Macandron

Innovation of the century: Crowdsourcing

2008-10-31T10:10:00.003+02:00

Source: www.wepc.com

It's amazing. Crowdsourcing is like the ultimate revolution in bringing bright minds together. I've seen some crowdsourcing campaigns, but what really touches my heart is Asus and Intel's We PC campaign. Anyone can draft his or her view of the perfect laptop, and then people can rate it and comment on it. Just like any competition, there will be some winners and their vision will be implemented as well as possible.

I love this - brilliant minds can come together to craft laptops everyone wants. Those things that are most important to consumers are listened to. I think if more things were engineered this way - be it a service or product - we would have a better world.

I hope you contribute to this and vote and comment on the solutions you think are best. That way maybe you'll see it in the store shelves for you to buy and enjoy! My idealistic mind quivers at the prospects of this campaign.

On Stability

2008-09-02T09:45:00.012+03:00

Source: www.victorwooten.com

It's weird how I used to be afraid of routines. In my mind the concept meant being bored, unable to learn new things, becoming used to comforts, and slowly becoming afraid of change. I was afraid if the rolling stone would stop, it would sink into the ground and never move again.

How wrong I was. I only now see the fault in my logic, now that my home is finally starting to feel like home after 5 or so years since the last time. I realized recently that stability allows growth more than it restricts it. If you have a solid foundation of things to rely on, you don't have to spend mental energy worrying about them but can instead direct it towards learning things and growing.

It's a valuable insight, as I've been avoiding routines for years. This has resulted in moving a lot, having erratic work shifts, changing hobbies, seeing friends randomly, and just trying to do a million things at once. In retrospect, I used a large portion of my mental resources just planning and managing my time. I spent very little time doing anything because... I was planning what I want to do, should do, will do, and what I didn't do.

It's wonderful how relieving it is to just sit back and relax after a long work day, not worrying about my schedule. I know that I have a home I can keep, my income is solid, my working hours are rather strictly defined, and I have a comfortable relationship I don't have to stress about. I actually feel more free than I did earlier, even if I have more routine in my life than before. I noticed it frees my mind from managerial tasks - like organizing and re-organizing my calendar - for more creative and regenerative activity, like creating web pages, exercising, reading, watching movies and playing games. Or actually spending time with friends instead of planning to do that.

It's crazy that I haven't thought of it before. Routines lead to stability, which in turn enables productivity and change. It frees the mind. I'm simply left speechless at the simplicity of the idea.

True transformation

2008-08-20T19:03:00.007+03:00

I've started reading a new book recently. It's called Undefended Love, and works as a kind of guide to free yourself from the burden of defenses that stand in the way of connecting to your emotions, people and the world freely and intimately. It's a wonderful read, and I'm learning a lot about myself even only halfway through. I thought I'd write a post where I delve into one aspect of my life that bothers me a little.

I've realized that I often identify myself as a man with a history of being bullied in school. Whenever I feel bad about myself, I remember what situations and which people are to blame for my bad self-esteem. But as I've read about some of the coping methods people often use to deal with their emotional pain, I've quite suddenly become aware of how I, in trying to rid myself of the pain, don't let it go. Instead I cover it up by doing more, being more active, acting more generous; polishing my ego more, so that I would get noticed and appreciated by others.

What this in effect does is, it simply strengthens the feeling of "I'm unwanted and unappreciated naturally. I have to earn others' respect and love." It really isn't a good thing, because what I should realize is, I'm already worthy of that, and shouldn't worry about getting noticed, appreciated or loved. When you are yourself in a pure way, people do respect you naturally.

I've noticed it this year in particular, when several of my friends have told me that I deserve true and pure love, because I am my honest self among friends. Unfortunately that's only partly true: I'm my honest self most of the time. But there are frequent incidents where I do something small to boost my ego. It might be as insignificant as bringing up my past pain, such as "I was bullied as a kid." This earns me pity and empathy and my ego is happy when I'm convinced that it was right all along: I deserve pity because I lack something. There must have been something wrong with me or else they wouldn't have bullied me.

Another thing I might do is tell about my experiences abroad. This serves to boost my ego with "I'm experienced and I've accomplished things." This again serves to amplify the feeling of "I'm inadequate without experience and success." A third thing might be to exaggerate my optimism. I know I am optimistic by nature.. But sometimes my identity takes over and I start to live the image instead of the true emotion. Even if I'm not particularly happy, I act it. I feel miserable inside because I'm faking my happiness, but I feel the urge to sustain that happy image, because "I'm an optimist."

The question that arose in my mind upon thinking about all of this is: Why do I carry the memories of my bullied past, or those exchange experiences, so vividly in my life today? They serve no real purpose. I've changed from what I was back then. Why would I identify myself with 10-year-old feelings and experiences? They're hardly relevant right now. I realized that our past defines us only as much as we let it. As long as I carry the past in my mind, I can never truly change.

I intellectually know that losing baggage from the past is necessary to survival. Carrying all of your trauma with you for the rest of your life will eventually break you. Getting over negative memories and rid of a negative self-image is very much a choice, not a stroke of luck. All it takes, really, is to truly realize your self-worth in this moment. Right now there's nothing wrong with you. As long as you live in the moment, with an open heart, there's nothing wrong with you. It's only when an event triggers a pain from the past that you start hurting and feeling bad about yourself. And those triggers can be found and deactivated. That's the part that takes time and effort, but the basic realization is sudden and deep.

History doesn't have to repeat itself. We can learn. We can change. We only need to want it badly enough. Change of identity is not a matter of psychiatry, drugs, or joining the foreign legion. It's a matter of choice. It's letting go of past identities and building a new one.

I mean, when I really think about it, I haven't been bullied for real since the eight grade. That was 11 years ago. Since then, whenever I've felt I've been bullied or taken advantage of, I've simply interpreted it that way because I still identify myself as a "loser" that "deserves" it. However... I'm starting to realize my true worth. It's taken a long time to get even here, but I feel the light inside growing stronger by the year. I feel like I'm connecting more and more strongly with some deep underlying potential that only surfaced itself occasionally in the past, when the circumstances were right.

Hopefully from now on, I can realize my true potential more often than not. Hopefully I can find some new spark of power, vitality and energy weekly, if not daily. I Feel confident that success, as a wise man said, is just a frame of mind and not a result of the right qualities, resources and circumstances. Miracles have come from the inside, not from the outside. Look at any success story and spend some time analyzing the person behind it. How did they feel about themselves? How did they relate to the world around them? They had happiness in mind, not work.

"Free your mind." Of the past. Of false identities. The fact is, you're already free. But do you see it?

Information consumerism

2008-07-30T09:22:00.007+03:00

Wow, almost 2 months since my last post. What have I been doing? I wish I could say "living instead of sitting at the computer" but I'd only be telling half the truth. The fact is, I have done a bunch of sitting in front of the computer even if it's summer, but I haven't produced anything in what seems like a very long time. I haven't written, coded, composed, designed, planned or done anything creative for weeks. Why!?

I've noticed a pattern in my computer usage habits. I spend an inordinate amount of time on the web, particularly on social sites such as klubitus.org and Facebook. I'm also a news addict, reading up on the latest technology news daily. Unfortunately tech blogs are full of curious geeks such as myself, who post links to other interesting sites. Other blogs, that are full of even more interesting links. Soon I'm spending 80% of my day browsing both interesting and entertaining material in the form of news, news conversations, blogs, forums, pictures, videos, new music and so on. In addition to all that I chat all day, which creates even more information to gawk at.

All of this is just about consuming information. When do I process it? When do I make use of it? It all seems rather useless in the long run. I've been so taken up by this micro-level self-realization that I've forgotten to check up on the macro-level stuff - you know, the stuff that really matters. I've sunk into a world of "what's behind the next link" and forgotten to reflect on "what I should accomplish this week", not to speak of "this month." I'm rather disappointed by this, because there's more to life than the Internet. Although it does make life a lot more interesting. But there has to be a balance between hedonism and long-term thinking. Needless to say, focusing solely on long-term goals isn't good either since you'll just forget to stop and smell the roses. If you only focus on "what I need to accomplish before I can relax and enjoy myself," you'll soon find you never enjoy yourself at all.

I'm probably not alone with this problem. I think it's easy for curious cats such as myself to get lost in the sea of media on the Internet. To expand on the web surfing analogy: It's cool to go surfing every now and then, to explore the waves, jump and dive and so on. You'll learn a lot in the process, for sure. But there's a saturation point where you just get numb with exhaustion and you can't learn anymore. You have to take a break and get back up on the beach. Sometimes it's good to get away from the waves altogether, so that you retain your perspective. The worst-case scenario is, you go so far out to sea that you lose sight of the shore. Then you're not only exhausted but you've lost all sense of direction.

On the web this translates to losing media criticism and relevancy filtering. You don't really need to know everything about what your friends are doing at every single moment, do you? You don't have to explore every funny lolcat picture out there, do you? Chain letters, funny videos, funny pictures, amazing feat videos, forgery pictures, lifestyle sites, shopping sites, introspective blogs, smart spending blogs, funny blogs, tech news, sports news, celebrity news, health sites, fitness programs, radio sites, jokes, talk shows, podcasts, cool cars, art. It's easy to get lost at sea when you always see another good wave in the distance.

I've decided not to lose perspective anymore, and so I made up a resolution with a friend: renovate our Internet habits right here, right now. Less time surfing, more timing working, studying, seeing friends, going out, actually taking care of that health, and just... living. After all, there are alternatives to the informative aspects of the Internet - newspapers, monthly magazines, and factual books. For the most part they are better organized, and pre-filtered so you don't have to process more than your brain can handle. You know what you're getting when you open that April issue of Tietokone (a popular Finnish IT magazine). On their web site, however, I read some news, clicked my way through comments to it, and found a link to an article by Maddox. Productivity killer right there! The entertainment value sure was priceless, but you just can't always afford that with all other time restraints.

