Canonet 28 and Canolite D flash

Canonet 28 and Canolite D flash

I was rummaging a closest at my parents place and found an old rangefindercamera that my dad had bought when he was young. I found Canonet 28 rangefinder camera which Canon used to produce between 1971-1976. You can find more detailed information about the camera at Camerapedia. Canonet 28 seems not to be the favourite among vintage camera enthusiast but I find it kinda cool. 

The camera was in full working order. All I need to do was to replace the battery so that the automatic light meter would start working and buy a film. I decided to go for a black and white film to get more artistic effect to my photos. It is funny how expensive film is nowadays. A film roll with 36 shots costs 9,40€. You can get quite a big sd-card with that kind of price.

I am quite excited about trying to shoot with a film camera. You really do not know in advance if your shots are any good. I'm thinking about getting a note book where I would write down the values that I've use. I am really excited to see if my pictures turn out good.

I had a bit of a problem getting the flash working and it took me a while to figure out what the problem was. The problem with the Canolite D, at least in  my case, was the battery compartment was a bit too tight and battery cover was a bit broken (hence the piece of white tape on the flash). When I inserted the batteries in I pushed the battery all the way to the bottom and since the compartment squeezed the battery there was no contact to the lid of the battery compartment. So all I needed to do was not to push the batteries all the way to the bottom and use the lid to press the batteries in place. This enables all the connectors to have a proper connection and the flash work. I hope this helps some one with figuring out and fix their Canolite D.

*EDIT*

I was able to fix the battery compartment of my Canolite D flash unit. Here's an illustration of the situation:

Well there's your problem!

So the basic problem was quite simple. The other wall of the battery compartment had jumped out from the small groove that holds it in place. What I did was even more simple. I unscrewed the screws and pulled the components out (extremely gingerly) just a tiny bit. This gave me enough space to slide the plastic wall into place. Now the batteries slide into place without any trouble. Now I just need to figure out a way to fix the broken cover of the battery compartment.

Fight fire with fire: Nokia N9 and Apple Macintosh commercials

Take a look at these two videos:



and here is an advertising classic:




Is it just me or do you see something similar in these two ad films? I guess Nokia is really pulling out the big guns (copied, but still) against Apple's iPhone and Android. It also quite explicitly signals for Nokia China is very important and it will do everything to emerge as winner in the smart phone competition in China.

Tell me what you think. Has Nokia just copied the concept from Apple or is there something really original in the ad?

Magic Gloves - Halti Stormwall Gloves

Gloves

Two days ago I was out geocaching and noticed a cool feature in my gloves. Yes that's right, gloves. I have a pair of Halti Stormwall gloves and noticed that I can operate the touchscreen of my phone with my gloves on. Great.

I guess the pattern on the gloves enables the small electric current to pass between your finger and the touchscreen.

Jobs.

What would you say of a guy who believes that by eating fruit he does need to use deodorant, is an admires zen meditation and practices, but explodes every now and then at work, and can not furnish his house because he is such a perfectionist that he can't find suitable furniture that meet his criteria. Do you think this kind of a guy has any chance of succeeding? Well that was how Steve Jobs was. Still he managed to create a company that has shaken up the market of consumer electronics throughout the past decade or so. The pace has been especially furious since the launch of iPhone in 2007.

If you have not noticed, Steve Jobs died on 5th of October 2011. After his cancer diagnosis in 2005 Jobs wanted a biography written. while he was still alive and in 2009 Walter Isaacson started working on the book. The book was scheduled to be released in March 2012, but the release was moved to October since it became clear that Job's health was declining.

The life story of Steve Jobs is, of course, very interesting and inspirational, but what kind of picture does the book paint of Mr. Jobs and is there something missing from the picture. In this review I try to focus on evaluating the book and not Steve Jobs's persona which is naturally a bit challenging taking into account the topic of book.

As Literature

As a piece of literature biographies rarely are remembered for their literary excellence. The text flows nicely and is very easy to read. At times it feels that Isaacson underlines too much of Jobs's character traits. One good example of this is the way Isaacson brings up how Job's father taught him to pay attention to things that where not visible while two were building a fence. This is brought up quite often when Jobs's perfectionism comes up, like in the case of the power source of original Macintosh.
It could have been a better choice to structure the book around discussions that Isaacson had with Jobs. It would have created a more intimate feel to the book. A feeling that Jobs is talking himself. Of course this is not what the book tried to achieve. Now the book goes with content and objectivity first which is a very good choice.

Apple

The book captures well the main points of Apple's history. It is especially interesting to read about the early stages of Apple and home computing. There was really something special happening in Palo Alto and Silicon Valley in the 1970s. How can such a small area become the synonym for innovations and hightech?

Opening up how the creative process worked in Apple when Jobs was still around is one of the most interesting points in the book. Well let's make one reservation, the book is not good at telling how the others teams actually worked. It just simply gives a glimpse on how the teams tried to manage with Jobs's way of leadership. The role of Jonathan Ive in the creative process and the fact that Jobs almost blocked 3rd party apps from iPhone prove that Jobs wasn't the only creative and brilliant individual at the company.

At times it feels that the book is all about marketing Apple products. Especially when you read the story on how Jobs tries to confuse Siri on the new iPhone 4S. Maybe this is inevitable.

Steve

In my mind the only way to evaluate a biography is to try and determine if the the biographer has been able to shine light on all the sides of personality of the biographee. Jobs wanted the biography to be realistic. His wife also admitted that Steve's personality, to put it politely, is complicated and wanted it all to be in the book. Clearly, work was number one for Steve Jobs and the book describes mostly his professional personality. I would have wanted to know more about the private side of Steve Jobs. We get to know that Jobs liked walking, photography and was a picky eater, which in my mind isn't that much. I would liked to know a bit more if he had any hobbies, what he did with his kids. The book tells a little about Jobs's relationship with his children. Mostly quite negative things. Of course his kids are still young and it would have been a bit unethical to make young children to evaluate their relationsship with their father.

Without ever having met Steve Jobs or having spent any time with him it is hard to say if the biography is accurate representation of his personality. In order to write a book you need good stories and usually good stories emerger from situations where there is a conflict or problem to solved. Unfortunately, Steve Jobs is portraid as a manic personality. While the book depicts the mercurial personality of Mr. Jobs, it seems to hide the everyday guy and how he was when things went smoothly.

What I kind of miss in the book is Steve's opinion on social media. Did he think it was important or driving for of technological innovation?

Conclusions

The book leaves your opinion about Steve Jobs swinging back forth. Why was this very strange guy able to create two extremely successful companies? What was his magical touch that enabled Apple to grow in to the most valuable technology company during the past ten years? Even though Steve Jobs's personality was flawed he must have had a clear vision of what he wanted. On one level I can understand Jobs. He barely 25 when he suddenly noticed that he had a fortune of 250 million dollars. It is next to impossible that this much money would not affect you at all.

