notes.husk.org

Income inequality along the San Francisco KT light rail lines....

Thu, 09 May 2013 01:15:00 +0100

Income inequality along the San Francisco KT light rail lines. Can you tell where it goes past the Tenderloin, and where it passes from the rapidly gentrifying Dogpatch waterfront into Bayview?

Then there’s the chart for Caltrain’s local service. That’s a heck of a difference between Redwood City and Atherton.

Out of Sight, Out of Mind: A visualization of drone strikes in...

Mon, 25 Mar 2013 17:41:37 +0000

Out of Sight, Out of Mind: A visualization of drone strikes in Pakistan since 2004 (ht @digg, via brooklynmutt, notational)

lessadjectivesmoreverbs: Cities Without Ground: A Hong Kong...

Fri, 22 Mar 2013 22:31:22 +0000

lessadjectivesmoreverbs:

Cities Without Ground: A Hong Kong Guidebook by Adam Frampton, Jonathan D Solomon and Clara Wong.

Axonometric maps revealing Hong Kong’s multi-layered elevated walkways, ramps, elevators and infrastructure interchanges. Definitely enbiggen.

(read more on the guardian and randomwire)

I love highwalks and axonometric diagrams, so of course I like this.

"This Popeye’s operator uses U.are.U fingerprint readers and point-of-sale software for verification..."

Wed, 20 Mar 2013 01:18:00 +0000

“This Popeye’s operator uses U.are.U fingerprint readers and point-of-sale software for verification of manager overrides and for employee time and attendance tracking. Prior to the use of fingerprint biometrics, managers at the company’s Popeye’s locations used swipe cards to authorize overrides and voids, and employees “punched in” using a pass code. By using the biometric readers for time and attendance, employees can no longer punch in for one another, dramatically reducing payroll fraud. In addition, with fingerprint biometrics, employees cannot “borrow” a manager’s card for transaction authorizations, thereby increasing the assurance that a manager has approved all overrides and followed the proper business and loss-prevention processes. As a result, the Popeye’s locations with fingerprint-equipped POS systems have experienced a decrease in overrides and inventory losses due to fraud.”

- A press release from Digital Persona, explaining the benefits of the biometric fingerprint scanners they sold to the largest Popeyes franchise in the US.

See also Brands Battle Theft, Buddy-Punching With Biometrics (via).

c86: How to use a Dial Telephone, 1951 This is a whitened...

Fri, 15 Mar 2013 20:44:00 +0000

c86:

How to use a Dial Telephone, 1951

This is a whitened version of a scan of Bell Telephone’s booklet for schooldchildren, The Telephone And How We Use It.

m.bart.gov real-time departures in a Fluid app: win!

Thu, 07 Mar 2013 02:07:26 +0000

m.bart.gov real-time departures in a Fluid app: win!

Two photos from the amazing, huge pickmix.co.uk site, collecting...

Thu, 17 May 2012 16:14:00 +0100

Passenger Route Indicator

Route Indicator Machine

Two photos from the amazing, huge pickmix.co.uk site, collecting photographs from the London Transport Museum’s archive. On the left, in a 1977 colour print by Paul Proctor:

The experimental press-button Passenger Route Indicator machine installed in the ticket hall at Heathrow Central (now Heathrow Terminals 1,2,3) Underground station. The indicator incorporated a TV screen designed to display a diagrammatic route map of the chosen journey.

And to the right, a 1974 photograph by H J Hare & Son:

A passenger consults a route indicator machine at Oxford Circus Underground station. Oxford Circus services Central, Victoria and Bakerloo lines.

You can see more of my favourite images from the site. See also: a similar map in Paris.

"Our species will survive neither by totally rejecting nor unconditionally embracing technology - but..."

Mon, 12 Mar 2012 22:09:06 +0000

“Our species will survive neither by totally rejecting nor unconditionally embracing technology - but by humanizing it; by allowing people access to the informational tools they need to shape and reassert control over their own lives.”

- The editorial (PDF) in the first issue of Radical Software, quoted by Molly Wright Steenson in a post on the magazine.

"A library is not simply the books and the computers and the resources, but it’s actually a place..."

Tue, 24 Jan 2012 19:51:06 +0000

“A library is not simply the books and the computers and the resources, but it’s actually a place where there aren’t four or five conversations going on. It’s a place where children can read and be on their own, and that’s invaluable. But they want to turn our library into some sort of retail outlet.”

- Alan Bennett, quoted in the Paris Review: Alan Bennett on ‘Smut’, by Jonathan Gharraie.

station timetable by smallritual on Flickr. Steve Collins (who...

Tue, 17 Jan 2012 17:25:05 +0000

station timetable by smallritual on Flickr.

Steve Collins (who goes by smallritual online) has been posting scans of the nearly impossible to find Danish Design Council book on British Rail’s design and identity. As he writes of the pocket timetables, “In a sense, the invisibility of this kind of design is the point.” Certainly I look at that now as almost a work of art, whereas for most of my life it was just background.