Perhaps it's because we geeks like to anthropomorphise our precious things - yes, sometimes it feels like the computer has its own will. So we think that wouldn't it be wonderful if all the stuff we owned could talk to each other. It's as if we had a family. :-P

Of course communication is the alpha and omega of all intelligence, so perhaps it's just us trying to build our replacements. But knowing the difficulties we have finding meaningful things to tell one another, do we really believe that quantity wins over quality by enabling everything to be connected to everything else?

Wouldn't it make sense to figure out first what our things might want to say?

So the right thing to do is to design the API first, and then match the architecture accordingly. This way the API is not dependent on changes you do under the hood. This is much harder to do, and much less fun, but it will create you a better system in the end - because no matter how beautiful a thing you've designed, if it's a pain to use, it won't get used.

Love the boxes. But not too much.

Somewhere in the world, there's a person who's thought all this through. And an engineer who designed the production line.

Amazes me always to think about it.

• Download Sun's preview of Java 6 on ARM and transfer to N900
• On N900 mkdir /opt/java, untar the downloaded JRE there
• Copied existing Tomcat installation with JSPWiki 2.8 to /opt/tomcat/ (could've also done an installation from scratch, should've worked)
• Used QEmacs to tweak a couple of config files (server.xml needed the default Tomcat control port changed away from 8009, and jspwiki.properties needed to point at the right directory)
• set up JAVA_HOME to point at the /opt/java/ejrexxx dir.
• run /opt/tomcat/apache-tomcat-5.5.16/bin/startup.sh
• point browser at http://localhost:8080/JSPWiki/

And voila - we have a full Java JSP webapp (the same one that is currently serving you these pages) running on a cell phone. Since my setup stores all wikipages as flat text files, I can use it as a local text editor with hypertext editing capabilities. Or comes else comes to mind.

Nice...

(Tried shooting video too, but it was too blurry on my backup camera.)

Then again, almost all the people from my university class work in middle management or R&D, live near Helsinki, and have two kids. The life story from almost everyone was eerily similar: studies, a bit of work abroad, back to Finland, get a couple of kids, get a stable job, and just do it. No artists, no farmers. Only a few had left Finland for good.

So we weren't really that different from each other. The passions that drove us to the same place in the beginning stayed with us and made us remarkably similar. It's as if we became who we were in the first 20 years, and after that we were unable or unwilling to change. Perhaps it just means that we figured out who we truly were and what we wanted to do.

But a part of me still feels as lost as on those early days as we walked through the corridors of the university, bright-eyed and full of ourselves. I didn't really know then what I wanted to be when I grew up. I still don't know what I want to be when I grow up.

I just have a lot less time to worry about it these days.

Priha is an implementation of the JSR-170 Java Content Repository Standard. Essentially it means that if you design your Java app around JSR-170, you have a nice, structured key-value store with queries and you don't have to care about database schemas and other low-level stuff. Priha currently has full Level 1 and Level 2 support, and out of the optional features it supports locking.

Priha was designed to be extremely embeddable, and you can run it with no extra dependencies whatsoever, aside from the regular JRE. A single JAR file is all you need (and of course the jsr-170-api JAR)!

And yes, Priha does now pass the TCK test suite, in case you were wondering. I haven't yet bothered to go through the hoops of officially certifying it, though it might be cool at some point.

I've come to the conclusion that it must be because people like to see others fail. It does not matter how much you can do, but it's what you can't do that interests people.

There's something utterly fascinating about that.

Now, TV-kaista is essentially a PVR on the web, which is what makes it so awesome. They store all the TV programs for the past two weeks, meaning that if you miss something, you can always go back and watch it. I can even do that from my cell phone. This is perfect for consumers, and really changes the way you watch TV. They are lighting the way to media consumption for the future, and steer us away from using dodgy Bittorrent services. The use of my own PVR has been reduced to pretty much recording content from pay channels, which aren't yet on the service.

Interestingly, because of the way our ancient copyright legislation works, TV-kaista has no choice but to give everyone a personal PVR in their datacentre. So all the data and processing power is duplicated for every single user, leading an enormous waste and strain on the environment in duplicated electricity and electronics cost. If they were allowed to store the TV streams just once, they could essentially allow us to get rid of our digiboxes who sit idly most of the day and night and leech electricity.

Not only that, who would ever bother to innovate around content in Finland anymore, now that they know they will always be subject to short-sighted lawsuits?

Short-sighted? Yes, you see - TV-kaista is essentially an aggregator of multiple video streams. The media houses don't like that - they want you to go to their own websites for the online content. And because they cannot aggregate their competitor's streams, their service can never be as good as an aggregator's one could be. So their only recourse is to sue the superior competition out of existence. And in doing so, they're essentially condemning consumers to crappy services forever. "Only we can decree how you can best consumer our content." Where's the competition and consumer choice in that?

