Life Management: Music

Music and sounds have a profound impact on our well-being. Every day we unconsciously pick up messages from the background noise we hear. Music is supposed to provoke certain kinds of feelings and if they achieve this goal, it most often becomes popular. Melancholy tunes in the minor key provoke sad feelings in the brain, whereas more jolly tunes in the major key make us feel happy.

Everyone knows this but perhaps not everyone realises that what we hear really makes a difference. Personally I have banned myself from Finnish radio stations whenever I’m in the country, or I at least keep them to a minimum, because they send out so much negative background noise. Moaning agony aunt programmes and “chocolate for the soul”, i.e. Finnish pop music, help listeners to build their own melancholy swimming pool for themselves into which they can plunge. Listen to that for long enough and you become brainwashed, you stay constantly down even without the music.

New building technologies are researching the use of sounds in public places. It has been found that certain frequencies provoke certain neurophysiological reactions in the mind and thereon in the whole body. Relaxing frequencies, say at airport check-in desks, may prevent arguments.

I recommend relaxing music for office environments, which tend to be stimulating and stressful.

Published at 20:00  /  Comment

The Best of the Technobedouin: Airports

The technobedouin life style makes airports your second home. That’s why I often wonder why so many airports are so ill suited to waiting. Why can airports not have spas or fitness centres with saunas and swimming pools? Why can’t their restaurants be more club-like in the evenings where you could rave on as you wait for your plane? Why do lounges not have proper beds and darkened rooms in case your flight is delayed for hours? Where are the internet cafes in which you could indulge in internet games with other passengers? Quizzes sponsored by big brands with lucrative prizes? An indoor fun fair?

The closest to this image is Changi airport in Singapore. It has a sauna, rooms to sleep in, and an internet café for playing Counterstrike. Its tax-free shopping is brilliant, because it’s one of the cheapest places in the world for buying electronics.

Surprisingly, I rate Helsinki-Vantaa second. Changing flights is super quick, allowing good transit connections from Helsinki via Europe to Asia and back. The lounges are of good quality, as are restaurants and bars, even if they are quite pricey, and the airport is kept neat and tidy. Their new luggage collection system has room for improvement though, because now you are often left to wonder where your luggage might be delivered to.

In third place comes Copenhagen airport, because they have a train that takes you to the city centre in 15 minutes and so you can make a brief visit to Tivoli’s rollercoaster while you wait for your flight. The airport itself is not bad either, as there are loads of restaurants and bars, and the lounges have delicious food on offer.

My honorary mentions go to Schiphol in Amsterdam for their airport train logistics, and to Narita in Tokyo for overall functionality.

Published at 22:28  /  Comment

The Technobedouin Manual: Job hunting abroad

Job hunting abroad is relatively easy, as long as you know the rules.

First of all, if you really want to work in a particular city, job hunting is easiest done if you already live there. In other words, pack your bags and get yourself over there to get to know the place and do your job hunting. As an extra bonus, you will learn the local language quicker and you can also analyse whether the place really reflects your ideals. Another option is to do some cold calling to the right people abroad, and you can do this via internet telephone services, such as Skype (very affordable these days). This way you can try to sell yourself to them, or perhaps you can try to get a job in a company’s international department.

If you get offered a job abroad, you will also get a foreign contract. Their benefits are usually much less than an expatriate contract with a domestic company sending you abroad would offer. It is worth asking yourself whether it is the money or life experience you are after, and bearing in mind that in the long run, a foreign job with a foreign contract may take you anywhere with much better money than when you started.

So, the quickest way to get to any particular country is to relocate and job hunt over there. You should prepare for your move with marketing calls, so that you have some job interviews lined up after you arrive.

As a second point, never ever send your CV to Human Resources. This may sound peculiar, but really, I have never heard of anyone getting a job offer abroad this way. Many large companies have boxes full of CVs gathering dust in the corner and their servers packed full of resumes. When they quickly need to get a new person in, it seems that no one in a managerial position ever has time to start going through these piles - instead they call a head hunter, recruitment agency and their local contacts to try to locate somebody. This is why being there is so vital in this process. The best thing would be to give the right director a call (always start high, from the Managing Director, even with bigger companies - you will certainly be directed to the right person. And you can be sure that when you speak to them, your opening line of “I just spoke to your Managing Director about meeting…” always works wonders.) Only after these phone calls is it time to start sending your CV.

Thirdly, register with local recruitment agencies and headhunters and don’t forget to update your CV with them from time to time, so that they start to recognise your name and hold your latest details. Spend some time in creating an impressive CV, with complete and accurate information.

As a fourth point, there is nothing wrong with starting at a lower level than you would in your home country. You can then proceed more quickly or apply for a new job once you have become established. It is not worth spending a lot of time in a dead-end job, though, because it will have an impact on your CV.

As a fifth point, know the history and culture of your destination and study its language.

Lastly, be patient. Getting a good job can often take at least six months with all necessary negotiations etc. The negotiation stage can be quite long, so make sure you have several possible options open, ensuring that at least one of them will ultimately result in a job.

Published at 20:00  /  Comment

Piracy in South East Asia

Here in South East Asia you can buy pirated copies of new DVDs on the street for a couple of Euros each before the films have even been shown in cinemas. That’s why most films are premiered in South East Asia at the same time as in the US.

Likewise, you can find almost all of the most popular music CDs, computer programs and games, also for about two Euros per disc.

Asian soap operas fly off (and are transferred through the internet) from South East Asia to the US for the local Thai, Malaysian, Pilipino and Vietnamese audiences as soon as they have been broadcast on TV. The sale of pirated TV series is a business worth millions of Euros annually.

