TedPage

After visiting Boston this last week I can confirm that it is a walking town. We walked everywhere. In fact, even the main tourist attraction is a trail. The entire trip was a ton of fun, I enjoyed seeing all of the historic sights. More pictures will follow. One thing that I wanted to post was a fun panorama that I took of Fenway. I forgot how much overlap is required for the small camera I had, so it isn't great, but I thought it would be fun to post. You can see the top of Nico's head on the right.

posted on Mon, 27 Aug 2007 at 02:08 | permanent link | 0 Comments

After avoiding the dentist for several years I went, and as you can imagine, things didn't go that well. Not loosing any teeth or something dramatic, but I've been prescribed to use an electric toothbrush. I bought one, and it's been interesting. I feel like I'm making a latte in my mouth every time I brush. When the instructions say to not take it out of your mouth while it's on, they really do mean that. It makes a total mess. I'm learning.

The one side effect that I hadn't expected is the interaction with my son. Previously with my manual toothbrush, everytime I was brushing my teeth he would demand to have his toothbrush and he would brush along. No longer the case. Now his toothbrush is a kid's toy and he really wants what the adults are using. I'm no longer a good brushing role model. That's still better than having him feed me baby food in a few years.

posted on Wed, 08 Aug 2007 at 13:34 | permanent link | 0 Comments

In California we have a system where restaurants are required to put placards in their windows representing the rating that the food safety inspector gave them. They get inspected yearly (roughly) and must post the most recent inspection. When customers are entering the establishment it is very easy for them to judge the quality, and make an informed decision based on that data. This is a great idea. All states in the US do the inspections, but most of the time the data ends up in a report that might make the evening news. Not something that is used regularly by customers when making dining decisions.

I think the recent bridge collapse in Minnesota has brought to light the need for similar signage on our nation's bridges. For years reports have come out showing grave concern regarding bridges all over the country. Because of the large amount of road construction in the 40's and 50's we do have an influx of bridges needing repair. This has not gotten much political attention because it isn't something people are going to get excited about during a rally. It may even require raising taxes or delaying more popular expenditures. If on a daily basis people saw the rankings of the bridges they're crossing, and they saw them decline over time, there would be increased public will towards repairing this nation's infrastructure.

It is wonderful that all the bridge and restaurant reports are getting put online, indexed by Google, searchable on your cell phone -- but nothing beats putting the data where you need to use it. This is something to remember when designing user interfaces: It doesn't mater how good your visualization is, if it isn't where you're using the data and making the decision it isn't useful for anything more than a demo.

posted on Fri, 03 Aug 2007 at 13:09 | permanent link | 0 Comments

I think the most interesting part of hybrid cars is their ability to recapture the energy typically lost in breaking and redeploy it for useful purposes. When there is already an electrical subsystem in the car tied to the drive train, I think we can start to talk about other ways to capture energy into the battery. This energy can then also be used for motion, or the various interior comfort accessories.

The most obvious of these are replacing the upward facing surfaces with solar panels. It would then capture energy that the car is reflecting with very little differential cost. But, I think we can take this to the next level. It would also be nice if I could cover the windows of my car with some sort of solar capture device when I'm not driving. Typically this is when my car is parked. My biggest problem is that the car heats up because of the sun, and I usually end up cooling it quickly with the air conditioner. If there was a device capturing the energy while I was away it would serve two purposes: supplying power for the battery and removing energy from the sun that would otherwise heat up my car.

Another way to capture energy would be to replace the shock absorbers. If we think of them in an abstract sense they are trying to remove a vibrational energy that is put into the car by a bump in the road. This vibration is uncomfortable for the passengers so we suck it out and return everything to a comfortable equality. This vibration is energy. Instead of just getting rid of it we should try and capture it into the battery as well.

I'm not sure how much energy this would capture. I can say that I've driven in some cities where there were more potholes than road. I would hate to see this turn speed bumps into 'ecological devices.'

posted on Wed, 01 Aug 2007 at 02:07 | permanent link | 0 Comments