Dear Drivers

Dear drivers who don’t like bikes,

Next time you see me riding to work, going to the shops, running some errand on my bike or just riding around, remember this:

Not only do I have a constitutional right to use the road, I’m doing you a favour. And in a number of ways.

1. By choosing a bike over a car, I’m reducing the demand for fuel, thus keeping gas prices lower. You benefit.
2. By taking up about 1/10 of the space on the road compared to a car, I’m reducing congestion. This means you get there faster, and you waste less fuel doing so. You benefit.
3. By not taking up a parking space at work or the shops, there are more for you. You benefit.
4. By not burning fuel, I’m reducing the pressure on the environment and slowing global warming. Your children benefit.
5. By reducing car traffic in the city, I’m contributing to a cleaner, quieter and more liveable environment. Everybody benefits.

Of course, I could go on. But the main reason I ride my bike is that I like it and it seems like the right thing to do. Now I know that bikes are not some kind of magical cure for all our ills, and for many people they are simply not an option. But I’m not asking everybody to get on their bikes, all I’m asking is for you to let me ride mine.

So next time you see me, instead of yelling at me, willfully intimidating me or openly threatening me, how about you just say “thanks”.

Pier at Edgewater

The lake was mostly frozen and covered with seagulls. Trying out the new Kodak T-max 400 in my TLR.

Solidarity

In case there is any doubt about their true nature, here is a list of 557 reasons FARC is on international lists of terrorist groups.

Photos from Library of Congress on Flickr

In case you missed it on the Flickr blog, Flickr is collaborating with the Library of Congress to make thousands of historical photos accessible to all. I believe these photos, and many more, are already available on the Library’s own website, but this makes them a lot more accessible. So far there are only two sets, but more will come I’m sure. I particularly like the 1930s-40s in Color, mostly high quality transparencies:

These vivid color photos from the Great Depression and World War II capture an era generally seen only in black-and-white. Photographers working for the United States Farm Security Administration (FSA) and later the Office of War Information (OWI) created the images between 1939 and 1944.

Leopard Upgrade Sharks

Decided to upgrade my OS X install to Leopard today as I’d heard lots of good things about it. It all went fine and installed in a little over an hour. At the start of the install I was asked to choose a file system: case-insensitive or case-sensitive, both journaled. I chose the latter. Why wouldn’t I? I’ve been using case-sensitive Linux for years and I couldn’t see any reason not to. Obviously ‘Files’ and ‘files’ are different.

Then I tried to reinstall my apps. Most of them were fine, until I got to Adobe Photoshop. Tried to run it, “File system not supported”. What? A bit of Googling led to this:

You cannot install Adobe Creative Suite 3 to a volume that uses a case-sensitive file system, such as HSFX or UFS. Adobe Creative Suite 3 installation is supported on volumes using HFSJ or HFS+ file systems.

Stupid bastards! So now I have the choice of reformatting my disk and reinstalling my OS, or not using Adobe CS products. How hard can it be to tell the difference between Photoshop and photoshop? My Epson scanner software doesn’t work either.

Extremely pissed off.

[xkcd sharks cartoon]

Trees at North Chagrin Reservation

From the first roll through my new Kalloflex. Should have read the instruction manual first though, as I only got 5 frames on the roll out of 12 due to improper winding technique!

When winding the shutter and advancing the film the operation is a motion forward of crank (3) until it stops and then a motion back again until it stops.

Kalloflex TLR

Just got my new (~1956!) Kalloflex back from Dodd’s Camera after a full service. Shutter now fires as it should and they’ve done a nice job cleaning up the screen too. Looking forward to taking some photos with it (tomorrow hopefully!). Watch this space…

Miles with digital camera

One from the archives. When this was taken in 2001, Miles was the only person from a group of about 15 with a digital camera.

Sunrise

Sunrise in Alishan, Taiwan.

 

See the whole collection in my flickr gallery.

 

Computer Recycling

How to recycle a computer when your car’s on the blink. Printer’s in the right pannier; couldn’t manage the monitor, though. I think I need one of these, or these.