28 or so interesting things I wanted to write about and maybe will some day


Last year I wrote about 85 or so interesting things I wanted to write about and maybe will some day. This year I am down to 28. Progress? I’m not sure.

Like last year, over the last 12 months I have found things I would like to write about but never do. I think people should check out these things/links at least, so I am including them all in this Sunday post to read at your leisure. Maybe you can write something worthwhile with them.

For fans of TV, you might like this piece on how Netflix dominates. Or this, on the end of peak TV. Read this if you are a die hard  film fan who refuses to surrender to streaming. I keep track of how the big studios are doing, so I found this worth a note, on Disney woes with Jonathan Majors. Speaking of woeful is this item on the troubles of Justin Timberlake.

As I continue to blog, I was interested in these blogging myths. If you have a newsletter, you might want to make it more like a letter. Here’s some dated words to avoid. Here’s some beautiful words to take a moment and read: When i am among the trees by Mary Oliver.

Is the money is in all the wrong places? Of course. This, on the problems of the silicon valley bank and the federal reserve clampdown, shows it to some degree. Speaking of money, this is a good piece on debt free college.

I like to write about decor, but had nothing to say regarding this Kohler’s Brutalist Toilet. (Shown below.)  Ditto for Sherwin Williams least popular paint color for 2024. (Shown above.)

All I can say on this is… nice: creative growth art center in san francisco; neat: on the price of the Costco hot dog; cool: analyzing my emacs time over the last 11 years or so.

Some LASS (Liberal arts, social science) pieces I collected recently are these two pieces on the Bengal Famine here and here; more brutal history: The chilling sound that signalled death for IRA ‘informers’; also terrible: homosexuality was considered a disorder in psychiatry. I thought these religious writings were worthwhile: a good essay on Jewish beliefs and practices, on the great flood, and how we are reading the Book of Job wrong.

Do I like a good piece on John Rawls? I do. Do I agree with what is going wrong with Liberalism on the west coast? I do not. Do you need to know how to clean house with micro decluttering? I’d say yes.

As before, and always, thanks for reading this blog. I truly appreciate it. I hope you found a link or two — or ten! — worth your while.

Waste is a failure of imagination, and other thoughts on waste

Waste is a failure of imagination. Woodworkers know that especially. Good wood workers will try and minimize waste by designing their cuts to use as much of their raw material as possible, and then they will try and use up the remains in one way or another.

We should be like good woodworkers, using our imaginations, our minds, to come up with new uses for things we consider waste. During the pandemic we even depended on our wastewater to tell us how we were doing. Even that kind of waste can be useful.

Not all waste is material. Waste can also be temporal: we talk about wasting our time and wasting our life. Here too, we should consider ways to minimize such waste. And not just by being busy all the time. Being idle is not always a waste of time: idleness can be often be necessary. Just as being busy without a purpose can be a great waste of time.

What is important is the context. How we spend our time — idle, busy, something else — and whether or not it is a waste depends on the context we have of it. So, doing nothing with someone you love is a good use of your time, just like working hard on a project no one wants could be a waste of time.

These are some of the recent thoughts I had on waste when I read this post: No such thing as waste, by Austin Kleon. I recommend it.

I’ve written often about waste here on smart people I know. Recently I talked about it, here, when I was futzing around with code. Then there is this piece, on how Waste = failure to innovate. More on time and waste: Focus on maximizing your time instead of worrying about the time you waste. I even wrote on love and waste: On the love we waste.

If that isn’t enough, here’s all the time I touched on waste on this blog. Quite a lot. None of it was a waste, though.

Detroit returns, happily

This is a great news story: Once a symbol of Detroit’s downturn, the iconic Michigan Central Station reopens its doors at CBC News. It has come a long way since I wrote about it back in 2008: Detroit: the future sadly (Smart People I Know). A building once waterlogged and crusted with graffiti has been restored to its former beauty and glory.

The CBC news story has more on it including some inside shots. It makes me glad to see them. Here’s to a resurgent Detroit.

Philippe Starck reaches for a new design tool: A.I.


According to the site, Design-Milk, Philippe Starck is working with Kartell to use A.I. in the design of furniture:

Known as a progressive Italian brand that doesn’t shy away from experimentation and innovation, Kartell is becoming increasingly daring as their endeavors expand. At the moment, that means stepping into the world of artificial intelligence. In collaboration with Philippe Starck, they’ve released environmentally friendly furniture designs that merge human creativity with AI, bolstered by advancements in materials and manufacturing.

In case you are worried about them replacing designers, the site goes on to say:

Rather than replace the designer – a huge fear amongst creatives – artificial intelligence helps streamline the prototyping and planning phases, sticking to Starck’s vision and ensuring Kartell’s high quality and production standards are met. In this case, AI also contributes to calculating optimal material usage, a reduction in waste, and ultimately environmental sustainability.

Good to see! Speaking of good to see, you can see more of the furniture on the Design-Milk site, as well as the Kartell site.

Hot town, summer in the city! Some cool ramblings for you as summer kicks off (i.e. the June 2024 edition of my not-a-newsletter newsletter)


Hot town indeed! Toronto has recently suffered through a heat wave as we head into the summer of 2024. We had tremendous thunderstorms, crazy wind squalls, and very high temperatures. And yours truly does not generally do well in the heat. Here’s to that heat subsiding somewhat, although, hey it’s summer, why should I expect?

Meanwhile, here’s a seasonal cornucopia of posts and articles I found worthwhile this spring. I hope you find it worth a read. Maybe they can help you cool off. 🙂

COVID/the pandemic: I should be cool about this, but one thing that gets me hot under the collar is the lack of acknowledgement of death that occurred during the pandemic. In Washington there was the temporary memorial of small flags, but it’s gone. I don’t know of any national memorials in Canada. We should have something national like the Covid heart wall in London, England. It is great that we were able to recover so quickly from the pandemic and get back to normal, but we should do more to remember the loss that occurred.

Besides lives, other things were lost. Students of the time suffered especially: the pandemic had a big impact on them during that time, as this shows. Some even created a delayed prom for the “pandemic class of 2020” that they missed out on during that year. Good for them in trying to recoup what was lost.

