I recently evaluated bunch of Ruby libraries for consuming webservices. One I liked most is is HTTParty. Love the syntax and elegance. Here is how you would shorten an URL with my favourite URL shortener shrt.st:

require 'rubygems'
require 'httparty'

class Shrtst
  include HTTParty
  base_uri 'api.shrt.st'

  def self.shorten(url)
    get( '/1.0/p/' + url)
  end
end

puts Shrtst.shorten('http://www.appelsiini.net/')

Hey Usual. How can I access this via API?

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Estonia   Ruby  

All photos by Annika Haas, Fotobrigaad.

It was talked about in several different places. Last thursday it became reality. First Estonian Internet Awards winners were announced. These are my comments as a member of jury.

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Estonia   Work  

Last weekend Kuldmuna awards were given out. Someone is going to be offended by saying this. Level of most of entries shortlisted in Internet design and Digital advertising categories were shamefully low. I know there have been better projects in Estonia during last year. How did this happen?

DISCLAIMER: I work in advertising agency myself. I have been working in advertising agency or online department of advertising agency for last 11 years. Good to remember when you work in advertising and feel offended by reading this.

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Estonia   Work  

Altex Marketing has organized several online marketing seminars. Next one will be held 14. august 2008 at Uniquestay Hotel. Event starts at 14:00 and ends around 17:00. This event will concentrate on usability. Thus the name E!usability.

Tickets cost 1750 EEK (approximately 110 EUR). All previous events have been worth of the money. I believe this one wont be and exception either.

Speaker lineup

• Kristjan Jansen, freelance interaction designer and web activist, “User and convenience”. Read his blog.
• Hegle Sarapuu, Trinidad Consulting, “Learn to know your user”.
• Mihkel Jäätma, Realeyes, “Eyetracking in webdesign, why and how?”.
• Aivar Paalberg, Enter and Martin Salo, Laborint, “How to gain profit from usability analysis”.
• Epp-Kristiina Keerov and Carol Tikerperi, Altex Marketing, “Morae software demo”.

Related entries: E!UK – Six UK Digital Marketing Specialists in Tallinn, Eturundus! 8 – This Time at KUMU, Eturundus! 6 – The Big Picture, Eturundus! 4 by Altex Marketing, Notes From Eturundus! 3 – Rok Hrastnik

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Estonia   Marketing  

Eturundus! seminars organized by Altex marketing keep getting better and better. Next one will be held 7th of may at Estonian national library. This time all speakers are from UK. Thus the name E!UK.

Participation fee is is 2500 EEK or 160 EUR per person. Discount for groups of four. Since Tallinn is only 80 kilometers from Helsinki it should be easy for Finnish digiprofessionals to pay a visit to E!UK. Hey, it’s only two hours with a boat…

All presentations will be held in English. They will provide live translation for those who speak only Estonian.

Speaker lineup

• Sam Michel, MD of Chinwag
  “Digital Marketing Opportunities in the UK for Estonians”

• Marcel Udo, European MD of Eyewonder
  “The Future of Banner Advertising and Rich Media”

• Craig Hanna, Training Director, e-consultancy
  “The Atomised Web”

• Laura Bambach, Head of Art, Glue London and Co-Founder SheSays
  “Digital creativity and collaboration”

• Jon Bains, Founder, Lateral
  “The People vs. The Brand”

• Alastair Cole, Interactive Production Director, Golley Slater Digital
  “Swimming Against The Tide: Information Architecture and UI Design”

I will definitely be there.

Related entries:
Eturundus! 8 – This Time at KUMU,
Eturundus! 6 – The Big Picture, Eturundus! 4 by Altex Marketing, Notes from Eturundus! 3 – Rok Hrastnik

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Estonia   Marketing  

Last week Estonian business paper Äripäev made a small research. Their journalist made an online registration to test drive a car. Only three car dealers out of seven replied.

Response from those who failed to answer? “We had some technical problems.”

Before reading further I should mention that Amserv Auto mentioned in this post is our client.

Who answered and who did not?

Out of seven dealers contacted following replied.

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Estonia   Work  

Estonian business tabloid Äripäev writes about new real estate portal Koduleidja. According to äripäev this newcomer is bringing out fresh concept to real estate market: silent buying and selling.

What Äripäev fails to mention the concept is not new at all. Instead it is a copy of Finnish real estate portal Igglo.

Igglo was first launched in February 2006. Company and the concept it has been successfull. It currently operates also in Norway. One of the key features of Igglo has been the silent buying and selling. Portal has information and photos of every single building in Helsinki and other big cities in Finland. If you are interested in buying a flat from a specific house you can ear mark your interest anonymously. Also if you are interested in selling yours you can mark that there is a flat possibly available in this house.

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Estonia   Work  

Many people have business ideas. Some of them are good. Some of them are bad.

