discovering the world and beyond

... and I'm back, maybe

2010-11-29T06:22:00.000-08:00

So it turns out that instead of becoming a more active blogger & web-owner, I became an inactive one. To be honest, I'm just too busy or too lazy to spent too much time regularly on public babbling. Which does not mean I'm babbling less - it's just that I still like doing it more f-2-f over a glass of something, rather than on the web. But - I have still kept my comments coming on our collaborative SPROTTT blog.

So after my 2,5 year break from blogging I am noticing that I'm not the only one. Most of the blogs I had been following while being a somewhat active blogger myself are not active anymore ... with one big exception, it seems. Namely the blogs that have survived are the ones that are upheld as a team, not as person-blogs. I suppose it's a sign that blogging works better in teams, just like doing sports often does.

see you in Edicy ...

2008-10-19T07:05:00.000-07:00

Edicy is a simple product to create your own website. It is brand new, so be patient with it - the guys are working on it, so it is getting better every day.

I have just created myself a new website and I am an almost classic case for Edicy - I have no web-programming skills and have done only very little html-based information inputting in a wiki. So you can take my word for it - it is simple enough for virtually anyone to use.

And - it also has a blogging tool, of course. Although not as advanced as Blogger, but I bet they'll be working on it. So I am now swithing to blogging on my Edicy page, but will keep this one for an archive for now.

If you are interested in reading the random few comments of mine visit MyWorld and I very much recommend you try out their product for yourself. So see you in Edicy ...

mourning Estonian newspapers :(

2008-06-30T22:10:00.000-07:00

And now they spoiled the last online daily in Estonia ....

It was in early 2007 or late 2006 when they made a photostore out of my previous favorite Estonian daily Postimees. By doing so, they decided against easy access to real news and glossed out all the crappy news. That time around I actually bothered myself and wrote them an email informing that their website is so crap now that I am switching my preferences for good - to another major daily Eesti Päevaleht.

Yet today morning I had to think twice whether I accidentally clicked a wrong website or something, because from today on Eesti Päevaleht website looks more or less exactly like that of Postimees. So here goes the last readable online daily in Estonia. This time I will most likely not even bother to write them an email, and simply have to switch reading international news only or check out maybe some news services have decent online editions.

And this is all sad - it is not like Estonian newspapers had superb quality anyways. Now they have gone and spoiled the visual experience too.

Touring Eastern Europe

2008-06-29T07:06:00.000-07:00

Team: Kristi, Raiko, Maile & Mihkel

4.06. The planned start at 4pm was delayed by 2 hours. First because Mihkel needed express replacement for his last pair of unpacked pants that someone had thrown into the washing machine and were soaking wet when he got home to change the suit. And then because the TomTom we borrowed apparently only has a proper map for the Baltics, so Mihkel borrowed a small GPS locating device that can be attached to a laptop and used for routing with maps in the computer. It turned out a small and nice-looking gadget that was useful sometimes in large cities, but useless on highways as the lag was too large to enable real-time navigation.

But once we had the pants for Mihkel and the GPS-thingie we were on our way towards Riga to pick up Raiko who had decided to make good use of the fact that we were on the way towards south anyways and get some work done.

5.06. Kutna Hora and Prague
highlights - church decorated with human bones in Kutna Hora

6.06. Prague
highlights - palace, art museum and dinner

7.06. Prague - Ceske Budejovice - Ljubljana
highlights - beer festival; sluts on the border; passport control on Austrian border; car accient in the tunnel (fortunately not our car)

8.06. Ljubljana - Opatje
highlights - killed the laptop; met Veikko and his rooftop apartment; finally at the seaside

9.06. Opatje -Rijeka - Krk island and city - Plitvice lakes - Split
highlights - dead snake; bullet-dotted houses; the lakes; Split old town

10.06. Split - random beach - Dubrovnik - small town close to Herceg Novi
highlights - beach; Dubrovnik old town

11.06. small town close to Herceg Novi - random beach - Bar - Uljnie
highlights - beach; male-centered society

12.06. Uljnie - Skodr - Tiranja
highlights - horrible Albanian roads and lack of signs; horse- and goat-carts all around; rabbits and parrots and a skunk in hotel; rotating Sky-bar and striped houses of Tiranja; small kids selling smokes and slutty 5-year old girl

13.06. Tiranja - Vlore
highlights - bubble-bath; bookstore with no books; again horrible roads; cows on the road; romantic sunset; party on the beach

14.06. Vlore - Dherm - Skopje
highlights - on top of the world on the way to Dherm; serpentines and more serpenrtines goats and lots of bunkers by the roadsides; Mercerdes- country; most beautiful beach; Estonian-loving Albanian friend; dead animals on the road

15.06. Skopje - Belgrad
highlights - Turkish bath building; bazaar - all-you-need- and-dont-need place; more Estonian-loving people; no shopping on Sunday; Serbians do not like Albanians indeed - they'll let you know already on the border; as though there's never been a war

16.06. Belgrad - Zlate piesky by Bratislava
highlights - could be almost another Prague; military museum; lots of hedgehogs and lots of campers

17.06.Zlate Piesky by Bratislava - till home next morning

individual's information manager ... continued

2008-06-01T13:20:00.000-07:00

Just to follow up with more ideas/options - yes, last time I forgot to mention the various types of tagging systems for files that have been created. While this is a useful option and a step forward, I would still call it just a baby-step as it only solves a tiny bit of the bigger issue.

... to be continued further

individual's information manager - is there anything good out there?

2008-05-11T05:37:00.000-07:00

Like many people, I like to read a lot, and every once so often I come across a very interesting bit of information that I certainly want to save for my own reference. And the easiest way, of course, is to add another file to the complex web of folders in My docs. Yet the problem is, that these files and folders and subfolders and subfolders .... keep accumulating and by the age of almost-30 and with My docs around for about 10 years, it is most likely that I will never manage to dig out or use effectively I guess about 80-90% of that accumulated information.

