I’ve got 20+ Google Wave invites to hand out, and if you haven’t already gotten one you should drop a comment with your e-mail address and I’ll send one your way.

http://www.flickr.com/photos/liako/ / CC BY-SA 2.0

Google Wave is Google’s new communication and collaboration platform, where everything is organized in “waves”. It shows a lot of promised and I’ve already put it to good use for announcing events and communicating with friends.

It’s not quite there yet, where it will take over the majority of other social media, IM and e-mal – and it might never get there, but it shows great potential and you should be a part of it

If you’re already surfing, add me: jaran.nilsen@ and add googlewave.com

I was very happy yesterday, when an e-mail from VG Nett Fotoalbum (a Norwegian online photo service) arrived in my inbox, telling me that I had several albums quarantined and that they would be deleted if I did not take action and paid for hosting.

I had long forgotten about this, and was very happy to find that I had several albums stored on that site, which I was sure I had lost in a hard disk crash a couple of years back. Awesome!

So I paid the 90 NOK for 6 months of hosting and got all my albums out of the quarantine There were photos from a car trip I made through the eastern parts of Norway in 2004, my trip to India in 2005, my cousins wedding in 2005 and from my brothers confirmation in 2006. As well as a couple of other random pictures which I am happy to have back in my posession

This event has gotten me thinking that I really should find a proper online storage service for my photos – or perhaps a proper network backup system  is in order. However, I really don’t feel like stuffing more computer and network equipment into my apartment. But are online services reliable enough?

How do you backup your photos and other files that are precious to you? Got any good tips for me?

I decided to fresh up the ol’ blog a little this afternoon and went out theme hunting. I came across this free theme by WooThemes through Arnt Eriksen’s blog and found it looking pretty good. Pretty, pretty, pretty, pretty good. Oh, by the way, Curb Your Enthusiasm is back on September 21st! Love that show.

Anyways, the logo is home made, with my extraordinary  design skills and my never ending love for the Apple/Web 2.0/Shinyshiny reflection effect.

So, what do you think? Your comments are welcome – here on the blog, on Twitter and on Facebook.

The Hove Festival 2009 is over – I am exhausted! It has been four incredible days with lots of good music, beer and sun. We could not have asked for better weather and my geeky white skin is long gone!

Among the best concerts this year was The Killers (no surprise really), Ratatat, Little Boots, Hockey, The Gaslight Anthem (only caught the last half though),  Franz Ferdinand and the Prodigy.

I have just woken up after sleeping constantly for almost 12 hours – probably a sign my body is happy to have a few days of restitution before going back to work on Monday. Just one more week and it’s of to Europe!

Here’s my pictures from Hove 2009 on Flickr.

Tomorrow is the first day of the Hove Festival, at Hove just outside of Arendal. The previous years I have only had day passes for one or two days, but this year I will be there all four days! I’ve managed to steal the house from my parents, who are living in Arendal and will enjoy the comfort there – I am not really much of a camping person, hence we’re not bringing a tent with us for our Europe trip either!

So, tomorrow I am heading to Arendal and Hove for the first concert at 16:30. This year’s big must-see (and hear!) on my part is The Killers on Tuesday. There are lots of great bands this year, though, so I won’t have any problem filling the days with great music. On my top list are:

• Montée
• White Lies
• Franz Ferdinand
• Hockey
• Ratatat
• Casiokids
• Little Boots
• Faith No More
• M83
• Prodigy

Looking forward to my first week of vacation this year – spending it in the sun drinking beer and listening to music Then it’s back to one week of work before Aleksander and I head off to France, Spain and Italy for four weeks.

I’ve fallen in love with the Lord of the Rings soundtrack when it comes to curing the Monday Blues. So this morning I figured I would share my remedy with you in the form of a Spotify playlist The list will expand and evolve, and will feature other music than just from Lord of the Rings.

If you’re feeling overwhelmed by work and wishing it was Sunday still, press play, lean back and close your eyes for a few seconds. Imagine flying over beautiful landscapes, breathing in the fresh air, without the tiniest of worries. I am sure it’ll make you feel much better

• Here you go!

It’s Friday, weekend, and everyone should be entitled to get their hands on good music. I’ve got another two Spotify invites to hand out, so be quick and comment if you want one.

To those of you already running Spotify, and the two lucky ones, here’s my favourite track of the week: Yeah Yeah Yeahs – Dull Life.

What’s your favourite track this week?

Following up on Aleksander’s encouragement earlier today, here is my music taste over the last 3 months Good mix of almost everything in there!

I’m into indie, rock, electronic, pop and female vocalists, including:
Röyksopp, Schiller, Carolina Liar, The Killers, Ratatat, U2, Kent, Empire of the Sun, Lily Allen, Sharon den Adel, Ladyhawke, La Roux, Paul van Dyk, Yeah Yeah Yeahs, a-ha, Air Traffic, The Duke Spirit, Cut Copy, Paramore, Nightwish, Hard-Fi, Foo Fighters, Snow Patrol, Mr. Mister, KT Tunstall, Nelly Furtado, Iglu & Hartly, Donkeyboy, Adele, Amy Macdonald, James Morrison, Kate Ryan, Kleerup, Sophia Somajo, Rihanna, A Flock of Seagulls, Flight of the Conchords, Razorlight, The Pigeon Detectives, Kings of Leon, The Presets, Keane, Ellie Goulding, Evanescence, Knut Avenstroup Haugen, Garbage, The Sounds, Paul Oakenfold, Peter Buffett, Passion Pit.

Check out my music taste: http://www.last.fm/user/lastkarbo

What’s your taste? To Paste Your Taste, go to your Last.fm profile, go the list of “Top Artists” on your profile. Choose “Last 3 months”, then click the link titled “Paste Your Taste”. Copy and paste the text to your blog.

This has been bugging me for a long time, but now it’s enough. Seriously. You need to calm down and learn to enjoy every piece of the movie – even the end credits!

What I am talking about is the clear panic that strikes Norwegian moviegoers once they see the screen showing the slightest sign that this, this might be the end! I believe that if you install movie screens instead of fire alarms in public buildings, and show the very last 5 seconds of a movie whenever the alarm trigger, the building will empty in record time! It would just pour Norwegians out onto the streets, running for their lives to get away from this horrible, horrible, horrible black screen of scrolling death.

I am pretty sure many Norwegians would choose death over a full end credit. Seriously.

When I go to the movies I like to enjoy it to the very end (unless, of course, it sucks donkey balls – but then I have probably left hours before the end credits even starts thinking about getting dressed and ready to enter the stage). I am even of that strange breed who likes to sink a few centimeters more into the seat and listen to the end score while I let all the impressions and emotions from the movie sink in.

Why the rush? You paid half your house and your two dogs to get that ticket, why on earth would you run out like that? And even before they turn the lights on! You stumble and fall and make a complete fool of your self! At least I get a good laugh, though, just not when you fall on me.

I tell you, the end credits will not kill you! It is not scrolling after you, it is scrolling because there is simply not enough room to show it all at once! So sit back, relax, finish your soda, eat the last of your candy and popcorn, let the movie sink in and enjoy the music. I am fed up of having people running over my legs and stressing out of the cinema. At least wait till the frikkin’ lights are turned on!

PS: “Angels & Demons” was great No clue about the end credits, though…

Opening Facebook after lunch today I was presented with the following nonsense. No idea if it’s an actual language, or just some new Facebook jibberish

Facebook clearly had a little too much to drink last night.