Stay tuned fore more…and I’d really like to link us to the VRM business with @dsearls and the crew. These guys are good: http://personaldataecosystem.org/

I’m as guilty here as the rest of us, but finally I took the step from just thinking to actually doing stuff. Change the process and force in testing, but in a smart non obtrusive way…then learn from doing and fine tune it. As always there is 2 ways to go:

• planning to start testing and thinking about what elements to really test and and and…
• just pick one tool that looks good and try it out

We did the latter…

The case

Super simple but then that’s a great way to start: an email template for Savonlinna Opera Festival. As a tool we chose Litmus as I had bookmarked it in the past and it looked like it had the things we needed for the right price. Here is a screenshot with the summary of all email clients that were tested:

The technical stuff (the coding of the html email) was done by Arttu Manninen, and as a bonus he made an email testing tool for Midgard ). I asked Arttu a couple of questions about the findings and about the tool.

1. The overall feeling of Litmus?
   • the learning curve was almost non-existant, it is an easy tool that seems to be build right
   • one great feature is version control, you can revert to older versions
2. Is it customizable (how does a text version of the mail look like, what if the images are blocked, …)?
   • they seem to have stripped down the features for ease of use, there is almost no room for customization in Litmus except for choosing mail clients
3. Anything annoying?
   • one small thing is that you have to change the recipient for each test to a Litmus-generated email. I’m sure there is a way to skip this step (think of support email etc).

Summary and ideas for improvement

Overall Arttu was very pleased with Litmus, especially for the email part. I found that having a tool that does the basic testing and documents it is something that I will demand for all projects in the future – especially the email projects. Some features I’d like to see in a near future (there might be other tools out there that have these features):

• mobile email testing
• testing with settings (text based, html without images, …)

The browser test is not as useful as the email test at the moment. Sure one can test that the layouts work in all the browsers (and this is really relevant stuff), but browsers are dynamic and email is static. Here are some ideas that would make the tool even better:

• click path
  • define a path that will be clicked that all browsers go through and capture it with screenshots
  • measure the time it takes to go through the path
• social media
  • login with facebook/twitter/google and see what happens with the click path
• alternative interfaces
  • how does the site look like with mobile browsers
  • print views
  • accessibility browsing
  • …

If you have tried other test tools, please leave a comment.

I trusted my friends and the modern medical science and started comparing the offerings. There are many service providers both in Finland and the nearby countries, but I went for the Finnish surgery services. It’s supposed to be safer this way, but who knows what would happen if the shit would have hit the fan…it’s business after all.

Price comparison

Well I started to compare the prices, and the surprise hit me – they all cost the same!! This felt like they have made a deal between the companies and agreed on the price .Usually there is a bit of price war between the service providers as the product is the same, but not here (the word cartel came into my mind). It’s really hard to compare the prices as the whole package consists of these elements:

• the surgery itself
• initial examination
• control prices
• service fees per visit
• KELA insurance (some support from the government)

There is no mention about how many times you have to go to a control – for me it was 4 times, but I had some problems with one eye, but still I’d say the normal is 4 times (my fourth time was not after 6 months but the doctor said it was close enough to that so I did not have to do the 6 month visit):

• the next day
• after 1 month
• after 3 months
• after 6 months

Here are some prices in a table, compare for yourself:

It might seem like these prices do differ a lot (not perhaps the surgery but the other sums), but then the KELA insurance suport steps in…

Initial exams

With Mehiläinen the KELA support for the initial exam is 161.08€ so the price you pay is actually 98.92€. For Terveystalo the initial exam costs 180€ and you get 81.71€ from KELA (this is how much I got).  There is no notice how much the KELA gives you from Silmäsairaala for the eye surgery – they have a field to put KELA support in their pricelist but no mentions about it regarding the eye surgery (so you might not get it at all, or then just a small sum).

I really think the initial fees after the KELA for these companies are all around 100€ and to that they will of-course add the service fee.

Control fee + service fee

For a complete package there will be 4 controls and adding them together we will have a sum between 220€-440€ and then the service fees on top of that 38€-54€. The control fees seem like the place to get some differentiation to these but then KELA steps in to mess is all up. The difference in the KELA insurance for the initial exam is between 80€ and 160€, so it will probably even up the control fees aswell.

I do not know how much it is for Mehiläinen or Silmäsairaala, but for Terveystalo it is 16.20€.

Wrapping it up

I went to Terveystalo and I am really happy with the result and service they gave me. My wife went to another hospital and she got great service too and she is happy. I have other friends that have been to other hospitals, and they all are happy.

Seems like everyone is happy: the companies have enough clients (there is a constant que, I was in a que for 2 months), the clients are happy with the outcome (they can see without glasses) and it does not matter where the clients go as the prices are the same all around. The clients should be happy – no-one get’s a better deal than you, right?

If you have been to either of the other companies listed above, of some other company, please comment to this post and fill me in with the missing parts of especially KELA support so that we can compare the prices for real and see if there is a difference. Thanks.

