Eurovision 2010

Last night was the grand final of Eurovision 2010. Last year we had a great party on this night in Miraj vi's home. This year I didn't go anywhere to watch it live. I was just following the result online. Finland was out from semi final. After counting all the votes Germany became the winner of eurovision 2010 by. Turkey was second and Romania was third. Below are these 3 countries' song for this year eurovision.



Germany




Turkey




Romania



Programming Solution

A visit to city center, a museum and a church

I have been in Tampere for almost two years but I did not visit many places. Well, Tampere is not city of lucrative tourist spots. However, there are some churches and museums that people can visit. Today I visited the city center with Modestes and Joestin, the brother and sister who came from Lithuania last night.


Shaikat vi and me went to fetch them from Tampere airport last night. They will stay here until tomorrow evening. By this time they wanted to visit some places in Tampere but they do not know the places well. So I agreed last night to go with them this morning to guide them a bit ( later it turned out that I don't have good idea about places in Tampere :P ). We roam around the city centre for a while. Then went to a museum. It's a story based small museum specially for kids. I knew about this museum but never been there. We were in the museum for an hour. Then we went to a church. This is the first time I entered into a church. It is big but not much extravagant like catholic churches in Rome. It's more of simple style of Nordic culture. From the church again we roam around in the city and I told them what other places they can go and how. Then I left them and came back home.


It was good for me because I went to some places may be I would not go by my own. We took some pictures also but I am not sure if I will get those pictures ever because they are leaving tomorrow and I am not supposed to meet them by this time.



Programming Solution

Got new residence permit with category A

From my last post you came to know that I have got a full time job. After signing the contract I applied for a new residence permit of category A. Previously I was holding a Finnish residence permit of category B. All international students hold that category. With category B you can work only part time. Only exception is the university. If you work in the university as a research assistant then you can work full time with a B category visa. Since I am going to start my work from July I needed to change my status from B to A.


I applied on Tuesday, 3 days back. The girl in the police office counter told me it would take 5-6 weeks. Later that day I sent her email telling that I need it urgently because I will shift to Helsinki soon. This morning when I opened my email inbox I found her mail and she said the decision is made already, I can pick the residence permit on any working day. I was quite amazed to see it's ready only withing three days. I didn't make any delay. I went to police office with my passport and the girl attached the visa. It's a category A residence permit and will be valid for a year.


Here is my new residence permit. The one as upside down is the previous one.






Programming Solution

Got a job in Ericsson

I have been hunting for permanent job for several months. After all those efforts, today I finally signed a job contract. My employer is Ericsson. I will be working in Research and Development centre of Ericsson in Finland as a software developer. The job will start from July, 2010.


As I heard from my senior brothers here it is really difficult to get an interview call. I applied for lots of open positions in many companies but, so far, I got only 2 interview calls. One was in Nokia and another one is in Ericsson. The Nokia guy interviewed me over the phone for an hour. After 2 weeks time the guy informed me (of course when I called him, they don't usually call unless there is positive result) that I am in second position in his list and for that position they are going to hire only one guy. If the guy, who is their first choice, would reject the offer or unable to accept, in that case, they will offer me the position. I never called him after hearing that, neither did they tell me anything.


The second interview was with Ericsson in the second week of April. It was an in-person interview and I had to go to Helsinki to attend the interview. This interview lasted for one and half hours. There were two guys. All three of us were discussing about so many things. After two weeks of this interview one of those guys called me and said if I am still interested to join Ericsson they will offer me the position. They ask me to join from June, 2010. Unfortunately I cannot start from June since I am working in my department at the university. I explained the situation to them and after considering the situation they allow me to start from July. So we agreed when we are going to sign the contract and today is that very day.


After signing the contract, I went to see the apartment where I am going to move in. I also made the deal with the guy there. It was a very long day for me - I have done lots of things, so far seems successfully. Now I have to start preparing other stuffs I have in my hand. The first thing is patching up my masters thesis before leaving Tampere. I hope I can finish that on time.

At a glance, my interview experiences in Finland are as following:

1. Very less technical question
2. The employer wants to see the person's dedication and interest to the specified job.
3. I think, as a candidate, just answering the questions is not an impressive approach, rather participating in the discussion is much better. If possible, asking them relevant questions at times is a rule of thumb to me.