Ajujaht is competition where you can give you idea for peer review. You describe your business plan carefully. It is reviewed by professional people. Jury will choose finalists. Each finalist will receive 5000 EEK (320 EUR) cash price.

Again from finalists jury will choose best business ideas. Winners will receive cash prices to make their dreams come true. Price money totals 500.000 EEK (32.000 EUR). Five best teams will also be arranged meeting with investors. This could mean even more funding.

Competition is sponsored by City of Tallinn, City of Tartu, Tallinn Technologypark TEHNOPOL, Enterprise Estonia and SEB Eesti Ühispank.

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Estonia   Work  

Make your office happy buy providing people with fresh water!

Bossa Vesi is a minisite for Estonian supplier of coffee, water and juice machines for offices. It contains some simple jQuery goodness. All Javascript code degrades gracefully.

The nice office in front page is actually our own!

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Estonia   Marketing   Work  

Shocking news! Expired residence permit can cause problems. Even inside European Union.

In previous part I had problems with Tallinn city officials. I tried to register my living address. Landlords signature was not valid because he had taken a home loan from bank. City database says apartment owner was bank.

Bank sent letter of attorney to landlord. This letter gave him permission to sign a paper. This paper gave me permission to fill a form. With this form I was able to register my address in Estonia. After registering living address I could renew my residence permit.

Problem was all this took three weeks. During this time my residence permit ended. Not a biggie.

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Estonia   Tallinn  

There are some small but crucial differences in driving culture between our two small countries. These facts are observed while living most of my life in Finland and 1.5 years in Estonia. My aim is to help Estonians understand Finnish better (and vice versa).

Radio Sucks

Take your own music with you. Finnish radio absolutely sucks. Programs contain mostly semifunny radiohosts with semifunny jokes. Bad, I mean really bad music. Every single station plays the same Christina Aguilera and Britney Spears songs. Not even any fancy remixes. Just the plain radio versions. Sometimes DJ’s go wild and play some Lordi.

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Estonia   Finland  

Helsinki – Tallinn line gets new ship. No more looking at weather forecasts. This ship can go out with bad weather. It can go go out even when there is ice!

For people traveling often between Tallinn and Helsinki this is good news. Problem with fast ferries is you never know will they go. If there is storm ferries will be canceled. This happened to me three times last year. Fast ferries also do not go during winters. In winters you can travel only cruise ships. Problem with cruise ships is the time. Travel with cruise ships takes over 3 hours.

This is exactly what M/S Star fixes. It is a big ship which can drive even in storms. Still it has speed of fast ferries. Travel time to Helsinki is only two hours. This combined with onboard wifi makes it perfect for business travelers. How well wifi actually work we will see tomorrow morning.

It is not advertised but M/S Galaxy also has onboard wifi. It only works in some parts of ship. Just check where all the people with laptops are. Internet connection works all the way to Finland. Maybe not the fastest. Still enough to read your mails and hang in IRC or MSN.

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Estonia   Helsinki   Tallinn  

Spring brings out the people. People bring out photographers. For four weeks there will be fashion spy’s patrolling streets of Tallinn.

Kevad.ee is Estonia streetstyle photoblog. During four weeks our photographers will make pictures of people in streets of Tallinn. Art directors will then spend several hours browsing this daily photo stream. Result is around ten new images posted online daily. Photoblog will be updated for one month. But this is not the end. All photos published online will be also published in a book. No not an e-book but an real dead-tree book!

Site is part of spring campaign for Kristiine Keskus

UPDATE 20070409:
There are also two similar projects online. Femme tänavamood and Just Glitter Lust

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Estonia   Marketing   Work  

!/~tuupola/oldimages/16.gif (Eturundus!)! It is soon time for the next Eturundus! event.

Next Eturundus! 8 event organized by Altex Marketing will be held on tuesday 16th january. Event starts at 14:00 and should end around 17:30. This time the venue will be KUMU auditorium.

Speakers will include:

• Mihkel Lauk, HP
• Marit Kroon, Coca-Cola
• Erki Peinar, ADM Interactive
• Robin Gurney, Altex Marketing

See you all there!

Related entries:
Eturundus! 6 – The Big Picture, Eturundus! 4 by Altex Marketing, Notes from Eturundus! 3 – Rok Hrastnik

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Estonia   Marketing  

!/~tuupola/oldimages/41t.jpg (Estonian Fuse)!:/~tuupola/oldimages/41.jpg Saving money is saving money. Even if it means risk of fire.

I guess this Estonian home improvement guy has been watchin too much McGyver. I order to save few kroons he did not replace the burned fuse. Instead he used piece of copper wire to “fix” the fuse. This fuse was in the main power line coming into the apartment. Needless to say some of the insulation of electrical wires inside aparment were melted. All this in wooden house.

