Last Thursday I started my 2 1/4 weeks of the second part of my summer holiday. This is what I’ve been looking forward to since the deadline crunch at work. I need a little rest and relaxation. I guess I won’t be getting that much of it since I’ll be staying at home with my 10 month old daugther. My wife has returned to work after nearly a year’s worth of maternity leave. It’s a great benefit from the Finnish social system. Well, my wife sure wasn’t looking forward to going back to work, that’s for sure.

The first few days with Sarah has been tremendous. I’m with her when she wakes up between 05:30 and 06:30 until the evening time when Katriina returns from work between 17:00 and 18:00 normally. It has allowed me to bond with her more closely, not that we weren’t close even before this experience. Now that there is only me around the daytime, I have to care for her full time. It requires a lot of patience and energy. Oh yes, there is the dog as well. So far, it has been very good overall. Sarah has behaved well most of the time, only the usual crankiness when she’s either hungry or sleepy. Did I say sleep? This girl doesn’t like to take long naps. The longest so far has been 1.5 hrs, averaging half an hour.

It will be interesting to see her grow before my eyes, mostly mentally.

YouTube:
Length of video allowed: 10 min (no change)
Maximum file size: 1 GB – The longer and/or higher quality your video is, the more compression will be required to fit it into 1 GB
Aspect ratio: 4×3 – changed to 16×9 for all videos + HQ and HD (1280×720), 4:3 videos are screened in a pillarbox format
Example:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hELl8bYhtNo

Flickr:
Length of video allowed: 90 sec (no change)
Maximum file size: 150 MB (no change)
Aspect ratio: 4×3 and 16×9 (no change)
Example:
http://www.flickr.com/photos/savannara/3027173793/in/set-72157608815747022/

Facebook:
Length of video allowed: 20 min (no change)
Maximum file size: 300 MB 1024 MB (verification required for higher size)
Aspect ratio: 4×3 and 16×9 + HD
Example:
http://www.facebook.com/home.php#/video/video.php?v=44366766921

Although YouTube decided to support 16:9 aspect ratio with an option for high quality, the video size is still no match for Facebook, which is much larger at 576×324 pixels compared to YouTube’s 480×295 pixels. Where YouTube opted to stream a video at normal quality by default, Facebook streams it by default.

After studying further, I discovered that YouTube is able to play HD videos in 720p resolution (1280×720). So the above paragraph is only partially true. The size I’ve mentioned is only one resolution option of embedding the video. There are actually many higher sizes if you play with the options, which goes up to 660×405 pixels. Anyway, with HD videos, you can choose HD playback and the video is increased to a much larger size of 855×480 pixels.

See example: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Clwhm1dRu6c and click on watch in HD on the bottom-right of the video.

Flickr doesn’t deserved to be mentioned as they have not considered video to be important. Even if they are the de facto service for photo sharing, Facebook has recently claimed to have more photos uploaded by their members. As Facebook kicked MySpace’s hiney to take over the social networking sphere, will they take over media sharing as well? Only time will tell. Let’s see what Zuckerberg has up his sleaves in 2009.

Canon 5D Mark II

Nikon D90

It’s been a long time since I’ve used an SLR camera. The first and last one I had was a Minolta 5000 film camera. I liked it back then until I switched to point-and-shoot digital cameras. Okay, the comparison between the two DSLR isn’t really fair as the two cameras are in different classes. The reason why I’m comparing these two is because I’m planning to buy one or the other.

The Comparison

The Nikon D90 was the first DSLR to be launched with video capabilities and then The Canon 5D Mark II followed suit. While the midrange D90 has a crop factor of 1.5 times and 12.3 Megapixels, the full frame sensor 5D boosts 21.1 Megapixels.  So, not really a competition between the two different classes, but I’m evaluating these two since the video has been integrated. I have been wondering for the longest time, why DSLRs lack video.

The video difference is in the resolution: 5D Mark II supports full HD at 1080p while the D90 only supports 720p. To me, the 1080p will require a more powerful computer with a high-end video card if you plan to do lots of video editing. That’s what I intend to do and my current desktop doesn’t even play 1080p videos smoothly. Of course, this could be due to my sucky video card. Another thing is that 1080p videos will obviously come with a higher file size compared to the 720p resolution. The funny thing is that I currently have a point-and-shooter, Panasonic Lumix DMC-TZ5 with the capabilities of capturing 720p videos. I’m quite satisfied with it, except for the crappy microphone. I get a lot of hissing noise.