So we made a plan for executing this resolution, but we had to keep in mind that both are dependent on the Internet for work, school and several irreplaceable services in an information society. Here are the main points:
1. All instant messaging programs turned off for the duration of the work day.
2. Social sites such as Facebook and klubitus.org get one(1) hour a day tops. The time we'll check these is at the end of the work day or when we get home.
3. Blogs, news, forums, youtube, and any other site not directly related to work or school is banned for two weeks. This is the time most experts say it takes to get rid of an addiction cold turkey. After that the habit is broken and you just have to be careful not to fall into the same addiction again.

Hopefully through this renovation process we can both start realizing ourselves, producing more and consuming less. Yesterday after making up my mind about it, I already felt better. I felt free, empowered, in control of my destiny. Really, we have the power to change what we do with our time at any given moment. If you think you are a slave of time, not being able to do all the things you want... You're living in a psychological prison you built yourself. No one but you controls how you spend your time. But it may just be a case of not prioritizing enough. I know it was for me.

Cool tech: June review

2008-06-06T04:41:00.005+03:00

I've been a bit lazy about tech news lately, but I caught up last night and read up on some interesting developments. The issues of today's blog post are new subnotebooks and netbooks, the first external graphics card, SSDs, Ubuntu Netbook Remix and AWN, and Mini-ITX 2.0.

But I'll start off with a funny: the Windows Vista preview from 2002, when it was still titled "Longhorn". Oh the joy.

The selection of subnotebooks continues to grow as Acer, HP and MSI have followed suit soon after Asus came out with its Eee PC. But I was most intrigued by the new Eee PC model: 1000. It features a larger 10" screen, up to 40gb of SSD storage, a faster processor (Intel Atom), up to 2gb of memory, Bluetooth, and a much longer battery life, namely 7,5 hours. The price is expected to go up to the $700 range, but I think it's still a fair price for a decent small notebook. We're still talking about a category that previously started at $1500 or so. I'm seriously considering one of them subnotebooks for work... But we'll see after I get my hands on one to see how it feels.

ATI has come out with ATI XGP, an external graphics card for laptops. Finally! I've been waiting for something like this forever. No more do you have to pay many moneys for graphics processing power everytime you upgrade your laptop. Plus the XGP works as a dock! It has connectors for up to three extra displays (in addition to the one you can directly connect to the notebook) and some USB ports for peripherals. Absolutely wonderful. Now if only we had a price...

Mtron has started shipping SSDs to Finland. They have the arguably fastest drives in the world, so I'm glad we're getting some competition over here. Until now we've had shitty yet expensive SSDs -- maybe Mtron will manage to slice prices a little. :)

Canonical is developing a Netbook Remix of its popular Ubuntu Linux distribution. It seems to be hot shit, with the UI redesigned for small resolutions and touch screens. I think Fubox would really benefit from an OS like this, but it remains to be seen whether it will work on other than Intel Atom platforms. While reading about UNR, I also spotted a nice add-on for X: Avant Window Navigator or AWN. It's basically a copy of Mac OS X Leopard's Dock, but for Linux. Can't complain as I have come to love the Stacks feature. Never again will I have a cluttered desktop! Mac or Linux. Windows is still lacking in this area however...

Mini-ITX has reached version 2.0 after seven years of development since the first version was published. It seems to be a promising platform, packing enough punch to even run Crysis (albeit with a separate, full-sized PCI-E graphics card that certainly diminishes the benefit of a smaller form factor). The specs include:

Processor: High-performance, power efficient x86 processor, such as the VIA Nano processor

Memory: Support for minimum 2GB DDR2 SDRAM

Graphics: DirectX 9.0 integrated (IGP); DirectX 10 through an add-in card

Display: 1 VGA port for LCD display; 1 HDMI port on add-in card

HD Audio: 3 Audio jacks for up to 6-channel surround sound

Broadband Connectivity: 1 Gigabit LAN port

Storage: 2 Serial ATA II slots + 1 IDE (PATA) slot

Peripheral Connectivity: Minimum 4 USB2.0 ports

Expansion: 1 PCI Express 16-lane slot

Size: 17cm x 17cm

O/S Support: Microsoft® Windows Vista®; Microsoft Windows Vista Premium (through an add-in graphics card); Microsoft Windows® XP, and major Linux distributions such as Ubuntu, Suse Linux and gOS

Together with the ATI XGP (if it becomes compatible with Mini-ITX motherboards) this could introduce significant changes to the desktop computer market.

So what does all this mean? It's pretty pointless to just repeat the same stuff you can read off any tech news site, so let me provide some analysis as to what these techs can mean in the near future...and why not farther future, too? I see subnotebooks and the Mini-ITX standard, plus the modularization of graphics into a separate unit as a revolution in computers worldwide. Desktop computers have suddenly turned from 20-pound towers into 10-pound boxes hardly larger than a set-top box, and laptops from 6-pound 15-inchers into 2-pound 9-inchers. Average energy consumption for a newly bought nettop or netbook will go down to 40W from a previous 200W and to 15W from 35W, respectively.

Hopefully people will use the products based on these new technologies to replace their current computers and not only complement them. It will have a big effect on global climate change when the change is implemented worldwide. At home and on the road it means that less space is needed, and the computer can be easily put away and taken out. New, light-weight Linux-based operating systems also allow for quicker access to the OS from boot-up so people will gladly switch their computers off when they aren't in use. This will further reduce energy consumption as people are less inclined to keep their computer running 24/7 for quick access.

Another big change is taking place in user interfaces -- namely touch manipulation. Touch screens have improved a lot recently, and e.g. the interface made popular by the iPhone will with high probability be integrated into OS X as well. I assume the same will be done for all operating systems eventually. This will probably change the way applications work, since hovering the cursor above something to highlight it doesn't really work anymore. Until now, for instance, hyperlinks have changed when the cursor has been moved over them. But with a touch screen, you don't hover the cursor, you just "click" on things or drag objects around. So hyperlinks and other "highlightable" objects have to be highlighted constantly.

What I'm curious about is how many new users this will bring to computers and the Internet. A keyboard and mouse don't work for everyone, one example being my grandparents. Touch screens might be more intuitive for them as well as other current non-users, giving even more people access to the ever-expanding Internet. Speech recognition is another big step towards making computers more accessible, but we're still years away from making that a reliable method of manipulation.

Communication has potential for changing further with netbooks. We've already entered the IM era a few years ago with most social people being on MSN or a similar network daily. With smaller laptops and bigger cellphones, with MIDs and UMPCs, we'll see an increasing amount of IM clients. With 3G and WLAN constantly becoming more widespread, I can imagine phone calls becoming a marginal way of communication in certain circles within a few years. Texting and instant messaging will be so easy with predictive text that people will view waiting for the other person to pick up the phone a bigger inconvenience than writing that line or two via IM or SMS. This will be especially widely used for short communication, such as "where are you", "when will you be home", or "what are you doing this evening?" Who knows, maybe buses and trains will become silent again, after years of loud public phonecalls?

Windows 7

2008-05-29T12:46:00.002+03:00

Well, well. Windows 7 will not have the much hyped MinWin-kernel after all. Whoop-tee-doo! Why do they have to hype something so much that doesn't come true after all? It's not okay for a company to be idealist. They have to be realist. Although I suppose Microsoft is above that, since they can do whatever the fuck they want. People will still use their shitty OS. Or will they?

They are now hyping the Next Big Thing: touch and gesture manipulation. So basically they're saying that those great new applications made possible by Surface will also be available in Windows 7. Maybe Surface will even run Windows 7, who knows. But the shitty part here is that it'll still use the same, bloated, unstable, piece-of-shit Vista kernel. They justify this by stating that "in 2009 when it comes out, new computers will have ample processing power for the Vista kernel."

Yeah, sure, but what about older computers? Will people again have to buy new computers to accommodate Microsoft's newest OS? When will this consumerfest ever end? I guess it never will, since Microsoft is married to every computer manufacturer in the world. They keep making OS's that require new computers, manufacturers put Windows on there and can keep selling new machines. It's just capitalism. Deep sigh.

Besides, touch and gesture manipulation, and the data transferred to and from the touch screen to the CPU will require more power anyway. Way to save the planet there guys! Let's just keep buying new and more powerful computers and ignore the growing energy consumption! It makes me so mad.

Anyway, I also want to discuss the touch and gesture manipulation phenomenon a little. It sounds all fine and dandy, and it is surely "the shit" of the future, but can they really hype it already? Will it really be ready for large-scale use in 2009? I doubt it. As they are now, touch screens are laggy and imprecise. The technology is immature, and they plan to implement it in a mainstream OS? Pretty bold.

There's also the issue of oil and fat in human fingers. How will they cope with constantly smudging screens? It's easy to wipe a small screen, like on the iPhone, clean every now and then... But what about a 30" screen? What if you have a massive 50" screen? Is it convenient to wipe it clean every five minutes? Hell no. So there's a materials issue.

Finally, I hope they don't at least plan on selling a whole lot of Windows 7 to companies. Think of the training costs to teach employees to work computers by touch and gesture. Few companies will want to make that drastic a change in hardware, and additionally train their employees to use them.

Basically what needs to happen first is for touch and gesture becoming a "layman's tech." It needs to be seen in lots and lots of public places, and many homes, so that people are at least remotely familiar with it, before companies will even consider adopting it. This can take 5-10 years, because breaking computer use habits is extremely difficult. When properly implemented, it is more intuitive to use your fingers and arms directly to manipulate information, than by keyboard and mouse. But it'll be years before those interfaces are mature. And then it has to spread and become familiar, commonplace. Then, maybe, companies will be interested in it.

I hope you're not laying all your eggs in this basket, Microsoft. Because it might cost you dearly. All I hope for is for you to live up to the promises of WinFS and MinWin. These two changes would probably change the world of computing for good. Could you try to keep those promises? Pretty please?

An Upward Turn

2008-05-28T10:03:00.005+03:00

Wow. I was really happy when I wrote my last post, and it seems my upward trend continues. Last Monday I completed my Java course at school. With good grades, I may add. Then I found out I'd gotten the job I'd applied for! Starting August 1st, I'll be a Systems Expert, basically installing workstations, servers and peripherals, fixing problems and giving support. But in addition to this I can participate in development projects if I want to make a difference on the job.

