I saw some bikes here, so as a new member I thought to post info about my bike and something about myself.
Specialized P.2 2004 alu, a 16 kg (30 lbs) dirt jumper with 100mm fork and 1x8 gears (38T in front, Shimano MTB cogset 11-32). Mechanical brakes. Truvativ Hussefelt cranks, Truvativ Boxguide. Low budget in everything.

I've had it for 2,5 years. I like the straight lines and somewhat DH look (it may not be, but let's pretend), and I've never seen another one in Finland. Only in a few videos. Awesome physical excercises in the forests! It's my first real bike after standard city bikes. I'm now 38 and just some years ago didn't know how much fun it is to be able to ride nearly anywhere. So I just picked one of the cheapest second-hand hardtails I found to see how it goes for me. This one fits - yet I don't know of anything better, and don't need to ;)

I'm not a pro in any way. I have jumped some 10 feet distance at the max, cannot manual, wheelies are random/flimsy and endos are short. I'm not a true freerider. But I have learned a lot from riding forest trails, I like to go to places where most will not - it's not the speed or time, just the fun - and I'm now in the best shape ever, getting better all the time. Only one major crash breaking a ligament from AC joint, which caused collarbone dislocation. Cosmetic.

Waiting for the 3 feet deep layer of snow melt away, the roads are boring.

There are more photos in my album, nothing special but Specialized ;)
https://plus.google.com/photos/109679300965339509567/albums/5534626501969119921

RESHARE:
I had missed this! Not enought visibility for GIMP on my stream. Need to do something, like visit the GIMP website more often :)

Reshared text:
Folks, we've just officially released GIMP 2.8 after 3.5 years of work. It was quite a challenge, and we are very grateful to you for your support and understanding.

The release touches virtually every part of GIMP, from internals to UI, from tools to resources such as brushes. There are also some important API changes for developers.

We expect Windows build to be up really soon, and we hope that Mac builds will follow too.

Have fun with this new version: test it, report bugs, write tutorials or maybe even books, while we are preparing the next great release :)

#thunder      #lightning   #finland   #mikkeli  
I took some photos of the thunder last night. It came really slowly, so there was a lot of rain-free time. The activity ceased when it finally reached us. We got some 7 mm of rainfall, while places just 15 km south got 30 mm.

There is some reflection in the lower left corner. It's because I photographed through window.

Snow work!

Created with Lapse it pro. My first test with it. No post processing.
3 sec interval, 15fps.

This one is especially for +12 Minute Athlete +Trudy Conway +David Renaud +Brett Lipton +Antti Luoma +Alexander S. Kunz
#finland #winter #snow #timelapse

#summer #finland #mikkeli
An example of early summer in Finland at lake Saimaa.

#thunder #lightning #finland #weather
There is some thunder in the south west region in Finland. I took this short clip from our rooftop 23:08 local time.

#auroraborealis
Aurora borealis alert!
The best I've seen since... don't know when. Of course I didn't have the camera at the clear sky + max activity, but there could be more to come.
Mikkeli, Finland. Now.

#weather
The biggest thunder day of the year according to forecasts. And the photo of a day ;) The humidity can bee seen very well.

#comets   #cometpanstarrs   #auroraborealis   #northernlights  
I wanted to take a funny photo: "a comet seen through window". But there was more!

Comet C/2011 L4 (PanSTARRS) with dim streaks of northern lights, which a moment later exploded into the best show I've seen since the beginning of the 90's. Canon EOS D60, Canon EF-S (modified EF) 18-55mm IS. Cropped.

How cool is (would be) this:
http://xkcd.com/941/

#christmas #food
Done!
7 kg of ham. Should be enough for two adults and two kids.

The galaxy of Andromeda, revisited (processed). The differences here are: there are now two exposures of one minute combined by median method. Also, twenty dark frames and a dozen of offset frames have come to help to reduce the camera noise. Then, I've adjusted the colour channels to have fully overlapping peaks in the histogram. This practically means grey output. To make sure it is grey, I lowered the saturation. This makes the image less noisy (at least it does not look so noisy). After that I adjusted the mid and high levels as much as possible. In short.

#thunder #anvil #mammatus #finland #spring #clouds
The first thunder shower just passed, this is what it looked like afterwards. A decent cloud for the opener of the storm season 2012!

