So, I’ve been away for two weeks on a trip to Taiwan and Singapore, and it was pretty awesome. Nothing spectacular happened, but on the other hand I think I’m pretty happy that I didn’t get lost in the mountains or robbed or anything like that; a nice relaxed trip can also be fun. I won’t bore you with transcripts of the days upon days of meetings (the small fact that I’d be breaking all kinds of NDAs has nothing to do with it at all, of course), so I’ll jump right into the photos.
Oh, and just so you know: these were taken with my awful cell phone cam since my proper digital camera was supposed to be used at another occasion. (But of course it never did get used, so I had to make do with a crappy camera while the nice little Exilim thingie was lying unused and unloved at home! Boo-hoo!)
The proper way to start every trip… Beer at Arlanda airport.
I absolutely hate seafood, so I had a hard time keeping things in my stomach while a couple of colleagues ate things like this in Taiwan. This is where the “fear and loathing” part comes in.
Here’s where I’d place some nice images of Taipei 101, the totally sweet and amazingly high skyscraper located in Taipei. But - of course - I got no good images at all. I’ll just tell you that it was an amazing experience to look out over the city from the ~90th floor. I got the strongest urge to go “I crush your head, tiny humans! I crush your whole car! Crush crush! I crush your building, puny ground-dweller!”
Let’s go on to Singapore instead, since I’ve already reported on a trip to Taiwan last year.
No trip to Singapore is complete without a visit to the Long Bar, home of the Singapore Sling. I hadn’t heard the stories about the peanuts on the floor, so my initial reaction upon sitting down was “oh man! we got a really dirty table!” …Don’t know what I mean about the peanuts? Use the almighty Google!
After a meeting with a company I won’t name (but oh dang, there’s most of the logo present in the pic), we got to try their F1 simulator. Apparently they’re sponsoring a Grand Prix that will be held in Singapore in September. Let me tell you, I am not a good race car driver. This was way harder than Gran Turismo 3!
We got some nice sightseeing done a couple of the days. Singapore really has some amazing sights. To the left you have the parliament, and to the right you have a spacey building close to Sim Lim Square - the place where you can literally drown in electronics.
Speaking of drowning, I wouldn’t want to swim in this… Such a clean city, but that water…
I just had to have a picture of the “no durians” sign. Awesome. I still haven’t seen one of those fruits, but I smelled it now and then. Pretty potent stench, that!
What? That word you keep using, I don’t think it means what you think it means. Or did they really have the guts to shut down a street in order to have some kids with laptops hack a bank or something? Or am I only biased about the use of the word “hacking”?
Spontaneous comments about the trip:
I wish I had gone when there wasn’t a rainy season.
Frog tastes like tiny tiny chicken.
Taiwan is a wonderous mix of high tech and down-to-earth Chinese.
Taipei 101 is a must-see for all visitors.
Night market means lots of food stands and even more stands filled with cheap copies of known brands.
I have never seen such a clean city as Singapore.
Clarke Quay is awesome, but it’s nigh on impossible to find a table at that microbrewery place on a Friday night.
I will never ever break the law in Singapore. Oh, darn - I already did! I smuggled chewing gum into the country.
Alcohol is ridiculously expensive in Singapore.
And speaking of alcohol: when you order a White Russian in Singapore, it will be layered with the Kahlua at the bottom. Barbarians!
Once upon a time I tried to make extensive travel posts every time I travelled abroad, but lately I’ve been rather…lazy. I went on vacation to Greece and didn’t bother to post about it. I went on a business trip to Germany and didn’t bother to post about it. Now I’ll be going on a business trip to Taiwan and Singapore in the coming weeks, and I’ll do my darnest best to post some pictures from that one at least!
Lovely picture that’s definitely not mine.
Does anyone have hints about what to do while abroad? I’ll have at least a couple of days to spare in both places; I’ve received a few suggestions concerning shopping and party areas in Singapore, but I have no idea what I can do in Taiwan. My last (and only) visit to Taipei was filled with work and more work, so I didn’t have time to look for anything fun. If you have any suggestions for either Taiwan or Singapore - leave a comment!
