The tallest building in the world has opened in Dubai. The Burj Khalifa, is a dizzying 828 metres high, it has all those essentials you need in a building like fast lifts and a swimming pool. You can even pay to go and have a look inside it, so that’s nice of them. Looking at it, it does seem a bit bare despite the architecture – I think they should have taken some ideas from urban ruraralism, which provide green spaces on the top or sides of buildings. But that’s only my view – and apparently there are over 6 billion other views out there!
The world population is apparently over 7 billion and the BBC has a nifty app that lets you review where you are on this scale. The graphics show a steady population of about 500 Million through from the middle ages until the 18th century and then escalating up to the 7 billion in 2011. Its like the old "how many people can you get inside a car", how many people can you get inside the tallest building in the world!
Tuesday, November 08, 2011
Thursday, October 06, 2011
Show me the answers....
I joined Yahoo Answers in May 2006, in its first full year of adoption, as it seemed an enjoyable interactive thing to participate in, and a smart savvy thing to do.
I jumped right in and became an active contributor and got my own little niche as “top answerer” in the Business/Finance, advertising/marketing section. By 2007 I had reached level 4 (there are 7 levels) and was still top answerer. But by now I was finding it a bit repetitive, with lots of vague questions and just plain un-thought-out things that just did not seem worth contributing too. I gradually drifted away and then got tired of the whole experience with some sections seeming to be the adopted place for the nutters, spammers and general dispossessed – a lot of the friendly sociable help-me-out-here interface seemed to have gone.
This year by chance I logged back in and was pleasantly surprised to see I was still in the top five. I gradually drifted back into it and then realised if I wanted to reach level 5, I had to get some more points and best answers. So during September 2011 make a concerted effort to drive up the points and answers – gradually creeped up to 4th in the “charts” and suddenly in the way that these things do I well overshot the mark and was well into the 5,000 points so now up at level 5. I’ve also been given the little orange badge as a “top contributor” so now there’s just the task of getting into the top three answerers and then seeing if I can get to be the top answerer again.
Putting this "achievement" into perspective though - The UK top contributor has over 850,000 points with 21K best answers. The global top contributor has over 1 million points and over 74K best answers. Crikey they must live there!
I jumped right in and became an active contributor and got my own little niche as “top answerer” in the Business/Finance, advertising/marketing section. By 2007 I had reached level 4 (there are 7 levels) and was still top answerer. But by now I was finding it a bit repetitive, with lots of vague questions and just plain un-thought-out things that just did not seem worth contributing too. I gradually drifted away and then got tired of the whole experience with some sections seeming to be the adopted place for the nutters, spammers and general dispossessed – a lot of the friendly sociable help-me-out-here interface seemed to have gone.
This year by chance I logged back in and was pleasantly surprised to see I was still in the top five. I gradually drifted back into it and then realised if I wanted to reach level 5, I had to get some more points and best answers. So during September 2011 make a concerted effort to drive up the points and answers – gradually creeped up to 4th in the “charts” and suddenly in the way that these things do I well overshot the mark and was well into the 5,000 points so now up at level 5. I’ve also been given the little orange badge as a “top contributor” so now there’s just the task of getting into the top three answerers and then seeing if I can get to be the top answerer again.
Putting this "achievement" into perspective though - The UK top contributor has over 850,000 points with 21K best answers. The global top contributor has over 1 million points and over 74K best answers. Crikey they must live there!
Friday, September 16, 2011
Cycling heat-wave!
While the developing countries are abandoning their bicycles and flocking to cars it’s time for a comeback for the humble cycle. While the occasional trend bounces cycling into the limelight at the moment there seems to be a plethora of cycling activity. First, Hertz introduces their electric bike rental scheme in London
Meanwhile Lusaka-based Zambikes are building bikes for sale around the world – and they’re made out of bamboo - sorry panda’s. Of course if you don’t have a panda you can always take some dogs for company, as the inspiriring cycling gypsies.
While in Brazil - the Bicicloteca is a tricycle adapted to function as a mobile library, distributing books to disadvantaged areas. Talking about it being more than a form of personal transport, in Holland they have a Pedal-equipped school bus powered by kids, de Cafe Racer maybe a new cycle to work scheme!
