The finnish entry in the Stay True to John Woo contest clicks on most cliches related to the director...

White dove: check.
Guns akimbo: check.
Insurmountable odds: check.
Slow-mo: check (but with clippy myspace video this may be unintentional).
Mexican standoff: check

And the game seems interesting as well. But the influx of shooting games may be its undoing this fall - competition is stiff from the likes of Halo3 and Bioshock. But for a spiritual sequel to Hard-Boiled, Woo's last Hong Kong film thus far, there ought to be a cordite-drenched niche somewhere on the shelves.

Something for the unstable season - an umbrella that knows when it's going to rain, and is able to relay the information via a pulsing light when it's advisable to pick it up when going out.

Like Nabaztag, the first wireless data-bunny - this is a test run device and no ready for the masses (especially with the limited service and coverage), but nonetheless a harbinger of an even more connected future.

As the third movie of the ongoing Rakkautta & Anarkiaa- festival, saw Paul Verhoeven's Black Book, his return movie from Hollywood to Holland.

And liked the movie a lot - the depiction of life in occupied (and finally, liberated) Hague is done well, and remains interesting for the duration. In spite of a clumsy start, the rest of the film rolls along, at times picking up pace to a blitzkrieg level - the twists and traps in the plot are laid on thick and deep.

This is indeed Verhoeven's first dutch movie in decades, and it's also the best Verhoeven in ages, let's hope the next movie doesn't take as long to be completed. The cast seems to be (based on the actors' names) entirely local, and especially Carice van Houten as the lead actress ought to be destined to a bright future, her performance is nothing short of dazzling.

Impressive, and easily the best movie of the festival thus far. And likely to remain so.

Something to spend minutes and minutes in a boring meeting - a great collection of Simpsons homages to movies.

In addition to the initial selection, the guy's blog has more and more.

To the right - separated at birth: Bart Simpson from Treehouse of Horror III and Alex DeLarge from A Clockwork Orange.

This week's photo friday challenge is beach.

My take on the subject is the attached image, a scene from Point Tribulation, where two UNESCO World Heritage sites meet: the Daintree rainforest turns into the Great Barrier Reef via this beach.

As the latest meme making the rounds through the Blogoslavia, here's me according to Belbin: strong on the shaping and coordinating - less so in being a plant or a monitor.

Call of Cowthulhu, the first add-on to Steve Jackson Games' Munchkin Cthulhu is out.

The mix of farmyard and unspeakable horrors is... odd.

And apparently popular, since the second expansion, Unspeakable Vault has just been announced. The game dispenses with John Kovalic as the artist, and opts for a new direction with the french Goomi.

This week's photo thursday challenge subject is cursive melancholy. In finnish "kursiivinen", instead of referring to slanted (italic) typography, means "continuous".

My take on the subject is the attached image, a rainy street scene through a glass on which droplets are flowing. It definitely isn't continuous, but the rain sure felt like going on and on.

(As usual, the full-size photograph is available by clicking the attached image. And the previous photo thursday pictures are all available through the gallery page.)

Nah, on account of a really early morning, lack of sleep on the train and a not really late morning today, it sure was a good idea to abandon the idea of going to pick up nocturnally released goodies after midnight.

They were still available today.

The Hakkapeliitat team took the first step towards recovery by actually winning a game.

Not with a large margin. And certainly not pretty.

Even with Brian Westbrook having an evening for the books (three scores, 110 yards running and 111 yards catching), the rest of the team wasn't too comfortable on the field. Drew Brees at the QB position continues to struggle - at a ratio of one TD to seven picks, he's now benched (and not only due to having a bye next week).

The new guys off the waiver played well, and certainly cemented the success. But the first substitutions were just a beginning - I so need reliable receivers, receivers that play for a team that actually scores touchdowns in the air.

This blog is now two thousand entries old.

No calamities or worldwide chaos are expected on account of the barrier being broken.

EDIT: Yeah, originally this said 2000 thousand. Can't be explained by a simple typo, but severe lack of sleep always works as an excuse.

Tomorrow night, there will be not one, but two night sales in Helsinki.

Both on items expected to sell no less than absolute zillions.

Halo 3 gets its european release a day after the american. Having never owned an Xbox, haven't really played either of the two original episodes, their inclusion on this disc would have been a feat of digital archeology, but that didn't happen.

Nightwish will release Dark Passion Play, their sixth studio album on the very same day. The first two singles Eva and especially Amaranth have been very promising, and Anette Olzon sounds like a very credible replacement to the long-gone Tarja Turunen.

Me? I aim to pick up both in one go, just around midnight.

The only sushi conveyor belt in Finland is now gone, with Eatz having turned to Texas, with a less than thorough redesign.

The Eatz kaiten was never a favorite, even among the meager selection in Helsinki. The selection was often very limited, and including bell pepper chunks in makis would be cause for someone to donate their little fingers after screwing up big time.

Been a Stephen Fry fan since the very first episode of Jeeves&Wooster I saw.

Him turning out to be a kickass blogger only increases his reputation. The premier entry, on smartphones, is impressive - length, content, language - it's all there.

