Google maps got even better

Google maps has long been my favorite maps application because the road map is just not enough in all situations.
Maps got just waaay better. It features pictures uploaded by users on different locations to Panoramio. It also features Wikipedia links on their right places.


Näytä suurempi kartta

Animation painted on walls by Blu

If this day would not have already been good, this would have saved it.
A great animation called MUTO, which story goes around a block, as it is completely painted on the walls (and bit on the pavement too;). The piece is done by Blu. And the website is also really much worth to see!


Via blog deco design

Proper error-message

Very often error notifications are useless and provide a little choices for the user. This notification from Google gives user some real choices while informing honestly that things can go wrong.
-Big thumbs up for Google!

Ajasto - adjusting to mobile era

Today me and my colleague had a talk about why the flags are still up. -Yesterday evening when the mothers-day flag was still up at 9 o'clock, I thought that maintenance has forgotten the flag. Now I know that they were only lazy (lazyness is at least second step to progress), because the flags are up everywhere -so there really is some special day.
Then I got one of my brighter moments, when I realized that surely Ajasto (which has held the monopoly for Finnish calendars for centuries) have the required information about today on their site! -I got disappointed. The ONLY information about today, was the names for today. -Yes. Not even the Date.. XD

Another interesting news was that Ajasto has decided to put of 99 persons to be able to adapt to the new challenges. -I can easily understand the dramatic change the branch is experiencing. But what I cannot understand is that why I still cannot buy a add-on package of holidays and additional information to my mobile calendar from Ajasto site?!

4,5 reasons Not to fly

Traveling without moving:
Somehow waiting for the taxi, waiting in the lounge, waiting in the line, waiting for the take off and again waiting for the taxi is quite nerve breaking method of moving.

Stress about connections:
In Helsinki, you have to be worried if your taxi is really coming, flying from rest of the Finland you only have to worry about if you are able to make to the connecting flight in time inspite the different delays the flight is experiencing.
BTW: If you are flying from Oulu to Manchester by Finnair, take extra handbaggage. Your luggage will never make it in time.

Security checks:
Uncomprehensive regulations about equipment which should be separated for the x-raying, the lack of person inspection. -They rather see you dropping your pants than check your belt. Further the lack of responsibility over customers belongings. I've even received my wallet from another passanger after he realized that it was not his. -And the fact that a single bottle of liquid should be packed into a plastic bag, "just because of the regulations".

Service culture:
A year ago I flew to Osaka. I expected a culture shock. -Instead having it in Japan I experienced it in Finland. In Osaka airport security and other personel were doing the work for the customer. In Finland the customer is an annoyance for the stuff. You can be sure in case you need help, you don't get any.

Focus on the detail

If iPhone hasn't shown us anything else, but the fact that paying attention to detail is all worth it. My colleague bought a new shiny heart rate monitor, in an instant we knew there's something wrong. -Why on earth Suunto didn't but some effort to make the display centralized?! -The size might be the answer from the engineers, but that's not enough for the customer.

Banking is another businness where details matter. Without commenting more about Sampo-bank's major disaster with security problems in their net-banking, more- personal crisis can be arranged by for example Nordea bank in Rovaniemi. Details were taken care, when I sold my half of an apartment. The payment was not placed on to my account dispite personal attendance. The next day the situation was noticed and the correction was that the sum was directed to my account and the account was simultaneously configured to be visible to the buyer. -Truly unbelievable..

Can a minister have a sexual relationship?

A friend of mine wrote in Httpp//: all about what I wanted to say about Ilkka Kanerva's resignition. It would be time to understand that politicians are just people. They do send messages and meet their future girlfriends in the mall (Vanhanen).
This should be quite alright, as far as both parties agree. If Kanerva would have been harrassing Tukiainen, then I could understand that there was a reason for Katainen to ask Kanerva's resignition. But no, you can do your job -no matter how- poorly and still get away with that, but if you are a minister and want to have a sexual relationship, that's something what finnish people -or is it actually finnish media- cannot handle.

I have been preaching about 'third thruth'. In this case there is the thruth what Kanerva and Tukiainen know, secondly there is the truth of the public (that I don't care) and then there is the third truth, which is created by the media and the conversations. The third thruth claims that Kanerva has done something deeply wrong, and it starts to affect on our mind. -"Am I taking this too lightly, should I be more angry about what he did..?"
Next level is that media starts to burn us, non-believers on stake -just like the church did, based on the manipulation of the third truth.

