Category: personal diary

mostly personal, notes on the road

navigating with a tomtom go 710

It appears that ubiquitous or pervasive computing is just making more effect in our everyday life, year after year. Small smart applications or services are combining the information of virtual world with that of our physical living contexts.

Experimenting with some of the consequences personally, I yesterday got my first GPS navigation system, the TomTom GO 710. After the first try it seems a well-designed and smartly functional gadget; I particularly esteem the speed it can recalculate new route if you missed a turn. The only downside so far is that my Nokia 6630 is not fully supported in the bluetooth handsfree function: it cannot access the contact list, making it very hard to make phonecalls using it. Well, at least you can aswer calls.

And the real value is in the community, as this can be considered ‘social software’, too. There are many individuals and groups preparing and publishing GPS coordinates in TomTom’s POI/.ov2 file format, or in others. And GPS navigators relate to the future of pervasive games, too.

Some links:
http://www.tomtom.com
http://konttinen.1g.fi/tomtompoi/
http://www.abico.liitin.net/TomTom/
http://www.gps-waypoints.net/gps/
http://hain.fi/poi/
http://www.jahi.net/TomTom/index.htm
http://www.expansys.com/forum.asp?man=TOMTO&code=TOMTOMGO
http://www.iperg.org/

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vihta – the art of beating


vihta – the art of beating
Originally uploaded by FransBadger.

There is a fine art in Finland, related to Sauna culture, called vihtominen – the enjoyable form of beating you with twigs of birch. Happy summer, everyone!

garden party


garden party
Originally uploaded by FransBadger.

Water is a beautiful thing. This is a small fountain, set up today during a heat wave into balcony. Creates happiness and cool — very handy, to be recommended.

ds lite, game and comics classics

Today I got my Nintendo DS Lite, plus a pack of classic Atari games from 1970/80s from a Brussels media store. (Already loving what touch screen control means for the gameplay of Centipede, for example.) With some Neil Gaiman comics that previously were missing from my collection, it looks like I have multiple ways to spend the remaining summer vacation.

german river valleys


german river valleys
Originally uploaded by FransBadger.

Today we have been driving along the Mosel valley in Germany. Now having a break in the medieval market square of Bernkastel-Kues, an ancient town in middle of fertile vine country. A very warm day!

bouillon and orval


bouillon and orval
Originally uploaded by FransBadger.

This looks like a bit different kind of midsummer. Today, the castle of Bouillon, an impressive medieval ruin overlooking the Semois river. Then to the Trappist cloister of Orval where they make really great beer and nice cheese. I was a little disappointed that after this travel we were not even allowed to the courtyard of abbey, since we were 15 minutes late from their admission to the entrance tickets. In Finland, you can visit a forest or church freely; here, you need an entry ticket to both.

belgian beers


belgian beers
Originally uploaded by FransBadger.

Apart from pils/lager, that has conquered the world, Belgium is one of the places still treasuring traditional fermentation methods and receipes. Today in Ghent; St-Baafskathedraal with the famous Adoration of the Holy Lamb by van Eyck brothers. Now “Keiser Karel” (dark), a “bier van hoge gistning”, the high fermented brown beer. Tasty.

summer solstice in belgium


summer solstice in belgium
Originally uploaded by FransBadger.

It looks a bit rainy at the moment, through the roof-top windows of Brussells. But it is a holiday now, and that counts! 🙂

guitar hero

Half of evening training this simple rhythm game, coated with all essential rock clichés. I wonder why they have not hailed Guitar Hero as the current top serious game? At least it gets me working with the chords like no guitar tutor has been able, so far.

(Damn, Blogger is getting issues again. Up and down. And yet no categories or tags system available for separating postings in different topics. Should I move to Movable Type, or WordPress?)

from wii to mölkky


from wii to mölkky
Originally uploaded by FransBadger.

Multimodal gaming holds the promise of expanding both casual and more dedicated gaming experiences – point that got Nintendo’s Wii lots of attention in E3. But this weekend is for Mölkky, the ultimate realistic game interface.