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

Read and create mobilecodes

Increasing amount of mobile codes -matrix shaped barcodes- can be found around the cities. If you have a camera phone you can upload a code reader and even create your own barcode, like I did for this blog. Now after loading the application I think I'll go to window of Kiinteistömaailma to test it for different apartments ;) -Not that I have anything to complain. I just rented an apartment without seeing that first. -It really paid of. Perfect apartment in the heart of Oulu with a slice of (almost own) green grass =)

How to make a 3D paper snowflake

As mentioned, I'm not the most presents buying type of person. -But making those can be fun. And this really made my fingers itch..
How to make a 3D paper snowflake via Core77 and WikiHow.

"There's a special place in hell for women who don't help each other"

I was buying some christmas presents which is quite unusual for me. I usually buy such only if I clearly see something is for somebody or then I just see something really nice. I bought two books and for a reason not totally clear to me the other book was "There is an special place in hell for women who don't help each other" by Liza Marklund and Lotta Snickare (Helvetissä on erityinen paikka naisille jotka eivät auta toisiaan). Today I had to open the package and I read it.. The reasons for this were probably the same as already in the store: My dear friend used the frase and I got interested how deep feministic values it posessed. And I also seem to end up in different kind of equality conversations, and I was a bit curious what kind of book this was.

I have never understood why men and women wouldn't have more or less equal possibilities in study and working life. After reading this book I understand that there's more connected than just a persons own survival strategy. It might not be enought if a person decides to claim one's place and space and be a Person instead of a stereotypic representative of one's sex. There's certain sosiomechanic structures in working environments too. Raising them to the open certainly helps to start understanding these issues. For that reason I would have wanted to see more issues from the book on the posters that Mahdollista menestys -organisation is publishing 1) 2). Posters sadly include more orders than explanations.

Reading this book also reminded of the bubbles that we create around us. For me I have found myself already in engineering bubble, academic bubble and arts bubble. Bubbles are comfortable but also make us forget what is happening in other bubbles or on the ground. I didn't remember how stubborn ideologies people still can have in some bubbles.

Most of the bubbles leave out rural areas and suburbs, where new kind of equality thinking would help a lot according to Marklund and Snickare. Unfortunately writers don't go too deeply in that what kind of changes could be made, but at least schools have major impact on the development and misery of both, boys and girls.

One thing was nice to understand. I have been on the right track when I have expected equal results from both sexes. But it is not always simple. Even now I feel that I have started to be carefull in some situations, so I wouldn't break anything. Too much political correctness is not a good thing. If we try to guess other peoples opinions, we end up rating them.

Flock - a test drive

Earlier I made a brief mention about Flock - a social web browser. This weekend I have been forced to be still due a hard flu, so I was able to test this new browser. -It really feels that this could be my default browser!

For you who are regular visitors might be aware that I'm a user for several social web services like, Flickr, Facebook, Blogger, Google reader, Del.icio.us and Dopplr. Using many different services can be challenging and that's why services tend to collect themselves as clusters (money plays also a major role in this). But like me I have to use several clusters, like Google and Yahoo. And balancing on these services is sometimes quite awkward. Feeling of control is lost on these several services.

The thing about Flock is that now I have all my accounts open on the sidebar of my browser and I constantly receive RSS feed from those all. This means that I skipp the whole mess of opening pages to see my accounts. And for example uploading my photos, I just press the upload button, and after that I can choose to which service I want to upload. Or for this blog entrty I needed a single button. -Me likes..
Blogged with Flock

Usability orientation - the cause or the symptom

I have been wondering the mindscape of an usability person. Does usability point of view on everyday issues turn us cranky, demanding and short tempered or was it already there before we started to form theories about that to justify our own anxiety and to make a living out of that.

Another great generalization could be that people with usability expertese have all experienced something which has formed them to be more emphatic than the average Joe.

A usability oriented person senses the problems more easier, but like the rest of us, cannot escape those. This is a reason why usability persons themselves are an interesting group to monitor and see what kind of protective tactics they use against the stress the world has to offer.

Time management for creative people

Time management is something what you can always do better. Especially in case of creative people.
So in this case I'll proritize and only leave you the link -that is said to be a really good one- and just wait for you to comment was it any good..:
Time Management #1: Why You Need to be Organised to be Creative
You can also download it, thanks BODO.

IT security


Opening our University webmail I popped into this nice contradiction in the picture. There's been a campaign for the IT security and password policy. This picture astually shows what is the difference between talking and doing.
People are willing to adopt protective means, if they can do it conveniently. -The meaning on convenient for starters is Not:
1) You just Have to uninstall your firewall not knowing where to get a new one. (picture)
2) Every year you have to go to helpdesk to loan a CD to get your virus scanner running.
3) An old post about passwords