Donald Noble’s Site

With the so called summer now here (although you wouldn’t know it from the weather) I’ve been getting out on my bike a bit more. I’ve also read a few articles on cycling infrastructure that were interesting and resonated with my experience.

Firstly, War on the Motorist posted a piece on the disparate and interim nature of the National Cycle Network. While there are many miles of quality cycle routes, many of the routes include sections that are still at an interim standard (and may not really be cycleable). I have also found that they are not well linked — especially in towns and cities.

I cycled along the NCN75 last weekend, heading east along the Clyde to Uddingston. This was a good route with some caveats. The diversion around the new venues for the Commonwealth Games is not mentioned on the Sustrans website, although it was reasonably signed on the ground. The bigger problem, was that as soon as I entered the more built up areas, I had to pull out a map to try and ascertain where on earth the route went. Especially through Uddingston and Coatbridge, where I gave up trying to find the signed route — if it even existed, and went on to use minor roads and common sense.

A separate study (by Dave Horton at Lancaster Uni), has been looking into the attitudes towards cycling. He concludes that the only way to increase the number of urban journeys by bike, rather than by car, is to construct good quality segregated cycle infrastructure. He has written an interesting article on Bikehub — however, I fear the likelihood of this happening soon is rather small.

And finally, on a lighter note, an excellent video by Casey Neistat about not riding in the cycle lane.

I decided yesterday to get a Kindle ebook reader, in part to limit the amount of time I spend looking at computer displays.

The screen is beautiful. More so than the retina display of the iPhone. But in a different way. It doesn’t look like a computer screen (because it’s not) — but it doesn’t look like a printed page either. Perhaps the closest thing is a high quality magazine print, but in monochrome. Text display is incredibly crisp. And unlike a computer display, there are no visible pixels. I knew this in theory before using the device, but there is something about actually seeing it. Even images look impressive on the Kindle — albeit limited to 16 shades of grey, ranging from an off-white through to pure black. The screen doesn’t display bright white. This is something that I hadn’t really thought about before; I don’t think it’s a problem, as makes the screen less tiring on the eyes.

There is still a noticeable flicker when switching between pages. Much improved on older e-ink screens, and probably something I will quickly become accustomed to. But it is slightly more jarring than the continuous scroll available on modern computer screens. Perhaps I should instead be thinking more along the lines of physically turning a page on a dead-tree publication — which it has to be said, is also disruptive when reading, but not something to complain about.

Unlike a laptop, tablet, or smartphone, the Kindle is very much a device designed for reading. It can sort of browse the web, and apparently has a built in mp3 player, but really it is a device designed for reading (primarily text based) content.

As I have said before, I don’t think there is enough difference between a laptop and an iPhone to justify owning an iPad. The Kindle however has a differentiating feature, in the non-backlit screen. Something that none of these other devices have (although there are other e-ink/ebook readers that do). Hopefully this will allow me to read in the evenings without disrupting my sleep — as bright laptop screens are prone to doing.

I’ve had my new camera for about two months now, and I can now just about work it.

When I bought it, I received a voucher for some free prints from Jessops. However, in the time I’ve had the camera I’ve not taken sufficient photos that I am happy enough with to warrant printing, so I had to trawl through my archives. This made me realise that I have actually taken a few decent photos, and mostly with my old camera.

Yes, the new camera takes more photos quickly in burst mode, has vastly better low light performance, much greater control over depth of field and shutter speed, and better quality images in terms of megapixels. But the old camera is lighter, and more flexible in not needing to change lenses.

So I suppose this just proves the old adages “a bad workman blames his tools”, and “the best camera is the one you have with you” have some truth in them. But you probably new that already. And I’m not planning on giving up my new camera any time soon…

• 1 onion
• 6 chunky sausages
• 1 yellow pepper
• 1 carrot
• 4-5 mushrooms
• 4-6 fresh tomatoes
• 1 tin chopped tomatoes
• 2 tbsp tomato purée
• Large glass red wine
• 1 tsp tarragon
• 1/2 tsp paprika powder
• Black pepper & salt to taste

1. First cook sausages (until brown, but don’t overcook them they get stewed later on) then set aside to cool before slicing. Meanwhile, chop the vegetables (quite finely).
2. In a big pan, fry onion until golden, add yellow pepper, then garlic and seasoning. After a couple of minutes, add the carrot then the mushrooms.
3. Next add all the tomatoes, the wine, and the sliced cooked sausages. Simmer for 20-30 minutes, until the sauce is reduced to a thick paste. Serve with plenty of pasta and top with grated cheese.

Following on from an idea I first read about in “The Black Swan”, I’ve just been reading an interesting article outlining fifteen reasons why news is bad for you, and should be avoided. Rolf Dobelli’s argument is that by following 24 hour rolling news about everything in the world, we are distracting ourselves from more interesting and relevant information.

We may even be changing the way our brains are wired; training ourselves to want more news, more often. Reducing our attention span. Limiting our ability to read and digest long form thoughtful content about interesting and important topics.

I will leave you to read the article for yourself as I’m not sure I could summarise it appropriately. The twitter link I followed précised the content as a list of the 15 reasons, which, to my mind, misses the point slightly. Especially as the article starts off…

This article is the antidote to news. It is long, and you probably won’t be able to skim it.

Via Tim Harford