ruk.ca - peter rukavina blogs

ruk.ca - peter rukavina blogs http://ruk.ca/ en http://ruk.ca/sites/ruk.ca/files/ruk-square.png ruk.ca - peter rukavina blogs http://ruk.ca/ 137 138 Copyright 2012 Peter Rukavina peter@rukavina.net peter@rukavina.net Drupal 6 Mon, 21 May 2012 10:41:31 -0300 Tue, 22 May 2012 09:37:55 -0300 http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/2.0/rukhttp://feedburner.google.com Red Envelope http://ruk.ca/content/red-envelope <p>I didn’t plan for this, but I really like the way it worked out: “Casa Mia Café” is framed perfectly by the envelope when you open the flap. A taste of things to come, so to speak. The envelope, like the gift certificate paper, comes from <a href="http://www.st-armand.com/">Papeterie Saint-Armand</a>.</p> <p class="rtecenter" style=""><a href="http://www.flickr.com/photos/reinvented/7241466426/" title="NOKIA Lumia 800_001018 by reinvented, on Flickr"><img alt="NOKIA Lumia 800_001018" height="551" src="http://farm8.staticflickr.com/7104/7241466426_43573c5d71_z.jpg" width="640" /></a></p> <p><a href="http://ruk.ca/content/red-envelope#comment-form">Add a Comment</a></p> Casa Mia Golding Jobber Letterpress http://ruk.ca/content/red-envelope http://ruk.ca/content/red-envelope Mon, 21 May 2012 10:41:31 -0300 ruk.ca - peter rukavina blogs Red Envelope Casa Mia,Golding Jobber,Letterpress <p>I didn’t plan for this, but I really like the way it worked out: “Casa Mia Café” is framed perfectly by the envelope when you open the flap. A taste of things to come, so to speak. The envelope, like the gift certificate paper, comes from <a href="http://www.st-armand.com/">Papeterie Saint-Armand</a>.</p> <p class="rtecenter" style=""><a href="http://www.flickr.com/photos/reinvented/7241466426/" title="NOKIA Lumia 800_001018 by reinvented, on Flickr"><img alt="NOKIA Lumia 800_001018" height="551" src="http://farm8.staticflickr.com/7104/7241466426_43573c5d71_z.jpg" width="640" /></a></p> <p><a href="http://ruk.ca/content/red-envelope#comment-form">Add a Comment</a></p> Mon, 21 May 2012 10:41:31 -0300 http://ruk.ca/content/red-envelope A Frank Abagnale Kind of Day http://ruk.ca/content/frank-abagnale-kind-day <p>I have been putting the pieces together for a new <a href="http://casamiacafe.ca">Casa Mia Café</a> gift certificate for a couple of months. Not quite finished yet, but the paper (from <a href="http://www.st-armand.com/index.php">Papeterie Saint-Armand</a>) is ready, and I’m experimenting with the type. Here’s where I’ve arrived so far:</p> <p class="rtecenter" style=""><a href="http://www.flickr.com/photos/reinvented/7235890850/" title="Casa Mia Gift Certificate by reinvented, on Flickr"><img alt="Casa Mia Gift Certificate" height="480" src="http://farm9.staticflickr.com/8153/7235890850_933ec36a4c_z.jpg" width="640" /></a></p> <p class="rteleft">The “Casa Mia Cafe” is from a font of <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Stephenson_Blake">Stephenson Blake</a> Reversed I bought from <a href="http://atelierdomino.ca/">Atelier Domino</a> a couple of weeks ago. The ornament at the bottom is one I picked up from the <a href="http://www.museumofprinting.org/">Museum of Printing</a> sale last year north of Boston.</p> <p><a href="http://ruk.ca/content/frank-abagnale-kind-day#comment-form">Add a Comment</a></p> Casa Mia Golding Jobber Letterpress http://ruk.ca/content/frank-abagnale-kind-day http://ruk.ca/content/frank-abagnale-kind-day Sun, 20 May 2012 16:53:36 -0300 ruk.ca - peter rukavina blogs A Frank Abagnale Kind of Day Casa Mia,Golding Jobber,Letterpress <p>I have been putting the pieces together for a new <a href="http://casamiacafe.ca">Casa Mia Café</a> gift certificate for a couple of months. Not quite finished yet, but the paper (from <a href="http://www.st-armand.com/index.php">Papeterie Saint-Armand</a>) is ready, and I’m experimenting with the type. Here’s where I’ve arrived so far:</p> <p class="rtecenter" style=""><a href="http://www.flickr.com/photos/reinvented/7235890850/" title="Casa Mia Gift Certificate by reinvented, on Flickr"><img alt="Casa Mia Gift Certificate" height="480" src="http://farm9.staticflickr.com/8153/7235890850_933ec36a4c_z.jpg" width="640" /></a></p> <p class="rteleft">The “Casa Mia Cafe” is from a font of <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Stephenson_Blake">Stephenson Blake</a> Reversed I bought from <a href="http://atelierdomino.ca/">Atelier Domino</a> a couple of weeks ago. The ornament at the bottom is one I picked up from the <a href="http://www.museumofprinting.org/">Museum of Printing</a> sale last year north of Boston.</p> <p><a href="http://ruk.ca/content/frank-abagnale-kind-day#comment-form">Add a Comment</a></p> Sun, 20 May 2012 16:53:36 -0300 http://ruk.ca/content/frank-abagnale-kind-day "The Premier says we have to innovate through thrift and creativity..." http://ruk.ca/content/premier-says-we-have-innovate-through-thrift-and-creativity <p>Earlier this spring, along with my colleagues from the <a href="http://peihsf.ca"><span class="caps">PEI</span> Home and School Federation</a> and with the <a href="http://www.peitf.com/"><span class="caps">PEI</span> Teachers Federation</a>, I had the pleasure of meeting with Premier Robert Ghiz to express our concerns about cuts to the budget for education technology (the capital budget was cut from $500,000 to $0 for 2012-2013).</p> <p>While clearly a supporter of the <em>idea</em> of technology in education, the clear message we received from the Premier was “there’s no money.”</p> <p>He told us this backwards and forwards and as the plot to a variety of stories. </p> <p>We came back at him in a number of ways, from the tactical to the emotional.</p> <p><span class="dquo">“</span>There’s no money.”</p> <p>With no money for capital spending on technology, he told us, the education system must innovate through thrift and creativity.</p> <p>Given that I have built <em>an entire career </em>around the practise of thrift and creativity, this was a something of an irresistable challenge.</p> <p>And, indeed, a useful tool that I knew we could use to accelerate innovation at a pace that would have otherwise been bureaucratically impossible: “The Premier says we have to innovate through thrift and creativity” is a pretty good calling card to use when trying to sell people out of the box. </p> <p>The first project under this call to action went live a week ago: a <a href="http://princestreetschool.ca">home-and-school</a> owned, funded and operated wireless Internet network for Prince Street Elementary School. We call it <em>TeacherNet</em>.</p> <p>You can read the <a href="http://princestreetschool.ca/teachernet">political, logistical and technical details here</a>, but the short version of the story is this: wireless Internet in the classroom is coming, indeed in newly-constructed schools it’s already there. But with cuts to technology funding and an already-over-taxed technology division in government, it’s likely not coming to existing schools for several years.</p> <p>Which is about a decade after <a href="http://ruk.ca/content/look-ma-no-wires">it came to the local coffee shop</a>.</p> <p>As parents, we wanted to get wifi into Prince Street school sooner than that to allow our children’s educators to start experimenting with ways of using a wireless network in the classroom (keep in mind that these are educators who are used to using a slow, locked-down network on underpowered equipment, so in many ways “wireless Internet” for them means “Internet that actually works.”)</p> <p>We were fortunate to have several important things happen to make this pilot project happen: the principal and staff at the school were early and enthusiastic supporters of the project; <a href="http://www.bellaliant.net/">Bell Aliant</a> came on board early with a 6-month donation of 20 Mbps Fibre Op to supply bandwidth to our network; we received an <a href="http://princestreetschool.ca/content/it-shared-services-standard-exception">exception</a> to the policy that would have otherwise prohibited third-parties from installing wireless into a government building; and Ken Williams, a home and school volunteer from Tyne Valley offered his services, and the loan of some gear, to get the technical side of the network up and running.</p> <p>Here’s what the first week of traffic on the network looked like: 6 users transferred almost 1 <span class="caps">GB</span> of data. In the days and weeks to come, as additional educators start experimenting we expect usage to increase. </p> <p class="rtecenter" style=""><img alt="" src="http://media.ruk.ca/images//teachernet-week1-20120518-172352.png" style="width: 640px; height: 107px; " /></p> <p class="rteleft">We’ve committed to our peers in the home and school movement, and to partners in the education system, that we’ll document the project, both technically and from a user perspective. You can follow along the process as we update <a href="http://princestreetschool.ca/teachernet">the documentation</a>.</p> <p>This has been a fun project to be involved with. I’ve had a lot of interesting conversations, got a chance to poke around the nooks and crannies of Prince Street School with wire cutters in-hand, the opportunity to learn a lot about <a href="http://open-mesh.com">inexpensive Open-Mesh wireless routers</a>, and, most importantly, got to use some of my day-to-day work skills to support educators at <a href="http://wiki.ruk.ca/wiki/Oliver">Oliver</a>’s school.</p> <p>I encourage others to heed the Premier’s call to action (I hope he meant it as a call to action…) and seize the opportunity to innovate in your own schools. If our experience is any guide, you will find willing co-conspirators in principals, teachers and staff, a bureacracy willing to adapt as long as you are patient and forthright, and no end of interesting projects waiting to be carried out.</p> <p><a href="http://ruk.ca/content/premier-says-we-have-innovate-through-thrift-and-creativity#comment-form">Add a Comment</a></p> Prince Street School WiFi http://ruk.ca/content/premier-says-we-have-innovate-through-thrift-and-creativity http://ruk.ca/content/premier-says-we-have-innovate-through-thrift-and-creativity Fri, 18 May 2012 17:43:13 -0300 ruk.ca - peter rukavina blogs "The Premier says we have to innovate through thrift and creativity..." Prince Street School,WiFi <p>Earlier this spring, along with my colleagues from the <a href="http://peihsf.ca"><span class="caps">PEI</span> Home and School Federation</a> and with the <a href="http://www.peitf.com/"><span class="caps">PEI</span> Teachers Federation</a>, I had the pleasure of meeting with Premier Robert Ghiz to express our concerns about cuts to the budget for education technology (the capital budget was cut from $500,000 to $0 for 2012-2013).</p> <p>While clearly a supporter of the <em>idea</em> of technology in education, the clear message we received from the Premier was “there’s no money.”</p> <p>He told us this backwards and forwards and as the plot to a variety of stories. </p> <p>We came back at him in a number of ways, from the tactical to the emotional.</p> <p><span class="dquo">“</span>There’s no money.”