Bicycles: Traffic Lights, Drive-Thrus, etc.

I found this article on INSTRUCTIBLES http://www.instructables.com/id/Trigger-GREEN-Traffic-Lights/ - using small but powerful Neodymium magnets, you can complete the electrical circuit to trigger a green light for traffic stops, use a drive-thru window at banks, etc. while on your bike.

This explains how the circuits work, where to get the magnets, and everything else you need to know so that your bike is no longer a second-class vehicle on streets !

Project Rwanda: Coffee and Bicycles

Project Rwanda (http://www.projectrwanda.org)
is an excellent way to get some good coffee bean, help family coffee farmers in Rwanda, and help the general economy of Rwanda.

The "bicycle part" of the project:
Coffee grown on small family farms in Rwanda is taken to market on wooden "bicycles". They're actually more push scooters made completely from wood - even the wheels are wood. One of the bicycle projects is to replace these with low-cost specially-made bicycles that can replace the wooden bicycles.

The "coffee" - you can order it from a U.S. partner in Project Rwanda (located in California). It ships as vacuum-packed whole beans and is quite good - it has a very 'earthy' taste.

XO (aka "OLPC") - getting started

I haven't had as much time as I expected to explore the wonders of the XO, but I'm starting to work on it. The first challenge is to ignore everything that you learned in order to function with MS Windows, Apple, and commercial Unix systems. Also - it helps to pretend that you're 9 years old. "What would a 9-year old do in this situation ?" is a very helpful mantra.

Internet Connectivity
The first thing I noticed is that the XO, as shipped, does not handle WPA network encryption. Since we all have (at least) WPA encryption, this is a pain in the neck. According to the FAQ at the official OLPC web site, WPA encryption will be supported by the end of December 2007. You will probably have to load the patch to another PC, and make the transfer via a USB-access device (flash memory, etc.).

In the meantime, the Support FAQ page http://wiki.laptop.org/go/Support_FAQ#Connectivity_and_the_Internet

lists several work-arounds:

• Using your (initially) free T-Mobile hot spot account (requires that you hike over to a T-Mobile hot spot location, but that should we easy with this ulta-portable XO). Support for this approach starts on this page: http://www.laptopgiving.org/en/pin.php



• Getting right into the Linux roots of the XO and manually setting up WPA access. Support for this approach starts here: http://wiki.laptop.org/go/WPA_Manual_Setting



• Avoid wireless entirely: get a USB-to-Ethernet cable. Although, I'm not sure how that will help you connect to your DSL or cable modem.

Since I want to make the XO connect to my home network, I'm going for the WPA Manual Setting. The directions were simple: the hard part was guessing which WPA version I have - the directions indicate "guess 1; if that doesn't work, try 2".

Results: I did everything, and it all looked fine. As promised, my home network showed in the XO "neighborhood" without a lock symbol (indicating that a password wasn't needed). However, I had to go through the process twice: one with WPA version 1 and once with WPA version 2. Both times, it still asked for the network password.....It's still not working - it asks for a password for the AP..... According to some responses on the wiki, I may need to update the firmware on the DSL modem. Not a pleasant task, but I'll try that next....

OLPC has arrived

The green computer baby arrived this morning. Here it is on my desk between two 'normal' sized laptops. I haven't done much with it yet except navigate and look for other mesh networks.... here it is - between its big brothers.

The keyboard is really small, which I expected. but it's so light I might use this for traveling, if all of the functions are there.

OLPC (One Laptop per Child) - BUY NOW !

Starting today, you can buy a laptop from the One Laptop Per Child program and give a laptop to a child in one of the program countries. The program ends on Nov. 27).

http://www.laptopgiving.org/en/index.php

The cost is $399, plus shipping (for your laptop only).

Wish List - Christmas 2007

Gifts for me ? Donations to Doctors Without Borders

http://www.doctorswithoutborders.org/home.cfm

I'm also eagerly waiting for Nov. 11 so i can "buy one get one" of the 1 Laptop Per Child........

http://laptop.org/

That's all for this year........