There’s only one thing left to do – time to get on your bike. And to do that Levis have created the commuter jeans - The new Commuter series from Levi’s offers jeans that are designed specifically with urban cyclists in mind so they tell us! See you on the road, cycle lane, or muddy pathway or wherever.
Meanwhile Lusaka-based Zambikes are building bikes for sale around the world – and they’re made out of bamboo - sorry panda’s. Of course if you don’t have a panda you can always take some dogs for company, as the inspiriring cycling gypsies.
While in Brazil - the Bicicloteca is a tricycle adapted to function as a mobile library, distributing books to disadvantaged areas. Talking about it being more than a form of personal transport, in Holland they have a Pedal-equipped school bus powered by kids, de Cafe Racer maybe a new cycle to work scheme!
There’s only one thing left to do – time to get on your bike. And to do that Levis have created the commuter jeans - The new Commuter series from Levi’s offers jeans that are designed specifically with urban cyclists in mind so they tell us! See you on the road, cycle lane, or muddy pathway or wherever.
Wednesday, August 24, 2011
Bees boost work morale or not!
You have to be careful when you scan read as fast as I do - not that I’m accomplished at this, it’s not a skill in my case more a wavering in-attentiveness – so when I first read this “London offices offered bee hives to 'boost work morale'” being somewhat of a cynic I assumed this would be negative reinforcement along the lines of “Smith, go and stand in the rain with the smokers and try not to get bitten by the bees and then fall ill with an allergy while I consider your low performance review”
Instead the articles goes on to say this idea is to be seen as an employee benefit – um I’m not convinced about having your place of work surrounded by marauding bees! Helpfully they added “To ensure there is enough food from the off we've been filling five bike-lock planters with bee-friendly flowers since last autumn” so that’s all right then – oh no hold on if they adopt an equally cycle-friendly approach and adopt a cycle to work scheme that means every time you drop your cycle off you risk attack from bunch of bees – although somebody will assure you they are “docile ones” so those stings will hardly affect you then!
No I think having an deranged lion in the HR room is best motivation and just leave the bees alone, indeed leave them where they are in our gardens at home, and not force us to bring them to work.
Instead the articles goes on to say this idea is to be seen as an employee benefit – um I’m not convinced about having your place of work surrounded by marauding bees! Helpfully they added “To ensure there is enough food from the off we've been filling five bike-lock planters with bee-friendly flowers since last autumn” so that’s all right then – oh no hold on if they adopt an equally cycle-friendly approach and adopt a cycle to work scheme that means every time you drop your cycle off you risk attack from bunch of bees – although somebody will assure you they are “docile ones” so those stings will hardly affect you then!
No I think having an deranged lion in the HR room is best motivation and just leave the bees alone, indeed leave them where they are in our gardens at home, and not force us to bring them to work.
Wednesday, July 13, 2011
There's an app for that...
Having left my IT background a few years ago, I sometimes stumble across some techie talk that I still appear to comprehend – desktop managed services, which was like a statement in my day and now just sounds like jargon. But now I’ve moved into the electrical area and words like PLC and HMI’s are everyday phrases, and you start to come to terms with a new set of jargon. But at least if you don’t understand these terms at least you have an inkling of what they mean, I mean PLC and HMI sounds as if they do something right? But sometimes you come across another industry or profession and abruptly that gap widens and you realise that you have no idea whatsoever what they are talking about – and so it was I came across MHT technology who do “LNG peak shaving”.
I’m sorry they do what? I can’t even make an un-educated guess what that is. I mean given the context is that a physical thing that they do to something, or a stage in a process or the whole process, or is it a thing - "LNG peak shaved for sale to good home" , or a service so that people go around saying “here’s your LNG peak shaved” – and you say “oh thank you very much”, or is it some technical wizardry that creates a “peak” that is somehow “shaved”, or some technological wonder like NASA where boffins go around saying “I’m glad we can orbit humans up into space but I wouldn’t want to risk LNG peak shaving”.
