Distractions, reflections

Distractions, reflections

David Ing, at large … Sometimes, my mind wanders

Machine (man) down

May 5, 2006
After a week in Austria, but before my trip through the UK, my Thinkpad died in Finland!

Minna had picked me up from the airport on Thursday night (April 27), and I had a chance to plug in the Internet connection at her home to catch up. On Friday morning, I lectured at the class at Stadia and then went out for lunch and shopping in Hakaniemi with Ritva. I took the bus back to Minna’s house, plugged in my laptop … and the machine wouldn’t boot. My experience (as a former IBM systems engineer!) suggested that this was system board failure, and definitely a hardware problem. While I was puzzling through options, I made dinner.

After dinner, I got Minna’s permission to try an experiment. (This really made Petri uncomfortable, but I’ve done this dozens of times!) Since Nokia also uses Thinkpads, she happened to have the model similar to mine — a T41. I removed the hard drive from my Thinkpad, and put it into her machine. Success! Although her T41 came with a Finnish keyboard and better screen resolution, my hard drive started up as normal. I connected to the network, tunnelled into IBM, and started some Sametime chats with various internal support people. I finally connected by Mary Penner, in the IBM Canada CIO’s office. The solution was, it appears, to put the Thinkpad Emergency Replacement Program (TERP) into effect. This is a great program, designed a decade ago, when it was realized that IBM consultants can’t effectively do client work when they don’t have a working Thinkpad. The distribution centre maintains an inventory of identical model units, so that a replacement can be sent out, working parts (e.g. hard drives, memory) can be swapped as required, and the non-working machine is returned for repair. This works well in Canada, and the IBM consultant is back in business in about 24 hours. Maintenance facilities typically don’t keep system boards on hand, so getting local service isn’t an option.

Working abroad, however, is a bigger challenge. Since I was going to be in Finland for another week, Mary initiated a shipment for me — starting with ordering inventory pulled down in the distribution centre on Friday’s third shift — so that the appropriate customs paperwork could be done on Monday morning. On this schedule, the replacement Thinkpad was to arrive in Finland on Thursday.

I wrapped up as much work as I could on Friday night, and went to Porvoo on Saturday. The rest of the weekend — while Minna and Petri celebrated Vappu (May Eve and May Day) with friends, I worked on Minna’s Thinkpad, knowing that I’d have to return it when the work week began. I transferred some of the content to a memory stick, and stashed away various files on the Internet at daviding.com, because getting Internet access is easy.

Tuesday, Wednesday and Thursday, I was at Stadia and HUT, where Internet access on library computers worked well. I tracked the shipment of my replacement Thinkpad on the FedEx web site, and noted that it had arrived at the airport distribution centre on Thursday. On Friday morning, at IBM, Jyrgi Koskinen and Taina Gunay phoned FedEx for me. There was a bit of confusion about the customs status for the Thinkpad — it seemed like we were importing a computer from Canada — but they straightened that out. The computer was to arrive by lunchtime. I gave my scheduled presentations at IBM.

At lunchtime, Jyrgi phoned FedEx and they said that they would deliver by 2 p.m. We went down to the mailroom, and asked the clerks to watch for us. Around 2 p.m., Jyrgi phoned FedEx again, and they said that the shipment would definitely arrive by 4 p.m. The mailroom closes at 4 p.m., and this was a Friday afternoon! Coming up to 4 p.m., Jyrgi phoned FedEx again, and the dispatcher gave him the mobile phone number for the driver. The driver said that she was tangled in traffic, and would arrive soon. Jyrgi gave her directions to deliver to the front reception desk, so the mailroom employees could go home. I went downstairs to wait. An unmarked van pulled up around 4:30 p.m., and a woman rushed out with the package. Finally!

I took the Thinkpad upstairs, swapped the hard drives, and started up the computer. I was back in business. I found Mary Penner online in Toronto and thanked her, and asked about the return. She replied that she actually hadn’t initiated a formal TERP, but had assigned me a second Thinkpad. She said that the last time that she did a TERP to an IBMer in France, it took her six months to track the return through shipping and customs! I meant that I not only got to carry one Thinkpad in my hand luggage through the UK before coming home, but two! (More physical exercise than I really needed!).

Still, the process worked, and I would have a functional computer with me for my final week in the UK. That evening, it was a scramble between getting caught up on urgent e-mails, and packing up for a flight to Manchester in the morning ….

