Rolandt

The Notion T&Cs also begin by stating that your data is yours. I think that the license verbiage quoted refers to information that is put into the general Workspace section. After that language was shared here, I moved everything into the Private section within Notion. Note the last clause of this long paragraph in the Notion T&Cs:

"As a condition of your use of the Service, you grant Notion a nonexclusive, perpetual, irrevocable, royalty-free, worldwide, transferable, sub-licenseable license to access, use, host, cache, store, reproduce, transmit, display, publish, distribute, modify and adapt and create derivative works (either alone or as part of a collective work) from your Content. As part of the foregoing license grant you agree that (a) the other users of the Service shall have the right to comment on and/or tag your public Content that you make available to them and/or to use, publish, display, modify or include a copy of your public Content that you make available to them, and (b) we have the right to make any of your public Content available to third parties, so that those third parties can distribute, make derivative works of, comment on and/or analyze your Content on other media and services (either alone or as part of a collective work); except that the foregoing (a) and (b) shall not apply to any of your Content that you post privately for non-public display on the Service."

I don't know enough to assess whether this language generally is similar to that of other websites with public and private sections. I did a quick check of Trello, where users can designate Boards as public or private. Here's what Trello's policy says:

"Please be aware that some boards can be made publicly available, meaning any content posted on that board, including information about you, can be publicly viewed and indexed by and returned in search results of search engines. You can check the board settings at any time to confirm whether a particular board is public or private."

I don't mean to suggest that Notion's terms are better or worse than those of similar services. Unlike Trello, where Boards are designated as "Private" or "Public," Notion seems to designate sections as "Private" or "Workspace." At the very least, I think Notion should make it much clearer that anything not posted in the "Private" section can be shared.

On August 15, 2019, T3 Transit Bus 68 started its day just after 6:30 a.m. servicing Route № 3, the route that goes counter-clockwise around the city from downtown through Parkdale, Sherwood, Hillsborough Park, and West Royalty.

For the next 12 hours it drove a total of 245 km, servicing both Route № 3 and, on occasion, Route № 1.

Here’s what its day looked like, compressed down to 2 minutes:

Oliver and I caught the bus at 4:38 p.m. at the corner of Beach Grove and Maypoint Road; it was running about 8 minutes late. It made up a lot of that time, and dropped us downtown 10 minutes later, close to on-time, at 4:48 p.m.

Bus 68 finished up its day just before 7:00 p.m., with one final counter-clockwise run around the city. It then headed back to the garage for the night before starting back again, just after 6:30 a.m., the next morning.

How I Made This

I pulled real-time bus location information from the T3 Transit ReadyPass map. This gave me 2,258 time-stamped bus position points in a CSV file, like:

logTime,busNumber,routeNumber,lat,long,cellStrength,speed,updateTime,accuracy,battery
2019-08-15 06:37:43,68,3,46.234024047852,-63.12748336792,0.019,0,2019-08-15 09:37:42,58,244
2019-08-15 06:37:59,68,3,46.234027862549,-63.12748336792,0.019,0,2019-08-15 09:37:53,49,244
2019-08-15 06:38:14,68,3,46.234027862549,-63.12748336792,0.018,0,2019-08-15 09:38:10,42,244

I imported these points into QGIS and used the TimeManager plug-in, with interpolation set to “Linear interpolation for big datasets” and a time frame size of 15 seconds. I exported the resulting frames to PNG files and then combined the 2,926 frames into a single MP4 video with ffmpeg:

ffmpeg -i frame%5d.png  -movflags faststart -pix_fmt yuv420p -vf "scale=trunc(iw/2)*2:trunc(ih/2)*2" video.mp4

I can watch the resulting video over and over and over: it’s like a transit ballet. Or a transit video game.

I prefer the Windows 10 1903 Light Mode during the day and the Dark Mode at night. Windows won't switch it for you, but there is an app for that. Free and open source.

More >

Unplug for a week or so these days and it feels like an information tsunami when you poke your head up again. Almost makes me want to put the periscope back down.

Today was the first Open Streets TO event of the year, and the Toronto Brompton Owners group used the occasion for a group ride. Here we are by Bloor and Spadina.

Actually shortly before we took off, I had a chance to catch up with Angela, who is now also a Brompton owner. However, I was admiring her new helmet with lights, by Rock Bros.

Here’s a rear view with the control panel. It has lights on the side and rear as well as the front. She said that it was both cheaper and lighter than the Lumos.

If I didn’t already have two other helmets on the way via Kickstarter and Indiegogo, I’d be tempted.

She also had this sweet sticker that she had made in memory of her husband, Gary.

Here we go down Yonge St. The pavement has gotten pretty bad.

We stop to chat with Andy and Elise who are Bromptonless today, but had their new dog Teddy with them.

Pier showing off a bit. He was blasting some disco music from a speaker at his hip that we figured out was released the year before he was born.

Riding back up Yonge.

Where should we go next?

We decide to wrap up the ride at home base for Bromptons in Toronto: Curbside Cycle.

BTW didn’t know that Curbside now rents Bromptons.

and here we are at Curbside with a few more members.

Thanks to everyone who came out today, and thanks also to Heather who got us organized on Facebook.

Simon wrote:
> I didn't get beyond their privacy policy:

Oh myyyy, i love the cloud.
In german cloud rhymes with stealing (in fact it doesnt rhyme, it is exactly the same pronounciation).

How can any company use such a tool?

Sprint has recently deployed 5G in the Chicago area and has put an impressive coverage map online. Needless to say that I had to go to a Sprint store to see if I could get a demo of their 5G network. My expectations where high because they did advertise 5G in their windows.

When I asked inside what they could tell me about their new 5G service, I was shown the three 5G devices they currently have in stock, the US Version of the Samsung Galaxy S10 5G, a 5G smartphone by LG and the HTC Hub. Unfortunately there was no 5G coverage inside the store. I was told that there is some patchy 5G coverage in town but that obviously did not help much to get a feeling for the network inside the store. I then asked how fast their 5G network was but the most I could get out of the sales person was “it’s pretty fast”. Hm, a bit of an odd sales strategy if you ask me. As a prospective customer that wouldn’t have incited me to go for their network.

