My name is Mosse Stenström. I'm 30 years old, and live in a small house in the middle of the woods in the small village of Siuntio in southern Finland. I work as a foreman for a local security company, and also handle their marketing, graphic design and webdesign.
My hobbies include my two cats Mirre and Saga, webdesign and boardgames, mostly conflict simulations. 
Although the graphical theme of this blog is very wargamish it includes these other aspects of my life as well.
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The New Old Thing
Thursday 8th of May 2008 10:32 (35 hours ago)
Tags: webdesign
It's been about a year and a half since I last redid the code for my homepage. This, in Mosse-time, is an eternety. Naturally, I have learned a thing or two during these months that I didn't know back then. And with this new knowledge in mind - I was appalled at the sight of my code. The HTML, the PHP, the mySQL, but actually most of all, the CSS was really, really sub-par. It was time for a redesign, so I cracked up my PhotoShop to try to come up with a new look as well...
After about four of five tries I had come up with a handful of new designs, which weren't bad in itself, but (in my own head) didn't improve on the graphical design I already had. And if it isn't broken, why fix it? I decided to concentrate on just rewriting the code leaving the visuals mostly as-is. I did clean up the visual end as well, but the basic design still remains the same.
If you're viewing this on an old Internet Explorer, there are some features which look less than optimal, because there are some CSS-stuff the old IE doesn't understand, as well as a handful of png-images files, where IE doesn't know how to show the transparency correctly.
My old page received about a hundred spam-comments a day. Which means I was deleting comments and updating a blacklist of ip-numbers and keywords on a daily basis. As the amount of black-flagged ip-numbers was nearing to three digits I understood I had to do something new. Therefore I made the easy anti-spam system you see in the comments-window. Five small input fields, and a couple of images telling you which two-letter keyword you're supposed to enter into which textfield in order to get the comment through. Please send me an e-mail if this system is creating a problem for you, if you can't see the images or something or other.
As I switched to the new site, I took away my entire blacklist. No forbidden keywords, no forbidden ip-adresses, no forbidden e-mails. Just to check how much the anti-spam system catches. It's now been up for three days, and so far I have not received a single spam-comment! So far, it's a success, then! (Please don't take this as a challenge...)
I hope you like the "new", old design. I'm as pleased with it as I was with the old one a year and a half ago.
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The Flickr
Sunday 4th of May 2008 22:16 (4 days ago)
Tags: crokinole, dexterity
When I was about the size of a fire extinguisher, we used to build racing tracks in the back yard sandbox. We then had small, plastic cars with big, plastic wheels - generally called "neppis" (approximately "flickered", in bad finnish), with which we raced on our sandy tracks. The rules were simple - you were allowed one "flick", after which it was you opponents' turn to do the same. If your neppis-car went off the track, or flipped over, you used your next turn to place it back on the track from where it left the course. Something of a 3-dimensional PitchCar, but where the cars actually had wheels (making tight turns really difficult!).
In my quest to relive childhood racing glory I have stumbled on several flicking-type games, and discovered that I like most of them. Back when I lived in the city I used to play quite a lot of billiards with my friends, and since I wasn't born with a silver spoon in my mouth, at home we played Couronne. Since I rediscovered boardgames half a decade ago I bought PitchCar (mini), but wasn't too impressed. I also bought the much less serious ElchFest, but wasn't yet satisfied. After several years I managed to secure a used copy of the brilliant Subbuteo, which I really liked. But there was still one more flicking-game I needed to have in my collection. And now, finally, I decided that I was worth it. I was worth a Crokinole-board!
I opted to get a Sterntaler-board from the German-based Crokinole Companions. And I have not regretted it. The service I got from Hans Reinhold of the Companions has been first-rate, with all my queries answered promptly. I went for the slightly smaller board because it would fit on my kitchen table perfectly. And since it arrived a few weeks ago it is rapidly becoming my most played game. It also seems to sink in well with my couronne-playing family members.
The game feels like a collaboration of Couronne, Curling and Snooker. Players take turn flicking wooden discs, attempting to leave them in advantageous positions. In order for them to be legal shots, however, you must shoot them off your opponents discs. This little rule, in addition to eight rubber-covered posts surrounding the most valuable areas makes the game really tactical and not just an accuracy game. It also gives the game a whole lot more interaction than, for example, Couronne. Once all 24 discs (12 per team) have been flicked, discs remaining on the board are tallied and the winner will score the difference in points (areas are scored at 20, 15, 10 and 5 points, so there's no higher level math needed...)
