Last: June 2003
Next: August 2003
July 30, 2003
UK P800 + 7650/3650 owners
If you're in the UK, and have a P800, or a Series 60 phone, and know how to install software, I've got a request.
I'm trying to find out how accurate sitefinder is (sitefinder is the only way of finding out where your local mobile phone transmitters are, in the UK), and whether Psiloc's MiniGPS could be useful for location.
Instructions:
1. install MiniGPS from here: P800, Series 60 - 7650, 3650.
2. set miniGPS recording cell IDs from where you are currently.
3. go to sitefinder, click on the UK or NI, type your current postcode in, and get a map of your area.
4. locate the closest transmitters for your network: select View Base Details and click on the triangles.
5. Note the Operator Site Ref. for each transmitter.
6. Post a comment to here, containing which network you're on, the cell IDs that miniGPS has collected, and the site references from sitefinder. it'd be great if you added the first part of your postcode, but that's up to you.
For extra points, walk to your nearest transmitter, see if there are any identifying signs, and make a note of the cell ID on miniGPS - tell me if it matches that on sitefinder.
Thanks!
(oh, and if you're a P800 programmer, preferably in C++, please get in contact)
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on buying an iPod
Have you tried to buy an iPod in the last few weeks? It's impossible - out of stock everywhere. John Lewis found a few in far flung places, such as Southampton, but every London Apple stockist is out of iPods (a few others have noticed this in the UK and Australia).
Here's the standard scene:
* FX: walks up to counter *
Chris tries to get computer shop assistant's attention.
10 minutes later, on the verge of giving up, get a sneer of helpfulness from said assistant.
C: Have you got the 30 Gig iPods in stock?
A look of derision, a growing smile. He knows he's won. I have no chance.
A: No!
C: Well, do you know when they'll be in stock?
A: We might have some 15Gbs next week.
And, at that, their attention span has waned, knowing that a sale, and commission, will not be present on this occasion.
After repeating this vignette in about 10 places, I've given up.
There are two problems: Apple's supply chain and the horrid experience of all computer stores (even John Lewis seems to employ cocksure whippersnappers in their computer department).
The iPod, whilst desirable, is overpriced. It's even 100 pounds cheaper in the US for the 30Gb model. It's a luxury item that many people don't need. They lust. I lusted. I convinced myself that 400 pounds is a small price to pay for having so much music in my pocket. I convinced myself that I could afford the 400 pounds. I was ready for the purchasing experience. I didn't need to be sold on the item. I was going to be the easiest lay the salesperson had ever seen.
And I sit here unfulfilled. If Apple breaks the date off, I'm not going to hang around.
The stores could have done something to avert this. None of them seemed to keep a waiting list, and none of them publically proclaimed that they had none in stock, therefore avoiding the salesperson experience in every store.
So what am I doing? I know there will be a cheaper, more featureful, lovelier version soon.
I could order online, but all sites have a vague 1-2 week delivery time. If I happen upon a good deal, say in the US, I may pick one up - the US ones won't have the European volume limitation either. It's a waiting game.
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July 25, 2003
always undo
A simple idea to bind into operating systems, the same as cut, copy and paste.
The way I use some apps encodes knowledge in them themselves, rather than the documents I am looking at or writing. An example is Safari - I use various pages, each with many tabs to store sections of browsing knowledge. Some I minimise, to deal with later, or to blog later.
Then I hit Apple-Q, instead of Apple-W, and it's all lost. PC readers note that it's even easier in most PC apps to do this - pick the wrong X and you close Word rather the document, for example.
The lazy way to stop this would be for each app to add an "are you sure you want to quit?" dialogue box - but more often than not, I really do want to quit (note that creation applications do this, but traditionally 'reading' applications don't).
Better would be undo built into the operating system. No matter what you've just done, you can undo (even several times).
This would also be useful in Mail, or NetNewsWire - I space through the entries very quickly, and sometimes my brain only registers interest after I've past it by. If I could just undo the last action, I would be back at what I wanted to look at (Agent on the PC implements this with the delete key, and is very useful).
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July 23, 2003
the bays
Last Sunday I went to see The Bays vs Hexstatic. Somehow I hadn't heard of The Bays before (although in other news, there are several nominated Mercury Music Prize bands that I don't recognise - and all the The XXX bands blur into one), I think mainly because they never record their music, never sell their music, never rehearse... and despite the "hardcore" philosophy, they're amazing.
