seikatsu

Tellisin ühest väga lahedast Jaapani võrgupoest nimega TokyoFlash mõned esemed. Nädalavahetusel, nii et pood vabandas ette ja taha (tuues ära isegi hetke pooleöise kellaja Jaapani ajavööndis!), et kahjuks nad jõuavad mu kauba postitamiseni alles nende aja järgi esmaspäeva hommikul.

Nagu lubasid, nii tegid, saatsid veel e-maili, kustkohast Yubini (ehk siis Jaapani Posti) leheküljel täpselt paki liikumist jälgida saab:

Nagu näha, kestis paki Okinawa-Tallinn reis kolm ja pool päeva. Pole paha.

Tallinn-Viimsi seevastu on täis tiksunud kuus päeva ja lõppu pole näha. Õigemini, pole veel startinudki. No mida??

UPDATE: Viimsi postkontorisse jõudis kaup 1. juuniks, minu kätte 6ndaks.

Spoke today (wow, these have been some busy public speaking weeks?) on East Capital's summit in Tallinn on the topic of building global Skype from the tiny Estonia. As the organizers introduced, the few hundred people in the audience indirectly represented about a quarter of a million investors who have put their money into the Baltics through East Capital. Hopefully I could help them understand the realities of what their capital can do in Estonia (effectiveness, innovation) and what they shouldn't expect to happen with it (labor intensive industries).

I yesterday formally joined the Supervisory Board of Praxis. Praxis is a think tank of about a dozen people doing very thorough analysis for policy makers in Estonia and increasingly elsewhere in Europe. Some of the topics they cover are obviously very close to my heart, such as IT & communications, innovation, R&D, economic development. Others like the public health or social policy are something I know less about, if from the end user / citizen experience.

Check out the recent publications for more. And they also blog, however in Estonian only.

I hope that in my humble role I can contribute to the growth of Praxis, both profile and size wise. I very strongly believe in the role of highly professional and thorough research and analysis, which yet is practical enough in format for a common man to understand, as the basis for conquering the challenges our small society and the world in general have. Independent thought goes a long way before any smart decision can be made. And we all know what some decisions can look like if they are led from day to day politics as opposed to longer term scientific rationale.

In response to anyone wondering "Do you still have snow in Estonia?". Global warming does the trick.

And - no, this is Celsius, not Farenheit.

Find ten things different if you can - Magnus in the middle of his trial swing VS him swinging to hit the ball:

Just a note that led by recent examples of Jaanus and Skype blogs, this blog is now also trackback-free. The precious time I put aside to maintain this site will go into semi-manually sorting through trackback spam no more.

I've used the FeedBurner FeedFlares since the beginning and they do add a Technorati referrals count, among other widgets such as the del.icio.us bookmarkings, to entry footers both here as well as the RSS versions delivered to your feed reader. If I didn't, I'd get the counter provided by Technorati.

Why? I just like to know (and share) if and who builds on what I've said.

A few months ago I happened to pick up a few (business) biographies from a bookstore. The stack is still quite high, but I've gone through some now and thought I'd share some reading notes.

First off, Sir Richard Branson's Screw It, Let's Do It. Don't be intimidated the self-help-in-ten-steps-guide style title, it actually is a nice and quick (a few inter-European flights) intro to Branson's world and Virgin in it.

Why read it?

• For most of the world Branson = Virgin. The latter actually is an umbrella brand for hundreds of businesses and the thinking behind how and why Virgin has moved into new areas over the years is interesting. And curiously enough, Branson has had a few business adventures before the first Virgin Music store opened on Oxford Street.
• Speaking of adventures, the book puts his famous boating and hot air balloon record attempts into business timelines and family context.
• Ecologic and social responsibility. A quick briefing for those who haven't seen The Inconvenient Truth, followed what's up with that CO2 thing and climate change or haven't calculated how small of the share for US spending on the war in Iraq would contain the massive AIDS problem in Africa.
• Parenting. That was probably the most surprising takeaway. Many of the childhood references and how his dad & mom handled raising him create food for thought if you happen to have a junior around.

Why pass?

• If you suffer from slogan-tagline allergies you'll probably dislike the structure the book is built around.
• The compressed format leaves you behind thinking that you've just been exposed to a commercial brochure advertising his full bio book(s). So maybe just start with the real thing? (I haven't yet)

To celebrate, Bank of Estonia held a high-profile conference on Opportunities of Estonian Economy in Global Competition today where I had the pleasure to participate in a panel with a fancy long name: "Competitiveness of Europe and Nordic-Baltic region - private sector view", alongside with esteemed gentlemen like Microsoft's European Chairman Jan Muehlfeit, Nordic Investment Bank SVP Gunnar Okk and Stockmann CEO Hannu Penttilä.

I have to admit that for the most part I recycled what I said in Budapest half a year ago. The issues facing the long term competitiveness of European businesses have not really improved recently anyway, have they?

