Penelope Fitzgerald visits David Lodge territory and returns in triumph. It’s 1912, and Fred Fairly, promising young Cambridge scientist and junior fellow, has crashed his bicycle. He wakes up in bed beside a strapping young woman, Daisy Saunders. Naturally, Fred’s college is the last holdout at Cambridge to insist that all its fellows remain celibate, and naturally Fred falls immediately in love. A very good time is had by all.
Ben was kind enough to buy me these two lovely drawings for my birthday; the twin pillars of my Soho life Bar Italia and Bar Bruno (pictured before its latest revamp). They're by Eleanor Crow who does gorgeous stuff. Thanks Ben!
I just stumbled into MIT Media Lab’s PubPub service that is an open platform for writing new research journals. It has some nice collaborative features, versioning, embraces markdown at its core, and inline discussions.
Social Circles
One of the pieces I really want to explore is how its social dimensions work. My my take on different things I write and have interest in have different social circles that I want to ping and get feedback from. But, there are subjects and groups / communities that I really would like to participate in as well. This is a more complicated and complex area that really needs work and focus. Google+ tried this but deeply flubbed it as their circles are based on individual’s perspectives and not socially constructed realities (knowing the boundaries of who is involved in a circle and having really solid social interaction design around that is a basic requirement, something nobody at Google seemed to consider nor have basic foundations in social sciences to understand this basic need). For PubPub, getting these constructs right would be really helpful and make it a really powerful service and platform.
Other than PubPub
PubPub is fairly close to what I was hoping Poetica would become and Draft app. I’ve been thinking about this for The Lenses and its subset, Social Lenses writings. Also just being able to write blogs and get knowledgeable sanity checks on them from others before posting. This is something I was trying to do with Draft app and had some success with people who are familiar with markdown (which is most people I interact with), but alerting people or subsets of groups that there is something I would really like early looks at and feedback is where it falls a bit short. It also seems like Nate Kontny is now more focussed on Highrise (light CRM service that he took over and now is CEO) than Draft. Also with the purchase of Poetica and its imminent shuttering, I’m looking at other options.
Some of what I have interest in can be found in Medium, but I’d rather just syndicate there, given their use policy. Medium is a really nice content creation platform, with some okay drafting with feedback capabilities, but I’m looking for a bit more. I also really prefer Markdown approach these days as it keeps things really light and I can edit and work on writing from most any platform I have with me or at my access, even if I’m lacking a network connection (which is something that is really helpful for focus for me actually).
One PubPub Wish
The one thing I wish PubPub had was an open source version where I owned the platform and could run it on a server of my choosing. But, it looks like this is in the plans (a few bugs need to be squashed on their way to this), as the PubPub About page states.
Amazon’s latest experiment is showing signs of success but to really hit the big time, Alexa needs to get much smarter.
The Amazon Echo has been around for just over a year and the fact that Amazon has launched two companion products along the same lines is a sign that at last it has a hit on its hands.
The Amazon Echo is a physical embodiment of Amazon’s personal assistant called Alexa that sits inside the home and is voice controlled.
Alexa is capable of answering questions, playing music through its built in high quality speaker, order goods from Amazon, read the news, control smart devices in the home and so on.
I think that a key element in its success has been Amazon’s open approach where third parties have found it reasonably easy to access the device and to put their apps and services on it.
There are now 300 third party functions that can run upon the Echo and Amazon is also happy for the AI that powers Alexa to be implemented into third party devices.
The problem is that these third party functions are stand-alone apps that are merely using the microphone and speech recognition to interact with the user.
For example the user can’t just say “Alexa, I am cold” and have Nest turn the thermostat up.
Instead he has to tell Alexa to open the Nest app first, tell it what he wants, and then close it again.
For this to become a vibrant smart home ecosystem, Amazon will have to figure out how to get all of these functions working seamlessly together (RFM’s Laws of Robotics 5 and 6).
I think that the Echo has been successful because it is a good speaker at a reasonable price and because the quality of its voice recognition is superb.
