Blog.BrianQuan.com

Telescope Music Video

Over the past two weeks I had a great time working on a music video for upcoming Canadian singer, Shalini.
Working with first time director Vik Prasad, I was consulted on most aspects of the production as well as being behind the camera.

The video has a strong anti-bullying message, released just in time for Pink Shirt Day. Please share this great video:

Vancouver, Fund Transit with Property!

If they are serious (and at all smart) about alternative funding sources for transit (if people can get their heads out of taxes as the only funding source), then the Metro's cities and TransLink should start buying up some property and developing currently held property.

We need to start adopting the the Hong Kong funding model for transit: property development and holdings. The MTR acts as a real estate developer and business company, in addition to a transit operator. MTR actually MADE almost $15 billion HKD in profit in 2011.

Kent Larson: Ideas for a more liveable and efficient city

Sound to capture Gestures

Hear This, and take it to heart.

I'm sorry but I don't want to be an Emperor, that's not my business. I don't want to rule or conquer anyone. I should like to help everyone if possible, Jew, gentile, black man, white. We all want to help one another, human beings are like that. We all want to live by each other's happiness, not by each other's misery. We don't want to hate and despise one another. In this world there is room for everyone and the earth is rich and can provide for everyone.

The way of life can be free and beautiful. But we have lost the way. Greed has poisoned men's souls, has barricaded the world with hate; has goose-stepped us into misery and bloodshed. We have developed speed but we have shut ourselves in: machinery that gives abundance has left us in want. Our knowledge has made us cynical, our cleverness hard and unkind.
We think too much and feel too little: More than machinery we need humanity; More than cleverness we need kindness and gentleness.
Without these qualities, life will be violent and all will be lost. The aeroplane and the radio have brought us closer together. The very nature of these inventions cries out for the goodness in men, cries out for universal brotherhood for the unity of us all. Even now my voice is reaching millions throughout the world, millions of despairing men, women and little children, victims of a system that makes men torture and imprison innocent people. To those who can hear me I say "Do not despair".

The misery that is now upon us is but the passing of greed, the bitterness of men who fear the way of human progress: the hate of men will pass and dictators die and the power they took from the people, will return to the people and so long as men die, liberty will never perish.

Soldiers: don't give yourselves to brutes, men who despise you and enslave you, who regiment your lives, tell you what to do, what to think and what to feel, who drill you, diet you, treat you as cattle, as cannon fodder.
Don't give yourselves to these unnatural men, machine men, with machine minds and machine hearts. You are not machines. You are not cattle. You are men. You have the love of humanity in your hearts. You don't hate, only the unloved hate. Only the unloved and the unnatural. Soldiers: don't fight for slavery, fight for liberty. In the seventeenth chapter of Saint Luke it is written: "The kingdom of God is within man"
Not one man, nor a group of men, but in all men; in you, the people.

You the people have the power, the power to create machines, the power to create happiness. You the people have the power to make life free and beautiful, to make this life a wonderful adventure. Then in the name of democracy let's use that power, let us all unite. Let us fight for a new world, a decent world that will give men a chance to work, that will give you the future and old age and security. By the promise of these things, brutes have risen to power, but they lie. They do not fulfil their promise, they never will. Dictators free themselves but they enslave the people. Now let us fight to fulfil that promise. Let us fight to free the world, to do away with national barriers, do away with greed, with hate and intolerance. Let us fight for a world of reason, a world where science and progress will lead to all men's happiness.
Soldiers! In the name of democracy, let us all unite!

-Charlie Chaplin's "The Great Dictator"

Movies: The Era of Ridiculousness

Looks like we are moving out of the Era of Movie Sequels and moving into the Era of Ridiculousness! I present my evidence:

Abraham Lincoln Vampire Hunter

Iron Sky (aka. Nazi's from the Moon)

FDR: American Badass

Cowboys & Aliens

Business Models for Transit

In Japan "Private railways run variety of other businesses such as dept stores & real estate" (Wikipedia). I witnessed this everywhere in my time spent in Japan. Most train stations were well connected to shops, businesses, entertainment, and residences. Everything was highly accessible and very liveable. I would constantly compare back to the stark bareness back home and wonder why haven't we done this. I called them Transit-Hub Centric Communities.

