by J. Karjalainen
Oli aika kuuma kesä tää
nyt on jo vähän viileempää
Tulee paljon omenaa
kohta mehua taas saa
on kaikki niinkuin ennenkin
Vielä lienee lammet paikoillaan
täytyis vissiin lähtä katsomaan
Yhden vanhan virvelin
aamulla mä putsasin
on kaikki niinkuin ennenkin
Eräs leikki traktoreillaan
se tykkää niistä aina vaan
Minä laulujani teen
putoo riimit paikoilleen
on kaikki niinkuin ennenkin
Keväällä jälleen lähdetään
tämä Suomi kiertämään
Ehkä mennään Turkkuseen
kaadetaan viinaa kurkkuseen
on kaikki niinkuin ennenkin
Mä tykkään tästä juuri näin
soitella kanssa ystäväin
San Francisco kuuskytyhdeksän
äkkiä kaiken ymmärrän
on kaikki niinkuin ennenkin
Pilvet on kuin laivoja
ne taivaanrannassa odottaa
Kerran kotiin minut vie
tämä röpelöinen tie
on kaikki niinkuin ennenkin
Lasissa viini vähenee
vaikka pyydän: älä mee
No vielä toiset ostetaan
suulle malja nostetaan
on kaikki niinkuin ennenkin
No vielä toiset ostetaan
suulle malja nostetaan
on kaikki niinkuin ennenkin
Kaikille suomalaisille ystäville.
Friday, November 24, 2006
Thursday, November 23, 2006
Second Life in the FT
Funnily enough, after writing an entry about Second life yesterday, I found an article about it in today's issue of the FT. I don't think Alan Cane quite "gets it" with his metaphor that Second Life is just a more advanced way of current icon-based interfases, it seems to me over-simplistic. The most interesting thing about it in my opinion is that when you're interacting in an environment that looks closer to the real world, you will react in ways that are closer to the real world, and create social bonds that are closer to those of the real world. I may be wrong of course.
Useless technology
I'm usually a technology advocate, but this is stupid. I saw in a restaurant a plasma screen with video of a fireplace instead of a real fireplace. Is there any point?
Mexican league quarterfinal first leg: Chivas 2-0 Cruz Azul
Chivas seemed unstoppable last night, beating Cruz Azul at home at the Jalisco Stadium by 2-0. Bofo Bautista played a remarkable game, scoring one goal and setting up the other. I'll post a video as soon as it is online.
Update: The videos of the goals are online. The first video is here. The second is below.
Both are absolutely excellent. I hope my Chivas keep on playing as well.
Update: The videos of the goals are online. The first video is here. The second is below.
Both are absolutely excellent. I hope my Chivas keep on playing as well.
Globalisation is...
listening to "La Bamba" being played and sung in Spanish by a guy with a marked Arab accent in the Brussels Metro...
Priceless!
Priceless!
Wednesday, November 22, 2006
You know you've been in Belgium too long when...
I saw this list at Genki David's blog. Much better than the list I had originally published.
And I haven't been here that long...
And I haven't been here that long...
Second Life
Second Life is a 3D virtual world. Just tried it and was absolutely amazed by its functionality (including a virtual economy), customisability, and the whole "feel" of it. We hear at the CWF about how are residents using this world to do things that they wouldn't be otherwise able to, even at work. I've tried not to use it too much because it is quite addictive.
Talking with a friend of mine about it he came to the conclusion that the danger of it (exposed in many cyberpunk novels before) is that people would use these kind of virtual worlds to escape reality. Whereas I'm sure that some will do exactly that, I believe most people will learn to live with it, as it is a tool to engage imagination and create something new, which in the physical world may not exist.
Could anybody with more experience on it share their insight?
Talking with a friend of mine about it he came to the conclusion that the danger of it (exposed in many cyberpunk novels before) is that people would use these kind of virtual worlds to escape reality. Whereas I'm sure that some will do exactly that, I believe most people will learn to live with it, as it is a tool to engage imagination and create something new, which in the physical world may not exist.
Could anybody with more experience on it share their insight?
Illya Kuriaki and the Valderramas
Another post in the Series of Rock en Español.