However, what holds Alexa back is the fact that in the grand scheme of things, it is pretty dumb.
Alexa has a funny habit of simply falling silent when it does not know the answer to a certain enquiry and its hit rate when it does answer is way below what Google Now can produce.
The other problem with Alexa is that it is listening all the time.
That means that anyone that hacks the device will have managed to install a very high quality, always on microphone inside the user’s house.
Furthermore, the user can never really be certain who is listening as disconnecting the microphone obviates the point of having the device in the first place.
The bottom line is that Google Now in a similar piece of hardware is likely to produce a far better experience as I think that Google’s AI is by far the best in the market today.
This combined with Google’s understanding of what is needed in terms of service and data integration would also allow 3rd party services to work together and greatly enhance the overall experience.
However, there is no sign of a similar product coming from Google as Nest remains focused on single use products relying on a smartphone to stitch them all together.
Given the popularity of Echo, perhaps it should think again.
Amnesty International today announced a new #360Syria “virtual tour” website showing the devastation brought by Syrian government barrel bombing of the besieged city of Aleppo. The website demonstration, called “Fear of the Sky” (www.360Syria.com), is built using Mozilla A-Frame technology.
Websites like #360Syria, that allow viewers to take a virtual tour of the devastated city of Aleppo, are a significant new use case for WebVR. Technology gives people a voice where otherwise there is none. It brings a new level of visibility and greater levels of empathy to real-life situations.
The #360Syria website comprises specially-created 360-degree photography, narration, sound recordings, 3-D data graphics and videos gathered by Amnesty-trained Syrian media activists. The site was created in partnership with San Francisco design and technology company Junior (www.junior.io).
A-Frame is an open source framework that simplifies WebVR development and enables easy creation of WebVR experiences with HTML. Because A-Frame is built around building blocks that can be extended and combined into limitless combinations, it provides a high degree of creative freedom.It is designed and maintained by MozVR (Mozilla’s virtual reality research team) and optimizes for a smooth learning curve between ease-of-use for developers who are new to virtual reality technology and increased flexibility for advanced developers.
At Mozilla one of our goals is to bring high-performance, responsive virtual reality technology to the open Web. We launched A-Frame, an open source library for creating virtual reality Web experiences, so that Web developers could create virtual reality websites from a single line of HTML code and bypass complex 3D APIs like WebGL.
Our hope is that A-Frame provides a constructive contribution to a growing pantheon of WebVR development tools, helping to grow the number of VR Web developers and experiences.
Making things used to be difficult—and you had to work through challenges on your own. There weren’t many learning resources. Self-publishing options were limited. You couldn’t edit video unless you had expensive hardware. The tabs for songs weren’t downloadable. As a result, not too many bothered. In fact, making stuff used to be uncool and nerdy.
Now, everything’s possible. This makes some of my generation (and those before it) jealous of those who’re young—because they have access to tools and resources we didn’t. Sure, I appreciate the new tools, means of distribution, and ability to connect with others. I also bemoan how creativity is now a sort of lifestyle choice. It all seems so self-congratulatory. Whereas, I still feel like it’s something you do for its own sake.
Let me clarify: Everyone should know the joy of making things. I don’t want to take that away from anyone. Unfortunately, most don’t so much make things as they pretend to. Instagram, for example, allows you to (sort of) make something—and get rewarded for it. But, it’s actually a short-cut that’s not all that worthwhile.
Let’s go back to the mid-’90s, for a moment. I spent a lot of time then painting in my basement. Someone might drop by and go, “oh, I like that one.” Mostly, though, I was on my own. At the end of a year, or so, I’d amassed a body of work. I’d then rent a space and put on an exhibit of my own. This took about 4 months to prepare for. Or, I could apply for a gallery show. If accepted, the show would take place about 2 years later. Some would visit the exhibit and say something nice. These moments were gratifying, but fleeting. Mostly, I spent time in my studio, listening to music, drinking coffee, and working.
