Why??

One of my pet peeves is poor design, and I just have to tell you about one heck of a poor design that I encountered two days ago.

It was snowing here in the wonderful town of Eskilstuna and even if the town is excellent in almost every way plowing the streets is an area where the town falls short. That is not the design I was talking about, it isn't a design at all. The poor design was on a zimmer frame (aka rollator här i sverige). The zimmer frame was equipped with mudguards (stänkskärmar). Now why in hell would a zimmer frame need mudguards? I have seldom seen old folks running along in such high speeds that muddy water splash up from the wheels of their zimmer frames. If they did, I hardly think they need the device in the first place. Anyhow, the poor design was not just the fact that the zimmer frame was equipped with devices that was totally unnecessary. The poor design was that in this climate, in this town where plowing the streets just does not happen, snow piles up between the wheel and mudguard and acts as a very effective break. It was freaking hilarious to watch the old man trying to get home with a fucked up zimmer frame, he looked so incredibly helpless. Then I saw his wife and thought 'why the hell are you trying to get home, run away damn it' but of course he couldn't. He was stuck right where he was. Poor fella.  

units

While studying, and especially while teaching, I have always put an emphasis on units. A number without a unit don't mean squat. In fact, one of my favourite pet peeves is when a news article/report becomes jibberish due to a lack of, or wrong, unit. Why I bring it up now? It is because the newspaper said that when uploading a photo of the newly born/family so that it can be published (a service that is free of charge (unlike any other announcement, like for example a text of the newly born or a few lines saying that Mattias and Kristina are engaged (which they are by the way (but this you will not read about in the newspaper)), which all cost money (which is why you will not read about that engaged thingie in the newspaper))) the photo should be 200 dpi or 10 cm large. As one is a measure of resolution and one is a measure of length (hence hardly interchangeable) I first rolled my eyes and made a snide comment about it, and then I uploaded a photo that I thought was large enough. I have not seen the one in the paper (it is supposed to be nice), but I have seen this and I do not know what they did to screw up the resolution, but I do know that if they had asked me for an image of a certain size and used the right units I would have delivered.

Oh, by the way, to take a good family portrait yourself is not all that easy. We could have gone to the photographer (that the newspaper pays for) but I just could not bring myself to do that :)

update (at 21:54)
I thought about the last paragraph while making loads of pizzas and I figured out why it was so hard. It's because I really dislike being in front of a camera. I carry around a camera almost all the time just so I can be behind the lens and not in front of it (it is a weak protection I know, but what are you going to do???). Hence, the problem was not getting Tage to look good, the problem was my own psyche.

Pet peeve

One of my biggest pet peeves: When they pan over a photograph on TV. 'Wow! Isn't it fantastic how we can use all this new technology so that this still image moves!!!' No. It is not fantastic. It is stupid.