Anyway, at least I got some info on pricing. Their ‘Unlimited Plus’ plan with a 50 GB data limit per month would cost me $75 a month, an S10 5G for $1299 would cost me $54 a month and an additional $19 for insurance which would land me at $148 a month for the contract, taxes probably not included. Ok, now that’s quite far away from the €20-30 you pay in Finland for truly unlimited data but probably not extraordinary for the US.

And that’s pretty much all I could find out in the store so I have to continue to rely on reports such as this one that puts Sprint’s 5G service in the Chicago area in the 100-300 Mbit/s range. Let’s see if that improves over time because I can easily get such data rates over LTE in Europe without a sweat.

Today, Geoffrey Bercarich organized a group ride built around refurbishing several ghost bikes, and replacing one that had been removed. The first to be worked on was just east of Avenue Rd on Bloor, the one dedicated to Darcy Allan Sheppard. Even before the nominal start time, Geoffrey and Wayne arrived early, because they were concerned about the possibility of rain.

Wayne Scott hanging a sign for DAS 10, the tenth anniversary of Darcy’s death. There will be an event on August 31, time TBA.

People gather around the DAS ghost bike, while Geoffrey gets us organized.

Decorating the bike

We remember you, Darcy Allan Sheppard.

Next up: refurbishing the Dalia Chako ghost bike at Bloor and St. George. Geoffrey leads the way across Avenue Rd.

Arriving

Touching up the paint.

Now decorating.

Wayne Scott drops by to pay his respects.

We remember you, Dalia Chako.

Next up, replacing the ghost bike for Roger du Toit.

By this point, they are rolling up the sod from Open Streets TO.

The crash site.

Initially, the chain that we had was just a few inches short. However Doug (to the left) being the smart guy he is, pointed out that the pole is tapered, and that if we lift the bike, the chain might just fit.

Decorating the bike.

Adding a touch of refective paint.

This is the stop sign that Roger had requested be installed. It might have made a difference on the day that he was struck. The city installed the sign about a month after his death.

We remember you, Roger du Toit.

At this point, the group dispersed. However, I should add a few side notes.

Firstly, earlier that morning, Geoffrey had already repainted the bike at Avenue and Davenport for Adam Excell.

After the Roger duToit reinstallation, several of the group rode on to fix up the ghost bike on the MGT for Xavier Morgan.

Finally, a note of thanks to Angela who gave me this sticker that is now on my Haul a Day, which is the bike I usually take on memorial rides.

Thanks to Geoffrey for organizing today’s ride, and for taking the lead in fixing and replacing memorials.

We remember. We will not forget.

Ms. Giunta is posing with a Bobbin 3-speed Birdie bike from Curbside Cycle. This article first appeared in 2011.

Heels on Wheels with Wallis Giunta
Occupation: Opera Singer
Age: 25

Tell us how cycling and singing intersect in your life?

Cycling and singing are my two favourite things; so naturally, they have a big affect on each other. I’ve used my bike as my main mode of transportation since I was 12, and I arrive at almost every performance on two wheels. When I’m cycling, I feel clear-headed and at peace, which helps me get into the right zone for performing. It also warms up my body, and opens my lungs.

Do you ever sing while cycling?

I really love to sing while I’m riding. I figure if I can sing a difficult piece while I’m biking, it should be no problem under normal breathing conditions! Also, cycling is such a rhythmic and enjoyable process that I can’t seem to hold back. When I’m happy, I sing, and when I bike, I’m happy.

What are you working on now?

I just started working at the Metropolitan Opera in New York this past September. I’m a member of their Lindemann Young Artist Development Program, and I absolutely love it…but I do miss Canada. Fortunately, I have lots to look forward to at home this season. My next performance is at Roy Thompson Hall on New Years Eve! It’s the annual Bravissimo! Gala, and I will be singing opera classics with a quartet of fabulous singers from around the world. Following that, I have a solo recital with Music Toronto at the St. Lawrence Centre for the Arts on March 1st, with pianist Steven Philcox. Not to spoil too much, but the program is very exciting and very Canadian.

Can you tell us a bit about being a Lindemann Young Artist with the acclaimed Metropolitan Opera?

What we have available in this program is really quite amazing. Our main job is to watch and learn, which is very easy since there is a performance almost every night, and rehearsals all day throughout the building. We have access to the world’s best opera coaches and directors; we get private language instruction in the most common operatic tongues (this season I plan to master Italian and German); we have frequent auditions for opera companies, festivals and conductors; we learn to dance and move - most recently, we had salsa dance classes as it helps to release tension in the body and make a singer more relaxed, with a lower centre of gravity. The list goes on. It is a very similar program to the Canadian Opera Company Ensemble Studio, of which I was very fortunate to be a member of for the past two years. The only difference is the volume of singers, conductors, and productions that come through the Met’s massive doors.

Do you ever bike in NYC?

So far, I’ve used my bikes around my neighbourhood and for recreational riding, as the commute would be too long from where I’m living. It’s cool for me though, because in Toronto my bike was my car, and I rarely had time to ride just for fun. Now I go in the park on the weekends and ride just because I want to.

Have you ever worn heels while riding your bike?

I like to arrive at events ready to go, so I often ride in performance gowns, with my heels and jewellery on! The only thing that I can’t do is my hair, because I have to wear my helmet. (Yes, mom I do.) So, the hair waits until I get to the theatre. I actually like wearing heels to bike. There’s a way to hook them on the pedals, and it’s quite stable.

Ms. Giunta demonstrates stability while wearing heels on wheels.

Tell us about your gown.

I am a very lucky girl because my gowns come from David McCaffrey at McCaffrey Haute Couture. We work together to create looks for my performances that reflect how I feel, what he’s into, and what each performance requires. The gowns live at his boutique, on display gallery style, and they send them out to me when I have a performance. It’s totally ideal. I am also the face of David’s label, and we have great fun shooting each collection in beautiful locations. This gown was for a performance for our Governor General, and also happens to be my favourite color.

