Some of you may know I built a Personal Inventory Manager program (Wazitat) in 2007-8 and then got bogged down trying to make it a way to share goods among friends and neighbors (the philosophical issues bogged me down) .  Now there are numerous companies that provide a platform for sharing items or excess capacity (such as a room). It’s a sound model. This article in today’s New York Times offers a helpful glimpse into the real life world of people who use services such as AirBnB and SnapGoods. The principle underlying these services is “access trumps ownership.” I’ve been a believer in that since “Wired” turned me on to the powers of a network economy. Funny enough, one of my first blog posts (before they were called blogs) was about the diminished importance of ownership versus access. The crux was: “With ownership comes responsibility (taxes, insurance..); with access, opportunity.”

Although I bowed out of developing Wazitat so that I can focus on music and comedy, I remain an advocate and user of peer-sharing… and I may re-start development of some of Wazitat’s functions.

Airbnb, New York Times, Wazitat

It was sad and inconvenient to learn a couple weeks ago that downtown Chicago’s street signs on one-way (for cars) streets are oriented only to be seen by car passengers and pedestrians traveling in the direction of car traffic. What hogwash!! These same streets have sidewalks, used by multitudes of residents and visitors alike, who travel by right and necessity against car traffic. Often, one wonders: what intersection am I approaching? The only way to find out is to PASS the cross-street and look up (the signs are raised at the level of a traffic light) and behind you.

I suppose the GPS / Mapping devices can tell you where you’re headed. But those are expensive.

Hey Mayor Daley:

You have the highest sales tax rate in the country—and often declare that you are “green-friendly”… can’t you give non-polluting customers a heads-up on their location? It would require new street signs. They should be lowered too.. the pole system works best.

Chicago, Daley, street signs, walking

The fine Google Maps offering can be improved by more tightly integrating the text Directions with the map’s outlined route. Each turn should be numbered with its corresponding direction step, either by default or by mouse over. Even more helpful would be if both mousing over the turn / #, and the Directions text included ‘running’ distance–tally of distance in miles and/or feet covered UP TO that step.

( I realize using the term ‘running total’ might confuse user who are using the map as a jogging guide. Life can be confusing, even with fine mapping services. )

I’ll mock up a screen shot if I can time later on… actually if I have enough time to do it properly, I’d include the javascript or css to display rollovers per turn.

Google, Google Maps, maps

I came up with a good calendaring system. As you know, the big service providers (Google and Microsoft) offer a free calendar program. What to do with it? Well, both Gcal and Windows Live Calendar allow you to create multiple calendars (each with its own name, color, …).

I needed to make a combination that suits me (hey, isn’t that life?). My idea about calendars is that they should show the viewer what he might be dealing with, and also should let him review what he hath done. We are offered many options regarding events but do not NEED to do them all… nor do we have time for all. The modern way is to be flexible. But a man has obligations…

My system is to have 3 calendars: 1. Could Should    2. Must    3. Did Done

In this way, I’m aware of what I must do (the Red ‘Musts’); I’m mindful of what I could do (often overlapping, blue entries describe both what I could do and should do).  When something becomes true and has happened, then it has been done. And ya see here, I use these Calendaring programs Edit function which includes changing the Calendar. If I did something, I change it to ‘Did Done’ and write about what actually happened.

I think it important to have a record of what really went down. This is like diary / journal keeping. And it is distinct from a list of what MAY have happened. When you are your own historian (or think that some historian may someday research your docs) you want to make it clear that what was planned, or what SHOULD have been, is not the same as what happened in your life.

I recommend you keep multiple calendars, and that you use the Edit feature if you want a historical record. A lot of invites have the enticing, mysterious “???” end time. When you write your history, you can mark exactly when the party stopped.

Both GCal and Windows Live are great programs. I use Windows because, as I’ve mentioned, I like to create / edit on the PC and then sync when the PC is online. Gcal, unfortunately, does not allow you to Write in ‘offline mode.’ It’s read-only, and is in the browser. I like to open my dedicated calendar program on the PC and do as I please. And that’s that!

calendar, Google, Windows

Bob Saget, silly, The Aristocrats