Rolandt

The owners of residences on the north side of Vancouver’s Point Grey Road have some of the most spectacular  views of English Bay and the North Shore mountains, unfettered by public walkways between their properties and the ocean. The City of Vancouver used to have a policy to purchase land along the north side of this street, so that all Vancouverites could enjoy the magnificent views. The intent was to eventually provide access to the beach, which is public in Vancouver.  Margaret Pigott Park is one example of a north side of Point Grey Road private property that was purchased for public use.

 

 

While the bikeway portion of the Seaside Greenway has been developed along Point Grey Road, the news for walkers has not been as positive. The city sidewalks on the north side of Point Grey Road are often squished beside the curb, with private landscaping from the large houses encroaching on the city boulevard, making the sidewalk feel even narrower. Most of this private landscaping encroachment consists of hedging and trees.

And then came the elephant. Yes, there was an elephant sculpture installed in the front yard of a house on Point Grey Road’s north side. The property owners fenced the elephant in with a handsome black wrought iron fence that encroached on city owned boulevard land right up to the sidewalk.

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In other parts of the city, this does not seem to happen. There is a public understanding that the city owns the land that is called the public boulevard, and that this strip of land extends on both sides of the sidewalk. The location of the water service in front of Vancouver properties is an indication of where the City’s land ownership ends and the private homeowner’s property begins.

Jeff Lee’s article in the Vancouver Sun describes how homeowners on the north side of Point Grey Road are upset with the city’s plans to upgrade the sidewalk as part of a 6.4 million dollar project completing the seawall walkway. This upgrade will mean the city is taking back city land usurped by private hedges and fences to make a sidewalk wide and comfortable, like the rest of the seawall walkway. There will be a 1.2 meter strip between the homeowner’s front yard and the start of the sidewalk.

The City’s plans were originally to place a seawall walk right beside the ocean, in front of the Point Grey houses. This was nixed by the residents, as well as by environmental concerns.

The Point Grey residents held a rally on Sunday protesting the installation of the sidewalk, claiming it was an example of bad fiscal spending and citing the challenges residents would have in exiting their properties in vehicles with walkers and cyclists on the city street.

But here’s the point-taking back this strip of city owned land and putting it in public use for walkers is not about today, it is about tomorrow. Anywhere else in the city I would argue we would have dealt with this landscape encroachment on a popular walking street years ago. It would have made sense to have implemented this wider sidewalk at the time of the adoption of the expansion of the Seaside Greenway. The  properties along Point Grey Road benefited from a huge real estate lift the moment this street was designated.  That was the time to negotiate the return of the public boulevard for the safety, comfort and convenience of  walkers, people pushing strollers, and wheelchair users. 

Hopefully future generations of Vancouverites can vision the Seaside Greenway as a stroll, not just a bike ride. How we deal with these issues today by following established city policy and protocol shapes the public realm, our public spaces, and our future place. There will be no more elephant in that yard.

 

 

I wanted to gather various notes about musical things I’ve been up to or enjoying. It seemed sensible to write them all down.

I suppose, most notably for me, I’ve been making music again. What do I mean by ‘again’? I guess I mean ‘with a degree of conviction and purpose’. I’ve always been tinkering with composition and production again – mainly at arms’ length – over the past, well, 10 years. But I’ve never quite settled into the routines I had in my late teens and early twenties, when, in what once upon a time might have been called ‘a tiny bedroom project studio’ I recorded some quite bad electronic music that almost nobody’s ever heard.

It may have been quite bad, but I was turning up and doing the work. Then, life happened, and I stopped.

Somehow, in the past 12-24 months, I’ve slowly been getting back in the saddle. Not just tinkering from time to time, but doing so with a degree of purpose; something like conviction.

Some of what’s changed is giving myself a surprising amount of permission to fail. I have no huge ambitions; in the list of goals my partner and I shared with each other at New Year, I said (as one of mine) “I’d like to record four pieces of music I’m happy with in the next twelve months“. Four doesn’t sound like a lot, does it? But that makes it achievable. I’m fantastic at setting myself unrealistic goals and then being disappointed. Rampant realism was important to me.

By those goals: I’m succeeding, and definitely on track to make that much. I’m slowly finding something like a voice, even if my approach is somewhat scattergun.

You can see that I’m dancing about the subject, can’t you? Not saying what it is or showing off. That’s partly down to a degree of caution and, frankly, the fact it’s very exposing to talk about creative work. Somebody in my circles – and I’m afraid I forget who – pointed out that at some point, around the dawning of Web 2.0, hobbies became performative (it crops up in this newsletter from Dan Hon, but I’m sure I came across it a while before). We did things we enjoyed, but sharing the output was part of the validation. Look at me! I’d been a photography enthusiast since I was a young teenager, but Flickr changed a lot of things about what that interest meant, and how it was perceived.

And whilst I was perfectly happy to share my photo albums – perhaps even joining in the performance of promotion, or over-sharing, or making things in order for them to be liked… music is much more personal for me. I’m acutely aware I don’t meet the standards I set for myself, and actively don’t want to self-justify.

It has been liberating keeping so much to myself for the past two years. Even if most of it went in the virtual bin, I have to remind myself that I enjoy the process and that time spent enjoying oneself is time well spent.

Right now, though, it feels like things are slowly sticking; that I’ve started to move forward the tiniest bit, rather than turning in circles. So I wanted to write about that. This is why, if you follow me on Instagram, there are occasionally cryptic photos of instruments, or computer screens, or strange electronics.

Interlude: here’s a piece I wrote a few months’ back:

One of the things I’m also doing is “making things to make music with”. The past twelve months has seen me spend more and more time building things to make sound with. Yes, I’ve tinkered a lot with Arduinos and so forth in the past – but I’m now at the point of building (though not exactly ‘designing’) analogue circuits, designing and manufacturing PCBs, and so forth.

