Rolandt

With many convocations postponed or cancelled, the Star asked some prominent people receiving honorary degrees to give the speech they would have given in the current climate.

Today, Ken Greenberg is honoured by the University of Toronto as a Doctor of Laws “for his outstanding service for the public good as a tireless advocate for restoring the vitality, relevance and sustainability of the public realm in urban life, and excellence in the professions.”

I would like to express my profound gratitude to the University of Toronto for the award of an honorary Doctor of Laws. I was invited to make some remarks at this year’s convocation, which of course will not happen, and the following are some of the things I would have liked to say. First that the U of T has meant a great deal to me. It was my first very welcoming landing place as a young immigrant to Canada leaving the U.S. as a draft resister during the Vietnam War and where I was able to complete my studies in architecture at 230 College St., becoming my alma mater.

As a student I almost immediately got swept up in the political and social life of Toronto in a period of great turmoil as the city was making profound decisions about its future. I had the good fortune to connect with Jane Jacobs, who became my great friend and mentor from the time we both arrived in the country months apart, members of what became the city’s Reform Council, and many inspiring and motivated civic leaders and thinkers. I didn’t so much choose my career path as it chose me.

The context was a paradigm shift as profound as the one that had occurred in the decades following World War II, when, infatuated by the liberating possibilities of the car, we experienced a mass exodus from cities and a free-wheeling concept of the “good life” developed based on the assumption of an endless supply of cheap energy.

I found myself immersed in the early stages of the aftershock as that shaky assumption unravelled. Young people like me begin to vote with their feet, repopulating the centre of the city, appreciating what Toronto’s older neighbourhoods had to offer in pursuit of a new competing urban version of the North American dream, to experience the stimulation of city life while being able to walk to buy groceries and having our kids walk to school, to bike and use transit close to home.

What I began to understand was that cities are among our most remarkable creations. Soon housing 50 per cent of the world’s population, they are the crucibles where solutions are found to problems that are otherwise intractable. They have the capacity to learn, adapt, modify, invent and innovate. That insight became the basis for my career from my launchpad in architecture and urban design.

In the end I was able to write two books, “Walking Home” in 2011 and “Toronto Reborn” in 2019, tracking my experiences in this my adopted city, and in many others, working on projects in which urban districts pursued new, more environmentally and socially sustainable models.

The stakes are very high. This was not just about lifestyle preferences, but a question of survival on Spaceship Earth. We were being forced to move beyond the false dichotomy that had divided our behaviour in the places we live from our relationship with the natural world. And unless we were fatalistically resigned to spoiling our nest to a point of no return, clearly some big adjustments in our way of life were needed.

Before the pandemic we were making progress, arguably too slowly and unevenly, but now the world has been turned abruptly on its head. A second transformation has dramatically moved into the passing lane and overtaken the other. The to-do list we were working on for cities is still there, but it has been overtaken by an expanded set of imperatives coming out of COVID-19, piggybacking on and potentially driving the first with a heightened sense of urgency and new possibility. Two things in particular have come to the fore as urgent priorities: making the city more equitable and making it more resilient.

While the failure to address marginalized and disadvantaged populations is certainly not news, we have disastrously failed to act. Yes, we are in this together but not experiencing the pandemic in the same way. Community health depends on making our cities and city regions more equitable and this underlines the need to give our public health officials a prominent place at the planning and urban design table.

Malcolm Gladwell in the Munk Debates has quoted this persuasive analogy: If you want to improve the performance of a soccer team, it is important to improve the worst player on the team, not to lavish attention on the stars.

The focus on highly sophisticated medical treatments available to a small percentage of the population in the U.S. exists side by side with a huge population of uninsured; great hospitals but an appalling lack of attention to public health among the poor. These weak links have contributed to making it the hardest hit country in the world. In Canada the festering problems of long-term-care facilities have been well known and now are producing an astonishing death rate.

A second revelation has been the immediate and virtually total reliance on the digital world imposed by physical distancing. This is forcing us to rapidly come to terms with complex issues already in play around data security and privacy, but also the need to figure out the role we want this technology to play in our lives and our cities.

How can we best use technology to advance a human-centred urbanism and not allow it to permanently distance ourselves from each other? When this is over we will want more than ever to be together physically, combining the best of IRL (in real life) along with our expanded digital presence.

A third revelation has been the value of “redundancy” as the cornerstone of resiliency, having multiple ways of doing things so that when one “system” or “network” breaks down, we have recourse to others: the abrupt shift to virtual communication to achieve physical distancing being the prime example, but also multiple ways of getting access to food, moving around the city, walking, cycling, using thinned-out transit and yes, cars; adapting spaces and institutions to new uses, seeing hotels become shelter housing, libraries doubling as food banks, etc.

This need for redundancy also applies to alternatives to tenuous supply chains, the need to keep local manufacturing capability and local agriculture for food security. We need to think of value engineering “in” redundancy in cities for unforeseen events.

We have been jolted into acknowledging the essential role of governments and the need for trust in their ability to lead. The talk of leaving everything to the private sector has significantly quieted. At the same time the strength of civil society has been remarkable and its capacity for generous “caremongering” is awesome to behold. Perhaps this will lead to a new understanding of these complementary roles and how they can be mobilized.

Finally the actions we are witnessing give some hope about our collective ability to mount a response to the even more existentially consequential challenge of our age, that of facing climate change. We need to treat this experience of society mobilizing in a crisis as a dress rehearsal for collective action.

A knee-jerk reaction declaring that density in cities was the enemy was based on a false correlation, conflating urban density with overcrowding. It has to be resisted, lest it lead to a renewal of flight and sprawl, setting back decades of effort to combat climate change. The key is to do density well in our cities in a way that addresses both challenges simultaneously.

There is some cause for optimism here. In this moment of crisis we are witnessing remarkable examples of turning on a dime, of coming together to make the impossible possible, allowing ourselves to try new things.

Can we capitalize on that momentum when the peak passes and we focus on renewal of our cities? In a best-case scenario can we use this force majeure of the COVID-19 crisis to accelerate innovation and adopt new practices and strategies for building better cities in the way that shared crises of the past led to similar farsighted responses?

The Great Depression brought us the New Deal and unemployment insurance. Devastating contagions in the 20th century led to great advances in vaccination and public health. Can this be an equivalent turning point for cities?

Can we learn from this painful wake-up call and make cities that are more equitable? This is particularly relevant for Canada with our great collective project of successfully absorbing migration from around the world to make our cities the most diverse on the planet.

The defencelessness of disadvantaged populations, the lack of attention to public health, the extraordinary retreat into a digital world, the need for strong and reliable government and public services, the power of civil society and the deep well of generosity and caring of the public all speak to the need to strengthen the inherent capacities of the city to be more equitable, resourceful and resilient. To get there will require unprecedented levels of collaboration, a sharing of resources and new forms of partnership.

This will play out in our neighbourhoods, cities and the urban regions we inhabit together My message to you as new graduates is that you too did not choose this crisis as the defining moment of your careers but it has chosen you. You have a responsibility with all the knowledge and skills you have acquired and armed with compassion for your fellow humans to seize the baton and use this crisis to move us to a better place.

This will mean asking the hard questions, stepping out of assigned roles and comfort zones. This will have to be an era of unprecedented collaboration to overcome entrenched rules and attitudes that held us back from doing the things we knew needed doing. Making this shift will force us to acknowledge that everything is connected to everything else and a new way of working needs to emerge which is not bounded by obsolete strictures. It will require all hands on deck.

For design practitioners this brings back into sharp focus an old and recently neglected question — who are the ultimate clients for our work? We are citizens as well as professionals and have an obligation to ask the hard questions about the assignments that come our way. Not just uncritically take the piece of the puzzle that is arbitrarily defined for us by the contract line, the project budget, or the limiting assumptions of whoever may hire us. We need to keep asking ourselves what masters we are serving and to what end.

In today’s context we need to challenge the corrosive withdrawal of resources that contributes to economic polarization and social abandonment. We need to challenge the frequently heard demotion of citizens to mere taxpayers and advocate for the capacity of the places we create to foster fulfilment of all our citizens.

