In my last post, I used barriers and shared channels to write a simple program for performing force-based graph layout. There were two things lacking in that example: firstly, repulsion between unconnected nodes and secondly, some cool videos. I’ve now solved both of these shortcomings.

In order to implement repulsion between all nodes, each node must know the position of all other nodes at every time-step. I could implement this with message-passing, but that would be O(N^2) communications each phase, which isn’t very efficient, and at that point, message-passing is probably not the right design. We need some shared variables instead. Software Transactional Memory (STM) provides a nice way to do shared variable concurrency in Haskell, so we will use that.

The idea is that we will have a transactional variable (TVar) per node, holding the node’s position. Every time-step, each node will read from all the TVars to discover the positions of all the other nodes, and will then update its own position based on the other nodes. If we are not careful, we will have the same race hazard that I warned against last time: one node could update its position before all the other nodes have read its previous position. Or, if left totally unconstrained, one node could perform several updates before other nodes have even performed one. To prevent these problems, we will again use barriers to break up the simulation into two phases: discover, and act. This means that we will be combining CHP and STM: using barriers from CHP to regulate access to shared variables from STM.

All the code before the node process is exactly the same as last time, except that I now import Control.Concurrent.STM and Control.Parallel.Strategies (for some strict application) — and I’ve made the nodes a bit smaller. Our node process no longer takes channels as its parameters, but TVars instead. It takes a list corresponding to the other nodes, of pairs of booleans (indicating if the other node is connected to this one) and transactional variables (to read the other node’s position). It also takes a single transactional variable, which it should use to write its own position to:

node :: NodeInfo -> [(Bool, TVar NodeInfo)] -> TVar NodeInfo
     -> Enrolled PhasedBarrier Phase -> CHP ()
node start neighbours me bar = node' start
  where
    (connected, tvs) = unzip neighbours

    node' cur
      = do Discover <- syncBarrier bar
           neighbourPos <- liftSTM (mapM readTVar tvs)
           let new = updatePos (zip connected neighbourPos) cur
           Act <- syncBarrier bar
           liftSTM (writeTVar me (new `using` rnf))
           node' new

You can see that the node process is a bit simpler. In the Discover phase it reads from the TVars and in the Act phase it writes to its own. It is immediately apparent that the reads and writes are thus segregated. liftSTM is defined below (it is essentially the atomically function), and the `using` rnf is a strictness thing that you can ignore. The updatePos function is now more complicated as we have added repulsion (though it is all irrelevant to the concurrent logic):

    updatePos poss cur
      = sum [cur
            ,0.05 * sum [ let v = p - cur in v - ideal * normalise v
                        | (True, p) <- poss] -- connected nodes
            ,0.000002 * sum [let sc = (p `from` cur) ^^ (-2)
                             in NodeInfo sc sc * normalise (cur - p)
                            | (_, p) <- poss] -- all nodes
            ]
      where
        ideal = 0.02
        (NodeInfo x2 y2) `from` (NodeInfo x1 y1)
          = sqrt $ (x2-x1)^^2 + (y2-y1)^^2
        normalise (NodeInfo x y) = fmapNodeInfo (/ mag) (NodeInfo x y)
          where
            mag = sqrt (x*x + y*y)

instance NFData GLfloat
instance NFData NodeInfo where
  rnf (NodeInfo a b) = rnf a >| rnf b

liftSTM :: MonadIO m => STM a -> m a
liftSTM = liftIO . atomically

I’ve also had to add an instance of NFData to use rnf (strict evaluation) on NodeInfo, and the simple liftSTM function for executing STM transactions in the CHP monad. The draw process only has one change; instead of reading from a list of channels, we now read from a list of transactional variables:

drawProcess :: [TVar NodeInfo] -> Enrolled PhasedBarrier Phase -> CHP ()
drawProcess tvs bar
 = do displayIO <- embedCHP_ $ do syncAndWaitForPhase Discover bar
                                  xs <- liftSTM $ mapM readTVar tvs
                                  liftIO $ do startFrame
                                              mapM_ draw xs
                                              mapM_ (drawEdge xs) edges
                                              endFrame
...