So the options today are:
1) never-ever read that stuff again;
2) do exploratory tours in My docs folder every once in a while (which will always remain about one but last item on my personal time schedule);
3) write some scribbles with references into my blog - NB! having browsed and collected information for about 10 years you also discover, that some interesting web-references tend to go off-line, so keeping a reference link doesn't really help either!
4) create a personal website or wiki to manage the info
5) ....?

So far, it seems to me that today the best option is number 4) if you are prepared to spend sufficient time on setting it all up and playing around with it so it becomes at least remotely interesting, user-friendly for my own use and sharing etc.

I bet that there are many of you around that have struggled with the same problem - so if you have found a good solution, please let me know! Also, if you have found any particularly easy-to-use, -manage, and -read wikis - I would also appreciate any suggestions for those!

Best suggestions will earn my eternal gratitude!

Innovatsiooniauhind 2008 - võitjad leitud

2008-02-27T11:01:00.000-08:00

Valitsus ikka räägib, et rahvas peaks rohkem innovatiivne olema. Mina leidsin täna ühe näite sellest, kuidas täiesti tavaline keskmine eestlane on täiesti konkurentsivõimeliselt innovatiivne ja leian, et Eesti Innovatsiooniauhind 2008 (kas see on olemas või mitte) kuulub järgmistele innovatiivsetele kodanikele, kellest kirjutab tänane EPL:

Tapal tüssasid mehed taaraautomaati
Politsei tabas tänu tähelepanelikule kodanikule Tapal kaks meest, kel peale ühe tühja õllepudeli midagi ei olnud, kuid said sellegipoolest taaraautomaadist kolm tšekki kokku 39 krooni väärtuses.
Politsei pidas Tapal ühe poe juures kinni kaks alkoholijoobes meest, kellest üks enne politseiautosse istumist poetas maha nööriga õllepudeli, kirjutab Virumaa Teataja.
Tabatud Pavel ja Raul selgitasid politseile, et soovisid õlut ja suitsu osta, kuid raha polnud. Ainsaks varanduseks oli neil tühi õllepudel, millele nutikad mehed nööri kaela ümber sidusid ja läksid taara vastuvõtupunkti.
Mehed panid pudeli masinasse ning tõmbasid pärast summa fikseerimist jälle nöörist tagasi.

Rääkige nüüd veel, et rahvas pole innovatiivne. Ettevõtjad on need, kes pole piisavalt nutikad, et osavatest nupumeestest sammuke ees püsida ;)

Where can I buy space-money?

2007-10-07T23:27:00.000-07:00

With little babysteps, the space age does indeed seem to be coming closer. And now they have already come up with space money - the QUID or Quasi Universal Intergalactic Denomination. In addition to the fact that they look cute, I think they are also quite a symbol of progress. So I'd be happy to make my little bow to the inventors and producers, and show my belief in the possibility to visit space before I die, and buy some of that fabulous new space money. Its just that Travelex (the producer) does not seem to be promoting the sales yet or maybe its only to the targeted audience of today's space travellers.

But if anyone knows where to actually legally buy them, please let me know! I'd seriously consider buying some :)

PS. Ah, yes, and if you wonder why the earth money is no good in space, then they explain that in detail in the press release.

küll tagasihoidlik, aga siiski märk maas Tartu 1. rulluisumaratonil

2007-08-28T11:28:00.000-07:00

Hoolimata viimase nädala ühele tagasihoidlikule trennikorrale seadsin ka mina hea ergutamise peale end Tartu 1. Rulluisumaratonile. Distants oli küll pikem kui ma varem korraga sõitnud olin, aga tee hea ja suurema kambaga on alati tore sõita. Kuna varasemast märkimisväärseid uisu- või maratonitulemusi maas polnud, siis sain alustuspositsiooni tagaotsas koos teiste harrastajatega. Ja tulemuste põhjal oli see positsioon ka adekvaatne - lõpetasin ajaga 2.26.49,5 üldarvestuses 435. kohal ja naistest 90. kohal.

Tagapool sõitja kogemustest rääkides peab esiteks muidugi möönma, et meie otsas oli suureks miinuseks see, et me ei oska tõhusalt ära kasutada tuules sõidu nippi. Pühapäevase meeletu tuule juures oli see kriitiline ja tagaotsarahvas sai selles osas kiire õppetunni. Juba esimesel ringil oli tagasitulekul näha, et inimesed said puht-praktilise kogemuse varal kiirelt selgeks, et kõva vastutuulega on teise inimese selja taga ikka parem sõita. Grupisõidu komme eesolijat kergelt seljast edasi lükata aga jäi ikkagi võõraks. Kui paar korda üritasin, siis inimesed ehmatasid kangesti ära.

Maratonirada oli tegelikult psühholoogiliselt hea sõidurada. Esiteks on alati parem sõita siis, kui peab vähe sama distantsi kordama (see on nt. Stamina sarja miinus, et 10 korda ühte ringi sõita ja selle käigus 3 ringiga võitjatelt pähe saada ei motiveeri eriti lõpuni venitama) ja 2 ringi on täitsa ok. Teiseks vedas ilmaga selle poolest, et tuul oli minnes seljatagant. See tähendas, et kui esimene ring sai täis, siis teadsid, et nüüd on 5 km mõnusat taganttuulega sõitu ja mõnus inglimäe laskumine. Seal tagaotsas keerasin otsa ringi ja oli muidugi hirmraske, aga siis mõtlesin kogu aeg, et nüüd on ainult veel kojuminek ja no kui see viimaseid sõitjaid üleskorjav mikrobuss ka järgi jõuab, siis võib ju kergema vaevaga ka lõpuotsa koju minna :)

Minule mikrokas päris järgi ei jõund ja hoolimata lõpus pealetikkuvast lootusetusest vantsisin ikka lõpuni ära. Peale 30ndat kilomeetrit hakkasid uisud kangesti hõõruma ja viimased 5 km sai sõidetud juba ilmselgelt veriseks hõõrutud kandadega. Siit tähelepanek iseendale - Kristi, investeeri korralikesse uisusokkidesse!

