Television of Today

Finnish broadcasting company 'yle' is in big trouble, peoples are not believing any more the official truth and Internet is going to take over. Big issue is now broadcasting companies and their funding, but let me say that with delay, politicians are going to find out that it does not matter any more, who is sitting on what chair in Yle.

I think it's natural evolution, things will rise and things will die. If you're lucky, you just morphing. I don't know yet will Yle die completely as an instance, but in many eyes it has already done so. And those eyes which are already looking over broadcasting to more competive media, they will stay open longer. That's just life.

I have found my personal television once again, but not in form what broadcasters want. I can choose what I watch, I can participate and contribute. By television is computer, while I sometimes watch a movie or show, I often find myself compiling that new fun program. Or writing something of my own. Closest thing to television is very nice service called 'TV-Kaista', which brings me all Finnish channels to my computer. I am no longer tied to schedules of programs, I can watch them when ever I want and where ever I am.

There are huge benefits for consumers and producers from this kind of concept. Like exact statistics, how many views per show, what are most interesting watching times etc.

This is my television and Madventures III,
join the party!

Forgive me Nokia

I have been loyal user of your phones, smart phones and normal ones. But while I visited today local Gigantti store here in Finland - I came across some internal vision. While I bought this Acer aspire one for 150 €, I took look at smart phone offerings from Nokia. E75 was something like 475 € or so, making it look pretty stupid along these mini laptops.

This new 'baby laptop' is so much more than 'this is what computers have became' smart phones. I bet Nokia has to recognize this? With their phones or 'computers' I just cannot do things, which are possible with ubuntu on my mini laptop. Costing just a fraction.

Of course, when this vision is just a geeks one - it probably does not matter, but I met in store older gentleman who was buying same Acer because 'his vista sucks'. I think this is very strong signal of something. I really hope that Nokia will officially announce their Linux usage plans on phones, since if they miss this, it might be fatal. Since when these 150 € pc's with Linux are holding internal 3G modem, game is over.

Bellow is picture of Nokia's HQ in Espoo, Finland. Taken at 25.4.2009 with my E71.

Ubuntu 9.04 NBR on Acer Aspire One

I must say that this is truly something. Just came home from my colleagues office, where Vista gave him quite a headache on PC which costs fortune. Nothing worked and "are you sure" questions kept popping up.

It was so relief to get back home to finalize this Acer aspire one Ubuntu NBR installation. And this is amazing ! Newer seen anything like this before, this is fast and capable. And don't forget price, 150 €!

I see microsoft misery, when you put products side by side. They just cannot make it.

Installation from usb stick with image file was easy. Computer booted right from stick and installation was quite fast. Few questions asked, regarding language, keyboard and timezone and off you go.

It's truly amazing that you can get 2 € usb flash drive, sized 1 GB and you can do these kind of operating system installations right from it. And beside of that, there is also bunch of very useful applications also. Complete Open Office, instant messaging, email clients etc.

I am glad that we can share this Linux knowledge from here.

Aspire One

I just had to acquire it, Acer aspire laptop with linpus Linux at 159 €. I think it reasonable priced and good looking family laptop. Beside of that, I am still wondering how great this new Ubuntu 9.04 is ;)

Beat this

Since previous posting, I have done quite a bit. Most notably installed vmware server 2.0 (amd64). I just have to say that big thanks to teams, which are making all this possible. In 2 minutes, up and running. Without any troubles.

Ubuntu 9.04

Beat this: I came into campus and downloaded Ubuntu AMD64 alternate install CD in two minutes and installed it to this HP 6930p in 15 minutes.

I have never ever seen this easy and fast installation procedure, it's something which makes me speechless. Now I have complete new operating system in my HP laptop and everything looks very well polished.

I don't know where to start, since this new Firefox 3.0.9 is so good looking, networking works like a charm between wireless and wired ethernet and most amazing thing was speed of boot process! Never seen like that before. Now I am backing up my other laptop directories to USB drive and soon upgrade that also!

Microsoft - Let's play

Microsoft's history of anticompetitive behaviour and consumer harm [here].

Services; Nokia vs Google

It was indeed fun to read in Finnish media, how Nokia explained situation and future on Q1 result publishing. Kallasvuo said that services are key for the future and how touchscreen phone with music service is something which consumers want.

I doubt that, since after I tried 5800 model, it was far from usable and quite cumbersome. Comes with music service is also something that I could not care less, mainly because Nokia spoiled first miles with DRM issues in there. All this brings me to think, what is difference between good and bad service? How peoples are talking all the time about Google and Apple instead of Nokia?

Simple mind has simple thoughts. I bet that Google and Apple are like Linux, while Nokia is like Microsoft. This associates something which turns againts Nokia. In my mind at least.

If I compare things that Google delivers in field of services to things what Nokia is trying to deliver, I see this same difference in my everyday IT habits: if I compare my Linux possibilities to Windows 'possibilities'.

Think about it.

Nokia's Linux devices

Linuxdevices.com has nice article, where speculation of forthcoming Linux devices is running wild. I surely would like to receive official confirmation from Nokia that they will power future smartphones with Linux, rather than Symbian. There are so many reasons for this, but mainly I am sick and tired of my E71's which are limited by Symbian.

In theory I could use my E71 for various tasks, but I end up booting my laptop time after time to have manageable user experience. This includes emailing (gpg support), ssh terminals, calendars and other (mainly google) serv ices.

Comparing Google's and Nokia's services is also something Nokia should do internally. I just cannot understand why Nokia is incabable to deliver experiences which Google can. Think about it and you see 5 eyes reason, probabaly.

Be mobile

New life situation has bring to mobile world totally. I am typing this with my Panasonic Toughbook CF-W7 with integrated 3G and running ubuntu 8.10. It's really like a breeze. Encrypted emails fly with thunderbird and enigmail. I did some research to replace this combination with Apple, no luck. Integrated 3G was missing and my experiences running thunderbird on apple is not so great.

So, being mobile is not so bad after all!