Finally I want to express my gratitude for my education in architecture at the University of Toronto. What it taught me is that design is a potent tool and effective “way of thinking” about seemingly insoluble problems, not just an esthetic overlay or stylizing. It is about creative synthesis and using what we have more resourcefully. At its best it asks us to deal with the full reality of the human condition, not the narrow slices seen through disciplinary lenses.

It can add another crucial dimension to how we go about facing difficult challenges, the yin to the yang, the right side to the left side of our brains enhancing the capacity to discover new convergences. We have an important contribution to make at this critical juncture and you have an extremely critical role to play. I look forward to sharing your passion for a better world and seeing your accomplishments as we enter this new era.

See original here

I really love writing. I absolutely do. But hasn’t always been like this.

As a child, I actually did not like writing very much. Two factors influenced my enjoyment for the actual process. First, my Dad used to have a column in the local newspaper. Because his child was a book worm, he thought to himself, “why not develop Raul’s writing abilities?”. So he asked me to write columns about stuff I was curious about, and he would ask the newspaper editor to publish my op-eds.

Ironically, I ALWAYS felt impostor syndrome.

My older brother (Juan) had a natural talent for writing, specifically for novels, short stories, and fiction. I was jealous of the fact that he had filled notebook after notebook with his amazing short stories. He was, and remains, an excellent fiction writer.

At the time, at about the tender age of 10 years old, I felt like an impostor. As absurd as this may sound. I never saw myself as a writer despite having published many newspaper op-eds, whereas I felt that Juan was an accomplished one because he wrote fascinating, captivating, riveting stories.

Until I realized I had a talent not for writing fiction and stories, but for reading, analyzing, and understanding. What I wrote was different from what my brother wrote. I was, and remain interested in writing TO UNDERSTAND and make sense of the world.

To this day, that’s why I write. And now I actually enjoy the process of researching, analyzing data, synthesizing the literature and writing up what I find. I love writing, AND I love MY writing.

This “enjoying academia and writing” facet of mine is most prevalent when I’m writing about something I deeply care about. Obviously, I also feel…

… sort of “EUREKA” moment. The point where everything comes together and makes sense. When that happens, I no longer write just for two hours every morning. https://t.co/DC99mseY50

When I’m on fire, I write until the damn paper/chapter/article is done, come hell or high water.

— Dr Raul Pacheco-Vega (@raulpacheco) May 2, 2020

That’s why you see me writing bits and pieces every day, and then three weeks in a row, WHAM BAM THANK YOU SIR and there you go, three journal articles out for review and a book chapter back to the editor.

Anyway, I think that the best piece of advice I can give my students and anybody who follows me on Twitter, or reads my blog, is to just relax. The big break, the “a-ha” moment, the “eureka” instant will come.

In the mean time, we need to keep the gears grinding. And under these circumstances, with great care, compassion and without stressing out. Work is and will always be there. Let’s just survive.

Lately, I found myself unable to resist the temptation to translate this very pertinent classic of science fiction to English. If you, reader, know of a better translation, do not hesitate to write in. Meanwhile, here goes:

"The Star Diaries of Ijon Tichy: The Advantages of a Dragon."
Stanislaw Lem (1921-2006).

Until now, I've said nothing about my journey to the planet Abrasia, in the Cetus constellation. The civilization there had turned a dragon into the basis of its economy. Not being an economist myself, I, sadly, was not able to make sense of this, even though the Abrasians were more than willing to explain themselves. Perhaps someone well-versed in the particulars of dragons will understand the subject a little better.

The Arecibo radio telescope had been picking up indecipherable signals for quite some time. Jr. Prof. Katzenfenger was the only one able to make headway. He puzzled over the enigma while suffering from a terrible case of the sniffles. His stuffed and dripping nose, ever interfering with his scholarly labours, at a certain point led him to a thought: that the inhabitants of the uncharted planet, unlike us, might be creatures who rely on smell rather than sight.

And indeed their code turned out to consist not of alphabetic letters, but of symbols for various smells. But, truth be told, there were some perplexing passages in Katzenfenger's translation. According to this text, Abrasia is populated not only by intelligent beings, but also by a creature larger than a mountain, uncommonly ravenous and taciturn. The scientists, however, were less surprised by this curio of interstellar zoology, than by the fact that it was specifically the creature's insatiable hunger that brought great returns to the local civilization. It aroused horror, and the more horrible it became, the more they profited from it. I have long had a weakness for all kinds of mysteries, and when I heard about this one, I made up my mind to set out for Abrasia straight away.

Upon arriving, I learned that the Abrasians are entirely humanoid. Except that, where we have ears, they have noses, and vice-versa. Like us, they had descended from apes; but while our apes were either narrow- or wide-nosed, their simian ancestors had either a single nose or two. The one-nosed had gone extinct from famine. A great many moons orbit their planet, causing frequent and lengthy eclipses. At those times, it becomes pitch-dark. Creatures who sought food with the aid of sight could turn up nothing. Relying on smell worked better, but it worked best of all for those who had two widely-spaced noses, and used their sense of smell stereoscopically, just as we make use of our paired eyes and stereophonic hearing.

Later on, the Abrasians had invented artificial lighting, and, even though twin-nosedness had ceased to be essential to their survival, the anatomical quirk inherited from their ancestors was here to stay. In the colder times of the year, they wear hats with ear flaps, or, rather, nose flaps, so as not to freeze their noses off. Of course, I may be mistaken. It seemed to me that they were not exactly thrilled with these noses of theirs -- reminders of a troublesome past. Their fairer sex hides their noses beneath various decorations, often as large as a dinner plate. But I did not pay much attention to this. Interstellar travel has taught me that anatomical differences tend to be of little significance. The real problems hide far deeper. On Abrasia, that problem turned out to be the local dragon.

On that planet, there is only one very large continent, and on it -- something like eighty countries. The continent is surrounded by ocean on all sides. The dragon is located in the far north. Three principalities directly border him -- Claustria, Lelipia and Laulalia. After studying satellite photos of the dragon, as well as 1:1000000 scale models of him, I came to the conclusion that he is a quite unpleasant creature. I must say though that he was not the least bit similar to the dragons we know from Earth's stories and legends. Their dragon doesn't have seven heads; he has no head at all, and, it would also appear, no brain. And as for wings, he also hasn't any, and so flight is out of the question. The matter of legs is less clear, but it would appear that the dragon has no limbs of any sort. What he resembles most is an enormous mountain range, copiously slathered with something rather like jelly. The fact that you are beholding a living thing only becomes apparent if you are very patient. He moves uncommonly slowly, as a worm does, and quite often violates the borders of Claustria and Lelipia. This creature devours something like eighteen thousand tonnes of foodstuffs every day. The dragon is fond of grains, porridges made from same, and cereals in general. But he is not a vegetarian. Food is delivered to him by countries which consist in the Union of Economic Cooperation. The bulk of these provisions are carried by rail to special unloading stations, soups and syrups are pumped into the dragon through pipelines, and in the wintertime, when a lack of vitamins is perceived, they airdrop these from specially-equipped cargo planes. And at no point does anyone need to look for a mouth -- the beast is able to grab a meal with any and all parts of its enormous carcass.

When I arrived in Claustria, my first impulse was to ask why they go to such great lengths to feed this monster, instead of letting it perish from hunger. But straight away I learned that I had landed in the midst of a scandal, an "attempted dragon assassination", and promptly shut my mouth. Some Lelipian, dreaming of winning the laurels of a savior, had founded a secret paramilitary organization, with the aim of slaying the insatiable giant. To do this, he proposed to poison the vitamin supplements with a substance which causes unbearable thirst, -- so that the beast would take to drinking from the ocean, until it bursts. This reminded me of a well-known Earth legend about a brave hero who defeated a dragon (whose diet consisted chiefly of fair maidens) by throwing him a sheepskin stuffed with sulfur. But this is where the resemblance between the Earth legend and the Abrasian reality ended.

