Serena water park

Serena water park
Originally uploaded by dandye.

Quinn and I visited Serena water park in the nearby city of Espoo. It was a little cold but the majority of the park is inside. It was a blast!

Unicafé

Image067
Originally uploaded by dandye.

Now that I have my student credentials I can eat at the student cafe. Today I had reindeer and mashed potatoes + unlimited salad and bread for only 2.20€!

pix of Liana and Quinn's visit

I've posted some pix of Liana and Quinn's visit on Flickr:

Heureka Hands-on Science Museum

Suomenlinna (Finland's sea fortress)

Day-trip to Tallinn

Helsinki Tourist Sites

Helsinki in the summer w/ classical street music

Travel to Helsinki

Stuck in Stansted

I missed my connecting flight from London (Stansted) to Tampere. I was actually on time but learned a few valuable lessons about Ryanair: they don’t allow you to check luggage through or give you a boarding pass for connecting flights. In fact, as a “point-to-point” airline, Ryanair’s “official policy” is that travelers should only take one flight per day! Unofficially, they recommend 3-5 hours lead for connections.

I had only booked a 1 hour layover and it cost me.

I rushed off of the plane (and was yelled at by an irate Irish mother) and then had to wait for my checked bag. The slow-moving Irish mother came along as I was waiting and glared at me the rest of the time. I grabbed my bag and ran to the ticket counter with ½ hour to spare.

Unfortunately, Ryanair closes the flight (no more boarding passes given out) at 40 minutes prior to departure. Sigh. I booked at ticket for the same time the next day (with a 40 pound sterling penalty fee!) and started looking into a place to stay. I had only slept 1 hour in the previous 36 so I was quite desperate and not exactly at my mental peak.

When I found that there were no cheap accommodations, and that I’d have to pay at least 40 pounds for a bed and breakfast I started looking for alternatives. I nearly got a standby ticket on an SAS flight going directly to Helsinki but at the last minute the “system” locked the agent out. I gave up and called the bed and breakfast.

The owner was really great. He dropped me off at the “local” (pub) where I had great lunch in the beer garden.

Now after some sleep, a couple of decent meals, and a shower I feel better and I’m trying to make the most of my time here. The weather is beautiful and this is a pleasant town. I’ve got to remember that I am now on vacation. I’m typing this in the “garden” (British-English for yard) of the Church Hall Farm B&B (map). Having a proper cup of tea in an English garden on a beautiful day.

The Hacker Ethic

I noticed several references to Pekka Himanen's The Hacker Ethic in The Information Society and the Welfare State: the Finnish Model. The topic intrigued me so I picked up a copy at the USF library. Himanen, as many others, makes a clear distinction between the older use of hackers ("passionate programmers") and crackers ("computer criminals"). Unfortunately, the latter use has become so pervasive that this distinction needs explaining with the title.

The crux of the text is comparing industrial society's "Protestant Ethic" to the information/network society's "Hacker Ethic". Himanen states hackers require flexible time, non-monetary motivations (i.e. interesting or important work), ...

What struck me most, was how much the protestant ethic has influenced my direction in life. Lately, I've been saying that I'm living the 70/20/10 philosophy. 70% of my time is spend researching remote sensing of water quality, 20% on ubiquitous and context aware application development, and 10% on preparing to move to Helsinki. The 70% is my "work" and the 20% "play". Himanen has helped me to realize that,although uncompensated, that 20% is also "work".

Unrequited Loves

Unrequited Loves perform at Little Steven's Underground Garage Fireworks a Go-Go in Tampa's Hard Rock Casino