Footnotes:

• The cars and games are noted as mentioned in the thread. In many cases, more detailed data is missing. This does’nt mean that you can sue me when you’re one your way home in an empty car.
• If nothing else is noted, it is probably safe to assume that the game was a WPC machine, and that the backbox was foldered down the usual way.
• It is also safe to assume that all cars are the station wagon variant of the model.
• Many cars noted as “no” will still fit a game, but only if the backbox is losened or if the tailgate is left opened, and sometimes only if the back seat is removed(!).
• In most cars, the only problem (and sometimes the showstopper) is the combined height of the machine and the foldered backbox, which is approximately 70-75 cm.
• WPC games are usually higher than classics games, DE/Sega/Stern games are usually higher than WPC games and Gottlieb 90′s are even higher. “Yes” below might not mean that DE/Sega/Stern/Gottlieb games will fit.
• Some entries below contradict eachother. If you want to know why, contact the posters.
• Volvo V70 is noted as both “yes” and “no”. This is probably because they changed the tailgate size in 2000-2001. Earlier models work fine, newer models are very tight.
• This page might be updated. Now and then.
• Hey, Americans: Sweden is in Europe, which is across a lot of water. American cars are rare here, so you might not find your car model below. Feel free to email me your findings though, and I’ll add them.

Last update: January 23, 2012

Anyway, even though I might not be the most active blogger on this side of Indus, this one should be useful to some people for now and probably some time forward.

As most people* know, Cisco IPSec VPN and 64-bit operating systems aren’t best friends, since Cisco wants people to use their Anyconnect client for licensing reasons, and decided to never make a 64-bit version. So, since I use IPSec for most of my VPN connections, and I don’t want to be stuck in a 32-bit world forever, I spent some time getting it to work om my workstation. *) Most people = Network guys.

The components I used for testing was a Cisco 3000 VPN Concentrator (although it should work with PIX and ASA as well) and MacOS X Lion 10.7 (now also confirmed working on the 10.7.1 update). Basicly, most of this stuff should work on clients of any UNIX flavor, with the exception of some path names and the Applescript.

The instructions are written in a way that even users not familiar to UNIX environments should be able to pull it off, which makes them look kind of childish for an experienced UNIX guy, but you can’t make everybody happy, can you?

Downloads

All software you need to download for this is listed here. You don’t have to download these now, you can do it along the way further down, but starting that Xcode download could be a good thing, since it is 3GB big.

http://itunes.apple.com/us/app/xcode/id448457090?mt=12#
ftp://ftp.gnupg.org/gcrypt/libgpg-error/libgpg-error-1.9.tar.bz2
ftp://ftp.gnupg.org/gcrypt/libgcrypt/libgcrypt-1.5.0.tar.bz2
http://sourceforge.net/projects/tuntaposx/files/tuntap/20090913/tuntap_20090913.tar.gz/download
http://www.unix-ag.uni-kl.de/~massar/vpnc/vpnc-0.5.3.tar.gz
http://www.ithora.se/public/software/macos-vpnc/vpnc-fix
http://www.ithora.se/public/software/macos-vpnc/vpn/launcher.command
http://www.ithora.se/public/software/macos-vpnc/VPN%20Actions.scpt

General information:

Open a terminal and type:

whoami

Record your MacOS username. Everywhere you see “pbodin” in this document, replace it with either your MacOS username, or your VPN username (in my case, both are pbodin).

When you use the sudo command throughout this task, it might ask for your password. Then feed it with your MacOS password.

There might be newer versions of the software used in these instructions. Feel free to try the newer versions. Your mileage may vary, and I’ve only tested this with the versions mentioned below.

Tip for the non-frequent vi users: If you screw up inside vi, press ESC a couple of times and type :q! to get out of vi without saving, and then start over from the vi command. Or read this: http://www.cs.colostate.edu/helpdocs/vi.html

All commands you’re supposed to type in a terminal or something are in italic font. Beware that this page wraps the lines, so use copy and paste to make sure to have your newlines in order.

The setup redirects all non-local traffic through the VPN tunnel (i.e. no split-tunneling). Also, local DNS will cease to work, all queries will end up on the DNS servers provided by the VPN connection. All this can easily be changed within the script, if you know how to.

