seikatsu

I very rarely have found myself spending several hours on a single magazine article, but Richard Behar's report on China in Africa from June issue of FastCompany is very much worth you invest that time too.

This illustration probably recaps the "what" part of the story:

In a word, the chair you sit on and the computer you're using to read this post more likely than not come from China, no surprise there. What we probably have noticed less as a trend as consumers is that the basic components for making these things, from timber to cadmium, increasingly get shipped to China from Africa.

But what is much more revealing, interesting and depressing in the same time is the "how".

Post colonial times Europe and the US have kept investing in Africa attaching a lot of soft values to the cold hard cash as conditions: human rights, transparency, saving the environment, democratic values, public education, whatnot. (There is a lot of hypocrisy involved in that too - read part 5 on the US in Equatorial Guinea) Changing whole African societies towards this "western thinking" has slowed the inflow and efficiency of these investments down, feeding in many cases the NGO-s of the donor more than the target countries.

And now imagine that enters a player with a different valueset (communism!) and priorities (feed a double-digit economic growth of a billion+ citizens) and willingness to compromise (bribes, the Earth) ... and with a wallet like this:

This report on what China has done in Africa over just 5 years should give you some food for thought on how the world will look like over next 50. Read it..

Juunikuu Arvutimaailmas ilmus alltoodud arvamuslugu. Kirjutasin selle kokku ühe varasema siinse postituse ja selle järel kommentaarides tekkinud diskussiooni põhjal, aga kuna mõtet sai parasjagu edasi arendatud ja selle ajakirja täistekste internetist ei leia, on ehk paslik kogu tekst uuesti siia postitada:

Õues on küll päikeseline suvealgus, aga õhus on tunda sügisest väsimust. Need, kes on rääkinud eesootavast kriisist ja talunud nii meie valitsejate kui kaaskodanike halvakspanu kui õitseva Eesti „vaenlased“, leiavad nüüd oma möödunudaastastele mõtetele ja ennustustele kuhjuvat kinnitust igast värskemast majandusraportist. Aga uskuge, ei tee see õnnelikuks.

Eriti huvitav periood on alanud neile, kes on siiani jutlustanud majanduse pehmest maandumisest või "normaalsetest lühiajalistest korrektuuridest". Justnagu midagi välist, meist sõltumatut tuleks ja läheks - pärast tormi tuleb varem või hiljem päike välja, ilma et me ise selleks midagi teha saaks peale ära kannatamise. Vahelduseks puhastele emotsioonidele tasub minu arust siiski ka fakte vaadata, et leida neid punkte, kus majanduses ja ühiskonnas midagi teisiti tegema võiks hakata. Mitte naftatootjad või Rootsi pangad, vaid meie ise.

Continue reading "Eesti vajab riskivõtjaid" »

Yes, it has taken something like 2 years from first conceptual ideas being bounced around. I've been involved in Skype's Desktop clients team since March and I have to tell you, approaching the first beta launch of our 4.0 client is one of the reasons for deafening silence on this blog. June especially has been very intense and I'm truly proud of what the hundreds of people involved have pulled off.

Please do read the official blog post, download the client and start giving feedback on things you like and things you don't. This multi-stage beta program of a radical redesign is very special for Skype, so I promise you - feedback will be listened to and even slicker beta 2 will follow.

The high def video clips (briefing, intro demo and advanced demo) might also be worth your time to get a quick start on what's happening. Or just think of them as your last chance to see Mike's stellar on-screen performance for free. Next time you might have to stand in line and buy a ticket for the big screen. Of course, you can share these clips in your Skype mood message, also on 4.0.

As for myself, I've been using internal versions of the next generation client primarily for almost half a year now. I could not go back to versions before even though there are still a bunch of features yet to be implemented. Unified conversations bringing chat, file transfers, SMS and calls neatly together. Conversation management with proper unread message tracking for heavy traffic multichats. Large crisp video calls. Headsets and USB speakerphones getting managed as I need.

