Rolandt

As a kid, I used to fantasize about being able to transport myself anywhere with a blink and a nod like Jeannie on I Dream of Jeannie or to clean my room with the wiggle of my nose like Samantha on Bewitched or to someday have Uhura's job from Star Trek.

Yes, it did seem like Uhura was a glorified switchboard operator (an un-glorified, mind-numbingly boring job that I did eventually do), but mostly I was fascinated by the computer screens all around her.

Since that time, I've continued to pay attention to the computer screens in Sci-Fi movies (never could get too excited about the panels in Star Wars) and the ones on Star Trek have gotten more and more intricate and beautiful over the years.

It seems I'm not the only one fascinated by Sci-Fi computer screens. There's websites dedicated to this strange fetish.


I was recently blown away by the computer screens in Guardians of the Galaxy (great '70s music from my youth as well). I was particularly tickled by the seemingly mashed together glass screens on Yondu's spaceship, never mind that I fell in love with his skin color. Not too many men can pull off that color and still be pretty-as-an-angel-manly.

Check out the whole project by Territory Studio.

You have to scroll through the different dashboards on the site - some are stunningly beautiful and intricate, using colors I would never have thought would work. But mostly it's the placement of items, the balance and detail that are fascinating. Pay particular attention to the space without elements. Why is it empty? (Yes, someday there will be a quiz on this.)



Recently, I came across a cool project by Audi.  It's a brochure that you get when you buy the car and by sliding your smart phone over the chips on the brochure, your phone will display information about your vehicle.


I recommend watching the video, it's amazing.

I've done some dashboard work for automotive manufacturers and learned about how computerized our vehicles have become.  Not just the GPS information, but the number of sensors and volume of information collected is amazing.

I've had numerous friends and family members show me the dashboards that they are able to view while inside the car, but I know there's a lot more information that isn't shared.  Wouldn't it be cool if you could have a dashboard about your driving experience/behaviour collected from all those sensors? Not necessarily one you would use while in the car, but one that you could check out on your pc or tablet.

So....   I built a concept dashboard based on a bit of my experience from a dashboard for a client, a bit from my love of spaceship screens, a bit from the Audi project, and a bit from the information that I think I'd be interested in knowing.




This just scratches the surface of the type of info I'd like to be able to interact with, but making realistic mock data is a huge pile of work. Probably the most important piece would be MPG, and I think that would warrant a whole dashboard to itself - as well as a connection to weather data. For that I would use a land map rather than the hexmap (thanks to Brittany Fong, aka DataBender and Matt Chambers, aka SirVizALot who've made hexmapping an art project).

Inspiration is a truly personal thing; what floats my boat may not work for you. Your sources do not have to be in the 'data viz' or dashboard world. Pay attention to other design sources or image layouts, use of color, font, logic, etc. These things all translate to training your eye and pushing yourself out of your rut (we all get in ruts - ever notice how many people have the same hair style they had in high school?).

Have fun!

Greg Eh @gregeh
I was staring at my phone while walking in public before it was cool.

Jim Pick @jimpick
Job news: I've joined the @signlfm team! I'll blog about it soon. And yes, @backblend is still trucking along with @camcavers at the wheel!

Slack @SlackHQ
From our series on writing at Slack: Empathy, playfulness & more — using shared characteristics to scale our voice. slackhq.com/one-voice-many…

This is coming along very nicely indeed. I can’t wait to be able to use it on a daily basis.

One of the magical things about Chinese is the linguistic density of its script. In just a few characters, you can describe a complex concept, evoke an ancient proverb, or allude to a historical event.

‘Straight man cancer’ (直男癌, our translation) is a good example of this. There is no equivalent in English. You could try to summarize it as ‘male chauvinism’ but straight man cancer is much more than that. If you’ve been diagnosed with straight man cancer, it not only means that you’re sexist, but that you’re stubbornly sexist. You get defensive easily. You don’t like being challenged on your views and, like cancer, something drastic needs to happen – kind of like chemotherapy – for your views to change.

It’s a great word for pointing out all kinds of sexist behavior, from slut shaming to sneering remarks on female political leaders (link in Chinese). As one netizen said, “The person who made up the term ‘straight man cancer’ has made a great contribution to society.”

Is Straight Man Cancer Contagious?

Unfortunately, unlike actual cancer, ‘straight man cancer’ is contagious and can be passed from person to person, such as parents to their children. Straight man cancer doesn’t discriminate either – women can get it too, as can non-heterosexual men.

China’s IT industry is particularly rife with straight man cancer. Earlier this month, for example, Liu Chao, the head of user experience at Baidu, was fired after making blatantly sexist and offensive comments at the IXDC International Experience Design Conference in Beijing.

Just this Tuesday, the Hong Kong Information Technology Joint Council tried to throw an IT beauty pageant to ‘celebrate’ accomplished women in tech, before organizers realized how insulting and sexist the event was.

‘Lost In Translation’ is a weekly column that covers netizen-speak from China’s Interwebs. China’s internet slang is a fast-moving linguistic phenomenon and staying fresh has never been harder. Here, you’ll find new words or phrases every week with a breakdown of what they mean, how they’re used, and how they came to be.

Image credit: Shutterstock

“Eating your own dogfood”, aka dogfooding, refers the practice of a company testing it’s own products by using them internally. At a research day held by Somerset College, a quote in a talk by Lorna Sheppard on Len Deighton’s cookbooks (yes, that Len Deighton…) from a 2014 Observer magazine article (Len Deighton’s Observer cookstrips, Michael Caine and the 1960s) caught my attention:

[G]enerally, you stand a better chance of succeeding in something if whatever you create, you also like to consume.

Implicit in this is the idea that you are also creating for a purpose.

In the OU engineering residential school currently running at the University of Bath, one of the four day long activities the students engage with is a robotics activity using Lego EV3 robots, where at each stage we try to build in a reason for adding another programming construct or learning how to work with a new sensor. That is, we try to motivate the learning by making it purposeful.

The day is structured around a series of challenges that allow students to develop familiarity with programming a Lego EV3 robot, adding sensors to it, logging data from the sensors and then interpreting the data. The activities are contextualised by comparing the work done on the Lego EV3’s with the behaviour of a Roomba robot vacuum cleaner – by the end of the morning, students will have programmed their robot to perform the majority of the Roomba’s control functions, including finding it’s way home to a homing beacon, as well as responding to touch (bumper), colour (line stopper) and proximity (infra-red and ultrasonic) sensors.

The day concludes with a challenge, where an autonomous robot must enter – and return from  – a closed tunnel network, using sensors to collect data about the internal structure of the tunnel, as well identifying the location of a casualty who has an infra-red emergency beacon with them.

(The lids are placed on the tunnels so the students can’t see inside.)

As well as the partition walls (which are relocated each time the challenge is run, so I’m not giving anything away!), pipework and cables (aka coloured tape) also run through the tunnel and may be mapped by the students using a downward facing light sensor.

The casualty is actually a small wooden artist’s mannequin – the cuddly teddy we used to use does not respond well to the ultrasound sensor the students use to map the tunnel.

The data logged by the students include motor rotation data to track the robots progress, ultrasonic sensor data to map the walls, infra-red sensor data to find the emergency beacon and a light sensor to identify the cables/pipework.

The data collected looks something like this:

The challenge is then to map the (unseen by the students) tunnel network, and tell the robot’s story from the data.

The result is a narrative that describes the robot’s progress, and a map showing the internal structure of the tunnel:

If time allows, this can then be used as the basis for programming the robot to complete a rescue mission!

The strategies used by the students to log the data, and control the robot to send it into the tunnel and retrieve it safely again, are based on what they learned completing the earlier challenges set throughout the day.

We recently received good feedback on our design brief.

The design brief itself wasn’t particularly impressive. The positive feedback was more about we took the time to create a design brief in the first place.

It turns out most people looking for designers don’t do this. They tell designers what they want designed (i.e. a logo), how they want it to look (i.e. ‘like Nike …but better and in orange’) and when they want it by (i.e. ‘next week please’).

This provides a designer with too much scope and too little information. You can expect high communication costs through endless rounds of clarifications and misunderstandings.

Designers love working from design briefs because it answers all their questions in a structure they’re used it. Most importantly, it gives them exactly the information they need at the time they need it and in the format they love.

This should change how we collaborate.

Usually when we want something done, we begin with what we want to say, when we want to say it and use the format most convenient to us.

This is a mistake.

This forces the recipient to transfer the knowledge into a format they understand (mentally or physically). This creates gaps and misunderstandings. It consumes more of your time and produces worse results.

It’s always better to put your information in the recipient’s preferred format yourself than wait for them to do it.

Begin with the recipient’s perspective. How do they want to receive this information? (email, call, memo, report, slides, in-person meeting). If you’re not sure, ask. It differs by person and profession.

When do they want to receive this information? Is there a fixed time they need it or a key decision point they want to get that message (one client once wanted information while in the car on the way to a meeting to brief his boss). You can schedule communications to work with this.

You might be amazed how much time this saves and how much it improves working relationships.

Ten years ago, Elon Musk was kicking around one insane idea after the other. Electric cars. Electric recharging stations along American highways. Electric cars for everyone. He even blogged about it openly on his nascent company, Tesla Motors’ blog. It was totally nuts, said everyone. Today, Musk’s vision is steadily becoming a reality, and what were once far-fetched ideas are starting to look...

