everwas

a blog by Ian Kennedy

Tag: Finland

  • Winter Ahead, Watch out for Elk

    Front Page

    Picked up the Helsinki Times, the weekly English language newspaper here in Finland. Front page headline screams, Shorter Autumn Days Increase Risk of Elk Collisions followed by 600 words on the dangers of driving when the elk are out and about as the days grow shorter.

    Riveting sections such as “Tips on avoiding collisions” and a detailed inquiry into the number of elk collisions and how there has been a slight reduction Year-on-Year poured over as if it was a key economic indicator, “Last year more than 500 deer were hit in low-speed areas with limits of 40-60 kilometers per hour,”

    Armed with that useful information I turn to the next of of the two front page stories of the week. Car-Free Day Revs up for Action.

  • Finnish Ingenuity

    Finnish Ingenuity

    We had some house guests over last night who shared some observations about the Finnish people and their incredible spirit and creativity, especially when their backs are up against the wall.

    World War II was a time of extreme struggle for the Finns who found them up against the full wrath of Stalin’s Army. Out-numbered and out-gunned, the Finnish people were left with their wits, here are a couple of highlights:

    Winter War – In 1940, the Finns faced a full-scale invasion of their homeland. As the Russian Army advanced on Finland in the winter of 1940, they ran into sub-zero temperatures and long nights of darkness. Using this to their advantage, small squads of Finnish troops would infiltrate enemy lines between larger divisions and set up machine gun lines pointing outward, towards each division. After short bursts to the left and right, the guerrilla squads would retreat and leave the two, recently alerted adjacent divisions to open fire upon each other thinking they were firing on the enemy when in fact they were firing upon the neighboring division.

    The Bombing of Helsinki – In February of 1944, Stalin ordered bombers to flatten the city in order to break the spirit of the Finnish people. In preparation for the bombing which they knew was coming, the civil defense forces laid out a grid of signal fires out on the frozen bay and surrounding islands which roughly matched the layout of Helsinki at night. When the bombers flew towards the city, the civilians doused the lights and the bombers, thinking the lights they saw out on the bay were the city, dropped a majority of their bombs harmlessly into the water, sparing most of the city.

    Don’t mess with the Finns, they’ll mess with you.

  • Texting for Tickets

    Tokyo Bus Fare Box

    Richard MacManus is posting a three part series on SmartCards from around the world on ReadWriteWeb.

    London’s Oyster Card (10 million in circulation)

    Tokyo’s Suica Card (28 million in circulation)

    Hong Kong’s Octopus Card (19 million in circulation)

    While each of these metropolitan pass cards have made life easier for those that use them, as you can see from the photo above (taken while getting on a Tokyo city bus), the card is really just another form of currency that needs to be carried around.

    Hesinki’s public transit also has an RFID-based metro card. The Personal Travel Card (1.1 million in circulation) can be purchased for up to six months worth of unfettered travel on any of the region’s buses, trains, trams, subways, or ferries.

    Of course, this is Finland so you can also SMS for a single fare. Just text “A1” to the HKL number and you’ll get a message back that you can show the conductor and is good for an hour. Somehow (I guess by reading your cell ID?) the message reads your location and the fare is good for your region. Fares go up late at night so if you’re texting for a ticket late at night, the fare goes up automatically. All charges go automatically onto your phone bill.

    It would be nice if there wasn’t a premium (2 euros for a 1.65 euro fare) on SMS tickets. It might almost be worth it. The 6 month pre-paid pass that I bought is most certainly a waste because I don’t use it every day.

  • Silicon Valley visits Helsinki

    If you’re interested in the Social Web and are in Southern Finland at the end of September here are two events that are very much worth catching.

    Chris Messina and Jyri Engeström will be in Helsinki first for an all day crash course on the social web which will run from the basics in the morning to more specifics around how to design for the social web with hands-on guidance. For anyone looking to get started, this is a great opportunity to get a jump start from two guys that are in the thick of it.

    On October 1st and 2nd they will be giving talks as part of the Mindtrek conference in Tampere.

  • Finnish Wife Carrying

    Finnish Wife Carrying

    So in the middle of all the excitement of getting settled we missed the World Wife Carrying Championship which took place (as it has for the past 14 years) in Sonkajärvi, Finland – about 500km north of Helsinki.