Other things from the pandemic soon to be lost are the ghost kitchens restaurants that had popped up. Not lost is the belief that COVID was the result of a lab leak. The New York Times had a piece arguing that for that. It’s persuasive, but not conclusive, in my opinion. More of a downsizing than an outright loss is Ontario’s groundbreaking wastewater testing program, which will be replaced by a significantly smaller federal program.

Indeed, most of the stories I’ve seen with regards to COVID seems to be about putting it well into the past. Perhaps the only way we will remember it is through such things as covid 19 related art.


(Image by Tatsuya Tanaka)

Inflation/crypto/work/office space: Meanwhile the ripples of the pandemic continue in the economy. As far as inflation goes, grocery prices are finally falling. Maybe that’s what is inspiring Burger King to offer a $5 value meal. Speaking of offerings, some Toronto office building landlords are offering free rent. Things are grim in New York too. (Some residential landlords might have to do that, as ‘no one’ is buying condos either.) The fact that it’s been proven over and over again that in office mandates do not work may not cheer up holders of said office buildings.

I would be remiss if I did not mention the death world that is crypto, where the hammer is coming down on  Binance’s CZ (Changpeng Zhao). Meanwhile, bankruptcy lawyers for FTX said customers of that cryptocurrency exchange were set to get all their money back, plus interest. At least someone is recovering from the crypto meltdown.

In world news:  The American election drones on with Joe Biden having a narrow path to victory. Speaking of drones, the war in the Ukraine continues with drones playing a big part. In other wars, the War in Gaza goes on, despite massive student protests in the US and elsewhere. The war on women continues in the US as well.

As an aside, one promising thing for American women has been the rise of Caitlin Clark and the related rise of interest in Women’s Basketball. As a basketball fan and a believer that women in sports deserve better, I was glad to see this.

In Canadian news: Some day Canada Post will be no more, based on that article. Some day has come for the Canadian journalist Rex Murphy, who recently died. I used to look up to him a long time ago. Also not doing well is healthcare in Ontario. The Ford government continues to underfund it. Remember when we considered healthcare workers heros? The Ontario government should go back to treating them that way.

The arts: a number of the great artists passed away this spring, Alice Munro being one of the most notable. (The Times has a collection of the  best of her work, here.) Another favorite of mine who passed on was Joe Flaherty. He didn’t get the recognition of some of his SCTV counterparts, but he was equally great and very funny. And I would be remiss if I did not note the death of another great Canadian, Donald Sutherland.

Not Canadian, but truly great, was musician David Sanborn, who is now playing in the great beyond. (Two pieces on him here and here.) Among other things, he was the host of the show “Night Music”, a show I adored and wrote about, here. May they all rest in peace.

Was I glad to see that Daniel Radcliffe won his first Tony award and then went on to a fantastic Tony awards after party? I was.

Finally: We had solar eclipse recently. Did Google searches for eye damage jump after it? Sadly in Ontario they did. Did this woman in Texas build a spa for squirrels to handle the killer heat? Apparently she did. The world is weird.

Let me close off with this link to the Lovin Spoonful’s “Summer in the City”. Enjoy the season! I’ll have another newsletter in the Fall, god willing.

The ridiculously beautiful Talbot-Lago T150 C Lago Spéciale Teardrop Coupe

Even if you don’t care for cars, you have to admire the one above. It is more of a work of art than a vehicle. Even the motor is beautiful! To see what I mean, head over to Uncrate and check out the photos of this beauty.

And hey, it was up for auction. So if you got $8.5 million lying around, it could be yours.

If you are using Google Fonts for your website and they are not working, check your web page for this…..

I was developing a web page for my site berniemichalik.com and I used some Google Fonts to make it look better. When I checked the page on my Mac using my browser, it worked fine. However when I uploaded it to AWS and checked it with my browser, the fonts were not working.

It turned out to be a simple error. The link statement I used looked like this:

<link href=”http://fonts.googleapis.com/css?family=Sedan” rel=”stylesheet” type=”text/css”>

Note the use of “http”. However to access my website, I used “https”. That misalignment caused the font not to work. Once I changed the link to the font to “https” like this:

<link href=”https://fonts.googleapis.com/css?family=Sedan” rel=”stylesheet” type=”text/css”>

It all worked fine.

 

The 20/20 rule for decluttering

The 20/20 rule for decluttering is simple and good:

First, ask yourself, “Could I replace this item for less than $20?” Then, ask yourself, “Could I replace it in less than 20 minutes?”

If the answer to both of those questions is YES, then toss it without thinking any more about it. Note: replacing it in 20 minutes means can I replace it by ordering it online.

PS: For more decluttering advice I’ve recommended, go  here. In that list is the “Box and Banish” approach, the 90/90 rule, and more.

Speaking of more, if you want to learn more about the 20/20 rule, go here: Ask Yourself These Two Questions Before You Keep Something ‘Just in Case’ at Lifehacker.

On the chocolate cake at Claud and what we can learn from it

The Claud chocolate cake can be a lesson for any restaurant in this day of social media and influencers.

Claud in NYC is a highly respected restaurant with subtle and sophisticated cuisine. Yet if you go to social media sites like Instagram, what you’ll often see is their chocolate cake, shown above. (And yes it is mine and I ordered it.)  Just looking at it and you can see why it is popular: it is an eye catching slice of dessert.

I hesitate to call it a gimmick, for it’s delicious and well made. But it is definitely an attention getter, and in this age of social media, getting attention is key.

There are many ways to attract diners. If you want an easy and low cost way to do that, get yourself a menu item like Claud’s cake.

 

 

AI: from the era of talking to the era of doing

AI a year ago was mostly talking about AI. AI today is about what to do with the technology.

There are still good things being said about AI. This in depth piece by Navneet Alang here in the Walrus was the best writing on AI that I’ve read in a long time. And this New York Times piece on the new trend of AI slop got me thinking too. But for the most part I’ve stopped reading pieces on what does AI mean, or gossip pieces on OpenAI.