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It’s in pretty much every product manager job description: you must “establish credibility,” whether it’s with internal stakeholders, customers and technical teams, or more vague targets such as “the market” or “the industry.” Companies don’t include this by accident, since product managers must influence people without a whole lot of actual authority or the ability to order people around. But as...

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mkalus shared this story from Best In Packaging.

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In a series of three articles I will relate about a fascinating phenomenon that we have seen evolving in the packaging arena over the last few years. We have seen the consumer evolution from its simple, not-knowing-any-better acceptance of the four fundamental functions of packaging (contain, protect/preserve, transport, and communicate) into their contemporary requirements, in which the four fundamentals aren’t sufficient to satisfy their needs and some extra feature has to be incorporated in the packaging to guarantee an enhancement of their consuming experience.

This first part of the series will lay out the scope of autonomization in packaging, the relevant technology and consequently the new functions autonomization brings into packaging. “Autonomization” signifies new functions in packaging, delegated from the surrounding system, in other words from our social system as a whole, creating more autonomous, independent, portable and thereby, more convenient products. With autonomization packaging is complementing the consuming experience to an ultimate level. More in detail about the significance of the term in a minute.
The second part will relate some examples of autonomization in packaging we have seen in the market over the last few years. The third part is a bit special as this design is at the top of the autonomization game at this very moment. It will describe in detail the most advanced packaging for fresh produce (salads), in which fresh produce is stored uncut, and being cut by the consumer themselves just a few seconds before consumption, securing for them all the healthy features related to fresh produce.

Technology in Packaging
Developments and trends in packaging, its technology and the grade of its sophistication are entirely dependent of the evolution in requirements and expectations of the consumers in regard to the factual product, they intend to purchase.

As I already argued, that long since, consumers have decided that the four fundamental functions of packaging (contain, protect/preserve, transport, and communicate) aren’t sufficient to satisfy their needs. It is for them crystal clear that some extra feature has to be incorporated in the packaging to guarantee an enhancement of their consuming experience. In other words there has to be at least a fifth function added to the basic packaging, will that packaging ever be able to convince the consumer to buy, as contemporary consumers aren’t buying anymore just a product, but a solution for a specific

For the contemporary consumer packaging has to be like their smartphone. Not only convenience, but identical as with their smartphone, they want to see a smart packaging, complete with applications suitable for their demanding on-the-go, day-to-day and professional life, as well as their extra-curricular activities.

Marketing people often classify this fifth feature as active, intelligent or smart. For the consumer however, it has basically nothing to do with electronics or connectivity. For them it has to be an extra feature in the packaging to enhance their experience and sets them to consider purchasing. This consideration of the consumer has, basically, nothing to do with imbedded electronics, the Internet of Things or connectivity, but with simple mechanical and material technology of packaging.

Basically technology is a matter of adaptations to unique environments or occasions. These adaptations are the result of a continuous process of creative mutation at a very large scale and in different circles and circumstances in our social system. Many of the technical steps forward produced in this manner aren’t even noticed by the general public. However, some successful adaptations will diffuse through swaps and imitation. Some of them will become so successful that they create new qualitatively different niches. This is usual accompanied by further “mutations”. The diffusion is in fact springing from the heart of the development, because it is the precondition of the process of “recombination”, in other words the creation of new technological solutions based on fusion of existing elements. This process of recombination is regarded as one of the main mechanisms of technological advancement and creativity.
free from: Dynamics of Science-Based Innovation

Autonomization
Every system, engineering or non-engineering, is a part of hierarchical pyramid, with its super-system on top of it and the sub-systems in order of importance lined under it. For example, if the system is a car, the super-system is the transportation system and the sub-systems are formed by the wheels, the motor, suspension, etc.

There has been identified a trend of functions delegated downward – from the super-system to the system and from the system to its sub-systems. We call this Trend of Autonomization. Actually this trend reflects a global tendency of decentralization, making systems more dynamic, flexible and thereby more adequate to requirements of the environment (super-system) and creating more convenience for the consumer (sub-systems). Manifestations of such a tendency are plural: from portable devices to viruses, from methods of programming to terror cells organization. In the consumer market the classical example is a wheeled suitcase, where the function “to move” attributed the super-system has been delegated to the system itself: the suitcase.

A very striking recent example is the debut of the self-lacing shoes from Nike. The super-system’s function “tie shoelaces” is being delegated to the system itself: the shoes.

In the world of packaged goods we can witness many cases of the delegation of functions from the super-system of the supply-chain to all the essential sub-functions that make a packaging successful. For example, the function of the preservation of bananas was initially attributed to large storages, ripening rooms, refrigerated vessels, etc. Then it was delegated to reefer containers and later paperboard boxes and finally, to individual conditioned banana packaging.

In general, we can say, that the development of MAP and similar technologies can be considered as transfer of the “preservation” function from the super-system (production, refrigeration etc.) to the system itself: the individual packaging.

Actually, the Trend of Autonomization provides a simple algorithm of new generation of functional packaging ideas. One should identify the super-system and its functions performed with the specific product in all phases of its life from production to consumption and packaging disposal and then try to transfer these functions to the packaging. In this light we see two main streams in packaging design, namely autonomization by functionality and autonomization by transformation.

Autonomization by functionality
In terms of functionality contemporary packaging design has to incorporate applications for heating, cooling, steaming, cooking, brewing, micro-waving, as well as mixing, dispensing, and dosing. Furthermore the consumer prefers packaging with dual-offerings, sharing options and the necessary utensils to consume peacefully, sustainably and with convenience.

Autonomization by transformation
A Transformational Packaging transforms itself into a useful tool for on-the-go and outdoor activities, with which the serving of the food and drinks becomes more practical to consume and where the packaging itself is adapted to the daily life-style of the modern user.

In part 02 of this series I will give some clear examples of new functionality as well as transformation.

These extra assets allow the consumer to enjoy the product at an elevated level, but the designer should be aware that since packaging is a disposable system, it must be low cost, especially when it relates to single-use systems (Only few packaging has an after-life and I’m not talking about recycling). That means that autonomous packaging design should be, on the one hand, efficient, simple, clever and safe and on the other hand, it should be manufacturable at low cost. On top of that, it’s imperative that the packaging is eco-friendly in all aspects.

CRA and the Province pile in. Numbers of wildly varying relevance and quality flood the press, the blogs, Twitter and every other form of media. What’s one to do?

Garth Turner writes in HuffPost with simple advice for people in Vancouver real estate.

Get out if you can. Now.

Mostly, we should fear human nature. We move in emotional, unthinking herds with trending attitudes that inevitably lead to excess, loss and regret. Economies do not create bubbles. Only people can do that.

One of the first concerns on the mind of any modern traveler is, “What roaming option should I pick?”

It’s an essential question, since the moment Canadian mobile subscribers leave the country they begin “roaming” on a wireless network from another country, kicking in notoriously high rates.

The best solution is dependent on the length of vacation and personal usage. There are three main routes: using a roaming plan or feature from your Canadian carrier, a local prepaid SIM, or using an international/roaming SIM.

Below is an in-depth breakdown of every roaming option in Canada:

Use a roaming plan/feature from your Canadian carrier

The majority of Canadian carriers have some sort of travel plan or roaming feature available to their subscribers. These plans are best used for short-term traveling between a few days and a month.

Rogers

With Roam Like Home, Rogers subscribers who are on a Share Everything plan can use their normal Canadian rate plan for $5 per day in the U.S. and $10 per day in over 100 other international destinations. After 10 days of being charged, the rest of the billing cycle is free.

If the customer’s plan isn’t compatible, or the country they’re visiting is not included in the program, they can explore monthly travel packs instead. Travelling to U.S., those start at $40 for 50 minutes of calling, unlimited text and 200MB of data.

For other international locations, travel packs start at $60 for 40MB, 40 minutes and 150 sent texts in Europe and get higher depending on the international zone. Pay-per-use roaming rates start at $7.99 for up to 50MB, $1.45 per minute and $0.75 per SMS in the U.S.

Fido

Using Fido Roam, customers with a Pulse plan can use all the features of their plan for $5 per 24-hour period in the U.S. and $10 in other international locations. After 10 days of payment subscribers can roam freely for the rest of their monthly billing cycle.

If that doesn’t fit, they can try a travel pack instead. $40 per month will secure 50 minutes, unlimited text and 200MB of data for use in the U.S., $60 purchases 40MB, 40 minutes and 150 sent texts in the European zone.

Pay per use rates start at $7.99 for up to 50MB, $1.45 per minute for calls and $0.75 for texts in the U.S. and get higher depending on international zone. Fido also offers prepaid options for roaming, relieving some of the stress of the potential for outlandish overage charges.

Mobilicity

There are no travel plans or roaming features at Mobilicity, just pay-per-use rates. Those rates start at $0.10 per outgoing SMS, $0.20 per minute of calling and $1.50 per MB in the U.S. and raise to $0.50, $3.25 per minute and $15 per MB for global roaming where available.

However, Mobilicity itself is not long for this world, and will soon be shifting stores and customers to Chatr, whose travel rates differ slightly and are detailed below.

