I saw this cartoon last night in one of the afternoon tabloids. If you read it and are aware of prices of office space in NY, you most probably understand the joke. However, if you’re a traditional Finn with no knowledge of the subject - you won’t get the joke no matter what. (click on the image to get the larger one -> all sizes to see the actual size)
The secret is that Starbucks offers the cheapest office space in NY with free wifi.
Regular readers of my blog may have noticed that I’m not a big fan of large media companies. Sony BMG just proved one of my thoughts correct. Take a look at this Business Week article. F-Secure warned the company on October 4th, about the possiblity of problems with its DRM-stuff (This was about 3 weeks before it emerged in blogs and about 6 weeks before it emerged in traditional press).
F-Secure, a Finland-based antivirus company that prides itself on being the first to spot new malware outbreaks, says Sony BMG didn’t understand the software it was introducing to people’s computers and was slow to react.
“If [Sony] had woken up and smelled the coffee when we told them there was a problem, they could have avoided this trouble,” says Mikko H. Hypponen, F-Secure’s director of antivirus research.
And did they? Nope. They are not actively interested in serving customers. If they were, they would have taken actions towards this problem and it would not have happened in this magnitude (it would, nevertheless, but they could have been better prepared).
I’m not saying it’s easy, but they could have done it. Large companies have a lot more responsilibility towards customers and this is a grand example how to neglect it.
Thank you Sony for proving my case.
David Weinberger will be giving a talk at the next Aula event. Those who don’t know David, he’s been called a “marketing guru” by The Wall Street Journal. He’s the co-author of the The Cluetrain Manifesto, the bestseller that cut through the hype and told business what the Web was really about. His latest book, Small Pieces Loosely Joined has been published to rave reviews hailing it as the first book to put the Internet in its deepest context.
So I’m totally stoked to announce that David Weinberger has agreed to give the next Aula talk on Thursday, December 1st at 6 pm. The place is the PWC-lecture theatre (G-112) in the Chydenia building at the Helsinki School of Economics (Runeberginkatu 22-24).
More at Jyri Engestr??m’s blog.
Ever wondered about the question if you dug a hole through to the other side of the world? I’ve asked this a thousand times - I can remember even talking about this with Javi one evening in a bar in Sydney (and needless to say we didn’t compromise on anything!). Anyhow, now you can - use this website to figure it out. But what’s actually scary is that if I dug a hole from Finland to the otherside of the world I would end up so damn south that it’s not even funny anymore. It gives you perspective how far north we actually reside… *sigh*
More cool Google map apps here.
This one comes also via Heiko; Flickr is being blocked in Dubai. See it for yourself.
Don’t take freedom of speech for granted.
Kuuntelin aamup?§iv?§ll?§ Antti Vilpposen podcasteja ja k?§vin antamassa palautettakin. Juuri gradunsa valmiiksi saanut Vilpponen on hyv?§ esimerkki aktiivisesta ja huippumedialukutaitoisesta kansalaisesta, jotka tulevat rakentamaan vuoden 2039 Suomea.
Wow - I’m at awe :)
Heiko pointed out an interesting method to better target your AdSense ads to your content. You can include different sections in your blog or website where the text is picked up for the ads. The full info on this is available on the Google website, but the basic principle is explained below.
Use the following tags in your html to point out the section you want the adsense ad to be targeted at.
<!-- google_ad_section_start -->
<!-- google_ad_section_end -->
You can also point out as many areas on the website as you want. I think this is going to pretty useful for me as I have those distractions on the top left corner that might distract the ads from not pointing out to the blog entries. Also, the different category names can interfere and thus distract the targeting. I haven’t implemented this yet, but will do it asap. Just did this for my site. It’ll take a few days for Google to spider through my site and start implementing the ad targeting through these rules. Let’s see how this works.
Rantaradio continues on the libel case that me and Phil discussed in Radio Free Finland a while back. The podcast is in Finnish and is only 12 minutes, so listen to it - it’s got good points in it.
Olen kirjoittamassa juttua bloggaajista ja bloggauksesta ylioppilaskuntamme Aalef -lehteen. Olen pohtinut tuota juttua pitkin viikkoa graduni ohessa, mutta en ole ehtinyt siihen konkreettisesti tarrautua, eli aloittaa kirjoittamista.
Teen jutusta kaksiosaisen. Ensimm?§isess?§ osassa kerron blogeista yleisesti ja miksi ne ovat niin “kovassa huudossa”. Toisessa osassa pyrin tuomaan lappeenrantalaisia bloggaajia esille heid?§n blogiensa takaa.
Ensimm?§isess?§ osassa haluaisin tuoda esille joitain viimeaikaisia tapahtumia, joissa juuri blogit ovat olleet aika merkitt?§v?§ss?§ asemassa ja sit?§ kautta saada luotua tietynlaista kuvaa niist?§ kansalaisjournalismin ty??kaluna. T?§m?§n kuun ehdoton juttu tietenkin on Sony BMG:n mokaus DRM-tekniikoiden kanssa, tuleeko teille mit?§?§n muuta mieleen?
Moni bloggaaja on lukenut Hesarin Kuukausiliitteen blogijutun ja sit?§ kautta ehk?§ huomannut, ett?§ jotain oleellista j?§i sanomatta tuossa - jos n?§in on niin kertokaa niist?§ t?§m?§n tekstin kommenteissa.
Katsotaan tuleeko miten paljon kommentteja, t?§m?§n merkinn?§n linkki?§ saa levitt?§?§ vapaasti blogosf?§?§riss?§ (jos se siis on ottaakseen tuulta alleen). Kiitoksia jo etuk?§teen!
To my english readers: I’m writing a story on blogging to our university’s paper and I’m asking for some advice.
We came back from the local bar around midnight and there was no snow at all. At the moment snow is good, it brings a lot of light, and to be honest the sooner it comes and goes the faster the summer will come :)