This weekend we encounter a few other problems with the system. First, from the nearby pharmacy where I buy my zone 3 (Montreal/South Shore) pass, I can't buy STM (Montreal) bus/metro 'tickets' on my OPUS card. This made sense when we were dealing with physical tickets, since it would have been a problem to distribute them to retail locations outside of Montreal. However, now we're just dealing with bits on the same system. There is no technical reason they can't add a Montreal ticket to my OPUS card.

Similarly, I wanted to buy 10 tickets, but they would still only sell them to me in batches of six! Again, this was acceptable when tickets came as a physical booklet of six tickets, but with digital tickets there is no reason for this limitation.

My guess is that these oddities are due to a phased implementation strategy. Phase 1 is to move the existing ticketing framework to the new system as-is. Phase 2 will be to innovate the service in ways made possible by the move to electronic tickets and smart cards. In some ways this makes sense to the organizations involved, since they are reducing implementation risk by only changing one thing at a time. However, the benefits in this approach are for the organizations. The new system provides little or no benefit to the user. A bit of innovation as part of phase 1 might have helped to ease some of the pain of the transition.

The [US] Army Experience Center is a fitting counterpart to the retail experience: 14,500 square feet of mostly shoot-’em-up video games and three full-scale simulators, including an AH-64 Apache Longbow helicopter, an armed Humvee and a Black Hawk copter with M4 carbine assault rifles. For those who want to take the experience deeper, the center has 22 recruiters. Or for more immediate full-contact mayhem, there are the outlet stores.

The US Army has been using video games as part of their recruitment efforts for years now. However, these immersive simulations make the fantasy of army life the recruiters are pushing seem even more real.

It is worth noting that some of the simulations are non-combative, focusing on the delivery of humanitarian aid, for example. The article doesn't provide enough detail on the exact sell used by recruiters, but I doubt there is a checkbox on the recruitment form:

[ ] No, I do not want to be put into a combat situation.

Since the simulations are being used to entice people to join, they of course only simulate the positive aspects of the experience. While it could be argued that there is plenty of media coverage of the risks and potential costs of military service and that anyone walking into the recruitment center is aware of what they are getting themselves into, it still seems like somewhat of a shell game. Use the video games to motivate the kids, then swipe out the fantasy for the grim reality of army life.

Another interesting note on the book is that the edition that I read had ligatures for the every occurrence of 'ct' and 'st' in the text (examples available on this page). First time I had ever seen that. I thought it was a printing error!

I haven't settled on a format for the podcasts yet, but I have made some headway on the equipment front. For my birthday, Nathalie got me an H4 Handy Recorder. This is roughly equivalent to someone wanting to start playing guitar and buying themselves a Taylor. The H4 is a portable 4-track recording studio with two high-quality condenser, two XLR input jacks, a pre-amp (with both amp cabinet and mic emulation) and effects (including compression, etc). I can use it to record single voice (including my lectures), conversations, performances (spoken and music), etc. Also, should I ever *ahem* get back into playing bass, I can just plug into this and I'm good to go.

Another bonus is that is comes bundled with Steinberg's Cubase LE 4. While no where near as feature rich as their professional studio project, it does everything I expect to need to do in the foreseeable future. I had intended on using Audacity, but the UI on Cubase seems to be much easier to work with, which is important as I want to be able to minimize production time on my podcasts.

All this, and the H4 costs less then a 16GB iPod Touch.

Once I figure out how it all works, I think we can say I've got the gear taken care of!

I'm still not ready to commit to a specific launch date, but I just wanted to let everyone know that things are moving forward, and that this is going to happen. Soon!

The US Patent Office application notes that capacitive touchscreens like those on the iPhone and iPod touch are problematic in colder weather. As they depend on the electrical response from a user's fingertips, which is often blocked off when wearing insulated gloves, the screens either force users to take off their gloves or else sit tight until they return indoors.

I've noticed this same problem with my non-touch iPod as well, and can vouch that it is a pain to have to take off one's gloves to change the volume or skip a song. If I was going to try to solve the problem, I'd probably get one of those headsets with controls built in before buying a special pair of gloves. Mind you, if it is your phone you are talking about, I imagine being able to access the UI would be more important, and a special pair of gloves may be desirable.

Kudos to Apple, though, for taking what is essentially a shortcoming in their product design and turning it into a marketing opportunity.

Starting Jan. 1, the pharmaceutical industry has agreed to a voluntary moratorium on the kind of branded goodies — Viagra pens, Zoloft soap dispensers, Lipitor mugs — that were meant to foster good will and, some would say, encourage doctors to prescribe more of the drugs.

I wonder if drug samples will be similarly affected. (Note: Click through if only to see Dr. Caren's pen collection!)

1. Calvino, Italo. Marcovoldo
2. Cooke, Alistair. American journey : life on the home front in the Second World War
3. Curry, Ben. Microsoft SharePoint products and technologies : administrator's pocket consultant
4. Erikson, Steven. Reaper's Gale
5. Feist, Raymond. Shadow of a Dark Queen
6. Flanders, Judith. The Victorian House
7. Flanders, Judith. Consuming passions: leisure and pleasure in Victorian Britain
8. Furst, Alan. Kingdom of Shadows
9. Furst, Alan. Night Soldiers
10. Furst, Alan. Blood of Victory
11. Furst, Alan. The Foreign Correspendent
12. Gibson, William. Pattern Recognition
13. Gzowski, Peter. The Morningside Papers
14. Heath, Joseph; Potter, Andrew. The Rebel Sell
15. Jecks, Michael. The Last Templar
16. Keyes, Gregory. The Briar king
17. Keyes, Gregory. Charnel Prince
18. Keyes, Gregory. Blood Knight
19. Kilvert, Francis. Kilvert's diary; selections from the diary of the Rev. Francis Kilvert
20. Rothfuss, Patrick. Name of the Wind
21. Simenon, Georges. Maigret et le clochard
22. Simenon, Georges. La colère de Maigret
23. Simenon, Georges. Les vacances de Maigret
24. Simenon, Georges. Maigret aux assises
25. Tolkien, J.R.R. The Silmarillion
26. Tolkien, J.R.R. The Lord of the Rings
27. Various authors, Toward the livable city
28. Wildman, John Hazard. Anthony Trollope's England

Looking at this list, I'd like to read more in 2009, more non-fiction, and more varied. Would reading 50 books be an unrealistic target? Recommendations are always welcome!

If you enjoy the Silmarillion, you may also want to read The Children of Húrin before going on to The Hobbit and Lord of the Rings. I was considered doing that now, but I've read a fair bit of Tolkien over the past two years, and I think I need to take a break before revisiting Middle-Earth.

Overall, Shadow of a Dark Queen was a good book. Set in the same world as his previous books, I had vague recollections of characters and events that were mentioned here. Like most trilogy-openers, this book was mostly setup. Still, the writing and storytelling is good enough to pull me through it in a few days.