sample resolutions

sample resolutions
Originally uploaded by FransBadger.

Ok, this is sample photo from 6630 from the dinner. It is clear that cameraphones are getting better, yet it is easy to find problems with the sharpness and colours.

6630 on the move

6630 on the move
Originally uploaded by FransBadger.

Since yesterday, I have been trying out Nokia 6630, which has now replaced my worrisome Vodafone mobile data card. As far as I can tell, it turns out that my Thinkpad T43 uses a version of bluetooth stack that is not supported by Nokia PC Suite (a Broadcom one), so a USB cable is the only option for getting online; that seems to do it. But the phone itself seems to work fine. The camera resolution is 1,3 megapixels which is much better than the VGA of my old 6600, but way behind the 2 or 3 megapixels that the latest multimedia models are packing. But the OS is reacting fast, screen is clear and I like the touch of the keyboard. As the Nokia N series still has various baby illnesses, and E series delayed until summer, this model appears to be a nice compromise if mobile data is mostly what you are looking in a phone right now. The new HSDPA models are not far in the future also, and obviously we need a new communicator model with 3G/3,5G connection speeds. Until then, I will ride with this 6630. (Coming in from a bicycle trip, it just automatically transferred all shots via bluetooth to a date-format folder in my laptop, perfect! Now, if it only could use that bluetooth for a PC modem connection, too.)

in bloom

in bloom
Originally uploaded by FransBadger.

This time the fearsome bunny-rabbit has not eaten the spring crocus.

happy vappu

happy vappu
Originally uploaded by FransBadger.

Cheers! TATTE organises today their Vappu party at the campus: mead and a doughnut. Tasty! May Day, Vappu, is the workers and students festival, so the university is the right place for this.

sun'n'games?

sun'n'games?
Originally uploaded by FransBadger.

I visited Leinola school in Wednesday evening, speaking in a Media Education panel. Finns tend to be rather liberal and open-minded in international comparison, and this was also rather civilized event. I talked about need of parents to 1) pay attention to games, 2) to listen their children in order to understand both them and their relation to games, and, 3) join games themselves, to bridge the digital divide, and to enjoy some free time. Media fasting was also discussed; my point was that it is demeaning our lives and anything of value in media culture to bury ourselves in media indiscriminately -- it might be wise sometimes to switch off all media from our lives for a few days. Might try that even myself. Sun, outdoors, what a combination.

last of ice?

last of ice?
Originally uploaded by FransBadger.

Everyone is usually so cheerful about the coming spring that very few get nostalgic about the ice melting and snow going away. I like summer, but actually it is the transitions I like best -- the movement from one state to another. "Liminality" is a nice catch-all-phrase, but I wonder can we really pin it down so easily. In the cultural and religious history fields, one can point towards change of seasons being the symbolic and concrete moment when we see in action the change where our lives are fundamentally just one part. In media studies it is not so typical to think along these lines, and in science and technology studies almost certainly not. But I would like to see us taking more seriously our urge to create multiple layers of reality, all on the top of each other, and ask what is so inherently enjoyable finally in these transitions, overlays, and complexities related to them.

bad Maku

bad Maku
Originally uploaded by FransBadger.

This could be consired as a warning: this soda, "Maku" ('taste' in Finnish) tastes absolutely horrible. :-) There was a recent news story about poisonous chemicals being generated in diet sodas; I am sure "Maku" is particularly strong in benzene...

larp phd project

larp phd project
Originally uploaded by FransBadger.

Today there was the first PhD seminar in the Department of Information Studies to discuss the thesis project of J. Tuomas Harviainen. With Markus Montola's work already on the way to the Media Culture, there is interesting research into role-playing in the works. It is just a shame we do not have Game Studies or even Hypermedia (New Media Studies) established subjects that one could do a BA/MA or PhD in our university. In practice it means that I am volunteering or working as a "hired consultant" then to these other departments when supervising game related theses like these. Working title of J. Tuomas's work: Information Seeking Patterns in Pseudo-autonomous Temporary Realities.

google calendar, part 2

Studying the Google Calendar again, I did found a way to import Outlook meeting data into it, from a tip from a Google Calendar Help forum. It seems you need to change your Windows XP system language into US English before doing the Outlook data export, to get date format right for Google Calendar. Well, there still seems to be various kinds of bugs in it, but the idea of having an easy way to share calendars is of course nice. Now, if this would only really work... :-(

flying by

flying by
Originally uploaded by FransBadger.

Flocks of birds; cold country. I got now some of the photos shot during the Easter into Flickr and a bit more into my own archive:

http://www.flickr.com/photos/fransmayra/sets/72057594110689153/

http://www.unet.fi/pics/2006-04-17/

spa

spa
Originally uploaded by FransBadger.