Give it a read and tell me what you think.

Moomis

Since I was a child I've been a big fan of the Moomin animated series produced in Japan in the early nineties. The manga style animation was so beautiful and the stories were so well adapted to TV. Even though the stories in the animated series were quite different from the original Moomi books, the animated series has educated several generations to appreciate the Moomi way of life.

Moomi books are wonderful and exceptional pieces of literature

I felt that I wanted to know a bit more about the original stories and I also had herd that the original Moomi books are great literature and have philosophical side to them. I chose three books that I thought had the most interesting titles except for Moominpappa at Sea (Pappan och havet, 1965) which I knew to be very good novel. The two other books I read were Moominland Midwinter (Trollvinter, 1957) and Moominvalley in November (Sent i November, 1970). The second reason why I chose these two books was that I thought they might help me get ready for winter and all the darkness of autumn, or so I thought.

It is amazing how different the stories in these books are compared to the stories in the animated series of my childhood. The animated series lacks most of the gloomy atmosphere and philosophical reflection of the books. The world of the animated series is happier and more carefree. That is how it was when you were a child.

One theme that rose up in all three books was how the Groke symbolises what happens when you are forgotten, not seen by others and left without love. The Groke represents everything scary and Moomis are scared of Groke, but I can't help feeling a bit sorry for the Groke. Groke is left out of everything and has to live all alone outside of the Moominvalley. Of course, in the book Moominpappa at Sea this changes quite a bit.

It is quite funny when you notice that you are reading about your own problems and weaknesses from a children's book. Sometimes it feels that do these books even give anything to children. My mother read Moominsummer Madness to me and my sister when we were little but I can't remember how the story really progressed. All I remember is the feeling. That is probably the strongest quality of Moomi books.

Reading these books was a really great experience. My favourite book of the three was Moominvalley in November and how it portrays what keeps people from being happy and the different mentalities and life philosophies of people. If you are looking for happy-go-lucky children's stories the Moomi books might not be the thing for you.

Medvedev presidency

Time for yet another book review. This time the book I want to tell you about is about Russia and it's current president Dmitri Medvedev. The book is written by Arto Luukkanen and titled "Medvedev - Venäjän isäntä vai Putinin renki" (Medvedev - Ruler of Russia or Putin's servant? [free translation]). The book recaps the story of Medvedev's road to power and his relationship with Putin. Since the book is about very recent events the analysis in the book isn't that in-depth. The book is more of a narrative about what has happened in Russia during the past ten years. It is truly surprising to realize how many note worthy events there have been during the Medvedev presidency and how many of them I have forgotten.

I really liked the book. Reading it was a bit like reading a thriller. The book sheds light to structures of Russian society that get virtually no coverage in the media. As a good example of this is the short introduction on the Russian newspaper landscape and what kind of organisations and people can be found behind different newspapers. Various Russian think tanks are also covered and who they support. Out of the many Russian bloggers Luukkanen mentions Aleksey Navalny who has gained popularity for his campaigns against corruption and revealing government misconduct. You can find his blog here. One thing that amazes me after reading the book is the fact that we in the west do not know by name that many people from the Russian ruling elite.

The book explains very well the basic structure of Russian politics and gives you an idea about the different political tendencies.*  Particularly the rise of securocracy is extremely intriguing and at the same time extremely worrying. The big dilemma of Russian politics seems to be (and is) the need for immediate and swift modernisation versus the stability (or stagnation) of society that is needed for development.

Since the securocracy rose to power the conditions in Russia have stabilised and the standard of living rose until the financial crisis of 2008, but now the infiltration of ex-intelligence operatives to all regions of Russian society threatens to prevent all meaningful modernisation efforts. To make things more complicated the different security branches are not exactly friends are there are different factions inside the security services. The securocratic elite has in few years become more of an obstacle than enabler of modernisation. For them everything is fine as long as money flows in their pockets and no one questions their rule.

Did Medvedev rule Russia at any point? What were his goals and did he achieve any of them? In my opinion Medvedev clearly had some vision on how he wanted to modernise Russia, but the brief war with Georgia and the financial crisis postponed the start of the reforms. Also Putin and Medvedev seemed to have disagreement on the speed of reforms. In my eyes the bad guy here was Vladislav Surkov who is widely seen as the main ideologist in Kreml. He was appointed as the First Deputy Chief of Staff of the Presidential Executive Office by Putin in 2008. Surkov was the one who critised Medvedev(!) for being too ambitious with his plans for modernisation. Maybe the situation was such that there were two against one and Medvedev had to back down. Further more the book suggest that the battle for presidency started already in 2010. Medvedev supporters are/were mainly Moscow's think tanks and parts economic elite who thought that the liberalisation of political life is necessary. However Medvedev was not able to gain the support Russian regions. At the end it seems that even tough Medvedev tried there never was enough room to for him to accomplish anything of significance. 4 years is too short time in Russian politics and changes don't happen gradually, but are more like earthquakes that change everything in a heartbeat. It seems that for now Putin is back in helm and that is how it is going to be for the next 12 years.

I learned a bunch of new things reading the book and had leave out a lot of details that were worth mentioning. I believe that the book equipped me with information that enables me to look at what happens in Russia more objectively and to better understand what happens in Kreml in the future.


*Wikipedia also has an article about the topic, but I am not sure how accurate it is at the moment. Should give you some leads if you want to know more.

Hedge funds. What are they? [Note to self]

Here is another post inspired by the book "Ascent of Money" written by Niall Ferguson. You will probably get better information on hedge funds and hedging from Wikipedia, but here is my take on the subject and what I saw as important in Ferguson's presentation of the matter.

Hedging and hedge funds have their roots in agriculture. For a farmer there are two things that affect his income: first one is the amount of crop and second one is price of the crop. The amount of crop depends on the weather and there is not much you can do about it. The price the farmer gets paid depends on the market price. The farmer pretty much knows what his expenses will be when sows his seeds. What he does not know is how much he will be paid at harvest. The farmer could protect himself against price fluctuations by making a deal with, for example, bakery that it will by all of his wheat with certain price. At harvest the market price may be lower than the price the farmer and agreed upon, in this case the farmer wins. It also could be that the market price is higher than agreed in which case the bakery wins, because it gets it wheat at a cheaper price than if it would by the same amount of raw material with market prices.

The first standardised future contracts that were traded in after markets were created in Chicago. The Chicago Produce Exchange was the first permanent place for trading futures.

Since this type of elimination of risk requires a speculator as a counter part trading in futures has been viewed as nothing more than a casino. Partly because of that only 1970s trading of interest and currency futures was permitted. In 1982 the future contracts were allowed to stock trade.


Since all futures contracts are derived from the value of the property the contract is based on all futures contracts are so called derivatives. Here are some derivatives that Ferguson presents in his books. There is a good list of derivatives on Wikipedia.

