Edinburgh - Day 4

Woke up at 6:40, took a breakfast, cleaned the hotel room a bit, and read for 20 minutes before waiting for my coworker in front of the Co-op Food. It was his last day of work, so he had several things to do today (including his exit interview and the cleaning of his desk). He still taught me a few things about some projects, and I browsed the web for a part of the day.

For lunch, we went to a nearby Italian restaurant, Gianninos, with most of the team to celebrate his leaving, where I ate a lasagna (the guy in front of me was telling everyone it was delicious, and it was).

The toilets in the pub.

After work, my coworker gave me a lift back to the Co-op Food, and told me to be back to his place (about three minutes walk from the co-op) at 17:50. He, his wife, the other coworker with whom I will work with next week, and myself went to this small pub near his apartment - The Caley Sample Room. All us guys ordered a sausage meal, which looked a lot like the first dinner I had at the hotel, but a bit less fancy. The toilets there were the first ones I saw where we have to pee in a stainless steel box.

We then walked to the Edinburgh stadium, where there was a rugby match going on. It was Edinburgh vs Ulster. We arrived about 5 minutes late, and watched the match. It was the first time I had seen a rugby match (except in a movie), and it was really cold. I really enjoyed the experience, even though Edinburgh lost 20-42. Edinburgh happens not to be a very good team, which could be why the stadium was pretty empty. In country matches, it's easily sold out (like the Scotland - France match in February).


After the match, my coworker's wife went home, and us three guys went to the Carter's bar near my hotel, where we drank two pints, talking about everything.



Got back to bed at around midnight.

My coworkers, both of which changed companies.

Evolution of Humans

At one point in the past, we stopped evolving.

Please note that this post has an informal point of view. I took every emotion out of my reasoning, so all this will sound... deranged, I guess. Keep this in mind as you read on.

Evolution is based on a basic concept: the strongest individuals survive. There is a problem with humans. We are incontestably the most powerful species on Earth, because of, among others, intelligence and technology. We have no predator. We have grown emotions and a conscience (maybe as a drawback of intelligence), and follow what the society as a whole thinks.

The key problems human evolution currently faces are the following:

• Emotions forces us to give a chance to everyone. A couple centuries ago, we didn't have any choice (eg. the plague), but recently, medical breakthroughs allows the feeblest of person to survive. With each passing generation, we are losing evolutionary power, as not only the strongest survive, but everyone.
• People with genetic disabilities / deficiencies, allergies, sociopathic minds, idiots, etc. are "allowed" to breed and continue the human cycle. Everyone have a chance at life, which cancels the natural selection that would usually be in place.
• Monogamy in our culture results in successful men's DNA to be spread by only one person. Take for example Genghis Khan, which reportedly has his DNA in about 8% of the Asian population right now. A person's success can be determined by his wealth and power - polygamy seems a very good way to propagate successful DNA to future generations. A successful man's DNA's spread, in a monogamous culture, is thus greatly reduced.

Another way to look at human evolution is the way we treat babies. Emotions cause the world to stop spinning when something happens to a child. We care for our children to such extremes, that they slowly lose evolutionary power, generation after generation. Kids take at least a year to be able to walk unsupported. Compare that with a baby deer, who starts walking almost immediately. Years and years of evolution has made sure these animals can start walking as fast as possible to evade predators, but we overly protect our children from everything. We protect them from all possible harm, with the consequence that the human evolution is reversing.

For another quick example, we are slowly losing our wisdom teeth, because what we eat on a daily basis is softer than what we ate in the past. We don't need another set of molars, so, evolutionarily speaking, we are gradually loosing them. We don't need warmth because we have winter coats, so we lose our body hair. Similarly, our children may, in a thousand years, only start walking at about three years old. Our excessive caring has exactly the opposite long-term effect.

What other long-term consequences will all of this have? We will be weaker and weaker to viruses, bacteria, and such. We will slowly lose our immunities. We will slowly become more and more allergic to different allergens. Children will take more time to develop physically and mentally. The average "intelligence" will diminish.