Why Halloween is the BEST Holiday !

What could be better ? Everyone gets to play "dress up"... you wander around your neighborhood after dark, in a season when it's cool and windy with a full moon..... and you can eat JUNK FOOD !!!!
the only improvement would be if you could go trick-or-treating on your bike ! I envision adults standing on street corners, and dropping the candy in your bag as you ride by. kind of a Halloween candy pick-up parade !!!

Buy & Give 1 Laptop Per Child (OLPC) - Nov. 2007

For one week, starting Nov. 12, 2007, people will be able to buy 2 of the laptops in the 1 Laptop Per Child project - you keep one and donate the other. (See my blog for March 26, 2007 about the project).

You can sign up now: http://www.xogiving.org/ for a reminder. The price will be about $200 for each, which is $100 per laptop more than the original price.

Bicycles at Drive-thru Windows

Yesterday, a Chick-Fil-A store (on Columbus Blvd. in Philadelphia) refused to serve me because I was on a bicycle at the drive-thru window (no bike rack anywhere). Their bogus and insane logic was: if you're hit by a car, you'll sue us. Each Chick-Fil-A store is a franchise, but I've written to their corporate office, and hope to get some sort of an answer. I don't even LIKE their food, but I'm now boycotting their stores on principle.

I'm also conducting a small survey of places that have drive-thru windows to see how many refuse service to people on bicycles. I'll post the results here.

Also - McDonalds does serve people on bicycles - you just have to bypass the intercom - the bikes don't weigh enough to trigger the mechanism, so they don't hear you. However, McDonald's policy is to accomodate people with hearing problems by using the pay window to order and that works for bikes too. I hate McDonald's food too, but at least I know I can get served after riding around for 4 hours in the hot sun.

XTZ is GONE. In an earlier blog I wrote about the wonders of caffeinated candy. It's still wonderful, but it appears that the XTZ company is no longer in business. They took my $54 order, and no longer answer e-mails or their phone. My conclusion: they're out of business or the biggest scam going.

Is Amazon's "Askville" an innocent social community or part of a larger Amazon universe in which some people in other Amazon ventures are able to profit from the good-will and helpfulness of folks on Askville ? The MechanicalTurk, another Amazon venture, pays people to answer questions or perform tasks. Most "pay" is very small -- sometimes, it's only a few pennies. But, some people sign up on Mturk, then post the questions on Askville, let other people research the answers, and then get paid on Mturk. Not a big issue, but some folks, if the Mturk BB can be believed, are making over $100 a week. Not illegal, not unethical, but it strikes me as very SLIMY...... I wonder how many people would answer a question if the asker indicated that the source was Mturk ?

There's also another question-related Amazon site called "NowNow", where the users are given a small amount of time in which to supply the answers. Same scam capability for Askville.

Here's the Mturk BB site: http://turkers.proboards80.com/index.cgi

Caffeine without the Coffee

Aka "Caffeinated Candy"....
I've been buying my caffeinated candy (mints, chocolates, chocolate mints, etc.) from ThinkGeek (http://www.thinkgeek.com). Then, ThinkGeek started to offer caffeinated chocolate mint truffles, which are really chocolate coated soft chocolate mint candies, but very tasty, and two of them can keep me going all morning. So, I started researching the makers and distributes of the tasty buzz bites, and found them on http://www.xtz.com , where you can order chocolate, orange, peanut butter, and other flavors of caffeine goodies.
Last night, I found some caffeinated candy in the CVS store - it a package called "LifeFitness Instant Energy Beans". Two chewable tablets have 40 mg of caffeine, which is a little less than my normal mug of coffee. They're not as good as chocolate (what is ?), and they have a slight aftertaste, which might be due to the vitamin B-12, or just random chemicals. Anyway, they come in a blue bag; my CVS has them located in the vitamin aisle. They're instantly available and very handy when you don't want to make/ buy/ consume coffee. One advantage of the "Energy Beans" over the truffles is: they don't melt in the heat, which makes then a better choice when traveling, biking, or just storing in your pack. The other advantage is that 2 'beans" only have 10 calories.

