Motorola's marketing and empty promises

As you remember, I wrote about how great my phone was. True, it has great components, it's well designed and the OS isn't crappy either. As such, it's a big improvement over some of my earlier cells, and as such, I'm happy.

I am not, however, completely satisfied.

Backstory first. Motorola is a company that has a history of building one great phone, and then releasing new versions with some cosmetic changes and ignoring R&D till the phone is hopelessly outdated and they're bleeding money. Latest example; Motorola Razr, which even at the start had a bad OS, but sold because it looked sleek. For this and related reasons, Motorola has lost markets during recent years. When I was buying my phone, I heard that no company (either electrics stores or phone operators) imports Motorola's models to Finland because the tech is hopelessly outdated.

Now, enter Milestone. As I said before, the phone is really cool. It runs Google's Android, a fact that defines it. It's marketed (in the States, under the name DROID) as "a phone without compromise". It has keyboard, great components, up-and-coming operating system and you can give yourself root (administrator) access to the phone, even load your own operating system (making sure the phone will never be outdated, and helping writing software for the phone).

I bought my cell only to find that unlike the American version, the bootloader is signed, meaning that you can't do any of your own upgrading. Motorola marketing has gone back on its word that Droid and Milestone are the same model, and shouldn't be expected to be treated the same (even though they share the same components and software). [1]

This wouldn't be much of a hazzle if Motorola could be trusted to update the phone with the latest version of Android as they come out. However, the version 2.1 (the latest version as I write) hasn't been released yet for Milestone, two months after the release. This may have something to do with the fact that not only did Motorola (apparently) divide the coding of the Droid and the Milestone, but EVERY SINGLE REGION OF MILESTONE AS WELL. The European, Canadian, Mexican and and Asian version of the "same phone" actually contain just enough different code that you have to write them separately.

Which leads to questions, when does Motorola upgrade the phone? After promising the upgrade originally in January, they finally published the revised schedule.

"Under evaluation" is marketing talk and means "will not be released". DEXT, CLIQ and DEVOUR are other Motorola's Android models.

Would help if the roms weren't signed. So, Motorola has made their flagship phone - the one developers and bleeding-edgers will buy- into one they can't use. Which gives us hilarious discussions like this one in MotoDev's Facebook-page;



I've started to really hate the American marketing talk, where the company asks you to "wait for announcements" or "follow our twitter-account" etc, while no announcements will be forthcoming. Nearly every message at the Facebook-page is like that; apparently it has been going like that for several months now, and the storm isn't coming down.

However, the PR-person is one to be admired; probably intern or underpaid marketer, with no ability to affect the company policy, she/he tries to make everything look sunny, while the mob is at the door.

This is what happens when Marketing does their own thing without consulting the technicians. There would never have been any problems if they would have from the start told that DROID and Milestone have different standards, instead of pushing for maximum sales while forgetting honestly.

Also understand; my phone is serving me wonderfully currently. No problems. I'm just afraid that if Motorola is cutting support from the second world now, it probably has no qualms for dropping Europe when the sales dry out (probably inside a year). But I'm sure someone has found a way to circumvent the bootloader by then. Here's hoping.

American in Scandinavia

Got the following email from a friend living abroad;

Here: http://econlog.econlib.org/archives/2009/08/denmark_and_swe_1.html

Thought I'd share this with you to get your input.

In short, the writer critiques Scandinavian (and Danish and Swedish in particular) living standards from those portrayed in the popular media. He claims that Scandinavian people are poorer, less happy and have blinds concerning their surroundings and taxation general.

My first reaction was amazed disbelief: surely this is a text from The Onion? After thinking about it a moment, I can see he has some good points, but ultimately they are all drowned by his inability to see the achievements and advantages of the Nordic model from its failures and differences to the American model.

Before going further into his points, I'd like to talk about his text as a whole. The important part of mr. Caplan's argumentation stems from the question of values. To understand his text, we must see that he is comparing what's good in America into how Scandinavia rates in comparison - but not vice versa. This of course is fair, if we are talking about certain singular datapoints - which has the fastest cars, for example? Cheaper gasoline? I'm sure you have seen this to be used in marketing texts: our product compared to competitor's mark X! Seeing the technique used in a text written by a professor into something I assume to be prestigious website with a high-brow reputation.. well, it is to be seen!

Of course, there are some things we simply can't argue with; how Scandinavia looks compared to Swizerland or New Jersey, for example. Apparently Caplan travelled the countries extensively and can make such arguments. I've never been to Denmark or New Jersey; I remember very little of my trip to Switzerland. Obviously Caplan has been to all these places, and feels that he can, with authority, say that this is indeed so.

What I find particularly amusing is his claims about the things that make life worth living; living space, car ownership, and meat consumption (instead of time spent with family/friends). He writes with sneer about people biking to work in rain, apparently ignoring several observations that you can make from this;

First, that a person who has stable income can surely afford a car of some condition.
Second, that biking to work is possible in the first place.
Third, that the biker assumes he is still in presentable condition once he gets to the workplace.
Fourth, that a people who regularly exercise tend to be healthier and thus, happier (that I'm actually linking to Fox should tell you how well-known fact this is!).
Fifth, the biker calculates that he can still fill all his social obligations even though his commutation time increases. In other words; even though he has less time to spend with friends after work, he will find a way to make up to it in other ways. Maybe he works shorter days or his friends are available at weekends

Meat usage seems somewhat strange on the list; surely this is a question of taste, values and history rather of money?

And so on. Caplan makes lots of assumptions that are understandable as personal opinions from a private individual (after all, we seldom form our views from "fairly balanced" pool of information) but rather less so from a professional blogger, who, I assume, was hired for his interesting and in-depth vision. This blog-post is a collection of knee-jerk reactions - mostly ones he had even before he left the States. He would have been interested in confirming these solely based on his earlier journal entries. There was no initiative to actually deny any of them...that is to say, contradict himself. Even though he might have walked in with an idea to go where the wind would take him, his hypotheses would have fast blinded him to any advantages to American system he may have seen, maybe even presenting them to him in negative light.

After all, few of us work very hard to make ourselves look like idiots.

A hint into his psyche can be found in this quote;

[About Human Development Index];

I can see giving equal weights to GDP per capita and life expectancy. But education? [...][I]n terms of the actual if not professed values of normal human beings, televisions and cars are a lot more important than books.

All

A fast comment on piracy

Lately several people have mentioned that the failing music industry/artists should get slice of the monthly fee of Internet subscription, in a similar way that the industry gets money from empty VHS- and C-tapes and CD- and DVD-ROMs.
I had some troubles with this - particularly with the last one - I know I downloaded lots of questionable material on CD's back on the day, but today most CD-R's and DVD-R's of mine are full of photos, game-saves and other things I wouldn't hesitate to show to police. Mostly because the actual questionable material can safely be stored on hard drives and deleted after use. And then downloaded again, if need be.

Yeah, I'm not really making much of a case against, now aren't I? Well, this is the punchline;

When people talk of Internet, piracy and monthly compensation, how do we divide the money between the right parties? I mean, the number one legal way of using Internet is to browse web pages - why don't they get a share? What about porn? I have a feeling that porn is at least as big part of the traffic as Hollywood-movies or music from the big cartels.

Instead of trying to keep their stuff illegal, they could try to develop ways to get money out of Internet legally - for the U2 manager even iTunes was piracy against artist*. Radio seems to have worked well for the industry for decades. Over the past ten years, the music industry has done everything it could to shoot net radios down with fees that far outweight their income.