After seeing this it does not surprise me that main reasons for fire related deaths are smoking in bed and problems with electrical wiring.

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Estonia  

Until now everything in Estonia has been bureaucracy free. Recently small mistake I made last year together with bureaucracy by Tallinn city officials caused snowball effect of problems.

Last year I received my residence permit to live in Estonia. After receiving the ID card and residence permit my address was known to immigration office, tax office, bank and social security service. I did not understand then that this was not enough. I should have registered my address to Tallinn city databases too.

This I found out when extending my residence permit. New EU rules state that I will receive new permit automatically if I have registered address in Estonia. Meaning, registered to city database. Of course immigration office did not recognize my address because they are checking city databases only. I only need to register my address with city officials and I will automatically get new residence permit. Easy! Or that is what I thought.

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Estonia   Tallinn  

!/~tuupola/oldimages/38t.jpg (Minge kõig pittu!)!:/~tuupola/oldimages/38.jpg Copyline begging to get defaced gets defaced. Gets more rock attitude.

Outdoor campaign for Rock beer created by advertising agency Tank (warning, Flash popup content ahead) got defaced by a prankster. The original copyline Minge kõik pittu! (you all go to party!) got changed to Minge kõik vittu! (you all go to hell!). Incidentally the ad actually got more rock attitude after defacement.

But that is not all. Apparently Tank intentionally designed copyline to sound like the go to hell version. Did they also count on someone to deface outdoor ads? If they did, thats creative thinking!

Related entries: Disel, beer advertising with attitude

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Advertising   Estonia  

!/~tuupola/oldimages/16.gif (Eturundus!)! It is again time for the next Eturundus! event.

Next Eturundus! 6 e-marketing event organized by Altex Marketing will be held on thursday 7th september. Event starts at 14:00 and should end around 17:00. This time the venue will be Kino Sõprus. Previous events have been really successfull. Thus the larger venue which can hold as much as 280 people.

Speakers will include:

• Ants Lusti, Leo Express
• Daniel Vaarik, Hill and Knowlton
• Epp-Kristiina Keerov, EMT
• Ave Peetri, ETV

Afterwards people will gather to Lounge 8 for food and drinks and general chat.

See you there!

Related entries: Eturundus! 4 by Altex Marketing, Notes from Eturundus! 3 – Rok Hrastnik

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Estonia   Marketing  

!/~tuupola/oldimages/33t.jpg (Outside Paldiski nuclear submarin training center)!:/~tuupola/oldimages/33.jpg Walking inside abandoned nuclear submarine training center can give you the creeps.

Few days ago we made a trip with two friends to city of Paldiski. Paldiski became Soviet nuclear submarine training center in 1962. Whole city was closed and surrounded by barbed wire until 1994. It was inhabitated by aproximately 16000 Soviet military personnel. Today number of inhabitants is around 4000. Most of them russian speaking. City has been in state of decay for a while. With recent development things seem to look better.

!/~tuupola/oldimages/34t.jpg (Corridors inside Paldiski submarine training center)!:/~tuupola/oldimages/34.jpg First we tried to find the old nuclear submarine training center. It would have been really obvious building. Still managed to miss it. Instead we found the two old small experimental nuclear reactors. They served as training center for prospective Soviet submariners. Waste produced at this facility was stored on sight and at a remote sight near Saku (27 km from Tallinn). Reactors were shut down in 1989. Today, with help of European Union, they are building sargographs to keep the radiation levels down. We could not get in the reactor area. Instead the helpfull guard told us where the training center was. Note to friends and relatives: I am not glowing in dark.

With second try we found the training center. Parked our car next to it and started the journey. Comparing to old photographs it seems half of it has already been torn down. Still, the complex was huge. I guess the buildings were closed but it was easy to get in. There was broken glass in huge stairways and long corridors everywhere. I was not quite sure if someone lived there. Some fresh cigarette stumps and smell of urine suggested we might pop into someone.

!/~tuupola/oldimages/35t.jpg (Posters found inside living quarters)!:/~tuupola/oldimages/35.jpg After wondering pointlesly in first building we moved to second. You could only hear wind and pigeons flying. Opening a door made authentic scary movie sound. Second building was only two storey building. Maybe living quarters for more privileged people. Maybe officers? One room still had some posters on the wall.

Third place where got in was school area. Old teachingrooms still had signs on the door. By closing our eyes we were able to imagine how this place was vivid and full of students before. One room had deep swimming pool. Perhaps underwater operation training?

This place was a new experience to me. It is not hard to imagine how the area looked in 80’s. Can’t wait for the next adventure in abandoned places. Next stop outskirts of Narva… Thanks Vidrik and Kulla!

