Heaven Or Hell?

Couple of days back it was the 'Which OS Are You?' now it's the 'Are You Damned?' test. For me it seems to be Valhalla. Click at the picture to test yourself.



You will die a warrior and be spirited away by warbling wenches to the Hall of the Slain. Meat and mead for ever more, well until Ragnarok, anyway, when you will do battle with giants, giantesses, dwarfs, elves and Nidhug, a dragon who likes to nibble trees. Odin is great!

From Lame Finland to Super Poland

The Polish Finland basher, whose writings I also commented earlier, has received wider and wider publicity, as can be seen from the below quotation from this Register article. Judging from it, it seems that 'jpzr', the writer of the original Finland is Lame rant (now in version 29), has had - and will have - problems with others, too; so it's not just Finland and us Finns he's pissed off about :-D

Poland's cultural ambassador to the Internet, "jpzr" has been feted in the Finnish press this week after he published his views of the country he left at Christmas.

The fellow was already a star amongst Register readers for this Flame of The Week.

Sometime at the end of last year, he left his employer Nokia to move to Germany, leaving behind this amazing, rambling rant about Finland.

Now the Finns have struck back, with a vicious parody of the original.

As Andrew Orlowski of The Register writes above, the SUPER Poland! is a vicious but brilliant parody of the 'jpzr' writing. But where 'jpzr' chooses to bash Finland to the extreme, SUPER Poland! uses 'Polish inverted logic' and praises Poland to the extreme. Decide yourself, which one you prefer.

And here's my favourite, the closing paragraph from the Register article:

One fascinating footnote comes from a reader and former colleague, whose name we must not use:- "I used to live in the opposite block to 'jpzr'. The 'dog in the cold' photograph is taken outside our local grocery store in Tampere. I've a feeling it's his girlfriend's dog."

Patron Saint for the Internet

I'm not very religious, but why not. A Roman Catholic organisation is apparently at the moment gathering votes for the patron saint for the Net. The plan is to have the patron saint named by Easter this year. Unfortunately the site is only in Italian, so I couldn't make much out of it. Anyway, Wahington Post has the story in English. [Via Daypop]

Address Book Synchronisation Working

Just noticed that the Address Book Synchronisation at .Mac is finally turned on, and it seems to be working fine. Just synched mine.

So, now we can also determine that Apple's 'Soon' is approximately three weeks ;-)

The Scale of Universe

Powers Of Ten let you...

View the Milky Way at 10 million light years from the Earth. Then move through space towards the Earth in successive orders of magnitude until you reach a tall oak tree just outside the buildings of the National High Magnetic Field Laboratory in Tallahassee, Florida. After that, begin to move from the actual size of a leaf into a microscopic world that reveals leaf cell walls, the cell nucleus, chromatin, DNA and finally, into the subatomic universe of electrons and protons.

Impressive. Still, I'm not sure it made me understand the scale of things any better than before... [Via N�tkreatur]

Which OS Am I?



Wow! The Which OS Are You? test must be really good... or they are getting some additional info from the visit details sent by the browser :-)

Anyway, click on the box to take the test yourself. [Link via various blogs]

Taxis, Churches, Day Care Centres... No Matter What, Teosto Make Them Pay

Teosto, the Finnish Composers' Copyright Society has lately caused suspicious reputation for Finland. Last year Teosto made the cab drivers pay a monthly copyright fee, because the customers in their cars might be listening to the music from the radio. Teosto also demands the right to charge for the music performed in the religious services. Teosto's goal is to make any public performance of music charged for somehow.

The latest claim made by Teosto targets the day care centres; after all, the children there might be singing copyrighted songs with their tiny little voices and - oh, horror - getting away with it! Of course, it is us parents who'll have to pay for this in the end, but it must be better than having your children carry on doing something illegal, right?

Don't get me wrong, however, after all I'm a copyright holder for some works myself (not music, though) and don't want the copyright to be discarded or misused. But seriously, where do you draw the line? What will be Teosto's next area of assault? Having to acquire a licence to play your radio at the beach during the summer? �20 for one month; �50 for the whole summer? And how does one control this then? Will Teosto hire 'inspectors' who roam the beaches and parks in the summer time? Or maybe Teosto could organise a Stasi style informer network, where neighbours and friends could anonymously (and for a small fee) turn in criminals, who play radio on the patio (from where neighbours or people passing by might hear it)... or playing music inside but having the window open. And what about humming to a tune while walking on the street or in any other public place? If you have any musical talent, the tune might be recognisable and you are obliged to pay Teosto or otherwise you are breaking the law. My God, the possibilities for Teosto are truly endless!