For the first few dozen flicks I could have sworn that the good people at Crokinole Companions had put some strange form of wood-magnets into the discs, because they always managed to hit the posts. These posts, because they are covered in rubber, act like pinball bumpers, shooting the discs off deep into hyperspace. But once you manage to find your aim the game really begins to shine. There is an undeniable feeling of great accomplishment when you succeed in a great shot - clearing maybe more than one opponent disc while leaving your own in a spot your adversary can't reach - at least not without considerable risk. Oh, there is much rejoicing then! Similarly, you can almost feel a bad contact deep in your spine. You instantly know, from the moment your index finger leaves the thumb and propels the disc towards evident doom... It hurts - badly...
The game can be played 2-player, or 4-player in teams of 2. There is also a 3-player version, but it requires a different board. I've been lucky enough to play both ways, and although the 4-player is naturally better (the more the merrier, plus I really like team games) the 2-player version is certainly not bad at all.
After many years of searching, it seems I have found the ultimate flickr...
If you have this, and a good copy of Subbuteo (not the Hasbro-kind), you have the flicking-games you need.
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In Vino Veritas
Friday 2nd of May 2008 16:54 (7 days ago)
Tags: wine, wine library, vaynerchuk, podcast
Enthusiastic people intrigue me. I don't even like wine! Sure, I'll have a glass of white every now and again - but haven't yet found a red wine to my liking. Therefore I wasn't expecting a lot when I found myself at the free videocast Wine Library TV downloading an episode. A program about winetasting? I'd seen a few of them on TV, and they were always snobish besserwisser twats describing every wine like the word of God. But I had heard enough good things about this particular show to give it an honest go. And I don't even like wine!
But something happened. The host, the maniacal, hysterical and whacky yet strangely appealing, friendly and approachable Gary Vaynerchuk, co-owner of the wineseller Wine Library didn't treat me like an idiot even though I can't name ten different winegrapes and where they grow. Even though he clearly has a vast array of knowledge when it comes to wine, instead of bragging about it, like most others - it has turned into a burning enthusiasm of the subject. It's evident that not only does Gary love wine, he loves talking about it, telling people about it and teaching his captivated audience about different wines. Best of all - he does it without using big words whose only reason of existance is belittling everybody else - like bouquet, which I hear a lot from whineheads...I mean wineheads...
I don't even like wine, but wines have always fascinated me. I could never wrap it around my head how something which, in essence is a juice (you're welcome to send your hatemail to the adress in the sidebar...), can have such a massive impact on so many people. (I have a similar feeling about fashion, by the way, although I couldn't really sit down and watch a fashionshow if it wasn't for all the beautiful girls...) Vaynerchuks enthusiasm is undeniable, and contagious. His show is lovingly called "The Thunder Show", he drinks his wine from "The Big Ass Glass" and after watching a single episode of the show, it's now clear to everybody that before you taste the wine by doing "The Whirl", you gotta do "The Sniffy-sniff". Adorable!
His table is filled with american football paraphernalia and action figures. Instead of feeling like a pharmacist at a government-run drugstore - all-knowing but distant, Gary is the kind of guy you'd want at your barberque party. Did I mention his enthusiasm is contagious? After watching my first episode, I went to my booze cabinet, opened up the only bottle of wine I had, a bottle of Tollo Bianco ("Tollo" means approx. "Doofus" in finnish, which might not be the best of criterias for choosing your wine...) and watched the next episode. And the next... And the next...
Although I still haven't found a wine I really really like, I'm going to keep searching now.
...and I don't even like wine!!! (But maybe one day, I might...)
...and I got to get me a Big Ass Glass...
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Snow-white and the Seven Clones
Tuesday 29th of April 2008 13:58 (10 days ago)
Tags: 7th son, j.c. hutchins, audiobook, free
The President of the United States is dead. He was murdered in the morning sunlight by a four-year-old boy.
With these words begins the free-of-charge science fiction audiobook 7th Son by author J.C. Hutchins.
Isn't it fantastic what you can just stumble on while aimlessly cruising the Internets?