Contrast this with how we now show what we’ve “made.” I take a nice photo of a rock, meal, or sunset. Then, I apply a filter and press Share. In less than two minutes, anyone in the world can see this image. A moment later, I’ll see names next to a heart… Instant gratification! This should be amazing, but it’s not—because it circumvents the important part of the creative process.
What matters most in any creative endeavor, is the making. That’s the magic. That’s when you achieve a flow state. That’s when you might discover something new. And, for someone like me—who’s not spiritual—this is a powerful experience. It’s the closest I get to feeling a deep sense of connection to the world around me.
Services like Instagram make the creation part easy. Actually, that’s inaccurate: Services like Instagram offer the illusion of creation. Instagram isn’t a place for great photographs. Instead, these are mediocre snapshots, with a filter taking care of the rest. You’re not making anything when you use Instagram (or any of its analogs). You’re just using someone else’s product.
Services like this have trained us to expect immediate gratification—without needing to do any of the hard work. Look at other things that do that, and you’ll see why this is cause for concern: Crib notes. Fast food. Books on tape, Fat burning “shaker” machines. Meal replacements. Gondolas that get you to the view—without needing to hike. Vitamins. Cholesterol medication. The short-cut might get you to a similar end-point, but it’s not the same as if you did the work for yourself.
So, I’m kind of offended by pop-up shops, hipsters, artisan products, beards (I know… I know…), skinny jeans, Shoreditching, “creativity” apps, homogenized style, and all this pretend artistry. Because, it’s all bullshit. Those I know who make stuff don’t look that creative—because they’re more interested in actually making stuff. Whereas, those who look creative tend to be posers and hacks.
I’m not immune to the shortcuts of the day. Truth is, I kind of feel good when I post a neat looking photo on Instagram—even though I know I’m cheating. For a while, I played with a camera, taking what I consider real photos. They aren’t necessarily any good, nor are they as finished as the ones I have on Instagram. But, to me, they feel real. That’s in part because I made decisions about shutter speed, aperture, aspect ratio, size, color, contrast, composition, cropping, and edits; whereas, in the square ones, I mostly chose whichever presets looked nicest.
I also spend way too much time on Twitter. I do this because I can get a quip down while it’s still fresh in my mind. But, I can’t pretend that I don’t enjoy seeing such a thing retweeted. Again, though, this is an empty gesture. Even if your tweet goes viral, it’s still not a substantive work. Yet, a Twitter personality with 100k followers might convince himself that his activity on this network is of real significance.
Will this change? No. Most of us would rather buy a new pair of runners than go for a run. So, selfie-sticks are here to stay. Snapchat will get even bigger. And those who believe “personal branding” to be a meaningful activity aren’t going to change their minds.
But, some of us are here for the run itself, and not the medal/t-shirt that others sport as a token of accomplishment. Why do these people bother? Why do they put in the time, and toil, when they could instead take a short-cut? If I need to explain it to you, you’ll probably never know.
Christmas comes early every other year for camera enthusiasts in the form of Photokina. (This year scheduled for September 20-25th.)
As I’ve written before, virtually every camera maker realigned their thinking for 2016 and onward, and we’ve now started seeing how products reflect their new ideas for moving forward.
The following is a press release recently recieved from Modo
Millennials decidedly more likely to embrace benefits of carsharing than older residents
Vancouver, B.C. (March 10, 2016) – Growing exposure to carsharing in recent years is changing the perceptions of Metro Vancouver drivers, who may be considering selling their personal vehicles in favour of carsharing, according to a new Insights West poll conducted in partnership with Modo, Vancouver’s first and only carsharing co-operative.
In the online survey of a representative sample, 13 per cent of Metro Vancouverites say they have relied on carsharing to get around the region over the past year—a proportion that reaches 22 per cent among Millennials (residents aged 18-to-34). With Millennials feeling the financial squeeze in an increasingly expensive region, and with 70 per cent agreeing that carsharing is “an attractive option for people in my age group”, carsharing among this demographic is expected to rise sharply.