The local dragon was under the full protection of international law. Not only that: the treaty concerning cooperation with the dragon, signed by the forty-nine signatory governments, guaranteed him a steady supply of tasty foodstuffs. The computerized translator, with which I never part on my voyages, allowed me to make a detailed study of their press. The news of the failed assassination had thoroughly dismayed the public.

It demanded severe and exemplary punishment for the failed assassins. This surprised me, because the dragon per se didn't seem to evoke much in the way of sympathy from anyone. Neither the journalists nor the authors of letters to the editor made any secret of the fact that the subject of the conversation is a creature repulsive in the extreme. And so, in the beginning, I had come to think that he, to them, were something like an evil god, a punishment from the heavens, and, as for the sacrifices, they, following some peculiar local custom, spoke of them as "export." You can speak ill of the devil, but you cannot disregard him entirely. At the same time, the devil can tempt people; when you sell him your soul, you can count on a great many earthly pleasures in exchange. The dragon, however, near as I could tell, had made no promises to anyone, and there was absolutely nothing tempting about him. From time to time, he would strain mightily and flood the bordering regions with the byproducts of his digestion, and in ill weather one could feel the stench from forty-odd kilometers away. At the same time, the Abrasians held that their dragon is to be cared for, and that the stink is evidence of indigestion; it means that they must take care to give him medicines which limber up the metabolism. As for the attempt on his life, they said, if, God forbid, it had succeeded, the result would be an unprecedented catastrophe.

I read everything in the newspapers, but none of it shed any light on the question of exactly what kind of catastrophe they had in mind. Exasperated, I took to visiting the local libraries, leafed through encyclopaedias, histories of Abrasia, and even visited the Society of Friendship with the Dragon; but even there, I learned nothing. Except for a few members of the staff, not a soul was there. They offered me a membership if I'd only pony up a year's worth of dues, but this wasn't what I had come for.

The states which bordered the dragon were liberal democracies; there, you were allowed to speak your mind, and after a lengthy search, I was able to find publications which condemned the dragon. But even their authors still held that when dealing with him, one ought to make reasonable compromises. The use of guile or force could have grave consequences. Meanwhile, the would-be poisoners cooled their heels in the local jail. They did not plead guilty, despite confessing their intention to kill the dragon. The government press called them irresponsible terrorists, the opposition press -- noble fanatics, not quite in their right mind. And one Claustrian illustrated magazine suggested that they might be provocateurs. Behind them, it said, stands the government of a neighbouring country: thinking that the quota on dragon exports established for it by the Union of Economic Cooperation was too stingy, it hoped, via this subterfuge, to get it reconsidered.

I asked the reporter who came to interview me about the dragon. Why, instead of being given a chance to finally put an end to him, were the assassins tossed in the clink? The journalist answered that it would have been a despicable murder. The dragon, by his nature, is kindly, but the severe conditions of life in the polar regions prevent him from expressing his innate kind-heartedness. If you had to go hungry constantly, you too would become ill-tempered, even if you are not a dragon. We must carry on feeding him, and then he will stop creeping southward and become kindlier.

- Why are you so sure of this? I asked. - I've been collecting clippings from your newspapers. Here's a few headlines: "Regions of northern Lelipia and Claustria are getting depopulated. The torrent of refugees continues." Or this: "The dragon has once more swallowed a group of tourists. For how much longer will irresponsible travel agencies peddle such dangerous tours?" Or here's another: "In the past year, the dragon has expanded his footprint by 900000 hectares." What do you say to this?

- That it only confirms what I was saying. We are still underfeeding him! With tourists, yes, there's been some incidents, and quite tragic ones, but one really oughtn't irritate the dragon. He really can't stand tourists, especially the photographing kind. He's allergic to photo flashes. What would you have him do? Remember, he lives in total darkness three-quarters of the year... And I'll say, just the production of high-calorie dragon fodder gives us 14600 employment positions. Yes, some handful of tourists perished, but how many more people would perish of hunger, if they were to lose their jobs?

- Just a minute, just a minute, - I interrupted him. - You bring the dragon foodstuffs, and this surely costs money. Who pays for it?
- Our parliaments pass laws which bestow export credits...
- So, it is your taxpayers who pay for the dragon's upkeep ?
- In some sense, yes, but these outlays bring returns.
- Wouldn't it be more profitable to put an end to the dragon?
- What you are saying is monstrous. In the last thirty years, over forty billion have been invested in industries connected with dragon-feeding...
- Maybe it would be better to spend these sums on yourselves?
- You are repeating the arguments of our most reactionary conservatives! the reporter exclaimed with irritation. - They are inciting murder! They want to turn the dragon into tinned meat! Life is sacred. No one ought to be killed.

Seeing that our conversation was leading nowhere, I parted ways with the journalist. After a bit of thinking, I went off to the Archive of Print and Ancient Documents, so that, after digging through dusty newsprint clippings, I could find out just where this dragon had come from. It took a great deal of effort, but I was able to discover something quite intriguing.

Half a century ago, when the dragon took up a mere two million hectares, no one had taken him seriously. I ran across many articles which proposed to uproot the dragon from the ground, or to flood him with water through specially built canals, so that he might freeze over in wintertime; but the economists explained that this operation would be quite expensive. But when the dragon, who in those days was still subsisting solely on lichens and mosses, doubled in size, and the inhabitants of neighbouring regions began to complain of the unbearable stench (especially in the spring and summer, when the warm breezes start to blow), charitable organizations offered to sprinkle the dragon with perfume; and when this didn't help, they took up collections of baked goods for him. At first, their project was laughed at, but with time it really took off. In newspaper clippings from later times, there was no longer any talk of liquidating the dragon, but instead more and more talk of the profits that are to be gained from bringing him aid. And so, I was indeed able to learn some things, but I decided that this was not enough, and set off to the university, to visit the Department of General and Applied Draconistics. Its dean received me quite courteously.

