minus zero

So much has happened since I last blogged - here are some of the highlights:

Chris visited for a week or so, which was lots of fun. We played what we thought was free pool then got charged 31.50EUR for the privilege, enjoyed ++cheap beer, saw Death Proof, climbed huge rock formations while laughing hysterically, and sunk into a waist-deep container of wet cement (note - this only happened to one of us, and it wasn't me).

A third flatmate moved in - one Philip Van Hoof, who's in Helsinki working on Tinymail. He's here for another couple of weeks, and after he's gone a second third flatmate is joining us for the next five months - a Californian by the name of John Solis.

I got my digital camera back from Chris, so I'm more likely to get some photos uploaded at some point. In the meantime, here are a few snaps:

Work itself is going really well - I've been learning a lot, enjoying the work, and am starting to really get my teeth into the project now. It's a lot of fun!

"When I want to relax, I pick up a book - my favourite mobile device."

Matt Jones

I noticed this poster on the wall at work yesterday. It's a fun game to try and recognise as many logos as possible. TextMate FTW!

Wandering around one of the squares in Helsinki this evening, I stumbled across an interesting installation in the side of a building, called CityWall. It's a large touch screen interface that displays photos taken around the city by inhabitants and visitors. You can interact with the display by 'grabbing' the photos with your hands and manipulating them as if they were real photos on a flat surface.

Shruti playing with the CityWall installation.

The interaction is quite intuitive doesn't present any real difficulty when using it. On occasion it would get a bit confused and stop responding for a second or two, or zoom a photo to fill the entire screen with nothing more than an accidental flick of the wrist, but on the whole it's very easy. The display is kind of tucked away under an awning, and I only noticed it because of the light being emitted from the screen. When we were playing with it, I noticed that lots of other people gathered behind us to watch, and a few stepped forward to have a go too. What's nice is that more than one person can use the system at a time, and the screen is wide enough to accommodate three people stood side-by-side.

From an HCI point of view, the project spans a lot of ground. The interface, while not entirely novel (see the Multi-Touch interface as pimped by Jeff Han for the most recognisable example), isn't something the general public are likely to have come across (yet, at least. The pending release of the iPhone will bring two-fingered touch screens to the masses). The user-generated content is another aspect, although it is curated and moderated by the project organisers as opposed to displaying unfiltered content directly from users. Pictures (and video, apparently) are sent to the screen as email or MMS messages, and certain items are selected to be displayed based on their relevance to current events in the city. I wonder how the system would be different if it allowed instant and unfiltered display of user content? That users can attach captions to photos draws some parallels with digital story projects, such as Story Bank. Currently there appears to be no way to retrieve content from CityWall to take away with you, it has to be experienced in-situ.

On a different note, we discovered a rather cool cafe just around the corner (everything seems to be 'just around the corner' in this town, I love it!). It's a vegetarian place that serves fair trade coffee (the first time I've seen that logo so far), has free WiFi access, a shelf full of books, board games and the like, and, best of all, a stand of Ubuntu Linux CDs! The CDs appear to be placed there by either Linux-tuki or Ubuntu Suomi, which makes sense as this place is the home town of the project we all know and love. There were only a couple of CDs left, so I guess there are some happy Ubuntu converts out there. On the other hand, they deperately need updating, as the CDs were version 5.10 (the "Breezy Badger" version, which was released in October 2005). Better still, they had a laptop sitting on a table which was running Ubuntu and free for all and sundry to use to check their email, surf the web, etc. Although the cafe was nice, I got the impression that it was very 'local', as I didn't see a single word that wasn't Finnish. We felt very welcome, however (although we got there 15 minutes before closing time, so didn't want to hang around too long).

Random observation: Since arriving, my mobile phone signal hasn't (that I've noticed) dropped below 100%. Apparently landlines are few and far between in Helsinki, so it makes sense that mobile coverage is above what Swansea has led me to accept as 'normal'.