Chatr

Chatr doesn’t have any travel plans or roaming features, offering only pay-per-use rates. In the U.S. calls within the States or to Canada are $0.50 per minute and outgoing calls to other international locations are $0.50 per minute plus the long distance rate.

Incoming SMS are free, outgoing are $0.15 and data usage is $6 per MB. The rates raise incrementally for all other international locations.

Telus

Telus’ only daily roaming plan offering is U.S. Easy Roam. For $7 per day, customers can use their normal rate plan in the U.S. The daily charge is capped at $100 per month, meaning subscribers pay daily fees for about 15 days.

In comparison, Telus’ U.S. monthly travel passes start at $25 for 50MB, 50 minutes and 150 texts. Monthly travel passes for other international locations start at $50 for 300MB, 50 minutes and 150 texts.

Pay-per-use rates are set at $5 per MB, $1.50 per minute and $0.60 per text in the U.S. and increase depending on international zone.

Koodo

Koodo has no daily roaming feature that allows subscribers to use their normal plans, but it does have plenty of travel plan options for those traveling to the U.S. Customers can pick from unlimited text, unlimited minutes and text, and data, minutes and text combos for time increments of three days, 10 days or 30 days.

The plans with data start at $30 for 150MB, unlimited minutes and unlimited text for three days. An international monthly roaming bundle runs $40 for 50 outgoing texts, 50 minutes and 50MB of data. Without any travel plan, pay-per-use rates start at $5 for 20MB, $1.50 per minute and $0.05 per text.

Bell

Bell’s daily roaming plan, Roam Better, offers customers unlimited talk and text plus 100MB of data per day for $5 per day in the U.S. or $10 in over 100 other international locations. The daily charge applies for 20 days per line each month.

The carrier also offers monthly travel passes, beginning at $40 for 200MB, 200 minutes and unlimited text in the U.S., or $60 for 100 minutes, 200 sent texts and 200MB of data in Europe.

Pay-per-use rates start at $6 per MB, $1.45 per minute, $0.75 per sent SMS, $0.75 per outgoing SMS in the U.S., ranging higher for other international locations.

Virgin Mobile

Virgin’s Roam Sweet Roam lets customers use unlimited talk and text and 100MB of data per day for $5 daily in the U.S. and $10 in other international locations. After 20 days, the roaming feature is free for the rest of the month.

Monthly travel passes come in at $40 for 200MB, 200 minutes and unlimited text in the U.S., and $60 for 200MB of data, 100 minutes and 200 text messages in Europe.

Pay-per-use rates start at $1.45 per minute and $0.75 per text in the U.S., but both there and in other international locations, data is not available unless customers specifically purchase a data pass, which starts at $10 for 50MB of data lasting 72 hours in the U.S.

Wind Mobile

For those who don’t travel to the U.S. quite frequently enough to use Wind’s new Everywhere Plans, the carrier offers a U.S. roaming add-on for $15 per month that features 1GB of data, 2400 minutes and unlimited text.

Outside of the U.S. it’s pay-per-use rates, though the company’s world traveller add-on keeps it to $1 per MB, $0.20 per minute and $0.15 per text in over 50 countries. Otherwise, the standard rates start at $5 per MB, $1 per local calls and $0.50 per outgoing text for countries in the European Union.

Videotron

For $10 per month, Videotron customers can take advantage of unlimited texting in the U.S. as well as to and from Canada or other international locations. Additionally, for a limited time, Videotron’s premium plans are allowing subscribers to use their voice and data up to 90 days a year in the U.S.

Other than that, the only thing the carrier offers is pay-per-use rates. Those start at $0.15 per MB, $0.30 per minute, and $0.15 per text message in the U.S. In Europe, the rates are $0.60 per MB, $0.60 per minute and $0.30 per text message. All other international locations are incremental increases.

Eastlink

U.S. Freedom Packs give customers several choices of roaming packages for the States, spanning from three days to monthly packs. The price for a monthly travel pack starts at $25 and includes 50 minutes, 150 sent text messages and 50MB of data.

A monthly Europe travel pack starts at $50 for 150MB of data, 150 sent text messages and 50 minutes. Pay-per-use rates begin at $1 per MB, $0.50 per minute and $0.50 per sent text in the U.S.

MTS

MTS offers text abroad packages, U.S. and international data passes and U.S. and Mexico voice travel packs. The voice packs start at $25 for 40 monthly minutes, while the highest U.S. monthly data pass is $10 for 225MB.

International data passes range from $30 for 5MB to a whopping $255 for 80MB. One of those data passes must be purchased in order to use data abroad, there is no pay-per-use data option. There is a per-minute rate for calls, however, of $1.55.

SaskTel

All of SaskTel’s current plans include Roam & Relax U.S. daily rates. Anytime a customer connects wirelessly while in the U.S., they’re automatically charged $5 per day for up to 300MB and/or $3 per day for unlimited calling.

If that’s not the right fit, SasTel also offers U.S. travel add-ons starting at $50 a month for 1GB, 250 minutes and unlimited SMS. As for other international pay-per-use rates, charges runs between $1.99 and $6.99 per minute for calls and between $1 and $15 per MB depending on the country. Sent texts cost $0.65.

Use an international/roaming SIM

International/roaming SIM cards are made specifically for travel, allowing travellers the freedom to hop around several different locations.

While in many instances it may be less expensive than using the roaming plan of a Canadian carrier, the cost of unlocking the desired cellular device must be factored in – generally about $50 at the carrier, or around $20 from a third party.

Many of these companies also sell travel-specific handsets which may in some instance be comparable in price to unlocking.

Roam Mobility

Roam offers prepaid U.S. SIM cards for international travelers at the cost of $9.95 plus the chosen plan. The most popular of its U.S. daily plans is $4.95 CAD for unlimited calls within the U.S. and to Canada, global text and unlimited data. After 14 days, each additional day is charged at only $1.

The company also offers snowbird plans that offer the same unlimited features for $50 per month (though it should be noted the data is throttled to 2G after 15GB of 4G LTE) and data-only plans that start at $9.95 CAD providing 300MB for three days.

KnowRoaming

KnowRoaming offers service in over 200 countries. Unlike most of the other services detailed here, KnowRoaming uses a SIM sticker rather than a SIM, which remains dormant on a SIM and activates as soon as the phone leaves the country.

As for payment, users can load up prepaid credit on their account and use Know’s pay-per-use rates, or purchase unlimited data packages from $7.99 per day for over 80 countries.

Pay-per-use rates in the U.S. run $0.10 per MB, $0.18 per sent text and $0.13 per minute for outgoing calls, $0.10 for incoming. Rates for other international locations vary by country.

OneSimCard

OneSimCard gives customers international SIM cards that carry both a European and U.S. phone number, with the option to add additional numbers in other countries. The company sells three different cards for $29.95, offering reduced pay-per-use rates.

For instance, if traveling to France, the Europe & More card offers data at $0.25 per MB, $0.25 per sent text and $0.25 per minute for outgoing calls. All incoming texts and calls are free.

Other companies offering services in the same vein of reduced pay-per-use rates are United Global SIM, iRoam, TravelSim, WorldSIM, and various brands under the JT Global umbrella such as Telestial and GO-SIM.

Use a local prepaid SIM

Many travellers, especially those planning to be abroad for a considerable amount of time, choose to go the route of purchasing prepaid wireless services from a local carrier.

Since Canada has some of the highest wireless prices in the world, travellers often find this route to be a budget saver, though it’s important to account for the fact that a phone must be unlocked from its carrier to go this route, which generally costs about $50 through the carrier, or $20 through third-party services.

The United States of America

The major U.S. carriers are AT&T, T-Mobile, Sprint and Verizon. Most offer monthly plans with unlimited data with the first several GB guaranteed at high speed, along with unlimited calling in the U.S. as well as unlimited international or North American text for between $30 and $50 dollars.

Another enticing option is exploring some of the States’ inexpensive MVNO options. One that’s particularly enticing is FreedomPop, which uses Sprint’s network and promises a $0 plan for 500MB of data, 200 minutes and 500 texts.

Europe

Many of the major carriers in Europe offer not only a high value for your monthly fee, but will also allow you to easily roam throughout Europe.

For instance, pick up a pay-as-you-go plan from 3 in the U.K., say unlimited data and minutes for 36 British pounds, and that plan can be used at no extra cost in France, Italy and Spain, among many other locations. Other major European carriers include EE, O2, Vodafone, and Orange.

Inexpensive MVNOs are also an option, including the U.K.’s Giffgaff, which start at as little as 10 British pounds.

Asia

Local SIM availability and prices vary between some of the largest Asian countries.

Getting prepaid services in Japan requires proof of residence, though some stores are known to accept foreign passports and hotel address for verification. The largest carriers in Japan are NTT Docomo, au by KDDI and Softbank.

The three major telecom players in China, China Mobile, China Unicom and China Telecom, offer special prepaid plans for visitors. China Unicom, for instance, provides plans starting at $27.50 for 1GB of data, and 50 minutes or 100 texts, which is valid for 90 days.

In India, prepaid plans for reduced rates and packaged features are available from Idea Cellular, Reliance Communications and Aircel.

All previous posts about Interesting remain true. It's still on September 15th. That's only two months away. Two months!