I'm not saying I'm opposed to subscrition system (I would be happy to get the whole copyright question sorted out, so we could concentrate on some real questions) - I just think that paying one group of people who claim their property is shared illegally isn't very good while people who provide their stuff for free on Internet get nothing - nor does game, film, porn or software industry. In the worst case scenario, each of them will be knocking at the door for their own $5. And in the best case scenario -- well, that's just fucking lazy, innit? If I were to forget a keg of beer at busy junction and then notice it empty afterward, I can't really ask the police to take $5 from every person in the neighbourhood who has alcohol on his breath. Or everyone else (he might have just hidden it for later consumption!).

Advertisements work as a model for webpages, for flash, blogs, even amateurish doodles - the Swedish procecutor is claiming that the owners of Piracy Bay are raking millions (YouTube certainly does) and Last.fm is doing fairly well as far as I know.

And the music industry is saying that they, armed with the best artists in the world can't do as well as a 14 year old kid with a pen and a scanner?

And if not advertisements, then maybe subscription -capitalistically chosen between competing alternatives, mind you... or just a dollar per song. I understand it's working very well. 2007 was -again- a record year for digital music transactions.

*and I bet he doesn't mean the fact that the artist gets 5 cents of the dollar, because the rest goes to printing and spreading the CDs. And of course manager will take his 20% out of that 5 cents as well. Plus taxes.

References; U2 manager blames Microsoft et al, Canadian songwriters propose legal music sharing, Music-industry tries carrot after years of stick, Internet radio may face crippling fees, Digital sales up worldwide.

Well... just great...

I wanted to comment on a MSN blog, so I had to enter my Live id (there was no Anon or non-certified alternatives) and a minute after posting, this appeared on my mailbox.

1. "Windows Live Spaces" - horrible name, isn't it? For one thing, the branding thing - this really doesn't have anything to do with the operating system, now does it? At least I hope it doesn't. Vista is such a clusterfuck (beg your pardon) that I wouldn't wager either way.
"Live" - what?
"Spaces" - seeing as how they keep saying "my space", "your space" etc, "my page" was probably copyrighted or something. Anyway, this seems artificial way of trying to create a new word.

2. "Now it's time to have fun with you space" -- what?!

3. "Express yourself". How about with a finger? Stop sending me spam everytime I comment on someone's blog... I'm sorry, space.

4. "Connect and share anywhere.." - is this even grammatically correct?

News not broadcasted

One of the more annoying things about our times is that interesting and important are not the same thing, in news.

Which brings me to the list of most important stories of the past year or so gone unreported. I choose to believe this is not because of some conspiracy, they have just fallen through the cracks. The page doesn't really have any nutshell-versions (maybe they think everything is important?), so I thought to write them and give some comments if I can - those would be in italics.
The stories are really American centric, and I can't help but feel that there are more important stories untold in the old world. I don't even understand why some of them are important. Writing this took several hours and afterwards it occurs to me that I could have just concentrated on the ones important to *me*.

#1 No Habeas Corpus for “Any Person”
Anyone judged to be an enemy of the state - even US Citizen - may be hold infinitely without questioning or chance to prove innocence, thanks to new law by Bush. Apparently the media at large has been reporting this as "even though this is possible, it will never be applied on USA citizens".
I know I should probably be more interested and/or outraged, but I can't help but think what makes US citizens "better" or less dangerous than one having a passport from Finland, Britai or Egypt. Dangerous people - or one viewed as such - is dangerous no matter where he hails. That being said, I think this law should never have been passed in the first place. It invites abuse.

#2 Bush Moves Toward Martial Law
Bush has the right to station military anywhere in USA without say from local authorities or governor.
Again, I should be interested but all I can see is material for the eventual "I told you so!" when the coup d'etat happens. And I'm not really sure it will.

# 3 AFRICOM: US Military Control of Africa’s Resources
"...Oil companies and the Pentagon are attempting to link these resistance groups to international terror networks in order to legitimize the use of the US military to “stabilize” these areas and secure the energy flow. No evidence has been found however to link the Niger Delta resistance groups to international terror networks or jihadists...."
I don't really see the bad thing here. Sure, it's not exactly moral, but nobody wins if the regions stay unstable and lots of people lose their lifes. In the past countries trying to do good there have given up quite easily. Long term agenda might be just what the doctor ordered. USA trying to push their own forces in the area long term might stabilize and democratize.
It seems that far too often the African liberation movements are just new dictators and one-party systems waiting to happen. But maybe this is just me and "white man's burden" talking.

# 4 Frenzy of Increasingly Destructive Trade Agreements
USA and EU are making trade agreements with developing countries which leave the partner in very bad position financially, leading all the way to slave labour.
Can't really say anything to this. I suppose that as a citizen of EU I'm part of the problem here, but... well... It would be nice if things were a bit more fair. These things are written and signed in cabinets and situations that don't really have that much to do with democracy..

#5 Human Traffic Builds US Embassy in Iraq
The US Embassy in Iraq was built with slave labour.
No comment. This would be like shooting fish in the barrel.

#6 Operation FALCON Raids
I don't really understand anything about this. I think it has something to do with USA becoming a police state.

#7 Behind Blackwater Inc.
This was largely old news. Blackwater is led by a right wing Christian-supremacist, it's the largest mercenary organisation in the world and makes big campaign contributions to Republics. It's also expanding its operations inside USA itself, and has lots of support from people in places of power.
I'm not sure if all this was in the article, but I find the topic interesting and have done some of my own reading.

#8 KIA: The US Neoliberal Invasion of India
In a pact between USA and India, India has given its whole farm sector insecure for American take-overs.

#9 Privatization of America’s Infrastructure
The states sell roads to private companies, who then make profit with tolls and lobby the states not to build any new roads that might be in competition.

# 10 Vulture Funds Threaten Poor Nations’ Debt Relief
Apparently loans taken by poor nations that would otherwise be forgiven are bought by vulture funds, which then go on rob the little money the states have left.
In other words, taking even the ash from the fireplace, after everything else has gone. Thus far, this is the story that shocked me the most.

# 11 The Scam of “Reconstruction” in Afghanistan
Most of the money sent to Afghanistan never gets to it's destination. Of all the aid from USA, maybe 14 cents of every dollar end up where it's supposed to, other circling back to corrupt politicians or corporations in America.
These help-projects never seem to work. They always crash and burn, for one reason or another. Doesn't mean we shouldn't keep on pushing.

# 12 Another Massacre in Haiti by UN Troops
"Eyewitness testimony confirms indiscriminate killings by UN forces in Haiti’s Cité Soleil community on December 22, 2006, reportedly as collective punishment against the community for a massive demonstration of Lavalas supporters in which about ten thousand people rallied for the return of President Aristide in clear condemnation of the foreign military occupation of their country. According to residents, UN forces attacked their neighborhood in the early morning, killing more than thirty people, including women and children. Footage taken by Haiti Information Project (HIP) videographers shows unarmed civilians dying as they tell of extensive gunfire from UN peacekeeping forces (MINUSTAH)..."
That was the gist of it. Doesn't really have anything as far as punishments go. It's just hanging there. Unbelievable.

Journalism and Civil Society in Haiti: The Acceptable and The Unacceptable
Lots of corruption, scandals etc. In Haiti, this time from the rulers, and nobody in USA or EU is giving a damn.
This story could have used a nutshell. Apparently they are just quoting news-pieces that aren't repeated otherwise.

# 13 Immigrant Roundups to Gain Cheap Labor for US Corporate Giants
NAFTA (North American Free Trade Agreement) flooded Mexico full of subsided American food products, leaving the Mexican farmers who can't compete seeking badly paying and dangerous jobs in other industries (at USA), rolling the clock back hundred years in the factories. The visas on which they arrive make sure they stay second-class citizens.

