Juha Haataja: Universal Digital Ideas

A digital camera provides a lot of value

Mon, 09 Mar 2009 18:39:06 GMT

I have now taken well over 32,000 photographs with the Panasonic LX3 which I bought last September. The price per image is at about 0.01 euro - one cent per image. That is quite cheap, much cheaper that I thought possible. And the camera works still without major problems, so there may be another 32,000 photographs to be taken with the camera.

Changing to another topic - fellow photography blogger Paul Lester posted a deeply personal and insightful piece about Shadows, about how keeping a personal journal helps to run a "mental health program". I posted a comment at Paul's blog, here are some further thoughts on the topic.

I used to keep a journal, written by hand, but that habit disappeared when I started to use the computer for writing. At some point I was no longer drafting texts first by hand and only then typing them. Something was lost in the change, a feeling a spontaneity. Writing by hand with a fountain pen felt as if there wouldn't have been anything between the thought and the text.

I think writing on a computer is not the same, it is much more impersonal. (Isn't there even a religious sect which says that there is a devil inside each computer?)

I retrospect I feel that there was a lot of benefit in that kind of introspection. A little bit of journal-type writing each day helped to keep things in perspective. But somehow I can't find the stamina to keep on doing it any more. However, if the (metaphorical) demons keep on pressing too much, I may have to pick up the pen once more.

Photography is the thing

Mon, 05 Jan 2009 21:58:04 GMT

I haven't been blogging much here at Universal Rule for some time, but those who are interested in what I'm currently doing, please check out the Light Scrape blog, which is about photography. I'm nowadays mostly using the Panasonic LX3 for taking photos, over 23,000 photos taken so far with the camera. There has been much less time for other topics since I got a major interest in photography, but that can of course change at some point. But currently it seems that photography poses an interesting long-term project, defined in my own terms. So, other topics such as DRM, Macs, and such will have to wait.

LIFE photo archive brought available by Google

Tue, 18 Nov 2008 18:28:33 GMT

LIFE photo archive hosted by Google: "Search millions of photographs from the LIFE photo archive, stretching from the 1750s to today. Most were never published and are now available for the first time through the joint work of LIFE and Google."

This is an extremely interesting site for anyone interested in history, culture, politics, humanity, photography, ...

Is photography opening eyes, or shutting them?

Sun, 12 Oct 2008 19:44:26 GMT

I'm now at 5967 photos taken with my Panasonic LX3 camera, and I'm every once in a while thinking whether photography is a good hobby after all. Earlier I was quite positive that taking photos is a way of looking at the world, seeing what is there, a way of opening towards the reality of life.

But now I'm not so sure any more. Perhaps photography can be also a kind of escape from reality, a closing of eyes for things at the same time when you are using the camera.

Am I shutting my eye on global problems like pollution, lack of food, and financial crisis? Is photography a way of focusing on one thing while simultaneously shutting out important other things?

Have 4433 photos taught anything?

Mon, 06 Oct 2008 20:39:20 GMT

I have now taken 4433 photos with my Panasonic LX3, in 20 days or so, documenting my learning experience at Light Scrape. What I find interesting is that there seems to be a kind of style arising, although I'm not sure that I actually like the photos I'm producing. But they have some interesting properties which I'm willing to explore, at least for the moment.

I have found that the LX3 is as a camera much above the Canon Ixus 400 which I was using before - the LX3 is a real tool for a photographer, allowing to do much more than just point-and-shoot techniques (with some tricks to fool the automatics).

I'm enjoying photography so much that sometimes I'm afraid that it will consume too much time. But the days are getting shorter here in Finland, so there will be less and less opporturnities for photography in the coming months.

Learning photography with the Panasonic LX3

Fri, 03 Oct 2008 22:00:31 GMT

Two weeks ago I wrote that I have take 612 photos with my Panasonic LX3 camera. Now I'm at 3476 photos taken, and some of them have been the best I have even managed to take. Not that it means much, but I feel that the camera has taught me a lot already in a couple of weeks.

But will the photography interest sustain itself? And why I'm actually taking photos? Perhaps for myself - to see the world better, to understand it, to be able to actually see what is around? I feel that this reason has become more and more strong during the last months. I have develop a kind of eye for visual information. This skill was more or less dormant previously.

I have also a kind of hunger for taking photos. Each day I have a craving to take photos for later viewing and pondering. A form of nourishment.

On the other hand, photography is also about communication. When I take a photo and show it to someone or publish it on the net, I'm showcasing my view of the world for others to see. I'm not sure how much I actually need this kind of reason for taking photos, but it has given a kind of additional interest to it. The comments at my blog Light Scrape have provided very interesting feedback, as also the information I get from Flickr about photo viewers. I can't deny that this kind of indication of interest provides additional encouragement for photography.