...so an organization builds a transit corridor - the stations, with attached multi-use developments, with retail, amenities, and residential. The organization retains ownership of the property and is now able to profit from the demand it created for itself with increased foot traffic. The profit will be from leasing real estate and increased property values. Local government gets increased revenue from more property tax, sales tax, etc... which can be used to pay for the initial investment.

Another example is the following from Hong Kong:

How Transit Systems Can Make Money

Recently Jay Walder, former head of New York�s subway system, the MTA, left his job to take over Hong Kong�s transit system, the MTR. For Walder the move means a lot more than one different letter on his business card: it means a salary raise from $350,000 to about a million bucks.

The reason Hong Kong�s metro system can afford to pay its chief so much more than New York�s is that, unlike the MTA, which faces a $10 billion shortfall, the MTR actually makes money. Lots of money. Like 8.7 billion Hong Kong dollars lots, according to Bloomberg, which is more than a billion U.S. dollars a year.

So what accounts for the enormous difference in financial success between the two systems? Cue Alex Marshall of the Regional Plan Association:

The answer is that Hong Kong�s MTR doesn�t let private developers be the only ones that perch next to its stations. It builds its homes, offices and stores. In short, MTR acts as a real estate developer and business company, as well as a train operator. It owns, among other things, 12 shopping malls built around its stations. These properties and businesses produce substantial cash, which keep the transit agency as a whole in the black.

Whereas New York City sells the real estate near its subway lines, Hong Kong develops it � creating what Cap�n Transit calls �an integrated product� of property and access. In other words, MTR not only runs Hong Kong�s trains but it also owns a lot of the properties these trains serve. This side business generates a huge amount of revenue that can be recycled back into the system itself.

Marshall seems to think American cities in general � and New York in particular � can get in on the action. Still such a course would require a �huge change in our thinking,� Marshall recently told WNYC, since Americans typically cringe at the idea of government owning potentially private property. Then again, they also cringe at fare hikes and service cuts.

By Eric Jaffe

This is an EXCELLENT opportunity for Translink, the Metro Vancouver transit authority to get a positive revenue stream and self finance future transit projects, instead of relying so heavily on taxpayers' dollars.

Current opportunities include property that Translink already owns, such as the many Park-and-Ride lots in Metro Vancouver. A prime example for current development, with a transit-hub already there, would be Scott Road station and its attached Park-and-Ride. King-George station also has an attached Park and ride, that can build off the current Infinity developments there. The Bridgeport station is also another opportunity.

A local example of this model is the current development happening at New Westminster Station. Plaza 88, being called an urban transit village, is a great starting point if Translink can get in on the game. The development integrates condos, shopping, restaurants, and other amenities with direct access to a transit-hub. It's a Transit-Hub Centric Community.

"It's very un-mall like. We tried to treat it as a station, as opposed to a shopping mall. We believe that this adds to the inclusiveness within New Westminster ..."

Please ignore the bad rendering and overly clipped music in the following video:

And more here from Skyscraperpage forums

Revenue for Transit from corporate sponsorship

So recently Translink has been asking for input on where funding will come from for future transportation infrastructure for Metro Vancouver. It seems like the only options they are giving is getting more money from property taxes. Their "options" are just to increase taxes and fees or increase them more.

Perhaps its time for them and us all to consider other possibilities in generating revenue for the future of transit infrastructure. Why not allow corporate sponsorship naming rights to transit stations and hubs? I'm serious. This has been done before in other parts of the world, such as Las Vegas (it was huge in getting their monorail built). This could generate Millions of dollars that would go a very long way in improving Metro Vancouver's transit. Com'mon, the "Bell Patterson Station" doesn't sound so bad does it?