Last time, I only had four nodes in my example, which was fairly boring. This time I have one hundred nodes, connected in a 10×10 grid. To make the demo interesting, all the nodes start with random positions:

startNodes :: IO [NodeInfo]
startNodes = replicateM (10*10) $ liftM2 NodeInfo r r
  where
    r = liftM (fromRational . toRational) $ randomRIO (0 :: Float, 1)

edges :: [(Int, Int)]
edges = across ++ down
  where
    across = [(x+10*y, (x+1)+10*y) | x <- [0..8], y <- [0..9]]
    down = [(x+10*y, x+10*(y+1)) | x <- [0..9], y <- [0..8]]

Finally, our slightly adjusted main process:

main :: IO ()
main = runCHP_ $
       do nodes <- liftIO startNodes
          vars <- liftSTM $ mapM newTVar nodes
          enrollAll_ (newPhasedBarrier Act)
           (drawProcess vars :
            [ let edgesOut = filter ((== i) . fst) edges
                  edgesIn = filter ((== i) . snd) edges
                  connectedNodes = map fst edgesIn ++ map snd edgesOut
                  conn = [(ind `elem` connectedNodes, tv)
                         | (tv, ind) <- zip vars [0..], tv /= mytv]
              in node n conn mytv
            | (n, mytv, i) <- zip3 nodes vars [0..]
            ])

There are not many changes from my previous shared channel-based version to use STM instead. My continued use of barriers alongside STM shows that you can mix STM and CHP quite nicely if you want to. Now, here’s what you’ve been waiting for — a video of the graph layout in action, first on my grid graph as defined above:

Choose from WMV format (suitable for Windows) or MPEG format (suitable for Linux, etc).

I also ran the algorithm on a simple loop graph:

Choose from WMV format (suitable for Windows) or MPEG format (suitable for Linux, etc).

The two videos have the algorithm running at 10 iterations per second, as that seems like a nice speed to view them at (and apologies for the slight garbage down the right-hand side of the videos). The grid example was inspired by an original example in the Java version of the Prefuse toolkit. Prefuse is an incredibly cool visualisation toolkit; some Java examples can be found online but more impressive are the more recent ActionScript examples. Try the Layouts tab, and also the dependency graph example if you have a spare minute.

A complete microcontroller development kit for little more than the cost of a bare chip? That’s what STMicroelectronics is promising with their STM8S-Discovery: seven dollars gets you not only a board-mounted 8-bit microcontroller with an decent range of GPIO pins and functions, but the USB programmer/debugger as well.

The STM8S microcontroller is in a similar class as the ATmega328 chip on latest-generation Arduinos: an 8-bit 16 MHz core, 32K flash and 2K RAM, UART, SPI, I2C, 10-bit analog-to-digital inputs, timers and interrupts and all the usual goodness. The Discovery board features a small prototyping area and throws in a touch-sense button for fun as well. The ST-LINK USB programmer/debugger comes attached, but it’s easy to crack one off and use this for future STMicro-compatible projects; clearly a plan of giving away the razor and selling the blades.

The development tools are for Windows only, and novice programmers won’t get the same touchy-feely community of support that surrounds Arduino. But for cost-conscious hackers and for educators needing to equip a whole classroom (or if you’re just looking for a stocking stuffer for your geeky nephew), it’s hard to argue with seven bucks for a full plug-and-play setup.

[thanks Billy]

Projet A dans le cadre du cours d’architecture. J’ai eu du plaisir à élaborer ce projet, tout comme le suivant (Projet B : Pavillon Lassonde de la Polytechnique).

Il fallait élaborer un scénario de prise de vue, demander et s’arranger pour obtenir les autorisations, créer des galeries web pour le client, créer une soumission et une facture, travailler les photos dans Photoshop™ puis surtout faire les photos.

J’ai failli être dans le trouble, puisque la société qui gère le bâtiment qui m’intéresse, c’est la STM. Gros monstre bourré de fonctionnaires, où ça prend 1 mois pour obtenir un petit papier. J’ai finalement pu photographier la station de l’intérieur, la veille précédant la remise des photos. J’aime pas les retards, alors j’ai travaillé la moitié des photos dans le bus et le métro, l’autre moitié jusqu’à minuit. Ça a porté fruit, j’ai eu 100 %!

