NL52 - The things we make

Hello from my home in Matinkylä! This is NordLetter #52, a weekly newsletter on living and walking in Finland. Each week I share some of the interesting things I found on the web.

Previous editions can be found here. You can reach out to me by replying on this mail or adding a comment on this. I am also posting on Mastodon.

/the things we make

Back in my college days I had gone on a road trip with my friends to Punjab and Kasauli. Among other things, we had visited Chandigarh and the famous Rock Garden created by Nek Chand.

The Rock Garden is spread over 40 acres and built from waste (discarded items/industrial waste, etc.)

You do not feel that when you visit the garden of course. There are a variety of sculptures, sceneries created throughout the garden.

Things that are deemed surplus, waste, can be used, given a new life in different circumstances. Pieces of broken tiles, old furniture, can be repurposed.

Bimba has many such things, hand-crafted, repurposed, given a new life.

I was at the library, in the children's section with Savya, on Friday, when I happened to look up and saw these beautiful paper birds made with yellowing paper floating just under the AC ducts.

I don't know who made it. Or thought of making it. But it looked so beautiful. The air from the duct made it so that the birds were really flying!

There are so many beautiful things in and around us, as we move through the world. We just need to be cognisant of it.

Finland ranks as world's happiest country for eighth year in a row

The rankings are based on a single question:

"Please imagine a ladder with steps numbered from 0 at the bottom to 10 at the top. The top of the ladder represents the best possible life for you and the bottom of the ladder represents the worst possible life for you. On which step of the ladder would you say you personally feel you stand at this time?"

It is as subjective a question as any. It depends on the attitude of the people as much as the place. Finns rank as the happiest people in the world, would be a good headline as well for this.

/five things to share

1. Apple's Long-Rumored Foldable iPhone is Starting to Sound Serious

It will be costly whenever it comes out. But it would be interesting to see if Apple cures the visible bend in the screen. If yes, what would stop the other manufacturers from copying the same?

2. HealthKit as a Model for an Open Semantic Index From Apple

John wrote about Apple being the platform for AI, making sure that Apple devices are the best for running AI models and tools, in addition to running their own models.

Nobody is suggesting Apple should give up on AI. Quite the opposite. They really need to go from being a joke to being good at it, fast. But there’s no reason at all they should build out a strategy that relies on Apple doing all of it themselves, and Apple users relying solely on Apple’s own AI. Do it like Health — a model that has proven to be:

profitable (for Apple itself, selling devices like Watches);popular (with users, who actually use it, understand it, and like it);private;and open to third-party developers, device makers, and medical service providers.

3. Threads finally lets you set the following feed as default

My usage of Threads has really dropped these past few months. But interesting to see them release this feature finally. I still don't have it I guess. Or, I don't know how to enable it.

4. Apple puts the Vision Pro guy in charge of Siri

Mark Gurman with a bombshell coverage. This change is reported as something in the works for some time and not a product of the announcement about the Siri AI features delay.

5. AI Python for Beginners

Interesting course this. Vibe-coding is all the rage these days, but it pays to know how to code.

/new posts

Posts on the social web and better using my phone.

1. What is Nordletter about? - Or, how to write about the same thing perpetually?
2. Who are you? - in the inevitability that is life
3. Ghost announces beginning of the public beta for the social web
4. Maybe we should not have connected - DS2 + the federated social apps
5. The contexts in which I use my phone
6. Re-designing the home screen and the way I use my phone

If you enjoyed reading this, and know someone else who might, please consider forwarding this to them. It would help this grow and make me happy. 😄

Until next week.