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Year 2012

2012-01-14T23:38:00.001-08:00

Happy new year to everyone! This is first posting on 2012 and hopefully not last. I've been taking easy for couple of weeks, making some table cleaning at work and getting rid of my two 27" displays and moving totally to CF-F9 user in there also. I shall recommend this to every one once in a while. My 27"'s were bought back in 2007 when we launched our business and I've been really satisfied with them. But time to try something new.

All in one place (this CF-F9) makes backups and version handling easy. No more unity sync between laptop and desktop etc. Still I need to figure out how to handle spare computing issue, because business cannot stand even 30 minute break because of computing issues. I keep you posted.

Finally I also checked out what were search engine words which were used to find this blog of mine and few Nokia stuff of course but interestingly Mac vs. Ubuntu fight is going on in peoples mind. They keep searching answers for that. I am owner of Mac Air and my main computing gear runs Ubuntu anyway, so there are things to tell. I cannot but it on brief easily, but somehow if I had to describe use of those platforms I would say that engineering is Ubuntu and creativity is Mac. I just feel empty handed if I try to do my development business with Mac, I tried a lot but with no luck.

So now I am running Ubuntu with my toughbook. I recommend this.

Further with Panasonic CF-F9

2011-12-23T22:56:00.001-08:00

I've been using now my new CF-F9 with ubuntu 11.10 alternative install and I just love this combination. I even received additional memory (+4 GB) just before Xmas and even distributor warned me about it usefulness with windows (32 bit) - there is full memory available now to my 64 bit Linux. Way to go.

This computer is really solid for carry on usage and big screen makes things productive. Only thing which is not configured at this point is 3G connection with on-board Gobi2000 module. Firmware loading is pain under Linux (big thanks to Sierra Wireless!) and I even think to replace sierra wireless with some another module working without external loaded firmware. Maybe sony ericsson have a model for that.

Panasonic CF-F9

2011-12-22T07:55:00.001-08:00

After evaluating couple of weeks which laptop should I get to replace and relief my Thinkpad EDGE - I got totally lost. I got excited about ASUS X31 but after reading troubles with Linux on that, gave up an idea of getting it. Then I checked out multiple HP's and Lenovo models, but they were all taking forever to buy.

While been loyal user of Toughbook family, I have kept distance to latest models lately. But after evaluating possibilities, I came across two models: CF-53 or CF-F9. 53 was a bit bulky for me, so I ordered CF-F9. What I like about here in Finland is Toughbook distributor. They ship immediately and I got F9 in my hands in couple of hours. Learn that Lenovo.

But best was yet to come. I put ubuntu 11.10 alternative in for my F9 and world was open. With zero boot to windows I was already enjoying fully featured development machine with my home directory untarred in place. Learn that Windows.

This computer is part of our high security approach to few governmental projects and no skype is allowed here. XMPP rocks and disk crypto keeps mind rested while traveling. Learn that.

Windows Phone :: not so easy life

2011-12-15T08:09:00.000-08:00

I've been playing with Windows phone for a while now and I feel sorry for Nokia. From my experiences, windows phone is nothing but pain for advanced users and too complicated for normal users. Here goes few points noted so far;

User interface is complicated. No matter what, I am quite confused all the time when using phone. For example switching between applications is some how confused. Ordinary tasks like forwarding someones number to SMS is pain and I am always lost where I am with this phone. Maybe it's just me.

I don't need xbox live etc stuff on my screen, make them disappear. I need text editor to type quick notes, straight and plain. No flying tiles and partly shown title text and other candy.

Biggest problem is music, video and photo copying to and from phone. When I plug my phone to Linux, nothing happens. Making things dependent of some proprietary binary is no go road for most of users. I see big troubles in this.

And for last; SDK's. We made program for this phone and compared to other platforms, microsoft is pain. $99 money needed, no file based deployments to phones and totally unacceptable code ecosystem for todays open source users.

Nokia, you're on wrong train now.

XMPP Support for N9

2011-11-19T11:39:00.001-08:00

I know microsoft did all it could to prevent XMPP support in N9, but community is strong:

mc-tool add gabble/jabber [account] string:account=[user_id] string:password=[passwd] string:server=[server] bool:require-encryption=1 bool:ignore-ssl-errors=1

and

mc-tool enable [output_of_previous]

Now I can enjoy our corporate high security and standard compliant instant messaging over XMPP.

Competitors provider

2011-11-05T02:40:00.001-07:00

I am glad that this gentleman is providing solutions to most of our competitors. Stay frosty.

Ubuntu 11.10 vs Mac Air

2011-10-28T22:46:00.000-07:00

It seems that I am jumping between these things. Now I am back with big laptop and ubuntu 11.10. Mac is hooked up to my desktop display to handle business emailing and PDF creation with stability. But development, nothing beats Linux in there.

Now I have my Thinkpad EDGE with latest ubuntu again in one project and I already enjoy following things (compared to Mac):

SSH read/write mounts :: These are essential if you work with remote Linux servers.
Disk space. My 64 GB SSD is showing almost 50 GB free after I have Ubuntu installed. Compare that to Mac Air 64 GB disk which is always full.
N9 integration. SSH mount to N9 and off you fly, compared to iTunes struggling.

Ubuntu 10.11

2011-10-25T09:06:00.000-07:00

Installed Ubuntu 10.11 to my EDGE thinkpad. Lot's of improvements! Visually this is stunning version, things seem more polished and I like Thunderbird as my default email client well. Unity lover I have never been, but this is now reasonable. I believe that I can live with this.

So, windows is vanishing, ubuntu is here and mac is serving.

Nokia N9 :: One week and running

2011-10-19T11:07:00.000-07:00

I think it's around one week now which I've been using my Nokia N9. I upgraded iPhone4 to iOS5 following day after I got my N9. Spent few moments with it also, but interestingly returned to N9 for sleeker outfit and functionality. Generally speaking N9 has been working nicely, it's fast and responsive. I can take nice pic's with it and keep up with my MP3's. Emailing, messaging and those kind of things are easy. Nothing major in there, but this reduced complexity is kind of hitting me. Things are almost plain with this device.

I also changed my case for phone and credit cards. I got some Golla thing, which holds slim N9 nicely and I can use my BT in case someone tries to reach me, event my phone is in my pocket or backpack. Kind of new way to think phone, I believe.

I also acquired NFC enabled BT streaming audio receiver, MD-20W from Nokia. It works like it should. I touch it with my N9 and it grabs my audio output to amplifier. Works event while I am paired with normal handsfree device. Nice!

First upgrade to N9

2011-10-15T02:20:00.001-07:00

I just love this:

RM696-34-1_PR_001:~/dev# apt-get upgrade
Reading package lists... Done
Building dependency tree
Reading state information... Done
The following packages will be upgraded:
ope-service0
1 upgraded, 0 newly installed, 0 to remove and 0 not upgraded.
Need to get 1,144kB of archives.
After this operation, 0B of additional disk space will be used.
Do you want to continue [Y/n]?

When did it began?

2011-10-15T00:20:00.001-07:00

Inspired from this blog posting, I found out a lot food for thoughts, regarding how things turned from self sustained innovations to money driven decisions, already back in 2008.

I really would like explore a bit deeper into these relations between Finnish prime minister (ex) and Microsoft. Where did it started, what was agreed and how Nokia fits into picture. This is relevant question right now, when we are holding our N9 phones, with Finnish innovated Linux inside.

N9 First thoughts

2011-10-14T04:27:00.000-07:00

I've been playing with this for a while now. Physics of this thing is amazing, feels like you want to hold this all the time. Software is bit weird, I kind of miss 'start screen' and other things familiar from Symbian, Android and iPhone. For example, when you hold this and want to make call or SMS, where to start and most important, how? I believe this flow of action will come if you keep using this, but for a start it's a bit different.