Instead I’ve been focused on what I can do with AI. Most of the links that follow reflect that.

Tutorials/Introductions: for people just getting started with gen AI, I found these links useful: how generative AI works, what is generative AI, how LLMs work, best practices for prompt engineering with openai api,  a beginners guide to tokens, a chatGPT cheat sheet, what are generative adversarial networks gans, demystifying tokens: a beginners guide to understanding AI building block, what are tokens and how to count them, how to build an llm rag pipeline with llama 2 pgvector and llamaindex and finally this: azure search openai demo.

Software/Ollama: Ollama is a great tool for experimenting with LLMs. I recommend it to anyone wanting to do more hands on with AI. Here’s where you can get it. This will help you with how to set up and run a local llm with ollama and llama 2. Also this: how to run llms locally on your laptop using ollama. If you want to run it in Docker, read this. Read this if you want to know where Ollama stores it’s models. Read this if you want to customize a model. If you need to uninstall Ollama manually. you want this.

Software/RAG: I tried to get started with RAG fusion here and was frustrated. Fortunately my manager recommended a much better and easier way to get working with RAG by using this no-code/low-code tool, Flowise. Here’s a guide to getting started with it.

Meanwhile, if you want more pieces on RAG, go here, here, here, here, here, here, here, here, here, here, here, here, here, here, here, here, here, here, here, and here. I know: it’s a lot. But I found those all those useful, and yes, each “here” takes you to a different link.

Software/embedding: if you are interested in the above topics, you may want to learn more about vector databases and embeddings. Here are four good links on that: one  two,  three, four.

Software/models: relatedly, here’s four good links on models (mostly mixtral which I like alot): mixtral, dolphin 25 mixtral 8x7b,  dolphin 2 5 mixtral 8x7b uncensored mistral , Mistral 7B Instruct v0.2 GGUF,plus a comparison of models.

Software/OpenAI: while it is great to use Ollama for your LLM work, you may want to do work with a SaaS like OpenAI. I found that when I was doing that, these links came in handy: how OpenAI’s billing works, info on your OpenAI  api keys, how to get an OpenAI key, what are tokens and how to count them, more on tokens, and learn OpenAI on Azure.

Software/Sagemaker: here’s some useful links on AWS’s Sagemaker, including pieces on what is amazon sagemaker, a tutorial on it, how to get started with this quick Amazon SageMaker Autopilot, some amazon sagemaker examples , a number of pieces on sagemaker notebooks such as creating a sagemaker notebook, a notebooks comparison, something on distributed training notebook examples and finally this could be helpful: how to deploy llama 2 on aws sagemaker.

Software in general: these didn’t fit any specific software category, but I liked them. There’s something on python and GANs, on autogen, on FLAML, on python vector search tutorial gpt4 and finally how to use ai to build your own website!

Prompt Engineering: if you want some guidance on how best to write prompts as you work with gen AI, I recommend this, this, this, this, this, this, this, and this.

IT Companies: companies everywhere are investing in AI. Here’s some pieces on what Apple, IBM, Microsoft and…IKEA…are doing:

Apple:  Microsoft copilot app is available for the iphone and ipad.

IBM: Here’s pieces on ibm databand with self learning for anomaly detection;  IBM and AI and the EI; IBM’s Granite LLM; WatsonX on AWS; installing watsonX; watsonx-code-assistant-4z; IBM Announces Availability of Open Source Mistral AI Model on watsonx; IBM’s criteria for adopting gen AI ;probable root cause accelerating incident remediation with causal AI; Watsonx on Azure; Watsonx and litellm; and conversational ai use cases for enterprises 

IKEA:  here’s something on the IKEA ai assistant using chatgpt for home design.

Microsoft:  from vision to value realization –  a closer look at how customers are embracing ai transformation to unlock innovation and deliver business outcomes, plus an OpenAI reference.

Hardware: I tend to think of AI in terms of software, but I found these fun hardware links too. Links such as: how to run chatgpt on raspberry pi; how this maker uses raspberry pi and ai to block noisy neighbors music by hacking nearby bluetooth speakers; raspberry pi smart fridge uses chat gpt4 to keep track of your food. Here’s something on the rabbit r1 ai assistant. Here’s the poem 1 AI poetry clock which is cool.

AI and the arts: AI continues to impact the arts for ways good and bad. For instance, here’s something on how to generate free ai music with suno. Relatedly here’s a piece on gen ai, suno music, the music industry, musicians and copyright. This is agood piece on artists and AI in the Times. Also good:  art that can be easily copied by AI is meaningless, says Ai Weiwei. Over at the Washington Post is something on AI image generation. In the battle with AI, here’s how artists can use glaze and nightshade to stop ai from stealing your art. Regarding fakes, here’s a piece on Taylor Swift and ai generated fake images. Speaking of fake, here’s something on AI and the porn industry. There’s also this  piece on generative ai and copyright violation.

Finally: I was looking into the original Eliza recently and thought these four links on it were good: one, two, three and four. Then there’s these stories: on AI to help seniors with loneliness, the new york times / openai/  microsoft lawsuit, another AI lawsuit involving air canada’s chatbot. stunt AI (bot develop software in 7minutes instead of 4 weeks) and a really good AI hub: chathub.gg.

Whew! That’s a tremendous amount of research I’ve done on AI in the last year. I hope you find some of it useful.

On bank architecture, now and then

Bank architecture is not random. As this critical look at bank architecture explains:

“Bank architecture has conveyed a grandeur and stability essential to an industry that relies as much on public trust and confidence as hard-earned dollars,” says Barry Bergdoll, who has coordinated and installed the exhibition at Columbia. While architecture has played a fundamental role in establishing banks as “august and trusted guardians of wealth,” said Professor Bergdoll, the exhibition also reveals “the complex range of attitudes we hold as individuals and as a society to money.”

Banks used to look like this:

Very grand. Very stable looking.

The TD bank above does the same thing, but it reflects how we expect to see that now: modern, innovative, friendly, but still grand and stable looking.  Their architecture needs to convey qualities you expect in a bank before you invest in their products or take out a loan. Then they did that with concrete pillars and fortress like doors: now it’s with neon and glass. 

