Øblog

Steve Ballmer is in Norway today talking to our Prime Minister Jens Stoltenberg. Microsoft is moving their head office for Search Technology to Norway. Earlier this year Microsoft purchased the Norwegian Fast Search and Transfer (FAST) established in Trondheim in 1997.

Microsoft’s main office will be in Oslo with branches in Tromsø and Trondheim. On short term they are looking for 50 developers in addition to the 300 they got via FAST.

Exciting news, I look forward to follow MS on this battle against Google and I have to admit that I’m proud of what Norwegian technology can achieve.

Additionally this week Ballmer is visiting european countries to present Microsoft presents to students, free software! Except Visual Studio 2008. This is part of the Dreamspark project.

I’ve kind of settled with the new security systems at airport, its for our own good right? I solve the queue-problems by coming 30 minutes earlier than before to the airport when I travel. No bottles, taking shoes off sometime and removing belt before going through the scanner – no problem. I get irritated though if the security personell is under-manned and queue is growing to the insane.

The sollution : open tickets (the most expecive one (Conspiracy theori #87)).

(Photo by hugo)

Having my body x-rayed though is out of the question, and I’ve decided if they implement that on Norwegian airports I’m out. No more flying for me. Luckily Norway have still some sense left so I don’t think it will ever be implemented. Not only because x-rays are dangerous but letting other people see you nude and being stored a few years on an image-server is breaking lots of ethical rules. If someone tells me my image is securely stored I will personally laugh at them, no system is flawless and we can read about that in the news every day.

Now.. theres a new gadget called MALINTENT is being tested, a device that reads body temperature, respiration and heart rate. It also read muscle movment and face emotions together with body movements, eyes and pheromone level. Its developers claims that it can see the difference between being stressed and being tense because of terrorist plans. It has been developed by the U.S. Department for Homeland Security and last week it got tested on 144 individuals, they had no idea what they passed when they walked through a hallway.

Lets just say that my interest in visiting US by air decreased with 65%. How far will they go?

We all now that if a terrorist wants to act out on planes they make it. Nothing can stop them. So why are they doing all this? One word : money.

The US government spend billions on airport security, have someone looked into the links between Homeland Security and its suppliers? Are they all mates?

I have no criminal intentions when entering an airport, so I should maybe ignore all the security hassle, but I won’t. I refuse to be pushed around like this. Have fun!

Sources :
Daily Mail
AP

I think we need to have Argus’ eyes on products made in China. Right now over 13000 babys are in danger of loosing their life because of melamine tainted milk powder. Over 6500 infants have developed kidney stone. Melamine were added illegally to make protein content of milk appear higher than it actually is. 4 infants is dead but we’ve only seen the litle top of the ice berg. Remember the same happening in 2004? They never learn.

Melamine have also been detected in ordinary milk as well now.

Melamine was linked to deaths and illness of thousands of cats and dogs in the US last year after it was added to pet food components exported from China.

This is not the first scandal in China, were products were tampered with to make more money.

A firm in Jiangsu Province and another in Shandong Province together exported more than 1,300 tons of contaminated wheat protein to the US.

A chemical called TD-glycerin, which should be used only for industrial purposes, found its way into a cough syrup.

Pet food – tainted with chemical melamine

Toothpaste – tainted with chemical diethylene glycol and bacteria

Farmed fish – traces of banned drugs and pesticides found

Tyres – fault may cause blow-outs

Toys – contain lead or pose choking hazard

Children’s jewellery – contains lead

Ceramic heaters – pose fire safety risk

The list goes on an on. Most stories doesn’t leave China, but these got through. We all are importing goods from China, because its cheap. When will we have to stop the madness by boycotting China, who has the nerve? Noone if you ask me.

[lang_en]Sometimes I find our activities on this planet so weird that I wonder if someone is playing jokes on us. We’re together stuck on this lovely planet and we have the potensial to make everyone’s life a dream – but we make a mess, create tragedies, cause disasters and in a way shorten our borrowed time on this planet. Don’t misunderstand me though, I’m not fed up with life, because I still have hopes for us – but I think we need to get a grip.

Take this week for instance. It started with the bankruptcy of the Lehman Brothers, stockmarkets around the world still shiver from the news and the wave effect might cause bankruptcies of banks in other countries. This again leads to unstable stockmarkets around the world as well, only because a stupid company in the US, a company who plays with money as they would be monopoly money, only bigger amounts, and real money.
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