#frost #winter #finland
Ahem. -29C = -20F. This is not north. This is just Finland.

#photography   #album   #finland   #autumn
On one nice day there was so much to photograph. The Brighter Side of the Finnish Autumn!

This is my entry to an autumn photography contest held a while ago by Finnish magazine Apu  www.apu.fi


HNY - Happy New Year to you all!

2,5 hours to the end of this year here at GMT+2.

Photo and artwork by me.

#photography #sports #mobilephoto
Artificial landscape: trees projected on the soccer field dome. Some patches of snow look like clouds.

Some light, snow and trees do mix!

#northernlights #auroraborealis #revontulet
Northern lights at midnight between 22. and 23. March 2012, in Mikkeli, Finland.

Canon EOS D60, ISO800, 30s
Canon EF-S 18-55 IS, 18mm, f/3.5
(Contrast added, a lot).

#storms   #hails   #hailstorm   #finland
Jokioinen, Finland June 4th 2013.

#lastfm  
Last.fm down? +Antti Luoma ?

Valamo monastery, The Main Church.
Heinävesi, Finland.

Pikakolumni: "Omalta kohdaltani"

Ilmastonmuutoskeskustelussa mättää erityisesti se, että asiat ovat liian vaikeita. Jos ei ymmärrä insinööri, niin miten kansa? Kuka edustaa miljoonakansoja Euroopassa, miljardeja maailmalla? Muutosten mekanismeihin perehtyneitä puolueettomia tutkijoita varmasti on, mutta painaako heidän sanansa tarpeeksi? Miten yleensä voidaan tehdä suuria päätöksiä ennusteiden perusteella? Emme me vielä mitään tiedä. Näin ainakin itse uskon. Siksi en halua ottaa kantaa oletettuihin syy-seuraus-suhteisiin, enkä etenkään ennusteisiin.

Palataan vielä mainitsemaani kansaan. Teollisuus on se "olio", jolle ilmastonmuutoksen hillitsemiseen tähtääviä parametreja voi syöttää, mutta jossain kansan ja teollisuuden välissä kytee politikoinnin kipinä. Silläkin uhalla, että näyttäisin viimeisen päälle skeptikolta, kysyn: mistä voimme olla varmoja, millä perusteilla päätöksiä tehdään? Mitkä ovat ne lopulliset intressit? Intressejä kyllä on, senhän näkee siitäkin, että kaikki eivät osallistu. Joutuvatko osallistujat tekemään suuriakin kompromisseja saadakseen kaikki mukaan? Jos päädytään kompromisseihin, vesittyykö kokonaisuus?

Näihin kysymyksiin, näihin tunnelmiin...

#astronomy
Here's one of my first test photos of The Sun with the new solar filter. I used daylight WB, and the photo turned this red. Does the solar filter pass IR? With naked eye (through the same filter, telescope + eyepiece) the Sun looked rather pale (white). ISO 100, 1/160. The telescope is 415mm, roughly f/10. The photo is heavily sharpened as it was a bit out of focus. Gear packed to the car, going to sleep for a few hours now.

The galaxy of Andromeda, from the first astronomical photography session on our own backyard. A single "raw" shot (saved as JPG with no adjustments - better version will be done later). EQ-1 mount carrying Canon EOS D60 and Tamron AF55-200 @ 200mm, f/5.6, 60s, ISO800.

#kierrätys   #jätteet   #lajittelu  
Roskat jäivät taskuun: miten tämä ohje oikein tulkitaan? Tämä yhdyskuntajäte on tarkoitettu energiahyötykäyttöön, mutta sinne ei saa laittaa energiajätettä. Mitä on energiajäte? Jokin hyötyjätteen (?) jae, ilmeisesti. Minä yritän kierrättää oikein, mutta vaikeaa tuntuu olevan!

I just discovered Sony Pictures Television logo and waterphone have a lot in common - check out these two short videos and see it yourself!
Waterphone "Moby Dick"
Sony Pictures Television International Logo (2006) "Long Version"

#winter #finland
Never seen a tyre like this. I'm out of clever tags.

For musicians: I just heard about Nokia Tune Remake competition:
http://nokiatune.audiodraft.com/

#summer #finland #mikkeli
Green attack!

