Cat, bag
Well, Adam and I both announced Marginwalker on our sites. So I guess you can feel free to get link crazy.
I'm awaiting the vast hordes of excited netizens as we speak. ;-)
April 23, 2003 @ 20:06:54 PM
Tools for global nomads
Centuries ago, on a different planet, Abe posted
a list of his current working tools to the board we both belonged to -
these were the daily companions that helped him make a nomadic life
doable, from clothes to connectors.
I was reminded of this when he again namechecked a few of these
items in his introduction here, and it made me curious. Since a lot of
us here seem to spend a good deal of time "on the road" (or committed
to one or another node of global airport-hospitality complex
hyperspace), what tools do you consider indispensable?
Not so much an opportunity to wallow in commodity fetishism - tho'
I suppose it's that, too - as an inquiry into what you wouldn't leave
home without...and what becomes home when all you've known is mobility.
April 22, 2003 @ 21:27:25 PM
Globalize the love....?
I was watching Arundhati Roy on Bill Moyers' Now
a couple months back and she was talking about the positive aspects of
globalization specifically as relates to politics -- for example, the
globally co-ordinated anti-war protests, which I think is an excellent
topic, and she is exceedingly articulate on the subject so I won't
attempt a paraphrase.
But I'm wondering about other examples of positive globalization,
particularly things which are not strictly in response to war- or
power-mongering, but things born of their own impetus. Our media and
our discourse in general remains centered on the powerful as defined by
money and military might. Yes to those in power - no to those in power
/ either-or. But what else is out there? Is there a third way -- or
fourth or fifth -- which sees the dichotomy as irrelevant? Or
end-run-able? And less isolationist than simply tending one's own
garden?
April 21, 2003 @ 10:39:56 AM
SARS and the Necessity for Urban Renewal
Since we apparently have some brilliant minds
here, and many who are well versed in the world of Urban-ity (pun
definitely intended), allow me solicit some ideas about the real world
in which I live.
I live in Toronto, one of the "hot-spots" for SARS. We are on the
same tragectory for the disease as Hong Kong, with about a 2 week lag.
We have already seen our hotel, restaurant and tourism industry
devastated over the past few weeks; forecasts for our peak tourist
season are dismal, to say the least. The economic fallout of this
disease on our city will undoubtedly be felt for months. As one
commentator noted, the effects of the World Trade Center disaster on
New York City were not long lasting; the effects on Toronto tourism,
theatre, arts, hospitality, and all those whose livelihoods depend -
directly or indirectly - on these industries will continue to be felt
for a very long time.
Unfortunately, we don't have our own Rudi Giuliani. Our civic
leadership is non-existent. Our mayor is missing in action; the premier
of our province is too busy brain-washing a perceived gullible public
into forgetting the messes his government has created over the past 8
years. The best that we have is a planned publicity campaign led by one
of the theatre impressarios...
So, to the collected brain trust here at marginwalker, What would you do to mitigate the perceived risks of visiting Toronto?
April 20, 2003 @ 19:41:26 PM
Dead Malls
Personally, I find this much more interesting than the World Trade
Centers competition; Libeskind's WTC is a unique project, but something
that rethinks the way malls work provides an almost universal benefit
to North American urbanism. Only one city has a WTC, but everybody's
got a crappy mall or six.
I tend to find COA's mall more interesting than Stoner Meek's
(you'll have to delve through the above links to find images of each).
COA's is a dense, multi-use space, whereas Stoner Meek's looks more
like a contemplative concretescape built around a wetland. Which is
fine, I suppose...but not for malls. Malls do not need to be a
simulacra of peaceful Arcadia. Malls are fast, and dense, and loud --
innately so, and it is both what we love and hate about them.
In fact, the most interesting thing about malls is that they
provide the opportunity to create a commons for the suburbs...and have
failed miserably, for the most part, in the thirty years they've been a
dominant paradigm of commercial development. Partially, I suppose, this
is because malls are almost always privately-owned rather than public
spaces, as far as I know. They are the property of money-minded
developers rather than cities.
Could this change? What is the feasability of cities reclaiming
dead malls and turning them into pre-fab cultural centers? Would it be
possible to do this privately, say, as a non-profit organization? And
would it be worth the effort?
Or are dead malls simply another American non sequitur, something else that exists only so that pomo kids can get their J.G. Ballard on in dissertation after endless dissertation?
April 19, 2003 @ 18:12:30 PM
Introductions
One thing every community needs, I think, is a
topic where people introduce themselves. It's an easy and simple enough
thing, and it's intended to be different than just clicking someone's
name and seeing the corresponding profile. And so...
April 19, 2003 @ 08:59:18 AM
RFC, Baby
So I'd like to point out that this is a work in
progress, if you hadn't tipped to that already, and provide a space for
your questions, critiques, comments -- specifically about the site
itself, in this case.
Info: this runs off of a very cool and useful blog engine called Nucleus.
There are certain limitations involved in modifying blog software for
these purposes, but so far, I think the simplicity outweighs the minor
irritations -- though as more people begin actively posting, that might
change.
I believe it's possible to allow UBB-style responses to posts, with
full HTML capacity, etc. I'm assuming y'all would like that -- I mean,
there is a
reason italics were invented -- and so I'll be looking into implementing that in the very near future (think days rather than months).
So: a lot of you are designers, IA, usability freaks. What are we doing
right? What are we doing wrong? Is it readable? Some of the design
decisions are based simply on a limited amount of time and an
insistence upon cross-platform compatibility. Most of you are probably
on PCs; Adam is a Mac guy; my scary home network is running OS X, Linux
and Windows XP, and I use at least four different browsers on a regular
basis. I do
not like incompatibility.
But we'd like to make it prettier and easier to use, so help us.
Other design/technical notes:
- I'm trying to force the responses to show your real name, not your login, but I'm not quite sure how at this juncture.
- I want to have the 'Admin' and 'Post A New Item' links invisible unless you're logged in.
So what are your thoughts?
So, I'm curious about some of the parameters of use. First and
foremost: am I right in guessing that membership is invitation only,
but posting a public link to an interesting discussion is okay? I'm not
going to, certainly not until I've got it clarified, certainly, but it
might come up.
Beyond that, as I don't see an "about" page, I suppose I'm curious
about some of the mechanics of the site, and whatever rules there are.
DirectoryofDating
April 17, 2003 @ 14:02:25 PM