S

c

r

a

m

b

le

d

C

h

anne

l

Glasgow Green Map dev site up

I really miss Glasgow’s CCA now that I’m on the east end of the central belt. The CCA plays host to The Upgrade Scotland as well as the excellent Electron Club, which provides a space and plenty of gear, for people interested in electro tinkering to get together.

One of the projects to come out of the Electron Club is the Glasgow Green Map Project. It’s an interactive map of sustainable living in Glasgow using the Google Maps API. I did a bit of the early server admin for the green mappers and it’s great to see how their site has come along. Give it a test drive, I’m sure they would love to hear your feedback and suggestions.

The Electron Club provides a great environment for open participation projects such as this to flourish. There’s plenty of PCs there (running Ubuntu!) and talks and seminars on Linux, hardware hacking and all sorts of weird and lovely geekery. Well done to the CCA for providing the space too.

Tags: glasgow, google maps, web

cycling around a city makes you feel alive

There is something special about riding a bicycle around the middle of a city. You weave through cars, people and anything else, crossing town quicker than than anybody else in rush hour. Even better it’s you that’s doing it, not the car or the oil it’s burning, just you, burning off this morning’s dodgy fry up. When was the last time you saw a fat person on a bike anyway?

Even better, you get to see the world, I mean really see it. You can hear the birds and the buskers, smell the food and the garbage and actually catch a person’s eye. It’s like when you’re on a bicycle, you’re part of the world, you’re not sealed into a metal box listening to U2 on the radio and inhaling some sort of artificial citrus aroma.

So OK mum, it is a bit dangerous. I did collect a car a couple of weeks ago after it suddenly turned left across from the right lane, but I saw it coming and bounced off, not hurt just pissed off. You get used to that happening, you can see the mistakes that people are going to make intersections in advance, most of the time when drivers do something stupid they don’t even notice. That’s my excuse for yelling at them.

Besides, you’re only young once, and if I didn’t do anything dangerous life wouldn’t really be all that exciting. I probably shouldn’t play football anymore with my dodgy knee, but I like it, and it’s my dodgy knee to dodge up even further if I want to. I remember reading this:

I get furious when I see billboards of senior citizens and they’re jogging. The only way you could be that fit, that healthy, that tanned and that old is if you didn’t do anything in the prime of your years. I want to be the guy who has fun in the prime of his years.

in an an interview with Jason of the band Grandaddy and I think that kinda sums it up.

And besides, I am not as stupid as i used to be.

Tags: advocacy, bike, glasgow, rant