salomaa.com Blog

Twitter killed my blog

2009-09-17T05:04:00.003+03:00

I didn't really have time and enough "public" deep thoughts to begin with but ever since I joined Twitter, my blogging kind of died. Maybe the fact US work culture is way more hectic working for an European company could also have it's role but any case don't expect any updates here soon. If I have time for my many blog/web ideas like Finnish Fusion Cuisine or Scandinavian Surfing, Mobile Security it won't happen here. I'm expecting better interactivity and different platform despite I liked Google & Blogger.com combo a while. Thanks for following and Bye Bye.

Check out www.salomaa.com for updates.

Google Chrome and Gmail

2008-09-03T20:53:00.002+03:00

Google launched a new browser but accessing secure Gmail seems slightly challenging..

Otherwise seems Google has managed to create pretty interesting product here.. Lets see how long it remains a Beta, Gmail still seems to be in Beta mode.. ;-)

Symbian Foundation

2008-06-24T09:17:00.000+03:00

What a forum!

Check out: www.symbianfoundation.org

Twitter!!

2008-04-26T11:26:00.001+03:00

Twitter on a mobile helping Mr. Buck ($$) right time, right place.. see rest of story at CNN

http://www.cnn.com/2008/TECH/04/25/twitter.buck/index.html?eref=ib_technology

Breathing Earth

2008-03-13T06:56:00.001+02:00

Cool website, check it out

http://www.breathingearth.net/

What makes Finnish kids so smart

2008-03-13T06:53:00.001+02:00

Finally some answers.. =)

http://online.wsj.com/article/SB120425355065601997.html

S60 Touch

2007-11-03T01:14:00.000+02:00

Video about S60 Touch at Youtube

Ps. for the cafeteria scene in the video, I will buy you kaffe & pulla if you know where it is shot at?

Poisonous iPhones?

2007-10-15T22:14:00.000+03:00

Exploding iPods and poisonous iPhones? What the.. ??

http://www.greenpeace.org/usa/news/iphone-s-hazardous-chemicals

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dBF_AkaXRG4

Pablos stirs things up

2007-09-06T22:09:00.000+03:00

Encrypt end to end! Word!

Some interesting internet, bluetooth and other wireless problematics today related to privacy, location, communities etc. Mostly commonly known stuff but nicely presented in American English..

More from Stephen Johnston's interesting blog:

http://3dpeople.blogspot.com/2007/08/pablos-comes-and-stirs-things-up.html

How to visit Helsinki in North America??

2007-09-06T01:34:00.000+03:00

Just navigate to Ontario, Canada. Must say doesnt look all that bad at all.. Please note, Helsinki seems to closed from Sunday to Tuesday.. =)

http://www.helsinki.ca/

S60 Wishlist

2007-08-17T01:42:00.000+03:00

There is a neat site at http://www.s60.com/life/wishlist/ where users of S60 based devices can meet, discuss, vote their favourite features for upcoming releases. Maybe S60 or other companies can take up some challenge out of these ideas. On the list we can find demand for free Nokia antivirus, stereo Bluetooth audio, bringing back wallet application, sharing GPS over Bluetooth and much more. Contribute your own ideas and rate other peoples ideas.. user is the king!

070829

2007-08-09T08:42:00.000+03:00

www.070829.com speculations around the web.. exciting..

The Smartphones Show

2007-07-20T23:31:00.000+03:00

Customers say it all : Ref ""I based my latest phone purchase upon your review... the greatest show on the Internet. Keep up the great work". - I just recently discovered a great website.

www.smartphones-show.com

Just viewed the episode 38 and it was very good and even bit entertaining. I warmly recommend this site and will listen its opinions in the future.. check it out!

Sunny summertime!

"Mobile hacker" gets busted

2007-06-27T02:21:00.000+03:00

If you see recent Infoworld or other sources, there is apparently a person claimed responsible for Cabir or Commwarrior (variants?) arrested in Valencia, Spain. Spanish police estimates "Leslie" being responsbile of infecting 150,000 mobile devices.. good luck in court!

The iPhone Is Not A Smartphone, And Nokia Knows IT

2007-06-27T02:15:00.000+03:00

In a recent Informationweek article Eric Zeman talks about Nokia's increased channel presence in the United States and compares smartphone functionality to entertainment based terminals like iPhone. Check it out, worth reading (click headline for the link).

Pcmag has also pretty catchy headline worth checking out:

Nokia Breaks Free of Carriers with E-Series
Quote "Some heroism comes from necessity. Nokia announced today that the company will sell its E-series business smartphones directly to US consumers and businesses, starting with the PC Magazine Editors' Choice E61i and the more phone-like E65 models."
http://www.pcmag.com/article2/0,1759,2150016,00.asp

Tracking students or patients

2007-05-26T01:23:00.000+03:00

In a recent article published by the BBC the use of RFID tags together Wireless LAN tracking are proposed to be implemented e.g. for student or patient use cases. This way in a matter of emergency students could be easilly tracked or located over a specific campus or building. Nice.. no more skipping classes over coffee shops then.. Check out the solution details at:

http://www.ekahau.com/

Wonder if people would be really wearing these unless forced by a registration procedure etc. Wristband awfully reminds of the American version that is carried in the leg for bit different use case.. :-)

Science fiction soldiers

2007-05-26T01:17:00.000+03:00

In a recent Wired entry, there's interesting news about Cognitive Threat Warning System, something that is integrated to the soldiers neural system. Seems Pentagon and their contractors are keen on neuroscience and supersoldiers. High tech for sure! Read the interesting story at

http://www.wired.com/gadgets/miscellaneous/news/2007/05/binoculars

Helsinki in your pocket

2007-05-26T01:06:00.000+03:00

Link of the month! Visiting or planning to visit Helsinki any time soon?

Navigate to www.helsinki.mobi on your mobile phone browser for maps, links, local info for visitors. Nice combination of information nicely fitted to your mobile screens.

Also if you havent planned to visit - why not? Heres some pictures to plan your next visit: http://www.flickr.com/search/?q=helsinki&m=text

Sunny summertime ahead!

Smartphone Security makes news (again)

2007-05-23T05:23:00.000+03:00

More "talk" in the online media's.. Quote" We are yet to claim victory over computer malware, but here comes another threat -- mobile viruses. "

Interesting fact in the article is that in India alone, mobile security software market is expected be around 1 billion USD next year. Thats a lot of money to share between Symantec, McAfee & F-Secure (mentioned in the article).

Also "The mobile world should not repeat the mistakes of the PC world, opine experts. Malware protection services ought to be built into networks first, and device protection should be the last resort. It would be ideal if a network was able to recognise and eliminate threats, but that concept is perhaps too futuristic."

I guess depends on the defition of a threat but I dont see it futuristic at all, also I believe with many existing pieces of technology at hand, we can prevent many of these threats real-time, together with all of these industry experts. Digital signing of the binaries and install time verification together with industry approved software signing schemes we can achieve a good comfort zone. Security industry adds value in recognition of the threats and protecting mobile users today already - real-time. When mobile, you are always connected. Whether good or bad..

Virgin birth

2007-05-23T05:16:00.000+03:00

As this BBC reporting indicates, despite having nothing to do with mobility or security, is just so interesting and unbeliavable, I need to share it to everybody who hasnt yet check this newsitem out.. item itself is from 2001 but is personally the first time I have heard about this.

Apparently a captive female shark, having any kind of contact with male species of its kind, gave birth to pup, without any male DNA. Talk about evolution..

Check it out http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/science/nature/6681793.stm

Finland under Virtual Attack

2007-05-23T05:10:00.001+03:00

Finnish News Agency (STT-FNB) recently reported DoS attack against their webservice. Attack slowed down the service but didnt bring it to its knees.

Similar type of attack was recently reported by the national broadcaster YLE, except much more in a massive scale having big impacts for users accessing their services.

See www.hs.fi English edition archive e.g. for english language reporting on the subject.

Alcatel & Lucent @ Interop

2007-05-23T05:05:00.000+03:00

At interop 2007 in Las Vegas Alcatel-Lucent introduces interesting security offering..

The core technology of the solution consists of a secure, always-oncomputing system residing on a 3G broadband PCMCIA data card which includesa separate secure operating system and battery, which operates with anybroadband network, including 3G, Ethernet or WiFi. When a laptop isconnected to a network, the card seamlessly transitions connectivity to thecorporate network through automatic VPN capabilities, ensuring that alltraffic, regardless of data connection type, passes directly through thecorporate network's protections, filters and policy managers beforeaccessing the Internet.

