Broken dreams, wasted promises...

I broke my E90 Nokia smart phone. I really used my E90 a lot. I searched for information on the web with it nearly every day, I called and sent SMS with it every day and at least once a week I needed the GPS. The calendar was synched and my life was organized based on the information on it. Let me say that again. My life was organized.
So here's what happened...

I wanted to upgrade the E90 firmware to a newer version since they promised better GPS reception and more stable and faster Symbian. The Nokia Ovi Suite is not nearly as intuitive and fast as it should be so it took me forever to get backups from the phone and then finally start the firmware upgrade process.  So the firmware update was going well while I was watching a movie aaand then the computer crashed. And so did my organized life.

Firmware upgrades are an interesting thing.. There is a reason why its usually best done in a manufacturer store: You can break your phone if you don't know what you are doing. I did know what I was doing, but my computer disagreed with me and here we are. My awesome smartphone is dead in the water. I suppose this came as a blessing really, since I wanted a new phone anyway, but this makes the transition a bit awkward.

Tomorrow I'll take it to a Nokia shop and ask them to take a look at it, because maybe it can still be saved, who knows? Otherwise at least they can write an explanation to the insurance company of how it's broken, maybe I can get something from my home insurance? *sigh*

Catching up? I caught up!

Things have changed. I have changed in so many ways its not possible to put it all in one blog post. So I'll start with the most important fact: I don't use a Samsung notebook anymore. Nope. I got tired of it very quickly and bought my own HP Mini 5101 which I still love after almost a year of use.

The differences between the Samsung N140 and HP Mini 5101 begin with the shift key. Notice how the right shift is nice and long on the HP? Yes, it is that important. Further more the keyboard is top quality; with regards to feel, touch response and durability I have yet to find a better keyboard than what HP has put together. Having internal 3G, 802.11n capability, adequate battery life, Windows 7 and a fair processor build up to be what I consider a worthwhile purchase. The casing is aluminium and feels very sturdy. The speed of the Windows 7 system on it is moderate even from a power user perspective and quite fine when considering that it's a notebook. Being small and sturdy means I can easily fit it inside a smallish shoulder bag and since it doesn't weight much it can be carried around without stress on the shoulder.

Mostly I use the notebook for gathering information from the web, but I also do a lot of writing and office work with it since it's handy to keep around for the instant you need to type something down. The reason I bought it myself instead of having one from work is simple: It's mine. I can use it when ever and where ever I like. No obligations and no restrictions. I also customized the thing to make my point loud and clear:

Having this notebook has truly helped me. Next I must find a decent smart phone to switch to.. Samsung Galaxy S or HTC Desire perhaps? We'll see.

Catching up with the world..

Finally I’m moving towards the mobile age. Sure I have a Nokia E90 and a E75 as a workphone, but they don’t really do justice to the modern notebook. These 10.1” babies are perfect for my typing needs.

Currently I am using my work notebook a Samsung N140 with Windows 7 Starter edition. The keyboard on this is just as good as they advertised with one huge exception; they did something horrible to the right Shift-key. It has been shrunk in size by at least half even in propotion to the rest of the keyboard and I just can’t seem to hit it at all. In stead <i hit the <-key right next to it… see what I did there?
The EeePC boom that started the new rise of notebooks was contradictional in the eyes of the nerd, because the usability of the keyboards of those notebooks was just horrid. The mouse was made so badly that it would bounce all over the screen without pause and the battery didn’t last significantly longer than on traditional laptops. On the otherhand the size and price of the notebooks were perfect. Times have changed. As I already said, this Samsung boasts a very good touch to both it’s keyboard and its mouse, as well as a very healthy 10 hour batterylife. Even with stress it should be good for a normal workday. These are the reasons why I have opted to buy one for myself and not just grab one from the workplace. My notebook future lies not with Samsung, but with Nokia and the Nokia Booklet 3G.
In my search for the perfect notebook I had a couple distinct needs. The first one is something I think as obvious: The operating system has to be either Ubuntu or Windows 7. There is no comparison between Win7 and the earlier Windows versions. Unfortunantely Ubuntu or Linux in general isn’t very popular on the notebook market anymore and thus can’t be found in top end notebooks. This left me with Windows 7. The second criteria was that it should have an internal 3G/HDSPA possibility. I passionately hate external HDSPA modems and can’t understand what the idea is to have a huge stick coming out of your otherwise compact notebook. The third critatea was the size of 10.1” to 12”. Anything bigger than this I would consider a laptop and a bit cumbersome.

Lost in european airspace..

The Rambla has never looked so lonely and empty as I said goodbye to Barcelona.

Hardest part of this voyage to Barcelona was leaving. Waking up early in the morning and packing your bag while thinking you want to stay longer is a real pain. As far as trips go this was a nice one, but there was very little time to enjoy and appreciate Barcelona.. all the while there was an immediate feeling of hurry. The festivities of Merce will have to take place without me, but I'm going to have a relaxing and enjoyable weekend with my dog by my side.