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Estonia   Paldiski  

!/~tuupola/oldimages/32t.jpg (M1)!:/~tuupola/oldimages/32.jpg Engine sounds and burning rubber whole weekend. Puma Racing Weekend 2006 sponsored by SMR Teed AS was held last weekend near Pärnu.

During the weekend races were driven in several classes. Most interesting of them were Baltic GT and Nordic Supercar classes. In fact this was the first time ever Nordic Supercars appeared in Estonia. This class includes interesting cars such as Viper GTS-R and Corvette C4R. In Baltic GT class you can find absolute beauties such as BMW M3 GTR driven by Tõnu Soomer. Olli Virtanen competes in the same class with his BMW M1. That car is a true gentlemans racing vehicle.

Rest of the photos you can find at Puma Racing Weekend gallery.

UPDATE 20060818: U-POP has some great car photos from the event.

Related entries: Icecracing at Kahala Järv, Iceracing at Männiku Karjäär.

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Estonia  

Ooo this is a good one. Estonian joke about Finnish people which I heard today from a colleague.

It was not Kolumbus who discovered America. It was Finnish people. They (we) just don’t know it cause they (we) never remember the boat trip.

Related entries: Music Makes People Go Away

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Estonia  

Wakeboarding season starts aproximately one month earlier in Estonia than in Finland. Hot spot of the scene at the moment is Pärnu.

Thanks to Karel of Alleaa OÜ and the rest of the crew we have had 7 great weekends of wakeboarding already. Pärnu river is soo warm compared to the sea. Since it is S shaped you can almost always find calm water from there. So if you want to try give Karel a call.

Remember to check the pictures.

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Estonia   Wakeboard  

!/~tuupola/oldimages/31t.jpg (Welcome to Estonia)!:/~tuupola/oldimages/31.jpg One of my neighbours is pissed off and late from work today. Photo is taken on my way to work.

I wonder how many minutes did it take to lift the car over bricks and take out the wheels. Probably under ten. After all our front yard has good visibility and light sensor triggered lights. Maybe the bad guys were in a hurry though. They forgot their mechanical jack under the car. How can they now continue their profession!!

EDIT: There is nothing unique about this. I have seen the same thing happen in Helsinki. A colleague of mine noted that he once saw car without wheels standing over four one liter pepsi bottles…

Note to self: always park into garage.

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Estonia   Tallinn  

!/~tuupola/oldimages/29.gif (ILS)!:http://www.ils.ee/ You move to foreign country. You learn the language. That is the rule. My studies are now done for this spring.

Second Estonian language course at ILS ended on wednesday. Afterwork studies two evenings (three at the begining) every week were surprisingly hard work. That made me appreciate the fact they have teached us english since third grade. For me it has always been granted I can speak english. I did not remember how much work learning a language takes. So, thank’s Finnish school system. You did a good job with me.

We even had an elementary level exam at ILS. I scored 77.5/100. It means I can not have intelligent discussions in estonian. But hey, atleast I can read the papers and manage myself in everyday life. Having five minute conversations with people is better than the monotonic Kas-te-räägite-inglise-keelt? I usually said five months ago.

So my advice to everyone moving to live in Estonia. Learn the language as soon as you can. It helps you in everyday life. It is fun. It makes you better person. It does not cure cancer or bring world peace but you will not be confused as being yet another beer tourist.

Suur aitäh Piret! See you in autumn.

Related entries: 10 Habits I Have Developed in Estonia

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Estonia  

First six months in Estonia is full. It seems I have developed some new habits during my stay:

1. Drinking keefir which is soured milk or piimä in finnish. For some reason I never drank that in Finland. I always considered it old peoples drink. But it is good. It is really good!
2. Smoking sisha. Waterpipes are really popular in Estonia. You can order one to smoke by yourself or share with friends in several cafes and pubs. Apparently they became popular because many people travel to Egypt and Turkey during their holidays. My favourite taste is apple and liquorice.
3. Drinking vodka and eating sour cucumbers together. For some reason this combination eliminates all possibility of having a hangover.
4. Tipping waitresses and bartenders. In Finland everything is so shitty expensive you only tip for exceptionally good service. In Estonia everything is relatively cheaper and service is usually always good.
5. Eating sourcrout. It might smell weird but it is good. Really! You should try it.
6. Driving with foglights on even during the days. In Finland you get fined for that. Cars somehow looks better with foglights on. Go figure.
7. Parking next to expensive cars. They don’t hit you with their doors. Apparently that does not help though. Got my first dent to drivers door this morning. THANK YOU FOR SCRATCHING MY CAR!
8. Swimming several kilometres per week. After all it is quite lonely job to be the only foreigner in a company. Lots of nothing to do equals lots of sports.
9. Jogging. I basically hate running but Pirita beach gives a pictoresque setting for sunday morning runs.
10. Adapting more relaxed attitude to everything. Estonians do not panic about absolutely everything as the more western countries seem to do. I quess this will change when Estonia joins EU adapts all new EU laws and changes to € (what was I thinking…).

