Henry Hagnäs

 

Spending time behind bars: Kakola Prison

On friday we had the company summer-party. Every summer-party starts with and excursion to some interesting places and is kept secret from most of the participants. This years instructions suggested that we bring good shoes, warm clothes and (electrical) torches. Since I had already planned to visit the now closed Kakola Prison I knew this was the suggested equipment-list there, the timetable didn't allow for any longer travel either to places that might need warm clothes or torches in the middle of summer.

Kakola prison was closed down some years ago and hasn't been in use since, according to the guide its the only prison in the world that is not a museum but you can visit. Its a pretty popular tour and costs more than most tours so plan ahead, you can find more information here: http://www.turku.fi/Public/default.aspx?contentid=81657&nodeid=8726

The popular style of prison design you see in many movies is called the Philadelphia design:

It allows the guards to have a good overview of what is happening and if you have rules about being silent its easy and fast to notice trouble. Kakola also has some older cells of a more finnish design:


These were more as sleeping quarters for prisoners that spent their days laboring, according to the guide they were especially popular among older inmates because they were quieter.

The prison courtyard might look drab to us but the newer prison, 15km outside of Turku, is just a concrete jungle and much smaller so this is a slice of heaven compared to more modern prisons:

Even in prison you can't deny finnish people the right to sauna:

Some more pictures from Kakola below, I took almost 300 pictures on the trip which is a personal record for a two hour period.

 

The tour was extremely interesting and the guide very knowledgeable without being annoying about too much details, highly recommend you take the Kakola-tour if possible! The tours are only done during the summer but the prison is also a popular place to film movies so, for instance, this summer it'll be closed for two weeks while at least three movies are filmed there. 


On my way home from the more social part of the summer-party I stopped to take a few long-exposure pictures too, some even came out nice:

Filed under  //   pictures  
Posted June 13, 2010
// 0 Comments
 

HP Mini 210, first impressions

     
Click here to download:
HP_Mini_210_first_impressions_.zip (6866 KB)

I bought my first iBook G3 because I wanted a laptop but the PC-based alternatives of the time were either extremely ugly and bad or very expensive. I stayed with Macs for years because the trend with desktop-replacements on the PC-side was not what I was looking for. Laptops are supposed to be carried around, used everywhere and they shouldn't cost a fortune because they are, in the end, quite fragile and disposable. Now there is finally a class of computers that fit my kind of use, the netbooks.

Yes, I am quite aware that they aren't new things anymore, netbooks were after all introduced in late 2007 (according to Wikipedia) but for a number of reasons it took a while before I purchased my own.

I ended up buying a HP Mini 210, its a 1.22kg laptop with a 10" 1024x600 screen, 1GB of RAM and a hyper-threaded 1.66GHz N450 Atom processor from Intel. At a little over 300 euros that's quite a nice bit of kit for a small price and quite average both in specs and prices of current netbooks.

The computer comes in a simple and small box with little more than the computer, the charger and manuals in several languages. The computer has protective plastic taped over the shinier parts and you have to attach the battery yourself but, while not as elegant as "unboxing" a new Mac, there's really not much you can complain about.

Any complaints should go to the way the OS-installation is handled on new Windows PC:s, the OS is installed when you first turn on the machine which means that you spend the first hour with your new machine watching progress bars. An annoying ritual for anyone who has had the pleasure to start a new Mac - by the time Windows is installed a Mac-user has already migrated all of his or her files and started working.

I went through with the install, not because I wanted to use Windows, but because I wanted to see that the hardware worked and get a feel for how new Windows-computers are these days. The massive amounts of trialware are apparently gone, only Norton and a few other bits and pieces remains but the experience is less than stellar nonetheless. The next day I installed Ubuntu 10.04 Netbook remix - I'll go in to more details about that in a separate post.

The hardware itself is nice, the build quality feels better than many more expensive (larger) laptops but obviously its not competing with 1000+ euro MacBook's. I like the finish of the covers, it's not the glossy fingerprint-magnet that many PC's are nowadays, instead it has a slightly brushed look and feel. Obviously its small and light but still manages to have more USB-ports (3) than many of the MacBooks. The screen is bright and sharp enough to read very well but is glossy which I don't particularly like but its no worse than other glossy screens I guess. The keyboard I particularly like, its very much like any Mac-keyboard with spaces between the flat keys, big and similar enough that I could immediately start to touch-type with decent speed and accuracy. Unfortunately the trackpad is not as good, its small (which is understandable) but has buttons built into the trackpad which makes it somewhat inaccurate, especially if you want to click-hold and scroll. Will take some getting used to and I suspect I might be looking for a way to disable it while typing longer texts.

What else? The battery-life seems decent, its hard to find clear information on how long the battery is supposed to keep up to begin with and using Linux with its less optimized energy-saving will probably drain it faster than in Windows. That said, this morning, while I downloaded and tested out, installed, configured and played around with Linux I had it on for over four hours and had 20% battery left before going into town to eat. If less strenuous use gave me 5-6 hours of productive time I'd be happy - there are Netbooks with bigger and better batteries out there if that's your thing.