Kokkuvõttes tunnistan, et minusuguse harrastaja-uisutaja kohta oli maratoni lõpuni sõitmine täitsa saavutus. Ise ikka pidevalt kartsin, et katkestan mingi hetk. Nüüd on isegi mõningane usk, et äkki õnnestubki septembri lõpus Berliini maraton ka ära lõpetada ilma et mind poole raja pealt liialt aeglase tempo pärast maha võetaks. Aga noh, seal on seltsiks ka oluliselt suurem rahvamass ja ei pea pidevalt jälgima, et kas mõni jäi veel selja taha. Ja lisaks muidugi on nüüd ikkagi märk maas - vähemalt on mul ka nüüd üks maraton kirjas :)

weather and motivation

2007-04-21T11:57:00.000-07:00

It is hot and sunny out here around the DC area. The normal weather for this time of the year - real warm, but not yet intolerably hot and humid. As a classic Estonian who is used to see weather this warm for about a total of maybe 20-30 days in a year, the temptation to drop everything and storm into the sun is irresistable. So I took a stroll, grabbed a coffee and headed back home - 2 more weeks of schoolwork to push myself through.

But time and again, when I happen to be in an area with really nice warm climate I find myself coming back to a thought I first developed on a trip to Portoroz, a small Slovenian town on the shore of Adriatic sea. Me and my friends were walking down the seaside and bought that Italian type of delicious ice-cream. When we sat down on the lawn and enjoyed the gorgeous view on the sea and the sunny warm weather, I started contemplating whether I would have been ever motivated to work that hard and get where I am now if I had been born and raised in this place. Because if you have a constantly enjoyable weather, warm sea and good friends, you could just as well simply sell the ice-cream and enjoy life. Not that I would change my life for that now, but I have certainly developed a better understanding of why many people in California prefer surfing to school :)

Up in the north, a much better paid job is needed to live an enjoyable and comfortable life. And with half of the year rainy, muddy, cold and windy, it was much easeir to stay inside and dig yourself into the world of books.

So at the end of the day, I still stand by my view that it is good to be born up north. I bet the weather has also at least some role in why the Protestant work ethics works so much better in the Northern half of Europe than it does, say, in Italy or Spain :D

missing office life

2007-04-19T06:49:00.000-07:00

Albeit I love the long mornings and the freedom of studying/working at home, I still miss having an actual office to work at - the need to wake up early and be productive in the mornings, get a good start to the day and lots of work done - so you can feel good about going out at 9pm to grab a drink with friends before you head home and plunge into the bed only to get up at 7am again.

Freedom is good, but requires way more self-discipline. I get my work done, but usually at the expense of staying home in the evenings and weekends to get the work done that would have been finished had I not taken longs showers in the mornings and spent two hours reading news. School can be chill, but it also tends to work in waves of very intense effort. And like all my friends in gradschool say .... we want our weekends back!!!

Well, I think I needed to write this down here, so that when I start my job in a month and a half and want my lazy mornings back I will have a reminder of why it is good to start work bright and early :D

Estonia in the Economist

2007-04-05T11:45:00.000-07:00

And once again - damn those Economist journalists are good. I have to admit that it never stops surprising me as an Estonian how well and adequately the Economist journalists manage to portray the situation in Estonia. Part of this is probably the advantage of having a third party perspective, but they are remarkably perceptive to the general opinions in the country as well as insightful of the true nature of things. The latter is something that most Estonians know, but might not want to talk about. Current turmoil about our Bronze Soldier is one example - this is the notorious Second World War memorial that Estonians see as a memorial to our occupation, and Russians see as a basic commemoration of Soviet soldiers that died in the Second World War.

So if you want to see a really good and concise analysis of the situation in post-election Estonia, definitely read the Economist article "Floreat Estonia". You can find more good analysis on Estonia in their other arcticles you will see in the left hand corner of my blog under "Interesting Readings".

.....

Yes, one correction. As I was just reminded by a friend of mine, indeed, the Economist and all other Western commentators seem to have an overly positive image of Mr Mart Laar. Not to say that he did not do good things as a Prime Minister, but some of these things were not his personal achievements as much as those of a good team and good advisers. In addition, his party is also known to have supported many controversial issues, and some of them not so progressive and innovative at all. It is sad that the Reform Party refused Mr Laar the position everyone expected him to take, yet by the same token, I think in some ways Mr Laar was lucky to stay out of the Cabinet, because at this point the West appears to have clearly exaggerated expections for him.

.....

And for the local interpretation of the Economist article see (those that can read Estonian) "Economist: Ansip oleks pidanud Laarile võimaluse andma"

and the votes are in

2007-03-05T05:05:00.000-08:00

Estonia had parliamentary elections this past weekend, although living abroad I voted a while go already. In terms of results, I think the votes are getting increasingly concentrated with a couple of parties. This is understandable since the two winning parties - the Reform Party and the Center Party are the two oldest parties in the newly independent Estonia, and their stable presence probably gives more confidence to people over the other parties that split and merge, and rise and fall in their size and political activity.

The really good news, I think, is actually the high level of voter turnout - 62% of the voting population actually gave their vote. This gives a pretty good feeling about the broad-based legitimacy of the mandate the parliament and the cabinet will enjoy. If I am not wrong, then in the past decade already, the turnout has been dwindling slightly above 50%. e-voting certainly had its part to play, but only a 3.5% of voting population part, which does not really explain the whole increase in turnout. It is pretty common for citizens of a fairly developed democracy to become lazy about voting - people are usually happy enough with whatever they get anyhow, so there is not much of a drive to peel your ass off the comfy coach and go perform your civic duty.

It also doesn't really seem to be a protest vote type of election, since the two dominant parties currently in the government received a majority more dominant than in any previous year. As surprising as it seems considering that the second half of the term cabinets are usually more of the filler type and not very active, people seemed to go with it.

So what else made people go out and vote? Is it really money. As Raiko says, this year's elections saw the most expensive campaigns ever, and maybe the campaigns really reached more people than usual. Could be, though I still think that most campaigns are more focused on designing the preferences of the already active voting population than targeting the passive population. Then again, I was not in the country for most of the campaigning period, so I cannot say for sure, what the campaign tactics was.