One thing that has been really painful for last months is that I could not share all this neatness with my friends yet. So, here you are now, enjoy. Hope you like it.

Just this week a new cab company launched in Tallinn. I've been quite happy with the one I (infrequently) use, but last night just thought I'd give them a try. And was in awe.

New bright yellow car, filled with shiny new gadgets, a big screen GPS, etc. Well, that's what you get when you buy a whole fleet in 2008 and everyone else on the market has been around for 10 years plus.

But what was really special was the service. How often have you heard lines like these in a cab, anywhere in the world?

• Sir, would you fancy listening to radio on the way this evening?
• What would be your radio station preference?
• How are you doing on cash? Just let me know if you need to stop by an ATM, but we do accept credit cards too, of course.
• I haven't been to your area often, so to aid my service with next customers, which would you say would be the most convenient ATM to stop by on the way there, if anyone needed to?
• Thanks for riding with me, hope to see you again soon!

It was so different, polite and genuinely caring that I'm almost a little bit afraid to call 1921 again - maybe it was just this one guy... But I sincerely hope this meant that a newcomer to what seems to be a crowded market actually nailed what will make a difference.

Had a pleasure to meet Harry Jaako, the Honorary Consul of Estonia in Vancouver, but also the Co-CEO of Discovery Capital, a venture capital firm operating in British Columbia.

He shared a very interesting and bold incentive concept that the British Columbia (not even the whole Canada) government has introduced to motivate private investments in small technology startups. Per every dollar invested, the government will pay you 30% back at once. The conditions include holding your investment(s) for five years minimum and a yearly cap of 200,000 CAD total.

So in other words, when you invest 10,000 CAD in a software startup, you get a 10,000 CAD share of equity for the price of 7,000. Or, as an alternative scenario, a private investor can keep investing their capital gained from a previous exit at a rate of 200,000 CAD per year, taking an annual cashback of 60,000 CAD out for their own living expenses as opposed to paying themselves salary.

This scheme is applicable to both direct investments and private investors participating in VC funds, such as the ones Discovery builds.

The results? The district of 4 million people that has been heavy on mining and forestry industries now hosts 70,000 people in tech sector (that's almost 10x more than Estonia, half the size; comparable to Czech Republic - but their total population is 10M), 8 locally focussed VC funds (larger ones with 500M CAD funds), 8000 mostly small and medium tech companies...

I just love the simplicity as well as braveness of this lever and can only imagine the type of political opposition introducing it could have caused.

I wish Estonian government would spend some time seeking out similar ideas from the world... and implementing the best ones fast.

This is an actual screenshot of an attempt to get a weather report for Tartu, Estonia on my iPhone, using the standard Weather app, powered by Yahoo data.

What's the joke?

Yes, the city of Tartu used to be called Yuryev at some point. Namely between 1030 and 1061 when Prince of Kiev, Yaroslav I the Wise burnt down the wooden fortification dating back to 7th century and built his own.

Just checked, Yahoo! Weather on the web has the up-to-date name. So apparently it takes a tunnel through Apple to get medieval.

Olen nüüd vast kuu aega kasutanud news.station.ee ja blogs.station.ee teenuseid ja väga rahul. Miks?

• NEWS.station avalehe valik näidata enam kui neljas või kuues kanalis kajastatud lugu aitab kiiresti pildi ette saada hetkel "kuumadest" teemadest
• Konkreetse teema vaade võiks olla iga meediahuvilise sagedane tööriist, et näha kuidas praktiliselt sünnib uudis. Näiteks nagu selles juhuslikus näites, kus Postimees on kirjutanud uudise valmis juba siis kui Äripäev alles toore pressiteate veebi paneb. Ja Päevaleht on pea poolteist tundi maas.
• Station teeb suurepärast tööd eestikeelsest tekstist organisatsioonide ja inimeste pärisnimede tuvastamisel. Näiteks, mida kirjutatakse Eesti lehtedes Skype kohta või allakirjutanust.
• Mistahes võtmesõnaotsingu peale on võimalik tellida endale RSS-voog (nt Skype-teemaline siin). Selline ülimalt lihtne lahendus astub kõvasti kandadele senistele meediamonitooringu teenuse pakkujatele ja ilmselt sisaldab koos lisaväärtusteenustega (nt tänasest rohkem reaalajas indekseerimine) vihjeid, kust Station raha võiks teenima hakata.
• Mistahes teema juures näidatavad seotud isikud ja organisatsioonid tõesti hakkuvadki teemaga. Ja näitavad teinekord päris huvitavaid "kes kellega käib" või "... äri ajab" seoseid.
• Inimeste ja organisatsioonide edetabelid annavad ülevaate, kes hetkel sündmuste keerises on (või kelle PR-meeskond enim hoos).

