Cross-stiches for the ipod

Yes! To and handicraft/techy freak like me, this is pure beautiful. I made a similar one to my pda and it was of great use. Although, a few weeks ago I forced the pda to retire, which means the cover is now to be found way back in the closet.

Mission impossible: paper cutting

I'm struggling with what I'd like to call an impossible task. I need to cut a paper I wrote and presented from 7619 words to a neat sum of 5000, cuz it's getting published. I really loathe the process as, although I'm great at mass producing floods of text sometimes containing drivel, it's mostly content that I feel is necessary and that plays a role in the context. My method is to shorten paragraphs and say what I want to say in shorter, more substantial sentences. But I can't help but feeling that the rythm is lost this way. The hand guiding the reader through the paper, which I feel is crucial in a read worthy text, is somehow getting lost when the not-so-facty phrases are removed. Perhaps I should write the different parts on a dice, throw it and simply erase the fateful part on the side turning up ;)

Bonus of the day: 3 days til my first full-length, fully paid 4 week vacation!

florae blues

I'm conducting usability tests for clients at work now and the thought of doing a test on this blog has been spinning in my mind for a good while. About a week ago, I realized that doing an eye tracking study, which I regularly do at work, on this Paeonia blog would be interesting as, apparently, I'm not expressing the corner pillars or the identity if you will of the blog clearly enough. This insight hit me when I was sent a review of my blog, made by a student. It turnes out that the reason of the name Paeonia is not clear enough, the link between the name and my passion for flowers and then in particular peonies is not evident enough.

And consequently, like some people start devoting lots of attention to their beloved when the date of Valentine's Day or the Wedding anniversary is approaching as a way of making up the downturns since last anniversary of Valentine's, I think to myself that I'll relieve my conscience by posting an all-flowery post. And this guzzling in florae photos is not just a making up-gesture but also an hommage to the stunningly beautiful nature outside my window. It's mid June and the nuances of green is about as saturated as you can possibly want them to be. Enough babbling, I activated my Flickr account again and here's a selection of photos to ilghten up the academic twist on this site. (Hmm, I also noticed I haven't blogged my handicraft craze either in a while, therefore the photo at the top. It's illustrating 5 pillows I sewed earlier this week for potential hangovery guests this weekend).

White light fights piracy

A group of researchers at the Georgia Institute of Technology has developed a prototype device that can block digital-camera function in a given area, a method that could fight the movie piracy. More here.

More on happiness

As I'm studying positive experiences in my own PhD, and since I'm fascinated by the notion of happiness, I bought Mihaly Csikszentmihalyi's book Flow: The Psychology of Optimal Experience. Here are two thought-evoking quotes (my translation):

How can it be that, although we've created miraculous successtories that no-one could even dream of, we are more helpless than our less privileged ancestors were when life is concerned? The answer is clear-cut, while humanity has collectively increased its material wealth by the thousand, it hasn't advanced at all concerning improving the content of the experiences. (Page 34)

As an opposite to what many believe, the best times in life are not passive, receiving and relaxed moments. The best moments occur in general when a human is stretching her body to the maximum in a conscious exertion in order to achieve something difficult and effort worthy. (Page 20)

The last quote makes me think of the two running competitions I've participated in this last month. The 10 K run went beautifully well, no difficulties whatsoever. The 5 K run on the other hand was hard and the agreeable, nice feeling was lacking. We even had to start swearing to get through the race with a good mood. And now when I think of the races afterwards, I enjoy the harder run more than the longer, easier one. Strange but true.

Finnish ICT use

Statistics Finland has new figures on ICT use. Interestingly, more women than men in the age group 30-49 use the internet. However, of pension-age people men are more often on the internet than women. I also was surprised to learn that internet banking isn't as common elsewhere as here. It's been a completely natural part of my every day life now for quite some time. 3 out of 4 Finnish internet users manage their finances on the net, apparently.

About three out of four, or 73 per cent, of 15 to 74-year-olds used the Internet in spring 2005 in Finland and according to Pew Internet & American Life Project, the same goes for Americans (these figures stem from 2006 though. The percentage for Americans using the internet the same period in 2005 was 66 %).

NordForsk doctoral course

I'm in a conference mode still, I recently found an interesting PhD-seminar that's held in Denmark in early November. It's called Publics, audiences and users: Theoretical and methodological challenges in a multidisciplinary field of research.

new media conferences

The Centre for Usability Research at Katholieke Universiteit Leuven has a much needed site where all the deadlines for conferences and journals in HCI, iTV, user research etc are listed.