~matti

Name: Matti Antero Dahlbom
Born: 8.2.1977
Most probable location: Espoo, Finland

This is sort of my home page. It was written from scratch one day at work when my co-worker took over my other workstation, suspending my current task. I could come up with nothing to do in the meanwhile, so here's the result of my boredom.

I graduated from Helsinki University of Technology 28.12.2003, where I majored in Interactive Digital Media. I wrote my Master's Thesis about "Efficient Molecular Visualization in Large Scale Systems". Here's my CV.

Photo taken in Oktoberfest 2003, Munich, Germany.

Current interests

Here's something I'm interested in more or less, in no particular order.
  • Meeting good friends. "recently" had my 30 year old party, it looked something like this.
  • Hammocks. Finally got our own in Spring 2008.
  • Programming. I've been a programming enthusiast since about 1984-1985 when I started experimenting with Basic on my neighbors C-64. Along the years, I've worked with at least Pascal, C/C++, Lisp, MIPS/x86/ARM assembler, Java and various scripting languages. I've made my living as a programmer since about 1996, when I was released from the Navy where I slaved away my military service. There's nothing I would rather be doing professionally. Professions like beer taster and test listener of metal records come close, but no cigar.
  • Heavy Metal "Music". I've listened fast paced heavy music as long as I can remember. I find the heavy metal phenomenon fascinating and the byproducts such as drinking cold beer on a sunny day at a summer festival just are my thing. I attend live gigs some 2-3 times a month during the winter, and go to every related summer festival I can afford, personal favorites being Nummirock Midsummer Festival here in Finland and Wacken Open Air in Germany. I actively participate in Metal Club Mökä, a heavy metal club in Espoo, founded as a cultural student organization by the Helsinki University of Technology students.
  • Traveling in sense of grabbing a backpack and heading out to the unknown with no specific plan. So far my best trip has been to Vietnam/Cambodia. Also our trips to South America here, here and here were amazing. I prefer warm places with jungle and ocean and good food. Prices are a factor too, of course. Far east -- especially indochina -- has all these.
  • Cooking. Playing around in kitchen, trying out new stuff is great. I don't blog nor document the cooking usually, but with kebab I made an exception :)
  • Skiing. I've been a skier even longer than a programmer -- my first time on skis was when I was something like 4. I've been to the Alps twice (pictures here and here), to the "mountains" of Sweden/Norway a couple of times and to Lappland zillion times. In the spring '04 we went to Mt. Elbrus in Caucasus, Russia. In October 2006 I finally got myself really the kind of skis I like, 190cm 05/06 Volkl Gotamas.
  • Bowling. I am a decent bowler - started way back in '89 or so but then had a break of over ten years, until started again in the fall of '03. My ball is a TPC Player, and my best game so far is 248.
  • Girls. Especially my girlfriend whom I consider the best company to do quite anything with.
  • Hi-tech stuff.A usual nerd, I love the usual nerdy stuff like purposeful (and free) software or not-that-useful-but-very-cool gadgets like my iRiver, which I couldn't be without nowadays. I also recently (2/2005) finished my longtime project of building a home theater.
  • Computer gaming. Traditionally a Quake enthusiast, I now play mostly fantasy MMORPGs. The current thing for me is Age of Conan: the Hyborian Adventures.

Shit I could live without

Here's something I wouldn't long for should they vanish from the world entirely.

  • Progressive income tax and fining
  • Memory leaks
  • Nazism and racism
  • Visual Basic
  • "LOL"