Tim's Bandwagon » Foo

Happy Day of Slav Letters in Bulgaria

Tim Brayshaw — Wed, 24 May 2006 10:47:40 +0000

Today is the “Day of Slav Letters in Bulgaria”. I’m not Bulgarian, and have never been there, and definitely can’t spell your name in Bulgarian for a school project. I just like the idea of holding a national holiday to celebrate letter-forms and their creators, like Korean Alphabet Day.

Finding Time to Exercise

Tim Brayshaw — Tue, 23 Aug 2005 00:43:37 +0000

I’m down to less than 200 feeds in NetNewsWire now after culling a few dinosaurs and thinning-out a few sorry specimens.

I’ve just unsubscribed from the increasingly inane Lifehacker (cf. Finding-Your-Car and Coffee tips) after reading this little gem:

You’re busy. Your life is a hectic mess. How do you find time to get some exercise? Here are a few tips from Maria Gracia of GetOrganizedNow.com.

Skip the escalator and elevator. Take the stairs.

Park at least a block away from work or get off the bus/train a few stops early. Walk the rest of the way.

Rather than meeting with a friend for lunch, consider going biking, roller blading or swimming together instead.

Do some calisthenics or ride a stationary bike while watching your favorite television program.

Do some simple stretches, while you’re on the telephone and you’re on hold.

Schedule just 10 minutes of exercise per day on your calendar. By the time to month is over, you will have exercised over 300 minutes!

If your life was a “hectic mess”, and you were riding a stationary bike while watching your favourite television program, would you really feel any better about getting your busy hectic mess of a life under control? Well, that’s almost irrelevant because you’ve got at least 10 minutes of exercise scheduled for tomorrow and you can enjoy as many simple stretches as you’ve got minutes on-hold.

I’m sick of comment spam

Tim Brayshaw — Fri, 14 Jan 2005 00:50:33 +0000

For the near future, comments on this site are deliberately broken. They just won’t work. About 1,300 comment spams have been automatically blocked since the start of the year (that’s about 100 a day, about 60 junk comments have evaded the spam-blocker in the last 14 days (thats only about 4 a day). I manually delete each comment spam that evades the automated blocker, and I reckon this takes about 30 seconds per spam to evaluate and process. So, at 30 seconds(ish) per comment spam at about 120 spams per month this will take me about 12 solid hours a year just to moderate. It’s too much, so for now I’m going old school and locking this mutha down. Trackbacks are, for the moment, cool, groovy, sexy and very welcome. If you want to comment, email, AIM, Skype or phone me.

Update: just got spammed with lots of online-poker trackbacks, so trackbacks are now disabled.

iPod Shuffle £99.01

Tim Brayshaw — Tue, 11 Jan 2005 22:25:28 +0000

The new iPod shuffle announced today is available in the UK for £99.01. Maybe £99.99 just seems too crass, and savvy consumers must surely be able to spot that just-one-quid-under-a-ton old routine, so ninety-nine pounds and one pence it is, then. According to Calculator.app that’s equivalent to $190.80, only $41.80 more than exact same product from Apple in the US. Yours sincerely, name withheld, grumpy of Bristol, UK.

I’m not worried about hydroplaning

Tim Brayshaw — Wed, 15 Dec 2004 00:35:34 +0000

Today’s Trick of the trade is just plain dumb and lazy (it’s usually smart and often funny):

Today’s post stolen / paraphrased from Normy over at Ask Metafilter:

Consumers generally won’t buy a bicycle with completely smooth or treadless tires, even though the tread pattern serves no purpose and tires would be cheaper to make (and therefore buy) without it.

People think bicycle tires should have tread because car tires have tread. But car tires have tread for a reason. In wet conditions water has to be given a way to flow from under the tire’s contact patch, so the rubber can remain in contact with pavement and prevent hydroplaning. A car tire is much larger than that of a bicycle tire, thought, and the water has much further to travel.

Physics dictates that the pressure forcing water from below the car’s tire is equal to the pressure of inflation, typically 30-40 psi. With a bicycle road tire, however, inflation pressure is typically 80-120 psi. In other words, in comparison to car tires, bicycle tires have much smaller contact patches and much higher pressure — the two physical parameters of concern in hydroplaning.

The speed required to hydroplane on a bicycle has been calculated in the region of 90-100 mph.

Hmmm, I reckon consumers want bike tyres with tread because tyres eventually wear down, then burst; also consumers don’t like buying and fitting new tyres. A treaded tyre exposes how much rubber there is left ‘to use’. That is: the tread pattern helps act as a gauge. I guess consumers want tread on the soles of their shoes for the same reason, nothing to do with aquaplaning.

Chef’s Hats

Tim Brayshaw — Sun, 12 Dec 2004 21:51:46 +0000

Cooking instructions for a joint of lamb I just enjoyed. This shouldn’t be funny, but it made me chuckle. (My emphasis.)

Roasting joints and racks: Preheat oven to 190°C, 3750°F, Gas mark 5 for 25 minutes per 500g +25 minutes. Leave to stand for 10 minutes befor carving. For relevant products remove hats prior to cooking. Apply fresh hats before carving.

Bumping into Bodoni Mutant in Budapest

Tim Brayshaw — Tue, 30 Nov 2004 19:41:56 +0000

Just got back from a short break in Budapest. Had a great time: floated about in an outdoor thermal pool, ice-skated under a full moon, thrashed Helen at brainball, and walked, trammed, and touristed around in the freezing cold.

Freakiest moment came after a couple of neck-swiveling double-takes when I spotted one of my fonts used in the logo for a restaurant. Totally unexpected.

I’d designed that font (Bodoni Mutant) on the second-year of my degree sometime in 1992, and apart from releasing it on the internet a few years ago, it was way towards the back of my mind. Anyway, I found it somehow uplifting to see it out-there and being used.

St. Asaph Brayshaw

Tim Brayshaw — Wed, 12 May 2004 21:41:01 +0000

On this day in 1820 Florence Nightingale was born:

Born into a wealthy and well-connected British family in Florence, Italy, she was named after the city of her birth, as was her older sister born at Parthenope.

Good job I wasn’t named after my city of birth… although “St. Asaph Brayshaw” does have a certain ring to it!

In Praise of Slow(ness)

Tim Brayshaw — Tue, 11 May 2004 10:00:15 +0000

In Praise of Slow, by Carl Honoré [uk, us] is the current BBC Radio 4 Book of the Week:

A look at the international movement of people attemping to take the speed out of modern life.

It’s available online in RealAudio format (mp3 please). Be quick, though! The reading will be available here for seven days after broadcast, and there’s no permanent page for this particular broadcast on the Book of the Week website. This message will self-destruct in 7 days.

Hand trumps foot

Tim Brayshaw — Wed, 04 Feb 2004 17:05:44 +0000

From hanging-fire.net:

While sitting at your desk, lift your right foot slightly off the floor and make clockwise circles with your foot. Now, while doing this, draw the number “6″ in the air with your right hand. Your foot will change direction….. counter clockwise…

You can’t help it!

[via Boing-boing]

Bonus link: pat head rub tummy automata.