It’s very satisfying making things to make with. Much like building any kind of tool, I guess – although more interesting when you’re building things to afford creative possibility, rather than straight utility. As part of this, I’ve been getting into modular synthesis, building a small and esoteric Eurorack synthesizer. Some of the things I’ve been building for it might become open-source, or shared as kits; currently, I’m trying to take a prototype of a particular module that some people have been enthusiastic about to Brighton Modular this weekend.

And, of course, I built a touchscreen music box over the past six months. That reminded me how much I enjoy working in and around this space, and how I’d like to spend more time making that part of my practice.

But it’s not just about making and gadgets. The point of all this is turning up. So some days I just play and don’t hit record. Some days, I do. Some days, I take advantage of a nearby piano and rattle through some standards. Playing in every sense of the word is what’s important.

I’ve also been taking part in a few Disquiet Juntos. They’re run by Marc Weidenbaum over long weekends; one a week. Each is a provocation to make sound or music or both or neither; a constraint to start with. (“[Weidenbaum] writes reviews of music that doesn’t exist yet and then gets internet strangers to make it.“). Some of my entries were given up on when it was clear they weren’t going anywhere; others have been more surprising. Here’s one, my response to treat the notes that make up a chord:

The juntos force you to examine process a bit – but also listen to very different responses to the same provocation. It’s also striking how happy I am with the outcomes – a few might get polished a bit more into longer pieces.

Oh, and every other month or so, I’m singing again, with this lot. That helps: a brilliant way to clear and empty my head.

I’ve been spending some time in musical communities, too. I’ve found much of the community around modular synthesis depressingly gear-focused in the least interesting ways; the Pokémon-like attitude of so many modular fans is exhausting – not to mention almost antithetical to the idea of building an instrument. The DIY synth community is a lot of fun, though, and I’ve particular enjoyed spending time at Lines, the monome community forum: it has an attitude and thoughtfulness that’s very welcome.

And finally, I’ve been enjoying a fair few podcasts:

• Why We Listen is wonderful: Marc Kate talks to interviewees about three pieces of music they’ve chosen to listen to; not nearly as Desert Island Discs as it sounds, but great to take time over listening.
• Meet the Composer is wonderful – deep, meaty, well-produced, it interviews modern classical composers about their process in depth.
• Radio 3’s Composers’ Rooms is lovely, in part because of its pared-down nature: short, focused conversations with composers about their workspaces, which vary wildly. Nice as audio documentary for its necessarily heavy amount of acutality; it’s a very simple programme but Sara is a great interviewer, and the conversations are meaningful and concise.
• Darwin Grosse’s Art + Music + Technology does what it says on the tin. Tends to focus on a few particular communites – modern electronic composition, modular synthesis, the Max-and-similar world, computational music – but again, by giving interviewees time to think and discourse, Darwin goes some interesting places fast. Nicely connects the technical and artistic – and never loses site of the artistic nature of all music technology; the plusses in the title are very deliberate.
• And, of course, Song Exploder, which felt like a neat secret when I started listening and is, of course, now wildly popular. Fair play; it’s an accessible format, well produced, and speaks to that need of wanting to understand the art we see and here.

One final piece. I wrote this last weekend, mainly on a QWERTY laptop keyboard, as an entry into Junto 233. I wasn’t sure it’d turn into anything, but doing everything on earbuds and a laptop keyboard felt like another interesting constraint.

I’m keeping going, making the path by walking, under this moniker that seems to feel about right for what I want to do, even if the music I’m making isn’t always living up to it yet. I’m probably not talking about it again for a long while. But it’s freeing doing this for myself, for finding a way to share something without feeling a need to make it for a particular audience or listener, and seeing what – and who – sticks.

The golden ratio and beauty apps seem like they’re made for each other: Computer vision of any sort relies upon algorithms, and the golden ratio provides the basis for them. Beauty, by this definition, is order, symmetry, and definiteness. Beauty isn’t glamour; it’s math.

The uniform repetitions necessary for operating these machines — the subtle caresses of finger tip, the unthinking memory of the keystroke — made the superstructural feel intimate, almost loving, something you could touch and take as your own.

As GIFs and emojis become more streamlined in the applications we use to communicate, the more puppeteer-like these platforms appear, demanding we move in time with the emotional range of the options given.

The Taylor Institute has 5 learning studios, designed for active and collaborative learning. People who are using the space have access to some great technology to support their work, including 37 “collaboration stations” (we really need to come up with a better name for those…).

Here’s a quick-ish demo of the basic functionality provided by the stations, recorded using the lecture capture system built into the learning studios.

Technologies mentioned and/or used in the video:

• Panasonic 50″ touch display
• Arrive Facepoint Windows 8 host/control appliance
• Mersive Solstice Pod
• Crestron Capture HD Pro
• Vaddio camera
• Shure wireless lapel mic
• Limnu.com whiteboard

mkalus shared this story from Nothing To Do With Arbroath.

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A drunk 28-year-old man and his equally inebriated 18-year-old girlfriend clambered onto one of the arches of the Kaiserlei Bridge in Frankfurt, Germany, at around 11am on Thursday.



“They didn’t just enjoy the view,” according to police. Drivers approaching the bridge, which crosses the Main river, spotted the couple and alerted the local police.

Officers decided they would have to close down two lanes of the Autobahn in order to make room for the ladders which fire services used to approach the love-makers.



Shortly after, the firemen managed to bring the pair back to the ground, and within 20 minutes traffic was running as normal. After taking down their details, officers sent the couple away with an order not to return to the scene of the crime.

	mkalus shared this story from Zero Hedge:
	"Never have so many thought so deeply, or wrestled so hard with their consciences, in an effort to come up with the right answer." Hahahaha. yeah right. I guess you have to be deluded, or at least pretend to be, after what transpired last week. As the saying goes: Be careful what you wish for.

