Sonic and Michael Jackson united for epic gaming tunes

I was a Sonic addict in my childhood, playing Sega pretty much every day, hours at a time. I always thought Sonic games had great background tunes, but only yesterday did I read that Michael Jackson himself was involved in the production of music for Sonic 3. Due to some contractual complications he wasn't mentioned in the credits however, bringing mystery around the specifics of the collaboration.

There are some interesting similarities in some of Jackson's songs and the background tunes of Sonic 3. Here's a sample of music for a level called "Ice cap zone", one of the great tunes. And here's a bit from Michael's "Smooth Criminal" (Moonwalker version). Notice anything?

Here's a sound effect used in the tune for "Carnival night zone" that is pretty much like the one used here in Jackson's song "Jam".

Coincidence? You be the judge.

Armeijablogini vuodelta 2008 - my army blog from 2008 in Finnish

Kirjoitin blogia armeija-aikanani mutta päätin pitää sen silloin salaisena. Nyt kun palveluksestani tulee kuluneeksi viisi vuotta, päätin julkaista sen. Blogin tyylistä kyllä näkee varmaan edelleen ettei se ole tarkoitettu julkaistavaksi, sen verran siinä on myös hajoilua ja muuta hajatyyliä. Mutta onpahan aito inttiblogi. Tuskin blogi kovin monia kiinnostaa, mutta ehkä jotakuta joka palvelee tai aikoo palvella Panssariprikaatin viestissä, tiedä häntä.

The blog is only in Finnish, but here's still a little explanation:

It's more than five years now since I started my compulsory army service in Parolannummi Finland. I was there for a year (half a year was my wish at first but they decided to hold me for longer!). Most of it I didn't enjoy, but some parts I kind of did. I can say I liked some of the long marches - on foot and on a bike. Looking at the past through nostalgic goggles I can also say I miss the atmosphere during some of the exercises we had in the forests. It was interesting to see all the things you can experience in an army: riding in a tank, shooting (a lot) with an assault rifle, learning to appreciate a dry bed and some sleep...

Here's the blog:
Linkki blogiin:
taistelijabulvis.blogspot.fi

"Bring me the bad news, good news can wait"

People have a natural tendency to avoid pain, both physical and mental. This can cause problems in an organization where the leaders don't acknowledge this. Pain avoidance can cause leaders to "shoot messengers" of bad news (in the not-so ancient times that happened quite literally). This of course leads to a situation where no-one delivers bad news and the leaders end up surrounded with yes-men. Ultimately this often leads to mighty collapse of the entire organization in the end - be it a firm or even a country. I don't think Stalin liked bad news.

To counter the problems of natural pain avoidance, any organization and any level of leadership should adopt a policy of "bad news first - good news can wait". Leaders should adopt a role of scouring through all the bad news before anything else - that's pretty much what they're paid for after all.

Too much of a good thing can be wonderful!

The title is a quote by Mae West. That's what I had in mind when earlier today I decided to clean up my stock portfolio. I sold off two companies and bought more of what I already had. Now I only own three companies that I can easily follow and analyse, and buy more of when the prices are right.

With this spring cleaning I'm trying to follow a time-tested Buffett-thesis:

If you want to be smart about expenses you basically have two choices,

1. Extreme focus on a handful of companies (~1-4), or

2. Extreme diversification through a passively managed ETF that follows an index like S&P 500

The latter one is probably the best choice for most investors, but the first one can be OK if you're willing to put in the effort of careful analysis. If you walk the middle road, as many do, you'll be awash in expenses that most often lead to a mediocre return at best. Brokerage fees and taxes add up when you end up buying and selling too much as you chase the latest buzz-stock. Owning all kinds of securities can feel like a safe way to play things, but it can prevent you from seeing the obvious "fat pitches" (a baseball term for a perfect ball-pitch). Waiting for a fat pitch can give wonderful cumulative returns over time with only one hit. The taxes and brokerage fees you save by being inactive contribute to a much better cumulative return over time, so waiting for the one pitch can be greatly rewarding - and save you from a lot of hassle too.