Moore's law says that we will get more. I can already access my PVR from the internet, if I want to. If services like tvkaista.fi are not allowed to prosper, the void will be filled by PVRs which actually can store eight or sixteen channels ALL THE TIME. And then we get those aggregation services anyway, but again to more cost to the environment, with the media companies having far less control over what can happen then. Or someone establishes a similar service in Estonia, or somewhere else. It is impossible to control a public access signal anyway.

You see, they could instead agree with tvkaista.fi how to best share advertising revenue. They could even start selling it through their own agencies, who are really good at it. TV-kaista isn't. It would be a very good match.

In this particular case, enforcing strict copyright legislation is directly reducing consumer choice, damaging the environment, damaging Finland's ability to innovate, driving people to piracy, and preventing new online services to emerge. I mean, come on: Did anybody learn anything from the Napster lawsuit and success of the iTunes Music Store? Music companies had their own ideas about music consumption, and they were all wrong, and it was left for innovative companies outside of their business to build the future models. This is no different.

So fuck off, will you MTV Media, Sanoma Television, Yleisradio, Kopiosto, Teosto, Tuotos and ÄKT, and let innovative companies make the world a better place? You'll get your money anyway, 'cos you control the source.

Totta ja ei - sortamisesta toki on kysymys, mutta elanto tuskin vaarantuisi, koska toki työsuhteesta maksetaan korvaus, ja työsuhteen ulkopuolella luodut teokset olisivat edelleenkin ihan omissa nimissä.

Työsuhdeolettama on arkipäivää meidän tietotyöläisten piirissä. Kaikki pienetkin tietokoneohjelmat, joita teen työaikana tai työvälineillä, ovat automaattisesti (C) Työnantaja. Tästä saan korvauksena palkkaa, jonka summasta väännetään sitten aina kättä säännöllisin väliajoin, ja jolla voin mitata työpanokseni arvostusta tai firman taloudellista tilaa tai mitä nyt milloinkin. Samalla lailla se toimisi myös muidenkin luovien työntekijöiden kohdalta, eikä se tule olemaan maailmanloppu.

Muttamutta, kenenkään ei pitäisi oikeasti olla yllättynyt työsuhdeolettaman laajennuksesta. Joka kerta kun tekijänoikeuslakeja on maailmalla rukattu, niitä on aina rukattu isoja yrityksiä suosiviksi. Kun nyt kuluttajia on vaikea laittaa enää yhtään ahtaammalle rikkomatta erinäisiä perustuslakeja, niin seuraava looginen askel on alkaa kaventaa tekijöiden oikeuksia. Työsuhdeolettama on vain yksi näistä - luultavasti jatkoa seuraa, sillä toisin kuten Raimo Vikström ylläolevassa linkissä kirjoittaa, arvopohjaa ei ole käännetty tekijöiden vastaiseksi. Se vain on aina ollut omistajia ja levittäjiä suosiva. Tähän asti vain heidän etunsa on ollut myös tekijöiden etu, joten asiaa ei ole huomattu.

Ei sinällään ihme, että tietokoneohjelmistoja on kohdeltu näinkin pitkään eri lailla - vuonna 2008 hitec-vienti oli noin 11 miljardia euroa (ja likipitäen jokaisessa elektronisessa laitteessa on jonkinasteinen ohjelmisto, joskin nykyään on hirveän vaikea sanoa missä ko. ohjelmisto on tehty), kun taas musiikkivienti oli arvoltaan 2007 n. 20 miljoonaa euroa - eli siis 500 kertaa pienempi. Vaikka tässä vertailussa onkin oiottu kulmia (on muitakin luovan työn tekijöitä kuin muusikoita, ja numerotkin on eri vuosilta), niin suuruusluokka osoittaa, että tähän mennessä muiden luovien työntekijöiden panos on numeroissa yhtä tärkeä kuin rekan alle jääneellä siilillä, minkä takia he ovatkin näin pitkään selvinneet ilman huomiota. Tämä työsuhdeolettaman korjaus on "vain" toimenpide, jolla yksinkertaistetaan tekijänoikeuslakia ja korjataan kauneusvirhettä.

Tekijänoikeudet ovat tärkeämpiä kuin tekijöiden ja kuluttajien oikeudet. Se on maailman tapa. Ja tämä tapa on huono ja tuhoava.

Se, mistä olen pettynyt, on se, että Suomen Piraattipuolue, joka yrittää profiloitua järkevien tekijänoikeuksien puolustajaksi, ei ole pihahtanut sanaakaan koko jupakasta. Nyt jätkät jäälle sieltä, täällä on peli.

(Ha, unohdin, että Effi on jo kentällä. Kiitokset Suvikolle muistutuksesta.)

(Pari päivää myöhemmin myös Piraattipuolue on herännyt. Höpisee unissaan hieman sekavia, mutta päätyy kuitenkin oikealle puolelle.)

So I spent an hour and I went through each comment, and noted how many typos or grammatical errors they had, and put them in three bins: Sceptics, Defenders and Others. Factual errors or hard-to-understand sentences were not counted - only real grammar errors. Quotations were also not examined, because the errors in them would be the fault of someone else.