What I really like is this:

gpg: key F942A3B6 marked as ultimately trusted
public and secret key created and signed.

What I don't like is that Nokia has dropped Jabber support. No more interacting with our company IM server. Shame Nokia. Not all business runs in facebook chat.

Nokia N9 :: It's here

2011-10-12T10:18:00.000-07:00

I visited today Nokia store in Helsinki. It was empty, sales peoples were a bit lost as well. They were clearly affected this syndrome which Elop created. On best place there was however two Nokia N9's which I played with. To put it short, phone is amazing. I kind of get now the whole picture. It could be tough competitor for microsoft if nokia pushes it forward. I believe money did it and they bought silence.

I also heard rumor that this marvelous device, Nokia N950 is agreed to be kept out of market. No other reason than Microsoft to keep it away. Shame on you Nokia, you gave it up too easy and too early.

Phones and Sim's

2011-09-14T22:32:00.000-07:00

Follow up to normal day in phone user office, I attach couple of pictures of my phones. I keep swapping my sim between these models and I am quite fluent with adapting my micro-sim back and forth to phones which requires normal sim.

I got this sim cutter and it does nice job. Just keep in mind to insert sim in correct way. In smaller picture there is this 'micro sim adapter', which is not so good. Micro sim keeps popping out of it constantly and I gave up on those.

Nokia vs Android :: SDK battle

2011-09-04T08:58:00.000-07:00

I've been doing tryout coding with Android SDK. It was indeed easy and breeze to build things with it and because it's free to use, potential is there. One question which is totally non visible today is Nokia's strategy on software development support on future platforms like microsoft one.

Developers do not pay for SDK's anymore, they choose which is available and technically supported to achieve their goals. I currently run business where money is always an issue and spending 1-15k€ for any microsoft development tool is totally out of question.

I really would like to see some 'analyst' to state something out from this point of view. I thought that Nokia did great with QT, they paid huge money of it and tried to preserve future for developers. Now any developer who should put his efforts to microsoft coding are facing that unlimited fun with license costs and a away to keep it fluent.

But actually, I hope that all of our competitors does windows coding on nokia. That's the way.

Android, Symbian, iPhone

2011-08-29T11:08:00.000-07:00

Experiences from all major mobile platforms. I've been playing with Android, Samsung S2 and new Sony Ericsson Mini Pro and I have to say, it's too complicated. I get frustrated with Android from time to time, simple tasks like calling and writing sms's, just too many moves and eye candies all the time. With iPhone, it's too restricted. I need music, I need images. I need them now, on the go and with linux. No iTunes available all the time.

Symbian Anna on my E7, better but sluggish. Email is quite responsive but gets stuck from time to time. Needs rebooting. Calling and texting is breeze. It's big, but robust. Best hardware at this point, even software is lacking.

I think I will give up on these phones soon. Reach me with IM or Email.

Symbian Anna

2011-08-20T10:54:00.000-07:00

After quite steady weeks with my iPhone, I was excited to notice that Nokia has come out with Symbian Anna (finally). I took my only Windows workstation out of dust and launched Nokia software updater and rolled Anna in to my E7 and N8.

It worked well, even I realized just a bit afterwards that there were couple extra packets to install (1/2, 2/2 updates). But it was for me quite breeze. No worries in there, like few others I noticed.

After Anna update my E7 received my sim and there I was, back in Symbian. Keyboard is fantastic to use after trial and error on iPhone. And symbian felt quite smooth after update. After this update, I think Nokia is only lacking integration with outside services like Twitter and Facebook. Even I just resigned from Facebook, I believe current Anna implementation of these services is bit outdated. I don't know.

I wish Nokia would have believed in developers in 5 years ago, given them a hand and tools to implement. Things could be different. Still I miss Jabber integration from my E7, like it was in N900. Skype is not for secure communication.

Nokia's Dive

2011-07-03T12:47:00.000-07:00

Back in 1995 I had Psion 5. It run EPOC operating system, which later turned to be Nokia flagship Symbian.

In 2007 when I took this picture I thought that why Nokia acquired EPOC for smart phone platform and made it ten years too late for try out to public consumption. Ever since I have just wondered why Nokia is not capable to do right decision, they kept back Maemo team's with N800/N810 which was superior product on those days. They were too tied to operators and that obsolete EPOC variant in their main products and were afraid to fly with Maemo.

But still, there is one major factor which is affecting to iOs and Android dominance and volume. It's well kept secret and who know how long it will stay like that.

Why there is no good phones available anymore?

2011-04-30T22:16:00.000-07:00

I am stuck. I am stuck with all these mobiles in my life. It seems that there is just no good mobile phone available at the moment, I give you short intro what I currently have and why they are not usable;

iPhone4

Missing keyboard
painfull ecosystem, I want to copy those MP3's and images without itunes.
Multitasking sucks still (I want real Jabber IM client)

Nokia E7

Symbian sucks
Camera is bad
I need wifi accesspoint functionality which does work
I have also Nokia N8, which I occasional use because of it's camera. It's so good, but still does not help for other issues (keyboard, symbian, accesspoint functionality).

Android's (HTC Desire Z, Ericsson X10 (&PRO), Samsung 5 and others)

Keyboard, yes desire Z has that but it sucks. Android is not designed to support keyboard well enough (yes, that tiny entry field for SMS's for example) and Z's keyboard is really pain if you compare to E7's. And Z's design is not so good.
OS is candy, too candy to be usable. Too much complication and somehow cluttered outfit of everything gives me headache.
I have done some coding with SDK, which is nice. But conceptually my target is to produce something professional and since I don't know when OS decides to close my tasks things turns again unacceptable. Any clue for me related to this?

Nokia N900

This was best as long as it lasted. Elop killed a dream of Meego and successors of this wonderful device. Only disadvantages were battery life and display, which were a bit outdated.
SDK functionality could have been lot better, giving users access to all telecommunication api's like android. Why it did not happen, I don't know.
Basically this N900 was really exciting device, which gave me and still does some very intuitive UI approaches.
IM integration, native Jabber support for corporate security audited IM infra was 10+ for our business, cross platform usage of IM was breeze with this.

So I am juggling between iPhone, Nokia E7/N8/E72 and various Androids, making every night prayers for something like N900 to appear. I seriously checked out Aava's products and other phone hardware to support native Linux because all of this confusion in field. I believe I end up building my phone by myself.

Nokia could have scored with Meego devices, but they ended up to play with evil. How can they believe that we could pay 10k€ for microsoft msdn development stuff to get started, while others offers us open source approach. Think about it.

And yes, seriously I started to follow mr. Jääksi again. I really hope that he gets some air to breath in HP and is able to push something open enough for all of us. Please continue from what you left behind with N900 team.

So, now I am after a good phone at least with these features;

Open, Linux able operating system with decently supported and free SDK and with future proof vendor.
Standard Jabber IM integration (no, gtalk and microsoft communicator are not secure)
Keyboard (Like E7/N900, not like Desire Z
Wifi accesspoint functionality
Easy to connect (USB mass memory storage support, micro SD's etc)

Anyone?

Ubuntu 11.04

2011-04-30T21:47:00.000-07:00

Colleague of mine entered in office, and noted my freshly installed Ubuntu 11.04. Linux guys have Christmas more often than others. I like new release, my Thinkpad EDGE and HP Mini, it just rocks. Main desktop is not yet upgraded, because phasing evolution makes it a bit more predictable. I found this new release suffering only this bug, which makes my window manager to freeze from time to time. I tweaked some settings and now it seems to work again. Something related to compiz and kernel. I hope upgrades brings good things for that.

But from unity I switched to classic gnome, not because unity was lacking but somehow I am more productive under familiar gnome. I believe that I go again with unity, by steps.

Dumpped Mac Air

2011-04-15T22:47:00.000-07:00

After a lot of travelling, I find myself sitting in front of Ubuntu capable Thinkpad EDGE again. While Mac Air is wonderful travelling companion, it's just too small for serious computing, which does include SSH mounts and administration of various Linux developments.

