Posts tagged “Geneva”

What I learned after three weeks with a cat — Feb 1, 2020
What I learned after three weeks with a cat is that they’re easy to take care of. Cleaning up the litter tray takes seconds and providing them with food two to three times a day is simple. It’s also simple to keep them entertained. A ball of string on a string and a laser pointer are great toys. They also enjoy shredding rolls of toilet paper so it’s good to be careful....
Two very different types of Qik videos — Jul 13, 2008
Today both a friend and I are among the top qikkers of the day. Whilst Documentally of Ourmaninside.com was in Milton Keynes getting an iphone 3g and streaming a number of videos on the experience I was filming dancers at the Geneva lake Parade. Both these events have appeal for different reasons. We’re used to watching videos of Americans getting the iphone and doing a variety of geek events and for once we had the English experience. It’s not a very visual occurrence but at least it’s been streamed and shared. He also took the opportunity to speak about lifecast, a new way of sharing the media you generate over a day. The Lake Parade is a very different type of event. It’s the type of event photographers and camera oeprators go to in order to get video and photographs of girls dancing to music. It’s only once a year and previous years have been better. I like the fact that I can go to the event with a phone, stream video straight to the web and all without the hassle of a camera and laptop. I’m commenting on the latter because it’s the second time I see someone walking with a laptop in order to do some live streaming of an event whilst I’m very light. I could have shot in high definition but everyone’s doing that. What interests me is going to an event, finding some action, sharing it live as it happens and not have any real post production concerns. In general live streaming from mobile phones is an interesting way of covering events that does not get much publicity. As a result the audiences are not as large as they could be but that will change. It’s just a matter of getting people used to the idea of webcams and live streams being more interesting than a static twenty meters from where the action is happening....
Twitter - Forget individuals, follow their community instead — Feb 22, 2008
For you to understand what people are talking about on twitter there is one thing you should know. When you follow Dacort, Loudmouthman, loic Lemeur, Jeff Pulver or many other people including me you’ve got to follow those that they are talking to as well as those that are listening. By this I mean that twitter is not about individuals so much as community. If I spend the morning speaking to the English community then there are many names that will appear again and again. In so doin you’re going to be curious to see who’s on the other end. As a result of this you may decide to follow one person, then another and it continues. Over a period of days you may start following a dozen or more, people, maybe even hundreds. As two people follow two others so the six degrees of seperation comes into force. I have links into the London, Geneva and Paris community for example (in terms of face to face meetings) and many more people via online conversations. What this means is simple. If you follow the right core f people you’ve got easy access to some influential people. In fact you may be one of them without realising it. If twitter is simply about what you’re up to then that’s quite a restricted way of using twitter. To get the most out of twitter you have to find a good community and add it’s members. In so doing you can participate in some really interesting conversations. I’m within the social media conversation at the moment but over time as more groups participate so the conversation should be tailored to your needs. If you see someone @ another member see whether you can add that person too. Twitter is about the community, not individuals....
Twitter - Forget individuals, follow their community instead — Feb 22, 2008
Mcwflint - Feb 6, 2008...
The Walk from Paquis to Decathlon/Mediamarkt — Jan 15, 2020
The walk from Paquis to Decathlon can be almost straight if you take the most direct route. You walk from anywhere in Paquis to the train station and from there you head up towards Balexert and from there you head along the cycle and walking paths that veer slightly to the right, take you over the motorway and then to the airport, by the private aviation terminal. From there the rest of the walk takes a few minutes....
The Noise of Towns — Jan 17, 2020
When you live in town you have a lot of noise. You have the noise of cars, of construction, of buses, trucks and road sweeps. You also have the occasional people shouting, beeping and more. Logically this should make sleeping in town harder. It’s so constant that it’s like the sound of the sea or of a river. It becomes invisible because there are no really quiet moments. These noises are okay in town....
The Foggiest Idea — Jan 24, 2020
The Foggiest idea, or a pun, after a walk this morning through Geneva on a foggy day. “The Jet D’eau will be off”, I thought. It was pumping out water at its usual rate but you’d find it hard to see. The grey/white fog, along with the white water, converged and became one....
