Disqus - Latest Comments for kari

Re: Meet Friendbook, FaceFeed, or whatever… I can't tell the difference anymore

kari — Tue, 11 Aug 2009 00:22:00 -0000

> The thing is that the more both FriendFeed and Facebook evolve, the less I can tell them apart anymore.

You know, Vince, this post suddenly became relevant again (just noticed in the daily popular list). You called it a year before Facebook acquired Friendfeed.

Re: How to make the Browser a more Efficient OS

kari — Mon, 27 Jul 2009 11:58:47 -0000

You know, little is a real understatement. Right now the images don't even load. Seems like it's something at Disqus' end.

Re: Old world vs. the new world and the digitalisation of services

kari — Wed, 22 Jul 2009 06:49:05 -0000

The Finnish government has embraced the internet banking authentication (after a spectacular failure of electronic national id authentication system) to such extent that you need those to report a (small) crime to police (they don't take phone calls anymore, just a web form). Also, you can use them among other things to change address, get some of your mail (invoices, official notices, salary receipt) as e-post, a credit card or an internet domain.

But you're right, in some cases the application comes later in the mail with a dotted-line and return envelope. Even though a signature is easier to forge than a HTTPS connection, the former has longer precedent in law (or a law requires a written contract) and isn't vulnerable to class (or wholesale) attacks.

Anyway, going to your questions. I don't believe that there is such a secure communication, but it doesn't matter, because we have checks and laws that have traditionally taken care of most problems. The benchmark isn't fool-proof system, but what could be reasonably required to assure validity of the transaction. You can forge a ID and signature, but the risk hasn't been so small that it's accepted.

So, I wouldn't say that financial or official matters (I was interviewed by the police using e-mail once, for crying out loud) are in the old world anymore, at least for the citizens. However, health care is. My father, a medical doctor, has as his out of office message a reminder that e-mail isn't a secure medium and how the data protection ombudsman is strictly against handling patient information on it.

And the reason, I believe, is simple. We have insurances against financial losses in case of fraud, but once your sensitive data is out there, you can't take it back.

Re: How to make the Browser a more Efficient OS

kari — Tue, 21 Jul 2009 13:11:54 -0000

You have a really strange concept of a hiatus, not that I'm complaining. =)

Re: With Skype, I can now talk to myself. and mom.

kari — Thu, 16 Jul 2009 04:43:09 -0000

Damn flu. Can't comprehend a thing.

Is posting that twice some kind of a meta-joke? =)

Re: With Skype, I can now talk to myself. and mom.

kari — Thu, 16 Jul 2009 04:09:18 -0000

I think the latest version of MSN... sorry, Live Messenger allows for multiple logins. Anyway, that's a bit irrelevant these days.

Multiple logins are good, but they way the work vary. I think Live messenger just broadcasts all messages to all logged in clients, where as Google Talk/XMPP clients send initial message to all or to the one with the highest priority. I've no idea how Skype works in this regard, though.

Re: A thought about comment-enticement

kari — Mon, 13 Jul 2009 09:02:18 -0000

In our ever-continuing tradition of trying to serve our readers better, we're now try to entice more comments by using Disqus instead of Wordpress' own commenting. Sure, technology alone isn't a solution, but it should help facilitate a better discussion.

Re: Living in a small Country reveals the inefficiency of businesses, of Industries, of Humans.

kari — Mon, 13 Jul 2009 05:02:35 -0000

This is my operator's pricing sheet: http://hypno2.mobile.sonera.net/hinnasto/roamin... The categories 1-2 are the EU countries.

Re: Living in a small Country reveals the inefficiency of businesses, of Industries, of Humans.

kari — Mon, 13 Jul 2009 03:55:13 -0000

Well, the prices didn't go that far down. At least here, intra-EU SMS is now 12 cents, calls 52 cents and data 0,12 cents / 50 kb (or, 2,5 euro per meg). Data is still a rip-off.

Re: Why Nokia will stay on Symbian and others have Android phones

kari — Wed, 08 Jul 2009 08:59:42 -0000

I'm actually surprised how good Yet Another Related Posts plugin works. I'm a bit ashamed I didn't link to all the top 4 in my post.