[ via many people, finally convinced to click by Sami. ]

The newest arrival in the United States bills redesign is, to quote Jason Kottke, nothing short of a typographic train wreck.

The purple big '5' in the lower right hand corner is the worst monetary eyesore in a long time. And the bills will be in circulation for an even longer time when they're introduced next year.

The second movie of the R&A festival was The Trap, a Serbian thriller.

Sadly, the thrill was in short supply, and the movie's pace pedestrian.

But it's not all a disaster, though the financially split society is underlined way too prominently, the cinematography on Belgrade slowly recovering from bleakness is worth an extra star on top.

Watched This Filthy World as the first movie of the annual Rakkautta & Anarkiaa festival.

It's a netflix-funded recording of a live standup-comedy session by John Waters, one of the original true cult auteurs.

The story nominally covers his filmography, but regularly strays to cover subjects such as Michael Jackson, capital punishment and sex. Normal standup fare, obviously, but executed perfectly by the man with the pencil-thin moustache.

Not a great movie (camera wobbles and cuts off Waters' legs often), but great entertainment for ninety minutes nonetheless.

Helsinki enjoyed the annual no car-day yesterday, which was much appreciated.

But the future doesn't seem too bright - instead of adding "congestion charges" on city limits like Stockholm, Helsinki is creating yet more parking spots. And that certainly isn't going to cut down on the vehicles on streets.

Image: untitled by Dillon H (CC)

The annual Darts Association-cup was thrown yesterday, and I proudly can testify in having sucked worse than ever before. Dropped four ranks, but a much worse accomplishment was the utter inability to reliably throw.

Streaked nicely during the practice rounds, but choked when the competition got going, spending round after round trying to hit the lowest numbers.

Oh well, it can't get any worse than this, dartswise, barring actual hurting someone with bouncebacks.

One of the firm signs of the autumn is the arrival of a new novel by Ilkka Remes. Or actually two, since the author has taken to releasing two books simultaneously: the traditional annual technothriller and a more or less related kids book alongside.

This year's book (based on a brief reading of the back cover blurb) is about german heritage in modern day Finland, with probably a good measure of eugenics and biological warfare thrown in for good measure. Hopefully the cover image (a nazi astronaut on the moon) bears some relationship to the content and is not just for show.

Incidentally, the main event is several euros cheaper than the much thinner young adults' book, and the trend seems to continue amongst the older books - the kids books are rather expensive as paperbacks.

What else but an encounter with the ubiquitous Murphy could result in first getting drenched in pouring rain, missing the right stop in a bus and then forgetting the umbrella in said bus.

Thankfully the rain had subsided a bit during the ride.

The name and publication schedule of the seventh Harry Potter translation have been announced: Harry Potter ja Kuoleman Varjelukset will see daylight on the seventh of march next year.

Which reminds me that I still haven't seen the latest movie, which is probably shuffling towards the exits in cinemas already.

Jack Thompson, the gamehatingest lawyer in the world is attempting to block the release of GTA IV, on account of being featured as a mission target in the game.

Tomb Raider's 10 Year Anniversary game makes it onto Xbox 360, despite initial reports to the contrary. Yeah, this was announced, and subsequently missed, already in june. If the engine remains as pleasant as it was in the previous game, the this is a certain purchase - the originals just expected too many close to pixel-perfect jumps strung together.

Force Unleashed, the next Star Wars game, will feature wiimote-powered lightsaber duels. So the big question now becomes: on which console is the game best experienced, is it better to target for eye candy (X360, PS3) or the ultimate in Star Wars geekitude (Wii)?

The third collected edition of Brian Wood's DMZ is out, and the five-issue trade paperback is highly recommended. Just like the two previous.

The war is now over, and the vultures, in the form of a thinly veiled Halliburton/Blackwater-analogy descend upon the gutted island of Manhattan. The plotline begins in media res, and never lets go.

Imagery is raw - even more unfinished than in the previous installments, but that, apart from a very conspicuous unfinished face, doesn't really matter. New York in ruins is not supposed to be pretty, and this book continues rubbing the fact in. With steel wool and coarse-grained salt.

As an added bonus the single page introduction of the volume is strangely pointful - usually they are exercises in either vanity or the obvious, but Cory Doctorow manages to avoid either pitfall.

This week's photo thursday challenge subject is stones.

My take on the subject is the attached image, a pile of small stones picked up during the last two years - some from beaches and shores, but a majority (and all of the polished ones) from shops. Toyed with the idea of photographing a pile of Rolling Stones records, but decided against it.

(As usual, the full-size photograph is available by clicking the attached image. And the previous photo thursday pictures are all available through the gallery page.)

The best-known emoticon, the first computerized smiley face, turns 25 today.

Here we go again. It's so hard to hold back the stream of links.

• M.C. Escher's Relativity as interpreted in Lego.
• Gamasutra interviews Textfyre's David Cornelson.
• Airport horror stories, part n: overstepping the bounds of authority.
• Why, of why there are so few comics in finnish bookstores?
  Monopoly of taste (or lack thereof).
• Beatdowns throughout history.
• How to characterize bottled water (with a selection of nifty symbols thrown in for good measure).
• The 2008 Linux Kernel Summit was not held in conjunction to the Ottawa Linux Symposium.
• Top 100 images from Hubble Space Telescope.
• Fake car sunroof. Presumably for people with fake cars.

