Cycle hire is here in London – what it looks like

via twitpic.com

So the long-awaited Barclays Cycle Hire Scheme has finally launched today in London, promising to bring convenient and cheap cycling to anyone who wants it.

It just so happens that one of the Cycle Hire points is just opposite our office, so I trundled over there this morning before I started work to check out the set-up.

As you can see above, there’s a long row of bikes to hire – only three were ‘out’ when I got there this morning (on the assumption that the rack was full as it’s the first day).

Then, sited midway along the rack, comes the control post. On one side, it shows a map of where you are in London and the nearest other hire places, if this one is empty.

 

Share photos on twitter with Twitpic

On the most important side, is the tech bit allowing you to pay to unlock a bike and hire it, complete with the Code of Conduct.

It’ll be interesting to see how many bikes are used in the first month while you have to be fully registered.

Boris Johnson has already admitted there will be teething troubles, but I doubt these will become obvious until the service gets a high usage.

Meanwhile, it’s great to see that there’s already an Android app, helping you find your nearest hire point.

Posted via email from Rob’s stream of web

Howard Webb is our very own Kim Milton Nielsen

via thisislondon.co.uk

Look beyond the Spanish celebrations, after winning Sunday’s World Cup against the Netherlands, and the big story was the number of yellow cards English referee Howard Webb showed, during the match – 14 in all.

Both Arjen Robben and the Dutch coach Bert van Marwijk criticised Howard Webb for his handling of the game.

Reading the various Dutch haranguing of Howard Webb made me feel incredibly protective towards him.

And it instantly reminded me of the criticism that English fans have heaped upon other refs after decisions went against them.

Remember Kim Milton Nielsen, who infamously sent off David Beckham during the 1998 World Cup Finals, or Urs Meier who disallowed an injury-time Sol Campbell goal during Euro 2004?

I wonder if the Danes or the Swiss felt similarly protective towards Nielsen or Meier, after they received daeth threats.

Most of the time when this sort of reaction occurs, it’s because the team in question knows they either weren’t up to the job, or had many more opportunities to win a game and failed.

In the Netherlands’ case, they got their tactics completely wrong by refusing to play pretty football and committing foul after foul.

That Webb managed to get through to extra time before sending anyone off is a miracle in itself and he should be applauded for keeping all 22 players on for as long as he did, in an effort to ensure the match remained competitive.

Posted via email from Rob’s stream of web

Clever functionality and clever online marketing from Pilot

Pilot handwriting test

Spotted this very clever piece of marketing by Pilot pens on Twitter this morning and had to give it a try.

The essence to Pilot Handwriting is that you print off a template and fill it in with your own handwriting.

Then, using your webcam (or scanner if you possess such a thing), the template is scanned and turned into your very own personalised font – it acts as a sort of glorified OCR.

You can then send messages to whoever you wish, written in your own handwriting.

I used the webcam and it turned out OK, although I had to make a few edits (which you are cleverly allowed to do) to some of the characters. 

By and large, though, it works incredibly well and the results are pretty impressive.

This marketing gimmick reminded me, though, of all the major effort that many companies put in to try and make commercially-viable accurate handwriting recognition software and hardware in the 1990s and early 2000s.

Even now, although most PDAs offer handwriting recognition, it’s usually nowhere near as fast as typing and not as accurate either – idiosyncrasies make writing very difficult to recognise.

I may well use this a couple of times, just for fun, but I think we all accept that typing does the job well enough and, well, if you want to write a letter, pick up your own pen (Pilot or otherwise) and use snail mail instead.

– More creative fun on my Posterous

– More web fun on my Posterous

Posted via email from Rob’s stream of web