Well, to make the long story short - I am pleasently surprised about the high voter turnout, but I haven't quite figured out what caused this. Once I find someone with a good analysis and explanation, I will enlighten you too :)

snow cancellations

2007-02-14T10:42:00.000-08:00

This post is really for all people like myself coming from up North where snow and ice are the norm in winter.

After having successfully managed to catch a nasty cold after two nights of clubbing and two days of touristing in the wintery Washington, DC, I am out and down trying to get back on track within a week. Yet the fun part about this all is that I didn't really miss out on much, sinc almost everything I had on plan was cancelled and postponed anyhow. Why? Oh, no, not just because of me :D

The reason is, instead, a thing called SNOW. Well, I am not exactly sure how this works around here, becaus I have seen it snow a few times around here before, and I knew that primary and high schools were cancelled every time it snowed. But this time, they also cancelled school in universities, receptions, meetings and the like. They say this is because there was some ice on the roads along with snow. And apparently no such things as winter tyres have yet been discovered in these areas.

The one thing that always gets me confused here is when they talk about snow blizzards, which I have never seen here, but apparently everyone else has. I guess this is because I always thought that was just a light snowfall. And I wonder, what would they call a true snowstorm where visibility is about 1m maximum and the snow is half a meter or more thick. A snow tornado?

Well, I guess winter is still a surprise aournd here. On my part, regardless of the cough and cold, I do enjoy the sight of a nice and fluffy snow outside. I just hope it won't be all gone by the time I finally get out of the house.

Eesti majandus- ja börsielu küpsusest ning ajakirjandusest

2007-02-09T08:13:00.000-08:00

Avastain täna Postimehest üllatuslikult hästi kirjutatud artikli, mis selgitas mõistlikult ja kõigile arusaadavalt ära, mis siis Tallinna börsil viimastel päevadel toimus. Paraku polnud aga tegemist sugugi mitte Postimehe ajakirjanike näputööga, vaid Tallinna börsi juhi Kaidi Ruusalepa arvamuslooga "Tallinna börs: Uued õppetunnid börsil".

Pr Ruusalepa kompetents börside hingeelu ja käitumise osas on loomulikult konkurentsitult kõrgem kui ühelgi Eesti ajakirjanikul, kuid sellegipoolest soovitaksin igal endast lugupidaval ajakirjanikul antud kirjatüki just kirjutamisstiili nurga alt põhjalikult läbi uurida. Varasema kahe päeva artiklid börsiliikumistest tekitasid tunde, et juba jälle puhutakse tühja koha peal jaanika-paanika üles ning Postimees suudab taaskord tõestada oma kollasust ja ajakirjanike kompetentsi piiratust ..... mõtlemiskoht Postimehele ja teistele ajakirjanduväljaannetele!

Kangesti tahaks näha ka Eesti ajakirjanduses mõstlikku analüüsi ja otsejoonelist selgitust olukorrale, mis kirjutatud lihtsas keeles ja rahulikul meelel. Sellist ajakirjandusstiili tuleb vist aga jätkuvalt kvaliteetsetemast välisajakirjandusest otsida. Tänuväärt siis seegi, et Eestis leidub vähemalt häid eksperte, kes vaevuvad meeldivas vormis ka Eesti rahvast keerulistest asjadest valgustama.

roheline tuli riskikapitalile Eestis

2006-12-21T07:35:00.000-08:00

Umbes kuu aja eest võttis Riigikogu vastu huvitava seaduseparanduste kogumi, mis võimaldab ametlikult riskikapitali fonde luua. Ehkki äriühingu ja muul kujul on Eestis juba mõned riskikapitali tüüpi fondid loodud, on antud seadusparandused siiski väga teretulnud ja minu arvates suhteliselt hästi ajastatud just riskikapitali valdkonna arengu startietappi.

Üheks eriti huvitavaks paranduseks on aga punkt, mis sätestab, et pensionifondid võivad nüüdsest samuti kõrge riskitasemega ettevõtmistesse investeerida ehk teisisõnu paigutada oma raha ka riskikapitali fondidesse. Antud punkt äratas erilist tähelepanu seoses sellega, et viimase aasta jooksul olen korduvalt sattunud lugema kirjatükke, mis väidavad, et USA riskikapitali tööstuse üheks peamiseks alustalaks on sarnane seadusemuudatus USAs 1979ndal aastal. Ehkki ilmselt olid mängus ka muud mõjud, siis väidetakse ikkagi, et just pensionifondidel oli suur osa selles, et USA riskikapitali kogumaht järgneval kümnendil kasvas terve suurusjärgi võrra paarilt miljardilt dollarilt aastas kümnete miljardite dollariteni aastas.

Raske oleks väita, et Eesti pensionifondide investeerimisseadusandluse muudatusel saaks olema sarnane mõju, sest praegune riskikaptali fondide hulk ja kogemuste pagas on hetkel veel pea olematu. Ent kui pensionifondid neile antud võimalusest kinni peaksid haarama, siis igatahes suurendab see riskikapitali fondide jaoks võimalikku saadaval olevat kapitalimahtu päris märkimisväärselt.

playing with numbers

2006-11-14T05:55:00.000-08:00

Within the past couple of weeks, two outstanding organisations have published reports on R&D spending by major corporations. And though they roughly see the same names, somehow the two organisations have reached fairly diverging conclusions.

First to come out was UK's Department of Trade and Industry "The R&D Scorecard 2006" (if you need detailed company R&D information, I strongly recommend this one - the whole database is up on the web as well as available on hard copy free of charge). DTI's report concludes that R&D investment by companies is one of the major drivers of company success.

Yesterday's Financial Times, on the other hand, is touting the supposedly opposite conclusions Booz Allen Hamilton has reached in its freshly published "Smart Spenders: The Global Innovation 1000" (also available online). Booz' study claims that most of the R&D spending is waste of money and only few heavy R&D investing companies are actually making profit out of these investments.