Options are form of derivative financial instrument closely related to futures contracts. There basically are two types of options selling and buying options. The option grants the owner of the contract the option (not an obligation) to buy/sell a certain amount of goods at a price agreed in the contract.

Swaps are a form of derivative where two parties basically bet on, for example, the development of interest rates. Someone who receives income from loan where interest is fixed can swap the interest rate to floating rate. 

Credit default swap is a contract where the buyer of the CDS makes a payment to the seller and receives a pay off if a instrument goes default.

There are also weather derivatives which enable you to insure against natural catastrophes and extreme weather patterns. In 2006 the nominal value of weather derivative was 46 billion dollars.

Nowadays most of the derivatives are no longer standardized but tailor made and sold in so called over the counter (OTC) trade outside the stock exchanges. Banks are the usual seller of OTC derivatives and majority are temporarily arranged between two parties.

The problem with derivatives and future contracts is that it has divided world into those that have money to protect themselves to those that don't. It usually takes a seven-figure-sum of money to protect against unexpected fluctuations in interest rates or in commodity prices etc.

Facts About Financial Crisis Of 2008 [Note to self]

I recently listened to an interesting radio programme where Heikki Koskenkylä explained some facts that contributed to the financial crisis of 2008. The radio programme was a series produced by YLE and you find link to the programme here.

Here are some interesting points that I picked up from the programme:

1. Community Reinvestment Act = CRA Banks are obligated to issue loans to the area from which they receive deposits. Initially created to support housing industry and expand house ownership. 
2. Sub-prime loans where only 15% of the total number of mortgages in U.S. Only about 20% were left unattended, and the amount of bad debt was not that large.
3. Sub-prime loans where bundled together with other loans (student loans, car loans, credit cards) and sold to investors. On paper the profit from these bonds where higher than from normal mortgage loans.
4. The problem was that "bad" and "good" loans where mixed together and rating agencies gave these bonds AAA-rating. There was wide belief that housing market could not collapse and these mortgage and loan bundles were built on safe ground.
5. Already in 2007 there were couple of instances where banks where affected by the sub prime crisis (1 English bank winter of 2007, couple more in the summer.)
6. On 7th of September 2008 Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac were put under the control of federal government.
7. In Europe many thought that it would be the hedge funds that would start crumbling, not the institutions that issue mortgages. 
8. Basic problem in the U.S. was that people with know in come where allowed to purchase houses. Europe had it problems too. In Spain (circa 07/08) there were unsold apartments as much as in Germany and France combined. But unlike in U.S. in Spain no "bad" credit was given.
9. Week after the take over of Freddie and Fannie Bank of America purchased Merrill Lynch
10. On 15th of September  Lehman Brothers declared it was entering company reorganisation procedures (Chapter 11).
11. On 17th of September Federal Government issued a emergency credit of 85 billion dollars to American International Group and as collateral the government got 79,9% of stock and withheld a veto to all significant decisions in the company. AIG had large investment in credit default swaps (check next post for explanation) which led to it's down fall. The insurance part of AIG's business was healthy but it had issued credit risk insurance (hedging credit risks) amounting to hundreds of millions of dollars. The company failed totally in evaluating the risk and the price to be paid for these insurance were very low during the economic up turn.
12. The complexity of the system was a partial contributor to the crisis. It was very hard to comprehend the risks and due to how deeply the whole system is interconnected it was difficult to determine who would take the losses.

Kit, Kit, Kit(once again): Camelbak Cloudwalker reservoir backbag

Camelbak Cloudwalker

Since I started geocaching I've been hiking and biking a lot more than before. When you are on the move for three hours or more a single half a litre bottle does not get you far. You just need to have more drinking water with you. Secondly my old backbag was a bit too big for short hikes and bike rides. Luckily I spotted a used (in this case used 3-4 times) Camelbak Cloudwalker at an on-line auction and managed to purchase it at very good price.

I've used the backbag almost daily and used the water reservoir couple of times on short hikes and I must say that I am very pleased. It is just amazing what a difference having enough to drink makes on your stamina. I could quite easily walk for three hours and when I got to home I wasn't that tired. Hydration is important! But now to the properties of Cloudwalker.

The backbag is designed so that it does not make your whole back sweat after half an hour. Somehow the design is better ventilated and the bag is narrow so it does not cover all of your back. I also like the 10l of carrying space. It fits quite easily the equipment I need for geocaching (flashlight, multitool, camera etc.). Last weekend I had my jacket and some food in the backbag and it all fit quite well inside. Pocket in front of the bag hold easily your wallet, phone, gps or what ever you need to take with you to the trail. The front compartment has two pocket with zippers so your stuff won't be flailing around.

Pocket for the water reservoir.

The drink reservoir itself fits quite nicely to the pocket in the backbag and there is loop inside the pocket that holds the reservoir in place. Having the reservoir in place does not affect the carrying comfort in anyway. The bag still feels comfy. If you are a runner this is not the bag for you, the water inside the reservoir does start slosh the moment you start running. The reservoir holds 2 litres of water and if you are not drinking all the time it should be enough also for longer workouts. After you come home you most likely want to dry the reservoir. The operation calls for little creativity. I use the drinking tube to hold the reservoir open by making a loop out of the tube and sticking it inside the bag. The tube itself is a bit harder to dry. Mine has been in the cupboard for a week and it still contains some moisture. I guess I need to remove the nozzle next time.

Nozzle and valve

The drinking nozzle is really ingenuous. When you squeeze the tip of the nozzle with your lips it opens up and you can take your sip of water. The seam is really tight when closed and no water will run out. There is also a valve in the nozzle (the yellow bit in the picture) that turns and closes the pipe if you want to be extra sure that no water gets out. The valve comes useful, for example, when you want to keep the drinking  tube inside the bag.

Over all Cloudwalker very good backbag for me. I am pretty sure it will serve me for a long time on my geocaching adventures, hikes and bike rides.

Rothschilds

This the second post related to a book I am reading. It is written by Niall Ferguson and it is titled "Ascent of money". This post will quickly summarize the story of how the rise of Rothschild's is represented in the book. It may or may not be entirely accurate but I found it very interesting.

Let it be reminded once again that this post is more of a mental note for myself.

Rise of Rothschilds'

The story of Rothschilds is very fascinating. For centuries the family has had significant power in the financial world. It was quite fascinating to find out that their success was preceded by a gigantic miscalculation. Any way let's start from the beginning. Or not all the way to the beginning, but to the wars Britain fought against Napoleon.

Britain had been fighting against Napoleon for several years without much success. The war efforts were financed by issuing war bonds. The problem was that the only universal currency at that time was gold and the wars where fought in regions were it was impossible to use pounds. In 1814 Britain needed gold fast and they turned to Nathan Rothschild to procure the gold. Nathan had brothers and relatives running banks in the major financial centres. This network allowed him to buy gold from all over Europe quickly. He actually was able to buy double the amount that he asked to acquire. British government paid Rothschild's commission on the gold he delivered, but there was another way how Rothschilds made money during this operation. They were able take advantage of the differences of gold prices in Europe. For example, if price of gold in Amsterdam was lower than in London Nathan would sell gold bonds (is this the right term in English, don't know) send the money Amsterdam where the money was used to buy gold. The gold was then sent back to London, the bond was redeemed and the gold that was left over was kept as profit. In April of 1814 the Coalition forced Napoleon to surrender and sent him to exile to Elba.