 

On the cost of steak frites in Toronto

I love steak frites.  While it’s always good wherever I get it, my favorite place to order it from is Cote de Boeuf in Toronto, where it was delicious and affordable.

I was somewhat shocked recently by the price of steak frites there. The Cote de Boeuf menu above was from Nov 27, 2021. A bit pricey but not bad. Two and a half years later, their steak frites will now set you back 47 bucks (up 34%), while the next highest price cut is a 12oz ribeye at 69 (32% increase). The cote de boeuf has gone up to 168 (only 12%). 

At first I wanted to blame influencers for the price increases, since a) I don’t like influencers and b) I have seen many of them posting about how good this place is.  (That it is the best place for steak frites in Toronto is not just my opinion.) My prejudice was confirmed recently when I walked by and there was a lineup even with their patio open. One thing I loved about the place in the past was the relative ease of getting a spot inside even without the patio. I figured this demand was driving up the price.

However I went through the list of places in that blogTO post and I noticed that some of them charge the same if not more than Cote de Boeuf. Now, much depends on the size and cut of meat. Le Select Bistro offers an 8 oz striploin version for $49 and a 12 oz version for $70! Compare that to the current 10 oz striploin at Cote de Boeuf  for $47 and you are getting a better deal. Then again, Jules Bistro offers a 6 oz striploin for only $26.95., and the Ace offers a 10 oz hanger steak for $40. Le Paradis offers a flatiron steak of unknown size for $30.

I know the price of beef is going up and that is no doubt driving some of the cost increases. But I also suspect steak frites has become a more popular dish, and the demand for it is allowing restaurants to make it a more central and more expensive option.

I found another menu of Cote de Boeuf from February 2019 and steak frites was $28 then. No size mentioned, and it was listed as butchers cut (no doubt so the butcher could decide what was best to serve based on availability, etc.). Also there were seven mains then and duck confit was $29 ($1 more then vs $5 less now). Once the pandemic hit, restaurants trimmed back their menu options and no doubt have gone with their most popular items.

The whole trend makes me somewhat sad. I was never a fan of steakhouses with their exorbitant prices. I preferred a simple dish of steak frites preferably made with an unusual cut of beef like hanger or bavette. Good quality and not too expensive. It was like a burger and fries but for older people like me. I suspect those days are over.

Ah well. 

As something of a consolation, I see more and more places slipping good quality pork chops and fries on their menus recently. Mostly priced well below the steak frites. Perhaps that will be my go to the next time I hit up a bistro style restaurant. 

P.S. Here I am enjoying the last steak frites I had at Cote de Boeuf. Pure perfection.

P.S.S. If you want to make your own steak frites at home, here’s a recipe to get you started. If you want a peppercorn sauce to go with it, click here.

On futzing around with code

An example of a Prolog program

I was futzing around with code the other day. I wrote some html/css/javascript and then I wrote some unrelated prolog code. None of it had any value. The code didn’t solve some important problem. Some might consider it a waste of time.

But it wasn’t a waste. In both cases, I learned skills I didn’t have until I wrote the code. Those skills have value for the next time I do have to solve an important problem. Besides that, I enjoyed myself while coding. I was proud of myself for getting the code to work. That enjoyment and pride have value too.

Futzing around is a form of play, and any form of play is good for us as humans. Remember that the next time you consider taking on seemingly useless activities.

 

Just Be It. Or what the inclusiveness of marathon running taught me about writing, art and other activities

If you train for a marathon and you run it in a big city, chances are you will be in the same race — not run, but race — as world class runners. You will not win of course, but you will be included. That’s what is great about marathon running: you are as much a marathon runner / racer as someone hoping to be in the Olympics. It is inclusive.

Nike is a company that also supports inclusiveness, not just for running but for athleticism in general. They like to say: “if you have a body, you are an athlete”. It doesn’t get more inclusive than that.

I think such inclusiveness should be seen in the art world. If you create, you are an artist. If you write, you are a writer. If you’re writing poetry, you are a poet. Taking photos: a photographer. Thinking about the meaning of life: a philosopher.

Maybe your art is not going to bring you fame or fortune. Your running might not either. But if you are out there running or cycling or skiing or whatever you do, you are an athlete. The same should be true of writing or painting or photographing: you are an artist. Don’t let others exclude you from the group; don’t let others discourage you and get you to stop doing the thing you want to do. You’re as much a part of it as the people up front. Put on those running shoes, pick up that camera, that pen, that brush, and be the thing you are.

The Joy of the Pasture in Downtown Toronto

One of my favorite works of art in Toronto is The Pasture: nine bronze cows lying restfully on a field of grass. If it was located in another section of Toronto,  might be less remarkable. But being in the heart of the financial district and all it represents, there is a superb tension between the cows in their field and the people in their offices. In the offices people are working hard, stressed, standing and walking. The cows are doing none of that. 

If you ever in downtown Toronto near the Toronto Dominion center, I recommend you check out this fine work of art. It is an oasis of calm.

P.S. I remember when this sculpture first went in, for I was working at IBM and this sculpture went in right around when the IBM Tower on Wellington was established.

Instacart recipes have a secret ingredient: AI. What cooks should know.

One convenient feature of Instacart is a listing of “Related recipes” it will provide you if you are searching for a product or ingredient. For instance, I was searching for “biscuits” and one of the recipes that appeared to me was no-milk biscuits. Hmmmm, that could be good and simple, I thought. Seemed reasonable too. Then I scrolled down the bottom to the recipe and came across the text: this recipe is powered by the magic of AI.

First off, let me say: AI is not magic. Second, this COULD be a good recipe. Or it could be something where AI hallucinated ingredients or quantities. For this recipe, it is somewhat close to this recipe for dairy free biscuits at allRecipes.com, but it is missing some ingredients and the quantities of some of the ingredients are different. I searched other recipes at other sites, and while it is close to them, it seems…lacking…in comparison.

Simply put: you would be better off getting recipes from either reputable cookbooks or websites where recipes are tested and confirmed. It is convenient to use the recipes in places like Instacart, because you can easily add the ingredients of the recipe to your shopping cart, but the results from the recipes generated by AI could leave you very disappointed. Especially when it comes to baking!