Isn't it awesome when somebody actually gets it? How the internets work?
Hutchins wrote the book (trilogy, actually) 7th Son, about seven strangers who are involunarily collected together after the strange assassination of the president. They are told that they are part of a genetic experiment called "7th Son", that they are all, in essence, the same person. They are all carbon copies of the man simply called "John Alpha" - the original. Although they are all the same - different upbringings have molded them differently. Having been told the truth about themselves they are given a task... Find John Alpha.
A story about cloning, then? A classic in Sci-fi litterature. The "book" can be downloaded (either from the site or via the iTunes Music Store) for free as a kind of podcast, chapter by chapter.
So far I've only made it to chapter five (out of 27) of Book One (although some authors have stretched the meaning of the word "trilogy", this one actually is only three books) and I'm hooked. The trilogy is completed already, so all chapters are available for download. I hear it's actually being published in book-form too, during next year. And with the success and cult-like following it's getting, I wouldn't be surprised if we saw a movie sometimes soon... Once I make it through the book, there seems to be a sequel called Obsidian in the making as well.
The author reads the book himself on the audiofeed, and he does a great job at it. He has a voice which is really easy to listen to. Before and after the chapters he speaks freely for a minute or so, about how things are going with the book, as well as mentions other podcast novels he likes.
Listening to audiobooks (or, as Leo Laporte puts it - "reading audiobooks") can be a strange experience for the uninitiated. I've listened actively to a number of podcasts for several years, but still getting into audiobooks was a bit of a leap. When you read a book, you are actively doing something, you read the text, your eyes move along the lines, and every now and again, you turn the page. Not with audiobooks. You have to get used to doing absolutely nothing (except maybe driving, walking or whatever it is you do whilst listening) but receive the information through headphones/speakers - but still concentrate enough to follow - especially when the language isn't your mother tongue. In my opinion, though - it's worth it.
After months of listening to the TWiT shows with Laporte, and hearing him rave about audiobooks from Audible.com, I bought a few books via the iTunes music store, mainly a few Sherlock Holmes short stories, and some old time radio dramas (why don't they do radio dramas anymore?!) by Isaac Asimov and Arthur C. Clarke. I've enjoyed these immensly, and was happy to see a book like this given away for free.
It seems others have enjoyed it as well. We geeks, it seems, make for very intensive and loyal fans.
Isn't it awesome when somebody actually gets it? How the internets work?
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I Taught I Taw a Tweet!
Thursday 24th of April 2008 12:43 (15 days ago)
Tags: twitter, tech
Being an avid listener to This Week in Tech with Leo Laporte (and a handful of other tech-podcasts too) one word kept coming up constantly - TWITTER. For a very long time I avoided it because it seemed like a completely useless online application. Why would I want to know trivial facts about what people are doing?
For anybody who doesn't know what Twitter or Twittering or Tweets are, I suggest you watch the brilliant educational film "Twitter in Plain English" from the folks at Common Craft. I slowly began to see that any single tweet in itself was truly trivial, unnecessary and not even very entertaining. But a continuous flow of tweets builds up to a complete picture of a person.
Part of what's been holding me back so far was the way a few of the profiles on Twitter handled it. It became a competition of who got the most followers, think friends on Facebook. This always irritated me with Facebook as well. Although I do have a Facebook account I do not log in frequently anymore, and to tell you the truth - I don't even know how many friends I have on Facebook.
I know Twitter is more for the tech-crowd than it is for the gaming crowd (I concider myself to be part of both), and Scott Nicholsons geeklist for Twitter users among Boardgamegeeks never caught on, but I think gamers can have as much use and fun from Twitter as the techies. Stuff that's too little to write a blog-entry, a session report or a review about. The fact that the tweets are limited to 140 letters actually makes sense, not only from a traffic point of view. Single sentence thoughts rarely or even never end up in blogposts.
Anyway - I bit the bullet and signed up for an account. If you feel like following me, feel free, welcome and hop on. I'll probably follow you back.
http://twitter.com/imosse
So what is my impression of Twitter? It's like a blog, yet nothing like a blog. It's like Facebook, yet nothing like Facebook. It's like an instant messenger, yet nothing like an instant messenger. It's like SMS:s, yet nothing like SMS:s. Make sense? No? Well, how much of the Web 2.0 experience actually does?
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