The Butt Ugly Weblog

Jani of Mummila got a response to his complaint relating to police ordering the censorship of his blog: "...internal correcting measures have taken place, no sanction will be enforced by the State Provincial Offices on this matter."

And I guess that's fine: one mistake should be forgiven. It's good that there's now an official statement about this issue, so the legal status of blogs is now a bit more firm.

(Can you see I'm on holiday? I blog more and my English goes really bad. :)

Ross Mayfield: The French Exception:

but

My real reason though to quote this article is the following paragraph:

David Foster Wallace writes:

I would like to point out the similarities here: the reason bloggers who blog about blogs get a high ranking is simply because interest in blogging is the lowest common denominator among all bloggers. Power Law takes care of the rest. This is also the same reason why people who blog about sex, politics, or stir strong emotions (e.g. hatebloggers or people who keep strong, personal diaries) tend to also float to the top.

We all know that the good stuff happens at the long tail. But the lowest common denominators still are the most popular ones. That's just how the world is, and that's just how the free market works. I mean, what else would the blogosphere be except that the world's largest free market - anyone is free to join for free, and anyone can link to anyone else with no limitations, with links as a currency and popularity as wealth? (He said, with a glimmer of humour in the corner of his eye, but still gazing at this adversary with level, serious eyes.)

Think about it.

Blogger and www.kultainenkuukkeli.net seem to have a strong disagreement about publishing, so I have to do this here. Try and bear with me...

Ehdokkaista (paras merkintä poislukien) helsinkiläisiä oli 30 kpl, tamperelaisia 7 kpl, pohjois-karjalalaisia 1 kpl, oululaisia 1 kpl, tukholmalaisia 1 kpl, newyorkilaisia 1 kpl, tuntemattomia 5 kpl. Yleisö oli siis sitä mieltä, että 68% hyvistä blogeista tulee noin kehä kolmosen sisäpuolelta, sekä noin 16% Tampereelta. (Tuntemattomat voivat tietysti kasvattaa jompaa kumpaa lukua.)

Raati palkitsi kuusi helsinkiläistä, kolme tamperelaista, ja yhden oululaisen (paras merkintä meni helsingin ulkopuolelle, mutta koska en laskenut sitä äskenkään mukaan, en laske sitä tähänkään). Helsinkiläisiä palkituista oli siis 60% (tai 55%, jos parhaan merkinnän laskee, mutta minähän en laskenut), eli siis hieman vähemmän kuin ehdokkaista. Tamperelaisille meni 30% palkinnoista (27%, parhaan merkinnän kera).

Sen sijaan, että kyseltäisiin miksi raati suosii helsinkiläisiä kavereitaan, voidaan ehkä ennemmin kysyä, miksi suuri bloggaajayleisö oli alun perinkin sitä mieltä, että kaikki mainitsemisen arvoiset blogit ovat pääkaupunkiseudulta, sekä miksi raati palkitsi liki puolet ehdolla olleista tamperelaisista ja kaikki oululaiset?

<provokaatio>
Jos Kehä kolmosen ja Tampereen ulkopuolella on hyviä blogeja, miksi niitä ei äänestetty? Olisiko raadin pitänyt mennä radikaalimmin listan ulkopuolelle, jotta myös ei-kaupunkieläjiä olisi saatu palkittua? Pitäisikö palkinnoissa olla kiintiöt?
</provokaatio>

(Luvut laskettu pikaisesti, pahoittelen jos siellä on off-by-one -virheitä. Suuruusluvut ovat kuitenkin oikein.)

Päivitys: koska joku kuitenkin lukee tämän väärin (ja näin uudelleen luettuna tämän voi todellakin lukea väärin - story of my life), niin huomautettakoon, tässä kirjoituksessa on kieli hieman poskella, mutta ei kuitenkaan ihan kokonaan. Minusta tämä oli mielenkiintoinen ilmiö, jota en itse huomannut ihmetellä ennen kuin tänään saunassa. Raadin keskusteluissa ei missään nimessä käytetty paikkakuntaa minkäänlaisena kriteerinä - sitä ei varmaan edes mainittu kertaakaan. Minusta on kerrassaan mälsää se, että pääkaupunkiseudulla on näin hallitseva asema, ja haluaisin ehdottomasti nähdä enemmän bloggaajia muualta Suomesta. Mutta ehkäpä (toivottavasti) tämäkin korjaantuu ajan myötä: kaupunkilaissinkut ovat nopeimpia kokeilemaan uusia asioita; muut tulevat sitten perässä kun ovat nähneet niiden arvon.

