Whats the difference between San Francisco and Salford?

When its not raining, everything. People smile at you. People look at you when you pass them in the street. "Is that traffic warden/cute lady/postman/cop coming on to me?" Nope its just sunny and people are happy. This took me a lot of time to get used to …

When its raining. Nothing (and it actually rains here quite a bit over the Winter months). Its just like in the UK when its raining (most of the time . This first hit me last week when I was walking through the City (as they call it over here). There I am on the sidewalk (pavement), rain hammering down, and everyone stampeding past, head down, glowering, hands in pockets. A UK-style cabbie drives past through a puddle, drenching some poor lady, and the illusion is complete. It was like I had been transported 5000 miles eastward.

So the next time someone comments that Californians are sooo friendly compared to the Mother Nation, just smile and ask them "have you been to Salford when its sunny?"

Shooting in South San Francisco (legally)

Yesterday, I had one of those true cultural experiences. I went shooting (on a range, I hasten to add). Americans may be blase, but as a Brit, the whole thing was something new (the terrible events of Dunblane in the 90s explain why). The sight of armed "bobbies" on the streets here in the US still freaks me out. In the UK, it is still relatively rare to see armed cops away from airports and potential terrorist targets such as Westminster.

The last time I shot anything heavier duty than a catapult was whilst as a 15 year old RAF cadet at school, on our rifle range. I still shudder at the bruises on my shoulder from firing a 303 WW2 era rifle. Since then, shooting outside the police, military or movies has seemed something of dubious taste. This is especially the case for hand guns which are banned in the UK (rightfully I would argue) and impossible to obtain (as a non-criminal).

Anyway, yesterday I crossed a boundary. When in Rome and all that …

2 great Bay Area internet cafes

Firstly, Neote in Palo Alto (map). The twist is its a tea place. Brits rejoice. No tea bags too. Very minimal. Perfect to escape the babystrollers on University Ave.
Secondly, Papa Toby’s Cafe Revolution in the Mission (map). Been around forever, but I just discovered their fabulous wifi last weekend.  Art on the walls, people with dreads, pretty much the diammetric opposite of Neote.

Both recommended.

Baychi notes (14/mar/06)

Undigested, unadulterated, flow of consciousness notes from the Getting Things Done Baychi last week (14/mar/06)

Chair: Paul Sas E*TRADE

First Mimi on Chandler, scroll down for Merlin on Getting Things Done.

Four things

I got tagged by Rashmi.

Four Jobs I’ve Had
1. Carousel ride operator at the end of Blackpool’s North Pier
2. Newspaper delivery boy
3. Software engineer for an investment bank (the shame)
4. User experience researcher

Four Movies I Can Watch Over And Over
1. All about my Mother
2. Star Wars, …
3. Spirited Away
4. Akira

Four Books I recently enjoyed
1. Life of Pi
2. A Song of Ice and Fire (ongoing)
3. The Art of Project Management (ongoing)
4. Golden Gate

Four Places I’ve Lived
1. Manchester
2. Paddington, London
3. Hamilton, New Zealand
4. San Francisco

Four TV Shows I Love
1. Arrested Development
2. The Office
3. Yes Minister
4. Little Britain

Four Places I’ve travelled to or want to
1. Tioman Island, Malaysia
2. Tahiti
3. India (want to)
4. Argentina (want to)

Four of My Favorite Dishes
1. Sushi
2. Pad Thai
3. Fish and chips
4. Chicken katsu curry at Wagamama

Four Sites I Visit Daily
1. news.bbc.co.uk
2. valleywag.com
3. blogs.guardian.co.uk/technology/
4. battellemedia.com

Four Places I Would Rather Be Right Now
1. In my lover’s arms (not where I tend to be when I’m blogging
2. Hiking somewhere high like Hellvellyn, Arthurs Seat, Parliament Hill, the Sierra Nevada, or the Alps
3. Body surfing at Raglan
4. At my gran’s in Manchester drinking tea and being spoiled with cakes, collaborating on a crossword, and arguing about politics (she’s the loveliest fascist you could hope to meet)

Four Bloggers I’m Tagging
1. Jonathan Boutelle
2. Phil Jeffrey
3. Carolyn Gale (her blog is secret)
4. Michael Mahemoff

GapMinder – vizualizations that make a difference

I was lucky enough to see a talk by GapMinder at work last week. They are a Swedish non-profit who’s raison d’etre is to make stats about the world (such as health and economic disparity) more accessible and more meaningful.
We’ve all seen GDP maps of the world and so on, but GapMinder have taken this a lot further. Take a look at the demos here. The talk/demo was centered on 2 incredibly simple ideas which blew my mind:

1. Move beyond the average. Literally. Typical demographic comparisons will show stats based on regional or country averages. So Africa is a blip way down the bottom of the scale, and Europe and the US is way off the scale. They used a simple technique of mapping out all the countries which make up the continent as a spatial cluster. You can see how continents compare, the rough average of a continent as the centre of the cluster, but also see the incredible disparities within continents (e.g. Mauritius versus Sudan, both averaged within Africa). It ain’t a simple matter of rich (1st world) versus poor (3rd world) anymore. The poorest of Europe overlap with the richest of Africa. Things get even more complicated when you break down countries … are there any Americans as poor as the richest people in Ethiopia?
2. Plot multiple dimensions on the same graph (look at the same graph – infant mortality against GDP). This illuminates countries with equivalent health (life expectancy) but grossly different GDPs (e.g. Cuba and USA). Hmmm, … whats going on there? And then there are countries with similar GDPs but very different life expectancies (e.g. South Africa and Poland).

Fascinatingly, through a simple time animation on the same axis you can track countries’ economic and political changes (e.g. China through the 20th century – first focusing on the social state with big increases in health, but not so much in GDP), and then flipping to the opposite in the 80s and 90s. Then there’s also Iran doing a spiral in the 20th century in terms of birth rate as the ayatollahs slipped in and out of power. Great stuff! You can see the full talk here on Google Video