And speaking of shopping… What should I buy aside from the obvious things like a cheap MP3 player or two? Does anyone know of cool and/or weird things available in either place? Things that one simply cannot miss?
For a long time at work I’ve been moaning about getting to travel more. Apparently it paid off - I get to go on a two-week trip to Asia now, and my new assignment after a re-organization is going to be Field Applications Engineer. I have high hopes for adding more countries to my “been-there-done-that” list during the next year.
These last years I have been lamenting the fact that I’m getting too old for behaving like an uncouth youth. Slowly but inexorably I’ve cut down on my drinking, partying and general weird behaviour…but something inside me misses the good old days. I miss hitch-hiking to festivals to watch strange punk bands no one else cares about, meeting strange people and experiencing random everyday adventures. But lo and behold! Now it seems like I might get a chance to indulge myself in some good ol’ misbehaviour again: West Coast Riot is an upcoming festival in Gothenburg, and it features the best lineup I’ve seen so far in 2008!
Just look at the bands…
NOFX
Bad Religion
Flogging Molly
Lagwagon
Moderat likvidation
De lyckliga kompisarna
No Fun At All
Randy
And so on…
I am aware that you might be culturally handicapped and unaware of the greatness of the latter four Swedish bands, but I trust that everyone has heard of NOFX, Bad Religion and Flogging Molly at least. Those three are enough to make me feel hot and bothered; the rest is a great bonus.
Feel like tagging along? The problem right now is that it’s been half a decade since I last knew people I could convince to come with me on events like this. I don’t fancy the idea of being the old bastard in a crowd of pretentious little 16-year-old punks, but trust me: even if I have to go alone, I am definitely attending this festival!
Recently I complained about ridiculous spam I’ve received, but I just have to make a quick addition to that list. This is a title that just popped up in my inbox:
“Tired of being second best in bed?”
I’m trying my best not to laugh out loud at work; I’m not sure if the spammer really intended the humour, but I sure hope he did. I mean, come on. This is funny on so many levels, and it’s the perfect serve for a snappy response:
I’m never second best - I always come first!
Almost makes me want to click that darn link to see what he’s trying to sell.
And I know that it’s April 1 - I just can’t be arsed to make some inane attempt at a joke here. I’m going for the Grumpy Gamer approach: 100% April Fool’s Day joke free!
A quick quick quick update in case you haven’t heard about Shredz64. It’s a Guitar Hero clone for…the Commodore 64!
I don’t know if I’m more impressed by the geekiness of the project, or by how the author decided to show off a sucky Zelda tune that tries to sound vaguely guitar-based. I mean, given the wonderful songs available for the C64, it’s pretty impressive how he picked a song that sounds…pretty meh.
The second part of the video shows a more classical SID-style song, though. Make sure you check it out!
Lately all of my updates have been about Spandex Force. Trust me, I could write a ton more on what’s happening with the game but today I’m just going to give you a quick link: Check out the Encyclopedia of Life project!
It’s an amazing attempt to catalogue the 1,8 million know species on the planet…and to add new ones as they are discovered. Here are some example pages of how it will look. There are two things that immediately strike me about this:
This looks like a lot of fun. Seriously, it looks awesome! I’ve mentioned my fascination with Wikipedia and how I can look up esoteric topics for hours on end…and I can definitely see myself doing the same on this site. As a kid I used to read books about nature, and I spent countless days browsing my mom’s library of books on sharks and reptiles and mammals and fungi and whatnot. This site will probably be the same for the next generation of nerds.
Listening to the-end-is-nigh environmentalists you get the impression that the world will end in a few decades. I googled for “extinct species per year” just now and found a page that claimed that 30000 species become extinct per year. I have no idea if that figure is correct, but if it is, negative people are probably saying things like “there’ll be no species left in 60 years!” Of course, they’re probably missing the fact that new species also emerge constantly. Either way, the thing is that if species are dropping and emerging at that rate, then it’ll be rather difficult to maintain this collection of species. 30000 per year means that someone will have to write a big red “EXTINCT” on 82 pages per day. I’m guessing that the 30000 species per year is either wildly exaggerated…or that the 1,8 million named species mentioned on EOL refer to a relatively stable core of species. Hey, I have no idea how many non-named species there are, after all!