Illya Kuryaki and the Valderramas was an Argentine duet that mix hip-hop, funk, rock and traditional Latin American rythms. They published 8 albums and enjoyed moderate success throughout the region, before separating in 2001. Some of their songs below:
Coolo (Leche, 1999)
Abarajame (Chaco, 1995)
Jennifer del Estero (Leche, 1999)
Illya Kuryaki and the Valderramas was an Argentine duet that mix hip-hop, funk, rock and traditional Latin American rythms. They published 8 albums and enjoyed moderate success throughout the region, before separating in 2001. Some of their songs below:
Coolo (Leche, 1999)
Abarajame (Chaco, 1995)
Jennifer del Estero (Leche, 1999)
Monday, November 20, 2006
Romantic time in Leuven
Liked the trees and the couple in the background. I'm not sure they liked being photographed that much ;-) .
Chivas 4-0 Veracruz
In the second game of the play-off series, Chivas absolutely demolished Veracruz by 4-0. I'm a happy man. We're meeting Cruz Azul in the quarter finals. Review and pictures of the game at mediotiempo.com. I'll post a video as soon as somebody uploads it to YouTube.
Update: The video is here. I was amazed by the quality of the goals and goalkeeping. The game against Cruz Azul is tonight (wednesday 22nd). Let's see how it goes.
Update: The video is here. I was amazed by the quality of the goals and goalkeeping. The game against Cruz Azul is tonight (wednesday 22nd). Let's see how it goes.
The Economist Mexico Survey
I read during the weekend the Economist Mexico Survey. If you follow the situation in the country the conclusions they reached won't surprise you very much.
- The economy hasn't collapsed, but is growing very slowly.
- The country needs structural reforms in order to grow.
- The informal part of the economy is unhealthily big, and the tax collection rates are abysmal.
- Mexico is still too dependent on oil, especially for its public finances.
- Security is a bigger concern than it should be.
- The new government should focus on improving its standing with the part of the population that doesn't share its programme.
Do you get your best ideas at 2 a.m.?
Most of the posts I wrote during the weekend were thought/dreamt in the period between 1-3 a.m. last friday. It was so bad that I had an idea, wrote it down, then another one, wrote it down, then another one and so on until, finally, I got too tired to go on. Does it happen to you?
As inspiration, I'll leave you with an ad-hoc video. Sleeping Awake by P.O.D. (from the Matrix Reloaded Soundtrack)
As inspiration, I'll leave you with an ad-hoc video. Sleeping Awake by P.O.D. (from the Matrix Reloaded Soundtrack)
Saturday, November 18, 2006
Must read business books
The business books I have read, will read or have used that more or less have defined my current business thinking (of course it will change and I'm still missing quite a bit of topics, give me time):
- The World is Flat: The Globalized World in the Twenty-First Century by Thomas L. Friedman
- The Next global stage: Challenges and Opportunities in our Borderless World by Kenichi Ohmae
- Inside the Tornado: Marketing Strategies from Silicon Valley's Cutting Edge by Geoffrey A. Moore.
- Crossing the Chasm: Marketing and Selling Technology Products to Mainstream Consumers by Regis McKenna
- The Rise of the Creative Class: And How it's transforming work, leisure, community and everyday life by Richard Florida
- A Whole New Mind: How to Thrive in the New Conceptual Age by Dan Pink
- Out of our minds: Learning to be creative by Ken Robinson
Finnish TV: Mogadishu Avenue
Finland is a very homogeneous country, but there are foreigners there as well (this poster was one of them for quite a while, and is open to becoming one again). Mostly they are people from Russian, Estonian, Somali, Vietnamese, Chinese, Swedish or American extraction. They tend to stick to certain specific cities and areas of the country, and there are certain stereotypes to each. MTV3, one of the local TV channels (not related to MTV, Music Television) started airing a drama/comic series about an area of Helsinki with many immigrants, and how the different inhabitants adapt to each other.
Even though I only share with the foreigner characters in the series the fact that I was also a foreigner living in Hesa, I have to admit that reading about one of them who according to the plot is an African man that tries to become more Finnish than the Finns, taking a local surname from his wife, hanging pictures of Mannerheim in his house and making his son try to win the tango king contest to become the first black tango king, well, brought a smile to my face and a little bit of moisture to my eyes. =) And I haven't even seen the series yet. Is it any good?
Even though I only share with the foreigner characters in the series the fact that I was also a foreigner living in Hesa, I have to admit that reading about one of them who according to the plot is an African man that tries to become more Finnish than the Finns, taking a local surname from his wife, hanging pictures of Mannerheim in his house and making his son try to win the tango king contest to become the first black tango king, well, brought a smile to my face and a little bit of moisture to my eyes. =) And I haven't even seen the series yet. Is it any good?