Programming Solution

Finally it's summer

After a long cold winter, finally summer came. It took long time. Last year, from the very beginning of May it was warm. This year, the winter was extremely cold, and till the end of second week of May it was not warm at all. But for 4 days now weather is really awesome. The sun is shining, temperature is around 25 degree. If you go out you will feel soothing gentle breeze all over your body. It's nice to go out putting just a T-shirt on. I am planning to start swimming in lake by the end of this week :)



Programming Solution

Vappu 2010

It was 1st of May, vappu in Finland. Last year the weather was great, bright and sunny. Temperature was around 20 degree. This year the weather was gloomy, no sun at all. It was raining a bit also. So the wappu did not turn out very nice. The number of rally was small. Still so many people went to city center and tried enjoying the wappu.

We started from our home around 11:30 am. The bus was full-packed. We managed to get in somehow. We roam around the city and saw the rally. We closely saw the dipping closely. It was quite cold but Finns were so desperate. We went to the fair and ate fried fish. It was delicious. We were in the city for 3 hours and then we came back. In the afternoon we went to the near by tower. It was a good day for all of us. Let's see some pictures :)





Starting from Hervanta





People 1: with various get up





People 2: with colorful dresses





Lots of colorful baloons, too much expensive





People 3: with strange hairstyle





Kid with a funny wig :D





Nice music from these guys. They dressed up like red-indian. I don't know where they are from actually.





Rally started





Another rally





The fair. Just like fair in Bangladesh :P





Junk food shop in the fair





Another junk food shop. Why does she look sad :-S





Some junk food





The first dipping





They look happy even if it was very cold





We were watching the dipping from distant place





On top of Hervanta tower





The highest watch tower in Tampere, taken from Hervanta tower.




Programming Solution

Got a job in the university again

This is the other update that I was talking about in my previous post. Yes, I have got a job as a research assistant again in my university. I got the confirmation on 1 April and I started from 6. I was quite busy last week to tell about this here. This time it's a four months' full time contract. So the contract will end at the end of July, 2010. Wish me luck for my new job. I hope it will go smooth.


Programming Solution

Oulu tour update

I was supposed to come on 6 April from Oulu but I had to come back one day earlier. Even though I came back earlier I have been quite busy the whole week and I could not give any update about my trip. I stayed there five days and it was a quite nice vacation.

We went to play volleyball twice. We had short drive inside the city and long drive in highway, trip to frozen sea. We watched movie in big screen, also played nintendo games. Ohh another thing we did; lots of cooking as always :D I have another update and that is coming in my next post. For the time being let's have a look at some pictures during my stay in Oulu.




Some place near down town. On a bridge.





In the same place, Gagan & Shanila.





With Gagan's car





Having tea after dinner. Gagan is setting up nintendo at that time.





Still that much snow in Oulu even if the temperature was positive.





In front of the frozen sea





Home made grilled chicken





I don't know what it is called, but of course a delicious food :D





Nice creme caramel, mouth watering :P





Shorisha elish


Programming Solution

Going to Oulu on Easter holiday

Easter holiday starts from tomorrow and I am going to Oulu today to spend it with my friends - Gagan and Shanila. It was a family invitation from them. Gagan is even paying the train fair for me :D My journey from Tampere will start at 15:00. I will arrive Oulu at 20:07. I will come back on 6 April, 2010. I wanted to stay longer but there are other to do in Tampere. So I have to come back on next Tuesday. Hopefully it will be a pleasant holiday :)


Programming Solution

It's raining

I was hearing this music (just the music, not the video :P) and suddenly I heard a very familiar sound. Yes, it's the sound of rain. Right now the temperature is 0 degree celcius. I know people of north Europe don't like rain and gloomy weather but since I am from Bangladesh, I have a very adorable feeling for rain. It started raining around 15 minutes ago and I am enjoying it :)


Programming Solution

Got a Nokia N900 temprarily

I was never been a user of smart phone before but I wanted to. The fact is I still cannot afford a smart phone of my own but right now I have a Nokia N900 on my table. No, it's not a dummy, it's original and I can use it for two months.


Few weeks back I saw a poster in my university corridor saying about a pilot project of Nokia in TUT. The project is called TWIN pilot.


TWIN is an adhoc social application developed in a co-operation project by TUT/Department of Computer Systems and Nokia Research Center. TWIN devices operate in adhoc WLAN, and create a local community through peer-to-peer networking when other users and devices are within range. TWIN has been implemented on Nokia's new N900 mobile devices.


TWIN is used for sharing experiences, thoughts, flyers - anything you want - and for tracking old and meeting new friends. With TWIN you can chat, send messages, and search other users, and share photos, videos, songs, stories.


TWIN project carries out, first in the world, a large scale user pilot for local social networking applications. The pilot collects experiences, tests the technologies, and develops new application and usage scenarios for social networking.