Fortunately of course there are people who do understand these things and the California energy commission gives a really useful bluffers guide – But what happens when there aren’t people around who understand such things. Will it be like losing your instructions for the IKEA cabinet so it ends up looking like a umbrella stand or will it improve things or will we re-create such things all over again. The problem is I still don’t really know what LNG peak shaving is, sure I understand the words I just don’t grasp what it actually means. Still when we run out of people who know what it means and can actually do it, well apple (or someone) will have an app for that.
I’m sorry they do what? I can’t even make an un-educated guess what that is. I mean given the context is that a physical thing that they do to something, or a stage in a process or the whole process, or is it a thing - "LNG peak shaved for sale to good home" , or a service so that people go around saying “here’s your LNG peak shaved” – and you say “oh thank you very much”, or is it some technical wizardry that creates a “peak” that is somehow “shaved”, or some technological wonder like NASA where boffins go around saying “I’m glad we can orbit humans up into space but I wouldn’t want to risk LNG peak shaving”.
Fortunately of course there are people who do understand these things and the California energy commission gives a really useful bluffers guide – But what happens when there aren’t people around who understand such things. Will it be like losing your instructions for the IKEA cabinet so it ends up looking like a umbrella stand or will it improve things or will we re-create such things all over again. The problem is I still don’t really know what LNG peak shaving is, sure I understand the words I just don’t grasp what it actually means. Still when we run out of people who know what it means and can actually do it, well apple (or someone) will have an app for that.
Monday, June 13, 2011
Preserving or varnishing over the cracks?
English Heritage has called for the whole of Plymouth city centre to become a designated conservation area. It’s not April 1st and it is on the BBC - so it must be true. Why? While others reckon the unsightly concrete monstrosities need to fall down and be rebuilt on, others reckon the rebuild that happened solely because of the damage during the second world war means that Plymouth is "unique" with the whole of its centre completely rebuilt during the 1950’s. There’s even a website celebration of art-loving buildings and what with the formidable and effusive Kevin Mcloud supporting the idea, preserve in aspic is it. Although a worried Plymouth City council says "English Heritage must recognise that there needs to be a careful balance between preserving our past and planning for a prosperous future”. Or maybe what with there being a book (from English Heritage), and a film (well artworks and videos) maybe it’s all just a bit of commercialism. Never having visited the place it's hard to comment but anyplace that has a Lido must be worth preserving, maybe just not all of it!
Wednesday, May 04, 2011
Cycle lanes – Must be a good thing eh?
Sub-consciously I can’t help but think that cycle lanes are plainly a good thing. The recent article in the New York Times, NYC Cycle Paths highlights a backlash against cycle lanes, with a legal dispute shaping up – leaving aside some political bias for this lobby, more fully explored in this NYC article there does seem to be a clash of opinions or lifestyles or just plain old grievances being raised here. It’s made me consider the issue a little more.
Curiously enough, if you wonder around some cycle forums, a number of cyclists don’t like cycle lanes either! The argument seems to go that by segregating the cyclist from other road users they are stopping cyclists from using roads and reinforcing the idea among car drivers that roads are for them and not for all of us. As one who has been shouted at by an irate car driver to get on the cycle path I can concur with this view. However, I don’t especially want to be enjoying the birdsong and feeling the sun beam down on me while dodging juggernaut mirrors as they hurl past me at 60mph. So I guess I prefer leisure cycle lanes most of the time, but when commuting to work I want to get there using direct roads without making bizarre diversions to out-way spots as many of the cycle paths do.
I’d really much prefer to have cycle lanes as they do in Holland where they follow the roads and are separated from the road traffic, safe and practical! And where they do have pedestrian paths as well, separate from the cycle paths, and where if we all take a bit of care (for ourselves and for others) we can get by without running in to each other! And as for the New York retail argument - As one who can’t cycle far without stopping for food and drink or a daily paper I reckon a load of us cycling would encourage local shops rather than destroy them.
Curiously enough, if you wonder around some cycle forums, a number of cyclists don’t like cycle lanes either! The argument seems to go that by segregating the cyclist from other road users they are stopping cyclists from using roads and reinforcing the idea among car drivers that roads are for them and not for all of us. As one who has been shouted at by an irate car driver to get on the cycle path I can concur with this view. However, I don’t especially want to be enjoying the birdsong and feeling the sun beam down on me while dodging juggernaut mirrors as they hurl past me at 60mph. So I guess I prefer leisure cycle lanes most of the time, but when commuting to work I want to get there using direct roads without making bizarre diversions to out-way spots as many of the cycle paths do.