In 1815 Napoleon escaped because of rumours that he would exiled to a remote island in the Atlantic Ocean. Napoleon managed to gather a sizeable army and decided to go in to offensive. Nathan Rothschild thought that this meant that there would be another lengthy war and started to gather gold so that he would ready when the governments came to him asking for gold. The battle of Waterloo was a success to the Coalition. Napoleon was crushed and sent to exile in Saint Helena. To Nathan Rothschild this was a disaster he was sitting on a pile  of gold that nobody needed.

Nathan decided to bet on the government bonds of Great Britain. He evaluated that since there was no longer a state of war the government would need less money and government would not release as many bonds. That would decrease the supply of government bonds on the market and according to basic principles of market economy if the supply decreases the prices should go up. Not to mention that Nathan drove the  price up by hoarding government bonds. After one year the price of government bonds had risen by 40%. At this point Nathan started to sell and made profit of 600 million pounds in todays money (figure from Ferguson). This move basically secured Rothschilds' as the one of the leading banks in the financing sector.

I'll write more about financing if I find anything else that interest me in Ferguson's book.

Quick note on government bonds

I am reading a book by Niall Ferguson titled " Ascent of Money". The book so far has been a bit of a disappointment, but still I have learned quite a bit about government bonds and general topics related to financing. Again this a posting that is more of mental note for myself. The majority of the material here is from Ferguson's book. I've made the illustrations myself and condensed and added some ideas of my own.


Basics of how government bonds work

In this section I'll try and explain what government bonds are and how they work as I understand them. These days virtually every government needs to borrow money from the market. In the early days government bonds where used to collect money to pay for wars but today they are used to finance government expenditure.

The basic idea behind a government bond is that the state sells a piece of paper with nominal value of 5000 and promises to pay 5% interest(paid from the nominal value) per annum for the next 10 years to the holder of the bond. This means that the buyer can sell the bonds at market price if faced with a acute need of money or if the owner sees that the money can make better profit when invested differently.

The concept of effective interest is something worth discussing. It is calculated like this:

What this means that if you purchase a bond from after market at price of 4500 the effective interest rate is higher than the one marked on the bond. But there is catch. As we all know there is no such thing as a free lunch. Why has the market price of of Brutopias 10 year bond declined? Well it means that the consensus on the market is that Brutopias ability to take care of it's debts has decreased. This means that investors may not get their money at the end of the ten year loan time, or the payment might be delayed.

This means that really big profits can be made when the governments financial situation is some compromised. Also when investing to government bonds of foreign nation you must take into account the changes in exchange rates and the inflation rate in that country as it may quite quickly eat up any profit you expect to make.

In general government bonds are safe investments as it is usually quite impossible for country to go bankrupt, because it can always tax it's citizens. However the profits are not that big either. 

Battlestar Galactica Online

I found a great I new MMO. Battlestar Galactica Online is a game based on the universe of Battlestar Galactica. The game is a played in space and at the beginning you can choose a raptor or the legendary viper MKII as your ship. You can buy other ships as you advance in the game. The range of ships is pretty large and the biggest ships are giant juggernauts that can destroy almost any ship. This means that the biggest battles in BSGO are fights between two giant fleets consisting of large command ships, support ships that are focused on electronic warfare and fighters like vipers and raiders. The list of ships can be seen here.

I had a bit of trouble at first. I created a profile on the server Sagittoron and exited the game without doing the right log out procedure which caused my profile to crash and I can't enter the server any more. I do not if the fault is in the game or in my browser. Luckily I did not get too far. Now I am playing on the Virgon server. It turned out that entering the full browser mode in Firefox caused the game to freeze. I had to install Chrome and you that as the browser to play the game. On Chrome the game works perfectly.

I must say that I enjoy flying a viper. It just feels so cool. The basics of the game can be learned quite easily but the there seems to a lot of strategic details that you need to take into account when you advance in the game. I encourage you to give this game a try. It is wonderful.

Battlestar Galactica Online

Colonial outpost and my Viper

Mac Optical Audio Issue Part 2.

In my previous blog post (Apple Remote - A Quick Complaint) I complained about the "features" of optical audio out of Mac. Last nite Apple realesed a update that supposedly addressed this problem. The update realesed last nite was 10.6.8 Update v.1.1 and 10.6.8 Supplemental Update. At least for me this has not worked. So far I have not found any comments on forums if this update has worked for other Mac users or if there is anything else I need to do to get the update working.

Did the update fix the issue of optical audio not working? Is there anything I've missed? Please drop a line.

PS. I am running Macbook Pro (late 2010) and Snow Leopard.

EDIT: Today I started to watch a mkv-file using VLC-player and hey presto the remote control was able to change the audio volume of VLC-player. So forget Quick Time and use VLC-player.

Robot Overlord! T-Shirt Shop

When you think of cool stuff what is the first thing that comes to your mind. That's right. Robots. I was also recently thinking about robots and how cool they really are. I was also holding a pencil and had a notebook on hand.  I started doodling and after awhile I noticed that I drew pretty cool robot heads. Might someone else think they are cool? Would they like to see them in t-shirts? There should be enough cool geeks and nerds on this planet that would appreciate my robot designs, they might even think that they are really cool and buy one.

I decided to set up my own webstore using Spreadshirt's platform. You can find my webshop at:

robotoverlord.spreadshirt.net

From RobotOverlord! can currently find two designs: Robot 1 and Robot 8. There is model for men and women from both designs. I think they are pretty cool clothes and you should check them out.

RobotOverlord! - Check it out

PS. Sorry for the shameless self-promotion.

Tablets - Large square tablets

Samsung Galaxy Tab

I bought Samsung Galaxy Tab a few months ago, because I was really interested to find out if there was anything to this tablet computer craze that swooped over the techscene during last year. I was about to buy iPad 2, but then I came into the conclusion that it was just too expensive for my budget also I did not like the fact that Apple controls the applications you can install on iPad. Then I found Samsung Galaxy Tab. I got myself a used one at half the price what a new one would cost and the device was only a few months old so it was a very reasonable deal.

I admit that I am a bit of a addict when it comes to Internet. I spend way too much time in front of my  computer. Tablet does not solve this but when I am reading news or checking Twitter or YouTube videos it is just perfect. Especially in the evenings it is much better to read news from a smaller screen than blast your brains with a light from a 24" monitor. At least for me it does improve my sleep quality.