Further, Translink should maximize its advertising revenue. Edmonds Station is a prime example. The bus loop there has a shelter with several poster light boxes for ads. All of which have been pretty much blank since the 90s! I remember a year or two ago seeing one old poster advertisement up. It was for BC Clean Air Day 1994!

Also, be smarter with money! maximize our transit options - The 'Skytrain' option is a luxury item that costs more but gives less. There are other smarter mass transit options such as Full Bus Rapid Transit and light rail, that give more service for the buck!

A word of advice: TED talks

When watching videos of TED Talks or other great lectures/talks, have a notepad handy and take notes of the ideas that intrigue you.

Bjarke Ingels Scandinavian 'Loop City'

The 'loop city' proposal builds on the famous '1947 finger plan', which focused on connecting the suburb to the center. BIG proposes to continue to connect the area around the �resund strait in a sustainable spine of public transport, energy exchange and electric car infrastructure. the resulting development model circumscribes around the base of the 'hand', much like a bracelet, to combine new programs with the metro stations, providing an urban outlet throughout the suburbs.

Scent Branding

As a general observation, 'Scent Branding' is increasingly common in retail design.
Consider:
-The 'Subway smell' - a byproduct of their fresh ingredients and baking of their bread, but very recognizable.
-Distinctive Lush smell coming out the front doors of Lush stores - from their many fragrant bath and body care products.
-Cinnamon Bun shops and their cinnamon aroma.
-Any bakery
-Coffee shops

Airquarium!

Over the past year or so, I have worked on an airship project (weBlimp - a social, crowd controlled blimp). In the process of research and what-not I have come across some other very cool projects and flying things. After seeing some cool animal airship videos:

Air Manta Ray, Air Jellyfish, Air Penguin, Air Fish

... I want to see an Airquarium! :D Like an aquarium, but in the air. This would be best inside a large, open indoor space inside a building, such as an atrium or mezzanine.

Retrofitting Suburbia

A TED Talk by Ellen Dunham-Jones, speaking about updating and 'retrofitting' suburbs to more sustainable, walkable, and livable centres.

PC inside a keyboard

Here is a cool concept from Asus for a portable Media PC. Its a computer stuffed inside a keyboard. It has a small attached screen that can be used for multiple functions, such as a control panel, touch input device, and of course a display screen.
The idea is to be able to carry this little kbPC around and plug it into any of your many displays and use your computer there. Plug it into your HDTV, desktop monitor, conference room projector, or even wirelessly (the receiver device is also included). You can even use it on its own with the small touch screen (limited functions I suppose)

Check out the Amazon site for more specifics

Fullscreen on Facebook

So I just wrote a new script:

Fullscreen Youtube & Vimeo on Facebook for Greasemonkey

After waiting a very long time for someone to do a script like this, I finally went ahead and made one myself. This script will enable the fullscreen ability/button on Youtube & Vimeo videos that are embedded into Facebook feeds and profiles. All embedded Youtube & Vimeo videos viewed in Facebook, by default dont have the fullscreen button.

Dyson

Came across this GREAT video James Dyson talking about his technological innovations! Starts off slow, but once he gets into talking about his current tech it gets pretty interesting

It's a Beautiful Life

IE6 almost dead; But is the life of a web dev any easier?

So at long last, this year Internet Explorer 6 is finally dying!
At the moment, with only about 8% market share remaining, the long awaited death of IE6 shall be heralded by all web designers and developers out there. Major web services have already stopped supporting them (such as Vimeo and Youtube). Heh, one of my favorite responses to IE6, the "Shockingly Big IE6 Warning" Wordpress Plugin.

So hooray! No more headaches of trying to make websites compatible on IE6 - but does that necessarily mean the life of a web designer is any easier now? Maybe not. Because today, we don't only have to test on web browsers on computers, we now have the plethora of mobile devices that have internet access. Perhaps even make an entirely different interfaces for mobile and touch screens. Although, I do concede to the fact that most of the latest internet capable mobile devices are pretty good at adhering to web standards - especially in comparison to IE6.