Additional features include: - remote troubleshooting, management, protection, plus "remote kill" ofdata; - proactive zero-hour patches for fast response to security loopholes - off-hour patch downloads and backups; - GPS-based device location tracking; - and automatically forced VPN back to the enterprise networkregardless of connection type - ensuring that the laptop is never exposedunprotected to the public Internet.

BYB Balance Concept

2007-05-22T23:10:00.000+03:00

Cool concept device called BYB Balance. Read more from the Hungarian Mobilarena forum (link below).

It has a slider function and it even sits upright (good for mobile TV or videos). Must say a very nice looking thing and would like to see one in real life to test out the hinges.. good picks on the colors too.

http://mobilarena.hu/hirek/2007-05-18/itt_byb_balance.html

Find the fonts too small?

2007-05-18T01:51:00.000+03:00

Do you find the new devices nice and small to fit your pocket but screen size and text too tiny? Need to increase the font size in your E50? Not to worry..

Psiloc offers Font Magnifier for 9.95 eur or 13.46 usd.. check it out

Pretty nice piece of software for pretty good price.

X-Series

2007-05-18T01:38:00.000+03:00

New blog dedicated for Nokia Eseries and Nokia NSeries..

http://www.x-series.org/

Check it out!

Also some new forums worth looking into

http://jake61.wordpress.com/

and

http://s60tv.com/

Talk about storage

2007-05-18T01:29:00.000+03:00

Samsung has announced 8 GB micro SD cards with 16mb a second for reading and 6mb a second for writing data. Products should hit the stores summer of 2008. Load one of those to your Nokia Eseries device and never worry about your device running out of memory. Actually now that many TV series are moving to the web, only thing we need to turn the mobile phone into wireless "DVR" is someone offering On Demand TV with scheduled recordings. Nokia E90 Communicator with a 800 x 352 pixel screen and 16 million colors will be a great mobile tv and web experience. Let the show begin..

See more in PCworld
http://blogs.pcworld.com/staffblog/archives/004418.html

Apple patent for mobile security

2007-05-18T01:20:00.000+03:00

Apple has been awarded a patent for mobile anti-theft safeguard reports myiphone.com

It seems to be an intelligent algorithm that collects data over time and uses built in sensors of the terminal and after time can report abnormalities and cause alarm if device is e.g. stolen. Perhaps this will be seen as built in protection to your music gallery of the iPhone.

It also seems Apple is highly active on the IPR field, see also
http://www.cnet.com.au/mobilephones/phones/0,239025953,339276503,00.htm
http://www.intomobile.com/2007/05/17/apple-iphone-anti-theft-feature-revealed-in-apple-patent.html
older
http://news.zdnet.co.uk/hardware/0,1000000091,39267247,00.htm

Kerio for Symbian

2007-05-18T01:17:00.000+03:00

Kerio launched their mobile groupware offering to Symbian devices. Interesting announcement and looking forward seeing further security products from them..

Fresh from the press with some highlights:
http://www.kerio.com/kerio-pr-us-2007-5105.html

"The Symbian operating system powers some of the most advanced phones on the market, including top of the line multimedia devices from Nokia and Samsung and touch screen enabled Sony Ericsson smartphones. Kerio MailServer uses RoadSync™, a groupware synchronisation client developed by DataViz Inc, to push groupware data including email, contacts and calendars to Symbian phones. To protect sensitive company data from loss, theft or misuse, Kerio MailServer administrators have the ability to remotely wipe data from Symbian devices in case they are lost or stolen.“There is no clear winner in the smartphone market at this point,” says Michael Osterman of Osterman Research, a leading analyst firm in the messaging and collaboration space. “By supporting a wide variety of devices, Kerio MailServer gives businesses a flexible alternative to enterprise mobile groupware offerings. "

Hackers meet at Microsoft campus

2007-05-12T12:13:00.000+03:00

Bluehat meeting have taken place at Microsoft to meet and discuss hackers and vulnerabilities appreciated by Microsoft against their platforms.. including windowsmobile and portable aspects of Microsoft technology..

http://blogs.zdnet.com/security/?p=193

2006 sessions available at

http://www.microsoft.com/technet/security/bluehat/sessions/default.mspx

Google and search more..

Your own mini Apache

2007-05-09T00:52:00.000+03:00

Need ideas for what to get for the summer? Toys to play with? Transport secret documents within the household? How about this one, recently review at wired.com.

Mini version of the Apache AH 64 (no weapons included..)

http://blog.wired.com/gadgets/2007/04/review_ah64_fer.html

RSA SecurID for your mobile

2007-05-09T00:39:00.000+03:00

RSA SecurID expands to mobile platforms and gadgets, including Nokia!

No more hardtokens in your pockets and wallets, ladies & gentlemen.. See details:

http://www.rsa.com/press_release.aspx?id=8212

Fresh from the press:
http://www.cellular-news.com/story/23493.php
http://www.eweek.com/article2/0,1895,2123898,00.asp
http://www.physorg.com/news97245699.html

Management on the move

2007-05-09T00:35:00.000+03:00

There's a great article in networkcomputing.com wireless section about managing mobile devices called Analysis: Mobile Device Management.

Review discusses nine vendors and more detailed about four Avocent, Intellisync, Novell and Sybase with handson test data.

You can read more at:
http://www.networkcomputing.com/channels/wireless/showArticle.jhtml?articleID=199201090

E90 Communicator

2007-03-24T01:14:00.000+02:00

Heres reviews about the Nokia Eseries flagship product - the E90 Communicator, hopefully in your pocket shortly..

IMPRESSIVE FEATURES: Browse the Internet and transfer media-rich files via HSDPA (up to 3.6 Mbit/s enabled) and 3G high-speed mobile broadband
Increase mobile productivity with applications for browsing and editing documents
Talk on every continent with quad-band GSM and automatic switching between bands
Access voice and data functions quickly and easily with convenient shortcut keys
Locate meeting venues, restaurants, and places of interest with the integrated GPS
Send images captured with the integrated 3.2 megapixel camera with flash and autofocus
GSM quad-band (850/900/1800/1900)
WCDMA 2100
Volume: 140 cc
Weight: 210 g
Dimensions: 132 x 57 x 20 mm
Inner: Active matrix color display (800 x 352 pixels), 16 million true colors
Outer: Active matrix color display (240 x 320 pixels), 16 million true colors
S60 Platform 3.1 Edition
Symbian OS Version 9.2
Java™ MIDP 2.0
3.2 megapixel camera with flash and autofocus
QCIF camera for video calling
Supports POP3, IMAP4, and SMTP
Support for push email with filtering, including Nokia Intellisync Wireless Email
View, open, and edit email attachments with Quickoffice (documents, spreadsheets, and presentations), Zip Manager, and Adobe Acrobat Reader
Remote contact look-up
Instant messaging
Text-to-speech message reader
MMS and SMS
Video calling
FM radio
Music player (MP3, AAC)
Media player
Up to 128 MB free memory for user data and applications
Extendible up to 2GB with microSD memory card
Quickoffice tools with editors
Maps application for location-based services
Nokia Office Tools 1.1 (including Active notes)
VoIP 2.1
Use the Download! client to personalize your device with add-on applications
Support for Nokia Intellisync Mobile Suite
WorldMate service, Nokia Wireless Presenter application, and Global Race – Raging Thunder game available for download via Download! client
Integrated WLAN
WLAN: 802.11b, 802.11g*
WLAN Security: WPA2-Enterprise, WPA2-Personal, WPA-Enterprise, WPA-Personal
WLAN Quality of Service: WMM, U-APSD
Mini USB, USB 2.0 full-speed
Bluetooth wireless technology 2.0
2.5mm Nokia A/V connector with ECI
Infrared (up to 115 kbps)
Web browser (x)HTML
JavaScript 1.3 and 1.5 supported
Flash Lite 2.0 supported
WLAN 802.11b, WLAN 802.11g*
HSDPA up to 3.6Mbit/s enabled
WCDMA 2100 MHz with simultaneous voice and packet data
GPRS/EGPRS (Class A, MSC 32)
3GPP rel 5
Dual transfer mode MSC11, SAIC rel v1
Voice dialing
Voice commands for menu short cuts, keypad lock, and profiles
Voice recording for making notes or recording conversations
Internet Call release 2.1 for making VoIP (voice over IP) calls
Text-to-speech message reader
Enhanced voice commands with speaker-independent name dialing (SIND), and voice aid for eyes-free control of core functions
Integrated handsfree speaker
Push to talk (PoC)
Nokia Team Suite
Calendar attachment support
Meeting requests to calendar
Calendar plug-in for 3rd party email solutions
Contacts with images
Nokia Active Notes application
Integrated GPS
Support for Nokia Intellisync file sync and device management
Stereo FM radio
Nokia E90 Communicator
Nokia Battery BP-4L (1500 mAh)
Wired stereo headset (HS-47)
Travel Charger (AC-4)
Connectivity cable (DKE-2)
Memory card (microSD 512MB) - content may vary at country level
Quick Start guide
User manual
DVD ROM including the Nokia PC suite application
Battery

Linx to reviews;
http://www.allaboutsymbian.com/features/item/Nokia_E90_Communicator_Preview.php
http://my-symbian.com/s60v3/review_e90.php
http://www.e-series.org/archives/category/nokia-e90/

Nokia Eseries world clock 2007

2007-03-24T01:11:00.000+02:00

All you Nokia Eseries úsers..