But how this will develop, that I can't know. But I feel that the photography hobby will develop further. Maybe I will at some point even invest in a digital system camera, if they become small enough and novel enough for learning more about photography. For now, the LX3 is my trusted photography tool.

I have come back full circle in my photography hobby. With my first camera, Minolta XG-1, I used manual focusing and the aperture priority mode. I'm now using the same kind of settings with the LX3. But the camera is much more versatile, and thanks to the small sensor, I have less problems with depth of field than I had with the Minolta.

On the buying of expensive cameras

Fri, 26 Sep 2008 20:28:35 GMT

Little Poems of Hate wrote a provocative posting titled So I Bought This Expensive Camera... The writer loathes people who buy expensive cameras and think they are ready to be masters - as if buying a stethoscope would make you into a doctor.

Here is a quote: "I have had an alarming amount of people recently coming up to me during shoots, events or other things I may be covering to ask me how to make money with their camera. Now I personally find this odd because I view photography as an art form and nothing more. Yes, I make a living from doing it but I would also do it even if I made no money at all. I just can[base ']t think of photography in terms of being a means to an end, where you are motivated simply by the fact that making a buck will make your life fulfilling. In my life photography gives me a sense of purpose, it is my voice, my muse and my constant abiding companion."

Is my photography hobby centered around camera gear? Well, perhaps not, as I have bought a new camera every five years of so, taking a lot of photos in between. (Over 2300 photos with the newest one, Panasonic LX3, in ten days. See Light Scrape for more details about my LX3 use.)

But I must admit I haven't always been so keen on taking photos, it hasn't been so important to me as it has now been for the last few months. Although I have always liked to take photos, it has not driven me the same way as - for example - writing has been driving me, sometimes to extreme amounts of text pages per day.

I'm not yet quite sure how the current interest in photography will endure. In any case, I feel that getting a camera like the LX3 was essential for developing the skills, as the Canon Ixus 400 didn't have any manual control at all.

612 photos taken with Panasonic LX3

Fri, 19 Sep 2008 20:52:27 GMT

So far I have taken 612 photos with my new Panasonic LX3, and I'm still at the first charge of the battery. I have written many postings about using the camera at Light Scrape, and I am not going to repeat the same here.

Overall satisfaction with LX3 is still high, and I'm eagerly waiting for brighter days to test out the camera. So far this week has been heavily clouded in the Helsinki region.

I must admit that the camera is complex, but slowly I'm getting over the complexity and learning to forget the features. But I expect that there is still much to learn, one step at a time.

First impressions of the Panasonic LX3 camera

Tue, 16 Sep 2008 21:47:10 GMT

I got today my Panasonic LX3 camera - finally but also a bit surprisingly, as it was supposed to be shipped today. I feel both happy and worried. Happy that I have a nice new camera to try out. Worried that there seems to be so much to learn.

I haven't yet had much time to try out the camera, but at least it seems to be robust in construction. And the black color was a good choice, even though fingerprints may be quite visible.

First impressions: The 24 mm lens is really wide. I didn't really expect this, as I'm mainly used to the 36 mm on my Ixus 400 (and earlier to the 50 mm on my Minolta XG-1). The wider lens will require getting used to - I have to get much closer to the subject when taking photos. I feel that for landscapes the wide lens will definitely bring a new perspective, so I'm eagerly waiting to try it out.

There is some noise at ISO 400, and increasingly at ISO 800. Thus a LX3 is by no means a substitute to a DSL with a much bigger sensor. But I haven't yet tried out the settings, so I'm not quite sure what is the best quality you can get with this camera. There is so much to try out, it will take some time.

Is an old camera better than the new ones?

Mon, 15 Sep 2008 17:00:01 GMT

Ssp commented my wish for new and better camera technology: "Something classical like a Leica or even a 1980s SLR isn't hard to handle. See, point, shoot. Today you always see photographers taking a photo and then looking at the display to check whether things came out right. To me that just takes the flow out of the process. To a large extent I suspect this is caused by digital sensors being extremely bad when it comes to blown highlights. So if I had a wish, I'd rather wish for a sensor which is more like classical film in this respect or simply covers a wider range. That (together with matching software) could make digital photography less problematic."

This is a good observation. Sometimes it is difficult to "find the flow" with digital cameras. Even though my Ixus 400 is extremely simple, it has several settings which affect the output, especially exposure compensation. And why you need compensation? Because of the weak dynamic range of the sensor. But I see here a possibility for the camera technology to improve to such a level that unnecessary complications need not bother the photographer.

Today I went to a camera shop where they had on display a Panasonic LX3, which I was able to handle for a short while. (I ordered last week a LX3, and it will hopefully be shipped tomorrow.) I must admit that there are great many settings to use (if you want). However, I felt that it will be easy to start using the camera. I even managed to try out manual focusing and it worked quite well.

In fact, thinking about simplicity, I'll definitely try out LX3 with simple settings, e.g. aperture priority + manual focusing. This was how I used my Minolta XG-1, and it will be interesting to see whether I still like this kind of photography. The temptation to use the fully automatic iA mode is quite strong.

