Problem with email

I'm having an email-dilemma. My main-address is getting somewhat swamped with spam. So I decided to move to another address. I also have a third address at Gmail. I was quite happy with my decision to switch addresses, but just today I noticed that Gmail is moving to IMAP, and that was one of my primary reasons why I didn't select my gmail as my new email (other being spam. my new address is 100% spam-free, I'm still not sure how well Gmail fares in that area).

The problem is that I had already told few people that I'm moving to a new address, and I gave them the new address. If I now moved to Gmail permanently, I would have to tell them AGAIN that I'm moving addresses... Well, there's no acute problem so far, all my addresses still work, and I only have handful of people to notify no matter what I do with my address...

Goddamned vandals...

So I was sitting in the commuter-train heading back home after work. I was sitting in a secluded area right at the beginning of the train. Across the aisle were this guy and girl, maybe about 17 years old or so. Suddenly I notice that the girl had a black permanent marker on her hand, and she was drawing on the wall I looked at her for a second, and then this dialogue took place:

Me: "Excuse me, but could you please stop making a mess with that marker?" (that sounds a bit nicer than I actually was, but still).

Her: "Well, excuuuuse me, I don't see how this concerns you in any way!"

Me: "Well, as it happens, I get very annoyed when idiots screw around and make a mess everywhere they go" (yes, I called them idiots)

The guy then made a comment to her about me having a "stick up his ass", but I let that pass. She did put the marker away.

The one thing that I REALLY regret is that I missed the conductor when he was nearby. Had I noticed him, I would have turned those morons over. This kind of selfishness REALLY pushes my buttons! They obviously thought that the world is their personal playground where they can make a mess just for shit and giggles. And rest of us have to live with their "artwork". Idiots.

When the revolution comes, people like that will be first against the wall. Along with their opinion, which is of no consequence at all.

A slice of steel and glass

My gadget-lust got the best of me again. I tried in vain to struggle it, but I had to submit.

I bought an iPod touch.

Yes, part of me feels bad about it. It keeps on reminding me that "instead of buying that thing, you could have saved that money". And while that is true, fact remains that every time I hold the iPod in my hand, I'm in awe. How did they manage to make something like this? It's so thin, it's so understated. The device feels like something straight out from Star Trek. Plastic? There are tiny amounts of that stuf here, but mostly it's steel and glass. It looks and feels superb.

Yes yes yes, I have handled lots of handheld devices over the course of years. And while some of them have been better than others, they have all felt... mechanical. They have felt like old technology that has been refined, and refined and refined. And while there's nothing wrong with that, it makes those devices feel "old". Not so with the iPod touch.

The touch (and iPhone, since the two are closely related) feel like first devices of the future. This is how devices will work in the future. It's not just a question of _what_ the devices do, it's _how_ they do it. The touch has no trace of the clumsiness or old technology that plagues phones and other mp3-players. It feels like a device that has been transported from the future.

Now, out of the box, the touch is a fine mediaplayer. It plays music, videos, photos, podcasts, and it does all that really well. It also has a great web-browser. Last weekend the touch was practically my only internet-terminal. I could have used the computer instead, but I had no need, since touch did such a good job. The Mrs. (who, after seeing the touch, asked me to buy her an iPhone) thanked me, since se had the computer all to herself.

But, there's so much more the touch could do. In order to differentiate iPhone and touch from each other, Apple was stupid and crippled the software on the touch. Even though touch could run all the apps iPhone does, it does not. That includes things like editable calendar, notes, email, Google Maps-client (you can use the website, but there's no dedicated app for it) and so forth. Bummer. But, some industrious folks have hacked the touch so that it runs all those apps. And mine does exactly that.

End-result is that I have a tiny device that fits in to my pocket. It's an excellent mediaplayer. It's also an excellent web-terminal. It handles my email. It has my calendar. It has all the maps in the world. It contains contact-information of all my friends and relatives (did I mention that if I click on the address in contact-information, it open the Google Maps client, and shows that address in there?). I can see myself carrying it with me everywhere I go, even if I had no intention of listening to music or watching movies. It's just so versatile and small that taking it with you is a no-brainer.

Touch is an expensive product. It's te most expensive iPod available. Yet I feel that this was one of the best purchases I have ever made, if not the best. This is the kind of stuff future will be built upon. Everything else looks lame in comparison.

Philistines with computers

I ran a piece of editorial few days ago, that was about "problems with computers". It was basically a story by the editor on how she had problems with her computer and/or internet-connection at home. She mentioned how the manual of her WiFi-router said that "user needs to master his/hers computer and the operating-system that runs on it". Rest of the text was about her struggles to fix the problem (a local nerd fixed it in the end). She then told that "expecting people to master their computer is too much to ask. After all, nerds don't know how to bake bread either!".

Well, yeah. Nerds don't know how to bake bread. Which is why they don't try to do it in the first place. But on the other hand, we have these users who insist on using computers while possessing next to zero knowledge on how to use computers. Can you see the difference here?

I was about to write an email to the editor, but the Mrs. used her executive veto, and denied it...