</p> <p>With no money for capital spending on technology, he told us, the education system must innovate through thrift and creativity.</p> <p>Given that I have built <em>an entire career </em>around the practise of thrift and creativity, this was a something of an irresistable challenge.</p> <p>And, indeed, a useful tool that I knew we could use to accelerate innovation at a pace that would have otherwise been bureaucratically impossible: “The Premier says we have to innovate through thrift and creativity” is a pretty good calling card to use when trying to sell people out of the box. </p> <p>The first project under this call to action went live a week ago: a <a href="http://princestreetschool.ca">home-and-school</a> owned, funded and operated wireless Internet network for Prince Street Elementary School. We call it <em>TeacherNet</em>.</p> <p>You can read the <a href="http://princestreetschool.ca/teachernet">political, logistical and technical details here</a>, but the short version of the story is this: wireless Internet in the classroom is coming, indeed in newly-constructed schools it’s already there. But with cuts to technology funding and an already-over-taxed technology division in government, it’s likely not coming to existing schools for several years.</p> <p>Which is about a decade after <a href="http://ruk.ca/content/look-ma-no-wires">it came to the local coffee shop</a>.</p> <p>As parents, we wanted to get wifi into Prince Street school sooner than that to allow our children’s educators to start experimenting with ways of using a wireless network in the classroom (keep in mind that these are educators who are used to using a slow, locked-down network on underpowered equipment, so in many ways “wireless Internet” for them means “Internet that actually works.”)</p> <p>We were fortunate to have several important things happen to make this pilot project happen: the principal and staff at the school were early and enthusiastic supporters of the project; <a href="http://www.bellaliant.net/">Bell Aliant</a> came on board early with a 6-month donation of 20 Mbps Fibre Op to supply bandwidth to our network; we received an <a href="http://princestreetschool.ca/content/it-shared-services-standard-exception">exception</a> to the policy that would have otherwise prohibited third-parties from installing wireless into a government building; and Ken Williams, a home and school volunteer from Tyne Valley offered his services, and the loan of some gear, to get the technical side of the network up and running.</p> <p>Here’s what the first week of traffic on the network looked like: 6 users transferred almost 1 <span class="caps">GB</span> of data. In the days and weeks to come, as additional educators start experimenting we expect usage to increase. </p> <p class="rtecenter" style=""><img alt="" src="http://media.ruk.ca/images//teachernet-week1-20120518-172352.png" style="width: 640px; height: 107px; " /></p> <p class="rteleft">We’ve committed to our peers in the home and school movement, and to partners in the education system, that we’ll document the project, both technically and from a user perspective. You can follow along the process as we update <a href="http://princestreetschool.ca/teachernet">the documentation</a>.</p> <p>This has been a fun project to be involved with. I’ve had a lot of interesting conversations, got a chance to poke around the nooks and crannies of Prince Street School with wire cutters in-hand, the opportunity to learn a lot about <a href="http://open-mesh.com">inexpensive Open-Mesh wireless routers</a>, and, most importantly, got to use some of my day-to-day work skills to support educators at <a href="http://wiki.ruk.ca/wiki/Oliver">Oliver</a>’s school.</p> <p>I encourage others to heed the Premier’s call to action (I hope he meant it as a call to action…) and seize the opportunity to innovate in your own schools. If our experience is any guide, you will find willing co-conspirators in principals, teachers and staff, a bureacracy willing to adapt as long as you are patient and forthright, and no end of interesting projects waiting to be carried out.</p> <p><a href="http://ruk.ca/content/premier-says-we-have-innovate-through-thrift-and-creativity#comment-form">Add a Comment</a></p> Fri, 18 May 2012 17:43:13 -0300 http://ruk.ca/content/premier-says-we-have-innovate-through-thrift-and-creativity Korean Restaurant Call Buttons http://ruk.ca/content/korean-restaurant-call-buttons <p>One of the novel things to show up in Charlottetown restaurants in the last few years, courtesy of the sudden influx of places operated by Korean newcomers, is the table-side call button. Here’s what they look like at the newly-opened Mr. Sushi on University Avenue:</p> <p class="rtecenter" style=""><a href="http://www.flickr.com/photos/reinvented/7223133208/" title="17 by reinvented, on Flickr"><img alt="17" height="375" src="http://farm9.staticflickr.com/8165/7223133208_5cfe901e36.jpg" width="500" /></a></p> <p>You’ll find similar call buttons in Ta-ke Sushi on Queen Street and in Sushi Jeju on Grafton Street.</p> <p>By all appearances Islanders have absolutely no idea what to do with them: I’ve very seldom seen anyone use them, and I know from my own family’s reaction — “we don’t want to disturb them,” etc. — there’s some hesitation to.</p> <p>Once you crack through the hesitation, though, they are a great innovation: no more need to wave your arms to attract your server — just press the button. Missing a menu? Or a fork. Want to order some dessert? Or need the check. Just press the button!</p> <p>For someone like me, for whom vagueness about the social cues and customs is a source of some anxiety, it’s a great help. I encourage you to join in and start pressing.</p> <p>(The Mr. Sushi button system comes from a company called <a href="http://www.callvellux.com/">Vellux Wireless Calling Solutions</a> that makes call buttons for everything from casinos to retirement homes).</p> <p><a href="http://ruk.ca/content/korean-restaurant-call-buttons#comment-form">Add a Comment</a></p> Charlottetown Food Restaurants http://ruk.ca/content/korean-restaurant-call-buttons http://ruk.ca/content/korean-restaurant-call-buttons Fri, 18 May 2012 16:57:19 -0300 ruk.ca - peter rukavina blogs Korean Restaurant Call Buttons Charlottetown,Food,Restaurants <p>One of the novel things to show up in Charlottetown restaurants in the last few years, courtesy of the sudden influx of places operated by Korean newcomers, is the table-side call button. Here’s what they look like at the newly-opened Mr. Sushi on University Avenue:</p> <p class="rtecenter" style=""><a href="http://www.flickr.com/photos/reinvented/7223133208/" title="17 by reinvented, on Flickr"><img alt="17" height="375" src="http://farm9.staticflickr.com/8165/7223133208_5cfe901e36.jpg" width="500" /></a></p> <p>You’ll find similar call buttons in Ta-ke Sushi on Queen Street and in Sushi Jeju on Grafton Street.</p> <p>By all appearances Islanders have absolutely no idea what to do with them: I’ve very seldom seen anyone use them, and I know from my own family’s reaction — “we don’t want to disturb them,” etc. — there’s some hesitation to.</p> <p>Once you crack through the hesitation, though, they are a great innovation: no more need to wave your arms to attract your server — just press the button. Missing a menu? Or a fork. Want to order some dessert? Or need the check. Just press the button!</p> <p>For someone like me, for whom vagueness about the social cues and customs is a source of some anxiety, it’s a great help. I encourage you to join in and start pressing.</p> <p>(The Mr. Sushi button system comes from a company called <a href="http://www.callvellux.com/">Vellux Wireless Calling Solutions</a> that makes call buttons for everything from casinos to retirement homes).</p> <p><a href="http://ruk.ca/content/korean-restaurant-call-buttons#comment-form">Add a Comment</a></p> Fri, 18 May 2012 16:57:19 -0300 http://ruk.ca/content/korean-restaurant-call-buttons Auto-Focus http://ruk.ca/content/auto-focus <p>I shot this short video a few weeks ago in Montreal. It’s a detail from <a href="http://peterflemming.ca/">Peter Flemming</a>’s Instrumentation installation, which was part of the <a href="http://bianmontreal.ca/">International Digital Arts Biennial</a>. I usually find the auto-focus “feature” of my Nokia Lumia 800 is more annoying than helpful, but in this instance the auto-focus, for some reason, pulsed in sync with the art itself, which was kind of cool.</p> <p class="rtecenter" style=""><iframe allowfullscreen="" frameborder="0" height="360" src="http://www.youtube.com/embed/VSH8JNZUIpo?rel=0" width="640"></iframe></p> <p><a href="http://ruk.ca/content/auto-focus#comment-form">Add a Comment</a></p> Art Montreal Video http://ruk.ca/content/auto-focus http://ruk.ca/content/auto-focus Thu, 17 May 2012 14:44:46 -0300 ruk.ca - peter rukavina blogs Auto-Focus Art,Montreal,Video <p>I shot this short video a few weeks ago in Montreal. It’s a detail from <a href="http://peterflemming.ca/">Peter Flemming</a>’s Instrumentation installation, which was part of the <a href="http://bianmontreal.ca/">International Digital Arts Biennial</a>. I usually find the auto-focus “feature” of my Nokia Lumia 800 is more annoying than helpful, but in this instance the auto-focus, for some reason, pulsed in sync with the art itself, which was kind of cool.</p> <p class="rtecenter" style=""><iframe allowfullscreen="" frameborder="0" height="360" src="http://www.youtube.com/embed/VSH8JNZUIpo?rel=0" width="640"></iframe></p> <p><a href="http://ruk.ca/content/auto-focus#comment-form">Add a Comment</a></p> Thu, 17 May 2012 14:44:46 -0300 http://ruk.ca/content/auto-focus 21 Balancoires http://ruk.ca/content/21-balancoires <p>Video from the musical swings in Montreal. Music was broken the day we visited, so we had to be content simply with the swings. But it was still pretty neat. I can’t watch this without getting dizzy.</p> <p class="rtecenter" style=""><iframe allowfullscreen="" frameborder="0" height="360" src="http://www.youtube.com/embed/bcp5p5MUYZU?rel=0" width="640"></iframe></p> <p><a href="http://ruk.ca/content/21-balancoires#comment-form">Add a Comment</a></p> Art Montreal Music http://ruk.ca/content/21-balancoires http://ruk.ca/content/21-balancoires Thu, 17 May 2012 14:20:51 -0300 ruk.ca - peter rukavina blogs 21 Balancoires Art,Montreal,Music <p>Video from the musical swings in Montreal. Music was broken the day we visited, so we had to be content simply with the swings. But it was still pretty neat. I can’t watch this without getting dizzy.