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With both David Cameron and George Osborne having vaporized and seemingly no one ready (or willing) to take charge in this transition period in which Cameron is no longer the effective PM, yet is unwilling to trigger Article 50, many have been looking to the presumptive next PM, Boris Johnson, to emerge and say a few encouraging words, which he seemingly evaded most of the weekend. However, at 10pm local time, a long overdue BoJo Op-ed graced the pages of the pro-Brexit telegraph, in which the former London mayor says that he "cannot stress too much that Britain is part of Europe – and always will be", writes that he believes "that this climate of apprehension is understandable, given what people were told during the campaign, but based on a profound misunderstanding about what has really taken place", but the key statement, and the one all of the understandably confused "Leave" voters will be looking for is Johnson's explanation of what he thinks will change. To wit:

The only change – and it will not come in any great rush – is that the UK will extricate itself from the EU’s extraordinary and opaque system of legislation: the vast and growing corpus of law enacted by a European Court of Justice from which there can be no appeal. This will bring not threats, but golden opportunities for this country – to pass laws and set taxes according to the needs of the UK.

It remains to be seen if he can convince the Leave - and certainly Remain - camps (the latter, we doubt), especially since nowhere in the op-ed is the all important topic of Article 50 invoked, and more importantly, who and when will trigger it, perhaps the only issue which the markets demand clarity on at this moment. 

Among the other notable Johnson claims is that Britain will continue to have access to the European Union's single market despite voting to leave the bloc,  adding that Britain could now forge a relationship with the EU based on free trade and partnership rather than a federal system, and that Britain would also be able to do free trade deals with growth economies outside the EU.

"There will continue to be free trade, and access to the single market," Johnson wrote in a regular column for the Daily Telegraph newspaper, adding that there was "no great rush" for Britain to extricate itself from the EU.

He did not set out any details of how the arrangement would work, but suggested Britain would not accept free movement, saying the government would be able to implement an immigration policy which suited the needs of business and industry.

Johnson said the negative consequences of Brexit were being "wildly overdone" and that Bank of England governor Mark Carney, who came under fire from some Brexit campaigners ahead of the referendum for flagging the risks of leaving the bloc, should continue in his job.

"The economy is in good hands," he said, praising 'In' campaigners Prime Minister David Cameron and finance minister George Osborne for the work they have done to reduce public spending. "Most sensible people can see that Bank of England Governor Mark Carney has done a superb job - and now that the referendum is over, he will be able to continue his work without being in the political firing-line."

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Boris Johnson's full op-ed, By Boris Johnson, originally posted in The Telegraph

I cannot stress too much that Britain is part of Europe – and always will be

This EU referendum has been the most extraordinary political event of our lifetime. Never in our history have so many people been asked to decide a big question about the nation’s future. Never have so many thought so deeply, or wrestled so hard with their consciences, in an effort to come up with the right answer.

It has been a gruelling campaign in which we have seen divisions between family and friends and colleagues – sometimes entirely amicable, sometimes, alas, less so. In the end, there was a clear result. More than 17 million people voted to leave the EU – more than have ever assented to any proposition in our democratic history. Some now cast doubt on their motives, or even on their understanding of what was at stake.

It is said that those who voted Leave were mainly driven by anxieties about immigration. I do not believe that is so. After meeting thousands of people in the course of the campaign, I can tell you that the number one issue was control – a sense that British democracy was being undermined by the EU system, and that we should restore to the people that vital power: to kick out their rulers at elections, and to choose new ones.

I believe that millions of people who voted Leave were also inspired by the belief that Britain is a great country, and that outside the job-destroying coils of EU bureaucracy we can survive and thrive as never before. I think that they are right in their analysis, and right in their choice. And yet we who agreed with this majority verdict must accept that it was not entirely overwhelming.

There were more than 16 million who wanted to remain. They are our neighbours, brothers and sisters who did what they passionately believe was right. In a democracy majorities may decide but everyone is of equal value.  We who are part of this narrow majority must do everything we can to reassure the Remainers. We must reach out, we must heal, we must build bridges – because it is clear that some have feelings of dismay, and of loss, and confusion.

I believe that this climate of apprehension is understandable, given what people were told during the campaign, but based on a profound misunderstanding about what has really taken place. At home and abroad, the negative consequences are being wildly overdone, and the upside is being ignored. The stock market is way above its level of last autumn; the pound remains higher than it was in 2013 and 2014.

The economy is in good hands. Most sensible people can see that Bank of England governor Mark Carney has done a superb job – and now that the referendum is over, he will be able to continue his work without being in the political firing-line. Thanks in large part to the reforms put in place by David Cameron and George Osborne, the fundamentals of the UK economy are outstandingly strong – a dynamic and outward-looking economy with an ever-improving skills base, and with a big lead in some of the key growth sectors of the 21st century.

We should be incredibly proud and positive about the UK, and what it can now achieve. And we will achieve those things together, with all four nations united. We had one Scotland referendum in 2014, and I do not detect any real appetite to have another one soon; and it goes without saying that we are much better together in forging a new and better relationship with the EU – based on free trade and partnership, rather than a federal system.

I cannot stress too much that Britain is part of Europe, and always will be. There will still be intense and intensifying European cooperation and partnership in a huge number of fields: the arts, the sciences, the universities, and on improving the environment. EU citizens living in this country will have their rights fully protected, and the same goes for British citizens living in the EU.

British people will still be able to go and work in the EU; to live; to travel; to study; to buy homes and to settle down. As the German equivalent of the CBI – the BDI – has very sensibly reminded us, there will continue to be free trade, and access to the single market. Britain is and always will be a great European power, offering top-table opinions and giving leadership on everything from foreign policy to defence to counter-terrorism and intelligence-sharing – all the things we need to do together to make our world safer.

The only change – and it will not come in any great rush – is that the UK will extricate itself from the EU’s extraordinary and opaque system of legislation: the vast and growing corpus of law enacted by a European Court of Justice from which there can be no appeal. This will bring not threats, but golden opportunities for this country – to pass laws and set taxes according to the needs of the UK.