Ah, well... I guess we just have to get used to the following kind of news about Finland and the ridicule that goes with it: Finnish Music Industry Wants Kindergardens to Pay for Singing.

New PowerMacs and a 20" LCD from Apple

The top PowerMac model is now 2 x 1.42 MHz, Radeon 9000 Pro, SuperDrive. The other ones are 2 x 1 MHz, Radeon 9000 Pro and a single processor 1 MHz, GeForce4 MX. All models feature FireWire 800, and 'internal support' for AirPort Extreme and Bluetooth.

Also announced today was a new 20" display. The display line-up is now 23", 20" and 17". Go to Apple for more details.

'The Most Unique Eating Utensil Since the Dark Ages'

'More Uses Than a Corkscrew', 'No Assembly Required', 'Be a Popcorn Pioneer'. It's The Popcorn Fork! You simply can't do without it. Thanks to Kari T for pointing this out.

In the Footsteps of Keynote: Apple's Next Microsoft App Killer?

Well, I hope the rumours about Apple's Microsoft Word killer named 'Document' are true, but even MacWhispers, the originator of this rumour, have seen fit to enclose the following disclaimer with the article:

It should be noted that this report is less solidly grounded than most items published on MacWhispers; however, the specificity of many of the details provided by one source, and the flat claim of their knowing the actual product name "Document" swayed us to run this item. Only time (or an immediate message from Apple Legal) will determine the degree of accuracy of this information.

�ber Browser?

Yesterday in his blog Dave Hyatt took up the guestion of the role of the browser vs a news reader. He says that he has found 'it to be frustrating to switch back and forth between NetNewsWire and Safari'. There has already earlier been concerns, that adding features to Safari might lead to a bloat like in Mozilla. I agree with Hyatt and share his frustration; I too am using both NetNewsWire and Safari, but also Internet Explorer, because Safari doesn't work with all Blogger features yet. So, if adding all the wonderful things doesn't cause Safari to lose it's simplicity and doesn't lead to a bloated application - is this possible? - I'm all for it.

Mail From the Son of the Former President of the U.S.

I guess most of the people have received Nigerian money scam mail, but have you already received a suspiciously similar sounding mail from a George Walker Bush, who claims to be the 'SON OF THE FORMER PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES OF AMERICA GEORGE HERBERT WALKER BUSH, AND CURRENTLY SERVING AS PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES OF AMERICA'? [Via 1DO3]

Eat Your Heart Out, Jackie Chan

Unbelievable kung fu action by matchstick figures; better than most of the Hong Kong flicks. Don't miss the Matrix like effects. Note that due to too many users, you might not able get to the site right away. It might also be a good idea to download the movies to the harddrive for smooth palyback. Thanks to the kids for this link.

Keynote - First Impressions

As I wrote before, I had a chance to test Apple's brand new 'PowerPoint killer', Keynote. The first thing I did was to run the accompanying tutorial document, which itself is made with Keynote and is very good introduction to Keynote's key features. My first impression was that, after seeing the smooth Keynote transitions (Cube transition must be everyone's favourite) and the over all polish of the resulting presentations, the rugged PowerPoint output pales in comparison.

When I then created a presentation myself, I was very much impressed about the ease of use of the tools. The interface is quite simple, but everything necessary is readily at hand. And if you use the provided themes, you simply can't do a bad looking presentation.

Compatibility between Keynote and PowerPoint is a major issue for potential customers, so I tested it with some old PowerPoint presentations of mine. I was surprised to notice how well it worked. I tested a dozen of old presentations and Keynote could open all of them. In most of the cases you couldn't see any differences between resulting Keynote presentation when compared to PowerPoint. In one case some of the graphics in the PowerPoint slide master showed slightly distorted in Keynote. Also in couple of cases the alignment of texts where slightly altered, probably due to font issues. It is noteworthy though, that all the PowerPoint documents where fully usable in Keynote and couple of them required only slight modifications to correct the issues mentioned above. When I exported a Keynote presentation to PowerPoint, the smooth transitions were naturally gone and there were also some alignment issues. But again, the result was fully editable in PowerPoint. Note, that you can also export your presentations to PDF or QuickTime movie formats. Note also, that Keynote documents are quite large. The accompanying Presentation Tips document is 11.2 MB in Keynote format and 6.6 MB when exported to PowerPoint. But while losing some megs in exporting to PowerPoint, you also lose in transitions, animations and overall smoothness of you presentation - things that are the whole point of Keynote.

