Calvin Harris gets taken down.

http://arstechnica.com/media/news/2009/07/musician-has-strong-words-after-youtube-video-takedown.ars

The Independent Retailer

Hear Now are a record store in the Melbourne city centre. You didn't know this, but that's ok, they are closing so obviously you weren't the only one unaware of their existence. 

In their letter to the adoring public they say “We are saddened seeing the demise of a once prosperous industry & culture” and “The growing dominance of the internet is probably the most to blame”.

I buy quite a few CDs every year, I shop at independent stores, JB HiFI and of course online; do you know what the best part of CD shopping is? Leaving the store, going home and listening to the CD! The idea that just because your store is down a laneway, has been the venue for an in-store performance, or stocks more vinyl than Polyester, you somehow transcend the earthly shopping experience, well it is simply ridiculous. Record stores have had a diminshing role in music retailing for 10 years now, perhaps, rather than shaking their fist at the sky, Hear Now may have realised that a growing number prefer their music without narcissistic record stores.

What stuns me the most about this self important concept of the 'independent retailer' is that (except for Polyester on Brunswick street) I'm yet to be spoken to at a record store. They change the CD in the store hifi, they chat to other staff and they ask if I need a bag. I can't remember a single time I've had a conversation with either the staff or another customer at one. So exactly what culture will I be losing when Hear Now closes? 

"people become more and more reliant on their online personas rather than interacting with people face to face, which is such a shame"

Book stores have been playing the internet card since Amazon first started serving up pages in the late 90s. And yet despite all their cries of financial woe I can walk up Burke Street and pass at least 3 independent retailers in 2 blocks. I wonder how this was sustainable before Amazon let alone after we learned that books could be purchased online for half the price. Combine the price with the fact that online buying meant dramatically less navigating of the Saturday-morning-father-with-3-year-old-in-pram-crowd and I'm surprised anyone still shops in town.

That is a lie, whenever given the opportunity I will find a book store, wander around for fifteen minutes and then inevitably buy something. But as with CDs in record stores, ultimately I enjoy the reading. That's why we shop at bookstores: so we can read something when we leave. All they offer is one (of many possible) places to purchase a book. It is relaxing indeed, but 'a place to wander in silence, to browse in solitude, maybe buy' is certainly not a business plan I would be investing in. 

Compare all of this to Abbotsford Cycles. An independent cycle store that whenever I've visited have been amazingly friendly, very knowledgeable and made me feel entirely at ease despite my status as a neophyte. They don't have the best alleyway location, I can't remember any famous cyclist in-stores and yet they are the perfect example of what an independent retailer can be.

Too often independent stores appear to believe their value lies in their existence, a 'we have built it, they will come' attitude. They are obviously wrong.

The Ashes vs The Tour (aka SBS v SBS2)

This test has proved both the value and the frustration of independent umpires in cricket. Each time an Australian is questionably dismissed (which has, admittedly, been quite a few times) I want to cry 'cheat' and blame some biased umpire. But... I just can't. It is very frustrating. 

I guess it all evens out in the end as I remember in the 2007/2008 series against India, Australia did very well with the umpires. As a result of the Aussies' good luck and India's frustrations I remember Singh broke out some classy racism on Andrew Symonds, I wonder if Australia will do the same?

Rudi Koertzen would have given him out caught and LBW

Now to The Tour, I'm giving it 1 hour to get interesting. All week we've been waiting for Verbier and yet this isn't really enthralling stuff. I've tried to get excited by the team tactics, by the challenge for the green jersey and finally by the battle between Contador and Armstrong.

It isn't working.

Astana have sat on the front of the peleton for the whole week and if someone doesn't beat Contador or Armstrong up the hill tonight then I can't see the value in any many more late nights this week. Let's hope it's Cadel that does the beating.

Heinrich Haussler's win on Friday was definitely the highlight so far.

Edit: Ricky Ponting's attitude in the post-(losing the)match interview was just terrific. He deflected the umpire question with such grace and skill; the kind of class he normally reserves for high pressure innings. The acknowledgement he received from the crowd was also great to hear. One of my favourite 100-run loss tests.

The tour was not surprising, Contador kicked in to gear and left the field behind... I could hear the collective sigh of resignation as he sped away 'well that is settled'.

Hans Rosling's amazing presentation

make sure you watch until the end.

A better way to educate

Lately, as another 6 years of education comes to an end, I've been discussing traditional higher education with some friends. One raised the interesting point that despite the enormous increase in the number of students entering higher education and the increased accessibility of information thanks to the internet the process of education has barely changed since the post-war boom. It seems like a reasonable suggestion that there must be a more effective way to educate and in particular prepare students for employment while at university.

 My university claim to offer career-oriented education. They encourage 12-month internships and throughout my course I've been exposed to many projects. I, along with most people I know, found the internship the most valuable component of the course. However, what about the coursework in general and in particular the projects? Are they truly representative of professional life? Ultimately no, I don't believe so. Projects are used just like traditional tests, to reinforce the facts and information presented in lectures. They are group, open-book exams. In my experience professional projects never reinforce prior learning, they always require new research, the development of new skills, applying new technology (or at least new concepts), and then implementing something that hasn't been tried before. Compare this to uni: I can't remember a project where I was forced to decide from a range of possible implementations. There is always a clear sequence of steps, always an obvious source of information (lecture notes or textbook) and thus, their value is diminished.

I don't believe the answer is simply a change in the way a subject is taught. A better approach would be a supplementary course, run by respected professionals where students were simply given problems to solve? They wouldn't need to relate to the student's course, they only need to encourage a way of thinking and tackling problems. The small projects could last for a week, a month, a semester, however long was needed. The result of the class would be a folio, with information on the objective of each piece of work and then the results. The experience for the students would be invaluable and any employer who isn't impressed by a varied (ideally, high quality) folio isn't worth working for.

I don't like the idea of integrating the course into a university, which means that the course would require financial support from the companies providing the professionals. However, if the tutors are doing their job the students should be very valuable upon graduation. The concept is one of increased quality, not increased efficiency but if communication was predominantly online the course should be less costly to deliver. Email and teleconferences are also representative of how the majority of real project communication occurs these days. How much would students pay for such a course? I'm not sure, but with the right professionals and innovative and challenging projects I know I would have found the money.

There are a range of other ways education could change to take advantage of the changes in society and technology and I think anything that challenges students to be more responsible for their education and have a well rounded knowledge base should be welcomed. 

Saturday Morning Legs

Every Saturday morning I drive to Lysterfield for a pretty casual spin around the singletrack there. And every saturday morning I completely dread that moment when I step out of the car, peel off the fleece trackies and expose my pale legs to a Melbourne winter morning.

Come Wednesday night however, I couldn't think of anything more appealing than a face full of mud (or bugs lately) and the inevitable warm and rubbery legs after a 2 hour ride. Not long to go now...

The Briggs Constant

I've always wanted to make an important scientific discovery. I don't think it gets any better than this:

Nfunctioning = B x Nmanufactured

Where Nfunctioning is the number of bolts required to operate a device and Nmanufactured is the number of bolts originally installed.

B=0.5 for just about everything.