</p> <p class="rtecenter" style=""><iframe allowfullscreen="" frameborder="0" height="360" src="http://www.youtube.com/embed/bcp5p5MUYZU?rel=0" width="640"></iframe></p> <p><a href="http://ruk.ca/content/21-balancoires#comment-form">Add a Comment</a></p> Thu, 17 May 2012 14:20:51 -0300 http://ruk.ca/content/21-balancoires Tympan http://ruk.ca/content/tympan <p>The tympan — the top layer of oiled paper on top of which paper to be printed is laid on the letterpress — is a sort of archaeological record of the printing process. Here’s the tympan for the <a href="http://ruk.ca/content/richmond-street-goes-green">Richmond Street poster</a>:</p> <p class="rtecenter"><a href="http://www.flickr.com/photos/reinvented/7204202610/" title="Tympan by reinvented, on Flickr"><img alt="Tympan" height="480" src="http://farm8.staticflickr.com/7102/7204202610_201c557c19_z.jpg" width="640" /></a></p> <p><a href="http://ruk.ca/content/tympan#comment-form">Add a Comment</a></p> Golding Jobber Letterpress Richmond Street http://ruk.ca/content/tympan http://ruk.ca/content/tympan Tue, 15 May 2012 14:23:46 -0300 ruk.ca - peter rukavina blogs Tympan Golding Jobber,Letterpress,Richmond Street <p>The tympan — the top layer of oiled paper on top of which paper to be printed is laid on the letterpress — is a sort of archaeological record of the printing process. Here’s the tympan for the <a href="http://ruk.ca/content/richmond-street-goes-green">Richmond Street poster</a>:</p> <p class="rtecenter"><a href="http://www.flickr.com/photos/reinvented/7204202610/" title="Tympan by reinvented, on Flickr"><img alt="Tympan" height="480" src="http://farm8.staticflickr.com/7102/7204202610_201c557c19_z.jpg" width="640" /></a></p> <p><a href="http://ruk.ca/content/tympan#comment-form">Add a Comment</a></p> Tue, 15 May 2012 14:23:46 -0300 http://ruk.ca/content/tympan Vertical Panorama http://ruk.ca/content/vertical-panorama <p>The <a href="http://conversations.nokia.com/2012/03/18/creative-studio-exclusively-for-nokia/">Creative Studio</a> app from Nokia for Windows Phone has an elegant panorama-taking function that I’ve been experimenting with. One of the problems with panoramas on the web is that they’re hard to display with any justice because they’re much wider than they are high. So why not, I figure, turn the camera 90 degees and shoot a vertical pano! Here’s the result:</p> <p class="rtecenter"><img alt="" src="http://media.ruk.ca/images/vertpanogolding.jpg" style="width: 640px; height: 2399px; " /></p> <p><a href="http://ruk.ca/content/vertical-panorama#comment-form">Add a Comment</a></p> Golding Jobber Panorama Photos http://ruk.ca/content/vertical-panorama http://ruk.ca/content/vertical-panorama Tue, 15 May 2012 10:42:14 -0300 ruk.ca - peter rukavina blogs Vertical Panorama Golding Jobber,Panorama,Photos <p>The <a href="http://conversations.nokia.com/2012/03/18/creative-studio-exclusively-for-nokia/">Creative Studio</a> app from Nokia for Windows Phone has an elegant panorama-taking function that I’ve been experimenting with. One of the problems with panoramas on the web is that they’re hard to display with any justice because they’re much wider than they are high. So why not, I figure, turn the camera 90 degees and shoot a vertical pano! Here’s the result:</p> <p class="rtecenter"><img alt="" src="http://media.ruk.ca/images/vertpanogolding.jpg" style="width: 640px; height: 2399px; " /></p> <p><a href="http://ruk.ca/content/vertical-panorama#comment-form">Add a Comment</a></p> Tue, 15 May 2012 10:42:14 -0300 http://ruk.ca/content/vertical-panorama Get a Life http://ruk.ca/content/get-life <p>Can something be considered “sustainable” if only weirdos are involved? As a weirdo myself, this is a topic I spend a lot of time thinking about, and the <a href="http://ruk.ca/content/richmond-street-goes-green">Richmond Street Transformation</a> project that my office overlooks has caused me to consider the issue again.</p> <p>So far the project appears to be very much of the “Birkenstocks and apple cider” school — chalk painting, conceptual art, Katimavik demonstrations, talking circles, etc. — to the point, I think, the end effect might actually end up being <strong>anti</strong>-sustainable: for regular everyday people walking and driving by the message isn’t going to be “wow, we really should have more bicycle lanes in Charlottetown!” it’s going to be more “they closed the street for <em>this</em>!?”.</p> <p class="rtecenter"><a href="http://www.flickr.com/photos/reinvented/7188845060/" title="Get a Life by reinvented, on Flickr"><img alt="Get a Life" height="129" src="http://farm6.staticflickr.com/5076/7188845060_fdba789932_z.jpg" width="640" /></a></p> <p>The transformation project has <a href="http://transformingastreet.blogspot.ca/2012/04/timeline-and-events-with-transform.html">another week of action</a> to convince me otherwise, but so far it hasn’t lived up to its promise.</p> <p><a href="http://ruk.ca/content/get-life#comment-form">Add a Comment</a></p> Ecology Photos http://ruk.ca/content/get-life http://ruk.ca/content/get-life Mon, 14 May 2012 09:21:57 -0300 ruk.ca - peter rukavina blogs Get a Life Ecology,Photos <p>Can something be considered “sustainable” if only weirdos are involved? As a weirdo myself, this is a topic I spend a lot of time thinking about, and the <a href="http://ruk.ca/content/richmond-street-goes-green">Richmond Street Transformation</a> project that my office overlooks has caused me to consider the issue again.</p> <p>So far the project appears to be very much of the “Birkenstocks and apple cider” school — chalk painting, conceptual art, Katimavik demonstrations, talking circles, etc. — to the point, I think, the end effect might actually end up being <strong>anti</strong>-sustainable: for regular everyday people walking and driving by the message isn’t going to be “wow, we really should have more bicycle lanes in Charlottetown!” it’s going to be more “they closed the street for <em>this</em>!?”.</p> <p class="rtecenter"><a href="http://www.flickr.com/photos/reinvented/7188845060/" title="Get a Life by reinvented, on Flickr"><img alt="Get a Life" height="129" src="http://farm6.staticflickr.com/5076/7188845060_fdba789932_z.jpg" width="640" /></a></p> <p>The transformation project has <a href="http://transformingastreet.blogspot.ca/2012/04/timeline-and-events-with-transform.html">another week of action</a> to convince me otherwise, but so far it hasn’t lived up to its promise.</p> <p><a href="http://ruk.ca/content/get-life#comment-form">Add a Comment</a></p> Mon, 14 May 2012 09:21:57 -0300 http://ruk.ca/content/get-life Switching Comments http://ruk.ca/content/switching-comments <p>Despite my difficulties learning how to spell it, I’m experimenting with using the third-party commenting platform Disqus to manage comments here. </p> <p>Although commenting might appear to be a technically simple aspect of maintaining a blog — name, email, text, blamo — it’s the defense against the ever-widening torrent of blog spam that’s the complicated part. I’ve experimented with everything here — <a href="http://www.google.com/recaptcha">reCAPTCHA</a>, <a href="http://mollom.com">Mollom</a>, <a href="http://akismet.com">Akismet</a>, <a href="http://defensio.com">Defensio</a> — and although they do variously capable jobs at filtering out the spam, they also make the user experience of commenting suffer because of the delays involved in the spam-catching-and-filtering.</p> <p>So I’m going to experiment with letting someone else have a go for a while.</p> <p>Please let me know (in the comments, of course) whether this works better for you in the readership; if it looks like Disqus is a good replacement for Drupal’s built-in commenting, I’ll work at migrating the 20,000+ comments that have flowed in over the years into the Disqus archive.</p> <p><a href="http://ruk.ca/content/switching-comments#comment-form">Add a Comment</a></p> Disqus http://ruk.ca/content/switching-comments http://ruk.ca/content/switching-comments Sun, 13 May 2012 17:04:57 -0300 ruk.ca - peter rukavina blogs Switching Comments Disqus <p>Despite my difficulties learning how to spell it, I’m experimenting with using the third-party commenting platform Disqus to manage comments here. </p> <p>Although commenting might appear to be a technically simple aspect of maintaining a blog — name, email, text, blamo — it’s the defense against the ever-widening torrent of blog spam that’s the complicated part. I’ve experimented with everything here — <a href="http://www.google.com/recaptcha">reCAPTCHA</a>, <a href="http://mollom.com">Mollom</a>, <a href="http://akismet.com">Akismet</a>, <a href="http://defensio.com">Defensio</a> — and although they do variously capable jobs at filtering out the spam, they also make the user experience of commenting suffer because of the delays involved in the spam-catching-and-filtering.</p> <p>So I’m going to experiment with letting someone else have a go for a while.</p> <p>Please let me know (in the comments, of course) whether this works better for you in the readership; if it looks like Disqus is a good replacement for Drupal’s built-in commenting, I’ll work at migrating the 20,000+ comments that have flowed in over the years into the Disqus archive.</p> <p><a href="http://ruk.ca/content/switching-comments#comment-form">Add a Comment</a></p> Sun, 13 May 2012 17:04:57 -0300 http://ruk.ca/content/switching-comments No Fax http://ruk.ca/content/no-fax <p>I’ve had a MyFax.com account for as long as I can remember: I hardly every need to send faxes, but once or twice a year the need has arisen. But not for a long while now, and hardly at a volume that would warrant the monthly cost. So I’ve closed my account, and you can no longer send me faxes nor expect to receive them from me. The end of <a href="http://groups.google.com/group/comp.dcom.fax/msg/dd6071d1289c164f">an era that started many years ago with WinFax Pro</a> (note how the email address on that old Usenet post is caprukav@atlas.cs.upei.ca).</p> <p class="rtecenter"><img alt="" src="http://media.ruk.ca/images//closing-fax-20120513-122341.png" /></p> <p><a href="http://ruk.ca/content/no-fax#comment-form">Add a Comment</a></p> Fax MyFax http://ruk.ca/content/no-fax http://ruk.ca/content/no-fax Sun, 13 May 2012 12:27:37 -0300 ruk.ca - peter rukavina blogs No Fax Fax,MyFax <p>I’ve had a MyFax.com account for as long as I can remember: I hardly every need to send faxes, but once or twice a year the need has arisen. But not for a long while now, and hardly at a volume that would warrant the monthly cost. So I’ve closed my account, and you can no longer send me faxes nor expect to receive them from me. The end of <a href="http://groups.google.com/group/comp.dcom.fax/msg/dd6071d1289c164f">an era that started many years ago with WinFax Pro</a> (note how the email address on that old Usenet post is caprukav@atlas.cs.upei.ca).</p> <p class="rtecenter"><img alt="" src="http://media.ruk.ca/images//closing-fax-20120513-122341.png" /></p> <p><a href="http://ruk.ca/content/no-fax#comment-form">Add a Comment</a></p> Sun, 13 May 2012 12:27:37 -0300 http://ruk.ca/content/no-fax A Day at Brackley Drive-in http://ruk.ca/content/day-brackley-drive <p><a href="http://wiki.ruk.ca/wiki/Oliver">Oliver</a> and I spent the afternoon inside the projection room at <a href="http://drivein.ca">Brackley Drive-in</a> yesterday with Bob Boyle and his son Ben helping them prepare files for their new digital projection system.