This entry is a seconded recommendation to the second collected edition of Brian Wood and Riccardo Burchielli's DMZ. The original analysis is available at Katuoja (and I do dig the HBO = Vertigo equation - even when the latter's batting average keeps dipping year after year).

This collection is indeed a much more mature chunk of the story of the Second American Civil War. The first five issues contained in the first collection begin very much in medias res, and rarely lets down the pace. This selection (a five-issue story and two loose issues) takes its good time in establishing the scene and history, and then lets go.

Lets go in the "question authority"-vein like no comic has done in a while. The characters are rarely plain black or white - just complex shades of grey. And the tone, often pointedly critical, doesn't really get preachy at all, but conveys well the desperation inherent in an unpredictable warzone.

So, where the story gained credibility from the previous outing, the art remains as it has been. And that's a compliment: Ruined Manhattan rarely looked this good.

In 1981 his Raging Bull was beaten by Robert Redford's Ordinary People.

In 1988 his Last Temptation of Christ was beaten by Barry Levinson's Rain Man.

In 1990 his Goodfellas was beaten by Kevin Costner's Dances with Wolves.

And in 2002 his Gangs of New York was beaten by Roman Polanski's Pianist.

Last night there was no-one to beat him, not even to try. Martin Scorsese finally got his oscar, for the Boston mob infiltration movie, The Departed.

And there was much rejoicing.

The Departed actually hit the coveted double-play, winning the award for both the best film and best director (as well as for screenplay and editing). The only nomination from the movie who did not pick up an Oscar was Mark Wahlberg, for his supporting role as the world's most angriest cop.

So I'm definitely not the only one who liked the movie.

The best actor and actress awards went to expected destinations - a surefire bet on either is to play a real person, somehow damaged if at all possible. Idi Amin^W^W Forest Whitaker picked up his for Last King of Scotland and Helen Mirren for The Queen. Haven't seen either, but at least in trailer form mr. Whitaker puts on a good show.

Woo. Jamie Zawinski's legendary xscreensaver has been ported to OS X. As a native application. And originally released on my birthday.

Mindless graphical trickery for the whole family.

I'm sure there are flashier screensavers available, but this is cannot be outdone on originality or variety.

First non-scifi/fantasy/horror/thriller book in a long while: Kjell Westö's Finlandia-prize winner Missä Kuljimme Kerran.

It's a chronicle that covers the first four decades of the 20th century from the perspective of half a dozen Helsinkians. The period covered is tumultuous, and especially the scars from the civil war prove too hard to overcome for some of the protagonists.

It's a longish book, weighing in at close to six hunderd pages, but quick to read. At times the author overshoots the purple prose index with lengthy descriptions of inconsequential things. But that's for the most part a mannerism that's easily tolerated.

The description of a small town slowly embracing new ideals is well-written. Jazz is clearly a dear topic to the author, as is football, since both of them feature in unexpectedly large roles, as do the prohibition and the speakeasies of the early thirties. Lots of famous finns have cameos in the book - the most blatant amongst them an actor called Tauno Brännas (who will rename and reinvent himself pretty much at the point when the book draws to a close).

A good book, nothing extraordinary, but pleasant to read. And a probable high profile television mini-series in a couple of years time - there's just too much ground to cover in a movie.

Next up: Jari Tervo's Ohrana.

This week's photo thursday challenge subject is opposites.

My take is the attached image - a contrast between hot and cold - a habanero chile in snow.

Habanero is the hottest chili pepper in the world, clocking in at a pleasant 300000 on the Scoville scale.

... something pops up from the left field.

Something like these bacon-flavored mints.

[ via kulutusjuhla. ]

Steve Ballmer, the Microsoft head honcho, has been making noises about "Linux violating Microsoft's intellectual property" for a long time. The pace of claims has only intensified after the Microsoft-Novell deal.

Showusthecode.com dares the Redmondians to come out with the facts. By may 1st. This year.

So in a few months' time we'll see whether Microsoft can back these claims, or whether they are full of hot air like SCO.

Attended a crowded gamenight at Lemmy's place yesterday.

Wii proved to continue as a crowd-pleaser. Sucked at bowling (probably the only sport where I'm decidedly better at the real thing than the simulation), enjoyed the newest Wario-game as much as on the previous occasion and was mystified by the very variable quality of the Monkey Ball party games. I so need to get a second controller before the Wednesday Emperors' Spring Equinox shindig (and maybe also a third and a fourth). Excite Truck was the first driving game on the Wii that I've tried, and the controls, while intuitive are no match to driving with a wheel (and a traditional pad beats the wiimote probably as well).

Had my first encounter with Radiant Silvergun on the Saturn, the most expensive game I've ever bought. The game's vastly more complex than apparent from the first sight - and I certainly didn't know that there are no less than seven different weapon systems available. It's a vertically scrolling shoot'em up, with a ton of action on screen. Apart from the variety of weapons, it quite resembles Ikaruga, and despite being run on older hardware, manages to put a respectable amount of bullets/missiles/ships/whatever on screen.

