Gizmodo: finland

500 Helsinki Homes to be Heated by Cathedral's Underground Servers

Kat Hannaford — Tue, 01 Dec 2009 10:24:59 EST

Any company that's ever boasted of its green credentials can shove it in the coal burner, after hearing about Helsinki's Uspenski Cathedral's data center, which will use its overheating servers to warm 500 homes joined by a network of pipes.

Opening in January, the center, run by IT firm Academica, will save $563,000 each year in energy costs, with all 500 homes benefiting from the shared heat presumably saving quite a few Euros too. [Reuters and Fast Company]

And the Award for First Country to Establish Broadband as a Legal Right Goes To...

Jesus Diaz — Wed, 14 Oct 2009 11:36:00 EDT

Finland! Not only they have great universal health care—including dental—great public daycare, and great public education at all levels, but now they also got broadband as a legal right provided to every citizen. And not any crappy broadband.

The policy will be active in July 2010, when every Finn will get a one-megabit connection. But that's just an intermediate step towards their final goal: By 2015, everyone will have a 100Mbps—yes, a hundred megabits per second—available.

Now, before the political debate starts in the comments, please watch this.

Thank you. [YLE News via Into Mobile]

Finnish Chair Has One Priority: Your Balls

Adam Frucci — Fri, 19 Jun 2009 16:40:00 EDT

The image associated with this post is best viewed using a browser.See this chair? It is designed with the comfort of your genitals in mind. Don't believe me? Just listen to a no-nonsense Finn describe its advantages over close ups of comfy, comfy balls.

[Today's Big Thing]

Finnish Spitzer Sends 200 Sex SMS to Exotic Dancer and Her Sister

Jack Loftus — Sun, 30 Mar 2008 14:00:00 EDT

An SMS-savvy Finnish Foreign Minister has joined former New York governor Eliot Spitzer in the "thinks with the wrong head" club this week. The 60-year-old Ilkka Kanerva was discovered to have sent more than 200 text messages to an exotic dancer named Johanna Tukiainen, 29. And her sister! Despite the fact that Kanerva's longtime parter said she's not bothered by her man's wandering eyes (or should that be fingers?), people are still calling for a resignation. More below.

The Finnish press got a hold of a few text gems sent by the minister, including this vague pick up line that may or may not be related to musical waterbeds: "Would you like to do it in an exotic place? Where could it be?" When asked if 'it' meant sex, Kanerva said it was obvious that the message was an answer to an earlier inquiry from Tukiainen.

We at Gizmodo are inclined to believe the minister; he was probably referring to their upcoming coffeehouse debate about the subtle differences between the Centre Party of Finland and the more even-handed (although no less capable) approach to governing taken by the National Coalition Party. Or maybe he was just trying to get laid with the exotic dancer, and her sister. We think her name's Debra.

[HELSINGIN SANOMAT]

Amazing Finnish Dorm Room Tetris in Video

Jason Chen — Tue, 04 Dec 2007 14:55:56 EST

What do you get when you combine the largest student dorm in Finland, a cellphone, and a love of Tetris? Something that's way cooler than the Russian monochrome equivalent. Video after the jump.

[Flickr SET via Mikontalolights]

Nokia 800 Robot Dog the Brainchild of Finnish Schoolkids

AddyDugdale — Thu, 25 Oct 2007 10:11:47 EDT

This is what happens when a forward-thinking cellphone giant gets together with a bunch of its future potential customers &mdash a robot dog made from an N800. The children at a Nokia-funded school in Finland came up with this idea of having an internet tablet that doubles as a pet. [YouTube via Crave]

It's Legal to Break DVD DRM in Finland

Jason Chen — Fri, 25 May 2007 14:20:28 EDT

Do you hear that sound? That's thousands of nerds cheering loudly, then coughing uncontrollably, then reaching for their inhalers thanks to a court ruling in Finland that rules CSS protection for DVDs ineffective. Why does this matter? Because under Finnish law, cracking DRM is only illegal when it's "effective," and CSS has become so ineffective that it's no longer illegal.

According to the court, CSS (the DRM on DVDs) no longer achieves its protection objective. The court relied on two expert witnesses and said that "since a Norwegian hacker succeeded in circumventing CSS protection used in DVDs in 1999, end-users have been able to get with ease tens of similar circumventing software from the Internet even free of charge. Some operating systems come with this kind of software pre-installed." Thus, the court concluded that "CSS protection can no longer be held 'effective' as defined in law."

How long before HD DVD and Blu-ray discs get to this point? A year? Two years? Maybe it won't even be necessary if this story is accurate. – Jason Chen

Finnish court rules CSS protection used in DVDs "ineffective" [Turre via Boing Boing]

Mio to World: France Moved

Mark Wilson — Sat, 17 Mar 2007 16:00:24 EDT

If you own a Mio GPS product, you might want to pull over for directions. Because according to their website, France moved to Finland.

So who gets to be France??

Germany. Hmm...maybe this map is just old. – Mark Wilson

Major Mio Map Mistakes [gps tracklog]
Mio

Book Comprised of All Text Messages Coming to Finland

Adam Frucci — Thu, 25 Jan 2007 10:11:58 EST

A new book is being released in Finland that is comprised only of text messages. Yes, 332 pages of texts, complete with obnoxious abbreviations and misspellings for authenticities sake.

Geez, Finland. First your Prime Minister dumps his girlfriend via text message and now this? Get a grip, people. Texting is a convenient way of sending lazy messages, not something to try to stuff literature into. But maybe I'm just a snob. Would you read a book comprised only of text messages? –Adam Frucci

Text message novel published in Finland [via Along Those Lines]

Sexy Finnish Prime Minister Dumps GF via Text Message

www.gizmodo.com — Fri, 01 Dec 2006 16:06:52 EST

Finland, land of Nokia and mobile phones aplenty, seems to have an inappropriate love of text messaging that goes all the way up to the head of the state. Finnish Prime Minister Matti Vanhanen (shown above totally hitting on German Chancellor Angela Merkel), apparently known as "Finland's Sexiest Man," dumped his girlfriend (that he met on the Internet, no less) via text message. Slighted ex-girlfriend Susan Kuronen says "Matti dumped me in a text message, where he said 'that's it.'" Cold blooded, Matti!

In other news, if that guy is the sexiest man in Finland I am totally moving to Finland. Dude could make a killing over there. –Adam Frucci

Finland's 'sexiest man' ends romance with txt msg [via CNET]