2-Wheel Me

Even though it's still cold by normal standards for April (daily high temperature is barely 50 degrees F) I'm going to start an experiment: if I'm making a trip that is shorter than 10 miles from home, I am going to ride a bicycle.

This is going to be a challenge because: CARS RULE !!! here. Even though biking advocacy groups are working hard to change this and to provide better facilities for bikes, this is not a bike-friendly neighborhood. If I travel more than 4 miles to the west, it's all major highways, no shoulders on the roads, etc.

Rules that I am going to try to follow:

0. If the temperature is above 50 degrees F, then
1. I MUST ride a bike if the trip is 5 miles or less in 1 direction.
2. I will TRY to ride a bike if the trip if >5 and up to 10 miles in any direction (the west may be tough)
3. Office trips are not included - the trip to the office is within the 10 mile radius, but there are no facilities for bike storage or showers.
4. The city limits are technically between 1.5 and 4 miles away, depending on whether I use a paved or unpaved path. Going into the city should require a bike, not a car, unless it's at night.
5. No bikes in rain, snow, or, night in the street (i.e., night riding on the bike path is OK).

This is totally a wussy approach to transportation biking, but US suburbs are, for many reasons, not safe, and getting hit by an SUV is not fun. Plus, in order to get to anyplace, I have to take a long route just to find a road with shoulders.

World Without Oil - Launch April 30, 2007

What if there was a world without oil ? What would people do ? What if there was a game about a world without oil ?

Answers to all questions can be found on http://www.worldwithoutoil.org The "what if" game starts on April 30.

The object of the game, which is funded by the Corporation for Public Broadcasting, a backer of PBS, is for people to envision a world in which the United States has been cut off from oil imports. Then, visitors will be urged to participate in the game by writing their own stories, creating videos or even by conjuring so-called flash mobs in U.S. cities.

Bicycle - Ride of Silence

The RIDE of SILENCE is a way to remember riders (on bicycles) killed or injured and to raise awareness about the rights of bikers on roads. (A new concept to many people, judging from the way we're treated). Riders on the ride don't talk, and frequently leave a 'ghost bike' (a bike painted white) at locations were riders are killed.

There is a national web site, where you can find rides in your area: www.rideofsilence.org This year, there will be about 200 rides in 8 countries.

In Philadelphia, PA, the next ride is scheduled for Wednesday. May 16 at 6:45pm. This is the second time a ride has been held in Phila. The route will start at the foot of the front steps of the Philadelphia Art Museum on the Ben Franklin Parkway.

A brief pre-ride dedication ceremony will take place at 6:45 PM and the ride will start promptly at 7:00 P.M. It will proceed down the Parkway, circle City Hall, continue to Independence Hall, and head over to West Philly via the Walnut St. Bridge. The ride will return to the front of the Art Museum over the Spring Garden Street Bridge. The duration of the ride is expected to be 1.5 hours. Helmets are required and bicycle lights are encouraged.

For more info, Contact the BCGP at info@bicyclecoalition.org or the ride leaders: Ray Scheinfeld, erayben@bellatlantic.net , 215-327-8315; John Siemiarowski, tandemdad@comcast.net, 215-837-0101.

One Latop Per Child - Upgrade

The One Laptop Per Child effort is taking off, and the web site and hardware has been upgraded, and the beta version was released to developers and organizations in volunteer countries - but nothing in the hands of kids yet.

OLPC site: http://www.laptop.org/ The site is also much better, and they are now taking credit card donations to the program, but still not ready to offer the "Pay for 2 - get 1" that I'm waiting for.

The Library Thing

Finally -- a site for people with a reading addiction !

http://www.LibraryThing.com

A cool site if you have a serious addiction to reading and good books. What could be better than an on-line community of readers and tons of information about books and what people are reading ?!

If you were called a "bookworm" when you were a kid - you should check it out.