I spend a surprisingly large amount of time dealing with references: checking, correcting, (often) updating (inaccurate or rotted) weblinks, formatting in the correct style, questioning, proofing, checking again.

It sounds a tedious job and it can be, but it’s important. In science, technical and medical (STM) publishing, an accurate and well researched reference list is an integral part of the article itself. And increasingly references have an influence beyond the reader of the paper. They are a big part of a journal’s impact factor – that intellectually equivocal but commercially vital consideration in a journal’s reputation.

Actually you’d be surprised what we editors can tell from a reference list. At the basic level, a comprehensive, precise and relevant reference list is a sign that the author has done the homework. And, if he or she has taken sufficient care to format them as the journal’s guidelines suggest, so much better. It means the author cares.

Conversely, a shoddy list of references, especially one –  in the past particularly but perhaps not quite so much these days – composed of weblinks, is a sign of an author who a) is not sure what they doing, b) is too busy (and perhaps should have renegotiated their deadline) or c) can’t be bothered.

None of these is a good option, but a) and c) are particular heartsinks. Over the years I’ve been editing I’ve come to realise that this often means the article is going to be hard work, too. At least the author who falls into a b) category has an idea of what they should be doing.

The weblinks-filled reference list does also tend to put me on my guard still. It’s so easy to cut and paste, even with one eye on X-factor. Plagiarism, even if performed in that seemingly benign, slapdash way is a growing problem in STM publishing, and people should be aware companies are increasingly trialling software that can spot fraud.

So, it’s not that I hate reference checking; in fact, it can have a sort of detective-like pleasure about it on a wet and windy afternoon. I’d just rather not have to spend too long on it all the time. Authors, please take note.

Ciao

¡Aiya Amigos!

La Sociedad Tolkiendili de México, A.C. se complace en invitarles al magno evento “J.R.R. Tolkien: el Hombre y el Mito”, el cual se llevará a cabo los días 21 y 22 de noviembre en la libreria Mauricio Achar (mejor conocida como Gandhi de Miguel Ángel de Quevedo), a partir de las 14:00 horas.

Habrá conferencias, música y cine relacionados con la vida y obra fantástica y académica de este importante autor. También, como evento especial, contaremos con la participación de una invitada muy especial: Andrea Chapela, escritora mexicana de fantasía y autora del libro “La Heredera“.

¡Concédanle un espacio a la fantasía y a la literatura y por favor acompañenos!

SOCIEDAD TOLKIENDILI DE MÉXICO

Espero verlos en el evento. Si tienen dudas, pueden preguntarme o bien estar al tanto de la página de la STM, AC.

Sábado 21 de noviembre

Tolkien en la cultura popular contemporánea

Charla sobre la presencia e influencia de la obra de Tolkien en diversas manifestaciones actuales de la cultura popular, como el cine y las series televisivas, los videojuegos, la música, los cómics y el manga, los juegos de mesa y de rol, además de la literatura fantástica.

Hunt of Gollum

Proyección del cortometraje dirigido por Chris Bouchard sobre un pasaje de El señor de los anillos, en el que Aragorn sale en persecución de Gollum-Smeagol. Producido en Inglaterra por Independent On Line Cinema y estrenado en 2009 (subtitulada en español).

La Tierra Media: el regalo de un profesor

Explicación sistemática de los principales rasgos del mundo mitológico creado por Tolkien: su carácter y funcionamiento, su cronología, su geografía y sus habitantes.

El canto de Yavanna

Audiovisual comentado sobre la creadora del mundo vegetal en la mitología de la Tierra Media.

El nuevo lay de Sigurd y Gudrun

Lectura, en inglés (con su correspondiente traducción), de fragmentos de la versión escrita por Tolkien en verso antiguo de la leyenda de los nibelungos, recién publicada en mayo de 2009.

Domingo 22 de noviembre

Tolkien: el hombre

Charla sobre la vida de Tolkien, sus momentos definitorios como ser humano, académico y escritor, su contexto social histórico y sus convicciones estéticas, religiosas, políticas y académicas.

Mr. Bliss

Proyección de la animación de esta historia escrita y dibujada por Tolkien para sus hijos, realizada por la Sociedad Tolkien de Rusia con base en los dibujos del autor (subtitulada en español).