Yes, the Government will be able to take back democratic control of immigration policy, with a balanced and humane points-based system to suit the needs of business and industry. Yes, there will be a substantial sum of money which we will no longer send to Brussels, but which could be used on priorities such as the NHS. Yes, we will be able to do free trade deals with the growth economies of the world in a way that is currently forbidden.

There is every cause for optimism; a Britain rebooted, reset, renewed and able to engage with the whole world. This was a seismic campaign whose lessons must be learnt by politicians at home and abroad. We heard the voices of millions of the forgotten people, who have seen no real increase in their incomes, while FTSE-100 chiefs now earn 150 times the average pay of their employees. We must pursue actively the one-nation policies that are among David Cameron’s fine legacy, such as his campaigns on the Living Wage and Life Chances. There is no doubt that many were speaking up for themselves.

But they were also speaking up for democracy, and the verdict of history will be that the British people got it right.

The hidden freeform multi-window mode found in the current developer preview builds of Android N is unlikely to official with the final release of the OS, but many advanced users hoped that Google would at least let the feature remain hidden in the OS, so that it could be activated manually.  Continue reading →

I’m sure you know the feeling — you see a link to something that looks interesting, follow it, and when it turns out to be a video clip, you shake your head and kill the tab. The problem with video is it’s just too slow. But sometimes slow is OK, and maybe video can be fixed.

This was provoked by I have found a new way to watch TV, and it changes everything by Jeff Guo, which recommends watching video, by default, in fast-forward mode. The pitch is compelling, I’ll probably pick the habit up. Right now I watch almost no Web video, but maybe that’ll change. Seriously, go read Guo’s piece, it’s challenging. Out-take: “In a way, what’s happening to video recalls what happened to literature when we stopped reading aloud, together, and started reading silently, alone.”

Voice too!

Overclocked audio is one of the big features in Marco Arment’s super-successful Overcast pod-catcher; you can get through a voice presentation immensely faster than you’d think without information loss.

Which I’d known since the Nineties. Way back in the day I was working at Open Text, which at that time was pretty well 100% server-side software. Our QA lead was this brilliant guy who happened to be blind. He was one of our major assets, but most people didn’t want to sit too near him, because he did everything with audio, only speeded up by some huge factor, so there was this continuous high-pitched gabble of ultra-fast voice reading server logs and source-code listings.

Video sucks

As a method of communicating information, I mean. When you’re using the Internet to learn about what’s happening in the world, you want words in a row.

Not everyone agrees. Check this out: “The best way to tell stories in this world, where so much information is coming at us, actually is video,” Mendelsohn said. “It conveys so much more information in a much quicker period. So actually the trend helps us to digest much more information.” That’s Facebook’s Nicola Mendelsohn.

But I’m pretty sure she’s wrong. Check out these two Tweet sequences from US political uber-blogger Josh Marshall, the first of which starts with the Mendelson assertion. Outtake: But the reality is that news consumers don't want video. It is sometimes successfully forced on them.

The second sequence, just as interesting, starts with A lot of reactions to my comment on video for news/politics sites. Some oddly sensitive from certain VC-backed outlets.

I suspect most Net-head news-junkies will agree fervently.

It doesn’t always suck

There are exceptions, chiefly live cameras pointed at live news. To this day I remember, in June 1989, sitting for hours like a garden vegetable, watching the live feed from Tiananmen Square. Same story with Gaza wars and legislative sit-ins and Olympic torch-lighting. And of course live sports; baseball can be agonizingly slow, but that’s the price of love.

What can’t you speed up?

To start with, some video. The British Film Institute helpfully lists sixteen great cinematic long cuts. I found that page by searching by “long take Tarkovsky” which will tip you off that I was profoundly moved by the six-minute one-shot (but sadly, not one take) finale of The Sacrifice.

Here’s another example: Recently Sigur Rós offered Route One (hm, that link currently doesn’t work), 24 hours of live-streamed video of a drive round Iceland, backed by their space-fluff ear-candy. The video was kind of low-rez and I’m not even a huge fan of their music, but I spent 90 minutes on Route One with them and don’t regret a second.

And so, music. Speeding up recorded music would be the lowest philistinism imaginable, but messing with a song’s speed is a long and honorable tradition. Cosider J.J. Cale’s original lilting lope through After Midnight, and compare Clapton’s live hell-for-leather dash through it on 1979’s Just One Night. I wouldn’t want the world to be without either.

The rest

For your convenience, here is a comprehensive list of things for which there’s a proper pace that really oughtn’t be sped up.

1. Eating

2. Drinking

3. … or really any path to altered states of consciousness

4. Walking in the woods

5. Any activity for which beds are designed

6. Dancing

7. Considering alternatives

I’m sure you can think of more.

 

“No country can possibly move ahead, no free society can possibly be sustained, unless it has an educated citizenry whose qualities of mind and heart permit it to take part in the complicated and increasingly sophisticated decisions that pour not only upon the President and upon the Congress, but upon all the citizens who exercise the ultimate power.”

John F. Kennedy
Commencement Address
San Diego State College
June 6, 1963

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Oculus is back on the HTC Vive, but it won’t save HTC.