There's a list of speakers. And there's an Eventbrite page where you can buy tickets. We've sold about 220 tickets which means we probably have about £1500 to divide among the speakers or to provide extra accessibility features for the event. I'm not quite sure what to do with that yet. That means there are more than 100 tickets left - get them soon, only two months to go. Two months!

As some of you have spotted, the list of speakers is long - and Interesting is an evening this time, not a full day, so it's going to be a packed programme. Some speakers will only have five minutes. But I'm sure we can get everyone in.

If you're a speaker I'll also be emailing you shortly and asking you if you're up for having someone on stage with you (facilitated by Upfront) and I'll be reminding you that there are only two months to go. Two months!

Two months! 

While Pokémon Go officially rolled out the U.K this morning, an official Canadian release date still has yet to be announced.

In the meantime, the game’s terms of service have been misinterpreted by many Canadian Pokémon Go players who either switched App Stores to download the game, or went to a website like APKMirror to download an APK of the title, in order to gain access to the popular title early. To put the amount of Canadians playing Pokémon go into perspective, according to some studies, over 6 percent of all Android device owners in Canada have installed Pokémon Go.

“Methods of cheating, unfortunately, are limited only by cheaters’ imaginations, but include at a minimum the following: using modified or unofficial software; playing with multiple accounts (one account per player, please); sharing accounts; using tools or techniques to alter or falsify your location; or selling/trading accounts,” reads the section of Niantic’s terms of service that’s being shared throughout online Canadian Pokémon Go communities right now, leading many players to believe that massive bans are on the way.

The truth is most Canadian Pokémon Go players likely have nothing to worry about.

Canadians playing the game early have neither broken the letter of the game’s terms of service nor its spirit. After all, for the most past they’re playing a legitimate, unmodified version of the game.

Moreover, practically speaking, banning hundreds of thousands of iOS and Android Pokémon Go players in Canada (and around the world) for no reason other than playing the legitimate version of the game early makes very little sense from a business perspective.

Given Pokémon Go’s free-to-play monetization model, it’s in Niantic’s best interest to have as many players as possible engaged in its game, especially now that its earlier server issues have been mostly resolved. In short, there have been no firm examples of Niantic banning Canadians playing Pokemon Go early and there likely won’t be.

Niantic has, however, swiftly rolled out a plan to ban Pokémon Go players who have used in-game hacks to spoof their GPS location, making it easier to stock up on items at PokeStops and catch rare Pokémon.

Instead of permanently removing these players, Niantic has plans to “soft ban” nefarious Pokémon hunters.

This means those affected by the ban will still be able to open the app and play it – they just won’t be able to actually do anything in Pokémon Go’s augmented reality world. For example, all Pokémon will run away from players and they also won’t be able to battle at gyms.

Bans reportedly last just a few hours which has led to backlash on Pokémon Go’s very active subReddit. It’s likely that because bans are so short, few players will be deterred from cheating.

We’ve reached out to Niantic for clarification regarding the developer’s policies related to users playing Pokémon Go in regions where the game has not officially launched yet.

Related reading: Here’s how to get Pokémon Go in Canada right now

From NextCity:

Montreal Trades Expressway for “Urban Boulevard”

 

Montreal has begun tearing down its part of a mid-century expressway to make way for a greener, more transit- and pedestrian-friendly boulevard, reports the Montreal Gazette. The Bonaventure Expressway, an elevated 11-lane highway built for Expo 67, will give way to the street-level Bonaventure urban boulevards, a combined nine lanes of traffic separated by a series of green spaces. Montreal’s new, $142 million entryway is scheduled for completion in mid-2017, just in time for the city’s 375th anniversary.

Confession: For the past several months I've been furiously coding away on a new project as part of HubSpot Labs. It's called GrowthBot. It's a chatbot for marketing and sales people -- and anyone looking to grow a company (like startup folks).

The launch has gone well, and my bot is currently happily handling thousands of messages. Things like "show me companies in california that use HubSpot" and "who are the top influencers about landing pages". GrowthBot can answer most of these, and thousands of others. So, overall, it's been a good day.

But, anytime bots come up in conversation (no pun intended), especially with media folks, people seem to frequently wander into the "are bots going to replace humans?" arena. Some wonder "will this bot cause people to lose their jobs?" I can't speak for all bots, but for GrowthBot, the short answer is no.

I'll explain with a visual:

 

The way I like to think about it is not, Human vs. Bot, but Human + Bot. The bot amplifies what you can do. The bot is an exponent.

It's not smart enough to write a blog post -- but it can tell you what posts about a particular topic people are sharing. You just ask: "what are the top posts this week on product marketing?"

It's not smart enough to automatically run a campaign to drive traffic to your website -- but it can answer questions about how your website traffic is doing. "How was organic traffic to the site last month?" And the bot also tells you how that compares to the prior month. You can compare results year-over-year (Yes, June is a slow month, but is this June slower than usual?)

It's not savvy enough to close a deal for you, but it can help you find potential customers by asking: "show me law firms in Boston that use Google Apps". (Assuming you're trying to sell SaaS software to law firms and are looking to find firms that are modern enough to use Google Apps).

So, you're still doing the creative, meaningful work.   GrowthBot is just making you better, stronger, faster. It gives you access to information you may not have had access to before. It can surface insights that you may not have come up with on your own.

By the way, it's completely free and easy-peasy to try out. Nothing to download. Nothing to install. No forms to fill out. No credit card required.

Just head over to http://growthbot.org and say hello. I'm not saying it is guaranteed to get you a promotion, but you never know. It may just put that small spring in your step and data in your head. 

 

 

Earlier this year, Mozilla launched a program exploring the Internet of Things. This is an update of what we’ve made since then. We’ll soon publish more about what we learned and how we’d like to take this program forward.

Why is Mozilla interested in IoT?

The internet is changing forms. Today we live in a network of physical objects and services that continuously gather data and exchange it over the internet. These connected systems are increasingly invisible, inaccessible and immutable to us.

Take for example personal data in IoT. It is extremely vulnerable, due to:

• the “wild west” IoT security landscape
• many business models relying on collecting and selling user data
• and the lack of literacy and agency among citizens to make informed decisions about IoT products and their data practices.

What’s more, IoT innovation is highly unequal in access and participation. Many consumer IoT products are targeted at affluent users. Or, if designed for the economically disadvantaged, then citizens lack the skills and tools needed to see what data is being collected, how it is being used, and how they can advocate for themselves. Like much of the tech industry, this disparity in IoT innovation reflects a lack of diversity in the offices, incubators and board rooms.

Across Silicon Valley there’s an obsession with “fail fast.” However, it’s failing fast with other people’s lives. The Internet of Things is a rapidly growing field, with a lot of promise if done well. Yet we’re also at risk with its failures. That’s why it’s important to establish professional practices and leading products that take these concerns into account and shift the ecosystem for the better.

That’s why Mozilla is getting involved in IoT. We believe that as the internet evolves, it must remain a global public resource that is open and accessible to all. To achieve that, we all must take action now.

What is Mozilla doing in IoT?

Mozilla has several efforts related to IoT. One is the Connected Devices team, which is building connected products with Mozilla’s values. There’s also the Innovation and Participation team, supporting Mozillians to learn and apply open innovation practices.

Working together with those teams is Mozilla’s Open IoT Studio, a global network of professionals committed to open IoT, working alongside Mozilla to make IoT more open, accessible and empowering. It’s a program within the Mozilla Leadership Network, which offers a series of programs striving for similar change in the fields of education, science, gender issues and more.

What does Mozilla’s Open IoT Studio do?

Mozilla’s Open IoT Studio invites professional participants to collaborate on prototypes that serve local communities and celebrate the unique affordances of physical places. We test and critique best practices for embedding privacy, digital literacy and diversity & inclusion in IoT. We publish and exhibit our results as a way to reflect and advocate for these values as the internet evolves into more physical and ubiquitous forms.

We’re working with professionals who are currently active in IoT: product designers, web developers, hardware manufacturers, data scientists, user researchers, and internet activists. We believe these professionals are critical to IoT’s development and together they can champion change in the field.

To put these ideas into practice, we’ve hosted three events so far in 2016. The results can be seen in our Github repositories at https://github.com/openiotstudio, where you’ll also find a calendar of upcoming events.

Mozilla’s Open IoT Studio is here to learn by making and shape professional practice, especially in technology, because we want IoT to be more open, more accessible. Therefore, we have to think about learning and advocating in more holistic and reflective way.

Sheer market forces alone shouldn’t determine what happens to our homes, our neighborhoods and our cities. Let’s examine what brings us joy, what truly connects us and what we really need. My hope is that we can find humane voices to shape emerging technologies. Let’s make meaningful interventions that can inspire and shift IoT for the better. Let’s rapidly prototype using a slow philosophy. Let’s take the time to listen, observe, be in a place, be present in our practice.

Publications

To read about what we’re learning and making, check out these publications, in particular:

• Published reflections from Unbox Caravan in Ahmedabad, India. February 2016.
• User research for the Berlin Design Sprint, April 2016.
• Screen-printed and hand-bound book from the Scotland Design Sprint, June 2016.

Prototypes and Process

Below are examples of the prototypes and process we’ve tried out so far:

It’s drone season, baby.

