[Presumably this will be turned into coherent english at some point, but for now I wanted to get my thoughts down and I figured some of you might be interested to see one of my brain-dumps edited just enough to be semi-comprehensible to others. Amusingly-enough turning this from my shorthand into something I figured you could actually follow more than quadrupled its length...]:
Very common problem with any organization: general 'public'/membership don't know what's going on with the leaders/who the people in any given possition are (elected, appointed, hired, volunteered, conscripted, blackmailed), what they're up to, what current business is being transacted
--> public too lazy to bother to find out or to listen when that info is shared - is somewhat their own damned fault
--> but as with all design issues anything that's "user-error" is almost always a faulty design that influences people to behave in an undesirable manner - if widespread is (almost) always structural design flaw (see The Design Of Everyday Things by Norman - READ IT NOW!!)
--> leaders/people in specific positions don't advertise this enough, don't distribute info widely enough in dif mediums, don't run things "open source" enough
--> depending on demographics, learning styles, lifestyles people have differing mediums to learn info that do/don't work as well - relying on just one medium will leave out too many
(side/related issue: email vs phone vs text vs im vs face-to-face - each mediums have strengths/weaknesses - each medium preferred by dif people depending on their learning styles, lifestyles, familiarity, context - dif mediums inaccessible to dif demo's and disenfranchise certain groups - need to understand this to communicate effectively w/ various people)
--> examples: umASS residence life, umASS bureaucracy in general, town govs, smaller obscure gov agencies, etc
--> need to offer as many oportunities for public to interact as possible - will get more active involvement, people will feel more empowered, will have better respect for the work that is getting done, will be more willing to pay for the work being done
--> can never reach everyone, too many people don't care, don't want to know - what's the right balance? when leave them to their bliss and tell them to shove off when they bitch unjustifiably?
7/29/2010
7/28/2010
new video from The Guild - Game On
7/26/2010
7/25/2010
2010-06 San Fran Photos (batch 1)
finally going through my photos from the San Fran trip a couple months back - full set on Flickr
more
more
7/23/2010
JoCo's Noho show with his new band!!!
Last night Jonathan Coulton and his new band debuted in Northampton - it was amazing... I can't wait for recordings of the songs to be available, but in the interim, I stumbled on these videos from a fellow audience-member. Quality is about what you'd expect, but does give you an idea of how the new band sounds. Here's one of his new songs, The Stache (more vids available on click-through)
(I wish i'd thought to bring my camera...)
(I wish i'd thought to bring my camera...)
new NMRA logo
loving the new National Model Railroad Association logo though it does feel like it's following the current graphic design fads too much to be timeless enough:
Old logo:
Old logo:
7/20/2010
Free Amazon Prime For Students
If you have an .edu email you can get a year of Amazon Prime [thanks Katherine for reminding me...]
7/19/2010
A Bench You Pay To Sit On
A only-mildly-excessive jab at the American anti-tax nonsense - "Almost Genius"
[via Planetizen]
PAY & SIT: the private bench (HD) from Fabian Brunsing on Vimeo.
[via Planetizen]
More Connecticon 2010 Photos - Super Art Fight!
From the SUPER ART FIGHT featuring our pal Rosscott of The System Comic as an MC - full set on Flickr
7/18/2010
7/14/2010
7/11/2010
7/08/2010
India's railroads failing to keep up with growth
and in the process choking the nation's economy. India has a railroad infrastructure that is very similar in design, equipment, and practices to those of other eastern-Asian and African former-colonies, which is to say a mirror of British practices from the 30's and 40's. Despite being a powerhouse of the global economy and having the second-largest population in the world, India is running what is essentially an overgrown 'third-world' railroad. The loading gauges and tonnages are tiny by American standards and even modest by international standards.
(One quibble with the article - the author comparison of passenger train speeds is rather irrelevant - the Acela hardly counts as high-speed, and it's average speed is closer to 70 or 80 mph, not the 150 that it manages for only a couple short miles in eastern CT. Most countries get by just fine with conventional speed passenger service, and even in nations like France with heavy TGV penetration the vast majority of service is on local and conventional trains - high speed trains are irrelevant to normal passengers' needs.)
An important lesson to remember from India though, is that north-american railroads are expected to see over 40% traffic increases for the next several decades, and will need tens or hundreds of billions in capital investments to meet that demand. They are already at-capacity on all core routes, and can't come close to affording the sort of build-out they will need. For the next decade or so they can get by with incremental improvements to the existing infrastructure - eliminating bottlenecks primarily - but they will eventually need to invest in major build-outs. (Note that this means heavy investment to existing routes, not new routes or reopening old lines - it is far more efficient to upgrade the slimmed-down and vastly more-efficient modern network than to spread themselves thin since the constraints are all on the trunk routes, not the feeder-lines.)
(One quibble with the article - the author comparison of passenger train speeds is rather irrelevant - the Acela hardly counts as high-speed, and it's average speed is closer to 70 or 80 mph, not the 150 that it manages for only a couple short miles in eastern CT. Most countries get by just fine with conventional speed passenger service, and even in nations like France with heavy TGV penetration the vast majority of service is on local and conventional trains - high speed trains are irrelevant to normal passengers' needs.)
An important lesson to remember from India though, is that north-american railroads are expected to see over 40% traffic increases for the next several decades, and will need tens or hundreds of billions in capital investments to meet that demand. They are already at-capacity on all core routes, and can't come close to affording the sort of build-out they will need. For the next decade or so they can get by with incremental improvements to the existing infrastructure - eliminating bottlenecks primarily - but they will eventually need to invest in major build-outs. (Note that this means heavy investment to existing routes, not new routes or reopening old lines - it is far more efficient to upgrade the slimmed-down and vastly more-efficient modern network than to spread themselves thin since the constraints are all on the trunk routes, not the feeder-lines.)
Aukland Transit Privitization Case Study
a cautionary tail of the dangers of transit privatization (I know of no place where fully-privitized systems work well, although to be fair, there are other place where semi-privatized systems have been very successful when well-implemented - the key differentiator between the successes and failures is often in the details which vary widely and make generalizations impossible.)
Camera Design for Grandparents
and for that matter electronics design for every 'non-technical' user, and how badly the industry is ignoring good design, a case study
7/03/2010
The Ford Crown Victoria and Lincoln Town Car are being retired
It's impressive how distinctive and ubiquitous these specific models have become due to their specific design characteristics and the power of fleet standardization. But those large heavy frames that helped them become so popular are becoming a handicap. (16 city mpg?!)(Also, what is with the Dodge Chargers coming into favor for Police these days - those things look too small to be practical, butt ugly, and stick out like a sore thumb!)
Brand Recognition - not a 'smartphone,' but an 'iPhone?'
“No, I don’t work on a laptop at home,” someone recently said to me. “I work on my MacBook.”
Not sure if this frightens or impresses me...
Kazara's Guide to the Internet
My friends ToasterFaerie and AlexisofRoses have informed me of a most informative website for humans such as ourselves desirous of learning how best to use the internet:
Confused by the Internet? Do not despair! I am here to help you understand the ins and outs of this strange substance, the Internet. I may not be from Earth, and yes, some critics may call my sources "questionable", but reading this blog will make your Internet 350% more enjoyable, profitable, and inconceivable.
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