The finest of the celtic-influenced punk bands has stealthily released a new album.

I feel a visit to Keltainen Jäänsärkijä coming on, they've been reliable in supplying the band's earlier records.

And a scandinavian tour would be much appreciated. The two gigs last summer certainly whetted my appetite.

0 for 2 in both leagues.

The Yahoo league was one quarterback selection away from a victory. But replacing Drew Brees with Matt Leinart didn't seem like a too bright idea. And it still isn't. Most worrisome fact: Maurice Jones-Drew, the second round pickm hasn't scored once, and the Jaguars' offensive line seems very fragile indeed.

Next week: up against one of the 2-0 teams, a three-oh hole would be too big to climb out of, so on behalf of maintaining interest in the league, a victory'd sure taste sweet. Perhaps the team could learn from the Running Utes, who delivered a nice upset on sunday morning - beating the 11th ranked UCLA after two bad losses.

And the less said about the misdrafted ESPN team (yeah, the one with four quarterbacks), the better.

The 20th Love & Anarchy film festival is nearly upon us.

And this year the traditional queuing up for tickets is coming to an end, some of the theatres are present in the national ticketing system, thus voiding the need to stand in sleeting rain outside Bio Rex.

Haven't paid any serious attention to the program, but the likes of John Waters doing stand-up do seem like an attractive way to spend the darkening evenings.

This week's photo thursday challenge subject is classic.

My take on the subject is the attached image, a revolutionary take of a well-known classic: William Shakespeare's Hamlet. The No Fear Shakespeare services the readers with weak olde-english-fu well, by placing the original text and a modern interpretation side by side.

(As usual, the full-size photograph is available by clicking the attached image. And the previous photo thursday pictures are all available through the gallery page.)

This week's weekly fiver concentrates on the simple. And so do the answers.

1. What's the last thing you ate?

A chunk of baguette, with a slice of beef on top.

2. What about a drink?

A glass of pomegranate juice to accompany said baguette.

3. What's the last thing you bought?

The new album by HIM, Venus Doom.

4. Who was the last person you spoke with?

Face to face: Mr. Löytökorpi, on the phone: my mom.

5. What are your plans for the rest of the week? Concrete accomplishments on the horizon?

I definitely need to see the Bourne Ultimatum.

After the +20C days in Netherlands, the taxi queue at mere +6C certainly felt cold.

Flight was uncomplicated, and Schiphol continues to be amongst the most pleasant of airports. Apart from a sudden lack of chewing gum on the premises everything went without a hitch. And at a good speed - it's been a while since such a fast-paced yet thorough security check.

Had dinner at restaurant Elf close to the Central Station of Amsterdam.

The name refers to the floor the restaurant is located in, from the eleventh floor of one of the tallest buildings of the city the view across the harbour area and into the town proper is impressive indeed.

The view from the toilet rivals that of Torni in Helsinki. At least the male side, that is.

Visited El Hema an imaginary arabic version of the Hema store. To a neophyte the idea seemed interesting, but for locals this is a much bigger thing.

The reunion continued with a trip into the canals of the city, most of which are actually underground. Due to limited space within the city walls, the enterprising Den Boschers built their houses over the canals, creating a unique environment.

The tunnels taken by the boat were never too long, just dozens of meters a stretch at a maximum, but there were sidetunnels that disappeared into the darkness.

The city is built on swampland, and thus its symbol is a frog - but despite the lowly animal figurehead of choice the city was not a force to be trifled with, they held their own in many battles and sieges throughout the years.

Took a train to 's-Hertogenbosch (Den Bosch) to attend the Utah Europe Association's annual reunion.

Train ride through the dutch countryside was nothing less than picturesque, lush green fields dotted with sheep and cows, a couple of windmills and a large freight canal running next to the track were just some of the attractions.

The reunion ran a familiar course: presentation on what's going on at the university, running into old friends, making new friends and a big buffet dinner.

The city had a severe shortage of hotel rooms on account of ongoing festivities, largest of which was a boat festival - dozens of large boats filled some of the canals of the city. Others falling on the very same weekend: celebration of the 80th anniversary of garbage collection, women's bicycle marathon and a car-free day on sunday.

The unseasonally beautiful weather continued today, with sun shining and temperatures hovering close to 20C, it was a pleasure to continue exploring the city of two wheels.

Sights seen:

• lots of Miffies/Nintjes,
• a really tall cat ladder (see attached photo),
• several micro-scale chocolate factories,
• coffee shops,
• unexpectedly many english-only bookstores (expatriates abound),
• wide and narrow canals,
• way too many stores without decent shirts,
• narrow houses
• and a really old bar (conveniently hidden behind a hotel).

Hema proved to be a treasure trove of all things dutch. Including (yet another) source of gourmet chocolate and paper robots. There's never enough paper robots in the world.

Had a Rijsttafel for dinner. That's a meal which consists of two big bowls of rice and around thirty small cups filled with accompaniments (meat, tofu, vegetables etc). Filling and packed with different tastes, definitely a dish to have a repeat experience of. No tibetan beer to accompany the dish (the description of a clouded and less than traditional drink was deterring), but Bintang as replacement was not a disappointment at all.

