~matti

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

• 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

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