My friends, the sling and Mr. Squeezy.

A short update because I don't feel like ironing any more shirts. It's Sunday and I've passed the halfway mark of my "arm in a sling" era. On March 21st I can start to stop using the sling. Yay!

Firstly, I completed my first crosscountry skiing race. Along with some 3500 others I completed the 54.5 km Holmenkollen Ski Marathon. I did it in 4:13:25, which was considerably better than the 4:30:00 I was aiming for!

Secondly, I installed my first fireplace in my apartment, now I have one in the livingroom and one in the kitchen (the new one).

Thirdly, I got hospitalized to get some surgery done on my shoulder - also a first (beach volley seems to take its toll on me). Now I have to wear a sling for four more weeks (5 in total). I am currently on sick leave, but will luckily be back fulltime on Tuesday already. After a week and a half with a sling I've realized the benefits of having two arms ...

"Nature in the sunset" ( © All rights reserved )

After I wrote the post about Golfing in Wales, this blog has once again started a living life. And I think the timing is right for a more active blog - summer is practically over and a season with more indoor activities is on the verge.

Another thing I've re-discovered is image processing. It's great fun to do digital processing on images to make them even better. Right now I'm hung up on a "lots of vibrance" thing, and still a sucker for vignetting.

It remains to see for how long this "reborn" state continues, both for the blog and for photography and digital processing. Hopefully this is the start of a new era, so stay tuned!

I though I should write a short post on my latest "technology project". I needed an easy-to-access backup storage for images, my iTunes music collection and so forth, so I decided to buy myself a NAS.

The choice fell on NetGear's ReadyNAS NV+, a four-bay NAS. The price is not too intimidating, roughly 2k NOK (excluding the harddisks, which are not included). I also bought two Seagate Barracuda Green 2TB discs. The ReadyNAS runs NetGear's proprietary XRAID, which allows hotswapping of discs in case one breaks down. With two discs, the total capacity is currently 2TB. This post is however not about configuring the ReadyNAS. Configuration is very easy - the Wizard mode of the ReadyNAS was brilliant.

There is however two downsides with the original ReadyNAS NV+. First, it only comes with 256MB RAM. You notice its lack of RAM when you access the control panel (via your browser), and you are e.g. transferring files to the NAS. Second, the standard fan that comes with the ReadyNAS NV+ is outrageously noisy, and unbearable if you're planning to keep the NAS in a room where people spend time.

The solution is obvious: Replace the original parts. Here's what's going into the ReadyNAS:

• RAM: Crucial DDR SO-DIMM PC3200 1GB CL3
• FAN: SilenX 92mm iXtrema PRO IXP-64-11, 11dB(A)

Replacing the RAM:
This is very easy. First, unscrew four screws on the back, two on each side and slide the side panels off the ReadyNAS. This reveals four more screws on the top side. Unscrew these and you will see the RAM module. Pull the clips on the RAM module aside and the module "pops up" to a 30 degree angle, ready to be removed. The new module is inserted all the way in, until the clips fit into the module's tracks.

Replacing the fan:
On the backside of the ReadyNAS, four screws will allow you to pull out the metal frame holding the fan. Unscrew the four screws and pull the metal frame out. Remove the fan cable. Now unscrew the four bigger screws, holding the fan to the metal frame. Replace the frame with the new one (remember to put the fan in the right way). Reverse the process and fasten the fan's metal frame back into the ReadyNAS. Fasten the top panel (four screws) before fastening the side panels (2x2 screws).

Result
After these simple updates, the ReadyNAS NV+ is more responsive and very quiet! The operation temperature has increased with a few degrees (roughly 40-45 degrees when stressing the device), but the noise level has decreased to levels below city background noise. The total cost of this update was roughly 500NOK and it definitely moved the NAS to the next level with respect to responsiveness and the famous "just work without being noticed" criteria.

Possibly a perfect drive. At least a spectacular view!