Päivitys2: Jos kuukkelit olisi tänä vuonna jaettu pelkästään yleisöäänien mukaan, kaikki palkinnot paitsi yksi olisivat menneet Helsinkiin, ja mitvit olisi voittanut niistä neljä.

It's over for another year. Now it's time for the inevitable discussion on the awards, the gala, the judges and their mental capacity. I have to say that one of the more memorable moments of the evening was the round-table discussion on how many death threats each of the bloggers have received, and how many of them were anonymous... There are downsides to saying things in public: no matter how you say it, someone is going to dislike it.

Anyway, I would like to thank many people for making the evening a success:

• Outi for being our official IRC transcriber, and putting up with the morons. Next year, we'll certainly do the IRC show on another channel.
• KatjaW for being our gracious and voluptuous door hostess.
• Kari for pressing the button
• Hakkis for being the DJ (I have a feeling there's a blog post coming about a certain particular event relating to this...)
• Mindy and Jaakko for making the whole evening work
• Earl Grey and Misu for making the completely amazing and cute award statues. You rock!
• Mike for the review that was complete even before the gala was finished
• Kolibri for taking part in the jury sessions from 7500 km and ten time zones away.
• Charlie Schick of Nokia Lifeblog (who has pictures, BTW, on his blog) for sponsoring the gala event
• Ramin Miraftabi for the voting system
• Janne Jääskeläinen for the incredible logo

And finally, all the winners for writing such darned good blogs.

Maybe the story of this 1337 hacker is old, but I hadn't seen it before. It's a good laugh.

(From Tero, via email.)

Or the same in English:

Sometimes I think my life resembles a giant sitcom.

Today.

Yay.

Outin keskustelupalstalla alkoi sinällään ihan mielenkiintoinen keskustelu, johon tuli kirjoitettua pitkähkö vastine. Heivaan sen nyt samantien tänne, sillä röyhkeällä oletuksella, että meillä on eri lukijoita :-).

Kristiina kirjoittaa:

Tämä on totta, mutta ei kuitenkaan koko totuus. Kun otetaan huomioon blogien *lukijamäärät*, niin huomataan, että lukijoita löytyy suhteessa enemmän ei-päiväkirjoille kuin päiväkirjoille. Ja tämä tekee niistä merkittäviä.

Esimerkiksi Pinserin top-listaa vilkaistessa top-10:stä puolet ei ole suoranaisia päiväkirjoja. Päiväkirjojen osuus lisääntyy voimakkaasti listalla alaspäin mentäessä. Tosin top-lista vääristää päiväkirjojen suuntaan, mutta minkäs teet. Tämä on tietenkin varsin maa- ja kulttuurikohtaista: englanninkielisen maailman luetuimmat blogit eivät todellakaan ole päiväkirjoja; kun taas esimerkiksi Iranin top-10:stä kuusi on kirjoittajan seksielämästä kertovia (Ref: Blogtalk).

Kukaan ei ole sanomassa, että päiväkirjatyylillä ei ole arvoa ja että se ei kiinnosta ketään. Blogit *ovat kuitenkin jo myös* kansalaisvaikuttamisen väline (Ref: Rathergate ja Kryptonite-sotku). Tämän kieltäminen olisi myös silmien sulkemista todellisuudelta ja seinien rakentamista. Jos blogiasi seuraa tarpeeksi moni ihminen, olet automaattisesti mielipidevaikuttaja, halusit eli et. Ja massalla on voimaa, kuten monesti on todettu.

Merkittävistä, seuratuista ja hyvistä (noin keskiarvokriteereillä) blogeista suurin osa ei ole puhtaita päiväkirjoja, mutta se ei tarkoita sitä, etteikö olisi olemassa hyviä päiväkirjoja. (Ref: Shirky's Power Law.)