I need to see whether I feel differently about photography using these two different modes of operation. Perhaps it indeed is better to find the flow with a simpler way of operating the camera.

We need go rid of the old camera technology in photography

Sun, 14 Sep 2008 21:33:17 GMT

I discussed at Light Scrape the implications of the new Panasonic Lumix G1 camera, in the posting Will Panasonic own the digital still camera market? Perhaps I should develop these thoughts a bit further.

In the 1980s I used a SLR camera, Minolta XG-1, which was quite simple but effective. (I still own it but no longer use.) The only automation was aperture-priority exposure. You could also use full manual exposure. Focusing was of course manual, using the focus ring on the lens, which had the apertures written in it, and thus you could estimate the depth of field at a glance.

But would I like to go back to such simplicity? No. What I would like to see is this intermediate stage of mechanic-to-electronic cameras to end, so that we could enjoy fully electronic cameras, not something in between. The new Panasonic Lumix G1 is a slight step in that direction, but too modest in my opinion. What we need is to get rid of some of dead weight still hanging around from the time of the mechanical cameras, and enjoy the benefits what a fully electronic (and computerized) camera can give us.

The best feature of G1 which demonstrates this is the shutter preview mode where the camera shows what the photo will look like using the current shutter and aperture. Very handy especially with moving objects. Moving further in this direction, the next generations of cameras will be able to present possibilities to the camera user, who can then decide what she wants. This would be a new kind of exploratory and discovery-based photography. I can't wait for that to happen.

On Google Chrome user statistics

Tue, 09 Sep 2008 20:55:48 GMT

I'm tracking (so now you know) the use of this weblog and Light Scrape with Google Analytics. Here at Universal Rule the browser statistics are as follows (last four days):

Internet Explorer 39%
Firefox 36%
Safari 12%
Mozilla 8%
Opera 2%
Chrome 2%

At Light Scrape the statistics are:

Firefox 48%
Internet Explorer 32%
Safari 13%
Chrome 4%
Opera 2%

It is interesting to see how Chrome has got quite a share in a couple of days. Here at UR the lower share is probably explained by Mac-related things which are not relevant to PC users. At Light Scrape, those who are looking for information about camera equipment seem also to be interested in trying out a new browser.

Google will own you also

Tue, 09 Sep 2008 17:19:29 GMT

I wrote a column for MikroPC.net, where I discussed the implications of Chrome, the new Google browser. As an example of the advantage Google has, I mentioned the tracking tools (Google Analytics etc.) for web sites, where Google collects all kinds of information about the visitors.

I got a comment which noted that other companies are also doing the same kind of tracking, for example Extremetracking.com. But my point was not the tracking as such - I was discussing the scale of Google operations in a) gathering information of how individuals are using the web, and b) building a "internet operating system" where Google controls everything from applications (running on Chrome) to the back-end servers managing the network, applications, computing, and data.

If not already, Google will know everything about you. And I wonder how they will use this information to make money.

Will camera phones replace compact cameras?

Sun, 07 Sep 2008 21:51:33 GMT

Serious Compacts speculates whether camera phones will replace the compact cameras of today, thus forcing the camera manufacturers move towards more advanced cameras producing better photos.

I have taken a bit over 200 photos with my Nokia E90, and I must say that the usability of the camera phones has a long way to go. But when nothing else is available, the E90 can make a photo. However, I agree that in 2-3 years, camera phones probably are good enough to replace the cheapest point-and-shoot cameras in most situations.

Should I, or should I not?

Fri, 05 Sep 2008 22:56:26 GMT

I'm really tempted. Once again the object of the desire is the Panasonic LX3 camera. Are there better pocketable cameras out there? No, I don't think so. But I still wish for the impossible - an even better camera. Canon, Fuji, anyone?

What is the durability of digital cameras?

Mon, 01 Sep 2008 20:15:35 GMT

As I wrote at Light Scrape, I have now taken about 11,000 photos with my Canon Digital Ixus 400, and started wondering what is the rating for shutter cycles on this camera. In digital SLRs the rating is often between 50-100,000, and in high-end models at 150-300,000. But what is the expected durability of point-and-shoot cameras? Should I be worried?

On the other hand, if the Ixus did break, this would be an excellent reason for getting a new camera. (Panasonic LX3 perhaps?) So, this is not really a serious problem, just a random thought.

Nights are getting darker in Finland

Tue, 19 Aug 2008 22:06:53 GMT

I went for a walk today, quite late in the evening. Now the shortening of the days is getting really visible, as it started to get quite dark at 10:00 although there were few clouds. Last week at the same time it was brighter. I took quite a few photos, but the low-light capabilities of my Ixus 400 made it difficult. Also, the usual hot pixels showed themselves in the longer exposure shots.