• Oculus Rift apps are once again running on the HTC Vive but I do not think that this will save the Vive or HTC as the road for its VR hardware is pointing to commoditisation.
• A firmware update for the Oculus Rift prevented its apps from running on the Vive which to me made no sense as Facebook is not pursuing a hardware monetisation strategy when it comes to VR.
• I think that, for Facebook, VR is about entering a new Digital Life segment (gaming) as well as being present just in case its core social networking functions become very relevant on this form factor.
• Monetisation from understanding the data is the main point of this strategy with perhaps the sale of content and games being a nice extra.
• Hence, as Facebook does not intend to make a high margin from selling Oculus Rift hardware, it makes sense to incentivise the spread of the platform as widely as possible.
• From Facebook’s perspective, HTC is not the competition.
• Steam, Microsoft, Google, Meta Vision, Atheer Labs and Magic Leap are, as these are the platform owners.
• Consequently, the more devices that Facebook can get running Oculus, the better chance it will have at emerging as the dominant force in VR.
• This is why I believe that HTC was simply collateral damage from a software update which has now been rectified.
• However, I do not think that this will save HTC’s long lost profitability for two reasons:
  • First: I am concerned that the demand for VR units has been substantially over-estimated in the short-term.
  • Many of the usability issues with VR have yet to be overcome and I think that completely closing one-self from the real world will make most users very uncomfortable.
  • Hence, I only see it being relevant for a niche of console gamers and hard core movie fans for some time to come.
  • Second: RFM research indicates that HTC does not own the IP behind its Vive VR system.
  • Furthermore, I believe that the deal that it has signed with Steam is non-exclusive meaning that anyone can make the same product.
  • Hence, none of the games or the user experience will be exclusive to HTC, meaning that it could easily fall victim to the same commoditisation that has destroyed its Android handset business.
• HTC competitors in VR are bigger, better financed and in many cases they also own the platform.
• Should VR become really popular then every Chinese Internet and consumer electronics company is likely to jump on the band wagon and make a device indistinguishable from the Vive.
• This means rapid commoditisation with 2-4% operating margins in the best instance.
• This outcome is clearly way below what market is hoping for as HTC has enjoyed a substantial rally in the share price driven by VR hopes and market hype.
• I continue to believe that a fair value for HTC is to be found around its net cash balance which currently stands at NT39bn.
• With its market capitalisation currently at NT79bn, I think that there is substantial downside in HTC and would use the current hopes to exit.
• Facebook, on the other hand, is building what could be the biggest ecosystem of them all but I think that the shares could trade lower (see here) before any of this long term upside is realised.

Ich habe heute das Auto waschen lassen und dabei steht man halt ein paar Minuten rum, in der das Hirn was anderes verarbeiten kann. Soso, 66 km pro Tank. Sternchen. Lesen wir mal das Kleingedruckte:

Basiert auf einem Tank mit einer Reichweite von 850 km. Aha. Und wenn es bis zu 66 km sind, wieviel sind es dann im Minimum und im Durchschnitt?

37 km im Durchschnitt. Und ja, vom Fahrzeug und Fahrstil abhängig. Bringt also wahrscheinlich gar nichts. Aber rechnen wir mal. Statt 850 km dann im Durchschnitt 887 km. Das sind 887/850 = 1,04 oder 4 Prozent mehr. Und wie ist der Aufpreis?

125,9 ct statt 113,9 ct. Macht 125,9/113,9 = 1,11 oder 11 Prozent teurer. Selbst der Ausreißer mit bis zu 66 km mehr kommt nur auf 916/850 = 1,08 oder 8 Prozent. Ist also selbst dann ein schlechtes Geschäft, wenn man an diese wundersame Reichweitenerhöhung glaubt.

Diese Ultimate-Treibstoffe sind ein Produkt für Leute, die im fortgeschrittenen Alter höhere Sampling-Raten abonnieren.

While Uber has stated repeatedly that it had no intention of forgetting about surge pricing, it seems that the company is heading in that direction.

To replace surge pricing, the Uber app will tell customers exactly how much their ride will cost, rather than forcing them to add it up themselves. Though prices will fluctuate, Uber claims that this approach is more transparent for the rider.

The new prices will still fluctuate based on demand, but riders will now know exactly what they’ll be paying for a ride. TechCrunch reports that the price is based on expected time, distance, traffic, the number of riders requesting rides at that time and the number of drivers available nearby.

Uber will also allow drivers to update the app if you change your destination in the middle of the ride, which will send the customer a notification from the app with the change in price.

Hundreds of thousands of riders in Miami, San Diego, Seattle, New Jersey, New York and some of the bigger cities in India have apparently already received the update, but the price transparency feature will be rolling out globally in the coming months.

Related reading: Uber working with Quebec government to develop pilot project for ride-sharing services

Twitter has 310 million active users on its platform and is viewed by many as a quick way to engage with real-time news, or, on the content creator side of the service, to connect with an audience.

The company recently announced various enhancements to its service but the latest addition gives the impression Twitter desires to attract a younger audience in an effort to compete directly with social media platforms like Snapchat and Facebook.

In the coming weeks, Twitter has plans to bring “Stickers” to its users, which the company notes is “a fun new way to add creativity to your photos and connect them to the world on Twitter.” Stickers are to to launch on Android and iOS at some point in the near future, according to Twitter. Desktop users will be limited to only being able to view and click on stickers.

Stickers are accessed inside Twitter’s photo editing section, which includes a library accessories, props, filters, tags, cartoons, images, and emojis, all available to add to images. Users are able to place multiple stickers on photos and they can also be resized and rotated.

“After you Tweet a photo with stickers on it, your photo becomes searchable in a new, visual spin on the hashtag. Tapping on a sticker in a Tweet takes you to a new timeline, where you can see how people all over the world use that sticker in different ways,” said Twitter in a statement sent to MobileSyrup.

“For many users, photo sharing is a big part of the Twitter experience and stickers will help bring new layers of fun to the photos they upload,” said Rory Capern, managing director for Twitter Canada.

There is no indication yet if Twitter will monetize Stickers with themes packs or via promotional events, which includes its recent foray into sports with through its recent NFL contract.

Stickers is another example of how Twitter is expanding its feature offerings in an effort to attract more users. Twitter also recently launched the ability for users to Retweet their own Tweets, and also has plans to make changes to the social network’s standard 140 character limit.

This Festival is coming, with a mission to “Transform the way art is seen in our city”.

This summer we will create more than 30 murals on 20 buildings in the Mount Pleasant and Main Street Area. 

Thanks to strong partnerships with the City of Vancouver, Mount Pleasant Business Improvement Area, and Burrard Arts Foundation on August 20th the event of the summer will bring Vancouver’s thriving young art scene out into the open for everyone to see, transforming how art is seen in our city.