P.S. Not to pick just on Instacart: I suspect we are going to see more and more of this type of AI generated advice on websites. Keep an eye out for it.

If you are using python packages like xmltodict or yaml, here is something to be aware of

If you are using python packages like xmltodict or yaml to write and read your own XML and yaml files, you probably don’t need to know this. But if you are reading someone else’s files, here is something to be aware of.

This week I had to process an XML files in python. No problem, I thought, I’ll use a python package like xmltodict to translate the XML into a dictionary variable. Then I could edit it and print out a new file with the changes. Sounds easy!

Well, first off, it wasn’t too easy: the nesting was horrendous. However, with some help from VS Code, I was able to power through and get the value I want.

Here’s where I got burned. I wanted to change the text in the XML file, so I had a statement like this to read it


mytext = python_dict["graphml"]["graph"]["node"][nodecount]["graph"]["node"][i]["data"]["y:ShapeNode"]["y:NodeLabel"]["#text"]

and then a simple statement like this to change it to lower text:


python_dict["graphml"]["graph"]["node"][nodecount]["graph"]["node"][i]["data"]["y:ShapeNode"]["y:NodeLabel"]["#text"] = mytext.lower()

Very basic.

Now this particular file is an XML file that has a graphml extension, which allows an editor like YED to read it. YED can read the original file, but it turns out xmltodict writes the file in such a way that the YED editor can no longer see the text. I don’t know why.

I spent hours working on it until I finally gave up. I wrote a much dumber program that read through the graphml file a line at a time and changed it the way I wanted to. No fancy packages involved. Dumb but it worked.

This is the second time this year a package has given me problems. In late January I wrote some code to parse yaml files for a client to extract information for them and to produce a report. Again, there is a package to do that: yaml. Which is….good…except when the yaml it is processing it is poorly written. Which this yaml was.

Again, I spent hours linting the yaml and in some cases having to forgo certain files because they were poorly constructed. What should have been easy — read the yaml file, transform it, write a new yaml file — was instead very difficult.

And that’s often the problem with yaml files and XML and JSON files: they are often handcrafted and inconsistent. They MAY be good enough for whatever tool is ingesting them, but not good enough for the packages you want to use to process them.

I think those packages are great if you are making the input files. But if you are processing someone elses, caveat emptor (caveat programmer?).

Things better on the iPad than my iPhone

Apple released it’s latest iPad (Pro) recently and whenever this happens people debate the value of the iPad in general and ask questions like: is the iPad worth it? 

I used to ask myself that question too. After all, between my iPhone and my Macbook, I thought I had all the computing technology I needed. But in the last year I got a new iPad — not even the latest and greatest — and I have to say that the iPad just does certain things better than either one. It’s especially better than my iPhone for:

  • Streaming video: Disney, Netflix, YouTube and more are all much better than my iPhone.
  • The library app Libby is much better, especially with the magazine section
  • The news sites like the New York Times and Washington Post are great on the iPad
  • Instacart: I can see more options when I order from it
  • Shopping sites like Zara and Uniqlo are better too for the same reason
  • X and other social media sites look great on my iPad, but not threads or Instagram because of some design ideas Meta has that are wrong.

And what I like about the iPad over my Macbook is a) there is no work apps on it so I don’t get distracted by work b) I can recline with the iPad (I don’t like doing that with the Macbook…it’s just no comfortable).

That’s just a start of my list.  I’ll keep updating this list for anyone debating getting an iPad. 

Restaurants loved and living: Okonomi House

I’ve been going to Okonomi House since the 1980s. And what has changed over the years is…nothing. It was great then and it’s great now. They still serve pretty much the same food now that they served then, with the crown jewel being the okonomi style pancakes like the one below.

They serve other things too, but for me that’s what I go for when I go in. It’s sweet, it’s savory, it’s delicious. Just spread that mayo dollop all over the pancake and dig in!

There have been changes, but they are very minor. Young people seem to run the restaurant now, and they have tweaked the menu and added new things. Gone is the cup of soup that I loved even though it was literally Cup of Soup! In its place is a classier miso soup option. They have a nicer bathroom also: no longer are boxes piled up in it. Otherwise, the place is timeless. I hope it never leaves.

For more on it, BlogTo has a review, here. Read that, then go. I went a few Fridays ago and it was packed at around 7:30 pm. The good news is table turnover is fast (and service is great), so if you can’t get a seat right away, just wait for a few minutes and you’ll be soon eating okonomi in no time. 

 

 

A haunting question

I came across this question when I was in a restaurant this week. I have thought about it often since I first read it.

By opening a door to anywhere, I also assume any time. Maybe you would walk through a door that would let you see a loved one again. You might choose to go through a door you skipped by when you were younger.

Or maybe you would stick to the present. You might want to cross a threshold to some place you always wanted to go. Or maybe you just want to use the door to exit where you are.

There’s also the future to consider. Do you want to go through a stage door of a famous theatre you might eventually perform in? Do you want to enter the Oval Office as president of the United States?  Maybe it’s simply a cottage you want to retire to when you get older.  All those doors await you.

With so many doors you could go through, which one do you choose? And why? 

As Monty Hall would say: pick a door. Choose wisely.

What we can learn from snack packs

These snack packs are amazing. Not because of the content, but because of the packaging the content is in. 

The content itself consists of 5 or 6 small crackers and associated morsels of cheese and meat that goes on top of them. If you are a food producer,  you could take slices of meat and cheese that are too irregular for your typical sliced meat/chese packaging, trim them, then put them in these things. Not only have you reduced your waste, but you have created a new product from it that cost the price of an entire package of sliced meat or of sliced cheese. Profit!

Whats sells the product is the package.  The outside emphasizes their convenience: Grab (and) Snack. Who has time to make and eat a sandwich? Not you! Plus if you aren’t going to eat it right away, your sandwich or your own cheese and cracker snack-pack could get soggy. Not these guys: each bit of food is in its own section, so everything stays tastier, longer. Even better, it’s not just ham and cheese and crackers: it’s dry cured genoa salami (exotic), part skim mozzarella cheese (lean), Bear Paws cheddar crackers (tasty). And it’s been inspected by the department of agriculture, no less, so you know it isn’t sketchy.

