Love this! One piece of UI feedback - on mobile particularly I often found it very difficult to access the departure timetable once I'd arrived at a station. I walked to Bercy Seine in Paris (so I could try and find a bus out) - but even when I had arrived I couldn't trigger the departure timetable....
One of the best constraints of the TV show is the limited budget (along with the lack of mobile phone). It's frequently the case that teams panic spend in order stay ahead, but are hurt by those decisions later in the race.
Over the series people have also developed strategies within those constraints - so it's quite frequent to see teams earning money in the penultimate leg and taking the time hit in order to splash out in the final leg.
It's a great show if you're able to get hold of it.
I like that idea in concept - I’ve often felt similarly about budgeting apps. Many of them feel targeted either at low income / high debt people (who need strict control to manage their way out), or at people who have a strong interest in optimising their finances.
I’m trying to find a middle ground though I think. I’m not strongly acquisitive - but want to be sensible about my finances. There needs to be a purpose to tracking and allocating - so I’d want intelligent prompting (e.g “you could easily move £x to a higher rate account each month and maintain a balance that will meet your outgoings”), as well as answering my own queries. I’ve seen that promise in other products - but it’s nearly always in a free product that uses those prompts to sell you financial products. I’d personally much rather pay for impartiality.
To my mind, the main purpose of the tracking is to quickly answer the question "am I overspending".
I can definitely see that quickly extending to "what do I do with my money" though.
The point about impartiality definitely resonates - this was always something I found distasteful when Mint was still around (RIP).
This has just had a major update to include other renewables (eg hydro, solar) as well as non-renewable energy sources (gas).
It’s also added grid boundaries and cabling recently - and I think there’s also wind roses planned?
My one UI wish - the energy sources filters are currently displayed as options on the map - rather than controls for the entire UI - which meant I missed them entirely at first. Would be great if they could be given more prominence.
Definitely wind roses planned, I posted about them on my LinkedIn page if anyone is curious (linked on the main map).
That's a great point about the controls. Originally the map only showed wind farms and as I've expanded the features the control system (and really the entire UX) hasn't kept up. I need to sit down and have a proper think about how best to design the controls and documentation.
Ah yeah the FAQ is very out of date and in need of a full rewrite. I'll get to that eventually. And you're right, I'll make sure to add some sort of glossary and perhaps also explain things better in-situ.
I suspect this may be driven by subscription consequences. In the UK consumer rights mean that you're able to cancel a subscription commitment if the offering is materially changed. I used this in the past when Adobe withdrew a product to cancel an annual license I no longer needed mid-term.
Making a zombie product probably has a lower impact on their revenues.
Through work I once got into conversation with the guy who did the re-mastering into 96kHz of the ABBA back catalogue. Up until that point CD re-releases of their material was apparently all converted from the cassette masters where they'd massively exaggerated the HF to compensate for the fact that cassette had a notoriously terrible HF response...
A few years back I had the sudden realization that I'd upgraded all my video equipment to HD and then 4k, but hadn't really done anything with my audio. So I went out and got nice equipment (Nice DAC, Headphones, Speakers, Etc).
One of the first things I learned once I could hear music properly was that I had favorite "versions" of different albums. They truly are NOT created equally, but it's not something you can really appreciate on a crummy Bluetooth headset either. Once you can you really start to appreciate the work that folks like your friend do.
> Once you can you really start to appreciate the work that folks like your friend do.
That can be a real double edged sword.
When you realise how good things can be it means many of the everyday/average things can become intolerable.
I'm happy that I've got slightly dodgy eyesight in that I don't really care whether something is in HD or 4K (I can still tell if my wife has selected the SD version of a TV channel, and I'm still way above the minimum standard to be able to drive).
I'm also happy I didn't inherit my father's audiophile hearing. I can do blind listening tests of different bits of audio equipment and barely hear the difference between them whilst my father (even in his 80's) can provide a whole list of things that are wrong/better/different about each of them (and he's not just making stuff up).
The biggest test is that I can also drink most supermarket instant coffee without complaint. I've got some friends that walk 25 minutes each way to their favourite coffee vendor multiple times a day as "everything closer is awful", but then that's more about them having a nice routine to get them away from their desk.
> The biggest test is that I can also drink most supermarket instant coffee without complaint.
I was the same way for years and appreciated it but unfortunately I did start to treat myself more and it's hard to go back, but my financial situation is also much better. I think it's valuable to stick with the lowest sufferable quality of something until you have the ability to meaningfully upgrade or improve upon it.
I also spent quite a bit of time with some quite well known mastering engineers in a former career - many of them talked about the pressure to produce "loud" masters for CD, but how they were given much more creative freedom for vinyl releases.
Hearing the two masters side by side on some incredible speakers really gave me an appreciation for how different 'versions' of an album can transform the experience of the music.
Tangent as you mentioned boosted high frequencies on tapes...
It's possible (likely) that those prerecorded cassettes had boosted high frequencies because they were intended to be played on a deck that supports Dolby B noise reduction, and will do the reverse operation to get the level back to where it's supposed to be.
Dolby B noise reduction didn't actually reduce noise at the source. Instead:
- During recording: Boost the volume of high frequencies (where tape hiss is most audible)
- During playback: Apply the inverse.
When you reduce the treble during playback, you're reducing the hiss along with it, but the original signal (which was boosted before) ends up at the intended level. This improves the signal-to-noise ratio in the high frequencies.
This is similar to the RIAA equalization curve used for vinyl records.
- During mastering: Reduce bass, boost treble.
- During playback:The RIAA phono preamp applies the inverse curve—boosting bass and reducing treble.
IIRC the reasons for the RIAA curve aren't just about improving signal-to-noise ratio, but something about the physical limits of vinyl.
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