Jokainen lukee sitä, mistä pitää, ja jokaiselle se oma blogilista on se paras. Mutta kun kyse on massoista, osoittautuu, että samaa päiväkirjaa loppujen lopuksi haluaa kovin harva lukea - vaikka se olisi oikeasti aivan älyttömän hyvä päiväkirja! Ihmisillä kun on taipumus saada ne valaistuksen siemenet ihan erilaisista asioista...

Minä en halua kehittää mitään yhtenäistä blogikulttuuria. Minä haluan vain nähdä hyviä, mielenkiintoisia blogeja, joita itse haluaisin lukea. En todellakaan halua muuttaa kenenkään tapaa kirjoittaa, mutta haluan nähdä uusia kirjoittajia ja löytää uutta vanhoista. Haluan ymmärtää maailmaa ja toisia ihmisiä paremmin. Haluan välittää asioista ja etsiä ihmisiä, joiden joukkoon tunnen kuuluvani. Haluan palkita ja rohkaista niitä, joiden koen antaneen minulle tai muille jotain erityistä.

Onko se nyt sitten jotenkin niin kovin kauheaa?

(Kopioin vielä tuosta alhaalta mielestäni tärkeän asian: Tämä on vain tekstiä. Blogit ovat vain yksinkertainen tapa saada kaikki mukaan samalle lähtöviivalle, teknisestä tai taiteellisesta kyvystä riippumatta.)

Päivitys: muistihäiriö, vain kuusi kymmenestä iranilaisesta blogista on seksiblogeja. Lisäsin myös linkkejä.

Don't forget: Finnish blog awards gala is one week from now: 27.4. at 19:00 in Bar Dubrovnik, Eerikinkatu 11, Helsinki. Watch Kuukkeliblog for more information...

(Virallisen irkkaajan paikka on vielä auki. Vapaaehtoiset ilmoittautukaa...)

I have to say that any sort of compassion I felt towards the Metsähallitus folks is rapidly waning after seeing the infantile scare tactics they've been using with Greenpeace. Look at these videos and pictures (in English)! Revving chainsaws in the middle of the night, keeping people awake with sirens, hanging nooses from the trees, burning crosses... Sheesh!

The issue is complicated, as always, but Metsähallitus is really trying to make it simple: you can either scorn or hate them for being such jerks and allowing such idiotic things to happen - in their name, by their employees, nonetheless. One would imagine that grown people would have enough sense to sit down and negotiate, but this? It also casts a bad light on the Center Party, currently holding the seat of the Minister of Agriculture and Forestry.

Things like these tend to develop into a public relations fight. Greenpeace has been talking to buyers of Finnish paper, and quite a few authors and paper companies have already started to question the ethics of logging.

Metsähallitus is definitely not doing a good job on the PR front.

(Disclaimer: I support Greenpeace financially, though I am not a member. I also own some forest, so I support forestry. I don't think these are irreconcilably at odds, though...)

Update. I'm not too sure if Greenpeace's tactic of dumping logging waste on the stairs of the Ministry of Agriculture and Forestry is any more mature, though it is a time-honoured Finnish tradition.

Update2: There's now an English-language blog covering the opposite side of the debate. Unfortunately it mostly consists of anecdotes: "Most locals say that...", "...use of international pressure, blackmailing and even lies by Greenpeace to harass the local people..." It's not very good journalism, but it's a start.

I've found a good use for my iPod - I listen to podcasts on the way to work. Yesterday, I found this gem: The keynote of SXSW conference by Malcolm Gladwell. (MP3 download and stream available.)

He talks about snap judgements, and how good we are convincing ourselves that we are making a rational decision, even when we're not. I've always believed that intuition is a skill that can be trained - but I didn't know humans were that dependent on it...

Highly, highly recommended.

You know you've achieved something, when your work ends up in Wikipedia.

(And no, I didn't add it myself... ;-)

My letter to the editor (in Finnish, duh) of Suomen Kuvalehti was published!

(Oh yeah, and the new widget in the right sidebar? I'll write about it soon, I promise. It's a new NFC hack...)