Fix for duplicate media items:
http://androidforums.com/samsung-galaxy-s2-t/561085-music-shows-duplicate-songs-but-physically-there-no-duplicates.html

In short: clear the Media Storage data and reboot (media will be scanned only after reboot). Warning: clearing the data will also lose your playlists. I haven't tried backup apps or other tricks to preserve the playlists.

Settings -> Applications -> All -> Media store -> Clear data 
Sorry if the texts are a bit off, my S2 is in Finnish :)

Ei välttämättä nolaa talouseliittiä (ja ovatko talouden professorit eliittiä?), mutta hienoa työtä. Heräsi kysymys: kuka voi tarkistaa tutkimusten tuloksia jos tarkistaminen on noin työlästä eikä työtä edes kunnioiteta?

I'm a 38 years old newbie from Finland and I am proud of my Taiwanese 2004 Specialized P.2 (alu). 16 kg of... obviously not steel, but a mixture of different alloys. This is my first "real" or "serious" bike. I got it less than three years ago. Since then my physical fitness has gone up all the time.

It had 2.3" tyres but for now I'm trying cheaper 2.1".

Setup:
1x8: 38T / 11-32T
Shimano Deore (Alivio rear derailer), Shimano cassette, FSA chainwheel.
Truvativ Boxguide.
Truvativ Hussefelt cranks.
Truvativ head stuff.
HT angle 69.5
Marzocchi Exr Comp 100 mm (left: coil/elastomer, preload adj., right: open bath oil/ssv/air valve, ext. rebound adjustment)
Hayes mechanical brakes
A ringer, detachable lamp and red reflective tape for some street legality.
A ton of fun ;)

#androidography #sunset #landscape #SkySunday

Sunset was a reason to climb onto our rooftop.
Mikkeli, Finland.
Today.

#moon #mobilephotography
My first test with my small telescope and Samsung Galaxy S2.

#astrophotography   #canonusers   #canon  
Just NOW, on our backyard. Camera is taking photos and Canon Remote Shooter downloads them to this netbook, which luckily has the WLAN connection from the other end of our house.

This is what the raw sky looks like here now... eh, you don't see that many stars with naked eye, but.. astronomers will understand :) It will look better after stacking and adjusting. I just don't know if I'll do it for this view.

50mm f/4 ISO400 3 minutes, single exposure, tiny crop. Slightly sharpened. Raw Therapee 3. I just can't get a sharp image... It's the focusing. I spent over half an hour focusing. I realised there is a good indicator of focus quality, but I'll save that for later.
Canon EOS D60 + EF 50mm 1.8 II

I came to the shore of a small lake, and it was really beautiful here! The post sunset colours on the sky, a few clouds, mist and it is calm... Well, see the photo. I wish I had a camera with me. One of the few occasions lately, as I generally don't take photos anymore, like a photographer would take.

#googleplus   #instantupload  
Instant upload was cool at first, but soon I found it impossible. Why can't I choose that single photo I want to upload, instantly, without the need to create an album in Picasa Web Albums? I want control and simplicity. Maybe there is a third party app to do selected instant uploads. I've just forgotten to search for one.

Good one, Alex! :D

#caturday #pets #cats
When I wanted to get up from the floor, he didn't want to move. I guess it was my thick shirt...

#finnish   #sähly
Suojalasit sisäpeleihin! Tänään tuli ensimmäistä kertaa eteen vaatimus, että junioreilla pitää olla suojalasit sählyharjoituksissa. En ole lajia harrastanut, joten omakohtaista käsitystä asiasta ei ole ollut. Hakiessani tietoa suojalaseista löysin aikuisten oikean jutun lasien puolesta. Silmävammoja sattuu joka päivä!

#autumn   #frost   #lake   #rowingboat  
It was very beautiful morning in eastern Finland. At this moment it was -10C.

#imadethis   #headphones   #beyerdynamic  
I made this!

RCA connectors for Beyerdynamic DT 990. No more uncomfortable service operations requiring opening the 100+ EUR (each) elements. Just replace the cord. I will post more photos later.

Welcome to my coffee house! Which colour do you prefer?

Ubuntu Studio 10.04 installed! How it went, why this old version and other things will be discussed about after I've got some actual first hand information. But the first impression is something like when opening a present, it's Christmas!

#randomvideo   #youtube   #strangestuff  
After a long break, it's here - a new episode of my Random video series.