So in short, IE6 is a huge headache lifted from the web devs shoulders, but more technologies are filling its place (much smaller headaches but more numerous).

Fed up! So i made my own Open_external fix

Back in the latter half of 2009 when Firefox 3.5 was released, I was quite disappointed that the backend 'about:config' feature known as 'browser.link.open_external' was removed from Firefox. Open_external is a preference that specifies how webpages should be opened if an external program (such as email program) opens a URL. In November or so I found a fix, which I talk about more here in this post.

But since Firefox 3.6, and newer updates of the addon fix, they would not work for me. Firefox 3.5 removed the open_external feature, which annoyed me, then a fix for it is now broken in FF 3.6.
I got fed up so I just made my own Firefox extension to fix it!

Restore Open_External 1.0
Restores the functionality of the 'browser.link.open_external' preference that was removed in Firefox 3.5+

(I have now learned how to make script-based FF extensions)

weBlimp update

So back in April, I wrote about a body interface project that I worked on called weBlimp. So in the time since then, the weBlimp team has brought it from a final project in a class, to an academic conference presentation, and now to an Olympic event!

So to update, in October, we were at UC Berkeley to present the concepts behind weBlimp at the ACM Creativity & Cognition 2009 Conference.

The conference was great. It really has me considering grad school now. I also really enjoyed checking out San Francisco and the Bay Area.

A month or two after, we were asked by our University and the City of Surrey to showcase weBlimp during the 2010 Winter Olympics!

Currently, we are working on building of a 'weBlimp 2.0' of higher quality and robustness, in preparation for its installation at the Surrey Holland Park Olympic Celebration Site. The installation will be showcased during the Olympics from February 17-21st.

Also, since our involvement with the Olympics, we have been featured in a number of blogs and news articles:
Surrey Leader
GreenDiary
NotCot
Technabob

Offical weBlimp:
SIAT.SFU.CA/weblimp
weblimp.brianquan.com
@weBlimp on Twitter

Here is the original documentation video on weBlimp. We will try to have a new one after the Olympics.

Link Scraping for my Blogging

So in an effort to make it easier for me to blog, I have been thinking about scripting some automation. Facebook allows you to easily 'share links'. FB's method of link sharing actually takes the content of the URL you are sharing and creates a preview or thumbnails of that content. This allows your friends to easily get an idea what the link is about without clicking on it and also allows you to quickly share things without too much work. Also the quick ability to add your comment on the link is great too. So after some researching, I found out that this method of gathering previews of the content is known as 'Scraping'.

I have been thinking about creating some sort of script to help me blog interesting Internet finds, by link scraping and saving myself some time and effort. While I know there are some other services out there that do this, I dont feel like migrating my blog. So I think some sort of Javascript scriptlet or bookmarklet might be able to do some generic job and integrate it into my blogging.

Now I havent found anything like that out there, so if someone knows of one, PLEASE do let me know. It can save me some effort.

As for creating my own, I've only gotten as far as pseudocode. Haven't had the chance to go any further.

Sort-of-Pseudocode:

link blogging with scrape: get domain/type of link: -input link youtube/vimeo: -take input link -get view code -take predetermined embed code, and insert view code -paste into new blog entry inputbox general link: -extract excerpt of text from html --only excerpt from body tag --skip past menus etc, get to meaningful content (tricky) --remove all other html tags --concatenate remaining text up to specified character number -scan thru html for img tags -extract image urls for img tags -display images for thumbnail selection, in small size -take selected image and excerpt text --insert into preformatted code for displaying a link

If someone else wants to have a go making one, be my guest!

Finally! Fix for FF3.5 removal of open_external

The upgrade to Firefox 3.5 was a huge and welcome improvement, especially with its new faster javascript engine. However, one of the most annoying things about the upgrade was the inexplicable removal of the browser.link.open_external option.

open_external Background:
Other applications will often use the system�s default browser to load web pages. When a Mozilla-based browser is running, it can catch links sent by other programs. This preference determines how Mozilla handles those links.