On Pro Evolution Soccer the five or so four-player games were pretty even - no goalfests occurred this time. Scoring ranged from ugly sweeps in front of the goal to well-executed passes. Played on the PS2, somehow that version seems more attractive than the X360 (whose glaring omissions do not affect casual play that much).

On the pinball front spent a lot of time on the newest addition: Pat Lawlor's rare Safecracker. It is a combination of a traditional pinball game and an electronic boardgame. And played against a time limit, not with a certain number of balls. Struggled with the game a lot, and only with the last play of the evening managed to beat the boardgame. Victory in which results in being awarded a special token that can be used to start an extremely fast-paced assault game against the bank. Put up decent scores in both the regular and assault, but on other pins the pickings were meager: beat 100M on Twilight Zone on every game, but never got a proper game going with Addams Family or Getaway.

Social electroning entertainment at its very best.

The blog's visitor counter broke the five-figure barrier last night.

Visitor #10000, who surfed in from vertex.fi at 00:07 am (without logging a referral), please make yourself known (in the comments or e-mail) and I will buy you a drink.

(And yeah, the statements made at the time of 5K-point are still valid. But let's not that get in the way of rewarding customers.)

Joined a couple of ex-colleagues for a Teräsbetoni gig yesterday upon them being saddled with extra tickets.

The gig was expectedly humorous, but also good. The band's over the top warrior-image is kind of endearing, and the macho-posing never reaches the lows of the grandfathers of the genre: Manowar.

The 70-minute show consisted of songs from both albums. Highlights came off the first: Tuonelaan rolled nicely, and the second encore Taivas Lyö Tulta obviously drew the biggest cheers. The material off the sophomore album just feels weaker on the album, and was far less convincing also when played live.

Virgin Oil's acoustics were not as terrible as I feared - the sounds were decent in the balcony as well. The house was not full, but enthusiastic - the audience sang along on most songs (and took over in a few).

As an added bonus, noted that the last 194N takes off after 2am, so was spared the already uncomfortably long taxi-queue.

Haagan Hakkapeliitat, the reigning champion of fantasy basketball just had a major setback, the proportions of which are currently unknown.

Dwyane Wade, the team's lead scorer (and cornerstone of slumping champions Miami Heat) dislocated his shoulder in Houston yesterday, and no official estimate of the rehabilitation period has been given.

If Wade's absence is as extended as the pessimistic estimates indicate, it's time to pick up a new point guard. The team's position at the head of the fantasy league looks comfortable, but the playoffs are a completely different story. And it obviously goes without saying that players of this caliber do not roam the wilderness of the waiver-list.

In other news, the NBA trade deadline passes, without any major moves.

Today's headlines from Link City Bugler:

• Shark Pictures. The variety among the species is great (and got incidentally discussed at length today on a non-coffee break).
• Cross-platform widgets. Something to look into once I finish my first.
• Shadow of the Colossus. Yet another quality wikipedia article. Yet another game I haven't even started.
• Lunar eclipse. A full lunar eclipse. At night. On a weekend. March 3rd, visible in Finland. Count me in.
• Slimline Classics. For the busy reader who wants to test the waters beyond Jackie Collins/Clive Cussler/Jari Tervo.
• What's so special about this number? Many things, as the 400+ kilobyte page explains (and restricts itself to the first ten thousand numbers).

Today's morning newspaper had a curious item: The free-distribution magazine V was withdrawn from circulation on Wednesday. “The main article of the issue dealt with drug use in a manner and tone which is not acceptable for a responsible medium”, said Janne Kaijärvi, the magazine’s editor-in-chief (translation stolen from Finland for Thought).

At first sight this seemed to be nothing more than a clever marketing stunt. While the magazine has the backing of a humongulous media consortium, there's no clear indication that it's pulling out ahead of the competition. Nothing like a bit of controversy to spark interest in the magazine.

The recalled issue came out yesterday, and I was surprised to see the version 2.0 already out this evening. Either the printing gnomes got busy, or the second batch was already prepared in advance.

The offending four-page article has been excised from the updated edition, and not replaced at all. The timeoutish-section begins on the same page as the original article).

Of course, in the era of persistence, it did not take long until the censored article resurfaced. On one hand it is surprisingly positive towards recreational drugs, but on the other, the content is hardly on the level of civil disobedience this morning's news made it out to be...

Looks like messieurs Hetfield, Ulrich, Hammett and Trujillo cannot get enough of touring, and Metallica will be on the road next summer.

The Sick of the Studio '07 will follow last summer's Escape from the Studio-tour, and this time the selection of venues does include Helsinki (for the eighth time).

Let the struggle for tickets on an overloaded server begin. Though the interest may be somewhat stricken by Ilosaarirock that finishes on the day of the gig.

Alamaailman Vasarat, the greatest fictional world music group in the world, will release their fourth album on march 14th.