Install a compiler

The easiest is to download Xcode from App Store: http://itunes.apple.com/us/app/xcode/id448457090?mt=12#

The download is 3 GB though, so if you’re on a slow connection and know what you’re doing, you might choose to get a standalone gcc or similar instead.

Install libgpg-error

Open a terminal and type:

curl -o libgpg-error-1.9.tar.bz2 ftp://ftp.gnupg.org/gcrypt/libgpg-error/libgpg-error-1.9.tar.bz2
tar -zxvf libgpg-error-1.9.tar.bz2
cd libgpg-error-1.9
./configure
make
sudo make install

Install libgrcypt

Open a terminal and type:

curl -o libgcrypt-1.5.0.tar.bz2 ftp://ftp.gnupg.org/gcrypt/libgcrypt/libgcrypt-1.5.0.tar.bz2
tar -zxvf libgcrypt-1.5.0.tar.bz2
cd libgcrypt-1.5.0
./configure
make
sudo make install

Install tuntap

Open a terminal and type:

curl -o tuntap_20090913.tar.gz http://downloads.sourceforge.net/project/tuntaposx/tuntap/20090913/tuntap_20090913.tar.gz?r=&ts=1314366011&use_mirror=surfnet
tar -zxvf tuntap_20090913.tar.gz
open tuntap_20090913.pkg

This will open a GUI installation. Accept all defaults during the installation, and then return to the terminal and type:

sudo /Library/StartupItems/tap/tap
sudo /Library/StartupItems/tun/tun

Install vpnc

Open a terminal and type:

curl -o vpnc-0.5.3.tar.gz http://www.unix-ag.uni-kl.de/~massar/vpnc/vpnc-0.5.3.tar.gz
tar -zxvf vpnc-0.5.3.tar.gz
cd vpnc-0.5.3
vi Makefile

Press / (shift+7) to get a search prompt, enter OPENSSL_GPL_VIOLATION as search phrase and press return.

Place the cursor above the # in the beginning of the line, and then press x to delete the # character. Do this on these two lines:

#OPENSSL_GPL_VIOLATION = -DOPENSSL_GPL_VIOLATION
#OPENSSLLIBS = -lcrypto

Type :wq to save the file and exit vi.

vi sysdep.h

Press / (shift+7) to get a search prompt, enter defined(__APPLE__) as search phrase and press return.
Press o to get in edit mode and start a new line.

Add this line below the APPLE line:

#define HAVE_GETLINE 1

Press ESC to get out of edit mode, and type :wq to save the file and exit vi.

make
make install

sudo vi /etc/vpnc/vpnc-script

Press / (shift+7) to get a search prompt, enter d.add Router as search phrase and press return. You should end up on this line:

# d.add Router $INTERNAL_IP4_ADDRESS

Place the cursor above the # in the beginning of the line, and then press x to delete the # character.

Press ESC to get out of edit mode, and type :wq to save the file and exit vi.

Make vpnc runnable by a normal user (you):

sudo visudo

This starts vi and loads the file /etc/sudoers

Press G (shift+g) to get to the bottom of the file.
Press o to get in edit mode and start a new line.

Add this line:

pbodin ALL = NOPASSWD: /usr/local/sbin/vpnc, /usr/local/sbin/vpnc-disconnect, /usr/local/sbin/vpnc-fix

Where pbodin is replaced by your MacOS username.

Press ESC to get out of edit mode, and type :wq to save the file and exit vi.

Convert pcf profiles

Copy your pcf profile(s) into your Documents folder.

Open a terminal and type:

cd /etc/vpnc
sudo cp /Users/pbodin/Documents/filename.pcf .
sudo pcf2vpnc filename.pcf > filename.conf

Replace pbodin with your MacOS username and filename.pcf with the actual filename. Repeat the two sudo commands for every pcf file you want to convert.

Launch the VPN connection:

Open a terminal and type:

sudo /usr/local/sbin/vpnc –local-port 0 filename.conf

If you get an error saying DES is insecure, instead type:

sudo /usr/local/sbin/vpnc –local-port 0 –enable-1des filename.conf

If it still fails, type this to get more information:

sudo /usr/local/sbin/vpnc –debug 2 –local-port 0 –enable-1des filename.conf

In all three cases with the actual filename instead of filename.conf.

