I feel very sad

The college shooting that took place yesterday in Kauhajoki got me very sad. I'm still not too afraid of safety of my own children when they go to school but this sure does get one thinking.

There is a lot to do to prevent this kind of things from happening. The safety measures at schools have to reconsidered. The fire arms legislation needs to be renewed. I agree with prime minister Vanhanen that hand guns should be forbidden altogether from private use as they are too easy to conceal and those aren't used to hunting anyway. As a quick and easy fix the guidelines for the police for the grounds to confiscate fire arms from people that have acted suspiciously should be changed. I think if a person is showing off his gun and acting in a threatening way in public (videos) there is enough grounds for taking the gun away and ordering the person to psychiatric check.

What is most important is obviously to improve the ways to identify individuals who are in risk of getting isolated and becoming twisted and developing the means officials, teachers, health care personnel and so forth can react and help. Also common education for parents for understanding when their child is in need of help and how to get the help is needed.

I'm sure these are all pretty obvious things and have been in discussions at least since the shooting incident last year. Now it is time to move from talk to actions!

- Marko OK

Home theater project approaching goal

It's been more than a month since the last time I blogged something...bad me. So now I thought I'd write a short update on how my home theater project is going.

Last weekend I finally was able to take the first smoke out of the system. My setup includes
- Denon A/V receiver AVR-1909
- XBOX 360 (non-HDMI version) which acts also as DVD player for now
- Optoma HD80 projector
- Grandview Cyber screen 95x170cm
- 8 years old Audio Pro speakers (5+1)
- Leather 2+1 recliner (the back rest of the middle seat turns down into table)

I am impressed. The gaming experience has totally changed compared to 37" LCD that I used before. The picture is not just big (around 72") but it's very clear. Also the old DVDs look so much better than they used to. The scaling works very well on the Denon receiver. And the sound Denon produces through my old speakers is just amazing...I dind't know they could sound this good...my old JVC receiver must have been a total junk.

The recliner is just awesome as I can watch a long movie without any pains in my back. I have a bad back so this isn't the case with a regular coach or sofa.

I'm still missing some important components of the theater though. The most important piece is drapes for the window and the double doors with windows. Currently I can't really use the theater when it is not dark outside. Another important missing piece is Blueray player. I haven't decided if it should be PS3 or just a Blu-ray player.
I'm also planning to buy a media streamer but it is not all that important.

When I have the whole thing ready with decor and all I'll supply a picture here :)