There is certainly some truth in both statements, and I was happy to see the arguments on both sides strongly outlined. There was but one problem that kept scratching my eye in the Booz report. Namely, it compares the R&D spending growth to revenue growth over the past 4-5 years, but does it by comparing R&D spending growth to the revenue growth in the same year - for instance, if R&D spending grew by 15% in 2005 but the revenues of that company grew 10% in 2005, Booz's conclusion is that this company was wasting money and not exploiting its R&D investments in a sensible manner. Now, if you go to the DTI report, then they used a little bit different approach to draw conclusions on the profitability of R&D investments - they looked at the R&D investments in 2001 and then compared these to reveneu and profit indicators in 2004-2005.

When you think for a second, what is the specific nature of R&D spending as compared to other oprational business investments and what is causing all that fuss around the R&D spending - aah, yes, though potentially leading to remarkable profitability, it takes longer to kick in; thus, the profitability results would be revealed with a considerable lag. Granted, 3-4 year lag that DTI used might not be quite sufficient, but it certainly a more adequate indicator than what the Booz has come up with. While Booz' recommendation that companies need to pay more attention to focusing their R&D investments and maximizing their profit potential sounds reasonable, its choice of indicator construction is not really the most convincing way to prove the argument. Right now, it looks a lot like Booz has tried to pull out some explanation to justify their numbers rather than the other way round.

Other than proving that playing with numbers can help you prove any point you want to make, I think both reports are interesting readings. Those fond of number games and having better insights into manipulating them will have good material for a textbook case study.

back to government

2006-09-14T18:30:00.000-07:00

With all the talk about how US's economic and technology success draws on the private sector initiative and how government is really playing but a minor role, it is fascinating to discover bit-by-bit, in the midst of all other talk, how at the end of the day, government still appears to have played major role at critical turning points.

The most recent discovery of mine was from Josh Lerner and some other Harvard Busines School folks that mention in their book "Venture Capital and Private Equity" that, indeed, during the early evolution years of venture capital industry federally guaranteed risk capital pools called Small Business Investment Companies (SBICs) constituted a significant sources of venture money.

I am not taking this as a sign to claim that the US private sector initiative and energy is any less important than we thought. I am just noting an interesting tendency here to somehow downplay the role of government, and avoid admitting that many good things come out of reasonably balanced collaboration between private and public sectors.

And I do still think that in both mature environments and in places where the venture capital industry is still evolving, private sector initiative is critical. By the same token, however, a little friendly push from the government would seem to help a lot - Israel and Finland being the prime evidence along with the US. Those same examples also indicate, though, that this help can come in various forms as long as it is free of political manipulation.

commoner's security update from DC

2006-08-13T19:42:00.000-07:00

Just about a week ago I caught myself pondering, how surprisingly optimistic (for Americans) the new slogan of DC metro warnings was - "Let's be prepared, not scared". It has been so calm around here for the past year that I have lived in the DC area that it didn't even feel like living in one of the prime terror target zones.

Well, thanks to those dummass schemers in London, that's all gone now. Got a fresh reminder yesterday on the metro. Instead of the happy slogan reminder, they now keep banging every 60 seconds how you should look out for bags and weirdows. Btw, I am not exaggerating, I timed them, and the announcements did go about every 1 minute. And ... they have added a bonus - they even have started announding their warnings in Spanish now :) And that was all just quiet Saturday night, I'll see how it all looks during Monday morning rush hour.

Well, I guess at least some good has come out of the overflow of information - the news reporters claim that people are so well informed of the new flying rules, that the DC area airports are quite decently functional. They say 3 hours should be enough to get on your flight :)
Well, I will go and check it out on Friday on my way to Estonia.

blokk

2006-06-22T05:18:00.000-07:00

See on nii ebaaus - avastan end jälle mõttelt, kui vaja miskit paberile panna ja pole viimane kuu või enam intensiivsemat kirjatööd teinud.

Ma ei ole mingi eriline grafomaan, aga pidevalt lühemate ja pikemate kirjatükkide kirjutamisharjumuses olemisel on see eelis, et võid iga kell kiirelt mõned read kokku visata ja jutt jookseb nagu iseenesest. Lihtsamast lihtsam, 10 lk päevas nagu üle õla sülitada. Ja siis kui mõtled, et peale 5 kuud intensiivset kirjatööd teed väheke puhkust ja õpid ja teed muud tööd, siis kuu aega hiljem ei tule enam üldse välja. Mitte et ei oskaks, aga lihtsalt ei jookse. 2 lk strateegilist plaani kokku kirjutada võtab nii palju imemist ja inspiratsiooniotsimist, et läheb vähemalt terve päev selle nahka. Ja siis tundub selline ajaraisk - kuu aja eest olekse sellele kulutand maksimaalselt 2 tundi.

today I found my soulmate

2006-06-20T07:35:00.000-07:00

"You cannot hope to build a better world without improving the individuals. To that end each of us must work for his own improvement, and at the same time share a general responsibility for all humanity, our particular duty being to aid those to whom we think we can be most useful."
Marie Curie

officially English

2006-05-19T11:25:00.000-07:00

So guess what, apparently it is only now that I am finally staying in an officially English-speaking country once the Senate has voted English as the official language of the USA.

I bet there are good reasons for opposing this, and once you live in US you kind of get the mindset, but for all practicality reasons I think its a pretty wise decision. I meant its not like other languages are not used anymore, but it is better on an international scale to know the terms of conduct. Then again, looking at how much Spanish is being used in everyday conversations, I would not be surprised at all if this country soon also became bilingual. Have even contemplated multiple times that if I only took a beginners course in Spanish, the rest of the environment would probably be enough to get me fluent in the language.

blogs vs orkut

2006-05-07T14:29:00.000-07:00

Blog-reading is slowly but steadily taking over the lead position from orkut in my procrastination habits. I wonder it this is an evidence of some major global behavioural trends - I have noted myself to be a mid-follower, namely (not among the first, but neither among the last ones).

lynx economies :D

2006-04-16T14:44:00.000-07:00

Since Eastern Europe does not have tigers, Economist has now decided to call us lynxes :D
Pretty witty parallel.