The companies I bought more of today are DIRECTV and Wells Fargo. In my opinion they are both grossly undervalued with good prospects and low 12-month trailing P/E's of about 10. DTV also sports a free cash flow yield of around 7%. Both DTV and WFC are businesses that are relatively easy to understand and analyse (as I have previously done in this blog). Both companies have competitive "moats" that are already wide and, as far as I can see, getting wider. I also like the management in both companies. The third company I still own (and will own for the foreseeable future) is of course Nokian Tyres, with Kim Gran at the helm working his rubbery magic!

Disclaimer: This is not investment advice. Do your own research.

My mistakes for 2013 thus far and what I've learnt from them

When things go wrong, I believe it's always best to point the finger at yourself instead of others. It's an exercise that can be tremendously useful going forward. After all it's much easier to change yourself than others. As a one-wheeled entrepreneur I need to be extra careful for bumps on the road as they can put me off balance, so here are my bumps for this year and what I've learnt from them:

Delegating:
Delegating responsibility is an important skill, but when exercised you need to be sure to delegate the right task along with all the needed information to the right person. My mistake has mostly been that I delegate in a too passive way without providing enough information to make the delegating work well. I need to be more alert to how I delegate.

Communicating:
There's no such thing as too much communication, and face-to-face communication beats e-mail hands down. I've failed to read emotions and meanings behind written communication. I need to communicate much more in person going forwards. E-mails just won't do, in many cases. More face-to-face communication could have saved me from a lot of hassle this year.

Being careful in fulfilling what's been agreed upon
The society is built on trust, and trust is in practice built on agreements. Trust is compromised when there's sloppiness in fulfilling agreements. I need to be less sloppy and more focused in adhering to what's been agreed upon. Sometimes I get too excited with ideas so that people may feel I've gone too far without proper communicating. This problem is intertwined with better communicating in many ways: more communicating, preferably face-to-face ensures that no-one feels agreements are not being fulfilled properly, which increases trust, which increases efficiency.

Blogger Tips: Create a contact form or questionnaire with Google Drive tools

More quick & dirty Blogger tips, sticking with Google products!

If you wish to have an easy way for your page viewers to contact yourself or your company or to collect some other data (questionnaires, etc.) on your webpage, then Google documents can help.

First, log on to Google Drive, then click Create new -> Form.

Add text questions, poll questions, etc., what ever you want to harass your readers with! When you're ready, choose from the top menu More actions -> Embed. Copy the URL.

When you're editing your blog post or page, click HTML from the top-left corner. You need to paste the code you copied straight to source code. Paste it anywhere above/before the last </div> tag and switch back to Create mode to see how it fits. That's it!

All the answers will be time stamped and stored neatly in the Excel file that is in your Google Drive, all in their corresponding columns.

If it is a contact form you created, you probably want an email notification when someone fills in the form. You can activate email notifications by opening the file in Google Drive, then choose from the top-menu Tools -> Notification Rules, then tick Notify me at - A user submits a form.

Here's my version, have your say!

Blogger tips: How to remove image borders and "Subscribe to blogposts (atom)"

Here's a quick way to make your Blogger blog look a bit more neat and professional by removing the shadowy borders of images and the annoying "Subscribe to blogposts (Atom)" -links below all your pages and blogposts.

First, go to your blog's Dashboard (the editing page), then choose Template (Malli in Finnish) -> Customize (Mukauta) -> Advanced (Lisäasetukset) -> Add CSS

Copy-paste this piece of CSS code under 'add custom CSS':

.post-body img, .post-body .tr-caption-container, .Profile img, .Image img,

.BlogList .item-thumbnail img {

  padding: none !these are for removing the image borders;

  border: none;

  background: none;

  -moz-box-shadow: 0px 0px 0px transparent;

  -webkit-box-shadow: 0px 0px 0px transparent;

  box-shadow: 0px 0px 0px transparent;

}

.feed-links { display: none !these are for deleting the atom links }
.blog-feeds { display: none }

Then just save it to be used in the blog. If you like image borders on your blog and only want to remove the Atom -links, then delete all except the last two lines.

Greetings from Ruka, Lapland!