To disconnect, type:

sudo /usr/local/sbin/vpnc-disconnect

If the connection gets dropped without you disconnecting using the command above, you might have to turn Wi-Fi off and on again (or pull the ethernet cable and put it in again) to get Internet working again. Or you can use the provided vpnc-fix script, that fixes this problem at least on my machine. Do this by typing:

sudo /usr/local/sbin/vpnc-fix

VPN fixer

If your computer goes to sleep while connected to VPN, or if you lose the VPN connection by some other magical reason, you’re network might end up in limbo. The you need to fix the routing and DNS settings to get things to work again. This might be done by turning your network on and off again, it might be done by changing location to something else and back again and it can definitely be done by rebooting or fixings things manually.

But just for you my friends, I created a script that does it for you. Download it here: http://www.ithora.se/public/software/macos-vpnc/vpnc-fix and put it in /usr/local/sbin/

VPN launcher

I’ve included a terminal based VPN-launcher written in perl, that you can use if you have several profiles to choose from, and for instance wants to create an icon in your dock or similar. It also has a disconnect option. Download it here: http://www.ithora.se/public/software/macos-vpnc/vpn-launcher.command and put it in /usr/local/sbin

Menu bar menu

There’s a GUI! I’ve written an Applescript file. Put it in /Users/pbodin/Library/Scripts or /Library/Scripts (create the Scripts folders if they’re not already existing). Then start Applescript Editor (under Utilities) and check the Show script menu in menu bar option. If you put the files in /Library/Scripts you also need to check the Show computer scripts option. I prefer to have that option unchecked and keep the scripts in my user scripts folder, to limit the menu size (there’s a whole bunch of system scripts in the computer scripts folder).

This gives a small paper roll like menu item in the menu bar, with the “VPN Actions” script as an option. It will check if there are any active VPN connections. If there are, it will show you the active commands for these (which tells you the VPN server, your username and similar), and ask you if you want disconnect them, connect another connection or if you just wanted to know.

If there are not, it will ask you if you want to connect to VPN, fix a lost VPN connection limobo or if you just wanted to know.

If you choose to connect, the script will ask you for what profile file you want to use. If there is a username and/or password included in the profile file you choose, it will use them, and if not, it will ask you for the information.

It should work with profile files with spaces in the name. It should work with passwords including strange characters (except “). But neither is tested.

There’s some basic error handling (process existance) in the script, but if things go wrong, you’re probably better off if you’re one of those that are able to troubleshoot manually on your own. If you’re not – reboot and try again.

You could also edit the connect script to automatically include your information, eliminating the need to answer the prompts. However, I would recommend keeping the prompt for the password.

Download the Applescript here: http://www.ithora.se/public/software/macos-vpnc/VPN%20Actions.scpt and put it in your Scripts folder.

Credit

I wrote the Applescript and parts of the perl launcher. All other code is written by other people, and all I did was combining them to get it to work. Afaik, all involved tools are open source.

Disclaimer

This how-to is written without any trace of support commitment or endorsement from my employer as a company or me as the author. And if it makes your computer blow up, you alone were the one pressing the enter key. I will of course try to help you if you get stuck and I have the time, but without commitments.

I think I got all actions I had to do into this how-to, but I might have missed something. If you get stuck, send me an email or catch me on Skype, and I’ll try to recall what I did.

Back home it is freezing cold, and a week before we left Sweden, the cold, wet, refuckingpulsive snow began falling from the sky. Snow in mountains is good. It might be cold, but it stays snowy, it’s not that wet, and you can dress accordingly. Then you can put long plastic thingies on your feet, and glide down the hills. That’s fun. When you get bored you can get drunk. That’s fun too.

Snow in Stockholm is just refuckingpulsive. It doesn’t stay snowy. It becomes a cold, wet, muddy slush that gets into everywhere. And if you dress for the cold, you have to dress/undress frequently as you go in and out of buildings. I hate snow. Malinese have never seen snow. I like the Malinese.

