This was the 3rd edition of FinNode USA Family Fun Day at the Beach! Meteo guys had tried to spoil the occasion with gloomy rain predictions but the mighty FinNode gang was able to drive the clouds away and we could enjoy delicious food and beach activities under lovely sunshine while changing news and ideas with old and new friends. Farewell to those who change California to Finland, welcome to newcomers! Many thanks for organizers and everybody who made our day by joining the crowd!

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So many specialists, analysts and just plain smart people say that this is the right time for companies to prepare for future upturn. There are knowledgeable people to be hired at a reasonable cost, office rentals are cheaper and there is more time in hand to prepare for future projects.
These are difficult times especially for startups as the money is scarce. According to San Jose Mercury News, some Silicon Valley companies have found innovative ways to accommodate and even win doing so.

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Maybe instead of us, adults, we should have our kids to guide us and even decide for us: http://www.facebook.com/video/video.php?v=63865811753&ref=nf

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was organized past Saturday. This was the unique occasion to enjoy genuine hernekeitto and laskiaispulla. You might be sorry if you didn’t come! Wonderful program, so interesting and funny. Amazing, how advanced the Berkeley students are with the Finnish language!
The casual SVInsider photographer was a bit time-constraint so the event was not documented 100%. If you have photos you’d like to add, please write to svi.raportteriATyahoo.com. Looking forward to other FAHA events, check these.

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Finland is eager to have a share of the growing cleantech market be it in Europe, Americas or Asia. The long-term goal for the Cleantech Finland - launched last spring - is to profile Finland as the best-known cleantech country on its potential markets by 2012. The traditional industry base, forestry, mining, chemical industry, telecommunications have always had strong R&D and developed in-house or spinned off new technology ventures. A few of them, Vaisala, Nokia, ST1 Biofuels, Ehovoc, Cargotec, Outotec, Desinfinator, Naturpolis, VTT and other cleantech companies will be presenting their know-how in New Delhi during Delhi Sustainable Development Summit 2009 in order to tap on the huge environmental market of India.
The always innovative Silicon Valley and the innovative Finnish and Scandinavian countries’ cleantech companies will have the opportunity to build bridges this spring during NordicGreen. Last year tens of Scandinavian companies came to Palo Alto for this event organized by AlwaysOn.

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Urhea, mutta valitettavasti vuosittain kutistuva joukko suomalaisia ja suomenmielisiä juhli sunnuntaina Suomen itsenäisyyspäivää Berkeleyn suomalaisten hallilla. Osanottajia oli sentään vielä toistasataa, ohjelma oli ihanan suomalainen ja kotimaan herkut olivat yhtä erinomaisia kuin ennenkin. Juhlapuhujaksi oli saapunut Los Angelesista uusi pääkonsuli Kirsti Westphalen. Katso tästä tilaisuuden kuvasatoa.

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The world’s largest lighter than air ship, 240 ft long zeppelin, is now taking tourists over Silicon Valley. The company taking the challenge to bring back zeppelins in the US, is Airship Ventures, founded by Alexandra and Brian Hall.

The airship carries the name Eureka. She was baptised at Moffett Airfield, Mountain View, this morning to honor the 75th year since its predecessor Macon crashed into Pacific. After that, blimps were stationed in Moffett field but no zeppelin.
There are only three zeppelins in the world, one in Germany and another in Japan. Eureka was constructed in Germany. She was flown from Germany to Holland, London, then crossed the Atlantic in a ship and flew from Texas to Mountain View. - More photos.

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There is a cellphone in every kid’s pocket these days and it has the capability for multiple purposes. Schools in northern Finland are testing a NFC based system to see how it would serve the teenager, school, family and friends. MSG Software has developed the system and has been in Silicon Valley this week looking for business opportunities and presenting it among others to the city of San Jose .

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Normally this time of year we prepare for Black Friday queues to find bargains for Christmas presents. Shops have traditionally dropped the prices for the day after Thanksgiving to kick off holiday shopping season. I’ve been there only once, at six o’clock in the morning to enter Best Buy store at 7:30 just to be informed that all the bargains had gone. The store was so full of (irritated and pushy) customers that I decided to retreat and spend my Christmas with what I already had in electronics.
This year I won’t even bother to run after bargains. They almost come to me and I’ll be looking for  netbooks during normal opening hours with the sun up and no big crowds around me.
One cool choice is to pick up a small-sized light but rugged netbook to give to kids or take to car and airplane. With that purchase one can think about kids in developing countries and buy 1 get 1 free from One Laptop Per Child program. It would make one kid (and probably his/her hamily and friends) happy.
Silicon Valley struggles between hope and despair. But everybody is working hard and that is how the dot.com bubble was repaired. As the big companies have quite a lot of cash in their vaults, some smaller companies may now find a nice exit. To keep up with the labor situation, you can check future layoffs at San Francisco Chronicle website.

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