More Images from France

Paris Trip 2008

I am really slow to put images online. Sorry world.

I have however updated and put a bunch more from Paris on Picasa.

Fixing Computers, Playing Games, Singing Songs

First, it looks like I have a place in Korea. But I am still interested in ideas in this regard. 

Next, I repaired my computer on my kitchen table here in Paris with a bunch of really inadiquate tools. It is really nice to have my main machine back up and running. 

My computer when open

Last, travel is good. I have met a few interesting people recently. Some in Sligo at IT Sligo where there is some possibility I will do some further study. They were rather nice and so on and Sligo seems like an interesting though remote and small place. Additionally I met an interesting girl on the Chunnle coming back from London to Paris. She was an RMIT Architecture student who is now doing lots of other stuff including a few greats, Zaha Hadid and Tom Barker. As most people will know I think architecture is really silly but after talking to this girl for a wile, someone who likes Zaha's work none the less, I realized a few things:

1. Architects can be nice though there is no question that they are silly.
2. Without knowing what you do it is hard to do it. I think I specialise in trying to do things that are not identifiable and spending time making it impossible to really understand what I do. Though this has some value I think I really need to make a decision and try to work at something specific, even if it is still abstract in its specificity.
3. Usually the truth ends up being good. I think designers and normal people should realise this more and use it in a few ways. Nice innovation is good design, true and honest design that works because it has been done well. Not changes that are made to take advantage of a relationship with end users that offers subtle advantages, truth is a lot nicer.

OK I need to stop being silly and get ready to do something interesting today.

The hotel in Sligo which happens to be an old mental institute. Bat shaped architecture at its best.

Paris and a few big problems

So I am in Paris.  It is pretty nice. Travel images are here. More will go on now and then but my main computer is broken now so I am not doing that so much.

I was thinking recently about the worlds problems and a conversation triggered the idea of thinking about what one would do if they were in control of the world. So I know that is a bit vague, but what would you do first if you had world power? Put answers in the comments!

I think I would put in motion systems to normalize the global economy and try to rebuild culture in culturally sparse reigns. I think I would also be interested in reducing the influence of politics in an attempt to reduce the political battels at all elvels of society that plague our systems with corruption and a lack of flexibility. 

Just one more thing. I am going to Korea in about 2 weeks and I really need a place to stay. Does anyone know some place  I could crash for free or cheap from 1st to 11th of July in Seoul. Please please tell me if you know some place.

Also, I should just say, I am not doing a lot of reading while traveling so sorry for not reblogging as much. 

Planning to Travel Around the World and Using the Google Visualisation API

So I am going to France this summer then I thought it would be nice to go overland to Korea and then to China before coming home. Here I have started to plan my movements but I have not yet checked spelling. I have also used the google data API to render this in an interactive timeline. I think it is still linked to the online data I am editing so it may change without notice.

It was not hard to use but it did take a little while to get it to work. I wish I could pipe in other data sets or something. Perhaps I can... I will see what I can do. 

Update: The timeline has stopped working for anyone now so I am going to not bother fixing it until I know some more details about my trip. The API is good but seems to be crufty and have some serious reliability issues at the moment.