Let’s not forget the protein. Besides the emphasis of convenience, there is also the highlighting of how much grams of protein in them. 10g of protein is a good amount, and it is something I see online fitness promoting. (“It’s garbage if it has less than 10g of protein!”, some exclaim.)

I suspect these are meant to appeal to young adults who may have grown up and loved Lunchables and other lunch snacks. Hey, this product whispers, you can still have your convenient snacks despite being a big person. You can even have your bear paws crackers for the kid in you, while having dry cured genoa salami like you just picked it off a charcuterie board at a fancy restaurant.

Are these environmentally sound? Are they good value? Heck no. But capitalism is often about taking raw materials — in this case bibs and bobs of meat and cheese — and packaging it into something much more appealing. This product is capitalism at its finest, or worst, depending on your point of view.  

 

 

Scenius, or communal genius (with my own examples)

Scenius, that greater genius that comes from a particular community, is something I have thought about alot. If you haven’t heard of it before, I can recommend the following on it:

Here’s what I think are some great examples of it in the 20th century:

I am sure you can think of many more.

Each are great examples of very smart, very talented people coming together for an extended period of time. When they did, what they produced was special and associated with that community they were associated with. As the cliche goes, the sum was more than the parts.

This doesn’t mean you can only have genius appear communally. You can. If anything, that’s more of the norm. But when you have geniuses associating and working together, you have something really special.

Is there still a glass ceiling for Asian cuisine restarants in North America?

For a time in Toronto there were discussions I was following in various forums about the low cost of food in Asian restaurants. For example, people were asking: Why are Chinese restaurants so cheap in Toronto?  There were various reasons given, from “people don’t value the cuisine” to “it’s a form of fast food” to “racist attitudes and beliefs”. And this wasn’t just Toronto: you could see similar patterns in other major North American cities, from Montreal to New York.

It concerned me that this might be true. I knew Chinese and other Asian cuisine was just as sophisticated and varied as cuisines of Europe, and I felt North America needed more restaurants that reflected that.

Based on the latest list of the top 100 restaurants in New York (produced by Pete Wells of the NY Times), I think we have those restaurants. I went through this review by Eater of the list of the New York Times best restaurants list (2024) and I extracted the following info on Asian cuisine restaurants. Of the top 100 places, I made this short list:

  • Chinese: 5. #15 CheLi, #36 Szechuan Mountain House, #59 Great NY Noodletown, #68 Chonging Lao Zao, #84 Hakka Cuisine
  • Japanese: 4. #9 Yoshino, #22 Kono, #32 Shion 69 Leonard, #45 Raku
  • Indian: 4. #7 Semma, #54 Dhamaka, #80 Temple Canteen, #95 Hyderabadi Zaiqa
  • Korean: 7. #4 Atomix, #16 Jeju Noodle Bar, #30 Atoboy, #40 Okdongsik, #52 Yoon Haeundae Galbi, #77 Oiji Mi, #91 Mapo Korean BBQ
  • Vietnamese: 1. #20 Mam
  • Thai: 1. #29 Zaab Zaab

(The number after the cuisine is the number of restaurants (e.g. 7 places serve Korean cuisine). The ones in bold-italic are in the $$$$ price range, bold is the $$$ price range, and italic is $$.)

It’s not just one or two places, like Yoshino or Atoboy: there are numerous high end restaurants in NYC serving Asian cuisine from all parts of the continent.  There are everyday places like Temple Canteen and Great NY Noodletown, too, and I am positive there are tons of places serving great Asian food that is not listed in the top 100 that are still great. But Asian cuisine is no longer limited to restaurants in the $ to $$ range.

That is not just New York. In Toronto we have high quality and higher end Asian places like Sushi Masaki Saito, Aburi Hana, Kaiseki Yu-zen Hashimoto, Shoushin, 156 Cumberland, Indian Street Food Company, Sunnys Chinese, PAI, and more, according to experts like Michelin. I suspect it is the same in other North American cities too. It’s good to see and a good sign.

Here’s to more people gaining a greater appreciation for cuisines of all kinds, and here’s to more opportunities to experience that, be it in a small place in a food court or a grand establishment in a beautiful building. Cheers!

P.S. To see the entire New York Times list, go here.

 

 

A new form of hostile architecture: the chairless cafe / restaurant

According to wikipedia, “hostile architecture is an urban-design strategy that uses elements of the built environment to purposefully guide behavior. It often targets people who use or rely on public space more than others, such as youth, poor people, and homeless people, by restricting the physical behaviours they can engage in”.  Examples of this are ledges in cities with spikes or bumps on them so people cannot sit on them, or benches with extra dividers so people can’t sleep on them.

There’s a new form of hostile architecture that is subtler. I’ve noticed it has occurred after the pandemic. It comes in the form of fast food restaurants and cafes that make it impossible to sit and stay. As I noted in the photo taken above, Starbucks has returned to my area after closing up during the pandemic, but they have set up so it is next to impossible to sit and stay. They used to have similar places nearby that did have seating, but they’re all gone.

And it not just limited to Starbucks. A nearby McDonald’s had a place with seating and they stripped it all out and limited it to just a few stools. Likewise with the new Popeyes in the area.

What all these places want is take your money and move you along. While this may be good for them, the result is less places to get out and take a break in the neighborhood. Cities need more of these places, not less. Just like cities need benches to sit down on, cities need cafes and low cost restaurants that people can use to get out and see people and get a change in their environment.

I would advise you to patronize places that provide that experience and avoid places that do not. We need less hostile architecture in our cities, not more.

 

How often to check your cell phone plan (and other plans too)


We are often reminded to change our smoke detector batteries twice a year by basing it on some calendar event, like the equinox or at the start of certain seasons (e.g. Fall and Spring).

I recommend you do that for your cell phone plans and other plans from service providers you have. Especially with cell phones, you will find that new plans will come out that are better than your current plan, and a call to your provider can save you money and get you better service.