Moving on... to Derrick and Will

Enough time wasted on Dax Flame.. I've moved on to Derrick and Will, who are amusing as they point out that TV is pointless and useless. The YouTube (why not UTube ?) site is "Impytherap". It's equally funny if you don't bother to watch the shows -- 4 minutes of D&W give you all you need to know.

Dax Flame - Secret Watcher

I admit it - I have wasted far too much time watching the soap opera called "Dax Flame" on YouTube. I know it's another "LonelyGirl", but I keep watching with morbid fascination. On one hand it's perfectly on target as an irritating 15 year-old-boy who is incredibly immature. On the other hand, his acting is over the top and there are major gaps -- like his off-screen "mother's" voice who sounds like a 14-year old girl. Like LonelyGirl, there's no world outside the video, which is too bad, because they could have a whole world for this loser kid.

New Tech Toy - Mind-Mapping Software

Mind-mapping and knowledge-mapping have been around for a while, but I never bothered with them for personal use because there was too much overhead with taxonomy, price, etc. I finally downloaded an evaluation version (i.e., after 100 days, you can only create 100 thoughts in a project) of a product, and have been using it quite a lot lately. It's the first thing that has really replaced notes on a white board and Post-It Notes and scraps of paper for immediate and long-range 'to do' lists.

It is really what I wanted: a graphic heirarchy of topics that you can arrange at any time (i.e., add or delete links, change parent and children relationships), add information about one of your topics at any time, in a structured (types, keywords) or free-form format (text notes). Customization for colors, graphics, hyperlinks, etc., so you can link to all of the stuff that you mentally associate with a topic. Despite all of the information, the files are suprisingly small: 51kb for a project that includes everything associated with fixing up a new house, and all of my tech projects.

I used a product called "Personal Brain" (v3.0) from a company called "The Brain Technologies" ( http://www.thebrain.com ), which describes itself as "Virtual Search and Cataloging Software". They also have an enterprise version, and some suprising customers, including the U.N.

3GSM (Mobile Phone) World Conference 2007

http://3gsmworldcongress.com/index.asp

The World Conference of the GSM (association of mobile communications industry) was held last week in Barcelona. Mobile devices continue to pick up features - phones with interchangable memory cards that can store data, take pictures, play MP3 files, and also do the phone thing.

As usual, engadget, http://www.engadgetmobile.com/ has reviews of the major products, and the BBC also has video coverage, blogs, etc. http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/programmes/click_online/6366261.stm

KidCast - Podcasts & Blogs by kids for kids

http://www.kid-cast.com/

This is a kid-friendly site set up by a friend so that kids can share their ideas with other kids. There's fun stuff but there's also serious stuff that kids are into - like Black History Month, books they're reading, trips they've taken, etc. Apparently a few classrooms make regular contributions about what they're studying, etc.

The archives go back to May 2005.

It's monitored, so nothing gets posted without a human (adult) checking the content out first.

If you have a kid, sign them up -- or check it out for your own reading/ listening enjoyment.

Proof that Horoscopes are CR*P

George W. Bush and the Dalai Lama have the same birthday: July 6.
Enough said.

Check out the Office of Tibet site "The Official Agency of H.H. The Dalai Lama and Tibetan Governement in Exile To The Americas": http://www.tibetoffice.org/en/

Opera Web Browser

I just realized that many of my "friends, family, and acquaintances" are using Microsoft's IE brower because it's just too much trouble to get other browsers, or because they think other browsers "won't work as well". Not true, folks !

Do yourselves a favor and load another browser. I particularly like Opera - it's free (if you get the free version, there's a banner at the top, which is OK with me). It's available on http://www.opera.com .

The advantages of other browsers ? You'll find your pages load much faster than in IE (none of the IE overhead and feature bloat). The browser has a much more realistic progress bar that actually gives you meaningful information about what's loading (number of pictures, % finished for each part of a page, etc.), rather than IE's plain "loading" bar, which doesn't tell you anything meaningful, except that the page hasn't finished loading. =:0

Take a chance and break the MS grip on broswers.