Oulu suburbs in english

Local newspaper in Oulu has "translated" names for the Oulu city suburbs into english. Not much for a english speaker, but for a local these are great. Here's some samples, the actual listning can be found on Kaleva web site:
"Alppila = Alpineshire
Etu-Lyötty = Frontbeatup
Heikinharju = Heikki´s Ridge
Heinäpää = Jointhead/Hayhead
Hiironen = Mousie
Hintta = Pooh, Homa
Hönttämäki = Stupidhill
Höyhtyä = Oh-hoh United
Intiö = Armysh"
-Last one being my favorite becouse I served there for a year ;D

Reppo by Joonas Saaranen

I must join the choire of several blogs around the world and boost a bit more about Reppo.
Joonas Saaranen from University of Lapland has gained a massive attention (check Google) by his ghettoblaster backpack Reppo. -Great work mate! :)

Facebook makes improvements for privacy

I have been complaining (as far as FB itself) how difficult it is to add Facebook friends to 'show only my restricted account' -list.
Finally it is possible to just click the friends from the list instead of writing their names. For me it's convenient. It's just how you want to use your account. For me it's still bit under consideration wheather to make it more open or more closed circle..

Messenger Live has experinced this week a major setbacks on security point of view. There's at least one attacts going on. First being a page which promises to reveal who has blocked you on messenger. -just give your email and password.. ;D -Then it starts to send the web address to your friends. Other one possible connected to the first one is sending you a message from your friend, saying somethin like "Is this really photo of you?! :S -and a webaddress", which asks you to download a tiny program..

"so much to learn from getting under other peoples skin"

Lately I have been vigorously writing my masters thesis. Today I read two nice texts which I want to quote:

"On a gloomy day, when nothing seemed to be going right, I once said to wearily to a colleague that I didn't want to go on doing observations for the rest of my working life. Actually that is not true. There is so much to learn from getting under other people's skin, being in their environments, and so much that can be drawn from it to improve the products and services people (including us) have to deal with.
There is genuine satisfaction in moving from what people need to ensuring it is realized; in negotiating within project teams, using persuasion, charm and (occasionally) bloody mindedness, to get the best results for the end users. There is even greateer satisfaction in seeing ordinary members of the public using things - from post boxes to personal organizers - where you know you have introduced a user perspective there might otherwise never been.

(Black Alison, 2003. Why I Work in User Experience Consulting. In Emphatic Design, user experience in product design (Koskinen et.al.). IT Press.)”

””Compassion” may, at first blush, appear o be a strange concept to stumble across in a work devoted to the nuts-and-bolts practice of usability engineering. But to my mind this is the idea at the heart of the discipline: being able to imagine, and share the frustrations of, the human users of the artifacts we design, in the hope that these frustrations can be reduced or eliminated.

(Greenfield Adam, 2003. Foreword. In The Psychology of Usability (Sinkkonen et.al.). IT Press)”

Demonstration against internet sensorship

Yesterday 500 people was demonstrating at the parliament house against governments secret internet sensorship list for child pornography. People feel that it is not the solution to mask these pages from the users, but to act in a sense which would really try to prohibit the crimes and not just make a good conscience for ministry of communications, Suvi Linden.

The threath of restricting freedom of speech and information exhance is real and evolving. In september EU commissioner Franco Frattini wanted to have a law, which would disable internet searches for words "bomb", "kill" and "genocide (kansanmurha)"
(Tuomas Kangasniemi, Tekniikka ja Talous, 12.02.2008)

I'm quite surprised that finnish people dared to act on this manner in this contradictive issue. I have sensed a kind of over sensitivity in finnish culture. Any topic which might offend some group is just neglected, despite there would be a problem to solve.

Suvi Linden was already before a minister, but was forced to resign because goverment funding given to her golf-club. This new law can be seen as an effort to please at least some people on her new position. An address promoting Suvi Linden's re-resignition can be found here.

My personal poster favorites were:
Bush: "Terrorism" - Linden: "Child pornography"
Pääasia unohdettu (Main point forgotten)
(Photo: Viima)