Tolkien, el otro autor

Plática sobre las obras literarias menos conocidas de JRR Tolkien, las que no tratan sobre la Tierra Media, su poesía y sus textos filológicos.

Un invitado de Fantasía. La joven escritora mexicana de fantasía Andrea Chapela, autora de La heredera, publicado por Editorial Urano en 2009, charla con el público sobre su obra.

Canciones de la Tierra Media

Concierto de piezas musicales inspiradas en la obra de JRR Tolkien, a cargo del Taller de Música de la STM, AC   Composiciones propias y de otros artistas.

Last year I wrote about the insufficient affordances in the design of the emergency breaks in Montreal’s Metro trains. While the trains have been in operation for more than 40 years, it seems providing intuitive user interfaces is still not considered important to the STM (Montreal Transit Corporation) even today. Consider this panel found outside the elevators which were newly installed at some stations:

Elevator button panel (via fagstein.com)

Intuitively, which button would you press to call the elevator?

The correct answer is that both buttons issue a call but only the black button calls the elevator. The red button however issues an emergency call! With this panel design a lot of frustration is guaranteed.

So after only a few days, this design issue was “fixed” the following way:

"Fixed" elevator panel (via fagstein.com)

Let’s see how long it will be before the yellow stickers fall off and the panel has to be completely replaced with a more intuitive design after hours of time and frustration have been wasted for many people.

Thanks to Fagstein for discovering this!

DeepDyve is an online rental service for scientific, technical and medical research with over 30 million articles.

For 99 cents, users can rent and read the full-text of articles

These are this Thursday morning’s top ten analyst upgrades, downgrades, and initiations we have seen from Wall Street research calls:

Chesapeake Energy (NYSE: CHK) Cut to Neutral at UBS.
EOG Resources (NYSE: EOG) Cut to Neutral at UBS.
F5 Networks (NASDAQ: FFIV) Raised to Neutral at UBS; Raised to Buy at Canaccord Adams.
Freeport McMoRan (NYSE: FCX) Raised to Buy at Deutsche Bank.
Motorola (NYSE: MOT) Raised to Overweight at Thomas Weisel.
Novellus Systems (NASDAQ: NVLS) Raised to Hold at Deutsche Bank.
SAP AG (NYSE: SAP) Cut to Neutral from Buy at Bank of America Merrill Lynch.
St. Jude Medical (NYSE: STJ) Raised to Buy at UBS.
STMicroelectronics NV (NYSE: STM) Cut to Sell at RBS.
Tractor Supply Co. (NASDAQ: TSCO) Cut to Underweight at Piper Jaffray.

You can join our open email distribution list to get updates on top analyst upgrades and downgrades, top day trader alerts, IPO’s, secondary offerings, Warren Buffett and other guru activity, M&A and more.

JON C. OGG
OCTOBER 22, 2009

Comme à tous les matins à la même heure, je me dirige vers l’arrêt d’autobus à deux coins de rue de chez moi. Je tourne le premier coin pis j’vois l’autobus arriver. On s’entends qu’avec ma condition d’handicapé ça me tente pas de marcher jusqu’au métro tsé.

*Insérer ici la chanson Chariots of Fire de Vangelis*

J’entreprends dès lors un pas de course (qui se rapproche plus du clopin que du clopant) douloureux ou douteux c’est selon.

Ouch! Ouch! Ouch! Ouch! Ouch! Ouch! Ouch! Ouch! Ouch! Ouch! Ouch! Ouch! OUUUUUUUUUUUUUCCCCCCCCCHHHHHHH CALISSE!!!

Yé j’suis arrivé non sans avoir remarqué que le chauffeur d’autobus avait réduit sa vitesse pour me suivre question de se payer ma gueule.

*GONG*

Arrivé au métro, l’escalier roulant fonctionne pas… On s’entends qu’à Henri-Bourassa, l’osti d’escalier est aussi long et pénible qu’un discours de Mahmoud Ahmadinejad. STM de marde!

*GONG*

Là, j’suis certain que si on me colle un stétoscope sur le sac, on va entendre les quatres saisons de Vivaldi pour cuivres

Everything you must know about Science publishing is in the STM report 2009: the STM market figures, readers’ behaviors, new trends, web 2.0 impact, etc.
It is a follow up to the 2006 report, ‘Scientific publishing in transition: an overview of current developments,’ ‘The STM Report’ collected the available evidence and provides a comprehensive picture of the trends and currents in scholarly communication.