The date of the "Daylight saving time" will be changing in certain countries during 2007. This application updates database in the device containing the daylight saving time dates. This will help e.g. in avoiding a conflict in calendar synchronisation if the device and PC are having a different time. Please restart your device after installation for the changes to take effect.

Nokia E61: Download the patch here.
Nokia E60: Download the patch here.
Nokia E70: Download the patch here.
Nokia E50: Download the patch here.

Enjoy!

7 in the press

2007-03-24T00:56:00.000+02:00

Reported from the press: SEVEN’s Enterprise Mobile Email Reaches More Than 100 Operators Worldwide (currently works with ~200 different device models from Hitachi, HTC, HP, Motorola, Nokia, Palm, Sanyo, Samsung, Sony Ericsson and Toshiba according to SEVEN)

Quite impressive figures! Some features included..

Behind-the-Firewall Server: Lightweight server typically installs in less than two hours and integrates into existing infrastructure

End-to-End Encryption: Best-of-breed security technologies including AES designed to meet rigid enterprise security standards; data remains securely stored behind the corporate firewall and is not stored and forwarded

Easy to Administer and Deploy: Management Console Snap-in provides familiar and adaptable management interfaces

Real-time Data Obliteration: Instantly disables devices or erases data from misplaced devices reducing security risks

Intuitive Mobile Device Clients: Easy to use, end-user UI available on the widest variety of mobile devices

Worth checking out on your Eseries I believe.. should be available independant on location.. ;-)

Trend Micro for Nokia Eseries available

2007-03-15T22:07:00.000+02:00

Trend Micro has launched very feature rich security solution Nokia Eseries devices running Symbian OS with Series 60 3rd Edition. It protects devices from internet threats, malicous code and has built-in firewall and spam filtering. Especially now in the time of internet/mobile advertising, suspicous SMS senders can be nicely blacklisted from inboxes. Price quoted from the press is 34.95 USD per device. Trend Micro for Nokia Eseries will be available April 2007 onwards.

Fresh from the press:

http://www2.csoonline.com/blog_view.html?CID=32531

http://pda.mobileeurope.co.uk/news_wire/news_wire_story.ehtml?o=3010

Nokia future visions

2007-03-14T13:00:00.000+02:00

A view to the future. Nokia has released a number of short videos to Youtube that explore how mobile phone design may change in the next three or four years. There is a video for each of the four categories, or put more simply different lifestyle, that Nokia focuses on.

Achieve: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9qIZBo8a_pA

Connect: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JJ4afZpQAvI

Live: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=beiMw1GkAQ8

Explore: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=f5iBBEp0Efg

See and give comments.

Microsoft counterfeit strategy

2007-03-14T12:39:00.000+02:00

According to interview by Information Week Microsoft has changed their policies and strategy to fight product counterfeits. They target new customers from illegally copied versions of Windows. Quote from the article:"Microsoft business group president Jeff Raikes estimates that between 20% and 25% of all software used in the United States is pirated, but said some pirates end up becoming paying customers". "If you're going to be a software counterfeiter, then please copy and illegally use Microsoft " he says.

Very smart approach, product activation and some additional services will become available to all but how they plan pricing, product support with hacked versions .. pheew. quite a challenge.

Swedish intelligence in the press

2007-03-08T23:19:00.000+02:00

Interesting news from our neighbours and friends next door that might effect your behaviour how you communicate in the future. Swedish government presented their plans to eavesdrop all communication without courtorders for intelligence purposes - idea that is bit contraversial also in Finland, as large portion of foreign communication outbound goes through Swedish soil. Check out the team who might be listening to you in the future:

http://www.mil.se/

http://www.hkv.mil.se/article.php?id=35

http://www.sakerhetspolisen.se/

Time to start encrypting all your messages..? One cheap way of course is to cipher your messages with a friend overseas with very strong central finnish accent that no one else understand, neither the recipient... ;-)

Ps. Good reading at: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Privacy

Elections!

2007-03-06T23:46:00.000+02:00

Soon its voting time again in Finland! Nice to have these online tools, database, analysis, webclients to see my opinion vs others vs candidate vs party vs gender vs region vs everything but to really help me to find suitable candidate they've not been of help yet.. oops! Too much options, too generic questions with too generic answers? .. well I have some time left to find out my future representative to the parliament! Elections: http://www.vaalit.fi/14173.htm

YLE
http://www.yle.fi/vaalit/2007/

Helsingin Sanomat
http://www.vaalikone.fi/eduskunta2007/index.htm

HBL
http://195.255.83.68/~val/val.html

MTV3
http://www.mtv3.fi/vaalikone/

For Young People
http://www.nuortenvaalikone.fi/

One more
http://www.07vaalikone.fi/

Interesting agenda at FOSE 2007

2007-03-06T23:20:00.000+02:00

Glanced through some news related to FOSE 2007 at Washington DC during March 20-22.
There seems interesting stuff on display, some highlights that grabbed my attention. Web: www.fose.com

Armoured Technology Ltd with their self-destruct secure USB stick and rugged PDA called RP300i
http://www.armouredtechnology.co.uk/products/products.php?prod=9

Decryption tools etc
http://www.accessdata.com/

Crushing hard-disks in 10 secs
http://www.edrsolutions.com/

Smaller size Powerpoints & Excel files
http://www.nxpowerlite.com/index.php?ld=n

Laundry proof hygienic keyboards
http://www.unotron.com/UK/index.htm

Wowpen digital input device and more..
http://www.wow-pen.com/

Secure Audi A8

2007-03-06T23:06:00.000+02:00

Audi A8 is a cool car but comes also with some features that perhaps not so mainstream even for average Audi customer. Apparently with bit over 500K (euros) you can get "bullet-proofing" / hardening to your Audi, interestingly enough also with pyrotechnics that blast doors open if some fun reason they dont open normally. With built-in fridge you can relax and have a glass of champagne will you are targeted with handgrenades. Read the interesting article from autoblog.com. Safe driving.. ;-)

Security awareness

2007-03-02T21:29:00.000+02:00

March is here.. spring is coming! Neat..

Australian government have an interesting program running for lost and stolen mobile devices:
http://www.mindyourmobile.com/

Also there seems to be quite a bit awareness programs available worldwide.. are they helping?
http://www.bbc.co.uk/crime/prevention/mobiles.shtml (interesting statistics here)
http://www.met.police.uk/crimeprevention/phone.htm
https://www.immobilise.com/
http://www.c4rlh.com/stolen-mobile-phones.html
http://www.filesaveas.com/mobilefaq.html

There's an interesting - not directly linked to above but well written article in ZDnet.co.uk.. One managing director says in the article:

"But it's considered acceptable to let staff wander round airports with no security on their laptops, potentially broadcasting their log-in details all over the place, and then to have that individual feel no responsibility. What it's about is having the board understand the risks and understand that it has responsibility for them, not the IT department."

He said it. All you business owners and stakeholders, wake up and smell the coffee (like the Cranberries say).

Link to the story:
http://resources.zdnet.co.uk/articles/features/0,1000002000,39286144,00.htm

Also I found something interesting to read from some time back called Stolen Sidekick, read the story, quite amazing:

http://www.evanwashere.com/StolenSidekick/

Enjoy, let me know if you have good links worth checking.

Windowsmobile 6

2007-02-27T22:27:00.000+02:00

New Windowsmobile release called Windowsmobile 6 is out. Without hands on play with some device running the OS, it's always rude to judge the book by its covers but I belive the first lines from e.g. PCMag review says it all:

http://www.pcmag.com/article2/0,1895,2092474,00.asp

CNET offers suprisingly good review (7.0) of the operating system:

http://reviews.cnet.com/Windows_Mobile_6/4505-3672_7-32328708.html

Naturally from security perspective there isn't anything innovative there. Nice thing though that Microsoft allows to finally edit Word and Excel files from mobile device that wasn't previosly possible. Powerpoint editing seems not to be available (ref. review)? Bad thing is that to use some of the fancier features you always need the latest Microsoft servers to support them. And they quite seldom are cheap.. but I must say Outlook is for sure one of the nicest email clients out there.

