Category Archives: Life
November 30, 2008 The Apple Doesn’t Fall Far from The Tree
Funny thing happened. My 11-year-old daughter just came to me and said: “I want the new Banjo game for Christmas. I want all the games made by Rare, because they make Viva Piñata and it’s so good.”
The funny part is this: when I was a young boy in the mid-eighties and playing with my friend’s Sinclair Spectrum, all the Ultimate games were must-haves. Ultimate was a company created by Stamper brothers – later they started Rare.
October 7, 2008 The Guy Working At The Top of The Tallest Building
Have you heard about the guy working at the top of the tallest building?
On his office wall, he has a map of the world. There’s a knob on top of each country. On the spur of the moment, he turns knobs left and right. Rain pushes into the windows. Lights of the city low around him flicker as he slowly moves his gaze to another knob.
His telephone doesn’t ring.
As he turns the knobs, commands are sent down to the stories below for an army of his minions to execute. This country goes in the red, this into black. Rates of the currencies change. He releases a knob, goes to sit on his chair. Looks outside.
His companies have many names, his products are made from iron and binary digits. You wouldn’t recognize him on the street. An inverse Domino effect gathering all the money from the world, from your pockets, ends to where he stands.
He doesn’t play golf, he plays the world. After the deeds of the day are done, he enters the elevator, goes down, crosses the street, grabs the evening paper and silently goes into a taxi. Arrives to his home where his two kids and wife are already sleeping deep. In the night, his dreams are like the dreams of any other person.
August 26, 2008 The Book of W: A Book or a Blog or a Blog Book?
As you have probably noticed, I’ve partially moved my act to thebookofw.tumblr.com.
On that site, I’ll create an experience which takes all the good parts of books and blogging. Furthermore, the site should be readable with mobile devices also.
One of the simple, minor, mundane things that bug me is how the pages are numbered. In blogs, the most recent page is the page number 1, by default. In books, page number 1 is the beginning. In my view, the best solution would be to number the oldest (i.e. first) blog post with the page number 1, and increase from there on. I haven’t yet found a way to accomplish this feature with Tumblr technology without relatively heavy scripting, or manual tagging (using tags like “page1”, “page2”). Yeah, I could code it using Tumblr API, but we’ll see.
Anyway, The Book of W is an interesting experiment. You wouldn’t believe how much, how long, how dearly I kept the contents and the subject hidden. Only my wife knew something about the unpublished, unprinted, unagented book. My face blushed and hands started to shake on those rare moments when the discussion reared it. And now, I’m on the other extreme as I publish the chapters to the web for you all to read.
When I was younger, I hided all my creative works (music, writings, …) from others. The rationale – if you can call it that – was that the works felt too personal, they gave out too much of me and made me vulnerable. Now I’ve learned that life’s too short for that. So, if you have something to present, just pour it out. Thanks for the web, it’s easy, fast, inexpensive and leads to an uncharted territory…
June 9, 2008 Cybertecture Apartment in Dubai
It’s always interesting to follow what they are up to in Dubai. The developments there are just amazing. According to some info, one fifth of world’s cranes are there in gigantic 100 billion dollar construction project.
One particular building caught my eye: The PAD, also known as iPad. The tower is…
…targeted at switched-on, creative and hip business executives to whom we refer to as “the digital generation” or apple brand lovers who are constantly mobile and connected.
Every apartment will be intelligent and have its own cybertecture to provide a unique experience. Everything from communications, entertainment, health and shopping is covered by the cybertecture of the apartment.
Among the usual household stuff like colour changing tiles are the iFeatures. The iFeatures list contains: iReality (a virtual reality projection wall), iHealth (monitors residents health), iRotation Rooms (rotate your lounge), iArt (project a painting from a server to a wall), etc.
In Dubai, science fiction really becomes a reality. I commend their bold adventures in architectural design and pushing the edge of technology in living spaces. Oil money well spent.
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- Posted under Design, Globe, Life, New Tech, Technology
June 4, 2008 Something Wet Is Out! Really Wet…
It’s quite natural for a guy nicknamed raindropper to create a book covering all aspects of water, don’t you think?
So, point your browser to The Book of W and start exploring. There will chapters and postings about science, business, arts, cultures and religions – all of course water-related.
It looks like a mish-mash of blog postings and book chapters. But there’s a simple, common theme underlining all of those – and it’s clear as water. 😉
January 26, 2008 Radiohead – …
… Learnings from The “On How The Brain Functions” Experiment.