They were looking for 250 users to participate in the project. To these 250 persons they would give Nokia N900 to each for tow months and they will use the TWIN. For this time period they can use this phone as their personal device. I applied for it but as always my luck did not favor me. I was not selected. Three Bangladeshi guys were selected. Shaikat vi is one of them. Yesterday he told me that he is quite busy, and cannot participate it well. So he wanted to give the device to me to use for this two months. I was so happy to hear that. That is how I got the chance to use the world's one of the best mobile phones :D As far I know this is the first mobile device from Nokia that is totally developed in Maemo platform. Let's have a taste of N900 :)


Programming Solution

Eating with chopsticks

Almost two decades ago, I watched a Japanese tv series, Oshin, dubbed in English. My mom was a fan of this series. I was a young child then. This tv series is not the subject of my post. I watched one thing in that tv show for the first time in my life. The thing I watched is "eating with chopsticks" which seemed so impossible to me, and this is the thing I am going to write about in this post.


I always thought it is quite impossible to eat with chopsticks. I was amazed to see people eating with it in movies. I even saw them eating rice with it which I can't imagine. I watched Liz eating with chopsticks in front of me while I was in London last year. I was looking at her, how easily she was eating with it. I asked her how to do it. She told me I just have to start eating with it. She didn't show me the technique. May be that's how girls are - don't wanna go in detail. I became more interested about it after seeing it in person but I could not start until last week.


Last week I went to Farzan vi's home and I found chopsticks in his kitchen. He has a Chinese house mate and those belong to that guy. I curiously took two of those and said "how come people can eat with this?". Farzan vi smiled and said I just need to know the holding technique and then start trying. He said he learned from his house mate and now he can eat with those. Then he showed the holding technique and suddenly it seemed possible to me. Later I just requested that Chinese guy if I can take two of his chopsticks so that I can learn. He happily gave me :) The most difficult part comes after that - trying.


I started on that very night during dinner. My menu was rice and salmon fish. It seemed so difficult at first. I was hungry but I could grab only a small amount of food with it. Sometimes the fish dropped from it. My hand was aching, I was loosing my patience but still continued. It took me almost 30 minutes to finish half the amount I usually eat in dinner. The next day I tried again and again it was difficult. The first 3-4 days were really difficult. Now, it's been more than a week that I am eating with chopsticks and I don't have much difficulties :) Now I can say that I can eat with chopsticks; well, not an expert but I can.


Those who are interested to learn it, I can tell them things from my experience:

• Holding technique is the key. So hold it properly
  
• Move only the top stick. The lower stick will be fixed
  
• Start eating with it :)
  

I am giving a video link here that demonstrates how to hold chopsticks.





Programming Solution

Course completed

Day before yesterday I got mail from one of my teachers that I am going to get 8 credits from his course. That confirmed the completion of my course work for masters.


I needed to achieve 90 credits to complete my masters degree. There are 4 modules in this 90 credits. I had completed all three clusters a bit earlier but the I lacked exactly 8 credits in my advanced module. I was doing this course Software Engineering Project since the starting of this academic year. The credits are variable in this course. You can achieve 6-10 credits based on Ur working hour. In our school 1 credit hour equivalent to 26.7 working hours. In this course project my reported hours were 196. So I was not sure whether I am going to achieve 7 or 8 credits. So I sent mail to the teacher asking about this and he just replied day before yesterday that I am going to get 8 credits. So the advanced is also completed now.


The only thing left right now is my thesis. Well, I am attending three more courses (Finnish for Beginners II, Artificial Intelligence & Analysis of Algorithm) right now but those are just for my own interest and for fun. I am writing the thesis also. Let's see when I can finish it :)

Programming Solution

Give comment with your identity

I have been writing blog for quite a long time. I used to get comments from my friends and family. Of course I feel better when I see somebody leaves a comment in my post. But, to be honest, it is necessary for me to know the identity of the person commenting in my blog. Sometimes the meaning of the comment is not understandable if I don't know the person, sometimes it's irritating also. I requested anonymous commenter several times to disclose his/her identity but looks like he/she never reads my requesting comments, or may be just ignored. It's really bothering. I want to request everybody to put your identity, not only while commenting in my blog but everywhere.


Programming Solution

Writing thesis is difficult

I have completed almost all the courses of my masters degree. The only thing that is left is writing the thesis and submit it to the academic council of my university. As soon as I can submit that I will be eligible to receive my masters degree. The problem is I am not good at writing :( Moreover, writing a thesis seems even more difficult to me. I may write one or two pages in one day but the next day I cannot write anything at all which makes my progress very slow. I just hope I can concentrate in writing and will be able to finish it soon.