Go through your financial statements and look at all the service fees you are paying. Then pick some times on the calendar and at that time either cancel the service or ask them for better or cheaper service. Over time you’ll save money.

Homelessness and poverty in Nova Scotia and elsewhere


Nova Scotia: like many places in the world, Nova Scotia is struggling to deal with homelessness and poverty. There were a number of homeless encampments in Halifax, and the government took steps to deal with this, although not always successfully. The stories I have been following were around building new places to live and getting rid of the encampments, like these:


The rest of the world: while I was focused on what was being done in Nova Scotia, I also have been following stories on poverty and homelessness in the rest of the world

Finally: VOX had a good piece on how you can help others suffering  homelessness. And the New York Times has a section called Headway which is Exploring the world’s challenges through the lens of progress and touches on homelessness and other social issues.

P.S. Remember, the problems of poverty are simple and solvable. Also, homelessness is a concurrent disorder.

Joan Didion, and why you should write

In the 1970s Joan Didion wrote:

I write entirely to find out what I’m thinking, what I’m looking at, what I see and what it means. What I want and what I fear. – Why I Write (essay originally published in the New York Times Book Review in 1976, here)

I think it is a good reason for all of us to write, regardless of our level of skill. I think I am going to be adopting that more, here and offline. I would hope the same for you, even if it is a matter of making notes in a composition notebook or a scribbler.

Writing as thinking. Not only deep thoughts, or correct thoughts, but thoughts in general.

A great collection of Joan Didion in her own words from the Guardian, here.

To stay focused, set 5 min timers and log

If you’re like me, you find all the screens and tasks you have to deal with make it hard to stay focused. I don’t know how many times in the day I find myself forgetting what I was working on until I look at a particular screen or a piece of paper and think: oh yeah, I was doing that! (Its bad.)

I have recently came across a trick to help me focus. It’s a simple trick: I set a short 5 minute timer. When the timer goes off, I write down what I was just working on. I find this helps me from getting too distracted. Then I go back to my master todo list I refer to in order to make sure the things I am writing down are aligned with what I want to be doing. Finally I set another timer and try and focus on the next task I should be working on.

Restaurants loved and living: Le Paradis

Starting during the pandemic, I wrote a series of posts on restaurants loved and lost, inspired by a piece in the New York Times on places that vanished due to the pandemic.

I’d like to go in a different direction and talk about restaurants loved and living. These are places I’ve loved long before the pandemic that are still going strong. First up is Le Paradis.

I’ve been going to Le Paradis since the 1980s. Back then it was known for reliable French bistro style food and great prices. Jump forward 40 years and…it’s still the same.  If anything, I’d say the cooking in the last year has improved greatly. Before you could excuse the so-so cooking because it was so inexpensive. Now you don’t need an excuse, because the cooking is really good. And still inexpensive.

I was worried about it during the pandemic, and even went and dined in the alley near the restaurant just to give them a chance to stay in business. Lucky for me they made it. Lucky for you, too.

So ignore reviews like this and go and have a $12 cocktail, a $45 bottle of wine, and a steak frites dinner almost half as expensive as other places in the city.  If you’re by yourself, take advantage of the zinc bar up front. Or sit at the banquettes near the kitchen (my favourite spot).  There’s plenty of places to sit — it’s a fairly big place — though a reservation is still a good idea. Especially if you want to sit outside when the weather is warm.

Did I forget to mention that the service is great? Well, it is. So tip well. You’ll have no excuse after all the money you save.

 

Another dozen good pieces on artists from Richard Serra to Robert Mapplethorpe


Here’s 12 good pieces on artists that capture a range of feeling, from sadness to gladness and more.

Sadness: the great Richard Serra passed away recently. So too did Patti Astor, head of the Fun Gallery in the 80s. Her obit is here. Deeply sad is this sobering piece on art being made in  Ukraine during the current war.

Badness: The Tate continues to struggle with racist elements in a famous Whistler mural. This story talks about how they brought in artist Keith Piper to help with that. You be the judge of all that.

Also bad: a story of how Jeff Koons squashed a review he didn’t like. Bad in his own way and so very Damien Hirst:  Hirst shark that sold for about 8m is fourth 2017 work dated to 1990s here. Not bad, but controversial is Gerhard Richter’s most divisive work returning. to Auschwitz.

Gladness: things that made me glad are these prints by Lucy Cooper. These great photos by my friend Jared Bramblett, seen here also fill me with gladness. Also great is this story of David Hampton, an 98 year old artist who think making art keeps you alive. He makes a good case.

Longing: Written during the pandemic, this piece on Jason Polan as a flaneur was worth revisiting…there’s so much longing in that piece. (Image above from that piece.)

Boadciousness: not my word, but I think it applies in this piece on ex-Vogue editor Edward Enninful and his thoughts on  Robert Mapplethorpe.

 

 

If you use the New York Times app, you should clear your cache from time to time. Here’s how to do it

It’s shocking how much of your iPhone storage the New York Times app can use.

Recently I was going to apply a software update to my iPhone and I was told it didn’t have enough free storage space. I clicked on Settings > General > iPhone Storage and I saw that the app from the Times was using around 4 GB of my storage. I didn’t want to delete it to free up storage, so I opened the app instead.

On the top right of the app is an icon for My Account. Click on it, and then the gear icon on the top right. Then scroll down and click on Data Usage > Clear Cache.

It took a few moments, but when I went back to check my iPhone Storage I had just reclaimed over 3 GB.

After I did that, I was able to apply the software update. As for the app from the Times, I haven’t noticed any loss in how it performs.

The Times app is great, but it can be a storage hog. Luckily you can use the app to fix that.

 

Two good pieces on the recent Keith Haring bio

If you didn’t know much about Keith Haring other than what you read in the recent piece in the New Yorker (which I criticized, here), you might a poor impression of this great artist.

Fortunately more prominent writers than myself have written good things on Haring and the biography in the New York Times and The Guardian. I think they provide the right context for the artist and his times too. Plus they hold him in high esteem. Highly recommend you check them out if you were a fan of the painter or want to know him better.