"EMC-häiriöt ilmenevät usein muiden sähkölaitteiden häiriöinä, kuten raitoina television kuvassa tai radion rätinänä."

Tukes testasi LED-valaisimia, ja tuollaista väitettiin aiheesta kertovassa YLE:n uutisessa. Tässä on käytetty perimätietoa: joskus aikoinaan TV-kuva saattoi saada häiriöraitaa, mutta ihan samaa ei tapahdu enää digiaikana, koska digitaalinen kuvasignaali ja kuvan piirtäminen eivät ole samalla tavoin tahdissa. Mutta jos saatte digi-tv-kuvaanne häiriöraitoja, haluaisin ehdottomasti kuulla niistä!

#deutschewelle   #euromaxx   #bicycling   #stunts
I just saw this on TV channel Deutche Welle, and as it only has 161 views and 6 likes, I better share it :)

#bicycles #diy #service #mtb
Here it goes. I will replace the chainwheel and cassette. There also seems to be some more to do, like cleaning and greasing (like bearing, chain tensioner). I even found hair! Dog hair, presumably, from the woods. We don't have a dog.

Differences of Jelly Bean compared to ICS?

So far I've found:
- status page is different, shows more content of email for example, access to system settings, more of those big on/off switches at the top, does not vibrate when turning the sound back on ;)  but still you cannot rotate it alone, nor scroll long texts horizontally
- all apps icons I had arranged are gone from the home screens (well, it's a new home screen...)
- some changes in the home screen manipulation, folders look better now (showing a few icons overlapped instead of folder icon with four miniature icons)
- haven't found Google Earth yet, I had it installed before... I wonder if some apps are lost (don't know yet)
- better voice recognition, in mixed language also (Finnish and English tested)
- much better text helper (prediction/dictionary), in ICS I found it useless so I turned it off, but now it was on by default and I like it!
- searching files from the phone seems more difficult now
- calendar has changed a lot, need some time to learn reading it
- calendar has weeknumbers disabled by default, but that is just a setting so you get them back
- consumes more RAM - before the update the RAM usage was around 600 MB, now it's over 700 MB, and there is not much left
- by pressing home button, more apps become inactive (I'm not sure if that is due to app updates or system)
- gallery is different, the seamless photo tiles don't waste space when browsing, and there are a number of other changes I don't possibly know all of them
- camera menus were reset, but I think there are no visible changes to the  camera app (sometimes very bad at focusing, just as before) but the focus indicator sound is more elegant now
- facelock screen has opening animation before the camera image is showing, and there is a bigger X-button, in the upper right corner, to skip the facelock

Some of the things I've seen myself. All the apps I've tried, free and purchased seem to work ok. No serious testing, no technical info, just the things you see by using.

Oh, battery usage? Normally I've had the same battery life as before, 16 hours with minimal usage, but one day I had better, don't know why :) I'm using Google Latitude with Backitude, no instant upload. As someone said, the media scanning consumes a lot of battery! My computer's USB socket couldn't give enough power to keep the battery level from dropping while scanning. I have to see if that is done everytime I boot the phone...

#music #studio #inprogress
The first musical notes captured in my studio-to-be

This is the place where I recorded my latest musical idea. There is stuff all around, because there are no shelves - well, final shelves yet. Piece by piece...

Under the notebook you can see a kitchen sink. It's there, because I found it from the bushes at a forest road! Seriously! People throw away good stuff. It was used, but not bent or even hammered. I got no water nor draining in the storage room, but I thought I definitely will have some use for it.

The room extends behind this view more than twice... I'd better memorize the measures, would be easier to tell the size :) The area is approx. 16 square meters anyway. And the floor is heated, so no jacket required ;)

#naturephotography   #luontokuvaus  
The top Finnish nature photographs 2012!
http://palkitut.vuodenluontokuva.fi/palkitut.htm

ALARM! Exceptional Draconid meteor shower predicted for tonight at 8 P.M. UT (the three peak hours are not yet clear to me). This may not repeat during our lifetime. If just possible, seek a place under clear sky! Still thinking of how to take photos and if to take video. The Moon will hide the faintest meteors, but there should be brighter ones to be seen. These should be special looking and slow meteors.

Removing snow from the rooftop. In costly manner. This has been going on for days.