Oh, and buy Spandex Force unless you’ve already done so! If you have you’ll be getting an update soonish; testing is still in progress.
Since I’ve issued yet another press release regarding Spandex Force I might as well show it here as well. This regards the awesome Spandex Force photo contest that I’ve announced!
The actual press release follows:
To celebrate the upcoming release of the superhero-themed puzzle RPG Spandex Force, independent game developer KarjaSoft have announced a heroic photo contest.
Bring out your halloween costume and submit a photo of yourself dressed up as a superhero! Five copies of Spandex Force will be given to the funniest, most original and overall best entries. Extra credit will be given for inventive superhero names and an amusing background story for the hero. For more information and a couple of inspirational example photos, go to:
“I couldn’t find any disgustingly tight spandex for the example photos,” laments Miro Karjalainen, owner of KarjaSoft. “But you can see me pose as Prince Harming and the Dubious Desperado at least.”
The last day to submit an entry is February 14, and winners will be announced on February 16.
Spandex Force is a tongue-in-cheek puzzle game with RPG elements, available for Windows and Mac. For screenshots and downloads of the beta version of Spandex Force, visit:
Sir Edmund Hillary has passed away at the ripe old age of 88. I had never heard the name until I browsed National Geographic’s webpage today; I’ve missed out on a very cool person. He and Tenzing Norgay were first to climb Mount Everest on May 29, 1953. Upon completing this deed he returned to the base camp and exclaimed “We knocked the bastard off.”
That’s just so cool.
And here’s something he wrote about the pair’s final steps to the top:
“Another few weary steps and there was nothing above us but the sky. There was no false cornice, no final pinnacle. We were standing together on the summit. There was enough space for about six people. We had conquered Everest.
But my dominant reactions were relief and surprise. Relief because the long grind was over and the unattainable had been attained. And surprise, because it had happened to me, old Ed Hillary, the beekeeper, once the star pupil of the Tuakau District School, but no great shakes at Auckland Grammar [high school] and a no-hoper at university, first to the top of Everest.
I just didn’t believe it.”
I’m getting chills all over from reading that. A part of me has always wanted to do Adventurous Things(TM). As a young kiddo I even dreamed of having business cards with the title “Hacker / Adventurer.” A few days ago I realized that it’s about time that I get business cards for my little KarjaSoft venture…and that I could finally have that desired title!
But then it struck me that I haven’t done as many adventurous things as I’d planned in younger years.
Sure, I’ve done a fair bit. Spent time in Germany as a 12-year-old, living with a friend of the family away from home. Hitch-hiked around Sweden at 15, where I received strange invitations from creepy old men. Travelled all around the US for two months, where I ended up at various hostels and parties and weird situations. Got lost in the Cyprus mountains and had to be rescued by the police. All very fun and all, but it’s not adventuring! Adventuring means wearing a cool hat and a whip, and visiting old ruins! Or climbing mountains! Or going out in the rain forest with a machete and rope (you always need rope), looking for some doctor or another!
I still might choose the title “Adventurer” when I print my business cards, but if so I’m going to have to earn the title in the coming years. I’m adding “become an adventurer” to my todo list!
When I started up this blog I had no clear view of what I wanted to acheive; I mostly needed a place where I could vent and write pretentious speculations. That was reflected by the old site design - gray and bland and…unsure of what it wanted to be. Well, time has passed and I’ve noted a few areas of interest that I tend to lean toward:
Indie games and indie game development
Software development, economics and management
Random scientific tidbits
Books, movies and games
Travels
It’s a pretty common list for a nerdy geek (or is that geeky nerd?) but it wasn’t obvious from the start that I would write about these topics. If my interests had leaned in other directions I might have written about music production, low-level network programming, emulator development, parties, the Swedish punk scene, rat training, martial arts, or a hundred other topics. But they didn’t. So the other day I thought “hey, let’s do something about Cynical Stuff,” and started to look for a new design.