The Extended Bike Ride — Apr 17, 2023
My usual loop is around 30 kilometres but for the last two bike rides I have extended them, to reach 50-60 kilometres respectively. I cover this distance in about two, to two and a half, hours. Cycling is good at the moment because plenty of people are on holidays so the roads feel safer as there are fewer commuters on the roads....
Some "livestreams" — Jun 18, 2008
It’s a shame I was running low on battery last night because I was at the Fanzone in Geneva for the Italy Vs. France match. I managed to stream a few moments of the game. Since the Italians have won this game we can look forward to a lot of noise on Sunday if and when they win. Perfect for me and live streaming. The Penalty. Post match euphoria for the Italians, by then the French were already heading home....
The Refugee Cultural Festival Kickoff Party — Jun 9, 2017
Last night many of the volunteers participating in the Refugee Cultural Festival could come and meet who they will be working with for the duration of the event. Falafel, samosa, hummus, wine and beer were among the offerings available to those people. Along with this was a drive for them to tell their stories either as migrants, refugees or allies of both. This is within the framework of the I am a Migrant campaign by the International Organisation for Migration. As usual with most Geneva events this was a culturally diverse group of people. Just an ordinary day in Geneva but special for those who have not grown up with such cultural diversity. The Refugee Cultural Festival itself will take place on two key dates. The first of these is the 17th of June. The Swiss National day of the refugee. On this day there will be singing, dancing, international karaoke, discussions, music, yoga, photography and much more. You can find a full list of events on the 17th here. They will be around Les Grottes from 10am to 1900 and from 1800 until late at Perle Du Lac. On the 18th of June there will be interactive activities around Photography and Visual art from 1400-1800 at Bellevue. The 20th of June is World Refugee Day. This is the day where you get to "Celebrate World Refugee Day with a Grand Cuisine and Cultural Party made up of international delicacies from Syria, Afghanistan, Sri Lanka, Eritrea and more. This event will take place at Bois-De-La-Batie, 20, petit-lancy. On the 21st of June there will be a dinner hosted by Asile LGBT from 2000-2400 in Paquis and on the 22nd of June it will be the IFTAR dinner hosted by RMCA, Cusine Lab & Foodhack. Disclaimer: I am a volunteer within the comms team for this event....
On moving from the Social media capital of Europe to Geneva — May 18, 2008
As a student it was not unusual for me to spend no more than six hours a day at home. The rest of the time I was out socialising, whether helping post grads with their work or with those from my studies. As a result of this I started to pay attention to many of the social networks. It had shifted from Facebook where all my real life friends could be found to more abstract social networks such as twitter, jaiku and others. Through these networks I saw what everyone was up to and I could take the opportunity to go out and meet them occasionally at first and then more and more frequently as time passed. By the time I left England I had the opportunity to meet with one group every Friday morning and quite a few others on a number of different occasions. As a result my social life was built around what I saw via twitter and seesmic. In geneva that social scene is pretty small at the moment. Some people are in Geneva, some are in Lausanne and others in Zurich. The problem is they’re not centralised therefore participating is not practical. That’s one of the weaknesses of social networking that I’ve encountered over the years. I do miss that aspect of life in England and I should attempt to recreate it here. I’m not the only one facing this problem. Corvida of Read Write Web wrote about this topic recently and it’s an interesting challenge for Gen Y and early adopters. The majority of the users of mobile social networks congregate in one specific city and rarely move outside of it. As a student facebook was great to find out about events that were going on within that circle, then twitter became great once I graduated. Now the challenge is to find what social network will be of interest in a city like Geneva. Would it be facebook used by most people in my age group. paying services that guarantee no results or simply going out into the physical world hoping to meet people that way. Each method requires time and I’m not sure which is the most adapted to the lake Geneva region. It’s something I’m going to explore over the coming weeks. I want to rebuild a good physical world social network once more and see which tools remain relevant now....
On moving from the Social media capital of Europe to Geneva — May 18, 2008
Corvida - May 2, 2008...
