Paarking Meter - Photo 85 - Project 365

So I found this parking meter one day exploring in France. Having studied a little about parking I was fascinated. One of the goals of parking meters is to encourage turnover to allow lots of people to visit the area. In France, you sometimes run into timed parking (limited to 1 to 4 hours) with a similar goal. The "old-school" way of doing that was to have a little disk you would put on your dash, showing when you showed up (and by extension, when you could park there till). It took me a while to figure out the system (they paint the lines green for those spots) and then once I had it figured out, I never had a disk with me. So when I spotted these machines, I thought they were genius! They tell you right away how long you can park in the spot and how much time you have left. As a "bonus," it makes if far easier for the Meter Maid to see in a hurry who has overstayed their welcome.

I only saw it in the middle of the day but you could easily extend the idea to provide different parking rules throughout the day (for example, to allow people to park overnight) or to provide remote supervision, allowing Meter Maids only to be dispatched to over-parked cars, or maybe even to issue photo parking tickets without anyone actually having to be there!

Below is another picture of the whole machine in context.

Model: Canon EOS DIGITAL REBEL XSi
Lens ID: EF-S 18-55mm f/3.5-5.6 IS
Exposure: 1/50 sec
Aperture: ƒ/5.6
Focal Length: 44 mm
Flash Used: No
ISO: 400
Filter(s): HOYA UV(0)
Date and Time (Original): 2011:04:22 14:46:09

We Will Remember Them - Photo 84 - Project 365

For Remembrance Day - Lest We Forget

They shall grow not old,
as we that are left grow old:
Age shall not weary them,
nor the years condemn.
At the going down of the sun
and in the morning
We will remember them.
We will remember them.

Model: Canon EOS DIGITAL REBEL XSi
Lens ID: EF-S 55-250mm f/4-5.6 IS
Exposure: 1/40 sec
Aperture: ƒ/5.6
Focal Length: 171 mm
Flash Used: No
ISO: 800
Filter(s): HOYA UV(0)
Date and Time (Original): 2011:11:11 10:54:31

3D Printing and Model Trains

While in France, the combination of being somewhere near church mouse poor and living in a small (32 square metres / 350 sq ft) 1 bedroom apartment, I looked for hobbies that took up little space and so settled on photography (i.e. my Project 365 here) and dabbling in computer programming and to a lesser degree, artificial intelligence (my WmDOT for OpenTTD). It was quite enjoyable, but on my return to North America, I found myself with a lot more space and more geographically stable. I wanted to make things that were a little more physical and so with the encouragement of my Honey, I started into Model Railroading, a childhood dream. One of my shocks was the cost of models! A regular-ish building, measuring maybe 2x3x3 inches would cost $60! There had to be a better way...

My brand new locomotive!

ENTER 3D PRINTING. Various technologies exist but the most popular, at least at the hobby level, basically consists of a hot metal nozzle that melts a 'thread' of plastic and then uses this melted plastic to paint, layer by layer, your desired object. A kit for a printer like this can be had for ~$1300 which would be about the same price as 20 buildings. And with a 3D printer, most of the time is spent creating the computer model rather than in physical model building, so I started wondering if I could sell some models and let someone else pay for my printer and railway modelling...

Golden Coat of Arms - Photo 83 - Project 365

My continuing adventures took me to London and to see the Queen! Actually, the Queen was nowhere to be seen, but I did see Buckingham Palace and the Changing of the Guards. On the square surrounding Buckingham Palace are gates recognizing the different British colonies and on the gates of the Palace itself sit the Arms of Britain itself. I thought the gold leaf was cool and it provided a nice contrast against the grey-green iron of the rest of the gate.

Model: Canon EOS DIGITAL REBEL XSi
Lens ID: EF-S 18-55mm f/3.5-5.6 IS
Exposure: 1/60 sec
Aperture: ƒ/6.3
Focal Length: 36 mm
Flash Used: No
ISO: 200
Filter(s): HOYA UV(0)
Date and Time (Original): 2011:04:01 18:43:51

Moving Day - Photo 82 - Project 365

This is one of those pictures meant open a portal onto daily life...

In France, many people (including me when I was there) live in low-rise apartment buildings. Typically, they are three to six stories tall with the bottom floor as retail (I lived above an insurance agent and a restaurant) and those above as residential. Many of the buildings are fairly old and so have narrow staircases and a small, if existent, elevator. Day-to-day, this isn't too bad, but when you go to move in or out, the stairs turn into a nightmare. So the solution is to bring your own "moving elevator" on moving day! Such a moving elevator can be carried nicely on a trailer behind the moving truck and unfolds at your soon-to-be-former lodging. Point it at a window, which can be as large as your front door and is never screened, and the moving begins!

Model: Canon EOS DIGITAL REBEL XSi
Lens ID: EF-S 18-55mm f/3.5-5.6 IS
Exposure: 1/125 sec
Aperture: ƒ/9.0
Focal Length: 48 mm
Flash Used: No
ISO: 200
Filter(s): HOYA UV(0)
Date and Time (Original): 2011:03:22 15:00:17