What is your best cycling accessory?

My most indispensable bike accessory is my wire basket on my back rack. It hooks on the side of the rack so easily, and has a strong handle, so I can carry it around with me – everywhere.

I also love my YNOT pedal straps, because I can use them with heels just as easily as my Blundstones!

Do you cycle in the fall and winter?

I cycle 365 days a year if I can. I have two bikes, and they both do all seasons. I love riding when it’s cold. When you ride in the winter, you stay much warmer, and arrive at your destination toasty. I actually get overheated all the time when I ride in the winter. I have to stop and peel off layers during my ride. Take that, streetcar.

How does wool work it’s way into your fall cycling wardrobe?

First I will say that I don’t have a cycling wardrobe. I wear what I wear, and it all works on my bike. I’m a pretty practical and casual dresser. But, wool has fully infiltrated my wardrobe in general. My dad got me into Icebreaker merino wool clothing, and I have at least one layer of it on each day. I also make use of my collection of wool kilts from my mom’s Highland Dancing days, and my Hudson’s Bay red wool parka from Value Village. And my wool socks that my grandma knits me. So far, I haven’t gotten into cashmere, but you always need something to look forward to, eh?

Wallis hearts wool.

Do you ever match your wardrobe with your bicycle?

Not really. If I did, I’d be wearing mud splattered, ripped up black clothing. But I do love how using my bike influences my style. No matter what I’m wearing, riding my bike always brings me down to earth. Being physically responsible for your own transportation is very humbling and liberating. I like my style to reflect how that makes me feel.

What is your favourite city to ride in?

I love riding in Germany. I’ve been in Gutersloh, Neumarkt, and Nürnberg, and all three places I was able to easily get a free bicycle; legally. They all had dedicated lanes, and you never had to worry about cars, or car doors. Cycling is a big part of their culture and is not just welcomed but encouraged. It was luxury.

What is the strangest thing you’ve done with a bicycle?

I’ve dressed my bike up for Halloween. We’ll leave it at that.

Wallis Giunta's YouTube Channel

…

Ms. Giunta is the 10^th Heels on Wheels profile in our dandyhorse series on fashionable pedal people.

You can check out the new Bobbin bike video here.

 

Mike Barry was a Canadian cycling legend. He founded of one of Canada’s best bicycle brands, Mariposa, and ran a bicycle shop called Bicycle Specialities for many years in Toronto.

A Life with Bicycles: a collection from 1878 — 2003 is a book that details the incredible bicycle collection of the recently deceased bicycle mensch. The photos are by Walter Lai. His wife Clare, featured in dandyhorse issue 3, said Mike was very, very pleased with Walter’s photos. “Mike always enjoyed writing, researching and thinking about designs of bikes and their use.  I had really encouraged him to also consider doing a book or section on derailleurs as he loved the designs of them. …He certainly had an engineering and inquisitive mind. He was very very and pleased with Walters photos.

Mike Barry died on December 29, 2018, at the age of 80 in Toronto.

His son, Michael, a professional cyclist who competed in the Tour de France, said the book project started a few years ago when Walter and his father decided it would  be nice to document his collection of bicycles. “He had been writing about them on his blog and found there was a lot of interest in the bicycles, their history, and technical aspects, and thought it would be nice to put them all in a book. Walter was keen to photograph the bikes (as he had previously worked with my father on building the shop website.) Walter is a professional photographer who has done a range of work for different corporations and magazines over the years. He is also a passionate cyclist who rides everywhere, year-round. As you know bicycles played a central role in my father’s life as he had been passionate about them since he was a child. Through the book, he wanted to share some of what he’d learned, some of his stories and some of the history of bicycles,” Michael said, ” And he felt Walter’s photos captured them beautifully.”

Here are just a few of the images from the book A Life with Bicycles, below, interspersed with our interview with photographer Walter Lai along with a couple of excerpts from the book.

Read the full story here or at thebicyclemuseum.ca/portfolio/a-life-with-bicycles-by-mike-barry.

Follow The Bicycle Museum on Instagram.

I’m imagining a discussion that might have taken place in Baidaihe at some point this month at the annual CCP summer offsite.

“Getting ugly in Hong Kong, and I’m not sure our Ms Lam is moving things in the right direction.”

“I hear from the people on the spot that what the good people want is just peace and quiet, this is just a bunch of teenage assholes making trouble.”

“Nobody wants to give their boss bad news. Haven’t you watched the BBC coverage? Maybe you’re hearing good things from your staff, but let’s suppose the gweilo TV is right? What are we going to do?”

“We’re doing one thing that’s working, going after the troublemakers’ bosses. We took down Hogg at Cathay Pacific. That’ll make every ambitious manager in HK go on the warpath to keep their employees in the office and off the damn streets. Hong Kong, it’s about three things: Money, money, and money.”

“Except for, the bad guys are getting 20% of the population out in the streets. That’ll include people who work for every fucking bank and real-estate developer and shipping company, are we gonna get every CEO in South China fired?”

“But the police say there were only 128,000 people out!”

“The HK police are idiots and in case you hadn’t notice, they’re losing in the streets.”

“I think they’re winning. There haven’t been any arrests or violence at the last three days of protests.”

“You think that’s good?! If the word starts going around that you can get away with large-scale activism as long as you keep it peaceful… do you like the idea of four million people out on the streets of Shanghai? Or a couple of million in Guangzhou?”

“What do you mean about the word getting around? The people of China are well-protected from dangerous foreign ideas, they’re not going to watching those shitty BBC liars.”

“Don’t you look at tourism figures? Fifty one million people from our side visited Hong Kong last year. They’ll all be talking to their friends and relations.”

“Yeah, well that’s maybe ten million people, a lot of them visiting every week on business. And, let’s be honest, they’re the same ones who travel overseas and already have lots of exposure to fake news from people who hate the Party. They probably all have VPNs already.”

“On top of which, those people are making good money and they owe it to us and they know it. They’ll bloody well watch what they say.”

