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helpfulContribon Slovenia’s beautiful beehives turn apiaries into art

Ljubljana is a truly beautiful city, and I recently enjoyed touring its many interesting streets, noting the stark contrast between the older historical buildings, the soviet era, and the modern structures being placed, with quite some care it seems, for the aesthetics of the city. Almost everywhere you look, there is a whimsical beauty that seems so well placed.

During this particular trip I noticed early on, the constant presence of bees .. whether it was a small swarm moving en masse across the sunny sky, or a small lane of bees flying above our heads as we walked through their flight corridors.

It wasn't until later in the visit that I discovered that Ljubljana has a special relationship with bees, and in fact as a city has integrated beekeeping throughout the cities parks and public places.

It truly felt like the bees were just normal denizens of the city going about their day - with things to do, places to be, just like the rest of us (although I was in tourist mode) .. and the cities many gardens and flower fields made a lot of sense as I learned that Slovenians have a lot of respect for these wonderful, delicate, super important creatures.

If you get the chance to visit Llubljana, its an unsung gem of this part of Europe in my opinion. Be sure to learn about the Bee Path!

https://www.ljubljana.si/en/ljubljana-for-you/environmental-...

helpfulContribon Publishing my first game using PICO-8

LOAD81 could probably use some eyeballs:

https://github.com/antirez/load81.git

helpfulContribon Germans shrug off economic gloom at booming Oktoberfest

> shrug .. Oktorberfest

Germans are exceptionally good at kicking back, drinking a few beers, and disconnecting from the real world, even if it is just for 6 or 8 hours or so. They can do it with an extraordinary insouciance that I do not believe is easily observable, elsewhere in the Western sphere.

I remember, arriving for my first year of many in a German town, to the raucous cacophony of a Karnival (im Rührgebiet) wherein a mass of teenagers, whom I would ordinarily have deemed far too irresponsible for the drunkenness and tomfoolery on display gleefully smashed their freshly emptied bottles of local beers in the village streets for all and sundry to enjoy. It was extraordinary - definitely not a riot, but rather a very well organized and town-supported explosion of pent-up energy. The glass was all impeccably removed within hours of the jubilations' end. This was a regular thing, a kind of festival, and nobody really minded the puke. The Rührpott weather would sort it out, ho ho.

And its the same throughout the German state, which is accustomed to so much gloom but yet produces so much beauty, life and vitality. I dare you to find the fertility of Münich or Köln or Frankfurt, in summer time, elsewhere .. it is palpable.

helpfulContribon What Is the Future of the DAW?

>* a four part acapella group

Yes, that'd be a microphone setup per singer, probably, or at least two channels of audio.

>* a traditional western european orchestra

Yes, tons more channels ..

>* someone who wants a recording of the call to prayer

Only one channel needed really, but could be multiple if warranted.

>* anyone who needs to make a recording of anything at all?

As a professional designer of recording devices, I can tell where you are going - not that you might have missed the notion that there is literally no reason that a DAW-like instrument cannot be multi-channel capable - but also that portability to any environment is key.

Physicality is the new frontier for digital capture.

Recording/editing/mixing no longer belong in the workstation.

Portable instrument-like DAW's, with extraordinary new and interesting interfaces to accomplish those goals you've set (although they are all basically the same thing), are already on the market.

For example, the 1010Music Bluebox, alone, can be applied to any of those scenarios. Just add microphones (and USB powerbank...)

Incidentally, PaulDavis: acknowledging your position as the originator/BDFL of the ARDOUR workstation software, I mean no disrespect for your stature and point of view -- just that I believe era of the DAW-less approach is upon us, and there is a rather large opportunity for device-makers, such as me, and software-makers, such as you, to align ourselves...