"Assistant Research Engineer". That's what it says on the contract I signed today, and that is what I'm going to be until 20^th November 2007, when said contract expires.

The day got off to a wobbly start - I'd been told last night by the hotel that there were no free rooms for tonight, so I'd packed my cases in readiness to check out. I was informed by the receptionist that two spaces had in fact become available for Shruti and I, so we were able to stay in our rooms for one more night. Shruti was told something completely different by a different receptionist, however, and ended up lugging all of her stuff into my room as she had to check out. When she tried to do so, they explained that there had been some crossed wires, and in fact she could stay for one more night in her room, so we lugged all of her cases back up to her room.

Taking the tram to the Nokia Research Center (NRC) was fun - it's only about 10 minutes away. Helsinki seems small enough that getting from one place to anywhere else in the city probably won't take more than 20 minutes by public transport, and it's not hugely expensive either.

When we arrived at NRC, we were shown upstairs to the area we'll be working in, which is really nice. We were given a grand tour of the building, which is really impressive. It's only about 8 years old, and it shows - everything is still shiny and new. There's a gym, a library stuffed with geeky books and magazines, a canteen which serves up delicious and cheap food, saunas, etc etc. One thing that impressed me at lunch time was the Finnish system of cleaning up your tray after you finish lunch. Instead of simply shoving it on a rack and expecting somebody else to deal with it, you take your tray to an area where you seperate out the items yourself. Leftover food goes in one bin, paper towels in another, and all other litter into a third. Cutlery is thrown into a waiting crate, crockery is placed in racks, and finally the empty plastic tray is added to a pile. I guess this is nothing extraordinary to the people accustomed to it, but it struck me as a really good idea.

The day's work consisted of not very much at all - most of my team were away today, so the real work begins tomorrow, when everyone is back. I had to get my laptop setup by the PC tech guy, and it was seriously impressive to watch him fix three peoples' laptops while giving phone support to a fourth. He seemed to take it all in stride though, and didn't appear in the least bit stressed by the situation. Good stuff!

I visited the apartment today, and it looks every bit as good as the photos I'd seen previously. We negotiated a slightly more sane price with the estate agent (Kiinteistomaailma - I've gone from a country whose language uses too few vowels to a country whose language more than compensates...) - 600EUR/month which includes gas, water and TV license. We're moving in tomorrow! Now we've just got to argue over decide who gets what room. :)

I'm in Finland! Helsinki, more precisely, and the Scandic Continental Hotel if you wish to be yet more precise. The reason for my visit is that I am going to be working as an intern at Nokia until mid-November, whereupon I shall return to Swansea and begin^Wcarry on working towards my PhD.

Helsinki itself is very nice, and although the city is quite small, I've not explored it completely yet. I'm staying a short walk from the downtown area, which is filled with shops, restaurants and bars. Last night Shruti (another intern) and I visited a jazz cafe and watched some awesome musicians play while we ate our dinner. I was pleasantly surprised by the food - everyone told me to expect terrible things to be brought forth from Finnish kitchens, but it was delicious. Of course, I'm not claiming a beefburger to be the quintessential Finnish dish, but it was gooood.

I spent today wandering around the city, checking out parks, shopping malls and the like, and it's a fantastic place. We've found an apartment about 10 minutes by cycle from Nokia in one of the nicer parts of the city - I'm going to take a look at it tomorrow. All signs point to it being a great place to live - big rooms, situated 2 minutes from a fantastic park and the waterfront, 2 minutes in the other direction to shops, and, most importantly, there is a camera shop just around the corner! I've only taken a few photos so far, but I'll post them up here when they've been developed.

Of course, the apartment might yet fall through, as we've not yet signed the contract, and it's towards the higher end of the range I'd like to be paying for rent (650EUR/month!).

I start work tomorrow, and I imagine the next few days will be filled with mostly run of the mill paperwork and related formalities. Coincidentally, Matt is giving a talk at NRC on Tuesday, which should provide some (comic?) relief.

That's all for now!