I used a small flexible tripod I ordered from Dealextreme, cost about 3 euros including shipping. I have been quite happy with it, a nice thing to carry in a pocket in addition to a camera while going for a walk.

Photoblogging continues

Fri, 15 Aug 2008 22:41:22 GMT

I have continued photoblogging at Light Scrape. There seems to be some time for photography every day, although I have been busy with work. Also, I now have 387 photos at Flickr, mostly landscape and nature photos. I haven't been too selective in uploading, so there are duplicates about the same subject. In any case, I'm using Flickr more as a storage site, not as a photoblog.

Photoblogging at 96 postings

Sun, 10 Aug 2008 21:33:08 GMT

I managed to write 96 postings to my photoblog Light Scrape during the summer vacation. Not bad. Now, it remains to be seen whether I can sustain interest in photography after the vacation. Perhaps. In fact, as my Nokia E90 is has a not too bad camera, I may continue at least posting one posting per day, at least I'll try.

Impact analysis of the micro four thirds (4/3) announcement

Sun, 10 Aug 2008 14:33:21 GMT

RAWsumer has a good analysis of the Olympus/Panasonic micro 4/3 standard announcement. (I'll use the mFT abreviation, although MFT and m43 could be used as well.)

The lens sizes will be interesting to see. I hope there will be "pocketable" offerings, then mFT would be a nice stepping stone from a compact. A couple of wide/normal fixed (bright) lenses would be good to have. The current Olympus 4/3 "pancake" lens is not so impressive.

And I sure hope Olympus and Panasonic will announce something soon, otherwise what was the point of the standard announcement.

The RAW (raw?) deal

Sat, 09 Aug 2008 22:27:38 GMT

David Rasnake wrote well about the multiplicity of different raw formats, and the loss of the promise of open standards: "Raw files are simply what they are - raw (common, lowercase adjective) image data - and in light of few prospects for consolidation out there on the horizon, I don't see that changing back anytime soon."

So, the case of RAW was a great opporturnity missed. There is only raw.

The optimal number of megapixels in a camera

Fri, 08 Aug 2008 22:17:18 GMT

At 6 megapixels there is a calculation for the optimal number of megapixels for different size sensors, for sensitivies above ISO 400. For 1/1.8 inch sensor the count is 4 megapixels. It so happens that my Canon Digital Ixus 400 has 4 megapixels - an optimal camera? Well, it is five years old and has had a lot of use, so perhaps there are better alternatives nowadays. At least it is to be hoped so.

What things are worth photographing?

Thu, 07 Aug 2008 20:46:28 GMT

I have taken over 3000 photos during this summer with my old digital camera - and a couple of dozen with the Nokia E90 phone. Have I learned something? Perhaps, at least that it takes a lot - really a lot - of practise to learn photography.

I think I'm a bit better than I was some months ago, but I make a lot of mistakes. In a way my photoblog at Light Scrape is a way of documenting those mistakes, and perhaps also the progress - if there is any.

I have also started to think about what things are worth photographing. I believe that basically everywhere is a possibility to take a good photo, if you have the eye and patience for it. Thus, why not here in Finland in the Helsinki region. And somehow I'm much attracted to the everyday things - there should be good shots there, if I only can start to see them.

Megapixel race continues - Nikon Coolpix P6000

Thu, 07 Aug 2008 09:44:53 GMT

As I wrote at Light Scrape, Nikon Coolpix P6000 is not it - it has a small 13.5 megapixel sensor, which means that it will be noisy and not suitable for low light. How can Nikon not understand that image quality is a factor in advanced compacts?

It remains to be seen what Canon will do about Powershot G10.

Pondering the micro four thirds format

Tue, 05 Aug 2008 22:56:48 GMT

As I wrote at Light Scrape, there are exiting news about the micro four thirds (4/3) standard, which Olympus and Panasonic just announced. I don't know what to call these new interchangeable lens cameras, they are not digital SLRs and not rangefinders or EVILs either. Perhaps ILED (intechangable lenses, electronic displays)?

However, after complaining about the slow handling of my Canon Ixus 400, I have been recently quite happy with the camera. I do like the capability to go from macro-level close-up photos to landscapes with the same camera without changing lenses or doing anything fancy. Thus, although the new micro 4/3 cameras may be small, they perhaps are not as versatile in compact form as the best compact cameras now are.

But in terms of the picture quality, the four thirds inch (= 33.9 mm) diameter sensor is certainly much better that the 10 mm typical compact sensors.

Keen on photography

Sat, 02 Aug 2008 22:18:31 GMT

During the summer vacation, I have taken over 2500 photos. Of course, only a small portion have been successful and worth preserving, but still I have over 500 new photos in my iPhoto library. I have also been quite keen on posting to my photoblog, which now contains several dozen entries. And I have also published over 200 photos at Flickr.com, which seems to be a quite nice platform for organizing publicly available photos.