Time to soak and swim. www.naantalispa.fi

announcing DiGRA 2007 Tokyo

It is now official: the third DiGRA world conference will take place in Tokyo, Japan in September 2007. Take a look at the announcement page in DiGRA.org.

google calendar import troubles

We have been looking for a group calendar that would be flexible enough and easily compatible with most PC and mobile calendar standards. Looking at the Google Calendar beta, this seems to be not so far now. But, when I have now been trying to test it, the import function from Outlook seems not to be working. There are some others who face the same "Failed to upload ical/csv file" error when importing from iCal, too. Wonder if there is some obvious solution for this?

Edit: there appears to be so many bugs in Google Calendar at the moment, that some people would prefer to call it Alpha rather than Beta. See: http://groups.google.com/group/Google-Calendar-Help.

carcassonne easter

carcassonne easter
Originally uploaded by FransBadger.

Carcassonne start into Easter: four different expansion packs and a nice dinner with Johanna and Heikki. I must confess that I prefer a game with a bit simpler rules: two hours of preparation before the game can even start is too much. But it is so nice to have a break and some free time. :-)

rick random & jet-ace logan

This is pure nostalgia: Egmont in Finland has republished 1950s pulp scifi with a series of Rick Random and Jet-Ace Logan comics. Were the stories really this bad? But Ron Turner's style of drawing has certain "Edgar Rice Burroughs style" fantasy in it.  

fans in film

In weekend, I ended up watching the Ringers: Lord of the Fans film. An interesting blend of pr material for the LoTR film trilogy, Tolkien literary tutorial, and anglo-american fandom history. I think the film is half fandom-produced, and that might explain its a bit uneven quality. But it was fun looking at this layer of history of enthusiasm into modern fantasy.

game studio and talk in itk'06

Yet another seminar (YAS) this week, as we hit the road to get to Hämeenlinna. Interaktiivinen Teknologia Koulutuksessa (that is Interactive Technology in Education conference in English) adversises to be the largest conference in Finland about information and communcation technology in educational use. We have not done so much work in Serious Games or other applied games research areas, but there are many interesting possibilities worth looking there -- particularly in educating people to understand the scope and nature of so-called common games. Every game is educational, in the sense that you need to learn a lot in order to be able to face the challenges that are part of many games. But more about it in the conference tomorrow. Welcome to visit Game Research Lab booth: we have a small 'game studio' set up for two days in ITK.

See: ITK conference web pages.

church bells

This is when you know you are having a slow day: I actually became interested in a HS/Yle story about rerecording of church bells. There is a radio ritual in Finland, started apparently in year 1944, to play the sound of Turku Lutheran Cathedral bells at 12 noon every day in main Radio 1 FM channel. There is something smoothing and relaxing in its slow, echoing sound. You can read a story of the bells and listen to the recordings in MP3 files from here (in Finnish only).

new race, wisp (wow april fooling)

This is actually sort of funny: they claim to offer wisp as a new Alliance player race in WoW. See the announcement. Since it is time for the April Fool jokes, this is sort of easy to get, but might confuse someone for a moment. On a more non-friendly note, Blizzard appears to have some trouble getting their WoW account management working this week, and they are not advising their poor addicted players on what to do when the playing time runs out. Tsat-tsat!

siilinkari winter walk

Siilinkari
Originally uploaded by FransBadger.

There is a tradition to walk to the small Siilinkari island over the Näsijärvi ice in Tampere in March. This time Aamulehti had organised some music and other programme for a family-oriented Sunday in March 12. I was there with Laura, and some of these (long overdue) photos are now in Flickr: http://www.flickr.com/photos/fransmayra/search/tags:siilinkari/ - and all in my own server: http://unet.fi/pics/2006-03-12/

gdc pics, flickr

Ronald D. Moore, Galactica keynote, GDC
Originally uploaded by FransBadger.

I am using some time this Saturday resting (still recovering from that flu I got while returning from the US without my winter clothing), and putting online some pictures. This link should take you into the selected Flickr set of GDC pictures: http://www.flickr.com/photos/fransmayra/search/tags:gdc/ - and for the full archive, go to http://unet.fi/pics/2006-03-24-GDC/

playing roles seminar

Playing Roles seminar, University of Tampere
Originally uploaded by FransBadger.

The seminar was very interesting, as I supposed it would be: many great talks and some promising plans of future collaborations. I have now put some pictures (all of which seem to be blurry, btw) both into my own server in and into Flickr. I hope this tag-search link works: http://www.flickr.com/photos/fransmayra/search/text:playing/
- and more in my own server: http://unet.fi/pics/2006-03-31/