The past year, almost two years now, I feel I've started my posts with the following: "Now it's a really long time since my last post". Well, I'm not going to do that this time (even though it's no less true this time).

Last year, my good friend Tom and I went to South Africa for two weeks, mainly plaing golf. Now that we're both working men, we had to shorten the time span some, so we met in Manchester, England and drove to Wales for four days of golf!

Friday
I arrived early Friday morning at the airport, and Tom picked me up in his new Mazda. We drove straight to the first golf course, Royal St. David's Golf Course in Harlech. Harlech is a small village on the west coast of Wales, about an hour south of Caernarfon. Harlech is known for its Edwardian castle (approx. 12th century). The St. David's golf course is located in the sand dunes just below the castle, so you see the castle from every hole on the course. Being a links course, the greens are big and undulated. And it's windy. Despite the heavy winds, I played very well, scoring 34 points (with 20 additional strokes). The best part of the St. David's golf course was the front nine and the beautiful weather.

Royal St. David's golf course seen from Harlech castle

Tom's favourite - fairway bunkers

Saturday
We stayed in the caravan cabin of Tom's parents. It was located with a beautiful view near Conwy in the north of Wales. The second day, we drove back south again, this time heading out on the LLeyn peninsula and Abersoch golf club. This day, Wales definitely showed us from a different side, it poured down all day long. Both Tom and I realized that our waterproof kits were spectacular, keeping the rain at a comfortable distance.

After a moist morning in Abersoch, we headed back to Conwy, hoping to get a glimpse of the Celtic fayre, but it had closed for the day. So we headed on a small pub to pub round, trying some great beer at several different, great pubs.

Sunday
It was time for another try to golf on the LLeyn peninsula, but this time on the north side. About 1h 30 min from Conwy, we arrived at Nefyn, where we found an absolutely stunning golf course - Nefyn and District Golf Club. Six of the back nine holes are located on a narrow peninsula, allowing no errors on any shots longer than 5 yards. We offered some golf balls to the Gods of the sea, of course, but managed surprisingly well. We both ended the round with birdies on the 18th - the day ending with a tie in the Erasmus challenge 2011 competition! The day was a mixture of clouds and pouring rain, but ended with beautiful sunny evening sun.

In the evening, back in Conwy, we had dinner with Tom's brother and parents. It was very nice to see them again!

Monday
No long drive on the last day, we were challenging the local golf course, Conwy (Caernarvonshire) Golf Club. It is infamous for its difficult back nine. I perfectly understood this and played well the first nine, and failing miserably on the back nine. Tom on the other hand, had a less than happy front nine, but played great during the narrow, bushy back nine. He won the last round of the Erasmus challenge 2011, but the overall winner was me (wohoo). I crushed Tom with two wins and a draw (2.5 wins), over his 1.5 wins.

I won this time, but the Erasmus challenge adventure isn't over, and other challenges are to come!

Hopefully I'll be able to add some more pictures later, when I get pictures from Tom's camera as well. 

I've had a great day today, and yesterda was great too. Friday I bought new skis, lighter ones instead of my old mountaineering skis. So I had to give them a try yesterday. They felt great! Today, it was time for another trip, this time with Andreas, Henriette and Martin. We started out at Sognsvann, passed Ullevållseter and further on to Tryvannstua. There Henriette and Martin split off and went to Frognerseteren, while Andreas and I continued down to Bogstadvannet to Fossum, not far from where Andreas lives. There we chilled out and had a great dinner. A marvellous day and a great weekend!

Lately I've been very gadget oriented with a lot of "window shopping" for different fun gadgets. So, to satisfy the urge for something new and cool I bought myself an Amazon Kindle. I saw a man on the metro reading on his Kindle; Looking over his shoulder, it looked truly great! Third generation in sexy graphite finish is coming my way. Up to a month of battery time sounds great and I'm looking forward to trying it out!