Thord D. Hedengren

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Month: April 2015

  • The PC market is shrinking

    The PC market, as in typical computers mostly running Windows, is shrinking, and it’s the big companies’s fault. Engadget channels IDC and Gartner:

    Both Gartner and IDC estimate that the computer market shrank between 5.2 to 6.7 percent in the first quarter of 2015, in part because many companies stopped upgrading from Windows XP. Simply put, many of the businesses that wanted to modernize already have – they’re not propping up the market like they were for a good chunk of 2014.

    No surprises there. Most traditional computers today are more than capable for most tasks, so why would the vast Office-running majority upgrade anyway? Add the tablets to that equation, and it’s hard to be surprised.

  • Fantasy is still a stigma to some

    Critically acclaimed novelist Kazuo Ishiguru speaking to Wired about writing fantasy:

    “People are perfectly entitled to read my book and say they don’t like it,” he says in Episode 145 of the Geek’s Guide to the Galaxy podcast. “But if they’re saying, ‘I’m not going to read your book, despite having liked your previous books, because I hear there are ogres in it,’ well, that just seems to me classic prejudice.”

    My piece Fantasy Confession springs to mind.

  • Fem tips för säkrare lösenord

    Idag är jag på Tech Troopers blogg, med fem tips för säkrare lösenord.

  • Appmagasinet kommer också tillbaka

    Det är mycket som återuppstår från, tja, det islagda, den här veckan. I onsdags var det Spelbloggen, och i eftermiddag så är det Appmagasinet. Den sistnämnda är fortfarande ett nyhetsbrev med inriktning på appar till iOS, det vill säga till iPhone och iPad. Upplägget är lite annorlunda jämfört med de första 35 numren som publicerades, och det kommer inte bli lika strikt som tidigare heller, vad gäller vad som behandlas och hur varje nummer innehåller. Den rigida strukturen var en av sakerna jag ville slippa med nya Appmagasinet, och nummer 36 är det första steget i den riktningen.

    Än så länge finns det ingen ny sajt för Appmagasinet, men det kommer säkerligen något sådant vad det lider med. Såväl Spelbloggen som Appmagasinet är båda i sin nyfunna linda – räkna med att det kommer skrivas på dem båda.

    Teckna en prenumeration på Appmagasinet här (har du redan en så behöver du så klart inte teckna dig på nytt), samt – om du är spelintresserad – på Spelveckan med Spelbloggen här. Den sistnämnda är något av ett experiment, på många sätt och vis, så vi får se var det slutar.

  • Spelbloggen är tillbaka

    Lång historia kort: det var dags. Från återlanseringsposten igår:

    På nya Spelbloggen blir det ingen nyhetspump eller trailerfest. Istället bjuder vi på olika vinklar av spelvärlden, genom att bjuda in fler bloggare, med olika bakgrund, kön, åsikter och insikter. Tanken är att vi tillsammans ska kunna ge en bredare bild av spelvärlden.

    Med det sagt så blir det knappast en socialpolitisk spelpamflett av Spelbloggen! Vi gillar spel, så vi tänker skriva om spel. Mest blir det tv- och datorspel, men räkna med att det slinker in en hel del mobila och analoga dylika med. Spel som spel, kul som kul, tänker vi.

  • iPad turns five

    The iPad was announced five years (and a day) ago, and that obviously sparked a bunch of features. In no particular order, some stories:

  • I can always apologize tomorrow

    The music has stopped for tonight. My wonderful P5 headphones are lying beside me, but I think the warm bed is a better choice past 1AM. It’s what I tell myself, after whisky and a relaxed evening.

    I’ve spent the evening reading and contemplating, with a few short discussions on Twitter to break up the longer and heavier pieces that were sitting in my Instapaper queue. It’s a nice way to spend an evening, I enjoy it, and always wonder why I don’t do it more often. The answer to that is obvious, of course: It’s not productive.

    (more…)

  • Monica Gallagher screws the outlines

    That title might’ve come out wrong… Anyway, writers (and people who’d like to be writers) like to read (and write, it seems) about their craft. If there’s a general consensus today, it is that you have to sit down and outline, which obviously might or might not work for you. It’s not the way it is for Monica Gallagher, who writes on Chuck Wendig’s blog:

    One thing I’ve always super struggled with when I’m writing is having no idea how this durn story is gonna end. I used to think writing was all about a pretty, sequential outline that your characters magically flowed through in a linear fashion, exactly how you intended them to. I’ve tried to write that way, and it’s bored the potatoes out of me and everyone within a 50 foot radius. What I do like about writing, what keeps me going, is daydreaming about characters and the scenes and interactions they get involved in. I used to think this was must be the wrong way to do it – that’s just a big ol’ mish-mash that doesn’t go anywhere. But if you trust in the scenes, and minimally nudge your characters as you listen to them, they’ll get to an end.

  • New Yorker profiles Ronnie O'Sullivan

    I’m a poor snooker player, but a fan of the sport. It should come as no surprise that I found the New Yorker piece on snooker’s biggest star, Ronnie O’Sullivan, to be an interesting read. It’s a tale of doubt, anxiety, and the search for whatever it is that makes life worth loving. In other words, something for all of us there.