Ok, I just opened my mail and found this. I know it’s probably a viral marketing or ARG thing… I just don’t know for WHAT. Either way though, it’s pretty cool.
Filed by Julien at 2:08 pm under random
4 Comments
This video is about an hour long, but it is required viewing in my book. Information is power.
(Hat tip to Economist’s View.)
Filed by Julien at 10:35 am under random
3 Comments
After being in one too many rushing taxi cabs I am beginning to think the way cab drivers’s rates are set up is a bit skewed. Don’t get me wrong - it’s a very simple system, and simplicity is a very important value. I think right now it’s 1.40$ per kilometre and 40 cents per minute of waiting time. A cab, while driving, makes more money by driving than he does by waiting, per minute, considering he can drive more than 1 km in a minute (notwithstanding the price of gas). Not only this, but the faster he completes that km, the faster he gets his money and picks up another fare to recklessly speed his way to his destination.
So you have a system in place where cab drivers speed past red lights and drive as fast as possible, occasionally despite the safety of their customers. There have got to be tests to be a cabbie, but let’s be honest - most of them involve knowledge of the city or basic driving reqs, neither of which are that stringent. What if we revamp the system to allow cab drivers who drive more carefully to make more money?
Formula (alpha stage): fare = x / y, where x is the time, in minutes, for a driver to get to his destination, and y is the speed at which he attempts to get there (average km/h, let’s say). All this because a) the longer the distance, the greater the cost, and b) the lower (greater level of caution) the speed is, the more profitable the cab ride is for the driver. The cab driver wants x to be high and y to be low, so he’ll drive slower rather than faster (in principle). If the rider wants to get somewhere faster (thus reducing the profit of the cab driver), the driver may refuse and stay at a careful speed, or the rider may attempt to tip (read: bribe) the driver to compensate for the lower base fare at which the fare will then be calculated. The result of a system like this is that cabbies who go out of their way to provide safe trips get monetarily compensated.
Ideally, we wouldn’t want y to be a simple whole number, like km/h or somesuch, but some sort of calculated denominator based on max/min speeds in an area. You get the point. Whatever, I came up with this in a speeding cab on the way home, gimme a break.
Filed by Julien at 3:39 pm under random
9 Comments
I’ll put out a review or something when I’ve fully completed setting it up. I have to say though, it is a pleasure to carry around… very light compared to my old machine.
Btw, this probably put me over the top (my roommate made it):
Filed by Julien at 2:42 pm under random
9 Comments
I took this pic at the mall where I dropped off my Macbook yesterday. The funniest thing about it was that the security guard came up to me afterwards and told me that pictures weren’t allowed because of “intellectual property.” :P
Filed by Julien at 6:26 pm under random
5 Comments
Ok, not really. But my hard drive died yesterday, and I hadn’t backed up in months. It’s at the Apple Store right now, who knows how it’ll come out.
Anyway, if you haven’t heard from me or whatever, or you need to get in contact, email is the best/only way for now, or maybe Twitter (if you DM me, it’ll get sent to my phone).
Filed by Julien at 4:24 pm under random
4 Comments
Bloggers: If you’re as annoyed as I am of typing “del.icio.us” when you’re trying to link to Delicious, remember that you can now type in http://delicious.com– they own that, too.
(From Kottke.) I love this quote from this Michel Gondry interview:
I hate cynicism. I wipe it from me. I don’t like cynical people. I don’t like cynical movies. Cynicism is very easy. You don’t have to justify it. You don’t have to fight for it.
I’ve seen people suggest it, but I have a hard time believing that optimism is genetic. My podcast is basically about complaining, but I remain a very optimistic person at the core, and I think it’s available to anyone. I also believe it’s gotten me most of what I have today.
FYI, you probably like Michel Gondry if you’re white.
Filed by Julien at 5:26 am under random
5 Comments
I mentioned in my podcast last week that I’d been fasting for weight loss. I’m doing that again today and, let me say, the results are very interesting.
I used to be addicted to feeling full. My girlfriend can attest that, before this, I used to be unable to go to sleep without eating something in order to not feel hungry. It was probably costing me a few extra hundred calories a day which, over time, definitely helped me put on a few pounds.
This has changed a lot. This is my second fast– I haven’t eaten in almost 24 hours now, and feel totally fine with the ‘discomfort’ that occurs from being hungry. In fact, I’m more comfortable with hunger than I’ve ever been in my life. It’s almost relieving.
If you’re interested in finding out more about how I’m doing this, I recommend looking at Brad Pilon’s blog– I’m following what he wrote in his book Eat Stop Eat, which was super informative. I’ll probably blog about it a few more times too, as I adjust to it and see what effect it has on my system.
Filed by Julien at 6:01 pm under random
4 Comments
I swear to God, I thought Harvey Walden and RuPaul were the same person for a sec. Check out the cover of Harvey’s book and RuPaul in But I’m a Cheerleader. Crazy.
Filed by Julien at 12:52 pm under random
7 Comments