At least when it comes to iPad it has been gaming that everyone has been buzzing about. In the case of Android devices I haven't found any games that would be that interesting. The quality is all right but nothing that will revolutionise gaming. Galaxy Tab comes with NOVA which is okay for a fps-game. The gyroscopic control is all right but sometimes you find yourself pointing into very strange directions. It needs some improvements.

What is BIG PIECE OF STINKING POO-O is the updating system of Galaxy Tab. Why on earth do you need to install Kies before you can update the firmware. The whole system is just complete bollocks, because my HTC Wildfire is able to do updates over wi-fi. Don't tell me that wi-fi is not reliable. > :( It gets better. The Galaxy tab can't be charged via USB when it is connected to a computer. Woohoo. The update process takes a lot of power (for some reason) and if the battery of your device is not fully charged you will need to cancel the update process and recharge your device. ISN'T THAT MOTHER FUCKING CONVENIENT OR WHAT?!?

In my mind tablet computers are fun innovations that have lot of positive sides but so far I think they still have some drawbacks that limit the usability.

How do you use your tablet computer? Was it worth the money?

The Winner Stands Alone - Paolo Coelho

Yeah, read The Alchemist instead.

Apple Remote - A quick complaint

Maybe a week ago I bought the latest addition to my collection of Apple products - I got myself an iRemote or is it Apple remote. iCan't remember. My problem was that I wanted something that would control both picture and sound with the same remote. Unfortunately Apple Remote meets only half of my requirements.

iRemote or Apple Remote (which one is it anyway)

Apple Remote does work quite well at controlling Front Row. Browsing through your music library, photos and videos is a breeze. Here's the catch, Apple Remote only controls the master volume of the whole computer it does not control the volume level of the music/video player being used. 

Why is this a problem? Well, because I use the optical audio connection of my MacBook Pro to feed audio to my stereo. As we all know when you use optical audio it isn't possible to control the master volume of the computer. Therefore it would be really cool if Apple Remote would control the volume of the player (iTunes/Quicktime) being used. Then it would be possible for me to use just one remote when I watch/ listen material from my laptop. I would just adjust the volume level of my stereo to one level and that would be it, then continue using just Apple Remote. Somehow it is a bit stupid that if you use the better quality sound connection you can not adjust the volume at all using Apple Remote. Apple has a reputation for making products that are easy to use and which operate flawlessly. I guess Apple Remote is an exception to the rule. Who is sleeping at the design department?

If you know how to fix this please drop me a comment.

I can't see you

Once again a book by Paul Auster has found a way to hands. This time I read Auster's newest novel titled "Invsible". It was first published in 2009. This was the third book by Auster I've read. The other two being "Mr. Vertigo" and "Brooklyn Follies". The links guide you to the blog entries that I wrote about those books.

Auster: Invisible (Photo by the author)

Unsurprisingly the book takes place (where else but) in New York with a French connection. It tells the story of Adam Walker and what happend to him during 1967. Auster is a brilliant story teller no doubt about it. He writes in a way that makes the story flow with ease and unexpected twists and turns are placed perfectly. "Invisible" is a thriller, love story and a growth story all at the same package and it is  executed with great precision.

Let it be emphasized, I did enjoy reading this book.

Auster has found the winning formula that goes without saying. When you compare "Brooklyn follies" and "Invisible" I found some points that I find a bit of annoying, mainly because my own world view is compatible with these points and I know Auster has written these points in because he knows people like me enjoy them. This only means that he knows his audience very well. The most prevailing of these points is the intellectual East-Coast university sentiment that is so overwhelming that is hyper analytical and self-concious.

The second point that annoys me is sex and how Auster always needs to put some of it in his books. Yes, yes it is part of being human and quite large part. (The fundamental part?) Sometimes it just seems that the sex is there to get a reaction. In this book there is a sexual relationship that annoyed me. First I was disgusted. Then I tried to explain why the characters did what they did based on their tragic childhood. After that I wanted to kill myself for trying to explain the thing out. Maybe it's just my own problem. Why do I need to analyse everything?

Stargate Universe - it's all over

It is over now. The Stargate franchise will not have show running in the near future. Poo. Stargate Universe was the unique project that pushed the Stargate franchise to another level. In away it did what it promised, but it did not attract enough audience to get the advertisers to buy commercials.

I did like Stargate Universe right from the get go. The setting was new and exciting and there was different types of characters in the cast which created tensions within the crew. There were also fun story lines like the initial powering up of Destiny, power battle between Rush and Young and the main plot line of Destiny's mission was really exciting. I was not so crazy about the invasion of Lucian Alliance to Destiny and the drones were a bit old.  The plot line of Lucian Alliance attacking Destiny tied the series too deeply to the previous Stargate series'. They should've focused more on the new galaxies and find the stories from the new planets and cultures Destiny met or one alternative would have been to explore Destiny's various nooks and crannies. For example, there could have been new technologies that could have created problems or some creatures that would attack the crew.

With it's flaws the show started to get better this season and it is a shame to see it go. However I did like the ending which enables the show to pick up where it left off. That might be sooner than we expect.

Why I like geocaching?

Last year I bought a phone that had an internal GPS receiver. I decided that I would try geocaching. It sounded like a hobby that I might like. And boy, did I get hooked. In my mind geocaching is the awesomest hobby in the world. Here are a few reasons why:

1.  First of all you get to spend time out doors. No need to spend time in those dusty gyms. Being  outdoors also means that you can observe the changes that spring, summer, autumn and winter bring. 
2. You can cheat yourself to do exercise. It is easy to spend couple of hours walking and get a good aerobic work out. If you like you can run while going from cache to cache. 
3. Besides physical exercise, you get also some exercise for those grey brain cells. Some of the geocaches can be tricky to find and you really need to think where the cache is hidden.
4. Also, if you're a bit childish like me, the idea that you are doing something secretive is really exciting.

More about this very exciting hobby can found at geocaching.com.

Arts&Crafts: HTC Wildfire bikemount for Pokemon Go

Time for the first arts and crafts entry in this blog. I'm pretty sure that there won't be many more of these. Anyway, I was searching a way to mount my HTC Wildfire to my mountain bike and was unable to find a solution that was commercially available that would meet my requirements. Of course there are some solutions available, but most of them are expensive, clumsy and look pretty stupid. Then I got this idea of making a bike mount myself. I came up with design that is cheap, sturdy and at least in my opinion looks pretty cool. This design can be adapted for many other types of devices and it is kid of universal bike mount mobile phone/devices. Here is how you can make one yourself:

1 Parts: 

What is so great about this bike mount is that you do not need that many parts. There is only two parts that you need to buy. Firstly you need to buy this mount from DealExtreme. It costs 8$/6€, so it's very cheap and the shipping is free. Then you just get a silicone case that fits your phone. I don't have any recommendations where you should or could buy the case. It shouldn't be hard to find.

In total the parts should cost you less than 20$/15€ so this bike mount won't blow any ones budget.

