iPad screen shield tip

If you decide to put a Zagg "Invisible Shield" on your iPad, don't strictly follow Zagg's directions. In particular, ignore the instruction to not spray the solution on the device itself. DO spray it on the device. Spray it everywhere. Took me seconds to install it, whereas I've read reviews where people fiddled for minutes on end. The best instructional video is here. Do what he says.

10 Years Abroad

Couple days ago marked the 10th anniversary of moving overseas. When we got in from heathrow, the key to our place was not ready for us. Nothing like a screaming 2-yr old coming off an overnight flight and a 90-minute van ride across London to focus the minds of a roomful of estate agents. The key shortly became "ready". Moved into an empty house. On a business trip prior I'd bought a mattress and scheduled delivery for the day we arrived. Luggage, child, mattress on floor, empty early victorian row house. Went for a walk around the neighborhood and had lunch outdoors at a pub, son finally asleep in the stroller. One more child, a stint in Switzerland, a few houses, a couple jobs, and 10 bikes later, we're still here.

Embrace Cannibalization

Speaking of the iPad, I've seen some hand-wringing about the iPad "cannibalizing" sales of macs and/or iPods. This is a nonsensical worry. Companies should actively seek to cannibalize their own sales. Think of it this way: a new product comes out that people prefer to your company's existing products. Would you rather that new product have come from your company, or from someone else's?

iPad Shortages

Just back from the US. The continuing demand for iPads is astonishing. The release date in the UK has been pushed back a couple times. Now it's easy to see why. In the US, online orders look to be about 2-week delay in shipping. The apple store folks I talked to in CT revealed they have a 1-2 week backlog of reserved in-store customer orders, and it's the same with other stores in the area. I called the 5th avenue store to confirm. Yep, completely out of stock, even wifi-only models, not just the more recent 3G versions. The apple stores are getting new shipments every morning, but not nearly keeping up with the demand. Interesting.

UK Elections

Unfortunately I can't vote yet. I tried to get worked up about taxation without representation, but it's so hard to buy guns here, let alone tri-corner hats, I just grumbled a bit instead. But the election happened this week, or is still happening, sort of, and it's been pretty interesting.

First, all due props to the BBC website for

1. a truly fabulous comparison of where everyone stands [seriously, check it out for an example of the way political coverage should be]
2. a nice explanation of hung parliaments, that they've kept updated with specifics now
3. clear and well-updated results

I feel bad for the UK Independence Party, amassing well over 900k votes but not a single seat, whereas the Democratic Unionist party punches well above its weight with 8 seats on a mere 168k votes. I have no idea how districting works, but seems a bit favorable there for those unionists. I'm not quite sure what the UKIP is about, but they've described themselves as "non-rascist libertarian". If you have to disclaim your non-rascistness from the get-go, probably a bad sign. Maybe this is their way of saying, "we're not the BNP". For any Americans reading this, note that even the self-proclaimed "libertarians" of the UKIP are in favor of free public healthcare via the NHS. I guess this means they are either really crap at the libertarian thing or really evolved at it, depending on your viewpoint.

I don't like so-called "proportional representation" (PR), but it's big on the agenda for lib dems, and it's easy to see why. Labour gets 4.5x the seats as lib dems on only 1.26x as many votes. On the other hand, PR would give the BNP 12 seats instead of zero. Zero is a good thing.

If you look at number of votes required per seat, putting aside the UKIP and others who came up empty (BNP second with 564k votes and no seats), the ones who had to try hardest were the greens, securing a single seat on 286k votes, and lib dems second at nearly 120k votes/seat. Labour and conservatives were in the same range of 33-35k votes/seat, while the dem unionists got away with a mere 21k votes/seat.

Normalized by MPs per 100k votes (just because I like the sound of "mp100k"), the order is:

(dem unionist 4.8)
labour 3.0
tories 2.9
libdem 0.8

Or, normalized by taking the average number of voters per MP elected -- 29,653,638 total voters for 649 seats -- 1 seat left because a candidate died recently, election for that seat deferred, yielding one seat per every 45,691 people who voted. "mp45.7k" doesn't have the same ring to it, sadly:

labour 1.4
tories 1.3
libdem 0.4

So as you can see, labour and conservatives yield better than average return on votes, whereas libdem votes are a bad investment. (Although not really, because they now have more power than their overall showing might warrant because they are desperately needed by whomever attempts to setup a government.)

