Niklas' blog

I’ve since long been fond of The Maccabees. They were very good at the Accelerator festival in Stockholm and Felix White is still an amphetamine god, but this trifle of a video says it all really, jangly guitar and fantastic singing intertwined with a strong melody:

Apparently, cheese-rolling in Gloucestershire is tradition. Broken bones seems like such fun here. I have to say, I adore the song and the video, even though it’s acetate in nature; I think it’ll hold for a few listens only. I can’t help but cheer the star on, to see how it all pans out for him and smile at his smiling at the end.

The biggest supplier of tickets to any type of show is Ticnet. They’re finally delivering purchased tickets by PDF, which means you can print your own tickets rather than having to seek out a place where you hear “your number doesn’t work” only to have to do their job and point out that “0″ is not “O”.

Or can you?

Yesterday I bought three tickets for Stockholm Ice. Merrily, I went about trying to open the PDF-file. First of all, I use Google Apps, and for once GMail’s built-in PDF-viewer couldn’t open the file, or even display its contents as HTML.

The requirements for reading said file? According to Ticnet, it’s “Adobe Acrobat Reader 4.0 or higher”.

I downloaded the file and stubbornly tried to open it using Foxit PDF Reader v3.1.4. No go. It just said the file was damaged. So, I tried opening it using Sumatra PDF Reader v1.0.1, but the same thing happened. Yes, I then tried to open said file in Adobe Reader v9.3.0 and it also refused, pointing to the same type of error as above.

I tried this on three different Windows XP machines, using two different antivirus solutions altogether; I may also add that I could open a plethora of other PDF-files without any problems, using all three above programs (that are all updated to the latest version).

So, what happened?

On the train I used my Nokia N900 to read my e-mail and decided to try and view the PDF-file, and blimey, it worked – in my mobile phone, that’s running Maemo, a Linux distribution. I used the mobile phone’s built-in PDF reader to save the file and then opened it on my computer.

And it now works.

Seems like Ticnet has a problem on their hands, if I didn’t happen to get a malformed PDF-file, but it doesn’t look like it; all you may need to solve the problem is a Linux-based computer.

This morning is great. Had a cup of Åre Kafferosteri’s Rwanda according to The Coffee Collective’s updated AeroPress brewing method, then did Ashtanga Yoga and will now follow up by cleaning the apartment. Tonight it’s time to celebrate Ida, woo, birthday!

Jon Stewart came to Bill O’Reilly’s TV-show “O’Reilly Factor” again a couple of days ago, and it’s funnier than funk.

Obviously, the two are very sharp objects, but Stewart doing a spider-impression in the middle of faux-political discourse is hilarious. And also:

Stewart: You’re a news organisation between nine and eleven, and then you’re “opinions” between eleven and one, except on Jewish holidays…

I love the second part where O’Reilly defends the fact that FOX News (their label) nowadays separate “news” and “opinions” without labelling them once on the air.

O’Reilly: you don’t think people know the Factor is an opinion chair, you don’t think they know that?
Stewart: it’s certainly not clearly labelled; I’ve looked at your promos – you’re part of the “fair and balanced” part.

Also, as quoted from The Hollywood Reporter, but edited and corrected by me:

In the second segment the duo debate whether Fox News is a “fair and balanced” news organization, with Stewart calling the network a “cyclonic perpetual emotion machine.”

“You have become, in some ways, the voice of sanity here, which, as I said, is like being the thinnest kid at fat camp.”

The part at 24:43 where O’Reilly feels like becoming a TV-preacher and Stewart laughs and goes “Oh God”, might be the funniest thing. That, or the fact that streaming this pulp shows what FOX News is about; politics as entertainment. Too bad they’re not trying to combine the funny with truth – do note the words at the top of this screenshot:

The end is just so simple and sweeps away the entire conversation, in a very metaphorical sense regarding FOX and, well, reality:

O’Reilly: you’re out of touch with the folks.
Stewart: the folks?! You live in a castle!

A little statement from somebody I’ve spoken with today, about another person not currently there but on an image that popped up on my screen:

Oh HIM! Now I know! The one who looks retarded! Yeah! He must be from Norrland…they all look a bit like him up there.