As far as I know, it’s common psychological knowledge that a person’s current state of mind has a significant effect on how a person views things. In other words, if you’re down, everything seems worse - and when you’re happy, nothing seems to bother you. So it follows that even if we can’t always change the world, we can most often at least try to change our state of mind. What follows is at least a happier existence, although not a better world. Some people would argue that happy people are better for the world, too. So at least in this sense there’s hope for us. As long as we can keep busy w/our little inconsequencies that make us happy, we can escape the misery of what is.

I dunno if I think this is good or bad. I guess it’s both. On one hand, we really need to be able to cope w/the world, no matter how incomplete. Then again, having a coping mechanism that allows us to keep on making things worse for everyone isn’t too good, if we look at the bigger picture. At least we know that this is how it is - we’re born escapists, and we have to deal w/the good and bad that follow from it.

However, a psychological truth seems to follow - we need to find stuff we like to do, no matter how inconsequental it might seem. Be it boxing or Bach, we need something to keep us busy enough to avoid thinking too much about things we cannot remedy. Looking at the brighter side, we can use these things to bring our spirits up and then use our renewed energy to really do something about the bigger issues.

Seems this is a recurrent theme for me. Something that I keep on thinking about. Something that seems to matter. For some reason. So let’s go at it. I see us human primates being burdened w/the psychological need for a just world. This need seems to cause many of us much suffering. We can’t get over our genetic programming requiring a world that is more than it seems. Better, more just. Just right, for you and me.

And I share this emotional need. Still I see the futility. The only reason we have this need is because we’re social animals, and social animals need some kind of a system of morality that makes it possible for us to work as a group. The world, an sich, sure is a wretched bitch. No semblance of justice can be seen anywhere. Plants die, animals suffer and die and the kindest of people die of cancer. If there was a god, I’d sure call him Satan for all he is good for. The world is so ugly that it should break one’s heart.

Yet we insist. We insist that it is just. That it must be just. Or in the very least - we insist that we make the little tiny winy little part we inhabit of it as just as we can. And I guess there’s little helping that. Most of just cannot shrug it, as much good it does us. The truth of the matter is that it has always been, is - and will always be a dog eat dog world. Being kind isn’t much rewarded, it’s much more exploited. So what we learn after all is said and done - is to play the game as it is, the little we like it. We play our part, or we get played by someone who will. Just the way it goes. They way it is. And there’s no helping it.

Yeah, I hate it, too. We all have to figure out what we have stomach for.  It seems mine can take more than I thought. More than I see many others capable of. I guess we learn to give back what we get - not all of it good, not by any means.

The interesting part of it is that in a sense we’re the best there is. Perhaps we’re really the only thing here, conscious enough to have some choice in the matter. We have the choice betwixt good and evil, and to me it seems that many of us are basically good to a fault. But we learn to be as evil as the next person, when we get exploited a few times well enough for it to make the difference.

I guess that most of our childhood we’re thought to be good to learn in our adulthood to be evil. As a child we’re naturally selfish, and we’re taught to share. As adults we learn that those that grab most for themselves get to keep most toys. So the circle kind of gets completed there.

And I’m not saying that we shouldn’t be self-interested. We couldn’t really be any different, to have gotten this far. No species makes it that doesn’t know how to keep its end in the futile struggle we call life. Just vehicles for genes. No wonder we wish. No wonder we wish to believe false things, because believing what is, well - it’s actually worse. I still can’t shake it, thought. But I’m quite convinced that we’re not too well equipped to handle what is.

Then again, we’ve probably had it too easy. I can’t recall people having had to fight wars to complain much about little things. Maybe we really are just getting soft and fat, in the absence of real, concrete struggle. And perhaps we’re actually better built to deal w/just that - not the things we deal w/today that are way too complicated, way too big, like CO2.

Such cheerful sweetness tonight. On a brighter note, I found a good net radio w/a proper blues-cast. Try Iceberg -> Blues -> Screamin’ and Hollerin’ for a bit of relief from your existential angst. :-)

Tää on pikainen vastaus, jonka kyhäsin yhdelle frendille emailiin.

Ei Scrum tee kenestäkään ennustajaa. Jos haluat hyvän aikatauluarvion, se tehdään kuten ennenkin: Pilko projekti mahdollisimman pieniin palasiin, arvio ne, ja laske yhteen. Yleensä se kannattaa sitten vielä kertoa jollakin, koska tehollinen työaika ei ole 100%, vaan paremminkin 50-70%. Lisäksi pitää vielä huomioida, että työmäärä riippuu tekijöiden määrästä. Periaatteessa yksi ihminen tekee asiat vähimmällä tuntimäärällä, mutta käytännössä usein laatu laskee - ja viivityksiä tulee enemmän, kun yksin tekee enemmän virheitä ja jää useammin jumiin pidemmäksi aikaa.