The workstation is dead. The kids want portability, reliability, and power. This can all be done on non-standard operating systems, in a bespoke case, for fun and profit.

helpfulContribon MyPowerbank hacks Santander bikes so London's homeless can charge their phones

I believe there is also a social element to this, as it is rather an unfortunately overlooked detail that bike-rental bays are often installed by businesses throughout metropolitan regions as a means of discouraging the homeless, who cannot afford to use these devices, which storage after all consumes public space .. giving the homeless a way to extract value from things is, in my opinion, an admirably placed bit of design altruism, and I, for one, hope to see many more examples of this kind of thinking.

I have often wondered what sort of conversion it would take to use an AK47 and a box of ammo to drill a well/pump water, instead of suppress human beings.. transformative technology is highly interesting, don't you agree?

>I'm quite surprised it can be built for £3, unless the battery is incredibly small.

Herein lies the rub - can the homeless build these things for £1 a piece, somewhere in London?

Because if the answer is more oil-based traffic across the worlds oceans to get these things made, I'm afraid the irony of the builder/user distinction is rather unfortunate...

helpfulContribon The Ingenious Cardboard Bed

>Also, why on earth would we be manufacturing new beds for each new occupant in every case?

I can think of multiple scenarios: disaster relief is often staged in temporary regions where the most important thing - once the humans have rested - is to evacuate the region, and - also important, leave the beds behind, i.e. pandemic situations, mass casualty events, etc.

In addition, it should not be overlooked that the beds can be used as an energy source, so if you air-drop 100 of them to a camp site with 10 victims and 15 responders, they also have something to feed into the kettles while they triage/evacuate.

>Tube and canvas camp beds are durable and reusable.

In certain response scenarios, this is a liability - i.e. have to be portaged in and out. These cardboard beds could probably survive rather a longer fall from the back of a helicopter or out the back of a speeding emergency response vehicle.

>Humanitarian work should be praised, but not if it’s counterproductive self-congratulation.

I'm not sure the depth of your critique of this device matches the breadth of its potential application - the extension of which is, after all, the purpose of these kinds of "puff piece"'s .. but I would like to point out that insulting comments are a dime a dozen - whereas a creative conjecture might actually prove a bit more fruitful - especially in the humanitarian context.

helpfulContribon MyPowerbank hacks Santander bikes so London's homeless can charge their phones

Maybe the strategy should be more to incentivize people to live more safely and comfortably in nature and less in their boxes of inordinate consumption.

Homelessness could become a good thing, if we get our tech right.

(Disclaimer: Tree-hugging hippy who believes we should be dropping Kelly Kettles, not bombs..)

helpfulContribon MyPowerbank hacks Santander bikes so London's homeless can charge their phones

Homelessness is a serious subject, especially in a city like London. The assumption that the homeless masses all have access to a powerbank, or a wall socket in one of the cities most notorious for class boundaries, is rather coarse.. perhaps you might at least think of it as more of a survival device for those who are using their bicycles to get far, far away from the grid ..

helpfulContribon MyPowerbank hacks Santander bikes so London's homeless can charge their phones

Bicycles are among the most efficient energy conversion systems human-kind has ever invented .. the difference between a single lever (which, after all, is still an option with the existing design) and a bicycle lever/gear system, means all the difference in the world when the calories are, already, a regular daily concern for the target user.

Plus, it gives the bikes utility when they're not being rented, since the rental bays often take up space in areas accessible to the homeless, its also quite convenient for the target users.

helpfulContribon What Is the Future of the DAW?

The Future of the DAW is DAW-less.

A Synthstrom Deluge, a humble Eurorack (morphagene!) and a microFreak ..

A Zynthian! Holy molies, live Zynthian compositions are binoculars!

1010music Bluebox+Blackbox.

SonicWARE SmplTek.

Monome. Oh dear, monome is a hell of a platform for next-generation DAW tomfoolery!

Notice a pattern? Its the hardware. You can no longer call it a workstation when, after all, it behaves like an instrument.

helpfulContribon Many of today’s unhealthy foods were brought to you by Big Tobacco