The best speech of the day definitely came from Siim Kallas, our VP of European Commission. He naturally has the colorful first-hand memories of introducing the Kroon, but also shed some light in the political processes behind Euro these days. And shared some criticism to those of Estonian entrepreneurs who have sold their shares off to the West too early, such as the blooming larger banks of late 90s. It was soothing to hear that he gave some relief to Skype, where the Estonian office is still booming along with our global growth and nobody has really retired on the money they made from eBay transaction.

Duncan's lecture "Talking with Computers: Short stories on usability, interaction and designing Skype" held yesterday at the IT College is now available for your viewing pleasure. (Fastforward past the first part in Estonian)

Really glad he made it despite of a cancelled flight. And guess if his flight back was cancelled as well?

It took a while this year to get on the green but when it finally happened today... it was sweet.

Teeing off the 3rd hole of the most beautiful Sea Course at Estonian Golf and Country Club in Jõelähtme.

Today's mobile photoset available here.

One of those moments when you feel really old and feel the Moore's law kicking in with a full blow. It reminded me the file server at my first job at Primex Data (nowhere to link to, as the company went down too early in the internet days) in 1993 which had a massive and expensive (a thousand dollars?) 300MB harddrive to host a few dozen users and still have plenty of room for the file archives of the BBS I used to run there.

Pictured above is the new 1 gigabyte memory card I got for my phone. Weighs one gram and cost about 30 Euros. Is that a grey hair I see in the mirror?

Erinevalt eelmisest aastast, ei ole seekordne 100000-kroonine Skype magistristipendium enam Eesti suurim, kuulsin raadiost, et ühele noorele meditsiiniõppejõule eraldati pea 2x rohkem. Aga usun, et abiks ikka.

Loe lähemalt, miks me seda teeme.

This sample is quite mild compared to some really extreme examples of early-90s opulent residential architecture risen from that newly found independence and wealth. Still, a brave man to take it down now to - hopefully - build something really nice instead, considering this unique location right by the sea.

A few hundred meters from the residence of late President Lennart Meri, at Kabelineeme, Viimsi, Estonia.

UPDATE: Eesti Ekspress has picked up the story and apparently no such luck as hoped above. Same architect, the new house will be 1000 sq meters instead of current 600.

A few additional references to those who have followed up on my previous post about recent Russian cyber attacks against Estonia:

• There was a second wave of coordinated attacks that started on the night before May 9th. Most of the targeted sites were still government and media related. Among the affected this time was also Hansabank, the largest bank in the Baltics of whose transactions 90%+ are made online, with their internet bank down for almost an hour and a half.
• Estonian Informatics Centre claims that more than a million unique hosts from all over the world have been used for distributed attacks in the first 10 days. The local CERT unit has been busy.
• Estonian Minister of Defence, Jaak Aaviksoo (his blog has been quiet recently), has promised to escalate the situation for consultations by the upcoming summit of NATO ministers.
• Jaanus has taken time to cover this topic very well, I especially appreciate the broader overview of the various internet governance bodies involved and their role in these kind of situations, today and in the future.
• Edward (the most passionate friend of Estonia in top tier international press) is keeping his eyes open on the cyber war. Check his blog for updates, often more thorough than his printed writings in The Economist. Like this very balanced view on where we are a few weeks after the riots.

Käisin täna IKT Doktorikooli kutsel nende 2. aastakonversentsil rääkimas kommunikatsioonitehnoloogiatest ja nende tulevikust. Sirvides ülejäänud kahte päeva paralleelsessioonidena sisustavate ettekannete kokkuvõtteid oli minu räägitu kindlasti kõige vähem teaduslik, et mitte öelda naiivseim osa kogu üritusest, ilmselt isegi võrreldes õhtul saunalaval aset leidvaga.

Aga tarkade inimestega on alati huvitav juttu ajada, seega mõned emotsioonid ja mõtted tänasest.

Juba kümne päeva pärast avaneb suurepärane võimalus hea kolleegi Duncani käest ülaltoodud küsimust isiklikult küsida. Toodete kasutusmugavus ja selle kitsam alamhulk, tarkvara kasutajaliideste disain on Eestis kahetsusväärselt vähekaetud teemad, nüüd siis üks võimalus pisut silmaringi avardada.

Seda siis IT-Kolledzhi avalikul loengul, mille eelinfot hea meelega edasi levitan.

IT Kolledž kuulutab homme välja järjekordse avaliku loengu 21. mail kell 14.30, kuhu kutsume osalema Teidki. Peaesineja Duncan Lamb’i toob Skype Londonist Tallinnasse spetsiaalselt vaid selleks loenguks ja kaasettekande teeb nimekas kodumaine tootedisainer Tiit Liiv.

