Alwinian.net

Upcoming in Interactive

// June 22nd, 2009 // No Comments » // Uncategorized

Hello All, I ‘ve just published an article called “Upcoming in Interactive” which details 7 disruptive trends and technologies at Bloor Media Group.

the website is site www.bloormedia.com , the article post is here.  Thanks!

http://bloormedia.com/wp-content/uploads/2009/06/bloor_media_upcoming_in_interactive_report_6-17-09.pdf

Building Public Space Under the Gardiner Express

// June 20th, 2009 // No Comments » // BrainStorms

Here was my letter to Toronto Mayor David Miller in response to Les Klein’s idea to build a green roof over top of the Gardiner: http://www.theglobeandmail.com/news/national/putting-the-garden-back-in-the-gardiner/article1188258/

Dear Mayor David Miller,
I am a great fan of yours and love our city very much. I think you have done an excellent job. Thank you so much for the dedication and honesty with which you brought to the Mayor’s office. Below please find some quick simple points/idea, which I thought to send along and which I hope will be of use to you and your administration:

• Suggest A:

‘one stop rule’ for streetcars and buses, which would prevent 2 buses/streetcars from tailing one another.

Reasoning: especially with streetcars, where one cannot pass another, they tend to bunch, with the front streetcar collecting all the passengers on a run, and the other will follow in its wake, with no passengers for the remainder of the route!

A ‘one stop rule’ would leave adequate spacing between streetcars and buses, which is better resource allocation and improves service. As an economist, I mention that it is a pareto-efficient improvement, with no losers. I wanted to check again, if there was a reason for its implementation or non-implementation?

• Suggest B:

In response to Les Klein’s suggestion of a green gardiner, which seemed to attract a lot of media attention

I thought to suggest to you what I believe is a better idea, (if it has not been suggested before) the possibility of zoning to build an enclosed mall/retail/public space under the Gardiner. At first thinking it is a possibly ‘crazy’ idea, but here are the reasons as a possible method to save and legitimize the Gardiner:

1. The bracing of the gardiner already is ripe for such a structure, as there is no foundation to lay. All weight-bearing wall/trusses are already in the Gardiner structure.
2. Given proper soundproofing, only cosmetic changes need to make the space such as this inhabitable. See pic of Gustavino’s (below)
3. You can enclose a large area extremely cheaply with a ‘sheet of glass’ style architecture, which can be ‘hung across’ vast expanses to enclose the space.
4. The Gardiner buttresses are ironically, already in a vault shape.
5. Give incentives for developers in this space, it enlarges real estate and brings in extra taxation revenue for the city, through permit and property tax.
6. An ‘Eaton Centre’ style mall down in this area will popularize the waterfront, (which I have read has been an iniative of yours, in your study of Chicago) by attracting people to the area. Tourists and residents alike.
7. In visiting costal towns, I notice that there is always a commercial centre a few blocks inland from the actual coast line. This ‘mall’ would act as such a ‘base’, being a commercial center, steps to the water.
8. Building a mallway underneath will reinforce the existence of ‘The Gardiner’ as a viable structure in the community and part of Toronto. (If not leaving it there, the other option is to tear it down, which is costly).
9. This will cause no disruption in service to the highway itself, saving millions.
10. Building one length of such a mall, would act as a pilot, and if successful, the length of the ‘mall’ could easily be extended easily (lots of room to grow).
11. In my envisioning of such a project/structure, there is a public running and bicycle lanes as part of the throughway, (actually a loop) that allows runners to jog, and cyclists to commute for free in a clean-air enclosed environment. The runner/cyclists and commuters would support the retail stores in the area. Especially in the winter, this will indeed see even more use during the winter as a local draw.
12. I refer to the restaurant Gustavino’s (a high-end restaurant) under the Queensborough bridge in New York, and other projects of this nature in England/New York, which have been very successful when executed properly. If done well, they are ‘unique’, Gustavino’s is largely considered an architectural masterpiece. Such unique structures add to the cachet and attractiveness of the city.

Thank you very much, Mayor David Miller and your staff for handling this email. I hope it affects some change or will be used as an idea to strengthen other more deserving ideas for the improvement of the city.
All best, kindly

Alwin

Using vectors to measure organization’s efficacy

// June 19th, 2009 // No Comments » // BrainStorms, Economics, Four Stars, Meta, Three Stars

Why are some organizations efficient and others not?
It occurred that possibly the best way of analyzing and finding inefficiencies in an organization is to use vectors. Like electricity, macro-economics and swimming, aggregate/net action is really the most important thing. Measurement of energy versus application is easily seen with vector relationships. If bureacracy brings you in a circle, your net vector will be zero, but energy applied, will be much higher. The organizations with the greatest absolute vector magnitude divided by energy applied will be the strongest most efficient organization. This ratio, M/E call it should be as important as P/E for finance. It seems that this is the easiest way to create metrics, for bureacracies and to eliminate ‘circles’.