Possible values and their effects:
1 = Open links from external programs in the current window.
2 = Open links from external programs in a new window.
3 = Open links from external programs in new tabs in an existing window. (Default in Firefox)

While this an 'under-the-hood' option that can only be accessed via about:config, it is an important one because in my browsing routine, I want URLs that I click in my email program or instant messaging program to bring up links into new windows, not buried as one of the many tabs in one of the many open browser windows. Also, when it is directed to a tab instead of a new window, the page does not pop-up and into focus for me to read and I have to go searching for it. So i prefer open_external=2.

After months since the update to Firefox 3.5, I have finally found a solution. An AddOn created by mrchucho.net called Tabs Open Relative (Modified) 1.0 (a modified version of the Tabs Open Relative AddOn), which restores the open_external behavior!

Totally a fan of BRT

The Institute for Transportation and Development Policy has an amazing planning guide for Bus Rapid Transit systems.

BUS RAPID TRANSIT PLANNING GUIDE
Link: http://www.itdp.org/index.php/microsite ... ing_guide/
It is the culmination of over five years of efforts to document and improve the state of the art in cost-effective public transport solutions for cities. This edition, expanded to over 800 pages, includes ...

Lessons from Curitiba: Bus Rapid Transit

Curitiba: BRT is not just a transportation plan, but a way of urban planning ...

Streetfilms | Curitiba�s BRT: Inspired Bus Rapid Transit Around the World
Link: http://www.streetfilms.org/curitibas-brt/
Curitiba, Brazil first adopted its Master Plan in 1968. Since then, it has become a city well known for inventive urban planning and affordable (to the user and the city) public transportation.

For BRT to really be successful, it must be perceived and treated as a form or Rapid Transit - like a subway, not just a bus.

Successful BRT needs:
-Dedicated lane ways.
-STATIONS (not just some bus stop, a real station. remember this is rapid transit, it should be treated like a subway station).
-Advanced fare collection at the stations.
-Fast methods of boarding/disembarking buses.

It is interesting to note that so called rapid bus lines in Metro Vancouver has none of these.

Parking: a key to traffic and congestion

A San Francisco study on how to deal with parking problems. They suggest better pricing models to curb driver behaviors, instead of building more parking.

Worldchanging: Bright Green: Parking Done Right
Link: http://www.worldchanging.com/archives/010687.html
Decrease the price of parking at times of day, such as mid-morning, when spots are under-utilized Increase the price of parking during times of heavy use, with the goal of achieving an average occupancy rate of 85% Extend the metered parking until later in the evening in certain neighborhoods to mat...

<3 streetfilms

I love StreetFilms.org! They do an amazing job covering ideas (in practice or in process, past and present) on making urban spaces more livable.

Streetfilms | Documenting Livable Streets Worldwide
Link: www.streetfilms.org
It's not everyday that you get to ride bikes in a big metropolis with a member of Congress, even one who loves to bicycle whenever he can. Rep. Earl Blumenauer dropped by Transportation Alternatives' offices to ...

Surrey: "The Future Lives Here"

City of Surrey "The Future Lives Here"
An economic development showcase for the City of Surrey, British Columbia.

[Update]: Looks like the video got revised - updated the embed link.

5 MS Multitouch mice

Microsoft Research shows off five different multi-touch mice, each using different methods of multi-touch input

Microsoft Research shows off multitouch mouse prototypes
Link: www.engadget.com/2009/10/05/microsoft-research-shows-off-multitouch-mouse-prototypes/
Rather odd timing, given some recent developments in the Apple camp, but Microsoft Research has just surfaced some of its incredibly wild multitouch mouse prototypes. Each one uses a different touch detection method, and at first glance all five seem to fly in the face of regular ergonomics. ...

Content-Aware-Scaling in Photoshop

How to Use Content-Aware-Scaling in Photoshop CS4 - Psdtuts+
Link: http://fbshare.me/HMuj
The latest version of Photoshop CS4 offers a variety of new features that save time and work. One of them is the newly added Content-Aware-Scaling feature...