Entertaining at (someone else’s) home

May 3, 2006
In this stage of life where we all have full time jobs, families and community, entertaining friends at home is a small luxury. For me, entertaining in friends’ homes is a nice respite from jet age travel. It’s a great opportunity to share time, food and wine together.

Taina and Pekka hosted the dinner on this trip. Minna invited Tuula (since Petri and Tommi had prior commitments) and I invited Karlos. Annaleena had just returned from the U.S., but had picked up some stomach troubles on the trip, and thought it best to stay home. Taina chauffeured me over to the K Citymarket hypermarkets at Iso Omena — a reliable place to pick up Chinese-style tofu! — and I prepared about five dishes, as usual. Continue reading “Entertaining at (someone else’s) home“

A quiet afternoon strolling through Old Porvoo

April 29, 2006
In my travels, I’m usually happy to just get around the city that I’m visiting. There’s usually plenty to do around most urban areas — museums, markets, hangouts — and I get to know the local streets (on my folding bicycle) or local transportation. On my trip to Finland last November, I was feeling pretty burned out — even missing the outbound flight — and the dreary weather encouraged me to stay in the hotel and just work. (This was just before I figured out that I was having problems with my vision and would need a cataract surgery, so the whole situation may have foreshadowed that I was turning agoraphobic).

Usually, on one of the weekend days of my visits, Karlos and I usually take some time off, visiting Kiasma, or just having lunch and walking around the city — but we set a bad pattern on the last trip. In November, he first begged off going out because he was trying to meet a deadline in editing a book, and I then later begged off a dinner because I had to prepare for a lecture. Toward the end of that visit, we did get to meet for a nice dinner, but winter was setting in pretty early for other activities. I think that this trip is my eighth visit to Finland since 2003, but unusual in a strong probability for sunny weather and long days with light. I had suggested to Karlos that we might take the drive to Porvoo if the weather stood up. Continue reading “A quiet afternoon strolling through Old Porvoo“

Culinary diversity in Finland

April 28, 2006
When I visit at someone’s home for more than a day, I inevitability offer to cook at least a few meals. Since my family had a restaurant in Gravenhurst — I think that my grandfather and father sold the Queen’s Cafe circa 1966 — I’ve always cooked. When I was a student at Northwestern University in the early 1980s, I started cooking for myself pretty well every day. It was there that I hosted my first ten-course meal with my foster relatives. Even after getting married, I still do more than the average share of cooking, because I’m faster than Diana, and it’s more constructive for me to cook than criticize. Cooking while travelling has turned out to be more than a habit; it’s now a reputation. When I go to Finland, I’ve had a habit of packing more than a few distinct Chinese ingredients in my suitcase, because (a) I can only find brands that I prefer less in the K Citymarket or Prisma hypermarkets at the Iso Omena mall at much higher prices, or (b) I can’t find them all in Finland.

In addition, when I travel, people discover that I’m generally not into fine-dining establishments, with lavish service as would be expected in a hotel. I much prefer local food, or barring that, Asian cuisine over European cuisine. When in Finland, it’s so convenient to pick up a litre of blueberry soup in the dairy section (as I skip past the milk and yogurt packages!), and the local bread is great. While the local Chinese restaurants around Helsinki and Espoo are fine,I’m sure that I can prepare meals just as well.

After my lectures at Stadia, Ritva and I have a traditional of going out for lunch. If Ritva has tight schedule between classes, there’s enough variety near the Bulevardi area that we may go for Nepalese food or a nice cafeteria. This time, Ritva suggested that me might take walk to main subway station at Kamppi — it’s a minor thrill for me to use my mobile phone to buy a transit ticket! — to go over to Hakaniemi. This was definitely fun for me, because the area is outside of the usual tourist spots in Helsinki, and not a place that out-of-towners would be likely to go!

First, we went to Silvoplee, which is a well-known vegetarian restaurant owned and operated by two former Finnish actresses. There was a wonderful buffet there, with a touch of Indian and East Asian flavours, and fresh salad greens. It’s a casual cafe atmosphere, and, if I weren’t doing my own cooking, I could see it becoming a hangout for meals for me.

Walking down the street, after viewing a number of South Asian and African grocery stores, we happened into Vii Voan. This is a tidy, well-stocked Vietnamese grocery store. I was able to find not only Chinese soy sauce, but also more obscure items that I would purchase at home, e.g. Korean buckwheat noodles — at reasonable prices on a scale in line with Toronto. Unfortunately, the selection of greens was rather narrow, but I was able to get some Shanghai bok choy. I loaded up my knapsack with supplies to take back on the subway and bus.

