Blog is on pause, but please do enjoy my tweets :)

On the road

Lapin Kansa just wrote that "Peltipoliisi jäätyi pakkasessa". They are adding heating into these automatic surveillance boxes.. :D

*21/02/07*
Yesterday I drowe to Oulu and back. On the way there was time to think.
Generally I think that road users have been forgotten in what we call user centered design.

Think about the traffic signs. What makes it so sure that you can see every single one of those?
You might be passing somebody or looking at the traffic.
In the city it might be impossible to see the signs placed in the crossings, where you would need to look up and right - a place where there isn't any of the pedestrians or other crucial elements of making the turn. The reason for this idea comes from the contradiction of usingautomated traffic controlling (see earlier post), while the road user still has to monitor the speed limits manually.
A great thing about these speedtraps in north is though that they are most of the time unusable because of the snow ;)

Another idea which came to my mind came up when I drowe through 'game-fence' that tries to keep moose and other animals away from the road. -Both ends of this fence are dangerous because game try to go over the road, and they will do it at the end of the fence. At dark, roads are lit, but it wouldn't be a big effort to place some extra lightning at the ends of the fence.

Other sights along the way

Suunto X6HRM is a really nice wrist computer, but has a really crappy plastic strap to attach it with. There's no hint of that metallic, almighty feeling the titanium watch is othervice giving.

The chrome version of the same watch is also really nice, and it actually has strap made of real leather! -Really neat, but I wonder if I would like to use it in shower and while swimming like I use mine nowadays.

Another thing which I really don't get is why both Polar and Suunto are using those both-sided buckles as in the picture. It is somehow managable in men's watches, but in women's watches the buckles are so small that you really have to struggle to get it done and undone.


Really nice and funny shoes from El Naturalista. Notice the imaginative soles :D








The last picture is just for those for whom I have praised the rear window of Opel Astra.

Cold

*edit*
Remember, driving without your hands with a bicycle is an obligatory thing to survive (and keep your fingers warm) in Rovaniemi..
-Darn it was cold!

Foreigners often ask me while staying abroad that why is it that I'm feeling so cold.. -My respons usually is that it is a matter of evolution. Such scandinavians that thought they could resist cold weather without a proper clothing or shelter -they just vanished..

Product complaints

Poor customer service stays in your mind for a long time, especially in case of defected product.

Couple of years ago Rovaniemi Telemark-skiers bought some 35 goretex suits as tailor made from Terinit, a finnish sportswear manufacturer. Promptly after receiving the jacket I commented to Terinit that they have a major flaw in their product.
-The velcros had been sewed on wrong sides. Sticky side on the fold and the soft side facing outwards. This resulting most of the undergarments getting spoiled by the sticky side. And also the hood is constantly stuck in some wrong place. This because the velcros on the hood are sawn as they should be.
They didn't comment in any way, which was one way to handle the situation. In case of commenting they probably would have been forced to repair them. -This time they only lost an customer.

Putin and G8

Putin starts to gain some respect from me. On this days G8 meeting he talked about what's the sense in creating a monopolar world. Without anybody to resist US.
And a fine comment was 'there's no need for democracy lessons from somebody who doesn't really know so much about it..'

Shower faucets

*edit*
I got my study-room back in order and started to rehabilitate my sketching by wacom.










02/07/06














Why are shower faucets made in a way that when you close the tap, water gets trapped into the hose?
A research acclaimed that the biggest problem for the shower users was avoiding cold water, that comes before it is in optimum temperature. -And it happens every time you take a shower..

I would like to make a such tap the water from the hose runs out after I close the tap. Or you could empty the hose by pushing the lever a little more down while closing it.