Furthermore, there are loads of training programs I can take to advance to, say, Maintenance or even Consultation. The former job has more responsibility as System Administrators build larger systems and care for their day-to-day operation. Once I have enough experience and training under my belt, I can move to consulting, where you design even larger wholes, and also sell them to clients. Optionally I can become a project manager if project work really suits me.

It's just a great company with great opportunities. I've heard a lot of good things about them, such as development conversations every 6 months, to make sure you're not bored, overworked or doing something that doesn't work for you. They would rather transfer employees to other departments than fire them, and rather promote existing workers than hire new ones for higher positions. You can really make a career there, and I will do my damndest to make mine.

Of course that only covers me from August on. I wondered what I'd do during the summer, as I haven't gotten shifts from Expert in 2 weeks and it seems like I won't for the entire summer. It's just as well, I want out of that place anyway. Well, today my prayers were answered and I got a project at Kaha Oy (where I've worked summers since -99) for July. I'll participate in a logistics renewal project there, which sounds interesting. And they pay well. ;)

This all means that I can take my first summer vacation in 7 years! I'm simply awed! Okay, it will probably be only about 2 weeks since I still have to complete my thesis. But still - no work until July, and little school to go. A winner is me!

If that all wasn't enough, for my 25th birthday I'm going to a clubber friend's summer cottage along with 17 others. There will be a lake, a beach sauna, forest, sunshine, and activities will include playing music (several of our friends are dj's), swimming, walking in the forest, playing outdoor and indoor games, and just general chilling. I-can't-wait! This will be the awesomest birfday evar! \o/

Passion for music

2008-05-11T04:34:00.009+03:00

It's really amazing what a deep passion for something can do for you (or to you). My legs were already beat from bicycling 25km yesterday, but even so I managed to dance about four hours straight at the Above & Beyond gig at Studio 51. And I can tell you it was no standing and wiggling a little. I'm talking full-on, hardcore dancing. My legs were screaming by 2AM, but I went on. I had cramps after 3AM, but I went on. Until the lights went on, I went on. I was high on alcohol and energy drinks, for sure, but it was nothing compared to the high the music gave me. It was magical. It was surreal. It was transcendent.

It's hard to describe the feeling when you have a love for every single thing in existence. You feel like jumping, like hugging people, like laughing and screaming at the same time, like crying, like your body can't move fast enough and broadly enough to express the intense pleasure you are feeling at that very moment. But the 'moment' lasted for hours on end!

At times like these I am immensely grateful for my emotional nature. I truly see it as a gift. I don't think too many people in this world are capable of reaching that kind of euphoria. It's something to die for. I wouldn't trade it for anything. It's a state where reality fades away and you enter... well, a trance. I suppose there's no better single word for it.

Before last night, I thought no party would ever top May Day morning of 2006, when at 10am the club (which is in an old shipyard building) opened the roof to let the sun shine down into the previously dark club from a clear blue sky, like God was looking down at us and saying "well done, my children. That's the way to do it." It was like a million angels were singing at the same time and I was floating. Well... this was better. The happiest day of my life.

Love you all. <3

Infected on Vappu!

2008-04-30T10:39:00.004+03:00

Blargh. Been sick for a week now. The intensity of my flu has varied, but today has been the worst day so far. Generally I've felt tired and uninterested in any social events. It's strange how your disposition to your entire life can change by the state of your health. I feel sorry for people who are chronically ill. I suddenly realize that my ultra-social lifestyle of late would not be possible were I not in really good physical form.

So I'm grateful for that. For the chance to go out and do things when the sun is shining. It's stupid that you only find the appreciation for health when you're sick... But it's classic psychology: you don't know what you have until you lose it. Bah.

In other news, I had an exam in Network Operating Systems this morning. I sat there with a headache, feeling sleepy and nauseous, my nose running and my head empty. Not that I would have been able to write anything coherent even had I been fit. I wasn't prepared for a written exam as all of our exams of late have been done on the computer. It's my own foolishness, I know, but... Well, in august, come the re-exam, I'll ace it. I'll be working with all those things all summer anyway.

However I won't get off that easy on my sick day. I also have a job interview at one o'clock. I hope I'll be in decent shape for that. It would at least be nice not to have bloodshot eyes and a runny nose like in the exam... I really really hope I get in, and I really hope I get to start in June. It's not a disaster if I can't start until August, but... I could use the money. And I'm anxious to begin.

Tonight is the eve of May Day, also known as Labour Day. There will be lots of drinking, partying, and drinking. Loads of fooling around, pissing in public places, philandering between adults and adolescents, and drinking. Getting wasted. It's what this country and its people are all about, and the culmination our culture is Labour Day Eve, also known as Vappu. This year I won't partake in this foolishness, since I'm sick at home. Not that I ever got as wasted as my fellow Finns. Never did any philandering. Nope.

But I'll get to enjoy Vappu in some way, anyway. I'll probably go out on a nice picnic and sit in the sun, have some champagne with a nice girl. :)

Happy Vappu everyone!

On Fascism

2008-03-25T00:26:00.004+02:00

Today I saw a great movie. It was V for Vendetta, a movie situated some years in the future; perhaps 2025. The British government has become completely fascistic and is ruled by a "High Chancellor", who is effectively a religious dictator. He rules Britain with an iron fist, keeping "terrorism" in check by maintaining totalitarian rules and a police state, complete with curfew.

What struck me as odd was that the US is clearly headed in this direction, and the situation might well be this in 2025 if the current trend continues. Then my sister remembered she had a movie on the computer that she hadn't seen yet: Taking Liberties Since 1997. It's a documentary about the political developments in Britain in the past ten years. In short, it was very unsettling. It showed with a painstakingly systematic approach how the civil rights of British citizens have been taken away, one by one. Peaceful protesters have been arrested on several occasions, and an entire busful of protesters on its way to a public protest was searched and turned back on grounds of "breach of peace."

These incredulous people were not even let out of the bus to relieve themselves. They were police-escorted back to London and the people inside felt like prisoners. They literally sealed the bus up. I had such strong images from both V for Vendetta and another movie on the same theme, Children of Men, that I felt sick to my stomach. We're apparently closer to fascism than I earlier thought was possible.

What's worse, Britain's submitted to extradition of suspected criminals without charge or trial. They willingly send suspected terrorists to the USA for processing. And what does processing mean? They are sent to Guantanamo Bay. An innocent Briton can any day be extradited to Guantanamo without due process. Habeas Corpus is not in effect anymore - a person can be detained without charge for up to 90 days.

Two things nearly made me cry in outrage. One was Blair's blue-eyed statement that "the police claims that a 90-day detention without charge is what's necessary to protect us from terrorism." The other was a short interview of a Guantanamo Bay guard. I won't spoil the shock of the documentary by disclosing his words... But I can tell you it had me pounding my fists on the couch, shouting "is this possible? Is this really the world we live in today?"

What truly saddens me is this is not limited to Britain and the US. The recent censorship law here in Finland has been all over the news and the blogosphere, and most recently some news has emerged about the attempts of the police to control illegal immigration. Apparently, what they do is they post a task force at a railway station or mall - the places where immigrants are likely to be seen. They then pick out passers-by "at random" and ask them for IDs and question them about their stay in Finland. How exactly do they choose whom to question? The law states that the police needs to treat all citizens equally. In an interview with Helsingin Sanomat the police stated they "have to rely on visual or auditory hints about foreign origin." They blatantly admit to questioning people based on appearances. That doesn't sound like "random selection" or "equal treatment" to me.

Fascism seems to be a rising trend in the 2000s. If it continues to spread, I don't know what I will do. Maybe Canada will still be a swell place to live. They so far only have the RIAA riding their asses. But then those tentacles extend to all of the world. Or perhaps Australia will be exempt from this sort of totalitarianism... We'll see. But I'll keep my eyes and ears open. This day has truly saddened me.

Easy Mode XP

2008-03-15T12:00:00.003+02:00

Alright, seems some Germans have implemented the Asus Eee PC GUI for WinXP. No big surprise, I think it was only a matter of time. However, this gets me rather excited because a lot of people are dependent on Windows but just aren't technical enough to use it comfortably. So how about a simple and customizable GUI that can start any program? You would practically never need the Windows desktop anymore. A friend of mine said that if one were to make a program that made Windows easy to use, one could make a lot of money. Seems like the time has come to see if he was right. ;)

I'll certainly test this interesting software immediately. If there's potential, I know a lot of people who would gladly exchange Start Menus and Task Bars and System Trays and all that jazz for a single, tab-based application menu.

Go ahead and try it yourself. It has no web site (yet) but there's a forum topic (in German) discussing it. You can also find the link to the newest version there.

Multi-touch: Revolutionizing collaboration

2008-03-11T12:03:00.005+02:00

I had a weird thought last night as I was falling asleep. I had a vision of working virtually with someone on a graphical application through touch screens and webcams. Until today that hasn't really been viable - the only way to work on something visually creative has been with pen and paper, in the same physical space.

But with new touch screen and camera technologies evolving, I can see a whole new level of creativity taking place. Basically what I visualized was two people sitting at their respective desktops or laptops across the globe, who want to work together on an idea. It could be a web page, it could be a 3D model, it could be a spreadsheet graph. In any case, they could work on it quickly and intuitively by both having a touch screen and one or more webcams shooting the screen. What one did in that workspace, the other would see in real time on their screen.

"Okay," you ask, "but what's the difference to existing ideas like Office Groove or other collaboration tools?" The difference is that if you have a touch screen, manipulation of objects becomes faster and more natural. You can do a whole lot more with touch screens than you can do with a mouse and keyboard. In addition to this, a whole new visual dimension is added when you can actually see the gestures the other person makes. It would be like being on two sides of a glass pane, where both can draw, move, resize, twist and turn objects on the pane. Text wouldn't be a problem since the other party could simply see the mirror image of what you see. That way, you can suggest things in real time and intuitively. Just imagine how fast creating sketches and models for web pages would become! In a matter of minutes two creative artists could construct a web page layout or even a 3D model, when such touch gestures are introduced that allow for twisting and turning of three-dimensional objects.

This was in part inspired by a presentation on the possibilities of multi-touch, found at ted.com, and in part by a Youtube video of a low-cost multi-touch whiteboard using the Wiimote. I mentally drool at the prospect of implementing this technology. What would it do to distance working? Who would need to make expensive and polluting business trips anymore?