There have been lots of reports around the web about bugs and other problems in the program. The problems I encountered, were one unexpected quit and one occurrance where Keynote refused to quit; I could save the document I was working with, but the program itself stubbornly refused to quit so I had to use 'Command-option Esc'. So, there is still some work to be done in ironing out the quirks. Apple has acknowledged that there are some issues, which it will be addressing in the future. Some of the problems seem to be concerning ATI screen drivers.

I'll give Keynote 4.5 stars. I'll add the missing half a star, when the glitches in 1.0 version have been fixed.

Keynote is available from the Finnish Apple Store at the price of �120,78; i.e. �99,00 + �21,78 for VAT. Last week the delivery time was 5-6 weeks, but today I couldn't find any mention about it anymore.

Noteworthy? Part XI

No comments form me. Make up your own mind: Beckham changing the face of female genital hair. [Via Kasa]

Worm Attack

The web is slow and the reason is a fast-spreading worm exploiting vulnerability in - hold your breath - Microsoft software. (>.<)

Noteworthy? Part X

If you want to see proper Finland bashing, read this writing from one bitter Polish guy. As you can see, the writer is already in version 9 of his story, so he is all the time rewriting and adding to it - now there are even selected comments from other people added at the end of the story. It is not quite clear what exactly has caused all this hatered, but some Finnish bloggers provided a viable explanation: the guy probably had a Finnish (apparently blonde) girlfriend who dumped him, and now he's going to make the whole of Finland and all the Finns pay (^_^)

Vladimir Putin Appearing in a Harry Potter Film?

I read from today's newspaper, that there's a possibility of a court case or even a threat of censorship against the second Harry Potter film in Russia, because the house-elf Dobby resembles too much president Putin. When I saw the film, I didn't notice it, but now I can see that there's certain likeness between them. Actually during the film, I thought that Dobby looked like Weasleys' father, played by Mark Williams, known from the comedy series The Fast Show, among other things.

If you want to see what the world thinks about Dobby and Putin looking like each other, go to this BBC site to cast a vote about it.

Smileys the Japanese Way

In stead of the traditional western smileys (emoticons), you can also use Japanese smileys. Here are some samples:

(^_^) Smiling
(^_^)/ Hi!
(#^_^#) Blushing
(>_<) Ouch!
(-_^) wink
(>_< )( >_<) no no
( .. ) examine well

How to Tell If Your Co-Worker Is an Extraterrestrial

The website for Weekly World News brings you top ten ways to recognise aliens in our midst (well, actually only top nine ways on-line). Below you can find point #8 in the list. If it is correct, I know at least couple of ETs. Now, if their skin also feels 'cold and "slimy" to the touch' there is no doubt about it...

8. Aliens do not understand Earth's sense of humor. Forget what you saw on Mork and Mindy. Aliens find it difficult to understand laughter -- even a simple knock-knock joke can throw them completely off. They might laugh at inappropriate times -- like during a funeral -- or stare blankly at the funniest jokes.

Non-English Speakers, Would You Buy From This Website?

Go to BuyUnderCost.com, select the language from the top left corner and click 'Translate'. At least the Finnish translations are hilarious.

Jyrsi� alusta loppuun meid�n aava lajitelma - indeed :-D

Maybe the other languages are at least a little bit better. Thanks Isu.

Coming Soon: First Impressions on Keynote

I had a change to do little hands-on testing on Apple's new presentation application Keynote, and I was deeply impressed. So much in fact, that now I'm embarrased to show my PowerPoint presentations. I also had a chance to test compatibility between Keynote and PowerPoint, but this part left some room for improvement.

Anyway, watch this weblog for my Keynote mini-review soon...

