As part of leaving the job, I had to give my mobile phone back to the company. It’s quite common to have company mobile phones and subscriptions here in Finland, especially in the IT industry.

I fortunately got a new phone from the current company a few days beforehand, as I needed to sync some data, such as contacts, images and video clips, from the old phone to the new one.

This was not a straightforward task. First, I tried to back up the old phone to PC with Nokia Data Suite and then restore the contents to the new phone. I got the backup, but it can’t be restored to a new phone, only to the old one…

The next option was to use Nokia’s phone-to-phone transfer utility. I first tried, in vain, to open the application on the old phone — my intuition told me that I want to copy data from the old phone to the new phone. I failed. Several times, may I add. The phones communicated ok and the new phone got an application (once again, several times) for the data transfer, but nothing would happen. I restarted phones, installed new software to the old phone, you name it. Nothing helped.

Finally, I tried the same procedure using the new phone. Suddenly, the phones communicated and I could get a list of items to copy. So, Nokia’s logic says that I need to copy to the new phone from the old phone.

Of course, this was not perfect. All messages were not copied. I don’t know why. There were no program to do it on the phones and none of the googling results looked very promising, so I decided to transfer messages using the memory card.

The messages were really easy to move to the memory card. You just changed the message location on the old phone and suddenly there were on the card. On the other hand, things were not that easy on the new phone. Changing the location yielded a big fat zero, and the messages stay put on the memory card. I’m still having them there, using the card as the main storage.

Speaking of the memory card, the phone’s user interface is themeable. The only good looking preinstalled theme resides on the memory card, and if I take the card out, the phone resets back to the default theme. The same goes with the MP3 used as the ringing tone.

Maybe I should install a decent file manager or some sort of S60 system tweaker the move the files to the phone.

I wish that someone would pay more attention to make these phones simple to use. Things should just happen, no tweaks, no installs, no curses. I’m looking for the Apple of mobile phones. Any volunteers?

Art museum Ateneum is the best place to spend an afternoon, if you are interested specificall in “Finnish golden age”, or are a fan of art from the 19th century in general.

The museum boasts over 20,000 works of art. Of course, only a fraction of them are on the exhibition — but the most famous Finnish masters and masterpieces can be found under the same roof on the permanent exhibition. The history of the museum goes way back to 1863, when the first permanent exhibition began.

Ateneum is located on the very prime spot in downtown Helsinki — just across the railway station. There is also a café and a good art bookshop on the premises.

www.ateneum.fi, Kaivokatu 2, Helsinki, Finland, +358 9 1733 6401

Orchestra is a biggish children clothing store on the first floor in shoppin mall Sello, located in Leppävaara. They sell nice and fashionable garments for the smaller members of the family. This is not a brand store, so don’t expect finding Burberry or Gant clothes there. The prices are reasonable and the garments are of good quality.

The giant teddy bear near the entrance — see the image — blows soap bubbles all the time. It’s a constant amazement for the children and intriguing for most of engineers, too… There is also a video stand inside the store, so you can park your children there and browse the stuff without too much disturbance. The flipside is that you may not be able to leave the store until the cartoon is over.

Orchestra, Leppävaarankatu 3-9 (in Sello shopping mall), Espoo, Finland, +358 9 595 099

Year 2005 was an eventful year in my life and in Nomadig.com. The following events mostly dictated the year (in no particular order):

Aapo. Our first child was born on April and life has never been the same. During the first eight months, he has been a constant source of joy and a great stress relief.

Travelling. I got to travel a lot due to my job during 2005. I visited United States four times, spent almost a month there; three times in France, and several times in Oulu. This will change as I’ll move forward on my career and join a new company next Wednesday. There will be some travelling, but to different destinations. Time will tell.

Web 2.0. The new emerging methodologies and ways of implementing web based software has been intriguing me a lot lately. I’ve been experimenting with some bits and pieces, but nothing major yet. Currently, the old styled systems sell all too well to get them revamped with AJAX and other recent gimmicks. You know, costs and benefits.

Moving to “countryside”. We moved to Ymmersta on late October and have never looked back. This place is so much better to raise children than Lauttasaari. To add a twist to the situation, my new job is located in Lauttasaari.

Company car. These things are a blessing for a person that would just like to get from point A to point B without thinking anything else but just the driving.

Stores catering for the young adults generation are far and between in Espoo. One of the more pleasant suprises is located on the second floor in Sello shopping mall. URB Clothing is a miniscule store, as seen on the picture, that sells trendy garments for him and her.

The men’s selection is really limited, a couple of racks and not much more. The rest of the store is devoted to ladies — as usual. Some accessories can be found among garments. The prices can be considered moderate for the brands. Speaking of which, there are almost ten brands available, including Lacoste and Jackpot to name a couple.

URB Clothing, Leppävaarankatu 3-9 (in Sello shopping mall), Espoo, Finland, +358 9 541 9289

BSB Store is a small clothing boutique selling upperscale brands such as Burberry, Boss and Sand on the second floor on Sello shopping mall in Leppävaara. The store is squeezed in between H&M and Esprit, so there are also a lot of other shopping possibilities around.

As you can see from the picture, the store is miniscule and the amount of garments is limited. Still, you can find a big number of good clothes with heavier pricetag. Fortunately, the price indicates also quality and style. Besides clothes, there is a smallish selection of bags and other accessories.

BSB Store, Leppävaarankatu 3-9 (in Sello shopping mall), Espoo, Finland, +358 9 890 200