Fried udders

udders
salt
1 egg
1dl breadcrumbs

Clean the udders and cut them in half. Put them in slightly salted water and boil them until they are soft. Cut the utters in to smaller pieces and brush them with the whipped egg and roll them in breadcrumbs. Fry them in butter or margarine until they are nice and brown all around. Serve hot alongside potatoes and vegetables.

Stupidity

I don't know about you, but I'm sick and tired of stupidity. It seems that it surrounds us, no matter where we go. Here are few notable things I have encountered recently:

Smoking

A while ago Finland banned smoking in restaurants and bars (hooray!). Of course the decision was preceded by the typical "if you don't like smoking, stay at home!" and/or "this is a violation of smokers rights!". Now the talk has moved on to smoking in balconies. Should it be bannable or not? And, of course, the discussion follows familiar paths: "If you don't like the smoke, you can always close your windows!" or "this is a violation of smokers rights!". Well, boo-frigging-hoo! Yes, this might be a question of "rights". But what rights are we talking about here? Whose rights are more important: smokers right to actively poison their surroundings, or non-smokers right to breathe air that is NOT filled with carcinogens?

Hell, by that logic, we could complain because the law denies people the right to punch strangers in the street in the face. After all, if they don't like to get punched, they can always stay at home, right? Why is it perfectly OK to pollute air with tobacco-smoke, whereas it's strictly verboten to punch people? Why is anti-smoking-laws "trampling on the rights of smokers", whereas anti-violence-laws are NOT trampling on the rights of violent people?

One of the politicians in Finland (who I normally dislike) floated an idea that I actually like: Finland could ban sales of tobacco in around 2030 or so. Smoking itself would still be legal, it would just be illegal to sell the stuff. I think that's an interesting idea, but why wait so long? Ban sales in 2015, along with total ban on smoking in public places. If someone still wants to smoke, they would have to do it somewhere where it absolutely would not bother anyone else. Besides, if you want to smoke, you can always stay at home, right?

Religious stupidity

So far, Finland has been quite spared from the religious stupidity that seems to plague large parts of the world (I'm looking at you, USA!). But we still have our share of crackpots.

One of the fine elected members of city council of Espoo (member of Christian Democrats as it happens) somehow managed to make it so that schools can no longer take the pupils on a field-trip to one particular museum, without parents explicit permission. Why? Well, that museum has a collection of artifacts that had been used in various pagan-rituals in South America (among other places), and the council-member is concerned that those items have "magical powers" that could harm the children. What the f*ck?

If I were a resident of Espoo, I would be up in arms about this. I would do everything in my power to have this person kicked out of the council, due to the fact that she seems to be insane. Who the hell votes for these idiots?

Creationists

Again, this seems to be something that we have been mostly spared so far. But still: we have our share of idiots. This isn't a major issue or anything, but it's very annoying because it demonstrates lack of thinking. Few days ago I ran in to the age-old argument by creationists: "Since theory of evolution doesn't explain everything, and evolutionists disagree with each other over some details in the theory, it means that evolution is a lie and creationism should be teached in schools alongside evolution!". No, you damn idiots, it does NOT mean that! Sheesh! Hell, do creationists agree on everything, and do they know (or claim to know) everything? If they don't, then doesn't that mean that creationism is a lie as well (well, it is, but for other reasons)?

And yes, creation-theory IS teached in Finnish schools. But it's teached in classes that handle religions, myths and philosophy. Evolution is teached in biology-classes, and that's the way it should be. And anyone who tries to cram creationism in to science-classes will immediately make it to my "list".

Web 2.0

I feel like I'm the "man in the middle" when it comes to the Internet. There are the grandmasters who were online and emailing since the eighties. Then there are the young whippersnappers who have lived and breathed Internet since they were five year old. And then there are people like me. I got online at around 1994 or so. I was about 17 or so.

Now, kids (and some other power-users as well) these days are crazy about "Web 2.0". Blogs "like this one) are old skool, but they of course have at least one blog. Besides blogs they have accounts in Facebook and MySpace. They also use Twitter, and their IM contact-list is 200 names long. they spend their time on YouTube posting videos and commenting other videos (through video-responses in YouTube, naturally) What about me? Well, I have an account in LinkedIn, but I don't really use it. No MySpace or Facebook. And I have no contacts in IM. I do like YouTube, but I don't comment nor do I post videos.

I guess just about only "web 2.0"-thing I do is occasional edits to Wikipedia and subscribtion to few podcasts. But other than that, nothing. I wouldn't be surprised if I get called "grandpa" by 10-year olds pretty soon.

OK, I do have this blog, but that's about it.

Well, a while agoI took yet another tiny step in becoming "master of Web 2.0": I subscribed to two video-feeds in YouTube. First one is HotForWords (I know what you are thinking. Yes I do), and the other one is Pat Condell (Some people might not like him, but I found his comments to be insightful and funny. Please don't kill me.).

What's the point of this blog-post? No idea. I guess I had a plan when I started typing it, but it got lost somewhere. And as I re-read what I have written, it seems that I'm not as old-fashioned as I thought. I participate in Wikipedia, I have a blog, I do podcasts... Maybe I'm allright in the end.