Cloned Cat Not A Real Carbon Copy After All

Sorry, all you cat lovers, but you can't clone your favourite pet to give him or her nine lives after all :-) Or technically you could, but you don't get a real clone. Rainbow and her clone named 'cc' (for carbon copy) are quite different. More details from this CNN news article. [Via pinseri]

From the Scrapbook (A Test)

Today's links from my Scrapbook (see sidebar to the left) for testing purposes... go ahead and follow the links anyway, they are good read...

Yahoo! News - Microsoft loses showdown in Houston
Blizzard announces Warcraft III: The Frozen Throne
Where Next for RSS?
Surfin' Safari NetNewsWire Rocks!
CNN.com - Scorpions can set venom on stun or kill - Jan. 21, 2003

Osama Bin Laden Living in Norway?

Well, yes, at least according to the Norwegian phone catalogue. Apparently also Donald Duck, Superman, Batman and Harry Potter have been pining for the fjords. Read the full story from Yahoo! News. [Via Plastic]

Apple Welcomes Safari Users

If you are using Apple's new Safari browser, the Apple web site recognises that and places the below picture near the top left corner of the page.

If you are using other browsers (I tested with Internet Explorer and Mozilla) you are not greeted in similar way ;-)

Uh-oh!

Only yesterday I was writing about decapitation and now I saw this! Yikes! [Via Chew's Place]

Swtiching Mail's SMTP with AppleScript

This could be useful: Mac OS X Hints - An AppleScript to switch Mail's SMTP servers. I also have to change SMTP servers according to locations. It's not a big deal, Mail helps out by saying that it couldn't send the mail using this or that SMTP server and suggests an other one, but still...

Game Time

Couple of highly addictive on-line games: Zookeeper and Squares. Note that Zookeeper is in principle similar to Super Nisqually, which .Mac members can download for free. Links via Kari T and Daypop.

Does Beheading Hurt?

And how long does one remain conscious after the head is severed? Answers to these noteworthy questions can be found here. [Via Daypop]

Icon Wars

See what happens on your Windows desktop when it's left unattended. I can't belive anything that violent would ever happen on my Mac :-) [Via Pinseri]

Noteworthy? Part IX

I guess this is the way of things in these Internet times: I'm writing here in Finland about an event which took place in Latvia and of which I read from a news site located in India. Well anyway, the event was mobile phone throwing competiton in Riga, and it was won by somebody called Edy with a 54.9 metres throw. Apparently the fourth(!) world championships are held in August in Finland, and the world record holder is a Finn called Petri Valta with 66.72 metres using a Nokia 5110. [Via Boing Boing]

Think Before You Talk Or Your Mobile Zaps You

Tired of people talking too loudly to their mobiles? How about a phone, which gives you a mild electric shock if your voice gets too loud? Read about this and other prototypes of 'social mobiles' which make their users' behaviour less intrusive from this Economist.com article. [Via Slashdot]

Streets of London

This is noteworthy: Street sensation! - The liveliest streets in London

London's favourite streets. Entire streetscapes showing over 2,500 shops, bars and restaurants in the liveliest areas of London - Oxford Street and Regent Street; Portobello Road and Notting Hill; the King's Road in Chelsea; Carnaby Street; Covent Garden, Bond Street; Knightsbridge; Soho; Islington and Camden

You can take a trip down the memory lane or check out in advance the places you want to go to on your next London visit. It's funny to 'walk past' familiar shops and restaurants. Now, where was that nice pub again...

Entrances to Hell

In the vain of the abandoned London underground stations - well, sort of - now you have: The catalogue of UK Entrances to Hell.

Apple's Definition of 'Soon'?

'Soon' is obviously more than a week, but how much more? Any guesses?

Storing URLs, Part II

You can read from an earlier posting about my preferred way of storing bookmarks into a separate folder, which allows me to keep and expand my bookmark 'collection' even if I change browser or use different profiles; no hassle with saving, exporting or importing. Today an added bonus of using this method came to my mind. Due to compatibility reason, at work I have to use Internet Explorer for accessing our intranet. Also, we have an external partner whose site doesn't work properly either with Safari or (Macintosh version of) IE; for that particular site we use Opera. But no problem: with my bookmark archiving method I can choose which site opens with which browser. In the below example I've set Guardian to open with Opera - all other sites open with Safari.