I’d really much prefer to have cycle lanes as they do in Holland where they follow the roads and are separated from the road traffic, safe and practical! And where they do have pedestrian paths as well, separate from the cycle paths, and where if we all take a bit of care (for ourselves and for others) we can get by without running in to each other! And as for the New York retail argument - As one who can’t cycle far without stopping for food and drink or a daily paper I reckon a load of us cycling would encourage local shops rather than destroy them.
Tuesday, April 05, 2011
Sustrans
Having foolishly decided I had time to get involved with something else, when I clearly don't have the time, I volunterred to help out Sustrans on maintaining the local cycle routes here. This would mean getting on my bike, which would presumably mean inflating the tyres and getting it fettled so it actually worked.
Monday, February 28, 2011
Hotel Bookings
Having determined we needed to visit Preston to suss out the Uni there, we needed to book an inexpensive hotel overnight. We'd settle for an expensive hotel doing a cheap deal tho'! As we needed two rooms it made everything twice as expensive - can't wait for Tesco to do hotels, you know, "buy one get one free"!
Having ages to get the best deal I was so pre-occupied with doing this that I missed the best offer which was to book a month in advance with the likes of Travelodge. With increasingly less weeks to go I started to rely upon the late bookings site to get the best deal. Fortunately we had a discount for one of the big chains and that offered a really good discount againt the standard prices and looked like a winner if nothing else came up.
Having signed up for another one of the chains i was trying to get a best deal on that, except the best deal was always better on the public site, and often said they had spaces, whereas when i tried the "preferred site" they often said no availability. Unfortunately, the public site would have its own idiosyncratic ways, as their price would fluctuate. So with two weeks to go i was still waiting on the best deal, starting to have a niggling feeling that I'd end up paying full price somewhere just to get in!
So with a week to go I was sure the next time my chain had a deal i would book it - with five days to go their price stayed as it was. I figured maybe with less days to go they would change and drop the price - No it didn't - So while i needed to book quick i also didn't want to pay a higher price than was strictly necessary. With two days to go I went to book and decided against it - give it one more day! Had a sneak look at work in morning and still price remained - mindlessly checking it in the afternoon the price had gone down! Ah book it now! Except I didn't have my details with me - so got home that evening and fortunately the lower price was still on offer - booked that, and Job done. Checked the next day and the price has gone back up and stayed there. What's that all about then! I do know this experience means I would be rubbish on ebay, I just can't take the pace. Better start thinking about booking summer holidays i suppose!
Having ages to get the best deal I was so pre-occupied with doing this that I missed the best offer which was to book a month in advance with the likes of Travelodge. With increasingly less weeks to go I started to rely upon the late bookings site to get the best deal. Fortunately we had a discount for one of the big chains and that offered a really good discount againt the standard prices and looked like a winner if nothing else came up.
Having signed up for another one of the chains i was trying to get a best deal on that, except the best deal was always better on the public site, and often said they had spaces, whereas when i tried the "preferred site" they often said no availability. Unfortunately, the public site would have its own idiosyncratic ways, as their price would fluctuate. So with two weeks to go i was still waiting on the best deal, starting to have a niggling feeling that I'd end up paying full price somewhere just to get in!
So with a week to go I was sure the next time my chain had a deal i would book it - with five days to go their price stayed as it was. I figured maybe with less days to go they would change and drop the price - No it didn't - So while i needed to book quick i also didn't want to pay a higher price than was strictly necessary. With two days to go I went to book and decided against it - give it one more day! Had a sneak look at work in morning and still price remained - mindlessly checking it in the afternoon the price had gone down! Ah book it now! Except I didn't have my details with me - so got home that evening and fortunately the lower price was still on offer - booked that, and Job done. Checked the next day and the price has gone back up and stayed there. What's that all about then! I do know this experience means I would be rubbish on ebay, I just can't take the pace. Better start thinking about booking summer holidays i suppose!
Tuesday, February 01, 2011
Michelin Tyres
Always being a convert to Michelin tyres, I know its going to be a bit of an expense whenever I need some new tyres. After a heavy winter I needed two new front tyres so thought i'd better try and shop around.
