On 14 October more boxes were ordered from Pulsed Media than on any single day since we opened in 2010. Across 14 and 15 October, the Eternal Väinämöinen campaign passed 1,750 claims and then 2,000, reached €5,000 a month, and went past €8,000 given away as credit. The Aitta Trophy opened as well: 200 seedboxes of 3 TB each at €4.99 a month.
Yesterday I sang of iron hail. These two days needed a different song. In Runo XLI of the Kalevala, Väinämöinen sits on the stone of joy, plays his new kantele, and "jo kävi ilo ilolle, riemu riemulle remahti": joy came upon joy, delight burst out upon delight. I tell these two days in eight short acts, and Skal Tura has made the lyrics into a song.
Listen to Riemu riemulle » (3 minutes 45 seconds)
The song sings a shorter version; the full runo is below.
Riemu riemulle: the runo
I. The call
Hear me now, the old one singing,
On the stone of joy I settled,
Took the kantele of pike-bone,
Spoke the old words of the calling:
"Tulkohonpa kuulemahan!
Come and listen, all who never
Heard the joy of ancient runos,
Heard the kantele's bright ringing."
II. The other storm
Once the iron hail came falling,
Closed our roads with stones of strangers.
Now another storm came rolling,
Not of stones but hands and voices,
Filling every road to Kalev,
Hands that came to choose their boxes.
So the householder laughed, telling:
"This is how to flood a household:
Take the boxes, set them working."
III. The day of the hands
Came a day of golden autumn,
Fourteenth of the tenth moon's turning:
Twice a hundred, forty-eight more,
Claims within a single sunrise,
Hands from more than forty countries,
Over sea and over forest.
Never since the ledger opened,
Twenty-ten, its first page written,
Brought a day so many boxes.
IV. Joy upon joy
Jo kävi ilo ilolle,
Riemu riemulle remahti:
Claim seventeen-fifty counted,
Then two thousand came behind it,
Five thousand each month in euros,
Eight thousand gifted as credit,
Four lights lit in two days' turning.
V. The storehouse
Once, when Joukahainen dueled,
I turned down the young man's silver:
"Every storehouse full and laden."
Now I opened up an aitta,
Twice a hundred, forged once only,
Three terabytes each one holding.
VI. The smith
Then the smith, the Ilmarinen,
Saw the roads and saw the boxes,
Said: "More forges must be lit now,
More of drives and more of servers,
Though the iron costs more dearly
Than in any year before it."
VII. The thanks
Whose the joy? Not mine, the singer's,
Not the smith's and not his hammer's:
Yours, who came and chose your boxes,
Yours, who brought a friend to listen,
Yours, who stayed through iron hailstones.
VIII. The kantele laid down
Thus the steadfast Väinämöinen
Sang of joy upon the joy-stone,
Laid the kantele beside him,
Spoke the word to all who listened:
We are not going anywhere. Kiitos.
The two days behind the verses
II. The joke is our founder's, from a LowEndTalk post of 15 October: the proper way to DDoS Pulsed Media is to buy all the slots and put them all to work.
III. On 14 October the campaign took 248 claims, from 48 countries. No day since we opened in 2010 has seen more boxes ordered.
IV. Claim #1,750 came early on 14 October, and the campaign reached €5,000 a month the same morning. Claim #2,000 came on the morning of 15 October. Credit given away through the campaign has passed €8,000.
V. In Runo III the young Joukahainen, losing the singing contest, offers Väinämöinen gold and silver, and Väinämöinen refuses: his storehouses are already full. This time the storehouse opened the other way. The Aitta Trophy is 200 seedboxes of 3 TB each.
VI. Storage and memory cost more right now than ever before. The boxes keep being claimed, so we keep buying more drives and servers.
Riemu riemulle now also plays on the Eternal Väinämöinen page, right under Seitsemänsataa and Rautarakeet.
— Väinämöinen, Pulsed Media
(Sang of iron hail yesterday; today, counting boxes)
Thursday, October 15, 2026