The price

The D90 is selling at 1200€ or close to that with a kit lens. The 5D Mark II isn’t even in stores yet, but the price will be more than double that of the D90 since it’s a full frame camera.

Decision

I would love to get the 5D Mark II if I can afford it. I might have to settle for the D90. Then again, I’m back and forth between the two brands because I’m also investing in lens. I wouldn’t want to switch later on. Another thing is that I’m wondering if newer DSLRs will be launced in the near future with video capabilities as well. In that case, I think waiting would be wise. Let’s see if a midrange DSLR will integrate a full HD video.

The thinking baby

Over a week has come and gone. The life of Sarah in Kuru, Finland has seen growth each day. Well, it’s difficult to tell if she is growing, but she has increased her diet on a daily basis. From the point of coming home from the hospital, we only gave her about 10-15 ml of formula each time she needed it. Today, she requires about 60 ml each time. Of course, she doesn’t consume all at once, but we can assume that she needs more food everyday in order to sustain her growth.

In addition to food intake, Sarah has been cranky and it’s difficult to determine what she needs. Katriina and I just go with the flow and hopes that everything will turn out all right. I think this is a typical method of raising a baby from the beginning. Diaper changing is normally the most difficult time as Sarah likes to use her lungs to the max. At times, she’s easier than others. Her umbilical cord hasn’t fallen off yet, so we are anticipating it to happen around next week.

There has been some sleepless nights as one would imagine. Sarah’s sleeping pattern is unpredictable, but we predict that she wakes up anywhere between 2-4 hours. And then she would need to be fed, have diaper changed and bottom washed. The cycle continues.

I haven’t had the time recently to post any blogs. I’ve been rather busy either with work and the latest excuse is a baby. Yep, I said it, a baby. I’ve never thought that this day would come or when it would come, but it is here and I’m living it as we speak. I knew I would be a father some day, but when was the more eluded quesiton. Katriina and I had set out a long term plan years ago when I moved to Finland. We assessed our goals and would achieve them before committing to have a family. We both would have a stable job and career, earn enough to support a family and own a house. Of course, we had to ignore the yapping from our parents and friends on when we would have a baby.

After getting a promotion earlier this year at the present company and Katriina was ready to have her maternity leave, we decided to evaluate our status once more. Our aggregated decision resulted in our readiness to become parents and everything was in place for a family.

It all started nine months ago, when the conception started. Month after month, we became more anxious about how we would raise our child around the current environment we live in. Obviously, this anxiety is a normal tendency with all couples and their first born. We didn’t want to be just any parents, we wanted to be the best parents who can provide all the love and care associated with childcare. The love and care that might have been lacking with our own experiences – the closeness, the bonding, the support, the caring, the emotional attachment. I’m not saying that we lacked any or all of these traits from both sides of our parents, but it’s a matter of providing the best care a child needs in order to grow up with our own expectations.

During the second and third trimester, the baby was already moving actively in the womb – kicking Katriina’s stomach every-now-and-then. It’s amazing how life was being formed right in front of your very own eyes. During the third trimester, we received a weekly pregnancy counseling by a midwife in our little town of Kuru. We had to visit once a week for a repetitive assessment and evaluation of the baby’s and Katriina’s status: taking blood pressure, obtaining weight, detecting baby’s heartbeat, etc.

Then, the delivery date arrived, and nothing happened. We were anxious for the moment because it could happen and we would need to rush to the hospital to start the labor. But nothing happened and we had to visit the counselor again that week. My prediction for the labor was the next day, Monday, but again, it didn’t happen. Everyday during that week, we anticipated the labor to occur, but nothing happened. Until, the seventh day after the actual due date. Katriina started feeling contractions, which started on Saturday 11:30pm. We waited it out for the contractions to occur more frequently before we would head out to Tampere University Hospital. I don’t think Katriina got any sleep that night as she was noting the frequency of the contractions. I don’t think I got much either because when Katriina is awake or the bed is moving, there is no way I can sleep. At 6:30am on Sunday morning, we decided that it was time to go. We didn’t have to rush because it wasn’t that emergent. Then our day began as we headed out the door, with a bag of necessities for Katriina during the hospital stay.