I think I stick with Mac still on travels, but seriously computing along a way - I just need Linux. No other operating system is in that level.

iPad 2

2011-03-27T01:26:00.000-07:00

25th of March, two hours after I landed from London, I found myself in line at Stockman. To acquire iPad 2. On that trip, among many others - I have found that tablet computing is a way to go. I have used iPad 1 for months, and this new one is definitely a move forward. Some how I found my calendar and emailing very easy to use with tablet device, compared to any phone I have owned. Including iphone4.

I ordered a month access to Helsingin Sanomat, local big news paper iPad version to find out have my earlier thoughts changed. Not much. Even there is good journalism available, stories in digital format feels like short, I have noted this before with other printed vs digital media stories. It remains to see, how frequent reader I develop myself.

Today I also read a news entry that Apple is going to be big in near future, bypassing IBM and others soon. I certainly can see that happening, while other manufactures are struckling with bad decision or with need to please everyone. Sometimes it just requires strong hand. Nokia is something along that same road, dying together with microsoft. Which is shame, I remember myself being employed by Nokia back in 80's and we got toilet paper on discount with company badge. Those were the days.

Magazines with iPad

2011-02-05T06:54:00.000-08:00

Spent some time travelling, week was awesome and things worked out well. On that trip, I was able to explore possibilities of iPad in global world. I was very pleased when Linux Journal emailed that my latest issue was downloadable and I got magazine delivered directly to iPad, while watching sandstorm behind my window. That was nice.

Second thing was that while sleeping, iPad was getting Finnish tv shows for my consumption on coming trip home. Awesome experience again and made possible by tv-kaista.fi service.

What's so special about this? I tell you. These both models which I use, I have paid and which I do promote - are considered to be against all media companies opinion how things should be handled. LJ is delivering issues non DRM'ed format, plain PDF files and therefore 'threat' for publisher is imminent loss of control and incomes. How's that possible? Think about it.

Secondly. TV-kaista.fi service is under investigation and guess who has filed case. Yle, MTV Media, Nelonen, Sanoma Television, Kopiosto. I like to spell out my opinion about this case here.

If I have paid my fee for television (in Finland 244,90 € / year) and I have permission to record programs for personal use and consumption with my digital receiving unit (to HD) - why on earth I cannot use this also as an service. I mean, those guys at tv-kaista.fi service are offering this equal capability to use personal digital program recorder in a way that 2011 is supposed to.

Since I know that this blog is followed in Sanoma corporation, I really hope that they could gain some innovations by themselves, before neutralizing others. Now it's very different case.

iPhone experiences

2011-01-29T01:13:00.000-08:00

I got iPhone4 two weeks ago and witnessed apple's nice strategy, when I cut my sim to micro sized. No returning from there, my sim card swapping syndrome stopped in one step. No more experimenting with Nokia's, Android's or other phones. I am locked in iPhone4 now.

But it's actually very nice phone. No wonder Nokia is in trouble. Even Linux user is satisfied.

iPad magazines and newspapers in Finland

2011-01-09T00:27:00.001-08:00

After spending few weeks with iPad on my holidays, I came across these new digital magazines and newspapers, like 'Tietokone', 'Suomenkuvalehti' and most interesting 'Helsingin Sanomat'. I thought that returning to quality stories in digital form could be the thing, but it was not.

iPad is wonderful device to enjoy digital content, but firmly I have found out that those separate apps to every magazine is painful experience. Instead I found myself reading digital edition of Linux Journal, which is delivered in fair format, PDF. I can download that with my desktop and get it over to iPad via various ways. Dropbox, email or iTunes sync. It's clear to read Linux Journal, it's immediate copy of paper version and therefore very familiar.

I just cannot stand any of three mentioned Finnish versions offered to iPad. They are painful and very complex to read. For example Tietokone, I just cannot understand logic of pages and subscrolling sections down to find more content for the story. Same in Helsingin Sanomat, outfit and layout for app format is totally difficult to adopt and I just keep on reading web sites of those magazines, rather than paying for confusing app content.

To correct this, I would like to see following things;

Learn from Linux Journal. Their approach is best at the moment. You get what you pay for and it feels like that (even it's pdf file you are holding). Even those colorful advertisements are valuable content for me, to keep up with the world.
Do not get over excited for DRM stuff. I just cannot see value for publisher to keep issues in proprietary form to protect something not worth it. Fair distribution in PDF format would skyrocket paying readers.
When you deliver you magazine or newspaper in PDF format, you increase readers capable to participate, every desktop, tablets and phones do have PDF reading software.

Tietokone, Helsingin Sanomat and Suomenkuvalehti - I'd like to subscribe you. But I just cannot accept delivery format you are offering, even I am solid user of iPad your application approach sucks a lot.

Linux Journal - thanks for good magazine, I've been reading your paper subscription for years and just ordered digital edition, knowing that I am able to keep up with you even I might throw iPad overboard in some point.

Year 2011

2011-01-01T00:11:00.000-08:00

Happy new year! I fell a sleep last night before 10pm and now it seems that we are running already in 2011 with our busy minds. I personally feel good about this, lots of good thing happened last year, we got some great moments in our family and business turned out to be amazingly good for year 2010.

What I've been doing lately, I've been utilizing some of my spare time to get in order in our computing environment. It has not been easy and there is still tons of work to do, but somehow I see light in end of tunnel. I've learned to use dropbox, youtube and google calendar. I managed to obtain Mac Air 11" and iPad for moving situations, producing some media and doing some fast mind ordering things. I don't say that Mac is best, I just say that carrying around any normal laptop is killer for me after this Air 11". And living in cross platform world, reminds me sometimes life outside of Linux scene. It's there.

So, let's move on to 2011 with happy minds - lets find out what Nokia Meego is going to be, lets see how Microsoft moves to stay alive etc. Meanwhile I enjoy my latest ubuntu computers, ipad and mac air, lets try to be productive.

Mac Air - up and running

2010-12-25T00:42:00.000-08:00

While spent wonderful Christmas with family, I managed to setup my Air for basic functionality. Encrypted emailing, graphics and presentation capabilities. What I like most is this form factor of this computer. It's incredible light and easy to live with, why there is no Linux capable hardware like this?

Macbook Air

2010-12-23T10:22:00.000-08:00

After used couple of weeks iPad, I got inspiration to get Macbook Air, 11" model with 64 GB SSD drive. Christmas was partly reason for this, but also the fact that Air is finally something which is correctly sized for various mobile situations. It was also a nice experience to see how well Apple offers mobile me service and ipad and mac got synced together.

Plan is to use this computer to produce various small media things, with iWork 09 and iMovie. Currently we've done those with office showroom mac, which is not so suitable for that. Time tells.

Android and iPad

2010-12-13T09:22:00.000-08:00

I met interesting peoples last Friday, really. But before that, I just realized how far Nokia is slipping at the moment. I ordered two Android phones for kids as a Christmas presents and acquired iPad for personal use for me.

Androids are really pushing and my current phone (Desire Z) is offering qwerty for me at last and I just decided to bring family along to Android world. I will offer kids Google Talk and some beaconbase.com service for locating them. These kind of new things are unreachable with Nokia.

And iPad, after I sold my first one back in August - I was forced to get one for project usage and I actually found out that it outplays Samsung Tab. I do not like Apple's ecosystem, I hate itunes and miss Linux functionality - but still, it's marvelous web browsing and emailing tool. Beat that.

Week in middle east

2010-12-04T01:22:00.000-08:00

Just returned from Middle East, business trip. Was first thing done without my massive Thinkpad Edge. Survived with Samsung Tab, Nokia booklet and Desire Z phone.