Presentations could be just as engaging virtually, since the presentation becomes by nature more physical, more tactile. It would become interactive, as the audience could manipulate the objects on screen just as well as the presenter. In fact, "presentations" in the traditional sense might not be necessary at all in many cases! Instead, when someone gets an idea, people could get to work on it immediately and produce the document interactively, since producing it would be so fast and easy. No more hours of sitting in front of Powerpoint trying to fit that graph on one slide.

Visualizing ideas and suggestions immediately would now be possible, and in an ideal environment meetings would actually become productive as everyone could contribute to the matter at hand physically rather than merely verbally. In some situations, entire companies could work virtually without even needing a physical office. Impromptu entrepreneurships could form and dissolve quickly, and new ideas and products created lightning-fast without the creators ever meeting physically.

The world will change, people. It will change radically, and it will change fast. Those of us that can adapt to it the fastest will come out on top.

Edit: I just realized this vision was actually a memory triggered by something. You may remember the CSI scene from Minority Report, where John Anderton (Cruise) analyzes the photographic material gathered from the crime scene. Well, that's exactly what I'm talking about here. The screen they have is just a glass pane. Imagine having that and seeing the image of your collaborator on the other side of the pane, also able to manipulate the objects visible. People, this technology is only some years away from being reality everywhere!

Edit2: After some more research I found some more video footage of the possibilities of multi-touch. I also found that this very technology is in fact in use in our very own capital! Check out the Helsinki City Wall in use.

Life is wonderful!

2008-03-11T02:16:00.013+02:00

Clouds of Spring by Bora Akbay

Oh yes, 2008 has started well. And I hope it will continue on the same track. The past weeks have been absolutely priceless as I've made contact with old friends, made new ones, partied like no tomorrow, and generally had a smile on my face almost daily. It seems like the gloom of the winter is far gone and the sun that peeks down on us every now and then seems to reflect my re-emerging joy for life.

All of my New Year's resolutions have come true, and some have even surpassed my hopes! School has taken off well and my love life really took an upward turn. I don't know where I got my new-found mojo... But I'm not complaining. Somehow I just feel at ease with being single now. I feel like I've resolved the most serious issues of my past relationships and I don't feel awkward around my exes anymore.

I've received inspiration from many sources to work on my thesis some more, and even if it doesn't turn out to be a profitable business, at least I can make the day-to-day lives of my relatives and friends a bit easier (not to mention my own). ;) In addition to this, I received an encouraging letter from school stating that my graduation deadline isn't as close as I thought. Furthermore, it's not even the ultimate deadline! If for some reason I'm not ready to graduate in September 2008, I can apply for another year in extension. So I needn't sweat, and I can complete my thesis with quality in mind. I suppose the only problem is that new technologies keep cropping up that distract me from the product at hand. :D

In any case I once again want to express my love for life, for my friends, for my family, and every living organism that contributes to my well-being. I haven't been this happy since the summer of 2006, and that was the happiest time of my life. It's wonderful to be surrounded by people who allow you to be yourself and who know to have fun regardless of age, origin, occupation or any other external trait.

I feel like youth really is a state of mind, and judging by my life experience so far, I won't become "old" unless something really cataclysmic takes place. Thank you all. Life is wonderful. <3

Nokia Morph concept

2008-02-26T02:08:00.002+02:00

I love to read about exciting news. And this is definitely exciting news. A new concept phone from Nokia, although I'm not so sure we can call it a mere "phone" anymore. Allegedly this technology is approximately seven years away, and I'm curious to see how services will evolve to meet the possibilities of this device by 2015. But the way I see it, in 2015 we will have very little use for desktop computers. In fact, by 2020 they might seem really old-fashioned and I know my children will laugh at the white, bulky boxes my generation started computing with.
Essentially what we are talking about is today's desktop processing power (if not more) contained in a thin, flexible device that's one big display. But it goes further than that, the surface can actually change shape three-dimensionally. This means that when the iPhone was revolutionary due to its innovative touch screen UI, with the Morph we're talking about haptic UIs. The surface of the "phone" can actually mold into a keypad, a keyboard, media controls or any kind of input we need depending on the context.
So we can use it more intuitively than before, right? Okay. In addition to this it's hydrophobic. Yeah, "afraid of water." The surface can be made so slippery that water, dirt, or whatever just slides off it. Even the grease from your fingertips doesn't stick. This is all thanks to the nanoparticles that it's made of. They can just rearrange themselves to sort of shrug off the dirt.

That's still not all. The entire surface of the phone can work as a solar panel so it will recharge itself constantly. The surface can also work as a sensor of many kinds, measuring air pollution, detecting spoiled food and so on. It was not apparent from the press release or the video they released whether the camera will still be a separate module or not, but I imagine that if the surface can sense air pollution, it could also capture light. Which means you could use any part of the device to take pictures, at extremely high resolutions.
These technical features are all nice, but what really floats my boat is the mobility and usability improvements. The fact that it's flexible means you can fit it into your breast pocket, or even snap it around your wrist! The currently used "keypad lock" will instead lock the device shape, and to get it off you unlock it again. Then you can fold it out and have some 10" of high-resolution display on which to read news, watch a movie or chat with your friends. No more bulky laptops to lug around, no more cramped interfaces, no more shitty battery lives to worry about. Not to mention that the display resolution can be scaled naturally, so any photo or video can be displayed in its native resolution.

I'm just... Awed. Inspired. Excited. Intrigued. Fascinated. I'm blown away!

Check out this promotional video and tell me you don't feel the hype. I dare you.

(I will leave discussion on the services made possible by all this technology open. I'm too excited about the technical aspects to think rationally about all the possible services, and the societal impact certain to take place. And I think I have to discuss it with certain creative people. You know I mean you, grelbar.)

GUI programming tool for Fubox

2008-02-22T03:02:00.004+02:00

So I decided to look into GUI programming for Linux. I found a nice tool called Glade, a user interface builder which relies on the GTK+ toolkit. There's a great guide on using these two together to make graphical applications. I think I may just look into this to keep the application as flexible as possible. After all, making changes to someone else's code means you have to remake those changes whenever that software is updated. The guide's nice and long, detailed and even has sequel parts! This is great. :)

Everex Cloudbook

2008-02-15T00:06:00.003+02:00

Yeah, I just thought I'd write a bit about this Everex Cloudbook, another Eee PC -derivative. These just keep cropping up, and it's good. Power consumption is for once going down, not up. Less materials are used in production as well. We're seeing a whole wave of green desktops and laptops, most based on open-source solutions.This is a good thing. I mean, until now all we've seen is marketing for bigger, better, and more power-hungry! The gamers, of course, still strive to make their computer as monstrous as possible. I mean, they sell 1200W PSUs already... It's getting out of hand, I say! Soon you won't need a sauna anymore, since your computer will generate the same 4KW of heat as the sauna stove...

I'm probably going to get into the market of low-power computing. Sooner or later. For once one could market for something that can actually save the planet instead of destroying it even more...

Advancement in the field of edumacation

2008-02-01T02:32:00.003+02:00

Ah, the satisfaction. Finally I can reap some reward off the hard work put in this month. I have now gotten back on the bandwagon, and I once again feel confident about graduating. As evidence I will publish a to-do list I made at the beginning of the year and strike through the completed items.

~~Physics 3: re-take exam (turned out I had indeed already passed the course but teacher lost my exam ^^)~~
~~Process programming: hand in exercises 10-13~~
~~Network programming: hand in exercises 1-10 and pass the re-take exam~~
~~Thesis: Get work plan approved~~

~~Visual C++ programming: hand in exercises 1-11~~
~~Network protocols: analyze a protocol simulation~~
~~Multiprofessional teams and trends: write a 5-page summary on my thesis~~
~~Advanced data security: hand in exercises 8-12 and pass the re-take exam~~
Network programming: hand in exercise 17
Advanced data security: hand in exercises 13-17
Network operating systems: hand in exercises 3-4
~~Advanced Java programming: starts Feb 4th~~
Thesis: hold presentation ~~Mar 3rd~~
Thesis: hand in final version by ~~May 9th~~

Boy, does it feel good to look at that list getting shorter. Thanks to everyone who gave me supportive comments/e-mails/phonecalls/speeches. I don't think I could've done it without you guys. ^_^

The deadlines for the various tasks are a bit dubious, but the next two weeks will be concentrated on furious reading and programming to get the data security exam out of the way. Then I will focus my energy on the thesis (in addition to attending the two courses). It's going to be a long spring, but by June I'll at least feel like I've actually earned my papers.

Update December 3rd 2008: Well, life happened and I'm still not graduated. I'm a lot closer than I was back here though. Just had to grow up a little in between.

A hit of random

2008-01-30T06:26:00.000+02:00

I read a bit this night/morning on Teemu Arina's learnings. I watched one of his presentations in its entirety and was inspired again, after a long break. I felt there was sense in his message; that society today is too structured to be innovative.

Disorganization is good. Open source, wikis, blogging and the like are all forms of disorganization. Yet things get done. Strange, isn't it? And innovation is often the opposite of efficiency. I've been stressing about being more productive, when in reality it might hinder my creativity. As soon as school is over, I will give serious thought to my learning and working strategies. I certainly want to make the most of my creative potential.

I also read about a delightful blog called pink karma, thanks for the suggestion, siveys. It's another person who has turned great personal suffering into a great asset and learned through it to enjoy life to the fullest. I also had a discussion with siveys about perspectives. While it is true that we choose our perspective on life to a great extent, that view is either supported or opposed by the people around you. It is therefore very important to make sure your environment is conducive to optimism and creativity.

One of these aspects is my workplace. I have been depressed there often, and this discussion shed new light on why that is. That entire environment is unsuitable for me. The people are very focused on results and not on the process of working (which makes it kind of unproductive in itself), they are pessimistic, short-tempered, and quite cynical. The organizational structure of the company leaves little room for creativity on a grassroots level, even though the absolute best people to come up with improvements to existing processes and tools are the grunts - they have to work with the system every day!

In any case, I will be out of there soon. But it might make the environment easier to endure, since I now know the reasons for its bleakness and passiveness.

