intodimensions.com

MSNBC:

The Norwegian government said Friday it will increase its use of freely shared, open-source software to reduce its dependency on large computer companies like Microsoft Corp.

“It should no longer be necessary to use software from the major, international computer companies to gain access to electronic information in the public sector,” the government said in a statement. “Now that dependency will be broken.”

The Ministry of Government Administration and Reform said measures to increase use of open-source programs include a specialist panel to set standards for public information.

The government statement said the project will also set standards to allow various operating systems to communicate with one another.

Several countries, including Brazil, China, France, Germany, Japan and South Korea, have been actively moving toward open-source alternatives.

Proponents say open source results in quicker development of software because vast numbers of people can study, update and adapt programs without having to pay licensing fees.

The Linux operating system and the Mozilla Web browsers, led by Firefox, are examples of free open-source technology that users can copy, modify and redistribute. Microsoft’s Windows operating system and its Internet Explorer browser are proprietary, meaning the blueprints behind them are closely guarded, though IE is distributed without charge.

I guess our Sweden’s neighbor to the west is doing something right

It is not often that South Carolina and Sweden are named in the same news story, but it happened today in the Gulf News. Read Who is responsible?, for the whole story

United States: Bausch and Lomb chief executive Ronald Zarrella said the South Carolina plant where ReNu with MoistureLoc is made for US sales has stopped production. On Monday, he announced that the company was stopping new shipments of the solution in the United States. The US Center for Disease Control and Prevention has reported 109 cases of fungal keratitis among wearers of soft contact lenses in 17 states. Retail giant Wal-Mart and drugstore chains Walgreens, CVS and Rite Aid said they were removing the product from their shelves.

Europe and China: Zarrella said no infections have been found in Europe or China that could be linked to ReNu with MoistureLoc. But Sweden’s biggest optician chain, Synsam, said it had withdrawn the solution from all its 150 stores

Khaleej Times:

Swedish Prime Minister Goran Persson and an ex-minister are suing Ryanair for using a picture of them in an advert for cheap flights with the caption “time to flee the country?”, their lawyer said yesterday.

Social Democrat leader Persson, who faces a tough bid for re-election in September, and former Foreign Minister Laila Freivalds have been widely criticised for their tardy response to the Asian tsunami in which 500 Swedish holidaymakers died.

They are suing the Irish cut-price airline in a Stockholm court for what their lawyer called a “symbolic” sum of 75,000 crowns ($9,869) each, for breaking a Swedish law against the unauthorised use of names or images in adverts.

“Ryanair has published an advertisement using a picture of Goran Persson and Laila Freivalds without their consent and that is not something you can do in Sweden because it’s a violation of a quite unusual law,” lawyer Lennart Kanter Sid.

“It gets worse because the manner in which it is used is offensive,” he told Reuters.

Ryanair, already critical of Persson’s government over plans for a new environmental tax on air travel, hit back, calling the lawsuit “a waste of tax payers’ money” and inviting customers to comment on its Web site.

“This government intends to raise tax to stifle competition for low fares in Sweden which consumers show they want,” said Ryanair spokeswoman Lotta Lindquist-Brosjo.

“By going further with this (lawsuit) it is yet another waste of tax payers’ money,” she added.

A parliamentary panel has criticised Persson and Freivalds for the government’s poor emergency measures and slow response to the Asian tsunami on Dec. 26, 2004.

Freivalds resigned last month in an unrelated row over her role in the closure of a Web site with cartoons of the Prophet Mohammad, thus avoiding a possible no-confidence vote over the tsunami in parliament.

We went to Oman last weekend and it was a very nice trip. We stayed two nights in hotels in two different places, Ibri and Nizwa. It’s a bit like going back in time, going to Oman. It’s not as commercialized and “tourist-y” as the UAE is, and especially Dubai. It’s calmer, quieter, slower pace of things, which was nice. People are very friendly and even though English may be a bit of an issue at times, they seem to welcome strangers with open arms.

If you’re a history-buff there’s lots to see. If you are looking for shopping there seems to be a souq in every little village and town which has not only groceries, but live animals, and all kinds of other things you can buy.

There are some photos of the trip on the Photos page.