But more than murals is underway via City of Vancouver.  

Mayor Gregor Robertson will support City staff recommendations that will give a significant boost to Vancouver’s Public Art program. Staff are asking Council to approve $1.5 million to be spent through 2018, $755,000 of which will be spent on projects enabled or installed by this summer. One of the signature projects the City will support is the first-ever Vancouver Mural Festival, the city’s largest not for profit celebration of street art, with a $200,000 grant that will see over 30 murals created in Mount Pleasant this summer.

Previous work involving the Burrard Arts Foundation.

Die 'großen' Dyson Akkusauger haben eine elektrisch angetriebene Motordüsen, die ihrem Strom über zwei Kontakte im Rohr beziehen. Und dieser Anschluss hat sich vom Modell DC62 zum V6 geändert. Damit sind die Rohre und Düsen nicht mehr beliebig austauschbar. Links sieht man das Rohr des DC62 und die Carbonbürste, rechts das Rohr des V6 und die Fluffy-Düse.

Ich will jetzt nicht alle Kombinationen von Rohren und Düsen aufzählen, die funktionieren und nicht funktionieren. Was bei mir geht:

1. Die Fluffy-Düse passt an die Rohre von DC62 und V6.
2. Die Carbon-Bürste passt nur an das Rohr des DC62.
3. Das Rohr des V6 passt an DC62 und V6.
4. Das Rohr des DC62 passt nur an den DC62.

Mit anderen Worten: das alte stromführende Zubehör passt nicht an den neueren Sauger, das neue Zubehör aber an den alten. Ein Schuft würde jetzt schließen, dass Dyson gerne neues Zubehör verkaufen will.

Wie man sieht, hat das neue Zubehör auch nur zwei Kontakte. Elektrisch sind alle untereinander verträglich, der Unterschied liegt nur im Plastik. Und mit ein bisschen Dremeln lässt sich das sicher auch anpassen. DC62 und V6 sind ansonsten augenscheinlich baugleich. Die Netzteile sind identisch, der Aufbau auch.

Die Vorgänger des DC62, also etwa der DC45 sind deutlich anders. Sie haben ein anderes Netzteil, einen anderen Akku und einen großen Vormotorfilter, der nicht in der Mitte des Zyklons sondern zwischen Staubbehälter und Motor eingebaut ist. Er hat soviel ich weiß inkompatibles Zubehör und lässt sich nicht mit Carbonbürste oder Fluffy nachrüsten. Das kann ich nicht verifizieren, weil ich dieses Modell nicht habe. Der ähnlich aufgebaute DC30 (Plömp) hat keine Anschlüsse für eine elektrische Motordüse.

keyframedaily:

1983 exhibition.

Brigitte Helm in Fritz Lang’s Metropolis (1927).

We have another data point on the way, so it might suddenly go silent around these parts soon. There was a sursprising amount of downtime with the first data point, with naps and feeding and such, so I was able to keep going. But I expect my hands to be more full this time, because, well, two data points.

A video posted by Stanley Chua (@therealtikboy) on Jun 25, 2016 at 2:19pm PDT

Skytrain carwash at Braid!

I had a little time on my hands to visit two bike shops in the same area of Tokyo that I had found on the web. The first was Tokyo Wheels, just a little east of Akihabara, near Asakusabashi station.

The first thing that I noticed was there were three unlocked bikes out front that I think belonged to the shop. Most notable was this Seven Ti mountain bike, again totally unlocked.

The tagline for the shop is “closet for cyclists and riders”, and that is more or less what it was, with a good selection of cyclist oriented clothing, ranging from a bit of racer clothing to Bradley Wiggins branded polo shirts.

Aside from some typical US brands such as Chrome or Mission Workshop, there were many Japanese brands, including an in house “Tokyo Wheels” Label. I almost went for a blue blazer in thin stretch fabric, but I was a bit put off by a zipper down the centre of the upper back that could be opened for venting. As an alternative, I’m going to take a look at the ultralight suite jacket from Uniqlo if I have the chance.

I also liked this small wheeled ebike with drop bars and brifters.

The second shop was Nois Bike which was oriented towards family cycling.

They have their own line of bikes that are based on smaller wheels, mini velo style, that makes a lot of sense in a city like Tokyo.

Here is their Nois Mama Retro model.

and an e-assist bike with one kid seat.

Inside there were lots of kid bike things such as the Yepp Maxi seat, and some nice stride bikes from Rennrad.

One of the main reasons I wanted to drop by was this photo that was posted to their FB page a while ago.

that links to a description of their small wheeled cargobike.  Unfortunately, they didn’t have any in stock. The only thing they had was this picture on the wall.

Salesman Kenji apologized, and said that they were in the middle of a model change, and new frames would not be delivered until later in the summer. He said that the Gen II model would make it easier to mount a Yepp kid seat, it would come with generator lighting, and a few other refinements.  From the pictures, there is a lot to like about this design, with the frame mounted front basket and the sturdy looking rack. Retail seems to be 97,000 yen, which is about $1234 CAN at Brexit devalued exchange rates.

Here is Kenji with his personal ride, a brushed aluminum Birdy.

I wish Nois bikes success in their cargobike venture. The Japanese market for kid transport is dominated lately by e-assist dual 20″ wheeled bikes, with two kid seats. These are more common now than the last time I was in Japan, two years ago.

It will be interesting to see if Japanese moms will spring for what is to my eyes a more stylish alternative. Hopefully this small company can carve out a separate niche in the market.

 

 

mkalus shared this story from SPIEGEL ONLINE - Schlagzeilen.