Programming Solution

A song to share

I just got this song link from one of my friends in facebook. I liked the rhythm of the song. It kinda made me think to take part to the adventure of life, to get rid of scheduled and monotonous life. Here goes the song.



Here goes 'The Dubliners' version.


Lyrics:

In the merry month of June, From my home I started,
Left the girls of Tuam, Nearly broken hearted,
Saluted father dear, Kissed my darlin' mother,
Drank a pint of beer, My grief and tears to smother,
Then off to reap the corn, And leave where I was born,
I cut a stout blackthorn, To banish ghost and goblin,
In a brand new pair of brogues, I rattled o'er the bogs,
And frightened all the dogs,On the rocky road to Dublin.

One, two, three, four five,
Hunt the hare and turn her
Down the rocky road
And all the ways to Dublin,
Whack-fol-lol-de-ra.

In Mullingar that night, I rested limbs so weary,
Started by daylight, Next mornin' light and airy,
Took a drop of the pure, To keep my heart from sinkin',
That's an Irishman's cure, Whene'er he's on for drinking.
To see the lasses smile, Laughing all the while,
At my curious style, 'Twould set your heart a-bubblin'.
They ax'd if I was hired, The wages I required,
Till I was almost tired, Of the rocky road to Dublin.

In Dublin next arrived, I thought it such a pity,
To be so soon deprived, A view of that fine city.
Then I took a stroll, All among the quality,
My bundle it was stole, In a neat locality;
Something crossed my mind, Then I looked behind;
No bundle could I find, Upon my stick a wobblin'.
Enquirin' for the rogue, They said my Connacht brogue,
Wasn't much in vogue, On the rocky road to Dublin.

From there I got away, My spirits never failin'
Landed on the quay As the ship was sailin';
Captain at me roared, Said that no room had he,
When I jumped aboard, A cabin found for Paddy,
Down among the pigs I played some funny rigs,
Danced some hearty jigs, The water round me bubblin',
When off Holyhead, I wished myself was dead,
Or better far instead, On the rocky road to Dublin.

The boys of Liverpool, When we safely landed,
Called myself a fool; I could no longer stand it;
Blood began to boil, Temper I was losin',
Poor ould Erin's isle They began abusin',
"Hurrah my soul," sez I, My shillelagh I let fly;
Some Galway boys were by, Saw I was a hobble in,
Then with a loud hurray, They joined in the affray.
We quickly cleared the way, For the rocky road to Dublin.

Courtesy: Fahim


Programming solution

Stockholm trip

It was a sudden decision to have a tour in Stockholm, Sweden. We thought about it in November but because of our exams and other stuffs we could not make it at that time but after the exam we are having more than 2 weeks long vacation and we decided to go for it now.

It was Tareq vi, Saad and me who are going to this tour from Tampere. On 21 December we started our journey from Tampere around 1530. We took train to Turku because Turku is a city with port and our cruise starts from there. We reached Turku harbor around 1830. The ship will leave at 2100 so we had two and half hours in our hand. The temperature was -13 so we just sit inside the vikingline office. Oh, I forgot to mention that we had the cruise in vikingline. One of my friends, Ratul, met us there around 1930 and then we headed to the check in counter. We checked in and waited for boarding. The gate of the ship opened at 2030 and we got in. I was very excited inside. It was one of my dreams to have cruise in sea in a big ship. When I saw the ship I was kinda speechless. It is huge. The name of the ship is Isabella and it is 169 meter long. When I entered into it I was just so amazed. It has 10 floors. Our cabin was in level 5, room number 5331. To me, the ship looked like a 5 star hotel ( well I become happy with simplest thing :P ). It gave me the illusion of Titanic.

We went to our cabin, left our luggage and went out to roam around the ship. We went to the top floor and had a walk in the deck. We wanted the starting of sailing. We wanted to see from the front but it was not allowed, so we went to the back side of the ship and saw ship leaving the jetty. Then we started looking around inside the ship. In level 7 there is a duty free shopping mall. I wanted to buy a perfume of J'adore but finally I changed my mind. We roamed around the ship for more than an hour and then we went back to our cabin to have our dinner.

The dinner was awesome because Ratul brought biriyani from Nazmul vi's home. We ate to the full of our tummy and then played poker for almost 2 hours. Then we came out again to have a look at the ship at night. We went to the dance hall and saw there was a musical team playing melodious music. Couples were dancing. At one corner people were playing black-jack. I watched it for a while. From the dance hall we went to disco. It is just beside a bar. The DJ was playing rock n roll and only one couple were dancing. We took a table, gossiping and hearing the music without any drink :D Slowly people were coming and within an hour there were many boys and girls started to dance. Tareq vi and Saad joined them. Saad was pestering me to join but what can I do when I don't know how to dance :( We were there until 3 am. Then we came back to our cabin and fell asleep.