You, the web wanderer, are perhaps aware that a bit over one year ago I posted my research paper about theory of how the brain functions. I also built a blog around it so that you, the brain researcher, can comment it with witty references to tin-foil hats. 😉
The current gain is zero remarks to tin-foil hats.
Seriously, though, I still stand behind the theory and see several strenghts in it. The question is: why I’m not building a working prototype as it only takes a few diodes, capacitors and coils to make it. Maybe it’s because I do not want to disturb the local neighbourhood with electromagnetic noise.
And: I’d like to thank Joni Tuoreniemi and Paul Tudsbury for commenting it and creating conversation. Thank you!
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- Posted under Artificial Intelligence, Blog, Blogging, Brain, Brain Functions, Cognition, Fractals, Idea, Intelligence, Life, Mind, Neuron, Neuroscience, Science, Scientific Paper, Theory, Thoughts
July 30, 2007 Ridley Scott’s A Good Year – A Film of Sunshine, About Timing
After renting and watching scary Ils (Them) and uneasy Blood Diamond I decided to choose something more relaxing and better suited for my wife’s taste. So, Ridley Scott’s film A Good Year was perfect for getting into that sunny summer mood. (Raining outside, again). It was also interesting to see how versatile Ridley Scott is; light romantic comedy is a long step from Blade Runner and Alien. Of course, there are over 25 years between those sci-fi films and A Good Year.
In the film, the old snippet of wisdom was mentioned a couple of times. It roughly goes like this:
“What’s the most important thing in comedy?”
“Timing.”
And…
“What’s the most important thing in buying and selling stocks?”
“Timing.”
Let’s expand that further. With perfect timing, can one achieve everything – be a master in all tasks? Do these work:
“What’s the most important thing in ice hockey?”
“Timing.”
“What’s the most important thing in dancing?”
“Timing.”
“What’s the most important thing in playing a piano?”
“Timing.”
“What’s the most important thing in playing poker?”
“Timing.”
“What’s the most important thing in writing code?”
“Timing.”
“What’s the most important thing in marketing?”
“Timing.”
“What’s the most important thing in scientific research?”
“Timing.”
And finally the grand question:
“What’s the most important thing in making love?”
“Timing.”
Et cetera. Some of the above do sound reasonable.
July 1, 2007 On a Traditional Finnish Holiday
Live in a cottage by a lake… Swim in a water of 17 Celsius degrees, dig worms and go fishing, row a boat, have a sauna, play card games and Mölkky, drink some beer, burn some wood to cook some food, run around with the dog, gather romantic time in a forest with your wife/girlfriend and a bottle of sparkling strawberry wine as the night is light and mosquitos are for an unknown reason hiding somewhere.
We all had fun.
And one of the funniest was Minttu the chihuahua – picture links to an AVI. Watch her play with a hay…
April 8, 2007 Leg-lengthening in China for Better Career
Some Chinese people are really going to great lengths to aid their career.
A French documentary (by Hikari Productions) presented the surgical procedure of leg-lengthening in detail. The clients were young women trying to measure up to the specs of the boosting economy. Unbelievably, job ads occasionally have length requirements in China.
The Independent article covers the issue. It says that the procedure has been banned, but – contradicting itself – states:
“From now on, leg extensions may be carried out by hospitals that conduct at least 400 orthopaedic operations a year and offer post-surgery care and rehabilitation, and only on strictly medical grounds, the ministry said. “
It is unbelievable that the doctors in China are using their expertise and time on this painful, cosmetic and unnecessary operation. It is unbelievable that the girls are doing this.
China, China, where are you going to?
March 11, 2007 The Uniqueness of a Moment
Have you ever stopped to wonder the uniqueness of a moment? This instant here, now is unique – the world has never been in this situation before and it never will be again. There will never be again the current set of people living, building and communicating.
Keep this in mind when predicting and forecasting things. You can not think that “this has not happened before, so it can not happen now”. Or, “the economic slump has happened roughly every seven years, so it will happen in two years’ time.”
You can not think that “she can not start that career, because she does not have proper education and right diplomas for it.” Did Madonna go through a superstardom university before becoming Madonna?
Like they say in the financial brochures:
“Past performance is not an indication of future results”
So, be prepared to be surprised.
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- Posted under Life, Thoughts
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