2 Putting the mount together:

First thing you need to do is to remove the screw that is on the Fotopro Flip Motion Mount. Basically what you need to do is to cut a bit of rubber from the other end of the hole. This allows you to take the screw out. There is a little notch at the other end of the hole that was used to put screw in, be sure to cut from that end.

Secondly, you need to cut holes to the silicone case. You can use the Fotopro mount to mark the places where you make the cuts. I recommend that you use a leather hole puncher to make holes to the ends of the markings and then cut out the rubber in between with a sharp knife. Utility knife should do the trick. The round ends of the holes should prevent the silicone from splitting. You could reinforce the holes with electric tape. Any ideas for reinforcing are welcome.

BAM! And you are done.

Time to slide the velcro straps through the holes and mount it to your bike. Now you can use your mobile phone's navigation features while biking! SWEET.

Since the mount is on the stem it is easy to read and operate your device while riding.

The mount sits pretty nicely on the stem.

If you combine your Android phone with something like WorkSmart Cardio Trainer your phone turns into a fully featured bike computer. Cool.

EDIT: If you decided to build a bike mount using these instructions, please drop me a comment and/or picture of your bike mount.

EDIT: This also works great for Pokemon Go players riding their bikes. You can have your phone attached to your stem while hunting for those Pokemon.

On networks [Note to self]

Aah, networking the buzz word of the last ten years that just won't die. I hate networking. It is stupid and a very unpleasant process. Talking to people you do not even like just because you want to be part of their network and expect to gain something from this connection. It reduces human contact to just pursuit of personal benefit. That's not cool.

Anyways the concept of networks and how they operate is a very interesting topic. Recently I saw a documentary about the structure of networks and it was pretty damn interesting. Here are some ideas that I picked from it.

The main point of the documentary was that networks seem to have a few universal rules that they follow. It seems that all the participants of a network are really just a few hops away from each other and that the six degrees of separation is not a myth after all. This pattern can be seen in social networks, electrical networks and even in biological organisms.

Why isn't "six degrees of separation" total myth. Well any network follows a pattern where most of the members of the network only have a few connections. Second point is that, for example, in a social network members usually are connected to the same people, think of your circle of friends, you all know each other. But if one point of a network has a connection to a point far away it can connect two clusters and create new connections within the network. Illustration please:

Social network diagram Source: Wikipedia

Usually these points of network that have connections to far away clusters have connections to other clusters as well. They can be described as being kind of a super cells (or nodes, or hubs) they connect the different clusters together. These super cells can be found in road networks, micro chips and human cells. The fact that clusters start to emerge seems to inevitable in a network. In fact all networks can be described with to attributes high connectivity and clusters There lies the strength and weakness of networks. Removing the major hubs (small nodes do not matter that much) will cause the network to collapse. It also means that, for instance, in the case of social media and networking in general, you want to try and become a hub of connections and it would be a mistake to focus on the people you already know. Only by becoming a hub you can ensure that your message spreads the farthest it can spread. (If that is what you want.)


You can find more information on different networks on Wikipedia.

International reactions to results of Finnish Parliamentary elections 2011

I am writing this mainly out of my own interest to the topic and as way to record the different reactions, see if there is any consensus on what the reseult means and if there are any differences in the opinions. Maybe this collection of links is useful to other people interested in the topic, as well. I'll keep adding links if I find something interesting.

BBC News:
Nationalist True Finns make gains in Finland vote
Story + short video interview of Timo Soini

Der Spiegel:
Überraschungswahl in Finnland - Revolution der zornigen Männer
Wahlen in Finnland: Rechtspopulisten legen deutlich zu (Video)

Deutsche Welle:
Nationalists enjoy surge in support in Finnish elections 

Das Erste:
Überragender Wahlerfolg für Euro-Kritiker in Finnland

France 24:
Eurosceptic gains in Finnish elections spark worries over EU bailouts

Reuters:
Euro zone reels over Finnish vote, Greek struggle
Finnish populist party surge clouds EU bailout
Euro zone woes face new Finnish PM

Svenska Dagbladet:
Ett bubblande missnöje
Stor valframgång för Sannfinländarna 

Aftonbladet:
Svenskspråkiga riskerar misshandel i Finland
+ Join the conversation it's freaking hilarious.

NHK World:
Anti-EU bailout party scores gains in Finland vote

Russia Today:
Finns vote for nationalists over EU bailouts row

San Francisco:
Finns vote for nationalists over EU bailouts row

New York Times;
Populist Advance in Finland Could Endanger Bailouts

Some points from the news above and a few own opinions mixed together:

Now it seems that most of the news services are taking a not e on the Euro-scepticism of TrueFinns[TF] (Am I then some sort of figment of imagination as I did not vote for them). Atleast in the BBC story Soini is saying that they are not extremists. He just conveniently forgets that quite a few far right representatives got through to the parliament from TF lists'. Although there is a substantial element of far right inclined people in TF the main reason that lead to TF victory was the disappointment to the traditional parties and their politics. It will quite interesting to how the government will look like in May/June 2011.

Asphalt 6: Adrenaline for Mac

This is fucking awesome. So last nite I bought Asphalt 6: Adrenaline from Mac's Appstore. I haven't played driving games much, just never been a fan. Most of the games out there are focused on givng a realistic driving experience and that just ain't fun. Why should spend hours on tuning your car or practising the best line to take in a corner. Boring.

Asphalt 6 Adrenaline throws all realism out of the window and replaces it with a ton of arcade driving awesomeness. I seriously got hooked after a few races. The car selection is pretty large: 42 cars. Even though there aren't that many tracks (12) the different racing modes keep the game interesting. At times you can see that the graphics aren't what the latest technologies can do, but for the price that you pay for the game they are pretty good.

So if you are looking for a fun driving game spend your money on this one.

Asphalt 6: Adrenaline on Gameloft's website.

Take a look at the game trailer:



Next post will most likely (again) be about a book.

On nihilism

This post is about nihilism. A concept that is more or less always misunderstood, or at least the concept is not fully understood. The thoughts presented here are not my own. Everything is based on a book by Kalle Haatanen Ei vois vähempää kiinnostaa (I couldn't care less), in which he explores many aspects related to nihilism and how intertwined it is to our modern society. I wrote this text mainly as a note for myself and as a way to go trough once again the things I read in the book. I have not checked everything so there might be misunderstandings and totally wrong interpretations in the text. Lastly let it be noted that this is the first time I try to write about philosophical topics in English, so my language may be kinda wonky. (It is usually wonky, but now even more.)

The two men who can be said to have developed the way modern philosophy thinks about nihilism are Friedrich Nietzsche and Martin Heidegger. It is important to note that they both were strongly against nihilism. As a side note, let it be said that how Nietzsche became associated with Nazis was that his estate (writings etc.) fell to the hands of his sister Elisabeth who was antisemitist and his husband who was a member of the national socialistic party and quite high in the ranks.