“You guys, this is the same kind of thinking that got our 1989 leadership into trouble, letting those ‘innocent’ students stay in Tienanmen until they thought they owned it and we had to go in with the tanks and machine guns!”

“He’s right. We have the muscle all built up in Shenzen, they can be holding down Central and Tsim Sha Tsui in 72 hours and there’ll be no more of those fucking umbrellas. On top of which, the good people there will throw flowers at our guys and go back to making money in peace and quiet.”

“Suppose they don’t. Suppose there are a quarter million assholes dressed in black yelling ‘Gaa Yau!’ at each other and ‘Two Systems!’ at us and, flashing lasers and the real fringe throwing molotovs, and all with masks so we can’t ID many, and fading away into the MTR, and then another quarter million out the next day?”

“Brother, if it really comes down to them versus us, it’ll be us. Just like in 1989. It’s not just riot-control equipment waiting there in Shenzen. And any solo hero standing in front of a PLA tank this time is going to be ashes before he gets on CNN.”

“Screw CNN. It’ll be live on YouTube and Instagram and Twitter with a couple of billion people watching, and highlights of PLA tanks squishing Hong Kong patriots waiting for people who were asleep at the time.”

“So what? The people who matter need to do business with us, what do they care what kids watch on Instagram? Are they going to walk away from the chance?”

“Well, Google did.”

Here’s another thing. Suppose they’re holding out in Mong Kok and every other skeezy neighborhood away from Central and there are people in all those buildings throwing shit at us from the 3rd through 20th floors, and they turn trucks sideways in those awful little streets, how are we going to get them out?”

“The PLA is not going to be stopped by a bunch of acne-faced cockroaches! Whose side are you on?”

“Western politics is weird. They eventually turned their backs on people from their own tribe in Rhodesia and South Africa in favor of a bunch of black people!

“We have our people getting our side of the story out in every Western capital; the right kind of students marching, shouting down the local HK troublemakers.”

“Give me a break, those clueless princelings haven’t the vaguest what they’re living among. I see their latest brilliant idea is to drive around in their Lambos and McLarens waving Chinese flags. Are you really really sure you want to make that bet?”

“Look, our economy is less about imports and exports every year. If the world doesn’t want us any more, then we don’t need them! We’ll just turn our backs and China will be China for Chinese, and it’ll be great.”

“Yeah, well I don’t want to miss aprés-ski in Zermatt or my place with that view in West Vancouver.”

“You might have to, because if those HK cockroaches prove they can tell us to fuck off and go on having a decent life and making money… you talk about bringing in muscle from Shenzen, what I worry about is people there starting to dress in black.”

“Yep, let’s just keep the PLA ready to roll, and hope it doesn’t have to.”

“Hope is not a strategy.”

You shouldn’t buy an expensive camera if you’re not planning to learn how to compose great photos.

If you don’t know how to frame a photo, fill a frame, nor use diagonals and leading lines, an expensive camera won’t help you much. It’s like buying a better laptop to write a better novel. There could be some useful extra features, but you need to learn the principles first.

This is true for online communities too.

You shouldn’t invest thousands, even millions, of dollars in community technology if you don’t know how to properly create the results you need.

Your platform vendor can tell you how the features function (about as well as a camera manufacturer can tell you how the camera works), but that’s not going to help you compose the perfect result.

 

Are You Using Default Settings?

Your community website should be entirely unique to you and your members.

If you’re using your platform’s default settings, haven’t clearly prioritised specific features and topics, and you’re not nudging members towards the behaviors you need, I’ll bet you’re not even close to getting the results you should be getting.

For most of us, there is terrific potential to improve our communities. During my CMX Workshop (“Richard’s workshop“), I’m going to guide you to make rapid, incremental, changes to achieve the best possible results from your community technology.

This workshop is platform agnostic. Using a free Facebook group or an enterprise community platform matters as much as using a cheap or expensive camera when learning to compose photos. It helps, but the core principles matter far more.

By the end of the workshop, you will be able to build a roadmap of improvements to get far higher levels of participation and better results from your community platform.

Even better, you will have a group of peers to help guide your efforts and be a sounding board for your ideas.

I hope you will join us.

p.s. You can watch this webinar on community design with CMX to give yourself a head-start.

p.p.s. My conversation with David Spinks about community skills is now live.

p.p.p.s. I’ll be speaking at Swarm in Sydney, Australia, this week. Feel free to join us.

Liked a post by Aaron Parecki

Over the past few weekends I've been overhauling my home automation systems. At the core, as I decide what to buy and how to configure it, there are three primary principles

Aaron Parecki has been playing around with sensors in his home. He lists the three principles he applies to how his home automation is set up:

• Manual override: Everything automated has to still have the ability to be controlled manually
• Keep it at home: No “cloud” services unless absolutely necessary (e.g. push notifications to a phone)
• Open: Avoid vendor lock-in, use open source and open protocols where possible

These are three principles that make sense in more contexts, where the second principle “keep it at home” I relate to the “useful on its own, more useful when connected to other instances” element that is important to me in thinking about smart homes.

Rather impressive is that Aaron is dropping technology that has been acquired by silos, and breaks those principles after he started using it, and not just uses them to inform buying decisions.

Silo-imprisonment and closed tools result in a smart home that isn’t smart for you, but smart for the vendors. Like how Smart City TM visions were about dull boring security focused panopticons keeping people in check. Not the vibrant community where ideas, people, capital, goods and artisanship recombine into a total so much more than the sum of its parts, where smart technology aids those serendipitous recombinations.

A smart home to me is one that is not just a dwelling but a productive actor (a “MakerHousehold“), for the people that live in it, for its immediate neighbourhood and for the city it is in. This was what I was interested in when shaping the ‘Smart Stuff That Matters‘ unconference last year.

Aaron got me thinking about potential sensors in our home again. Also because data gathering is the starting point for finding points of action. AI for the rest of us I think needs to be based on self collected data around the house / person, mixed with public data for context.

