September 2004

September 30, 2004

Typomania

Fontit.com-kirjasinverkkokauppa uudistuu. Osana kauppaa toimii myötilaisten ja harrastajien foorumi. Fontit.comin omistaja Qventa Oy on Linotypen ainoa jakelija Suomessa.

Ilya

September 29, 2004

Backblogged

Personally, I prefer backblogged over blogjammed. Meaning when you have a lot to blog about, but don’t have the time or willpower. Coined by Mister P, who seems not to be very good at paying his bills.

And while you’re visiting Cruft, be sure to check out the great penny cleaning experiment.

Ilya

September 28, 2004

Last weekend

On Saturday we were at the house warming party of Sami, Inari, Gerome, and Pervilä. They have a beautiful—and huge—apartment on Mechelininkatu. The party was rather quiet (as parties go with these guys), but it was fun. There’s photos. I met Jarkko, who, as he basically introduced himself, is behind the bathroom reviews at the Kallio neighborhood weblog.

Seeing Janne was yet again sort of disappointing. His only days off his internship work at Demo are Sundays and Mondays, and these days he’s either too tired to do anything, or inevitably, spends them with his dumb old new girlfriend. I’m jealous.

On Friday we were first at the new computer science students’ party at Uusi (nothing going on there, but the beer was only an euro a bottle), and then later at NRJ’s (the radio station) birthday party at Vanha. Invites from Jyri again, of course. While the party was lame (no free booze this time, or then we came too late) and the performers were horrible, it was nice to spend some time with my brother and his fiancé. They live in Turku, and when they do come “home,” they rarely make it to downtown Helsinki.

Markku and I snuck backstage (well, actually we just walked in) and went up to the artists’ area. To our disappointment, there were only four ciders left in the fridge. We took those, and went to find Jyri in the VIP area. The girls tried to join us upstairs, but they were stopped at the entrance we had come in. And Roosa could’ve even gotten into the VIP area legitimately, had she been able to call her boss. Unfortunately, her phone was in her purse, which was in the coat check, and I had her coat check stub.

Ilya

An eight-instruction Turing-complete programming language

Brainfuck is an eight-instruction Turing-complete programming language, created with the goal to write the smallest compiler ever. I can’t say I understand it, but I am mightily impressed by how the source code looks. Does this really do something? I stumbled upon Brainfuck on fellow CS student Juho Naalisvaara’s site. Juho’s in my Operating Systems I study group.

Ilya

Email at the university

It turns out that most Helsinki University students have two email accounts, one main university mailbox (firstname.lastname@helsinki.fi), and one departmental mailbox (e.g. firstname.lastname@cs.helsinki.fi). Why this is, I have no idea. This explains why I wasn’t receiving my test messages.

There’s many ways to access your mail: the university address is called a Mappi account, and evidently has several alternative webmail systems. The computer science department has two webmail systems, SqWebMail and IlohaMail.

Luckily, both addresses can redirected, although there are restrictions (Mappi is the only mail system that allows forwarding to non-university addresses).

Ilya

Why it all looks like math

I love the fact that on the first slide of the first lecture of my Models for Programming and Computing course it says that the significant concepts covered in the course “were developed between 1930 and 1950.” The first electronic computers were built in the 1950s.

Ilya

Psychologists and programmers

Today, in the middle of a guest lecture on software engineering, I found myself thinking about what Will Wright said about the psychology in The Sims.

“We found that it's a lot easier for us to research a topic than it is to take experts and teach them about game development.”

Maybe this is why I’m studying computer science instead of anything else.

Ilya

Harvesting free content for dead trees

AlwaysOn is launching a magazine based on the best posts and comments published in its community web site. Are they serious? Guess you gotta get that yummy weblog content before the miopic eyes of graying executives any which way you can...

Ilya

Gmail-lite

Gmail-lite is a PHP-based, HTML-only frontend for Gmail. For browsers that can’t handle Javascript.

Ilya

September 26, 2004

On vaikee innostuu ku se kuulostaa nii paskalt

Eniten ärsyttää Radio Helsingissä pyörivät mainokset. Sitten on tuo “Punavuoren Bukowski” -nimitys. (Markku ehdotti, että olen vain kateellinen. Ehkä.) Ja mikä siinä Nytin jutussa oli oikein vikana? Kylläpä äippä ja isä-pappa ovat pojastaan nyt varmaan ylpeitä… Häh?

