12.6.12

One week of the USA-trip

<p>At the moment, it's the end of the day, and our first week in USA. We've seen a shootout in Deadwood, gone on a tour of the Black Hills Caverns, went shopping yesterday, driven through the Badlands, and have eaten some really rotten (figuratively speaking) food along the way. We've also had some good food along the way. Fuddruckers has some delicious burgers, The Firehouse Brewing Co in Rapid City has a delicious, but oh so spicy dish called Spontaneous Heating, and the Bay Leaf Cafe in Spearfish is comparable to some of the best food I've ever eaten.

Along the way, we've had our differences of course, as is usual when you're atop eachother 12-14 hours a day, but on the whole this trip has been great.

Tomorrow, we're finally going to see Aleksander again. He's flying in to Rapid City from Orlando through Denver, Colorado. We plan to do little more than take it easy, maybe go downtown for a little shopping before we'll meet him at the airport around 3 o'clock.

I'm also happy to say that I have found some souvenirs for all of my friends, along with summer clothing, spoons for my collection, jewelry and assorted knick-knack for my apartment.

7.6.12

Morning 3rd day in USA

The clock is now 09am, and we're getting ready to take off after a refreshing morning bath, breakfast and coffee. Today, we have the intention of reaching Rapid City.

Last night, we went for a beer at Puff's Whitecap Inn, and lo and behold, I actually won at slot machines there. Playing $2, I ended up with $22 in tickets. (Almost)Enough to buy the entire bar a round. Which made me the center of attention and gave me the chance to talk to a couple of lovely girls. Sadly, staying but one night, it wad never going to be more than a chat though. More updates later.

6.6.12

Still 2nd day in USA

<p>As stated, it's still our second day in USA, and have this day been boring or what!? Don't get me wrong, USA is a beautiful country, but when coming from miles of farms and then to drive through 430 miles of nothing but...

Still, it's been a good day. We've stopped a few times along the way for bath room breaks, to eat and fill up on gas. We even stopped at Little Norway. Though not the one we thought it to be, the base where Norwegian resistance fighters were trained during WWII, it was still a nice piece of history.

One thing about the day none of us liked, was Fort Dodge. We were going to find a place to stay the night there, but the town just felt wrong somehow. And so it happened that we arrived at beautiful Storm Lake, Iowa.

At the moment, we're lazing about on the porch at Sail Inn Motel. Having just eaten a few slices of bread, we're now updating our travel logs and checking our mail and Facebooks and what not, telling the folks back home what a great time they're missing;-)

I've also added a few pictures I have taken during the day. Enjoy.








2nd Day in USA

After a tiring ride from Gardermoen via Munich, we arrived in Chicago's O'Hare airport yesterday. Sadly, the car rental company had rented our reserved car, a Chrysler 300SC, so we got a Ford Crown Victoria instead. Not bad, but not what we reserved either. After a few stops to eat in Huntley, a trip to the Belvidere Wal-Mart, and a failed attempt to secure lodgings at Naeset-Roe B&B in Stoughton, we ended up at stoughton Inn. After a few sips of a Fat Tire Amber Ale, it was lights out for me.

Woke up at 5:15am, and being the only one awake, went outside for a smoke and read my magazine, waiting for the rest of the gang to wake up. Which they did at 7. After a short breakfast, we're now off to the West.

27.2.12

Finally a decent phone!

<p>&lt;p&gt;&amp;lt;p&amp;gt;Never liked the iPhone, could never get comfortable with Symbian, and never had a better solution or option... Until now. Thursday last week, February 23rd, I finally got my new phone. I've been drooling over it since just before Christmas, and I knew the king couldn't hold the throne forever, and today I found that it has been forced to abdicate. Not its popularity though.&amp;lt;/p&amp;gt;&lt;br&gt;<br>
&amp;lt;p&amp;gt;The ZTE Era was unveiled at the MWC in Barcelona recently, and its spec sheet says that my king, the Galaxy Nexus, is about to abdicate. Well, c'est la vie. It is just as certain as the Earth changing inclination to allow the sun to shine on it, that today's technological marvel will be tomorrow's refuse.&amp;lt;/p&amp;gt;&lt;br&gt;<br>
&amp;lt;p&amp;gt;But I don't want to depress anyone who should so happen to read this, so let that be it. Now I want to gloat!&amp;lt;/p&amp;gt;&lt;br&gt;<br>
&amp;lt;p&amp;gt;I want to do cart wheels, jump tall buildings, fight evil and its brethren wherever they may be. I am just so happy!&amp;lt;/p&amp;gt;&lt;br&gt;<br>
&amp;lt;p&amp;gt;As this was a birtday present and my birthday was during the week, I had a party this Saturday. Suffice to say for now, I've got quite a few computers, all of them running some form of Linux. My friends have learned to use them on their visits, but it has always been a hassle where to put the mouse and the keyboard. Even my Gyration GO Compact keyboard is about the size of 4-5 Nexuses laid next to eachother.&amp;lt;/p&amp;gt;&lt;br&gt;<br>
&amp;lt;p&amp;gt;A short trip to the Market and I can now (almost) get completely rid of my keyboard and mouse. For this, I installed AndroMouse Lite. A simple touchpad and a keyboard in the palm of my hand. It works just as expected: As good as perfect. The ONE thing I've noticed it doing, is a slight lag when either the computer or my phone is under a heavy load. And it's still barely noticable.&amp;lt;/p&amp;gt;&lt;br&gt;<br>
&amp;lt;p&amp;gt;I am not going to talk in length about the different apps I've installed, removed, all the searches I have done on the Market, all the sites I've visited looking for information. But I will talk about one app among them: VLC HD Remote.&lt;/p&gt;<br>
&lt;p&gt;It too is as good as perfect. I tried the app Remote for VLC, and even if it does its job, it's minimalistic. You can change aspect ratio, subtitle, soundtrack, skip in the video, flip from one to the other. And it has ONE ability I'm going to miss unless VLC HDR implements it. </p>
<p>When viewing videos through Opera Mobile and I get a direct link to the content, I can push it, and 95% of the time I get the choice to complete the request with Remote for VLC. This automatically sends the link to VLC for syreaming, and I can control through a REAL player, not a Flash-based player, how the playback proceeds.</p>
<p>VLC HDR is a better app, no question. about it. It has built-in server and client streaming, in other words to and from the phone. All the features of this app is available on the Market so I won't reiterate them all. The drawbacks of this app are only two that I have been able to find: Previously mentioned and the fact that streaming isn't free forever. You have to buy an unlock code for that. If I ever figure out VLC's streaming I'll buy it. But for now I recommend this app for anyone using VLC to some degree.</p>