Kõik ülaltoodu toimib kenasti ka kõigi Eesti blogide sisu analüüsil - asenda vaid news. URLi ees blogs.station.ee vastu. Lisaks arvutatakse Technorati eeskujul kohalike blogide neile viitamiste hulgal põhinevat "autoriteetsust". Ja ma ei näe põhjust, miks tulevikus ei võiks katta ka teisi sotsiaalse meedia liike - (erialased) foorumid, sotsiaalvõrgustikud. Ja kindlasti ootaks ka NEWS.stationisse juurde kanaleid, mida nishimaid seda parem - Delfist ja Maalehest maakonnalehtedeni.

Minu esimene RSS-lugeja oli kunagi kodumaine FeedReader, millelt tänaseks olen kolinud veebipõhise Google Readeri peale, et oma infole eri kohtadest ja seadmetelt ligi saada. Aga mul on väga hea meel, et Toomas ja co on oma FeedReaderi loomise käigus tekkinud suurepärased teadmised sisuagregatsioonist samuti edukalt veebi kolinud. Ahjaa, nad peavad blogi ka.

Some while ago an online media outlet ran a poll, asking the readers where do they think Estonian language falls among the languages of this world by "usefulness". Many Estonian-speakers do tend to think that a million speakers means... nothing. That the language is on the verge of going distinct. About 2/3rds of answers ranked the language to the bottom third of worlds' 6000 languages.

There was a linguistics forum in April that surfaced some interesting data of the contrary, which I thought are worth sharing... in English as well:

• By the speaker count, Estonian ranks at 274th place out of 6000
• Higher education is available in just 100 languages in the world (including Estonian). 30 in Europe and just 3 out of the hundreds of African languages.
• There are about 200 countries in the world, where state language is the same as majority of population's mother tongue.
• Estonian ranks among top 30 IT-languages. For example, Microsoft products have been localized to 35 (Skype is available in 28), including Estonian.
• Human to computer speech synthesis exists for 25 languages, Estonian included.

(source: Sirje Kiin at Eesti Ekspress)

So, we're well alive and kicking in that weird and complicated tongue. Good to know, even when the reality of globalizing world has brought the dire need for becoming an English bilingual to communicate and ultimately succeed. I will keep blogging in both.

Skype "uus" (hakkab juba kaks kuud täis saama varsti, tegelikult) pealik Josh andis oma esimese intervjuu selles rollis Eesti Ekspressile.

Soovitan lugeda neil, kes segaduses iga Skype-uudise juurde kuuluvatest kommentaari-teadjameeste juttudest, et Skype on valmis ja seal enam midagi teha ei ole, kolib Eestist minema Indiasse, palkab siin ainult odavat orjatööjõudu, ei kasva enam, ei ole rahaliselt edukas jne jne.

Ja nagu ikka, on eestlasena aeg-ajalt huvitav ja alati kasulik mõne kaugemalt tulnu pilgu läbi siinset elu näha.

Just finished a video call with Her Majesty Queen Beatrix of the Netherlands.

She was visiting Skype Tallinn office as part of her state visit to Estonia. I was babysitting at home. One of these physical location misses when Skype really becomes handy.

Also, Etta joined the ranks of the babies worldwide who have had their first video call while less than 10 days old.