David Jack Wange Olrik

Im happy to announce that I have just signed a contract with Microsoft, and as of May 1st I will be part of the Windows Phone 7 Series team where I will be responsible creating the user interface of the future.

I almost can’t wait – It’s going to be insanely great!

Update: As many of you¹ had guessed this was an Aprils fool joke, and hell didn’t freeze over and I’m not going to work for Microsoft anytime soon.

1. But not all, I did manage to fool a few people. [↩]

Today marks the day where we have officially been without a car for a full week! While there are many who have survived without a car their whole life, and don’t see this as something special – it is a a big deal to us because we have grown used to the comfort and ease that a car brings you.

We decided to go green a few months ago¹, so we bought a trioBike with two bikes and a carrier, and have been using that and public transportation² as our sole means of transportation³ since.

So how did the first week go? – I think it went OK, apart from a few minor snags like loosing the bracket that fastens the carrier to the bike, a flat tire and being stuck at Copenhagen Central Station because some guy got hit by a train⁴.

I would lie if I said I didn’t miss our car⁵, but when I see people looking for places to park, and when I drive past gas stations and see the gas prices – I miss the car less and less.

Using the bike for all of our transportation needs forces us to take it down a notch, relax a little and plan our activities a little more which in turn helps us keep the stress level down – so it’s all good

1. Mostly because my wife wanted to go back to school so she could learn to design beautiful things – and that school is crazy expensive. [↩]
2. Which is actually quite good in Denmark, when you compare it with the rest of the world. [↩]
3. Except for the one or two times we borrowed a car for transporting stuff too big to fit in the trioBike [↩]
4. He god messed up pretty badly, but I think he survived it. [↩]
5. This October has been the coldest in years, and our car had climate control and seat heaters. [↩]

As you might have guessed² this weeks pick is a trioBike. The trioBike is an amazing construction – it’s a bike, a carrierbike and a pushchair all in one! And It takes less than 2 minutes to convert it from one configuration to another!

We ordered 2 trioBikes and a pushchair some 30 days ago and went to pick it up last Thursday. The service was excellent, Sammy³ gave us a complete walk through of every little feature on the bike. We then installed the kids in the carrier and rode the bikes home. On the way home we swung by the local McDrive, alas they won’t serve carrierbikes due to some silly insurance related hubbub. We ate, and then went biking some more

Friday was our first real day as trioBike owners. I dropped Sebastian off at his kindergarten with the carrier and rode to work on the bike alone. At the end of the day I had totaled more than 22 kilometers – not bad for the first day.

The build quality of the trioBike is most excellent and every thing on the bike and the carrier feels very solid and well build. I have tried other carrierbikes⁴ and this one is definitely the easiest to steer although it’s a bit heavier⁵ on the turns. My only gripe is the soft top, it is either on or off . I miss a middle setting⁶ that will provide shade from the sun and still let lots of air into the carrier.

As you can probably tell I really like this bike and the possibilities it gives us as a family.

1. And it should have been a Mac app I use every day, but you’ll have to wait until next week for that one. [↩]
2. If you follow me on Twitter [↩]
3. The inventor of the trioBike [↩]
4. A big thank you to Louise and William for lending us their Kangaroo for a week. [↩]
5. This is the trade of you pay for having a real handlebar that is detached from the carrier it self. [↩]
6. My wife and I are already contemplating how we can create a new soft top that will fulfill this need. [↩]

Tomorrow is May 25th, also known as Towel Day amongst friends. This is the day where we celebrate the life and works of my favorite author of all time Douglas Adams¹. Douglas is the author of The Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy, a most excellent book about another book that is equally excellent.

A towel, it² says, is about the most massively useful thing an interstellar hitchhiker can have. Partly it has great practical value. You can wrap it around you for warmth as you bound across the cold moons of Jaglan Beta; you can lie on it on the brilliant marble-sanded beaches of Santraginus V, inhaling the heady sea vapors; you can sleep under it beneath the stars which shine so redly on the desert world of Kakrafoon; use it to sail a miniraft down the slow heavy River Moth; wet it for use in hand-to-hand-combat; wrap it round your head to ward off noxious fumes or avoid the gaze of the Ravenous Bugblatter Beast of Traal (such a mind-boggingly stupid animal, it assumes that if you can’t see it, it can’t see you); you can wave your towel in emergencies as a distress signal, and of course dry yourself off with it if it still seems to be clean enough.

So, do as the book says: “Don’t forget your towel!”

1. Douglas is the reason for my weird obsession with the number 42 [↩]
2. “It” being the The Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy [↩]