Even Metro Vancouverites who have not yet tried carsharing believe it offers significant benefits, with two thirds (65%) perceiving it as “less hassle than owning a car” and a majority citing the importance of savings from fuel costs (62%) and vehicle maintenance (57%). Half of Metro Vancouverites also say carsharing reduces traffic and congestion (49%) and provides easy access to parking (also 49%); which is a positive trend in a region striving to be seen as green, sustainable and most importantly, livable.
“Our members love that we offer them the flexibility to enjoy a less car-dependent lifestyle. They can drive one of our 450 different Modos – from sports cars to SUVs – when they need to without being tied down financially to owning and maintaining a private vehicle,” says Selena McLachlan, Director of Marketing & Business Development at Modo.
McLachlan says that it’s no surprise that the cost savings of carsharing are a highly ranked benefit among the general public. The survey found that seven-in-ten Metro Vancouverites (72%) say they would rather spend their money on other things than car maintenance.
“With the average cost of car ownership hovering around $9,000 per year, it’s easy to see why so many people are making the switch to carsharing and why we’ve experienced steady growth in our membership for the last nearly twenty years. For many of our 15,000 members, the decision to carshare is simply one of pragmatism,” comments McLachlan.
According to the survey, the majority of Metro Vancouver car owners (57%) acknowledged that the benefits of carsharing would make them contemplate selling their car, including 85% of Millennials and 55% of Generation Xers. Savings from vehicle maintenance (37%) and fuel costs (34%) are the most attractive features of carsharing among car owners who would consider shedding their vehicle.
“Carsharing is definitely growing across Metro Vancouver and as people are becoming more familiar with its benefits, their attitudes towards personal vehicle ownership are changing,” says Mario Canseco, Vice President, Public Affairs, at Insights West. “Most Metro Vancouverites younger than 55 are pondering whether it is a good time to vacate the garage and start carsharing.”
As part of the study, a separate survey was conducted with a sample of Modo members, which shows that they are already experiencing the benefits that other Metro Vancouver car owners (who are not yet carsharing) are attracted to, with more than four-in-five saying that saving on vehicle maintenance is important to them (84%) and that carsharing is “less hassle than owning a car” (82%).
Add this to their ability to conveniently book a different kind of Modo for every type of trip – from a sporty Fiat Abarth to a practical Honda CRV – in advance or on the fly, the case for signing up as a member becomes even more compelling. It’s clear that carsharing is changing the transportation landscape in the region and that many residents are seeing this as a positive. Across Metro Vancouver, just under half of residents (47%) consider carsharing as an important part of their city’s transportation choices.
I recently watched this documentary and I really enjoyed it. I am no way interested in politics and I haven't even been keeping up with what is going on in the presidential election. Not because I am undereducated on the issues or current ...
I am a Vancouverite, born and raised in the city. I believe Vancouver is one of the most beautiful cities in the world, as confirmed by recent livability reports. I also believe that Vancouver is populated by educated, eco-conscious and health conscious people who are committed to preserving this treasure for future generations. So, why […]
It can be easy to lose track of how technology changes lives. Apple takes great care to make products that are accessible, leading by example, and encouraging third-party developers to embrace accessibility, both at WWDC, and by maintaining APIs that make it easy to do so.
But the technical details are impersonal and abstract, which is why it is good to reflect on the real impact Apple's efforts have on individuals. James Rath, a 20-year-old filmmaker who was born legally blind, made a short film about what the accessibility features across all of Apple's products have meant to him since he and his family made an impromptu visit to an Apple Store in 2009:
From the early days of Square, we built a discipline in data science that allowed us to take a differentiated approach to risk management, and thus reduce the barriers to entry for our sellers to accept credit cards. Our data scientists are constantly building new models, and then analyzing and acting on the data we receive – not only to manage risk, but to build new products for our sellers. This has allowed us to offer innovative financial services on top of payment processing, from Square Capital, to Instant Deposit, to Chargeback Protection, that help our sellers grow.