As far as I understand it, it seems the nazi tried to recreate a select powerful race - the Aryans - by forcing a genetic tree among the individuals they deemed of "correct descendance". While it seems to have gotten out of hands for different reasons, their concept was a valid one on an evolutionary basis, and because of emotions, most of the planet was against it.

The way I see it, in an informal kind of way, we are doomed.

Edinburgh - Day 3

So I skipped jetlag completely! I woke up at 6:40, a bit groggy, but in good shape. Ate breakfast, and took a walk to wait for my coworker at the predefined place. I spent the day like yesterday, taking some notes and browsing.

For lunch, they wanted to make me try their version of a "poutine quebecoise". I told them it didn't have the required finesse :P. The gravy was off a bit (and there was no cheese), but it was disgustingly enjoyable (as are our poutines). This wasn't at a restaurant - it was a mobile canteen called "the Bap Mobile" that seemed to be almost-permanently parked nearby in a parking lot. My coworker told me that "bap" was slang for breast, so I have no idea.

We finished at around 17:30, he gave me a lift to the supermarket near my hotel, and I bought many fruits and a bottle of Innis & Gunn (a popular beer in Scotland, apparently). I went back to the hotel to drop the laptop and the grocery bags, and went to Omar Khayyam, supposedly the best Indian restaurant in Edinburgh.

With all the hype I recently got concerning this restaurant, I was expecting a better experience. I understand that it was possibly caused by my being alone to eat. For the Chop Chop yesterday, I had trouble understanding the waitresses because of their cute Chinese accents, but the Omar's waiters had Indian accents that was even harder for my ears. He first asked me if I wanted (insert random letters here), and after making him repeating twice, and even asking him what it was, I decided fuck it and said yes, assuming it was some naan bread. He brought back a weird thin crispy bread with some kind of sweet & sour sauce, and a small two-compartments plate that had a pinkish sweet sauce in one compartment, and some mix of onion or something in the other. After I inquired, he told me it was an appetizer, but I didn't know if I was supposed to eat it like that with the tiny spoon, or with the thin crispy bread (which had its own sauce).

There were many waiters, and not many customers yet. My table was positioned on a window, in a place that was easily the center of attention. I could not only feel the waiters looking and staring at me the whole time - I could actually see them. I caught them a few times smiling or smirking in my direction, as if the way I was eating this Indian food was not how I was supposed to eat it (if so, they could at least tell me how!).

Then a waiter arrived near my table with a huge tray full of plates. There was a couple some tables to my right, and I thought that it was their meal, but even so it was a lot for two people. He put the tray nearby, and I could see my plate was also there. I was actually happy that so much food was not for only two people. He turned a small rice bowl over in a large plate, put many different kinds of meat from another on top of the rice, and put a vegetable mix of onions and green bell peppers on top, which formed a huge mountain of food that would be enough to feed a family in real India. Right there, I understood that the huge tray was for me alone. He gave me the mountain of food, gave me some kind of ugly salad with two sauces in tiny compartments, and gave me the biggest naan bread I had even seen. I had not finished the crispy bread yet, so the whole table was, literally, filled by my own plates. I was not really happy.

The food was actually very good, but I hated the experience (again, possibly because I was alone to eat). During the whole meal, I was feeling the waiters looking at me. There was an irritating Indian music (no offense meant to Indians musicians) in the background, but at least it wasn't too loud. I ate about four times the amount of food I had expected (and wanted) to eat. Someone who worked there was dressed differently, so I assumed he was the owner or a manager. He had a full and clean beard. When I looked at the waiters, they were all clean-shaven and standing very upright, almost uptight. I wonder if that's the way it works in India. Add to that the fact that there wasn't enough work for all of them, and you get a few waiters strategically positioned around me, looking at my inexperienced way to eat their food.