Already booked a ticket to the party. And warmly suggest you do the same if ethnographic brass-punk is close to your heart. Or if you have any desire what kind of music hides behind such a description.

Randomly selected surfing destinations for the selective traveller.

• An amazing collection of geographically alternate earths. A lot of science, very little fiction, pretty maps. Worth a peep.
• If nothing else, Joel Kotkin launches half a dozen new words in his article on superstar cities.
• A nice selection of textbook disclaimers (yes, this is an anti-intelligent design page).
• Kickassclassical, for those awkward moments when you cannot recognize a piece if classical music featured in media (odds are 2.21 to 1 that it's Carmina Burana anyway).
• JPG magazine, looks like best-of-flickr on paper. Which is not a bad thing at all.
• Angry Alien produly presents: 30 second editions of popular movies, as acted by animated bunnies. The hotel room wrestling scene of Borat is deeply disturbing even in this format,
• Boo hoo, bad microsoft, allegedly turning e-mail back five years by replacing the HTML-renderer in Outlook. Here's a clue: no HTML in e-mail. Have two, actually, they're pretty small.

After a few warmish weeks, the temparature has gracefully dipped deep into the blue again. Mornings are frisky indeed, and sunlight does not heat a lot.

Time for the annual Seurasaari roundabout this weekend, maybe? Though it would be so much better in sunlight.

Of course, if Mr. Omninerd is to be believed, the weather forecasts are not worth trusting.

Turns out that my half-joking prediction of a National Treasure franchise is moved one step with the release of a sequel just for christmas.

Indeed, the suggested release date for National Treasure 2: The Book of Secrets is december 21st. And why not, as I stated in the review back in 2005, I quite liked the movie (especially its attitude towards solving problems with non-violent means) and the american history is full of nooks and crannies that can be exploited for script purposes.

gmail isn't out of beta yet, but now everybody is free to join up without needing an invitation.

It's not perfect, but it's still the best free e-mail solution available.

Give it a shot, especially if you're still a suffering hotmail user.

In the long series of albums creeping in under the radar: Type O Negative will release their sixth studio album Dead Again in march (the band's web page, unfortunately, bears no information on it right now). Haven't seriously gotten into any of their albums post-Bloody Kisses, but every one of them graces the cd-shelf.

In other news: Chris Cornell has left Audioslave. Now there's no excuse not to reform Rage Against The Machine on a permanent basis, and not just for a one-off at Coachella.

MPAA obviously does not practice what they preach.

Or maybe they can justify their fullscale ripoff of the ForestBlog used of their page. With any evidence of it carefully edited off.

Of course, MPAA not having played nice with anybody lately, their virtual get out of jail-card expired ages ago.

[ via srpnt. ]

Saw Edward Zwick's Blood Diamond yesterday. The movie manages to describe a touchy subject without resorting to being too preachy about it

The subject of the movie is the trade of blood diamonds, gemstones from conflict zones. The story is told from the perspective of three protagonists, but the viewpoint is shared for the vast majority of time, and there's very little weaving of storylines together.

Leonardo DiCaprio is surprisingly good as Danny Archer, a Zimbabwean smuggler. Even his south african patois gets bearable after the first fifteen minutes or so. Jennifer Connelly is as cute as expected, and by no means a weak link among the cast. But her role is much more limited than that of DiCaprio's, and especially of the true star of the show: Djimon Hounsou, who excels as the sierraleonean whose family is caught up in the revolution.

The film does not dwell on the atrocities of the civil war, but does briefly touch upon the most famous them such as asking "short sleeve or long sleeve" while wielding a bloody machete and the brutal the practices used in indoctrinating child soldiers. The city warfare scenes in both Freetown and the countryside are nasty and chaotic, as expected in such a free-for-all conflict.

The contrast between the human misery and natural beauty is immense, with the camera panning across lush forests and rocky mountains longer than needed to just establish the scene. It's not as pretty as the New Zealaner scenery in Lord of the Rings, but then again, very few things are.

The trailers shown before the main event were nothing spectacular, but I was surprised to see a short infomercial for World Food Program, one done using the actors from the movie (apart from DiCaprio) - not part of the movie proper, but shown just before the initial production company logo. And the film certainly was a reverse advertisement for the entire diamond industry, and the mercenary establishments do not get a clean bill either.

Saw Poets of the Fall in Tavastia yesterday.

The place was sold out, but the crowd didn't seem that large (or perhaps it was excruciatingly dense in front of the stage). The band started at a very reasonable hour, taking the stage at half past eleven. Played for ~75 minutes, with a four song encore.

Hadn't seen the band live before, and was pleasantly surprised by their performance. They played the biggest and expected hits such as Late Goodbye (famous from Max Payne 2) and Carnival of Rust, without resorting to cover songs or experimental interpretations of their own songs. I don't know their output well enough to draft a setlist - the forum at the band's website is a good starting point to seek one out.

Target 1: Monocle, a magazine on business and economics by the guys that founded Wallpaper*. At least the design ought to be a bit more modern than that of the venerable Economist. Not that I'm disrespecting the latter in any way, the quality of the editorial content remains high.