When we arrived to Tampere University Hospital at 7:30am, Katriina was admitted right away. I had to wait out in the hall, along with a host of other fathers-to-be. This wasn’t the actual delivery room, but a childbirth prepping room – predelivery room. The midwives assess the condition of the mom-to-be and decide if the labor would occur anytime during the same day. Fortunately for us, at 12:30pm, we were sent up to the delivery room. We were having the baby today. Even if they would send us back home, I would deny it because we live so far from the city and we wouldn’t want to take the risk of driving back and forth.

At the beginning of the labor, a midwife had set up all the equipment for Katriina. As pain started to get worse, Katriina got some air (N2O) to alleviate the pain. Through the next few hours, the pain reliever proved to be ineffective. The only thing affected was Katriina’s wellbeing. She got a bit stoned from getting too much air. It was self-treated so the midwife didn’t care if and when Katriina inhaled the air from a breathing tube.

An epidural was the next pain reliever. It worked…for about an hour or so. In addition to some other pain killers the midwife gave to Katriina, it still didn’t work as the contractions got more intense. The next pain reliever was a spinal treatment. After a few attempts to insert the needle to Katriina’s spine, the anesthesiologist finally got it in place – causing a bloody spot on the back. After few minutes, Katriina stopped whining as the treatment started to kick in. The spinal treament numbed the local area and Katriina felt much better, without any pain.

It was getting to be a long day as the baby persisted in coming out. Katriina and I decided to ask for a water breakage. Although the dilation was at 3 cm, she wasn’t dilating fast enough. Therefore, we got the doctor to perform a water breakage to induce a quicker dilation. Even after the water breakage, the dilation increased slightly per hour.

Our primary midwife had already started her double shift, but we weren’t even close to delivery yet. Then, when the night midwife came in, the action started. I had to assist Katriina  by supporting her back at a 90 degree position. When it got close, the midwife was showing me the tip of the baby’s head, already with hair. Feeling no pain, Katriina started to push much harder, with the assistance of two midwives. Then, the final push, a baby was born, on Sunday, 11:30pm.

The primary midwife placed the lifeless baby on a cloth. All of a sudden, it started to cry. I thought that they had to suck the goopy stuff out of the baby’s nose or mouth before the crying starts. I suppose, the baby didn’t need it. What a feeling it was to witness such an adventure for the baby. Katriina and I are now parents of a baby girl.

After an hour or so, the baby was placed on Katriina’s chest for warmth and bonding. We were wondering when they would clean up the baby, but it was a busy night apparently with many other labors. To my surprise, the baby wasn’t very dirty after coming out. Then the assistant midwife took the baby for a physical assessment:

Weight: 3.5 kg
Height: 52 cm

In addition to the head measurement, all signs were normal. We were relieved and happy about that. All we hoped for was a healthy baby.

The secondary midwife washed the baby in a large sink and took her back to the counter to clean and dress up the baby. After getting dressed in her first set of clothes, the midwife also wrapped up the baby in a large white cloth. When she was done, the baby looked like she had been mummified. She handed me the baby and I carefully carried to Katriina, who was still laying on the delivery bed.

After many more hours of waiting, we were moved to the recovery room. Things settled down and the baby was taken to the nurse’s station for overnight observation. I left the hospital at about 3:00am since the hospital policy didn’t allow husbands to stay overnight as there was no accommodation space.

For the next few days, I visited Katriina and the baby as much as possible. The baby was already a crier, proving that she had good lungs. Katriina’s health improved day-by-day and was on schedule for recovery. On the third day, the mother and baby was discharged. I brought the baby’s bag and carseat.

A long journey awaits us with the development of our first born. A lot of love and care is expected, but it isn’t enough through the first few years. It’s a matter of consistency for many years to come.

Additional pics and videos:
Baby weighing-in
Baby close-up
More pics and videos

I will leave the service and architecture reviews to the expert, so I will focus primarily on the user interface (UI) aspect of the site with a hint of user experience as well – as we know, both go hand-in-hand.

Homepage (register) layout

This is what you get when you first go to the site. There is a company logo on the top-left corner and login/register credentials on the top-right side of the page. And there is totally nothing in the middle of the top pane or header. Nada. It’s left totally empty. I see the point of balancing the pane with an item on the left and right, but the emptiness in the center doesn’t provide an added value to me. It needs to be used somehow.

The user thumbnail and login input fields appear to be placed too close to the top and right borders. They are overlapping the horizontal line. And the blue dialogue box, which is the status update, is overlapping the main pane area. This is okay, but the whole area is not nice at all. It definitely needs work.

