Archives

Yesterday I cycled from Haute-Morges to Nyon along the top. I did this because I was curious to see what route the GPS would recommend. The natural thing to do would be to cycle downhill towards Rolle and the lake. 

Trees and a meadow in a road bend

The Route

Instead I cycled upwards towards Montricher. From there I cycled west vila Mollens to Bière, and from there, down and across towards  Saurraz, Marchissy, Le Vaud before Bassins, Le Muid and then finally down from Genolier towards Trelex and from Trelex down through Grens before heading down towards Nyon. 

I watched the Apple keynote and thought “This is demonstrating a dystopia, with the Pure Vision Goggles, rather than a eutopia. A dystopia where everyone is alone, working in VR, rather than surrounded by people. The dystopia continued on with an app. In the age of two factor authentication they want to authenticate users by SMS, rather than free Two Factor Authentication. They’re losing users they almost seduced.

The Apple App store has promoted the winners of the design awards but they forgot about the most important detail. They’re promoting apps that are impossible to use if you’re not in the US, within the ecosphere of the market they’re in. This is a negative experience. 

They love to say “Don’t fear AI”. They all say “AI is meant to help people with their work”, “AI is meant to be a personal assistant” and more. It’s not AI we fear. It is stakeholders, governing boards and accountants. They are the people we fear. Throw in Inhuman resources for good measure. We “fear” AI because they, all the groups mentioned above, want to use AI as an excuse to fire human beings because computers are theoretically, and only theoretically, cheaper. 

I know of Reddit and I have an account that I use every so often. I have never felt the need for a site like Digg or Reddit, because I don’t feel the need to look at what people are sharing and reading, and promoting or demoting. For a long time it felt like a website that had users, but had not updated it’s UI for years. 

The Issue

The problem with Reddit, Digg, lemmy, kbin and other alternatives is that they’re large enough for everything to be shared within seconds, and you get trolled if you share something that someone else has already seen. That trolling discourages me from doing anything more than lurking. 

The Microlino is made by the same people that made the trottinette that I loved getting around with when I was unable to drive for a month due to overtaking a slow moving vehicle where I had plenty of visibility. 

The beauty of the Microlino is that it’s a small light weight car, where you get in from the front of the car, rather than the sides. The other nice thing about the Microlino is that it has a roof that opens. You can stargaze with your lover, if you have one, or enjoy the fresh air in the warmer months. 

Summary

In the 21st century technology exists that could make music festivals sound good for festival goers, whist not ruing the night of sleep for neighbours of the festival. I would like EPFL and other academic groups to work towards finding a way to make music festivals more considerate of neighbouring humans, and wildlife. Music festivals should apply Corporte Social Responsability by reducing noise pollution.

Noisy Summers

During the summer months people organise outdoor events, which is fantastic. What is less fantastic is that those outdoor events are organised to take place from mid to late afternoon, all the way to 2 to 3am. This means that if you live downwind from Music Festivals you will not be able to sleep for days at a time. 

Who do you spend the most time with?

Before the pandemic, it would have been the climbing, hiking and diving friends. I would meet them every week, year round. it was a strong group of peopla and I liked to see them. 

Mustard field

Adventure Groups

It is with this group of people that I went for weekend hikes, experimented with rock climbing, via ferrata and took up regular scuba diving. Not a single weekend would pass without the weekend being a holiday. A friend said that the Sunday dive was a break from the routine. His diving became a routine. A decade on he is still diving every week. 

Last night I was thinking about the act of shaving and what a pleasure it is, For a long time I saw it as a daily chore, which is why I switched to an electric razor for years. Eventually the blades dulled so I looked for alternatives before deciding to try safety razor shaving, and I find it to be extremely pleasant. 

Learning Process

Shaving requires a methodical approach. It requires wetting the face, lathering the soap, shaving one way, lathering again, shaving the second direction, lathering again, shaving the final direction. That methodical process is what makes safety razor shaving such a pleasure. It is ritualistic, like getting ready for a dive, or other potentially dangerous activities. The better your routine is, the safer you will be. 

First things First, I have had a lot of fun at festivals, and I have volunteered for a few. What I object to is the noise pollution. In the 21st century we could avoid that noise pollution, so we should.

And now for the rant, now that I have told you I like festivals, when they don’t get in the way of other peoples’ desire for silence, for sleep.

As I write this I am in a sleep deprived state because I was unable to sleep according to my circadian rhythm due to a music festival. The sound engineers that work at music festivals are pretty dumb, so they build powerful stacks of speakers that are so loud that you need hearing protection at the music festival, and the surrounding countryside is filled with noise pollution. 

In theory shoes are meant to last for eight hundred kilometres before they need to be replaced. I am now one eighth of the way towards needing to replace my Trail Gloves. In theory. 

In practice the left shoe is worn and the tread is gone, in two spots. The toes, where most of my force is transmitted to the ground, and the heel, where I tend, or least tended to strike. That’s why the vapor gloves hurt if they’re used too much.