- Your questions are anachronistic to the utmost degree, - he answered with a condescending smile after hearing me out. - The dragon is a part of our objective reality, an inseparable, and, in a certain sense, central part, and therefore it must be studied as an international problem of the greatest importance.
- Can you be more specific? - I asked. - Where did he come from in the first place, this dragon?
- Oh, who knows, - the draconologist answered phlegmatically. - Archaeology, predraconistics, and the genetics of dragons are not in my circle of interests. I do not study draconogenesis. While he was still small, he did not present a serious problem. That is a general rule, esteemed foreigner.
- I was told that he descended from mutant snails.
- I doubt it. At the same time, it isn't important just where he came from, given that he already exists, and not merely exists! If he were to disappear, it would be a catastrophe. And we would not likely recover from it.
- Really? Why is that?
- Automation led us to unemployment. Including among the scientific intelligentsia.
- And what, the dragon helped?
- Of course. We had enormous surpluses of foodstuffs, mountains of pasta, lakes of vegetable oil, and the overproduction of baked goods was a genuine calamity. Now we export these surpluses up north, and, remember, they also have to be refined. He won't scarf up just anything.
- The dragon?
- Well yes. To develop an optimal programme for his nourishment, we had to create a system of scientific research centres, such as the Chief Institute of Dragon-husbandry and the Higher School of Dragon Hygiene; in each university, there is at least one draconistics department. Special enterprises produce new types of fodder and nutritional supplements. The propaganda ministry created special information networks, so as to explain to society just how profitable trade with the dragon can be.
- Trade? So he sends you something? I can hardly believe this!
- He sends, of course. Chief of all, the so-called dracoline. It's a secretion of his.
- That shiny slime? I saw it in the photos. What's it good for?
- When it congeals - for plasticine, for children in kindergartens. But of course there are a few problems. It is hard to get rid of the smell.
- It stinks?
- In the usual sense - very much. To get the smell out, they add special deodorants. For the time being, dragon plasticine costs eight times more than the ordinary kind.
- Professor, what do you think of the attempt on the dragon's life? The scientist scratched his ear, which hung above his lips.
- If it had succeeded, then, first of all, we would have an epidemic on our hands. Just try and imagine the vapours that would emanate from such an enormous cadaver? And, second, the banks would go broke. The total destruction of our monetary system. To make a long story short, catastrophe, esteemed foreigner. A terrible catastrophe.
- But his presence makes itself known, doesn't it? To tell the truth, it's extremely unpleasant, isn't it?
- What do you mean, unpleasant? - he said with a profound philosophical calm. The post-draconic crisis would be far more unpleasant still! Remember, please, that we not only feed him, but conduct extra-nutritional work with him. We try to soften his temper, keep it within certain boundaries. This -- is our program of so-called domestication, or appeasement. Lately he is being given large quantities of sweets. He likes sweets.
- Somehow I doubt that his temperament will get sweeter from this, - I blurted out.
- But at the same time, the export of baked goods has quadrupled. And you mustn't forget about the work of the CMDR.
- What's that?
- Committee for the Mitigation of Draconic Repercussions. It provides employment for many university and college graduates. The dragon has to be studied, investigated, and, from time to time - healed; previously we had a surplus of medics, but now every young doctor is assured of finding work.
- Well then, I said without much conviction. - But all of this is exported philanthropy. Why don't you start doing philanthropy right here, among yourselves?
- How do you mean?
- Well... you spend mountains of money on that dragon!
- So, what - should we be handing it out to citizens just like that? This runs against the very basics of any school of economics! You, I see, are a total ignoramus in economics. Credits, which back draconic export, warm up the economy. Thanks to them, the exchange of goods and services grows...
- But the dragon grows too, - I interrupted him. - The more you feed him, the bigger he gets, and the bigger he gets, the bigger is his appetite. Where's the sense in this? Don't you know that in the end, he'll drive you into penury and eat you up?
- Nonsense! - the professor fumed. Banks add the credits to their portfolios!
- So, they're, what, bonds? And he'll repay them in what? In his plasticine?
- Don't take things so literally. If it weren't for the dragon, for whom would we then build the pipelines through which we pump flour extract? Don't you see, that's iron-works, pipe factories, welding robots, networks of transport, and so forth. The dragon has real needs. See, now you understand? Production has to work for somebody! Industrialists would not produce anything, if the finished product had to be thrown into the sea. A real consumer, on the other hand, that's something entirely different. The dragon -- is a gigantic, amazingly capacious foreign market, with a colossal demand pressure...
- I don't doubt it, - I noted, seeing that this chat is leading nowhere.
- And so, have I convinced you?
- No.
- This is because you hail from a civilization that is so utterly different from our own. At any rate, the dragon has long ago stopped being a mere importer of our production.
- So what has he turned into?
- An idea. A historic necessity. Our state interest. The mightiest factor which justifies our united efforts. Try to look at this business through exactly that lens, and you will see what fundamental problems can be discovered in what is, to be fair, a quite revolting creature, if it grows to a planetary scale.

September 1983

P.S. They say that the dragon has broken up into a multitude of little ones, but their appetite is anything but weaker.

Intro

Why buy (frozen) Pizza when you can make your own? The only thing I am not making myself is the dough which I buy from the European Deli up the street from me. I just don't make enough pizza to make my own dough.

Prep Work

As I mentioned, I am not making my own dough, but the rest is all made from scratch. Let's start with.....

The Sauce

You can buy pre-made Pizza sauce for cheap at pretty much any supermarket. But it's not hard to make your own:

• Tin of Tomato Paste
• Two table spooons of extra virgin olive oil
• Two table spoons of fresh or dried herbs (I use the "Italo" mix.
• Garlic to taste.
• Chili flakes to taste for some heat.

Mix it all into a spreadable paste and set aside.

The Meat

I chose beef for my filling, so I browned the beef with some onions and black pepper, then set it aside. Towards the end I added a bit of red wine to de-glace and add a bit of a "bite" to the meat.

Cheese

I shredded up some Mozarella, Extra Old Cheddar and some Parmesan. This will give it a nice flavour profile and the cheese will make sure the pizza doesn't dry out.

Veggies

I cut up a tomato and some artichokes.

Building the Pizza

In order to get a good crust the easiest way I found to make the pizza is to use a cast iron skillet. Make sure to turn the oven on at this time. Set it to the highest setting available and move one of the racks to the top most position.

Use some cooking spray to thinly coat the pan, then put the pre-made dough into the pan, put some oil on your hands as well and then stretch the dough out to fill (most) of the pan.

Once you have spread the paste across the dough, start assembling the other items.

Start with the beef, then put the tomato and artichokes on it, followed by the cheese and you end up with this:

Now that the Pizza is assembled turn on the stove and make the skillet heat up. You know it's ready to go into the oven when you hear some crackling coming from the skillet.

Note: Do not put the Pizza in until the oven has come to full heat

Cooking time!

Cooking should be pretty straight forward. Once you have placed the Pizza in the oven let it go for around 15 minutes, then check on the progress. You know it's ready when the cheese has melted and the crust starts showing some browning.

Eat!

Last week I joined an IndieWeb conversation on blogs and wikis. I ended up with three take-aways. One of them was a tip by another participant to keep a day log as a means to add more to the wiki, do more wiki gardening. Writing a list of things you do during the day as you go along, you can then use as a starting point for wiki pages to create or blogposts to write.

This past week on my personal WordPress instance run locally on my laptop I started doing that, and have done every day the past 7 days. During the day I would add bullet points of things I did, thought or that stood out to me in some way.

Immediately I noticed how the act of writing these things down made it easier for me to write a bit more extensively and put it online or in the wiki. Things that normally after a few hours would fall of my radar now got logged and prompted a posting later on. An experiment that worked well for me this past week, and I’ll try to keep doing it.

When I start in the morning, I open up a new post and create a bullet list. At the end of the day it will look something like below. You can see where I linked to something that I wrote in the blog or wiki as a result of listing it in the Day Log.

With now 7 weeks at home, I this weekend fought the feeling I somehow should have been more productive in the past almost two months. To a certain extent that is true. First as now the deadline for a big piece of writing is starting to loom large, and if I don’t get up to speed now it will be problematic. Second, as for another project I still haven’t finished creating things I had expected to have had finished before this lock down even started. The core sentiment is, where have those 7 weeks gone? I take solace in the fact I’m observing I’m definitely not the only one having this feeling.

• Monday was King’s Day and a national holiday, so didn’t work other than some reflection
• Worked 2 days on a provincial project, including topics like circular economy, strategic knowledge management
• Made 2 walks with E and Y, realising I’ve been cooped up too much
• Had a board meeting of the Open State Foundation, that I chair
• Had a management team meeting of my company. A.o. decided not to make use of the government support measures for businesses.
• Had a call with the EC on our progress on the EU High Value Data lists, that are part of the new EU open data regulations
• Spent a day with Y
• Ordered, received and read (twice) a book (link in Dutch) by my friend Danny about the Enschede fireworks disaster that is now 20 years ago (which killed 23, wounded a thousand, and destroyed several hundreds of houses, right in the heart of our city). Danny as a freelance reporter made the footage that went around the world, his colleague Marcel died in the blast. I was one of two friends who phoned Danny with a tip about the fire that led to the blasts. His now published diary notes from then were a time capsule, that, because I figure quite a bit in his notes, surfaced old emotions and led me to reflecting on my own memories from that bizarre event and its aftermath.
• Based on last week’s conversation on wikis, in the past 7 days I kept day logs in my laptop based blog, as a jumping off point for wikifying and blogging material. That worked surprisingly well for me.

Enjoyed our walks around our water rich neighbourhood, under what we call ‘Dutch skies’ (blue skies with large cloud formations, often featuring in paintings by old masters)

I was riding on my way downtown at about 29 kph when my front tire blew out with a spectacular “bang”. I was glad that I did not crash, even with the tire instantly coming off of the rim. However, what made this a major bummer is that this was on a new bike, my first with tubeless tires.