Pam's dad asked me to link to this, so here goes: Support Pam. I hope this turns out well for all parties.

Today's recommended Finnish Blog: Uusista blogeista Hiljaista huutelua on vakuuttanut minut asiallisilla kirjoituksillaan vähän puhutusta aiheesta jos toisestakin. Pidän paljon.

And I thought I was kidding when I made this, but Kolibri found a way to use it for real.

Of course, it didn't work. Didn't work for me either.

(How about adding an electric motor inside it?)

Saunalahti is offering a free weblog to all its GSM subscribers. You can update your weblog using MMS messages, Nokia Lifeblog or internet.

~SaunaBlog. I like that name.

However, they seem to have lifted the entire description of what a blog is directly from Wikipedia without attribution, which, as far as I can tell, is a GNU FDL violation. Wikipedia.fi has more.

Also, looking at a sample blog, it seems that they are claiming copyright on anything that anyone writes on their own blog, and apparently they're not making you even agree on a license before you use the service. This is simply wrong - you simply cannot assert copyright on something that you don't own. If you write a blog, you own its content - regardless of who hosts it.

Saunalahti seems to be pretty lax about copyright issues. This will bite them in the ankle, I'm sure.

So, this one country invades this other country saying that now its inhabitants can be free and the women are no longer oppressed, killing many people in the process of distributing freedom. However, at the same time they pretend that their own women have no nipples and punish those women who dare to have them. Even with clothes on.

They are more alike than they want to admit.

(Via Dan Gillmor.)

Learned an important lesson yesterday, after a movie evening with friends:

You can't strut, if you need to really, really, really pee.

My my, what an interesting week this has been: First, Blogilista goes commercial, and now Pirkka-magazine has launched a number of commercial blogs. The Finnish blogosphere reacts with violent distrust and confusion.

I see no problem. These are clearly blogs, simply because the only meaningful definition for the world blog is based on form, not content. They're not lying about their affiliation. They publish polished content. In fact, I find it wonderful that a media publisher dares to go and try and embrace the new media. They even publish Atom feeds for all blogs! Way!

However, entering the blogosphere may be more difficult than just dumping Movabletype on your magazine web site: people will look at these blogs. They will discuss. They will find crap on them (if there's any). They will write about it. And it's difficult to ignore them, if you want to keep your credibility. Other bloggers will call your bullshit - and very likely, someone in that bunch is at least equal in writing skills and more knowledgeable on the subject than you. And they know it.

Now the question is how much integrity Pirkka wants to have: do they just want to publish news articles in a blog format - or do they really want to go full out and really try to embrace the dialogue that comes with the format?

You see, whatever else blogs may be, they work best as a personal media. You need to let people write with their own voice, not just copying material from others - even if you have all the rights to do so. It's the power and bane of the format; a personal touch creates reader loyalty, but it also means that you have to get involved in your writing - "laittaa itsensä likoon", as the Finns say. And that is not easy.

Welcome to the crowd! I'm happy you're here, anyway. People will grumble, but there's always room for one more in the jacuzzi.

(A quick hint to Pirkka writers: Read http://www.corporateblogging.info/, and Scoble's Corporate Blogging Manifesto. Understand. Internalize. And stop posting articles from one person under the name of another... That simply takes away credibility from the author.)

(And a quick other hint to people who complain about these being on blogilista.fi: get a clue. Really. Would you stop using a phone book simply because it contains company phone numbers, or stop using Google because it's *gasp* a profit-making company? That's exactly what Blogilista.fi is - an index of blogs, nothing more. It ain't your personal blogospheric community where people live happily and go to the woods to get undressed and hug each other in a blogoslavic überbliss. If you don't like the direction they're taking, learn to use RSS and site feeds, and make your own personal bloglist.

Blogging in Finland is finally growing up. The hype around blogging will cease in a year or two, and hopefully we then can better understand what the media is and what one can do with it. And then we can get back to the really important thing: writing. Writing about your dog, or your political views, or celebrity divorces, or company products, or food, or your sex life, or whatever pleases you. Some bloggers will gain prestige; some bloggers will become influential; some bloggers will make many people laugh; some bloggers will make many people weep. Some will be completely ignored. Most will just form their own community of their twenty close friends or family or whoever, and just happily live in their own microcosmos.

