file in (cd nameoffolder, cd .. to go up a notch etc). Replace the file name here with your language version. The /t is the location it zips the files out to. Right here it's set to the floppy drive, but it could easily be c:\drivers\ or something else.

Then the safe way is probably to do as described in this newsgroup thread, but I simply renamed the old Ndis.vxd in thec:\windows\system\ folder, and pasted the new version in. It worked for me, but I haven't tried a second time, so no guarantees.

All of this was done after the card was installed, and I found a yellow exclamation mark in the hardware list, and found the driver complained about Ndis.vxd and Ntkern.vxd. Replacing the first file was enough to make it work.

I'd actually love to install Linux on it instead. Damn Small Linux would be about right, if I could get the wlan card to work on it? But I'll leave that for another day.

Why not get a small mouse to go with it, instead of contorting your hands with those trackpads?

OK, so maybe lugging a mouse with you doesn't appeal to you, since a laptop is portable and it's more weight and bulk. But really, have you SEEN how small the travel mice are these dasy?

I've got a Logitech one I wouldn't be caught without!

I was even at a customer's house when his cordless mouse gave out, and using keyboard shortcuts gets real old, real fast. So I got my little mouse out of my car, and was good to go in a few minutes!

Check out mine:

It's about the size of the palm of my hand.