I'm still thinking about getting a new camera. The buying fever comes and goes. But I have been able to keep from buying a new camera yet. However, manufacturers are now starting to announce their new cameras, and some of those are tempting. What I need is pocketable, has manual control, and good low-light capabilities. Is there yet such a thing?

Digital camera sensor sizes - the bigger the better?

Tue, 22 Jul 2008 08:43:43 GMT

Digital Photography Review has a nice summary of the sensor sizes in digital cameras. The sensor affects the noisiness (how small pixels), the depth of field, the crop factor, and the focal length multiplier. Here is a short listing of typical sensor sizes (diagonal measurements) in compact digital cameras:

1/2.5 inch = 10 mm
1/2.33 inch = 10.9 mm
1/1.8 inch = 14.1 mm
1/1.7 inch = 14.9 mm
1/1.63 inch = 15.6 mm
2/3 inch = 16.9 mm
4/3 inch = 33.9 mm

Of these the 4/3 inch sensor is already in the digital SLR area, a quite big sensor. As the area is proportial to the square of the diagonal, the noise characteristics improve dramatically with bigger sensors. On the other hand, depth of field and focal length multiplier decreases, so there are drawbacks (if you think this as drawback).

It seems that soon there will be interesting new cameras on the market. Panasonic Lumix DMC-LX3, annouced yesterday, has a 15.6 mm sensor. And it is speculated that we will soon have also a Nikon P6000 (with a 14.9 mm sensor) and a Canon G10 (14.9 mm). These cameras may generate competition in the more serious compact cameras.

Is the new Panasonic LX3 sign of a megapixel trend reversal?

Mon, 21 Jul 2008 20:03:25 GMT

As it happens, just as I wrote about the increasing megapixel competetion in digital cameras - making them more noisy all the time - Panasonic today announced a new LX 3 camera. The specs include: a ten-megapixel 1/1.63 inch sensor, a wide 24-60 inch lens with 2.0-2.8 max aperture, a new processing engine etc. If this camera works as advertised, it certainly interests me. But Panasonic has a history of noisy cameras, so the claims have to be tested before trusting. In any case, LX3 is a good indication that camera manufacturers may have seen some sense finally.

In the shadow of the megapixel race

Mon, 21 Jul 2008 14:28:17 GMT

I'm still pondering pros and cons of getting a new camera. It would be an investment not only in money but in time. Do I want to start studying the features of a new camera and learn all kinds of new skills?

I'll probably go and check one one these entry-level DSLRs at some point. I understand that Olympus E-520 is quite small, and with a fixed lens almost pocketable. However, the Olympus lenses are expensive and a bit limited in variety.

One of the negative aspects of a compact is the slow focusing and shooting speed. I take a lot of photos of our children, and it is sometimes almost as difficult as I imagine sports photography to be. Often only one photo in ten is somewhat acceptable.

My Ixus 400 has a 4 megapixel 1/1.8 inch sensor, which is quite nice at ISO 50 or 100, but not so great at 200 and above. I read somewhere that Canon later changed the sensitivity ratings so that the old ISO 50 became ISO 100 and so on, a change in the worse direction. This is one reason why I'm not so keen on getting a new camera. A compact with a 2/3 inch or bigger sensor would be nice, something like in the Fujifilm S100FS has, but in a more compact form.

There are too many photographs

Sun, 20 Jul 2008 21:38:40 GMT

The Online Photographer ponders the effect of there being available a massive amount of photos. What will happen to the concept of great photography?

Technology is leading to a sudden photographic efflorescence, a thousand points of light if you will. That's cool in some ways - but it means real quality is getting lost among the profusion and the massive increase in supply is cheapening the value.

I'm currently following about 20 blogs about photography, and many of these are posting excellent pictures weekly or even daily. And there is an endless-seeming collection of nice-looking photos at sites such as Flickr and Picasa. But will this mean that the art of photography will disappear behind the massive scale? Will the norm be somebody taking a good photo by accident vs. doing photography by skill and art?

The delights of photo-blogging

Sat, 19 Jul 2008 13:37:52 GMT

I have been photo-blogging at Light Scrape for a few days, and like it. Perhaps there isn't much flexibility in the Flickr-Blogger solutions, but at least it works easily and realiably. But I admit to having looked at other possibilities as well.

One interesting solution would be to use the MobileMe service from Apple. There are benefits, such as publishing photo galleries directly from iPhoto. And it seems that the web version allows reorganization of photos very easily, even management of galleries. But this is not really what I want. My point is to publish a photo every few days (or a couple of photos daily if I'm in the mood), not whole galleries. Thus, I'll continue - at least for now - to update my photoblog. And perhaps I'll also test our the photo galleries at MobileMe - but this would be a quite different thing, publishing a collection of photos at once.

This is the sexy voice of the talking fish

Sat, 19 Jul 2008 13:36:30 GMT

Apparently, the midshipman fish has a sexy voice. If you are wondering, you can listen what it is like. Interesting to know that there are fish who talk to each other.