Joost = Internet + TV

Last April (2006), I turned of the TV, permanently, I thought. Since I live in an area where you need cable even to see the local commercial channels, the TV is now only good for DVDs. I don't miss TV at all. "300 channels and nothing on" was really true. I don't even miss anything that I used to watch.

But now, I think I might change my mind about TV, if Joost lives up to the hype. (Joost site: http://www.joost.com ). Joost is TV that you download over the internet, and watch what-you-want, when-you-want-it. It's still in beta, and they've had more than 10,000 requests to sign up for beta testing (including me).

This is not just the equivalent of using the internet as a broadcast channel for the same old TV. According to the site and other materials, there will be additional content (I hope lots of access to international shows, independent shows and film, and experimental works). I also like the idea of creating your own 'channels' - I envision this as a kind of personal subscription list, so that you can pull from all of the available material, organize it and schedule for your own tastes. All of this is probably possible, because you have to load software to your PC to take part in Joost.

This is even better than using the internet to broadcast radio; it's probably the most intelligent use of TV, ever. It's probably not really TV, and shouldn't be called TV, but I think TV is the closest broadcast content/ model for this. Future posts if I get to beta !

Don't Vote for Me !!

Microsoft has revised their list of "Our Favorites" in their "Show Us Your Wow Contest" (Blog January 15) , http://www.showusyourwow.com and the current winners are great ! My favorite is currently #2 - a view of mountains in Italy. Unfortunately, it doesn't have an identification number, so search for "montagna", if it isn't in the current favorites list. All of the current favorites are great.

I would buy that shot as a print, but you can't contact the photographers.

Doomsday Clock Advances (?)

The Bulletin of the Atomic Scientists Board of Directors has announced that is moving the minute hand of the Doomsday Clock two minutes closer to midnight. It is now 5 minutes to midnight (aka "the end of civilization").

The reasons ? Global failures to solve the problems posed by nuclear weapons and the climate crisis.Sponsors of the BAS include Stephen Hawking and other Nobel Prize-winning scientists. Read all about it in the on-line Bulletin: http://www.thebulletin.org/weekly-highlight/20070117.html

Would someone please read (and explain) the announcement to the White House ?

Vote for Me !

... actually, vote for my photographs on the Microsoft "Send Us Your Wow" site/ contest (the winner gets a trip around the world).
URLs for my photos:

1. http://showusyourwow.msn.com/?id=22895
2. http://showusyourwow.msn.com/?id=24749
3. http://showusyourwow.msn.com/?id=24753
4. http://showusyourwow.msn.com/?id=24757

You can enter your photos at: http://www.showusyourwow.msn.com/flash.aspx?l=en-us

I know it's just a cheesy lure for Vista, but a photo contest is a photo contest. Winners announced on March 6, so pretend you're in Chicago, and vote early and often ! (As of this morning, if you click the "Viewer Favorites" option on the left, one of my photos is #3).

One Laptop per Child Project - Reality in 2007 ?

(Also known as the "$100 laptop project", or the "XO Computer", this is an effort that started in the MIT Media Lab to design a low-cost and sturdy computer that could be given to students in developing countries.)

The project has finally settled on a 4-pound plastic model with a 7-inch liquid crystal display, running all Open Source software, and powered by an AC adapter, a battery, or a hand-crank. The best part of the design is that it has a completely new interface that does not rely on the Windows or MAC icons. The interface is intended to be intuitive to students, not a scaled down replica of a "business computer". Full details about the project and specs are on the OLpC organization web site: http://www.laptop.org/

This is a picture from the site, although it seems to be one of the prototypes, not the final version.

According to recent press releases, distribution could begin early in 2007.

According to the FAQ page ( http://wiki.laptop.org/go/Retail ), it looks like the organization is re-thinking the policy not to make the computers commercially available in developing countries. The current plan is for governments, the UN, and donors to finance the purchase and distribution of the computers to children. I've always thought that it would be a good idea to make them available at twice the production cost - the buyer gets one computer and also provides a computer for a student. Since the price is now closer to $150, I think it would be a quick and easy way to finance the project.