These are some key points I wanted to bring out with the new look:
I want to be more personally connected with what I write. The easiest way to accomplish this is to - gasp, shock - have pictures of myself on the page. Yeah, tough luck: I’ll be grinning at you from the header of every page from now on!
I’m getting more and more serious about my indie games development, and I want the blog to reflect that. So I’m going to put a focus on development diaries for the games I’m working on.
Darker colours! No more standard-gray-and-white; a darker page reflects my personality better.
A tighter site design; more text and no fixed-width solution. I want to give the illusion that I offer a lot of information.
Not only do I show more pictures of myself in the header - the various images that it’s made up of also reflects the contents of the blog.
And on and on. The most important reason is probably that I think that this site design looks better, though! I hope you agree - but feel free to leave a comment if you don’t.
I’m often disappointed by technology. The year is 2007 and there are no cyborgs, no anti-gravity devices, no colonization of the Moon, no food pills and no household robots worth mentioning. But one thing does give me hope for the future: technologies involving induction! This has to be the coolest thing ever.
Induction itself is quite simple: it’s a law that describes the connection between the strength of a magnetic field, a conductor (such as a piece of metal), the conductor’s movement speed, and the resulting voltage in the conductor. Essentially, voltage and magnetic fields are connected…and one can be used to generate the other. I assume that everyone’s familiar with the electromagnet and how electricity can generate a magnetic field, but the cool thing about induction is that the reverse is also possible.
One application that’s come up recently is recharging batteries through induction; it’s been all over the news lately, how (induction-prepared) cell phone batteries can be recharged by simply placing the phone on a special pad, and it’s been rumored that Apple will use induction for certain products. And here’s a Taiwanese patent for a device that can recharge normal batteries through induction. But there’s more to induction than this!
One thing I had never heard about until today was induction cooking. It’s really quite clever: a magnetic field interacts with a conductor (a cooking pan or somesuch), and because there’s electrical resistance in the conductor the current is converted to heat. No need to transfer the heat through a coil or by heating with gas - the cooking pan itself is heated from the magnetic field! Cleaner, faster, and more efficient. Also less dangerous, since you won’t be able to burn your hand on the stove anymore. Is there no downside to this at all?! No, not really. But try telling that to the uncouth masses.
“A great big magnetic field in my kitchen?! No way! Who knows what it’ll do to me!”
It’ll make your life better, that’s what. Here’s a summary of test results concerning the dangers of radiation involved with inductive cooking. See anything there along the lines of “will cause dangerous mutations and spleen ruptures”? Nope, nothing at all. (Though to be honest, cancer is always a possibility. But then, just about everything can cause cancer.)
[...] humanity is doomed and will end in a few months. The cause? Deadly microwave radiation will cook us since we’ll no longer be shielded by the Earth’s magnetic force field or what Keyes refers to as “Earth’s electro-magnetic energy field”.
Keyes proceeds to demonstrate the effects of losing the magnetic field by lighting the aerosol from a can of hair spray and flaming a peach representing Earth. He makes his explanation simplistic since he’s talking to military brass who can’t grasp complexity, even though they lead one of the most complex and high tech organizations in the world.
Not only does Keyes not know the difference between forces and energy but he apparently believes that electromagnetic radiation such as microwaves can be deflected by a magnetic field. Here’s a quick experiment, try using a magnet to deflect the electromagnetic (EM) radiation emitted by a flashlight. The EM radiation is a beam of visible light and, although we hate to spoil the experiment, nothing will happen.
Miro Karjalainen is a pretentious bastard with a background in punk rock, computer science, linguistics, embedded systems, game development and the noble art of drinking beer. E-mail: info@karjasoft.com
Lately all of my updates have been about 