Let’s review: In April, DJI (the world’s biggest drone maker) released its new flagship model, the Phantom 4 — the first consumer drone with sense-and-avoid technology, so that it won’t fly into obstacles. My review is here.

Then in June, after two years of thinking, the FAA released the rules for commercial drones. It’s pure common sense: Daytime flying only, under 400 feet, no flying over people, and so on. (You can read my full story here.)

And now, there’s even more news: The DJI Phantom 4 has company. In fact, it has an arch rival: the Yuneec Typhoon H.

(Cool-looking drone, but what’s with the company’s name? It’s like calling company Greight, or Turyphic, or Ecksellent.)

But when a rep told me the Typhoon H does much more than the DJI Phantom but costs $100 less, I figured I had to take it for a spin.

The value proposition

The Typhoon H offers most of the same key features as the DJI Phantom, like the ability to avoid obstacles that are directly in front of it — even in low light, since the Typhoon H uses sonar instead of a camera. (Neither drone can avoid things if you’re flying backward or sideways.)

Both drones offer just over 20 minutes of flight time per charge (you definitely want a second or third battery). An incredible 43 mph top speed (when you turn off obstacle avoidance). Stunning 4K video footage. Automated modes for Follow Me, Circle Me, and Automatically Fly a Course I Created Beforehand.

But the Typhoon H offers five huge bullet points that should give the Phantom 4 a shudder of inferiority:

• It’s a hexacopter. The Typhoon has six propellers instead of four, supported by carbon-fiber arms that fold down for compact transport. Six rotors means more payload, better speed, and greater stability — you cannot believe how rock-steady this drone is, even in buffeting winds. (”It’s like it’s on a 400-foot tripod,” says one review on Amazon.) And the Typhoon can keep flying on five props if one of the motors fails, although I’m not sure that situation arises often enough to matter.
  

• The legs swing up out of the way, and the camera rotates 360 degrees. A switch on the remote makes the landing gear swing up, so that the camera can record the vista from any angle. That’s huge. The DJI Phantom’s camera moves only up and down; if you want to pan right to left, you have to turn the entire drone. The Typhoon H is clearly a superior drone for photographers and videographers, because your camera movements can now be independent of the drone movement.
  

• There’s a separate remote for flying. At the moment, the drone comes with a handheld remote called the Wizard, which lets you control the drone’s flight with one hand. (After the current promotion, the Wizard will cost $200.) That way, you can be the pilot, and someone else, holding the regular remote, can operate just the camera. Splitting up the tasks of flying and filming is a feature usually found only on much more expensive drones; it makes possible far more complex camera moves (and safer flying).

• It adds an idiot-proof Smart mode. Let’s see if I can even explain this: In most drones of this type, the right joystick controls the flying direction. But that can be tricky if the drone has gotten turned around in flight. Suddenly, pushing the joystick forward doesn’t fly the drone forward; it may zoom in some totally unexpected direction, depending on where the nose is pointing. But in Smart Mode, the drone always flies the way you’re pushing the stick, no matter which way the drone is facing. It’s ingenious. (Smart Mode also introduces other safety features — for example, it won’t let the drone fly directly over you.)

• It doesn’t need a tablet. If you buy a DJI Phantom or 3DR Solo, it’s BYOT: bring your own tablet. That’s your screen. That’s how you see what the drone sees. But the Typhoon’s remote has a 7-inch touchscreen— no tablet needed. That’s one less thing to buy, pack, charge and hook up every time you fly. (You can connect a tablet if you want to.)
  

As it turns out, the Typhoon H remote is a full-blown Android tablet. With one touch, you can exit the flying app and find yourself with regular apps—email, web browser and so on. That can be handy, as I discovered one day when the drone’s memory card ran out of space while I was miles from home. I transferred the card from the drone to the remote, and, using the Android file manager, deleted some recordings I no longer needed.

All of this makes the Typhoon H a ridiculously powerful, flexible eye in the sky —at a price $100 lower than its arch-rival.

The not-so-fine print

Before you reach for your Visa card, though, some cautions are in order.

First, the DJI Phantom is better at some things. For example, it can use object recognition to follow and film you as you ski, bike or run. To pull off a similar stunt with the Typhoon H, you have to carry either the huge, bulky remote (hard to do biking or skiing!) or the Wizard wand to use as the homing device.

The DJI’s range is also much longer than the Typhoon H. Technically, you’re not supposed to fly any drone beyond what you can see, so this point may be moot— but DJI claims a range of 3 miles for the Phantom, versus 1 for the Yuneec.

And speaking of FAA rules: The DJI can fly higher than the FAA-regulated 400-foot altitude limit. The Yuneec, on the other hand, is hardwired to stop at 400 feet. Too bad if you were hoping to inspect a tower, building  or mountain taller than that — which is perfectly FAA-legal. 

You can override the Typhoon H altitude limit, but only by using an obscure Windows-only app on Yuneec’s Web site.

The complexity problem

Despite the brilliance of Smart Mode, the Yuneec drone feels more advanced than DJI’s Phantom. But more options (and there are hundreds) mean more complexity, and it will take you many flights to master them. There is, of course, no printed user guide — only a Quick Start pamphlet. Hope you like PDFs.

The upper-left corner of the remote, for example, contains four controls for camera movement. A knob for panning, a rocker for tilt (from straight ahead to straight down), a three-position switch for panning mode, a second switch to choose the tilting mode. (The choices are Angle Mode and Velocity Mode. Surely you know what those mean.)

The black, spidery Typhoon looks sleek and militaristic — and it’s festooned with colorful lights. 

They’re not just pretty, though; they’re supposed to give you status information. But trying to figure out what their colors and blinking patterns mean practically requires a secret decoder ring:

In general, this drone doesn’t always have its act together. It takes a long time to start up — over two minutes. During my testing, Smart Mode sometimes didn’t kick in until I’d flipped its switch off and on again. 

The drone isn’t as sturdy as its rival, either; the camera module popped loose from its gimbal with only the slightest bump, and even when I tried to extract the drone from its Styrofoam packaging. (Other customers mention this gimbal-disconnection problem, too.) Getting the gimbal threaded back onto the four rubber bulbs that are supposed to hold it in place took 20 minutes of tedious fussing with tweezers each time.

My flyaway

Last week, I was flying the drone over my house. Good battery charge, 370 feet up, direct line of sight — and then, before my eyes, it started drifting away. The joysticks did nothing. The screen just said, “Trying to reconnect.” The drone floated away. There was nothing I could do.

I got on my bike and rode around, looking and looking — but I never found it. At this moment, there’s a $1,300 drone in somebody’s bushes somewhere.

So I Googled it: “Typhoon H flyaway.” Turns out I’m not the only one! Wow —had I uncovered a fatal flaw?

But then I thought: Maybe this problem isn’t unique to the Yuneeq! I Googled “DJI Phantom 4 flyaway,” and guess what? Flyaways happen to that one, too! There are YouTube videos aplenty, showing drones drifting away forever — if you can bear to watch them.

Here’s what I don’t understand: All of these high-end drones have a fail-safe Return to Home feature. As soon as the drone loses its connection to the remote, for whatever reason, it automatically returns to its takeoff point. I’ve tested this feature many times — I’ve turned off the remote to show friends and family how well it works.

And yet, even so, flyaways occasionally happen. Remember the one that landed on the White House Lawn? (Fortunately, nobody’s ever been seriously hurt by a flyaway drone. Yet.)

After studying the log files extracted from my remote control, a Yuneec technician confirmed that I’d done nothing wrong, but said he had no idea why the drone flew away. We’ll never know exactly how my flyaway happened, but I was really rattled by the experience.

Flying high

No other reviewer has experienced a flyaway, and the second Typhoon the company sent me had no such problem. Since flyaways are clearly a rare possibility, and since any drone brand is vulnerable, I’m going to heave a sigh here and avoid letting my freak experience color my Typhoon conclusions. Which are:

Among advanced consumer drones, it’s clearly the value king. Eliminating the separate iPad saves you $500 or so right there. The 360-degree camera rotation feature, and the separate wand for piloting, should be pure gold to filmmakers. The company itself gets rave reviews for its customer service; the kit comes with a wealth of included accessories (shoulder straps, car charger, sun shade for the screen, etc.). And it would be hard to imagine a drone with more options to tweak and customize.

From a features standpoint, this drone flies circles around the DJI Phantom 4, too.

Just remember that the Typhoon H’s personality is complex and sometimes opaque. It may be the Stradivarius of semi-pro drones — but that just means you’ll have to practice that much harder.

David Pogue is the founder of Yahoo Tech; here’s how to get his columns by email. On the Web, he’s davidpogue.com. On Twitter, he’s @pogue. On email, he’s poguester@yahoo.com. He welcomes non-toxic comments in the Comments below. 

Each Slack team I’m on has a different set of humans building their own unique communication culture. I’m actively on six teams: SlackHQ, Leadership, Destiny, two private nerd Slacks, and a private family Slack.

Three out of my six teams have 100+ active humans, 100+ channels, and are high traffic with hundreds to thousands of messages per day. The majority of my interaction centers on these teams and if I’m away from the keyboard for a few hours, my sidebar can be ominously full of unread channels and conversations.