There's a Flash-heavy site with more information, and a few mp3s, and more importantly, details of all their gigs.
The gig was a bit different to normal (the QEH doesn't lend itself to dancing, no matter what people try), but the mood and music moved easily from slow thoughtful dubby numbers through four-to-the-floor to some manic drum n bass. All played live, which means the drummer, even more than anyone else, has stamina. You could tell that there were two tightly-knit groups playing, with The Bays not really leaving any room for Hexstatic, but there were a couple of highlights when they merged together.
I'd recommend catching them if they play near you.
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July 15, 2003
paris, maps, rivers and travelators
Last week I was in Paris for a few meetings, and I took the opportunity to go to a few galleries, have a meal, and generally walk around.
It was the first Sunday of the month, which meant that museums were free: the Centre Pompidou was great, but the displays haven't changed that much in the last few years. A few metro stops later (and a good walk around a few stations - the wayfinding and signage at metro stations is unbelivably bad, from long random passageways to many exits at each station), and dinner at l'Atelier de Joel Robuchon, and then a quick trip to the Palais de Tokyo (warning: insane website - although it's actually kinda worth the effort).
This is one of my favourite art galleries - it's scruffy, like the ICA a few years ago, but absolutely huge, and open 12-12 6 days a week. The main exhibition at the moment is G.N.S. - Global Navigation System. Where art and maps collide? Fantastic! If anyone's in Paris before 7th September, I urge you to go along.
A slightly more formal version of the Cartographic Congress' map room, items that stood out were Detanico and Lain's Brazilian architectural font (Windows Mac), Olesen's survey of homosexual rights around the world, Mir's Naming Tokyo project, and Jospeh's map of the Paris Metro from memory. Of note is the cheap(ish) exhibition catalogue, which is first class.
I like Paris - I've been there often enough as a kid to use the public transport with ease, and the river running through the centre gives it a similar feel to London. They celebrate the river: gardens and avenues frame the Seine, boats of all desriptions ply up and down, busier than the Thames at any time. I don't think boulevards are the most important feature, although the long roads do frame certain areas of the city.
Other random moments: the Eiffel Tower erupting in strobes at 10 o'clock, hot hot heat on the RER, and the incredibly fun fast travelator. Maybe we should look at science fiction for those ideas that seem outdated - maybe their time has come, maybe they're finally happening? Now I know that we're living in the 21st century. The travelator kept me smiling all day.
(all photos here)
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July 11, 2003
server move
Moved server - took a lot of effort to restore Movable Type.
The troubleshooting instructions are right, apart from the name of one of the programs you have to use - on some systems db_dump185 is actually called db1_dump185. In the end had to migrate all the database tables manually using this, but better than nothing. Everything appears to be working (and now I won't have £100 server excess fees a month).
*kicks tires*
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July 07, 2003
RCA degree show
Last week I went to the degree show at the Royal College of Art in London. It's great to see the work there, especially in interaction design,in which the Royal College and IVREA are really the leading lights.
It was nice to see that the interaction design projects were "thing" based, rather than tied to a website or a computer screen, and also that the technology behind a lot of the ideas wasn't increadibly hard, or even powered by computer; rather simple technology being used in new, beautiful ways.
Some interaction design projects veered toward biotechnology, which is interesting, because these days technology and interaction design is assumed to be computer or electronic.
One type of interaction design was, I think, sadly lacking - networked products and social software. All the projects were the interaction between user and product, not between people using products.
The industrial design and product engineering parts of the show had claimed a lot of the traditional interaction design - websites, online services, Internet access and multimedia permeated the entire exhibition.
The best item I saw was a very simple idea (from the industrial design course): a correctly-oriented map of the surrounding area on a plinth, to be installed in various tourist and city spots. It's a really useful wayfinding tool that helps ease the large cognitive load in projecting a map onto a real space. Unfortunately, the call of new media had added to the project some kind of digital direction finder, which could show the most trodden flows in the city. A nice idea, but it needs some deep thought in itself, and it felt a bit tacked on to the product.
All of this made me want to dig out my soldering iron again, and brush off my programming skills. I think I need a shed.
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July 02, 2003
cartography for small screens (PDF)
cartography for small screens (PDF)
(fwiw, this was meant to end up in my outboard brain, along with all my other links. Much more activity there than here! I'm not going to move this, for the posterity of failure.)
