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Culture

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The Cheapest Hotel in Town

... Shibuya McDonalds clientele is split evenly between clubbers killing time before the first train and long term homeless trying to get some sleep. For many people McDonalds is already the default public restroom of choice. 120 Yen (0.8 Euro) buys a small premium roast coffee, a place to rest your head and a ringside view of sub-cultures gently chaffing.

From Jan Chipchase - Future Perfect. Photo via Stephen Cannon.

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iPhone Art

It's amazing what people can accomplish as a result of or despite the constraints of a tool. The above is a slideshow from the Brushes Gallery, paintings created with the Brushes iPhone application.

ABC News report on iPhone Paintings
Apple iPhone art at the Telegraph
A blog about iPhone art (of course!)

Via textually

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Why Mandarin for our children

I wrote the following entry in my other personal blog Kelake where I had previously wrote about our initial efforts in getting our daughter enrolled in a local Chinese school. For the purposes of context, I've lived in Taiwan for over 10 years, firstly as a starting point for a 'different lifestyle' (a mobile one), then for work (as a designer under various abstract titles), then a graduate student, and later as a PT design consultant. The real reason my wife and I stay here after all this time is not career related, nor lifestyle, but because we believe in the learning opportunities the region can provide for our children. It involves some sacrifice on our part - there aren't a great deal of work opportunities for someone like myself - but it's worth it when we see how happy our children seem to be. Here is the post detailing part of the reason why we think it's important:

Continue reading »

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Favourites of 2008

It seems customary to do some kind of end of the year round-up, in the form of a list, of some of the best ideas, posts, or products you found through-out the year.

I've been sitting on this for 3 weeks now and I still can't make a final decision. I'm going to give up (I didn't do any kind of shopping guide either this year) and instead focus on a short year in review of some of the products and services I found most valuable this year (and one I didn't).

Favourite bag brand
Porter. I only wish they were easier to purchase.

Best on-the-go bags
Rapha Fixed Backpack
Patagonia Maximum Legal Carry-On
Jansport 767 Burhorn Backpack
I did the travel bags from Kuvert as well.

Favourite mobile websites
New York Times
Google services
Twitter

Bag trend
Grocery totes. The 24-7 bag is the most useful while the Porter Grocery Tote the most beautiful.

Best hack
Joikuspot. Turn your s60 mobile into a wifi basestation. When it works it's very useful.

Favourite desktop software
Transmission and VLC. Others make my life easier, keep me informed, and help me make a living but these two produce the greatest enjoyment.

Favourite gadget
iPod Touch. Nothing else inspires me as much as the iPod and iPhone.

Favourite destination
Bangkok. My family refuses to go due to all the turmoil but I think at this moment it's a great deal.

Default airline
EVA. I do my best to avoid Canadian and American based airlines as much as possible.

Most frequented destination
Hong Kong. Milan station is a wonderful area for discount bags.

Most Useful Web Application
Last.fm. It's changed how I listen to music - for the better and worse.

Most annoying Web Service
emusic. Subscription services kill me and they make it very clear that it's their way or the highway. I chose the highway and they still spam me with offers.

Most popular article
Travel todo and packing list

Most popular place
Milan station

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Mobility Means Living

Something different. A film about mobility from elephant on Vimeo.

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Building relationships with people outside the office and IM

When I left my day job 2 years ago one of the biggest shocks for me was realizing just how much I relied upon my co-workers for social interaction, inspiration, and motivation. It's one of the drawbacks of working from home - lack of contact with people outside of social networking sites, IM, email, and mobile phone. Interacting in this fashion isn't really interacting at all. It's very impersonal.

While many people face this challenge, my circumstances are fairly unique. I am an expat. living in Asia in a house far from any city center. The area in which I live has little in the way of professional interaction and in general outside of a few pubs there is little opportunity social interaction. There are few professional associations here, at least in the industry I am in. There are meet-ups organized for groups of people loosely related (various expat. get-togethers) but they tend to be hours away and require not just a significant investment of my time but time away from my family.

I don't have the answers and it's something that I am working on but luckily there are many people with great advice. Here’s what a few sources have to say on how to develop and find 'real' relationships outside your home office.

Go to where the people are! Volunteer for a big event, attend a conference or join a club. While it’s possible to meet people hanging around the local coffee shop, it can be harder — your prospective contact may not be interested in interacting with anyone except the barista. However, at events and club activities, people show up ready to talk. Lifehack.

Make your solitary activity social. If you have an interest that you normally partake in on your own, you may be able to introduce a social element into it. For example, if you like running, then put out a call for a running buddy. If you normally mountain bike by yourself then you could find a group that rides together on the weekends. If you like reading you could start a book club. If you like playing an instrument then start a band or join one. If you're a writer you could organize a group where people meet to share what they've been working on and help each other improve. If you're into comics or card games maybe you can hang around the store with the other hobbyists instead of staying at home.

Go to church or other spiritual event. This may seem too self-serving but I have found that people are far more outgoing and willing to accept a stranger when the context is a church activity. Perhaps you are interested in exploring another belief system or your own with more depth. Where I live it's one of the few places you can make friends without the influence of alcohol.

Use a web-based service to find people to do things with. Use online services like Upcoming.org, Meetup, Socializer, or a local discussion forum. Forumosa, a Taiwan online community, hosts regular happy hours for it's members. If you like photography look for Flickr group meets.