As readers of my blog know, I’m interested in alternative modalities and representations for programming. I’m an avid follower of David Weintrop’s work, especially the work comparing blocks and text for programming (e.g., as discussed in this blog post).

David wrote a piece for CACM summarizing some of his studies on block-based programming in computing education. It has just been published in the August issue.  Here’s the link to the piece — I recommend it.

To understand how learners make sense of the block-based modality and understand the scaffolds that novice programmers find useful, I conducted a series of studies in high-school computer science classrooms. As part of this work, I observed novices writing programs in block-based tools and interviewed them about the experience. Through these interviews and a series of surveys, a picture emerged of what the learners themselves identified as being useful about the block-based approach to programming. Students cited features discussed here such as the shape and visual layout of blocks, the ability to browse available commands, and the ease of the drag-and-drop composition interaction. They also cited the language of the blocks themselves, with one student saying “Java is not in English it’s in Java language, and the blocks are in English, it’s easier to understand.” I also surveyed students after working in both block-based and text-based programming environment and they overwhelmingly reported block-based tools as being easier. These findings show that students themselves see block-based tools as useful and shed light as to why this is the case.

It is getting closer to be being completed and definitely does add to the skyline.

I admit I am most curious to see how it will look at ground level once it’s completed. The Architectural “scene drawings” promised a lot. I am not sure Vancouver can deliver that, though the city has changed a lot over the last 10 years. For the better I would say.

There is a Flickr Set as well:

Great short story by Ted Chiang:

The humans use Arecibo to look for extraterrestrial intelligence. Their desire to make a connection is so strong that they’ve created an ear capable of hearing across the universe.

But I and my fellow parrots are right here. Why aren’t they interested in listening to our voices?

If you like this story, get his book >

One Friday evening earlier this summer we enjoyed a lovely supper at our friends Michelle and Bill’s house out in East Royalty. Returning home after supper we were in kind of a rush, as Oliver and I had plans to take in an Island Fringe show. Add to this rush that it was hot (and that our car has no air conditioning), that Ethan spotted another dog as I pulled into our driveway and was barking uncontrollably, and that there was a gaggle of young hipsters chilling on the porch next door, and I was not at my driverly best.

It was at this point that passenger side mirror met eavestrough. You can see the evidence still:

It’s remarkable that, in 19 years of backing this car into this driveway with this eavestrough located where it is that I hadn’t done this sooner: it was an accident waiting to happen.

By some miracle I didn’t rip the eavestrough right off the house; indeed it suffered very little damage, and young Henry from next door was able to make quick work of unmangling it before I even exited the car.

Otherwise the damage was limited to my pride, and to the destruction of the sideview mirror, which I carefully removed once I’d retained my cool. Here’s the mirror, deconstructed:

Replacing the mirror turned out to be a lot easier than I thought: I was able to order an aftermarket replacement from Amazon for $66.27, taxes and shipping in:

The mirror assembly arrived a week later, and I followed the helpful instructions in this YouTube video to install it. I had all the tools that I needed for the job, save the T45 Torx driver that’s used to remove the large bolt that holds the mirror itself; T45 Trox drivers are, apparently, rare birds, as Home Hardware had none, and Canadian Tire, in its wide range of Torx sets, had only one that included a T45. So I bought that set.

Once I had the T45, the only tricky part was getting the door to snap back into place via the plastic clips that hold it on: the clips were in various states of decay (the car, after all, is 20 years old), and sproinged off or got crushed in my early ham-handed attempts at reattachment. So I’ll make a visit to the VW dealer this afternoon to purchase some replacements. But in the meantime, I have a new mirror:

The replacement mirror, despite only costing $57, has all the functionality of the original: it’s heated (for defrosting in winter), and can be controlled remotely from the driver’s side mirror controls.

I’d rather this hadn’t happened at all, but I’m happy to have been able to repair the car myself, and those in my right-hand blind spot should feel slightly safer now that I can see them a little better.

By limiting its laptops to Thunderbolt 3 and USB-C ports, Apple has been able to continue its relentless pursuit of thinness. That’s great when you’re on the go. However, if an Apple laptop is your primary computer, the number and lacking diversity of ports is problematic. When you’re back at home or work, connecting legacy USB-A devices, SD and microSD cards, and Ethernet and HDMI cables requires an array of often expensive dongles and cables that quickly fill up the available ports on your Mac.

When I commuted to downtown Chicago for work, I carried a 2016 MacBook Pro with me. At the end of the day when I returned home, I sat the laptop on my desk and plugged in a bunch of cables and dongles, which was a pain. Because I work from home now, I don’t use my MacBook Pro that way very often anymore, except in the summertime when that laptop becomes a testbed for the latest macOS beta. I’ve been trying to work on the macOS beta from a MacBook Pro as much as possible over the summer, and the experience has caused me to revisit the frustration of unplugging cables and dongles every time I want to leave my desk and work elsewhere.

I had been thinking about ways to improve my summertime beta setup when Other World Computing offered to send me its OWC Thunderbolt 3 Dock to test. I took them up on the offer, and having used it for a while now, I love the convenience of being able to connect everything to my MacBook Pro with a single Thunderbolt 3 cable. It’s not an inexpensive solution, but compared to the cost of purchasing multiple over-priced dongles, it’s not as extravagant as it might seem at first.

The OWC Thunderbolt 3 Dock has 14 ports, which start with the Thunderbolt 3 port that connects the dock to your Mac using a cable that comes with the device. In addition to handling data transfer from the dock’s other ports to your Mac, that port delivers 85W of power, which has allowed me to ditch my ever-present Apple power cable.

It’s worth noting, however, that the power brick and cord combo that comes with the Thunderbolt 3 Dock is bulky and heavy, weighing more than the dock itself. That hasn’t been a dealbreaker for me because the dock has remained on my desk since I started testing it, but it’s worth keeping in mind if you’re looking for a dock to use when traveling.

The dock’s other ports are arrayed along the front and back of the device. On the front are microSD and SD card readers, an analog audio input/output jack, a powered USB-A 3.1 Gen 1 port that supports up to 5GB/s transfers, and a USB-C Gen 2 port which supports up to 10GB/s transfers.