Argh. My thoughts are in such disorder at this hour. I suppose it'll all make sense later on.

The growth of open source

2008-01-24T02:09:00.000+02:00

Man, open source is getting big. And I mean BIG. This decade seems to witness a whole lot of breakthroughs in that area. I've written about Android already, but in the new millennium we have also seen the birth and/or growth of many other applications, movements or organizations such as Firefox, OpenOffice.org, Ubuntu Linux, OpenSocial, the Java platform, and most recently, IBM's Lotus Symphony. In addition to this, Sun recently acquired MySQL and continues on its open-source endeavors.

On the closed source/copyright side, DRM took a big hit when all large Internet music vendors except iTunes.com gave it up. Hopefully we won't have to endure that pestilence in the future. Microsoft's 7th version of Windows, codename Vienna, will have a 25mb kernel instead of a 1,5gb one like in Vista. It's based on an entirely new concept called microkernel. Of course, it's only new for Microsoft. This is what *nixes are based on, and is the basis for their stability and resource-thriftiness. Hopefully this will mean a more stable, easier to develop and maintain, modular Windows that allows us to customize it far more than before. They could publish two different windowing systems, one for business use and the other for entertainment use.

The business version would be ultra-simplified, something like Windows 2000. The entertainment version could be really flashy and include media services that the business version excludes for efficiency. Being the idealist, I'm hoping that Microsoft would publish APIs that allow you to even install third-party windowing systems (such as KDE) and choose services yourself. We could finally have tailored Windows versions, and the only thing the business and entertainment version share would be the kernel.

What I'm thinking is, I could have an OS with a Windows kernel, DirectX for gaming, and the Gnome or XFCE windowing system. 90% of my OS could be open source, with only a few closed Microsoft technologies at the core, enabling me to run games on it. I could even pay good money for just such a kernel and such a level of openness. But I realize this is very Utopian of me; most likely they will not open Windows up anymore than today, for fear of losing their monopoly. However, in the spirit of the 21st century even Microsoft could start focusing more on profiting from service and support than from the software itself.

In any case I believe strongly in the next decade seeing the true breakthrough of open-source software. Ubuntu has gained popularity quickly, and the loop feeds itself. A larger user base provides more testers and developers, which makes the GNU/Linux and the software surrounding it more stable, more compatible, and easier to use, which brings even more new users becoming testers and developers. The same of course applies for office software thanks to the OpenDocument Format. I believe a lot of companies will see the benefits of open source: no license fees, less training costs since development is continuous and not version-oriented, wide-spread community-oriented (in addition to professional) support, and open standards providing flexibility to migrate to new software without compatibility problems.

A few months ago I stumbled upon ilmaisohjelmat.fi when looking for IRC setup instructions for Pidgin, an open-source IM program (like MSN Messenger). And what a wonderful discovery it was! Finally a site that collects, organizes and provides links to open-source software in an innovative, user-friendly way. From there I stumbled on into Maagit.fi and got acquainted with MODx, an open-source CMS (Content Management System). It's basically a WYSIWYG tool for developing websites, automating many of the tedious tasks of web authoring, such as site structure, interlinking of web pages, creation of site maps, generating PHP code, and managing CSS files and document rights. I think I'll look a lot into the possibilities of this tool, since Maagit has already managed to sell this service (implementation and training, since the software is free of charge) to a lot of companies. You never know what you'll be working with, and I've been wanting some kind of CMS for my web site for a while now.

My prediction? In 2018, most government agencies and schools will be running open-source solutions for nearly everything. Information and software will be portable between school, home and work; between desktop computer, pocket PC, and mobile phone; between Windows, Mac OS and *nixes. Of course virtualization will increase so much that portability won't even be much of an issue since you store nearly everything online. Most probably you can just rent a virtual PC and use a terminal from home or anywhere else. You just log in to "your" computer from anywhere in the world and work remotely on everything. All it takes is open (and therefore compatible) enough platforms. You open the same document you created at home on your phone, at the library, or at work. Since the PC is virtual, you can get an OS as a whole or choose every module separately. Let's say I'm comfortable using the Ubuntu distro with the XFCE windowing environment. I can just choose those components and the applications I need and use that same configuration with one log-in from any terminal.

The only thing not going virtual is gaming. New games will probably always require all the performance of a PC, and therefore it won't be feasible to share those computers. However, the difference between a gaming PC and a gaming console will decrease significantly, if not disappear altogether. Already you can stream media from Windows PCs to the Xbox. Already you can chat through the Xbox, download media to it, use it as a music and video player, and much more. The only thing missing is the ability to browse the web. The introduction of the mouse to consoles will also enable playing of FPSs and RTSs on consoles, making Windows.. Well, for my purposes pretty much obsolete. One problem is that the tools for making games for consoles are so expensive that indie games would probably die out. Then again, we have EA and some other company (can't for the life of me remember which one) publishing games for free now, supported by ads and in-game purchases, such as new equipment or bonus features.

So with that, I see my 2018 living room as having a gaming console, a VPC terminal and a video wall consisting of either an OLED display, a plasma display or just reflecting a projector image as sharp as though looking out a window. The sound is probably the only signal not transmitted wirelessly, although even that is a possibility with robust wireless audio standards and active speakers sporting powerful antennas and radio chips.

Charity and shit

2008-01-18T13:28:00.001+02:00

http://www.google.org/

I just love these guys to death. They seem to be sneaking up on you with novel ideas all the time. And virtuous ones at that! They are very strong proponents of open-source technology, which has been witnessed by the Android project, to give an example.

This site I newly stumbled upon is their research and charity site. It enlightens us about different projects Google is working on, such as renewable energy, electric cars, greener computing... They really are idealists, Larry and Sergey. I like them. I hope that their ideals stay alive for a long time, since we all know that as an organization grows, so does its potential for corruption. There is always someone who is greedy, and greed tends to spread.

Anyway, I recommend reading about their projects. The renewable energy project, "RE is less than C", is my favorite. They want to reduce the world's dependency on coal and instead focus on solar and wind energy. These are the companies that this world needs!

---

On my life in general, I seem to have gotten back on the bandwagon. I've sent in a lot of exercises, re-took an exam, and am well on my way to getting all other courses done on time. However, the thesis kind of stresses me now. Even though I yesterday found out I have 5 extra weeks, 15 weeks doesn't seem that long a time when looking at the work I have ahead of me. As I'm doing my 40-page thesis, I also need to work two days a week and finish like... seven or so courses. Let's see: Programming Environments (Visual C++) due Jan 31st, Network protocols, Process programming, Advanced data security, Multi-professional teams and trends, Java programming and Network operating systems. Yep, seven. If I was on schedule, I would have one course to worry about, not seven. Okay, most of those courses only require a few hours' work to pass. I'm lacking like one or two exercises. But I still have about three full courses worth of studying to do, so it won't be an easy spring.

But I've been lazy in the past, and I'm now reaping what I sowed. When I have that silly cap that graduates are given, I will start earning the big bucks. I mean it. I intend to make a difference in this life, be it through my own company or rising in the ranks of somebody else's. But I'm tired of being the poor student/working guy who trudges on with a lot of ability and no opportunity. I've been stressed out in the past about becoming some corporate whore who does 60-hour weeks and then takes his work home, too. I've been worried that as soon as I enter the working life I lose all of my student freedoms and can't go abroad anymore. I've been afraid of becoming routinized immediately.

Somehow right now that seems a silly thought. Nothing is permanent. I can work for a year or two, then study some more. I can go abroad through work. I can study at work. IT companies in particular train their staff continuously to keep up with the fast-paced world of computers. So what the hell have I really been worried about? I've stopped worrying, gotten off my ass and started doing. Time to get some of that direction I've been talking about for the past six months.

Fascinating developments in ICT

2007-11-05T23:17:00.000+02:00

Man, these are interesting times we live in. I want to comment on four news items that have gotten me excited lately.

Asus Eee PC
Improved SSD technology from Samsung
Android from Google
Free IPTV for Finnish students (in Finnish only)

First up, the Asus Eee PC. It's just what we've tried to accomplish with the Fubox, only in portable form! It runs customized Linux, it runs off flash memory, it has a simplified UI, it consumes very little power, and it's small. Okay, it's not completely silent. It does have a fan, but according to first impressions it's one of the quietest notebook fans ever heard.

I definitely want one for myself, and I believe my ultraportable problem has been solved. I was waiting for Apple to release an ultraportable, but having both that and the MBP would just be too much. Too expensive, and just too... Apple. I have a very good feeling about the Eee PC, and it can only develop for the better since it has an open platform and there's already a community forming around it!

Man. And I thought my 12" PowerBook was portable... The Eee PC weighs 0.92 kgs, and the measurements are 22.5 x 16.4 x 3.5 cm. Not bad! The only thing that surprises me, though, is the reported battery life. 3.5 hours? I would have thought a laptop like this has upwards of 6 hours... But according to notebookreview.com, even running a DivX movie on it, with wireless turned on and the backlight at 100%, it lasted that long. So with wireless turned off and brightness at a minimum (which is how I would use it to take notes in class for instance) I bet it will last for the six hours that has become my standard as a Mac user.

So I'm getting one as soon as they land in Finland. That may take a long time since they're having a serious shortage of units. Strange, just as if others would be interested in it, too... But by the time they finally land in this lovely sub-arctic country of ours, they should already be second generation, sporting new Intel Merom processors, thereby reducing power consumption even further from 11W to 7W, and allowing removal of the fan. This would bring it perfectly in line with our specifications for the Fubox.