All in all I'm quite happy with my purchase at the moment, I will be using it much like a toy to re-discover and play with Linux after a long hiatus from using Linux on the desktop (or in the lap in this case) and as a secondary computer - I'm still keeping my 24" iMac so I'm not abandoning Steve and his funky bunch totally but looking forward to some fresh perspective! I'll write more about Ubuntu Netbook Remix soon.

Filed under  //   computer   hardware   linux   review  
Posted June 5, 2010
// 0 Comments
 

William Gibson about his next book, Zero History

Zero History, my ninth novel, will be published this September, rounding out that third set of three books. It’s set in London and Paris, last year, in the wake of global financial collapse.

I wish that I could tell you what it’s about, but I haven’t yet discovered my best likely story, about that. That will come with reviews, audience and bookseller feedback (and booksellers are especially helpful, in that way). Along with however many interviews, these things will serve as a sort of oracle, suggesting to me what it is I’ve been doing for the past couple of years.

If Pattern Recognition was about the immediate psychic aftermath of 9-11, and Spook Country about the deep end of the Bush administration and the invasion of Iraq, I could say that Zero History is about the global financial crisis as some sort of nodal event, but that must be true of any 2010 novel with ambitions on the 2010 zeitgeist. But all three of these novels are also about that dawning recognition that the future, be it capital-T Tomorrow or just tomorrow, Friday, just means more stuff, however peculiar and unexpected. A new quotidian. Somebody’s future, somebody else’s past.

Simply in terms of ingredients, it’s about recent trends in the evolution of the psychology of luxury goods, crooked former Special Forces officers, corrupt military contractors, the wonderfully bizarre symbiotic relationship between designers of high-end snowboarding gear and manufacturers of military clothing, and the increasingly virtual nature of the global market.

via blog.williamgibsonbooks.com

Aaaaaaa! Struggling to describe my joy and anticipation with no sexual or religious references, this is awesome news! Can't wait for September to roll around! Screw summer, I want autumn!

Filed under  //   books  
Posted June 3, 2010
// 0 Comments
 

The Award-winning Walking to (and from) Work series

I'm currently on my third week of doing productive things for others, also known as working. I won't be talking very much about what I do at work since that would involve figuring what I can and can't say about it and that would require thinking and that's a lot of work. That said, I am having fun and doing interesting and demanding things.

On my quiet 20-25 minute walk into work each morning I listen to podcasts and carry a camera so I'll be collecting a, hopefully, award-winning picture series called "Walking to (and from) Work". Here are my first works of art: 

The problem with my P&S camera (Fujifilm F200EXR) is that it takes quite good pictures, especially outdoors in the summer, so I haven't been able to talk myself into buying a new camera yet. Also waiting for reviews of Sony's new NEX-5 which seems like a camera I might like.

As always, pictures are first uploaded to my Flickr-page: http://www.flickr.com/photos/hagge/ so follow that if you have an insatiable need for pictures I take (or the better alternative might be to get somekind of professional help..?)

Filed under  //   pictures   turku  
Posted June 1, 2010
// 0 Comments
 

Kokkola, Early Summer 2010

I spent an long weekend in Kokkola to recharge before I started at my "summer job". Using quotes since what I do feels more serious than a regular summer job but is over the summer and a bit into the autumn.

Here are some pictures from the latest trip to Kokkola. As usual, click through to Flickr for more details, geotags etc.

Met with friends, relatives and enjoyed some record-breaking heats (the Kokkola-region was the hottest place in Finland during the weekend). In short, had an excellent time!

Summer had broken out in Turku too and after a little rain it seems like the chlorophyll is just exploding out of the ground over here, and if you needed more proof that the summer is finally here I will leave you with this picture taken yesterday:

Filed under  //   kokkola   pictures  
Posted May 18, 2010
// 0 Comments
 

Films on Science - Finland’s 100,000-Year Plan to Banish Its Nuclear Waste - NYTimes.com

On a wooded island more than a hundred miles northwest of Helsinki, in the town of Eurajoki, Finnish engineers are digging a tunnel. When it is done 10 years from now, it will corkscrew three miles in and 1,600 feet down into crystalline gneiss bedrock that has been the foundation of Finland for 1.8 billion years.

And there, in a darkness that is still being created, the used fuel rods from Finland’s nuclear reactors — full of radioactive elements from the periodic table as dreamed up by Lord Voldemort, spitting neutrons and gamma rays — are to be sealed away forever, or at least 100,000 years.

via nytimes.com

This sounds like a very interesting documentary! Reminds me that even with all the annoying things that finnish politics and policy-making can do, it is capable of making rational and pragmatic decisions that no other nation has been capable of yet. Like doing nuclear power the way it should be.