Target 2: Vanity Fair normally gets read as a fourth choice on long haul airplanes, but the newest issue, a 500-pager on Hollywood and the movie industry is bound to contain interesting articles. At least the one on the Pirate Bay is both unexpectedly long and well-written.

Recent pickups or changes on the blogroll.

• Katuoja attempts to move into daily article mode.
• AC/OS, semi-interesting open source-related discussion.
• Emily Short has converted her wide-encompassing pages on interactive fiction to blog format.
• Juha Ylitalo is an old schoolmate - his blog concentrates on photography.
• Original Signal, a cleanly designed aggregator of dozens of other blogs.

... visit Swamp Music. That seems to be a law of nature these days.

Spent my first frequent shopper-card on Gothic Kabbalah, Therion's newest album, and couldn't leave with just meagre pickings - bought the sole missing "number" album of Peter Gabriel, a Laibach retrospective and one more Paradise Lost album.

So the progress towards the next free record has now been initiated.

This week's photo thursday challenge subject is friend.

My take is the attached image - of a bookmark with a very apt statement on it.

And I'm not going to start arguing with Groucho here, though I do prefer cats to canines.

Moral bonus points to anyone who recognizes the books - some trivial, some that require quite a bit of guesswork (or inspired amazon searches).

Almost missed last week's challenge - entered it on the preceding wednesday, which is quite late for comfort.

Upon repeated prods from interested parties I finally figured out where my old thesis was, and put it up on the appropriate page (which has stood empty for more than three years now).

So - let the Lavonardo HQ proudly present: POSIX/DMX Yhteiskäytön Toteutus DX200-Ympäristössä. Not exactly a title that seductively rolls of the tongue, right?

And yes, it is in finnish. And no, I'm not about to embark on a translating journey. Questions on the subject might get answered, depending on the magnitude of the bribe.

Despite the operative word above being "old", don't knock yourselves out laughing. POSIX still survives, and thrives in many different operating systems.

And as an unexpected turn of events, Nokia has unleashed a second POSIX interface to cover the nastiest bits of an operating system. This time it's for the Series 60.

Next stop: figuring out a way to plonk it into my old alma mater's electronic gallery. And adding some relevant links into the sidebar of the thesis page would be good as well.

The perennially useful Jason Kottke provided no less than three very interesting topics topicsday.

Tried out origami a few years back (bought a starters kit from a dingy Chinatown shop in San Francisco). Liked fiddling with paper, but obviously not enough to keep doing it. This exposé on a master of the art just might re-strike the spark of interest. The papers ought to be in a drawer, so all I now need is a rainy day for inspiration.

The Morning News provides a guide on How to behave in New York. Been hankering to go back a long while, and the mightily verbose guidelines ought to be applicable to any urban environment anyway...

And last, but definitely not least, especially in stirring up a hornets' nest way: an imaginatively abusive rant against gadgets from the former alpha geek of gizmodo. About as entertaining as William Shatner trashing trekkies back in the day in the Saturday Night Live.

Yesterday's killing spree in Utah is the second that has ever occurred in a location I have visited.

The location of the tragedy, Trolley Square in Salt Lake City was the first place in the states where I had a beer, the first location where I watched a movie. Heineken and The Firm, respectively.

The first? Myyrmanni.

And I sure hope the length of the list doesn't grow.

First collection of links in a long while.

• H.P. Lovecraft's Case of Randolph Carter as hypertext. The interface is iffy, but the concept interesting (seek out Anchorhead for an even better experience).
• An overview of parallel computing. 50+ pages, probably not that light reading.
• Gonegaming's awards for 2006.
• An absolute treasure trove of unusual articles in wikipedia. In some cases mere "unusual" is definitely an understatement.
• In the beginning (like, seven years ago), there was korsoraattori, now there's a a new dialect of SQL for the folks from northeastern Vantaa.

This week's photo thursday challenge subject is shoes.

My take is the attached image - of my wintershoe, a reliable Timberland.

There's been enough of dramatically posed high heels, images of shoe closets in need of a good spring cleaning and footsteps in the snow. At least the shot selected here gave me a good excuse to play with the decent macro-capability of the camera.

Steven Johnson's book Everything Bad is Good for You has just been published in finnish by Terra Cognita.

The author (apparently) visited Finland last week, and the results of an interview have been published in two blogs by helsingin sanomat. The two blog entries concern themselves with the two main halves of the book: Rajatapauksia concentrates on the side of television (and especially Lost), whereas nyt pelittää discusses gaming.

The book is worth its accolades, it is provocative without being preachy, it is interesting to both culture snobs and laymen, and most of all it is readable and brief (unlike, say, Richard Florida's Rise of the Creative Class).

And I agree with the key point: while neither gaming nor television are universally good - far from it - at best they produce entertainment that demands much more from its users than is conventionally believed.