I'm pretty sure similar things happen with EU and Africa (with the difference that Africans aren't in fact employed somewhere else). I don't really understand why it's so important to grow sugar in Finland (apparently the farmers in Finland are earning in general €5 (NOT a good wage) per hour thanks to subsidies, of which €3 is government money). Same thing goes, of course, for France. Who cares where the wheat comes, as long as it's baked near? It's important to keep us somewhat non-dependant of foreign nations, but some of the subsidies are just vanity, and a money hole, besides.

# 14 Impunity for US War Criminals
Thanks to last-minute change in the language of one particular law in USA, torturers and their bosses are now safe from law if the deed was done after November 1997. So long as they stay at USA, they don't have to concern themselves with war crime-charges.
Meanwhile, some human rights groups brought these charges against Rumsfield while he visited Paris recently. The France law makes it mandatory to research the charges, but chances are that nothing will happen because it would sour the relationships to USA.

# 15 Toxic Exposure Can Be Transmitted to Future Generations on a “Second Genetic Code”
This is just what it sounds like. You are not just endangering your own health, but possibly the health of your descendants to Nth generation. This is not just about living next door to nuclear power plant, but also about all those untested chemicals we have ingested or lived with (or our parents, grandparents lived with).

#16 No Hard Evidence Connecting Bin Laden to 9/11
The guy is still wanted by FBI et al, but not because of WTC. Apparently they never found anything to connect him there, expect, obviously, the tapes he made.

# 17 Drinking Water Contaminated by Military and Corporations
While there are laws against this sort of things, apparently they aren't enforced and the waters are in awful condition. 40% of American water is unsafe for fishing or swimming.

# 18 Mexico’s Stolen Election
In short; American government and companies broke repeatedly Mexican laws about presidentian elections to get the "right man" to the big seat. When the research on the elections was finished, most Mexican TV-stations refused to broadcast the findings.
Apparently this has all to do with the fact that in Mexico the president is in control of energy resources, such as oil fields.

# 19 People’s Movement Challenges Neoliberal Agenda
Apparently countries in Central and South America are walking out of World Bank and IMF who try to rule the way the countries do business (and are very powerful tools of influence). The World Bank is traditionally led by an American, and IMF by an European, even though in theory the whole world has a say in the subject.
I'm a bit unsure about this topic. Every time I read "agenda", my tinfoil-sense starts tingling. That being said, World Bank has done some really poor moves lately, and I can't fault the nations wanting more independence in these areas. I do wonder can they do better on their own, under populist politicians than under trained economists?

# 20 Terror Act Against Animal Activists
In gist; they apply terror-laws on areas where they were not planned to be used, because they are more convenient to the law-enforcers. Another example of USA turning into a police state.
In addition to animal right activists, similar strategy has been used against street gangs in NYC, at least.

# 21 US Seeks WTO Immunity for Illegal Farm Payments
Basically, against problems rised by #13. The WTO agreement is going really badly, mostly because all negation-sides are blaming each other of illegal subsidies. Because each nation/federation/conferedation (or whatever EU is) handles these things differently, they can try to forbid them from the other sides while keeping them themselves. Of course this doesn't really fly with the others, causing the negotiations crash and burn time after time.
Which arguably is a good thing.

# 22 North Invades Mexico
After all the anti-immigration speeches in USA, it is Americans who plan to retire to Mexico to spend their pensions. In warmer climate, where dollar streches farther. The article is mostly about double-standards.

# 23 Feinstein’s Conflict of Interest in Iraq
Some American congress-woman voted for billion-dollar contracts to company owned by her husband.

# 24 Media Misquotes Threat From Iran’s President
Apparently the president of Iran didn't say “Israel must be wiped off the map", but "regime occupying Jerusalem must come down”, apparently meaning the Israeli government policies, not the nation as a whole. The whole thing was a translation error, which hasn't stopped the wrong translation being circulated in the media and hostilities from the side of USA government.
The piece also talks about the Iran president's open letter from May 2006, where he asked for open talks from clean table, without past history. The letter was disregarded because Bush was still doing pretty well in Irak and thought he might be able to attack Iran sometime soon.

# 25 Who Will Profit from Native Energy?
Many Indian reserves in America are situated so that they can be harvested for wind, natural gas, oil energy. Lots of talk about what aspects should be developed and companies finding convenient loops in laws to exploit. I didn't really understand this story.

Sunset

Taken around 23:00 at my balcony about a week ago. You can't stay up too late - after 2:00 the sun starts to rise up again..

On another topic: Picasa, a service by Google seems to have a rather embarrassing bug; while Blogger and Picasa are both owned by the same company, I can't actually add pictures I have loaded to Picasa to Blogger -- but pictures I load to Blogger are shown as folders in Picasa, and can therefore be shown. To get this picture to you, I had to load it to Picasa here and to Blogger separately here.
Maybe I'm just doing something wrong, but I doubt it.

Short comment on MySpace

MySpace. The name itself conjures ideas of freedom, about liberty to customize, change and design your own place in the Internet. The freedom does not always work; many youths and even companies have badly designed pages.

Personally I don't have very high opinion on MySpace -- the few profiles I've seen (even professional ones) seem rather clunky and remind me of the web pages I did during the late 90s in the IT-lab. I thought the reason for the pages to look so clunky was because the tools given for customization were hard to use, people were not trained in layout-creating (and thus adding the most clashing of colours and images to their profiles) and finally; because the people Just Couldn't Do It Right.

I seem to owe them an apology.

Yesterday I was bored and thus registered to MySpace. I thought it would be interesting to create a page, maybe do a simple and refined design to show how to Do It Right. As soon as I had finished the registration progress, I started browsing the account-settings. But.. where is the "Layout Settings"? Where do I change the background, fonts, tables-colours, link-colours?

After brief Google-search the answer dawned to me; the reason MySpace-pages look so bad is not because the customization tools are hard to use; it's because there are no customization tools. The pages code has to be set --by hand-- to the ABOUT ME-box. The attached image should make things clear.

I kid you not. All the MySpace design is entered into this box, titled "About Me". Those people with bad profiles? Those are the fucking gurus who fought a horde of dragons to get where they are. It's a miracle they get anything out of this at all. You can customize school property with axe easier - while your teacher is watching.

I have not seen such a bad design in ten years. Actually, not even then. I registered at Angelfire around early -98 (at least that's when my oldest file in the space was dated). It gave 15 megabytes of space, url and all it wanted was a banner on top. It had some limited custom tools; you could set the colours of the background and the text without knowing html. When I was 14, that was a really great thing. If you did know html, you could use that as well.
Of course, I didn't have anything to put on page - though I did try to create content few times (the front page I did back then, can be found here as well - made for 640x480 resolution).

It is miserable to note that as far as MySpace goes, it gives less chance to custom than a ten year old hosting site (which even by that time's standard was pretty basic).

So, what does MySpace offer then, if not your own space? Instant Messaging services; I suppose sending a message thru MySpace can be deemed to be less important, less direct, than sending email or contacting someone in MSN. Marketing products and networking. Exellent service for people who don't irc with a shell or know how to use forums.

I see no reason why there shouldn't be a custom-page in the settings. People seem to custom them anyway, and the lack of tools makes the end-results ghastly. Companies and groups that use the page for networking could easily make their page easily more attractive. This is the page of US Presidential Candinate. If this were a normal web page, I would laugh the designer all the way to the sea. I could do better. Infact, I have*. As things stand, I have to conclude that the writer was probably elite. And the guy who designed the Marine Corps-page? He must be some sort MySpace-Messiah.