Hyatt: Surfin' Safari to Repost Missing Piece Later

Aftrer receiving Dave Hyatt's e-mail address and e-mailing him yesterday about the fate of his missing Surfin Safari posting, which I've been writing about earlier, I had this morning an answer from him, where he says that he withdrew the posting in order not to be incorrectly labeled as 'anti-Gecko'. He mentions the ongoing 'hubbub' and poinst for example to the CNET news.com article Apple snub stings Mozilla which I mentioned yesterday.

Since I don't want to unnecesserily add to the hubbub or give cause for misinterpretations, I've removed all direct quotations from my posting of the 12th of January, since Hyatt has promised to repost his piece 'in a week or two'. Judging from the risen visitor rate at my site, I know that lots of people are waiting... :-)

Otherwise I hope that Hyatt keeps up his excellent work with Safari and also keeps up posting at Surfin' Safari, where Safari users can see that there is somebody at Apple who is listening and addressing user concerns. (However, please don't mail Hyatt about feature requests or release dates, as he has specifically requested at his site).

Thanks

I asked earlier for Dave Hyatt's e-mail address, which I've now received. Thanks to Dave Yuill and slytle. I've also asked Hyatt for a comment on the disappeared posting.

Stir in the Mozialla Camp

I wrote couple of days ago about the disappeared posting at Dave Hyatt's Surfin' Safari site. Now, here's a CNET article, Apple snub stings Mozilla, which goes on to illustrate that Apple's choice of KHMTL over Gecko, has caused some stir in the Mozilla camp. So, this issue being as sensitive as it seems to be, I don't wonder anymore that Hyatt's posting was withdrawn.

Let Down by Microsoft, Saved by Nokia

You have a skiing accident and try to call for help with your Microsoft powered phone, but...

The next time I looked at the phone it appeared to have turned itself off -- so I tried switching it on again. When it eventually came to life I could not get it to dial -- a closer examination revealed the legend 'Radio off' displayed very legibly on the SPV's excellent screen. No amount of menu searching let me find anything that would turn the phone's radio back on. At this point I remember making a few comments about the dubiousness of Bill Gates' parentage. I eventually managed to flag down a passing skier who let me use her Nokia phone (which switched on immediately) to call for help.

Read the whole story here. [Via Boing Boing, too]

Smile, You're on Candid Phone

There has already been a lot of talk about the advantages and disdvantages of the new camera phones becoming commonplace, so this piece of news from Hong Kong hardly comes as a surprise: Gym bans camera phones in locker-rooms [Via Boing Boing]

We Are Doomed!

Frodo has failed! [Via Chew's Place]

Apple iLife vs MS Office

Both have logos made of jigsaw puzzle pieces. Is there more than meets the eye? [Via Visa Kopu]

Is Hyatt's Surfin' Safari Being Censored? (Updated)

Late last night - or early this morning - (Finnish time) I noticed an update on Dave Hyatt's Surfin' Safari site. Hyatt is one of the members of the Safari browser developer team at Apple. In the article, posted at 11:48 AM, Hyatt gives detailed comments on why Apple chose KHTML over other options, especially Gecko, the main reason being speed and the small size of the code base resulting in a lack of complexity in modifying it for Safari.

Writes Hyatt: [Direct quotation removed, see my posting today, the 15th January] (Hyatt's italics)

As always, when I see something I think to be noteworthy, I posted a pointer to this article at my Scrapbook. As I'm testing different browsers, a little bit later I tried to load the same page with a different browser and was surprised that the post was gone(!) Luckily I still had the posting cached in IE which I at this point saved as a web archive. Not thinking too much about this, and since it was already late, I called it for the day. But this morning I noticed that the original post was indeed gone and there is now a different post from Hyatt sent 6:01 PM (to which for example the link in my Scrapbook now points to). No explanation about the previous post. Nothing.

In the original post, Hyatt quotes mails and other weblogs, which are on-line. First he quotes 'the original mail to the KDE folks' by Don Melton, Safari Engineering Manager, then there's a quote from Mike Shiver and finally a quote from David Baron, both being developers. The links are the same ones as in the original posting by Hyatt.

Then there's a lengthy technical discussion about KHTML vs Gecko with examples. And lastly a summary of the reasons behind Apple's choice, which I quote here in full:

[Direct quotation removed, see my posting today, the 15th January] (Hyatt's italics)

I tried to mail Hyatt and ask the reason for the removal of the posting, but since there is no possibility for feedback at his site, I tried to guess his e-mail address, but the obvious 'firstname dot lastname' returned 'User unknown' error. If somebody has the address, I would be happy to get it. I don't have time just know to try to search it myself.