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Estonia  

!/~tuupola/oldimages/25.jpg (Kakaopuding)! Retroreklaamid provides collection of old Estonian television advertising by Harri Egipt. When watching the clips first allow them to fully download. Otherwise you might be missing the sound.

As usual with all retrostuff these advertisements are old enough to be considered cool again. My personal favourite must be the psychedelic Kanahakkliha which advertises minced chicken meat. Ketrajad soundtrack is weird rap tune from the times when nobody knew what rap was. But that is not all! Some cool break move in Mahlad.

Related entries: New BSA Antipiratism Campaign in Estonia, Disel, beer advertising with attitude.

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Advertising   Estonia  

!/~tuupola/oldimages/16.gif (Eturundus!)! Eturundus! 4 internetiturundus seminar will be held again on 27th of february. Location will be Reval Hotel Olümpia, Beta hall. I will be speaking there together with Peeter Marvet, Mihkel Vabrit and Altex’s own Robin Gurney.

Previous seminars have been really inspiring. I recommend them to everyone located in Estonia and working with online media.

Related entries: Notes From Eturundus! 3 – Rok Hrastnik

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Estonia   Marketing  

!/~tuupola/oldimages/24.jpg (Kahala Järv)! Same tools as previous time. This time as quest for Eesti Audi Club. Purpose again to have fun.

Kahala Järv is located aproximately 45 kilometers outside Tallinn. I was lucky to be able to join local Audi club for their iceracing afternoon. After all my car is of the wrong brand.

Gathering at Statoil. Journey using Peterburi tee. Lake behind some small roads. Ice was covered with powder snow. Powder snow equals fun.

People were able to practise for aproximately an hour before timetaking began. Only three cars on the track were allowed. This way racing was safe. Not surprisingly the four wheel drives ruled the track. But hey, with rear wheel drive I can go sideways as long as I want!

Thank you Eesti Audi Club for pimping myCTRL-HCTRL-HCTRL-H letting me ride!

Related entries: Iceracing at Männiku Karjäär

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Estonia  

Service culture in Estonia varies a lot. This blog entry is a start to ongoing series of writing down experiences I had with different companies.

Sometimes service it is plain awfull. Still having the soviet time attitude of customer should be lucky to get whatever is available. Other times service is superficially friendly. I do not consider myself old enough to be called Sir and asked Can I take your coat please Sir? Most of the time I get good service though.

GOOD: Ergo Kindlustus. I needed to buy a mandatory third party liability insurance for my car. It was when I only spoke a couple of words estonian. The clerk spoke only few words of english and finnish. Still she did not get frustrated with me and we were able to fill out all the forms and make a deal.

GOOD: Restorani Stefanie’s. Top notch service. Although everytime I have been there they have just run out of tiramisu.

GOOD: Audiocenter. The owners know their products and you can get service in atleast four languages. They did not have all the equipment I wanted first. They made a special order for me and called when it arrived.

GOOD: Merge. I needed a satellite TV. After calling the office their project manager came to my aparment next day to check what kind of cabling and assemblies were needed.

GOOD: United Motors. The car salesman did not get frustrated with my endless questions about different aspects of owning a car in Estonia. Needless to say, they got my money.

Related entires: Restorani Stefanie’s

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Estonia  

The tools: Audi S4, Toyota Celica 4WD and 3 Series BMW. The target: Männiku karjäär icetrack 15 minutes away from central Tallinn. Purpose: to have fun.

And boy did we have fun. Upon arriving to the track we noticed there were aproximately 60 cars driving the lap. They were driving fast. It was crowded. To me it seemed cars were driving bit too close to each other. Hell, no insurance company would pay me anything if I crashed my car racing.

I turned off all safety electronics. They just keep your speed down and take away the fun. After fooling around for 15 minutes some cars left the track and there was room. I joined the track. Yes, I was first nervous of those tuned up Ladas and Subarus coming sideways ten metres behind me. After a few laps I just though What the hell. This is better than Playstation. and let go. This is what cars with big engines are for. Racing!

I admit. It was stupid in terms of risks. Under no circumstances any insurance company would pay any compensation if I had crashed my car in an unofficial icetrack in some random lake. But hey! Everything which is fun is either stupid, illegal or unhealthy.

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Estonia  

!/~tuupola/oldimages/19.gif (Tulli)! Entering Finland driving a car with Estonian licence plates resulted different attitude at customs than car with Finnish plates ever did.

Last friday was the first time I visited Helsinki driving a car with Estonian licence plates. Until then the car has always had Finnish plates and going through customs was a breeze. This time, however, after passport control I was instantly surrounded by six or seven policemen who signed me to pull over and open the window. I said hello in Finish and asked how could I help. They started to ask me question in fast pace. They asked same questions again and again trying to make me make a mistake.