I'm someone who finish the food in my plate, so I did finish everything (except for their weird appetizer, which I never knew how exactly you're supposed to eat it). Even if I really had too much, I would have ate it all to piss them off. I was imagining them in awe at the amount of food that I could eat. It cost me £23 (tips included), and I left the place, feeling way too full.

Edinburgh Castle, as seen from
Princes Street and Lothian Road.

It was around 20:00 when I went back to the hotel to get my camera, and go to a walk. I was expecting to walk up to Princes Street, possibly seeing the Edinburgh Castle from there, and go back the same way. I actually walked the whole Princes Street, visited the outside of the castle, walked the whole Royal Mile, and went back to the hotel. Unfortunately, I didn't have a tripod, so the pictures I took had a longer exposure, but were hand-held. It was a very pleasant walk, and the Royal Mile has an eerie ambiance at night. I'm happy I went there at night.

The front of Edinburgh Castle at night.

Edit: Added text and pictures.

Edinburgh - Day 2

I woke up by myself at around 06:15, and dozed until the alarm at 07h00. Took a breakfast and read a bit until 08:25. The breakfast at the hotel is a hot and a cold buffet. It was not like that every morning, but increasingly during my stay at this hotel, my breakfasts would be a toast, a bowl of fresh fruits, a yogourt, and usually a tiny chocolate muffin.

I asked the guy at the reception to call a taxi. £31.20 to go to Broxburn (about 16km away). At broxburn, the driver asks me if I know where the road is. I have no idea - I just have an address. He checks on his GPS, mumbling about the lack of a postal code. I don't know if the postal code plays a good part in their driving orientation, but he could not find Westerton Road. Neither could the mechanics we asked. He turned around and took the first road, decided to drive around, but lo and behold, we immediately see a sign with my company's name, and the road name.

I go in, and find the guy I'm supposed to follow for the rest of the week. I spend the day listening, taking notes, and surfing the web.

Chop Chop logo

We leave work at 16:30, and he gives me a lift, but he was concentrated in a conversation we had a missed the exit. It was a pretty long time until the next one (roughly 5 km), and he was not familiar with the area, but he finally found his way back and he dropped me off near my hotel. I try the Chop Chop, a traditional Chinese cuisine restaurant. I got many dumplings, and a dish that - as they put it - is only available in China, but I recognized the taste from somewhere. I walk to the nearest supermarket (about a kilometer from the hotel) and buy some rasors, hair gel, and stuff like that. Six small bottles of water, and a bottle of Stella Artois Cider.

During the evening, I ordered internet from the hotel's wi-fi - that's £10 a day, £20 a week, £30 a month. Since I need it for 1.5 weeks, I take a month, cost-wise. Since it's still raining outside because of the storm, I stay in and relax a bit. I reach for the cider bottle, suddenly wondering if it has a cap openable by hand, and remember "Stella Artois". No luck here, and I don't want to go down to the reception for that. I get creative and open the bottle with my belt buckle.

No jetlag, and went to bed at 22:30.

Edit: Added text and images.

Edinburgh - Day 1

I left for my business trip tuesday, january 2nd. The new year party at my sister's was finishing, and my parents dropped me off at the airport before driving back 3 hours home. I entered the Quebec Airport at 14h30, someone suggested that I try getting into an earlier flight to Montreal (just in case, because the weather was very snowy), but all the flights were full.

Everything a guy needs in three weeks.

I waited about 2 hours (reading the wonderful book The China Study) before boarding the plane. It was very small, and I was in the last row. I read the whole time, and got into the Montreal Airport. There, I had about 55 minutes to get to my gate, which was enough. I made sure to bring the minimum with me, so I had a camera bag and a small luggage, which I can bring with me in the plane, no check-in check-out of luggages necessary.