In this piece, I’ll explain how I use the desktop version of Slack to sift quickly through these channels and conversations. If you’re on a Slack team with one channel and 10 humans, much of the following is going to feel like overkill, but there are useful optimization nuggets below. Important to note upfront that I am very lucky to be working at Slack. The following is full of my opinions, quirks, and neuroses and not those of Slack.

A Game of Microseconds

The rule has always been: if my hands leave the keyboard, I’ll screw it up. For years, I’ve written about the maddening imprecision of the mouse. With due respect to illustrators and other deft operators of the mouse, when I am required to use one, I am presented with too much optionality. It is the intrinsic power of a mouse that its defaults workspace is my entire desktop – each and every pixel is available to click whether it’s the right pixel or not.

I understand and appreciate that for novice users, the mouse’s broad optionality is perfect. It allows for curious unhindered exploration, but once a mouse teaches us the virtual landscape, once we understand how to work, a mouse’s utility fades and I need a clearly defined path to moving faster. There is no more important an area where I need to move quickly and efficiently than how I communicate.

Keyboard support is quite good in Slack. This is good news because my ability to quickly and efficiently find, triage, and respond to information within Slack is not a mouse task, it’s a perfect keyboard job. There are a handful of well-defined actions that literally instantly need to be at my fingertips. Let’s start with two related essentials:

Switch to my unread things ( CMD-K / Ctrl-K (Mac / Windows) ) If there is only one keyboard tip I want you to remember, it’s Cmd-K. The Quick Switcher is inspired by LaunchBar, QuickSilver and other handy context switching tools and it’s dead simple: hit Cmd-K and start typing the name of a person or a channel and when you see what you need, you can instantly jump to any context by hitting ENTER. If I’ve been away from Slack for bit, I hit Cmd-K and glance at the list in Quick Switcher. It’s a prioritized list of direct messages and unread messages.

Show me a recent conversation ( CMD-SHIFT-K / Ctrl-SHIFT-T ) Throw a SHIFT into Quick Switcher keyboard combination; CMD-SHIFT-K (or Ctrl-SHIFT-T on Windows) brings up Direct Message Quick Switcher. What I’m looking at here is a history of all of my single and multi-human conversations sorted by time. The more I work with an existing team, the more I find this conversation history useful. As single or multi-human conversations tend to be higher signal since they’re directed at me, this history is full of conversations between individuals and groups that I need at the ready for the next week.

Don’t Read Everything

My current strategy is to aggressively join channels. I don’t join every channel available, but the bar to get me interested in a channel is incredibly low. Any interest at all and I’ll join. With the current default Slack configuration, this can lead to channel sidebar proliferation, but here is my approach:

1. In Advanced Options on the desktop, I select the option to show only “My unread, along with everything I’ve starred.” This removes all channels with no activity from my side bar. This changes my default sidebar from LEFT to RIGHT.

1. After a few hours of activity, the unread counts build. So, I merrily Quick Switch my way through this unread activity. If I need to respond and I don’t have time or the answer, I will star the channel or conversation for a future response. This makes my sidebar a draft of my to do list. To date, this strategy has kept my sidebar tidy and under control in even the highest traffic teams.
2. Currently, there is one exception to my star policy and that is a “channel of importance”. The only channels which are starred are weekly 1:1 channels that I’ve defined as a running conversation of 1:1 discussions, decisions, and next steps.

There are times when I get behind, and when I end up in this state, the keyboard command I use is Ctrl-Esc. This marks everything read, but doesn’t do anything to my starred items. The FOMO inbox zero zealots in the audience just freaked out a bit. What if there something important in those channels? How do I know what’s essential without reading every single message? Wait for it.

My Sidebar is not my Inbox

For a large group of humans in a company using email, we believe that we’re doing each other a favor by making sure the TO: line of this very important email is populated with the correct humans and mailing lists. Also, protocol dictates the proper construction of the CC: line for the humans who are slightly less essential than the humans on the TO: line. We believe we’re doing the right thing because we believe this is the only way they’ll find this essential information.

This is incorrect. We’re lazy.

It’s not deliberate laziness; it’s tool induced laziness where we feel the need to blast every possible human with this essential piece of data because we’ve come to believe that email is the only source of truth. This makes our inbox a sacred place because it is our connection to our fellow workers. Conversely, we feel that if information is in our inbox, we have a deep compulsion to read it.

Three questions: How much time have you spent constructing mail filters for mails sent TO YOU that YOU REQUESTED that end up in folders that you NEVER EVER READ? For all of those emails actually in your inbox, how many did you read? Finally, how many days of your life have you lost simply worrying about your inbox?

My working and perhaps incorrect assumption in a Slack team is that if a piece of information needs to get to me, a qualified human will make sure I get it by either using the @name convention, sending me a DM, or creating a channel for us to have a longer running discussion of this essential information. Ctrl-Esc doesn’t delete a thing; it just marks it read.

Three More Keyboard Essentials

Further means by which I avoid the mouse:

Edit ( Up Arrow ) Anyone who follows me on Twitter knows that even with the fixed availability of the 78 keys on my keyboard, I excel at making typos. All the time. I completely drop entire words during caffeinated keyboard fury, and Slack messages are no exception. Hitting the UP ARROW in Slack allows me to edit messages. It is strange that this feature gives me so much joy.

Forward and Back ( CMD-[, CMD-] / Alt-[, Alt-] ) The defining characteristic of the keyboard that it allows me to move fast. Often I’ll blast right past a channel with an important piece of information that won’t be relevant until I’ve visited a few more channels. What was that channel again? Like a web browser, CMD-[ and CMD-] allow me to page through my channel viewing history. Handy for that piece of information that just zipped by but suddenly becomes important five seconds later.

Emoji reaction ( CMD-SHIFT-\ / Ctrl-SHIFT-\ ) I’ve resisted emoji for years. My opinion has been the same as my opinion of all messaging abbreviations. If you want to say something, take the time to write the words. Slack has changed my opinion about emoji, and the reason is, again, efficiency. There is a type of communication where all I need from you is the smallest of acknowledgments. I don’t need commentary or an opinion. All I need to know from you is: yes, I received this. Emoji reactions are the perfect low-friction way to deliver this acknowledgment. Here are my current top three Emoji and my internal mental translations.

• – Got it.
• – Thank you.
• – This… is awesome.

Emoji usage can quickly lead to emoji madness, but when I think about the cumbersome alternative: reading mail, hitting respond to generate another mail, typing “Got it!” and hitting send, well, I’m ok with dancing penguins.

The Right Tool for the Right Job

When did I send my first email? Wow, I think it was during the 80s. It was a pre-Internet email on a forgotten Silicon Valley BBS which means I’ve been using email as a means of communication for around three decades. Sometime during the 90s, it became my primary means of written digital communication. While messaging, Twitter and Facebook have certainly provided new forms of connective tissue; email has remained a constant tax on my life.

Slack has given me the opportunity to rethink a means of communication that hasn’t fundamentally changed in decades. Slack provides me with a useful set of communication primitives that has me experimenting. I’m trying new approaches to communication paths I thought were forever fixed and that deserves a…

Thanks to Lisa Corriveau for this recap and reaction to SFU-sponsored talk on Cycling at the Crossroads:  Advocacy, Policy and Tools for Change From London, UK.

I was delighted with the topic around advocacy and the public conversation on cycling in London. As Dr. Rachel Aldred discussed, there has been a significant shift there  — and it resembles our shift in many ways.

She had a great analysis of the two main schools of thought when it comes to viewing cycling risk.

The first is one very familiar to those of us in North America: individualization, which emphasizes cycling as a personal choice, frames cycling as dangerous rather than drivers or roads, focusses on individual solutions like wearing safety gear & taking training, & good ol’ victim blaming.

The second model is the socialization of cycling risk, which sees cycling as a public service or part of the transportation system, blames road design &/or drivers for causing danger, focusses on collective solutions like infrastructure as well as legal & policy changes, plus holding politicians to account.

While I liked seeing another example of “big data” at work to change and improve the planning and conversation around cycling in the UK, I fear that Canada’s weak census data, and general lack of suitably dense data, may prevent us from quickly getting to this level in our planning. Thanks to James Woodcock of the University of Cambridge for describing the open-source Propensity to Cycle Tool.

Audrey Watters, Hack Education, Jul 17, 2016

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Good post from Audrey Watters representing a step forward in her thinking (as we write more, these steps become smaller and less frequent, and harder to take). She talks about the fragility of memory, even in the age of information, and challenges the assumption that new inventions are being more and more quickly adopted. From my perspective, being long in the tooth, the future seems to move forward at an agonizingly slow pace. I was ten years old, five decades ago, when we first stepped on the moon. The major incurable diseases of my childhood are the ones that loom over me today. Most of the information I have ever created was created, and stored, in my own brain, and it goes when I go. So much of my own digital legacy is already lost (it's absurd to say that the internet is a permanent record!). But - publishing isn't memory, and memory isn't knowledge.

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Rafranz Davis, Jul 17, 2016

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I think there's some pretty good advice in this post, and it goes well beyond the warning in the title. It's this: "Do the work. Do it with complete and total commitment which means truly facing your truths through time, discussion and effort. You need to find your own voices… not ours." The same point should be applied to educators in general. As an educator, your only voice is your own voice, not that of your students. You can't 'give' them an education. They have to create their own education, and find their own voice, for themselves. Doing it for them disempowers them, and makes their own efforts less legitimate.