"Sceptics" are the people who don't believe there is anthropogenic climate change. "Defenders" were people who believed it is true. "Others" were people who were mostly just complaining about the price, saying things like "we should really make sure our war veterans are taken care of first" (neither confirming nor denying), or just so unclear it was impossible to say whether they were for or against.

As you can see, the sceptics had over 3 grammar errors/typos per comment, whereas the defenders only had an average of 1.13. Others were in the middle with 1.71 errors/comment.

While the sampling is a bit small to draw any real conclusions, the result does not exactly weaken the image of climate sceptics as uneducated people who spew thousands of comments online with their mouths foaming.

(However, it was interesting to note that the same error patterns seemed to occur even in posts by different aliases. So I suspect that some people are using multiple aliases to create the appearance that there is bigger consensus. Which would be quite normal online, and is one of the reasons why feedback should be always taken with a grain of salt. Also, thanks to Muprhy's law, it's almost certain this particular blog entry is teeming with grammar errors. Then again, English is not my native language. So there. Besides, I think my brain is bleeding internally after reading through all those comments.)

What was fun that every single person who saw that frame afterwards commented on how much the boy looks like me. Nobody stopped to consider that the boy in the picture looked nothing like the entity crawling on the floor. So we had to take the picture out so as not to confuse people.

Our expectations colour our perception.

(That, or I look like a generic baby.)

No, kullekin tavallaan, ja yrityshän saa toki valikoida asiakkaansa, mutta keskustelu eskaloitui melko vikkelästi tasolle, jossa nimimerkki "Helmikeskus" poisti omat viestinsä ketjusta ja laittoi tilalle merkinnän "rl 24.10.2" - ilmeisesti viite Rikoslain 24 luvun 10 pykälän 2 momenttiin, joka määrittelee "törkeän kunnianloukkauksen". Lisäksi myös ketjuun linkittänyttä, erittäin asiallisesti kirjoittanutta bloggaajaa on uhkailtu jo oikeusjutulla.

En nyt tietenkään ole mikään markkinointiekspertti, mutta eritoten Suomen kokoisessa maassa, jossa sana kiertää nopeasti ja merkittävä osa harrastajista pyörii samalla foorumilla, luultavasti eräs huonoimmista markkinointitekniikoista on vetää herne nenään arvostelusta ja uhkailla mahdollista asiakaskuntaansa oikeusjutuilla. Kannattaako tilata, jos on syytä epäillä, että mahdollisen ongelmatilanteen tullessa raastupa saattaa olla ensimmäinen askel? Se olisi melko kova hinta muutaman euron koruista.

Yritystä ja sen tuotteita ja toimintaa saa - ja pitää - arvostella. Jos yrityksen edustaja lähtee julkiseen keskusteluun yrityksestään, on syytä olla varovainen sanoissaan ja kasvattaa melko paksu nahka. Hyödyt ovat melko selkeät: parantunut kommunikaatio tekee asiakassuhteesta henkilökohtaisemman, mutta vaarana on toki se, että tunteiden leimahtaessa asiakassuhdekin palaa mukana. Fiksumpi yritys olisi tässäkin tapauksessa voinut kääntää tilaisuuden voitoksi havaitsemalla, että asiakkaat eivät pidä tilanteesta ja muuttamalla ehtoja. Siitä olisi saanut hieman näkyvyyttä ja asiakkaille hyvän mielen; mutta yrityksen edustaja päätti kuitenkin syyttää foorumin keskustelijoita "vapaamatkustelijoiksi" ja keskustelua "ala-arvoiseksi". Ei ihan se paras valinta. Jännityksellä odotamme aikooko ko. yritys ajaa itseään pidemmälle suohon.

(Disclaimer: yksi Helmetti-foorumin ylläpitäjistä on vaimoni.)

Päivitys: Yritys muutti ensin toimitusehtojaan järkevämpään suuntaan, mutta on nyt ainakin toistaiseksi laittanut lapun luukulle. Toivottavasti kuitenkin vain hengähtääkseen ja palatakseen sitten, no, yrittämään. Hieman asennetta asiakaslähtöisemmäksi muuttamalla varmasti pärjäisi, sillä laatu ja hintahan olivat käsittääkseni ihan kohdallaan.

Päivitys 2: Korucorneriakaan ei enää uhkailla. Pientä toivoa siis tilanteen korjaantumisesta siis on!

Took me a while, but I just realized what's going on: Since I've enabled scrobbling on Spotify, every single song I play goes to the last.fm database. And since I use Spotify only when I want to listen to a certain band or song, Last.fm has been collecting a fairly accurate representation of my music taste.

So the more I use Spotify; the more accurate Last.fm becomes. This is a wonderful business model - the more you use a competing service, the better your own service becomes! And, the end result is more value for everyone, since Spotify is now even more useful to me as an interface to Last.fm!

Brilliant.