</p> <p>Bob has made a huge investment in projection technology this year, shifting entirely from film to digital, and one of the content gaps that needed filling in were the various interstitial bits of film like “The Show Starts in 10 Minutes.” Bob put together animations, using <a href="http://animoto.com/">Animoto</a> for all of these; I simply helped him get them from the <span class="caps">M4V</span> format that Animoto allows you to save animation in through to the <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Digital_Cinema_Package"><span class="caps">DCP</span></a> format required by his digital projection system (<a href="http://wiki.ruk.ca/wiki/Converting_M4V_file_to_DCP">I have some notes here if you’re doing this yourself</a>). We finally got it all mostly working after about 3 hours of experimenting, most of which was spent waiting for video files to convert from one format to another. If you’re at the drive-in this season, watch for the result.</p> <p>Here’s what the new projection system looks like (on the left) beside the old system (on the right; as a backup for now):</p> <p class="rtecenter"><a href="http://www.flickr.com/photos/reinvented/7188823816/" title="New Projector vs. Old Projector by reinvented, on Flickr"><img alt="New Projector vs. Old Projector" height="480" src="http://farm6.staticflickr.com/5461/7188823816_73c2032a0d_z.jpg" width="640" /></a></p> <p>From the other side it looks more like a data centre rack:</p> <p class="rtecenter"><a href="http://www.flickr.com/photos/reinvented/7188805360/" title="Brackley Drive-in Digital Projector by reinvented, on Flickr"><img alt="Brackley Drive-in Digital Projector" height="480" src="http://farm8.staticflickr.com/7224/7188805360_4cf431224c_z.jpg" width="640" /></a></p> <p>The top unit in that rack is the driver for the new closed captioning system that Bob will roll out shortly, an innovation that would have been impossible in a pre-digital era. Those requiring captions are loaned an in-car caption display that looks like this:</p> <p class="rtecenter"><a href="http://www.flickr.com/photos/reinvented/7188833048/" title="NOKIA Lumia 800_000964 by reinvented, on Flickr"><img alt="NOKIA Lumia 800_000964" height="480" src="http://farm8.staticflickr.com/7232/7188833048_0a5bde99f3_z.jpg" width="640" /></a></p> <p>The captions are displayed on that unit exactly as they would be if you turned on closed captioning on your television. </p> <p>The captioning system isn’t the only drive toward accessibility that Bob’s taken this year: he’s finishing off construction of accessible washrooms along with a paved area of the lot close to the canteen that will allow easier navigation for wheelchairs. </p> <p>The Brackley Drive-in is open weekends now; 7 days a week come summer. <a href="http://drivein.ca">Check out what’s coming soon</a>.</p> <p><a href="http://ruk.ca/content/day-brackley-drive#comment-form">Add a Comment</a></p> Brackley Drive-in http://ruk.ca/content/day-brackley-drive http://ruk.ca/content/day-brackley-drive Sun, 13 May 2012 12:17:30 -0300 ruk.ca - peter rukavina blogs A Day at Brackley Drive-in Brackley Drive-in <p><a href="http://wiki.ruk.ca/wiki/Oliver">Oliver</a> and I spent the afternoon inside the projection room at <a href="http://drivein.ca">Brackley Drive-in</a> yesterday with Bob Boyle and his son Ben helping them prepare files for their new digital projection system.</p> <p>Bob has made a huge investment in projection technology this year, shifting entirely from film to digital, and one of the content gaps that needed filling in were the various interstitial bits of film like “The Show Starts in 10 Minutes.” Bob put together animations, using <a href="http://animoto.com/">Animoto</a> for all of these; I simply helped him get them from the <span class="caps">M4V</span> format that Animoto allows you to save animation in through to the <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Digital_Cinema_Package"><span class="caps">DCP</span></a> format required by his digital projection system (<a href="http://wiki.ruk.ca/wiki/Converting_M4V_file_to_DCP">I have some notes here if you’re doing this yourself</a>). We finally got it all mostly working after about 3 hours of experimenting, most of which was spent waiting for video files to convert from one format to another. If you’re at the drive-in this season, watch for the result.</p> <p>Here’s what the new projection system looks like (on the left) beside the old system (on the right; as a backup for now):</p> <p class="rtecenter"><a href="http://www.flickr.com/photos/reinvented/7188823816/" title="New Projector vs. Old Projector by reinvented, on Flickr"><img alt="New Projector vs. Old Projector" height="480" src="http://farm6.staticflickr.com/5461/7188823816_73c2032a0d_z.jpg" width="640" /></a></p> <p>From the other side it looks more like a data centre rack:</p> <p class="rtecenter"><a href="http://www.flickr.com/photos/reinvented/7188805360/" title="Brackley Drive-in Digital Projector by reinvented, on Flickr"><img alt="Brackley Drive-in Digital Projector" height="480" src="http://farm8.staticflickr.com/7224/7188805360_4cf431224c_z.jpg" width="640" /></a></p> <p>The top unit in that rack is the driver for the new closed captioning system that Bob will roll out shortly, an innovation that would have been impossible in a pre-digital era. Those requiring captions are loaned an in-car caption display that looks like this:</p> <p class="rtecenter"><a href="http://www.flickr.com/photos/reinvented/7188833048/" title="NOKIA Lumia 800_000964 by reinvented, on Flickr"><img alt="NOKIA Lumia 800_000964" height="480" src="http://farm8.staticflickr.com/7232/7188833048_0a5bde99f3_z.jpg" width="640" /></a></p> <p>The captions are displayed on that unit exactly as they would be if you turned on closed captioning on your television. </p> <p>The captioning system isn’t the only drive toward accessibility that Bob’s taken this year: he’s finishing off construction of accessible washrooms along with a paved area of the lot close to the canteen that will allow easier navigation for wheelchairs. </p> <p>The Brackley Drive-in is open weekends now; 7 days a week come summer. <a href="http://drivein.ca">Check out what’s coming soon</a>.</p> <p><a href="http://ruk.ca/content/day-brackley-drive#comment-form">Add a Comment</a></p> Sun, 13 May 2012 12:17:30 -0300 http://ruk.ca/content/day-brackley-drive Transformers http://ruk.ca/content/transformers <p>The Richmond Street transformation crew has been hard at work all day, and the street is beginning to take on a different character. While my jury is still out on the shape of the bicycle lane — I’m not sure a wavy-gravy bicycle lane is “sustainable” — it’s nice to see a gaggle of passionate people outside the office window painting and sweeping and drawing and plotting. Stay tuned for more.</p> <p class="rtecenter"><a href="http://www.flickr.com/photos/reinvented/7178656980/" title="Transforming by reinvented, on Flickr"><img alt="Transforming" height="480" src="http://farm8.staticflickr.com/7075/7178656980_24ffcc680f_z.jpg" width="640" /></a></p> <p><a href="http://ruk.ca/content/transformers#comment-form">Add a Comment</a></p> Richmond Street http://ruk.ca/content/transformers http://ruk.ca/content/transformers Fri, 11 May 2012 18:46:34 -0300 ruk.ca - peter rukavina blogs Transformers Richmond Street <p>The Richmond Street transformation crew has been hard at work all day, and the street is beginning to take on a different character. While my jury is still out on the shape of the bicycle lane — I’m not sure a wavy-gravy bicycle lane is “sustainable” — it’s nice to see a gaggle of passionate people outside the office window painting and sweeping and drawing and plotting. Stay tuned for more.</p> <p class="rtecenter"><a href="http://www.flickr.com/photos/reinvented/7178656980/" title="Transforming by reinvented, on Flickr"><img alt="Transforming" height="480" src="http://farm8.staticflickr.com/7075/7178656980_24ffcc680f_z.jpg" width="640" /></a></p> <p><a href="http://ruk.ca/content/transformers#comment-form">Add a Comment</a></p> Fri, 11 May 2012 18:46:34 -0300 http://ruk.ca/content/transformers An Accidentally Cool Photo http://ruk.ca/content/accidentally-cool-photo <p>I leaned out of the window of the Reinventorium and snapped this photo of a “living wall” set up beside The Guild on Richmond Street, not anticipating the nice reflection the building would offer in return:</p> <p class="rtecenter"><a href="http://www.flickr.com/photos/reinvented/7177861892/" title="Reflection by reinvented, on Flickr"><img alt="Reflection" height="640" src="http://farm6.staticflickr.com/5112/7177861892_d88a8f812d_z.jpg" width="480" /></a></p> <p><a href="http://ruk.ca/content/accidentally-cool-photo#comment-form">Add a Comment</a></p> Photos Richmond Street http://ruk.ca/content/accidentally-cool-photo http://ruk.ca/content/accidentally-cool-photo Fri, 11 May 2012 15:56:50 -0300 ruk.ca - peter rukavina blogs An Accidentally Cool Photo Photos,Richmond Street <p>I leaned out of the window of the Reinventorium and snapped this photo of a “living wall” set up beside The Guild on Richmond Street, not anticipating the nice reflection the building would offer in return:</p> <p class="rtecenter"><a href="http://www.flickr.com/photos/reinvented/7177861892/" title="Reflection by reinvented, on Flickr"><img alt="Reflection" height="640" src="http://farm6.staticflickr.com/5112/7177861892_d88a8f812d_z.jpg" width="480" /></a></p> <p><a href="http://ruk.ca/content/accidentally-cool-photo#comment-form">Add a Comment</a></p> Fri, 11 May 2012 15:56:50 -0300 http://ruk.ca/content/accidentally-cool-photo Pre-Transformed Richmond Street http://ruk.ca/content/pre-transformed-richmond-street <p>Richmond Street between Queen and Pownal is getting <a href="http://transformingastreet.blogspot.ca/">transformed</a> today into a “sustainable street.” From the <a href="http://reinvented.net/where">Reinventorium</a> we have a bird’s eye view. Here’s the pre-transformation scene at 9:00 a.m.:</p> <p class="rtecenter"><a href="http://www.flickr.com/photos/reinvented/7176058014/" title="Richmond Street Pre-Transformation by reinvented, on Flickr"><img alt="Richmond Street Pre-Transformation" height="640" src="http://farm8.staticflickr.com/7221/7176058014_a7fb0ec966_z.jpg" width="480" /></a></p> <p><a href="http://ruk.ca/content/pre-transformed-richmond-street#comment-form">Add a Comment</a></p> Charlottetown Richmond Street http://ruk.ca/content/pre-transformed-richmond-street http://ruk.ca/content/pre-transformed-richmond-street Fri, 11 May 2012 09:23:03 -0300 ruk.ca - peter rukavina blogs Pre-Transformed Richmond Street Charlottetown,Richmond Street <p>Richmond Street between Queen and Pownal is getting <a href="http://transformingastreet.blogspot.ca/">transformed</a> today into a “sustainable street.” From the <a href="http://reinvented.net/where">Reinventorium</a> we have a bird’s eye view. Here’s the pre-transformation scene at 9:00 a.m.:</p> <p class="rtecenter"><a href="http://www.flickr.com/photos/reinvented/7176058014/" title="Richmond Street Pre-Transformation by reinvented, on Flickr"><img alt="Richmond Street Pre-Transformation" height="640" src="http://farm8.staticflickr.com/7221/7176058014_a7fb0ec966_z.jpg" width="480" /></a></p> <p><a