have a very nice day

1st of May is in most civilized countries a bank holiday (term that means “if you work for a bank, you dont have to go to work” and is closely similar to a standard holiday).

Ireland prides itself for moving the holidays to the morning after, so you can enjoy a long weekend, and did we: rented a car, took off and visited the country side. Well, right after we exchanged seats, since apparently one cannot drive here on the left side of the car.

The country is in much better state than the 10 years old Lonely Planet describes: good condition signaled roads and a B&B on every other corner. From Dublin we jumped to Kilkenny were we had a beer (guess which one) and enjoyed a concert on a pub, since they had some festival going on. It also meant we had to stay a bit far from the center.

Moving south from Kilkenny we visited Waterford and from there we moved all the way to Cork, for a small visit. Lara lives there, and we had a great chocolate and some food after paying a visit to the cathedral.

After deciding not to spend the night in the city we headed towards Old Head. That was a great plan. The view from the cliffs in there is impresive. Pity they have a golf course which will not allow you to reach the tip.

One night over in Timoleague, after a beer in the local pub and we headed back to Dublin. A nice relaxing weekend away from the city.

The best: sunny countryside, getting away for a while, B&Bs (mostly the second B).

The weird: driving on the left, requires loads of concentration not to make mistakes and shifting gears with the left hand is not great.

The worst: having to jump from B&B to another one looking for a bed. Also it made it interesting, since we never knew where we were going to end.

It has been a long time since i posted an entry. Many things have happened. Many things have changed. Let’s summarize them.

I no longer live in Finland. I moved out on January the 29th, almost exactly by the day 8 and half years after I moved there. Right now I am in Dublin, Ireland, but you never know for how long. In any case I am enjoying quite much. Not as dark as Finland in winter, not as rainy as people think it is. Yeah, it rains, but it was rainy in Finland too. And here in not as cold.

I no longer work for Nokia. My employer has changed and I am enjoying every single bit of it.

I have not resigned from Debian, although I have not been active for the last months. If you add the new job (hiring process), moving and settling down, you could understand the lack of time. At least I can. Now things are getting stable (I got my ADSL connected only last weekend, and my server at home with all the mail redirected only yesterday) so I am ready to restart with my commitments. Also my employer will allow me to do some Debian work, so I only need my GPG key to be reinstated in the keyring (there is a ticket for it, so I just have to wait).

And finally, if you want to follow where I have been spending some of my time, follow my flickr photostream.

In a bit more than 2 weeks i have learned to love my Lomo LC-A / Olympus XA and XPro:

Not so long ago i posted a plea for people to donate their old hardware.

Following my own advice, i donated one laptop which ended up in good hands, i believe ;)

Unfortunately i got some people putting comments in my blog asking for a donation to be sent to places like India and Pakistan. And i say unfortunately because i cannot do that: i dont have any more laptops to donate, and even if i had, probably the cost of sending them would be similar to the price one would pay to purchase the same hardware in the country of destination.

So No Can Do.

I received a proposal to coordinate some donations, but so far i had not had the time to think about it. Too occupied with other things.

Not so long time ago i used to be a hardcore photography taker. I would carry a camera everywhere i went, and took hundreds of pictures. I even had a darkroom where to develop my b&w films.

But digital came, and it was easier to shoot, check, re-shoot, erase,… you know, all the “benefits” you get with a digital: you care less what you are shooting because it is inexpensive to erase what went not-so-good.

It all started again getting into shape last month, before our trip to Spain and France, when i gave my girlfriend my Polaroid camera. She was amazed and bought some film for it. In Barcelona we found a lomography shop, where i purchased a fisheye2 camera. And it finally happened 2 weeks ago when i revisited a flickr.com page of a guy who lives in NY and takes pictures daily. I was amazed, and following some links i ended up learning about Lomography.com and the Lomo LC-A’s.

It was monday last week when i purchased a sealed, unused Lomo LC-A for 80e and few hours later i had my first film in several years in the shop for development.

Now it is 2 weeks later (almost) and i have purchased few other items: a wide angle for my serviced old Pentax ME-1, few 120 rolls for my Yashica D, some more 35mm rolls for it (i will mod the case with some foam to insert 35mm rolls and take full 3.8×6 takes), an Olympus XA, a Minox 35ML and a couple of old FEDs. All together for less than 350e.

My flicker page already reflects the activity i have been enjoying here and there. I admit it needs some cleanup, some pro upgrade and some descriptions added, but with time i will get there.

can be summaryzed in one word:

Ohmygodineedholidays.

You guys enjoy your DebConf in Scotland.

After i wrote this entry, I received few comments on my blog from people asking me to send laptops to different parts of the world.

Unfortunately I cannot do that.

I have one spare laptop which will be taken to Edinburgh for Debconf7 and will be given away to a fellow Debian developer (or prospective developer) in need of such piece of hardware, but it will not be sent by post.

My initial call was for a similar action from people with spare hardware which can be given away.

Maybe one day I could start my own NGO to send laptops around the world for the needy, but right now that is not the case.

During the last DebConfs I have advocated for people to donate their old laptops to developers that are not so fortunate with their economical situation.

This year’s DebConf I will not be attending, but nevertheless, I would like you to think about it.

If you have an spare laptop that you don’t use and you think you can give it up, bring it along with you and give it to someone who is in need of one.

From ThisIsLondon

After [the so-called 'uninterruptible autopilot system'] has been activated, the aircraft will be capable of remote digital control from the ground, enabling operators to fly it like a sophisticated model plane, manoeuvring it vertically and laterally.

Once triggered, no one on board will be able to deactivate the system. Currently, all autopilots are manually switched on and off at the discretion of pilots.

The latest move to combat airline terrorists follows The Mail on Sunday’s disclosure three weeks ago that scientists in Britain and Germany are developing a passenger-monitoring device.

This will use tiny cameras linked to specialist computers to record every twitch, blink, facial expression or suspicious movement made on board flights in order to identify potential terrorists.

So they want me to fly on a (possibly) remote controled plane with cameras controling every move i make. “Big Brother”, anyone?

Seriously, how many people feel this is going too far? How many terrorist threats have we had on board in the last 6 years to justify this measures? Isn’t enough what we have to already go through every time we want to fly? No liquids, no shoes, no soul, no personal life…

Pff…

Saturday, March the 24th. Underbar. Helsinki.