It's just text. In the end, it's all in the way you arrange the letters of the alphabet - blogs, through their simplicity, are just a way of letting everyone play in the game.)

Well, well, well... The Finnish blog world just got a tad more interesting: A Finnish VC company just bought blogilista.fi, the master list of Finnish blogs (which also functions as a simple web-based aggregator as well). Congrats to all involved! I hope this means that their RSS parser would finally start working properly, instead of just doing really dumb byte comparisons. ;-)

However, what I find to be far more interesting is that Typepad (from Six Apart, the worlds largest blogging company) is reaching its tendrils into Finland now: first with Typepad Finland and now with partnership to blogilista.fi. Through the latter they get much needed publicity and visibility in Finland - after all, most Finnish bloggers seem to use Blogger these days. Typepad will have to compete against Vuodatus.net, though. Having tried both, I have to say that I prefer Vuodatus for their ease of use while still doing everything that's necessary.

I do find it interesting though that Typepad would partner with an aggregation service...

Excuse me?

(Via Vera, over IRC.)

Enter-lehden 3/2005 pääkirjoituksessa päätoimittaja Tuomas Kilpi suomii ankarasti ministeri Karpelan sensuurihanketta (linkittäisin suoraan pääkirjoitukseen, mutta sitä ei löydy verkosta. Mikä on jotakuinkin tyhmää - tokko kukaan lehteä ostaa lukeakseen pääkirjoituksen, mutta verkossa pääkirjoituksille löytyisi luultavasti enemmän vastakaikua.)

Juuri näin. Kun yritin ottaa selvää, millä perusteella blogiani sensuroidaan, vastauksena oli "se on ehkä tekninen vika". Todellinen vastaus on, ettei kukaan todella tiennyt, eikä ketään oikeasti kiinnostanut. Ja se on pelottavaa.

Lähetin tämän kirjeen Suomen Kuvalehden lukijapalstalle. Ehkä sillä on jotain vaikutusta. Luultavasti ei, mutta köyhän pitää yrittää.

(Ensin sensuroidaan raaka porno, sitten pehmeä porno, sitten laittomasti levitetyt elokuvat, sitten MP3:t, sitten väärät uskonnot, sitten eriävät mielipiteet, sitten Linux... Kaikelle löytyy aina hyvä perustelu.)

Päivitys: Myös Tietokone-lehden 3/2005 pääkirjoitus käsittelee samaa asiaa. Hämmentävää, miten hitaasti asiat tuntuvat tapahtuvan printtimaailmassa. Tiedän, että se on vain harha, mutta silti...

I don't blog about what I really work on, for obvious reasons, but I just got two very nice 3220 phones with the Nokia NFC Shell, wrote a small web app, and got clearance from my boss to blog about it, as this stuff is gonna be in the shops, well, if not today, but very soon. NFC is geek for "Near Field Communication", which in turn is geek for "doing really close range communication between two really simple radios." If you're using any sort of a contactless travel pass, credit card, or access key, you're using NFC.

This particular app was pretty trivial to do (and required about five lines of code on the server side): I took two NFC tags (essentially very small memory cards with a radio that can be read/written from up to a few centimetres), wrote the URL of my web service on both of them (using the ~ServiceDiscovery app included), and wrote a little JSP page that handles the interfacing with my blog.

Then I stuck one tag on my work monitor, and another one at home. Now I can just touch one of these tags with my phone, and a few seconds later (some delays are involved with starting the Java midlet and connecting to GPRS) the little box on the right changes to show my location. Voila: NFC-powered presence.

This is in essence no different from doing a Trackback ping; I'm just doing it by touching something with my phone. Not traversing menus, not using the keyboard, not even glancing the screen.

Just touching. It couldn't be simpler.

Took me more time to take the pictures and blog about it than to actually write the app...

(Disclaimer: I work for the company, and I've been somewhat involved in giving birth to these babies. But I wouldn't write about it if it didn't give me the warm fuzzies.)