seikatsu

It has been a hectic few days since late Thursday when the riots in Tallinn broke out. I happened to be out of the country, returning on Friday and trying to get information myself on what is really going on (most of Estonian online news outlets were under heavy DDoS attacks originating from "friendly neighbors") as well as responding to worrying friends and colleagues, especially from outside Europe.

Things have calmed down now a bit. Tallinn was under police control last night, it seems. Some action shifted (in a much smaller scale) to North-Eastern cities of Estonia, but nothing extreme there, I understand. So maybe it is time to think about what happened and what's next.

Had a lovely romantic dinner at Pied á Terre on Charlotte street in London, a two Michelin star venue run by Shane Osborn. (Trivia fact: he apparently was the first Australian to ever receive a Michelin star recognition in 1999).

Everything from the apperative Apple Martini to the basics of how bread & butter are served was as perfect as the first time I was there about 6 months ago. Highly recommended. The menu on their website seems to be out of date a bit though, prepare for some (good) surprises when you go. And unless you feel really confident around the two hardcover books of wine lists (PDF-s available) I recommend letting the sommelier matching them by glass to each dish.

The top gourmet experience for me this time: scallop sausages served along the white fish pictured above.

We had a fabulous home cooking night with a group of friends, featuring Chef Risto at my place the other night. There was too much deliciousness going around to describe it all here, but a few ideas worth trying can be shared.

Midagi on suures Kaval-Antsu nimelise internetiaadressi leituamise hoos pisut sassi läinud. Inglisekeelse lugeja jaoks teevad hoopis sipelgad trikke (midagi kirbutsirkuse laadset?). Ja Ants võiks olla oma olemuselt pigem cunning, nagu rebane? Mitte, et Cunning Ants kuidagi mõistlikumalt kõlaks.

Silt Uniquestay hotelli hoovilt.

Tänane EBS Blind Date kujunes lustlikumaks, kui ette arvata oskasin.

Viieminutiline formaat korraga ühe või kahe tudengi küsimustele vastamiseks, ja nii kaks tundi järjest on päris intensiivne. Nii mõnigi tööpäev võib küll tunduda väga sarnane, aga tihedad koosolekute seeriad on alati ju vähemalt á 15-30 minuti pikkused. Ja töökoosolekul osalejad tunnevad enamasti teineteist, teavad arutatava ümber laiemat konteksti ja eesmärki (otsust, infovahetust), mida kohtumisega on vaja saavutada.

Pimekohtingul alustad nullist (kui välja arvata paar üksikut erakordselt hästi Skype, eBay, Ambient Sound Investments'i jm osas informeeritud vestluspartnerit) ja lõpetad kellaga, mitte tulemusega. Aga siiski meeldis see mulle vist isegi rohkem kui tavapärased esineja-saali-ees-ja-paarsada-tagasihoidlikku-tudengit-kuulamas kokkupuuted ülikoolidega.

Päeva parim küsimus: "Te olete vist erakordselt laisk?". Jätkuks mõttevahetusele teemal juhipoolne mikromanageerimine versus ülesannete ja vastutuse maksimaalne edasidelegeerimine oma meeskonnale. Hammustati minu sügav kallutatus teise varianti läbi nigu naksti.

Päeva keerukaim küsimus: "Kuidas motiveerida laotöötajaid?".

Päeva igavaim dialoog: ebakonkreetne kompamine teema ümber, kas ma läksin üritusele töötajaid värbama. Ei läinud, see üritus tundus minu enda jaoks teistmoodi ja huvitav. Otsene kasu Skype jaoks on vähetõenäoline. Kompamise põhjus selgus aga vestluse lõpus, kus partner avas oma Postimehe reporteri identiteedi.

Got a tip from our unofficial Wiitards of Skype multichat that accidentally solved a problem I've pondered about for years but never have really come around to solving: an online digital music library played on where it should - the proper hifi / home theatre setup in the living room.

There is a myriad of options. MediaCenter PC-s. Sonos. Airport Express and Apple TV. XBox360 streaming from a PC. And probably hundreds of niche solutions more. I just couldn't choose and the issue didn't hurt enough - I do have a few CDs I like.

We were discussing various well-established and hot-out-of-the press web 2.0 (pardon the overused buzzword) applications and social networking sites each other actually use and like with a colleague. I came to think that there are more of them than I thought before listing them out. In no particular order:

After the recent odysseia of fixing my broken mobile communications I've now solved the written comms part as well. I've joined what some consider the forces of evil and landed on a BlackBerry 8800.

"A Trojan Horse without any soldiers hiding inside is... just a gift" - Jaan Tallinn, 2007

That's it. I had enough.

Nokia E70 was a dream phone found for me:

• Nice form factor, but still with a very usable QWERTY keyboard when folded open.
• Almost a big enough screen with an excellent resolution (640x480 or VGA).
• Camera with minimalistic feature set (but not bad quality at all, if you've been following the entries below) for moblogging.
• Wifi.
• Very good browsers, especially the HTML one with preview mode, but also OK for WAP.
• Downloadable applications for Exchange mail & calendar sync, GMail and even Google Maps.

Now, about half a year later of quite normal use I'm sending it back to where I bought it. And will just throw it away if they don't want it. I couldn't give it as a gift or sell it on eBay unless I wanted to make some enemies:

The Design Museum has two cool exhibitions on: Top 25 design icon's over the past 25 years (apparently it's the museum's birthday) and Luigi Colani's Translating nature.

The unbeatable Aeron, the chair of choice for Skype offices (video proof) worldwide and with the ripple effect into the home offices for many of us (including yours' truly) was apparently the Design Thing of 1994. Can't believe that's 13 years ago already, still does look fresh.

Sample of typical (if I may) Colani design. If nothing else you just gotta love those windscreen wipers. Did you know the guy also did the modern-day Canon SLR body?

While in Estonia you get quite used to the orange-and-black Wifi stickers on doors and street signs everywhere, it is definitely not a standard globally. The merrier I was to find one featuring also the things you should do while connected (talk to people using Skype) on the door of Spreaded Eagle pub in Camden, London.

A display of logos I noticed passing the Universal building this morning on my way to work. The last time I ever saw some of these true classics (like Island & Polydor) was browsing my dad's vinyl collection... maybe fifteen years ago, was it?

I can understand it in the virtual world of music downloads, but I wonder why do the music industry logos on the CD-s you buy stick in the eye so much less than the (as I remember them to be) prominent ones on 12" covers? Were they really bigger then? Or was holding a record just so much more special that you cared to notice the details? Or did/does vinyl as a medium dictate a much wider range of cool brands than those of the few mainstream global music powerhouses everything has consolidated into?

(I'm going to be kicked now by all my turntable-savvy postmodern friends here if they care to come out from behind their stash of hot vinyl releases from last week.)

Ott found a new fancy job title to aim for in his future career.

A glimpse of nice and sunny Luxembourg before shutdown for one and a half days into a meeting room.

If you're hanging around Covent Garden and don't quite feel up for shopping it can be amazingly hard to find a place to sit down at that would offer a glass of wine AND be baby friendly (e.g. not loud and smoky).

Those witty Eastern Europeans always find a DIY solution if a commercial one is not available. Kalm serving wine & cheese from Tesco's, on a bench behind a nearby church this time.

(And no, it was just cookies and juice for Kusti, if that's what you're thinking here.)