Life without Flash
bpeschier | Thursday 12 August 14:35 | geek, stupid, technology | 0 comments | link
A few weeks ago I totally got angry. When you are coding for a couple of hours straight and getting nowhere, you tend to be on edge a bit. Flash was hogging my system down when I tried to look up some documentation and I decided then and there to just disable it. If I regretted it, it was not like it took hours to re-enable it. I must say I kinda like it! There are some downsides, but mostly it was pretty painless.
The most obvious downside is video; web videos are mostly Flash, and Youtube does not really like you on first sight. Same for Vimeo and others. But these two sites have HTML5 players which "do the job", so after enabling them you are totally not shut off. Youtube will harass you about your Flash version, but meh, ignore it.
Actually, the harassment is the biggest downside for me. Most sites assume you "forgot to install Flash" instead of the possibility you actually do not want Flash to be installed or used. I have not thought deeply about the implications for privacy and security, but for now it seems like a good idea to make it possible for sites to detect Flash being disabled or more generally: unwanted. It reminds me of the whole capability-movement, but with a reversed aspect of unwantingnessness.
Another semi-frustration hits you when you open up the HTML-source to fetch an video-link to play in another player and you see iPhone and iPad-detecting code loading up HTML5 video-tags. I want that as well, give it to me in my current browser (I am looking at you NOS!). The positive side is that there is a HTML5 video-source, so I just fetch the link and load it somewhere else.
The last downside is one that cannot be dodged easily like the video: Streetview. This is just Flash-content and until WebGL, canvas and the other HTML5-gizmos are present and used, it will remain. Bummer, if I really really need it, the enable-button is a few clicks away.
Life without Flash is not without some bumps, but in the end, in my life without web games and such, it works :-)
Preparing to head home
bpeschier | Saturday 24 July 18:05 | holiday, sailing | 0 comments | link
Our final destination for today is the final destination for this holiday. It started raining and the weather report indicated that it will not stop before we leave. So we decided just to head back to the small jetty of the boat. We tanked on Ingmarsö and had some fun with the wind.
Our first idea was to tank on Lådna. Not a bad idea, but the otherwise gentleman-ish Swedes were like hawks there. A lot of motor-boat-people took our spot in the 'queue' and when we finally tacked to the fuel jetty another one just moored there without even looking at use (but he had seen us). Grrrrr. So we just went away while eating our frustration away with some pieces of kanellängd.
On a more negative note, we found a small and very sharp bolt on the front of the mast. The jib did as well... So there is now a not-very-large cut on the edge of the fabric :( Nothing too serious, but we had to put some tape on it in between tacks so it would not become any larger. Tomorrow we will see what the owner thinks of it.
For now it is time to make tea and cuddle up inside and 'enjoy' the sound of rain hitting the boat. Tomorrow some final cleaning and taking a very large boat back to Stockholm.
Nearly there
bpeschier | Friday 23 July 15:16 | holiday, sailing | 0 comments | link
Today is Friday and our holiday is racing towards its end. We stayed on Möja yesterday and made a fairly long walk (~11km) over the island. At the other end of the island we bought some ice cream and water to make it back home; the sun was scorching and the sky extremely blue.
The rest of the day we enjoyed the sun and a good book, skyped home and tried to follow the Dutch radio 1 for the tour the France, but my battery died with 2km to go :o. After we charged it later that evening, we quickly looked up the end result.
Today we sailed to Norrgårdsön, with a slight detour because the wind was due north. It was an enjoyable trip, but on the chilly side; the temperature has dropped to 16 degrees. The water is 18.5...
Our current location is 59.420643 18.741056. Most of the island is a nature reserve with a small composting toilet. The bay is lovely and we have a view of the holiday home of a very lucky person. Tomorrow we set sail for Ingmarsö to do some final shopping and get some gas for the engine. Sunday we have to hand over the boat again :o
Möja
bpeschier | Thursday 22 July 09:44 | holiday, sailing | 0 comments | link
We sailed by the other side of this, for this region, fairly large island. Our current position is 59.406006 18.883299, on the south side of the northern island in a small inlet with a small harbour. There are no real large harbours here in this area, at least, not at the size of the ones we are used to in the Netherlands. Most harbour at most about 10-30 boats. Most of them even do not have showers on the premises, most Swedes tend to take a refreshing dive in the water (and I do not blame them).
Möja is not completely built shut with holiday houses, there is more space for agriculture and other businesses here. As usual, it is pretty; we walked toward the west side of the island with a stunning view over the western fjärden. The water reaches around 135 meters depth in the middle. Mindboggling if you are used to the waters in the Netherlands :-P
The trip was one facing the wind. It took us a while to get here from Paradiset, but with a heavy 5 bft wind it was fun. We originally wanted to just stop here for a walk and groceries, but we ended up just reading a book and making a long walk. There is a small power outlet here, so I hooked up the laptop to charge, the batteries went dead last time.
No clue what to do today... the wind has picked up a little again.
Paradiset
bpeschier | Tuesday 20 July 17:57 | holiday, sailing | 0 comments | link
The Paradise, that is what they call our current location (which is 59.476215 18.802629). It is a fairly large bay between Ingmarsö and the largest island of Finnhamn. It is secluded from the rest of the sea and feels like a small inland lake. There is protection from every wind angle and there is no space for wind to really build.
We left our lovely spot in the natural harbour next to Träsko Storö in the morning. After some creative thinking how to sail away with a drag anchor and all the boats on our lower side, we cheated by looking at another boat leaving. They just cut all their front lines, push off and collect their anchor while floating over it. After that they start their engine and go away.
We were not so keen on using our engine, both because we like to sail and because we do not really trust the engine. But it went fine and we set sail for Finnhamn. Not directly, no, but with a nice out-lap to get some mileage. The wind was fantastic and we got to know the boat a bit better. We had a terrific morning sailing by Möja, our target for tomorrow, and back to Finnhamn. At first the bay looked perfect, then there were some doubts about bugs and then it just was nice to relax.
The water is pretty cold, especially this morning when I jumped when I woke up. The heater was not on yet and I had to swim quite vigourously to get comfy. It was a hell of a way to wake up though. Most of the Swedes to the same thing, jump in at the end of the afternoon to cool down and refresh before dinner and wake up with a small dive. But they are not immune to the 19 degrees: "Fan vad kalt! Men skitbra." is heard quite often.
No problems with bugs this evening, we slept like babies.
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