Had a mighty japanese dinner in Tokyo Cafe.

The restaurant offers an eight-round (each with up to five items) dinner for a set price. The menu consists of makis (usually three), nigiris (single items) as well as additional salads, skewers and some fried dishes.

Managed 38 items between two people. And was not left hungry at all. Quite the opposite. The ordering is done with the chart shown in the attached photograph, the staff bringing the dishes to the table usually within minutes of receiving the order.

The restaurant is heavily recommended, with a stern warning of not overdoing the fried dishes. The choicest bits were the unagi maki and nigiri, chicked and tuna yakitori (slathered with delicious teriyaki sauce) and the seaweed salad.

Spent a good chunk of the day riding a bike through Amsterdam. And increased my belief from a previous trip that the bicyclists are the royalty of the city - bowing to no other traffic.

Indeed, coming from a city where car is king, the state of affairs in Amsterdam was both welcome and scary. Scary in the sense that most bikers seem to have their sense of self-preservation excised with a scalpel, so eager is their approach to any gap in the traffic.

This being a flat city, the bikes are simple affairs - most of them without gears. The absence of mountainbikes also quite apparent, as is the age of the average bike.

Rented a bike for a couple of days from Macbike, and settled for one with handbrakes. It's been two decades since a foot-operated bicycle, and felt a lot more comfortable with a familiar arrangement of operations. The bike was painted bright red, and obviously screamed "tourist" at the top of its voice. Which I didn't mind in the slightest, the extra room given by locals was appreciated.

Off to a long weekend in Netherlands.

Aimless hanging out in Amsterdam followed by a school reunion in 's-Hertogenbosch.

The less I think about work, the better success this bout of R&R will be.

Beerbottles go plastic.

And there was much rejoicing amongst the bicyclists and dog-owners.

Three big numbers, all courtesy of slashdot.

The english wikipedia has hit two million, that much has been established. But the indentity of the two millionth article has not (mediawiki does not number individual articles).

Firefox has hit 400 million downloads. The estimated market share is 17.4%, of the hits to this blog 35.6% (down from the >50% figures on account of masses of image searches via google, it would appear).

Bioshock has hit 1.5 million shipped units. And probably singlehandedly rescued the publisher from the low pressure front generated by the delays of GTA IV (coding issues) and Manhunt 2 (ratings issues).

Also from the site: music industry to introduce "ringle", a CD single with an on-board ringtone. And a very good exposé on the writing methods of Bioware.

The name of the fourth Indiana Jones movie was revealed in the MTV Video Awards on sunday. It's "Indiana Jones and the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull", a name that doesn't exactly roll off the tongue.

No Connery, but Karen Black from the original Raiders of the Lost Ark puts in an appearance.

Set in the 1950s, so probably no nazis either.

Both instances of Hakkapeliitat were soundly defeated this week.

The Yahoo team never recovered from its slow start, and sunk way below expectations.

The ESPN one fared a little better. But not nearly enough to put on a good game.

Team fixes shall have to wait until the third round - some of the guys may need a game or two to warm up properly.

Watched a bit of the Chiefs-Bears game, but a badly pixellated broadcast meant giving up early. Also noted that Subtv has started Friday Night Lights. On a friday night, even.

This week's fiver is about shoes, nothing more, nothing less.

1. How many pairs of shoes do you own? Why?

More than five. Less than a dozen. Can't be bothered to count right now.

One pair does not fit all situations. The collection ranges from scruffy canvas tops to posh black leather.

2. Do you prefer a certain brand of footwear? Why, if so?

Timberland has proven to be a solid choice. The looks are decent, and they last long.

3. How often do you pick up new shoes?

Twice a year, maybe.

4. Do you prefer a certain shoe shop, and why?

Nope. No favorites here.

5. Do you apply other criteria than size when shopping for shoes (like compatibility with clothes)?

Occasionally. Sneakers just can't be allowed to be white, for example.

I've come to a conclusion that I don't need a single watch.

I actually either need several or stick to having none at all.

• Something casual for everyday use (optimally with enough gadgetry to tide over boring bus journeys as an added bonus).
• Something funky, along the lines of the offerings from Tokyoflash recently offered in a comment.
• Something classy. The purchase of which probably will be sidelined until the next trip to Zürich or Geneve.

Greg Costikyan, an all-round game designer (and founder of Manifesto Games) has kicked off a website that provides a daily review of a non-mainstream game.

Thus far the selection has been interesting. Ranging from the truly obscure (Skotos' Lovecraft Country) to something that half of the magazines reviewed (Defcon).

And from a casual glimpse on the site learned two things:
a) there's a Mac version of Defcon available,
b) interactive fiction and puns mix very well indeed.

Well well, got bitten by a band I'd dismissed as a gimmicky project - nothing more, nothing less.

However, a project band for the Nighwish guitarist Brother Firetribe may be, the band executes the debut record False Metal exquisitely.

Heavy rock played with a wide smile, there isn't really too much of that going around these days. And with a vocalist who runs circles around the competition range-wise and hits the accent to a T, the bar is set even higher for the competition.