That said, Scrummin idea on se, että kun teet Scrummilla, niin tiedät koko ajan missä olet. Waterfallissa tehdään ensin suunnitelma, ja sitten leikitään, että ollaan suunnitelman mukaisessa vaiheessa, kunnes projektin pitäisi loppua - ja sitä on vielä vähintään 50% tekemättä.

Waterfallilla harvemmin tulee kuukauden päästä todettua, että tää ei tuu alkuunkaan riittävän ajoissa valmiiks - vaan se todetaan usein vasta myöhään. Scrummissa on “fail fast” - periaate - joten jos huomaa, että valmista tulee niin hitaasti, että koko projekti kannattaa scräppää, niin se huomataan sen verran ajoissa, että siitä tulee aika pienet tappiot.

Usein Scrum on muutenkin tehokkaampi tapa toimia kuin vastaavasti moni muu paljon tehottomampi, joten sen käyttäminen kannattaa yleisessäkin tapauksessa, vaikkei se auttaisikaan ennustamaan tulevaisuutta sen paremmin kuin taikarumpu tai vanhat luut.

…

Jos asiakas vaatii old skoolina aikatauluarvion ensin, niin voihan sen tehdä - ja toteuttaa silti Scrummilla. Siinä on sekin hyvä puoli, että kun kahden viikon kohdalla huomataan, että alkuperäisessä arviossa on vääriä asioita, niin voidaan sitten vaan muuttaa suuntaa, as needed. Perdes se on näin simppeliä:

…about noin. Ja useimmissa tapauksissa on hyvä pitää 1-2 viikon sprinttejä, 3-4 vain silloin, kun esim. osa porukasta on toisella paikkakunnalla, ja demoja on hankala pitää usein.

Pidemissä sprinteissä tapahtuu monta epäedullista asiaa:

• sprint planningista tulee liian pitkä, kun taskeja pitää paloitella liikaa
• sprintistä katoaa fiilis, kun deadline on liian kaukana, ja taskeja on liikaa. Jengi alkaa släkkää alkupäässä, ja sit puristaa itsestään liikaa mehua paniikissa loppusprintistä - mistä seuraa laadun heikkenemistä ja väsymystä - mistä taas seuraa släkkäämistä seuraavan sprintin alussa… (Waterfallissa vuoden projektissa tyypillisesti släkätään 9 kk:tta, ja ollaan sit 3 kk:tta paniikissa, jos ei ehditä vaihtaa työpaikkaa sitä ennen…)
• sprint alkaa hajota, koska tarve rönsytä alkuperäisestä suunnitelmasta yleensä tapahtuu jo parissa viikossa
• demoja on turhan harvoin, ja jengi onnistuu puuhastelemaan kolmekin viikkoa versionhallinnan ulkopuolella, josta syntyy merge-sirkus sprintin loppuun, kun pitäis saada hommat valmiiks.

…ja sellasta. :)

Noi nyt tuli päällimmäisenä mieleen.

It’s not a magick bullet. Just common sense, ja paljon kipeitä kantapäitä. On Scrummissa vaaransakin, kuten se, että työtahtia kiristetään liikaa, kahdella seurauksella: 1) laatu laskee 2) jengi polttaa itsensä loppuun. Eli järki pitää olla kauhovan kädessä.

Lyhyempi sprintti keskimäärin parempi. Aina kannattaa lyhyin mahdollinen, joka vallitsevissa olosuhteissa voidaan aikaansaada.

Näin luulen tänään, Susanna.

For qwerty-based keyboards, the US keyboard layout beats the Finnish keyboard layout by a mile, at least for programming and shell/terminal/commandline use. None of the programming/shell related keys like /\[]{}~!=-+ are hidden behind AltGr. There’s absolutely no contest. But Finns need to use ä and ö.  And one would like to still be able to use both kinds of keyboards, when using someone else’s computer. The best solution I have come up so far has been as follows: Use the .us (or .std) keyboard layout and then add ‘ä’ and ‘ö’ via some magic. My solution has been to keep ‘ä’ and ‘ö’ where they are in the Finnish keyboard layout and to access them via using caps lock as an extra modifier key. I have found this to be a very good solution for the problem.

Linux (X)

You need to create your own xmodmap - file that does the magic. Basically, you need to make caps lock behave like an extra modifier, and then you need to also put ‘ä’ and ‘ö’ into their right places. After you have configured the file, you just need to add `xmodmap $PATH/xmodmap.us.fi’ it to your `.xinitrc’ file. Also, you might benefit from using `xev’, when you’re configuring your own custom xmodmap file. For console you could probably use loadkeys, but I haven’t bothered. You can download my somewhat messy and un-documented xmodmap file from here: xmodmap.us.fi.