In the plane to London, it wasn't bad. I had enough space to put the small luggage in the overhead bins, so only my camera bag was restraining my leg movements. I read a lot, and started watching a movie (Battle Los Angeles) when they served dinner at around 19h30. I was a bit irritated that they did, because I thought they wouldn't and bought a rather expensive sandwich at the airport (which I forgot to keep the receipt, so I can't claim it). I continued reading, and slept around an hour at midnight.

I was wondering whether sleeping would kill me later because of the jet lag. Initially, I wanted to stay awake until the end of their next day, so awake for around 35 hours. I woke up after an hour feeling refreshed, read a bit, tried to relax and sleep, but possibly managed only 15 minutes total after that.

I got to the Heathrow London Airport, 85 minutes before my next flight left. Thinking I was ok because I only had carry-ons, I followed the signs to terminal 1. I saw really quickly that I had to take a shuttle bus to get there, which took a bit of time, then went through customs, and walked. I asked directions to someone who was working there, just to be sure, and he told me that it would be gate 8, but that I can't know the door number (8a, 8b, ...). He asked me when my flight was due, and I told him 20 minutes, which made him chuckle.

On I walked, and I soon saw a panel that said something like "Please allow the following timings to reach: Gate 8: 25 minutes." I started walking quickly, not wanting to run. I got to gate 8 at the right time, but the flight had been delayed by 40 minutes. I waited, and when the panel showed that they were boarding, I went to the specified gate, and was told that the flight was cancelled due to very strong winds in Edinburgh.

Retrospectively-speaking, I know that they got the worst storm (link to BBC news) in like 14 years, flood warnings in many places in Scotland, and the city itself got many minor damage all over. Wow, what a greeting I got, for my second time out of Canada (first time in Japan in july 2007)!

So I waited for the next flight, due 3 hours later (12h40?). After about 1.5 hours, I learned that this flight was cancelled too, and that we had to go to the airport entrance to reschedule our tickets. I followed some people, not knowing where I should go, and asked about a train alternative. Apparently, the train was not going as far as Edinburgh because of the winds! I rescheduled for the 15h05 flight hoping it wouldn't be cancelled too.

I didn't eat anything since the beginning of the Montreal-London flight, but I wasn't really feeling hungry. Maybe it was because of lack of sleep? I bought a small sandwich at around noon anyway, and waited a long time. I tried taking a nap because reading was drowsily difficult, but only managed to get around 30 minutes total.

I went to the gate to wait, waited, waited, noticed the flight was delayed to 15h30, waited more, and finally, boarded the plane. We left at around 15h45, tried to read but couldn't manage to sleep, and we got to Edinburgh without crashing anywhere. When leaving, the pilot told us that we had good wind in our back, and the flight would be quicker, but when we got there, the plane kept circling Edinburgh for about 30 minutes. When we finally did land, the pilot told us that the mechanical staircase was defunct, and we had to wait for someone to bring one. After about 20 more minutes of waiting, we were out of the plane, then after a few minutes, I was finally out of the Edinburgh Airport at around 17h30. 22 hours in airports or planes.

I took a taxi to the hotel (Premier Inn - Haymarket Edinburgh, Google maps location), knowing I wouldn't go to work the same day. Stepped in my room at exactly 18h00, ate at the hotel restaurant, took a walk, took a shower, relaxed, and went to bed at around 22h15.

I found the restaurant to be pretty good, though on the expensive side. Actually, since this is a restaurant inside a hotel, the prices are average, but if I wasn't claiming these costs, I would have eaten somewhere else for dinner. Not really knowing what to choose from the menu, and thinking I would be here often, I ordered the first item, which happened to be "Pork, leek and bacon sausages with mash, topped with spiced onion marmalade and served with gravy and garden peas". It was very good, and I had a beer.

The view from my window.

On my first evening, I found out that Edinburgh was quite a rowdy city. I never had any problems to actually fall asleep, nor was woken up during the night, but in the evenings, I could often hear groups of people talking loudly near the hotel's parking lot. There is a bar really close (Carter's, no homepage) - actually a few in the vicinity - so they possibly were some patrons with a pint too many in them.