href="http://ruk.ca/content/pre-transformed-richmond-street#comment-form">Add a Comment</a></p> Fri, 11 May 2012 09:23:03 -0300 http://ruk.ca/content/pre-transformed-richmond-street Five Years Ago Today http://ruk.ca/content/five-years-ago-today <p>Ate lunch at the Town <span class="amp">&</span> Country Restaurant, since torn down:</p> <p class="rtecenter"><a href="http://www.flickr.com/photos/reinvented/494905748/" title="Patio at Town Country by reinvented, on Flickr"><img alt="Patio at Town Country" height="480" src="http://farm1.staticflickr.com/219/494905748_b7104a04d9_z.jpg" width="640" /></a></p> <p>Vestigial oil tank discovered on the playground of Prince Street School:</p> <p class="rtecenter"><a href="http://www.flickr.com/photos/reinvented/493641816/" title="Prince Street School Oil Tank by reinvented, on Flickr"><img alt="Prince Street School Oil Tank" height="480" src="http://farm1.staticflickr.com/220/493641816_edd06a8da1_z.jpg?zz=1" width="640" /></a></p> <p><a href="http://ruk.ca/content/five-years-ago-today#comment-form">Add a Comment</a></p> Charlottetown History http://ruk.ca/content/five-years-ago-today http://ruk.ca/content/five-years-ago-today Fri, 11 May 2012 09:19:17 -0300 ruk.ca - peter rukavina blogs Five Years Ago Today Charlottetown,History <p>Ate lunch at the Town <span class="amp">&</span> Country Restaurant, since torn down:</p> <p class="rtecenter"><a href="http://www.flickr.com/photos/reinvented/494905748/" title="Patio at Town Country by reinvented, on Flickr"><img alt="Patio at Town Country" height="480" src="http://farm1.staticflickr.com/219/494905748_b7104a04d9_z.jpg" width="640" /></a></p> <p>Vestigial oil tank discovered on the playground of Prince Street School:</p> <p class="rtecenter"><a href="http://www.flickr.com/photos/reinvented/493641816/" title="Prince Street School Oil Tank by reinvented, on Flickr"><img alt="Prince Street School Oil Tank" height="480" src="http://farm1.staticflickr.com/220/493641816_edd06a8da1_z.jpg?zz=1" width="640" /></a></p> <p><a href="http://ruk.ca/content/five-years-ago-today#comment-form">Add a Comment</a></p> Fri, 11 May 2012 09:19:17 -0300 http://ruk.ca/content/five-years-ago-today Google Reader Readable Extension http://ruk.ca/content/google-reader-readable-extension <p><a href="http://wiki.ruk.ca/wiki/Olle">Olle</a> sent me to the useful <a href="http://t-a-w.blogspot.ca/2012/05/how-to-setup-google-chrome.html">How to setup Google Chrome</a> a few days ago. Which, in turn, sent me to <a href="https://chrome.google.com/webstore/detail/fdnglondfcmoiakaolanlglfchdhkdgc">Google Reader Readable</a> extension. The extension transforms the visual cacophony that is:</p> <p class="rtecenter"><img alt="" src="http://media.ruk.ca/images//wogrr-20120510-104621.png" /></p> <p>Into the calm simplicity that is:</p> <p class="rtecenter"><img alt="" src="http://media.ruk.ca/images//grr-20120510-104413.png" /></p> <p class="rteleft">Nothing to set up. No changes to Google Reader required. It’s the most useful of the myriad Google Chrome extensions I’ve come across.</p> <p><a href="http://ruk.ca/content/google-reader-readable-extension#comment-form">Add a Comment</a></p> Extensions Google Chrome http://ruk.ca/content/google-reader-readable-extension http://ruk.ca/content/google-reader-readable-extension Thu, 10 May 2012 10:47:34 -0300 ruk.ca - peter rukavina blogs Google Reader Readable Extension Extensions,Google Chrome <p><a href="http://wiki.ruk.ca/wiki/Olle">Olle</a> sent me to the useful <a href="http://t-a-w.blogspot.ca/2012/05/how-to-setup-google-chrome.html">How to setup Google Chrome</a> a few days ago. Which, in turn, sent me to <a href="https://chrome.google.com/webstore/detail/fdnglondfcmoiakaolanlglfchdhkdgc">Google Reader Readable</a> extension. The extension transforms the visual cacophony that is:</p> <p class="rtecenter"><img alt="" src="http://media.ruk.ca/images//wogrr-20120510-104621.png" /></p> <p>Into the calm simplicity that is:</p> <p class="rtecenter"><img alt="" src="http://media.ruk.ca/images//grr-20120510-104413.png" /></p> <p class="rteleft">Nothing to set up. No changes to Google Reader required. It’s the most useful of the myriad Google Chrome extensions I’ve come across.</p> <p><a href="http://ruk.ca/content/google-reader-readable-extension#comment-form">Add a Comment</a></p> Thu, 10 May 2012 10:47:34 -0300 http://ruk.ca/content/google-reader-readable-extension Plazes Infographics http://ruk.ca/content/plazes-infographics <p>As a pleasant and unexpected <em>coup de grace</em>, Nokia has transitioned Plazes.com into an infographic-rich summary of each user’s Plazes journey. It’s very nicely done. To get yours (and to download your Plazes history and/or transfer your history to Nokia Maps), just login to Plazes.com.</p> <p class="rtecenter"><img alt="" src="http://media.ruk.ca/images//plazes-infoporn-20120509-092341.png" style="width: 639px; height: 444px; " /></p> <p class="rteleft">A nice additional touch is that the download package you receive if you choose to grab your Plazes history includes all the infographics for your own account.</p> <p><a href="http://ruk.ca/content/plazes-infographics#comment-form">Add a Comment</a></p> Plazes http://ruk.ca/content/plazes-infographics http://ruk.ca/content/plazes-infographics Wed, 09 May 2012 09:25:38 -0300 ruk.ca - peter rukavina blogs Plazes Infographics Plazes <p>As a pleasant and unexpected <em>coup de grace</em>, Nokia has transitioned Plazes.com into an infographic-rich summary of each user’s Plazes journey. It’s very nicely done. To get yours (and to download your Plazes history and/or transfer your history to Nokia Maps), just login to Plazes.com.</p> <p class="rtecenter"><img alt="" src="http://media.ruk.ca/images//plazes-infoporn-20120509-092341.png" style="width: 639px; height: 444px; " /></p> <p class="rteleft">A nice additional touch is that the download package you receive if you choose to grab your Plazes history includes all the infographics for your own account.</p> <p><a href="http://ruk.ca/content/plazes-infographics#comment-form">Add a Comment</a></p> Wed, 09 May 2012 09:25:38 -0300 http://ruk.ca/content/plazes-infographics That Business of Strangers http://ruk.ca/content/business-strangers <p><a href="http://wiki.ruk.ca/wiki/Oliver">Oliver</a> and I have been making the rounds in downtown Charlottetown after supper this week stapling <a href="http://ruk.ca/content/richmond-street-goes-green">Richmond Street posters</a> on electric poles.</p> <p>On Monday night we ran out of staples and so popped in to Shoppers Drug Mart on Queen Street to buy some more. When we couldn’t find them on the shelf, I asked a clerk, who looked at the shelf with me and confirmed they didn’t have any. The pharmacist across the hall overheard our search, however, and volunteered some staples from his own stapler; no charge.</p> <p>On Tuesday night we were walking up Queen Street toward Grafton. Oliver was expressing some interest in an after-supper snack when three young people stopped us on the sidewalk and asked us if we’d like hot chocolate and granola bars.</p> <p><span class="dquo">“</span>Ah… why?”, I said.</p> <p><span class="dquo">“</span>We’re just giving back to the community,” one of them replied.</p> <p>And so we took a break and enjoyed hot chocolate and granola bars on a bench in the waning spring sunshine.</p> <p>Both episodes were a technical violation of the age-old dictum to not talk to (let alone accept gifts from) strangers, and demanded an elaboration of the dictum to Oliver.</p> <p><span class="dquo">“</span>It’s okay to accept gifts from strangers if you’re an adult. But you have to go with what your gut tells you.”</p> <p><span class="dquo">“</span>What’s your gut?”, asked Oliver.</p> <p><span class="dquo">“</span>Your feeling about whether the strangers are good people with an honest offer.”</p> <p><span class="dquo">“</span>Okay,” said Oliver.</p> <p>This is tricky parenting. I want Oliver to be “streetproofed” (and, to a large and possibly extreme extent, he already is), but I also want him to be open to the delightful happenstances that the world has to offer. </p> <p>With staples and hot chocolate under our belt, and an extra 25 posters still-unposted, I’m eager to see what gifts the streets of Charlottetown will provide us with this evening.</p> <p><a href="http://ruk.ca/content/business-strangers#comment-form">Add a Comment</a></p> Charlottetown Musing http://ruk.ca/content/business-strangers http://ruk.ca/content/business-strangers Wed, 09 May 2012 09:18:32 -0300 ruk.ca - peter rukavina blogs That Business of Strangers Charlottetown,Musing <p><a href="http://wiki.ruk.ca/wiki/Oliver">Oliver</a> and I have been making the rounds in downtown Charlottetown after supper this week stapling <a href="http://ruk.ca/content/richmond-street-goes-green">Richmond Street posters</a> on electric poles.</p> <p>On Monday night we ran out of staples and so popped in to Shoppers Drug Mart on Queen Street to buy some more. When we couldn’t find them on the shelf, I asked a clerk, who looked at the shelf with me and confirmed they didn’t have any. The pharmacist across the hall overheard our search, however, and volunteered some staples from his own stapler; no charge.</p> <p>On Tuesday night we were walking up Queen Street toward Grafton. Oliver was expressing some interest in an after-supper snack when three young people stopped us on the sidewalk and asked us if we’d like hot chocolate and granola bars.</p> <p><span class="dquo">“</span>Ah… why?”, I said.</p> <p><span class="dquo">“</span>We’re just giving back to the community,” one of them replied.</p> <p>And so we took a break and enjoyed hot chocolate and granola bars on a bench in the waning spring sunshine.</p> <p>Both episodes were a technical violation of the age-old dictum to not talk to (let alone accept gifts from) strangers, and demanded an elaboration of the dictum to Oliver.</p> <p><span class="dquo">“</span>It’s okay to accept gifts from strangers if you’re an adult. But you have to go with what your gut tells you.”</p> <p><span class="dquo">“</span>What’s your gut?”, asked Oliver.</p> <p><span class="dquo">“</span>Your feeling about whether the strangers are good people with an honest offer.”</p> <p><span class="dquo">“</span>Okay,” said Oliver.</p> <p>This is tricky parenting. I want Oliver to be “streetproofed” (and, to a large and possibly extreme extent, he already is), but I also want him to be open to the delightful happenstances that the world has to offer. </p> <p>With staples and hot chocolate under our belt, and an extra 25 posters still-unposted, I’m eager to see what gifts the streets of Charlottetown will provide us with this evening.