Next item, new SSD drives. They are supposedly twice as fast as previous ones. We'll have to wait a while longer before those read/write speeds are confirmed, as they have been reported by Samsung and not a neutral third party. But still, I drool at the concept: 100MB/s write speeds and 120MB/s read! As a point of comparison, current laptop hard drives go up to around 60/55MB/s, desktop hard drives up to 95/95MB/s. And don't even get me started on access times! Laptop drives at best 14ms, desktop drives at best 8ms, SSD drives... less than 0.1ms. According to Samsung's promotional material (video warning), boot-up times, file read times and shut down times are all sped up by 20 - 40%. I so want that on my laptop... Oh wait, the Eee PC will have up to 8GB of SSD memory. Whaddayaknow. :)

Guess these should have been separate posts... but here goes. Android, the new Google platform for mobile devices, might revolutionize the smartphone/PDA/UMPC/MID market. They really want everyone to be Googlefied, so they are publishing an open platform so that devices and applications can be more compatible in the future. Also cheaper, since the platform will be free. Naturally Nokia, Apple, Microsoft and any other company developing their own platform is miffed. What will happen when a lot of manufacturers move to using Android instead of Symbian, Windows Mobile or other closed and expensive platforms? There's only one phone so far touting the Google platform: the HTC Omni. Damn, that is a sexy-looking device. A dream indeed. No matter how much I like Nokia and want to support our country, I won't hesitate for a moment to buy a device that supports Linux and the open-source ideology. Can't wait to see what kind of new applications we're going to have! Not to mention
making my own applications... I wonder if the UI will be able to be tweaked?

Okay, last item today. Free IPTV for students. It's a very very nice thing for students to have. No more need for a shitty set-top box to see shitty terrestrial broadcasts with shitty programming. You can henceforth view all the shit available on TV through the Internet! Yay... However, now your computer is truly the all-in-one device for your home. When even TV programs are broadcast via IP, it means students can use a laptop for work and entertainment and need no other electronics in their apartment. AND it makes the Fubox a very attractive option for students. With theneed for a set-top box gone, the Fubox can handle every entertainment-related task that students on a limited budget will need. Just hook up a large hard drive and save IPTV broadcasts straight to it. Invest slightly more in a computer display instead of buying a shitty display and a shitty TV, if you really want a big picture.

I just hope the technical difficulties YLE and Digita have been having don't continue in the great tubes. That would just be too much. But it's free... well, as free as TV broadcasts in Finland get. Jeez. I would never pay 200+ euros a year for the shit we get on TV. I wonder how they will in the future check for TV receivers? Until now it's been a simple quick look and "AHA! I see you have a TV! And you have no TV permit! You pay one million dollars in fines PLUS the regular fee." Now every student has a computer (more or less). Every student apartment will have access to IPTV, whether or not they have a TV receiver. What does this mesn? Can they automatically charge students just because they have a computer? What if they truly do not want to watch TV? Like myself. I'd probably ignore TV broadcasts even with IPTV. So I'd be fucking furious if an inspector came in and charged me for TV just because I have a computer. I'll be curious to see where all this leads.

But all in all, it's still a nice gesture to make. Students can more affordably watch semi-decent TV now.

That's all for today.
Tune in tomorrow again, same bat time, same bat channel.

Future material speculations

2007-10-08T15:19:00.001+03:00

Thought of the day: since I have no woman to entertain me, I busy myself with expensive electronics.

So here goes: list for future developments in my digital home:

30-inch screen (just read up on a nice model from HP)
Alternatively, a 19-inch pivotable screen to place next to my 22-incher for convenient web browsing and PDF reading (also while playing games :))
Acoustic panels for the movie room to reduce echo
Floor stands for my speakers
A network storage drive, since the current external hard drives are very inconvenient for file sharing

Alternatively, we could just hook up our hard drives to a heavy-duty Fubox, so we have a media center that also acts as a file server. More costly, but I plan on getting a Fubox anyway, so the total price would be lower and the solution would definitely become more convenient. Then again, if we want to take our media with us... portability becomes a problem. I have to think this through. The keyword is convenience. Easy access and flexibility.

The point is that I ultimately have a dedicated media computer, running 24/7 with low energy-consumption, through which I can download content. That content would be saved on a network drive for any computer in the household to use. It doesn't matter to the end-user how that data is saved; whether to an internal or external drive; whether to one or multiple drives. What is important is that the user can take that media with him at will without having to lug five or six different devices along. Two would be optimal. The media playback device (Fubox or laptop) and one network drive (either inside the Fubox or in one external case).

In any case multiple storage media are a bad solution. It's terribly inconvenient. Scalability can also be an issue. Is the same setup usable in two years? How about five? I would like a system that has a lifespan of five years minimum. I don't want to be switching hardware (other than possibly hard drives) every few months because the demands have changed. An engineer should know how to build a proper media playback system that is convenient both at home and on the go. So that's another project for me this fall (as if I don't have enough already... ugh).

On English

2007-09-13T00:10:00.000+03:00

I've wanted to write a post on English for a while. I've heard from three women that I resort to English whenever something is difficult for me to say. I didn't think there was anything to those statements until my sister heard the same from a friend of hers. Whenever there's a difficult issue, an awkward situation, we start to speak English. Why is that? Why would we switch to English when such a situation comes up?

They've claimed it's a sort of mask we hide behind. I'm not quite sure that's the whole truth though. I use English almost daily in other situations, too. It's not just in awkward situations where I would want to distance myself from the person I'm talking to, but in virtually any situation I might switch to English just for the hell of it. Why? Because English is a fun language. It's versatile. It's melodious. It's so much more colorful than my mother tongue, Finnish, or my official native language, Swedish (which is in fact nowhere near my level of Finnish).

My Finnish is more well-rounded, meaning I can use it in any fathomable situation, whereas my English vocabulary has holes in it, meaning there are some situations where I am at a loss for words, such as in the kitchen, or when an excessive amount of slang is used. Still, my sheer vocabulary size is much larger in English than in Finnish and Swedish combined, simply because a) English contains about ten times the words in Finnish or Swedish and b) I have read mostly English literature and texts on the Internet.

So what does the versatility of English have to do with using it in awkward situations? Well, a larger vocabulary allows you to express yourself more accurately. You can choose your words much more carefully since English is not blunt like Finnish but subtle, careful, eloquent. You can utter your thoughts very precisely and avoid confusion and misunderstanding. The thing is, we are both very empathic people and hate upsetting others. We are rather delicate in our speech and so English allows us to carefully formulate our intentions without hurting the other party.

I've certainly seen beautiful poetry and prose in Finnish and Swedish, but somehow it just doesn't compare to the flexibility and freedom of the English language. I write almost everything in English nowadays. Finnish and Swedish seem so rigid and blunt in comparison that I find it easier to say exactly what I want to say in English.

So whenever I speak English to you and it seems I'm doing so because I want to hide behind a strange language or I want to put a distance between myself and you, don't be offended. It just means I care about not hurting you and want to avoid being misunderstood. I express myself best in English, and that's the way it will always be. Some might call it the easy way out, but for those that understand English well enough to understand me it should really only be a sign that this is a difficult matter for me and I want you to know exactly what my intentions are.

Inspiration

2007-09-07T12:13:00.000+03:00

Wow, a month since my last entry. I've been busy, it seems. School nowadays takes up all of my spare time. I've decided to take the bull by the horns and just graduate this year no matter what. I have my work cut out for me, but I now feel like I have the motivation to pull through. I've taken up some new time management tools and the fact that my program coordinator at school accepted the Fubox Project as thesis was paramount to success this fall. It will cover a multitude of things: first, I have a thesis subject. One that I am interested in and have enthusiasm for. Second, it provides me with a theme for my multimedia production course. I will produce a showcase web site and a promotional video for the Fubox. Finally, it will provide some direction after graduation, as I intend to launch a company for selling these babies with my friend grelbar. Of course it remains to be seen if the prototype is fit for living rooms in Finland, but I am confident that when the two of us have inspiration, when we have a vision... We will make it happen. The only limit is our determination. And boy, are we determined now.

What else. I've taken up dancing again, this time it's salsa. Rueda and partner salsa to be exact. It's a lot of fun, though I'm light-years behind the others. Most people there have been doing salsa for a year or several. The second most newbie dancers are my friends, who have been there for 6 months. So I have a lot of catching up to do. You might ask why I would take such an advanced course with next to no experience. Well, this way I can learn the basics in a few weeks, whereas on a newbie course it would take me months and months to learn. My learning capacity is a bit better than that of newbie dancers. I have a sense of rhythm, I've danced a lot of other dances, I'm young and sharp. So I feel like I'd be wasting time on a newbie course. It's frustrating at times because I have to learn a dozen new steps/moves in one hour, but it's fun and challenging. And every time there is a lot of progress. And the others tolerate my noobness. They need the men, after all. Oftentimes three women have to dance alone, or one has to pretend to be a man. Not very much fun for them, having to learn both the women's and men's steps. And of course, my friends are there for support and for tutoring me. ;)

I've decided to give up on women for the fall. I'll take another look at my schedule come 2008, but for now it just doesn't accommodate dating at all. Plus, I need the self-confidence derived from accomplishment before my esteem is back to a level where I can date without being clingy. Of course, if a smart beautiful mature independent youthful energetic passionate woman falls in my lap, I won't push her away. But I won't spend any time looking for action. I've been celibate before, no problem there. I'm not much for one-night stands anyway, and anything more requires a whole lot of time and mental resources that I plain don't have. It's another weight off my shoulders because it simplifies my life for the time being.

I will concentrate on one thing this fall: school. I have to finish nine courses, which will be a bitch. Five of those are old courses which have been hanging for months or years. I'll just do them now. I have a tight schedule now, and I will keep it. No slacking off. Time to take the reins of my life into my own hands again.

The advantage of globalization

2007-08-13T10:34:00.000+03:00

Globalization has brought our minds together, speeding up the exchange of ideas. Our collective creativity has as a result accelerated. As the Internet continues to evolve, we may see an era of unprecedented innovation. The trick is how to control communication and how to ounce out the real innovations, so they aren't drowned in the sea of ideas. What if the seed of quantum computing is in my blog? Or yours? A discussion board might contain the right questions to ask for research into teleportation, fusion energy and the like.

Wikipedia is a good example of a knowledge base that is contributed to by millions of people worldwide. Unfortunately a bias remains because the contributors still have to have access to a computer, enough of an education to be able to use one, and know of the existence of Wikipedia, and know enough English to contribute to the "universal" or "general" Wikipedia knowledge base.

Still, I've noticed (as many others have) that virtually any piece of information can be found through the Internet. After all, all knowledge ultimately resides in people. And you can connect to the right people through the Internet. The most important skill we learn may turn out to be information-seeking. Getting connected to the right people. Using the Internet to its full potential.