Just to note here: for some fun reason (market size?): Windows Live Search that is quite much hyped in Windowsmobile 6 release is supported as well for Symbian and Nokia E61 for example:

http://www.e-series.org/archives/289

Perhaps more stuff from Windows Live coming to other platforms in time to come..? That would be very nice..

Next Generation of Nokia Eseries

2007-02-12T14:53:00.000+02:00

2nd wave of mobile devices optimized for business users ie the Nokia Eseries were launched today at Barcelona.

New products in Eseries family are the slim and sleek E61i, new slider concept E65 and all-in-one mobility powerhouse E90 Communicator.

Nokia Eseries product specs and availability and pricing from Nokia press pages and www.nokiaforbusiness.com

National Information Security Day

2007-01-20T13:45:00.000+02:00

Finland dedicates a day for data security for every year. There is going to be a interesting week to start the February.

8th February 2007 Finland has National Information Security Day with many government sponsored events this year dedicated specifically to school children, their teachers and parents. Days theme is to have visible agenda for "safe use of internet" at schools to increase awareness of information security.

http://www.tietosuoja.fi/30221.htm

Information Security Guide:

http://www.tietoturvaopas.fi/

Information Security School:

http://www.tietoturvakoulu.fi/etusivu.htm

Cool Fridge

2007-01-13T09:53:00.000+02:00

New concept - The Three House Fridge

This looks much more sophisticated than the Electrolux LCD screen kitchen appliance despite it seems not so techy appliance.

It takes a lot of space so maybe it's bit more North American than Japanese but then again the space is facing upwards and if you have high ceilings this will fit nicely.

Nice to see innovation in the very ordinary daily items. Nowadays they all seem so much the same.. fridge, washing machine etc.etc.

Details: http://www.yankodesign.com/product_info.php?products_id=1476

Comments: http://blog.wired.com/gadgets/2007/01/the_fridge_of_t.html

I especially like the first comment on Wired: "Considering how many Americans that I know personally that don't even eat whole fruits, I don't think this is going to get past a niche market, at best."

Windows Live Messenger

2007-01-13T09:07:00.000+02:00

Windows Live Messenger to your ESeries device!

E-Series.org posts nice instructions from a Chinese Microsoft site.

http://www.e-series.org/archives/169

S60 Blogs

2007-01-13T09:00:00.000+02:00

S60 Blogs are growing. Further intelligence available online for these world class terminals, check out e.g.

http://blogs.s60.com/mobilesecurity

Other useful readings every now and then:

"E61 blog" (looks dead now but good as archive if your newbie)
http://stmcgill.wordpress.com/

"News, Reviews, Whats going on"
http://mobsec.com/

"Mobile Weblog"
http://www.mobile-weblog.com/

Apple iPhone

2007-01-10T00:41:00.000+02:00

Apple has launched their much waited music phone. Must say, it looks quite nice. Maybe some European operator will launch this as well.. to be seen.

I only wonder how my thumbs fit to type SMSs with the touch interface though. Must try it out when I see one of these. Specs promise five hours of talking time that is not too much I think.

Official page: http://www.apple.com/iphone/
Pics: http://www.macrumors.com/pages/2007/01/20070109151517.shtml

Security in Windows Vista: Setting a new standard

2007-01-10T00:34:00.000+02:00

Microsoft has set up a nice website for Vista. We learn how the OS comes equipped with mini antivirus called: Malicious Software Removal Tool (MSRT) and generally improved security.

Beside these built in features they propose to continue to get support from antivirus vendors like themselves.

Somehow I read all is about software install. Read details and drop me an email what you think;

http://www.microsoft.com/security/windowsvista/default.mspx

Mobile viruses

2007-01-03T21:38:00.000+02:00

Threats to mobile devices and in particular mobile phone viruses are over-hyped? Or are they?

McAfee and their wireless security expert states mobile phone viruses are not of any big issue right now. F-Secure claims we're going to see huge growth in threats to mobile devices.

Different opinions.. completely - as I see the answers here to two completely different questions. Well the beauty is in the eye of the beholder and I don't want to get into semantics but I think mobile phone viruses are not going to be at all comparable to PC like viruses (or the one that are, will not be real threats) or have traditional patterns like "windows" threats at all. Mobile threats then again are not necessarily viruses to damage your mobile computer. Threat to me is also when devices get stolen or lost too easilly and your business or private data with it. For those moments, you wish you had good security and backups in place. Then again there are many widely spread proof of concept viruses that unaware and uneducated users tend to install all to easilly when lucrative offers like free calls or MMS messages are prompted. But are they viruses? Spam? Phishing?

At the moment as laptops and mobile terminals are converging to equal capabilities, this whole issue is of course - the million dollar question for these companies. Is anyone ever capable to build anything fully secure? Is it of interest of companies like Microsoft to build insecure operating systems that provide the bread and butter to security industry. Or even themselves to offer security solutions?

Link to article in Silicon.com:
http://software.silicon.com/malware/0,3800003100,39151903,00.htm

Let's follow where the world is heading.. and business with it..

By the way: Happy New Year 2007 to everybody!

Mohameds of the new millenium

2007-01-03T20:48:00.000+02:00

Interestingly enough, according to the Finnish news broadcaster YLE and Statistics Finland, Mohammed is more common boys name nowadays than Seppo or Jari or Ilkka or Jukka or Hannu etc.etc. Also in United Kingdom last year Mohammed (22nd according ranks in popularity) is more common than George. In Sweden Mohammed is 73rd most popular and more popular than e.g. Kalle. There are of course variations of the name; Mohamed, Mohammed, Mohammad, Muhammad and so on. So in the year 3017 we're all Muhammeds and look like Chinese..?

Merry Christmas

2006-12-24T01:18:00.000+02:00

Have a very merry Christmas and very creative, productive and fun new year 2007!

Some greetings worth checking out this Xmas;

http://www.yieldsz.com/

http://www.santa.gl/uk/Adventcalendar/

Ps. despite the www-address of the previous we all know what is the Google #1 hit for Santa Claus (if not, it's of course: http://www.santaclaus.fi ). He by the way returns a record number of answers to all who sent their letters this year. Not to mention all the emails etc.. there are many commercial copycats, so kids be ware! True Santa doesn't charge anything. His address by the way is;

Santa Claus/Joulupukki
96930 Rovaniemi, Napapiiri

Hyvää Joulua! God jul! Merry Christmas! And some other ways to express it in different languages:

Afrikander - "Een Plesierige Kerfees"
Arabic - "I'd Miilad Said Oua Sana Saida"
Argentine - "Felices Pasquas Y felices ano Nuevo"
Armenian - "Shenoraavor Nor Dari yev Pari Gaghand"
Basque - Eguberri on
Bohemian - "Vesele Vanoce"
Breton - "Nedeleg laouen na bloavezh mat"
Bulgarian - "Tchestita Koleda; Tchestito Rojdestvo Hristovo"
Chinese - [Mandarin] - "Kung His Hsin Nien bing Chu Shen Tan"
Chinese - [Catonese] - "Saint Dan Fai Lok"
Cornish - "Nadelik looan na looan blethen noweth"
Croatian - "Sretan Bozic i Nova Godina" (Merry Christmas & Happy New Year)
Czech - "Prejeme Vam Vesele Vanoce a stastny Novy Rok"
Danish - "Glædelig Jul"
Dutch - "Vrolijk Kerstfeest en een Gelukkig Nieuwjaar"
Inupiaq Eskimo (Kotzebue area in NW Alaska)- Quvianagli Anaiyyuniqpaliqsi suli Nakuuluni Ukiutqiutiqsi-(Merry Christmas) (and) (Happy New Year)
English - "Merry Christmas"
Estonian - "Haid joule ja head uut aastat"
Farsi - "Cristmas-e-shoma mobarak bashad"
Filipino-"Maligayang Pasko"
Happy New Year in Filipino
"Manigong Bagong Taon"
Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year in Filipino- "Maligayang Pasko at Manigong Bagong Taon"
Finnish - "Hyvaa joulua"
French - "Joyeux Noël"
German - "Froehliche Weihnachten"
Greek - "Kala Christouyenna"
Hawaiian - "Mele Kalikimaka"
Hebrew - "Mo'adim Lesimkha. Chena tova"
Hindi - "Shub Naya Baras"
Hungarian - "Kellemes Karacsonyi unnepeket"
Icelandic - "Gledileg Jol"
Indonesian - "Selamat Hari Natal"
Iraqi - "Idah Saidan Wa Sanah Jadidah"
Irish - "Nollaig Shona Dhuit"
Italian - "Buone Feste Natalizie"
Japanese -" Shinnen omedeto, kurisumasu omedeto. The first part is translated "Happy New Year. Kurisumasu omedeto means Merry Christmas.Japanese people generally add the expression gozaimasu to indicate soemm humility.
Korean - "Sung Tan Chuk Ha"
Latvian - "Prieci'gus Ziemsve'tkus un Laimi'gu Jauno Gadu"
Lithuanian - "Linksmu Kaledu"
Navajo - "Merry Keshmish"
Norwegian - "God Jul"
Pennsylvania German - "En frehlicher Grischtdaag un en hallich Nei Yaahr"
Polish - "Wesolych Swiat Bozego Narodzenia"
Portuguese - "Feliz Natal" "Boas Festas"(Good Holidays.)
Rumanian - "Sarbatori Fericite"
Russian - "Pozdrevlyayu s prazdnikom Rozhdestva s Novim Godom"
Serbian - "Hristos se rodi"
Slovakian - "Sretan Bozic or Vesele vianoce"
Samoan - "La Maunia Le Kilisimasi Ma Le Tausaga Fou"
Scots Gaelic - "Nollaig chridheil huibh"
Serb-Croatian - "Sretam Bozic. Vesela Nova Godina"
Slovak - "Vesele Vianoce. A stastlivy Novy Rok"
Slovene - "Vesele Bozicne. Screcno Novo Leto"
Spanish - "Feliz Navidad"
Swedish - "God Jul and (Och) Ett Gott Nytt År"
Tahitian -Merry Chrismas :" Ia orana te Noera"
and Happy new year is "Ia orana i te mata iti api"
Thai - "Sawadee Pee Mai"
Turkish - "Noeliniz Ve Yeni Yiliniz Kutlu Olsun"
Ukrainian - "Z Rizdvom Khrystovym !" - "Merry Christmas"
" Z Novym Rokom !" - "Happy New Year"
"Z Rizdvom Khrystovym i Novym Rokom !" - both greetings together.
Vietnamese - "Chuc Mung Giang Sinh"
Welsh - "Nadolig Llawen"
Yugoslavian - "Cestitamo Bozic"

International Ideas Competition

2006-12-17T13:27:00.000+02:00

Greater Helsinki Vision 2050 competition has been launched by the city councils
of the metropolitan area and SAFA (finnish association of architects).

Aim for the competition is to have superior ideas for the growing Finnish
capital and metropolitan area that is estimated to have population
of around 2 million by 2050 and one of the most competitive cities in Europe
to do business and live in. I like particularly that they highlight
sustainable and concrete solutions in this competition. Nice to see in spring
what kind of ideas of future living is at the table.

Competition data and other useful information at:

http://www.greaterhelsinkivision.fi/

All together prices offered to winning ideas are 500K € and probably
participant access to implement the ideas. Neat!

Tiernapojat

2006-12-09T01:41:00.000+02:00

No snow yet here but Christmas is still coming and here in Helsinki the Xmas radio/Julradio/Jouluradio have started their program until the end of this year, which is always nice;

www.jouluradio.fi (works online too!)

Try it out and get the Christmas spirit the Finnish way!

Another way to get to the mood is to start the centuries old Northern Finnish tradition of "tiernapojat" (ie Star-boys) also in your country/region. It's commonly in Finland a door-to-door show (like americans do Halloween or something) except with Christmas spirit and not so commercial. It's also performed in schools etc. You need the cast of Herod (1st tenor) King of the Moors (2nd bass) Knihti, Herod's servant (possibly from knight; 1st bass) Mänkki, Star twirler (2nd tenor). Normally this is performed by young boys but of course with real singers it can be quite a perfomance. Details available in English:

http://kaiku.com/tiernapojat.html

Third option is to have Finnish Pikkujoulu Party ie "little xmas" that is more known as Advent but more casual party of friends with traditional xmas drinks and food with not too strict religious means. Most companies throw these parties and of course friends and families as well. Or maybe combine all these three to really throw yourself to the Xmas season and waiting for the Santa Claus..

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Advent

http://fi.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pikkujoulu

Ps. New mobile phone is always a very nice Christmas present!

Predicting the (insecure) future á la McAfee

2006-12-09T00:50:00.000+02:00

American security firm McAfee annouced their views to top threats for 2007. We can find something interesting in the number four item.

They highlight the connectivity aspects of the mobile devices and financially targeted malware/software and specifically spyware to increase during the coming year.

Top 10:
1. The number of password-stealing Web sites will increase using fake sign-in pages for popular online services such as eBay
2. The volume of spam, particularly bandwidth-eating image spam, will continue to increase
3. The popularity of video sharing on the Web makes it inevitable that hackers will target MPEG files as a means to distribute malicious code
4. Mobile phone attacks will become more prevalent as mobile devices become "smarter" and more connected
5. Adware will go mainstream following the increase in commercial Potentially Unwanted Programs (PUPs)
6. Identity theft and data loss will continue to be a public issue - at the root of these crimes is often computer theft, loss of back-ups and compromised information systems
7. The use of bots, computer programs that perform automated tasks, will increase as a tool favored by hackers
8. Parasitic malware, or viruses that modify existing files on a disk, will make a comeback
9. The number of rootkits on 32-bit platforms will increase, but protection and remediation capabilities will increase as well
10. Vulnerabilities will continue to cause concern fueled by the underground market for vulnerabilities

See the interesting predictions yourself!

Link

Mobile Security Markets

2006-11-29T12:21:00.000+02:00

There quite a buzz with mobile security as devices like Eseries business tools from Nokia profilirate the enterprises across the world. Laptops have lead the way for enterprise mobility and remote working to be now followed by extremely feature rich carry-on mobile devices that can do the same or even more(!).

Different manufacturers, operating systems, different versions, different applications all make situation more complex for the IT manager. Especially since these carry on items are always with the users, always connected and have a complex mix of personal and business specific contents inside. This sounds very good for the security and management tool industry, aye?

According to a recent report from Visiongain, Mobile Device Management will grow to be $1.3 billion market by 2009 and grow dramatically after that. Device Management is key to enforce e.g. security to the users who would not otherwise invest or acquire mechanisms to protect themselves or the data they carry with them in their briefcases or suitpockets. Operators, enterprises all have high interest also to control how the users use their devices. Actions that are not necessarily always driven by security reasons..

Another report from Juniper indicates antivirus, VPN, encryption, authentication and identify applications to become a $5 billion business by 2011. Use of biometrics is estimated to be $286 million market by 2011.

Sounds all quite similar to PC industry but as least it seems things are happening much, much faster than in the PC industry considering how long road it has been e.g. to Microsoft Windows and security clients on PCs.

Checkpoint to buy PointSec

2006-11-29T12:15:00.000+02:00

Checkpoint offers cash tender to buy Swedish PointSec for $589 million.

Combination of secure connectivity and encryption. Neat!

Let's see what this brings:

http://www.checkpoint.com/pointsec/

http://www.pointsec.com

Helsinki Sightseeing

2006-11-27T16:48:00.000+02:00

Couple of cool videos of touriststuff in Helsinki

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=C24HqH5zdso

And not so cool one

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3236m1QAXhM

And a formula car in front of National Art Gallery!?!

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7KHzqylK4Yg

Music in the first one is quite a find!

Windows Chief Suggests Vista Won't Need Antivirus

2006-11-10T18:48:00.000+02:00

Nice statements but surely confusing to customers:

"During a telephone conference with reporters yesterday, outgoing Microsoft co-president Jim Allchin, while touting the new security features of Windows Vista, which was released to manufacturing yesterday, told a reporter that the system's new lockdown features are so capable and thorough that he was comfortable with his own seven-year-old son using Vista without antivirus software installed."

.. and then they also offer 49.95 per year to protect customers with OneCare Live service not to mention the security companies offering. See e.g.

http://www.pcmag.com/article2/0,1895,1921652,00.asp

I have just bought a new security client for my PC for over 100 euros. To be seen if I need to keep investing or save my hundred for a nice evening out..

Salomaa, Finland

2006-11-10T18:41:00.000+02:00

Wow! You learn something new everyday..

There's a location named after.. Salomaa!