So we are thrilled that the Framed Data team has joined Square. Framed Data built an incredible product rooted in machine learning to help businesses predict customer engagement and prescribe marketing actions. Like Square, the Framed Data team believes that using data insights and machine learning to help customers improve their businesses creates immense value and empowers business owners to make better decisions.
The Framed Data team will work on Square Capital, building models that allow us to further extend financing to businesses, including those that would otherwise find it difficult or impossible through traditional banking. This approach helps accelerate growth for underserved businesses and empowers them to increase participation in their local economies. Welcome to the team!
By way of introduction, in the city’s urban-affairs milieu I am probably best-known for the 1990 book Vanishing Vancouver and its 2012 sequel; I cobble together a living from book royalties, speaking fees, and artwork sales, although I’m mostly occupied now with creating graphic novels since the publication of Toshiko last summer. I was born in Vancouver, lived in San Francisco for a time in the 1970s, and have visited many times and lived in Sydney (not the Nova Scotia one) during the past 35 years. I volunteer on the city’s Heritage Commission and am president of the Vancouver Historical Society.
My wife and I live near Commercial Drive in a poor-quality, century-old house that we rescued from a demolition-minded builder six years ago. The radius of my daily life is about a kilometre, to shopping and services on The Drive and Hastings Street. I work from a 12 x 12 foot room at home using the miracles of telephone and internet to connect with people whom I have little interest in seeing on a daily basis; my conference room is Uprising Bakery at Venables and Commercial.
My forms of transportation are feet, bike (April to October), bus/Skytrain (I love the Compass Card), and the Yaris I share with my wife and use maybe 3 times a week. If I time it right, I can get downtown door-to-door in a half hour on the 135 express bus or by bus/Skytrain, about 10 minutes longer than it takes to cycle.
For the purposes of my guest-editorship of Pricetags, I will have few strong opinions, other than this sort of thing …
What is my role in the city? I feel that I’m a witness with a very long memory, called to testify from time to time.
Rundown Granville Street redone as a new tech hub? This is something of an old story now, having been featured in The Sun a couple of weeks ago, including this quote from Downtown BIA head Charles Gauthier:
There are more than 20 vacancies “concentrated primarily in the southern three blocks of Granville Street between Smithe and Drake” that could be used to house businesses favoured by the rising contingent of tech workers in the area, Gauthier said in an interview last week.
A twist was put on it by NY Times tech writer David Streitfeld, in this article on March 8th, describing the resentment tolerant San Franciscans were developing for the cashed-up Silicon Valley workers who were outbidding long-time residents for homes.
During the late 1990s dot-com boom, the office parks of Silicon Valley were another world to most San Franciscans, a place somewhere to the south that they needed never go. But increasingly Silicon Valley is rooted in the city itself, which makes it inescapable.
The consequences for people who do not make their living from technology are increasingly unpleasant. The city is bulging at the seams, adding about 10,000 people a year to a record 852,000 in 2014. A one-bedroom apartment goes for a median $3,500 a month, the highest in the nation.
Streitfeld was interviewed on CBC’s On The Coast on March 10th.
The spectre of evictions, which haunts so many American cities, was illustrated in the article, and featured in a wider-ranging essay review in the New York Review of Books by Jason de Parle entitled “Kicked Out in America!” Not so much a problem in Canadian cities, maybe, due to better tenant-protection legislation?
But back to Granville Street and Vancouver tech. There’s a (maybe tenuous) historical synergy between the street and tech, mainly a claim by novelist William Gibson that he had the idea for “cyberspace” and “cyberpunks” while watching people in the Granville Street arcades, leading to his 1984 Neuromancer. The Vancouver Heritage Foundation has wanted to put a plaque somewhere on Granville around Smithe as part of its Places That Matter program, but so far, I believe, has been unable to find a building owner willing to host the plaque.
And Vancouver tech itself has been very different from SF/Silicon Valley with its suburban campuses – tech businesses here have been a positive force in reusing heritage buildings, such as in Gastown and now in Mount Pixel aka Mount Pleasant. The old furniture stores along the south end of Granville near the bridge could adapt very well to those kind of tenants.