Samsung Tab was indeed very nice, even I couldn't spare to use 3G connection and relayed just over Hotel lobby wlan. Only thing for Booklet (running ubuntu 10.10 of course) was need for encrypted email - all other functions were covered with Samsung Tab. And when not in wlan, Desire Z (yes that android with keyboard) was good. So good that I still wonder why there is no real choices to keyboard models in Android. Strange.

And yes, phone pictured here was found in Mall. Original Intex 6633 dual sim phone for ~70 euros. Not bad Nokia?

Samsung Tab - stability issues

2010-11-13T21:56:00.000-08:00

After traveling and experiencing tab with more detailed, I've noticed that it's very handy device for traveling man and applications I want to use when on road. However, I see one issue popping out from time to time. That's stability. Browser, video player, email and attachment handling keeps crashing very often. So often that I find it very annoying. My nexus one wont act like that, so I assume its something specific to android in tab.

Samsung Tab experiences

2010-10-25T09:33:00.000-07:00

Samsung Tab arrived today. Few quick points and experiences for hungry fellow gadgeteers;

It's small. Compared to ipad. It's solid, bit slippery but overall very nice. Android works nicely, bit of sluggish on heavily equipped flash pages, but very usable. I found integrated applications very nice, email and calendar are business ready with excellent integration to Google services. I also noticed that Scandinavian keyboard include our domestic charters (öäå) which is great.

There is short video available here.

Ubuntu 10.10 on Nokia Booklet

2010-10-13T22:23:00.000-07:00

Just installed latest Ubuntu 10.10 to Nokia Booklet. Installation was a lot faster than before, but screen resolution was still an issue with poulsbo GMA 500 adapter. I just wonder how much better sales nokia would have done, if they have chosen some more standard graphics adapter for this and delivered complete set with Ubuntu?

However I followed instructions in wiki to gain support for GMA500. And now things are looking good again. Thanks to Ubuntu community, only.

Imaging with N8

2010-10-05T10:36:00.000-07:00

Low light image from evening sunset, shot with Nokia N8. Not too much noise, I think? I've been playing with this device four days and been quite satisfied, especially imaging side of it. I did also few youtube uploads of videos. They look amazingly sharp and good. Ten points from this.

Nokia N8 - experiences

2010-10-03T00:37:00.001-07:00

Imaging with N8 is nice experience.

(tip: erase exif data with "mogrify -strip [imagefile]" command in ubuntu, before posting).

But I just keep wondering that emailing thing. Today I figured out that denying those service terms when setting up email account on N8 will result downgraded emailing application for my use, which allows me to keep those smtp servers. Email header indicates that I use "EPOC Email Version 2.10" when I do not accept service agreement with Nokia. Otherwise all my emails goes to oz.com servers, which I do find unnecessary by all means.

N8 is nice device, missing only xmpp support, meego and hardware keyboard. Until those times, let's play with this.

Nokia N8 - FRA Phone

2010-10-01T23:19:00.000-07:00

First thoughts on Nokia's latest N8 were fine, but then I found out this:

I just noticed that I cannot any more configure my SMTP server to Nokia N8 email client. Nokia pushes all my emails to oz.com servers and when I live in Finland, everything goes to Swedish signal intelligence (FRA), among other agencies. When I do emailing in my security business, I don't want to receive my domestic emails with this kind of headers:

"from nkemconn05.nokia.prod.oz.com (unknown [67.220.123.36]) by emh02.mail.saunalahti.fi (Postfix) with ESMTP id 8D8932BD44 for ; Sat, 2 Oct 2010 08:58:48 +0300 (EEST)"

I found this really disturbing (!) Even Android does allow me to specify SMTP servers with SSL-security. Big boys are wiser.

Nokia: hire some expertise and download FRA Portfolio

Update: It is still possible to create manual SMTP server entries. Phone to off line first and giving non existing email & password combination brings you to setup screen where smtp server can be specified. So there is an issue by default, but by tweaking you are able to produce domestic or inter company email communication with this.

Operator position in new era

2010-09-04T23:09:00.000-07:00

After I've been experiencing totally closed and controlled eco system of apple, by using that ipad - I've been really thinking world in new ways. I see change is there, peoples are not willing to stick into closed world. But it does need an alternative view and actual alternative world to live in.

Predicting is dangerous business, but I believe that Android and hopefully Meego will create some pressure for Apple and other proprietary worlds to reposition. It's just not acceptable any more that I need itunes to activate my device or to transfer (possibly my created) content from devices. Peoples are starting to wakeup.

While I've been living in Linux cloud for last 15 years, it seems that I am in peaceful and quiet room - where chosen functionality just works and no worries are present. World is solid, controlled by me and data is in safe harbour. Now my visions seem to arrive in same world, when everything we deliver out from door are based in same solidity.

From here I could see new position for future mobile operators. They just cannot tie peoples down in proprietary channels and models any longer. While Nokia has already delivered N900, device which allows you to communicate totally standardised and cross device protocols - things are staring to change. As well opposite to big players, I see macro vendors building up neat solutions for customers and users - where functionality is tailored in great details to support your world, your needs and your solutions. Bringing users to these macro clouds means that adaptation is also made in your macro world. Key to penetrate is that these macro worlds are built by commonly accepted and adopted protocols and allows them to link together without corporate built borders. It will be huge.

Nokia N9

2010-08-19T21:50:00.000-07:00

I saw pictures at Engadget of coming Nokia N9 (which supposedly is running Meego) and I was simply amazed. I think Nokia will score with this, since making things truly open ways is totally different, what's available from Apple and Android.

Compare N900 and Apple in technical ways and you realise that taking MP3's to your phone is a lot simpler with Nokia and almost impossible with Apple (iTunes..). Take an example of Jabber IM integration in N900 and Android, there is a _huge_ difference.

I can say that Nokia N900 is not so great in hardware and software, but methods they apply to use task flexibility and open integration is something which wins at long run. I don't want to obey iTunes in my every task, I want to use Linux and variety of other systems where iTunes requirements is pain. I want to use open and secure protocols to communicate, I don't want to use proprietary and vendor locked channels to target my comm's into. I want to run my own Jabber server and attach to it.

I want system which is openly secure, I don't want compromised and intercept ready base for my mobile thoughts and business.

iPad [sold]

2010-08-18T08:14:00.000-07:00

Last week I acquired iPad 64GB/3G version from Dallas, while my trips took me there. But after a week, I was ready to sell it. Today next owner took off happy from here with my iPad.

Why's that you might ask?

For one simple reason; Apple's closed society. I couldn't understand why I have to use iTunes to use MY data, why iPad is not able to support _any_ standard transferring options and where is all my freedom on iOS platform?

That was a bit sick experience for me, I must say.

Others make me love Nokia

2010-08-02T01:14:00.000-07:00

August 2nd, holiday period is over and things start to look back normal again. I post this with my Nokia Booklet 3G and it's not because Nokia is so great, it's because community is so great. I realized that ubuntu team has gained support to poulsbo graphic adapter, which Nokia Booklet has. See this wikipage for more details and simple solution.

I think Booklet from Nokia is nice device, mainly because it's quality and size. Features are just in there, but they just ruined this whole concept with Windows and this (so far) terrifying graphics adapter which has not been officially supported by Linux. I don't know if things are permanently good and fixed, but partially I am happy now.

Think this Nokia. To make difference in users minds, include quite a bit your own thinking and follow what you believe. What would booklet community look like if you have released this hardware in spirit of N900 and Maemo (meego) instead?

Happy booklet user, without Nokias effort and without Nokias support.

Summer phones

2010-07-24T01:23:00.000-07:00

Holidays are going to end next week and summer 2010 has been really nice. Weather has kept us warm and daily temperatures has been near 30 deg here in Finland. Shortly stated, summer has been warm. As gadget guy, it has also been very adventurous summer. I've been switching my sim card from phone to phone, like Nexus one, Sony Ericsson X10 Mini and Mini PRO, Samsung B2700 (rugged one), Nokia E72 and finaly N900 from Nokia.