But the fact still stands, that if the user interface were easier to use, you should not need sacrifice goats to dark gods to get to Barack Obama-class.

In conclusion, I have hard time understanding how this could be the sixth most popular page in the whole damn world. I can understand how the service the page offers could be needed.. but it's hard to believe that no other site has been able offer the networking and Instant Messaging with easy customization... or, have done so and made it popular. There is something really wrong with this world.

*I might add a link here once I get my web page back online.

Problems with establishment - Part 2: Nordea

There are very few things in life one should be able to trust without any limits. On the top of this list there is the bank. If you start to think about it, your life goes through the bank. Using credit cards, ATM, paying bills.. we are dealing with our banks. Trusting our way of life to the bank; should the bank come short of our expectations, it would only take few days till we would be living on the streets.
I mean, how much cash do you have? If I would count together the amount in my wallet, pockets, small containers and so on, I might be able to rise as much as €20, and on any given day seldom more than €50. Why would I need to? There are five ATM's inside 50 metre radius, my bank is 100 metres from the front door and I have several cards if one should fail me. Having lots of currency in cash would be foolish; you can't very well walk around €1000 in your back pocket, and I would not feel very comfortable leaving that amount lying even in my apartment. Credit cards are a great invention; even if someone would get his hands on one, you should still know the PIN-number. And for added security, you can always kill your card if you find it missing.

But to the story;
I have been customer at Nordea since I was 13 years old. For many years I didn't have much contact with the bank; my mother would transfer money to my account over the Internet, which I would then withdraw from the nearest ATM. My needs were simple; I was living with my family, I didn't have rent or any other expenses that I would categorize as involuntary.
This all changed when I moved to my own. Suddenly I had a need for a debit card (instead of just an ATM card). I had bills to pay, clothes to buy, and so on. I went to my local branch and got Visa Electron and Netbank-account. The service wasn't excellent - I had to wait for my turn for a long while, and neither was the service excellent. But it would do; it wasn't like I would visit the branch every week.

As did my last story, this one properly starts after I started preparing my extended leave from the country, around October of last year. I went to the local branch after getting appointment two days previous, telling I wanted to discuss about getting MasterCard in-depth. Even as I had appointment, the service-lady came ten minutes late to the meeting - because she was in the middle of her lunch! As I had skipped mine to be there on timely manner, this didn't really start our conversation with the right foot.
Immediately she put the papers in front of me and started telling me how to fill them; she either didn't know or didn't care that I wanted answers to several questions I had. When I tried to ask questions, she kept repeating that I don't have to know those things. She didn't even know anything about the discounts I was eligible for. At one point she confessed she had actually specialized to home-loans. After several problems, where she disrespected and offended me quite strongly, I finally finished the papers, got answers to most of my questions (but on retrospect didn't find out about many important things that I should have), ordered the MasterCard and authorized the bank to remove the money directly from my account (instead of sending me a bill once a month). I left the bank angry, and told the extended version of this story several times to my friends and family.

It should be noted that when I started looking after insurance for my trip, I didn't even consider Nordea -- even though they were supposed to have the best offers.

Months went by. I left to Scotland, and the MasterCard served me excellently, till at 18th of April (Wednesday) when I got email from my father; apparently the card wasn't in the autopayment scheme as I had thought, and the bills had been sent to my home - where they had stayed unopened. My father had finally started to wonder why I had gotten so many letters from the bank and opened several -- and found the bills, of which some had graduated into reminder-bills, with additional late-fees.
The next day father called the bank and asked after my direct payment-authorization. Apparently I had made one, but they had never sent it forward to the Finance-department, which handled such things. But at least now the things were under control; the bills had been paid, everything was just dandy.

Then on the next Saturday (21st of April) I decided to withdraw some money from Lloyd's ATM. I put my card into the wall without realizing this would be the very last time I would see it. The machine ate it; apparently because of the bills (which I had paid three days earlier). To ad insult to injury, the bank had closed not 15 minutes earlier, and I would get my card back on Monday at the earliest.

Next Monday I went to the bank, where they courteously explained that as demanded by international banking agreements, my card had been destroyed. Swiftly I sent email to my bank, asking why this had happened and how they would take care of this, as I was now without money in a foreign land (I didn't mention that I had Visa Electron; I thought that this might increase the priority of my case, and help me find out how much they bothered to read about me).

24th I got the first email from the bank. It asks could I get the card back if Nordea would send guarantees? I explained that the card had been destroyed, but gave the contact information of Lloyd's Paisley-branch.

26th the representative of Nordea said I could get a new card but "that would mean the bill dated 7.5. should be paid immediately". I sent angry answer where I quote the amount of money on my bank account (several times larger than any bill I would have to pay) and mention that they still had the direct payment-authorization, and would you please use it?
After this they apparently actually checked my balance and other information, as the next (over courteous) email mentions that as I have Visa Electron and could I use that one instead, till I got home? After getting back, she would like to meet and discuss the problems. Very well.

Visa Electron didn't have much coverage in Scotland; shops regularly declined to accept it, which meant I had to use ATM's often (of which Nordea took €2+2,5%).

Back home, I found out that not only had the delightful service person mishandled my autopayment, she had also forgot to give me all the discounts (of which I had had to educate her on), so I had been paying €3,22 per month for the right to use MasterCard even from the months I didn't have the card. As a sugar frosting on the cake, they had also taken €4 from my account when my father had asked after the state of my account, after things had started going wrong. The bank even took money when you complained?!

Thankfully, after pointing out all these things to the person I had been in communication with, all the money were returned. But it did teach me not to trust banks (and Nordea in general) without limits.

Now that I have my money back, I have opened new account in Nooa Savingbank; unlike Nordea which is a publicly traded company (with the first priority of bringing money to its owners) Nooa's first priority is to increase the amount of money in the saving-accounts. This means that they don't issue ATM-cards, but they give up to five time more interest than Nordea ever did. And I can still get Visa Electron (which I get to design myself, oh fun).

Problems with establishment - Part 1: Elisa

There's something magical in the border where company turns from an extension of a person into something that nobody quite claims as their own. Years back one of my brothers said this about a company that had turned from one-man enterprise into company employing hundreds, just in five years; "it used to be that the clerks felt like they were part of something bigger, doing something new and amazing -- now they are just working there". He was talking, of course, about the level of service.

When the people who deal with the customers get farther and farther from the people who make decisions, and decision-makers from the customers -- that's when the companies become evil. Or, if not evil, inept.. which, in a way, is even worse. I mean, you can trust evil. Evil always knows what it's doing, and it has manuals how to deal with different sort of complaints. Inept... well, it's hard to complain to the customer service that your broadband isn't working when the other end of the line doesn't acknowledge that anything is wrong. But I'm going too fast. Let's start from the beginning;

Elisa is a telecommunications company selling -- among other things -- broadband and mobile phone accounts, under several brands. Founded in 1882 as Helsingin Puhelinyhdistys (Helsinki's Phone Corporation), it used to be a co-operative where you had to own a share to get a phone installed. At some point they abandoned the you-need-to-own-a-share mentality, but otherwise it worked thus till the year 2000, when it incorporated into a public company, where each old share was worth about 20 new ones. The stock changed hands (and price) several times during the following years, and I believe that the majority of the stock is owned currently by some Icelandic millionaire.
After 2000, the company has grown aggressively in size by taking over smaller companies, not always kindly. They currently employ about 5 000 people.