Bada Lodge

A couple of days ago, we went to “Bada Lodge“. It’s a resort at the Niger river, about an hour away with a slow boat. I liked the boat trip, and Bada Lodge might be a very nice place, but it’s not what I would call Africa. Such places are everywhere around the world, and as long as the climate is good where they are, they’re certainly nice. But I want to experience Africa and Mali, the people, the culture and the atmosphere, including the poverty, the dust and the emissions. You don’t do that at places like Bada Lodge, but I guess my brother’s kids got more out of it than downtown Bamako.

Phoneshop

In downtown Bamako there are “boutiques” called names like “Riyadh Electronics”, “New York Shop” and “Paris Boutique de Luxe”. They are built with four tree branches with a roof of corrugated metal or straw (or a combination). The electronics include 486 computers, bakelite phones and huge calculators. The range of clothing is a bit better, at least if your into domestic traditional stuff (with velcro). They also sell traditional music instruments (with strings of nylon), traditional art (cars made of used coke cans) and all kind of Chinese second class stuff. But if you go beyond the crap, you can find the nice stuff. Today, we bought 40 metres of high quality fabric for less than €40.

I was at a Bamako football derby between Le Stade Malien de Bamako and Jeanne D’Arc. Le Stade won the African Confederation Cup this year, promising a good game, but apparently it was Le Stade 2 playing, in some other division. The level of football was comparable to juniors back home, four drummers (playing african rhythms for 105 minutes), two cow bells, a boat horn and no singing on the stands. Not the culture I’m used to with AIK, but it was fun anyway. Le Stade was the better team, but Jeanne D’Arc (looking like and playing like Trelleborgs FF) won by 1-0 (a counterattack, of course). The sold all kinds f stuff on the stands, including eggs.

Malian football supporter drummers video

Boudin

Ever since I was a little kid, my father always told me that Boudin is a blood sausage, and that the French Foreign Legion sings a song about making Boudin out of their enemies. But I’ve never seen any Boudin in real life. Until yesterday. The place where we celebrated new year’s eve had Boudin with mustard sauce on the menu! It didn’t take more than 37 years. I tasted surprisingly good.

I had a meeting with the Malinese police, since one of them stole the key for the moped I borrowed from one of my mother’s guards. Someone had told them that a traffic light high up in the sky was valid on the street, six meters below. Like if anyone would ever have the time to look up in the sky in the Malinese traffic chaos, full of people, goats (they call them sheep, but they also call crocodiles “caïmans”, even though there are no caymans outside South America, USA and China, so I’m pretty sure they’re goats), donkeys, carts, mopeds, cars and minibuses. I explained that traffic lights at that level could only be valid for flying vehicles. It took 20 minutes of French-pidgin-English negotiations before they agreed, and gave me the moped key back. Half the time I was trying to figure out what freaking fire he was talking about, since he yelled “The fire! No see? The fire!” over and over again.

If it taught me anything? Yup. I learned that “red light” and “fire” is the same word in French.

Okej att registrera bil som ITHORA

En Hägerstensbo som retat sig på en registreringsskylt med ordet ITHORA på har begärt att skylten ska återkallas.

Den specialbeställda skylten, som sitter på en bil från Stockholmsområdet, är en så kallad personlig fordonsskylt. En sådan får inte ha bokstavskombinationer som kan väcka anstöt eller medföra olägenhet för någon. Men trots att Hägerstensbon, som själv är i IT-branschen, ansåg att skylten både var stötande och olämplig har Transportstyrelsen avvisat hans begäran. Anledningen är att mannen inte är direkt berörd av ordet ITHORA.

- Den som godkände det här ordet trodde förmodligen att det handlade om ett namn, säger Martin Staczynski vid Transportstyrelsen.

Zandra Zernell

Det är fjärde gången skylten hamnar i tidningen, efter den här, den här och den här.

Edit: IDG uppmärksammar också ärendet.

Utöver de tre stora har IF Brommapojkarna, Westermalms IF och Reymersholms IK spelat i Allsvenskan. De år Westermalm och Reymersholme har spelat i Allsvenskan har dock både Djurgården och Hammarby lyst med sin frånvaro. De enda säsonger det har funnits fyra Allsvenska Stockholmslag är 2007 och 2009, och bägge gångerna blev AIK kungar i stan:

Derbytabellen 2009:

Derbytabellen 2007:

Med ovanstående tabeller som alibi, så lämnar vi nu de tre mindre lagen. Derbyn med stort D spelas mot Hammarby och Djurgården. Vi bortser även från alla år då endast två stockholmslag har spelat i Allsvenskan. Hädanefter koncentrerar vi oss alltså på de år då alla de tre stora stockholmslagen har spelat i Allsvenskan samtidigt. Vi räknar med tre poäng för vinst.

