pointing out the obvious

Listening to TWIP on my ttc commute into work today, I had photography on my mind.  Apart from still thinking about selling my Canon XTi (400D) and purchasing a Canon T1i (500D) to play with video, which is something that fascinates me, I saw a great picture appear right infront of me.

Of course I didn’t take the shot, but if I had, it would have been important to give a copy of the picture to the subject.  Which made me think about polaroid cameras, and how they were great for that kind of thing.  But they’re gone, and digital has become mainstream and we no longer have anything like that.

I suppose (if I had taken the shot), I could have written down my website address, so they can find it later, but that seems impersonal.  Without being able to print out the shot right then and there, it’s hard to get that instant gratification.  Or is it?

Almost everyone has a ‘gadget’.  Most of those gadgets can display photos, or receive photos via sms (mms?).  Maybe the polaroid of the future is a DSLR shooting pictures that you can MMS to someone’s handheld device.

Instant gratification, no?

(i’m still chewing on peter’s comment from the last post… )

I realize that I have become a bit of a ‘public transit’ pusher. Everywhere I go, I want to take transit over taxis, or driving. While the TTC has it’s own set of problems, I believe it to be the better way. Maybe not the nicest way, but the better way all things considered.

So much so, that I might invest in a TTC Metropass at full price (I used to get a discount) to make it that much easier.

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It should be ridiculously easy to log everything I have listened to on my ipod touch, into my last.fm profile. Unfortunately, this is not the case. It doesn’t matter what version of last.fm, or scrobbler I use, they all can’t seem to figure it out.

While I’m thinking about it, I’ve read that if you do get the ipod touch / last.fm thing working, tracks within a podcast are not tracked. I recall last.fm mentioning that podcast id3 tags are less reliable than single song id3 tags. Surprising. Aren’t both user generated?

If and when I get my cbc radio 3 podcasts properly logged in my last.fm profile, I’ll ask the next question - why aren’t the last.fm recommendations very good? I thought collaborative filtering would work better than this…

I might get the chance to think about this problem a little more at work.

This personalized experience makes me feel cold and alone.

This time, I didn’t see a great usability decision made in a coffee shop. Instead, it was at the Queen St subway station.

If I am like most people, when you exit a subway train and climb the stairs to the main level of the station, you have no idea what direction you are facing. Without a sense of direction, you are faced with choosing from at least 2 different exits - each exit then branching into at least 2 (often 3) different staircases leading to street level. The signage in the station that describes these exits is usually hard to find or read, and requires a few seconds to process. A few more seconds than you have. If you ride the subway during rush hour, stopping to process the sign is like stopping to tie your shoes during the running of the bulls. So you blindly pick an exit, and hope for the best. After 5 trips to work, I figure it out, but non-regulars don’t have that kind of time.
So, what did I see this morning? Directly in front of where the turnstiles let thousands of people out of the station, in the centre of the station, on the floor - where most people are looking - is a large white arrow, in a black circle, with an N at the top. It looks just like one of those things on a map, that point north, so you know which way to hold it. Gosh Beav’, maybe it is one of those things.

Instantly, I knew exactly which direction I was facing, thus which exit to take, then which branching exit to follow. Brilliant. It probably cost all of $20, and might actually help someone.

I hope to see more where that came from.

With all the lame game-ish shows on tv these days, like american idol, amazing race, eat something gross fear factor, dancing with the stars, survivor 43, and the like, why hasn’t hollywood come up with a more interactive idea? Why not host a show that pays the viewers? To use a lame example - remake “Murder She Wrote” but axe Jessica Fletcher. Make the audience solve it. $1million for the person who solves the fake mystery. $150k per week in prizes for finding necessary clues, which are broadcast prior to the following weeks episode, along with the name of the person who found it and the money they won.

If we pump up the interactivity… Have the audience participate in the show. Maybe they actually have to go somewhere to find the clue (though, I’m sure people would dig up a rainforest trying to find a lame clue). Maybe the winner of last weeks ‘clue’ gets to appear on the next show. Maybe the camera crew shoots the next episode AT THEIR HOUSE. It could be Matlock meets a home makeover.

It’s just as lame as the rest of the concepts, but is something new.

Oddly enough, most cars that are considered green are diesel. Why? Because the ‘green’ factor of a car generally focuses on two factors, it’s CO2 emissions / km driven, and fuel efficiency.

Unfortunately, we are only comparing the green factor at the consumer end of the transaction. It would be prudent to compare all factors when determining which cars are the most eco-friendly. These unconsidered factors include:

• all emissions, not just CO2
• gas vs diesel refining costs
• battery disposal

Soot. This is the biggest non-CO2 emission as a result of burning diesel. Although diesel outputs less CO2 per km driven in general, it outputs MUCH more soot (up to 10x) because emissions standards are not yet as strict as that of gasoline burning engines. This should change by 2009 when diesel engines must meet the same output requirements as that of gasoline, but for now, the soot output can be brutal.