No Stopping for Blogging

On the Blogger front page: Blogger now has over [to be said in your best Dr. Evil voice...] 1 Million Registered Users. Mwahahahaha...

Doing the Right Thing?!?

Read the Register article Dad uses web to shame kids over 'obnoxious' behaviour and further an article at local Wiltshire news site Father shames his 'tearaway' kids on the internet, and see what you think. Here's an excerpt from the latter article: Now former telecommunications assembly worker Mr Forward has posted his children's pictures and, more controversially, those of others he accuses of being yobs on the web.

Download Down and Out

You can download a free copy of Cory Doctorow's SF novel Down and Out in the Magic Kingdom. There are lots of different formats available - including one for Apple's Newton(!) I chose the 'Printable PDF file'.

What a Wonderful World

The version of What a Wonderful World heard at the end of Jobs' Macworld Keynote Speech, and which I mentioned in my earlier posting, was indeed by Joeye Ramone. Thanks to Kenney M. for confirming this. The song is actually from Joeye Ramone's posthumously published solo album Don't Worry About Me. Read more about Joeye Ramone and his last album here.

The Fall of the House of Moomin

You might recall my earlier post about our traditional Christmas gingerbread house. Well, now I 've posted the complete four picture series of it's horrible fate to my Picture Blog.

Storing URLs

Along with the Safari Beta release, lots of people have complained about the (for the time being) missing address import feature. At first launch Safari imports Explorer bookmarks, but after that you have to use special tricks to import your favourites. Since I'm on a never ending quest for the Grail of Browsers,I have a habit of trying out more or less all new or updated browsers released for Mac OS X. For this use, I've been using a system where I don't store URLs in Favourites or Bookmarks provided by the browser. Instead I have over the time created a continuously expanding collection of URLs which I have stored in a separate folder to which I simply drag and drop URLs I want to bookmark. This folder is then placed in the dock, from where I can get a pop-up menu to all levels of my bookmark collection.

Then when Safari came out, I just changed it to be my default browser in the Internet preferences. Note that I had to use 'Open with:' in the 'Get Info' window for some of the webloc files. So, even though this system is a little bit more cumbersome to use than hitting command-D (or what ever), I still prefer it because this way I can be sure that I can always port my collection to a new browser or to a new computer. This system also has the added bonus that I can use the same collection from different profiles in the same computer by simply adding the folder in the dock of the profile.

One Finger Wonder

I guess this guy would find absolutely no use for multi-button mouse: Ananova - Man can type 60 words per minute using one finger. Well, he has an electric typewriter anyway. Wonder which finger he's using?

Safari Rocks! Part 2: Safari vs IE

Here's a very unscientific speed test I did between Apple's new Safari browser and Internet Explorer (which has until know been my default browser). You should be able to repeat the test results with your own setup.

First fire up both browsers and go to a fairly large page like news.bbc.co.uk for example. Then scale the pages so that they are equally big and side by side on the screen. On my 15.2" PB screen I can have a full-width view of the BBC page on both browsers.

Note that you have now loaded the page on both browsers, and the browsers have cached all the pictures on the site. Then do this: click first IE's 'Refresh' button and then Safari's 'Reload' button and then click again to IE to make it the top most application. Then watch what happens: even though IE gets a head start and is on the top for most of the time, Safari still manages to reload the BBC page faster than IE(!)

If you do the test in reverse order; i.e. reload first Safari, then IE and then make Safari foremost app, Safari is at least twice as fast as IE. But don't take my word for it, try it yourself.

The test setup:
PowerBook G4 800MHz, 256kB ADSL via AirPort
Safari 1.0 Beta
Internet Explorer 5.2.2

Safari Rocks! Part 1

Phew! That was quick! I just double-clicked the downloaded file and I was up and running! And I'm writing this on Safari! It seems to be fast indeed...

Safari is a beta and features a 'Bug report' button which I've already used when I submitted the following report to Apple:

In 'Blogger Settings' you can't place the 'Blog this!' bookmarklet in the bookmark bar as with IE. So, I still have to use IE while surfing and blogging... :-(

But, hey, let's hope they'll fix it soon. Anyway, I will be using Safari as my main browser to put it through its paces.