Filed under  //   article   link   movie  
Posted May 12, 2010
// 0 Comments
 

Cory Doctorow's "For The Win" is out!

In the virtual future, you must organize to survive

At any hour of the day or night, millions of people around the globe are engrossed in multiplayer online games, questing and battling to win virtual “gold,” jewels, and precious artifacts. Meanwhile, others seek to exploit this vast shadow economy, running electronic sweatshops in the world’s poorest countries, where countless “gold farmers,” bound to their work by abusive contracts and physical threats, harvest virtual treasure for their employers to sell to First World gamers who are willing to spend real money to skip straight to higher-level gameplay.

Mala is a brilliant 15-year-old from rural India whose leadership skills in virtual combat have earned her the title of “General Robotwalla.” In Shenzen, heart of China’s industrial boom, Matthew is defying his former bosses to build his own successful gold-farming team. Leonard, who calls himself Wei-Dong, lives in Southern California, but spends his nights fighting virtual battles alongside his buddies in Asia, a world away. All of these young people, and more, will become entangled with the mysterious young woman called Big Sister Nor, who will use her experience, her knowledge of history, and her connections with real-world organizers to build them into a movement that can challenge the status quo.

The ruthless forces arrayed against them are willing to use any means to protect their power—including blackmail, extortion, infiltration, violence, and even murder. To survive, Big Sister’s people must out-think the system. This will lead them to devise a plan to crash the economy of every virtual world at once—a Ponzi scheme combined with a brilliant hack that ends up being the biggest, funnest game of all.

Imbued with the same lively, subversive spirit and thrilling storytelling that made LITTLE BROTHER an international sensation, FOR THE WIN is a prophetic and inspiring call-to-arms for a new generation

via craphound.com

Of course available for free in various non-DRM electronic formats, excellent!

Filed under  //   books   link  
Posted May 11, 2010
// 0 Comments
 

Kenyan Moonshine sound like the good stuff!

From The Economist, May 1st 2010.

Posted May 9, 2010
// 0 Comments
 

The Naked Trader by Robbie Burns

The Naked Trader by Robbie Burns is a book about personal investment and trading written in a personal and conversational tone. It makes for a fast and easy to read format but can be annoying at times. That said, its a very instructional and informative book for anyone doing or considering personal part or full-time trading. The author himself makes his living being a “medium-term trader” and this is the tactic he teaches, however, it should be noted that he made the critical mass of money by good old-fashioned work and risk-taking entrepreneurship. He lives and works in the UK and some of the advice are UK or FTSE-centered but most information is quite universal nonetheless.

The book works well as an introductional text to personal investment but gives good advice to more advanced investors as well and, especially when it comes to investing, its good to be reminded about the basics every now and then. Its easy to think you are better than the rest after a few wins - which in turn usually makes you crash spectacularly. 

So, the book begins from the basics, asking you if trading is right for you and describing the reality of trading from a refreshingly honest angle. It goes on to teach the basic vocabulary of stock trading and what it means. By chapter three even the more experienced investor should start to read more carefully, this is where the author goes into different trading strategies and describes his own in more detail. Basically what he does, and mostly describes in the rest of the book, is called “medium-term trading”. This means that he doesn’t, very often at least, try to day-trade and find the hot stock of the day. Instead he does research his investments like value/long-term investors do but try to find shorter upsides. Reasons why the stock would give him 30-40% return over the following months or at most couple of years. This also means being able to cut your losses quick instead of getting stuck with a badly performing stock which didn’t go as planned. 

He does also go into more details about warrants, short-selling and other things that a beginning trader really should avoid but is good to know exists. Some instruments like spread-betting aren’t available here in Finland either - I think, but then again, I’m a beginner so I haven’t even searched for anything like that (yet). The information on how to do basic chart-reading and technical analysis alone was worth the price of admission for me, it didn’t teach me magic but it did give me a enough information to understand the vocabulary and thinking behind it. 

The book also has a chapter on usual mistakes investors make and which really could have been avoided and does give you some good rules of thumb on how to avoid a similar situation. It also reminds you not to get too cocky because that is when you think the rules do not apply to you! 

Since the book doesn’t try to be very advanced it ends with an excellent suggested reading list which I have copied down for future Amazon-orders. 

If you are curious about or already investing you really should do yourself a favor and read this book, its easy to read and informative. It doesn’t claim to help you make millions but it will help you not make stupid mistakes and that’s all you can honestly ask for. Warmly recommended!

Filed under  //   bookreview  
Posted April 27, 2010
// 0 Comments
 

Spring is here, or at least the sun is

Spring is finally here and with that the sun! Usually not much of a fan of the daystar, its hot and creates glare on the screen but... I have to admit I have a soft-spot for that old ball of fusing hydrogen too after all.

Been salivating after a new camera lately so soon there might be a barrage of new pictures, I'll try not to get too creative :)

Filed under  //   pictures  
Posted April 21, 2010
// 0 Comments