Refining costs. Did you know it takes 25% more oil to generate diesel than it does to generate gasoline? While diesel is generally thought of as more fuel efficient per litre by approximately 33%, this savings is simply pushed up the chain. 33% more mileage comes from 25% more oil, thus in reality diesel is approximately 8% more efficient when we consider it in terms of oil, not cost per litre. Weird huh?

Battery disposal. What happens to the batteries when their lifespan is over? It turns out that Toyota uses batteries that are recyclable, include a phone number and a $200 ‘bounty’ on each of their batteries to encourage returning them to recycling facilities. I’m not sure how other auto manufacturers handle the battery disposal, but Toyota seems to have a great solution here.

So, although this doesn’t cover everything and doesn’t provide all of the answers, it does bring a few other factors into play when deciding to go for a green car.

And yes, this is part of my ‘pre-green car purchase’ research. The prius is the #1 pick so far, as I drove one for a week in los angeles on business. Interesting car, but please.. turn the LCD off to prevent crashes! It’s very distracting!

Is electric heating better for the environment than gas heating? I’m thinking electricity is better, but I’m open to discussion. Here’s why I think it’s better…

• Gas is a non-renewable fossil fuel right now. Electricity is not, provided it’s generated by low-impact means.

• Both have a delivery infrastructure within the city, so they are relatively equal in that respect.

• Unless there is a pipe from here to Alberta, gas is shipped here by something that burns fossil fuels. Electricity is generated locally.

• I believe electricity is a more efficient method of heating water than natural gas is, so it makes sense to have an electric hot water heater, specifically a tankless hot water heater, which are more efficient than the tank type, and provide unlimited hot water.

• At the moment, gas is a more efficient (or at least cheaper) method of heating air than electricity is, according to this source (pdf).

So, if I wanted to heat water in my house using electricity, I can invest in a tankless hot water heater, which is becoming more reasonably priced each year. I looked into one a few years back when Home Depot first started carrying them, and it was a little pricey ($1500 or so), but it’s getting better. I will have to re-investigate.

If I wanted to heat my house with electricity, it would reduce CO2 emissions by 30% (compared to gas using conventional hydro), but cost me twice as much. Unfortunately, that money tree I planted in the backyard has yet to bloom, so this might not be an option (yet).

Awesome.

I took the leap a few months back and discontinued my account with Toronto Hydro and signed up for Bullfrog Power. Bullfrog is a green electricity provider in the GTA, who sources their electricity from low-impact sources including wind and water.

While I have yet to receive my first bill, the difference in cost should be around $40/bill, which works out to be about a 33% increase. Not so bad considering the net effect - no nuclear, no fossil fuels, much less CO2, and a whole sheet of little bullfrog stickers for my water bottle. awesome.

Now here’s where I come clean - my involvement in most of these social/environmental initiatives are directly attributed to my spouse - think Bill and Belinda (minus all the money and ideas). There, I said it.

You can also thank my friend Juan at global-culture.org for encouraging this.

I received a copy of the ‘early morning manic’ album as an xmas gift last year, and can’t stop listening to it. Paul is probably one of the nicest guys I know, and has an incredible musical talent. If you get a chance, check out some of the music on his myspace page.

As you can tell from my last.fm music profile, I’m a fan of a wide variety of music. What I love about Paul’s music is the feeling you get through his raw acoustic guitar, a good example of this for me is “i don’t dream“. While not profiled on his page, he’s also an incredible piano player and has a great short piano track over a funky bass groove that works amazingly well. Overall, even if I didn’t grab brunch with him every so often, I’d pickup a copy of “early morning manic” if it were for sale. It’s one of those albums you are always looking for, but can never find.

Best of luck buddy. You’re awesome.

Amazon has recommendations, LibraryThing has the LibrarySuggester and other sites have other variations of this, but they are never quite right. Why is that? Do we not find the recommendations credible?

Amazon makes recommendations based on the book you are viewing, so if you like Harry Potter, you might also like what others who bought Harry Potter purchased. However, just because I purchased something doesn’t necessarily mean I liked it. LibraryThing makes recommendations based on a single book, which has the same limitation as Amazon. For members, LibraryThing also makes recommendations on all the books in your profile, matching them up against others with similar libraries - I assume your book ratings are taken into consideration. Surely this is as good as it gets?

Or do we need to go one step further and ‘decode’ a book the way that Pandora decodes music? Unfortunately, we all know how hit or miss Pandora recommendations can be. Along with Last.fm, Pandora’s recommendations are probably the best I’ve seen, but they still aren’t perfect. Maybe it’s easier to decode a book than it is to decode music?

I feel as though we can do better.