2002
Year of the Horse
Islamic calendar 1422-23
Mean world temperature increased by 0.5oC since 1990
19th Olympic Winter Games in Salt Lake City; heatwave causes cancellation of Mens' Biathlon Relay
World population reaches 6,000 million
Cybertaxis ease orienteering problems in Virtual Helsinki
Matti Virtanen changes name - cites Internet as cause
New paints to revolutionize building sector?
SatWeb to relay Net-TV channels
New York Times/articles service/Youssef M. Ibrahim 4.2.2002
The computerized facsimile of the Finnish capital, Virtual Helsinki, is now equipped with an impressive fleet of virtual taxis; instead of waving an umbrella, you hail a cab with a click of your mouse. This so-called "118 Taxi" service will greatly ease users' movements around the virtual metropolis.
Thus far, travel in the virtual environment has been somewhat hampered by the fact that the control methods and software installed in PCs have been inadequate for the task in hand. Some users have grumbled that getting about virtually in Helsinki requires skills approaching those of a helicopter pilot.
These problems are not common to all, however. When orienteering competitions have been held in Virtual Helsinki, the fastest competitors have managed to visit as many as ten different sites in under a minute.
Jukka Lehikoinen, the virtual city's Press Officer, expresses some surprise at the complaints about manoeuvrability that have come up. "It looks as though there are some people who can't be bothered to walk even virtually", he observes laconically.
The new virtual taxis are not just address directories, they can be consulted for all kinds of advice and assistance. In order to search out the information sought, all they require is an address, phone number, or any name or service that can be found from the virtual city's databases.
A charming young lady whom I met over lunch in a downtown restaurant confided that she had recently woken up alone in the apartment of a newly-acquired boyfriend, and discovered - presumably after the numbing effects of the previous night's partying had worn off - that she had a terrible toothache: "I couldn't even find a telephone directory so I could call the dentist", she complained. "Luckily I spotted he had a PC open on his desk, and I logged in to Virtual Helsinki. I hailed a virtual cab, but when I was faced with the destination panel, I couldn't think of what I should write. I was pretty furious, and the best I could do was to clip the driver around the ear with the mouse. This smiley face looked back at me and asked me what he could do for me. Then all of a sudden the face went a bit strange, and he said: "Wow, lady, don't you think you'd be better off in a dressing gown, however virtual we all are?" You know what? The bloody vidphone was on. That filthy pig had left it open all night!"
The young woman told me that in the end she was very satisfied with how things worked out, except for the accidentally-on-purpose open video minicam connection. "Yes, the virtual taxi dropped me off at the nearest dentist's surgery. I got an appointments book up on the screen, and made a videophone connection with the receptionist. She gave me a time, and I left straightaway. Well, nearly straightaway. First I deleted all the .CAM files from that bastard's hard disk - and a bit more besides." The 118 Taxi service takes its name from the local phone operator's conventional number enquiries facility, which also maintains the virtual taxi program. The old name- and number service is still in use, of course, as the majority of Helsinki residents are still reliant on fixed lines and cellphones. A Helsinki Telephone Co. representative told me, however, that he believes the new system will rapidly replace the old. At the same time, during the next decade or so it can be expected to replace the familiar bulky city telephone directories and the maps contained in them, which many people cut out and keep in their cars.
Helsinki 1.4. The Finnish politician and former actor Matti Virtanen has changed his name to Kaino Virtanen. The reason for the move is that his former name caused considerable difficulties on the Internet. Matti Virtanen is about as close to John Smith as you can get in these latitudes.
Virtanen's new first name, Kaino, is a nickname carried over from his days on the stage. Playing with an alternative meaning of the word that translates as "bashful", it recalls an incident where he refused to appear naked in a sauna scene in a television drama series.
According to Virtanen, a politician on the Net requires a clear and stable personality image.
"The personality analyses of Internet search engines have difficulty distinguishing between Matti Virtanens. I don't want my own profile to be muddied and unreliable, as it will take in the features of several other Matti Virtanens out there. As a political figure, it is extremely important that my actions appear honest and consistent, in order that voters feel able to put their trust in me."
