Life of Åsmund
A student life
WHAT HAPPENED TO MY MUSIC?
Jan 9th
A short update on what happened with my music, that got stolen by Apple during synchronization.
I would like to give Apple credits for their swift action to correct the problem. Only a few hours after I reported the problem, I received a mail stating that the orders that had disappeared could now be redownloaded to my library. Great!
One thing though: In the mail I sent Apple I wrote that four orders had been deleted during sync. However, I managed to write down one of the orders number twice, thus I was only able to re-download three orders. My bad of course, but I wrote another mail including the final order.
What I find odd is the reply I received this time. I was told the money I had paid for the order would be refunded and that I should re-buy the music in iTunes Store. Fair enough, but why couldn’t I just download this as I had done with the other orders? Beats me …
The important thing is however that I now possess of the music I’ve bought. Time for a backup.
APPLE: GIVE ME MY MUSIC!
Jan 7th
I have an iPhone, thus I use iTunes to sync music between my iPhone and my music library. My music library is located on my external harddrive. Now I’m utterly pissed because Apple has stolen music I’ve bought worth 500NOK (60EUR).
The other day I formatted my computer, installed iTunes, imported my music library from my harddrive and connected my iPhone (as I’ve done many times before). New this time was that I had bought songs using the iPhone that weren’t on my external harddrive.
When I connected the phone to the computer iTunes started synchronizing. It told me I had purchased items on my iPhone that weren’t in my library and asked if I wanted to copy the items to the library. Yes, I would like that.
However, iTunes decided the songs I had purchased weren’t worth keeping and didn’t synchronize them to my library and deleted them from my iPhone! All the apps on the other hand, got synchronized without any problems.
After going through my receipts, I’ve found out that iTunes deleted 6 albums from my collection, all bought with my iPhone.
The issue is of course that I, according to iTunes Terms of Sale, am only allowed to download the music I’ve bought once.
Going to Apple Support online was no use what so ever, as it suggested I should use Windows search to locate the missing files. Give me a chance to copy the music to my harddrive and I’ll be perfectly capable to find it!
I have reported the problem to Apple and will let you know what happends. In the meantime I’ll have to live without that great music!
NEW YEAR’S AT KJERRINGØY
Jan 4th
I’m back in Trondheim!
Christmas holidays have been great with my family, good food and time to play guitar, some piano, reading books and playing Fifa with my younger sister. I got several great books for Christmas, a new duve and Trivial Pursuit :)
New year’s was celebrated on Kjerringøy near Bodø in relation with my uncle’s 50th birthday. We stayed at the old minister’s house and it was great, though without water for three of the four days due to ice blocking the water supply. The scenery on and around Kjerringøy was truly mind blowing, it’s easy to understand why tourists love the northern parts of Norway!
As I said, I’m back in Trondheim, now eager to finish my project report!
END OF THE SEMESTER
Dec 20th
Finally I’m on my way home, currently on the train, trying out the Wordpress application for iPhone. One of many cool apps I haven’t had time to try out due to the past 4 weeks of intense working.
The semester is over, but my work isn’t. However, I’m going to have a well deserved Christmas holiday before work continues. My work isn’t over? You say. Well that’s because I wasn’t able to finish my project report due to several delays related to malfunctioning machinery. Most is done, I just need to get in touch with my supervisor, currently in India, and discuss my results with him. This has been harder than expected, thus the delay in handing in the report.
Off-school things: Øystein and I have played Call of Duty: Modern warfare 2 on xbox360. Incredible game! Special ops. two player is a magnificent time spender :D
I’ve also discovered Fast Flip from Google Labs, a neat way of serving news from different sources. It’s really useful on the iPhone! Worth a try!
Merry Christmas to you all!
LET THE GAMES BEGIN
Dec 7th
Today, the Climate Change Conference starts in Copenhagen, Denmark. COP15, as it is so nicely called is a United Nations conference, the 15th of the so-called Conference of Parties.
Barack Obama and the Norwegian primeminister, Jens Stoltenberg, will attend the conference along with over 60 other world leaders and discuss how to reduce emissions that harm our climate. A lot is expected for this climate meeting, but is there a lot to hope for? Everyone seems to be willing, but keep the cards close to their chest, so in the end it will be hard to get anywhere.
Barack Obama is the world leader with the biggest pressure on his shoulders. During the eight years of Bush administration, the United States didn’t contribute to an active climate policy. Now it’s up to Obama to show that he can contribute actively to the change we need. Unfortunately, Obama has met a lot of resistance back home, where republicans are pushing hard, saying the climate changes aren’t man made and where surveys show that Americans don’t really care about the climate change.
The COP15 conference will probably not end with spectacular agreements in emission cuts, but it’s a step in the right direction. Most countries agree that action is needed in order to reduce CO2 emissions, the important discussion is the time perspective. What we can expect is agreements on principles and time schedules.
A lot more was expected from the COP15 conference. Many countries, including Norway, hoped for a legally binding agreement to reduce climate change. Now, most of these hopes have been abandoned, partly because the US Senate didn’t pass Barack Obama’s climate bill earlier this fall.
I’m confused. The entire COP15 conference is hard to understand for us outsiders. All the participants are willing to contribute, but unwilling to sacrifice too much. The game has begun, let’s see what it brings.
Please comment:
What do you expect from the COP15 conference?
What do you hope for?
What achievements are realistic?