Definitely have to catch these guys live, when they start supporting the forthcoming second album in the winter.

The odd name of the band?

A terrible pun on a eighties finnish tennis pro...

Rarely has a scoreless draw felt so much like a victory.

Finland defended (and occasionally counterattacked) well yesterday in Belgrade, and came off with the bounty of a single point. And more importantly, two points away from the hosts.

With Portugal and Poland also splitting the points, Finland's position at #2 in the group is slightly stabler.

Stockmann runs a New York theme fortnight, and has imported a lot of culinary items not normally available.

Oreo cookies were one of the highlights of the shopping trip. These guys put the finnish imitation (Dominos) to shame. The cookie is crisper and far more chocolate-y.

Probably unrelated to the theme is the invasion of good bread. Good bread not being a core feature of the american shop, the existence of the likes of pecan/maple syrup-loaf is unexpected.

This week's photo friday challenge is purple.

My take on the subject is the attached image, a flower that I shamefully do not recognize (botany-skillroll fumbled, apparently).

The first game of this season in NFL is done - the Colts maimed the Saints 41-10.

Yahoo!:

Good news: Drew Brees threw some reasonable yards against the Indy defense (albeit two picks also), and Marques Colston caught a lot of passes in an unfriendly secondary.

Bad news: Neither of the Hakkapeliitat stars scored. But the Indy core WRs did. Thrice. So the hole in the first game of Yahoo's league is pretty deep already.

ESPN:

Good news: Peyton Manning threw three touchdowns.

Bad news: Reggie Wayne caught two of them.

Bring on the rest of the games.

Spent most of the afternoon and evening transporting Mr. Srpnt's sailboat from Linlo, Kirkkonummi to Svinö, Espoo. On the sea, only occasionally assisted with the engine.

And based on the seven hour journey, conducted in very mild autumn weather, I certainly can see why people lose their hearts (and the contents of their wallets) to the hobby.

Especially when doing absolutely nothing on the boat (leaving the trimming of the sails and the rest for the more experienced folks), this was an almost zen-like trip - the boat glides on the seas without any noises from the motor to mar the experience.

The just-before-sunset photograph is obviously a bit overexposed, but that's pretty much a) intentional and b) par for the course, when shooting directly into the sun.

Image: Alice Cooper by Dunechaser (CC)

Alice Cooper's Along Came a Spider won't be released until next spring, but the original shock rock mastero will tour Europe this winter.

Sadly, the warm-up/co-touring act is a definite letdown from the likes of Queensrÿche, Heaven and Hell and Motörhead that are featured on previous dates. In Finland we're destined to see the aging Uriah Heep instead.

The attached image is the result of a gratuitous flickr-search. A search that discovered dozens and dozens of minifigs dressed up more or less appropriately in genre/vintage garb.

The blog misrendered something fierce on IE (at least on 5.5 and 6) for a long while.

Finally sought out the culprit today. And noted that when it comes to debugging web pages, IE does not provide much assistance. Firefox, on the other hand, especially when boosted with the likes of Web Developer extension is a far more agreeable tool.

It turned out that tnternet explorer did not like my use of identifiers, and thus failed to render any of the divisions tagged with an identifier. Which pretty much meant this whole blog.

Proper browsers (Firefox and Safari to list just two obvious choices) never had any issue with the previous definitions, and they continue to work well.

The root cause? I hear you asking, with a quavering voice.

Simple: Internet Explorer does not like identifiers that begin with an underscore (that is one of these guys: '_').

According to the XHTML definition (as well as the XML definition referred to in that) this is a completely legal construct:

Names and Tokens

  [4]   	NameChar   ::=   	Letter | Digit | '.' | '-' | '_' | ...
  [5]   	Name	   ::=   	(Letter | '_' | ':') (NameChar)*
  [6]   	Names	   ::=   	Name (#x20 Name)*
  [7]   	Nmtoken	   ::=   	(NameChar)+
  [8]   	Nmtokens   ::=   	Nmtoken (#x20 Nmtoken)*

Mr. Underscore is there, in good company.

Funky.

Image: Train Crash Near Constantinople by iChris (CC)

Lautapelit.fi will publish a scandinavian edition of Ticket to Ride later this fall.

As noted in the developer's blog, this edition will not be sold outside the nordic region. Which is odd, considering that the previous expansion (Switzerland, with which the Nordic one shares the restriction to 2-3 players) is to be universally available soon. The reasoning behind making this a full game is sound, but the regional restriction is indeed peculiar.

A similar case of localization happened with the Siedler von Nürnberg game, a variant of the celebrated Settlers of Catan game that celebrated the founding of the city. Originally supposedly a limited edition, but nowadays available in good gamestores all over the world.

As a collateral link: boardgamenews.com, a site about just what the name states, discovered in the related entry in the Finland for Thought blog.

This week's photo thursday challenge subject is child.

My take on the subject is the attached image, of a girl thrilled to be cocooned in a gigantic soap bubble. The superstar costume of the artist is an added bonus.

(As usual, the full-size photograph is available by clicking the attached image. And the previous photo thursday pictures are all available through the gallery page.)