Haluan ehdottomasti lukea Helsinki 12 -kirjan. Mulle menee varmaan muutama vuosi ennen kuin teoksen ehtii saada kirjastosta, mutta kuitenkin. Ehkä siinä vaiheessa jaksaa kiinnostaa uusmediahypetys enemmän.

Aika vänkää tosin on se, että Tuomas Vimmana esiintyvän kirjailijan oikean nimen paljastaa itse herra Uusmedia, Alex Nieminen.

Ilya

September 24, 2004

Google challengers

Mooter, Girafa, Thumbshot.net, WiseNut, iBoogie, ProFusion, Picsearch. Why do half of these have such horrible names?

Ilya

September 22, 2004

Mallia opiskelutahtiin

Sattumalta päädyin tietojenkäsittelytieteen laitoksella työskentelevän kaimani kotisivuille. Hän, kuten minä (hah!) on ollut kova opiskelemaan.

Ilya

September 20, 2004

Explaining what are weblogs, part n+1

A journalist called today asking if she could interview me for a piece on blogging. I said sure. It’s been a while since I’ve last been interviewed about blogging. This time I was discovered through a media research assignment I wrote with Ville. Ville’s actually been on TV a few times talking about web journals, so I guess we’re Finnish experts.

I asked to see (and check over) the story before it’s published. She said she’d send it to me, but I have my doubts.

I’m not sure I was much help for the story. I wasn’t too impressed with her questions. I tried to answer them the best I could, pointing out what is significant in the blogging phenomenon (people’s voices, popularizing writing as a thinking exercise), and trying my best not to add to yet another hype article on the latest new thing.

I’m a little worried, though. She kept calling weblogs “diaries” even though I kept reminding her that they’re not the same thing.

When asked about what I thought about moblogging (the actual question was: “Nokia has brought out new software that allows people to move pictures to computers. What do you think about this?”), I was reminded of Dave’s question. I think I agree with Dave that moblogging should be considered a facet of blogging that “happens in the real world.” Not just thinking, but experiencing. While how you blog will certainly affect the medium (more pictures, sound, even video), the stuff that’s important about the weblog format si the same. Moblogging will tie the real world to weblogs as weblogs have tied real people to the web.

At one point, after mentioning Kallioblogi’s bathroom reviews, she suggested that weblogs could become “weapons against< companies.” At first I wondered if she was setting me up for a attention-grabbing quote (that’s what telephone interviews are all about). I said those weren’t my words. I agreed that, yeah, weblogs allow people to speak up and join together. Then again, blog-as-weapons sounds kind of cool. Me, the weblog agitator.

Ilya

Oi, kunpa voisin matikkakerhoon mennä mä nyt

Oih. Nyt voisin oikein todella ikävöidä Turun yliopistoa. Ajatus “palikka-matikkakurssien” käymisestä yksin, ilman vanhaa opintopiiriä, ei oikein nappaa.

Ilya

September 18, 2004

Loneliness as never before

“Man in the 19th Century began to feel a loneliness such as he’d never felt before, as least as I read history. He’s been feeling it for a century now and he’s getting more and more lonely, more and more atomized. He’s being blown to smithereens. He’s in a world where he has no bearings. He’s on his own as he’s never been before, because in the past he had tradition and convention. There’s nothing on the horizon today: no great leaders, no Moses who might lead us out of the wilderness. Now it is up to man to save himself. He can’t look to anyone for help. That’s the desperate and the hopeful quality about this modern age. Man has to recognize himself as something more than a human being or he’ll perish.”

—Henry Miller, My Life and Times, 1972

Ilya

Movies I want to see, in no particular order

Spun, Wings of Desire, Happy Accidents, Drugstore Comboy, Another Day in Paradise, Crime + Punishment in Suburbia, Gummo, Bully, Swimming Pool, The Salton Sea (even though it has Val Kilmer), Sex and Lucia.

Also: The Henry Miller Odyssey, No Maps to These Territories. Guerilla �“ The Taking of Patti Hearst, Uncovered: The War on Iraq, Control Room, Channels of Rage, The Weather Underground, Biggie & Tupac.

The Machinist, Primer.

El secreto de sus ojos, Aardvark’d: 12 Weeks with Geeks.

Ilya

September 15, 2004

Tragician’s Hat, Intiaanidisko

Both Sister Flo and Tv-resistori have put out records this year. I discovered both bands when I was living in Turku, at live gigs.