The online version is unfortunately lacking the cute purr lunx picture.

hmmmm ... Valton

2006-04-15T13:27:00.000-07:00

ma arvan, et Valton võttis oma veidi veidralt hüpleva jutustuse "Roheline rügement" viimase kolme lausega kokku mõtted, mis minu ja ilmselt paljude peas keerlevad:

"Tulevik ei jää tulemata. Milline see on, eks näis.
Seni tuli tegutseda."

Ikka ja jälle tekib omagi elus toimetades mõte, et ei tea milleks ja mis sest tolku - lõppkokkuvõttes ju nagunii ei tea, et mis tulevikus tuleb, ehkki tuleb ta nii ehk naa. Aga tegutsemisvajadus on küll - hea, et on tegevus, muidu tuleb masendus, et ei tea mille nimel see kõik :D

eile tuli meil suvi ...

2006-04-15T09:06:00.000-07:00

eile algas õhukonditsioneerihooaeg ja vihm ei tulnud enam maapinnale maha, vaid jäi õhku rippuma. Ja öösel kell 12 metroo pealt koju jalutades näitas temperatuur 73F, mis vist meiekeeles on midagi 23C kandis.

Hommikul avastasin, et päike on jooksmiseks juba liiga palav ja et nokatsit on kangesti vaja. Potomoaci peal käisid juba 4-mehe paadi trennid ja muud süstalised ja paadilised hulpisid ka ringi.

Ja kool hakkab ka selleks õppeaasaks läbi saama. Esimene eksam on juba vähem kui kahe nädala pärast. Nii et rabamine käib täie hooga.

presidenditeema jatkuks

2006-03-23T07:50:00.000-08:00

no vot see mees pani alles asjaliku paugu. Myts maha! Leiduks vaid Eestis heade soovituste jargimiseks kellelgi tahtmist ja jaksu.

P.S. Ei ole veel taielikult hea emakeele tahestikku minetanud. Lihtsalt arvuti streigib Eesti tahestiku peale ja pole veel valja nipitanud, kuidas tagasi panna - ja ei ole nii rumal, et ei oskaks ingliskeelse klaviatuuri funktsioonilt eestikeelsele lylitada. Miksit p6hjalikumat on mada.

end of an era

2006-03-15T04:05:00.000-08:00

Former President of the Republic of Estonia Mr Lennart Meri has passed away.

And those things happen, and life goes on. But this person was special to the whole nation. Not only was he able to give his own speeches in 5 different languages, which he spoke fluently, and actually write several of his own speeches thanks to his extraordinary literary skills. What we will always miss most about him, is his soft and very insightful skill to raise important topics for discussion among the broader public and provide great intellectual guidance in those discussions.

People like these do not come around often. I suspect that for a small nation like ours we might have to wait long until we see next one of those raise to the same prominence. Because not only does it take a great person, but it also takes the right place and time for people to recognise that uniqueness and actually respect that person to take on a prominent position. All these things come together but rarely. Even as big and intellectually great country as the US has but very rarely managed to dig out any of those.

So what now. I think the best tribute to Mr Meri is to respect his heritage and try our best to nurture a continued debate and intellectual reflection. How else can new generations of great thinkers be raised? It is our moral obligation to provide the best environment for new intellectuals to grow.

kodukülastus

2006-03-07T05:17:00.000-08:00

nii, nii
nüüd paluks kõik sõbrad seltsilised ritta võtta ja ennast järgmise nädala jooksul näole anda. Kodukülastus kestab 11.-20. märtsini ja järgmine võimalus antakse alles augusti lõpus :D

Czech mate - me not tough enough for this kind of business

2006-02-02T20:09:00.000-08:00

Well, gotta say, I learned a lot about the world of tough business today. And I am growing worried that I would never become a successful businesswoman even if I wanted to. It is just not my first assumption that people are evil and greedy by nature, even though I have heard of the cases and even encountered a few of them.

The case that brought me down so bad tonight in our International Business Strategy class was the famous Czech Mate between CME and the notorious Mr Zelezny. But I guess this shook my perception of people enough that I will only need a few more cases to be ready for the tough business world. And at the end of the day you still reach the conclusion that it is all the fault of the government that is not able to establish good legislation and curb the greedy and evil human nature. I guess its the good thing then that CME got back at the Czech thanks to the Bilateral Investment Treaty. Ehh, so the world is tough, but on some rare good occasions, still fair as well.

Well, now that I am much wiser and tired as hell from the long day, there's a few more emails waiting to be written and a nice long-distance conversation to be held :D

To all you back home and in the Northern part of Eurasia I hope the coming cold will not be too bad!

State of the Union

2006-02-01T12:01:00.000-08:00

Eilne õhtu oli nii oluline ja mina nii ignorantne, et ei näinudki live`is :-I
Aga noh, siin linnas vähemalt ei saa olulisematest sündmustest ka kõige suurema ignorantsuse korral informeerimata jääda :D

Kõik sai muidugi alguse eile õhtul, kui jalutasime sõbranna Raminta juurde ning möödusime teel Kongessist. Karjakaupa autosid nähes meenus Ramintale, et täna on ju Bushi State of the Union ettekanne. Möönsime kahetsusega, et Ramintal telekat pole, nii et jääb nägemata. Kusagilt kostis kõva kära ja muusikat - järeldasin, et Kongressi ees oleva platsi peal on mõni traditsiooniline kontsert, nagu seal pidevalt on. Mu vähem ignorantne ameeriklannast toanaaber Katrina aga valgustas mind täna, et tegelikult oli see hoopis mingi suur meeleavaldus, mille eesmärk oli selles, et teha hästi palju kisa ja sellega avaldada vastumeelt Bushile.

