Estonia

I’ve been informed that at last check, my radio piece on the new WiFi bus in Estonia will be on The World today! Will be available on any of these stations (and their Internet streams): New York – 3 pm Eastern – WNYC – 820 AM – www.wnyc.org Washington, DC – 3 pm Eastern – WAMU – 88.5 FM – www.wamu.org Los Angeles – 12 pm Pacific – KPCC – 89.3 FM – www.kpcc.opg Boston – 4 pm Eastern –…

Probably one of the most interesting things that I’ve heard on this trip, from a guy who is working on setting up more mobile data services in Estonia. Televork is buying equipment from a Chinese company, ZTE. “Europeans are trying to enjoy their quality of life while the Chinese are trying to improve it.” — Laur Lemendik Services Development Manager Televork February 9, 2007 Tallinn, Estonia

Yes, Tallinn is very cold. But it sure has its moments.

Once again, I find myself sitting on Veljo‘s couch, using the plentiful WiFi. London was fine, albeit brief (and expensive! Good Lord that place is expensive. Basically one pound has the same purchasing power as a dollar, but it’s actually two dollars.) I had lunch with Tom Standage, my editor at The Economist, at a place near the office (25 St. James’ St. — Tube: Green Park), and we discussed tech sorts of things and my book that I’m working…

So due to the magic of EasyJet, I have a $50 flight from London to Tallinn in exactly a month. One problem though, is that the flight is from Stansted Airport, which is basically not near anything — meaning, it’s about 30 miles northeast of London. That’s basically like living in Oakland and flying out of San Jose: doable, but not ideal. Now, normally this wouldn’t be a problem as there’s a convenient train that leaves every 30 minutes from…

“When the things got for real, I got up in the fold / and put into practice all that I was told.” – “The Inkwell”, Blue Scholars Things are getting pretty freakin’ real right about now, that’s for sure. I just got a book deal. Yeah. Really. A book. Like you know, one of those things that’s printed on dead trees and sits in libraries and stuff. Maybe you’ve heard of ’em? I’m going to have an entry in the…

These guys just came up on SOMA FM. Sweet Estonian rock music — The Tartu Pop and Rock Institute. Here’s some of their tunes, here and here.

BBC: The Dutch ambassador to Estonia, Hans Glaubitz, is leaving the country, complaining of persistent racist and homophobic abuse. Mr Glaubitz said he and his partner, a black Cuban man, were regularly insulted when they went out. An Estonian foreign ministry spokesman said the men had been well received at an official level, but expressed “regret” over any public abuse. Mr Glaubitz is to be posted to Canada to become consul-general in Montreal. He told Dutch newspapers: “It is not…

In journo-speak that means that The World isn’t airing it. It happens all the time, but it still sucks. They were kind enough to provide me with the mixed version of it, as it would have aired. You can listen to it here. Here’s the intro, that would have been read by the show’s host: Over the last few years, wireless Internet access, known as WiFi, has become more and more widespread. Various cities, ranging from Philadelphia to Paris are…

AP: This tiny Baltic republic is breaking new ground in digital democracy. This week, the country nicknamed “e-Stonia” because of its tech-savvy population became the first country in the world to hold an election allowing voters nationwide to cast ballots over the Internet. Less than 10,000 people, or 1 percent of registered voters, participated online in elections for mayors and city councils across the country, but officials hailed the experiment held Monday to Wednesday as a success. “Everything has gone…