</p> <p><a href="http://ruk.ca/content/business-strangers#comment-form">Add a Comment</a></p> Wed, 09 May 2012 09:18:32 -0300 http://ruk.ca/content/business-strangers Best plant sale ever? http://ruk.ca/content/best-plant-sale-ever <p><a href="http://www.flickr.com/photos/reinvented/7006001108/" title="Reasonably vs. Overly by reinvented, on Flickr"><img alt="Reasonably vs. Overly" height="480" src="http://farm8.staticflickr.com/7214/7006001108_b9df2c2d00_z.jpg" width="640" /></a></p> <p><a href="http://ruk.ca/content/best-plant-sale-ever#comment-form">Add a Comment</a></p> Advertising Charlottetown http://ruk.ca/content/best-plant-sale-ever http://ruk.ca/content/best-plant-sale-ever Mon, 07 May 2012 08:40:28 -0300 ruk.ca - peter rukavina blogs Best plant sale ever? Advertising,Charlottetown <p><a href="http://www.flickr.com/photos/reinvented/7006001108/" title="Reasonably vs. Overly by reinvented, on Flickr"><img alt="Reasonably vs. Overly" height="480" src="http://farm8.staticflickr.com/7214/7006001108_b9df2c2d00_z.jpg" width="640" /></a></p> <p><a href="http://ruk.ca/content/best-plant-sale-ever#comment-form">Add a Comment</a></p> Mon, 07 May 2012 08:40:28 -0300 http://ruk.ca/content/best-plant-sale-ever Richmond Street Goes Green http://ruk.ca/content/richmond-street-goes-green <p>Last year I had the pleasure, along with <a href="http://www.mspei.org/directory?action=view_profile&id=76&letter=%&cat=GP+-+Queens">Jenni Zelin</a>, <a href="http://ward3brighton.ca/">Rob Lantz</a> and <a href="http://www.city.charlottetown.pe.ca/news.php?id=275">Laura MacPherson</a>, of judging applications to the <a href="http://www.city.charlottetown.pe.ca/microgrant.php">City of Charlottetown’s Community Microgrants</a> program. After a long process of deliberation, we <a href="http://www.city.charlottetown.pe.ca/pdfs/CityMicroGrantProjects2011.pdf">awarded grants</a> to “Tulips for your Thoughts” (a project to plant tulips along Upper Prince Street; tulips that are about to spring into bloom any minute now), an after-school theatre program at the Murphy Centre, and a project to transform the section of Richmond Street from Pownal to Queen into a “sustainable streetscape.”</p> <p>The streetscape project was supposed to happen last fall, but the weather intervened, and now <a href="http://transformingastreet.blogspot.ca/2012/04/timeline-and-events-with-transform.html">it’s scheduled to happen from May 11 to 19, 2012</a>.</p> <p>I’d been thinking about this project over the winter — <a href="http://reinvented.net/where">newly resident</a> as we are overlooking Richmond Street — and about a month ago I had a sudden vision of a poster to promote the project — a black <span class="caps">RICHMOND</span> <span class="caps">ST</span> on top with a green <span class="caps">RICHMOND</span> <span class="caps">ST</span> below — and so in the <a href="http://ruk.ca/content/stephen-b-macinnis-art-sale-unauthorized-advertising">time-honoured tradition of unauthorized advertising</a>, I’ve been crafting this together for the past couple of weeks. Here’s the result:</p> <p class="rtecenter"><a href="http://www.flickr.com/photos/reinvented/6997248396/" title="Richmond Street Poster by reinvented, on Flickr"><img alt="Richmond Street Poster" height="423" src="http://farm9.staticflickr.com/8165/6997248396_6b1a66c0f3_z.jpg" width="640" /></a></p> <p>I dipped into the Holland College font of <a href="http://ruk.ca/content/akzidenz-grotesk">Akzidenz Grotesk</a> for the large <span class="caps">RICHMOND</span> <span class="caps">ST</span>, and used <a href="http://www.arionpress.com/mandh/">M&H</a>-cast <a href="http://ruk.ca/content/gill-sans">Gill Sans</a> in 18 pt. and 12 pt. for the date and location. <a href="http://charlottetown.kwikkopy.ca/">Kwik Kopy in Charlottetown</a> generously donated a <a href="http://ruk.ca/content/go-next-door-and-borrow-cup-ink">Tim Hortons coffee cup of green ink</a>. The paper is inexpensive white 110 lb. card stock from Staples.</p> <p>Two recent arrivals to the print shop aided significantly in the printing of the posters, both ordered a few weeks ago from <a href="http://www.nagraph.com/"><span class="caps">NA</span> Graphics in Colorado</a>.</p> <p>First, a set of three <a href="http://order.nagraph.com/gauge-lay-pins.html">Kort Adjustable Quad Guides</a>. These aren’t cheap — about $10 each — but they are the Cadillac of gauge pins, and once I learned how to insert them into the tympan — there are <a href="http://dolcepress.com/blog/2008/04/20/guides-gauge-pins-galore/">handy instructions</a> included that need to be followed carefully — I was left with a fantastic immovable paper-holding force:</p> <p class="rtecenter"><a href="http://www.flickr.com/photos/reinvented/6997246912/" title="Gauge Pin by reinvented, on Flickr"><img alt="Gauge Pin" height="375" src="http://farm8.staticflickr.com/7103/6997246912_3820da9cd5.jpg" width="500" /></a></p> <p class="rtecenter"><a href="http://www.flickr.com/photos/reinvented/6997247628/" title="Gauge Pins by reinvented, on Flickr"><img alt="Gauge Pins" height="375" src="http://farm8.staticflickr.com/7081/6997247628_989663e357.jpg" width="500" /></a></p> <p>It’s hard to overstate what an aid to printing this is: in my early makeready experiments last week, using some aging and partially smashed <a href="http://www.americanprintingequipment.com/megillspringtonguegaugepin.aspx">spring tongue gauge pins</a> to hold the paper in place, I lost as many copies of the poster to the inside of the press (falling off the pins from the sticky force of the inked type pulling off). With the new pins in place I didn’t lose a single one.</p> <p>The other item from <span class="caps">NA</span> Graphics was a 100-sheet package of tympan — oiled paper that’s sits as the top layer of the “packing” that sits under the paper to be printed. It has the benefit of being stiff (which is great for inserted the gauge pins), sturdy (so it doesn’t easily rip) and its oily coating means that you can print a guide print on it, then wipe of the excess ink and not end up with ink on the underside of what you’re printing:</p> <p class="rtecenter"><a href="http://www.flickr.com/photos/reinvented/7143333723/" title="Gauge Pins by reinvented, on Flickr"><img alt="Gauge Pins" height="375" src="http://farm6.staticflickr.com/5197/7143333723_eb709977ff.jpg" width="500" /></a></p> <p>Other than an unfortunate tongue-clash incident (the brass tongue of one of the gauge pins was aligned so as to crash into the “S” in “<span class="caps">ST</span>”), quickly solved by some adjustments, the printing went well. I discovered that if I wear disposable latex gloves while printing it’s a lot easier to grip the paper, both from the table to the press and off the press to the table. Once I was set up and in a rhythm I was cranking out 10-15 impressions a minute.</p> <p>I printed the black ink first, then the green (I’d laid out the type to facilitate simply popping out the date and location and sliding the “<span class="caps">RICHMOND</span> <span class="caps">ST</span>” down into position for the green).</p> <p>Watch for the posters on a telephone pole or shop window near you. And do come out to participate in the event starting a week from tonight on May 11, 2012.</p> <p><a href="http://ruk.ca/content/richmond-street-goes-green#comment-form">Add a Comment</a></p> Bicycle Charlottetown Ecology Microgrants Richmond Street http://ruk.ca/content/richmond-street-goes-green http://ruk.ca/content/richmond-street-goes-green Fri, 04 May 2012 20:26:22 -0300 ruk.ca - peter rukavina blogs Richmond Street Goes Green Bicycle,Charlottetown,Ecology,Microgrants,Richmond Street <p>Last year I had the pleasure, along with <a href="http://www.mspei.org/directory?action=view_profile&id=76&letter=%&cat=GP+-+Queens">Jenni Zelin</a>, <a href="http://ward3brighton.ca/">Rob Lantz</a> and <a href="http://www.city.charlottetown.pe.ca/news.php?id=275">Laura MacPherson</a>, of judging applications to the <a href="http://www.city.charlottetown.pe.ca/microgrant.php">City of Charlottetown’s Community Microgrants</a> program. After a long process of deliberation, we <a href="http://www.city.charlottetown.pe.ca/pdfs/CityMicroGrantProjects2011.pdf">awarded grants</a> to “Tulips for your Thoughts” (a project to plant tulips along Upper Prince Street; tulips that are about to spring into bloom any minute now), an after-school theatre program at the Murphy Centre, and a project to transform the section of Richmond Street from Pownal to Queen into a “sustainable streetscape.”</p> <p>The streetscape project was supposed to happen last fall, but the weather intervened, and now <a href="http://transformingastreet.blogspot.ca/2012/04/timeline-and-events-with-transform.html">it’s scheduled to happen from May 11 to 19, 2012</a>.</p> <p>I’d been thinking about this project over the winter — <a href="http://reinvented.net/where">newly resident</a> as we are overlooking Richmond Street — and about a month ago I had a sudden vision of a poster to promote the project — a black <span class="caps">RICHMOND</span> <span class="caps">ST</span> on top with a green <span class="caps">RICHMOND</span> <span class="caps">ST</span> below — and so in the <a href="http://ruk.ca/content/stephen-b-macinnis-art-sale-unauthorized-advertising">time-honoured tradition of unauthorized advertising</a>, I’ve been crafting this together for the past couple of weeks. Here’s the result:</p> <p class="rtecenter"><a href="http://www.flickr.com/photos/reinvented/6997248396/" title="Richmond Street Poster by reinvented, on Flickr"><img alt="Richmond Street Poster" height="423" src="http://farm9.staticflickr.com/8165/6997248396_6b1a66c0f3_z.jpg" width="640" /></a></p> <p>I dipped into the Holland College font of <a href="http://ruk.ca/content/akzidenz-grotesk">Akzidenz Grotesk</a> for the large <span class="caps">RICHMOND</span> <span class="caps">ST</span>, and used <a href="http://www.arionpress.com/mandh/">M&H</a>-cast <a href="http://ruk.ca/content/gill-sans">Gill Sans</a> in 18 pt. and 12 pt. for the date and location. <a href="http://charlottetown.kwikkopy.ca/">Kwik Kopy in Charlottetown</a> generously donated a <a href="http://ruk.ca/content/go-next-door-and-borrow-cup-ink">Tim Hortons coffee cup of green ink</a>. The paper is inexpensive white 110 lb. card stock from Staples.</p> <p>Two recent arrivals to the print shop aided significantly in the printing of the posters, both ordered a few weeks ago from <a href="http://www.nagraph.com/"><span class="caps">NA</span> Graphics in Colorado</a>.</p> <p>First, a set of three <a href="http://order.nagraph.com/gauge-lay-pins.html">Kort Adjustable Quad Guides</a>. These aren’t cheap — about $10 each — but they are the Cadillac of gauge pins, and once I learned how to insert them into the tympan — there are <a href="http://dolcepress.com/blog/2008/04/20/guides-gauge-pins-galore/">handy instructions</a> included that need to be followed carefully — I was left with a fantastic immovable paper-holding force:</p> <p class="rtecenter"><a href="http://www.flickr.com/photos/reinvented/6997246912/" title="Gauge Pin by reinvented, on Flickr"><img alt="Gauge Pin" height="375" src="http://farm8.staticflickr.com/7103/6997246912_3820da9cd5.jpg" width="500" /></a></p> <p class="rtecenter"><a href="http://www.flickr.com/photos/reinvented/6997247628/" title="Gauge Pins by reinvented, on Flickr"><img alt="Gauge Pins" height="375" src="http://farm8.staticflickr.com/7081/6997247628_989663e357.jpg" width="500" /></a></p> <p>It’s hard to overstate what an aid to printing this is: in my early makeready experiments last week, using some aging and partially smashed <a href="http://www.americanprintingequipment.com/megillspringtonguegaugepin.aspx">spring tongue gauge pins</a> to hold the paper in place, I lost as many copies of the poster to the inside of the press (falling off the pins from the sticky force of the inked type pulling off). With the new pins in place I didn’t lose a single one.