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

Vertical Ventures

My friend Devon B. and I visited Tampa's only indoor climbing establishment, Vertical Ventures.

Oxygen Bar

I'm in Clearwater today throwing a pizza party for the IT staff at Tampa Bay Water. I found this oxygen bar next door to Westshore pizza so I had to check it out. I can't feel anything from the O₂ but the "aromatherapy" is pleasant.

The Information Society and the Welfare State

I’m reading The Information Society and the Welfare State: the Finnish Model by Manuel Castells and Pekka Himanen. One of the sections that caught my attention follows:

The global trend is for the informational economy to connect to its network those who are valuable to it (and to add further value to them) but to disconnect those who are valueless (and thus further weaken their chance of acquiring any value). This results in increasing social injustice in the form of income inequality, polarisation, poverty, and social exclusion. Those individuals who are least valuable to the networks of informational capital are left on their own, in a position from which it is very difficult for them to change their fate(Castells, 2002).

This relates to an idea that I’ve been trying to express for many years about capital accumulation and injustice. For the excluded, there is not a great deal of return on investment (of labor) and 100% of the return is needed for survival (no accumulation). Part of this equation is the “disconnect from the network” resulting in low returns. The other result of “disconnect” is the impossibility of capital accumulation due to expense: being poor is expensive.

On the other end of the spectrum, once critical mass has been reached, capital generates capital rather than work. Likewise, as this investment capital increases, a larger share of it is accumulated rather than required for personal need: capital accumulation increases at an increasing rate.

How does the “Finnish model” escape this polarization? Certainly the welfare state plays a partial role by buffering the transitions into the extremes. The basic needs of the valueless are subsidized and the accumulating capital of the valuable is taxed. Perhaps by buffering the transition, the middle class are prevented from “slipping” into the extremes?

Feynman’s Rainbow

I’ve been getting books on tape recently and spend a nice Sunday morning drinking coffee and listening to Leonard Mlodinow’s book Feynman’s Rainbow. Mlodinow describes his angst and self-doubt as a newly appointed post-doc at Caltech in the eighties. He recounts the advice given by various mentors and colleagues, and as the title indicates, on of them is Richard Feynman. It was incredibly reassuring to hear these feelings I’ve harbored shared by the heroes of science.

Learning to use SketchUp

Saya Dye

My brother Dave's first-born. I'm an Oji-san!

Saya Dye

Saya Dye

David and Kat in the Hospital Lobby

Working on my Mad Scientist look

Job Interview

Hathor @ USF

I found this travel bug at USF: "Hathor, the ancient Egyptian goddess of Love, wants to travel the Earth, exploring this strange temporary realm of physical beings."