A Glimpse of a Future Transit Option (for a short time, at least)

While walking back from grocery shopping at Granville Island today, we saw the new Olympic Streetcar, which they are testing on the tracks nearby. I did get a fuzzy picture of it a couple of weeks ago. It’s simply beautiful. We went a little closer and thanks to a friendly Bombardier employee, we got a look inside. I wish I had my camera in hand, and I inadvertently left my iPhone in its cradle back at home. That also wouldn’t capture the fact that the train smells new inside. It’s a 5-car model with 2 articulations, which are the ‘hinges’ between cars (if you ride the B-Line Bus, you know well what I’m talking about), according to the engineer. It’s operated manually, and to open the doors, you press a button on either the inside or outside while stopped (the door stays open for about 20 seconds after that). There are info screens at various points on the ceiling, and the engineer said that they are linked back to the communications system back in Bruges, Belgium, where this train was built.
The streetcar, which is really much more like a train, will begin operation on January 21, and will then run back and forth between Granville Island and the Olympic Village at Cambie street for 60 days, where it will be free. We were surprised to find out that it won’t continue past the Olympic Village and connect up with Main Street/Science World, which would have created a perfect circle around 1/2 of the downtown area plus False Creek (See map below. Annotation and dashed line for the continuation of the route are mine. Click to see a larger version):

While I was a big fan of this new addition to our transit system, if it only goes from Granville Island to Cambie, it’s not as big a deal as if it had gone to Science World. If it had gone that far (as we had always assumed – since the original tracks that are originally there go that far) it would have provided a really easy way to get to Chinatown and other parts of downtown from our neighborhood. Transit lines always open up new neighborhoods to explore, but getting to Cambie and 6th from our area is already reachable by a pretty fast bus. Still, I’m looking forward to riding this new tram. What is perplexing, is that in addition to the abbreviated route, is why it isn’t a permanent addition to downtown Mass transit.

My BarCamp Wrap-Up

It takes some time to digest a BarCamp. For me, it was about 3 to 5 presentations and discussions, peppered with 10-20 great conversations, sprinkled with a half a dozen reunions and many other new introductions. It also had a couple surprises: some of the sessions I thought were going to take place were cancelled (usually at the decision of the presenters/attendees), but on the other hand, some that I hadn’t known about were announced in the morning. David Saslav’s remote session regarding Chorus America’s study on the effects of Choral Singing on Schoolchildren and Adults did take place, and came off very well, despite the fact that he was presenting from his home in San Francisco via Skype video. I attended two different design workshops. In one, I collaborated with a group (1 among several others) in a ‘Design Charrette‘  to work on the problem of traffic accidents along the stretch of East Hastings as it cuts through the Downtown East Side of Vancouver. I also participated in J. Karen Parker’s session on Paper prototyping, where I noticed a preponderance of  touchscreen solutions to everyday gadgets, appliances and obstacles (like digital cameras, microwave ovens, and skytrain ticket dispensers). What the iPhone hath wrought! While I think our UI suggestions to improve the ticket dispensing problems was pretty good, I really loved another group’s solution to a microwave: make the whole oven front a large touchscreen, with a large circular slider/indicator, through which you can see your food cooking. As Karen noted, in this day and age where the competitive advantages of good design can sometimes get you ahead in the marketplace, a really snazzy microwave touch-screen control might be something they should look at!

I also got to a session on Day Trading using a combination of  computer software, twitter, and some knowledge about how people behave. I can’t say that I’ll be doing much of that soon, but it was really intriguing to hear how some are doing it these days. Another session involved a more common topic: Happiness. Here, Internet Marketer Ray Kanani asked some provoking questions about what makes us happy, and how advertisers try to subvert and direct our desires.  Far from being a loose and vague session, it ended up being an intense discussion about what each of us is looking for in life, and whether we could benefit from being hopeful, satisfied, cynical or none of the above. We could have easily taken twice the session to examine the subject, and I almost think there should be a HappinessCamp about all of the various facets of the subject (attended by, wait for it…Happy Campers!)

Finally, a session near the middle of the day was one of the ones I was in fact waiting for; an update and conversation, led by Boris Mann (one of Vancouver’s most well-connected and influential techies), about the various new venues and offered resources in town that are jumping in to fill the void left by the demise of WorkSpace. Roland Tanglao, recorded the session, so I was able to listen to it once more to make sure I got all of the 45 minutes of subjects and places mentioned by the large gathering of concerned people.

I’m happy to say that for me, at least, the day seemed to go smoothly, the schedule and pacing seemed to work well, lunch was tasty (and there was enough food and coffee), the Discovery Parks venue was excellent, and there was a noticeable ‘good vibe’ about the day. I believe that the many ‘first time’ BarCamp attendees probably got a good introduction to this very special meeting of minds.  I’m now proud to say I consider myself a veteran of BarCamp, and I’m even more proud to have been able to work with such a great group of volunteers this year. They  helped plan, run and manage the event, which was a success in many ways.

Update: Check out this awesome BarCamp comic, created from photos taken that day.

Imminent BarCamp

Tomorrow is a big day. About 300 or so people are going to converge at an office park not far from here, The Discovery Parks building (old QLT building) at 887 Great Northern Way. We are all, once again participating in the annual BarCampVancouver, an ‘unconference’ and part of an international network of similar conferences, “born from the desire for people to share and learn in an open environment.” In a BarCamp, (a movement that started in 2005). It’s hard for me to believe that the first BarCamp (in Palo Alto, in August of that year) was organized from concept to event,  in less then a week, because this year I’ve been involved in the organizational planning of the event, and I can tell you that it took us longer than a week to organize this one (more like several months).