</p> <p>The other item from <span class="caps">NA</span> Graphics was a 100-sheet package of tympan — oiled paper that’s sits as the top layer of the “packing” that sits under the paper to be printed. It has the benefit of being stiff (which is great for inserted the gauge pins), sturdy (so it doesn’t easily rip) and its oily coating means that you can print a guide print on it, then wipe of the excess ink and not end up with ink on the underside of what you’re printing:</p> <p class="rtecenter"><a href="http://www.flickr.com/photos/reinvented/7143333723/" title="Gauge Pins by reinvented, on Flickr"><img alt="Gauge Pins" height="375" src="http://farm6.staticflickr.com/5197/7143333723_eb709977ff.jpg" width="500" /></a></p> <p>Other than an unfortunate tongue-clash incident (the brass tongue of one of the gauge pins was aligned so as to crash into the “S” in “<span class="caps">ST</span>”), quickly solved by some adjustments, the printing went well. I discovered that if I wear disposable latex gloves while printing it’s a lot easier to grip the paper, both from the table to the press and off the press to the table. Once I was set up and in a rhythm I was cranking out 10-15 impressions a minute.</p> <p>I printed the black ink first, then the green (I’d laid out the type to facilitate simply popping out the date and location and sliding the “<span class="caps">RICHMOND</span> <span class="caps">ST</span>” down into position for the green).</p> <p>Watch for the posters on a telephone pole or shop window near you. And do come out to participate in the event starting a week from tonight on May 11, 2012.</p> <p><a href="http://ruk.ca/content/richmond-street-goes-green#comment-form">Add a Comment</a></p> Fri, 04 May 2012 20:26:22 -0300 http://ruk.ca/content/richmond-street-goes-green The End of the Plaze http://ruk.ca/content/end-plaze <p>I <a href="http://ruk.ca/content/plazes-diy-geolocation">first read about Plazes</a>, the pioneering geolocation site that consumed much of the late 2000s for me, <a href="http://joi.ito.com/weblog/2004/09/25/plazes-and-wall.html">from Joi Ito</a> and I signed up for an account on September 26, 2004, eight years ago, and “plazed myself” from the old Reinvented office. I was user number 1185.</p> <p class="rtecenter"><img alt="" src="http://media.ruk.ca/images//firstplaze-20120504-092537.png" /></p> <p>In the intervening years I visited 752 “plazes” in 172 cities in 15 countries and plazed myself another 10,954 times, which was slightly more than Plazes co-founder <a href="http://no-information.de/">Stefan Kellner</a> (9,948) and slighly less than Plazes co-founder <a href="https://twitter.com/#!/fiahless">Felix Petersen</a> (11,822).</p> <p class="rtecenter"><img alt="" src="http://media.ruk.ca/images//plazesmapall-20120504-101228.png" /></p> <p>Although I signed up in the fall of 2004, Plazes didn’t really come into its own for me until the 2005 reboot conference in Copenhagen, where I had <a href="http://ruk.ca/content/hey-plazes-works">the seminal Plazes experience</a>, meeting <a href="http://www.zylstra.org/blog/">Ton Zylstra</a> and <a href="http://www.roell.net/">Martin Röll</a> (who remain good friends to this day).</p> <p class="rteleft">After several years of being a Plazes power-user, in November of 2006 I got hired on to develop an explanatory screencast about Plazes, which I just dug out of the archives and uploaded to <a href="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RwxbqYJii1E&feature=youtu.be">YouTube</a> and the <a href="http://archive.org/details/PlazesScreencast">Internet Archive</a> for posterity (note the references to the hot social networks of the day — MySpace, Friendster and TagWorld).</p> <p class="rtecenter"><iframe allowfullscreen="" frameborder="0" height="480" src="http://www.youtube.com/embed/RwxbqYJii1E?rel=0" width="640"></iframe></p> <p class="rteleft">In June of 2007, after I <a href="http://ruk.ca/content/liveblogging-plazes-hq">liveblogged a visit to Plazes <span class="caps">HQ</span></a>, I formally <a href="http://ruk.ca/content/new-me">joined the Plazes team as a User Advocate</a>, working remotely from Charlottetown, where I <a href="http://ruk.ca/content/i%E2%80%99m-julie-your-cruise-director">blogged</a>, <a href="http://websvn.reinvented.net/wsvn/Plazes/?">hacked</a> (including working with <a href="http://tils.net/">Til</a> on a skunkworks Plazes.net project), developed and organized <a href="http://ruk.ca/content/plazecamp-january-12th-2008-berlin">PlazeCamp</a> in January of 2008:</p> <p class="rtecenter"><iframe allowfullscreen="" frameborder="0" height="480" src="http://www.youtube.com/embed/HrRqOB7kQxg?rel=0" width="640"></iframe></p> <p class="rteleft">On the tail end of the reboot conference in 2008 it was announced that <a href="http://ruk.ca/content/nokia-plazes">Nokia had acquired Plazes</a>. I stayed on as a Nokia contractor for a few months, but eventually it was clear that Plazes was going to become something different — perhaps integrated into Nokia’s Ovi Maps product — and not a standalone product with a need for someone like me, and so I stepped back into power-user-hood.</p> <p class="rteleft">In the intervening 4 years we of the Plazes faithful have been assuming that we’d simply wake up one day and find that Nokia had taken Plazes offline. This morning the email came, albeit with some advance warning:</p> <p class="rtecenter"><img alt="" src="http://media.ruk.ca/images//plazes-done-20120504-092041.png" /></p> <p>Logging in to Plazes one last time I joined members of the old team in one last plazing:</p> <p class="rtecenter"><img alt="" src="http://media.ruk.ca/images//byeplazes-20120504-100122.png" /></p> <p>Good-bye Plazes; it was quite a ride.</p> <p><a href="http://ruk.ca/content/end-plaze#comment-form">Add a Comment</a></p> History Plazes http://ruk.ca/content/end-plaze http://ruk.ca/content/end-plaze Fri, 04 May 2012 10:48:49 -0300 ruk.ca - peter rukavina blogs The End of the Plaze History,Plazes <p>I <a href="http://ruk.ca/content/plazes-diy-geolocation">first read about Plazes</a>, the pioneering geolocation site that consumed much of the late 2000s for me, <a href="http://joi.ito.com/weblog/2004/09/25/plazes-and-wall.html">from Joi Ito</a> and I signed up for an account on September 26, 2004, eight years ago, and “plazed myself” from the old Reinvented office. I was user number 1185.</p> <p class="rtecenter"><img alt="" src="http://media.ruk.ca/images//firstplaze-20120504-092537.png" /></p> <p>In the intervening years I visited 752 “plazes” in 172 cities in 15 countries and plazed myself another 10,954 times, which was slightly more than Plazes co-founder <a href="http://no-information.de/">Stefan Kellner</a> (9,948) and slighly less than Plazes co-founder <a href="https://twitter.com/#!/fiahless">Felix Petersen</a> (11,822).</p> <p class="rtecenter"><img alt="" src="http://media.ruk.ca/images//plazesmapall-20120504-101228.png" /></p> <p>Although I signed up in the fall of 2004, Plazes didn’t really come into its own for me until the 2005 reboot conference in Copenhagen, where I had <a href="http://ruk.ca/content/hey-plazes-works">the seminal Plazes experience</a>, meeting <a href="http://www.zylstra.org/blog/">Ton Zylstra</a> and <a href="http://www.roell.net/">Martin Röll</a> (who remain good friends to this day).</p> <p class="rteleft">After several years of being a Plazes power-user, in November of 2006 I got hired on to develop an explanatory screencast about Plazes, which I just dug out of the archives and uploaded to <a href="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RwxbqYJii1E&feature=youtu.be">YouTube</a> and the <a href="http://archive.org/details/PlazesScreencast">Internet Archive</a> for posterity (note the references to the hot social networks of the day — MySpace, Friendster and TagWorld).</p> <p class="rtecenter"><iframe allowfullscreen="" frameborder="0" height="480" src="http://www.youtube.com/embed/RwxbqYJii1E?rel=0" width="640"></iframe></p> <p class="rteleft">In June of 2007, after I <a href="http://ruk.ca/content/liveblogging-plazes-hq">liveblogged a visit to Plazes <span class="caps">HQ</span></a>, I formally <a href="http://ruk.ca/content/new-me">joined the Plazes team as a User Advocate</a>, working remotely from Charlottetown, where I <a href="http://ruk.ca/content/i%E2%80%99m-julie-your-cruise-director">blogged</a>, <a href="http://websvn.reinvented.net/wsvn/Plazes/?">hacked</a> (including working with <a href="http://tils.net/">Til</a> on a skunkworks Plazes.net project), developed and organized <a href="http://ruk.ca/content/plazecamp-january-12th-2008-berlin">PlazeCamp</a> in January of 2008:</p> <p class="rtecenter"><iframe allowfullscreen="" frameborder="0" height="480" src="http://www.youtube.com/embed/HrRqOB7kQxg?rel=0" width="640"></iframe></p> <p class="rteleft">On the tail end of the reboot conference in 2008 it was announced that <a href="http://ruk.ca/content/nokia-plazes">Nokia had acquired Plazes</a>. I stayed on as a Nokia contractor for a few months, but eventually it was clear that Plazes was going to become something different — perhaps integrated into Nokia’s Ovi Maps product — and not a standalone product with a need for someone like me, and so I stepped back into power-user-hood.</p> <p class="rteleft">In the intervening 4 years we of the Plazes faithful have been assuming that we’d simply wake up one day and find that Nokia had taken Plazes offline. This morning the email came, albeit with some advance warning:</p> <p class="rtecenter"><img alt="" src="http://media.ruk.ca/images//plazes-done-20120504-092041.png" /></p> <p>Logging in to Plazes one last time I joined members of the old team in one last plazing:</p> <p class="rtecenter"><img alt="" src="http://media.ruk.ca/images//byeplazes-20120504-100122.png" /></p> <p>Good-bye Plazes; it was quite a ride.</p> <p><a href="http://ruk.ca/content/end-plaze#comment-form">Add a Comment</a></p> Fri, 04 May 2012 10:48:49 -0300 http://ruk.ca/content/end-plaze Water Tower, Then and Now http://ruk.ca/content/water-tower-then-and-now <p>Across the road from <a href="http://www.st-armand.com/English/E01-welcome.php">La papeterie Saint-Armand</a> is <a href="http://www.pc.gc.ca/lhn-nhs/qc/canallachine/index.aspx">Lachine Canal National Historic Site</a> which is filled with helpful signage about the industrial past of the area. Here’s a photo of one of the sign-boards with its subject, the water tower behind the former <a href="http://www.congoleum.com/">Congoleum</a> plant — juxtaposed to the right. Saint-Armand’s shop is in the basement of the building just out of view in the modern photo on the left.