Salomaa, Finland
World:Finland:Lansi-Suomen Laani
Latitude 60.3667 Longitude 21.8667 Altitude (feet) 42
Lat (DMS) 60° 22' 0N Long (DMS) 21° 52' 0E Altitude (meters) 12
Time zone (est) UTC+2(+3DT)
Approximate population for 7 km radius from this point: 475
Nearby Cities and Towns
Salonkyla (0.6 nm), Kaastla (1.2 nm), Ahteentaka (0.8 nm) Maisaari (2.2 nm)
Nearby airports:
EFTU TKU TURKU 14 nm E 52
EFEU EURA 46 nm N 12
EFPI PIIKAJARVI 53 nm N 10

Maybe I have to pay a visit to this place some time soon..

NORS - Nokia Remote Sensing

2006-11-10T15:48:00.000+02:00

Nokia Remote Sensing is an interesting Nokia Open Source Project.

http://opensource.nokia.com/

About
NORS (NOkia Remote Sensing) is a platform for mobile-centric wireless sensing, according to the Remote Sensing Architecture (N-RSA), as defined in the specifications below.

N-RSA is an event-based architecture that allows for collecting and aggregating sensor data obtains locally at mobile device gateways. The underlying event subscription model of the N-RSA enables to transfer only relevant data. With this, the existing intelligence in the mobile devices is exploited to reduce data traffic and distribute system logic. See more in the specification material below.

Packages
The NORS package consists of two parts:

The back end server application component implements the desired functionality for the vertical application. For that, it accesses the middleware (API provided by this package) component in order to implement the required remote data gathering functionality within the vertical application. The package includes an example for such vertical application component under the GPL license. Other proprietary applications can be written on top of the middleware without using the given application component.
The middleware component implements the N-RSA functionality according to the N-RSA specifications. It is licensed under LGPL and linked to the vertical application component. The package consists of a library for the back end server, which linked to the proprietary code (or the GPL licensed example server) and a Java mobile phone software, implementing the middleware on mobile devices. The Java code is implemented compliant with MIDP2.0 specifications.

Please see the appropriate license.txt files in the package for the exact license terms of the different parts
See more details at http://opensource.nokia.com/projects/nors/index.html or http://sourceforge.net/projects/nors
Additional:
Bump - remote sensing: http://www.interactivearchitecture.org/bump-remote-sensing.html

The Best Mobile Phone in The World

2006-11-10T09:02:00.000+02:00

Mobile Monday, DigiToday magazine and Futuremark in co-operation have run some tests and claim the following:
Nokia N93 Includes hardware-based 3D chip with very strong 2D & 3D scores: This is the king platform today (excluding possible Japanese models)

Quote: The Nokia N93 is the world’s best mobile phone platform. The Nokia N93 scored off the chart when Futuremark tested ten mobile phones available on the Finnish market.

Details of this test available at:
http://www.mobilemonday.net/mm/story.php?story_id=5052
http://www.digitoday.fi/page.php?page_id=12&news_id=200619884 (only in Finnish)
You can run the same JAVA benchmark (mainly this is the ability run graphics (fast/slow) downloading the Futuremark tool from

http://www.futuremark.com/download/spmarkjava06/

Nokia N93 tops the graphics comparison
Phone model     2D, frames/s    3D, fps         Polygon*        Encode, kPixels/s       Decode, kPixels/s       Price, €**
Nokia N93       33.8    38.6    36      43      405     650
SonyEricsson P990i      11.5    16.8    57      23      135     650
SonyEricsson M600i      12      16.4    57      24      125     460
Nokia N73       22.3    8.7     38      24      193     460
SonyEricsson K800i      42.7    6.7     22      28      343     450
Nokia E70       11.7    8.4     34      25      193     440
Nokia N70       0.9     11.1    38      23      135     320
Nokia 6630      1.0     12.8    40      11      46      260
Nokia 6680      0.9     11.7    40      11      52      270
Samsung SGH Z500        5.1     7.8     23      14      273     320
Source: Futuremark, MobileMonday
* throughput kVertices/s
** prices in Finnish web shops, VAT included, SIM free

Whats uo with Maemo

2006-11-10T07:39:00.000+02:00

Maemo Mistral v2.0 is coming, see Roadmap:
http://www.maemo.org/platform/docs/roadmap.html

Building consumer products with Open Source, LinuxWorld 2006:
http://www.kotiposti.net/jaaksi/ME9_LinuxWorld_2006_AriJaaksi_.pdf

Mr. Jaaksi's Blog:
http://jaaksi.blogspot.com/

Screenshots:
http://www.maemo.org/screenshots.html

Tjuvlyssnat

2006-11-07T14:37:00.000+02:00

Funny site in Sweden: Tjuvlyssnat (free translation: Eavesdropping). You can post anykind of conversations you might have heard in the café or train or just on the street. Some of them are truly funny.

Ps. this site requires swedish skills. Maybe english cousins start to appear soon (or maybe already there are). There's even a mobile service to the really HC eavesdroppers:

http://www.tjuvlyssnat.se/2006/09/s_anvnder_du_mm.html

Mobile Device Security Education #1

2006-11-07T13:49:00.000+02:00

Some tips and hints for using mobile devices and not getting to trouble.

Remember that if you lose your device, you can protect it by activating the Device
Lock feature (e.g. in Eseries devices -> Settings-> Security-> Phone SIM->Autolock period
to choose a timeout in which device remains in locked state). Also you can
Activate SIM change lock from the same place and use Remote Locking with predefined
SMS in case the timeout period is longer than you realised your device is no longer with you.

<<locked.jpg>>

Mobile Information Security Manual from Finnish Government
http://www.ficora.fi/mobiiliturva/english/index.html

Series 60 devices
http://www.s60.com/business/productinfo/applicationsandtechnologies/security

Nokia Security - Protecting mobile devices and networks
http://www.nokia.com/security

PointSec for Eseries available

2006-11-07T13:39:00.000+02:00

PointSec releases data encryption solutions for Eseries devices!

Long waited addition to the security offering for the Eseries devices has been today released
From PointSec.

PointSec works with the E50, E60, E61, E62, E70 business devices and protects user data and
data on removable medias. Neat!

Fresh from press
http://www.pointsec.com/news/newsreleases/release.cfm?PressId=369
http://pda.mobileeurope.co.uk/news_wire/news_wire_story.ehtml?o=2582

Symbian UIQ Sold to S-E

2006-11-07T13:14:00.000+02:00

Sony-Ericsson buys Symbian UIQ technology

Symbian OS user interface UIQ is to be sold to S-E. Interesting move from S-E. This seems some sort of battle tacticts against Nokia's Series 60 platform (www.s60.com). There are couple of other manufacturers also using UIQ or have used in past like Motorola, BenQ, Arima. Some photos of UIQ devices from: http://my-symbian.com/uiq/intro.php

Nokia has also one UIQ device in the China/Asia Pacific markets called 6708: http://www.mobile-review.com/phonemodels/nokia/nokia-6708-en.shtml

UIQ will operate according the relaase as a separate business entity part of the S-E group and available to manufacturers to licence the platform. Hope the money Symbian receives from the acquisition will lead to investing into great new technologies and improvements in the Symbian operating system.

Fresh from press:
http://www.sonyericsson.com/spg.jsp?cc=global&lc=en&ver=4001&template=pc3_1_1&zone=pc&lm=pc3_1&prid=6561
http://www.symbian.com/news/cn/2006/cn20068590.html
http://www.uiq.com/news2006_1894.html
http://www.taloussanomat.fi/page.php?page_id=95&news_id=200619877

Let's wait and see how UIQ is transformed in Sony-Ericssons hands.

BT Global Services buy Counterpane

2006-11-06T18:49:00.000+02:00

Interesting news from the press: Counterpane (http://www.counterpane.com/)
has been purchased by BT Global services. Counterpane was founded by
security guy Bruce Schneier (http://www.schneier.com/) and despite not
publishing numbers it was probably doing a good business with the almost $80
million funding they had with venture capitalists and investors.

At least it's very interesting to notice that their main core was services
area which very important to BT. As a security guy personally I see this
development highly positive. Hope BT has their money's worth. At least key
people still continue in their positions.

Glögg Competition

2006-11-04T21:54:00.000+02:00

First snow has landed to Helsinki (Ps. There's actually a competition about this every year when it comes and now a big debate what is counted as snow. See: http://www.helsinki.fi/fi/index/matkailu/uutiset/unnamed_208.shtml) , not a lot of it, but enough that a warm drink will be one first things I have in mind when dropping in to a café or heating up something at home. I was wondering what kind of offering we have here in Alko
boutiques for Glögg especially since Xmas time is closing up... at least price wise
it seems Swedish vendors are competitive and good. Mustikka (Blåbär/Blueberry) glögg
is interesting newcomer. Not sure if I am courageus enough to taste it.. let's see.