Book cover: (Atena Kustannus Oy)

There two core concepts into which nihilism can be divided into. These are the concept of passive and active nihilism. Passive nihilism can be described as a way of thinking where one submits to just pursuing happiness and small mindedness, everything being relativistic and feeling the weight of sin inside yourself. Nietzsche calls this the life of the last man. The last man no longer feels powerful nor does he have any want for power. He only wishes to have long and secure life. Active nihilism can be described as an attempt to try and restore Truth, Beauty and Greatness to this world. An active nihilist looks at the world and admits holding his head high that the golden era is long gone. He faces nothingness with an aristocratic courage and looks it in straight in the eye and hopes that the world will continue it's internal cyclical dance. An active nihilist says “Yes” to life even though it is diminishing and has no eternal meaning.

On the last pages of the book it is mentioned how nihilism comments analytical philosophy, particularly Wittgenstein's obsession to formulate every sentence in a logical and clearway. The goal being a situation where there are no longer any contradictions. In this world philosophy works like a machine and A=A, always. In the book this conept, by the words of Staley Rosen, is called a longing for silence. World where there is no contradictions or room for imagination and flying.

This short piece of text, misses many fine points made in the book about cultural relativism, misinterpretations of nihilism and comments on many other phenomenons of our time. I did not know that nihilism could open so many new ways for looking at the world. Almost always nihilism is viewed as anti-life way of thinking which could not be further from the truth. What nihilism actually is against are the phenomenons that are anti-life, the things that try and reduce life in to just eating, shitting and having sex.

Mr. Vertigo

Book cover: Mr. Vertigo

Time to hand in yet another book report. This time it's about Mr. Vertigo a book by Paul Auster that was first published in 1994.

This is the second book written by Auster that i've read. I did not enjoy this one as much as I enjoyed Brooklyn Follies. The story is alright, but there are too man highs and lows in the book. In one way it is understandable since it tells the life story of the main character. Somehow it might have made more sense to focus on just one story arch and develop it further.

Maybe this book is directed to those people who look back at their lives and can see all the phases of their lives, the high points and mistakes. I am not at that stage in my life.

Mr. Vertigo is not a life changing reading experience. That does not mean you should not read it. Mr. Vertigo is book that shows how talented Auster is as a storyteller. Even though the text is not A+ quality it is still better than that of most people. The basic positive and humane tone that is present in the book is Austers trademark and creates a unique atmosphere for the story. That makes taking the flight to the world of roaring 1920's and times of great depression of 1930's worthwhile.

Skiing on lake

Today I went cross-country skiing. Skiing on the frozen lake Pielinen was probably the best thing I've done the whole spring. I skied 20 km and, get this, it took me only about two and a half hours with a little break at the half way point in Pyhäsaari (it's the big island in the middle of the map). Even though there is not much to do in Joensuu and it is a pretty boring place to live in the feeling you get after you've skied ten kilometres and sit in the sun shine of spring in complete silence in the shore of Pyhäsaari is amazing. You start to think that maybe world isn't such a bad place. I highly recommend this activity to everybody.


Näytä suurempi kartta

On Libya

My blog is one of those barren wastelands of internet that probably no-one ever visit. Still I would like to you tips were to find information on Libya.

The first website I have been following irregularly is LibyaFeb17. It is a website ran by the activists and the website compiles everything that is happening in the media about the events in Libya. If it ain't on this website you do not need to know it.

Secondly I'd like to promote tweeter from Iran. SaloumehZ tweets frequently and follows the events in Libya very closely. Follow her and you know what is happening at the moment in Libya.

Hope that the bloodshed end soon.

Blood's A Rover

James Elroy. One of the most respected American crime novelists of our time. I read his book "Blood's A Rover". It came out in 2008. It is book about United States and what happened there in 60's and early 70's. Should it be read as a social commentary. Maybe. Is it one? Probably not.

You won't like the characters in the book. You will hate them and despise them. They aren't nice people. Some of them try to do the right thing at the end but it does not save them. They just have gone too far.

Like in Elroy's  previous books the story has many different branches and the fate of characters is intertwined around one key event. This time everyone is after emeralds that were lost during a robbery of an armoured van. There are people searching for the diamonds from left and right.

Even though the violence, drug abuse and the evil things that happen in the book will make you nauseous and dislike the characters there is something captivating in the story and Elroy's story telling. Big reason for that is the style how Elroy mixes real life events and stories from his imagination is something very unique. I almost started to believe that these things really did happen.

Blood's a Rover gives you an opportunity to take trip in to the world of rogue FBI agents, mobsters and leftwingers. Take it if you are ready to watch the evil that lives inside us humans straight in the eye.

Changing to Mac

At the end of 2010 my old Acer laptop started to show signs of old age. I started to consider my options. I was pretty sure that I did not want to buy a desk top computer. There were couple of very interesting options that were on offer from Sony and Samsung. Both of them were laptops with Core i5 processors and large and fast hard drives. The buz that has been surrounding Apple for the past five years got also to me and made me consider buying a Mac. Unfortunately the pricing of Mac computers has been a bit of putting. Let's face it the hardware in the laptops usually is a bit out dated (that changed with the new generation of MacBook Pros. Still there is something strange with the Macs that lured into buying one. I was pretty lucky to find a two month old base model MacBook Pro for only 870 euros with a neoprene bag (value 40-50 €) and with preinstalled MS Office. The whole package was delivered to me with the same price. So converting to a Mac did not end u being so expensive, at least not for me. I've used a Mac now for about four months and here are some of thoughts about my experiences. 

Even though I would not like admit it there is this strange aura around Macs. It just feels so much cooler to use.  It is funny how Apple has been able to make devices that do not not represent the latest technology cool. A lot of it is to do with user experience which, I think, is just wonderful. The ease of use and the fact that device just works is wonderful. Also it was not that hard to impress me since my previous laptop was from the 2006.

I usually listen my music from my computer so I really appreciated that the 3,5 mm headphone jack also acts as an optical audio out that connects to my stereos. I also like iPhoto and iTunes works much more smoother than in Windows XP. Before this blog post turns totally into just repeating how wonderful Macbook Pro is as a laptop I think it is better to stop. But before that I want to make just one more point. I think that for most people that are not even so technically oriented as me Mac offers ease of use and stress free computing. Also you will constantly find features that make the use of your computer more easier and just a bit more pleasant. So far the closed nature of Mac's software environment has not caused me any problems and I have been able to install all the programs that I have wanted to. In conclusion, so far my Mac experience has been very positive.

PS. Don't change to Firefox 4 it caused me a lot of problems I had to go back to 3.6.

PPS. Oh, they are starting to sell them iPad twos in my country. Should I get one?

My favourite Android apps

I've had my HTC Wildfire now for nine months and I would like to share couple of my favourite apps.