Ware, Mark and Mabe, Michael. The stm report : An overview of scientific and scholarly journals publishing. September 2009. Online: http://www.stm-assoc.org/news.php?id=255&PHPSESSID=3c5575d0663c0e04a4600d7f04afe91f

Some facts and findings:

• The annual revenues generated from English-language STM journal publishing are estimated at about $8 billion in 2008, up by 6-7% compared to 2007.

• There were about 25,400 active scholarly peer-reviewed journals in early 2009, collectively publishing about 1.5 million articles a year.

• Although this report focuses primarily on journals, the ebook market is evolving and growing rapidly.

• Despite a transformation in the way journals are published, researchers’ core motivations for publishing appear largely unchanged, focused on funding and furthering the author’s career.

• Reading patterns are changing, however, with researchers reading more, averaging 270 articles per year, but spending less time per article, with reading times down from 45-50 minutes in the mid-1990s to just over 30 minutes. Access and navigation to articles is increasingly driven by search rather than browsing.

• The research community continues to see peer review as fundamental to scholarly communication and appears committed to it despite some perceived shortcomings. The typical reviewer spends 5 hours per review and reviews some 8 articles a year.

• The vast majority of STM journals are now available online, with 96% of STM.

• Social media and other “Web 2.0” tools have yet to make the impact on scholarly communication that they have done on the wider consumer web. Most researchers do not for instance read blogs regularly or make use of emerging social tools. This may be for a variety of reasons: a reluctance to introduce informal processes into the formal publication process; because the first wave of tools did not take sufficient account of the particular needs of researchers; a lack of incentives for researchers, including the lack of attribution for informal contributions; a lack of critical mass; and simply a lack to time to experiment with new media.

• There are between 3400 (according to the Open J-Gate directory) and 4300 (DOAJ) open access peer reviewed journals. It is estimated that about 2% of articles are published in full open access journals, another 5% in journals offering delayed open access within 12 months, and under 1% under the optional (hybrid) model.

One of the most interesting findings from research on how information gets from STM to LTM is the robust finding that “elaborating” on material when we are learning it tends to make retrieval of that information easier and more successful later.

Essentially, “elaboration” means adding to what you are thinking about by adding meaning, information, or thoughts to it. This might mean adding or making up examples, relating the material to yourself (”I remember when that happened to me,” etc.), even just reacting to it (”that seems stupid,” or “wow!”). Forming a visual image of something is another kind of elaboration.

1) Are you aware of doing this kind of thinking for learning the material in this or other classes? Do your instructors ever encourage this kind of thinking? If so, when?

I do this often in class.  I’m happy to admit it, I am pretty narcissistic…so I do well when there is a way to relate information to me and my life.  (I’m not one of those annoying “one-uppers”!)

Many of my professors attempt to help “elaborate,” some are better at this than others.  Dr. Rader, for example, does a great project with this in Theories of Personality.  In the class, students write “components” that use information from lecture and the textbook; students relate this learned information to their own life and their own personality.  Speaking for only myself, this tactic helped to learn the information for class, but it also helped in recalling the information later–I could think of how Jung’s theories had related to me and my component, for example.

Other profs will encourage group discussion about information learned in class; I feel that this is effective, although slightly less effective than Dr. Rader’s method.

2) Is this kind of thinking easier to do with classes in your major, or introductory classes outside of your major? Why do you think that is?

This is easier for me with classes in my field.  I think this is because I am already most interested in psychology classes, but they’re also easier to relate to myself and talk about in groups.  An intro math course, for example, is not going to be something I can easily relate myself to; nor am I interested enough to be able to carry on any kind of conversation about mathematics.

Como es de esperarse, estos libros maravillosos se encuentran ubicados en la lista de los 100 libros más vendidos de la historia.

Lecturaria, (red social de literatura, comunidad de lectores y cometarios de libros), nos comparte en su página que de los quince libros más vendidos, tan sólo cinco son novelas: dos de fantasía (y del mismo autor: Tolkien), un thriller, una novela histórica y un compendio de temáticas.