I like to think that I have a lot of smart and interesting friends. I’m very much looking forward to some of these presentations, including a remote presentation via Skype from my childhood friend David Saslav, who is leading a discussion (from San Francisco) on “how choral singing makes you smarter and improves memory”. Not only is this a topic near and dear to me, but I’m also fascinated by the idea of a remote and interactive presentation at a conference – hope it all works! Other topics during the day range from Data Mining Twitter, to how storytelling is remaking video games, to a public discussion of how we are going to perhaps fill the hole created in the Vancouver Tech scene by the demise of WorkSpace.

If you are in the area, have a free day this Saturday, and are interested in a day of stimulating presentations and discussions, head on over to Discovery Parks on Great Northern Way. As I always say about BarCamp, it proves that everybody is an expert in something, and hanging around experts can definitely expand your mind and make your day.

Losing Before the Starting Line

Glen Beck, the latest angry US pundit, spoke out a couple of days ago against US President Obama’s (now unsuccessful) trip to Copenhagen to lobby the Olympic Committee to hold the 2016 Olympics in Chicago. He mentioned that the Vancouver Olympics had already “lost a billion dollars”.

The White House called him out on the fact that as we all know all-too-well around here, the Olympics haven’t taken place yet:

RHETORIC: BECK SAID VANCOUVER LOST $1 BILLION WHEN IT “HAD THE OLYMPICS.” Glenn Beck said, “Vancouver lost, how much was it? they lost a billion dollars when they had the Olympics.” [Transcript, Glenn Beck Show, 9/29/09]

REALITY: VANCOUVER’S OLYMPICS WILL NOT TAKE PLACE UNTIL 2010. Vancouver will host the 2010 Olympic and Paralympic Games from February 12 – 28, 2010 and March 12-21, 2010, respectively. [Vancouver2010.com, accessed 9/29/09]

In response, Beck explained that he meant Calgary, and then began an accounting of how much he thinks Vancouver is going to lose, with the final tab coming to somewhere around a 4.5 billion-dollar shortfall. I’m speechless. The audio, via YouTube, is below:

Cold Season and Another Try with FontKit

I haven’t had a cold in quite a while, so the one I have now feels particularly annoying. It’s not as if I’ve forgotten what a cold is like, but I think you can get used to them, when you get them more often (and I’m sure I did suffer from frequent colds- nearly every few months or so when we lived in Boston). It’s a rainy day, and this is Cold: Day 2 ( which means, runny nose, sneezes and a little less energy), Cold: Day 2 is always easier for me than Cold: Day 1 (sore throat, runny nose, feeling like crap). Hopefully, this cold will progress at the usual rate, or maybe even faster.

It’s Labour Day weekend, and although I do have a contract I’m working on, I do have the luxury of not having to work very much this 3-day weekend. This holiday falls on the last weekend of summer and ushers in School, Work, and general ‘Lets-Get-Down-To-It’ sort of things that we associate with the Fall season. We’ve had a spectacularly sunny summer, and it really was extraordinary, with months and months of sunshine, sunshine and more sunshine. That was unfortunate for those people who had to deal with wildfires to the East of us, but for those of us in the city or near the water, July and August have been a rarely interrupted succession of one beautiful day after another. Does this mean we are in for some weather comeuppance?  Will we see a January and February monsoon, or worse, lots of snow, like last year? Time will tell, I suppose. What I can say for sure is that for the first time in ages, the rain that we have (and there has been a little of it), is falling on a weekend. Rainy weekends hold their own charm for me; you don’t have to feel guilty about indoor pursuits like movies, TV, blogging, listening to iTunes or even cleaning up the place. I’m not missing any precious hours of vitamin D harvest, and it can be nice to be cozy, wrapped in a blanket, snoozing through some of those sniffles.

The end of the Summer really began a couple of weeks ago when Pam and I once again went to the PNE, which is in its last weekend right now. While we missed Dal Richards, (Canada’s answer to Guy Lombardo and Glen Miller and a living legend, still performing well into his 90’s), we did make it to see many of the animals (and on Opening Day, there are many of them):

The Opening Day crowds, brought out by the perfect weather were large:

We chatted with an old friend at the Home Improvement Pavilion, ate some of those famous little donuts:

and Pam got a bargain of 4 ears of roasted corn for the price of 1 (the line was so long, they were getting behind and she got a plate of not-quite-good-enough-for-1-serving ears):

We also went to the ‘Marketplace’ where you see all of those demonstrations of everything from Shammies to Blenders and ended up getting a Smart Living Steam Mop. We’ve since put it through it’s paces on our carpets, wood and tile at home and while it does not perform miracles, it does work pretty well, and we hope it will help us keep the place a little cleaner. We still do need new carpet, but that will hopefully come in the next few months or so.

So, with the season now clearly coming to an end, it’s time to return my attention back to this blog, which I’ve been giving a bit less attention this summer. With that, I’m trying to once again look at the new Font technology that will be coming soon to a web page on your screen…

Squishy Fonts?

I’ve tried some different Typekit fonts, and it seems as if the body text is always looking a bit squished. I’m convinced it’s not the fonts themselves, but the metrics I’ve specified on the original Georgia font (which is what older browsers see when they view my pages). I’ll keep at it, but for reference, here are the fonts as they appear on the TypeKit Editor page:

As you can see, the new font, Luxi (Sans and Serif) are not supposed to be that squishy, so I’ll have to work on the original CSS (and do so without ruining the look of the page for older browsers. Backward compatibility without messing up the new fonts is going to be one of the challenges for us using these new fonts, I guess.