This is especially clear in the case of television - modern series would be incomprehensible to the watchers of seventies. The shows have turned from single-plot episodes (where the reset-button is pressed at the end) to complicated multi-plot dramas, where story arcs span across multiple episodes (and potentially across seasons as well). Somebody weaned on the monolithic storytelling of Starsky and Hutch would be utterly lost in the likes of Sopranos or 24.

In the domain of games the evolution has been magnitudes faster. From Pacman the norm has shifted to the likes of GTA and World of Warcraft. Johnson's paradox has been quoted in pretty much every article about the book, and it is a neat thought experiment: how would literature be thought of if interactive entertainment was the established norm, and books the newcomer on the scene.

As stated, this is a good book, worth picking up by anyone even remotely interested in the subject. The UK edition was sold for 7€ in the recent book sale, and copies may still be available in stores.

The finnish wikipedia broke the 100000 article barrier today.

With hundreds of articles entered on the last two days, this is probably a sprint that is not sustainable in the long run. But bring on 200K (and a move to the top size category), just don't expect it to be done this year...

The 100000th article? On Planck Energy.

Among my collection of dvds there aren't many cases that stand out from the shelves. Most of them are black or dark grey, with occasional whites and cardboard editions thrown in for good measure. But there is one case that raises eyebrows with its colour alone - boldly purplish pink, with glitter strewn in the plastic.

That case belongs to Stephan Elliot's Adventures of Priscilla, Queen of the Desert, a movie I did not expect to like, but did, immensely.

It's a movie about drag artists travelling through Australia to play a series of shows in Alice Springs, in the middle of the continent. And the drag artists are by no means 9-5 guys, but an extremely (and variably) flamboyant lot.

Flamboyant enough that the trip through the outback is not empty of misadventures. Ones that range from whimsically campy to brutally violent.

The humor in the movie is very much on the black side, and that and the subject may put off a lot of potential viewers. As stated, I certainly did not expect to like the film much, and originally picked it up upon being grossly misinformed that Russell Crowe stars in it. For the record, he does not, and it's actually his co-star from L.A. Confidential, Guy Pearce, that I mixed him up. However, despite a failed sighting of Mr. Crowe, I ended up liking the movie a lot. Priscilla is rather similar in spirit to Muriel's Wedding, another black aussie comedy with Abba, and that's a serious pro in my book.

In addition to Guy Pearce, the other two guys in drag put up great performances - Terence Stamp is as different from his masculine roles as you can get, and Hugo Weaving shows a side not seen in the Matrix or Rings-trilogies.

I don't think my path last fall crossed with that of Priscilla's trail (sadly missed King's Canyon and Coober Pedy was nowhere near), but I certainly recognized the images of open red desert and heat-ridden towns.

So, watch this movie - it will brighten up your day. It certainly did mine, last week, when I watched it for the second time.

Jalava has reprinted Ambassador of the Shadows, one of the very best Valerian stories. The tale brims with sense of wonder, and ought to be mandatory reading for anybody that bears even a small liking of quality science fiction.

The album was published in the late eighties as a hardcover edition, and it quickly became a very sought-after item, topping a 100€ price tag as a second hand book.

Looked at the comic briefly yesterday, and it seems to be an exact replica of the original - including lettering by the controversial laplander Kalervo Palsa.

(And yeah, I certainly did not expect such a long and involved album-specific entry to exist in wikipedia.)

Joined Coastr, a social network for beerdrinkers.

It's new, simple and unpretentious. And without a large user base thus far. So don't expect all your favorite suds (or pubs) to be present already, but get cracking on adding them. But indeed, the approach is fresh, the application itself clean, and the topic interesting. And since building the site was a learning experience (deep linking to blog entries does not work), it's a testament to the power of Ruby on Rails as well

And if you're after more serious (and one might say, a bit pretentious) fare, the beeradvocate may be more up your alley.

This week's five is all about food.

1. What are your five favorite spices?

Chili, white pepper, cilantro, rosemary, basil. Five's too few...

2. Name five countries whose cuisine pleases you.

Japan, Italy, Mexico, Thailand, India. Five's way too few in this category as well.

3. List five great ingredients.

Cow, fresh tuna, wild mushrooms, rice, dark chocolate. Guess what, five's too few here as well...

4. And five dishes you cannot stand.

Roasted liver, diced meat in dill sauce, mämmi, blood {sausage|pancakes|*}, finnish idea of a "salad".

5. Where in the web do you find recipes? Or are you still using dead trees as a source?

Google. And books. And magazines.

So, among the last acts of the finnish parliament was the law that bottles containing more than 2.8 percent alcohol must bear warning labels.

Quite what this is expected to accomplish is not exactly clear. Labels are not going to stop anybody from having yet another sip, that's for sure. Collateral damage consists of the fact that the smaller importers will be struck by the legislation much worse than the monopolistic Altia.

Temperance-crazed hypocritic bastards, the 104 of them voting "yea".

My library card, after a full service, discharged without any disciplinary issues.