Finland's Lapland is good fun all year round: You can go trekking and fishing during the summer and autumn and downhill skiing/snowboarding and cross country skiing during winter and spring. We went to Ruka fell in Lapland for a week to do the former. The weather was rainy but we were equipped with water repellent clothing so it wasn't a problem. The trekking routes around Kuusamo/Ruka region were well maintained and views from atop the fells were astounding. Reindeer were everywhere, unfortunately also on roadways. We also went to Large Carnivore Center in Kuusamo to look at Finland's beasts: bears, lynx and wolves. One of the bears, Juuso, is a celebrity after having starred in a Finnish feature film, Miesten vuoro. Great trip overall!

Some media from the trip:

A clip from Large Carnivore Center in Kuusamo. Highly recommended!

A composition of scenes from two of our trekking trips: Pieni Karhunkierros (12km) and Kiutakönkään päiväreitti (8km), both in Kuusamo

I attempted a little gliding atop Ruka fell but the ground was too wet. Nice views anyway!

Eating in Rukacenter: Reindeer pizza, vendace and beef

We resided in Agrohonka, a small cabin near Ruka fell

Recent Berkshire buys: Viacom - a video content giant

Today's company in focus is Viacom, a media company behind such youth-oriented TV channels as MTV and Comedy Central. They also produce movies under multiple brands, the best known of which is Paramount Pictures.

Click here for the article

Tie cutting fun in the Nordic Business Forum

The annual Nordic Business Forum was held this week in Jyväskylä Finland. I was very lucky to get a VIP pass offered to me by Raija from Saimatext. The two day event was full of inspirational speeches and good food and drinks enjoyed in the company of entrepreneurial people. I got to talk with many interesting people, among them Peter Vesterbacka from Rovio and growth entrepreneur Taneli Tikka. The speeches were given by such elaborate people as Hans Rosling, Brian Tracy and Daniel Pink. The seminar was full of action and although the first day was a lot of sitting (from morning train to late at evening), I never had a boring moment. Everything was top-notch from cloakroom service to great food. For such a big event the schedule was punctual and everything went very smoothly. A big thanks to the NBF staff who made it possible, and especially to Raija and Jokke for giving me this amazing experience!

A few highlights from the trip:

Me and Peter Vesterbacka from Rovio. He was a nice and down-to-earth guy

My dad Jouko was lucky enough to get to ask Sir Richard a question about trains!

Jouko took this shot of Richard Branson who had just cut Jari Sarasvuo's tie

My dad giving a thumb-up for the trip as we took a train back home. I whole-thumbedly agree!

Recent Berkshire buys: BNY Mellon - a bank living off fees

Today I profiled an investments -focused banking institution that Berkshire Hathaway bought during their latest quarter. It's a bank of rapid capital generation, fortress balance sheet and plenty of liquidity for dividends and share buybacks. Unlike most banks, their revenue is formed mostly of recurring fees. This decreases interest margin -related risks during times of low interest rates. The bank has made a glorious comeback after the crisis-ridden year of 2009:

Check the rest of my analysis here:

Recent Berkshire Buys: BNY Mellon - A Bank Of Rapid Capital Generation

Profiling recent Berkshire buys: DaVita and its CEO of crazy antics

Yes, that's really a CEO of a multi-billion dollar company - Kent Thiry of DaVita. The company is a leading provider of dialysis services for patients with a chronic kidney disease.
Here's my take on the company:
Profiling Recent Berkshire Buys: DaVita And Its CEO In Musketeer Costume

More analysis of DirecTV

This time I focused more on the numbers, and even pulled off four graphs (I made them with Google Spreadsheets by the way). I tried to give some perspective on the potential of their Latin America branch of business too.

Take a High-Def look at DirecTV's numbers.

Today's company in focus: Wells Fargo

Today I wrote a piece for Seeking Alpha profiling Wells Fargo, one of the four largest banks in the U.S. It's a conservatively run bank that survived the financial crisis almost unscathed, and a big favorite of Warren Buffett. A big part of their success has been their focus on the basics: taking care of all the financial needs of their private and public customers and not deal with messy derivatives trading or investment banking, etc.