Not an iPhone

It's that time of the year again - a big Apple event, where new gadgets are revealed, and the geeky masses go berserk.

So what was announced this time - in "the Beat Goes On"?

The iTunes-powered ringtones are not exactly big news in a country that's wallowing in advertisements touting the greatest hits of the eighties and the over-produced spiritless products of Idols as a means to individualize your phone.

I'm happy with the 8GB iPod nano I have, but the wide-body model sure looks attractive - and they bring video to the form factor previously denied.

The storage capacity of the nano isn't increased, but the "classic" iPod now weighs in at 160 gigabytes. Which is actually bigger than any on-board hard disc that I've ever owned.

But the main event was the introduction of iPod Touch, the device without any buttons or wheels on it - just a glorious 3.5 inch widescreen display (and a totally revamped GUI - as shown in the attached image). A widescreen display on a device that's just 8 millimeters thick. A device equipped with WiFi (and a not-so-subtle dig at Zune while introducing the feature). And with the inclusion of a native web browser, the device actually leaps firmly into the land of the PDA, and leaves the "just a music gadget"-uniform behind.

Seriously covet-inducing. Especially considering that the price is very reasonable. Shortages predicted across the known universe, this gadget is going to sell like hotcakes...

(Yeah. Similar reports exist in all gizmo-blogs, I stick to the poison I've previously chosen.)

After fake Steve Jobs (still going strong, even after getting outed) we get fake Steve Ballmer.

Not nearly as well-written and insightful, but worth a look no matter what. A single look. Whereas the original kept coming back for more.

What's next? Or actually, who's next?

Ellison, Torvalds, some random geek turned CEO that no-one recognizes?

It might be a sign of the times, or it might just be an inkling that news resides in the web these days.

The troubled Business2.0 magazine is now officially shutting its doors.

Although it never aspired to the heights of Wired, nor attained the same degree of business clout as Red Herring (dead and resurrected), the Business2.0 was a nice magazine to read - a lightweight, definitely, but a well-written and enjoyable lightweight at that.

Image: Guitar Hero by ne0chaotic (CC)

No more Guitar Hero II for a while.

Finished medium. Screwing up the final encore song, Free Bird, in the last stages of the solo and had to do the full nine minutes again.

Experimented with the task of getting five stars on all songs on easy difficulty. And finally gave up on account of just not getting the necessary flow going on Stone Temple Pilots' Trippin' on a Hole in a Paper Heart.

Back to Bioshock.

Image: Junior Quarterback by Greg Robbins (CC)

What do you call four top quarterbacks?

An overdraft.

Put together a team in ESPN's fantasy league and ended up with no less than FOUR quarterbacks playing for Hakkapeliitat.

And top quarterbacks at that, since among the quartet are such gridiron heroes as Drew Brees, Marc Bulger and Carson Palmer. That is, in addition to Peyton Manning, my first pick.

As expected, the other picks brought in rather meager results, but with a quartet of playmakers like these, trading ought to present no difficulties.

(And yeah, the autopick-system should have avoided blindly picking players into the same positions - some of my co-coaches teams are bristling with extra receivers and running backs. Perhaps this is intentional, to push the players towards interaction, but I bet that this is just coincidental.)

Chumby is an open, widget-powered gadget that has a squeezable haptic interface.

Hardly a buzzword-compliant concept, but one that has evolved from an alarm clock with a weather forecast to an intriguing always-on platform for content.

The device generated a lot of buzz when introduced in the Foo Camp last year, and interest seems to have simmered ever since. And compared to the by far bigger new platform, the openness of Chumby cannot be overstated.

An interesting gadget, definitely, but whether it ever breaks out of the hacker ghetto remains to be seen. At least it's got more of a chance than Kerbango, which faded from the scene almost without a trace.

(This entry is white, like a couple of its image-equipped gadget-describing predecessors. Again on account of less than optimal dithering in the original image.)

Is a link valid until it is clicked?

Experiment with the following.

• My quest for a decent watch continues. Likely the eight listed under the heading of complex watches will not be the answer.
• This film is not yet rated, but it's available on google video. A supposedly great exposé on the history of the US rating scheme. Comments when I've finished watching it.
• Sagrada Família may be finished by 2026, the 100th anniversary of Antoni Gaudi's untimely death.
• The pompously named Megapolis 2022 event in october seems to center on local issues more than what's going on in the true megapolises.
• Reef aquarium was the featured article in finnish wikipedia last week (and an impressively thorough treatment of the subject).
• In october (in addition to the megapolis2022) is the fiftieth anniversary of the Sputnik, Mark Whittington's article examines the possibilities what might happen in the next fifty. Considering the glacial pace manned spaceflight has been evolving the ideas may be way too much on the positive side.
• Boingboing's Cory Doctorow has a column in the Guardian - missed out on that. The newest installment deals with topical subject: the futility of DRM.
• Bioware's Mass Effect has an official release date. November 20th / 23rd. Sadly, the latter is the pan-european date.
• Toscanini's black risotto ranks among the best meals of the last quarter.

Skrubu continues its minimalist approach towards the weekly fiver, this week's is about things that simply are meh to the extreme.