Obama's inauguration as seen in Geneva, Switzerland — Jan 20, 2009
This video filmed with the HDR-SR12 in Geneva Switzerland at La Reserve wine bar. The event was organised via facebook....
My Love Affair with HD Continues — Mar 12, 2009
Today I went to the Geneva Motor Show and filmed lot’s of cars, from the Koenigsegg to Asimo the robot via a few girls giving information about cars and even crowds of people. I spent some time reviewing the footage and yet again I’m happy with the results. I’m going to work on a few compilation videos within the next few days but if you’d like an overview of the result then I have a sample on blip (select the mov), and on Youtube (Select HD). Enjoy....
Montagne en Scène Genève — Apr 24, 2016
Au Vieux Campeur held the summer mountain film screening event at the Batiment des Forces Motrices in Geneva. They introduced the event as being the opportunity for them to share the passion of the mountains with people who may not be aware of the activities that are possible. They then went on to say "but as we’re having the screening in Geneva we know that you’re just half an hour from the mountains so many of you are practitioners and today we may even have participants from the cancelled Patrouille Des Glaciers. [caption id=“attachment_2843” align=“aligncenter”] Montagne en Scène, four films screened at the BFM buildling in Geneva Four films were shown at Montagne En Scène. The films shown were A Line Across the Sky, a documentary following two less experienced climbers as they attempt the Fitzroy traverse during a rare good weather window, Chasing Niagra, a documentary about Rafa Ortiz and his preparations to shoot the Niagra Falls in a Kayak. The third film is Mont Rebei Project, a documentary looking to achieve a new Rope Jump record. The Last film, and my favourite is Valley Uprising. It takes a look at the American climbing scene from the fifties up to the Modern day. This documentary is great because it provides us with a deep understanding of the American climbing psyche. Mountain climbing is a sport of passion and so to see how different groups helped this passion progress over the years is interesting. Film screenings are in Switzerland, France and Belgium...
Lensational - Empowering Women through Photography. — Oct 26, 2015
From Friday to Sunday this week SIGEF2015 took place at the Batiment des Forces Motrices in Geneva Switzerland. This event was organised by Horyou, a social network for social good, where people were connecting and networking, discussing how best to help people with various projects around the world. Living in the Western World we hear and see selfies of friends and many images of food, autumn and things they find appealing to look at. Lensational is a project to bring photographic equipment and photography skills to people around the world. They recycle cameras, resell cameras, conduct photography training and sell photographs. They are looking for camera donations from both private individuals and corporations so that they can resell these cameras at an affordable price to those who would otherwise not have access to digital cameras. Women are then taught by NGOs and photographers about photography and this is seen as a means by which to empower women. Some of these images are then sold internationally to provide these women with additional income from stock photographs. Photographs by Marginalised Women. Photography is a pleasant and enjoyable way of understanding daily life. It provides us with moments or instants from people’s lives. In these images we can see how people live and how they have fun. It is a window in to their world and now that technology makes it possible sharing our day to day lives has become easy. We no longer require National Geographic, GEO and other publications to show us how other cultures live. We can now gain access directly with these people. It also gives marginalised women an opportunity to represent themselves....
Le petit Soldat de Jean Luc Godard — Nov 28, 2012
Filmed in a Cinema Verité style. They mention Geneva. A nice conclusion....
Lake Parade streaming fun — Jul 13, 2008
Whilst a friend was filming with a high speed camera i was streaming the event live from my phone via Qik. I noticed they improved a couple of important things. The first is that video files are now saved and readable without conversion. The second fact is that you now have an RSS feed, makes aggregation easier. I’ve added two or three of those feeds to itunes so the content can be accessed more easily. And there are a few more on Qik which I’ll let you get to yourself....
Lake Parade streaming fun — Jul 13, 2008
[Bookmarks about Streaming](http://www.remmrit.com/streaming —) - Oct 4, 2008...
