Sign in / up

* Posts by Tim 35

3 publicly visible posts • joined 7 Aug 2009

London bike hire scheme suffers pre-launch wobbles

Tim 35
Go

Jeez people really don't read up on stuff before spouting off.

The £1 a day is charged for the days you use it - so use it five days a year and pay £5. If you plan on using it more than 45 days in the year then go for the £45 annual membership.

The bikes are expensive and hence they want to have some kind of credit or debit card on file to chase you down if you nick it. Presumably the casual scheme will take a deposit (though hopefully not like in Paris where it allegedly charges you €200 and doesn't pay you back for a month).

As for cyclists hitting into people, it's not like you need a licence to own a bike in the first place.

Anyway, I'm really looking forward to it going live. It means I don't need to worry with the hassle of fixing punctures or my bike getting stolen. More importantly though, it's less of a commitment. So you can cycle to work and then catch the tube to the pub on your way home. Or similar sorts of things.

The hourly rates seem quite a lot but I think the point is that this kind of scheme only really works if people just use the bikes when they're cycling and don't hog them all day. If you need to cycle more than the free thirty minutes then presumably (hopefully) you can just check it in and then out again straight away.

The main challenge is making sure there's docking stations in enough places. They seem to have installed loads around where I live but I haven't seen one around work yet. Not that I've looked mind - when I checked before the map showing their locations didn't seem to be working.

0 0

Apple vanishes multi-touch ancestor

Tim 35

Dvorak

Last I read, most of the claims of the amazingness of the Dvorak keyboard in terms of RSI and efficiency were massively overstated and not reproduced in impartial studies. Can't remember where I read it though.

Keyboards are a hassle to squeeze on a phone but they are pretty good when you think about it. It is pretty rare that I can think of anything to type quicker than I can type it. Although that does have an alternative explanation.

0 0

BT's giant new faster broadband boxes blocked

Tim 35

Technology need not necessitate ugliness

Advances in technology shouldn't just make the place look like a dump. I guess people objected to the red phoneboxes when they came out but they definitely look a fair bit nicer than the exchange boxes. And people are prepared to deal with the hassle of digging up roads so that we don't have a mess of cables running over our heads.

If you're upgrading the infrastructure you might as well spend a bit of money on digging holes to hide things and employing some designers to make what does stick out complement the scenery rather than a necessary evil.

0 0