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Peter Bryant, digital stranger, Jul 17, 2016

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Good post looking at the concept of 'fleeting connections' in some detail. As suggested by  VTE Live, one of the purposes of a MOOC, as opposed to a community of practice, is to create short-term low risk temporary networks where people can benefit from the diversity and interaction without making a lifelong commitment. As well, temporary networks are less intimidating to join, because they haven't developed in-groups, jargon and norms of practice yet. Peter Bryant says "t is in the fleeting connections that you are exposed to the ‘ something different’ that are these newer, brighter contexts.   They represent a sense of randomness, uniqueness and sometimes disquiet and discomfort that challenge the constructed reality of knowledge handed down through the generations."

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Razer, best known for making mice and keyboards for gamers, announced a keyboard case for the 12.9” iPad Pro that features mechanical backlit keys with twenty levels of brightness and a kickstand that allows for multiple viewing angles. Razer’s keyboard, dubbed the Razer Mechanical Switch Keyboard, connects over Bluetooth and includes what Razer calls an Ultra-Low-Profile Mechanical Switch that it says delivers ’the exact same performance and feel as a full-fledged mechanical keyboard.’ With backlighting enabled, Razer estimates you will get 10 hours of battery life. With backlighting turned off, however, Razer says its keyboard will last a whopping 600 hours. Razer’s keyboard is available for purchase in the US for $169.99 with other countries to follow.

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Hello, SUMO Nation!

How have you been doing in July? Hopefully you’re getting some well deserved holidaying/AFK-ing done. I keep hearing chasing imaginary monsters around is fashionable nowadays… Any trainers out there?

Welcome, new contributors!

• Briana
• Europamoon100
• chrisranthony

If you just joined us, don’t hesitate – come over and say “hi” in the forums!

Most recent SUMO Community meeting

• You can read the notes here and see the video at AirMozilla.
  

The next SUMO Community meeting…

• …is happening on the 20th of July!
• If you want to add a discussion topic to the upcoming meeting agenda:
  • Start a thread in the Community Forums, so that everyone in the community can see what will be discussed and voice their opinion here before Wednesday (this will make it easier to have an efficient meeting).
  • Please do so as soon as you can before the meeting, so that people have time to read, think, and reply (and also add it to the agenda).
  • If you can, please attend the meeting in person (or via IRC), so we can follow up on your discussion topic during the meeting with your feedback.

Community

• We’re meeting with the Brazilian community tomorrow to talk about plans for the near future.
• Not too long after the weekly community meeting on Wednesday the 20th, you’re all invited to watch our guest Tina Seelig talk about the invention cycle – more details here!
• PLATFORM REMINDER & UPDATE! The Platform Meetings are BACK! If you missed the previous ones, here is the etherpad, with links to the recordings on AirMo. We are closing the sandbox preview – huge thanks to everyone who had the time to take a look around and provide feedback!
  • We’re looking deeper into security and privacy requirements, but also l10n options (Pontoon)
• The Release Report for Firefox 47 is here! (thanks to Rachel for coordinating and publishing it)
  
• Ongoing reminder #1: if you think you can benefit from getting a second-hand device to help you with contributing to SUMO, you know where to find us.
• Ongoing reminder #2: we are looking for more contributors to our blog. Do you write on the web about open source, communities, SUMO, Mozilla… and more? Do let us know!
• Ongoing reminder #3: want to know what’s going on with the Admins? Check this thread in the forum.

Social

• Ongoing reminder: We have a training out there for all those interested in Social Support – talk to Madalina or Costenslayer on #AoA (IRC) for more information.

Support Forum

Firefox

• for Android
  • Version 48 is still on track – release in early August.

• for Desktop
  • Version 48 is still on track – release in early August.

• for iOS
  • 5.0 has postponed to the end of July for marketing reasons – it’s ready but we’re not ready to promote it until the end of the month.
    
  • Remember, it will be a big update – don’t forget the articles for it are ready to be localized!

Ah, yes… nearly forgot about this – congratulations to Portugal and their supporters for winning the Euro this year. So, what will keep you busy and excited in the coming week(s)? Let us know in the comments!

Once a month, web developers from across Mozilla get together to talk about the work that we’ve shipped, share the libraries we’re working on, meet new folks, and talk about whatever else is on our minds. It’s the Webdev Extravaganza! The meeting is open to the public; you should stop by!

You can check out the wiki page that we use to organize the meeting, or view a recording of the meeting in Air Mozilla. Or just read on for a summary!

Shipping Celebration

The shipping celebration is for anything we finished and deployed in the past month, whether it be a brand new site, an upgrade to an existing one, or even a release of a library.

Okta SSO Fix Add-on

First up was shobson, who shared MoCo SSO Tweaks, a Firefox add-on that makes the Okta SSO flow better. Among other things, it auto-focuses the verification code field, makes Enter submit the verification code form, and optionally automatically checks the “Remember Device” checkbox.

ViewSourceConf.org

Next was hoosteeno, who shared viewsourceconf.org, the website for the 2016 edition of View Source, a conference for the web that Mozilla runs. The site is statically generated by Metalsmith and takes advantage of several plugins include the model plugin and the template plugin for Swig templates.

shobson worked on the frontend for the site. It intentionally avoids using jQuery and uses SVGs for small image filesizes and easy Retina support. In the future the site will be using Service Workers to enable offline access for the site, and particularly the schedule.

Air Mozilla Timenails

peterbe stopped by to talk about the timenail support he added to Air Mozilla. A timenail is a single screenshot from a video at a specific timestamp; a series of timenails is generated by the transcoding process and made available in the chapter editing interface for each video to help aid in finding good transition points for marking chapters in the video.

The site also calculates the difference between timenails and lets users filter the timenail list to only show thumbnails that have a difference between the previous timenail above a given threshold.

DXR

Next up was ErikRose, sharing a bunch of new changes that landed in DXR:

• Case-sensitivity is now inferred based on whether the search text is mixed case or not.
• Support for XPIDL
• 20% lower memory use
• Improved C++ analysis, including template support.

Thanks to new_one and Tom Klein for contributing these improvements!

Peep 3.1.2

Erik also mentioned that peep 3.1.2 is out, with support for pip 8.1.2.

Fathom

Erik’s last mention was Fathom, which is an experimental framework for extracting meaning from webpages. You provide it declarative rules that score and classify DOM nodes, and in return it will parse a webpage and rank DOM nodes in the page based on the given rules. You can then extract nodes from this ranking in various ways, such as finding the highest-ranked nodes for a specific attribute, or finding clusters of similarly-classified nodes that are close to each other.

Readable Bug Statuses in Bugzilla

emceeaich and dylan wanted to share (in absentia) the news that the Readable Bug Status package that emceeaich has been working on has been deployed on bugzilla.mozilla.org for bugs in the Firefox, Core, Toolkit, and BMO products. Readable Bug Status helps summarize the status of a bug using information from several fields.

Bedrock + Gulp

Next was pmac who shared the news that Bedrock has switched to using gulp to help manage their frontend build and development process. The site previously relied on django-pipeline completely to manage its static assets, but ran into issues with slow builds during development, as django-pipeline doesn’t watch for which files have changed and simply triggers a full build on each pageview. Switching to gulp allows the site to only rebuild frontend files that have changed, and it builds them as soon as they change instead of building them on-demand.

For more details, pmac wrote a blog post describing the switch.

Open-source Citizenship

Here we talk about libraries we’re maintaining and what, if anything, we need help with for them.

Google Analytics Pageviews on Non-Web Requests

peterbe shared a blog post he wrote describing how to use Raven to send pageview data to Google Analytics. This is useful for tracking usage of endpoints that don’t return webpages but are still considered part of your site’s public API.

Domainswitcher

peterbe also shared Domainswitcher, and add-on that lets you easily switch between domains while preserving the current path. The add-on is useful for web developers working on sites that want to switch between prod, staging, development, and locally-hosted instances of the site.

New Hires / Interns / Volunteers / Contributors

Here we introduce any newcomers to the Webdev group, including new employees, interns, volunteers, or any other form of contributor.

Name	Role	Work
Benton Case	Intern – Web Developer	Add-on Recommendation

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If you’re interested in web development at Mozilla, or want to attend next month’s Extravaganza, subscribe to the dev-webdev@lists.mozilla.org mailing list to be notified of the next meeting, and maybe send a message introducing yourself. We’d love to meet you!

See you next month!

The post Extravaganza – June 2016 appeared first on Mozilla Web Development.

It was a bright and sunny morning in Richmond, BC, where ISSCO (International Society for the Study of Chinese Overseas) conference delegates gathered to embark on a trip to visit Nlaka’pamux territory and learn about the legacy of Chinese miners in the region. Joining them were hua foundation staff (Kevin, Alan, Angela and Emily), who were excited to assist with the “Gold Mountain River” tour by providing both Cantonese and Mandarin translations, and their knowledge of local Chinese-Canadian history.