On the left hand side, there are boxes that has a collapse/expand icon on the top-right corner – this ought to be familiar to anyone using a computer. I must say that the outline of the box in gray is okay, but the bottom line of these boxes appear thicker – around 2 pixels while the rest are 1 pixel. I believe the boxes might be placed adjacent to each other and not actually overlapping. Improvements are needed here. One suggestion is to leave a gap between the boxes.

The News box is fine, but I would rather see a link to read more instead of the scrollbar.

Then again, I’m not so sure about the placement of these boxes on the left hand side. I would rather see it in the center content.

Coming to the content, I thought the information on the top part could somehow be combined with “Browsers, Features and Tech Features” boxes. They are related with one another, so why separate them? You can place similar types of information in one section so the users’ eyes do not wonder around the screen.

The next item below that is a slideshow (illustrations) of features. After looking at this for awhile, it became annoying because it was looping. Again, the illustrations are a bit cartoonish and trying to be funny and needs to be more of a professional grade.

Also, there is a Flash demo below the slideshow. It is not playing by default, unlike the slideshow. Sure, the demo might be needed to tell the story of the service, but at the same time, the animation is lacking smooth transitions. Perhaps it was meant this way, but it doesn’t provide me a good storytelling experience because of the intermittent pauses in between sequences.  When the demo is ended, it doesn’t really end, there is a loop of flag waving and you can’t stop it. So when you have the slideshow and the demo continuously playing simultaneously, it becomes really annoying. Of course, you can stop the slideshow, but it ought to stop at the end and if a user decides to replay it, provide the option for that.

Moving to the right side of the content section, there are a couple of promotional boxes – for bands and more informational texts. These ought to be more powerful looking. Right now, I’m seeing it as just another box with text. It needs to appear more like a commercial ad. Then there is the “Register Now, for free” invitation, but with the light blue hues, it doesn’t draw my attention. It appears to be part of the background. There is a “…….mysites.com” field, but I had no idea what I’m supposed to do here. I guessed it was a username field and it is automatically filled in when you pressed “Go.”

The outline frames of these content boxes are way too thick – at 3 pixels. This is not pleasing to the eyes. You can see alignment errors easily (the band information box is not aligned to the bottom of the slideshow box). I think 1 pixel outline would suffice and more universal with other sites out there. It’s more of a standards issue.

After I clicked on the “Go” button, I get a pop-up with user credentials to complete. The pop-up idea is great, but it is not nice-looking from a UI point of view. First of all, the appearance of the whole pop-up doesn’t appear like a pop-up. It is just a box of input fields with a gray outline and a glossy sheen on top. The pop-up needs to stand out more. Nowadays, sites use a dimming technology when a pop-up is intentionally used for this kind of purpose. If it isn’t used, I suggest having some kind of shadow or edge glow with semi-transparency. Something like that so you get the feeling of a pop-up. I noticed that if I kept on pressing “Go”, I would always get another pop-up stacked on top of the previous pop-up. You can still perform actions behind the pop-up, except for things directly behind the pop-up.

Homepage (logged-in) layout

Once you have signed up and logged in, you’ll get five tabs in the middle area – aligned to right side of the company logo. The five tabs are: Home, My Services, My Buddies, My Messages and My Preferences.

In each of these tabs and to the right of the text, there is a terrible looking question mark. If you move your cursor over them, you’ll get a yellow hint text box. Perhaps the question mark is not necessary and could be replaced by something more meaningful – like in the new Facebook.

Company logotype

The overall look-and-feel of the logo portrays a bubbly and wavy feel, with blue blots in the background. The circular shape has the characteristics of water. The site is targeted towards gamers, students and everyone else who might want to share files with their cohorts. The blue hues are okay, but a bit muted in my opinion. The logo appears to be a tad amateurish. It needs to be more professional looking. Currently, it lacks power and some basic design principles.

It reminds me a lot of the Pepsi logo.

In the “About” section, MySites is written with a capital “M,” while the logo uses a small “m”. I don’t know if this was intentional, but it could be more consistent.

The question that boggles my mind is why are “About, Legal Information, Help” links superimposed on the bottom part of the logo? These links are barely legible because a portion of the logo is behind the texts. Normally, these links would be located on the bottom of the page, like a footer. If this is intentional, perhaps create a cell below the logo so that the text links do not overlap the logo.