Customers simply use their cellphones to unlock the door with a swipe of the finger and scan their purchases. All they need to do is to register for the service and download an app. They get charged for their purchases in a monthly invoice.
The former employees of the store will presumably be allowed to beg outside. This story seems to confirm the truism that most apps are created to solve the lifestyle problems of urban 25-year-olds.
This story was just on the CBC’s The Current this morning, talking about sharing houses in a hippie-communal sort of way as a way of getting the lifestyle vibe quivering at perfect pitch and of surviving in Crazyville. Councillor Geoff Meggs is quoted briefly as having no problems with the concept; the run-down shared houses of, say, my neighbourhood of Grandview are similar, as were the communes of my youth c. 1970, sigh, … an earlier period of extreme housing shortages and rapidly increasing rents.
It Can’t Happen Here is a semi-satirical 1935 political novel by American author Sinclair Lewis. Published during the rise of fascism in Europe, the novel describes the rise of Berzelius “Buzz” Windrip, a populist United States Senator who is elected to the presidency after promising drastic economic and social reforms while promoting a return to patriotism and traditional values. After his election, Windrip takes complete control of the government and imposes a plutocratic/totalitarian rule with the help of a ruthless paramilitary force, in the manner of Adolf Hitler and the SS. The novel’s plot centers on journalist Doremus Jessup’s opposition to the new regime and his subsequent struggle against it as part of a liberal rebellion. Reviewers at the time, and literary critics ever since, have emphasized the connection with Louisiana politician Huey Long,[1] who was preparing to run for president in the 1936 election when he was assassinated in 1935 just prior to the novel’s publication.
“If biologists have ignored self-organization, it is not because self-ordering is not pervasive and profound. It is because we biologists have yet to understand how to think about systems governed simultaneously by two sources of order, Yet who seeing the snowflake, who seeing simple lipid molecules cast adrift in water forming themselves into cell-like hollow lipid vesicles, who seeing the potential for the crystallization of life in swarms of reacting molecules, who seeing the stunning order for free in networks linking tens upon tens of thousands of variables, can fail to entertain a central thought: if ever we are to attain a final theory in biology, we will surely, surely have to understand the commingling of self-organization and selection. We will have to see that we are the natural expressions of a deeper order. Ultimately, we will discover in our creation myth that we are expected after all.”
Samuel Clay@samuelclay
Trying the Time Out app to catch me when I’m not in {xcode,textmate,terminal}.app. Caught in Safari = forced break. dejal.com/timeout/
Previously, the __defineGetter__ and __defineSetter__ methods could be called at the global scope without any object, because the global object was automatically used in such cases. As part of the ECMAScript 2016 (ES7) compliance, Firefox 48 and later no longer support the legacy behaviour and throw a TypeError instead. The workaround here is to explicitly use the this keyword, like this.__defineGetter__ or this.__defineSetter__.
In our latest installment of From the Horse’s Mouth, we talk to Councillor Mike Layton about how bike lanes get made and the possibility of a minimum grid of bike lanes for Toronto. Specifically, we asked Councillor Layton what the new bike lanes on Bloor mean for the minimum grid and why he asked for a report that would require more money to to implement the minimum grid.
Do your homework
I think as a policy (the minimum grid) is good to have, but we have to figure out how it actually works on the ground. Bloor is what we need to focus on now. I mean, every time we put in a bike lane we have to do our homework first and the community has to understand why we are doing it.
In my first four years as councillor, we had to have legislative change for the north-south contraflow bike lane on Shaw. Then, we just didn’t put it in, we knocked on every door to explain it and even if they didn’t like they got to talk to me and tell me why and the Ward 19 Cycle Toronto group helped. They have some great local advocates who really helped us get over some hurdles.
Same with the big Richmond Adelaide east-west corridor; we went out and actively explained at a very local level to all of the constituents that their neighbours are using these bike lanes even if they aren’t, and that it’s all about making it safer for everyone. And I think for the most part both of those bike lanes have been seen as a fairly good success.