Första trelagstabellen

Första gången tre stockholmslag spelade samtidigt i Allsvenskan var 1954-55. På hösten 1954 vann AIK först mot Hammarby med 3-1 där 30095 åskådare fick se Kurre Hamrin inleda AIK:s målskytte. En vecka senare slog AIK publikrekord mot Djurgården då 40458 fick se AIK förlora med 1-0. Det är fortfarande AIK:s näst högsta hemmapublik någonsin. I vårderbyna 1955 blev det ombytta roller – förlust mot Hammarby och vinst mot Djurgården.

Derbytabellen 1954-55:

Även om man räknar bort Brommapojkarna så ser derbytabellen för 2009 imponerande ut. Den ser till och med ännu mer imponerande ut än med Brommapojkarna inräknade, eftersom gårdagens mål av Simon Helg då är det enda derbymålet som AIK har släppt in i år. Dessutom får Djurgården en nolla i poängkolumnen, vilket endast har hänt en enda gång förut (Hammarby 1995).

Derbytabellen med stort D 2009:

Tidigare rekord

Det har aldrig tidigare hänt att ett Stockholmslag har skramlat ihop tolv poäng genom idel derbyvinster. Rekordet innan årets säsong var 10 poäng på fyra matcher, vilket har hänt ett antal gånger:

Först ut var Djurgården publikrekordåret 1959, genom 1-1 mot AIK och tre vinster i övrigt. Det året förlorade AIK även bägge derbyna mot Hammarby med 3-2, vilket gör 1959 till vårt sämsta derbyår någonsin med en enda intjänad poäng på fyra matcher. Nu glömmer vi 1959.

Nästa tiopoängare står samma Djurgården för, i Allsvenskan 1975. Även då är det AIK som genom ett oavgjort resultat sätter stopp för Djurgårdens svit. AIK vinner en av matcherna mot Hammarby, och stannar därmed på fyra derbypoäng.

1979 är det Hammarbys tur att få ihop tio poäng. Återigen är det AIK som står för den oavgjorda matchen. Två oavgjorda mot Djurgården ger totalt tre derbypoäng till AIK.

1981 slår Hammarby till igen. Den här gången står Djurgården för den oavgjorda matchen. AIK skramlade ihop fyra derbypoäng genom en vinst och en oavgjord mot Djurgården.

1999 är det så äntligen vår tur. 0-0 i höstderbyt mot Djurgården sätter stopp för vår fullpoängare (och SM-guldet). 1999 var alltså vårt bästa derbyår innan i år, och vi hade faktiskt till och med lite bättre målskillnad då än i år.

Derbytabellen 1999:

2003 gör Djurgården om bedriften för tredje gången, och återigen är det AIK som står för den oavgjorda matchen, efter en helt osannolik vändning i slutminuterna. AIK spelar en oavgjord även mot Hammarby, och slutar på ynka 2 derbypoäng.

Bortsett från året säsong och 1999 så är det alltså de andra två som har stått för de poängmässiga derbyrekorden. Men det är långt ifrån anledning att misströsta, då vi från och med i år har det oslagbara rekordet, och då den sammanlagda derbytabellen har en förkrossande AIK-övervikt! Samtliga allsvenska matcher mellan de tre lagen ger nämligen följande tabell:

Den totala derbytabellen 1924-2009:

Att AIK och Djurgården har spelat ett ojämnt antal matcher beror på att bägge lagen spelade i “Marathon-allsvenskan” 1957-58. Inför serieomläggningen till vår-höst 1959 mötte alla lag varandra tre gånger istället för två. Det är också den jämnaste derbytabellen någonsin, eftersom de tre mötena slutade 1-1, 1-1 och 0-0. Alltså tre poäng var och 2-2 i målskillnad för bägge lagen.

/P

Edit: Såväl AIK som Aftonbladet uppmärksammar också derbyrekordet.