Photographers will find the two front-facing SD card slots handy to have when returning from a photoshoot. The audio port handles audio input and output, so it can be used with speakers, headphone, and microphones. There’s also an optical S/PDIF audio input on the rear of the dock for handling additional audio devices. It’s useful to have two variants of USB ports on the front of the dock for charging devices, connecting USB thumb drives, and making other temporary connections too.

The rear of the dock includes nine more inputs. There are four USB-A Gen 1 ports, one of which is powered, making it a good option for external powered SSD or HDDs that require power. The other three USB-A ports can be used with devices that don’t need power like mice, keyboards, and printers.

In the center of the dock’s rear is a Gigabit Ethernet jack and Thunderbolt 3 and Mini DisplayPort inputs. The Thunderbolt 3 port supports two 4K displays or one 5K display, Thunderbolt 3 device chaining, and USB-C Gen 2 devices, but does not support connecting an iPad to an external display.

The Mini DisplayPort is probably the connection I’m least likely to use on the Thunderbolt 3 Dock. Because so many displays support HDMI, I would have preferred that type of connector to Mini DisplayPort.

One especially nice touch that I appreciate is a free menu bar utility OWC offers called OWC Dock Ejector. If you have multiple drives attached to a dock, the process of ejecting each one before disconnecting the dock defeats some of the convenience of having a single Thunderbolt cable connected to your Mac. With OWC Dock Ejector, a single click safely ejects every external drive attached to my dock, so I can yank out the Thunderbolt cable and be on my way. It’s a thoughtful software addition that makes the hardware better than it would be on its own.

The hallmark of a quality dock is that it just sits there handling inputs and outputs and powering your Mac without the need to fiddle with it. I can’t speak to the OWC Thunderbolt 3 Dock’s longevity given the short time I’ve used it, but setting it up was simple, and it’s been entirely trouble-free the whole time I’ve used it.

Last year, I found myself sitting at my desk testing Mojave more than I would have liked, in part because of the friction of disconnecting my MacBook Pro from Ethernet, external drives, an external display, audio gear, and power and then reconnecting everything again later. By reducing that process to a single connection point, the OWC Thunderbolt 3 Dock has made it easier to get away from my desk, which has made testing macOS a better experience this summer. Disconnecting a fistful of cables and dongles isn’t a terrible hardship, but being able to grab your laptop and go, then quickly reconnect when you return, is certainly better. This level of convenience makes the OWC Thunderbolt 3 Dock worth a look, especially if a Mac laptop is your primary computer.

The OWC Thunderbolt 3 Dock is available in Silver and Space Gray directly from OWC for $299.

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Do you agree that Brands, And Now Publishers, Must Get The Message About Programmatic Creative? Or have we gone "Beyond Copy"

Bruce Schneier has a great piece on the Influence Operations Kill Chain but it misses one step. What if a social network is so committed to getting a cryptocurrency approved that the moderators end up coming in on the misinfo side? And a reality check on filtering: Facebook is already flooded with fake Libra cryptocurrency scams. If they can't filter out ads about their own brand, based on photos of their own CEO, what can they do for political ads where the creative can be more varied? And will they even want to?

• Facebook ads funded by 'dark money' are the right's weapon for 2020

• Researchers say Facebook has weakened or disabled tools they use to track political ads and content on the platform, just as 2020 campaigns ramp up ad spending (David Uberti/VICE News).

• Facebook accused of blocking wider efforts to study its ad platform

• Pentagon study: Russia outgunning U.S. in race for global influence

If you advertise on Facebook, read this: Trauma Counselors Were Pressured to Divulge Confidential Information About Facebook Moderators, Internal Letter Claims And if you don't advertise on Facebook, go ahead and feel a little more satisfied with yourself. You're doing a great thing for our country.

Q: Why don't you ride your bike in traffic? It's convenient, fun and great exercise!
A: Man Caught Playing Pokemon Go On Eight Phones In His Car

Apple will soon treat online web tracking the same as a security vulnerability. Apple: 'We'll treat sites like malware if they break ad tracking rules'. WebKit’s new anti-tracking policy puts privacy on a par with security. (The message here is that if you want to track Apple's users, move them to your private island and hunt them, I mean make a native iOS app with tracking SDKs.) And ICYMI: Introducing tracking prevention, now available in Microsoft Edge preview builds

Most EU cookie ‘consent’ notices are meaningless or manipulative, study finds. In other news, ursine defecation observed in forest environments.

Can CCPA Be a Good Thing for Marketers? Now, we need to prove that the data is being stored, managed and used with the utmost integrity and privacy safeguards possible. Regulations like GDPR and CCPA provide the opportunity for marketers to become accountable for this process and allow us to step up and show what great stewards of data we are. More CCPA: Why the CCPA's 'verified consumer request' is a business risk. IMHO CCPA will do for marginally useful PII in Marketing what the Resource Conservation and Recovery Act did for marginally useful hazardous materials in manufacturing—make it easier to just get rid of it and update your processes to do without.

Digital buzzword watch: contextual. The halo effect is real: New research confirms that ads perform better in quality contexts, How quality content separates publishers from ad streams, New Study Shows That All This Ad Targeting Doesn't Work That Well, Contextual Targeting’s Coming Renaissance

If you take a look at this George Couros post, you'll learn that the "Sunday Seven" is by the Burgess Consulting community, of which “IMPress Books” is a part of as a subsidiary company. I have nothing to do with either - but you can get my Sunday Seven without waiting for Sunday, buying a book or signing up for a publisher's promotional mailing list.

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1. An App that makes me smile

I've been a longtime aficionado of lolcats and fail videos and other such memes, so I'll actually agree with Couros here and list  TikTok here (I never did like Vine, by contrast). I might also include Imgur as well. Before TikTok I also enjoyed Coub (you can follow all of these on various YouTube channels as well).