Fortunately, I was paranoid enough about this set up that I had an inner tube on hand. I was thankful that it was no problem mounting the tires on the rims without tire levers. However, I was not pleased about filling a high volume (700Cx38) tire with a very small pump.

I happened to be by Robarts Library where the sakura were in full bloom.

After about 500 strokes on the mini pump, I was underway again, and I thought that I would drop by a bike shop to get another tube, just in case. I was very happy to see that Sweet Pete’s was open, and I got two tubes, with the intention of putting one in the rear tire at some point in the future. They also had a proper floor pump from which I learned that 500 strokes on the mini pump equated to about 22 psi.

I thought that would be the end of the story and that I would just limp home, but just around the corner by rear tire blew.

Fortunately, a nice man from the bike shop was talking to a customer right on the corner, and he offered to get me some shop rags to clean up the sealant, as well as a pump. It turns out that he was Pete of Sweet Pete’s himself. That’s him in the black shop shirt.

He advised me that I was probably overinflating the tires. I did top them up to 70 psi this morning, and this had not caused issues, but it was much warmer today than in past weeks, and perhaps that was the problem. The website for the wheel manufacture advises 60 psi for tubeless. Obviously for this particular tire/rim combination, 70 psi was too much. (Astral Outback 700C / Rene Herse 700Cx38 “Barlow Pass”.)

I think that I will run with tubes from here on in, and I’ll also take it easier on the tire pressure. I was very fortunate not to have crashed when the front tire blew. Two blowouts in one day was ridiculous, but getting to chat with Pete was a happy ending to the story. Thanks to Pete and Sweet Pete’s!

Update: Sam Whittingham posted this comment on Facebook: “I’m very sorry this happened. I would not let this episode scare you off tubeless however. They where inflated far beyond what is fast for your weight, but I am actually very suspicious of the Rene Herse tires for tubeless. Having run a lot of different tubeless combinations for years now, the Herse tires just don’t feel quite right. I think the bead is not stiff enough and when you get up close to traditional road pressures they are being pushed beyond there scope and sounds like the safety margin (usually double for tires) is not even close. I have not seen a single instance of this with other brands of tires on the same rims even with people who insist on over-inflating. Maxxis, WTB, Schwalbe and even non-tubeless continental wire bead ultrasports all work exceptionally well.”

I replied: “obviously this was a surprise to me as well. I had put over 500 km on the bike on either roads or gravel with similar tire pressures without any issues. I am lucky that it happened on a smooth road so i had no issues with slowing down. I think I’ll stick to tubes for a while, in particular so I can get some wear out of the Rene Herse tires. I did note that the tires were very flexible, not only the casing but the beads as well, which squares with your impression of the tires.”

Sun columnist Doug Todd, who has been writing insightfully about the housing market for years, reported this comment from a Toronto researcher:

 “There’s only so long they can hold on,” he says, before being forced to sell.

All it would take to create a sudden oversupply of housing would be for two per cent more owners in a particular market to list their dwellings for sale, Scilipoti says. “This will take time to play out,” he says, but the downward process is in motion.

Just 2 percent.  And I doubt it will take much time.  Ex-AirBnB listings back into the rental supply might be enough on its own in our downtown market – snowballs to start an avalanche.

Almost all solutions to unaffordability in our housing market seem to assume a massive amount of new or repurposed housing will be required, in turn involving major investments, rezonings, interventions, or some form of decisive change.  Well, we got a virus that seems to have done the latter, and it may mean we shouldn’t do much more until we see how the impact.

Those who want to change the fundamental economics of housing, and the social order that goes with it, are reluctant to acknowledge that small changes or interventions can make a substantial difference – like a rental incentive, a non-market housing program measured in the hundreds of units, a seemingly minor shift in the market, immigration statistics or interest rates.  When you want a revolution, a 2 percent adjustment doesn’t seem to cut it.  When rents seem out of reach, 2 percent doesn’t seem a sufficient stretch.

And yet that, in its way, will seem revolutionary.

This shot by Neal Lamontagne best captures the pinkway – nature’s consolation in the spring of the virus.

Another week of lock down and the death toll in the UK has jumped to over 28,000, there doesn’t seem to be any kind of slow down.  One man’s recovery can not make up for the needless loss of thousands of lives.   Everyone seems anxious for some kind easing of restrictions.

We are promised a menu of options next week . . .a tracing app is being piloted . . . this worries me almost as much as the virus. Our NHS and government don’t have a great track record of implementing any kind of large scale IT project, it will be anonymous they say but what data will it need? Where will it be stored? How long for? What handy things could it be “easily” extended to?What about the deprived communities where the virus hits hardest – how will it work there?   

Speaking to a friend of my who lives in Cyprus earlier this week (this weeks zoom drinks party) she couldn’t  believe why the UK population wasn’t rioting at what was happening.  Perhaps because there are too many people like me – worried, but ultimately comfortable in our safe, lock down houses with food, money and data aplenty.   However, watching Googlebox is I think the best way to get an accurate sense of the sense of the nation. I hope some of the No. 10 advisors were watching to see and hear the consistency of dismay across UK households at the speech the Prime Minister gave outside Number 10 on his return to work on Monday. 

Meanwhile, back in my world of work it’s been less zoom-tastic. This week has been the week of MS Teams and just for a frisson of excitement a web-ex call. I also watched a comedy fund raiser on zoom. That was weird, comedians in their houses, a selected “front row” who could be seen and heard . . . not sure that really worked, but hopefully it raised some money. 

On Monday I facilitated a session for CDN (College Development Scotland) as part of their Leadership and Development Series.  Originally planned as a face to face workshop, it moved online to zoom, then to Teams. The session worked well I think.   The planning for the session did encapsulate what is happening in terms of delivering anything just now.

I had hoped to use the group function in zoom to get a bit more collaboration but of course couldn’t do that in Teams so I just used mentimeter to get a bit of interaction and participation. Originally the session was about the potential and impact of technology for 2030, however given the current circumstances, I changed the focus more on what people are currently dealing with and what they are learning just now. That seemed to work and there was a good level of participating in the chat and also from people willing to speak on camera. This particular group were quite experienced Teams users (there were a nice range of backgrounds on display to prove that!), so I think that helped too.  

I don’t think we can plan for the future without evaluating and learning from what is happening right now.  Stable internet access for students is a top priority – particularly in more rural areas of Scotland.  As are questions of location and space. Personal, mobile learning “on the bus/train” aren’t really an option just now. How many people are trying to get online at home? Do students have any quiet/sharing/safe spaces no campuses are closed?  You can get a flavour of the session from the slides below.

This week coming I should have been in Galway at the GMIT Learning and Teaching conference, but you guessed it I will be there virtually instead.  Do you remember dear reader, back in the day I used to write posts titled “where Sheila’s been this week” – could easily now update that to “where Sheila’s not been this week”  . ..  so lots of thinking just now about what the online pivot actually means. In the meantime, stay safe and well.

May 1^st was my last day as a VP and Distinguished Engineer at Amazon Web Services, after five years and five months of rewarding fun. I quit in dismay at Amazon firing whistleblowers who were making noise about warehouse employees frightened of Covid-19.

What with big-tech salaries and share vestings, this will probably cost me over a million (pre-tax) dollars, not to mention the best job I’ve ever had, working with awfully good people. So I’m pretty blue.

What happened

Last year, Amazonians on the tech side banded together as Amazon Employees for Climate Justice (AECJ), first coming to the world’s notice with an open letter promoting a shareholders’ resolution calling for dramatic action and leadership from Amazon on the global climate emergency. I was one of its 8,702 signatories.

While the resolution got a lot of votes, it didn’t pass. Four months later, 3,000 Amazon tech workers from around the world joined in the Global Climate Strike walkout. The day before the walkout, Amazon announced a large-scale plan aimed at making the company part of the climate-crisis solution. It’s not as though the activists were acknowledged by their employer for being forward-thinking; in fact, leaders were threatened with dismissal.

