Timo Noko of Finland (born 1952), terms himself "the professional hobo". After graduation from the Technical University of Helsinki in 1978, and after working in University and Finnish Goverment Research he was 1984 employed by the then small and state-owned telecommunication equipment manufacturer Nokia. His employment there ended in 1990, and he has been blacklisted & unemployed ever since, resorting to kayaking and sustenance fishing on the high seas.
In 1975 he started developing a remarkably compact lisp-compiler-interpreter
Nokolisp, which
gained
some notoriety. Nokolisp was used to develop the TNSDL-toolset.
Noko has been a major innovator of the folding kayak concept. Ideas like one-piece skin and tube hatch are now adopted by some manufacturers. (see Nokobotski )
Another notable innovation was portable wind-powered desalination device.
Finland's most seasoned vocal netizen, started in 1988 as timo.noko@nokia.fi
and been noisily expressing his
enviromentalist opinions ever since. Vocal opponent of the "Second
Homes" Sprawl, which during the 80-90's totally decimated
pristine kayaking scenery on shores of the Baltic Sea and Finnish Lake
District.
Noko is a Pan-European television celebrity (with a massive 50% "boring" rating on for example Czech TV .
For more see tnokoThe kin-name "Noko" may be the oldest indigenous name in Finland, dating back at least one thousand years (see Fort Noko).