Winamp

Winamp for Android

 The standard music player that HTC offers is all-right, at first. After awhile you start to notice the limitations of the program. They are mainly on the usability side. The default music player just isn't that agile and easy to use. Particularly changing between the player and library and getting to the track list of a album is a bit difficult

Winamp for Android is makes listening to music more enjoyable. The user interface has some pretty nice features. Like when you are playing an album you just simply swipe down wards and the track list is exposed. Also the search function is very agile. At the newest versions when you swipe left or right you can change the song. Winamp for Android also plays Shoutcast internet radio.

C:geo

C:geo

Oh, this app has brought me so many fun moments during the last six months. Absolutely the best way to search geocaches on a Android device. Not much more to say about this. The program is updated frequently and if you start geocaching you might find a fun new hobby.

AndNav!2

AndNav!2

There are a number of software that you can use for navigation in Android and there are also paid version available from TomTom and others. I opted for AndNaz!2 which is free navigation software. You can use maps from many sources like Mapnik and Google Maps. The maps that Mapnik provides are very accurate and detailed. You can download maps directly from Mapnik and save them on your device. Also when you browse maps on AndNav!2 the maps are saved to the device for later. The problem is that the route directions are downloaded from a different service which is bit of a bummer. This means that you always need an internet connection when you want route directions, but if you have an unlimited data plan that shouldn't be problem. For a free navigation software AndNav!2 is great program and is able to fulfil most of your navigation needs.


Frozen Yoghurt

Finally thank god they finally released the 2.2 Froyo update also to Wildfire. It made the device so much better. The device itself feels a bit more responsive but the best thing that came with the 2.2 update were the many small tweaks and corrections made to the GUI and language translation. Like the fact that when you turn the phone while using the camera the controls turn accordingly.

Coco Starts a New

This blog post has been delayed due to lazyness and work obligations. Now, being unemployed, I have a lot of free time so I can focus on more important things like blogging.

Have you noticed that Conan has started his new show on TBS. Oh, you have. Shit. This is not starting very well. 

Anyways here are my thoughts about the new show.

I was totally excited about Conan's new show and had really high expectations. I think so did Conan and his crew, because Conan was visibly nervous during the first couple of shows. After a couple of weeks I think Conan got his act together and was again able to relax infront of the camera.

This new show has proven atleast one thing. The style of comedy that Conan his writers do can not be adapted to suit Tonight Show. There needs to be that edge and sillyness in their comedy. Or maybe, and actually I vote for this option, it is just the fact that the audience of Tonight Show is so much older that they just do not understand Conan's comedy. The comedy in the new show is atleast as good as the in Late Night. And you can see that people doing the show are having fun.

Conan is enjoyable to watch and even the product placements do not bother me that much.

Still:

To Kill A Mocking Bird

I finished this book already couple of weeks ago, but still I wanted to say a few words about this book.

It is no wonder that "To Kill A Mocking Bird" has its place as one the novels that is mentioned when talking about how the race question in U.S. society has been dealt in literary culture. Yes, eventhough the book is written from a "white" perspective it draws very sharp and clear picture of the double standards in the U.S. justice systems and peoples minds in the 1930s. Of course the whole book is commentary to the situation in 1960s, but still the it draws a vivid picture of Maycomb county.

At times you can feel the warm summer breeze on your face or the floor boards slighty squaking under your feet when you walk accross the kitchen inside Finch's house. The atmosphere and milieu is so well crafted, present all the time and strong with out being pushy. It just lingers there in the background as it should.

The second thing I wanted to say is about the story line. I did not have knowledge about the actual story line before I started the book so the kind of indirect progression of the story with couple of side stories really lead me a stray. I really did not know how the story would end. This is probably the best part of the book. 

But what makes this book so great is that is Harper Lee's ability to write in a manner which touches your feeling and with out preaching at the same time.

Moscow, Moscow

In November my travels took me for the first time to Moscow, the splendid capital of Russian Federation. I was very excited to go since I had a lot of previous experience from visiting and living in St. Petersburg.

St. Basil's Cathedral at night

I was visiting Moscow on a business trip and was staying at one of the best hotels in the city, at least location wise. The hotel I stayed in was the lavish ”Hotel National” on the edge of Kreml and Red Square. The room that was booked for me was the basic room of the hotel but stil it was one the nicest hotels I had ever stayed in. The bed was huge and there was hot tub in the bathroom. Very nice!

The days I had to spend at the exhibition dedicated to higher education. The event itself was pretty pointless but it gave me the opportunity to observe the behaviour of young Muscovites. Somehow I was not able to see anything especially Russian in the young people they seemed like young people in any other European city I have visited.

My free time in Moscow was rather limited. During the day I popped for lunch to ГУМ and then headed back to the exhibition booth. During the evenings I went and tried to explore the area around Kreml. I did not visit any special places I was just very happy to spend the evening walking around in the fresh air after having spent the day in doors. Yes, fresh air. At least I felt that the air in the center of Moscow is much fresher than in St. Petersburg.

Out of the few places I visited I should mention the small church on the edge of Red Square and the shopping center Okhotny Ryad. I light a couple of candles for the memory dead grand parents and observed the evening service for couple of minutes. It was really nice to see something different than the usual turisty stuff. The shopping Okhotny Ryad is massive under ground complex and I almost got lost in it. I had some nice fried chicken at food court down stairs. Fried chicken seems to be one the favorite fast foods all over Russia. Other than food I did buy anything from the shopping center, but if you are in of anything you can get it in Okhotny Ryad. The prices at the New Yorker store did not seem that expensive taking in to account the prices in Germany and the fact that it is the center of Moscow.

What did I eat in Moscow? I must admit that quite a few times visited some fast food place, but I did visit the traditional soviet style restaurant in ГУМ a couple of times. You can get a proper meal there for few hundred roubles but I usually filled my tray with everything. I once tried the boiled cows tongue. All I need to say is that I do not have to try it again. Maybe prepared in different way than just boiled would make tongue a more appticing choice. The last night me and my colloegues visited ёлки-палки another restaurant serving traditional Russian cuisine. It is actually a chain of restaurants but the price quality ratio is very good and at least during the evening you get a discount for choosing the buffet table and beers are not that expensive either.

Corona at Stary Telegraph

I only visited two bars during my stay, I tried to stay a way from the hotel bar since it looked very expensive and a place that might eat your soul after it takes your money. I went to the restaurant on the second floor of Stary Telegraph twice and on the last night I found a nice Irish Pub on a side street near my hotel. It was full of lively conversation and all the people seemed to be on a good mood. After a few beers in the pub I headed to to Stary Telegraph for the second time where I was kindly invited to table of a group people celebrating birthday of Natalia. I had very nice evening with them. For breakfast the next day I had only two glasses of water. =)

My only criticism goes for the Шереметьево airport. It was quite difficult to decide which check in desk to choose since there were no signs to guide which check in desk leads to the gate your flight is leaving from. Yes, in Шереметьево you must choose your desk according to the gate. Ofcourse there were quite good signs in the main lobby but we never went there. So more signs please.