I'm currently subscribing to their broadband because it was one of the two companies that at the time served my area (the other being TeliaSonera). I had some bad experiences on the other company (my mother had, and still has, their broadband). Long story short, the broadband worked at times really slowly, sometimes not at all, and the company never admitted any problems.

Now to my story. As you might or might not know, I was at student exchange from the late January to early June. Naturally, I contacted Elisa before-hand to let them know of the situation and to find out how I could avoid paying the bills - €25 per month - during the following months. They proposed to put my broadband on hold, which would have cost me €9 per month, but would have let me keep my homepage-space (where I hosted several avatars and a homepage I had made as a school project) and email-addresses (which I didn't use because I didn't want to be tied to a provider so strongly). I then said I would simply end my subscription on the last day of January and start a new one at June. For the credit of the person on the other side of the line, she was very courteous and innovative and arranged it so I didn't have to pay the fees of connecting the broadband (apparently about €50) and I even got a new ADSL2/WLAN-modem/router for free. At the time, I thought I would return home during late June, and so I asked the Internet to be connected on 18th day of that month.

On 5th day of June (when I was already back home) I got a call from Elisa; they were marketing a new broadband connection (25MB) and wondered if I would like one, for the additional price of €2 per month till the end of the year, with no commitment to stay with the plan. The person on the other end of the line didn't really seem to know what he was doing and several times I thought he was actually working for one of the competitors or tried to speak me into doubling my bills. After getting the gist of it, and after seeing that I was agreeable, he got better with his service (if not with his work) and even shared me few ways how to easily switch off the plan with minimum trouble when the year was up.

On 18th day I got a text message, proclaiming that my Internet was now connected, have a nice day. After trying different configurations for hours (new modem, old modem, switching the lines etc) without anything tangible to show of my efforts, I went to sleep. The next day I called the Customer Service again (finding out that (1.) I was supposed to have 1MB connection till they would separately upgrade my account on 4th of July and (2.) Elisa's definition of "line of eight minutes" meant the same as "wait forty minutes") trying to explain that the fucking Internet does not work.
After explaining that yes, I have some minor knowledge with technology and that I suppose I know how to connect the modem to both power and phone socket and yes, the Green Light indicating working ADSL-connection seems to be missing. The Customer Service says that perhaps he COULD send someone to check the wiring. But most probably the problem would be between the keyboard and the chair, and if so, you are the person who will pick up the bill (I find out that the bill is €70/hour). And somebody would probably come around during the next two days.

Two days later, there still wasn't any light in the modem. It was Wednesday and 21st of June. New call to the Customer Service (and forty minutes of elevator music later, thank God the line was only eight minutes long, I don't know how long I could have survived) I find out that "two days later" means 26th or 27th of June. Midsummer, you understand.

Today, on the 26th of June, I get call from my Father. Apparently the papers for my new 25M connection just arrived. To his apartment. New call to Elisa ("the line is over 20 minutes long, please hold the line, you can also go to our web page for service") and everything seems to be in order. Apparently the cable man is currently going trough the wiring, and yes, the upgrade should come to my address.
Two hours later call from the very friendly cable man explaining that the wiring had been set improperly and should now be fixed.

Now waiting for the 4th of July, when my Father might very well get a new, much better, broadband (though the Customer Service disagreed).

EDIT: The letter to my father indicated (and the Customer Service agreed and corrected) that while the new connection (which apparently is either 24M or 25M depending whom you ask) was coming to my address, the bills were going to be sent to my father.

What the hell is wrong with organized religions?

I have been thinking of religions lately. Partly because of this entry (I was linked by my friend Vlad, who apparently has rather good grasp on things I like), partly because couple of Jehovah's Witnesses came to visit the Residence the other day. I was not around, but apparently they knocked on each flat door and asked from which countries the inhabitants are from. They then gave Watchtowers and Awake!-magazines in the languages of the countries mentioned. So now I have religious magazines in Finnish and English on the kitchen table.

I don't much base for organized religion. I trust the scientific approach as far as our normal life goes, and I quite agree with the idea of evolution and Newtonian physics (yes, I know they only apply as long as the objects travel slower than 10% of speed of light). When we step outside the area that can be observed and verified directly by our senses, I get a bit unsure. They say that it all started with a Big Bang, which seems like a sensible conclusion from the known facts. The same goes for post-Einstein physics. They say it allows pretty much everything from time travel to reaching distant stars in days. This may very well be so, and I do know that CD-players would be impossible to manufacture without Einstein's theories.

But when you start to think about it, REALLY think about it; the universe is so huge and big and infinite. There are no borders but it expands all the time. And every material is coming from the same spot and has just spread around. There may be evidence to support it - and I do want to believe - but it's too big. And the same goes for the religious alternatives.

But to be honest, I'm not very concerned. Some days I feel that there might be something out there, and on some days I don't. In general, I feel that it's more important to know what's inside than outside. And whatever you believe, they are your beliefs and don't really belong to anyone else. If I discover something that works to me, the last thing I want to hear is that I'm wrong. Incidentally, Lutheran church (at least in Finland) is pretty cool with the subject. Apparently they (we?) have priests who don't believe in Hell. And priests that only believe in God as a symbol for human goodness. And priests that don't believe that women can be priests, which pretty well shows the other side of the tolerance-argument, but I digress.

I do read about other religions; believes often tell something important about the culture and the person itself. And so I was reading Finnish Awake! at the kitchen table, while I was eating my breakfast müsli. I admit that I dont know much about Jehovahs Witnesses, other than they go from door to door and nobody seems to like them. It's all very vague.

There was a longish article in Young people ask-series titled Why is it wrong to date in secret?. It was basically the moral story of Jessica, with additional quotes and explanations from the Bible. Jessica's story goes as follows;

Jessica had to do a choice. Everything started when one of her classmates, Jeremy, told he was interested in her. Jessica says: "He was very good looking, and my friends said that you will never find a guy as honourable as him. Many girls were interested in him, but he only had eyes for me".

After a time, Jeremy asked Jessica out. She tells: "I explained to him that I am a Jehovah's Witness, and that I could not date anyone who was not a Witness. But then Jeremy got an idea; we could date without telling my parents.

[...] Surprisingly, Jessica accepts Jeremy's idea. "I was sure that if I dated him, I could make him love Jehovah", she says. [Then] Jessica [...] heard about another Christian girl in the same situation. "When I found out that she had ended her relationship, I knew what I had to do", Jessica says. Was ending the relationship easy? No! "He was the only boy who I had ever truly cared about", Jessica says. "I cried every day for weeks."

Jessica also knew something else: she loved Jehovah, and even if she had gotten sidetracked, she genuinely wanted to do what was right. In time, the pain went away. Jessica tells; "my relationship with Jehovah is now better than ever. I am really thankful that he gives to us at the right time the kind of guidance we need."

(From Herätkää!, June 2007)

The girl cried for weeks and imagine what the boy felt like. I don't really know what the teaching of the story was - other than "cults are bad for you, mmkay?" - But I'd like you to imagine what it would be like if there is no Witness community on the area. The article also mentions that dating is forbidden altogether if the people aren't old enough to marry and prepared to do so after relatively short dating.

Religion is what you make of it, what you believe in. You can try to convince others to believe in the same way, but it's rather inhuman to make people live in a way that makes them unhappy. Denying something purely because somebody says you should does sound a bit perverse for me, just because somebody may have probably said something against it, possibly, 3 000 years ago. As such I really like the relaxed attitude of the ground-level Lutheran church; the higher ups are not as much fun (few years ago they fired an employee for being gay).