#halos   #artificiallight  
Artificial light pillars in Mikkeli, Finland 2012-12-05. The best I've seen so far. The photos are orange, but that just happens to be the ambient tint from the street lights. The adaptation of the human eye is really difficult to copy, that's why I often try to keep the colours original, what ever that may mean.

#cats #pets
Le kitteh Topelius!

He looks young from this perspective, but he's over 9 years old.

The fun of throwing sand into the freshly exposed water!

From 2007, Canon PowerShot A700. Sorry for the exposure, and the framing, but it was a difficult light for the camera, and this was the best of the series :) Some luminosity level and saturation adjustments / GIMP.

What can I say... Awesome!

I just repaired a flat computer monitor, Samsung SyncMaster 2043 BW - the BW does not stand for Black & White ;) Manufactured 2008. It did not power up at all. By looking at the power supply board, I could see the thermistor, the first serial component after the power cord, needed a quick soldering. Of course I could verify the reason only when putting it back together and powering up. Which it literally did :)

Btw, I guess this was the first electronic device ever I've opened that had NO SCREWS! Even the electronics box behind the panel was loose. The plastic cover holds everything in place well enough.

#typos  
I just don't know if I should post this in English or Finnish. It is from a Finnish website, to be accurate, this URL:
http://www.serena.fi/waterpark/hyva-tietaa/forecan-saa/
At first the weather forecast caught my attention. There shouldn't be thunder today! Then I noticed there are two different words for thunder, but the same icon in both cases. The other case has capital "U", the other doesn't. Later on, the English and Finnish words are mixed, and the Finnish words are bad translations.

Then there is the menu at the lower left area. Or is that a menu? Can't be... hey, I got to see what's behind "Thanks you"! LOL. It opens a page that says  "Thanks you - You have just confirmed your subscription..."

Maybe I'm old fashioned, but I just don't see how this all can be pulled off these days.

#imadethis #winter #snow #tools
I made this!
A snow dropper. For dropping snow off the steep roof safely. From scrap wood, three nails and heat conductor plate. Leftovers from the house project. Note: the invention is not mine, but this application is.

#levymessut #mikkeli #finland
A view of the event and one example of the merchandise. Old vinyls and CDs, regular and collector items.

#finnish   #googlemaps   #satelliteimagery  
Google on vihdoin saanut tuoreempaa satelliittikuvaa Mikkelistä! 
Vielä kun saisivat viime vuosina tehdyt uudet kadutkin kartalle... Nyt on siis satelliittikuva tuoreempaa kuin kartat!

#googleplus   #googleplusbug  
I spotted inconsistency between notifications in G+ and G+ email notifications: in the G+, you got "Mute post" option, but in the email you have "Mute <person-who-posted>"! You migh accidentally mute a person, but not the post for further notifications.

Another, connected issue: the email notification says <x> shared a post with me. "No", I thought. It took a while to see what it is, because <x> really was not the person, who shared the post in the first place. <x> only made a comment after my comment, which is why I got the email notification. This works correctly, it's just the system doesn't have a perfect description text for the message sent to me.

So, the email notification decription goes like this: <x> shared this post with you when it should say <x> commented a post you had commented. A minor discomfort, but connected to the mute function, it may lead to mistakes and grey hair.

#blog   #photography   #diy   #lenses  
Finally! A new blog post!

This is officially a test video. Timelapse, 30 sec interval. Frame rate conversion up four times. That's why the lower clouds are going mosaic at times. But the NLC looks nice :) A bit too slow IMO, but takes so long to reprocess that let's share this before doing anything crazy.

hint.fm/wind

Awesome wind map. Animated. Live.

Thanks, +Mika Letonsaari for sharing this!

#videography   #accessories   #stabilizer   #diy  
I just had to like this! It's not just showing the basic rig construction, he also builds one on the video. And then shows improvements and then possibilities for accessory mount ports :)  Finally, example shots. Great video!

Congratulations, sister! The strongest woman in Finland!

