the first signs of melting

Melting
Originally uploaded by Frans Mäyrä.

This picture was taken today, Sunday afternoon as the first rays of sun that actually felt a bit warm were melting some of the ice, and making water flow. There are some more shots, both outdoors and in, from Laura's party which was yesterday evening, in:
http://unet.fi/pics/2006-01-29/

red squirrels and other moving objects

Red squirrel reaching
Originally uploaded by Frans Mäyrä.

Morning walk in Hatanpää area (Tampere) was supposed to be mainly landscape photography, to test out the new Canon wide lens, but the overall dark grey, and occasional horizon purples did not support that so much. I did take some shots that belong to the group of introverted and a bit melancholy still life pictures that I seem to compose quite often, though. Finally I ended up in Arboretum park which is feeding ground for some rather well-fed red squirrels and great blue tits (talitiainen in Finnish). There were also couple of “regular” blue tits (sinitiainen), which are smaller and not so common over there. I like working with animals, even if they are so much more challenging to frame and light in the way I like than all the other objects that do not fly around at nervous high speeds.

lens: ef 17-85mm f/4-5.6 is usm

Time to move forward: the Canon kit lens is now officially retired, and I got a EF 17-85mm f/4-5.6 IS USM as my main, general-purpose lens. It is by no means perfect, there has been much critique pointed at the softness/unsharpness and barrel distortion at wide angle, but there is no point for me investing into L series lenses at this point. The image stabilizer improves conditions when shooting in natural light, as I always do, and the zoom range is also right. It would be great to get into summery meadow to test it, but indoors and winter landscapes must do for now.

dinner in helsinki

dinner in helsinki
Originally uploaded by Frans Mäyrä.

Jane McGonigal gave an interesting lecture on pervasive games and puppet mastering in Helsinki tonight. Afterwards, a dinner in "Marco Polo" (old Paasitorni). Fun! And food was nice, too.

updating flickr

Alder cones in winter
Originally uploaded by Frans Mäyrä.

I have really started to like Flickr and the way it makes tagging, categorising, sharing and discussing digital photographs easy. I decided to go "pro" and paid for an year's account that gives 2 GB of monthly uploads and unlimited photo sets. Currently I have the classic ones: Travelpics, Summerpics, Autumnpics, Winterpics. It is interesting to explore all those collections of photos other people around the world are taking, uploading and sharing. Some of them are simply amazing, and taken as a community phenomenon, there is so much added value attached to them. In the case there were several competing services like this, the field would be much more fragmented - so, a Flickr monopoly is a good thing, eh?

Ridges of ice

Ridges
Originally uploaded by Frans Mäyrä.

A walk in -22C today, getting some half-baked shots of winter light and ice; I was freezing and my equipent were soon on their edge too, the Sigma zoom getting stuck and rigid (no autofocus in those temperatures). But I am happy I did it: a morning walk listening to the deep rumble of Pyhäjärvi ice cover cracking in mile-long crevices was an experience worth the discomfort.

Edit: I keep a (low-bandwidth) copy all of these shots in my own server: http://unet.fi/pics/2006-01-22/

time goes by, digi-tv

time goes by, digi-tv
Originally uploaded by Frans Mäyrä.

The most powerful technology in the history? Perhaps clock, according to some techno-historists. This Saturday, at 12 noon, Peeko Näränen has his thesis defense, subject: digitalisation of television in Finland (not so smooth process).

game education, jane mcgonical

Today I was speaking of games literacy and game cultures for an audience of educators in "Media Education Fair" they organised in Tampere Finlayson area. Good discussions, it is just so frustrating to know how slowly we can see games entering the phase of more diverse content, and increased applicability in normal classroom situations, for example.

As an advance notice, please mark into your calendar Jane McGonigal's talk, taking place in Helsinki (and Tampere via teleconference) next Tuesday. (See: News and Events at the University of Tampere, UTa.)

open lab

Yesterday, our department had an "open doors" day, and all interested were invited to hear and see what we are doing. The event was rather intimate, and took place in our "coffee room - library", but there was whole afternoon (and late into the evening) people coming to hear the presentations, and discuss new media, technology, and their human-centred research. I think not so many other departments do this kind of presentations of their work -- wonder why? (The selected video recordings of the day should come into the net at some point soon.)

