h2g2 The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy: Earth Edition

Hi Bob!

You forgot to mention one thing about us: our obsession to go to a small room heated to over 80°C and beat ourselves with a bunch of twigs of birch. How anyone can forget about sauna is beyond me!

-- Rupert

Oh I didn't forget, I just didn't see it as a means of payment for H2G2

So what type of sauna are you into? Steam or smoke? I've been invited to try the smoke version sometime over the summer by one of my friends. I'll let you know if I survive...

Ok, I'll forgive you.. but just this once.

I've actually never been to a smoke sauna. They're becoming a bit rare I'm afraid.

My favorite kind is a wood-heated sauna by a lake where you can take a dip and run back to keep warm. Some people do that on the winter too. I guess I'm not a proper Finn but I really can't understand how anyone can be THAT mad! Someone once suspected that this country was inhabited a long time ago in the summertime, and the early Finns built their houses here and when the winter came, they realised that it was too late to get out of here, and so they stayed. I think I have to agree with that.

Unfortunately, here in the city (Helsinki) I have to settle for an electric sauna which is too dry and too hot.

Me too. Actually I was going to say "live and work in Helsinki", but that's not true today: I've damaged the tendon in my left leg, and I've spent today limping around my appartment and feeling sorry for myself.

Interestingly I was working in Tampere about two years ago, and we had a sauna in the middle of our engineering lab (betwen the coffee machine and a conference room). It had a sign on the door saying "not for recreational use" )

Not for recreational use? That sounds odd. I thought that was the whole point of sauna. Well, in our headquarters there's a sauna too, but I guess that's only for entertaining Important Guests.. I haven't heard that any employee would have ever been there - but then again, I've worked there for only six months and my office is on the other side of town.

So, what did bring you to our little country? I'd guess work.. what kind of?

> Not for recreational use? That sounds odd. I thought that was the whole point of sauna.

Apparently it was something to do with insurance. It was crazy though, it meant the monthly project sauna party was in a rented sauna in the city. So any money saved by not using the sauna we had, was lost in renting the one in the city...

>Well, in our headquarters there's a sauna too, but I guess that's only for entertaining Important Guests..

I heard a story about the Neste headquarters building. To get around the local planning rule of no sauna within 50m of the lake, they built their sauna on the top of the building. I don't know it it's true or just an urban myth. I hope it's true.


So, what did bring you to our little country? I'd guess work.. what kind of?

Nokia. Though considering how much time I spent commuting between Tampere and Ulm (Germany) in the first year, I think I spent more time in airport lounges than I did in Nokia.

Insurance reasons? I think it sounds even odder..

I haven't heard the Neste's tower story. Sounds a bit like an urban legend, though. Though, I don't know much about the local planning rules so it could be true.

Oh, Nokia. Should've guessed. They're the biggest importer of work force, I believe. Though, in the newspapers they write of how much Nokia imports engineers from India. Oh well. Guess there's smart people elsewhere too.

Well, airport lounges are a bit better. I'm a computer-support person in our department and I'm in charge of four different offices across Helsinki. I don't have a car and on a busy day I could end up sitting on a bus or waiting for one maybe two and a half hours of the day. It's a way to make a living.

So, are you in charge of any of those wonderful features we simply can't live without on our mobiles, like the worm-game? Somehow I'd imagine you get this a lot.. sorry..

So, are you in charge of any of those wonderful features we simply can't live without on our mobiles, like the worm-game?

Somehow I'd imagine you get this a lot.. sorry..



WAP gateway development, sorry.

Btw you need to upgrade: there are much better games on the the new communicator. And since it has a full java virtual machine...

Anyway I don't mind comments about the worm-game, I had years of my grandmother thinking I repaired TVs ) The logic went: computers have a TV; Bob works with computers; therefore Bob can fix my TV. The frightening thing was that I could (but only because it was a very old TV and came with a circuit diagram).

WAP, huh? Soo.. you wouldn't happen to have any influences on the prices of the WAP services, would you?

I know the logic. I deal with on my work everyday. The path is just as simple, a bit shorter though: Rupert works with computers. Computers have wires. Therefore Rupert can fix anything with wires. I've found that also copying machines, telephones, the meeting room's TV and video are also on my responsibility. I finally learnt to say no - after changing the toner cartridge on the fax machine. After that we had to call a repair man.