January 31, 2004
Aren't you cold?
I use a bicycle for my commute, 32 kilometers, round trip. I ride whenever possible and I try not to let the weather influence that decision.
Almost every day, when I get to the office, I have to answer the same rhetorical question: "Aren't you cold?", immediately follwed by: "You are crazy".
In winter, the commute can get a little chilly. Most people now have learned to consider wind chill rather than actual temperature. Wind chill is an interesting phenomenon for cyclist, because when you move, you make your own wind chill. What is true for pedestrians, is not necessarily true for cyclists. What the weather report tells you about wind chill means very little when you create your own.
Fortunately, Environment Canada has a wind chill calculator. I need to add 22 km/h (my average cruising speed) to the wind, or subtract it, in case I go the other way. Today for example, the temperature is -8° C, the wind is west, 14 km/h. According to the calculator, that would give a windchill of -14. Well, yes, if you're waiting for the bus. But in a west wind, it means the wind speed I experience going to work is 8km/h, but coming back, it will be 36 km/h. The windchill for those is -12 and -18. But if I ride west slowly, at 8 km/hr, I have no winchill whatsoever. In other words, during my ride, I might experience none (-8°C feels like -8, to quite a bit (-8°C feels like -18)
It's a good thing that moving keeps you warm.
Home page - Wind Chill Program - [Meteorological Service of Canada - The Green Lane]
January 25, 2004
Neuroesthetics
With broad assumptions like "[art is the] creation of forms that represent feelings", we can expect to see (again) the redefinition of art to meet the requirements of those who use it for their own purposes.
Science, Trying to Pick Our Brains About Art (washingtonpost.com)
January 24, 2004
More swooshes?
Boingboing is linking to this report on current trends in logo design. Swooshes are spirals now.
Graphic Design USA - Feature - Corporate Identity - 15 Trends Taking Shape In Logo Design
January 21, 2004
neverending poem
One of the things I get to do at work is go through the search terms used by visitors of the website. We'd like to make sure they find what they're looking for. The terms used are very strange sometimes. Here's someone who realized searches are a form of poetry
::The Neverending Poem of the Internet::
I think he uses MetaSpy as the source.
January 19, 2004
The Window
Another production blog (sort of) from an old friend, Derek Flood. The Window - a production diary of a short animated film
January 18, 2004
Opgespoorde wonderen
Rudy Kousbroek is one of the most interesting Dutch authors. I received his latest book, Opgespoorde wonderen / fotosynthese as a gift from my parents recently. The book is a series of small essays on a photograph. The photographs in the book are in black and white. Most of the photgraphs were in b/w to begin with, but there is an exception. The author remarks that "sometimes, colour photographs are more beautifull than black and white; unfortunatlely, that is the case here".
I found the colour version.
It seems that the photographer is the owner of a bookstore on Texel, the largest of the "waddeneilanden", the Dutch islands in the North Sea. That must have been where the photo was made. Boetje van Kikkert aan de Watermolenweg, the caption reads. Kikkert is a family name and de Watermolen weg is the water mill road, but I didn't know what a "Boetje" is.
I think it means shed.
January 16, 2004
Quote of the day
"I'm a little past emotions right now". Gordon Keith (the first manager of the Jacksons).
January 09, 2004
Delft
Just about the only thing that Johannes Vermeer and I have in common is the fact that both of us were born in Delft.
Even though nobody knows much about him, and his work should speak for itself, they've made a film about him.
Guardian Unlimited | Arts Friday Review | How Vermeer's paintings translate to film
Judging by the
movie trailer, they do not. I don't think I'm going to bother reading the book either.
" The idea for this novel came easily. I was lying in bed one morning, worrying about what I was going to write next. (Writers are always worrying about that.) A poster of the Vermeer painting Girl With a Pearl Earring hangs in my bedroom, as it has done since I was nineteen and first discovered the painting. I lay there idly contemplating the girl's face, and thought suddenly, "I could write about her." Within three days I had the whole story worked out. It was effortless; I could see it all in her face. Vermeer had done all my work for me.
Marcel Proust had a lot more to say, but used less words when he wrote this about Vermeer's 
View of Delft.
He wrote in French of course.
Essential Vermeer has more about the little yellow patch.
The phones don't stop
Gilbert Neal has written a two part article about his job in customer service.
I can barely bring myself to do my job, the reprimands are getting serious, my co-workers are getting fired. How did I get here? More important, how do I get out?
Chess Set
This is for my father. He is a chess player. Today is his birthday.
January 08, 2004
cycling
This week's thing is "old magazines". This from Steve, someone I know from the icebiking mailing lists.
elliottzone.com -- old cycling mags
January 07, 2004
January 06, 2004
ornithology for birds
Gitta Luiten, director of the Mondriaan Stichting has lamented the lack of a debate about art in the Netherlands.
de Volkskrant - Mondriaan Stichting: te weinig discussie over kunst
The subjects she's proposing: 'van internationalisering tot alternatieve financiering,' (from internationalization to alternative financing) and 'van het museum als kenniscentrum tot de ervaringseconomie' (of the museum as a knowledgecenter to the experience-economy).
Their website is worth a visit (not!) The overview of projects sponsored in 2001: not yet available. News : no content as of yet.
January 04, 2004
To customer service
Reminder to self:
Some customers are perfectly capable of using the on-line service. Especially the ones that use it regularly. Make sure it works, and provide phone service as escalation.
January 03, 2004
art is boring
In our ongoing efforts to teach children that art is boing and museums are to be avoided like the plague, we have now have now combined art and math into something that is, well... just plain boring.
Rather a pity, as it involves one of my favorite artists, Josef Albers.
More Than Math integrates the visual arts into the 3rd, 4th and 5th grade mathematics curriculum using works of art from the collection of the Asheville Art Museum as the basis for problematic mathematical tasks using NC Standard Course of Study goals and objectives. More Than Math introduces and explores concepts shared by mathematics and the visual arts such as pattern, symmetry, proportion, perspective, balance and geometric form and stresses the importance of each individualā€™s perspective.
NZ
Tom's been watching too many LOTR movies. NZpanoramas - © 2003 Tom Kluyskens
January 02, 2004
BitPass
BitPass is live. BitPass::Share
If this takes off, we might have a working system for micropayments. I signed up for the beta to try Scott McLoud's "The Right Number". this summer. He was asking 25 cents for a comic. Fair enough. Now that people can start paying for their views, what will happen to the "support-my-site" mug-and-T-shirt business?
January 01, 2004
stay-at-home management
This is the first time I've heard of this, but I'm fascinated by he concept: STAY-AT-HOME-MANAGEMENT. I've proposed 'management by walking away', but this never occurred to me before.
http://www.metze-research.com/site_teksten/generatiekloof.doc
Menze didn't think this up all by himself but got the idea from a book
"... absentia will top the charts as Xers assume the ranks of managerial power. They like the idea of working from home, so corporations will probably be beset with a whole crop of at-home managers who interact with their direct reports via e-mail, teleconferencing, and voice mail".
The book stinks by the way. As an example of a Gen-Xer, they give "Neil Stephenson". Yes, they mean the autor.
It's as if you're reading your horoscope. Instant recognition, but without any basis in reality.