ms raw thumbnailer and viewer

Apple has long been the favourite choice of digital imaging aficionados, but also the Windows world is trying to come along. MS has updated their RAW image viewer, and it is going to be a part of the future OS version. RAW images, described as "digital negatives" portray the image data exactly as it was captured by the sensors of the camera. Since their large file size and tricks of handling and editing, RAW files are not as popular as compressed JPEG files among consumers, but in professional photography they have distinctive benefits. As the screens, disks and memory sizes in computers are getting larger and better, it becomes more attractive to use image formats that do not damage the original data, like compressed file types do. Paul Thurrott's article on Longhorn RAW image support is a good introduction to the Microsoft plans in this area, and the Win XP RAW image viewer is something we can use currently. But the large sizes are still putting high demands on your system - but updating the hardware is of course what we are expected to do too, all the time...

-20C

-20C
Originally uploaded by Frans Mäyrä.

Brr. Cold wind from Siberia this week, -20C > -30C. In my childhood this was the usual weather, but things have changed. Is it only the greenhouse our life is located within, or are we changing?

oxy^3silence

oxy^3silence
Originally uploaded by Frans Mäyrä.

After an unpleasant series of respiratory infections (propably asthma-related), I decided to do so something about it. Two days of vacuuming, washing and reorganising was a good start, but I also decided to upgrade my air cleaner. The old one (a Philips) is now washing off the particles in the computer corner, while an Electrolux Z8020 takes care of the bedroom. An interesting example of how the "life sustaining systems" in our homes start to remind you of space stations. This baby can sense both the amount of microparticles and the current sound level, and adjust its speed and power relative to either.

entertaible: electronic gaming and traditional board games

Combining physical and digital worlds is one of the major trends in games evolution currently, and you can see it happening in the physical gaming, movement sensing and location aware mobile gaming, for example. One of the things that we have been researching in the IPerG EU games project is combining board games with digital layers or functionalities (in work package headed by Interactive Institute in Sweden), and it was interesting to have a look at the 'Entertaible' concept by Philips. See: the project home page, and a video.

bill and conan making fools of themselves at the CES

Bill Gates' CES keynote is being reported as giving out the message that the way to success in the future for software companies like Microsoft is to make software more like video games. But actually, if you watch the actual video recording of the performance, you will get a very curious, awkward kind of Conan O'Brian show, coupled with somewhat out-of-place Bill, and some of the most bug-ridden demos for some time shown in public. Hilarious!

the sony e-ink reader

Many interesting things for a gadget freak in the CES this year, again; I just want to point out that Sony is bringing out an E-Ink reader, with a USB connection for downloading and reading websites, JPEGs or PDFs in its completely flicker-free, paper-like screen; see Live From CES: The Sony Reader - by Gizmodo. Now, lets just have it half the thickness, with colour-enabled screen, and double the battery life...

what is your dangerous idea, 2006?

Every year the Edge.org asks some scientists and thinkers to ponder on some big question, this year: What is your dangerous idea? The finished 119 contributions are now available, and this is actually an online book in speculative thinking, and very refreshing visit into into our reality from multiple angles.

non-interactive interactive media, part 1

Like many others (I suspect) I have a secret love: media that does not want my attention or require that I actively use it. On the other hand, I also love the increased possibilities and opportunities provided by the latest information and communication technologies.

There is so much to say about this paradox, and how symptomatic it actually is, but here is just one link in this mini-series, dedicated to non-interactive “interactive media”: the RSS-capable screensaver by Microsoft. There are others, of course, but this was actually easy to install (a plus for us stressed out media people), and despite that this MSN Screensaver is still in Beta, it seems to work. You just set up your favourite RSS feeds, delete all MSN content feeds it attempts to serve you, make sure that the screensaver image folder points to somewhere you actually feel comfortable watching at (it will preinstall a series of pretty landscape photos), and voilá: you can rest your eyes and brain by staring at the semi-transparent info screens, all filled by mostly useless news clippings, sailing by. (There is weather information, too. But no Tampere, Finland; only Helsinki, and for some reason also Nivala and Mynämäki...)

Winter's flowers

Winter's flowers
Originally uploaded by Frans Mäyrä.

After the obligatory Christmas flu, and the New Year celebrations, I had a little walk with my camera today. There are precious little sunlight hours in Finland at this time of year, and you need to look carefully to find anything among all that snow. But, on the other hand, the darkness, the white blanket covering everything: they have certain calming and eternal quality. Flickr has few of those pictures, my server (http://unet.fi/pics/2006-01-01/) some more.