Fast-forward to the Covid-19 era. Stories surfaced of unrest in Amazon warehouses, workers raising alarms about being uninformed, unprotected, and frightened. Official statements claimed every possible safety precaution was being taken. Then a worker organizing for better safety conditions was fired, and brutally insensitive remarks appeared in leaked executive meeting notes where the focus was on defending Amazon “talking points”.

Warehouse workers reached out to AECJ for support. They responded by internally promoting a petition and organizing a video call for Thursday April 16 featuring warehouse workers from around the world, with guest activist Naomi Klein. An announcement sent to internal mailing lists on Friday April 10th was apparently the flashpoint. Emily Cunningham and Maren Costa, two visible AECJ leaders, were fired on the spot that day. The justifications were laughable; it was clear to any reasonable observer that they were turfed for whistleblowing.

Management could have objected to the event, or demanded that outsiders be excluded, or that leadership be represented, or any number of other things; there was plenty of time. Instead, they just fired the activists.

Snap!

At that point I snapped. VPs shouldn’t go publicly rogue, so I escalated through the proper channels and by the book. I’m not at liberty to disclose those discussions, but I made many of the arguments appearing in this essay. I think I made them to the appropriate people.

That done, remaining an Amazon VP would have meant, in effect, signing off on actions I despised. So I resigned.

The victims weren’t abstract entities but real people; here are some of their names: Courtney Bowden, Gerald Bryson, Maren Costa, Emily Cunningham, Bashir Mohammed, and Chris Smalls.

I’m sure it’s a coincidence that every one of them is a person of color, a woman, or both. Right?

Let’s give one of those names a voice. Bashir Mohamed said “They fired me to make others scared.” Do you disagree?

[There used to be a list of adjectives here, but voices I respect told me it was mean-spirited and I decided it didn’t add anything so I took it out.]

What about the warehouses?

It’s a matter of fact that workers are saying they’re at risk in the warehouses. I don’t think the media’s done a terribly good job of telling their stories. I went to the video chat that got Maren and Emily fired, and found listening to them moving. You can listen too if you’d like. Up on YouTube is another full-day videochat; it’s nine hours long, but there’s a table of contents, you can decide whether you want to hear people from Poland, Germany, France, or multiple places in the USA. Here’s more reportage from the NY Times.

It’s not just workers who are upset. Here are Attorneys-general from 14 states speaking out. Here’s the New York State Attorney-general with more detailed complaints. Here’s Amazon losing in French courts, twice.

On the other hand, Amazon’s messaging has been urgent that they are prioritizing this issue and putting massive efforts into warehouse safety. I actually believe this: I have heard detailed descriptions from people I trust of the intense work and huge investments. Good for them; and let’s grant that you don’t turn a supertanker on a dime.

But I believe the worker testimony too. And at the end of the day, the big problem isn’t the specifics of Covid-19 response. It’s that Amazon treats the humans in the warehouses as fungible units of pick-and-pack potential. Only that’s not just Amazon, it’s how 21st-century capitalism is done.

Amazon is exceptionally well-managed and has demonstrated great skill at spotting opportunities and building repeatable processes for exploiting them. It has a corresponding lack of vision about the human costs of the relentless growth and accumulation of wealth and power. If we don’t like certain things Amazon is doing, we need to put legal guardrails in place to stop those things. We don’t need to invent anything new; a combination of antitrust and living-wage and worker-empowerment legislation, rigorously enforced, offers a clear path forward.

Don’t say it can’t be done, because France is doing it.

Poison

Firing whistleblowers isn’t just a side-effect of macroeconomic forces, nor is it intrinsic to the function of free markets. It’s evidence of a vein of toxicity running through the company culture. I choose neither to serve nor drink that poison.

What about AWS?

Amazon Web Services (the “Cloud Computing” arm of the company), where I worked, is a different story. It treats its workers humanely, strives for work/life balance, struggles to move the diversity needle (and mostly fails, but so does everyone else), and is by and large an ethical organization. I genuinely admire its leadership.

Of course, its workers have power. The average pay is very high, and anyone who’s unhappy can walk across the street and get another job paying the same or better.

Spot a pattern?

At the end of the day, it’s all about power balances. The warehouse workers are weak and getting weaker, what with mass unemployment and (in the US) job-linked health insurance. So they’re gonna get treated like crap, because capitalism. Any plausible solution has to start with increasing their collective strength.

What’s next?

For me? I don’t know, genuinely haven’t taken time to think about it. I’m sad, but I’m breathing more freely.

SoundSource from Rogue Amoeba puts fine-tuned sound control at your fingertips whenever you’re using your Mac. The app sits within easy reach in the menu bar, ready to tweak the inputs and outputs of system sounds and even individual apps. Plus, SoundSource includes an equalizer, single-click volume Boost, and preset effects to tailor the sounds to your tastes and setup.

The power of SoundSource starts with the control it provides over both system and app-level sound. That allows you to do things like set the volume of macOS sound effects independent of the music you’re listening to over connected speakers. That way, if you were recently listening to loud music, you won’t be startled by loud system effects ever again.

System sound settings can be overridden on a per-application basis too. For example, you can ensure that sound from a Skype call or Zoom video conference is always routed through the headphones connected to your Mac instead of your speakers. You can also set the volume on a per-app basis, add audio effect presets like Spoken Word for FaceTime or Skype calls or Rock for music, and even use Audio Unit effects.

Another great feature is Super Volume. It gives you control over HDMI or DisplayPort-connected audio devices that macOS doesn’t. The functionality is perfect for speakers and soundbars connected to displays.

The Mac’s one-size-fits-all approach to sound isn’t sufficient in a computing world where audio is part of so many different apps and workflows. Visit Rogue Amoeba today to learn more about SoundSource, download a free trial, and through May 15, 2020, save 20% when you purchase SoundSource by using the promo code MS2020.

Our thanks to SoundSource by Rogue Amoeba for sponsoring MacStories this week.

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Club MacStories will help you discover the best apps for your devices and get the most out of your iPhone, iPad, and Mac. Plus, it’s made in Italy.

Apple has updated the 13-inch MacBook Pro with a redesigned keyboard, more storage, and updated processors and RAM. The new model replaces the existing 13-inch MacBook Pro and starts at $1299 like its predecessor and is available in the education market beginning at $1199.

In a press release, the company said:

Apple today updated the 13-inch MacBook Pro with the new Magic Keyboard for the best typing experience ever on a Mac notebook and doubled the storage across all standard configurations, delivering even more value to the most popular MacBook Pro. The new lineup also offers 10th-generation processors for up to 80 percent faster graphics performance1 and makes 16GB of faster 3733MHz memory standard on select configurations. With powerful quad-core processors, the brilliant 13-inch Retina display, Touch Bar and Touch ID, immersive stereo speakers, all-day battery life, and the power of macOS, all in an incredibly portable design, the new 13-inch MacBook Pro is available to order today, starting at $1,299, and $1,199 for education.

The new MacBook Pro comes in new CPU configurations and improved graphics capabilities. According to Apple:

The 13-inch MacBook Pro lineup now offers up to 10th-generation quad-core Intel Core processors with Turbo Boost speeds of up to 4.1GHz. Customers who are upgrading from a 13-inch MacBook Pro with a dual-core processor will see up to 2.8 times faster performance. The integrated Intel Iris Plus Graphics deliver up to 80 percent faster performance over the previous generation 13-inch MacBook Pro for 4K video editing, faster rendering, and smoother gameplay. The new graphics also enable users to connect to Pro Display XDR at full 6K resolution.

The MacBook Pros that today’s machines replace had base configurations with a 1.4GHz quad‑core Intel Core i5 and 2.4GHz quad‑core Intel Core i5, both of which supported Turbo Boost and had 128MB of eDRAM.

Source: Apple.

Like its predecessor, the new MacBook Pro has a 13.3-inch diagonal display that uses IPS technology that supports 2560‑by‑1600 native resolution at 227 pixels per inch. The display also supports P3 wide color, Apple True Tone technology, and 500 nits of brightness.

The new model follows in the footsteps of the 16-inch model with a new keyboard too. In addition to using a scissor mechanism like its 16-inch sibling, the new 13-inch model also includes an inverted-T arrow key layout and a physical Escape key.