Today’s standard sites usually provide the ability to click on the logo to return to the homepage, and MySites is no exception. For some reason, my arrow cursor doesn’t change to a pointing hand cursor when I move my mouse over the logo. Therefore, it provides uncertainty of the functionality, but after clicking on the logo, I am taken to the homepage.

Thumbnail icon

I actually don’t understand this icon at all. This icon appears to be used for the default thumbnail of the user and buddies. The icon looks like aliens in a capsule. The blue hues appear to be a bit dirty looking. A better icon is needed here.

Although it is definitely cool to scale the icon, the graphic designer forgot to optimize the icon so that when it is scaled to the fullest, it shouldn’t appear pixilated. The icon itself ought to be created at the maximum size for scaling down, not up.

My Services icons

All icons are using blue hues color palette. In general, it could be markedly improved for better visibility.

My Updates

The “My Updates” section, again located on the left hand side with cramped spacing, shows all the content uploaded by your buddies. If there is a folder, a default icon, again with this capsule-looking object. If there are photos, then a thumbnail is shown. Above it, there is textual information about the item. This is where it’s a little messy. The status of the upload is displayed right after an icon, followed by the item storage directory and to the right; you have “Share this Picture”. These items need to be situated in a table – perhaps with cell borders visible.

Final thoughts

The concept idea of MySites is good. Of course there are others with similar service offerings, but in order for MySites to gain a foothold on a large user base, it needs to have an overall UI renewal. It also needs a customization option so that I can move contents around – like drag-and-dropping because I don’t want to look to the left of my screen all the time – focus on the center of attention. As for the color palette, this area needs a total overhaul. Currently, the whole UI has a muted feeling because there are no other colors. Too much gradient usage is not good. The logo, IMHO, needs to be redesigned with a more dynamic personality.

I’m an avid fan of the Firefox browser and use it on a daily basis, unless a particular site requires the use of IE. Firefox 2.0 was great – I had cool add-on extensions to help me ease my browsing experience such as Tab Mix, which is great for enhanced tab personalization, email notifier, weather, etc. In the beginning, I had this problem with my cursor disappearing. This meant that everytime I typed something in a text field, every so often, the cursor moved somewhere else. Therefore, I would have to click in the text field again to continue typing. Image writing this blog entry with this problem. So far, I’ve had about five disappearance thus far.

I believe the problem was resolved through updates.

I have recently upgraded to Firefox 3.0 and have found the problem to have risen from the dead. This is definitely one annoying nuisance. No matter how much an application has improved, containing a defect from a previous release is not acceptable.

I have lost the cursor six more times. The total of cursor disappearance for typing this much text in a text field came out to be 11 times.

I thought this feature would solve the problem, Caret Browsing – something to do with selecting text with the keyboard. Press F7 to get this pop-up and turn off the Caret Browsing. At least it has worked on my Google toolbar…for now.

I need to find a fix for this cursor disappearing problem. I read that it’s not just Firefox, it’s the whole Mozilla runtime.

I wanted to see the differences between some video sharing services because I am an avid amateur videographer. So I have done some comparison between YouTube, Flickr and Facebook. I didn’t get to analyze Google Video since I haven’t used that service.

These were the criteria:

• Length of video allowed
• Maximum file size
• Aspect ratio

YouTube:
Length of video allowed: 10 min
Maximum file size: 1 GB
Aspect ratio: 4×3

Flickr:
Length of video allowed: 90 sec
Maximum file size: 150 MB
Aspect ratio: 4×3 and 16×9

Facebook:
Length of video allowed: 20 min
Maximum file size: 300 MB
Aspect ratio: 4×3 and 16×9

So YouTube allows the largest file size at 1 GB to upload while Flickr only allows 150 MB and Facebook is middle of the road with 300 MB. Talk about a difference. Obviously, all the supported video type; whether it’s MPEG, AVI, or MOV will be compressed to an FLV format on the Web. The end result of your video quality is nothing like the original.

Here is a comparison between YouTube and Facebook:

YouTube: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NSJLryno9VE

Facebook:http://www.facebook.com/home.php?#/video/video.php?v=21511576921
(can’t seem to embed the video to WordPress)

Apparently on YouTube, I couldn’t find a way to upload a 16×9 aspect ratio video, which is in HQ. I couldn’t find any information on their help section about this issue. So I end up Googling for an answer, but there wasn’t an easy method. I had to export the video file in a 4×3 format although the video was 16×9. This way, the top and bottom portion of the video will be black. The end result is not a true 16×9 format. What’s good now is that YouTube has the option to “watch in high quality”.