My return trip went as planned; get up, pack up, bus up, check in, board and go. Well, not quite. I have one complaint about the modern, superb and fantastic new Terminal 1 of Barcelona airport.. the restaurants aren't open in the morning. I had to eat at McDonalds and that's just never fun. Barcelona had left a significant mark on my tastebuds because the inflight meal was so horrid I couldn't eat it at all.

Having returned with my ears popping and my luggage heavy from vine and cheese I brutally found out that even if its 18 degrees in Helsinki, it doesn't mean its t-shirt weather.. the wind cut me to the bone. Quickly visiting Meetingpoint@lasipalatsi to see how they are doing without me I got reminded that our work is definately not done yet. The first exhibition starts first of Octobre and we've yet to do anything about it. Monday will be the start of a series of very busy workdays!

Lost in Barcelona tour

Three hours of sleep.. absinth smelling in my breath and no toothpaste. This day couldn't being worse... well, it could, but it didn't. The day can't end well either...

Dragging myself into the shower I desided not to drag all my stuff with me today and instead travel light. This was an excellent idea since we headed towards Villanova the southern most city that is still considered to belong to the Metropoly of Barcelona.

In order to offset my perhaps questionable night I took bacon and eggs as breakfest and stuffed myself full of life. Excelente! Now I was ready!

Our group met at Casa Batlló a famous Gaudi building, but unfortunantely our schedule didn't leave much room for tourism. Going underground we took a local train to Villanova, which took around 45minutes. Since the seminar yesterday was such a success it was desided to make this day more leisourly. Our host had gone to an absinth bar with a brit and a finn... he wasn't feeling too good, but performed his job admirably well!

The destination of todays first journey was Neapolis l'espai de la tecnologia lles idees or shortly Neapolis. This two year old project got its own building and while not entirely finished is certainly impressive in many ways. Shall we enter?

Mostly funded by Villanova city council and the EU, Neàpolis has an amazing amount of modern technology at its disposal.

The first thing we were shown was their bigger TV-studio where they can film larger productions. As you can see the space provides interesting possibilities.

They actually have this smaller studio as well, where the local TV films its news and debate program. What is interesting in this small studio is the cameras.

They are robotic cameras that the show host can control by remote or that can be controlled from the control room.

This room is a broadcasting and monitoring station. It receives live feed from various TV companies that don't necessarily have broadcasting capability themselves and then is scheduled and relayed to be broadcast. Not limited to TV the computers on the left handle FM radio traffic.

The local television is over 20 years old and of course thus has 20 years of material. Some of this archive can be found in Neàpolis where it is slowly being digitalized.

The local TV channels editorial is also located in Neàpolis. The journalists edit their material here into fullblown stories.

There is a radio studio also located in Neàpolis, which is interlinked with the TV studio and its control station. This means if the TV channel needs a better voiceover or something for documentaries, they have easy access to such equipment here.

Since the local TV is so very integrated into Neàpolis they wanted to make a story of us and interviewed our host for the story. We were the stuff of local news that day!!

Neàpolis has an auditorium as well. While there is pretty standard equipment here, the 1GB Internet connection gives interesting possibilities for the use of this facility. They use this space to connect Neàpolis with other cultural centres as well as to show opera and whatnot to the local people for a very small fee.

After we left Neàpolis our host took us to a small tour of Villanova. Walking around the city I had a definitive feeling that I would return there one day with more time. Absolutely beautiful yet nearly void of turism and hassle. As one of the most important fishing cities, Villanova obviously has excellent seafood restaurants. After an immensely gratifying and large lunch we set forth back towards Barcelona. We had one last place to visit on this trip. CCCB - Centre de Cultura Contemporanea de Barcelona.

Although an impressive facility, the pictures I took from CCCB aren't very good. The vast open spaces there and the museum style lighting made photography very difficult on the move. In short the CCCB hosts and produces massive amounts of events, exhibitions, performances and all kinds of culture related happenings. They then share these events with the Culture Ring that i2Cat and CCCB have been forming for the past two years so that not only people from Barcelona can enjoy them, but anyone with access to one of the culture centres in the Culture Ring.


After the CCCB we separated as some needed to do some shopping while others wanted to go to their hotel immediately to refresh from the long day. I found myself buying CDs for over 80 euros in an etnomusic store.. silly me. After my own visit to my hotel room I returned downtown only to find that Mercè 2009 had started with a bang! The festival was booming and there was an excellent live concert on the Plaza de Catalunia. The day had taken its toll however and last nights 3 hours of sleep didn't help much nor the fact that my flight out was leaving too early next morning. Having enjoyed the concert for a while I retired early.