Joseph Nye at the Graduate Institute — Jun 16, 2017
Joseph Nye was at the Graduate institute to address the question Are we Seeing the End of the American Liberal Order? He did not want to give a yes or no answer but rather to introduce ideas with which to frame and understand the context of the question looking back in history but also looking at contemporary issues. In so doing he spoke about why the aftermaths of the First World War led to war and why the Aftermath and attitudes after the Second World War led to 75 years of peace. He spoke about Hard Power and Soft Power. He spoke about how with Soft power we find attitudes that everyone wants to adopt and participate in. What I like about lectures by such individuals is that they really know their topic in depth and they understand it. They are well read and they have taken an active role in the topics they discuss. As a result when they come up to the podium their hands are empty. He did eventually pull out a single sheet of paper and occasionally looked at it. He talked with authority, and occasionally humour. Here are a number of videos Verhofstadt, Merkel, Macron and others believe in Soft Power, they believe that through mutually advantageous projects we can all benefit. Just yesterday roaming fees were terminated for European countries. This means that we can now travel and communicate in any other European country. Soft power is the opening of borders for trade, education and more. It is about trust and similar goals. It is about collaboration. As a result of yesterday’s talk I want to read his books. I want to learn more about the topics he discusses and delve deeper into the context. We must neutralise the populist discourse by understanding what led to so many years of peace. It is important not to regress....
J'ai donc cherché qui sont les plus actifs utilisateurs de Genève aujourd'hui! — May 13, 2008
Of course I’m the most active twitter user in Geneva, as if that was going to be a surprise to anyone. Before that I was London’s most active twitter user with over 5000 posts in a month back in December....
Geneva tweetup at the Bristol — Mar 27, 2011
After two years of online interactions I finally met certain Geneva twitter users. The tweetup took place at the Bristol Hotel in Geneva. There was a good group of people and they were what you would exepect from a tweetup. It was organised by bristolgva and here is some of the related twitter conversation linked to the event....
Geneva Lake Parade - McDonald's FIFA theme. — Jul 12, 2010
[flickr-gallery mode=“photoset” photoset=“72157624344703307”] Every year I go to the lake parade and this year I tried something different. I decided to take photographs rather than video. By the same opportunity I am testing Flickr gallery, a plugin that makes including your flickr images into wordpress a two step process....
Fête de la Musique in Geneva — Jun 22, 2008
People enjoying live music...
Exploring Geneva at 30 kilometres per hour — Jun 26, 2015
Exploring Geneva at 30 kilometres per hour makes a nice change from driving in the city. Yesterday I met with the Geneva Bike and beer group. It’s an activity from within the broader Geneva based Glocals activities. [caption id=“attachment_2408” align=“alignleft”] Exploring the Geneva landscape by bike The pace is reasonable and the loop is about 20km for this second group ride. There are a lot of opportunities to cycle away from traffic and on quiet roads. It was fun for me to see the landscape differently. For over a year I used to drive in that landscape to get to dive sites and back. This time I was far lighter. As with everything in Geneva the group is international with people from a number of countries and continents. I will participate again....
Euro 2008, the victorious nation of Spain Celebrate — Jun 30, 2008
It’s a sunday night in Switzerland and I’m with some friends. Spain were playing Germany and won 1-0, a respectable score. I was there with the phone streaming the celebrations at the Geneva Fanzone in Plainpalais. Here are the clips Ten seconds from the end. Spanish Fans celebrate. Drumming atmosphere. Happy girls dancing and the crowd. Dancing Spanish Flag wearing people. Because Women aren’t forgotten after all. Girls dancing, boy texting, more dancing More dancing Still celebrating Leaving the Fanzone...