If PR were adopted, the biggest beneficiaries would be, of course, the UKIP and the BNP. But of parties who actually got seats in the election, percentage impact would be highest for greens, then lib dems, then SNP and plaid cymru, whereas biggest losers would be tories, then lab, then alliance party, then dem unionists.

My chart of fun facts & figures can be found here.

City Bike P.S.

So Trek is already making a good-looking and well-reviewed belt-driven city bike. I would prefer the sram over the shimano rear internal gear hub, for no reason other than I like sram. On the front hub I would go with a dynamo hub for an LED front light. And I would much prefer single disc brakes up front rather than drum brakes front & rear. But looks mostly spot-on for a city bike.

Given that as a utility bike, the recreational bike would likely be something along the lines of a cyclocross bike -- ok for long road rides as well as path and off-road. I still feel suspension should be in the mix somewhere, though. Hm.

Radishes at the Market

Nice radishes at the market today. Favorite way to eat them: with good butter and flakes of sea salt. Then toss the leaves with peppery olive oil and a splash of lemon juice.

Also got some cheerful young asparagus, a pint of garlic-stuffed olives, and a pot of pate (top 3 ingredients: chicken liver, bacon, double cream....). Sustenance for a cold and grey May Saturday.

City Bike

Went out for a nice ride for the first time since my triple-puncture week back in December. Now I've got both front and rear tires fitted with schwalbe marathon plus tires. These prevent punctures on the road first by being impossible to put on, so you can't ride at all, then by nearly guaranteeing pinch-flats, so you can't ride at all, and lastly, if you somehow manage to correctly install them, by being nearly impenetrable. Definitely tarmac tires, though. I did managed to put myself down in some mud at one point after the bike went sideways on me.

Thinking a lot about what I would want for a city bike in London. Ideally it would be fully suspended. I like my suspension stem, but it's starting to go wobbly and they stopped making them years ago. So a suspension fork and frame then. But most suspensions are made for mountain biking and downhilling, not the kind of constant vibro-pounding your spine takes on the rough pavement, tarmac, bricks, and cobblestones of London streets, parks, and towpaths. The hardpack on some of the towpaths is the smoothest surface to be found. Add some grass, wet leaves, potholes, glass, rubbish, curbs of all manner of height and state of disrepair, along with some rutted muddy bits, and it's your basic challenging urban environment. I want a full suspension tuned for the constant vibration, not tuned for huge travel when I catch air coming down off of boulders.

I'd like something fairly simple and low-maintenance and able to withstand the near-constant drizzle. Ideally internal gears in the rear hub, something like sram's 9-speed internal gear rear hub. Add truvative hammerschmidt cranks and you get 18 gears with a single ring on front and a single on back, no derailleurs. Of course, I don't think this wouldn't work well with a fully suspended bike without having to either add a rear derailleur or adding a chain tensioner. But with a hardtail this would be an attractive setup. Very simple, low maintenance, durable, never drop a chain, and change gears, front or rear, even at a dead standstill.

On the front, an internal generator hub (schmidt or sram) powering an LED front light. For brakes: I hate v-brakes. Either old-school calipers or, more likely, go with disc brakes. Possibly overkill on a road-ish bike, but definitely nice to have considering the amount of time spent riding in the wet here. Front only. I can live without rear brakes on a city bike. Red LED on the back. Lightweight clip-on fenders. Depending on commuting needs, either backpack (my choice), or rack with panniers.

Ha Ha Tonka

Purely by chance, saw Missouri band Ha Ha Tonka at the Doug Fir in Portland last month. Fantastic show. I was really taken with the band. Bit like Jayhawks crossed with East of Eden, maybe a touch of Uncle Tupelo. They can dial up the big rock as well as the harmonies and the wide-open spaces. Unfortunately their studio work doesn't fully do justice to their energy and dynamic range [I may, fundamentally, simply want Steve Albini to record every band I like], but the CDs are still worth a listen. Heartily recommend catching them live if you can.