Ritva also took me around the local market at Hakaniemi, near the subway station. This is a local version of the market hall that tourists see on the Helsinki harbour near the waterfront. Ritva pointed out that table at the upstairs cafe where the Finnish president, Tarja Halonen, has a reserved space. North American television watchers would be most familiar with Tarja Halonen as the elected candidate who Conan O’Brien endorsed as a look-alike twin.

I’m now confident that I can make trips to the Helsinki area without having to pack so many Chinese groceries with me. Although my folding bike has probably lost most of the smell from a broken soy sauce bottle on a trip to Finland in 2004, I think that the suitcase in which it was packed still has a distinct aroma ….

Airline bumping, Scandinavian style

April 27, 2006
Since I have the luxury of travelling to see many countries and different cultures, I often get amused by the small differences that reflect the alternative ways of seeing the world. This story is about a minor event in the Copenhagen airport.

I was flying from Munich to Helsinki via Copenhagen. The Copenhagen airport is attractive with lots of natural wood finishes. It seems quite compact between gates, and connections seem relatively well-organized. I noted a long line queuing up for the Helsinki to Copenhagen flight, and was relaxed to join the end of the line.

A man in an airline uniform was walking down the queue, and stopped by a young man — most probably a student, by his dress and demeanour. The airline attendant said that the flight was quite overbooked, and asked if the young man would be interested in waiting for a guaranteed seat on the next flight with a choice of 75 Euros cash or 200 Euros in flight coupons. The young man chose the former, and was then asked to step out of the line, and wait by the side. This conversation took just a minute, and queue moved on.

In comparison, how would this happen in most American airports? Typically, the airline attendant gets on the public address system and makes an announcement looking for volunteers for a similar offer. Responses by passengers go one of two ways: those who really want to stay on the flight get tense because they’ll want to make sure they have enough seat and baggage space, while those who might consider taking up the offer think about whether they should rush to the counter or not. In either case, although the American style might be judged as “fairer”, it probably introduces more stress to a larger number of travellers than is necessary.

Could airlines in the United States be convinced to change their style of behaviour? Maybe or maybe not. This could be one of those predispositions towards culture practices — like standing on the right side of an escalator to allow the hurried to pass on the left1 — that people don’t really think much about, until it gets mentioned to them.

1This example comes from Charles Spinosa, Fernando Flores and Hubert L. Dreyfus, Disclosing New Worlds, MIT Press, 1999. 

Internet withdrawal by the lake in Austria

April 25, 2006
The International Federation for Systems Research hosts about 25 people in Fuschl am See, Austria, every other year. I was invited to the meeting two years ago, when the venue had been set as the Seehotel Schlick. Over the two years, I’ve noticed two improvements at the hotel. Firstly, they seemed to have done some sprucing up, with a small but noticeable maintenance (which is probably more than just cleaning). Secondly, the Seehotel Schlick has gotten a fancy web site, done by a professional designer. The photos aren’t misleading, but that’s not to say that every day in Austria has blue skies. (About half our days did).

In 2004, the best that we could do in Fuschl was dial-up access. On one afternoon, arrangements had been made for attendees to get a bus ride into Salzburg, presumably for the opportunity to see sights. DLH and I spent much of the afternoon in an Internet cafe, catching up on e-mail. Going offline for extended periods of time just feels bad.  Unfortunately for the Seehotel Schlick, their Internet access hasn’t improved over the two years.

This year, we heard that up the street, at the Hotel Mohenwirt, high speed Internet access was available. On the first day, three of us took our laptops up at lunchtime. We told the person at the front desk that we had come for lunch and Internet, and she gave us IDs and passwords for an hour, without charge. On the second day, a different front desk clerk said that she was going to charge us, but then gave us the same deal. There must have been six laptops all open on lunch tables that day.

On the third day, on the walk up to the Hotel Mohenwirt, we met some of our group walking down. They said that the policy had changed, and the hotel was charging for Internet access and for lunch. That group decided to walk out in protest. Gary and I decided to just pay for 30 minutes, and then ate somewhere else. The hotel lost some revenue by not bundling its services together.

On the afternoon off, if it wasn’t for the cataract in my eye, I might have taken a bicycle trip around the lake. Diana wouldn’t let me pack the folding bike on this trip, though.

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