I am, of course, a product of my society, and of my generation. People talk about traditions, values and history. Personally I think that for them to carry on, they should have some other things for going for them than just age. And not everything old is bad, but that story sends chills down my spine. Actually, I felt pretty bad for few days. The worst thing is that they didn't even think Jeremy's feelings were worth exploring. The only important thing is that Jessica had gotten closer to God!

World keeps surprising me.

I now and then hear jokes about idiotic and stupid nerds. I thought they were just fairy tales, stories made up by the media and jocks. When I think of nerds and geeks, I think they are people that are unhealthily obsessed about one thing or another, and probaply know about them more than needed. But I apparently make the mistake that just because these people are often ridiculed, that would make them more emphatic and give them the ability to think things thru. But I'll return to this later.

I find myself thinking of people too positively all the time, as much as I admid in hating humankind (waiting for the atom bombs!), they still manage to surprise me negatively every now and then.

I dislike when I notice how people don't know something that should be common knowledge. I understand that not everyone is a computer geek, but if you aren't retired you should be able to know the distinction between monitor and PC. Link.

Even if you aren't mathematics major, you should be able to understand that the thing about probapility is that it can't be tweaked. If there is a change of something happening every 1 day time out of 1000, and it happening twice one day is 1/1 000 000 (because 1k*1k=1m).. you can't manually introduce one more Thing and say that the propability of second happening is one millionth... because the one you introduce has a value of one, not 0,001. If you know enough about maths to know this, you shouldn't be able to do this sort of mistake. Link.

OK, let's get back to the beginning. People don't seem to understand what screenwriters do. First I introduce a quote from a person who should know;

I am absolutely NOT exaggerating.[...] I understand, from many conversations with folks who have been in that end of the business [...]that in Hollywood, as the common perception -- not even an occasional perception, but a common perception -- among a lot of people is that the actors in tv and movies are indeed making up crap as they go along.

--Adam-Troy Castro, SF-Writer, on his post at PeterDavid.net 25.10.2006

And if you aren't convinced he knows what he talks about, here's a blogpost from Wil Wheaton, that talks about the same thing. Namely, that people can't understand that actors don't decide - particulary in large cast TV-series - what the plot is. Read the post. Would think that nerds - who aren't the peak of social ladder - would be more understanding, even if they don't get such a basic thing. Particulary if they are fans of TV-shows and practically worship Roddenberry on altar (if actors decide, what is Roddenberry for?).

And now to the thing that inspired me to write this. Basic economics. I saw this post on Newsarama, a comic book news site. Essentially he says that the coverprice of any given comicsbook goes as-it-is to the chests of the publicing company, even as his profile says he has written 110 posts at Newsarama (eg. he reads it regulary) and confesses in getting almost everything published by DC Comics. Even as retailers post on the forums, and are often part of the news items, he dosen't seem to understand they get part of the price of the book. He also dosen't seem to understand that printers, artists, writers, editors and distribution (as well as few other items) take their share of the cover price.

And these were just a few exambles. Though geeky, the knowledge behind them (mathematics, everyday object-naming, basic economics) are anything but.

Other exambles can easily be provided, but I have already used hour writing this message, and I think my point already came across well enough.

To summary it all up; these are things we all live with. And I understand that not everyone knows all the stuff in the world, but for Trekker not knowing who Roddenberry is and what he does, or comics "expert" not knowing how the industry works (even as he gives advice) is very strange indeed. I have few times in classroom given answers to questions (that, on hindsight might have been rhetorical, but at that point seemed practical and aimed to get the presentation go forward) and teacher has asked me how do I know this stuff. Examples include; how long does man do without drinking water (two weeks or so), how many people are there at India (over one billion) and in the world (six and half billion).
Also two weeks ago I made a question to a student group that had studied Nordic electricity market on how did the grid transfer power. as known, such long distances, cause high power loss. Not only could they not answer, they claimed I had made the whole thing up to make them fail. Which seems very unsporting. But thats just me.

Ordering iPod

They told me at school that you tell of positive service to up to eight people, but of bad service to up to twenty people. This tops it, so Im going to write it here, and in my other blog, hoping that google hits will give it some readership.

I decided to buy the iPod from Apple's netstore, as it was about ten euros cheaper there than in the finnish third-party netstore.
So, after wondering a while what sort of iPod I would like, and what I would like to engrave to it (as it was free), I finally decided on the 30 gig iPod Black.
The iPod "Buy me" page was finnish, but after clicking the link, it changed into english, and it was quite clear that it had not been customized for Finland; there were fields not in use in Finland, and the english used wasnt exactly "first grade". Some of the words werent familiar to me either, and I have to study business english (and I have ten years of english studies behind me).

Finally I succeed in placing my order. I get an email how to send the money (wire/bank transfer, as I dont own a credit card). half of the graphics in the email are broken, but I didn't think much of it. I went to my netbank and inserted the given information. But whats this? The reference number wasnt valid. I copypasted it. I typed it. I checked. I rechecked. Didnt work.
Maybe this is a common problem, I think, and check the email given to me again. There is link marked as "OUR HELP MENU". As you can see, the picture is broken and the "Frequently asked questions" link brings up an error.

I sleep over the night and try to call them the next day (today). The number in the email isint valid either. Woman on the other side of the line, probaply a recording, tells that the number is not in use.
I try to send email. Few minutes later I get an answer telling that there wasnt anyone there atm, but if I waited for 24 hours, someone would answer me. Meanwhile, I could call them on their customer service. You know, the number that didnt work.

I dig the Apple's fi-page and try to find the phonenumber for some other department. I find one, and call, and am fairly suprised when the call center is in english. "They really try to cut in the corners, don't they?" I think, as I press number two. Some guy answers, from accent I suppose he's in Ireland, which he confirms to me later on. I tell him of my bank-problem. He tells me that the reference number given to me isint valid in North; that it isint following the standard finnish system. This is pretty queer, as the bank account given was in the same bank as my own. He says I should walk to bank and make the transfer there, with the help of bank-person.
I bring up the fact that the email had lots of other information that wasnt up-to-date, starting with FAQ and phonenumber not working. He says I should phone the number he gives me. I write it up. After closing the phone, I notice this is the same number I tried to call earlier, the one that didnt answer. I tried it anyway. Still not working.

I try to call again to Ireland. This time Im redirected to some guy named Jasquez (or something like that). I explain that it will cost me five euros to do it manually in the bank. He says that I should then pay with credit card. I tell him I dont have one. He then says I should use the reference number given in the email. I tell him its false. He says he will redirect my phone to another department. I get the call center on the other side of the line again. I close the phone.

So, what should I do? Im sure as hell wont be going to bank. The queues there are horrible, and then I have to pay five euros to some lady to work with me. Netshopping was supposed to be easy.

Should I try Apple's callcenter again in hope of getting some real service, maybe even discount? At this point, I would be satisfied if someone could say that they will look in the problems of the email, and that it will be adressed.

Personally, I start to feel more and more that I should just go to third-party store and buy my product from there. With the bank-problem, it only costs me five euros more, and I get the ipod about two to three weeks earlier.

EDIT: I called to Apple Care, which actually has finnish employees. I got some guy who told me that as the reference number wasnt up to finnish standards, I should paste it to the note-field, with my order number.
That sounds like a sane idea, and I wonder why they gave me so fucked up answers at Ireland.

Time Jam

Very good reason to get drunk.

From wikipedia:

...the situations typically arose from misunderstandings or ideological differences between various groups that could be resolved through reason and perseverance. The core theme of the stories is an optimistic liberal humanism: the adventures aren’t about defeating enemies but about exploring, facing challenges, and celebrating diversity.