Three other Matti Virtanens have already distributed to the media via mass e-mailings their own views on their fellow-Virtanen's decision. They announced that they would even benefit from the politician's change of name. Matti Virtanen of Vantaa wrote: "The man has ruined our good name." Matti Virtanen from Pielavesi went further: "He's probably just trying a clumsy clean-up job on his former political blunders, and he's throwing the lot on the necks of us other Matti Virtanens." A third Matti Virtanen observed laconically from Turku that: "Now perhaps we might be able actually to talk about something useful for a change in our discussion group."
A large part of Internet chat and discussion groups are now moderated through personality analyses, which have spread rapidly in recent months. The best-known search engine is based on the Scientist Monitor software developed at Carnegie-Mellon University. This was devised initially for the assessment of scientific papers for publication. The software designers subsequently found employment with the Alta Vista Corporation, and developed the program to produce a personality analysis version suitable for individuals. Personal Monitor reached the market last year, and sales have astonished industry experts. Alta Vista estimates that there are already around 20 million users worldwide. The basic principle of the software package is that it makes personality assessments of individuals and stores them in memory. Users can seek out the chat and discussion partners they wish by reference to analyses in the software databank.
Personal Monitor has also prompted considerable unrest and criticism among Internet users. Opponents charge that the discussion-group computers are full of all kinds of questionnaires duplicated by the program on people whom nobody has ever heard of. They claim that the groups are becoming useless, as there is no longer any time or space for conversation. A second complaint is that personality analyses - in particular those showing unfavourable traits - have often leaked into the public domain through the actions of malicious individuals or jilted lovers with grudges.
The program's designers have acknowledged the problem. They have promised to alter the next version, now in beta-testing, so that it will no longer send out unprompted questionnaires about people.
Davis Killick, the European Union Ombudsman on Data Security, could only shrug his shoulders: "Naturally we shall step in promptly in cases where information on individuals is collected and stored systematically, but this does not appear to be the case here. I said many years ago that people should be on their toes for this sort of thing. The Internet is a vast agglomeration of self-made publications. A publication, or material collected from a publication, is not a personal file, even though the user may be able to analyse the data given in such a publication. It's perfectly possible for a newspaper to be stored and saved to memory. It is perhaps a little too far-fetched to imagine that we can deny people the right to write or deny anyone the right to analyse what others have written."
"This is where the global village has taken us, and we have to live with it", Killick continued. "We live under the same conditions as people in a small village of old: everyone can hear stories about everyone else, and the rumours go round. One must simply learn to be more careful about what one says and writes, and try to correct the false information that is travelling around the various nets. As a crumb of comfort to those worried by this issue, I can say that the malicious spread of false information by this means is fortunately going to become an offence that lawmakers and judges will be able to act against more easily in future."
Roughly one-third of the Finnish population takes part in general discussion and conversation groups online, and search engines can be used to find direct or indirect information on one Finn in two.
In spite of the current unsettled climate, some optimistic social scientists believe that the global village created by the Internet will bring much that is good. They argue for example that conceptions of shared responsibility and honour will gain ground in what has become a powerfully mammon-worshipping culture, with gain as the primary motivation. On the other hand, the EU Parliament has for instanced witnessed a number of extremely impassioned speeches both in favour of increased protection of individual privacy and on behalf of greater freedom of information.
NetWeb Construction News 3.6.2002
New chemical reactive paints look like fundamentally changing the way we think about protecting the surfaces of buildings. This is the view of Hans Brick, chairman of the Swedish Construction Institute, who yesterday addressed the International Building Industry Forum in Frankfurt.
Hans Brick presented to a largely enthusiastic audience of industry experts a completely new type of paint, developed by Swedish Chemicals AB of Gothenburg. The most significant property of the new paint is that it reacts chemically with the surface it is designed to protect. The reaction in effect makes paint and surface into the same material. The paint is therefore no longer merely a protective layer, for example on concrete, but actually an integral part of the surface itself.