Function and design
So when we want to do something like Bloor, it’s about demonstrating community support, with both residents and businesses. And then taking (a) very careful design approach. What works at Bloor and Christie and what works at Bloor and Avenue are completely different things. We learned a lot about Richmond and Adelaide, and that is that we need to move towards physical separation, but that it can still look good, which is in part how how we get more support too.
For the minimum grid, we need to look at what’s missing. We also need to look at where the cycling corridors are. Bloor should be the focus for the next couple of years to make sure we get that right.
Of course, I say that as a councillor who has a lot of cycling infrastructure already. [Here, Councillor Layton listed off all of the bike lanes in his ward.] This speaks to why my motion is so important. (We need to determine) where is that money coming from, what budget is it out of?
Regardless of where the money comes from I think we took a big step backwards by taking out Pharmacy and Birchmount (bike lanes) but I’m told that with the new bike plan we have pieces that will make up for that.
As a councillor with (bike) infrastructure already in his ward, (I can say) we now need to make sure that people are getting access all over the city. Those of us who enjoy bike lanes need to talk to those who don’t have bike (lanes in their wards).
A fast track for funding?
The minimum ask is very specific policy and so it’s the funding options that need (examination). With current funding proposal the funding options could mean the minimum grid is installed a decade from now.
We asked, "What would it take to do it in two or three or four years?" Maybe $25 million? That would get us there a lot faster. So, it wasn’t quite an ask for money, it was just to ask for a fast track option to be included in the report. What we want to see what a fast track option would look like.
(The) staff report will come back as early as April (to the Public Works and Infrastructure Committee) and then likely to council. I’m not confident that this committee would vote in favour of a large budget increase.
You know, if the mayor was supporting then we would be better off.
The Galaxy S7 and Galaxy S7 edge are easily among the best smartphones available in the market right now. Samsung has filled these phones to the brim with new features, but there are always some apps available on the Google Play Store that you can install on the phones to further enhance their functionality.
Continue reading →
Given the weather forecast for the upcoming week, it is an opportune time to talk about rain gear again.
As I’ve written before, my preferred setup is now a raincape, along with a rain jacket if the weather is cold. I’ve been very happy with my fancy Cleverhood raincape. It does a pretty good job of keeping the lower half of my body and legs dry without the steambath effect that rain pants can have. However, since the particular model I have is made from a heavy and bulky fabric, I started thinking about a lighter alternative that was a bit better made than my original Chinese model. After a little internet searching, I was directed to the Bike Doctor in Vancouver, and last Xmas break I went over to check what they had. (A great family and commuting oriented shop BTW).
It turns out that they had two models of capes from Impac, a yellow one, and a thinner tartan model.
Although I’m a big believer in being visible, I opted for the tartan (with reflective trim) since it packed much smaller.
Here it is rolled up small. For a size reference, the platform of the scale is 6″ square.
For a size reference, the platform of the scale is 6″ square.
Turning it inside out, you can see that there are elastic handstraps at the corners of the front side, and ties on the back to tie around your waist. You can also see that the front is cut wider than the back.
It’s also interesting to compare it with the Cleverhood, which you can see is much wider, but with velcro tabs to reduce any billowing.
Here is what it looks like on the bike.
You can see that there is quite a bit less side coverage than with the Cleverhood.
Nevertheless, during the past month, whenever it has been mixed rain and snow, it has kept my legs dry. What I’d say is that if it is pouring rain to begin with, I’d go with the Cleverhood, but if there is a possibility of rain later in the day, it’s great to be able to stash the Impac cape in my bag just in case. The front of the Impac cape is not quite wide enough to keep my arms totally dry, but that’s part of the compromise for getting something very small and light.
As it turns out, I also have a third cape inbound from a Kickstarter campaign (the Boncho), and it is due at the end of April. What I really hope is that by investing in three capes, it won’t rain at all for the rest of the year.