Fake profiles? How often a person who circles you is fake? How do you find out it's fake? I don't know how often this happens, but let me present you one, and tell how I know it's fake:
1) she
2) is beautiful and
3) has circled me

(and the short url being the only info, linking to some business site)

https://plus.google.com/112595687938127445105/posts

#kingston   #microsdhc   #warranty  
Case Kingston: Product Lifetime Warranty, microSDHC 8GB from 2010
Status: proved to be true! (note: may be dependend on the place of purchase)

I'm in the process of testing Kingston's warranty. My microSDHC card has a glitch that doesn't go away. Windows checks (with repair options enabled) the memory fine, no report, but data recovery software hangs at 49%, every time. I have always wanted to find out if lifetime warranty really exists and what does it take to benefit from it. Obviously, you'd think it shouldn't take anything, but let me clarify what I've learned so far.

All in all, there are three ways to handle returns:
1) Original point of purchase
2) Authorized Kingston dealer or distributor
3) Kingston service centre after first obtaining a Return Material Authorization (“RMA”) number from Kingston

#1: I bought the memory from overseas via a web shop. The shop is ok and showes green light for the return, but I was concerced on the (invisible) costs by handling and postage, even if I don't have to pay anything. Why to send it overseas when I could drop the tiny memory card at a shop while I walk to lunch! Of course it would be sent overseas from that shop, but perhaps with some other products.

#2: The answer to the option (1) could be here: what is the shop that could handle the return? So far I haven't found one. I've even asked from a big company selling Kingston products, but they offer 5 year warranty with receipt from their shops. Not lifetime, not from other shops. There are still two or so shops left to ask about this.

#3: The last straw: RMA procedure. Which is quite a funny thing. The warranty statement under the section Europe, Middle East and Africa directs you to get the RMA number via Kingston's website (if #1 and #2 are not possible). However, the RMA procedure is only valid in the US! You will find that out after selecting your location.

Option (3) is busted, but in this case, I don't care. I would not have wanted to send my $20 worth of memory card overseas to Kingston, because I'd have to pay the postage.

I'm not stressed with this, I just want to see how this goes.
The next step: wiping the contents of the memory before handing it to anybody. If I was strict about the privacy and the memory could not be wiped because of the glitch, I probably could not benefit from the warranty at all.

Say "hi" or something if you want to hear about the results. Could take weeks.

Finally found this italo disco song I heard in the 80's! I've tried to find this several times over the years, but could not find it by lyrics, and I don't know the artist nor the song title, but it happened to be included in Super Mix 1, which I happened to listen today. Then, by looking up the tracklist from Discogs.com, the correct song was easy to spot. :)

#comets #cometpanstarrs
Näin komeetan ensimmäistä kertaa:
http://www.taivaanvahti.fi/observations/show/11478

#acta #avaaz
1.3 million have signed the Avaaz.org petition. Will you?

#wikipedia   #keepitfree  
I just donated for the first time. Don't we all need Wikipedia? So many of us do.

#winter #finland
It's 2 pm here, and the Sun is already going down. Actually, we didn't see it at noon either.

#winter #forest #forests #snow
Winter forest. Could not come up with more original title! Anyway, this is how it looked a while ago over here.

#googlegoggles #goggles
I wanted to find out the phone model. Let's try Goggles. It was recently updated. High hopes!

The result: it finds some text and generic blue objects. Blue because of the ambient light - you cannot adjust the white balance! I tried different angles and framing and Goggles doesn't have a clue what is that thing on the table. What is this project about? We can find similar images by regular Google search. Why not with a specialised app?

Ilmanvaihtoasiaa: milloin viimeksi puhdistit tulo- ja poistoilman suodattimet? 

Puhdistamisen hyödyt ovat ilmeiset, mutta koneen melun hiljenemistä en osannut odottaa. Ihan samoilla nopeuksilla käytetään kuin ennenkin, mutta melu vaimeni selvästi.

Omasta näkymästä voisi päätellä seuraavaa: tuloilman aukko lienee vielä "koristelematta"; linnut ovat nokkineet eristevillaa, jota on sitten karannut nokasta tuloilmakanavaan. Kesän puhdistuksessa villoja ei näkynyt.

Hienosuodattimen voisi oikeastaan vaihtaa uuteen. Sen lamellien väleissä ei juuri irtoroskaa ollut, eikä väri muuttunut imuroidessa - ja tällä kohtaa havaitsin taas, ettei keskuspölynimurin mukana tullut harjasuulaketta!