It's a mystery for me to decide which one to keep in continuous use. Every one of those has a features which keeps me going back. Few to mention;

Android; usability, responsive and clear user interface. Fast web browsing and nice outfit of nexus one.
Sony Ericsson X10 Mini PRO; form factor and keyboard (I do also have plain mini, which is small!)
E72: qwerty keyboard and basic functionality just works. A bit hacked refreshed components thought, like gallery and email. Symbian is outdated as platform, I see.
Samsung B2700; free from worries, how to handle my phone. Just great in that part.
N900; IM-integration, I just need my Jabber client (to company own XMMP server) among skype to handle few international contacts. Shame it's a bit clumsy and maemo got replaced with meego in future plans of Nokia.

If I had power to design my own GSM terminal, it would be combination of those great concepts which keeps me switching SIM from phone to phone. Ultimately I would love to have these on my phone;

Hardware optimised for size with qwerty keyboard
Open Linux based operating system, with non-US crypto parts, fast and clean UI.
System without version numbering, modular and upgradeable all along the way.
Multi account emailing with GPG support
Standard XMMP IM-client, with possibly Skype and other proprietary accounts supported as well.
Camera and video recording with good quality

Give me some resources and I come out with the phone.

Android developer

2010-06-26T04:16:00.000-07:00

Just installed Android SDK.

Painless operation and supported with Linux based Eclipse, just what I need. Even I never programmed anything with Java, installation was easy. Somehow I feel pity about Nokia. With their resources, they should approach mobile development like Google does. Bringing volume to developers, will bring customers to devices.

X10 Mini from Sony Ericsson

2010-06-18T08:22:00.000-07:00

I run one project where we wanted to implement telematic client on mobile phone and as Finnish engineer, I was years biased to Nokia. N900 was nice and I thought that I could implement something with it, but maturity of SDK and platform kept me constantly on ground.

Then I found out nice program for Android (GPL'ed), which does just what I need. Running it on Nexus one proved a case. After that, I became aware Sony ericsson X10 Mini. This combination rocks quite a bit. No wonder Nokia is lost.

Nokia Email service

2010-05-09T08:28:00.001-07:00

I lost my capability to send email with N97 Mini. I do have two accounts and they use same smtp server (smtpa.kolumbus.fi) with my primary user account (from kolumbus). One is sending email nicely, but another one is giving quite frustrating error when I try to send email. Strange.

This triggered my "one time" usage experiments with Nokia's email system, one which is integrated to N97 Mini and promises to bring my emails immediately to phone. It was not so nice looking application, but what I found really problematic was the fact that all my emails are going through that Nokia server. This privacy invading solution is very problematic for me. I barely trust my operator, but generating some extra services between me and my operator imap server is total nonsense.

So, if possible - stick to native email application without that extra feature, if it works for you. Mine is not working anymore. So, I placed sim once again to another phone from N97 mini. And turned my all IM and emailing to trustworthy Linux laptop (actually I run three of these at the moment) and I am happy with GPG secured emailing.

Follow the leader Nokia.

Nokia booklet 3G - Ubuntu thoughts

2010-05-01T03:42:00.000-07:00

Next week task is to try out Nokia booklet 3G with latest Ubuntu.

I just loved hardware of booklet, but totally misaligned display adapter (GMA500) is pain for Linux community. And seriously speaking, why would Nokia support more actively booklet for Linux users? Currently Linux offers quite attractive choice for business users, fast web browsing experience and state of the art email clients along OpenOffice is all we need to run our company.

This remind me last week news, where Kallasvuo seems to be end of line at Nokia. Compare this to Steve J's straight statements against Adobe. Strong vision should carry you long way and pleasing everybody might be possible in Finnish family life, but in business you have to choose your sides. After playing for decades in this business segment, I would say that Nokia should choose following; Linux, Meego and hardware. Drop rest.

Ubuntu 10.04 on Thinkpad Edge

2010-05-01T03:17:00.000-07:00

Last week was excellent show. New ubuntu, almost new laptop and new SSD disk. I must admit that if I ever would like to pay operating system or support, I would do it for Ubuntu team. My professional computing needs are more than fulfilled with this excellent combination.

Now I am booting faster than ever, enjoying encrypted hard drive and very polished outlook of whole system, to put it simple; I am impressed. Good work guys.

Nokia N8 - what's missing

2010-04-26T07:59:00.000-07:00

Dear Nokia,

As you choosed to use 'leak method' to ask from audience, I shall answer you. N8 is missing following things; hardware keyboard, Jabber IM support, GPG capable email client and finaly; meego.

Ubuntu on SSD

2010-04-24T06:47:00.001-07:00

Great, my SSD installation went flawlessly and now I am running fresh ubuntu on my Thinkpad EDGE. On 64 GB Kingston V+ SSD drive I have now system like it was in my old hard drive. I just love Linux.

How about speed? Yes. It's noticeably faster to boot and open programs. But what matters for me is the fact that now I do have more robust drive in this laptop and carrying thing around or driving in a car with it won't be a problem. I also tried out 10.04 beta version of ubuntu on that another computer and _that was fast_ to boot. I hardly can wait next Thursday when release is out.

What about you Windows user? What did you accomplished today ?

Phones :: part IV

2010-04-24T03:25:00.001-07:00

While my ubuntu is still downloading, I took family picture of my equipments. Bellow few fast thoughts;

E71 is warrior, nothing more than great phone. Suffers a bit from Symbian syndrome, but does a great job with voice and sms communication. I wish I could have jabber integration in this as in N900.

3720C is basic without worries to break it down. I just love S40 interface, making it fast and furious to use. But again, lacking with decent capabilities to communicate in other that operators network. This is backup phone for me, in case I get kernel panic with my N900.

N900 is currently my main phone, I wish Nokia would understand and release full potential of meego (maemo). Now I can handle everything with this phone, from GPG to SSH and communication from voice, sms to jabber and skype (which I do not like).

Last is N97 mini, as I posted earlier - it should act as wakeup call to Nokia. Do not play with symbian anymore, try to make it anything more than it's capable.

So, my SIM flies between these phones quite often, depending what I need to explore.

SSD is here

2010-04-24T02:53:00.000-07:00

SSD is here. Just spent some money for Kingston SSDnow V+ series drive and Intel X25-V. Plans include to put them in real work today.

Playing with Linux is nice, because I just can download latest version, tar my home directory and I am ready to switch. There is no hassle with various other softwares, everything is included. Few apt-get install commands and I am back on track (hopefully) with my SSD installation. I plan to install kingston to my Thinkpad EDGE and intel to one customer project running Linux as well. And yes, I also got new USB hard drive, Lacie rikiki - which I use to transfer all data from place to place. Thing I did for Lacie was luks format and ext3, so no windows dummies are able to explore my data in case I lost my drive.

N97 mini disaster

2010-04-23T22:29:00.000-07:00

I've been playing with new N97 mini and other symbian devices as we acquired mini for some evaluation purposes this week. I tried to adjust my functions to end user mode and checked out various N97 mini issues along a way.

Few things crossed my mind:

N97 mini is nice hardware, quality built.
Keyboard is missing accent charters (ä and ö) which are needed way too often in Finnish language. This is real pain.
S60 with tweaked touch support is disaster. It's lacking and is totally missing user experience.
Comes with music is nice, but DRM is killing this. No future as big audience finds out this DRM non sense. I rather use download.netanttila.com for DRM free MP3's.

And where N900 beats N97 mini and other symbian devices; integrated and third party IM-client support. Our functions are heavily based to open IM solutions and XMMP plays major role in there. No wonder Nokia is in difficult position, they need operators (especially in US) and while playing with them, they lose in technology.

I see symbian to fit low end keyboard devices, but please Nokia. Face it, Symbian is dead in high level devices and no matter what Kallasvuo is saying, drop it. I recall times when epoc/symbian was something and it was back in 1995 in my Psion.