ISSCO is the first and only international scholarly organization dedicated to the advancement of research on Chinese overseas. The primary goals of the society are “to advance research and scholarly exchange in the study of Chinese overseas, provide means for research and publications, and to organize and support national and international conferences.” Last week, over 300 delegates, special guests and volunteers participated in the three day conference in Richmond on unceded Musqueam territory. 40 conference delegates attended the post-conference trip to unceded Nlaka’pamux territory of the Lytton First Nation to visit Browning’s Flat, a provincially recognized Chinese heritage site where Chinese miners once worked.

As we made our way down the Fraser River, tour guides Henry Yu (Historian & UBC Professor), Sarah Ling (UBC Researcher and Film Producer) and Michael Kennedy (Geographer), members of the Fraser Corridor Heritage Landscape Project, uncovered the history of Chinese migrants in the region, such as the less commonly told relationships of reciprocity and trust that existed between the Chinese miners and Indigenous nations. One example of such cooperation was during the Fraser Canyon War, where Chinese miners were permitted to stay in the region despite American miners being driven out by local Indigenous groups. As shared by Henry Yu, Chinese miners tended to approach Indigenous groups with respect, often asking where they were allowed to mine and making efforts to forge long-term relationships with the local inhabitants. Visiting these mining sites was a way to engage the broader hua community in important conversations about migration and history, through a nuanced cultural lens that offers alternative understandings to dominant narratives of Canadian history.

Upon reaching Browning’s Flat, we were struck with awe at the sheer size and scale of the mining sites. Stretched across several kilometers were incredible hand-stacked stone walls called “chutes,” which were built by Chinese miners in order to divert wastewater used for panning gold. Walking through the mining site made it easier to wrap our heads around the tremendous amount of labour that went into the mining operations. When asked to estimate the number of miners that contributed to the site, participants responded with numbers ranging from 50 to 300. However, to our surprise, Browning’s Flat likely came to be only through the efforts of 20 or so Chinese miners, over the course of 10 to 15 years. Turns out, smaller operations facilitated trust and cooperation amongst the miners, and ensured that they received a fair share of the returns.

While the Gold Rush and Canadian Pacific Railway are often invoked in discussions regarding Chinese contributions to Canada, Henry pointed out that Chinese migrants also contributed to Canada in less commonly recognized ways. Chinese migrants played a major role in founding Canada’s social and economic infrastructure, establishing and amplifying industries such as restaurants, farming and the merchant trade. These contributions paved way for the growth and success of many present day businesses that we have come to know today.

In terms of our food security work at hua, it has only been in recent years that we have been able to learn about the legacy of Chinese-Canadians on the local food system. For example, Chinese-Canadian farmers produced 90% of BC’s vegetables up until 1920’s, after which the Vegetable Act curtailed their right to be able to market and sell their produce. The ramifications of systemic segregation are still experienced to this day: the majority of local Chinese businesses in the lower mainland, such as restaurants, green grocers, and fishmongers, all support and contribute to the local food system, but exist in parallel to the conventional, mainstream system. Despite this, the local Chinese food distribution system is a significant shadow economy that provides thousands of jobs and millions of dollars in revenue, formed out of resilience against systemic racism.

Forming a partnership with the “Gold Mountain River” initiative was significant for hua foundation for several reasons: not only were we able to put our language (Cantonese, Mandarin and Taiwanese!) skills to the test, we also had the opportunity to experiment with alternative community engagement models that address history through a decolonizing lens, all the while fostering a sense of belonging. As an organization, it is important for us to be able to provide accessible programming in order to be able to share these experiences and stories with our elders, whom might not have the linguistic capacity to be able to access these opportunities.

Through the programming and partnerships that we pursue, hua foundation strives to foster a sense of belonging to the broader hua community, such as by facilitating an understanding and appreciation for local histories. While we may not be directly tied to these histories per se, shedding light on past experiences of Chinese-Canadians is a way for us to reconsider our relationships to the past, and our relationships to one another. By retelling the legacies of Chinese-Canadians that are less commonly acknowledged in public narratives, perhaps we can (re)discover how our present lives have been fundamentally shaped by the contributions and relationships forged by Chinese-Canadians from the past. Despite the fact that our lived experiences as Chinese-Canadians may differ, learning about the foundational contributions from the past is a way for us to understand how we are inherently connected to one another.

Reflecting on the past weekend, it was a transformative experience to be able to connect with ISSCO conference delegates from around the world over shared and parallel migration histories. As we gain momentum towards our goal of cultivating intercultural understanding, we hope that you will join hua foundation, UBC St. John’s College and Fraser River Raft Expeditions at the next Gold Mountain River Tour on July 28th, 2016.

Everyone is welcomed to attend the tour. For registration details or for more information, please contact the tour coordinator Sarah Ling at <sarah.ling@ubc.ca>

Interested in our work? Keep an eye out for future programming that further explores untold local histories through our social media, and sign up for our newsletter here.

Additional pictures of the raft tour can be found on our Facebook page.

The post “Gold Mountain River”: (Re)Discovering our Chinese-Canadian Heritage appeared first on Hua Foundation.

City of Vancouver is moving ahead to engage citizens on changes to the 55-hectare (136-acre) site, owned around 80% by CoV.  Currently, density is higher than average in this spectacularly desirable location, now home to around 5,800 people in a mix of condos, co-ops and non-market rentals.

Since around 60% of homes there are on leased City land, CoV is starting early to plan for lease expirations, which occur mostly in around 20 – 30 years.

There will be a consultation focus on a citizen’s group from the area called *REPlan“.

Recycling is supposed to be a good thing, so when the federal Liberals quietly announced that “asset recycling” would be part of their strategy for meeting their much-ballyhooed infrastructure promises, not many eyebrows were raised. They should have been. Asset recycling is an obscure code word for selling our public goods for private profit. It’s privatization by another name.

Don’t have the taxes to pay for new buses? It’s okay, you can sell your electricity utility to pay for them instead. In fact, this is precisely what the Ontario Liberal government is doing. Already 30% of the profitable Hydro One have been sold and another 30% will be sold before 2018. A public Hydro One could more directly fight climate change, lower energy costs for the poor or work with First Nations on whose lands generation often happens. A private Hydro becomes an instrument for profit first with other goals secondary.

What the Liberals have started in Ontario will soon be rolled out across Canada. Here are the problems with these schemes.

First, there is no crisis that says you have to sell a bridge to fund a hospital or the other way around. Or, better put, we have manufactured crises. Decades of slow but crippling austerity, tax cuts and restructuring have led us here. We cannot afford transit and hospitals by choice and it is in our power to reverse things. Deficit spending can be part of a reversal in the short term; asset recycling cannot.

Second, remember that we need more infrastructure spending because what we have is often crumbling and the economy faces gaps in demand. Investment in infrastructure not only creates useful things we depend on, it also creates demand for materials and jobs, which themselves create…you get the picture. Business isn’t investing, so there is a big role for public investment. Keepers of global order like the OECD and the IMF have recognized this. The IMF was applauded recently for walking back its support for austerity. Rightly so, but the same document reaffirmed support for privatization. Canada’s Liberal Party is really at the forefront of this policy shift by elites.

However, getting funds for investment by selling other assets into a system that has created massive asset price inflation—seen in stock markets at record highs, a lack of sub-million dollar homes in Vancouver or smashed art auction records—seems questionable at best. The response to the global financial crash of 2007-08 saved the world from depression but left fundamental inequalities in place.

Third, shares in newly-privatized public enterprises can become bargaining chips. Asset recycling has already created space for new and refined forms of triangulation, with worse to come. The latest batch of Hydro One shares in Ontario will be sold at a slight discount to First Nations for loaned funds. What seems like new funding is, however, a cynical one-off.

This is the Ontario government effectively saying, “we’ve underfunded your schools and clinics, poisoned your rivers and abandoned your communities, let’s make it right by helping us privatize Hydro.” Beyond slightly accelerating the sale of Hydro and coming at low political cost  (the government gets a slightly smaller share of privatization income, rather than making explicit expenditure on First Nations), this scheme does nothing to address real grievances First Nations might have with Hydro. Seats on the Board of Directors or other regulatory bodies, deeper co-governance arrangements, priority hiring—none of this is on the table and neither is new, stable funding.

Finally, here’s a quote from an investment manager in a Maclean’s piece on asset recycling:

“If you took a road that used to be free and you tolled it, I think consumers are right to say, ‘Hey, that used to be free and now it’s being tolled, that’s unfair,”’ he said.

“But let’s remember that governments need to balance their books somehow… I don’t think they can raise taxes too much more. I don’t think any of us want that.”

Typical right-wing talking points. The problem is that these typical right-wing talking points are coming from someone ostensibly representing union workers: this investment manager works for the Ontario Teachers’ Pension Plan. Canada is a world leader when it comes to workers’ own pensions being turned against them and younger generations. What were once simple, safe pension investments in government bonds are today predatory arrangements with pension boards acting more like hedge funds. Asset recycling only accelerates this process and binds regular people more tightly to a system that ultimately works against them.

So, too few buses in your city? Sell an airport. First Nations have inadequate health facilities? Here’s a few Hydro shares. Need a pension? Buy a highway…and don’t forget to contract out the maintenance and toll staff to make sure you’re earning maximum returns. As a friend put it, “Trudeauism is able to sublimate both neoliberalism and social democracy into itself.” Just so, asset recycling is the wrong answer to each of the above good questions.