</p> <p class="rtecenter"><a href="http://www.flickr.com/photos/reinvented/7138719097/" title="Water Tower, Then and Now by reinvented, on Flickr"><img alt="Water Tower, Then and Now" height="480" src="http://farm8.staticflickr.com/7110/7138719097_0f5317b006_z.jpg" width="640" /></a></p> <p class="rteleft">Parks Canada has <a href="http://www.pc.gc.ca/lhn-nhs/qc/canallachine/visit/cartes-maps/reseau-navigation-system.aspx">a fascinating map of the historic North American north-east canal system</a>; I learned, for example, that the Trent-Severn canal is a shortcut from Lake Ontario to Georgian Bay (something that, having lived <a href="http://www.trentu.ca/admin/library/archives/ztchampl.htm">5 metres from the banks of the canal</a> when I was in resident at <a href="http://trentu.ca">Trent University</a>, I should have known!).</p> <p><a href="http://ruk.ca/content/water-tower-then-and-now#comment-form">Add a Comment</a></p> History Montreal Photographs http://ruk.ca/content/water-tower-then-and-now http://ruk.ca/content/water-tower-then-and-now Thu, 03 May 2012 10:14:09 -0300 ruk.ca - peter rukavina blogs Water Tower, Then and Now History,Montreal,Photographs <p>Across the road from <a href="http://www.st-armand.com/English/E01-welcome.php">La papeterie Saint-Armand</a> is <a href="http://www.pc.gc.ca/lhn-nhs/qc/canallachine/index.aspx">Lachine Canal National Historic Site</a> which is filled with helpful signage about the industrial past of the area. Here’s a photo of one of the sign-boards with its subject, the water tower behind the former <a href="http://www.congoleum.com/">Congoleum</a> plant — juxtaposed to the right. Saint-Armand’s shop is in the basement of the building just out of view in the modern photo on the left.</p> <p class="rtecenter"><a href="http://www.flickr.com/photos/reinvented/7138719097/" title="Water Tower, Then and Now by reinvented, on Flickr"><img alt="Water Tower, Then and Now" height="480" src="http://farm8.staticflickr.com/7110/7138719097_0f5317b006_z.jpg" width="640" /></a></p> <p class="rteleft">Parks Canada has <a href="http://www.pc.gc.ca/lhn-nhs/qc/canallachine/visit/cartes-maps/reseau-navigation-system.aspx">a fascinating map of the historic North American north-east canal system</a>; I learned, for example, that the Trent-Severn canal is a shortcut from Lake Ontario to Georgian Bay (something that, having lived <a href="http://www.trentu.ca/admin/library/archives/ztchampl.htm">5 metres from the banks of the canal</a> when I was in resident at <a href="http://trentu.ca">Trent University</a>, I should have known!).</p> <p><a href="http://ruk.ca/content/water-tower-then-and-now#comment-form">Add a Comment</a></p> Thu, 03 May 2012 10:14:09 -0300 http://ruk.ca/content/water-tower-then-and-now Gave hostages to fortune... http://ruk.ca/content/gave-hostages-fortune <p>In a bid to learn more about the Confederation Centre of the Arts’ history, I sought out Frank MacKinnon’s book <a href="http://24.224.240.218/uhtbin/cgisirsi.exe/?ps=h5EVoSyLDu/PLS/228610019/9">Honour the founders! Enjoy the arts! : Canada’s Confederation Memorial in Charlottetown</a> at the public library. The book, which details the history of the Centre from conception to birth, is a fascinating primer on how to accomplish an impossible project. My favourite passage is this, relating the initial reaction of <a href="http://www.gov.pe.ca/premiersgallery/matheson.php3">Premier Matheson</a> to the idea:</p> <blockquote> <p>The premier’s reaction was all that could be expected at the time: “It cannot be done but if it can we will not stand in your way. You are on your own. We trust it will not cost any money but we will provide the site. If it is a gift we will accept it.” “Will you maintain it?” I asked. “Of course,” was the easy answer when success was not expected. And the premier gave hostages to fortune when he agreed to keep politics out of the project and discourage the interference that so often has ruined local enterprise on the Island and elsewhere. On several occasions he warned that I alone would take the blame should anything go wrong.</p> </blockquote> <p>For anyone seeking to carry out a project that seems so absurd as to be dismissed out of hand at the mere mention of it, MacKinnon’s book is a must-read, for he provides, in compelling detail, how he managed to assemble the political will required to build the Centre. We owe him a debt, both for the Centre itself, but also for his willingness to lift the curtain and show how it was done.</p> <p><a href="http://ruk.ca/content/gave-hostages-fortune#comment-form">Add a Comment</a></p> Charlottetown Confederation Centre History http://ruk.ca/content/gave-hostages-fortune http://ruk.ca/content/gave-hostages-fortune Thu, 03 May 2012 09:47:01 -0300 ruk.ca - peter rukavina blogs Gave hostages to fortune... Charlottetown,Confederation Centre,History <p>In a bid to learn more about the Confederation Centre of the Arts’ history, I sought out Frank MacKinnon’s book <a href="http://24.224.240.218/uhtbin/cgisirsi.exe/?ps=h5EVoSyLDu/PLS/228610019/9">Honour the founders! Enjoy the arts! : Canada’s Confederation Memorial in Charlottetown</a> at the public library. The book, which details the history of the Centre from conception to birth, is a fascinating primer on how to accomplish an impossible project. My favourite passage is this, relating the initial reaction of <a href="http://www.gov.pe.ca/premiersgallery/matheson.php3">Premier Matheson</a> to the idea:</p> <blockquote> <p>The premier’s reaction was all that could be expected at the time: “It cannot be done but if it can we will not stand in your way. You are on your own. We trust it will not cost any money but we will provide the site. If it is a gift we will accept it.” “Will you maintain it?” I asked. “Of course,” was the easy answer when success was not expected. And the premier gave hostages to fortune when he agreed to keep politics out of the project and discourage the interference that so often has ruined local enterprise on the Island and elsewhere. On several occasions he warned that I alone would take the blame should anything go wrong.</p> </blockquote> <p>For anyone seeking to carry out a project that seems so absurd as to be dismissed out of hand at the mere mention of it, MacKinnon’s book is a must-read, for he provides, in compelling detail, how he managed to assemble the political will required to build the Centre. We owe him a debt, both for the Centre itself, but also for his willingness to lift the curtain and show how it was done.</p> <p><a href="http://ruk.ca/content/gave-hostages-fortune#comment-form">Add a Comment</a></p> Thu, 03 May 2012 09:47:01 -0300 http://ruk.ca/content/gave-hostages-fortune How much does it cost to drive from Charlottetown to Montreal? http://ruk.ca/content/how-much-does-it-cost-drive-charlottetown-montreal <p>When we picked up our Kia Soul rental last Thursday it was full of gas. We drove from Charlottetown to Montreal, drove around Montreal a bit, and drove back. Total driven from door-to-door was 2,441 km and the Soul reported that it used 8.1 litres/100 km of gasoline when I return it; actual gasoline purchased: </p> <ul> <li> Hartford, <span class="caps">NB</span> - 37 litres at $1.337 for $50.68</li> <li> Deschambault, <span class="caps">QC</span> - 44 litres at $1.394 for $61.47</li> <li> Brossard, <span class="caps">QC</span> - 11 litres at $1.359 for $16.24</li> <li> Levis, Quebec - 35 litres at $1.394 for $49.51</li> <li> Hartford, <span class="caps">NB</span> - 39 litres at $1.337 for $52.16</li> <li> Charlottetown, <span class="caps">PE</span> - 38 litres at $1.281 for $49.38</li> </ul> <p>So we used a total of 204 litres of gasoline which cost me $279.44. This comes out to a slightly higher 8.36 litres/100 km, or about 28 miles per gallon. Which is <a href="http://www.fueleconomy.gov/feg/PowerSearch.do?action=noform&path=1&year1=2012&year2=2012&make=Kia&model=Soul&srchtyp=ymm">right around what the <span class="caps">U.S.</span> Department of Energy reports</a>.</p> <p>Our carbon footprint for this trip was either <a href="http://calculator.carbonfootprint.com/">0.38 tonnes </a> or <a href="http://www.carbonzero.ca/calculate">0.40 tonnes </a>or <a href="http://www.livesmartbc.ca/homes/h_calc.html">0.46 tonnes</a> depending on who’s doing the calculation. This is 60-70% of our emissions if we had flown (<a href="https://www.less.ca">0.65 tonnes</a>).</p> <p class="rtecenter"><a href="http://www.flickr.com/photos/reinvented/6989675676/" title="Mileage by reinvented, on Flickr"><img alt="Mileage" height="375" src="http://farm9.staticflickr.com/8001/6989675676_f0c06fb230.jpg" width="500" /></a></p> <p><a href="http://ruk.ca/content/how-much-does-it-cost-drive-charlottetown-montreal#comment-form">Add a Comment</a></p> Charlottetown Montreal Travel http://ruk.ca/content/how-much-does-it-cost-drive-charlottetown-montreal http://ruk.ca/content/how-much-does-it-cost-drive-charlottetown-montreal Wed, 02 May 2012 12:47:27 -0300 ruk.ca - peter rukavina blogs How much does it cost to drive from Charlottetown to Montreal? Charlottetown,Montreal,Travel <p>When we picked up our Kia Soul rental last Thursday it was full of gas. We drove from Charlottetown to Montreal, drove around Montreal a bit, and drove back. Total driven from door-to-door was 2,441 km and the Soul reported that it used 8.1 litres/100 km of gasoline when I return it; actual gasoline purchased: </p> <ul> <li> Hartford, <span class="caps">NB</span> - 37 litres at $1.337 for $50.68</li> <li> Deschambault, <span class="caps">QC</span> - 44 litres at $1.394 for $61.47</li> <li> Brossard, <span class="caps">QC</span> - 11 litres at $1.359 for $16.24</li> <li> Levis, Quebec - 35 litres at $1.394 for $49.51</li> <li> Hartford, <span class="caps">NB</span> - 39 litres at $1.337 for $52.16</li> <li> Charlottetown, <span class="caps">PE</span> - 38 litres at $1.281 for $49.38</li> </ul> <p>So we used a total of 204 litres of gasoline which cost me $279.44. This comes out to a slightly higher 8.36 litres/100 km, or about 28 miles per gallon. Which is <a href="http://www.fueleconomy.gov/feg/PowerSearch.do?action=noform&path=1&year1=2012&year2=2012&make=Kia&model=Soul&srchtyp=ymm">right around what the <span class="caps">U.S.</span> Department of Energy reports</a>.</p> <p>Our carbon footprint for this trip was either <a href="http://calculator.carbonfootprint.com/">0.38 tonnes </a> or <a href="http://www.carbonzero.ca/calculate">0.40 tonnes </a>or <a href="http://www.livesmartbc.ca/homes/h_calc.html">0.46 tonnes</a> depending on who’s doing the calculation. This is 60-70% of our emissions if we had flown (<a href="https://www.less.ca">0.65 tonnes</a>).</p> <p class="rtecenter"><a href="http://www.flickr.com/photos/reinvented/6989675676/" title="Mileage by reinvented, on Flickr"><img alt="Mileage" height="375" src="http://farm9.staticflickr.com/8001/6989675676_f0c06fb230.jpg" width="500" /></a></p> <p><a href="http://ruk.ca/content/how-much-does-it-cost-drive-charlottetown-montreal#comment-form">Add a Comment</a></p> Wed, 02 May 2012 12:47:27 -0300 http://ruk.ca/content/how-much-does-it-cost-drive-charlottetown-montreal