Virtual Zippo Lighter [NOKIA]

2010-04-19T05:37:00.001-07:00

I received SMS from Nokia, my business partner to my business phone (freely translated);

"Virtual Zippo Lighter application you can make your device touchscreen act like Zippo lighter..."

Great Nokia!

Just what I needed from you, Zippo lighter. Give me SDK capable to penetrate to business applications, give me GPG compatible email clients (S60, Maemo) - give me Jabber client to my E71. Almost anything else than Zippo lighter is needed. Guys at keilaniemi (in nokia hq), take elevator downstairs and find a mirror.

Impressions of Lenovo EDGE

2010-04-15T09:01:00.000-07:00

After two nights, I am still happy owner of Lenovo EDGE laptop. Even I do not have firmware files for Gobi modem, I believe I fetch them somewhere later on.

Ubuntu 9.10 alternative brings me all benefits being mobile worker, when needed. I can sync my desktop and laptop contents, handle secure emailing and enjoy fully encrypted hard drive, making my business safe and sound. I do not have to worry buying virus protection (79 € / year), microsoft office (236 € / year) or other windows magic, I just keep pushing my limits with secure, scalable and easy to use Linux.

What makes be happy with Lenovo Edge is big screen and decent keyboard. What I do not like is touch bad, which is kind of troubled place all the time. Front edge is too sensitive and using touch pad buttons leads often to mouse movement as well.

Lenovo Thinkpad Edge - I never saw windows 7

2010-04-14T08:05:00.000-07:00

My trustworthy Panasonic CF-w7 got tired. Toughbook was not tought enough and fan tired first and our rescue attempt failed miserably. So, I took a fast decision to fulfil my business computing needs with Lenovo Thinkpad Edge (13.3").

I bought it from verkkokauppa.com for 887 €. I just walked in and google searched some Linux support and while it was clear that Intel model was ok with Ubuntu, I took a decision to move forward. And now follows the nicest part.

After getting back to office, I gave windows 7 a change and looked sticker on machine. After that USB stick in and ubuntu 9.10 alternative got installed in this. Copied few tar files containing my personal data and email home directory and I was ready to fly. Everything works out of the box nicely, except Gobi modem. Firmware files blew with a windows and I need to hunt them down somewhere. I bet qualcom cannot help me there. No problem, help from corporate side has never been useful.

So for my Linux fellows; this is nice, cheap and solid computer. Supporting nicely Linux. Just remember to stay far away of AMD version of this same model. Black and Intel is working.

Android wishes

2010-03-21T04:07:00.001-07:00

After travelling quite a bit, I found out following things which would make my android experiences perfect;

Integrate Jabber client (speech and IM) to android
Offer flash support for browser
Hardware keyboard please

My N900 is offering these and I just like them, for example last week in London, I sat by Thames in London eye and spoke with Jabber voip calls to Finland with free wlan connection. Follow me.

If nexus one would offer these, it would be such a wonderful device. Keyboard is one requirement for serious emailing and IM messaging.

Android developments

2010-03-06T08:30:00.000-08:00

I have never done any Java, but Linux is familiar. Despite of that, I just completed my first two android applications - based on android.com documentation and sample codes. One was helloworld and another was displaying map for me. Amazing. On the side I downloaded two sample applications for SMS handling to explore them further in near future.

This is the thing I was explaining to Qil at maemo.org talk. Give tools, give documentation and peoples bring software. No matter how pure is your concept, if you hide - no one can find.

I really hope that meego changes problems of Maemo, since if that does not happen - things are better built on Android.

Nexus is here

2010-03-05T22:02:00.000-08:00

I bought yesterday my Nexus One from verkkokauppa.com. Local store has them on stock and they are US version, based on charger they have. I switched immediately sim from N900 to Nexus to check it out. What strikes me is lightness of that phone after N900, which is kind of brick.

First feelings are mixed, I still do not like touch screen only phones. Keyboards are so much better for serious typing and messaging. Other thing is that I just cannot like without N900's IM-support (jabber at first, skype in second). If there is truly working, open and integrated solution for Android, things get hard.

Reason for Nexus for me is some development things which I need to explore. I did some initial things with N900 and maemo, but it turned out so frustrating to hunt down information of certain functions on maemo.org. Let's see if Android is any better, if not - I start to solder my own phone.

Android vs Meego

2010-02-28T01:58:00.001-08:00

After struggling with Maemo development efforts for few months, I decided to give a try to Android. I am sick and tired with Maemo's (meego) coin toss applications and other similar and totally useless ones.

I tried to approach Maemo team in maemo talks forum, asking good questions how real life applications can utilize various N900 communication and other features. But very thin answers received, if none. Instead I found immediate answers to my dev questions on Android documentation and mailing lists. All this makes me really wonder, is Nokia _so lost_ with this.

Let you know how my android adventure turns out.

N900 experiences

2010-01-30T20:30:00.000-08:00

After I last year acquired my Nokia N900, I've found out that I do quite a lot things with it. It's still standalone device, I do not sync my calendar anywhere - but it keeps well track of my IMAP mail boxes and web is always there. I did one major upgrade to system by flashing, things went smoothly and user data was intact.

Overall I have to say that Nokia has built remarkable device as it now. However, I am still complaining about missing API's to achieve even more with my own program. I was able to do programs with maemo sdk, they read GPS, cell-id and other things - but communication is totally blocked. How do I send SMS out from that thing, how do I parse incoming messages? Currently Nokia is unable to support this and it's strange. Android has very decent documentations of API's to access these services.

Dear Nokia: I am totally tired of 'coin toss' applications. Let me do something useful.

Elisa viihdekaista

2010-01-26T07:10:00.000-08:00

Finnish operator Elisa has been running around me (and probably other Finnish customers also) to gain upgrade for my adsl connection. They deliver now 8M connection for me 42€/month and would like to offer 39€/month "elisa viihde" (elisa entrainment) package. They deliver tv-channels over IP and offer also rental video service along the way for this new package.

I am almost willing to switch, but I am fully fed up with brainless phone sales guys and lack of decent information how they were implementing that service. My Linux users back at home are not happy if such a wonderful thing is only working on windows based systems. Answer from sales rep was that 'there are instructions with the package'. Well, that's just not enough for me.

Answer these questions Elisa and you get my money;

How you stream channels for me over IP. VLC compatible or something else?
Is there DRM on rental videos (probably unusable on Linux if so)?
What's the difference from excellent tvkaista.fi service (which I already paid for)..

Navigate me Nokia

2010-01-23T09:12:00.001-08:00

After getting back from London and Amsterdam, I must say that day in London was very nice. I took business meetings with my ubuntu equipped Nokia Booklet and could really enjoy lightness and awesome battery life. My details were in safe by fully encrypted hard drive and carrying plain booklet around was pleasure. No need to pay extra for hard drive encryption, no need to worry about f-secure taking my resources up etc.

I just compare this to what I noticed from business traveller sitting next to me on flight form Helsinki. He had also N900 and booklet and became very interested how I use my booklet with ubuntu. He complained at start about windows 7 starter edition, office and f-secure. Totally impossible combination. I said that I do all those things with booklet also and enjoy fully encrypted hard drive to protect my business. Except that I run ubuntu 9.10 on it.

But actually this suits me well, I really enjoy that (possible) competitors are using windows when ever they can and play their future against it. Just go for it.

On the move with booklet

2010-01-17T00:45:00.000-08:00

On my way to London, I realised that I carry two laptops with me. One is Panasonic CF-W7, my primary company laptop including virtualized developing environments and now this Nokia booklet is also on board. As I sit here on airport and update my blog with Nokia, it seems to be perfect tool for the job. Synchronising digital life across different computers might be thing of the future. I really liked how weave worked on my N900 and this booklet. My browsing is in sync, next for the email.