No anonymity on the net

Tue, 15 Jul 2008 11:20:11 GMT

Can it be trusted that Google/Viacom Agree To Preserve User Anonymity In Data Shakedown? I don't really think so. Even though ip addresses or user-ids and such would be anonyminized, tt is quite easy to identify users based on their net activity. Often quite few data points are enough. People look for personal information, data they are familiar with etc. This case shows that big companies like Google can't be trusted with preserving anonymity on the net.

How to write to please

Mon, 14 Jul 2008 15:01:12 GMT

Dosh Dosh ponders Kurt Vonnegut's Eight Principles on Successful Blogging and Affiliate Marketing, where the principles in question are:

Use the time of a total stranger in such a way that he or she will not feel the time was wasted.
Give the reader at least one character he or she can root for.
Every character should want something, even if it is only a glass of water.
Every sentence must do one of two things --- reveal character or advance the action.
Start as close to the end as possible.
Be a sadist. Now matter how sweet and innocent your leading characters, make awful things happen to them --- in order that the reader may see what they are made of.
Write to please just one person. If you open a window and make love to the world, so to speak, your story will get pneumonia.
Give your readers as much information as possible as soon as possible. To heck with suspense. Readers should have such complete understanding of what is going on, where and why, that they could finish the story themselves, should cockroaches eat the last few pages.

These are good writing principles, and also for non-fiction as well as fiction. But I don't think these are quite enough. In any case, if writing (or any other art, such as photography) would be easy to distill into a few rules, we would have everyone to be a writer.

The generative internet - is the bell tolling?

Mon, 07 Jul 2008 22:12:49 GMT

I have been reading an article by Jonathan L. Zittrain on the so-called generative internet, that is the "capacity for unrelated and unaccredited audiences to build and distribute code and content through the Internet to its tens of millions of attached personal computers". The impact has been huge, and the growth and innovation has made it possible to engage in all kinds of new endeavors.

However, there has been a backslash, trying to restrict innovation, the freedom of speech, and building new things on top of existing. I hope the generative capacity of the internet will survive, but it is far from certain.

Much ado about the end of theory

Thu, 03 Jul 2008 21:18:02 GMT

Backreaction discusses The End Of Theory, a proposition that data management and analysis will make obsolete the model-bases scientific paradigm.

I beg to disagree. Science is currently going to the exactly opposite direction. Huge amounts of data have been gathered in, e.g., biosciences, but still we don't know much about how biological systems work. Trying to find insight from a huge pile of data produces noise - accidental correlations and similar artefacts.

To make progress we need predictive models. What use is it for us to notice - after the fact - that something happened, when we need to model, predict and act.

For example, in finding the right action in a potential worldwide pandemic, or in fighting the climate change, data is just junk by itself if we can't make predictive models.

Firefox - great or ugly?

Tue, 01 Jul 2008 18:24:39 GMT

Ssp doesn't like Firefox. I think these are natural differences is taste. For example, I like the big back button in the toolbar, which may seem ugly to others.

Today I solved one of the remaining problems: Keychain integration. Some time ago I got a copy of 1Password in the MacHeist bundle of software, and now I started to use it. The functionality is better than the Keychain integration in Omniweb, and at least so far so good. And the Macs I have are synchronized via the .Mac service ("MobileMe"), which means I need to submit the access information only once.

There is one usability issue which I would like to see changed: in Firefox the progress bar is on the bottom of the window. Safari (and Omniweb) show this information in the toolbar area, which is much better.

The biggest good feature of Firefox is keyboard navigation, which is a significant improvement compared to Safari and Omniweb. And the so-called "Awesome bar" is really good, with a quite nice system for managing bookmarks. (Although some rough corners remain there.)

Changing the world

Sun, 29 Jun 2008 10:30:13 GMT

Chris Guillebeau wrote an interesting (although simplistic) pamphlet on how to set personal objectives and how to change the world. The two key questions are

What do you really want to get out of life?
What can you offer the world that no one else can?

These are interesting questions, and hard to answer. Thinking about the future is hard, and I'm not altogether convinced that it is productive thinking. But I can look instead at today: what kind of things would I like to do if I would be able to do anything.

Here is the thing: I wouldn't change much of the current situation. What I would like to change is the world. Make it better - more collaborative, more fair, more open, less cynical. And of course I would like to live a good life while doing that.

I believe computational science is a key area for solving the complex societal problems we are currently facing. Thus, promoting computational science is the key thing for me. Whether we are talking about climate change, bioscience or nanotechnology, computational science is needed to make progress. Thus, developing the knowledge and recognition of this field is essential for the society.

Currently I'm in a position where I can make changes happen. But it is not easy and fast - it takes time, constant discussions, and repeating the message again and again. I hope I can to a certain degree provide a bridge towards understanding.