Ode to curiosity
I still remember that I learned to read when I was 4. After that all mayhem broke loose and you could not make me part from a book, regardles. I was so interested in everything, and literally devoured any written material that came to my hands. It took me some time to learn that curiosity was not only about the contents of books, but about what would happen if you kicked a ball a certain way, did something to a frog, or how would people be. During the years I have met some people that are not (or seem not to) be curious about pretty much anything. I really don't understand them, because to be curious is part of what being human is all about (but one we share with other organisms... after all, "curiosity killed the cat", which is a horrible saying). We're all very curious when we're children, but not so much anymore as adults. Why?
I admire our grandparents
One point brought home from another of the speakers at the CWF is the fact that people of our grandparents' generation (65+ years old) have already gone through very big changes in the world, something that I don't think we recognise often enough. If your grandparents are old enough, they saw the introduction of radio, TV, trans-atlantic travel, the Second World War, decolonisation, the European Union, the nuclear bomb, the massification of the automobile... without even talking about microwave ovens, immigrants from different parts of the world, computers and the internet... If you take into account that the rate of change is much faster now than when they were your or my age, you can only come to the conclusion that the world will be even more drastically different when we reach their age.
If there's people over 70 wathching pictures in Flickr and doing their banking over the internet, that's the kind of person I want to be when I'm their age, and I understand why not everybody can be like that (there's also cultural issues of, say, uncertainty avoidance involved which they are not responsible for, among many other factors). If at that age they still take the world at face value and enjoy what they do, that's the person I want to be. So if you agree with me spare a thought for your parents and grandparents and give them your love and respect. Probably a hug would be nice too.
If there's people over 70 wathching pictures in Flickr and doing their banking over the internet, that's the kind of person I want to be when I'm their age, and I understand why not everybody can be like that (there's also cultural issues of, say, uncertainty avoidance involved which they are not responsible for, among many other factors). If at that age they still take the world at face value and enjoy what they do, that's the person I want to be. So if you agree with me spare a thought for your parents and grandparents and give them your love and respect. Probably a hug would be nice too.
The singularity vs. chauvinism
One of the speakers at the CWF made some very interesting points that I had already thought about but not really articulated in the fluid, structured way he did, but of course I need to start from the beginning.
The singularity I'm talking about is something that to some people might sound like a concept out of science fiction: the fact that in the next few years, the processing power of a computer will be reaching that of a human brain, and we will be able to augment our grey matter with cybernetic prostethics. As such, we will have more "processing muscle" than ever before, but our ability to imagine, that what takes us apart from machines, is what adds value. At the same time, we're more connected than ever, but that doesn't make us less chauvinistic, and maybe even more, because we're able to see up close those things that we didn't lay our sight on before, like poverty, war and strange people and customs. A point that was very important is that we don't know where it's taking us, how it is changing us and even whether we will survive these opposing forces bringing us together and at the same time further away from each other. I sure hope we do.
The singularity I'm talking about is something that to some people might sound like a concept out of science fiction: the fact that in the next few years, the processing power of a computer will be reaching that of a human brain, and we will be able to augment our grey matter with cybernetic prostethics. As such, we will have more "processing muscle" than ever before, but our ability to imagine, that what takes us apart from machines, is what adds value. At the same time, we're more connected than ever, but that doesn't make us less chauvinistic, and maybe even more, because we're able to see up close those things that we didn't lay our sight on before, like poverty, war and strange people and customs. A point that was very important is that we don't know where it's taking us, how it is changing us and even whether we will survive these opposing forces bringing us together and at the same time further away from each other. I sure hope we do.
La estrategia del Tec de Monterrey
No fui al Encuentro Ex-a-Tec Europa este año (con eso de que no soy Ex-a-Tec pero amigo del Tec, Rangel dixit y además, ni tiempo tuve), pero me imagino que no han de haber cambiado demasiado su estrategia. Estaba checando mis notas del evento del año pasado y me dí cuenta de un "detallito": ya se les quemó el agua en algunas cosas. En la estrategia del Tec hablaban de la economía del conocimiento, cuando durante los últimos 3 o 4 años se está hablando de la emergencia de una economía de la creatividad. ¿Se habrán dado cuenta, o el ITESM sigue siendo el Instituto Transformador de Estudiantes en Simples Máquinas?
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