15 different types

Product Code
Name(link)
Quantity
Price

Glögit (15)
623477
St. Christopher Glühwein
0,75
4,99
622857
Punaviiniglögi
0,75
5,60
664977
Valkoviiniglögi
0,75
5,60
373717
Mustikkaglögi
0,75
5,98
341967
Wanhan Ajan Mustaherukkaglögi
0,75
6,46
615597
Blossa Glögg Vinglögg
0,75
6,48
631558
Punainen Kruunu Glögi kartonkitölkki
1
6,48
371557
Tähtiglögi
0,75
6,49
325927
Hehkuviini
0,75
6,98
382247
Vaalea Loisto
0,75
7,77
326907
Jouluglögi
0,75
7,98
362207
Vanhanajan Punaviini Glögi
0,75
7,98
382726
Hermannin Väkevä Jouluglögi
0,5
8,94
360697
V.S.O.P. Juhla Glögi
0,75
8,99
370127
Blossa Glögg 06
0,75
9,98

Finland's Best Restaurant

2006-11-04T21:39:00.000+02:00

Chez Dominique has re-opened in new address in front of Rickhardinkatu Library 3rd November 2006. Let's check out the new premises and if quality is still the same or even improved (we all have high expectations).

http://www.chezdominique.fi/

Ps. There's only three restaurants with two (**) Michelin stars in Scandinavia; Chez Dominique in Helsinki, Edsbacka Krog in Stockholm and Bagatelle in Oslo. London has four restaurants, same for New York. In some World's 50 Best Restaurants listing CD received place number 39. Let's what the new location does for the place.

A Whole Lot More

2006-11-04T21:34:00.000+02:00

Hey, I noticed my old friend whom I haven't had contact with for a long time is keeping a journal of his whereabouts. Neat! Any other my friend who's friends with Mr. Overdose check out his blog: http://oded.blogspot.com/

Greeting to down under!

Where all the fish have gone?

2006-11-04T21:21:00.000+02:00

Study says: "At current rates of diversity loss, this analysis indicates that there will be no more viable fish or invertebrate species available to fisheries by 2050. However, the results also show that the trends in loss of species are still reversible."

Seems the human life in 2050 will be without any fish if the current lifestyle is kept.. pretty scary stuff. Ecological impact of what is happening the ocean will be devastating. I wonder if anyone has a great plan how to turn Earth back in the right track so humans could somehow utilize it's resources unlike a group of deadly animals that consume everything from others.

I wonder if national economies and financial interests really will ensure the death of this planet.
Earth was born without a man and surely will die without us. Pretty scary to realize it's potentially around the corner during my lifetime.

Interesting discussion this study has anyways generated:

http://scienceblogs.com/cortex/2006/11/no_more_fish.php

http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/science/nature/6108414.stm

http://www.washingtonmonthly.com/archives/individual/2006_11/009978.php
-->interesting comment here: This was presumably a peer-reviewed study so I don't believe it. And it's in Science so I don't believe it. I don't believe in science. I have faith that Jesus will create as many fishes as we need.

http://www.guardian.co.uk/uklatest/story/0,,-6188188,00.html

...

Analyst blasts Windows Mobile security

2006-11-04T20:31:00.000+02:00

Techworld news and Matthew Broersma writes that the latest version of Windows Mobile contain an architectural security flaw that is likely to be a turn-off for enterprises..

Windows Mobile doesn't provide any encryption options on the device, Gold said in the report, called "Microsoft's Direct Push Insecurity".

Interesting..

Website Dedicated to Eseries devices

2006-11-04T11:56:00.000+02:00

There's an excellent site dedicated for the Eseries devices

http://www.e-series.org/

Have a look!

Future of TV broadcasting

2006-11-04T11:42:00.000+02:00

It's interesting to see ABC placing their primetime shows for free to the internet.
This is really good stuff. Unfortunately they are locked to US based IP addresses.

http://dynamic.abc.go.com/streaming/landing

I wonder if the player is somehow proprietory or has some built-in DRM or can users use any browser, mobile devices, PDAs, iPods and so on. Seems at least iPod/iTunes offers services.

Seems there's more trend to do broadcasting this way. Local Channel Four (Nelonen) has their own web-TV as MTV3 channel as well.

http://www.nelonen.fi/nettitv/

Unfortunate the offering isn't yet as easy with standard TV set today. Is this business going to be locked in to different device/equipment manufacturers and different broadcast technologies, tailor made for for different audiences and regional users..?

Novalux and Laser TVs?

2006-11-04T11:35:00.000+02:00

Internet news state that plasma TV's are soon to be dead due to Laser TVs. (wow! what a name)

Electronic chip from Arasol is enabling laserprojection aparatus developed by Novalux http://www.novalux.com/ . Their prototype I think has been manufactured by Mitsubishi.

If this technology appears to Xmas 2007 it's going to be interesting to see what movements it makes to LCD and plasma screen markets.. personally I've been thinking of upgrading our family to new era of huge screens, should I wait or should I invest for plasma or LCD based High Definition TV despite there's no live HDTV feed anywhere here. Hmm.. maybe I'll wait and see.

Well syncronized movements with groovy sound

2006-11-04T11:32:00.000+02:00

Go treadmill!

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=D7H6LfsvvH4

(from Simon)

Google Mail

2006-11-04T11:23:00.000+02:00

Interesting to see Google developing a mobile client for their GMail service. Nice add on I believe. And even their marketing messages are finetuned:

It's free. (But your wireless plan might still charge, so you might want to check with your provider first.)

It's smart. It can handle attachments like photos and .pdf files.

It also has these cool features: • Automatically optimizes the interface for the phone you're using• Opens the attachments you receive in messages, including photos, Microsoft Word documents and .pdf files• Lets you reply by call to people whose phone numbers are in your Gmail Contacts list

To use Gmail for mobile, point your phone's web browser to http://gmail.com

Taxes in Finland

2006-11-04T11:16:00.000+02:00

Hmm.. it's interesting to see how yellow press of Finland squeeze our stories from the tax reports of 2005. I wonder who buys Ilta-Sanomat or Iltalehti for that value. Crappy papers I think - they are published in the morning but try to make stories rather than tell stories (or news).

I am amazed that HS has fallen to this same level of scheisse as the Yellow Press. Fortunately the paper version of HS wasn't as bad as the others. But the internet comparisons are bit too much to me. Who care's? And if some government scientists cares, why general public is so interested who much money someone makes so we need these online things?? See yourself:

http://www.hs.fi/verotiedot/list.do

..and we are paying Tax money to our public broadcaster YLE can make these nice databases?

http://www.yle.fi/verokone/

Symbian Platform Security

2006-11-04T11:13:00.000+02:00

There's good overview of Symbian Platform Security in the internet:

http://www.symbian.com/files/rx/file3202.pdf

Best ever approach to security currently there is! (I think)

Eseries applications

2006-06-30T12:12:00.000+03:00

I've noticed there starts to be quite of lot of good applications built on top of Symbian 9 operating system and Series 60 3rd Edition, especially the Eseries devices..

Here's some linx:

Google Maps
http://www.google.com/gmm/index.html

Keypad locking:
http://my-symbian.com/s60v3/download/search.php?name=AutoLock
http://my-symbian.com/s60v3/download/search.php?name=mLock

Cryptography:
http://my-symbian.com/s60v3/download/search.php?name=Best%20Crypto
(did not get this working though)

Antivirus:
http://mobile.f-secure.com/downloads/trial/index.html

Opera browser:
http://www.opera.com/products/mobile/products/#s60

Instant Messaging:
http://www.agilemobile.com/downloads.html
http://www.mobisophy.com/ultraimpro/ultraimpro.htm
http://www.shapeservices.com/en/products/try.php?product=im

Worldmate:
http://www.mobimate.com/s60_business.shtml?filename=series_60.jpg

Taskmanager:
http://www.allaboutsymbian.com/software/item/Best_TaskMan_for_S60_3rd_edition.php

.. and of course there is Nokia Business Software
http://www.businesssoftware.nokia.com/index.php

Techician sleeping at your sofa?

2006-06-28T23:12:00.000+03:00

This is truly strange, apparently 400,000 people have seen already this video but here's link Comcast cable operator technican doing some real work.. ;-)

Have a nice summer my friends!

