bikes and things

Finally found a few spare moments to process a the rest of the holiday snaps from our trip to Portstewart a few weeks back. Nothing too earth shattering photography wise but some nice snaps for this months prints.

Looks like I’m not the only one that thinks QR codes are complete and utter shite. It also seems that some people have no idea how they work and are going the way of buzz words like ‘cloud’ which automatically make your product cool and down with the kids.

http://wtfqrcodes.com/

Just back from a trip to Swinley Forest with my good old mate Matt. Whilst the last thing I felt like doing this morning was getting up early it was well worth getting out and going for a spin. A gentle ride out to the jump gulley to get some air under the wheels then over to the other side to play on some of the trails round there, then back to the jump gulley then back to the centre. Really enjoyed riding the full suss down some of the swoopy trails and also getting comfortable clearing tables in the gulley. The trails were dry and in immaculate condition and with very few riders around. It seems that people drive from miles around to sit in the play park with their kids yet few venture out into the incredible forest that surrounds.

A couple of crap photos below. Should have taken a proper camera rather than just my phone on such a beautiful day like today.

And also a nice little shot of me actually clearing a small double – wonders will never cease.

Here’s Matt riding the same section.

I can’t remember how I came across this link but it’s well worth sharing. It’s a collection of extraordinary images from the Second World war and the many factories used to manufacture aircraft and machinery, as well as some of the people and families involved in this process. The richness and colour is simply incredible. The original full collection of images & blog post (in Russian) also refers to the original source where many, many more can be found. I’ve featured a few of my favourites below.

They were all shot by Alfred Palmer.

Today, we used ours to meet and photograph 24 new people in central London.

anextraday.com

What a superb little project. Lovely photos with simple stories describing a series of 24 strangers.

Photos © Victoria Hannan

Finally something for my much loved photo service after years of languishing in the back room without much attention. Some of the changes are starting to roll out and hopefully more are coming in the next few days. Worth reading more about some of the changes planned.

Looks like the dog clears the gaps better than most riders.

Lily Shreds trailside. on pinkbike.com

Via Steven George

..to live in London and be able to have a dog, take it with you everywhere, to site, to work, on shoots, on bike rides, to the pub. We could be such good friends together. It could even come riding in the hills with me too. Why am I thinking of this? Well I saw a guy cycling to work today this morning with a rucksack – the kind you might normally have a baby in. Instead it was a purpose made dog rucksack! Brilliant.

Personally I’d prefer a slightly larger dog. So I made a quick mockup of my ideal dog along with my ideal bike for London – could also fit some photo kit in too as well as the dog.

Love Anthony Burrill.

Earlier today I was followed on Twitter by someone calling themselves @ArchLeaks. I didn’t pay much attention to it until someone else retweeted them with the following Tweet.

Judging by their Twitter feed they appear to have been sending this message to anyone who seems to be in the Architecture industry in the UK. Bizarrely a large number of people seem to be retweeting it and trying to get more traffic to his or her site. I was going to mark as spam and block but thought I’d dig a little deeper.

Now the aim of the site seems to be to get people to write negative comments about their experiences of working at various high profile Architects offices. The name, and approach, seems to suggest a kind of Wikileaks type of site naming and shaming of offices. Their own strap line seems to be ‘We young Architects need this information pool here‘ as well as ‘Reveals the hidden beneath the studios‘.

I have to say I was completely aghast at seeing this. There’s so much wrong with it I don’t know where to start. There’s so many reasons someone might have a bad experience at an office – such as a clash of personalities, working under the wrong director or partner who has since moved on, the sheer pressure of the environment, wrong choice of office, the person is a bit up themselves and didn’t take direction or weren’t very good at their job etc etc. Of more concern are the chances for anonymous abuse as there is nothing to verify if anyone had actually worked there! Now if there was some journalistic integrity or a big story to break then maybe I would be interested but I don’t think this is what is in mind. Gossip and hearsay are not sound reasons to trash a firms reputation online.

Having said that I’ve had experiences in some offices that weren’t amazing, but I moved on and put it down to experience. They’re stories for the pub with close friends, not for broadcasting on the internet. These experiences are also probably entirely un-representative of those offices and I would say that others have really enjoyed working where I hadn’t. At the same time I do think that some students are cut a rough deal sometimes but this perpetuates the idea that Architecture is miserable and Architects are hard done by. It’s also playing up to every tiny bit of negativity in the industry. Instead of say engaging with the RIBA policy on pay and conditions or speaking to the ARB about setting minimum standards we have an anonymous source of info that amounts to online bitching.

I’d imagine that a few cease and desist letters will be on their way if this site ever gains any real momentum. Although where they address them to I don’t know as the owner seems to have spoofed their WHOIS information to a professional footballer in Turkey. Interesting.

Updated:
As if by magic I was alerted to this article on the Guardian today. Wonderful timing David, wonderful and thank you.