Maintain current relationships. Re-contact people periodically. Let people know what you’re up to, and show a genuine interest in what they’re up to. Don’t drop a connection because they don’t show any immediate need for whatever you do — you never know when they will, and you never know who they know who will. More importantly, these personal connections add more value than just a file full of prospective clients, customers, or voters. Lifehack.

Further reading:
Building Healthy Relationships
How to Make Friends And Get a Social Life
Places And Ways To Meet New People

Photo by cypherone @ Taiwan.

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10 tips for being calm

I think my 4 year old daughter was trying to tell me something when she brought me a Chinese translation of The Little Book of Calm by Paul Wilson. I don't usually make it a habit of reading books like this, unless you count all the productivity manuals I've digested, but my daughter was pretty persuasive. Generally its too 'new age' for me but like many texts like this there are enough bits of commonsense to make the effort of leafing through the pages worthwhile. Here is a selection of 10 tips contained within the book which I found to be the most relevant.

Leave it to others to be perfect, to be wonderful. Be content with who you are - you will be much more relaxed as a result.

Take a lesson in calmness from children: watch how they live every moment for the pleasure of the moment.

Clear out the clutter. Physical disarray adds to the tension of life. Clearing out the clutter is an orderly way to calm.

To bear ill-feelings towards someone else is more damaging to the bearer than the recipient. Forgive quickly and freely.

There comes a time when you need to shut yourself off from interruption, to concentrate on your own needs and responsibilities. Do it for at least one hour every day.

Keep plants where you work, sleep and live, and you'll enjoy more oxygen. The more oxygen you get the more calmer you will become.

Anything that interferes with your sleep - coffee, cola, alcohol - interferes with your ability to become calm. Do whatever is necessary to get as much sleep as you feel you need.

Walk everyday - not because you have to , but because if you combine it with the right attitude , it can be the most relaxing way to get from A to B.

Be rigorous in differentiating between what is achievable and what is a waste of time. Then devote your energies to only those tasks you can achieve.

Any task you can do on remote control has the potential as a way of helping you feel good. Treat it as a meditation, concentrating wholly on the moment, and you will be fulfilled.

What works wonders for me isn't mentioned anywhere in this book. A weekend getting massaged into submission at a resort in Thailand is a surefire way to 'calm' for me.

The Little Book of Calm

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Men’s Handbags in Tokyo

Pingmag files a street report on men's handbags in Tokyo. While I seldom go anywhere without a bag of some sort most of what they describe are on the feminine side for me. I do dig the one pictured above.

Ping Mag.. Via Jeansnow.

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The Machine is Us

It's received plenty of exposure but a presentation as fine as this deserves more.

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Silent Ringtone

Funny and no doubt appreciated by many. An interesting commentary on technology by an artist who wisely doesn't own a cell phone. Conceptual artist Jonathon Keats has created the world's first silent ringtone - an homage to Cage's 4'33", performed live before an audience in 1952.

A remastering, "My Cage" is also a remix, introducing serendipity into the equation, delivering performances unpredictably, whenever calls come unexpectedly. The silence may take place without the listener being aware of it. Or the listener may hear a call - phantom silence - when there's no one on the line. "My Cage" all-encompassing: Even those who don't use it as a ringtone have the potential to experience it, in the silence of an unanswered call. Note: To fully enjoy this work, and to give callers the opportunity to enjoy the complete silence as well, it is recommended that you turn off your voicemail.

While noting that Mr. Keats doesn't have a cellphone of his own, and may be less-than-qualified to make global pronouncements about them, Start Mobile CEO John Doffing believes that "My Cage" may be a platinum hit. "People want a respite," he says, "and not everybody has the time or money to go to a spa. The virtues of silence are unsung.

My Cage. Via Wired.

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Happy New Year

Tonight is New Years Eve with at least the following few days being a holiday for most people. It's going to be a noisy night! Gongxi fa cai . . . hong bao na lai . . . and all that!

Related: China's cellular operators estimate Chinese customers will send around 14 billion Lunar New Year text messages on their mobile phones during the week-long holiday, the Xinhua news agency said on Monday. Source.

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Interface Space - Design Observer

Design Observer has produced a succinct article on how artists are exploring the relationships between the flat interfaces of the ubiquitous PC and real life/space. It's interesting to ponder how our daily immersion into this windowed environment affects our interaction with the world around us. I sometimes wish their was an 'escape key' or at least a 'command-z'.

You probably spend hours a day staring at this screen — working, playing, talking to friends, shopping. With so many creative people spending so much time on their computers it is no surprise that the computer interface itself has become source material for contemporary art. Daily immersion in a two-dimensional space has raised an intriguing question that many contemporary artists can’t resist: what is the physicality of the screen? The ubiquitous interface experience has created a symbiosis between the metaphorical space of the computer and the physical world.

Full Article. Via Core77

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Remapping the Universe - multi-touch driven UI

In this video, Jeff Han and Phil Davidson demonstrate how a multi-touch driven computer screen will change the way we work and play.

It will be wonderful if these could be implemented in a public context. Subway area maps, local business directories could all benefit from such a large scale interface. That is if we weren't further restricted by the explosion of virus's and resultant lake of human contact.

These interfaces will never see wide spread use in office environments where you have to input and manipulate data for hours. It would be like when my old Chinese teacher use to have me write Chinese characters on the white board for an hour "to keep warm" - my arm felt like it was going to fall off.

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Nokia - A View of the Future

All user interfaces look great on film.

Nokia has released a number of short videos that explore how mobile phone design may change in the next three or four years. There is a video for each of the four categories, or put more simply different lifestyle, that Nokia focuses on.

More here.

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