Disorganised Contrasting of Two Ways of Life. — Jun 12, 2007
There is such a large contrast between life in London and the village where I grew up in Switzerland. In one place you can walk for kilometers before getting to the shops whilst in the other going down the street is enough. In one place there is a 24hr a day life going on outside your window and in the other you hear children playing and you hear the birds tweeting whilst water flows in a river next door. It’s amusing to sit in a house in Switzerland rather than a flat in London because of how much space there is. The entrance hall is as big as London bedrooms. The kitchen is as wide as the house I’m living in in London. There are basements in Switzerland whereas in London those are rare. You find that the people wake up far earlier in switzerland and are so tired by the evening that they loose the motivation to go out. In London you can start the day at 9 or 10am and leave later. By 10pm you should be quiet in Switzerland whilst in London noise starts at 1am and sleep is not attainable till about 3am but this depends on what you’ve been doing before attempting to sleep. You’d pay 14CHF to go back and forth to Geneva whilst in London you’d pay around that price and have access to over a hundred stations for at least one day. That’s quite a contrast. There aren’t as many people. In Switzerland minorities are small enough not to be noticed whilst in London they’re large enough to take large swashes of London over. Go around North West london and you’ll understand what I mean. I can walk from one country to another from where I’m sitting. If it’s foggy I can go up several hundred meters and arrive above the cloud layer and see the Mt Blanc and blue sky. I can also go for an hour’s walk and walk through a few villages. In London I’d have to drop by a number of parks, three of which are conveniently on the tube line I live along. Food shopping is more fun in Switzerland because I’m brought up on this food rather than that found in England. It’s fun to get fresh pasta with meat in the tortelloni rather than vegetables for example. It’s nice to have arrabiata sauce. It’s nice to find European food, whether French, Italian or other. It’s nice to have international news, news that focuses around UN organisations since the TSR is in the same town as the broadcaster. Another thing that changes is driving. A few months ago two close friends of mine and I decided to meet at a drive in McDonald’s and we were all in different cars and this struck me as odd, as though we were in America. Driving is an integral part of life in Switzerland for those who live in the countryside rather than towns like Geneva. It means that we’re comfortable behind the wheel and think nothing of driving back and forth from Nyon to Geneva several times a day. It does get tiring and boring after a while, especially with four or five road radars trying to catch and fine you. We know where all the radars are but this does not take away the nuisance that they are. When there’s a lot of traffic it doesn’t matter but if it’s 3am and you’ve been with friends the whole night all you want to do is open up the throttle and race down the motorway and get home to sleep. Instead you’re coasting at 120km/h. It’s frustrating. To add to this over the years I’ve learned that Genevans hardly ever leave the city. It’s always up to the rural people to make the effort and that’s often frustrated me. As a driver you need to put up with congestion, increased fuel costs and parking fees. It’s also time consuming. When there’s no traffic it takes 20 minutes to get to Geneva, when there’s traffic then the time doubles. Once you get to Geneva people will want to drink whilst you’re having ice teas. They’ll have glass after glass whilst you’re no longer on the same wavelength. After a while it gets extraordinarily tiring. That’s why my dislike of the city of Geneva grew worse and worse. Nyon is a small town set in a beautiful surrounding. You can cycle, you can sail, you can pedal on a pedalo, you can swim in a swimming pool with the Mt Blanc within sight and the CGN boats passing by. It’s a really nice town. It’s close and has good transport connections with Geneva. It’s got everything you’d expect to do in Geneva but without the hassle. I’ve hardly ever known Genevans to come to the town though. They think it’s too expensive and there’s nothing to do. That’s what I think of Geneva ;). That’s one reason I love London. Everyone has an oyster card and everyone moves around the city. If you meet with friends they travel some distance as well. They will catch the tube as will you to meet in one place or other. You have such a wide selection of things to do. Go to Covent Garden and you’ve got the street performers, go by the Tate Modern and you’ve got the guy with the birds, go by the Film theatre and you have the street painter doing famous painters. Find an arch on the Thames walk and classical artists are performing as a quartet, as operatic singers and more. Go to other parts of London and you’ve got a huge selection of international foods. It’s got so much to offer and once you get to know the city you can easily walk from one place to another. (just got a phone call… to be continued…)...