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I grew up watching a lot of Star Trek. It would be an understatement to say that the franchise was a big part of my life. Immediately after the last episode of Star Trek: Voyager I cut off my hair. I took Enterprise as a personal insult. If I saw J.J. Abrams I’d probably try to blind him with a strobe light while yelling, “How’s that lens flare working for you?!” I was feeling much more optimistic about the new TV series incarnation under Bryan Fuller until a couple days ago when, in an interview with Collider he told a reporter asking about casting decisions: “I’ve met with a few actors, and it’s an interesting process. There’s a few people that we like and we want to carry on what Star Trek does best, which is being progressive. So it’s fascinating to look at all of these roles through a colorblind prism and a gender-blind prism, so that’s exciting.” I try not to notice the color of flags but I’m pretty sure I’m seeing red ones.

After watching the whole rope-side interview and reading the transcript it seems that when he says “___-blind prism” Fuller is talking about an inclusionary and diverse cast. He goes on to clarify: “I think the progressive audience that loves Star Trek will be happy that we’re continuing that tradition.” This is faint reassurance. What a “progressive audience” wants out of Star Trek may not necessarily be what a diverse audience wants. Well-meaning, white progressive writers, producers, and directors, will not do the same work as a production team with diverse representation. Put another way, it is fine and right that the cast be diverse but who is behind the camera and holding the pen is just as (maybe even more) important here. The progressiveness that I heard in that interview sounded more like white people being generous: a working “for” rather than a working “with.”

As our last two essays from Apryl Williams and Jenny Davis on the newest season of Orange is the New Black (spoilers in both) have argued: having non-white characters—even a lot of them—does not get you anywhere near good race politics. What it usually delivers, in the words of Williams, are “[black people’s] stories but from a white perspective.” We can expect the same from Star Trek given that everyone working on the show (so far) is white:

The utopia depicted in the Star Trek universe is largely the construction of the white men that wrote the majority of the episodes and it is in danger of getting worse not better. So far it already hasn’t met the expectations set by its predecessors: The original series was one of the first science fiction television series with a woman as a writer and black actors like Avery Brooks, Michael Dorn, and LeVar Burton have all directed multiple episodes, many of which garnered the most accolades. Star Trek accomplished a lot with a stable of writers that woefully underrepresented the audiences it attracted and spoke to.

Moreover, if the Star Trek of 2016 is going to be as groundbreaking as it was half a century ago, it will have to achieve something beyond fair hiring practices. It would be a missed opportunity to hire everyone that does not identify as white and male, and interrogate the same utopia. The very foundations, the very premise of the Star Trek universe needs to shift and reveal the underlying mechanism that make this particular utopia work.

The franchise must undergo a shift on the order of what happened in the mid-nineties. What Trek writers called “leaving the Roddenberry Box.” Former producer Michael Piller, in an unpublished manuscript about working on the show, describes the box like this:

Roddenberry was adamant that Twenty-Fourth Century man would evolve past the petty emotional turmoil that gets in the way of our happiness today. Well, as any writer will tell you, ‘emotional turmoil’, petty and otherwise, is at the core of any good drama. It creates conflict between characters. But Gene didn’t want conflict between our characters. “All the problems of mankind have been solved,” he said. “Earth is a paradise.”

Now, go write drama.

PIller goes on to say that he actually came to respect and even be the final champion of the Roddenberry Box until he left amongst what he calls a “writers’ rebellion of sorts” after the second season of Voyager. The writers said they had to be let out of the box and both series that were running at the time, Voyager and Deep Space Nine, got immensely better. They got better not because they left the box behind, the show got better because the writers put characters in competing positions to justify the box. Utopia had to be defended.

While The Next Generation is undoubtedly a good show, the later seasons of Deep Space Nine and Voyager have a richness that made them more thought-provoking. Both of these series are meditations on justifying received values with none of the prerequisite material support that makes those values work. How do post-scarcity ethics work when you’re stranded far away from home? What does it mean to uphold exploration as your highest ideal when you are at war? To what lengths will you go to defend utopia? These shows were, as far as I can remember, the last popular pieces of culture that asked us to think in utopian terms. We need that again, especially given how shaky everything feels as of late.

Ronald D. Moore, one of the most strident critics of the Roddenberry Box, eventually ended up being one of the most prominent writers and left an indelible mark on the series. If this new series is going to do what Star Trek should do—push boundaries about what is politically, culturally, and socially possible—then we will need a shift of similar proportions and scope. What have we been missing in this utopia? What remains stubbornly scarce in a post-scarcity utopia? In a world where you can transport across the planet in a fraction of a second, what keeps regional cultures alive? Is Sisko’s Creole Kitchen more like an Olive Garden in Tuscany—a chain restaurant mimicking what it is situated in—or is that no longer a useful distinction? Is whatever we might call “Italian culture” today enacted solely in places like the Olive Garden in the 24^th century? Might we be disgusted by a society that is utterly and completely free and happy? I want to see those stories.

Star Trek was never progressive, it was utopian. It makes sense though that Fuller would characterize Star Trek as both “progressive” and “color blind” because that is, in a sense, what Gene Roddenberry had made in retrospect. But at the time it was not merely progressive, it was utopian. Utopias, like the Roddenberry Box, don’t just let us display the final result of a certain kind of politics, they let us interrogate the very foundations of our politics. They let us bring ideas to their logical and illogical conclusions and, in so doing, gives us a crucible in which to crush them up, mix them, and come up with brand new ideas. Utopic story telling should not be blind to anything: it should meet race, class, gender, and any other social structure head on and complicate it beyond comprehension. What comes out the other side should be a little unnerving, exciting, and dangerous. Exactly what the future should be.

David is on Twitter: @da_banks

 

Today we went out and about town (mainly around Shibuya) but it was also an opportunity for me to try the newest version of the Koto-Ku bikeshare system. The procedure now requires that you register with a credit card, and the process is also much easier if you have an RFID readable card. I used my PASMO card.

You’ll notice a couple of differences from the last time I posted about this system. The first is that more of the electronics have been moved onto the bikes themselves, and there is no kiosk at the bikeshare station. The second and more significant change is that the bikes are now e-bikes.

In order to use the system, you have to register as a user online, and use a credit card. This site gives some instructions in english of how to go about this, but the menus seem to have changed a bit since the webpage was put up.