Dusted Magazine has a feature on Fonal, the publisher of Tv-resistori’s Intiaanidisko.

Ilya

En söisi

“Kasviksia. Olen carnivaali.”

Cityn ruokaspesiaalista, listalta ruoista, joita ei söisi

Ilya

September 14, 2004

Kirjoja Kalliosta

Kallioblogissa puhuttiin Kalliosta kertovista kirjoista. Pussikaljaromaania kehuttiin, ja Alpo Ruuthin teokset mainittiin. Pitää pitää mielessä.

Ilya

Ånäs hyvästelee Knigan

Markus Ånäs on jättänyt Johnny Knigan ja siirtyy ilmeisesti Kauppalehden uuden “pääkaupunkiseudun päättäjiä” kosiskelevan Presso-lauantailiitteen toimittajakuntaan.

Ilya

September 13, 2004

  • Historic sheet music categorized by illustration types. Even older stuff is also available copyright-free in various catalogs.

September 10, 2004


September 9, 2004

Kalliosta bloggaukseen

En ole seurannut suomenkielisiä blogeja tai median kirjoittelua niistä (alkubloggaajien lempiharrastus) viime aikoina, mutta törmäsin tänään kahteen blogeista kertovaan juttuun. ITviikossa kerrotaan Schizo-Jannen perustamasta Kallioblogista, ja Turun Sanomissa oli elokuun lopulla juttu Irakin sodasta paikallisten bloggaajien silmin.

Molemmissa jutuissa oli urleja yhteenlaskettuna yksi kappaletta.

Kallioblogi ei näytä olevan pystyssä tällä hetkellä.

Ilya

September 8, 2004

Some books

I found an old list of books I wanted to read and that were at the library.

Title, authorClass
The Meme Machine, Susan Blackmore56.411, 591
The Selfish Gene, Richard Dawkins591
The Elegant Universe, Brian Greene53.1
Cosmos, Carl Sagan52.2
The Ecstacy Club, Douglas Rushkoff4.4
Children of Chaos, Douglas Rushkoff32.4
Ilya

September 2, 2004

“Give into your hate”

Fantastic photos of Zell Miller and Dick Cheney. Does Miller remind you of anyone? Where are the blue lightning bolts shooting out of his fingers?

Ilya

Räjähteitä ja lentolehtiä

Supo haluaa suojelupoliisi.fi-domainin itselleen. First come, first serve -periaatteella se ei tosin heille kuulu. Kiinnostaisikohan verkkotunnus yhtä paljon jos osoitteesta löytyvällä sivustolla ei olisi Supolle kriittisiä linkkejä?

Ylioppilaslehden vuonna 1999 julkaistusta Supon lyhyt historia: Kommunistien tarkkailusta kettutyttöihin:

Poliisin ylilyönneistä hän kertoo esimerkkinä pian Orimattilan turkistarhaiskujen jälkeen tehdyn uutisen, joka kertoi kuinka poliisi oli ratsannut eläinaktivistien pesän, asunnon, jossa oli muun muassa räjähteitä ja lentolehtiä.

“Myöhemmin julkisuuteen tulleiden tietojen mukaan kyseessä oli toista kuukautta vanha juttu, joka oli selvitetty. Mitään yhteyttä turkistarhaiskuihin ei oltu todettu. ‘Räjähteitä’ oli ollut joku yksittäinen luoti ja lentolehtisiä miehen itsensä saamat lentolehtiset. Poliisi vuoti ilmeisesti sen Orimattilan iskujen jälkeen rikostoimittajille. Poliisin piti tarhaiskujen jälkeen näyttää nopeasti saavansa jotain aikaan”, Rantanen kertoo. Ratsatun asunnon alkuperäinen vuokralainen oli Luonto-Liittoon kuuluva nuori, joka oli lainannut tutulle asuntonsa.

Ilya

September 1, 2004

Get that mouse

Logitech has a new laser mouse that claims to make optical obsolete. This sounds good. Optical mice aren’t very accurate, and they tend to feel sluggish. While no mouse I’ve ever used beats Logitech’s standard gray, two-button and wheel mouse, the ball does get dirty.

The MX 1000 is cordless, which sounds good, but can cause its own set of problems. I also like the fact that the laser light is invisible to the eye. Try watching a movie in a dark room with a traditional optical mouse.

If only the MX 1000 wasn’t shaped so awfully.

Ilya