Cycling to the City that Never Wakes Up — Jun 14, 2017
Yesterday I wanted to go for a bike ride. I hesitated between driving to the Vallée De Joux and cycling around the lake, cycling up to Les Rousses and facing a long and sustained uphill or cycling to a meeting in Geneva. In the end, I cycled to the meeting in Geneva. As you see this is a 67 km bike ride with a vertical change 0f 714 metres. On a road bike that’s fine, because the bike is light. On a mountain bike with slick tires and no one to pace me it can be quite tiring. According to the watch, it will take 120 hours to recover from the journey. The segment along Chemin des Pins and Chemin De St Oyend are closed to all traffic except agricultural. This means that you can use the entire road. Rue De La Brunette is a funny name for a street coming off of St Oyend. I enjoy cycling in cities because I see it as a series of sprints, to try to keep up with cars. As they go at just 30 km/h this is easy for a few minutes. I noticed people on e-bikes and I had the intention of drafting behind him but he changed direction so it was short lived. As you can see from the graph above I was making most of the effort on this bike ride as I cycled to Geneva. The gap is where I stopped at Impact Hub to meet one or two people, refill my water bottle and then cycle around Geneva before heading back towards Crans and Nyon. When you live at the foot of the Jura you have two choices for every bike ride. You can head down towards the lake, enjoy your bike ride but then be left with a 200-metre climb or you can cycle up to the mountains and then have a nice downhill on the way home. With training and a lighter bike these graphs could be less extreme. When that becomes the case then commuting to work by bike is feasible....
Collaboration and sharing event by Trade School Geneva — Feb 19, 2014
When I was in London I went to events at least once a week. Tuttle was he friday Morning usual and I went to other events at other times of the week. Over the last three weeks I have been to a few Geneva events. I went to the event on the 6th of February where I met people who were mainly thinking of starting their own projects but were not ready to make the leap quite yet. It allowed me to see how my own situation has progressed over the last few years, from thinking of going independent to making the leap and surviving the first year and reaching the break even point. Last week I went to the event mainly to meet someone I had spent years tweeting and exchanging messages with on facebook. As I was free I took the opportunity. In so doing I met a few people I already knew and met some new people. Last night I went to the event just a few minutes from where I work. I went to the event because I saw the word documentary. The event was interesting. presented a new community building project for Geneva based on Maori and New Zealand ideas, presented a number of projects they have organised in Geneva, including the pianos in the street project, the cinétransat project as well as other projects. presented their experimental project....
City Cat Sitting. — Jan 14, 2020
For the first time in my life I am cat sitting. I’m used to village cats and this is a city cat so I don’t know how much time I need to spend with the cat, how much I need to play and more....
Bouldering in Geneva - Park Chuit — Sep 15, 2019
Bouldering in Geneva now has a new bouldering wall in a park. There are two structures with bouldering problems to experiment with. Some of these are easy and go straight up while others are overhanging and require more experience....
Blobs in Geneva — Jan 22, 2020
How often do you see blobs guarding the entrance of an old town?...
As if they were flying — Jan 30, 2013
As if they were flying - you see a few sequences with the Jet D’eau in the background. They appear weightless....
A Windy Day In Geneva — Jan 19, 2020
They announced that it would be windy today and it is. Windy days are fun because the lake goes from blue or green to English Breakfast tea brown. The waves crash against the walls and spray the promenade that goes from the Pont Du Mont Blanc to the Jardin Anglais. For now it’s getting things wet. With the right wind and low temperatures it could be great for the taking of photos....
81st International Motorshow Geneva, as seen via a blackberry torch 9800. — Mar 6, 2011
I went to the car show today and despite the crowds I was able to test the blackberry torch. You can see the results here. [flickr-gallery mode=“photoset” photoset=“72157626208238848”]...
A Pleasant Hike Along the Rive Droite — Jun 16, 2025
When you drive around Geneva or walk in the centre it is easy to see Geneva as an urban place with little to offer in terms of nature. If you get on a bike, and ride around you will find vineyards, fields, viticultural villages and more....
From Nyon to Yvoire by Bike and Back By Boat — Aug 31, 2024
If you’re looking for a cycling project and you live near Nyon then I would suggest taking the bike along the lake road from Nyon through Crans, Coppet, and beyond towards Geneva, and when you get to Geneva following the 46 signalisation for the cycling route. There are moments when it is not as clearly indicated but for the most part it is....