Re: Briefly, on the value of Recaps

kari — Fri, 03 Jul 2009 02:01:37 -0000

OK, OK... I'm writing a post already.... =)

Anyway, I'd think it'd be useful if recaps also summarized (possible) insights in (possible) comments.

Re: Living in a small Country reveals the inefficiency of businesses, of Industries, of Humans.

kari — Thu, 11 Jun 2009 06:08:09 -0000

I think there are changes coming this July to roaming charges. I'm translating from a Finnish article, but an today average SMS cost on average 28 cents (10 times of domestic average), but will be capped to 11 cents (only five times bigger!). Calls are capped today at 45 cents, in July 43 cents (and July 2010 to 39 cents). Data will be capped at 1 euro / MB and 50 euro / month.

Granted, those prices are still insane and you can be sure that those are still not counted in to the minutes/sms/MBs in your plans. These changes mean an avearge 60% reduction in consumer prices, so you can be sure that the current prices are a joke against "common EU market". This whole issue is also a great example of the so called "self-regulation" of an industry.

In my opinion, the (mobile) networks should be owned by a separate entity than who sells services. Just like we have electricity (at least in Nordics) and roads and pretty much every other infrastructure, except telecommunication.

Well, I'd settle if public transportation cards were the same even inside one country.

Re: iPhone's app strategy and its implications for other smart phones

kari — Fri, 05 Jun 2009 11:08:52 -0000

My conclusion? Well, I think pretty much all the competitors are trying to emulate Apple on both the hardware and app store fronts. Apple's advantage is in the user experience and hardware design and in my opinion a mobile phone shouldn't primarily be a platform for apps, but somehow everyone thinks that's where the money is. We have already seen this happen. My gut feeling says that this whole "apps" thing will blow over and Google will win, because it is the only "mobile" player who makes money out of internet usage (in addition to operators). (On another note, I think Google doesn't hate anything as much as SMS messaging.)

The operators will fight tooth and nail not to become bit-pushers and probably are betting on Android, which allows them to brand the experience and harass the customers as usual. Nokia knows that bulk of the profit comes from the cheap handsets sold to operators and probably doesn't want to screw them over. This is the reason why Ovi Store is full of ringtones and wallpapers. Nokia knows that for the low- to mid-end operators will just buy phones from Samsung or some other and the end user doesn't care.

Apple, on the other hand, could go to the operators and show them an iPod and tell them to trust Apple to make money for them. It's stupid, but I think all the players should focus on their core (Google: apps, Others: phones). They don't have the competitive advantages Apple has: design & user experience, iTunes, OS X technologies or a board chair at Disney.

Re: iPhone's app strategy and its implications for other smart phones

kari — Fri, 05 Jun 2009 02:18:27 -0000

If Apple is the Microsoft of the mobile space, does this mean Nokia is the IBM of it?

I would still categorize Google's current Android phones, Palm Pre and iPhone as high end, early adopter devices. I'd imagine the user bases are quite homogeneous. The only difference here is that only iPhone aims (through design and marketing) to be a smartphone for everyone. Now, this has been a strategy for Nokia.

Nokia does have Symbian in pretty much every mid- to high-end phone these days and has been struggling with app stores and web services for a long time. One of their main problems seems to be that their user base just isn't interested. Earlier Nokia was trying the strategy 2 (decentralized), but is now trying 1 (app store). The other problem, is the developer problem, seeing that they don't even use their own SDK internally, why'd anyone else bother?

I would argue that both Nokia and Google try to move software from the phone to the internet as services, whereas Apple is cashing on the software in the phone with its App Store. The main gripe I have about Apple's App Store is that one of things that I enjoy about using Mac OS X is that it comes with "batteries included" - you're up and running almost instantly, whereas on Windows side you need to install a load of 3rd party software before you have a decent setup.

This has lead to a situation where the comment I hear most often about iPhone is how the device itself isn't that great as a phone, but apps are nice. This is a stark difference to what people say about other Apple hardware (iPhone, Macs).