Vilken dom kommer att utdelas? (Det står inget om detta i reglerna.)

• Ingen alls
• Poängavdrag
• Poängavdrag samt pluspoäng för motståndarna
• Sätta resultatet till 0-3 i samtliga inblandade matcher

Vilka matcher ska domen gälla? (Det förra tillståndet tog slut 2009-07-27, samma dag som matchen mot AIK, och han ansökte om ett nytt 2009-09-17, samma dag som matchen mot Gefle IF.)

• 2009-07-27 — 2009-09-12
• 2009-07-27 — 2009-09-17
• 2009-07-27 — nu
• 2009-08-03 — 2009-09-12
• 2009-08-03 — 2009-09-17
• 2009-08-03 — nu

Matcherna det kan handla om:

Nedan har du en interaktiv liten snurra där du kan välja förutsättningar och sedan se vilka förändringar som sker i tabellen. Mycket nöje!

Edit: Tydligen är det bara Örebro SK som kan anmäla, eftersom anmälan måste vara inne senast fem dagar efter förseelsen. Och tydligen kan de bara ändra matcher som har spelats de senaste 14 dagarna. Artikel.

Anyway, Boingo representative Lauren Sanyal found the post, wrote a comment explaining the issue, apologized and offered her the money back. That’s the way to go! It’s people like Lauren (and thus companies like Boingo) that makes us hope for a better tomorrow!

Booli.se is a Swedish site for people looking to buy or sell their homes. They scan the sites of all the house broker companies, and make the houses searchable for their visitors. They add the housebroker objects into iframes, and leave their own bar at the top. The big Swedish house broker Svensk Fastighetsförmedling contacted Booli.se, threatening with lawyers, fines and imprisonment if they didn’t stop doing that. Booli.se responded with a nice invitation to sit down and discuss the matter, and try to find some way to cooperate making both sides happy. Svensk Fastighetsförmedling replied with a rude mail making clear that they didn’t want any discussions, and again threatening with legal action.

That’s not the way to do it! You haven’t learned a shit! Keep that attitude, and you’re going down the same drain as the entertainment industry!

I will definitely use Boingo again, and I will definitely NOT use Svensk Fastighetsförmedling.

Edit: Now they can sue me too…

Update! Svensk Fastighetsförmedling posted a comment, make sure to read it.

Heathrow – Northampton, a 103 km drive on highways.

View Larger Map

…and it took plenty of time to get to Northampton. Since the weather couldn’t stop us, the UK Department for Transport did its best. Road works and accidents combined made the 1h+ drive take more than three hours. We were supposed to start playing the country tournament at 17.45, and at 17.40 we arrived to Northampton. By then our handheld GPS had run out of batteries, and we hadn’t brought the car charger. Another car with Swedish players were behind us though, and they had a working GPS, so when they arrived to Northampton, we used them as GPS by proxy, and finally arrived at the site at 18.00 sharp. The warming up that we had planned turned into an instant start of team tournament matches.

The Jochniyle Trans-Atlantic Express

But despite the abrupt start all the Swedish teams did well, and when the qualifications round was over, all three Swedish teams were among the six teams that made it into the final, ending up on place 1, 2 (my team) and 5. A 50% chance of a Swedish victory! However, one of the American teams was the better players, and they won the team tournament. My own team had apparently burned all our energy in the qualifications, and we ended up on sixth place. The other two Swedish teams took the 2nd and 3rd places.

The organizers had apparently taken the warning about the tight schedule seriously, since they had done everything in their power to minimize the ball times on the games. This makes the outcome more random, and a lot of good players didn’t make it into the finals. Players like Neil Shatz, Roy Wils, Albert Nomden, Jorian Engelbrektsson and myself ended up on embarresing positions. I ended up as 89:th, which is my all time low in ANY tournament, and the first time I ever miss the finals in a big tournament (except PAPA).

Anyway, it made it possible for me to put all efforts into the Classics tournament. They had eight classic games put up, and the best score on each game would continue into the finals. I took aim for Big Fair, and had a battle against Roy Wils for the win. I finally got 3453 against his 2893, and made it into the finals.  And so did four (almost five) other Swedes! That’s domination…

Classics finalists

The semifinal was played on Time Fantasy, where Jörgen Holm and I scored around 2 million points each, leaving the other two way behind. In the finals, Jörgen and I met Neil Shatz and Jim Belsito on Firepower. Belsito got over a million, giving him the victory, and I got second place with about half a million. The silver medal somewhat compensated for the catastrophy in the main division, and at least I didn’t had to go home empty-handed.