Here's the complete analysis

Business analysis: Profiling the new McDonald's CEO

Today I wrote a piece about the new CEO of McDonald's, and where he seems to be steering the company. He's the first African-American to serve as CEO of McDonald's, and one of the very few black CEOs in the S&P 500 companies. He's a bachelor of science in electrical engineering.

Here's more:
Analysis Of Where The New CEO Is Steering McDonald's

image source: aboutmcdonalds.com

A book review: Poor Charlie's Almanack

Sometimes you stumble upon something mindblowingly great. This goliath of a book falls in to that category. The book is literally big as a bible, but it's nowhere near as boring. Quite the contrary, the book is printed on thick quality paper and illustrated with pictures on almost every page. The book is about Charlie Munger, the 87-year old vice chairman of Berkshire Hathaway, and his thoughts on subjects ranging from Ben Franklin's life lessons to psychology of human misjudgement. Mainly the book is of course business and investing related, but as Bill Gates is quoted as saying in the back of the book, "Charlie is truly the broadest thinker I have ever encountered." After reading the book I would agree.

What I found the most interesting about the book was chapter 11, where Charlie lists 25 psychological tendencies that tend to skew our everyday thinking. Learning them by heart as a checklist (Charlie loves checklists and advocates using them as often as possible), I think anyone could become a more rational person, be it in business, marriage or any other human interaction. The list includes such standard thinking errors as loving/liking tendency, incentive superreaction tendency and contrast-misreaction tendency. The tendencies, their evolutionary basis, their effects on our lives and the antidotes against them are explained in a clear and understandable way that is uncommon in psychology literature.

If you're interested in the subjects of business, Ben Franklin and the kind of wisdom he practiced and preached, be sure to check out this book. It is unfortunately only available for order in the internet and it is shipped from the United States. It can be ordered here.

Business analysis (DirecTV & Nokian Tyres)

I wrote two short articles about the satellite tv company Directv (NYSE:DTV) and Nokian Tyres (HEL:NRE1V). These are my first exclusively published articles on the website Seeking Alpha. They edited both articles, and for some reason the DirecTV piece lost a subtitle, but I guess it still makes sense.


DirecTV:
What's Not To Like About DirecTV?


Nokian Tyres:
This Nordic Mid-Cap Proves Making Tires Can Be A Wonderful Business

How to do the wheel walk (unicycling)

Wheel walking ("walking the wheel") is the most basic trick in unicycling. Initially it's easiest to train wheel walking using a wall or a fence as support - and it's good to wear gloves as falls tend to happen. Here's a picture of how I do the trick while pedaling.

First I move my non-dominant (left) foot on the tyre, I do this when the pedal hits the highest point. The right foot follows right after it, after the first kick on the left foot. The transition should be as smooth and slow as possible, but the actual wheel walking can be done at any speed- literally from slow sloth-like movement to jogging. I would prefer a more faster pace of walking because going too slow will make me go off balance. I do the transition back to pedaling by lowering my dominant foot back to its pedal and the non-dominant one right after it. You need to look at the pedals so you know where to put your feet - this takes some training and should be done without haste.

How to start pedaling on a unicycle

As the summer sun is still flashing its last rays I thought I'd share some basic things about riding a unicycle. Let's start with the basics of the basics: how to start pedaling.

Start with your dominant foot (mine is the right one) on the pedal. Notice that the crank is facing down. Apply all your body weight on the saddle as you move your other foot on the pedal – don’t try to jump on the saddle in a hurry, just move your leg smoothly and let your body rest on the seat as the frame carries your weight. Your dominant foot works as a break to keep the unicycle steady. As shown in the third picture, it helps to push backwards with your non-dominant foot a bit after you have both legs on pedals. This moves your body forward and allows for more forward momentum as you start pedaling.

More one-wheeled mayhem!

Here's a video we shot with Petteri a few days ago in the city of Tampere, thanks again to him for editing and shooting almost the whole thing. This time he also stars with his wheelies. He added again some interesting sound effects and music from old classic games like GTA and Quake. He's also done a great job of hiding our mistakes with his editing. One thing he couldn't hide in this video, though: I rode with those wet underpants all day, and it shows !