2. An app that I could not live without

At Bat, the Major League Baseball app. As apps go, it's not a very good app, either the desktop or mobile version, but what it does do is allow me to watch every Major League Baseball game (or listen to the radio broadcast if I'm away from the screen in my car or on my bicycle. P.S. don't be fooled by the price on the web page - your MLB subscription is $20/month during the baseball season. It's a luxury I allow myself.

3. Book on education that I just read that I love

I don't read books (properly so-called) because there is more than enough free content online for me to read. It's also usually a lot more up-to-date. But I did read Viplav Baxi's WhatIf EDU while he was writing it, and it has not been published as a paper-based book (he even mailed me a copy - thanks Viplav!). so that sort of counts.

4. The movie I have watched the most in my life

There are a few - Robert Downey Jr.'s Sherlock Holmes, or Children of Men, but the winner here has to be Luc Beeson's The Fifth Element. It was so good they didn't make a sequel. Bruce Willis is perfect as a washed-up taxi driver and Gary Oldman is a perfect villain.

5. Instagram account that inspires me

I don't use Instagram. I do use Flickr, and here the clear winner is Alan Levine's account. For years he has been taking photos for the sake of taking photos and sharing them with the world. It's what photography always should have been, before it was made 'art', professionalized, and commercialized.

6. Broadway Soundtrack I love

Waitress. I was already a Sara Barelles fan, and she hits some perfect notes with this soundtrack. There's a really good concert video with her singing most of the songs, as well as some favourites from her previous albums. What I like about Barelles - all her work, not just this - is that it is reflective, self-aware, and ultimately empowering.


7. An idea for every new parent or grandparent

I love the way my brother and his wife - Bill and Shirley - are so fully involved in the lives of their children. They make sure they have rich and varied experiences so they can follow their interests and passions. Opening the world as widely as possible and giving them a chance to drink it all in - that seems to me to be the best idea of all. 

Depends on the price. If the tier they're offering is at an especially good price and you like the workflow, then go for it. They've been around, and limping along, for 15 years, so I doubt they're about to close down. But the app/service design needs a serious refresh.

I remember that in 2017 WeDo offered a lifetime Pro subscription through StackSocial for $20, at a time when the yearly subscription was more than that. (Yearly is now $40.) I'd assumed they were making some sort of last-ditch effort for funding and worried that they'd soon disappear, but although no one talks about them much anywhere it's still an ongoing service.

So I don't think that ToodleDo is necessarily going anywhere, but they may not currently have the funding to make anything but slower, incremental advances right now.

It's a tough market, with lots of free options, and lots of much bigger competitors with Pro plans that cost in the same ballpark. Again, ultimately it depends on whether you like using the app and would be happy if nothing major improved.

If you simply want to jump into commuting, touring, randonneuring, trail-riding, and whatever-ing rather than navigating the landscape of component compatibility, we have developed and selected each piece of kit for reliability, durability, and ease of maintenance.

Polyvalent

The Polyvalent is a fantastically flexible platform for so many types of riding. That's why we are offering it in both drop bar and flat bar offerings with a suite of in-house developed Velo Orange components and accessories. No matter your discipline or riding style, the Polyvalent is a reliable, capable, and stylish companion for your next ride.


Both Drop Bar and Flat Bar Polyvalents use a mix of SRAM 11 speed drivetrain components. These levels have been SRAM's workhorses and they strike a fantastic balance of ergonomics, performance, and durability for many applications. The Apex crankset uses a chainring that has a chain retention design while the rear uses a clutch to keep the derailleur and chain composed over rough terrain such as gravel and cobbles. Avid BB7 cable actuated brakes help you stop after all that go.


Finally, any good all-rounder has to have a good set of fenders. They keep spray off your back, friends behind you happy, and your drivetrain significantly cleaner. A set of Smooth 650b Fenders are included and professionally installed with every complete Polyvalent.

Drop Bar
Paired with our Nouveau Randonneur Handlebars, the Rival shifters provide a nicely appointed cockpit with ample real estate upon which to move. 

Flat Bar
The Flat Bar Polyvalent is based around our Granola Bar which lends itself perfectly to a comfortable, upright position for commuting and safe, around-town navigation.

Polyvalent complete price: $2400 shipped to the contiguous USA.

Piolet

The Piolet is our dependable and simple rough-and-tumble bike. It's designed for on and off-road touring, gravel, and single track. Load it up with gear for an extended tour, or strip it down for a fun day on the trails!

As the release of Apple Arcade inches increasingly closer, this is our clearest look yet and what the service is going to look like.

Apple announced Apple Arcade back in March, the tech giant’s game subscription service for iOS, macOS and Apple TV titles.

So far, the Cupertino-based company hasn’t shared many details about the service. What we do know is that Apple has invested $500 million USD (about $663 million CAD) into the platform, and it’s supposed to launch in the fall.

A recent leak from MacRumors indicates Apple employees are reportedly testing the service. In the screenshots, Apple is offering employees a free one-month trial, which wouldn’t be surprising to see in the full release of the service.

The other rumours appear to relate to how Apple plans to layout Arcade inside the Mac App Store. A few games also show up in the screenshots, including Way of the Turtle, Down in Bermuda and Hot Lava.

It’s also worth noting that all of the games have the title ‘Apple Arcade’ above their name. This is likely so that if you saw the game anywhere else in the App Store, you’d know that the title is included in the Arcade subscription.

While a mobile game subscription service hasn’t been attempted before, based off of the success of Microsoft’s Xbox Game Pass, there’s a possibility Apple Arcade could be a hit.

Image source: MacRumors

Source: MacRumors

The post Take a look at Apple Arcade’s beta in these leaked images appeared first on MobileSyrup.

U.S. President Donald Trump said Apple CEO Tim Cook “made a very compelling argument” when he indicated that tariffs on China could come in the way of Apple trying to compete with Samsung in the market.

The Verge reported that Trump and Cook had met during a dinner meeting on Friday, August 16th.

“I had a very good meeting with Tim Cook,” Trump said. “I have a lot of respect for Tim Cook, and Tim was talking to me about tariffs. And one of the things, and he made a good case, is that Samsung is their number-one competitor, and Samsung is not paying tariffs because they’re based in South Korea.”