Edit: Spelling, and added some text, pictures and links.

Internationalization

The internet can bring to whole world together, but there can be some huge drawbacks.

Take, for example, a website such as freelancer.com. You can go there, submit a project idea (web site, program, logo, anything) and your budget, and people can ask an amount of money to do it. The project usually goes to the lowest bidder.

That could be a perfect concept. You get the world to notice your project and bid on it, but the only problem is that different countries have different costs of living. For example, on numbeo, the Consumer Price Index (CPI) in India is around 25. In Canada and the USA, it is close to 70. That means that what a Canadian company is prepared to work for is worth three times more to someone in India. Another way to look at it is that an Indian company can easily be paid three times less than a USA-based one.

For example, a company in Toronto submits a new web site idea to freelancer.com. Knowing how long it would take to make the web site, it sets a 15,000$ budget. Three Canadian and American companies offer to build it for 15,000$, 14,000$, and 12,000$. But then, an Indian company offers 4,500$, followed by a Chinese company which offers 6,000$. Having a lower cost of living, the Indian company gets the job.


How can countries with a higher cost of living compete with the others?

Vacations and Trips

On January second, I'm doing a business trip to Edinburgh, Scotland. The second-to-last person from our team is leaving after the first week of January, and the last member could leave anytime in the future, so my boss needs someone to know what they know about our UK projects. I actually suspect my boss is sending me to this business trip just in case I had plans to leave myself.

I'm really excited about this, although I'll be sharing the experience only with myself. I'll be in Scotland for the first two weeks of January, then one week of real vacations in London.

Not being able to send an email, I had to call the hotel to extend my Edinburgh trip by one day. I had to concentrate a lot to be able to understand (and be understood) by the very kind hotel lady, which was but a preview of what I'll have to go through with the Scottish language. I reserved a train seat from Edinburgh to London (£35), and the last thing was to book a hotel room for 6 nights in London.

I used to go to expedia in the past because it was convenient and quick to book everything at once, and I never really had any trouble with them. Looking around, I am now understanding that their prices are (obviously and understandably) a bit higher than the prices you get directly at the airline or hotel, except that they sometimes have rebates.

I decided to book the hotel by myself, but the hotel my company had booked for me in Edinburgh was twice the price in London. I checked on expedia for other good hotels, and Caesar Hotel had a pretty good rating, so I went on their site (on Google, the first site that actually looked legit, http://www.caesar-hotel.co.uk/) and booked 6 nights with them. The price was the same than on expedia, which should have ringed my mental alarm, but at the time, I was starting to be tired of looking at the same thing over and over again, and I wanted to be done with it. £514 for 6 nights - ow. But anyway, it was better than the £840 I would have paid, if I kept the same hotel. The booking and payment was processed by CentralR. I just assumed it was a service provider to hotel chains or something.

I started to know something was wrong when I printed the confirmation sheet and highlighted the important parts. Being the careful person that I am (usually), I went to highlight the hotel address and phone number for easy access when I took the taxi from the train station. No address, no phone number. Not even the hotel name - just a totally generic confirmation sheet, written CentralR on top. I just assumed the hotel's web designers were not professionals.

I went back to the hotel web page, noted the address, but never found a phone number. Going to Google maps, I wrote "Caesar Hotel London", and (thanks, Google) the hotel was on the left. The address is slightly different, but both point at the same place on the map. I note the phone number, and that's when I see it. Right beside the phone number, derbyhotels.com, which I remember as being the first link in google. I check that site to grudgingly confirm my suspicions that Caesar Hotel is in fact part of the Derby Hotel group. I preview a booking for the same dates - £462.60. Pieces of the puzzle all fit together at great speed in my head. Either expedia and CentralR are both the same kind of service providers and take the exact same cuts when you book with them, or CentralR is a fishing web site that managed to get pretty high on google search.

