Welcome strangers & others.

My name is Antti Kurenniemi, and this here is my place. Welcome. This is my feeble attempt to pass as a blogger in the space that is generally known as internet. I'm going to ramble on about whatever pops in to my mind along the way. Feel free to ignore me, it's cool, no pressure.

I'll probably be yapping on about software development quite a bit. That's because I have my own software business: Blue Rose Software . Go check it out - but be warned, it's all in Finnish.

Cheers,
Antti

Whoa, where did that come from? Embarca-what? Talk about a surprise. Well, I'm glad that something happens. Being left stale in the water was starting to feel really bad, since I've got a huge codebase invested in CodeGear's offerings (Delphi to be exact).

I just wish they'd finally come to their senses and bring their shit up to speed with Firebird...

I have tons of small apps that I've made over the years, and some of them may even be of some amusement to you. For that reason I've added a "Free stuff" page (in the "Links" box, top right) where you can download them.

Not much there yet, but I started with one that is most often requested: a Matrix Screensaver. I initially made it around 2003, and it's been available from many places over the years. Rumor has it that it's been downloaded quite a lot. From here you can get the latest version, which I just fixed a little today, and also checked that it works in Windows Vista.

Enjoy. Let me know if you like it.

Ok I admit it, I'm the 3rd suckiest designer in the universe, and the only 2 below me are blind.

I'll try to fiddle the colors little by little to something more tolerable. Also, I've yet to figure out how to change the font size - I know it's kewl if you're l33t to have as small a font as possible, but for "normal" people it's actually pretty painful. Try to read this font size on a 15" laptop screen with 1600 x 1200 resolution, and you'll see what I mean. Well, actually, you won't see, but that's exactly the point.

But the header picture is nice (cough cough I took it myself cough cough).

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Update: Woo hoo! I managed to make the text a wee bit larger, and mess up the colors even further. Fear not, things will get a lot worse until... I give up and revert to the defaults. See you next time - unless I'm too active with the colors and nobody will be able to see antything anymore!

I don't know if reading really is in a decline, but at least among programmers I feel it is not popular at all. Sure, programmers read blogs and magazines and manuals, but proper books - fact or fiction - not so much.

So I thought I'd give some recommendations. Subject to my own particular mindset, yes, so take with a grain of salt. And for a quick background: I read a lot.

Ok, here goes the first: The Soul Of A New Machine by Tracy Kidder. If you've never actually given much thought about how much work it is to design a whole new computer, this will be interesting reading. It tells a story about the development of a minicomputer - and if you're young enough to not know what a minicomputer is, then all the more reason to read this book.

More recommendations to come, stay tuned.

I don't remember when was the last time I felt quite this jazzed about a silly little thing as I do now. About what? Well, garden lights. That's right, garden lights.

But hold on, there's more to it. First of all, I live out in the boonies, no street lights or antyhing like that here, so it gets real dark at nights. For a long time I've been thinking of putting some lights out in the yard, but the thought of digging up the ground for all the cables has been sort of a handy excuse for putting it off until next year, for at least five years now.

But then, about a week ago, I saw an ad in a paper about solar powered garden lights, and I thought wow, that's cool - but probably a bit expensive. Anyhow, I went to check them out, and oh man was I surprised to find that they cost right next to nothing. I got 6 lights for a total of 25 euros! That's about three meals at McDonalds, or a third of a tank of diesel for my car - i.e. peanuts.

The lights are pretty small, about one feet tall, and they have a single white LED in them, powered by an AA sized rechargeable battery. On top the lamp is a small, about 5 x 5 centimeters solar panel, which doubles as a switch for the lamp. When there's enough light, the battery is charged, and when there's not enough light to charge the battery, the LED lights up. Simply brilliant.

I really get a kick out of high technology used in such innocuous ways. Also, I like to think that I'm somewhat of an environmentalist, so low-energy devices (LED's in this case) and solar power are close to my heart. Add to that the fact that these were dirt cheap, and that the battery is replacable and standard size (so I may even be able to find a replacement after a few years), and we've got a winner.

Way to go - me like!