You'd think it would be quite easy to replace the tyres but you need to faff around with exact tyre sizes and then you get a mutitude of different ones to opt for (the cheapest?). After google search (what did we do before that!)I realised that a lot of the codes on tyre relate to the speed rating. So for mine it meant "R" represents a speed rating up to 106mph, "T" is 118 mph, "H" is 130 mph and "V" is 150 mph. Of course the prices go up as the speed rating, so let me have a quick thought - oh i know as i drive like Mr Magoo and the national speed limits are 70 mph I'lle opt for the R rating! Then I had a look at some websites for prices and a lot had "call for our best price" and "this weeks special offer are 4 Pirelli tyres" but I don't want 4 of anything!
I had a look at the actual Michelin website and they seemed to have quite a good deal using their preffered provider which turn out to be one of those vans that come to you. Which could be a good idea if you know that they are any good. There was actually quite a lot of these "vans-to you" service and their prices went from as low-as-you-can-get to a lot higher than a normal tyre shop. I wanted tracking done as well and as wasn't sure whether these people could do that decided to stick with a real bricks & mortar shop.
While doing that tho I came accross the likes of ATS who do have real places in certain locations then use vans for areas like mine so that was a bit in-between! As you had to book online I wasn't sure I wanted to try that out, it being a lot easier for me to just drive down to my local tyre shop.
Which in the end I did, because when i called them for a quote they told me they did price-matching and would go with the lowest quote from a real shop nearby. So I got the best price, maybe not the exact lowest, but one that was affordable and convenenient. And I get to go back in a few weeks to check the tracking is still all OK.
You'd think it would be quite easy to replace the tyres but you need to faff around with exact tyre sizes and then you get a mutitude of different ones to opt for (the cheapest?). After google search (what did we do before that!)I realised that a lot of the codes on tyre relate to the speed rating. So for mine it meant "R" represents a speed rating up to 106mph, "T" is 118 mph, "H" is 130 mph and "V" is 150 mph. Of course the prices go up as the speed rating, so let me have a quick thought - oh i know as i drive like Mr Magoo and the national speed limits are 70 mph I'lle opt for the R rating! Then I had a look at some websites for prices and a lot had "call for our best price" and "this weeks special offer are 4 Pirelli tyres" but I don't want 4 of anything!
I had a look at the actual Michelin website and they seemed to have quite a good deal using their preffered provider which turn out to be one of those vans that come to you. Which could be a good idea if you know that they are any good. There was actually quite a lot of these "vans-to you" service and their prices went from as low-as-you-can-get to a lot higher than a normal tyre shop. I wanted tracking done as well and as wasn't sure whether these people could do that decided to stick with a real bricks & mortar shop.
While doing that tho I came accross the likes of ATS who do have real places in certain locations then use vans for areas like mine so that was a bit in-between! As you had to book online I wasn't sure I wanted to try that out, it being a lot easier for me to just drive down to my local tyre shop.
Which in the end I did, because when i called them for a quote they told me they did price-matching and would go with the lowest quote from a real shop nearby. So I got the best price, maybe not the exact lowest, but one that was affordable and convenenient. And I get to go back in a few weeks to check the tracking is still all OK.
Wednesday, January 12, 2011
Blogging good news
So after a long break have somehow made it back - I wanted to try out my new enthusiasms, as now getting involved in our local canoe club, and looking at updating their website with some new "contact us" forms.
We've used survey monkey this month to run a succesful survey and that worked really well. Am also using Polldaddy to demo this poll. Again their website provides nice and straightforward ready-to-go software.
We are also trying out this more visible "contact us" form and again this example from Jetform provides a reliable way to get this feedback, and of course its free. Found all these and lots more from a quick google search and there are probably lots more out there but these seem to work for us.
We've used survey monkey this month to run a succesful survey and that worked really well. Am also using Polldaddy to demo this poll. Again their website provides nice and straightforward ready-to-go software.
We are also trying out this more visible "contact us" form and again this example from Jetform provides a reliable way to get this feedback, and of course its free. Found all these and lots more from a quick google search and there are probably lots more out there but these seem to work for us.
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