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The historic first failure of Sweden to make the Eurovision final seems to have prompted four days of quiet reflection across the nation. Today the results of this introspection were published.

Sweden uses an Idol style tv-series, entitled Melodifestivalen, to select who will represent the nation in Eurovision. With the most SMS votes, the winner this year was Anna Bergendahl with This is My Life. Unfortunately this performance was not “strong” enough to make it to the Eurovision final.

At the time of publishing Anna had 3500 Facebook fans.

Meanwhile the Facebook fanpage entitled The Swedish guy from Eurovision 2010 was so hot has accumulated 6000 fans. This guy is Eric Saade, and he was the runner-up in Melodifestivalen this year with the disturbingly named Manboy.

This has lead to the obvious conclusion that Eric should have represented Sweden this year. While I think the Manboy tune is far more catchy than Anna’s, I just can’t get over the title.

(Personally I think This is My Life was better than many of the songs that made the Eurovision final.)

Oziel needs to use Linux for his masters thesis project and installed Ubuntu. Moving from Windows Vista, he was very pleasantly surprised. Everything was so much faster – install, boot, applications, shutdown. It was prettier. And unlike new installs of Windows, Ubuntu was ready to use with a complete suit of applications after only one reboot.

I had previously tried to install Ubuntu on my netbook (HP 2140), but gave up on the project when I couldn’t get the built-in microphone to work (I want to use Skype). But given Oziel’s positive experience and a new version of Ubuntu I decided to try again.

This time I am happy to report everything works (and happy with Ubuntu) … although the microphone needed some encouragement, and the network card required a proprietary driver installed.

First the network card hiccup. Upon starting Ubuntu I couldn’t connect to the internet wireless or with a cable (a dire situation). However, I just plugging my HTC Tattoo in via USB and the internet worked instantly. With the help of Google I found that Broadcom Corporation BCM4322 802.11a/b/g/n Wireless LAN Controller used in a number of Dell and HP notebooks and netbooks requires a propriety driver. To resolve this:

1. Check you have the same driver by typing lspci -nn into a terminal window.
2. Refresh the package list in Synaptic Package Manager.
3. In Hardware Drivers activate the Broadcom STA proprietary wireless driver.
4. Relax, you can now connect to a wireless network.

Now connected to the internet I tried to make a Skype call, but was evidently silent. I tried two things to fix this problem, but am not sure which one fixed the problem. Maybe it was both.

• First try the simpler of the two solutions. Click on the speaker in the top bar and select Sound Preferences …. In the Input tab ensure the microphone is unmuted and that the input volume is at 100%.
• If that doesn’t work, try the following. From within the Synaptic Package Manager install the linux-backports-modules-alsa-lucid-generic package. Restart and repeat the simple solution.

Happy Ubuntu-ing.

When travelling outside of Sweden I don’t use the data connection on my mobile phone. The cost of doing so is prohibitive, even since the European Union forced operators to bring down their prices.

But traveling around Sweden I have got used using Google Maps to help me find where I am going. Enter MapDroyd, a free offline map application.

Last week took me to Keele University, near Manchester, in the UK. Knowing I wouldn’t have data on my mobile phone I downloaded an application called MapDroyd. Once downloaded, you can cache maps of different regions to your phone as you desire. For this trip I downloaded the map of the UK.

I was very impressed with MapDroyd. The maps were far more detailed that I expected (yet took less than 90 MB on my phone). It used AGPS to find my location, and oriented the maps to match reality using the compass.

MapDroyd sources its maps from OpenStreetMap, another project I have been wanting to support.

The second application I learnt to love last week was TripIt. This is a web-based application to manage your travels, but has phone-based app siblings. After creating an account on TripIt, you can forward it all of your travel confirmations (flights, hotels, etc …) and it will put together detailed itineraries (excellent when your travels consist of a myriad of web-based bookings). The phone apps allow you to cache this information for offline access while on the run.

I looked getting cable television when I moved to Sweden, but looking at the channels offerings I decided my money could be more wisely spent. What I really want is Hulu, but without some IP address voodoo magic, this is only available in the US and I still try to obey the law. But I also wanted something like BBC World News, which is what got me looking at cable in the first place.

