The Daily Howl

Securty breach at the Guardian

2009-10-25T01:58:00.000-07:00

The "Security breach" email was in my Inbox to greet me, as I took to my routine of checking my email. Sipping my first cup of coffee, it became to dawn on me.
What I have expected to happen all along, has happened. The fact of the matter is that there are absolutely tons of scams for desperate job seekers. Even the police warns about the CV writing scam. Some of the job advertisements are just obviously frauds, set up for collecting applications for the details of the applicants. Some are to harvest trends, like the interest levels for certain products or positions. Some agencies advertise hopefully, for a job that they might not have right now, to be completely honest.
But the databases are numerous. I have kept count and know (more or less) where my details are stored, have a copy of the privacy policy of the registration and accept the fact that my details might be stolen and used for evil purposes. One just has to accept it and move on. Now between the 37 jobsites and 25 headhunters that have my CV, I have also sent it to some hundred or so companies, I have profiles in most of the social media website.All of the sites I have registered want to sell my details and beg my permission to do so.Mostly, I have granted said permission, just to see what happens. Registering in one of those would be pointless, if it wasn't for having them to send the details to possible recruiters. Maybe this is a good thing. Maybe I want my CV to be spread around the world. If it went viral, it would be great.

Here's hoping

Keyboard luxury

2009-10-17T01:46:00.000-07:00

The newest cool keyboard has arrived. I know I bought my share of keyboards that are tucked away in my drawers and boxes. The cool thing about a new keyboard is just the new thing, it wears off. Soon, it will either be in the box for being too different or a gimmick inside it will break. Trying to be too cool can often result in a catastrophic failure.
The want to buy a new keyboard is the reason for this purchase, even when experience has taught that it is an overpriced and highly breakable purchase. Most likely it will not improve your personal computer experience.
The whole approach in the improving of the keyboard is wrong. In a world, where you need the best and the fastest, why do you use QWERTY keyboard? It is slow, intentionally slow. It has always been slow, as back in the time of the typewriter, it had to be slow. The keystrokes got stuck, if you were too fast on the strokes. Slowing down the typing by cleverly creating an inefficient keyboard layout, solved the problem. Now it is still in use today, and it is the one you use. The one that lets you write 70% of the English words with your left hand only. This is handy only if you are a leftie and prefer to do nothing with your right hand. Roland Kaufmann designed an ideal layout, by measuring and designing the optimum layout based on the way the keyboard is used. It is called Dvorak and is only one of the better than qwerty layouts out there. Want my advice, stick to your old keyboard and change the layout to Dvorak or buy a Maltron. Keyboard. Sure, it takes some time to get used to, but you are on the keys all the time. If you spend 10 hours in learning the new layout it will be worth it. You will type 10% faster from then on.

Finnish educational system

2009-10-16T00:33:00.000-07:00

The talk of the day is the schooling system in the UK. The discussion is that should children start school when only four years old or later. To me, the age of four seems a fair bit too early. Finland is also mentioned in this discussion, as having an excellent educational system. What do the Finns do? Firstly, the school starts when you are seven years old. If you are really interested, it is no secret what the Finns do. Read here for more details. Contrary to what an average Englishman might think, I do not know anything about any of the other educational systems, their plans or even the basics. I cannot compare the systems, as I only know the Finnish one. One thing is for sure, the food is better. The menu goes on a three week rotation and forms a perfect diet. Now I urge those studying this, to look deeper than just the teaching.

Some of my friends are teachers in Finland and some have also been teachers in the UK. Those people know what the difference really is. All I know is that as I was moving my family to the UK, they made me swear to educate my son in Finland. At the very least, anywhere else than the UK.

Finnish broadband

2009-10-15T09:36:00.000-07:00

The Finnish government has decided that everyone has to have a broadband and that some day in the future, broadband is defined to be 100 Mbps.

Firstly, as this is my blog and I have endless rights to write about whatever I want, I am going to define the term. Broadband, a la Finnish government is:

Always on, instead of having to be opened by a password prompt
Fixed priced, for example 29 e monthly, instead of 5p a minute
Is fast, fast enough for a pleasurable online experience. The defined speed used to be 256 kbps, the upgraded to 512 kbps is what stands today and come summer 2010, 1 Mbps

Now what do you think a broadband is, or should be, by definition?

Should there be a definition in the upload as well, for example 1/1 Mbps. What about uptime, latency, jitter? Until where should these definitions apply? From your computer to the operator's nearest router? A major domestic router? A defined international router? Root nameservers?