    Eager to see what it would take to participate next year, I came across the official site which had a bit on How to Become a Master in Wife Carrying. In typical Finnish deadpan humor, they went into all the details just so you believed they were serious until you came across lines like,

    The core of the race is made of a woman, a man and their relationship. The wife carrying and eroticism have a lot in common. Intuitive understanding of the signals sent by the partner and becoming one with the partner are essential in both of them – sometimes also whipping.

    Maybe we’ll go next year.

    Related crazy Finnish events include:

  • Finland, they do it different here

    Finland, they do it different here

    I have a feeling this is going to be a regular feature. There are many things that are different here in Finland. Here are just a few that I’ve learned about in the past few weeks.

    Speeding tickets are progressive, you pay more if you earn more. I was warned about someone who had a $1,000 speeding ticket and they were only slightly over the limit. How do the police know how much you make?

    There is a government service that allows anyone to lookup another person’s salary. The idea is that if you know what your colleagues are making (and they know that you know) that everyone will cooperate better. Of course no one bothers to look up someone’s salary, just knowing that you can does the trick.

    When you get here, you register with the local city hall and once they get your address, they let everyone know. This has the unsettling effect of you signing up for cable TV and the rep not even needing your address because (and they always wink when they say this) we know where you live. The flip side of this is that we’re in a temporary apartment right now but when we move, there’s only one place we need to tell our new address. No pesky change of address forms!

    Like Britain and Japan, there is an annual fee for TV. It’s about $250/year for one set (you pay based on the number of TV sets) and if you’re busted cheating, you pay triple.

    I can drive on my California driver’s license for the next year but if (or is it when?) I get my Finnish license, the driver’s test includes snow driving.

    Most people pay with debit cards for everything and invoices are paid with a wire transfer. This extends to individuals. I can wire money to any account, free of charge. In the US, it costs $40 to do this from one bank to another. Fiscal Portability anyone?

    The Finnish Posti is well aware of the impact of all this electronic billing on their revenues so they’ve gone ahead and offered a service which scans in any paper invoices headed your way and they will email you notification when a bill is ready. Login to your Posti account in time and you can look at a scanned copy of your invoice before it arrives.

    Recently in Oulu, a development center for Nokia up north, one of my colleagues dialed me a taxi and all he did was grunt a few times, hung up and said a cab was on it’s way. The taxi service used caller ID to identify him, then pulled up the most popular destinations he’s made when he’s booked before, and asked him which of these he is (1) at right now and, (2) going to as a destination. Smart! Like a call log for taxi destinations!

  • Rental Cars as Advertising

    o2 Media CarWhen we moved to Finland, we decided to leave our two car, suburban lifestyle behind and live life in the center of Helsinki. We walk everywhere and take trolleys, buses, and trains when it’s too far to walk.

    It’s really not a big deal. Helsinki has an excellent public transportation system and the infrastructure is set up to make it really easy to get around without a car.

    There are times though, when a car is going to come in handy. Trips to Ikea, or a weekly run up to the big shopping center come to mind. It’s possible to huff it back with 30 pounds of goods in your rucksack but a car would just make it easier.

    I’ve already signed up for Helsinki’s equivalent of Zip Car (City Car Club, they’ve been around longer than Zip) where you can order up a car via SMS but today our savior, Pirjo Koskivirta at Finland Relocation, sent me a pointer to o2 media, an advertising company disguised as a car rental firm.

    I didn’t get it at first. They rent out these cute little Smart Cars for 5 euros/day. The deal is, you need to drive at least 30kms, otherwise they charge extra. I had this image of people driving laps around Töölönlahti just trying to turn over the odometer.

    By now you figured it out right? I’m a little slow and it’s late. The value prop here is they just need people to drive around and get impressions for their advertisers on their fancy-wrapped cars. Why pay college interns to do it when they can charge people instead. It’s more environmentally friendly, the renters get a car for cheap, and the advertisers get their message taken into real world situations.

    Brilliant!

  • Swimming in Finland

    The weather in Helsinki has been fantastic the past week. T-shirts and Keen sandles type warm. We’re even sleeping with our windows open in the evenings. Today we swam in the ocean!

    At the beach in Helsinki
    At the beach in Helsinki

  • No Smiling!

    nosmiles

    The Finnish Immigration pages has a series of guidelines for their passport and visa photos. I found this one regarding Expressions amusing.