I recently realized that the only way to increase creativity is to be around people, around events. To talk to people, share ideas. The more perspectives you get, the more ideas you get. Thinking collectively, if a billion people start doing this globally, through the Internet... Where is the limit? How far can we go?

As technology has evolved, the human race has increased its lifespan. Unfortunately this has lead to such a large population that we are squandering our planet's resources. I can't remember which movie or book made the metaphor... But humans were compared to locusts, who devour a crop and then move to the next, leaving only devastation behind. Nothing can grow where a swarm of locusts have been. We may ultimately be the same, only instead of crops we devour entire planets (given that we are fast enough to develop viable space travel before we are out of resources).

What I'm saying is, sure, technology evolves faster than ever. But it must evolve faster than the human population grows, lest we extinct ourselves by using up the resources of this planet before we know how to recycle and preserve them (if this is even allowed by natural physics and chemistry).

There are theories stating that the human population will actually start diminishing after a certain point. In developed countries, less and less babies are born. As freshly industrialized countries evolve, they, too, may experience the same trend. Nature might even pull a fast one on us and kill our fertility, like in Children of Men. Although I admit it sounds rather fatalistic, I believe we just have to kill off most of ourselves before we can survive as a race. We may just have a future AI, like SkyNet, or the machines in The Matrix, do that for us.

Indefinite growth is just not feasible. Even if we develop space travel to the level where we can move billions of people between solar systems, how common are planets that support our species? Right. Not very. So being completely pragmatic, we should make a mathematical model of the amount of humans our planet can support, and then make some international laws for procreation, like in Code 46.

I guess I managed to digress quite a bit. Well, shove this in the category of rants and I don't have to be coherent! Ha!

Assembly 2007

2007-08-03T21:59:00.000+03:00

So I decided to take part of this year's Assembly event. I almost sold my ticket, even though I had wanted to come for many years already. This was due to lousy timing of different events. I was unable to get Friday off work, but that wouldn't have deterred me in the least. I would still have been able to game and hack for 40 hours straight. The real reason was that my cousin's wedding is on Saturday. So not only do I have to go, but I have to look presentable - no, elegant - for the wedding. So I had to dryclean my pants and clean up my jacket and shoes. I have to look semi-alert, even though I wanted to try to go two nights with virtually no sleep. This had me seriously miffed.

But like I said, I decided to go after all. It's my first Assembly event and I wanted to see what it's all about. I can say I'm excited about all the expos, competitions, compos, lotteries, and whatnot. However, I can't fully enjoy the event for many reasons. My emotions are in such a tangle after the whole Kia thing. Geez. I still have mood swings because if the uncertainty I've lived in for the past two months.

I gotta say the music playing is awesome! Currently playing "Blue Bomber's Return". I like this compo the most, although we're right under the speakers, and the treble is fucking horrible. Breaks my ears. Anyway...

The wedding tomorrow makes me unable to just relax and enjoy the event, too. I keep thinking about schedules and all that. And there's the cats. Pöde was already giving me a piece of his mind about being left alone for such a long time. I hope they'll manage for another few hours.

Money is another issue, as I was planning sizeable purchases, and I'm not sure I can carry them out anymore. I wanted to buy a MacBook Pro and a digital piano, but the sum, combined with my recent Genelec purchase, exceeds my funds. I may have succumbed to a minor hit of megalomania. After all, I'm also purchasing a new, larger screen after getting the 22-incher, already huge. What am I doing? Am I compensating for something?

I guess I should concentrate on life instead of gadgets. I can't say for sure that I'm getting the MBP for purely practical reasons. I did motivate the purchase very well, but still I can't say I won't enjoy the respect that the sleek silvery object earns among peers. As well as the Genelecs, and the huge TFT screen... Like I said, if I were someone else watching my actions, I'd be pretty sure I'm trying to compensate for something. Then again, I have no other expenses, really. No property, low rent, no car. Electronics is my thing. The question remaining is whether I can afford all that. I'll try not to think about it too much, but I've spent the last week browsing for alternative laptops... So I'm worried about myself.

I guess I'll sort it all out when I get over Kia and finish the ultra-boring summer job I have. I feel guilt for that, too... It's so uninspiring I've mostly slacked off over there. And by 'mostly' I mean like 90% of the time. I feel sick. I've never been so unmotivated at a job in my life. Well, yeah. Things will look up, I'm sure. Right now I'm trying to make the best I can of Assembly '07.

Developments

2007-07-30T11:47:00.000+03:00

Okay, I had a lengthy discussion with Grelbar about the possibilities of the, uh... computer? I described in my previous post. I'm not sure what to call it, since it's not a traditional PC, but then again I wouldn't call it a set-top box either. I'll just call it a media box. See, we thought it could be possible to customize a Linux distro that allows for complete navigation of the box's functions by a TV remote. It'll be a long project, but the end result could prove to be cool. Simplicity is the key. We want the box to be as simple to use as any dedicated device, such as a stereo or a set-top box, but with the versatility of modern computers. We'll see what we can whip up. I'm really getting excited about this project! ;)

-----

Also, I got my 17-incher sold. Pyllyukko was interested in buying it, and we settled for the Good Friend(tm) price of 65 bucks. I don't suppose I would have gotten more than 80-90 bucks for it anyway, and this way I don't have to deal with the hassle of doing business with a stranger. Good deal to me. Now, I still have to find a buyer for my desktop. And laptop, once I get the MBP. Heh, I discussed getting a new TV with my sister the other day. After a while I had an insight: why the hell are we buying a TV? We are paying in vain for a tuner that neither one needs, and speakers that we need even less. Why not instead buy a large computer screen, and invest the money saved on higher resolution? I ended up with the Samsung 245B (in Finnish). Nice screen: 24 inches, 1920 by 1200 pixels resolution, 1000:1 contrast ratio, 160/160 degree viewing angles. 5ms response time. Has done well in tests, geeks have been impressed with the price/quality ratio.

So now you're thinking "is this guy insane? He just bought a new 22-incher two months ago!" True, yes, but the good thing about being in the consumer electronics retail business is, you can switch to new stuff all the time and not lose very much money in between, since you get everything at a discount. I may even make money by selling my 22-incher! ;) Anyway, the reasons for switching are:
1) The current screen was bought mainly for desktop use. My recent plans will however make it obsolete, since I won't have a desktop computer anymore. Instead it will serve as the display for the new media box.
2) 22 inches doesn't quite cut it at a 2-meter viewing distance. The couple extra inches will come in handy.
3) The new screen will be HD capable. I intend to get the motherboard with built-in HD encoding so I can watch high-definition video! And the great thing is, I have a silent box to run it from - no noisy fans disturbing my movie experience. When the prices for Blu-ray/HD-DVD drives go down, I can also upgrade the optical drive to make the box fully HD capable.

Ah, the future is here.

Another episode on digital entertainment

2007-07-26T10:47:00.000+03:00

Okay, I've let the idea of the MacBook Pro simmer for a while, and every day it seems like a better idea. Less cords, less power consumption, less noise. More space, more mobility, more processing power, more coolness, more dicksize. More everything! Less is more!

I realized I also have a 17" flatscreen just lying on my top shelf. I don't know what to do with it. I thought I had a buyer for it, but she changed her mind. Come September 1st, I'll have three things to sell: the 2-year-old PowerBook, the nearly 2-year-old 17-incher, and my desktop computer. I'll probably get 600 bucks, 80 bucks, and 400 bucks for these, respectively. The question is how do I sell them? Desktops are in very low demand nowadays, and I might have to sell it component by component. This would suck, as shipping the parts separately is a pain, and the sheer effort of ten times the communication required to sell it in parts is staggering. Hours upon hours of writing e-mail, calling, negotiating prices and shipping options, possibly arranging pickup, etc. I think I'll just try to sell it as a package a bit cheaper if I can't get it sold for what the parts are worth separately.

I have more problems with selling these. The PSU of the case generates a lot of noise, and I should get rid of that somehow before selling it. It really becomes annoying when the fan is howling and the case keeps resonating. And I thought the Antec Sonata II was a good investment. Hah. The PSU isn't even compatible with all motherboards! Piece of shit hardware. Next desktop I get (if I get an ATX one anymore, further reflection on this below), will be a Nexus. They're spacious, solid, powerful, and silent out of the box. Just the way I like it. I'm not much of a do-it-yourself guy.

I have a few of problems with the laptop. It works alright, but not all of the time. I've had it break once so that it wouldn't boot up at all. It couldn't read the hard drive. The problem fixed itself after I shut it down and started it up again a few hours later. I've had trouble with the headphone jack only giving out one channel, leaving the other one dead. Finally, the speakers used to be quirky, sometimes playing one channel and sometimes both, depending on the position of the laptop. Funny thing is, I only had these problems while in Canada! After that I haven't had any problems with it! But it still makes it kinda hard to sell. If the buyer asks "is this 100% reliable?" I can't say yes. It significantly lowers the selling price of it. Sigh. Plus! When traveling to Canada, the installation media broke. The CD's were poorly protected in my bag and were at some point cracked in the middle. So I can't even give the OS CD to go with the hardware. I'm really not sure how much the laptop is worth in its current state. The hardware with its functionality and practicality is worth 600€ for sure, but with poor accessories and reliability... Meh.

----------

I found out yesterday about cool new motherboards and processors from my friend Grelbar. Apparently VIA started manufacturing mini-ITX motherboards that have an integrated fanless processor and graphics accelerator. That's right. Completely passive cooling! And that's not all; the graphics chip has negligible 3D acceleration but instead it specializes in MPEG-2 decoding! This means even if the graphics performance were otherwise inadequate for viewing DVDs, it's no problem for this baby. There are now mini-ITX compatible cases sold with passive PSUs as well. All you need to add to this setup is RAM, a DVD drive, and storage media.

VIA Epia CN10000EA

Note that the processor is VIA's own and does not support any other OS than Linux. Of course, that's no problem! You can build a decent media player out of a Linux box any day. Linux also supports flash memory as the primary partition, so you don't even need a hard drive to run it! No moving parts. No fans. No heat. No noise. Pure bliss! You can just insert a 4GB flash drive and run everything off of that. Then just connect an external hard drive (which is usually sound isolated well and produces no resonance) to it and voilà! You have a working media player. It has VGA and S-video output, and for 100€ extra you get HD-grade video decoding and component output. You get digital 5.1-channel or analog stereo audio output. And all of this consumes less than 30 watts of power in DVD playback mode! The consumption is about the same in office use, and smaller in other uses. In idle mode you can go as low as 17W!

