Category: Daily updates

Generally musings of the day, usually accompanied by a photograph

Most visited posts of 2008

As the year comes to a close, it seems worthwhile to link back to the posts that got the most attention over the past twelve months:

1) By far the most popular was this post on Greyhound bus security, arguing that incorporating airport-style security into the bus system doesn’t make sense. Largely because it got linked by Bruce Schneier, the post was viewed over 2,000 times – more than 1,000 of them on the first day when it was linked.

2) Second post popular was this post on Health Canada’s climate change report. It’s not much of a post, really, when it comes to new content from me. What it does do is make the PDF files of the report available for easy download: something Health Canada itself opted not to do.

3) The third most popular post came very early in 2008, and was about how high voltage direct current (HVDC) transmission could be a major enabler for renewable electricity generation.

4) The fourth post once again demonstrates the power of getting linked on a popular site. Zoom directed a lot of people towards my odds guessing experiment, the results of which were posted subsequently.

5) Finally, the fifth most popular post of 2008 was my flowchart for voting in Canadian elections. Strategic voting was a big issue in Canada this year, as was the difficulty of interpreting any electoral result. Voters are simply trying to express so many different preferences through such a narrow channel that knowing precisely what any vote means is impossible.

Taken together, these posts demonstrate a few basic realities of the blogosphere: (a) the small fry get a lot of attention when they can catch the eye of bigger fish, (b) failing that, it pays to be Google-bait, (c) it pays to be the one providing access to something popular, and (d) posts with the most substantive content won’t necessarily get the most traffic.

My thanks to the 36,418 absolute unique visitors who stopped by this year, viewing 117,400 pages. Hopefully, next year will be even better, both in terms of the quality of writing, photography, and discussion and in terms of how many people participate.

The Seventh Seal

Tonight, I watched Ingmar Bergman’s The Seventh Seal with Gabe. My overall impression is that the film is a bit like high runway fashion: impractical, often incomprehensible, but likely to filter down and become part of many subsequent pieces of mainstream art.

All told, I prefer more straightforward storytelling. Excessively arty and intellectual films annoy me. This film doesn’t quite cross into that territory (unlike films like The Hours and Lost in Translation, which I strongly disliked), but it has a similar rarefied, abstract quality. I don’t feel annoyed for having watched it, but I don’t think I got any of the messages the film-maker intended, either.

Ottawan photographic evening

Police car in front of Parliament

Last night, I was at a photography book launch / fundraiser at the Ottawa School of Art. The event was a lot of fun, and I met some interesting people. I am considering taking a photography course there in January.

In any event, on account of spending half my evening enjoying the company of photographers and half my evening taking solitary photos of national monuments in the cold, I don’t have anything to say about climate change, cryptography, international relations, copyright law, or nuclear weapons right now.

Strangers and street photography

I have never been fond of photographing strangers, and my natural reticence has been enhanced as a result of a few people who responded badly. As a consequence, my photos generally include either friends, people who aren’t prominent in the image, or nobody at all. I make a bit of an exception for situations where people are clearly making a display of themselves (in costume, for instance), but generally avoid pointing my lenses at people I don’t know, even in public.

While I recognize the sense of this approach, it does make me feel as though my photos lack something that most street photographers manage to capture: specifically, the various moments that make up city life. Should I try to be bolder and produce some images like those in the photo.net ‘Street Photography’ tutorial?

Winter moods

Today’s sharp, dry cold makes for a nice contrast to yesterday’s Slowly Melting City. As much as you might think a brief return to fall weather, in the midst of winter, might be pleasant, it seems to be the case that once this city is well frozen, it does best to remain that way.

The special hazards of the melting city are the combination of speeding cars with deep, slush-filled pools, as well as wind-blown tiny droplets of water that threaten any lenses or electronic equipment not well stowed in bags. Taking photos in wind-blasted rain or wet snow is nearly impossible, provided you don’t have an assistant to carry around a beach umbrella for you. Walking to work yesterday, there were three points where I had to choose between wading through a sidewalk submerged in ten centimetres of muddy slush water, or jumping the barrier onto the roadway and making a mad dash around the pool while the flow of cars was interrupted by a red light. Each time, I decided to take the rapid roadway approach – a series of decisions which left me with dry feet and a bit more aerobic exercise.

One effect of the bus strike has been to make me much more aware of the weather. Essentially, that is on account of having to spend longer spans outside, and having no transport alternatives to walking when the weather suddenly changes. As such, I have been lugging around enough wool at most points in time that, should the need arise to re-clothe a sheared sheep, I would probably be able to do so.

Bluegrass at Raw Sugar

Residents of Centretown should consider attending the beer and bluegrass evening taking place tonight at Raw Sugar (692 Somerset W). The event will run between 8:00pm and 10:00pm.

While I cannot recall the name of the band that will be performing, I am told their last session was enjoyable and well received.

[Update] The lead performer is Miles Howe, and he will be bringing along a number of other singers and musicians.

OC Transpo strike looming

At the very point where Ottawa’s winter is unleashing its cold fury upon we hapless inhabitants (-11°C and snowing heavily), the bus system is about to be shut down by a strike.

In response, I humbly propose that all senior people involved in the negotiations between the city and the union have their cars impounded for the duration of the strike. If the city and union representatives had to walk through the freezing landscape to the negotiating table, they might be a bit quicker to resolve the outstanding issues they have about the allocation of sick days and their scheduling arrangements.

[Update: 5 January 2009] On Thursday, the union will be voting on an offer from the city. If it is accepted, buses should start rolling five or six days later, once mechanics have serviced them.

[Update: 8 January 2009] The union rejected the offer. The strike will continue for some unknown span of time.

[Update: 28 January 2009] On the 50th day of the strike, the Canada Industrial Relations Board has ruled that transit is not an ‘essential service.’ Both the city and the union argued in favour of such a ruling.

[Update: 29 January 2009] Threatened with back-to-work legislation, the city and union have reached a deal, ending the strike. Some bus service should resume as of Monday.

Ottawa, plans, and families

Ottawa in general, and the federal civil service in particular, seem ideally suited to those who want to get a mortgage, buy a house, and start having children. The benefits associated with government jobs are most valuable for those who have these kinds of plans; the same is true for the strong job security and minimal requirements for overtime hours or late evenings.

Personally, I feel like I have more in common with undergraduate students than with people who are at that stage of their lives. I don’t see my present situation as the base of a hill to be slowly climbed over the course of decades. I see it as another interim stage, albeit one from which it is hard to anticipate the character of the stage that will succeed it.