Ettekandes “Rääkides arvutitega: lühilood kasutusmugavusest, suhtlusest ja Skype disainimisest” („Talking with Computers: Short stories on usability, interaction and designing Skype “) keskendub Skype desktop-toodete disainijuht Duncan Lamb sellele kuidas aidata inimesi masinatega suhtlemisel, sest nende ehitamine ja hilisem kasutamine on tihti kaks täiesti erinevat asja. Ettekandes toob ta mitmeid näiteid töötavatest lahendustest nagu ka lähenemistest, mida lihtsalt ei võeta omaks, illustreerides kõike oma rikkaliku insider’i kogemusega Skype arendamisest.

Duncan Lamb ühines Skype’ga 2005.a aprillis ja juhib nüüd sealset disainerite meeskonda, kes tegelevad Windows-platvormil töötava Skype kasutajakogemuse pideva parendamisega. 2002-2003 töötas ta Nokias kasutajauuringute ja mobiilteenuste tootekontseptsioonide vallas. Vahepeal pakkus Duncan oma firma Nine Yards Design kaudu mobiilseadmete interaktsiooni disaini alast konsultatsiooni. Tal on õppinud tööstusdisaini Sheffield Hallam Ülikoolis (UK) ja saanud magistrikraadi Helsingi Kunsti ja Disaini Ülikoolist.

Lisaks esineb lühema kaasettekandega „Kõvad kasutajaliidesed“ tööstusdisainer Tiit Liiv (Artec Group OÜ) keskendudes füüsilistele kasutajaliidestele. Tiit Liiv on lõpetanud 1992. aastal ERKI tööstusdisaini alal ning töötanud peale seda kümme aastat Soome suurimas disainifirmas Desigence OY olles tänaseks tagasi Eestis Artecile disainimas.

Huvi korral palun registreerige end alloleval telefonil või e-posti teel. Samas oleme väga tänulikud kui teete selle loengu kohta käiva info ja kuulutuse (pdf-formaadis) kättesaadavaks kõigile huvilistele. Loeng toimub 21. mail kell 14.30-16.00 IT Kolledžis, Rävala pst 14, 1. korruse Neosaalis.

Lugupidamisega, IT Kolledž

Osalemine on tasuta ja avatud kõigile. Kohtade arv on piiratud! Peaettekanne on inglise keeles.

Registreerimine ja lisainformatsioon: tel: 628 5800, e-post: malle@itcollege.ee Malle Tragon

In today's world of the overcrowded communication and overwhelming hype, the MoMB blog really stands out.

Get a fulfilling feed of what's up and coming (or "gone into public beta" in tech speak). From fancy web 2.0 social mashup services dreaming of a quick acquisition to geeky experiments on what AJAX can do for transforming applications online.

Very few words. Black and white. Small is beautiful.

Shel Israel has written a quite extensive entry on recent cyber attacks on Estonia, following the riots 2 weeks ago, and their potential impact.

He also asked me to chip in and I did.

I still think that no matter how tense and grim it looks today, smart people regardless of their nationality can get in sync on the history, display enough empathy and respect to each-others' past tragedies to peacefully cohabit this small country going forward.

Despite how some leaders of an aggressive neighbor envision it should go.

Nagu kirjutamis-indikaatoritest näha, tõsine arutelu käimas.

Someone made good cigarette butt disposal use of the barb wire seen on Toompea, Tallinn, Estonia these days. These fences have been set up all around the government cabinet's Stenbock building after the recent riots.

Käisin eile Kahvli-saates vestlemas kommunikatsiooni tuleviku teemadel. Kogu saade tervikuna oli päevakohaselt rahutuste-teemast tiine.

Viimatisest otse-televisiooni kogemusest oligi möödas üle kümne aasta, seega värskendav kogemus ka vormilt (nagu vähemalt mõnele vaatajale ka sisult, ma siiralt loodan).

TV.ee-s hetkel veel 3. mai saadet näha ei ole, aga küll tuleb. UPDATE: Nüüd ongi saate salvestus internetis olemas. Lõik algab ca 44:30 minutil.

(*pealkirjas saate eelreklaamis esitatud küsimus, mis siiani vastuseta.)

Tallinn TV tower is a miraculous place. In most elevators the numbers on buttons indicate floors, in this case it must be years the time machine will take you back. As you can see, today you can choose to go back to approximately 170m high (trivia fact: the tower itself is 314m) as it was in 1986.

This is what people ate in 1986 in Soviet Estonia as a fancy dish. Chicken Kiev is basically a cutlet filled with... melted butter and herbs. Load of potatoes on the side not pictured.

The view on Tallinn Botanical Garden for some reason reminded me that I haven't started the golf season yet. Wouldn't this be a nice location for 18 holes?

Happy birthday, Alice and thanks for inviting us up/back there!

My working day started with a blue screen. Had not experienced that for years. However more annoying than the crash itself (unread Skype chats list, Firefox tabs restored themselves quickly) were some of the error messages presented to me.

Who on earth would have typed this address manually as the message suggests?

And how would you answer this "question"?

There are plenty of guidelines for proper error message design out there.