No idea how long I've had this, the text is faded on the back side of the plastic as well (I think the numbers 96 stand out, but that's a wildish guess).

Got a new card gratis, Conan the Librarian (or actually his kid sister) was quite impressed by the damaged card - and the fact that it was still functional in the reader.

From the gospel of St. Steve of Jobs, chapter 4, verse 17: Steve smites the purveyors of crippled music in a blog entry:

The third alternative is to abolish DRMs entirely. Imagine a world where every online store sells DRM-free music encoded in open licensable formats. In such a world, any player can play music purchased from any store, and any store can sell music which is playable on all players. This is clearly the best alternative for consumers, and Apple would embrace it in a heartbeat.

Let's see, if Jon Johansen is to be believed (and why shouldn't he, having cracked many of the content protection schemes already), the time to walk the walk as opposed to just talking the talk will be soon.

It should not take Apple's iTunes team more than 2-3 days to implement a solution for not wrapping content with FairPlay when the content owner does not mandate DRM.

I'm pretty sure that the likes of boingboing won't let this plea go unwatched.

Best picture in a long while. Australia Day fireworks, the McNaught comet and a frisky thunderstorm all in the same panorama. The comet is not too visible on this shrunken copy, but do click the image and see it in full glory.

Brilliant (as they say in the Fast Show), brilliant enough to be selected as the astronomy picture of the day by NASA.

The photographer is a finnish guy on an exchange program in Australia, and if this image is on par with the rest, then his blog and gallery definitely merit frequent browsing.

[ via Überkuul. ]

The trusty old 6680 is starting to show signs of aging: the "chrome" has worn off the back, it goes into SMS-pull mode once a month and exhibits even more drastic memory leakage than before.

Of course the last symptom could easily be explained by careless addition of new applications, but have refrained from that for months.

So, the scene is set for a new phone. And the forthcoming n95 seems like the gadget to get.

The five megapixel camera is what made Christian Lindholm break out superlatives, and the on-board GPS (and maps stored on memory card) would mean one fewer device to carry on occasional geocaching bouts.

So, without any proper reviews of the phone (the allaboutsymbian article does not count as one - but it does have the requisite amount of unboxing porn), this indeed looks like the device to get - but it remains to be seen what kind of almost-crippling defect has been smuggled aboard. Glacially slow interfaces, a pitiful battery life and insufficient RAM have been sighted in recent products (by all phone vendors, not just the finnish giant).

So, unless something even more useful is pushed out the gates in 3GSM next week, this will be my next phone. Shipping date, please?

Jessica Hagy outlines the twenty-one secondary sins on her page (go ahead and click the link, I'm not going to steal the image...)

Secondary in the sense that each is a combination of two of the original seven.

Lust + Pride = Trophy Wife
Gluttony + Sloth = Saturday

Some of the definitions do not hit their marks full on, but most do.

The secondary sins are now enumerated - with the tertiaries there's a long way to go - just three are spelled out in the original entry's comments.

And while the septagon would make a great t-shirt, the amount of text-juggling needed to fit them all in along the crossing lines would probably prove impossible. Or the text would need to be rendered in sizes Way Too Small for a shirt.

And the rest of the site is well worth spending a few minutes on. The graphs are simple enough to be comprehended even in the most coma-inducing meetings.

Yes. A site where people can rate their favorite words does seem a bit odd.

Especially when the site is all about just laying out the words, not explaining the in any way (but conveniently linking to explanatory sites).

But a brief look every now and then certainly cannot hurt - and new words interjected into conversations don't, either. And the site is indeed educational, of the top five words I've used two, and have a pretty good idea what a third one means. The other two - well, that's what the explanations are for...

The last chapter of the seven-part Harry Potter saga has a publication date.

And if the previous few release dates are any indication on what to expect on july 21st, the neighborhoods around bookstores will be overrun by pint-sized witches and warlocks, drunk on adrenaline, expectation and sugar.

Me? I'll slink in noonish, pick up the book and disappear somewhere comfortable to read. Probably, mid-july being prime vacation season this is not a plan to commit to any time soon.

Viasat and mtv3 failed to show the television ads from Superbowl, but no fear, as noted by Mr. Überkuul in previous comments, Google Video/Youtube have got the entire collection.

Gave up pretending to be a member of the yarnhamster horde.

Lots of new readers, most of whom probably dropped by and left, disgusted.

Colts finally took what could have been theirs som many years ago - this time they did not trip over the Patriots on the way to the Superbowl. The score (29-17) flatters the Bears, they got steamrolled, plain and simple.

For a long while (most of the first quarter) I was worried. Devin Hester scored on the first return, and Peyton Manning looked to be on the edge of choking.

Then the Chicago defense apparently lost its playbook, and Rex Grossman's Mr. Hyde, "The Inconsistency Man" appeared. The backup quarterback of Hakkapeliitat was not in good form - throwing passes into double coverage to interceptions.

The persistent Florida rain had an unexpectedly large effect on the game as well - turnovers were piled high - including no less than three muffed snaps.