I feel like an idiot, especially for being in a hurry like that. I google "CentralR reviews" and confirm it's a service provider, although with mostly bad reviews. Looking back at the cancellation section, I confirm what I already know - there is a 10% reservation upfront (in my case, £51.40) that is not reimbursable. So the maximum I may lose is that amount if I cancel with CentralR and book directly with the hotel. I quickly do a mental substraction. £514.00 - £51.40 = £462.60. I sigh.

All of that brings me to the identity thievery concept. Can a website trying to pass as a different entity be considered an identity theft? CentralR was definitely trying to pass as a specific hotel, and the domain name was convincing enough to fool even me. Normally, I would be right to assume that the web site was the hotel's (okay, I could have done a bit of research), but CentralR keeps quiet about the fact that it is not, and that it is in fact a "service provider" (and a very expensive one). The difference with expedia is that expedia makes no such secret, and proclaim its services as what they are. CentralR was hiding all of this from me.

I know that expedia is taking a pretty big cut on bookings they make for you, but I may use their services in the future nonetheless. CentralR is, in my opinion (and experience with what just happened), using dark patterns, and are being deceptive about them. I will take care to never "use" their services again, and will spread the word as much as I can.

That mistake just cost me about 80$, with added stress that the booking may go wrong. I shall remember.

Multimedia and the Cloud

The future as I see it - or as I hope it will come to. A lot of things will have to change for this to work, and some companies that currently make a lot of money will have to make changes that will lower their revenues, but with the chance that, done right, could gain more. Among many others, some of these companies are those behind the music and movie industries.

What I want is a computer that is always connected, wherever I go. Cellular networks have potential, but you can get good reception only in cities. When you get too far, you lose everything. I want to call someone using VoIP, and only care about a data plan (instead of voice+data plans).

If I want to listen to music, I connect to a website similar to iTunes, choose a song and play it. This is a service, payable by month. Artists will get their royalties based on how many songs are played, and how long the users listen to them. The price should be around 5$ for unrestricted access to all songs ever created.

If I want to watch a movie, I connect to the same website, choose a movie and play it. This would also be a service payable by month, with the same royalties paid to movie studios based on watch counts and lengths. The price should be a maximum of 10$ for unrestricted access to all movies or tv series ever made.

If I want to watch a tv channel, same thing. I'd like to pay a maximum of 10$ per month for that.

If I want to listen to the radio, same thing. I'd like to pay a maximum of 5$ per month for that.

That means I'm prepared to pay 30$ per month (360$ per year) for all these services, for unlimited viewing/listening of music, movies, tv and radio. If the company that implements that is smarter than greedy, it will allow me to pay by fair usage. For example, for movies, it could release the following chart:

Movies
Length (hours)	Price ($)
< 2	Free
< 4	2.50
< 6	5.00
< 10	7.50
>= 10	10.00

That means you get to watch a movie (or a couple episodes) for free. After 5 movies, you pay the maximum price (10$), which in itself is very good. A smart and modest company will get a more powerful following.

Right now, a lot of possible alternatives are on the web. iTunes have movies, music, tv shows... but is very expensive, and you have to download them. It is filled with DRM. Grooveshark is a free music service, though I never looked very deep at it. How such a web site can legally be free, I can't understand. You can search by genre, title, artist... For radios, grooveshark also seems to have them, as do live365, jango, and many others, all for free. For movies, you have netflix and hulu, both at around 8$ per month, but the movie selection is restricted. There is also many websites that offer tv channels, some free, some not.

The thing is, there is a way to globalize all of this. I shouldn't be restricted if I want to watch a Russian movie, or a Japanese anime episode. Such a website could bring the whole world together.

Another aspect of the cloud is the ability to store, share, and see personal pictures and videos. There a many sites that do that, notably imgur, tinypic, youtube, and vimeo. I'm sure there are other sites to upload personal music or sounds.

That would bring multimedia to the whole world.