This is one of my favorite comics. They handle more like travel journals into strange worlds than future-themed adrenaline-action with explosions every three minutes.
My favorite sequence in the comic-series was when they after tracking down drugs and illegal technology on 80s Earth, find out that the guilty party is Holy Trinity. Big is Valerian's and friends surprise when they find out that God is a no-good, down-on-his-luck business man, Jesus is an old hippie and Holy Spirit is a broken slot-machine.

Im quite sure, after seeing that intro, that Tim Jam will not be anything like that. Well, hopefully it made the creators rich.

Kypäristä

Viime vuosina elämänpidentäjät ovat muuttuneet parempaan suuntaan.

Ne ovat nykyään malliltaan sporttisia urheiluvälineitä, joita melkein tahtoisi pitää päässään kävellessäänkin. Varsinkin kesäaikaan sitä on huomaavinaan, että jotkut todella tekevät sitä; jättävät muovibaskerin päähän lukittuaan pyörän.

Johtopäätös; tätäkin viestiä lukevat nuoret henkilöt (ja miksei vanhemmatkin) jotka eivät pidä bufferia päässä pyöräillessään, ovat harvinaisen hyvää pullamössötaikinaa."Näyttää potalta" oli ihan hyvä perustelu vielä 90-luvun ensimmäisellä puoliskolla, kun puoliympyrät ekan kerran tulivat markkinoille. Silloin ne todella NÄYTTIVÄT potilta, ja todella typeriltä.
Sellainen päässä ja näytti heti jälkeenjääneeltä, jota ylihuolehtivainen äiti suojeli. Harvempi äidin helmoista päässyt niitä oikeastaan edes käytti.

Nykyään kypärät tuovat muotoilultaan mieleen lähinnä lihaksi tulleen nopeuden. Sellainen päässä ei näytä typerältä; ei, vaan ainoastaan KESKITTYNEELTÄ. Sillä todistat ettet ole et ole kuka tahansa sunnuntaipyöräilijä vaan joku joka tietää miten 15-vaihteista pyörää käsitellään.
Ja jos alla on mummon vanha pyörä 60-luvulta, niin se johtuu yksinomaan siitä että olet menossa ostamaan paikkaustarvikkeita kävelyteiden kauhuun, joka lepää satula alaspäin omakotitalosi autotallissa Westendissä, Ferrarin ja purjeveneen välissä.

Pyöräilykausi alkaa. Jos ei ole kypärää niin nyt voisi olla hyvä hetki ostaa. Älkää ostako sitä koska se on halpa. Älkää ostako sitä koska se voi pelastaa henkesi. Ostakaa se koska kypärä saa sinut näyttämään siltä kuin olisit matkalla Ranskan ympäriajoon.

Ostakaa pois. Kypärä on seksikäs. Sellainen päässä ja tyttöjen (poikien) sydämet alkavat iskeä Porilaisten marssin tahtiin ilmestyttyessänne näkökenttään. Ja seisoessanne heidän vieressään, tuntemattomat ihailijanne tahi rakkaat elämänkumppaninne eivät voi olla ajattelematta kuinka voisivat ikinä olla arvoisianne; niin, kuinka kehtaavat edes puhua Teille, joka olette niin keskittynyt? Pelkästään jalkojenne katselu saa heidän niskansa särkemään, niin korkealla heidän yläpuolellaan Te olette. Te, nykypäivän Anodis tai Afrodites. Ja jos joku kutsuu tuota ihmeellistä käyttöesinettä 'potaksi', suosittelisin olemaan kuuntelematta. Kaikkihan te tunnette tarinan Samsonista, hänen suurista lihaksistaan ja vallattomista kutreistaan? Eivät ne olleet Fonzieita ja Elviksiä ne, jotka halusivat niiden katoavan, vaan Malfoyn perillisiä ja Sarumanin kätyreitä.

ICQ and problems

I have username or number in three instant messaging protocols, all managed thru Gaim, a splendid little piece of software.

Of all the protocols I have (AIM, ICQ and MSN, btw) only in ICQ people call me and start bugging.
And this only started after I went over 21. I imagine I went from one group to another, but I have no idea where and is there some change to get back to the "dont bug me" group.

This would be ok, if people would want to talk to me about comics, books, history or some other thing I would actually be interested in, but usually the people who talk to me are girls (or women, as it is) and braindamaged.

Anyway, this is the sort of conversations Im having over it. For context, it should be pointed over that my personal information (available next to my nick in the chat window) had all the information she is asking about, and more besides. Her info only had the name 'veronica' there.

(19:25:07) 263446539: hi
(19:25:39) iJ: evening
(19:26:55) 263446539: where are you from?
(19:27:26) iJ: Hmm
(19:27:32) iJ: Where did you get my number from?
(19:28:07) iJ: I live in Finland, which I have probaply written next to every place where my id is up
(19:28:37) 263446539: age?
(19:28:59) iJ: Who are you?
(19:29:57) iJ: I am not very delighted that someone who hasnt even introduced herself suddenly pops up and starts interrogating me
(19:30:24) iJ: With questions that I have already answered on the page where you found my number
(19:30:48) 263446539: ok bye
(19:30:57) iJ: thank you, and good bye
(19:31:35) 263446539: thank you for what?
(19:31:50) iJ: Sarcasm
(19:32:21) 263446539: you not want to talk with me
(19:32:30) iJ: I would love to talk to you
(19:32:46) iJ: But I have asked two questions from you, and you have not answered me once
(19:32:56) iJ: Thats not dialogue, thats interrogation
(19:33:45) 263446539: you haven't asked nothing
(19:34:25) iJ: Where did you get my number?
(19:34:29) iJ: Who would you be?
(19:35:20) iJ: Listen, I bet you have talked with people via phone?
(19:35:43) iJ: When you call someone, you introduce yourself.
(19:35:51) iJ: And before calling, you find out something about the person you call to.
(19:36:16) iJ: In this case, if you found my number somewhere, you probaply found that the page also had information about me, like my country, age and gender
(19:36:36) iJ: You dont just select random number from phone book and ask "who am I talking to?"
(19:36:45) 263446539: i haven't read nothing about you
(19:36:53) iJ: Where did you get my number then?
(19:38:00) 263446539: i don't remember. here
(19:38:08) iJ: "here"?
(19:38:22) 263446539: yes
(19:38:29) iJ: What would "here" be?
(19:38:42) 263446539: excuse me but i don't speak english very well
(19:38:55) iJ: What was the page where you found my number?
(19:39:08) iJ: "here" isint a location :)
(19:39:37) 263446539: i don't remember
(19:40:58) iJ: Right. Good bye.

Makes you really connect with the human race, dosent it?

Why Judaism Is Cool

Found this some time ago in Warren Ellis' dirty blog.

At the time I didn't think much of it. I found it disgusting, but that was about it. Today morning I was at shower and thought how much trouble those fucking idiots are going to destroy something so precious. Wouldn't it be much easier all around if these dimwits would just camp outside synagogues and mosques instead of going to the tropic getting eaten by mosquitos that probaply spread all sort of nasty diseases.

And then I thought some more of those "spreaders of word". I remember how they go door to door disturbing all sort of honest folk.

Jews never do that. Whatever you say about jews, they never interrupt you in the middle of your favorite show or bath. Thats a huge plus in My Personal Up and Down List.

Comicbook logic!

Comics are a great thing. There are several reasons, and one of the most coolest thing about particular brand of them is the continity. Yes, Im talking about superheros.