What is your business here? Do you have anything to declare? Where are you going? What address is that? Do you have anything illegal with you? What was the address where you are going? Do you have anything to declare?

I though about telling them not everyone from Estonia is a smuggler. Then I realized they probably would not have any sense of humor and strip and/or cavity search might not be fun at all. I decided to shut up.

After couple of minutes I told them: Look guys. I am originally from Helsinki but I now live in Tallinn. I will open the trunk and you can search the car to see I only have couple of cases of beer with me.

The answer was: Oh, can I see your passport again… Ah yes. You can go. Have a nice day.

EDIT 20060620: Additional note because there is lots of people coming from trip.ee. This really happened. But it only happened once. I have been back in Finland several times without any problems. Maybe they just had training. Maybe it was because I came first out of the ship. Maybe they were just bored.

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Estonia   Finland  

Ok, there is something wrong too.

• In Tallinn the remains of Finnish IT worker were found from his apartment. He had been cut in pieces and stuffed in plastic bags. Interesting tidbit is the fact that when I moved to Tallinn I considered if I should rent an apartment from the same building.
• Estonia has the highest murder rate in EU. During my stay in here two high profile businesmen have been murdered. Third was attempted but the bullet killed an 16 year schoolgirl instead.
• World Health Organisation (WHO) estimates, one in every 100 people in the 15 to 49 age group in Estonia may be infected with HIV. Worse situation exists only in African countries.
  90% of all HIV infections are among injecting drug users. 3/4 of them among people under 25. While the numbers are high the epidemic remains concentrated in Russian speaking drug injectors in specific geographic areas (source: WHO Epidemiological Fact Sheet)
• Estonia sometimes tries to be too American. In Võrumaa parents of kindergarten kids had to fill an application allowing their children to sit the knee of Santa Claus. Additionally a new law was passed which allows teenagers starting from 12 use firearms.

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Estonia  

Alternative nightclubs, good pasta and great architecture. New headline as a bonus.

• I decided to change the headline from about Estonia to in Estonia. Things I learn here can be universal too.
• Von Krahl in Vanalinn is a small two floor venue where many of Tallinns alternative and creative people go. First floor has a dancefloor and a balcony with bars. Second floor is for live bands. Last friday there was a party called Plektrum which was absolutely great. It has been a while since I last heard such good music and danced to it most night!
• Restoran Kadriorg at Weizenbergi 18 offers good properly boiled al dente pasta. All other places I have eaten in have had it overboiled. Downside is the price. Starters range from 110 to 200 kroons, pasta dishes 70 to 130 kroons and 255 to 335 kroons. The restaurant is good but Tallinn has restaurants with much better price to quality ratio.
• Architecture of some of the beachouses at Viimsi area is absolutely elegant and simple. I was especially impressed by the houses designed by 3+1 architects I saw. Sadly not everything in Viimsi is elegant. You can also find some houses which have gone overboard and look like fairytale castles.
• The different smelling smoke in private house areas comes from the palava kivi or burning stone which is used for heating.

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Estonia  

A small list of English language blogs concentrating on topics about Tallinn and Estonia in general. The list is updated regularly.

• Vincent Oberle. Thoughts and opinions about technology and business. French engineer working in Skype.
• Bonjour l’Estonie. Frequently updated news and and roundups from local newspapers.
• SadEst. Audiovisual media student and photographer from Estonia. Local insight on Estonian society.
• Estonia: through the eyes of a Latvian. Latvian student living in Tallinn.
• Viva Paltriness. Audiovisual media student living in Tallinn. Critical views on society.
• Estonian News Online. Rarely updated news on Estonia.
• Ohlala!. Tallinn restaustant reviews.
• Teller in English. Siim Teller’s English language section.
• Itching for Eestimaa. New Jersey guy writing about Estonia.
• Nick in Estonia. Remarks and photos of trip to Estonia.
• Talliin on a Picture a Day. New picture of Tallinn in every day. Comments in both English and Estonian.
• Celtic Wanderlust
• TrudeeHill
• LettersFromestonia

Some Google pagerank for you. Palun! If you know more leave a comment.

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Estonia  

This week consisted of culinary experiences with sourcrout and accidentaly entering Ülemiste shopping center while on my way to airport.

• Poissmehe jõuluroog ie. bachelors christmas meal is a warm dish which contains sourcrout, potatoes and occassional pieces of meat. You can buy it from Selver. Price per kilogram is only 29.90 EEK (1.91 EUR). Mmmmm, good! I ate two 250 g cartons in a row.
• Last year there was a snowboard park near Lauluväljak. The guys at Alleaa are planning even bigger park this winter. SWB has Lauluka Park photos from last winter.
• Ülemiste Keskus is a huge shopping center few minutes away from central Tallinn. After 30 minutes of wandering around I got an impression that most of the people there were russian.
• There are car hand wash companies everywhere in Tallinn.
• The toilets in Coca Cola Plaza cost one kroon.