Khaleej Times:

There are 120 Swedish companies active in the UAE, many of them well-known to the general public including Ericsson, IKEA, Saab, Volvo, Tetra Pak, and ABB and the Swedish government is encouraging more companies to take advantage of the opportunities here.

Speaking to Khaleej Times this week, Swedish deputy minister of trade Lars-Olof Lindgren, said: “We have a very good relationship politically and economically with the emirates, but we feel there is a lot more that can be done on the economic side. Our exports [to this region] are 0.1 per cent of our total exports and we feel that in an area which has such great economic development and growth, it should be more especially because Swedish companies are very competitive in areas which are in demand here.”

He cited environment protection, healthcare and telecommunications, as sectors where Swedish companies have a strong presence already but where more could be done, and energy transmission as a sector offering future opportunities.

For the 2005 calendar year, Swedish exports to the UAE exceeded imports from the region, despite more than a 10-fold increase in the value of imports. Exports increased 14 per cent between 2004 and 2005, from $367 million to $420 million for year- end 2005 while imports increased from $22 million in 2004 to $337 million in 2005.

The main reason for the surge in exports to the region was the huge demand for machinery and equipment used in the construction of power projects and oil plants. Demand for transportation equipment, including trucks and cars from companies like Volvo and telecommunication equipment from companies such as Ericsson was also strong.
Lindgren said Swedish companies had considerable experience developing the concept of a sustainable city and cited the example of Hammarby Sjöstad, a new district in Stockholm where the city has imposed tough environmental requirements on buildings and technical installations.

Linuxp2p.com:

On Jan 1, 2006, Rick Falkvinge (pictured below) founded the Pirate Party in Sweden, beginning a new era in the fight for legitimacy of P2P. Rick was tired of the MPA/IFPI lobbyers and politicians who would not listen to reason, so he resorted to taking to the streets in a battle for voters in this fall’s general elections.

LinuxP2P: How did you guys come up with the idea of creating a whole new political party for file-sharing and privacy?

Falkvinge: Basically, because the politicians didn’t listen to their voters, but to yesterday’s industry interests instead, which led them to criminalize 20% of their voters (1.2 million file sharers, 5.2 million voters). There have been many good writers on the issues, which the politicians have chosen to ignore. So we figured the only way to get their attention was to go head-on in a battle for voters.

LinuxP2P: What are your main goals?

Falkvinge: To stir a debate about the hidden costs of copyright and patents, and to stop the big-brother society trend. This needs to be done on a European level; we view Sweden as a beachhead in this aspect. You gotta start somewhere.

For all our US Families and Friends don’t forget about daylight saving time, and you know what that means?!?!? We will only have 8 hours difference between us now. Now for our European Families and Friends, we are only going to be 2 hours different until Fall again.

BBC:

Sweden’s national dish is an acquired taste, to say the least.

Some say surstromming, a fermented herring, smells like rubbish left out in the sun for days.

But now the fish has been banned from several major airlines, classified along with dangerous weapons like shoe bombs and firearms.

The Baltic herring is fermented in barrels for months before being put in tin cans, where the fermentation process continues.

The decision has made many Swedes very angry indeed.

Surstromming is as Swedish as Volvo and Ikea.

Some say it is simply rotten fish, which smells like rotten fish. Others argue it is the finest of delicacies.

National symbol

But now major airlines like British Airways and Air France argue the cans are pressurised goods, and must be classified as potentially explosive.

The dish is no longer allowed on their flights, and the sale of the delicacy from Stockholm’s international airport has been stopped.

That has made producers of the surstromming choke on their fermented fish, calling the airlines’ decision “culturally illiterate”.

It is a myth, they say, that the tinned fish can explode.

They admit, however, that a punctured tin would emit a foul smell, and that the content might spill quite forcefully, like a punctured can of beer.

But that is not enough to stop the export of a potent national symbol, the herring supporters argue.

The leader of the Swedish Surstromming Academy, an organisation promoting the dish nationally and internationally, said any airline worried about explosives and foul smells should first ban bottles of champagne and French cheese before attacking the pride of the Swedish cuisine.

“The pride of the Swedish cuisine”? I don’t think so

For anyone who may be interested, here are two videos that I’ve taken with my mobile phone driving around in Abu Dhabi. The quality is not great unfortunately, but for a mobile phone it’s not too bad