1. Big Brother

Ubiquitous. And annoying. Drunken riffraff out to milk the fifteen minutes of fame by outdoing each other in things that'll be regretted in a year or two.

2. National budget of 2008

It's all over the news. But it's nothing new, just more of the same.

3. Early morning meetings

There ought to be a law against. Or two. Enforced with fundamentalistic glee.

4. Shops are no longer allowed to be open on sundays

Hello? It's the 21st century calling! At least the shopkeepers ought to be given the possibility to keep the establishment open.

5. Big Brother

It's everywhere. But thankfully no-one at the office watches it. So we're spared the stories of the "wacky" and "daring" things the participants subjected themselves last night.

iPhone runs doom, that's been established.

A lot more retrogaming props are to be give for Frotz, a z-machine implementation.

The omission of the latter on the ubiquitous S60 continues to puzzle. The availability of full keyboards (eg. E70) and adaptive text input would be a boon for adventurers caught in the rush hour municipal traffic.

(Yes. Obviously I ought to quit bitching and port an interpreter, but the threshold to become prolific on the smartphone platform remains high, even after the addition of a standard C library. Maybe after I pick up an Intel-based laptop, since the S60 SDK seems to be Mac-hostile.)

Watched the second season of Doctor Who during the holidays. And continued to be impressed, very impressed.

The show goes from strength to strength during the thirteen episodes. The Girl in the Fireplace, the finest of them, is very good indeed - and its recent victory in the Hugo awards over SG-1 and Galactica was well-deserved. After all, there are way too few steampunk-inspired dramas featuring spunky blondes.

But the season retains its level throughout - while a couple of episodes rise slightly above the norm and a couple dip correspondingly, the average remains pleasantly high. David Tennant, the newest doctor turns out to be even better than his predecessor in the first season of the "new" series.

A lot of the mythos accrued during the previous 26 seasons is used as source material - some as-is, some with serious twists. And I'm sure the script is chock-full of inside jokes, which breeze by on account of not having a bachelor's degree in the mythos.

The wikipedia pages of the show (and individual episodes) are frightenigly well-researched. And very prone to spoilers, obviously. The dedicated wiki delves even deeper.

BBC has seen the value of the franchise, and embarked on a campaign to spin other series off the original. Torchwood features in most of the episodes of the second season, Sarah Jane Adventures will begin this fall - and two more: K-9 and an animated show are currently in pre-production.

A serious blemish on the production company is the careless trashing of more than a hundred episodes from the sixties and seventies. Obviously, Doctor Who is far from only show that endured this fate, but as one with a close to thirty year continuity, suffers a lot. Fortunately quite a few of the serials long thought to be gone have been recovered and subsequently restored, but dozens remain AWOL.

The old shows matter more as subjects of media archeology - even on conventional television science fiction standards they are quite primitive. But definitely ought to be preserved for the sake of completeness.

The new series, on the other hand, ranks amongst the best of the current crop of science fiction on offer. Something completely different from the melancholic militarism of the new Battlestar Galactica - these two shows complement each other well.

Missed the blog day on august 31st, but recommendations for interesting blogs are welcome any day...

• Kalajuttu is the first finnish fishkeeping-blog I've run across. And a good reminder that I ought to pull mine out of hibernation.
• Sentient Developments is a collection of interesting articles on science, singularity and other topics that skirt around transhumanism.
• Kolikon Kääntöpuoli: there's never enough said about games, comics and life in general - especially when accompanied with a decent amount of attitude.
• Emily Short writes pretty much the only blog about interactive fiction.
• Gamepolitics, because the two keep crossing each other frequently (and not only when herded by Jack Thompson).

Play.com has gone downright pessimistic in assigning a release date to the troubled Guns n' Roses album. Right now the album appears slated for release on 11.2.2008.

But it wouldn't be the first time the overdue and over-budget album has missed a release date: the sad history is available both on the wikipedia page (linked above) and a dedicated page that chronicles the ten years gone by.

Finland grabbed its only medal in the last possible moment in the World Championships in Track and Field in Osaka.

Tero Pitkämäki continued a long tradition in men's javelin, and took gold in the event.

Until this, I'd watched absolutely no content from Japan at all - the events were mainly broadcast early in the morning, and that's hardly a reason to wake up before the sun.

But hey, if the finnish success is dependent on me keeping an eye on the television, I'll gladly repeat the feat in the next major games. As long as the finnish athletics association pops their wallets open as an incentive to stay on the appropriate channel...

Haagan Hakkapeliitat is back, once again, in the Yahoo! Fantasy Football, to claw their way to the bowl in december.

Drafted in the eighth position, which meant that the big guns (running backs, mostly) were long gone it was my turn to pick. Didn't get Peyton Manning for the QB position (sadly downgraded in scoring), but Drew Brees put up formidable numbers in New Orleans last season and should not be a bad alternative.

On account of Finland moving to fully digitized television broadcasts, the biggest local cable operator attempts to attract customers with a free two-week period on all channels. This ought to include Viasat as well, who are the only source of NFL locally. Apart from the Superbowl, that is.

Been toying with the idea of running another team at ESPN's fantasy section, but that's by no means a certainty. A single team ought to be plenty to worry about already - there's this hurting tight end to attend to right now...