“And it’s tough for Apple to pay tariffs if they’re competing with a very good company that’s not. I said, ‘How good a competitor?’ He said they are a very good competitor. So Samsung is not paying tariffs because they’re based in a different location, mostly South Korea but they’re based in South Korea. And I thought he made a very compelling argument, so I’m thinking about it.”

It is worth noting that much of Apple’s parts and products are assembled in China and would be included in in the 10 percent import tax. The tax is set for September 1st for many of Apple’s products like the Apple Watch and AirPods.

The iPhone, iPad, Macbook lineup will be part of the tax starting December 15th.

Source: The Verge

The post Trump says Cook makes ‘compelling argument’ that tariffs on China will affect Apple appeared first on MobileSyrup.

Rural Economic Development Minister Bernadette Jordan has announced new investments of over $151 million CAD to build a submarine fibre optic cable from Iqaluit to Greenland to boost broadband services in northern Canada.

At a press conference, Jordan said the cable is set to be 1,700 kilometres and will run from Nuuk, Greenland to Iqaluit through the Davies Straight. A press release added that the cable in Iqaluit will have a branch, or a split, to Kimmirut (a community in Nunavut).

Access to a fibre optic network will “reduce both communities’ dependence on satellite communications for internet,” the release said, adding that it will connect up to 3,215 households in Nunavut to high-speed internet services.

The investment for the project comes from the Rural and Northern Communities Infrastructure Stream of the government’s infrastructure plan.

Dean Wells, the chief information officer for the Nunavut Government, said in an interview with MobileSyrup that the relationship with Greenland was established in 2007 and a similar line was placed between Milton, Newfoundland and Labrador and the country. The rollout and full functionality of the line did not begin until 2009, he noted.

Wells also explained that at the time the two countries established a relationship and set rates between carriers like Bell and Eastlink to roll out broadband services.

“The other contract was with Newfoundland, and this will be a new separate one with Nunavut,” he said and added that “there are a lot of lessons learned already.”

He also said that because the Nunavut project is in its infancy, a lot of tests still need to take place to ensure proper placement of the cable.

“We will complete an undersea survey that will send ships out and plot out the seabed and find the right path,” he explained, noting that the project probably won’t be fully functional until 2023.

The announcement is in line with Jordan’s Connectivity Strategy, which seeks to connect 100 percent of Canadians to high-speed broadband services by 2030.

The post Canada invests over $151 million to build fibre optic cable between Iqaluit and Greenland appeared first on MobileSyrup.

The U.S. Commerce Department has extended the deadline by 90 days for companies working with Huawei to find alternative business.

In an interview with Fox Business, U.S. commerce secretary Wilbur Ross said there are many telecom companies that are “dependent” on Huawei and as such the deadline has been pushed to November 19th.

“We’re giving them a little more time to wean themselves off,” he said, and indicated that 46 more Huawei subsidiaries have been placed on the Entity List.

In May, U.S. President Donald Trump imposed a ban on companies that pose a national security threat to the U.S. and created an Entity List that includes Huawei.

At the time, the U.S. granted temporary licences to work with Huawei that would have expired on August 19th. It would allow companies to maintain current networks and allow Huawei to provide software updates to existing Android devices.

It is important to note that in July, the Commerce Department granted conditional licences to some companies if they were able to prove that there was no national security threat working with Huawei. That would mean companies like Google would potentially be able to continue doing business with Huawei.

Source: Bloomberg

The post U.S. Commerce Department extends Huawei restrictions by 90 days appeared first on MobileSyrup.

Tesla is revamping its solar panel strategy with new panels as opposed to the Solar Tile layout the company attempted before.

Tesla’s solar panel division has changed drastically since last year when it was branded as the ambitious Solar Roof project.

The new project is more of the traditional solar panel approach with large panels sitting on top of the user’s existing roof.

While the panels are low-profile and hide all of their mounting hardware, they’re still nowhere near as futuristic as the Solar Roof tiles.

Tesla Solar just relaunched. Lmk what you think … https://t.co/mDoPO17YB9

— Elon Musk (@elonmusk) August 18, 2019

So far the new panels are only launching in the U.S., but there is a Canadian version of the Tesla Solar website where those interested can place a $100 refundable deposit on the panels.

Tesla is selling the panels in three sizes.

• Small – $10,070 USD (roughly, $13,379 CAD) – averages 10-14 kWh per day
• Medium – $20,140 USD (roughly, $26,759 CAD) – 19-27 kWh per day
• Large -$30,210 USD (roughly, $40,139 CAD) – 29-41 kWh per day

Elon Musk also tweeted that the service will launch in Europe next year. MobileSyrup has reached out to Tesla for Canadian specific information.

In June Elon Musk told investors that the company was close to finishing development on Tesla Solar Roof tile version three. This makes it seem like the company is still working on the Solar Roof project but is using these new panels as a holdover, or a cheaper option.

Source: Tesla Solar

The post Tesla relaunched its solar panel project, still no Canadian pricing appeared first on MobileSyrup.

Freedom Mobile is expanding its coverage to Courtenay-Comox and Kamloops British Columbia.

The carrier recently tweeted stating that it is now testing its network in these communities alongside Campbell River. Freedom first announced the Campbell River expansion back in July.

We’re on a roll. 

Our network is now being tested in Courtenay-Comox, Campbell River and Kamloops. We’re getting closer to offering these communities a new choice in wireless. #YouDeserveFreedom

Learn more: https://t.co/tRl4Vn2s90

— Freedom Mobile (@FreedomMobile) August 19, 2019

The Shaw-owned carrier will also bring its service to Prince George, B.C. on August 21st and other communities around the province.

Freedom has yet to announce the official launch date for any of these three communities, though its website says service ‘will soon be available’ in Courtenay-Comox.

The post Freedom Mobile is expanding to Courtenay-Comox and Kamloops, B.C. appeared first on MobileSyrup.

mkalus shared this story from OliverNorgrove on Twitter.

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mkalus shared this story .

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