Google tools for a small-scale entrepreneur (accounting, webpages)

It's about two years since I applied for a sole proprietor status, but only this spring/summer have I started to really look at how to create professional-looking webpages, deal with accounting, etc. I've done these things in a straight-forward way before, but how should I deal with them more professionally, utilizing today's web-based tools? I don't feel like coding html all by myself from the beginning! (Been there, done that!)

I'm going to give you some tips that I know are not for everyone, but for me as a yet-small-scale entrepreneur they work. They are also free and simple. They are based on tools by the mighty Google corporation.

Accounting

Google Drive is Google's virtual hard drive, free for everyone to put their data into - a cloud data storage. The data is by default private, but files can be shared for collaboration so that many people can work on the same file simultaneously. I guess that could prove messy, but might be productive in some instances, who knows (you? comment!)

Setting up simple accounting in the cloud might feel like a risky idea, but on balance I think it works quite well. The file is safely in the Google server cloud in case you break your computer and misplace your backup-data stick. You can access it from any computer, anywhere. You can also have the file backed up on your computer at times - the reverse of how backing up files is usually done by uploading them online.

Here's an example file of what simple double-entry accounting can look like in the Google Drive. Notice how pretty much all the essential Excel features are there, free for you to use. Even the graphs that you can produce are pretty impressive.

Creating a webpage

You can use Google products to create webpages for your businesses too, and believe me, it doesn't look unprofessional like it might have sometime in mid-2000's. This page is created with Google's Blogger service, and it does look like nothing but a blog, on purpose. However, you can create whole webpages with Blogger that don't really look like plain blogs. Here's an example of a webpage that I helped create. As you can see, aside from the blog page (which isn't even the main page there), you can have up to 20 other pages. The 20-page limit can be an annoyance but it also makes you think harder about what's essential about your page - less clutter!

If you plan on having a relatively simple webpage with a blog on it, then I would advice you to check out if Blogger serves your needs. The service doesn't allow as much customization as, say Wordpress. But it's a nice platform for a relatively simple business and for someone who doesn't want to do HTML. The editor menu is very user-friendly and changing the pages' looks can be done by a click of the mouse.

Google also has a service called Google Sites for creating plain web pages, but I haven't tried that yet. Have you? Do you use other neat Google services to serve your business needs? Leave a comment!

...And just for the record, I'm in no way affiliated with Google!

Morjens! (some unicycling & CS maps to begin with!)

That's a casual way of saying hi in Finnish, so welcome to my pages!

I'm a twenty-something entrepreneurial spirit from Finland. I like reading, bicycling (a no-gear Kona Africabike!) and unicycling with a "trials uni". I'm a self-proclaimed nerd and I work with all kinds of things 'computer' - image editing, website designing, social media marketing. In my teen years I was also much into designing levels for various games, especially Counter-Strike. I designed a once-famous map called cs_sauna in 2001 (pictured on the right, based on the swimming hall of Nokia city!), as well as many others (pictured on the left, my childhood home modeled as a battle field!). You can still find videos of cs_sauna gameplay on Youtube.

cs_sauna

cs_blockroad5

To kick off my blogging, I'll introduce my hobby: unicycling. I bought a fat-tyred 'trials unicycle' in 2005 and have been training some basic tricks with it every now and then. The Finnish summer is quite short so the actual training season isn't long either (although with a 2,5" heavily treaded tyre you can get along during the winter snow too). I'll cover some of the tricks I know in this blog, in a "how-to" format.

I guess me and my cousin both have some perverse thing about riding with only one wheel. He does it real well with a normal bike (calling his beloved Kona Hoss a normal bike is an insult though, sorry Petteri!)

Here's a clip of me riding in Virrat and Vaskivesi, in rural Finland this summer. Kudos to Petteri W. for the terrific(ly haunting and at parts bizarre) editing and shooting! The 'ngghh!' -sounds aren't actually the sounds I make while cycling, but added later for no apparent reason :D