So basically you have a noiseless, very power-thrifty device that is capable of

Video playback (any format; DVD, VCD, DivX, WMV, MPEG...)
Music playback (any format; CD, DVD, MP3, WMA, OGG...)
Photo viewing and editing (save heavy editing using large uncompressed images; Photoshop requires a whole lot of processing power)
Internet browsing
Office use

The only thing you can't do with it is play games. It's the perfect device for the living room. It replaces your DVD player and stereo, and for many people even their desktop computer! By now you're probably wondering what a miracle like this costs. I was stunned to see that you don't have to pay any more than you'd pay for a basic desktop computer! Here's an example.

Silverstone LaScala SST-LC05S: Front view
Back view
Side view
Top view

Motherboard + CPU

VIA Epia CN10000EA Fanless 1300MHz CPU (163€)

RAM

Kingston 1024MB 667MHZ DDR2 NON-ECC DIMM memory module (43€)

Case

Silverstone LaScala SST-LC05S - Mini-ITX, 80W, silver (148€)

DVD drive

Samsung SH-S182D/RSMN Super-WriteMaster 18x DVD+/-RW (35€)

Storage media

Kingston Data Traveler USB flash drive 4 GB (36€)

Grand total: 425 €

Conclusion: I just have to get myself one of these babies! For an extra 30€ I could change the case and DVD drive so that the drive is of a slimmer model (better looking and allows space for a PCI expansion card, for instance for WLAN), and as earlier stated, for another 100€ the setup would be HD-capable. Let's see how prices fluctuate during the fall, but I'm betting that by Christmas, even with those upgrades, I will be able to buy the whole setup for 400 smackers. We'll see. ;)

Edit: It seems the C7 processor supports Win2000/WinXP after all. Not that anyone would voluntarily install that over Linux, when there's no juice in the hardware for playing games anyway. :)

A mobile lifestyle

2007-07-15T16:56:00.000+03:00

1st September 2007: Mac's getting a new Mac. Yeah. I decided today. As soon as September kicks in and I'm allowed to lift another 1200 or so bucks or student loan, I'm gonna buy myself a new laptop. I decided to switch over completely to a portable computer, selling my desktop computer and old laptop and investing in a MacBook Pro.

These babies are delicious (click here if you'd rather read it in Finnish). 2.2Ghz Intel Core 2 Duo, 2GB of RAM, 120GB hard drive, and the usual gimmicks laptops come with these days: WLAN, Bluetooth, built-in webcam, DVD burner, digital sound input/output. It's sleek, only 2.6cm thick, and weighs a modest 2.45kgs. The battery life is typically to Macs an awesome 6 hours, and the Intel platform finally ables me to install every operating system on it. This means I'll have Mac OS X, Ubuntu Linux and Windows XP for gaming. Wonderful! In one sweep, this device will replace my current desktop computer and laptop, dvd player and cd player. In addition to that it's portable, so I can finally take all of my home electronics with me when I travel or move abroad!

The downside to all this is, of course, a prohibitively high price. Even for a student it costs 1750 euros. But if I bought the aforementioned entertainment electronics devices separately, they would cost me even more. Desktop computer suitable for gaming (with a 19" widescreen): 1200 bucks. Basic laptop (N.B. with only 3 hours' battery life): 700 bucks. DVD player: 70 bucks. That already makes nearly 2000 bucks! And like I said, moving abroad with all of those would be noticeably harder than just packing my six-pound laptop in my suitcase. And cost much more! In the long run I'll save time, money, and effort just because moving my life around is so much easier. My life in a laptop? Suits me just fine.

You might ask why I'm not just buying a regular MacBook that costs 550 euros less? Reason: because I still want to play games. And if I buy a Macbook and instead upgrade my desktop computer to match the performance of the MacBook Pro, I'll spend more money than if I switch. I could also sell the desktop computer and buy a console instead. Less hassle with games, right? But again, this deviates from the "mobility" concept. And besides, the game prices for consoles are insane. I can get thousands of games for free for my computer, and I already have hundreds in store from before that will work forever. With consoles, the games you previously bought become obsolete when you upgrade. What, you say they too are backwards compatible? Yeah right. Just look at the list of PS2 games that work with the PS3. The support is menial at best. And mobility is not an issue with only the console itself; the games also require space. If I take 50 PS3 games with me when I move, how much space do they need? If I instead take my laptop with 500 games stored on the hard drive... I'm sure you get my drift.

I suppose while I'm ranting I could advertise the fact that I have finally acquired new speakers! For the longest time I pondered whether I should buy a new home theater with 5 speakers and a subwoofer, or just go for a stereo set. I came to the conclusion that if I watch on average less than ten movies per year at home, but instead listen to music more than 40 hours a week, it probably wouldn't pay to get a 5.1 set. Then a friend of mine asked me why I want to have a separate amplifier at all. Why not get active speakers with built-in amplifiers? "But don't they usually have bad sound quality? Like computer speakers?" Not all. Check out Genelec's selection, listen to their speakers and then you can tell me they don't sound good. ;) Okay, I had to spend almost a month's salary on just one pair... But I value good music. It's about the same amount I earlier paid for my Harman/Kardon amplifier and Infinity 5.1 speaker home theater setup. And music sounds much better with these. And! They are... you got it, portable. Once again, if I move, it's not hard to pack a couple of 5.6kg speakers along, as opposed to a 50 kilogram home theater setup.

Suddenly moving doesn't seem that much of an ordeal anymore! Besides, I drool at the notion of being able to take my laptop, external hard drive and speakers with me (weighing in total less than 15 kgs) and set up a party wherever I go! Those speakers have a total power output of 160W, and you can actually turn that volume knob all the way to the max without the sound quality deteriorating. How many can say the same about their own sound reproduction system?

Ah. Life's good again in the digital entertainment arena. It's actually good in most arenas right now anyway. Things are looking up from my recent bout of depression. :)

Psychological prisons: another Matrix metaphor

2007-07-06T12:22:00.000+03:00

This spring I've often thought about psychological prisons. I had a disturbing deja vu experience at the beginning of the year when I realized I had been "living in a dream world" as Laurence Fishburne put it in The Matrix. I realized I had lived for years under the influence of a mind much stronger than mine, not really doing what I wanted, but what was really life according to the wishes of another person.

As I realized this, the shock was so horrible that I had to completely disengage from my then current life situation, much as Neo did. I had to abandon a large portion of the previous four years of my life - ex-girlfriend and friend, pets, apartment, numerous friends acquired through this one person, and a whole lot of my decency. I had to, for the first time in my life, be quite mean to someone, essentially pulling the rug from under their feet, leaving that person with all responsibility for mutual property, forcing them to put school on hold, and taking away one of her best friends.

It hurt like nothing had ever hurt before, but I had no choice if I wanted to take control of my own life and start living according to me and not someone else. I had to take the red pill and see how much life could offer me when I was not restricted by the needs and wants of another person. I had to "tumble down the rabbit hole" and let go of the dependency I had had for years.

I can't say how I felt my eyes opened after this. I saw a whole new world and wondered how I had never seen it before. Suddenly everything that I had previously thought was "not meant for me" was quite attainable. I could do anything. I had already previously thought I had a lot to gain from life, but after this a whole new universe of possibilities opened up for me.

So I started making these comparisons to Neo in the Matrix. I wondered if I was somehow unique in the matter. But I realized that movie has a whole lot more metaphorical content than I imagined. Every single person is a Mr. Anderson, and every single person lives in a psychological prison of some kind. That prison is unique to every person, and entails how they were brought up, which culture they were raised in, which faith they have, what jobs and hobbies they have had, etc. In the end, everyone has only a cell from which to view the world. Very few people dare to venture outside of their cell, even though the door is always open, even when it may seem locked. All it takes is a bit of courage to step outside of it and perhaps visit another person's cell.

Upon visiting that other cell, you may learn valuable things about your prison. If you enter with an open mind and friendly manner, you may be received hospitably and told stories you never knew of. If you have the possibility to visit many cells, you are truly lucky. For when you go back to your own comfortable cell, the walls of which are familiar and the window of which is just the right size and shape for you to look through upon the world, you may notice it has changed from when you left. Suddenly you can see a lot of things you couldn't before, and maybe appreciate it in an entirely new way.

But most importantly, you know that everyone's cell is unique. You can't throw rocks anymore at the neighbor's cell when you get into an argument about something. How could you, when you know that the reason for the argument is just that they can't see the world in the same way you do, because their cell is so different. Their window may be just a slight slit in the wall, or it may be an entire glass wall. And of course the most interesting cells to visit are those very cells that have a large window, maybe even several of them. You can see parts of the world you never knew existed, and you will be so awed by the amazing things life can give you that it will never feel the same again. Never dull, never static, never pointless. There will always be a reason to go on exploring. Find new worlds. Visit the next cell. If you run out of things to do in your own block, you can always venture into the next block, meeting a very different environment. It will take more courage, because the rules will differ more from those you are used to, and the views will be more radically different, but every step further away from home will make home seem all the more unique and special and worth appreciating. As will your entire life.

If you are the courageous type, or if you have had luck and have been pushed out of your cell, consider yourself lucky. You may just get more out of the real world when you have been to several different Matrices. And guess what? If the real world turns out to be too difficult to handle, you can always return to your own, take the blue pill, and settle comfortably in your cell. You can close the door and bolt the window, and take up a routine and continue doing that if it makes you comfortable. The great thing is we have a choice. You have a choice, Neo. And you've already made it. Now you just need to understand it.

Fresh start

2007-07-06T12:00:00.000+03:00

So I decided to clean out my old posts (which weren't that numerous anyway) and start fresh. My life has taken a new direction as of this year and in order to reflect that in this blog I won't keep old posts. That was a previous life I don't want to dwell on. I hereby declare 2007 to be the start of a new life for me. :)