Para ver la nota completa, les invitamos a que visiten su página, la cual ya se encuentra entre los favoritos de este blog: Lecturaria

I think one of the weirder things to come out of the Montreal mayoral campaign is that one of the candidates has taken a stance that is pro-automobile. While Louise O’Sullivan’s chances of winning the mayoral campaign remain slim, the idea of a mayoral candidate who prefers tossing bicycles in favour of cars is an interesting one and makes for a polarizing issue.

While her idea of turning empty lots downtown into multi-tiered garages for parking cars isn’t exactly a controversial issue (it’s been floated around for years), the idea that someone wants to even deter from current mayor Gerald Tremblay’s movement towards more public transit and other forms of green transport is a bit shocking. With the recent addition to the Bixi bicycle network and planned changes to the Metro system, the city has big changes in store for how people move about the island. While O’Sullivan doesn’t suggest we scrap the STM, maybe we need to evaluate the usefulness of public transit services and other non-car methods of transportation.

The biggest nuisance of taking the bus is, well, taking it with other people. Buses can get quite crowded. If you don’t get on near the beginning of a busy line, you won’t get a seat and might have to stand and get tossed around for a while. Even if you are lucky enough to get a seat, crowded buses aren’t exactly fun to ride. Then there’s the issue of the weather. You might be stuck in a bus where someone keeps their windows open during the winter or closed during the summer. That’s if the bus shows up at all and some lines, like the 420, seem to have buses never show up when they’re supposed to; which is incredibly frustrating during some of the more horrible days of winter. Then there’s the problem of riding a crowded bus during the dog days of summer with a bunch of people who think deodorant is the greatest form of evil in the universe.

Cars solve all those problems because the driver controls the climate. Sure, you could be a nice person and take along a couple of passengers so long as they have proof they’re wearing deodorant. Some cities have tried attempted to add some comfort to taking public transit like air conditioning (which isn’t an option in Montreal) but everything is still controlled by someone else. You might think air conditioning is necessary but the driver may not and vice versa. These issues might not matter if it is only a two minute bus trip but if you’re taking a bus for half-an-hour, it could be a pretty long thirty minutes.

But let’s say you’re not a princess and can handle being around other people who are just as grumpy as you are for taking public transit, unless you are traveling within the downtown core, it become irritating to take public transit. Transferring buses are a way of life but there could be times where a trip might involve multiple transfers including the metro. That’s fine and dandy but if some of those buses only come every 30-40 minutes, it can suck away a bunch of your day just waiting for the next bus. Sometimes, it’s just better to take a taxi to drive twenty minutes instead of busing it for an hour and a half.

Take for example something I had to do a couple of times. When I lived in Cote-Saint-Luc, I lived right next door to Cote-Saint-Luc Shopping Centre. However, the shopping centre did not have a Burger King and many other fine retail establishments so the next best thing was to go to the nearby Angrignon Shopping Centre. By car, it’s about 15 mins. but if I wanted to go by public transit, it would have taken an about an hour by public transit but I would have had to transferred between four buses or two buses and a twenty minute metro ride between two lines. So a car trip there and back would save an hour and a half. Taking the bus wouldn’t be a problem if I had time to kill but if I was bringing back lots of things or one really big thing, taking the bus with multiple transfers is less than ideal.

Public transit works well for the downtown core but it doesn’t work much elsewhere where it is just easier and less stressful to move around by car. Areas close to the downtown like Cote-Saint-Luc and N.D.G. do have frequent bus service but there are few lines that provide service. It’s the situation where walking is a better alternative to taking the bus (except in poor weather conditions). In areas like the West Island and the East End, it is worse. Not only is there infrequent bus service but the routes are so spread out, it practically encourages people to ignore taking the bus and travel by car.