Noh, aga meie jalutasime Ramintaga õndsas teadmatuses edasi. Politseid oli palju, nagu arvata võis, ja tänavad ümberringi peaaegu inimtühjad. Raminta kurtis, et miks pole Kongressi juures üleval suuri ekraane, et näeks Bushi esinemist live versioonis. Mina lõõpisin, et ekraanid on rohkem popstaaridele ja ilmselt pole Bush nii populaarne. Selle peale sai vist kergelt pahaseks kõrvalseisev politseinik ja kamandas meid teisele poole tänavat, et see pidavat olema liiga lähedal esinemispaigale :-I Jõudsin järeldusele, et kuigi Washington on 95% demokraatlik, siis oleks pidand vist ikka nati rohkem suud koomale hoidma. Jalutasime läbi politseinike karja ja tiirutavate helikopterite Raminta koju.

Hommikul rabasin metroo peale minnes kohaliku tasuta linnalehe Express ja sain teada, et Bush oli kurtnud USA naftasõltuvuse üle ja lubanud teadusele raha juurde anda :D Lisaks sain veel teada, et M. L. Kingi naine oli ära surnud :-I ja et Alito oli Ülemkohtu kohtunikuks ära nimetatud. Koju jõudes sain Katrinalt teada mõningaid kommentaare teiste Kongressmanide poolt ja kuulsin, et Hillary Clinton põhipoint oli seisnenud silmade pööritamises. Samuti kuulsin, et keegi vahva Kongresman olevat kutsunud Bushi esinemisele ka siinmaal kuulusa tädi, kelle poeg sai Iraagis surma ja kes on sellest ajast saati Bushi vastast kampaaniat aretanud. Tädi olevat aga otsustanud kanda T-särki tekstiga "How many more?", mis peale jõudis ta muidugi Bushi esinemise asel kohalikku politseijaoskonda. Katrina oli nõutu, et kuidas nii väikese asja peale saab kinni panna. Mina siis korraliku konspiratsiooniteoreetikuna avaldasin muidugi arvamust, et tegelikult oli turvadele käsk antud, et see tädi sinna ruumi täna õhtul ei tohi saada ja et nad oleks ta ükskõik millisel ettekäändel kinni pannud.

Soojendasin lõunasöögiks Campelli purgist tomatisuppi, lisasin mitteameerikalikult ka mõned herned. Seepeale otsustasin oma südametunnistuse leevenduseks vaadata telekast CNNist Bushi kõne või vähemalt kommentaare. Nüüdseks olen umbes 30 min CNN Headline News`i vaadanud ja olen teada saanud, et Britney Spears pidavat esinema "Will&Grace" ühes osas mingi kristlasena ja et see kutsub ilmselt esile suurema pahameeleavalduse siinse konservatiivse elanikkonna poolt. Siis veel hunnik Entertainment Newsi ja siis viimased 10 min ühe Iraagi kunstniku kohta, kes paneb tänavale oma pilte üles, et aidata kaasa ülesehitustööle. Ja täiesti ausalt räägiti State of the Unionist ka lõpuks, nii umbes 1 min ja öeldi, et pidas ära kõne. Ja vot selline siinmaal ajakirjanduse kvaliteet ongi - see siin oli kommentaar minu kullakesele Liisale, kelle blogist lugesin hiljuti järjekordset kurtmist, et Eesti meedia on kehva kvaliteediga :D

See oli lihtsalt üks väljavõte tavalisest tähtsast päevast siinkandis.
Aa, ja et teiegi väärtuslikust kõnest ilma ei jääks, siis teile ka suvaliselt ettejuhtunud lingi pealt täistekst. Seal on video ka.

Tervitused kõigile. Igatsen ja tulen teid märtsis kaema.

ooooot .... nüüd tuli jälle pool minutit Bushi kõne kohta ....

long time no see

2006-01-29T06:31:00.000-08:00

what can I say ..... time flies ..... but I bet you know that already

I'm back to the ranks of working people, in addition to being a student. So I guess that maybe explains some of my absence.

News?
I guess I sound repetitive and this is probably the topic most discussed on this blog, but it just keeps surprising me, how warm it is here in DC. Nothing like the winter I know. It's January and the temperatures jump around 5-15C. But then again, I guess it is geographically on the same line with Lisbon.

Other than that - been here and there. Explored some of Chicago, Indiana, and some more of NYC. Chicago was cold, reminded of winter at home. Indiana was sweet and fun - you know, truck people land, and NYC was crowded.

Now back in school and working.

lumi tuli, lumi tuli :D

2005-12-05T11:04:00.000-08:00

yay, ma ei teadnudki kunagi, kui väga mulle tegelt lumi meeldib kuni praeguse hetkeni. Talv on ilma lumeta ikka nii igav.

Aga täna hakkas meil lund sadama :D
Tegelt ükskord varem sadas ka öösel natuke. Aga praegu on kohe ilus helbene lumi.
Ega ta siinkandis muidugi maha ei jää, aga vähemalt on ilus aknast välja vaadata.

Nii et te kõik kes te seal lumehangedega võitlema peate, nautige ilusat talvelund!

vaccine against cancer ????

2005-12-02T11:32:00.000-08:00

Getting smarter every day!
My roommate Katrina suggested an article in Time magazine to me today, which said that Merck has come out with a vaccine against cervical cancer, the second most widespread cancer for women. A vaccine for cancer ???? Definitely sounds too weird to be true. But then again, I'm no medical person here, right.

So I go and do some research and see what Wikipedia says.
Cervical cancer is a malignancy of the cervix. Worldwide, it is the second most common cancer of women. It may present with vaginal bleeding but symptoms may be absent until the cancer is in advanced stages, which has made cervical cancer the focus of intense screening efforts utilizing the Pap smear. Most scientific studies point to human papillomavirus (HPV) infection as a necessary pre-requisite for development of cervical cancer. Treatment is with surgery (including cryosurgery) in early stages and chemotherapy and radiotherapy in advanced stages of the disease. A effective vaccine for the two most common strains of HPV has recently been licenced.

So aparently there can be a vaccine against a cancer since this cancer is caused by a virus. And quite a big developmental leap there - from surgery/chemotherapy to vaccine!
Well, I guess the world is getting better again for all the poor women like me doomed with their family history of cervical cancer and other related problems.

To all you men that read this post, sry for forcing you to get deep into the female stuff! But just remember how many women out there have it, so I'm afraid you cannot escape hearing about it at some point anyways.

other cultures

2005-11-30T21:47:00.000-08:00

You learn a lot while living in another culture, even one that's relatively close to yours. And one of the most striking things I've recently learned, is how little I actually know about other cultures.