Next stop London.

N900 and booklet

2010-01-16T02:50:00.000-08:00

Spending Saturday in library and testing mobile broadband in Elisa network with my Nokia booklet and N900. Both working fine after I switched booklet operating system to ubuntu 9.10. Utilising N900 with IM messaging and jabber calls I have dropped my phone bill around 100 €. That is money which is justifying my life on early adopter edge. While I am blogging with this booklet, I still miss GPS and accelerometer functionality of this little device.

I've been thinking, could there be after marketing business to deliver these computers with fully working Linux instead of that bloated Windows ? If there is - just give a call.

Nokia booklet 3G - marketing organization only?

2010-01-15T05:58:00.000-08:00

While running some backups, I got couple of hours to spend with this Nokia booklet 3G device. I discarded idea of utilising it just week ago. Back then I found out that Intel chipset is poorly supported in Linux (ubuntu 9.10), but regardless of that I found a way to make it work. And guess what, with a help from community.

So those guys who got our money for this device (@nokia) were unable to deliver Linux solution for this hardware. Community was faster and better equipped. I really hope that Linux will be supported in future. I just cannot understand why I should run windows 7 starter edition on this machine, when I can reach to future with Linux. Who is to tell me that I just need 4 programs running simultaneously (like in windows 7) or other non sense related to microsoft technologies.

Now I am enjoying this piece of hardware with full blown Linux distribution and everything just works. Well, almost. GPS is something special and I cannot find it right now.

All this got me how ever to think about Nokia and their role with this device. They get a operating system from microsoft and hardware from taiwan manufacturer (?) and only brand is from Nokia. Are they doomed?

Nokia booklet 3G

2010-01-09T21:24:00.000-08:00

Firm has a project, where small and handy hardware could be used to fill need of various customers. I acquired Nokia booklet, since it has 3G and GPS, both important features.

But since customer is not accepting windows based systems, our task is now to implement secure Linux installation for this little beast. I did initial try with standard ubuntu 9.10 distro, but intel poulsbo chipset is painful currently. I wonder why this is so hard for Nokia, to provide actually working linux support for these wonderful devices.

My guess is that Nokia landed booklet 3G with _starter_ windows 7 because they are promoting something Linux based in this field later on this year. We'll see.

Maemo is here

2009-12-06T21:43:00.000-08:00

Almost two weeks ago, I got my hands on this new internet tablet from Nokia. Nokia N900 is the first maemo device, which also holds mobile broadband connections inside. I have also previous models, N770, N800 and N810 and therefore I was quite hungry to evaluate this.

I have to say that I am impressed, not only functionality of this device - but also Nokia's courage to bring this for the masses.

Ubuntu Sunday

2009-11-01T02:57:00.000-08:00

After Ubuntu 9.10 arrived, I equipped my primary laptop (Panasonic CF-W7) with it and enjoyed a lot of upgraded system. After that I took directions to upgrade my eee pc, which is now fantastic little device. I am sitting now in coffee and writing this blog post with eee pc's integrated 3G connection. I even managed to get screenshot for you to review.

I wonder why peoples are still looking to microsoft products. Freely available solutions can now a days achieve so much more and with a ease, what others seems to lack. Even my long time windows friends are now a days excited to install ubuntu every computer they face. I call that revolution.

Phone adventures

2009-10-26T09:45:00.000-07:00

I have played a lot with this Nokia 5530, with touch screen and music. It's a nice phone, but still - something missing. Mainly keyboard and logic of S60 with touch is something totally awful. No wonder why Nokia is dumbing Symbian in favor to Maemo.

After a 5530, I played a bit with my HTC Hero, but it's something too fragile and a bit too unusable for me. I wonder why touch screen keyboard is not so bad as in 5530, but it must be the size of screen or something. From HTC Hero I returned to Samsung B2700, which is nice phone - but lacks a bit usability compared to Nokia S40 series.

But somehow I needed a bit robustness, usability and set of features and ended up to Nokia 3720 today. It's really nice looking unit, making it easy to use and fast. Somehow after S60, this feels just right. It has no 3G or fancy wanna be features from S60. Just plain phone. Mostly I like touch of text messaging in this, it's fast and easy. Almost as good as my E71.

Major day

2009-09-06T21:31:00.000-07:00

Today, I did one of the biggest decision in my life.

After having thoughtful discussion with my daughter, I understood that we all have problems and worries. Mine are related to technologies, family and future in these times and she has her own in school world. I think we become out fine and therefore I did my decisions today. What was that 'big thing'...?

I announced today to Nokia that I withdraw from senior specialist position, which we signed on July. It's something I've been thinking a whole summer, all my vacation and every spare moments in my life. And question is, why's that ? Reason is simple, I got offered possibility to do full time in my own company, which is good (again, in these times). Of course, it's something that might be harder, but somehow I believe what I know and that's base for all.

Big thanks to loving family, going to be there now.

Nokia N900 - answer is arrived

2009-08-27T21:33:00.001-07:00

Wait is over. Thing which I've been talking endlessly is announced now. Nokia is offering Linux based phone for all of us.

I see this as big thing, since 770 tablet, N800 and N810 was showing a way for me and I knew that great thing would be combined GSM/3G communication for the platform.

I hardly cannot wait to get my hands on this. I really enjoy to get some coding done for this one, I just have to hope that Nokia is offering full access to every part of phone. I have big plans for m2m communication and other interesting uses.

HTC Hero

2009-08-12T05:18:00.000-07:00

Before my holiday in Spain, I managed to get HTC Hero for evaluation. And I must say that it's really something after crappy symbian phones (mainly E71). Customized user interface with capacitive touch screen is ease to use and modify, sms threading is joy to use and other features are very attractive, compared to any symbian device.

No wonder Nokia is afraid at the moment. They leaked N900 to promote their Maemo phone line, which is starting very slowly and uncertain steps. What we need, is strong indication that Nokia will drop Symbian and focus to Maemo and Linux communities.

After buying my Samsung B2700 I said that I will never ever acquire Symbian phone and it is still valid statement. I've been using now Samsung B2700 and HTC Hero and yes, they are both very capable. Basic ruggerized phone and Linux based flag ship.

Samsung B5702

2009-08-04T21:16:00.001-07:00

I must say that something hit me. I acquired second Samsung phone in a week. I was searching phone with multi sim capability and came across the fact that in Finland there were no such thing. Which I think is unforgiving!

While visiting colleagues in Estonia, I was able to spot this wonderful phone from Samsung. Samsung B5702. It hosts two sim cards simultaneously and both of them are registered to network constantly. So, when ever some one tries to reach you from another operator, it succeeds.

Only thing, which is preventing to utilising this fully is lack of Finnish set of language in phone. I can accept that user interface is in English, but when there is no T9 dictionary and our alphabets (ä,ö) available in text messages, I think it's tough. Let's see if I can reach some one in Samsung to answer me for this.

From Nokia W71 to Samsung B2700

2009-08-01T09:07:00.000-07:00

Got tired of my Nokia E71, because it was slow and symbian is so yesterday. While waiting Nokia Linux phones and tablets, I took liberty to change phone to Samsung B2700. It's a bit robust one and should support essentials things for me.

I have made my personal communication strategy and Samsung will be part of that. More of that in coming days. I have big things in my mind.

Battery life in EeePC 901 GO

2009-07-24T22:41:00.000-07:00

Yesterday I had possibility to test how long my freshly installed EeePC 901 would keep rocking and results were nice. I turned computer + 3G connection on and left it still. While lid was closed most of the time, it kept running from 17.00 - 20.40 and it showed still some juice in battery meter of ubuntu. So, I am quite pleased for that! Hopefully I can gain some more real life results in future, with actual usage of it while testing. Because I think display would take major part of consumption.