This is how the webpage at docomo-cycle.jp looks like on my phone. Click on the button to login, and then it will take you to the registration page.

The login page page has a “register” button.

and then you’ll go through a series of pages like this one where you enter your account information. One note is that your password has to be at least 8 alphanumeric characters with at least one number and one letter.

I’m already forgetting the details of the pages, but one thing that I can say is that it took my Canadian credit card number, my Canadian phone number (entered as +1416xxxxxxx) and a random Japanese style zipcode.  Once you register, you will get an email. At the same time, look for the option to register a membership card (such as PASMO), and then you will get a second email with an 8 digit code that you will use once to register the card.

There is an alternative option to reserve a bike at a particular station, and you will get a shorter number code that has to be used with a particular bike. This would be a hassle as each of the stations that I saw had many bikes. To finish registering the card, you go up to a bike, press START and then ENTER, enter the code and then put the card on the reader. The prompts will appear briefly in both Japanese and English.

Here we’re ready to go.

Yes, the bikes are still Bridgestone, but the e-drive was labeled Yamaha.

Here is the control panel. The green button turns the system on, the up and down arrows toggle the motor between strong, medium and “eco” modes. I used strong. The black button toggles the display between %battery, remaining range in km, and speed.

This was my first time on a pedalec and it was a revelation. The system applies quite a bit of torque upon launch, so it was very easy to accelerate from a standstill. We made the 1.5 km ride to the subway station in record time, and with no sweating.

When you dock the bike, you have to look for the green LED’s to light up to show you that the bike is registered with the local wifi associated with the station. Once you see the green light, you can engage the wheel lock, and then you are done. You don’t have to dock the bike at a rack, since the racks are just simple wheel holders.

Here is the entrance to the underground bike parking at Toyosu station (some of us were not on rental bikes).

and the bike turnstiles.

Destination was Shibuya, and for me, that means Tokyu Hands.

Just a few pictures of the bike area.

also some leather hairnets from Rin Project.

Tokyu hands has almost everything that you can imagine for sale. Here are some shells to save you the trouble of beachcombing.

After some more shopping, we walked south to the trendy Daikanyama neighbourhood. We came upon the Log Road development, which is a new strip of shops on land that became available when a section of the Toyoko line was shifted underground several years ago. This was an incredible civil engineering project, where the actual shift of the tracks was done in the four hours between the last train at 1 am, and the first the same morning at 5 am.

Here are a few stylish but very heavy designer kid bikes. If you want a kid bike that has a Jones H bar styled handlebars, this is your place.

The southwest end of the development is anchored by the Spring Valley Brewery.

Through the windows, you can see where the rail line goes underground.

The brew pub itself was very modern, and it was packed. We were lucky to get in without a reservation.

These tanks were named Schroeder, Linus and Lucy.

and this is a flight of today’s beers.

My favourite was the second one from the right “Daydream” which was scented with yuzu, as well as a peppery seasoning.

You can also choose to have a few of the beers infused with flavour. Here is a beer being infused with cilantro. Fun, but not to my taste.

The food here was also very good.  This was our last course.

Afterwards we walked around more shops in the area.

This doesn’t look like a real Surly.

A bike with space to carry a purse built into the frame.

An e-bike store. Now I know the word for a pedalec is ‘denchari’.

Nearby was an elaborate branch of the Tsutaya bookstore. Here, for example, is an entire wall of fountain pens on display and for sale.

Heading home, we are back at the bike parking to retrieve two kid bikes.

A touch of the PASMO card unlocks a bike.

This is a bad picture, so you can’t see that I’m starting off with 7% charge. I was told that this was not unusual late in the day (it was about 8:30 pm) and that batteries get swapped out for new ones each night.

Almost home.

Once again, when dropping off the bike, make sure you see the green LEDs, then lock the bike, and press ENTER and you are done.

The e-bikes certainly made the trip easier: each way they turned what would have been a hot, sweaty 15 minute walk into a 5 minute easy ride.

Postscript: for 5 single trips over three days, I was charged 150 yen each, which totalled 810 yen including the consumption tax. Also you will get an email in Japanese updating your status every time you check out or check in. They are going to try to have good English translation for all steps in the process before the 2020 Olympics roll around.

Eric Johnson, Recode, Jun 29, 2016

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I know a lot of people will want this to be true but it's not. I've been inspired by various people over time: John Lennon. Doug Gilmour. Neil Young. Arsinio Hall. Jose Bautista. These are my role models. These are (among others) the people who inspire me. Not one of them is a teacher. Ergo, one does not need teachers in order to be inspired. I don't think that the field of education understands, in general, how much of what it does is also done by parents, role models, friends, professional associates, and more. If the core function - to teach - can be performed by a machine, then the ancillary functions - motivation, inspiration, socialization, etc. - can be performed by everyone else in society. And, indeed, should be performed by everyone else in society.

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Tony Bates, online learning and distance education resources, Jun 28, 2016

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I think I've always known this, but Tony Bates, who has a foot placed firmly in each camp, has the data to support it: "open, online publishing will almost certainly reach more readers than a commercial publication or an academic journal." FWIW  this is probably the one and only time I'll ever be lumped in with  Justin Bieber and  Donald Trump. Good plug for the BC Campus Open Textbook Project.

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William Eamon, Aeon, Jun 28, 2016

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Interesting thesis: "by elaborating mechanical processes and spelling out how things worked – in striking contrast to the well-documented secrecy of the guilds – writers began to transform the mechanical arts from personal know-how into scientific knowledge... The world of the crafts – like that of politics – lost its magic; it broke free of its yoke to the divine.... Because secularisation subverted the notion of cosmic and metaphysical order, the rise of how-to books sowed the seeds of a more open and tolerant view of humanity."

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Apple is touting emoji predictions for iOS 10. Did you know that BlackBerry PRIV has Emoji predictions at the keyboard level? That means they work everywhereand both with the hardware as well as the soft keyboard.