Brick went on to say that when we speak of reactive paints, it is actually quite wrong to refer to "paints" or "finishes", since the new treatment comes closer to the process of chemical face-hardening (or case-hardening), as used in carbonising iron or steel. Reactive paints have so far been developed only for use on concrete surfaces, but wood- and metal applications are well under way. Chairman Brick commented that the greatest obstacle at present is not one of finding a suitable chemical reaction, but that after the chemical reaction takes place the paint should retain the same properties of thermal expansion and contraction as the material being covered. Another difficulty is that the colour of the paint changes after the reaction. The finished colour can only be determined from a colour chart, and the colour reaction takes one or two days to complete. Those present at the forum took a generally positive view of the new surfacing technique, although eyebrows were raised at the news that at present the paint will be at least four times more costly than conventional concrete paints.
Jürgen Williger, technical director of a large German painting and surfacing contractor, said that he believes some customers are already prepared to pay the additional costs of the new technique, particularly if the manufacturers and contractors are able to offer a long enough guarantee for the treatment. He felt nevertheless that most would prefer to wait and see the results of trials and independent studies on the durability of the reactive paints.
On the question of cost, Hans Brick argued that the system would pay for itself in the medium-term, simply because after the new surfacing was applied, further treatment would not be necessary until such time as the concrete itself cracked for some reason.
Naturally, the innovation is going to pose some serious headaches for the makers of traditional paints. At a press conference, the Swedish Chemicals CEO Joel Hunden confided that an international consortium representing several household names in this branch had already tried to buy the rights and patents on the new paints, presumably in order that they might never reach the market.
European Network Television (ENT), the pioneering figure in Net-TV, is to enter into cooperation with SatWeb on distribution matters. This was revealed yesterday by ENT Managing Director Veli-Antti Savolainen.
SatWeb will begin distribution of the most popular Net-TV channels and channel compilations in their digital satellite broadcasts. Netcasting services have spread rapidly, but their viewing figures are still small when set alongside those of the traditional television channels. Net-TV programming is relayed to viewers via the telephone cable network and reception is paid for in call charges. The actual broadcasting of Net-TV programmes is in most cases free for the operator.
The idea sprang out of the opportunities offered by the Internet in the late 1990s. All that was required was a camera and the image was transferred to the receiver, initially one receiver at a time. At the same time, the technology required for transmissions became markedly cheaper, and networks learnt to distribute the programme material to all receivers interested in taking it. In this way these Netcast channels gradually turned into local TV-stations.
The widespread use of Net-TV demands a very high capacity telephone network. Such conditions exist for instance in Helsinki, where literally hundreds of channels have sprung up, all offering more or less regular transmissions. In the early stages they tended to replace things like club newsletters, Internet web pages, or the old chatlines run by phone operators. They also created situations not unlike virtual game-evenings. Nowadays the most popular programmes are interactive shows. Videophone request concerts resemble the familiar radio request shows of old. In virtual theatres the actors see some of their audience and can invite them to take part in the events of the drama. Karaoke channels and other "get-together" channels are also well represented. One surprising hit has been the Helsinki Tropical Fish Association's own channel. This was founded by club members, and it shows images from members' aquariums on a rotating basis.
SatWeb became interested in the idea of beaming Net-TV programming to a wider audience after ENT had just won a licence to distribute around one thousand Net-TV stations. These stations all use the ENT servers to get programming across to their viewers. At this stage, the agreement between the two companies requires ENT to make edited compilations - complete with announcers between programme sections - for ten satellite channels. SatWeb for its part broadcasts the programming and is entitled to sell advertising time on it. In addition, SatWeb will be transmitting the broadcasts of the six most-watched channels in their entirety, and in this case ENT will hold the rights to sell commercial spots.
The agreement offers SatWeb more programming and more advertising time, while ENT will be getting both the benefits of selling advertising space and also considerable international publicity for its Net-TV channels - and with it the likelihood of more customers. At the same time, the number of viewers reached by ENT programming will increase from around 300,000 to something in the region of 10 million.
Hannula I. & Linturi R. 1998: 100 Phenomena.
Yritysmikrot Oy, Helsinki 1998. Copyright notices ISBN 952-9508-18-2