Karkeasuodattimet ovat aika sitkeää materiaalia, kestävät imuroinnit hyvin. Pesemisestä on epävarma havainto: suodatin kutistuu! Epävarma siksi, että en tarkistanut suodattimen istuvuutta ennen pesua. Mutta en suosittele puristelemista ihan miten sattuu. Suodattimeen näytti jäävän pieniä taitoksia, eli voisi se kai kutistuakin niiden vuoksi. Arvelin että pituus kuitenkin riittää juuri ja juuri.

I tried to access Google Plus from Opera Mobile 10.1 (Symbian S60). The results were funny: "Your browser is no longer supported, please install Chrome, Firefox, Safari or IE".

No longer supported? That was nice ;)

I found out there was newer version available of Opera Mobile (11.1) with interesting new features like HTML5 audio/video. I changed the setting "User agent" to "Desktop" rather than "Mobile". Now I got here! Unfortunately, I was not able to type a comment. Also, I got "memory full" notification while loading Stream and all.

Still, everything looked right! It was amazing. But no, I'm, not going to have "Plus" time at 320x240 screen :)

#amusementpark #tampere #finland #särkänniemi #koiramäki
We're here!

#venustransit   #transitofvenus     #astrophotography   #astronomy  
I have never before done digiscoping with DSLR and such tiny telescope as mine. I was surprised of the results! I expected to see a blurry circle in the middle, but instead most of the Sun was visible at once. And the Venus. And some dust and sunspots :)  The DSLR was unsupported!
A side note: some others took much cleaner photos with full view of the  Solar disc on mobile phones, from the same telescope. Explanation: the optical fitting is better with smaller lens cameras, as they are more comparable to human eye, for which the oculars are made.

60mm / 415mm refractor, 20mm eyepiece, 2x Barlow. Baader AstroSolar filter box. Photo: Canon EOS D60, 18-55 IS  @ 55mm, f/5.6

Lumi voi tulla alas myös tiilikatolta. Eikä sen tarvitse olla erityisen jyrkkä. Esimerkkeinä autokatos ja talon erkkeri.

#geostationary   #satellites   #timelapse   #astrophotography  
I just compiled two videos of geostationary satellite timelapse I took 24 hours ago. 1280x576.
Regular: Geosynchronous satellite timelapse 2012-10-07
Motion blurred version: Geosynchronous satellite timelapse 2012-10-07 (motion blur version)

#imadethis   #astrophotography  
I made this!

This time it's a counter-weight, made of fine concrete, for my small equatorial mount. That is, a motorized tripod for astrophotography. It's too small for any decent telescope, but it works fine with my 1 kg Canon camera, and with the new, nearly 1 kg counter-weight the system got really nice!

My goal was to build a 900 gram weight. I came to that figure from the weight of the camera, balancing tests of the mount head without the camera, and the distances between the pivot, camera and weight-to-be. I had to guess the center of weight (distance from the pivot) for the camera, and some guessing was done for the center of weight of the counter-weight, because I did't know the density of the concrete accurately. There were a number of other things I didn't know, but let's just skip ahead.

The equation:
Mweight_to_be = Mcamera * (Rcamera / Rweight) + Mbalancing

M = mass
R = "radius" = the pivotal distance
Mbalancing = the mass required for the unloaded system to become balanced.

Thus I mixed 900g of powder and 0,27 litres of water. During the mixing I added more water to make it soft enough for molding.

The electronic scale is used to observe the drying of the concrete. The bicycle meter is for temperature readings, just to throw a science-or-so-to-say issue to the project.

According to the first test, the counter-weight is just mandatory! The camera is now safer and easier to turn around, and the increased, balanced mass reduces vibrations. Also, there are no more up or downhills for the motor, which is good for the gears and overall stability.

This is one milestone in astrophotography, but there are still obstacles to solve...

#finland #winter #town #city #cities #night
Recommended watching: I just heard about this very professional video, from my home town!

It was about time to finish the 29/30th July noctilucent clouds video. My first HD (1080p) video on YouTube. I cannot tell how it looks myself, as this screen only has 600 lines. If the 2x interpolation bothers you, just tell me and I'll make a non-interpolated version.

Jouduin jumiin keskelle ukkoskuuroa. Ei ollut rankka, mutta mieluummin olin bussipysäkillä sateen suojassa kuin ajelemassa kaduilla. Sainpa videolle näytteen rakeestakin, joita tuli muutamia. Varoitus: aika tylsä video! Sadetta ja autoja. Ehkä jossain kohti kuuluu jopa jyrinääkin.