Windows (XP)

For Windows, I solved the problem a bit differently. First you need to download MSKLC. Win XP requires the version 1.3, otherwise you will get a crash when you shutdown, and system errors on startup. Apparently 1.4 would work for Vista, but I wouldn’t know. MSKLC doesn’t give you the power to change caps lock to an extra modifier, so the next best thing is to put ‘ä’ and ‘ö’ into their right places under the AltGr modifier.  Having done that, just create an installer from the layout and install it. MSKLC knows how to do it.

You need to make your system use your new layout, which means configuring the keyboard layout from Control Panel -> Regional and Language Settings. I think it’s under the second tab there, probably the first button - regarding keyboard settings.
Being half-way there didn’t suffice for me here, so I used regedit to change caps lock to an extra AltGr key. It wasn’t that hard, just run regedit, go to HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SYSTEM\CurrentControlSet\Control\Keyboard Layout and then add a new binary value called `Scancode Map’. The correct value to use is: `0000 0000 0000 0000 0200 0000 380e 3a00 0000 0000′. Then reboot, and if you did everything correctly, your new keyboard layout should work. If you’re interested to know what the magic numbers stand for, refer to e.g. Scan Code Mapper for Windows.

I will try to post the keyboard layout file and the regedit file here soon. For now, you just need to live w/the instructions. If you have to try a few times before getting it right, having to reboot the system can get rather old. Sadly, I know of no way around the annoyance.

• CustomizeGoogle
• DictionarySearch
• Download Statusbar
• Flashblock
• FoxyProxy
• NoScript
• Split Browser
• TinyUrl Creator
• Vimperator

• Zimbardo Time Perspective Inventory (ZTPI)
• Transcendental-future Time Perspective Inventory (TTPI)
  

  Past-negative	3.10
  Past-positive	3.78
  Present-hedonistic	3.40
  Present-fatalistic	2.67
  Future	3.54
  Transcendental-future	1.10

See also: [TSN] Beyond Belief 3: Philip Zimbardo, The Time Paradox

I wrote this post in Finnish to a discussion in Helsingin Sanomat. Translation here for y’all.

There are, in fact, many little things that each of us can do. Easy little things, nothing dramatic. It’s not an either-or thing, at all. For example:

1. Electricity. One can quite easily here buy electricity that’s been produced ecologically. And it’s not that expensive. Do this, and you have done a lot w/quite a little.
2. Public transport. I haven’t had a car in eight years, because I’ve chosen to live in a place where I haven’t needed it. If public transport works for you where you live - why not ? Moving to a place w/better public transport is hard-core, but if it’s okay where you’re at - just use it.
3. Cars. The car manufacturers are bringing models to the market that have very low consumption. Making an ecological choice here won’t be too painful, and the situation is rapidly getting better every year ! I just decided to postpone buying a car for two years to be able to afford a car w/low consumption. An added bonus is that we can use the car to go to Germany, not needing to fly there. And w/the low consumption -  it’s not going to cost all that much nor it’s going to pollute that badly at all - especially when compared to flying.
4. Eating meat. No, I’m not going to tell you not to eat it ! Rather, I’d ask you to consider eating more pork instead of beef. Producing beef causes a lot more greenhouse gases to be released into the atmosphere than producing pork. So go more for pork.
5. Recycling - and other little things. It’s not that hard, just get started w/something little ! Start taking the paper out separately, get comfy w/that and then maybe follow w/taking glass out separately as well. One little thing at a time. There are many green products in your local supermarket, so start replacing the ones that you use one at a time, when it feels good and right. Forcing things just makes you feel bad about it.

So there’s a few quick ideas off the top of my head what one can do to join the effort. Take it one little bite at a time, do it in a way that feels good and nice. Going extreme w/this stuff will piss off the people you spend time w/ or yourself. No point in neither.

So - there are a lot of things one can do. And it’s not so hard to get started. Pick one ! You eat the giant one small bite at a time. :)

Update: I really tried to get things to work w/bluez-utils, but it just doesn’t work. The error message I had where I finally left off was: “hci_acldata_packet: hci0 ACL packet for unknown connection handle 11“. It was suggested in the net that this is a kernel bug. Perhaps so.

I tried to synchronize my Nokia N82 phone w/Evolution on my laptop running Debian Linux lenny/sid. I mostly read Ubuntu documentation and other relevant documents from the Net, and came to the conclusion that opensync just does not at the moment work w/N82, at least not w/my configuration. I use an A-link bluetooth USB-stick.

As far as I can tell, the situation is that it’s a bit of a question of luck weather your phone works w/Opensync, ATM. I have the feeling that this is a passing phase, and the synchronization will work some time in the near future. For the time being, though, there’s little one can do w/o joining the project.

Beyond Belief 3: Candles in the Dark is out, but the TSN web-site is slashdotted !

Kindly enough, Cluebot has created a .torrent file. Please help in seeding it, so we can all watch this great event !