For fans of tiny homes….

We here at this blog have always been fans of tiny homes and have written about them often.

It turns out the New York Times are fans as well, and have a section of their web site devoted to them called living small.

Some of them are quite grand, like the one above. And others are simpler, like the one below. They’re all great in their smallness.

Check them out. Even if you prefer larger accommodations, I think you’ll like them.

The real cost of a peloton (and other good fitness and health links)

Do you wish you could do gym workouts but you don’t have access to a gym? If that’s you, IKEA is here to help, with their new pastel-colored DAJLIEN collection (shown above). Especially good for people with small spaces.

Maybe you think the secret of working out at home is to go the peloton route. In that case, you own it to yourself to read about the real cost of a peloton.

Do you want to get fit but are feeling stuck? If so, read this: Here Are 5 Ways to Jumpstart Your Life. Mental health experts suggest exercises to knock down the internal roadblocks that are causing burnout and holding you back.

If you think you are too old to get fit, then check this out: can I build enough muscle in my 60s to make it to 100 even though I’ve never weight trained? If you need a workout to get started with, try this 10 minute bodyweight workout.

If you think you have high blood pressure, see your doctor. But also read this: Why High Blood Pressure Matters to Your Health And how to get it under control. Apparently a good way to lower your blood pressure is by doing this:  wall sit isometric exercise.

People who are already pretty fit and are considering running a marathon, read this: Running a fall marathon? Here are 26.2 tips to help you finish.

Finall, this is a funny and artistic way describing how to lose weight.

How to simply merge PDF files on a Mac for free with no additional software

If you want to merge PDF files on a Mac, you might be tempted to use a tool like www.ilovepdf.com. Worse still, you might try and do it from Adobe’s Acrobat site and end up signing up to pay $200 or more per year for the privilege!

The good news is if you are on a Mac, you don’t need to do any of that.

Instead, open your PDF files using Preview. Make sure your view shows Thumbnails of the pages in each document. Then drag the thumbnail pages of one document into another. Then save the document you added the thumbnails to and you are done.

For example, let’s say you have two PDF files: abc.pdf and xyz.pdf. You want all the pages in abc.pdf to be in xyz.pdf. You open them both using Preview, you drag the thumbnails of abc.pdf over to the thumbnail section of xyz.pdf. Then you save xyz.pdf. (You can save abc.pdf as an empty document or quit and have it revert back to how it was.)

If you want to leave abc.pdf and xyz.pdf untouched but merge them into a third document, first copy xyz.pdf and give it a name like abcxyz.pdf. Then open abc and abcxyz.pdf using Preview. Then copy the thumbnails of abc.pdf into abcxyz.pdf and save abcxyz.pdf and quit and do not save abc.pdf. Now you have three files: abc.pdf and xyz.pdf are unchanged and abcxyz.pdf are merged copies of the two of them.

On the end (?) of the Cape Breton Post, and other stories of the Maritimes


It’s not the end of the Post yet, but it could soon be. Saltwire, the company that owns the Cape Breton Post and plus 22 more papers from Eastern Canada is seeking creditor protection. It’s possible that the Post survives that somehow, but it’s looking grim. I can’t imagine a world without being able to read the Cape Breton Post, but I might have to.

Speaking of reading materials, Atlantic News in Halifax celebrated its 50th anniversary not too long ago. That’s awesome! I loved going there when I was a Dal Student in the 80s. They had every possible magazine you could imagine, and plenty of newspapers too. It was a readers dream, and no doubt it still is. (Photo above from that story.)

I would like to be living near it still, but like many Maritimers I ended up heading out of province to look for work. Here’s a good story on someone who used to judge people who chose to leave Newfoundland for work until she had to leave too. Well worth a read.

Finally, this story is a reminder of how isolated it can be in parts of Cape Breton: trapped for 5 day as water dwindled, this Cape Breton couple was thankful for snowmobile delivery.

 

The City Harvest lunch at Le Bernardin is still a good deal


One of the best meals I’ve had around 7 years ago this month was also one of the greatest value meals I’ve ever had. It was the lunch in the lounge at Le Bernardin and back then it was $55, with $5 of that going to the charity City Harvest. Even four years later, Eater NY said it was only $60. Still a steal.

So I was somewhat shocked when I heard it was now $127! That’s quite a jump from $55. Alas, I got that wrong. $127 is for the lunch. The City Harvest lunch in the lounge is $94, of which $5 still goes to the charity.

I still think it is worthwhile at that price. I know between 2019 and now the restaurant was dealing with the pandemic like everyone else and spent a lot on upgrades to keep the place going. And going it still is. You should go, too.

For more information to help you to decide, here’s the Lounge Menu (and more). The wines by the glass are also good value. To get a lunch at one of the best restaurants in New York with 3 Michelin stars for under $100 is still worth stopping for, I believe.

Happy Birthday to Gmail, from this old Yahoo email user!

Happy birthday, Gmail! According to the Verve, you are 20 years old! The big two-oh! Sure, you had some growing pains at first. And then there was the whole period when you and your users felt snobbish about their gmail accounts and looked down on people with yahoo accounts. But that’s all water under the bridge. We’re all old now.

Google is notorious for killing off services, but it is inconceivable they’ll ever kill off you, Gmail. I expect you and your users will be around for a long long time. Heck even an old yahoo email account user like me uses Gmail from time to time. There’s no guarantees, of course, but I expect to be revisiting this post in 2034, god willing, and writing about your 30th. Until then…

Making art for your wall with Lego

Normally when I think of Lego, I think of using it to make something recognizable (e.g. things from Star Wars). So I was surprised to see this: Piece Together Your Own Wall Art With the LEGO Modern Art Set. If you love Lego and abstract art, then you can make your own art with those kits featured in that article.

Of course you don’t need a kit to do it. Just go to Etsy and you will see plenty of abstract art pieces made of Lego for inspiration, like this piece here shown below:

Neat!

Now all you need is a pile of old Lego. I have just the thing in the basement from when my kids were younger. I should go down and make some art with it.