The half-time show featured no wardrobe malfunctions this time, and the only people complaining to the FCC this year are the irate Bears fans.

And so much for Peyton Manning not being able to win big - his leadership of the Colts offense prove that he's not just a record-setter, but also a winner.

20-odd minutes to Superbowl XLI kickoff.

Let's go. Too bad the Viasat presentation will not feature the most expensive commercials of the year. But the game itself will be televised whole, and that's the main event. With an added bonus of a non-finnish commentary.

Kainalopallokorneri has a four man liveblog of the game.

Just saw Alfonso Cuaron's Children of Men a dystopic vision of a barren future.

And the despair and utter lack of hope are indeed piled on, from the beginning it is clear that the mankind has failed. The plot centers on Britain, which is drummed up to be the last bastion of civilization, but that's likely just propaganda. The cinematography of the failed cities looks scarily authentic - especially in the Bexhill camp.

Clive Owen further cements his place on the list of Lavonardo-approved actors with this movie. Apart from Michael Caine, who puts on another Oscar-worthy supporting actor performance here, the rest of the cast remains oddly faceless.

The soundtrack supports the visuals - King Crimson stands out on the rare visit to pristine City, and the odd take on Stones' Ruby Tuesday is a hauntingly hollow reinterpretation of the classic.

After seeing this film, I no longer think that the original book is an oddity in the bibliography of PD James, but wish that she'd branch out of british mysteries more often.

Bleak, but worth watching - the best movie of the year thus far. And with Pan's Labyrinth and Prestige in the competition, that's a hefty recommendation indeed.

In a study that surprises absolutely no-one, scientists at the University of Jena have determined that the only thing that exceeds a sloth's laziness is its stubbornness. Mats the sloth refused to climb poles even when enticed with delicacies such as cucumber, and was returned to a zoo (where he is reportedly very happy) after three years of trying.

Mats obviously wanted absolutely nothing to do with furthering science.

Axel Burchardt, a university spokesman

[ via Clive Thompson. ]

Football in Italy has been ground to a halt with a governmental command after two casualties in a week (neither of whom was a rioting fan).

This has nothing to do with their world cup glory, the bribery scandal or the transfer of Ronaldo to Inter Milan.

Nope, it seems to be just a case of letting things slide by not doing enough. The clubs do not own the stadiums, but rent them from the cities, and neither has any incentive to buff up either the conditions or the security on and around it.

The two top level leagues are now indefinitely on hold, the government hitting the owners where it hurts the most (the wallet, no maiming of a body part would give the same results). So, in a week or two money will talk, and the club owners shall agree on how to start defusing this vicious circle of violence.

IGN has offered a first look at the additional content of the forthcoming XBox 360 version of Guitar Hero.

And the news is indeed good - the added tracks include Alice Cooper's Billion Dollar Babies and Iron Maiden's The Trooper. And the other featured artists are not to scoff at either: Deep Purple returns with Hush and Pearl Jam makes its debut in the series.

I'm sure glad I waited before pouncing on the PS2-version.

Of course, the game, to be released in Europe in april, would be even better with the addition of all songs from the first game. But that's hardly a wish I expect to be realized.

The Economist's venerable Big Mac index, an indicator of purchasing parity between nations, has a new sister.

The iPod index compares the price of a 2GB nano, and the results vary from 144 to 327 dollars - with Canada as the cheapest source and Brazil by far the most expensive. Finland, for the benefit of those calculating the score at home, places in the top third, unsurprisingly with a lot of other Euro-based countries.

An even more urban legendesque McDonalds-tidbit is that despite a common belief, the Golden Arches do not prevent conflict between McD-equipped nations.

Rob Reiner might approve, Stanley Kubrick probably wouldn't.

• When Harry Met Sally as a stalker-flick.
• Mary Poppins meets the Exorcist.
• Sleepless in Seattle (wait-for-it) be-stalkerized.
• The Shining as family drama (with an unexpected Peter Gabriel bit in it).
• Titanic horrorized as well (but fast cuts are no replacement for imagination).

If you've only got the time and/or patience for one, definitely go with the Shining - by far the best of the bunch.

[ via boingboing. ]

Following the peculiarly good Pan's Labyrinth the other day, I thought a re-watching of Hellboy is in order.

And unexpectedly noted that I never bought the movie on dvd. And upon perusing the wares of the mainstream shops, it's not exactly given top billing. And since the irreplaceable dvdcompare notes that there are quite a few releases of the film, care must be taken when buying.

So, yet another film onto the "to purchase"-list.

Yesterday the hotlist of the finnish blogosphere was overrun by lankahamsterit, a collective of knit-bloggers.

Changed the name of this very blog on a whim to almost correspond to the naming convention (Lankahamsterit - HPK 6-0), and the results were pretty much immediate - more readers per day than ever before.

Rest assured that things, including the name, will return to their boring selves once the sudden interest dies down.

And not light reading at that. Harvard Business Review has listed their ideas on what's important in 2007.