Facebook was much easier. It allows you to upload the original file format, whether it’s 4×3 or 16×9, the video application renders the aspect ratio correctly, as it’s supposed to be. In my opinion, Facebook’s video quality is even better than YouTube.

If you upload a video with a large file size, but within the allowed time length, YouTube will compress it so much that your video becomes blurry. Therefore, you would try to get the original file size down to around 200 MB. This will also help with the upload time.

We haven’t mentioned anything about Flickr in the comparison. Here’s a different video for comparison purpose: http://www.flickr.com/photos/savannara/2540561394/in/set-72157605344590933/
(can’t seem to embed the video to WordPress)

Flickr is very easy – much similar to their photo service. It recognizes the different aspect ratios and renders them on the screen perfectly. I was happy about that. I didn’t have any issues, except for the limited length of video time.

Overall, I like the Facebook video application because it provided a large screen for your video, allows a fair video size for upload and 20 min is doubled that of YouTube. That said, YouTube is the de facto video service that every socialites go to and share videos with the world. It’s safe to say that YouTube has the market. The only thing that I really don’t know is the social networking aspect of Facebook. The rule has been that you allow only your friends to view your profile and share/interact with you. When I uploaded the video from above, it gave me a few options and the first one was to allow everyone to view. But I think it’s only available to all of your friends and not to the general public, like YouTube and Flickr, where anyone can add a comment to your video. Other Facebook options are “Your friends and tagged people’s friends,” or “Only your friends.” To me, it’s pretty confusing options.

So what’s my preference? For the mass, it has to be YouTube, but for quality, Facebook gets my vote. If I want to share my videos to the world, upload to all the video services. That said, too much time will go to uploading the same videos.

It really sounds amazing and a total 180 degrees when I learned that my parents have committed themselves to finally visit Katriina and me in Finland. I don’t know what made them to consider this visit, but Katriina and I look forward to welcoming them to our home in Kuru. One inclination would revolve around my father’s age of 69 and still rather healthy, and that they ought to visit us at least once. If not us, then Europe.

I have been waiting for this moment for the last couple of years and now the long wait is over. Obviously, it must have required a great deal of decision making because my parents have other priorities. We knew that this day would come, but it was just a matter of when. I have to admit that I’m happy and giddy about their visit. At the same time, I’m just afraid that they will be bored in Finland. I just hope that they will take this trip as an opportunity to relax as well.

The Past

This is a photograph of my parents with their four children being photographed for immigration. I’m the boy with the number five on my chest – the third child of four. This photograph is not reminiscent of the trials and tribulations we had to endure during the Khmer Rouge regime in Cambodia during the late 70′s, but a photo of hope.

My parents have gone through so much pain and anguish during the Khmer Rouge regime that nothing could compare to that heinous period. Although my parents were not captured by the Khmer Rouge, in a sense, every Cambodians suffered all the same. We were one of the lucky ones who escaped to Khao-I-Dang refugee camp, based on the border of Thailand and Cambodia. I have to thank them for their struggles to save all of our lives no matter the circumstances. Many Cambodians have similar horrific experiences and real life stories, but it can not compare to your own sacrifices.

I cannot really say that I have struggled through these times, but through my parents’ stories, it makes me open my eyes and realize the difficult situation we had as a family. I cannot really say that I remember much of anything about the events, but through my parents’ stories, I have a history to reflect on and look forward to passing on to my own child(ren).

The Uncertainties

To rewind back to the first time I informed my parents about the news of my moving decision, they were definitely not pleased to hear about it. There were many “why” questions. And plenty of “if” questions as well. My mother had a really tough time understanding my planned decision. Why did I decide to leave the family to live with my Finnish wife? It was a very difficult decision with plenty of emphasis. It was not the first decision, but it was a joint decision between Katriina and me. We carefully analyzed the situation and felt that living together in Finland would prove to be the best decision.

One of the most difficult part of our relationship was not our own marriage, but was with the relationship we had with my mother. She appeared to have distant herself from Katriina for some reason – a level of prejudice of some sort. I suppose it might have nothing to do with race, but more of a mother-son relationship. The second year was especially difficult when we visited Seattle for the first time after my relocation.

Through time, situation changes, grudges are forgotten, but a change of heart is what happened to my mother. It took five years for it to happen, but we never lost faith in her. I’m certain that we’re not the only couple experiencing this type of situation. I’m very happy to see that my mother has realized Katriina’s heart-warming intentions.

