illcompost

My Move to Sweden in Detail

In Sweden on 15 July 2008 with 2 comments

As blogged by Marie the story is probably more interesting than my short posts about the move.

Spell Checking Follow-Up

In Apple on 15 July 2008 with 1 comment

Seems it’s not all beer and pretzels with my Mac’s spell checking as Mail doesn’t seem to accept cocoAspell’s Icelandic dictionary. In fact I only see the Icelandic one of cocoAspell’s dictionaries but that’s not a real problem. Not now, anyway. TextEdit sees the Icelandic Dictionary and so does MarsEdit, which I’m writing this in, but not Mail. I noticed some remarks about Leopard’s mail having dictionary problems, as I was trying to solve my earlier problems, so I’m fantasising that this is a known issue that I’ll solve quickly. Anyway I hope that episode will be even less blog-worthy.

Update:

Oh, isn’t this awkward cake… Restarting Mail solved this. And I thought of it myself. Because I got tired of looking through Google for a solution. In my defence I thought I had done enough reboots before getting the spell checking to its current configuration.

The Woes and Wonders of Spell Checker

In Apple, Tech on 13 July 2008 with 8 comments

Although I can hardly write a sentence of decent Swedish without help I wanted to set up my old PowerBook G4, running Tiger, to do spell checking in Icelandic, English and Swedish. I’ve been using Stafsetning 2004 since it was in closed beta back in 2004 and was mostly satisfied with it.

My biggest problem with it started when I switched from an iBook G4, running Panther, to my current computer and OS back in 2005. One of Stafsetning’s biggest features, switching between Icelandic and the OS X Spell Checker’s language on the fly by a keyboard shortcut (or menu from Menu Bar if that’s how you roll), never functioned well after my switch to PowerBook and Tiger. A switch between languages would often mean I’d get an error message saying the Spell Checker couldn’t be contacted. Hardly a niggle but Stafsetning had its redeeming features and I’d have stuck with it if not for wanting to have Swedish spell checking as well.

I might have checked if my system already included a Swedish dictionary but instead decided straight off to try cocoAspell which is free and has a big selection of dictionaries. Removing Stafsetning from the list of Login Items didn’t remove its imprints from applications’ spelling menus but I (stupidly) installed cocoAspell anyway. Spell checking was, of course, borked. Uninstalling Stafsetning seemed the thing to do but the software makes no provisions for it nor could I find any instructions for doing so on Stafsetning’s website. I sent a mail to their support address¹ but as it was Saturday I expected no answer until next Monday at first.

Being an impatient man I ended up searching for components of Stafsetning, which by the way is an input manager, with Spotlight and then removed them by hand. Spell Checking was still borked. I uninstalled cocoAspell and that changed nothing. I found a new level to being frustrated and started pressing buttons. ⌘-⇧-. did the trick by bringing up this window:

No surprise I didn’t think of this as I never use it. Here I could switch from Stafsetning’s dictionary to one of a few included with the OS X’s native spell checking system. One of which is Swedish. You would think some text on some spell checking software would mention this little thing, though? I suggest something along the lines of “oh, and when you’ve finished removing our software by hand you might want to call up the Spelling menu for each app and change it from the dictionary you just removed.”

I also hope Apple has made changes to this system in Leopard and I should check to see if they have. Now that I have Icelandic through cocoAspell, along with the Swedish and English dictionaries included with Tiger, I want to find a way to change Spell Checker’s language with a keyboard shortcut. I’ve come as far as looking at Red Sweater Software’s FastScripts Lite but that option would mean I’d have to learn some AppleScript. There should be an easier way to do this.

Update:

Only fair to add that the developer of Stafsetning 2004 got back to me earlier today; Tuesday the 15th. Of course the matter was mostly fixed on my end, as I mentioned in the follow up to this post, but his response was very helpful.

Formally Inducted

In Sweden on 13 July 2008 with 5 comments

Last night I was made a Swede at a formal ceremony - well, a sushi dinner - at Marie’s friend Lisa’s place. Of course there was a load of people present although I think the sushi was the main draw and not me. Or maybe it was the constantly appearing cocktails in various bright colours that remarkably didn’t leave me a hungover wreck this morning.

As part of the ceremony I was kitted out with a sash in blue and yellow; the colours of the Swedish flag, a blue pea whistle with blue and yellow ribbon for a lanyard and a Swedish Football Association hat. In yellow and blue. Then I was presented with a gorgeous, piano black ukulele to congratulate me on having become a Swede.

Now I’ll have to start practice. Not sure if Sweden is as pleased to have me after hearing the first attempts at making musical sounds with my new instrument.

Some Things I’ve Done in Sweden Since Arriving

In Sweden on 9 July 2008 with 4 comments

• Listened to a Bellman recital
• Driven a Bon Jovi special edition Volkswagen Golf (I’m fine now, thank you).
• Drunk quite a lot (two parties already, I’m fine now, thank you).
• Seen, and heard, The World’s Loudest Child (she was charming and I think I have tinnitus).
• Eaten Falukorv (similar to Icelandic kjötbúðingur and good to eat but stay away from Falukorv stroganoff).
• Stayed in a Falu red (of course) country cottage.
• Seen more potato gratin in four days than I’ve seen before in my entire life.