Me learning words: Rad

My ultimate source on being somewhat aware what the native english speakers from U.S really mean with slang words is Urbandictionary. I was once again searching for a word I noticed somewhere and I was so amused with this explanation that had to share with you.

Word: Rad

really cool, but in a more subtle way. as opposed to extreme or awesome. one of the highest compliments you can give someone. being rad is like being cool without having to work for it. it's like a natural coolness.

I love the wording "being cool without having to work for it". That defines so well many of the guys who are cool, but they really have to work for it. Then there are guys, who just are rad, cool without having to work for it.

I bet you native speakers might not find it hilarious, but it really made me smile. Written by +Henri Hämäläinen

Take pictures you can focus later

I run into to this new camera type from Lytro, which will take pictures so that you don't need to focus. You can actually leave the focusing to the one's who are looking the picture later. Here's promotional video about their solution:



Here's some picture's from their demo gallery, so you can see and try it yourself. So tick different places in image to focus on that level:


By Lytro / Richard Koci Hernandez
Sophie Hernandez, 13, lost in her favorite book.


By Lytro / Jason Bradley
Shore entry in Monterey Bay, California


By Lytro / Eric Cheng
The colorful crowds of Hollywood, CA.

I don't want to judge too much in this phase of what purpose this could be used, but definitely there will be use for this kind of camera. I would guess it will cost a lot for starters, but as all technology it will come cheaper over time.

It will make one aspect of photography totally different. You can't play with focus as you have used to, but you must use focus much more creatively, since users can focus your pictures later on.

Written by +Henri Hämäläinen

Online grocery store in subway stations - great idea by Tesco

My favorite idea sharing site Springwise just blogged about Tesco's South-Korea online Grocery market experiment.

This stuff is just genius. People can shop when they wait for subway in a look alike grocery store and then food get's delivered to their home. Check the video out, it's really groundbreakingly cool:



I have long history with grocery store business, since both my parents have been in the industry my whole life, so it's close to my heart. I always keep on wondering the delivery chain for these online grocery markets. To keep the cold chain, you would need to make sure that deliveries are not standing anywhere without fridge. This is one really challenging task and unfortunately they don't tell in the video how they tackled that one. Maybe the problem is bit "western", since we tend to be so strict with these regulations at least in Nordic countries.

I just love the idea and especially execution of store shelf lookalikes.

Written by +Henri Hämäläinen

Facebook happy birthday wishes

I had my birthday couple days ago. On that day I received 36 birthday wishes in Facebook. All of those where just because people noticed from top right corner in Facebook that it was my birthday on that day. None, or maybe 1 or 2, might have actually known that it is my birthday on that day.

At first, I didn't really give any value to those and I was even bit irritated, knowing the fact that they have just noticed my birthday on the Events sections on top right of FB. When I kept on receiving those wishes during the day, I started to get glad. Some of the wishes came from persons who I haven't been in real life contact for years, but those have been part of my life in some point at past. At the end of the day, I actually felt happy receiving those birthday wishes, even my thinking started off from the complete opposite side.

I started to analyze this bit more (I do have a bad habit for that). Noticing one's birthday is a one thing, sending a birthday wish is another. It requires an action. Really small, I must say, but still it requires you to act based on what you saw and actually type something. I for example, I've wished for a birthday once in past year in Facebook. All the rest birthday's I've just skipped.

So these people have first seen that it's my birthday. Then they have somehow associated me to their memories and then thought that I could wish for a good birthday for Henkka (me). So even as it seems as such a meaningless act, people are not wishing good birthday for anyone in the world, but only for those, who have some meaning or memory in their life.

At that day, I was able to convince myself, that birthday wishes in Facebook are real ones and I really can be happy about those. It's a small gesture, but I believe small gestures are the ones that make us show that we care. Most often big ones are just showing off.

Happy belated birthday to myself!


Written by +Henri Hämäläinen

Is Google+ invite only just a marketing trick?

It's funny that company with maybe most servers in the world says they don't have the capacity to support everyone to get into Google+. It's easy to question that one and think that maybe the only purpose of invite only is to get more visibility and interest to Google+.

Is it a coincidence that GMail and Google Wave where invite only also for a long time. They got a lot of publicity when people where trying to chase the invites from different sources. It's always so that when you can't get something you'll chase for, it becomes more interesting. Could this be the strategy with Google+ also?

Also when you eventually get Google+ account, you can basically invite anyone to use it, without any limitations. So if they would be scared of capacity problems, maybe they would have limited invite possibilities in some way.

Still there's a second change. It maybe that Google guys have noticed that invite only is the best way to limit the speed of adaption of the service and that way control their capacity better. Pier to pier inviting is more predictable than plain open service adaption.

Whatever the reason is, still Google+ invite only is a perfect marketing way. It will raise awareness of service when people who are interested are chasing for invite or when they have received an invite.

Written by +Henri Hämäläinen