2 posts tagged “san francisco”
I recently discovered this posting on the Urilift: http://www.johnchow.com/the-worlds-most-high-tech-urinal/ The Urilift is a reasonable solution to the problem of public urination. It's a men's urinal that stays below ground during the day and rises at night (with the help of an attendant).
I live in San Francisco where the homeless population is depressingly large and the lack of public restrooms is a huge problem (especially where I live in the Mission District). The city decided to install these really expensive self-cleaning enclosed bathrooms that cost money to use. I've noticed that when used by the homeless population, it's more of an office for dirty dealings than a restroom. I think the Urilift needs to come to San Francisco and help mitigate some of the problems that are an unfortunate reality here.
For more on this and other products by Urilift International, visit their homepage: http://www.urilift.com/products.php
Yesterday, I discovered that one of my little hopes was true. A great designer I know recommended that I check out http://my.safaribooksonline.com/ as an option for exploring technical books without having to purchase them all. While I still prefer physical books, this is a good option for digging into a bunch of books without spending a bunch of cash. After evaluating the service, I decided to wait before signing up for an account. In browsing their offerings, I noticed that they have a library program.
In the back of my mind, I was hoping that the San Francisco Public Library, sfpl.org, would have an account with Safari Books Online, and they do! I can log into my SFPL account, go to the ebooks collection (sfpl.org/sfplonline/ebooks.htm) and, voila, there's a link to Safari Tech Books Online! This is positively awesome. The combination of Safari Books Online and the library's eBooks initiative are a very smart and very convenient way to dramatically increase the timeliness of the library's tech collection. Technology changes so quickly that the hard copies the library has are outdated very quickly and this is a great help.
I'm thrilled the SFPL is doing this and hope that all libraries adopt similar practices!