I had a project like this going on a couple years ago, but we laid it down some time ago. It was a really interesting thing to plan and create, but unfortunately we did not have enough time to work on this and it then faded. Here is what we planned and also made a prototype of  - please comment on this if you like.

Main idea

It all started in 2008 when Joonas ( www.piippunaakka.fi @piippunaakka )  had a restaurant in  Tallinn, Estonia and he noticed that his employees are stealing money from him. He then put a ip-camera, basically a webcam with motion censoring, right on top of the cash machine and it worked smoothly. This was the basic setup:

• when the camera catches motion, it starts to shoot images
• these images are uploaded to a server
• when enough images are uploaded (we split them into 1 hour chunks) we made a video from them
  • flv video for us if i remember correctly
• then a simple UI to flip through the videos and see if some thefts got caught “on tape”
  • and yes, there was interesting footage

After this we thought that if this works for us, well it’s bound to work for others aswell…

Next steps

In 2008 there still was not much competition, at least in the price we could do this in, so things looked good. We made the server-side quicker, so that the video creation was as fast as possible. We also made video analyzing stuff to compare image frames to see which parts of the videos were worth watching. Still there was a lot of footage to watch, even though the “most interesting frames” were flagged. We needed more eyes…

Ecosystem

We have 4 interest groups:

• Producers
  • people with cameras
• Watchers
  • “friends” or people with access to cameras
  • a producer is a watcher
• Operators
  • there’s a lot of bandwidth and storage space needed
  • operators now sell “virus scan” as a “home security” – now they could sell real home security
• Businesses
  • there are security firms and private persons that can guard for cash

When thinking of  the way our system works and comparing it to a microblogging system, we found a lot of similiraties:

• 1 camera is 1 channel
• 1 status update is 1 hour of surveillance (eg. 12th Feb 13:00-14:00)
• you have private channels and then public ones
  • real friends get in
  • friends-for-money is a way to get access to a channel
• …

So if we concentrate on the camera and the logistics and let a microblogging platform take care of the other stuff? This is where i contacted the guys at Rohea (because they run Qaiku) and they were intrested, but of course there were things to solve, but it all looked very good indeed.

Pricing

The elements that made the costs were:

• the camera
  • if you own a camera that can be connected to the net and send stuff to a server – it’s all you need
• the storage
  • own servers vs. cloud storage
• the video creating server
  • own servers vs. cloud computing
• support & service

We had several cameras to start with (1 person involved in the project is selling them), and by quick calculations we came to the conclusion that starting with 20€/month/camera this would mean business. On top of this there would of-course be premium services and other elements of income.

Hiccups

We basically had everything we needed to get this going, but then things just started to fall apart. Not any major things, but mainly a sum of many things:

• to-do’s with no time to do them
  • as this was something we worked on during evenings – the economy crisis messed it up. We just had to focus on the jobs that paid for living.
• scalability
  • we had some scalability, but we found out with pilot customers that we’d have to write parts from scratch without the time to do it
• time
  • when weeks go by and no one has the time – things just die

Wrapping it up

A camera solution for private or business use. No need of a computer – just a connection to the web and a camera like with the Fonera.

Would you have wanted one?

The idea for me is to find out if there are any smart systems, because I’m fed up using coins and as a lazy dude, I’d like to use a smart app or service. I have googled around a bit, focusing on major cities and their means of handling parking. I’m quite amazed that I have not found anything super easy. This is one post that had some nice info, and a quote: Parking is often referred to as the cash cow of a city. If this is true, then I’m sure there would be a real intrest in making this thing smoother, right?

I just searched iTunes app store for parking – dozens of “remember where you parked” but none to pay for it. Don’t you too think it’s a bit weird?

Many cities have the same kinds of systems as we here in Helsinki – basically you call a number and dial different kinds of codes, depending on the area etc. How hard would it be to make an app that is built upon the existing systems – as a first step? Basically it could be something like this:

1. open the app, and it will position you
2. if there are several parking-areas near you or if the positioning is not accurate enough
   1. list the parking options with images of the area
3. press start

By doing this we give all the required information to start the parking event. We can open the app at any time, and see the remaining time left to park in that area (and make a renewal if we choose to). Controlling the parking can also be done via twitter, IM, facebook, foursquare, etc. as you are always logged in to those and they support geopositioning.

The city parking controllers have several ways of checking that the parking is paid for (mobile, app, web, …)  - and they can give e-tickets for violations (this saves money too). It should be easier for them too…

This kind of parking payment linked to the internet of things, where parking areas and pay stations are linked (read this) and they signal their status generate a lot of useful real-time data. By giving people access to this data via API’s and build business upon that I’m sure we’d get a better cash cow to the city and people would love it.

If someone builds something like this, I’m the first one to buy it and promote it.

Now to something completely different. I had the chance to play around with the HTC Hero this weekend. I have to say I liked it very much…even more than I like the iPhone. I have read many blog posts where they compare android phones against the iPhone – many of the blogs titled “iphone killer”. It’s not as polished as the iPhone, but I think that’s just what makes it intresting. The iPhone is for the masses, but the android and maemo are a much more intresting and open environments. Have to play around with it some more to really get the feel.

