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Google Launches Sidewalk Labs

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Re: Google Launches Sidewalk Labs

#141

Post by cjrp »

mrkipling wrote: post #104
Sir_Substance wrote: post #103

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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.

Yeah, it's pretty lame. I've been reduced to carrying a coin purse (!) in my day-to-day/commute backpack containing just 20p and 10p pieces so that I'm always able to use a public toilet if I need to. Nothing worse than really needing to go but not having any change on you.

It wouldn't be so bad if you could use your Oyster/contactless card to get in

Re: Google Launches Sidewalk Labs

#142

Post by stephenr »

aggie wrote: post #132
alexnking wrote: post #87

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Homeless proof - I'm really hoping the problems that Sidewalk Labs is working on don't include making sure homeless people don't have access to public bathrooms. I'm honestly not thinking of a lot of reasons for public bathrooms to exist aside from making sure people without houses have someplace they can use (whether that be as a bathroom, washing laundry, shaving, etc.)

If you read the linked article you will find that he means it is resistant to non-bathroom activities such as using it for washing clothes. I'm not sure why that would be a big problem, but the design isn't intended to prevent the homeless from using it as a bathroom.

Because homeless people should look and smell homeless, right?

Re: Google Launches Sidewalk Labs

#143

Post by 72deluxe »

commentereleven wrote: post #139
estel wrote: post #130

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The standard behaviour for a while has been to open the action overflow (the "hidden" menu with three dots on the right hand side of the action bar) menu. This menu affordance was supposed to appear on devices that didn't have a hardware menu button.

The main devices that Google devs use - Nexus devices - do not have a menu button. And I guess they think that the three dot menu is ugly or something.

It is automatically created in the action bar when the action area is too small for buttons:

http://developer.android.com/design/patterns/actionbar.html

http://developer.android.com/guide/topics/ui/actionbar.html

Re: Google Launches Sidewalk Labs

#144

Post by kriro »

mrkipling wrote: post #104
Sir_Substance wrote: post #103

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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.

Yeah, it's pretty lame. I've been reduced to carrying a coin purse (!) in my day-to-day/commute backpack containing just 20p and 10p pieces so that I'm always able to use a public toilet if I need to. Nothing worse than really needing to go but not having any change on you.

Seems ripe for disruption...introducing PeeCoin a new altcoin to solve the most human needs of society one transaction at a time.

Re: Google Launches Sidewalk Labs

#145

Post by jasonkester »

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.

It's more pronounced in Southern France, where every town and little mountain village will have fountains spouting a constant stream of what amounts to essentially Evian for anybody off the street to drink and fill bottles from.

Then they charge you to pee.

Create a problem. Charge for the solution. Genius.

Re: Google Launches Sidewalk Labs

#146

Post by acdha »

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…

I realize we're all programmers but why does this have to be a complex self-cleaning toilet rather than, say, hiring a few people to clean them? It's not like there aren't plenty of people looking for steady work and humans have the advantage of being really flexible when something breaks in a novel manner.

Re: Google Launches Sidewalk Labs

#147

Post by tartuffe78 »

stephenr wrote: post #142
aggie wrote: post #132

Earlier quoted context omitted.

If you read the linked article you will find that he means it is resistant to non-bathroom activities such as using it for washing clothes. I'm not sure why that would be a big problem, but the design isn't intended to prevent the homeless from using it as a bathroom.

Because homeless people should look and smell homeless, right?

Probably more because using it for other purposes degrades the facilities, and makes it unusable for its intended purpose.

Re: Google Launches Sidewalk Labs

#148

Post by gull »

jarek wrote: post #105
gull wrote: post #69

From http://www.sidewalkinc.com/ : "By 2050, the population in cities will double" Is the best solution a frontal attack? Or could it be moving away from existing cities? Could one design a new city from scratch?

> Could one design a new city from scratch? Yes, but the result is Milton Keynes.

Thanks for Milton Keynes but that can't be the only result in the whole world.

One proposal is Arcosanti, an urban laboratory focused on innovative design, community, and environmental accountability. https://arcosanti.org/

Re: Google Launches Sidewalk Labs

#149

Post by [deleted] »

stephenr wrote: post #99
mootothemax wrote: post #97

Earlier quoted context omitted.

If you have so many homeless people, maybe you should solve that problem first? Solving homelessness isn't an on/off switch; people are still going to need a toilet while homelessness is being "fixed". (It's a problem with saying why not solve X instead ? You end up with neither fixed, and everybody loses. I mean, why solve homelessness when there are hungry kids that need feeding ? And so the cycle continues.) As an…

When someone says they want to make something "homeless proof" I assume they mean something like this: http://www.independent.co.uk/news/uk/home-news/homelessness-... Hence my comment - if you're worried about homeless people in your precious toilet, you (as a city/society) have bigger problems than public toilets.

[deleted]

Re: Google Launches Sidewalk Labs

#150

Post by aphexairlines »

acdha wrote: post #146
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…

I realize we're all programmers but why does this have to be a complex self-cleaning toilet rather than, say, hiring a few people to clean them? It's not like there aren't plenty of people looking for steady work and humans have the advantage of being really flexible when something breaks in a novel manner.

Because within half an hour of being cleaned those toilets will be unusable again.
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