We reached Stockholm around 0630 next morning. We called Tareq vi's friend and waited for him in the vikingline office. He came after an hour and we started exploring Stockholm. Fortunately the weather was really good, it was sunny.

We had only one day in our hand so we need to hurry. We decided to walk as we heard that several important things are at the same place. It took us around 40 minutes to come to the city central. It was not so easy because the temperature was -9. We went to the City Hall where the Nobel Prize winners have their official dinner together. From the city hall we went to old Stockholm. There were lots of antique shops. They were just opening the shops. From the old Stockholm we went to McDonald's to have our breakfast. McDonald's has wifi inside so we could check our mails and wrote if necessary. After the breakfast we went to KTH to meet one of our undergraduate school friends, Miftah. It was far from the city central. So we had to buy metro tickets.

Miftah came to receive us in KTH(KTH Royal Institute of Technology) main entrance. He showed almost the whole area of KTH. It was time consuming. KTH is a huge university and very old as well. We returned to the old Stockholm again around 1400 to see the Royal Palace in Sweden. We did not enter into it. Just walk around it and took some pictures. We took our lunch around 1600 in an Arabic pizza shop. We rested there for a while and then started walking towards harbor. Miftah offered ice cream from McDonald's on our way back and we did not deny :D

We reached the harbor around 1800. We were waiting for the checking in for return trip to Turku. Check in started around 1840. We entered into the ship may be 20 minutes after checking in. Now it is another ship from vikingline. Its name is Amorella and it is 171 meter long. This time we got our cabin in level 7, room number is 7711. We were so tired after the whole day walking in Stockholm. So we decided to take a nap first. We slept for 2 hours. When we woke up we felt that the ship is jerking and giving uneven swing as well. It gave us dizzy feeling. So we took bath and went for a walk because if we sit in a particular place then it is more difficult. We tried to go to the deck to see what is going on but it was not possible. It was storming outside, so windy. We were a bit scared. We went to the disco hall but it was almost empty. Two girls tried to dance for awhile but nobody was coming to give them company, so they gave up as well. We were there for 15 minutes may be. Then we returned to our cabin and slept. The ship reached Turku around 0735 next morning. We were waiting inside the vikingline office for the train. The train came around 0830 and got into the train. Ratul left us for he is going to Helsinki. We three were so sleepy in the train. Finally the train reached Tampere station around 1050 and the nice short trip to Stockholm came to an end on 23 December.

To me the trip was really awesome. I liked the cruise very much. About Stockholm, it is a busy city, lots of traffic and people but good thing is there is no traffic jam. People know good English. There are some very nice monuments in Stockholm. KTH is really big. I found Tampere cleaner than Stockholm :)

Here are some pictures from this trip. Let's have a look.




In the train on the way to Turku





Tareq vi forgot to bring his student card, so he had to pay 12 euros extra :D





Waiting room in vikingline office





We were waiting for checking in





After the check in arranging tickets and other stuffs





One part of waiting room





The same part after 30 minutes :)





The corridor in front of our cabin





That was our cabin, 5331





Just left the luggage





In the corridor, from left Tareq vi, me and Saad





Wanted to have a picture with Scarlett Johansson :P





From the deck





Walking in the slippery deck covered with snow





At the back side of the ship





The ship just left the jetty





Playing poker





Game zone for kids





The shopping mall





In the cafe





Dance hall





The bar inside disco





We took a table. Don't think that is my glass or one of ours. It belongs to somebody else. We just took the table.





They are dancing. Tareq vi and Saad are also there.





Everybody went to take drinks but Saad did not want to stop :D





In Stockholm, waiting for Tareq vi's friend Tuton. Ratul was so sleepy :D





Also them :D





Stockholm central





Bridge over the lake





Picture from the bridge





Tareq vi and his friend Tuton





In front of a church. I don't know what church it is. It is in old Stockholm.





The city hall of Stockholm





It is the opposite side of city hall





Entering the premises of the city hall





Another shot





Yet another one





Main entrance of KTH





Miftah, standing in front of his department building





Before leaving KTH





In front of Royal Palace





Another shot of Royal Palace





Main gate of Royal Palace





Other side of Royal Palace





Another church visible from the palace





A car is coming out from inside the palace.





The return ship "Amorella"





After reaching Turku. You are just seeing less than half of the ship.


Programming Solution