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CvVp7b5gzqU&search=A%20comcast

** clip clip ** (in finglish sorry)

Amerikkalainen kaapelioperaattori Comcast erotti työntekijänsä, joka nukkui asiakkaan sohvalla. Tapauksesta kuvattua videota on katsellut jo lähes 400 000 ihmistä.Comcastin teknikko oli Brian Finkelsteinin kotona Washington DC:ssä, kun hän nukahti sohvalle. Teknikko vietti ensin tunnin puhelimessa oman yhtiönsä asiakaspalvelun kanssa.Finkelstein videoi teknikon nukkumisen, editoi nauhan 58 sekunnin mittaiseksi ja lisäsi siihen taustamusiikiksi Eelsien "I Need Some Sleep". Sen jälkeen hän laittoi videon YouTube.comiin.A Comcast Technician Sleeping on My Couch- videota on katsellut ensimmäisen viikon aikana jo yli 300 000 ihmistä. Videossa on myös huomautuksia Comcastin asiakaspalvelusta.Comcast sanoi irtisanoneensa videolla esiintyvän teknikon huonosta asiakaspalvelusta.

Eseries devices are out (go and buy!)

2006-06-28T23:03:00.000+03:00

Best in class business (and security) optimized mobile PDA/smartphones are for sell:

Nokia Eseries! Namely E60, E61, E70 and E50 devices.. get familiar and send your thoughts.

Have look at e.g. http://www.nokia.com/A4142101

Interview of Microsoft Security VP, Mike Nash

2006-01-27T23:03:00.000+02:00

Excellent interview of Microsoft Security VP, Mike Nash. Read comments related to Vista, IE , DRM and others.. Slashdot: http://interviews.slashdot.org/interviews/06/01/26/131246.shtml

LifeBlog

2006-01-12T01:40:00.000+02:00

If you have a supported phone.. try it out, especially if you're travelling! I would like to know how you like it.. ? Maybe one fine day this blog is moved to LifeBlog level.. =)

Some lifeblogs
http://anina.typepad.com/
http://www.touring-life.com/
http://www.blackphoebe.com/msjen/
http://www.fishblog.co.uk/

***clipclip**

Simply Automatic
Nokia Lifeblog automatically builds your diary as you take photos and videos, and send and receive messages.
To clear up space on your phone, connect to your PC and let Lifeblog save and display your items securely and efficiently.
Your Mobile Memories (in a Nutshell)
With Nokia Lifeblog it's easy to save your mobile images and other content.
Start your own, always-growing, personal archive.
Lifeblog makes it simple to locate and share pictures, videos, notes, and MMS's.
Its horizontal-scroll "timeline" navigation is intuitive and fun to use.
Lifeblog's organic timeline minimizes the periods with no saved items.
Share your memories and post images, videos, or text to a blog »
Keep Your Favorites Close
Browse your items on your PC AND on your mobile.
Save your "latest hits" and classics in your Favorites.
Your Favorites are automatically synchronized between your PC and mobile.

Nokia Lifeblog creates a diary of all your mobile phone's photos, videos, text messages, and multimedia messages. It's the living timeline that's easy to browse, search, edit, and save - on both your PC and mobile!

***clipclip***

Sudoku

2006-01-12T01:34:00.000+02:00

Seems this Japanese game is now everywhere or am I just seeing it since I, myself spotted my wife playing it first time last year.. either poor observation from me or something but there are quite many games around also that you play in your PC or mobile phone.. it's fun especially when travelling or just want to put your brain to work for some minutes..

Game provided by HS
http://www2.hs.fi/extrat/sudoku/sudoku.html

Free web sudoku
http://www.websudoku.com/

Mobile Sudoku by Isaac [my colleague made with JAVA]
http://www.intelekia.com/index.html

Helsingin Sanomat

2006-01-12T01:24:00.000+02:00

Heyyy!

Northern Europe's largest newspaper [based on print volumes, I've heard] Helsingin Sanomat (HS) ["Helsinki Times"] has updated their website at http://www.hs.fi look and feel completely. The english edition at http://www.hs.fi/english/ seems still to be a short story based edition. NYT [now] additional supplement seems to be like before at http://www.nyt.fi/ with listed reports, activities, cinema, music information only in Finnish. One nice thing I like that Radio Helsinki has their link in HS homepage http://www.radiohelsinki.fi/ . They have internet streaming, so click the link and start listening.. some of the programs are in English [in downloads also]

Google Videos vs. P2P

2006-01-12T01:15:00.000+02:00

Google Videos ( http://video.google.com/ ) or free downloading from eMule/eDonkey, DC++, torrents.. what will prevail in years to come? Google videos is much nicer service in real life than on paper. Still curious about paying around 5 bucks for some NBA clip.. why is that.. are you?

Phylotaxis

2006-01-12T01:13:00.000+02:00

Quite an interesting site. My uncle sent me this link and I've been amazed ever since. It's really cool. Note: Firefox browser strongly recommended =)

About

***clipclip***

Phylotaxis is an exploration of the space where science meets culture.
Its structure, derived from the Fibonacci Sequence and closely related to the Golden Ratio, is one of nature's most elegant. The Fibonacci Sequence is the set of numbers where each number is the sum of the previous two numbers. This simple sequence governs phenomena as diverse as the petal arrangement of roses, the breeding patterns of rabbits, and the shape of our galaxy. It is also evident in the design of the Great Pyramids, the composition of the Mona Lisa, and the construction of Stradivarius violins.
Related to the Fibonacci Sequence, Phylotaxis (Phyllos - leaf, Taxis - order) is the study of the ordered position of leaves on a plant stem, and also applies to the shape of pinecones, and the dispersion of seeds on the flat head of a sunflower. Seed has chosen this shape to represent the perfect synthesis of science and culture.

***clipclip***

Mobile Security

2006-01-12T00:59:00.000+02:00

I thought post couple of links to increase awareness of security concerns especially around mobility and portable devices/data. Due to increased amonts of data people carry in their personal devices, laptops, home computers, security risks are always present. There are many ways to reduce risks and here are couple of good tips/links to get updated whats going on..

Reducing Mobile Security Risks
http://www.newsfactor.com/news/Reducing-Mobile-Security-Risks/story.xhtml?story_id=0220025VK078

Danger lurks for stored data
http://www.data-storage-today.com/story.xhtml?story_id=40838

Mobile Device Security (comparisons of OSs)
http://itmanagement.earthweb.com/article.php/3575316

Mobile Device users need stronger security
http://www.informationweek.com/news/showArticle.jhtml?articleID=175003236

Mobile security threats to increase
http://www.business-standard.com/iceworld/storypage.php?chklogin=&autono=209767&leftnm=lmnu9&leftindx=9&lselect=2

Hope you find these interesting..

Amarone della Valpolicella Classico

2006-01-03T22:21:00.000+02:00

I just thought wines are always worth a discussion. My recent discovery Amarone della Valpolicella Classico is just unbeliavable. Please check it out. Other Zenato wines aren't too bad either. Zenato Ripassa Valpolicella Superiore is also excellent. Our Xmas wine actually. Went well with turkey and all other courses except appetizers. Jacob's Creek sparkling found its perfect place there Jacob's Creek Chardonnay Pinot Noir Brut. It was not champagne but close enough... whats your favourite?

President of Finland

2006-01-03T20:56:00.000+02:00

Updated Post after seeing Punainen Lanka TV debate (http://www.yle.fi/punainenlanka/) between Tarja Halonen (sitting president) and Sauli Niinistö.

Who should win the presidential elections coming weeks in Finland..?

Mr Niinistö. Definetly.

Original..

Who should win the presidential elections coming weeks in Finland..? Seems like all candidates have something I dislike. Shit! I don't have personal favourite.. maybe I go for the black horse.. I really hope the country hick centerparty don't get gray of the grayest PM to the 2nd round.. he has been such a underperfomer. Also despite I like Kokoomus "conservative party" approach in many areas, I've been really disappointed the way Mr. Niinistö has bringing out his views in the Tv panels. He has been so quiet and saying same things over and over again.. maybe our beloved leader will go for second term.. letsee.. good luck to all, let the games begin

HNY 2006!

2006-01-03T20:51:00.000+02:00

Happy New Year 2006!

It seems Helsinki has almost completely lost the winter feeling. Its just like September day in, day out even it should be cold as anything. Oops, sounds like complaining as in fact I am very happy about the weather. Do you think Central European climate is good for Helsinki or Finland? I would at least like start growing winegrapes at my balcony (if I had one) but long term vision isn't that beautiful.

start

2004-09-28T16:13:00.000+03:00

well, lets see where this leads.. blog opened