Jobs' Macworld Keynote

Been watching Jobs' keynote for couple of hours. Lot's of great new stuff about which you can read of from countless other sites, so I'm not going to talk too much about that. Let's just say that where I've been sligthly disappointed in many previous Macworlds, this time I don't feel like that (even though there were no 'Tablet Mac' introduced). What makes me excited is that there are loads of cool stuff that I myself can be using in the very near future - I mean iLife apps and Safari (and possibly also Keynote). I would also love to get my hands on the new PowerBooks, but that will have to wait I'm afraid... :-(

But the thing that caught my, well ear, and which the other reviewers may not be paying too much attention to, was the Ramones sounding Wonderful World. It was great! Was it by Ramones? Isn't Joeye Ramone dead? Where can I get the song? Probably not from Apple Store. And also, did you notice that Jobs pronounced the new PB material 'aluminum', as is the standard American pronunciation of the word, but the British head designer of Apple, Jonathan Ive pronounced it 'properly' as 'aluminium' :-)

OK, by now the Safari browser has downloaded. I'll have to test it...

.Mac Back Up Again

And the .Mac splash page has the following texts:

New Macworld Announcements!
- .Mac Address Book with contact synchronization
- iSync with Mac-to-Mac synchronization
- Improved .Mac Mail Online

So, that seems to be the .Mac part of Jobs' keynote.

Mac World Expo San Fancisco (Updated)

Today's the day, and here's the latest rumour from MacRumors: Small and Big... New Laptops? If this will be true, it is something that the rumour sites didn't anticipate. Also, as noted by many sites, I can confirm that the .Mac is 'temporarily unavailable' - something believed to be in connection with the Expo. Well, Jobs' keynote speech starts at 19:00 Finnish time and then we'll know...

Elementary Rock

Of course all music can be split into Metal and Non-Metal, but it doesn't stop there; see the complete Periodic Table of Rock. Be sure not to miss 'false metals'. [Via Chew's Place]

Poor Britons

BBC News reports: Freezing conditions grip Britain. The temperatures can go 'as low as minus 10�C' (!)

Still Cold in Finland

This morning, while taking a car trip, the thermometer reached -29�C. When I later stopped the car and took the picture, the temperature was already up to -28�C.

Incidentally, the CD playing was Kent's Vapen & ammunition (5 stars, highly recommended).

Introducing JMTee Picture Blog

OK, time to put my .Mac subscription to some more use. So far we've been using .Mac mainly for e-mail and synchronising my and my wife's calendars, but now I've created a picture blog with the help of iPhoto and .Mac's Homepage feature. It's still a work in progress, but take a look at it here. I've also added a shortcut to the sidebar.

Writing, Reading and Wine

I see that Oliver W. has continued yesterday's topic of writing and language with his post on 'Writers duties'. He is also starting to read His Dark Materials trilogy, and I have to say that I envy him: he gets to read it in a one go, where as I had to wait for really long times between the books. Anyway I propose to him, and everybody else, for that matter, a suitable companion for reading it: Tokaji wine. (See my earlier post on the subject here.)

P.S. And I guess it goes without saying, that Tokaji is an excellent companion for blogging, too! ;-)

More on Language

Continuing on today's topic - the language and the use of it - here are couple more losely related items: Ming's Metalogue: Words and Yahoo! News - Bushisms Added to List of Banned Words. [Via Universal Rule and Plastic respectively]

Noteworthy in Finland Right Now

Extremely cold weather to continue at least for some more days. This has caused the electricity consumption to reach record-high levels. This again has caused the government to issue a recommendation on saving electricity by cutting down the use of sauna(!) Read more from this Excite News article and from this YLEnews article.

Nota Bene! Philip Pullman Speaks

An essential read for anyone writing anything: an insightful article about writing by Philip Pullman, the author of His Dark Materials trilogy: Northern Lights, The Subtle Knife and The Amber Spyglass (in Finnish Universumien tomu: Kultainen kaukoputki, Salaper�inen veitsi, Maaginen kaukoputki). In the article Pullman discusses among other things the responsibility of the writer about his tools-of-trade: the language. Here is an excerpt from the article:

If human beings can affect the climate, we can certainly affect the language, and those of us who use it professionally are responsible for looking after it. This is the sort of taking-care-of-the-tools that any good worker tries to instil in an apprentice: keeping the blades sharp, oiling the bearings, cleaning the filters. That means, for example, making sure of the meaning of words by looking them up in a good dictionary. And not only that: words have a history, a flavour of their origin, as well as a contemporary meaning.

and

Taking care of the tools also means developing the faculty of sensing when we're not sure about a point of grammar. We don't have to know infallibly how to get it right so much as to sense infallibly that we might have got it wrong, because then we can look it up and get it to work properly.