[…] as hard as it was for Fan Hui to lose back in October and have the loss reported across the globe—and as hard as it has been to watch Lee Sedol’s struggles—his primary emotion isn’t sadness.
As he played match after match with AlphaGo over the past five months, he watched the machine improve. But he also watched himself improve. The experience has, quite literally, changed the way he views the game. When he first played the Google machine, he was ranked 633rd in the world. Now, he is up into the 300s. In the months since October, AlphaGo has taught him, a human, to be a better player. He sees things he didn’t see before. And that makes him happy. “So beautiful,” he says. “So beautiful.”
As you might know, I just added plug-in support in the latest MacDown 0.6 release. This opens a new avenue for those who want to add functionalities to MacDown.
I have been actively preventing MacDown from getting some specific features I considered not essential for a simplicit text editor. Some of the most wanted include sidebar support, and integration with specific Internet services. With the new plug-in arcitecture, anyone is now free to implement any feature he or she wants, and those who don’t want it can just ignore its existence.
To demonstrate how plug-ins work, I have created a simple plug-in called ”Gist it!” that uploads the current document as a GitHub Gist through GitHub’s web API. I also attached some basic documentation, so that you can get a better idea on how things work. I am very excited about this new feature, and look forward for the community to come up more new ideas to utilise it.
With the creation of the Gist it! repository, I now have three projects related to MacDown in my GitHub account (@uranusjr). This make things clutter, and difficult for others to find those repositories. Therefore I have created a new organization account for MacDown, @MacDownApp, that will serve as an umbrella for all MacDown-related repositories, including MacDown itself, this site, and all future asset, dependency, and plug-in projects that we may need.
Repositories previously under my account have already been migrated. Old links will continue to redirect traffic to new URLs, thanks to GitHub, but I think it is still a good idea to edit any link you might have pointed to the old location. Thanks!
“It’s very easy for us to simulate the pulling of a virtual trigger, and it’s very, very hard for us to simulate a conversation. I defy anybody to show me a conversation system in a game today that isn’t identical to the conversation systems that Richard Garriott was using in the ’80s. The big innovation in conversation systems now is that there’s a timer on your choice on the branching tree. And I just don’t think that’s good enough. But again, if I knew how to solve that problem I would. I’m not disparaging everybody in the game business. What I am saying is, I wish we would spend a little bit less time on combat AI and a little bit more on non-combat AI—on creating characters you can bond with on an emotional level.”
After a couple weeks off, we’re back with a new App of the Week.
If you’ve been following the development of iOS 9.3, you’ll know Apple is set to add a blue light reducing feature called Night Shift to its mobile operating system. As someone who swears by f.lux, the Windows and OS X program that almost certainly inspired Night Shift, I’m excited to check out how well Night Shift works once it’s out of beta.
In the meantime, Android users can already add a Night Shift-like feature to their device of choice by downloading an app called Twilight. (On a side note, this week’s featured app was recommended to me by Motherboard writer Matthew Braga. Check out the feature he wrote on the story of f.lux.)
There isn’t a lot of research out there that definitely proves these apps work, but there is evidence that suggests looking at a computer screen late into the night can cause someone to have trouble sleeping.
The science behind this is straightforward. As the sun sets, the human body starts producing melatonin, a hormone that helps regulates a person’s sleep cycle. Blue light from computer and smartphone screens can upset the production of this hormone.
Apps like Twilight and f.lux try to stop this from happening by adjusting the screen colour temperature of the device they’re installed on as the sun begins to set. When Twilight is properly running on your Android device, it will turn your smartphone’s display into a distinct orange. It’s definitely a weird sight at first, but once you get used to it, your eyes will thank you.
Parveen Kaler @kaler
Samuel Clay @samuelclay
The Galaxy S7 and Galaxy S7 edge are easily among the best smartphones available in the market right now. Samsung has filled these phones to the brim with new features, but there are always some apps available on the Google Play Store that you can install on the phones to further enhance their functionality.
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It turns out that they had two models of capes from Impac, a yellow one, and a thinner tartan model.
