How to bake Pulla

Finnish Sauna

The Finnish Sauna tradition dates back over 2000 years ago and is heavily ingrained in Finnish culture.  “Sauna culture” = naked.  Would you wear your clothes in a bathtub?  The sauna symbolizes birth, life, health, cleanliness, and goodfortune.  Its the first room to be constructed when building a new home.  It was often used for drying salmon, smoking meat, child birth, hygene (source of warm water), virility, and prevention or treatment of the common cold.  Sauna was considered magic and you musn’t swear inside.  Traditionally heated with wood, heavily insulated, generally heated to 70º – 80º C.

Wikipedia: Sauna

Water is thrown on the hot stones topping the kiuas, a special stove used to warm up the sauna. This produces steam, known as löyly, which makes the sauna feel even hotter. Occasionally one uses leafy, fragrant boughs of silver birch to gently beat oneself.

The key is just enough steam that you feel comfortable.  Take frequent cool down breaks depending on how you feel.  A visit to the sauna is very personal.  Use it to relax, chat and rid yourself of stress.  Use it anytime of day.

Remote access from Finland

Ok, so this is one of my more geeky posts.  If you have a mac at home that you would like to access while  abroad here’s how to set it up for remote access via VNC “screensharing” and SSH “secure shell connection”.

“Back to my mac”
If you have a “.mac” or “mobileFail” oops I meant “mobileme” account, its possible that your host machine (the one you are leaving behind at home) still needs some configuration to work with “back to my mac”.  I wont be explaining how to use “back to my mac”.   Read apple’s .pdf for more information.

In my case, the powerbook left behind was connected to a small home network and I wasn’t about to pay $99 for “back to my mac” service.

Step 1

Create an easy to remember URL adress for your orphaned mac.  Generally, residential broadband accounts are assigned a dynamic IP address.  Dynamic means it changes from time to time.  Dynamic IP’s are no good if you want to connect remotely.  You can of course pay more for a static IP address but that isn’t necessary.  The solution is to use a dynamic DNS service like dyndns.org.  Setup an account.  Make note of your new URL, username and pass.

Step 2

Two options.  Now that our DNS service is setup we have to somehow update the DNS service with the dynamic IP address of your mac at home.  How?

Dyndns.org has a OSX client you can download and install on the home mac.  Make sure this application is configured to “open at login” by choosing this option from a “click and hold” on its dock icon.  Setup is straighforward, input your URL from step one along with username and pass.

The cool way.  If you hacked your router with DD-WRT firmware. It has a dynamic dns client built in.  Just input your URL from step one with user and pass. I prefer to use this setup.  So long as you didn’t flash your router’s firmware with one of DD-WRT’s nightly builds; your router’s uptime should be around 99%.  Some routers have this functionality out of the box.  Now, your router is updating your personal DNS whenever your home ISP decides to change the IP address.

Step 3

Assign the mac you want to access remotely a static IP address.  This part is easy.  Go to System Preferences > Network > Airport or Ethernet (Depending on how your mac is connected to the local network) > Advanced… > TCP/IP then configure IPv4: using DHCP with manual address.  You can use the same IP its already using but now it wont change if the computer or network is restarted.

Step 4

Now setup port forwarding in the router settings.  Login to your router’s web admin page and navigate to port forwarding.  Note: Not all pages look the same.  This router has been modified with DD-WRT.

Open ports, 21-ftp, 22-ssh, 5900-vnc and 3283-vnc and forward them to your mac’s now static local IP.

Step 5

Connect

From the Finder menu, select GO > Connect to server

then type vnc://ip-address-of-mac

when your away

type vnc://dns-URL-created-in-step1

Finnish breakfast

A typical Finnish breakfast consists of toasted rye bread covered in margarine, ham cold-cuts, sliced cheese, and a few slivers of cucumber.  However, I have modified the recipe a little bit.  Instead of rye bread use toasted ciabatta and coat one side with olive oil.  Next, spread some valkosipuli, add a slice of cheese a few basil leaves and top it off with a slice of ham.  I also have a cup of Risifrutti which is rice pudding with either stawberry, blueberry or rasberry topping.  I just wish Risifrutti was packaged in a tetrapak rather than single use plastic.

A sad day in Finland…

A gunman opened fire at a catering college in Kauhajoki, Finland, the nation’s second school shooting in a year. The attack left eleven people dead, Finnish Prime Minister Matti Vanhanen said at a news conference.

Having quoted that… I still feel safe.  I’m surprised to have found out about this on Bloomberg.  I was in class for over four hours today and didn’t hear anything about it.  Kauhajoki is 320 km southwest of Oulu.

Update:  I was talking with some friends over dinner tonight about what happened today.  The Finns seemed to be worried about how the world will view Finland after this tragic event.  My opinion of Finland hasn’t changed.  This could happen anywhere.  I think its a symptom of a larger social problem affecting developed countries around the world.  We will be placing a candle in our windows tonight to honor the murdered.