Estonias, me included, go out proclaiming loud that we know so much more about what is going on in the rest of the world than people in some other countries, especially in the US, do. Well, I have to admit, I know quite a bunch about Europe, about the US and other western countries .... but I actually know very little about Asia, Africa, Australia and Southern America. They are just sooooooooo far from our little tiny country, and our limited capacities just do not seem to reach that far. Of course we have our own experts and so on, but on the general basis, these regions do not seem to be much of our interest.

And this is sad. Because this is the point where I have to admit how narrow my world really is. Its as though because we are small in terms of country size we have just adopted the western world and then maybe Russia to work as our horizon of knowledge, and we are just as ignorant about what the life is really like in other cultures as the average American can be about the rest of the world.

On the bright side, though, this only means that there's tons of more interesting worlds to discover :)

inimesed, palun ostke endale korralikud kõrvaklapid ...

2005-11-22T14:23:00.000-08:00

eriti kui teil on plaanis seada ennast sisse ruumis, mille ukse peale on pandud suur silt kirjaga "QUIET STUDY ROOM". Pole midagi rõvedamat, kui üritada keskenduda mingisse üliteoreetilisse teksti samal ajal kui kõrval piniseb kogu aeg mingi muusika just sellise valjususe astmega, et kui hästi muusikat teaks, siis võiks vist isegi ära aimata, mis lauludega tegu. Ja ma olen täiesti näinud inimesi, kellel on viisakad kõrvaklapid, mis ei lase seda pininat läbi - alles eile istusin ühe tütarlapse kõrval, kellel olid sellised.

Üldiselt olen täheldanud suhteliselt tugevat positiivset korrelatsiooni bitchimise vajaduse ja tressi taseme vahel. Ja kuna täna oleks hädasti vaja välja mõelda teema ühe suure kodutöö jaoks ja mitte ei ole häid sähvatusi pähe tulnud, siis hakkavadki igasugu asjad häirima. Näiteks oli meil üle-eelmisel nädalavahetusel mingi tuletõrjealarm koridoris segi läinud. Päris kole on 5 päeva järjest 24h kuulata sellist äratuskella sarnast pininat.

networking + studying = networking study?

2005-11-17T09:30:00.000-08:00

So many of my friends that have studied or are studying in US complain how most of the universities are in the middle of nowhere and so, since there is absolutely nothing else to do, everyone's stuck studying. And this is how all the good grades and results come :)

Studying in Washington DC is definitely different in this respect. Here its all about networking. So you rapidly get into this and then at one point you discover that for the better part of time you have to sit behind your computer writing all kinds networking emails or going to some meetings and seminars and presentations. This even becomes part of your schoolwork, since its taken as granted here that once you have so many opportunities around you better use them.

So here's another one of those days. Started out in the morning by compiling a list of all the emailing I have to do and that has been piling up over the week. And the list is long - about 20 items with all the other small things. And then there's more people to meet and things to do .... So where's the time for reading and writing :) The only way to go is to make yourself work more and try to economise on time.

People here are being really efficient on time-management. Never seen so many people reading all the time and all at once like I see every day on the metro. And its pretty useful. That's the only way I get through my weekly Economist readings.

By noon I'm done with about 4 items - so 16 more to go. This means either a long night again or more work for tomorrow.

taas imeilus sügisilm

2005-11-09T13:34:00.000-08:00

ühe põhjamaa inimese jaoks on ikka 15-20 kraadised sügisilmad megakogemus. Hullult meeldib lehtedes sahistada ja sibavaid oravaid vaadata.

Aga üldiselt kulgeb jälle tavalise koolitegevuse tähe all. Järgmise semestri ained tahavad registreerimist. Ja siis peab minema kuulama mingit nanotehnoloogiaeksperti, kes räägib väikesest rohelisest energiast vmt. Aga vähemalt antakse neil avalikel loengutel päris hästi süüa :)

Washington DCs olevat mingid ajakirjanikud hiljuti katse teinud, et nad 6 kuud järjest ei osta midagi süüa ja käivad söömas ainult igasugu avalikel loengutel, seminaridel ja igasugustel networking üritustel. Tuli välja, et Washington DCs toimub neid üritusi pidevalt nii palju, et tüübid muutusid isegi pirtsakateks ja hakkasid toidu sortimenti valima :D

the evil of procrastination and the beauty of nature

2005-11-05T19:22:00.000-08:00

I guess if we could all get over procrastination we would all just be too good to be true :)
But since this does not look as a viable option, I ended up with major procrastination and some work done for today. Just the usual.

But the real catch of the day was a little walk to the grocery store. It just made me think how the fall in DC area is just as beautiful as I was told it would be. 24C, all around green like summer in Estonia and walking around in T-shirt on November 5th seems too good to be true. But there I was, and the sun was so nice. So I couldn't help but come back to my theory that people up north work more simply because they do not have all this pleasant weather that makes you want to just sit down in some park and chill out. So they just work their asses off to get big bucks and fly somewhere warm. But its never the same, now is it.

This, of course, does not mean that I don not like the nature back home. Nothing compares to a truely crispy white Christmas, which I will most probably not see around here. So home is still home.

And the other thing I so much love here are all these squirrels. I know that the red ones back home look so much better, but then again, as Raiko said, you also almost never see them. The ones here are the grey ones. Not as pretty, but just as vigorous and cute with all this energy to run around :) And then there's a black one in our yard, and I've never heard of those, but apparently they exist, at least one.

väike näpuharjutus

2005-11-05T06:41:00.000-08:00

Just kõige intensiivsem õppeperiood on kõige produktiivsem kõige muu kui koolitöö suhtes :)

Ja kuna ma nii kehva emailija olen, siis ehk ilmuvad siia lehele ka minu üldiselt harvad kommenteerid toimuva kohta.

Esialgu lihtsalt soojad tervitused ja kallid kõigile, keda juba tükil ajal näinud pole!