Fresh new snow

This is the view that greeted us this morning. It looks lovely out there. After breakfast we’ll brush off the Syncro, clear the drive and path and head up the hill.

The view is always different and always the same.

An open letter to Eurid: Why can’t I register an eu internet domain?

Dear Eurid,

I’m an EU passport holder. Thanks to the wonderful rules of the EU and the EEA I have moved to Norway. It is my right and everything is hunky dory. Well almost everything.

The same EU that helped me move to Norway, now says I cannot register a .eu address BECAUSE I have moved to Norway. See http://www.eurid.eu/files/733_2002_EN_1.pdf article 4 (a link from this page:http://www.eurid.eu/en/faq)

The only way I could register an EU internet domain would be to move back to the EU. This is an obvious limit to my freedom to move, live and work within the EU/EEA. So, I am allowed to find work in Noway, but I have to move back to an EU country to be able to register an EU domain name.

In stark contrast, can live in either Norway or an EU country and register a ‘net’ or ‘com’ domain name. Despite not having lived in the UK since 1996 I can still register a ‘co.uk’ domain.

I am a citizen of the EU with a european oriented website, but I cannot register an ‘eu’ domain. Why am I (and doubless many other EU citizens) being discriminated against in this way?

I found this document from 2006 (http://europa.eu/rapid/pressReleasesAction.do?reference=MEMO/06/159&format;=HTML&aged;=0&language;=EN&guiLanguage=en)

I quote:

May I register a “.eu” name if I live in Iceland,Liechtenstein, Norway, or Switzerland?” Not yet, but the EU and the European Economic Area (EEA) have begundiscussions with a view to extending the scope of the .eu Top Level Domain toIceland, Liechtenstein and Norway.”

So what, if any, progress have the EU and the EEA managed to make in the intervening five years?

Thanks in advance
Stan Williams
Gol, Norway.

Update: 14th of Jan

I got a nice and informative email back from a nice lady at Eurid. In keeping with European Bureaucratic Tradition it tells me that I can’t register an EU domain name because those are the rules.

In the same useful email, I have had it confirmed that the progress made since 2006 in allowing residents of EEA countries access to EU domain names is precisely nothing. However there seems to be a work around for those of us living in the EEA. I quote:

“Businesses and individuals from these three countries could apply for a.eu domain name already now if they are established in an EU country(e.g. if they have a branch office / postal address in the EU).”

Well nice to know, as fortunately I have a couple of postal addresses in the EU I can make use of. Curious though that the rules state that residency is required but in practice you only need a postal address.

Sigh.

One more point, I’ve just checked the rules about US domain names and .eu domains names have the same limitations as .us domain names. However, I consider .eu to be more generic than .us (although residents of the United States of Mexico might disagree with me on that point). A quick look at a map of Europe suggest that residents and businesses in approximately half of the landmass of the European continent are denied access to .eu domains.

Oh well, UK domain names are very cheap and .net/.com etc are universal.

0’c and rain. What?

Well the temperature has risen dramatically, as forecast. It has also clouded over and is now 0’c and instead of snow we have rain. This is going to make things very very slippery until the temperature drops and the water freezes again.

It will make our midnight New Years Eve walk into town interesting.

I now know the sound that rain makes when falling on snow.

Update 19:05 The indoor outdoor thermometer is now showing +1.5’c outside.

Update 01:46 Funnily enough the light smattering of rain has actually made the old snow and ice crunchier and more grippy rather than more slippery. One temperature gauge on the Gol Ski Stasjon read +3’c at about 00:30. There was a good breeze too, which is unusual here.

We both got a glimpse of what spring will be like. 0’c felt like a summer’s day after the last couple of months. Walking takes less energy when it is warmer. Seeing as we can cope with the cold weather it will be interesting to see just how much more energy we have when the weather gets much warmer.

Roll on 2011 and another set of new experiences.

Winter weather

It was snowing when I got up contrary to the weather forecast. Bigger flakes than the last snowfall but still an unusually small amount. I checked out the statistics for Gol on yr.no and noted that only a quarter of the average precipitation had fallen in the month of November. This means that instead of the expected 44 cm of snow we got only 11 cm (as an approximation 1mm of precipitation = 10mm of snow). In October we got just over a half of the usual precipitation. I’d not be surprised if December was similarily dry.

Luckily this didn’t stop us having a lovely white winter solstice. However the impact on the economy could be significant. We were up on Storefjell a week ago just after a small amount of snow had fallen. The skiing was great, fresh snow is lovely. This week we have been to Solseter twice, the first time after fresh snow and the second time two days ago. There are now brown patches appearing in the ski routes and twigs stick through the thin layer of snow all over the place. For a local economy that depends on winter sport tourism this is not good news.

There is another way that this lack of precipitation affects the economy. Most of the electricity produced in Norway comes from hydro-electric power stations. The worst case scenario for energy prices in Norway is a dry autumn followed by a cold dry winter. So far this is what we have got and, as a result, electricity prices have shot up. This is because Norway has to import electricity from Sweden (which has 2 nuclear power stations out of action) or Germany (cable problems between Denmark and Germany). Just over a week ago prices on the spot market were nudging NOK 2 per kWh (our fixed price contract is a quarter of that).

The irony is that, whilst northern Europe has been struggling with a wet autumn and too much snow, Norway is feeling the consequences of too little rain and not enough snow.

Let’s hope that the weather reverts to its more normal patterns soon.

Season’s Greetings

We’re sitting in front of the fire, full of risgrøt, resting ourselves in the peace and quiet of Gol after an afternoon playing around in the snow.

All that remains for us to do tonight is to wish you all ‘Season’s Greetings’ from deliciously cold Norway and all the best for 2011.

Oh and go to bed of course. After cleaning our teeth and the associated ablutions. Not to mention turning off the lights, locking the door and maybe laying the table for breakfast. Then there is the bread in the bread machine …………. I digress.

See you all tomorrow!