A view of the future, from August 2006. Jeff Han discusses Multi-touch Interactions

// June 7th, 2009 // No Comments » // Uncategorized

A view of the future, from August 2006. Jeff Han discusses multi-touch. I’m sure you’ve all seen this, and I’m making my case from the back of the pack; I’m making a case in my bloor media article that multi-touch interaction libraries have reached a downstream point, such that they will become ubiquitous, just like cds and just like the internet, which were around for 5 years or so, before they gained critical mass appeal and acceptance.

It’s dependent on cost/technical barrier/network effect.

With O3d and other 3d markup languages, Multi-touch is about to hit that point in the next few years in a way it could not of before. Check out what Jeff Han was doing in 2006. (which is now all owned by the damn see eye eh likely). Dell’s XT2 is the first commercial tech with multi-touch. Just like ARPA-net to the internet, it’s coming…

China’s Central Bank: correlation between energy usage and GDP diverge in latest numbers.

// June 6th, 2009 // No Comments » // Economics

Interesting to note Paul Krugman’s point on recent Chinese central bank figures (if you follow this sort of stuff). Excerpted verbatim from here his blog at the New York Times online.

May 29, 2009

What you don’t know …

The focus these days is on the mismatch between China’s electricity consumption and a key measure of industrial output.

For most of the past decade, China’s industrial value-added growth (IVA) –industry output less input costs – has moved broadly in step with movements in electricity consumption. But the relationship’s broken down recently: electricity use is still seeing negative growth, while IVA is growing at a decent positive rate again.

Some China analysts are crying foul: If IVA growth figures are being cooked, surely that means China’s recent GDP data have been overstated too. China’s statisticians use IVA output to estimate what accounts for nearly half of China’s GDP.

China’s association of electricity generators has a solution: it’s stopped publishing consumption data.

Why investing in wine is a good idea

// June 5th, 2009 // No Comments » // Economics, Three Stars

More polemnical investing advice here.

…Because of the zero rate interest policy of ‘the modern world’, if you are looking for the security of bonds, but not in this economic climate. I would highly recommend purchasing rare and expensive wines. (seriously). The reasons are several fold.

A. Wines are commodities which hedge against inflation, hyperinflation etc.
B.  The cost of carry is very low, and furthermore you have the joy of keeping something which brings aesthetic joy while you hold it for the future;  this probably beats keeping porkbellies or wheat bushels in the basement which take up more room.
C.  The cost of other resources, like gold are probably overbought, for the same reasons the streets are jammed at 8am m-f, because that is where everyone else is.
D. Vintage wines are a diminshing quanitity over time.
E. Wine has been around for thousands of years in human history. Unlike a 2002 Ipod, it is a product that appreciates as it gets older. Older wines are invariably more expensive than younger ones. Though I don’ t have stats, from what I’ve seen with a 1 year bottle versus a 5 year bottle, the yield curve is a very good one.

In sum, it is a secure investment and not nearly as crazy as it seems.
Oh yeah, and if you decide to open an expensive bottle, call me.

Wolfram-Turing Connection

// June 2nd, 2009 // No Comments » // BrainStorms, Flatulence, Three Stars, Uncategorized

This one-off may not make sense, without knowing who these people are, but here goes…

It occurred that Wolfram cellular automata have within their domain, all Turing Machines, and is a more vivid representation of them outside of binary rules.

Wolfram’s work is an extension of Turing’s, which is not something that i think is acknowledged, is it???

This is sort of like the interesting French people - Jazz connection.

All the original Jazzer musicians came from the U.S. and brought it to France, but undeniably, the music reeks a lot of French influence. Its a shadow mother.

It occured, that the shadow mother of Wolfram’s work is Turing.

Book Recommend - Pinball Effect: James Burke

// May 29th, 2009 // No Comments » // Books, Four Stars, Science

If you have not read any of his work, James Burke is a historian, who mostly writes about the history of science and innovation. He is known for his Connections 1 / 2 / 3 series on BBC. His work is always web-like and built off tangents.

In this book Pinball Effect, he writes about the interconnectedness of the world and how one chance incident triggers another. The style is non-fictional, but he is always telling a story along the way. Think of Umberto Eco coming to your highschool and teaching science class.

This is the fourth book I have read by him, and it is the best in my opinion. James Burke respects no real bounds to speak of, except one: the topic of the first sentence always comes back to finish the chapter. recommended.

World’s Most Advanced Straw

// May 26th, 2009 // No Comments » // BrainStorms, Meta

Not sure why I like this so much, but I do. The world’s most advanced straw. enjoy.

NiemansLand - from 2006-2009

// May 26th, 2009 // No Comments » // Flatulence, Music

Way Back Machine: Some Older Composition-Sketches from 2007, to be used in the film NiemansLand. Cello and computer arrangements mostly. 5′30 has a nice moment that is worth remembering.