I'm not a deep specialist, but I can help on the general level. And there are others who are willing to participate in the change. We can become a spring of insights, and act as stepping stones on the way to change.

Not everything is perfect in Firefox 3

Wed, 25 Jun 2008 16:45:30 GMT

I discovered one web application which was not compatible with Firefox 3, although it works fine with Safari and Omniweb. It was an accounting system used via a web interface, and for some reason the basic functionality was missing. Probably some differences in interpreting JavaScript.

I have understood that Firefox 3 is in some cases more strict about interpretation than other browsers. These other browsers are of course supporting bad coding style, but that is a compromise that you probably have to make to have a usable browser. How much compromise is done, that separates the browsers from each other.

Censorship in Finland

Sun, 15 Jun 2008 11:07:01 GMT

Kai Ekholm has written an excellent column on censorship in Finland. Politicians are trying to score easy points by favouring censorship, without understanding (or willing to understand) the big picture. Censorship destroys the society from within. And it makes those who favour it laughable in the long run. Here is a list of such populistic politicians: Marjo Matikainen, Tanja Karpela-Saarela, and Suvi Lindén. I wouldn't vote for them. And this has nothing to do with the political parties they represent.

A futher comment: it is interesting the the three politicians above (and mentioned by Ekholm) are all women. I have voted for female politicians quite often, and only partly to even up the male-dominated political field. (There are excellent female politicians, much more competent than most of the men.)

Perhaps a censorship-supporting role is easy to accept by some female politicians, because it is a natural reaction for those who find it difficult to have their voice heard by others. And when they find themselves in power, they try to suppress other voices. Well, this is just a theory.

World is ending on Saturday next week...

Sat, 14 Jun 2008 10:13:14 GMT

... but first we need to cover the football games, and make a special report on the latest kiss-and-tell story. --- Yes, information overload has made us stupid. (And the world is not ending as far as I know, not this time.)

Unix is not always a good thing

Sat, 14 Jun 2008 08:55:49 GMT

Ssp commented my thoughs on OS X 10.6 Snow Leopard:

I think much of the bloat or bloated appearance of OS X comes from its Unix background. Rather than wrapping everything in a single file, things like applications usually come in thousands of files once they are localised and contain help. You can see an (over-dramatised) effect of this if you time how long it takes to copy your iTunes application: much longer than copying that amount of data should take. It may sound like a heresy, but the good old resource fork was a way around that kind of problem ;)

I agree that there is quite a lot in the Unix environment that can be improved from the desktop/mobile device users' perspective. This applies of course to Linux as well. But things are getting better, for example Nokia using Linux on mobile devices, and Apple now promising to clean up OS X.

Views on computational science

Fri, 13 Jun 2008 19:10:53 GMT

I got some comments on my opinion piece in Helsingin Sanomat. Because my affiliation was not included in the writer information, some of the messages asked whether I'm the author of the text. There are quite a few people with the same name here in the Helsinki region. I hope they have not been bothered too much.

By the way, it is interesting how few comments (relative to the size of the readership) there usually are from HS pieces, compared to other much smaller publications. Perhaps the big audience hinders commenting. Years and years ago, when I wrote a couple of opinion pieces to Helsingin Sanomat and Yliopisto, my two favorite forums at that time, I did get some nice feedback, and one interesting contact (the correspondence lasted quite a while).

One reader pointed out the writings of Heinz R. Pagels, a completely new name to me. Unfortunately there doesn't seem to be new printings of his books available, only used ones. The most interesting book for me is "The Dreams of Reason: The Computer and the Rise of the Sciences of Complexity". The topic of the book is of course discussed by many other authors, but it seems that Pagels has some interesting interpretations. I'm not sure whether I agree. In any case, have to read the book first before any further commenting.

Further thoughts on OS X 10.6 Snow Leopard

Thu, 12 Jun 2008 21:13:16 GMT

Many have commented on the next version of OS X, 10.6 "Snow Leopard". There is lots of discussion on "no new features" (apart from built-in Exchange 2007 support). But after thinking about this a bit, I think Apple may be able to deliver quite an impact with 10.6. The current version, 10.5 Leopard, has layers upon layers, hundreds (?) of thousands of files. Complexity upon complexity. What would "think different" be able to do? As an example, Apple developed the "launchd" software to replace numerous Unix startup programs (cron, init etc.), and making a much better job of it, for example making it possible to startup the Mac much faster than previously. What if similar work would be applied to all of the system, on all layers? It seems that some of the new technology is exactly this. How much speedup would be possible? I think that on systems without separate GPUs the speedup might not be so dramatic, perhaps in the 10-50 percent region. (However, the amount of disk space needed for the operating system may decrease dramatically, resulting in much faster program launch speeds, as an example.) But on systems with separate GPUs and more than two cores the effect may be dramatic, perhaps several times the current speed. And much less overhead than currently (think about Spotlight, Time Machine, Dashboard etc.) How would you feel about using an operating system much faster than any current ones, consuming dramatically less disk space, and being able to use all kinds of external accelerators (no need to limit to GPUs). This OS would scale upwards (to tens of cores and terabytes of RAM), and also downwards (to future mobile devices). Perhaps the best selling argument for the OS will be the devices which are built upon this foundation. Not to speak about new possible applications, and new ways of connecting to the net/cloud.

