Gommit.com Blog

Moving days for domains

Tue, 18 November 2008 13:51:00 0000

This is a long and boring story and you don't need to read it unless you are fiddling with the Google App Engine. When you set up your own domain for an App Engine application you do that through Google Apps (confused yet?). And my problem was that I could not set up the naked domain http://gommit.com, only http://www.gommit.com. So to bypass the 404 I had to create a domain forwarding rule from gommit.com to www.gommit.com but the silly buggers at Register.com put a banner on the page and ask for premium payment for such a basic service. This was the grain that tipped the scales for me. I have been a customer there since I purchased FinnurMagnusson.com back in the days. I know their prices are extortionate but I just could not be asked going through the transfer to another registrar. After an hour on the phone, I finally managed to get the code needed from Register and kick off the transfer over to GoDaddy. Except for the Register call, it was rather smooth and all handled online for a minimal fee. So today the switch was made but I still had the Register DNS servers in the settings and the bastards decided to change my forwarding over to some advertising splash screen for themselves. I have now switched over to GoDaddy DNS and the changes should be seeping out.

Having been through all this mess I decided to look into this naked domain settup for GAE again. And deep down in some thread I found the answer:

I had the same problem and this is how I solved it: I simply set my control panel to be the 'current' version, under 'Domain Settings - General'

So the moral of the story is: if you can't find the answer, you save money. Or something to that extent.

Optimizing business processes using interwebs technology

Tue, 11 November 2008 12:59:00 0000

This Thursday I will be in the old country speaking at IceWeb. The theme this year is "Change", how IT keeps evolving and how it impacts business.

I suggested to Soffia, one of the organisers that I could cover recent projects focusing on Product Information Management and Enterprise 2.0 stuff. In our Instant Messenger chat I cobbled together a temporary title that somehow ended up in the schedule and now I like it so much that I have decided to keep it.

Fortunately the geek rating will be quite high at this conference so I hope I won't have to go explain the interwebs as I did for my fiancé. She still doesn't get the joke.

Gommit redesign

Mon, 10 November 2008 09:16:00 0000

Made the switch last night. Google App Engine is all funny about striped URL's (http://gommit.com) and Register.com charges for forwarding it to www.gommit.com. So I'm in the process of switching to GoDaddy and things might be a bit unstable for the next couple of days. The design is very rough around the edges but it will get there eventually. The great thing about having your own site is that browser testing, change management and such trivial things are optional. Finnurmagnusson.com is still pointing to the old site but I expect that the migration should be finalized this week. Again if things are not working for you, shout it out.

First post on the Google app engine

Wed, 29 October 2008 00:30:00 0000

Finally got around to migrating the content, fudge a half decent design and do some coding. I think this baby will go live this week. Please give me some feedback and let me know if you find errors.

Why can't we just have links in Tweets?

Sun, 26 October 2008 13:11:00 0000

Does this not bother any of the standards aware geeks out there?

If Twitter is a micro blogging service, why can't I embed links in my tweets. At the end of the day, it's HTML.

So rather than posting:

Just had beer with Erik and Marcus Bonfante, he is a brilliant musician.

I have to do something like this:

Just had beer with @mossgrowonrock and Marcus Bonfante http://bit.ly/1Z1I8C, he is a brilliant musician.

This is just bad in so many ways but nobody seems to care.

Iceland 2.0 needs a CTO

Tue, 21 October 2008 12:30:00 0000

I have touched on this topic a few times and this tweet from Geir linking to Obama's idea for an US CTO sparked a short Googling session with the following results.

Denmark has had an IT minister since 2001. The ministry is responsible for the following areas: Research, Information technology (IT), Innovation, Telecommunications, University educations.

In the UK we have a CIO and a council "ensuring that IT supports the business transformation of Government itself so that we can provide better, more efficient, public services".

In Iceland we published a report (only in Icelandic) and set up a commitee (like we always do when we need things to go away). It's more like a project management group with members from 6 ministries.

I think we need a cool CTO. Any ideas?

Make cheese at home

Sun, 19 October 2008 14:52:00 0000

During these latest and worst of times (seinustu og verstu) it's very important to pick up some basic skills to increase your fighting chance in the depression.

I have always dreamt of making cheese, and let's face it, If you can make cheese your are pretty much covered. Everyone loves cheese and you can exchange your cheese for things like bread and wine.

My partner in crime and neighbour Hjörtur and I studied the art and necessary equipment for a while and ended up purchasing a pack from the Moorland Cheesemakers. We got some mesophilic starter, 60ml animal rennet, dial thermometer, M3 cheese mould with a M5 follower, cheesecloth and some rocking jet black cheese wax.

Our research was mainly based on these videos made by a hairy man with questionable taste in music and Dr Fankhouser's cheese page.

A tip: don't double your budget with a fancy cheese press, it is just as effective to pile books on the mould.

Our first attempt was some mix of the Cheddar and Gouda recipes made from 4 liters of whole milk from the store. But last night we went all out and made some more Gouda from unhomogenised milk (ekki fitusprengd).

We need to wait for 2 more weeks until we can taste it while turning it every day. It is a bit like watching paint dry but we are very excited to taste the black cheese of death.

Here are some videos from the first batch:

Poor cab driver

Mon, 13 October 2008 19:25:00 0000

I wonder how much this guy got paid for plastering his car with Icesave and what impact it is having on his bottom line. I recorded this in my street this morning:

The currency rate

Fri, 10 October 2008 00:11:00 0000

I created this nifty tool for us Icelanders living in the UK wondering what the exchange rate is at the moment.

Who owns the money?

Wed, 08 October 2008 12:20:00 0000

Do the bankers even care about us out here?

Luckily my income is in the UK, but my better half can't get her Icelandic currency transferred out here. If you get through to the bank, the answer is "Sorry dear, you just have to wait". So we use the plastic and pray for a good currency rate on each purchase.

As of now, 1 GBP to ISK is:

Central bank 221.37
Landsbankinn 250.63
Kaupþing 251.23
Google 319.89

Should this not be consistent?