Rest assured: regular updates of the season's progress will be posted.

Following onwards from yesterday's Tähtifantasia, it's definitely season for awards right now, as this year's Hugos were just given to recipients. Haven't yet read Rainbow's End, but am pretty certain it beats Charles Stross' surprisingly weak Glasshouse quality-wise. And the best Dr. Who episode thus far Girl in the Fireplace righyfully claims top honors in "Dramatic Presentation, Short Form" (television show for us laymen).

There's a dedicated blog for an ongoing survey on the awards scene. Bound to come in useful since these things don't even dent the news threshold in Finland.

The unexpected inclusion of a flight simulator in the newest version of Google Earth seems to be the worst-kept easter egg in a while.

And the program itself, these days equipped with a treasure trove of stellar images from several sources, still ranks amongst the worst time stealers there is.

Bah, it would seem that the Blue Moon publishing company has abandoned their practice of publishing an Ian Rankin novel in paperback every summer.

I quite enjoyed the three first ones, and was pleased with the translation work (the second book contains a plot device that makes sense in english only).

But the series seems to have drawn to a close now.

And should the urge to read about an angst-ridden scottish policeman, the originals are definitely there. And these days Orion, the british publisher, includes a very convenient volume number in the back cover of the books. So picking up the correct book in the series is a few more steps easier now.

Tähtivaeltaja, the greatest sci-fi fanzine in the known universe, has launched an annual fantasy-specific award to complement their previous one that's given to the best science fiction book published in finnish the previous year (both domestic and translated output).

The first recipient of the brand-new Tähtifantasia-award is Jeff Vandermeer's City of Saints and Madmen. No idea which version of the book was translated, I've got it in english.

And have got it for a long time. With this award, it moves closer to the top of the books to be read.

Right now I'm in the middle of Scott Lynch's debut novel: Lies of Locke Lamora. Bought it after a rave review in hesari, and haven't been disappointed. In fact, considering the quality of the book and the fact that the latter volumes will take their good time arriving in paperback, it might be time to let out my repressed bibliographical perfectionism and buy the book in hardback - just to make sure that the entire series is decked out identically on the shelf...

Boingboing, one of the greatest aggregators of good stuff has been redesigned.

Unlike many recent efforts to re-do websites, the boingboing makeover is of a stealthy kind - and the appearance does not change. The addition of a dcedicated gadgets blog is welcome. Especially when it seems to be far less shrill than the conventional alternatives (gizmodo, engadget).

Among the worthwhile stuff lately:

• Denver International Airport conspiracies. By people with far too much time on their hands.
• Even when I'm not much of a coffee drinker (a serious anomaly in a country that's tops in the world in coffee consumption), the coffee drink composition guide is bound to come in useful when decoding the offerings at Starbucks and its colleagues.
• Smoke photography. Looks cool. And is certainly to be experimented with.
• A forthcoming anthology of apocalypse. Topic might be on the passé side, but the list of authors (George R. R. Martin, Cory Doctorow) sure piques interest.

So the redesign obviously hasn't sapped the quality of the linkage offered.

The fall season on television has now kicked off.

Amongst the shows to watch is Prison Break, which is now in the post-prison stage.

While the first season got stuck in the resolve one hardship per episode-rut, the second got off to a running start with the convicts scattering after the escape.

The tying off a loose end in the first episode was messy, both narratively and in execution (pun intended). But having moved (already in the final episode of the first season) to a stage where punches are not pulled, the show has got unpredictable and that definitely ups the interest.

Originally there were only two seasons planned, but the continued popularity has forced the producers hand to extend the plot. Hopefully this is doable without extensive stretching of credibility.

Indeed. Hell must be freezing over. Saw five Ferraris (two Testarossas and one Mondial among them) back to back at a traffic light in Töölö.

Helsinki now officially beats Geneve in the luxury car-moment competition.

Of course - following the bright red quintet was a typical aging rustbucket, shattering the illusion immediately.

(Should have photographed the cars, but was in a bus with a dirty windows, and not very quick to even think about it).

This week's skrubu's fiver requires readers to comment on the less than obvious details of home. Here goes.

• I've institutionalized the use of all horizontal surfaces as storage.
• The nano-sized zen garden on the kitchen window sill escapes the notice of a lot of visitors.
• The two neko cats are usually well camouflaged amongst the newspapers on the dinner table.
• I've never thrown away a tubular whiskey bottle case, and there's a few piled on top the kitchen cabinets.
• A lot of the wardrobe space, hidden behind sliding mirrors, is consumed by the collection of t-shirts.

This week's photo thursday challenge subject is digital image blanket, meaning that a collection of photographs taken near or exactly at 11:00 on 1.9. will be assembled.

I originally planned on photographing something spectacular in the bright early autumn sunshine, but sleeping in put a crimp on that. So here's proof that even inhuman monsters from beyond space, time and reason need a hug occasionally.

The picture is taken 1102 according to the EXIF data, but that's off by a minute or two. The location: my flat in Haaga.

(As usual, the full-size photograph is available by clicking the attached image. And the previous photo thursday pictures are all available through the gallery page.)