For example, looking at the Nokia Morph concept you have up there, you can see that the "mobile phone" is divided into parts or interfaces. It's more of a user agent for different applications (as in use, not software) than a thing. Google on the other hand, doesn't care which browser or device you use to access their services as long as you do (and has created Chrome and Android to guide development in those areas to where they'd like).

As a hardware manufacturer, Nokia's biggest mistakes have been not to figure out US markets and not being able to launch a smartphone "for the rest of us". Their most compelling smart phones are still in their business E-series, while the N-series tries too hard with an user interface only their developers can love. What Nokia, on the other hand, can do is make smartphones a commodity. That would make Nokia the Microsoft of mobile space and put Apple as Apple of mobile space.

Re: What I'd like: a project management front-end for the Explorer and Finder

kari — Mon, 01 Jun 2009 03:14:48 -0000

The only thing that resembles what you're after is Microsoft's SharePoint, but I hate that piece of shit so much that even mentioning it opens up the wounds I already thought had healed.

Re: 7 reasons why I'm stopping using Last.fm for music & 4 reasons why I'm starting to use Drop.io + Facebook Connect

kari — Thu, 28 May 2009 12:19:24 -0000

I've struggled with last.fm's use-case, mostly because of the same reasons you have. iTunes' Genius was the last straw for me, even though it has some inherent problems with music not in iTunes Music Store.

About point 6, though, Last.fm has quite aggressively denied that it has disclosed personal information to third parties. Of course, what last.fm's users listen to has been available for pretty much anyone all the time (it being public with the APIs and all) so that shouldn't really be news. Techcrunch is just talking probably out of their ass about leaking personal information part, because if last.fm really did that they would be pretty much in violation of EU Data Privacy laws.

Re: OK you cheapskates, what do you think of the iPhone now?

kari — Wed, 13 May 2009 06:43:20 -0000

@Matthias, nope. HTC phones have never been really available here from the operators; it's just Nokia, Samsung or iPhone here (should I even mention SonyEricsson anymore, they have so lost the smartphone game?). For this reason, on the San Francisco trip couple of months back, some of the guys brought back a bunch of HTC G1s.

I'd love to see Google's Market Place to catch up with App Store, but it's all up to the developers. And as I see it now, it's the same thing as with Linux+Win vs. Mac apps. The developers for the latter pay a lot more attention on UI, where as apps for Linux / Windows are their own islands, UI and experience -wise.

@Vince, yeah stock delays suck. Samsung's i7500 should be available in June-July in the "important" markets of Europe.

Maybe I should just get a heavily-subsidized Nokia phone and moan about it until something better comes along.

Re: OK you cheapskates, what do you think of the iPhone now?

kari — Wed, 13 May 2009 05:16:26 -0000

Well, I'm in similar situation with you. For me, 16GB iPhone with monthly unlimited data (Free wifi-coverage in Helsinki is spotty) would be 43e / month for 2 years with no up-front fees. (As a comparison, the Nokia iPhone-wannabe would be 32 e/month on the same terms) (Add 5e for theoretical 1Mbit connection instead of 384kbit)

I've heard many people to say that iPhone is the best thing ever, whereas the only people who have got Android are guys with Computer Science-degrees. While I'd really be interested in an open platform that has possibilities, the only phone I'm considering is Samsung's i7500. The only problem is that I've no idea if any carrier will have a plan with it and it'll be on sale in September here in Nokia-land.

My main interest in Android is Google-integration. On the other hand, my main fear with Android is that it'll remain in the shitty Linux UI experience level for a long, long time to come. It has the same promise as Linux, and... by the looks of it, the same execution.

My belief is that iPhone 3.0 software and the new iPhone will be released at the same time, and WWDC is a suitable launch time for at least the former.

This is a bad time for cheapskates everywhere.

Re: What I'd like: branded phone-numbers

kari — Tue, 12 May 2009 07:32:33 -0000

Nice post,

I've been thinking about similar thing, why there isn't a DNS-like system for telephones. I'm pretty sure there's some really good reason for it, because normaly phone companies love to sell all kinds of vanity add-on services.