Nice combo, eee901 Go + ubuntu

2009-07-22T07:40:00.000-07:00

Installation to my eeepc 901 GO went smoothly. Now I am running ubuntu 9.04 on GO and it works like a charm. Even compiz and 3D magic works. It's actually quite nice PC for traveling, because integrated 3G modem gives network where ever you are.

I've been watching this now for a while and I have to admit that it's little bit too small for primary computer, but it's certainly something more convenient to take with you for a trip. And most important thing: it's free from windows..

Ubuntu to Eeepc 901 GO

2009-07-20T02:24:00.001-07:00

Q: What is most important feature of Windows ?
A: Ability to replace it with Linux.

I am currently installing Linux (ubuntu 9.04 alternate) to this hardware. I need to explore it's abilities in mobile environment for one project. And yes, it always feels good to over write that copy of Windows :)

weak signals

2009-07-16T04:21:00.001-07:00

From yesterday 'employment figures' - I continue today to give you another weak signal. You all know this nice web site, where British guys keep up with the Nokia phones: http://allaboutsymbian.com/

Now they registered domain: allaboutmaemo.com

When will it strike us? I personally have been waiting and waiting that Linux strategy from Nokia. Please let it arrive before I turn my head to android.

Hot words

2009-07-15T03:53:00.001-07:00

Every now and then I take peek to employment situation, making few queries to Finnish employment and economy office information system for open positions. Today I gained following results:

Query word / positions open:
Symbian: 26 positions
Microsoft: 41 positions
Linux: 56 positions

What does it tell you?

Graphed future

2009-07-08T23:09:00.001-07:00

I spotted this nice graphics from Chris Heathcote website and it surely describes well what I've been trying to tell my friends. Personal implication of this graph is the fact that our family quit subscribing new paper a year ago and my personal television watching time has decreased quite a bit. If I ever catch a show, it happens through tvkaista.com service.

One thing which I could argue regarding this graph, is social increase part. I just don't know are we ready to be that social..

Firmware update of E71

2009-06-13T23:22:00.001-07:00

On last Friday, I took time and checked with one Windows machine in our office, is there a new firmware version to my crappy E71. And indeed there was. I've been wondering my E71 sluggish usage and corruptive menu graphics, which tells me that there is some serious memory leaking issues in operating system. No reboots could heal that, they tend to come up again and again.

I did firmware update to 210.x and now it remains to see, if it was worth it? Strange thing is that I cannot check version of my phone *#0000# because phone won't display anything.

All this tells you something about the frustration which I am facing with these Nokia symbian smartphones. At the beginning phone was working nicely and fast, but somehow after loaded with two email accounts and some sms messages, everything changes. It's really unacceptable.

iPhone vs Nokia

2009-06-08T21:07:00.000-07:00

I am Finnish engineer, I should be pressing towards Nokia innovations. But why am I watching iPhone now? I just quickly previewed WWDC 2009 keynote of iPhone and I must say, why Nokia cannot innovate like this?

There is huge difference between features in Nokia 'smartphones' and iPhone and I cannot see why. Nokia should be able to push more but they don't. Only thing I am still waiting for from Nokia is new Maemo tablet with 3G connection. Symbian is so yesterday.

xubuntu 9.04 on Aspire One

2009-05-28T00:17:00.001-07:00

Installation is complete. Now my Acer Aspire One has xubuntu 9.04 running. I installed it from alternate (i386) cd and enabled encrypted lvm. I thought that it could affect performance, but so far I have not noticed such thing.

I jumped around xfce configurations and found out suitable theming and fonts for system. Now everything fits nicely in this small screen. I also updated Firefox theme to foxdie.

So, ubuntu netbook remix was ok, but somehow power computing needs traditional window management.

xubuntu testing

2009-05-27T21:08:00.000-07:00

Back from Washington. To compile more omap3 stuff. I also decided to give a try xubuntu in my Acer Aspire One. Will follow up shortly how it's working.

Back to ubuntu

2009-05-05T20:18:00.000-07:00

Amazing how fast I returned to gnome from kde 4.2. After experiencing few segfaults in plasma and meeting some garbage in my editor, I was ready to back off. It took additional half an hour to install ubuntu 9.04 and sync my home directory in place and now I am again in familiar gnome.

It's funny, because in days of kde 3.5.2 - I said to everyone that gnome is not for me. Now I am totally opposite with my opinion.

Kubuntu 9.04

2009-05-03T19:52:00.001-07:00

Monday morning, before 6 AM - I decided that it would be perfect moment to try out kubuntu 9.04 and KDE 4.2. My loyal and long served ubuntu installation has been in use almost year now and it's time to move on. Last time I did this move, I came back to ubuntu world in few weeks. Mainly because KDE 4.x was buggy for me.

My update strategy is simple. I bought another harddrive on Saturday and removed completely old drive containing ubuntu installation. So in case 'oh, I forgot that...' I can always run back to ubuntu. I think it's worth that 50€ what hard drive costs.

Installation is ready! I let you know.

N810 vs Acer Aspire One

2009-05-01T02:10:00.000-07:00

Day before I bought this Acer Aspire One netbook, I witnessed my Nokia N810 internet tablet touch screen failure. I read from tableteer website, that it's quite common problem with N810. Now I am thinking, will I get it never repaired?

My eyes were opening with this Acer, since price and features are worth mentioning. Most things which I missed mostly in my N810, are now possible:

Standard processor platform (it's just too much to have SDK environment to do cross compiling for some fast code tryout)
Application pool with decent amount of software. N810 and ubuntu repositories are just not compareable.
Possibility to use Thunderbird with enigmail plugin (gpg emails are requirement for my business)
Keyboard. N810 has it, but doing some emailing requires just a bit more.

Last thing which should act as eye opener for Nokia is the price. How they dare to ask 500-900 € of 'smart phone', which is not smart enough to deliver encrypted email possibility and to break free from operators cage. Think about it.

Television of Today

2009-04-27T09:05:00.000-07:00

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

2009-04-25T10:38:00.000-07:00

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

2009-04-25T10:01:00.000-07:00

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

2009-04-25T03:40:00.000-07:00

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

2009-04-23T05:36:00.000-07:00

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

2009-04-23T05:16:00.000-07:00

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

2009-04-21T07:01:00.000-07:00

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

Services; Nokia vs Google

2009-04-16T10:10:00.000-07:00

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

2009-04-11T23:20:00.000-07:00

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

2009-04-07T06:58:00.000-07:00

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!

Departing from Sarajevo, 14th of March 2009

2009-03-31T08:52:00.001-07:00

Nice video, shot from a plane departing Sarajevo. Whole place was amazing experience, I have to say.

Your life

2009-03-26T22:12:00.000-07:00

Been quite silent lately, due the fact that I've gone trough some very intensive issues. But as it's spring time soon again, I think we'll make it. I've been privileged to have my changes to meet wonderful peoples, all around globe and seeing such things that I could have just imagined a while ago.

I've also created youtube account, since my plans include to publish some videos time to time, since without sharing - experiences vanish. It's true in so many ways.

3G connection in ubuntu 8.10

2008-12-20T21:04:00.000-08:00

I have never seen such a smooth configuration of 3G connection like in my ubuntu 8.10 based Panasonic CF-W7 laptop. After one upgrade weeks ago, ubuntu has notified me every time I log on, that there is a device available for 3G connection.

Few days ago when I got my fixed priced sim card back, I decided to press that 'configure' button. It was simply amazing, dialogs offered me Finland and all operators available. I chose my own (Elisa) and it was done.

Now I have really working 3G connection with "Bus 001 Device 004: ID 1410:2420 Novatel Wireless" modem. Ok, it has never before been difficult to make ppp dialup, but this new approach was really easy :)

I have billions of money and...

2008-12-19T01:59:00.000-08:00

Nokia put out ovi service with good amount of hype and I tried to register. But as you can see: 'ovi has a problem'...

It's really strange, resources like Nokia and you cannot still make it work. Shame Nokia.