Back in the Commodore 64 era, there were dozens of pirated copies for every sold copy. Without the pirated copies, many legal copies would not have been sold at all. In this sense, piracy does not only create losses.

So how many legal copies really go unsold because of piracy? Many people buying these pirated versions in South East Asia cannot afford the original products. In fact, the brand value of Bart Simpson only multiplies because of piracy.

On the other hand, piracy of course destroys the profit margins of music and film companies. According to the well-known argument, piracy reduces the resources these companies need to produce quality films and music.

I think we could continue this debate forever without actually solving it. I believe that technology will give us a partial answer: If and when content buying on the internet becomes easier and cheaper, more and more people will buy their stuff on-line.

The times are changing for the film and music industries, and I believe that the reduction they now face in their business profits will pass as internet sales take off and start growing exponentially.

Published at 20:00  /  Comment

Paris Hilton: Famous for being famous

It is strange how the hotel heiress Paris Hilton manages to grip people’s interest. She must own some of the qualities of Mr Bean or Matti Nykänen. Everyone loves watching a famous person that keeps on getting into weird and wonderful situations week after week.

We are living in the ‘economies of attention’, which is a rather complex phenomenon. Publicity is like an investment portfolio, which can be used to generate income in different ways. Product sponsorships, TV shows, taking part in politics, and so on. Could we say that any publicity really is good publicity?

I don’t think so. I think it’s wise to think twice where you show your face. The media can be extremely harsh, as you can see in the way in which Paris Hilton’s jail episode has been handled. “Being famous” is a dream for many. What I have gathered from some of my friends, who are often in the public eye, is that any sensible publicity is hard work. If you want to portray a sensible image of yourself in the media, you need to spend time planning what you say and do.

Publicity can be appealing, but it is not all fun and games as you might think from the outside. Unless you want to be Paris Hilton of course. But then again, you hardly assume your future as the owner of a hotel chain is taken very seriously either.

Published at 18:01  /  Comment

The Best of the Technobedouin: Suitcases

What is the best luggage solution? Some time ago I bought a fancy Samsonite and paid through the nose for it, only for the suitcase to be ruined by airline luggage handlers within a year. Luckily, it got written off by my insurance company, but it took loads of infuriating form-filling and hunting for receipts and proofs, in other words, just the kind of waste of time you want to minimise in life.

Another problem with luxury suitcases is that no matter how fancy and durable they are, after a couple of dozen times in the hold luggage they look positively mucky.

And so it is that Thai street market suitcases win the Technobedouin title for the Best Suitcase. They cost around 20 Euros (26 USD) a piece. In ballistic technobedouin use they last for about a year, after which you can get a new one. Compare this to a 600 Euro Samsonite; it does not matter if it lasts you ten years because with that money you could buy a cheap suitcase and invest 530 Euros in eurodepo for a year, yielding about four per cent i.e. 24 Euros at the moment (i.e. money that buys you a new suitcase once a year leaving a few Euros to grow further interest). After ten years you still have at least 500 Euros left, whereas your friend with a Samsonite only has a battered and out-of-fashion suitcase and an empty account.

As an extra bonus, you get a clean new suitcase every year. For those of you who do not visit Thailand I recommend you buy your cheap suitcases anywhere near you.

Published at 16:52  /  Comment

The Technobedouin Manual: Preparing luggage

Preparing luggage is an art form in itself. Take too little with you and being on the road gets tiring before you know it. Take too much and you find yourself paying for excess luggage.

If you have never made a list of required luggage before, it’s time to start now. The exercise will save you an enormous amount of time and money, which you might have to spend in replacing things you forgot. The list is easy to compile next time you are preparing your luggage. You can keep on adding to and modifying it according to different type of trips (summer, winter, business, holidays).

I started my list in 2001 and, being the statistics wizard that I am, in 2005 I started noting down the trips on which I have used the list. Thanks to my list, I have successfully avoided forgetting my toothbrush, passport, mobile phone charger and many other indispensable items in at least 50 packing occasions during the last two and a half years.

You can store your list on your mobile phone where it’s always handy, easy to find and modify. As an extra bonus, with a list preparing your luggage will be quick and easy to manage, as you only need to follow the list and throw things in your bags.

That’s the handy tip of the week, folks!

Published at 20:00  /  Comment

Tony Blair, the next UN Secretary General (20-1) or Newcastle United coach (250-1)?

Or perhaps the soon-to-be-ex UK Prime Minister will set up a travel agency offering exclusive trips to Iraq (betting odds at 5000). If betting on the fate of Saddam Hussein was not strange enough, betting agents are now offering odds on the future of Tony Blair.

If I was Blair I think I would start that travel agency to Iraq just for the hell of it. It would flatten out one betting agent before they knew what had hit them.

Published at 20:53  /  Comment

The Technobedouin videos: Rally driving on snow and sand

The Technobedouin videos bring you some near-miss roly-poly driving on a snowmobile and racing from dune to dune in a jeep.

Published at 20:00  /  Comment

Life Management: How to prioritise

If you want to get ahead in life, it is essential to know how to prioritise. Someone who has run their own business for 40 years told me once that every day, you should use at least half an hour towards whatever is the most important goal in your life. Every day, 30 minutes. It’s like jogging; a 30-minute jog every day, which is about 5 kilometres, is equal to the distance between Helsinki and the northernmost tip of Finland in Enontekiö, and some of the way back - a really long way. Likewise, 30 minutes a day will help you to move into the direction you want to go to. And once you get going, you will allocate another 30 minutes a day for tasks that should be taken care of, but seem difficult to get started on, things that represent themselves as scary, labourious, boring, difficult or challenging.

Published at 15:35  /  Comment