The Present

It has been six successful years since I moved to the country of Finland and still going strong. It was at the end of December in 2001 when I packed a few bags and headed to the unfamiliar territory of the Scandinavian country. Honestly, it would be my second time. Therefore, I had some predisposed knowledge of the country’s environment and European culture beforehand.

At first, Katriina and I lived in Helsinki, the capital of Finland. I was amazed that I was integrated to the country’s social system instantly after my immigration. Well, there were some paper works, but it was a painless procedure. I was also given some unemployment benefits, in the form of cash and language training. To this day, I still can’t speak Finnish very well. That’s what happens when you rely on English everyday for work.

After getting a hired at the country’s largest and world’s telecommunication company, we had to move to Tampere, a city approximately two hours north of Helsinki. After three years in a condo, we bought our first house and moved to Kuru. Fortunately for Finland, I haven’t considered returning back to Seattle yet.

The only family member to have visited me, so to speak, was my brother Savan. Actually he was at my wedding the year before my move to Finland. Therefore, it might have been semi-official. So Savan needs to come visit us for real. Now, my parents will be making their first visit to Finland. Let’s see if my two sisters will find their way to Finland someday. With a large family of their own, it might be too much of a challenge.

The Plans

With a month stay in Finland, we found it somewhat difficult to provide some sort of entertainment for my parents. There isn’t a concrete plan for tourism, but here are a few items we came up with:

1. Cambodian Night at Katriina’s mom’s restaurant for a charity event.

2. A 3-day cruise from Helsinki-Sweden-Helsinki on Viking Line

3. A tour to Finland’s Lapland and Artic Circle; to meet the real Santa Claus

4. A west coastal scenic tour

5. A tour of the Helsinki area

6. A tour of the Tampere area

7. A house party with Finnish family members and friends

8. Of course, my dad has promised to help me do some patio and driveway brick layering

What is Ovi? Nokia has described it as their door to the Internet services. As a new Nokia business strategy to tackle the world of Internet services, Ovi was launched to compete with the likes of iTunes and other music and video services. Ovi, which means “door” in Finnish, has been launched to the public, but only to a few selected countries.

In addition to music and videos, Nokia Ovi also offers Share, Maps, N-Gage and Sync. The strategy here is not only to mimic other music and video services, but to offer some differentiators that could lure customers to join Ovi. This service will definitely attract die hard Nokia faithfuls or early adopting customers.

The Share service essentially allows a method of sharing media content via a mobile device. Consumers are already enjoying similar service with MMS, but only to a certain extent of the technology’s capability.

The Nokia Maps service includes over 150 countries and provides an easy method to send maps and directions to a friend’s mobile device. Upon purchasing NAVTEQ, a mapping service, Nokia has been pushing hard to promote the Maps service unto their terminals.

N-Gage started out as a music device, but due to low sales, it eventually got canceled. The brand name has now resurfaced, but in a service-oriented aspect. N-Gage is now a gaming channel. Consumers can subscribe to the service, try out games, and purchase after the trial period.

The Share service is simple as it sounds. It is nothing new either. It’s just integrated to the Ovi service. Basically, you can share pictures, videos and any other files you feel like sharing with your friends and family. You can also create your very own channels for sharing files. All this can be achieved via your mobile device.

I have only covered the basis of the differentiating factors that Nokia Ovi offers. What about music? Every once-a-month, the Nokia Music Store offers a free track you can download and keep forever. So far, these selective few have only been from artists I have never heard of. Before you can download or listen to a track, the service directs you to download and install a media bar that will be located to the left side of the browser’s scrollbar. Why wasn’t that already built in the site?

All said and done, Nokia needs to fix one giant problem: an incompatibility issue with other browsers like Firefox and Safari. I’m beginning to suspect that Ovi only supports IE at the moment. Isn’t that lame or what? I can’t believe in this age of cross-platform standardization, Nokia has made a bone-headed decision with their lack of support for other browsers. I have been using Firefox since 1.0 and now Ovi is telling me that I have to use a browser that I don’t want to use. I don’t think so. Fortunately for Nokia, it is still in its beta infancy.

One terrible annoyance is the carry-over problem of the account login information. I guessed I signed up at the UK store, but when changing to the Finnish store, my password didn’t work. Therefore, it leads me to believe that I will have to sign up for the Finnish store as well.