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Practical Thoughts on Publibike

Yesterday I finally tested Publibike after years of considering these bikes. There is a paradox. I think nothing of spending three francs, for a coke, rivella, hot chocolate or coffee but the idea of paying 3 CHF to use a bike for a six minute ride is disturbing. I didn’t pay for six minutes, because that was my first ride. I paid 3 CHF for 11 minutes. In Line With the Price of Coffee When you compare it to the price of a coffee or a coke, or a can of redbull from a vending machine the price is reasonable.

Publibike Considered

I like to cycle but I don’t like the idea of having my bike stolen. I loved using a foot scooter but I find that e-scooters are frustrating because we can’t go above a certain speed. For months, or even years, I have been considering using Publibike bikes for shopping and getting to the train station but didn’t because a bike costs 3 CHF for half an hour, and ten centimes per minute to use after that.

A Possible WordPress Implosion

WordPress and WordPress engine are fighting at the moment. Mullenweg wants WP-Engine to pay its fair share, or contribute more developer hours to keep improving WordPress as a whole. To be more specific “a significant percentage of its revenues for a license to the WordPress trademark.” source “The abbreviation ‘WP’ is not covered by the WordPress trademarks, but please don’t use it in a way that confuses people. For example, many people think WP Engine is ‘WordPress Engine’ and officially associated with WordPress, which it’s not.

Traffic Calming and Motorway Expansion

In 2030 the motorway between Nyon and Geneva will be expanded to three lanes because they think that this will encourage growth and promote the economy. At the same time almost every village is lowering the speed limit to thirty kilometres per hour and villages like Signy, Gingins and others are placing traffic calming to slow down traffic and discourage traffic from crossing villages and towns. In light of this I saw that Signy are adding new traffic calming measures to slow traffic down, which would be fantastic, if it wasn’t completely absurd.

Listening to every Podcast

There was a time when it was much easier to listen to every episode of a podcast for two reasons. The first of these is that they were new so it wouldn’t take too long to burn through one hundred episodes. The second reason is that podcasts were half an hour long so you could listen to two or three during a one or one and a half hour walk.

The End of my Exposed Host Experiment

For months I have been hosting Immich, Photoprism and AudioBookShelf and the experiment has been a success. It has been stable and reliable so far and I did not detect anyone accessing my server without permission. I had these services as Exposed Host via the Swisscom router DMZ setting. it was easy to setup and run with no issues for the duration of the experiment. I closed the DMZ because no one but me was accessing these services after five to six months but me.

The Absurdity of Threads

Threads, in theory is a social network but in practice it is a popularity contest driven by algorithms. Normal people are competing against influencers to be seen. You are more likely to find a troll than someone interested in what you have to write, or what you think. More often than not you will see posts with 21,000 followers, a thousand comments, and several thousand likes. When a post does get 5000 views you will get very little conversation.

Strava and the Fallacy of Quick Edit

Two days ago Strava came out with their “Quick edit” feature that is actually nothing new. They claim that it will simplify renaming activities to get more likes but that’s not what the “simple edit” is about. It’s about renaming activities to train AI. Some apps will call a run Morges Run, or Nyon Cycle or Gruyère walk but Strava, until now has called runs “morning, afternoon, evening or other. Finding old runs, with strava is very hard, if you want to find by location, distance or sport.

The Saturday Recycling Trip

I love to recycle but recently on Saturday I have been hiking or climbing so I couldn’t go to the recycling centre. The result is that I often accumulate recycling for several weeks. One day I finally have a saturday morning free, and that isn’t a public holiday, and I take things to recycle. My other reason for not going to the recycling centre much is that the road to and from the recycling is narrow.

The Post Cold Run

Some people will see that it’s running, and that they are still recovering and think “I’m not running in that. I did and my “short run” project was changed to a full run. I had planned to run two to three kilometres but ran five instead. The Apple watch wasn’t happy, not with the running, but with the rain. It got a false tap and paused itself for 300 or more meters.