Continity - that is, things from past storylines affect the future ones - is a cool thing. Sometimes it also causes problems. Things are made for one particular storyline, that become obvious hinderstones in later ones. Or some machine (usually weapon) has some really obvious beneficial uses, but the heroes (even if they have resources, and even if they themselves are in need of the beneficial use) never get around doing it.

The most obvious examble, of course, is Professor Charles Xavier, the founder of X-Men. As you might remember from the movies (in case you dont read comics), the man is a cripple; he moves around while sitting in a wheelchair. This is quite strange, while we remember that the man teaches and houses people of great healing power under his roof. Several times, these healers have been shown to cure battlewounds that would cause death inside minutes; mending bones, removing holes thru the stomach and what have you. And still, Xavier has not asked, nor has of the healers suggested, that Xavier himself could be healed.

Or Cyclops. The man can shoot conclusive rays from his eyes (eg. he shoot beams that have the same effect as by being hit by cannonball). Thanks to brain damage as a kid, he can never turn his rays "off", and therefore he has to use visor that makes his rays harmless when not fighting people. He could be healed, as detailed above, but there are other solutions. X-Men have fought villains, and sometime they have lost. And the villain has chosen to imprison them by using "Inhibitor Collars". In short, it makes using superpowers impossible; shorts them out. They are well tested - in Marvel Universe, there were a whole islandnation full of mutants who were made to use them - so research in the technology is well betatested, and quite safe for users. So, why hasn't some company reverse-engineered the technology and built, for examble, bracelets with on/off switch? Cyclops wouldn't need those glasses, Rogue could touch people without taking their memories and so on. And thats just in the X-Men. Worldwide, there must be thousands, if not hundred of thousands, who look pretty normal and would like the comfort of knowing they dont accidentally, say, level a house. And people whose powers make normal life impossible. Naturally, it wouldnt help always, but it would help SOMETIMES. And even if the bracelet would cost tens of thousands of euros... goverment might help with the fees (it would limit damage to buildings), and even if it wouldnt - how much would you pay for item that would let you touch people without killing them? It should cost very much indeed that I wouldnt get one. There are loans, you know, and item like this would probaply have lifetime waranty.

Other things well known in Marvel U, but not used by anyone outside hero/villain community: time machine (with "ghost mode", where you can observe past but not affect it - ideal christmas present for any archeologist or historian!), alien civilisations with very advanced technolgoies and benevolent mindset (eg. ready to share, not trying to invade), Asimovian robots, force fields, 3D-technology, VERY advanced computers, flying cars, get-superpowers machines (several, most quite safe for the user) and so on. Seeing as some superheroes and villains are also involved in business, not seeing these things in the market is quite amazing (Fantastic four is financed by patents, Iron Man and Iron Fist own tech companies, Black Panther is the head of state, X-Men has several millionares and company owners and Batman is one of the richest people in the world).

Then there are those very absurd things, such as in DC's Flash. One of the villains is Dr. Alchemy. "Ha Ha Ha! After years and years of research, I have finally invented the Alchemist's Stone! With it I can change any material into another! Let's go rob some banks, instead of making copper, silver, iron, platinum, aluminium or some other very valuable and/or rare metal that is used in machines!" And of course, the men who just happen to discover how to make power armours, freeze guns, stilt legs (allowing you to rise to hundreds of meters, while keeping your legs on the ground), power sources and what have you. They could make millions if they started selling their inventions instead of trying to rob the bank down the street!

Oh, and it is shown that Batman's company, Wayne Enterprises, had in the middle eighties a machine that allowed people with broken backs to walk again. Problem was, back then the machine weighted 20 kilos or more, and must have been used all the time. It was 20 years ago, and surely the tech has evolved. And/or, Batman could have pushed more money in the technology, seeing as his friend, former Batgirl and current hacker and manager of Batman's information, happens to suffer from just this condition. Pretty indifrent, isin't he?

While, obviously, some of these things may have violent uses, and some heroes may want to keep their heads out of the workings of humankind - such as Superman - I cant really see why Iron Man, who owns a high tech company with army contracs, would hesitate to put into the market such things as 3D-projector (seeing as he wants to develope the company more to the high tech, consumer market). And time machines (which cant be used in Marvel U to change present) could and should be owned by at least several universities, however ridiculously expensive they were.

So many heroes could help so many more people than they do, if they just would think a moment more of the technology they smash and broke in every issue of their comic books. Sure, they are malevolent, but cant the underlining technology (and applications of physics) be used for GOOD? And why wont villains, that are are shown to be only concerned with money (and not say, world domination) sell or licence their patents instead of robbing banks?

But of course, these are comic books. But some technology could be incorporated into the the universe without making it look very foreign from our own; and that which cant could easily be explained away. But they dont do either, and this makes the heroes look very stupid indeed. Even if some of them are Nobel-winning scientists or supergeniuses.

Recomendatons on Blogsphere

Just Like That. Jokes and amusing pictures. If you are bored, this is a good way to spend your time. The jokes didnt even seem to be of the boring variety, these were inventive, and not so many times used you can see the light coming thru.


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I actually browsed for two hours, and only found this one. Hope you enjoy it, though.

EDIT: Found the kippledrome too. Looks something like my own blog, I think, with interests that are not really mine, but cool nonetheless. I think he has some belief in aliens and finds pictures of yesterday fascinating (me too of course).

EDIT2: AMERICA the Blog. Has all those newspieces from America that are so much fun to rant to your friends. No "this happens everyweek" stuff here, but all that stuff that makes America-bashing so much fun.

Will probaply add these links to the right later on.

Valerian and New Orleans

I remember, years ago, reading a french comic book (in finnish, of course), named Liikkuvien vetten kaupunki, if I remember correctly. Translation would be around the lines of "The City of Moving Waters". It was about two time travelers, who come back into past, into the year 1986, soon after catastrophe that makes the timelines nearly impossible to walk during the next few hundred years, a time which separates the modern world and the future, where time travel is possible and Galaxity is the peak of human civilization, culture that knows how to travel both in space and time, and have agents around both.

Anyway, in the beginning story Valerian is looking for his partner, who goes by the name of either Linda or Laura -- I forget. They are in New York City after the catastrophe, evacuated after the waters rose about ten meters over the street level.

Anyway, thats what Im thinking about now.

The parallels with today should not be too hard to see.

Was watching the news, and it occured to me how similar the footage was between NO and Baghdad. The reporters used nearly the same words. The story used nearly the same "plots". There was a person who hadn't eaten in a week, a man nearly mad because he had seen so many bodies float past him etc. The only difference that really hit me in the eye between NO and Bagdad was how welleaten these people looked. Sure, they were probaply really hungry, but its hard to stay serious when woman that appears to be around 100 kilos in weight goes about her dying because of lack of food.

Sure, these people are in need of help. But it wasnt like they didnt have oportunity to step into a bus and take vacation upstate or something, when the weathermen went - probaply in several channels, all at once - "FUCKING GET OUT OF THE CITY" to the viewers. These people thought they could do just fine back at their home sofa. Lousiana (thats where the city is located, if I remember correctly?) is pretty warm place, and you could probaply survive out in the wilds a week or so without depending on food store or anything. Plus the government offered their own staying places as well.

Oh well. Darwinism at work here.

That sounds so cruel. I hope the people will be ok - at least those alive - but of course its just one of the many tradegies in the world today. Concentrating on this one just dosent sound so... right. As it would be cheating. But of course, if you dont have friends or family there, its not really that real to you ,and you can go back to killing those people on computer, and hope you find the Final Bad Boss soon.