Message from the distant land of real life

While we're on it, let's publish another one, shall we.

I moved to Lappeenranta about a month ago to begin my studies of Computer Science in Lappeenranta University of Technology, lut. A beautiful and lively city this is, at least at summer. Pity it's either 7km of walking or 3.40€ by bus per side to get to the city center.

The University is near, about 1.5km, only five minutes by bike. It's a nice, big building complex that has expanded as years have gone by. Everything can be accessed without going outside, including a nice library, couple of restaurants/lunchplaces, a cafeteria, guild hall(cluser.fi) and of course all auditoriums and labs(for example, room full of remotely accessible i7-2600, 8GB desktops).

And the building is just amazing, especially the newer areas sculpted with concrete, iron and glass. Just stunning, you standing there, inside in your warm hi-tech fortress and wild nature is just few inches away on the other side of the glass(fyi, I've lived surrounded by nature my whole life). It must be experienced, but still I really should snap some photos someday.

An apartment was also required, so one was acquired. Well ok, it's in an apartment building, and shared with another person, but still quite ok. Moving also meant gathering a s***load of more or less useful stuff. Tried to document it all, but had to stop halfway through, just couldn't keep up with every single item. This move all also meant I had to learn how to live by myself; having to cook, clean and do laundry, all while studying. As hard as it is to confess, conscription really made it all easier(but it itself was far from easy.. just a reminder). Nevertheless, I assure that time available to hobbies has not diminished, or at least not yet.

Studying is quite ok, although bit hard at first getting used to again, having had break of about 1.5 years. Especially homework is a thing that keeps bugging me. Oh, and of course the math course has resulted in fair bit of cursing. One third of course done, and already we've gone through three years worth of extended gymnasium mathematics..

And this all reminded me how bad my English actually is..

Quick look at Windows 8

Installed Windows 8 Developer Preview to a VM few hours ago, what follows is a cluttered list of visual observations. Sorry, did my best. Read it if you still want.
  • Integrates your user account to Windows live account by default.
  • Task manager has undergone some major changes. Sure it's more sleek, but I kind of miss the old one..
  • Same applies to most default applications. Everything has been stripped down in search of cleaner UI. Like metro, too clean.
  • Sending files to trash doesn't need a confirmation. Some other things have also been streamlined, can't remember now.
  • Components like .NET framework are installed by a wizard.
  • Much like Windows 7, at least more than 7 was like Vista.
And another list just for you, metro. Because you are so special..
  • UI suddenly lost all roundings with the new metro look.
    • Everything is so rectangular, clean, but maybe too clean.
    • Gadgets are by default not enabled in favor of metro.
  • Metro applications can't be illegitimately closed! They end up cluttering alt-tab list.
  • Things like control panel are really hard to find at first.
  • Many things really are touch-centric. Mouse support on some of them is broken.
  • Usability is, well.. either good or bad.
    • Main screen looks great, nice thing to peek and see all little bits of information.
    • Individual apps(or whatever) are 'too fullscreen' and lack small features that could be found on all mouse/keyboard driven apps.