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Estonia   Tallinn  

!/~tuupola/oldimages/18.jpg (Kalinka!)! The most amusing taxi ride yet ends in being slighty ripped off in Tallinn…

Taxi rides in Tallinn can vary a lot. Sometimes they are hazardous. Maybe because the driver can be ambulance driver having two jobs. Sometimes the driver can get lost. With Tulika Takso I have always had good service and fast non-hazardous rides in clean cars. Tulika drivers I always tip by paying to the closest 20 kroons.

My first encounter with another taxi company was a bit different. Took a cab in front of D-terminal. Inside of the cab everything was red. I mean everything. Dashboard was covered with tens of different bouncing toys – all in colour red. It vaquely reminded me of the decorated taxicabs in india. The experience was spiced up with loud russian KAAALINKA KALINKA style music and the driver constantly honking to slower cars. This all got me in a good mood…

… until we were there. Taxi ride from central Tallinn to my place usually costs around 75 to 85 kroons. When the taxi stopped the driver just said 100 kroons and I could not see the taximeter anywhere. 15 kroons is not a big deal. I was going to pay the driver 100 kroons as I usually do anyway. There is no need to try to rip me off. The only difference to me was to become pissed off and not using the same company again.

From now on I’ll just use Tulika Takso.

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Estonia   Tallinn  

!/~tuupola/oldimages/17.jpg (Piraatlus on eilne p�ev)!:http://filmid.bsa.ee/BSA_Piraat_25_ver_6_2.mpg BSA just launched a new antipiratism campaign in Estonia. The campaign runs under name Piraatlus on eilne päev or Piratism is yesterday.

It consists of two television spots starring a pirate causing noise and confusion in office. Please see spot 1 ans spot 2.

The latter one has a good chance of becoming viral. I just wish they did not include that cheesy explosion in the end.

Erik Mandre (or most likely their PR company) of BSA Estonia comments the campaign:

Message of the campaign is clear – using pirated software is unethical and a modern company should not use them (pirated software).

In Estonia aproximately 55% of software being used is pirated. The average in Europe is 35% pirated software.

Via pixel.ee

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Advertising   Estonia  

!/~tuupola/oldimages/16.gif (Eturundus!)!:http://altex.ee/index.php?emarketing Rok Hrastnik of Studio Moderna recently held an presentation at Eturundus! 3. Eturundus! is an ongoing series of events organized by Altex Marketing. I recommend these events to all marketing professionals located in or near Tallinn.

Here are the interesting parts of my notes from Rok’s presentation. It does not include RSS marketing since Rok ran out of time.

Email marketing

The most powerfull method of email at the moment is transactional email marketing. Transactional means you have a dialogue with a client. Two simple examples to follow:

1. Client registers at your website.
2. You send a Thank you for registering email to the client. Within this email you promote interesting parts or products from your site. This mail will most likely have a very high click through rates.

1. Client purchases something from your website.
2. You send Thank you for purchasing email to the client. Within this email you cross-sell additional products. Think about Amazon.com’s Customers who shopped for xxx also shopped for feature.

50% of sales of an example sport / health related product was generated by the following transactional email dialogue

1. Client registers to a website which is a minisite designed to only sell this product.
2. Client receives a Thank you for registering email. This email includes an electronic discount coupon valid for 7 days.
3. If the client has not used her coupon in 6 days a Your coupon expires today email will be sent.
4. Client buys the product and is asked to join to Weekly health tips newsletter.
5. The newsletter cross-sells some additional products

Email can be a powerfull tool as long as it is targeted properly.

Cross-selling by callback

Cross-selling by calling the person back apparently works quite well in countries which are still relatively new to e-commerce (Slovenia, Poland, Romania etc). The record has been a sale of 21 additional items.

E-zine publishing

E-zines are not dead nor too old-school. They are still a powerfull medium.

Banner optimization

Banners are not dead yet. To optimize them these points need to be considered (Art Directors are not going to like the first one):

1. One color has to be black, yellow or red.
2. There has to be a pull factor (visual element to attract the eye).
3. There has to be a motivational factor (get fit before summer!).
4. Pull factor has to be related with the landing page. If you sell something link to a specifig product page or minisite. Not to a company mainpage.

In Slovenia a person makes a purchase after seeing the banner in average 16.9 times or 12.4 days after first seeing the banner.

