I’m a British guy and I’m moving to Helsinki in May. I’m interested in the maker/hacker scenes and I would like to meet some new people, make friends and get involved in some projects etc… Hopefully this is the place to be
A little about myself: I’m 33 and run a couple of business’s online which involve me mostly working with perl, mysql, html etc… I’m a Debian, Bash, Vim person and I’ve been running my own servers for about 10 years. I enjoy various youtube channels like The Ben Heck Show, EEVBlog but I haven’t actually “made” anything for a long time. The last things that come to mind was when I made my own sound sampler for my Amiga 1200 or my Winamp serial port button panel but this was probably 10+ years ago. Hopefully this will change!
So I guess I just wanted to open up some communication before I arrive and hopefully come visit and become a member etc… In the meantime I do have a question that I hope some of you could advise me on. I need to sort out my internet connection in the apartment I’m renting. Can anyone recommend a good quality provider and service ? I would rather pay a little extra for something fast and reliable. Also 4G mobile provider / service ?
Check out our Flickr feed to see what we are up to at Helsinki Hacklab currently. Sitting in front of a computer all day at work is not enough for us, so usually we like to get our hands dirty, work with materials, hardware and electronics when we are at the lab. Please mind that our renovation is still not all finished yet and some tools are not available for use.
I’ll be visiting London Hackspace coming Tuesday, so if you happen to live in London region I could tell you more about our club there.
We are making the lab, as in: the space is very much work in progress so help in that is most welcome.
Most 4G providers are okay, I’m personally inclined to Tele Finland / Sonera, as that network has best coverage in my home. I’m using a Huawei 593B to connect my home to the world, as the house is not connected to any data cables.
I’m currently personally involved in ELL-i open source cooperative, we’re setting up an open source open hardware ecosystem and community more or less concentrating on IoT issues.
@jssmk: The flickr photo feed looks great, lots of cool stuff going on I see! I totally appreciate how the lab can be a great alternative to sitting in front of a computer all day. Sorry I haven’t actually been to the London hackspace before. I’ve visited C-Base in Berlin but never made it to the London one. Its over an hour travel time from where I currently live so not that convenient.
@temmi_hoo: I hope I can be of some use Thanks for the info. I’ve been shopping around and found that they are indeed all pretty similar. One thing I have found is that all the broadband providers want a 2 year contract. Ideally I would like a year but it just doesn’t seem possible. The prices are pretty good though. Cheaper than the UK for a 100Mbit line. Just had a read through ELL-i.org. Very interesting!
I’m moving on the 20th May so hope to visit after that. Ill post another message nearer the time to find out whens convenient.
huh ? it should definitely be possible to get a simple monthly contract, it will be (slightly) more expensive per month of course. But this can be sorted out when you get here, having a Finnish speaking friend is probably helpful as well.
Thanks for the advice. I’ve been here a couple of weeks now and i’m mostly settled in. I’ve got myself an apartment in Kallio with 100 megabit broadband and 50 megabit 4G mobile access both with Elisa. I also got myself an Ikea standing desk too. It’s much more comfortable to be able to be able to stand and work.
I would love to come down to the hacklab soon and meet some people and become a member etc… When’s the best day / time to do this ?
I already have a couple of projects in mind that I would like to do including building an ergodox mechanical keyboard and replacing the broken digitiser on my old Nexus 4 phone. It will also be very interesting to see what else you are all up to and perhaps get involved in those things too.
Tuesdays after 5pm is the normal weekly meeting, best to come visit then (I think the official line is that we’re open until 9pm or something, but it’s rare evening when last people leave before midnight).
