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Don't want to get political

Results are in and it seems we are going to see some interesting times ahead. It's hard to comprehend how we ended up in this situation. From outside it looks like this should never have been even possible. But somehow here we are.

I don't care much about politics, and even less so when it's not something closer to my daily life. But in this case this might affect way more people than anything from the past almost hundred years.

Throwing the phone on the floor

I usually take good care of my phone, and any other delicate stuff for that matter. But over the past few days I have managed to drop my phone not on e, but twice! I'm pretty sure this has been the first (and the second) time I've ever dropped my current phone. I don't even remember when I would have dropped any of my previous one either.

Sorting strategies

Organizing my LEGO collection has given me a good chance to reflect how our memory and vision (among other things) work. Trying to find a certain piece among the lot is a good exercise to observe these functions. By better understand them helps to improve the overall efficiency of the process.

Baby steps towards singularity

In some sense we have already reached the singularity (or more precisely the A.I. has reached it). By some definitions the technological singularity happens when an artificial intelligence starts autonomously improve itself.

In a way thr already happens when the developers use A.I. coding tools to create better models. Of course that's not strictly autonomous (unless if the machine is playing us and using us to improve itself this way).

Trailers?

Ever wondered why when they show previews of upcoming movies before that actual movie begins they are called trailers?

When these previews were originally introduced in 1913 they were actually shown after the film ended. After a while they however realized they weren't that effective promoting new upcoming movies as people tend to leave the theatre and not stick around to see the credits or the trailers. So they were moved to be shown before the actual movie begun. But the name stuck and that's why they are still called trailers in these days.

Winter wonderland

The winter arrived this year woth a bang. In the morning I was wondering how long did I sleep because it was not so dark outside. Opening the blinds (and checking the clock) revealed the truth: everything outside was covered with a few centimeters of snow.

It's a big difference. Last night I was driving in the rain and it was really dark even where there was street lights. The wet asphalt and ground really suck all that light. Now it's all white and the ground is almost like a mirror reflecting even the faintest light.

Got a minute

Being primarily remote makes my days more predictable. I live by the calendar and save the few urgent matters there aren't much of any ad hoc things happening during my workdays. Even if it's not meetings I tey to schedule my tasks in my calendar as well to keep on track of what I need to do. Reserving slots for important tasks also ensures I actually have time for those as otherwise people would see a free slot in my calendar and book a meeting there.

Free lunch

The say there is no free lunch, but sometimes that's down to semantics. We often arrange team days for our teams together with customer including lunch a d sometimes even dinner.

As a team member that's pretty close to free meal as it gets. Sure you are required to show up, but mostly it's an extra thank you for doing your job. There is no other expectations from the regular team members in these events.

Open source AI

The Open Source Initiative has released the official definition of open source AI. A lot of companies have been promoting their models as open source, but even before this official definition it was clear they were not in fact open.

Most of the released "open" model have been just the model. It's a good start and the most useful thing for most users. They don't really care about how to train their own model as long as they can use these "open" models freely for their needs.

Non-standard LEGO themes

There are huge number of different LEGO set themes these days. A lot more than the original three introduces back in 1978 (city/town, castle and space). Most of those themes use (mostly) standard LEGO bricks, but there are few that have their own distinctive pieces.

The most well known such themes are Dublo- and Technic sets. Former featuring big, double sized bricks and later using pins instead of studs for primary connectors between bricks.

Adjusting clocks

It's funny how in this day of modern technology we still need to adjust most of the clocks manually. Not to mention how archaic it is to use daylight saving times to begin with. But as long as we don't get rid of it, it needs to be done twice a year.

Computers, phones and smart watches at least are smart enough to do the adjustment automatically. Of course the analogue clocks can't do it and I still like to keep them around the house. The "smart" home appliances are a different story. They claim to be smart, but can't handle even this little thing.

Interesting times

My mortgage's interest rate is tied to 12 month euribor. Back when we bought the place the interest's were on negative side, although the banks had already prepared for such situations and capped the bottom rates at 0 %.

Few years ago when things started to happen the interest's skyrocketed. Last year was the worst. Ar the beginning it was good as my interest was fixed for 12 months on the lower rate while the interests kept raising. But last year, the fixing time happened to be at the height of those rates. So past year I have been "enjoying" the highest rates for a long time.

The "new" system

It has been nearly 4 years since I launched Writestreak, my "new" writing platform. Before that I had already been writing on my previous platform for years. In the matter of fact exactly as long as I have now been writing on Writestreak.

It still feels like a new place to write. The first half of my streak still feels much longer. It feels like it was very long ago when I originally started writing, but it feels it wasn't that long ago when I switched to this new platform (although I still keep cross posting to the old platform as well).

Signs of winter

Even though the weather has remained unusually warm for this time of the year the annual signs for winter are still on the horizon. On the coming weekend the daylight saving time is once again ending meaning there will be a bit more light in the mornings, but the evening darkness will also come an hour earlier.

Another sign of closing winter is the speed limits which will be changing to the winter limits starting next week. The limits will be lowered by 20km/h for the highest limits (120km/h and 100km/h) on most roads to address the coming icy conditions.

Return of the Yeti

I just finished watching the latest Star Wars show the Acolyte. It somehow reminded me about the time I was a kid and hadn't seen any of the original Star Wars movies.

I remember back then seeing all those posters for the movies and thinking that the movies would be somehow more related to yeti's, the snowmen. Must have been all those images of Chewbacca that gave me that impression along the Jedi sounding similar to yeti (at least with Finnish pronunciation). It was a bit of a disappointment when I finally saw the movies and realized my mistake.

Single inventory

When I got back into LEGO I sorted my old bricks by type to make it easier to find the pieces and put the sets back together. There are many sets I'm not that interested in, so there are still a lot of bricks in that inventory.

What are your adjectives

Using pronouns to signify ones gender identity has become rather common lately. It's an important think to emphasize the chosen identity of a person and it can also strengthen the feeling of individuals self. Especially for those who don't comply with the "norm". After all, our gender is quite big part of who we are.

Using pronouns as a self reflection is powerful thing. It can shape our self image, just those few little words. But what I think could be even more important is paying focus on the adjectives we use to describe yourself as well.

Corpus clock

One of the big inspirations for my new album was a clock designed by John C Taylor. When he visited his old college campus at Corpus Cristi in Cambridge he realized how little was changed over 40 years since his times studying there. This inspired him to create a clock that was nothing alike seen before.

The clock is a masterpiece both in art and clockmaking. It took 5 years to create it and used some unique technologies to craft. It even led to several new patents needed for it's marvelous engineering.

Doorway effect

Ever walked to another room and rhen wondered why you were going there? This isn't that uncommon for people to experience. It even has it's own scientific name: event boundary. The cause isn't exactly known, but there are many theories based on how our brains work.

Our memory is context based. It's easier to recall certain information when you are in a similar situation as when you originally received that information. Stepping into a different space can "reset" your memory due to the context switching.

Relativistic speeds

We thing the speed of light is fast. But it really isn't when put into a meaningful context. For all mundane purposes it's other instantaneous or just doesn't matter at all.

By absolute comparison the speed of light is much, much faster than for example the speed of sound. But for us the speed of sound is actually really fast. Fast in a sense we can still easily comprehend. Fast in a sense that we can actually for example travel at that speed, and beyond. Even though only a small number of people have actually done so.

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