The life and times of a fallen hacker
Archive for September 2008
I resigned from Nokia Siemens Networks yesterday, bringing a 10+ year career to a close. And sure, obviously most of it was not spent working for NSN that was founded in 2006.
Stay tuned for further episodes.
Is grass indeed greener on the other side of the fence?
Somehow, in the light of all the recent bank failures all over the world, today’s featured article in wikipedia is indeed appropriate.
The domestic MMORPG-demograph is obviously way bigger than I anticipated.
The first finnish magazine concentrating only on World of Warcraft premieres in little over two weeks.
I still haven’t played the game, and this arrival of a domestic magazine scarily mainstreams the whole thing.
Yeah, count me in appreciating Stanislav Petrov’s maverick actions a quarter century ago.
Playing by the book would have probably resulted in fullscale nuclear armageddon.
[ via Charles Stross. ]
Saw a performance by the Tiger Lillies on saturday night. And came away impressed, very impressed.
The three-piece team managed to put together a two hour show packed with profanities (pretty much all of the seven words you can’t say on television were covered), executed with scary precision. I’d been exposed to the band, so the high-pitched vocals from a white-faced accordionist were not that much a shock. But plenty of things were. And I think the drummer managed to surprise even himself during the violent drum-solo played with three squeaky plastic hammers (the maimed drumkit was somewhat patched together during the intermission).
Musically the performance was excellent - with unconventional instruments put to good use on stage. The presence of a theremin was a definite bonus - this was the very first time I actually saw one played. But the multitude of instruments (which included a plastic mouse) paled in comparison to the vocals. Martyn Jacques’ background in opera clearly showed and sounded.
The aesthetics of ugliness were indeed very well exposed in the cabaret. The topics were quite well concentrated on the darker side of life: freaks, prostitutes and perversions. With a good measure of bodily functions thrown in for good measure.
The venue, Vaunuhalli at Korjaamo was a pleasant surprise. The room was way bigger than it initially seemed. And with a steep ascent towards the rear, the backseats are not totally disadvantaged. But with unassigned seats, it definitely pays off to show up in time.
This week’s Macro Day Challenge is yellow.
My take is the attached maple leaf, already empty of chlorophyll. Seeking out a perfect leaf turned out to be somewhat problematic, as the majority of the local trees seem to be afflicted with some disease or parasites that manifests as ugly black blobs on the leaves.
Paul Newman passed away today.
The list of excellent movies he starred in is long indeed. And I think it’s definitely a high time to re-appreciate the Sting or Butch Cassidy and Sundance Kid some evening.
Gary Hustwit’s Helvetica was my last movie of this year’s Rakkautta&Anarkiaa-festival.
Yes. It’s about a font. And no, there are no action scenes.
Nope, just interviews, some of them interesting, some not, with various graphic designers.
Learned a few things, but also came close to nodding off.
The conclusion: since Helvetica is ubiquitous already, there’s no real danger (nor adventure) in continuing its use.
Arial was badmouthed less than expected.
And what’s pretty much the first thing seen after walking out of Andorra. That’s right, a poster for a gig at Redrum. Audaciously laid out in Helvetica Bold.
Participated in the semi-irregular 2-on-2 tablehockey tournament on friday evening.
Played better than on the previous occasion, and managed to snag a second place in the spades division (sixth overall, I figure). And as a surprise bonus, actually won a playoff game. But was thrown back to earth in the semifinals, where the eventual winners of the whole tourney wiped the ice with us at 5-1.
Nintendo and YouTube serve up one of the greatest ads in a long long time.
Go watch the ninety seconds about the upcoming Wario Land: Shake It. Saying anything more would be nothing short of spoiling.
R&A and life in general have taken their toll in the de-archival process.
With the addition of the entries from february 2007, there’s now ten months left.
And I definitely aim to be done with the lot in a week or two.
Now this is scary. Finland’s per-capita school shooting deaths now outnumber the US deaths by a factor of almost seven.
No-one can any longer claim that this is a “safe country”.
And unless somthing spectacular happens in the news, this will be the only entry in this blog about the Kauhajoki school shooting incident.
[ via Sami Mäkeläinen. ]
CSNY/Déjà Vu is a film that documents the Crosby Stills Nash & Young 2006 tour on Neil Young’s Living With War album.
Very few songs are played to the full extent - the film concentrates on the timelessness of the musical protests against an ongoing unpopular war. Parallels to the Vietnam war (and the Kent State shooting of 1970) are not left to the audience, the movie is explicit in its message.
The audience reactions, especially in Atlanta to Let’s Impeach the President vary expectedly - some see the rabble-rousing lyrics as nothing short of high treason, whereas others think that it is vital to be able to question authority. And the point is hammered home with an off-hand statement pointing out that while the seventies’ protest songs (especially Ohio) got a lot of airtime - nothing suchlike happens now, the radio is packed to the brim with songs devoid of any kind of message.