Source: Apple.

Storage has been doubled across all configurations, starting at 256GB and offering up to a 4TB SSD. RAM is faster too. Some base-models of the updated laptop start at 16GB of 3733MHz memory, which can be upgraded to as much as 32GB.

As for ports, the new MacBook Pro hasn’t changed. The computer has two or four Thunderbolt 3 ports that also support USB-C 3.1 Gen 2 depending on which model you buy, plus a headphone jack. The speakers and microphone array appear to have been upgraded to something similar to the 16-inch model too.

Also, weight and battery life remain nearly identical. The new MacBook Pro weighs a slightly heavier 3.1 pounds compared to the model it replaces which was 3.01 pounds. Regarding the battery, Apple says users can expect similar performance compared to the models that the new laptops replace.

It’s nice to see the 13-inch MacBook Pro updated in line with what we saw when the larger model was updated last November. The keyboard update is especially welcome. I’ve been using a 2016 13-inch MacBook Pro and the keyboard has been a constant source of frustration. With this update, I expect Apple’s most portable pro laptop to serve users that need its power well.

Support MacStories Directly

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Without the luxury of space and some spare cash to throw at the problem, finding a comfy working from home space can be a challenge. Here at Zopa,the FeelGood Money Company, we’re big believers that things don’t need to cost the earth, and that a bit of expert help you can get the most from your money and space. So we asked Swoonworthy’s Kimberly Duran for some tips on how to make your home-working space work for you

So many of us are now working from home due to the government lockdown measures, but carving out a spot to set up a home office can be challenging. Lots of us don’t have much room, especially  if you’re working in a flat or sharing with others.

Our tips today will make working from home feel possible, in what may seem like an impossible situation. 

1)    Physically Designating Your Working Area

The good news is that this is temporary so, you don’t need to fully redecorate. You just  need an area that works on a medium-term basis. 

Your first step is to look for areas of your home which can support a small desk area – especially in awkward places like alcoves, corners or under windows. This can be as simple as a small folding shelf on brackets that can be lifted from a wall as a makeshift home office spot. If it’s large enough to fit a laptop, you’ve just created a desk. Consider a small inexpensive folding chair that can be used alongside it and store it closed when your workday is complete.

You might need to get a bit more creative. An ironing board could double as a standing desk. You could set up your laptop on the sideboard in the hallway or use a clear space on the corner of the table in your eat-in kitchen. Even if there’s no other spot to work than your bed, try to create an area where you can focus and feel motivated to work.

Remove all those items around you that could prove to be distracting, like that cosy blanket you sleep under, and put the remote control for the TV far away from reach. 

Wherever you are, try to clear the area you’re working to keep your focus.

2)    Mentally Designating Your Working Area

Try not to get into the habit of working anywhere you plop down with your laptop – one day working from the sofa, one day working from your bed and so on. While this is tempting, you’ll be more productive if you try to emulate what you would do in an office setting where you have a spot to work each day.

So designate an area of your home as your ‘workspace’. Of course, it doesn’t have to be a home office – it can be as simple as a chair you sit in at the kitchen table where you do your work. That mental switch is important – when you sit in that chair (or that spot on the sofa), you effectively enter your ‘workspace’,. When you leave that chair, you enter your ‘home space’. 

3)    Create ‘Do Not Disturb’ Signals

Where you live with a partner, family or roommates, try to ensure those around you aren’t constantly invading your space. 

It’s important to set your boundaries about when you’re ‘at work’ and when you’re not, and this is even more important when you are living with others who are also working from home. It can be as simple as a small sign that says ‘Busy’ or ‘Free’, or you could have a rule that when your ear buds are in you can’t be disturbed, but when they’re out you can chat.

These communication cues are essential in smaller spaces, especially when you’re trying to be productive and your flatmate wants to chat about their day, or your partner wants to discuss  dinner. 

Even if your home office is on the sofa, you can still let those around you know when it’s time to work and when it’s okay to interrupt.

4)    A few good purchases (if you can)

While it’s not necessary to buy anything, if you are going to invest in anything for working from home, make it a pair of noise-cancelling headphones or if you’re on a budget, even just a set of ear buds. If, like me, you struggle to concentrate when listening to your favourite tunes, look out for instrumental-only or white noise playlists on Spotify that will block out noise from neighbours, your partner’s conference call or from your children’s favourite TV programme.

It may also be helpful to purchase a simple stand for your laptop which will lift the screen slightly higher, allowing you to sit in a more comfortable position that doesn’t strain your neck.

Lastly, consider a wireless keyboard and mouse, which will make working from anywhere less of a tangled mess when you are finishing up your working day.

5)    Stick to a Schedule

Finally, it’s far too easy to let work and home life blend into one, so one of the most important ways of maintaining your productivity is to create a schedule that works for you. This might mean taking timed breaks for things like lunch, where you leave your designated ‘work space’ and get some fresh air, make a healthy lunch or chat to a friend on Zoom.

At the end of your working day, think about having a small box, crate or even a drawer or cabinet where you can stash away your laptop, notebooks and files until  morning. Doing this will prevent you from checking your emails one last time before turning in or working extra hours just because it’s in front of you.

It’s also important when living with others, like a spouse, partner or family, to ensure they’re not feeling side-lined when you’re working from home. Make sure there is some give and take on your boundaries by agreeing a time when the laptop is put away each day, signalling that your designated work time has come to an end, so they have your time and attention, and you can enjoy ‘home time’ again.

About the author: From accessible design ideas and DIYs to styling tips, splurges and the latest trends, multi-award-winning content creator Kimberly Duran has been teaching others for over a decade how to create a home that’s packed full of personality, no matter what the budget. Through her blog Swoon Worthy, she invites readers into her journey of creating an “eclectic boho glam” home and the interior trends and styles that inspire those decisions.

The post 5 tips for how to WFH in a small space appeared first on Zopa Blog.

Today I learned that Pop!_OS, the Linux distro developed by System76, almost makes up for its silly name by shipping with a very nicely done auto-tiling Gnome shell extension (available at pop-os/shell):

Alternatives for macOS

• Magnet does almost the same thing on macOS, and if it supported saving pre-defined window layouts I would switch away from Moom.
• Amethyst is likely the best tiled window manager for the Mac, but the default keyboard bindings are somewhat annoying after years of Moom.
• The LG Screen Manager application also does that, although they don’t actively advertise it.

Alternatives for Windows

PowerToys for Windows 10 includes FancyZones, which lets you define tiling zones.

Well well, May The Fourth be with us indeed, it has an actual physical Esc key on a 13” form factor, and the right keyboard mechanism.

So maybe we can finally say the keyboards are fixed to everyone’s satisfaction?

It’s also nice to see less stingy (i.e., more realistic) storage configurations at the “same” price, and I guess we could do worse than Iris graphics, but I’m not complaining–it’s a great comeback, and I would love to have one for a daily driver.

But who am I kidding, right?

In this episode, we talk about using no-code tools to aid in your coding journey and your work, with David Hoang, director of design at Webflow. David talks about how he got into code through the fine arts, the utility of using no-code tools both for learning to code as well as in your career, and what some of his favorite no-code tools are.

Show Links

• Compiler (sponsor)
• Porkbun (sponsor)
• Webflow
• Macromedia
• Adobe Dreamweaver
• HyperCard
• Apple II
• Commodore 64
• Microsoft Excel
• HTML
• CSS
• Myspace
• Adobe Photoshop
• Adobe Illustrator
• Codeless innovation: experience prototyping with visual programming
• One Medical
• Bubble
• Airtable
• Quartz Composer
• Makerpad
• Ruby on Rails

David Hoang

David Hoang is a design leader, technologist, teacher, and startup advisor. He's currently the Director of Design at Webflow and User Experience Design Instructor at General Assembly.

May 4th is Remembrance Day in the Netherlands. Shortly before 8 the national ceremony at Dam Square in Amsterdam is usually attended by thousands, filling the square. The entire population observes 2 minutes of silence at 20:00hrs.