Today I discovered Livestation, which gives users live access to BBC World News, Al Jazera and number of other television stations. It looks legal and legitimate, but I am no lawyer. I found it as a recommendation through either This Week in Tech or MacBreak Weekly.

Livestation was recommended as the future of TV. In addition to the traditional TV viewing feature, it also provides notifications (MSN style) if there is breaking news on one of your preferred channels. Also, when you start viewing a channel, you become connected to a chat room of people watching the same channel.

Every now and then I read the comments section on a controversial/provocative post on a blog/YouTube video/newspaper article/etc … And I am always disappointed at the level of “discussion”. It seems that basic comprehension skills are lacking in most people, but this doesn’t stop them sharing their opinion. My favourite ones start, “I didn’t read this article, but [insert bigoted slander here].” (I wonder if the same would happen in academia, as proposed by this PhD Comics cartoon.)

My first impression of the chat feature on Livestation was more positive, but the level of discussion was superficial to the point I wouldn’t bother. But I can see the potential for this kind of reality augmentation, if you can discuss a story with an expert or someone who is at the scene of an incident.

All in all I am very impressed with Livestation. It is available in all the traditional flavours – Linux, Mac and Windows. Now they just need to expand Hulu beyond the US border …

On the weekend I bought myself netbook – specifically an HP Mini 2140. I chose this one because of the keyboard. There were cheaper options with a similar spec, but as I will use this to write during my two and a half hours of train travel each day the keyboard was important and I thought the HP 2140 was the best in this regard.

So far I have been very happy. While it is strange going back to Windows XP after OS X, it is not as painful as I expected (except for all the useless bubbles that pop out of the system tray). My intension was to run Ubuntu Remix, but as yet have been unable to get the sound working, which is unacceptable given I want to use my netbook with Skype while travelling. So, given my unexpected happiness with Windows XP, I have decided to stick with it for the time being.

So far I have decked it out with free software, and this has prompted me to get rid of my paid for Mobile Me service.

• Chrome is the best browser for a netbook as it provides the greatest amount of viewing space on the small netbook screen. This is one of the main reasons I am not jumping to the Ubuntu ship (and will probably end up jumping straight to Chome OS when it arrives).
• Like my colleagues, I am becoming more and more dependent on Google applications. My current vices are Google Mail and Google Reader. For new mail notification I am using Google Talk.
• Going back to Windows brings with it the need for anti-virus protection, for which I am using the free Grisoft AVG.
• Given I am primarily using my netbook for work I will want to open Microsoft Office documents, without paying for Microsoft Office. Thus OpenOffice.
• Skype has become my de facto phone service provider. I have it on my mobile, and want to be able to use it when I travel.
• VLC plays every audio and video format known to man. At least every video I’ve ever wanted to listen to or watch.

But the gold star goes to Dropbox, for their ingeniously simple solution for keeping the files in sync between my desktop, work laptop and netbook. Previously I was using Apple’s Mobile Me iDisk, but have found this to be clucky for the price you have to pay, especially when I want to add a Window/Ubuntu machine to the mix. My three day experience of Dropbox showns that when I save a file on my desktop it is up-to-date on my netbook within seconds.

Using Dropbox made me reflect on my Mobile Me account and I have resolved not to renew my subscription. I opened my account when I bought my first Mac in 2006.

• I used iWeb the webhosting feature for my blog until I became frustrated at not being able to update my blog while I was on holiday, so I moved to WordPress.
• Next to fall was email. I have a verement dislike for Lotus Notes, so like many of my colleagues decided to use Google Mail instead. It made email so much easier, so I now use it for my personal email too.
• As I have already said, I gave up my iDisk for Dropbox, because it just works.

Now I only have three Mobile Me services left – photo galleries, calendar and bookmark sharing. As you can see I am moving my photos directly onto this site. I have been thinking about using Google Calendar anyway. And while I am not a big fan will use delicious for bookmarks as paying the Mobile Me fees for this service is ridiculous.

I am still looking for a text editing and firewall software that I am completely happy with. Any suggestions?