One thing talked preached by those who favour increased transit services is that people will use it if they infrastructure is there. The problem with this is that the infrastructure is expensive. A single bus can cost over $100 000 (including cost of purchase and regular maintenance). Metro extension is costs hundreds of millions of dollars. Ridership has to be there. There is little room for growth because if the ridership cannot cover the costs, the expansion becomes a burden on the province. There is little evidence that expanding bus service throughout the West Island would actually be useful. I lived in the West Island for years. Aside from a couple of bus routes (the 201 and the 211), very rarely were all the seats taken. Until I took the 211 for the first time when I was seventeen did I ever see what I thought at the time was a packed bus. If a bus like the 206 which departs from Roxboro-Pierrefonds train station and cuts through Roxboro and D.D.O. to arrive at Fairview Shopping Centre hardly come close to filling all the seats, what evidence is there to show that creating bus routes or increasing pre-existing ones would be beneficial to anyone?

When it comes down to it, the only potential for public transit expansion is for better service between the three major areas of the island: downtown, West Island, and East End. Metro expansion to the West Island is not a viable option (as I wrote in an earlier post on this blog) although areas like Anjou should be connected to the Metro network. Increased bus/train service or new bus/train lines would be a good solution to linking the three major areas to each other as well. Even better links to the South Shore or Laval would be great. Someone needs to explain to me why it costs me $10 to travel back and forth from my house to Carrefour Laval by public transit which would take five minutes by car while I can go back and forth from my house to the East End for less than $6 while by care it would take me 25 minutes.

Taking the bicycle has become a popular option. The Bixi bicycle program has become wildly popular and further expansion is on the way. Which is nice, because even though I live in a borough of Montreal, I don’t have nearby access to the Bixi network. There are no Bixi stations south of Autoroute 40, west of Cote-Des-Neiges Road, and only four east of Pie-IX. It would be nice to be able to grab a bike from the nearby train station and run some errands but that’s impossible where I live. Although it’s nice how the Bixi website is promoting how other cities are taking the idea and using it themselves.

Then again, taking the bicycle isn’t amazing either. Cars and bicycles are frequently at odds with each other. Cyclers have to be paying constant attention for drivers who are not paying attention where they are going. Driving in the rain is not fun and only the brave (or idiotic) would think about biking in the snow which dominates our landscape many months out of the year. Traveling the city by bike is good at times but awful unless conditions are ideal and the streets are devoid of cars.

Louise O’Sullivan is right to say that biking to business meetings is not ideal. It’s a pipe dream. A good one on some levels (i.e., less pollution). It is just not practical. Mayor Tremblay and the other candidates can sit around on Google Maps all they want and make plans for Bixi stations near other Bixi stations and planning bus lines but there are more important things that need our money and attention (like the conditions of the roads). Unless someone is serious about completely overhauling the public transit system to make it better for all of us instead of people in certain pockets of the island, we need to stop wasting money on study after study to see if adding a Metro stop to the blue line is a good idea.

–

I know there because this site deals with news, politics, movies, video games, and a bunch of other subjects that some people might find this site by accident through a search engine. I’m just surprised that yesterday, the top search terms that people used to find my site was ‘cabela big game hunter 2010 help’. How a game that has sold only about 10 000 copies is bringing traffic to this site is a question that will probably never be answered. At least I find if amusing.

–

Canada News

In what looks to be a repeat of 2007, the Canadian dollar is nearing parity to the U.S. dollar. Normally, I would be happy about this because it makes buying things online cheaper but it doesn’t help the stash of American dollars I have tucked away for my next trip down south.

Sports News

Like most Canadians, I’ve never been comfortable about the prospect of the NFL expanding into Canada due to concerns that it would kill the CFL. However, with yesterday’s announcement that the halftime show during this year’s Grey Cup will feature Blue Rodeo, I welcome the NFL with open arms. Seriously, CFL…Blue Rodeo? Was Corey Hart not returning your calls?

Now that the Chicago Cubs declared bankruptcy, will Jim Balsillie try to buy the team and move the team to Hamilton and turn it into a hockey team. MAKE IT SEVEN AT ALL COSTS!!!

Sravan Kundojjala of the market analysis and research firm StrategyAnalytics has a report out today on ST-Ericsson. The report brief says

ST-Ericsson has a very strong position in all the technology pieces required to compete in the cellular chip market including basebands, RF transceivers, connectivity and multimedia. The company has a strategic IP portfolio, well established customer relationships, and also spends close to 20 percent of its revenues on R&D. However, ST-Ericsson has some execution challenges in the near-term to successfully integrate the assets and cultures of NXP, ST Microelectronics and EMP.

As I wrote earlier, I agree with him.