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Estonia   Marketing  

Second week in Tallinn is over. As before here is the summary of the news things I learned. Some of them voluntarily and some of them accidentaly:

• When sending an business email don’t expect a reply until next day. Getting a reply might take even two or three days.
• Toilets are usually unisex, except in Stockmann. Guess the Finish heritage is visible there.
• If someone else than you would be frequently driving your Estonian registered car her name should be added to the cars registration papers. Otherwise there might be problems with police.
• It is easy to get lost driving in an unfamiliar city.
• Tartu mnt does not lead to Mustam�e.
• Driving culture can be a bit hazardous during peak times.
• A big green leaf sign on car back window means to “I just got my driving licence”.
• The people behind LinxTelecom are mostly employees the old Eunet/KPNQwest (which is of course a good thing).

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Estonia  

!/~tuupola/oldimages/15.jpg (MINU LUGU)! Brilliant continuation from television to web by Saatchi & Saatchi Tallinn (currently operating under the name Taevas). Before reading any further see the three Disel spots from 2004 and the current one from 2005.

Direct translation of mehed ei nuta would be men don’t cry. It is also a phrase Estonian people use when something bad happens or someone complains about something. The phrase originates from a cult film not-so-surprisingly called Mehed ei nuta.

In the television spots men get their tongue slashed by a blender and their face burned by a torch. They got run over by car and they stitch their wounds themselves using a needle and yarn. Men don’t cry.

Men don’t cry when they get scars. Men compete who has the biggest scars. This is the idea which continues to Disel website. It has a competition called Mina ja mu arm or Me and my scar. In the competition people – mostly men – can send a picture of their scars and write a short story about it. Other people – again mostly men – can vote who has the best scar.

The winning scar MINU LUGU is an amazing survival story.

On a warm day somewhere in May 1986 two black Volgas drove to the mans work place. Everyone were ordered to stand in line. The officials stood out from Volgas and picked out “volunteers” by pointing their finger at the men standing in line.

In 1986 Estonia was still under Russian occupation.

The “volunteers” – 42 of them – were locked into movietheather. No questions were answered.

Next morning the journey begun. First in trucks. Then in train. Last in aeroplane. At some point they heard that somewhere had happened a big accident and they were going to do some reconstruction work.

On the night of the third day they found out that a nuclear plant had exploded.

Our mans job was to cover the broken reactor with sandbacks thrown from MI-32 helicopter. They were not issued with any protective gear. They were not told about dangers of radiation.

He got sick. Lost 48% percent of his skin. Fell into coma for several months. After waking up he weighed only 34 kilograms. For almost 6 years he was not able to stand up. He has gone through 74 different operations.

Today he is 51 years old. Has to eat pills everyday. Lives on disability pension. But quoting his own words Atleast I’m alive…

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Advertising   Estonia  

First week in Tallinn is almost over. Here is a summary of new things I learned this week:

• Most of the people speak either english or finnish or both. Finnish people however should not automatically assume someone speaks finnish. When talking to a person for the first time ask first which language they would prefer.
• Estonian people are more friendly and open than Finnish people.
• Ivo Nikkolo is a great local designer worth checking of.
• When eating lunch don’t eat with the plates on the tray. Instead put the tray aside and the plate on the table.
• When shopping for groceries in Selver you don’t have to weigh the fresh vegetables and fruit by yourself. They are weighed by the cashier. However in Stockmann you weigh yourself.
• Estonians dress well.
• Piim is milk, not sour milk.
• After reading about Estonian history I realised how much they did not tell us in school history lessons about what really happened here during russian occupation.

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Estonia  

A quick note to regular readers. Today I finally moved to beautifull city of Tallinn. You can still reach me from my old cellular number and email address. This is one thing I have been enthusiast for a long time. I wish I will learn a lot from the baltic markets during the following year.

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Estonia   Tallinn  

!/~tuupola/oldimages/12.gif (Stefanie’s)! Restaurant Stefanie’s in central Tallinn (Maakri 19/21) serves excellent mediterranean food. If you have trouble choosing the main course, try the duck breast filled with orange teriyaki which has been a bestseller for awhile. They also serve fresh tuna which is not usually easy to get.

Interior itself is simple and elegant. There are both smoking and non-smoking areas. It is probably a good idea to reserve a table in advance. When we first reserved a table there was no room in non-smoking area. However upon arriving to the restaurant we were pleased to notice that a non-smokin table had become available and our reservation was transfered there. Atmosphere was nice and quiet. It was not plaqued with noisy tourists. Although one could argue whether the BeeGees are good background music or not ;)

What especially got my attention was courteous and fast service which did not try to be superficially friendly. If you are like me and don’t talk any good estonian yet, the waitresses speak perfect english. You can get served in finnish too but english is better choice of language.

Stefanie’s table booklets and probably some other designwork is made by Designsolutions.

Update 2005-12-05: While other food is good do not try the pasta. Atleast for me it was overboiled and was soaking with sauce.

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Estonia   Tallinn