While a lot of the topics on the list are nothing but fluff, there are interesting ones as well: continuous partial attention and user-centered innovation at the very top.

Had completely missed out on the fact that the authors of Yksilön Ääni, a recently published study of the need to evolve the finnish society, have a blog.

The blog seems to be on the worthwhile side, albeit slow with updates, but I bet that the titles of the entries end up rubbing many readers the wrong way. Almost everything is "2.0". Certainly very zeitgeist-y in the second half of the first decade of the 21st century, but a device that gets old fast.

(And yeah, I know I've abused the notation as well, but at least the interval between such abuses is counted in months, not days.)

Wah? Clint Eastwood's Flags of Our Fathers is out of the theatres already?

So much for the idea of watching it, and its companion film, Letters From Iwo Jima back to back.

Snap has now published instructions on how to disable the distracting previews once and for all. That is, if you're willing to allow it to store a cookie. A small price for a grand accomplishment.

This week's photo thursday challenge subject is coincidence.

My take is the attached image - of a laughing kookaburra. The bird was photographed last november, on the very last morning of a week-long stay in Brisbane. Had heard the birds almost every day (their call is quite unlike anything else on this earth), but only seen them in a birders' field guide. Happened to spot a pair conveniently close in the warming morning sun, and the birds did not mind posing.

(The attached image is tightly cropped, clicking on the picture shows the bird in much wider scope.)

Time for another weekly five, after a short break. Mistranslations and breaches in logic all mine. The topic this week is books, something quite dear to me.

1. Do you read books? And if you do, where do you get them: bookstores, second hand shops, the web, libraries? Perhaps you keep getting them as gifts or bribes only?

Do I ever. I've got metres and metres of Lundia shelves buckling under the load of books.

And I keep buying them wherever I see them. Including the stores on the web (if amazon gave out frequent flyer miles, I'd probably reach Mexico). Libraries less so, mainly on account of a misplaced library card (and my adamant refusal of paying a few euros for a replacement).

And I certainly will not say no to books as gifts either, but that's not a major source of reading material anyway.

2. Facts or fantasy? Original or translated? Hardback or softcover? Or perhaps you're satisfied with personally signed first editions only...

Both, and many things besides. I consider myself an omnivorous reader.

In english if that's the original language - otherwise translated. German and swedish are rusty enough to warrant that reading in them is much slower.

Fiction mainly in paperback form. Though some authors (Brin, Ellroy, Pratchett to name a few) will be picked up ASAP after publication.

There are just a couple of signed books in the library - perhaps the oddest among them is Chuck Palahniuk's Fight Club.

3. Is a book a data storage device or an object to you? Do you need to be able to browse physical books or can you order books based on cold metadata and reviews alone?

An object, definitely. But not an object that I need to interact meaningfully before buying. As noted above, I'm a happy amazon customer.

4. Do you find the thought of buying second hand books unappealing? Do you ever sell your own books? Would being given a second hand book be insulting?

Nope, though visits to second hand shops have been rare of late. And it's been absolutely ages since I sold any books (just like records, they're pretty much permanent features once purchased). And the answer to the last question is a firm "no", usually there's a pretty good reason (like the said book being sold out) behind such an offer.

5. Which books are you reading right now? Where do you read books - train, bed, sofa or even a coffee shop?

Just started two books: Kjell Westö's Finlandia-winning Missä Kuljimme Kerran and Don Tapscott & Anthony Williams' Wikinomics. And there are a couple of unfinished books lying around as well - been reading Alastair Reynolds' Absolution Gap for ages - it just hasn't taken off like the previous books in the series.

Due to a short journey to work (20 minutes walking, two stops on a bus), I don't read much in public transport, but usually keep a book in the backpack just in case.

Discovered yet another quality HBO-series: The Wire, a police show set in Baltimore.

And like so many other shows from the HBO stables, this is not an instant hit. No, it's too complex and packed with too many characters to string the viewers up at first sight. Instead, it pulls the hook in tight and goes for the jackpot - resembling the channel's previous hits: especially Sopranos and Deadwood.

The Wire is a complex show - the whole first season consists of a single case, seen through the eyes of both the police and a formidable drugdealing organization. But it's by no means a simple us against them case, as there are rifts among both camps, issues that threaten to derail the proceedings altogether.

And being an HBO production, this is not a nice show. The multifaceted protagonists are not knights in shining armor, and neither are the criminals just one-dimensional opponents. The characters are painted in shades of gray, which just makes them so much more believable. Swearing, while prevalent, is not as conspicuous as in Deadwood - but its presence sure adds credibility to the dialogue, just the few tiny steps that would push something like NYPD Blue closer to perfection if allowed.

The city of Baltimore, and especially its corrupt legislators, is one of the characters of the show, with the camera picking up both the good and bad sides of it.

First season is now done, bring on the others. At least the second one is out locally (again much cheaper than the region 1 release), and I'll hunt down the third at an appropriate time as well.