Google Launches Sidewalk Labs

Post by petepete » Thu, Jun 11, 2015, 8:58 AM UTC

Sir_Substance wrote: post #103

w-m wrote: post #98

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Paris has over 400 of these: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sanisette They're free to use, not drug dealer proof, and close at night. I'd say they work well, but they're rather ugly.

The biggest culture shock of visiting the UK was paying to use toilets. Do you want people pissing against walls? Because that's how you get people pissing against walls.

Post by stephenr » Thu, Jun 11, 2015, 9:10 AM UTC

paganel wrote: post #116

stephenr wrote: post #93

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> I wouldn't move to a 'specialized and remote' community inhabited by people who are all affiliated with the same company. Re-read the sentence again. > By altering their way of working they could support remote working, creating clusters of specialized work forces and communities online rather than in a narrow physical location. The concept is that if you encourage remote working via online workplaces, you can solv…

> The concept is that if you encourage remote working via online workplaces, you can solve the "big city" issue for a percentage of the population by allowing them to live further away from the densely populated areas "because of work". But then again some of us really don't like to work all alone in our house, in the middle of nowhere. If I'm spending 8 hours per day working for my employer I might as well socialize…

Post by vetler » Thu, Jun 11, 2015, 9:21 AM UTC

avar wrote: post #84

Animats wrote: post #63

Someone needs to develop a public toilet that's self-cleaning but doesn't cost more than some houses. The problem is making it homeless and drug dealer proof. SF has had major problems with their self-cleaning toilets.[1] Portland succeeded, but theirs is armored to contain a velociraptor and provides limited privacy.[2] [1] http://www.sfweekly.com/sanfrancisco/occupied-san-francisco-... [2] http://www.citylab.com/de…

Hasn't this already been invented? With the problem being that most westerners don't like the solution because it looks unfamiliar: * You install a squat toilet * It's cleaned by flooding the entire toilet area with water, which once turned off all washes down into the toilet * No toilet paper, you clean yourself with water

Post by havill » Thu, Jun 11, 2015, 9:23 AM UTC

jacobolus wrote: post #96

avar wrote: post #84

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Hasn't this already been invented? With the problem being that most westerners don't like the solution because it looks unfamiliar: * You install a squat toilet * It's cleaned by flooding the entire toilet area with water, which once turned off all washes down into the toilet * No toilet paper, you clean yourself with water

The biggest problem is not even that it looks unfamiliar, but that the majority of “westerners” have insufficient ankle flexibility to squat, due to a lifetime of sitting in chairs and no experience squatting. You might be able to build a squat toilet where the feet rested on a ramp (i.e. raised at the heel side), though I suspect most Americans would still refuse to use it.

Post by 72deluxe » Thu, Jun 11, 2015, 10:02 AM UTC

estel wrote: post #124

72deluxe wrote: post #114

Earlier quoted context omitted.

If you're in the UI box, can you enforce the apps that have a Hamburger menu to map the physical menu button on devices (like last year's Samsung that I use) to the menu please? The button does nothing - popping up the menu would be welcome and much appreciated in all of Google's apps.

Drifting away from the topic, but this would be a big change from the expected behaviour of opening the overflow action menu.