Charles Ferguson’s No End in Sight shows the non-military side of the occupation of Iraq. And the streams of mistakes made by misguided officials that continue to affect the lives of millions still.
This is a document film that doesn’t pull its punches. Bad decisions and their consequences are shown explicitly on screen. Unsurprisingly quite a few of the figures of authority refused to participate in the production - but some of the interviewed individuals are responsible for some of the worst policies. Whether they come off as badly deluded incompetents or staunch believers is left to the viewers to decide.
It is scary to see how amateurishly one of the biggest endeavours of the decade was undertaken - the people responsible for managing the occupied country were given next to nothing as tools. It’s noted that planning the occupation of Germany in the second world war was begun two years before the regime capitulated, in Iraq’s case the whole planning was done in fifty days by people who had no idea what they were doing.
The decision-making officials come off as arrogant and self-righteous. In Rumsfeld’s case that’s not really news to anyone. But the man whose handwriting is visible in the utter descent into chaos following the disbanding of the Iraqi army seems eerily convinced that he was doing the right thing. With no oversight in place, nor means to question authority, the policy was enacted as written - resulting rampant lawlessness that continues to this day.
As a movie No End in Sight is effective, it stalls momentarily a couple of times, but that’s to be expected given the complexity of the subject.
This great documentary film should be broadcast in the states just before one of the big presidential debates, to show exactly how and why the occupation is not going as planned.
Mamoru Oshii’s Skycrawlers was my second and last piece of anime of the festival.
Skycrawlers happens in an alternate Earth, where waging of war is outsourced to mercenary air force companies. And that results in beautifully rendered scenes of aerial combat. In contrast to the spectacular scenery and machinery, the characters are sparsely drawn.
Slowly the underlying themes of identity and memory start to emerge, and despite the protagonists persistence in trying to drown them in wine and bowling, the plotline slowly pushes the glitter aside and demans attention from the audience.
Despite its constant presence on screen, I don’t think I’ll take up smoking while leaning on walls in a bomber jacket. No matter how cool it appears to be in a movie.
(Strangely enough, no poster image for the movie appears to have been released.)
The first thing apparent from Eagle vs. Shark is the murderously thick kiwi accent with which the initial monologue is spoken. It takes a moment or two to adjust, but following that the dialogue is actually understandable.
Eagle vs. Shark is a twisted romance. Laced with great chunks of understated humor. And brimming with strange characters, most of which have crossed the borderline of believability. The film treats the whole ensemble with respect, the characters are not mocked because of being socially handicapped, only because of the truly horrible decisions they end up making.
Napoleon Dynamite is a definite influence, but Eagle vs. Shark ends up superseding that sleeper. And no movie that introduces a lovingly crafted mock-up of Mortal Kombat called “Fight Man” cannot be respected enough.
Full Metal Village attempts to play up the juxtaposition between a sleepy village and the hordes of metalheads that invade Wacken for an extended weekend annually.
And fails in the attempt.
While the bits on the visiting fans vary between interesting and cringe-inducing, the bits on the villagers remain uniformly boring. And since the ratio inbetween the categories does not favor the former, Full Metal Village ends up being a very boring movie. While the characters interviewed have occasionally interesting things to say, the slow pacing hurts.
Props to the director for using Ensiferum for one of the very few stage scenes.
This week’s games were a split - Hakkapeliitat won, niners lost.
Hakkapeliitat won and took a position on top of the standings. Leading the march were the two running backs - both Marion Barber and Frank Gore (Cowboys and ‘niners, respectively) put up formidable yards in their games. And the air force responded to the gropos call, all three of the wide receivers scoring in double figures. The first minuses of the season were hauled in by the Patriots’ defense that was turned into swiss cheese at the feet of the Miami running game.
Niners lost pretty much on account of a single opponent. Ronnie Brown of Miami Dolphins single-handedly massacred the still high-flying Patriots by running for four touchdowns and passing for one to add insult to injury. The Cincinnati air force finally clicked, and the previously well-hidden T.J. Houshmandzadeh returned to his scoring habits. The rookie brigade had a quiet night, especially Eddie Royal, whose single point was the low mark for the season. Chicago’s defense and Nick Folk continued their scoring ways, though neither of them put up an exceptional performance this week.
Apart from a surprise acquisition of Ronnie Brown for the Hakkapeliitat (the owner waived him before the sunday’s game) the transactions for the week were to cover the incoming byes on the upcoming games.
Bring on week four.
Few things are more appropriate for this week’s thursday challenge than the pictured whale. The topic is large.
icanhascheezburger, the ever-prolific provider of daily