Jörgen and I had a flight booked the same evening, so we left immediately after the Classics final. We arrived at Heathrow in time to check in and return the rental car, and went for a smoke. After the smoke we headed towards security, but they wouldn’t let us in! The didn’t say why, and just directed us to a desk. At that desk they explained that there’s a new rule, saying you have to arrive at security at least 35 minutes before take-off. We looked at the time. 33 minutes to take-off. We’d been ONE minute late! She said there was a 30 minute wait at security. Heck, we were at terminal 5, there’s never more than ten minutes to wait at terminal 5 security. And BA flights to Sweden is at gate A10 or A11, which is a two minute walk from security.

If I wanted to catch a train, I’d get down to the train station, and if I’m there at least ten seconds before take-off, I’m on my train. But when flying, you have to be there hours before take-off, and go through a lot of meaningless procedures and elephantiasis security measures. And of those hours, 99% is waiting time! What the heck is wrong with the aviation business?? They really need an extreme makeover.

We rescheduled our flight and found ourselves a hotel, and all together that smoke was the most expensive one (with ordinary tobacco) of my life. Heathrow hotels really know how to get paid more for less.

Todd playing with cows

A week later I was back in England again. This time for the IFPA World Pinball Championships in, or rather outside of, Hemel Hempstead. Nick Bennet provided his personal farm to host the tournament! Rather unusual, but all you need to host a pinball tournament is space and power, and the farm had enough of both.

The qualifications system was a lengthy (but good!) one, taking one and a half day of continious match play to complete. I started fine, parking on positions around 12-15 somewhere. Since positions 1-8 and 9-16 were seeded in later into the finals cup ladder, it was important to do good in the qualifications. After the first day I was at the 18th position, so I had to play good on day two, to get into the seeded bunch of players. But morning pinball is not my bag, so I fell down to the 24th position when the qualifications was over.

That meant I had to play all rounds of the ladder. I started up against fellow Swede Marcus Hugosson. He beat me at F-14, but then I won four games in a row. Next opponent was Krisztián Szalai, the Hungarian guy who got second at EPC the week before. It was a tough match, and it took nine games to determine the outcome, before I finally won on Road Show(!). The next match was against Neil Shatz, second at IFPA last year, second at PAPA 2005 and third after me at EPC Classics this year. I beat him playing good on Star Trek, Simpsons and Road Show (again!), and had the least lousy game on Star Gazer. 4-0!

The quarter finals was the first match on the third day, and my opponent now was noone else than Bowen Kerins, the reigning IFPA champion and multiple PAPA champion. And again, morning pinball is not my bag. I got about 50 million on Simpsons against Szalai and Shatz, and I got 2 million against Bowen. Bowen had an easy win, 4-0 without having to put any effort into it. I had really been looking forward to that Simpsons game, since we have both made fantastic scores on tournament mode Simpsons, but apparently that fantastic match wasn’t this match.

The last game was a tie breaker for the quarter finals losers. Once again I met Jim Belsito, and once again he beat me to it. But I beat Cayle George and Trent Augenstein, earning myself a sixth place in the tournament. I’m pleased with the outcome, even though I really wanted to give Bowen some more competition. I won $400 and a bottle of IFPA Jalapeño Sauce!

This time the return flight went fine, except for “poor” Jorian, who had to stay to play the final against Bowen. Bowen won once again, keeping the title for another year.

Now I’m home for a few weeks, before it’s time to go to PAPA to battle once again…

/P

Spelarbetyg för MFF-AIK:

Betygskala 1-5
1 = underkänd
2 = godkänd
3 = bra
4 = mycket bra
5 = landslagsklass

Spelarbetyg för Gefle-Djurgården:

Betygsskala
1 – Usel
2 – Dålig
3 – Underkänd
4 – Godkänd
5 – Bra
6 – Mycket bra
7 – Landslagsklass

Jag antar att betygsskalorna speglar behoven rätt väl…