Kuvasin puhelimella, ja sitten muistin että olihan oikeakin videokamera mukana. Tuskin sillä otetut pätkät on yhtään parempia. Tässä sentään satoi hetken kovemmin vettä :)

Mielenkiintoinen sadekuuro, tai solukko, miksi sitä sanoisi, meni yli 23.8.2011, iltapäivällä Mikkelissä. Tuli nopeasti, hetken hämmästelin, odottelin tietysti trombia, sitten otin videokameran. Kun etu/sivunäkymä ei onnistunut sateen vuoksi, siirryin pilvien menopuolelle. Kuvasin jonkin minuutin käsivaralla, sitten vaihdoin jalustaan. 36 minuuttia 20x nopeudella:
http://vimeo.com/28101608

#mtb #finland #trail
Here's one small hill down. Going to try today among other places.

Magic carpet machine. The carpet has been in place for 50 years. This is located in Mikkelin yhteiskoulu, Otto Mannisenkatu 8, Mikkeli.

#autumn   #frost   #icecrystals  
The morning got even better when the Sun began to rise. For example the rocks here. They had awesome ice crystals growing on them, especially on the tiny patches of moss.

#venustransit   #transitofvenus   #finland   #nature   #birds   #swans  
(NOT BY ME) This is the best photo I've seen for a good while. As someone suggested, this could be a photo of the year in nature category! It's not just a sunset, the Venus is also there, when you open the photo on the page (click it). Wow. Photos by Eetu Saarti

http://www.taivaanvahti.fi/observations/show/5282

#auroraborealis #northernlights
Northern lights tonight at 20:30 UT in Mikkeli, Finland. A slightly processed version: added contrast - and noise :P

Btw: which is more common or better attention riser: "aurora borealis" or "northern lights"? I find the first far more easy to type, and it's scientifically exact. But otherwise, which one is best for you?

New version of Stellarium released 2011-11-04!

Mikähän metsästysaika se tämä on? Siis 23:18. Jokin ase tuolla kajahti. Ja taas! Ellei ole jokin ilotulite tms. Kuuntelemaan ovelle...

#astronomy, #asteroids
Asteroid 2005 YU55. As the news about the asteroid were somewhat inaccurate, I had to add the orbital elements to Stellarium and check out the visibility myself. Here is a screenshot from Stellarium, marking the spot when the asteroid is closest to the Earth, observed from Mikkeli, Finland at 1:28 (GMT+2) (2 hours from posting this).
It is too dim to be seen even with big binoculars, but as the Moon is not near that direction, it could be photographed with a DSLR + normal lens.

#browsers, UI design, rant

Thanks! Thanks!! Thanks!!!

But why to use the Backspace for "Back" in the first place? Why do we need an extension to prevent this?
"Because IE has used the same key" is not an aswer. The feature is stupid because it's asymmetric: what is the corresponding forward key? I would suggest Delete ;) It's stupid also because it's dangerous: I've lost many PDF and HTML forms, including G+ posts I had typed, by pressing Backspace in wrong place! Adobe finetuned the torture even further: PDF form fields behave differently when all the text has been deleted: backspace key presses in an empty field are forwarded to the browser, and you know what happens next, depending on the browser!

I've used Alt + LEFT / RIGHT for history back/forward since 1996. I thought everyone is familiar with this shortcut, but based on the comments I've read, it may not be so. It has proven very problem-free. You don't generally press Alt accidentally, and if you do, you don't press Alt+LEFT for sure. Of course, the shortcuts may be used for changing a track in the player, or adjusting volume, or what ever, but the chances of doing that accidentally when editing an online form is quite low.

Nothing is failsafe, but we should at least try to come up with failsafer solutions.

#astrophotography   #cometpanstarrs   #andromedagalaxy   #andromeda   #astronomy   #finland   #finnishphotography
Really awesome long exposure (40 x 60 seconds) of comet PanSTARRS and the great galaxy of Andromeda by Erkki Rauhala!
http://www.taivaanvahti.fi/observations/show/13066

#cometpanstarrs #astronomy #comets
The comet chase failed today because of a few clouds. Mikkeli, Finland