EU wants openness - sends message to Microsoft

Thu, 12 Jun 2008 13:06:03 GMT

New York Times reports on the EU comments related to Microsoft business practices vs. openness:

"I know a smart business decision when I see one - choosing open standards is a very smart business decision indeed," Ms. Kroes told a conference in Brussels. "No citizen or company should be forced or encouraged to choose a closed technology over an open one."

Top choices for digital point and shoot camera

Wed, 11 Jun 2008 17:04:51 GMT

I'm once again thinking about a new digital camera. My Canon Digital Ixus 400 is still ok, but has occasional mechanical problems. And it has noise issues even at ISO 100. I don't like to get a SLR, because I very much prefer the pocketable format (point and shoot type concept). Of the current cameras, my top three choices are Canon Digital Ixus 860 IS, Fuji Finepix F100fd, and Panasonic Lumix DMC-TZ5. All of these have potential problems, and are not quite attractive enough. But there are rumours of F120fd, Canon certainly will offer soon something new, and Panasonic hopefully improves the noise issue in the next models. My big wish is a 1/1.6 inch or bigger sensor, 5x or better optical zoom, and a real wide angle lense (at least 28 mm).

What will happen with OOXML?

Wed, 11 Jun 2008 16:27:51 GMT

ISO put OOXML document formats on hold. This was expected, and not only because of the complaints from the member countries. Now the ISO organization has a possibility to fix its reputation. This was a sordid mess. No wonder Micrsoft announced support for ODF, the competing format, in MS Office.

Listening to SXSW 2008 Showcasing Artists music

Mon, 03 Mar 2008 22:04:34 GMT

I have been listening to the SXSW 2008 Showcasing Artists collection, 764 tracks of it. There are a lot of interesting new musicians in the collection I had never heard of. I suggest downloading the SXSW 2008 torrent if you are interested in music which is a bit different than the mainstream.

Update: my Last.fm profile shows what I have been recently listening. The total number of tracks played is 65,530 - but I think that quite a lot are missing. And because all members of the family have been playing music, there are all kinds of styles included in the statistics.

Becoming a science fiction author

Fri, 22 Feb 2008 22:49:45 GMT

The local library was selling old magazines cheaply, and I picked up five issues of Portti, which is a Finnish science fiction magazine (and I guess a bit of a fanzine as well). I haven't had time to read Portti for several years, but now (during the so-called skiing holiday here in Finland) I managed to do a bit of reading. It was a surprise to find my short story in the issue 4/2006. (Story title "Kala jolla oli polkupyörä", Fish with a bicycle.) I took part in the Portti short story writing competition in 2006, but never realized that they would print my piece. (I got a honorary mention.) Well, there it was. Perhaps I can now state that I'm a science fiction author (with one published short story). But this may well be the last one as well - I don't have currently any craving to write fiction. Too much writing nonfiction at work I guess.

Leopard - 10 days, 9 hours, 39 minutes

Fri, 22 Feb 2008 22:30:33 GMT

Leopard has been running for well over 10 days on my iMac, since the first boot after installing 10.5.2 upgrade. (I switched from Tiger at the same time.) There have been minor nuisances, and some stupid things I did myself. For example, I shut down the external Time Machine backup disk without unmounting it first. Fortunately no data seems to have been lost or corrupted. Two days ago I started doing Time Machine backups of my iBook over the wireless connection to the same external disk on the iMac. The first backup (over 35 GB of data) took about 10 hours, the next one less than one hour. A bit too long for my liking. One reason may be the slow wlan connection on the iBook, the 802.11g-version instead of the newer 802.11n. But there may be also some software bottlenecks involved. In any case, doing the backups is quite simple, even if it takes a long time. I have the firewall enabled, and just a few allowed software packages, which should limit the risks of over the network backups. I have to once again say that Leopard is one smooth beast. Running simultaneously a lot of programs on many different accounts on the iMac has hardly ever slowed it down. Perhaps once or twice there have been slight pauses in watching EyeTV, when I have been recording programs, doing Time Machine backups (both from iMac and iBook), and downloading software and music from the net (SXSW 2008 Showcasing Artist torrent, for example). It now seems that 10.5.2 is one of the most stable Mac OS X releases ever. At least I hope so. One of the great new things of Leopard is the ability to make Dashboard widgets from web pages with Safari. I have made a couple of good ones, of weather services for example. The Leopard Dashboard seems to be a valueable tool, compared to Tiger where it was more like a toy.