Unfortunately blogging by nature is relatively fast paced activity, so normally you are not able to check the ethymology of the words for subtle, meanings and nyances. And as a non-native user of the language, one is bound to get the grammar wrong every now and then.

Anyway, even though I'm not a professional writer and will never be one, after reading the article, I'm some what uncertain whether I'm qualified to write this blog, especially as it is written in English, which is not my native tongue. Maybe N�tkreatur (writing in his native Swedish) is right when he criticises the use of English by Finnish bloggers. On the other hand, the most important reason for me to use English, is that I have friends and relatives living abroad and English enables them to follow my miscellaneous ramblings. Also, the use of English is an excellent way to 'sharpen the blade'; i.e. brush up your English, as also Universal Rule has noted. Ah well, I think that I'll just continue to write in my wavering English and try to 'get it right' as often as possible.

P.S. An other point Pullman stresses, is the importance of good story-telling, and that he can indeed do. So, Oliver W., don't wait to pick up the trilogy. The article made me want to read it anew, this time in English ;-)

Noteworthy? Part VIII

Well, what doesn't the Internet have? Now see famous persons in mugshots (i.e. in police photographs taken when they've been arrested). The 'thug gallery' includes among others Ozzy Osbourne, Hugh Grant, Frank Sinatra and of course Bill Gates(!) [Via Chew's Place]

Samuel Pepys' Diaries as a Weblog

Now the story about Pepys� Diares as a weblog, which also I posted yesterday at my Scrapbook, has reached BBC who have interviewed Phil Gyford, the man behind the idea. There's only one day's worth of diaries published yet, but here's an interesting comment to this news, giving the readers a glimpse of what the future has in store for them:

Pepys would never have posted his thoughts on the web. He kept his diary in a particularly complex form of shorthand - to preserve his privacy - which wasn't decoded until the early 19th Century after much hard effort. He would probably be mortified if he knew that anyone and everyone could now read of his less than salubrious private life.
Alex Angus, England

No More Monkey Talk

This must be noteworthy: Ape 'learns to talk' [via BBC NEWS | Science/Nature]

iCal & iSync for Mac OS X Upgraded

Apple has released iCal 1.0.1 and iSync 1.0. The installers are not yet available via Software Update, so you have to download them first. Note also, that you have to install iCal 1.0.1 prior to installing iSync 1.0. Apart from that, the installation went without a hitch. The only peculiar thing was that during the first synchronisation after the upgrade iSync (I think) first deleted all my calendar notes from .Mac and then uploaded them again. That must be due to upgraded iCal. But the main point is that everything is working fine. The iCal also feels a bit snappier now.

Introducing: JMTee Scrapbook

I've had a standing problem in storing links to interesting sites in the Net. I've used browsers' Favourites and Bookmarks and also IE's Scrapbook, but since I use various computers I often found that the link I would need is stored in some other computer. Also, while I've been writing this blog, I've noticed that every now and then there are noteworthy things that I would like to blog about, but haven't had time to properly comment the link. Also, I don't like the idea to just add a plain link without any explanation to my weblog.

So, when I came across an article Bokm�rkligt by N�tkreatur (in Swedish), it seemed to be an answer to my needs also: a separate bookmarks or links weblog to which I can post an interesting link right away for possible future reference. Without further explanations, here you have the brand new JMTee Scrapbook. I've also added a link to the sidebar.

Year 2003...

... brings new laws in Finland. The one mostly affecting me is the law which requires the motorists to use hands-free device when talking to mobile phone while driving. I already have a hands-free, but haven't been using it so far, because I don't like the hassle with the wires. Bluetooth started suddenly to look more and more interesting.

Other new laws include required helmets for cyclists and the ban to cut pigs' tails. Read more about these and other changes in legislation from this YLEnews article.