But this 75th Remembrance Day is not just silent for 2 minutes, but was eerily silent throughout. An empty Dam Square with just 6 people attending (the King and Queen, the PM, Amsterdam’s Mayor, a representative of the armed forces, and a member of the May 4th /5th national committee). Standing 1.5 meters apart.

Where each community in the country usually has their own local ceremony, none took place this year. The King gave a speech on that empty Dam Square, where normally he doesn’t, talking about how we are currently voluntary relinquishing some of our freedoms, while remembering when that freedom was taken by force and we fought to get it back. This is the weirdest Remembrance Day in memory.

In deviation from the usual flag protocol for this day, which calls for flags at half mast from 18:00 until sunset, today the protocol asked for flags at half mast from dawn. There were more flags flying than usual in our part of town.

I have been intrigued through time with the idea off virtual performances. For years the comment has been that until a concert can be streamed so the audience feels like they are there, it won't happen. Well, in the "new normal" we need to accept the reality that virtual may be where the money is going to be. Recently, I penned "It's the End of Events As We Know It" and I've seen a series of posts picking up on the meme. One from "The MiddleClaass Artist" pretty much uses similar math on seating.  CNBC took a similar tone where they discussed how arenas will need to be renovated.

To those thinking that public events will be back in business like the were any time soon are not only shortsighted, they are drinking the Kool aid. And that's where technology has to rise. Already we are seeing musicians presenting music using virtual recording technologies that can sync musical performance from multiple locations, allowing the bands to play together, regardless of where the musicians are.

What has to come next is the adaptation of virtual reality headsets and augmented reality technology to make it "look" like the band is all in one place, and where we "see" other people around us, just like we have at an arena show.

Technology that enables remote performance and audience assembly, not in person gatherings, will be the solution, while science works to find a cure for COVID-19. 

I’ve been learning Buddy Holly songs on guitar in quarantine. Learning how to make my Fender twang, which doesn’t really fit the rest of the music equipment in my apartment, the wall of synthesizers and drum machines ready to obliterate the theoretical raves which cannot occur. I keep being invited to “perform” streamed music created live from computer code into VR venues that resemble cyberpunk yachts and recreated Berlin clubs in Minecraft. I do it. They can’t ever see the white guitar sitting next to me.

(My Dad vs Buddy Holly, both age 19)

Rural Economic Development Minister Maryam Monsef says the government plans to accelerate its rural broadband funding amid the COVID-19 pandemic.

Monsef told The Wire Report that the federal government will be announcing details about the process soon. It’s currently unknown what exactly the initiative would entail and when it would begin, but Monsef noted that all options are on the table.

A spokesperson for Monsef told the CBC that the government is working with service providers and rural municipalities to determine the best way to speed up plans to improve access to high-speed internet.

As a result of the COVID-19 pandemic, Canadians have had to shift to working from home and attending school remotely. Unfortunately, there are several remote and rural areas of the country where Canadians do not have access to high-speed internet.

For instance, data from the CRTC indicates that only around 40 percent of rural Canadian households have access to broadband at 50/10Mbps.

“Whether you’re at home, at work, or on the road, your phone should be able to connect using LTE, you should have an internet connection with access to broadband speeds of at least 50Mbps download and 10Mbps upload,” the CRTC notes on its Broadband Fund page.

“But many Canadians, particularly those in rural and remote areas, do not have adequate access to these services.”

The Canadian Internet Registration Authority, which is the agency that manages the .ca domain, says that it hopes Minister Monsef’s promise can help narrow the gap between rural and urban internet speeds.

“The COVID-19 pandemic has made access to high quality internet services more important than ever. Despite this, one in ten Canadians still don’t have an internet connection in their home,” said Josh Tabish, CIRA’s corporate communications manager in a statement sent to MobileSyrup.

Members of Parliament who live in rural areas have also said they hope the COVID-19 pandemic will shine a light on the importance of connectivity issues in rural parts of the country.

Northwest Territories Liberal MP Michael McLeod recently said that he would be unable to attend the virtual House of Commons sessions via video due to limited bandwidth.

The government is expected to make an announcement on its accelerated plans shortly.

Update 03/05/20 11:55pm: The article was updated to clarify that the CRTC data about rural households refers to access to 50/10Mbps.

Source: The Wire Report, CBC News

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Prime Minister Justin Trudeau announced that the government is investing $240 million CAD to bring healthcare online amid the COVID-19 pandemic.

During his daily briefing on May 3rd, Trudeau noted that the government is expanding existing tools and creating new virtual platforms for mental health and primary care.

He stated that the online platform for mental health will include strategies to manage stress and also allow people to get support from a professional. Further, Canadians who are in marginalized communities and who require specialized tools will be able to get specific help.

The $240 million investment will also include funding for virtual primacy care. Trudeau said this is important for times when you don’t necessarily need to see a doctor in person.

“By helping doctors run appointments online, you can stay safe at home while getting care, and our hospitals can stay focused on those who need it most,” Trudeau said.

He stated that since Canadians are practicing physical distancing, now is the perfect time to invest in online healthcare.

“If we can use apps to order dinner, video chats to stay in touch with family, we can use new technology to keep each other healthy.”

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Though the laptop’s release has been rumoured for months, it’s now finally official. Apple has announced a refreshed 13-inch MacBook Pro (2020) that features its new Magic Keyboard.

Along with Apple’s new keyboard, the highest-end version of the 13-inch MacBook Pro also features Intel’s 10th-generation 10nm i5 processor, an upgrade from the 8th-gen chip featured in the 2019 version of the laptop.

However, only the $2,399 CAD configuration of the 13-inch Pro includes the new 10th-generation i5 Intel processor, with the $1,699 iteration featuring Intel’s 1.4GHz quad-core 8th-generation Intel processor and the $1,949 version including the same chip. There’s also an option to upgrade to a 10th-generation Intel Core i7 processor for an additional $250 on top of the base-level Intel i5 10-generation configuration.

Apple claims that users upgrading from a MacBook Pro with a dual-core processor will experience 2.8 times faster performance, with the Intel Iris Plus Graphics integrated graphics cards delivering over 8 percent faster performance over the previous generation MacBook Pro.

Apple has also upgraded the base-level storage to 256GB with the highest option now being a 4TB SSD. Ram can also now be configured all the way up to 32GB.

Apart from these upgrades, everything else is the same about the new MacBook Pro, including most notably its 13-inch display and speaker quality. Apple’s 16-inch MacBook Pro refresh from last year featured a different design that included a slightly larger screen thanks to minimized bezels, and improved audio quality. Rumours circulated earlier this year regarding Apple upgrading the 13-inch MacBook Pro’s keyboard to 14-inches, but that doesn’t seem to have happened — at least not with this refresh.

What’s most notable about the laptop is that now all of Apple’s MacBook lineup now features the tech giant’s new Magic Keyboard following years of issues with the Smart Keyboard. The Magic Keyboard features a re-designed scissor switch mechanism with 1mm in key travel, as well as an inverted-T arrow key arrangement. Further, there’s a physical Escape Key, and the Touch Bar and Touch ID also make a return.

It’s also worth noting that only the two highest-end versions of the new 13-inch MacBook Pro feature four USB-C ports, with the lower-end iterations including only two.

The 13-inch MacBook Pro was the last MacBook to still feature the unreliable low key-travel butterfly mechanism following the release of the 16-inch MacBook Pro (2019) and most recently, the MacBook Air (2020).

The new 13-inch MacBook Pro starts at $1,699 for the 1.4GHz quad-core 8th-generation Intel Core i5, Intel Iris Plus Graphics 645, with 8GB of RAM and 256GB os SSD storage. The latter configuration is also available with 512GB of internal storage for $1,949.

On the other hand, the 10th-generation Intel Core i5 processor configuration with 16GB of RAM and 512GB of storage is priced at $2,399.

The new MacBook Pro is currently available to order from Apple’s website. Shipping estimates indicate that the laptop will arrive at customers’ homes in two to three business days.

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