Funnily enough, SMS has this functionality, so I hope that future advances in digitalization of phone calling, be it through Skype, Google Voice, Voip or whatever, might finally bring this feature to us.

Re: Why we're starting Easyittech.org

kari — Wed, 01 Apr 2009 14:07:31 -0000

Vincent, how did you forget to mention our daily Techit... I mean Easyittech Podcast?

Re: Technology, business, and the need for a religion

kari — Thu, 26 Mar 2009 07:44:20 -0000

Like with things in nature, I think the normal human behaviour is to first disturb the the balance to achieve something that felt nice and enjoy that before nature sorts itself out and things go back in to a new equilibrium, which probably sucks a lot. Like with climate change.

I find this period between equilibriums, "friction" I guess, pretty interesting.

Re: Technology, business, and the need for a religion

kari — Thu, 26 Mar 2009 06:08:07 -0000

True, but sometimes people underestimate the risks and dismiss the consequences. If I remember correctly, William Gibson has said that in his books he tried to come up as dystopian things as possible and the fact that people still try to realize the things depicted in Neuromancer et al. is astonishing to him.

Reminds me a bit of the part in Adams' Hitch Hiker's Guide to the Galaxy where some guys ask a computer to build a bomb that could destroy everything (and, after trying to use it are disappointed that it, in fact, didn't).

Re: Technology, business, and the need for a religion

kari — Thu, 26 Mar 2009 02:19:48 -0000

I don't want to start yet another blog... You wanted discussion, so I thought I'd write more than just "an interesting post, Vince. I've been thinking about similar things during past month for a paper I'm co-writing". =)

Anyway, sorry, I misunderstood in the beginning where you said that science and business fight against meaning. I read that as religion instead.

Re: Technology, business, and the need for a religion

kari — Wed, 25 Mar 2009 13:36:48 -0000

I think there's a good reason to leave the business, technology and science as value neutral as possible. Well, the fields of strategy and marketing are nothing but value neutral, but for many they're not exact sciences for this and other reasons. Science and its theories are, after all, trying to be universal. I agree that mixing science and religion won't really lead to anything good, by either religion's or science's measure.

I think one thing that is often forgotten is that neither science or religion means anything without a thinking human, who is there to bring meaning to both of them. True, someone might argue that gravity et al. are there even if there wasn't anyone to measure it. Others could as well argue that God or gods or the flying spaghetti monster exist whether there was anyone to believe in them.

I think one of the central issues in Stephenson's Snow Crash was exactly this lack of religion in modern science and business focused life and the effects of this. Well, Stephenson went as far as Sumerian mythology and the myth of Babylon to build his story and claiming that Judaism was the first religion to have an anti-virus built-in to stop the church from controlling the masses...

Back to robots. There's increasing discussion about the ethics and robots. The US Army hit this problem, because more independent drones do require some set of control as not to suddenly cause friendly casualties or act against the laws of war. You mentioned something like Asimov's three laws of robotics, but as Asimov described in his novel, even these three simple rules had complex consequences - leading in the end to a situation where blind following of these three laws caused a situation that was pretty far from original intentions.

I'm right now trying to write about the future of machines with a team of other graduate students. I was planning to write abou the economics and what not, but I keep hitting this ethics thing where ever I try to look. It also has strange connections to liability. Who is responsible when an independent robot makes a mistake? And suddenly when continuing this line of thought, I find myself thinking about animal and human rights...

Re: Photo-publishers should have an ego-feature

kari — Thu, 12 Mar 2009 14:34:17 -0000

Man, this is innovation. I don't think that what you described is necessarily it, but you have an idea. It's a lot harder to rip-off someone who's face you've seen.

Now when you take a picture, a lot of environmental data is added as metadata, like time and location and what not. But not much about the photographer. Well, Canon at least allows you to put your name automatically in them, but...

There's a lot of talk of integrating biofeedback into games, but what about pulse rate or some other bioindicator telling how excited you were to take a certain pictures?