The parking part 2 is also on it’s way. Perhaps I’ll finish it during the holidays.

Comet – a personal parking gadget that you attach to your car. You may buy a machine from Comet for 69€ and then accessories to it that they recoomend you to have, at least the mini-usb cable (6,90€). The mini-usb cable is of-course usable with just windows…

When loading money to it, they charge you 10%, but the parking costs 10% less/hour so that kind of equals it. Then there is of course also the 5€ annual fee. The Comet works only in Helsinki at this moment. The Comet is not linked with a specified vehicle, so 1 Comet may be used with several vehicles.

NextPark – a phone based parking system. First you have to register on their website (only in Finnish) and then upload credit to your account. You may link many vehicles to one registration. When all that is done the user experience kicks in, like this:

1. first call a number
2. then give the of the vehicle
3. then give the number of the city – Helsinki is 4 (of course it is?!?)
4. then give the number of the parking area (can be seen from the parking sign)
5. then give the maximum amount of hours that you are allowed to park
6. then the time you want to leave (you will get a SMS 15 minutes before the time ends)
7. then you can park

You may continue to park for a longer period, but you must call a number and a machine will ask you if you want to continue or stop.

The pricing for parking is the same as paying by cash. No fees are collected when loading money to your account, but there is a monthly fee of 1,5€ and for every booking they take a 0,18€ fee. Calling is priced as a regular call depending on the carrier.

EasyPark (Parkit) - a call-to-park service that work almost exactly the same way as NextPark. The difference in these 2 services is that with EasyPark you don’t have to put credit to your account. You can choose to get in 3 different ways: the phone bill (not all carriers), to your credit card or with a separate invoice (this will cost you 2,5€ extra per invoice).

The costs of using EasyPark will be: cost for the parking, a fee for each parking event (0,50€ in Helsinki) depending on the area and 0,16€ per order. They have a registering fee of 6,50€ and a monthly fee of 3€.

Summary

The first impression is that it is quite expensive. Renting a parkingplace costs around 100€/month in Helsinki (I guess?), and then we are talking about a indoor place without any timelimits etc. And the place is always free. Let’s do a small calculation:

• 3 parking events a week á 4 hours in a month (4 weeks) = 48 hours
• 12 parking events
• pricing is 0,80€ / hour

If I’d pay by cash, it would cost me 48*0,80€ = 38,40€.

With Comet the parking would cost me the same 38,40€ as with cash. Let’s assume that the Comet gadget lifetime is 2 years and that we also have the recommended usb-cable. With those hardware investments the monthly costs would be: 3,16€, making the monthly parking cost 41,56€.

NextPark costs come from the number of booking events and the monthly fee. In our case that makes: 38,40€ + 1,5€ + 12*0,18€ = 42.06€.

EasyPark parking has the same kind of costs as NextPark but EasyPark has different costs for the parking events in different areas. In Helsinki they are 0,50€/event. The costs sum up to: 38,40€ + 3€ + 12*0,50€ = 47,40€.

Findings:

• none of the systems are “modern” in my opinion
• hardware is cheaper than service, but who wants to carry around yet another thing
• NextPark and EasyPark – identical service but not pricing
• parking controllers check if you have paid your parking by sms
  • this I still have to double check

In the next part – are there better solutions somewhere else as services or solutions.

To make a good case out of this, I need to think of some criteria criterion to compare the solutions. These are some things to consider:

• need of hardware
  • do I need to buy stuff or can I use something I already have
• price
• user interface
• how they check if I have paid for parking
• …

Please feel free to comment. I’ve been a quite active bookmarker, but a lousy blogger. Now it’s time to lower the barrier. 1.5 years between blogs is quite bad…

P.S. I changed theme for my blog and now there’s a boring standard image there. Sorry. I will change it to something sweet.

• http://spanningsync.com/
• gsync – http://www.macness.com/blog/
• applescripts – http://www.ekive.com/googleicalimport/install.html
• www.plaxo.com – this one is the first one I’ll try

Removing/merging duplicate contacts

I have already registered with Plaxo – using OpenID of course and installed the thunderbird plugin for syncing the address book. I also linked my Google address book and LinkedIn contacts, and all seems to work out well. Now I have close to 700 contacts, and probably a lot of duplicates. Well time to get rid of those…and here comes the money. I have to pay 50$ just for the removing of duplicates. No way, that’s just too much. I could pay 10$ but not 50 a year, so I have to find another solution: Thunderbird Duplicate Contact Manager. I’m just now in the middle of processing all my contact on Thunderbird address book with the duplicate manager -tool, and it works like a charm.

I remember that we had a duplicate manager for Midgard’s OpenPSA – see Henri Bergius blog posting – that would have been sweet to use. I have talk to the Nemein boys and see if this could be published as a service perhaps? I have used the tool for campaigns, and it worked like a charm then.

Sync of calendar

This will be a different posting…I have to investigate a bit first.

Enjoy